mha horizon

by vamer

ok

Chapter 111: CHAPTER 107(Terminal Pt-1) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30 chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"How long has it been?" All For One asks.

He stirs awake inside a large cylinder filled with purple liquid, completely naked with tubes connected to his body, able to speak through the air mask strapped to his head and covering his mouth.

In this dimly lit lab, there are dozens of other similar capsules with unstable Nomu, slowly becoming more stable and ready for combat by the second. The experimental High-End Nomu prototypes.

In front of All For One is Dr. Ujiko publicly known as Dr. Shodai Garaki, studying his friend's physical state on a tablet in his hands. 3

"You've only been asleep for two days since fighting Horizon, but the damage is much more severe than expected," Ujiko says.

"How extensive?"

"Well, from what I can tell. During the fight, he must have forced you to use Super-Regeneration as much as possible." 4

"He understood the nature of my Quirk," All For One says. "Constantly changing his approach to make me actively use other Quirks before striking and forcing me to activate Super-Regeneration, very clever…"

"I see. Well, thankfully the first thing you did when you got back was dump almost a dozen Quirks into some of the standby Nomu to help me stabilize your body. The damage you sustained lowered your limit, but not as much as when you fought All Might a few years ago."

"My more powerful Quirks had to be released to the Nomu, now I mainly have Mutation and other physical Quirks for combat."

"It should be no issue," Ujiko says. "The police reports have you mentioned by name somehow, but this facility is completely insulated. And All Might with his sickly state would never think to look here in Kamino Ward for you. Some of your friends in the force have even spread some misinformation about a hidden mountain base containing Nomu."

"Good, and my lifespan?" All For One asks.

Ujiko falls silent for a moment, then forces himself to speak the terrible truth, "your life expectancy has dwindled from 10 to 6 years. I'm not sure what Quirks you gave Horizon since the genetic markers for the ones aside from the new Nomu Quirks are all there, but perhaps they could have helped?"

"Worry not, that's more than enough time for my new resurgence in power. And as for the Quirks I gave him… Energy Saver, Energy Dynamo, Energy Enhancer, and Life Force." 5

"Quirks you had dozens of copies of thanks to our cloning program, very wise. But why not dump a few weak Mutation Quirks into him? These Quirks seem tailor-made to make him unstoppable." 2

"An unavoidable consequence, but his Quirk is quite problematic. I tried to give him 'Extra Hand' and 'Third Eye', but it refused Quirks that couldn't optimally integrate with itself. I had no choice but to give him those energy production and optimization Quirks." 2

"So it prevented you from stealing it, and even when you used its own 'pulling force' against it to sneak in a few more Quirks, it reflexively sorted them out. It's a shame you didn't have time to get some samples to clone it." 2

"Hmm, I doubt cloning it would be possible. To clone it you must understand it, and if it could be understood Nezu would not have named it Mystery Class…it is beyond the scope of our comprehension I'm afraid," All For One says sadly. 1

"I suppose his potential doesn't matter," Ujiko says. "Even if he can somehow integrate those Quirks properly, he'll never be able to use them without great mental feedback." 4

"What do you mean doctor?"

"Well, to integrate multiple Quirks means to shut off the brain so all instincts align perfectly, like quickly resetting the mind. This is why live subjects never stay that way for long. The process is painful and not fast at all.

Until he does this, which he will likely never consider, he won't be able to put much mental strain on himself, and considering his Quirk, that should greatly limit him.

I imagine it would take a great shock to snap all his mental processes into alignment, not to mention the more powerful you are the more difficult it is…unless you intentionally try to do this." 4

"I see, but I don't believe it would matter if those Quirks did work for him. After he fixes my body, I will be even stronger than he could imagine. And with my new genetic composition I will no longer recognize my little brother's DNA in the makeup of One For All, and that will allow me to finally steal it." 2

"Assuming the boy lives, it really would take a miracle for him to survive the next month…"

"Exactly why I went to him, he specializes in miracles," All For One says.

After going further into the specific limitations of his new body and the repercussions of that fight, they finally arrive at the specific intentions of that night.

"So he refused to even leave with you, not completely unexpected," Ujiko says.

"He inherited his mother's obsessive desire to hold to any agreement she makes," All For One grumbles out. "A sensible decision considering that had he left with me then potentially his parents would have been executed."

"And of course, he'd never trust you to touch him considering your Quirk, a wise policy since you did try to take his Quirk."

"Very wise indeed. Had I stolen that Quirk I would have immediately dumped it into a Nomu before it killed me, then halted all our production to focus on it."

"But even then, without Horizon it would likely be useless," Ujiko says. "The best route to healing you is to have him do it himself."

"Then we have work to do, I have absolute faith in Horizon solving the issue of his body, and mine, so we must prepare 'Machia, he will need further modifications to raid Tartarus with me. The power we have currently simply won't be enough." 16

"I'll have it done right away, and would you like an update on the other results of the training camp raid? The Vanguard Action Squad had some…mixed results."

"Tch, Tomura and the other pests don't matter to me, let them play villain all they want. My main focus is and shall remain our dealings with Horizon." 1

"Naturally yes, the brat and his group of rejects simply have to keep causing chaos so the heroes stay busy," Ujiko says. "And what of Detnerat, and the Meta Liberation Army?"

"Hmm, they will remain hidden for now, I don't want them making any moves or being involved with Tomura's affairs. They are much more capable and far-reaching on a political and economical level, and their message is much more appealing to grow an army. I shall keep them in my back pocket until I'm fully healed and ready to rise as the one true Demon Lord…"

"A glorious day, the one we've awaited for so long, now we only have to find the current One For All user and deliver him to you when your body is ready."

All For One grits his teeth, "yes, if not Horizon…then it must be someone else from that year group. But nothing stands out as having that much power…aside from--"

"Izuku Midoriya," Ujiko says. "But the boy still injures himself, even after his fight with Muscular at the training camp, both arms and a broken leg, I find it hard to believe All Might would select someone so incompetent." 10

"True, but let's keep an eye on him when the new semester begins."

"I believe you mean 'if' the new semester begins," Ujiko says.

"If?"

"The backlash after this attack is far too great for even UA to ignore, students died after all. I suspect the number of returning students will be greatly diminished, much like all the other Hero Courses around the country." 6

"Unless they catch Tomura," All For One says. "I can't risk Horizon's school being stalled. That would greatly upset him since I assume part of his contract to get his parents back is graduating from UA. If he turns against us because of this then we will lose." 8

"Hmm, if things look to be heading in that direction I'll send some anonymous tip to the heroes about the brat and his gang of losers, the Vanguard Action Squad being arrested should satiate the media and have schools returning to normal." 1

"Yes, but not Twice."

"Hmm, his Double Quirk is invaluable for what we want, a potential instant army… if he can pull himself together," Ujiko grumbles in disappointment. "Such a waste to have that Quirk on a person so pathetic." 3

"Yes, but his mental state makes him easy to guide and manipulate, and that is much easier than wasting resources cloning and training that Quirk all over again."

"He's already been ranked as an S-Class threat on the Hero Network, along with you. Obviously, the public is none the wiser about your existence, the Hero Commission wants to keep it as quiet as possible to prevent mass panic or a sudden wave of new villains. They're doing our job for us."

"Good, now we simply have to wait for--"

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Ujiko's phone goes off and he immediately checks it.

"What is it?" All For One asks.

"Our contact inside Tartarus finally got to visit level 5 of the prison today. It seems we will have to alter our plan once more, it won't be as simple as wrecking the prison and taking them out of it…"

All For One sighs, "it's rarely ever that simple for me, so what changed…" 2

END CHAPTER-- 2

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Chapter 112: CHAPTER 108(Terminal Pt-2) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30 chapters ahead) 1

CHAPTER START--

"Mmmm," Law groans as he finally wakes up. He takes a deep breath before he opens his eye, his entire body stiff and aching. Every small movement sends a jolt of pain through him.

Opening his eye he sees a plain white ceiling with the light off, the room was lit up by the moonlight with a small lamp in the corner of his eye.

"Where the hell…" he mutters, slowly coming to his senses and trying to get up, only to drop back into the bed, the pain of simply sitting up was too much for him.

Feeling around the bed he notices he's in a hospital gown with a thin sheet tossed over him. And raising a hand to his face he doesn't feel his visor or body glove, just an eyepatch over his empty left eye socket.

"You're at UA," Nezu's voice comes from his left, and he turns his head to see the principal sitting on a chair beside his bed.

Horizon just turns to face the ceiling and closes his eye. "How long was I out?"

"10 Days, you began waking up a few minutes ago and Recovery Girl thought it best that I was the only one here when that happened," Nezu says.

"The body glove, the visor, my face…"

"I've trusted her with big secrets before, some that even you don't know. And I brought you here because having only her see is much better than all of Central Hospital where the others were sent."

Horizon sighs and tries to relax, focusing on his own body, "what happened?"

"Well, tell me what's the last thing you remember?"

"Mmm, Kurogiri warped him away before I blacked out."

"So you don't remember walking back to camp on two broken legs like a zombie, and constantly muttering All For One?" Nezu asks. 4

'Fuck, I guess they know about him already,' Horizon realizes.

"Everything after he left and I blacked out is gone, the next thing is waking up here right now."

"I see, and your Quirk?" Nezu holds his breath, already knowing what the simulations said if All For One got Law's monstrous Quirk.

"He tried to take it, but I've still got it," Law says. "What did I miss when we were fighting?"

"The newly formed League Of Villains: Vanguard Action Squad attacked the others, you dealt with one of them, Mustard."

"The gas kid?"

"Yes, some of the others were quite dangerous, but thankfully some of our students and the present Pro Heroes were also capable enough. We suffered some losses but, things would have been much worse had you not fought One For All." 1

"Losses?"

"Kaminari, Koda, Sato, Pony, and Kinoko," Nezu says in a sad and small voice. "Mandalay and Vlad are still in the intensive care center at Central Hospital, most of the others have been released already." 21

"Fuck, and I'm guessing the press is all over this," Law says.

"As expected, but we failed to protect our students. Regardless of the fact that dozens of students from other courses have been killed or taken and turned into Nomu, UA is held to a higher standard by the public and itself."

"But?"

Nezu sighs, "but, the commission wants to suspend all Hero Courses until these villains are apprehended or at least weakened."

"So they want to surrender for a while?"

"Sadly yes, but the police already have an investigation underway and are preparing a counterattack, but considering who the ringleader is--"

"They want me on the team, of course."

"All Might should be enough, it's not like he hasn't beaten All For One before, but better safe than sorry."

"True, what state was my body in?" Law asks. "I'll give my full report later, but right now, I need a full self-check-up." 3

"You were already unconscious when the ambulances arrived. They thankfully scanned your body before trying to remove the body glove. If they removed it your guts would have fallen to the floor.

Whatever All For One used shredded most of your skin and popped your left eyeball. It also caused most of your internal organs to rupture and bleed out. Not to mention the dozen lacerations in your brain. 1

You were beyond saving…"

"Yet here I am, how?" 1

"Your body began trying to fix itself, at least make itself stable," Nezu says. "But every time we tried to drive away you'd start failing again. I had a temporary camp set up before you were stable enough to be brought here. Also, one of the medics tried to remove your mask and you unconsciously broke his arm…were you also asleep for that?" 4

"Yes, but he really should have known better."

Nezu just shakes his head. "I had you brought to recovery girl for her to take care of the rest."

"Thanks, guess that explains why I feel like I got stuffed into a blender," Law mutters.

"It seems you aren't invincible after all…"

"I never said I was, I'm perfect, not invincible," he says that as if it makes the most sense in the world. 3

"How does that even work?" Nezu asks.

"I'm perfect, because I'm their son, and that's all I ever needed to be to be perfect. But I was never under any delusion of being invincible, not when Star and Stripe exists…but I definitely never expected to get my ass beat by anyone else…" 5

"The more I learn the less sense you make," Nezu shakes his head. "Will you be able to heal yourself from here?"

"Yeah, I can handle it."

"I'll have your new equipment in my office when you're ready. I really am glad you're alright, or at least you will be, if you get back into form before we confront the villains please tell me, we need all the powerful people that we can get."

"Yeah, but first things first, right?" Law asks, knowing that he wasn't going to help them take down All For One. "Besides, if I managed to take him down, All Might and a dozen Pros should be enough, especially since he'll be weaker now. I should have beaten him bad enough that he had to dump some Quirks at least, and maybe he won't be able to self-heal."

"Ohhh, I'll be sure to inform them of that, but for now let's keep this all confidential."

"Naturally. I'll let you know when I figure myself out, or when I need something," Law opens his eye and turn his head to look at Nezu, now noticing his disheveled fur and droopy eyes.

Clearly, he's been beyond stressed out over this entire situation.

"You can relax now, I'm back," Law says. 2

Nezu manages to smile at that, "you're the last point we have toward keeping the Hero Course open for the new semester, the public is lacking faith in UA's defenses…but when word about your fight comes out, they'll have unshakable faith in you, after all, you did fight the worlds most powerful villain…" 3

"Yeah, I've just got to train a lot harder… it's not as lonely as I expected at the top, so I just need to hit a whole other level." 8

"I expect nothing less from you," Nezu takes Law's phone out of his pocket and puts it on the bedside table. "Keep this on you in case anything happens."

After talking for a few more minutes Nezu leaves to go coordinate the strike against the villains, finally leaving Law to properly assess himself.

ROOM!

Law barely manages to make a room 10 meters wide.

And he immediately feels like his brain is in a vice, quickly being crushed.

The Room shrinks to 5 meters and the pain diminishes greatly. 1

"Shit," he mutters, lifting a hand to his nose, feeling a trickle of blood flowing down to his lips as he forces himself to sit up. Moving his hand to his ear he feels blood flowing down the side of his head.

Placing his hand over his chest he focuses on himself, "Scan," he gets the new map of his body, a completely warped and twisted genetic code.

Noticing the genes wanting to adapt and bind he looks deeper, seeing the conflict as all the Quirks fight for his brainpower and cellular space. Ripping his body and mind apart as they fight for dominance.

No.

Fight to be second to Hand Of God.

"I really won't survive a month…I won't die but I'll go fucking braindead, he really did kill me," Law mutters, the realization slowly dawning on him that his days were limited. 2

"I need to solve this before I do anything else," Law reaches for his phone and immediately begins doing some research, and it only takes him a few minutes to get everything he needed from the Hero Network Quirk Database.

"I must have subconsciously blocked incompatible Quirks, just like I automatically detect things that I eat that can't be processed.

Energy Saver…if this is the same Quirk he gave me I only need 1/8th of the energy, food, and sleep I'd usually need to function. 1

So that should make me a lot more economical with my energy use for Hand of God.

Energy Dynamo…so my cells just produce more energy from the same input. So my base reserve is increased and my stamina comes back faster. Oh, this is gonna be fun… 2

Energy Enhancer…the energy I produce is more 'refined'? What the fuck does that even mean?" 5

Law looks down at his body and focuses on himself once more.

"Feels like I can just hold a lot more while the others increase production and efficiency…plus its a lot more easy to draw out. Ok, that's great," he continues his research.

"And the last one he mentioned, Life Force… doubles life span at the cost of athletics, so this is the piece of shit that has my body feeling sore and stiff…guess that's the first one to get sorted. 5

Not like I needed help with my lifespan anyway," Law scoffs. "As if I'm some pathetic moral…" 7

After a few more minutes of research, Law decides it's time to get out of bed, but before that he calls Nezu. 1

"Nezu…is my scalpel in your office?"

"All your things are here, aside from the new sword, Hatsume is still working on that."

"That's fine, I just need the scalpel, I've slept enough, it's time to get back to work…" 12

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 113: CHAPTER 109(The Almost Perfect Being) 7

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30 chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

From the moment Law woke up at UA, the first thing he began working on, as always, was himself.

While the heroes were preparing for their own battles, students and parents alike were grieving.

His classmates were constantly trying to get in touch with him and calling each other crying about what happened.

Some were even training harder than ever before, blaming their own weakness for what happened. 1

Law left UA and immediately went to his nearby building in Musutafu. Only 5km from the school, locking himself into the medical suite which most of his properties have.

Currently, that's exactly where he was, trying to solve the mystery of his own body, but unknown to him, he'd done all that his Quirk or any science could do.

So sitting on a metal chair wearing only a pair of shorts, surrounded by all his medical equipment.

Law's body operates on his head, which was harmlessly decapitated and placed on the table in front of it, trapped in a vice to keep it steady. 1

There was a monitor in front of his face and a camera directly above him, looking down into his exposed brain so he could see what he was doing along with his ability to simply sense it, visual indicators were critical in operations like this. 2

His movements with the scalpel and tweezers are more precise than ever as he does the final inspection on himself.

Looking at the monitor with his one eye he makes a few more adjustments and quickly heals them, then moves to clean away the excess blood. 2

As he puts the final touches on and places the top of his head back on, Law frowns at his own work, at himself. Then moves to place his head back on his neck.

After two days of non-stop work, he still couldn't find the one thing that was holding him back.

He simply couldn't make any sense of it, exactly as Dr. Ujiko predicted would happen. 1

After over a century of research on genetics and Quirks, Dr. Ujiko only recently identified this issue, and has yet to find a reliable solution to it. 1

If it were a matter of science then Law would have found it immediately, Ujiko is sure of that much.

But this is a matter of the 'heart' and 'mind' not being aligned. 11

Something so out of the realm of medicine that Ujiko went mad before he could figure it out. The practical effects of psychology on the human mind and body.

The answer was so ridiculous that any genius medical professional would have to be crazy or stupid to ever consider it. 1

'You simply don't want it enough,' is exactly how Dr. Ujiko would explain it, and if Law knew what it was, he would absolutely agree.

Law was able to do what Dr. Ujiko could not, he solved the issue of the physical form handling multiple Quirks.

Through his focused and obsessive work ethic, Hand Of God now acts in a way similar to All For One within his own body, acting as a pseudo-host while All For One was the true host to the other Quirks. 1

While All For One is somewhat of a switchboard with access to multiple Quirks, Hand Of God uses his additional Quirks to buff itself by an order of many magnitudes…if only Law could access all of that power. 1

Now all he needs is the answer Dr. Ujiko has about the mental side of this process, and the mad doctor needs his answer to the physical form.

"One last check," Law mutters as he puts himself back together, getting up from his chair and walking to the washroom.

Standing in front of the mirror he sees himself looking almost exactly the same, his hair was cut a bit shorter by Recovery Girl to inspect his fractured skull properly.

His white eyepatch was still over his left eye, covering the empty socket. 6

And bits of his skin were still pinkish and would be for another week or two, from where they were torn apart before he regenerated entirely new flesh these past two days.

Placing a hand on his chest he focuses on himself, "Scan," he mutters, going back to the absolute basics.

Veering all the way down, what would have strained his previous energy limit before felt much less substantial now.

Once again he was able to study himself down to the unchanging Telomeres and his own helical genetic code. 1

"Huh, the extra energy from the Quirks that were killing me, is the only reason I can fix myself…great," Law grumbles as he continues his in-depth scan.

"I don't sense anything wrong. I integrated them perfectly, but…things still hurt when I draw on too much power for anything. That shouldn't happen, that doesn't even make any sense. Everything is perfect within my body…maybe I'm missing something."

He does another Scan, still finding nothing.

"Mmm, fine, one way to figure this shit out," he summons his phone to his hand for the first time since leaving UA, seeing the battery running low and a hundred missed calls from his classmates, Pixie-Bob, and Nezu, combined of course. 1

He immediately calls Nezu.

"Hello, what's wrong?" Law asks, still looking in the mirror.

"I couldn't get ahold of you these past two days, is everything alright?" Nezu asks, clearly worried.

"I was operating on myself, he messed up some things that'll take me a while to fix. I think it's feedback from when I resisted his Quirk. I can walk it off." 1

"Oh, I see, I finished reading your report about that fight, I saw you mentioned that, and he was after something aside from your Quirk apparently, any idea what it was?" Nezu asks. "I've decided to edit your report somewhat before I pass it to the commission, so this won't be mentioned to them."

Law sighs, "right, because if people know All Might apparently has something that he wants and that's why some kids died they'll be pissed at him and UA…but no I don't know what. But he was convinced All Might gave it to me."

"He didn't tell you?"

"No, but you clearly know what it is, so care to explain why I almost got killed?" Law asks, slightly annoyed.

"That isn't my secret to tell, unfortunately." 1

"Well, you could have at least warned me that there was actually a person that can steal Quirks running about. Maybe I wouldn't have gone around announcing how powerful my Quirk is if I had a heads up!"

"We thought he was dead, that All Might killed him. I understand how frustrating this is to you, but some secrets aren't mine to tell. I'm sure you of all people can be thankful that I'm so respectful of the wishes of others," Nezu says. 2

Law takes a deep breath and calms down, "yeah, you're right. Plus I don't think I would have believed you, a Gene Modification Quirk is a bit far-fetched, even Monoma's Quirk is super rare. But one that lets you permanently alter your genes and the person you're touching. That's insane."

"Yes, if cloning science wasn't so far along, a few centuries ago he would have been in Mystery Class with you and Star."

They both fall into a comfortable silence for a moment, just imagining the damage such a Quirk could do had it been revealed to the general public. Or had he gotten ahold of either Mystery Class Quirks.

"Have you made any posts yet?" Nezu asks, breaking the silence.

"Posts?"

"The medical reports from the attack were leaked, I'm currently narrowing down exactly who leaked it to the press and they'll be dealt with severely. But people are terrified of the damage you sustained."

"Can't really blame them," Law shrugs, raising a hand to touch his eyepatch. "Almost anyone else would have died from just half as much damage, go ahead and tell them I already healed from the injuries and I'm taking some time to get back into fighting form."

"I'll do that right away, but the sooner you make a post the better, seeing is believing after all," Nezu says.

"Maybe later, right now I need to come back to UA, I need a lot of your robots and access to my training area…and my new sword."

"I thought you said you needed time to recover from what happened to your mind."

"Yeah, and this is how I need to spend that time. I'm not sure how to deal with what's happening, the more I use my Quirk the more I'll know, trial and error Nezu."

"Well, you're the doctor, I'll have everything sent to your training ground for you…"

"Thanks," Law hangs up and rests his phone on the sink.

He leans forward, putting a bit more of his weight on the sink before reaching up and ripping off the eye patch, exposing his stitched-shut eyelids.

Reaching up he uses Mes to easily remove them, and the skin immediately droops down to reveal the empty socket.

The nerves within were already healed, so he knew what he had to do.

Taking a few deep breaths he grits his teeth and summons his scalpel back into his hand, and immediately insterts it into his eye socket.

"NNNNGHHH!!" he groans in pain as he has to destroy the healed tissue at the end of the nerves that would have connected to the back of his eyeball. 2

"FUCK!" he drops the bloody scalpel in the sink and leans forward, allowing a few drops of blood to fall into the sink, actively suppressing his brand new Automatic Regeneration instinct.

His Quirk would now immediately open the smallest possible Room whenever he's injured and begin healing, even if it wasn't optimal.

That's why the ambulance couldn't leave without him constantly falling into critical condition, any time he left the room the healing would stop, and moments later a new Room would form to restart the cycle.

Fighting the urge to put a hand over his eye socket Law looks into the mirror with a pissed-off expression, willing more and more energy into the newly injured nerve endings so the eyeball can regenerate properly.

Surprisingly his right eye, the large and bright light blue pupil, begins flickering. Appearing like a glowing crystal at this moment. 1

He has to fight the urge to jolt back in surprise as a thin blue mist begins pouring out of the left eye socket and dissipating in the air, and moments later he feels a brand new eyeball forming in his skull. 3

And as the new eyeball is fully formed, drops of blood flow down from the eye socket like tears, pushed out by the new eye. 2

It too flickers for a few seconds before both eyes glow solid bright blue. 6

For all of two seconds they glow and release the thin blue mist from their pupils when Law gives them more energy, until… 1

"ARGH!" Law groans and shuts his eyes, feeling his brain in a vice once more and the same problem takes hold again.

Like hot spikes being hammered into his skull.

After a long minute to catch his breath, he looks back into the mirror and grumbles, "ok…that's new. But the glowy eyes take too much energy, so I'll just set that aside for now. Right now I just need to see what I can do about this damn mental feedback…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 114: CHAPTER 110(The Processing Problem) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Curtain!" Law manifests his blue dome barrier from his palm and projects it a few meters around himself.

Standing within his personal training ground at UA, he's surrounded by city blocks of rubble, formerly concrete buildings.

Currently, there were two more of Nezu's robots ahead of him, battering the shield with rubber bullets.

Behind the shield, he was currently wearing just his pair of UA's PE Uniform, leaving his top exposed, and using his new sword.

The new sword was an exact copy of his previous blade. A long katana with a white blade and blue edge, along with a matching scabbard and hilt.

After taking some time to get 'attuned' to it he can now use it with his Quirk, getting him access to all his abilities once more.

His visor was off to reveal himself drenched in sweat and with a constant trickle of blood running down from his nose and ears.

It was currently sunset, and he'd been training and studying himself here since sunrise…yesterday.

Taking breaks between sets of training to eat and get new robots, not that he needed much rest or food anymore, among other things he noticed about himself.

As the rubber bullets continue Law focuses on the Room he was currently in.

Only spanning the few hundred meters of this private training area.

"Scan!"

The sudden influx of information floods his brain, as usual. Every piece of rubble and stray leaf. Every robot and all the rubber bullets in the air appear frozen as it is all filed into his mind.

His perfect spacial awareness once again shows how invaluable it is as he tracks exactly how he has to move his sword to deflect some bullets and rush forward.

But things aren't so simple since All For One.

Now the information is accompanied by a desynchronization of his Quirks.

His mind and 'heart' are being pulled apart to do conflicting tasks in a way he couldn't detect or understand.

BA-DUM!

His heart speeds up for just a moment as a thin blue fog begins emanating from his now glowing eyes, feeling the power flowing through him his shield glows brighter as the blue becomes less and less transparent, it too begins releasing the same Energy Vapor as he's unable to regulate his output.

But all of this happens in less than one-hundredth of a second, and a moment later.

"Argh!" a hail of rubber bullets slam into Law as his Quirk shuts off. 5

The sudden influx of information conflicts with his instincts and Quirks to hit like a white-hot stake being hammered into his skull.

The loud impacts of rubber bullets hitting his tough skin echo out once more, 23 shots to the chest and abs leave purplish-black welts and have him stumbling back.

Dropping to one knee he tries to focus his mind, hearing the constant clicking of the empty guns twenty meters away before the two robots begin walking forward.

Opening his eyes he looks at the ground, vision blurred from the sheer pain of what he just felt. As if his head was shoved into Endeavor's flames. 1

He sees more and more blood dripping down to the floor, feeling another fully flowing stream running down from his nose and out of his ears.

Feeling his lunch about to spill out he covers his mouth and forces it to stay down, rising to his feet, and swaying slightly as he does so.

Seeing both the robots slowly approaching he grits his teeth as the pain in his head diminishes quickly, just as it always does.

Then he takes a deep breath, filling his chest, and looks down to see all the rubber bullets that were stuck to him falling to the floor.

ROOM!

He creates a room 50 meters wide.

"Booster Shot," the blackish-purple welts on his chest where the bullets hit begins glowing with his usual blue Healing Energy, much brighter than before meeting All For One, and his skin immediately returns to normal.

The exact same routine as he'd been doing all day with his injuries.

Lowering his stance slightly he rockets forward in a full sprint.

Still keeping himself enhanced with Booster Shot he easily breaks past 60mph, -96km/h or 26m/s, and closes the distance between him and the robots.

Ignoring the pain caused every time he has to move his body beyond the standard everyday movements.

The downside of Life Force, the Quirk which gives him double the vitality at the cost of making athletics severely limited. 3

Even now all his muscles constantly felt stiff and sore no matter what he did to alleviate it.

Arriving at the robots he swings at one with his sword.

Booster Shot Incision!

His enhanced sword slash comes down harder than ever, it easily cleaves through the robot, slicing reinforced titanium alloy as if were nothing.

The usual training robots were built to be slow and fragile, but these are Nezu's Campus Defence robots…without the live munitions of course since this is training.

BA-DUM!

As his blade is about to exit he feels another jolt of pain. The same blue Energy Vapor had just barely begun manifesting around his blade before his Quirk shut off and everything went black.

Less than a second later he wakes up while rolling across the hard concrete floor, skidding to a stop and looking up just in time to see the other robot retracting its hand.

Reaching up he feels some blood at the back of his head where it had punched him the moment he lost focus.

"This is just embarrassing…I'm worse than Deku," Law grumbles as he struggles to get up, running at it with his tired body and empty hands. His sword was sent flying out of his grasp as he was knocked across the ground. 2

ROOM!

He creates a Room just big enough for both of them.

"Booster Shot!" He yells out while swinging with a strong right, embedding up to his shoulder in the robot as he punches it apart.

He pulls out his arm and the robot harmlessly falls to the floor, leaving him to look down at the cuts and bruises on his arm already glowing blue and healing up without any command from him. 1

"Ok, that's pretty useful. Reflexive healing isn't worth all this bullshit, but it's nothing to complain about," Law mutters as he looks around, seeing his sword on the floor a few meters away.

Done with his training for now, until he takes a break and gets some more robots, he takes a step forward to go collect his sword.

Then feels as if his legs are about to give out.

"Nope," he sits right where he is and just leans back against the robot, deciding this was as good a place as any to rest.

Closing his eyes and ignoring the blood running down his head and now dripping onto his chest, he tries to enjoy the cool evening breeze as the sun sets over the horizon. 1

"Ok Law, two days of training and studying…what do you know?" he asks himself, thinking aloud before he consciously decides to just think to himself, at least while on UA campus, since everything here can be assumed to be free data for Nezu.

'Ok. So I've still got Hand Of God, my original Quirk.

Then I've got Energy Saver, which lets me work on 1/8th of the food, sleep, and energy of a regular person for all my necessary functions. 2

And it lets me sleep on command and stay more alert during sleep…but that second part may just be because of Hand Of God…

Energy Dynamo, my body produces energy more efficiently…I basically just have more output for the same input. This also helps my stamina recovery a ton so I can just rest up quickly and get back into fights. 1

Then there's Energy Enhancer…kind of vague from the Quirk Database, but at least in my case it lets my body produce energy that's more easily usable, and optimizes it even further. 1

This is probably why my eyes and stuff are glowing and releasing that weird Energy Vapor… 7

And then the colossal pain in my ass, Life Force. Doubles my capacity…not that I can fully use it without having a seizure, but at least it doubled so one day I will be able to.

But the doubled lifespan did nothing for me since my Telomeres are perfect thanks to Hand Of God. 1

Not to mention the fact that my body is always so fucking stiff and sore makes doing anything but walking painful…I hate this fucking Quirk!' 1

Law takes a moment to calm down, warping his water bottle to him to take a drink.

'Ok, so I know Hand Of God is still fine, all my abilities work. The other Quirks should have integrated fine. And Life Force should have been fixed so the drawback of limited athletic ability is gone…so what the hell is going on?

My body is fine, my mind is fine. My Quirks…no, just Quirk. Since I more or less integrated them all into Hand Of God it's just one Quirk now. Plus they all just enhance my own Quirk anyway.

I even said it myself, one body cannot have multiple Quirks because once they're fully integrated it becomes a new Quirk.

I followed my own logic, the correct logic, and I feel like it's still trying to kill me.'

Law growls in frustration and slams his hand into the concrete floor.

And the moment his skin makes contact his Quirk activates a small room, just big enough for his body, automatically boosting his physical strength to crack the floor.

Looking at the damage he lifts up his hand, and notices it was healed instantly.

'Well…once I keep the information input to only what is absolutely necessary I should be fine. And I'll have to try to keep my adrenaline and heart rate down. The higher those get or the more into a fight I am then the more likely my Quirk is to just try and pull in as much information as possible.

If I do that in a big fight it could kill me. But I don't even know what's wrong with me to set a timeline for solving this. And if I can't solve it and school starts up in three weeks All For One is probably not gonna attack Tartarus.

Seeing me alive should be enough proof, but if he gets any hint that I'm not healthy it's all gone. Why would he bother with his part of the proposed contract when he knows I can't even hold up my end of the--'

Law stops his train of thought, realizing in his haste to pull himself together and understand what was going on he completely overlooked something.

"The spy," he mutters.

'I won't have to worry about him finding out anything if I just find the spy and ki-- hand them over to the cops…stupid hero bullshit.

And if I kill the spy then Nezu is probably gonna easily figure out it's me, then I would have voided my own contract like a dumbass.

But yeah, hand them over to the cops and give Nezu the credit, that way he doesn't think I did it just to hide my failure.

I completely forgot about his spy in all this chaos, but once I get rid of that person then All For One will just assume I'm healthy and attack Tartarus, he gets them out, I fix him up, then we leave Japan forever…easy.

Too bad I can't take credit for the spy, that would help me out a lot, and I could let Nezu say he ordered the investigation so UA looks better too, but I can't have my name anywhere near this mess.'

Law sits on the floor for a while longer, putting all the pieces he had together.

'All For One is old, damn ancient. 300 years old, his spy could be anyone, and I'm assuming they even know they're the spy. It could just be using Telepathy to rip information out of them when they leave school.

But no, they'd have to either be one of the teachers, but only Eraser, Nezu, Vlad, and All Might knew where the camp was. I know at least 3 of them are clean, and Vlad got hurt too badly to be the spy, he almost got put into retirement from that fight.

Then there would have to be an incentive…All For One can give people Quirks, the best incentive.

But among the remaining teachers, they've all got pretty good Quirks, and I don't think he would have used the Pussycats since even he couldn't predict Nezu asking them for help.

So then that leaves the students, and as a doctor and Nezu's favorite, I've got their medical records on my phone, just in case I had to perform any field medicine.

I guess it's about time I finally have a look at those…' 18

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 115: CHAPTER 111(Clashing Plots)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Flying across the open countryside Horizon is on his hoverboard, moving at 300mph 482kmph, wearing his full Hero Costume with his sword at his side.

With the sun now completely hidden beyond the ocean he makes his way southwest, away from Musutafu where UA is.

Taking a casual stance on the hoverboard just as he would his surfboard or longboard he has his phone out as he scrolls through his 'Yay!' account. 1

Seeing tens of thousands of comments on his last post, a picture of him in full costume, announcing to the world that he's alright.

Seeing the worried comments and people cheering him on he can't help but roll his eyes at the pathetic sheep.

'People are still following this 'True hero' bullshit Stain was preaching, serious?' he wonders, noticing some custom emojis and stickers in the comments of Stain proclaiming Horizon to be exactly that. 2

Shaking his head at the absurdity of Hero worshipping people he continues listening to his music as he rockets through the air.

Just a few hundred meters above the rural area between cities he's protected from the cold night wind by his body glove and visor.

Redundant copies were made weeks ago by Mei, foreseeing that one day his costume would be damaged.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Horizon sighs as his music is cut off, and 'Hanta Sero' is projected on the inside of his visor, an incoming call. 3

"Yeah?" he answers the call.

"Are you ok man?!" Sero yells into the phone.

"Better if you weren't yelling in my ear," Horizon says.

"Sorry, it's just, from what the news said, the leaked reports, we weren't sure if even you could survive that."

"Tch, barely a scratch, regrowing the eye was a pain but I've done worse things." 2

"What? When?"

"Mom was very hands-on and thorough with training. The point is I'm perfectly fine now, how are you and the others doing?"

"Well we've all been put on house arrest right now," Sero says. "All the Year-1 Hero Course students or older Hero Course students from UA without a Provisional License have Pro Heroes watching them, unless they're at an agency."

"Really? Who do you have?"

"Jolt," Sero says in a defeated voice.

"Seriously, you got just grown up Kaminari?" 1

"Uh…too soon man," Sero says in a low voice.

"Oh right, that happened," Horizon says dismissively. "How is everyone taking that?"

"If by 'that' you mean watching our classmates die in front of us…not good. Only a few of us were there when that fire hit, those blue flames were something else man."

"Hmm, how did that even go?"

"Well I don't know the full details but some of the Nomu had this Quirk called 'Absorb and Release', they used it to keep Bakugo and Todoroki busy while the rest of us were under attack.

Some psycho named 'Muscular' was mangling up Midoriya pretty good but thankfully he won that fight. 6

The rest of us were dealing with some of those Nomu…it was like they knew all our Quirks and prepared Nomu just for us…"

"Probably because that's exactly what happened," Horizon says. "About half of you showed off what you could do at the Sports Festival, but from what I know they even had counters to people like Jiro and cookie…they can't know about that from the sports festival since both of them didn't use their Quirks."

"Wait…you think they have a spy?" Sero asks, terror in his voice. "But it's UA. Plus none of us even had any phones to call the villains."

"Well I'm on my way to solve that problem tonight, so you'll find out how it goes pretty soon…"

Sero takes a deep breath, unable to fathom that someone at UA would be an undercover villain.

'But if Horizon has suspects then…it has to be true, Horizon doesn't make mistakes, not with things this big.' 2

"Ok," Sero mutters, clearly pissed off.

"Ok?"

"Yeah, when you find whoever it is, give them a bit of payback from all of us," he growls out. "That lizard guy got Koda…the big guy with the magnet pushed Sato into the fire…that freaky girl with the knives got Pony, and Shigaraki decayed Kinoko…and Kaminari, man…" 6

"The report didn't go into the specifics, but what happened to Kaminari?"

Sero falls silent for a while, Horizon hears a few sniffles before he begins speaking in a shaky voice, "he jumped in front of us…I was out of tape and he jumped in front of us when a Nomu stretched its arm like a dozen meters to grab any of us.

He thought he could just fry it like the others, and it worked. But that damn clone guy, he just kept making more and more, it was too much, and Kaminari ran out of power…we couldn't get to him in time…"

"Did Twice kill him?" Horizon asks plainly.

"No, some of the Nomu just…they pulled him apart," Sero immediately begins breaking down crying, much to Horizon's annoyance. 3

"That's unfortunate…" was all Horizon said, realizing it would be much harder than expected to re-open the Hero Course after that.

"Yeah," Sero says before his voice becomes angry. "So when you find whoever brought the villains there, who killed Kaminari, you give them some payback for all of us, alright?"

"I'll take care of it, and Sero."

"Yeah?"

Horizon pauses for a moment, genuinely trying to figure out how to say this in the nicest way possible.

"Kaminari died a Hero," he says in a surprisingly soft tone. "But that's worthless if all you do is cry and mope around like a pussy, get to work, save some lives, that way he's worth more than just who he saved that night, got it?" 5

"Uh, yeah…got it," Sero mutters as he presumable wipes his tears.

"Good, I've gotta go, Nezu is calling," Horizon hangs up before Sero can respond and answers Nezu's call.

"Where are you?" Nezu immediately asks.

"Out, why?"

"You left UA a few minutes ago without telling me, I'm concerned, how are you feeling?"

"Better, I'm going to deal with your spy problem, my way."

"That is a very delicate matter Horizon."

"Well right now it's costing us lives, so are you willing to let more people die or should I just handle it now?"

The call is silent for a few seconds.

"That's what I thought."

Nezu sighs, "what condition are you in, can you fight?"

"Not optimally, not for a while, but I should be fine for tonight."

"So not against someone like All For One or the USJ Nomu?"

"Not a chance, I still need time, did you forget what condition I was in? It's only been two days since I woke up remember."

"I see," Nezu pauses for a moment and Horizon overhears some nearly inaudible chatter in the background, so clearly Nezu wasn't alone. "And is the data you gave us on All For One comprehensive of what you know."

"Excuse me?"

"Is there anything you could have missed?"

"You doubting me?" Horizon asks, getting annoyed now since he did put everything combat related into his report, the deal with his parents simply wasn't necessary to be reported.

"No, I'd never do that," Nezu admits. "But the police are doing an investigation and want to plan a counter-attack, they want as much information as possible."

"I see, so they want me in the raid team…that makes sense, but it'll probably be weeks before I'm ready for any high-level fights."

He hears more indiscernible background chatter before Nezu responds. "Well that's unfortunate, but we simply don't have that time to wait. Yesterday the League Of Villains attacked the Hero Commission branch in Warden City."

"Warden City…but the only thing that branch has is--"

"The prisoner transfer documents for all the prisons across Japan," Nezu says. "We believe they plan a mass jailbreak of all their allies we've arrested since the USJ incident. And the existence of this Vanguard Action Squad proves they're actively recruiting, snuffing them out before they go on a recruitment drive is our priority."

"Yeah before they have another army aside from the Nomu, I assume the public doesn't know about the impending fights."

"We manage to blame the destruction on a gas leak since it all happened inside the building, another reason why Kurogiri is so high on our priority list." 3

"That makes sense, well sorry but I won't be in top form for at least another few weeks, got a lot to sort out."

"Well we managed before you, we can still do just that, please do bring back anyone you believe is the spy unharmed if possible."

"No," Horizon says bluntly. 5

Nezu groans, "do remember you're trying to be a Hero, I'm more upset than anyone about what happened to my students, but we must not let our emotions blind us. I'll call you later tonight. Right now I have a press conference to deal with, the media is already setting up downstairs and waiting for UAs explanation on how it will continue forward…"

"I'll try to watch it if I can, good luck."

"After tonight, everything will be fine, your next semester should be rather smooth." 1

"Well, I hope so," Horizon hangs up, breathing a sigh of relief.

Resuming his music and putting his phone away he considers the conversation he just had.

"Nezu kept calling me Horizon, never once used my name, combined with the muttering he's not alone, I was extra careful because it's probably Detective Tsukauchi there since he was giving me otherwise classified info… and I'm guessing All Might or Eraser if they were planning a counter strike, you need those two for a smooth attack against All For One…"

He crosses a few more miles, still not seeing his target city anywhere ahead of him, deciding to not speak aloud for now in case Nezu is bugging him. 13

'All For One sent the league to get the Tartarus prison documents, if anywhere has ancient files about the layout it's that branch of the Commission, he's planning to get them out already. Luckily I really didn't have to lie about not being in fighting form to go up against someone that strong, even with help.

Now all I've gotta do is have the cops wait until I'm in top shape. But by that time All For One and…Gigantomachi, whoever that is, will attack Tartarus and get my parents back, then I'm out of this country forever, after fixing his body of course…' 17

--Nezu's Office…

Hanging up after his call with Horizon, Nezu is in his chair, sitting behind his desk.

In front of him on one couch was Yagi, wearing his All Might costume, the modern version currently hanging on him as if he were a coat rack.

Beside Yagi was Detective Tsukauchi, wearing full SWAT gear with a rifle at his side.

Opposite them, both wearing simple black business suits, were Vlad King and Eraser Head.

"Horizon won't be available sadly, he's still recovering," Nezu says.

"Then we'll just have to continue forward without him," Yagi immediately says, already not wanting to waste any more time.

Both Tsukauchi and Nezu share a concerned look while Eraser and Vlad notice but aren't in on the full secret.

Nezu turns to them both, "can you both please head down to the press conference ahead of me, there are a few things left to discuss…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 116: CHAPTER 112(Our Purpose) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

As Eraser Head and Vlad King leave Nezu's office, the atmosphere becomes much more tense.

Tsukauchi and Nezu share a knowing look at Yagi looks confused.

"What's wrong?" Yagi asks, looking between his allies. "We should get in the helicopter and head to Tokyo, Gran Torino should already be at the police station waiting for us."

"Or…" Nezu says, "we could postpone the raid."

"What?" Yagi stands up, looking horrified at the very thought. "But Principal Nezu, this is the best chance we've got!"

"Just for a few weeks," Tsukauchi says, looking up at his friend. "Schools are out so the League Of Villains can't hit any Hero Courses until summer ends in a few weeks, by then Horizon should be back in action for him to help you take down All For One, for good this time."

"You…" Yagi stumbles back in disbelief, "you think I'll lose?" 2

"We didn't say that," Nezu says. "But we have one of the most powerful people in the world on standby, if we wait, he will be ready."

"Assuming the villains will still be there," Yagi says. "We don't know when they'll move onto another hideout, and Horizon said he won't be ready for weeks, we need to strike now and defeat All For One with a decisive blow."

"The plan won't change," Nezu says. "The tracker Yaoyorozu made is still transmitting from the same location in Kamino Ward, and the police have eyes on the hidden bar where the villains are living at. 3

We'll still have two teams, one to attack the Nomu facility in Kamino Ward, and you'll still lead the team at the bar which will be fighting the main villains."

"But we want Horizon with you at the bar," Tsukauchi says. "When All For One shows himself it'll be good if both of you take him down together. Nezu has a pet monster in his pocket, it's about time we put it to use." 2

Yagi doesn't understand what he means by that, only knowing Horizon as a student, "pet monster?"

"Nevermind that," Nezu says. "Tsukauchi and Horizon didn't meet on the best terms. But when All For One shows up at the bar it'll be best if you, Horizon, and Endeavor are there together."

"You're asking me to put one of my students in a fight again All For One? How can I do that and still call myself a Hero?"

"Horizon isn't just any student," Nezu says, earning a confident nod from Tsukauchi. "He severely hurt All For One in their last fight, with you and Endeavor there, the three of you can easily end that demon…"

Yagi pauses, then looks between Tsukauchi and Nezu, people who have been with him from the start of his career, from before he even got One For All in Nezu's case.

And for the very first time, he sees more than just concern in their eyes.

"You don't think I can win?" Yagi asks in a quiet voice.

Tsukauchi sighs, "it's not that we doubt your power. We just don't want to risk losing you, as a friend, and as the Symbol Of Peace. Think about what happens if something goes wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong," Yagi says. 7

"If this semester has proven anything, it's that everything can go wrong, no matter how much we try to prove otherwise." Nezu hops down from his chair and begins walking toward the opposite couch. "We've assembled powerful heroes to assist you, but the Hero Commission has run simulations already, if the enemies have too many Nomu, this can go bad very quickly."

"You could die," Tsukauchi says, surprising Yagi. "And what do you think happens if All For One manages that for the world to see…society would be thrown into chaos."

Yagi looks down at his baggy Hero Costume, reaching up and pulling the fabric at his chest. Years ago he would have filled this costume out 24/7, but now he stands as a husk of his former self. 4

And even his greatest supporters are so worried about him that they don't want him to fight.

To be the person Nana knows he would be.

To complete the task she entrusted to him.

He recalls the night he lost her, how he and Gran Torino were forced to run away, leaving her to stall All For One, and how she stood alone.

"But I won't be alone," Yagi says, gripping his costume. "I'll have squads of powerful and just Pro Heroes with me. I'll have more support than anyone before me.

Yes, I am weaker than I was years ago. But I've regained some of my past power thanks to Horizon healing me. 8

I'm still strong enough to complete this task.

Strong enough that I don't have to involve one of my precious students in this battle, because how can I ever call myself a teacher if I'm so weak that I have to do that?

How could we call ourselves Heroes if we have to depend on him for the most critical battles of our lives?

Is this not my purpose?

I was entrusted with this power to become the Symbol of Peace.

To become All Might.

But as a holder of One For All, above everything else, OUR purpose, is to defeat All For One.

To ensure the safety of this world, and all the generations that will inherit it from us.

So no, I won't be leaning on one of the very people I'm fighting to create a better world for in this fight."

Yagi begins growing, taking his muscular form and completely filling out his costume until it was skin tight.

Raising his fist in front of him and looking at it, only feeling a fraction of the godly power that once coursed through him.

"One For All…this is its purpose, OUR purpose, but I'll complete this task here," he looks up at Nezu, giving him a broad smile. "So Izuku Midoriya can find the new purpose of this power, and forge his own destiny, because as a Hero, and as his teacher, that is my duty…that, is why All Might exists…" 1

The intensity and conviction in his voice were astonishing as always, and both Nezu and Tsukauchi couldn't help but smile, feeling the familiar warmth of his blazing will just as bright as it was before their previous battle.

Tsukauch chuckles, fishing the keys for the helicopter door out of his pocket and getting up, ready to make his way to the roof and fly them to Tokyo.

"There really won't be another Hero like you," he gives All Might an exasperated look. "Now let's go deal with this villain for good, then we won't ever have to think about him again," he begins walking toward the door.

"Half right," All Might says, turning to give Tsukauchi his brilliant smile, "this villain ends tonight, but I'm sure of another thing, there will be another Symbol Of Peace, and he'll be more than I could have ever been…"

As All Might and the others meet up in Tokyo to finalize their plans for the raid, Nezu heads downstairs to meet up with Eraser Head and Vlad King.

Their part in this plan was to hold a press conference simultaneously with the raid, proclaiming that the police force and UA were currently looking into the villain's plans and location but had yet to find any concrete leads.

No students, not even Momo herself who provided the tracker knows about the raid.

And even the police and Heroes that will be helping haven't been told anything before tonight, to prevent the villains from learning through a spy.

That's exactly why Nezu didn't mind that Horizon was dealing with the potential spy issue, because he wanted this entire problem to be dealt with tonight… 2

--Aldera City, 250KM Southwest of Tokyo…

Sitting at his desk in his room Deku was currently writing some notes for his Hero Studies.

Trying to figure out a way to ease the damage his arms are taking during battles. 2

His hands were currently functional but bandaged up for the next few days.

"And I'll have to figure out a way to convince mom to let me return to UA next semester," he mutters absentmindedly. "Maybe I can get Principal Nezu to talk to her, or maybe All Might can come to do it in person.

But she's so scared I'll break my arms one or two more times and be crippled forever as the doctors said. But if I figure this out before then it won't matter. 1

'It's a power distribution problem'...Horizon said this before, but he also said that because I look up to All Might so much it's limiting me," he stops writing and sits back in his chair, staring down at his book.

Currently, there was a sketch of his Hero Costume with armored arms. A solution he knew simply wouldn't work.

"What did he mean by that, thinking like All Might will hold me bad?" he reaches for his phone and clicks on the 1A group chat, seeing a conversation going on, mentioning the press conference that was about to start. 2

"I should watch that so I at least know when school will be reopening," he mutters while opening the member's list for the chat, he sees Horizon listed in it and is tempered to call him. 1

"If I call him he'll probably call me stupid again and hang up…assuming he'd even answer, ugh…" Deku holds his head in frustration. "Oh, I know, I'll just ask Sero to ask him for me."

He finds Sero's contact but stops before he can call, "no, Horizon would figure it out…and the last thing I want to do is get Sero yelled at.

Plus last time he said I rely on other people too much right now, so I should at least figure this out myself.

'Heroes are problem solvers, not liabilities' was what he said…I think," Deku returns to his notes for a few minutes, thinking up anything he can…

"Izuku!" he hears his mother's scared voice echo down the halls of their small apartment.

Deku is immediately on alert, knowing there was a police van outside with a Pro Hero nearby to stake out the house. Just as with all the Hero Course students from UA.

But he didn't hear any fighting.

'Warp gate, Kurogiri!' he immediately concludes, activating his quirk and rushing down the hall, terrified of the idea that the villains are in his house, hurting his mom.

Terrified that All For One realized that he has One For All and not Horizon.

Rounding the corner he pivots on the ground hard enough to crack the concrete and turns into the kitchen, ready to launch into a powerful Smash.

But he freezes, seeing the small kitchen occupied by two people.

Inko Midoriya, leaning with her back to the counter absolutely terrified, breathing heavily and gripping her chest from the sheer shock.

And sitting at the small kitchen table.

Horizon.

In full Hero Costume with his sword out, clearly ready to use it… 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 117: CHAPTER 113(No More Secrets) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Deku, exactly who I came to see," Horizon says as he gets up, seeing Deku frozen in the doorway.

He leaves his sword on the little table and walks around the small kitchen, gesturing to Inko.

Inko Midoriya, Deku's mom, short and chubby at 160cm 5ft3 with green hair much more like Asui than Deku.

"You should go take a seat," he gestures to the table.

Her eyes look over from him, to the table he gestured to with his sword still atop it, then back to him. Suddenly aware of how much larger he is in person than on TV.

"Wh….what's going on here? Is something wrong?" Inko musters up the courage to ask, trying desperately not to be bullied in her own home.

Horizon sighs and looks over to Deku, seeing him still frozen in the doorway, "I just have some questions for both of you, so how about you both take a seat so I can get out of here…oh, and the team that was watching you won't be bothering us for a while…"

"Bu--"

"Mom," Deku cuts her off, and she looks over to see him already sweating nervously. "Let's just do what he says…"

Horizon doesn't miss that both Deku's hands are at his sides in tight fists, 'well at least he's ready for a fight…'

Giving her son a silent and nervous nod Inko carefully walks around Horizon to sit at the table, opposite Deku.

"Hands on the table," Horizon says, and they both comply, altho she's glaring at him the entire time. 1

Standing back at the counter and facing them Horizon folds his arms across his chest and looks at the duo, nothing striking between the two, and after a silent minute to let their imagination run wild, he gets to the point.

Glancing to the TV in the corner of the kitchen he sees the press conference at UA starting, but ignores it to focus on the task at hand.

"So you both know that UA has been attacked twice by now, right?"

They both nod.

"And I'm here to solve that, by whatever means necessary, that includes the bloody and painful ones," he says.

Inko begins shaking in fear while Deku just turns and glares at Horizon, ready to use Full Cowling to defend his mom at a moment's notice.

"Y…you can't do that," Inko says.

"Oh, why not?"

"Because it's against the law! And you're a hero, right, aren't you?" 3

"Yeah, so?" Horizon shrugs. "Laws only apply to replaceable people, like you two, I'm Horizon, I can do what I want, now. What do you know about Deku's Quirk?"

"Izuku's Quirk?" she looks between Horizon and her son, completely confused, and even more so by the horrified look on his face. "What about it?"

"Oh, playing dumb?" Horizon gets up and walks over to her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

Deku grits his teeth in frustration, already activating Full Cowling at a low percentage.

"Was he born with his Quirk?"

"What? Of course he was, it's his Quirk," Inko says, not understanding such a silly question. And Horizon detects no lies. 6

"Have you had any contact with any villains?" Horizon asks.

"No, why would I ever do that, what's this about?" Inko asks, even more confused.

"Hmm, so Deku left you out of the loop," Horizon lets go of her and begins walking around to Deku. "You see I find it very strange that I get attacked by a villain that can steal and redistribute Quirks…and I've been suspicious of UA having a spy in it since USJ, then I check all the medical records from the people at camp to find… 1

Deku here was registered as Quirkless until the day before the first day of UA…then he shows up with a Quirk that's perfect for catching All Might's interest since they're so similar.

And he acts in a way that would perfectly convince All Might to take an interest in him.

Not to mention that broken arm he said happened when he was a kid that caused him to never want to use his Quirk…wasn't on his medical record."

Horizon places his hand directly atop Deku's head, and the boy just stares forward at his mom as she puts the pieces together.

"Izuku?" she asks in a horrified voice, unable to fathom the possibility of this being true, and her tone alone breaks his heart.

Tears began flowing down his cheeks as he realizes he had no way out. If he lies he'll look guilty and Horizon will just beat him unconscious and drag him off to jail. 1

And if he confesses then he'll be telling them both All Might's secret, disappointing his hero and informing the one person that he's never supposed to tell about One For All about it. 4

"So, Deku," Horizon says, with his hand on Deku's head as he Scans him. Finally able to make contact he realizes that Deku's cells are identical to All Might in how the Quirk functions, but somehow Deku's Quirk stores energy much faster.

'He must have also been given some sort of energy Quirk so he didn't have to use it for as long as All Might to have the same amount of power' Horizon thinks, trying to make sense of it.

"Were you born with that Quirk, or did All For One give it to you?" 1

Deku freezes, his fears becoming reality at that moment. Neither option was true, and All Might already told him Horizon can detect lies through touch.

Any lie would probably result in him being tased by 'Counter Shock' and taken away, then his mom would think he's a villain and a spy, so desperate for power that he'd help kill thousands of people, including his own classmates.

Squeezing his eyes shut he grits his teeth before simply being honest.

"All Might gave me his Quirk and is training me to be the next Symbol Of Peace since he can't fight as much anymore!" he blurts out in one quick breath, taking deep breaths afterward as if he was about to pass out. 2

But finally feels a weight lifted from his chest as his mom now knows the truth.

"What?" Horizon now sounds more confused than anyone else, "All Might can pass on his Quirk?" 2

Deku and Inko silently stare at each other, she looks at him in disappointment for keeping this from her. 1

And he just begins crying even more after seeing her face. 1

Horizon just takes a moment to process everything. Weeks ago he never would have believed any of this, but now he knows that 'naturally' transferring Quirks is possible, and the fact that he didn't detect any lies makes it all but certain.

Add to it the fact that Deku's outlandish story makes a lot of things he's noticed make much more sense…he had no choice but to believe it.

"So All Might passed his Quirk to you after I healed him, because a year ago his cellular energy was a lot higher than on the first day of UA, and I'm guessing you get the stockpiled power of the previous user as well instead of starting from zero…explains why he's running on the last fumes of his Quirk."

Horizon takes a step back and groans, then take the seat at the head of the table leaving Deku to his left and Inko to his right facing the tv.

Reaching forward he grabs Deku's wrist to make sure he can't lie, "this complicated everything so much more. Ok, fuck it, start explaining, now!"

Inko is completely silent as Deku explains, and Horizon only nods along and takes in everything, not wanting to interrupt and cause Deku to exclude anything.

And at the end of it, he feels more pissed off than anything else.

"So Nezu knew all of this and just didn't bother to tell me…could have saved me a lot of trouble…"

Deku just looks down at the table as Horizon lets go of his wrist and leans back in his chair, completely exasperated.

"So all of this crap is because All For One accidentally created a powerful Quirk because he decided to give his little brother a Quirk even though he wanted to stop him…what a moron. 3

And now he can't take back the Quirk because it probably has similar genetic markers to himself and that causes interference.

You realize he was at the summer camp and attacked me because he assumed I had your Quirk right?"

Deku just nods, already being informed of everything by All Might, but now the guilt was multiplied once more, sitting here with the person that almost died protecting them from All For One himself.

Adding to the weight of his dead classmates and the injured Pro Heroes still in the hospital.

He was questioning if he should even return to UA, or any other Hero Course.

Now giving serious thought to being a Vigilante, because that way at least All For One wouldn't have to kill his classmates to get to him.

"Tch, no wonder you got into UA without any control, and this definitely explains why Nezu is always asking me to help you train.

All Might passed his Quirk onto you, and since they don't have much time left they need you to master it as soon as possible…but for some reason, Nezu is still betting on me instead, very strange. 2

Well whatever, doesn't matter, but seriously I get that he's only got a few more years to live, but All Might could have really chosen someone a bit more competent…"

Deku and Inko both look at Horizon, faces completely mortified by that sudden announcement.

Looking at Deku he just sighs, "what did you think would happen with injuries like that, c'mon, don't be that stupid. The energy of One For All was keeping him going, and you've got the engine now…"

Izuku feels his entire world crashing down for the hundredth time in these past few months. Suddenly learning that after everything, he would soon be losing All Might as well.

"Then that's why," Izuku wipes his tears, "I've got to become stronger." 4

"Ugh," Horizon gives a disgusted groan, "not doing great so far, well, I guess I'm done here. You two clearly have a lot to talk about, and I've got to have a chat with Nezu about this stuff. Oh, and don't tell anyone I was here and what I was doing. I've got another suspect I'd like to surprise tonight…" 3

Deku nods, then looks over at his mom who didn't even react, she was just staring daggers through him. Absolutely livid that he did all of this behind her back. Lying to her for months.

Feeling the tension in the room Horizon is about to get up when the TV suddenly switches over from the boring press conference.

" BREAKING NEWS: All Might and a strange masked villain are fighting in Kamino Ward!" 5

Everyone in the room turns to the TV.

Seeing All Might standing on a cleared-out battlefield in what was a populated city area, surrounded by rubble as All For One stands on the air above him.

"Shit," Horizon immediately warps his sword back into the scabbard and rushes off, racing through the night sky on his hoverboard, rushing as best he can toward Kamino. 2

Toward the end of All Might… 7

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 118: CHAPTER 114(Glorious 3-Year Plan) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 1

CHAPTER START--

"Are you sure?" All For One asks. 1

The past and future Demon Lord was once again sitting in his usual chair, deep within his secret lab at Kamino Ward, Tokyo.

At his side was a phone with Ujiko on the other side, giving him an update on the information they recently decrypted.

"Unfortunately so," Ujiko says. "Plus 'Machia won't be ready for at least another week, but how would you like to proceed with this new information, it could turn out very badly for everyone involved…"

All For One silently ponders this for a moment, then gives a sinister smile. 1

"Oh my dear friend, you've never been able to see opportunity in such risky ventures, but this is my specialty. Some major changes are needed, but we will still prevail. So on the contrary, I believe this works out much better for us.

Continue preparing Gigantomachia, I want him to be our guard dog against any international aid, in the case that I'm not enough of a deterrent, he will at least make other nations hesitate to send any help to Japan." 1

"You may consider it done."

"Good, now transfer some of the recovered data into Aoyama's data core, no doubt either Nezu or Horizon himself will find it, in the case of the latter that will help us sway his views on things even further."

"The 'Hero' files?"

"Precisely, and nothing more, we don't want to change his course until it benefits us," All For One says. "But now the main concern is that the Hero Public Safety Commission knows of my existence, and they also have a proper villain in Tomura…even if it is in reputation alone, they need not know how incompetent he is…" 4

"True, the less that brat appears the better," Ujiko agrees. "But I still fail to see exactly how this helps us retain our final goal, or improve the plan in any way."

"Well that's quite simple, we must--"

Kurogiri's purple mist begins swirling beside All For One as he warps into the room.

"--Master."

"Hmm, Kurogiri, report."

"The leads we spread about have been collected by the police, they are en route to the bar to arrest Tomura and his associates as we speak. All Might and Endeavor are leading the charge along with many other top Pro Heroes."

"Good, but why are you here and not with Ujiko at his lab?"

"Because Pro Heroes have also been detected closing in on this location master."

All For One growls lowly at that, "they tracked me here, that should have been impossible…I even made sure Ragdoll never laid eyes on me to track me," he takes a moment to consider the options, then nods. "The plan has further changed, Kurogiri, go save Tomura and the other children.

They shall act as the main threat to Japan in these coming years, but do not inform them of the Meta Liberation Army, keep Re-Destro under a tight leash, and make him aware of Gigantomachi so he doesn't step out of line.

I want the Meta Liberation Army ready for my return, the League Of Villains will not matter at that point, they are straw dolls living beyond their use, protect Twice, above all else if necessary…"

"Yes master," Kurogiri immediately warps away, dutifully obeying All For One.

"Return?" Ujiko asks. "Where are you going?"

"I shall be going away for a while, sadly you'll have to play caretaker to the League for some time."

"What?! But why? Where will you be?"

All For One gets up and holds the phone in his palm, his flesh begins shifting and sparking, connecting to the phone with a few of his Quirks as it is absorbed into his palm.

"This should allow me to project everything we say during the upcoming fight, to properly set the stage for Japan to crumble, all before my grand revival," All For One says, confusing Ujiko. "I'm sending you a detailed set of instructions doctor, the Hero Commission will need your services in the future, very soon in fact, make yourself available in BOTH instances…" 1

"You still haven't told me where you will be!"

"Tartarus," All For One says bluntly, and Ujiko chokes on the other side of the call. "I'm about to have my final fight with All Might, and no matter the outcome I won't be strong enough to resist arrest. 1

Removing myself as a potential scapegoat for anyone. Because the only way not to be blamed, is to not exist within this world…"

"You can't be serious! We could just go to a different country, that should get the blame away from us entirely."

"No, we've already overplayed our hand without knowing enough. I've sent you my glorious 3-year plan, and when it is complete, I will rise as the Demon Lord reborn, and rule the country, as is my right." 3

Ujiko sighs at the other end of the call, already skimming the document All For One made and sent within the past few seconds with his collection of Quirks controlling the phone.

"Of all the things we've disagreed on over the years, this is at the top of the list, easily," Ujiko says. "And you're sure you can build him up while constantly stoaking their fears?"

"More than simply that, I must also properly destroy All Might, from that heroic image, to his annoying smile. To his fully clean and spotless public image.

I must make way for Horizon to become the new Symbol Of Peace. This is exactly why I've kept Tomura alive for this long, his connection to All Might shall rock the foundation of Hero Society and make the sheep question everything.

The decline in people signing up to be heroes will only decrease after all is revealed, a perfect environment for me to ascend."

"Hmm, I strongly disagree with this plan," Ujiko sighs. "But I trust you, I shall make myself available for the Hero Commission, but please, be careful…"

"Worry not, it takes more than some dying old man that only knows how to punch to truly defeat me, I shall always rise stronger than ever--"

CRASH!

The building shakes and All For One hears concrete shatter, a few seconds of battle later and the area goes silent as all the Nomu in the lab are defeated, but the room he stands in was untouched.

"We shall meet again in three years doctor," All For One hangs up before Ujiko can respond, already clearing all the data from his phone and tapping into local broadcasting systems.

He wants the entire world to see their greatest villain fall.

He wants them to see their greatest hero broken.

And he wants them to hear exactly why, Horizon, is the next Symbol Of Peace… 4

Ripping the tubes out of his face and straightening his tie, he puts on his rebuilt life support mask and casually steps out of the room.

He's immediately greeted by a quarter of the 5-story building collapsed.

Mt. Lady was hunched over at full size holding a pair of Nomu in each hand.

Best Jeanist had a few others restrained, along with Gang Orca standing on a pile of others.

Behind them Pixie-Bob had a few Nomu sank up to their necks into the floor, completely restrained.

And flying above was Hawks.

Most of the heroes froze at the sight of All For One, knowing exactly who they were dealing with. 1

All but two atleast, Best Jeanist immediately swings his hand and makes a tight fist.

"Hmmm," All For One hums, more out of curiosity than discomfort as his own clothes become a constricting prison, pulling his hands to his sides and forcing his legs together, tightening hard enough that a normal person would have been crushed into a paste. "A very fast reaction time, as expected of you two…"

Mirko was already leaping down from the roof above.

"Luna Arc!" she slams down with a full-powered axe kick aimed directly at his head.

All For One just barely moves his head, preserving his mask and allowing her to hit his shoulder with all her might.

"Impact Recoil!"

As her leg connects the force is equally directed back at her, knocking her high into the air, but doing no damage to her.

"Hmm, all these Pro Heroes, but you didn't bring Horizon…that must mean you just aren't trying to win. As if I could ever be defeated by such a motley group--" 2

They all focus up even as he's still restrained, ready for a fight, but not even a second later both his arms begin to swell and coil within his sleeves and compress themselves.

Taking in much more air as he combines Quirks for his best-ranged attack.

"Air Cannon Springlike Limbs Shock Absorber Muscle Enhancer Strength Enhancer X12!" 5

Jeanist immediately swings his arms outward and reaches out to control all the fabric around him.

"Blast Wave!" 1

The entire city block shakes as All For One pushes all the air directly downward, setting off the local earthquake sensors, and bringing all eyes onto their fight… 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 119: CHAPTER 115(Dominos Pt.1) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Standing on air in the middle of the battlefield.

A freshly made crater in the middle of Kamino Ward, collapsed building surrounding it with countless people buried beneath, All For One appreciates the destruction he caused.

Taking casual steps forward as if the air beneath his feet was sold he 'looks' around, noticing the Pro Heroes from moments earlier at the edge of the crater. 2

Most battered and bleeding from that one attack.

Noticeably Hawks and Jeanist were awake, Gang Oraca dove atop them to shield them with his body, while Mt. Lady tried to block as much of the blast as she could while cradling Pixie-Bob.

Mt. Lady was the most damaged, completely blacked out and bleeding from her head.

"Quite impressive," All For One say, seeing Hawks and Jeanist on the floor and unable to move.

"Your allies shielded you, but you wouldn't have survived if Jeanist didn't move all of you away from the blast at the same time. Such refined Quirk use is truly rare. You're no Horizon, but I see why the Commission foolishly brought you into this fight."

Jeanist uses his Quirk to control the denim of his own costume and struggles to make himself sit up to face the villain.

"Oh no, I insist," All For One says in a comforting voice, "no need to get up just for me." 3

He points forward at Jeanist.

AIR BULLET!

An invisible shot of air slams into Jeanists gut and burrows through him, shattering the ground behind him.

Jeanist falls back and Hawks struggles where he's laying, focusing as best he can he summons the very few feathers that both survived the blast and didn't get buried in the rubble.

All For One sees a handful of feathers struggling to fly over to the pile of Pro Heroes and is not impressed, instead deciding to look around at the few news helicopters already in the area, as well as the many news drones. 1

'Ahh, Ujiko sent them…no wonder they were able to get here this quickly,' he immediately realizes, glad his friend was playing along.

Keeping the act up he plays it up for the cameras and the transmission of his voice that was going to nearby devices, including the news teams.

"To think this is what top-tier Pro Heroes amount to," he gestures mockingly to the pile of Pros as the feathers begin moving the regular-sized ones away from him, rather slowly at that. "A failed assault and now a pitiful escape attempt. How disappointing.

I nearly died fighting Horizon, and at that point I ambushed him. But now all of you are crawling away, after surprising me with an attack you had weeks to prepare for…how pathetic can you be… 2

Honestly," he raises his hands, palms facing toward the group as his sleeves swell up again, readying the same attack but on a smaller scale. "If this isn't enough of a reason to make way for the next generation, I can't imagine what is."

Hawk's eyes open in horror as he realizes what's about to happen.

Only he and Mt. Lady were in the same spot, opting to move everyone else first, and he wasn't able to move her in this form. But even the others were only a few meters away, they'd die too.

"Air Ca--"

" ALL FOR ONE!" everyone turns to see All Might soaring through the air heading directly toward the villain.

"Oh, here to try and kill me again, All Might?!" All For One yells as they clash, the impact from their palms locking and grappling in mid-air sends a shockwave through the battlefield and down the surrounding streets. 3

Two people well beyond their primes, but stronger now than they would have been without Horizon existing.

All Might is healthier than he would have been.

All For One retained his original Quirk instead of using a copy as he intended to transfer the original to Shigaraki 1

The shockwave from the clash stirs Mt.Lady awake, just barely enough for her to begin shrinking, and knocks the other Pro Heroes including Hawks back a few feet.

The helicopters struggle to remain stable and some of the heavy-duty drones crash into the ground below.

"You've gotten weaker, All Might!" All For One yells as they continue to struggle for dominance, both already standing on the ground, the earth beneath their feet cracking and breaking apart.

"And you've finally realized how ugly you are, hiding your miserable face!" All Might yells back, taking a direct dig at the mask. 15

AIR CANNON!

Two blasts of air leave All For One's arms and knock All Might back for nearly two hundred meters, destroying multiple buildings as if they were nothing and surely injuring people in the process.

As All Might continues crashing through buildings, All For One returns to the air and casually dusts off his suit, still appearing completely untouched.

But everyone watching, from the heroes to the news teams and all the civilians viewing this were experiencing fear like never before.

For the first time to their knowledge, the Symbol Of Peace was actually being matched in power.

Knowing this All For One takes the opportunity to add his input, "I've gotten much weaker since fighting Horizon, but this should be enough to deal with All Might," a factual statement, at least in regards to his power, but he leaves no room for doubt that these heroes are struggling with a weaker version of what Horizon fought. 9

A moment later All Might rockets upward and out of the massive dust cloud that the last attack caused as the buildings were destroyed.

And as he's high in the air he turns and punches the air behind him hard enough for it to redirect him toward All For One.

"Oh, not so fast All Might, you've got heroing to do," All For One casually raises his right hand and points the palm toward the injured Pro Heroes, "Air Cannon!"

Another blast of air fires out, but this time All Might accelerates by punching the air again, swinging both his arms back at once similar to Bakugo's explosive flight, and gets in front of the blast.

"Smash!" 3

He punches the air blast with one of his own, completely canceling it out and forming a horizontal trench between them in the floor.

"Oh, how annoying that must be," All For One says tauntingly, "unable to use your full power because those pathetic excuses for so-called 'Pro Heroes' are in the way…"

All For One raises both his hands this time, releasing a massive blast as he did before to knock All Might away, and this time he simply has to guard with his forearms, grit his teeth, and stand his ground.

The costume on his forearms is torn away as his skin is bruised and gets some small cuts. But at either side of him, the stone floor is carved out a few meters deep, and it parts around him like a 'V' extending back for dozens of meters.

All Might feels these few massive attacks already taking a toll on him, but thankfully his body isn't nearing its limit yet.

'But I've only got a few more minutes at this rate…I need to end this fight quickly,' All Might thinks, and thankfully help arrives.

"Hey brat!" Gran Torino flies into the battlefield, landing beside All Might, eyes never leaving All For One.

"Sensei? What are you doing here?" All Might asks, all the while All For One is more than happy to give them a moment. He uses the time to choose the best possible combination of words for what he's about to do.

"Todoroki can deal with those Nomu," Gran Torino says. "Kurogiri warped Shigaraki and the other villains away, so when they're done they'll come here to help with search and rescue," he looks back for a moment to see all the Pros behind them. "You deal with that thing, I'll get them out of your way before coming back…"

All Might gives his sensei a brilliant smile and nods once, then rockets off toward All For One.

"Detroit…." All Might closes the distance and prepares a heavy downward punch with his right hand, "smash!"

All For one raises his forearms and blocks the hit, but the force causes All Might to push him back while still making contact, taking them further away from Gran Torino by the second.

A world-shaking brawl ensues, or more accurately. All Might begins a relentless assault while All For One simply hardens his body with Tough Scales and Strength EnhancersX12 to soak up the blows.

As he begins loosening up his defenses and fighting back, he lands a few solid haymakers on All Might, bloodying his lip.

But All Might has always been a superior brawler, the best in the world in fact. 3

"SMASH!" All Might punches him directly in the face, shattering his mask and revealing his disfigured head for the entire world to see. 1

RECOIL!

All Might is knocked back a few meters by his own attack, creating space between them as All For One retreats out of his striking range.

"Well, my mask lasted longer here than it did against Horizon, it seems children really are the future…" 6

"You're even worse than I thought," All Might says, glaring at All For One's disfigured head. "And don't you dare speak about my precious students! Today I'm going to defeat you so that you can never hurt them again!"

"Ohh, is that so? It's a shame you only care about protecting children now, isn't it, All Might?"

"What? What are you saying, I've always tried to protect everyone, no matter what!"

"Not everyone, not every child," All For One raises a hand to his head and picks the bits and pieces of his mask off, and tosses them aside. "What about Shimura?"

All Might grits his teeth, the vein on his forehead immediately raise as he gets pissed off, "don't you dare speak my master's name!"

"My apologies, but I didn't mean your master, not her…I meant the person you truly failed, her grandson. Tenko Shimura!"

All Might prepares to attack, readying another Detroit Smash to punch All For One's teeth out.

"Why would I ever care about someone as pathetic…as Nana Shimura!"

Enraged, All Might launches into his attack and All For One immediately backs up, raising his left hand to mirror All Might's attack.

As they get closer, All For One hits exactly where he knows it will hurt.

"Why her when her grandson is still alive, Tenko Shimura!" All Might leaps up and begins closing in, "or as you know him, TOMURA SHIGARAKI!" 2

"What--" All Might's eyes go wide as his entire world crumbles, that burning rage he felt moments ago was replaced by guilt and confusion. 2

But above all else, shame… a shame for failing Nana's legacy this badly.

Emotions so powerful that the logical thought that this supervillain was lying didn't even occur.

Because All For One knows, emotions will always be All Might's weak spot, and Nana Shimura is a giant flashing target.

And as their fists collide, both hands give everything they can.

But after that strike to the heart, All Might's spirit cracks, and All For One seizes the opening.

RIVIT STABS

A series of black spikes protrude from All For One's skin as their left fists collide and expand like sharp tendrils, piercing and burrowing into All Might's entire arm.

"ARGH!" All Might screams in pain as he feels the sharp spikes pierce and shatter his bones and muscles, from wrist to shoulder, all shredded inside and out.

And in the same moment, All For One raises his right hand, palm facing All Might as he grabs his face, "Air Cannon!"

BOOM!

The symbol of peace is sent flying directly downward into the earth below.

The entire world holds its breath, desperately hoping for All Might to be alive, but also at the edge of their seat for answers.

Both afraid and curious about exactly what All Might and All For One were talking about.

And unfortunately, they'd get exactly what they wanted… 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 120: CHAPTER 116(Dominos Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

As the dust is slowly dissipating across the battlefield All Might is revealed, laying in a shallow crater.

As if it were an early grave, a heartwrenching scene for the millions watching live. 3

His frail and thin form is now exposed for the world to see, his left arm completely shattered and bleeding in multiple places.

And a look of sorrow on his face, as he stares up at All For One.

The villain was still standing on the air, but his right arm was bleeding profusely and his dry, painful coughs, as well as his wheezing, carried across the battlefield.

This battle was taking a serious toll on him, and he has to make a real effort just to catch his breath.

'All Might is ever weaker now than I suspected, and Gran Torino will be back in a few moments,' All For One thinks. 'How should I play this out? If I win then my plans fail, so I must find a way to lose and make it believable…but this could be a great chance to finally kill All Might. 1

No, he is already dying, I doubt he'll be alive beyond five more years at this rate, and that arm is useless…unless Horizon fixes it, which he will.

Well, I suppose I could have some fun while tearing them down, making way for Horizon to ascend to his spot…' All For One decides as he notices Gran Torino about to re-enter the battlefield, already done taking the injured Pro Heroes to safety.

"It seems your true self, the weak and disappointing failure is now exposed to the world, oh great and powerful Symbol of Peace," All For One says mockingly, raising a hand to his face as he continues coughing.

"Don't take any pride in my injuries, I assure you that had Horizon not beaten dozens of Quirks, including Super-Regeneration out of me, I would not be taking this route…even now you're nothing without someone else starting the fight for you, bleeding for you…" 1

"Don't listen to him Toshinori!" Gran Torino yells as he flies back into the battlefield, standing between All Might's crater and All For One, as if he could do anything. "He's using lies to stir up your heart just as he did before, tune them out!"

"Lies?" All For One asks, seeing All Might still staring up at him, not even making an attempt to get up as his mind was still reeling. "No lie can ever hurt as much as the truth. 3

And if I recall correctly, before she was his master…Nana Shimura was your friend, Gran Torino.

You were both there when I crushed her hopes and dreams!

When I mangled her pathetic self so badly that she begged me to finish her!

When she learned that mercy does not exist in my world!

You and All Might both ran away!

You left her to die!

You abandoned her!

And All Might didn't stop running until he got all the way to America, then he builds himself up as the so-called Symbol Of Peace. 1

He's the fake, he's the liar, he's the con artist here.

Convincing the world that he was anything but a coward and a snake that would abandon the people closest to him to save himself, and you're no different!"

Gran Torino feels the guilt and heartache swelling in his chest, but he just glares at All For One and forces it down.

"Nana sacrificed herself so that we could live, so that he could become All Might, become someone powerful enough to stop you! To become the Symbol Of Peace!"

"No," All For One says, "she was just another hero destroying herself and her family for people who don't matter. 19

You may think I struggled to recruit Tomura, but it was remarkably easy, because of 'Heroes' like you, like All Might, like her.

A boy that was abused because he loved heroes, but his father hated them. Nana Shimura's own son whom she abandoned to pursue her career, after the life he had it was no surprise he hated her. 1

And when young Tenko Shimura developed a seemingly villainous Quirk and accidents happened, the boy was alone on the streets for days.

Before I found him nobody ever offered a helping hand.

They were all so sure a Hero would save him…so where were you, Hero? 1

Oh, that's right, you were off protecting this society that abandons people that don't fit their golden standard, right? One that shuns people who look different or don't have 'heroic' Quirks. 4

One where the only people worth admiring are those that put on silly costumes and run around inflicting violence onto others, approved by the corrupt and vile government of course…is this really the kind of world she caused so much pain for? Is this really what she died for? What a waste of a life…" 8

Gran Torino's glare softens, the look on his face alone is enough to admit guilt, and his silence only supports it.

Unknowingly confessing to the entire world that was watching and listening.

"To think abandoning her family to bet on All Might, would lead to this," All For One laughs at the idea. "A villain that wants nothing more than the destruction of this unjust hero society, and who has the power and support to do it, her own grandson!

I can't imagine what he'll do when he finally hears all of this, when he learns exactly why she abandoned them, when he hears these words…"

Hearing those words Gran Torino almost freezes, almost succumbs to his own emotions, but with his senior experience, he calms his mind.

Unlike Yagi, he's long since made peace with the circumstances of Nana's death. And he accepted the cost of never having any contact with her family afterward.

Even if he never imagined it could go this far, even if her own blood flows through a monster like Tomura Shigaraki.

Looking at All For One he sees the villain once again coughing, trying to catch his breath.

And glancing back over his shoulder he sees Yagi still laying on the floor, frozen, with a look of despair on his face.

'You've always been too emotional boy, but we don't have time for this, All For One probably isn't attacking yet because he either wants to torture us like this for the world to see…or he's unable to because of the state of his body, I can't be sure with a maniac like him but we don't have time to lay around…I'm not one for this sappy crap, but here goes…'

Gritting his teeth Gran Torino swallows his pride, and prays his words are enough for this to work.

"All For One," he says, looking directly at the villain, "you're right…"

"Hmm" All For One detects no lies in this voice, and his curiosity is piqued. "What are you playing at?"

"Nothing, you're absolutely right," Gran Torino says. "Nana Shimura, All Might's master, my friend. She died while we ran away, she had to give up her son and her family because she was a hero, because she had to continue being a Hero.

And if Tomura Shigaraki is truly her grandson, if they suffered because of this, then I am sorry.

Unfortunately, some heroes are so blinded in saving others that they can't see what happens to the people around them, to those who need them most.

But I stand by every choice Nana Shimura made!" Gran Torino smiles brightly and places his hands on his hips.

"She was a true hero, she sacrificed everything for us, for the future. Yes, we ran away while she fought you, while she died.

But I'm sure she faced death with dignity, without begging a monster like you for mercy, she died fighting as a Hero.

She died fighting for the future. Because she knew her limits, she knew she couldn't be what the people needed.

So she bet more than just her life on everything we needed.

Someone brave, someone powerful, someone honest and just. A person who puts everyone ahead of himself!

Someone who could bring about a peaceful world where people don't have to be afraid of monsters like you and your army of Nomu!

A true hero who could be a pillar for all of society to look at as the golden example of all we should strive to be! 3

Someone we could all lean on when we don't know what to do or if we'll ever see tomorrow! 1

Someone she believed was capable of becoming our greatest hero, and our very first Symbol Of Peace!

She bet everything, and she was right, because no matter what, no matter how many monsters are sent after the people of this world, they never have to live in fear!

Because thanks to her nurturing, thanks to her guidance, thanks to her sacrifice we finally have someone she believed could complete this task as well as take you down. It's because of the sacrifices of Nana Shimura that--!"

"I. AM. HERE!" All Might immediately stands up, back in his muscular form with his left arm completely torn up and mangled, hanging limply at his side. 4

He glares up at All For One and grits his teeth while stepping out of the crater, standing beside Gran Torino.

"Sorry sensei, I let him get in my head…we'll deal with the other matters later, for now, let's take this villain down," All Might makes a fist with his right hand and prepares to engage. 1

"Yes, for Nana," Gran Torino takes a deep breath, using his Jet Quirk to fill his lungs, ready to propel the air out of his feet to engage. 4

The fight to close an era moves to its final conclusion… 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 121: CHAPTER 117(Dominos Pt.3) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Together!" All Might yells as both he and Gran Torino charge All For One. 8

All For One raises his right hand toward them, "Air Cannon!"

The massive column of air rockets toward the Pro Heroes and they both take to the air, leaving it to hit between them and crater the ground below.

Gran Torino just barely keeps up with All Might as he rockets through the air, using his right arm his one good arm to constantly hit the air and bounce off it. 1

All For One for one wisely moves away from them, floating higher into the air and back toward the far end of the battlefield as he observes.

'I should have already done enough to set the new era into motion by now…all that remains for this fight it is to break All Might properly so he can live out the rest of his short life full of regret and suffering. If only Gran Torino hadn't managed to snap him back to his senses just now…' 1

Watching both the heroes move through the air All For One barely has another moment to think before they're both on him.

"You're harmless," he says while swatting away Gran Torino. The man had circled around and tried to deliver a dropkick to his back and actually succeeded, because All For One simply knew the damage was negligible. 4

As both his feet slammed into All For One's back it felt like kicking a titanium wall, 'damn, he's still this tough after all the damage he's taken,' Gran Torino think, before a jolt of pain shoots through both his feet.

"Rivet Stab!" All For One commanded black spiked tendrils to extend from his back and bore through his clothes, through Gran Torino's boots and feet then angle themselves like small fish hooks, sticking the Hero to him.

"Aghhhh!" Gran Torino yells as the searing pain surprises him.

Above them, All Might notices what's going on and considered not connecting his hit, he's already rocketing down at them with his right hand cocked back to deliver an angry strike.

Seeing his student hesitating, Gran Torino yells out, "just do it!" 2

"Detroit--!" All Might's fist connects to All For One's forearm, "SMASH!"

BOOM!

All For One is sent spinning toward the battlefield below, completely losing control of his orientation.

As they're tumbling through the air Gran Torino reaches down and pushes against the villain's back, ripping himself away from All For One and tearing out chunks of his flesh along with snapping the regular and Quirk-related bones of his feet.

"GAHH!" He takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with air before expelling it out of the soles of his feet.

A spray of blood exits his boots as the usually invisible air is mixed with his blood.

While spinning through the air, for a split second he sees Yagi standing on the floor not too far away, once again shrunk down to his frail self, desperately trying to catch his breath.

'Damn it kid, you had better appreciate whatever time I can buy you,' Gran Torino thinks as he spins so his feet are facing away from All For One, then releases another bloody blast of air.

As All For One is barely back on his feet he shakes his head, trying to get his brain to stop rattling, feeling his forearm that took the blow already gone completely numb.

He raises a hand to the connected shoulder to pop it back into place, and as he does, "Hng…" he takes half a step forward, feeling Gran Torino dropkick the back of his head.

He was now so hurt he could barely keep his 360 awareness up, causing more and more blind spots to arise.

Even his Infrared Quirk was now only fully optimal in front of him.

"You're annoying me," All For One says as he spins around, ready to blast another column of air at Gran Torino.

"SMASH!" All Might slams a fist into his gut the moment he turns around, a spray of blood leaves All Might's mouth as All For One grits his teeth and is sent flying back into the wall of the crater they were fighting in.

"Took you long enough," Gran Torino grumbles as he lands beside Yagi, now back in his frail form after that punch.

"Sorry sensei, it's hard to maintain that form after using an attack," Yagi looks down at Gran Torino, seeing him bleeding out from his feet while standing on the ground, the old man does his best to look unbothered by the pain, not wanting Yagi to worry about such a thing at the moment.

But Yagi is the greatest Hero because he worries more than anyone, "you should get out of here and get your feet treated, those injuries could damage your Quirk!" he says.

"It did damage my Quirk, I won't be able to use it after this," Gran Torino gives All Might a serious look, "but once we take him down tonight then I won't have any reason to use it, so let's wrap this up, we'll use the Matador routine…"

JET!

Gran Torino immediately blasts off, leaving a red mist behind him, quickly feeling himself become more and more light-headed as his blood runs out. 3

"Why can't you Heroes just die," All For One grumbles as he pulls himself out of the wall and stands on the ground, looking at Gran Torino charging at him. "A desperate last rush from a washed-up old man…as expected from someone who has failed so much in one lifetime…"

All For One is only 2 meters away from Gran Torino, his entire view blocked by the short man and his flowing yellow cape as he reaches out to grab him and end him once and for all.

However, as his hand is about to make contact, Gran Torino smiles.

JET!

He pivots in the air and blasts off to the side, revealing a determined All Might directly behind him only a dozen meters away from All For One.

Perfectly hidden like a Matador behind a cape…

By the time All For One raises his hand All Might is too close to be dodged, and he won't have enough time to make a blast of air powerful enough to stop the punch.

Seeing All Might readying a smash, even with his left hand hanging limply at this side, the hero rushes forward.

And All For One feels a jolt of fear in his heart.

"Warping!" he yells, completely panicked, not wanting to show this Quirk to the public but now having no choice.

Gran Torino begins throwing up a brown sludge that smells like a sewer. It pours out of his mouth and surrounds him before curling in on itself and he disappears.

And in the same moment, he appears between All For One and All Might, clasped tightly in the villain's massive hand.

All Might tries his best to ease off the force of his punch but his fist still connects with Gran Torino's face.

"Sorry!" he screams as Gran Torino's teeth are shattered, sandwiched between All Might's fist and All For One's hand.

Reacting immediately All Might opens his hand and grabs Gran Torino's torso to pull him away from the villain.

"Rivet Stab!"

"Ach!" Gran Torino spits up blood, eyes going wide as the black spiked tendrils pierce his torso and throat from All For One's palm, slicing through him and into All Might's palm on the other side. 2

All Might's eyes go wide in horror, seeing his Sensei, the person that's been with him from the start of his journey to now, undoubtedly dying. 2

'Horizon can fix him, we just need to get sensei out of here,' All Might realizes, now more glad than ever that Nezu has that miracle in his pocket. 6

All Might rips his hand away from the spikes before they extend any further and dig into his one good arm his right arm, and reaches forward once again to grab them and shatter them to free his sensei.

" AIR CANNON!"

All For One immediately activates his Quirk and releases a massive column of air from the hand holding Gran Torino in the palm.

His body doesn't even get thrown across the battlefield.

Instead, it appeared as if All For One shot red mist and confetti at All Might before the air pushed him across the crater. 10

"That was close," All For One says, seeing All Might frozen in shock at the other side of the battlefield, looking down at his clothes and hand, covered in blood that mostly wasn't his.

Focusing on the floor in front of him the villain sees a massive stain on the stone, looking like a splatter of yellow on blue to his Infrared Quirk. 2

The remains of Gran Torino.

All Might's chief instructor.

"I tried not to reveal my Warping, but you forced my hand," All For One says in an annoyed tone. "That's quite the ace to keep up my sleeve. It's obviously not as refined or powerful as Horizon's, but any Warping Quirk is enough to make someone a national-level asset…or threat, but revealing it was preferable to losing like that, to some pathetic washed-up failed Pro Heroes…"

Seeing Yagi back in his frail form with blood running down from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, from excessive Quirk use, All For One feels pleased with the results of this battle.

He looks around to make sure the news drones and helicopters were seeing and hearing everything, and thankful they weren't scared off by the shockwaves.

Across from him, Yagi heard everything, and almost all of it went in one ear and out the next, almost all of it.

"Sensei," Yagi looks up at All For One with a blazing fire in his eyes, "sensei was a true hero!" he buffs up into his muscular form. "I won't let his sacrifice be in vain, I won't allow it!" 1

The look All Might gave would have any other villain surrendering or experiencing a heart attack, pure fury and violent intent.

"Then let's end this, All Might!" All For One says as he lifts his right arm up to his side as All Might does the same, each gathering all their strength.

All For One's arm begins to transform as he stacks multiple Quirks. Becoming a massive hulking mass of flesh with multiple arms melded into each other and silver spikes protruding from them.

'Strength Enhancer X12!

Spearlike Bones!

Kinetic Booster X4!

Hypertrophy!

Springlike Limbs!

Scale Armor!'

"Come now, All Might!" All For One says as his arm is now twice as large as his entire body, "your final desperate punch, against my ultimate combination of available Quirks!"

All Might grit his teeth and accepts the challenge, making a fist with his right hand and begging One For All to give him all the last embers of its power within him.

Dumping so much of his power into this attack that he can feel his very life force being stripped away.

" ALL FOR ONE!" All Might screams out as he rockets forward, destroying the stone in his wake from his sheer speed as he arrives in front of his target. 1

" ALL MIGHT!" All For One punches forward, meeting All Might's strike with everything he had. "Recoil!" 1

All Might feels the force of his own punch directed back at his right arm and the bones in it instantly shatter, piercing the skin and causing blood to spray out.

"Nnnnggghhh!" All Might grits his teeth and digs deep, taking a step forward and stomping down, digging into the stone to find his footing as he pushes back against All For One.

All For One feels himself losing ground and can't make sense of it, "impossible!"

"UNITED--!" All Might feels the bones in this right arm being crushed more and more under the force, the tendons beginning to tear, unable to keep this up.

"STATES--!" his shoulder starts giving out, be he also noticed All For One's monstrous arm shrinking, losing power.

"OF--!" he stops fighting back.

Allowing All For One to crush his right arm, but he turns his body with the punch. The villain stumbles forward, completely confused but aware that All Might just lost his one functioning arm, the fight was over.

Right?

'No, All Might never gives up,' All For One realizes, a moment too late.

"SMASH!" All Might flexes all the muscles in his left arm, the completely mangled arm, flexing so hard he forced it to make a fist and tense up just enough for him to get all the bones into roughly the proper alignment. 1

Like trying to fit dozens of pieces of shattered chalk back together and holding it together in a vice made of pure muscle.

As All For One stepped forward he sank his fist into the side of the villain's skull, caving it in and completely rattling his brain!

"RAAAHHHH!!!!" All Might screams out as he twists and follows through with the punch, embedding All For One into the stone floor, even as his left arm completely ruptures and eventually explodes from the One For All Quirk overloading it. 2

Leaving him with just a stump below his shoulder on his left side, and a mangled right arm hanging at his other side, staring down at the villain below him.

All For One was barely conscious, feeling his brain shutting down, unable to move, almost unable to think, and certainly incapable of activating any Quirk. 1

Even his Infrared was knocked out, a massive fist-shaped dent in the side of his head made sure of that.

But he could still feel All Might's presence above him, it was unmistakably self-righteous and repulsive to him, unmistakable.

As the helicopter spotlights fall on them, both men make their final statements to the world before exiting the stage.

"Thank you, All Might," the villain says, wheezing between words, causing All Might to stare down at him, already reverted back to his frail form. "You have saved me…for villains like myself…cannot exist in this world, with Horizon…as the Symbol Of Peace…" 6

Hearing that All Might felt much more at peace, looking at the stump where his left arm used to be, he doesn't feel that pressure as much as he did before.

The pressure to do everything himself.

He realizes that, either Izuku or Horizon, the future was in good hands. 3

So he smiles, then calls on what barely-existing power he has to take his muscular form one last time.

He forces his right hand into a fist and barely raises it to the sky, stumbling but catching himself. 1

With a fist to the sky, he shows the world that he won.

That the villain is defeated.

That the crisis was resolved.

But even as he blacked out in the same pose, still on his feet, fist to the sky. Everyone knew that this was the end of All Might. They shed tears of joy for his victory, and sorrow for what would come next.

But little did they know, that everything went perfectly according to All For One's plan. 3

That the dominos have been lined up and perfectly set.

And WHEN they fall.

Japan WILL fall with them.

And the Demon Lord shall rise, reborn and stronger than ever… 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 122: CHAPTER 118(Shattered Pillar) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Flying on his hoverboard, Horizon glares at his phone as he soars above Japan.

He was pushing his speed up to 400mph 643kmph as he was watching the live news broadcast on his phone. 1

With the audio projected into his visor, he completely ignores everything and focuses on the fight.

Listening to All For One's words he can't help but scowl.

"Nana Shimura…she really just destroyed her family to save strangers, disgusting…" he mulls it over for a few seconds before realizing something. 6

"Wait, if All Might called her his Master…he has the body of a Quirkless person, so he must have gotten One For All from her.

And she had to have gotten it from someone, All For One attacked the camp for it so he knows about it.

Plus everything Deku just said means…how many people did that Quirk get passed down to before now?

Oh, that was a smart move, finally got rid of the distraction," Horizon mutters as Gran Torino is turned into bloody mist by All For One. 3

'Now I just need All For One to win or warp away so he can keep up his end of our deal…'

Moments later his hopes are crushed when, as always, All Might claims victory.

'Fuck,' he frowns at the screen, seeing All Might standing unconscious with his right fist raised to the sky and his left arm missing from just below the shoulder.

'Ok, I guess I can work with this, heal up All Might, get some more credibility from all the crap All For One was spouting during the fight about how if they wanted to guarantee victory they should have brought me.

Then I guess since All Might is definitely forced into retirement by this I can fill the much more blatant power vacuum, thankfully I've already prepared Minato Tokyo to be my territory.

And since All Might used to be there they don't even have many Hero Agencies in the first place because he always put them out of business…

I guess I'll have to ask Nezu for more days away from UA to do hero crap. Two days a week is already pushing it but maybe I can get Thursdays too.

That way I can do hero work from Thursday to Sunday.

Plus I can just start hunting down the League Of Villains immediately, if I lock up all of them before I graduate that'll get me to the #2 spot, if not number one.

Hmm, #1, Endeavor probably wouldn't be that easy to get ahead of, but now he's dealing with his nightmare family bullshit so he's distracted by that. 1

Plus I need to train up Sero so people know that I'm a capable leader and keep working on myself, that'll get me to the top spot,' he decides, considering the finer points of his plan as the scene changes on his phone. 3

Instead of the battlefield, the news helicopters follow the ambulance as it rushed All Might to Central Hospital, by far Japan's second-best medical facility.

Second only to whatever room Horizon happens to be standing in at any given moment. 1

Seeing this he hops onto 'Yay!' to check how the internet is reacting to All Might's fight.

And as usual, it was having a complete meltdown.

Multiple discussions and topics were trending, many of which involved people putting together any possible evidence of All For One existing over the years, but of all these people none would ever openly admit to being in collaboration with him.

Not while he's in jail, too far for his influence and power to protect them. 1

Checking the other topics Horizon sees almost unanimous praise for All Might, and some people are a bit too trigger-happy with the 'in memory of' tributes.

"These fuckers really haven't figured out that I'm his doctor, as if something like that would kill him…hell, he can't even die unless I allow it."

Poking around a bit more, he found exactly what he was looking for.

Absolute chaos.

People were crying and panicking all over the internet about the Symbol Of Peace being done, obviously forced to retire, and Horizon smiles below his visor.

Because chaos, brings opportunity. 2

"Looks like you sheep need a new shepherd…oh, sorry, you civilians need a new 'Symbol Of Peace'," he chuckles at the ridiculous thought. 3

A few minutes later and Horizon sees posts appearing, people already theorizing how this will shake up the Pro Hero Rankings in Japan.

And a moment later another alert catches his eyes, "wow…that's a big drop," he says, staring wide-eyed at his phone as the projected devaluation of the Japanese currency is shown.

"Makes sense, people really don't have any faith in countries without strong heroes, crime is definitely going to skyrocket now that All Might is down, so people can't invest in Japan as safely…good thing none of my money is stored here."

He opens the notification up to see the projected drop at 5%, such a sudden drop is catastrophic for the economy, and that is only for tonight.

"All the more reason to get out of this country…but I guess when I'm the top hero it should become stable again at least." 5

Before he could look any deeper into the immediate effects of this battle Horizon's phone begins to ring, and he immediately answers.

"I'm already flying to Central Hospital," he says.

"Oh thank god," Nezu's worried voice flows into his visor.

"You're welcome, but care to tell me what the fuck is going on?! Why didn't you even tell me there was a counter-attack happening tonight?!"

"I wanted to involve you, but I was ordered not to," Nezu says.

"Ordered?"

"Pantu, she had some information that the villains were especially monitoring you, since only you can stop Kurogiri--"

"I'm not sure how that would work, but I guess it's not impossible.

And if I moved in their direction they'd have just warped away…that wouldn't have worked out for them but I see why someone could think that, but what did you have planned to stop them from just running away?"

"All Might," Nezu says. "And he was sure that All For One wouldn't be able to run away from a chance to settle their differences once and for all."

"Tch, I still should have been there, All For One said it himself that he was done for if they had me with them," Horizon grumbles. 1

"True, but All Might didn't want to put any more students in danger. We lost quite a few students during the training camp, we can't lose any more of you."

Horizon doesn't even doubt that statement. He's met the man after all, someone with such a strong 'Heroic Spirit' would never allow one of his students into a fight like that, even if it was Horizon.

"Heroic to a fault, so how'd you even find them so quickly? At the press conference tonight you said the police had no leads yet, you lied?"

"A necessary deception," Nezu says. "It caused both UA and the police to take some hard criticism in the minutes between that statement and the reveal that it was all a clever lie. We had hoped that the assault would have gone smoothly without anyone dying."

"That's always the hope," Horizon says.

Nezu sighs, "true, so far, aside from the civilians, Gran Torino is the only confirmed death, along with some police officers."

"Arrests?"

"Only All For One, the others got away from what I understand, teams are moving in to investigate the buildings as we speak."

"Shigaraki and his group of losers shouldn't be as dangerous without their backed, but we still don't know who is making the Nomu for them." 1

"We assumed it was All For One," Nezu says.

"If he's a geneticist then possibly, otherwise they've got someone who knows his way around a helical genetic code and pharmaceuticals…" 2

"Hmm, we'll have to look into it, but it won't be easy until we have some of their group in custody to question."

"Yeah that'd make things a lot easier," Horizon says. "How'd you even find the villains so quickly?"

"Oh, I half expected her to have already told you…Ms. Yaoyorozu attached a tracker to one of the Nomu at the summer camp, with some help of course."

Horizon doesn't know if he should be annoyed or surprised that now is when she chooses to be capable, when she had the best opportunity to completely fuck him over and ruin his escape plan. 2

"Good job I supposed," he says in an extremely bored tone, deciding not to think about it too much.

"You should tell her that in person sometime, how much longer before you get to the hospital?"

"Half hour, is that place secure enough?"

"The Commission is having all nearby heroes and a lot of police head there now to secure it, they expect trouble since All Might is the patient…every villain wants to be the one to finish off All Might."

"Better the hero the bigger the target on your back," Horizon says with clear disgust in his voice, "even extends to your family sometimes."

"Mhm, will you be able to save him?"

"From what I saw and what I know of his condition, he's got about a 1% chance to live, it'll take a miracle basically…so yeah, he'll be fine when I'm done, but…" 2

"But what?" Nezu asks, scared to hear the answer.

"The hero 'All Might', is done, you know that right?"

Nezu sighs, "yes, I prepared myself for this a long time ago, but I don't believe he's ready to hang up his cape."

"He won't have a chance, and you're a lot more ready than most, have you seen how the media is reacting?"

"Insanity and chaos, as usual."

Horizon shakes his head, "people just aren't ready for their one support pillar to shatter like this. An entire society leaning on one person is destined to fail, the system has to change if you want it to last." 1

"True, but thankfully, until those changes happen the masses will be a bit calmer since they already have an idea of who their next pillar shall likely be…right?"

Horizon rolls his eyes, "first things first, so for now let me just try to pick up the pieces of the last one…"

As Horizon continues his flight to Tokyo, both men would be proven right on this very night.

Countless people demanded that the Japanese constitution be ignored in the case of Horizon. Allowing him to be a fully licensed Pro Her without completing the trial period or graduating from a Hero Course. 1

A move made out of desperation and fear, because with All Might seemingly dead or out of action, people wanted someone they could hide behind when things got dangerous.

And as if to prove Horizon's point about society needing to not depend on one person to this extent, over the next 24 hours, the Japanese currency would lose 12% of its total trading value.

Soon trade and shipping would begin to slow as crime skyrockets, and at every level of society, people would feel the repercussions of this night in their wallets and bellies. 1

The shifting tides as the eras change.

Chaos, until Horizon rises to become their next Symbol Of Peace… 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 123: CHAPTER 119(Broken Symbol) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--10 PM, Tokyo, Central Hospital…

In the massive plaza leading up to Central Hospital.

At the foot of the largest medical center in this part of the world, the building itself stood out from the grey and dull buildings around it.

A monument of white stone and brilliant shimmering glass dedicated to medical services and research. This legendary establishment was previously considered Japan's greatest house of medical miracles before a particular prodigy recently dethroned it.

But opposed to the usually serene and hopeful atmosphere of his place, all around it was currently in chaos. In the plaza, Pixie-Bob was currently fighting for her life. 1

Wearing a white top and blue dress with stockings, her scouter quickly equipped as she rushed to help in the fight.

Glancing off toward the edge of the plaza, past the chaos that was the Pro Heroes and police fighting the villains, she sees the mobs of people, scared and desperate for answers.

Barely held off by the police barricade at the edge of the plaza.

"What the hell do they think they can even do here," she grumbles, her anger flowing through. These people were putting more than just All Might in danger, but also Mandalay who was still in the hospital. 1

Edgeshot and a few other Pro Heroes were in the plaza with her, and more and more villains were drawn to it like moths to light.

Every villain wants to be the person who executed All Might after all, that was an easy claim to fame for villains in this situation.

Up above as the fight raged on, destroying the plaza and inching closer to the hospital, Horizon was already flying above Tokyo on his hoverboard.

The news feed was playing on his phone as he approached to give him a better view of the chaos.

And looking below him, all the people filled the massive street in front of the hospital like ants, all so heartbroken and scared of the idea of being without All Might that they rushed out of their homes just to be here.

'Just to stand around being fucking useless liabilities…'

While he was making his final approach, at home, everyone was glued to their screens, including all of 1A.

Some were frozen in shock after the Kamino fight.

Others were still crying their eyes out.

And along with them, everyone felt their hearts drop when someone broke through the crowd.

A short plain looking woman, only standing at 122cm 4ft uses her Quirk, slamming her fists together while stuck in the crowd just a few meters in front of the barricade.

BOOM!

A shockwave turns everyone around her, police and civilians alike into red paste, tearing apart the skin on her knuckles as well.

The entire battlefield is silent for a moment as shock washes over them, and in that moment she takes massive leaps forward.

The clothes and skin on her legs are shredded with each step as the shockwaves propel her forward.

"I'm the only one that gets to kill him!" she screams at the top of her lungs as she takes a massive leap from the ground. Intending to jump into the tenth floor of the hospital.

But while in mid-air, barely a meter from the ground…

"SHAMBLES!"

Horizon appears behind her atop the small crater her last leap caused, harmlessly swapped with a pebble, and leaving his board floating above it would simply wait for him on the roof.

He reaches out and immediately grabs onto her ankle.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He rips her out of the air and slams her face-first into the concrete floor, and without releasing her leg.

"Counter Shock!"

"Ahhhhhh!" she screams as the crackling electricity burns massive scars all up and down her body before he releases her leg, and the entire crowd is just staring at him.

'Huh, guess I need to relearn how to regulate the power of that move now that I've got so much more energy…' he thinks before turning and walking toward the hospital entrance.

He gives some of the villains a quick glance and they immediately raise their hands in surrender, realizing their window of time to kill All Might was done.

A perfect entrance to reassure the media that no matter what happens he'll always come back stronger.

The much more efficient thing would have been to simply warp into the hospital and trust the other heroes to handle this. He's sure between Edgeshot and Crust being outside they had it handled.

But All Might is about to retire, so he needs all the chances he can get to establish himself, even if that means risking seconds in which All Might could die.

'Better a dead martyr than a living cripple anyway…' he thinks while walking toward the hospital. 3

His presence truly did settle the tension in the air. Aside from the people still mortified by so many sudden deaths in the crowd, the viewers at home who barely saw that were relieved.

After learning Horizon lost to All For One they feared the worst, but now he's back and seemingly just as strong as ever.

And he'd definitely save All Might…right?

The moment he entered the door and was away from the cameras however, he shrank his room to just barely cover the hospital.

SCAN!

Everything and everyone within his Room was suddenly fed into his mind, giving him a searing headache that would soon fade.

But he found his patient, he also noted all the police officers patrolling the halls of the hospital and lining the walls leading up to the operating room.

Some nurses were running about in a frenzy getting everything the surgeons needed to save All Might, but they'd never be enough.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps places with the surgeon standing directly beside the operating table, then looks around at all the surprised faces.

"Get out, now…" 1

And surprisingly they do exactly that. No one so much as opens their mouth to say a single word to him.

Leaving him standing in the operating room with Yagi on the table. Laying unconscious with a small stump where his left arm was, hastily wrapped up, his Hero Costume torn up and hanging off him as if he were a clothes hangar.

His right hand was broken up and bloodied with much of the skin completely torn off.

And above all of that, he was still covered in Gran Torino's blood with some bits of him stuck in the costume.

'Never thought I'd actually operate in a hospital…now let's see exactly how damaged you are,' Horizon thinks as he rests a hand on Yagi's chest.

The entire operation room fades away as he focuses on Yagi's body. Feeling him down to a cellular level, using more and more energy to help get him stable.

He hears the heart monitor slowly but steadily increasing to an acceptable speed.

"Ok, step one done, now let's get a visual look," Horizon says as he reaches behind his back, taking his scalpel out of the small medical pouch below his jacket, then cutting Yagi's Hero Costume off to expose his torso.

'Fuck…' he sees the previous injury ruptured, now he can plainly see why it took so much energy to get him stable, because his Quirk is so desperately focusing on this injury that it's allowing the rest of him to waste away.

Looking around Horizon sees another table as well as all the machines and supplies the doctors and nurses expected to need, and he frowns at his current predicament.

'If I remove his heart to monitor it the shock of that will kill him…time to get creative…' 6

Removing his sword from his hip, scabbard and all, he throws it behind him, and it hovers in the air.

He then does the same for his jacket, making sure nothing could get in his way.

AMPUTATE!

He separates Yagi's head, then carefully pulls one of the tables over with Takt and rests it atop it, very gently. Making sure not to remove the anesthesia mask. 1

'Ok, now let's see under the hood,' he carefully slices horizontally at the side of his torso, removing the top layer, half an inch 1.25cm deep, and simply lifting off the top and placing it on the second table.

Now seeing the organs and still beating heart exposed -protected by a translucent jelly-like barrier of space-, he gets to look directly at all the damage.

'Hole in the heart.

All his ribs are broken.

His one good lung is already flooded and collapsing.

One good kidney already failed.

Liver nearly destroyed.

Intestines shredded.

His throat is almost entirely crushed, but the breathing tubes can deal with that for now.

I'll need to deal with the brain problems after…that'll be a whole other can of worms.

And after all of that, I'll deal with the cracked spine.

Then I can deal with the more normal things, broken bones, dislocated jaw, shattered orbital floor…the missing arm.

Doubt I'll be able to regenerate one for him, his body just won't be able to sustain that much mass, but he'll get over it.'

All of this analysis happens in the time it would take a normal person to get over the shock of seeing his organs laid bare.

Horizon immediately gets to work to save Yagi, to save All Might.

Aside from the terminally ill patients he's saved, by far his most miraculous operation yet. And certainly the most high profile. 1

He truly is the only person who could possibly save him… 27

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 124: CHAPTER 120(The Miracle Ward)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Hmm," Horizon groans as he wakes up, shaking his head and looking around at the hospital room he was in.

He'd fallen asleep sitting on a chair beside Yagi's bed.

Glancing over at the man he sees him still completely blacked out in the bed, now wearing a hospital gown and laying under a blanket, with only a few machines connected to monitor him.

And his left arm was now properly healed just enough to seal off the stump.

Looking to his left Horizon sees the windows currently blocked by the blinds, for security and privacy.

He takes out his phone to see hundreds of unread messages and a few notifications, alerting him that his name was used in major news articles.

"5 AM," he mutters while getting up. Stretching his limbs and cracking his neck, the soreness in his body still lingering.

'Life Force is a pain in the ass, but Energy Saver is nice, one hour of sleep after being so tired after that operation and I'm back to full. Plus I'm not even that hungry, so that part of the Quirk is just great. 1

The best part is probably that I can sleep on command…Now I just need to figure out how to spend all this extra time and energy…' 1

Looking back down at Yagi, Horizon just shakes his head. Hoping he didn't make a mistake saving him instead of just letting him die like a hero, like he knew All Might most likely wanted. 4

Just imagining the hell his life would be now, forced onto the sidelines while everyone else has to protect him.

'This had better get me the massive boost in public perception I'm hoping for…' Horizon thinks as he begins walking to the door.

Opening the door and stepping out of the room he enters the well-lit hallway, immediately greeted by a row of police officers in riot gear, ready to act as a last line of defense in case the villains got inside somehow.

Looking to the end of the hall he sees a vending machine and immediately makes a beeline toward it, ignoring all the officers entirely to get himself a snack.

Settling for a bag of chips and a bottle of water, he sees all his change in the machine, enough to buy nearly two dozen more items…

"Hey," he quietly signals the officer's standing guard, "I left money in this thing if you guys want a coffee or something…" and he walks away before the men can even act on what he said. 2

Making his way to the main desk on this floor he decides exactly how he'll be spending his time here.

'Well if I'm in this place until Yagi wakes up I should at least get some use out of it. Central Hospital has an entire research wing and the most diverse Quirk selection in terms of people I can get hands-on with.

This is a perfect place to get some work done, and healing people always looks oh so 'heroic', I'll just help some people and get myself ahead, win-win…'

Arriving at the main desk on this floor he sees a few nurses filing paperwork, busy as always, and quietly approaches them.

"Hi there," they all pause and look up, eyes going wide as they notice who is talking to them.

"Uh…how can I help you?" the woman asks politely, partly star-struck and somewhat fearing the worst, that he was here to deliver bad news about All Might.

"Yeah, I need access to the list of current patients."

"Sorry but, that's for staff access only, you'll need special permission before I give you that."

"Mhm," Horizon nods a few times. "Look, all I want to do is go around helping who I can, the sooner I start the more people I can help before I have to leave…do you really want to be the person standing between people getting the treatment they need or dying?"

All the women look at each other, before glancing at a data pad behind the counter.

"If this goes bad, you didn't get this from us," the woman says, handing him the data pad and returning to her work.

"I'm Horizon, it'll be fine, and thank you."

He takes a few steps away and begins scanning the list of patients in the hospital.

First by keywords, sorting for people with brain-related issues.

Then by Quirks, preferring people with those that heavily strain the mind.

"Mandalay, she's in worse condition than I thought," he says, reading her file and analyzing the scans they did after her massive concussion.

'Her Telepath Quirk is exactly the kind I want to get some hands-on time with. A chance to poke around with her brain is priceless, enough of that and maybe I'll figure myself out…'

He adds her to the queue, then begins sorting by age, and stage of illness.

After compiling the list, very heavily influenced by his own needs of course, he looks around to find a sign, needing some directions.

"Ahh, so the Maternity Ward is that way…"

Five minutes later and he's done with his snack, already at the other end of the hospital. Standing in front of a door with his next patient for the night. 1

Carefully and quietly opening the door, he sees a large window with a view of the city outside. The room was dimly lit as the sun will be rising soon, and in it is a woman.

Exhausted, completely asleep. And beside her bed is her baby, in a plastic box that helps him live.

Multiple tubes were attached to him just to keep him alive.

But as he approaches he can't help but feel bad for the boy.

Looking out the window and then back at the baby, he shakes his head, 'you wouldn't even be alive long enough to see one sunrise…don't worry, I'll fix that.' 10

And Horizon immediately gets to work.

The baby itself was born with an unidentified Quirk that caused abnormalities in the brain. Effectively making it braindead upon birth.

The hospital noted the potential cause as 'Neural Overload', which is as close as Horizon got to the exact problem that he's having with his brain trying to process all the new Quirks. 1

So this is his first of many attempts that simply will not work in helping him to understand his problem.

Because as Dr. Ujiko said, no sane person, and especially not Horizon, would ever consider the insanity of death being the answer. 1

He would instead bash his head against the wall over and over and never make any progress in solving the mystery of his own body.

One of the only things his Quirk couldn't detect or manipulate within himself, was the very instinctual nature of a person at an innate and primal level.

Within the hour, the woman wakes up to something she never imagined she'd experience.

Her son was crying, loudly, as if he were testing the limits of his lungs.

Her eyes shot open as she instinctually tried to get up, only to weakly prop herself up on her elbows, staring wide-eyed at Horizon who was cradling her crying son.

All the colliding thoughts made her freeze. She'd been unconscious since last night and was in labor during the fight.

She didn't know why Horizon was here, she didn't know about All Might.

She didn't know what he did, but none of it mattered.

She just started crying as he took a step toward her and gave her the baby.

Looking at her son through teary eyes she holds him closely, never wanting to let him go, enjoying the sound of him crying, like music to her ears.

"You don't have to worry, your baby will be perfectly healthy now," Horizon says, his voice barely reaching her as she is so focused on the baby. "Now it's just hungry, you can handle that…"

Horizon quietly makes his exit without her even noticing, and by the time he's already operating on his next patient, she finally comes to her senses and gets ready to feed her baby.

But looking toward the door she gets a confused expression on her face, recalling one strange thing, "it?" 20

--8 AM…

Finally done with the children Horizon is making his way toward the main treatment wing of the hospital.

Looking down at the data pad and carefully avoiding the light foot traffic in the halls he updates the last patient's information in it and opens up the file on his next patient.

'Shino Sosaki, Mandalay, multiple brain hemorrhages and concussions as well as swelling and inflammation…ouch, been there, not fun.'

But as he's passing by the final stretch, he stops abruptly in front of the large plastic window. Nearly spanning the entire room it allows people to peer into a nursery.

Filled with babies in their little beds, carefully wrapped up and sleeping peacefully.

The scene stops him dead in his tracks, and he can't help but take in every detail. It was oddly beautiful to him, all these babies ready to go home with their families.

All the little beds having nametags for the child and the parent's information. The parents' names were on top with the child below.

And almost all were filled with the names of three people.

One unfortunate soul only had one name on it, at the top, and that made his heart wrench. 1

"You'll be ok, but it probably won't be easy, trust me on that," he says in a sad and small voice. 1

For some reason this sight brought up all the lonely feelings he'd cast aside, buried in constant work and training, and yet he couldn't look away.

After staring at the room for over ten minutes, a familiar voice snaps him out of his daze, "are you ok?"

"Huh?" he snaps out of it and looks down to his right, seeing Pixie-Bob, or since she's not in costume, Ryuko, staring up at him.

Wearing the same outfit from last night with the right side of her head bandaged.

"I asked if you're ok, you've been standing here for a while."

"Oh, yeah, I'm perfect, what about you? And why are you in this area?"

She gives him a dazzling smile, "the nurses said it's ok if I help out with the babies, they usually need volunteers."

"Yeah, I should have guessed. Were you alright last night?"

"Yeah I was fine," she says, "the villains stopped attacking right after you arrived, guess they realized it was pointless to keep trying. Then more and more heroes kept showing up to help, and since they're all still outside I came in to get patched up…and check on Mandalay."

"Did one of them hit you?" Horizon asks, gesturing to her head.

"Oh, no, just before you came inside I might have tried to scan you, and well," she raises a hand to the side of her head to make an exploding motion, "pop, I guess we need to add you to the list of people we shouldn't use it on." 3

"Good call, hold still I can help," he slowly reaches up and rests a hand gently on the side of her head. She unconsciously closes her eyes and leans into his palm as a soothing sensation flows through the cuts and bruises on her head.

As he withdraws his hand she sees a glimpse of the blue energy on his palm before it dissipates, "wow, I can't even feel it anymore," she says while rubbing her head.

"Because it's as if it never existed, perfect regeneration."

"That explains why you survived those injuries, and do you still have the… you know," she gestures to her left eye.

"I grew it back."

"I'm glad to hear it," she frowns and looks away, clearly ashamed, "at least you didn't have to suffer that injury permanently from our failures at the camp."

"Is the public still being hard on you guys for that, even after knowing about All For One?"

She nods weakly, "not like we can use him as an excuse when only you even saw and fought him. But between failing to protect the students and getting injured ourselves. It doesn't matter that we aren't even a combat team, people are calling for us to retire?" 1

"Hmm, and will you?"

Ryuko looks around nervously, as if she were scared her teammates would hear her, "I…I'm going to. I haven't told anyone yet, not until everyone is healthy again. But I just don't want all of this anymore.

It's already hard enough to start a family with a good guy when the public is always following you around. But this kind of attention only makes it worse. I know some people still believe in us, but…I just want to be selfish for once…" 4

Horizon turns back to face the nursery and she follows his lead, "and you're worried that your friends won't like your choice?"

"Mhm."

"I don't think you'll need to worry about that, yeah this may destroy your team, but once they meet your kids they'll be happy for you, as if nothing ever happened. Plus I don't think they'll be mad at you for this in the first place."

"Yeah, we've been together for over te--a while now, I don't want anything coming between us. And I already know it could be a battle to get my kids to not want to be Pro Heroes since I was one and they'll be surrounded by them. It would only be worse if I don't retire before raising them." 1

"Well if last night taught us anything, it's that being a Pro and being a parent each takes time away from the other, something always has to be sacrificed…"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm afraid of, especially with that Nana Shimura and Shigaraki story being leaked."

"What?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" she gives him a confused look. "It's all over the news, did you not check your phone?"

"If you saw how many messages I have you'd understand."

"Yeah, you're pretty popular. But someone totally leaked all the ancestry of Shigaraki back to her with all the files and stuff, and by 'someone', we mean All For One."

"Trying to ruin All Might in any way he can, damn."

"That's not all, between the formal suit, and the full face mask, and the super powerful Quirk…people kind of think that All For One is yo--"

"My dad?"

She nods sheepishly. "Not many people, just a few idiots, you know how the internet is."

Horizon considers it for a moment, then just shrugs, "honestly, I can understand why they think that."

Ryuko just shakes her head at his dismissal of it, "yeah, I knew you were too nice to be raised by a monster like that." 8

"Exactly, and by the way, if Mandalay has any issues with you quitting, just tell her I said to get over it, she's about to owe me one."

Ryuko's eyes lit up, "are you gonna heal her?"

"Yeah, I just got done with the kids so time for the adults," he hands her the data pad, allowing her to scroll through what should be highly confidential files.

But he's been operating on people and children without asking permission all night, but of course nobody would have any issue with this.

Because as far as they know, he could just put the cancer back. 1

"Wow," she says while scrolling through the list. "You've done a lot already, but it really is only kids so far, how come?"

Horizon chuckles at that, "because adults I don't care for, but this," he gestures to the nursery. "Like little balls of infinite potential," his voice had a certain weight and conviction to it that stirred up something in Ryuko. "This is the closest we can get to magic, how was I supposed to start with anything but that?" 16

She gives him a dazzling smile, staring at him with hopeful eyes, "I didn't think you cared so much about…I mean, uh, I knew you cared of course, you're a hero after all. But…I didn't think you had such a soft spot for kids."

"Just until they start disappointing, that's usually what adults always do…or when they turn 7, at that point it's time to grow up and get your shit together," he shrugs. 2

Ryuko's smile drops as she sighs, feeling the wind knocked out of her sails, "you just had to ruin the moment, but I still think you're just a big softie."

"Think what you want woman, I've got work to do," she gives him back the data pad. "If you're here later I'll take you to lunch, until then, have fun at mom practice…" 1

--30 Minutes Later…

"Ugnh," Shino Mandalay stirs awake, feeling a searing pain in her head that quickly fades away. Opening her eyes she's immediately blinded by the sunlight streaming into the window, taking a moment to adjust before looking around.

She was in a hospital gown, in a hospital room, and standing beside her…Horizon.

"How are you feeling?" Horizon asks.

"Tired," she answers quietly.

"That's normal, what's the last thing you remember?"

She closes her eyes and tries to recall, "the summer camp, villains attacked, that damn villain hit me with a rock," she grumbles. 1

"Good good, that's the last thing that happened before you got knocked out."

She opens her eyes and looks up at him, "how is everyone?" 1

"We'll get to that later when Ryuko is here, for now, I just need you to stay calm for what I'm about to tell you, alright?"

She immediately tenses up, expecting the worse.

The 16-year-old side of Horizon shows itself as he smiles deviously below his visor, finally getting a chance to do this to someone. 2

"Shino…you've been asleep for 7 years," he lies effortlessly. 35

She freezes, then takes a few seconds to process what he said, then realization hits. 1

"WHAT?!" 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 125: CHAPTER 121(Yagi's Contract)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Standing on the roof of Central Hospital, pacing back and forth under the moonlight Horizon was reading the datapad he's been using to select patients, carefully scrolling through the list and adding notes to everyone he thinks can be useful.

All while having a phone conversation in his visor.

"--It really is that simple," Horizon says. "I give you some training then we go from there."

"Well when you say it like that anything sounds simple," Sero says. "But don't I have to wait for the exam next year?"

"Nah, Nezu told me he's making some changes but the plan to have you guys take the September exams hasn't changed. When the second half of the training camp starts you'll be training with me instead of the teachers, we'll get a lot more work done that way."

Sero is silent for a while before finding his words, "you really are serious about this huh?"

"Obviously, building a team is the easiest way for a Hero to show leadership, but if I'm gonna put my name on you then you better not embarrass me…I'll make you acceptable for my standards, then you'll crush the exam, easy."

"Huh, that makes sense," Sero thinks about it for a moment. "But wouldn't it make you look even better to have a full team?" 1

"Ugh, let's just see how it goes with you first, and just between us, I don't think a lot of people in our class are worth training…" 2

"Dude, everyone knows you think that, it's not a secret." 3

"Whatever, just promise me you'll commit to the training, alright?"

"Of course!" Sero says. "I get my license, get onto your profile in a few pictures, then get seen by everyone and they all want to hire me to work in their agencies, that's everything I need!"

"Knew you'd be perfect for this," Horizon gives a light chuckle.

"Yeah, so I guess I'll talk to you later, I've gotta get some sleep for later."

"Your date with Kodai huh," Horizon says in a mischievous tone. 1

"Huh, how'd you know about that, ruined my big reveal," Sero whines.

"I was talking to Momo yesterday and she mentioned it…seriously, one day after the commission stops locking you in your house with cops outside and you're already going out with her, nice." 4

Sero laughs nervously, "yeah well…with how the camp went, all the people that didn't make it, we decided not to waste any more time."

"Good, life is too short for that," Horizon says.

"Yeah, so are you and Mo--" Sero is cut off as Horizon hangs up, not bothering to waste his time on that topic. 3

Horizon shakes his head, happy for his classmate, but is in no rush to join him. 1

"1 AM, I should get some sleep," he mutters. 2

SHAMBLES

He swaps with the card he left in Yagi's hospital room. He sees his hoverboard leaning up against the side of the wall along with his sword, but as he looks over to Yagi, he sees him awake, laying in bed staring up at the ceiling.

His eyes flicker to the heart monitor, seeing everything stable, then back to his patient.

"You awake?" Horizon asked, speaking very slowly. "What do you remember?"

Yagi's eyes flick over to him before looking back at the ceiling, "after I beat him, I raised my fist to the sky…and everything went black."

Horizon gives a sigh of relief and then makes his way over to his chair, sitting beside Yagi's bed. "That's good, that means you remember pretty much everything. They found you standing just like that, completely unconscious…" 3

Horizon reaches out and rests a hand on Yagi's side, giving him a full scan to see nothing outside the scope of expectations.

"So sensei, Gran Torino…he's really…he's gone?" Yagi asked in a broken and tired voice.

"Yeah," Horizon withdraws his hand and starts composing a message for Nezu, telling him Yagi is awake. "Look I'm not really the best person to talk to for these kinds of questions, so how about you just get some rest and Nezu will--"

"I don't need any more sleep," Yagi says in an annoyed tone. Then takes a deep breath and deflates, feeling the sadness taking over him more than before. "I just want to know what happened, I just…I need answers, please."

Horizon sighs, "honestly you people are so damn needy…"

"You're my doctor."

"Oh, just shut up with your excuses, nobody wants them," he shuts off the datapad and turns toward Yagi. "Ok, now what do you want to know?"

Once again ignoring Horizon's horrendous bedside manner, Yagi thinks very carefully about which of the burning questions he should ask first.

"What happened after the fight?"

"You knocked out All For One, the other heroes eventually dealt with all the Nomu. Some escorted All For One to Tartarus and the others brought you and the injured heroes here. I got here a few hours later…and now we're here."

Yagi takes a minute to think about this, "how long have I been asleep?"

"So far, we've been here two days."

"Two days," Yagi's eyes shot open as he tries to get up, only for him to flop back down into the bed, "ngh!" he groans in pain, his entire body aching from that simple movement.

"Moron, what are you trying to do?"

"I need to get up, to show the people that I'm alright."

"But you're not alright," Horizon says, and Yagi looks at him, not quite getting the message. "Yagi, your cells don't even have enough energy to transform even once, look at your arm." 2

"My arm?" Yagi looks to his right, seeing his arm completely bandaged up, then to his left, "what…" he mutters, a look of horror on his face as he sees the stump reaching just below his shoulder.

"Yeah, those injuries plus your Quirk being all spent…sorry but you're retired, and that's my professional opinion, I couldn't even risk regenerating your arm because your body probably can't sustain the same mass as before," Horizon says bluntly, almost making Yagi wish someone else delivered the news. 5

Yagi just lays in bed for a few minutes processing this, trying to wrap his mind around life without being a Pro Hero. 1

Deciding to put those thoughts aside for now, as he'd need a lot more time to figure himself out, he gets all the answers he can out of Horizon.

"Did we capture any other villains?"

"Nope, just All For One, all the others got warped away."

"The civilians?"

"The cops evacuated people really quickly but…not everyone got out in time."

Yagi feels his heart drop, suddenly the weight of his own injuries was dwarfed by the harm he brought to those people.

Horizon could easily read this reaction, Yagi's emotions clearly painted on his face, and he simply rolls his eyes. 'Annoyingly heroic…no surprise, I guess that's what I should have expected from him.'

"I need to make an apology to those who got hurt," Yagi says, and Horizon immediately sits up.

"Bad idea…you should definitely not be in the spotlight, at all, at least not where the press can ask you questions."

Yagi gives him a confused look, "why not, what happened?"

"Well, All For One was broadcasting the entire fight, everything you guys said. About the past, about Nana Shimura, about Shigaraki… and some papers got leaked connecting the dots, you should talk to Nezu before doing anything."

Yagi was brought to tears by that. And as he quietly laid in bed shedding tears for his master, for her now damaged reputation after all she sacrificed to help people. 3

After she gave up everything she loved for them, and now from the sounds of it, the public would forever despise her for it.

Horizon just sat there and looked at him in disgust as he cried and wallowed, thankfully his visor hid his face from Yagi. 8

'I guess I won't be getting any answers about One For All tonight…I'll talk to them later back at UA about that.'

As Yagi is wallowing in his sadness Horizon responds to a few messages from Nezu, organizing transport for him and Yagi back to UA later.

As he's messaging Nezu, Horizon tunes out Yagi's whining as best he can, until he's addressed directly.

"Horizon," Yagi says in a desperate and hoarse voice, looking at his doctor through blurry eyes.

Horizon sighs loudly and turns to Yagi, seeing the absolutely broken Hero, a broken man, and gives him no sympathy, "yeah?"

"I need your help, to make things right with my master."

"The dead lady? What are you even talking about? You know I can't resurrect people right?"

"Tomura Shigaraki…Tenko Shimura, can you help me with him?"

"If you think I'm the kind of person to talk to villains about feelings…you've got the wrong guy." 4

"I know that," Yagi says. "But the sooner he's captured the better, that's all I want. I don't want my master's legacy to be the pain he's out there causing, at least no more than it already is…"

'He should be asking Deku to do this shit since he's his successor,' Horizon thinks. 'But I guess it makes sense to ask me if he wants actual results…' 13

"So you want me to go out of my way to deal with the League Of Villains to capture their leader?"

"When Shigaraki is in Tartarus, then maybe I can talk to him about why my master had to make the sacrifices she made. Let him know about all the people she saved," Yagi says.

"Good luck with that," Horizon says. "But I'm still just operating in Tokyo, and the league has been spotted all over Japan."

"Hurting people, and you're one of the most equipped to stop them," Yagi says. "After all the boasting Nezu's done about you, I'm sure you could do it."

"Sounds like you want to open a contract, is that it?" Horizon asks, smelling blood in the water. 5

"Huh, what? But you'd be helping people, is that not enough?" Yagi asks. 5

He was genuinely surprised that simply saving people wouldn't be enough motivation for who is most likely the future Symbol Of Peace.

"The league of villains isn't in my plans, at least not in terms of going out of my way to hunt them down."

'I see, he simply doesn't want to deviate from his plan,' Yagi thinks. 'But if Nezu brought him into UA he must have the desire to be a hero, to save and protect people…his interview with Chitose proved as much. Maybe he just needs more time to be open about his desire to help people…' 22

"Alright," Yagi says. "What will it cost?"

"An endorsement," Horizon says. "My hero career is off to a great start, but if it's revealed that All Might, the great and powerful Symbol Of Peace, had me treating him for a year before I even entered UA, well…that would help out a lot."

"You want me to tell people about my injury and about you treating it when we met?"

"They already somewhat know about it since All For One called me your doctor and mentioned it, you'd just be confirming it."

Yagi goes silent for a while, considering the pros and cons of this. He'd spent so long hiding his weakened state from the world, but now the secret was already out.

It was nothing to reveal what people already know in a chance to set the record straight for Nana and Shigaraki, right?

"Alright," Yagi says. "But the entire League Of Villains: Vanguard Action Squad, as well as Shigaraki and Kurogiri." 1

Yagi actually forces his right hand to move so he can extend the bandaged limb for a weak handshake, unable to even close his fingers.

Horizon nods and touches his hand, he intended to lock them all up before going Pro anyway. It would secure his spot in at least the top 5 upon getting a full license.

Horizon touches his hand then pushes it back down, "put your hand down before you break something, and yeah, I'll have it done before I graduate," he says while Yagi thankfully puts his hand down.

"That's a lot faster than I thought, can you really find them all that quickly?"

"It'll be difficult with Kurogiri in the mix, but I need to find Shigaraki before that long at the very least…"

"Why is that?" Yagi asks.

"Because you want to talk to him, and honestly, even with the schedule and diet I'll have you on, I doubt you'll live much past my graduation…" 13

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 126: CHAPTER 122(Changes On Campus)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 1

CHAPTER START--

Sitting in the back of Nezu's luxury helicopter Horizon looks up from his phone to glance over at Yagi beside him.

The man was now dressed in a blue All Might tracksuit with his arm in a sling, asleep beside Horizon.

Thankfully inside the helicopter was almost entirely silent, and as Horizon looks out the window, he saw UA below them as they descend to the roof.

'What the hell is going on here?' he asks himself.

As they're above the school he sees rows of what appear to be apartment buildings.

The entrance to the main campus was at the south gate, but a hundred meters away from the main campus were these buildings.

Twelve to the North, the East, and the West of the main campus. All perfectly lined up in long rows.

'Three rows of buildings, and one for each class and the teachers of that year…oh you've got to be kidding me,' Horizon groans loudly, causing Yagi to stir awake. 2

"Hmm, are we there?" Yagi asks as he slowly wakes up.

"Yeah," Horizon turns to the pilots and gets up, stepping toward them. "No need to land, I'll take it from here."

The pilot hears him and turns back, "what do you--" he sees the empty cabin and immediately understands. "Oh, right, he can do that." 2

--Principal Nezu's Office…

"Huh, I didn't even feel that," Yagi says as he appears on one of the couches, Horizon is sitting across from him on the other.

"My warping is perfect, that's what makes it so fluid during combat."

"And very convenient," Nezu says, hopping down from his chair and making his way over to the couches, sitting beside Yagi. "Now shall we discuss the future, things have changed quite dramatically these past few days." 1

Horizon leans back and relaxes while Yagi tenses up, "has my retirement been announced yet?" he asks in a sad voice.

"No, but it is expected after people saw the footage of that fight," Nezu says, then he turns to Yagi and rests a tiny paw on his lap. "Don't lament the fact that you can't go around fighting villains anymore.

You're still All Might, your role has just changed.

We will always be grateful for all the good you did for us. All the sacrifices you've made and still continue to make. Sincerely, thank you, as a Hero and as a person I'm always grateful for all you've done.

But this isn't the end of All Might, it's simply a change, from the person fighting villains on the front lines, to the man teaching others how to be the best heroes they can be, and I'm sure everyone will appreciate that as well…" 2

As Nezu and Yagi go back and forth patting each other on the back, Horizon just rolls his eyes and takes out his phone, assessing the situation with the country.

He sees his name in a swarm of trending articles.

'All Might and Horizon left Central Hospital earlier this morning!'

'Horizon refused to enter any of All Might's information into the hospital database and has given no comment about his health!'

'Horizon fully healed 34 patients during his 2-day residency at Central Hospital!'

'Will Japan ever recover from this economic crisis!' this headline was posted with a string of market evaluations, monitoring the quickly falling economy.

Horizon just shakes his head, 'and this is why I didn't hold my money in Yen…well that and not wanting the Commission to be able to freeze my accounts.' 2

After looking at a few more articles, one very interesting picture catches his eye.

'Who will be our new Symbol Of Peace?!' with a picture of him and Endeavor standing together, taken after the last Nomu attack on Tokyo.

'Well I guess I should let Endeavor hold that spot until I graduate, he'll be too busy dealing with his family drama to be any real competition anyway,' Horizon thinks as he checks on his 'Yay!' profile, seeing that he's almost at 100 Million followers.

His goal was All Might's 600 Million, and he was sure that would happen sooner rather than later. The simple truth is that All Might rarely if ever used his account or had any presence of his own volition. 3

It would have been more beneficial to follow HNN Hero News Network to get updates on him, the man only cared about helping people, yet he was so good at it that his presence online became overwhelming as a side effect.

He's just so good at being a Hero that he didn't even have to try to get people to like him.

Or at least, he was that good…

"Can we get to the important stuff now," Horizon interrupts their conversation. "You can get back to jerking off his ego when I'm out of there," he tells Nezu.

Both Yagi and Nezu give a disgusted look at his choice of words, "Horizon is right, we have much to discuss," Yagi says. 2

"Very well then, first would be the consequences of announcing your retirement, as well as how we'll be doing it," Nezu says.

"What do we expect?" Yagi asks.

"Crime rates have already started climbing, but people are still hesitant to partake, we estimate that crime rates will increase to at least 10 times what they were during your time. After that, it should plateau for a while then begin another decline as other heroes start locking up the new villains."

"Damn, 40%," Horizon says. "No wonder so many people are hesitant or just pulling their investments out of Japan, but on the plus side, I've been buying a crap ton of property in Tokyo since the values are dropping like crazy.

Honestly by the end of it, I'll own a lot of Minato Tokyo," Horizon shrugs.

"That doesn't seem very heroic," Yagi says.

"What? I'm helping to stabilize the economy, and I'm keeping rent prices the same instead of raising them, that's very heroic if you ask me." 5

"You're looking to profit from chaos and fear." 13

"No, I'm making money from people being stupid."

"Can we please focus," Nezu interrupts them before they start bickering. "The Hero Public Safety Commission doesn't want the retirement announcement made until tonight, by then they should have all the Hero Agencies and police stations around the country ready to deal with the massive influx of criminal activity."

"Should I head back to Tokyo?"

"No," Nezu says. "We don't know what people will do when the news hits, they could try to attack here. I'm confident in UA's defenses and the teachers but I'd like you here just in case."

"Great, I'm a fucking babysitter now," Horizon groans, and Yagi dies a little inside. 5

Going from the protector of the people to someone who had to depend on his student to protect him… was heartbreaking at every level.

"I've already had an operating suite assembled here at UA for you, you can use it to monitor All Might, and we even used the same specifications as the one in your house," Nezu says.

"Yeah, I sensed it, but just remember I'm only his doctor," he points at Yagi. "I'm not gonna be acting as Recovery Girl 2.0 for UA."

Nezu smiles nervously, his plan already shot through, "we've also been constructing the dorms, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"I have," Horizon growls out. "I'm not a fan…" 1

"This is what's best for all the students," Nezu says. "Even with All For One locked away, we don't know how powerful the League Of Villains will grow in the future, having everyone under the protection of our improved defense systems is the best option."

"And this way they can train more since they'll be living so close to the facilities," Yagi adds, "I'm sure the Hero Course students as well as the Hero Support students will appreciate that."

"Well the Support Course students are already here," Horizon says. "I can sense a few of them with Power Loader in the labs, but the dorms haven't been officially announced yet, right?"

"Right," Nezu says. "But I must admit part of the selling point is that you will be living on campus for most of the week. People were questioning if we should keep All Might around or even reopen the school since the reveal of…Nana Shimura."

Yagi feels a knot in his stomach, "they expect Shigaraki to attack here as vengeance against me…"

"It's a fair assumption," Horizon says. "But I'm already acting as an anti-Kurogiri of sorts, at least to their knowledge. So really, this is likely the only safe place for Yagi."

"Precisely, also, consider how convenient it will be to have your training ground so close by."

"It already was, I've been living at my Musutafu penthouse for most of the semester," Horizon points out. "But fine, whatever, I'll move into the dorms. But I've got some conditions."

"Let's hear them."

"Let me customize my room, I need certain things because of my circumstances," he taps his visor.

"Done."

"And I need 24/7 access to the training areas and equipment," Horizon says.

"Why would you need that?" Yagi asks.

"I only need one hour of sleep, might as well get some use out of that extra time."

"That explains a lot," Yagi says. "No wonder you're so good at so many different things, you had more time in your day than the others."

"What? No, this is new. I hit a new level with my Quirk and the energy in my body is much more efficient."

"Oh…" Yagi lets it process for a few seconds before he realizes. "Wait, your Quirk can just do that?!"

"I can do a lot of things none of you will ever know about."

Yagi sighs, "some people really do get all the good stuff." 1

"Says the man that could part the clouds with a punch…" 7

"Focus please," Nezu calls their attention to him. "Yes you will have access to the training areas, but you'll have to keep training after 8 PM quiet, no ripping buildings out of the ground and throwing them, some of us need sleep." 1

"Understandable, when do the dorms open?"

"They'll be completed next week and will open the following week. That gives us 2 weeks to prepare the students for the Provisional Exam, although you will be taking charge of training Hanta Sero, yes?"

"Yeah, I'll have him come here tomorrow so we can start, if I'm on house arrest anyway I should get some value out of it."

"You aren't on house arrest," Nezu said. "Quit being so dramatic, everyone knows nobody can stop you from going anywhere you want." 9

Horizon looks away, "tch, whatever." 2

Nezu just shakes his head and moves on, "now aside from all of that, my main concern is getting the students to actually come back next semester. I've had a few parents email me and already remove their children from UA, some requested transfers to other similar courses, and others are taking them off the hero path entirely."

"Well you've had 6 students die, four from my class alone, it's a sensible move. I would have taken my kid out the moment Iida died, not that my kids would ever join a Hero course in the first place."

"Really?" Yagi asks. "But what about all the good they could do?"

"And what if they end up like you?" Horizon asks, "Do you really think any parent wants that for their child?" 13

Yagi just looks down at the table, knowing the obvious answer to that question.

"The changes around campus will help them feel at ease," Nezu says. "And with the new 5-day school week instead of the previous 6-day setup we had, students will actually have more free time, in theory. We expect those Hero Course students to do their own training, at least for people like yourself and Bakugo." 4

"What about my hero work days?"

"You'll have your weekends as well as Fridays, when Kurogiri is captured we'll discuss giving you back Thursday."

Horizon just gives a low growl, "well that's just great. Now my hero time is getting reduced because I have to babysit these losers…"

Nezu just smiles nervously at that, "yes well, while you're making yourself at home the students and their parents will be visited by the teacher to talk over the finer details. The ones who requested it that is."

"Did anyone from my class drop out?" Horizon asks.

"Only two, I was honestly rather surprised at such a low number, but even more surprised at exactly who it was."

"Let me guess, Jiro since she got knocked out pretty bad at the summer camp. And Ojiro because of the broken leg…"

"I would have expected that as well," Nezu says. "But the first was actually Ms. Yaoyorozu." 1

"Momo? That doesn't make any sense…but I guess her parents probably want to lock her in a tower after all the chaos. Can't really blame them."

"They requested that I speak to them," Nezu says. "I suspect they want me to side with them, since they've already been in quiet talks to get her into some finance schools."

"Smart more…I'm just surprised she never said anything during our call yesterday. Anyway who is the other one, Bakugo?"

"Close, but it's actually for the same thing, a complete end to their hero career, Izuku Midoriya." 6

Yagi's heart nearly stops as he hears that, and Horizon just nods.

"I probably should have guessed that, it's a logical response from any worried parent," he turns directly to Yagi. "Especially when she finds out someone gave him their Quirk and encouraged him to hurt himself…you didn't even ask her before giving her kid One For All, good job, hero…" 30

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 127: CHAPTER 123(Settling In) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting behind his desk early this morning, Nezu is checking the media response from All Might's official retirement last night.

Moments after the Hero Public Safety Commission made the statement the internet had a complete meltdown, as it always does when anything happens. 1

As expected the general public was terrified of a world without their Symbol Of Peace, and the villains were cheering. 1

He'd already built a program to track new villain recruitment groups online, and just overnight dozens of people got caught in the net.

But looking through them he only saw small fish.

"The League Of Villains must have a more intricate recruitment system, assuming they'd even bother bringing in people. Thus far aside from the Vanguard Action Squad members they only have Nomu with them…and whoever is making all the Nomu."

Sending the data to the police he moves over to the news websites, seeing much of the same panic and chaos.

Then finally over to All Might's 'Yay!' account.

"Well this is surprising," Nezu says as he reads the most recent update.

It was a long-winded message from All Might to the world, as expected.

Going on and on about how thankful he was to have had the time to help people and shared how hopeful he is to see what the world will become in the future.

But what surprised him the most was the second part, about his injury

"He actually told people about All For One hurting him 5 years ago…and thanked Horizon specifically for repairing enough of the damage over a year ago, so he could 'vanquish his evil foe' once and for all."

Nezu hops over to Horizon's profile to see his follower count up by 10 Million overnight, and he immediately puts it together.

He then reads the end of All Might's post, about how committed he is to guide the next generation of heroes to the best of his ability.

"Well, I guess I should be ready for public backlash about him being here, but hopefully it should pass quickly."

After finishing up his analysis Nezu turns to the camera system to find his main investment.

"Hmm, new upgrades maybe?" He asks himself, watching Horizon speak to Mei outside of the Support Course building. He opens a new window on his computer and doesn't see any requested items from Horizon.

"He must now be putting in an order, well I'm sure between Ms. Hatsume and Power Loader it'll be fine."

A few seconds later Nezu sees Horizon abruptly turn his head toward the entrance of the school, and another second later Hanta Sero appears on the lawn beside them. Carrying a suitcase at his side.

His other items were already being sent over later today.

The three students chat for a while before Mei shoves them away, clearly too excited over whatever idea they just gave her to keep chatting with them.

As Horizon warps them away, Nezu notices how disheveled Mei is, but he doesn't think much of it. Support Course students were normally too busy working to care about appearances. 8

"Well…aside from that one Year-2 girl," he recalls the Culture Festival beauty pageant winner from last year. 11

Suddenly there is a knock at the door, drawing Nezu's attention away from his work.

"Come in!"

The door opens and in steps Yagi, wearing a similar tracksuit to what he had on yesterday. His arm was no longer in a sling but still tightly bandaged up.

"Principal Nezu."

"All Might, how are you feeling?"

"Better than yesterday at least."

"Mhm, you should be resting."

"Even if I wanted to, I can't sleep anymore," he makes his way over to one of the couches and sits down while Nezu continues working. "I can't stop thinking about what Horizon said yesterday."

"Which part?"

"About Inko Midoriya hating me for endangering her son like that. About young Izuku never being allowed to be a hero again. About her likely forcing him to give up One For All entirely."

"All extremely likely, if not absolute certainties," Nezu says. "And what do you intend to do about it?"

"I don't know. I was actually hoping you'd have some answers for me." 3

"Hmm, well, maybe it's just time to be honest, about everything."

"But she already knows everything," Yagi says.

"About the Quirk yes. But she doesn't know why you chose Midoriya. You could have picked anyone, but you picked her son. He may not have been your first pick, but he is the successor you chose."

"Yeah, thankfully you warned me against giving my power to Horizon, now that I've been around him for longer I'm sure I made the right choice with Midoriya." 7

"I suggest you tell her that part too," Nezu says. "People look to Horizon as a golden standard for what Hero Course students should be, and on paper, he is. But we both know he lacks the heroic spirit, and that's what you saw in her son." 5

Yagi smiles at that, now absolutely sure he made the right choice in Izuku Midoriya, "yeah, I'm sure she'll understand." 7

Nezu gives the delusionally hopeful man a nervous smile, having dealt with parents after their children get hurt. He knows fully well that they're anything but reasonable, and Inko Midoriya had every right to be absolutely furious at All Might.

"Well, you've got a few hours to prepare, I'll be sure to call you when they get here," Nezu says.

--11 AM, Training Ground Zeta…

In Horizon's personal training ground, both he and Sero were standing opposite each other at one end of the site.

Horizon was currently wearing just a pair of shorts and sneakers over his body glove, matching the blue and white with his logo on them of course.

Sero was wearing a pair of simple gym shoes, black shorts, and a white t-shirt, both were bloodied and battered and stained with sweat, much like the owner.

Standing with his hands squared up Sero's hair was soaked with sweat and matted to his head. His face was bruised and swollen with cuts on it from all the sparring.

His forearms especially were bruised purple with pieces of skin torn off.

As his breathing was tired and uneven, Horizon stood there casually with one hand at his side and the other in front of him.

Sero's back was currently to the wall, so he moved forward, trying desperately to finally get a hit on Horizon.

With a wild right hook, he launches forward.

Horizon knocks it aside before punching him in the gut with the same hand.

"Ngh!" Sero stumbles back.

CRACK!

The same fist knocks out some of Sero's teeth.

The sound of them clattering to the floor is closely followed by Sero dropping face-first against the concrete.

He spits up blood and groans, desperately fighting to stay awake.

He's seen what Horizon's punches can really do, he knew all morning his friend had been going easy on him.

But that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.

This was a new kind of pain, this pain felt different. 4

"Nghhhhhh!" Sero moves a hand to feel his mouth, crying out in pain when he feels his busted-up gums and teeth, his mouth was already swollen.

Looking up he sees Horizon, still completely flawless, walking around as if they hadn't been training for almost four hours.

"Oh don't be such a fucking baby," Horizon says. "Anything I do to you I'll fix when we're done, how else are we supposed to do it all over again tomorrow." 1

Sero hears this and reaches up to feel his mouth, another jolt of pain has tears forming in his eyes.

He knew what he signed up for, but he didn't think Horizon was serious when he said it would be this bad.

"Oh great, now it's crying," Horizon says in palpable disgust as he looks back. "You need to get back on your feet, now! Don't you know the longer you stay down the longer you get your ass beat, that goes for fights and life, so get up!" 5

"Arughhh!" Sero tries to get up only to crumple back to the floor, his body tensing up and aching as pain wracks him.

Horizon begins pacing back and forth in front of him, his patience melting away by the second.

"We've only got 2 weeks before everyone else gets here to finish the training camp! If you wanna get stronger, this is the change! You've got a long way to go, and this is how I'll make you stronger!

I'm gonna beat you, break you, and you're gonna get back up. Because none of it matters if you don't get up Sero. 6

We aren't moving onto Quirk training if you can't even get up from this. If you can't even function in a normal fight!"

Horizon looks over to see Sero finally on his hands and knees, but it took far too long.

"Did you come here just to waste my fucking time?!" He walks over and kicks him in the side, sending him rolling across the floor and leaving him laid out on the ground yet again. "You took too damn long, now get on your feet, faster!" 1

Sero can barely breathe, feeling his newly cracked ribs pinching him with every forced breath, trying to roll to get himself upright. 1

He pushes his forehead against the ground to start getting himself up, tears and blood fall to the concrete in unison as he pushes off it with his tired, bloody, sore hands.

"Finally!" Horizon says as he sees him get to his knees. "Mom had me doing this shit when I was 5, you're lucky she's not the one training you today…hell we won't even have time to get to the really fun stuff before graduation, so I'll only give you the basics. But that's all you'll need anyway."

With one final push, Sero forces himself to his feet. Holding his cracked ribs and swaying on his feet, tears running down his face and blood flowing out of his busted teeth and gums and onto his shirt.

"Finally," Horizon walks up and raises a hand to hold his face, and Sero flinches, "relax, healing time."

Sero sees the blue healing energy forming in his palm and closes his eyes. He feels a strange yet soothing sensation envelop his entire body.

The pain in his side and chest slowly fades away as his breathing becomes regular. He feels the swelling on his face go down and his lips and mouth return to normal.

And the most odd sensation of them all, he feels his teeth growing back as they push his lips away, gums repairing themselves perfectly.

Sero opens his eyes to see Horizon standing in front of him expectantly, he turns to the side and spits out the blood and pieces of teeth that the new ones pushed out.

'His mom must have been a monster to train a kid like that,' Sero thinks, but wisely keeps it to himself. 7

"See, no need to be such a little bitch about it, you're perfectly fine," Horizon says, taking a step back from Sero. "Now put your hands up, let's go again…"

"But I feel all sore," Sero says even as he raises his hands to fight.

"That's a placebo effect, your body can't tell it's healed because cellular regeneration happens so quickly, you'll still be tired but slightly less so at least, now less talking more fighting, Cellophane…" 1

Hearing that Sero rushes into another session of pain, but this time with a wide grin on his face, now absolutely confident in Horizon. 2

--2 PM…

Sitting in a shady forested area of UA, Sero was below a tree with his lunch.

A container with spaghetti, meatballs, a side of steak slices, and four boiled eggs, alongside a bottle of water.

He was currently staring down at the delicious meal, but the thing that scared him the most…the sheer amount of food it was.

He was sure the container was the size of his head.

"Maybe I'll just get used to it…" he mutters before digging in. 1

He certainly wouldn't complain, his situation was changing for the best with the new changes at UA.

He now had the fancy new dorms instead of the tiny 1-bedroom apartment he and his dad shared. His dad no longer had to pay for him to travel to and from school 6 days a week.

And now Horizon was paying for all his meals to be prepared and delivered by a nearby company.

But that last one is what bothered him so much.

When Horizon agreed to help him he expected just some basic training and advice. But it seems Horizon is obsessive with doing the best he can to keep to his end of the deal.

Now Sero is under a lot of pressure not to disappoint. Because when he's good enough Horizon is gonna help him get the boost he needs, to properly launch his own career, and the very last thing he wants to do is disappoint him.

'But this is just so much food…' Sero thinks as he looks down, only to notice half the food is already gone. 'Wow, I guess I was more hungry than I realized, never mind.'

SHAMBLES!

Horizon suddenly appears a few feet away from Sero, holding two pizzas in one hand, and with his other hand wrapped around Mei, who was holding their drinks. 2

"Enjoying your food?" Horizon asks, and Sero just gives him a thumbs up as he continues eating.

As they both sit down to join him, Sero looks over to Mei, noticing that she literally looks like she got hit by a bomb.

Her clothes were spotted with black ash and she sat down with her pink hair all frizzy.

"Are you ok Hatsume?"

"Lab explosion, it happens," she says as if it were the most normal thing in the world, then before Sero can say anything else she reaches out and grabs Horizon's left hand.

Horizon was currently eating a slice of pizza with his right hand and turned to look at her, "you built it already?"

"Mhm, take off the watch," she says, noticing his Rolex was still on.

"Shambles," he warps it onto his right hand.

She fishes into her pocket for a second and takes out what looks like a flat white bracelet, with his logo on it. That familiar checkered smile logo that's on everything he wears.

She puts it on his wrist the leans away, "ok, now link it to your phone and set what you want to display. It should link to the visor too through the phone."

"Hmm alright," Horizon takes out his phone and quickly connects it, and it projects a small screen across his forearm, currently displaying his vitals. He slaps his watch other it to help keep it hidden while displaying the screen. "It's perfect, thank Mei."

"Just remember to say who made it on that website of yours alright."

"Yeah yeah, I know."

As Mei begins eating Sero leans over and gives the screen a confused look, "but can't you already monitor your vitals with Hand Of God, why do you need this?"

"It's for more than just my vitals, sometimes I just need to view more data when running some cases," he says.

But that was only half true. This was almost entirely so he can monitor his vital whenever he experiences an 'Overload' and blacks out because of the new Quirks. 1

This device, in theory, would help him figure out what's wrong with himself.

"--wait so your dorm is finally ready?" Mei asks Horizon, after they're all done eating.

"Yeah, Nezu just sent me the message, I'm checking it out right now, seems perfect," Horizon says while looking in the direction of his room.

"That's still super creepy," Sero says. "How does that work anyway?"

"Eh, think of it like echolocation, but it's super precise. Like I can get a view of someone, what's in their pockets, count how many pieces of candy is in a pack, or if I felt like it I could just see what they're like under the clothes," Horizon shrugs.

A cold shiver runs down Sero's spine, "that last one is super pervy, do you actually do that?"

"No, I'm too classy for that," Horizon says flatly.

Sero's eyes shift over to Mei, seeing her completely unbothered, "this doesn't bother you at all?"

"Huh, why would it bother me, he's already seen me naked a few times," Mei shrugs. 6

And Sero's brain begins melting, "oh…oh! Sorry I didn't realize you two were a…sorry!"

"We aren't a couple, and stop being weird," Horizon says.

"Yeah, I don't have time to waste on boys!" Mei declares proudly, "I've got babies to make!" 3

"Uh…" Sero gets confused all over again. "But…don't you need boys to make ba--"

"Gadgets, she means gadgets, oh my god," Horizon groans. "Just keep this between us alright."

"Got it," Sero gives them both a serious nod. "But speaking of Hero Equipment, shouldn't I--"

"Yes!" Mei yells out, eyes lit up and ready to work.

"No," Horizon shuts them down. "When he's mastered his Quirk enough then he can use them, otherwise they'll just be a crutch…"

They both frown at him, but can't deny the logic in that.

Horizon suddenly turns toward the main campus, "damn," he mutters.

"What happened?" Sero asks.

Inko Midoriya slapped the taste out of All Might's mouth is what happened. 25

"Uh…nothing, we should get back to training, and I'm sure Mei has some stuff to do," he turns to her, "I'll warp you over later, alright." 1

"I want some chocolate."

"I'll figure something out…"

As they're packing up he senses Inko now hugging All Might as she's crying her eyes out, 'should have expected that, it did make Deku after all…' 16

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 128: CHAPTER 124(Full Dorms)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Is this what death feels like?" Sero asks in an exhausted voice. He and Horizon were currently walking back toward the dorms, the sun just beginning to set behind them.

While Horizon was once again spotless, Sero's clothes were bloodied and stained as usual.

As the boy barely had the energy to walk back to his room Horizon was idly scrolling through some Hero Network articles on his phone.

"Probably, take a look at this," Horizon shows Sero his phone.

"Huh, they added you to the S-Class listing, along with All For One and…Twice?"

"League Of Villains clone guy," Horizon says with a shrug. "Apparently his Quirk lets him make infinite clones of himself or his target once certain conditions are met, and the clones can use the originals' Quirk too." 2

"Damn," Sero thinks about it for a moment. "That listing is for people that can overthrow a small country on their own…its kind of weird to go from only All Might and Endeavor on it, to now the five of you." 5

"This goes public tomorrow, only the Hero Network knows for now, seems the commission really wants Twice locked away. But that makes sense, he's definitely the most dangerous villain in the league."

"Isn't tomorrow also the All Might tribute event over in Hiroshima? Seems like people will be swarming you at that huh," Sero says.

"That's unavoidable. I'll just head to Tokyo tonight, do some work at Central Hospital, then I'll head over to Hiroshima in the evening." 1

"Seems kinda hectic, even if you only need one hour of sl--" Sero's words fail him as they arrive at the dorms. The rather high-end 5-story apartment building with an underground gym is now fully lit up, for the first time since they've moved in.

"Looks like everyone is done unpacking," Horizon grumbles. "Bye-bye peace and quiet."

"I'm just glad Yui is finally on campus," Sero says as they begin walking up the stairs. "Not that I didn't enjoy spending all my time with you and Hatsume of course."

"I get it, kinda…not really, whatever."

"You could if you just--"

"Drop it."

They both arrive at the doorway and can already see some of their classmates gathered in the common area catching up.

"Well the important thing is that you're totally willing to… let's say warp me into her room…right?" Sero gives him a nervous smile. 1

Horizon just shakes his head and chuckles, "only if she asks me to, but honestly, her room is on the," he pauses for a moment and focuses on the 1B dorms. "Second floor, you can manage that easily enough."

"Uh can you not do the whole 'sensing people' thing on her, it's kinda bugging me."

"It's honestly not as pervy as everyone seems to think it is, also, I'm a doctor," Horizon says as they arrive in the common area.

Almost all of 1A was there just staring at them, or more accurately, staring at Sero.

"Dude are you ok?!" Kirishima yells as he runs over.

"It's cool man, Horizon always heals me after training," Sero says.

"You look like you fought a bear," Uraraka says. "What kind of training was it?"

"The effective kind," Horizon says. "You should have seen him on the first day, he was a mess. But after two weeks, he's almost not a little bitch, almost."

"You guys have been here for two weeks?!" Kirishima asks. "C'mon why didn't you invite me to join you?!" 3

Horizon gives an annoyed sigh, "probably because you never stop yelling…"

Moments later and Horizon is sitting on the couch in the common area as Sero rushes away to go shower.

Leaving Horizon to catch up with Tokoyami, Momo, Shoji, Kirishima, Mina, and Jiro. 2

"Really? My parents were against the dorm idea," Tokoyami says to Shoji. "But I convinced them that this was best to control the darkness in my soul." 20

"Well I live pretty far into the country so living here is easier than renting an apartment in Musutafu," Shoji says.

"Huh, mine just want me to follow my dreams, they know how much this means to me after all," Kirishima says.

"Same here," Jiro says. "Dad was really against me coming back to UA, but with All For One gone and after watching All Might's last stand he couldn't say no."

"Mine weren't that sure," Mina confesses in a somber tone. "But I mean, if we give up, then Kaminari's sacrifice isn't worth as much as it could be…so when I explained that to them they understood."

"Yeah," Kirishima agrees. "What Horizon said really was manly, we've just got to work harder to save as many people as possible, that way people who sacrificed themselves are worth the most they can be."

Horizon looks slightly bewildered for a moment, before realizing Sero must have told them what he said about this situation.

'I'll need to have a talk with Sero about quoting me…but I guess it worked out this time.'

"My parents still aren't entirely convinced if I'm being honest," Momo says. "But we've come to an understanding, so I simply have to show them all the good I can do as a Hero." 1

"An understanding?" Horizon asks, not liking the forced smile she gave them when saying that.

"They just need time to warm up to the idea, that's all," the look she gave him screamed that there was more to tell, but she didn't want him to pry, so he just let it go. 2

"Well surprisingly nobody dropped out, definitely wouldn't have let my kids back here after all the shit we dealt with," Horizon says. 2

"You realize you're partly why we came back right?" Jiro asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Well after you fought All For One for us, not to mention all the other things you've done, how could we not want to be by your side in any way we can?" She says while playing with her earphone jacks. "Plus having you around is as good a security system as we could get, you make me feel safe--make us feel safe, yeah, that's what I meant." 6

Horizon sees the sympathetic look Momo and Mina are giving her and rolls his eyes, "yeah yeah, if you say so. Atleast we don't have the 6-day school week anymore, that's a relief." 1

"You could say that again," Shoji says. "But I'm spending most of my extra time in the gym anyway," he gives Kirishima a fist bump.

"Plus we can't actually leave campus on our own," Mina whines. "Not until we've got a Provisional License and permission from a teacher…unless," she gives him her most pleading look. 1

"I'm not walking you around town," Horizon says. "Plus Nezu is pretty much trying to chain me to UA until Kurogiri is locked up."

"I guess you have as much freedom as the rest of us, the burden and responsibility of being powerful," Momo says somberly.

Horizon actually manages to laugh at that idea, "good one, but nope. I can do whatever I want, because I'm Horizon. I just need to keep UA in one piece so the Hero Course doesn't get scrapped. But he did limit my Hero days a bit more, down to 3 days a week instead of 4." 2

"He took away Thursday?" Tokoyami asks. 1

"Yeah," Horizon grumbles. "And my favorite restaurant usually has their special dish on that day…I guess I'll just have to use the fact that I'm Horizon to see if I can get it anyway. Plus the fact that now I'll be spending Sundays in Central Hospital…" 1

"Wait, that's real?" Jiro asks. "Sorry it's just, when I read that you were now healing certain people for free, it just…seemed so out of character for you."

Momo nudges her friend, "Kyoka! Regardless of how Horizon may act toward us, if he didn't care about people he wouldn't be training to be a Pro Hero." 2

"Yup," Mina gives him a devious smile. "You're just a big softie aren't you, I bet you just couldn't help healing the first sick person you saw in there!"

"That'd be the second bet you lost to me…and I'm still waiting on payment for the first one," Horizon's words cause her to just sit back and stare down at her lap. 4

"Man I can't imagine how hard it was to keep a secret like that," Kirishima says, confusing everyone for a moment before he continues. "Knowing All Might was running on limited time for over a year…must have been brutal, I'm horrible with secrets."

"I'm a doctor, it's part of the job," Horizon says. "As the post on my profile said, I did try to convince him a lot to stop being a Hero and conserve himself, but he has some kind of mental defect where he can't see someone in need and not do something to help, tragic really."

"You mean heroic, right?" Shoji asks. 6

"I said what I said…" 7

After a few more minutes Sero joins them, now cleaned up and ready to relax a bit before bed, and maybe walk over to 1B dorms to visit Yui.

"So are you guys ready for training tomorrow?" he asks them, noticing Horizon busy scrolling through something on his phone. 1

"Heck yeah man!" Kirishima jumps up excitedly. "I've been stuck at home bored out of my mind, nothing gives a good workout like UA."

"I believe Quirk control is what the next part of our training is," Tokoyami says. "I'm curious as to how the teachers will help us take them to the next level of mastery."

"Oh yeah you guys start training Super Moves tomorrow," Sero says, causing everyone else to get excited. "I'm sure they'll be pretty cool!"

"I wonder if they'd give me a sword," Tokoyami mutters.

"Ooo, a shadow sword!" Mina cheers.

"The point of a super move isn't to look cool," Momo scolds them. "It provides a large advantage when apprehending a villain, ending the fight swiftly and efficiently."

"But it also has to look cool," Sero says. "We started the Quirk part of my training a few days ago and he explained it like this," he glances over to Horizon, seeing the man not taking them on. "you've gotta make it strong to end the fight, but also cool so people can recognize it, its a fine balance like that."

"Oh, do you have any yet?" Mina asks him.

"Well, I'm still working on making my Quirk stronger for now," Sero says. "But I've got tomorrow off since Horizon is gonna be heading to Tokyo tonight, he wants me to spend the day just researching similar Quirks to see what kind of moves they have." 1

"Oh, like that guy you interned with, Kamui Woods right?" Kirishima asks.

"I thought so too, but apparently Wall Crawler is way better for my Quirk, good thing we've got lots of videos of him fighting villains in America huh." 3

"Well, it's a good thing you've got mister Quirk Specialist teaching you huh," Mina pouts playfully. "how come he isn't teaching anyone else?"

"It's best you don't know," Jiro says. "Trust me, it's not a pretty answer…"

Mina just gives her a confused look and Momo nods in agreement.

"Looks like a lot of big names are showing up," Horizon suddenly mutters, causing everyone to look at him, eyes still glued to his screen.

"What do you mean?" Sero asks. "At the party thing tomorrow?"

"Yeah, apparently Korea and Thailand are both sending their #1 Heroes…" 10

"Wow," was all anyone could say.

"It makes sense, somewhat. If they allowed them to leave the country, it would have to be for something like this, it would have to be for All Might." 1

"Those guys are pretty intense," Kirishima says nervously, "you're gonna be meeting them?"

"Honestly there aren't any #1 Heroes that aren't intense, but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before. Just think of it like talking to Endeavor," Horizon shrugs.

Jiro recoils at that, "you mean the scary angry massive dude that's always on fire…no thanks."

"Fair enough, either way, I need to finish my business here then go get ready to head to Tokyo, so I'll see--"

"Wait!" Mina yells out, jumping to her feet and signaling him to stop. "You weren't there for the dorm room competition, c'mon, let's see your room…uh, please?"

Sero immediately begins laughing, "this really isn't fair."

"Hey, the lady asked…" and Horizon would gladly take the chance to show off how much better he is. 2

And that's how they all found themselves here.

Standing in Horizon's dorm. They hadn't even discovered it because it simply wasn't on the floor map of the dorm building. All the assigned rooms were clearly labeled, but the 5th floor on both the boys' and girls' sides was blank. 1

"This can't be fair…" Jiro mutters quietly, yet everyone but Sero was thinking the same thing, he'd already gotten used to seeing Nezu play favorites with Horizon these past 2 weeks.

The entire top floor on the boys' side was converted into one massive dorm. 1

They were standing just inside the entrance, with a pair of couches and a small coffee table setup, much like Nezu's office.

A bit further in was a desk with his computer, and the three monitors currently active with various media outlets displayed. There was a large TV slightly further in at the foot of his large bed mounted to the wall, and finally another door, leading to his private washroom and shower.

"This is like a whole apartment," Kirishima says. "How'd you even get this?"

"I told Nezu I wanted it, also a lot of this stuff serves a function for me," Horizon says.

"Ok so the computer, that connects to UA servers. Nezu has a custom supercomputer here and I'm using that to help my work in Central Hospital.

Since I'm in the research wing with my Miracle Suite setup, this way I can run simulations while I'm here.

Just like how major companies use virtual simulations rather than animal testing…and I don't think Nezu would approve of me using animals anyway.

Then of course my bed…needed that to be bigger. The one I had at home wouldn't fit in the standard dorms and this is a slightly smaller version.

Closet and TV, the usual stuff. Private washroom and shower," he taps the side of his visor. "The ones everyone else has to use on the first floor are inconvenient for obvious reasons."

He then points to the corner of the room, "mini fridge, it's just for the stuff I might want in the middle of the night, oh, and this," he walks toward the windows and taps a button at the side. 1

Metal shudders extend from the top of the windows to completely seal them off, not allowing any light inside.

"Seems like a fire hazard," Momo says. 1

"I can literally warp…" 2

"But I'd say you definitely win the dorm room contest," Momo says, and everyone nods in agreement.

"I still can't believe your dorm is literally four rooms put together, you're so lucky," Mina pouts cutely. 1

"Well if you're one of the reasons people feel safe returning to UA, you can ask for stuff like this too, now if you don't mind, I need to get packed." 2

--2 Hours Later…

Sitting at his computer Horizon is pouring over every news article he can find about the special guests for tomorrow.

The last thing he wants to do is make any bad impression on them, having the chance to meet two Rank 1 Pro Heroes at once is monumental, 3 if you count Endeavor who will be there.

And four considering All Might will be there as well.

'I should at least be able to hold a conversation and play nice with the people I'll be compared to…'

After a few more minutes of learning anything he can about them, he double-checks his scheduled patients for tomorrow, then swivels around in his chair, looking directly down.

"Right, everyone should be getting ready to sleep, nobody to really bother us during our chat, time to see if my theory is right…"

Looking down at the floor, he was currently using his Quirk to sense past the ground, down to the 3rd floor.

Directly at Yuga Aoyama, his second candidate for All For One's spy… 25

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 129: CHAPTER 125(The Worst Kind Of Person) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

SHAMBLES!

Horizon appears in Aoyama's room, standing silently as he goes completely unnoticed.

Aoyama was currently staring at himself in one of the many mirrors covering every surface of the room, Horizon appeared to his far left putting him just barely out of eyeshot. 1

'Well if this is the spy, no wonder All For One didn't give him a good Quirk, he's just not worth it,' Horizon thinks as he watches him do a few poses in the mirror. 2

"Hey, Frenchie!" Horizon calls out. 5

"EEEEPPPPP!" Aoyama nearly jumps out of his own skin, holding his chest and breathing heavily as he stumbles back. "Horizon? I didn't hear you knock," he says, coming to his senses and trying to seem calm.

He notices that Horizon is in entirely casual clothes above his body glove of course, but it is a strange sight, to say the least. He also didn't have his sword with him.

"I didn't knock, or use the door," Horizon says. "I've just got some questions for you."

"Oh, well I'm always happy to help a classmate and fellow Hero in training!" Aoyama says excitedly, meaning every word.

"Perfect," Horizon immediately disappears and Aoyama feels his large hand palming the back of his head, fingers acting like a vice to keep him stuck in place.

"Uh…this is a bit painful," Aoyama says.

"Just a few more seconds," Horizon says casually. And a few seconds later…

MES

Aoyama's vision goes black for what seems to be just a moment before he wakes up face-first on the floor of his room. 1

Feeling entirely exhausted he barely managed to sit up and look around, looking over at Horizon who was scrolling through--

"What are you doing with my phone?" Aoyama asks in a tired voice, slowly shaking off the weariness as he stands up.

"Nothing apparently, it's clean," Horizon shrugs and drops it on the bed. Walking over to Aoyama he reaches down and grabs him by the head, easily lifting him off his feet till they were at eye level with each other.

"Argh!" Aoyama struggled but couldn't pry Horizon's fingers off him, and he couldn't seem to activate his Quirk either. Trying to shoot Horizon who was standing directly in front of his Naval Lazer Belt, only caused him to feel more exhausted.

"I'm gonna need you to tell me, are you a spy for the villains?"

Aoyama's eyes shot open, "what?! Why would you think that?!"

Horizon tightened his grip causing the boy to scream out. "Answer the question, are you a spy for the villains?"

"No!" He lied, and Horizon detected it. "AHHHHHH!" Aoyama's screams echoed through the dorms all the way outside, causing most of the students to wake up in a slight panic.

"I know that's a lie, so instead of asking again I'll get to the important bits, how'd you contact them?" Horizon's voice was eerily calm, setting off every kind of alarm in Aoyama's head.

"I didn't--ARGH!" Horizon gives him another not-so-gentle squeeze. Then he reaches up to Aoyama's arm, and without a moment of hesitation.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He snaps his arm like a twig with pure grip strength.

"ERAHHHHHHHHHHGH!" Aoyama's screams bounce off the walls, making sure everyone was awake.

"Now look at what you made me do," Horizon says in a low growl. "Tell me, how did you contact the villains…or I'll move on to the bones that aren't broken…yet." 6

Aoyama gives his most determined look even as tears flow down his face, refusing to say a single word to Horizon, focusing on the searing pain in his arm instead.

"Fine, be like that…" Horizon grabs him and shoves him face-first into one of the full-length mirrors, cracking the mirror and cutting up Aoyama's face. As he keeps pressing Aoyama against the mirror, slowly grating his face from the very top all the way to the bottom of it, his voice is failing to conceal his anger at this whole situation. 3

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Aoyama's screams echo out yet again as he desperately tries to reach back and stop Horizon.

Soon after there is a loud banging on the door, but Horizon ignores it while Aoyama can't even focus enough to make words.

"Whenever you're ready to talk," Horizon says as he's almost done grating his face down a third of the mirror.

He only gets more screams in response, and louder banging on the door.

"Mmm, Shambles," he warps everyone else out of the dorm and into the lawn, effectively silencing the pounding on the door.

As he's still grating away at Aoyama's face, the screams keep echoing out, as Horizon begins thinking aloud.

"You had to have contacted them at the Summer Camp, but no phones or tech was allowed aside from the teacher's stuff, my items, and--" even as he's almost done with the right side of Aoyama's face his head shifts down, looking at the belt around the boy's waist.

"Lifestyle Support Items…it's in the belt," Horizon growls.

Aoyama immediately tries harder to struggle out of his grasp, and Horizon simply and quickly swipes his face the rest of the way down the mirror. Now completely and permanently disfiguring the right side before lifting him off the ground by his hair.

"No! You can't!" Aoyama screams as Horizon reaches around to rip off the belt across his midsection. "I need it, it's a Lifestyle Support Item!" Aoyama reminds him.

Much like Horizon's visor, Lifestyle Support Items are effectively part of your human rights, they cannot be removed even if you are arrested, therefore items like Aoyama's Naval Laser Belt are required to have a safety feature, in case he needed to be arrested and have it sealed up.

As Horizon grips the top of the belt he feels both Aoyama's hands grab onto his wrist, desperate to stop him, "my rights!" 7

"You're a traitor, a dealbreaker…you have no rights," Horizon says as he rips it off and drops Aoyama in the shards of the mirror.

Aoyama crumples to the floor, expecting his Quirk to go haywire and cause him even more pain now that his belt was gone, but nothing happened. He looked down at his bare stomach and didn't see any laser coming out of his naval.

His mind couldn't understand what was happening, but he barely had the energy to stand, and the pain in his face was almost paralyzing.

His broken left arm was already numb and swollen, and looking into a fragment of the mirror, the entire right side of his face looked as if someone tried to use a cheese grater to expose the bone below.

He couldn't even feel it, just numbness and an occasional short burst of excruciating pain mixed in when the fragments touch the nerves.

And the only doctor that can properly fix this, is the one who did it to him. He'd be disfigured for the rest of his very miserable life.

As Aoyama came to terms with what was about to happen, what he was about to experience, and what his parents were soon to go through because of him…a new set of tears begin flowing.

Absolute despair.

While Aoyama was having a mental breakdown on the floor behind him, beginning a longwinded speech and a list of excuses.

Horizon was tearing open the back of his belt, exposing the motherboard.

'Hmm, I'm not very good with computer stuff…but that blinking light is probably a tracker or transmitter…and that, must be a storage drive,' Horizon says as he takes another look at the components.

With SCAN he can't actually read letters or differentiate the colours of things, and since he isn't versed in technology more than the basics…mostly due to time constraints while studying many medical fields, an understandable reason.

Breaking down the components via material composition was impossible for him.

He couldn't tell the components apart until now, reading the labels, and even now, they didn't look entirely out of place for this level of advanced equipment.

With his back turned so Aoyama couldn't see he quietly removes the data drive and pockets it.

'If this has info leading back to the League Of Villains, it's best if I use it so that the commission doesn't get it, since All For One has spies in there. Plus this way I can hunt them all down solo, get all the credit, and get Yagi his chat with Shigaraki…everyone wins,' he decides.

Holding the belt in his right-hand Horizon turns around just as Aoyama ends his grand speech…which he barely paid any attention to, it was everything he expected honestly.

The moment he figured out that Naval Laser was incompatible because it was bestowed upon him by All For One, everything else fell into place.

Horizon rolls his eyes as Aoyama finally shuts up, done with his ranting.

About him being born Quirkless, his parents finding All For One to give him a Quirk so he'd be accepted into high society, about them being threatened with death if he didn't do everything All For One was saying. 4

Looking down at him Horizon just sighs, "every time one of you quirkless fucks tries to play hero it's a pain in my ass…why can't you just accept that life isn't fair. Not everyone is special, some people like you are just meant to be throwaway side characters, you're just not the Hero of this story, I am…" 11

Aoyama looks down at Horizon's feet, not sure how to feel about that.

"But this was my chance, to be a Hero, to save mama and papa, to be like all of you," he looks up at Horizon with pleading eyes.

"You're a traitor, a dealbreaker, you're nothing like me."

Aoyama actually manages to suck in a deep breath, ignoring the pain for a moment to make his point, "you fight for the family you will have one day, and I did these heinous things for the family I have now…we may have taken different paths, but we're the sa--" 1

Horizon immediately kicks him in the face, hard enough to lift him all the way up to his feet as if he were standing, and grabs him by the neck

"We are not the same!" he yells, before taking a moment to try and compose himself. "And no matter how nice the motive, it doesn't change the monsters we are, good luck…" 8

Aoyama's expression turned from absolute fear to confusion with those last two words.

Then a moment later he was thrown harder than he'd ever been before, hurled all the way back to the other end of the room, and smashed through the window. His entire world went black for what seemed like barely a second as he experienced pain like never before.

Standing in Aoyama's room, Horizon was looking at the hole in the wall, and the now-shattered mirror that was covering it seconds ago.

Then his gaze dropped to his right arm, with blue energy mist rising from it.

Yet the moment he focused on it he felt as if a nail was hammered into his skull, and his Quirk entirely shut off.

Staggering backward until his back hit the wall. He reached up to hold his head, but only felt his visor.

"Ugh," he groans in annoyance, "that's new… so sick of this fucking bullshit." 3

Shaking it off as best he could, Horizon walked over to the hole in the wall and looked down at the front lawn of the 1A dorms. Classes 1A and 1B were gathered there with Eraser and Vlad, all crowded around Aoyama who was a mangled mess on the floor.

He seemed barely conscious as Deku and Momo were tending to his wounds, Vlad King was trying to get his class to go back to their dorms but they were being rowdy, and Eraser was on the phone, likely trying to wake up Recovery Girl.

But after a look at the crowd Horizon figured it was Nezu on the other end, they all clearly knew what happened here, and realistically only Nezu could get anything out of him if that was the case.

ROOM!

He feels a slight sting as he opens a Room just big enough to warp down in front of the crowd.

Most of them take a cautious step back, a very smart move.

"You're expelled!" Aizawa immediately yells, "I don't care if you're Nezu's favorite, go pack your things!" 9

Horizon just turns to look at Eraser, then ignored him and walks a few steps to where Deku and Momo were trying to treat Aoyama.

Momo was currently crouched down beside Aoyama as Deku was trying to put some splints on his mangled limbs, she was making bandages for his face, but they both stopped to stare up at Horizon with wide eyes.

Horizon just lifts a foot and presses his shoe against Aoyama's disfigured face, "Arghh!" his pained scream ripples out, sending a cold chill down all their spines.

Eraser readies his Capture Weapon and almost throws it out to stop him, but restrains himself. Not wanting to get sent to the other side of UA, he was still needed here to sort this out.

Aoyama groggily wakes up to see Deku and Momo's worried faces above him, then fear manifests on his face and his eyes fall to Horizon.

"Oh look, the traitor is awake, you shouldn't waste time trying to help it."

Deku moves to argue but is silenced by what happens next.

Horizon casually warps Aoyama's heart back into his hand and drops it on the lawn, "try not to lose that again, I won't be so gentle next time." 4

Seeing everyone just staring at them in surprise he looks over at Eraser who was glaring at Aoyama, and tosses him the belt. "Have Nezu take a look at that, it's how he got them to the summer camp, it has a tracker."

"Mmm," Eraser just grumbles as he looks down at the blinking tracker. "You know you've got some questions to answer, both of you…"

"I'll send Nezu the video of our," Horizon glances down at the brutalized Aoyama, "friendly chat," he says before warping away. 1

As he warps away Aoyama is left with only Deku tending to his wounds.

Some of the others wanted to help, but after their friends died because of him, they just couldn't bring themselves to do it.

Now sitting in the grass on the other side of Aoyama, opposite Deku, Momo just stared at the boy in wonder. Not sure what was going on in his mind, watching him try to tend to Aoyama with no hesitation. 13

She looked down at the injured boy unsure of what to do, even as Eraser finally got into contact with Principal Nezu.

For the first time in her life, she was unsure if a person deserved her help. But she did it anyway.

Making bandages and gauze as well as some alcohol to clean the wounds, she'd wait until Recovery Girl was here to deal with the heart.

But even while she treated him, Aoyama looked up and saw a blatant expression of disgust on her face, one that never would have been there had she not been so enraptured by a certain someone… 12

END CHAPTER-- 7

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Chapter 130: CHAPTER 126(Commission Secrets)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--1 AM…

Horizon was sitting patiently behind his desk in his office at Central Hospital, staring at the laptop in front of him.

His keyboard was pushed to the side along with the monitor on his desk, they were usually what he'd use, connected to Japan's medical database and Nezu's supercomputer back at UA.

Allowing him to run simulations and scout patients from all across the country to be sent here, to the Miracle Suite.

Checking his phone he sees it's 1 AM, his private client would be here in just over an hour, he now has all his clients meeting him here and is using the hospital instead of meeting them at hotels and such.

His eyes glance back to the laptop, seeing the files almost transferred out from the data drive connected to the side of it via an adapter.

He'd been careful with this, inserting a villain's hardware into any computer is dangerous. So he bought a fresh laptop and didn't connect it to anything before plugging it in.

He also broke the webcam that came installed onto it, just in case. The last thing he needs is to plug this into his phone or his actual computer.

He's sure Nezu's security can easily handle it, but the risk simply wasn't worth it.

While Horizon sat patiently in his office he leans back and unlocks his phone. He opens it to see the 'Future Heroes' group chat running wild as 1A and 1B students are discussing Aoyama's betrayal.

He looks to the group chat icon, seeing what was the picture of everyone at the summer camp already replaced to get rid of the traitor.

Skimming what the rapid conversation was discussing, it was mostly about people being unable to sleep, even after detective Tsukauchi had rushed over to question everyone else, and the teachers turned the dorms upside down in one more search.

Looking at his direct messages he sees one from Nezu, confirming that there wasn't a second traitor, at least not a knowing one.

He sees a slew of questions from fellow students about the whole situation.

No messages from Sero, because he knew Horizon best among all the students.

And a concerned message from Momo, asking if he was all right.

'I'm fine,' he sends her a fast reply and can't help but shake his head. 'Did you really think diaper boy can hurt me, seriously?'

'Not at all,' her reply was instant. 'I was simply asking how you are dealing with the betrayal from someone so close to us. Some of the others aren't taking it well at all, it's quite a scary thought after all…' 3

'It really doesn't bother me, I expected this on some level, that's why I wear the visor. You idiots gave him all the info about yourselves and by extension your families, you should be worried, not me.'

Momo types for a while, then deletes the message, then send a new one, 'you're right. I suppose that's why so many of us can't sleep, we're all just here trying to help each other feel safe.'

"What the fuck does that mean?" He asks himself. "Did all these losers dogpile in the common room or something?"

'What do you mean?' he sends her.

'All the girls are having a sleepover in my room at the moment, learning about Aoyama was, a lot.'

Horizon's new laptop beeps as the data drive finally opened up, spewing dozens of folders onto his screen.

He glances back down at his phone to see Momo typing another message and interrupts her, 'hero work, gotta go,' before putting his phone down. 1

"Ok, let's see what we've got here," Horizon begins sorting out the folders. Finding file after file of recorded audio from Aoyama's belt.

"Recordings.

Recordings.

Recordings.

All useless garbage, Aoyama wasn't around to hear anything critical, and definitely nothing that can hurt me.

All For One had already spread information about Weld making my life annoying, nothing I can't overcome with just one more slash…but what the fuck is this…"

Horizon finally gets to a file simply titled 'Hero Public Safety Commission,' and his interest is piqued.

"What the fuck are these names," he sees dozens of folders within this folder, all labeled with things he'd never seen before.

"Are these all heroes?" he opens the first one.

"Raised and trained by the commission to…" Horizon shakes his head, hardly able to believe what he's reading. "To eliminate Pro Heroes that threaten the stability of society via corruption or heinous acts." 1

He's taken aback by this, not by the fact that this exists, but by the fact that it fell into his lap so easily.

"Why would this be here, it makes no sense to put this in the belt…unless," realization dawns on him. "All For One knew I'd find this, and he has something in here he wants me to see. Ok, show me…"

Sorting through all the files he sees dozens of Pro Heroes, most not household names. Just people that got into the top fifty and remained there until they retired or died.

A few were compromised and had to be put down by the others, but then he got to the people he could recognize.

"Kaina Tsutsumi, Lady Nagant. Mom was always a fan of yours…she thought it was suspicious when they said you just had a mental breakdown and got into a fight with other Pro Heroes.

Looks like according to this she…holy shit. Killed the previous President of the commission, and now she's in level 4 of Tartarus."

He looks a bit more, finding the final group, the current agents of the commission.

"Mind-Binder, well I remember what happened to him. Chrome, so you were Tetsutetsu's dad, and Shifter…guess meeting me didn't work out very well for all of you."

Horizon leans back in his chair and thinks it all over.

'So when they assembled a team to deal with 'Arsenal', they didn't just send Heroes, they sent a hit squad. If I wasn't there they definitely would have just killed her.

Mom knows too much about too many powerful people all around the world. International pressure to execute here would be too great for most countries to ever stand against. 1

Having this information from the commission itself is good, I can make sure they lose if they try to fuck me over, but I doubt it'll come to that.

I'm too valuable, they just need to be patient for me to solve their problems, and at this pace by the time I graduate, within one year of that I'll be #1, then they won't have any choice but to hand my parents over.

The contract is held and everyone wins…' 11

"I definitely can't let anyone know I have this, not until I eventually need a bit more leverage, prove that I can and will burn it all down if they try to fuck me over. Any sooner than that and they'll see me like a rabid dog that needs to be put down…I just need to play the part of a guard dog on a leash for them, at least for now." 12

Horizon lets out a frustrated groan, "why can't things just be fucking simple, do the job, get paid, and everyone moves on," he signs and continues digging only having one more file folder remaining.

'Keigo Takami,' he clicks it, and immediately freezes at what he sees.

"Hawks," he lets out in a low growl, then immediately catches himself. "No, revenge doesn't get me anything," he reminds himself.

"Hawks…is someone I'll be forced to work with, to play nice with, he's a top ten hero after all, and I'm Horizon, it's inevitable," he closes the file and begins sorting through the other data, sifting through it for anything about the League Of Villains. 4

'All For One, was that your plan? Make me kill Hawks or something so I end up in shit. Break my contract and get my parents killed, get me labeled a villain, and turn me against the Heroes…so you finally have someone competent on your team instead of the league of losers you're stuck with. 1

Nice try, but I'm a lot more, practical, than that. The last thing I want is to get any deeper in this Hero-Villain nonsense.' 5

A simple assessment, but sadly without the key pieces of information he lacks, the pieces All For One builds his master plan atop, even Horizon cannot figure out the vast and glorious scheme.

'Nothing about Shigaraki or his team, or where they make the Nomu, or how, useless shit--' his main computer alerts him of something, pulling his attention to it.

Horizon shuts off the laptop and checks the progress his simulations have made.

"Blah blah blah useless nonsense," Horizon mutters while looking at his research. "Bunch of useless shit about curing mental degenerative disease. Dementia, Alzheimer, I'd have to sink weeks into solving those and they can't even work for me.

I guess it makes sense since my brain patterns are similar enough to someone within the final stages of those, at least for the seconds that I'm blacked out. 1

But since I'm the only person in the world that can map the genome efficiently and accurately enough to solve it, I'll keep this in my pocket until I need leverage…' 6

"Alright," he looks down at his phone to check the time. "Time to get to work being a doctor, then just that party later…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 131: CHAPTER 127(The 3rd Party) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting opposite Yagi in Nezu's private luxury helicopter, Horizon is idly scrolling through some reports on his phone.

He was wearing his usual Hero Costume with his sword resting beside him, while Yagi wore a simple black suit with the left sleeve tucked away. On account of him still missing that arm. 2

Horizon glances out the window where he sees Hiroshima in the distance, their destination for the evening. 3

Then looking across from him he sees Yagi meticulously reading a set of flashcards, mouthing the words as he rehearses his speech one last time.

Yagi sighs in frustration and leans back, "I don't think I can do this, maybe we should turn around."

"We aren't turning around," Horizon says. "I already left Tokyo to go to UA to get you, now I'm here just to bodyguard you for the evening, how much of my time do you plan to waste?" 2

"Sorry, but I just don't think I can go stand in front of everyone, for them to see me like…well," he gestures to himself. "Like this."

"Those idiots worship the ground if you so much as walk on it, you'll be fine."

"But I'm All Might," Yagi says. "How am I supposed to stand in front of them to accept the awards and honors…when I can't even protect myself anymore, much less anyone else." 1

"Nobody expects people to be heroes forever, time is undefeated in that way, well not for me, but you get what I mean, right?" 3

Yagi looks a bit confused at that, "what do you mea--" 10

"Just focus on being honest with them. Despite all the things online about Nana Shimura and the conspiracy theories."

"Not conspiracy theories," Yagi says. "What All For One said was true, which is why it hurts so much."

Horizon sighs, "you golden-hearted types always try to blame yourselves for things you can't control, it's stupid. You saved a lot of people, don't let anything diminish that, focus on that and you'll be fine." 6

"Easier said than done," Yagi mutters as he goes back to rehearsing his speech.

As they arrive above the city, the skyline of Hiroshima is dazzling under the night sky, but Horizon is looking out over the ocean, to a barely visible light in the distance.

Even as the helicopter lands on the roof of the most luxurious hotel in the city, he barely acknowledges any of it. 3

"I suppose it's time to make this official," Yagi grumbles as gets up, stepping out as the pilot opens the door.

Looking back Yagi sees Horizon step out, then he begins walking toward the elevator on the roof. Ignoring the pool and lounging area.

He sees three people standing in front of it to greet him, two plain-looking men in black suits, and the woman in the middle.

Around his age, slicked back blonde hair, pearls around her neck and hanging from her ears, and wearing a loose black gown.

"President Pantu," Yagi greets her with a polite handshake. "Always a pleasure to see you, ma'am."

"You as well All Might," she says with a kind smile. " Before we go inside I'd like to personally and professionally thank you, for all that you've done, for all that you've sacrificed…the world is grateful for you, as a Pro Hero and as a shining example of all we can become."

"Thank you ma'am, I only hoped to do good and help others in my time as a Hero."

"You really are the best of us," Pantu gives him a genuine smile. "My men will escort you inside and out of this cold air, everyone inside is quite excited about the ceremony itself," she steps aside and gestures to the elevator.

"You aren't going down with us?" Yagi asks.

"I'd like to have a word with him," Pantu gestures to the side of the roof where Horizon was gripping the railing, staring out at the lights in the distance.

"Oh, I see, I'll go on ahead then," Yagi's voice hid it well, but her words felt like a punch in the gut.

'One minute you're on top, and the moment you aren't useful anymore they move on immediately…but this is for the best, Horizon can actually protect people, while I need someone to protect me now.'

As the elevator closes Pantu looks at the helicopter to see the pilot waiting inside, ready and on standby for Horizon and All Might to leave.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself she schools her expression into an ice-cold mask, then slowly walks over to stand beside him.

She doesn't say a word, simply looking up at him.

Leaned forward, hands gripping the safety railing hard enough to crush the metal, his visor was unreadable but he seemed, agitated.

'What is that?' Pantu wonders as she sees a strange blue energy vapor rising from his hands before it quickly stops.

Her eyes then move up.

Looking from his visor into the direction he was facing, she saw a barely visible light on the horizon. 10km out into the sea, connected by one massive and heavily secured bridge. Precisely 12km from where they currently stand.

Tartarus. The most secure prison on this side of the world, only comparable the America's New Alcatraz. 3

She's skeptical at first, 'he can't possibly be sensing within Tartarus, from 12km away…that's impossible, he's powerful but not that powerful, right?' 2

Her skepticism immediately fades as he speaks in a low growl.

"Where are they?" 1

"Hmm, what exactly do you mean?" Pantu asks.

Horizon stands up straight and turns to face her, his presence strong and rigid.

Hiding the fact that below his visor, below his mask, he was bleeding from the eyes, nose, and ears. His brain felt like stakes were being hammered into it.

That it took everything in him not to sway in place with the wind.

All because he opened a 24km wide room to Scan inside Tartarus, for barely a few seconds.

He could feel his energy levels remaining fine, but processing it, as always, was another story entirely.

"You know what I mean," Horizon says.

Pantu turns away from him to face Tartarus, "tell me what you see then, and I'll clarify," she seems completely unphased by his attitude.

Horizon just growls and turns to face the prison as well, but doesn't open a new Room, "prisoners, lots of them, a scientist of some kind, short, portly, labcoat, glasses…he's monitoring All Fo--"

"That's enough," Pantu cuts him off, not wanting him to delve deeper into the fact that Dr. Shodai Garaki was hired to build the containment unit to counter All For One's many Quirks. 8

He was their best choice for a Quirk specialist since the only person considered to be above him, would likely be Horizon himself.

He also came highly recommended by many trusted people who all shared a certain mutual friend.

And giving Nezu any access to Tartarus was simply out of the question with how obviously compromised he is when it comes to Horizon.

"You've made your point," Pantu says. "I had them moved after the sports festival." 1

"Why?" Horizon asks.

"Because before then, I didn't realize exactly how powerful you were, I had to keep them out of your reach…you get them out too early and suddenly we have multiple countries breathing down our necks," Pantu says. 1

Horizon doesn't speak for a while, then says in a calm voice, "your neck, not mine. And you do know I can detect any lies you speak, right?" he lied, still unable to use Polygraph without physical contact, which he currently doesn't have.

He focuses on her expression, but she gives him nothing, until, she smiles.

Pantu smiles at that, confusing him, "no, you can't…because that's actually my Quirk. You should do some more research on a person before you try to bluff them, not that you'd ever find my Quirk on file…and it will stay that way, understand?" 1

"Mmm, understood," he grumbles out. "You know, I always wondered what you'd be like, the third signature on my contract…and I was right, you really are one seriously cold bi--" 4

"It's needed for my job," Pantu says. "How have you been holding up your end of the deal thus far?" 1

Horizon relaxes and simply shrugs, "playing hero is easy for someone like me, I'm sure you've had a team or two tracking my progress, right?"

"Naturally, you're a massive gamble for us. I signed that contract expecting just a doctor, but instead of some crumbs, I lucked into the whole pie…lucky me."

"Don't get too comfortable," Horizon says. "I'll be your superhero or whatever, but it's just a job, nothing more and nothing less."

Pantu raises a brow at that, "and what would it take to make this a lifetime contract?"

Horizon immediately steps away from the railing and leans in a bit closer to her, "since you've got some lie detection Quirk then you'll know how serious I am. If you try to fuck me over in any way…I'll burn everything to the ground, I'll rip Tokyo out of the ground, raise it into the sky, then drop it on your head. Just. Like. That." 15

Pantu keeps her stone-cold expression, even as Horizon walks over to the elevator and leaves her on the roof.

Knowing she can't let up her facade for even a moment Pantu remains calm in case Horizon was still 'watching' her.

'I need him to help stabilize Japan at least, but from the way things are moving, he'll be the #1 Hero the same year he graduates. I've got just over 3 years to stabilize Japan and deal with this contract situation.

And if I try to undercut him in any way,' Pantu looks out over the city, all the people living their innocent lives. 3

Lives that Horizon has said he'd snuff out if necessary, if she pushed him.

'I need to extend the timeline of his contract, the longer he stays working for us the better, because we really can't afford the alternative…' 16

Taking out her phone Pantu immediately calls the Hero Public Safety Commission HQ and gives orders to the analysis and simulation teams.

"I need a full rundown of Horizon versus any available Pro Hero we have, use all gathered intel, and I need a projection of exactly how long it will take for Japan to be stable, League Of Villains as primary chaos catalyst." 6

"Yes ma'am," the person at the other end says before Pantu hangs up.

"That should tell me how long I need to extend his contract for at least. Honestly Nezu, you just had to find the kind of monster we can't even use a leash on…because the more we use it, the faster he snaps…" 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 132: CHAPTER 128(#1 Heroes)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Finally sneaking out of the main room Yagi manages to escape to the hotel's balcony. A massive garden area that overlooked Hiroshima. 2

With the moon high in the sky and reflecting off the ocean in the distance, the cool night air nearly made him shiver, no, it felt oddly warm.

He breathes a sigh of relief, feeling the tension in his body relax, then looks down at the medal in his hand.

'For going above and beyond as a citizen and a hero…or something like that,' he thinks. He couldn't really remember what Pantu said when she presented him with it on stage.

Or what the other dozen or so medals and accolades were for.

He mindlessly begins walking to the railing, to get some fresh air, and take a break from people bombarding him with their gratitude for all he's done.

It all felt so hollow, undeserved.

'I'm here, weak and frail, helpless, when I'm supposed to be protecting everyone. But even tonight I need someone to protect me when I leave UA.' 1

Yagi can't help but look down at the medal in disgust, as if it insulted him. And before he knows it he's leaning against the railing, holding it out above the street below, ready to get rid of it.

As if it could ever help ease his shame, as if dropping it to the street below would fix anything. 2

As if--

"What are you doing?" A deep voice asks beside him.

"Huh!" Yagi nearly fumbles and drops the medal but barely catches it, breathing a sigh of relief as he looks to his right.

Standing only a meter away was Endeavor, Enji Todoroki in a formal black suit, leaning against the railing with his phone in his hand.

The former #2 Hero, now the temporary #1.

Pantu has already spoken to both these men regarding the rankings, unlike the public, they already knew Endeavor would officially become the #1 Hero during the annual ceremony in November.

Four #1 Heroes in one building, at one event. An astronomically rare occurrence. 2

Japan's former #1 -All Might. 1

Japan's current #1- Endeavor.

Thailand's current #1- Buakaw. 7

Korea's current #1- Hodori. 6

And if counting who everyone assumes is a future #1 Hero, Horizon, that makes five.

"When did you get here?" Yagi asks Endeavor after recovering from the surprise.

Endeavor glances down at his phone, seeing that Shoto read his messages but hasn't responded…as usual. Then looks to Yagi.

"I was here before you, but you were too in your own head to notice."

'That explains why I'm not freezing in this wind,' Yagi realizes.

"You should go back inside, that's where the cameras are, isn't that what you're all about?" Endeavor asks gruffly.

Yagi just shakes his head and goes back to leaning on the railing. "That's why I'm out here actually, same as you I'd imagine. I didn't see you inside, not even during the presentation, are you avoiding their questions too?"

This gets Endeavor curious, "what do you mean 'too', since when do you avoid people?"

Yagi falls silent for a while, playing with the small medal in his hand, rolling it between his fingers.

"Have you ever felt, like all your life you've only been focused on one thing, and you thought you were succeeding…but after it's all done you realized you failed anyway." 8

Endeavor glances down at his phone, still seeing dozens of messages over the past two months with not a single reply from Shoto or Natsuo.

"Even you can't fight villains forever," Endeavor says. "Is that what you wanted to do, or would you be happier if you died fighting?"

Yagi doesn't even think about it for a moment, because he's thought about it a lot these past few days, "maybe," he mutters.

"Tch," Endeavor scoffs, "you've done your part, more than your fair share at least. You know better than anyone that even you can't save everyone, just try to enjoy retirement somehow…"

"That's impossible while Shigaraki is out there," Yagi says, and Endeavor immediately realizes what's wrong.

"So that's what this is about, you feel responsible for him."

"My master neglected his dad, to train me. That chain of events led us to where we all are today, how am I supposed to not feel responsible for that, at least partly."

"Hmm, 'Heroes are willing to hurt the only people they're truly required to protect, for the sake of strangers…' at least I think that's what he said," Endeavor says.

"All For One?"

"Horizon, during the sports festival, it feels like every day he's more and more right about that," Endeavor glances down at his phone, still seeing no replies. "It's given me a lot to think about, the things that happened these past few months."

"You and me both," Yagi actually manages to chuckle at that, enjoying how much more friendly Endeavor was being at the moment. "I have to somehow get used to being the one who needs saving…while my master's grandson is out there hurting people, and I can't even stop him.

And you need to focus on being the #1 Hero, being the new symbol for the people of this country."

"Mmm," Endeavor grumbles, "That hasn't been on my mind as much as I would have expected, I've been distracted by some personal issues. How has Shoto been doing at UA?"

"He's the same as always, it's always been a bit difficult to read him, is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine," he lied. "But I suppose now you can finally give your full focus to teaching those students how to be proper Pro Heroes."

Yagi chuckles at that, then gestures at his missing arm, "I suppose this is what it took to get me to stay in one place, but yes that's my plan. You're always welcome to stop in at UA if you want to visit, or maybe even teach a class.

Oh, never mind, you'll be too busy now that you're the #1 Hero, my apologies." 1

"#1 Hero," Endeavor mutters, taking one last look at his phone before putting it away. "I always thought I'd be happy to hear that…but this just feels rotten."

"Rotten?" Yagi aks.

"Undeserved," Endeavor says. "I never truly surpassed you, I'm only here because of the gap between me and all the others, I was the only real option to fill the space you left, it's a hollow promotion."

"That doesn't change what it means, what it requires of you," Yagi says. "It doesn't matter how you got to this spot, what matters is that you show everyone that you deserve it, that you show yourself you deserve it."

Endeavor falls silent for a while, carefully considering everything he just heard. Realizing it was all true, that he couldn't change the past, he just had to show everyone who doubted him that he is a worthy #1 Hero.

"But what if that isn't my focus anymore?" Endeavor ask.

Yagi is completely blindsided by this, "but being the greatest hero has always been your focus, what are you talking about?"

Endeavor just frowns at that, "hurting the people close to you in order to be a better hero to others, that's not something I want to do anymore. But the only way I can even think of atoning is to prove that this wasn't all for nothing, that the suffering wasn't for nothing. That I am a great hero, someone they can look up to." 2

Yagi gives him a confused look, "atone? What are you talking about?"

Endeavor's eyes open wide for a moment, realizing he's said too much, "sorry, just ignore that I said anything."

Yagi gives him a strange look but doesn't judge, "it's fine, but what does this mean for your plans as the new top pro?"

"Time beats everyone, it's undefeated," Endeavor says.

"Horizon said that during his interview with Chitose, right?"

"He also said that it won't beat him…whatever that means, but what I mean is. I don't want to be the next you, and I don't even want to be the future me, at least not the me I thought I was going to be. 2

The #1 Pro Hero Endeavor that I always wanted to be, he's just another monster I want nothing to do with now. Now I just want to fix all the broken things in my life, no more hurting people to save strangers, at least not if I can help it. I'll take the time to mend the things that matter most…"

"I see," Yagi nods a few times. "But that would mean stepping down as the #1 Pro, because from what you're saying this will take all your focus."

"It likely will."

"But, you and I both know, with me gone, the #1 could only be you. The only current pro I'm absolutely certain of leaving this country to, is you," Yagi gestures to the city in front of them and gives a genuine All Might brand smile. "When all the people cry out, gripped by fear, I know for certain they'll be alright, because you are here."

"Tch," Endeavor scoffs, "you're as dramatic and corny as ever, but I'm not stupid enough to step down. I understand the state of Japan as it is, if I refuse this spot then things only get much worse for the country."

"Oh, right," Yagi puts his arm down awkwardly. "So what is your plan then?"

"Three years, in three years he'll graduate and easily overtake me to become the top pro. Then I will have more time to focus on what's important. Until then, I'm stuck as the #1 Hero."

"Hmm, I always expected you to hold onto this spot until the end… I guess these past few months have really caused a lot of unexpected changes."

"I'm not delusional," Endeavor says. "Even if I wanted to do that, the moment he graduates I'm back to Rank #2, competing with you was nearly impossible, but I could at least see a path forward. But there is no competing with that thing Nezu found…" 4

"You'd be surprised," Yagi says. "There could very well be another young man with incredible potential ready to rival him." 13

Endeavor just shakes his head at that, looking at Yagi as if he was an absolute moron, "it's Horizon, he has no rivals."

"But he isn't the only Mystery Class," Yagi points out. 5

"True, but Star is much older and already in her prime, and he's already likely at least somewhat comparable. By the time he graduates, he'll be ahead of her, even tonight, three of the current top 10 most powerful heroes in the world are in this building, and he's still arguably stronger than any of us."

Yagi just forces a smile, wishing Deku all the luck he can give, but he's also glad Endeavor isn't planning to overburden Shoto with the impossible task of surpassing someone like Horizon. 11

"Speaking of the brat, shouldn't he be glued to you for the night?" Endeavor asks.

"Oh, Horizon said he'll keep track of me with his Quirk, it's still a bit creepy but that way he doesn't have to shadow me all night."

"Hmm, I see."

"When I came out here I saw him take your seat actually, the one you never used."

"Isn't that at the table with--"

"Buakaw and Hodori," Yagi nods. "That's partly why he bothered coming tonight, he wanted to meet the other Rank #1 Pro Heroes."

Endeavor looks genuinely bothered by that idea, "Horizon, speaking to heroes from other countries…that sounds like a fight waiting to happen, maybe we should go check on them befo--" 3

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Endeavor's phone goes off and he immediately checks it, hoping to see a response from either of his sons.

"What is it?" Yagi asks, seeing his focused expression as he looks at the phone.

"Kurogiri and Twice were spotted on Mt. Fuji, the two most valuable members of the league, and that close to Tokyo, that can't be good, looks like Horizon and I will be leaving early…" 1

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 133: CHAPTER 129(Monsters and Freaks)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 2

CHAPTER START--

"What the hell…" Horizon mutters, standing toward the far end of the room.

Dozens of heroes and politicians scattered about in their best gowns and suits, all either standing or sitting at designated tables to chat and show off to each other.

But what was on his mind was Yagi, he'd just sensed him walking onto the massive balcony, and just as he was about to go check on him, Endeavor began talking to him.

"Well I guess he can take care of him for a while," Horizon mutters, only this time someone actually heard him.

"Is something the matter?" Best Jeanist asks him, snapping him back into the moment.

Looking at Jeanist he sees him wearing a dark blue suit with the collar still reaching up to his nose.

"Sorry I was just checking the perimeter, everything is fine," Horizon says.

Jeanist takes his word for it, because why wouldn't he, everyone in the room believes in Horizon as their future #1 Hero after all.

Taking the moment to chat with Horizon he stands beside him, looking over the room, "you handled tonight well, quite tactful."

Horizon just shakes his head, "dealing with a mob of excited heroes and politicians and…rich people," he sees Rikiya -Re-Destro-, and Chitose Curious, chatting at a far away table. 1

"Yes, but don't forget that these people make our jobs possible, many individuals wouldn't be able to act as Pro Heroes without the support of society, its what keeps us ahead of the villains."

"Doesn't mean I want to be in a room with them, but this is part of the job, right? Playing nice…"

"The most important part when considering all of society," Jeanist says. "Our presence is a deterrent, especially as a top Pro. And helping people feel safe is part of that. Thankfully when you're #1 I doubt you'll need any help, considering how well you've already been making an impression for the nation." 1

"Hmm, is that what you wanted to remind me about?"

"Somewhat, but mostly I wanted to see how you were handling the pressure," Jeanist turns to full look at him with sympathetic eyes. "The pressure that comes with being a top 10 Pro Hero is vast, being the #1 is infinitely more so. But to be under the pressure of everyone expecting you to be the next, the stronger and even more deific version of All Might, while being a student, I dare not imagine that…"

Horizon pauses for a moment before he responds, "the weight of the world is inconsequential, compared to the standard I hold myself to, compared to who they need me to be." 7

Jeanist sighs, "you #1 Heroes really are odd, but I suppose that's what makes you the real super-humans."

"It's necessary," Horizon says, "normal people can't handle the weight of 300 Million lives counting on their every move."

Jeanist just rest a hand on Horizon's shoulder and shakes his head, "I do not envy you young man."

As he withdraws his hand Horizon turns toward him, "hmm, I should have asked sooner, how are your lungs?"

"Oh, that. Honestly I usually forget about that injury until someone brings it up, and it makes me quite happy knowing that you offer such a service for free at the hospital now."

"Yeah well, just doing my part."

"Yet you didn't heal everyone from that night, only a few, why is that?"

Horizon's shoulders noticeably stiffen at that, "because Hawks can take care of himself…" he says before walking off. 7

'What an odd response,' Jeanist thinks, keeping that in mind as he goes to catch up with Ryukyu.

Walking away from Jeanist Horizon weaves through the chattering people, ignoring a few lovely ladies trying to get his attention and some older gentlemen itching to offer him more brand deals that he'd simply ignore.

Playing along with Stain's 'True Hero' nonsense means he can't actually monetize himself as much as other heroes, but that was never his concern, he'd trade all his money to get his true goal. 1

'Time to make a great first impression…' Horizon thinks as he sees his future peers.

Sitting at a large round table at the front of the room, close to the stage Yagi stepped off of moments ago, Buakaw and Hodori.

Buakaw was a large man, to say the very least. Standing at 6ft6 198cm, packed with just as many muscles as All Might below his traditional robes. 2

Gold and white to show his status and reputation, light brown skin with short spiky black hair and solid golden eyes.

He looked entirely calm and collected which is an extreme contradiction to how everyone kept away from the table mostly because of him.

His immense and intense presence was unmistakable even in this room.

The man calmly running his red prayer beads through his fingers was a monster standing among the absolute strongest in the world.

The pride of Thailand, a prodigy that completely reinvigorated the nation's interest in Muay Thai, a grandmaster at The Art Of 8 Limbs, even before using his Quirk. 4

Born with a Quirk perfect for appearing as a guardian of his people, and even better to compliment his fighting style.

Buakaw: The Pride Of Thaliand. 1

And his wife sits beside him, the absolutely beautiful Lady Priestess, wearing shrine maiden robes and munching away at a salad in front of her.

A model woman to represent their nation marrying their greatest hero and the pride of the nation, it was almost too perfect to be real.

And sitting across from them chatting up Uwabami, The United Democratic Repulic of Korea's #1 Hero, the infamous skirt chaser, Hodori. 3

After world war 3, North Korea was destroyed and captured by China, but after world war 4 it was handed back to the Korean people to create this new nation. 11

Many others were formed in this manner.

And to represent this nation is their current #1 Hero, Hodori, the strongest full-beast-transformation Quirk in the world.

The youngest current #1 Hero in the world, at only 26 years old.

Standing at 7ft 213cm but very thin compared to Heroes like Endeavor, All Might, Star and Stripe, or Buakaw.

Wearing a grey suit with no tie, and the top buttons undone he has his arm around Uwabami's shoulder as she giggles at something he said, blushing wildly. 1

She seemed lost in his piercing red eyes, and looking closer Horizon could see his spiky white hair almost swaying back and forth, as if it were moving on its own.

Horizon just rolls his eyes at them, 'Hodori didn't bring any of his usual girls…guess he wants to try the local fruits.' 1

Approaching the table he sees all the empty seats beside both couples, all reserved and all the people were present, but for one reason or another, nobody wanted to be too close to these two, much in the same way people keep a reasonable amount of space between themselves and Endeavor. 1

And on the other hand…nobody wants their wife at the same table with Hodori.

'Monsters and freaks', that's exactly how most knowledgeable people would describe these men.

While there is no official international Hero Ranking, every government is acutely aware of who the top 10 most powerful heroes of all the local Rank #1 heroes in the world are.

But while Star can easily defeat anyone lower than her on this ranking, that truth is not the same for the other rankings. Aside from her being a higher rank doesn't guarantee victory against a lower rank.

#1-Star and Stripe.

#2-Endeavor.

#3-Buakaw. 4

#7-Hodori.

And eventually when he becomes a fully licensed Hero, Horizon will join the other monsters and freaks of this world. 1

Rising to become a god among people, among even the super-humans.

But until that, with All Might gone, Star and Stripe is no longer argued being at number 1 or 2, but is solidly at #1 in the world.

"I hope nobody here minds," Horizon says, in English, as he takes Endeavor's reserved seat at the table, having been ignored by the man in question. "But I figured I should at least introduce myself. I'm Horizon."

"Buakaw," the man says in English as he extends a hand which Horizon shakes, much more pleasant than his appearance would portray. "And this is my wife."

"Lady Priestess," Horizon says, and she gives him a pleasant smile and a nod.

Both men glance over at Hodori, only to see him completely ignoring them and focusing on chatting up Uwabami. 2

Buakaw and his wife give the young hero an annoyed look but quickly ignore him. 1

"So are you enjoying your time in Japan?"

"Absolutely," Priestess says, "your country is quite lovely, but we'll be leaving before sunrise."

"Ahh, I was curious about that," Horizon looks at Buakaw. "Its common knowledge that top Pro Heroes can't travel abroad so easily, heck I can't even leave Japan without approval from Pantu and President Bosu…so how did two #1 Pro Heroes manage to visit us so quickly?"

"In most cases that would be the case," Buakaw says. "But I owe All Might personal gratitude from some guidance he gave me very early on, the first time we worked together. They simply couldn't stop me from coming here at this ceremony to honor him."

"So they decided to just play nice instead, that makes sense," Horizon says.

"That must have been nice," Hodori cuts in, "damn Korean government told me to come and show face, some crap about Japan and Korea being neighbors so showing support being necessary." 3

"It's only one day for you," Buakaw says. "I'm sure you can manage spending one night in Japan. Not to mention showing international solidarity among Heroes and governments is important. All Might showed very well how important it is to have a positive international reputation.

If we ever fail then I can at least feel hopeful that powerful heroes will aid my people in my place, at least until they get back onto their feet."

"Tch," Hodori scoffs, "doesn't matter if you just never fail. But the travelling isn't the problem. I didn't spend years collecting a perfect Harem of supermodels to be pulled away from them for some stuffy ceremony." 5

Buakaw and his wife look slightly disgusted at that, but Horizon doesn't react.

"Well I suppose I can see that being annoying," Horizon is sure to keep things polite, "So what's Hero work like in your countries?"

"Scouting new opportunities?" Buakaw asks.

"Not at the moment at least, I was just curious about how wild things can get."

"Hmm," Buakaw things about it for a moment. "In Thaliand underground Heroes are far more effective and successful. Most of the influential villains are smart enough to adapt and avoid direct conflicts which puts a focus on tracking and infiltration, as well as stealth."

"I read about that," Horizon says. "Nobody wants to get into the ring with you, at least not after the first few years, so you forced the villain landscape to adapt and work around you."

Buakaw nods," the same would have happened in your nation, at least at the same scale. But unlike Thaliand the more flashy villains can't simply cross the border to escape All Might and do their business then return, since your country is a collection of islands."

"Sounds like you've got a lot of free time," Hodori laughs. "Makes sense that most people don't want to deal with Virya, there isn't much in this world worth taking that many punches from you at once."

"You could achieve the same result if you took things a bit more seriously," Buakaw says.

Hodori does a low growl, more annoyed than anything else. Looking at Buakaw he gives him a toothy smile, showing off some of his teeth becoming razor sharp fangs before they shift back to normal.

"I try to keep it playful because I just get too excited," Hodori chuckles, "I'm just an extremist like that, not to mention seeing me fighting like that scares the girls…"

"Well I guess that's…a reason," Horizon says.

"Oh right, speaking of women," Hodori glances to Uwabami, making sure she couldn't understand what they were saying in English. "Is bunny girl making an appearance at this thing? I was hoping to take her back to Korea with me, atleast for a few nights." 5

Horizon pauses for a moment, then responds, "I don't sense her around, sorry."

Hodori frowns, "how about a number for Midnight?" 1

"Sorry I don't have that."

"Tch, guess you're useless," he leans back and pulls Uwabami a bit closer, leaving her completely oblivious. 11

After talking for a short while Horizon's phone eventually goes off, along with Jeanist and Ryukyu.

They all see the alert regarding Kurogiri being spotted near Mt. Fuji, sent to specific top Pro Heroes for this capture mission.

"Sorry but, Hero work," Horizon says and everyone at the table politely nods as he gets up and walks outside.

Endeavor looks up from his phone to see Horizon approaching him and Yagi.

"Jeanist and Ryukyu are already flying off," Horizon says. "I need to take Yagi back to UA, you can ride with us in the helicopter."

Endeavor looks between Yagi and Horizon, then reluctantly nods, "alright, lets go deal with the League of Villains…" 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 134: CHAPTER 130(Bait and Switch) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Something doesn't seem right here," Horizon says as the helicopter lands.

As they touchdown at the very edge of the Mt. Fuji Forest, both he and Endeavor step out.

Only two other people were here, Ryukyu, the dragon hero, and Best Jeanist, the fibre hero.

Standing in a small clearing at the start of this trail, with the completely dark forest ahead of them.

"What doesn't feel right?" Endeavor asks, he'd changed into his Hero Costume but kept his jacket out, just to keep the flames covered so they could properly approach.

The flames on his body were also off at the moment.

As the four Heroes meet up, with everyone aside from Horizon having a flashlight to navigate the forest, they can feel the cold night air warming up as Endeavor stands beside them.

"Has anything happened while we were waiting?" Endeavor asks his peers.

"Can't tell, we can hardly see anything," Ryukyu says. "The others should be here within the hour so we can get this strike started."

"First we need to find the base," Jeanist cuts in. "The people that were climbing the mountain only spotted Kurogiri and Dabi here, deep in the forest, but they saw them close to the trail and not near any clear base of operations."

"I see," Endeavor nods then turns to Horizon. "Do you sense anything?"

They all looks over to Horizon, seeing him completely facing the forest and ignoring them, to them he looked like a statue, devoid of any emotion or struggle thanks to his visor and relaxed posture.

But below that his mind was in immense pain as he was forced to process every leaf, tree, rock, everything for 14km in every direction.

Eventually he stops and catches his breath, keeping his composure to appear perfect and strong, the ideal hero.

"I found something, Shambles…"

All four of them immediately warp toward the mountain, appearing in large clearing that's torn up as if it were a dig site. 1

"Hng," Ryukyu stumbles and catches herself on Endeavor as her heels dig into the soft worked dirt. "A little warning next time please."

"He never gives a warning," Endeavor grumbles as he helps her up, "and yes, it is always that annoying."

As Horizon is walking around Jeanist takes out his phone to check their position, "he warped us 12km away from where we were. What did you find?"

"Look at this," Horizon says, and they all look over to him, seeing him looking down at the ground. But unlike them he didn't have any light, he was simply standing in the dark looking at the floor.

"Does your visor come with night vision?" Endeavor asks as they walk over with the flashlights.

"No."

"Do you naturally have night vision?" Ryukyu asks, now getting a bit creeped out by how strange Horizon is. 1

"No, just looks at this rock." 1

As they flash the lights onto the rocks, they notice its a large stone perfectly cut, with the other section missing.

"Was there a fight here?" Jeanist asks, looking around at the torn up dirt surrounding them. "This place does look like a battlefield."

"No this isn't from combat," Horizon says. "This rock wasn't cut by conventional means, its a spatial cut."

"Like yours."

"Like Warp Gate," he looks to Jeanist. "Show me the map of the trail those hikers said they were on."

"Here," Jeanist shows them all the map, and Horizon immediately notices something wrong.

"That's over ten miles away, they literally can't see or atleast identify villains from this far out, especially not since they'd be walking at ground level in the forest."

"You think they lied?" Endeavor asks.

"Hmm, anywhere Kurogiri is, I'd have to be, its a simply way to control what region I operate within."

"But there wasn't anything they'd want from your location tonight," Ryukyu says. "Unless--"

"All Might," Endeavor says.

"I'll call Nezu, there isn't anything here, and if they removed me to send him at Yagi then he's probably enough to deal with UA, even with Eraser Head there," Horizon says as he calls up Nezu.

"Him?" Ryukyu looks confused.

Horizon just points to the upturnt dirt at their feet, "this wasn't a battlefield, its a footprint, the league has some kind of giant they're confident in. You should call Pantu, tell her it was a distraction."

Endeavor nods and immedaitely begins making the call.

But even as Horizon was speaking to Nezu, he had to withold information.

All For One mentioned Gigantomachia to him, it was obvious that he saw that villain as second only to him among villains, and the name was a dead giveaway.

He just hoped UA could hold out until he got there, because he couldn't reveal that he knew any more than he told them, even if that means Yagi has to die to keep his secrets.

--Hiroshima, 9 PM…

Standing out on the balcony at All Might's tribute gala, Pantu had her phone to her ear with a dozen security officers around her.

"How sure are you?" She asks Endeavor through the phone.

"I agree with Horizon, its the most logical move to deal a blow to our society, killing All Might and destroying UA in one fell swoop."

Pantu barely thinks about it for a moment, "alright, I'll contact the others and have them prepare to defend UA until you and Horizon get there to finish the fight, but Endeavor."

"Hmm, yes?"

Pantu doesn't even look conflicted at what she was about to say, "if it comes down to it, don't sacrifice yourself for All Might, for anyone."

"What?!"

"Listen, this is the one thing he was never very good at, but you need to stop thinking as a regular hero and start thinking like our new #1. Losing him would hurt, but we can recover from losing a already retired hero than losing our new #1, there isn't exactly a list past you to fill that role." 4

"We have one more, and I've already urged you to simply give him a full Pro Hero License, UA is a waste of his time, he could be saving lives."

Pantu shudders at the thought, Japan could handle the League of Villains.

But she wasn't sure they could survive Horizon. 6

"Rules are rules for a reason, I won't compromise them for anything, even fo--" 1

"What the hell?!" One of the security officers exclaims, causing Pantu to give him an annoyed look before tracking his gaze to the sky above the city.

Looking up she sees a large purple cloud, a Warp Gate opening a few blocks away from this very building. 1

Above the city, looming above the innocence below. 1

"HEROES!" Shigaraki's deep and angry voice rings through the city from the Warp Gate.

"Endeavor?" Pantu asks.

"I can hear it, keep the call open."

"False defenders of hypocrites! Monsters no different from me, but allowed to exist because your government deems your violence as profitable!

Government sponsored thugs and killers!

And now two guests have come to this fraudulent nation of false idols, two kings of their own lands, visiting the kingdom of a fallen lord, a broken symbol!"

"How far away are you two?" Pantu asks.

"Horizon flew ahead but he's atleast two hours away, we aren't even at UA yet ourselves."

"Now to welcome these visitors to our unfair society, to greet them by letting them revel in their true violent nature.

Your two Kings, against our Rook!"

Shigaraki's voice stops for a moment, then All For One's sickly and deep voice echoes like thunder across the skyline.

"Gigantomachia, as Shigaraki says," the pre-recorded message commands.

"Kill Buakaw and Hodori! Show the other nations how hospitable this land truly is!"

"R A A A A R W W W W ! ! ! "

A thundering roar causes most of the city to recoil in terror as something leaps out of the Warp Gate.

A giant with slightly tan skin, only standing at 12m tall as he lands into a nearby skyscraper like a cannonball, brining down the entire building and killing hundreds through sheer destruction. 2

The quakes shake her, and dust block Pantu's view, then the screams and destruction truly begin.

"Get here, now," even now her voice remains completely cold as she speaks to Endeavor.

Beyond her line of sight the fight instantly begins as nearby heroes throw themselves at the monster.

Before long Machia is already growing, now standing at 20 meters tall, a hulking frame with a mound of muscle on his back, like a living mountain.

A body covered in rough skin and a head of spiky brown hair. And most importantly, specially made pants that expand with him. 4

And as a few insignificant Pro Heroes were feebly trying to poke the giant, he stands up straight and leans back, taking in a deep breath through his nose.

"Heroes!" Machia screams as he immediately drops down to all fours and charges directly at Buakaw and Hodori's scent.

"Ma'am we need to leave," one of Pantu's security agents urges her as she scowls at the path of destruction moving toward her, tearing through multiple buildings.

"Get those two out of here first, before they--" she says, only to be met by her worst case scenario to become reality.

"We aren't leaving, he only wants us, evacuate the others," Buakaw says, already standing behind her. And by the time she turns around he simply jumps off the roof toward the fight.

"C'mon," Hodori gives her a playful look, "did you really think we'd take that no-combat order from our countries seriously, in a situation like this? Who cares what some stuffy people in suits want, we're heroes." 1

"No, we can't afford to--"

"You worry too much lady," Hodori cackles as he leaps off the roof. "Its time to have some fun!"

Pantu could feel her blood pressure rising by the second, keeping her stone faced fa ade as the battle begins. And only a few streets away in a dust cloud, a flash of gold causes her to squint as Machia is sent tumbling down the street. 1

And all the tremors caused by Buakaw's punch didn't make her feel any better, especially when Machia gets back up and charges back in.

'These idiots, having a few thousand people die is nothing compared to the consequences of having them fight, even if they win…I really wish we had another All Might,' Pantu thinks. 3

And just like that, the next stage in All For One's glorious plan begins, another domino is set… 4

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 135: CHAPTER 131(From The Old Era)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

The road cracks below Buakaw's feet as he lands upon it, having leapt from the skyscraper a few streets away.

Standing like an obelisk in the street mobs of people run past him to get away from the incoming villain.

With each of Gigantomachia's steps, the ground trembles, people become more scared, and by the second, more people abandon their vehicles and flee on foot, desperate to get ahead of the destruction.

"HERO!!!!"

Machia's voice shakes the city as he crashes through a building, locking eyes with Buakaw, who doesn't even flinch.

As the Machia rushes forward, on all fours he's already standing at 20 meters tall 65ft, Buakaw takes careful steps toward him, ignoring all the civilians around them.

Machia growls and raises his hand as he arrives in front of Buakaw, ready to slam down and flatten the hero.

'Virya: Art of Eight Limbs!'

BOOM!

A sudden burst of golden light blinds everyone as Machia is sent careening down the street, rolling multiple times before crashing into a 5 story building, collapsing it atop him.

The shockwave clears out the street, blasting away all the rubble and even vehicles, causing even more collateral damage.

Terrifying the crowds of people that were only standing meters away, but even as the golden light blinded them and the blast cleared the street.

They were completely unharmed.

As the dust clears Buakaw is standing with both his arms glowing golden, brimming with energy from his Quirk, Virya. 2

A solid-energy emitter Quirk.

He rips off the top of his robe to show his perfectly sculpted muscles, golden rivers of power glowing between them, showing off the definition even more.

And around him, all the civilians that would be dead are trapped in glowing blue bubbles of energy.

Buakaw doesn't even bother to glance at the people trapped in the Hymn Of Protection, the signature move of Thailand's Head Priestess, his wife.

Machia only takes a second to get back on his feet, shaking his head slightly from the punchs he took, too fast for him to even realize what really happened.

As Machi charges yet again, his Quirks now take full effect. And Buakaw matches his rush, meeting him in the middle.

As they're rushing Buakaw notices some strange things about his opponent.

'He's growing…' Buakaw notices Machia grow to 22 meters 72ft in a matter of seconds.

His Gigantification Quirk adapting to the surprising power of his opponent.

Machia slams down with his right hand to flatten Buakaw, only for the hero to leap up to his face and land a strong right, to his jaw, the exact same place as before.

But this time Machia stands his ground.

'He's tougher now?'

His Quirk, Fierce Gains, allows his muscles and skin to harden to exceptional levels.

In combination with Pain Blocker and Energy saver, this makes Machia a tank that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later, because the longer you fight the stronger he gets, and in a match of attrition, his primary Quirk will ensure his victory. 2

"RAARRRWWW!"

Taking the hit to his chin Machia doesn't waste any time bringing up his other hand and swatting Buakaw out of the air.

As the bubbles containing the civilians are floating away Machia slams his hand into the road, breaking through to the sewer below, but Buakaw isn't there when he raises his hand.

"This doesn't seem like regular Gigantification," Hodori says, catching Machia's attention.

Looking to the side he sees both heroes standing there completely unharmed, at the last moment Hodori used his astonishing speed to get Buakaw to safety, fashionably late as always.

"The league has those Nomu monsters, this is likely the same situation," Buakaw says as they rush forward.

"Let's tear him apart!" Hodori yells out as his shoes tear apart, his feet and hands transform into claws with white fur, his teeth become fangs and his eyes shift into a bright red while the hair on his head becomes wild, the white appearing as if it were glowing slightly. 7

"No!" Buakaw says as they dodge and weave through Machia's attacks, "lead him to the park!"

"RARGH!" Hodori doesn't even form words to respond, instead leaping up to Machia's neck and punching at his jugular, claws first.

CRACK!

His hand reaches up to his palm into Machia but the size of his opponent and the toughness of his skin makes the injury irrelevant.

Hodori removes his hand and just barely leaps away in time to avoid being swatted, looking down at his broken claws, covered in Machia's blood, already regrown by the time he lands.

"Fine!" Hodori relents, deciding to 'play nice'.

'Virya Shot: Rapid Fire!'

A dozen fist-sized shots of golden energy hit Machi in the face, slightly annoying him and pulling his attention from Hodori toward Buakaw.

"You're supposed to be hunting us, so come get us," Buakaw says as he does a dozen more punches in the blink of an eye, each launching another shot of energy.

He immediately takes off toward the nearest park, trying to find an open space so that they may really fight.

Hodori falls into step beside him as they run, all the while a walking natural disaster is giving chase behind them.

"Can't you just knock him out?" Hodori asks.

"I need space if I'm to do that, and against someone like this we don't know what other Quirk he could be hiding, we need to make sure he doesn't have any more tricks to surprise us with."

Only a few seconds later at their immense speed, they arrive at Hiroshima's Atomic Memorial Park, seeing that it's already been evacuated. This gives them a few city blocks worth of space which they don't have to worry about. 3

And as they turn around to face the villain…

'What the hell?' they both think at once, now laying eyes on the transformed Gigantomachia.

Standing at 25m 82ft, the mound of muscle on his back now transformed into massive spikes across his back.

His hands were now adorned with gargantuan claws and another layer of tougher armor. His jaw detached and reinforced before sliding up above his eyes to protect his face, and his teeth became sharper and tougher, as well as growing two large tusks from the bottom of his mouth.

Quirk: Mole.

A transformation Quirk that gives the user the properties of a Mole, allowing better burrowing and digging, higher mobility, enhanced senses, and toughness.

Combined with his Quirk: Dog, this makes it possible for him to pick up a scent from hundreds of miles away, effectively if someone is on the same continent they will eventually be found by him, and if he already has their scent, they can't even hide. 8

BOOM!

The sound barrier shatters as Machi brings down his clawed hand to crush the two heroes.

Hodori immediately dashes away, understanding your limits is important, especially to survive as a top pro. His quirk is good in physical combat but not meant for slugfests like this. Atleast not at this level.

But Buakaw…he's always been this type of monster.

A kind and gentle man for 99% of his life, the last person to start or escalate a fight. 1

But this is the 1%, this, is Buakaw in the ring.

'Virya: Art of 16 Limbs!'

Hodori glances back to see the hand slam down on Buakaw, as a golden light is released from his body.

BOOM!

The entire park shatters, and all the surrounding buildings begin crumbling from the force of this impact. Hodori is careful not to lose his footing, staying on guard for any surprise villains joining the fight.

But Buakaw is standing strong, beneath the giant's hand that never touched the ground.

Buakaw had his arms up against the palm, caught by his sheer physical power as his body glows.

And his 6 arms match Machia's strength. 3

"RAARGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Buakaw's scream rips through the air as he tosses Machi toward the other end of the park, sending the giant tumbling and tearing up the area. 1

Hodori takes a step back in surprise, not by the power he just witnessed, everyone knows Buakaw is a monster in the ring.

But from the anger and hate-filled expression on the kind man's face.

As Buakaw hunches down and rushes forward, the 4 additional glowing golden arms protruding from his shoulders and back begin to launch energy shots with each punch as he closes the distance. 6

The solid-energy arms match his flesh and blood arms perfectly, the sight was something that very few people ever experienced fighting against, and none have ever lasted more than one round against it.

Buakaw leaps up and meets Machia's fist with his 3 right fists, the impact knocks both men a few meters back before they charge once again.

Shutting off their brains and just fighting.

And to Hodori, no matter how relaxed and calm he tried to remain, to contain his instincts, to fight his nature, to reign in his Quirk.

The gleeful expression on his face told a completely different story.

"This is…so much fun!" He screams out as his shirt and pants begin tearing apart. 2

White fur begins growing out from his body as it begins bulking up, black stripes flowing across it as he takes his hybrid form.

His eyes focus in on Machia as all his fur stands on end and his tail comes out.

Quirk: Tiger, a transformation that allows the user to do anything a tiger can but magnitudes better. 9

Of all the Pro Heroes, the second most powerful animal transformation Quirk. 1

Only beaten by America's #3 Pro Hero, the man with, at the moment, the strongest punch in the world. 10

Hodori's roar rips through the park, but both the other combatants are too focused on each other to notice.

Until a white blur slams into Gigantomachia, knocking him onto his side and disrupting the stalemate.

And as these monsters continue to fight, the news helicopters and drones are recording everything, the fight to officially end an era… 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 136: CHAPTER 132(To The New Era) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--2 Minutes 40 Seconds Remaining… 2

Machia gets back up and charges into the fight once again, only to be hit in the back of his head by Hodori.

As his face is sent toward the floor Buakaw crouches down and focuses even more energy on his arms.

'Virya Blitz!'

As if the world entirely froze, with Machia's face only inches away from him, Buakaw unleashes two thousand punches so fast that it once again appears as a golden burst of light. 3

BOOM!

The shockwave from all the punches is combined into one because they effectively happened simultaneously.

Machia is launched into the air and slams onto his back.

As he's on the floor Hodori crunches into a prowler's stance, rocketing forward, destroying the ground at his feet and the sound barrier in his way as he slashes at Machia's jugular once more.

This time up to his forearm sinks in, but then he immediately withdraws his arm and leaps away as the giant swats at him.

Seeing the incoming hand he leaps up and kicks it away, but Fierce Gains is working overtime now.

The same Quirk that had Machia's skin and muscle toughen around Hodori's arm moments ago, trying to crush it to pieces in the wound. Also causes the giant's entire body to harden even more.

And Hodori's kick connects to barely do any damage, only knocking the arm away.

Feeling completely pissed off by the toughness of his opponent, Hodori's muscles bulk up as he goes further into his transformation.

His claws now begin glowing red as his eyes leave a red trail of light with every movement. 2

" JUST DIE!" Hodori screams as he charges forward and punches Machi in the head.

A flurry of relentless blows that would make almost anyone into a corpse.

The wind and tremors from his attack has rubble and debris blowing toward the edges of the battlefield.

"Together!" Buakaw screams as he comes down rocketing into Machia's forehead, six arms crashing down like thunder. 1

--1 Minute 10 Seconds Remaining…

Flying across Japan on his hoverboard, Horizon has left the other heroes behind simply because they couldn't fly as fast, or as far.

Looking at the fight being projected into his visor, he's on the phone with Nezu discussing exactly what is going on.

"Are you sure UA is safe?" Horizon asks.

"Completely, this is Shigaraki trying to take a place on the international stage."

"By killing two #1 Pro Heroes?" Horizon asks. "Sounds like a fast way into the grave."

"Hmm, in most cases yes. If a #1 Hero dies in his own country that's fine, but to have one die in another country would be a massive blow to that country, and demand retaliation.

This is why most villains don't attack heroes when they travel abroad. If Buakaw or Hodori die in this battle then the United Nations Hero Department will have to send heavy hitters to Japan to wipe out the league.

Because allowing Shigaraki to exist after something like that would simply make all heroes look weaker, and potentially set the precedent for him to hunt down their top Pro Heroes one day."

"I still don't see how this is a win for him," Horizon says. "Nobody can deal with Star and Stripe knocking on their door, even with Gigantomachia…" 8

They see Buakaw and Hodori still trading blows with the villain, but this time the fight strays out of the park slightly as Machi knocks Buakaw through some building a few blocks away.

But Hodori takes center stage to draw all eyes onto him for Buakaw to get back in the fight.

"True," Nezu says. "But that may not be the point."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he doesn't have to get everyone after him, he simply has to show that he's willing and capable of atleast starting the fight, even if it's only until Star and Stripe enters the battle." 2

"So this is all a publicity stunt, a show of force?"

"Possibly…but either way, I fear that Japan is already in shambles. The fact that a villain felt comfortable enough to attack our guests, and our Top Pros weren't around to help, it's a bad look."

"So on the international stage--"

"We're on our own, that much is already certain…" 7

--15 Seconds Reaming… 2

With Machia constantly getting up no matter how much they try to rattle his brain, Buakaw and Hodori are more annoyed that exhausted. 1

And for the first time in his life, Buakaw was actually concerned about the bell, this round was about to finish, and the fight wasn't anywhere near over.

With a low growl, he leaps away from the battle, leaving Hodori to deal with Machia for a moment.

Making a fist with each hand he covers his chest, the intense golden glow from his arms becomes much brighter, and all eyes fall to Buakaw as he unleashes something he hasn't been forced to use in decades.

"Virya Burst!" he releases a blood-chilling battle cry as he flexes his arms, now bulked up with seemingly intricate golden armor covering them.

His arms are many times bigger, with golden energy pouring off of them, an intimidating yet inspiring sight. Thailand's Pride in full effect. 1

"RARGH!" he screams out and flies forward, not leaping or running, flying, propelled by his own energy.

Before Machia can react the golden meteor slams into him, causing a shockwave so large that it knocks Hodori and the news helicopters that were high above away.

14 3

As Machi is thrown through the air Buakaw accelerates, flying below Machia and punching upward with his left arms.

BOOM!

13 1

Another golden explosion sends the giant flying 15m 50ft into the air, only for Buakaw to continue.

12

BOOM!

Another uppercut as Buakaw soars above the nearby buildings.

10 1

BOOM!

With another uppercut, Machia feels his brain rattling around his skull, seconds in and out of consciousness.

8

And finally, as they're 90m 300ft above the ground, instead of an uppercut Buakaw holds onto Machi.

6

"Virya Toss!"

"RARRGHHH!" Both combatants roar as Buakaw spins Machia and tosses his down toward the city, collapsing everything for hundreds of meters. 5

His absolute faith in his wife and the other heroes allows him to fight recklessly.

4

" VIRYA CRASH!" Buakaw screams as he rockets down, like a golden beam of light, sent by the heavens to smite this villain.

The ensuing shockwave causes damage which they're be trying to calculate for months to come.

And when the dust and light dissipate, Buakaw is standing on Machia's chest, panting heavily, slouched over, arms bleeding and hanging at his sides.

0

His Quirk entirely shut off, all the golden power now gone.

Because his Quirk can only last for 3 Minutes in stage 2 the six armed state, The Art Of 16 Limbs.

After this, he needs time to reset, and the more energy he uses in that time, the longer the reset.

But nobody has ever lasted more than 1 round, or even more than 1 minute against that state.

Looking at Machia, they see his eyes rolled back in his head as he lies unconscious.

Buakaw takes careful breaths, his body aching as he tries to move, to look strong, another clean knockout.

But unfortunately, this is Gigantomachia, he's the furthest thing from 'normal'. 1

He was the blueprint for the Nomu, and even now they can't properly replicate this success in another subject.

He's just different, and it's largely thanks to his own original Quirk. 1

Hodori's primal instincts feel this in effect, and he immediately rushes in.

ENDURANCE!

R A W W W R G G H ! !

Machia's eyes snap back to focus and glare directly at the powerless Buakaw.

Machia immediately slams his hand onto his chest to splatter Buakaw, but Hodori had already begun moving and thankfully gets him out of there.

"What the hell, a second wind?" Buakaw asks as Hodori sets him down at the edge of the battlefield.

Both heroes watch Machia get up as if he had another adrenaline surge, the lingering injuries remaining, thankfully he can't heal. But his stamina just seemed endless…because, in some ways, it was.

Quirk: Endurance, converts morale into energy. In simple terms, his superpower is to never give up, to be relentless, and to fulfill his master's order no matter what. 3

And with a one-track mind like Gigantomachia's, he's a perpetual motion machine while on task.

"Tch, do we wait for someone with a more suitable Quirk?" Hodori asks, glancing at Buakaw who was trying to save his energy.

"Horizon is still atleast an hour away, and Endeavor is even further, we need to end this," Buakaw says. Forcing himself to stand on his own.

"Can you?"

Buakaw looks at Hodori, then at Machia who was staring at them, clearly hurting but about to start charging anyway. "Time…"

"You'll have it," Hodori says as he takes a few steps forward, standing between both men. "Tch, I hope this doesn't scare the ladies too much," he grumbles.

The sound of his bones cracking and breaking reaches Buakaw as Hodori's body begins expanding and bulking up even further.

The white fur covered his entire body as the black tiger stripes spread out. 1

In a matter of seconds, he takes his full regal white tiger form, and his stripes begin glowing slightly, flickering red like his claws as he stands on all fours. Before they become solid red, overflowing with primal power. 6

Standing at 3m 9ft at shoulder height.

"Hodo--" Buakaw's words are cut short as Hodori turns around and swipes at him, thankfully the man inside the beast control it just enough for the attack to miss.

Buakaw stumbles back, keeping his eyes on Hodori, now realizing why the hero would rather die than use this form in most cases.

Without someone powerful enough to warrant it's full attention, everyone becomes a target.

And when you're the most powerful person in your country, that's not a risk you can take.

"HEROES!" Machia screams out, thankfully causing Hodori's attention to snap to him instead.

Hodori leaps forward as Machia charges, but only lands a few meters away from Buakaw before taking a low stance.

Buakaw can feel the air being pulled into Hodori's massive and powerful lungs, almost pulling him off his feet.

" GRRRR RRAAARRR!"

Hodori's roar hits like the blast wave from a nuke.

Tearing apart the entire park to such an extent that it was dug out for a few meters.

People for miles in every direction were forced to cover their ears.

And even further beyond that, the frequency of his roar caused living things to become paralyzed with fear. 3

Keeping the roar going he sees Machia trying to power through it.

Even as his eyes rupture and explode out of their sockets.

Even as his blood vessels begin to burst and pop.

Even as his eardrums instantly shattered, thanks to his enhanced senses.

But Gigantomachia could still smell them, laboring against the blast wave he digs in his claws, moving barely a few steps within a minute.

And after five minutes, Hodori finally reaches his limit.

Feeling his lungs burning and tasting his own blood in his mouth he's forced to stop his constant roar.

The tiger shakes its head and sways for a moment, feeling lightheaded before standing strong, only to see Machia speeding up his approach.

And Hodori immediately prepares to do that all over again.

Until a golden light shines behind him.

"Virya: The Art Of 108 Limbs!" 4

Looking behind him Hodori is truly humbled by the magnificence of Buakaw's strongest attack.

Standing in a prayer stance with his hands together, a manifestation of his prayer beads made of the same energy float around his neck. 2

His solid white eyes are glowing a radiant gold as 100 solid-energy arms are spread out behind him, protruding from his back to make a large circular shape. 3

Hodori, now reverted back to his hybrid form, immediately gets out of the way as Buakaw begins moving his hands.

Slowly and deliberately shifts his right hand into a fist while the left is flat with the palm facing forward, and all the arms behind him copy his right hand.

And as Machi makes his final approach…

"Virya: Enlightenment," Buakaw says in the softest and most compassionate voice. 1

Inviting his foe into a new life…

RRIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!

The sharp ringing caused by all the energy released into the air travels for miles in every direction, and it's immediately followed by a wave of light that outshines the moon in the sky. 1

And all that's left is Gigantomachia laying on his back in a 100m wide glowing golden crater, and as that glow too fades, the broken giant is finally defeated.

Buakaw feels all his energy gone, he'd need atleast a week before he can use his Quirk again, but this victory was seemingly worth it.

Hodori stands beside him at the edge of the crater, sporting a few new injuries which were very slowly healing, he stood a bit too close to the blast zone.

The world cheers for these heroes, and the greatest battle that never should have been, but they couldn't even enjoy a moment of victory…

'Warp Gate'

A flood of purple mist swarms the crater, enveloping Gigantomachia and whisking him away before they could capture him.

But as the Warp Gate shrinks, it projects Shigaraki's voice far and wide for the city to hear.

"Nngh," he gives an annoyed growl, then calms down. "You people really call us monsters, when you worship people like that, what a bad joke. But atleast now we have a baseline…Machia will be ready next time…" 4

A lethal promise to the world.

And just like that, All Might's era of peace in japan is officially over, and the age of chaos begins once more…

END CHAPTER--

Volume 5 is officially over!

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Chapter 137: CHAPTER 133(Japan's 3 Powers) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

At an undisclosed location, Shigaraki was currently sitting comfortably on a couch playing on his phone.

Taking his role as the now true leader of the League Of Villains seriously, after being forced to grow up since All For One was locked away he's slowly becoming someone his master wouldn't be ashamed of. 4

Standing behind the couch to his left is Kurogiri, dutifully waiting for the signal for this meeting to begin.

At as his other side is Spinner, his right-hand man who was currently also playing on his phone, in a racing game with his boss.

In front of Shigaraki is a coffee table with an identical couch on the other side, and a moment later Kurogiri receives the signal that the intended guest is ready.

"Master," Kurogiri says. "Dabi has sent the signal."

"Tch, just when I was about to win," Shigaraki groans, but immediately puts his phone away.

"We can have a rematch later," Spinner says with a light chuckle, always one to enjoy time with his friend.

But as the Warp Gate opens across from them he immediately puts on his most intimidating face. As intimidating as a lanky lizard man with a 'greatsword', which is just a collection of smaller knives stuck together, can be. 3

The first out of the Warp Gate was Dabi, their resident half-burnt Elementalist.

Blue flames that are stronger than his father's, but even Endeavor doesn't know his son is alive. Only Dabi knows this truth.

His usual black leather trench coat was missing, and his body had some shallow gashes, his entire torso exposed to show all the burnt skin usually hidden away.

Ignoring his state he just lazily walks to the side of the room as the next person walks out of the Warp Gate.

Himiko Toga, their resident blonde school girl, her uniform splattered in blood and her hair loose to flow down her back instead of the usual two messy buns. 3

Tentatively licking her lips that were still dripping blood.

As their infiltrator she had the least combat of everyone, and made it out nearly flawlessly.

"Some of those guys were real weirdos 'Shigi!" Toga whines as she skips off to the side to stand beside Dabi.

The next person to walk out of the Warp Gate was their resident S-Class threat. 1

One of three in Japan's History.

By definition, an S-Class individual is someone that can overthrow a small nation singlehandedly. Being powerful helps, but what's most important is having some unquantifiable X-Factor.

This is why, even with all their power, people like Endeavor, Buakaw, Hodori, and even Gigantomachia aren't S-Class. They have the firepower but can't feasibly suppress an entire country.

All Might was S-Class simply because of his power, endurance, speed, and stamina. His powerset is simple but it's so far beyond the scope of normal that he punched his way into this list.

Star and Stripe as well as Horizon are S-Class by default, it simply comes with the territory of their Mystery Class status. And the absurd shows of power certainly clear any doubt.

But with All Might gone, Japan now only has 3, still more than the rest of the world combined.

Horizon, All For One.

And Japan's 3rd is who walks out of the portal next-- 7

"Heyooo!" Twice saunters out cheerfully, completely unharmed. 10

His Quirk: Twice, allows him to copy himself or another person that he's touched and has the measurements of, these copies can make additional copies which become progressively less durable, but they can all use the Quirk of whoever they copy. 3

There is no numerical limit to this Quirk, a potentially infinite one-man army. 6

Wearing his black skin suit with white stripes he's followed by two copies of himself, holding a bloody and battered Kai Chisaki Overhaul by his forearms, stopping him from using his Quirk. 1

As the copies drop Overhaul into the seat opposite Shigaraki, the villain looks at his new associate.

Standing at 5ft10 179cm Overhaul was a thin man, currently wearing a battered white t-shirt and green jacket with black slacks. His brown hair was matted to his head by his own blood and the usual plague doctor mask knocked off his face, exposing his broken nose. 1

Even with his seemingly almighty Quirk, he barely lasted a few seconds against Shigaraki's bodyguard, against Gigantomachia. 9

'Kai Chisaki, Overhaul, how far you've fallen…' Shigaraki thinks, recalling how proud the man was during the meeting they had with all Yakuza heads.

" WAKE UP!" one of the copies yells and smacks Overhaul on the head, startling him awake.

"Huh!" Overhaul's eyes immediately narrow as he sees Shigaraki across from him, but he notices Spinner and Kurogiri as well.

He immediately drops down in his seat, leaning forward to slam his palm onto the floor, broken fingers and all.

One touch to the floor and he'd be able to break it apart, break the entire room apart and reassemble it however he wants, instantly killing everyone.

But the moment his hand was about to touch the ground, he stopped, saving his own life.

Directly below his palm had suddenly become a sickly grey and begun falling apart, Decay.

"How about you just settle down so we can sort out the details…" Shigaraki suggests, his tone casual and relaxed.

Overhaul's eyes follow the Decay spot, running along the trail crossing the floor between them and leading up the side of the couch, directly to where Shigaraki's arm was on the armrest.

'Since when was his control this good?' Overhaul wonders, noticing only this one part of the couch affected, control similar to his own.

But Decay is a destruction that Overhaul cannot undo, touching that spot would have been fatal.

Narrowing his eyes at Shigaraki, Overhaul widely sits back on the couch, looking around, not seeing Gigantomachia thankfully.

"Alright, what do you want?" Overhaul asks.

Shigaraki relaxes back into his seat, "the same deal as before, but…a bit steeper this time since you made my friends have to do some work. You really should have agreed like all the other villain organizations. You're the only Yakuza faction that was dumb enough to try and resist after all…" 1

Overhaul is angered by hearing the Yakuza openly mocked, but bites his tongue.

"Your demands?" Overhaul asks.

"You'll be transferring some of your earnings to us, and of course be acting as our eyes and ears for certain things. Compress will give you the details when he gets back.

Normally that's the extent of it, but your payments will be larger than most simply because you made us go through the hassle of teaching you where you stand in my new world order, but…"

Shigaraki opens his hands to Kurogiri, who drops a single red bullet into his palm, tipped with a needle.

Carefully holding it between his fingers to avoid the needle, Shigaraki looks past the bullet and toward Overhaul.

"These Deleter Rounds," Shigaraki says. "Somehow you figured out how to temporarily destroy Quirks, how close are you to making the effect permanent?"

"..."

Seeing Overhaul being difficult, Shigaraki leans forward and pokes the coffee table with one finger, and a slow Decay trail begins moving from his single fingertip, across the table, down the leg, to Overhaul's foot.

"A few more weeks," Overhaul cracks and answers, and Shigaraki leans back once more.

"Hmm," Shigaraki hands the bullet back to Kurogiri. "I'll send some Nomu to protect the room you keep these in, for protection, and to keep and eye on the supply. Don't want you to get any stupid ideas.

You can use the Radio Nomu we'll be sending to communicate with us if something happens, I'll also be giving you a few more for muscle since these bullets are useful. But keep them in your underground hideout, if anyone knows you have a Nomu then--"

"Horizon comes running to investigate," Overhaul says. "I get it."

"Whatever, those are your instructions, welcome to the new world order, you Yakuza thugs are much better put to use under me, you should be happy."

Overhaul furrows his brow, unable to hold his tongue, "the Yakuza is a proud organization, we're a staple in Japan's underworld. With All Might gone we could have taken over Japan."

"Then why didn't you?" Shigaraki asks, almost jokingly.

Twice and Toga can't help but chuckle at bit, desperately trying not to interrupt the meeting.

"Because--"

"Because you don't realize that things aren't the same as when All Might was around, even with him gone the entire structure of the country has been shaken up."

Overhaul sits back to listen, curious as the what Shigaraki was talking about.

Shigaraki raises three fingers, "Japan currently has 3 Powers controlling it. Before it was just All Might at the top, but now there isn't that one Symbol above everyone else. 1

The first, is the Hero Public Safety Commission. They have all the heroes and the police, their heavy hitter is Endeavor, he's too much for any villain but Machia and some of our more specialized Nomu to deal with, atleast in their current states.

The second, is the League Of Villains. We control the Nomu as produce them. We also now control all of the Yakuza and any noteworthy gang or villain in the country. 1

Our heavy hitter is Gigantomachia, he's too much for any one hero to handle and everyone knows it. Plus we've got Twice to cause serious problems if needed. 7

See how it works, All Might was so powerful he could bulldoze anyone, so Heroes ran rampant during his time. But now Endeavor acts as a counterbalance to keep the other side in check.

But Endeavor isn't really that big of a concern when we've got Machi, its the 3rd faction that I'll be using your technology against. To weaken their support network so we can crush them."

"3rd faction?" Overhaul questions. "Another villain group?"

"No, Nezu, and his champion, his favorite student, Miracle Boy, Horizon…"

Overhaul looks completely confused by that, "he isn't included with the other heroes?"

"Oh no, our sources say he only answers to Nezu, and they seem to have their own agenda that our sources say raises tension with the Commission. I'm making you aware of this because if these bullets go public too soon then both those factions will converge on you, and I'll lose my secret weapons."

"I see," Overhaul takes a second look at Shigaraki, now realizing there was more to him than just destruction, there was a method to the madness after all.

He'd never truly follow him, but for now he could atleast see use in the other villains, "but why not attack UA when Horizon is in Tokyo doing hero work, if Nezu is the true leader of that faction?"

"Hmm, how do I put this?" Shigaraki scratches his head. "The way I have to give the Nomu commands to act, Nezu has to hold onto Horizon's reigns, apparently he's a bit…excessive, and obsessive.

Having him take orders from someone more gentle is in our best interest. And the time he spends at UA opens up a few days that we can get work done within Tokyo without him suddenly detecting us…somehow." 3

"But if my bullets delete his Quirk, then Gigantomachia can deal with the other Heroes, and game over for them," Overhaul says.

"Those bullets won't work on him," Shigaraki says, catching Overhaul off guard. "It's one of the many experiments we ran with the blood samples my master collected during their fight in the forest. 4

But don't you worry about Horizon, we're working on something to deal with him, you just need to go make my bullets, and keep your head down…"

'So Shigaraki has a way to deal with Horizon, and since my bullets can't work I should just let him handle that. Then I can just delete all their Quirk and make my clean world.

I'll just need to find another way to administer my cure to Gigantomachia, since my Quirk doesn't work on him its the easiest way to deal with him.' 23

"Alright boss," Overhaul says, playing his part. "I'll leave Horizon to you, and I'll contact you when the first batch of permanent bullets is ready."

Shigaraki looks annoyed at that but just nods, and a moment later Kurogiri warps Overhaul away.

Spinner and Shigaraki immediately take a relaxing breath, not enjoying having to 'play tough' in these formal meetings at all.

"Are all of you ok?" he asks Dabi, Twice, and Toga.

"Doing great!" Twice cheers. 2

"Never better!" Toga joins him.

Dabi just rolls his eyes at them and walks out of the room.

"Hey Shigi, since when do we have something to deal with Horizon?" Toga asks. "I thought you said to stay far away from him, I mean that's why we're all the way in the countryside instead of back in Tokyo, right?"

"We don't have anything yet, atleast nothing that I'm sure has a 100% win rate, but we will."

"Really?" Twice asks.

"Gigantomachia," Shigaraki says. "Now that the final notable villain organization is under our control, Ujiko can operate on him to add the new Quirks, with those even Horizon can't stop him. 4

Who knows, maybe he'll even be strong enough to challenge Star and Stripe…"

"One thing at a time master," Kurogiri warns him, because nobody was ready for that fight…

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Shigaraki immediately answers his phone, "Compress, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry boss, but I couldn't recover the item from I-Island, there was a villain attack while I was sneaking in and the place became a warzone."

"Are you ok?"

"Oh, yeah I'm fine, but this mission is a fail."

"There'll always be another mission, head back to the Warp Gate location, Kurogiri will meet you there…" 4

END CHAPTER--

Buakaw and Hodori were pat.reon OCs (requested by Dante), ideally nobody could tell, feel free to contact me for more info.

And the new volume begins, please leave a review if you haven't yet :)

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Chapter 138: CHAPTER 134(Stretched Thin)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

After nearly 70 Hours of non-stop Hero work, Horizon is walking down the sidewalk of Tokyo, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

The lunchtime crowd was looking at him, as if unsure of if this was. 3

Horizon rarely ever walks around on the street because of the crowds that always swarm him, and as people come to their senses, he seemingly randomly walks into the street.

Even after days of constant Hero work, his Hero Costume was perfectly clean aside from the gloves, even if the man below desperately desired a shower and nap. 1

Horizon raises a hand and casually signals for the cars on the street to stop.

"Clear the street for a minute please, Hero stuff!" he yells out as he stands in the middle of the road.

Everyone looks around, not seeing anything out of the usual.

Only a few people begin moving, others are unsure of what he's talking about, and a few idiots still take out their phones to ask him for a picture or record whatever they think is about to happen.

BANG BANG!

Two gunshots ring out, and Horizon just rolls his eyes, yawning below his visor as people finally begin to clear out.

This has been the state of Tokyo and the more populated cities for the past 3 days.

Ever since Gigantomachia showed the world what happens to any aid they send to Japan, international companies immediately began to withdraw their physical businesses.

Investments instantly dropped all across the country.

And overnight, a new wave of unemployment struck Japan. 3

And sadly with unemployment, comes new would-be villains, because while 99% of people would simply struggle for a while and then get a new job, some bad apples decided to take these drastic measures immediately. 6

All around Japan heroes have been working overtime to put out fires and keep everyone safe and maintain a presence, but the villains, and the new wave of starting villains, are truly relentless.

This is the direct consequence of a nation appearing weak on the international stage.

If you're #1 Hero cannot suppress the villain threats within your borders other countries cannot trust you to protect their citizens, investments, or visiting Heroes. 1

And through it all, Horizon is determined to stay on the streets as long as possible. This is the time everyone is looking to anyone to take the lead and hold the country together.

All eyes are on two people to accomplish this task, two men that have been working non-stop since that night.

Endeavor, the acting #1 Hero.

And Horizon, who everyone is betting on as their future #1 Hero.

So of course he's out in the public eye trying to soak in as much good publicity as possible.

As the street mostly clears out, some people run into stores and record him on the street, as expected.

'Well at least they're off the street, morons,' Horizon thinks as he looks around, then looks down the street toward where he hears more gunshots, closer this time.

And he senses the chase moving toward him, as predicted.

'Police are right behind them so I shouldn't have to wait more than a few minutes to get out of here. Finally, I can get some food and sleep then get back to work.

Actually, fuck these people, I don't think I'll be heading out until later tonight, I need to relax for a bit. I'm just barely keeping my eyes open right now.'

BANG BANG!

Two more gunshots ring out as a car rounds the corner.

In the front seat is a woman, leaning out the passenger window and shooting back at the cop cars chasing them.

In the driver's seat is a man entirely focused on driving.

And in the back seat is another man firing back at the police.

Horizon sees the panicked look on the driver's face, as he notices Horizon standing in the middle of the street.

The man looks terrified as he yells to his accomplices, who both look forward to see Horizon and begin yelling at each other.

Even from this far away, out of earshot, he could tell they were not infinitely more scared of his appearance on the scene. 1

The woman screams at the driver and points at Horizon as the man in the back seat just continues firing back at the police, missing every shot.

She points at Horizon, clearly arguing with the driver, then the man relents and just speeds up.

'Did this bitch just tell him to ram me?' Horizon wonders. 'Well, I hope she enjoys hospital time…'

As the car is only a dozen meters away from him, fully intending to ram into him at full speed, he raises a hand.

TAKT!

The entire car stopped, as if the air around it became solid in an instant.

CRASH!

The woman flies through the windscreen, past Horizon who doesn't even bother to catch her or soften the fall, leaving her to ragdoll across the street.

Grating apart enough skin to disfigure her. 3

Breaking enough bones to put her in the hospital for months, and in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. 3

Unless a certain someone performs a miracle for the shattered nerves in her legs and spine…he wouldn't.

The driver has his nose broken as his face slams into the steering wheel, and while he's coming back to his senses the man in the back seat gets out of the car, stumbling to his feet.

As everyone is trying to wrap their minds around what just happened, the police come to a stop two dozen meters away, opening their doors for cover and drawing their guns, but not firing.

Horizon was on the scene after all, adding bullets that could potentially hurt civilians into the mix was unnecessary.

Eventually, both men stumble out of opposite sides of the car, one holding his head and the other holding his broken nose. The steering wheel itself was warped from the impact.

'Durability Quirk?' Horizon wonders.

Then both of them look past Horizon to the woman, slowly bleeding out, completely blacked out.

"Damn it!" The driver yells. "That's my wife!"

Horizon shrugs, "get a smarter one next time…" 6

And both men immediately rush Horizon. The driver raises his fists which seem to glow with orange energy, while the other man transforms his fingernails into meter-long blades.

Horizon holds the hilt of his sword, still sheathed at his side, then throws it out at the man with blades.

TAKT: Dancing Sword!

Scalpel Horizon's sword flies through the air and begins fighting the man with bladed fingers seemingly on its own as Horizon casually walks toward the driver.

"Lets wrap this up," Horizon taunts.

"ARRRRGHHHHH!"

"Exactly," he responds with a chuckle as the driver swings wildly at him, a strong right, sloppy and untrained. The strike of a desperate man with no other options.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Horizon meets the man with his own strike, and as their fists collide he feels the man's fingers shatter.

Then his wrist buckles.

Then the man's forearm shatters and his shoulder is dislocated.

"AHHHH!" the man screams out, only to receive a left hook, knocking him out completely and leaving him on the street.

The sound of steel crossing steel echoes out as Horizon looks down at his fist, seeing some blood on his gloves from this opponent and some wear and tear from the past 70 hours.

But he also sees the now familiar blue vapor-like energy radiating from his hand, feeling his mind now at its limit.

As if he were standing on the edge of a skyscraper and the hurricane was closing in.

Ready to push him off…

'Problems for later…' he decides, looking toward his sword and its opponent. Even controlled by his TAKT the blade was a thing of beauty fighting on its own.

'I guess Sero was right, it's not very economical so I certainly never would have thought of it…but damn does it look cool, and the media will surely agree.'

Currently, the final opponent was trying to get past Scalpel Horizon's sword to close in on the Hero, but he couldn't even manage that.

Horizon just shakes his head and looks toward the police while walking toward his sword, "I'm done here, you can come and arrest these losers!"

"Hey I'm not done yet!" the man says as Horizon now takes his sword back into his hand, standing across from him. Even while he was trembling in fear, he refused to back down, because his friends were on the line.

"Yes, you are, Incision."

As the ten finger-blades clash with Scalpel, unlike all the other clashes, this time Horizon's sword easily cleaves through the man's Quirk, only stopping at his throat because of Horizon's perfect control.

Feeling the cold metal alloy against his throat the man raises his hands in surrender as the police approach him.

On its own Scalpel is just an admittedly unwieldy, heavy, and terribly balanced weapon for most people. But in his hand, with Hand Of God amplifying its attacks, it can easily cleave through such simple things as blades.

--12 Minutes Later…

Standing behind a police car Horizon is treating one of the officers who was currently sitting on the trunk.

And as he takes the bullet out of the man's shoulder he casually placed a palm on his arm, and the surrounding officers watch in amazement as they can see the injury healing in real-time.

"Did anyone else get hurt, is that everyone?" Horizon asks as he gives the man a final check.

"That's it," one of the other men says. "Thanks for this, the guys really appreciate it, having someone looking out for us."

"We're all on the same team," Horizon shrugs. "It's the least I can do." 2

"Well, we appreciate it all the same."

"Likewise, now if you don't mind I need to go get some food."

"Oh, right, you've been fighting for days right, I can't even imagine that…" One of the other men says, causing Horizon to turn and look at him.

"How do you know that?"

The man looks genuinely surprised at this, "it's…on the news, and some people online have been trying to figure out when you sleep, sorry I thought you knew….wait, it's true? That's crazy."

Horizon just shakes his head, hating this Celebrity Hero nonsense more every day, "how can I sleep when villains are hurting people? Anyway, I'm gonna get some fo--" 1

Horizon's phone immediately goes off, and an emergency alert gets projected into his visor.

And everyone hears him respond with a loud groan.

"Bank robbery in progress, guess my food will have to wait a while…" 12

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 139: CHAPTER 135(Current Events) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

SCAN!

The first thing Law does when he wakes up, before even opening his eyes.

He was currently laying in bed at his Minato Tokyo penthouse, feeling the details of everything flooding into his mind.

8 km in every direction all at once. All the people in their apartments getting ready for work, and some are already at work starting their day.

He even senses some petty crimes happening, but they aren't his problem yet.

BA-DUM!

"Ngh!" he groans, feeling the sharp pain in his head that shuts off his Quirk. "Really sick of that…" 11

Looking to his left he sees the sun just about to rise beyond the ocean and just sighs. Another day putting out fires.

Thankfully he only really needs an hour of sleep on a regular day, after 74 hours of non-stop hero work he was so tired that he needed four hours.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I miss having All Might running around doing this crap," Law confesses as he gets up, moving toward another day of Hero Work. 9

"Actually, I think I'll stay in until noon, I'm sick of saving all those losers…"

--9 AM…

Sitting in his living room Law is on the couch eating a large bowl of rice and grilled beef. After taking a long morning shower he's finally enjoying a meal after 74 hours of non-stop work.

"I love that Energy Saver Quirk…but nothing beats some good food after working your ass off," to Law the meal tastes like it was the greatest thing he ever ate.

Turning on the tv he puts on the HNN Hero News Network, and keeps enjoying his food.

SHAMBLES!

He warps his phone into his hand while he's eating, receiving a new list of potential patients from Central Hospital.

Scrolling through the list of dying people he immediately removes all the adults, not even bothering to look at their files.

That leaves only the children.

'Hmm, someone with a Transmutation Quirk? That's useful, I'll work on him. 1

Girl with a shapeshifting Quirk, never worked on one of those before. Studying her stem cells could be useful. 3

Kinetic Energy Absorption…now that's a Quirk I'd like to study, I'll add her to the list too.' 5

After sorting through a few more terminally ill people, Law finds a dozen that have Quirks that could be useful for his personal situation.

Studying Quirks similar to this new version of Hand Of God is the best he can do to fill in the knowledge he's missing.

As he's finishing up his list and sending it to the administration at Central Hospital, however, a certain news story reaches his ears.

"A new report has been released regarding the attack on I-Island two days ago," the reporter announces, and Law's eyes snap up to look at the screen. 2

Seeing the island torn up as if someone ripped the buildings out of the ground by the very foundations.

They show the tower in the middle of the island broken in half, the underground railway system was collapsed and nearly half of it was actually torn out of the floor and currently rests above ground.

As if every piece of metal tried to get up and walk away. 7

"The confirmed casualties number nearly one thousand, with the projected number roughly 1500 persons.

I-Island, even as the center of technology and innovation in the world will need atleast six months to rebuild and recover.

Not to mention the 232 Billion Dollar cost of repairing the infrastructure of the island itself. 1

The island is currently evacuated of anyone that isn't helping in search and rescue, thankfully another wave of Rescue Heroes has arrived on the island just this morning, further supplementing the efforts spent over the past two days."

"I wonder if Thirteen is there right now," Law mutters as he continues eating. "The villains must have been looking for something on the island, but that's an international province so they either have a big backer or a lot of balls to take a swing at that place. 2

If they stole something big then America might just send Star and Stripe to deal with it…no, no villain is that dumb or strong."

As if hearing his speculations the report continues, "currently none of the projects on the island have been reported missing, including those at the main expo venue where the attack took place.

The villain in question, codenamed 'Wolfram', is presumed to have a Quirk which allows him to control metal. 4

The extent of his power is currently unknown but judging by the destruction shown behind me he is a formidable opponent."

The woman pauses for a moment, touching the receiver in her ear, then a sad look washes across her face.

"Unfortunately, I've just received some unfortunate news," she says. "While we know the villain tried to take David and Melissa Shield captive during the attack, he failed as the entire tower collapsed and the nearby Pro Heroes and security forces got involved.

Sadly, the epicenter of the explosion, I've just been informed is where David and Melissa Shield were. Only some shredded remains of the father and daughter duo were recovered as of moments ago. 27

It seems the world has lost two of its brightest minds during this absolutely tragic and horrific event," the woman is barely keeping a straight face as she speaks.

"So did Wolfram was them to build him something…" Law wonders as he tries to make sense of this. 6

"This is the HNN, and we'll keep you posted on any updates evolving in the world, including this I-Island attack, stay safe everyone, in these turbulent times."

"David Shield," Law sends his list to the hospital and puts down his phone. "He was one of Yagi's best friends…what a fucked up summer for him. Huh, didn't even know he had a kid, guess she was a tech genius too. Yeah, I'll leave all the tech stuff to people like Nezu, not a fan of it." 2

"In more local news," another reporter, this time a man appears on screen with a bar graph behind him. "Since the most recent Hiroshima incident where the League Of Villains, and more notably Gigantomachia plunged the country into an unemployment and financial crisis, breeding a new wave of petty crime and villains.

Our Pro Heroes have been working non-stop to contain the chaos and bring back some semblance of order and normalcy." The man gestures to the chart behind him.

Endeavor- 287 5

Horizon- 253

Mirko- 188

Hawks- 159

Best Jeanist- 128

"Here we see the incidents resolved by each Pro Hero and Horizon over the past 80 hours. Clearly, both the Pro Heroes and aspiring heroes have been doing their best to make an impact.

But unfortunately, the crime rate is still soaring upward, heading to 19%, a number that hasn't been seen since before All Might.

Some individuals have also noticed that Horizon has been most active during this time, seemingly never sleeping.

I just hope he's alright, because we need him and the other top Pro Heroes now more than ever--"

Law shuts off the TV as he finishes eating, seeing a message he's been waiting on for a while. Giving his estate manager a call.

"Mr. Matani," the man greets him, sounding cheerful, because who wouldn't be cheerful with a billion-dollar client calling them? "How may I help you?"

"I just saw your update to my properties, you got all of them?"

"Each and everyone one, the market in Japan has become quite friendly to those with cash in their accounts such as yourself. We were easily able to buy out the areas you wanted.

Starting next week we'll be shutting down the smaller businesses and downsizing."

"Hmm," Law considers it for a moment. "No, don't downsize, lower have the business managers cut production if needed to keep costs low but don't fire anyone. I don't want the rebranding efforts to be undermined by me firing a few thousand people." 2

"But that would cost you--"

"Money that I can make back, this isn't about that. I want people in this country to need me, got it?" 1

"Uh…yes sir, so, legacy?"

"Sure, be sure to contact me if you need anything."

"Understood sir, have a wonderful d--" Law hangs up.

He can't help but smile after that call, with a wave of unemployment and the economy in shambles, the Matani Estate would be buying any and everything it can. 1

Keeping everyone employed within his companies would cost him millions if not a hundred million, nothing he can't make many times over for one full-priced surgery.

"Who says you can't buy loyalty and goodwill," Law chuckles as he swaps over to his Horizon number on the same phone. 6

Requesting an update on a building he's been eyeing in Minato Tokyo.

The All Might Hero Agency, which he'd be buying and turning into a museum. Turning it into his own agency would be a slap in the face of the Japanese people, so that's the worst possible move.

Again, buying goodwill.

'Become the most essential cog and the machine will obey.' 2

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Law sighs, an annoyed look on his face as he raises his phone to his ear.

SHAMBLES!

His visor is warped onto his head, and the call immediately connects to it.

"Kyukyu?" Horizon asks. 1

"It's Ryukyu," the grumpy dragon-lady says. "I just got done with a raid here in my city, can I send you a sample of something to identify."

"The HPSC has a crime lab for that remember."

"They take time and we have missing people to find," Ryukyu says.

"Sigh, fine, you can send someone with it."

"I'll have Nejire-chan deliver it." 9

"Timeframe?"

"I already have Nejire-chan heading to Tokyo with the sample. I sent her earlier this morning."

Horizon sighs, "I guess you decided for me, I'll meet her at Endeavor's agency."

"Knew I could count on you Miracle Boy."

"Ugh," Horizon groans and hangs up at that nickname.

Only a few of the Top 10 Pro Heroes has Horizon's number, and honestly, Ryukyu was among the more professional of them.

He's already had to completely block Mirko on both the Hero Network and her personal number…being bombarded by her demanding a rematch got annoying within minutes. 7

END CHAPTER-- 6

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Chapter 140: CHAPTER 136(Popularity Contest)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Within the Endeavor Hero Agency, there are nearly thirty Sidekicks.

Acting under Endeavor they operate under his name as support, either within the Agency for investigations or on the field as combat or rescue support.

Horizon is currently acting as a Sidekick in accordance with the contract he signed when receiving his Provisional Hero License. It's not illegal to sign a Provisional Hero to an official agency, its quite rare for such a case to happen.

Before Horizon joined the Hero Agency, Burnin was the most famous Sidekick in Japan. But because of her disposition, not wanting the stress of running an entire agency, she's gotten rather comfortable being in Endeavor's shadow.

But Burnin wasn't the only person Horizon usurped in popularity. Many 'rookie' Pro Heroes were forced into his shadow.

While Mt. Lady or Kamui Woods may occupy the full stage on their own, they're quickly ignored when Horizon steps onto the same stage.

Other students also felt this effect, even if the most affected trio couldn't care any less.

The Big Three, Japan's top 3 Hero Course students that gain immense popularity during their training time. 1

Currently the most popular of them was Nejire-Chan. Nejire Hado, a 3rd year Hero Course student from UA's class 3B. Already signed with Ryukyu's Hero Agency. 1

Second would be Suneater, Tamaki Amajiki, another 3rd year Hero Course student from UA's class 3B. Signed by the Fatgum Hero Agency since his first year. 4

Currently, UA's 2nd most outright powerful student, if not for the limitations that come with heroics. 7

And finally, Lemillion, Mirio Togata, a 3rd year Hero Course student from UA's class 3A. Signed with the Nighteye Hero Agency in his first year. 3

The protege of Sir Nighteye, All Might's former Sidekick and the leading Hero Agency in terms of investigations.

Principal Nezu and Sir Nighteye's first and only choice to receive One For All from All Might.

Modern Pro Heroes truly have their career made or broken based on popularity. With All Might existing there wasn't enough crime for the 115k heroes to share.

And since they mostly get paid by how many incidents are resolved.

Merchandise and popularity are what made the heroes that couldn't respond fast enough or simply couldn't compete against the top Pro Heroes money so they could live.

Bonuses are handed out based on public perception as well, for example, the Pro Hero that boosts the public's confidence in Pros the most would receive a bonus.

Of course All Might has received the largest bonus for the past 35 years, but now that would likely fall to Best Jeanist until Horizon goes pro. 1

Simply put, being strong isn't enough. If you aren't marketable you won't get anywhere. Super Moves certainly help with this and the more flashy the better.

Being able to actually get to the villains quickly is also important. These are two things Endeavor is better at than any other acting Pro.

Charisma is another important factor, arguably the only thing that stopped Endeavor from ever taking the Rank #1 spot from All Might.

Even having the world record for incidents resolved and a superhuman work ethic wasn't enough to match All Might's inspirational charisma. 2

The benefits of excelling in these categories are immeasurable, and are currently what Horizon is enjoying.

After the news reported that Horizon signed a 3-year contract with the Endeavor Hero Agency, many donations and contributions poured in, more than usual.

And some of it went toward building the office he was currently sitting in. Behind his fancy desk, looking at the news on his computer.

There was one couch off to the side and two seats on the other side of his desk. As well as a door on either side of the room, not including the door leading out to the open floor where most Sidekicks have their desk setup.

The switchboard desk where all incoming requests are filtered is also on this floor, while Endeavor's office is a few floors above on the top floor.

Behind Horizon was a large glass wall with Saitama Tokyo behind him, the moon hidden away by the clouds. 1

"Kamui Woods," Horizon mutters as he checks the charts. Seeing this 'rookie hero' spike in popularity and working overtime to resolve incidents in these past few days.

He was also at the League Of Villains raid and captured a dozen grey Nomu.

'He can't hope to keep up with me, Endeavor, Hawks, or even best Jeanist…but at this rate, he could be in the top 10. Being a part of that raid certainly helps…'

As Horizon is checking up on what other heroes are up to he receives a call. Connecting it to his visor he hears Chitose's voice, unknowingly talking to the publicity agent for the Meta Liberation Army.

"How's my favorite young hero doing?" Chitose asks.

"Busy, waiting for a meeting. What's got you calling me?"

"Well with the entire country in chaos and no heroes having the time or willing to make statements, I was curious if you'd be willing to do a short interview. Maybe help ease public sentiment.

You're not one to be fearful of saying the wrong thing and having people rioting against you after all. So, how about it?"

"Have you seen that creepy blog that tracks how many hours a day I'm out working?"

"Hey, my blog isn't creepy!" 5

"Wait, that was you?" 1

"It was done to show people how much the Pro Heroes care about them."

"It makes all but the top Pro Heroes look like lazy uncaring fucks…certainly doesn't help that a lot of Heroes immediately migrated away from Japan after All Might retired."

"Or they got poached," Chitose says. "But I only report the facts, it's not my fault or intention if it makes most Pro Heroes look back," true, but that was her agenda. 1

"Yeah, but then you know I've been working the most hours, if the people see me sitting in some studio on TV it could cause even more unrest, you'll atleast have to wait until after this crisis to get an interview."

"How about some questions on the record, just over the phone?"

"Mmmm, you've got a few minutes, go."

"All Might, did you know about his thinner form before that night?" She immediately brings out the big questions.

But luckily Nezu, Yagi, and Horizon had sorted out exactly what he was allowed to discuss with the media about this.

"I've been his doctor for a year before joining UA, his health has been in rapid decline for reasons I'm not allowed to discuss before that. All Might literally gave his entire being to protect others and never wanted anyone to know the pain behind his smile.

Even as I urged him to retire earlier he simply couldn't live knowing there were people that needed saving and he had the power to save them, yet didn't do anything. Heroic to his own detriment."

"I see, and about you buying your way into UA because you're All Might's doctor?"

"No, I showed my capabilities as a potential Pro Hero before Principal Nezu knew I was a doctor, or Mystery Class."

"Right, and is All For One related to you?"

"No, he just happens to dress well, as do I. The visor and his mask are a coincidence."

"Yet both your visor and his are listed as 'lifestyle support items', the similarities have people concerned."

"We aren't related," Horizon growls out.

"Right, understood, now…"

As their interview continues Burnin stumbles into his office with some cuts across her face and her Hero Costume caked with rubble. The fire on her head was entirely gone leaving her bald, needing her to eat and rest before it comes back. 7

She's about to speak, but is silenced as Horizon taps the side of his visor, indicating he's on the phone.

So instead she just walks over to the fridge in his office to get some snacks and a drink, and lays down flat on his couch.

"Final questions now," Chitose says after a few minutes of talking. "Do you think the state of Japan proves what you were saying as correct? That your warning of us depending too much on a single pillar has unfortunately been proven true?"

"Entirely so, I tried to tell people about it but unfortunately I didn't expect something like Kamino to happen so soon. I thought we would have had more time to spread the pressure of maintaining the status quo across all Heroes, but life rarely goes as we want." 1

"So you were thinking years ahead of all of us?"

"I always am."

"Right, and you healed both Buakaw and Hodori after the Gigantomachia even, how was that?" 3

"They're perfectly fine, no hard feelings at all. They understand villains attack us at our lowest."

"And about people and corporations as well as other nations withdrawing from Japan because of that event?"

"Would you go somewhere that the government can't keep you safe?"

"Well…no."

"Then why should they?" Horizon asks. "We can't blame them because we failed, we just have to do better, and we will."

"And do you have any idea of a timeline for some semblance of peace to be restored?"

"Hmm," he actually thinks about it for a moment. "This first wave will only last another few days at worst, then things should get a lot quieter for a while. After that, it's just the league and Machia to bring down."

Chitose giggles, "you make it sound so easy…"

"All I need is time, and I'll clean up this country."

"Right, and finally, are there any Pro Heroes you've been impressed by during these hard times?"

"No, they've just been doing their job, nothing particularly commendable about it, even for myself or Endeavor."

"So harsh, alright I think I have enough, I'll send you a message when the interview is published alright?"

"Sure thing," Horizon hangs up.

Then he looks over to the couch to see Burnin half asleep after finishing her snack.

"Is your call done?" Burnin asks, her usual hyper mood replaced by exhaustion.

"Yeah, you know you're the only other Sidekick with an office, right, you can go sleep there."

"But you've got all the good snacks."

"You would too, but you're just cheap."

"No you're rich, there's a difference. Besides it's not like you mind…"

"How are you so sure?"

"If you didn't want me here I'd be laying in a street somewhere with one Shambles."

Horizon just sighs, then gets up from his seat and walks over to her, "what the hell happened to you?" he asks while reaching down and placing a hand on her shoulder.

BOOSTER SHOT!

The cuts and bruises across her face begin healing at a visible pace.

"Penguin villain." 5

"Penguin villain? Really."

She opens her eyes to give him an annoyed look, "he could shoot ice from his beak ok, and he had a lot of friends…" 6

"Excuses excuses," Horizon mutters as he gets back to his seat.

A moment later he senses someone step into the lobby on the ground floor, takes out a card and throws it forward.

SHAMBLES!

Nejire-Chan appears in his office, in full Hero Costume. A light green body glove with a turquoise swirl across it. Her blue hair in large curls reaching past her knees with her bangs swirled into two horns.

And as Horizon warps his card back into his hand the girl finally snaps to her senses, realizing what just happened.

"That's so weird? How does that work? Can you see through walls and stuff? Does that make you tired? Is the mask your face?" And a dozen more questions are shot at him before he can raise a hand to silence her. 2

"Can you please just give me whatever you're here to deliver?" 1

"Oh, right, I'm Nejire Hado by the way, Ryukyu sent me to give you this, it's super important so I had to secure it!"

She reaches into her utility belt and takes out a small green vial.

Horizon takes the vial from her and holds it closer to his visor, noticing it just looks like green water.

"Oh, are you gonna drink it?!"

"No, where'd she find this?"

"Oh it was on a smuggler she caught, but he uh…he took some desperate measures to avoid being captured alive ya know," she says in a sad tone.

"Makes sense," Horizon says, holding it carefully in his hands. "This kind of thing is gonna be worth a lot of money, the cost of talking would have been a lot more than his life, probably his entire bloodline, assuming he even knew."

"OH, you know what it is?" Nejire asks.

"Already scanned it," Horizon tosses it over to her, and the girl nearly has a heart attack as she catches it. 2

"You should be more careful!"

"It doesn't work unless it's injected into your bloodstream, if you drink it then you'll just get a stomach ache and need to go to a hospital."

"What is it?"

"A new strand of Trigger, mixed with something a lot more organic, human in fact."

"A Quirk?"

"Yeah, the user is likely mid-twenties."

"You can tell?"

"Hormones and other markers make it easy to tell, but this variation is still unstable. If you took it then you'd probably be forced to use your Quirk until it killed you or drained you."

Nejire holds the vial a lot more carefully after hearing that.

"It was probably headed to a chemist or something, have Ryukyu check where she found this guy or where he was going to and find some leads."

Nejire immediately takes out her phone to update Ryukyu, what would have taken atleast a week to solve for a crime lab, and they wouldn't have been able to find as much info, took Horizon all of 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, Horizon gets an alert directly into his visor.

"Alright, thanks, I'll get out of here now, it's a long trip back to the agency," Nejire says.

"Not yet," Horizon says as he gets up, walking around to her. Standing in front of the rather short girl. "You're coming with Endeavor and me to deal with something first, just outside of Tokyo."

"Huh?"

"Normally we'd have her but," he gestures to Burnin who was asleep on the couch, without her massive fiery hair. "She's tired and her Quirk is spent, you're subbing in since most of this agency can't match your firepower."

Nejire giggles at the horrible and unintentional pun, "alright, so what's the situation?"

"We're hunting the League Of Villains…" 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 141: CHAPTER 137(Recruitment Camp Raid)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7 PM, LOV Recruitment Village #17… 2

"Can you turn it down a bit, I'm trying to make a call here," Mr. Compress asks.

Currently he, Dabi, Toga, and Spinner were all sitting in the living room of a penthouse, in a small development just outside of Tokyo.

Spinner looks away from his video game on the tv, then just complies and turns down the volume.

Around and within this building, there were would-be villains arriving over the past week. Waiting to be verified before Kurogiri would warp them to a more secure location.

Another large recruitment drive by the League Of Villains.

And while the new recruits where waiting to be sorted out by their system, the commanders were relaxing.

Spinner, the right hand of Shigaraki was playing his games on the tv, his greatsword a cobbled mess of smaller blades was resting beside him. 1

Dabi was sitting on the couch scrolling through his phone, waiting for his special assignment from Shigaraki.

Toga was on the other side of the couch, painting her nails bright pink to match her scarf mask. Decked out with a dozen knives, her blood extraction equipment was still equipped.

And off to the side, Mr. Compress was on the phone. His mask was currently off to reveal the black layer below, only showing his eyes and mouth.

"Shigaraki, you wanted to speak to me?" Mr. Compress asks as the call finally connects.

"It's about the I-Island job I sent you on, we've hit a snag…"

"What kind of a snag? I didn't even get to the vault before that mercenary group struck, but the schematics say it should have survived the tower collapsing."

"It did, but the device All For One caught wind of was missing when the scientists took inventory, apparently it's some kind of weird helmet. Parts of it were found, but the leader of the mercenaries, Wolfram, he got most of it intact." 1

"Hmm, A helmet of all things, when I read the data, Ujiko made it sound like I was sent after a superweapon."

"It is," Shigaraki says. "A mechanical Quirk amplification device, and since we only got info on the broken pieces that were found, Ujiko thinks he might be able to reverse engineer some of it."

"Hmm," Mr. Compress falls deep into thought. "That kind of device, with the destructive nature of your Quirk, or certain others," he looks over to Dabi. "That could give us a major advantage in the coming battles."

"We won't know until you steal the recovered parts and deliver them to the doctor."

"Why not steal the schematics?" Mr. Compress asks.

"Those died with David Shield, and the man cared oh so much about humanity that he never took notes on these kinds of projects." 13

"I see, alright, when Kurogiri is done with assisting Twice, Dabi, and Magne, he and I can steal the parts." 2

"No Kurogiri, not this time. We don't know if the mouse developed any technology to sense Warp Gate."

"The mouse?" Mr. Compress asks. "Wait…Nezu?" realization finally dawns on him.

"Unfortunately th--"

"They're sending the parts to UA, and you're sending me in since Horizon has never scanned me to know my face or body below the costume."

"In this hemisphere, Tartarus and UA are the most secure places to send that, and apparently David Shield only trusts All Might with this unfinished project," Shigaraki says. "So they went to him in the will."

"Hmm, breaking into UA, what a spectacular way to upstage anyone trying to take my spotlight," Mr. Compress chuckles. "I'll need some time to prepare, and a distraction in Tokyo to keep Mr. Invincible away for a while." 1

"Machia's surgeries won't be done for a while longer, but I think some of the more specialized Nomu can cause enough noise."

"Good, and if we're lucky this will make Nezu so nervous that he'll have to keep him in UA for a few more days in the week, I for one quite miss living within Tokyo." 1

"You can live wherever you want…when we break this country into nothing and rule over the perfect one, rebuilt by our own hands."

"Yes sir."

"Good, Kurogiri, Dabi, Twice, and Magne should be back in a few--" 3

GRRRRRR!

The entire building shakes, causing Compress to stumble and hold onto the wall.

Dabi who was just about to fall asleep snaps awake, looking around to see his glass of liquor shaking, catching it just before it falls off the table.

"Earthquake!" Spinner yells out and dives atop Toga, intending to protect her from any falling debris.

"Ugh you're squishing me!" she cries out. 1

The sound of concrete breaking thunders out as shelves and dishes fall over, sliding as the entire building tilts.

But a few seconds later, the shaking stops.

"Is everyone alright?" Spinner asks.

"Get off of me!" Toga shoves him to the side, finally able to breathe without him crushing her. "You should go on a diet, too heavy!" she whines.

"Hey! I'm in decent shape!"

Looking at the floor Compress sees his phone, dropped and shattered in all of the confusion. "Darn it, I'll have to pick up a new one from Jaku…"

"I need to go make sure all the recruits are alright, and that the Nomu maturation tanks didn't crack," Spinner says as he gets up, looking around to make sure his friends were alright. But as he's about to leave, Dabi stops him.

"Hold on a second," He takes a sip of his drink and then puts it on the coffee table. Looking at the liquid inside that was almost tilted 20 degrees, then at his allies, mostly leaning against something because they couldn't stand up straight.

"What's the big deal?" Spinner asks, still worried about their potential allies.

"Something just doesn't feel right," Dabi raises a hand to keep everyone Quiet. "No earthquake sirens, and… the mountains are gone," he looks out to the balcony to see the mountains that should be a few miles away gone."

BOOM!

The entire building shakes as a deafening explosion rings out.

"Not an earthquake!" Dabi screams as he rushes out to the balcony, followed by his allies they all stop at the edge, looking down to see the very foundation of the building they were in.

Torn out of the earth and floating a few stories above the road, tilted away from the mountains.

Spinner immediately uses his communicator to relay orders, "Heroes are attacking, Villains and Nomu, kill all heroes!" 1

Madness immediately breaks out as Villains pour out of the nearby building, now getting the all-clear to act on the madness they'd witnessed.

And like clockwork, the roads erupt and Heroes begin pouring out of the sewer system.

The streets of the small town become a warzone in a matter of seconds.

The commanders look out to see a flying Nomu, possessing a Raven Quirk, fly out of their building and into the mix, only for a swirling energy blast to slam into it.

"Output 25%: Nejire Flood!" Nejire-Chan blasts helical-shaped yellow energy from her feet to keep her airborne and massive blasts of the same energy from her palms to crush the Nomu into their building, forcing the commanders to hold on.

As she's battling that Nomu, another jumps out of the building, using some kind of a super-strength Quirk to launch its bulky frame at her.

"Flashfire Fist!" A pillar of orange flames incinerates the Nomu in mid-air before it gets to her, causing it to fall to the battlefield below.

"Endeavor!" Spinner yells out, clearly worried but trying and failing to keep a strong fa ade in the face of the #1 Hero.

"We need backup," Mr. Compress says.

"Look at how cute the blue girl is!" Toga screams out, pointing at Nejire, "I wanna drink her! I wanna be her!" 1

Endeavor gives her a strange look as he flies up to their height, the top floor of the floating building. Nomu, Villains, and Heroes are fighting around and below him on the street.

Then his eyes fall onto the other commanders, disgust and scorn in them.

The look he gave infuriated Dabi for just a moment, until he returned to being apathetic to his father's disapproval.

'Well it's about time pops…' Dabi thinks as both his palms ignite in blue flames.

Raising both his hands Dabi prepares to release a massive blast of blue flames at his father, the heat already making the balcony uncomfortable for his allies, his body releasing black smoke as he burns himself up in the process.

But he was used to this pain.

"Enji Todoroki!" Dabi screams out, and in the same instant Endeavor looks at him with disinterest, and before he could fire, his father disregards him and flies away.

And this pain, he thought he was used to. But it hurt just like all those years ago.

"What?! Why are you ignoring me?!" Dabi screams, hands on the railing, turning it red, nearly making molten steel of it.

"This gives us a chance," Spinner says, seeing Endeavor ignoring them. He touches his ear to activate the communicator, "Shigaraki, we need reinforcements, Heroes are attacking!"

A moment later and a purple Warp Gate begins forming in the air in front of Spinner, intending to spread out and deploy a dozen more Medium-End Nomu. Sufficient reinforcements to kill most of these Heroes, and with the commanders here, maybe they'd be able to hurt Endeavor.

SHAMBLES!

The Warp Gate suddenly collapses in on itself, folding neatly into a slash at the center of it. 2

"Uh…shit," Spinner mutters, realizing the same as his fellow commanders. 4

Only one person can close a Warp Gate like that, and now they suddenly knew who was holding up the building they currently stood in.

"I guess that means I did detect all your forces stationed here, right?" Horizon's mechanical and relaxed voice rings out from behind them, in the penthouse.

Slowly turning around, they see him sitting on the couch where Dabi was moments ago, sword already out, leaning back, and relaxing with his feet up on the coffee table.

"So, this is the Vanguard Action Squad huh…honestly, not impressed…" 16

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 142: CHAPTER 138(Arsenal II)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So…" Horizon casually addresses the villains standing on the balcony. "This is the part where you surrender and tell me where Shigaraki is, right?"

"Go to hell!" Dabi yells out, rushing in front of his allies with both hands producing blue flames.

'Flashfire Fist: Jet Burn!'

Two streams of searing flames are thrown forward, fusing and merging into one pillar, slamming into the couch that Horizon was on.

"Arrrghhhh!" They hear a short, pained, anguish-filled cry.

Toga draws her knives, Spinner holds his sword forward, and Dabi drops his hands to his side, small flames in his palm as they wait for the fire to clear.

And as it does, a twitching body is left on the floor, coat blackened, face down on the floor, and realization slowly dawned on them.

"Damn, that looks painful," Horizon mutters, and all their eyes flicker from Mr. Compress who was laying on the floor, to Horizon who was standing behind them where he was moments ago. 1

"You jerk!" Toga doesn't hesitate to throw two knives directly at his visor.

TAKT!

They both stop just inches away from his face.

"Rude…" 1

"Go away!" Spinner charges forward while Dabi recovers from his last attack, slashing down with his greatsword. 1

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps places with Mr. Compress.

"Shit!" Spinner barely angles his sword away from the body on the floor, smashing the railing of the balcony instead.

"You should be more careful," Horizon says. And by the time they turn back toward the living room, he's already warped Mr. Compress back under his boot, standing with a foot resting on the man's back. 1

"Don't hurt my friends!" Toga yells out, giving in to her anger for just a moment. She draws two more knives and charges ahead, taking a low predatory posture.

Before Spinner can lift his heavy sword and charge beside her she's already at Horizon, where the now incinerated couch rests on the floor against the wall. 2

"Tch, you're more cute than smart…" Horizon easily parries both her strikes with his sword, even in such a close range his skills were far greater than she could ever hope to match. 2

With his free hand he punches her in the side.

CRACK!

The sound of her ribs breaking echoes out. 9

"Takt."

Spinner is rushing forward when suddenly his blade feels twice as heavy, pulled to the floor causing his advance to be halted.

As Toga winces in pain Horizon lands a strong left to her jaw, sending some of her teeth clattering against the wall as she's instantly knocked out. 3

But before her body hits to the searing floor, he catches her by the hair, lifting her and holding her above the floor as a shield between him and her allies.

A smaller blast of blue flames hit her, and while Dabi doesn't react, Spinner damn near cries as her entire back is now sporting first-degree burns.

"Yeah, definitely more cute than smart…and honestly, not that cute," Horizon slams her against the wall and casually impales her with his katana, pinning her unconscious body to the wall through her collarbone. 22

With one foot still resting on Mr. Compress he looks over at Dabi and Spinner. Dabi had no flames active, seeming to be extra conservative with his firepower for a reason Horizon couldn't discern.

And Spinner was desperately trying to draw his blade, which was doing its best Mjolnir impersonation at the moment.

"That sword won't work for you, I won't allow you to wield it," Horizon says jokingly.

Spinner's eyes dart between Toga, bleeding out, pinned to the wall by his Katana Scalpel, to Mr. Compress, a nearly charred body resting below his boot, then to Horizon, casually standing there, completely untouched.

"Let me draw it and I'll show you what happens to people that attack my friends!" Spinner demands.

"Why bother, if you were worth of crossing blades with me I'd consider it…but honestly, you're the biggest disappointment here, and that includes this useless bitch," he gestures at Toga.

"Toga is our friend! She isn't useless!" Spinner yells, even as he's still struggling to even move the greatsword.

"As what, team fleshlight?" 17

Spinner grits his teeth, losing all sense of reason as anger overtakes him, hearing his dear friend spoken of in such a degrading and disgusting manner.

Abandoning his blade he rushed forward with clenched fists.

"You take that back!" he aims a sloppy and pathetic punch at Horizon's visor, all emotional, no form, no true intent.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps away, and Spinner turns around as he hears stone grinding.

Then he sees it, Horizon had swapped with some debris where Spinner's weapon was. And in one swift motion raised it, slashing off Dabi's arms from just below the elbows.

"Good thing I'm not the real one," Dabi says as he melts into a brown sludge.

The clone was completely destroyed in one hit.

"Huh, that was a double…kinda gross," Horizon mutters, only to look at Spinner who was mortified by what he just saw.

"You…you were going to cut off his arms?"

"Huh, oh that…just his hands, that's where he usually makes flames after all."

"But, but you're supposed to be a hero!" Spinner yells, disbelief wracking his mind. "Stain said you're the one true hero, what's wrong with you?" 1

Hearing that Horizon takes a second look at the Stain fanboy in front of him, in full Stain cosplay and all.

"Right, maybe don't take life advice from a child-murdering psycho, or do, because then you'll come across me. And at that point, it's just natural selection with extra steps," Horizon chuckles as he points Spinner's own weapon at him.

"You're a monster. This isn't how heroes are supposed to fight, you're supposed to use as little force as possible…not this," he glances fearfully at Toga who was still hanging from the wall. 2

"I'm effective, now, where is Tomura Shigaraki?"

"Tch, I don't care what you do to me, I'll never betray my friends!" 1

Looking at Spinner, that determination in his eyes, Horizon could only form one conclusion.

"I believe you," he says, catching Spinner off-guard. 1

"Wh--AHHHHHH!" Spinner cries out as he feels his shinbone snap.

In one instant Horizon had warped behind him, leaving behind the villain's weapon, and kicked him in the shin.

He drops to one knee, feeling a large hand palming the back of his head.

CRACK!

Horizon slams his face into the searing hot floor, pressing him down like meat on a grill.

His green reptilian skin begins deforming into a sickly brown almost immediately as he screams out in pain.

Horizon lifts his head up and slams it down one more time, shattering Spinner's nose and some of his teeth, leaving one of his eyes swollen shut. And a few moments later its burnt shut from how hot Dabi made the floor.

"You hero types are always so easy to break," Horizon says. "Not directly, but that selfless desire to protect other people instead of yourself, it's always what gets you killed, or in this case, gets me what I want." 4

Holding spinner by the head he throws him to the side so he's sitting on the floor with his back against the couch.

"Gecko: allows the user to stick to walls, you're a disappointment on every level, but I'm sure you've been told that your entire life, right?" Horizon asks.

Spinner's barely away, looking at this monster through his one good eye.

"You're a monster."

"And you're a loser. See I read your file. Before the league you were literally nobody. Barely any public record, dropped out of high school because you were bullied. Definitely too much of a pussy to stand up for yourself since you never even got into a fight.

Tried to do courses to make up for it but flunked out of those. Couldn't make friends, and never had a girlfriend. Became a shut-in that felt like it was the entire world's duty to cater to you.

But then you apparently saw another loser named Stain on tv, and decided you should go punish all the people who didn't save you from…well, being a pussy. And actually made friends with…what is this?"

He gestures to Toga, "some cannibal bitch." He raises his foot and then steps down harder on Mr. Compress's back. "Some failed street magician? And a bunch of other losers, worthless." 4

"Don't talk about my friends like that!"

"Or what? Those words, all words, mean nothing if you can't enforce them, and you're weaker than most of my classmates. But my words, my words carry true authority…watch."

"What, what are you doing?"

"I'm about to reform her," Horizon says as he gestures to Toga. "From villain, to cripple…" 18

"What?!"

As Horizon takes one step toward Toga, Mr. Compress musters all his strength to protect his friends, reaching out as Horizon walks away to grab the man's leg, hoping to compress him into a marble.

Desperate to do anything to help.

SHAMBLES!

"Nnnnnggggghhhhhh!" Compress groans in pain as Horizon's sword pierces down into his forearm, splitting the bone, then into the floor.

"Sorry, the power of friendship doesn't work in this story." 20

He turns around and kicks Mr. Compress in the face, breaking his mask and knocking him out. But as the man is sent across the room the sword splits his forearm in two, right down the middle. 5

"So, where were we?" Horizon asks as Toga's body is warped between him and Spinner.

"Get away from h--"

'TAKT: Dancing Sword!'

Horizon's sword seemingly flies out of the floor and impales spinner to the couch, through his leg, all on its own. 2

"Too bad you didn't get any lizard healing huh," Horizon jokes as the man screams in pain. "Anyway, tell me where Shigaraki is…and I won't cripple it," he steps on Toga's head, pressing her face into the hot floor.

"What! No, you can't!"

The man chuckles, "I'm Horizon, I can do whatever I want. And the public won't care about this bitch after all the crap you guys caused. I could pull you limb from limb and get away with it," he shrugs. "But I'd rather keep the perfect image I currently have. After all, I am the next Symbol Of Peace." 3

"Please…" Spinner mutters, pitifully.

Horizon crouches down, seeing Toga's exposed and burnt back, trailing a finger along the torched skin to the base of her spine.

"Life in a wheelchair maybe?"

"Wait, no!"

Horizon runs his finger up her spine, all the way to her neck, "or maybe I just shut off everything below the neck, not like her main use will be affected." 13

He sees a flicker of rage in Spinner's eyes at that, but the man just grits his teeth, intending to call the 'Hero' on his bluff. 1

"Our file says you're Shigaraki's right-hand man, if anyone knows, it's you, that's why you're the only one left in a state to talk. So, one last chance," Horizon places his hand flat on the back of her neck."

"I, I just, no…I won't betray my friends!"

"Well, our time is up anyway, Endeavor is cornering the last few Nomu," Horizon shrugs. "But while you're in prison, just remember, she's spend the rest of her life as a cripple, all because of you." 1

MES!

Horizon raises his hand, and with is comes a perfectly clean spinal section, leaving a gaping hole in her neck. The bone was coated in strange spatial gel, the same which the hole was seemingly filled with.

Spinner squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see what happens next.

Until he feels Horizon's hand holding his chin, pulling his cheeks and forcing his eyes open.

"I respect your commitment to the role, to the duty of the right-hand man, but I need you to see, exactly what you made me do to your friend," Horizon raises the bone in Spinner's view, and slowly, he squeezes.

CRACK!

"Please…" Spinner struggles to say as Horizon is holding his face. "Dear god."

"Oh no, I'm the only god you need right now, I'm the only one who can save you." 2

CRACK!

The entire bone is cracked down the middle, a hairline fracture that would have been able to heal if it weren't such a vital and nerve-filled bone. 2

Spinner can't look away from it, even as tears are flowing down his face.

"Sigh, can't believe you made me do that to your dear friend…oh well," Horizon shrugs as he steps back, placing the bone back in her neck as if it weren't removed at all. 1

"I, I'll tell people," Spinner mutters, panicked.

"Right, because people would believe you, over me, the person trying to keep the peace in this country. A lowly pathetic villains, versus their future Symbol Of Peace…good luck with that." 1

"Yo--argh!"

Horizon reaches forward and yanks his sword out of Spinner's leg. "Well, you're useless now, and Endeavor is coming to check on me, we're done here…"

Before Spinner can even make sense of what happened, Horizon palmed his head into the wall, cracking the concrete and his skull. 2

END CHAPTER-- 1

Friendly remind that a review on this story would be greatly appreciated, and I do have a pa.treon. 1

What do you think of the story thus far? 30

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Chapter 143: CHAPTER 139(Lead By Example)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Standing atop a 3 story building, Horizon was overseeing the villains being arrested, led into armored trucks for transport to the various prisons.

Mostly D-List losers not even worth his time. But the sheer numbers, it begged the question of how many camps just like these were out there. 1

A focal point for all the recruits to be cleared before being assigned a role within the League of Villains.

'Focus Law, get your shit together…' he berates himself, shaking his head, trying to push the pain away. 5

After the battle, he helped with finding the few villains that hid from Endeavor's team. Then he finally got to drop the building he'd been holding afloat.

The show of power was astonishing to everyone, and that includes the pictures and video he uploaded from the beginning of this raid.

But the cost, he'd need to rest for a few hours for this headache to go away.

'If anyone that actually needs me to put my back into a fight was here, that could have gone bad for me. Splitting my focus like that, painful, and much more limiting than ever before. Luckily these people are all trash…'

But this is part of being a hero, putting on a fa ade of strength and bravery, 'smile even when you're scared, so the people you're saving won't be afraid when you arrive', or whatever All Might would say in Hero Class.

Looking directly below, he sees Mr. Compress -his slightly cooked self being loaded into the back of an extra secure armored truck, laid vertically in a metal bed with all his limbs restrained.

Already in the truck are Spinner and Toga, in the same type of contraption.

FWOOM!

Horizon doesn't even look away from the villains as a wave of mild heat accompanies the sound of flames landing beside him on the roof.

"Are we done here?" Horizon asks.

"Just about, Burnin is clearing out some rubble for the Safety Commission to send in their people," Endeavor looks around at the battlefield. 1

A few collapsed buildings and some torn-up streets.

"Hero Insurance should cover it, since most of this is owned by villains anyway, the banks can just seize it," Horizon says.

"Mhm," Endeavor grunts, then walks forward to stand beside Horizon, looking out at the villains being loaded up with his hands crossed over his chest.

While Horizon was idly scrolling through his phone.

After around a minute of deafening silence, Horizon speaks up, "just say what you have to say already."

"What happened when you went inside the penthouse?"

"I captured the villains."

"Mhm, I know the plan, I deal with the masses and you deal with the commanders. But you're powerful enough that you could have easily subdued them."

"I did."

"By causing permanent damage to some of them, all of them. The girl will be a vegetable for the rest of her life, Spinner will have permanent nerve damage in his legs. And Compress had his left arm split in two, right down the middle," Endeavor's flame rise for a moment before settling. 2

"You know how those kinds of fights can get, 'cornered dogs are dangerous,' or something like that. Villains are exactly the same." 3

Endeavor glances at him through the corner of his eye before returning his gaze to the villains. "Its called minimum required force, that's what Pro Heroes are supposed to use. Be as gentle as possible."

"What if that's what I did."

"Tch, you're Horizon, you can do much better than that. You could have solved this fight without anyone getting hurt like that. It would have been easy for you."

"You think so?"

"I know so," Endeavor says as he turns to face Horizon. "But even as someone who always thinks logically in the most intense situations, you lack compassion. Or from what I've seen tonight, you relish the chance to partake in violence, that's not what Heroes do."

"Tell that to Mirko."

"Tch, that's beside the point. Nobody ever expects her to become the #1 Hero. But you're Horizon, it's expected of you to become the next Symbol of Peace. Be better…"

"I still got the job done," Horizon says. "Maybe people feel so comfortable being villains because Heroes aren't hard enough on them. Maybe if All Might didn't pull his punches the crime rate would have hit zero."

"That's Tyranny, and its not what we fight for. Our duty is primarily protecting people, not handing out our own form of justice. This isn't a world of 'Might makes right' anymore, society has rules." 4

"Unless you're mighty enough to ignore that," Horizon says. "Because this is a world of 'might makes right', the government has the most people, the most guns, the most hired muscle," he gestures to himself and Endeavor. "That means they're always right." 5

Endeavor just sighs, taking a deep breath and looking back to the villains. "You're still young, and already the most powerful person in Japan. In a world of 'Might makes right', you'd always be right. That's how many people become villains, and while I know you're on the path to being a hero. Part of that is holding yourself to a higher standard that anyone else. 5

But you and I, we need to be even more strict as the #1 Heroes, now and in the future. You need to be an example. Because people will follow our lead, and if we say that Heroes should exercise such violence on villains, eventually people will take that too far.

Lead by example, because not everyone is Horizon. Not everyone can be trusted with that kind of power over others. If most people had a fraction of your power they'd use it for personal gain, the fact that you're still trying to do the selfless thing and be a Hero shows your true character. 19

But even the average Pro Hero would succumb quite easily, that's the person we must set an example for, understand?"

Horizon just sighs, "yeah I get it…but that also means I have the power to set a new standard for them, right?"

"Uh, right," Endeavor wasn't sure if he should be concerned or not with the way Horizon said that. "Anyway, I know the likely wasn't a common occurrence, just seeing the people who killed your friends at the summer camp must have gotten to you. Take the rest of today off to clear your head." 2

"Right, thanks," Horizon says.

But in truth, everything was intentional. To try to wring as much information as possible out of Spinner he had to operate like he would have when working with his mother.

Terrify them and show how willing you are to hurt the people they love, but even then he didn't get any information he could use to track Shigaraki, or atleast Kurogiri.

FOOSH!

The sound of Ryukyu's massive wings flapping interrupt them as her large dragon form sets down on the roof. Then before their eyes she reverts into her slender human form, wearing her usual red qipao, fixing her hair as she walks up to them. 3

Standing nearly a foot 30cm shorter than them in this form she looks up at both of them, before walking between them to look down at the last few trucks being loaded up.

"So, how did my Nejire-Chan work with you boy?" Ryukyu asks.

"Too chatty," Horizon says.

"Mhm," Endeavor agrees.

And Ryukyu just rolls her eyes, "well what's important is the raid went well. Sorry I couldn't be here for the action."

"Would have been cool to see you fighting as a dragon, in person for a change," Horizon admits.

"I think this fight caused enough collateral damage, this is partly why my agency is at the coast. Gives me more room to spread my wings out there."

"Why are you here?" Endeavor asks her. "Did you really fly all the way here just to check up on your sidekick?"

"Oh no that'd be a waste, the Safety Commission asked me to escort these villains to Tartarus," Ryukyu says. "We can't afford to have either of you away from Tokyo and all the way to the other side of Japan at the moment, the crime rate isn't expected to start dropping for atleast two more days after all."

"And without a Full Pro Hero License I actually can't be on that mission," Horizon says.

"Neither can Nejire, so Endeavor, can she spend tonight at your agency? I assume that skyscraper of yours has an extra room or two." 2

Both Endeavor and Horizon groan.

"It's fine," Endeavor says. "But who is your support for this escort mission."

"Hawks," Horizon answers for her.

"How'd you know that?"

"I can sense him, a few miles east of here."

"Huh, how does that work?" Ryukyu asks. "Like, do you just sense living things?"

"No, I sense everything."

"Everything?" She gives him an uneasy look.

"If I want to, yes, I can do that."

"Well, luckily for all the ladies you're a Hero. A pervert with that Quirk would have been a nightmare."

"I have better things to do than skirt-chasing, you don't have to worry about me becoming another Hodori." 5

"Thank the heavens," Ryukyu gives a relieved look. "The world doesn't need another one of those."

After a few more minutes of chatting, Hawks finally arrives. And the friendly casual conversation immediately becomes tense.

"Hawks," Horizon growls out, losing his relaxed fa ade for just a moment. 2

"Horizon, how've you been, it's been a while," Hawks greets him in a friendly manner, as if they were an old friend. As Hawks hovers before the others, he gives Horizon a friendly wave.

"Perfect as always."

"Maannnn, if I knew you were such a monster I would have made a better first impression, no hard feelings right?" Hawks offers his hand for Horizon to shake, giving him a friendly smile.

"Tch, I'll keep things professional, but we aren't friends."

"Awe," Hawks slumps forward. "But we could be."

"Or you could go fuck yourself." 1

"Horizon!" Ryukyu taps his shoulder. "Show some respect."

"When its earned, I'm going back to Tokyo…" Horizon disappears from the roof, swapped with a piece of brick.

"So, bad blood?" Endeavor asks, and Hawks just shrugs. 1

"Looks like the villains are all packed up, ready to get these guys to Tartarus?" Hawks asks Ryukyu.

"Gladly, until next time Endeavor, thanks for looking out for my Nejire-Chan." 4

"You trained her well."

"See ya Enji!" Hawks says as he begins hovering away, and Endeavor just gives an annoyed grunt.

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 144: CHAPTER 140(Another Imposter) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Under the moonlight on a quiet countryside road, a fully armored convoy was currently in chaos. 1

The main prisoner transport truck was currently flipped onto its side, with the last remaining member of the security division sitting behind it, back against the cold steel as he cradles his rifle.

"C'mon damn it, work," the man mutters, desperately tapping his radio, still not getting any signal.

"Grarh!" he hears one of his friends take his final breath just a few meters behind him.

CLANG!

He hears someone drop onto the main truck he was hiding behind, and carefully he cranes his neck upward, locking eyes with the cold emotionless killer.

"Wait please!" The man tries to jump to his feet, hoping to maybe get one shot off.

But Hawk's feathers are just too fast. Two pierce his heart and exit through his back before the man can even get off the ground.

His body crumples over, bleeding out as he takes his final pained breaths.

"Damn it, this had better be worth it," Hawk grumbles. He truly hates taking innocent lives, but orders were orders. 2

And for the greater good, their sacrifices are necessary. 2

Looking back he sees more bodies scattered about the road, some shot after the fact. Using their own guns to mix things up, rather than have everyone killed with 'blades'.

Hovering down from the truck using his feather wings, all the loose feathers return to his back while one long feather hovers into each of his hands. Playing the part of a feather sword. 2

He walks to the back of the truck, then glances over to Ryukyu, the woman was currently face down on the street in a pool of her own blood, with a dozen stab wounds in her back.

Taken by surprise, his first victim of the night. Barely left alive, much too close to death for his comfort. 3

Reaching into his jacket pocket Hawks takes out a communicator and hits one button. And moments later a Warp Gate opens a few meters away.

"Not bad," Dabi says as he walks out, hands in his pocket, as casual as ever. Looking around at the carnage he gives a nod of approval.

"I'll save you!" Twice screams as he rushes out of the Warp Gate, followed by a hulking Nomu that then easily rips the doors off the truck.

"I had the key," Hawks says, as Twice begins to multiply himself to haul his allies back through the Warp Gate.

"He gets excited easily," Dabi shrugs, standing between Hawks and the Warp Gate, keeping the hero in his sights at all times while Twice takes their allies to safety.

They have an intense staring contest for a while, until Twice and the other commanders are gone. Leaving Hawks, Dabi, the Nomu, and the unconscious Ryukyu as the only living people here.

Dabi takes his hands out of his pockets, ready for action, "so, what's your endgame here?"

"A world where people that can fly, are free to do so. I'm sick of being a bird in a cage." 2

"Of course, you'd talk in bird crap," Dabi says. "Well you helped us get these guys back, that's a start. But obviously, we still don't trust you, so I'll be in touch."

"Of course," Hawks says, relieved that atleast this part went smoothly.

"Ngh," Ryukyu makes just enough noise for them to hear, and Hawks immediately curses his luck.

"Ohh, missed one," Dabi gives a sinister smile as he aims his flames at Ryukyu, only for Hawks to step to the side, blocking his shot. "Dropping the crappy villain act already, huh?"

"I'm a freedom fighter, not a villain," Hawks says. "And if I'm the only survivor it looks too suspicious, I need her." 3

"You want me to pass up on a chance to kill a top 10 pro? Well, I could just make it two, how about it?"

"And kill the only intel source you have that can tell you what the other top 10 Pro Heroes are planning, right?" 1

Dabi clenches his jaw at that, and drops his hands. "She could become a problem for us later, kill her."

Hawks just sighs and shakes his head at that horrible idea, "Horizon already doesn't like me, I bet he'll think this is suspicious. If I'm the only survivor he'll be in my face in no time. And neither of us wants him knocking on our door, right?"

Dabi just rolls his eyes and blasts fire away from them, down the street and torching all the other vehicles and corpses, "there, alibi secure. But I see your point, we aren't ready for that fight just yet. For the record, I still think you're full of shit, and a bad actor, but the boss thinks you're useful. Try to stay useful, Hawks…"

Dabi turns around and casually walks into the Warp Gate followed by the Nomu, leaving Hawks and Ryukyu alone on the secluded street.

Hawks immediately shuts off the signal jammer, but the backup was dispatched when their signal disappeared. It was mostly so nobody could relay exactly who was attacking them.

'Twice was here, could have killed him already. But that's not the mission. Twice, Kurogiri, and whoever is producing all these damn Nomu for the league. When I get enough info on those 3, then we can take them all down, but for now…'

As he's thinking Hawk's arrives at one of the unburnt corpses, seeing a grenade on his belt.

"This is gonna hurt, sometimes I hate this job…" he mutters while reaching for the grenade.

The final piece, hurting himself enough to make it more believable… 1

--Minato Tokyo…

While Hawks was making himself a believable victim, Horizon got caught up in another situation.

Because of course with his luck, he'd be flying back to his building in Minato Tokyo, and soar directly above a convenience store hostage situation.

Sitting on his hoverboard he descends to street level, just behind the police barricade where the officers had the store surrounded.

"What happened?"

"Some idiot tried to rob the store when one of my guys was just on the sidewalk over here," the officer says. "He freaked out and hold the owner hostage, we've been here ever since."

Horizon takes an annoyed breath, "I'm too tired for this nonsense, what's his Quirk?"

"Uh, tough skin, like tough as leather."

Looking at the store Horizon sees the windows all spray painted from the inside, but that doesn't matter to him.

SCAN!

He 'sees' the man pacing back and forth, a gun in one hand and a phone in the other, negotiating with the detective in charge.

"I try not to use this much since it's not very 'heroic'...but you're keeping me from my bed, so you deserve it," he mutters in annoyance, causing the nearby police officer to give him a curios look.

Horizon raises his sword and aims it directly at the man's thigh, "Injection Shot."

"ARGHHH!" The man's pained scream rings out as he feels as if a bullet tore through the flesh and bone of his leg, yet didn't break the skin. All the obstacles between the blade and the target were completely pulverized as well.

"Injection Shot."

Another pained scream rings out, but before the man can even fall over.

"Shambles."

Horizon swaps the man with his katana, grabbing him by the face and slamming him into the pavement, leaving the gun in the store.

The officers nearby take a cautious step back, realizing the Hero was exceptionally annoyed at the moment.

It only took minutes to get the paperwork done for this on the scene, and make a public statement. And as Horizon finished talking to the officers and the press, ready to warp to his nearby building.

"Horizon!" one of the officers yells out. "Fire on 28th street!" 6

'FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK! I hate this hero bullshit!' Horizon's inner voice screams, but on the outside, he was as calm and eager to help as always. 1

"I'll take care of it, stay safe everyone," he tells the crowd before warping away.

--40 Minutes Later…

Stepping out of the shower, Law dries off before warping some shorts on and warping himself into the kitchen.

Getting some takeout that he'd ordered before getting back here out of the fridge he puts it in the microwave while checking his phone.

He sees a 'thank you' message from Nejire…for, snacks? 1

Then a moment later he opens his message from Burnin, seeing that both ladies were in his office at Endeavor's Agency and enjoying his snacks. 1

"Great, now they're multiplying," Law groans as his food is ready. 2

Taking it out he warps onto the couch and turns on the TV, hoping to watch some of the formula one races he missed today.

But only two minutes in, and after nearly 80 hours of being awake and constantly fighting villains or saving people.

His eyes were already closing.

Finally drifting off into a very well-deserved rest.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"Huh!" he jolts awake, the familiar emergency alert snapping him out of his restful state.

He checks his phone to see an emergency call for the Endeavor Hero Agency, with he and Endeavor listed by name.

He immediately calls Endeavor, intending to tell him he can't make it.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"The convoy was attacked, Ryukyu and Hawks are critical," and just like that, all hopes of skipping this task was washed away.

"Fuck, alright I'll prepare to work on Ryukyu, send her to my Operating Suite in your building." 1

"What about Hawks?" Endeavor asks. 6

"...What about him?" 16

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 145: CHAPTER 141(Dragon and God)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Mmm," with a relaxed and comfortable moan, Ryukyu rolls over in bed as she stirs awake. 3

Feeling well-rested and completely refreshed, as if she just spent a week at a spa. But the moment she opens her eyes, her mind is flooded with confusion.

Training kicking in as she's ready to fight anyone in the room.

Sitting up in the bed and looking around, she sees she's in a hospital bed, to her right is a wall of cabinets with a variety of different tools.

But this wasn't Central Hospital. One look to her left, at the view of Saitama Tokyo made that very clear.

"Where am--" she stops talking, feeling her throat dry. Looking around she sees a bottle of water on the bedside table.

Before doing anything else she throws off the covers to see her state. Wearing only a hospital gown.

'No cuffs or restraints, this has to be a friendly place. The police and other Pros must have found us before the villains could finish.'

Deciding she's mostly safe the woman drinks some of the water. Feeling much more relaxed afterward.

"That's enough sleeping Ryukyu," she mutters to herself as she sits at the edge of the bed, feet hanging just an inch above the floor.

"Cold," she mutters as her bare feet touch the tile floor. Dealing with the discomfort she walks over and turns on the lights, no longer solely depending on the moonlight and bedside lamp for light.

She has to block her eyes as the blue and white of the room assault her vision.

"Well, atleast now I know where I am…" she realizes immediately. The logo on some of the cabinets made it rather obvious.

Her shoulder slumps down as she takes her time to walk over to the mirror. Using the full-length mirror to look at herself properly. Not seeing any scars or bruises on her face.

"I must have been out for a few days," she looks at the clock, seeing it's only midnight. "Nejire must be so worried…some mentor I am, making my Sidekicks worry about me. You need to do better Ryukyu."

Looking lower, down to her feet, she also sees perfectly clear and unblemished skin.

She freezes for a moment, then hastily takes off the hospital gown, standing naked in front of the mirror.

Her entire body was flawless, in every sense.

All the scars and proofs of her career as a Pro Hero were gone, leaving her appearing as a woman who has never known such violent work.

After staring in amazement she finally spots the change of clothes laid out for her beside the bed, and a pair of fuzzy slippers that she wishes she saw earlier.

"Does he seriously need to make everything match?" she mutters curiously while moving to get dressed. 2

After getting dressed, in a set of grey sweatpants with the simple blue fluffy slippers and a grey sweater. The pants and sweater each sporting Horizon's blue logo. One on the thigh and the other on the back. 1

Running a hand through her hair to lazily set her bangs across the right side of her face she looks at both doors connected to this room. One on the opposite end of the room away from the glass wall.

And another beside the glass wall toward the outer wall of the building.

"Nejire is probably in the waiting room," Ryukyu says as she grabs her bottle of water and walks to the door closest to the bed, beside the glass wall.

And the moment she opens it, 'oh…not a waiting room.'

She enters Horizon's office, closing the door behind her as she looks around in genuine wonder.

'His office is bigger than mine, atleast twice as big,' she thinks while walking around.

She sees all the books on the shelves, most of which are Quirk Catalogues. Containing every publicly recorded Quirk and its uses.

'So old fashioned, all of this stuff is already online,' her gaze drifts over to a medical degree on the wall.

'So is 'Horizon' his actual name…it has to be if they put it on his degree, right?' 2

As she's curiously looking around the office, however, her eyes finally land on the most interesting thing, something she's almost smacking herself in the face for missing.

So distracted by the fact that he even has an office, to see him slumped forward on his desk completely asleep.

Ryukyu froze, for the first time Horizon actually seemed…human.

Or atleast somewhat human.

Even with his visor on and in full costume, his sword and hoverboard nowhere in sight. It was so surreal seeing him do something that everyone does, sleep.

But somehow he still managed to inspire awe. By the strange blue energy vapor wafting off of his body as he peacefully sleeps.

Just small wisps from his arms and hands, enough to give her an unsettling feeling.

But her curiosity was even stronger, and before she knew it, the woman was taking careful, silent steps forward.

Until she stood in front of his desk, with the two seats opposite him to either side of her.

And in the next moment she reaches out, to swat some of the energy away.

"ARGH!" Horizon's hand instinctively shoots up and grabs her neck, slowly choking the life out of her as she desperately claws at his fingers.

His grip was like a vice, and it took all her willpower not to instinctively transform. To break his hold, and the moment he finally looks up.

Those inhuman blue eyes on his visor seemed to bore a hole into her very being. They shone brightly as he looked at her, then the next moment became dull as the vapor on his body disappeared and he released her.

"Gaahhh!" she greedily sucks in air, leaning on the desk to support herself as Horizon sits back in his chair.

"Oh don't be so dramatic," Horizon's somewhat mechanical voice sounds more disgusted than anything else. "What were you even doing?"

Finally catching her breath Ryukyu stares at him with concern, "who reacts like that to someone being close to them, what's wrong with you?" 6

"Nothing, I'm perfect," he says. "Can you just sit down already?" 1

Ryukyu frowns, still massaging her neck which was sporting a fresh new handprint, but she sits opposite him.

"Good," Horizon sees her picking up her water bottle off the floor, "now, what were you doing?"

"You were, leaking?"

"Excuse me?"

"Blue mist from your arm, I was just making sure you're ok. Maybe coolant, do robots have that?"

Horizon pauses for a moment, realizing how serious she was being, "I'm not a robot."

"Sorry sorry sorry! I meant cyborg! I didn't mean to offend you I promise!"

Horizon just gives an annoyed groan, "not a cyborg either, but thanks for the info."

He truly had no idea his body was doing that while he slept. Yet another thing to divide his focus.

"Oh, but Nejire said you told her that--"

"This is my face, because it never comes off, Lifestyle Support Item," Horizon says. "But really I'm just a bag of meat, like everyone else."

"Right, well, sorry," she gives an awkward smile.

"It's fine, now since you're here, anything you want to know?" he asks while logging into his computer and checking up on some cases.

"What happened?" Ryukyu asks.

"What do you remember?"

"Everything up until I was in one of the trucks, then there was a cold pain in my back, then everything goes black."

"That makes sense, your vehicle was the first to get hit. Then they killed most of the security and hit Hawks with a grenade before leaving, from the looks of it Endeavor and Burnin got there fast enough that they couldn't finish you two. But nobody else lived."

"Hawks?" Ryukyu voice almost cracked with how worried she was, or maybe how disappointed in herself she was.

"In Central Hospital, still in surgery, will be for a few more hours."

"Wait, he isn't here?"

"Why would he be here?"

"For you to operate on him."

"Hawks isn't my problem, he can deal with his own healthcare," Horizon looks at her, then turn back to his computer.

"Is the bad blood between you two truly that serious?" 3

He stops typing, then speaks in a dangerously calm tone, "yes, now is there anything else you want to know?"

"How long has it been?"

"Well, the attack was only a few hours ago, your surgery was done two hours ago."

"What?! You fixed me that quickly?"

He glances back to her, then returns to his work, "what part of 'Miracle' did you not understand?"

"And my scars."

"I assumed you didn't want to keep them, you look better like this anyway," he shrugs.

She raises a brow at that, "doctors aren't supposed to comment on their patients like that."

"Then go find another miracle doctor." 1

She opens her mouth to respond, but decides to just take the compliment. "Thank you for healing me."

"Happy to help, now can you tell me how you feel?"

"Like I spent two weeks on vacation and got a massage."

"Tired?"

"Not at all, I feel fully refreshed."

'That's new,' Horizon thinks. Usually, for such invasive operations, his patients need atleast a day of rest before they can function normally. 'Refined energy has its uses…'

"Is that another room for your patients?" Ryukyu gestures to the other door, opposite where she entered from.

"That's my bedroom. Office in the middle, bedroom to my left, patient room and medical equipment to my right."

"Hmm, maybe my agency should get a live-in doctor…"

After a few more minutes of talking Horizon's computer and phone start beeping. The familiar sound of the Hero Network alert immediately has Ryukyu on alert.

"What's going on?"

"I put out some bait on the black market to find where that super concentrated Trigger supplier is, just got a hit."

"The sample I sent you not even a day ago, seriously? How'd you even get a black market contact, that's near impossible for heroes." 1

"Miracles are my specialty, it shouldn't take us long to get there."

She looks a bit confused by that, "us?"

"Yes, us. Because after I spent 80 hours doing Hero Work and was finally about to get some sleep, I had to rush over here to work on you. And now the public also thinks you can't do your job that well so you need the reputation boost of teaming up with me."

"Good point, but…how are you even awake?"

Horizon shrugs, "you expect me to sleep when I can be helping people? I can't become who I'm aiming to be like that."

She's both surprised and inspired by that answer, but also can't help but worry for his own health. "And who are you aiming to be?"

"Well, at first it was the next Symbol of Peace…but I think being a Guardian Deity has a better ring to it." 4

Ryukyu thinks it over for a second, then nods in agreement, then gives him a soft smile "honestly. If anyone else said it that'd be arrogance, but on you, it just makes sense."

"Awe look who's being inappropriate now, flirting with your doctor," he teases.

She folds her arms and glares at him, "I was not, besides you're 10 years younger than me."

"I won't make it weird if you don't…" 2

Her glare softens, genuinely confused as to if he was serious or not.

"Anyway, let's get going, it's a private hangar at the edge of Tokyo, his plane leaves soon," Horizon warps from his seat to standing beside her, startling the woman.

"I thought you needed to always swap with something?"

"It's complicated," he turns to looks down at her, enjoying the way she was sitting down and staring up at him. "Now as much as I like the way I look on you, let's make use of the things Nejire brought for you…" 4

'SHAMBLES!'

Her Horizon-themed clothes immediately swap for her spare Hero Costume that Nejire brought her, perfectly equipped. 1

Ryukyu freezes, then her face quickly begins transitioning to bright red, she grabs her chest and squeezes her legs shut tight.

"Don't do that!" 6

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 146: CHAPTER 142(Dragon and God Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Is this why you brought me along?" Ryukyu asks, currently in her dragon form soaring through the cold night sky.

Above Tokyo prefecture, they were currently heading toward the countryside, where a few private runways and hangars were located.

But as the woman was flying, she had Horizon sitting on her back. Sword and Hoverboard at his side as he uses the hologram projected by the watch Mei gave him, finding more information on their target.

"What are you talking about?" Horizon asks, his voice only reaching her through their advanced communication devices, otherwise, the wind would overpower them.

"Do you know how many people ask me to give them a ride each week?"

"Don't see how that's my problem, or why they'd care."

"Everyone wants to ride a dragon," Ryukyu was clearly annoyed just thinking about it. 7

"My Hoverboard is faster than you for the record, I'm just doing this so I can focus on getting more research. Also, you aren't a dragon."

"Excuse me, I'm literally a dragon right now!"

"Nope, can't breathe fire. Not a dragon, just a lizard with wings…" 10

"I am a dragon, you're being ridiculous."

"When you can breathe fire, then you can call yourself a dragon."

"Mmm," Ryukyu grumbles. "I'm not taking criticism on how accurate the name of my Quirk is, from a guy that names his 'Hand of God', atleast mine isn't offensive."

"Rather arrogant to assume it refers to your god, don't you think?"

"Rather arrogant to call yourself a god, don't you think?"

"Yeah but unlike you, mine is accurate, plus I'm only 16. I've barely begun tapping into what my Quirk can do, but you're 26 and can't even breathe fire…dragon, sure."

"Ugh, that's not how dragons work! I literally look and fight like a dragon!" 2

"Just a gecko with wings Kyukyu." 2

"How are you so annoying?!"

"Practice…" 4

"Ugh!" Ryukyu groans. "Did you atleast find anything on there?"

"Yeah, got an ID for our actual target, the distributor was coming in for a meeting with the head of an underground chemicals lab."

"Drug lab?"

"Nope, think C4 Nerve Agents…"

"What? How has this guy gone unnoticed until now?"

"Because he pays the right people and has discrete, professional clients," including Arsenal for the past decade. "But we're on him now, he's done."

"If he's so insulated then how'd you find him?"

"Because I know people who know people too," Horizon says. 7

He'd made a few calls around the underworld and unsurprisingly, a lot of people weren't a fan of this newly weaponized version of Trigger being used on their men without their permission.

He simply chose the wrong test subjects. Pissed off the wrong people, and they offered him up to Horizon.

"Well then, let's hope your connections are as reliable as you are."

"I got a name for his jet," Horizon says as they see the runway in the distance. "It's…the one that just took off…" 1

"Seriously, damn it," Ryukyu looks into the distance to see it already in the air about to pass over a bridge connecting where the runway is, to a small island off the shore of Tokyo.

"Chase it."

"I can't fly that fast, and neither can your board."

"Yeah but he isn't up to full speed yet, and is still in my range."

"Yeah just warp him out of the plane," Ryukyu says as she begins flying after the plane, intent to keep Horizon in whatever range he had.

"Where's the fun in that?" Horizon chuckles as he reaches out, as if gripping the air with his hand. "Hand of GOD, remember?"

TAKT! 3

And the closer they got, the wider Ryukyu's eyes opened.

Seeing videos and pictures of Horizon ripping buildings or objects out of the ground was one thing, but witnessing firsthand him bringing a jet from mid-flight to being frozen in the air, from almost 10 miles away at that. 5

It was awe-inspiring, beautiful, wonderous, beyond humbling, and truly terrifying.

As if God reached down and held the jet with his own hand, power beyond comprehension, especially considering all the things she's heard and seen Horizon do.

When they got closer he tilts the jet so the nose was pointing directly down at the ocean, as he brings it close to the bridge for he and Ryukyu to land.

"You ok back there?"

"I'm just perfect," Horizon growls our, trying to sound strong but the searing pain in his skull was too much. He was currently leaning forward pressing down on Ryukyu with both hands as he focused on the jet.

Stopping fast-moving objects was always difficult, the heavier they were the more difficult. And keeping them in one piece, well that was usually a whole new problem.

But with the difficulty of his new additions, also came benefits.

Not 'stronger' in the usual sense. The upper limits of his power are completely unchanged. The road to get there has only been made shorter.

While he would have entered his prime at above thirty years old, now he can reach it that much sooner, in only a few years. The slowly growing battery that is Horizon has now become an exponentially expanding nuclear reactor, brimming with power much sooner than even he expected. 12

But that still didn't help the growing pains.

"You don't sound alright," Ryukyu says.

"Just land on the bridge, let's talk to the target."

'I guess he's not as perfect as I thought, but as he said, he's still only 16…so for now, even god bleeds. Also, 'target', how come he isn't saying 'Villain'. How strange for a Hero.' 2

Landing on the bridge Ryukyu stays in her large dragon form while Horizon hops off.

Thankfully the bridge was deserted this late at night, and Horizon just raised his hand and casually rotated the jet so the pilots were now facing the bridge.

Both men were holding onto their seatbelts for dear life, completely horrified at the situation they were in.

Naturally, they weren't overjoyed to be floating above the ocean like this, staring down into the dark water two hundred feet below the bridge.

But Horizon wasn't interested in them, not in the least.

Giving them a casual wave he makes a spinning gesture with his hand as the plane begins to rotate so they couldn't see the bridge.

After all eyes from the place were averted, he takes out on of his cards and throws it onto the sidewalk of the bridge.

SHAMBLES!

"I surrender!" was the first thing the short and thin man screamed, hands raised high as he looks at Ryukyu. Then his eyes fall to Horizon and he looks about ready to cry. Clearly more afraid of the god than the dragon.

Something that doesn't go unnoticed by her, as it is quite rare for her not to be the main point of fear during interrogations. The only time that wasn't the case is when she worked with Endeavor.

"Who were you making the super concentrated Trigger for?"

"..." The man wisely keeps his mouth shut.

"Fine, the hard way is it," Horizon reaches out to grab the man only for Ryukyu to speak up.

"Stop! Further interrogations should be left to the police. They'll be here in a few minutes." 1

"Oh please, you don't survive the underworld as long as him without being able to take some lukewarm police questioning," Horizon immediately reaches out and grabs the man by the shirt. "Tell me about the trigger, or I'll drop you." 1

"Drop me?" The man asks.

Horizon immediately lifts him up with one hand and holds him out above the ocean.

"Horizon!" Ryukyu calls out, about to intervene. "That's enough!"

"Just stay back and watch!" Horizon's tone actually makes her quiet down immediately. "This is how you get results."

"No, you can't do this!" The man screams while nearly trying to wrap his entire body around Horizon's outstretched arm. "You're a Hero, you aren't allowed to do this!"

"Idiot, you're a villain. Nobody really cares about you, plus. I'm not just a Hero, I'm Horizon. That means I, can do whatever I want, now, talk." 3

"I'll lose my business if I talk!" The man screams out, still holding on for dear life. 1

"Hmm, true. And I see that you're a man of your word. I can respect that, but so am I."

"WhAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the man's confusion becomes terror as Horizon drops him over the side.

Ryukyu raises her wings, ready to fly down and save him, only for Horizon to turn around before she can do anything.

"You stay put!" he commands, pointing directly at her. And she wisely obeys.

"He's scared enough you can warp him back up now!" Ryukyu insists.

"Don't be silly," Horizon says, then a moment later he warps the initial card back into his hand. Then throws is onto the sidewalk. "Shambles."

The broken villain warps onto the floor. Both legs were broken and one arm was twisted, covered in freezing cold seawater, some of which he was coughing up.

Reaching down, to the villain and Ryukyu's horror. Horizon grabs him by a broken leg and holds him over the railing.

"Another dip?"

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" the man immediately cracks. "It was some kind of contest."

"Contest?"

"Lots of labs around the world were supposedly in on it! Strongest Trigger formula gets the money, but I lost!"

"What else do you know about it?"

"A lab from Europe may have won but it was all anonymous! I swear that's all I know! Please believe me!" 2

"I believe you," Horizon tosses the man onto the sidewalk.

And with this little experience, it all clicked in Ryukyu's mind. 1

She knew this was what the media would never see, what she'd never tell them for fear of angering Horizon or his followers.

But this was the truth. 1

'Guardian Deity', it sounds so majestic and benevolent.

It was the fa ade he plays for the cameras.

But now she knows better, Horizon isn't that kind of god.

He's all old testament. 10

Fire, blood, rage. 6

Results by any means necessary.

And when a man has potentially enough power to fight the world…it's very hard to sleep at night knowing he's out there… knowing that should he ever switch sides, you'd be on the short list of people sent to bring him down. 6

Sent to die against him… 7

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 147: CHAPTER 143(Stonehearts) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--6 PM, August 31st…

SHAMBLES

Horizon suddenly warps into principal Nezu's office.

Instead of his usual Hero Costume, he wore a pair of white sweatpants with his logo on the right leg, and a matching jacket. Leaving the muscle groove of his body glove exposed for all to see as the jacket was open.

Walking toward Nezu's chair he sits down, leaning back to get comfortable before spinning around. Looking out at Musutafu.

SCAN!

Everything for 5 miles 8km in every direction floods his mind.

"Mmm," he shakes his head, feeling some discomfort but quickly casting it aside. "Looks like a boring night, and everyone is done training for the evening…"

He looks to his right, at the wall, but was focusing on all his classmates and the students of 1B in the 1A common room.

"Ok, time to see if you've been slacking," he spins around to face Nezu's computer.

The most intelligent person in the world, a computer that was completely unhackable.

On its own insulated network with billions of dollars of cyber security protecting it.

Yet with a few taps, Horizon logs in.

"Who the hell needs a fifty-digit password…" Horizon mutters as he begins looking for security camera data.

The only thing Nezu couldn't plan for, was someone else simply knowing his password. 1

And when your Quirk allows you to effectively get a 3D map of every object, person, and movement. Seeing the keys and the order they are hit in are easy enough. Even knowing where to touch on a phone screen to log in. 2

And with Horizon's perfect memory, there wasn't a passcode in UA that Horizon hasn't accidentally memorized simply because of how often his ROOM is active.

"There we go…and he's getting used to the upgrades," Horizon leans back in Nezu's chair and observes Sero's training over the past 2 weeks.

After a few minutes Horizon takes out his phone to open the Hero Network. Seeing another barrage of team-up requests.

"Jeanist, no.

Mt. Lady, useless clout chaser.

Mirko…another trap to get a rematch.

Mr. Knight, why would I ever work with such a D-lister?

Bamboo man, who the fuck? I've never even heard of this guy, ugh. This country has too many of you damn paper heroes."

Declining every request he sets his phone down and focuses on Sero. Watching the improvement made with his guidance.

The new efficiency, creativity, and power.

In every movement, every action, every Super-Move.

"Damn, I almost feel proud. But we won't know if you're still a pussy until people start shooting at you…"

Twenty minutes of review Sero's progress later, and Nezu finally walks in.

"What are you doing?" Nezu asks, closing the door behind him.

He sees Horizon leaning back in his chair looking at the screen.

"Security footage, Sero's training, just checking in on him."

"And how did you log into my computer?" Nezu asks as he sits opposite Horizon, leaving him in the principal's chair.

"I guessed your password."

"That's impossible." 14

"I'm just that good, is your meeting done?"

"Finally yes. It actually has much to do with why you're here. Someone who needs a miracle doctor will be coming to UA tomorrow, along with a new transfer student." 1

"Glad to see you're wasting no time filling those seats. Also, I'm not a free clinic, is this person useful."

"It's regarding a case you'll be asked to lead, the kind of case that will jump-start a career."

"I've had a lot of those lately," Horizon sighs. "But fine, I'll see what I can do, only as long as it's useful."

"You mean because it's the right thing to do?"

"Sure sure, tell the press that, those useless fucks love that hero garbage."

"It's not garbage, some people mean it, All Might does."

"Did, and a lot of good that did for him. No thanks." 1

"Well, either way, you've done good work these past few weeks. The crime rate is on a steady decline exactly as predicted. If not for you deterring crime in central Tokyo that much things would have been far worse for way longer."

"Finished just in time for you to call me to fix another broken thing you found."

"Well I did find you after all." 8

Horizon's head snaps over to look at Nezu, "I'll let that go, just because you're the only thing keeping my parents alive." 1

"Mhm," Nezu nods awkwardly. 11

Turning back to the screen Horizon reaches behind his neck and his mask folds away into the plate at the back of his neck. Becoming compact to the size of a cellphone.

"So, are these losers ready for the License Exam tomorrow?" Law asks, but notices Nezu just staring at him. "What?"

"Your eyes…why are they glowing?" this was his first time seeing the new blue glow.

"New tricks," Law shrugs. Keeping his ROOM open so the glow persists. 6

"Right. Well yes, I believe they're ready. But I got word that because of a certain someone constantly running his mouth about how soft society is on the requirements for being a Pro Hero."

Law gives a vicious smile at that, "oh, so what, how strict are we talking?"

"We'll find out tomorrow after the exam," the sound from Sero's training stops and Horizon shuts off the recording. "Well, how was he?"

"Better than expected, still a lot of work to do, but its a start."

"And why only train him?" Nezu raises a hand to his chin, still unable to figure out the thought process behind this. "There are others in the class that would give better results from your training, why not them?" 2

"A few reasons," Law raises his fingers to start counting them. "Firstly, most of them are intolerable. Then there's the issue of them not being open enough to give me credit. But mostly, they just don't want it enough."

"Midoriya and Bakugo want to be Pro Heroes more than most people that have ever attended UA."

"Yes, but they aren't selfish enough," Law sees Nezu looking a bit confused. "What I mean is, for Sero. It's just him and his dad against the world. They're dirt poor and him going Pro is their hail-mary attempt at getting a better life. He doesn't have any backup plan, he CAN'T quit. So he will die before he fails…something I can relate to." 7

"And why is wanting to be a Pro Hero to save the civilians any less than that? I'd argue that Midoriya's heroic spirit is among the strongest I've ever seen."

"Yes, but if that so-called 'heroic spirit' ever breaks, strangers die. He may feel bad for a while, but he'll get over it. We're human, its what we do. But when you're fighting for people you really love, then you'll never allow yourself to break. You'll break the world before it breaks you."

"Backs against the wall, I see…"

Law shakes his head, "biggest brain on the planet, but all that logic and math in your head makes it difficult to really understand people. No wonder I always beat you at chess, getting in your opponent's head isn't enough. You also have to read his heart, and to do that, you have to understand your own." 8

"Are you in any position to lecture me about emotions?"

"Tch," Law scoffed. "I have a heart, and I know it well. It's not made of stone, I feel things…" 2

"I know. I see it all the time," Nezu gives a warm smile. "You can't help but show it on your face, every time you talk about them. Because regardless of what they did or what they are, you atleast think they were good to you, and your love of them is what makes you who you are."

"Because they're perfect." 4

"Maybe, but now imagine if you looked at every person with such care, and that strong desire to protect them."

"That's impossible, nobody has that much love to give."

"All Might does…"

Law thinks about it for a moment, and can't argue against it. For better or for worse Yagi did care about everyone, willing to do things that Law would only do for his family, but for random strangers.

"True," Law says. "But he's 1 in ten billion, just like me…" 4

"Maybe, but you're more similar than you believe."

"That's impossible."

"Mhm, yet you both punish yourself beyond any reasonable bounds when one of the people you love and want to protect gets hurt, for him, he'd work himself to death. Knowing that a million more saved lives could never make up for any one life he failed."

"And me, how exactly am I punishing myself?"

"The loneliness."

"I'm not lonely," Law grits out. "I've got you to annoy me every day."

"That's not the same and you know it," Nezu hops onto the desk and walks up beside Law, looking out at the city behind them, and Law spins in the chair to join him. "You've always had them with you. Always lived in your family home. But now, walking around these big, empty houses. Refusing to even make friends because you feel like you don't deserve them until you fix everything, it's not what they'd want." 7

"Don't tell me what they'd want!" Law snaps at him, but Nezu doesn't react. 2

"They want you to live a full life. And from what I understand they wouldn't care which side you fought for, just that you were happy and living the life you want, with people you care about."

"If this is some cheap sales pitch for me to start making friends, you're failing."

Nezu sighs, "no, but I imagine if they knew that their son was here working himself to death, going four days at a time with no sleep. All while having no real friends, for three whole years. Just to save them… that would break their hearts." 11

Law stops to think about it for a while, sensing all his classmates finally gathered in the common area. "And how would you be so sure?"

"Because all my students and staff are the closest I'll ever have to family…and it would break my heart to think they led such lonely lives."

"And now you expect me to make friends with everyone I meet?"

"No, but maybe don't be as bad, do something nice for them. Public image is a main concern of yours after all and they are the first people the press will call when you're a full Pro Hero."

"Mmm, I guess playing nice may be the right call here. Solve more problems that way, but what do teens even like, normal ones I mean?" 2

Nezu shrugs, "pizza?" 9

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 148: CHAPTER 144(Pizza Time) 8

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Walking into the 1A dorms Horizon is immediately hit with a cacophony of noisy chatter.

All the remaining students of 1A and 1B are now gathered, he sees some sitting at the tables. Others at the couch, and most of the girls are on beanbags in the middle of the room chatting.

Looking over toward the kitchen, Shoji and Bakugo were cooking, with some help from Asui.

"Horizon!" Mina yells out, causing everyone to turn toward him. "You here to wish us luck on the exam tomorrow?"

"Don't involve me in the outcome of your exams Pinky, win or lose on your own…" he says before walking over to the kitchen.

Mina gives an exaggerated frown, "you know it wouldn't kill you to be nice!" 6

"It might."

Arriving at the kitchen, he sees Bakugo, Asui, and Shoji staring at a pot of some brown sludge.

"What is that supposed to be?"

"The sauce for the Tofu," Bakugo growls out.

Shoji rubs the back of his neck, "I may have read the recipe wrong."

"It'll be ok, we can probably fix it," Asui gives him a pat on the arm.

"Uh-huh, can't follow simple steps, good thing its not like people will be counting on you to save them or anything," Horizon walks over to the counter and places a card on the table.

"You don't have to rub it in, he made an honest mistake," Asui points out.

"Whatever," Horizon raises a hand and snaps his fingers, swapping the metal card for a stack of two dozen pizzas, a tower of boxes ripped out of some of their dreams. "And Horizon saves the day yet again, enjoy…" 2

It takes a moment for everyone to process what is happening, that he actually did something nice for them. Then they yell a chorus of thanks to Horizon, which he ignores. 1

Walking toward Sero while everyone else moved toward the kitchen.

And a moment later only he and Sero are in the couch area with the tv, and Sero is giving him a bored stare.

"What?" Horizon asks as he sits on the left side of the couch, opposite Sero's single seat.

"You put me on a diet then buy everyone pizza…that's diabolical." 3

Horizon just leans back, laughing, "didn't even think about that. How's that been going by the way?"

"Honesty, I don't know if it's good or bad that I don't even want the pizza at this point. My life is all upside down."

"It's called progress, see, told you I'd make you into a good Hero. Disciplined, efficient, and effective, that's all you need."

"Yeah, then comes the money," Sero smiles.

"And the women." 2

"Ye--uhhh," Sero cuts himself off as Yui takes the single seat beside him, eating a slice of pizza. "Well, one is just enough, for me atleast." 4

"Sure sure, but while I'm here I figured I'd check out your progress. I was in Nezu's office watching footage of your training."

"Oh," Sero stiffens up. "And, uh, how was it?"

"Not bad, we'll do more intricate training when you get your Provisional License tomorrow. It'll be easier when you see what having to patrol and deal with real villains is like…"

As they continue talking everyone breaks back into their groups, meaning Momo, Kendo, Tokoyami, and Juzo join them all at the couches. 3

With Momo sitting beside Horizon and Kendo to her left.

"So what have you been up to while we were all training?" Kendo asks. "Every time you show up on the news it's after taking down some villain or gang, you're actually pretty cool."

"Awe, are you one of my fangirls now?"

"Psh, unlike them I know you're a jerk," Kendo rolls her eyes. "But everyone knows that villains and criminals have been acting really wild lately since…you know."

"Since All Might got retired, you don't have to be scared to say it."

"Yeah, but it's just…it feels wrong." Everyone nods in agreement with her, aside from Horizon.

"Like the whole world stopped making sense," Juzo says.

"Heroes die every day, same shit. But yeah crime and the villains went crazy. The record-high crime rate happened really fast, and since a large portion of the crime in Japan happens in Tokyo--"

"You were in the hornet's nest," Momo says. "But don't you think you were pushing yourself too much? You supposedly only left the scenes for 4 hours over an 80-hour period. That can't be healthy."

"Well I lived, so it can't be that bad. Besides, there was work to do. I act as the main deterrent in Minato Tokyo, if I leave the scene then the more… eye-catching villains come out. People with Gigantification and such Quirks stay in hiding when I'm on duty."

"Like a mini All Might," Tokoyami says. "With the way he suppressed crime nationally, I mean."

"Basically, but the crime rate has been on a steep decline the past few days. The first wave was handled pretty well. Between just myself and the top 10 Pros, a lot of villains got arrested. Enough beatdowns and they keep to themselves."

"Some of those fights, the aftermath looked like a warzone," Momo says. "Especially after the raid on the League Of Villains."

"Mhm, too bad they got away, but next time I'll just escort them to prison myself," Horizon says. "Even if technically it's illegal for me to be on the mission. It's not illegal for me to just fly within a few miles of the convoy."

"Wait, why is that illegal?" Sero asks. "I mean they trusted you to help arrest them, right?"

"Yeah, but the risk of someone on the convoy being a security risk is much worse considering where we'd be taking them to. Not even all Pro Heroes are cleared for those missions. You need special permission from Commission President Pantu for that. And she'll never let me near one of those facilities."

"Huh, why not?"

"Because you can't trust someone you can't control, atleast not in her position. Especially not when that person can wave his hand and warp almost everyone out of the prisons."

Tokoyami shudders at that thought. "Luckily you're a hero. Trying to stop you would be--" 2

"Impossible," Dark Shadow pops out and says. "Your Quirk is really weird and creepy!"

"Says the shadow that lives in his belly," Horizon says.

"Dark Shadow, enough," Tokoyami retracts him. "Sorry about him."

After a bit more chatter about the situation in Tokyo, Kendo asks something that some students have been curious about for a while.

"Hey, what's the deal with you, Nejire-Chan, and Ryukyu?" This immediately earns a side eye from Momo.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been working with them for the past few days, on a few big Trigger raids and stuff. You guys seemed really close in those pictures, and well. You know how the internet is, they--"

"Think I'm dating every girl I appear in a picture with, as usual," Horizon groans.

"Yeah, but you do look good with her."

"I look good with any pretty girl," Horizon says. "But Nejire is far too damn annoying, girl never shuts up. All her stupid questions about my Quirk and my suit and the visor and…you get the point." 1

Momo perks up at that, until Sero asks, "what about Ryukyu, see seems like your type."

"She is, too bad she's a Pro Hero, that seems like such a headache to deal with."

Momo frowns at that but quickly schools her expression. And Sero bites his tongue instead of voicing his opinion, which more closely resembles Horizon's stance on that matter as the days pass. 6

The idea of Yui getting hurt doesn't sit well with him at all.

But he kept that to himself, especially with his Hero Course girlfriend beside him.

"Well that's good," Momo says. "I mean, the fact that crime is declining again. And you did well in contributing to that."

"Naturally."

"But that begs the question, why are you back at UA? It seems unlike you to come all the way back here to wish us luck when you could be working, not that we don't appreciate it."

"I honestly didn't know the exam was tomorrow until I spoke to Nezu on the phone."

"Oh, you didn't see the class chat group?"

"I don't check that, your opinions and personal lives aren't that valuable to me."

Kendo shakes her head, "well you don't have to be an ass about it."

"Get over it fister." 12

"That's not my hero name!"

"Might as well be," Horizon sees Sero suppress a laugh. "Nezu called me back to work on a different issue. So while you're all in the exams I'll be dealing with that."

"You and Principal Nezu are pretty close huh," Sero says. "How did that happen anyway?"

Horizon shrugs, "well over a year ago he needed a doctor for All Might. Chance brought us together, then he realized I was strong and capable, and All Might was running on fumes. So he decided to get a replacement Symbol Of Peace ready before All Might retired."

"So All For One ruined the timeline he had plotted out?" Momo asks. 2

"Exactly."

"So he really did just bet on you," Kendo was in genuine awe at what she just heard. "That's, insane. Should you really be telling us this?"

"It's not like the principal tries to hide it," Tokoyami says. "From day one he made it clear that he has a favorite student. On the second day he even told us directly that he doesn't expect anyone to ever match Horizon, atleast 1-on-1, within UA."

"Yeah, hearing that sucked, plus you were a total jerk from the first day of school, just the worst," Sero says, and his classmates nod in agreement. "And that was right after we saw what Shoto could do. Meanwhile, I've just got tape…"

"Nezu isn't the most… emotionally wise person. But his logical mind more than compensates," Horizon says.

"No wonder you two get along so well," Kendo says. "But atleast when he's a jerk it's accidental."

Horizon looks down to his left, directly at Momo. "Well, if it ever stops working maybe I'll consider changing it, but for now, I'll enjoy the life it gives me…"

END CHAPTER-- 21

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Chapter 149: CHAPTER 145(The Shields)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 2

CHAPTER START-- 4

SHAMBLES

Law warps into Nezu's office, wearing the body glove but no visor. Sitting on the couch he has his visor compacted down in his hand and looks over to Nezu.

"Good morning," Nezu says. He was sitting behind his desk typing away on the computer.

"You ready to tell me what's going on now?"

"Hmm, rude. I don't understand the full scope of the situation, when they arrive we'll get the full story."

"Honestly you people act like sending a text is the most difficult thing in the world."

"Well, he doesn't have access to my network to ensure a secure line."

"Right."

"Do you have other plans for today? Your classmates should be back at around 2 PM.

"Hopefully I can get started on this case immediately. If not, I'll probably go back to my house for a change and relax. Do some light training later. You know, since I had that mansion built and never get to use it…"

"If you weren't integral for the security of UA I would have allowed you to neglect the dorm requirements. Besides, when you're here you spend what, 7 hours each night in your training grounds. Can't do that at your fancy house."

"Yeah I guess, but I can have women over, not need to wear the visor every minute, the little things you know."

"Is it really that much of a problem? You spend all your time working anyway, so it's not like the visor ever comes off."

"I know, and I'm used to it already. But having the option is nice…"

"Well, that I can understand. But--" Nezu stops as he sees Law perk up, looking up at the ceiling. "What's wrong?"

"Helicopter coming toward UA, in the airspace at the back of the school."

"That's them, how many details can you get."

"Man in a wheelchair, a girl beside him. Nice tits--" 8

"Focus, and don't be a pervert."

"It's not like I looked past her clothes, jeez," Law rolls his eyes. "Yagi is with them. Their phones are weird, must be custom. I can't recognize the model. She has a backpack, filled with…some tools. Books, granola bars maybe."

"Anything about them particularly?"

"He has a cavity and is missing a tooth, I like his watch."

"Anything about her, look a bit deeper."

Law glances at Nezu, not sure what he was getting at, "what? You want to know what kind of underwear she has on?"

"Absolutely not, I have no interest in such things, especially not regarding my students."

"Student?"

"Starting today, but I was more curious about the fact that she's Quirkless."

"I can't detect that from range. My SCAN is like a full 3D map of everything and everyone. I can go deeper, look inside a sealed candy wrapper and things like that if I want. But I can't really do that on a living thing without touching them."

"Every time I learn something new about that Quirk of yours, the more impossible it seems."

"Even you can't comprehend divinity, that's all there is to it."

"Hmm, warp them into here when you're ready," Nezu says.

"Time to get to work," Law raises the compacted plate behind his neck, activating it for it to expand around his head into his visor.

He warps three of his cards into his hand, tossing two on the couch opposite him and another in the open space of the office.

"Shambles," Yagi, David Shield, and Melissa Shield are warped into the room. 7

With Yagi and Melissa on the couch opposite him and David in his wheelchair.

"Hng," Melissa -the stacked blonde 16-year-old girl in jeans and a pink top-, nearly falls off the couch in surprise. "What happened?!" 6

Yagi was calm as ever, used to Horizon's antics.

"So that's how your warping works," David -the brown-haired man in the wheelchair with a scar on his left cheek-, says. "Instant and undetectable by the human body, if only I could replicate it." 1

"That wasn't very nice," Melissa says, then catches herself. "Sorry, I'm Melissa Shield, it's a pleasure to meet you!" She gets up and reaches out to shake his hand, not at all intimidated by his stature or presence.

She's spent quite a bit of time around her 'uncle' after all, All Might.

"Well you know who I am, so can we get down to business?" Horizon doesn't even reach out to shake her hand, leaving her to awkwardly sit back down.

"Well if you insist," David says. "I'll skip introductions and get to the threat. What do you know about the I-Island attack?"

"You had the annual tech expo, villains attack, they brought down the tower. You and she were presumed dead…clearly one of those was a lie."

"A necessary falsehood which I suggested," Nezu admits. "David has reason to believe they would continue hunting him down."

"For what? He owes them money?"

"That's what we'd all like to know," Yagi says, looking at his friend.

"Alright," David sighs. "The truth is, I detected that Yagi's power was decreasing a lot these past few years."

"You knew?" Yagi asks.

"Not about All For One. But I figured maybe it was just Quirk Fatigue, lots of Strength Enhancer types experience that as they get older.

But the idea of a world without All Might, that, that was too much to bare. So I tried building a device, I had to call a lot of people I've made a point to avoid. I needed the info they had on Quirks. Centuries of data poured into my idea.

I had hundreds of anonymous people contribute in exchange for money or consultation on tech they were working on. Until, it was complete."

"A weapon?" Yagi asks.

"No! I'd never make a weapon," David says. "This was a mechanical Quirk Amplification Device. Something you could wear that will boost your power, like you were in your prime."

"In this world, that's a weapon," Horizon says.

"Father…" Melissa looked heartbroken that he'd even make something with such destructive potential. Essentially a perfected form of Trigger.

"I thought I could just give it to All Might and the situation would be solved, all I wanted to do was help," David looked like he was about to cry, seeing the disappointed faces of his daughter and friend.

"Save the tears for when I'm gone," Horizon cuts them off. "You can be a little bitch later. Right now stay focused. Why did villains attacks, and what happened to the device? 3

"Right," David holds back the tears. "I assume there was a leak somewhere in my operation, and when the project was completed the villains were sent to retrieve it."

"Well the League Of Villains was there," Horizon says. "And it's fairly obvious that between All For One and whoever is still making the Nomu for the league, they're probably one of the investors who gave you the library of Quirk data."

"They could have hacked you," Nezu says.

"No, this particular design was kept strictly in my mind. I knew the risk of even writing it on paper."

"One less thing to worry about," Horizon says. "And the device?"

"They stole it," David says. "The villain, Wolfram. He has two Quirks. A Muscle Enhancer, and his Metal Manipulation. He can control any metal he touches."

"Two Quirks," Horizon and Yagi look at each other. "Guess All For One sent him for it. Use the device, amplify Super Regeneration, and health issues relieved atleast."

"Another agent of that monster is loose in the world," Yagi grumbles out.

"A lot more than him, but this still leaves one question," Horizon looks at David. "If they have it, then why would they need you?"

"Because I broke it. I slammed it into the floor when I was cornered, the parts are far too intricate for anyone else to assemble or replicate. The only exception being in this room with us," he looks at Nezu. "They need me to fix it, and when they were about to capture me I brought down the tower to kill us both."

"But you both lived, another failure to the list…" 1

"Horizon!" Nezu tries his best to keep him in line.

"He fucked up, and now we're dealing with his mess. And my part in all of this is capturing the villain and recovering the device…while he's likely going to try and get one of the Shields in his control."

"In a nutshell, yes," David atleast looks apologetic.

"And you'll be doing what? Playing teaching in the Support Department until this is resolved?" 1

"Precisely," David says. "And Melissa will enroll in that department as well. While it isn't the same as the technology institute she attended previously, atleast at UA's Support Department she can still work on her own inventions." 1

Horizon just sighs, "great. Just great, as if I didn't have enough crap on my plate already. Being a deterrent in Tokyo and for the country's villains. Protecting UA from Kurogiri, trying to get my own career started, and now this shit…"

"I really am so--"

"Save it," he cuts him off. "I'll cast a net in case that guy comes to Japan, hopefully, the entire league doesn't come knocking on our door because of this."

"If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know," David says.

"Oh, believe me, when this is over you're gonna endorse me as a Pro Hero. Because having one of All Might's best friends and partners in my corner is very important, but until then, neither of you leave campus without me, got it?"

"Of course," David nods.

"Right," Melissa agrees. "Thank you for taking care of us."

Horizon immediately gets up, clearly annoyed, walks over to David, and rests a hand on his shoulder, "alright, time to fix this cripple." 3

"Wha--" David can't even finish his word before they're both warped into Horizon's medical suite at UA.

Now only Melissa, Yagi, and Nezu, were in the office.

"Well, that went better than expected," Nezu says.

"That was him being nice?" Melissa asks. "But, on TV he was always so…inspiring. I mean I know he was a bit mean with the way he speaks about Pro Heroes in general, but aren't heroes supposed to have sympathy."

"They do," Yagi says. "But Horizon has had to deal with great loss. The idea of people losing their loved ones because someone unworthy became a Pro Hero must infuriate him to no end. He treats everyone extremely critically based on how well they perform their tasks." 1

"And how much they annoy him, and interrupt his life," Nezu says. "Thankfully all the favors I've asked of him also provide him much benefit. Helping his Hero Career and whatnot, but that doesn't mean he's happy about doing them."

"Oh, well when you put it like that I can kind of understand…but he doesn't have to be such a jerk about it!" 11

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 150: CHAPTER 146(New Partnerships)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Undisclosed Location, 2 AM…

Walking onto a private runway was a tall and bulky man, muscles well hidden beneath his black shirt and white trench coat.

In his right hand was a black duffel bag, red, matching his wild hair. He wore combat pants with matching boots, and had an uneasy look on his face.

Looking up at the moon he checks his surroundings, only seeing desert plains around him for miles and miles, along with the jeep he just spent the last three days driving to this spot.

And in front of him is a completely pitch-black private jet with no markings on it, not even windows.

Approaching the jet he raises a brow, "I'm here! And I hope you don't think just because I can control metal that I can fly this thing."

The door opens, dropping down to become a set of stairs as the engines start up. The now familiar hum of a modern all-electric jet reaches his ears.

Walking into the jet he isn't greeted by anyone, the door simply closes behind him as it begins aligning itself on the runway to takeoff.

Wolfram immediately puts a hand on a metal part of the inner wall, and a single blue spark shows his Metal Manipulation Quirk in full effect, "you better start talking before taking me anywhere."

"This vehicle is unmanned, one of my more luxurious drones," a sickly voice says through the speakers. "I am Tech, your new employer. Please, have a seat."

"Ok, I just spent days in the hot-ass desert driving to this place, so make it worth my time," Wolfram says as he drops his bag on the seat, and immediately begins looking for something to drink.

"Yes, help yourself to anything you want, it shall be a long flight to Japan."

"Japan?" Wolfram asks as he walks back to the seats with a bottle of champagne.

"Oh, right. You weren't in range of any information services these past few days. Please, watch this…"

As Wolfram is pouring himself a glass a hologram appears on the table in front of him.

"What is this?" he asks as Principal Nezu appears to give a press conference.

"Your destination."

"Tch, UA? Well, we're gonna have to renegotiate my price if this is the kind of risk you want me to take. Japan may be a bit messy at the moment, but their main guard dog spends half his time in that school."

"Precisely, only half his time. Some simply studying, and cleverly engineered disasters, will allow you to know exactly where he'll be."

"Ok, but that doesn't explain why--"

Wolfram stops talking as the recording stars, and David Shield walks onto the stage.

"--Oh."

The recording skips ahead a bit to where Nezu, David, Yagi, and Horizon are standing on stage. And that's where it pauses.

"Two days ago David Shield was announced to have taken a teaching position at UA. The official story is that after you attacked I-Island and nearly killed him and his daughter, his desire to directly help the next generation of Pro Heroes was re-ignited.

That led to him taking this teaching position to help the 'next great hero' while he can. It's just a big flashy stunt to say he's at UA to help out Horizon and the other students after he almost died."

"And the truth?" Wolfram asks, downing his glass and refilling it.

"They know we'll come for Melissa Shield, and force her father to repair his device. So they put them in the best thing short of Tartarus with people they trust. So we may assume All Might, Nezu, and atleast Horizon know about the device."

"To think my life would get so complicated because of this thing," Wolfram reaches into his bag and takes out the shattered bits of the Quirk Amplification Device. A broken metal helmet-like contraption.

"Yes, first All For One hires you to steal it, then he gets arrested so now I'm stepping in as the new employer."

"Didn't think there were two shady guys like you that would hire me so quickly, but hey, the money is too good to pass up."

"I know how to motivate people. You will leave those components in the jet when you land, I'll fly them back to my main base and try to figure it out myself."

"Can you?"

"Unlikely, atleast not in this form. The fact that he was able to fit multiple supercomputers worth of processing power into a helmet is…miraculous. The man truly is the greatest engineer this world has ever seen."

"You sound like a fan."

"Only a distant admirer. Now, may I know your plan and timeline to bring me Melissa Shield?"

Wolfram looks at the hologram, all the men standing on stage. "I'll have to wait a few weeks for them to get comfortable at UA. When people are used to a routine they're more likely to make mistakes, that's when I can strike. As for my plan, my old team died at I-Island. I'll have to make new allies here."

"The League Of Villains?"

"No. I want to keep a low profile, and if they could have, they would have already attacked that school. They're more scared of Horizon than anyone else, because he's actually gunning for them. I don't want him actively looking for me alongside them."

"Projected timeline for this mission?"

"Hmm, capture the girl, force her dad to finish the project by using her as leverage, keep Horizon distracted while this is all happening…within 3 months you'll have it on the doorstep of your mansion." 1

"Sky Palace," Tech corrects him. "But that will do quite well. When this is completed and your payment is received, I'll have more contracts to be completed over the following 6 months." 1

Wolfram laughs, "with how well you pay, just consider me on retainer after this job. Hell, if I can pull one over on Horizon there isn't anything I can't do, so of course my price will be higher, but you can more than afford it."

"Naturally, my goals are beyond money, spare no expense in the pursuit of your dreams after all." 1

"My dream is money, because power can be bought, and I've already got power enough" Wolfram flexes his arm, his skin glows slightly red as his Muscle Augmentation Quirk activates before going back to normal.

"Power is the path to silence…" 1

"Well, I'm sure silence must mean a lot to you if that's what this is for," Wolfram downs another glass of champagne and gets up. "What kind of food does this thing have anyway…"

--1A Dorms, 7 AM…

SHAMBLES

Horizon warps into the common area, in full Hero Costume, ready to get the day started.

But before that, he immediately turns toward one of the tables, where Shoto, Kirishima, and Bakugo, were having breakfast before going off to do some Quirk training.

"Hey idiot," they all look up, not sure who he was referring to. But Horizon just takes out his phone and hands it to Shoto. "Speak…"

"Who--"

"Your dad, probably wants to know why you are one of the few people here to fail the License Exam."

"I don't want to talk to him," Shoto tries to hand the phone back.

"He's been bothering me all morning, and unlike you, I actually work with him. Just talk to him before I warp you into his office."

Shoto narrows his eyes at Horizon but just gets up and takes the call outside, for some privacy.

"I swear the Todoroki's are the fucking worst…" Horizon mutters. 6

"You know, the exam really was a lot harder this year," Kirishima says. "You don't have to be so hard on them. I mean it is tougher because of what you were saying on tv." 1

"Good, this era needs better heroes, and as Silver Medal learned," he gestures to Bakugo. "Being strong isn't everything. And all the other idiots who failed learned that they aren't strong enough and need to work on that, but they've got the other things down properly. Only having 50 people pass per venue is good for the country." 1

"Yeah, but you don't have to be mean about it, not manly at all bro."

"Yeah I'm not taking advice from a brick," Horizon says.

"Brick?" Kirishima actually thinks about it for a moment, "ohhhh! Because of my Quirk, that's pretty clever!"

"No, because of your brain…" 6

As Kirishima just sits down and tries to enjoy the rest of his breakfast, Shoto walks back in and hands his phone back. 1

Then without a word he just sits down and continues eating.

"I'm ready!" Sero calls out as he walks into the room, a suitcase in one hand and the metal case with his Hero Costume in the other, dressed casually.

"Huh, where are you guys going?" Mina hops off the couch and rushes over. "Can I come, we've been locked in the dorms for weeks no! They won't even let me go shopping!"

"Because you failed the exam Pinky," Horizon says. "Besides, this is a training trip. We've got a week before school starts up and Sero will be spending it in Tokyo with me."

"Yeah," Sero says. "Now that I've got my license he convinced Principal Nezu to let me go work with him for a week. Taking my training to the streets, we'll be a pair of crime-fighting heroes for a while"

"A temporary partnership until you don't need me anymore," Horizon says.

"That's so manly! Helping people for real!" Kirishima actually sheds a tear for the moment, causing a few people to give him strange looks.

"Right. Sero, let's go before he starts wanting to hug people…" Horizon rests a hand on Sero's shoulder and they both warp away, to an armored car waiting outside of UA to drive them to Tokyo…

To train one of the passing students of the Provisional License Examination.

Because as they said, due to Horizon's influence the exams were much harder. Moving from only 1500 people being accepted to only 50.

And because of this, the crowd thinned that much more around Horizon.

'Kaminari- Deceased 6

Sato- Deceased 3

Koda- Deceased 7

Mina- Failed her exam

Jiro- Failed her exam 1

Bakugo- Failed his exam 1

Shoto- Failed his exam 1

Shoji- Failed his exam

Ojiro- Failed his exam'

Step by step, Horizon is forcing Japan's Pro Heroes to become better and better, but this earned the resentment of an untold number of people, on both sides…

Chapter 151: CHAPTER 147(Team Horizon) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--6 AM, Horizon's Penthouse, Minato Tokyo…

Pacing around his bedroom, Sero was buzzing with excitement. A massive smile splits his face as he dries his hair, walking over to his dresser where the metal case for his Hero Costume was resting.

"Finally, time for the big reveal…" he giggles madly while opening the case.

"Wow," he takes a small step back, laying eyes on his brand-new costume for the first time. "So this is what he and Mei came up with, nice…"

After getting dressed, his modified Hero Costume keeps the same design as the original.

With his visor resembling a tape dispenser, something Horizon tried and failed to talk him out of.

The yellow, black, and white colors are exactly as before. 3

But the most notable changes are the much more reinforced boots and a functional utility belt with small compartments for first aid and other accessories.

But standing up, now fully dressed, he turns around to look at his back in the mirror.

He sees thing carbon fiber rectangles running down his spine, across the back of his arms and legs. Connecting to the soles of his boots.

"Ok, guess I need the manual," Sero takes the instructions out of the case and sits on the bed with them.

Looking at the diagram and then raises his arm, he sees an opening where his Quirk dispenses tape on his elbow.

"Ok so I feed tape into this thing from my elbows, then I just use these…" he looks at his gloves, seeing small buttons on them. "Wait…crap, I should have opened this thing last night and loaded it! That way I could have started with a full set of tape for the day and had the gear loaded up." 1

He holds his head in frustration, seeing the gear itself can independently hold a few hundred feet of tape. 10

"I should be fine, I doubt I'll ever use that much, hopefully. Plus this thing lets me shoot the tape farther so it should be more efficient."

Taking a look at the last few pages of the instructions he raises a brow at the diagram, "so they built in Super-Moves for me, that's useful…" he says before getting up and stretching a few times, feeling comfortable, as if the costume wasn't even there.

Looking down at his chest, he sees a side view of his visor in the middle of his chest, made to look like a yellow tape dispenser, "time to go help some people, for real this time, no more kid games."

Packing away his things in this massive bedroom, as big as the apartment he and his dad live in, Sero appreciates how much his life has changed for the better since UA, and even more so since meeting Horizon.

Until the scent of eggs and bacon reaches his nose, "mmm, but first, breakfast. Heroes have to eat too," he begins walking toward the door, but stops at the mirror to take one last look at himself. Taking out his phone and sending a picture to his dad.

"Yeah, hero…"

Entering the hallway Sero looks left to see Minato Tokyo just about to start waking up, taking in exactly how high up they are. At the top floor of this skyscraper.

Walking toward the kitchen he takes off his visor, holding it under his arm. Sadly he didn't have the same equipment as Horizon to get a visor that folds down, atleast not yet. 3

"That smells great!" Sero says from around the corner, "but I thought you said we'd just buy brea--" and he immediately freezes, coming face to face with a curvy blonde standing at the stove, wearing only a robe and a pair of Horizon's slippers.

They both just lock eyes, and an awkward silence ensues. Sero immediately recognizes her, and stiffly turns around, returning to his room.

Five minutes later Sero walks into the kitchen, seeing Horizon in his full Hero Costume sitting at the table enjoying a plate of scrambles eggs and toast.

Beside him is the same woman, now wearing a t-shirt and some shorts, enjoying a cup of coffee with her breakfast.

And Sero just awkwardly slides into the third seat with a plate already set out for him.

"Sooooooo," Sero looks between both of them. "What's Pixie-Bob doing here?"

"Ryuko," she says. "Just call me Ryuko, Pixie-Bob is retired." 8

Horizon just sits back and keeps enjoying breakfast.

"Wow! Since when? Are all the Wild Wild Pussycats retiring?"

"No just me," she gives a forced smile. "I just decided to go a different way with my life." 4

"Ohh, yeah. Well, you chose the right time atleast. Every Pro Hero is under a lot of stress right now. Even the students. All the 2nd and 3rd-year students at UA are out in the field right now." 5

"Yeah, I've been following the news. If I could balance everything I would but I just had to pick, and I guess being Pro-Hero wasn't as important to me as I thought. Some things are just a bit more important, you know?"

"He knows," Horizon says. "I chose Sero for my team because he knows. He won't stupidly sacrifice himself so easily, because he has a selfish desire to take care of his family. To actually be alive to spend time with them."

Sero just gives an awkward smile, still not a fan of how Horizon calls 'Heroic Spirit' stupid.

"Well if Horizon is working with you then I'm sure you'll do great, what's your Hero Name? I don't think I worked with you at the training camp."

"Oh, Cellophane!"

"Like…the wrap?"

"Exactly!" he looks at Horizon "See, it's not stupid."

"It is," Horizon says.

"A little bit," Ryuko says. "But atleast people will hear it and immediately know what you're capable of, that's the goal after all. Like 'All Might'."

"Says the woman who chose 'Pixie-Bob'. but has no cat powers," Horizon says.

"It's a theme, you'll get it when you have a full team. Like Endeavor and his fire team."

"Teams are just how weak people compensate, a dozen ants still can't fight a dragon." 15

Ryuko just growls and sticks her tongue out at him, then they go back to eating.

"Wait," Sero just realizes something. "You never said why you're here, you weren't here last night when we got here, right?" 2

"Uhhh, well. You see. Being a Pro-Hero doesn't really leave you much in the way of monetizable skills when you retire, and since we weren't exactly super popular or anything…"

"She needs to find a job," Horizon says. "She and her team lost all their sponsors and partnerships after the summer camp, Nezu dealt with the legal fees but it's still a pretty shit situation." 1

"Oh," Sero nods along. "But why is she here?"

"Oh, I got a job interview in Tokyo!" Ryuko almost hops out of her seat in excitement. "But since I don't live here I just called Horizon to crash here for the next few days."

"Oh," Sero looks between them as he finishes his breakfast. Not sure if his theory was right. "So, are you two…like, uhhhh."

"Oh, we're just friends," Ryuko says.

"But we do have sex sometimes," Horizon causes both Sero and Ryuko to choke on their food. She gives him an annoyed glance, "what? If I didn't trust him to shut his mouth then you two never would have met here, besides. He's my sidekick because he's not a moron, he already figured it out…" 5

"But still," Ryuko pouts.

"I'm not your Sidekick," Sero says. "Atleast don't say that in public, the whole point of this is so I never have to be a Sidekick remember?"

"I know, I know, now finish your food and meet me on the roof."

Horizon immediately warps away, leaving Ryuko and Sero at the table.

As Sero is finishing Ryuko processes what Horizon just said, "wait, why are you meeting him on the roof, that's weird."

"It's Horizon, he's rarely normal," Sero shrugs and finishes his breakfast, "so, you'll be staying with us all week?"

"Or until I get the job, it comes with a small apartment," Ryuko says, looking around at the penthouse she'd never be able to afford. "But if I'm being honest, I could get used to this…" 2

--3 Minutes Later…

Stepping out of the elevator and walking onto the helipad, Sero sees Horizon sitting on his Hoverboard with his feet hanging off the side, floating above the ground.

"Ready for your first day of Hero Work?"

"I've been waiting all my life for this!"

"Good," Horizon gestures to the edge of the roof, "just jump and we can get started." 2

"Uh…jump?"

"Mobility, its what separates people like Endeavor and All Might from people like Jeanist. That's why I've got this," he taps the Hoverboard. "Without it, I'm less consistent, well, I was. I could get away without it now once I don't have to leave Tokyo. But Tokyo is almost 100km wide, it was half that 300 years ago in 2014, and I'll probably just keep expanding."

"Ok, so more mobility lets you get to the scene before others and that makes you more effective, right?"

"Exactly, and what's your mobility?"

"Swinging from stuff!"

"Good, but this isn't UA where the tallest thing you'll have to get over is the Zero Pointers, this is the real world. And this is the tallest building in Minato Tokyo, if you can swing from this, you can swing from anything."

"Right," Sero puts on his visor and walks to the edge, looking down, 160 floors separate him and the street below.

820m till splat.

"Do you need a push?"

"No!" Sero looks at Horizon, thankfully seeing him unmoving. "I just, need a second…"

"No, you need to stop being a pussy, Takt." 3

Sero immediately feels himself being lifted off the floor, as if there was a hand on his back raising him toward the sky.

"Wait! I thought you couldn't move living things!" Sero yells as Horizon lifts him over the edge.

"Did you not read the instructions?"

"I skimmed them!" Sero yells, unable to move his arms or legs.

"Then you know your new suit is fully reinforced to take more pressure. That means you've got some very durable parts that I can grab onto…its why armor doesn't really work against me." 1

"Wait!"

"Good luck, Cellophane," Horizon says before he drops him off the side of the building.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Sero scream echoes through the cold morning air as his first day of Hero Work begins… 15

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 152: CHAPTER 148(Warming Up)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"What are you doing?" Horizon asks as he floats down to the street, still sitting on his board.

He sees Cellophane leaning against the wall trying to catch his breath.

"What the hell man!?"

"What, not like you died, I mean…" Horizon looks up, seeing the long strip of tape attached to his building. "Maybe next time use the feature that lets you retract most of the tape so you don't make a mess…and don't catch yourself so close to the ground."

"Maybe don't throw people off buildings!" 3

Horizon sighs and looks around, seeing the early morning traffic about to start picking up. He floats over and holds Cellophane's shoulder.

SHAMBLES!

They both appear back on the roof, at the very edge, swapped with nothing as he's already spent weeks in Minato Tokyo getting attuned to it.

"Woah," Cellophane jumps back, away from the edge, and takes off his visor. "Why'd you bring us back here?" Sero asks.

"Because now you know you can do it, so I shouldn't have to push you."

"Well, I guess."

"Not a guess, a fact," Horizon says. "Listen, if we were in UA you wouldn't have had any issues doing this. But you're hesitant because we aren't in UA where you feel safe doing risky things to train."

Sero thinks about it for a second, "well, yeah."

"It's a natural human adaptation. Take risks in places with a safety net, and avoid risks in new places like this. But you're going to be a Pro Hero. Your job is literally to run toward danger so others don't have to."

"Right," Sero nods, slowly walking toward the edge of the building. "So I should just get over my fears, right?"

"No, actually, the fear of falling is the only one humans cannot adapt to overcome. It's evolutionary in our very being, but we just learn to cope with it better over time." 11

"Not the pep talk I wanted," Sero puts on his visor.

"But…as a man, and as a Pro Hero. You cannot show that fear. Your duty is to be the rock for others to lean on, to be the one stable and dependable part of their life. Accept your fears but get the job done anyway, without the safety net." 4

"And if I fall?" Cellophane asks. 3

"You wouldn't be paid so well if there wasn't risk, besides, you want my life right?"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"C'mon, I bought a skyscraper to live in and eventually set up my office, spent the night with basically a sexy runway model. I've got influence and power and anything people could want, if you want all of this…then train hard enough that you can leap without needing a net."

"Right," Cellophane nods. "Just one step forward," he says while looking at the street below.

"Just gotta man up and do it, now stop being a pussy or I'll push you off again…" 1

Taking a deep breath, Cellophane closes his eyes, and just leans forward.

He's instantly falling head first, hundreds of meters to the streets below. 4

But most importantly, all of his own volition. 2

Feeling his body become weightless, as the fear crescendos within him, surpassing a point where he could even track it. 4

Causing his mind and body to go numb to it.

His eyes snap open, seeing the street only 200m below him.

His right arm whips to the side and he fires out a strip of tape, still not used to aiming with his wrists rather than his elbows, but he hits his mark.

With this line stuck to the side of Horizon's building he swings in a wide arc, then with another flick of his wrist the end of the tape rips, a meter from where it's attached to the building, and is reeled back into his suit. 14

Cellophane's ecstatic laugh rings through the streets as he swings between buildings. Finally feeling his dreams becoming a reality. 2

He spends so much of his time training in UA, but nothing has ever felt as good as this. Using his Quirk and wearing his Hero Costume in public, with all the people on the streets below watching.

This is the man he always wanted to be.

The man he always wanted his dad to see him become… 1

"--Are you done with the victory lap?" Horizon interrupts his thoughts, speaking through their comms into his visor.

"Hng," Cellophane loses focus for just a second, pulling a bit too tight on his tape and nearly slamming through the window of a building.

Luckily he rolls in mid-air and lands on all fours against the glass, and accidentally triggers his new boots to run tape to his soles.

Sticking his feet to the glass.

Feeling himself about to fall back he shoots a line forward as if he were crawling on the wall, much to the shock of the man who was sweeping the floors of what seems to be a office.

"Uh…I'm stuck to the wall, I think it's my boots," Cellophane says while giving the man a polite wave.

"Did you not read the manual?" 1

"I thought they were regular boots man."

"It's Mei, nothing is normal after she works on it…just hang in there I'll get the book…"

"Not funny."

"Just try to stick it out."

Cellophane gives an annoyed groan, not exactly the start to his Hero Career than he was expecting…

Minutes later they're up on another rooftop, Horizon still sitting on his Hoverboard while Cellophane is re-reading the manual.

"You know you could have just warped me off the wall."

"Yeah, but then you wouldn't have learned anything."

"Mmm, that's fair I guess," Cellophane closes the manual and hands it over to Horizon.

He holds it, warps away, then warps back without it, leaving it back in Sero's room. "All good now?"

"Yeah, I just missed one small section about the boots."

"What about it?"

"Apparently she did that so I could run up walls," Cellophane shrugs.

"Well you did say you like that guy from those old comics."

"Yeah but he's got super strength, I don't, so I can't exactly stand parallel to the floor with just my feet stuck to a wall."

"Yeah well Endeavor and Bakugo don't have Super Strength but they can get hit through concrete and Endeavor can catch falling cars, so…"

"What, you think I can get Super Strength?" Cellophane was confused by this idea, the though, like with most people, never occurred to him.

"Most humans have the genetic potential for some level of enhanced physicality, its the basis of what makes us so malleable that Quirks didn't instantly cause the first people that got it to explode. Without it the Quirk Singularity Theory would be real…we're just really hard to kill." 4

"Ohh, I never really thought about it like that before, how do you know this anyway?"

Horizon just slowly turns to look at Cellophane, "did you forget that I'm a top Quirk Specialist and doctor?"

"Honestly man, sometimes you're such a dick that I forget you actually have so many jobs to help people," Cellophane shrugs. 7

"Whatever, let's just get you some practice…"

--4 PM, Minato Tokyo…

"You should see them now," Horizon's voice says to Cellophane as he swings through the city. And as he rounds the corner, he sees his target.

A blue pickup truck with two men inside, wanted for double homicide, and currently being chased by police cars.

"Guns?"

"No," Horizon says. "And they've got useless Quirks, this should be easy, just stop the car."

"Ok, Cellophane time!" 7

"That's an awful catchphrase."

"I'm working on it!" he yells while swinging in, taking a hard angle down a narrow alleyway to cut off the cars' route.

With a loud clang, his boots land on the roof of the car and he sticks to it, "pull over!"

One of the men leans out the window, looking back at Cellophane, "who the hell are you?" the man asks while taking out a knife to stab him, swinging and barely missing his leg.

"I'll take that as a no!" Cellophane shoots a line of tape and wraps it around the man's torso before shooting the other end at a streetlight they pass under.

The force rips him out of the car, leaving him hanging from the light.

"All right man, you're buddy is hanging out so how about you just pull over and end this," Cellophane says, and the man responds by speeding up even more, aiming for a street that's quickly being deserting as this chaos comes their way.

"Fine then, be like that, Strap Down!" Cellophane fires 6 lines of tape, 3 from each arm, while doing a perfect backflip off the car.

As he's in mid-air the lines connect to the back of the truck, specifically the axis.

With a command to his suit, sent via a simple gesture, the lines lock into place allowing him to shoot one to a nearby building, pulling himself toward it.

'I hope I gave it enough slack…' he thinks as he aligns himself parallel to the floor, feet on the wall of a nearby building.

This way its as if he's on the edge of a cliff trying to stop the truck from falling off the side.

And as the truck pulls, the lines snap tight. And what would usually end in either the tape breaking, or his body buckling and then being squashed flat by the force of the truck.

Ends with the rear axis being completely torn off, allowing the police to catch up. 2

After training with Horizon and his new diet, the strength of his tape is many magnitudes stronger than ever before.

And with his new suit built to take a massive about of weight pressing down on it, all the joints and reinforced pieces locked together the moment the force was applied to pull him down, making it into one solid piece of metal effectively. 2

The concrete beneath his feet cracked and shook instead of his body feeling anything, while the truck was completely ruined.

Finally, he felt like he had a good opportunity to make his grand debut as Cellophane.

All day they've been working and only a few pictures of him have been taken, but now, this was his chance.

But as he got off the wall and reeled in his lines, the moment he takes a step toward the police…

SHAMBLES

He appears on a rooftop beside Horizon… 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 153: CHAPTER 149(A Bad Influence) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

SHAMBLES!

"Huh," Cellophane is suddenly standing atop a building, blocks away from where he was moments ago. He looks around for a moment, seeing Horizon hovering above him, sitting on his Hoverboard. "Why'd you warp me away?"

"Because you were about to talk to the cops and take credit for stopping those guys."

"Uh, yeah," Cellophane isn't sure what the problem is, everyone atleast gives a statement after stopping a crime. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that you're a nobody…" Horizon descends down to his level, still sitting on the board.

"What do you mean? Obviously I'm a nobody, but isn't that what we're trying to fix?"

"Ok, what happens when you resolve a incident?"

"I get paid!" Cellophane says.

"After what?"

"Uh…after Villain Insurance is subtracted from the payment, to cover any collateral damage I personally caused to the surrounding areas or people, right?"

"Right, but I meant directly after you resolve it."

"The police show up and I talk to them, then the news shows up and I get to be on TV."

Horizon sighs, "exactly the problem. You need to think big picture. Look, Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods have been doing this for over 6 years each. They're already 24 and 28 respectively, so why are they still referred to as 'Rookie Heroes' while people like Hawks are considered great heroes at only 23?"

"Uh… because he's done more?"

"That's partly true, but it's mostly because of marketing. When you search for anything related to Mt. Lady or Kamui woods, you'd get something about them breaking up a minor robbery or in Mt. Lady's case stopping a police chase, like you just did."

"Yeah that's what I just did," Cellophane says. "Wait, are you saying I shouldn't have stopped them?"

"No, I'm saying you can't take credit for it yet. You need to stack up all these minor incidents, and upload your video footage from your visor to prove that you actually did it, send it UA and they'll take care of it.

That will get you paid. Then you upload it to your Cellophane profile online which you can't monetize until you get a full license, but obviously, nobody will watch it because nobody knows who you are. But when you get one big headline-making story then you can go give the media your name when you talk to them after the incident."

"Ohhh," it finally clicks in his brain. "So when people see that and look me up, they'll find my smaller incidents online, but the first thing they'll see is the big event," he snaps his fingers.

"Exactly, you have to enter the scene with a bang, otherwise you'll get overshadowed and spend ten years as a 'rookie pro hero', like a loser…"

"Wait, but how long will this take?"

"That's not really up to us, but crime is still higher than average right now so it shouldn't take that long. I got lucky with USJ, that put my name out to the world so then I just had to keep up with the expectations. But you'll have to start from zero."

"Right, but this is better than my previous plan. I was just hoping to be a good sidekick and get noticed that way," Cellophane chuckles sadly. "Guess I didn't think ahead much."

"Nope, just get your name out there then we'll show the world that we're working together, that'll get a lot of my audience following you. And suddenly you've got a lot of eyes on you to be a contender for the Top 10 Pro Heroes eventually."

"You sound so sure of that."

"The world knows I don't associate with losers, so it's a guaranteed thing. All you have to do, is not fuck it up."

Cellophane takes a deep breath, "right…no pressure at all."

Horizon shrugs, "yeah, it's only your entire future depending on this, no big deal." 2

"That's for reminding me. But what kind of big incident do I even need to look out for, I mean, Minato Tokyo is pretty small time, especially considering it's the middle of the city." 1

"You're welcome for that," Horizon says. "That's mostly because I'm here, the crime rate spikes a bit when I'm at UA. But most of the louder criminals have already moved. You won't get people with flashy Quirks fighting on the streets as much in this area. You'll likely have to venture into the nearby areas to find something." 3

"Hmm, I guess I'll have to do some research on that tonight. Hey, how can I get a Hero Network account?"

"You can't," Horizon says. "You'll have to keep sending your paperwork through UA since you're Provisional License uses UA as the Hero Agency you applied through." 1

"Damn."

"On the bright side you're the only person that actually uses UA, everyone else usually has a Agency that scouted them."

"How is that a positive?"

"Means it'll get processed faster than at any big Hero Agency. But it will make getting Team-Up requests pretty difficult since they'll have to go through UA instead of just calling you."

"Yeah that's what I'm worried about."

"When they see us working together people will be itching to scout you, don't need to worry about that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, to get to me, not because of your skills, atleast not most of them."

"Oh," Cellophane feels a bit saddened at that, but quickly cheers up. "But the reason doesn't matter as long as I get a foot in the door, right?"

"Exactly, but I do recommend atleast being associated with a top Hero Agency, even if you don't take direct mentorship it looks better on paper. But I'm sure a top pro can teach something that I can't."

"Wow, did the almighty Horizon actually admit he isn't the best at everything?" Cellophane teases.

"I never said I'm the best at everything, just many things. Honestly, I should go spend a few days with Endeavor, somehow that fucker keeps pulling ahead with the number of resolved incidents." 4

"How? You barely sleep and you can warp…"

"Exactly, but he's been doing this for almost thirty years. His efficiency is otherworldly. There has to be something about his operating style that I can steal to improve mine." 1

"Jeez, no wonder he's the only person you were willing to work with."

"Yeah, he's the gold standard… too bad he doesn't want a roll of tape."

Cellophane fake laughs, "very original."

"Yeah well I--" Horizon stops for a moment, confusing Cellophane.

"You what?"

"I found them," he takes out one of his cards while stepping down to the rooftop. Throwing his card forward he draws his sword. "Be ready, I'm bringing them here…"

"Gotcha," Cellophane takes a fighting stance, ready to fire strips of tape.

"Shambles," a regular blue car appears on the roof, parked. The driver was a burly Japanese man, currently biting into a burger.

The man immediately drops his burger in his lap and reaches for his gun, "Shi--ahhhh!"

As the man's arm crossed his body to grab the gun, Horizon's sword flies through the windscreen and stakes him to his seat, through the arm and shoulder.

"Dude!" Cellophane is horrified by the instant violence, before the man could even become a threat. he looks at the man who was screaming in pain, then at Horizon. "You ok?" he sees Horizon shaking his head, trying to ward off the headache of warping an object from 13 miles away, as well as Scanning for it.

Beneath his visor, the blood was already flowing from his eyes, nose, and ears. 6

"I'm fine," he lied. "Get the gun…" 1

"Right!" Cellophane immediately rushed beside the man and sees the gun on the other seat, he shoots a strip of tape at it, then flicks it out the passenger side window.

All while the man is still reeling in pain.

"Alright, time to answer some questions," Horizon says as he walks up to the man, reaching inside the car and grabbing the hilt of his sword, slowly beginning to turn it. "Where were you going? Where is the factory?"

"I don't know what you're talking ab--ahhhhhhh!" he twists the sword a bit more, and the sound of bones cracking grates against Cellophane's ears.

"Hey ease up!" Cellophane grabs Horizon's shoulder and pulls him away. "We can't just do things like that, he's defenseless."

"This is how we get answers, what's your problem?"

"You can't just brutalize people, what did this guy even do?"

"Go look in the trunk," Horizon says calmly, stepping away from the car and the man who was bleeding out.

"What?"

"The trunk, go look…"

Cellophane looks between Horizon and the man, not sure if he should leave them alone, but he slowly back away to the trunk.

TAKT!

The trunk pops open as Horizon manipulates the lock.

And Cellophane sees a grey duffel bag zipped up. His heart rate immediately spikes, dreading the possibilities of what can be inside.

Slowly reaching forward he unzips the bag…and immediately looks away, taking off his visor and losing his lunch all over the floor.

In the bag was the body of a young girl, only 5 years old at most. Across her body were green scales, small scales. But there were large patches of missing flesh where larger scales were torn from. Her body looked malnourished and brutalized. 15

A sad and gut-wrenching sight.

Cellophane takes a moment to catch his breath, closing the trunk without taking a second glance, and stumbles back to Horizon.

The man is silent in the car, desperately trying to catch his breath and stop the bleeding as best he can, looking up at Horizon in absolute terror. 1

"Some illegal drugs need components that Quirks provide," Horizon says. "And this girl is the latest in their victims…and there could be a whole warehouse of kids just like that…so go ahead. 1

For crimes like this, nobody cares if you're a bit rough with the villains, they don't get mercy from anyone. But please, take your time and ask your questions. Not like every second matters, right?"

Horizon steps away from the car, turning his back to the whole situation.

And suddenly Cellophane is left with a harsh look at the reality, hidden by the colorful suits and the capes. The crimes that never make it to the news because the public wouldn't be able to handle them.

Because watching All Might fight some brawler is easier to digest, than the true evils of this world. 1

"Where are the others?" Cellophane asks, unsure if this was even the right question, now far too aware of all the seconds passing by.

"I…I can't," the man says fearfully. 1

Cellophane just gives a low growl, then reaches forward and grabs the sword, deciding that he did not have any seconds to spare… 30

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 154: CHAPTER 150( CPS)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

SHAMBLES!

Horizon suddenly finds himself in a large cage with empty cuffs on various bars. Chains attached to the wall on the far side, and a mess of human blood and excrement on the floor.

Just outside the cage is an operating table, and a variety of both legal and inhumane medical instruments.

"Oh, I'm definitely going to enjoy this," he mutters while walking to the lock. Drawing his blade he easily slashes the lock, opens the door, and steps outside.

"Horizon," Gang Orca's voice comes through his visor. "All the kids are accounted for, we're about to start moving in, and you're free to engage."

"Copy," Horizon says, now sensing all the kids he just warped to freedom being treated by the forces he brought nearby.

Walking over to the medical equipment, he glances at the setup, permanently searing this horrific sight into his brain. The downsides of having a perfect memory. 2

Then he just walks over to the computer and connects the computer in the left arm of his Hero Costume to it.

Nezu's program immediately begins ripping every bit of information out of the villain's system and into Horizon's dedicated mainframe.

As its downloading he can hear loud footsteps coming down the hallway, sensing two men rushing his way.

BANG!

The door to the room fling open, luckily the solid steel door blocks Horizon from their view.

They immediately turn their backs to him, facing the cage.

"Quick destroy the ev--" both men stop, one holding a pink flame in his hand, ready to incinerate the kids to silence them. "What the hell! Where are they?!"

"Safe," Horizon says, both men turn around and freeze at the sight of him. "Which is more than I can say for either of you…"

The man holding the pink flames immediately raises both hands, launching two thin streams of fire.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with the man beside him. The second man reacts quickly, before the flames can touch him he opens his mouth and spits a stream of boiling water into it.

INCISION!

Horizon swings down at the man with the pink flames, slashing off his fingers which the flames instantly cauterize.

As the man is screaming in absurd agony, Horizon grabs him by the face and lifts him to block the boiling water sent at them.

"Sorry!" the second man yells as he stops the stream of water, seeing the back of his friend covered in boils and scalded red.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps their places, not having the water user in his grasp. 1

BOOSTER SHOT!

He slams the man into the floor, cracking the tiles and concrete beneath it.

Tossing the man atop his groaning and burnt friend, Horizon keeps his sword out and walks to the reinforced steel door of the room.

He senses a man rushing toward this very room.

'3…2…1,' He kicks the door, hard enough to rip it off the hinges and slam it into the opposite wall of the hallway.

Stepping out of the room he looks down at the door, then casually tosses it off the man who was squashed behind it.

Pressing his boot onto the man's face, he scans him, making sure he'd survive before turning and walking down the hallway.

Making a sharp turn, Horizon begins climbing up the stairs. His room was currently only 200 meters wide, allowing him to comfortably keep track of the kids he rescued, his allies, and all the enemies around.

Including the man at the top of the stairs, with the comically large steel hammer. 4

So the moment Horizon steps out of the staircase, his hand immediately moves up, casually catching the weapon.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Small wisps of blue energy vapor are released from his hand as he looks up at the man, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Sword beats hammer," Horizon says as he stabs his blade through the man's leg, severing the ligament attaching his calf to the bone.

"Ahhhh!" the man screams, only to get kneed in the face as he's falling to the floor.

Entering the ground floor, Horizon is by a man firing what appear to be steel slugs from his abs. 4

"Well that's new," Horizon mutters as the man aims at him, but he also senses the other villain with a bone spear extending from his palm trying to sneak up behind him.

The man fires one slug at him.

TAKT!

"Argh! You fucking shot me!" The bone spear villain screams. One slug hits him in the thigh.

"Sorry!" the man yells and fires again.

TAKT!

"Ahg, what the fuck is wrong with you!" The other thigh is shot, causing him to drop to the floor. 1

"It's not me I swear."

"I can move things with my mind, dumbass," Horizon says.

The man stops shooting and pulls out a small knife, clearly more brave than smart as he rushes forward.

"Amputate," Horizon divides the man directly down the middle. Then one more time and the waist, four quarters left on the floor.

Both men begin screaming hysterically, "put me back put me back put me back put me back put me back put me back!" the man demands…but Horizon just steps over him.

"This is nothing compared to what you did to all those kids you kidnapped, maybe I'll even put you back together…maybe," Horizon says as he walks into the next room. 2

Seeing the Orca Gang Gang Orca's sidekicks, having everything here under control, he strolls up to the second floor.

And there he's greeted by a man with three arms brawling…or atleast trying to brawl with Gang Orca.

"Just stay down, you can't win!" The man yells as he rushes in, throwing another flurry of punches.

He lands a few lucky hits, but they barely even moved Gang Orca.

And the Pro Hero just connects one strong left to send the man stumbling back into the wall.

Seeing the man about to rush back in Horizon leans against the wall and folds his arms, leaving Scalpel floating at his side, some drops of blood still on the blade.

"Is this gonna take long? I've got a date tonight, I'd rather not be late…"

Both men glance over at him, and the villain that was so adamant about fighting Gang Orca, a Top 10 Pro Hero, suddenly puts his hands up in surrender.

"Ok, I'll come quietly."

Gang Orca just looks between them and sighs, taking out a pair of handcuffs, "oh…he has three hands."

"I'll just warp us to the cops outside."

"Right," Gang Orca says, then looks back to the villain. "You could have just surrendered that easily when I got here, what a pain."

"Why would I do that, you aren't him," he gestures to Horizon who just starts laughing. 8

Moments later everyone is outside as the police load the villains into armored trucks for transport. As Horizon is treating one of the officers he's also talking to Ryukyu through his visor.

"So how did your raid go?"

"Great, the simultaneous strikes went off smoothly. Crust said his team only got a warehouse of supplies but thankfully nobody got hurt."

"That's good, we got the kids at this location like I suspected," Horizon says.

"Sigh, what monsters. If they were treated anything like the adults we rescued then I'm glad I was so rough on them."

"Trust me, they deserve it. Keep your eyes open for anything like this again. These were all the locations I could dig up these past few days, but there could be more. And if not, there could be other groups like this out there…"

"Sadly I don't doubt there are, but you're good at hostage rescue, such a handy Quirk." 1

"I get that a lot," Horizon says as he signals for the man to get up, receiving a nod of thanks as he walks over to Gang Orca. "Anyway, you can read the report later, I've gotta talk to Gang Orca before I head back to Tokyo."

"Alright, I'll call you if anything comes up."

"No problem lizard lady."

"Dragon lady," she corrects.

"Not until you can breathe fire--" he hangs up before she can respond. "Gang, are we done here?" 10

"Hmm, yes," Gang Orca looks over to Horizon. Then back to the building they were in, and the nearby docs. "To think they did this atrocity right under our noses."

"Villains are sneaky, that's how they survive. But if they mess up once, we lock them up."

"How did you even find out about this anyway? None of the locations were in Tokyo."

"I asked the right questions, in the right tone," Horizon says, and after seeing him operate today, Gang Orca doesn't pry any further. "Plus I have people I can ask about movement in the underworld, they gave me a heads up about a courier moving a body between locations, passing through Tokyo, I just had to get my hands on him…"

"Hmm, commendable work. I certainly never doubted that you'd be a great Pro Hero. But now I see why everyone has such grand expectations for you.

"Huh, I expected some crap about how I need to be more gentle or something," Horizon shrugs.

Gang Orca shakes his head, "in any other situation maybe, but these people were experimenting on children, I have no mercy for them." 7

"That we agree on, now I've gotta go, you know how to contact me if you need anything."

"Of course, always a pleasure working with you," and as they shake hands, one of the nearby press parasites snaps a picture that would launch his career, and keep Gang Orca in the top #10 Pro Heroes. 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 155: CHAPTER 151(A Relaxing Night) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Standing atop his building in Minato Tokyo a white and blue skyscraper overlooking the city around it, with his logo brightly lit up on the side of it, Law was currently on the phone. 2

While the rain was pouring it seemed to collect a few feet above him, leaving the cold water forming a wide floating pool above him, almost glowing under the moonlight.

"Mr. Matani are you sure you'd like to donate that much?"

"Well I'm the host so yes," Law says. His voice was free as his visor was off. "And I don't see why you had to call me about this non-issue."

"Well, I simply assumed it must have been a mistake. Such a large donation from the Matani Estate will surely draw many eyes to you," the man says. "I assumed you wanted to remain, under the radar, as you say it."

"Yeah well, I mostly will be, but still. It's my money, I built the Matani Estate, and I hired you to do the paperwork so I don't have to."

"And to advise you, as is part of my duty as your family Estate Manager…"

"Yeah, but this isn't one of those moments. I promise if you make a good point I'll concede my plan to you, but for now, I'm spending a lot of money to buy my way into the hearts of the people. I need you to be on board with that."

"Yes, but the cashflow from the acquisitions you made won't be enough to--"

"I have the money to cushion my losses," Law says, knowing one or two surgeries at full price would easily have his accounts overflowing. Not that all his money was ever in the Matani Estate, he didn't want Japan to have full knowledge of his assets after all. "Can you just make the donations before tomorrow night, I want a lot of eyes on me at the event…" 4

The man sighs, "as you wish sir."

"Good, now have a good night," Law hangs up and puts his phone away.

Looking down at Tokyo he shakes his head, "all the money in the world, and now if I give away too much away people have a problem with that, just great." 7

Raising his hand to the back of his neck he warps the compressed visor into his palm, placing it for it to warp around his head.

"Right, no more work tonight."

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps away, and the layer of rainwater floating above the building falls onto the roof.

Appearing in the kitchen he sees Ryuko slicing up some pork, with her back turned toward him. She was wearing a set of 'Pixie-bob' themed pajamas, with her hair down, and some matching blue fluffy slippers. 4

"Wha--"

"Ah!" she immediately spins around, pointing the knife at him, luckily he wasn't standing directly behind her. Leaving the island counter between them. Seeing him she takes a deep breath and just frowns, "maybe you should wear a bell."

"It wouldn't move when I warp," he shrugs. "What are you making?"

"Katsudon, that's your favorite, right?" she turns back to the food, continuing the preparations. 5

"Yeah…but I can't eat that."

"Huh, why not?"

"It's a family tradition, doesn't feel proper without the right people." 1

Her knife stops cutting, not sure how to respond to that, then she just continues cutting. "Then I'll make us some Pork Bowls."

"Sounds good, Sero won't be back for a few more hours, so we've got this place all to ourselves for now."

"Ohh, so whatever shall we do?" she spins around to give him a sultry smile. "After you clean up, still got some blood on you," she points to his shoulder.

"Not mine."

"Obviously I know that, but I thought you always made it a point to stay clean."

"There was a subway station collapse, I had to operate on-site," he sees Ryuko grimace at that image, "right, not the best dinner conversation. I'll go get cleaned up."

--25 Minutes Later…

Standing in his living room, Horizon stares through the wall of glass separating him from the rain. A thin barrier dividing worlds.

He's only wearing his body glove and visor, leaving all the blue grooves bare, his muscular figure free for anyone to see.

And while his visor was still on, he looks at his reflection in the glass, and only sees Law Matani staring back at him.

Angry, but silent.

The building, simmering rage just below the surface. The rage that could spill out and break this nation apart.

The rage kept in line by a few drops of ink on a piece of paper.

Then he feels a slender hand gripping his forearm, only to look down at Ryuko who stands beside him, resting her head against his arm.

"You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were a robot."

"Luckily you know exactly how flesh and blood I am…" 1

The woman just shakes her head, moving her hand down to lock their fingers together. "Well, you don't have to say it like that." 1

"Mhm," they fall into a peaceful silence, watching the rain fall outside.

"What were you thinking about, before I snuck up on you?" Ryuko asks.

"Nothing too particular, just. I never thought I'd be here."

"Spending the evening with a bombshell blonde like me?"

"No that part was obvious," she pats him on the arm, pouting cutely. "But standing in a building I bought to act as an unofficial Hero Office, it's a far cry from what I imagined for myself."

"Hmm, I've actually been meaning to ask about that, why this building?"

"You mean why'd I buy it?"

"Mhm, it must have cost a fortune, but you wasted no time buying it and putting your logo on the side."

"Because of the location."

"What do you mean?"

"Horizon Tower is in the exact center of Minato Tokyo, the central city of Tokyo. 50km to the North, West, or South, and you'd still be in Tokyo."

"And the docks are to the East."

"Mhm, and tell me, what are the traits of God."

"God, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Humor me…"

Ryuko thinks about if for a moment. "Well, he's all-knowing, he can exist everywhere at once, and he can do anything he wants, right?"

"Mhm," Horizon raises a hand, and places it on the glass. And for a dozen meters ahead of them, the rain stops in mid-air. And a few seconds later it continues falling. "I'm powerful, and very smart, but I can't be everywhere at once." 2

"Warping--"

"Has a limited range, as most people have figured out," he says. "But standing here. In the middle of the city. I can be equally close to everyone, at once. A faux omnipresence."

"You aren't satisfied with just being a great hero?"

"No, I never was," he admits. "This was just a chore…but honestly. The power is growing on me. Four hundred million lives, depending on me, and listening to my every word. That's intoxicating, don't you think."

"Yes, but God is kind, and forgiving. He's a loving being…" Ryuko says, not liking the exact direction of this conversation. "Like you will be, right?" 16

"Of course," Horizon chuckles, "I'm a hero after all, the greatest Pro Hero this world will ever know. But I do find it funny that when I say god everyone assumes I mean the biblical kind." 5

He lets go of her and begins walking to the couches, where two Pork Bowls were waiting on them.

Ryuko looks a bit confused, "so what kind of god do you mean then?"

"Less bible, more Zeus…" And those words sent a chill down her spine. 4

But they also excited something inside her, something she didn't think she had. An attraction she never imagined she could feel. 3

As a Hero, villains with God Complexes and delusions of grandeur are commonplace. But the way Horizon spoke.

The confidence, the conviction.

The fact that he could very well become a being of such power, if he wasn't already.

It made part of her want to run away, as far away as possible. But the other side of her, the part that wasn't a Pro Her, just wanted to sit beside him…and that's the side she listened to.

--45 Minutes Later…

The TV was on, playing the news far too quietly for anyone to hear.

While Horizon was laying on the couch with Ryuko on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. They were both still fully dressed, just relaxing.

"Is me being here bothering you?" she asks.

"Hmm, why would that bother me?"

In response, she just reaches up and taps his visor, "because you can't take off the fish bowl with me here."

"It's not a fish bowl."

"You know what I mean, I'm probably the only person who knows it can come off without you dying, so I'd imagine you don't like having it one when you're at home."

"I'm used to it…sadly."

"Oh…"

"And for the record, Nezu knows too, and what I look like."

"Oh, right, your uncle." 2

Horizon pauses for a moment, trying and failing to make sense of that, "what?"

"The way you two talk, it's kind of cute watching you not be a jerk to someone…someone that you aren't sleeping with." 2

"Well, he earned it."

"By bringing you into UA?" Ryuko asks. "No, this had to be before that right, when he hired you to save All Might."

"Before that," Horizon says. "My parents were in real danger, and he saved their lives from certain death. That's how we met." 3

"So he's your Hero…"

"Ugh," Horizon groans. "You just had to ruin it."

"I didn't ruin it!" she whines.

"Whatever, atleast you didn't ask me to take off the visor, atleast not with the light on."

"Well, I am curious. But I know what we agreed to…just a summer fling, right?"

"Right," he doesn't even hesitate to agree, which definitely annoyed her.

"Four more days then I'll have to start over, no more of this," she feels Horizon wrap another arm around her waist, and she instinctively tries to press herself against him even more. 1

"Then I guess we should make good use of this time together…" 6

SHAMBLES!

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 156: CHAPTER 152(Yaoyorozus & Matanis)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Fix that scowl, it's unladylike," Mrs. Yaoyorozu says. The woman was a striking beauty, only 33 years old. A less curvy version of her daughter, with short brown hair, who was currently sitting opposite her in the limo. 16

They both wore similar red gowns, the family color, and clearly one was more enthused to be here than the other.

Momo schools her features and continues looking out the window, but doesn't even spare her mother a glance.

Soon they arrive at the hotel, and before she knows it, Momo is being escorted into a open ballroom on the upper floors.

Filled with people in their best formal wear. Suits and pearls, the most expensive watches money could buy.

'A room of parasites and fake people,' Momo thinks, looking at everyone in disgust as the walk down the stairs. 3

"Hngh," she groans as her mother pinches her.

"Fix your face dear…"

"Yes mother," she growls out.

Being pulled back and forth by her mother to meet all of their family friends was as boring as every other, but a certain someone caught her eye throughout the night.

A young man appeared only slightly older than her, tall with wide shoulders. A black suit with a strange yellow heart on each shoulder. 14

'He seems young, maybe he finds this as torturous as I do…' she was hopeful atleast.

And eventually, the crowd around this man thins, and her mother drags us over there, and his bright blue eyes seem to bore right through her.

"Momo, this is our host, mister Law Matani," her mother says, giving the man a polite smile.

"Mrs. Yaoyorozu, even more beautiful than all the rumors I've heard," he kisses her mother's hand before turning to her. "I suppose that goes for both of you…"

And the look he gave almost had Momo rolling her eyes, because he was clearly undressing her with his. 3

"It's a pleasure to meet you," She nods politely. "I hadn't expected our host to be so young." 1

"These charity events are usually hosted by old bored people, true," he agrees. "But with the state of Japan as it is, I figured we should do what we can to help the less fortunate, don't you agree?"

"Oh, my daughter certainly agrees," her mother cuts in. "But sadly she prefers to help people one at a time than by the thousands like us."

Law looks a bit confused by that, "what do you mean?"

"What mother means…is that I'm currently a Provisional Hero, at UA," he gives him a proud look. 1

"Wow, that's incredible, so your Quirk must be amazing to get into UA," Law says, clearly excited. 1

Momo cracks a genuine smile at that, "yes, sadly its not the most impressive in our class, not by a mile. But I'm sure it can help many people."

"Momo can create any non-living thing she knows the molecular structure of," her mother says. "She's as brilliant as she is beautiful."

"What a useful Quirk," Law says. "I don't follow heroes much sadly. Not enough time in the day. But I do know your family started the very first Hero Agency in Japan, quite an incredible legacy…but mine has never really had heroic Quirks."

"Oh, how so?" Momo asks.

"Well, my Quirk helps me looks a bit younger, not very good against villains, right?"

Momo nods, "I see…"

"But I'd certainly gladly swap with you," her mother giggles. "As would most of the world."

"Well the women atleast," Law shrugs. "But that's why I'm helping people in the ways I can."

"Oh, and how might that be exactly?" Momo seemed genuinely intrigued by this.

"He's helping to solve the employment crisis," her mother says. "The Matani Estate has been quietly buying any business that would be shutting down and keeping them open, at his own personal expense."

"It's better than having tens of thousands of people in the streets or becoming villains."

"And more effective the running around in a scandalous outfit hitting people with a stick…" 7

Law looks a bit confused at her statement, then Momo looks at the woman.

"I changed the costume, monther, and being a Pro Hero is helping people." 1

"You could help many more by doing what this young man is," she gestures to Law, who just awkwardly looks between both women.

"By profiting from the crisis?" Momo looks disgusted by her mother's statement. 1

"Hey I'm helping people," Law says.

Momo snaps her gaze toward him, "and when the real heroes stabilize Japan, all those businesses you bought for pennies will start making you a fortune every month, right? You're just another selfish person consumed by greed," she hisses out. 6

Momo's entire body jolts up as her mother pinches her side, almost hard enough to make her bleed, and pulls her close, "you will not insult our host young lady," she hisses out.

Momo glares at the woman, "I know what you're trying to do, but I'm not an object to be traded, especially to someone like that…"

"Excuse me?" Law was now genuinely confused for the first time tonight. "What's that supposed to me." 1

Momo shrugs off her mother's grip and looks at him, "it means if you want to leave your bloodied past behind, wear gloves…" she says before storming off to the balcony.

Law looks down at his hands, seeing his knuckle and hand tattoos. Intentionally similar to gang tattoos.

'Huh, these were supposed to put distance between Horizon and Law…worked perfectly. And I got to avoid that family bullshit…'

"I'm terribly sorry about my daughter, please forgive her," her mother gives a slight bow.

"It's fine…but keep her away from me. I have no interest in women like that," Law takes his drink and just walks away. 3

'No more Yaoyorozu drama, whew,' Law thinks as he walks over to Gild on the other side of the room. The man was about to leave with his date…and someone who was not his date, and had a wedding ring on her finger. 3

Law shakes his head, just imagining the stories that will come of tonight.

--Meanwhile…

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Momo's mother yells as she closes the balcony door, separating them from the party.

"Me? You're the one trying to show me off like a piece of meat, do you have any idea of how objectifying that felt!"

"I'm doing this because you forced my hand. I just want what's best for you!"

"No, you only care about the family name and expanding it, no matter what you have to make me do to achieve that, right?" Momo glares at her, crossing her arms and turning her back to the railing.

"That's not true…"

"It is! And you can't imagine a person like me, who wants more. I want to actually help people, not just sign cheques and act like it'll solve anyone's problems. 2

I want to go out there and actually contribute to the world with my own hands. I don't want to be some wealthy man's miserable baby breeder like you!" 19

Momo immediately slaps a hand over her mouth, seeing the hurt look on her mother's face.

"Mom, I--"

"It's fine," her cold voice rang out, hollow of all emotion. "Then just go. And as we agreed, you get nothing from us so long as you continue this nonsense…but I hope you come to your senses before it's too late.

Because all I wanted was my daughter, but you're determined to give me another dead Yaoyorozu in the history books…" 7

Before those words could even settle in, before broken hearts could properly form.

BANG!

A single gunshot rings out from inside, and through the glass doors, they can see people looking toward the middle of the room, terrified.

Momo immediately rushes forward, toward the danger, but the moment she tries to get past her mother the woman tackles her to the floor.

"No! Don't go in there, they could kill you!" the woman screams, hysterically.

"No! I need to make sure everyone is alright!"

"Just wait for the Pros!"

"I'm…sorry!" Momo pushes her mom to the side and rushes through the doors, and as the woman gets up to follow her. 2

"Hn!" she feels a sharp pain on her wrist, then looks down to see a handcuff on her, attached to a large metal ball on the floor.

Looking down she easily unclips the cuffs from the ball, realizing it was only a distraction to keep her out of danger.

But she wastes no time taking out her phone to call the police.

Rushing inside Momo forces her way through the crowd, seeing and hearing a helicopter now arriving on the rooftop.

And in the middle of the room, four men with rifles and masks, in full tactical gear.

"Mister Matani!" One of the men yells. "That's all we want, the big shot behind this whole show! Where is he!" 3

The man fires a few shots into the ceiling, causing another chorus of screaming.

Momo's brain is immediately working overtime.

'They're too spread out for me to subdue them all quickly and safely. 2

I don't know what Quirks they have so I can't prepare properly.

If I use gas it will hurt the civilians. 1

What should I do, maybe…tasers.

No, I still don't know their Quirks.'

"I'm right here!" Law says, stepping out of the crowd not far away from Momo. 1

"Well, that makes this easy," the man chuckles as Law walks toward him.

"Wait!" Momo's body seems to move on its own, stepping out of the crowd and taking a fighting stance. "You can't take him!"

"Ok," the man says, and before Momo could form a plan--

BANG!

He shoots Law in the shoulder. 2

He closes his eyes to hide the glow, and his hand immediately goes up to the wound to block the blue energy vapor from showing, as Hand Of God automatically heals the wound.

And he's unable to stop it.

"Ahhhh!" Law screams in agony as he drops to his knees.

And the man just looks back at Momo, "so you wanna get back in the crowd, or should I just kill him…since you don't want us to just take him after all."

Seeing no other option Momo just raises her hands and steps back, returning to the crowd.

And she has no choice but to watch them kidnap Law Matani from his own charity event. 1

Taken to the roof, the first person that she, as a Provisional Pro Hero, couldn't save… 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 157: CHAPTER 153(Cellophane!) 6

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"C'mon, faster!" Cellophane berates himself as he swings through downtown Tokyo. Hundreds of meters above the street, swinging between the brightly lit skyscrapers of Japan's night-time skyline.

"Call Horizon!" Cellophane commands, and his visor obeys.

His visor is connected to his phone just as Horizon's is connected to his own, but the call doesn't connect.

"Damn it, the guy with the hoverboard doesn't pick up, just great," Cellophane grumbles.

He was half sure Horizon was occupied with his blonde 'friend' back at Horizon Tower.

Rushing between the buildings his eyes are laser-focused on the holographic map displayed in his visor, showing the current moving location of a helicopter moving through the city.

A hostage situation that all the nearby heroes were immediately alerted of.

'Great, just as I was on the way back to get some sleep, and then some right jerk get kidnapped from his own party. I just hope I get there before he gets hurt or disappears,' Cellophane swings around a building and sticks to the side of it. 2

He uses his feet and one hand to hold on while he looks around, then looks up at where the helicopter is, still dozens of meters above his current altitude.

Looking down at the streets below he shakes his head, "ok, maybe ask Mei for a parachute, just in case…" he mutters before swinging toward the Matani National Hotel. 2

As he notices the helicopter hovering within the city to prevent police choppers from being sent to follow it, as flying between buildings is highly illegal, Cellophane grits his teeth.

"Time to see what these upgrades can really do," he takes a deep breath and presses down fully on the button on his right palm.

The line of tape that was shot from his right hand suddenly retracts, hard enough to almost give him whiplash as it yanks him forward.

Even with all his training for this exact feeling, the real thing was somehow a bit different.

As the line retracts fully back into his costume he steps on the building and sticks to it will all four limbs. Looking up at the helicopter currently taking off.

Rushing up the building in a full-standing sprint, he uses lines of tape to constantly pull himself forward so he doesn't fall back.

And to the people below, they see this madman running up the side of the building as if his life depended on it.

With every other step he shoots a line forward and pulls himself toward where it connects, effectively rappelling up the side of a building.

"Oh c'mon," Cellophane groans as the chopper begins pulling away from the building and heading downtown again.

With no hesitation he pushes off the building, leaving a small crack in the reinforced glass pane he pressed against, and launches toward the adjacent building.

And as the crowd below gasps in horror, he fires a line of tape and continues swinging through the city, chasing after the helicopter.

As he's swinging he analyzes the chopper.

'Modern, but open doors on both sides. A buff dude sitting on one side with his foot hanging off the edge.

They left the doors open to shoot at any police choppers or Pro Heroes that would chase. Good, I can use that to get in and grab the hostage, then just jump out the other side.

But how do I approach, ahh. Approach from below, avoid the blades obviously, but I should be careful that something doesn't go wrong…'

As he was making a plan and analyzing the situation, Cellophane was trying his best and slowly catching up.

Getting closer every time the chopper would have to corner around a building, with his superior maneuverability he'd get closer as he's unable to match its speed on a straight line.

Until finally, he manages to attach a line to the underside of the chopper.

'Quiet now, not that they could hear anything…' he thinks as he retracts the line, pulling himself up toward the chopper.

He carefully places his palm on the underside as well as his boots, sticking to it, trying not to think about the street far below him.

"Ok, be quick about it," he mutters, then looks to his right, seeing the man's foot hanging out the side of the cabin.

Then he waits…until they finally get close enough to a nearby building.

'Binding Shot!' he fires some tape at the man's leg and wraps around it, then fires the other end to the building they were passing by.

"AHHHHH!!" the man screams in horror as he's ripped out of the chopper and left hanging off the side of the building.

'Weighted shot!' Cellophane fires a shorter line of tape with weights at either end, attached by his suit, that hit the building and runs across the man. A little more insurance to make sure he doesn't fall to his death.

The moment he does that, he crawls into the opposite door of the chopper. And as expected, he sees two men looking out the door their friend just got torn out of, confused by what happened.

He sees a pilot checking the radar in case there was anyone flying around.

And he sees the hostage, Law Matani, a seemingly young man tied down with a chain to the seat in the cabin.

Law's eyes flicker over to Cellophane but thankfully the man remains quiet, just watching with an oddly calm expression.

He appeared more annoyed than afraid.

Cellophane nods at Law, realizing he can't just grab him and run because of the chains.

Then he quickly prepares piece of tape and steps forward in the cabin.

Delivering a spartan kick to one man, pushing his back, and launching him out of the moving helicopter. 7

While he's flying forward Cellophane shoots a line of tape that wraps around the man, then sticks the other end to the floor of the cabin. 2

He then moves to do the same with the second standing man, but before the kick could connect the man spins around and catches it, pulling him in for a headbutt and tossing him out of the cabin.

Cellophane's world goes black for a moment before he snaps awake.

"Shit!" he cries as he fires a line and catches himself, immediately swinging after the chopper. He still sees the man dangling off the line at the underside of it.

"Oh I'm gonna get payback for that," Cellophane grumbles as he quickly catches up.

But as he's closing in to enter the chopper again.

BANG!

The man in the chopper opens fire at him with his rifle.

"Ngh!" he screams and loses his momentum as a bullet hit his side, barely grazing him but still drawing blood.

"Ok, new plan," he realizes the same approach won't work as the man was looking at him from the door of the cabin.

Another volley of shots is fired.

"AGHHHH!" Cellophane gets shot in the shoulder and releases his tape for just a moment, falling a dozen meters before he shoots another.

And the helicopter just pulls that much further away from him.

"No time for first aid," he reminds himself. Recalling the image of the person he had to save, the hostage that was trying to keep a brave face even in this situation. 9

Seeing the helicopter cornering around an office building he spots his opportunity.

Instead of giving chase, he checks his map, seeing the chopper was going around the building to the other side, so he decides to take the direct approach.

Swinging the the building he fires two line of tape, tightens his grip, then retracts them at full power. 1

Rocketing toward the glass side of the building at full speed.

He tumbles during this, aiming his feet at the glass and straightening his body.

The new upgrades to his suit are meant to take this kind of force when aligned in such a way, allowing him to reel himself in to deliver finishing blows to powerful villains.

Or traverse situations like these.

CRASH!

He slams through the glass and winds up in a maze of empty cubicles, and luckily he can see the chopper as all around him the building was glass on the far walls. Allowing him to track his target through the tinted windows.

Breaking into a full spring while holding his shoulder, Cellophane slams through the cheap and depressing cubicles. 6

Breaking apart splintered wood and cardboard, never taking his eyes off the prize.

As he makes it to the other side he's just barely ahead of the helicopter, so when he runs up to the window he fires one line at the floor and another at the ceiling.

Reeling himself toward the glass at full power he straightens his body and rockets through it, this time flying past the nose of the helicopter and winding up on the opposite side of it.

He tumbles in mid-air and launches two lines at the helicopter, and before the last man can make sense of what madness he was seeing.

Cellophane kicks him in the chest, hard enough that he's sent out of the helicopter and into the building he just jumped out of. 2

Seeing the man launched into the building he places a hand over his bullet wound and walks up to the pilot, squeezing the man's shoulder to get his attention.

The man turns around, scowling at the hero, glaring bitterly at him.

" LAND THIS THING! NOW!" Cellophane yells so the man can head him over the engine.

The man pauses for a moment, seemingly considering his options. The opens his mouth…

A vomits a small stream of molten lava directly at Cellophane. 3

The hero barely dodges as the man is desperately trying to spit the excess drops onto the floor so he doesn't burn himself.

Cellophane is stunned but this, then looks to where the lava hit. Seeing a hole in the roof, exactly where the blades were previously connected… 1

He, the hostage, and the kidnapper look at each other. And the man atleast has the decency to realize how badly he just messed up. 6

Cellophane quickly spins and delivers a strong right to the man's jaw, cracking it and knocking him out as they begin to fall.

"Shit!" he screams out, glancing at the hostage for a moment. The man just had his eyes closed, seemingly praying for someone to save him.

'No time to search for a key, and one of the others could have had it, and if I let this thing fall it could hurt someone on the street below…the other Pros should be down there clearing people out, but I can't take any chances, I need to stop this thing…' 6

He sticks his feet to the floor of the cabin, and as they're falling launches two lines at the building only 20 meters away from them, attaching it to the floor of the cabin.

The lines immediately snap under the strain, but he does it again, and again, and again. 2

Dozens of times as they fall two hundred meters.

And eventually, the constant lines of tape forces the helicopter to swing into the nearby building, slamming into it just barely and slowing the fall. 4

The impact knocks Cellophane off his feet but he grabs on with his adhesive glove to the roof and steadies himself.

"Rapid Fire Shots," he screams, pushing his equipment and his quirk to the limit as he makes multiple lines by the second, attaching them to the building they were grating against and to the roof of the falling helicopter cabin they were currently in. 3

But eventually, the constant friction and grating slows their descent.

And as Cellophane's body becomes weaker. As his lips crack and his skin dries out. The side effect of him overusing his Quirk.

As the lines already rolled into his equipment run out.

They come to a crawl, and both men hold their breaths.

They were in a helicopter cabin, two stories away from the street. A trail of destruction down the side of a building.

And only thirty lines of tape were holding up what was left of the cabin.

They dare not move, or breathe.

"You ok?" Cellophane asks Law, still not moving more than his head to look at the man, who just stiffly nods in response.

"Good," Cellophane says. "But maybe we don't move until some backup gets here, yeah?"

Law once again just nods, ready for this to all be over. 1

--10 Minutes Later…

As Law Matani is rushed away by his people, Cellophane is left in front of a news team.

With the helicopter currently being removed from the building behind him by the fire department and a few Pro Heroes.

But after all the questions, only one would really be remembered.

Only one would be written down in the history books of this nation.

The reporter leans the mic toward his and asks, finally, "so, what's the name of the man who saved the day here?"

He puffs up his chest a bit, finally getting his moment, and proudly says. "Provisional Hero, Cellophane, the taping hero!"

And the nearby crowd gives him the first of hundreds of choruses of applause and praise he'd receive.

And with this, Cellophane, Japan's future #4 Pro Hero, makes his debut to the world… 25

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 158: CHAPTER 154(It's Just Money)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7:33 AM…

Walking around the living room in his penthouse, Horizon is constantly looking at the hologram being projected up from his coffee table.

It was a 3D map of this very building, the top two floors where the penthouse was had been colored green.

The remainder was the standard blue with small patches of red in certain areas.

He had returned from the party at almost 4 am, got an hour of sleep then got right back to work.

After doing some research and putting out some of his contacts underground to look into the would-be kidnappers, he set that matter aside and came out here to focus.

Leaving Ryuko in his bed, and luckily Sero was already asleep in his own room by the time he got back.

After giving the plans another look he takes out his phone and calls the contractor, not connecting it to his visor, wanting the man to hear his slightly mechanical voice.

"Good morning sir!" the man answers excitedly. "Is everything alright?"

"Perfectly fine," Horizon says. "I just got done looking at the revised plans you sent. This is exactly what I wanted, start immediately."

"That's perfect, I already have the machinery and men on standby. I'll send people over to get the job site ready later today."

"Right, and about the two-month project completion time?"

"Well, we'll be gutting most of the floors, breaking down walls and building new ones. Its much faster than making a whole new building but it'll still take time. Not to mention the time also includes setting up the equipment you requested and furnishing. You won't get this done faster with anyone else, we've got more licensed Quirk users working for us than any other construction firm in Tokyo…"

"I remember," Horizon says. "And you're already faster than the second-best option. But I'm raising the completion time bonus. As I'm sure you can imagine, the faster I have a building with everything I need in it the faster I can improve my efficiency. And improved efficiency means --"

"More lives saved, yes sir," the man says. "Well depending on the bonus I can leverage some men or equipment from some of our smaller jobs."

"I'm tripling the bonus, and I'll have food trucks at the site for lunch every day, on me."

"Well, that, I mean," the man stutters for a moment.

"I trust you to get this done as quickly and efficiently as possible, while doing quality work. I can do that, right?" 2

"Of course! We won't let you down."

"Good, now I need to get to work, have a good day."

"You too sir."

Horizon hangs up, taking one last look at the building plans. And a few minutes later he was sitting on the couch, in the middle with his arms spread across the backrest on either side of him.

He was honestly amazed by the scope of what he was doing, he was already sitting in 'Horizon Tower', a monument reaching the sky with his logo on the front of it. The slightly creepy smiling face looked down at the city below.

And now here he was, improving it to further suit his needs. A not-so-small fortune was thrown at various companies to make the most efficient all-in-one Hero Agency in the world.

"Do you ever stop working?" Ryuko walks in, seeing him sitting on the couch now.

"Says the sexy blonde that's with me because of how hard I work…" he says jokingly as she drops onto the couch beside him, leaning into him and resting her head against his side.

Looking down at her he finally gets a proper view of what she slept in. One of his t-shirts hung off her, white with his logo on the front. A pair of blue pajama pants, and some fuzzy slippers.

Her hair was currently a mess, but he's seen her in much more disheveled states. 1

She points at the hologram, "is this where we are?"

"Mhm, Horizon Tower."

"Well, you never claimed to be humble."

"For the record, I didn't pick the name, the news reporters that learned about me buying it started calling it that, then the name stuck."

"But I know you, and you would have named it that either way, right?"

"Mmm, maybe. It is the largest Hero Agency in the world, atleast when it's completed."

"Mhm," Ryuko nods. "Ours was just a small house in the mountains. Even Jeanist and Hawks only have 5-story buildings. I guess you, All Might, and Endeavor are the only people with big buildings huh? But this is like twice the size of Endeavors, and All Might's was half that size…" 2

"Size matters…but you also have to know how to use it." 3

"Ugh, no dick jokes please, you're better than that."

"Whatever, but technically this isn't a Hero Agency until I have my full Pro Hero license. I can't even sell merch while I have a Provisional License."

Ryuko thinks about it for a moment, then looks down at her shirt. "But you do sell merch…"

"Yeah, but Horizon isn't a hero identity, it's just who I am."

"Ohh, so you aren't selling it as a hero, it's just some guying selling merch of himself and people are buying it."

"Mhm, plus all the profits go to charities," he shrugs. "Buying my way into heaven." 3

Ryuko shakes her head, not even bothering to correct his heathenistic statements anymore, "so what's this agency got? And why is the top of the building green?"

Horizon begins gesturing to certain parts of the hologram.

"Renovations start tomorrow, but don't worry you don't have to move out or anything. Just use the same back exit you already use so nobody knows that you live with me."

"Yeah, can't have them kidnapping me like some damsel in distress, but I'm sure my knight would come rushing in to save me, right?"

"What, no."

She leans away from him, frowning at that response, "and why not?"

"Because you're a former Pro Hero, if you get kidnapped then they can keep you, because you deserve it." 3

"Jerk," she pouts cutely, and he just pulls her back to his side.

"Anyway, the top is green because that's the penthouse, that won't be affected by the work because I had it altered when I first bought this place."

"Yeah but most of it is red, I mean do you really need to change…what like 120 floors?"

"135, the other 15 are fine as they are. But this building was a mess of cubicles and a few law firms before. I need to break down a lot of walls to make bigger rooms."

"For?"

"Hero stuff. Training rooms, equipment storage, indoor Quirk training."

"A pool?" she gives him a hopeful look.

Horizon sighs, "yes, a pool. And a wind tunnel to train the fliers."

"Smart, and what about these," she gestures to ten purple floors in the middle of the building.

"That's the design and testing lab, purple requires extra extra reinforcement. Those places tend to have explosions from what I know." 1

"An in-house design studio and manufacturing floor…whew, spare no expense…" 1

"Mhm, the only agency in the country that can afford it, and I've got the perfect person in mind to run it."

"The girl who made your new gear?"

"Mhm, Mei is a genius, a good person to keep close."

"Mhm," she gives him a look out of the corner of her eye.

"What?"

"Just, are you and her…like--"

"Friends, in the same way you and I are…" 8

"Oh," Ryuko didn't like that she wasn't as ok with that as she agreed to be. As she should be since summer is just about to end. "Well that's good, that you have other people somewhat close to you." 1

"Oh we aren't really close, just two workaholics that need a simple way to relax," Horizon shrugs. "She's convenient, but you're special…" 2

And suddenly all was well in Ryuko mind once more… 6

"That reminds me, I need to get her opinion on some upgrade ideas for my costume, but I don't think my control is good enough to support it yet. Maybe when up my game a bit more." 1

"Oh, anything fun?"

"Very fun, but I'll save that surprise for later."

After a few more minutes of talking about his future Hero Agency, Ryuko finally arrives at an unavoidable question.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Ask me anything, but I don't have to answer…"

"Right," she bites her lips. "How much is this whole building gonna cost?" 2

"Mmm, I try not to think about prices."

"A luxury most don't have," she says.

"Well, I'm lucky enough to have it. So the building is around 2.8 billion, I had to buy out every lease and the property rights etc from the deed holder. Then I had to buy the land itself. Then I had to pay for the legal fees and renovations of this place," he gestures around the penthouse they were in.

"Wow, I'm definitely never going to live in a place like this again after this…"

"Then the real Hero Agency renovations and upgrades, plus the cost of expediting the legal fees and permits for some of the equipment… so all in all, around 3 billion dollars. I did get some discounts in certain areas because companies want to be able to say they contributed to Horizon Tower, but it's still a lot of money."

Ryuko just sits back, barely able to process all the big numbers he so casually mentioned.

"Do you think it's worth it?" she mindlessly asks. "I mean…is anything really worth 3 billion." 5

Horizon thinks about it for a moment, until he thinks about his parents.

Then the answer was obvious.

All of this, and after graduation he's only expecting to use it for 2 years at most before the Commission hands them over to him and he goes to America, to live a quiet life. 6

Leaving all this Pro Hero business behind him.

"Yeah," he says in a gentle, almost sad voice. "It's just money, and all the money in the world can't buy a person back once they're gone. So I'd gladly give up everything I have to protect them…"

And with those few words he sends Ryuko's thoughts spiraling and her heart fluttering. 4

Taking in her surroundings, and the man beside her who spent so much on more efficiently protecting others. 2

Realizing he really was one in ten billion, exactly how lucky she was, and that she only had one more day before he returned to UA to start the semester. 1

The realization that she never wanted this summer fling to end finally settles in…

"So what do you want for breakfast? My eggs are great, I'm sure you'd like them," she asks, trying not to think about the heavy conversation they just had. 3

"Hmm, and pancakes…"

Ryuko hops off the couch and gives him a dazzling smile, "anything you want, I'm on it…" 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 159: CHAPTER 155(First Impressions)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I'm famous!" Sero screams as he's running down the hallways. 4

Heading to the living room from his bedroom in Horizon's penthouse. So excited that he's running barefoot in only the pair of shorts and t-shirt he slept in, phone in hand.

"Guys I'm famous now!" he yells as he rounds the corner, only to be greeted by the sight of Horizon sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, scrolling the Hero Network on his phone.

Most likely checking his ever-growing list of team-up requests.

And beside him is Ryuko writing something in the notebook she brought with her.

"I'm famous," Sero says, calming down a bit as he walks over to them. Pacing back and forth on the other side of the coffee table, buzzing with excitement.

"You became a hero to get famous?" Ryuko puts down her phone to ask, giving him a skeptical look.

"Huh, no," Sero says. "I became a hero for the money!" an equally worse response. 4

Ryuko just glances over at Horizon, seeing the man put his phone down, "why exactly are you training him again?"

Horizon chuckles and pats her head, messing up her hair a bit more.

"Sero isn't good at talking to pretty girls--"

"Hey!"

"You're not," Horizon says. "Because if you were, you would have just said being famous helps you get more team-ups, with more people, which will result in you saving more lives. Didn't think you'd need me to spoon-feed you interview lines as well…"

"Oh, right," Sero nervously rubs the back of his neck, looking at Ryuko. "Yeah but she's your--"

"Friend," Horizon fills in, earning another side eye from her but ignoring it.

"Yeah, I figured she already knew why," Sero shrugs.

"She has nothing to do with our deal, so why would I ever tell her?"

"Oh, good point," Sero says. "But uh, yeah I'm basically just a hero for the money," he shrugs. 2

Ryuko looks at Horizon, "I thought you criticize people who become heroes just for money and fame?"

"No, I criticize people who aren't useful or effective, yet manage to somehow get a license and reap the rewards of being a Pro Hero, parasites and paper heroes." 3

"So the difference with him is?" She gestures to Sero.

"He is useful and effective. People who put their lives on the line should be rewarded, as Sero will be."

Ryuko looks at Sero, "so, just the money?"

Horizon cuts in, "and the women…" 1

"I have a girlfriend," Sero says. 1

"One more thing I'll have to teach you about," Horizon chuckles, earning an eye roll from Ryuko.

"And yeah, just the money," Sero shrugs. "It's just been my dad and I since…well, it's just us. And since we're pretty much poor and I don't have any skills and aren't that smart, why not throw myself at villains to get paid?"

"Well I see why this one took a liking to you," she gestures to Horizon. "Now, what's this about you being famous?"

"Oh, right, check this out!" Sero connects his phone to the TV and shows Cellophane's 'Yay!' page. "Nearly a million views already!" 1

"When did you upload this?" Horizon asks.

"Just a few minutes after I saved the guy, so around midnight!"

"Not bad," Horizon says. "But what exactly happened?" 4

"Ok, so. According to the report I just saw when I woke up. Some guys decided to kidnap this new rich guy at this big party. They shot him then got him in the helicopter, the cops called every nearby Pro and I happened to be nearby, so I rushed over."

"To chase a helicopter?" Ryuko asks.

"I know right!" Sero says. "It was so crazy, I had to cut through a building just to keep up!"

"The video is from your visor, right?" Horizon asks, cutting him off before he gets too excited.

"Yeah!"

"Edited?"

"I just cut the action and uploaded out of the entire day of footage, just like you said."

"Good, too much editing and people get suspicious, show us the video then you can explain what happened after…"

After watching the video Ryuko is shocked by how well Sero performed, not at all expecting such rapid improvement from him after seeing him at the summer camp.

Training with Horizon had certainly been paying off. 1

But Horizon didn't say anything, causing her to notice the nervous look Sero was giving him, waiting for approval.

She not-so-gently elbows Horizon in the side, "you did great, but what happened after?"

"Oh, I got interviewed and finally gave them my name, and people found my profile and all the other things on it within minutes, it was insane."

"Yeah the public goes crazy for new Pros, and what about the guy you saved, Mr. Law Matani right?" 1

Sero shrugs, "dunno. He didn't even use an ambulance, his people just showed up and took him away, jerk didn't even say thanks," he grumbles. 1

"Expecting rich people not to treat civil servants like shit huh," Horizon says. "They're all assholes, get used to it…" 5

"Momo is nice," Sero argues.

"She also isn't that kind of rich," Horizon holds up his phone. "Did a little search on him in the Hero Network just now, just another young rich asshole that got so used to All Might that he takes Pro Heroes for granted," he shrugs. 3

"Well atleast you saved him," Ryuko says. "And you looked super cooling doing it!" 1

"Just don't expect to get paid much," Horizon says. "You used a helicopter like a grater down the side of a skyscraper, plus whatever the debris fell on. Hero Insurance will only cover so much, you'll probably have something deducted from this month's pay for this stunt.

You need to improve efficiency in your swings and how quickly you subdue people. Plus the way you hesitate to engage against guns, then the issue of your tape needing to be stronger with heavy weight attached to it."

"Right," Sero nods. "I'll work on it…"

"What about the rest of your profile, anything good?" Ryuko quickly tries to move the conversation along.

"Oh yeah!" Sero taps his phone a few times and arrives at his profile picture. An image of him sitting atop Horizon tower with his feet off the edge, and in the background is Horizon sitting on his hoverboard. "The likes and comments on this are insane. People put it together pretty fast that we're working together since we've got a few pictures together on my profile and from on the street." 1

"Good," Horizon says. "That means atleast a few high-ranking Pro Heroes will try to sign you, thinking we come as some kind of package deal. They're mostly wrong but if it gets you into their agency then take it."

Sero nods, giving Horizon a cheerful smile, "this is the first real feeling of progress man, can't believe I'm gonna be working with a big agency soon!"

"Mhm, great work hero!" Ryuko cheers him on. "But you'll need to stay strong, so why don't you get some breakfast, it's already in the kitchen!"

"A fast breakfast," Horizon says. "We need to be on the streets in an hour, we've only got today to do hero work in Tokyo. Summer ends tomorrow and school starts the next day, you need to make this last day of Hero Work count."

"Are we going back by car?" Sero asks.

"I don't do public transport Sero, but you'll be going back ahead of me so you can if you want. I have some business to take care of tomorrow so I'll be getting back to UA fairly late."

"Guess I'll take the train, alright I'm gonna get breakfast now," Sero says before walking toward the kitchen.

"Enjoy!" Ryuko says, waiting for him to get completely out of earshot. Then she elbows Horizon hard in the side.

"What the hell?" he asks with a groan.

"I should be asking you that," she glares at him. "Your friend just made his big debut and you can't even muster up a 'good job' for him, he was clearly waiting for it."

"But it wasn't a good job…"

Ryuko groans and throws her hands up. "Not everyone is perfect like you, Sero did incredibly well for this being his first big incident, you could atleast tell him that."

"What? But that's what was expected of him," Horizon seemed genuinely confused by what she said, which somewhat scared her.

"Uhh, what do you mean?"

"Why would I congratulate someone for what is expected of them, if I'm training you then saving someone from a helicopter is expected, nothing worth being praised over," he says as if its obvious. 1

"How is that possible sane?"

"Because that's what training does Ryuko," Horizon says. "Look, when I was 7 I performed my first successful spinal reconstruction solo. I didn't get a stupid medal, a special treat, or a pat on the back. I just walked into the next room and fixed the next patient…

Because it's what was expected of me, as a doctor and their son. If you train for something why would you be specially rewarded for doing what's expected, and in this case, he made a mess of the side of a building, nothing exemplar about it." 4

Instead of immediately responding, Ryuko just gives him a sad and sympathetic look. Now worried about the clearly broken man sitting beside her, and what her dream life could become if he were involved as much as she'd like. 3

Eventually, she just sighs and leans against his arm, "people aren't robots like you. We need to be told when we do something well, even if it's what's expected of us. It helps us feel good."

"Rewarding the bare minimum is encouraging the bare minimum, that's disgusting."

"And do you plan to be like this with your own kids?"

"Of course, my parents were like this, and I turned out perfect…" 18

Ryuko just slumps her shoulders and exhales deeply, 'what the hell have I gotten involved with…' 7

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 160: CHAPTER 156(Of Hearts and Mind)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting in the back of an armored SUV was Koku Hanabata.

The leader of Japan's Hearts and Mind political party and the leader of Re-Destro's Metal Liberation Army's political influence division.

He was a plain-looking Japanese man with a thin mustache, modern glasses and slicked back hear reaching down to his neck. He wore an exquisite black suit with a long matching scarf draped around his shoulders, atop his long black coat. 1

His villain name, Trumpet, was chosen based on his Quirk or as his people call it, Meta Ability, Incite. 3

This ability allows him to enhance the physical and mental abilities of anyone he commands so long as they are devoted to him.

The louder his voice the more powerful the specific effect.

As his driver was taking him around Tokyo, the seats opposite him were empty aside from a small briefcase resting across it.

Looking out the window he sees mid-day Tokyo passing by, somewhat disgusted by all the people walking on the street. So content with being sheep in a crowd. Ignoring and limiting what makes them truly unique just because the government tells them that's what they should do.

Shaking his head he takes out his phone to check it, seeing dozens of notifications. The average day for a man of his station. As the leader of one of Japan's 12 political parties, people always tried to get his attention.

But currently, they were among the less popular groups, something which he hoped to solve with this meeting.

As he's checking his schedule for today his assistant gives him a call, which he gladly answers.

"Yes?"

"Sir, I managed to get you onto the 'Aftermath Special' tonight, to discuss the future ramifications of the Kamino Ward incident."

"Good, make some time for me in the schedule tonight and I'll be there. That will be a great time to open the eyes of the public as to why Quirk Regulations shouldn't be so strict…"

"Yes sir, and should I move ahead with the expanded marketing budgets for the district elections next month?"

"Not just yet," he tells her. "I'm currently heading to the meeting I mentioned, he accepted at the last minute so I had to rush over."

"Oh, with--"

"Yeah. If he joins our cause, or atleast supports our political party, then we'll be able to afford the new marketing easily. But even more important than that, we'll more easily be able to win over the public…"

"Yes sir, but, if he doesn't?" she asks.

"He will," Koku says. "But even if he doesn't, Re-Destro will simply use Detnerat to fund us as he always has." 1

"But aren't we doing this to avoid looking owned by one major company?" she asks.

"Yes, but nobody will be surprised if a company that makes Quirk Support Equipment for Pro Heroes and civilians supports the political party that encourages regular people to use their Quirks. That's just good business on their part, after all, a mutually beneficial arrangement on both sides."

"Right, good point sir."

"Oh, one more thing," Koku says. "UA will be starting the second semester tomorrow, which means Horizon won't be in Tokyo. Contact Geten, I want to stage a villain attack and have some of our people playing the part of civilians successfully chase off the villains, that should raise interest in our cause."

"Right, but why wait until UA opens tomorrow?"

Koku shakes his head, "because, for the first day of school Horizon will obviously be present. And that means he won't be in Tokyo to arrest our people posing as villains." 3

"Oh, good point, I'll get in contact with him right away sir."

"Good," Koku sees them arrive at the front of Feel Good Inc.'s building in Minato Tokyo. "I need to go, I'll call you when the meeting is over." 2

And as they part in front of the building currently housing one of Japan's top pharmaceutical companies, the door opens and Tomoyasu Chikazoku, one of its board members enters the vehicle. 1

He takes the seat opposite Koku and shuts the door behind him.

Tomoyasu Chikazoku was a lanky man of average height, wearing an all-black suit with hair to match. His hair was long, reaching his waist, with long bangs covering his eyes.

"This had better be good Trumpet," Tomoyasu says.

"Trust me Skeptic, this is worth leaving that board meeting early," Koku says.

Skeptic is Tomoyasu's codename within the Meta Liberation Army. The leader of their intelligence division and also the manager of their technological infrastructure.

While his Quirk: Anthropomorph, allows him to transform human-sized objects into realistic doll copies of himself or other people and remotely control them, he rarely ever uses it. 1

His true worth comes from his ability to hack into almost any system he's encountered. He's also a genius at logistical management, making him the perfect accountant and resource manager for the entire army.

"So what are we doing?" Skeptic asks.

"I got the meeting, it was last minute but he said he has a free lunch opening today and only today," Koku says.

"Ahh," Skeptic looks at the briefcase on the seat beside him and opens it, taking out the new laptop and phone inside and getting to work. "I'll have this phone ready to make a clone of his in a few minutes, but we'll have to be at the same table for atleast thirty minutes for it to clone his phone."

"That won't be a problem," Skeptic says. "We'll be eating at that new restaurant, Golden Hearts…"

"Golden Hearts?" Skeptic asks. "I've heard about there, they ask you to leave all phones outside of the dining area, this won't work." 2

"It will," Koku says. "You let me worry about that, but now the things I asked you about, how did it go?"

"Mmm," Skeptic grumbles while typing away. "Just a bunch of rumors and nonsense. Can't tell what's real and what's fake."

"Even you can't tell?"

"Mhm, but this phone should solve that," he gestures to the phone. "But all the research I've done tells me this dude is pretty well connected. All the rumors say he's Yakuza royalty."

"But Yakuza don't have money like this," Koku says. "And besides they're barely a street gang anymore."

"Yeah well, aside from a few parties here and there, he keeps to himself, just buys up anything he can. It's like he's playing monopoly, but instead of making money he's slowly losing money."

"Losing money?"

"Mhm, his profitable companies make a good amount but he's still losing maybe two million each month in payroll alone."

"And the chances of him supporting us?"

"Hmm, can't tell," Skeptic says. "He hasn't been in the public eye enough to say anything for or against our cause. But that's the point right? You're offering him some political power in Japan."

"Exactly," Koku says. "But we need him more than he needs us, as far as I can tell he doesn't care about politics. But having his name attached to us would mean quite a lot."

"So if he says no, we use this," Skeptic waves the phone in the air. "I've been unable to track his money or break into his companies systems remotely, being this close to him should make that much easier. Then I'm sure we'll find some dirt we can use, but how do you plan to keep this phone close enough to his?"

As Skeptic asks that, as if one queue the vehicle comes to a stop, and a tall muscular man enters, sitting beside Kuko.

"Oh," Skeptic says. "That makes things a lot easier," he goes back to work.

The man who entered was Tatsuyuki Tokoname, aka the Pro Hero known as Slide N Go. At the moment however he was wearing a simple suit instead of his skin-tight Hero Costume. 3

His Quirk: Slip and Slide allows him to remove the friction between his body and anything he touches, increasing his mobility and allowing him to chase down villains at high speeds.

"Most unusual," Slide N Go says. "How come we're all meeting like this in public, this is against MLA regulation for commanders and captains to meet in public like this."

"We have a good cover," Koku says, "Honesty. You're one of the spokespersons for the Hearts and Mind party and we're on our way to meet a new potential sponsor. And Skeptic is a backer of the party, it's all legit."

"Right, and the MLA business?"

"You'll just have to hold onto this," Skeptic hands him the phone. "The restaurant we're going to doesn't allow guests to keep their phones on them, but since you're a Pro Hero they have to allow you to keep yours."

"I see," Slide N Go nods and puts it in his jacket pocket. "Using the unfairness of this flawed society to bring it down."

"Alright," Skeptic shuts the laptop. "The phone is ready, when it's within a few feet of his phone it'll recognize his number and begin closing everything from his phone, including his account info, into itself." 2

"Good, because we're here," Koku says as they pull up to the front of the hotel.

The Golden Hearts Hotel. A 60-story hotel with the now extremely popular restaurant on the roof. New and already incredibly popular, as well as recognizable with its dark colors and golden accents.

As well as the intricate golden heart logo, also known now as the Matani Estate Logo on the front of the building. The same design that Law Matani has on his shoulders, not that the world is aware of that.

The men step out of the building and look up at it, knowing their host was on the roof already.

"Well, time to make a new friend," Koku says as he enters the building, marching toward Law Matani.

But not at all ready for the monster he was about to experience… 6

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 161: CHAPTER 157(Of Hearts and Mind Pt-2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting at his favorite table in his main restaurant. On the roof of his hotel, looking out at downtown Tokyo, Law Matani was enjoying a drink.

He wore a black suit with a gold undershirt, the top two buttons were undone to show off the tattoo on his chest. And the shoulders had the familiar intricate heart sigils on them, just like his shoulder had them tattooed beneath his clothes.

He sat at a table beside the railing, separating him from the 60-story drop to the pavement below, his back was to the railing, giving his guests a better view while he made it difficult for anyone to get behind him.

And the roof was currently filled with men and women enjoying lunch, some working, some seemingly getting together with friends. But all enjoying their meals.

"Really?" Law asks, he was currently on the phone with Sero.

"Yeah, apparently Edgeshot called UA to offer me a work studies position, pretty cool right!" 6

"Yeah, but I was hoping for someone that would operate more in the spotlight. But I guess the camera in your visor can make up for that."

"Oh yeah, didn't even think of that. But yeah I never thought I'd be working with a top pro. This is all thanks to you, thanks man!"

"Don't mention it, just do your best and don't embarrass me."

"Uh, right," Sero says nervously.

Law sees the three men he was waiting for enter the outdoor dining area a moment later, "I gotta go, I'll talk to you later," he hangs up as the men notice him. 1

"Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to meet you all," Law says as he gets up and gives each of them a handshake.

And for the first time in a while, he mentally curses All For One.

Usually, when meeting someone he would simply Scan them, but now activating a Room causes his eyes to continuously glow, so he couldn't even do subtle things like that. 17

"The pleasure is ours I assure you," Koku says as they all take their seats. "Its nearly impossible to get a table at this restaurant, even for me."

"Well, quality attracts quantity," Law says. "Now, I know you said you'd be bringing two important people Mr. Hanabata--"

"Please, call me Koku."

"Right, Koku, but I don't recognize these men," Law says, a necessary lie. He of course recognized Slide N Go from his research on the Hearts and Mind party.

"Well allow me to rectify that, this is Tomoyasu Chikazoku, he sits on the board of directors for the Feel Good Inc Pharmaceutical company." 1

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Skeptic says.

"Likewise," Law nods politely.

"And this," Koku gestures to Slide N Go, "is Tatuyuki Tokonami, but the public knows him as the Pro Hero, Slide N Go."

"A Pro Hero, sitting at my table, well I'm flattered."

Slide N Go chuckles and rubs the back of his head shyly, "honestly I feel a bit out of place at a meeting like this…"

"Oh you don't have to worry, I'm not that uptight," Law says as he signals a server to come to them. "In fact, me not being so uptight is why I haven't been able to get a foot in the door of any political party in Japan. Let's just say the old money families that run things don't want someone that's only half Japanese involved in shaping the country."

"And you've made it clear you cannot be controlled," Koku says. "But that's exactly why I reached out to you, I believe we can do great work together…"

As the server comes over. Law orders just a simple steak meal with some mashed potatoes, Koku orders a sashimi platter, Slide N Go orders the same steak meal as Law, and Skeptic orders a bowl of Miso Soup.

As the server leaves them, Law puts his phone face down on the table. 1

"Alright, so let's get down to business, I've got somewhere to be this afternoon, as much as I'd love to spend all evening partying with you men."

"I believe I should go first," Tomoyasu Skeptic, says. "Feel Good Inc is currently in search of some space leading up to the launch of a new medication we just to the patent for." 1

"Alright," Law nods along.

"Well, I noticed that you've been doing all you can. Such as the 200 Million you donated to the police pension and relief fund. Or the 200 Million you donated to the fire fighters pension and relief fund. And I can't help but wonder, are these because you perhaps want people to forget certain things?" Skeptic glances down at Law's hands, at his tattoos.

Law raises his hands to show off the hand and knuckle tattoos, "honestly no, I did that because I don't like speeding tickets. And I own a lot of properties so I don't want the people I depend on to respond to emergencies to not like me after all."

"Oh, I'm--"

"You're fine, and for the record, our fortune didn't come from anything illegal. We made good investments in the healthcare industry that paid off very well," he says. "And I'm fully aware of how most of the world, and especially Japan views tattoos like mine. But I'm not Yakuza. This is more of a family tradition," Law says. "From the other side of my family…"

"Ahh, you mentioned being half Japanese, so what's the other half?" Slide N Go asks.

"Italian…" 8

The table got immediately tense, as all three men come to the conclusion that they may be sitting across from a mafia billionaire. Until Law burst that bubble.

"I'm not mafia, but I do get that a lot," he chuckles. "But hey, the ladies love it, so I won't complain."

"Right, but back to what I was saying," Skeptic refocuses the conversation. "You've been more successful than most political parties in buying good will in Japan. Despite the rumors circulating around you, the public supports you.

Even after your unfortunate kidnapping, people doubted the rumors that it was over some sort of criminal involvement. And when it turned out to just be thugs looking to hold a wealthy man for a ransom, they only loved you more."

"Legacy building," Law says. "That's the goal."

"Precisely why I'm here to offer you a subsidization contract with the new drug. The news headline would get certain leaked documents about you subsidizing the cost of the drug so the consumer and government won't have to pay as much in this time of great need, and you look like a champion of the people. The Matani family shines even brighter."

"Hmm, I'll have to look over the details of the drug," Law says. "What's my estimated cost?"

"125 Million, you'd be eating most of the cost of this contract between yourself, Detnerat, and a few other companies."

"Right, but you'd also be getting my goodwill built up with the public," Law says. "And I assume this information would be leaked in a tasteful way…"

"Of course," Skeptic says. "Boasting about how much you help people doesn't look good after all."

"Alright, send my lawyers the details later, I'll give you an answer by tomorrow night."

"And of course, I'll keep you informed on any future moves in the pharmaceutical industry here."

"Perfect," Koku Trumpet, says. "Now with that out of the way, shall we get to what I contacted you about?"

"Right, you're the only one of the 12 parties willing to let me into politics in Japan, why is that?"

"Well aside from the fact that we're currently ranked 6th and could greatly use the publicity boost from having you support us, as well as funding for the upcoming regional elections across Japan, I believe our beliefs align enough to work together," Koku says.

"And what policies might that be?" Law asks as their food arrives.

"Well for one, you're being oppressed for something you cannot control. For being half Japanese instead of fully Japanese you're being excluded from part of our society, that isn't right at all. That's one thing we're already solving by simply being here."

"True, go on…"

"The next I believe would be your policy of expression."

"Expression?" Law asks.

"Self-expression," Koku says. "You're a man who isn't afraid to show the world what he stands for and all that he is, correct?"

"Mhm," Law nods.

"And in regards to Quirks. Most of the population aside from the Pro Heroes aren't even allowed to express that part of themselves, a part which they are born with. I'm sure you can relate, yes?"

"No," Law says. "My Quirk just makes me look younger, not much expression in that. But I'm sure if I could fly it would be a different story, so I see your point."

"Thank you," Koko says. "Most people truly can't even be bothered to try to understand if it doesn't affect them directly. I'm glad you're smarter than those people.

But the Hearts And Mind party focuses on the aching hearts of all the oppressed people, under one collection thought process.

'We want freedom,' that is the thought. That's why 'Hearts' is plural but 'Mind' is singular. You already have the love of the working class, the most oppressed of them all. If you join us, we could change the future of Japan for the better." 2

Law mulls it over for a second, then looks at Slide N Go, "Pro Heroes are frowned upon if they promote any politics, especially something like this which promotes a direct conflict with the existing system. Is this really what you believe in."

"With all my heart, I want my fellows to be free to live as they wish," Slide N Go says.

"Right, and what's your Quirk?"

"I can remove the friction between myself and any surface I touch, allowing me to slide freely."

"Right, I should have guessed that," Law leans back into his chair, looking between the three men. "I need a minute to think this over…"

Looking around while the three men are silently eating, waiting for a response, Law sees Horizon tower in the distance.

'This policy is chaos, I barely trust regular people with cars, now we're gonna let them use quirks as they please. This is the same shit I explained to--' and suddenly it all snaps together.

'Rikiya runs Detnerat, he funds this political party and was spouting nonsense about Quirks needing to be free to use. Then these idiots in the political party are spouting the same bullshit. Plus Chitose mentioned this in her interview with me, and she's Rikiya's girlfriend in secret…is this some bigger conspiracy.' 4

And just like that he put all the pieces together, that these leaders of the Meta Liberation Army were in fact working together, but he didn't have the pieces that filled in the 'army' part of their movement just yet.

"This is chaos," Law says, pulling their attention toward him.

"Chaos is good for Pro Heroes since they get to make lots of money," he looks at Slide N Go.

"It's good for people who sell medicine since lots of people get hurt," he looks at Skeptic.

"It's good for people who sell Quirk Support Items because they have a lot of customers. And it's good for the leader because he has people desperate for instruction," he looks at Koku for that final statement.

"But it's not good for the people doing the fighting, and it's definitely not good for me. I've invested in businesses that do well during peaceful times, not this kind of business. I don't even trust people with the freedom they have now and I'm supposed to trust them with a Quirk that could kill me…no way."

"Are you saying you won't support us?"

"Sorry, but I won't," Law says. "You're all in positions to profit from this movement, but it'll only hurt me--" Law's phone beeps a few times, and he lifts it up to glance at it. 1

He looks to his left, to the table of people sitting behind Slide N Go, then puts his phone down.

"Sorry about that, but yes as I was saying. Chaos doesn't really benefit me, but I'm hoping you three can point me toward some good investments to prepare for this chaotic future we'll have…"

And just like that, all three men give him hopeful smiles.

Completely oblivious that their fate just took a turn for the worse… 6

END CHAPTER-- 4

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Chapter 162: CHAPTER 158(Of Hearts and Mind Pt-3)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START-- 1

"Well I think that's just about everything I wanted to know," Law says as their lunch comes to an end.

"Well this was certainly a pleasant meeting if that's the case," Koku Trumpet, says.

"Well I just have one more question, the most important of them all," Law says, causing all three men to look at each other somewhat nervously.

"And what might that be?" Slide N Go asks.

"Well, it can wait, but before that. Have you ever wondered what you should order to eat for a meeting like this?"

The men give each other strange looks, then Koku takes the lead, "what do you mean?"

Law looks at his phone, seeing a confirmation message, then leans back and begins explaining.

"Well, for a business meeting your order has a subconscious effect on the people at the table. Like myself and Slide N Go, we're big so steak makes sense, especially with muscles like that," he gestures to the Pro Hero.

"Then we've got your Sashimi Platter," Law nods toward Koku, "not bad but it could leave the wrong impression with ladies. And then we come to you," he shakes his head at Tomoyasu Skeptic.

"What's wrong with my order?" Skeptic gestures to the half-eaten bowl of Miso Soup.

"Well it's the number one thing you should never order from a restaurant," Law says. "There are mainly three reasons. The first, is that it's where the head chef will put all the ingredients that are about to go bad and aren't presentable anymore, especially if it's a fish soup of any kind."

"Ugh," Skeptic groans, looking at the bowl with distrust.

"The second, is that you don't want anything that can splash about or be loud for a business meeting like this. Plus, it's just not a good look."

"Uh…ok," they all give him weird looks before Skeptic asks, "and what's the third reason."

"Well, I'll explain after my next question, if it's needed."

"And what question might that be?" Trumpet asks.

BANG!

All three men have their faces splattered with bits of Slide N Go's brains as a bullet hollows out his skull from the back to the front. 16

Law doesn't react but both men jump back in their seats, almost falling over.

But the people at the table behind them immediately get up and keep them in their chairs.

As the dead Pro Hero slumps onto the table, they see the women on the table behind him all holding guns and looking at them.

"Take anything you want!" Trumpet says with his hands raised, just like Skeptic, expecting to be robbed.

But the woman only chuckles slightly, keeping her pistol aimed at them as one of her friends walks over to the dead Pro Hero, and gets his phone out of his pocket.

"You aren't being robbed, dumbass," Law says, pulling their attention over to him. To see him completely relaxed in his seat with blood on the side of his face. "These aren't customers, they're my friends."

They see everyone on the rooftop immediately take out their weapons or in some cases just turn to look at them, presumably having Quirks that make guns obsolete.

"Friend?!" Trumpet yells, "your friend just killed someone!"

"Obviously," Law says. "Why wouldn't she? I mean, I take care of her, and her family, send her kids to whatever school she wants. Keep the college funds topped off…so of course my friends would look out for me in even the most drastic cases."

"They're your security!" Skeptic says.

"No no no, friends," Law corrects him. Noting how neither man looks awfully bothered by the corpse slumped forward on the table. "Security would make me responsible for this mess, but I can't be held accountable for the independent actions of my friends, now can I?" 3

"What do you want?" Trumpet asks.

"Well, usually I'd wonder why a politician and a tech nerd aren't bothered by the corpse of a person right here, but I think we're already past that," Law says. "So, why were you wannabe anarchists trying to clone my phone?"

"What are you talking about?" Skeptic asks, a surprisingly convincing lie judging by his confused expression.

Law had the woman hand him the clone phone, "it couldn't even get past my login screen, guess my I.T. guy is better than yours." 9

He sees Skeptic's eyes narrow slightly at that, just for an instant.

"Ohh, I'm guessing you did personally make this program, good, now tell me what you were aiming for."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Skeptic insists.

Law sighs and rolls his eyes, and as if in queue them men behind them hold their arms down flat onto the table, making sure his guests couldn't move. 1

"Do you know what the third reason you don't order soup it?" Law asks. "Well, if you're at a table with me, then…a cold dark river, the open ocean, a lake maybe, bathtub…or a bowl of fucking soup. You can drown in them all the same…" 13

"Wh--" Before Skeptic can even comprehend what he meant, his face was being held down in two inches of soup, drowning him in his lunch.

As Skeptic is drowning Trumpet begins speaking, "you can't do this! You killed and Pro Hero, the police will arrest you!" 5

Law has to visibly stop himself from laughing in his face, "do you have any idea of who I am. I'm Law Matani. There isn't a judge in the country willing to sign an arrest warrant for me, there isn't a cop willing to pull me over. And obviously, I don't give a shit about these idiots," he gestures to Slide N Go's corpse. 2

"But--"

"But nothing. Because even if All Might himself came to arrest me, even if the judges wanted it and they pulled it off, nothing would happen," Law says. "In the past few months I've both sooooo sooooooooo many companies in Japan, mostly Tokyo. And you can't imagine how many people would lose jobs the moment I'm locked up." 7

"What?"

"Oh, you didn't consider that, did you," Law says. "The first thing that happens when you have over a few million employees is they give you a call to make sure you won't suddenly dump a million unemployed people into the system, because the government hates having to take care of unemployed poor people even more than you think." 3

As he's explaining he notices Skeptic no long twitching in the bowl of soup, and gestures for the men to wake him up. They pull him out of the bowl and give him a hard punch to the gut, causing him to cough and vomit up everything he ate today back into the bowl. 2

"As I was saying, they won't do a damn thing, because the economy can't afford it in this current state. I'm a very important piece of the wall holding back an unemployment crisis in Japan…well, a bigger one."

"That's why you've been operating like this," it finally clicks in Trumpet's head. "You weren't just going for legacy, you bought a way to stay out of jail, because Japan needs you right now."

Law gives a devious and victorious smile. "Crisis is opportunity." 6

A moment later Skeptic is done trying to cough his lungs out and snaps back to his senses, tears and snot running down his face.

"Enjoying the soup?" Law asks. 3

"Ngnnnn," Skeptic groans, swaying from side to side like he was drunk.

"Well, he's useless. Let's hook these guys up and ask some questions.

While Trumpet was confused a woman walked between them, with the men still behind them holding them down. Her fingernails extend half an inch like scales then she stabs them each in the shoulder, leaving her hands in them.

"Ahhh!" Both men cry out.

"Ready," The woman says. "I'll give them a shock if I sense any lies," she nods at Law.

"I'm so glad I hired all of you after that whole hostage nightmare, could have saved me a lot of trouble that night," Law says. "But anyway, Koku, my least favorite politician, why were you trying to break into my phone?" 2

"We didn't ARGH!" he screams as a small current flows through his body from the woman.

"Oh, you lied, that'll cost a finger…"

"What!?" Trumpet panics as a man from a nearby table get up and walk over, reaching for one of his hands being held to the table and grabbing his little finger. "Wait don't break it please?"

Hearing this Law chuckles, "break it, don't be ridiculous…" 3

"ARGRRGHHHHH!" Trumpet screams at the top of his lungs as the man rips off the finger completely, leaving it on the table. And a moment later he releases another scream as the man makes a small candle flame in his palm and burns the wound shut. 14

Three questions and three fingers later, each, neither man has spoken. So Law leans away, leaving the interrogation to his 'friends' while another man walks up beside him.

"Sir," the man says.

"What's wrong?"

"We questioned their driver, he didn't know anything but we dealt with him anyway, just in case."

Law looks over to the man, one of his Power Types, and sees both his sleeves bloodied, "right, good job…"

Turning back to his guests Law sees both men covered in sweat and slumped forward.

Only four fingers each and they were already beginning to pass out, he couldn't help but be disgusted by their weakness.

"Alright, this is getting tedious, will either of you ever tell me what I want?"

"Never!" Trumpet says.

"Never!" Skeptic says, but he immediately gets shocked, caught in a lie.

"Ohh, well that makes things easier," he then turns to Trumpet. "Well, you politicians never say anything useful either way, and you always lie to the public sooo…why don't you just stop talking all together, yeah?"

Trumpet and Skeptic look confused at that, then their expression turn to horror and panic as one of the nearby men grab a knife from Slide N Go's plate, and reaches into the politician's mouth for his tongue.

Skeptic is forced to watch his friend has his tongue cut out and the wound burnt shut, then he passes out on the table. 1

The man releases Skeptic's mouth, but the covert villain doesn't say anything.

He just laments the choices that lead to this, his fate for bringing him here. And his hate for the man sitting across from him just grew and grew.

"You're a monster!" Skeptic says, giving Law a hateful glare. 2

"Monster?" Law asks playfully. "The monsters are locked in Tartarus, but I'm infinitely worse…because I'm right here. And I really don't like that look you're giving me, with that left eye…" 1

"Wha-- WAIT, PLEASE!" Skeptic screams as he feels a large hand covers the side of his face from behind him, and a finger digging into his eye socket. 2

"I promise I'll release what's left of you when I get what I want," Law says, words barely heard through Skeptic's screaming. "But let's see how many pieces I have to take until we get there…" 23

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 163: CHAPTER 159(Would-Be Challengers)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 4

CHAPTER START--

--7 PM, UA Campus, Principal Nezu's Office…

Sitting on Nezu's couch Horizon had his feet up on the coffee table while he was talking on the phone.

He was currently wearing some of his own merch, a pair of sweatpants, and a jacket with his logo on the back of it. 2

"Are you sure?" Gang Orca asks through the phone.

"Yeah, they should be moving lab equipment through your part of Japan by freight trains tomorrow," Horizon says. "And I can't go running to the far side of Japan every time I get a lead so I'm passing it onto you, that's your area after all."

"Right," Gang Orca says. "I'll send some of my sidekicks to the trainyard, they'll alert me if they see any suspicious activity. And this equipment is what they use to make Trigger?" 1

"Mhm, the rest of the world is still trying to catch up to the quality of Quirk Enhancing Drugs in America, but we should crush these people before they get any closer to a pure formula." 1

"Yes that would be problematic," Gang Orca says. "I'll be sure to review the file you sent me tonight, and I won't forget to mention you when we make the arrests tomorrow."

"Thanks, I appreciate it, anyway that's all, so--"

"Wait," Orca interrupts before Horizon rudely hangs up as he usually does. "Have you reconsidered my offer?"

"Don't need to," Horizon says. "You can't pay as much as Enji, you aren't as popular. Plus, even if I wanted to, the government won't allow me to just pack up and work in a city like yours. They need all the big guns in Tokyo to keep the crime rate down, your area is more about catching illegal contraband."

"I see, that makes sense. You have much more effect in a densely populated area like central Tokyo, very well then. If you change your mind, the option is always available…"

"I won't," Horizon rudely hangs up on the Hero. 2

Setting down his phone Horizon leans back and relaxes on the couch.

"That's the last of my cases to delegate to other Pro Heroes…such a pain in the ass when villains try to move their businesses out of Tokyo, but I guess that's the natural response when you've got me in your city…"

A few minutes later Horizon hears the door open, and in walks Nezu, "enjoying your quiet time?" Nezu asks.

"Just keeping the other Pros informed of my leads, in case they find anything."

"Mhm," Nezu casually walks up to him and sits on the couch beside him. "Have you noticed you're already talking like a fully licensed Pro Hero?"

"They're already treating me like one, and I'm already working like one, what's talking like one compared to that?" he shrugs.

"The burden of incomprehensible power, people simply expect you to do the heavy lifting."

"Mhm, it's all part of the deal."

"Yes, but onto the more pressing matter. Someone tried to hack into your phone today?"

"Yeah, but I dealt with it," Horizon says.

"Well explain that to me while we walk to the dorms, I need to go speak to All Might, and taking a stroll through campus is always fun. Atleast when my adorable little legs aren't doing the walking…"

"Mmmm," Horizon grumbles as he gets up, then puts Nezu onto his right shoulder. "As I said, I dealt with the hacker…" he says as they exit the office and begin walking through the empty halls. 2

"Well you couldn't have dealt with it as Horizon, so, do I want to know what you did?"

"For plausible deniability, you don't want all the details…"

"I see. And why did they try to interfere with you?"

"For leverage," Horizon says as they enter the elevator. "They wanted to know about my finances and businesses, but even if they go in there isn't anything illegal in my books."

"Aside from the overprice healthcare you offer." 2

"Miracles aren't cheap," Horizon says. "What's the cost of a life anyway. It's not like I judge, it's open bidding…they just want it more than other people, and have more money for it." 1

"I suppose that's true," Nezu says. "But why did they want leverage?"

"Apparently to borrow my goodwill with the citizens to promote their politics, they aren't anything dangerous. Just a group of politicians wanting to rally their supporters, boring garbage." 1

"So a conspiracy, and what are the names?" Nezu asks.

"None of your business," Horizon says. "I'll deal with it myself. I already have a plan in motion."

"And what might that be?"

"I did some lasting damage, the kind that only a certain miracle doctor can fix. And one of the people who I suspect is in that group, happens to be an associate of mine. If he contacts me to come to help them out then I'll know he's part of it."

"Right, still relying on excessive cruelty, when will you drop this habit?" 5

"Horizon didn't do it, not this time," he says.

"I suppose, but you get what I mean," Nezu says. "And your plan after figuring out who is in their group?"

"Nothing," Horizon says as they approach the front exit of UA. "I just want to know exactly who I may have pissed off, what markets they control, and how they can make my life difficult, but I doubt they'd have the balls to do that. Not after the little chat I had with them…"

"I hope Horizon treats villains better than 'he' does," Nezu says.

"Horizon is a hero, there are limits to what he can do… unfortunately. I can't even use Injection Shot as much as I want because the damage is 'excessive and inhumane', a bunch of pussies. "

"What else would you call pulverizing bone and tissue to dust with invisible bullets that bypass defenses?"

"Effective." 8

"Those shots are almost beyond recovery without a healing Quirk and surgery being used before the bone begins to try growing back. We were lucky that we have Recovery Girl, otherwise, after the first day of practical training with you, Todoroki would have been spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair…" 2

"Yeah but they're villains."

"Just because someone is on the other side, doesn't mean you have to cripple them for life… as I recall you did with Himiko Toga before she broke out." 5

"Would you believe that was an accident?" Horizon asks. 1

"No, but your contempt for the people in your way is astounding, as is your lack of sympathy for those beside you." 1

"Thanks." 1

"Not a compliment."

"That's your opinion…" Horizon stops as they exit the main building and approach the dorms, seeing Yagi, Deku, and Bakugo on the front lawn. Both the boys were sparring with the former hero watching them. "And what's this?" 2

Nezu explains as he continues walking, "they got into a fight after the License Exams…and apparently Midoriya explain One For All to him, but he and All Might trust him." 3

"More than David Shield apparently," Horizon mutters. "But who won the fight?" 1

"Bakugo." 1

"As expected," Horizon says as they arrive beside Yagi, watching the duo spar on the grass. "How are you feeling?"

"Huh!" Yagi is startled to see them beside him. "Oh, you surprised me, and I'm feeling fine."

"That's good to hear," Nezu says. "And how is their training coming along? They've been sparring all week."

"Young Bakugo has been improving steadily, and young Midoriya is becoming familiar with his new fighting style more and more. I'd say they can compete with some of the combat-inclined Pro Heroes by now." 2

"So the D-Listers, and C-Listers," Horizon says. 2

"Hey, that's rude, you can't call them that," Yagi says.

"They are what they are, and what new combat style?"

"My Shoot Style!" Deku says as they finish a round of sparring, both he and Bakugo were covered in sweat.

"Shoot? So you can weaponize air pressure already?"

"Uh, no," Deku bashfully rubs the back of his neck. "It's more like Full Cowling, but with my legs too, so I can kick!"

"..." Horizon glances to his right shoulder where Nezu was seated, then back at Deku. "I told you he's retarded." 15

"He's not retarded," Nezu says. "But it did turn out exactly as you said. You could have gotten him to this level before summer even began if you were willing to help h--" 2

"He's gotten enough handouts," Horizon glances at Yagi. 1

"Excuse me," Deku looks at Principal Nezu. "Sir, what did he predict exactly?"

"Oh, you must have forgotten," Nezu says. "When he first taught you Full Cowling, during the Quirk explanation class he gave."

"Yeah, I remember that."

"Well, he said that you idolizing All Might would hold you back, what he meant by that is you constantly try to fight like a boxer and a brawler, when you're not 7ft tall like All Might, but should be more focused on speed."

"Oh," Deku facepalms. "I guess I really was trying to be like All Might so much that it became a hindrance…"

"And if you're that much of a fanboy, you've gotta be a retard on some level," Horizon says.

"Well that's not very nice," Yagi says. "But knowing you, there must be a lot more you've already figured out right? In terms of improving his use of One For All and accelerating his training, especially considering how much Sero's Quirk usage and power improved in just a few weeks of training with you."

"Naturally I've considered the optimal way for all my classmates to train and use their Quirks," Horizon says. "Understanding the opponent is fundamental to crushing them thoroughly after all. How much power can you use right now anyway?"

"5% with my arms, but 8% with my legs!" Deku says, and Bakugo grumbles under his breath.

"Still a lot weaker than me, but you're thinking about it all wrong again," Horizon says.

'Ideally, he'd think of it like gears in increments of 5% each. If he can handle continuous use of his arms in first gear, then shift into second before impact then shift back down into first afterward.

One split second of 10% won't hurt him that badly and will accelerate how fast his body improves so he can raise his base power, but Yagi will probably explain that to him eventually. I doubt All Might was walking around at 100% all the time, the collateral damage from that wouldn't have been heroic after all…'

This is the same system Horizon uses with ROOM. Having set increments of ROOM size so he doesn't have to think as much. Some for more range, some for a more in-depth awareness of the battlefield. The smaller the room the more precise he can be.

"What do you mean?" Deku asks.

"You'll probably have Yagi teach you that eventually," Horizon says, then sighs. "I don't even have the damn Quirk but I'm better at it than you, no wonder I was the first choice for it…" 14

Bakugo freezes at that, he hadn't known that little fact. And Deku just feels smaller and smaller each time he's reminded. The official reason and to Yagi's knowledge is that Horizon simply doesn't need it, which is true.

But Nezu was also terrified at the idea of such a tool falling into the hands of a person he hardly knew at the time.

And now that he does know him, he's sure he made the correct choice. 4

"Anyway, have fun sparring…" Horizon hands Nezu to Yagi as they had some things to discuss about tomorrow.

"Wait!" Bakugo yells out as Horizon is about to leave

"What's your problem Silver Medal?" Horizon asks. 1

"Don't think I'm this idiot's rival!" Bakugo screams out, pointing at Deku. "He's just a stepping stone, and when I crush him, then you're next!" 4

"That's some dream you have there, but very ill-advised, because if Useless can compete with you," he nods toward Deku. "Imagine what Perfect will do to you…" 38

END CHAPTER-- 2

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Chapter 164: CHAPTER 160(Career Planning)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START-- 1

"What do you mean he paid for it?" Horizon asks.

Currently, he, Sero, and Tokoyami were sitting at the couches in his massive dorm room. Tokoyami was on the floor leaning on the coffee table, filling out some Villain Insurance paperwork.

Sero had some of his paperwork in hand, as both boys came to Horizon for advice on handling the logistics of Hero Work and some career planning.

"Check it," Sero hands Horizon a page which he quickly reads.

"Ok," Horizon shrugs and hands it back. "So the seemingly ungrateful billionaire asshole…wasn't that ungrateful."

"Doesn't matter to me," Sero says with a chuckle. "All I need to know is he paid my Villain Insurance for that helicopter rescue, makes sense since I saved him in that."

"And now you can get paid, correct?" Tokoyami asks. "Because otherwise the cost of the collateral damage would have been deducted from your payment?"

"Pretty much," Sero says.

"But that begs the question, when can we hold the Pro Hero responsible for the damage, and when do we blame the villain?" 1

Sero looks at Tokoyami, but can't come up with an answer, so he looks to Horizon who was sitting opposite him scrolling through his phone. "Uh, care to give us your idea of how that system works?"

"They rate it based on your history alongside some considerations based on the recordings or witness accounts, as well as the Quirks involved," Horizon says.

"Uh…wanna dumb that down for me?" Sero asks.

"Ok, think about it like this," Horizon says as he puts down his phone. "Mt. Lady has to stop a villain with a Tape Quirk, when the cops show up the entire street is torn up with massive craters, what do you think caused them?"

"Her stomping," Tokoyami says. "That's one of her Super-Moves…"

"Mhm, but the government has to pay to repair that, which is where Villain Insurance comes in. But since, in this case, it wasn't necessary, it gets detracted from her pay. If the villain was someone like Kirishima and she had to stomp him to crack his shell, then it would have been fine."

"And if the villain did the damage, it would have been fine, right?" Tokoyami asks. "Plus if it keeps happening they'll just stop investigating it and just continue charging her."

"Exactly, this is another reason Sero and I have cameras on our Hero Costumes. Most heroes don't bother with body cameras outside of America, that's one of their ancient regulations with Law Enforcement forces that just transferred over to the Pros after all." 8

"Plus most of them would just break it," Sero says. "Fragile things and fighting villains don't go together…"

"Exactly, plus more content means more popular in the Pro Hero world."

"Yeah, but I don't get why they had to cut my pay to zero after that helicopter rescue, I think I did pretty good with that," Sero says.

"You literally paid nothing compared to the full cost of fixing the damage you caused to that building, you're lucky they didn't put you in debt," Horizon says.

Sero chuckles nervously at that, "yeah, when you put it like that I did get off easy. Stills sucks thought."

"Mhm," Tokoyami stops writing and looks up to Horizon. "So for the section about my maximum damage output--"

"The higher the output the more eager they will be to charge you for Villain Insurance since the chances of the collateral being caused by you in higher."

"I see, so I should put my lower power output in order to preserve my payment, yes?"

"No," Horizon says. "I mean yeah that's an option, but you won't get many team-up requests or assignments from the Hero Public Safety Commission if they think you're weak. Just put the truth then do your best, get stronger, get popular, then you'll get more chances to help people."

"Or in my case," Sero says. "More sponsors and popularity!"

"I see," Tokoyami leans back against the foot of the couch and looks down at the papers. "I didn't realize such deceptively trivial paperwork had such dark meanings behind them--" 2

Sero gives Horizon a confused glance to which he just shrugs in return.

"--But I suppose paperwork shall be part of my life now. I have much of this to endure during my work studies with Hawks this semester."

"Well, that's a dramatic way of putting it," Horizon can't help but rolls his eyes beneath the visor at Tokoyami's usual persona. "Just don't break things and you'll be fine, and be sure to look good for the cameras."

"Mhm," Tokoyami just nods as he continues chewing through the paperwork.

"And save people," Sero adds. 6

"Right, that too," Horizon shakes his head, then the conversation continues.

A few moments later, another career-focused reveal surprises Tokoyami.

"You really don't plan to sign on with Edgeshot as a Sidekick?" He asks Sero. "But he's the number 4 Pro Hero."

"Yeah but he mostly does stealth stuff and detective work," Sero says. "Honestly Jeanist is a better fit for my Quirk but his style is way to reactive for my liking."

"Well you'll be working with Kamui Woods again," Horizon says. "Just like your internship since you spent it with him."

"Mhm, since he, Edgeshot, and Mt. Lady formed a team they've been spending a lot of time together, so I basically get 3 Pro Heroes to teach me stuff at once," Sero chuckles deviously. "No way I could pass up on this offer. But they really should have come up with something better than 'Lurkers' for a team name…" 1

"I see, but that begs the question, who do you intend to work for?" Tokoyami asks. "Atleast after we become Fully Licensed Pro Heroes."

"Well, I'm planning to go solo once that happens, skip the Sidekick stage all together."

"That's risky, but you're already quite popular with Horizon's help, if you follow his lead it shouldn't be impossible. I don't envy the amount of work that will take."

"Yeah its a real pain in the butt," Sero admits. "But it gets me ahead of the competition."

"So you intend to be like Mirko? Running about Japan without an established agency anywhere?" 3

"Kinda," Sero says. Then he glances at Horizon who wasn't paying them much attention, still on his phone, then back down to Tokoyami. "But its more likely I'll be working with someone, but not like a Sidekick."

"Ahh, a Hero Team," Tokoyami pauses for a moment as he considers it. "A wise choice, operating alone has become more dangerous lately."

Both Sero and Tokoyami discuss the positive and negative aspects of being solo vs being in a Hero Agency or Team.

But Sero leaves Tokoyami mostly oblivious to the fact that he'd just sign on to work out of Horizon Tower when they receive full licenses, skipping the cost of setting up his own agency and forcing himself to operate in an environment where he cannot slack off.

But Tokoyami isn't an idiot by any means, and everyone knows they've both been operating out of Horizon Tower this past week.

It was a simple issue to reason that they would continue operating as they are.

As a moment of comfortable silence passes Sero begins laughing quietly, "I can't believe this is a real conversation I'm having, back when I was little I'd dream about even meeting a Pro Hero. Now I'm so close to becoming one, and I talk to them every day…"

"I understand what you mean," Tokoyami says. "I've never been a 'fanboy' like some of our classmates. But I've always admired the control and precision Pro Heroes have, and here I am, actively learning from them and being mentored directly. Sometimes I still find it hard to believe."

"Mhm, never thought I'd be here either," Horizon says, surprising them. Atleast before he clarifies, "not because I believed my skills aren't enough, obviously. I just never saw myself playing hero, but here we are…" 3

A few minutes later and while they were enjoying the silence Horizon warps one of his metal calling cards into his hand, then tosses it forward.

It hovers in the air between both couches for a moment.

"Shambles," Kyoka Jiro suddenly appears in his room, standing frozen with a hand reaching up.

Warped inside just before she could knock on his door.

It takes her a moment to realize what just happened, then she just puts her hand down and huffs, giving Horizon an annoyed look.

"I thought Principal Nezu told you to stop doing that!"

"He did, but you literally can't stop it," he shrugs. "Now, why were you about to knock on my door?" 1

Jiro just rolls her eyes, "why didn't any of you respond to the messages we sent in the class chat?"

"Uh, my phone is in my room, the battery died," Sero says.

"Same here," Tokoyami says.

Then Jiro looks to Horizon who still had his phone in his hand, "why would I ever have the class chat notification settings turned on, I don't care what you people usually have to say…"

"Whatever, just…they're planning to watch a movie downstairs," she looks at Sero. "Your girlfriend and Juzo are here for it and helping set up. If you guys want to vote for a movie then get down there before they start it, I've already cast my vote."

"Uh, who's winning?" Sero asks, with clear concern. "Mina and Toru started an alliance."

"Oh crap!" he hops off the couch, and Tokoyami immediately stands up with him. Before they rush off he looks back at Horizon who still hasn't moved. "Uh, you coming?"

"Jiro and I will be down in a second, I'll watch whatever you all vote for," Horizon says, surprising them that he'll actually be attending. 1

"Uh, right," Sero glances between them but doesn't ask any questions, quickly leaving the room with Tokoyami.

Leaving the awkward Jiro standing before Horizon, who was looking her up and down in her shorts and an oversized t-shirt.

"Do you wanna sit down to say whatever it is you've prepared?" Horizon asks.

"Uh…what?" Jiro tried to play dumb, failing miserably.

"Stupid doesn't look good on you," Horizon says. "And I saw you practicing some speech in front of my door for five minutes, well, spit it out already, we've got a movie to watch." 4

And just like that Jiro felt her heart hammering in her chest, as if it would soon try to break her ribcage… 19

END CHAPTER-- 2

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Chapter 165: CHAPTER 161(Movie Night)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting across from Jiro, Horizon could see her twitching anxiously. Tapping her foot, playing with her earphone jacks, biting her lips.

Beneath his visor, he rolls his eyes, then picks up his phone once more. Scrolling through it he casually asks her, "you ever plan to talk?"

As Jiro is holding her breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She looks up at Horizon to see him sitting comfortably on the couch, scrolling through his phone and paying her little mind.

And the longer she stares the more overwhelming he seemed, and his presence just continues to fill the room, suffocating her.

So her eyes dropped back down to stare at her lap.

Meanwhile, Horizon was checking his messages and the Hero Network, not so patiently waiting for his leads to come in. Hoping to finally clear out some of the cases he's working on simultaneously.

'Great, now all I can do is sit on my hands and wait,' Horizon sighs and puts down his phone.

"I just wanted you to know," Jiro finally speaks up, causing him to look across toward her.

"To know what?"

"That I don't have a crush on you anymore," Jiro says, a quiver of uneasiness in her voice. "I just want you to know that. So we don't have any attraction between us now…" 5

"Uh-huh…right," Horizon raises a brow beneath his visor, not sure what the fuck was going on anymore. "Is that what you came here to tell me?"

"Y-yes!" Jiro nods a few times. "That's what."

"Well, um, alright," Horizon awkwardly nods. "Well if you're done convincing yourself, movie time?"

"Excuse me?" Jiro couldn't tell if she was more embarrassed, insulted, or annoyed. "What do you mean?"

"Well it's pretty obvious, right?" Horizon asks. "If you really didn't care you'd just move on, like a normal person. But you're here, going out of your way to say it to me, to hopefully burn whatever bridge you think you have, to remove the option. Because you know, for some idiotic reason that I can't understand, you still have an interest in me."

"N-No!" Jiro's voice cracks, but she continues as if nothing happened. "I just figured I should make things clear so there isn't anything weird between us. Especially after Momo told me what you said to her, the night before the summer camp got attacked."

"Mhm, and that's all still true. I've got too much bullshit on my plate to deal with relationship stuff on top of that."

"Good," Jiro agrees. "Me too, between training for the Provisional License Exams next year, studying, and anything else UA will throw at us, I can't--" and she rambles out a long list of nonsense Horizon couldn't care any less about.

But while that was going on that he was looking her up and down, ' she's cute, very cute. And talking to her isn't boring…could be fun. Oh, what the hell, fuck it, what's the worse that can happen…' 32

Seeing her caught up in her own ramblings Horizon interrupts, "this is a good look for you, you do know that, right?"

Jiro freezes, staring wide-eyed before blinking a few times. "What?"

"You zoned out, started rambling. Talking as if nobody was watching you, I think that fits you, that's when you're at your best… too bad most people will never see it, but I'm glad I did."

Jiro feels her face heating up, heart racing once again, but before her lips can part to give a response her mind couldn't properly consider-- 1

"And for the record, never said I wasn't attracted to you, in some way atleast," Horizon shrugs.

Her eyes open wide as a strong pink blush breaks out on her cheeks, her breath hitches and her face contorts with a mix of emotions.

"Anyway," he once again stops her response. "Enough of this, let's get downstairs, they're almost done setting up."

Jiro's mouth was moving but no words could be formed, and before she knew it Horizon got up and gestured toward the door.

And now she's walking down the hallway beside the boy she couldn't make any sense of.

By every metric she thought governed her life he was… repulsive, to say the very least.

But then seeing him in action completely flips that on its head, the way he operates in the field was admirable to her eyes. 2

Atleast to what she's seen thus far.

When she and Momo had this discussion after the summer camp they both agreed that these were the reasons they were interested in him. But she'll admit her best friend is much more enraptured by him than Jiro herself is.

For better or worse, her friend is a Horizon fangirl. 1

"So what kind of movies do you watch?" Jiro asks, and mentally berates herself for only being able to say that.

"I don't really watch movies," Horizon says. "My life is so exciting that they're rather boring now. What about you?"

"I prefer music."

"The rocker girl with earphone jacks for ears and musician parents is all about music…very on-brand of you."

"Yeah, what about it?" Jiro grits out, getting defensive as they approach the elevator. 3

Horizon hits the button, "no need for the attitude, I never said it was bad."

"Sorry, I've just heard a lot of jokes about it in middle school. Part of being a Pro Hero is to not just be part of the 'family business' or whatever."

"So a rebellious phase," Horizon chuckles as they step into the elevator. "But sometimes being like your parents isn't bad, like me, I'm a perfect combination of mine after all."

"Doctor and soldier, right?" Jiro asks as they begin descending to the ground floor.

"Yes my father was a doctor, but my mother was a polymath, and fighting was just one thing she studied."

"Polymath?" 4

"Means you know a lot, about a lot of different things," he says as they exit the elevator, stepping onto the ground floor. 1

As they step into the main common area the entire room goes silent as they stare at Horizon.

He looks around, seeing the furniture pushed aside. Blankets and cushions on the floor with students spread out on them.

Most of students of classes 1A and 1B were gathered here, with a projector displaying the movie onto a large wall. And some speakers set up for the audio, courtesy of Momo.

'I guess more than just Yui and Juzo came over…' Horizon thinks as he sees the crowd staring at him. "What?"

They all immediately go back to their chatter and gathering their snacks.

"I need to go check on Mina," Jiro says. "She was supposed to make some snacks for me too."

"Have fun," Horizon says as she rushes off.

Watching her walk away Horizon takes in the view, "so this is what I do when I'm bored…maybe I need another hobby."

"A hobby?" Momo asks from beside him, causing him to turn toward her. 1

"I was just thinking aloud, nothing to worry about."

"Oh, alright, I saved you a spot with us if you want," Momo gestures to a blanket where her, Jiro, Tokoyami, and Juzo would be sitting.

"Sure," Horizon follows her over to his seat, but does a quick Scan. Finding Sero and Yui up in Sero's room. Just talking, for now, hopefully. 3

As they're waiting for the last group of people to finish making their snacks, Horizon looks to his side at Momo.

She was to his right with Juzo to his left. Since they were much shorter Jiro was sitting in front of him, with Tokoyami beside her.

"So was this your idea?" Horizon asks Momo.

"No actually," She says, then gestures to Mina and Toru, who they'd gotten used to seeing visible by now. "They actually thought of this, I had planned to spend the night studying."

"How'd they come up with this?"

"It's the last day of summer," Juzo says. "Well more like the last day of our vacation, the next semester starts tomorrow after all. Too late for us to go out and do normal teenager things, so they wanted to bring some normal into UA."

"Mhm," Momo collects a massive bowl of popcorn from Uraraka. "This is a good way to help everyone relax, atleast for one night. After all the experiences of this past summer, all the training and studying. I admit my brain needed this relief."

"Everyone did," Jiro says from her stop in front of Horizon.

"I'm more surprised this workaholic took a night off," Juzo says, gesturing to Horizon.

Everyone knew Horizon spent most if not all of his time working, so he earned some nods of agreement.

"It's not that rare for me to have fun and relax."

"Yes, it is," Jiro says. "Dude you talk about how uptight other people are, but you almost never stop working."

"Mmm, well, honestly I'm only here because I'm waiting for some info from my sources."

"Exactly our point," Momo says. "That can't be healthy. As much as I admire your desire to help as many people as possible, you also have to take care of yourself." 1

"I'm fine Momo. Besides, if life gets too stressful I'll figure out a way to relax, it's not like I don't know how to have fun. But these next 4 years are all about me being the best I can be, I've already considered them dead years in terms of my life."

Jiro spins around in her seat to face him, "so you just plan to only work for the next 3 years, nothing else?"

"I might have space for one or two things, but I have a schedule to keep, any suggestions?" he sees her blush slightly, and senses Momo looking at him from the corner of her eyes, a gentle smile on her lips.

"I barely have the next month planned," Tokoyami says bitterly. "Quite commendable that you have your life planned that far ahead."

"A goal without a plan is a dream, and dreams are for losers. You have to plan ahead and do the work to get the life you want."

Momo nods in agreement, but Jiro rolls her eyes, "and there it is, we almost went through one conversation without you calling someone a loser…almost."

"Most people are losers Jiro, there is a reason most people can't be a top Pro Hero, right?"

"Just because it's true doesn't mean you can't be nice about it," Jiro says. "You're already perfect at most things, if you learned to be a bit sweeter with people it would make it complete."

"The movie is starting," Momo interrupts them, prompting Jiro to turn back around as Toru dims the lights slightly.

And Momo scoots just a bit closer than necessary to Horizon… 13

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 166: CHAPTER 162(Self Diagnosis) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--5:40 AM, 1A Dorms…

The basement of each UA dorm building hosts a gym for its residents.

And as expected of a gym for super-humans, the devices and equipment are much more extreme than most of the nation would have access to.

Most people have no interest in training Quirks because they aren't legally allowed to use them, so why bother training a muscle you can never use?

But at the moment Horizon was laying on a bench, aiming to check his personal bench-press record.

The machine was a padded solid metal rectangle rising out of the floor, on either side were large square metal columns.

Perfectly attached to a plate that connects the columns and hangs above the bench, like a massive hydraulic press.

But instead of crushing whatever was on the bench, its role is to resist the pushing force acting upward upon it.

Wearing his body glove and visor, Horizon almost appeared to be in some sort of armor. The image of a muscular and tall person, covered head to toe in a skin-tight white outfit, with blue accents and grooves between the very thin reactive gel pads atop his muscles.

Allowing anyone who sees this to easily imagine the physique beneath it.

Aside from that, his new 'watch', that Mei designed for him, which usually sits under his Rolex, is on his wrist.

Now laying on the bench he takes a deep breath before placing his hands flat on the metal plate above him.

"C'mon," he mutters as he starts pushing upward.

He feels the device move freely at first, then a few inches more it becomes difficult to move.

"Mmmm!" he growls as he pushes harder and harder, feeling his arms burning as his muscles are at their limits.

"NnnAH!" he finally relents, bringing his arms down and away from the device. Both his arms hang at his sides as he takes a deep breath, feeling like fire was coursing through them.

The device stays in place above him for a moment before it slowly descends to the starting position he had set.

While it does that he gets up and paces back and forth, focusing on his breathing as he activates his Quirk.

Now making a Room only a few meters wide, just enough to cover the device.

Booster Shot!

The healing energy begins flowing through his body, focused on his arms which immediately begin to feel much better.

Walking over to the machine's control console, he sees his new record, 1.5 Tons -3000lbs/1360KG. 17

"Ok, so I can lift a car and my top sprinting speed is almost 50 mph 80kmph," he cracks his neck. "Now to test the Quirk…again." 1

Resetting the machine he gets back into position, both hands raised to press against the device.

Now fully healed and recovered he takes a deep breath, leaving his Room active as he begins pushing.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He immediately breaks past 1 Ton.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He hits 2 Tons with surprising ease.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Now he sees blue energy vapor being released from his arms, thin like a light morning fog.

'Just keep pushing!'

BOOSTER SHOT!

He hits 3 Tons, doubling his standard record.

BOOSTER SHOT!

As he hits 3.2 Tons, 6400lbs/ 2450kgs. 9

BA-DUM!

His vision goes black for a moment as excruciating pain wracks his mind. He feels as if someone was trying to split his skull in two and rip out his brain with their bare hands.

Then his Quirk shuts off without his consent. 11

His hands leave the device as he clutches his head, moments like these are why most of UA's machines replaced free weights.

So nobody would accidentally drop the weight of an SUV on themselves while training.

"Fuck!" Horizon yells out, and the pain subsides moments later as he gets up, leaning on the metal column for support as he feels blood flowing out of his nose, ears, and eyes.

Taking a minute to compose himself he stands normally and raises his left arm to look at his forearm. With a flick of his arm, the watch Mei created for him projected a hologram onto his inner forearm, displaying his biometrics for the past few hours.

He immediately begins looking for the moment his Quirk went wild.

But doesn't see anything too unusual in his scans from that moment.

"Heart good, organs fine, blood sugar is fine, then wha--" he fiddles with it a bit to look at the particular brain scans. "Abnormal brain activity?" he sits back on the bench while reading the data.

"Left and right hemispheres had different levels of brainwaves?" Horizon tilts his head slightly, having genuinely never seen anything like that before in himself. 10

This was different from his previous tests. As he gains more power by constantly improving his Quirk, the effect becomes more and more apparent.

"That doesn't make any sense, the integration was done perfectly, they should all just be Hand Of God already."

He delves even deeper into the scans, then displays a holographic 3D map of his brain from the device.

The display had pieces of the left half in red and sections of the right half in blue.

And it knocked the wind out of Horizon.

"What the fuck…" he mutters quietly, drawing a blank as he tries to come up with any sane solution.

While it took Dr. Ujiko Garaki, a century to solve this problem. 2

It now hovered before Horizon who's only had it for not even 5 weeks. 1

And while he would naturally flip through his incredible amount of potential solutions. Combining his Quirk, medical expertise, and experience.

There wasn't anything that seemed viable.

The solution Dr. Garaki came up with was to remove the consciousness from the subject, and upon waking them up fully, all the Quirks would harmonize for a mutually beneficial objective.

But he was a mad scientist of the highest order, even sacrificing his own grandchildren to create Nomu for his master. 3

And since Horizon's subject is himself, he naturally would never think of that solution, and even if he did, he would never commit to it.

Atleast that's what Dr. Ujiko thinks.

He expects the young man to be blinded by his own genius and pushed to insanity by this issue.

But Horizon was far too cold and logical for that.

"So I can't do a partial lobotomy," he says. "If I do that then it could really fuck up my Quirk, and technically there isn't anything wrong with my brain so I can't just use Hand of God to manipulate my body and fix it.

This isn't a physical medical problem, it's something more than that," he ponders for a few minutes before his shoulders slump down. "Fuck…"

He sits back in disbelief as he can't think of a solution.

For the first time in his life, there is no clear path to progress forward.

He just sits there looking at the diagram, hoping for some random idea to pop into his mind.

But he gets nothing, Horizon doesn't have the answer. 5

There are many people, including Dr. Ujiko, who'd be willing to pay a lot of money or do bad things just to get a glimpse of this moment.

Especially after constantly hearing everyone, even his dear friend and master All For One put this one man on a pedestal.

But aside from All For One, he's the only person who knows exactly why that's being done.

With a loud annoyed groan, Horizon mutters "I hate this hero-villain bullshit," to himself as he gets up.

Walking back to the control console he's looking down at the device on this arm, taps a few options, and opens the connection to his phone.

"None of my sources have anything yet, well isn't that just freaking great," he says in an annoyed tone.

Truthfully that's exactly why he's down here. He hardly ever does a proper workout anymore, and even so he'd save it until after school when he's training.

But this morning instead of following up on information his sources gathered, putting together cases and organizing his work between the Hero work and the Miracle Ward.

This particular morning he just couldn't focus because of how annoyed he was.

Having nothing to do but sit on his hands and wait, something he's always hated. Feeling powerless to guide his own life.

He hated it, so he came down here to blow off some steam.

Only to get even more annoyed.

Shutting down the hologram he taps the console, resetting the device before he walks over to the special heavy bags to practice his striking.

Because while his form is perfect, it was therapeutic, and the only form of therapy he needed.

According to himself, that is.

But before that, he sees an option to add his score to the leaderboard for this machine, which means it must have made it into the top 3.

Tapping the console he sees the current rankings.

Deku- 7 Tons 14,000lbs/ 6350kgs. 1

Shoji- 0.85 Tons 1700lbs/ 771kgs.

Red Riot!- 0.7 Tons -1400lbs/ 635kgs.

Horizon isn't surprised by these records, or the names use to record them, not in the least. If Sato had lived to see the dorms, he's sure that Sato would be a close 3rd place behind himself and Deku.

"Well, it's no surprise you're too strong and fast, physically fast atleast, for me to ever hope to match. You'll be stronger than All Might eventually so it's expected."

He considers entering his own record, if only to show Deku and the others that while he doesn't focus on his physical capabilities often.

Even in that regard, he's well above average.

To show that there isn't anything that he can't compete at, atleast at the moment, even against those whose entire power is their physicality.

But he moves his finger across to the 'rest' button and clears his record.

"I don't need Kirishima asking me to join them in the gym, and I think I'll leave my physical power as a pleasant surprise for now," Horizon says as he walks off to the punching bag area of the gym… 5

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 167: CHAPTER 163(To-Do List) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START-- 1

BAM!

Horizon's fist smashes into the super-heavy bag in the dorm gym. Another in a legion of blows as he tries and fails to clear his head.

Now that he has no choice but to return to UA as he waits for his sources to report back, he's forced to sit on his hands and do nothing.

A torturous task for any man with real ambition. 3

BAM!

The knuckles of his body glove connect once more, the blue padded areas protecting his hands like any fighting glove would, atleast from the impact.

BAM!

He thinks about all the villains he's captured these past few weeks. All the accolades and adoration he's earned.

He was making good progress.

No, excellent progress. It seemed as if everything was conspiring to work in his favor. 1

First, the USJ attack placed him in the spotlight, allowing his name to be widely known. Acting as his first appearance of sorts in the spotlight, a perfect start to a promising career.

Then he dominates the Sports Festival, using it to draw even more interest and attention by revealing his Quirk as Mystery Class.

A realization that the public would have soon discovered, but getting ahead of such things is always useful. And the more they know about his Quirk, the scarier it gets.

BAM!

One extra hard hit causes the punching bag to swing a bit too far. Horizon reaches out and holds it, keeping it steady in place to reset his practice.

BAM!

He continues running through where he currently stands in the world.

Refocused after losing his cool for a second, for the moment he thought about meeting All For One.

His identity is still well protected, but having a villain know about his situation isn't good, especially with someone like All For One.

But All For One needs him, so they both have reason to maintain their agreement. 2

And as for the other two who know.

Nezu, the man who saved his parents, not for free by any stretch of the imagination.

BAM!

'He's still intent on making me into some golden-hearted hero, never gonna happen. But atleast he understands his limits…not like that woman.'

BAM!

Horizon delivers an extra hard hit as he thinks about Pantu.

'That damn woman is determined to convince me to stay in Japan as a Hero. Trying to learn about my interests and what I like at that party, I wonder what the next bribe will be. Maybe she'll offer me a political position…but being a top-ranking Pro already gives me that.'

BAM!

'Once she doesn't break the contract… because if she uses them as leverage, I'll stop being so fucking nice!' 4

BAM!

The thick reinforced chain holding the bag buckles as it swings and nearly hits the ceiling.

Horizon reaches out and catches it on the downswing, grunting slightly as the 2000lbs slams into his hands.

He pauses for a moment, taking a breath to calm himself down, then continues practicing.

'Just keep walking forward, right dad?'

He easily slips back into practicing.

'Just keep working, don't think about all the bullshit…'

BAM!

'I just need to pick some people to heal in the Miracle Ward this weekend, the news always likes hearing about that charity crap…'

BAM!

'Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a lead on Wolfram. Because of course all his files get deleted globally a few days after I-Island…just my luck the Shields are being hunted by a man who doesn't exist…' 3

BAM!

'And the main issue, Shigaraki, and his losers. I don't have any damn leads because they didn't tell the people we captured anything. Just a bunch of sheep that were blindly following, pathetic…'

BAM!

'They've been too quiet lately, sources say he's preoccupied with gaining control of the underworld instead of waging war on society, that gives me a breather, until I have to fight whatever new army he's recruiting…'

BAM!

'Twice, that's my main target. I crush him and they lose their S-Rank threat. But to do that I also need to take down Kurogiri, preferably before anyone else gets a chance, even if I doubt they could…'

BAM!

'Kurogiri doesn't allow people to escape if I'm there to cancel his Warp Gate, but he's a nightmare for anyone else, and if Shigaraki is really collecting allies…'

BAM!

'They could make a deal with Wolfram, and if I'm not at UA Kurogiri can just warp Machia' into this place to hand over the Shields…'

BAM!

'Then Shigaraki gets a Quirk amplification device, and with his freaking Decay of all things, a nightmare scenario if I'm not there…' 4

BAM!

Horizon recounts everything once more, making his list of objectives, then reassuring himself of the end goal.

'Roughly 3 years. In just under 3 years my Provisional License becomes a full Pro Hero License. Then a few months after that in November, I get announced as the #1 Hero on the billboard ranking at the annual event…'

BAM!

'Then with that much done, the contract more than complete. And Pantu makes me some desperate offer to keep me around even after my parents are back, but since they'll probably be banished from Japan to cover her ass, I won't be staying either…'

BAM!

'To think the easiest part of this whole plan, is to train a team. Showing the world that I'm a trusted and respected leader of Heroes. Getting me a few steps ahead of even some high-ranking Pro Heroes…'

BAM!

'Fuck knows nobody trusts people like Mt. Lady or Sir Knight to lead a team, fucking morons. But training Sero is a pleasant hobby and distraction, he's better than I thought. Should be passable within a year at this rate…' 2

BAM!

'Do I want to add another person to the team? Hmm, but Sero is easy to mold, he's determined to make this Pro Hero shit work out. And he's not too opposed to violence when he thinks it's deserved, that's useful…'

BAM!

'Most of my classmates are too soft, bunch of pussies. Even Bakugo, for all his bravado and hot air, he's a little bitch deep down. It's like a Deku wrapped in barbed wire, and he's far too loud, I don't need that constant walking migraine around me…' 9

BAM!

'Whatever, I can always see how people develop and decide if training another person is necessary next year. I've got enough to do right now. Hmm, and speaking of things to do, I need to be careful with Ryuko…'

BAM!

'I think she's getting too attached, should have known she couldn't be trusted to treat it as a summer fling. But she's fun, no harm in keeping her around for just a bit longer, atleast for now…' 4

BAM!

'And on top of all that, I need to solve whatever the hell is wrong with my Quirk, discretely. All For One hasn't spilled that secret. And he won't if he wants me to play along, he's smart enough to know that. Word gets out of something like that and suddenly everything falls apart for me, and I'll have to kill him for that…'

BAM!

Horizon's fist slams into the bag, hitting it hard enough that it slams into the ceiling, cracking the concrete as the chain snaps. 1

The bag falls to the floor, cracking it and rolling a few times till it stops against the wall.

Thankfully unlike his bags at home, these weren't sand but a tough special foam, made to be heavy and durable.

Perfect for Power Types to use while training at UA.

Looking at the bag in its new resting spot, Horizon glances up at the broken chain and shakes his head.

"Still need to get used to, this," he flexes his hand, feeling his fingers not even the slightest bit numb. His new unconscious healing was still a bit strange.

Mostly because he doesn't get hurt. In fact, only All For One has ever managed to really hurt him, when he's putting his back into a fight that is, and now he's even stronger than before. Therefore he doesn't have any real-world testing for it.

Taking a few deep breaths he calms down, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, 'too bad every time I try to draw on any significant amount of power, my head feels like someone is pounding nails into it.' 4

Thinking about that he growls aloud, recalling the pain.

'Its probably an acclimation problem, brain isn't used to processing that much energy and information, it'll sort itself out eventually,' he reminds himself, hence why he hasn't been spending all his time in his operation room trying to solve this. 5

He's already tried everything, run every simulation, now his last option was to simply wait.

"Well, guess that's it for this morning," he says quietly. "No more things to add to my to-do list."

"Is everything ok?"

He turns around to see Momo approaching him, with a thin sheen of sweat on her body. Wearing a baggy t-shirt and pair of running shorts.

'Well, alright, maybe on more thing…' 12

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 168: CHAPTER 164(Insufficient Clearance) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I'm fine," Horizon says, looking Momo up and down, seeing her glance between him and the heavybag across the floor. 1

"Are you sure, you don't have to be perfect all the time you know," Momo says.

"I'm fine, just got a bit distracted," Horizon says, walking over to the bag.

He takes a look at the chain at the top of it and sighs.

"Did you break it?"

"Not permanently, Power Loader will just attach a new chain, it'll be fine before this evening," he shrugs.

"You've been hitting it since I got here, I've never seen you down here before," Momo says as he walks back over to her.

Her eyes trailed over his body for a bit longer than intended, which he noticed but did not react to.

"I must have been more distracted than I thought, didn't even notice anyone else was here."

"Is something that important on your mind?" Momo had genuine concern in her voice, but was also a bit worried for everyone.

It's an open secret in Japan and especially 1A, that Horizon is privy to the top villain information in the country. He's on call as support if a top villain shows up. So if he has reason to be worried, it's possible everyone should be very, very worried.

"I don't like waiting," Horizon says. "You don't have to be worried, I just have some people collecting information for me, and I'm here, waiting."

"Oh I see, you'd rather be out there helping people. But instead, you're stuck here just waiting for other people." 5

"Pretty much, and this," he gestures to the heavy bag, and some of the others hanging from the ceiling in this area. "Helps me clear my head, usually I'd workout at home or in Tokyo, then train my Quirk at UA…but something about striking practice clears the mind."

Momo gives him a curious look, and he could almost hear the gears turning in her head, "how does it work since you're always wearing th--" she cuts herself off. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry that's quite rude of me!"

"It's fine," he says. "I don't sweat, get tired, or get worn down. It takes a lot atleast. Working out for a few hours like this won't really do much."

"Oh, I see. Wait, a few hours?" she looks at the clock on the wall. "But it's only 6 AM, and the movie finished at almost midnight--"

"Don't worry about it," Horizon says. "But what about you, do you always work out in the mornings?"

"Oh, no, but this morning I just felt like I needed it."

"Oh, adding in a bit more to the workout. Smart move."

"Actually, I came down here this morning because I've been feeling anxious about--"

'FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! Really not in the mood for any of this emotional crap…' 9

"--the second semester starting today," Momo says, completely oblivious to how little Horizon cared. "I doubt you'd understand, but over the summer…I failed to save someone."

"Was it someone important to you?"

"Uh, no, not particularly."

"Then no, can't relate at all."

"Well, it was at a party, and they tried to take him as a hostage. I tried to help but then he got shot, and they had guns, and I just…there were too many people there, and I just had to let them take him…"

Momo already had small tears streaming down her face, and beneath his visor Horizon had a look of genuine disgust and disinterest on his face. 9

'These people are the fucking worst,' Horizon thinks as he rolls his eyes. 5

"Well, all you can do is train harder, so next time, you'll be ready," Horizon says. "I held back once when I shouldn't have, and it cost me, that's the mistake I'll never repeat. So I guess this is yours."

Momo sniffles for a moment, then makes a tissue to wipe her tears, "I suppose you're right, I just have to get stronger, then I can protect everyone."

"Mhm," Horizon nods along. "Look, comparing yourself to people isn't healthy, just focus on yourself. And definitely never compare yourself to me, I've trained all my life for this kind of work, and you've just started out."

"Right," Momo nods and gives him soft smile. "So, care to help me see how far the distance between us is?" she gestures to the ring in this underground gym.

"Oh, right, you lean toward close combat, right?"

"Mhm, I've been training a lot with Uraraka and Ojiro."

"Right, but you can make guns…I mean swords, since you've got those laws about what you can and can't make."

"Yes but those are a bit too-- I mean, swords are cool. I mean yours is cool! You're cool! I mean, ugh! But it's just…blood." 1

"They're villains, but fine if you rather the gentle approach. Just don't get too comfortable with close-range fighting, you can make anything you want, use that. Play your game, don't play theirs. Because if you're fighting someone like me."

He places his hand atop her head, ignoring the light blush, then raises it 7 inches to the top of his.

"You're still about half my weight, you'll probably need more than a staff if some psycho who doesn't care about his own health rushes you. So use something ranged or just stab him."

"I still don't feel comfortable with those kinds of weapons, but I suppose that's what training is for, I'll mention it to Mr. Aizawa when we get to class." 2

"Or you can get permission for guns," Horizon shrugs. "I'm sure he can figure something out."

"Well perhaps, maybe I can use rubber b--"

"MOMO!" Mina screams out as she enters the gym, wearing some yoga shorts and a sports bra matching her pink skin. She does a small jog up to them as Toru separates from her to start warming up. 1

"Oh, good morning Mina," Momo says.

"How come you're here this morning?" Mina asks as she approaches them, then her eyes land on Horizon, and a mischievous grin forms on her lips.

Momo's breath hitches, already having endured some teasing alongside Jiro for simply sitting beside Horizon last night, but now Horizon was here to hear it himself.

"Sorry for interrupting the workout date cuties," Mina says.

"I was actually just leaving," Horizon says, catching both girls off guard as he doesn't bother correcting them. "I sense Bakugo, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Deku on the way down…can't imagine I'd get a quiet gym with them here."

"I'm sure you'll have lot of mornings with your darlin--"

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps away before Mina can even finish, and a moment before Momo roughly slaps a hand over her mouth.

"CRAP!" Eraser yells as his car swivels on the mostly empty road, leaving UA. But heading out of Musutafu, toward the south. 2

A moment later he steadies the vehicle and pulls over.

"What are you doing?" he turns around, facing Horizon who was now sitting in the back seat.

Horizon was still only wearing the body glove and visor.

"How did you warp here?" Yagi asks from the front seat, "there wasn't anything in the back seat."

"I'm familiar with most of Musutafu, don't need to swap with anything," Horizon says.

"And why are you here?"

"Good question, but my question is, if I've been charged with guarding this cripple," he gestures to Yagi. "Then why the fuck is he leaving UA without telling me?"

"That matter is confidential," Eraser says. "And we'll be back this afternoon, hopefully before classes are out."

Horizon turns to look at Yagi.

"All For One finally agreed to speak with me," Yagi says. "We're on the way to Tartarus, you haven't been cleared to come with us by the Commission."

"Ugh," Eraser facepalms and faces forward, leaning back in the driver's seat. "What part of this being classified didn't you understand?"

"What? It's not like Nezu wasn't gonna tell him. He'd know by the end of the day I'm sure," Yagi says.

"True, if something happens with potato face and he breaks out, I'm the guy they'll send to put him in the ground." 1

"Honestly I don't know why he hasn't been executed yet," Eraser says.

"I'll add it to the list of things to ask him," Yagi says.

"It's classified," Horizon says. "But they've been studying him, trying to figure out any weaknesses all the Nomu share, or maybe to solve a method of reversing them."

"But aren't the Nomu just corpses?" Eraser asks.

"Mostly, but during the last raid Endeavor encountered one that was talking, well, trying to. All it had was a 'Turtle' Quirk, and it wasn't anything special, but its an early test run for something, most likely."

"It had a semblance of consciousness," Yagi says.

"Yeah, so the person wasn't entirely dead in there. Central Hospital is tasked with the Nomu reversal project, alongside Dr.Shodai Garaki of Jaku General and their research board." 1

"And you?"

"I don't have clearance…but I've seen some of the documents, that's how I know this much," Horizon says. "It's not impossible to reverse the Nomu, if it has a consciousness. But at best it'll have a half-life, if so much, depending on its intelligence of course. And that's not a life worth living, or saving."

"I don't believe their families would disagree," Yagi says.

"Not my problem, I've got enough crap to deal with, picking up the slack for all the Paper Heroes in this country, call me if anything goes wrong, and don't let this one die," he gestures to Yagi.

And with that Horizon warps into his dorm room, to get prepared for the day.

Eraser just shakes his head as he gets ready to drive off, "I know I'm not supposed to say this, especially about students. But for the future Symbol of Peace, he's--"

"A jerk," Yagi says. "But he's got all the time he needs at UA to soften up. Nezu did say he's here to learn to play with others, not for the actual education or training." 2

"That's a lot more polite than what I was going to say, and is he usually this mean to you?"

"In the wake of my failures, the pieces have been left for him to clean up," Yagi says. "With how much pressure I've added to his life I'm surprised he doesn't outright hate me," he chuckles sadly. 1

"And less stress on Midoriya, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yagi says. 1

"You're a bad liar, and more people than you realized think you're trying to make that kid into the next you in some way. And you've got Bakugo right there next to him."

"Oh, well I hope you don't have a problem with that, since they are your students."

Eraser continues driving forward, "honestly, think you can take Ashido and Toru too? That'll be all the usual troublemakers off my hands. I'd ask you to take Horizon too, but, Nezu has that under control, hopefully…" 1

"Uh, sorry, I won't really be that good at training those Quirks, maybe give them to Midnight…" 6

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 169: CHAPTER 165(New Team Applications)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Wait so they're dating now?" Horizon asks.

He was currently in UA uniform his customized uniform with his logo at the back, sitting at his desk in the 1A classroom with his feet up on the table.

To his right, Sero is sitting on Tokoyami's desk as his friend plays with Counter Shock, passing energy from one palm to the next as they speak.

They were thankfully alone at the moment.

"Yeah," Sero says. "Apparently it's been since Kamino or something, I didn't really get many details from him." 1

"Ok, but why'd he even tell you?"

"Uh… Well, when I was talking to him on the phone I recognized her voice in the background asking him to come to bed," Sero chuckles nervously.

Horizon can't help but laugh, "so thats how you cracked the case of Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods, congrats. But did you get the details of their team for the work-study?"

"Yeah, Edgeshot was on a case last night so he called me instead, helps that I did my internship with him."

"What team details?" Horizon asks. "And I assume Kamui doesn't want anyone to know he's dating Mt. Airhead." 2

"Pretty much, he says it's better if Heroes appear single, easier for young heroes to build a fanbase like that."

"True, that's what I'm doing." 1

"Yeah, and as for the team stuff. He was mostly giving me instructions for where I'll be meeting them this weekend. Apparently they're working a case up north."

"So you won't be in Tokyo at the Edgeshot Agency?"

"Not yet," Sero says. "He's tracking some weapon smugglers right now and it took him out of Tokyo. Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods will join us when it's time to kick some butt."

Playing with the electricity jumping from one palm to the next, Horizon closes his hands and the current cuts off.

"What's wrong?" Sero asks.

"Just got a notification from the Hero Network," he taps his visor. "Some morons are in a high-speed chasing, the cops are pushing them toward Musutafu."

"Toward you."

"Guessing that's why they gave me a heads up. They probably put together that I'm back at UA since it is the first day of school after summer."

"And it's the first time that you would have not been on the news for an entire day," Sero says. "You're a very well-known workaholic, and then you wonder why people think you're a cyborg."

"Ugh, so sick of those rumors…"

"Hey if I didn't know better, I'd think something similar. Maybe if your visor didn't cause your voice to come off a bit mechanical."

"It's part of the charm," Horizon says as he puts his hands back together.

He pulls them apart, forming a tether of blue electricity between them which he plays with, as one would play with a rubber band.

"Yeah yeah, clean and efficient," Sero mutters. "Anyway, are you gonna head back to Endeavor's Agency and actually spend some time learning from him this semester?"

"I might, but I don't see any reason to. I don't think I can really learn to be as efficient from watching him, I just need experience in knowing what to expect in my area," Horizon says.

"Or you need an entire office of people feeding you information."

"Not a Hero Agency, can't do that," Horizon says. "Also the Commission probably won't appreciate me suddenly leaving Minato Tokyo, Endeavor already has Saitama Tokyo under control so me going there won't do much in comparison."

"Oh right, you're the main hero for Minato…guess they can't just have you overlap with other big heroes for the sake of efficiency."

"National stability and all that bullshit, I really hate all this red tape and nonsense."

"Well it's unavoidable when your existence causes people to stay in line," Sero shrugs. "Besides, Heroes are just fancy cops, that's what you always say, right?" 2

"Something like that."

"Well, this is part of it, taking orders, which I know you just love."

Horizon groans, "just until I'm the #1 Pro Hero, then I can do whatever I want…"

"You know, maybe you shouldn't say that. I mean, it's one of those things that only work when people who can't literally do whatever they want with nobody able to stop them say it," Sero says. "If someone didn't know you they could get a bit worried by you saying that." 1

"Most people don't need to be worried…" 1

Sero chuckles nervously, and before he could say another word the door at the front of the room opens.

"Yo Shinso, what's up?" Sero waves to their classmate. Shinso no longer had the bags under his eyes, and clearly had a bit of muscle on his previously frail frame. "You weren't at the movie night last night, Mina was asking about you?"

"You weren't there either from what the gossip says," Shinso says as he approaches them.

"Uh, yeah well, I was a bit tired so--"

"Everyone knows you were with Yui," Shinso says.

"Well, I mean, yo--" Sero's eyes go dull as his body relaxes, falling under Shino's Brainwashing.

"Take your seat and wait for class to begin," Shinso commands a he walks up to Horizon's desk, and Sero mindlessly obeys.

"How long does it last now?"

"Almost ten minutes," Shino says as he leans against Tokoyami's desk, facing Horizon.

"And I assume you want to talk about something," Shinso nods. "I'm done training you, you're Eraser's problem now."

"That's the problem."

"Huh," Horizon looks toward Shinso. "I figured Eraser Head is a great teacher for you…"

"He is, for the practical aspects, but I realize that saving people isn't enough for me."

"What?"

Shinso sighs. "I thought that becoming a Pro Hero, proving all those people who said I have a villainous Quirk wrong, I thought that'd be enough."

"But it's not?"

Shinso nods, "it's not."

"Oh my fucking god," Horizon groans. "Are you gonna give me a whole life story?" 4

"I want to be a top Pro Hero," Shinso keeps it short, not in the mood to be warped to the other side of the campus and have to walk 14km to class. "I need the entire world to know that there are no such things as villainous Quirks, and to do that, I need a lot of eyes on me."

"More eyes than being an underground hero would allow?"

"Mhm."

Horizon sighs, takes his feet off the desk, and turns to Shinso, "so you're going for gold instead of a participation trophy?"

"I never thought I'd really be here," Shino gestures to the classroom. "But since I'm here, why not prove to more than myself there are no villainous Quirks, but prove it to the world."

"And you want me to help by?"

"Doing what you did for this one," Shinso gestures to Sero. "He went from a nobody to 'Cellophane' after some training and a week in Tokyo with you. Now he's got hundreds of agencies sending him offers and news outlets begging him for interviews. He has eyes on him, and I need that if I'm to get my message out."

"Ok, so now I know what you want, and what's in it for me?" Horizon asks.

"A perfect example of why you're right," Shinso says. "That's what matters to you, right? Proving that you're right?" 2

"Mmm, about?"

"You made a grand speech during your interview, about how there are no villainous Quirks, about how society making those labels only breeds more villains. Having me by your side proves that you truly believe that, and would get a lot more people supporting you."

"Hmm," Horizon leans back for a moment. "Well, you aren't annoying like most of our classmates, useful Quirk, I've already spent some time training with you at the Summer Camp. But we'll have to do some real combat training now. You got your Provisional License right?"

"Yeah," Shinso says.

"What's the name?"

"Mindjack." 1

Horizon groans in response, "we'll have to change that. Try 'Simon', that'll work." 8

"Simon?"

"Simon says…" he sees Shinso's eyes widen in realization. "And if you're going to be a public hero, we need to spread misinformation about your Quirk. We can start a rumor about it being a telepathy Quirk that just needs you to make eye contact to work, that'll make villains cocky." 1

"That…actually makes a lot of sense."

"You also won't be competing in the next Sports Festival," Horizon says.

"Because of the loudmouth announcers?"

"Mhm, problem?"

"Nope, working anywhere near you will get me enough attention, so I won't need it."

"Alright, and do you have any requests for a work-study agency, or do you need to wait and apply this week with the others?"

"No I don't have any direct requests, and I probably won't get a good agency since I'm not well known, thanks to you…"

"Just bad luck you got matched against me," Horizon shrugs. "Have you talked this over with Eraser?"

"He recommended I speak to you about it," Shinso says. "He's still training me in his own combat techniques, but you're the person to talk to about popularity and branding."

"Well, I can't attach my reputation to a loser, so lets see how you do in a practical setting."

"What do you mean?" Shinso asks.

In response Horizon just snaps his fingers.

SHAMBLES!

Shiso is suddenly wearing his Hero Costume.

A most black costume with purple accents, sticking to Eraser Heads' ninja theme but clearly armored along the chest, back, and the back of his hands.

And on his face was a mask covering the bottom of his head, jet black and made of dozens of moving parts with two dials at the sides to adjust them.

Artificial Vocal Cords, Hero Support Equipment which allows him to use the dials for adjusting the pitch and depth of his voice to mimic almost any voice perfectly. 1

Made completely analog since his Quirk doesn't work through electronic speakers.

"Did you just change my clothes?" Shinso asks, mostly amazed and creeped out. "Can you please never do that again?"

"You'll get over it, besides, we don't have time to waste."

Horizon raises his hand once more, and reaches out, barely touching Shinso.

"Wai--"

"Shambles…" 1

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 170: CHAPTER 166(Team Tryouts)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 1

CHAPTER START--

SHAMBLES!

On a suspiciously empty highway leading into Musutafu, Horizon appears, still sitting on his chair. 2

Mindjack stands beside him, looking around clearly confused. 2

"What are we doing here?" he asks Horizon, seeing his classmate leaning back in his chair.

SHAMBLES! 2

Horizon warps a few feet to the side, placing himself in his seat toward the side of the road, leaving Mindjack standing in the middle lane of this three-lane highway.

"You plan to explain anything?"

"High-speed chase incoming," Horizon says as he points up the road. "They'll be here in less than a minute, try not to fuck it up."

"What is this, a tryout?"

"Pretty much, can't keep any dead weight around."

"Great," Mindjack sighs. "Put a guy with a vocal Brainwashing Quirk, to stop a high-speed chase."

Horizon takes out his phone, getting a message from Sero who just woke up.

"Your Quirk wore off, after almost 9 minutes, not bad," Horizon says.

"Told you, I've improved a lot."

"Uh-huh, now show me some more in-field practical applications," they hear and see the cars approaching, one car being chased by two police cars.

"How close are the cop cars to the villains?" Mindjack asks.

"100 Meters 330ft."

"Then they should stop before this bothers them," Mindjack reaches for the pouch behind his back, resting over the sheathe for the Tanto behind his waist. Exactly like Eraser Head's.

He takes out a handful of razor-sharp Caltrops and prepares to throw them.

"Caltrops? Classic…very classic, but effective." 1

"Why fix what's worked for thousands of years," Mindjack shrugs. 8

Seconds later the car comes racing down the highway, directly at Mindjack.

He raises a palm toward the car while holding Caltrops in the other.

"Stop the car and get out!" he yells, hoping one of them responds.

Instead of responding the one person in the car only speeds up, intending to run over the hero.

The man was so distracted that only at the last moment did he look to the side, seeing Horizon sitting on his classroom chair, casually watching this unfold.

The man's head turns to watch Horizon do nothing as he sped into where Mindjack stood.

But by the time he got there, Mindjack already dove out of the way, dropping Caltrops where he stood moments earlier.

POP!

The front tires are blown out causing the man's face to snap back to the front of the car.

"AHHHHH!" he screams as the car begins to swerve, slamming on the brakes and pulling the emergency brake.

The car skids for a while then comes to a stop, and the cops stop their cars just ahead of Horizon, stepping out and opening the doors, using them for cover as they draw their guns.

The villain hops out of his car with nothing but a pistol and his idiotic hopes of escaping this, using his vehicle for cover.

"Leave me alone!" the man screams, staying hidden on the other side of his car.

"Uh, sir?" One of the cops sees Horizon doing nothing and approaches him. "Are you here to help?"

"I'm supervising for now," Horizon gestures to Mindjack who was sprinting up to the scene.

He runs past the cops, "hold fire," he says over and over. "Nobody is going to get hurt, just let me deal with this."

The police officers glance at each other, having never seen this hero before, but since Horizon was with him they didn't bother to ask questions.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps in front of the police, appearing in his chair beside Mindjack who was also standing in front of the barricade of cars.

"Ok, this is your specialty, try not to get anyone killed…"

"That's the plan," Mindjack says.

Taking a deep breath he steadies his mind, then speaks loudly for the villain to hear him, nearly 100ft 30m away.

"If you surrender peacefully nobody has to get hurt!" Mindjack says.

They don't hear anything for a few seconds, then the sound of metal being crushed.

"Oh great…" Horizon says in a bored tone. "He's trying to fight."

"NghhAHHHH!" the villain's car suddenly flips through the air as he sends it tumbling toward the police barricade.

"Takt!"

Without moving Horizon catches it in mid-air, seemingly exerting no effort.

The police officers that dove for cover peeked out, feeling slightly idiotic for reacting like that, when they knew Horizon was sitting in front of them.

"Just give up!" Mindjack yells as he stands his ground, the villain who was not 10ft 3.04m rushes toward them. 1

"You give up!" the villain responds, and his body immediately freezes up.

"Brainwashing complete," Mindjack says.

"Took you long enough," Horizon says as he drops the car to the side of the road. "Wrap this up, class is about to start…"

"Deactivate your Quirk," Mindjack commands, and the man obeys, shrinking to his usual short self. "Lay on the floor, hands behind your back."

The man does exactly that.

"Officers, he's all yours, he won't be able to control his body so long and nobody hurts him, you've got a few minutes," Mindjack says. 1

One of the men looks toward Horizon, and receiving an approving nod he turns back to the other, "get the Iron Maiden, let's lock this guy up." 5

Within a minute the villain has a reinforced special metal alloy brace wrapped around his torso. Like a metal straight-jacket preventing him from expanding or using his arms as they wait for the armored transport unit to come to deal with him.

"Sorry but we can't stay here and wait for the armored unit," Horizon says as they're all standing around. "They should be here in a few minutes anyway…"

He walks up to the villain and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Counter Shock."

"NGH!"

The villain's body convulses as he collapses to the floor, completely blacked out.

"There, he won't be going anywhere, now, Simon, let's go…" 1

"It's Mindjack."

"Well, Mindjack is a stupid name, and it isn't catchy. You need something catchy and thematic, but also a bit tough and marketable." 4

"I'll think about it," Mindjack says as he sees Horizon sit back in his chair.

He walks up to Horizon who casually puts a hand on his arm.

"Have a good day gentlemen, and stay safe," he says to the cops. "Shambles."

Arriving back in the now full classroom, all eyes fall on Horizon and Mindjack.

SHAMBLES!

Shinso's Hero Costume is swapped with his uniform once again, and he gives Horizon an annoyed glance.

"Well, how'd I do?"

"It's a start," Horizon says. "We've got some work to do but yeah, I can make it work." 1

Shinso actually gives a small smile at that, nods, then walks to his seat on the other side of the room. 6

"What was that about?" Tokoyami looks to his left at Horizon.

"There was a car chase, and he went to stop it, that's all."

"But you went with him…" Momo speaks up from behind him. "Was it that bad?"

"I was just checking in on his progress, I did help him train during the Summer Camp after all."

"Well I guess that makes sense," Jiro, who was standing behind him at Momo's desk says. "Anyway, we were discussing what Mr. Aizawa probably has in store for us today, since its the first day and all."

"I'd think it's something extreme," Momo says. "Consider our first day at UA included the Quirk Apprehension Test, maybe another such test to mark our progress."

There was an excited spark in the classroom at that suggestion, most of the class wants to see how far they'd come since those 5 long months have passed.

As they all begin muttering Sero spins around in his seat, "what was that about earlier?"

"I'll explain during lunch, but we might have a new guest in the tower," Horizon says quietly.

Sero's eyes widen for a moment, then return to normal, "happened a lot sooner than I expected."

"Yeah, me too…"

After a few more seconds, Horizon sees Kirishima about to get up and start yelling in excitement and decides to cut this short.

"Shut up!" he silences the room. "Eraser and All Might aren't even here right now so we probably won't have anything like that until they're back, sit down and get ready for homeroom."

"Awe," Mina puts her head down in disappointment. "I was hoping to start this semester with fun, not boring classwork!"

"You need the book time more than anyone else Pinky."

"Well, I'm still hyped up!" Kirishima stands up and yells. "Today we learn more about the Work Studies and the Pros we'll be working for, it's gonna be awesome!"

The entire room begins clamoring, making theories, and sharing the heroes they hope they can work with.

A few minutes later the door slides open, and Midnight walks in with her hands behind her head, showing off her body for the students to see. 2

"Good morning my lovely darling students!" she gives them a dazzling smile, "and Horizon…" 1

"Tch, morning saggy…" 12

And the entire room falls silent, as if they could see the petty and vicious lightning sparking between Midnight and Horizon. 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 171: CHAPTER 167(Semester Planning)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 2

CHAPTER START--

"Look I think it makes sense," Sero says. "But honestly, how do you even make a logo for that name?"

As the lunch rush began in UA's cafeteria, Sero was sitting beside Horizon, warped here before most students even got out of class.

He was eating his large lunch, happily now. His muscles were more apparent now since he began training with Horizon, which he certainly appreciates, and certain others do as well. 2

Horizon wasn't eating anything this time, just scrolling through his phone and listening to the conversation.

And across from Sero, "I know it's a good name, but I'm already used to Mindjack," Shinso says.

"Yeah but you don't have a public image yet so it'll be easy to change it now," Sero explains. "Plus, 'Simon says', is a pretty cool line." 4

"More like a gimmick," Horizon says. "But those sell very well."

"Yeah, plus you don't really cause property damage so the people who pay us will like that."

"And I'm not working with anyone named Mindjack," Horizon says. "It sounds stupid." 3

Shinso just sighs and takes another bite of his lunch. "Simon it is then." 9

"Awesome, welcome to the team," Sero puts his hand out for a fist bump, but Shinso just looks at it, and ignores him. "Awe, gonna leave me hanging like that?"

"..." Shinso just continues eating.

Sero just drops his fist and continues eating, "great, now I've got two of them," he says as their usual lunch table is filled up. 2

Momo, Tokoyami, Jiro, and Shoji join them at their table, leaving one empty seat where Sato used to sit. 3

After a few more minutes of chatter, Sero notices Momo reading their new textbook at the table and winces.

"It's not a complicated book, right?" he asks. "I've already got enough trouble keeping up as it is right now!" he whines.

Most of the table looks over at her, and Momo suddenly feels a bit shy with all this attention. She looks up to see Horizon still playing with his phone and breathes a sigh of relief.

Then she perks up a bit, hoping to dazzle him with her initiative.

"Well," she shuts the book. "When Ms. Midnight announced this textbook would be moved from our second year to our first year I knew it would be a bit advanced.

But this is even more advanced than expected.

So I do recommend everyone starts reading ahead now before our first class on the subject next week. That way you won't be overwhelmed by any surprises during the class."

"Another demon to torment my soul before my dark nightly slumber," Tokoyami says, closing his eyes dramatically before biting into his apple. 9

"Yeah," Sero groans. "I already have to read crime reports, and the usual book, and my Quirk research…and now this too."

"What book is that?" Horizon asks.

"Oh, right," Momo frowns. "You spent this morning in Principal Nezu's office after that little issue with Ms. Midnight."

Everyone winces at that.

"Look, she's a horrendous bitch that doesn't know her place, and I'm always right, that's all, now get on with it." 1

Momo shakes her head in disapproval, "you know she warned me about getting close to you…"

"And yet you can't seem to keep away, strange how that works," he lifts his head to look at her, then turns slightly to see Jiro also staring at him, "I seem to have that effect on people." 1

"Let's focus on the book please," Momo says as he returns his attention to his phone. "The book is 'The lines and ethics of Quirks and Humanity,' it was meant to be studied during our second year but they decided to move it forward since some of us are already in the field." 2

"What's it about anyway?" Jiro asks.

"The lines between what is and what is not a person have been blurred since Quirks manifested, this book delves deeper into that issue."

"It's a good book," Shoji says. "I've read it a few times cover to cover…"

"Really?!" Momo lets a bit of her excitement show, "how co--" she cuts herself off as her eyes land on him. "Oh, right…"

"Yeah," Shoji raises his 6 arms. "I'm one of the people that blur the line between person and 'monster', so I had personal reasons to look into it."

"I see, has anyone else read it?"

"Yeah," Horizon says. "It's pretty much required reading globally for anyone in the medical field, but also I read all the textbooks we'd need for all the years at UA."

"Seriously," Jiro cringes at the thought of that. "What, did you have an entire summer to waste?"

"I was on a flight from Dubai to Italy actually, just read them all," Horizon shrugs. "Why else do you think I never take notes…or the fact that I don't even have a backpack. Only just the one book in my desk for classwork and exams."

Most of the table just share a look between each other, which Horizon notices.

"What?"

"Well," Jiro plays with her earlobes, "we all kind of assumed you had like…well, you know, in your head…"

"What, a brain?" Horizon asks. "I know not everyone in our class has one, but yes I do have a brain." 5

"A hard drive, dick," Jiro grits out, clearly annoyed by that last statement. 4

Sero immediately bursts out laughing, and the few people who weren't constantly glancing at their table to get a glimpse of Horizon join the others in looking at them.

"I hate that fucking rumor," Horizon mutters.

"Well that makes one of us, besides it not like it wouldn't make sense," Sero says as his laughter slowly stops.

"I underestimated how stupid people can be," Horizon says.

"Anyway, Yaomomo," Tokoyami speaks up. "Will you be hosting weekly study sessions this semester as well?"

"Well," Momo thinks about it for a moment. "I don't know what my schedule will be like, hopefully I get a Pro that hires me for the Work Studies program. If that's the case then I'll likely be spending two weekdays at their agency as well as weekends."

"But we'll be doing the same thing," Tokoyami says. "So we can all study together to keep up with the others."

"Oh man, this is gonna suck," Sero groans.

"Have you not been reading ahead already?" Shinso asks.

"I've been too busy swinging around Tokyo, then when I'm back at the tower it's just to sleep…"

"Oh yeah?" Jiro gives Horizon a sly look, "almost as if, say…you were trying to keep up with a robot?"

"I fucking hate it here," Horizon mutters as everyone has a laugh at his expense. "The study group sounds like a great idea, if you can peel his tape off of Yui…" 1

"I think I'll manage."

"OH!" Momo claps her hands together. "I should speak to Kendo about having her and some of her own classmates study with us!"

"Study group with Kirishima and Tetsutetsu… good luck with that," Horizon puts down his phone.

"I'll figure something out, but if you'd be so kind as to--"

"I'm not that kind of teacher," Horizon says. "Ask Juzo, he's good at teaching people that kind of thing. He's probably the most tolerable of the 1B people."

"Mud Man the teacher, strangely, it makes sense," Shoji says.

"He'll be working with Shinso for the Work Studies actually."

Shinso looks across at Horizon, clearly confused. "What are you talking about?"

Horizon raises his phone and shakes it a bit, "just got confirmation from Gang Orca, he'll send UA a request for you."

"Gang Orca?" Shinso's eyes widen. "You were just casually texting the #10 Pro Hero?"

"We've worked a few times since our first meeting."

"Since you beat him and Mirko up is what you mean," Jiro says. "He was actually who I'd hope to work with…but I didn't get my Provisional License so that'll have to wait."

"Makes sense, he's the top pro with sonic attacks," Tokoyami says. "That's a difficult Quirk to find a master for. But I suppose Present Mic is an alternative if needed."

"Ugh," Jiro rolls her eyes. "Don't put the cursed idea in my mind, he's soooo lame!"

"Sound quirk, likes music…birds of a feather the two of you," Tokoyami says.

"I'll pretend you didn't just assault my ears with that disgusting thought…"

As everyone is finishing up their lunch, Shinso zones out and just retreats into his own mind.

Thinking about what he just heard, that he'd be working with Gang Orca, the #10 Pro Hero.

'I've come a long way from my days in general studies, but I've still got a lifetime of work ahead of me,' he looks across at Horizon who was talking with Jiro about a concert nearby. 'Team Horizon…certainly has its uses.'

Shinso gives a soft smile.

And as if sensing some happiness in Shinso, Horizon swoops in to replace it with some pain. 5

"Simon," Horizon snaps him out of his daydream. "Let's go over your goals, and how much I need to increase your training, we start this evening…" 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 172: CHAPTER 168(Last Request)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Do you know what you're going to say to him?" Eraser asks Yagi.

Currently, they were sitting in his car in front of Tartarus's bridge.

At the moment there was no 'bridge', only pairs of pillars spaced out evenly. Made entirely of metal with massive turrets attached to them.

Spanning the 10km between the mainland and the large metal island in the open water.

The guards standing beside this area were heavily armed, always ready for a sudden escape attempt from the villains.

And even knowing these respected Pro Heroes were cleared for entry, the turrets never once aimed away from their heads.

"I just have some questions, about my master, and about her grandson," Yagi says.

And as he does, the bridge segments begin rising out of the water, sliding upwards as they're connected to the columns.

"The villain, Tomura Shigaraki, is what you mean, right?" Eraser gives him a side-eye.

Yagi sighs as they begin driving across the bridge, "I know, I know, but part of me feels like I should atleast try to speak to him before completely giving up on him."

"Good, just don't get tunnel-visioned on redeeming him, he's way past that." 1

"That, I agree with," Yagi says. "Besides, he's hunting him down already, it's only a matter of time before Shigaraki is locked in here too. But for now, let's just focus on today Aizawa, and thanks for coming with me."

"Right," Aizawa says as they drive the 10km to the main gate of Tartarus.

For the first time, Aizawa gets this close to the prison, seeing the 2km square structure, a small metal city in the open water.

All around the perimeter, the ocean was far too rough for most boats to survive them. Artificially made difficult to navigate by devices built into the side of the prison.

All 500 meters below sea level there were devices installed.

At the very top, they focus on making it almost impossible to approach the prison via boat.

And below that, they use sonics to give a painful sensation to any ocean life or Quirk users trying to approach underwater. Or crack open any submerged vehicles.

"I never appreciated how ridiculous this thing is," Aizawa says as they arrive at the main gate, and the metal wall extends almost 100 meters above them. And below them is a 100-meter drop into the raging sea.

"It may not be as tough as New Alcatraz, but in this day and age it's a necessity," Yagi says as the guards approach to scan them and the vehicle.

"Rumor says it's strong enough to contain you, that true?"

The guard nods as heavily armored vehicles with turrets and gunners fall into place around them, boxing them in as they take them inside the prison.

"That's the thing about Quirks like mine," Yagi says. "No matter how physically powerful you are, eventually technology will catch up, or atleast be able to lock you down."

"Or you'll meet a bad matchup."

"Mhm, if someone like yourself were a villain there isn't anything I could have done," Yagi admits.

"So they did test it against you?"

"They've taken my measurements and power limits many times over my career, as they do with all the top Pro Heroes or those with especially dangerous Quirks."

"And here I thought that was just a rumor."

"Pro Heroes are the only people allowed to push the limits of their Quirks, it makes sense to build your prisons and infrastructure against them, that way you're always built to withstand the best."

"Mhm," Aizawa thinks it over for a moment as they get escorted deeper within. "So, you're saying you couldn't break out?"

They come to a stop and both get out, and the guards fall into place to lead them to a pair of massive hydraulic doors.

"Well, there is a reason the cells are all underground, even I need to breathe," Yagi says. "And let's just say the ventilation system here can pump more than just air." 6

Some of the guards glace over at Yagi as he says that, but they pay it no real thought, expecting All Might of all people to have some knowledge about Tartarus.

"A perfect death trap for any person."

"There aren't any people here," the leader of the escorts says. He looks back at Aizawa as the doors open. "Prison is where you put people, Tartarus is for the monsters…" 3

As the man begins leading them within, they step into a large room with rows upon rows of turrets tracking their every move.

Eventually, they get to a massive elevator, 10m square with a massive '1′ painted on the doors.

"This is the first one," the leading guard says. "Each elevator goes down 100 meters, then you need to get out and go to the other side of the floor to enter the next. You're in for a good walk to get to All For One."

"So one prisoner can't just get in and reach the surface," Yagi says.

"Mhm," the man uses his biometrics to activate the elevator when everyone is inside. "I'm the warden here, and obviously neither of you will speak about what you see in here."

"Of course not," Yagi says.

"Good, we've never had civilians come in just to visit a prisoner before, but President Pantu has made a special allowance," he looks directly at Yagi. "Nobody else would have gotten in here, but luckily, you're you."

"Special allowance?" Aizawa asks.

The warden grunts, "normally we ignore last requests before execution, but any info we can get out of All For One can prove valuable…"

"Execution?" Yagi was genuinely surprised by that. "I wasn't aware of that." 1

"Nobody outside of this facility and the commission was, until right now," the warden says. "We don't need the League of Villains having any more reason to send Gigantomachia our way. The longer this is kept quiet the better."

Yagi takes a deep breath, finally feeling as if this chapter of his life was about to be closed, "well, I was wondering why they kept him around for so long. So of course this was unavoidable."

The doors open and they see massive metal doors on both sides of the hallway. Blindingly bright and completely white walls aside from the chrome doors and black turrets.

And they couldn't even see the end of the hallway.

As they are walking the warden looks back at Aizawa, studying him for a moment.

"Can I help you?" Aizawa asks.

"Why are you here?"

"What do you mean, I'm backup," he gestures to Yagi.

"No, why did All For One ask for you?"

Aizawa looks worried and confused by that, not sure why All For One would want to speak to him. 8

He was also annoyed and angry at Nezu, because he was the one who assigned Aizawa to protect Yagi, so he must have known.

As they get down to the 5th floor, Yagi is already feeling a bit winded. But thankfully the air quality was exactly as on the surface, even here, 500 meters below sea level.

They eventually reach the final door of this level, one which seemed even more well-made than the others.

Much thicker and more secure. But before they could enter, their eyes fell onto two more elevator doors that were just as reinforced.

"Level 6?" Yagi asks, reading the number painted atop it.

The warden grunts, "new floor, a work in progress, anything more is classified…" he says as he opens the door for them. 6

Before they enter he turns to them, "no touching the glass, no using Quirks, no telling him about what's happening outside. We keep these things separated from the outside world for a reason."

"Understood," Aizawa says.

"And remember," the warden looks directly at Yagi. "I don't care if you were the Symbol of Peace, break the rules, and these turrets will hollow out your skulls before you can realize how badly you fucked up…" 4

"I'd have it no other way," Yagi nods.

And with that, the man steps aside for them to enter the room.

They see two metal chairs bolted to the floor, positioned in front of a thick metal wall. The walls are entirely white with cameras and two turrets at the back of the room.

The moment they step in he locks the door behind them, and they approach the seats. They see a large control panel with all manner of reading constantly being updated. Studying every bit of All For One's body and mind as he's locked up.

"Take your seats, and keep your hands in view," a guard's voice over the speaker system says, and they do exactly that.

"Opening the visibility barrier," the voice says as the metal barriers begin to raise up into the ceiling. And sandwiched between them is a meter of bulletproof glass with no holes in it.

On the other side, they see All For One completely locked up in a sarcophagus-like structure with only his head exposed, a mask on his mouth with tubes running into the side of his head.

The metal sarcophagus itself has dozens of tubes running from it into the floor and the control panel, designed to keep him nourished and take his readings.

"Finally, some good conversation can be had in this cell," All For One's grating voice reaches them, causing both men to scowl. "That damn doctor they bring in to poke and prod me isn't allowed to speak, it's quite a miserable experience on my part."

"You reap what you sew All For One," Yagi says. 3

"Ohh, is the ever benevolent Symbol of Peace saying that being put down like a rabid dog is justice?"

"I uphold the laws of society," Yagi says. "My duty is to protect people, not to hand out judgments."

"Spoken like the proud sheep you are, atleast the next so-called Symbol of Peace is more of an independent thinker…"

Aizawa just leans back and observes the conversation, but stays ready to use his Quirk.

"You called us here, now just tell us what you want. I don't have anything to say to you."

"Come now, my final conversation and you want to cut it short, really? And you're lying to me at a time like this, really, because we both know you have hundreds of questions for me…"

Yagi grits his teeth, "Tomura Shigaraki, my master's grandson, where is he?"

"Ohh, you're still hung up on that old news, aren't you over that already? Did you really think just because he has Nana Shimura's blood that he'd be incorruptible? 2

We both know that neither of you were born special, you were made, built to be great heroes…so why can't someone be groomed and built to be a great villain, hmm All Might? 2

The world doesn't have a UA for villains, so I had to take the homeschool approach for Tomura."

"And you chose him to spite me, to spite us, right?"

"Oh definitely," All For One chuckles. "But is it so wrong for a villain to have a Sidekick?" 1

"So he's your sidekick?"

"Oh no, he was always meant to be my successor," All For one says. "We are both men on borrowed time, mine will run out in a few days when I'm executed, so tell me, how much longer will you live?"

Aizawa turns his head toward Yagi, not sure what he's talking about.

"Horizon must have given you a deadline, right? And I imagine with him it's quite accurate…"

Yagi sighs and leans back in his chair, "from today, less than 3 years…" 1

Aizawa's eyes go wide, blindsided again today.

"Ahh, so we're in the same boat either way, how befitting, rivals descending into hell together."

"Hell?" Aizawa asks, causing All For One to look at him.

"Oh, why don't you ask him then," he looks toward Yagi. "Where do you deserve to go All Might, after how badly you failed your predecessors?"

"I'm not dead yet," Yagi says. "I've still got time."

"Ohh, but you wish you were, yes? That would have been better than standing on the sidelines while others clean up your failures, right?

I can't even fathom how much you hate it. The rise in crime and all the people who got hurt because you so arrogantly concealed your fading strength. I bet people are still doubting Endeavor, right?

All because you failed to tell him what was coming, you didn't give him time to prepare, to hold up the weight of society like you once did…not that I think he could ever do it." 1

"I--"

"So arrogantly looked down on even other Pro Heroes," All For One cuts him off. "You and the other inheritors always do that, always think you're the only one who can act because nobody can keep up with you. But I imagine that delusion was destroyed recently for you." 4

"Inheritors?" Aizawa asks, but is mostly ignored. 1

"When I attacked the summer camp, I did it to meet Horizon, did he tell you that?" All For One asks.

"You thought it was him, he told us," Yagi says.

"Ohh I did, he was the only logical choice, but I've had time to reconsider it after my fight with him. He's not the type of person to accept help in that way, and he doesn't need any more than he already has.

He's perfect, if I had gotten to him before Nezu, this world would already be in the palm of my hand. Oh, I can't imagine how upsetting it must be, especially for Izuku Midoriya--" 3

Aizawa and Yagi both stared wide-eyed at All For One.

"That's your successor isn't it, the boy chosen by you to become the next All Might of this world, yes?"

"What?" Aizawa asks Yagi.

"How must it feel, All Might," All For One once again ignored Aizawa. "You put the weight of living up to your feats and accomplishments on the shoulder of a young man, enough to break the mind, body, and spirits of anyone in itself.

And then you force him to sit in a classroom, and behind him is a person who seemingly fell from heaven to be the greatest hero this world shall ever know. I can't imagine what that will do to his mental health." 4

Yagi grits his teeth, "future Pros are none of your concerns, you won't be around to torment them."

"Ohh, but I'll be around to see it myself. To see the greatest war between the society you protect, and the monsters that seek to tear it down. 1

Heroes and Villains playing in an all-out war game, until something snaps, and a young man finally decides to flip the table." 2

"Tomura Shigaraki will be locked up before it ever gets to that point," Aizawa says. "And you won't be around to see it…"

"Tomura Shigaraki? Oh, of course, because surely that's who I meant…but tell me, why exactly wouldn't I be around, when the key to postponing my execution is sitting right in front of me." 1

"And why would I ask them to do that?" Yagi asks.

"Not you All Might, you're barely a man, certainly no longer a hero or symbol, and definitely of no use to me, sit quietly on the sidelines and watch everyone else be useful, that's all you can do now." 1

He then turns toward Aizawa. "But you, you will ask Nezu to petition the commission to postpone my execution, that way they can further study me, and eventually find a way to reverse the Nomu process."

"And why the hell would I ever do that?" Aizawa asks.

"Oh, because you wouldn't give up on your friend a second time, right, Eraser Head."

Both visitors look confused at that.

"Oh, how I wanted that Quirk, Erasure, such a perfect Quirk to compliment my forces. And with it even All Might would have been no threat. But sadly there was one person more of a hero than you. He got you to safety at the cost of his own life, and our trap fell on him instead."

"No…" Aizawa mutters.

"You didn't even love your friend enough to keep searching for a body, you gave up on him so easily, and he fell into my hands, becoming our first successful High-End Nomu. My knight, still capable of higher thought process…"

"Wait," Yagi looks between them, seeing Aizawa gripping the sides of his chair so hard his fingers were bleeding. "You can't mean--"

"Oboro Shirakumo," with these words Aizawa's face almost goes red in anger, it took every bit of self-control for him to not activate his Quirk. 5

"You're lying!" Aizawa yells.

"Oh you wish I was, and sadly you need me alive to check. My body will detonate into nothing when I die, and so will any hopes of digging up your friend, from deep within his new Nomu self." 1

"You can't prove anything," Yagi says.

"Ohh, I can't?" All For One gives a devious smile. "So tell me then Eraser Head, didn't something look rather familiar when you saw that Quirk again? When you saw his clouds flowing again, I'm sure you can remember it right, you know who it is…"

"Kurogiri," Aizawa mutters, much to Yagi's horror. He immediately gets up, opening his eyes wide at All For One, "what did you do to him?" he growls out.

"Don't approach the glass," the guard says through the speakers. 2

"Oh it took a lot of work, merging Quirks to make Warp Gate, but as you've noticed, he was easily worth the trouble…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 173: CHAPTER 169(New Methods) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I don't think that's ok, not at all," Shinso says.

He and all of 1A were on a bus heading to the USJ, now fully repaired.

They were all in their gym uniforms, and he was currently speaking to Horizon about some advice he received.

"Trust me, it's imperative for you to get better," Horizon says.

Before Shinso can respond Snipe stops the bus and everyone steps out, quickly finding themselves standing in front of Snipe.

"Today your training will be simple students," Snipe gets their attention. "We've scattered a number of rescue dummies in the USJ, you need to find and recover them. The safe zone is the entrance.

This is training for the rising collateral damage as villains become bolder across the nation. During your Work Studies, you'll be working alongside Pros but they'll likely relegate you to controlling crowds of civilians and such, this is a warm-up for that.

Horizon, you'll stay at the entrance with me, your Quirk has some sort of radar feature so we don't need you making this too easy for them."

"Sidelined for being too good," Horizon shrugs, "story of my life." 4

"Alright settle down partner, everyone else, let's get this started," Snipe turns and begins leading them toward USJ.

Horizon, Shinso, and Sero fall to the back of the group as the other students begin to get excited for the upcoming exercise.

"Look," Horizon says. "All I'm saying is you need to be more liberal with your Quirk. You're sitting in a classroom with a bunch of idiots who say nonsense all the time, just make them shut up whenever they get too annoying, it's good practice." 1

"Seems a bit rude," Sero says. "I mean, it's kind of like how you always warp about without warning. But that's not the same since his Quirk is literally mind-controlling people."

"Well not mind controlling, that's a bit beyond him," Horizon says.

"Either way I don't think I should do that," Shinso argues. "A few days of that and nobody would talk to me, because nobody wants to say 'Hi' to a guy that'll brainwash you for no reason."

"Well allow me to speak from experience," Sero says. "Not a fan of that experience."

"Yeah well, the problem with your Quirk is that you need a test subject to train it. You can do vocal exercises all you want but at the end of the day, the only way to improve your ability to get past mental defenses is with practice. 1

It's better, I can feel that tingle becoming a little stronger, but it's still easily ignorable. And by the nature of my Quirk it will never control me."

"Well you're one in ten billion, right?" Shinso asks. "Literally anyone else would be under my control."

"Yes but you have to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And I'd imagine people like Mandalay have higher than average mental resistance because of her Quirk, and we all know how you'd fare against All For One."

"That's a good point," Sero says. "A villain with telepathy might be able to resist it, then you'd be basically Quirkless."

"I'd still rather not just Brainwash everyone I talk to…"

"Then just keep practicing on me," Horizon says. "Every second of every conversation, then once you're at the point where someone can be Brainwashed but they can still talk, you can just do it to everyone. But don't give them a command until necessary."

"So I just need to work extra hard to get to that point, then training it will be easier since nobody would be able to notice it."

"That's a start," Horizon says as Snipe signals for everyone to begin.

As everyone scatters across USJ, Horizon is left standing atop the massive staircase with Snipe and Momo.

Before speaking to Momo Snipe turns to him, "since you aren't allowed to help them, your job is to move around the dummies and make it hard for your friends to rescue them. But we made them fragile, so you'll also have to be careful. Oh, and you can't leave this area."

"So using Takt for a game of 'keep away', sounds fun atleast," Horizon says as he takes a seat on the staircase and focuses on the dozens of dummies around USJ.

ROOM!

He creates a room spanning 300m around him, allowing him to encompass all of the USJ.

SCAN!

He feels a searing migraine as a flood of information comes crashing into his mind. He has to stop himself from instinctively reaching up to hold his head while doubling over. 8

Instead, he remains completely unreactive and stoic, ignoring everything thing else as he focuses on the dozens of rescue dummies. 1

Focusing on the dozens of rescue dummies he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

TAKT!

They are all captured by his mental grip, rising off the floor for a few seconds before--

BA-DUM!

Pain like a red hot nail being hammered into his skull.

His Room collapses as he feels blood leaking out of his nose, eyes, and ears. 4

Rolling his shoulders he takes a deep breath before starting the entire process again, determined to push past his boundaries and master his improved power.

Because while he is more powerful in terms of how much energy he can use.

Before meeting All For One the largest room he could create was 14km wide, now it was almost 25km after a mere 5 weeks. 1

His abilities are each stronger by a large margin, but moments of fine control cause the mental strain he just isn't ready for.

And reaching out to grasp too closely to his new upper limits causes his Quirk to collapse.

He is certainly stronger than he was weeks ago, but to approach his new limits is to invite ruin, until he solves the issues between mind, body, and instincts. 1

As Horizon settles into his spot atop the stairs, Momo stood off to the side with Snipe, consulting the resident firearms expert on her latest recommendation.

"So rubber bullets?" Snipe asks.

"Precisely," Momo nods excitedly. "I know Hero Support Equipment is only allowed if it compliments a Quirk in some manner, but since my Quirk allows me to create my own equipment--"

"You want special permission to make ballistic weapons, even without a Quirk that would consider ballistics as a necessity like mine."

"With the compromise of rubber bullets of course," Momo says sheepishly. "Honestly, I rather not use real bullets…I don't even like the thought of using swords against living people, much less guns." 5

Snipe sighs, "well, I can't say a lot of the teachers haven't considered this. It came up during our review of the showing at the Sports Festival, knowing you can make a lot of things but always fallback to staff and shield is a bit…underwhelming."

Snipe looks up to see Momo's lip quivering as her eye looks sad.

"Wait! I mean no offense of course it's just that, well, you've got so much potential that we have ideas of how you can use it. That's our job as teachers after all!"

Momo focuses on the task at hand, "so is it possible, to get me permission for ballistic weapons?"

Snipe rubs the back of his head, "I'll have to run it by Power Loader, and Principal Nezu, they'll have to review whatever designs you come up with before sending it to the commission. But once its entirely impossible for a regular person to pick up the weapon and use it in the event that you drop it…then it won't be impossible." 2

"That's wonderful!" Momo gives a dazzling smile.

"But you'll also have to spend a few months at the least in firearms training with me."

"I expected as much," Momo bows. "It will be an honor to learn from you, Japan's resident top marksman." 15

"Uh…right, thank you," Snipe still isn't sure how to handle praise. "Now, why don't you go join the others and I'll talk to the other teachers after."

"Right, thank you again sir," Momo bows again before rushing off.

As she leaves Snipe recalls what she said, even now he isn't used to being referred to as the Top Marksman in Japan.

When counting only the free citizens he certainly is, by a large margin at that.

But as someone who tries to stay knowledgeable of his competition, it didn't sit right with him.

Because to his knowledge, there are two women locked away that far outclass him in a gunfight at any range. 1

Putting that thought aside he looks to his left, at Horizon who was sitting atop the stairs, completely still.

Unknowingly looking at the son of Japan's second-best marksman. 2

From the outside, it was impossible to know the pain and agony his Quirk was causing him in this moment. 2

'Huh, three dozen target dummies and he isn't even breaking a sweat,' Snipe thinks as he looks down at his phone, seeing a map of USJ with all the trackers in the dummies moving about erratically.

'Nezu really struck gold with this one…'

--5 Minutes Later…

"THERE!" Hound Dog yells out as he bursts through the door of USJ. Behind him, there are two dozen of Ectoplasm's clones.

"What's going on?" Snipe asks, turning around to see the resident guidance counselor, Hound Dog, running on all fours at them.

"That's an intruder!" Hound Dog yells as he rushes toward Horizon.

"What?!" Snipe immediately draws his massive revolver and aims it at Horizon, who was still sitting but now looking back at the newcomers.

"What the fuck is he on about?" Horizon asks as they all begin a standoff atop the stairs.

"Hound Dog, you sure?" Snipe asks, finger already on the trigger, not a fan of getting infiltrated again.

"His scent, it's different," Hound Dog growls out. "The true scent of a person doesn't change…"

'Fuck,' Horizon realizes what's wrong.

DNA determines the base scent of a person, and with a Quirk that can sniff out people from miles away, Hound Dog can effectively smell the change in his DNA.

"I'm the same person, it's just my Quirk," Horizon slowly rises to his feet to face them, and at this point, the commotion is drawing the attention of the entire class.

"How, that doesn't make any sense!" Hound Dog's words become deep growls, he was clearly stopping himself from barking and rushing in.

"My body, my business, and either way I think it's above your paygrade."

"Rrrgrarhhhh!" Hound Dog barks, fingers sinking into the concrete floor as he gets ready to lunge forward.

"Tch, I'm the real and only me, and I promise if you snap your leash and try to touch me…a trip to the sea floor will remind you of that…"

Snipe and Ectoplasm glance toward each other, slowly lowering his gun and Ectoplasm relaxes, not wanting to start an avoidable fight.

But Hound Dog was already flooded with adrenaline, emotions, and anger building up from a new scent at UA that he couldn't recognize.

His sense of duty to protect his students pushes him forward to act.

And as he leaps forward to tackle the potential villain.

"Shambles…" Horizon's bored voice says, and the burning sensation of seawater flooding his lungs is the last thing Hound Dog feels, before his world goes black… 16

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 174: CHAPTER 170(Playing Favourites)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So you really can't make it more precise?" Horizon asks.

He and Snipe were sitting in Nezu's office on opposite couches. His feet were resting on the coffee table as he hovers his katana above his lap.

Snipe was twirling his revolver, leaning back comfortably as they speak.

"That's the downside sadly," Snipe says. "My Quirk makes it so any projectile I launch hits the target…assuming nothing actively gets in the way. And once a route is set it can't really be altered much further so dodging behind cover works too." 1

"So it's just aim-assist, like a video game?"

"Pretty much."

"That's…a bit disappointing honestly."

"Oh, what'd you expect?" Snipe asks, still twirling his gun. "Bullets curving and tracking people like homing missiles?" 3

"Honestly, that'd be pretty neat," Horizon admits. "But your Quirk just puts you at the highest level a human can be at when speaking of accuracy."

"Well with guns yes, but I can use other things too you know."

"What, like a slingshot?"

"Well…" Snipe takes out a coin, which catches Horizon's attention.

Flicking it between his fingers he bounces it off two walls, the ceiling, and the table, before it soars directly toward Horizon's visor.

TAKT!

The coin freezes in the air, hovering between them.

"So the slower the projectile the more fancy you can make the shot?"

"And the more direct my contact it," Snipe says. "When I fire a bullet my Quirk actually uses the recoil to try throwing the gun out of my hand and at my target, the gloves are magnetic to help me keep it in my hand."

Horizon casually leans forward, raising his hand for the coin to descend, now hovering an inch above his hand as Scalpel floats off to the side. 1

"I can sense it," Horizon says. "Tactile Telekinesis."

"Guess the jig is up, but please do tell, how does one 'sense' Telekinesis?"

"Well, it's still moving toward me, or atleast trying," Horizon says. "I didn't stop it, just slowed it down a lot, it's still moving toward me, 1/10th of a millimeter per minute at a time." 1

"And?"

"And…" Horizon sighs. "My Quirk allows me to make a 3D map of anything within my range, and I can feel the pressure trying to warp this thing, twisting the metal on a scale too small for the human eye to notice."

With that Horizon flicks his wrist and sends the coin back to Snipe, who catches it without even looking.

"Well, I see why they say your Quirk is basically magic," Snipe admits. "And considering how far you sent Hound Dog today…your range is easily many magnitudes beyond mine," he twirls his gun one last time and rests it on the couch beside him.

"Oh, and what's your range?"

"1200 meters," Snipe taps his own visor. "Built-in scope to help with that, can't shoot what I can't see after all."

"Huh, short compared to Lady Nagant."

"Yeah," Snipe sighs. "Always wanted to meet her, but she had her whole metal breakdown and went psycho before that could happen." 2

"Yeah," Horizon plays along, knowing the truth after reading the files All For One left for him.

"What about you?" Snipe asks. "Why the sword? I mean, I imagine you'd be good with just about anything since your Quirk can do anything you want."

"Swords are just bigger scalpels," Horizon shrugs and gestures to how floating weapon. "And this one is actually named Scalpel."

"Seems a bit on the nose, but fits the whole medical theme."

"That's the idea, clean and precise, hence the white. And blue, like medical scrubs…"

Snipe looks at the door, sits up a bit more properly, then turns to Horizon. "So, the official story is Nezu found you as a doctor to save All Might, but atleast the teachers aren't dumb enough to just believe that, even if it's true.

You must have been in a ton of scraps before that, considering how well you carry yourself against even the most monstrous villain."

"You have a point or just talking in circles?"

"Ever had to use that sword?" Snipe asks. "Or did you just learn to keep in shape?"

"It's been used once or twice, self-defense of course," Horizon chuckles.

"Right right, ever lost any?"

"Well I wouldn't be here if I did, you ever lost a shootout?"

"Mmm," Snipe takes a deep breath, then sighs. "Once, was working security about…almost 12 years ago. Ever heard of Arsenal?" 1

"Arguably the world's best contract killer, and famous for doing the more…messy jobs, got arrested a little over a year ago," Horizon says.

"Yeah well, her putting five bullets through my chest is how we realized she was a native of Japan, all the evidence just lined up."

"So you fought her, how was it."

"Not much of a fight, I had a rifle, she turned her hand into a pistol and picked up some ammo from one of the security guards she killed. 1

Her quickdraw was faster than me, shot me in the chest twice, closed the distance, tried to cut off my arms with a darn…I mean, with a sword she transformed her arm into.

Edgeshot showed up and she just decided to call it quits, then turned her gun into some kind of a triple-barreled pistol, and shot the Pro she was after through my chest…" 1

"So…you lost."

"At the moment I did," Snipe says. "But now I'm sitting here with you and she's rotting in Tartarus. I call that a win, don't you?" 7

"I certainly would," Horizon admits and a moment later the door opens. 2

They both turn to see Principal Nezu enter the room, Snipe puts his gun in the holster quickly and sits up properly.

"Principal Nezu, I brought him here like I said," Snipe says.

"Thank you, Snipe," Nezu walks past the couch and sits behind his desk.

As he does this Snipe notices how casual Horizon still is even as the principal walks in, and that Nezu doesn't seem to care.

'I guess Nemuri was right, he is the golden boy… well let's see how the principal deals with him nearly killing a teacher.'

"So," Nezu gets comfortable and looks at them. "Snipe, tell me what happened, why is Hound Dog currently unconscious in the infirmary, soaking wet and still spitting out seawater…" 1

"Well, sir," Snipe turns a bit toward Nezu. "We were doing the civilian rescue exercise Eraser Head planned for his class, over at the USJ. Hound Dog and Ectoplasm interrupted, it seemed that Hound Dog found that Horizon's scent has changed."

"Right, and protocol in that situation is to apprehend the intruder," Nezu says.

"Exactly sir, we came to a bit of a standoff, Ectoplasm, Hound Dog, myself, versus Horizon. But the kid says it's his Quirk. I planned to call you to get another opinion since you know him best but, after the last few attacks on our students, Hound Dog got a bit…impatient."

Nezu turns to Horizon, "you mentioned Hand Of God allows you to perfectly control your body at every level, is this because of that?"

"Something like that, but yeah," Horizon says.

"You can do that?" Snipe was a bit surprised at that. "Wild…"

"Right," Nezu claps his hands to get them both focused on him. "So, what happened next?"

"Well, before Hound Dog tried to apprehend him, Horizon said he tried to touch him then…he'd warp him to the bottom of the sea." 3

"Which apparently he did," Nezu sighs.

"Hey, I warned him," Horizon shrugs.

"To be fair," Snipe says. "When someone says something so ridiculous…especially considering the ocean is atleast 10km from UA…we're inclined not to believe him."

"Unless it's me," Horizon says.

"And now we've all learned that valuable lesson." 1

Nezu pinches his brow and sighs, resting his elbows on the table.

"Great, well you still injured a teacher, he won't be out of bed for atleast a few days, even after Recovery Girl is done. So I'll formulate a punishment for you."

"Well I'm already on house arrest," Horizon says. "Basically have me chained to UA so Kurogiri doesn't show up, what else can you really do?"

Nezu frowns, then sighs, " just heal Hound Dog, and please don't hurt anyone else at UA."

"Is it that bad?" Snipe asks.

Nezu winces, "120 meters of water pressure is too much for his body, a few more seconds and he could have been dead…" 4

Snipe slowly turns, from Nezu, back to Horizon, then back to Nezu, "right, and his punishment is…' don't do it again', of course." He gets up and straightens his clothes. "Well, I need to get back to the class before it ends."

"Certainly, and thank you for covering for Aizawa," Nezu gives him a polite smile.

"Right…" Snipe just wordlessly walks out of the room.

'Yup, golden boy, can do no wrong…' 3

The moment the door closes Nezu groans loudly, "this is the second teacher you've had some altercation with, can't you just play nice?"

"Hey I warned the fucker, but he decided to rush in, so I gave him a little bath."

"At the bottom of the Musutafu docks?"

"It's the closest part of the ocean to us," Horizon throws up his arms in annoyance. "Honestly no pleasing you people."

"You could just try to get along with the staff…"

"I get along very well with them, considering almost all of them are Pro Heroes, and I'm, well, me…"

"You do remember that you spent your morning recess in this very room, because you got into a verbal fight with Nemuri this morning."

"Well, saggy should learn to keep her mouth shut."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, and why--"

At that very moment the door opens, and in walks Nemuri Kayama, Ms. Midnight.

"Princip--" Midnight freezes as she sees Horizon sitting in the room, she gets a bad feeling about this. "What is this?"

"I'm guessing an intervention," Horizon says, clearly annoyed. "He's gonna ask you to stop being such a petty bi--" 2

"Horizon!" Nezu interrupts him.

Midnight gives him the stink eye as she closes the door behind her.

Nezu gestures for her to sit on the couch opposite Horizon, which she silently does. Folding her arms under her chest and giving him a blank stare.

"Well, is there anything you two would like to say to each other?" Nezu asks.

An excruciating long few minutes pass as they seem to be locked in a staring contest, not a word between them.

"Nemuri…" Nezu says, causing her to sigh.

"Fine, I guess I'll apologize first."

"Well you are the teacher," Horizon says, then mutters. "Even if you dress like a cheap whore…" 6

"See what I mean!" Nemuri jumps up from her seat and points at Horizon, all while looking at Nezu. 2

"Horizon…"

"Ugh, fine, I'll just let her talk."

"Thank you."

Nemuri scowls at him for a moment before sitting back down, then schools her expression.

"I, apologize for overstepping your boundaries and speaking of matters I clearly know nothing about. I'm sorry, and I was wrong."

"I know," Horizon says.

Then another long, awkward, echoing silence fills the room.

"Horizon," Nezu prompts him.

"What?" Horizon looks between them. He was genuinely confused.

"This is the part where you apologize," Nezu says.

"Huh, for what?"

"For being a--!" 2

"Nemuri!" Nezu cuts her off.

Beneath his visor Horizon rolls his eyes, "look, I never said anything wrong or false, you build this street whore persona, you deal with the consequences, get over it."

Nemuri rolls her eyes, more annoyed than hurt, then gets up.

"Whatever, I'm done with this, but just so you know. Compassion is vital to be a true hero, and you aren't anywhere near strong enough to show that side of yourself."

Horizon shakes his head, "haven't you heard, the commission only ranks us based on results, because you can't really measure 'heart'..."

Midnight shakes her head, disappointed, but not at Horizon, at Nezu. "Of all the people that have passed through this academy, you decided to bet on this, to be 'The greatest hero this world shall ever know.' 8

I hope he isn't the only one who can perform miracles, because, for a transformation like that, a miracle is what it'll take." 7

Nobody says a word as Midnight casually walks out of the room completely doubting the choices of her mentor.

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 175: CHAPTER 171(Another Straw)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I, I don't know about this," Momo's quiet, doubtful, unsure voice whispers out.

Looking across from her she sees Horizon, his blue, slightly glowing eye markings of his visor seem to pierce into her very core.

She bites her lip nervously, but her eyes couldn't seem to leave him.

"Momo, c'mon," Horizon's inviting voice reaches her eyes. "You want this, I want this, and it'll be fun for both of us. Tell me you haven't thought about it…"

"Well, I have, but maybe this is just how it was meant to be. We should just play the cards life gives us, right?"

"Or, we can help each other get ahead. Together, don't you think we'd make a great team?"

"I…I do."

"Then let's do it, together, right now…"

Momo mindlessly plays into his hand, giving up the treasure he coveted so badly, that she'd been trying to keep to herself all night.

But she couldn't resist him.

"Yaomomo what the hell!" Jiro shoves her, snapping her out of her daydream. 2

"What?" Momo blinks a few times, coming back into the moment.

Back into the 1A dorms common room.

Looking down she sees the monopoly board in front of them. 1

Jiro was sitting beside her, with Horizon and Sero opposite them. Yui was beside Sero happily watching the game, acting as the banker.

"You just traded the cards he needed to control an entire corner!" Jiro groans, ignoring the heat on her face and her own rosy cheeks, as Momo finally takes in the state of the board. 2

Momo holds her head in frustration, "what have I done?!" 2

"You made the most common mistake," Horizon says in a cool voice as he reorganizes his cards, Sero was laughing happily beside him. "You played the game, instead of the player…" 2

"The girls' team is losing now?" Shinso asks as he approaches the table, a sandwich in one hand and a can of iced coffee in the other.

Most of their other classmates were scattered about, either doing homework or just hanging out together.

"Well they're against me, so of course they'd lose," Horizon chuckles as Momo and Jiro try to form a new plan.

"Yeah," Jiro rolls her eyes. "Or Momo just can't think with her head when you're around."

"Jiro!" Momo gives her an embarrassed look, then notices nobody even reacts.

"Everyone knows," Shinso says, then takes a sip of his drink. "You're a terrible liar, and you light up like a Christmas tree every time he talks to you, atleast Jiro tries to hide it…"

Jiro slouches down in her chair, trying to make herself smaller.

Momo facepalms, "this is such a mortifying conversation…"

"Don't be so dramatic," Horizon says. "I'm irresistible, of course you'd notice."

"Irresistible?" Sero gives him a confused look. "Doesn't Mt. Lady sort of dislike you, and Mirko wants to kick you in the face, and then there's that other Pro, whatever her name was…Uwabami? That lady Momo interned with."

"She has a problem with me?"

"Yeah dude, she went on a whole rant about how everything you said felt like a personal attack on her."

"Well, then she should change her lifestyle," Horizon says. "Anyway, bank," he looks at Yui. "I'll need two hotels for my new property, now that I've got the full set." 1

"Mmm," she nods and reaches into the game box to get his tokens.

"We're about to go bankrupt," Jiro groans as she sees the transaction happening.

"I'm sorry," Momo mutters softly.

"Sigh, it's fine, I can't stay mad at you…" 8

As they continue playing for a few minutes, Shinso joins the table to watch the game unfold, until Aizawa walks into the dorm.

All eyes turn to him, first noticing the bandage wrapped around his head. Covering an injury from the guards knocking him out when he got agitated. Knocking him out before he could activate his Quirk in Tartarus, sparing his life.

His eyes were red, slightly swollen, and entirely bloodshot. The cost of his painful tears, shed for the memories of his dear friend.

And his face had some purple bruises from the impact of them pinning him to the metal floor of the prison.

"Wow, you look like shit," Horizon says, breaking the silence.

Aizawa doesn't even acknowledge it, just says, "important meeting, warp us to Nezu's office, now."

Horizon gives an annoyed sigh as he gets up, dropping his cards, "Shinso, tag in," and Shinso wordlessly takes his seat.

He walks over to Aizawa and reaches for his bandaged head, "hold still…"

BOOSTER SHOT!

The healing energy flows from his hand and moves like a soothing wave across Aizawa. His bruises fade away and his eyes return to normal. He takes a deep breath and relaxes as the throbbing pain below the bandages dissipates.

SHAMBLES!

They both appear in Nezu's office, seeing Yagi already sitting on one couch with Nezu.

"Now that everyone is here, we can start," Nezu says as Aizawa and Horizon sit opposite them. He takes out his phone and puts it on speaker.

"Alright, I'm in a secure location, now, what's this about?" Pantu's voice reaches through the phone.

'Oh great,' Horizon rolls his eyes beneath the visor. 'So this is going to be one of those fucking things…' 1

"I'd like to know that as well," Nezu says.

"It's about our visit to Tartarus," Yagi takes the lead. "Since you don't know, I assume you haven't had the time to listen to the recordings…"

"I've been busy," Pantu says.

"Well, we waited to say this in person, it's…a bit deal."

"Alright, what did he tell you?"

"The Nomu can be saved," Aizawa cuts in. "All For One said that we can study him to find a way of reversing the Nomu creation process, atleast for the intelligent ones. We can bring them back."

"He could have been lying," Yagi says.

"The machines in Tartarus said he wasn't," Aizawa says.

"Those can be tricked," Horizon says. "The man has a dozen Quirks atleast, I'm sure he can give false readings."

"And it could be a play to stall his execution," Nezu says. "Well, it definitely is, but if this is true then from a certain perspective, we bluffed and it worked."

"Bluffed?" Horizon asks, as everyone looks at Nezu confused.

"We can't execute him," Pantu admits. "He did something to his body after Kamino, whenever his vitals drop the readings climb."

"Climb to what?"

"Best estimates," Nezu thinks for a moment. "Small nuclear reactor, assuming it's a conventional Quirk, which it likely isn't, considering who we're talking about." 2

"When did you find out about this?" Yagi asks.

"Two weeks ago," Pantu says. "But he called for the final request of a conversation with you afterward, we figured if we let him know we found his final trap, he wouldn't talk to you--"

"And we wouldn't get any information," Yagi mutters. "Good call."

"Ok so he can't be executed yet, what about the guy you have studying him?" Horizon asks.

"He found the anomaly," Pantu says. "A second opinion confirmed it, and as always with his research, I used my Quirk to ensure the truth was spoken."

"Ok," Horizon sits up. "So what? You want me to find a method of executing him?"

"You still aren't cleared for Tartarus, and never will be, since you only listen to Nezu…" Pantu says, which causes Aizawa to shoot Horizon a curious glance.

"Ok, so why am I here?"

"I'm hoping you can save my friend," Aizawa says. "Oboro Shirakumo, he's Kurogiri…"

"What?!" Nezu nearly falls off the couch in surprise. 1

"They wanted me, but they got Shirakumo instead, and he became Kurogiri. All For One said they ran experiments, made him into the first successful 'High-End' Nomu. Did things to create the Warp Gate Quirk, is that possible?"

Everyone looks to Horizon.

"Well, yeah, Quirk integration is a natural process, that's how people like Bakugo and Todoroki exist. It won't be easy but I imagine with enough time and a solid lack of Human Rights and other crap like that…it could be artificially done."

They give him a concerned glance, worried by how casually he said that last part.

"And can it be undone?" Aizawa's voice almost gave away the desperation of his words.

"Splitting one being into its former selves will be a lot harder than fusing them, but…as difficult as it would be, not impossible, atleast not for me."

"So you can save him!" Aizawa gave a hopeful smile.

"In theory, but, that's not a good idea…"

"Agreed," Pantu says, finding herself agreeing with Horizon of all people. "All For One will naturally die within the next 5 years even if we can't figure out a way to put him down, but in that time we will be researching ways to expedite that process."

"But--"

Horizon cuts off Aizawa, "every day All For One is alive, is a day Shigaraki and the league of losers are spending to get stronger, and they'll eventually try to break into Tartarus to get him. Best to put him down quickly."

"And we'd be raising the chance of him breaking out, going solely on his words, and the very impossibly small chance that your friend is really buried deep down in Kurogiri," Pantu says.

"We can't just give up on him!" Aizawa pleads. "Think of all the Nomu they have, and the people they kidnapped and used to make those things. Men, women, children, Pros, all turned into those things. And this is probably the only person that can undo it," he points at Horizon. "Just give him a chance…"

"Absolutely not," Pantu says. "If Horizon wants to research this on his own then that's his business, but this information will remain confidential. The last thing I need is the families of those victims causing problems to stall the execution. All our efforts will remain focused on putting him down."

"You can't do that!" Aizawa jumps up to his feet, glaring at the phone.

"Aizawa, please," Nezu pleads. "I too would like to have Oboro and all the other victims returned to their previous states, especially since some of them were my dear former students. But the risk of All For One escaping cannot me ignored."

"Isn't that why you have him?" he points at Horizon. "He's supposed to be your answer for the next All For One, right, and he's already gotten stronger since the Summer Camp, just have him on guard."

"Absolutely not!" Pantu says. "Horizon won't be given that level of security clearance until he can be trusted."

"Trusted?" Aizawa was genuinely confused by that. "He's the most powerful person on this side of the planet and isn't hurting anyone with that power, what more do you want before he can be 'trusted' by you?!"

"Eraser Head!" Pantu growls out. "I suggest you remember exactly who you're speaking to, especially concerning matters you know nothing about." 4

Aizawa swallows dryly and grinds his teeth, "my apologies Lady Pantu."

Nezu sees Aizawa sit down and he breathes a sigh of relief, "Alright, now that we're all--"

"But Japan is a democracy," Aizawa interrupts him, with a dangerous tinge to his words. "And I don't think all the people of this country would agree with your choice, abandoning your citizens to be monsters, sending Pros to put them down. When we all know that with a bit of time, you could atleast save some of them, after all, Horizon can do anything." 8

The room is silent for a tense moment, before Pantu speaks.

"Are you threatening me Eraser Head?"

"No," Nezu says, "please forgive him he's just a bit emotional at the moment."

"Exactly," Yagi says. "Aizawa is a good man, he'd never threaten you."

"I didn't threaten you. I just suggest that I'd tell all the people whose loved ones became Nomu about this situation, I can't imagine they'd be happy." 5

"Careful now Eraser Head," Pantu says, casually as if nothing was wrong. "You spread the word about this and suddenly everything I've done in my career goes into the hands of someone else. Along with the general chaos and unrest your little gossip campaign will cause, I won't be there to honor some contracts I made." 3

Nezu sees Horizon's hand twitch, and he's instantly nervous. 5

"And people won't like that. Because they've sworn to protect the safety and stability of this great nation, and you're becoming a threat to that, so think very carefully if this is what you want, Hero."

All the while she is speaking, Nezu is just staring at Horizon, now seeing his hand open, as he does just before warping Scalpel into his grasp.

In the next moment, his office could be painted red with Eraser's blood, and there wasn't anything he or anyone can do to stop it. 1

And with each second that passes Horizon hates it more and more, having to be Pantu's lapdog. And part of him, for the first time, wanted this contract to fail. 7

Because now being forced to protect her like this, to do her bidding even loosely, it made the thought of killing her so much sweeter. 8

Aizawa scrunches his face, growls painfully, then sighs and drops back into his seat.

"You said it's ok if Horizon does his own research to fix them, right?"

"I did," Pantu says. "But that's between you and him, keep it quiet, whatever you decide to do, because my people are much closer than you'd ever imagine…"

Pantu hangs up, and Horizon is grinding his teeth beneath the visor, fingers curled into a fist so tightly it hurts.

They all take a few minutes in silence to calm down and compose themselves, then Aizawa turns to Horizon.

"Save it," Horizon doesn't even let him speak. "I'll add it to the fucking list of miracles you damn heroes want from me, but I'm not taking it easy on any Nomu I meet until then, and I'm not making any promises." 4

The fame and accolades from undoing the Nomu process would be a great boon for him, but he still wasn't happy about it.

"Tha--" 1

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps away before Aizawa can even express his gratitude, in the worst mood he's experienced for quite a while… 28

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 176: CHAPTER 172(Teamfight Training)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Are you sure this is alright?" Shinso asks, "I just got into the Hero Course, I don't want to get in any trouble, especially with how Eraser Head is…"

He, Sero, and Horizon were walking away from the main campus to a massive new building.

Where the other 1A students trained their Super-Moves for the Provisional License Exam.

Lunch still hasn't ended, and the evening class as always is Hero Training, but these three were in their UA Gym Uniforms, with Horizon leaving his jacket open to show the chest of his slightly armored body glove.

And his jacket still sports his logo across the back of it.

"Eraser said they're just doing more theory stuff today," Horizon says as they enter the gym. "He gave me the go-ahead for us to have some training here.." 1

They enter to a viewing room, with a thick glass plane separating the viewing area from the massive concrete gym below.

"Wow, when did they add this?" Sero asks as he walks up and taps the glass.

"Since Bakugo and Deku started training together," Shinso says. "All Might did mention something about teaching them indoor combat and how to minimize collateral damage. Tokoyami also does some training here at night, his control of Dark Shadow is a little better already."

"That explains the glass," Sero says as they walk to the side door, to enter the combat area. "Those three hit hard."

"Well we're using it because it has a good camera system, to review your work," Horizon points to the corners of the room. "And since Eraser is just having The Big Three talk to everyone about what they'll be expected to do and how to conduct themselves during the internship, this is our for today."

"Hado huh," Sero gets a thoughtful look. "She's pretty cute, think you can introduce me?" 4

"I thought you and Kodai were--"

"--Focus on training for now, always time for pussy later," Horizon interrupts them. "We're here so I can teach you two how to fight, well, mostly Shinso since I've been training with Sero for a few weeks." 1

"So close combat training huh, we'll Eraser Head and I have been training for three months, so don't think you need to hold back against me." 4

Sero chuckles at that and Horizon just shakes his head, "I never hold back, and since I'll be healing everything I do to you, I can really do whatever I want. But for now, I just want to get an idea of what type of training you need."

"Well, atleast my teeth aren't getting kicked in from the start…" Sero mutters as he takes a few steps to the side, leaving Horizon and Shinso in the middle of the massive concrete gym.

"So, rules?" Shinso asks, standing opposite Horizon, once against facing off against his imposing physique.

Because while Shinso has packed on some muscles since the Sports Festival, so had Horizon. And with him standing 20cm 8in above Shinso, it certainly leaves an intimidating sight to behold. 1

As Mina and some others have said, 'it's like a mini All Might.' 7

"Welcome to the real world Simon," Horizon puts his hands up, casually holding one out with an open palm, and keeping the other behind his back. "There are no rules in a street fight, which is what every fight with a villain is. But to keep things simple, for now, I won't use my Quirk." 1

Shinso takes a lower fighting stance, ready to charge in, "so none of that 'sensing' every movement the opponent makes, think you can fight without it?"

"Come find out…"

Shinso carefully studies his opponent, as always, just as Eraser Head thought him.

But looking at Horizon, only 10ft 3m away, studying his form, none of it made sense.

'His stance is, too relaxed, to the point of being sloppy. But he's supposed to be trained by some kind of a combat monster according to Eraser. Probably a combat-oriented Pro Hero or soldier. Even without his Quirk active he's leaving too many openings. 4

But sensei said human conventions don't apply to Horizon, so I should just assume he's got the advantage in every situation, because even if I don't know what it is, he does have it.'

"Don't overthink it!" Sero yells from the sidelines. "Just punch him in the face!"

"Mmm," Shinso grumbles, then rushes forward.

He immediately rockets forward, launching three lightning-fast jabs.

'Good form, smooth motions, and no hesitation,' Horizon thinks as he bats them away with one hand. 'Nearly dying at the Summer Camp must have helped with that…'

Next Shinso spins to deliver a solid kick to Horizon's side, but as he does that Horizon steps forward.

He gets too close for the kick to connect, and Shinso's thigh harmlessly bumps into his side.

Shiso doesn't even hesitate, twisting his torso to deliver a straight jab to Horizon's face, all while his one leg is still off the floor.

Before his fist can connect Horizon drops his arm, making a fist but leaving one knuckle poking out as he hits Shinso in the thigh.

"Hng!" Shinso flinches from the pain, causing his punch to stall for just a moment. 3

Horizon raises the same hand, opening it and backhanding Shinso in the stomach.

The force knocks the wind out of him and knocks him to the floor.

'Low pain tolerance,' Horizon notes. 'I'll need to put him through the wringer, he flinches to easily. And with a Quirk like his that requires constant concentration, that's an oversight we can't afford.' 1

Seeing Shinso struggling to get up, desperately trying to catch his breath, Horizon walks up and plants the sole of his shoe into his face.

"Argh!" Shinso feels his nose break as he rolls across the floor, blood flowing down his face and across his lips. "What the hell?!"

"You took too long to get up," Horizon says, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "So I suggest you get to your feet before I walk over there…"

Shinso gets to his hand and knees, seeing blood falling to the concrete below him, looking up through blurry vision to see Horizon slowly walking over to him.

"If I were a villain you'd already be dead, so clearly we've got a lot of work to do," Horizon walks up to Shinso and sweeps his arms out from under him, causing him to go face first into the concrete.

Searing pain flows through Shinso's face again, then his torso as Horizon connects a kick that sends him rolling across the floor.

"You can't have suck low pain tolerance with a Quirk like yours," Horizon says as he begins walking toward Shinso again. 2

"UrgghhhhH!" Shinso releases a pained cry as he pushes himself off the floor, desperate to get to his feet before Horizon gets to him.

"Better," Horizon says, and actually stops so Shinso can take a breath. "Your pain tolerance is essential to Quirks like yours. It's based on Telepathy like Eraser's, so his pain tolerance being insanely high is the goal for you. But you'll also need to learn parallel processing similar to me, but nowhere near my level." 1

"Parallel Processing?" Shinso wipes some of the blood with his sleeve.

"Having multiple coherent thoughts in your head at the same time. Eventually holding your Quirk on targets will become second nature."

"So that's how you can focus on hundreds of things within your range at once, sounds exhausting."

"You'll get used to it, now, let's get back to your assessment."

--30 Minutes Later…

"Is he always like this?" Shinso asks, he was covered in cuts and bruises, his UA Gym Uniform battered and bloodied, leaning on Sero who was in the same state.

"Welcome to my world," Sero says as they both stand properly and raise their hands.

Across from them, Horizon was still mostly spotless, aside from his knuckles sporting just a bit of their blood.

"Don't be so dramatic, I haven't even activated my Quirk once to fight, just to heal you between rounds."

They both burst into a full sprint toward Horizon, working together as they have been for the past 20 minutes.

Sero goes low, trying to sweep his legs, but Horizon just moves his foot forward to lower the force received from Sero's kick.

Preparing for the hit his leg doesn't even move.

'Sweep the leg…what does he think this is, a cartoon?' 4

He quickly uses the same leg to kick Sero in the side, all while Shinso leaps up to punch down toward his face.

'I already told him once about not letting both his feet leave the ground, but if he insists, then so be it…'

"AHH!" Shinso screams as the air leaves his lungs, Horizon's fist had just enough force to cancel his momentum and keep him in the air.

At the same time, Sero gets up to punch Horizon in the gut, only for him to raise his leg to take the hit.

He hits Shinso once more, juggling him in the air before turning to Sero and connecting a straight jab to Sero's left arm, completely numbing it. 1

Before Shinso can continue to fall again Horizon hits him once more, a severe uppercut that leaves him doubled over on Horizon's fist, and he holds him in the air with no issue.

Horizon pulls his arm away for Shinso to crumple to the floor, then reaches out and grabs Sero's neck, slowly choking him, watching him desperately try to recall his training and break his hold.

"You've got company," Eraser's voice sounds through the speakers from the observation room.

Horizon drops Sero, and he falls on his ass to the floor.

"I thought you said today's class was all theory, so we could just train here this afternoon," Horizon turns to the glass separating them from the observation room above, and sees the entire class plus the big three in their UA PE Uniforms. 2

"Mirio decided that a practical demonstration is better," Eraser says. "Care to join them?" 3

END CHAPTER-- 5

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Chapter 177: CHAPTER 173(The Big Three)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So, what's all of this about?" Horizon asks as he walks into the observation area with the now-healed Sero and Shinso.

All of 1A was now gathered, along with Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki.

Tamaki was standing off to the side trying to make himself as invisible as possible, Mirio and Kirishima were having a small chat, and--

"HORIZON!" Nejire rushes up to him and gives him a hug as he approaches them. "It's been so long. You didn't respond to my texts. And my calls didn't connect. Is your phone broken? Ryukyu says she talks to you so maybe it's mine. Have you gotten any stronger since the raid? Ooh, are you gonna fight Mirio too?! You're both pretty strong so you might actually have to try! Oh, I bet you'll get along great with him! Wha--" 8

"Hado!" Eraser interrupts her volley of questions.

"Right, sorry sir," Nejire bows and stands beside Mirio.

Glancing at the students, Mirio immediately stands out. Taller than most, bright smile even as Kirishima talks his ear off, seems genuinely interested in the conversation. And bright blonde hair.

Off in the corner, he sees Amajiki, with dark hair and what he assumed is a gloomy expression, since he couldn't see his face. Amajiki was currently facing a blank wall. 1

'Potentially the second most powerful Quirk in UA…and he's got fucking stage fright,' Horizon just shakes his head and walks up to Eraser. 9

"You said we'd have this place all afternoon, what's this all about?"

"Mirio decided the best way to give them a glimpse of what a Work Studies students is like…is to fight."

"Ok, but why here, you know we're training here."

"Training," Eraser glances over to Sero and Shinso, now healed but still covered in bits of blood. They were off talking to some of the other students right now. "Right, well I figured since you're always interested in seeing new Quirks, getting hands-on experience with the Big Three would be appealing to you."

This gets everyone's attention, and Mirio joins the little discussion.

"I think that's a great idea!" he says. "I'd love to see what UA prize student can do. Everyone in your class is super talented but you're something else…oh, I'm Mirio Togata by the way, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"I know," Horizon turns back to Eraser. "I don't have any interest in fighting people weaker than me, it's a waste of time, but watching should be amusing atleast."

"Don't mind him guys!" Nejire jumps in while Mirio and Amajiki were trying to interpret the cold greeting. "He's always all grumpy when you first meet him, but he's really nice when you get to know him, I promise!"

"Uh, right," Mirio nods awkwardly, "well, it was a pleasure to meet you either way. Alright everyone, let's head into the sparring area!" 5

As everyone gets into position, only a few people remain by the observation window.

Horizon, Eraser Head, Tamakai, Nejire, Sero, Shinso and those who failed to get a provisional license.

Looking down the line he sees Bakugo fuming, but eyes wide to take in everything he can from this demonstration.

Beside him, Shoto was observing with a blank expression.

Shoji and Ojiro were doing the same, while Nejire and Jiro were chatting quietly about something with Mina. 3

"So how do you think this'll go?" Horizon asks Eraser, and everyone gets quiet to listen in.

"Honestly they don't stand much of a chance, before you, Mirio was easily the strongest in the school," Eraser sighs. "This is a big waste of time, but hopefully it'll put things into perspective for them."

"So being in a classroom with me wasn't enough?"

"On the contrary, it was too much."

"Too much?"

"Well, you're a monstrously talented and intelligent person that just happens to have the most powerful Quirk in the world, using you as a yardstick to measure themselves against won't work, because they know they can't ever catch up."

"So you're trying to replace that goal with Mirio, since he's more realistic than I am, very clever."

"Well, I am your teacher after all."

"Honestly I was more interested in Amajiki," Horizon says, causing everyone to glance at the boy who was trying to avoid their eyes. "Aside from myself, he's got potentially the most powerful Quirk in UA. Atleast if he takes it as far as I imagine he could."

"Oh yeah, our little Sun Eater is super strong!" Nejire cheers on her friend.

"His Quirk is most similar to mine than anyone else here, aside from Momo," Horizon says. "It gives him a potentially limitless supply of tools for any occasion, those people are always fun to see in action."

"Wow," Jiro looks over at the unassuming Amajiki. "What's his Quirk?"

"Manifest!" Nejire yells out. "It lets him eat anything and then manifest the properties of it while it's in his stomach, so if he eats lobster his arms can become lobster claws and he can make shell armor, he's really strong!"

"Works on diamonds too," Horizon says. "And he can do multiple things at once. I've done my research on you three. Of each of you, Manifest is easily the most powerful Quirk in the group, or atleast when he stops holding back it will be."

"Wow, never would have guessed it," Jiro mutters.

"Wait a minute, so if you know so much, why'd you call us weak earlier?" Hado asks, pouting cutely at him. 1

"Because compared to me, you're weak, not in the sense that you can't perform against villains. But like with most people, I'm just a bad matchup."

"They're starting," Eraser says, and everyone focuses on the fight.

They immediately see Mirio's clothes falling through him, before he falls into the floor.

"Ah!" Jiro covers her eyes completely. "What the hell kind of Quirk is that?!"

"Oh, it's called Permeation!" Hado says. "It lets him pass through stuff, even the air and light itself, pretty neat right." 1

"Weak Quirk," Horizon says. "But his precision is extraordinary, and his practiced instincts make it monstrous in his hands." 9

They see Mirio absolutely demolish their classmates as Horizon is speaking.

"Picking and choosing when and where become tangible, making his eyes solid so he can see, his mouth and lungs so he can breathe, his ears to hear. All in short bursts while remaining mostly solid to give the impression that he's invincible. 1

And he likely memorizes the battlefield at a glance each time so he can travel through the floor, then he can use the force of matter overlapping and rejecting each other to rocket out of the floors and walls for more damage in his hits. A weak Quirk made powerful through masters, I'd say he's level 80, at the very least." 1

"That almost sounded like a compliment," Eraser says as Mirio rockets out of the floor and kicks Tokoyami in the face, knocking him out.

"I can recognize hard work when I see it, and that's all Mirio is." 1

"Told you he's nice," Nejire mutters to Amajiki.

"And you're still confident you can easily deal with them?" Eraser asks, seeing the last of his students easily being knocked out.

"Wouldn't even need my sword, my hands are more than enough."

"Ooooh, that's pretty cool," Nejire says before she starts giggling. "Then why don't we go down there, since it looks like Mirio is done already."

"It only took him three minutes to take them all down," Horizon says as he sees Mirio picking his classmates back up. "Not bad, alright, I'm in, let's go play…" 1

--5 Minutes later.

"Do I really have to be here?" Amajiki asks, hands in his pockets and shoes off as he stands in the combat area. To his right is Mirio, and beside Mirio is Nejire.

"C'mon Amajiki, it'll be fun," Mirio says. Besides, haven't you been curious about the hotshot first year too?"

"No." 2

"Oh don't be such a baby," Nejire says as she begins flying, releasing small spirals of energy from her feet so she hovers just a meter above the ground. "Think of this as us teaching the other students what fighting at the top of UA looks like."

"I just don't like having an audience," Tamaki glances at the observation deck where everyone was watching intently, then across the room where Horizon was standing alone. "And he seems kinda mean…"

"I'm telling you he's a softie inside."

"You're just saying that because he healed Ryuky--"

"--Mind humoring me for a moment Mirio?" Horizon asks from across the room.

"Huh, sure, what do you need?" Mirio asks.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps his sword into his hand. "I'm pretty sure Amputate should work when you're permeable, but since I'm not using my sword in the fight, can you let me check before we start." 1

"Oh, sure, I always wondered what that feels like," Mirio raises an arm to his side and makes it permeable, and his sleeve immediately falls through it.

With one vertical slash from across the room, the outstretched arm is cut off, painlessly without damage, and begins falling to the floor. 1

"Wow!" Mirio reaches out and catches it. "It's a good thing I can still control how my Quirk works in this part, otherwise it could have just kept falling forever," he laughs while wiggling the fingers on the severed limb. "This is super freaky."

"Can you please put that back already," Tamaki looks like he's about to lose his lunch from just looking at it.

"Awe, don't want me to give you a hand?" 4

"..."

"Awe c'mon that one was funny!" Mirio whines before easily reattaching the limb.

"No, it wasn't," Eraser says through the speaker. "Now can you please get this over with so I can get back to teaching my class…"

"Yeah, call it Eraser," Horizon tosses his sword back over his shoulder, and it just hovers above the ground. He puts one foot forward and prepares to launch a low punch. "I'll try not to break any of you." 10

"Alright, begin!"

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 178: CHAPTER 174(Vs The Big Three) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Here he comes, everyone get ready, he's super duper strong," Nejire says as she points both her palms at Horizon, preparing to blast him with energy.

Beside her Mirio still has his bright smile on, staring across at Horizon who was clearly preparing to strike, "don't worry guys, just try not to overdo it, we don't want to hurt him or damage the facilities after all, we're still the seniors here so let's set an example." 2

"I don't think he sees it that way," Amajiki looks at the observation area, seeing everyone staring at them, winces, then just takes his hands out of his pockets. "Let's get this over with so I can go home…"

"Here I come!" Horizon yells from across the room, and they all prepare to counterattack. 2

With their years of training, they'd never dealt with someone who can warp, but with Mirio's fighting style, it was the next best thing.

They prepare to strike on either side of them, with Amajiki turning the toes on his left foot into octopus tentacles, ready to stretch out and grapple behind them.

SHAMBLES!

To everyone's surprise, Horizon appears directly in front of them. 2

'He didn't swap with anything!' the big three immediately notice, unaware of the intricacies of his Quirk.

Hado and Amajiki react immediately sending a wave of spiral energy and a handful of octopus tentacles, previously Amajiki's fingers, at Horizon.

But Mirio keeps his hands at his side, a wide smile on his face as his clothes begins falling through him, but he stays standing in place.

His fist rockets directly toward Mirio's gut.

"Ugh!" Mirio winces before the fist even connects, his expression twisting into pain and agony for just a split second.

BOOSTER SHOT!

"Argh!" Horizon's fist digs into his gut, taking him off his feet and sending him rocketing into the far wall. They hear the echoes of a painful sound as the concrete cracks behind him.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps back to his original spot, barely avoiding Amajiki and Nejire's attacks, because even with how surprised they were, their years of training meant the attacks followed through.

"Mirio!" Amajiki yells out as he looks back, seeing his friend crumpled to the floor completely unconscious. "This isn't funny Mirio, get up!"

"I don't think this is a joke Amajiki," Nejire's voice was suddenly much more serious as she looks away from her unconscious friend, back to Horizon. "So uh…do you have a plan?"

"Go home, but I'm stuck here with all these people watching me," Amajiki mutters as both his arms transform into tentacles from the shoulders outward, 8 tentacles on each side. 7

"Wow, that's so cool!" Deku yells out, furiously taking notes on the entire fight, quickly sketching Amajiki's tentacles.

Then all their eyes open in wonder as thick and clearly reinforced lobster shell begins forming on the tentacles like armor.

His head grows two cow horns as his legs become bovine, and most of his head and face is covered in a helmet of lobster shell he grows before their eyes.

"Chimera Kraken!" Amajiki yells out, and most of the room stares in wonder. 4

"That's pretty cool," Horizon says, genuinely impressed. "Just missing some wings."

"The only bird I ate today was chicken, and flying with those wings is always awkward, sorry, can you please not look at me…"

"Don't worry Suneater, you'll get over the stage fright one day!" Nejire tries to cheer him up. 4

Amajiki glances over at her, and she sees his eyes widen in shock.

"Nejire!" his tentacles shoot forward, intending to move around her to attack Horizon who suddenly appeared behind her. 4

"You got too comfortable--"

SHAMBLES!

Horizon and Nejire appear back across the room, "--this is still a fight."

He pokes her in the stomach, angling his finger upward and pushing the air out of her lungs. 1

"Gah!" as she desperately tries to take a breath, his fingers wrap around her neck, strangling her as he holds her a foot above the ground. 4

"Hard to muster up energy when you're suffocating huh," he says as she begins to panic, flailing in his grasp.

Nejire desperately kicks out, hitting him in the chest a few time but he doesn't even react, fingers digging at his grip but feeling as if she had to claw against steel.

"Let her go!" Amajiki bounds across the entire gym, his bovine legs transformed into rabbit legs before he takes one massive jump.

The tentacles on his left arm come together at the end and merge into a solid ball of flesh which then becomes heavily armored like an organic wrecking ball.

Horizon doesn't even more his feet, just shifts his arm to put Nejire between him and the attack.

"Damn it!" Amajiki barely redirects the attack, smashing the concrete floor beside Horizon.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon appears beside him as he lands, and before Amajiki can react.

BOOSTER SHOT!

The sound of armor breaking off and clattering across the floor is heard as his fist knocks Amajiki out.

Looking at the other unconscious opponent he glances at Nejire who was now turning purple and going limp in his grasp, and just drops her.

"GAH!" she takes a greedy breath, trying to sit up but is forced to lie down and recover.

"Quit being so dramatic."

She opens her eyes to see Horizon standing above her, thoroughly unimpressed. "Ok, good fight, I'm just going to lay here for a minute or two…too strong." 1

Horizon just walks over to Tamaki and taps him with his foot, healing him and waking him up, then does the same to Mirio. 1

"Let's get back to the others, then you can all leave so I can get back to training," he says before Mirio can even speak.

The moment they're all back in the observation area, the questions begin flying, but Sero was the only one willing to ask Horizon what they all wanted to know.

"Dude how'd you hit Togata, does your Quirk let you punch ghosts?" Sero asks Horizon.

"Hand of God works in mysterious ways, Mystery Class after all," Horizon shrugs.

"Honestly I'd like to know too," Mirio says. "Everything just felt tingly for a second, then the next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor, super weird."

"Oooh oooh!" Nejire was excitedly waving her hands to get his attention. "Maybe Horizon did that thing with his sword but with his fist instead. Since his slashes could cut you then his punches could hit you."

"But Amputate doesn't hurt or move what it affects," Momo says. "This would have to be something new, maybe he was distorting space where he hit you."

"Would that even work?" Deku asks, then immediately takes a step back, but luckily Horizon doesn't even look his way. 1

"It would," Horizon says. "But that's not what I did, that's a lot of effort for these three…" 1

Nejire gives a forced smile and pats Mirio's arm, "I promise he was actually being nice during your fight atleast."

"That's enough with the theories," Eraser says. "Horizon is just being mysterious for no reason, he tased Mirio."

"Ugh," Horizon grumbles a bit. "You know half the fun of my Quirk is nobody knows how it works, thanks for ruining that…"

"Anytime," Eraser says, now seeing everyone looking at him to explain. "When he warped to Mirio, it was hard even for me to notice such small changes, but his foot was a lot closer to Mirio's. He had a single current jump from his foot to Mirio's." 2

"I took advantage of the fact that he was standing on the floor, which meant atleast the skin at the bottom of his feet was solid. Guaranteed path for the current to zap him, and since it would be a chain reaction and mix with his own bioelectricity--"

"--My Quirk would think its natural and paralyze me," Mirio facepalms. "That's why my body got all tense before you hit me, wow, that's pretty smart!"

"I know," Horizon says. "But, that's just a measure I had to take since I couldn't use my sword. Most of my offensive measures are done through Scalpel."

"Scalpel?" Nejire asks.

"His sword," Momo says. "So since he didn't have it available during this fight he improvised that Quickly, most impressive." 2

"Alright alright, enough," Eraser rolls his eyes. "His ego is already big enough, now aside from Horizon's team everyone needs to go get changed and head back to class."

"Finally, thank you," Horizon didn't bother hiding how happy he was to have everyone finally out of his hair.

As Eraser is leading the others out of the facility, Sero and Shinso begin walking back down to the combat area, enjoying the short break they had, but one other stayed back just a moment to speak to Horizon.

"Need something?" he asks Momo, seeing her somewhat anxious to speak to him.

"Yes actually, I start training with mister Snipe later this afternoon, would you mind helping me sometimes when I get the hang of…ranged weapons."

"Guns, you can just say guns."

"It just doesn't feel very right since I'm trying to be a hero after all. But you would have the most experience fighting against…guns, so I--"

"Yes, I'll come to take a look sometime, it'll be useful training for me too."

"What kind of training could that possibly be for you?"

"Precision. Before UA I wouldn't have many direct confrontations, now I find myself dealing with gunfire a lot, and practice stopping bullets is always useful. I've gotten mostly lucky so far that no high-caliber rounds have been shot at me. They'd be a bit more annoying to stop." 4

"I…see," Momo gives a concerned look. "Well, I'm glad this can work out for both of us."

"Good, now I need to get back to training these idiots, have fun taking notes in class…"

"R--" he warps away before she can respond. "Alright, now I need to work hard not to embarrass myself in front of him. Oh Momo, why didn't you wait a few weeks before telling him about this." 5

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 179: CHAPTER 175(Gentle Facade) 7

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"What a shithole," Horizon mutters from his perch.

He was currently in one of the more dilapidated parts of Tokyo, standing atop a five-story building.

Across the street, he observed a smaller and far more run-down building, and with his Quirk, he could sense four figures inside.

They were all sitting in what must be their living room, all of the younger ones on the couch, the other on the floor, eating what seems to be a very modest afternoon meal.

'House is almost completely empty, school uniforms are the only thing they focus on maintaining… looks like they've sold most of their furniture, probably in the process of selling the couch too…'

Looking down the street Horizon sees it quickly becoming deserted as the sun sets, as expected from this crime-riddled area.

"Alright, you fucking mongrels, just be useful…" Horizon says as he warps one of his metal cards into his hand. 4

SHAMBLES!

It swaps for a crumpled-up bottle from the apartment, which he catches.

SHAMBLES!

He swaps places with the card, then recalls it back into his hand.

Now standing in an almost entirely empty kitchen, clear markings where appliances were torn out and sold, empty cupboards and shelves.

The floor was cracked, but surprisingly clean. He silently walks over to the sink, and opens the tap, seeing there was atleast running water.

'Ok, more desperate than I thought, but not as much as I would like…' He takes one last glance at the state of this apartment. 'But I can easily make this work for me.'

Listening carefully he hears some chatter and laughs, people blissfully unaware of his presence.

Taking a few silent steps toward the doorway he peaks into the room, four people.

The oldest was no more than 17, followed by a 14-year-old, then a pair of 9-year-old twins, all boys. From their beaten-up clothes to the depressing sandwiches they were eating, it was a sorry sight, so Horizon just knocks on the doorframe and stepped into the room.

"Don't get up," Horizon's words cause them all to freeze, including the oldest boy who was about to rise to his feet. They look at each other, nervous and fearful, but obey.

Horizon walks around for a moment, then stops across the room from them, where ideally a TV would be, and just looms down on them.

"So, why do you think I'm here?" Horizon asks.

They all look at the oldest boy, terror in their eyes, small tears already flowing down the cheeks of the twins.

"To arrest me?"

"Arrest you? For what?" Horizon asks. "Being a part-time pickpocket?" He looks around the apartment. "Not a very profitable one at that, or for your other part-time job moving crates for sketchy people…"

The oldest boy's eyes go wide at that, "I swear I just move boxes I don't even look in--"

"--I'm not here to arrest you," Horizon says. "I'm guessing you're avoiding any legal work because they'll look into this situation you have, then throw all of you into the childcare system, and you'll be separated, right?"

All the boys meekly nod.

"Look, I don't care, about you stealing a few wallets or moving boxes. You do whatever it takes to protect the people you care about, and that, I can respect, so I'm here to offer you a way out."

"A way out?" the boy mutters, as if it were too good to be true, after almost two years of living like this.

"Clearly that's what you want, especially since this one plans to try out for UA next year," he gestures to the 14-year-old boy. "Fun Quirk, force fields, might actually get in."

All the boys look a bit more hopeful at that, UA's golden boy giving them a glimmer of hope to get out of this situation.

"How did you know that?" the oldest asks.

"I've been watching you for a few days, and checked all your files, it's no big deal," Horizon shrugs. "I'm not here to arrest you, I have a job for you."

"A job?!" The boy's eyes lite up.

"Decent pay, comes with a place to live, you won't have to file any paperwork until you're 18 next year, that way you get to keep this family together, and--"

"Deal!" he doesn't even need to hear Horizon's full offer.

"Huh, easier than I thought," Horizon extends his hand to the boy, who gets up and shakes it. "We'll be back in a moment."

SHAMBLES!

Still shaking hands, they both warp onto a nearby roof, swapped with a piece of stone.

"Wow!" The boy looks around, amazed.

"Focus please."

"Oh, right, sorry."

Horizon takes a step away from him as they begin to talk. "I need you to put trackers onto some of the crates you move, and preferably the vehicles, they're small, like little invisible stickers." 1

"Trackers? But you can warp--" The boy stops himself before he talks himself out of a job. "--I mean, of course, consider it done."

Horizon sighs, "why do you think they only move product during the first three days of the working week?"

"Uh, I never really thought about it."

"Because that's when I'm in UA, but if I give this to another Pro they'll want to get in there and stop the operation immediately. I need it to work for a while so my trackers get to every safehouse, and a while before I strike, you'll quit."

"Quit?"

"That way you're protected, because they'll only really suspect the current employees. People who know the routes."

"Ok, to protect me, that makes sense."

"You won't be able to move out until then atleast, to avoid suspicion, but you'll get the money, just don't draw attention to yourself."

"Alright, when do I start--"

--Tokyo, 10 PM…

"So how was your first week back at UA?" Rikiya – Re Destro- asks.

Horizon was walking beside him as they strolled through the halls of FGI Feel Good Inc Private Hospital in Tokyo. This entire area of the hospital was almost empty, people cleared out so nobody would see the state of Horizon's two new patients. 1

And it helps to keep the quiet acquaintance between Horizon and Detnerat in the shadows.

"As expected," Horizon says. "Stuck in boring classes, girls fawning over me, people always annoying me for pictures ever time I step into the hallway. But I'm training Cellophane and one new ally, so that's fun atleast."

"What was it you said on our last call, 'power, money, women, and--' something else."

"And all the time in the world," Horizon says. "That's what I have right now, and it's quite an enjoyable life."

"Still no ambition to fight for something greater?"

"There is no cause greater than myself…and the protection of the people ofcourse."

"Nice save," Rikiya chuckles. "But if you ever get tired of society having so many chains on you simply because you were born powerful, I have an opportunity for you."

"They don't have chains on me because of that, I put these chains on myself. I knew the risks of the life I choose to live, and this is the outcome."

"The downsides of choosing the be a Pro Hero, and how has your actual business been lately?"

"Honestly, I do one or two operations per week," Horizon shrugs. "And no you don't get any more free work after this, this is a one-time thing."

"Well even for myself your price is rather…intense."

"Miracles are expensive, but people all across the world can afford them."

"Luckily, I got you in a good mood," Rikiya says as they arrive at a large private room.

Opening the door they enter to see Trumpet and Skeptic, laying in medically induced comas so they don't go into further shock from the immense pain they were in.

"Holy fuck," Horizon explains, the well-played facade of shock and surprise not raising any brows from Rikiya. "Did a bomb hit them?" 2

Even as they approach he could see the mangled limbs, Skeptic's gouged-out and burnt-shut eyes, and a large scar from the operation they performed to reassemble his entire jaw. The metal brace around his neck and contraptions holding his limbs up.

His arms and legs were raised, and wrapped so he could notice the missing fingers, and his left foot was missing up to the knee while the right foot was missing up to the ankle.

He also had metal rods protruding from his skin, set into the bones to keep the fragments in place so the nerves don't further damage themself while healing.

And on Skeptic's exposed torso, aside from all the tubes connected to him to keep him alive, he sees a thick and firm fabric padding around his ribcage, keeping them in place so his lungs don't collapse.

Opposite Skeptic, Trumpet was facedown in something similar to a massage bed, with a hole for his face to rest. 1

He was also asleep at the moment, but his back had a metal device running down his spine, scarring all across his back where they worked to reconstruct his bones so he could one day walk again.

But they failed, and the nerves were already dead on arrival, leaving him as a vegetable forever.

Horizon walks around them, touching each of them once to Scan them, then looks to Rikiya, "I can fix them, but what happened?"

"Well, I told you who they are, and by now I'm sure you've figured that we're all in a small circle of like-minded individuals."

"The Hearts and Mind party?"

"Yes," Rikiya smiles. "Unfortunately some people don't agree with our policies, and decided to get violent about it."

"So they sent a villain to do this, want me to go after him too?"

"Oh no, that won't work," Rikiya says. "Heroes fight villains, but the man who did this, he's the devil itself." 22

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 180: CHAPTER 176(Lurkers) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--September 23rd, 3 Weeks into Semester 2…

Descending from the sky above Horizon soars through the cool night air on his hoverboard.

Below he sees the coast, just north of Tokyo, a small port with rows of warehouses and only a few boats docked. No large ships resting here at the moment.

ROOM!

He senses everything for 500m around him, finding the people he came to meet tonight, and to confront.

SHAMBLES!

He swaps with a piece of paper. 1

Suddenly he's standing in one of the far warehouses, still on his hoverboard, in a room filled with police officers wearing assault gear.

The sounds of guns being readied and aimed at him clack out from all sides.

"Friendly," he says casually, and sees the faces of some of the men relax and brighten, now far more confident they'd be going home to their families tonight.

With a miracle on their side.

"It's been a while!" the captain in charge calls out from across the room. The man was standing around a table with a map of the docks on it, his lieutenants beside him as they plot their assault.

Horizon hops off his board, which some of them men stare at as it remains hovering in place, and walks over to the table.

"Good to see you again," Horizon says. "Well, its atleast good that we're taking down more criminals together."

The man chuckles a bit, "yeah well, last time was that warehouse of Trigger in Tokyo, this time its guns, guns, and guess what, more guns."

"You always get assigned to the warehouse raids?"

"If its on the docks, it hits my desk, atleast in this region, and since this time I'm here before you go busting in there, we've got a warrant."

"Hey last time I had probable cause to investigate," Horizon says jokingly.

"Right, whatever kid, just don't toe the line, we really can't afford you getting kicked out of the Hero Course for some crap like that," the man says. 4

"I'll keep that in mind," Horizon looks at the map as he expands his room, seeing a few points marked as having sentries posted with higher caliber rifles.

And without asking he takes one of the nearby pencils and adds to the notes on the map.

"Safe in this room, you missed a guard posted here, these crates are your priority. They've got more ammo than guns in that place but they're all together, get to these crates when things get hot so they don't just have unlimited ammo to shoot at your men."

"Damn," one of the lieutenants mutter.

"Trigger?" the captain asks.

"Mmm, not that I'm sensing," Horizon says, then stops for a moment and turns to face the warehouse. "There is something, but, a different kind of container, atleast not meant for injecting. Only one case of it."

"Can you mark it?"

"Secret room below this area of the floor," he points at the map. "I'd warp it out now but it feels like they have it on a pressure plate and watched by a motion sensor of some kind."

"I see, is that all?"

"Yeah, but I don't see why you couldn't deal with this without me, you've got more than enough muscle."

"Are they in position?" the captain asks as he takes a picture of the updated map and sends it to them.

"Yeah, I can sense Team Lurkers," Horizon says. "Edgeshot is up on one of the cranes by the water, Kamui is camped out at the road, I assume you put him there to stop vehicles with Mt. Lady, since she's sitting beside him falling asleep."

Horizon looks in her direction, then raises his hand and flicks a finger upward, "Takt." 3

"What was that?" one of the lieutenants ask.

"Just keeping her awake, anyway, why am I here, you've got enough muscle for this." 1

"Here," the captain hands him a earpiece which he connect to his visor via his phone. "I'll have Edgeshot explain."

"Lurkers, Horizon checking in," he says.

"Kamui Woods checking in."

"Ngh, Mt. Lady checking in, did you do that just now Horizon?" 4

"No idea what you're talking about."

"Edgeshot checking in, a pleasure to be working with you Horizon."

"Likewise, and why don't I sense Cellophane here?"

"He's in Tokyo on a solo stakeout mission," Edgeshot says. "Less fire and bullets, he's good but I want to teach him the things only I can teach first, you've got combat covered."

"Can we please focus," the captain says. "Edgeshot, please inform Horizon of the discovery you made yesterday."

"Right," Edgeshot's voice becomes even more serious. "From my current position, I'm maintaining line of sight on both suspects. Yesterday when I was doing final recon, after everyone got into position, I got a glimpse of one of the men deeper inside.

His skin was kind of different greys and blue, and looked stitched together. His face didn't seem all that abnormal in this world of Quirks, but the Frankenstein's monster look was a bit too suspicious."

"You think its a Nomu, and you said you have eyes on two suspects, so a second one?"

"Precisely, they also aren't carrying guns, and haven't moved in the past fifteen hours."

"Are they to the southeast corner of the building?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Because that's where the secret storage area is, there's a case in there we need to get, check the map the captain just sent you."

"On it."

"Good call waiting for me, who knows what kind of Quirks they could have. But the grey Nomu are supposed to be low-end, purple-black is mid-rank, and we know they've got some special High-End Nomus, atleast one."

"What? A high-end?" Kamui asks. "I didn't know that."

"The top Pro's will get the report tomorrow, along with the top police officers," Horizon looks to the captain. "Everyone on this line will know which is why I'm saying it now. My speculation is those things are meant to be hero killing specialists, or serve unique roles."

"But these Nomu should be on the weaker side from what you said, so we could have gone in yesterday," Mt. Lady whines. "We spent a extra night at this smelly port for nothing."

"Commission's orders," Edgeshot says. "All Nomu sightings get reported to Horizon, and if he's available we wait for him before engaging, you know without him there isn't anything stopping Kurogiri from warping these people away."

"Yeah, I know…"

"I don't think Kurogiri would get involved here," Horizon says. "Shigaraki has been breaking any gang or crime organization he can get his hands on and adding them to his forces. This is likely one of those, that's why they've only got two Nomu, and they're hiding supplies here instead of wherever the league hides theirs, probably off-shore or in another country."

"Because if you have warp gate you don't need supplies to be close," Kamui Woods says. "That's a good point, so these are just street thugs playing with Shigaraki's toys?"

"Most likely, but better to be safe than sorry."

"Seems a bit odd to me," the captain says. "They went through the trouble of buying this warehouse in a nice secluded spot, bought all these guns and security, and even built a secret room for whatever is in those cases, but only have two of the weaker Nomu…doesn't add up."

"It rarely ever does."

"You sure you don't sense anything else?"

"I'm sure," Horizon says. "But I'll be going in first anyway, keep your men on the perimeter, and Edgeshot--"

"Yeah?"

"When I make noise, you get into the secret room and steal whatever is in there, preferably without triggering the pressure plate or motion sensor. We want them to not know we found it, and the pressure plate and sensor will do exactly that."

"No wonder you didn't just warp it out, but I can handle it no problem." 1

"What about us?" Kamui Woods asks.

"You and Mt. Lady catch any stragglers while I deal with the Nomu, we're doing this loud. Normally I'm more tactical with my approach, but we need to send a message to Japan that any gang that works with the league is gonna get their teeth kicked in."

"A bit crude, but I see the logic in it, we'll follow your lead on this," Edgeshot says. 1

"Good, I know I can count on all of you, so just stick to the plan, I'll go get into position."

"Position, what position?" Mt. Lady asks.

"I'm Horizon, I don't need to sneak around my enemies, I'll just walk up and knock." 4

"I'll start the signal interrupter," the captain says and one of the lieutenants rushes off to the technical unit.

"Great, so I'll go say hello…"

Chapter 181: CHAPTER 177(Tactically Inefficent) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"What the hell is he doing?" Edgeshot asks from his perch.

At that moment he was looking through his binoculars, to see Horizon walking in the middle of the road up to the warehouse.

Not at all an efficient tactic, but certainly a flashy one. 1

Stacks of empty metal shipping containers on either side of him, spread around the entire area so it doesn't look suspicious and empty.

"This is the plan," the captain says. "He's about to make a scene, everyone is ready to back him up."

Approaching the massive warehouse, the two guards at the metal gate blocking it from the rest of the area immediately notice Horizon.

"Oh crap!" one of the men reaches for the radio on his waist.

"Takt!" both the men watch as their radios are pulled off of them and clatter to the floor.

"Shit!" they both draw their submachine guns and take aim. But as they try to squeeze the triggers, they refuse to budge.

As they try to figure out what was wrong, what caused their guns to seemingly jam. Not realizing the hold Horizon had on the components of their weapons.

"TAKT!" The metal gate is ripped from the wall and slams into them before hovering in the air, then Horizon rears back his arm in a throwing motion.

And with one move he catapults the gate into the now alerted warehouse doors.

It dents the other metal door before clattering to the floor.

And everyone is ready for battle as he steps over the unconscious bodies of the two guards.

"Don't suppose you're going to surrender and explain this operation?!" Horizon yells out as he sees a dozen men aiming rifles at him, standing between himself and the warehouse doors.

"Fire!"

"Guess that's a no--"

A volley of bullets and a cacophony of gunshots echo across the area.

"Dam--" Edgeshot was about to leap off the crane and get involved, but pauses as he notices all the bullets stopped in mid-air. "Oh, never mind I guess…" 2

Standing before the men Horizon just shakes his head, all their stunned faces looking at him in horror, "well, atleast I tried being nice."

Edgeshot's eyes go wide as he sees Horizon raise his sword and perform one horizontal slash at the warehouse roof.

GRRR!

The sound of stone grinding reaches out for barely a moment, and then he sees it, a perfectly clean cut diagonally from Horizon's spot in the road, to the back of the warehouse roof.

And in the next moment, he nearly drops his binoculars as Horizon raises his hand, and the entire roof rises with it, hovering high above the warehouse.

'Wow,' Edgeshot takes a moment to really absorb this sight. 'Enji said he's the most powerful Telekinetic in the world, I saw that video of him holding up a skyscraper…but this, in person, seems so unreal.'

The men inside the warehouse immediately begin to rush outside, and the two Nomu all the way at the back break into a sprint as well, so Edgeshot waits for them to clear out before he breaks into the secret compartment.

Edgeshot looks back to Horizon just in time to see one of the men drop his gun. He slams his fists together and his clothes rips apart as his body is covered in a small layer of brittle stone, sprouting out of his skin.

'Poor guy is gonna get cut up,' Edgeshot thinks as the man rushes Horizon, only for the student to snap his finger and point at the man.

And all the bullets held in the air are hurled at the man, not hard enough to draw blood thanks to his Stone Skin. But as the Quirk is broken and the man lies unconscious on the floor, he was covered in black and blue bruises all over his body.

'No wonder Pantu told me to be careful about this kid, but he's been pretty respectful atleast. But if I was her I'd be nervous too, I guess she's smart to warn us Top Pro Heroes that he's got an ego and doesn't like playing with others. But I haven't seen any of that tonight…'

Edgeshot leaps from his vantage point and into the warehouse as Horizon is rushed by the other men, as the real fight begins.

The crowd rushes Horizon and he sees one man with a Tanto, but the man then touches the blade with his finger and it begins glowing red hot.

'Heat Metal?' Horizon wonders as the man rushes in. Beside him are two brawlers, likely with a Strength Enhancer Quirk.

These three men rush in as the others reload.

One slash with the red hot blade nearly hits Horizon, and as its about to make contact.

SHAMBLES!

One of the brawlers takes his place, and the sound of flesh being burnt reaches their ears before the scent hits the air.

"AHHHHHHH!" the man screams out, but only for a moment as Horizon touches the should of the man with the Tanto still in his ally. 1

"Counter Shock!"

A quick discharge of electricity knocks them both out as the other brawler leaps up to kick Horizon in the back of his head.

Without even looking Horizon just raises his hand, feeling the enhanced strength of the man he uses a bit of energy to enhance his own strength to seemingly stop the attack with no issue.

"Hng!" the man's eyes go wide as the blocked palm grips his leg and spin with him, throwing him back toward his reloading allies, with enough force that he could easily clear twice the distance.

As the man is about to slam into the others Horizon swaps places with him and knocks out two men, before swapping again, and the man finally crashes into one of his allies.

With a few bloody slashes and broken jaws the others are quickly dealt with, then Horizon warps back into the open as the two main threats arrive.

They both appeared normal in his Scan, because Scan is only on the surface level, and doesn't show color. The true form of a shapeshifter can't be sensed by it, much like the clearly cobbled-together men before him appeared normal because he couldn't see the colors of them.

"You really are some ugly fuckers," he mutters as they both stare at him, completely unresponsive. "I guess they made you to try and blend in, well, let's get this over with…"

Horizon raises his sword and points it at them, and one of the Nomu immediately respond.

It releases a low growl, then belches out a bolt of lightning at Horizon.

He senses the bolt, but physically can't react fast enough.

Warping away is an option of course, but that doesn't send the right message.

Counter Shock: Lightning Rod!

The bolt hits him and joins the electricity already flowing across his body before he stabs Scalpel into the floor and disperses it.

The Nomu and spectators look a bit confused and amazed.

And Kamui Woods hears Mt. Lady mutter out, "sometimes I really hate how cool he looks." 5

"Worry about your spotlight later…" Kamui Woods whispers back.

"Lightning Bolt," Horizon says. "I'll add that to the list of Quirks the enemy has, and what's yours?"

As if understanding him the other Nomu begins growing, becoming almost as tall as Mt. Lady herself, and the woman nearly leaps into action.

Instinctively understanding that in most cases, she's the one to deal with giant-sized opponents.

But Kamui Woods stop her, sticking to the plan.

"Gigantification," Horizon says in a bored voice. "Ok, I've learned everything I can from these two, let's wrap this up."

As his words reach his allies through their radios he points his blade at the lightning-wielding Nomu.

INJECTION SHOT!

Seemingly nothing happens, then the Nomu flinches a few times and crumples to the floor.

'So that's Injection Shot,' the spectators realize.

Until now they've only heard about this almost mythical ability to damage people or structures without any resistance or signs of attack. Because throughout Japan and the world, everyone knows one of the restrictions Horizon faces is that he cannot use this excessively.

And now they better understand why.

It is inherently an effective attack, but the damage it does is rumored to be excessive and cruel, leaving many to wonder how such a young hero came up with it.

The corpse crumples to the floor as the Gigantification Nomu bounds forward to stomp down on Horizon.

"Curtain!" Horizon raises a hand and his translucent blue energy barrier appears in front of him, as a large square structure.

The ground under the other foot cracks as the giant tries to apply more and more pressure on the shield, and Horizon feels his ability pulling more and more power to defend against the weight.

"Ok, you're annoying," he drops his sword which hovers in the air, then uses his now free hand to point at the giant's head.

"Takt: Celestial Body!" 3

Dozens of empty shipping containers suddenly rocket toward the giant's head, battering it from all sides as if they were gravitationally pulled toward it.

It stumbles back and almost falls over, but even as the sound of bones shattering and eyeballs being squished is heard, and the Nomu once again becomes a lifeless corpse.

The body remains upright, hanging from where this almost crumpled ball of shipping containers slammed into it and are pinning it in the air.

A ball of crumpled metal crushing the head, with the giant body hanging out of it.

"Ugh," the spectator's wince and turn away in disgust.

And as the corpse slowly shrinks back, he drops the containers and it becomes a splat on the floor.

'Horizon takes a breath and smiles beneath the visor, happy with these new skills he's been able to develop at a much sooner pace, thanks to All For One…' 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 182: CHAPTER 178(Capsule Of Time)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y 1

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7 PM…

As the multiple armored cars trucks and police cars drive away in a long convoy, a few squads of officers remain at the warehouse observing the destruction.

Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods are walking back from the main gate, toward Edgeshot and Horizon. She looks around at the crumpled shipping containers and the roof of the warehouse, now rubble in the water, some bits still poking out through the surface.

"Kinda sucks that we didn't have to do anything huh," she kicks a few rocks out of the way as they continue walking.

"You wanted to deal with that much gunfire?" Kamui Woods asks.

"Not really, but this means we don't get much of a spotlight, and I've got some Hero Insurance payments coming up." 1

"Well, you were here so you'll get paid."

"Yeah, but not as much as if I helped, but Horizon dealt with all the villains himself while Edge got the case or whatever it is."

"Look around," Kamui Woods gestures to all the destruction around them. "Kid tore up the place just to 'make a point', whatever that means. If you got involved you'd be sharing the bill with him." 1

"It's a wonder he can afford to fight like that." 1

"Well, he's usually more efficient, plus, according to the rumors he's made atleast a few hundred million from his medical practice, the kid isn't here for the money." 2

"Just here to help people," she groans and rolls her eyes. "Sometimes he's such a jerk, then he has cool stuff like that…really annoying."

"You're just jealous he's stealing our spotlight, we were the new shiny rookies before him after all."

"What, like you aren't?"

Kamui Woods shrugs, "doesn't bother me. Fewer people shooting at you is perfect in my book, plus it's not like we operate anywhere nearby so he doesn't really cut into our income. Aldera is pretty much unchanged, it's the Pro Heroes in Musutafu and Minato Tokyo that have to be worried, that's where the crime rates have dropped the most since he's usually at UA or Horizon tower."

"Awe," she leans over and quickly tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek of his mask. "Look at you being all sweet and worrying about me."

"You become a bigger target, not bulletproof, I always worry about you." 3

Mt. Lady sighs, "yeah, but I like helping people…and sometimes that gets dangerous."

"Hmm, couldn't have said it better myself."

"Yeah, I can be pretty smart sometimes," Mt. Lady giggles to herself.

"It doesn't count if you're the one saying it," Horizon interrupts them. During their chat, they arrived at the temporary command tent where the investigation and cleanup were being orchestrated from.

Edgeshot, Horizon, the police Captain, and a few other officers were in the tent.

Mt. Lady just rolls her eyes and stands beside Kamui Woods opposite Edgeshot and the captain.

The man looks over to the other officers and nods, and they both leave the tent to go help load the evidence into the trucks.

"Can we leave yet?" Mt. Lady asks.

"Nope," Edgeshot puts a metal briefcase on the table. "This is what was in that secret compartment. Since Horizon had all eyes on him nobody noticed me getting it. Took a minute to jam the sensors, it was on a separate alarm, so as far as the villains know, this is still in the same position."

"Good," Horizon looks over at the captain. "Don't tell anyone outside of this tent about the compartment, and don't mention it on any official reports. Villains have eyes and ears everywhere, atleast people that can set up an operation this big."

"Got it," the man nods.

"Why is everyone taking orders from a kid?" Mt. Lady mutters.

"Because he's Horizon," the captain says. "Now please stop interrupting." 6

"Sorry."

"As I was saying, we want the villains to think this case is still here. This was some kind of a resource outpost. The last couple of these we've raided across Japan didn't have anyone who knew the actual bosses or organization of it."

"So they're all blissfully ignorant, and atleast have that bit of plausable deniability, not that it's worth much after attacking a Pro," Edgeshot says.

"I'm not a Pro yet."

"Right, and how'd you get all these locations? The Hero Network has been on fire with all the info you've been flooding it with."

"That's my second Quirk."

"Second Quirk?!" They all look at him in surprise.

"Yeah, I'm rich…" 11

"Oh, of course," Edgeshot actually chuckles, for a split second his stone-cold shinobi face cracks before it fully reforms. "I suppose we'll have to send search teams to find any hidden compartments in them as well."

"Nope, just watch them," Horizon says. "Captain, can you station undercover officers here 24/7, we'll clear out everyone else, and when the villain sends people to recover what's in this case, we'll get some answers."

"How are you so sure they'll have answers?" Kamui Woods asks.

The Captain chips in, "you don't hire security to guard a place like this, then hide something even deeper within it, without sending people you absolutely trust to collect it."

"That makes sense," Kamui Woods says. "Please, continue."

"Right, I'll station men here after we clear out, but it could be weeks before anyone comes to collect."

"I'm patient," Horizon says. "I'm coordinating a takedown on contraband supply lines all across Japan, I don't expect to crumble it and all the crime organizations in it overnight."

"Well you've made good progress for only three weeks," the captain says.

"Yeah well, when you get your head out of your ass and stop thinking like a superhero, and start thinking like an Emperor, it makes things like this easier…" 1

"And Japan is your empire?" Edgeshot asks.

"Well, these are the people I'm protecting, so yes, it is."

"Doesn't matter what he thinks," the captain says. "It's working, and if I need to call you Emperor Horizon to keep getting these results, I don't think my men and I will be too opposed." 1

"Just 'Horizon' is fine, now, can we open that case already?" 3

Edgeshot looks at the case and inspects the small device he placed on the biometric lock, a highly illegal digital lockpick that only a few Pro Heroes have access to.

Namely Edgeshot, Eraser Head, and Mister Knight. But Horizon makes a note that he'd have to get one.

A quiet click signals the case opening, without triggering any alarms within.

Edgeshot opens it, and inside they see the deactivated sensors in the case, and trapped in thick foam is a single finger-sized plastic capsule of a blue liquid.

"Trigger?" the captain reaches for it, and Horizon immediately slaps his hand away. "Ouch," the man rubs the bruise on his hand. "Guess it's not Trigger…"

"If you could see what I see, you'd never want to be anywhere near it."

"And what do you see?" Edgeshot asks.

To Horizon, as he focuses more and more on his Scan, standing like a statue and staring down at the item. And for the first time they see blue energy vapor seeping through his clothes, his gloves and sleeves as he pours more and more energy into his Scan.

More than he'd ever been able to before, and finally, he sees them.

The Chronons, time particles, moving quickly in all directions through the liquid. 4

"Time, someone trying to fuck with time, using this," his words leave them all worried at that notion.

"You can see time?" Edgeshot sounded confused.

"Sure, let's go with that. But within my range, I can perceive the truth in all things and manipulate that truth, and nothing escapes me. Which does include the passage of time when I really focus."

"So you can control time, that's not fair," Mt. Lady whines. 1

"Well Hand Of God as it is really isn't fair, but no I can't mess with time, atleast not yet."

"Well that's somewhat of a relief atleast," Edgeshot says. "Not that I don't trust you, but that's too much power for any one man to have."

"He says to sixteen-year-old billionaire that's already the second most powerful being on the planet," Horizon chuckles. 4

"Right, well I should turn this in for evidence?" The captain asks.

"No, I'll be taking this to analyze it, plus no offense but if someone can distill time into a liquid, I don't think it'd be too hard to break into a police station and kill everyone protecting the evidence lockup."

"Oh, good point. I'll keep this off the record then."

"Right," Horizon closes up the case. "Then I need to get out of here and start working on this, among other things…"

--Hours Later, Horizon Tower…

"You know the point of you getting that job was to use the apartment that comes with it," Horizon says, sitting on the couch in his dimly lit living room.

The TV was on, playing the news, showing his exploits today.

But Ryuko was a bit busy, in her underwear straddling his lap, facing him. Her hands inspected all the grooves of his body glove as her head rests against his visor, feeling one of his hands on her waist, slowly inching its way behind her. 4

But his other is up and to the side, playing with the small blue capsule he discovered today.

"When you aren't in Tokyo I always stay there, but honestly babe, my place doesn't have a pool, or a hot tub, or such a nice view." 2

"Or me…"

She giggles, "or you," she feels his fingers tighten and grasp her ass, and her breath nearly leaves her.

"This place is much more fun with you here too."

"Is that all I am, fun?" she leans back a bit so he gets a proper look at her.

"That's what we agreed to…"

Ryuko sighs and deflates, frowning slightly. "Can you atleast give me your full attention when I'm trying to talk to you?" she gestures to him still twirling the potentially dangerous evidence in his fingers. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation here."

"Really, while you're dressed to looking all sexy and sitting in my lap? Doesn't seem like you want me thinking much…"

Ryuko gives him an unimpressed look and pats his chest, "what if I want more?"

"You spend half the week here and have my undivided attention most of the time we're together, what more is there to want?"

"Well, I've been thinking, and I know it'll probably be weird since you're just a bit younger--"

"--12 years younger." 7

She hits him in the chest, but he doesn't even react, "sorry, just. I was wondering if--"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alert sound from his phone goes off, meaning the call is an emergency.

"God damn it!" Ryuko yells as she gets up to walk into the bedroom, knowing he had to answer the phone. But she stops at the corner to wait for him.

"Yagi, what is it?" Horizon asks as he answers.

"..."

"What, seriously?"

"..."

"For what?!"

"..."

"I fail to see how this is my problem, fix this yourself, he's your fuckup!" 2

"..."

"He did what?! He put my fucking name in this?! You better pray he gets a prison sentence because I'll kill him myself!" 1

"..."

"Ugh, fine! I'll unfuck this shit for you, but I've got something I'd need from you."

"..."

"Does it matter what I want? The alternative is you're stuck with this crap on your plate."

"..."

"Thought so!" Horizon angrily hangs up the call.

He turns around to see Ryuko looking at him, worried, "is everything alright? Who was that?"

"That was All Might."

"That's how you speak to all might?"

"When he asks me to bail his garbage protoge out of jail, yeah, that's how I speak to him…" 16

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 183: CHAPTER 179(Overhaul) 6

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Throughout Japan, while cities and regions all have proper names, some areas are more commonly atleast among Pro Heroes and villains, referred to as territories of the most prominent Hero Agency in the area.

Saitama Tokyo is commonly referred to as Endeavor's region, and Minato Tokyo is quickly becoming known as Horizon's Domain.

This smaller district on the other side of Japan didn't have many large villain attacks but was a main transit hub for smuggling and other illegal acts. Not as many fights, but the perfect place for Sir Nighteye's agency.

This is how an agency with only four members has dominated this district and has made it known as Sir Nighteye's territory. Japan's leading investigation Hero Agency, currently only being challenged by Horizon.

And currently under the mid-day sun, Sir Nighteye's golden boy, Mirio Togata in full Hero Costume as Japan's 4th most popular Hero Course student, Lemillion, was on patrol. 2

His smile seemed infectious as he walked through the street, politely greeting everyone he walked past and turning down offers of small treats from the nearby shops.

Offers made by the same people he's been protecting for the past two years at Sir Nighteye's Hero Agency.

"Lemillion, you should come by later before heading back to the agency, I just made fresh Mochi!" one of the men yelled out from across the street. "You can take some back for everyone!"

Lemillion turns and gives a polite wave and smile, "if I finish patrol nearby I'll be sure to swing by!"

Beside him, Deku, in full Hero Costume, Sir Nighteye's 4th member, but only as a work studies student looked up to Lemillion. "Are people around here always giving you free stuff? I didn't expect everyone to be so…friendly." 3

"We're Heroes after all, we protect them. And in a small place like this it's good to know the people you're saving, don't you think?"

"Oh, I guess I never really thought about these slower days we'd have as Pros."

"Oh yeah, most days are like this around here, if you want more action you'd have to go work in Tokyo…well maybe not Minato or Saitama Tokyo, Endeavor and Horizon don't really let anyone else get a chance to work."

"Yeah, Gran Torino mentioned that more populated areas have more crime," Deku looks a bit sad at the memory of his dead mentor. "But Sir Nighteye is all about investigation right, so I should focus on learning some of that while I'm here." 8

"Exactly, just focus on one thing at a time, the Work Studies is partly about learning how to run your own agency after all. Lots of heroes can teach you how to punch villains, but…and I don't mean to sound mean, but most of them can't run an investigation up to even my level, much less to the level of Sir, if any."

"Yeah, All Might said I'm similar to him in a way, maybe that's how."

"Hmm, All Might told you that?" Lemillion gives him a strange look. "Do you guys talk a lot?"

"Uh, well, he's our Hero Class teacher after all. He's familiar with all the first-year Hero Course Students. It's not like I'm special or anything. It's just my quirk is simple like his you know, so he's helping a bit extra." 1

"Huh, you mutter a lot, you should drop that habit," Lemillion laughs it off. "Oh, and don't worry about all the free stuff people offer, I never really accept any of it, even when Mrs. Aki's grandkids corner me and give me whatever she sent I still feel super guilt about it."

Deku breathes a sigh of relief, "yeah that would feel too weird for me too. So is there a--"

"Hngh!" a young girl, no older that seven, bumps into Deku as she was in a full sprint leaving a dark alley. 10

Both students immediately stop, seeing her in an oversized white t-shirt, bandages wrapping her arms and legs, long white hair, and a single small horn on the right side of her forehead.

"Sorry," Deku says, and kneels down to make sure the girl was alright as she's sitting on the sidewalk. "Did that hurt, are you alright?"

He reaches out to help her up, and she flinches at the sight of his hand, he sees the trembling in her eyes as her breathing quickens. As fear wracks her body and causes her to freeze up.

He retracts his hand, noticing her reaction, "are you alright? What's your name?"

"Are you bothering these people?" a bored voice asks from in the alley, and the students look up to see the target their agency was investigating, Kai Chisaki Overhaul, leader of the Shie Hassaikai Yakuza branch, and potentially the main hub of smuggling in this area.

Lemillion looks between the girl and Overhaul as the man approaches, realizing how terrified she was of him as she holds onto Deku at the sound of his voice.

"I'm sorry about my daughter," Overhaul gestures to the girl. "She's always running around and falling down, especially when I try to change her bandages, which only makes the problem even worse…she's a bit accident-prone."

'He's trying to explain the bandages with that weak excuse,' Lemillion and Deku realize immediately. 4

"We're sorry for bumping into her," Lemillion says.

"Oh, no I'm sorry for failing to discipline her, I don't want to take up any of the time you spend protecting us after all," Overhaul's eyes then drop from Lemillion to Deku. "Oh, a new Hero? I don't think I've seen you before…"

As Deku is about to introduce himself Lemillion cuts in, "he's just a student on a trial run, nobody worth remembering at the moment." 4

"I see, well I hope he sticks around. Now, Eri, let's go so these fine heroes can get back to work."

Eri only trembles more and holds onto Deku tighter, "please," she whispers, just soft enough for Deku to hear. "No…"

Deku gets a look of determination on his face, and Lemillion gets ready to speak up. He understands that any altercation here will put Sir Nighteye's investigation in jeopardy, and he hates himself for deciding to leave Eri in this situation.

But he also doesn't know if there are dozens of more people like here that he won't be able to save if Overhaul gets spooked. 1

An impossible choice, but he trusts Sir Nighteye's guidance.

Hard choices now to save a million lives later.

But Overhaul only needs to pinch the bottom of his glove for Eri to get the hint, and she immediately gets away from Deku as if nothing happened and stands beside Overhaul.

"Good, now apologize to the heroes for causing trouble."

"I'm sorry," Eri gives a polite bow.

"So am I," Overhaul says as he gets ready to leave. "Have a wonderful day heroes."

As they both turn to walk into the alley, before they even get off the sidewalk.

Deku's mind races back to this exact situation. To the train he was on with Gran Torino. To his instincts screaming at him that Iida needed his help. To Gran Torino pinning him down and preventing him from leaving…to his friend dying because he chose to do nothing. 3

'Never again! I'll save EVERYONE!' 3

ONE FOR ALL: FULL COWLING- 10%! 3

Deku leaps forward before Lemillion could react, sweeps Overhaul's legs out from under him and snatches Eri up, then leaps a few meters away.

The girl is instantly holding onto Deku for dear life as she mutters a soft, "thank you," under her breath, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Lemillion's eyes go wide as Overhaul tries to pick himself up off the ground. People around the street all stop to look at the commotion.

Overhaul notices this and stays on the floor, raising a hand to point at Deku.

Lemillion makes most of his body permeable, ready to engage and back up his friend now that they're in this situation.

But Overhaul doesn't engage, he's a charming leader of an underground gang. He can't go around flaunting his Quirk and fighting heroes in the street. He can't risk revealing his operation or worse, his ties with Shigaraki.

He can't risk the government sending its big guns after him, living in this mostly quiet district with only one weak agency was perfect for his operation.

So as a master of understanding the law and public perception, he turns on the charm.

" HELP, HE'S TAKING MY DAUGHTER!" 15

And just like that, all the fight got knocked out of Deku and Lemillion, and moments later two other nearby Pro Heroes were on the scene to investigate the misconduct of these provisional license holders… 3

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 184: CHAPTER 180(Character Witness)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--10 PM, Judge Hoka's Chamber…

"I can't believe I'm doing this, you had better not back out of our agreement," Horizon says.

He was sitting in a luxurious but small office, with shelves of older books on either side.

Yagi sat beside him as they wait for the man they'd come to meet.

"What you're doing now is no different from what I'll be doing during that interview, but I think the push you'll get from me speaking so highly of you to the people is well worth it."

"Every bit helps, just keep him in line, or I'll do it myself, and I promise you don't want that." 1

"Right," Yagi rubs his one palm on his leg nervously. "I'm just glad Lemillion didn't get into any trouble, but from the sounds of it, and since Nighteye didn't even try to help, looks like Midoriya will have to find another agency to work at." 1

"Assuming he doesn't get banned from Hero Work," Horizon says. "Let's deal with one thing at a time. How about you focus on getting your fuckup out of this mess before throwing him into the next one…"

A moment later the side door to this chamber opens and a slim senior Japanese man walks in, before Horizon and Yagi get up to greet him he gestures for them to remain seated.

"No need to get up," Judge Hoka says as he hangs up his robes and sits down in his chair. "It really is an honor to be meeting both of you, I just wish it was under more delightful circumstances…or that I had more time."

"The honor is ours," Yagi says, and Horizon only nods. "But as I said on the phone we're here to discuss Izuku Midoriya."

"Midoriya?" Hoka thinks for a moment as he leans back in his chair. He flips through some files on his desk and then finds what he's looking for. "Oh, the green-haired boy who got arrested this morning. Tried to kidnap a little girl, assaulted a civilian, didn't resist arrest, is locked up for the next few hours before we ship him off to a reinforced cell…what about him?"

"Right, young Midoriya," Yagi says. "We're here to discuss perhaps…not having such a permanent sentence for this, misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?" Hoka leans forward a bit, "he tried to kidnap a little girl and assaulted her dad, the entire thing was recorded by the security cameras from the store across the street, it's quite simple." 1

"Well, um," Yagi rubs the back of his head nervously. "Midoriya is one of my students, and I've spoken to him on the phone since he's been locked up, he explained it quite differently to me."

Hoka looks a bit concerned, "right, the story about the girl needing saving and being abused by her dad. But we pulled her medical records and we've got dozens of people testifying that she's just clumsy. She was just a child acting out, as children tend to do. Your student had no reason to act in such a way."

"Well I'm sure the situation was much different in person," Yagi says. "Young Midoriya has excellent instincts, he's yet to be wrong, and I trust his judgment on this situation." 4

"Too bad instincts can't be measured on paper, like witness accounts, video evidence, and medical records."

"Enough," Horizon interrupts them. "Look, your honor, we've all had long days here, you especially. But we're here because you're the head judge in charge of Pro Hero Vs Civilian cases, All Might really believes in Deku and doesn't want his hero career to end like this, what are the chances of that happening?"

"Right, well the Commission handles most Pro Hero business, but when citizens take issue with them then that's my jurisdiction, and as the head of this department I don't see a good way out of this for your boy."

"None?" Yagi asks.

"Well, before this he didn't have much of a record, aside from one minor case of involving himself in a Slime Villain incident, luckily he didn't use his Quirk so that wasn't illegal."

"Just very stupid," Horizon says. "Deku has a bad habit of leaping the moment he sees someone in trouble, as you can tell, it gets him in trouble."

"Right," Judge Hoka sighs. "Well, rules are rules, and the result of any sort of violation of the law during the Provisional License period is grounds for immediate annulment of the license and permanent disbarment from taking the exams again. But that would be a slap on the wrist for him, being caught assaulting innocent civilians and kidnapping children is arguably worse than just killing someone."

"And he'll be tried as an adult since he has a Provisional License," Horizon says.

"Naturally," Judge Hoka says. "Look, just between us, I don't think the kid has it in him to hurt a fly, seems like a softie. But…he's kind of an idiot for going about it like this, and the law is the law. My hands are tied." 2

"Right, well Nezu figured as much," Yagi says. "So he came up with an alternative." Yagi takes out a stack of papers and gently puts them on the table.

Judge Hoka looks at it skeptically, then leans forward and begins reading, "had anyone less than the past and future Symbols of Peace been sitting across from me, I'd already be telling both of you to get out…" he says as he continues reading.

"Which is why…I am here," Horizon says in a tired voice, already sick of this entire process.

Almost half an hour later the judge is finally done reading the documents, then sits back and takes a deep breath.

"Well, Nezu found a loophole that I'll have to seal up, after this case…"

"Meaning?" Yagi sounded a bit hopeful.

"It'll work," Judge Hoka says. "But he'll be on house arrest for the next year. Will you be putting that location as UA?"

"Of course, he won't be able to go home but he can continue his studies," Yagi says. "Anything else."

"Well, his Provisional License is annulled, and he'll have to redo the exam next year…no, the following year since he can't leave UA until that round of exams. Plus he'll be very closely watched in terms of any time he reports an incident he resolved, and any violation will result in him being arrested and spending his initial sentence of 25 years…in prison, with no chance of early release or bail." 7

Yagi feels his heart drop at that, finally realizing exactly what kind of bullet they narrowly dodged. 1

"Now, this only works because I trust both of you, as does all of Japan, and because this event has been kept quiet by the Commission since it makes Pro Heroes look bad. But since teachers and UA staff aren't allowed to be legal character witnesses in cases like this, the only person I trust is you."

He spins the papers around and points to a dotted line, "you'll have to sign as a witness of his good character Horizon."

Horizon just stiffly takes the pen and leans forward to sign, "which I can do since legally I'm treated as an adult, even before my Provisional License…" his hands stop a moment before he signs, then looks at Yagi, and shakes his head. "Can't believe I'm doing this…" he reluctantly signs the agreement.

"Right," Judge Hoda takes the papers and files them away. "I'll call and have him released in the morning, but this matter will stay on the record, and reflect poorly on Horizon if this student does turn out to be some child-stealing psychopath."

"I promise, if I see him straying I'll deal with him before you ever find out," Horizon says. "Can't have my reputation being sullied after all." 3

Judge Hoda gives him a strange look, then glances over at Yagi to see him genuinely worried.

"Right, now that we're all settled," the Judge takes out his phone. "My grandkids are big Horizon fans, can we take a few pictures, maybe you can sign some stuff?" 1

"Well I'm always happy to spread some joy," Horizon chuckles as he gets up and takes out some of his metal cards, which he usually doesn't give out, but on this occasion, he decides to hand the man a pair.

Because new political friends are always useful. 3

--2 Hours Later…

Yagi and Horizon have been sitting in silence since leaving the office, still in the back of an armored SUV on the way back to Musutafu where UA is.

"So…" Yagi tries making conversation. "That went very well."

"..."

"The interview you asked me to do with your friend Chitose, and the things you want me to say, you asked me to stake my reputation on you, so I feel like it was fair to ask you to do the same." 4

"But I'm not Deku," Horizon growls out. "I'm perfect, and he's a fuckup."

"Wel--"

"Plus your career is over, mine is only just starting, much bigger risk on my end of the deal…luckily I don't plan to do this hero bullshit forever like you."

"Right, you'll be focusing on medicine more after the first few years," Yagi sighs. "And you're right, I'm sorry my student is causing you this much trouble."

"Just fix it."

"I'm sure he had goo--"

"Don't care, reasons don't matter, just results. And his are atrocious."

Yagi awkwardly nods, and smartly decides to change the topic, "well, are you staying in UA or heading back to Tokyo?"

"I promise you don't want me there when Deku shows his face…I'll be in Tokyo for the next week to cool off, then I'll come back."

"Uh, but you've only got permission to spend Thursday and Friday in Tokyo, it's Sunday."

Horizon just silently turns to Yagi. And the man can feel the angry and annoyed energy radiating from him.

"Right, I'll just explain it to Nezu," Yagi says nervously.

And they go back to traveling in silence back to UA…

END CHAPTER--

Upload schedule changing from every weekday to Monday-Wednesday-Friday so I don't work myself to death, hopefully it changes back eventually, that's all :p 13

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Chapter 185: CHAPTER 181(Just A Glimpse) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--11 PM…

Sitting in the back of an armored SUV, Horizon is on his way back to UA, already in Musutafu with the school in sight atop its hill.

Within his visor, he was on a phone call with a potential lead for this new drug he discovered.

"So Suneater got hit?"

"Yeah," Fatgum says. "My Amajiki got shot with some weird bullet yesterday, but he slept it off. His Quirk wasn't working for a while afterward."

"Was it blue?" Horizon asks.

"Blue? Nope, it was red, I figured since you're in UA and Ryuko told me about how you helped her, asking you to take a look would be the fastest option."

"Normally I don't appreciate being treated like a personal crime lab, but this ties into something I'm working on so I'll allow it."

"Thanks man, knew I could count on you. The faster we get this done the fewer people get hurt."

"You already sent it with him?"

"Yeah, Amajiki said he'll find you at lunch tomorrow and deliver it."

"Right, now tell me the story, how'd things go exactly?"

"Well," Fatgum pauses for a moment. "He and Red Riot were on patrol when some thugs caught their eyes. I showed up and we took them all down, but one of their friends was in the crowd with a gun and shot Suneater in the arm, the bullet thing didn't even hurt him, just stung then fell to the floor, but it has a needle tip, injected him with something."

"And suddenly he had no Quirk."

"Yeah, he tried to use his Quirk but couldn't, but a few hours later and he's fine."

"Was it only the one bullet?"

"Yeah, weird right."

Horizon warps the one blue capsule into his hand, and makes it hover just about his palm.

"An entire warehouse for just the one capsule, then a group of thugs to act as a trial run, but also gave them the one. Manufacturing these things must be beyond difficult and expensive, and it sounds imperfect."

"Warehouse?" Fatgum asks. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing for you to worry about, I'll analyze the sample you sent me, are you familiar with Edgeshot?"

"Yeah, Edge and I go way back!"

"Good, send him the same report you sent to me, we need to connect the dots because these events happened on opposite sides of Japan."

"The distributor you're hunting down is involved then, guess this means they move more than just guns, but drugs too."

"A powerful and dangerous drug, one shot and a top pro suddenly becomes Quirkless for a few hours," Horizon plays with the capsule in his fingers. "Blind a soldier for a second and he dies, take away a Pro Heroes Quirk mid-fight, for even a moment--" 1

"--They could kill anyone, even someone like All Might would be vulnerable…would have been vulnerable."

"Luckily it's in the form of a bullet," Horizon says. "Means people like Kirishima and Enji are mostly fine since they can either just shrug off the shots or incinerate them before they touch. Would have been really dangerous as an aerosol agent."

"And you can dodge it too, since you can warp."

"These won't work on me even if they hit, but sure."

"Huh, lucky guy, but best not to test that theory, we really can't afford to lose you."

"I know, is there anything else interesting in your district I should be made aware of?"

"Nah, just the usual stuff. If I find any more samples of this stuff I'll be sure to give you a call!"

"I appreciate that…"

"Huh, you know, you're a lot nicer than people give you credit for." 1

Horizon chuckles at that, "oh no, I'm a heinous asshole, you're just lucky you aren't one of those useless paper Pros." 5

"W--" Horizon hangs up. 3

He relaxes back into his seat as they make it halfway through Musutafu, about to reach his exit point.

Looking at the blue capsule in his hand he realizes the magnitude of this situation.

'Blue seemingly accelerates time in certain aspects of DNA, but this sample didn't do anything to Ryuko's hair sample when I tested it out.

Red somehow reverses a Quirk factor into uselessness for a few hours. But if the blue does nothing on its own, and the red can remove Quirks…

The blue is an antidote to the red, they want to sell Quirk-destroying bullets to villains so that they can actually fight people like Enji. Then turn around and pose as some pharmaceutical company and sell the antidote to the governments.

That's the only way since removing Quirks like that violates a lot of human rights, even if it would be appropriate for some villains.

I need to find a villain group with links for pharmaceutical companies, Feel Good Inc should be a good starting point. 1

Having some of those red ones on hand for the next All For One isn't a bad idea… I guess I'll collect one or two before this is all over.'

Feeling his ride about to come to an end, Horizon wordlessly takes out a few hundred dollars and leaves in on the seat, then warps away, something the drivers of this company are very much accustomed to, opening the privacy window to see him gone and a tip waiting for them. 1

SHAMBLES

Horizon is suddenly standing in a dark bedroom, unbothered by the lack of light he senses the light switch nearby and flicks it on.

Blinding light reveals the most pathetic thing he's seen at UA yet. 1

As if the entire room was a shrine to All Might. 1

Posters, banners, figures and toys, even the bedsheets were All Might themed. On some shelves to the side, he could see some stuffed toys of All might in all his different costumes, and beside the bed was an All Might-themed alarm clock.

'So this is where pussy goes to dry up…' 13

And most pathetic of them all, Deku is in bed wearing a thin ankle monitor, one that can easily be hidden by a pair of socks, keeping him in UA.

Horizon's had a week to cool off since last seeing Yagi to have Deku released, and now most of that anger has subsided.

Now he's just very, very, very annoyed.

"Mmm," Deku stirs awake, rolling over and throwing the covers aside as he rubs his eyes. All the while Horizon just walks around the room observing this overgrown shrine.

A few seconds later and Horizon just can't take it anymore, "my fucking god, get your shit together so I can talk to you." 1

Deku suddenly snaps awake, looking over to see Horizon holding his most prized possession, a limited edition series one All Might trading card, still in the plastic package, worth thousands of dollars.

He nearly forgets himself and rushes over to have him put it down, then quickly remembers exactly who was in his room, and how bad this situation can become.

"Uh, can you please, um--" he winces as Horizon holds it up, but relaxes a bit when he carefully puts it back into its stand. "Thanks…"

"Relax, I'm a hero, I'm always respectful of other people's items…" he says after breaking into Deku's room and touching his stuff. 1

"Right, uh, how can I help you?"

"You can't help me, because you're Deku, so just listen," Horizon quickly walks up to him and leans in closer, making Deku's back suddenly drenched in sweat. 1

"Uh--"

"Can you just go a few months without fucking up, is that too hard to ask for?"

"Wel--"

"No, seriously, because I put my neck on the line to get you out of a fucking assault charge, and child kidnapping charge, I signed as a character witness for you, understand."

Deku just nods stiffly.

"Good, because I trust Yagi to be a good little hero and do what he's told, but you, I don't trust you not to trip over your own leg and break it, so before you do anything stupid, just think of what I'll do to you if you make me look back." 6

"I--"

Horizon's hand moves absurdly fast and grabs Deku face, his right hand on Deku's lower jaw keeping his mouth shut, then lifting him off the floor.

Then he begins squeezing.

Then the searing pain starts.

Deku's pupils dilate as he feels his jaw straining, his gums being squeezed and teeth pushed together, slowly crushed in Horizon's vice grip.

One For All: Full Cowling-10%!

Lightning begins jumping around Deku's body, harmless exaggerated static but always a flashy sight.

Then Deku raises both his hands to pry Horizon's fingers off his face.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Where he expected some resistance but for One For All to win out in the end, he's clawing against steel and making no progress, feeling the fingers still slowly tightening.

Deku can almost hears his jaw creaking and teeth cracking, feeling and tasting the warm blood filling his mouth as his gums burst and tooth fragments dance across his tongue.

"Mmmm!" Deku's muffled cries are accompanied by tears as his jaw finally shatters and his mouth is deformed.

One For All: Full Cowling-18%!

His muscles burn and sting as he pushes past his comfortable power usage, desperate to make the pain stop.

The growing pain in his arms is nothing compared to what Horizon is causing him, and as he just barely starts to pry Horizon's fingers away.

BOOSTER SHOT!

A strange blue energy vapor begins pouring off Horizon's arm and the grip tightens, completely crushing Dekus' lower jaw and shattering the few remaining teeth. 6

And the pain is just enough to make Deku's eyes roll back and his world goes black.

"Augh!" Deku coughs as he wakes up, a few hours later, laying on the floor of his room in a small blood stain with fragments of teeth scattered about it.

"Ngh," he holds his head, feeling a massive headache. "That hur--" he stops talking, realizing that he's speaking fine, and rushes to his mirror.

"Right… because heroes don't hurt people," he mutters, now having a much better understanding of why All Might is so cautious about dealing with Horizon. 5

Finally having a glimpse behind the curtain, as he looks at his perfectly healed face in the mirror.

His eyes then look over at the clock, seeing it's already 10 AM. 1

"Oh no, I'm late for class!" 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 186: CHAPTER 182(Morality/Mortality) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--29th September, 2315, Horizon Tower…

Sitting on his couch Horizon had his feet up on the coffee table, a tablet in hand as he finishes up some work, finally completing one of his outstanding tasks.

He wore only his body glove and a pair of shorts over it along with his visor, because on one of the other couches beside him is Ryuko in a set of Horizon-themes pajamas, her laptop setup and a stack of papers beside her as she occupies the entire thing to finish up some of her own work.

They were both enjoying a quiet night inside with the TV on the wall playing an interview currently being hosted in UA, between All Might and Chitose, AKA Meta Liberation Army Commander: Curious, head of the recruiting and propaganda division.

Ryuko glances up at the screen, then returns to her work. "You know, if I didn't know better I'd say All Might is clearly betting on you to become the next him."

"Oh, and why would you say that?" Horizon asks.

"Well, his first interview since the Kamino situation and he says he felt ashamed because of Tomura Shigaraki and blamed himself, which is probably true since that's the kind of person he is."

"Mhm."

"But since then he's just been going sort of on and on about how great you are and how much he trusts you to take care of the future, the scripting is subtle but not hard to miss if you know to look for it."

"Luckily most people don't know to look for it."

"How'd you setup this interview so quickly anyway?"

"Chitose is a friend that's always looking for a story."

Ryuko looks up from her work, seeing the beautiful blue Chitose on the screen, then glances over at Horizon, "just a friend?" 1

"Settle down cat lady, she's got a secret boyfriend and everything…plus she's too annoying for anything more. Probably would be interviewing me during sex, no thanks." 5

Ryuko giggles at that, "way to kill the mood huh? But it still feels weird knowing All Might is doing this because of you."

"Well he wanted me to save his fuckup, either this or Deku would be fighting in court still."

"Doesn't it feel like you held Deku hostage, just a little bit?"

Horizon shrugs, "not really, like any contract he had the option to just say no and leave, but when you sign the dotted line you don't get to complain about what comes after, so long as all parties keep their word."

"I guess you're right, still seems kinda extreme if you ask me, lots of kids mess up when they're out on patrol for the first time, the Commission had an extreme reaction."

"Partly my fault…entirely my fault."

"Huh?"

"Well, I've been pushing so much for the public and Commission to be harder on Pro Heroes, including Pro Heroes themselves, the standards to get a Provisional License have gone up significantly and the Commission is also looking for any excuse to flunk people out of Hero Programs."

"So they maxed out the charges to make an example? Punish someone who I'm sure they know must be innocent but a bit misguided…as an example of intolerance for Pro Heroes messing up."

"Pretty much," Horizon shrugs. "Luckily aside from you, the teacher, myself, and a few cops and a judge, nobody else really knows. And the Commission ofcourse."

"That, that doesn't sound heroic at all," Ryuko sits up and thinks about it for a moment. "Wait a minute, is that why even when All For One was revealed they never lessened the punishment against my team for the Summer Camp incident?"

"Yup, and why they never tried to defend you from the public, luckily Nezu covered the legal fees and fines for you guys, otherwise you'd be spending the next 5 years in debt."

Ryuko breathes a sigh of relief, "good this I retired when I did, this new status quo you're working on for Pro Heroes seems really unforgiving." 1

"That's the idea, because if you fail people die, as you know."

"Mhm."

"So best to get the losers out of the system as early as possible."

"Yeah but that causes another issue, doesn't it?"

"What issue is that."

"Well, people like me," Ryuko sees Horizon look over at her. "I mean I've got part ownership of the mountain resort so I wasn't completely desperate, even if it doesn't make much money. But a lot of Pros who suddenly lose their license will probably have to find work, the more famous ones will be fine since they can survive off brand deals and probably made enough to retire, but the D and C listers." 1

"The losers."

She narrows her eyes at him, "the people who only make enough to live a decent life--"

"While putting themselves and their family at risk, so losers and idiots, they should just quit at that point."

She furrows her brows at him, "can you not be an ass for one second and hear me out." 1

"Yeah yeah…"

"Well if suddenly a lot of people who have only ever trained to fight and use their Quirk get fired…and since that's the only skill set they have, do you see where I'm going with this?" 3

"Yeah, a new breed of villain, I know. But it's only the trash that's getting filtered out, the remaining Pros can deal with them, but the Commission will probably deal with them first." 1

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing to worry about, besides, doesn't matter if an army of bottom feeders team up, you've got me."

Ryuko sets her work aside and gets comfortable on the couch, "yeah, but not everyone has a miracle in their bed."

"Well you're in my bed, but technicalities and all that."

"You know what I mean, and I'm done here, are you finished yet?"

"Just in time for the meeting tomorrow, I've got a lot of good info for Sir Nighteye and his band of losers, and Fatgum, and Ryukyu."

"Your dragon girlfriend," Ryuko tries to hide her giggling.

"Ugh, I get enough of that stupid rumor from the internet, don't need you humoring it either."

"Hey I just think it's fun, but my personal favorite is people thinking you're dating Nejire-Chan," Ryuko doubles over laughing. "I wish I could see how annoyed you are under the visor every time she calls you!" 1

"Girl talks too much," Horizon mutters.

"You say that about everyone."

"Maybe everyone just needs to shut up, but that's unavoidable." 1

"So can I see what you found for Nighteye?" Ryuko gets up and drops herself onto the couch beside him, leaning against his side.

"I'm not sure I should show you this, considering you've kind of got a weak tolerance for the darker side of villains."

"Well, that is partly why we became a rescue team instead of a combat team, but I'm sure I can manage."

"Alright, if you say so," Horizon takes his feet off the coffee table and swipes on the tablet, and the hologram projector built into the table displays two strands of helical DNA.

Two twisting spires with bridges connecting them like a warped ladder represents each strand.

One red, and one blue.

"DNA?"

"Human DNA, they came from the same person, to make the bullets."

"Someone is using their Quirk to make Quirk-suppressing bullets?"

"Not exactly…"

Ryuko looks at the projection, then back at Horizon, then back to the projection, as all the pieces come together.

"They're forcing someone else to do it?"

"Well considering the genetic markers match what would usually be found on the brain stem…yeah, I'd imagine so." 3

Ryuko rubs the back of her head and grimaces, "damn monsters."

"Oh it gets a lot worse considering what some of the genetic markers and telomeres tell me, but I don't want to deal with you crying tonight…" 1

"I can handle it."

Horizon looks at her and considers it for a moment, then turns back to the display, "no, you can't." 1

She frowns and just leans against him. "So what's their plan?"

"Red bullets stop Quirks, blue bullets undo the red bullet. Sell red to villains and blue to Heroes."

"How would they do that?"

"I'm checking out a few pharmaceutical companies and recently requested patents, eventually I'll get a hit. It'll be through a series of shell companies but since I'm using Nezu's system it should sort it out fairly quickly."

"A medicine that removes Quirks, in the right hands it could be a lifesaver."

"Yeah, lots of people would kill to have their Quirk gone, but because of 'Human Rights' and all that they have to be willing."

"You always sound so disgusted when you talk about human rights…kind of concerning Mr. Doctor."

"Too bad they use her Quirk to manufacture it, and the regulations to make and sell anything originating from a Quirk would never allow someone to sell pieces of their own brain stem."

Ryuko winces.

"Now imagine if I told you all the bad parts."

"You said 'her'..."

"Drop it."

"Alright alright…I'm already gonna have trouble sleeping tonight."

"We'll figure something out," Horizon chuckles. "Any more questions?"

"Yeah, aren't you worried about them hitting you with one of those bullets?"

"I'd never get hit, plus, it wouldn't work. The bullet itself has a stored package of Chronons, that's how it works."

"Time particles? So it ages the Quirk factor away for a while, and the blue one targets the red and ages it forward into…existing?"

"Into being useful and matured again."

"Ok, but what if they make a new one that just ages you into dust or something?"

"Awe, you're worried about me…"

Ryuko pushes his shoulder, hard enough to actually make him move, "just because you're invincible doesn't mean I don't worry. Or maybe I just like this lifestyle and don't think I could score another young, powerful, billionaire doctor," she giggles and leans against him.

"Oh there's only one of me, and he's here with you. But really the Chronos are mapped to the person's dna, like an infection, which means it will only affect me if I allow it, and I won't, plus…even if it ages me a hundred years nothing would really change."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can control my aging, so when I'm around 28 I'll just keep my body like that forever, that's the plan anyway."

It takes almost a minute for Ryuko's mind to wrap around what he just said, "are you telling me you're immortal?" 1

"Well, it's not like I try to hide it," Horizon shrugs. "During the Sports Festival, I literally said, 'mortal diseases and ailments don't affect me', weren't you listening?"

"Nobody takes that stuff seriously, c'mon! We just all assumed it was just the heat of the moment or something."

"Well now you know better…"

Ryuko sinks back into the couch and folds her arms, pouting, "so when I'm a saggy old grandma you'll still be young and hot…fuck you."

Horizon bursts out laughing, "well that's one way to look at it, but the other side is that I'll outlive everyone I love forever and ever, over and over again, can't image what that will do to me." 4

"You'll be fine, your ego is enough to keep you company, its like you always say--"

"I am enough…" 7

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 187: CHAPTER 183(Raid Briefing)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Now that everyone is here, let's get this meeting started," Sir Nighteye says.

He was sitting at the head of a large meeting room inside his agency. Behind him was a projector showing a picture of Kai Chisaki, aka Overhaul.

And in front of him was an assembly of mostly small-time Pro Heroes. The most notable names were Ryukyu, the current #10 Pro Hero, accompanied by three of her work studies students. Nejire-Chan, Froppy, and Uravity. 1

Fatgum was also in attendance with his work studies students, Suneater and Red Riot. 1

And Sir Nighteye's own work-study student, the final member of the big three, Lemillion was also in attendance.

The big three along with two dozen Pro Heroes together for one raid operation.

"Yes," Ryukyu says. "Please tell us what could warrant such a gathering."

"And why kids are involved in this," Rocklock says. He was a brown-skinned man with dreadlocks and a green and yellow hero costume, lock-themed. "Yeah they're from UA but from the feel of things this could get really dangerous."

"My students are plenty capable," Ryukyu says, gesturing to Froppy and Uravity, as Nejire-Chan has already proven herself over the years.

"Mine too!" Fatgum gestures to his students. "Plus these guys have valuable information to add to this case, just a few days ago we got first-hand experience with just how dangerous this can be!"

"Focus please," Nighteye draws all eyes onto himself.

Looking around the room he's happy with the people he managed to gather, aside from the fact that he couldn't get Eraser Head.

Nighteye requested his aid since his Quirk is perfect for this type of operation, especially against Overhaul, but Nezu said both he and Horizon can't be away from UA at the same time.

The threat of Gigantomachia is far too great to risk such a thing.

"Right, sorry," Rocklock says.

"Now, I brought you all here to assist in the investigation, raid, and apprehension of a branch of the Yakuza named the Shie Hassaikai." 1

"Yakuza?" Ryukyu asks. "They haven't been a crime organization for decades, are they regressing now that All Might is gone?"

"No, only this one faction, led by Kai Chisaki, Overhaul," Nighteye gestures to the picture behind him. "His Quirk is rumored to disassemble things and restructure them, hence the name." 8

"A powerful Quirk," Fatgum says.

"Yes, but before we think about taking him down, we first need to gather evidence. Will you please tell everyone what happened to your students a few days ago."

"Sure thing!" Fatgum stands up. "Well Suneater and Red Riot were out on patrol when they got shot by some thugs, one of them fired a weird red bullet-like thing into Suneater's arm, it had a durable red case and a needlepoint."

"Needle?" Ryukyu asks.

"It only stung," Suneater says, voice almost too quiet to hear. "But the next thing I know I couldn't use my Quirk, couldn't even feel it, it was gone…"

Most of their eyes open wide at that, horrified by the notion of losing their Quirk, far more so than regular people since Pro Heroes live and die by their Quirk.

"But I'm guessing it came back since you're here now," Rocklock says. "You're ok, right kid?"

"I'm fine," Suneater grows a cow horn from his head, then it merges back into his body. "It wore off after a few hours."

"I got shot too," Red Riot says. "But I hardened before the bullet hit so it shattered against me, some weird red liquid splashed on my arm from it but nothing happened, guess it has to be in your blood to take effect since I was fine."

"One of the thugs they arrested gave up the name of the person who delivered the bullets to him," Nighteye says. "He's confirmed to be a member of the Shie Hassaikai, but we're unsure if he's working solo or under Overhaul's orders."

"This is a lot of manpower for a hunch," Rocklock points out.

"True, we do have more suspicions," Nighteye admits. "I've been investigating Overhaul and his group for almost two months, in that time I've uncovered dozens of rumors about them being a major transit hub for drugs and other contraband from Japan into Korea. We just haven't been able to get anyone to testify or deliver solid proof…atleast they never lived long enough to do so."

"Quirk suppressing bullets being smuggled into Japan," Ryukyu mutters. "These people are dangerous, I'm glad you called me in for this."

"Yes, but I must confess that the reason all of you have been selected is because of this," the screen behind him changes to a map of Japan, showing a dozen bases scattered about.

"That explains why lesser-known Pros like us are here," Rocklock says. "Those locations are in our respective areas, you want us to scope them out for you."

"Precisely," Nighteye says. "We need more than rumors to get a search and arrest warrant signed, we need probable cause. The Yakuza is still a big organization, and if it looks like we're trying to bully one of its branches they could cause problems, but if the Shie Hassaikai are caught doing illegal business, they'll cut all ties with them to protect the larger factions."

"Is there anything specific we should look out for?" Ryukyu asks.

"Kai Chisaki himself. Overhaul went into hiding after a recent chance encounter, he's being even more cautious than before unfortunately."

"If he thinks that we're looking for him, why would he stay at one of their bases?" Ryukyu asks.

"Because he doesn't know we're aware of all his bases, plus as easy as it would be to just go somewhere else, he's a control freak. He supposedly values precision so much that other than his right-hand man, nobody knows his full plan. He can't lead his people from far away, so he'll be close enough to keep an eye on them."

"And when we do find him?" Ryukyu asks. "Go in swinging and hope for the best?"

"Ideally I'll request more manpower from Pro Heroes and the police force, but from what I discovered most of the Shie Hassaikai are standard thugs, only the top men are worth taking special precautions for. All the files were sent to you this morning before this meeting."

"I've got friends on the police force in some of those places, I'll call them and see what they know," Fatgum says. "We used to take down drug dealers like this all the time."

"I appreciate that," Nighteye says.

Ryukyu nods along, "alright, so what areas do you want us to keep an eye on?"

--30 Minutes later…

Just when Nighteye was halfway through explaining the specifics of their roles in this operation, Fatgum checks his phone to read his new message.

"Hey Nighteye," Fatgum raises his hand to get everyone's attention. "Horizon just sent me a text, he's done analyzing the bullet we sent him, the one that shot Suneater."

"You sent it to him instead of the crime lab?"

"Ryukyu said he works faster and better anyway, I mean its only been a few days and he's done already."

"He's reliable," Ryukyu says. "If Horizon is ready you should call him while we're all here, he likely have found something new for us."

"Agreed," Nighteye nods to Fatgum who immediately calls Horizon.

While its ringing Ryukyu speaks up, "I recommend only speaking if necessary during this," she looks around the room. "Horizon is exceptional at what he does, but he's very…prickly."

They all give her strange looks, aside from the students in the room that is.

"That's the nice way of putting it," Froppy says.

"Fatgum?" Horizon's voice reaches everyone, already on speaker already.

"Yeah I'm here, we're in the meeting right now discussing the raid, figured you could update us all right now if that's not too much to ask."

"Huh, its already ten o'clock, I assumed that meeting was over already. I just got off the phone with President Pantu and was about to write up a report to send Nighteye."

"The president of the Hero Public Safety Commission is hands on with this matter?" Sir Nighteye asks.

"Its big enough to warrant her direct attention, and my own investigation has proved very promising."

"Investigation?" Rocklock asks. "Does this kid seriously think he can handle something this complex on his own? Overhaul is already onto us, we can't afford tipping him off even more." 3

Ryukyu shoots him a concerned look, trying to stop things from escalating, "Horizon is very capable, I was skeptical too at first but after working with him a few times, he's the rare case of someone meeting the claims the media makes about them, and even going beyond them."

"And he's super strong!" Nejire-Chan adds. 1

"Which is more than I can say about whoever said that just now, because I don't recognize the voice, so who are you anyway?" 4

The entire room goes silent, feeling the tension in the air, but Nighteye decides not to intervene, wanting to learn more about Horizon, about the man Nezu seems to think can surpass his idol, All Might.

"The name is Rocklock, and--"

"Never heard of you," Horizon interrupts him. "And since I've got a lot of the top Pro Heroes memorized, must mean you're one of the loser D-Listers." 4

"Hey I--!"

"Have a boring record," Horizon says. "I'm looking it up right now. A Pro for over a decade but you've only dealt with small time thugs and incidents, no real villain takedowns worth mentioning. Because your Quirk Deadbolt just lets you lock things and people in place… spatially atleast, just a bit better than a tube of superglue."

Nighteye sees where this is going and tries, but fails to stop it, "can we please get ba--"

"A glorified beat cop playing Pro…another paper hero inflating the number of Pro Heroes in this country…I wonder how long it'll take before the commission sweeps you off the board and drops you in the trash pile where you belong." 6

"Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!" Rocklock gets up and slams his hand on the table. "And those records are confidential!"

"I'm the child they call in when people like you can't be trusted to handle important matters, that's who I am, and that's why I have access to your records, to sort through the garbage and clean this country…one piece of garbage at a time."

"You little sh--"

"Enough!" Nighteye has to raise his voice, stopping this argument in its tracks. "Bicker on your own time, we have a job to do…"

Rocklock mutters something under his breath and sits down, and Ryukyu just shakes her head at the man who completely ignored her warning. 1

"Horizon, can you please tell us what you learned."

"Sure thing Nighteye…"

While Horizon begins explaining, Nighteye is more grateful than ever that such a person didn't obtain One For All, because even through the phone he could feel a vile nature below the surface… 12

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 188: CHAPTER 184(Raid Briefing Pt.2) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Horizon, can you please tell us what you learned."

"Sure thing Nighteye…"

Everyone gets ready to listen in, and later they'd be thankful that this is all being recorded, because the information was so stomach churning they could hardly take notes. 1

"How long have you been building this case?"

"Six weeks," Nighteye says. "I got a lead when one of their members was caught hanging around some drug dealers, we kept an eye on him and learned he was the supplier, and now we're here."

"Right, well you've barely scratched the surface," Horizon says. "For the past three days I've been analyzing the sample Fatgum sent me and doing some research of my own."

"We're listening."

"What you're dealing with isn't some nonsense like Trigger, this is a new type of arms race, the kind that can go global very quickly.

The red bullet Fatgum sent has a blue counterpart I found two weeks ago, but that one doesn't make any sense on its own since it doesn't do anything.

The red suppresses Quirks, but I think it's more like a Quirk Deletion Bullet."

"But my Quirk came back," Suneater says.

"Yeah, after a few hours, but I contacted the Commission for their records, any reports of Pro Heroes losing access to their Quirk, got hits from all across Japan. Dozens of reports, some for a few minutes, others for a few days, the evidence is inconsistent.

That means this is still in its trial run, and the end goal is likely a permanent result. One lucky shot and your career is over, in a battle, you'd just die more often than not."

Everyone looks sickened at the thought.

"The blue one does the opposite. On its own, you could apply it to yourself and nothing would happen, but if you've been shot by a Deleter Round, it counters the effect and matures your Quirk factor back to its usable state."

"A plague and a cure," Nighteye says.

"Exactly, they plan to sell the Deleter Rounds to villains and the cure to the government, can't imagine what a government wouldn't pay for their Top Pro Heroes to have their Quirks restored."

"How would they make that deal happen?"

"Already found that out," Horizon says, once again surprising everyone. "I found a small pharmaceutical company that applied for approval on the patent to the cure, it's hidden fairly well as something else but the chemical markers are nearly identical.

I tracked it though nearly a dozen shell companies back to the Shie Hassaikai, or atleast one of their ghost accounts."

"No wonder the Commission is so closely involved," Ryukyu says. "But from the sounds of it, the Shie Hassaikai are manufacturing these drugs, not importing it."

"That they are, and I know how to stop them from making more. I read the briefing Nighteye sent, thankfully Fatgum sent me a copy so I'd be up to speed."

Nighteye gives him a slightly annoyed look since it's confidential information, but Fatgum just shrugs and smiles awkwardly.

"Arresting Overhaul is a priority, but his supposed daughter is of equal importance."

"Eri?" Lemillion asks, a sinking feeling forming in his gut. "When we bumped into him we saw her, what's she got to do with this?"

"She's the product…"

The entire room is silent, mortified, hoping he didn't mean what they think he meant.

"Seriously?" Ryukyu didn't try to hide her disgust. "He's using his own daughter to make drugs?"

"Worse, his Quirk is Overhaul, it lets him disassemble matter and reassemble it however he wants. And the genetic markers I found in the samples are from the brain stem and spinal fluid of a girl, young, around 7 or 8 years old, blonde." 5

"That's Eri," Lemillion mutters, a pissed-off expression on his face. Angry at this whole situation, at the fact that he was so close but didn't save her, he handed her right back to that monster.

'Midoriya was right,' Nighteye thinks. 'If this plays out as Horizon suspects, I'll have to apologize for not believing in him…with instinct like that, it's no wonder All Might has such faith in the boy.' 8

"What's her Quirk?" Sir Nighteye asks.

"Well I managed to dig up a report by her mom, Overhaul's adoptive father, the previous boss who mysteriously fell ill is actually her grandfather. His daughter is Eri's mom…was, she abandoned her. Her father was a lawyer."

"Was? Did Overhaul kill him?"

"No, Eri did," they all look aghast at that. "Her Quirk is the ability to Rewind time itself, storing Chronons in her body somehow and giving them out to other living beings, then manipulating their Chronons to rewind."

"So she sent him into the past?" Fatgum asks.

"No, time travel isn't possible," Horizon says. "We don't move through time, it flows through us, that's how Quirks like Sir Nighteye's foresight work, he reads the Chronos while Eri acts like some kind of viral infection to them."

"So she touched him, and he vanished," Ryukyu says. "Just like that?"

"Precisely, and her mom left the next day, its a freak mutation kind of like mine, but much weaker," Horizon says. "The bullets rewind your Quirk factor to remove the Quirk, but from the looks of it Overhaul hasn't perfected grafting her genetic material onto the catalyst he uses to make it permanent."

"So it's like a battery," Nighteye says. "You said she uses her own Chronos, so each bullet has some, and the more he can fit into one the closer he gets to making it permanent, but anything less only needs a certain amount of time to mature into being usable again."

"Yeah, so the longer between uses of her Quirk the stronger the next use can be, the further she can rewind you."

"But she erased a grown man, right?" Fatgum asks.

"It's not uncommon for Quirks to have a sort of 'limit break' when they first manifest, when the body suddenly unleashes unsustainable power. She'll likely never be able to do that again, but I'd still be careful when touching her."

"So we gotta rescue the kid, arrest Chisaki, and shut down this operation, right?" Rocklock asks.

"Hmm, you're actually keeping up, I'm surprised." 3

Before Rocklock can respond Nighteye cuts him off, "anything else Horizon?"

"Yeah. Because of the danger this situation poses to the stability of the world. The threat of Quirk Deleter Rounds, the Commission wants this deal with Quietly. President Pantu will send each of you a set of guidelines soon but she's already hashed it out with me this morning."

"What do we need to know?" Nighteye asks.

"Just keep this quiet, don't let any of the rounds get away from you, and your priorities are Eri and the remaining rounds. Without her they can't make more, we can always send in more muscle to deal with Overhaul another time, neutralizing the threat of this drug is the priority."

"If this is such a big deal, does that mean you're coming to help us?" Rocklock asks.

"Good question," Nighteye says, before Horizon can form another petty comment.

"Hostage rescue and investigations like these are easy, but I can't just leave Tokyo and head to the other side of Japan without the crime rate here spiking. My existence is keeping Minato Tokyo and Musutafu suppressed, even leaving for a few days will cause problems for the people here, ideally, you deal with this without me.

And unfortunately, it's much of the same with other top Pro Heroes like Endeavor, luckily you've got one of the Top 10 on your side already, that should be enough. Any of us suddenly heading toward their territories will cause Overhaul to take Eri and flee."

"That makes sense," Nighteye says. "But we've got enough to deal with this situation."

"If things escalate or the League Of Villains shows up then give me a call, but unless absolutely necessary I need to stay put." 3

"Understood, and since this is a sensitive matter, what timeframe, I assume we have one, right?"

"Yeah, ten days, if this isn't dealt with in ten days I'm coming down there. People here will get hurt and probably die…but Japan is unstable as is, the sudden emergence of these bullets will do a lot more harm than the result of me leaving my domain for a while. Luckily it should only take me a day or two to wrap up Overhaul and his Yakuza losers."

"Understood," Nighteye says. "I'll keep you in the loop as much as possible. Tha--" Horizon hangs up.

Ryukyu facepalms, feeling second-hand embarrassment, "I swear he's nice when you get to know him."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Froppy says. "I think you're just being nice, he's always kind of a jerk…" 2

"Yeah," Rocklock agrees. "Normally I don't speak like this about kids but…that guy is as-- a jerk."

Almost everyone nods in agreement.

"That's irrelevant," Nighteye says. "In three days he uncovered more than I knew existed in the past 6 weeks, the information he provided is beyond critical for this investigation. I'll have to alter our action plan but your roles as discussed today are unchanged. We're only now entering the observation stage of things."

"Then we should all head back to our territories after exchanging contacts," Ryukyu says. "We'll save Eri and stop these monster, I can feel it, but don't let your desire to save her quickly cause you to take unnecessary risks. Believe me, I want to save her as much as any of you, the thought of a child enduring torture like that sickens me, but the risk of us over reaching and scaring off Overhaul is far too great."

"Agreed," Nighteye says. "Heed her words everyone, be careful in your approach, now let's get to work…"

After everyone leaves, only Nighteye and his sidekicks are in his office, grim expressions as they sit around his coffee table.

"We have to tell him, right?" Bubble girl asks. 2

"The case is confidential, and he's not a part of it anymore," Centipeder says.

"Deku deserves to know," Lemillion says, a grim expression on his face, fist balled so tight it hurts. "He was right, he was right and I stopped him from saving her. I handed her back over to that monster…I don't know how I can look him in the eyes after that, or her." 14

"By doing what heroes do, by saving her," Sir Nighteye says to the young hero. "Don't beat yourself up for the choice you made, with the information you had I would have done the exact same thing. You couldn't have known, and clearly Chisaki manipulated the records so nobody suspected his abuse of Eri… just do what you can, and save her, that's how you apologize to them."

"Right," Lemillion wipes the one tear flowing down his cheek, "thank you sir!" 3

"Good, now I need all of you to give me a moment, I need to call Midoriya, and I've been given a lot to think about…"

"You're going to tell him?" Centipeder asks.

"Of course," Nighteye says. "He may not have his Provisional License right now, but the moment he gets it back, I hope he'll return and be my sidekick, I have much to teach him…" 4

As they all exit the office, Nighteye takes out his phone, his finger hovering above Deku's contact.

'It should be lunchtime at UA right now…but what do I say to him.'

He thinks back on all he learned that day, and quietly laughs to himself, 'I didn't know what I didn't know, and stumbled into something far more nefarious than I could have ever imagined, but today I got a lot of insight.

Midoriya's instincts are atleast on part with All Might's, that heroic spirit they share, something I always lacked. It must be nurtured and allowed to bloom fully. I certainly see why you chose him as your successor instead of Mirio, I suppose my time with Mirio has made him a bit too much like me.

He always thinks before he leaps, and sometimes being a Hero means having faith.

But I also see why Principal Nezu likes Horizon so much, that boy…that man, as crude and prideful as he may be. His accolades far outshine any of the bad in his character, he'll be a fine hero, but to be the Symbol of Peace you need to inspire people, and he fundamentally lacks that. 1

His attitude constantly makes it clear that he thinks of himself as being above everyone else. 3

Even through the phone I could feel him looking down on everyone, the complete opposite of All Might who would always lift others up to new heights.'

Nighteye touches Deku's contact and the call begins connecting.

'Horizon is certainly an all-star in every category the Hero Public Safety Commission ranks in, the undisputed future #1 Pro Hero…but you'll be the Symbol of Peace to the people, their champion.' 13

--Meanwhile At Horizon Tower…

Horizon was finishing up some work on his computer while Ryuko was bawling her eyes out on the couch. 1

"See this is why you don't eavesdrop, I told you that you couldn't handle it." 2

"But how can they do that to a child!" 3

Horizon just rolls his eyes, "you women and your feelings…" he mutters before warping away, leaving the crying woman behind, now ready for a day of hero work in Tokyo… 17

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 189: CHAPTER 185(Team Horizon Pt.2) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"This place feels super excessive," Shinso says.

He, Sero, and Horizon, were currently in a private room at one of Japan's most prestigious restaurants in Minato Tokyo.

They were all in full Hero Costume, with Shinso's new costume being a more obviously armored black and purple version of Eraser Head's.

Instead of a full head visor like Horizon and Sero he wears a mask which covers the lower half of his face until just under his eyes.

It was black and seemingly made up of dozens of intricate metal parts, with two dials on either side of his jaw to adjust them.

Since his Quirk doesn't work if played or amplified electronically, this invention allows him to tune his voice by using the dials. They then cause the intricate pieces to move and his voice changes as it flows through the newly altered gaps, no electronics required. 7

Around his neck like a large scarf is his own capture weapon, identical to Eraser Head's, aside from the purple colour with black edges.

He also has a tanto behind his waist like his teacher along with a few pouches for other gear.

"Just enjoy the night," Sero says, "especially when Horizon's paying…"

"I'm always the one paying."

"And I always appreciate that," Sero chuckles a bit. "But seriously I doubt he called us both to Tokyo the day before we head back to UA for no reason, probably some big case he wants us to help him with, right?"

Horizon looks between them, then shakes his head, "nope, just figured we could have dinner here."

Shinso sighs, "you had me sit on a train from far edge of Japan all the way to Tokyo…for this."

"This restaurant is important," Horizon says. "This place is always monitored by the press, they already know I'm working with Cellophane, so when some pictures of us three walking in here go viral."

"I become a known member of Team Horizon," Shinso says. "I guess it was worth the trip."

"I never approved that name by the way."

"Good luck changing it," Sero says. "I've already used it online and the internet likes it, looks like its staying."

"Whatever, lets just order…"

They all get comfortable and enter their orders into the screens beside their seats, one of the other reasons Horizon came here. No staff listening in on conversations or seeing Sero and Shinso with no masks.

And after a bit more chatter there is a gentle knock on the door, and in comes a few men with their food and drinks.

"This looks like the most delicious thing I'll ever eat," Sero says as the staff leaves.

"Don't let Kodai hear that…"

Sero rolls his eyes, then he and Shinso take off their masks. "Still don't think any food is worth this price…kinda insane. Maybe I should have become a chef instead of a hero, and I wouldn't have to risk my life all the time."

"You still could," Shinso says as they begins eating.

"Well, I'm kind of used to the perks that come with the job."

"You mean pussy falling into your lap," Horizon says as the lower part of his visor just over his mouth retracts and fold away, showing separations that were otherwise invisible. "Being a hero has its perks, like the fact that they'll probably give us this meal for free just so we'll keep coming back."

"Free food is always a win," Shinso says.

"Yeah, but I always tip atleast the same amount, reputation matters after all." 6

"Meanwhile Mt. Lady tries to look all cute to get free food," Sero says as they all begin eating. "Works every time too."

"How is working with a team by the way?" Shinso asks. "Horizon doesn't really have a hero he works under, well not beyond his loose connection to Endeavor, and I've got Gang Orca, but he's got a lot of people working under him so I hardly see the man, but you're always working closely with three Pro Heroes."

"Honestly Edgeshot is pretty awesome, dude knows his stuff, you should totally come work with us sometime. Your Quirk would be really handy for the kind of stuff he does, plus he's a ninja cosplayer too." 1

"I'm not a ninja cosplayer," Shinso says.

"Yes, you are," Horizon says. "Is there a strategy they use to be more effective as a team?"

"What like a Super Move…not really. They mostly just do their own things until one of them gets a lead, then they bring it to Edgeshot and he makes a plan from there. And I've gotta say, going from interning with Kamui Woods who pretty much let the wind just take him to the next crime.

Then to Edgeshot who has a plan for every encounter, its a big step up. And Kamui Woods is learning a lot from him too, but Mt. Lady is a bit more content just being a background character."

"Makes sense atleast," Horizon says. "But Mt. Lady and Kamui moved from Aldera into Edgeshots area, that certainly helped them a lot to get some attention."

"Speaking of attention, we haven't seen you in the news much this past week," Shinso says. "Don't you work like 24/7 on patrol."

"Only 23 hours actually, I still only need an hour of sleep."

"Lucky," they both mutter.

"But honestly my senses expand to most of Minato Tokyo, and since Horizon tower is in the middle I rarely have to patrol anymore. I'll go out if someone contacts me for help or something pops up on the police radio.

But aside from that my presence is enough to deter crime in my area, even when I'm not in Tokyo, so long as I don't post anything online showing I'm in UA, the crime rate stays at almost zero." 2

"Almost," Shinso says. "So some people are still that bold."

"Yeah, but all the people worth hunting are gone already, now its just pickpockets and purse snatchers, but none of them use their Quirks. They learned real quick that if they don't use their Quirk then the cops will come for them, but if they do use it, then I'll just find them, since using your Quirk is what classifies you as a 'Villain', pretty smart." 2

"Does that happen a lot?"

"Not really, maybe once a week, honestly I'm better at suppressing crime in Minato Tokyo than All Might was, but unlike him my influence doesn't span all of Japan and most of the world. But it works for me, not like I want to go chasing every fucking purse thief or pickpocket, what a waste of my time, we've got D-Listers for that stuff." 2

"That's a bit…mean," Shinso says. "But I'm not surprised you so easily suppressed crime in your area, nor am I surprised you haven't reached the level of All Might." 2

"Not yet atleast," Sero says.

Shinso takes a sip of his drink then nods, "All Might suppressed crime by inspiring Pro Heroes and citizens, and even the villains had a huge respect for him, but you operate through power and fear.

I can't imagine its fun being a criminal, and knowing without warning someone can appear behind you ready to lock you away. But aren't you a bit concerned that you're treating Minato Tokyo like a police state?" 3

"God Emperor Horizon," Sero says. "That's why blonde calls you, right?" 7

"Well, it's not like I'm always watching all the time, so no. But I rather people think I'm always watching, keeps them in line."

"A blade at everyone's throat," Shinso sighs. "Well that's one way of doing things I suppose. But I'm sure some people are worried about you potentially abusing your power." 1

Horizon shrugs, "power not worth abusing isn't worth having, and besides, who would they send after me?" 2

"I'll add this to the list of things I'm glad the public didn't hear you say," Shinso says 5

"Oh we should compare those sometime," Sero chuckles. "Horizon says some insane things that I don't think anyone wants to hear a hero say, but hey he's good at his job, and that's all that matters." 2

"That's the only way to win at life," Horizon says. "Make yourself so irreplaceable that they wouldn't know what to do without you, then you can do whatever the fuck you want."

"I'm working on that," Sero says.

"Is that the goal, to make yourself irreplaceable like All Might was?" Shinso asks. "Or are you going even further."

"Much further, I'll be a boon to all of mankind," Horizon raises a hand and uses his Quirk, showing off some of the blue energy vapor wafting off his hand. "In theory I'm a miracle elixir… fuck being a Pro Hero, that's how you become irreplaceable…"

--2 Hours Later…

"This entire tower seems excessive," Shinso says as he enters to the pool area of Horizon Tower. Seeing a 25m heated pool in the middle of the room. With Horizon's logo on the floor of it. 7

Sero was already floating in the pool on an inflatable tube, drinking a canned beer. "He built it to match his ego!" his laugh echoes through the room.

Shinso looks over to Horizon, sitting on one of the lounge chairs scrolling through his phone.

"Well I guess that makes sense, and why are you drinking?"

"Oh this," Sero gestures to the beer, then points off to the kitchen area here. "He's got a full bar over there if you want, and can you bring me a new one, this is empty."

SHAMBLES!

The empty can is swapped for a full one.

"Huh, thanks man!" Horizon doesn't respond. "Best Quirk ever."

"I meant why are you drinking, you're 16."

"So?" Horizon asks. "We're all 16 but expected to fight and potentially die against villains so losers can keep living, they want you to fight for them, they can let you enjoy a drink…just don't throw up in my pool."

"Yeah don't be such a wimp, just try one!"

"And why do you have a full bar in your agency?" Shinso asks.

"Because if this Pro Hero thing doesn't work out, imagine how many women I can fit in this pool." 4

"Can we do that anyway?" Sero asks. 1

"No, I have a image to uphold," Horizon says. "Now Shinso go grab a beer and relax, I'll take the residual alcohol out of your system tomorrow, no hangover and nobody will ever know."

"Well, maybe one…" 4

--3 Beers later… 1

"Look, I'm just saying its creepy how she never talks," Shinso says, now floating in the pool on his own tube alongside Sero. 1

"Well Yui is just shy, she talks when we're alone, more than just talk actually…"

"Wait, have you two…already?"

"Huh, yeah, I mean we can die at any time right. She's doing her Hero Work Studies with Thirteen but it can still be dangerous, and I fight a lot in mine, why hold back on an experience." 2

"Well, that's one way to look at it," Shinso says.

"They're also 16 and horny," Horizon says. "Plus everyone is living in dorms on the same campus…people are fucking, its inevitable. That's why the first day back every class had that sex education talk…and why I got to class late."

"That makes sense," Shinso says. "Wait, do you like, see people having sex?" 2

"No, I can blur out things in my senses until I want to focus on them, otherwise it's just too much information to be useful."

"That's a relief," Sero says. "But one thing I never really understood, you were the one that told me not to hold back on experiences…but you still don't really do anything with Momo or Jiro."

"True, everyone knows they're all but humping your leg," Shinso says. "Its kind of like how Uraraka follows Deku around, but atleast with her its more…cute. I think they might just be delusional and horny." 9

"Can't really blame them, I'm amazing, but honestly I've just been so busy with everything that dealing with them isn't even on the list, well, not at the top."

"Plus you've got Mei and Ryuko to help you relax," Sero says.

"Ryuko?" Shinso asks. "Ryukyu? Are those rumors true?"

"No, not the dragon, the other Ryuko," Horizon says.

"What other Ryuko?"

"Pixie-Bob, she lives nearby so she's usually spending the night at the tower when I'm here…but she's visiting her team at the resort this week."

"What? How long has this been going on?"

"Since the summer camp, we get along really well honestly…"

Shinso sighs, "well, now I see why Sero is becoming so…well, like you. You're a bad influence."

"Nah, I'm the best role model he could have," Horizon says, watching Shinso sip his beer. "I've got power, money, women, fame, everything a young man wants, I'm perfect…" 6

"If you say so," Shinso says.

"Enough about where Horizon puts his dick, what about you Shinso?"

"Me," he looks over to Sero. "I'm still trying to catch up to both of you, romance would just get in the way of that. When I'm in the top 10 I'll think about it…"

"I'll ask again in a few months…" 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 190: CHAPTER 186(Girls & Guns) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--2 PM, Sunday…

"I always wondered what was in here," Genesis says, walking through Horizon's training ground in her new Hero Costume. 4

Her leotard now replaced with a pair of shorts and a crop top, with a zipper down the middle of the top. A mask covering most of her face and her signature ponytail still apparent. Her book was also now held at her side on her belt with the other side having small compartments with high fat snacks she could easily eat.

"Impressed?" Horizon ask as they walk through the empty streets. He was wearing his PC Uniform instead of Hero Costume. "Cementoss built it pretty quickly, like a little city of pure concrete, no pesky cameras so I can practice my new moves in private."

"That explains why it doesn't have the details other training areas have, the windows here don't even have glass, no plants, the roads aren't paved."

"All designed to be destroyed and quickly rebuilt, and I've destroyed it all a few time already," Horizon shrugs as the gets to what appears to be a town square.

"You've destroyed a small town of concrete multiple times over," Momo looks around at the blocks of five story buildings. "You say that as if its normal."

"Well for me it is, now, lets get to why you're here," they finally get to a shaded spot and he points to the far wall, only 20m away from them.

TAKT!

Three thin pillars rise up out of the floor, as tall as light posts.

"My targets?" Momo asks.

"First things first, show my the guns?" there was a noticeable tinge of excitement in Horizon's voice, which she didn't miss.

"Uh, I'm not allowed to hand them to anyone who…right, nevermind," Genesis reaches down to her exposed stomach as it begins shimmering a pinkish purple light.

And then she produces what appears to be a modified pistol, what would be plain and boring if not for the oddly large chamber and bulkier design.

And the red and white colour scheme to match her outfit.

Holding it in his hand Horizon does a quick Scan.

"This thing has a lot of parts…some weird ones too."

"That's a requirement," Genesis says. "Since my Quirk doesn't actually need firearms to function, I had to make them in a way that cannot be used for anyone else. They're also disposable in the sense that they get worn down quite easily.

The material composition is also very expensive to replicate industrially. Its likely that I'll only be able to use all of my shots in a gun, reload once, then by the end of those new rounds I'll have to make another gun."

"So many hoops just to use a gun, on villains no less. What about those weird bullets, they're wider than normal ones, and blunt."

"Oh, Mr. Shield helped me with the design, they're made of a metal composite that transfers most of the kinetic energy as blunt force instead of piercing." 2

"So metal beanbags…ouch."

"Mostly non-lethal, but they will hurt a lot."

"Any other guns or just this design?"

"Only this for now, I'm working on some others, and when I feel confident with all of them I'll apply for a work studies next semester, hopefully with Snipe or another ranged Pro Hero."

"Good plan, now lets see how good these are," Horizon casually aims at the middle pillar, looking down the iron sights.

Seeing his improper form Genesis is about to correct him, but he starts firing immediately. 1

She stands mouth agape and eyes wide as each shot is released with almost no delay between them. And they all hit the same spot, causing a small crack to spread through the concrete and the metal missiles to fall to the ground below the impact point.

Her face was flushed below the mask, heart racing, breathing heavy.

"You can shoot?" she asks in amazement. "Why can you shoot, and how are you that good?" 4

"Its not that hard," Horizon shrugs, leaving her oblivious to his years of practice. "I see it in movies all the time." 3

"But, but 20 shots in the exact same spot, that's, incredible."

"Nineteen shots actually."

"Nineteen? But that magazine holds--"

BANG!

He shoots her in the left shoulder. 6

"AHHHH!" she falls back onto the floor clutching her shoulder, looking up at him with teary eyes as the blackish purple bruise forms.

"Huh, guess it really hits like a beanbag."

"You shot me!" he wasn't sure if she sounded more hurt from the pain or the perceived betrayal. 2

"Yeah, obviously. If you're gonna be shooting people you should atleast get shot once, see how it feels for yourself. So you know exactly the kind of pain you're about to so casually inflict onto others, only seems fair, right?" 2

She holds her breath for a moment, trying to calm herself, then gives him an annoyed look as she gets up, "you could have warned me first."

"That's no fun," he says while handing her back the gun.

"I think it fractured a bone," Genesis winces as she tries to roll her shoulder.

"Well you're pretty slim so not much padding, hold still," he rests a hand on her shoulder and a soothing sensation flows through the injury, and the pain completely goes away.

She just barely looks in time to see the blue healing energy retracting as he removes his hand, "thank you," she gives a dazzling smile.

"Quit blushing and start shooting, let me see how accurate you are…" 4

--2 Hours Later…

"Well now we know your limit," Horizon says as he looks around, seeing the three destroyed concrete pillars, then looking around his feet to see scattered sets of brittle guns.

And beside him, on the floor, Genesis, sitting on the floor panting, drenched in sweat, trying to recover.

"I'm, out of, snacks," she says, gesturing to her empty belt pouches.

"Well, you did good against immobile targets, today was just limit testing, you still need to practice accuracy while moving, on moving targets, and clearing buildings. Also, always keep a knife on you atleast, or a retractable staff."

"Snipe said the same thing, and thank you."

"One last thing, have you shot anyone yet?"

Her eyes widen, "uh, no, I haven't gone on patrol yet or used this in real combat."

"Well, you've got enough for one shot I'm sure, and who better than me."

"You, you want me to shoot you?!"

"Yeah, better to get all this anxiety out now before you come face to face with some psycho and freeze, because then you'd die, or worse."

"Worse?"

"With tits like that, use your imagination…" 8

She looks disgusted at that idea, but doesn't argue with the depths some people can sink into.

"C'mon, just get it out of the way now."

"I don't know, you're my friend, and you know I li--"

"If you do it I'll give you a ki--" 8

BANG! 8

Horizon stops the bullet just before it slams into his visor, holding it in mid-air with his Quirk.

He keeps it in place and leans to the side, looking at her embarrassed face.

"Maybe not in the face, but good job I guess…" 1

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I just got so excited and then my hand just moved and I was already looking at your face and I--" 1

"Don't worry about it, and good quick draw time. Now go get cleaned up then come to my room to cash in, in about two hours, I've got something to do first, and I'd do it now but you're all sweaty and gross…" 1

SHAMBLES!

Momo rips off her mask and takes a deep breath, mind still reeling from what just happened. Then she sees the bullet still floating in the air and grabs it, a memento of a day well spent.

Then she assess her current state, drenched in sweat, and holds her head in her hands, "how embarrassing, but he didn't seem to hate it atleast… I just have to go make the most of tonight." 2

--Meanwhile, Horizon's Room…

"I was trying to be flirty and she tried to shoot me in the face, what the fuck Momo," he immediately checks his phone, seeing his client almost ready. 8

SHAMBLES!

His casual PE Uniform is swapped out for his Hero Costume, ready to do one last bit of work before he has some fun for the evening.

'My informant should be in Musutafu soon, just help him out, get the info I need, then I can get back here and relax…probably talk to Shield first. Finally making some progress on all these things I have to do…' 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 191: CHAPTER 187(Cold Leads) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So how do you feel?" Horizon asks.

He was currently sitting in a high end hotel room in Musutafu, looking at UA in the distance atop its hill while listening to some news reports on his phone.

"I still can't believe this is happening," a woman says as she takes the seat opposite him. An older woman approaching her sixties, hair already grey and face wrinkled, but dressed in a suit.

"That didn't answer the question."

"I'm feeling better than I have in years," she takes a deep breath. "I can finally breath freely again, and my back pains are gone…I can probably keep up with my grandkids now."

"Well, I'm good at what I do, I promised a full checkup and to fix whatever I found, and I delivered."

"Yes, but honestly when the big bad Horizon came knocking, I expected to be dragged off in cuffs, not negotiating a deal."

"Well, I can always do that later, but that doesn't get me what I want."

"Not like I could stop you, not like anyone could. The information you requested is in my car downstairs."

Horizon puts his phone down and looks toward the car, through the floor, "the papers?"

"Yeah."

SHAMBLES!

He warps away for a moment the reappears with a thick stack of papers.

'No wonder villains have their head in the sand, kids a monster,' she thinks but wisely doesn't say aloud.

"Handwritten, why?" he asks, already skimming them.

"You asked me for the manifests of all my clients hidden airfields across Japan, that's not something I'm willing to just download to give you a backdoor into my system. I have a business to run."

"Fair enough."

"How'd you find me by the way?" She asks. "I made sure the Pro Heroes and Police didn't even know I existed, but you just called my phone like it was nothing."

"Maybe you aren't as invisible as you thought…"

"Bullshit," she scoffs. "Someone talked, so who's the rat?"

"Everyone talks when I put hands on them, but all that matters is you're useful to me, so I'll keep you around."

"Was useful, I'm leaving Japan. I'm not foolish enough to stick around when UA's golden boy knows my address, that's not how I lasted this long."

"What you do is none of my business, just be gone by the end of the week, now back to my question about these being handwritten, not even printed, that's unusual, so…"

The woman sighs, "Tech." 1

"Tech?"

"That's a name that came up once or twice," she says. "My business was brining people in under the radar, big names and big players that had to get themselves across borders or move a lot of…higher tier items."

"I know, you dealt with guns and glory, no drugs and silly things like that, I've done my research obviously."

"Well you asked me to look into anyone by the codename Wolfram, got one hit from a landing strip up in the mountains to the west. Big guy, a foreigner, could control metal from the way he folded up the fence at the airstrip."

"That's the one."

"Yeah well his trail ran cold, and I figured if I helped you find him maybe you'd be honest and stick to your deal…at the time I still thought this was a setup, can't blame me for being paranoid."

"Understandable."

"Well everywhere this guy goes the cameras start glitching, telltale sign of someone else, a group called Tech, must be thousands of hackers working together. One of their men passed through Japan before about five years ago before heading back to America."

"For what?"

"To set up supply lines, linking Japan, America, Europe, Russia, Brazil, and China, plus some others, factories with vehicle and computer parts."

"Using their quirks to manufacture commercial goods, highly illegal without the proper licenses, which they probably don't have," Horizon says.

"But they pay, and since they're connected to seemingly everything, I didn't want to take the risk of exporting these files on Wolfram, hence me having to stay up and write it all out."

"I see," Horizon ponders this information for a moment. "Well you kept up your side of the agreement, we'll never mention this to anyone and you can get out of Japan as soon as possible."

"Thank you, and for the record, I much prefer when Pro Heroes ask for what they want instead of coming in swinging, even if your bedside manner needs a lot of work."

"I get that a lot, but does it really matter, you're a villain…"

"Criminal," she corrects him. "Villain means I used my Quirk to commit a crime, and since I'm not somehow committing crimes with my Acid Spit, I'm just a regular criminal."

"Technicalities, I've got work to do, have a good life."

SHAMBLES!

Now back in his room Horizon sits on his couch and puts his feet up, flipping through the stack of papers he just got.

Shrinking his Room to only encompass the dorms, he looks around for a moment.

He senses Sero playing video games with Kirishima and Ojiro in the common area. Shinso and Tokoyami finishing up some studying for tomorrow.

Deku and Bakugo are outside sparring, with Shoto and Uraraka watching them.

Then his focus jumps over to Momo's room where he senses her, Jiro, and a few other girls excitedly talking on her bed.

'I really hope that's not about me…' he thinks before cutting off his Quirk. 'It's probably about me.' 3

"Nezu's system is the most secure in the world, it'll be fine if I just scan these files," he mutters while taking out his phone.

--10 Minutes later…

Standing in front of a hologram being projected in his room, he sees a map of Japan with dozens of small dots across it.

"Too many places, Wolfram can use any of these as a cover if he cares about a place with a lot of metal that nobody would care about if it went missing."

He swipes his hand and the map refreshes, now completely blank.

"Ok, if I were him, then I'd assume that Horizon is protecting the Shields so I could just team up with the league, but the league hasn't shown up in weeks so that doesn't give me any new leads either."

He thinks for a moment, then opens the Hero Network on another hologram and gives a command, "map the most recent Nomu sightings."

Three dots appear on the opposite side of Japan, to the southwest shore, "been weeks since the last one…dead leads.

Well, atleast I know Wolfram is in Japan. No face or description, like hunting a ghost, but the only thing I can confirm is that my bait works. But he won't strike unless they leave UA or I'm not around. So best to just stay put and hope he gets impatient, then I'll kick his teeth in when he shows his face."

With an annoyed grumble he sits back and looks at the map.

"So much bullshit to deal with, all to play the perfect hero role…but I'll have this world groveling at my feet in no time.

Save the Shields- get David and Melissa Shield in my pocket, and instantly have All Might's most famous and outspoken supporter in my corner. Almost guaranteed hall of fame potential in that alone from the credit he'll bring me.

Maybe find a way to reverse the Nomu operation…unlikely, but atleast make an effort. Having Eraser Head on my side makes UA a lot more tolerable already, and hell a Nobel Prize could be fun to have.

Same with this," he raises his hand and activates his Quirk, allowing the energy mist to waft off his hand. "Figure out a way to cure things without being there and suddenly I'm at the top of the world…and I'm never coming down.

And they won't have a choice but to give me everything I want, and then some."

He then looks back up to the map, "if only I could make progress on this idiot first."

'Maybe if I just dip into Arsenal or Law Matani's resources,' he genuinely contemplates this. 'No, keep all three separate. Law is a businessman, Horizon is a perfect Hero, and Arsenal's connections are for criminals only…the only way I win is to have the world in my hand, then leave. 1

Give it all up and disappear to live a peaceful life somewhere. I almost can't wait for that day… But I will somewhat miss people tripping over themselves to reach me, this Pro Hero gig has its uses.' 5

With a wave of his hand, the map goes away as he neatly stacks up all his papers.

Then he taps his phone a few times, and another map of Japan shows up. This time with red lines covering some of the roads to blinking red nodes in major cities and some smaller towns. Even some places just off the shore were blinking.

"Orca and Edgeshot must have updated my map today, some of these routes are new," he can't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it. "First-year UA student, leading his own independent takedown of major contraband distribution lines across the country, so successful that even Pro Heroes jump onboard to get a piece of the action, Rank 1 here I come…"

And just as he's about to review their updates, a knock on his door pulls his focus away.

He expands his Room enough to sense Momo anxiously waiting outside his door.

A folder in her hands, wearing a sweater dress, and nothing below it. 14

'Huh, guess Mina got into her head, I'll need to thank Pinky later…now to check one item off the to-do list…' 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 192: CHAPTER 188(One Task Complete) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Hearing Momo knock on his door, Horizon pauses his hologram and decides to walk over instead of his usual Warping.

Not wanting to make her any more nervous than she already is.

But when he opens the door, just for a tiny moment, he freezes.

Because while his Quirk allows him to sense anything within his Room, it doesn't give him any sense of color.

So looking at Momo, wearing only a sweater dress, white with blue lining, and his logo proudly displayed at the bottom above her left thigh. And the faint pink lip-gloss on her lips, he's completely caught off guard. 5

He completely ignored the folder in her hands and just watches her for a moment, taking it all in as she nervously fidgets before him.

"Huh, I always knew I'd look good on you…" He nods to her outfit.

"Well, I, I was told you'd like it."

"Oh, believe me, I do," he steps aside for her to enter, and she scans the hallways quickly as if expecting someone to stop her or yell at her for what she's doing. "But I don't think that's licensed merchandise from my website…"

"Oh, I, made it myself, I'm sorry, I hope you don't mind."

"The view is well worth it, make whatever you like with my signature on it," Momo's cheeks blush slightly as she sheepishly nods.

"It still feels strange being in a boy's room," Momo says, following his lead as he gestures to the couch.

"You'll get used to being in here," he turns his back to her and begins making some adjustments to the hologram, which finally catches her eye. 1

"You have one of those in your room?"

"Nezu let me design my own room, and this helps me manage my current cases," he gestures to the map as he makes a few adjustments. "Look familiar?"

Momo thinks about it for a moment while trying, and failing because of how nervous she is, to get comfortable on the couch. "A map of Japan's highways?"

"Close," he saves his work and takes a seat to her left, resting his arm on the back of the couch. "I put this case together myself, very confidential, and what you're looking at is the known transport route for all manner of contraband, a lot of people work together so Heroes never learn about this, but I'm not just any hero."

"So how did you find out about this?" Momo's eyes widen in amazement as she speaks, carefully analyzing the map.

"I have my ways."

"Always one step ahead," she mutters, still trying to comprehend the magnitude of the map he's displaying.

"And I see you brought something too," he gestures to the folder beside her.

"Oh, well, you seemed interested in the rifle designs I came up with so I figured…you could see what the Shields and I have been working on together, they're almost ready."

"Maybe some other time, but right now it's already nine o'clock, so I'd rather just focus on you," he gently reaches out and lifts her chin so she's staring at him, and he can almost see the excitement in her eyes. 5

Then something many of the girls have been wondering pops into her head.

"Will you take off the visor?"

Horizon pauses for a moment, then retracts his hand, and she leans forward slightly, not wanting him to let go, before catching herself.

"I'll have to, but I'd rather you cover your eyes, for your own safety. I'm so handsome it could give you a heart attack."

Momo gives him a skeptical look, "I won't look if you don't want me to, I respect your privacy."

He considers it for a moment, ready to use his UA tie like a blindfold as he'd done with Ryuko at the summer camp. But before that, takes a different approach.

"Thank you, but honestly, how about I show you…"

Momo's breath hitches.

"But its a bit…intense, because of my Quirk, and you can't look for long, it can be dangerous for you."

"Well, if you're comfortable with it."

"I trust you," Horizon says.

And he slowly reaches behind his neck and deactivates his visor. Sensing it unbind from his body glove around his neck and begins folding away.

And Momo's eyes widen in genuine surprise at what she sees.

His face was still covered in the white matching ski mask as he always is, but through the eye holes were steady thick streams of the blue energy vapor. 4

His eyeballs themselves were bright blue, glowing like bulbs. And Momo finds herself squinting when looking at them for more than a moment.

A clever use of Booster Shot to create this effect, gives a bit more justification for his body glove and visor being Lifestyle Support Items, in the unlikely case that Momo gossips atleast.

And hopefully makes this entire situation easier for her to stomach.

"So, not what you expected?" he asks playfully, seeing her brain trying and failing to process this.

Without a word she slowly reaches up, and touches the energy vapor pouring out of his face.

She feels the cool and soothing sensation flowing through her finger, familiar, the same as his healing energy from earlier that day.

'It's a containment suit for his power…it must have taken him a lot to trust me like this,' she forms her own conclusions. 'I can't imagine what terrible things he's had to deal with to live like this…' 16

And in her eyes he's elevated that much higher, overcoming adversity she can't even fathom. 2

Giving him a joyful smile, so glad that he trusted her with such a secret, Momo lets some of her inhibitions go and leans forward, sitting up properly to clumsily crash her lips into his.

She feels a tingling sensation in her body before the soothing and relaxing feeling overcomes her, helping her to melt into his gasp much easier as his hands hold onto her.

Nearly two minutes pass before they finally separate, and Momo leans back completely out of breath with her arms around his shoulders, feeling one of his hands at the small of her back and another holding onto her rear.

"I'm so sorry, I should have asked you first," she says between quick breaths.

At this Horizon just chuckles, and she feels the vibration of it in her entire body, "Momo, I'm Horizon, if I don't want someone touching me, they can't touch me, and as you can feel, I'm very happy with how this is going…"

And that's all she needed to hear before greedily diving back in.

Twenty minutes later and Momo is straddling his lap, now wearing a comfortable blindfold she made in his colors, on his bed.

And it's only when he gently begins lifting the edge of her sweater dress, which only has her naked body under it, that she realizes exactly how badly she'd really wanted this.

Years of being prim and proper and never getting to have friends or talk to boys. Never even having so much as a crush.

And now she's here, in the bed of her first crush, dear she says her idol. Her gold standard for what she needs to become, and she's about to give him everything, to share the most intimate experience with him. 8

She wants more than anything to give in and finally cast aside her inhibitions, but that nagging feeling haunts her and she reaches for his hands, stopping him from undressing her as she holds onto them.

"Are you alright?" Horizon asks, and his voice hits her in a way that sets her blood on fire, her heart pounding in her ears.

"I just," she takes a few short breaths. "I don't know if, am I…am I being a good person." 1

"Momo, you're one of the best people I know, golden-hearted to a fault honestly, but you always doubt yourself."

"But, what am I doing?"

Horizon rolls his eyes, "babe--" 3

She feels her heart skip a beat, that word having such a strong effect on her, like honey to her ears.

"--you aren't doing anything, this isn't on you, it's on me, because you're just following my lead, right?" 3

And with those few words all the responsibility falls away from her, and her inhibitions with them.

Momo leans forward, grabbing his face and kissing him as he removes her sweater dress.

Showing off her naked body below…

The start of a very good night for both of them. And certainly one that they'd never forget. 13

Minutes later, as the lights are finally off so he can stop excessively burning energy, Horizon lays her down on his bed, the now disheveled mess that was Momo Yaoyorozu, to begin the rest of their night. 2

He does one last scan of the dorms, and notices something interesting, someone eavesdropping on them, and enjoying herself while doing so. 18

He has to stop himself from laughing and just decided to ignore it for now, because he had more than enough to focus on in his bed at the moment.

'One task at a time, I'll get to her later…'

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 193: CHAPTER 189(The Morning After) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Momo wakes up in a large and comfortable bed, and she feels a satisfying soreness wracking her body.

Before her eyes open she remains under the blanket, memories of hours earlier flooding her mind, causing a cheerful grin to spread across her face.

He can't help but release a small giggle and roll onto her side, and as the sense of bliss fades away, she realizes she's not in her room. 1

Feeling around all she finds is more of the empty bed, and all the things she's heard about women waking up to find themselves abandoned and only used for sex flood her mind.

She frantically throws off the blanket, uncaring about her naked form, and looks around.

Then breathes a sigh of relief as her eyes land on Horizon.

He was standing toward the other side of the room, the only light source being the hologram he'd been working on last night before she arrived.

He was now in his body glove and visor again, but she could see what looks like a young white haired girl with a single horn on one of the screens, and a map of Japan on the other. 2

"You ok?" Horizon asks, not even turning around to look at her.

"I'm," Momo thinks about it for a moment. "I'm happy, actually. I was just worried you wouldn't be here."

Horizon continues making adjustments and notes on the map, "you're here, so where else could I possible be? Besides… it's my room." 1

"Oh, right."

"How do you feel?"

Momo takes and blanket and sloppily wraps it around herself as she gets out of bed, not wanting to imagine the state of her hair at the moment, "exhausted, is that normal?"

She walks over to him and takes a seat on the couch behind him, then he looks over to her, "you spent the night with what's comparable to a living nuclear power plant…so yeah, it's pretty normal." He then turns back to his work. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it, and I'll try to keep your limitations in mind more going forward."

Momo blushes at that, the thought of doing this again already making her heart race, "what time is it?"

"5 AM, a bit earlier than you usually wake up."

"And around the time Mr. Aizawa does his checks to make sure we didn't break curfew, I should get back to my room before--"

"You really don't need to worry about that," Horizon says as he opens a third screen, and she sees him composing an email addressed to Fatgum. "Eraser Head doesn't check certain rooms."

"What do you mean?"

"Mine, Sero's, Shinso's, yours, Jiro's," he shrugs. "He has very good reasons to stay on my good side, and our understanding makes my life at UA so much easier."

Momo looks genuinely confused, "I understand that Team Horizon would have some privileges, but, why wouldn't he check mine or Kyoka's rooms?"

"Asks the girl who just spent the night in my bed, pretty sure the entire school knows about the not-so-secret crush you two have."

"Can we please not talk about that?" Momo asks. "I still need time to process what happened last night."

"Sure, also, when you're ready to go back to your room, I can warp."

"I'd like to stay here just a bit longer, I'm not ready to be alone with my thoughts just yet, if that's ok."

Horizon chuckles as he sends the email, "I'm a gentleman, I won't just kick you out after sex."

"That's not wh--"

"I'm kidding Momo." 3

"Oh, right."

Horizon works in silence for a few minutes, sending a few more documents out to top Pro Heroes, many of which Momo never would have expected him to be working with.

'I suppose it makes sense,' she inspects the map even closer. 'His domain is Minato Tokyo and Musutafu where UA is. This map has points all across Japan and some off the coast, he needs dozens of Pro Heroes working together to bring it all down at once.'

"Why do you accept help from other Pro Heroes?" Momo asks. "Isn't your catchphrase 'I am enough'?"

"That's not official," Horizon says. "But as to why I accept help, well, part of being respected is being seen as a competent leader. Even while All Might was the top Pro, for many situations the Commission would call upon Endeavor to lead operations because All Might is more of a solo act."

"So you don't just want to be another #1 Pro Hero, you want to be the respected leader of all Pro Heroes."

"Exactly. But I also can't be everywhere at once, I can hardly leave Minato Tokyo these days, so having pieces on the board is a way of extending my reach."

"You're even more ambitious and incredible than we thought," Momo mindlessly whispers.

"Thank you."

"Oh, I didn't mean to say that out loud…"

"Well I appreciate it anyway, but honestly, the perks of being a Top Pro are barely in effect since I only have a Provisional License…and I'm already starting to like it."

"What kind of perks?"

"Honestly, just being able to do whatever I want, and nobody questions it, people hold Pro Heroes up on such a pedestal that the license and a good reputation is all you need to have the world in your hand."

"That's a dangerous way of viewing it."

"Power not worth abusing isn't worth having," Horizon says. "But don't worry, I still intend to be the perfect Hero, because I've got people I need to save." 6

"Well, that's a relief, because I'm not quite sure how we'd arrest you," she laughs nervously.

"Well, you can certainly try, but we both know how that'd end." 3

Preferring not to think about such a seemingly unlikely and impossible scenario, Momo eye's drift over to the files regarding the little girl. 2

Taking a closer look at her red eyes and white hair, noticing her arms and legs were covered in bandages, and most of the information on her page was left blank.

Only the name 'Eri' at the top along with some basic information, as well as her Quirk being listed as 'Rewind?'.

"Who is the little girl?" Momo asks. "She's so cute, is she someone you rescued?" 1

"No," he continues typing. "She's currently being torn apart and put together by someone that's being investigated. I'm consulting on the case, they're using her to make Quirk destroying bullets, Deleter Rounds. This is all confidential ofcourse, but I trust you not to gossip."

Momo appreciates his confidence, but also looks disgusted at the very thought of what Eri is going through, "what kind of monster would do such a thing?"

"Some wannabe Yakuza boss, he's trying to make his faction of the Yakuza into a feared gang again, he'll be in cuffs by the end of this month."

"Well I feel better knowing that you're going after him, villains like that, people who take advantage of those that can't defend themselves…those are the worst types of people." 4

"Well, I'm only consulting, he operates outside of Tokyo so he's not my problem until Nighteye runs out of time."

"Sir Nighteye? Does this have anything to do with why Midoriya isn't doing his Work Studies there anymore?"

"This case is a bit too dangerous so they sent Deku back to UA," he lies, not in the mood to go into Deku's failures. 4

"Oh, well that makes sense, these people sound dangerous."

"Which is why Sir Nighteye has 8 more days to solve it before I have to step out of Tokyo and put boots on the ground myself."

"But I still don't quite understand," Momo pauses for a moment, trying and failing to make sense of this. "How do you know this girl is in danger, but leave here there instead of simply going to rescue her? It couldn't possibly take you that long, right?"

"Meh, a day or two at most, just fly by the hideouts on my hoverboard, find the girl, and do some light violence," Horizon shrugs.

Momo furrows her brows, "then why don't you just go save her?!" her eyes open a bit in surprise. "Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice, it's just, it's difficult to understand. If you have to power to go save her, why wouldn't you do it." 2

Horizon stops for a moment, realizing exactly what's about to happen, and snaps his fingers.

The hologram shuts off and the lighting comes on, causing Momo to squint and pull the blanket up higher, even as Horizon sits beside her.

"You've heard me say things like, 'I'm not just a Pro Hero, I'm Horizon', right?"

"Yes I've witnessed your bravado," she says jokingly. "But what does that have to do with it?"

"Well, it's not bravado, it's painfully literal and true. I'm not like other Pro Heroes, my role in the world is entirely different. I don't get to run around putting out fires all day. I have to stay put in Minato Tokyo because my existence makes crime almost non-existent. I leave and villains come out in force to make up for lost time, and the Paper Pros can't handle that.

I don't have the freedom to just go where I please, as much as I say I can do whatever I want, which I can. Being able to do something doesn't mean you should. Like me stepping out of Tokyo to save Eri, I could, but a lot of people would get hurt and a lot of drugs would get shipped since Horizon Tower is so close to the docks."

"But--" Momo tried and tried, but couldn't make sense of it. "How can you just, exist, knowing someone out there needs you, and you're here with me being…happy?"

"Because I see the big picture. I'm holding Japan's feeble Hero Society together by just being here. I'm the big red button the government can push when shit hits the fan. Like the nuclear option when things go very badly. Other nations know this and are always trying to buy my service, wanting me to come live in their countries.

They've offered me everything. Money, political office, a knighthood, lands, titles, women…the ability to make and alter a few laws. Or complete immunity to laws in their lands. Everyone wants Horizon, and the most effective thing I can do for the whole, is not running around trying to save every single person that needs help."

Momo looks back at Eri's picture and falls into deep thought, "I can't imagine the magnitude of the weight on your shoulders. But I trust you to always make the right choice to help the most people."

"Yeah well, that's why I'm here, I deal with the big problems so they don't run over anyone else. All the little people get to live in ignorance of all the looming threats and sleeping giants, hell nobody even knew about the shadow war between All Might and All For One until Kamino, so imagine how many of those happened before that day."

Momo moves a bit closer and leans against his side, and he wraps an arm around her, "shadow wars and political disputes over you, intense."

"Yeah, meanwhile I'm just here spending the night with you, so in a weird way, you're closer than they are…" 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 194: CHAPTER 190(Eavesdropper)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--1A Dorms, 6:35 AM…

After getting out of the showers and getting dressed, wearing a pair of shorts and a large shirt, Jiro gathers her things and begins the trip back up to her room from the showers and laundry area downstairs.

"Morning Kyoka!" Uraraka greets her, falling into step beside her as she too is heading back to her room to change.

'It's way too early to have that much energy,' Jiro thinks, but instead just looks over at her friend. "Morning Ochaco, a late start for you?"

"Oh, just a bit. I kind of got carried away sparring with Mina last night, so I overslept." 1

"Oh that, yeah she mentioned you've been teaching her some of the Gun Head martial arts from your internship," Jiro says as they enter the hallway, moving toward the elevator.

"Yup, she's a natural, atleast more than me, Mina's got some serious moves already."

"Well she likes to dance so I bet that helps her out," Jiro shrugs.

"What about you?" Uraraka asks, taking a closer look at Jiro, seeing small dark bags under her eyes. "Trouble sleeping?"

"Uh, I, was up late studying for midterms," she lied. "They should be starting soon so I don't want to wait too long." 4

"Oh shoot!" Uraraka facepalms as they enter the elevator. "I totally forgot about those! Awe man I need to start studying more, I've just been so caught up with working at Ryukyu's Agency that my school work hasn't been as big of a priority."

"Yeah well I imagine that's difficult to manage."

"Yeah, you know how it is, every time you're out on patrol you come back exhausted, studying after that just seems like torture."

"Well, I actually wouldn't know," Jiro says, and she see's Uraraka looks like she's about to apologize. "Its fine, really. But don't think just because we failed the Provisional License exam that we can't catch up to you. Because while you're all out of UA we've been training harder than ever, you'll see."

"Yeah! Then we can go on patrol together and help people," Uraraka gets excited at the idea. "Oooh! Maybe all the girls can form a hero team together, with a super flashy Super Move where we all work together to take down a big villain and save everyone!" 7

"Let's focus on one thing at a time Chaco'," Jiro says. "I still have to actually pass the next exam first, then we'll talk about combo moves afterward."

"Oh you'll be fine," Uraraka says as the elevator begins taking them up. "The only reason you didn't get it this year was because there were just so many third-year students from other Hero Courses there, next year you'll be a second year during it, and a lot stronger."

"But I'll have fewer allies, so I think it balances out."

"Mmm, maybe, but I guess you've just got to be even stronger and win anyway!" Uraraka gives her a dazzling smile, and Jiro just gives an awkward one in exchange. 1

"You make it sound so easy, but yeah, that's exactly what I'll do!"

They chat a bit more while walking through the hallway, then Uraraka goes into her own room to get ready for school.

And after a few more steps, two doors down, Jiro arrives at her own.

"Honestly I'll never understand how anyone has that much energy this early in the morning," she mutters while casually stepping into her room.

"Morning people are annoying," Horizon agrees.

"Eehh!" she squeals out, dropping her items and holding her chest, breathing heavily as she leans against the door. 1

"Well good morning to you too," Horizon says.

He was currently in his full UA uniform, with the back of his jacket, his logo stitched into it staring at her. As he peruses the myriad of musical instruments lining her walls.

The entire room looks like a music shop, with instruments, posters, even some old records and a record player, beside a stereo system.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Jiro growls out, looking more cute than scary as she picks up her stuff, but Horizon doesn't pay her much attention, still inspecting her instruments. "This is my room." 1

"Obviously," he stops and turns to her. "But I didn't think you cared much for the notion of privacy, after last night," he gestures to the ceiling, where hidden behind a poster there is a small indentation where her Earphone Jack was but hours ago.

Jiro's blood runs cold, almost breaking out into a sweat as she freezes, unable to think of any excuse that could make this better.

"Can you really play all of these?" Horizon asks, and she leaps at the chance to change the subject.

"Atleast a little bit, you know who my parents are, it's in my blood."

"Impressive."

"You mentioned that you don't play anything, right, want to learn?" she desperately tries to distract him.

"I'd rather not, understanding it ruins the magic, and with how my brain works, if I can understand something it's difficult to enjoy."

"Right, we--"

"Why were you listening in on Momo and I last night?" Horizon asks, and a flash of embarrassment and fear appears on her face.

"Well, I, um--"

"I did a quick Scan of the dorms to make sure we weren't being spied on before I…well, you know, you heard, and imagine my surprise to find you, laying in bed with an Earphone Jack in the ceiling and a hand do--"

"I'm sorry!" Jiro blurts out. "I was just, worried you'd take advantage of my friend." 1

He considers it for a moment, then nods, "a good excuse for the first part maybe, but that doesn't explain why you listened in all night." 1

As Jiro freezes, Horizon walks over and gently puts a finger under her chin, raising her head so she has to look up at him.

As he looms over her, a full 16in 40cm taller than the petite girl.

"I…" Jiro stutters for a moment, then her eyes get teary as she finally lets it all out. "Because I like you, and I know I tried not to but I really do. And I like Momo, and I don't know what to do, so when both of you got all, close, like that, I just kept listening in ok.

What else was I supposed to do? Both the people I'm attracted to were…and I just…I…I don't know. I'm sorry. Please don't tell anyone, don't tell Momo that I'm--" 8

"As if I care about some teenaged sexuality crisis, and again, you aren't very subtle, but relax Momo is too sweet to treat you any differently either way."

"What about--"

"I already knew why you were listening in," Horizon shrugs. "I just like watching you squirm, atleast that makes us even." 2

"What?"

"But I do have one question," he ensures he's making proper contact with her, and reads her body as he speaks. "When you were listening in, how much can you see. I imagine you have something like echo mapping, right?"

"I'm not that good yet, I could only hear," Jiro says. "Sorry to disappoint…even more."

Luckily for her, he detects no lies. He was fairly sure she wouldn't have gotten much detail like his face and certainly not his tattoos, but better safe than sorry.

And removing Jiro from the board is always preferable to compromising Law Matani. 10

With her dodging that bullet he steps away and continues looking around her room, as she desperately tries to make sense of what's happening.

Taking deep breaths she wipes her tears and just observes him, before finally speaking.

"Are you going to report me to Principal Nezu?"

"Don't be stupid," Horizon says. "What Momo and I were doing is so much worse than your preerected antics, the teachers acknowledge that they can't fully stop students from fucking, but they have to atleast try to prevent it. But atleast try not to be such a creepy pervert in the future, or just ask to be there, doubt either of us would mind…"

Jiro's mind is sent reeling with that thought, and she blinks a few times to try and make sense of it, but before responding with some outrage, she takes stock of the situation.

And realizes she's really holding no moral position to be judging him "what?"

Horizon stops looks around and walks up to her, then leans in closer to her face, "I sensed it early on, so if I wanted to. If you were anyone else spying on us, this would have gone very differently, but since its you we're having a pleasant and hopefully fruitful conversation about this."

Jiro nods stiffly, feeling the hairs behind her neck stand up, a new sense of danger filling the room.

"But you're you, and how this ends is quite obvious, so I saw no reason not to let you have a glimpse of your future. Atleast now you know what you're signing up for…"

Jiro freezes for a moment, and from the look in her eyes, he can tell her brain is struggling to process all of this.

And the redness on her face says she's finally making some progress in understanding him.

Shaking his head he sighs, and pats her head, "don't be late for class, and try not to be any weirder around us…"

And with that, he warps away, happy with how he's using the perks that come from being Horizon.

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 195: CHAPTER 191(Homeroom)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7:05 AM…

"Look, I just don't see what the big deal is, I didn't even say anything wrong," Sero says.

He was sitting on Tokoyami's desk, because strangely he and Horizon are in the 1A homeroom before anyone else arrives.

Even the obsessively polite Momo Yaoyorozu.

Horizon was in his custom uniform, leaning back with his feet up, scrolling through a few of his fan pages on his phone.

Forever entertained by the insane rumors and assumptions the internet has about him. And this week the latest gossip is him joining the Edgeshot Hero Agency, since Cellophane is working with them.

"Just tell her she's pretty or something, or get her cake, girls love cake," Horizon says. 4

"It's flowers, the saying is 'girls like flowers'. Besides, Yui like tomatoes more."

"Ew, and I said cake because they can't eat flowers, but seriously, Yui is head over heels for you…for some reason--"

"Hey!"

"If you actually like her then probably don't reward bad behavior with cake, that'll be bad long term, and hey, why apologize if you're right," Horizon shrugs.

"Exactly, but I don't get why she's mad."

"She's a girl, doesn't matter if you were right, just how it made her feel, I try not to take them seriously." 1

"Well I'm sorry I actually have a heart," Sero shakes his head. "And it really likes Yui."

"Sounds like a personal problem. Just tell her to get over it, you've got hero stuff to do, so what if you don't want to go see some stupid poetry show nonsense, who gives a fuck."

"Her apparently," Sero groans. "It's just gonna suck so much, those things are super lame."

"Hey you wanted a girlfriend, this is what you get. I did tell you to just --"

"I remember what you told me, but I happen to like Yui as a person, and not as 'playthings' or whatever you said."

"Then bite the bullet and go to the poetry show, I'll be over in Tokyo enjoying the perks of being a hero. Honestly man, who gets fame and fortune to settle for one girl…" Horizon scoffs.

"Well let's not get ahead of ourselves," Sero says. "I said I like her, not that I'd nev--" 3

The door at the back of the room slides open, and Momo Yaourorozu stares at both her classmates before her eyes settle on Horizon.

"Hey, Yaomomo!" Sero doesn't miss a beat or notice the strange look she gave Horizon. "You're usually the first one here, everything ok?"

Momo walks over to her seat as she responds, "Good morning Sero, and things have never been better, just a bit of a late start this morning."

She takes her seat and begins setting up her books.

"Hey, can I get your opinion on some girl stuff Yaomomo?"

"Um, certainly, but I'm not sure if I'm experienced enough to be of any help."

"More than most of our class," Horizon blurts out.

And Momo can see the thoughts connect through Sero's expression as he looks between them, then he looks surprised, eyes widening a bit, then quickly moves past it. 1

"It's about Yui," Sero says, and Momo's oh-so thankful he didn't say anything. "She wants to go to some poetry night next week, it's in Musutafu, but it really isn't my kind of thing, plus I just feel like I'd get more done by doing my usual training, you know?" 2

Momo nods along.

"Right, so I told her this, and now she's mad, what do you think I should do?" 1

"Well, training is important, and we are here mainly for training. But also you entered into a relationship knowing there'd have to be some moments where you put each other first, as that is part of having a romantic relationship…" Momo furrows her brow, trying to think of a solution to this.

"One more reason heroes shouldn't have serious relationships," Horizon says as he continues scrolling on his phone. "I'll add it to the list." 3

Momo frowns, "Everyone needs someone to be there for them in the quiet moments."

"Yeah, the quiet moments, not to drop what you're doing just because of them. Anyway, what do you think he should do?"

"Hmm, I think he should go, if it makes her happy that alone should be enough reason."

"I think he should go," Horizon says, surprising both of them. "If only to understand why women shouldn't be allowed to distract you from your goals, suffer through some garbage amateur poetry, and learn a valuable lesson."

"Are you saying you'd never go to one of these for a girl?" Sero asks.

"Fuck no!" Horizon actually put down his phone, then gestures back to Momo. "I've got the girl that'll be happy with me taking the time to buy her a new interesting book, not dragging me to some horrific and pretentious poetry event."

"Mhm," Momo nods along, elated by the way he's so open about whatever they are.

"Because I think ahead, while you just think with your dick."

"I think with my heart," Sero says.

"Well you think with both of those," Horizon says. "I think with all three. If you wanted to avoid this you should have asked out Momo," he shrugs. 2

"I did, on the first day of school, but she already had that crush on you." 2

"She has good taste," Horizon says.

"Can both of you please stop speaking about me as if I'm not here," Horizon glances back to see her face beet red. "And for the record, I also happen to enjoy live shows, and poetry."

"Really?" Horizon spins his chair around to face her. "Want to go to this poetry thing?"

Momo's eyes open wide, 'he's asking me out, on a real date, maybe a double date with his friend. Oh my god! Did he change his mind, does he want me to be his girlfriend, only me? Yes! It must be!' 4

"Yes!" Momo says, with a bit too much energy, then quickly covers her mouth. "I mean, of course, I think I'd quite enjoy some amateur poetry."

"Perfect," Horizon says. "Then just get all the girls to go, Sero buys the tickets, then everyone is happy, a 'girls night'," he shrugs. 3

Momo's smile falls and Sero begins grinning, "what?" 4

"It's the obvious solution," Horizon says. "Obviously I can't go because then the public would know who Cellophane is…and I don't want to go. But I'm sure Yui would appreciate her boyfriend doing this, plus the girls will like it.

Especially Jiro and Mina, since they failed their exams they can only leave campus if a teacher is with them, or me. But I'm sure Eraser won't mind if so many Provisional License holders are out together, you girls can defend yourselves."

"Dude! You're a genius!" Sero praises him.

"I know, and I get that a lot." 2

"Well, I'm sure Kyoka will appreciate not being stuck on campus for a change," Momo says. "Alright, I'll speak to the others about it!"

"Thanks Yaomomo, you're the best," Sero says, and she just sheepishly nods along.

And internally Momo berates herself, 'Stupid stupid stupid, of course he can't go out in public with you, that would make you a target and he can't allow that…but I suppose that also means he cares in his own strange way. Ugh, why is having a love life so complicated!' 10

After they chat a bit to sort out the details, Sero turns to Horizon.

"So what would you do for a night out with your girlfriend? Yui doesn't work anywhere near me, but Edgeshot has a case that puts me close to her area next month, figured we could spend some time together on patrol for a change."

Horizon shrugs, "I have Horizon Tower, it's pretty much got everything, why would we ever need to go anywhere."

"C'mon, tell me something helpful," Sero whines.

"Is there really nothing you like?" Momo asks. "Or someplace you enjoy going?"

"Well, I like the beach," Horizon says. "Its always been a nice place to relax, since I was a kid, even built my house there."

"House?" Sero asks.

"I own a lot of places, but before I went public and built Horizon Tower, I enjoyed my time at the beach. Now it's just hopping between UA, Horizon Tower, and Central Hospital."

"I guess a beach trip could be fun," Sero says. "But that's probably something we should do as a class, right?"

"Absolutely!" Momo is excited at the idea. "I can have mother ready the beach h--" she freezes, and looks, for the first time since they've met her, sad. 3

"You ok?" Horizon asks.

"I um, I just remembered we sold that house," she lied, and not very well. "It was always my favorite…" 8

"Well how about we try to get through the semester before planning any victory celebrations," Horizon says. "One thing at a time…"

After a few more minutes, someone else finally gets to their homeroom.

"Glass face!" Bakugo yells out as he enters through the front door.

"It's too early for this shit," Horizon grumbles as everyone looks at Bakugo. 1

The blonde had his bag over his shoulder, and both hands in his pockets, staring intently at Horizon.

"What do you want?"

"To fight you," Bakugo says. "Rematch, just you and me."

"That's a waste of my time, how about you just take your seat and be quiet till class starts."

"Rematch," Bakugo demands.

Horizon sighs, "and how would this be any different than the Sports Festival, I'm stronger than I was then, and I promise I improve faster than you."

"Tch, because I'm stronger too, and faster, and have better control. And I've been studying you, and thinking about exactly how I'll kick your ass!"

"Well, I hope you think about your girlfriend that much."

"Don't have one." 6

"Probably because you think about me so much," Horizon hears Sero laugh, and Momo stifles a chuckle behind him. 3

"Don't need useless distractions! I just need to be the best, and that means beating you."

"I'm Horizon, unless you've got Star and Stripe in your pocket, I'm invincible, and you'll always be, at best, the runner-up. Just accept your place, silver medal…" 11

"Argh!" Bakguo slams his hand down on Horizon's desk, but he doesn't get any reaction out of the boy. "Fight me! If you're so invincible then why are you so scared, huh?! Think you'll lose?!"

"No, I simply know you aren't worth my time," Horizon says. "But fine, this afternoon, just to shut you up, but first, you should really hurry, atleast if you want to get to homeroom in time…"

Bakugo and the others look confused at that, since they were already in homeroom.

Until Horizon raises a hand and snaps his fingers.

SHAMBLES!

In Bakugo's place is a single leaf from the other side of UA, over 14 km away. And hovering in the air, Bakugo's phone, was selectively left behind when Horizon sent him away. 2

So he can't call for help, so they get just a bit longer without his yelling.

"Where did you send him?" Momo asks, concern in her voice.

"Hell." 3

"Horizon…"

"Ugh, he's just at the other side of UA, he'll walk back in…a bit."

"He'll be late for homeroom, Mr. Aizawa could be upset," Momo says. "You could get in trouble."

"Momo, babe, relax, Eraser Head and I have an understanding, I'll be fine…" 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 196: CHAPTER 192(Homeroom Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Did you mean what you said earlier?" Sero asks as the classroom begins to fill up.

"Which part?"

"About Star and Strip being able to beat you, I mean, you're pretty much invincible so did you mean it?"

Horizon shrugs, "Honestly, no idea. But it's the safe assumption, right?"

"How do you mean?" Tokoyami asks. "Isn't your Quirk the strongest?"

"Eh, it depends. See nobody even knows the name of her Quirk, much less what it does. But from what the public knows she seems to be able to manipulate the world around her somehow, but the limits and requirements are obviously unknown."

"So she could be stronger than you?" Sero asks. "Honestly it's hard to imagine anyone stronger than you, atleast since All For One is gone."

"Well, if the current me fought him from back then, I'd win, but it makes sense that Star would be stronger. She's the only other Mystery Class on the planet, and has the entire US military training her. An infinite budget and she's like 35, more experience.

Compared to that I've only had my Quirk for 11 years and mostly just trained at home, in a head-to-head fight she should win, atleast on paper. But my Quirk lets me do more miraculous stuff that doesn't involve punching villains, so I think it evens out." 5

"The operations and such," Tokoyami says. "I suppose in many ways you're much more of a boon for mankind than she is. It's been proven many times that punching out villains is useful, but people who can save lives in other ways are much more scarce."

"Exactly," Horizon says. "Especially when human anatomy and biology are constantly being bent and stretched because Quirks exist. Becoming a doctor is one war, then keeping up is a whole other."

"Meanwhile I struggle with algebra," Sero mutters. "Guess I'll stick to punching villains."

"Eraser is coming," Horizon abruptly says, and everyone gets to their seats, quieting down and facing forward.

Horizon just takes his feet off the desk but leans back in his chair.

And Bakugo is still missing, with his phone on his desk.

"Good morning students," Eraser groggily says as he enters, getting a chorus of responses from most of his class.

He glances at them while taking his place at the front, eyes lingering on Bakugo's desk for a moment before he just gives an annoyed sigh and continues.

"Alright, listen up, I've got some announcements before Snipe gets here for the first class."

Most of them stiffen up at that.

"Firstly, Mid Terms will be starting Wednesday and ending Friday. You should have already been studying so this shouldn't be an issue for any of you," he sees many students look worried at that announcement. "Because of this, Work Studies students won't be allowed to leave campus until Friday afternoon, we need you to show you haven't been slacking on your academics."

Horizon casually raises his hand.

"No, you cannot be exempt from the exams because we know you're a genius, some of them are practical not written." 4

Horizon lowers his hand, then as Eraser is about to speak he raises it again.

"No, you cannot take all of the exams in one day to get back to your usual schedule." 7

Horizon lowers his hand and just looks out the window, clearly annoyed. 2

"Right, now with that out of the way. To help you prepare, from today there won't be any after-lunch classes. Hero classes are postponed until next week, this gives you most of the day for your own study time.

I suggest you use it wisely to make up for any slacking off you would have done, I'm sure some of you failed to manage your practical hero work with your academics."

He looks around and notices many people trying to avoid eye contact. 1

"Please keep in mind that anything below an 80% overall grade means your Work Studies is postponed until your overall grade gets back up to that point. No exceptions will be made."

Most of them nod along.

"Right, now other issues, Yaoyorozu, Horizon," his eyes dart over to them.

He immediately notices the worried look on Momo's face, as if she'd been caught, a rosy tinge across her cheeks, her eyes constantly glancing over to Horizon.

Eraser immediately puts it together and just rolls his eyes, which Horizon notices and shrugs in response, leaving most of the class completely oblivious.

"You'll both be expected in the Student Representatives meeting room at 1 PM today, I guess it's time for the mid-semester meeting. These are held twice a semester, at the middle and the end, but last semester got a bit hectic so they didn't happen.

As the class representative and vice representative, you'll be representing 1A and its interests, this is where your classmates find out if their votes went to the right person or not." 1

Momo feels the weight of that responsibility on her, while Horizon just casually raises a hand.

"No, you cannot send Yaoyorozu to the meeting so you can skip it," Eraser Head says. "Your attendance, more than most, is mandatory." 3

Horizon lowers his hand, then raises it again.

"Yes, it is too late to pass your responsibility onto someone else, you being the Class Rep for 1A is a selling point for the safety of your classmates, especially since some of them don't have Provisional Licenses yet." 7

"I fucking hate it here," Horizon mutters to himself as Eraser Head continues talking. 10

And up at the front he senses Jiro giggle quietly.

Raising a brow he gets a bit curious, and focuses for a moment to sense one of her Earphone Jacks touching the metal of her desk.

"So are you always eavesdropping Jiro?" he whispers, too quietly for the people beside him to hear.

He senses her stiffen up.

"You can respond, just slowly mouth what you want to say."

He focuses on her lips with Scan, and senses her roughly saying, 'New, bad, habit. Sorry.'

"I can't say I wouldn't do the same, but I try not to be a total perv like you…"

'Shut, up.'

"You're lucky I think you're cute, but watch your mouth perv."

'Cute?'

"Come to my room later, I'll gladly explain…" 3

Horizon notices Jiro stiffen up at that, then turn around as Eraser Head is talking to steal a glance at him, then she looks past him at Momo.

'Your, girlfriend,' she mouths before turning back to the front of the room.

"Don't be stupid, and I'm sure Momo will gladly bombard you with details the first chance she gets."

'Later,' is all Jiro gives him before retracting her Earphone Jack. 1

'Did she just hang up on me…is that how this feels?' he can't help but wonder, all while everyone else is completely oblivious to the conversation they just had. 3

Toward the end of Homeroom, Horizon extends his senses, feeling Bakugo sprinting through the halls as he enters the main building.

'Huh, he got back here faster than I thought, not bad for what he's working with. Well, I guess I'll have to slap him around a bit this afternoon, should be a bit of fun atleast.

Then I'll have to actually figure out this whole…whatever the hell it is with these girls. Hopefully, the meeting after lunch doesn't take much time, then I can get some work done after dealing with Bakugo.

Training won't be on schedule since Sero and Shinso will be joining Momo's study group for midterms, but I should have some more info from Fatgum, Ryukyu, Nighteye, and Crust today to keep me occupied.'

Horizon leans back and relaxes in his chair.

'Never thought UA would be the relaxing part of my life, just sit back and take a nap during classes or scroll through my social media, spend some time with my girls, and beat down some cocky losers…it could certainly be a lot worse.'

He looks over at Jiro, 'oh but it'll get better…best to have some fun while I'm stuck in this place.'

CRASH!

The door slams open, and the entire class looks over to see a disheveled Bakugo with a sheen sweat over him.

"Monday morning and you're already a mess," Horizon taunts him, "get your shit together Silver Medal…"

"You ba--"

"Save it," Eraser Head cuts him off. "Just go get yourself cleaned up, classes are about to start."

Bakugo grumbles a bit, obviously fuming. Eraser turns to leave as does Bakugo, and through the windows into the hallway Horizon sees the boy staring at him.

So he just leans back, puts his feet up, and gives Bakugo the middle finger.

And a thought suddenly dawns on Momo.

'Wait, am I dating the class bully?' 22

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 197: CHAPTER 193(Student Body Meeting)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

SHAMBLES!

Suddenly Horizon and Momo are standing in the back of a small lecture room.

Long rows of desks curved on varied heights, looking down at the board toward the front.

"Looks like we're the first ones here," Momo says. "Where would you like to sit for the meeting?"

"This is fine," he gestures to the back right corner of the room, then begins walking to his seat in the corner. "I don't plan to really get involved, unless something that would inconvenience me comes up atleast."

Momo takes her seat beside him, and notices him putting his feet up and already taking out his phone, behaviors she was sure would continue during the meeting.

"Do you have anything to say to them?" Horizon asks.

"Not really, UA is rather open about suggestions from students to improve the quality of life around campus. Such as us not having a Student Council and instead hosting these meetings between all the class representatives twice a semester."

"Well, its also because with the Hero centric culture of Japan and especially UA only the Hero Course students would get elected."

"Oh, so you would have been student council president?"

Horizon scoffs, "Do you know how much power and freedom I'd have to give up to do that boring job." 1

"Right," Momo glances at his feet on the desk. "You prefer to give off the fa ade of being a disinterested delinquent, but you're reliable and have a heart of gold." 2

Horizon shrugs, "the girls like it, clearly," he looks over at her. "Besides, with great power, comes--" 3

"--great responsibility," Momo gives him a beaming smile, "I always did love that saying." 3

"Uh…no, with great power, comes no accountability," Horizon shakes his head at her. "Power not worth abusing isn't worth having Momo, because the only thing you ever have to ask yourself, is 'who's going to stop me?', makes life much easier." 8

Momo freezes, and her smile drops, "you're kidding, right?"

Horizon continues scrolling through his phone, receiving some new information from Sir. NIghteye.

"You're kidding, right? Please tell me you are?" Her breathing begins speeding up, noticeable even through the corner of his eye. "You're talking like a villain." 5

"Relax babe, it's not like I want to do anything bad, I just want a nice peaceful, and quiet life with the people who matter," Horizon shrugs. "Besides, nobody could stop me if I wanted anything else."

She briefly thinks about it, then gives him a warm smile, "I suppose it says more about you since you do have the power to do anything you want. But you choose to be here, becoming a Pro Hero to selflessly help others…you really are amazing." 16

"I know," he puts his phone down and gives her his full attention. "It says more about a person who has unlimited power and chooses to do good, rather than being just another pathetic loser with no power to do anything and calling themselves good. 1

I can't imagine many people in this world could be given power like All Might's and still be the hero-worshipping losers they always were. That power is corrupting, because suddenly you'd be able to do whatever you want and nobody could stop you, so choosing to still be selfless and do good becomes the most difficult choice."

"A choice you make every day," Momo says. "Because you're more powerful than All Might, or atleast you will be…are you?"

"He punches harder, but I've got real power, the power to manipulate the world around me, much better." 1

"Right, so every day you wake up and resist the temptation to simple become the next great supervillain, you choose to fight them instead, and I think that's very admirable."

"Well, it's not selfless, like I said at the Sports Festival--"

"I remember what you said, very well in fact," Momo says. "But does the reason matter if you're still a Pro Hero helping people?"

Horizon pauses for a moment, then chuckles quietly, "I see." He reaches out and gently lifts her chin so she's looking at him, "I'm rubbing off on you, a few months ago you never would have said that." 3

"I tried to argue, but the harder we fight, and the more people we lose… I still want to help people, but I must admit there is merit in how you view the role of Pro Heroes."

"Because sometimes, the choices we make have to be weighted," she leans in a bit closer. "As if we're the only people in the world."

"Hey guys!" Kendo interrupts from the front of the room.

Momo jolts back into her seat and faces forward, trying to act all prim and proper even with her red face as Kendo walks up the aisle to them.

"Sorry for interrupting," Kendo says, then gestures to Shoda beside her, the vice-representative of 1B. "Weird how we're here first huh, well, us, not mister 'I can warp'," she nods at Horizon.

"Well our homerooms are closer than the others," Shoda says as they take their seats.

Kendo sits beside Momo with Shoda to her right at the aisle.

"So, you guys ready for midterms?" Kendo asks. "Well, I'm probably asking the two most ready people at UA huh, the super genius and the bookworm," she sighs. "Meanwhile I've been training so hard I fell behind a bit."

Overjoyed that their peers decided to ignore what she was doing moments ago, Momo jumps at the opportunity to change the topic. "Well, we could host another large study group leading up to exams, just as we did for the license exam, both classes together!"

"I was hoping you'd say that," Kendo admits, sheepishly. "Honestly some of us have been struggling and we just know with your style we'd learn a lot faster."

"I'm always happy to help!" Momo says. "Most of our class will be studying together in the afternoons, only a few people won't be there actually…I suppose we'll need a bigger place."

"Just use one of the meeting rooms like this, UA always has a bunch of empty ones."

"Will they really let us use one of these?" Kendo asks.

"Nezu won't mind," Horizon shrugs. "Either way, not my problem. But try to have Sero and Yui sitting far apart, otherwise, he won't be able to focus…"

"We'll keep that in mind," Kendo says, giggling a bit. "Why don't you join us, maybe you'll be enjoying teaching. Doctor Professor Superhero God Emperor Horizon… it's a mouthful but it could work." 8

"Just Horizon is fine," he says. "And I don't have the patience for it. I've never had to read things more than once to understand them, so when people don't get things the first time it annoys me."

"Sheesh, maybe teaching isn't for you," Shoda says. "Well I guess not even you can be perfect at everything."

"Oh no, I'm a perfect teacher," Horizon says. "That's why Cellophane and Simon are gonna be exceptional, that's why they already are exceptional, I just don't think the collection of wimps in our classes can handle the intensity of my lessons."

"So what you're saying is," Kendo gives him a deadpan look, "you just don't know how to use positive reinforcement and be nice to people."

"I don't see why people need a reward, not failing should be all the motivation you need to do your best." 13

"Honestly, how did you ever get such a sweet girl to fall for you," Kendo pulls Momo into a side hug, and rest her head against her friend's. "I'll pray for you sweetie…" 3

"I swear he's much nicer when it's just us," Momo weakly defends.

"Probably because when it's just us, there's fewer clothes," Horizon says.

Momo covers her face, mortified, "That's not what I meant and you know it!"

Kendo can't help but laugh at her friend, then leans forward to look at Horizon, "do you always tease her this much?"

He shrugs, "I like watching her squirm, it's fun."

Kendo sighs and pats Momo's head, "You really know how to pick em…"

--5 Minutes Later…

The room was half filled by now, with a few more minutes until the meeting began, and now both girls rolled their chairs back a bit to Shoda and Horizon could get closer, for what would look like a game of patty cake.

"So it works like this," Shoda says, raising a hand to give Horizon a high five. "Once I make contact, I can snap my fingers and the impact happens again, but its a lot stronger than the first time.

So if I just lightly grazed your cheek with my finger, when I activate my Quirk it feels like I punched you in the face. And there isn't a range limit, just a time limit."

"Is it only in your hands?" Horizon asks.

"Nope, I can do it with an object I'm touching, but for those it's difficult to reign in my power and I always do the maximum…so to avoid breaking people in half I just use my hands and small rubber balls, stuff like that."

"Right, well I'm sure you'd be great at baseball, now lets's do this," Horizon holds his hand out.

Shoda casually gives him the most gently high five they'd ever seen.

Horizon pulls back his hand and looks at his palm, flexing his fingers and inspecting the fabric. "Huh, interesting."

"What do you mean?" Shoda asks.

"Well, when you touched me, I used Scan on your body, to see exactly what was going on."

"Shouldn't you ask before doing that?" Shoda asks, looking a bit creeped out.

Horizon looks up from his hand at Shoda, pauses for a moment, then goes back to inspecting his palm.

"Your body has a lot of built-up kinetic energy, when you activate your Quirk it effectively transplants some of it like a directional bomb into whatever you touch. But you can only build the energy from your own muscular movements, would have been better if you could absorb it too."

"So I'm like a battery for…motion?" Shoda asks.

"Something like that, that's why you say a light tap becomes a hard punch, you think you're amplifying the tap but you're just bad at limiting how much of your reserves you use. I recommend running your reserves down to noting, then starting over, learn what you're like at 0 before going back to 100." 1

Shoda just stares at Horizon, amazed, "I didn't even know my Quirk could work like that."

"What, did you think you could just magically multiply kinetic energy? That's not how physics works, unless you're me you can't just make more energy."

"You can make energy?" Kendo asks.

"Mystery Class."

"Oh, right, beyond comprehension."

"Well, thanks for the advice," Shoda says. "I guess I've been thinking about my Quirk all wrong, no wonder I haven't been able to improve my control that much since joining UA. But uh, why'd you offer to help me?"

Horizon shrugs, "I like studying Quirks, and people are usually more receptive to invasive Scans when I offer something in return."

"But you didn't ask him first," Kendo says.

"Honestly, no pleasing you people," Horizon mutters, then looks at Shoda and gestures to his own palm. "The energy diminishes over time if the subject is moving, so how about you trigger this to show me what you've got."

"Sure," Shoda raises a hand to snap his fingers, "Twin Impact."

BAM!

Horizon's hand slams back into his chest and he rolls back a bit in his chair before stopping himself.

The entire room looks back at him, seeing him apparently fine but staring at his hand.

"Sorry I might have overdone it, are you ok, I mean, I figured you could take it so--"

"I'm fine," Horizon says. "Just didn't expect it to push me back so easily, but not even a scratch," he raises his hand and flexes it to show them, but the body glove was covering all the purple and blue bruises quickly healing across his hand.

'That's a dangerous Quirk, if we ever fight I need to just kill him with Injection Shot, a kamikaze attack from that could be problematic if I let him get close… especially since detecting potential energy in others and objects will be impossible, that's why I had him use my hand.' 4

"But don't use that much force on a regular person," Horizon says.

"I'll keep that in mind," Shoda says as he rolls back for the girls to get back between them.

"This meeting is taking forever to start, it's not like her to be late," Kendo says.

"Who are you talking about?" Horizon asks.

"Oh, I figured you'd know, since she's your friend and all…" Kendo says.

"Friend? The chairperson for these meetings is always a third year, and the only third-year girl I'm even remotely friends with is," The realization dawns on him, and he opens a Room, sensing her about to enter the doors. "Fuck--"

"Heya everyone!" Nejire, Class Representative for 3A proudly enters, followed by her vice representative and best friend Yuyu Haya. 2

Most of the room lights up, always excited to see UA's most cheerful student.

But her eyes immediately lock onto Horizon.

"Hey Horizon!" she waves, as if he somehow wouldn't see her. "You haven't been answering my calls or text, stay back a bit afterward alright, we've got some stuff to talk about!"

Most of the guys in the room immediately give him a death glare, and he just sits back and puts his feet up.

But beneath the visor he gives a low groan and rolls his eyes, 'great, now I have to deal with this ball of energy and people will think those rumors are real, just what I needed…" 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 198: CHAPTER 194(Quiet Lessons)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So, you plan to get in on this?" Sero asks Todoroki.

Both of them were sitting on the steps in front of the dorms, watching just a few students walking about while everyone else is inside studying.

And beside them was Deku, scribbling in one of his 'Hero Journal' books.

"I have a brain, so no, I don't want to fight Horizon," Todoroki says. "Besides, he'd probably just remove my heart again, and I'd rather not deal with that all over again."

"Oh, right," Sero leans forward and looks over at Deku. "What about you Deku?"

"Huh?" Deku snaps out of his own little world and looks at Sero. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"You gonna help Bakugo out or just watch? You and Todoroki are the strongest in our class after Horizon…well you're probably tied with Tokoyami most of the time."

"Hmm, I don't think Kacchan will like me getting involved, this seems a bit personal for him."

"Everything is personal with Bakugo," Shoto says. "But even if we did join, I don't think our chances would increase by much."

"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that," Deku says, opening his book and skimming his notes. "But I do have a theory."

"Really, to beat the unbeatable?" Shoto asks. "Please, enlighten us."

"Ok," Deku flips through some more notes then looks at Sero. "You've spent the most time with him, so tell me if this makes sense, alright?"

"Sure thing man."

"Ok, so. My idea is a team attack, not a single person." 2

"A combo move?" Shoto asks.

"Exactly, because from all the information I have Horizon can't lose 1 on 1, not unless you can completely surprise him--"

"Like being the only person in the world with an arsenal of Quirks that he can't predict or react to," Shoto says.

"Yeah, I've even been asking All Might and he agrees."

"So what's the plan?" Sero asks, clearly skeptical that this would ever work.

"Well alright, we need a few people. Kacchan, Yaomomo, Uraraka, and Mina."

"That's an unusual combination," Shoto says.

"That's the idea!" Deku says excitedly. "Kacchan is the only one with the power, speed, skills, and most importantly, the combat sense to adapt to anything Horizon throws at him, or atleast adapt faster than anyone else. Plus he can fight at any angle thanks to his mobility." 4

"So he's the vanguard," Shoto says. "A distraction and stalling tactic while the girls get the real attack ready?"

"Yeah! Yaomomo can make anything, and she's sure to know the optimal items to distract him, and since her potential attacks are so varied he can't prepare in advance for it." 1

"A distraction and something to surprise him," Shoto thinks about it for a moment. "But I can't imagine Uraraka and Ashido being able to do much damage to him."

"Well, they can't, not really," Deku says. "But if Uraraka manages to make something weightless, he shouldn't be able to sense that so it can surprise him, like ripping the ground out from under his feet." 10

"And Mina?" Sero asks.

"Well all she has to do is hit him once," Deku says. "See I noticed something. Horizon never lets any attacks hit him, even when taking a hit to counter attack would be smarter and more efficient. He always avoids every hit. Why do you think that is?"

"Because his ego won't allow it," Sero says, hitting the nail on the head. 1

"No way, he's too logical for that," Deku says. "It must be his suit, his visor and body glove combo. Nobody knows what's under it, and he's mentioned a few times that he's like a living ball of energy, right? So…"

"You think it's a containment suit?" Shoto asks. "And if you get some Acid on it--" 6

"She ruptures the suit and he loses a lot of energy faster than he can generate it."

"So you plan to pop him like a balloon and let him…leak out?" Sero asks.

"Well, that's one way to put it, yeah, so what do you think?" Deku asks Sero.

"I think you haven't seen him fight, I mean a serious fight."

"But, at the Sports Festival--"

He interrupts Shoto, "Horizon was playing around, trust me, if he's serious, nobody can touch him, and he'll see through any plans made against him. Hand of God is one thing, but he's a different level of aware and paranoid, he thinks of every possibility. If you want to surprise him you'd have to pull a second Quirk out of your pocket, but you'd have to do that before he makes physical contact and Scans you. 1

But I think since All For One used that trick, it won't work twice," Sero shrugs.

"Nothing we didn't already know," Shoto says. "But I'm more curious about why Midoriya has put this much thought into it…"

"Uh, well," Deku stutters nervously. "I just feel like eventually we'll get matched up, and he'll be a bit rougher on me than anyone else."

"Oh definitely," Sero says, causing both of them to wince. "That's probably why Eraser doesn't let you two spar during class."

"That's a bit concerning," Shoto mutters. "Maybe we shouldn't let Bakugo fight him."

"You talking about my icy-hot!" Bakugo yells as he walks out of the dorms, in full Hero Costume with Kirishima beside him, who was in casual clothes. 3

'Nevermind, this should be fun to watch,' Shoto thinks. 3

"We're just here to watch the fight man," Sero says as Kirishima joins them, sitting on the steps of the dorms. "Good luck out there."

"I don't need any damn luck, I'll show you losers exactly how much stronger I am! Then I'll be the #1 Hero!"

"That's a lot of talk from a silver medalist," Horizon says as he steps out of the dorms. 3

He was casually scrolling through his phone, after warping Momo to her room from the meeting and leaving her to catch up with Jiro, he changed into some white and blue sweatpants and a hoodie, all his merchandise of course.

Leaving the hoodie open to show off the body glove below and its muscular design.

"Where are we doing this?" Bakugo asks, adjusting his gauntlets which he's already filled.

"Right here is fine," Horizon doesn't take his eyes off his phone as he walks onto the lawn, waiting for his opponent. "But remember, after I beat you here, no more rematches."

"You'll be begging me for a rematch after I win," Bakugo grumbles. "But we can't fight here. My explosions will get me in trouble this close to the dorms and main campus," he gestures to the buildings around them.

"You really don't need to worry about that, trust me," Horizon puts his phone in his pocket.

"Tch," Bakugo takes a spot opposite him on the lawn, and drops into his fighting stance, ready to rush in. "You should give that to tape face before I break it, my explosions are stronger than the last time you saw them." 1

"My phone will be fine, after all, it's only you…" 3

Bakugo growls loudly, and they could see the vein on his forehead bulging already.

"One of you needs to call it," Horizon says to the spectators.

"I'm on it," Kirishima hops up, and rushes inside, away from the fight.

Moments later all of 1A in their casual clothes comes out to watch the fight.

"Alright!" Kirishima yells and raises his hand. "Begin!"

ROOM!

Horizon opens a Room just large enough for the main campus area.

Bakugo lunges forward, already having considered most variables.

'Not much here to swap places with, every explosion has to be a double, one at him, and one behind me in case he swaps out places like before.

I need to grab him and throw him in the air, that way even if he swaps out places I'll still have an advantage since I'll fly up after him, and he can't fly…atleast I don't think so.

And I've got to make sure when I grab him it's only to align myself to blast him away, if he feels me holding on he'll use Counter Shock and end the fight…just like he did with Mirio.

The final hurdle is that damn shield of his, Curtain, he rarely uses it. But at the Sports Festival, I forced him to use it since he couldn't warp out of the ring, and my explosion covered the whole thing.

But I can't just bomb this place, I'd probably still get in trouble, even if he says I won't get in trouble for this fight. This is just like fighting a villain in a civilian-heavy area, perfect training.

Because no villain is gonna give as good of a fight as Horizon!'

All these thoughts rush through Bakugo's mind in the time it takes him to move two steps, at a full sprint.

Now Horizon was only 10m 33ft away, and he still hadn't moved yet.

'He's waiting for me to strike, then he'll swap us so I blow myself up, he always does this crap, but I'm ready this time!'

An excellent plan, but unfortunately, in this world especially.

What you don't know, can hurt you. And in the case of Horizon, it hurts a lot.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon disappears, swapped with nothing, because very few people know he can freely warp about in a space he's familiar with. 12

Bakugo's and most of his classmate's eyes go wide as many of them see this for the very first time.

CRACK!

The sound of metal shattering reaches Bakugo's ears, before the searing pain in his right arm has him screaming out. 1

In an instant Horizon had warped beside him, and struck the gauntlet on his right arm with a heavy punch, amplified by Booster Shot.

The gauntlet shattered along with the bones in Horizon's hand. But he quickly and subtly beings healing them.

The metal of Bakugo's equipment is sent scattering about the lawn.

But Horizon's strike continued to Bakugo's forearm beneath, hitting hard enough to crack the bone in multiple places.

"ARRGH!" Bakugo cries out, feeling a pain that he recognizes, but much worse than ever before.

Like the pain of his bones and muscles straining under the recoil of his explosions amplified a dozen times over, pain making it obvious using explosions with that hand will do permanent damage.

Damage he can't afford to take if he wants to keep fighting in the future.

Before their classmates can react to give a wince--

SHAMBLES!

He warps to the other side and does the exact same thing, causing Bakugo to stumble and begin falling over.

SHAMBLES!

He warps directly in front of Bakugo and kicks him in the stomach area, just barely lifting him off the floor with the sheer force of it.

And as Bakugo is an inch off the floor, with his foot still making contact.

SHAMBLES!

They both appear 10m 33ft above the lawn.

Horizon lands a strong right as Bakugo is disoriented, causing his vision to go black for a moment.

SHAMBLES!

He warped them another 10m 33ft directly up the instant he made contact, then brings down a elbow to Bakugo's right shoulder, easily dislocating it.

"Argh!" Bakguo's pained scream was bone-chilling, and most of his classmates winces at the sound.

Before Horizon warped to the other side and did the exact same attack, all while they were now beginning to fall.

Now satisfied with how useless Bakugo's arms are, Horizon uses Shambles to adjust their positions. Putting his foot on Bakugo's back as if the boy was lying on the floor, then--

SHAMBLES!

They warp back down onto the lawn, and Bakugo luckily only feels the momentum of falling less than 1.5m 5ft, but unfortunately with Horizon's 275lbs 125kgs dropping onto him, standing with one foot on his back, shoving his face into the dirt.

"See, told you the explosions wouldn't get you in trouble," Horizon chuckles as he gets off of him and steps to the side.

The spectators stand in amazement and horror, the entire fight took barely 5 seconds, and Bakugo didn't even get a chance to strike.

"Bakugo, are you ok?!" Kirishima yells out.

"Take him to Recover Girl, I don't heal annoying things," Horizon says as he begins walking toward the dorms, ready to perform a procedure he's been planning since summer, then have some fun later tonight.

"Argh!" Bakguo uses his forehead to push off the grass, barely raising his torso to look at Horizon's back. "I'm not done!" 1

But in his excitement a jolt of pain wracks his arms, causing him to lose balance and go face-first back into the dirt.

"Yeah, you're done, and if anyone needs me, don't…" Horizon says as he enters the dorms, as does almost everyone else. 1

Sero, Shoto, and Deku are left watching Kirishima take Bakugo to Recover Girl.

"Told you that plan wouldn't work," Sero shrugs. "It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think it's pretty obvious now. You relied on Horizon fighting like a classic Pro Hero, like All Might, but he prefers ruthless efficiency."

Deku looks at Bakugo being escorted away, then down at his book, "I guess I know even less than I imagined…" he mutters. 2

But deep down, he could feel it, and he knew it to be true.

If he wants to be the best, Horizon is the mountain in his way.

This is the person he must rise to overcome, or atleast to challenge. 3

And what better challenge to force his growth… 7

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 199: CHAPTER 195(Quirky Things)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--10 PM…

Skulking through the 1A Dorms a few minutes after curfew, Jiro looks around anxiously through the hallways before exiting her room.

She was wearing her usual 'Deep Dope' oversized top and a pair of matching shorts, phone gripped tightly in hand.

Taking a deep breath she tries to play it cool, as if she just got up to go get some water from downstairs, atleast that's the plan if anyone bumps into her.

But that's unlikely. This being the Hero Course means everyone trains from sunrise to sundown, and hardly any people are walking about at night.

Too exhausted from the constant training and studying, and had she not taken a nap after their large study session she would have been sound asleep as well.

Walking down the hallway she passes by Momo's room, and considers a possibility.

'If I go to chat with Horizon and Momo is there things could get awkward. I mean we already decided how to deal with…ugh but I really don't want to deal with any weird situations tonight.

But I mean I'm just going to talk, nothing is gonna happen, I think. I hope. I hope? Do I? Well, a little bit happening won't hurt, right?' 1

She smacks herself on the forehead, then winces a bit and rubs it.

'I'm overthinking things, but just to be sure I'm not interrupting them…'

She raises one of her Earphone Jacks and touches the wall in front of Momo's room.

Then relaxes as she hears her best friend sound asleep.

'I really need to stop doing that,' she reminds herself while retracting it. 'But I kind of like it when he teases me…atleast it makes him talk to me more. Nope, I need to cut out that habit.'

Walking to the end of the hallway she sees the boys' side across from her, then makes a sharp turn toward the elevator.

'It's only one floor up, and with my luck, someone is out getting a snack downstairs,' she thinks, walking to the side of the elevator to the stairwell that wraps around it.

Feeling more and more anxious with every step, she arrives on the fifth floor, the top floor of the 1A Dorms.

And walks toward its only resident.

Arriving at his door she can't help but roll her eyes at it. White and blue with his logo boldly carved into it.

'He really can't help himself huh,' she looks down the hallway, where usually she'd see three more doors for the other rooms.

But instead, it's just a plain wall.

'They really did make his room the entire Boys' Side top floor…what does he even need all that space for. Well, I guess I'm about to find out,' she takes a deep breath and raises her hand to gently knock.

Only for the door to open, and a pair of yellow and black eyes stare back at her. 7

They both freeze for a moment, then Mina is the first to break the awkward tension.

"Heya Kyoka, what brings you here?" She puts on her best smile to try and snap Jiro out of her frozen state.

"Uh, I, um--"

Mina leans forward, getting a bit closer to Jiro, "Here for a little one-on-one time with your not-so-secret crush huh, you being a bad rocker girl?"

"What! No!" Jiro yells, no longer trying to be stealthy, face fully red at the thought. "I was just, um, just here to talk about…things." 1

Mina gives her a mischievous smile, and Jiro just knows she's never going to let her forget this. "Really, talking, well if you say so."

"I'm serious."

"uh-huh, just be sure to tell me everything tomorrow," Mina steps out of the room, leaving Horizon's door open behind her. "Looks like Horizon gets his hands on all the ladies tonight," she says scandalously, just to see Jiro blush and try to cover her face.

Mina's laughter echoes through the hallway, "Honestly you're way too fun to tease, I wasn't here for that, I like sweet wholesome guys. Plus you two already have…whatever you have with him."

Jiro slowly drops her hands, "really? But then why were you here?"

Mina shrugs, "well I guess that's something you can talk to him about, all the science kind of went over my head anyway," she leans forward and pinches Jiro's cheek. "If you keep blushing like this you'll get to do more than talking tonight, you're just too adorable sometimes."

"That's not, uh."

"Good luck," Mina says as she begins walking away. "And keep it safe."

"It's not like that I swear!" Jiro yells, but Mina just waves and rounds the corner, heading back to her own room.

As she hears the elevator open, Jiro turns around, now looking into Horizon's room.

"Well, atleast she won't tell anyone…if only so she can tease me about this more, just my luck."

Assuming he must have heard and likely sensed her by now, however that works, she enters and closes the door behind her.

And she can't help but observe how neat everything was in his room. As she expects from their resident doctor atleast.

To the far end of the room was his large bed, where just last night she listened in on him and her best friend as they--

'Focus Jiro,' she snaps herself out of her daze.

Only a few feet away, standing in front of a hologram with a few tabs of notes and what looks like chemical structures floating about, Horizon is adding more and more information to it.

'Mina did say the science of it went over her head…' Jiro recalls.

"Had fun sneaking about the hallways?" Horizon asks. "Took you long enough to get here…"

"You knew I was coming?"

"I could sense you, and by the way, Momo just sends me a text and I warp her into my room, for future notice when we do this again."

"You could have done that at any point, why didn't you?" Jiro was clearly annoyed by his antics.

"More fun this way, could have sworn you were having a panic attack deciding whether to take the elevator."

"It wasn't that bad," she grumbles and walks up to him, looking at the work he's doing.

"It was," he looks to the side, down at the petite girl, "but hey, you made it, and I'm happy to have you."

"Well, atleast you find it funny."

"Adorable really. And I noticed you couldn't help but be a little perv one last time."

"It's really not like that," Jiro says. "It's just…kind of a habit now. Ever since joining UA, you and the teachers say we should use our Quirks any chance we get, well mine lets me do things like that. So its good practice…and I guess I got a bit carried away with it."

"I understand the feeling, better than most actually."

"Really, you do? And mind if I take a seat?" She gestures to the couch at his back.

"Go ahead, and yeah, I do understand it," he continues his work. "My Quirk allows me to sense things within my range, I can pick and choose what I sense depending on how much focus and energy I want to use.

I could decide to ignore, let's say, your clothes, and get a map of what you look like naked. I can peer through walls entirely without limit and know what everyone is doing. I can see behind the masks of the Top Pro Heroes, and there isn't anything in the world they could do about it.

So yes, I understand the temptation to use your Quirk to violate the privacy of others, but honestly, its never bothered me."

"Right, because of course mister perfect never gets tempted to do bad things," Jiro rolls her eyes. "Do you really expect me to believe that?"

"Why would I care about others in such a way, they aren't worth my attention. Besides, it ruins the fun part."

"What fun part?"

"Well, half the fun of women is making them want you, if you skip to the end it's rather boring."

"You expect me to believe you enjoy that?"

Horizon looks over his shoulder at her, then goes back to finishing his notes, "asks the girl who has a massive and obvious crush on me, snuck though the halls after curfew to visit me in my dorms, and is now sitting patiently for me to finish these notes and give her my undivided romantic attention…really?"

"Tch, that doesn't prove anything," Jiro says. "Besides, seems like you've had a lot of visitors lately."

"Mina?"

"Mhm."

"She's cute, and has a nice ass, but do you really think I'd put my dick in a potential acid puddle…no thanks."

"Well, she said she wasn't here for that kind of thing…so why was she here?"

"I'll show you," he saves his work and then taps a few buttons on the watch device Mei made for him.

Jiro moves over so he can sit beside her, and the hologram begins to change.

Displaying what appear to be scans and results from hundreds of people, hundreds of sick people that need help.

Then each file ends with the same word, 'Terminally ill'.

"Your patients?" Jiro asks.

"No, these are people from around the world that I just can't get to, but I can fix. Too bad they'll all long die before I could ever get the chance to go there."

"Oh no…Mina?"

"Is fine," he reassures her. "A while ago I won a bet, and I asked that she let me run some tests on her. She thought I was going to do some perverted nonsense apparently."

"We all thought that, she told the girls."

"And you're still here, how odd. But no I wanted to examine her Quirk. Contrary to what you may see in the news and on TV, Quirks like hers and Bakugo's are rare. Full body quirks that entirely change a body system while adding nothing but genetic benefits to the user. 1

But I've already studied some similar to Bakugo's so I don't need him…but Shoji is a bit hesitant to be 'treated like a lab rat', as he puts it. Something about his past…I wasn't really listening to the sob story." 1

"Jeez, even when you try to be sweet you're still a jerk." 1

"That's my charm babe, but really now, medicine has become a lot more difficult since the advent of Quirks.

Operating on people is much harder as the human form can vary so much now, it's like having to be a doctor, a vet, and a dozen other things all in one. That's also why creating universal medication is all but impossible too, and that's something I plan to solve."

"You want to make medicine?"

"Just think about it, if I study enough people firsthand, I could make a cure for dozens of things. One shot or one pill or whatever, and bye-bye terminal illness, forever."

"Wow…" Jiro's eyes widen in amazement, never expecting to know this side of him.

"As I said, this Pro Hero thing is a stepping stone, and now that the entire world knows me, they trust me, I can get information that would have never been given freely before. I can fix this world, one cure at a time.

For each of the people I save by fighting some idiot villain, I'll save tens of millions more by completing these cures. No cape, no tights, just results, as it should be. And it'll all be completely free."

"Completely free?" Jiro was even more surprised. "Since when were you altruistic?"

"Well, maybe being around all you heroes is rubbing off on me, but recently I've had a change of heart," he lied, so blatantly and boldly she couldn't help but believe it. 2

Leaving her none the wise to how far he'd go to have this entire world eating out of his palm.

"So it really was just for research," Jiro says as she scoots a bit closer to him, and he casually drapes his arm around her.

"Well, Mina is cute."

"You like pink?"

"She makes it work, but I usually mostly just like Quirky people. People that would be indistinguishable from regular boring obsolete humans…but then they just have that one odd thing about them. Like you, just an incredibly cute girl…with Earphone Jacks for earlobes."

Jiro blushes up a storm as the holograms close up, and the room dims slightly. "You really like them?"

"I think they look good on you."

"And I think I might look good on you," Jiro says his line, which catches him off guard.

"--oh, you heard me say that yesterday, of course."

She giggles a bit, "sorry I couldn't help it."

"Well, atleast you're not wrong…"

Feeling he heart pounding in her chest, and her face heating up, Jiro quickly blurts out, "can we take it slow! I mean…I'm just not ready for, you know."

There is a moment before Horizon speaks where she's worried he won't like what she said, until, he laughs, and she feels her heart sink, fearing the worse.

But as always, he never misses a chance to tease her.

"Wooowwww, I just wanted to talk and you're already thinking about such horny things, honestly Jiro you're such a pervert." 7

"Wh--HEY!"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 200: CHAPTER 196(Caught in 4K) 8

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Honestly I expected a bit more from you," Mei says. 3

She was currently standing at her workstation, looking over the sketch Horizon brought her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Horizon asks.

"Well, this is like…just less than I expected from you of all people."

"I'm already a miracle doctor, you want me to be a perfect engineer too? Honestly, there is no pleasing you people."

"You please me plenty, but I'm just surprised you aren't as good with technology," Mei says as she makes some adjustments to his sketch.

"I work with meat, not metal. Besides, that's what I have you and Nezu for." 2

"Mhm, well, I can make this work, but having to make it out of individual parts that can also interconnect with some thin membrane is going to be tough. What's this for?"

"I saw the gear you made for Sero, to bolster his skeletal structure and increase how much pressure his Hero Costume can take. Figured if I could get one of those under my suit it could come in useful."

Mei considers it for a moment. "I made his so he could use his tape to catch heavy objects without his arms being torn off of his body or getting crushed by the force, you need it for the same thing?"

"No, just enough weight for…about 136kg 300lbs. Think you can manage?"

Mei gets an idea of what he's planning and raises a brow, "This will take a lot of time. Finding materials for what I assume you're planning will be tough. It would have been easier if your Quirk gave you regular Telekinesis, but Hand Of God is more…weird."

"This isn't a combat-based upgrade, just…something a bit flashy that I want. An idea I actually got from All For One. You can send it to the back of the line for now."

"Great, because I've got a lot to work going on with all the Work Studies students requesting upgrades, I'll be making babies non-stop!"

"Any interesting requests?"

"Not really, some Gloves, a new cloak for Tokoyami, a stretchy one, oh and I have to help Bakugo to modify his gauntlets. I'm not allowed to build those so when the company sends them to UA he wants them to be reinforced. Because apparently, you breaking them was the last straw."

"Not like you mind, I'm sure you've been waiting for a chance to get your hands on those."

"Oh yeah," Mei finishes up her sketch, and compared it to his.

It's like he was a toddler drawing while she is an architect. 4

"Uh, guess that'll do," Horizon says.

"Great, when I'm done with the others I'll work on this."

"How's Shield been doing by the way? Have you spoken to her?"

"Just a little bit, her dad only teaches the third-year students but I go talk to him during his office hours, he's my Hero after all. But I'll be more famous than even the great David Shield someday."

"Well, he's a genius like you, but he got lucky by being the main support for All Might, you're doing the same thing with me, and I'll be a lot bigger than All Might."

"I'm counting on it, his daughter spoke to me once since she's in the second-year classes. Plus she even asked if you wanted any upgrades and offered to help me out. But I don't want to put anyone else's name on your gear… and I figured since you don't really rely on equipment it would be fine to turn her down."

"That's fine, I've got enough as it is, and I haven't even used my medical stuff much. Aside from the scope you made me atleast, but that's still pretty rare."

"I figured as much, plus that explains this new request. Warping makes it obsolete but I'm guessing you plan to use it to make a statement, or a cool entrance, right?"

"Am I getting to be that predictable?"

"Always have been…" 7

"Ouch." 1

A few minutes later after discussing her upcoming projects, the door to the design studio opens and in walks Juzo Honenuki Mudman, and Setsuna Tokage Lizardy of class 1B.

Horizon was rather familiar with Juzo, but hasn't spoken to Setsuna much.

"Hey Hatsume, Horizon," Juzo greets them as he and Setsuna enter.

"Hey guys," Setsuna says, then activates her Quirk.

Her head immediately detaches and begins floating about the room, a mop of long green hair flowing about as she inspects all the cool devices Mei has hanging around.

None of them pay it any mind, her Quirk: Lizard Tail Splitter, allows her to split apart her body and freely control the parts by a certain manner of Telekinesis, essentially allowing flight.

The parts also regenerate when away from her main body for too long.

A Quirk that would have been much more creepy, had Horizon not set the bar a bit too high by ripping out Shoto's heart on national TV. 4

"Did you come for you gear?" Mei asks Juzo. "Or did you have more babies for me to work on?"

"Uh just the gear for now, and Tokage wants to look around for something that can help her deliver big hits," he gestures to the floating girl.

"My Quirk is good for recon but not much else, and even if my Work Studies should be focused on mobility and recon, better safe than sorry, right?"

"Good point," Horizon says as Mei begins rummaging through her lockers of gadgets.

"Hey Horizon, did you hear the good news?" Setsuna asks him, floating her head about the room and looking around, but detaching the bottom half of her skull and sending it toward him to chat. "I got a work studies, finally!"

"Why should I care?"

Juzo chimes in, "Your girlfriend got the same offer, from Majestic."

"Majestic? The street magician guy, well I guess it makes sense since he's all about support and versatility, your Quirks are good for that. But what girlfriend?"

"Momo," Setsuna says. "Figured she would have told you already."

"I've been training all day since classes finished, actually since lunch. I got to skip the final part of our exams."

"Guess it makes no sense giving you the first aid exam huh," Juzo says. "Well, I'll actually be working with Sero this week. Crust got called over by Edgeshot to provide support in some case, so we'll be taking the train together tonight."

"Really?" Horizon asks. "I guess that means Mid-Term results are already out, and Sero got about 80% if he's allowed to continue the work studies."

"Wow, you're really out of the loop huh," Setsuna says, now bringing her pieces together, back to the 5ft2 tall 158cm girl. "Results came out about an hour ago, you're at the top as usual, perfect score."

"Well I'm Horizon, it's expected of me."

"Are you heading over to Tokyo tonight?"

"I've already lost enough days with these stupid exams, and Friday night is time I can't afford to not be out on patrol."

"Wow, you really never stop working, maybe you can join us in training sometime. Our class practices combo moves all the time, and my Quirk counters your slashes so it could be interesting."

"I have more than one trick," he raises his hand, and some electricity dances between his fingers.

Juzo speaks up," Yeah but, well, that doesn't mean learning how to fight as a team won't be useful training." 1

"I'm more efficient on my own."

"Found it!" Mei yells out as she comes rushing over with a small box and hands it to Juzo. "These are for when you use your Quirk to soften the ground, drop one of the trackers into it. Each of them also project a sonar so you'll be able to effectively 'see' what's floating about under the surface."

"So you plan to use your Quirk to soften the floor, then fight people in it?" Horizon asks.

"Not really, its mostly so I know where to find things. I've had to soften large areas before so the villains don't escape with valuables, but finding them afterwards is a pain. My Quirk: Softening, can turn any inorganic matter into a softer form, I can even make concrete into just a bit more viscous than water now after lots of training, but finding things in it get tough since it's still concrete."

"So this lets you sense where things are, clever," Horizon says.

"Yeah, got the idea from your Quirk actually."

"Juzo's actually really smart," Setsuna says. "He's like our class tactician, alongside Kendo."

"I assumed as much…"

'A highly utility-based Quirk, and I've seen his training, he's got a lot of potential as a battlefield commander, more than Sero and Shinso for sure. They're more like specialists, Mudman could be useful,' Horizon thinks.

A moment later as Mei is explaining the intricacies of the new gear, he gets a message inside his visor.

"I need to go, I'll see you all Monday--"

SHAMBLES!

He warps away before they can even respond.

Arriving in Nezu's office he sees the principal sitting on the couch drinking a cup of tea, seemingly relaxing on this Friday afternoon.

"So what's up?" Horizon asks as he sits opposite Nezu, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

"A public imagine issue, involving you." 1

"My image is perfect," Horizon says. "I'm the 'true hero' the world needs, or whatever other nonsense they say."

"Well, take a look at this," Nezu taps his phone, and the coffee table project a hologram.

It was recorded from a shaky camera, a shootout happening. And from this point of view, the cameraman was also holding a gun.

"A police body camera…oh, I remember this," Horizon says. "How much did they record."

"Just keep watching."

The villains were outgunning the few police officers president, pistols against assault rifles.

The man recording fires a few shots that just barely miss.

And in the chaos, he ducks behind his police car as a hail of bullets slams into it.

"Argh!" he groans, then his hand reaches across the camera up to his shoulder, and when it moves away, it's covered in his own blood.

But a few seconds later, all the shooting stops. The camera continues frantically shaking as the man slowly gets up to peek over his cover, then stands so the camera can see what he sees.

Horizon was in the middle of the shootout, and the three men were no longer holding their rifles.

All the police officers stop, and what seems to be the leader takes a step back.

"Rush him!" the man orders both his subordinates.

One of them slams his fists together, a brawny man, and both his arms from fingertips to shoulder become diamonds. 1

Horizon raises his sword, and as the man punches forward he cleaves the man's entire arm right down the middle with Amputate, and it harmlessly falls to the floor.

He ducks down and swipes at the man's legs, using Amputate to remove them before doing a full spin and slicing at the man's waist. Then finally cleaving upward, slicing his torso and head right down the middle.

The man begins to panic and wail but was completely uninjured, until Horizon stomped on his head, knocking him out.

All of this happens so fast the second man only has time to rush up and throw his hands forward, spraying a jet of green acid from his palms.

CURTAIN!

Horizon's light blue, transparent, square shield appears in front of him.

The acid splashes on it and goes everywhere, including back toward the attacker.

The man raises his hands instinctively, only for his arms to be nearly completely dissolved.

His blood-curdling screams are like nails on a chalkboard as the video shows his flesh dissolve, and in some areas so badly it reveals the bones beneath.

Horizon drops his shield and walks past the man, noticing the acid only seems to affect organic matter as he steps through it. A very deadly Quirk for anyone else to deal with.

He sees the puddle of acid slowly inching toward its creator who was unconscious face first on the road, and gives him a hard kick to the gut, sending him a few meters away to safety.

All while the last man is shaking in his boots, his Quirk already active, giving him a third eye in the middle of his forehead, a non-combat Quirk.

Which explains why he pulled out his pistol and was now aiming it at Horizon.

Horizon looks down at Scalpel, his sword, then up at the man, and shakes his head.

"What do you plan to do with that, I'm sure you'll run out of gun before I run out of sword." 1

BANG!

The man fires a shot, and Horizon seems to flicker as he instantly deflects it.

The man looks confused at what just happened. As if Horizon glitched in real life.

"Told you, now, surrender, and tell me who you're working for," Horizon says, rather casually considering the situation. "You're moving guns through Tokyo, and I want your boss."

"H-he'll kill me," the man stutters, still pointing his gun at Horizon. "He'll kill them!"

"Not if I get to him first."

"No!" the man screams. "I'll never talk!" he points the gun at his own head.

Horizon just tilts his head, and looks around at the cops to make sure everyone was seeing this. "Really, you're more scared of him than me, oh now I just have to know who he is, and you will tell me…" he takes one step forward.

"No!" the man pulls back the hammer, "I'll do it, I swear!"

"So?" Horizon asks as he begins closing the distance, slowly, casually, to the horror and amazement of everyone watching. "Everyone says that, and even if you do, why would I care, you're a villain, a cop killer, so go ahead… I can stop you at any time, but I'm more interested to know if you've got the balls to follow through."

"Stop!" one of the police officers yells out, but Horizon ignores him and just continues. "He'll hurt himself!"

"I'll do it!" the man yells, tears and snot streaming down his face as he sees Horizon get closer by the second. "I'll kill myself!"

"Go ahead," Horizon says as he keeps walking forward. "Save the taxpayers some money so we don't have to keep you alive in prison, finally doing something good with your life, by ending it…" 6

"Ahhhh!" the man releases one final anguished scream and squeezes his eyes shut.

"Don't!" some of the cops yell.

BANG!

The gun goes off, and the man drops it stumbling to the side, feeling the ringing in his ears from the gunshot.

The only damage he suffered as he begins hyperventilating, unable to snap back to his senses, questioning why he was not dead.

Then he fearfully looks back, to see the bullet floating in mid-air, completely stopped before it even left the barrel.

The tears keep streaming even as Horizon approaches, and the man's will to fight and live are completely gone.

Exactly how Horizon wants him for an easy interrogation.

"Tch, couldn't even do that right, what a joke," Horizon says as he now stands directly in front of the weeping man. 1

Taking his sword he stabs it horizontally through the man's shoulder, then lifts him off the ground, all while the man is screaming at the top of his lungs.

TAKT!

He lets go, and the sword keeps the man hanging in place.

"Now you and I are gonna have a hopefully short conversation about your boss…" 2

The video comes to an end at that point, and Horizon nods along, proudly. 1

"Do you atleast see the problem with this?" 2

"No." 14

Nezu sighs, "Honestly, what am I going to do with you…" 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 201: CHAPTER 197(Morning Bonfire)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--9AM, October 23rd, 2315…

Under the morning sun, in the strong winds atop Horizon tower.

A man was currently chained to a chair, hands tied up and entirely restrained.

Drenched in gasoline.

He had tears streaking down his face as he whimpered, begging for this to stop.

And in front of him was what would be Japan's greatest Pro Hero, the rising moral compass of Hero Society.

Horizon, standing with his sword hovering at his side, and a flare in his hand as he looks down at his prisoner.

"Please I swear I don't know anything, they never told me a name!" The man screamed, but nobody could hear him.

Not through the winds this high up, as if the sheer altitude from the streets wasn't enough insurance.

"I know you're lying, so just tell me the name of the place," Horizon says, waving the sealed flare around. "Don't you know what this is, and what I poured all over you…how do you think this ends?"

"No!" The man yells in denial. "You're bluffing, you're a hero! You can't do this to me!" he rattles his chain, trying to cool his skin and the chains, ideally he'd make them brittle with his Cold Touch Quirk and shatter them. 2

But nothing happens.

"Your Quirk won't word dumbass," Horizon reaches behind his back and displays the man's own heart, still beating rapidly and sealed in a gel-like cube of spatial energy. "Now tell me what I want…" 3

"Please, just let me go! I won't tell you anything!"

"That time you said 'won't', see, you do know what I need," Horizon grips the heart, and the man feels a small heart attack in his chest.

He almost sees his life flicker before his eyes.

"ARGH!"

"Where is Wolfram? I know you're his eyes in Tokyo, he was using you to keep an eye on me, and look where it got you, just talk and this will all be over."

"He'll kill me," the man mutters out between pained gasps.

"And you think I won't?" Horizon gives the heart a good squeeze, and the man's eyes roll back as the pain knocks him out.

"Argh! Get up!" Horizon kicks him in the face, hard enough to snap him awake and almost send the chair tumbling over.

Luckily it was securely tied down.

"Ahhh!" The man screams. Then he gets quiet, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"If you aren't gonna talk, then I don't have any reason to leave that useless mouth intact," Horizon says.

The man's eyes go wide as he sees the 'Hero', reach behind his back, under his jacket. And take out a small pouch that's always attached behind him at the back of his belt.

It hovers in the air and opens with a flick of Horizon's hand, and out comes a pair of medical pliers. Sliver, blue, and white, and inching closer as Horizon grabs his jaw and forces his mouth open.

The man gets a proper look at his reflection in the visor, the scent of gasoline masking his excrement as fear overtakes him.

He tries to pull away but Horizon's grip is like a vice, keeping him in place.

"We'll start from the back…" Horizon says, almost playfully as he reaches in with the pliers and grabs a molar from the back of the man's mouth. 1

"Nnngh! Ahgnhh!" The man tries to talk but the tool is preventing it, as he feels force being applied to the tooth.

"You'll have a chance to talk after, now is time for punishment, because I hate having to ask twice."

The sound of flesh and gums ripping precedes the taste of blood and warm liquid flooding his mouth.

Horizon steps back as the man screams in pain, which only makes it hurt that much more.

"Get your shit together before I ask again, you've got about eighty more tries…teeth, fingernails, toenails…then I'll go for the fingers and toes…I rather save the eyes for last. The faster you talk, the more piece I leave intact, just saying."

The man opens his mouth and a flood of blood pours into his lap, "--monster," he says through the pain and gargling.

"Monster?" Horizon chuckles. The man looks up to see him casually turn around to gesture toward Tokyo all around them. "I'm Horizon, UA's golden boy, Japan's next Symbol Of Peace, these people love me, they'll worship me, I'm the Hero here…I'm the only Hero these people need. 2

I'm so perfect that even if some filthy villain like you says the worst things about me. All it will be, is a poor man's attempt at slandering Japan's favorite son, because I'm the only Hero here, and I'm always the only Hero that matters…" 4

The man's eyes widen as he realizes exactly how serious Horizon was being, and a new wave of fear rang through his body.

All the thoughts of this being a child's over-the-top attempt at playing 'bad cop' were now gone.

He was in the hands of a monster, and he'd never been more scared of a 'Hero' in his life.

"Now, where is Wolfram?" Horizon asks, taking careful and slow steps up to the man, dropping the heart to the floor.

Seeing this the man considers his options.

He knows the people he works with will kill him for sure if he talks, more than just violence like Horizon is doing.

'But he's still a Hero, he still wants to be a Hero. He can't kill me, right?' he wonders as Horizon now stands above him. 'He won't kill me, and I'll just report him for this…'

"I don't know," he lies through the pain of even moving his mouth.

Horizon freezes, then sighs.

He drops the pliers and they float in the air, alongside the medical pouch, his sword, and the sealed flare.

"Alright, fine, you win--" Horizon relents.

The man forces a smile, even with his quickly swelling mouth.

'I knew it, the brat was just bluffing, can't believe I ever fell for this…the news is gonna tear him apart when I tell them about this!' 2

But his victorious smile becomes a look of absolute dread at Horizon's next words.

"--I guess I'll skip to the eyes…"

"Wh--AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

The sound of popping and squelching is easily overshadowed by the cries of anguish as Horizon suddenly holds his head and digs his massive fingers into the man's left eye socket, destroying the eyeball before tearing it out. 2

Leaving the exposed nerves in the eye socket somewhat hanging out in the winds atop the tower, causing all the more pain for his guest.

"Look what you made me do," Horizon says as he steps back, dropping the crushed eyeball to the floor. "Well, I guess 'look' probably isn't the right word huh," he chuckles to himself as the man is still screaming and convulsing in the chair. 6

After two minutes of screaming and heavy breathing, the man looks up, now drenched in sweat.

Blood flows from his left eye and his mouth, but there is no sympathy in Horizon for him.

"So, I'm gonna ask again, and this time I hope you don't try to test me like that, wh--"

Horizon stop suddenly, confusing the man.

"One moment," he raises a hand and turns away from his prisoner. "Hello?"

The man instantly realizes he's on the phone and tries to scream, but the moment he does.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps away.

He sees the objects still floating about, and considers trying to break free. But a quick tug on the chain showed how useless that was. Looking at the floor he could see the puddle of gasoline, excrement, and blood running out from him.

His rapidly beating heart was so casually dropped to the floor a few feet away. And craning his neck as best he can, the rooftop was entirely isolated and towered over the nearby buildings.

There was nobody to see this or for him to signal to.

It was a hopeless situation through and through.

Meanwhile, inside the tower…

Law was walking around, visor off, with his phone floating around him.

Currently on a video call with Nezu.

"Any particular reason for the check-up?" Law asks while walking through he kitchen, getting a bag of chips.

"Last night you requested additional server space and processing power from my super computer, why is that?" Nezu asks.

"Did you not read the data I uploaded into the simulations?"

"I'm a busy man Law, give me the short versions."

Law shrugs and begins eating his chips, as if he wasn't just torturing a man. "I need the power for medical simulations, I just about have enough data to start working on some cures."

"Cures for what?"

"Starting with Dementia and Alzheimer's, things that degenerate cognitive functions, then onto other things like Cancers…"

"Why start with mental ailments?"

"I've got a lot of experience on it lately, it'll be easier for me."

"Alright, I'll allocate the space for you, and what do you plan to do when you create these cures? Will they be sold by Horizon's medical research company, or some other way?"

"I'll own the patent but it'll be free to other companies."

" If you can do this, you should, this helps much more people. But there are easier ways to become a beloved figure than curing things such as this, you do realize that, right?"

"Yeah, but why would I do things other people can already do? Horizon is better than that," Law says.

"Well, you aren't doing it for profit, which is rather strange for you…I don't suppose I'm rubbing off on you?"

"You wish, this is just a good way to establish Horizon's reputation as a boon to all mankind, plus between the grants I'll get from the United Nations and other countries and people after this, I'll be paid well enough."

"You just had to ruin it," Nezu sighs. "I'll make a hero out of you someday…somehow." 8

"Good luck with that," Law finishes eating his chips. "Can I get back to work now? Was kind of in the middle of something."

"Right, good luck," Nezu says before hanging up.

He warps his visor back onto his head and tosses his pack into the trash, before warping back onto the roof.

His prisoner was a bit calmer now, after that short reprieve.

"So, one more time, where is Wolfram," he puts his hand on the mans head, using Scan to detect any lies.

And the man sings like an honest little bird, only wishing for the sweet relief of a jail cell.

"See, was that so hard?" Horizon asks after a few minutes of simple questioning. "Now we're done here."

"Mhm," the man stiffly nods. "Will you give me to the cops n--"

Horizon raises a hand to silence the man, then steps away and turns his back to him.

"Hello?"

"--"

"Are you sure? Two of them?" the man hears Horizon asks, clearly not liking whatever news he got. 1

"--"

"Alright, I'm on the way, wait for me to get ther--"

"--"

"Damn it! Fine, I'll hurry…" Horizon hangs up and gives an annoyed sigh. "Stupid useless fucks can't do anything themselves."

"Will you give me to the cops now?" the man asks, hopeful even now.

Horizon just looks at him, then tilts his head slightly, "I knew you villains are dumb, but this is a new low."

And with a few casual motions, he grabs the flare from mid-air where it was floating, cracks it open so its lit, and tosses it onto the gasoline-soaked man.

"As if I'd ever let my perfect reputation be so much as questioned because of a mongrel like you," he mutters as the flames consume the screaming man. 8

Soon he'd be unrecognizable, and Horizon will warp him to the bottom of the nearby ocean, as if this never happened.

And with no trace of him being involved. 3

Japan's perfect pristine rising star remains fully intact, as it should always be… 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 202: CHAPTER 198(Yakuza Raid) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--11 Am, Western Japan…

"What the hell is this, can't they do anything right?" Horizon asks himself while flying toward the Yakuza base. 1

He was only a few miles away, but could sense multiple fights happening.

'Took me two hours to get here, I was hoping this would have been over by now,' he thinks while slowing down his hoverboard.

ROOM!

He opens a room spanning 8km 5 miles.

SCAN!

"Mmm," he grumbles as the influx of information bombards him, then he decides where he's needed most.

'Lemillion is dealing with Overhaul and some of those lackeys underground, the girl and Nighteye are there so he should be fine for now, they're winning.

Suneater is handling three villains, they won't last long. Red Riot and Fatgum are having a brawl, seems like a stalemate right now.

But Ryukyu, what the hell…'

He shrinks the Room to focus in on Ryukyu and her sidekicks.

He senses a giant of a man, standing at 15m 45ft and covered in hulking muscles. A similar plague doctor mask to the other Yakuza, and in his grasp is Uravity, seemingly unconscious.

Standing at the edge of the fight are some D-listers and police officers.

'They don't want to get close, and Froppy looks exhausted, Ryukyu too. Only Nejire is fighting properly but she's getting tired.

He must be Rikiya Katsukame, the guy that absorbs stamina after making contact once. Constantly ripping energy out of them, and since Nejire is all about stamina she's the only one that can last long against him.

I'd better start there and deal with him first, that way the only fight happening outside the base doesn't get the nearby civilians hurt…'

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with some rubble, arriving just beside Ryukyu and standing on his hoverboard.

"What!" Rikyia yells out, still holding Uravity. All the girls and heroes are relived at the sight of Horizon. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Being the hero," Horizon snaps his fingers, and Uravity and Froppy both warp away from the villain behind the police barricade, swapped with some rubble.

"We aren't scared of any hero, not even you!" Rikiyia slams his fists into the road, the gust pushes Nejire back to hover beside Horizon and Ryukyu. "Don't you know who we are?!" 1

"No," Horizon lied. "But I'm Horizon, so it really doesn't matter…"

"Raah!" the man is about to lunge forward, but he suddenly disappears, swapping for the large dragon standing beside Horizon.

Before he can realize what happened there is a sharp pain in his shoulder.

He turns to swing, barely getting a glimpse of Horizon who was currently stabbing him with Scalpel.

COUNTER SHOCK!

His backhand strike stops mere inches from Horizon's face as his body convulses and tenses.

Unintelligible screaming left his mouth and small wisps of smoke appeared across his body, accompanying the electrical scorch marks slowly forming on his skin.

Horizon withdraws his blade, and before the unconscious villain can hit the floor he's extending his senses to the underground brawl.

SHAMBLES!

He once again tries to warp Eri away from the fight, but she doesn't move. She's stuck in place, in the damn wall, bits of stone molecularly bonded to her skin so they can't rescue her. 1

All with Nighteye and Lemillion in front of her, desperately trying to form a wall between her and Overhaul.

'How annoying…but they've got that covered for now, I need to find Joi Irinaka, Mimic, that's the guy controlling the structure of the base so freely, fighting in there is a bad idea while he's in control…'

SCAN!

Horizon focuses on the base itself, he feels the hallways and walls constantly moving.

SHAMBLES!

He warps a hallway of police officers to his side moments before they got squashed into a paste.

He focuses once more, delving deeper.

There are very few ways to hide from his Scan.

Permeation does not work to achieve this, even when Lemillion is intangible or moving through objects, he detects him as a glitch of overlapping masses.

Illusions based on light and smoke will not work as Scan detects the truth around him.

Only true shapeshifting can hide a person. 2

Shapeshifting of the nature he encountered when he last worked with Arsenal.

Shapeshifting that causes you to externally become exactly like your target, shapeshifting with absolutely no gaps for him to sense what you really are.

The kind that Himiko Toga has, or that a Twice Clone would technically be. 1

Mimic, however, was not fortunate enough to have this…

SHAMBLES!

Horizon drops his sword, and in the same instant, it's swapped for a tiny doll-like creature currently being controlled by Mimic, the shapeshifter that possesses it from within.

Horizon grabs him by the face, and a slew of rage-fueled swears assaults him as the villains tries to fight out of his grasp.

COUNTER SHOCK!

"ARGHHH!" The small doll creature gets fried before going limp, and Horizon looks back over his shoulder at Ryukyu.

"Kyukyu, hold this, don't let it touch anything inorganic. It invades and possesses them, and he's currently near overdosed on trigger…" He tosses the villain back over his shoulder and the large dragon catches him in her hands. 2

"I know what he does," she says. "It was in the briefing, and my name is RYU-Kyu."

"Whatever Kyukyu," Horizon warps away, swapped with a few unconscious police officers and D-list heroes.

After a few more warps to deal with generic thugs, he appears in a room with a lone doctor frantically sorting through research papers while typing up some things on a computer.

The doorway to this room was folded away and sealed by Mimic, so the man had no way out on his own.

A failsafe so the heroes wouldn't find him during the raid, and afterward either Mimic or Overhaul could simply come get him, they never expected him to be found after all.

Which is why he doesn't expect Horizon to warp into the room.

And silently sneak up on him, watching over his shoulder as the man frantically looks through all the 'Research' they did on Eri.

After a few seconds of observation, Horizon has seen enough.

"I need that," he says. 4

"Wh—ahh!" The man feels Scalpel pierce his shoulder through his back, and down through his thigh, staking him to the chair before he can even turn around.

Horizon shoves the chair to the side, sending the man rolling, before he uses Takt to levitate the computer and all the files.

SHAMBLES!

He warps with everything and the man to the police barricade, and the heroes are appalled by the way he crudely kept the man seated.

"Kyukyu!" Ryukyu looks over at him, and grimaces at the sight of the doctor. "Don't feel bad for the guy experimenting on kids…keep him and all his research in sight, I have questions for him."

The last thing he sees before warping away is Ryukyu snarling at the man as she shrinks down to gather up the documents.

"Can someone please help me?" the man asks sheepishly, wincing in pain and gesturing to the sword piercing his back, coming out through his shoulder, then going through his thigh and into the chair. 1

"That's nothing compared to what you did to Eri," Ryukyu says with no emotion, not even looking at him while she gathers the papers. "You'll be fine…"

Horizon appears beside Suneater, who was currently sitting against a wall with bruises all over him.

Laying on the floor of the room were three unconscious members of Overhaul's personal guard.

'Not surprising from the strongest person here…before I arrived atleast, the one person I can trust to do their job. Nice work Suneater.' 3

Horizon does another quick Scan to ensure he doesn't miss anything, then sends Suneater, the Yakuza, and the raid members from this area to the police outside.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon appears in a small medical room, seeing Red Riot on one of the beds wrapped in bandages, with a Yakuza in the bed opposite him.

Standing in the room is Fatgum who was currently thin, 'so that's what the stored energy does…a big counterattack that leaves him skinny,' Horizon immediately realizes.

But across from Fatgum is a Yakuza, who just like him was bandaged up.

"What the fuck is this?" Horizon asks. "Having tea with the enemy during a raid, something you want to tell me Fatgum?"

"Wait it's not like that," Fatgum raises his hands in protest. "We just got done fighting and this guy showed us to this room," he gestures to the Yakuza behind him. "He's actually pretty cool and just likes fighting…"

"HE, is an IT," Horizon says. "As in it's another task on our list, nothing more." 1

"Hey!" Fatgum furrows his brow. "You can't just treat them like that, villains are people too! Beside its not like I wasn't gonna arrest them…"

"Save it for the debriefing--"

SHAMBLES!

They're all warped to the police on the surface, and everyone is confused by Red Riot and a Yakuza on bed rest.

The police raise their guns and nearby heroes get ready for a fight, only for Rappa to raise his hands in surrender.

"Wish you showed up when I was ready for a fight, would have been fun brawling with you!" he says to Horizon.

"I'm not a brawler, I'm a surgeon, and you'd just be more meat on my operating table…" Horizon turns away and gestured for Nejire and Froppy to walk with him, leaving the others to deal with Fatgum's mess.

Ryukyu sees this and keeps an eye on them while having some officers pack the evidence away.

"I'm going after Eri and Overhaul now," Horizon says.

"Finally!" Nejire cheers. "Let's go, but why didn't you do that from the start?"

He raises his hand, and his bloodied sword appears from the doctor's body into his grasp.

"The situation down there is a stalemate, and Overhauls Quirk is dangerous, plus the longer he doesn't know I'm here the better. If I warped her out he could have just brought down the building and neighborhood, and there isn't anywhere in this city I can warp him to that's safe…"

"So you left him for last, smart," Nejire says.

"Yeah, now get ready to catch Eri," he says.

"What?" Froppy asks.

"You'll see," he slashes diagonally at the floor, leaving a seemingly small slash in the road. But it reached all the way down into the basement of the Yakuza building.

Finally freeing the hostage.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon is swapped for a small white-haired girl, currently encased in a stone spike that was rising from the wall.

Nejire and Froppy snap out of their surprise and grab onto her before she hits the floor, then all three girls look at each other confused.

In the same instant Horizon arrives at the lowest room of the hideout, standing behind Nighteye, Lemillion, Bubble Girl, and Rock Lock. 2

And across from them is Overhaul, a few of his Yakuza, and what he now notices as the two Nomu he was called to deal with.

"So…you're the boss?" Horizon casually asks Overhaul, seeing the man clearly pissed off at losing Eri…

"Yeah," Overhaul grits out. "I'm the boss…" 14

END CHAPTER-- 16

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Chapter 203: CHAPTER 199(Yakuza Raid Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y 1

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Yeah," Overhaul grits out. "I'm the boss…"

The massive underground stone cavern system of the Yakuza base was tense.

This room had no exit, sealed away by Overhaul when Lemillion and the others entered, taking advantage of the fact that Permeation doesn't extend beyond his body and specially designed Hero Costume.

Overhaul's eyes don't dare stray away from Horizon, even as the young Hero casually takes a few steps forward to stand in front of the others.

At his back are Sir Nighteye, Lemillion, Bubble Girl, and Rock Lock, the only Heroes to make it this far.

Opposite them Overhaul stands beside a Yakuza man who wasn't on the intel they had.

Wearing a white version of their uniform with a yellow plague doctor mask blocking his entire face.

Horizon's eyes and senses focus on the gun in the man's hand, a revolver with 6 Quirk Deleter Rounds loaded and ready to fire.

But the next instant his eyes are fixed on the two Nomu behind Overhaul, the reason why Nighteye called him over this morning.

He does a quick breakdown of them, one thin and lanky, grey-skinned with bone spikes protruding from its joints and spine, arcs of yellow electricity bounding from the tips of each bone.

'The Lurkers encountered one of these at a warehouse they raided,' Horizon recalls data from Edgeshot's updates. 'Its are a mid-class Nomu, which means no Super Regeneration atleast… but it looks exactly the same, guess this confirms they're cloning Nomu.'

His eyes then dart over to the next Nomu, a hulking brute, nearly 5m 15ft tall and covered in muscles.

Pieces of its purple skin were torn to reveal red slightly glowing muscle fibers beneath, brimming with energy. He also notices both the Nomu having their eyes locked onto him. 1

'Shigaraki probably gave them some kind of higher-order to focus me if I show up…but if he left them here then Overhaul is in control, and he's more invested in the manufacturing of these bullets than we thought.

But from what I know Overhaul's plan is to destroy all Quirks or something, and Shigaraki is more of a global destruction and chaos type…doesn't make sense. He must have bullied the Yakuza into helping them.

This should mean after this I can probably get Overhaul to give me all the data I need to find the League of Losers. So I need to capture Overhaul…difficult to contain him with that Quirk.

I can't use Injection Shot to disable him from a distance since his Quirk counters is. That mean's I'll zap him first, then just rip his heart out to disable his Quirk, a few moments of contact will be dangerous but manageable, and his Quirk shouldn't work on my body. 6

Just need to be wary of him using it on my costume. Having to clear this place out and then claim Overhaul killed the other heroes would be annoying, and make me look like I failed to protect them, can't have that…' 7

In the small moment where Horizon was considering the ups and downs of this fight, Overhaul had to do no such thing, he planned for this unfortunate eventuality.

He planned for the absolute worst-case scenario of standing against Horizon from the moment the Sports Festival debuted him.

Because of the nature of his Quirk, All Might was never much of a concern, but Horizon is dangerous.

'An absolute sense of his environment, range, mobility, and he's a genius,' Overhaul thinks. 'Everyone else is probably locked up already, so its just Chronostasis and I against these freaks…but all I need is Chronostasis, exactly as we planned.' 1

He sees Horizon draw his blade and point it across at them, "surrender peacefully and you won't have to get hurt. I already warped Eri away from here, she's safe with the other heroes, and all the other forces you had have already been defeated. I even found your safe room with the doctor."

Overhaul's eye twitches at that, "well now, this is rare, a person who lives up to their reputation, you're a bigger freak than I thought."

"You can't win," Horizon says. "Just give up."

"Chronostasis," Overhaul whispers, low enough that only his right-hand man could hear it. "Trust me to heal you, to rescue you…stick to the plan, and our perfect world shall be realized."

"Yes sir," Chronostasis mutters back.

"Just die Heroes!" Overhaul yells dramatically as he slams his hands toward the ground.

SHAMBLES!

Before his hands can touch the floor to activate his Quirk, Horizon warps behind him and grabs him by his purple hair, tossing him into the air. 4

Overhaul groans in pain from the pulling against his scalp, but is left helpless and without anything to use his Quirk on in mid-air.

Chronostasis doesn't bother helping his boss as the two Nomu are already attacking Horizon, so he simply begins running toward the other heroes.

As he does this he fires two of his Quirk Deleter Bullets, both of which the heroes predict and avoid.

But it gives him enough time to put his free hand beneath his mask while running, initiating their plan.

Meanwhile, Horizon warps away from his new spot, narrowly avoiding a super-powered punch from the brutish Nomu.

The entire chamber shakes from the force of it, 'stronger than the USJ Nomu, they're better at stacking Quirks now…' Horizon realizes as he warps behind the creature and touches it, doing a full scan.

'Muscle Enhancer, Super Power, Shock Nullification, Kinetic Enhancement, Bulk Up…all meathead Quirks, and Shock Nullification means he's immune to blunt force outside of the absolute extremes like Star and Stripe.'

He senses the other Pro's taking down the lone Yakuza and warps away to avoid a bolt of lightning that was about to be shot at him.

And a moment later the spot he was on is demolished by the electric Nomu.

TAKT!

He grabs Overhual's clothes and roughly holds him in the air, continuously lifting him up higher and higher so he can't touch anything.

Sensing another strike incoming from the musclebound Nomu, he swaps places with the electric Nomu.

The strike connects and the sound of bones breaking and electricity crackling can be heard as the floor beneath the lanky Nomu caves in.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with some of the rubble tossed into the air.

INCISION!

He enhances the slashing and piercing ability of his sword, and stabs it directly into the bulky Nomu's right eye, just barely reaching the brain stem through its mostly open skull.

The monster doesn't even react, only reaching up to grab Horizon, thankfully it wasn't very fast.

With his foot, he reaches down and touches the electric Nomu, and as expected it discharges everything it has directly at him.

COUNTER SHOCK: Grounding Line! 1

The electricity runs along the current he produces and binds with it, being directed up his sword and into the skull of the other Nomu.

Frying its brain just enough that even with Hyper Regeneration the damage allowed his sword to hit the main nerves and cauterize them.

Retracting his blade he immediately slashes downward, using Incision to split the electric Nomu diagonally into two parts.

He senses Lemillion taking down the other Yakuza member before looking up at Overhaul.

'Huh, he didn't even Overhaul his clothes to break out of my grasp…that was only to buy me a few seconds but he just let me hold him there…' 1

Horizon looks around the battlefield, noticing how easy it was to capture such a powerful villain, feeling something was clearly off.

But doesn't think much of it, after all, he's Horizon, why would it ever be difficult? 3

He sees some destruction from the previous battles, then the two unmoving Nomu. The bulky Nomu still twitching because of all the electricity overloading it.

'Firepower like Endeavor would have just fried the whole thing, but it took me using a whole other Nomu to beat it…better than using my new move atleast.'

His attention then goes to a single bloody finger between himself and the other heroes, and the thin trail of blood leading to the Yakuza pinned under Lemillion.

'Something isn't adding up…why is he missing a finger?'

Deciding to handle Overhaul first he warps directly under the man and drops him, reaching up to grab him with an electric palm.

And exactly as he wants, is how it happened.

Overhaul aims to grab his visor and use his Quirk, but before he can do that Horizon grabs the villain's forearm and shocks him into unconsciousness, ending this encounter.

Holding the villain off the floor Horizon looks him over, "well, I expected more from the big bad Yakuza…no wonder you guys barely exist anymore, now about that hea--"

"Horizon!" Lemillion's scream cuts him off.

Horizon's head snaps over to the other heroes, seeing Lemillion over the other Yakuza who was on the floor with no mask on, laying on his back coughing up blood.

"You wait here," he drops Overhaul and rushes over to the others. "What happened?" 3

"I don't know, I didn't even hit him that hard," Lemillion says, clearly distressed by the dying man.

"Stand back," Horizon kneels beside the man and places a hand on his chest. "His heart is about to explode, and his brain…what the hell, it's like he's having a full biological meltdown, I need to--"

The man coughs and a fountain of blood erupts from his mouth.

Horizon sees some bits of green in the blood and beneath the visor his eyes widen.

SHA--

Before his brain could process the command, before the same globs of blood could fall back onto Chronostasis, everything stops.

Time itself for 6m 20ft around the body was brought to an absolute crawl.

Only a few minutes later and Overhaul wakes up, sitting up and holding his head. Feeling the searing pain of having his scalp almost torn out and the stinging, sizzling of his left forearm from being tased.

"Mmm," he looks around, seeing the two defeated Nomu, then over at where the others are.

"So it worked, good job Chronostasis, this is why we kept your Quirk an absolute secret…" he says while looking at the scene. 2

Chronostasis was vomiting up blood and traces of green liquid. The heroes were around him looking on in concern while Horizon was trying to diagnose the problem, exactly as they'd expect from the only present doctor.

"Of course, he can't ignore a person in need, stupid Heroes always running to help, and he's a doctor on top of that…" he says while getting up, keeping his eyes on Horizon. 1

Taking a deep breath he cracks his neck, enjoying the short reprieve as he walks to the severed finger.

'In tests, that Suicide Trigger Formula we got from the European lab is next-level stuff. Forcing a quirk to evolve and go wild at the cost of the user's life, taking a simple single target time slowing Quirk to an area of effect attack…the ultimate suicide attack. 5

One that even the mighty Horizon can't detect and warp away from in time. Tests show I should have anywhere between twenty and forty minutes before the Chronostasis bubble pops, that gives me enough time to get out of here. 1

Get out of their signal jammer range and call Shigaraki, we can always make a run at getting Eri and Chronostasis back later,' he thinks while picking up Chronostasis's severed finger.

Focusing on it he's thankful for how many times he's used his Quirk on his right-hand man, in preparation for the Horizon eventuality.

'Every self-respecting villain should have a plan for that freak…but none are as good as mine,' he mentally gloats as the finger pops into red mist.

Then it rushes through the air toward Chronostasis, sending the command to restructure his body and expel the trigger. 4

The small cloud of mist that comprises the finger suddenly stops in mid-air as it hits the time bubble, frozen like everything else.

Overhaul narrows his eyes at that, annoyed that the same thing keeping them trapped also protects them from getting hurt.

"Time to get out of he--" His eyes widen in surprise and confusion as he sees Horizon's head slowly, as if moving through wet cement, turn toward him. "What kind of a freak are you?" he growls out as Horizon begins turning to get up and walk toward him. 22

All in slow motion.

"No no no, this isn't supposed to happen!" Overhaul yells as he rushes toward his only chance of victory, toward the two Nomu… 4

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 204: CHAPTER 200(Yakuza Raid Pt.3) 5

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

'What is this?' Horizon wonders, feeling the disjointed information flooding his mind.

Two sets of data from one Room. His Room was large enough to encompass the entire Yakuza base, but the time bubble he was currently trapped in was only a few meters wide.

Within the bubble, everything felt slower, but outside it was as if the world was in super speed.

His eyes saw nothing but darkness, light not moving fast enough through the bubble to give him any information within, his brain slowed to an absolute crawl. But luckily for him, that's still faster than the average genius. 10

'Why is everything fast?' he questions to himself, sensing the heroes and Yakuza around him frozen, but now he's sensing Overhaul already waking up.

'He should have been out for at least a few minutes, long enough for me to check on this guy and still go get his heart…my body won't move…' 1

He tries to turn his head or command his Quirk, but nothing happens. He can't even warp away.

'Deactivating my Quirk will completely blind me, and for some reason, I can't warp…my body is frozen. I can't move.'

SCAN!

He checks out his own body, down to the genetic level, then even deeper.

'My body, it's just like Eri's Quirk…but it's slowing time rather than reversing. This Yakuza was a suicide bomb. How do I get out? What do I do…c'mon Horizon, think!'

He delves deeper and deeper into his own body, into how the Chronons were interacting with him, into the bubble itself, and how it affected the world around him.

He combs over every cell of his body, every moving part that he's lost control of.

BA-DUM!

He feels his Quirk acting up, Hand of God still not having perfectly integrated the others. 5

The telltale sign of his Quirk about to shut off.

About to leave him blind and deaf in this time bubble so Overhaul can escape.

But time is still disjointed, he expects the headache but doesn't feel anything.

The physical pain hasn't moved across his nerves yet, his brain hasn't been strained by the blood flow yet.

Time is slowing everything to a crawl aside from his thoughts.

'Chronons…I need to control my own, within my own body, just reverse the effect. I only need a few seconds of it, I need. TO MOVE!' 1

Combing over every particle and manipulating them precisely, he ignores everything else and focuses only on his body.

'Hand of God has no limits, with enough practice I can do anything, I can bend the world!' 1

He reminds himself, on what feels like the third day of wracking his mind against this problem.

Then finally, his body begins moving.

His head slowly turns, as Overhaul is about to get up.

He senses the villain moving, and after what to Horizon was a week trapped in his own body, in not even enough time for Lemillion or Night Eye to begin the process of forming a single thought.

He's figured out how to diminish the effects on himself.

He slowly gets up, moving as if his entire body was submerged in wet concrete.

BA-DUM!

The pain becomes real, he can feel the small brain aneurysm starting, compounding onto each other. His body tries to send a Booster Shot to automatically heal it, but he halts the command. 2

As he gets up and begins walking toward Overhaul, he feels the villain look in his direction.

And in a blur, he begins running toward the two Nomu corpses.

Horizon doesn't give him any more attention, focusing only on himself.

'Once I get out of this stupid bubble, I'll break his fucking legs!'

As he's one step away from freedom, he feels Overhaul using his Quirk on both the dead Nomu.

All three bodies become a massive floating collection of red mist as they fuse together at a cellular level.

And what felt like hours later, Horizon takes the final step out of the bubble, and as he's entirely out he drops to one knee, cradling his head.

"Argh! Fuck!" all the compounding pain of pushing his Quirk to the limit crashed into him at once. His Room finally collapses as he takes deep breaths, feeling exhausted.

What to Overhaul was only a few minutes, for Horizon was closer to two weeks stuck in his own body.

His stomach growls loudly as the ground begins shaking, then he looks over at Overhaul.

Now fused with the two Nomu into a 10m 32ft long, red and black hulking quadrupedal creature. Bone spikes crackle with electricity all protruding from the layers of these shock-nullifying muscles. And where the massive head should be is Overhaul, from the waist up and resting in a canopy, shaped like his plague doctor mask.

Even the villain himself has red and black skin, torn up and showing red glowing muscles beneath.

Horizon barely catches his breath before Overhaul lowers his main body so his palm can touch the ground.

And a destructive wave is sent toward him, dismantling the floor on its way toward the heroes.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps to the other side of the room, then looks back at the bubble, at the people he couldn't warp out.

The attack hits the bubble and the floor around it, but everything inside is completely unaffected.

'Ok, they're safe, one less thing to worry about,' he thinks before warping away.

He appears back on the surface standing at the back of an ambulance, where the paramedics were currently cutting Eri out of the stone coffin she'd been fused with.

Beside her were Ryukyu, Nejire-Chan, and Froppy.

"Is this place fully evacuated?" Horizon asks before raising the mouthpiece of his visor, showing the blood flowing down his chin from his eyes, nose, and mouth. 2

"What happened?!" Ryukyu immediately rushes over to him. "Are you ok?!"

"I'll be fine," he takes out two meal bars and begins forcing them into his mouth.

"The evacuation is almost complete," Ryukyu says. "But the west side still has some people that are being stubborn." 1

Horizon forces down both the meal bars and takes a relieved breath. "Good, this might get messy, get her and everyone else out of here, now…"

"But the perimeter--"

He cuts off Ryukyu, "--can't be held against what I'm about to fight, just get out of the way so I don't have to worry about more things. If he decides to touch the floor and Overhaul the neighborhood you're all dead…" he immediately warps away.

They all look at each other, then to Ryukyu, "alright, you heard him, everyone clear out, something big is happening!"

Horizon arrives back in the underground cavern, then looks to his side to see Overhaul using his Quirk to make a tunnel away from the hideout.

With the villain's back to him, he raises his sword, using his Quirk to aim directly at Overhaul's brain stem.

'If this doesn't kill you it should at least exhaust you a bit… but since you absorbed the eclectic Nomu its impossible to beat you in a war of attrition, damn it.'

INJECTION SHOT!

Six invisible, indefensible bullets slam through the villain.

Horizon sees the entire body flinch for just a moment, then in the next Overhaul spins around and charges in his direction.

'Fuck…' Horizon thinks as he sees the villain's neck and head currently a bloody mist as it quickly reforms. 'That's such an annoying Quirk…' 2

The ground cracks under Overhaul's monstrous arms as he crawls toward Horizon.

'Let's try this!'

Horizon draws his blade and holds the sheathe in his left hand, then throws it at the charging villain.

"Catch!" he yells out, and Overhaul doesn't even acknowledge it as the item just barely misses his head.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with the sheathe, planting his feet on Overhaul's monstrous shoulder and swinging down with his blade.

BOOSTER SHOTINCISION!

He boosts the cutting power of his blade and his own striking strength, and cleaves right through Overhaul's neck.

Even with all the resistance of the Nomu biology, because it was so sparingly used in his own head for risk of interrupting his higher brain functions, Overhaul can't stop the blade.

His head is bloodily cut off, the most tactical alternative since Amputate would simply let him reform.

Horizon sees the slashed flesh already become red mist with chunks of meat in it, intending to reform.

SHAMBLES!

He swaps the severed head with his sheathe before jumping away, expecting the monster to simply collapse.

But as he lands, he learns something new.

Once the Overhaul command has been set, not even death can stop it. And the majority will always attract the minority, so Overhaul's severed head still becomes the red mist with chunks of meat in it, and rockets back to his main body where it reattaches. 4

'Oh you've got the be fucking kidding me,' Horizon thinks as the monster rushes toward him. 'If I warp his head too far it could just grow a new one with the Nomu cells…or the head would grow a new body, too risky, fuck.'

"I guess I'll kill you first!" Overhaul screams out while constantly trying to smash Horizon. 1

Each hit from his new body craters the solid stone floor and shakes the entire base.

With Horizon warping away, he touches the floor with his hand and Overhauls it toward him.

'restructuring matter that quickly outside of his own body…' Horizon thinks as he sees the ground around him dismantled before almost instantly reforming into massive spikes in every direction.

AMPUTATE!

One horizontal slash cuts off the top of most spikes.

TAKT!

He keeps the spikes floating so he can freely warp about, which he does while constantly slashing at Overhaul.

AMPUTATE!

He slashes Overhaul right down the middle, and along the attack the body becomes the disassembled mist and begins reforming. 1

SHAMBLES!

He warps to Overhaul's side.

AMPUTATE!

He slashes down yet again, leaving a thin slash through the cavern floor and walls, vivisecting Overhaul yet again.

"Just stay put!" Overhaul yells as he wildly swings at Horizon, unable to ever land a single hit.

Horizon continues the process, so many times that the floor beneath Overhaul looks as if it was made of gravel, all the compounding slashes constantly divided.

'This guy is such a pain in the ass,' Horizon thinks as he continues slashing and warping.

Even as Overhaul becomes a massive cloud of blood and meat constantly trying to reform.

'The only way I stop this guy is with--' he considers it for a moment. 'Yeah, but I'll need--'

"Horizon!" he hears Lemillion call out to him. "What is that?" he points at the cloud of flesh and blood.

With Lemillion, Rock Lock, and Sir Nighteye, they could only see Horizon flickering about the room while slashing down, pulverizing the floor and a floating cloud of blood and bits of flesh that was constantly trying to pull itself together. 1

'Perfect,' Horizon warps beside the other heroes, and they can see him breathing heavily trying to catch his breath. "That's Overhaul, he fused with the Nomu, distract him while I prepare a finishing blow…"

"That's Chisaki?" Rock Lock asks, disgusted by the cloud before it quickly begins reforming into the villain. "Oh god!"

"We'll get you the time you need," Sir Nighteye says. "Rock Lock, anchor him, Lemillion and I will run interference!"

Without a word, Horizon hands Sir Nighteye his sword and warps away. 3

At the other side of the room, while watching Overhaul pull himself back together, slowly and slowly losing more of his mind as his Quirk diminishes it.

The body of both Nomu straining his brain. Causing him to become more violent and erratic, a disaster waiting to happen.

Sir Nighteye looks over his shoulder, seeing Horizon take a deep breath and raise his right hand, holding it in from of his chest he leaves his hand open, and grabs his wrist with his free hand. 1

Sadly he could only open a Room barely large enough to cover the surrounding neighborhood during his move, and he would be entirely defenseless as well.

Because while people are amazed by how fluid and quickly he uses his Quirk, they'll never see the years of struggling to get his abilities to that point.

And right now, he can't use this ability in conjunction with the others.

'Must be something big…' Sir Nighteye thinks.

"Don't let him past us," Sir Nighteye says as he rushes forward, using his Foresight Quirk on himself to see his own future.

Lemillion sinks into the floor beside him as Rocklock rushes Overhaul beside him.

'This thing is heavier than I thought,' Nighteye thinks while raising Scalpel.

Overhaul touches the floor and makes a legion of spikes toward them, only for them to stop a few meters ahead of them.

"Deadbolt."

Rocklock dropped down and touched the floor, locking it in place. Exactly why Sir Nighteye wanted him to be in this room, because his Quirk directly counters Overhaul.

'That should hold for a few moments at least,' Sir Nighteye thinks as he rushes forward, entering Overhaul's range when more spikes erupt.

But he sees into his own future and easily dodges the spikes, completely surprising Overhaul.

Closing in on the villain he sees Overhaul raise one of the monstrous hands to swat at him, but he doesn't even try to avoid it.

Because as Overhaul is locked in on him, Lemillion rockets out of the floor below him, landing an uppercut that cracks Overhaul's jaw and shatters some teeth, and they see his head already disassembling itself to reform.

The hit staggers Overhaul enough that his attack misses Sir Nigheye, exactly as he foresaw, allowing him to leap up and bury the entire blade up to the hilt into Overhaul's still reforming skull, down into his neck and spine.

Lemillion's eyes go wide at such a lethal attack, until a moment later Overhaul's entire human body disassembles as Sir Nighteye kicks off his shoulder, landing on his feet.

Rocklock rushes up at this moment and slams both his hands onto Overhaul's monstrous body.

He focuses all his energy while activating his Quirk.

" GRAND DEADBOLT!" 1

The monstrous body completely freezes, and the cloud of reforming matter can't seem to reconnect to it.

Rocklock completely stopped all movement from the villain, stalling the reformation process.

"Good work," Sir Nighteye says. He looks back at Horizon to see strange green particles hovering above his palm, he feels the air becoming colder by the moment. 1

Looking into his own future he sees what's about to happen and is completely perplexed, not even understanding what exactly he's seeing.

"I can't hold it much longer!" Rocklock yells out after a few moments, and both other heroes get ready to act.

Lemillion sinks into the floor as Sir Nighteye leaps back.

"Get off me!" Overhaul yells out, slurring his words slightly as his mental ability begins more obviously degrading.

He knocks Rocklock aside and tries to crush Sir Nighteye once more, but this time the hero just casually sidesteps the attack.

Just barely out of the way thanks to his Quirk he leaps onto Overhaul's monstrous arm and begins running toward his main body.

Seeing another hand swiping at him before it even happens, Sir Nighteye leaps up and over it, then continues running, only for Overhaul to use his Quirk on the floor.

Sir Nigheye sees spikes rising before it happens, and leaps up, stabbing out with Scalpel to his side for a stone spike to perfectly intersect with the blade. 1

The spike carries him up a few meters before he holds onto it and leaps away from the battle, while throwing the sword directly above Overhaul.

The villain focuses on Sir Nighteye and ignores the blade, which quickly disappears above him, out of sight.

"Just di--"

Overhaul's words are cut off as the blade is kicked into the back of his skull, piercing his face and once again causing him to split apart before attempting to reform.

The moment Sir Nighteye threw the blade, Lemillion shot out of the ceiling down onto the villain, and as expected he saw the blade and dropkicked it directly down into the villain.

No longer inhibited by the idea of 'lethal force' as he knows Overhaul can handle it.

" GRAND DEADBOLT!"

Once again Rocklock rushes up and puts his hands on the villain, just as the sword falls through Overhaul's skull, freezing the villain.

Sir Nighteye picks up the sword and Lemillion lands beside him.

"Much too violent for my tastes," Sir Nighteye says about the blade, "but supremely efficient in this conflict."

"I think it's pretty cool," Lemillion says, "too bad gadgets don't work with my Quirk.

"Shut. Up," Rocklock grits out, beads of sweat running down his face as he grits his teeth. "Concentrating."

"Get away, now!" Horizon yells out, causing them all to look at him. "I'm ready…"

They see Horizon still gathering strange green particles, but now they begin flicking to life all around the room, flowing toward his open palm.

Then they move faster, and faster, as if the wind became visible in soft green streaks. 4

A cold chill ran across the room as they begin to see their own breath, only feeling some warmth as the small glowing wisps float past them.

"Move!" Horizon screams as he begins running toward Overhaul, and Lemillion and Sir Nighteye immediately rush away.

But Rocklock stays, "If I leave he moves, and we can't afford to miss--"

"Yeah!" Horizon dashes between the large spikes and sees Sir Nighteye and Lemillion rushing away. "But if you stay you'll--"

"--Be fine!" Rocklock says. "I've got the world's best doctor on my team!" 3

Within a few moments, Horizon reaches up to Overhaul, and slams his open palm into the monstrous body of the villain.

Rocklock leaps away at the last moment, but is sadly caught in the area of effect.

For the first time a hint at the existence of Horizon's Room is shown, luckily the battlefield was too hectic to notice. 3

Green particles are ripped from the environment and surrounding neighborhood, almost showing the exact range of his Room. Then fuses and becomes visible as it closes in on Horizon, rushing through the villain to gather into his palm. 1

GAMMA--! 4

Horizon shrinks his Room, down to barely large enough to contain himself, the villain, and Rocklock who was currently leaping out of it.

And with it, he drags as much of the gamma radiation as possible toward his palm, as if the air in the room was visible there was a transparent green mist rushing toward Overhual to gather at Horizon's palm which was on his chest.

Rocklock dives out of the attack but his foot just barely gets caught at the end, he feels searing heat and crackling skin as he suffers immense radiation burn.

An agonizing scream echoes out of him as he lands with a thud, completely unconscious from the pain.

But the stone floor below his is covered in a thin layer of frost, as is the area on the surface above them, where the heat and radiation were stripped away.

Seeing Overhaul's body being burnt and invaded by the radiation, the villain convulses as it passes through his heart, into Horizon's palm.

Horizon pulls back his hand, revealing a glowing green orb of radiation and heat hovering at his palm.

--STRIKE!

He slams the orb back into Overhaul, and a pulse of green energy travels across the villain as the radiation and heart permeate every cell of his. 2

The skin is fried away and deformed as the radiation cause horrific mutations and burns all across the body. 5

Overhaul's main body suffers the same fate as he silently convulses before going limp, completely lifeless.

The blinding light causes the other heroes to cover their eyes, and when they open them Overhaul's monstrous corpse is crumpled to the floor, and Horizon is stumbling back.

The entire right hand that held the radiation was covered in severe burns, missing the Hero Costume, Body Glove, tattoos, and skin on it. Showing charred black flesh below.

"Ok…still needs practice," Horizon mutters and he falls back and sits on the floor, taking deep breaths.

Finally using something he's been preparing since the Summer Camp.

His ultimate counter to any Super Regeneration type Quirk, simply absolute cellular destruction. 8

And today, he finally got a glimpse of the power he'll easily be able to toss around after sorting out his Quirk problem… 1

He hears Sir Nighteye and Lemillion rushing over, looking at Rocklocks's foot and his hand, in the same state.

"We'll be fine," Horizon says between exhausted breaths. "I'll warp us out, then fix us up…just give me a minute to catch my breath…" 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 205: CHAPTER 201(Raid Complete) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Will she be alright?" Ryukyu asks.

The dragon hero was standing at the back of an ambulance as most of the Yakuza members were already being taken away in armored trucks.

Nejire-Chan, Uravity, and Froppy were off assisting with some cleanup and leading civilians back to their homes now that the operation has been concluded.

And in the back of the ambulance is Eri, coated from neck to toes in a layer of stone, being carefully inspected by two paramedics.

The girl was stiff and silent, just observing everything around her without saying a word, clearly traumatized. But for now, they could only focus on her health, healing everything else would take time they didn't have at this moment.

"I, I can't know for sure," the medic says. "We can't just break her out if what Horizon says is true."

"If he says it's fused to her, then it is," Ryukyu says. "We have to operate under the assumption that he's correct."

"Right," the woman frowns. "Well, we'd have to chip away at it then cut off…well, you know. Until it's all gone."

"Can't this be done without hurting her."

"Sorry ma'am, but I'm not Horizon, and I recommend we wait for him."

Ryukyu sighs and just folds her arm, not-so-patiently waiting for Sir Nighteye's group to return.

SHAMBLES!

A few moments later Horizon swaps them with bits of rubble on the floor to arrive behind her.

"Hey Kyukyu', is everything done here?" he asks. 2

She resists the urge to scoff while turning around, "for the last time its Ry--" her eyes go wide as she sees then.

Lemillion was being oddly stoic, as if lost in his own head. Sir Nighteye looked completely find, but Horizon's right arm from fingertips to his forearm was severely burnt and cracked. 1

Skin and muscle mostly gone to show the brittle bones below, charred black with an absolutely disgusting scent.

She reels back and covers her nose, "what happened to you, and him?" she looks at Rocklock who was on Horizon's shoulder, his right foot being in the same state.

"I'll explain later," Horizon says as he walks past her and roughly drops Rocklock onto a stretcher. He then looks to the ambulance driver, "Rocklock and Eri need to be taken to the Miracle Ward, I'll fix both of them there. Also, don't make any contact with Eri, her Quirk is quite dangerous."

The man stiffly nods and begins preparing to transport them as Horizon turns back to Ryukyu.

"I'll stay with Eri," Lemillion says, "in case villains try something, and I've still got a lot to make up for…" 3

Sir Nighteye nods and Lemillion gets into the ambulance.

"Well I suppose we can all go there," Rykyu says. "Now what about Overhaul, where is he?"

A tense silence befalls them which causes Ryukyu to worry, but she looks over at Horizon, 'as if anyone can escape him…' she thinks.

Then she glances down at his burnt hand, "Oh god, did you--"

"--What's important is," Sir Nighteye cuts her off. "He won't be coming after Eri, or bothering her again, lets's not talk about this here, now we should save the rest of this debrief until everyone is better and awake, at Central Hospital."

"Mmm," she narrows her eyes at Horizon who doesn't even have the decency to act bothered, only giving an uncaring shrug.

And as she opens her mouth to question if what he did was really necessary, her favorite sidekick interrupts them.

"Ryukyu!" Nejire-Chan yells out as she flies down, carrying Froppy and Uravity who were currently weightless. "The last of the Yakuza are gone now, and we're just about done helping in the cleanup!"

"Good work girls," Ryukyu says as they land.

"Gross, what's that smell?" Froppy covers her nose.

"My arm," Horizon calls all their attention to his injury.

"EW!" Uravity yells out, then looks embarrassed, "I mean…what happened? Did Overhaul do that?" 3

"As if he could ever hurt me, this is just recoil from a new attack I used, nothing more, I'll have it fixed in a few hours."

"You did that to yourself?" Ryukyu asks. "Must be some attack."

"A real stinky one," Nejire-Chan says. "But at least you'll be alright." 2

"Maybe Eri can help you," Uravity suggests. "She can just rewind it, right?"

"I'd rather not trust a traumatized child with no Quirk control to use her highly lethal and dangerous Quirk on my body," Horizon says. "Plus I still have to study her and figure out how that Quirk exactly works, so she shouldn't be using it at all."

"Not just that," Ryukyu says. "Eri has been used as a tool and object her entire life. Abused and mistreated because of it, the last thing we want is for her to think she's just been handed over to more people who will treat her the same horrible way. Right?"

"Right," Uravity hangs her head in shame. "Guess I didn't really think about that, sorry."

"What about Overhaul?" Froppy asks, looking around. "Shouldn't he be in one of those armored trucks? Or did he get away?"

"No need to worry about him," Ryukyu assures her. "The raid was a complete success, now in need you three to head back to the agency and rest up a bit. We'll resume patrols tonight after I get back from Central Hospital."

"Central Hospital?" Nejire asks.

"I'm just going to check on Eri and make sure she's alright, you girls will handle our area until I get back, but focus on resting up for now, alright?"

"You can count on us!"

"Can we get moving already?" Horizon asks. "The media will be here soon, and I have a public image to maintain," he gestures to his injury.

"Can't let them see that gods bleed huh," Ryukyu teases him. "I'll be flying over so you can come with me."

"Thanks, now let's just get out of here already…"

--3 Hours Later, The Miracle Ward, Central Hospital…

Standing at his own operating table Horizon has his arm on it, severed from just below the elbow via Amputate so he can carefully study it.

The charred, dried out, and mostly brittle limb was horrific, an abomination almost ripped out of a nuclear blast wave.

Luckily after the initial blast of pain, the cells were killed so rapidly and thoroughly that the entire thing was numb to him. He couldn't feel anything in it, even now as he pokes at the exposed bone and a few strips of muscle where nerves should be.

SCAN!

'My Gamma attacks work as intended, I'll have Overhaul's body by the end of the week to do some more studying. But killing cells so thoroughly prevents regeneration, and leaves nothing that Shigaraki can salvage to get DNA from.

The intensity of heat and radiation destroys DNA chains, so we at least don't have to worry about a Overhaul Nomu suddenly appearing. 1

But my control is still awful. If I could condense the attack it would take less energy, force all the radiation into a Nomu's brain. A fraction of the energy and time, but I also have to work on my control for my own safety.

I've never used that much energy before while training, the backlash was beyond me, at least for now. Fried and irradiated my own hand and forearm, and Rocklock's foot.

But I suppose if he didn't do that things could have gone much worse, I still don't know how to safely cancel that attack so it would have been like a radiation bomb in that room, then we would have been in real trouble.

And the fact that I can't use any other ability while I'm preparing and executing that attack…a lot of problems to solve.

Nothing a lot more practice can't fix, and I'll have a quick and efficient way to deal with those Super Regeneration Nomu at the end of it. After I practice enough to contain and condense the radiation so it doesn't leak out and destroy my hand again.'

Horizon takes out his scalpel, holding it awkwardly in his left hand he cuts into his severed limb, looking at the bone marrow inside the brittle bone. 2

'Everything here is dead, which means--'

BOOSTER SHOT!

He transfers healing energy from his healthy hand into the severed one, and it dissipates with no effect.

'Fuck, this will take a lot more energy than just normal healing…and I'll have to do this for Rocklock too. Guess I'll take tomorrow off and get some rest, what a day…'

Without a word, he summons his sword into his free hand, then places the blade just beyond where he had used Amputate on his main body.

Taking a deep breath he grits his teeth, then cuts down.

"Hngh…" he feels a jolt of pain as he now does a more traditional amputation, just below his right elbow.

Blood begins flowing out onto the table before he uses his Quirk and controls his body to dull the pain.

Something he usually avoids doing because of how dangerous it can be, interfering with such essential survival senses.

But this special occasion called for it.

BOOSTER SHOT!

The blue healing energy begins flowing out of the wound, stopping the bleeding within moments.

Then it becomes dense, gathering from a thin blue mist into a liquid like form.

Translucent but flowing like water, gathering and staying attached to his wound.

With furrowed brows, he pours more and more energy into this, and the liquid becomes much more dense, and he can see the shadow of a new hand growing from the wound.

Perfect replication and regeneration of what was lost.

While still covered in a thin sheen of the healing energy, he sees the bone regrowing. Then the strands of tendons and muscles, the veins and nerves, all the blood and flesh he lost.

Then finally the skin and fingernails, were perfectly remade.

Well, almost perfect.

"Fuck," he says through exhausted breaths. "Lost my tattoos…" 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 206: CHAPTER 202(Raid Debrief) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7 PM, 6 Hours After Yakuza Raid…

"--Alright so that's just about everything, you're all caught up," Horizon says.

Currently, he was in one of the hospital rooms of the Miracle Ward in Central Hospital. Wearing his backup Hero Costume kept here so his new arm was seemingly the exact same as before.

And speaking to Rocklock, who is sitting up in the hospital bed, wearing a medical gown and staring blankly at Horizon.

After a few more silent moments, Rock Lock blinks and just continues to stare.

"Are you gonna stare like a useless fucking retard or will you be useful?"

"Uh, sorry I just… it's a lot to wrap my head around," Rock Lock admits.

"No, it's really not, and I fixed you better than you were before. For some reason you had some damage in your foot from before."

"Yeah I broke it a few ye--"

"Nobody cares."

"But you're my do--"

"Look do you understand what I said or not?" Horizon cuts him off. "It's not that complicated, your foot got hurt, I cut it off and grew you a new one, easy?"

"And by got hurt you mean…you nuked it." 2

"Irradiated it, just radiation burning and saturating it until the DNA chains were destroyed and the cells died, you didn't even feel it. Your body doesn't even know that's not the same foot."

"And Chisaki?"

"Same thing that happened to your foot, but, to his whole body," Horizon shrugs.

"You killed him?" Rock Lock looks genuinely concerned, mostly by how casual Horizon is being about this.

"Oh yeah he's super dead, even I can't heal what I did to him, but hey, no need to dwell on it, things break all the time," he mindlessly says, much too tired to put up the proper 'True Hero' persona after such a long day. 7

"Right," Rock Lock nods slowly. "Well, thank you for everything, and good work out there. Now I should get changed and get out of he--"

"Actually your wife is here waiting for you, but you can get changed after the meeting."

"What meeting?"

"They're about to walk in?"

"What?! Wait I'm mostly naked here, who?" Rock Lock looks even more worried and double-checks that the hospital sheets are covering him.

And a few seconds later four people walk into the room.

Sir Nighteye, Ryukyu the #9 Pro Hero, a lone security agent.

And the person whose presence mortifies Rock Lock the most due to his state of undress, Hero Public Safety Commission President Pantu herself.

"He's fine to talk now," Horizon says as they all enter and the agent stands in the room blocking the door, presumably using some Quirk so they aren't being spied on.

"Its a pleasure to meet you lady Pantu," Rock Lock says, as she is rarely seen outside of the Commission buildings.

She glances at him for a moment, "likewise I'm sure, now, can you recall the situation which led to Horizon's more lethal approach during the battle against Kai Chisaki, aka the villain Overhaul."

"Well uh," Rock Lock looks around nervously at everyone, then his eyes fall onto Horizon who was silently standing there.

"Just pretend he isn't here," Pantu says.

"Right, well. I remember the fight was tough, we were in a stalemate for a while before Horizon showed up. He warped Eri away, then he beat the villains but, then something happened. It was like I blinked and everything changed."

"Time bomb," Sir Nighteye says. "One of the villains had a minor time Quirk, he overdosed on a unique and lethal strain of Trigger and became a bomb that slows time to a near stop around his body."

"Seriously?"

"I overcame the effects after a while and prevented Overhaul from leaving," Horizon says. "You obviously slept through the recap we had after your procedure."

"Focus please," Pantu says. "After you were freed."

"Right," Rock Lock thinks hard about what happened before answering. "Well we tried everything but nothing could stop the guy, until Horizon did that radiation attack. I didn't know it was a lethal attack I swear, I just knew if he thought it could bring that monster down it was our best shot."

Pantu detects no lies with her Quirk, then turns to Sir Nighteye. "Did you know the attack would have been lethal?"

"Obviously not," he says, and she detects no lies. "I'm very strict with my Quirk, and since I used it on myself I could only see into my own future, and only a few feet around myself at best through a fuzzy image."

"Very well then," she turns to Horizon. "Your justification?"

He just shrugs, "it was the most efficient option, since the alternative was a long fight that we weren't ready for. One of those Nomu gave him enough energy to win a war of attrition, and there wasn't anywhere in my range that I could warp him to and safely fight away from all civilians.

It's also the only attack I have that can properly deal with his Quirk. Overhaul is much better than just regeneration, he was restructuring any damage in real-time, and only needed to command matter instead of constantly focusing on it. The best course of action was to fry the cells entirely."

"And why did you have this attack?" Pantu asks.

"For people like All For One, or whenever I got attacked by some Nomu."

Pantu doesn't detect any lies so she asks the others, "Does anyone think his assessment is wrong?"

"A bit extreme perhaps," Sir Nighteye says. "But, I understand how he could come to his conclusion."

"I just hate the fact that I helped kill someone," Rock Lock says. "Willing or not I've got blood on my hands now…" 5

Beneath the visor Horizon rolls his eyes, and throughout this entire thing Pantu's cold demeanor never slips.

Hearing enough from the others Pantu turns back to Horizon, "do you feel any guilt or remorse for what you did?"

"..." 2

"Remember who you're speaking to, lying doesn't work…"

"I remember, and I also know sometimes extreme circumstances demand extreme actions, and I don't regret or feel bad for saving everyone there."

She once again detects no lies, but is slightly impressed by his clever phrasing to conceal the mercenary beneath the visor.

"Well then I've heard enough," she snaps her fingers and the security agent takes out a few documents from his jacket, handing them over to her. She passes them out, giving Sir Nighteye two. "I've mostly kept this contained, some of the police and people on the scene will suspect things due to only you few being present at the time of death, but nobody will believe them."

"You've got to be kidding me," Ryukyu says, looking down at the forms. "This is a cover-up? You want us to sign this? No way! He killed someone and you expect me to promise to never ever speak of it to anyone, to never report it to anyone, look I know our job can get messy but this is extreme. 7

If I sign this then what next, then how many times are we teaching him and other Heroes that 'sometimes killing villains is ok', that's a slippery slope that I will not be a part of. He should at least publicly acknowledge it and apologize, that's the right thing to do," she looks around the room, seeing Rock Lock a bit inspired, Pantu and Horizon unimpressed, and Nighteye in the back signaling for her to shut up. 4

Clearly, he knows more about her when regarding the HPSC.

But she noticed him a bit too late.

"Really?" President Pantu asks, taking a step closer to Ryukyu. "And what would that achieve?"

"It would maintain his honesty and integrity, as any real Pro Hero should," Ryukyu says.

"Perhaps, but clearly you and everyone else tend to forget that Horizon is not yet a Pro Hero, he's a Hero Course Student often treated as one because more often than not, he's better than ANY Pro Hero we have."

Ryukyu takes a step back and has the decency to look ashamed, just for a moment, before resuming eye contact with Pantu.

"This isn't right," she says defiantly.

"It's what's best. But please, refuse if you must, if your values and integrity demand it. But I want you to know, before you make that foolish decision. It will result in you being locked in the deepest depths of Tartarus for the rest of your life." 1

"Wh--"

"For conspiring to destabilize Japan and incite fear and panic into the civilian population. Because Horizon provides safety, and stability, his being here allows people to stay calm, especially with All Might now retired.

See, when a student messes up they are usually suspended from using a Provisional Hero License, but in this case, we would be forced to expel Horizon, and remove Japan's next Symbol Of Peace because of how you feel in your heart. 1

With him here we could have an even more peaceful era than that of All Might's, and you intend to threaten that, clearly, so either you sign that document right now, or I can have him warp you into your cell."

Ryukyu narrows her eyes at Pantu, "You'd go that far for a student? Throwing an innocent Top Pro Hero into prison with monsters to rot?"

"Top 10 Pro Heroes are easily replaced, the existence of the annual ranking ceremony proves that, but there is only one Horizon, it's an easy choice to make," Pantu says. And without a word she reaches into her pocket and hands Ryukyu a pen. 8

As Ryukyu angrily signs the papers Pantu looks around to see the others doing the same, 'at least I know the rumors about him and Ryukyu aren't true, we can stop investigating that now…' she thinks before turning to Sir. Nighteye. 2

"The second form I gave you is for Lemillion, I understand he's here trying to cheer up the girl, how is she?"

"Resting after Horizon healed her," Sir Nighteye says.

"Good, then this raid really was a success. And good job following protocol, calling Horizon the moment you discovered the Yakuza had Nomu saved a lot of lives today."

"Yes, but what made you instruct us to continue forward?" Sir Nighteye asks. "Was it not safe to assume Kurogiri would simply warp them out."

"It was a gamble we were willing to take," Pantu lies, because the information from Hawks told her Kurogiri was off on a trip with Dabi and Shigaraki this morning. "Hopefully whatever information we recover from their systems will give Horizon some leads to track down the League Of Villains."

"Well, I'm glad it all worked out," Sir Nighteye says. "Now I need to brief Mirio on what's going on, is there anything else lady Pantu?"

"Just a small warning to Horizon," she looks at the hero in question. "Try not to use your 'Gamma' attacks please, unless absolutely necessary. Most countries don't appreciate any radiation-based attacks such as that…especially ours, considering our history. Unless you have to resort to it, keep it hidden. And it should go without saying, not against living people, only Nomu if necessary. 5

I'm burying this incident so deep nobody will find it, but we can't make this a habit, because even for you I can only make so many exceptions, understand."

"Don't act out and make people think I'm a nuclear reactor beneath this," he taps his visor, "I think I'll manage."

"Always a pleasure talking to you, now I need to get back to work, aside from the complications, well done on the raid today everyone," Pantu says before abruptly leaving with her bodyguard, quickly followed by a pissed-off Ryukyu.

"Well, I should go speak to Mirio, thank you, once again, for everything Rock Lock," Sir Nighteye says.

"Hey it's the job right," Rock Lock replies before it's just him and Horizon in the room.

As Sir Nighteye leaves Horizon turns to Rock Lock, "If you're gonna cry about how you helped kill someone, don't, your wife is about to walk in, with the baby."

"Oh, thanks for the heads up."

"Just be out of here quickly, I have one more patient to work and it'll need the room after, oh, and good job today. You aren't completely useless after all." 4

"Than--" Horizon warps away as the door opens, causing Rock Lock to mutter. " Man, even giving a compliment he's such an ass…" 18

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 207: CHAPTER 203(Work and Play) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I hope this is about some more good news," Nezu says as he answers his phone, putting Eraser Head on speaker.

The principal was currently in his office doing some paperwork this Sunday evening.

"Nothing but good new, I suppose," Eraser Head says. "I'm about to leave Central Hospital, got done with Eri."

"And what did we learn?"

"Well, to the surprise of no one, Horizon was right. Her Qurik: Rewind, it's an accumulation type. She stores time and distributes it like a virus to infect other people's time."

"That's a new one…"

"She has almost no control but since it's an accumulation type I just had her drain her storage on some of the emergency room patients, car accidents and such."

"What about diseases?"

"It really doesn't work like that, if your body has something then she can rewind you to a less critical stage but the illness will still manifest eventually. All she does is buy you more time. But if you were hurt by someone breaking your leg, she can rewind you, and then you just have to avoid that person so they don't do it again."

"So not exactly a healing Quirk. And can't be used in the same way as Recovery Girl's since that would also undo all the benefits of training."

"It also doesn't eliminate mental fatigue."

"I see, and how long before you bring her back to UA?"

"We'll be leaving soon, after making a few stops to get her some things she'll need to live at UA, but Nemuri should be able to handle that."

"Well when Horizon gets back to UA he can do further research on her Quirk, yesterday he mentioned that he's gained a new perspective on Chronos so I'd like to speak to him about that."

"What, is he planning to start time traveling?" Eraser Head scoffs.

"People cannot travel through time, it flows through us, and I doubt even he can manipulate time. He just thinks her Quirk is interesting, and is always excited to study things beyond his control." 3

"Right, you mad scientist types are exhausting to keep up with. But Eri's been asking about him a lot, Mirio is here with us, still hasn't left the hospital since she's here. But apparently Horizon didn't even introduce himself when he was healing her up, he just disappeared after handing her off." 1

"Well his bedside manner is famously terrible…"

"Everyone knows that by now, the kid wants to meet him…and Deku."

"I assumed as much, and Midoriya is having a chat with Nighteye and All Might at the moment, they should be here by the time you get back with her."

"Nighteye and All Might are talking again…whatever, I've gotta go. Lots of shopping to do."

"Have fun," Nezu giggles.

Eraser Head grumbles and hangs up.

Nezu taps a few keys on his computer, changing his screen to show Sir Nighteye, Midoriya, and All Might having a discussion in one of the training areas.

"Well at least now Midoriya knows the good news, Eri is safe…I just hope Horizon doesn't give him a hard time because of it. But I'm sure Nighteye is even warier of Horizon after what happened to Overhaul, but Horizon is still learning. They'll all see the hero he can be someday." 24

Nezu taps a few keys and pulls up a list of his student logs, since every time a student leaves UA they have to apply for permission and give a reasoning.

"Now I wonder how my other pupils are doing…" he begins scouring the Hero Network and UA cameras to check in on them.

--Training Ground Beta…

BOOM!

A massive explosion of fire and ice rocks the area, demolishing the small buildings and tearing up the road as it knocks Shoto and Bakugo away from each other.

The smoke and dust block their views for a while before it all settles.

Shoto gets up and pries himself out of some rubble, feeling pain wracking his entire body.

His right side frosted over and began to damage his skin, his left side feeling like its being melted. His regulation of his Quirk still leaves much to be desired, nowhere near Endeavor's control.

He walked out into the open just in time to see Bakugo stumbling out of a collapsed building. Bleeding from his head, his forearms bruised and slightly swollen. His PE Uniform is torn up even worse than Shoto's as he hobbles forward, fighting to keep his eyes open.

Shoto joined his training only an hour ago, but Bakugo has been here since sunrise. Fueled by his most recent and glaring defeat against Horizon.

Even more relentless in his training. Shoto could even see some of Bakugo's fingers turning purple, his self-destructive desire for perfection forcing him to throw himself against a perfect being.

And since he and Midoriya don't have Provisional Licenses either, they get to see the entire painful process.

A tragedy happening in slow motion.

"I think that's enough for today," Shoto says. "We should go rest up, classes resume tomorrow."

Bakugo scoffs and turns away, "If you're done then just go, I've still got training to do."

Shoto reaches out and grabs his shoulder, and Bakugo winces in pain, the constant explosions had dislocated it multiple times today, "You're in worse shape than me, that's enough for today."

"I'm not done," Bakugo shrugs his hand off and continues walking away. "I still have to get better…"

"By destroying yourself? What's the point of that?"

Bakugo turns around and glares at him, "What's the point of existing if I'm not the best?!" 4

"This isn't the way to get there."

"This is the only way!" Bakugo stomps back over to Shoto. "He's out there with his license, training, every single day! The only way we catch up! The only way I get ahead of him! Is if I train even harder than him! So that's what I'll do!" Bakugo takes a few deep breaths as Shoto steps back. 4

"Bakugo…"

"Save it," Bakugo's shoulders slump as a sad look overtakes his face. "This is the only way I know how to do things, it always works. Just train harder, do better, and do more. It's the only way I know, and it will work. Even against him…even against him," he tries to reassure himself.

Shoto gives him a sad look as memories resurface, memories of witnessing what self-destructive drive and ambition can do to a person.

Can do to everyone around them.

"Alright, well I'm done for the day, you have fun," Shoto says.

"Tch," Bakugo turns and begins sadly walking away, trying to ignore the outburst he just had. "I don't have time to waste, I'm winning the next Sports Festival, and the only way to do tha--"

Bakugo feels a slight pain at the back of his head as his world goes dark.

Shoto catches Bakugo after he knocked him out, and with some effort throws him onto his shoulder.

"I don't know if there is a way to beat Horizon, but if there is, killing yourself by overtraining won't help you," he mutters as he walks off, taking Bakugo to Recovery Girl. "Besides, Horizon is probably training right now, and I doubt his methods operate like this…"

--Elsewhere In Japan…

In a mostly empty skyscraper, there were a few people tied up, knelt down in the middle of the top floor.

They were all heavily armed with rifles and one had his left arm transformed into water which he was using to manipulate the locks of a massive vault on the top floor.

Three men in total, and seven hostages.

While two of the men were patrolling, constantly keeping an eye on the surrounding buildings through the one-way glass windows, above them floating at the ceiling was an eye.

The entire socket and eyeball detached, looking around the room carefully. Beside it was a floating right ear, and a right hand covered in purple fabric, holding a laser pointing device.

Setsuna Tokage of UA Class 1B, Hero Name: Lizardy. 4

Using her Quirk she can detach parts of her and control them independently, and when detached these parts can fly. After a certain amount of time, the piece with the most mass will begin to regenerate the others.

After a few more moments, she points the laser at one of the men, and taps a button at the side of it.

Meanwhile floating above the city, above that very building, was Majestic: The Magician Hero. 1

His Quirk: Magic, allows him to create energy rings that can transport people and objects or be used to attack his opponents. These rings can carry up to one person each and he can maintain up to twelve. 7

His street-magician-inspired Hero Costume appeared scrappy and haphazardly put together, accented by a large red wizard hat and a blindfold, a mishmash of disjointed colors across it all.

He was currently floating above the building on one of his colorful energy rings, alongside the remainder of Lizardy's body which was on another. Currently relaying information by speaking through her main body even while in the building.

They were floating high above so the villains that were looking down at the streets and other buildings couldn't see them. So their third member could attack.

Genesis, in her updated Hero Costume, was laying on a third energy ring beside Lizardy's, taking in all her friend's instructions as she aimed down the scope of her custom sniper rifle.

Her digital scope can't see through the one-way reinforced glass, but her bullets could punch through it, and Lizardy's laser was currently making her targets for her scope to show where she needed to shoot.

"3…2…1…" Lizardy's detached hand clicks down on the button, and the data is sent to the Genesis Rifle. "Fire!"

BANG!

The glass is shattered and the kinetic stoppage round slams into the man's gut, knocking him off his feet and out cold.

Lizardy instantly paint another target with the rifle, exactly as they trained, and Genesis lines up her shot with the second man.

"Hold…" Lizardy calls out as the men look at their unconscious friend and begin yelling at the hostages. "Fire!"

BANG!

As the second man took one stop too close to the glass he gets a bullet to the shoulder, cracking his shoulder and collar bone, knocking him against the wall hard enough to take him down.

"Final target?" Genesis asks.

"He's held up behind cover, this guy isn't moving Majestic."

"How much cover?" Genesis asks.

"Too much for you to safely make an armor-piercing round and fire through."

"I can make more than just bullets," Genesis says as she makes a special and much larger shell and then begins loading it. "Give me a spot close to him…"

"A new trick huh, fun, " Majestic says. "I knew you girls would be perfect for my style of recon and scouting work, but seems Genesis has some firepower too…"

She silently loads the special shell as Lizardy paints a new target.

BANG!

The man has his back against a wall, and suddenly just beside him it ruptures and a large deformed metal casing imbeds itself into the floor beside him.

"Huh?"

Before he could get away it pops and a cloud of tear gas invades the area. 2

He begins coughing and stumbling out of the gas, and as he does another shot is fired the moment he stepped in front of the glass wall.

BANG!

Later he would wake up in police custody with many cracked ribs, and these new Provisional Heroes would have their first interview, and make their true debuts to the world…

After getting back to the Majestic Hero Agency, Setsuna lays on the couch while Genesis takes off her mask, then immediately begins making some new weapons to work on.

"You should really take a break," Majestic says. "You two did good work today, and my wife is coming over with her famous rice bowls for us, you'll love em."

"Well I'm sure I can get in some training before then, the sun hasn't even set yet…" Genesis says as she sits down and begins assembling a new pistol.

"If you work yourself to death you'll never live to be a top pro like I know you can be, part of the job is knowing when to conserve your energy so you'll have it when needed," Majestic makes a glowing energy ring and sits on it, floating opposite them. 1

"Well, I suppose you're right. It would be bad if an emergency happened and I was already exhausted, right?" Momo asks.

"Exactly."

"But if there isn't an emergency, then I would have just been wasting time, hmmm, I'm not sure what I should do…"

As Momo begins to overthink Majestic just floats over to Setsuna who now had her mask off, "Is she always like this?"

"Mhm, but you'll have to forgive her," Setsuna says. "She's trying to keep with her workaholic boyfriend, but just between us, I don't even think the guy is human…" 4

"I heard that," Momo says. "And I assure you he's human, I just don't want to be left behind is all. In fact, he forces our entire class to improve much faster than we could have on our own."

Setsuna lays back down and detaches her arm, sending it to the fridge to get a drink. "I just think competing against him would lead to nothing but depression, just be the best Genesis you can be, that's all you can be after all. Plus, he already likes Momo, so that'll be more than enough."

"Just try not to overwork yourself," Majestic says. "People have to work at their own pace, and just because I'm sure he's off training right now doesn't mean you have to be, we did a lot of good and saved a lot of people today…" 4

Momo sighs, "yes, I suppose you're both right, and I should replenish my Quirk anyway."

"Mhm, also, one small detail," Majestic gets a bit closer to them as Setsuna cracks open her soda. "Maybe don't mention that your boyfriend 'inspires your entire class to improve much faster', that's sort of a dead giveaway that you're dating Horizon--" 3

He sees both girl's eyes open widely.

"--Your secret is safe with me, but as someone who is married to a fellow Pro Hero, it's not a fun thing for the public to know. Puts a lot of strain on your relationship. I mean when I got into the top 10 once my wife started getting a lot of hate mail and people were always saying I shouldn't be with a D-List pro…so even for a prodigy like you, I doubt they'd approve of anyone being with Horizon. It's just a headache you don't want, and a strain on the relationship that you'd be best without."

"Right," Momo nods bashfully. "Thank you, and also for not mentioning this to anyone."

"Yup, but that's about as much advice as I feel comfortable giving you girls about that, ask my wife if you've got any more questions, now, let's talk about a case we'll be working on tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow?" Setsuna asks. "Tomorrow is Monday, don't we go back to UA tonight?"

"Nope, this is pretty big, and we'll be working with some other agencies on it, so I've got you for one more day."

Both girls look at each other, then smile and turn to their mentor, ready for an extra day of hero work.

Anything to help them improve, as they're sure everyone else is constantly training.

After all, at UA, 'To stop improving is to fall behind,' a quote that seeps into every level of the academy.

--The Matani Estate…

While everyone else is training, bleeding and sweating trying to claw their way to the top.

What does the man at the very top, so far ahead that he's not threatened at all by them do.

Train? Further his lead?

Sometimes, yes, but sometimes you get to relax, to enjoy all the hard work you've done to get to where you are.

So while they were working, Law Matani is sitting at his pool with his shirt off, only wearing some shorts. The ocean breeze from his private beach was a bit more chilly as the winter season approached, but the heated outdoor area made it bearable, as did his company.

His tattoos on his left hand and arm were exposed, as well as his chest.

His right hand which was carefully playing with her curly white hair already had the tattoos redone early this morning onto the new limb.

The same beautiful woman with the Sheep Quirk he met all those months ago in Tokyo, once again sitting on his lap in a bikini, topless. 9

Leaning forward and pressing herself against his chest, her lips hungrily trying to devour his as she tries to get even closer to him.

After a week of none stop work, Law Matani finally gets to go back to his new family home and enjoy a relaxing day by the pool… 4

END CHAPTER--

Sheep Quirk girl from chapter 73… 7

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Chapter 208: CHAPTER 204(Small Talk)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Monday, 9AM…

"You know, the rest of your class is taking today to relax after a weekend of training, maybe you should join them…" Nezu suggests.

He was currently sitting on the couch in Horizon's room eating an entire wheel of cheese with a knife and fork. 1

While Law is standing off to the side working on the hologram interface for Nezu's personal supercomputer. His mask and visor were off but his usual more casual Horizon outfit was otherwise in place.

"I appreciate that you gave everyone a day off, for some stupid reason."

"It's a public holiday."

"Whatever," Law says. "That doesn't mean I'll stop working, plus the sooner I get these simulations set the easier it will be to study Eri. You innovated these virtual models so people wouldn't be stuck in labs like you, might as well use them, right?"

"Right," Nezu frowns and just continues eating his cheese. "Where did you get this, I've never tasted anything like it?"

"I have a guy…" 9

"A guy…for cheese?" Nezu raises a brow at him. 1

"I'm half Italian, of course I have a cheese guy. Plus I figured if anyone would have a cheese guy it's you," Law shrugs. 3

"I didn't know that was a thing."

"It's not, I'm just messing with you, but I did do a surgery from some big wine family yesterday morning, they're from Italy and since they make wine a cheese, I asked for some samples. They've been making the stuff since Rome was a new place."

"I thought you were busy getting your tattoos redone onto the new arm yesterday?"

"Did that after, had a guy come to my house and I relaxed there all day, figured I earned it after that whole Overhaul nonsense."

"You mean after you killed a man?" 1

"Things break all the time Nezu, especially when you're as strong as me, don't dwell on every ant you step on, otherwise you'll have to stop walking forward." Law says this without even looking at him as he continues his work. "Plus it's not like I had many options."

"Is that the truth, or is it that old habits die hard?"

Law stops typing for a moment, the room gets tense, then he gets back to work.

"Are you insinuating that the training my mom gave me overpowered my ability to operate as a Pro Hero due to the stressful circumstances?"

"Or your biases after what he did to Eri, you do have a soft spot for kids after all."

"She's seven, at that point she should have her shit together."

"Did you at seven?"

"That's when I started doing solo surgeries and going on jobs with mom, so yeah."

"That's very concerning, and have you spoken to the girl?" Nezu asks.

"Why would I do that, I just needed this," Law gestures to the horn on his coffee table. Small and detached from Eri so he could operate on it. "I have no use for the babbling of some useless little thing…" 1

"And yet you want 'little things' of your own, honestly your bedside manner needs serious work."

"I get the job done, and if it's mine then I expect the children to be competent and useful."

"They're children."

"My children, held to the same standards as myself, and look how I turned out, perfect."

"And does Ryuko agree with these views on family and life?" Nezu asks, and sees Law freeze up. "Well?" 1

Law just rolls his eyes and continues working, "and I assume you knew from the start, spying on Horizon tower as usual?"

"Well I did upgrade your security system for free, you knew why."

"Mhm, and what do you think?"

"I think the world, most notably the women, would be safer if you didn't find it such fun to charm so many of them."

"Well I tried video games, but you know, after having real-life fights to the death…they just don't feel as fun as they used to."

Nezu sighs and continues eating, "Can you please just stay away from the Top Pros."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, Mirko is too annoying, Uwabami hates me, Mt. Lady is committed to her secret boyfriend."

"Most of the other pros know about her and Kamui Woods," Nezu says. "They aren't good at being subtle."

"Midnight really really hates me--"

"That's a bit of an understatement," Nezu says. "And she filed an interesting report with me, suspicions of you leaving campus without permission."

"I do that all the time, which one?"

"About two weeks ago, Tuesday. Your pizza night."

"Ahh, yeah I think that day I ate on the roof, guess she saw me. But in my defense, if you only need one hour of sleep, you see all of UA pretty quickly, and even I can only train so much."

"Oh I know you've been stepping out often, but I assume you never get UA out of your 'range' so it's fine. But she wasn't pleased when I told her that."

"She'll get over it, and that's true. UA is always in my range. Now what was I saying, oh right, Ryukyu blocked me on the Hero Network," Law shrugs. "I guess me killing someone then Pantu threatening the throw her in Tartarus if she talks was a bit much…that's too bad because--"

"--Stop it."

Law chuckles, "Hey I'm just saying, she's got big tits for a dragon lady."

"Half the world already thinks you two were a thing, she's had to deny those rumors so much already she now avoids interviews," Nezu says.

"Well what can I say, she looks good on me."

"Have you ever considered going celibate, just for a little while?" Nezu asks. "It might be good for you, and less stressful for me."

"You don't have to worry about me getting your students pregnant, I have full control of my body and its functions."

Nezu releases a relaxing sigh, "that's a relief."

"Yup, you don't have to give me the sex talk."

"Well I know that, and assume Ryuko beat me to the baby talk," Nezu says. "Her recent online shopping history is very…well."

"Baby-feverish, yeah, we had a talk about what she wanted a few weeks ago."

"And--"

"--That bit of info is only for us to know," Law cuts him off. "But you don't have to worry about me fucking my way through the top pro heroes, most of them are annoying or hate me."

"That's a relief."

"Well," Law thinks about it for a moment. "I'm cool with 13, is she--" 2

"--You're not seducing a teacher…again. I can't believe I have to say that. I can't believe this is a real conversation." 5

Law chuckles and shuts off the hologram, "Trust me I'm not interested in someone that might literally rip my dick off with her Black Hole Quirk, only thing between her being a hero and her being a mass murdered are those gloves."

"Says the man in a full-body glove," Nezu says as Horizon sits across from him. "Most people think if it breaks you explode like a bomb." 1

"Yet the villains still keep trying to hit me, morons," Law leans back and relaxes on the couch. 1

SHAMBLES!

Law warps away for a moment, then warps back with a bottle of whiskey and a glass, pouring himself a drink.

"I feel like as your principal I should say something," Nezu says. "Wh--"

SHAMBLES!

Law warps away again, and this time returns with a can of apple juice, giving it to Nezu.

"Thank you, but I would have preferred tea," Nezu says.

"Well, I have apple juice, unless you can suddenly drink alcohol."

Nezu opens his drink and takes a sip, "so, how are things with you, the more personal side?"

"Do you mean aside from my sex life?"

"If you don't get any students pregnant I really don't care what you do, I just had to make sure of that," Nezu says. "What about the Shields?"

Law shrugs, "I have a lead, sent someone to check it out, was a dead end. Wolfram is in southern Japan, on the main island, but he keeps moving. He's notably avoiding Minato Tokyo and Musutafu."

"Both places where you're most active."

"He knows the shields are bait, and that I'm hunting him."

"Yet he still continues his task, foolish and commendable," Nezu says. "Reconstruction on I-Island is still far from complete, securing new funding from the united nations has been a bit, slower. They're worried about rebuilding it before Wolfram is captured."

"Well sorry but I can't move any faster, all I can do is wait for a mistake. Nobody wants to go one-on-one with Horizon so everyone is just hiding."

"It seems your reputation is making this more difficult than I expected."

"Well you're not very good at understanding people," Law down his drink and pours another glass. "This was obviously going to be a problem from the start, I'm the next #1 Pro Hero after all."

"Is that working for you, or--"

"I'm allowing it to work," Law says. "But I'm taking it easy tonight. Sero and Momo are still doing hero work, and won't be coming back until tomorrow morning, Jiro is at a sleepover in the 1B dorm with the other girls, and I need to catch up on some Matani business."

"Matani business?" Nezu asks. "That wouldn't happen to have anything to do with a certain shipping company suddenly selling 49% of their company shares to a currently anonymous buyer now would it?"

Law takes a sip of his drink, "Well with how much trigger has been moving through their ships, shareholders are worried, and if someone expected them to frantically try and sell shares to gain capital and stabilize the business, that person would be in a position to make a good deal."

"But 49%, seems like a suspicious amount," Nezu says.

Law shrugs, "apparently Horizon found out that the head of the family is in on the whole Trigger operation, the arrest happens tomorrow, but the Matani dynasty got wind of it early and offered to buy up some business before the raid."

"You gave a criminal a head start because it benefits you?" Nezu was not pleased by this. 1

"Trust me, he'll wish he didn't run from the cops, because this way Horizon has to track him down…with the tracker I already put on him. And when I get my hands on him, I will get the answers I want before I hand him over for some pathetic excuse of an interrogation that they'll give him."

"So this is a play to, get the Matani Dynasty another business, take down a part of the Trigger operation, and get more information than the police would have about the operation itself."

"Oh yeah, chances are high some crooked cop is already being paid to kill him during the raid, better dead than arrested is what the other villains are probably thinking. So I'm also saving his life."

"And making yourself look like an even bigger hero in the process," Nezu narrows his eyes at him.

"Nope," Law says. "The police get all the credit for this. I won't gain enough on this to make it worth having the police look incompetent, and since I always express my support of our brave officers…and I'm friends with the Tokyo police chief since we met at All Might's tribute, I'm sure he'll appreciate me being quiet about them losing the target."

"Wow," Nezu takes a sip of his drink. "Well, we're lucky you aren't a villain."

"Never planned to be--"

"--Most people never do, unless it's All For One."

"What I meant was, having the entire world hunting you just seems exhausting. Being a Pro hero and having all the fortune and fame and women and money and women is so much better. I'm actually starting to like it." 1

"Really?" Nezu's eyes lite up. 1

"Just a little bit, it has its benefits. Having the entire world groveling at my feet and praising me, it just feels like this is how my life was always meant to be."

"That's concerning," Nezu swallows nervously. "Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it." 2

"Only sometimes, I still hate having to save so many useless fucks. Every day its 'oh no a villain is here and I'm a useless piece of shit that can't fight back or run away, please save me…' dumb fucks. Honestly, humanity would be better off without them. But I'm the moron with the job of protecting people who don't deserve to live…how fun." 9

Nezu sighs, "Just when I thought I was making progress…" 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 209: CHAPTER 205(The Darker Side)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--October 19th, 2315, HPSC HQ…

Sitting in President Pantu's office, Ryukyu anxiously taps the arm of her chair while staring at the deserted desk in front of her.

Behind the desk was a small row of windows with a view of Tokyo that was cluttered with skyscrapers.

It's only been days since the Raid Debrief at Central Hospital. They've all sent in their report and done other hero work since then.

But President Pantu suddenly requesting her presence at the headquarters can't simply be a coincidence.

'Maybe she's not pleased with how I spoke to her. If I'm lucky this is just a simple apology then everything will be fine…yeah, that's it, just an apology.'

"Thank you for coming," Pantu says.

Ryukyu's eyes shoot open as she jumps out of her seat, so in her own mind that she didn't hear the door open. "President Pantu, how are you doing today?"

"That depends on how this meeting goes," Pantu says as she takes her seat. "Please take your set."

"Right," Ryukyu stiffly sits down. "If this is about how I spoke to yo--"

"As if I'd take time out of both our busy schedules to quarrel about a trivial thing like that. This is regarding a promotion of sorts for you."

"Promotion?" Ryukyu asks.

"I know you intend to step down soon…"

Ryukyu's eye open wide, "how--"

"All the Top 10 Pro Heroes have their devices monitored, national security demands it."

Ryukyu narrows her eyes for a moment, then relaxes, understanding Pantu's responsibilities. " I don't like it, but I can understand why someone in your position would do that."

"The farewell letter you've been drafting could use some work, but it seems quite heartfelt. Too bad I can't allow you to quit and most likely head oversees to work."

"What do you mean 'can't'? How can you expect me to be a Hero while covering up what happened during the raid, and who knows how many other things you've swept under the rug to protect him." 1

"Japan is still in a very delicate state at the moment. Without Horizon it would be much more chaotic. And I trust I don't have to warn you against exposing his recent mistakes to the world, yes?"

"We have a deal and I intend to honor it, even if I quit."

"Good, because in a month we'll have the annual Pro Hero rankings, and you moved up two spots."

"I'm number 8?" Ryukyu was more confused than excited, still not feeling like she deserves to be in the top 10 at all.

"Yes well, the public has been more aware of you lately since you've worked with Horizon more than anyone else, with the obvious exception of Endeavor. But your popularity also got a nice boost since half the internet thinks you're having a scandalous romance with him."

Ryukyu scoffs, "there are a million reasons why I'd never get involved with him…and his age isn't even the start of it."

"Glad to hear it," Pantu said, detecting no lies. "But I had to be sure, you wouldn't be the first Pro Hero he's seduced." 3

"What?"

"I keep eyes on who enters Horizon tower, and you've never been there," Pantu says. "Now, care to learn about that promotion I mentioned?"

"How do you promote a Top 10 Pro Hero? And if you're going to offer me a spot higher in the rankings, I won't accept it. I already feel like enough of a fraud as is."

"Even to be #5?"

"No deal," Ryukyu says sternly. "Now can you please tell me what this is all about?"

"Horizon," Pantu gets up and makes to exit the room. "Walk with me."

Ryukyu follows along into the hallway as they begin making their way through the building.

"What keeps Pro Heroes honest?" Pantu asks as they walk to the elevators.

"Excuse me?"

"What keeps you honest? Think about it, you are one of the most powerful people in Japan, what keeps you honest?"

"Doing the right thing," Ryukyu says. "The laws."

"Yes, and if that is not enough someday?"

"Well, I suppose the other Pro Heroes," Ryukyu says as they enter the elevator, heading to the basement.

"Yes, and what is the job of the Hero Public Safety Commission?"

"To protect the peace and stability of Japan by governing any demographic of people who legally or illegally use their Quirks. Everyone knows this." 4

"And everyone believes it, but that's not the only reason."

Ryukyu looks confused, "what do you mean?"

"Our job isn't just to make laws, because laws are broken all the time. In fact they're broken so often that the existence of Pro Heroes is a necessity.

After the first few generations of heroes we were founded to police the Pro Heroes. Because some of the people trusted to protect us weren't honest enough to be trusted, and it caused the public to get hurt.

Now 300 years later, and our job is to treat battles between Quirks like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Constantly mixing and matching Quirks to find the best combination to handle any potentially rogue Pro Heroes."

"Government contingency plans?"

"Well ofcourse, powerful people like All Might and Endeavor exist. Plans had to be made incase either they went rogue, or in the future individuals as powerful as them posed a threat to us. That is our responsibility to the citizens."

"That makes sense, but how do I come into this?"

"Because our role is to run simulations and find the best team of Pro Heroes to deal with the rogue assets, hypothetically of course."

"And who did you come up with for me?"

"Honestly, it wasn't that hard, your dragon form is surprisingly easy to detain once we avoid trying to brawl, and even if we didn't, you aren't that tough."

"But you have some job for me, which is why I'm here, right?"

"Right," Pantu says as the elevator stops and opens, to an underground observation room.

Stepping into the room, white walls and floors, everything clearly sterile, Ryukyu looks to her right to see a large glass wall overlooking a lab of some sort below.

And in the middle of the lab is a deformed hulking mass, burnt and mutated beyond recognition. Beside it is a man in a white radiation suit, short and portly but poking and prodding the subject. 3

As he turns to look at his guests Ryukyu gets a look at his face and instantly recognizes him.

"Dr. Shodai Garaki," she says. "I've read about him…" 10

"Well I didn't think you'd ever recognize him, this is unexpected."

"His research into Transformation Type Quirks like mine sort of forced me to learn about him, I was worried it would affect my personality, luckily it doesn't."

"True, I don't think dragons from fairy tales are as heroic as you."

"No, they're not. So what's Japan's second-best Quirk Specialist doing here?"

"Because we're here to study the actual best Quirk Specialist…"

"Horizon?" Ryukyu looks at Pantu. "How?"

"Do you recognize that irradiated lump of meat on the floor of his lab?"

"Irradiated?" Ryukyu looks disgusted as she glances back at the subject. "That's Kai Chisaki?"

"After fusing with two Nomu and standing against Horizon, that's what's left. His corpse is still radioactive, not enough to cause concern but Dr. Garaki has to wear that suit because of how many hours a day he's been spending in there."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Look at what he did to a villain, hit him with so much radiation that it forever deformed him and stripped away his flesh. Destroyed him on a level so intimate that not even DNA can be recovered. And when we asked him about it, do you recall what he said?" 2

"Yeah, 'sometimes when you're as powerful as I am, things break, no need to dwell on it…' right?"

"Close enough, and judging from how you reacted, those words have been bothering you almost as much as they bother me." 1

"He killed a man and didn't ever register that a life is gone because of him, so yes, it did. But you said that issue is buried…"

"It is, but as President of the Hero Public Safety Commission, I have to prepare precautions. Just as I did for All Might and Endeavor, but even they didn't require half the effort as this."

"How so?"

"Water diminishes Endeavor and he has issues in prolonged fights, which is why he isn't in the S Class ranking. All Might is…was, extraordinarily powerful, but at the end of the day he was only a brawler. But Horizon is much more, and he understands what my role is, which is why he's so secretive about the limitations of his Quirk."

"And you want me to get more information from him… because we both know that head-to-head, I'm helpless against him."

"Exactly, because look at this," Pantu gestures at Overhaul. "Every time he has a big fight, the power displayed is almost exponentially greater than the previous showings. All Might made me nervous, but never anywhere near this level. Becuase you've seen it, right?"

"Seen what?"

"What he's really like, the side of him the public will never witness. He's the most powerful combatant in Japan, bar none, but so was All Might. The only difference is where All Might had that truly heroic spirit we love and celebrate. Horizon has a petty, vindictive and cruel side to him. 1

A violent and arrogant other half that is only matched by the immense power and capabilities he possesses. And it does scare me, the things I know he's capable of, and the things I know he will do if he doesn't get his way."

"I, may have had a glimpse or two," Ryukyu sighs. "I saw him throw a man off a bridge, then I saw him throw that same but now crippled man into the cold ocean, all so 'he'll drown for a little bit then we won't have to ask a third time', and I don't want to imagine the things I haven't seen."

"Kai Chisaki is far from the first person he's killed Ryukyu," Pantu says, but Ryukyu doesn't react.

Deep down she already knew, anyone with such a disregard for human life must be used to it.

"Even if my some miracle you could find a way to beat him, do you really think he'll even go rogue?" Ryukyu asks.

"No, we have a deal in place, and I expect he'll want to leave Japan entirely afterward so we'll be fine until then. But when he gets what he wants, that's when we'll know. First, he was reluctant to be a Pro Hero, but now, he's enjoying the perks of it more and more.

He's only 16 after all, it's a luxurious life that lets him enjoy everything he wants and freely improve himself. His desire to break past his own limits was confined by having to hide his Quirk use, now his improvements are celebrated by the world. My concern is what comes after…"

They stand in silence for a while as Ryukyu thinks it over, before she gives a defeated sigh, "What do you want me to do?"

"The same thing that you've been doing. Horizon trusts you to carry your own weight which is why he works with you, anything you can do to get more information on Hand Of God would be a boon, anything, you can do…"

"I'm not seducing a minor," Ryukyu growls. 1

"And I would never force you to. Just keep me informed of anything new you learn, and obviously don't let him learn of this, for everyone's sake." 2

"Right, now I just have to unblock him on the Hero Network."

"He won't think anything of it, his ego is too big to imagine you were anything more than a woman being emotional but still unable to resist him." 8

"I can't believe I actually agreed to this…well, not like I had much of a choice."

"This will benefit you as well, I'll make sure of it," Pantu says. "Now, shall we head back to my office and discuss everything you know about Hand Of God, and Horizon…" 1

As Ryukyu is following Pantu back to the elevator she can't help but ask. "You said you made a deal with Horizon, what was it?"

"I can't say, but he wanted something quite trivial and inconsequential in exchange for healing All Might, Nezu just happened to take a liking to the boy and has gotten quite close to him." 3

"My Work Studies students Froppy and Uravity are his classmates, they say Nezu isn't very good at hiding how much he favors Horizon."

"Nezu has a good eye for character, and I do trust him in his goal to make Horizon into the next All Might, but my responsibilities demand I prepare for every possibility." 11

"I see…well, I hope you never have to implement whatever you come up with, because helping to plan is the extent of what I'll be doing. I've seen firsthand how Horizon fights, and the day he switches sides is the day I retire…" 8

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 210: CHAPTER 206(Early Mornings) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Opening his eyes Law is greeted by the absolute darkness of his dorm room. So dark that his unmasked features cannot be seen, only felt by his bedmate who had a vice grip on him.

Momo's arms were holding onto him as her legs wrapped around him, their naked forms intertwined as they'd been all night.

Law relaxes and activates his Quirk, enjoying the feeling of Momo's body against him.

But he expands his senses across all of UA, sensing a few teachers already awake and preparing for their classes today.

Even fewer students are awake, as Law usually takes his hour of sleep and then wakes up before sunrise.

'Life at UA just keeps getting better…' he feels Momo press herself against him just a bit more before he gently moves her arm, signaling for her to roll over and release him.

'Time for work.'

SHAMBLES!

He warps away, and after a few minutes is stepping out of the shower to brush his teeth.

While brushing his teeth he unlocks his phone to check his messages, seeing a few from Ryukyu.

'Horizon, I'm sorry about my outburst during the Raid Debrief, it was just a lot to process in the moment. But you're right, Kai Chisaki was too dangerous and I wouldn't have been able to protect anyone from him if you didn't take such extreme measures. Also, working with you is always a pleasure, I hope we can team up again and more often.' 3

He finishes brushing his teeth and smiles, "Huh, maybe Nezu did have to worry about me fucking a dragon lady," he chuckles. 18

SHAMBLES!

He warps his UA uniform onto his person, along with his visor and body glove of course.

Standing in front of the mirror he takes another look at himself, making sure everything is in place before he continues scrolling through his phone.

Looking at all his updates from the Hero Network.

'Good progress, I guess we can start some more serious raids within three or four weeks. But I'll have to coordinate them simultaneously, Endeavor and Edgeshot will be instrumental in that. I can work solo…no, it'll be better if I keep Team Horizon together for this.

Our first big takedown as a full team. That'll definitely give the public even more reason to bet on us as the next 'big three'. But I want to be held apart from them, so I need to have them operating clearly under me instead of just as a team.

Ugh, but people are so brainwashed to expect conventional things that they won't let go of this 'big three' nonsense since they're so used to it. Maybe if I add one more person to the team that'll get the message through that I'm above the team just leading and building them.

Because Horizon has no peers, he's above everyone. But I need a third, someone that fits the efficient and all business culture and look of my team.'

He opens his files on the students of 1A and 1B, all the observations he's made regarding them as students, opponents, and allies.

'The best bet would be to get a girl into the team to show some inclusivity for the sheep, but the best of them is Momo, and she's not a good fit for our team culture. Sero and Shinso would feel limited in what they can do or how they can act with a girl there. 4

Not to mention I don't think she's as clear with her goals as them. Sero wants money, Shinso wants fame, but her nebulous goal of just helping people isn't selfish enough, I can't trust that not to fall apart when shit gets difficult.

The second best would be, Kendo or Tokage. But Kendo's Quirk sucks, just isn't multifunctional enough to warrant me giving her any training. And Tokage is useful but her goals are even more lofty than Momo's, if she has any.' 1

He scrolls through the short list of girls even more, "hmmm, Asui? But Asui doesn't like me, and won't mesh well with us," he releases a long sigh. "Plus any girl I pick will lead to them probably being jealous, fuck it, I'll just talk to Juzo about this. He fills the role that will be vacant if I'm not present."

Horizon sends him a quick message, inviting him to lunch with him.

"Yeah, Mudman is good at leading a team in his own way, his performance in the Mid Terms definitely shows that, Sero isn't the leader type he's more support. And Shinso is still more of a solo act, which works since he's a mini Eraser Head, so Mudman it is."

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps back into his bedroom, and even in the absolute darkness he easily navigates it with his Quirk.

Opening his mini fridge he takes out a can of orange juice and one meal bar, then pauses, looking at the meal bar.

SHAMBLES!

He warps into the dorm kitchen, placing the meal bar on the counter and looking through the fridge.

"There has to be something in here, just something…" he says while looking through the fridge. "Really not in the mood for a meal bar."

"Looking for something?" Jiro asks, but gets no reaction after carefully sneaking up on him.

"Nothing specific, and my Quirk doesn't let you sneak up on me, which you should know."

"I had to try," Jiro shrugs before hopping up to sit on the counter. "I was just about to make breakfast, want me to make you some."

Horizon shuts the fridge and turns around to face her, seeing her already in full uniform. "Why are you up so early?"

"I have some reading to catch up on before class starts, you?"

"I'm always up this early, what are you making?"

"Oatmeal."

Horizon just sighs, "You got my hopes up, for oatmeal…really?"

"Hey I like it, besides don't you usually eat one of those candy bars for the entire day?"

"I'm in the mood for some actual food, and just because I can eat one of those and be fine doesn't mean I don't enjoy good food." 1

"Hey, I'm just surprised robots can eat," Jiro chuckles.

"Ugh, is that joke ever going away?" 1

"Not if the internet has anything to say about it, oh, sorry, not a robot, cyborg, right?"

"Sometimes I really hate the internet," he walks to where Jiro is sitting on the counter. "Makes me even happier that I've got this," he taps the side of his visor.

"But aren't you Horizon 24/7?"

"Sadly," Horizon says as he stands in front of her, making her look up at him. "So, ready to go get breakfast?"

"What do you mean 'go get breakfast'?"

He puts his hands on her waist and steps forward between her legs, and her face goes bright red.

"We've done more than just this and you're still blushing, I'll never get sick of that…"

Jiro looks away but raises her hands up to his shoulders, "well, it's still just, a lot you know."

"No, I don't know, now hold on," he quickly cups her ass and raises her up, and she instinctively wraps her legs and arms around him. 3

SHAMBLES!

They both appear on the far side of Musutafu, closer to the docks, in a small shop that's still closed. The security doors aren't even open for the public to see inside yet.

"Where are we?" Jiro asks as he gently puts her down, "did we break into this place?"

"Technically yes," Horizon says. "But they never mind…"

"Who--"

"Oh, it's you," an older man steps out of the back room where the kitchen is and sighs in relief. "I heard talking and thought someone broke in."

"Nope, just me."

"The usual?" the man asks, not even bothered by the two new people.

"Two, I brought a plus one," Horizon gestures to Jiro.

"Right, I'll make it extra special for your lady," the man says before he disappears into the kitchen.

"Uh, what was that?" Jiro asks, still stunned. "And I'm not supposed to leave UA without permission, my student ID is on me so they already know I broke the rules."

"And that I'm with you, and that you suddenly traveled 15km in an instant, it's fine."

"Oh, right, the Horizon privileges," she says.

"Well, when you're the best people treat you better, it's that simple."

"Like these people," Jiro gestures to the door to the kitchen. "What's the deal with them?"

"This place has the best Tamagoyaki in the city."

"You like omelet rolls?"

"Perfect breakfast food. And the owner usually starts preparing super early so he said I can just stop in whenever I want. Honestly, I have to force the guy to take my money…" 1

"Huh, so, did you save him or something?"

"Nope," Horizon shrugs. "They just know the low crime rate here is due to me, and they appreciate it." 21

Jiro has to stop herself from looking at him with stars in her eyes. But he still caught a glimpse of her admiration.

"I know you said your reasons for being a hero are selfish, but, doesn't it make you feel good when you know you helped people? Or at least when they're nice to you like this."

"It's just a job," Horizon says. "I knew people would be thankful like this but it's just a bonus that I rarely use. I do what's expected of me, that's all."

"Yeah but you don't do it for the money since you were rich before UA," Jiro twirls her Earlobes. "Did I ever tell you why I decided to be a hero?"

"I never asked, does it matter?" 1

Jiro rolls her eyes, "I'm trying for us to have a moment here, and the reason I decided to become a hero was, well, I just think that people who help others are really cool, people like you…"

A tense moment passes before Jiro looks up at him, then he just looks away from her and back toward the kitchen, "that's the most retarded reason I've ever heard." 11

"Uh, ah, ugh," Jiro sputters. "Why do I even like you!"

"Because I'm impossible to not fall in love with…or you just have bad taste in men," Horizon shrugs. "Probably both." 26

"You're just the worst," Jiro mutters.

"Yeah, but you like it," Horizon pulls her in close and opens his visor, to give her a gentle but passionate kiss.

And Jiro can't help but stand on her toes to get a bit closer to him.

"Uh, your breakfast is ready," they're suddenly interrupted by the business owner…

Chapter 211: CHAPTER 207(Festival Excitement) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Can you please get down from there, its making me anxious," Jiro says.

She and Horizon were standing atop UA overlooking Musutafu in the distance, the morning sun shining down on the ocean just beyond the city.

But while she was safely leaning against the wall beside the door to enter the building, he was standing on the ledge scrolling through his phone. Taking some pictures.

"Awe, since when do you worry about me?"

Jiro rolls her eyes, "its natural to be concerned when people stand on ledges…especially when they still can't fly, mister perfect."

"Tch, not everyone can fly."

"Endeavor can."

"W--"

"--Hawks too," Jiro thinks about it for a moment. "Come to think of it, so can Ryukyu and Edgeshot…well he uses his Quirk to launch through the air. And even All Might used to punch the air to get around."

"You've made your point," Horizon grumbles. "But I don't need to fly, because while they're flying, I'm already there."

Jiro turns the page of her book, "yeah but warping isn't as iconic."

"I'm Horizon, I'll set my own standard, its as simple as that."

"Just don't fall Mr. I Can't Fly, but I guess you could just warp back up here anyway."

"Something like that, Shambles doesn't cancel momentum, so if I warp fast enough then yeah, but if I jump from a plane I'd have to brace for the impact all the same." 5

"Good thing you're also super strong, because some people get all the cool stuff."

"I rather not rely on my physical strength in such ways, I'm not trying to be another wannabe All Might after all."

Jiro sighs and shuts the book, unable to focus anymore, "but it must still feel pretty good right?" she walks up to the the ledge he's standing on and enjoys the view.

"What must feel good?"

"Being able to just know that you can do some insane things and your Quirk can get you out of it, meanwhile I'm just 'The hearing hero'."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I don't have Super Hearing," Horizon puts his phone away and turns to her, reaching down to bring her up on the ledge.

Jiro immediately backs away, "uh, I'm no good with heights."

"Then it's a good thing you've got Japan's future #1 Pro Hero to hold onto, right?"

She hesitates for a moment, but eventually gives in and takes his hand, after which he easily pulls her up to stand beside him, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"So, you plan to open your eyes?"

"Nope, this is fine," she holds onto him tightly and keeps her eyes shut.

"You're gonna be running toward villains but can't handle a little altitude, really?"

"Mmm, fine, just for a little bit…" she grips him tighter while opening her eyes, and it takes all of her willpower not to look down. "Yeah, this is still scary, good view but still scary."

"Don't worry, I just started tolerating you, so I won't drop you."

"Thanks a lot, jerk."

After some time enjoying the silence, feeling the cold morning breeze against them, Jiro opens her eyes to enjoy the view. Much more relaxed in Horizon's arms.

"Is this how you spend all your early mornings?" she asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Warping around Musutafu for breakfast, relaxing on the roof before classes start, that sort of thing."

"No, usually I just get an hour of sleep then get back to work, but this morning I decided to take things easy. I got a lot of work done these past few days and I'm sort of between cases at the moment."

"Our resident workaholic."

"Yeah well, when talent works hard, nothing can beat it," Horizon shrugs.

"You aren't the only person in our class that could apply to, you do know that, right?"

"I acknowledge that in the scope of the entire world our class has some individuals like Bakugo, Todoroki, Tokoyami, and even…fucking Deku, who more than likely will become top 20 if not top 10 Pro heroes. Simply based on their abilities and work ethic."

"They why do you still give them such a hard time?" Jiro asks. "I feel like you'd rather die than say anything nice to them."

"Because they misunderstand their place in the world. See I have no issue with them thinking they'll be top Pros, but they're trying to compete with me. The audacity in them thinking they could ever be in the same arena with someone like me is appalling. They need to be taught that life just isn't fair. 1

That sometimes even if you have all the gifts handed to you, even if you work till you're covered in sweat and blood, till your bones break. You can and will still lose, because I exist, and I'm just better. The fact that they even bother trying to catch up to me is so misguided and arrogant that it disgusts me." 12

Jiro nods along for a bit as she processes everything, "yup, you definitely need serious therapy."

"As if my mind is weak enough to have some person talking about feelings influence it, besides, I'm perfect." 3

"Then I guess I need therapy, because you just said all of that and I'm still here with you."

"Yeah well, I always knew you were crazy…" Horizon says. 6

--Later That Morning…

Horizon as usual had his feet up, scrolling through his phone while waiting for Homeroom to start, trying his best to ignore his chatty classmates.

"Eraser's coming," he says, and as usual everyone quiets down and gets to their seats, but he just remains as he is.

Even as Eraser Head enters the room with his sleeping bag over his shoulder and extra dark bags under his eyes.

"Good morning class," he gets a chorus of responses from his students. "Alright, this morning we've got something big to discuss…"

Then entire room gets tense as he looks around, his eyes land on Horizon, seeing the boy with his feet up and scrolling through his phone. But he ignores it and continues.

"The UA Culture Festival is in three weeks," he says dryly.

Most of the class immediately erupts in cheers.

"Quiet down!" after a second he regains control of the room. "Now, by this time tomorrow I expect all of you to have decided on what you'll be doing for the culture festival. This is a big deal so I need all of you to do your best."

Deku's hand shoots up, "I have a question!"

"What is it Midoriya?"

"Um, sir, won't this be a prime target for villain attacks?"

"I raised that concern with Principal Nezu, as did many others, but he assured us that security will be well taken care of."

"But--"

"--The decision has already been made Midoriya, now its just up to us to do our best," Eraser Head says. "But, everyone with a Provisional Hero License must remain vigilant. This year it'll be bigger than ever, that means a lot of civilians inside UA's walls, its up to us to keep them safe."

He sees them nod in agreement.

"Good, now I'm going to take a nap, wake me when the bell rings, I'm sure you're all eager to start voting on ideas…"

The moment Aizawa is in his sleeping bag, the entire room is about to erupt in excitement.

Until Horizon gets up from his seat, then he turns around to look at Momo, "Ms. Vice President, tally up the votes and get rid of the stupid ideas some of these idiots will come up with, I need to go speak to Nezu."

He doesn't even wait for a response before warping away.

--Principal Nezu's Office…

"Are you insane?" Horizon asks as he abruptly warps in with no warning, approaching Nezu's desk.

The principal doesn't even look up from his paperwork as he answers, "I'm the only sane person in this room…" 1

"Very funny," Horizon takes a seat opposite Nezu. "The Culture Festival, what the fuck?"

"Not everyone can spend all their time working like you and I, believe it or not regular people need things that boost their morale."

"At the risk of villains walking into the school. And don't give me that crap about 'Security measures,' when we both know you just mean me."

"You're Horizon, what villain would dare to attack when you're here. Even Shigaraki and his big bad League of Villains avoid you, especially after All For One confessed to the world about how dangerous you are. Plus we'll have many of the Top Pros here, I even got confirmation that Endeavor will be here." 3

"That's not because of you, he's just trying to spend more time with his loser son, but Eraser mentioned it'll be even bigger this year, so again, what the fuck?"

"Its a show of solidarity and power, if we can pull off a massive festival with thousands of people and no incidents, then Japan can rest that much easier knowing the heroes have things handled."

"And if villains attack people die and I look bad."

Nezu stops writing and looks up at him, "are you more concerned with people dying or you looking bad?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" 6

Nezu sighs and leans back in his chair, "everything will be fine. I just need you to be on duty and use your Quirk to keep an eye on things." 1

"So I just don't get to enjoy the exciting UA Culture Festival," his words were dripping with sarcasm.

"I assumed you'd rather not be among the 'hero worshipping sheep' as you call them, I'm sure many people are coming just to get pictures or autographs of you." 1

"Which is exactly why I don't patrol by walking the streets, I always get swarmed."

"I just need you to trust me on this, President Pantu has some sources that are tracking the league, they don't have anything planned for a while. Between them being busy and all the extra security we'll have, no idiot would dare to attack the Culture Festival." 2

"If she has info on the league she should just send it to me, the faster I arrest those losers the easier our lives get."

"Its a delicate situation, even I'm not fully aware of what she has in the works. But when she needs muscle, I'm sure you're the first person she'll call."

"Well that explains how they knew Kurogiri was busy…"

"What?" Nezu asks.

"When Nighteye saw the two Nomu in the hideout, they called it in to the Commission and got the all clear to engage, Pantu told him Kurogiri isn't in a position to warp anyone there or out of the hideout."

"Hmm, well she's worked with Sir. Nighteye and All Might many times in the past, it makes sense that he'd be trusted with that kind of information. That must mean she can only keep tabs on a few members at once, and she doesn't trust you to not hunt them down immediately."

"Because then they'll know I've got a trail to follow and hide even better," Horizon says. "I guess keeping me out of the loop was the smart move on her end, no villain sticks around if they know I'm hunting them, aside from Wolfram."

"Mhm, speaking of you moving around, you took Kyoka with you for breakfast this morning. Unless she can somehow also warp."

"Problem?"

"No, not at all," Nezu says. "I'm just curious as to how this will all play out, between Yaoyorozu, Kyoka, and Ryuko… who will be at the Culture Festival by the way since the other Wild Wild Pussycats are coming to help."

"Well then, it's a good thing I'll be too busy working security huh…"

After a few more minutes of chatting Horizon gets all the info he needed.

SHAMBLES!

He warps back into his seat in the 1A Homeroom, "Alright, what did you guys decide on?" he asks.

"It's between a skit, a bakery, and a concert," Momo says. "But your vote could sway the results."

"I'm not voting, I just had a chat with Nezu and I'll be too busy working security to be a part of the Culture Festival, you'll have to manage without me."

"Well then," Momo thinks for a moment. "I suppose this afternoon we can vote again until we have a decision, since Mr. Aizawa said we have until Homeroom tomorrow to form an answer."

"Dance party!" Mina yells out, hopping out of her seat. "C'mon guys, this time lets vote for a dance party!"

"Oh my fucking god…" Horizon mutters as the class is about to devolve into another loud discussion. 2

"Settle down everyone," Cementoss walks in, saving Horizon from this early morning chatter. "It's time for math, today we'll be working on chapter seven of--"

Horizon tunes him out and just leans back, putting his feet up and playing music inside his visor.

'I need to find a nice place to go for lunch…' he thinks while pulling up a list of places nearby.

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 212: CHAPTER 208(Growing) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Is this where you always go for lunch?" Juzo asks. "We never see you in the cafeteria anymore…"

He takes a seat opposite Horizon, in a high-rise restaurant in Musutafu. The city was below them with UA perched on its hill in the distance.

"No I usually just eat on the roof, helps me avoid people always asking for pictures. But I always have this private room reserved incase I feel like having real food instead of a meal bar," Horizon says as he takes his seat, gesturing to the door separating them from the main dining area.

"Sounds expensive."

"I'm Horizon, I can afford it," he relaxes into his seat. "Not to mention that sometimes I let them take a picture or two, knowing I eat here makes people rush to see what the hype is about. You know, celebrity worshipping morons."

"That's not a very nice thing to call your fans," Juzo says.

"Its accurate," Horizon says as someone knocks on the door a few times, then comes in to take their orders.

After the server leaves Juzo decides to get to the point, they only had just over an hour for lunch after all.

"You know I was surprised when I saw your message this morning, so why'd you want to have lunch with me?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about Team Horizon."

"Team Horizon?" Juzo raises a brow. "What, you want me to join?"

"Yeah," Horizon shrugs. "Why else would we be here right now."

Juzo looks genuinely confused, "I thought that was only for 1A students."

"I never said that."

"Well, you and I are cool but we aren't that close, are we?"

"Doesn't matter. I looked at the footage from how you led your classmates during the mid-term exams. You're practical and flexible on the battlefield, that's useful and gives you good chemistry with the others. Not to mention you and Sero are already close."

"Uh-huh, but there's something else you aren't telling me, right?"

"Obviously, can you figure it out?" Horizon asks.

They sit in silence for a few minutes as Juzo ponders the possibilities, and in this time there is another knock on the door before the server brings their food.

After the food is served the man leaves, and much to Juzo's surprise Horizon reaches behind his visor and activates it, and the entire thing folds down to the size of his palm focused behind his neck.

Juzo's eyes go wide as he sees the blue energy vapor pouring out of Horizon's eyes and mouth while the rest of his head is covered by the ski-mask like portion of the body glove. 1

"Wow, not what I expected," Juzo mutters, acknowledging the show of trust.

"I can only take it off for a few minutes at a time," Horizon lies. "But its nice to get fresh air sometimes…" he says as he begins eating.

After some more pondering, Juzo finally comes to his conclusion.

"You want me to join because I'm in 2A, right? It shows some inclusivity, ideally you would have picked a girl but that probably won't go well for you since most of the girls don't like you that much. 1

Plus they could distract Sero and Shinso. I'm also one of the four recommended students from our classes. Tokage is the other from my class, but her Quirk would be redundant with you, even if she is a fan of yours.

Shoto doesn't have his Provisional License so he can't join, plus I don't think you two get along. Momo is the other, but from what I hear she'd be too distracted by you to function properly.

I'm capable enough to keep up with Sero and Shinso, and my Quirk brings a certain level of versatility and flexibility they don't have at the moment.

But you did say I'm also good at leading my classmates, so I'm guessing you want me to fill the role of a leader…but that doesn't make sense with you there…"

"Mhm," Horizon nods along as he continues eating.

Juzo snaps his fingers, "you want to have us act as your Sidekick team instead of as your actual teammates, just like Endeavor has his Flaming Sidekicks that operate directly under him."

"Mhm, and?"

Juzo thinks for a moment, "expanding the team further would be more efficient, but you can only oversee a few people at once, plus you also have to think of team culture. I doubt many of our classmates will be as unbothered as myself when you and Sero discuss certain topics."

"They're pussies, yeah."

"Your words, not mine," Juzo says. "But I'm sure you can fit one or two others into the team, Tokage wouldn't mind and neither would Yanagi…so why not?"

"Because three is the limit," Horizon says as Juzo also begins eating. "The general Hero-Worshipping public is too stupid to adapt to new ideas so quickly. My existence is hard enough to wrap their minds around, but going from 'The Big Three' to 'The Big Four' will be a bit much, plus it doesn't sound as cool."

"The Big Three huh. So you plan for us to replace them while you're still held apart above us?"

"Ofcouse, because Horizon has no equals." 2

"Hmm, well obviously I'm in. Operating under you pretty much hands me a top spot guaranteed once I show the public how useful I can be, but you've probably got a lot of questions for me, right?"

"Not particularly, we may not be great friends but you and I have spent enough time around each other, I only need to know one thing."

"And what's that?"

"Why did you choose to become a Pro Hero?" Horizon reaches forward and holds Juzo's shoulder.

Juzo is surprised by the interaction, then it clicks, "ohh, you can't actually detect lies like you've said, but when you touch people you can read the changes in their body when they do lie…"

Horizon chuckles, "you're one of the few people to figure that out, although admittedly I wasn't being very subtle this time. Everyone on the team knows by now so its fine."

"Right, well, I want to be a Pro-Hero to push myself to the limits and see how far my Quirk and skills can go. Helping people is also really nice but ever since I was a kid I've wanted to prove that just because I can't punch the clouds away like All Might doesn't mean I'm useless.

It just takes a bit more work to be creative and effective with a Quirk like mine," Juzo admits.

"So you want to be stronger than anyone ever thought you could be," Horizon nods as he relaxes back into his seat. "Alright, I like it, now lets talk about the specifics. You're doing the Work Studies with Crust so--" 6

--1 Hour Later…

SHAMBLES!

Horizon arrives in training ground beta, already in his Hero Costume but standing at the back of his classmates.

"What did I miss?" he whispers to Sero who was also at the back with Shinso, both with the masks off and patiently waiting.

"Why are you late?"

"Juzo's in," Horizon whispers back.

"His Quirk will certainly be useful," Shinso says before nodding forward at the building Eraser Head was looking at.

Horizon could sense Asui and Ojiro inside looking around, but wasn't sure what the exercise was.

"Its a break in," Shinso says. "The scenario is the someone broke into this jewelry store and robbed it, including the vault at the back."

"And we need to figure out who it is," Sero says. "Mr. Aizawa said one of the teachers did it and we need to solve who it was, but he won't give us any clues or even a list to pick from so the list is super long, it could be anyone."

"Depends on how they opened the vault," Shinso says. "Only a few teachers have the muscle to do it so that will narrow it down a lot."

"Hmm, sounds easy, did anyone make any bets?" Horizon asks.

"Nah," Sero says before he puts on his visor. "We kind of all figured you or Momo would win," he shrugs. "Cellophane is more of a car chase style hero."

"And I'm still new to this part of Hero work," Shinso says.

A moment later someone pushes through the crowd until they arrive at the back, and Horizon finds himself looking down at Aux.

Kyoka Jiro, in her new Hero Costume and headset which covers her entire face and runs wires all across her suit, preventing her from having to extend and expose her Earphone Jacks while fighting.

The mask also doubles as a speaker, which has the neat effect of lighting up every time she speaks. Still running with the black and purple theme she's had and sporting some smaller speakers and amps across her body. 1

"I'll take your bet," Aux says.

"You, seriously?" Horizon asks. "You've never even done one of these before."

"But I've been studying non-stop to keep up with you guys while I'm stuck in UA, I can do this," Aux says.

"Hmm, alright, and what would you wager?" Horizon asks, and by now a few others are paying attention to them.

"I'll--" she cuts herself off. "I'll tell you later."

"Doesn't seem fair," Horizon says.

"Sounds like you're scared you'll lose, think your the only one that can solve this?"

"Tch, fine, if you win I owe you a favor, but if you can't solve it, you own me one…"

Aux steps back nervously, "y--you're on!"

"Horizon!" Eraser Head calls out, drawing all eyes back toward the exercise. "Since you're finally here and already distracting my class, you're up," he gestures to the building. "And you're next Jiro…"

Without a word he walks past his classmates and into the broken glass window of the store, seeing shattered and emptied display cases all around the room.

ROOM!

He creates a small Room so he can focus on the little details. Only large enough for the store itself, allowing him to properly comb it over. 1

He stands still, looking around as he shifts his Scan from one aspect to the next. 1

'The glass was shattered by someone hitting it, but there isn't any DNA on it…the suspects either used a weapon or was covered up.

No bullet holes or concrete deformation, wasn't Snipe or Cementoss. 1

Midnight doesn't have the raw power to break into the back vault.

No dog hair, that rules out Hound Dog…'

He runs down the list of UA staff until he exhausted most of them, then he arrives in the back room at the vault.

He sees a standard security door, reinforced steel but a regular doorway, nothing like a bank vault.

Touching the metal he still doesn't feel any biomatter on it, strangely clean. Then he looks at where the door itself it, torn out of the wall and tossed against the wall opposite the vault.

'Strong enough o do this, that rules out a few more…but how they did it is odd…' he uses Scan on the door. 1

Pressure was applied evenly all around the door to rip it out of the wall. None of the staff has telekinesis, and the only person who could do that is…'

"I've got my answer," Horizon says. And Eraser walks over to the crumpled door with his datapad.

"Tell me who and I'll add it to the list, then after class we see who was right."

"Vlad king, he used his Blood Control to rip the door out of the wall by wrapping it in his blood, and that explains why there isn't' any loose DNA lying around, he can perfectly control his blood." 1

Eraser doesn't react, but was thoroughly impressed with Horizon's investigative skills, but not at all surprised.

--1 Hour Later…

Everyone was back in the 1A homeroom now after changing into their regular uniforms.

"Only three of you actually solved today's exercise," Eraser Head announces as the list appears with everyone's tops suspect.

"It was Vlad King, but somehow only Horizon, Bakugo, and Jiro were able to figure that out…" 2

Horizon looks over at Jiro who turns around just to stick her tongue out at him, "told you I've been training hard…" 1

END CHAPTER--

Fun fact, this chapter puts us at 420K words :p 6

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Chapter 213: CHAPTER 209(Plots and Schemes) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting at his desk in his 1A Dorm Room, Horizon sees a collection of Pro Heroes on his dual monitors.

All of the Top 10 Pro Heroes and a few other top ranking pros together for a meeting he was hosting.

Behind his monitors all the way at the other side of his room Sero, Shinso, and Juzo were playing cards at his coffee table while waiting for the meeting to be over.

"--that covers where all of you need to be on Sunday," Horizon says. "I've already assigned a division leader for each of your parts, but since you've worked with each other before feel free to adjust that as you see fit.

This is all about us being in sync, these people have been moving a lot of drugs, guns, and…other things."

"People," Ryukyu says. "This is part of the human abduction ring we suspect the League of Villains is using to feed their Nomu Labs, right?"

"It is," Horizon says, and all the heroes react in absolute disgust. "Since they have Kurogiri we can't afford to just take bites out of their organization, that's why I've been collecting data for the past few weeks so we can hit them hard.

Hard enough that he can't simply use Warp Gate to solve the problem. But that requires us to hit 11 different cities at once, which is why I actually need help. Because contrary to what the public likes to believe, and what I want the villains to believe, I can't actually be everywhere at once."

"Not yet," President Pantu pops up in the call, surprising many Pro Heroes who didn't know she was here. Seeing their reactions she elaborates, "I've been here from the start, only to observe how Horizon conducts himself in these situations, thus far, most impressive."

"Naturally," Horizon says. "But you must have broken your silence for a reason, right?"

"I just got done with the briefing and the maps you sent us, how did you get this information?" Pantu asks. "And more importantly, why wasn't the Police or the Commission brought in on this, we've been trying for years to get a mole this deep in the black market. The most we get is a few middle men, but this…this is distribution and manufacturing…"

"It honestly wasn't that hard, I just questioned one person, followed the trail. And eventually I found someone desperate enough to put some trackers on the shipments they move, then used them and some more follow up investigations to map their organization."

"And you didn't bring me in on this because?"

"Because while I do trust you not to be a spy," he says. "I'm sure you have leaks in your organization, can't risk them either breaking into your system or overhearing a conversation."

"Or you used methods that aren't 'heroic' in our sense," Pantu's face remains cold and free of emotions.

"Well…everyone talks when I get my hands on them," Ryukyu flinches at his words, which Endeavor doesn't miss. "But this time all it took was money, did you forget that I'm rich?"

"Regardless of how he got it," Edgeshot cuts in. "We have the information now, and my team as well as a few other Pro Heroes have already made contributions by following his instructions. Small investigations and staking out certain locations, not to mention I've worked with Horizon before, I trust his judgement on these matters."

"Yes," Endeavor finally speaks up, and everyone can see a wisp of green flame over his shoulder, Burnin was listening in. "Horizon is oddly skilled in these types of cases, lets follow his lead instead of inserting doubt and trying to change his plans. He's clearly spent a lot of time on this, I'm sure he's thought of almost everything."

"A brilliant new star shining before us, I trust this young hero!" Crust says, and half the Pros have to resist the urge to roll their eyes at him. 2

"My concern is the logistics on the police side," Best Jeanist says. "You want to keep the police in the dark but we can't do this without their support, at least to round up the captured criminals."

"I'll deal with that," Pantu says. "There are police stations nearby, I simply have to make sure they're equipped with assault gear beforehand, then when the attacks start they'll be alerted and deployed. This way any would be spies don't have time to warn the criminals."

"Its more likely that the stations are simply bugged," Horizon says.

"What about the teams?" Mirko asks, from her camera they could see buildings changing behind her. She was clearly leaping between the rooftops under a cloudy night sky. "Can I work solo?"

"No you're with Jeanist," Horizon says. "You're good 1-on-1 incase they have any heavy hitters, and he's good against groups of opponents. Teaming up is a necessity for this mission, no exceptions."

"No exceptions?" Endeavor asks with a raised brow.

"Yes that includes myself, Simon, Cellophane, and Mudman will be with me…"

"Team Horizon," Gang Orca says. "Wait, who's Mudman?"

"My work studies student," Crust proudly says.

"Versatile and level headed," Edgeshot says, "he'll be good for this kind of mission."

"He's also the final member of my team, we'll deal with one of the big storage and distribution houses near Minato Tokyo, it's off the shore on small uninhabited island, should be easy enough."

"You're suppose to have a pro with you. Did you forget you're still just a student?" Mirko reminds him. "Let me come supervise!"

"So you can annoy me for a rematch, just be glad I unblocked you from the Hero Network, and if you aren't annoying after this mission it might stay that way."

"Mmmm," Mirko pouts and stops on a rooftop, but doesn't say anything. 1

"Horizon is plenty capable by himself," Ryukyu says. "Besides he won't be alone…"

"Of course you'd defend your bo--"

"We aren't dating," both Horizon and Ryukyu say at one.

Mt. Lady stifles a chuckle as Pantu speaks up, "their love life aside, Horizon is capable and I trust him to act in the full capacity of a Pro Hero. If I didn't I never would have allowed him to nearly monopolize Minato Tokyo."

"Your report doesn't have any information on the ringleaders," Endeavor says. Like many of the present Pros he's already begun reading it.

"You don't last this long as a criminal by announcing who you are. That's why I stacked the teams to have a mix of fighters and capture based Pro Heroes."

"You've thought of everything," Hawks says. "You're pretty impressive, guess the hype about you wasn't overblown after all."

"Oh you haven't seen anything yet," Horizon says. "But just be careful, and feel free to recruit anyone from directly around where you'll all be operating that you trust. If we displace too many Pro Heroes at once our targets will realize something is off, we can't risk that, especially since all the Top 10 Pros will be in on this."

"Gotcha boss," Hawks says jokingly. 1

"Well that should be everything we have to discuss tonight," Horizon says. "If you have any questions either ask now or call me sometime…only for things regarding Hero Work for you Mirko…"

They see the woman mutter something under her breath, but can't hear it.

After a moment nobody speak up, until Best Jeanist does.

"It looks like this briefing was informative and concise, we'll be sure to review the documents you've sent us," the other Pros nod along. "And I must say, I too am impressed, if I didn't know better I never would have guess a child was organizing this."

"Well, when the adults rather run around in colorful pajamas and capes and fight other likeminded morons, I guess the children have to deal with the real criminals…" 5

He gets a mix of reaction from the pro, but shrugs it off.

"Now I'm sure you've all got streets to patrol or villains to fight, so I'll let you get back to it," Horizon kicks everyone from the call aside from Pantu.

"You can't even take a compliment without insulting people," Pantu says. "Your bedside manner is truly the worst. But I am impressed with the work you've done, and here I thought you were just planning to do the bare minimum to get by."

Horizon chuckles, "oh no, I'm the best at anything I agree to do, and that includes this Pro Hero game."

"Well, perhaps Nezu's hope has some merit, maybe you will be greater than any other Pro Hero the world will ever see…including All Might."

"Pro Hero…you're still thinking too small," Horizon says. The words send a chill down her spine, but her expression would never show it. "But one deal at a time Pantu…" 8

"When this one is complete we'll discuss a more long term contract," Pantu says before hanging up.

Horizon leans back in his chair and sends Ryukyu a short message, then gets up to check on his teammates.

"Hey morons, everything is set, so you're all going to Horizon Tower with me from tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow?" Juzo asks. "But that's Wednesday."

"We've got some preparing to do, plus I've got a date so we need to be there by Thursday night."

"Since when do you go on dates?" Sero asks, skeptical at the idea. "I thought the great and powerful Horizon just seduces fangirls, and Ryuko."

"Ryuko?" Juzo looks a bit concerned. "Are you and Ryukyu a thing? I thought you said that's a stupid rumor?"

"It is a stupid rumor, he was talking about Pixie-Bob."

"They have the same name?" Juzo asks.

"Its always confusing," Shinso mutters, still focusing on his cards.

"Yeah but I decided to put those rumors to work for me, so I'm going on a 'date' with Ryukyu, and I'll need you there as backup," he gestures to Shinso. "Not in costume this time." 3

"What about us?" Sero asks.

"You and Juzo can go patrol the nearby areas or something, this is a delicate mission, won't need to fight anyone."

"Good luck explaining this to Ryuko," Shinso says.

"Oh yeah," Juzo looks back at Horizon, half amazed and entirely confused. "When the hell did that happen, and aren't you dating Momo and Jiro or something?" 1

"Its a long story," Horizon says as he takes a seat at the table.

And Shinso happily takes all the cards and shuffles them, getting rid of his losing hand… 1

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 214: CHAPTER 210(Guardians) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7:30 PM, 1A Dorms…

"So what did you two suggest for this Culture Festival thing?" Horizon asks.

He was walking through the halls with Shinso and Sero, Juzo had already gone back to the 1B dorms an hour ago.

"A games stall," Sero says as the approach the elevator. "Like those games where you throw a ball and knock over some cans, then you get a prize if you score really well. I came to the UA culture festival last year and there were a few of em, super fun!"

"You came last year?" Horizon asks.

"You didn't?" Shinso raises a brow at this.

"I had better things to do, why? Is it so weird?"

"Well usually at least Hero Course students come one year before entering UA, get an idea of what the school is really all about," Shinso says.

"Yeah I came with some of my friends from middle school," Sero says. "I actually haven't seen those guys in a while so maybe they'll show up this year."

"Well its supposed to be bigger than ever this year, so maybe they will," Horizon says as the elevator begins taking them to the ground level.

"Will you have anyone coming to it?" Shinso asks. "I know you said you were homeschooled and all but, anyone?"

"Nope," Horizon says. "The closest thing I've got to a living relative is Nezu, but even that's more of a business relationship. And I don't have any friends outside of you two idiots…"

"Oh, right," Shinso's expression remains flat, but he regretted brining up that topic.

"Awe, you called us friends," Sero teases him. "Look at you getting all soft on us…" 2

"Drop it."

The elevator doors open and they enter the common area, to see all of 1A assembled at the couches.

They were all standing around clamoring about something Horizon couldn't be bothered with so he just walked over to a single seat and sat down, taking out his phone to try and ignore them.

'Can't believe I have to be here for this…because of course I go to the one school that actually cares about this Class Representative title crap.'

Shinso and Sero walk over to Asui and Deku and begin chatting, and a few minutes later Kirishima and Ojira are done getting cleaned up after the gym and join everyone.

"Alright everyone, now its time to begin the voting once more," Momo says as she gets their attention, realizing by now Horizon is only here because he has to be.

Momo calls everyone over to the couches where Horizon is and makes a small dry-erase board to tally the votes.

Horizon glances up from his phone just in time to see Jiro walk over and sit on the arm of the couch he's on, then looks back down at his phone.

"Just remember I'll be working security at the Culture Festival, so I won't be participating, which means I won't be voting."

"Right, now lets begin," Momo says. "We'll go in order of seating, first everyone gets to make a suggestion which I'll write on the board. I trust since this morning you've all had time to properly consider your suggestions.

When everyone has made a suggestion we'll call for a vote, its fine if you don't have a suggestion, but everyone has to vote since we'll all be helping for this to function properly."

They all nod along as Momo begins writing the suggestions.

--30 Minutes Later…

After a lot of back and forth discussing and debating ideas, they finally come to a decision.

"I don't really know about this guys," Jiro says. "I mean, I've never performed on stage before, and a whole concert in three weeks. Plus I'll have to teach completely inexperienced people to play the song, and write a song."

"No different than putting on a silly costume and running around fighting villains in the street," Horizon says while playing a game on his phone. "You'll be fine."

"Plus this is what the Culture Festival is all about!" Mina says.

"Yeah!" Kirishima joins her. "Its not just about the delicious food and fun games, we've got the show everyone that at UA making sure everyone is happy matters most! It'll be super manly to cheer everyone up after the rough year we've had because of the League Of Villains!" 1

"It'll be Plus Ultra!" Mina and Kirishima devolve into a contest of who can hype everyone up the most.

But Horizon just looks up at the nervous Jiro, seeing her playing with her Earphone Jacks. "You'll be fine, just don't overthink it." 1

Jiro looks down at him and gives a nervous smile, then nods. "Alright, lets do a concert," Jiro says.

"I'll plan the dance routine!" Mina says.

"I'll play the drums so good those losers will die from how awesome it is!" Bakugo screams out, and a moment later the entire room was louder than ever before from all the excited chatter.

During this however, Horizon tunes everyone out and focuses on a duo that just entered his Room. A Room only big enough for the 1A dorms.

He abruptly gets out of his seat and begins walking to the door, causing some of his classmates to look over at him.

"Is something wrong with her?" is the first thing Eraser Head hears as he enters the door with Eri at his side.

The entire class gets quiet, knowing about the case some of their classmates were on and finally seeing the girl that just moves into the teachers dorm.

"She's fine," Eraser Head looks down to see Eri trying to hide behind him, clearly nervous with all the new faces staring at her. "Its ok Eri, everyone here is a hero, and you've met Horizon before, right?" he gestures to Horizon.

"The doctor…" she says quietly while stepping out from behind Eraser Head.

"I guess even when I was healing you I never really spoke huh," Horizon says. "My name is Horizon, I'm sure you remember me, I'm the guy who beat Overhaul and saved you."

"Thank you," Eri says, and gives a small nod.

"It was my pleasure," Horizon looks directly at Eraser Head. "You brought her over to say hi?"

"Midoriya wanted to meet her and apologize for not saving her," Eraser Head says as he guides her over to the collection of students. "Everyone here is training to be a hero Eri, you can trust them to protect you. And you've already met Horizon, he's the strongest person in Japan. When he's here nothing can hurt you."

Eri looks at everyone in amazement, never having seen these many heroes before.

Deku looks like he's already about to cry, and his classmates give him some room to approach Eri, already knowing how guilty he's been feeling about not saving her.

As Eri spots Deku, Eraser Head explains, "I'll be back in a few hours, Horizon will keep an eye on you until then. If you need anything just ask him, and he'll take care of it, alright?"

Eri just looks back at and nods, "ok, I'll stay here. Are you coming back? Promise you'll come back?" 1

"I'll be back soon," Eraser Head says. "Behave yourself alright."

Eri nods, then turns back to Horizon, who was just staring at Eraser Head.

"Um, Eri…" Deku kneels down to her level, already teary eyed as he gets ready to apologize.

Eraser Head begins moving toward the door and Horizon quickly follows behind him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Horizon asks as the leave the building, standing on the lawn.

"A contact has some information for me, I need to head out for a few hours, you can watch her for one night."

"No, I can't, I've got training to do."

"Its one night, and you only need one hour of sleep anyway, you'll be fine."

"I'm not a babysitter Aizawa. Just leave her with Midnight or Mic." 1

"She doesn't know them," Aizawa says. "Aside from the people she saw fighting Overhaul, she doesn't trust anyone. It took her days to start trusting me before we left Central Hospital. And since Mirio isn't on campus, that leaves you as the only option."

"Bu--"

"And you're the only one that can resist her Quirk. Her horn is small right now so she can't use it, but incase anything goes wrong, you're here."

"Ugh…fine."

"Good, I'd take you with me if I could but one of us has to stay on campus at all times until Kurogiri is captured, but I'm hoping my contact has some info about where he is."

"You have info on the league?"

"Something like that," Aizawa says. "Apparently they've got some 'testing grounds' for Nomu, I figured that Kurogiri has to be how they move to and from those sites."

"So we mark the sites and setup some cameras to track the schedule, then ambush him."

"Exactly, then you can get to work on saving my friend."

"Mmm, you do realize th--"

"I know, but I'm trying to stay hopeful. I already lost Shirakumo once, I'd rather not lose him a second time."

"Guess I'm a babysitter now," Horizon mutters.

"Try not to be yourself, your bedside manner is the worst. But Eri is a good kid, polite and doesn't cause trouble. She's still scared of asking for even basic things because she's scared we'll turn on her.

I explained that the same way I'm her guardian, you're like that for all of Japan, so it should be easier. Just try not to overwhelm her with…well, your personality."

"You say that like I'll be a bad influence. If anything I'll teach her how to really navigate this world." 2

Aizawa narrows his eyes at Horizon, "maybe leaving her with you is a bad idea…"

"Well you don't have much of a choice huh, good luck on your mission."

Walking back into the common area Horizon sees Eri on his single seat with a plate of apple slices in her lap.

The other students were keeping an eye on her but Momo was at the board going over some designs for the stage and what parts everyone should play.

But Horizon ignored them and focused on the most important thing, "why is she eating apples?" he interrupts their meeting to ask.

"Well she wanted a snack, and--"

He cuts off Deku, "and of the entire pantry of snacks we have…you gave her fucking apples?"

"Watch your language!" Momo yells out at Horizon, surprising everyone. "You can't speak like that around a child." 2

"She's already seven, and she's dealt with worse than some bad words," Horizon says. "But seriously, apples?"

"What's wrong with apples, they're my favorite," Tokoyami says.

"Horizon doesn't like apples," Sero says, already barely containing his laughter. "You know…because he's a doctor." 7

A few people begin laughing but Horizon just sighs, "kids deserve to enjoy the better things in life without having to worry, especially after all the shit she's dealt with." 1

SHAMBLES!

He warps away before Momo can try to scold him again.

SHAMBLES!

A warps back with a pack of 30 chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen. 1A learned very quickly that Horizon enjoys snacks, so he always keeps his room and the kitchen stocked…and from what Burnin's social media accounts show.

The fridge in his office at Endeavor's Agency is also a goldmine that she frequently raids. Not to mention the stories they've heard from Sero about the food at Horizon Tower.

"Here Eri, try these," He hands her the pack after opening it, and she nervously takes one. "Don't worry, I'm the worlds best doctor and Japan's strongest Hero, nobody is gonna yell at you for this, and I can fix anything that happens either way." 2

Eri is hesitant at first, still unsure about this 'Horizon' person. But with Eraser Head trusting him, and knowing he's one of the people who saved her and the doctor who got her out of the stone after the raid.

She trust him, even if his face visor is scary and he seems mean.

Taking one of the cookies she bites into it, and for the first time in 3 years feel that euphoric rush of sugar that most kids love. 1

She scarfs down the rest of the cookie and reaches for another one immediately.

"Cookies always beat apples," Horizon says as Dark Shadow floats across the room to get the plate of apple slices.

Horizon then just picks up Eri which startles her for a moment, before he reclaims his seat and sets her down in his lap, hopping back on his phone as if nothing happened.

"Awe, I knew you were a softie," Mina says what most of them were thinking as she takes a picture and sends it to the class group chat.

"If that gets online I'll break your legs," was all Horizon said.

Asui rolls her eyes, "you aren't really scary with such a cute little girl in your lap." 2

"Tch, whatever froggy…"

A few moments later and everyone is ready to get back to planning, only to realize Momo is just standing there staring at Horizon and Eri, lost in her own mind. 8

Ochaco walks over to her and shakes her out of her fantasy, "Yaomomo, we were planning the performance, remember?"

"Oh, right, the performance…now where were we?"

Not to the same extent as Momo, but throught the night everyone was amazed by how caring Horizon was when it came to Eri, even if he was still crass, and didn't always teach the most heroic of lessons to her.

But they got along oddly well, it showed a softer side of him.

Which was mostly real, but he did have one ulterior motive.

'I'm gonna give this kid so much sugar before handing her back to Eraser…' 28

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 215: CHAPTER 211(Dragon and God Pt.3) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--6 PM, Thursday, Tokyo…

"So, now can you tell me the specifics?" Ryukyu asks.

She was wearing a white dress with a slit on the left side, a drastic change from her Hero Costume as her usual accessories of the metal dragon claw on her head and dragon-wings headpiece were missing.

Instead she had a small red purse matching the red ribbon around her waist with a length of fabric flowing down her right side.

Sitting across from her Horizon was wearing a more formal version of his Hero Costume, swapping out the standard business suit for a tuxedo that had a few more blue accents along the lining. The jacket was also slightly longer, and notable not as durable as his actual Hero Costume.

His white and blue seemed oddly complimentary to her white and red, even as they sat here in a high-rise lounge discussing their plans for the evening. 1

Ignoring the murmurs and curious looks the serving staff kept throwing their way. When she first accepted, Ryukyu had resigned herself to the fact that before the night was over all of Japan would believe she was dating their rising star. 1

"Yeah we should go over it atleast once, did you read what I sent you?" Horizon asks.

"Mhm, Dr. Kyudai Garaki is having his annual fund raiser and you need me to help you work a case there. A person of interest will be attending and you want me to act as support, but you said I'm not here to fight, so…?"

"Can you even fight in that dress, or will you just be, you know…"

Ryukyu sighs, "no this material doesn't expand with me. It was short notice and I didn't have a dress for this kind of event made to grow with me."

"Well at least reptiles have hidden--" Ryukyu gives him a hard glare, challenging him to stay another word. "Alright whatever, but for the record, always thought it was weird you kept those big tits in dragon form." 3

"Ugh, sometimes I forget you're sixteen."

"Honestly you should be happy, those things got you into the top 10."

Ryukyu looks a bit sad at hearing that, already aware enough that she doesn't actually do enough to be in the top 10. She's just gotten lucky with a flashy Quirk everyone liked, and pretty privilege helped carry her some of the way as well. 1

"Can you just tell me what we're doing," she furrows her brow at him. "And if this is just some trick to get me on a date with you, I'll just leave right now."

"As if I have time to waste on such trivial things," Horizon scoffs and takes out a small circular device from his jacket, handing it to her. "Put that in your purse."

"Alright," she does as he says. "A tracker?"

"No, its more like a hacking device. It'll scan every phone within ten feet until it finds the one we're looking for, then give us remote access to it through Nezu's program."

"Alright, and what phone are we looking for?"

"No idea," Horizon says. "I've been following some leads on the League of Villains. I figured they have to be getting funding from somewhere and one of the labs Endeavor raided gave us a lead. Apparently one of the accounts buying equipment for them is also a big donator to the Kyudai Garaki Medical Quirk Research Foundation."

"Wait," Ryukyu tries to wrap her head around it. "So you're telling me, that the same person bankrolling the league, is donating to help build orphanages and hospitals all around Japan? Why would they even do that?" 1

"Unlikely," Horizon says. "The donation was recent, scarily recent. And the only people invited to this are fellow researches like myself, or people who donated, so…"

"They donated to get a invitation," Ryukyu says. "And since even Pro Heroes don't get invitations, they think it'll be a good time to kidnap the doctor."

"Exactly," Horizon says. "But we'll be there, which means they won't try to kidnap him, and once we're close the device will start scanning phones until we get a match."

"I see," Ryukyu considers everything she just heard, and can't help but ask. "Did you tell Lady Pantu about this?"

"No, I need live bait, she'd just shove Garaki in a bunker until it was over."

'If Garaki dies Pantu loses her best chance at finding a weakness in Horizon,' Ryukyu thinks. 'Wait, what happens if Horizon meets Garaki…if he touches him can he read him somehow and figure out what's going on?

This could be bad, I need to prevent them from talking too long. If Horizon gets a sense something is wrong he won't hesitate to question Garaki and that could be a disaster. And then he'd know that I knew because Garaki saw me at the lab so obvious Garaki knows that I know and--' 1

Horizon snaps his his fingers to get her out of her own thoughts, startling the woman.

"Huh!"

"You spaced out for a bit there, you ok?"

Ryukyu shakes her head, "yeah, I'm fine. I'm just not used to this kind of situation, Dragon's aren't exactly known for being stealthy after all."

"Well I am, so you're in good hands."

"Right, then I'm in your care, but I have to ask, why me?"

"Why not you?" he asks with no hesitation.

"Well, I'm sure you could get many other Pro Heroes with helpful Quirks to assist you, maybe Ms. Midnight, right?"

"Ugh," Horizon relaxes in his seat. "First of all, Midnight is a bitch, and she hates me."

"Really? That seems like an exaggeration…"

"Oh yeah she hates me. Secondly, the public already thinks you've gotten your claws wrapped around me, so its less explaining on our parts."

"I guessed that part," she says. "Those rumors are annoying but in situations like these they are useful. But even if I can't stand the allegations and hate mail I get from your fans about me seducing a minor--"

"I'm sixteen so it's fi--"

"Don't even," she cuts him off. "But as I was saying, I will admit its quite nice not to be constantly asked on dates every time I team up with male Pro Heroes."

"Is it that bad?"

"I'm sure you have fangirls throwing themselves at you, well its much the same for me, only its the people who I'm supposed to be working beside. Before those rumors I'm sure someone would have asked me to go on a date during the Yakuza Raid. There is a reason my agency only has women, its a safe haven from that nonsense.

But hearing about the oh-so great and powerful Horizon claiming me has most of them scared to even talk to me. Its actually quite refreshing to have people treating me like a actual dragon for a change, worried about upsetting me instead of constantly trying to seduce me…too bad its because they're more scared of angering you that they're scared of me." 2

"Well I'm glad you get some use out of it, because it annoys me. Anytime I talk to a girl its always 'aren't you dating Ryukyu…' which makes me sound like I'm up to no good."

Ryukyu does her best shocked expression, "how devious, you, my beloved Horizon, cheating on me," she dramatically clutches her heart. "How will I ever recover from such devastating heartbreak. This heartbreak knows no bounds…"

Horizon chuckles, "alright Shakespeare settle down."

Ryukyu chuckles along with him, "I actually did quite like going to see plays, another thing being a celebrity has ruined."

"At least you can still show up online, I can't even do that," Horizon says. "Pantu won't let me go a certain distance from Tokyo and Musutafu without permission, and I can't even post where I am outside of either of those because it makes the crime rates spike." 1

"All the power in the world, and you're locked in a cage. At least its a big cage."

"No such thing as a big cage when you can warp," Horizon says.

"Mhm. But you know, you never explained why exactly you wanted me here, aside from using what the media believes to our advantage."

"Well, I narrowed down the list of suspects, and…you're their type."

Ryukyu looks disgusted by his words, "so at the end of it all, I am just a piece of meat to you."

"To them," Horizon clarifies. "But when we've got them tied up you can get some hits in to make up for it." 1

"That won't be necessary, seeing them arrested will be plenty."

"That won't be for a while unless they actually make us act tonight," Horizon says. "For now just getting into their phone is enough. The sooner I get my hands on Kurogiri the better."

"The thought of leaving criminals like that free makes my blood crawl, this is one of the reasons I prefer to just simply brawl with villains. Running investigations means you have to sit by while knowing heinous things are happening, but you have to leave them be until the boss shows himself. I just can't do that."

"That's the problem with Pro Heroes, too many of them only care about dressing like idiots and solving the obvious issues rather than look into the darker side of this world."

"I suppose I'm guilty of that as well."

"Yeah, but at least you admit it and know why, most are just oblivious to how much they care about the glory that comes with fighting villains in the streets. Plus you're actually effective at the path you chose."

"Well, its good to know you tolerate me for what I can do instead of my 'cool Quirk' or some nonsense like that."

"Well," Horizon shrugs. "You being sexy and having cool Quirk certainly doesn't hurt, even if you aren't a real dragon."

Ryukyu grits her teeth and grumbles out, "I am a real dragon."

"Whatever Kyukyu." 5

Ryukyu sighs, "you're the worst. And shouldn't we be leaving about now, the event has already begun."

"Mhm, time for the red carpet, I can have us there in one warp," Horizon says as he gets up, extending a hand to help her up.

She gracefully takes his hand and gets up, but he doesn't let do, so she simply keeps holding on as well.

"One warp? But the event is at least 30km away, and I thought your limit was 10km," she absentmindedly says, then tries to explain why she'd know that. "I heard you could warp around most of UA easily in the news and that's about its size right?" 1

Not enough of a lie for him to notice, if he was actually paying such close attention to her.

"Awe, you've been paying such close attention to me, maybe you're more into me than I thought," and Ryukyu is thankful that his arrogance blinded him to the possibility of what she and Pantu discussed. "But my limit was 10km, when I was 12--"

SHAMBLES!

They suddenly appear on a rooftop overlooking the entrance to the gala, which was flanked on either side of the walkway by the media excitedly taking pictures of every attending politician and socialite.

36km away. 1

Ryukyu's eyes go wide, knowing Horizon's slashes were seemingly only limited by the same range as his warping. Suddenly gaining a new sense of fear for standing against him. 1

He feels her grip onto his hand and holds her gently in return, "sorry, guess I should have warned you." 1

"Right, sorry," she lets go of his hand.

But she was oblivious to the inner workings of his Quirk, of his Room.

He raises his hand and summons the metal throwing card they warped with back into his hand, placed earlier this evening at this very spot.

Prepared in advance.

As was the Room he made, carefully placed so the lounge and this spot were at the edges of it, making the 36km diameter appear normal for him to warp across, when in most cases he only warps the diameter of his Room. 1

All for the sake of convenience for him and his date, but unbeknownst to him, this information would get back to Pantu within a day.

And they would simply assume his casual range is at least 36km. But that level of power was a few months away for him. 3

"That still amazes me," Ryukyu says as the look down to the crowds. "You can simply choose to be somewhere else, if you have something to swap places with, right?"

"Something like that, but needing to swap with something is…well, training wheels on a bike. Eventually I can simply be anywhere I want. And for certain places, I already can be."

"I've seen it, sometimes you warp about near your tower and people get it on video, you don't swap with anything. Its like you become the wind."

Horizon chuckles at the description she gives. "To me, space is just another road, spend enough time on it and eventually you'll be able to walk certain stretches blindfolded."

"I guess that sort of makes sense, well not really. But that's the point, right? Mystery Class: Quirks beyond human comprehension."

"Yeah, and eventually, I'll be able to do anything."

"Eventually, but right now, you're the god that can't even fly," she suppresses a chuckle while looking up at him. 3

Horizon just gives an annoyed sigh, "you people will never let me live that down huh, even the 'Dragon' that can't breath fire…"

"He--" he cuts off her response by reaching down and scooping her up in his arms in a bridal carry.

Her arms immediate wrap around his neck, almost feeling the muscles below his tuxedo and body glove trying to break free. "What are you doing?" she asks with a light red hue on her cheeks.

"Making an entrance, lets give the media something to talk about tomorrow." 1

SHAMBLES!

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 216: CHAPTER 212(Dragon and God Pt.4) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Caught up in the excitement, the media vultures almost missed a single metal throwing card hovering down from the sky above.

The constantly clicking and flashes from cameras were dazzling to everyone, especially the few socialites, who were mostly namely investors, managers, or owners of major local and international medical facilities and funds.

Established men and women who come here every year to pay their respects to Dr. Kyudai Garaki, a man who launched medical research almost a century ahead through his research on Quirks.

Others were also major investors hoping to make their millions more noticeable by showing face, lest it gets drowned in the ocean of donations the doctor constantly receives.

And some were a chosen few high level medical professionals hoping to get a position at one of his many research facilities or hospitals around the world, brought out tonight as arm candy for their wealthy benefactors.

One of the few ways to get in here and speak to Dr. Garaki.

The atmosphere was so exciting between the high ranking wealth people, a few Pro Heroes who were brought as dates simply to show status over the other guests. The opulence shown in clothes, cars, jewelry, and any other way they could assert their status above each other.

Exactly why Uwabami, the Snake Hero, was here. Acting as a date to a older gentleman who owns a extremely profitable pharmaceutical company.

The hero wore her best purple and black gown to match his all black suit, looking perfect as she has her hands wrapper around his arm.

Both the 'snakes' in her hair, her Quirk, delicately perched and as always are on alert, even passively.

The beauty queen of the Pro Heroes here in Japan enjoys the cameras, until one of the reporters looks up. His attention caught by camera flashes reflecting off the slowly descending metal card.

It hovers down, confusing more people and drawing eyes onto it.

"What is that?" Someone from the crowd asks.

Uwabami releases her date and takes a step forward, "everyone stay back," she commands, and they gladly obey the pro her.

SHAMBLES!

The card suddenly disappears, and in its place appears Horizon in his new formal suit. Holding a very well dressed and contrasting Ryukyu in a bridal carry, her arms wrapped around his neck as she stares up at his visor.

Hundreds of pictures are taken before she even comes to her senses.

Uwabami's brow twitches as all eyes are pulled away from her, and the brat who insulted her very style of being a celebrity hero steals the attention.

Along with a Top 10 Pro Hero in his arms.

"Lets just get inside before the auction starts," she says to her date and almost drags him away.

"I hope you all don't mind us warping in, driving isn't really my thing," Horizon says as he still casually holds Ryukyu while addressing the media.

"Does this mean the rumors are true?!" One woman yells out, furiously taking notes. "Are you dating Dragon Hero Ryukyu?"

"What? Why would you ever think that?" he asks as if he wasn't holding the now blushing woman in his arms. "We're just really good friends…"

Ryukyu turns to the cameras and just nods along, mortified by the position she's in, "can you put me down now."

"Of course my dear," he says loud enough for them to hear as he gently sets her down on her own feet.

The crowds eyes go wide at that and they continue taking pictures, only for Horizon to casually place his hand around her waist, and surprisingly she leans against his side.

"You're enjoying this too much," Ryukyu mutters only loud enough for him to hear.

"Gotta give them something to think about, besides, if the world thinks I'm dating a beautiful dragon babe, that's seems pretty cool to me."

"What about your issues with dating as a hero?"

"You're a top 10 Pro, you'll be fine, if anything this will make villains want to avoid hurting you."

"Tch, I don't need anyone protecting me…" 1

Seeing the change in her attitude Horizon raises a finger to her chin to make her look up at him, "just enjoy tonight, alright. One night at a time."

Ryukyu sighs and just plays along, "alright…dear."

Horizon chuckles as they both look back to the horde of hungry reporters.

"Horizon!" One man raises his hand. "I have a question for you!"

"I hope its one I can answer," Horizon says as he points toward the man. 1

The crowd quiets down as they listen in.

"Are you here as a philanthropist, or will you be joining one of Dr. Garaki's medical research endeavors?"

"Mainly for philanthropy, donating is a easy way to extend my reach since the Miracle Ward can only do so much. No expense should be spared when people need help after all."

The crowd is impressed by his response.

"Are you against working with Dr. Garaki, or is there some other reason you two haven't gotten together?" a woman in the crowd asks. "You are arguably the worlds number 1 Quirk specialist after all, and since he was considered the greatest before you, a collaboration could change the fate of humanity as we know it."

"We've already worked together at a distance," Horizon says. "Mostly one sided since the Miracle Ward is so new compared to his research facilities and trusts. But Dr. Garaki has given me nearly unrestricted access to the Quirk research database he has built over the years to aid in my own work. I only hope that when he calls for my aid I will be able to repay the gesture properly."

"Is there any rivalry between the two of you?" Another reporter asks.

"Not at all, we strive for the same goal, a healthy and healed world, starting with the people," Horizon says. "But my unique skills allows me to heal otherwise fatal issues, which is why I've mostly focused on that. I trust him to solve anything that traditional medicine can solve, and I'll deal with the rest."

The crowd falls silent for barely a second before another question is hurled at the duo.

"How long have you two been dating?!" is yelled from the back.

Horizon doesn't say anything and simply gives her a gently pat on the small of her back, "you're up."

Ryukyu scrunches her face before she answers, "we aren't romantically involved, but we've been friends for a few months since meeting after a raid on the League of Villains."

From the looks they gave her, it was obvious nobody believed her.

"I'm serious," she insists.

"Alright Kyukyu, lets just go inside," Horizon says as he guides her away.

But as they leave she can't help but hear people muttering.

'Awe he has a pet name for her.'

'They look so good together.'

'Man I can't believe he's dating her, she was supposed to fall for me!' one man laments his luck. 3

"This isn't going how I expected," Ryukyu says as they walk past walls of cameras and enter the lobby, making their way to the main room.

Yet she still had her hands wrapped around his arm as they walked comfortably side by side.

"Which part?"

"Its just, well, its almost like they want us to be together, isn't that weird?" she asks.

"How is that weird?"

"Because you're still in UA, and I'm ten years older than you."

"Oh yeah," he acts as if he honestly forgot. "But I'm 16 and I'm Horizon, so its fine."

"What do you mean 'I'm Horizon,' what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, if we wanted to be together, how would they stop us?"

"That's a good question, how would they stop you?" she asks absentmindedly, something she and many other have spent days pondering and still don't have an answer to.

"Well, I've only got one weakness, promise to keep it between us?" he stops her at the back of the massive room.

They see a stage at the other side, a large dance floor. A live classical band, and assigned seats at tables spread about.

Ryukyu takes a sharp breath as many eyes falls onto them, and she immediately notices the envy and jealousy in the eyes of men and women alike.

"Alright, what is it?" Ryukyu asks. 3

"My one weakness is," he gestures for her to lean in as he gets closer to her. "Those beautiful golden eyes of yours." 15

"Ugh," she swats his chest and begins walking off to their seats, just barely a few steps ahead. Enough to hear him laughing behind her.

Arriving at their table, at the seats Horizon specifically requested at the back of the room away from most of the attention, Ryukyu takes her seat to his right.

She notices some small tablet devices on the table and raises a brow at them.

"They're for the auction, to place bids. The room is big so better than yelling," Horizon explains. "Plus its better this way, bids show up on a scoreboard so everyone gets competitive, and the charities win."

"Charities?"

"Mhm, Dr. Garaki has people here from dozens of charities aside from his. The usual stuff, feed the poor, school supplies, better education, homeless shelters, you know, that stuff."

Ryukyu glances about to see people already entering their names to start placing bids. Then notices the other two seats at this round table were empty and had no nameplates.

"Do we have an entire table to ourselves?"

"Not exactly," he turns his head to the doorway and she follow his lead. "Some associates of mine are joining us."

Chitose Curious, a general of the Meta Liberation Army, and Rikiya – Re-Destro, formerly the leader, now a general of the Metal Liberation Army-, walk over and join them at the table.

"Its a pleasure to meet you lady Ryukyu," Rikiya says as he pulls on Chitose's chair. "Horizon mentioned he was brining a date, but this is certainly not what we expected. 2

Horizon shrugs, "well you brought your secret girlfriend, figured I'd bring mine."

"Its been a while Ryukyu," Chitose says. "We should have another interview sometime, I'm sure people will want to know all about this," she gestures to them as a couple.

"Oh I'd certainly rather avoid that," Ryukyu jokes, now feeling more comfortable with Chitose here.

Failing to realize she was the only hero at the table, and was sitting across from two major villains.

"I feel so out of place here," Ryukyu says. "This certainly isn't pay grade, how do these things usually go?"

"Boring small talk," Rikiya says. "I'm sure Horizon and I will be swarmed the moment the auction is over and people start mingling. Everyone wants him in their pocket and all these people run something to do with medicine--"

"And you own Detnerat," Ryukyu says. "The leading company for Lifestyle Support Equipment in Japan, of course."

"The auction is the fun part," Chitose says. "All these men with the supermodel dates trying to outdo each other, sometimes it can get intense, always makes for a good story," she shamelessly takes a small notepad out of her purse.

"Will either of you be bidding?" Rikiya asks.

"I'd have to sell all my organs to enter this kind of a bidding war," Ryukyu jokes.

"I'll enter," Horizon says. "Money is to be spent after all, plus it doesn't do anything for me, might as well help someone."

"Selfless as always," Chitose says as she takes some notes.

"Oh no, entirely selfish, just like most of the people in here," Horizon says. "We make the billions so we can do whatever we want, then hope donating enough and throwing enough of our wealth at poor people buys our way into heaven, or something like that." 2

"That sums up most of these people," Rikiya says. "But for all your talk of being selfish, you've done more good that most of this room. Or at least, you will."

"The only person in here who I'm sure has a good heart is this one," he gestures to Ryukyu.

"Speaking of which, how did this happen?" Chitose asks. "Not to make things…awkward, but, a student and a Pro Hero is a bit, you know."

"Well, the truth is," Horizon says, and Ryukyu can already feel the headache coming. "She fell hopelessly in love with me at first sight and has made it her mission to seduce me ever since."

Thankfully nobody at the table believes him, only giving a deadpan stare.

"We aren't dating," Ryukyu says. "He just brought me along for--" she stops and looks up at him.

"My visor will alert me when you find the phone, its not them," Horizon says. 1

"Right, we're here looking for someone, Hero business," Ryukyu says. "But clearly he likes messing with the media, at my expense."

"Hero business?" Chitose asks. "And I assume you don't want it in the news."

"Obviously," Horizon says, and she immediately scratches off some of her notes.

"Well at least you get date night out of it," Chitose seemingly joins in on the fun of teasing Ryukyu. "But if its hero business, shouldn't you be costume, and doesn't he need his sword?"

"We won't be fighting, so you're safe, just observing," Ryukyu assures the woman.

"And I don't always have a sword on me, but its nearby if I do need it."

"How may of those do you have, they must be expensive," Rikiya says. "You know, if you signed with my company we could make some serious improvements to them."

"The two I have right now is fine. One is usually nearby and the other is either at UA or Horizon Tower, that's more than enough." 1

As they continue to chat for a bit the lights begin to dim as Dr. Garaki, the mad genius secretly behind the Nomu creation and benefactor of Shigaraki, All For One's most dear friend, takes the stage.

He begins giving his gratitude and hyping up the auction, causing Ryukyu to lean closer to Horizon.

"So, what do they auction off, if it starts at ten million it must be something good right?"

Chitose and Rikiya hear this and have to stop themselves from laughing, causing her to look up at Horizon confused.

"You'll see, but trust me, they're worth every cent."

A few moments late the doctor leaves the stage for the professional auction host to take over, and they roll out the first item.

"What is that?" Ryukyu mutter as she sees a sloppily painted image of a field with a blob in the corner as the sun. "Did a toddler paint that?"

"Probably," Horizon says. "They auction off art pieces from the kids the charities help."

"That's not what I expected at all," Ryukyu admits.

A hologram appears on the stage and Chitose takes out her notepad to write the winning bids as it displays a blank leaderboard of the bids for this art piece.

Suddenly a name and face appears, bidding 10 million dollars on this piece, and Ryukyu's eyes nearly fall out of her head.

"People really have that kind of money, this is crazy."

"Crazy?" Rikiya gives her a strange look. "Says the dragon dating a god, really?" 4

"Well, when you put it like that--" 1

25 Million suddenly appears on the leaderboard.

Seeing this Rikiya takes out a coif of all things, on on side is a man wearing a cape and on the other is a man with a knife. 1

"Hero or villain?" he asks Horizon.

"I always pick Hero," Horizon says.

"Ofcourse," Rikiya mutters as he flips the coin, catching it and placing it on the table, to see the villain side up. "I lose…"

He takes one of the tablets and taps on it a few times, and his name appears at the top of the leaderboard.

Rikiya Yotsubashi: 40 Million.

"You bet that on a coinflip?" Ryukyu didn't even know how to react.

"Its for charity, c'mon," Horizon wraps an arm around her. "Think of all the kids it'll save."

"I can appreciate that, but the numbers are still just hard to wrap my mind around."

After some more casually chatter and a few more art pieces go by, they get to the finally piece. A finger-painting of All Might, horribly done.

"Hey Chitose," Horizon gets her attention. "How much do I have to donate to make the front page tomorrow?"

"Well the highest bid is," she flips through her notes. "Mr. Yaoyorozu at 200 Million, if you beat that I can get you on the front page. You were going there anyway because of this juicy scoop right here," she gestures to Ryukyu.

"Well, do you know what the best thing about my medical services being auctioned to the highest bidder is?"

"The money?" Rikiya asks.

"Oh definitely, but now its more about the bribes and services they offer to get ahead of others, you won't believe how much money the most wealthy people on the planet will pay for a little time."

"Your net worth has been a mystery for quite a while, finally giving a hint?" Chitose gets ready to take notes. "Horizon Tower was estimated to cost at least 200 Million, so the world is curious."

"Well, here is a hint," Horizon takes the data pad and begins entering his bid.

And Chitose can see Ryukyu appear as if she was about to lose her lunch at the sight of the number. From someone who grew up lower class, now witnessing a person give this much money away out of sheer philanthrophy…it was mind blowing.

By no means is she a selfish person, but the sight is still just amazing.

Horizon: 1 Billion Dollars. 3

There is a audible gasp in the room before it falls silent for nearly a minute.

Everyone looks back at him, and shrugs as if this was normal, "money is nothing compared to suffering of people in need…" was all he says.

And Chitose quickly writes that quote for tomorrows headline.

All while Ryukyu looked at him with a confusing mixture of emotions.

Unsure if it was his desire to have everyone know how much better than them he is.

The constant selflessness he displays despite insisting he's an entirely selfish individual.

Or him truly not valuing above people, above his people at least, exactly like he's said time and time again.

'It's just money…' he always says.

But she knew one thing, she likes this side of him. 8

Chatting with his friends, playing little games and making bets with Rikiya, joking with Chitose and her.

Even when he was being flirty with her, serious or not, he made it fun.

A startling change from the 'all business' emotionless jerk he usually portrays himself as.

She came here tonight fully expecting the horror stories Ochaco and Tsu told her about him to be true.

She came expecting to see the side of him she's been helping Pantu to prepare for. 3

But this, was almost more startling that any of that.

Seeing him act as…a human, not the monster they think he is. 3

But she won't let one night completely cloud her judgement, because she's seen a glimpse of the other side of him. And his words from earlier echo in her head.

'I'm Horizon, who could stop me?' 3

--2 Hours Later, Horizon Tower…

Horizon suddenly appears in one of the many guest rooms in his building, gently holding Ryukyu at his side.

"Thank you," she says while looking around. "I have some business to deal with here in Tokyo tomorrow, will it be alright if I stayed here tomorrow as well."

"Its no problem, use anything you want and stay as long as you'd like, oh, my team is here in Tokyo and will be getting in something around 3 AM, at least that's the usual. Just don't be too surprised if you bump into them."

"Right, are you going to bed as well?"

"No, I've got to look into this," he raises the device he gave her earlier. "We locked onto a phone but that place was crowded so I need to pinpoint exactly who it is."

"The work never stops huh."

"Not for me, but at least I got to spend some time with you, and tonight was actually pretty fun."

"Yeah," Ryukyu finds herself staring at him a bit too long for her liking before she snaps herself out it. "Now get out of here, I need to get some sleep, and no peeking on me in the shower with that creepy Quirk of yours."

Horizon laughs, "why would I need to do that, I'm your doctor, I've already seen you naked…" 1

He warps away before Ryukyu's mortified expression can properly settle in. And as she's now alone she breathes a sigh of relief.

'Tonight he was like…a regular person, but I've seen how he acts around villains and people he doesn't like. She said Nezu wants to make him into a real hero, maybe I can help with that too, somehow…' 18

She mulls it over for a moment then takes out her phone, sending a message to Pantu that she'll be coming in for a debriefing tomorrow. 4

Because she still had a job to do, personal developing feelings aside… 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 217: CHAPTER 213(Lazy Days)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y 1

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

'Just a bit further, I can make it!' A gorgeous older woman thinks as she's crawling across the floor.

Her house was dark and mostly deserted, only two people currently on the property.

She drags her broken leg across the cold tiles as she slowly inches into the kitchen, a trickle of blood running down the middle of her forehead.

'Just need the alarm!' she thinks as she glances back, hearing footsteps encroaching. 'If I can get the police here, there must be a hero nearby to save me!'

Dragging herself into the kitchen, gritting her teeth and failing to ignore the pain, she looks up at the wall beside the counter, and sees the alarm console mounted into it.

One button and the police would be on their way.

She glances back at her right leg, shattered at the knee, the shin, and her foot smashes. Bone protruding from her skin.

But she just takes a deep breath and pushes herself up, "argghhhhhh!" her pained scream echoes through her home as she forces herself to stand.

Leaning heavily against the wall she slips and unfortunately supports herself for a moment with her broken leg.

"Argh!" tears continue streaking down her face as she puts her weight on the wall and onto her good leg, seeing victory at last.

But as she presses the button, nothing happens.

The alarms system doesn't activate, because the button itself doesn't even move.

"Nonononono," her voice becomes even more desperate as tears flow quicker than before.

She smashes her finger into the button until the nail splits and the skin breaks. Her blood begins running down her hands as she tries punching the console to break it, but it won't even move.

"I don't wanna die!" she begs before slamming her forehead into the console, and she hears it cracks and splinter.

But the buttons still don't move, and the shattered pieces hover in place, still immovable for her baseline human strength.

"I don't wanna die," she mutters, defeatedly before collapsing onto the floor, back against the wall as she gives up.

The island counter blocks her vision as the footsteps get closer, and a moment later the lights in the kitchen come on.

She sits there, sobbing, lamenting her fate. Closing her eyes to hide from her future.

"Please, I have kids, I have a family."

"I know," Horizon says as he leans back on the kitchen island. 3

The woman glances up to see him holding her phone, and his left forearms appears to have a cable connecting it to him.

"Please just let me go," she begs. "I won't tell anyone you were here. I won't warn the villains, I can even help you get more information on them."

"Not worth the risk," he says absentmindedly while sorting the data on her phone.

"You're supposed to be a hero!" The woman screams in frustration. "Heroes don't kill and torture people! They don't break into houses and assault people! They don't act like this!"

"True," he says. "And you're supposed to be some Mother Teresa wannabe…well, I guess stealing from charities is playing the part properly. But secretly helping villains, that's not very saintly either, right?"

"You wouldn't get it," she says, scowling at him. "I didn't have a choice. One of All For One's people contacted me, told me its time to pay up, I had to do this."

"Uh huh," he just keeps looking through her phone.

"Don't you care? Don't you want to know why?"

"Not really, you're just another name on the list," Horizon says. "But, I'm guessing since you were born Quirkless, and so was your husband, your kids got their Quirks from All For One, right?"

She doesn't respond.

"And since they're, 13, 9, and 7, you haven't been in touch with him for long."

"Children and this world are cruel," she says. "We know what its like to be Quirkless, how viscous the world can be toward you, we didn't want them to suffer through that…"

"Mhm," Horizon leaves the phone connected to him but puts it in his jacket pocket, then walks over and turn on the sink.

"I didn't have a choice, anything I did, was for them," she says.

"Does anyone else know that you're working with them?" he asks while walking over to her, and crouching down beside her, gently touching her shoulder.

"No," she grits out, trembling from head to toe. "Only me," he doesn't detect any lies.

"Why didn't you get a Quirk?"

She looks genuinely disgusted by his question, "because this was never about me, this was for my children. I swear I'm not a selfish person."

"It seems you genuinely believe that at least," Horizon says. "Now, everything I need I'll get from your phone, because that'll let me get into your private systems. But, did you ever meet up with any villains?"

The sink begins overflowing onto the floor, which startles her, but she quickly focuses back onto Horizon.

"Only when they had to receive Quirks," she says. "We would call and they had Kurogiri open a portal. I only ever saw Kurogiri since we'd all be knocked out before getting to the other side, I swear that's all."

"So you were just for social influence and money, I figured as much," Horizon says as she water was now pooling and flowing past them, mixing with her blood.

"I swear that's all I know," she says. "Everything else is in my phone, its all in there. I recorded everything incase I had to use it against them someday, but my family doesn't know, not even my husband or children."

"And I'll keep it that way," Horizon says, which surprises her.

"Really?"

"Of course, children should always think highly of their parents," Horizon says. "Besides, if the villains know I'm onto you then they'll hide even better and everything I learn from you becomes useless. So I'll make this look like a generic break-in that went very wrong."

"Wh, what?" her eyes go wide and he palms the back of her skull, lifting her up with his vice grip as he stands up. "Wait! Stop! You're a hero!"

"So those are your last words, really, a lie?" he jokes while taking her over to the sink, and the last thing she sees before he shoves her head under the water is a framed picture of her family. 5

Her husband, her daughters, her son.

The people she wanted nothing more than to protect and would truly do anything for.

She places both hands at the edge of the sink and does her best to push against him, to get her head out of the water.

But it's Horizon, and she's Quirkless.

Her legs, broken or not begin flailing about, desperately trying to kick him and throw him off balance, but only the bones in her feet suffer any damage.

She struggles to the bitter end as the burning in her throat and lungs causes her to convulse, and while she's dying, Horizon gets a text.

Keeping her pinned under the water he takes out his phone with the other hand, seeing a message from Ryuko – Pixie-Bob-.

'I haven't seen you in 3 weeks so I'll be calling in sick today, are you at Horizon Tower?' 1

He thinks about it for a moment, looks out the window to see the sun starting to rise, then responds.

'I'm on a case right now, but I'll be back at around 7.'

'Alright, I'll come over and have breakfast ready! See you in two hours!'

He locks his phone and puts it away, now sure the limp corpse in his grasp wasn't going to cause any problems for him as he drops it.

And the body just crumples onto the kitchen floor.

He shuts off the pipe and casually steps over her, walking toward the bedrooms.

'Her family should be back in a few hours so they'll find her, but I need to steal some shit to make this look like a amature job, and double check the security system to make sure I'm not in it.

So much for being done with this kind of work, huh Nezu, but this is just the most effective method of information gathering. No waiting around for court orders and warrants, no big dramatic fight. Just results, and a trail of bodies when necessary,' he thinks while finishing up his work here. 7

--Later That Morning…

Standing on his hoverboard Horizon flies into Minato Tokyo, enjoying the view of the sun shining above his Tower, as always.

ROOM!

He activates his Quirk and prepares to warp into his tower from 12km 7.45mi away, but pauses for a moment as he does a Scan of his tower. 1

"Ok, I expected her to be gone by now…but maybe this won't blow up in my face."

SHAMBLES!

He warps into his room at the top of Horizon Tower and leaves his Hoverboard there along with the phone he acquired.

Takes a look at himself in the mirror just to be sure that everything was perfect, then warps away.

He appears in the kitchen to see two beautiful women happily chatting and giggling at the counter. Each enjoy and light breakfast of eggs, toast, and some fruits.

"Morning ladies," Horizon says.

"Oh you're back," Ryuko says. "And why didn't you tell me you had a new guest," she gestures to Ryukyu.

"I decided to stay in for a while and enjoy this headquarters of yours," Ryukyu says. "Looks like it was for the best since I got to learn so much about you from your 'friend' here."

"Mhm, like what?" Horizon asks as Ryuko gets up and begins dishing out his breakfast. "Good things I hope."

"Depends on how you look at it," Ryukyu says. "I learned you have a type at least."

"Never would have guessed that," Horizon chuckles. "What gave you that idea?"

"I'm not sure, maybe bumping into another gorgeous--"

"Blonde--" Ryuko cuts off Ryukyu.

"Strong--"

"Brave--"

"Busty--"

"Smart--"

"Fit and youthful--"

"Pro Hero," Ryukyu finishes off. "Who shares the first name 'Ryuko' with me…really?"

"Well if it makes you feel any better, you'd be 'Ryuko 1′ since I met you first," he tells Ryukyu.

Pixie-Bob gives him a hard pat on the arm as she hands him his food then goes back to her seat.

"Aright, Ryuko and Ryukyu…well, Kyukyu."

Ryukyu rolls her eyes, then looks at Ryuko, "what do you see in him?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Ryuko asks. "According to every news outlet, you guys are the new hot Pro Hero couple," she can't help but laugh. "Good look dealing with all of that attention!" 1

Ryukyu sighs, "maybe I'll retire too and just come live here, I mean this place has everything."

"Well I like having one Ryuko around, why not two?" Horizon says as he opens the mouthpiece of his visor and begins eating.

"If you can put up with him, sure," Ryuko says.

"Hey, I'm the best," Horizon argues.

"In many things, believe me, you are," she gives him a knowing smirk which makes Ryukyu blush. "But you also think putting condiments on food is an insult." 7

"It is."

"And you're a workaholic."

"... "

"And you don't get that sometimes people need a softer touch."

"I touch you softly all the time." 5

"Not what I meant."

"Oh I have one," Ryukyu says as she join in the fun. "And he insists on making people realize he's better than them."

"Oh definitely," Ryuko says. "Plus his warping about can be really off-putting sometimes."

"I've noticed, and he almost never asks for permission before warping us around. That's super weird right?"

"Ugh, that was so annoying the first few times I was here. Like you'd turn around and he'd just be there, super creepy sometimes."

"It doesn't help that most of the time he just stands there like a robot too."

"Ok," Horizon interrupts them. "This, is actually worse than if you two didn't get along…actually, I might have preferred that."

Both women look at him, then at each other, and as if rehearsed they begin laughing.

"Is this what you two are gonna do all day?" Horizon asks. "Torment me?"

"Hmm," Ryukyu thinks about it. "Well in a few hours I have to go meet some models at my stores here in Tokyo, my new Dragnoir winter line is dropping soon."

"Fancy," Ryuko says.

"You should come with me, maybe you'd like to model for some photos," Ryukyu suggests.

Ryuko's eyes go wide, "really?!"

"You're gorgeous and it'll be fun, I haven't had a day off in forever to check in with my company."

"That sounds great, oh, but you've got to try out the pool here first--"

Horizon simply warps away with his breakfast, realizing that interaction and introduction went far too well for his own sake.

He warps his costume off for some more casual clothes and sits in bed with his food, still sensing Sero, Juzo and Shinso soundly asleep in their own room.

They got back to the tower only a few hours ago from patrol after all.

But even as everyone else is relaxing or resting, he gets to work, taking out his phone and now sorting all the new data he just collected… 2

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 218: CHAPTER 214(Lazy Days Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Horizon Tower, 1 PM…

"I really need to get one of these," Ryukyu says as she lowers herself into the hot tub, her fruit drink carefully resting at the edge of the tub.

She wore a simple red one-piece swimsuit, hastily bough nearby by Ryuko when they decided to relax in the hot tub. 4

Beside her Ryuko was already in the hot tub with a glass of wine in her hand, the bottle carefully placed nearby.

She was wearing a much more revealing bikini, in a familiar white and blue. 2

"Every big name hero should have one of these," Ryuko says. "Can't tell you how many nights I've spent in the hot springs after a day of searching through the mud to find people."

"That's at the hot springs resort your team owns?" Ryukyu asks.

"Mhm," Ryuko takes a sip of her wine. "When we got popular we wanted to start a second income stream like everyone else by using our brand, but being a mountain rescue based team stuck out and away from major cities made that tough. So we settled on buying some land and setting up our hot springs."

"Good call," Ryukyu says. "Personally I've been designing my own clothes since I was a child. Needing clothes made from my own cell samples for it to grow incase I activated my Quirk means there was never anything pre made and ready--"

"So you figured it should be exactly how you want it, lucky…"

Ryukyu chuckles, "well, the alternative was becoming a giant naked dragon, then shifting back into a naked girl afterwards, so am I really lucky?"

"Well when you put it like that, not really. But at least you got to launch your Dragnoir fashion brand, that's pretty cool." 2

"Sometimes it is, but most of the time it really does feel like just a hobby. Certainly would pay like one if I wasn't so popular," Ryukyu says. "Say, what's it like working in a team for your entire career?"

"Hmm, where do I even begin…" Ryuko thinks about it for a moment. "Well, we all met at UA orientation, and were in the same class. We hit it off right away and have been together ever since. None of us really have combat Quirks aside from me, and we rather not hurt anyone, so rescue was the obvious choice."

"But being in a hero team is a big commitment, not to mention a big risk."

"Yeah, but when it feels right everything just seems to work. Plus I've got good instincts with people, you know?"

"Mhm," Ryukyu takes a sip of her drink. "And how are they now since you've retired?"

"Mmm, they've been better," Ryuko says, sounding guilty and ashamed. "I mean the team was somewhat built with my Quirk in mind. Earthflow lets me manipulate the terrain after all, clearing out landslides and stuff like that was most of our job. We rarely ever had to find actual people."

"Ouch," Ryukyu winces, just imagining how much of their income and capabilities that team lost. "But I'm sure they understand, the hero thing just wasn't for you after All For One, right?"

"It wasn't really All For One," Ryuko says.

"Seriously? Even I thought about retiring after what he did to us at Kamino, and that was after Horizon weakened him a lot…scary." 6

"Well I'm not a top 10 Pro Hero," Ryuko says. "I was never under the impression that my Quirk was anything particularly strong. So I went to work every day knowing I'm one encounter with a powerful villain away from dying…" 12

"Oh, I guess I don't really think about it that much."

"Yeah well we can't all become a dragon when its time to fight," Ryuko chuckles sadly. "Eventually the fear of dying without ever having a family of my own got to me. I was already on the fence about retiring after this year, but that settled it. Not to mention the public backlash."

"Yeah that was rough, for us especially," Ryukyu says. "Failing as a Top Pro makes the public show their vicious side."

"At least kids didn't die because of you," Ryuko says. "We aren't… weren't, even a combat team but people still spoke like we should have beaten All For One."

Ryukyu sinks up to her neck into the water and sighs, "well I am a top combat hero and lost, we lost after he barely waved his hand. If All For One wasn't so chatty during the fight the public would have never forgiven us."

"Plus All Might took a lot of the spotlight off you guys," Ryuko says.

"Mhm…"

They sit in silence just recalling those events for a moment, before Ryuko speaks up, "hey, what's it like being a woman in the top 10?"

"Honestly, not worth it."

Ryuko's eyes went wide at that response, "really?"

"It destroyed any semblance of a social life I had. I can't go on the internet because I'm constantly bombarded with very graphic and creepy things about me--"

"Ugh that's so annoying," Ryuko remember the creepy things she's seen about herself over the years.

"Plus a lot of other Pro Heroes I just can't work with because they always try to make it flirty or just try to team up and treat it like a date, which honestly just wastes both our time because its not like they even needed me."

"Sounds familiar, recent too," Ryuko says.

Ryukyu shakes her head, "if I didn't go to the charity event the plan never would have worked, he got swarmed the moment the auction was over and couldn't move freely."

"Hey I didn't say anything about that," Ryuko raises her hands innocently.

"It's fine, I know you were wondering, nothing to worry about here," Ryukyu takes a sip of her drink. "The Pro Hero thing also ruined beating down villains sometimes."

"How so?"

"Well you know how they'd always try to get more handsy with us?"

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"Yeah well imagine that but with villains strong enough to willingly fight me," Ryukyu says. "And since you're a female Pro Hero you know the horror stories about what could happen if we get captured…so that was always at the back of my mind too."

"Well when you say it like that, I'm going to enjoy retirement even more."

Ryukyu laughs, "I'm happy for you, but I think President Pantu would pop a vein if any of us Top 10 Pro Heroes retired right now. Japan is still too reliant on Horizon for stability after all."

"That's true. So I guess I'll try to enjoy my wine and hot tub time for both of us, sounds good?"

Ryukyu rolls her eyes, then laughs, "thanks, I appreciate it…"

--Horizon's Office…

Sitting at his desk with this feet up, Law has his visor and mask off as he watches both his screens.

The massive and opulent office was separated from the outside world by a pane of one way glass protecting his identity, allowing him to relax.

Which is exactly what he's doing.

Eating a bowl of ice cream while watching the cameras of his indoor basketball court on one screen.

Seeing Sero slowly losing a game of 2-on-1 against Shinso and Juzo.

And on the other screen he was waiting for Nezu to pick up and join the call.

"Hello?" Nezu's voice rings out as he finally answers. "Is your camera working?"

"Don't have a camera," Law says as Nezu's face appears on the screen. He sees the mouse put down the phone and go back to typing on the computer. "You told me to call you at this time, what took you so long to answer?"

"I got a bit caught up with David and Power Loader with designing a new training area, and the stadium for the next Sports Festival, among other things."

"Other things?" Law asks.

"The finishing touches for our new security measures, can't take any chances with the UA Culture Festival after all."

"The UA Culture Festival being open to the public is already the biggest risk, which is why I still think you should cancel it."

Nezu sighs and shakes his head, "yes, that would be the logical thing. But the students already feel as if UA has become a prison. It's not enough to survive, they need to also live a little. Plus lots of them want their parents, family, or friends to come visit during the Culture Festival." 2

"Just more security risks."

"Luckily you're there to watch over everyone then, right?"

"Whatever."

"And how is the concert coming along? I assume you'll be on…let me guess, keyboards?"

"Momo is playing those," Law says. "And I won't on stage since I'm working security."

"I'm sure you could manage both," Nezu says.

"I can, but I don't want to give any more time than I already do to nonsense like that, using the fact that you have me working security as an excuse is just convenient."

"That's not very Plus Ultra of you," Nezu shakes his head. "The entire world adores you yet you insist on not being a part of it." 2

"Life is easier when I'm held apart. I'll have to make hard choices, it'll keep my head clear," Law says as he eats his ice cream. "Isn't that why you're always in your office instead of having classes of your own. So its easier to deal with the loss of the people you train?" 1

Nezu stops typing and thinks about it for a moment, then continues, "yes, I suppose that does help. I tried to have a class of my own once, but sometimes heroes die, and all I could think is what I could have done better to prepare her…" 1

"And yet you want me to do that?"

"The good overshadows the bad, seeing them graduate and go on to be top Pro Heroes is quite the feeling." 2

"I'll take your word for it, now can we get to business?"

"Business regarding that charity event from last night, right?" Nezu asks. "How was your date?"

"Wasn't a date, you know that. And the investigation went well, I've already followed up on a lead."

"Would you like me to ask how that went?"

"I'd rather you didn't," Law says. "But did you hear about the donation I made."

"Ahh yes, the billion dollar donation, record breaking for a single instant donation in recent years…but I still hold the record you know." 1

"I don't have that much money," Law says. 5

"Well either way, for a man who doesn't trust those 'charity scams' you were certainly generous. Did Ryukyu have such an effect on you?"

"As if I'd let any woman control my money," Law scoffs. "I donated so you can easily track it, I already sent you the account info I used to donate it."

"You do realize Hero Insurance doesn't cover this, right, the money is gone," Nezu says. 1

"Its just money."

"And tracking such things without a warrant is illegal," Nezu informs him. "I'm sure you could speed the process along and have one within six months if you ask Pantu." 1

"This stays between us Nezu," Law says. "I just need you to track where my donation went to, then from there you can mark the accounts receiving the money and give me names for the other sources. If one person there was working with villain groups then there were likely others too.

I got a list of contacts from my lead, I'll cross reference it with the names you give me and start questioning them from there."

"This is still immoral, if not illegal," Nezu says.

"Tracking my own donation is within my legal rights since I donated over 50% of last nights money," Law says. "Think of this as just being extra sure that nothing bad is happening with my money."

"And wallet watching one of the most respected doctors and philanthropists in the world, how do you hope to explain this if Dr. Garaki realizes you've been keeping an eye on his organization and sponsors."

"I'll simply explain what I've already found and give him the proof, its not like we haven't spoken before…even if it was over the phone."

"You asking for help filling out a Quirk DNA database from his logs and you trying to explain this aren't the same, not to mention the public image crisis and--"

"Nezu," Law cuts him off. "Can you do it?"

Nezu sighs, "I'll be tracking too many names, I won't have time to keep up with them myself…but I can make a program to do it and compare it to the list of names you'll send me later. Then it will alert you whenever we get a match." 1

"Thank you, see, quite simple."

"Or you could learn to code so I won't have to act as tech support," Nezu suggests. "I can teach you…"

"I prefer working with people than machines. Why learn something when I can outsource it to people I trust," Law shrugs. 1

"Fair enough, but did you really donate a billion dollars just for this?"

"Well, the publicity it gives me isn't bad."

"You're Horizon, when are you ever not in the media?"

"And I like giving to the less fortunate, well, children who never had a chance to be children, adults can figure their own problems out." 1

"That sounds more like it. You know it wouldn't kill you to show the public the softer side of you."

"It actually might, so I shouldn't chance it," Law chuckles. "Oh, but watching Kyukyu's reaction was certainly worth it, I mean it's just money after all. And now that Japan is more stable and sanctions are being lifted my businesses are actually being profitable, I'll make that money back in a few months."

"And that's not counting the Miracle's you sell, if you still do those."

"I do, but only one a week," Law says. "My schedule is getting a bit hectic."

"Like planning the single biggest anti smuggling operation in the history of Japan?" Nezu asks. "I mean the fact that you'll be simultaneously attacking just over a dozen bases in one night, that's quite something."

"Yeah well, the perks of being a former 'villain' or whatever, is that you actually know who you have to go take down to collapse the black market, makes life a lot easier."

"Its a miracle they've existed this long without any Hero or undercover agent finding out about them, or someone betraying them," Nezu says.

"Its honestly not that hard," Law shrugs. "They have people in the Commission and Police force, high and low ranking people, plus some Pro Heroes. When mom and I would go on hits across the world we'd usually have an informant within the police force or government giving us intel."

"Too bad there aren't enough people who can detect lies, and unlike Tsukauchi and Pantu, we can't simply trust them all."

"Plus the easiest solution would be to have the lie detector be the inside man," Law says. "Can't get any better than that right, they can just throw someone else under the bus to save themselves." 1

"I suppose you're right, and how are things at Horizon Tower with your new guest?"

"Ryukyu?" Law asks. "She's great, enjoying the pool area right now with Ryuko. I swear I've got the best or worst luck ever with this, my girls always get along."

"I thought you said you and Ryukyu aren't--"

"We're not, but I'm a dreamer. My team is playing some basketball right now, they got in pretty early this morning and slept all day, and we aren't doing any patrols later. Saving all our strength for the raid tomorrow."

"And are they ready for that?"

"Alone, no. But I'll be there, along with some coast guard boats eventually. So worst case scenario I rip it out of the ocean and throw it into the sun, its a small island after all."

"..."

"I'm kidding," Law rolls his eyes. "I can't throw it into the sun…" 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 219: CHAPTER 215(Black Market Raid) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--300 Km 186mi off the main coast, 7 PM…

On a small fleet of coast guard boats, multiple squads of heavily armed members of the Japanese coast guard and police force, ready for this mysterious raid that they've been brought to partake in. 1

None of them were told what's going on, and they don't know where they're going. They were simply ordered to be prepared and show up, ready to follow Horizon's lead.

Understandably this makes the men and women nervous, but such measures had to be taken to ensure the targets wouldn't be alerted by any spies or bugs they have within the system.

As the leading boat moves through the dark water Horizon is on his hoverboard, sitting as it floats in the air leading the way.

"They've already made contact?" Horizon asks, speaking to Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters through his visor.

"Yes sir," the person responds. "Teams Endeavor, Crust, Edgeshot, and Yoroi Musha have already engaged the targets. All other teams much like yours are preparing to ambush the targets or quietly evacuating civilians." 3

"Any surprises?" Horizon asks.

"Sir?"

"Nomu, named villains, special weapons, anything?"

"None have been reported as of yet."

Horizon thinks for a moment, then looks into the distance, sensing a small landmass at the edge of his Room. "Well that's to be expected, anything special would be held here at their main entry point, which is why I'm here."

"Yes sir, I'll keep you updated on the status of the other teams."

"Thanks, radio silence unless necessary," Horizon hovers down to the main deck where a squad of officers are sitting with his team. "We're almost there, just a few more minutes," he says before taking out his phone and pathing into the live feed from the other raids.

Very few heroes actually had body cameras or any kind of recording equipment on them, but for this Horizon especially requested them. And since this was his operation most people didn't have much choice but to comply.

He sees through Nejire's camera that Ryukyu has begun the charge into their target, a large factory at their docks.

Hopping over to Mirko's camera he can barely notice anything as she's constantly moving about, too fast to ever give a clear picture.

He sees Setsuna's camera feed floating about a apartment building, 'so she's using her Quirk to more accurately send info back to her team before they raid the building, good move.'

And through Majestic's camera he sees Momo setting up her rifle across from the building as other Pro Heroes rush into the lobby.

That entire building was one massive storage facility in the heart of their city.

As he's checking on the other teams, the police officers, coast guard, and his team are anxiously awaiting his next order.

"So, is he always like this?" One of the police officers asks, looking over at Cellophane, Simon, and Mudman.

"What do you mean?" Cellophane asks.

"Super serious. I mean I appreciate it but, you guys are a lot more serious than most Pro Heroes, and definitely more than most students."

"Its hard not to be after our summer camp," Simon says. "Not to mention keeping up with that workaholic doesn't leave much time for anything else."

"Why doesn't he just sit down here on the boat?" One of the coast guard asks. "Kind of weird how he's always on the hoverboard."

"Maybe he gets seasick," a police officer suggests.

"Horizon just doesn't like being on the ocean," Cellophane says.

"Really? What, he can't swim?" a few members of the coast guard can't help but laugh at the idea. 4

"No he can swim," Mudman says. "Its just the saltwater corrodes his gears you know."

"Ahhh," the entire group immediately understands what he's saying.

"Didn't even think about that," one woman says. "Guess being a cyborg comes with a lot of downsides huh." 3

Cellophane does his best and barely contains his laughter, along with Mudman, while Simon just rolls his eyes.

"We're here," Horizon says through their earpieces as he descends.

"Where is 'here', exactly?" the captain asks.

"That," he points to a shadowy island only a few miles away. "It's one of the last remaining man-made islands from the last war. We used them to supply the navy blockade that held back the American fleets, this is one of the few that survived the war."

"And what are we doing with it?" the captain asks.

"The black market is a intricate system of suppliers and buyers, but they mostly run their contraband through a few families. This is a major hub for it. This island was a naval resupply point, and a underwater submarine refueling station."

"So a massive warehouse," the captain says.

"Its where they keep most of their product in Japan, and prep it for shipping with ships or submarines, but the subs head to America from here, the boats go into Europe."

"This sounds like a serious fight, should we call for more backup?"

"No, that's why we're here," Horizon says, and everyone listening in through the comms network felt a bit more at ease. "You won't be fighting, you're just here to make the arrests official.

These guys have a lot of manpower, and since this is a massive smuggling depot they have even more firepower and ammunition, effectively a endless supply. Plus who knows what else they have down there.

But when we take this place out and arrest them, the supply chain falls apart, a lot of buyer and suppliers lose their money. And similar organizations around the world will start hunting any bosses in Japan that we miss to get back their investments, they'll finish the job for us."

Everyone gets tense as they approach the shore, but Horizon stays relaxed, moving to hover ahead of the boats as he still sits on the board.

"We're beginning out strike," he alerts the switchboard at Commission HQ.

"Copy, proceed at will," they say in return.

"Slow the boats down, I need to give them a proper greeting…" Horizon says as he stands on the board, and the boat operators slow their pace to a crawl giving him some distance. 1

The island was now visible, small, only 3km 2mi wide, surrounded by deep waters befitting its purpose for the war.

There was one mound of earth on it and a small patch of trees, but overall nothing suspicious, which is exactly what the criminals intended.

At the side of the mound of earth were the massive blast doors. Specially made to withstands nuclear attacks, as was this entire base. But the doors appears to be rusted shut, only in appearance.

This entire facility was heavily damaged and unstable, costing too much to repair and not providing much use after the war, thus abandoned. But its new residents were willing to repair it, while keeping the dilapidated fa ade.

"Alright, lets wake them up…"

--Hero Public Safety Commission Headquarters…

Sitting at the back of the massive communications room. Pantu is alone at a desk, flanked by two agents standing behind her.

Ahead of her is a long desk with 15 special agents, each monitoring a different team in this massive operation.

And ahead of them are rows upon rows of agents monitoring the actions of individual Pro Heroes on this raid and reporting in what they find.

"Horizon is about to start, bring me the feed from his raid on the main screens," Pantu says. Her voice wasn't raised, even in his room of seeming endless chatter and cross talking, and yet they heard her and did as told.

At the far side of the room the entire wall reveals itself to be three large screens. One showing the feed from Cellophane, the middle showing the feed from Horizon himself. And the final one from the leading Coast Guard officer who has overall command of the police and military forces on the raid.

"Alright, lets wake them up," Horizon's slightly mechanical voice quietly reaches their ears, causing most people to glance up from their monitors to see what's going on.

They see a calm ocean, and a seemingly innocent island.

And between the boats and the island Horizon is casually standing on his hoverboard.

Then he raises both his hands in a casual gesture, and says a single word while pointing one finger upward.

"Takt…" 1

Nothing happens for the first few seconds.

The the calm waters begin to ripple just ahead of him.

Then more ripples, another to his left, a third to his right.

Two more on either side.

And a silence befalls the previously chatter filled room as 5 massive submarines, nearly 200m 656ft long and 17,000 tons each are ripped out of the water.

Pantu's face shows no reaction, but her finger is nervously tapping the desk. She recognizes the models, outdated relics from the last war, at least 150 years old.

Thankfully not nuclear, but still sights to behold as they're torn out of the water like paperweight playthings.

And with a wave of his hand Horizon casually tosses them into the air and toward the island.

A few people in the room flinch as the loud crash and sounds of metal collapsing under its own weight ring out as the submarines go rolling and smashing into each other.

As everyone is still stunned silent Pantu glances at the agents responsible for Hawks and Ryukyu's teams, the only Pro Heroes she controlled who knew how dangerous Horizon could be, and peeks at their monitors.

Seeing Hawks was dealing with a dozen gunmen holding fortified positions at his location, and Ryukyu was facing a similar problem.

All while she glances back up to see Horizon casually overlooking the island and the damage he caused, with seemingly just a wave of his hand.

"Focus on your tasks," Pantu's voice snaps everyone back to their senses and the room becomes filled with chatter once more.

--Back with Horizon…

He turns around on his hoverboard to see everyone staring at what he just did with wide eyes, then just speaks through the comms, "we'll go knock, be sure to take your time to account for everything you see. These guys rather die than get caught so leave the fighting to us, alright?"

"Yes sir," the police officers and coast guard repeat as one.

"Alright, Team Horizon, lets go…" 3

SHAMBLES!

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 220: CHAPTER 216(Black Market Raid Pt.2)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"What the hell is going on out there?!" A man in simple combat garbs screams as he rushes into the room, already holding a ball of pink flames in his right hand.

He enters the massive warehouse entrance to see dozens of men standing guard, either with their Quirks or rifles ready and aimed toward the massive blast doors leading outside the hideout.

"We don't know sir," one man says. "The alarms just went off and we rushed up here, but the door isn't opening."

Looking around the warehouse he sees only a few crates scattered about with men already behind them for cover.

All around him and on the stairs and railings hanging above are more men ready to kill any heroes or cops that dare enter this hideout.

This is their main shipping post toward the western hemisphere after all, they can't afford to lose the product here.

"Stall them for as long as we can, no prisoners, only trophies! Anyone that lives gets a nice bonus when this is over!" he sees them men get excited at the sound of that as he lowers his weapon, raising a hand to his ear.

"Sir?"

"Start loading everything onto the subs, fit as much as we can, we've been compromised."

"Sir, the subs are…gone."

"Gone?! What do you mean gone?!"

"They were pulled out of the water somehow, they're atop the island now. The underground docks were flooded when they got pulled away, we're trapped unless we can get the other boats outside."

"Then call for backup, we'll stall until they get here."

"They're currently under attack by Crust sir, along with most of our other bases."

"Fuck!" the man yells out, startling his men. "New plan men," he points to the door. "Kill everyone between us and their boats, we're taking their boats and anything we can fit on them then heading south until we're out of Japan's territory!"

He raises a hand to his earpiece, "did you get that?"

"Yes sir, we're loading up all the carriables now."

"Tch," the man recreates the pink fireball in his left hand, and holds a piston in his right. "Nearly 50 Million a year to keep our operations hidden and we still get raided by some fucking heroes…the boss isn't gonna like this."

The sound of metal creaking and stone breaking echoes out as the entire massive chamber begins rumbling.

"Did anyone get a look at who they sent?!" the man asks, and gets no response. "Doesn't matter, just kill them all and take the boats!"

"Yes boss!" they all yell at once.

A moment later and the massive blast doors are torn out of the structure, taking a piece of the roof with them as they get tossed out of vision off to the side.

Over 50m 165ft long, 20m 65ft tall, and 2m 6ft thick of solid reinforced steel, torn away as if it were nothing.

The sound of metal clatter and the vibrations of it are felt through the room as dust from the broken structure obscures their view.

"Fire!" the boss commands, and into the dust and darkness thousands of bullets go flying.

The cacophony of gunfire echoes in on itself and is almost deafening, continuing for nearly twenty seconds before the man raises his hand, and the room goes silent once more.

The sound of empty magazines hitting the floor is all that they hear as everyone reloads, before a deep chuckle reaches them, something they never thought they'd hear again.

As if ripped from their nightmares.

Then it laughs.

"Hahaha," All Might's booming voice has them trembling in their boots. "Your weapons are meaningless in the face of justice you fiends. Why? Because I am here!" 3

Some of the men stumble back, nearly tripping as they mutter to themselves.

Others are already reliving the memories of their last encounter with the Symbol Of Peace.

And even more are dazed and confused, sweating profusely at the sound of his voice.

"But, he's retired, right?"

Dozens of similar questions are mutters, exactly as planned.

BRAINWASHING COMPLETE! 1

Two dozen men go catatonic, seemingly paralyzed by fear.

"Good work Simon," Horizon's says as he steps through the dust, out of the darkness and into the light. 1

Behind him, to his left, everyone recognized Cellophane, and on the other side are Simon and Mudman.

"Huh? But All Might…" the boss looks around confused.

Simon shrugs, "he's with us in spirit," he says in All Might's voice, and the pieces finally connect.

The man's eyebrows furrow, feeling like a fool he throws a pink fireball forward, "kill them!" he commands.

But only half his men fire.

Beams of energy, fire, electricity, and of course bullets all converge on the heroes.

"Curtain," Horizon says in a bored tone, raising his hand to erect a thin blue rectangular shield to defend them, and none of the heroes even flinch.

Seeing this the boss looks around, noticing half his men standing around being useless.

"Why aren't you firing?!" he screams, stopping his attack to cool down before using his Quirk again, the skin on his hand already drying out.

"Rrrargh! Fine, I'll kill them myself!" the man yells as he puts both his hands together to make a massive fireball, one that will envelop the entire shield and certainly hit them.

He raising both hands above his head and is about to combine the energy and swing down, when suddenly he loses balance.

"What the hell!" he yells out as he stumbles and falls backward, cancelling the attack. "Agh!"

He splashed backward into softened concrete, barely thicker than water and quickly begins sinking.

The sound of gunfire almost entirely stops as everyone on the ground floor experience this at once.

He cranes his neck to look at the heroes, only to see Mudman crouched down beside Horizon with both palms on the floor, softening a thin line of the floor before it travels under the shield and expands. 1

"That brat, I'll ki--" his efforts to push himself out of the ground are suddenly halted as it immediately hardens.

Only his shoulders and head are out of the floor, leaving the rest of him entire in the ground, completely helpless.

He looks around, pissed off, suddenly noticing most of his men are trapped just like him. Craning his neck he sees the men on the metal structure above them were safe, over half of them were stunned in place while the others were still shooting.

"Don't stop shooting!" the boss yells out, doubling down even in this desperate situation.

Horizon rolls his eyes beneath the visor, "Simon…"

"Sigh, alright," Simon, still speaking in All Might's voice points at one of the five remaining shooter on the upper level. "In the foot, shoot him!"

Most of the men simply ignore him, until the man he pointed at screams out, shot by the brainwashed ally nearby.

"What the hell?!" Another man yells out, halting his fire to check on his friend. "Friendly fire! Friendly fire!" this only adds to the confusion of the situation.

Simon points to the man who just started yelling next, "shoot him in the foot!"

"Argh!" the next man screams out, but the others quickly turn their guns on their brainwashed allies, catching onto the trick.

But they don't execute them, instead they simply move in to detain their allies, by knocking them out or shooting them in the limb.

"That's as many as I'll get," Simon says. "You're up Cellophane…" 3

"Gotcha," Cellophane shoots two lines of tape at the shield and being backing away, careful not to leave cover but enough to give himself a running start.

As he gets far enough, Horizon gives him a nod, and he begins retracting his tape.

The force of his gear retracting it rips him off the ground and catapults him toward the shield.

"Takt," Horizon says, and the few remaining guns stops firing, their trigger stuck in place no matter how hard them men squeezed them.

And as Cellophane is barely an inch from slamming face first into the shield, Horizon drops it.

He rockets into the warehouse and swings from the ceiling, into the upper levels.

With practiced ease he takes out the final three men on that floor then tosses them all over the railing.

By the time they land the bottom floor is once again softened, trapping them and anyone else Mudman missed earlier.

Without looking back Cellophane shoots a line of tape and swings down into the circular hallway, deeper into the island bunker, exactly as planned.

Horizon casually walks up, waving back at the darkness to signal the police to come ashore and collect these criminals.

"Damn it!" the boss still yells. "Get em out of here and I'll--"

Horizon kicks him in the head, breaking his jaw and knocking him out.

"Finally some quiet," Horizon says, then turns to Mudman and Simon, "good work, first big case and you handled yourselves well, you'll look great on this," he taps the side of his visor, signally to the camera within.

"Shouldn't we go after Cellophane?" Mudman asks.

"He's fine," Horizon shrugs as he begins walking toward the deeper entrance. "I'm keeping an eye on him from here."

"Do we free these men now?" Simon asks, still in All Might's voice, then begins fiddling with his mask to adjust it.

"No, leave them here until everyone is captured, then you and Mudman can help the cops wrap them up in the other boats we have coming."

"Got it," Simon says, now in a normal voice.

As they enter the hallway they see a line of unconscious bodies, some with broken noses, others taped to surfaces, including the ceiling.

"No wonder you weren't worried," Mudman says as he touches the wall while the walk, sending a thin line of this Quirk's Softening which expands below the bodies to swallow them.

Then hardens it to trap them, with only their heads exposed.

"He's been training with me the longest, I'm finally making some progress," Horizon says as he steps over some bodies. 1

As they walk through the building they hear the odd gunshot ever so often, but Horizon doesn't react. And Scalpel still hovers at his side while they walk at a casual pace.

Eventually they come to a ladder around a circular entrance leading straight down. On the ceiling above it is a line of tape, extending all the way down the hole.

"This is the fastest route to the command room, lets go," Horizon casually steps off the ledge.

He falls for 40m 130ft before hitting the ground.

Using Booster Shot he braces his legs and body to take the impact of the fall, bending his knees and crouching to alleviate the force.

Taking a few steps forward he looks back, seeing Mudman sliding down the wall by Softening the metal structure just enough to slow his descent.

As he hops off he steps aside as Simon is seconds behind him.

Mudman puts his hand against the softened metal and quickly hardens it again, then looks down at the bent metal grates of this hallway where Horizon landed.

"Didn't know you could jump like that," Mudman says as they catch back up.

"He can't," Simon says. "He can brace his body or enhance some linear movements, but sudden explosive power isn't his thing, did I get it right?"

"Pretty much," Horizon stops at a massive security door, but they hear gunfire further away as Horizon secures a special package Horizon sent him for. 2

Without a word Horizon gestures to the door and makes a pulling motion. Familiar with how he operates both Mudman and Simon step back as the security door is torn out of the wall by his Takt.

"Guess you don't need the explosive physical power like All Might when you can do that, huh," Mudman says.

"Yeah, but jumping around and flying with air pressure would have been cool," Horizon admits. 5

They walk into the room, a security room setup by the black market operators for the upper floors, but enough to give the access Horizon needed.

Looking at the far wall Horizon points at it, "soften that wall and go two rooms across, there is a lady hiding there, she's armed, that's the logistics manager for this place. Then soften the floor till you get into the main underground docks, Mudman is about to hit the armory, but you'll get to him before that." 1

"Why, can't you warp?" Mudman asks.

"Don't want you relying on me too much," Horizon says as he raising his left hand, taking the wire connecting to his left arms bracer of his costume.

Mudman begins softening the wall as Simon glances over at Horizon, "thought you didn't like dealing with too much tech."

"I don't, so Nezu built me a program to do it for me…"

Minutes later after dealing with the logistics manager of this stronghold, Mudman and Simon are sprinting at full speed after hearing an explosion on the lower floors.

They rush down the last set of stairs to see Cellophane leaning against a wall trying to catch his breath, as bullets rocket out of the hallway beside him.

They both slow down and quietly get beside him.

"These are the last three guys, but they're in the armory," Cellophane says.

"That explains why you stopped," Mudman says. "You're really damn good at this, at least from all the people we saw knocked out on the way here."

"Yeah well I've been training with Horizon longer, but this guy has a narrow hallway, and a rocket launcher, and he thinks I'm gone. But at least they heard my voice…"

Simon immediately begins fiddling with his mask.

Mudman nods to him and crouches down, putting his hands on the floor and closing his eyes, listening carefully.

Cellophane takes a few steps away and shoots a line of tape, ready to swing into the hallway and rocket toward the armory.

They each nod to each other as the plan begins.

"Can we talk this out?" Simon asks, in Cellophane's voice.

"Just die already," one of the men yells out as he fires a few bullets.

Simon immediately brainwashes him, and in the same instant Cellophane shoots past them and launches himself down the narrow hallway.

The sound of a RPG going off reaches Mudman's ears and he immediately softens the wall at the end of the hallway, the most likely target for anyone with half a brain, especially since he know Cellophane is in the middle of the hallway.

Cellophane narrowly dodges the rocket, not looking back as he springs forward and dropkicks the main in the face, all while his brainwashed ally stands motionless.

The rocket hit the far wall, and sinks in as if it were water, going 10m 30ft deep before the concrete immediately hardens behind it.

And a small tremor is felt as a tiny crack forms in the wall.

Mudman sighs in relief, "Horizon was right, our team is perfect for this kind of thing…" 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 221: CHAPTER 217(Government Deals)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Final sweep complete sir, we're heading back up now," a police officer says.

The man appeared to be in his mid forties, just like his partner who was standing beside him.

His partner was looking around this underground submarine bay of the Black Market Hideouts with a bored expression.

Both men were armed and armored in specialized assault gear for this raid, yet the police didn't have to fire a single bullet.

All around them were cracks and deformed sections of ground and walls, with the occasional odd strip of tape draped about. All signs of Team Horizon clearing out the gunmen that were bunkered down in this area.

Bloodstains included…

"I don't see why we even have to sweep," the other man says as they begin walking back to the surface. "Horizon double checked the base, its not like we'll find anything he missed anyway."

"That's not the point," the first man says. "Its protocol, he isn't a Fully Licensed Pro Hero yet, so we have to double check his work instead of just taking his word for it."

"He's already better than the pro heroes, might as well just give him a license already."

"A break out own regulations just to make an exception for one person?" his partner questions the idea. "And how many more concessions will we make just because people are 'special' in the future? Its better for our society if nobody gets special treatment." 2

"You're just saying that because you're jealous," the other man teases as they continue walking up the corridors to the surface. "If you had a Quirk like his you'd want special treatment too, I'm sure he does."

"If I had his Quirk I probably wouldn't be a Hero," the man quietly admits, surprising his partner. "I can barely deal with taking stupid orders now, and my Quirk sucks. Imagine if I had the power to do whatever I wanted and literally nobody could stop me, recipe for disaster."

"Star and Stripe could stop you," he argues.

"Yeah but she's in America, this is Japan."

"Fair enough."

"But my point is, it takes a lot of will and a very strong sense of good and justice to sit around taking orders from people you're a million times stronger than. His parents must have been damn good heroes to raise him like that." 17

The other man chuckles, "yeah, my daughter is just a year older than him and I have trouble keeping her away from beer and boys, imagine having to discipline a kid that can level a city by swinging a sword or warp you away whenever he wants."

"We got lucky. He had good parents and was born with a good heart." 8

"Yeah, real lucky," the other man mutters as they arrive back at the surface, seeing the destroyed entryway where the fight began.

Walking out they're once again united with all the police officers packing up the captured criminals into special boats.

And glancing off to the side they see Team Horizon speaking to their captain, away from all the rubble and destruction.

With Horizon holding a small metal case in his hand.

"Looks like an argument," the man mutters to his partner as they begin approaching.

"I hope not," the other man says. "His team were joking around on the way here, but they're kind of scary when they fight."

"Yeah, we didn't even need to fire a single bullet, kids these days are getting ridiculous…"

"Lieutenants," the captain turns to them. "Did you see anything else on the way up?"

"All clear sir, nothing but rubble from the fighting, everything else is right here and the control room is still secured," the man gestures to the dozens of crates being loaded into the shipping containers.

"All aside from that," the captain looks down at the case Horizon was carrying, then glances over to Team Horizon who were nearby chatting amongst themselves.

"This one comes with me, if you've got a problem, take it up with President Pantu," Horizon says.

The captain immediately backs off, "alright, just making sure. We're about ready to head out. We did manage to intercept and stop all their attempts at communication, but just incase I'd rather you hover around nearby rather than leaving us and flying off to Tokyo."

"Believe me, I'm not leaving until I see all of this stuff locked up and secured, when we get back to shore I'll warp into into the facility we have ready nearby, can't have any eyes on the location after all." 1

"I see," the captain says, realizing Horizon and/or Pantu believe their are spies in the police force. 1

Which also explains why they weren't given any details about this raid.

The man just rubs the back of his head and shrugs, "well, dealing with problems like that is above my paygrade anyway, I'll just give the Commission a call to make sure everything get where it needs to go later."

"I appreciate you not making this more annoying than it has to be," Horizon extends his hand which the man shakes, "it was a pleasure working with you and your men, sir."

The man chuckles, "well we got to sit back and just put the cuffs on after the fact, so the pleasure was really all ours."

--3 Hours Later…

Horizon is on the couch in Pantu's office with his feet up on the coffee table, leaning back while playing a game on his phone.

The metal case he brought with him was resting on the table as well.

A few more moments pass before he takes his feet off the table and look toward the door, putting his phone away.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," President Pantu says as she enters the room.

And Horizon stands as President Pantu and her guest, the ambassador of Germany, enters behinds her. 1

A woman in her mid thirties with dark black hair and pale white skin, almost looking as if she were a black and white painting, with gorgeous features and all.

'Must be some Quirk,' Horizon thinks.

"Its a pleasure to meet you, Horizon," the woman says as she shakes his hand, and looking up at him she can't help but say, "you're much taller than I expected."

She stood at 5fft2 157cm while he was now 6ft4-195cm-, leaving a noticeable gap between them. 1

"I get that a lot," Horizon says. "And its a pleasure to meet you as well, now, can we get to why we're all here."

"Yes, lets take a seat and discuss what happened tonight," Pantu says, gesturing to the seats around the coffee table.

"Is this really it?" the ambassador asks, gesturing to the case.

"Only you can confirm that, since I don't have the code," Horizon says. 2

"Right," the woman takes the case and enters the 20 digit code, and it immediately pops open.

It releases its air tight seal with a hiss as a cold draft is let out. She then fully opens it for them to see the computer chip carefully held inside.

She places the entire thing on the table and carefully looks at it before closing the case, sealing it once again in a cold vacuum.

"Now I have one less worry in the world," she says. "Thank you, truly, for returning this to us."

"No problem," Horizon says. "But now can you please explain what that thing is? Must be very important if you're here in person for it. Not to mention President Pantu wouldn't let me warp it to the secret storage facility with everything else we seized tonight."

"Its a computer chip," Pantu says. "Germany is working on more accessible Quantum Supercomputer, like the one Nezu has."

"It won't be as powerful as his," the ambassador says. "But this will allow all the medical research facilities in Europe to put more of their funds into research and development rather than buying time slots on expensive corporate owned computers for simulations."

"And let you steal all the data," Horizon says.

"We'd do no such thing," she says, and Pantu detects no lies.

"Really?"

"This is a purely humanitarian project, overseen by the United Nations Medical Council directly. And while I understand your skepticism, you of all people can surely understand giving to others and expecting no reward. That is what your Miracle Ward is all about is it not?"

"Fair enough," Horizon says. "But why was it in Japan, in a Black Market facility about to be shipped out."

"There were a string of break-ins at government facilities all across Europe this past year," she says, surprising both Horizon and Pantu. "The public hasn't been made aware, but someone has been collecting technology all across the world for a while now, and they're getting more and more bold."

"I-Island," Pantu says.

The woman nods, "we believe they were behind that as well, but luckily this was already sent to Germany before that tragedy took place."

"Then we'll put all our facilities on alert, just incase," Pantu says. "Thank you for visiting, and do keep me informed if any such incidents happen in the future."

"Thank you for so generously helping us, and of course for keeping this off the record," the woman nods as she stands up, ready to leave.

"It was a pleasure meeting you," Horizon says, causing her to turn to him.

"Likewise, now before I go," she reaches into her jacket and takes out a small envelope and hands it to Pantu. "A list of criminal organizations that we suspect are sending operatives from Europe into Japan to recruit known villains. Now that Horizon is scaring people away they're swarming like vultures."

Pantu takes it, "and you want us to work together and trap them, alright, I'll look into it."

"And for you," she turns to Horizon. "As a special thanks, from my people to you," she gives him a similar envelope.

"Always happy to help…"

As the woman leaves Pantu walks over to her office trashcan and tosses the envelope inside, then casually walks back to her seat, all while maintaining the icy fa ade.

"So I'm guessing you don't plan to help her…"

"Obviously not. If our villains want to go to other countries, and their villains want to recruit them, that's a positive for us."

"Until it gives Japan the reputation of breeding villains and infecting the world with them."

"No, we have Horizon," Pantu says. "We can't be blamed for our Pro Heroes being so great that villains simply run away. The public will turn on their own governments, blaming them for not being able to stop villains, after all, why would villains go to places that make their lives harder…" 1

"Ahh," Horizon quickly understands. "That'll lead to more militarization and governments being tougher on Pro heroes, so the same thing I did for Japan…I'm slowly doing to the rest of the world. I guess I'm more influential than I thought."

"All while Japan is peaceful and happy," Pantu says as she raises a finger to her earpiece.

Horizon opens his envelope and reads the letter within, then looks back up as Pantu is done with the call.

"All the raid teams are accounted for, and the seized items are all being sent to local armories and military facilities."

"All but mine, because of course the special items I seized can't be put on the books," Horizon says.

"That's why you had to be the one to go to that base, you're one of the few people I know can handle themselves if they turned those weapons on you. But you assigned yourself that because it would give you the most credit as its the most dangerous, correct?"

"Mostly for my team," Horizon says. "You could have just let me blow it all up with the island, they had enough C4 there to sink the whole thing."

"The controlled destruction of everything we seized tonight will be done after everything is accounted for, don't you want to have a big shiny number attached to your first major operation as leader?"

"Well, when you put it like that, yeah that makes sense," Horizon chuckles. "Tomorrow night this should be all over the news, but as for this night that's already over, I still have work to do."

As he gets up and puts the letter and envelope away Pantu looks up at him, "what was her offer?"

"All the money in the world," Horizon says. "Or as much of it as they could manage, but no amount is enough to break our deal, so you don't have to worry about that." 2

She detecting no lies.

"Horizon," she says before he warps away, making him stop for a moment. Standing up and looking at his visor, she decides to be direct with him. "I don't doubt that you will be our greatest hero, and that you will easily graduate UA.

But we both know that when I release them to you, when your family is whole again. I will make you another offer, to stay in Japan as our #1 Pro Hero." 5

"Anyone in your position would, but why are you telling me this obvious play now?"

"Because we both appreciate people being direct, so I'm simply going to ask you," Pantu says. "What will it take?"

Horizon looks at her and sighs, "you know. I don't have any hard feeling for what happened to me, to us, to get here…well, maybe a little bit for Hawks. But I accept what happened as a risk of the life we chose to live, it is what it is. But I have no idea what it would take to get me to stay here, instead of going somewhere else and starting over…" 3

With that Horizon warps away, and once more Pantu detects no lies in his words… 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 222: CHAPTER 218(Team Horizon Debrief)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Horizon Tower, 2 AM…

SHAMBLES!

Horizon warps back into his tower, into the kitchen where he moves to get a glass of liquor.

"Oh! Oh! Check out this part!" he hears Sero yelling from the living room. "I kicked this guy so hard his tooth stabbed his friend in the face!" 6

A few moments later and Horizon walks into the living room, seeing Sero, Juzo, and Shinso, sitting on the couches eating a late dinner and having some drinks, mostly beer, with Juzo drinking a soda.

The room was somewhat dim with his massive TV showing footage from Sero's body camera, from the raid hours prior.

As per usual, after each day with a incident resolved they have to review their footage and edit it before uploading, hence the laptop beside Juzo who was already editing his video.

"Did anything happen on the way back here?" Horizon asks, and none of them react to him suddenly entering the conversating or taking a seat beside Shinso.

"Minato Tokyo is quiet tonight," Shinso says. 1

"We just got done deciding what should get cut and what should stay from Shinso and my footage," Juzo says. "Ours was pretty boring compared to Sero."

Sero chuckles at that, "well, when you guys have enough hours of indoor combat training with Horizon you can join me in those cramped hallway fights."

"That's Sero's role," Horizon says. "To be flexible and mobile, plus capable enough to back up any position. It just so happened that this time he was our vanguard for the siege."

"A role I'm surprised you didn't take," Shinso says.

"The public already knows what I can do, this was about showing them how formidable Team Horizon is without me," he shrugs. "I need any of you to be able to lead teams with Fully Licensed Pro Heroes in my stead while commanding respect. You are the next Big Three after all."

They all think about it for a moment while Horizon takes a sip of his drink, sensing Ryuko already asleep in his bed.

"Anyway, what was your favorite part of the raid?" he asks.

"Oh!" Juzo looks up from the laptop. "Definitely Shinso doing that thing with All Might's voice."

"I've been working on that for a while, but I can only control small groups at once, and the more people I control the shorter the time, barely a few minutes," Shinso says.

He then continues, "personally I like the thing you did with the rocket, your reaction time really is incredible, and your ability to predict where people will focus on an ever changing battlefield. I see why Horizon chose you to lead in his absence."

"Well it definitely couldn't be me," Sero laughs. "Trying to keep track of so many things is one thing, but making and communicating a plan on the fly is beyond me at the moment. That's why I mostly just rush off on a solo task, so I don't need to talk I can just keep building momentum and moving.

Oh, but aside from the combo the three of us did in the hallway, I think either the submarine stuff or ripping the doors off the base was my favorite part."

"A grandiose display of power," Shinso says. "But was that harder than the skyscraper you held in the air before you came to the summer camp?"

"Honestly," Horizon thinks about it for a moment. "Pulling the subs out of the water was harder than holding them in the air, plus I had to rip them away from the docks they were in, that's why the lower levels flooded."

"Ahh, that's why those guys were rushing up from there soaked," Sero says.

"Yeah, but the four subs weren't as heavy as the skyscraper, it was like 80 stories after all. But even if it was, I'm so much stronger now that I could hold up a few of those buildings easily, so I honestly wouldn't notice."

"No wonder villains don't want to fight you, sheesh," Juzo goes back to editing.

"But back to the question, my favorite moment was definitely the first confrontation of the raid, obviously," Horizon says. "Its a perfect showcase of why I chose each of you for this team. We smashed into that base and had dozens of heavily armed and trained men locked up within a minute.

Either sealed into the floor, held at gunpoint by their allies. Tied to the ceiling or knocked out by Sero, or simply brainwashed and catatonic. Quick and efficient work, exactly what this team is all about."

"Too bad now they're all going to know my Quirk," Shinso says.

"Not necessarily," Horizon takes another sip of his drink. "Its suspiciously hard to find any footage of your matches from the sports festival, strange how that happened. Plus your Quirks are never explained by us.

Unless you go around announcing it, the general public is so stupid they'll never put the obvious pieces together, especially since we're blocking some of the only evidence they have."

"And since we won't be competing in the sports festival next year, that's all the hints they'll ever get," Shinso says.

"I'm still kind of bummed we can't compete next year," Sero says. "But being in this team is already way better than the attention that would have given us, heck Best Jeanist already sent me a request to go work with him."

"Moving up to the #3 Pro Hero, you plan to accept?" Juzo asks.

"Heck no, that guy is too reactive," Sero says. "I prefer to go looking for villains like Edgeshot instead of reacting to crimes that are already happening. Plus learning to investigate and solve cases is way more fun than sitting in a agency waiting for a call all day."

"And since I'm also working under Edgeshot it helps us build synergy," Shinso says.

"What about you Juzo?" Horizon asks. "You'll get a lot of requests after this raid goes public in a few days, any plans to leave Crust?"

"No I've still got a lot to learn from Crust, his approach is pretty good since all his Quirk gives him is a shield. Its just like how I don't really have any offensive power, so shadowing him gives me a lot of ideas. Maybe next year I'll move over to another agency, ideally Endeavor."

"He'll be #1 by then, officially at least," Horizon says. "Plus Endeavor doesn't take work studies students, he only made an exception for me because I'm Horizon, and obviously he'll take his son."

"Speaking of the raid going public," Sero cuts in. "How'd the meeting at the Commission go, are the other teams ok?"

"Minor injuries, nothing they can't walk off, mostly. But no reasons for me to leave Tokyo and go heal anyone. All the loot should be locked into nearby stations, military armories, or guarded facilities by now."

"So a complete success huh, the biggest raid of an underground criminal network in Japan for well over a century, organized and led by a student," Juzo says. "If anyone didn't think you were the real deal before, now they don't have a choice but to accept you."

"And we'll get even more famous from it," Sero grins like a idiot just thinking about it. "All the agencies will start making me even bigger offers, plus the money we'll get from taking part in this raid will be massive."

"And our predicted Hero Rankings will go up," Shinso says.

"And we'll get international fame," Juzo adds. "Mudman will finally have his name out there for the entire world to see." 2

"And the money," Sero says.

"You already said that," Horizon says.

"Its worth saying twice, I just found a real nice place closer to where my dad works to buy, if I keep working like this I'll have it in no time."

"I figured you'd be more excited for the women," Shinso says. "It seems like that's been on your mind more and more lately."

"Horizon is rubbing off on me," Sero admits. "But nah, we're still clawing our way out of debt from the last few back surgeries dad had, hell he shouldn't even be working so the longer I take the more likely he ends back up in the hospital, so money first."

"Too bad you didn't know me back then, and you should bring him to see me immediately," Horizon says as he glances down the hallway, sensing Ryuko waking up. They all notice this but are used to it by now, then he turns back to them, "but I will admit I've been enjoying the freedom and perks of being a top hero more and more lately."

"Still a workaholic though," Juzo says. "Anything else from the commission we need to know about?"

"Just the report for this raid going public tomorrow night, and this," he takes the envelope out of his jacket and puts it on the table. "The ambassador of Germany was there."

"The manga lady!" Sero says.

"What?" Shinso asks.

"She looks like a manga page, all black and white, must be some kid of ink Quirk I'd bet," Sero says.

"I didn't ask," Horizon says. "But she made me that offer."

Without hesitation or shame Sero picks up the letter and begins reading it. And both Juzo and Shinso can see the mortified and confused expression on his face.

His brain trying and failing to fathom the insane offer that was made.

"Is it that bad?" Juzo asks.

Sero just shakes his head and stiffly hands the letter to Juzo, all while looking at Horizon with genuine surprise.

Juzo scans the letter and looks aghast, "wow…I didn't think anything or anyone was worth this much money."

"How much?" Shinso asks.

"Just a little over 12 Billion dollars."

"For what?" Shinso couldn't wrap his mind around it either.

"To live there," Horizon says. "Just setup shop in the most heavily populated city, the capital. Let them move all important critical assets around the Horizon Tower I'd build there. And occasionally when a national or global emergency pops up, I solve it," he shrugs.

"So they give you that much money, just to live there?"

"It also gives them a lot of sway in the United Nations, especially the Hero Legislation board within it. Currently America has the most sway because they have Star and Stripe. Japan had almost as much back when All Might was in his prime, but now they aren't even runner up, not until I graduate and get my full license at least."

"So they want to pay you billions, for the political power that comes with your name," Juzo says. "Not to mention villains will flee Germany when you appear."

"12 Billion a year, not the best offer I've gotten, and they'll only get bigger from here."

"Would you really leave Japan?" Sero asks.

"What, can't you run this place without me here to babysit?" Horizon asks jokingly.

"Oh please, we'll be fine. But seriously, will you."

Horizon sighs, "I plan to focus more on medicine in the future and less on punching villains all day, so if someone makes me a better offer, why wouldn't I take it. I don't have anything tying me here after all."

"I guess so," Sero says , and the room gets a bit sad before Sero tries to cheer them up. "Plus America pays more, and lets you be way more hands on with villains."

Juzo joins in, "yeah but the food will stop your heart before the villains get a chance."

Shinso chuckles, "but its soo good. I mean there is a reason we're always ordering from that American burger place nearby. Its worth the health risks."

"Well if the American way is great burgers, the freedom to do whatever I want, lots of money, and permission to get hands on with villains, maybe its worth fighting for…Even if I'll be fighting heart disease more than villains…" 6

They all share a laugh at that as the debrief continues.

Celebrating Team Horizon's first major operation in the limelight…

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 223: CHAPTER 219(Grand Schemes)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Pantu sat in her office behind her desk as a hologram was project upward from it.

Showing Chitose breaking down yesterdays raid operation, the most recent, and which turned out to the among the most successful in history.

Almost as if Horizon somehow knew exactly when higher value items would be in Japan before getting shipped to America.

Only a few people put this together, but the woman sitting across from Pantu isn't one of them.

Ryukyu simply sits back and watches the broadcast.

"Horizon was busy as always when I reached out for an exclusive comment," Chitose said. "But after the reports of the suspected value of the seized assets were announced by the Hero Public Safety Commission, I just had to as. Why not trust a more experience Pro Hero with such a important operation? 2

After all, Horizon, regardless of how we view him, is technically still signed on as a Work Studies student under Endeavor, who he commanded during the raid. For this to be not only the largest but most monetarily successful operation of its nature in history, in the hands of, well, a teenage, the risk seemed far too high. 4

To this, his only response was, and I quote, 'I intend to lead the next generation of Pro Heroes, so that we may guide Japan into a better future than ever before. Why not start to practice now with the current generation?'

But with that being said, of course since he did most of the investigation and planning process to make all of this possible, handing it over likely wasn't something he was willing to, or should have done.

After all, when the future of Japan is at risk, who better to trust than Horizon? Now w--"

Pantu shuts off the screen, snapping Ryukyu's attention onto her.

Even now she maintains her icy facade, perfectly concealing how annoyed she is.

"Horizon's value just shot even further through the roof," Pantu says. "Have you spoken to him since the raid yesterday?"

"Only on the phone for a few minutes," Ryukyu says, and Pantu detects no lies. "I stayed at his tower a while longer than I needed to last week, met his… pet cat?"

"Oh, her," Pantu says. "Her personality is far too caring and honest, approaching her for information is announcing to him that we're keeping closer tabs on him than he knows. But we have her on a short list of people to avoid interactions with, its not worth the risk." 1

"He knows you're watching him at all?" Ryukyu was surprised by this.

"Of course, he knows that everything we can monitor, we do, but his daily movements are impossible to track when he's in the tower or simply wants to disappear."

"Well Ryuko is head over heels for him," Ryukyu says. "And she knows he doesn't particularly care about the heroic part of being a Pro Hero, from what we spoke about he doesn't have anything he cares about. At least not enough to stay in Japan."

"Well hopefully that changes within the next few years," Pantu says. "But other countries will be making even larger bids for him. I need information on what he really likes, because at a certain point money stops mattering and the other perks will outweigh it." 26

"Have you tried asking?"

"I did, and he doesn't have any such interests at the moment, but if it happens to appear, you're there to find out."

"And to spot any vulnerabilities he has," Ryukyu mutters.

"Naturally, but you don't have to worry about fighting him. It will never come to that, worst case scenario, I give him what he wants and he abandons Japan." 4

Ryukyu winces, "the loss of life from him suddenly leaving, the influx of villains and chaos that would cause… unimaginable."

"And at this rate, unavoidable, because it seems he's determined to insert himself as the pillar of our society, replacing All Might. But there are much worse things than him simply leaving us alone."

Ryukyu thinks about it for a moment, "well, hopefully we at least clear out the League Of Villains before he leaves."

"You don't have to worry about them," Pantu says. "I have a man working on that as we speak…" 1

--Elsewhere…

"Where the heck is this?" Hawks asks as he steps out of the warp gate, only seeing the ocean ahead of him and a dark forest behind him.

Looking around the warp gate closes, before another opens and Dabi walks out.

"Why do you look so confused birdie?"

"I prefer to know where I am, what, we couldn't meet up in a mall, maybe get some food?"

"Do I look like I want to watch you eat birdseed?" Dabi rolls his eyes as the warp gate closes, keeping his hands at his side as he approaches Hawks. "You said you had something good, this better not be a waste of my time, Hero."

"For the record, I prefer eating chicken," Hawks says as he turns away from Dabi and looks at the ocean. "So, did Shigaraki have his supply lines disrupted by those raids we did?"

Dabi rolls his eyes, "we have Warp Gate moron, we don't pay transport fees, from the manufacturer directly to us, instant and cheap."

"Did you at least keep up with the news about it, we got a lot of stuff?"

"Estimated 3 Billion dollars of things the news won't tell us the specifics about," Dabi says curiously. "Is that number real?"

"A low estimate," Hawks says, which surprises Dabi. "But the most valuable thing is already back with its owner, so it wasn't counted in all of that."

"And you called to meet me the day after these raids because--"

Hawks pulls out a piece of paper from his coat.

"--There we go, payday," Dabi says. "A few billion dollars to expand our operations will help out a lot, maybe even earn you some facetime with the boss. We're planning a big…uh, nevermind, you aren't that trusted yet. Just know this will help." 2

Hawks hands over the page and Dabi quickly skims it, "this is only one location, the report said over a dozen locations were raided. They couldn't have moved them all to one location within a day."

"Nope, they're all sitting at individual armories and strongholds across Japan, but most of it, roughly 2 Billion dollars of fine art, artifacts, gems, and some more fun items are sitting in the most heavily defended spot in Tokyo."

"This isn't Tokyo," Dabi says, gesturing to the page.

"Nope, that's Yaiba city, Yoroi Musha, a top 10 Pro Hero will respond fast when you guys attack, but only him and some other weak Pros. You can handle that, right?"

"The 'Senior Citizen Pro Hero', yeah, I can handle that myself. But why this location, and only this one, huh, Hero?"

"I figured all the arms and ammunitions at that spot would have been more valuable than trying to sell off art, at least to Shigaraki."

"We've got more than enough of that, the money would be better," Dabi glares at Hawks, then just looks annoyed. "We're looking to increase our war chest since one of our big benefactors got killed recently, not long after you joined us."

"Wasn't me," Hawks raises his hands in surrender, jokingly.

"I know, cops said its a break-in gone wrong. Just the same shit luck we've had all our lives, but if you can get us one of the more lucrative storehouses from this raid, the boss will appreciate it." 2

Hawks thinks about it for a moment.

"Mmm, one is close to my agency, but after you guys supposedly broke out under mine and Ryukyu's watch I can't afford to fail at defending that. If I drop down from #2 then the intel I can get becomes a lot more limited.

I chose that one because Yoroi Mush should be a easy kill for your league, plus he's far from any other power Pro Heroes, not to mention the equipment there is most immediately useful."

"What about the others, you'll probably have to respond to anything in Tokyo, but Ryukyu was on that raid, and she's far from Tokyo."

"Yeah, but she's friends with Horizon, well, at least they worked together a few time. And the plan is to avoid giving him reasons to start looking into us, remember. Plus Yoroi Musha's raid went the most public, so you guys actually have a believable reason to know where that is," Hawks gestures to the map he gave them.

"And it covers the fact that we have a spy," Dabi adds, and Hawks nods along. "Well, we can always use the firepower, and killing a Top 10 Pro before the big hero ranking ceremony next month should remind the public that we're out there."

"Exactly what I was thinking, anything else you need me to look into?"

"Just keep doing what you're doing, knowing where Horizon won't be is still very important for us," Dabi says as he begins turning, a Warp Gate already behind him. "Oh, and just incase we suddenly have something super powerful on our side, where's the stronghold with all the big shiny things in it."

"Wanna go after the big money items huh, well its pretty obvious. That raid was in Tokyo, and what's the most secure place that no smart villain would attack?" Hawks gives him a cheeky grin.

Dabi sighs, "nevermind then, there isn't enough money in the world worth picking a fight with him, not until--" he cuts himself off, not wanting to reveal Gigantomachia's new modifications. 12

"You sure? A billion is a lot," Hawks says jokingly.

"Yeah, and breaking into Horizon tower is also a lot, just keep doing what you're doing."

"Gotcha!"

"Kurogiri, I'm done here."

A purple mist manifests behind Dabi and envelops him, warping him away before it closes and disappears.

And suddenly Hawks is alone on the beach, in the middle of nowhere.

"Uh, Kurogiri?" he asks, looking around for his warp gate, but after a few minutes nothing happens. "Sigh, great, I though we were over this crap," he begins flying toward the sky, trying to get cell reception.

"Why can't anyone who likes me ever get a warping Quirk," Hawks mutters as he still sees nothing denoting civilization round him. 1

--Horizon Tower…

"Wow, if I didn't know better I'd say you wrote the script for them," Ryuko says as she sits on couch.

Horizon is beside her working on his laptop, on the TV Chitose's report just finished, 45 minutes of stroking Horizon's ego.

"Can't help it that I'm amazing," Horizon shrugs. "Definitely can't wait to see what my new offers are to move abroad."

"Hmm," Ryuko thinks about it for a moment, "I'm hoping Germany wins the bidding…even if that's unlikely, I mean living there seems super relaxing." 1

"What makes you think I'd take you with me?"

Ryuko rolls her eyes "what makes you think you can get rid of me?" 8

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 224: CHAPTER 220(Empty Seat)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

In a quiet spot at the Tokyo docks, under the noon sun Cellophane is fighting a woman, slender and tall but sporting thick grey scales on her skin.

Naturally armored thanks to her Quirk.

There were police nearby already aiming their guns at her, surrounding the fight but ultimately knowing none of them had to power to pierce her scales.

The bullets they fired earlier only ricocheted off and flew back at them, so once again they depend on a hero to deal with the villain.

"A little help here, how about it?" Cellophane mutters, not loud enough to be heard outside of his visor.

He narrowly doges a punch and her scaled forearm grazes his suit, scraping some of the fabric off his chest.

"I don't fight D-List trash, just knock her out quickly and hand her to the cops, bet they're impatient too plus your food is getting cold," Horizon responds, nowhere to be seen but speaking through Cellophane's visor.

"They're not very helpful," Cellophane dodges a kick and springboards off the woman's leg, intending to flip over her, only for her to suddenly grow a thin tail and whip him out of the air.

"I've still got tricks up my sleeve," the villain says.

Cellophane hits the floor and pivots into a roll before getting back on his feet, now sporting a cut across his back from her tail.

"Yeah well," Cellophane takes a deep breath as he looks at her. "I knew you weren't dumb, leading me to a place where my Quirk isn't that helpful," he glances at the lack of vertical structures in this area. "But the hero always wins…"

"HA!" she flexes her hands and they morph from fingers to claws as her boots are blown apart, the same transformation happening to her feet. "Your Quirk is no good against mine dumbass!"

She charges forward as her teeth become razor sharp and her muscles bulk up.

Leaping into the air she slams down, cracking the concrete as he shoots a line of tape to the side and pulls himself to safety.

"Heroes die all the time!" she yells while charging at him again.

He tries the same trick only for her to jump toward where the tape is and grab it, spinning to slam him around.

As she does, instead of letting himself be pulled in, he simply releases more tape and wraps her once before she notices.

"Not this hero," Cellophane says. "And learning to counter that trick is the first thing I did!"

As she's breaking out he first two lines of tape past her, leaving her in the middle and retracts himself as quickly as possible.

He slingshots himself forward.

She looks up just in time to see both his feet coming toward her, as he dropkicks her hard enough to send her tumbling across the floor with some teeth clattering about.

As Cellophane realizes how much this hurt her, he begins coming up with a plan for a finishing move.

"Argh!" She slams her hand into the ground and pushes herself up, still seeing a bit blurry after that hit. "When I'm done with you I'll kill everyone here, then nobody else will get in my way!"

"That must be the best thing your lizard brain can come up with huh," Cellophane jokes as he takes a running stance, "kill me to give Horizon a real reason to come after you."

He sees a look of realization dawn on her, causing a moment of hesitation, exactly as planned.

And in the same moment he bolts forward, shooting two lines out to slingshot himself at her.

She snaps to her senses and focuses once more, "just die!" she screams out while running forward, this time with her claws in the path he'd use to kick her.

'Same trick won't work twice, kill you then the witnesses, then leave before that freak show up…' she think, proud of herself for quickly adapting.

But she's not the only one.

Cellophane repeats the exact same movements, but this time as his feet are about to get pierced by her claws he flips, using her forearms as a platform to leap higher into the air.

She swings his tail at him again, and this too he predicts and uses as a stepping stone to get more height, now 15m 45ft above her.

He fires two lines of tape past her at her sides, another slingshot, and retracts them as fast as possible, quickly pivoting to line himself up with her head as she's only now turning around.

Even among Pro Heroes, his reaction time in situations like these was impressive.

Which is why by the time she's about to turn around, his boots slam into the side of her face, pushing her all the way into the concrete and breaking her jaw.

The remainder of her teeth go scattering across the floor as she's instantly knocked out.

"Damn, forgot to name that," Cellophane sighs as he steps away from her. "Maybe, 'Cellophane Slingshot,' sounds ok…" 1

"Is she down?" one of the cops asks.

"Oh, yeah!" he waves to them. "You can take her away now."

"Thanks, never doubted you, mostly."

"Mostly?" Cellophane asks as the other officers drag the woman away, noticing her jaw hanging very limply.

"Well, we figured her Quirk makes her tough, and…I didn't know you had Enhanced Strength," the officer gestures to the cracked floor that was beneath her head.

"Oh, its not really that big of a deal," Cellophane shrugs.

He simply didn't want to go into the details of it. Of how the endoskeleton of his suit allows him to withstand more force than his body naturally can. So if he uses himself like a bullet or a wedge he can hit harder or take more pressure, but his punches are unaffected.

As they're talking Horizon swaps with one of the bits of concrete that broke loose, warping in front of them.

He appeared sitting on his hoverboard with a bag of takeout beside him, and a drink.

"Took you long enough," was the first thing he said, ignoring the wide eyes all the officers are giving him.

"Yeah well, I had to get creative. No tall walls or building around here to springboard off of," Cellophane says.

"Excuses excuses," Horizon jokes, then looks at the police officer. "If any of your guys need healing please let me know." 1

"Um, we're all fine sir, just, this--"

"Not what you expected?" Horizon gestures to himself, sitting casually on the hoverboard with food beside him, and Scalpel hovering nearby.

"Its just tha--"

Horizon raises his hand, cutting off the man. He touches the side of his visor to indicate he's on a call.

As he hovers a bit higher, Cellophane gets the hint that they need to wrap this up quickly and helps the officers secure the villain.

The moment the villain is secure and Cellophane is about to give his thanks to the officers.

SHAMBLES!

He suddenly finds himself standing on the back of the hoverboard, high above the city.

"Woooww, a little warning next time."

"Tape your self down, you can eat when we get there," Horizon says, completely serious.

He immediately uses the equipment built into his suit to sit down and secure himself to the board, via the tape sent through his boots and hands for him to stick to surfaces. 1

"Wooooo!" Cellophane yells out as they rapidly accelerate to 400mph 643kmph, not quite at the speed of the hoverboard. "I've never seen you fly this fast, how they hell are you even standing?!"

"Its the boots," Horizon says as the wind rushes past them, but thankfully they could speak with their visors. "We need to get to the other side of Japan quickly."

"What happened, some big emergency, Tsunami?"

"You know Yoroi Musha?" Horizon asks.

"I've met him once, samuari dude, he's like a fossil. Not someone I'm excited to work with but he's #9, so lets do this," Cellophane cheers.

"He's dead," Horizon says. "He was old and obsolete so it should be a net positive that his spot is open for someone else, but the way he died and timing of it will fuck us…"

"So he didn't just have a heart attack like most ancient people?"

"He was decayed…"

"Shigaraki," Cellophane says. "But, why? I mean if you're planning to kill a top pro to make a statement, why go for the weakest one."

"This wasn't about making a statement, at least not in that way. They raided the military armory close to his city, and he got there before they left."

"Was there anything good inside?"

"Guns, guns, and lots of guns…"

"Hmm, I thought those locations were well hidden, think there's a leak?"

"There is, its the most logical thing," Horizon says. "But its in the commission or police force most likely, so sooner or later they'll get caught. But since they haven't found anyone yet, I'd bet the villains bugged the place or keep ripping the secrets out of someone's mind with a Quirk." 4

"So the mole doesn't even know they're a mole," Cellophane says.

"Easiest way I can think of to get around Pantu's Quirk," Horizon says. 1

They fly for an hour, by now Horizon is briefed on the situation and begins relaying the information to Cellophane.

"They want this quiet and contained until they can double security on the other sites," Horizon says. "I'll be spending the next two days escorting the other items to disposal sites to be destroyed."

"A top pro died, how long do they expect to keep this quiet for?"

"Long enough that nobody notices I'm not in Minato Tokyo. When we're done investigating I'll have to get back there first, so Team Horizon can keep an eye on things while I'm gone."

"Why are you even carrying me with you, shouldn't I get there now?" Cellophane asks.

"Because I need someone who's competent and I'm sure I can trust with me, if you see anything or anyone suspicious, let me know, got it?"

"Got it, but uh, one question?"

"Yeah?"

"Since the #9 spot is open now, who do you think is gonna replace him?" 4

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 225: CHAPTER 221(Blood and Dust) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"I've never actually been this far out this way before, so this is the city he was protecting huh," Cellophane says as he sits on the hoverboard, legs hanging over the side as he enjoys his food.

They were hovering just above the skyline of a small city, built in the valley of two small mountains. On either side was nothing but forest, but the city has highways along the coast and a bustling port.

Almost entirely due to the silver mines that were in these mountains and helped to establish the trade routes, long run dry, and unoccupied.

The same mines Horizon was currently checking.

Standing silently he has a Room open, 38km 23mi wide diameter, he can sense everything in the city and the mountains at once.

Focusing just enough for the human sized being, so he doesn't get flooded by ever leaf and pebble, he carefully uses Scan to search for any villains.

His Room is much larger than when he joined UA, even now it's grown noticeably since the new semester began. 6

At this size he feels the drain on his energy, but nowhere near as bad as before.

And no sudden headache attacking him. 2

'I'm getting used to it,' he thinks. 'But something is still holding me back, that final push. Or maybe I just need to keep training and I'll break past that limit naturally…' 2

Exactly as Dr. Garaki said, a logical mind like Horizon's will never come to the realization of such an illogical solution on his own. 1

To align his mind and heart.

To unite his entire being in the singular primal purpose. 1

To-- 14

"They aren't here," Horizon says. "No villains, and the mines in these mountains are all collapsed so they can't be in their either."

"They must have warped all the stuff back to wherever their hideout is, but it had trackers on it, right?"

"They got fried during the attack, but they had a Nomu with a Radio Quirk that acted like a jammer and EMP during the summer camp, probably just used something like that to fry it."

"Makes sense, but that's what you assumed already, so why even check out this place?" Cellophane shrugs. "Would be pretty dumb to come here instead of just warping away, right?"

"Yes, but its fine to assume villains will make such sloppy mistakes. They've recruited a lot of people, and most people are morons. If we got lucky and even one villain was out here, that'd be all I need to rip info out of him, then I'd get my hands on Kurogiri--"

"--Then their entire operation falls apart without him."

"Yeah, but its possible Twice can just make a double of him so they'd still have a warp gate, so in a sense Twice is an even higher priority target."

"No wonder he's S Rank," Cellophane says as he finishes his food. "Hey, weren't we in a rush to get to the base?"

"No, the corpse isn't going anywhere, I was in a rush to get here and catch any stragglers from their group. There won't be any villains at the base, best we can hope for is a ID from the cameras there."

ROOM!

Horizon shuts off his Quirk and they being flying inland, away from the city and over the mountains where the small base was.

"Soo, you going to the ceremony they'll have?" Cellophane asks.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because someone died, duh."

"Its in the job description, heroes die all the time, what makes this any different."

"Yeah but that doesn't make it any less tragic man."

"He was almost 90, if the moron would have just swallowed his pride and retired he'd be sitting on a beach with his grandkids right now."

"That's not a nice way to speak of the dead."

"Good thing he's dead and can't do shit about it," Horizon says. "Besides, maybe it would be a tragedy if he was young, but he was super old, at that point it doesn't really count. Killing a 90 year old is like giving nature a little nudge." 9

"What about for the soldiers at the base?'

"Its part of the job, I'm sure they did their best."

Beneath the visor Cellophane rolls his eyes, "just make sure to use your nice words when the press asks how you feel about this."

"I always do."

"But you have to go the to memorial, you do know that, right?"

Horizon sighs, "yes, as the next #1 Pro Hero and leader of our generation, I unfortunately have to attend the memorial for every stupid fuck that dies in costume…what a pain in my ass."

"Honestly, the most impressive thing about you is how well you act on camera, consider--"

Cellophane is stunned silent as the soar about the mountain, slowly rising up to view the next valley where only the military base was.

Where it should have been.

Instead they see a massive crater, filled with dust. Consuming much of the valley and parts of the small surrounding mountains.

A 3km 1.8mi crater filled with white dust.

The telltale sign of Shigaraki's Decay.

"--Shit," was all Cellophane could mutter as they hover in place and look out at the destruction.

"This explains why they so badly want to keep this a secret, and didn't want to send me any pictures. If the public knew Shigaraki could do this, even if it took everything out of him, there'd be chaos…"

Cellophane nods along, "well if we didn't have you I'd be considering retirement right now, so yeah."

"Wow, even after all the money you'll get from your work in that raid."

"I'm willing to risk my life for money, not get turned into dust and actually die for it." 1

They look at the crater for a few more minutes as Horizon uses Scan on the surrounding area, picking up nothing that interesting.

Looking around Cellophane sees the road leading up to the crater, where dozens of vehicles and tents were setup to investigate.

"Let's go, they only left one thing, but we need to check on the people first…" Horizon says as they begin flying toward the medical tents.

As they approach he sees a few scientists in full protective suits using any apparatus they can, including Geiger counters to investigate the dust without touching or even approaching it.

They hops off at the tents, seeing the cots empty and most of the people just standing around anxiously.

"What's going on, where are the injured?" Horizon asks, walking into the tent to approach the commander.

"There aren't any, nobody made it out," the man says. "I'm captain Hiko, JSDF. I hoped to meet you under better circumstances Horizon." 2

"That's unfortunately the usual case, not that this is usual at all," they begin walking out of the tent as the man leads them to the crater.

"How many people were in the base?" Cellophane asks.

"Not many, mostly due to JSDF funding being reallocated to Pro Heroes for the past few generations, but the bases guarding the raid loot were well manned. This one is the smallest but that didn't mean they didn't put up one hell of a fight."

"I'm sure they did," Horizon says. "Going down fighting is an honor in itself. Its a real tragedy what happened here, but I'll be sure to give Shigaraki more than enough payback for what he did to these good men captain." 2

Then man nods, "I'm sure we'll all appreciate that, and thank you. Now, until my superiors can figure out how to handle this with the public, I'm taking the lead on the ground here, seeing as there isn't much to do but sit around and wait," he gestures to the boring temporary checkpoint they've setup.

"Did anything survive this?" Horizon asks.

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Camera footage, anything. If even a few seconds got uploaded into the military servers then that could be the lead we want."

"My superiors are already looking into it, I'm sure you'll be the first person they call, after all, who else could put down this monster," the man turns to look to the crater.

Horizon begins walking toward it and they both follow.

"Don't you mean arrest, captain?" Cellophane asks. 1

The man glances back and gives him an annoyed look, "son, you're a hero, I'm a soldier. You take villains down, I take terrorists out…" 2

Cellophane wisely decides to keep his mouth shut.

And a moment later they walk past the scientists, and even the captain ignores their suggestions to stay away from the site, deciding that if Horizon doesn't say he should stop, he'll keep tagging along.

Horizon squats down at the edge of the crater, seeing the low winds blowing the white dust about ever so gently.

Thankfully it wasn't light enough to simply get blow into the sky by a gently breeze.

"This is the first time I've been able to study Decay, so I can's waste the chance," he carefully lowers his hand toward it.

"Wait, that could be dangerous!" one of the scientist yells out, but neither Cellophane or the captain back away.

His fingers enter the dust, and he immediately uses Scan, focused on the particles, determined to understand them.

"We were wrong about his Quirk," Horizon says as he removes his hand.

"About Decay?" Cellophane asks.

"It's obviously not limited to organics, and considering he's improved this much he probably doesn't have to use all his fingers to trigger it any more. Cutting off his hands is still the best plan, if you can't just kill him."

"Bullet through the skull hasn't failed me yet," the captain says. 6

"How does Decay work?" one of the scientists asks.

"Its Tactile Telekinesis," Horizon says, seeing some of them look confused. "Think about when All Might would lift a bridge, part of it would crumble trying to support its own weight. But if Captain Celebrity does it the bridge doesn't crumble under its own weight. 2

Touch based telekinesis, but this is different. Its more like Shigaraki just commands things to fall apart. And judging from he size of this crater, if he's still actively commanding it, the decay…no, the disintegration of matter won't stop until he's stopped or satisfied.

At least that's my thoughts since I don't sense any energy in this dust, no invasive elements. It simply self destructed under his command.

But the good new is at least we know he still has to touch things to activate it, and that it won't work on my body, since my Quirk blocks any other Quirks from telling me what to do, even if the commands is 'Fall apart' or something like that." 5

"At least we learned something about him," the captain says. "Too bad this didn't give us any leads on finding him…"

"Not necessarily," Horizon warps Scalpel into his hand from where he left is with his board. "I'm hoping Yoroi Musha left us one lead on his blade--"

SHAMBLES!

Scalpel swaps for a broken katana, almost as massive and covered in bits of flesh and blood.

Along with some white dust.

"How the hell did that survive?" Cellophane can't help but blurt out.

"It was toward the edge, but if I had to guess…he probably threw it as high as possible before Shigaraki finished the attack." 1

"So he skipped the wave," the scientist says. "So flying counters the wave of Decay on the floor, that's good to know."

"Yeah," Horizon raises the sword and looks at the blood, "Takt."

The blood and only the blood is pulled off the sword and hovers in front of him, separated into little drops.

"I'm hoping he cut someone in our national database and not just some brainless Nomu…" 5

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 226: CHAPTER 222(Not So Hidden Moves) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting at his desk Horizon is slumped over, asleep.

After spending 37 hours reviewing data he decided to take his one hour nap to feel fully refreshed.

Which is how he's currently spending this Saturday night.

Behind him the tinted windows of his office in Horizon tower show the Tokyo skyline, colorful and lively against the dark night sky, full moon and all.

Millions of people in Minato Tokyo alone, all peacefully enjoying their lives amongst nearly no villains.

Simply because Horizon tower stood here, staring down at them like a obelisk of justice and peace.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Horizon, or more accurately, Law, jolts awake.

His visor was on the desk staring at him, only the body glove was on with the face mask portion laying on the desk.

Here within his office, even with the guests in his tower, he felt more than comfortable taking off his visor to get some fresh air.

Even if day by day he's noticing that the visor feels more comfortable than having his face exposed. 1

"Mmm, now what's this about," he rubs his eyes and cracks his neck before touching the keyboard.

The two monitors on his desk light up to reveal the processes he'd sent in motion were now completely.

' DNA Match, 50%!' one screen said.

"Ok, lets see what we've got," he begins looking at the lower percentile DNA matches.

"So the samples from Yoroi Musha's sword are…a Nomu, another Nomu, and the main one is…"

He reads the results a few times before sitting back in his chair and staring at the screen, trying to make sense of it.

He glances to his right, where his sword Scalpel, and Yoroi Musha's recovered katana were leaning against the desk.

"The DNA must have been more contaminated than I thought…right?" he asks aloud.

'There has to be some logical explanation for this.'

"Computer," he commands aloud, "what were the parameters for DNA Sequence search?"

The computer announces his own instructions back to him, "use entered DNA Sequence data and compare to all catalogued samples within Pro Hero Database, alongside Villain and Prisoner Records provided by the Hero Public Safety Commission and Law Enforcement." 1

"How many times were these comparisons run?"

"43 Million tests were run, including repetitions, prioritizing matches above 15%."

"Ok so my parameters weren't broken," Law mutters. "Maybe I made a mistake. But still, the chances of this being the outcome are so small, not to mentioned I've been doing tests like these for so long to find targets that its unlikely."

"Computer, confirm DNA Sequence Match."

" DNA Sequence Match of 50% found between Sample 7 and Enji Todoroki, AKA Pro Hero Endeavor The flame hero." 2

"Fuck," Law mutters. "Ok, so the most likely case is that they made a failed clone of Endeavor. It has to be a failed clone if even Yoroi Musha was able to cut it without his sword melting. And the worst case scenario, also the least likely, is Endeavor switched sides."

"Computer, Hero Network Confidential Files, Endeavor, Logs, 48 Hours ago."

The screen immediately shows a video and report from within Endeavor's personal account and the news of him actively fighting a villain during the time of the attack against Yoroi Musha.

"Ok so probably a clone," Law says. "But if it was a clone why would it be 50% match? It would be 100%. Maybe Shigaraki's Nomu guy spliced it with another Quirk for better performance. Maybe wind to increase the damage or ice to reduce the drawbacks…"

As Law is looking at the screen, showing Endeavor's personal information including a list of his family members, he raises a brow at Natsuo's name.

"Fuyumi seems harmless, the mom is in the hospital, and the others are heroes or dead, but I've got no idea about Natsuo…"

As always Law decides to be through.

"Run Sample 7, against Civilian DNA Database file, Rei Todoroki."

A progress bar appears on the screen for a few seconds before disappearing.

"Sequence comparison complete, 50% Match."

"As expected, children are only able to get 50% against parents after all."

"Run Sample 7, against Civilian DNA Database file, Fuyumi Todoroki."

"Sequence comparison complete, 50% Match."

"So at least my favorite Todoroki isn't moonlighting as a villainess, fuck it. Run Sample 7, against Todoroki Family, branch, Enji Todoroki."

"95% Match Found."

Law raises a brow at this, "95%? Repeat command!"

"95% Match Found."

"That doesn't really make much sense, it should be a perfect match for Natsuo, unless…maybe they gave him some kind of enhancement?"

"Computer, display side by side DNA Sequence Comparisons for the highest probability match."

On Law's left monitor, Sample 7 appears. But on his right monitor, something surprising happens.

Where Natsuo Todoroki's name was expected to be, instead he saw Toya Todoroki.

"The dead kid," Law glances at Toya's file, seeing him pronounced dead as a child. "But the hormones in the sample were from an adult, a lot of things aren't adding up here. I'll need to talk to Enji to confirm."

He looks between both the screens to see the more recent sample having familiar alterations in its DNA sequence.

Had it not been for his perfect memory and absurd mental processing screen, he would have missed it in the sea of colors flowing by on the screen.

But in his mind each sample of helical DNA was impossible to confuse for another, especially his.

"Computer, Monitor 2, DNA Sample, Private Database, HRZN-L-3."

"Confirmation key required?"

"Miracle Elixir," Law says clearly and calmly.

BEEP!

On the right monitor the requested sample appears.

DNA Sequence, HRZN-L-3, a partial sample of his own DNA scanned and stored on his own server within Nezu's server.

With key components missing so even if someone did manage to get it and make a clone of him, by some miracle, they'd only get a lump of dead meat.

Because not only is it incomplete, its also scrambled.

But his mind allows him to easily fill in the gaps and solve this 100 million piece puzzle at a glance.

Not that anyone else even has a chance, because as with many other aspects of Horizon, his DNA is unique.

Where regular Helical DNA is simply two spiraling columns rising up in perfect unity, connected by what could be described as rungs on a ladder.

His was four such columns, with one straight pillar down the middle where all the rungs intersect. 5

A recent development after Hand Of God perfectly integrated his new Quirks.

So a mere few days after he received them, they all simply ceased to exist, effective fed to Hand Of God which made itself so much stronger.

But it would still be months before he could fully access the gargantuan boost in power this provides, without the backlash.

Before he has a grudge match that puts a new fear of god into the world, Heroes, villains, and civilians alike.

"I knew something was off," Law says as he looks at Sample 7, Toya's DNA. "This looks like they gave his fire Quirk to someone without fire resistance, morons. I'll have to ask Enji what happened to the body, they've clearly been collecting corpses for a lot longer than we realize…"

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hey open up!" Ryuko yells from the other side of his office door. "Something big just happened!"

SHAMBLES!

His mask and visor are warped back on as he waves a hand.

Across from his desk there isn't any visible door, but the hidden door would open if he touched it, since his biometrics is accepted.

The alternative is what he just did, which is use Takt to carefully move the internal locks, a feature he has in this door and his other security doors and vaults for when he doesn't want to get up.

But usually he simply warps.

Ryuko walks his holding his sword, sheathed, wearing a baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Glistening with sweat as her workout was interrupted.

"What's the big deal, and why do you have my extra sword?" Horizon asks.

"I always practice with the one you leave in the tower," Ryuko says as she drops it on the couch and walks over to him. "Didn't you see the news just now?" 1

"I was sleeping, what news?"

"Just look up 'Yoroi Musha death video'," she says while walking behind his desk as he's typing it in, and hiding his previous work.

"So the public knows?" Horizon asks. "Barely gave us 2 days to figure things out."

"You knew?" she asks as he clicks on the first video.

Horizon simply gestures to the side of his desk, where the original Scalpel which he either always has on him or at UA, and Yoroi Musha's katana are resting.

"Oh, why didn't you tell me?"

"My job is keeping secrets, comes with being a Top Pro Hero."

"I was a top pro too ya'know."

"You shared 42nd place with your entire team, I'm treated like the #1, we aren't the same." 2

"No need to rub it in," she points to the screen as the video appears, already having a hundred million views in only a few minutes. "See, the league leaked it!"

The video appears showing Yoroi Musha down on one knee, half of his armor and one of his katanas melted.

Dabi is standing a few feet away holding his arm which is bleeding, which sets off some alarms bells in Horizon's head.

Then the camera pans over to Shigaraki who has a injured Pro pinned down.

"It's been a while since I got to stretch my legs, I nearly forgot how much fun taking down you 'Heroes' was," Shigaraki says as he palms the man's head, causing him to wither away into grey powder.

"Looking cool boss!" Twice yells from behind the camera, and it shakes a bit as he cheers.

"I found this one trying to hide from the fight," Spinner says as the camera pans over to him.

There was a young girl on his shoulder, wearing a yellow skin tight suit with small knives attached to it. 1

Tears were flowing down her beautiful face as he drops her on her side, and through her bawling she sits up to try and crawl away from Shigaraki.

Shigaraki continues walking toward Yoroi Musha, and passes in front of her to do so.

And her first year as a sidekick, at 19 years old, ends as he casually taps the top of her head with one finger.

"Heroes are supposed to challenge villains, not hide like cowards," he says as the Decay spreads down her body and she falls apart as grey dust.

Ryuko grabs onto Horizon, he feels her hands trembling and rests a hand on her, helping her to calm down.

"So he doesn't need all 5 fingers to make contact anymore," Horizon mutters as the video continues.

Shigaraki arrives at Yoro Musha, and as the man is about to give his heroic last words he grabs his face and instantly decays him.

"You old people need to shut up and get out of the way, this is our era," he says before looking past the camera. "Twice, pack up everything useful, then I'll crater this place, we're done here…"

The video instantly cuts to a shot from above the base, the sound of flapping giving away that a winged Nomu was carrying Twice as he records.

And below they could only see the massive crater that was left behind…

"Quite a statement," Horizon says as he swivels his chair to the side and pulls the trembly Ryuko into his lap. "He chose the Black-market Loot Cache farthest from me for a reason, you'll be safe here."

"Its not me that I'm worried about," she says in a shaky voice. "Do you really have to fight that thing?"

Horizon wraps his arms around her and pulls her against his chest, "being in the top 50 means you have to fight serious villains, but being Horizon means you have to fights all the real monsters."

"What if--"

"Nothing will happen to me, if anything he knows he's outmatched and that's why he avoids me. Plus his Quirk doesn't work on me…"

"That doesn't mean you should risk it."

"And if I don't stop him, who will?" Horizon asks. "And how many people will die until they do?"

Ryuko falls silent at that.

Horizon gently pats her head and leans further back into his chair, "we, are selfish people, so you really don't have to worry. I don't plan to die playing hero."

"Good," Ryuko says. "I like our plan, so lets stick to it…"

She feels his chest expand beneath her as he takes a deep breath and waits until she relaxes a bit. "So, what's this about you wanting to be a sexy samurai?" he asks.

"Ohh, you like the idea of a sexy samurai girlfriend?"

"Wooow, since when were you my girlfriend?"

Ryuko scoffs, mind slowly drifting away from the video they just watched, "you're the worst." 1

"Yeah, and you love me for it…" 2

END CHAPTER-- 1

I'm pulling my hair out trying to come up with unique chapter names :( 7

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Chapter 227: CHAPTER 223(Nightmare House Pt.2) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--1 PM, Tokyo…

Sitting on one of the couches in Pantu's office, Horizon is scrolling through his phone, waiting for the woman to arrive.

And of course, the first moment of peace he's had all day is interrupted by his phone ringing.

"C'mon man, its Sunday, don't you ever take a day off," he says before answering the call, and it immediately connects to his visor.

"Hello?" Aizawa's voice greets him.

"Whatever this is definitely could have waited till tonight when I'm back at UA," Horizon says. "What is it?"

"Its about the UA Culture Festival Tuesday," Aizawa says.

"What does that have to do with me? I just have to stay on campus and scare off villains."

"Yeah, but is Ryuko coming?" 2

"Uh…."

"The cat, not the dragon," Aizawa clarifies. "Can't believe that's something I need to say to you." 2

"Yeah she's coming, Ryukyu isn't. UA is all the way on the other side of Japan from her turf."

"Good, can she watch Eri during the festival? Since everyone will be on alert I can't leave her with Mirio and the other members of the Big Three, and the last thing I want is for her to be targeted because people see her around you, so--"

"Handing her off to a Pro Hero that isn't in costume is the best approach, yeah," Horizon agrees. "Mandalay will be giving her Kota to babysit at the festival too while they're working security, I'll just give her a heads up."

"Thanks, I appreciate it, this whole new dad thing is still a bit weird."

"You're doing pretty good so far," Horizon gives a genuine compliment for a change. 3

"Huh, don't know if hearing that from you is a good or a bad thing."

"Hey! I'm great, and my parents clearly knew what they were doing."

"Yeah, but I'm not trying to make her into a optimized super hero like your parents were doing, I just want her to be a regular kid."

"And you're doing fine, I think, I wouldn't know. I wasn't raised to be a loser."

"I never said loser…"

"That's what regular people are, its why they worship Pro Heroes so much, even the useless ones."

Aizawa sighs, "well I'll cut this conversation short before you make me second guess everything I've been doing, don't forget to tell Ryuko about this."

"Yeah its n--" Aizawa hangs up on him. "Ok, I see, so its like that huh." 6

Horizon goes back to scrolling through his social media for a few minutes until Pantu walks in, carrying a stack of papers in her arms.

Seeing him she pauses for a moment, then without letting any emotion show she closes the door and silently walks over to her desk, immediately getting to work.

"Its quite rude to warp into my office without permission," Pantu says.

Horizon shrugs, "figured since you're using your fancy character recognition system all across Japan to track me I didn't have to say where I was," he sees Pantu glance at him for a moment, then she returns to her work. "Oh right, this is one of the few places without any cameras or mics huh, guess I found a blind spot."

"And should I bother asking how you know about that system?"

"Its one of the reasons living here was easier than most countries," Horizon says. "Your security tends to be a bit lax for super high value targets because you lean on that system so much. So if we feed the system some wrong info, suddenly we aren't in Japan anymore."

Pantu holds down a button on her keyboard and speaks clearly, "have the character recognition system fully audited by the end of this week," she then releases the button. "Thank you for the insight." 5

"Mhm, so I heard you cancelled the tribute event for Yoroi Musha," Horizon says. "Thanks for that, really wasn't in the mood for that waste of a day."

"I didn't do it for you, we simply can't afford to not have our top Pro Heroes on patrol," Pantu begins folding some of the papers. "Not to mention having everyone gathered together after seeing Shigaraki's new power was clearly a bad idea, but the public doesn't need to know how concerned we truly are."

"Mhm, and is Hawks any closer to finding where the base is?"

A pregnable silence fills the room as Pantu slowly looks up at Horizon.

"Well?"

"How did you know about that plan?"

"I took a educated guess, and you just confirmed it," Horizon says, and she was sure he had a wide grin beneath the visor. "Figured if you're so hell bent on keeping me away from the league, its because you've got someone stealthily getting close. Looks like I was right." 2

"Yes well, when he has locations for both Kurogiri and Twice, you'll be called in for the strike."

"Figured as much."

"Any other national secrets that you'd like to inform me that you're aware of?"

"Hmm," he think about it for a moment. "Well…actually, nevermind, that's all."

Pantu looks at Horizon for a moment, sensing that he just blatantly lied, but she lets it go. 4

Carefully observing the way he's casually sitting there with Scalpel leaning against the couch.

Considering all she knows about him, and how much she doesn't know.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Horizon asks. "Sorry you're a bit too old for me." 1

Pantu doesn't give in to him jabs, simply ignoring it, "I was thinking that, in another life, you would have made a remarkable agent. To protect Japan and her interests."

"You would have had me working with birdie?" she can hear the disgust in his voice.

"For a man who claims not to hold any grudges because he accepts the consequences of the life he chose, you seem to hold a grudge against him. Even though he was only following Nezu's orders."

"Maybe I just don't like him," Horizon goes back to looking at his phone.

'I see,' Pantu nods and goes back to her work. 'For all his talk about keeping things strictly business, I suppose looking past the fact that Hawk's nearly killed his mother before his eyes is too much, even for a monster like him, he has a soft spot. He really would have been a perfect agent…' 2

A few moments later and there is a knock at the door.

"Enter," pantu says, and Endeavor steps inside.

All the flames on his costume were currently off.

"Lady Pantu," Endeavor says with a slight bow, before he looks over at the couch, "why are you here?"

"Just incase," Horizon says playfully, and nods toward Scalpel leaning nearby.

"I have the date for next months Hero Billboard Chart Ceremony, of course you'll be #1," Pantu says as Endeavor walks in, leaving the door closed behind him. "You didn't get the highest score in some categories, but right now having a practical and capable #1 is more important than a charming person.

We need people who take action, not people who coddle the masses. Not to mention the only Pro Heroes capable of fighting the villains worth worrying about are in this room."

"I see, thank you Lady Pantu," Endeavor says.

"Don't get too comfy in that spot Enji," Horizon says. "I'm more capable and charming than you, so a few months after I graduate, that spot is mine."

"I'm counting on it," Endeavor says, which surprised Pantu and Horizon. "But I doubt you called me here to speak about things that could have been a email."

"No, we didn't," Pantu says as he reaches into her desk and hands him a folder with a few papers. "Take a seat and read these results, tell us what you think."

"But before that, " Horizon says as Endeavor is moving toward the couch opposite him. "Did Toya have blue flames?"

Endeavor freezes, standing across from Horizon, "what does that have to do with anything?"

"Its a simple question Endeavor," Horizon says.

Endeavor looks at Pantu, and she gives him a nod. With a sigh he admits, "yes, he did. But I fail to see how that could be relevant."

"You should sit down a read those…"

Minutes later Endeavor is sitting across from Horizon, tears flowing down his face and falling onto the paper in his hands.

'Oh god, I never know what to say when this crap happens,' Horizon thinks.

"Are you sure its from Dabi?" Endeavor asks in a terrified voice. "Maybe its from something else, like, anything else."

"We aren't sure, but I'm willing to bet its Dabi," Horizon says.

"But, but this doesn't make sense. That was from over 15 years ago, how?"

"Did you ever find a body?" Pantu asks.

"No, everything was incinerated, we assumed that," Endeavor chokes on his words. "I should have kept looking, I never should have given up!" 8

"If you did that, then he would have died for sure," Horizon says. "I have reason to believe that they did, something, to keep him alive. His DNA has strands of Nomu genome perfectly melded into it."

"All For One, he's behind this," Endeavor says, angry even as the tears keep flowing.

"Best case scenario, I'm wrong," Horizon says.

"Is that possible, you're Horizon, worlds best doctor, is it possible?" Endeavor asks.

"..."

"I see, can it be amnesia, or mind control?" Endeavor asks, wiping his tears.

"Well, that's possible."

Endeavor looks up at Horizon, "I'm not asking if its possible, I'm asking if its likely. You've studied these villains more than most, just be honest with me, please." 1

Horizon sighs, "its, unlikely that they'd resort to that. Those methods are unreliable for this long a period of time, it would have been more efficient to harvest his stem cells and clone that powerful Quirk."

"I see, so if this is true, then he's a real villain. And its my fault," Endeavor says.

"He's an adult, his life, his choices. Lots of people have childhood trauma, but only a rare few are…well, you know."

"My main concern is if he knows who he is, assuming this data is correct," Pantu says. "And we will be operating as if he is Toya Todoroki until we have evidence disproving it that the public will also believe."

"When I become #1, he could make this public and further shake people's faith in the Pro Heroes," Endeavor says. "I shouldn't become #1. I doubted myself before, but now I know it."

"Not an option," Horizon says. "You're the only one who can do it until I'm a fully licensed pro. Anyone else they'll just kill to make an example of. Either way they'll try to destroy the next #1 Pro Hero, but this way we at least have a chance. A murderous villain pointing fingers at the #1 Pro Hero, we can control the media and have him ignored." 1

"Or when you do become #1, he'll hate it so much that he won't be able to resist showing his face," Pantu says. "No matter how you feel, no matter how we look at it, you're the only choice we really have Endeavor."

Endeavor gives a defeated sigh, "alright, then I shall do my best to be the #1 Hero people can look up to, who my family can be proud of. At least for the next three years," he looks over at Horizon, "until you're ready…" 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 228: CHAPTER 224(UA Culture Festival) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead) 1

CHAPTER START--

--November 5th, 2315… 1

UA, a highly secure school that the public could never dream of entering.

Most of the time.

The one main exception to that? The UA Culture festival. 2

Normally a collection of stalls and a few stages just beyond the front gates of the school. Kept small as each class host their own shows, games, or food stalls to show off school spirit.

This is the one event where the Hero Course actually takes a back seat while the business and support courses wow the public with all they've learned at UA.

But this year was different.

This year the entire festival was taken to a completely different level.

Instead of a few tents and stalls, there was a walkway leading directly from the school gates into a massive arena just beyond the campus.

An entire structure dedicated to hosting the thousands of people that are currently flooding the school.

It was like the UA Sports Festival all over again.

Companies from near and far fought each other to rent spots within the festival, selling all manner of food, drinks, and Hero Merchandise to the visiting public.

Upon entry at the gate all the visitors were funneled through a few layers of security scanners and given a wristband to track where they are on campus, and Quirk use.

But most importantly, they were immediately intimidated by all the Pro Heroes littering the school grounds.

Standing at the front entrance was Crust, a Top 10 Pro Hero, supported by some of his sidekicks and Mt. Lady, ready for any assaults from the road.

There were extra cameras atop the massive black steel walls running along the perimeter of the school.

And it felt like nobody could go ten steps without bumping into a Pro Hero.

It was every hero-worshipping kids paradise, and the paparazzi were enjoying it just as much.

This of course was expected so many less popular Pro Heroes offered their services every year, hoping to get some spotlight and go viral from the sheer volume of pictures that would be taken.

But this year most of them were feeling the cold shoulder of neglect.

Everywhere they look there were people wearing Horizon's merch, from t-shirts to backpacks and shoes. 7

Most legitimate, many not. But Horizon doesn't really care, it was the least of his concerns really. 1

But what annoyed the pro heroes more was the paparazzi and fans constantly approaching them, and just when they think they're about to get some attention the person simply asks where Horizon is. 2

Yet all they can do is smile and play nice, burying the annoyance they feel each time its asked.

Walking through the crowd and largely being either avoided or ignored, Endeavor would stop ever so often to sign something for a fan or give a comment and pose for a picture. 5

But today he was on a mission.

He wasn't here technically working security so he had no post to report to, but of course he did have a pass to go anywhere he wants within reason.

His presence was enough of a security assurance for 99% of villains, so he could roam about freely.

And right now he was making his way toward the performance stages where 1A was preparing, to bond with ,or more accurately, annoy, Shoto.

Atleast from Shoto's point of view.

Ignoring the scent of candy in the air, all the congested and crowded walkways which meant his flames were off, and the noise of all the students vying for the publics attention.

Endeavor focuses only on getting to his goal, perhaps one of the few Pro Heroes here who are thankful to Horizon for stealing away so much attention.

And while nobody has yet to see Horizon, suddenly hundreds of phones go off at once, a new notification reaching them all.

The people along the crowded walkway to get to the arena, walking in front of the main campus building, suddenly look up at the building.

As they saw themselves in Horizon's newest post, a picture of him sitting at the edge of the building, feet dangling over the edge, with the crowd shown down below him.

UA being tagged, a clear warning for the villains to stay away from UA and Musutafu today, which the criminals based in Tokyo will surely appreciate. 1

Dozens of people take out their cameras and zoom in, trying their best to get a picture of him sitting there.

And much to their delight, he gives them a simple wave and goes back to listening to his music, ignoring the crowds.

He does this for hours.

His Room open, taking all of his focus to keep an eye on everything and everyone, but eventually something catches his eye.

At noon, three hours after the start of the festival, he senses and sees something interesting enter UA.

SHAMBLES!

With a thought he warps into the middle of the crowd, startling many people before they all begin clamoring and trying to get his attention, but he tunes them out and shuts his much off.

He simply stood there, staring down at a little boy in a rather accurate Horizon cosplay. 3

He couldn't be more than ten years old, and he was clearly star struck. Staring up at his hero in silence.

His parents were on either side of him, and they didn't know what to say either, but before they could utter a word Horizon got down to the boys level, taking a knee.

Taking a closer look at him.

"Nice Hero Costume Horizon," he says to the boy, noticing the child was trembling with excitement. "So, are you a fan?"

The boy just nods, and through the holes in the boys cardboard visor he could see two wide eyes, pupils like saucers staring at him.

"You're my favorite," the boy says, and the crowd gets completely silent, some people recording while others are just taking in the scene.

"And why is that?"

"You're strong," the boy then raises a small foam katana at his side, "and have a sword."

Horizon chuckles, "everyone likes the sword."

"Mhm!" the boy excitedly nods along.

"But you know, my Hero Costume has more than just a sword," Horizon says.

"Really?"

"Mhm," he rolls back his sleeve slightly to show the body glove, which the boy thankfully wasn't wearing. Just a simple white suit, foam katana, and cardboard visor. "See this keeps me healthy, and helps me stay cool in the sun, so be sure to drink lots of water while you're having fun today, alright."

"Alright."

"But there is one more thing," Horizon raises his hand, and a similar card to his metal throwing cards appears. But this one was plastic and dull, with his symbol on both sides, with one side signed.

A special set of these were made weeks ago in preparation for moments like these, and he's given a few stalls here cards to give away as prizes.

"Woooow," the boys leans forward and slowly moves to grab it out of the air, then hesitates.

"Every Horizon needs some of these," Horizon says. "This one is yours, take care of it alright."

The boy vigorously nods along, then gets a nudge from his dad, "thank you!"

"Always happy to help a fellow hero," Horizon says as he hovers the card over to the boy who holds it close to his chest. "Enjoy the festival, and stay safe…" 13

The boy just continues nodding excitedly, not knowing what to say, and before the other people in the crowd can speak Horizon disappears.

Appearing back on the roof, but this time not sitting at the edge.

"You could have stayed there a bit long," Nezu says, he'd been waiting on the roof for barely a moment before Horizon reappeared. "A lot of people are here to see you."

Horizon sighs and reaches down to lift Nezu, putting him up on the ledge where they look out over the crowd and the city together.

They occasionally see someone taking a picture of them chatting, but largely ignore the crowd.

"And why would I want to get swarmed by those hero-worshipping morons?" Horizon asks while waving to the crowd.

"You don't have any problem saying hello to children."

"Well they're kids, and some of them, like that last one, have great taste in Pro Heroes."

"Do you ever plan to actually enjoy the festival?"

"I am enjoying it, also I told Jiro I'd come down to watch the concert, so I've only got one hour of peace up here before that starts." 2

"I see, that's good," Nezu says as they enjoy a peaceful lull in the conversation, looking down at all the families pouring into UA.

Looking up at Horizon, he sees the visor looking down at the crowd, and behind it he just knew Horizon was lost in his own thoughts, as he often is at scenes like this.

"Do you ever wish you could be them?" Nezu asks.

"Be what?"

"Normal…"

"Why would I ever want that, I'm Horizon, I'm better." 2

"Well that makes one of us," Nezu admits. "I used to wish for it all the time, and occasionally I still do. In moments like theses. What if I wasn't born a rat that developed a Quirk and got experimented on for years? 1

What if I was just a normal human with a normal family doing normal things?

What if I knew what a normal life was like?

But I've long made peace with it. That's why UA is my everything…it is all that will be left of my life. But for all the good I've done, and that UA will continue to do, sometimes I find myself jealous of them…"

Neither of them speak for a few minutes, until Horizon breaks the silence.

"Sometimes, you know, after a long shift of non-stop Hero Work. I go back to the tower and just relax with Ryuko. And I think about how much better things would be if they were there too.

And I think about all the people out there that get to have their full families because I don't have mine back yet.

And, I don't know…its like I'm happy for them, at least for the kids that don't have to grow up without parents.

But then I get angry, because I remember why I'm doing this."

"But then you keep doing it anyway," Nezu says. "How often do you think about them?"

"I try not to," Horizon admits. "The more I think about them, the less focused I get, and the more I think about how…" 3

"About how what?"

Horizon sighs, "about how much they would prefer if I just walked away right now. Just packed everything up and left, and let them get executed, like they asked me to do. The deal is either I play hero, or I walk away, those are the only options I have…"

"Can you really do that?"

"I, rather not, obviously," Horizon says. "But, if it comes to it. I will, because I know its what they'd want me to do. But I also have to honor my agreement, plus, and I hate to say it but, being a Pro Hero has its uses."

Nezu looks at him with a victorious smirk.

"Don't even start," beneath the visor Horizon rolls his eyes.

"I didn't say anything, but I'm glad you're learning to enjoy this life you've chosen. And so long as you're happy, I'm sure they'll be happy."

"How about you just take things one day at a time, don't get your hopes up , alright?"

"Alright," Nezu says. And less than a minute later he can't help but ask, "so do you like sav--"

Horizon raises a hand, signaling for him to be quiet then taps his visor, meaning he's on a call.

"I need to go," Horizon says after the call ends.

"What, but you can't leave, the security--"

"The Kelto Nuclear Reactor is having a potential crisis Nezu."

"Oh god," Nezu's eyes go wide. "If that happens then it could contaminate the water system there and kill millions."

"Yeah, and thirteen just gave me the call to assist her since she knows I can handle a lot of dangerous scenarios."

Nezu nods along, "alright, I'll keep things running as if you're still here. But stay away from the cameras, we don't need villains knowing you're on the other side of Tokyo."

"I'll travel as Law, this feels too perfect to be a coincidence…but--." 4

"I know," Nezu says. "We just can't take the risk, I'll do what I can here to boost security as quietly as possible, you just stay safe, and be quick."

"I'll do my best…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 229: CHAPTER 225(Meltdown)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Standing atop a small 6-story building. Normally a bustling hotel and restaurant but now entirely deserted, Law Matani looks out at the city of Kelto.

At the top of Japan's northern island, it was hours away from UA by conventional means.

Thankfully Law has access to things other than trains and boats.

Looking down at the city below, there were only a final few stragglers making their way out. The last remaining people before this city became a temporary ghost town.

Emergency service personnel were busy opening the manholes all across the city and entering, wearing full body protective suits, sealing them away from the leaked gas so they don't get killed by the fumes.

A few news drones could be spotted observing them, the heroic few entering the undergound systems to find the massive gas leak and contain it before the entire city explodes.

ROOM!

Law's eyes glow bright blue and begin releasing blue energy vapor as he opens a Room spanning 20km total, 10km in any direction from him. 3

SCAN!

He casually takes stock of anyone left behind by the evacuation services, noting that they did a thorough job, then focuses toward the edge of the city.

Where he could see the massive Kelto reactor resting on the coast.

Taking out his phone he gives Pro Hero 13 a call.

"Horizon, are you here yet?" Thirteen asks, he can hear the worry in her voice.

"I'm just double checking the city incase people got left behind in the evacuation, how are things at the reactor?"

"Not good, we have about an hour before this thing goes critical."

"Can we go in yet?"

"No," Thirteen says. "The engineers are still trying to flood the system remotely, if we open the doors the radiation will leak past the control room so there won't be any going back from that, this is their last chance before evacuating."

"Got it, so you can explain to me what the hell is happening then," Law says. "Modern reactors are made so well that its nearly impossible for this to happen. The fail safes should have shut it down by flooding it with water or by releasing the dampeners, how is this possible?"

"We aren't sure yet, but they can do a autopsy of this after we solve it."

SHAMBLES!

Horizon's Hero Costume appears on his body, and Scalpel is floating at his side.

Focusing on the reactor he senses some scattered paper beside 13 and swaps with it. 2

SHAMBLES!

He appears beside her, cutting off the phone call and startling her.

"Good, you're here, is the city clear?" she asks.

"All clear, now we just have to deal with this," he gestures to the massive blast doors in front of them. Looking back he senses the engineers in the control room, all wearing full hazmat suits as they stressfully work at the computers.

"You need a hazmat suit!" Thirteen says. "If we have to open these doors the radiation will be beyond lethal!" 3

"Huh, I thought you called me because I can handle radiation?"

"You can? When President Pantu and I discussed this she only said you'd be a good person to have around for this, she didn't get into the specifics."

"My Quirk is very good in situations like these, she made the right call bringing me in on this. Now, tell me everything you couldn't say over the phone."

"The reactor seals cracked, along with some of the gates containing the heat. That lead to a chain reaction of sorts that apparently warped the metal and stopped the failsafe protocols from happening."

"I thought that was impossible," Horizon says.

"On paper it should be, but I suppose someone did the math wrong."

"And the people?"

"A false gas leak has been reported, and president Pantu ordered Bubble Girl and a few others with Quirks that can produce certain odors to trick the people. The evacuation was necessary incase we fail." 1

"And the people in the city actually looking for gas leaks."

"They're wearing those suits for a reason, it'll give them enough protection to get out of the city should we fail. They'll be fine no matter what. But we needed them to also believe there is a gas leak, we need the media on our side for this.

If things go as we want, this situation will be resolved without anyone ever knowing we almost had a nuclear accident here. Japan is already under internal and external scrutiny on a global scale, we can't afford to be the first country in centuries to mishandle our reactors."

"I'm more concerned about what happens if the media knows I'm here."

"Why is that?"

"If they see I'm here, it would be logical for Shigaraki to attack UA, and if I'm here they can't stop Machia'. It'll be a slaughter, compound that with this reactor having a full meltdown…Japan will fall apart within a few minutes."

"And many Top Pros are at UA, so we wouldn't be able to handle the chaotic aftermath," Thirteen says. "That's why only the people here, Nezu, and President Pantu and her trusted agents are aware of this."

"I see," Horizon crosses his arms and doesn't speak for a moment.

"What is it?"

"Doesn't this seem too perfect to you? The most important day for me to be at UA, and this happens all the way at the other end of Japan, now I'm here and they're vulnerable."

"Not everything is about you," Thirteen says. "The villains couldn't know about your radiation abilities right? Its a fair assumption that you'd be here to evacuate people or in worst case heal people and rescue survivors, but that doesn't mean someone would do this just to get you away from UA." 7

"I hope you're right, so what's the plan for in there?" he gestures to the doors.

"I get to the nuclear material and use my Quirk, Black Hole, to destroy it. Disposing of that much energy rich matter will put me out of commission for a few weeks, at best, but its the safest way to protect everyone."

"Then I'll deal with the remaining radiation by shoving it into the carbon rods, alright, sounds good."

"Mhm," Thirteen nods.

"For the record, always knew your Quirk wasn't limitless," Horizon says.

"Oh yeah, what gave it away?"

"Well I have a brain, not to mention, if you could generate a real black hole, you'd be Mystery Class. Because we still don't know how those work."

"I always wondered about that, Mystery Class, is that true or is it a publicity stunt? Stanr and Stripe seems to be able to do a lot of things, like she has a hundred different Quirks. And you're similar, but 'Beyond Comprehension' seems like a stretch." 1

"Honestly, even as a Mystery Class and Quirk specialist, its difficult to understand but impossible to explain. Just consider it magic, that's all."

"Ms. Thirteen," the engineers announce over the internal PA system of the facility. "I'm sorry, but we weren't able to stop it, you'll have to go in. When we open the doors all radio wave communication will stop working, we'll watch from the cameras remotely but, you'll be on your own."

Horizon stays quiet, still not wanting the engineers to know he's her, incase one of them was a saboteur.

And only moments later the massive blast doors begin moving, and a wave of heat slams into both the heroes.

Horizon flinches as it crashes into him, feeling the radiation instantly attacking his body.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Blue energy vapor begins pouring off his body, healing him as quickly as the radiation was hurting him. 2

"Are you alright?" Thirteen asks, she sees him take a deep breath then shrug off the pain of his cells being irradiated.

"I'll be fine, but lets make this quick, the longer we take the further the radiation gets."

All of this happened while they could both hear Thirteen's Geiger counter in her suit constantly making noise.

"Follow me, and no warping," Thirteen says as she begins running forward into the hallway. "We can't afford to skip any of the chambers, so lets do this the old fashioned way."

Horizon is easily keeping up with the shorter woman, "how many Rads?"

"Right now, 7000, and climbing by the second as the containment material is melted away. If we fail it'll rocket past 30 thousand in an instant."

"That might be more than I can handle right now," Horizon admits.

"I'm surprised you can handle this many already, most people never fully recover from being blasted by 100 just once, but you're here walking as if its nothing."

"I'm more impressed by that suit of yours," Horizon says. "If it cracks you instantly die in this radiation, but you're completely unbothered."

"It was made to contain my Quirk back when I was training. If I lost control as powerful as I am now it wouldn't hold up, but its enough to handle this. Anything more than 12 thousand and I'll be in trouble."

After nearly a minute of running they arrive at the first chamber.

"Well?"

"One moment," Thirteen begins inspecting the seals. "This chamber is still perfectly fine, there are two more small ones like this to check, they're on the route to the big reactor core."

They begin running off again, and find the following two chambers are sealed.

Which only leaves one chamber left.

"Wow, can you handle that?" Horizon asks as they lay eyes on the main reactor core.

It was a glowing red sphere laying on the metal floor of what was a massive pool of water. Slowly melting into it, even this metal alloy that took almost two centuries of material science and clever Quirk use to create, and it was melting it.

"Too hot," Thirteen says as he begins pushing into the heat. 1

Her suit was built for moments like these, thanks to her Quirk and position as one of the worlds best Rescue Heroes, she's prepared for even nightmares like this.

Beneath her suit she was already drenched in sweat, her suit quickly losing structural integrity by the seconds.

Her boots warping the nearly molten metal floor with each step.

Behind her Horizon was in the doorway, his coat was already on the floor, burnt to ash.

Along with his vest, undershirt, tie, and even his pants.

All burnt away so quickly, leaving only his Body Glove in tact, but he could feel that falling apart as well.

BOOSTER SHOT!

For the first time he actively tries to draw out the energy vapor, calling it out to coat his body.

He gets small patches of it across him, protecting him from the heat and radiation.

"Ach!" he winces as the material of his visor begins melting and fusing with his skin.

BOOSTER SHOT!

His entire head is coated in the blue vapor, but instead of being blown away it clings to him like a strange jelly, taking the damage from the heat on his behalf.

Feeling surprisingly cool even here in the reactor core.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He coats his entire body with the energy liquid, trying to match the radiation as Thirteen uses her Quirk. 1

Standing directly in from of the basketball sized reactor core she raises her right hand, the removes the arm portion of her costume.

Revealing her slender right hand to be covered in black spots below the Hero Costume.

The skin immediately begins burning away and becoming black, dying.

" BLACK HOLE!"

She activates her Quirk at full power for the first time in over a decade, and all the black spots on her hand grow and fuse together.

It pulls in the air and the radiation from the room.

Horizon drops to his knees to avoid being easily pulled in, resting his hands on the floor to give himself more friction.

Thirteen pushes forward and makes direct contact with the reactor core, and slowly it begins to break apart and be absorbed by her Quirk.

The limit of matter and energy she can breakdown and absorb grows with mastery and experience.

But this object had trillions of calories, so breaking it down wasn't so simple. 7

The moment to outer shell cracks the Rads in the room jump to 18 thousand. 1

And Horizon feels his energy reserves take a massive hit, his Quirk instantly released more energy to match the radiation, and he felt hungry all of a sudden.

Looking up he only sees blinding red light, then 30 seconds later the entire room goes silent and begins cooling down.

He stops making the energy layer around himself and gets up, taking deep breaths, already exhausted.

And looks up to see Thirteen laying on the floor, her helmet and the front of her suit was torn up, leaving her body exposed and unclothed, at least in the front.

Both her arms were once again revealed, this time without the spots on this, showing her Quirk was unusable at the moment.

Short black hair and a cute face, reminiscent of Toru. 1

But as Horizon kneels beside her to Scan her body, the most noticeable feature are the eyes, pupils like event horizons, glowing golden and black, quite appropriate considering her Quirk.

"You're pretty cute," Horizon says as he Scans her. 3

Thirteen winces from slight pain as he touches her, then begins feeling a draft blow across her naked body, but is too exhausted to care.

"The radiation…rods," Thirteen says, her voice sounding frail.

"I'll take care of it, you just rest…"

SHAMBLES!

A pillow appears in her place, as he warped her into one of the room of the hotel he visited earlier. 4

END CHAPTER--

Happy 1 year anniversary to this story, we're about done with 45% of the plot, no idea how many chapters that means this will be but I hope you're enjoying the ride :) 16

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Chapter 230: CHAPTER 226(Almost Nuclear Aftermath) 5

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y 1

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Thirteen won't be able to use her Quirk for months after that," Horizon says as he stands up.

Looking down at his body glove he sees bits and pieces melted, burnt, and warped. Parts of the internal gel armor were completely destroyed due to his inability to regulate his external energy.

Not that he cared that much, it's a move he just came up with after all.

"Ok, time to get to work," he looks around, taking stock above and around him.

He was standing in what was the massive pool below the reactor core, and all around him were sealed cylindrical ports in the wall. Each containing a dozen ultra dense carbon rods.

"So the failsafe was that the core would be lowered into this pool, but that didn't happen, until it melted its restraints," he looks up at the melted metal that once held the core in place.

He looks down at the metal floor that was still somewhat molten.

"And this place ran out of water, because that gate didn't open for the ocean to pour in," he looks at a large gate on the ceiling, that was still closed.

"And the radiation got out of this room, because these things didn't eject the Carbon Dampener Rods to absorb it," he looks around at all the ports containing the rods.

"Three layers of fail safes that stopped working, but the engineers said that all the stuff on the digital side of it kept working…someone was messing around in here."

He takes a deep breath and creates a new Room, only as large as the facility itself.

"Takt!"

All the ports with the rods are torn open, and he noticed something strange about the lock.

"First things first, contain the radiation before it reaches the city," with a wave of his hand he stacks all the rods at his feet in a neat pile, then raises his right hand and holds the wrist with his left.

Taking a deep breath he closes his eyes, and focuses on the most minute thing in his Room.

On the energy and radiation in the air.

He senses that the radiation is even at the limits of his Room, and expands it for another kilometer until he was sure he'd gotten it all.

Ever since Overhaul, he'd been practicing more and more with this move.

Since that fight his mind has been able to snap to focus on the energy in the air much easier.

He rarely get headaches anymore while training.

He can feel his power growing, and he's getting better and better at drawing out more of it.

He's nowhere near able to tap into all of his new power, nowhere near aligning his mind and heart.

Nowhere near that breakthrough that would propel him to the absolute and undisputed top of this world.

Nowhere near being the ascended being that would only know absolute and crushing victory from that moment onward.

But luckily, that was only four months away for Horizon. 22

And right now, he was still enough.

GAMMA: STRIKE!

All the radiation glows green and red this time since its not only gamma radiation from the air.

The engineers at the edge of the perimeter watch in amazement as the air itself glows and is pulled toward the reactor core room.

Pulled through the building itself and into the earth below.

Then it gathers in the palm of Horizon's hand before he reaches out and touches the pile of carbon rods.

The metal greedily absorbs the energy and heats up, softening slightly as the environment is once again safe.

Horizon slouches slightly and takes some tired breaths, "ok, time to figure out, what the fuck happened here."

He looks around at the seals for the port containing the rods, and with a though brings one to float in front of him.

Reaching out he inspects the seal, and everything appears normal.

The motor that should have opened it was perfectly fine, at least before Horizon tore it out of the wall.

SCAN!

Then he finds it, within the locking mechanism the metal was fused together.

SHAMBLES!

Scalpel appears in his hand.

AMPUTATE!

He cuts the lock in two, now able to see a cross section.

And sees the entire thing was perfectly fused together.

Looking up he sees the mechanism that was supposed to lower the core into the water melted into liquid, beyond inspection.

"The water gate," Horizon warps his hoverboard to him and stands on it, lifting himself up to the gate on the ceiling, meant to keep the ocean at bay until it was time to flood the core.

Placing his hand on it he focuses and Scans it, sensing the metal also fused together, making it impossible to open.

Without alerting the engineers that anything changed, since the motors and electricals were unaffected.

"Nezu!" Horizon reaches up and touches the side of his visor, only to feel the shape of his ear with the material melted onto it.

"Fuck!" he looks at his left forearm and sees the hologram interface Mei made for his was also melted.

SMAHBLES! 4

Horizon warps outside to where the engineers were anxiously waiting in a small tent.

They're all startled as he appears, surprising them men who were all wearing their hazmat suits and ready to evacuate.

"I need a phone, now!"

"Uh, wh--"

"Thirteen and I stopped the reactor, I need a phone, now!"

"Here," one of the men hastily hands him his phone and Horizon begins dialing, completely oblivious to how he looks.

He walks away from the men so that he can't be overheard.

Like a man who was bathed in molten plastic then rapidly cooled.

Even when one of cameras got a full view of him, he didn't notice, too busy calling Nezu. 1

"Who is--"

"I dealt with it," Horizon cuts Nezu off. "It was Wolfram, secure the Shields, I'm coming back to UA now, I can't talk on this phone."

"Got it," Nezu hangs up.

Looking at the time Horizon sees its already 4 PM, the UA Culture Festival was already over.

"Shit," he snaps the phone in half and tosses it into the ocean nearby.

"Awe, that was my phone," one of them men mutter, they were peeking out of the tent. 1

Horizon sighs and walks back over the the tent, and all the men can sense how uneasy he was.

And if Horizon is uneasy, they're were downright terrified of what could cause that.

"You men did nothing wrong," Horizon says to the engineers, the men who would have been held accountable for this disaster, for the death of millions.

"What?"

"This was the work of a villain," Horizon says. "Principal Nezu will inform President Pantu, you need to stay here with me until she gets more forces her to protect you and debrief you."

"A villain did this?" the lead engineer asks. "What kind of monster would do that?"

"You don't have to worry about that, I'll deal with it," Horizon reassures them.

"But what about you, are you alright?" the man gestures to Horizon's melted costume. "And where's Thirteen?" 1

"She had another emergency to deal with so I warped her there."

"Ahh," the engineers breath a sigh of relief.

Within 20 minutes Horizon was relieved by a Hero Public Safety Commission agent carrying a secure phone.

He was quickly informed that both David and Melissa Shield were completely fine and at UA.

The UA Culture Festival went exactly as planned, no villain sightings and only one fight almost happened, but luckily Shinso was able to put a stop to it.

Which leads Horizon to where he was now, in President Pantu's office giving a full debrief.

"Look, you made the news, again," Pantu says as she brings up a hologram of a social media post. Showing Horizon speaking to some engineers on the Kelto Reactor facility compound.

This is after the incident was concluded, and in the picture he appeared somewhat disheveled and unkempt.

"News drone?"

"Yes, and the posted it before I could shut them down," Pantu says. "It turns out your friend saw through the gas leak story."

"Well Chitose is a pro at manipulating the media, so it makes sense that she'd see when someone else tries to do it."

"Has she asked you for an official statement?"

"My new phone is at UA, so I haven't checked yet," Horizon says. "What should I say."

"Hmm," Pantu considers the options. "The picture and the location make it quite obvious, if we lie the people won't respect us and they'll think we failed to protect them and are hiding it."

"And the truth?"

"Is the best option," Pantu says. "Being a villain is despised by the public, but being willing to cause a nuclear meltdown, kill a city and contaminate the water supply for millions of people and that much farm land."

"There won't be a civilian in Japan willing to be swayed by the league, since that's who everyone will assume was behind it, only the real psycho's will join them. Their recruitment numbers will drop and they'll take another hit in credibility because we stopped them."

"That's the best I can think of to spin this in our favor," Pantu says. "But I still don't understand the purpose of killing so many people, the motive of just death, destruction, and chaos…that fits Shigaraki's profile."

"But this was likely Wolfram," Horizon says. "He's supposed to be an accomplished and smart mercenary, mass murder is just a tool for him. It should have been a distraction but Melissa and David are still at UA, I don't get it."

"You think there's another attack imminent?" Pantu asks.

"Most likely, this had to have been a distraction for something."

"Will you be in Tokyo tonight? If he wants mass murder and calamity as a distraction, Tokyo would be the place to do it."

"I need to go check on UA, incase this was a distraction to plant a bomb or something."

"I see," Pantu shuts off the hologram. "And, did you perhaps let them take that picture so I'd have to release the truth to make you look good?"

"No," Horizon says, and she senses no lie. "I have enough good credit as is, I'd never want the public to see me like that, as if I'm melted and falling apart. Not to mention I was more of a sidekick to Thirteen during that."

Pantu doesn't detect any lies, and only nods.

"Thirteen will be fine by the way, she won't be able to use her Quirk for a few weeks, or months."

"That's certainly a relief, now I have to figure out the details of our story, I'm sure you'll appreciate the credit you'll get from this."

"Well it won't hurt, now I need to go, see ya…"

With that Horizon warps away.

And beneath her icy fa ade Pantu was even more annoyed, by how much more Japan would adore him for this. 3

How much more desirable he was to other countries.

And how much they needed him… 6

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 231: CHAPTER 227(1 Month Anniversary) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--7 PM…

"Dude you're crazy if you really thought you'd win this, with that weird play of all things, ha, as if," Sero gloats to Monoma.

Both boys were sitting opposite each other in the 1A common room after the UA Culture Festival, surrounded by their classmates with Sero having one arm around Yui who was mostly asleep beside him.

Monoma waves the sheet of paper they were discussing around, "the only thing this proves is that the student body doesn't know true entertainment."

"Doesn't matter, we won the votes," Sero says flatly.

"Because they couldn't comprehend the transcendent art in our play, while your class made a catch song and some silly dan--ACH!" Monoma bites his tongue as Kendo smack him on the head.

"They worked their butts off for that concert," she says, noticing all the 1A students glaring at him. "It was great, and better than our play…kind of cheating since they've got Jiro thought."

"Oh yeah," Sero says. "She's totally our musical secret weapon."

A few more people pass Jiro compliments, causing her to blush where she was sitting at one of the tables beside Momo. 2

But then both girls gets up, Jiro goes to make some snacks and Momo makes a deck of cards, walking over to Deku's group.

"I never said it was bad," Monoma clarifies. "Just that our art was harder to understand…for this uncultured student body."

"Maybe you lost them at the name," Mina says. "I mean honestly, 'Romeo, Juliet, the lion, the witch, and the prisoner of Azkaban, battle of the two towers'...that's a lot." 3

"As I said, uncultured."

"Well at least you did one thing right, Yui was the princess," Sero gives her a small kiss on the cheek causing her to lean into him. 1

"Ugh," Monoma groans.

"I think its cute," Mina says. "Who would have guessed that Horizon's best friend would be such a good boyfriend." 2

"Yeah," Sero says as they continue chatting about the UA Culture Festival.

But during that he glances around the room, noticing everyone doing their usual chatter.

But he shares a look with Shinso, then with Juzo, then they all look toward Melissa.

She was sitting opposite Deku who was on the floor opposite her.

They were talking in their usual group, Deku, Melissa, Tsu, Uraraka, and Shoto, but Melissa looked awfully busy on her phone tonight. 2

Earlier she'd said she was exhausted from today, showing off all her Support Equipment to the public.

Even if she apparently wouldn't be at UA much longer, she still got into the UA spirit for the festival.

But Team Horizon is keeping an eye on her because they've been tasked with that.

Horizon wanted them to make sure she was at this little social gathering, to see if they spot anything weird with her.

But aside from her not talking much, there wasn't anything abnormal.

Although the amount of effort it took for them to get her here was suspicious, they even had to get Midoriya convinced that she should be there tonight.

All without knowing anything specific.

Just a simple message of 'Make sure Melissa is at our dorm tonight, to make friends' was enough, at least since that's what Horizon sent them.

Because its from Horizon, and the last thing he cares about was his classmates having a healthy social life.

Especially when concerning a girl he doesn't exactly get along with.

A few minutes later Sero is in a game of Jenga with Kendo, Monoma, and Yanagi…who was probably cheating with her Telekinesis Quirk.

Even if they couldn't prove it, but she was just 'so good she had to be cheating', according to Sero.

Team Horizon notices Momo join in Deku's small group on the carpet as they begin shuffling cards, and Melissa just backs away so she's out of the circle, still close enough to listen to the conversation.

'Nothing too suspicious so far, she just seems a bit tired from today, but everyone is, so that's normal…' they all think after sharing a few glances.

A few minutes later and Horizon finally arrives back at the dorms, still wearing his Hero Costume.

Sword nowhere to be seen but a small and simple bouquet of flowers in his hand.

Sero immediately leaps at the chance, "ooohhh, flowers huh, did you flip a coin to see who gets them or will they share that too?"

A few small fits of laughter burst forth around the room, then he sees both Momo and Jiro glaring daggers at him.

"Uh, sorry."

"Is that really something you should be concerned about?" Horizon walks up to the couches and folds his arms, looking down at Sero. "Nezu told me you almost got into a fight, and Shinso stopped you."

The entire room falls silent, most of them didn't even know about this incident.

"Its nothing to worry about, didn't even get to throw a punch."

"Mhm, he told me his version, and that you've got cleaning duty as punishment, and can't leave UA for Hero Work until next week," Horizon says. "So…what's so important that you had to get into a fight and fuck up our team schedule, Cellophane?"

"Uhh," Sero looks genuinely scared for a moment. "It was just some nobody Pro Hero, a D-Lister if I've ever seen one."

Most of the room looks horrified that their classmate would try to fight a Pro Hero, but Horizon just stands there with his arms crossed.

"Look the guy was asking for it, alright," Sero says. "I mean all he was doing is constantly talking crap about UA, about how it was failing us and putting us in danger." 2

"And you got mad because of that?" Horizon asks. "For school spirit, are you that stupid?" 1

"Obviously not," Sero says. "He just…I lost my cool when he started talking crap about us. Saying stuff like the government is lying about you, that you didn't really do all the things the news says. That our whole team is just a bunch of fake news the government and UA are pushing onto people. I just couldn't take listening to him anymore."

Sero sighs and sinks into the couch, and Horizon just shakes his head.

"Sorry," Sero says.

"Its fine, that's acceptable, once it wasn't just you fighting for some school spirit nonsense at least. What we do is a bit hard for losers to believe, and you didn't use your Quirk so he can't ask for you to lose your license, and he won't know you're Cellophane."

"I wouldn't have used my Quirk for him," Sero says. "Wouldn't need it."

Horizon actually laughs at that, "that's what I like to hear. And Shinso, good work stopping this moron from getting into any more trouble. Honestly you beating up a Pro Hero wouldn't be the end of the world since you're on my team, and I've got Japan in the palm of my hand right now, and if they fuck with me I'd have it bent over biting the pillow, but lets not push it, ok?" 4

"Understood," Sero nods bashfully. "And gross example."

"Whatever, enjoy cleaning duty," Horizon says as he lifts the bouquet, "now if you don't mind, I need to give these to my girlfriend…"

The entire room remains silent, but some eyes go wide, others were clearly horrified at the idea of any girl being with Horizon. 3

Then he begins walking over to where the game of cards was happening on the floor.

Momo's eyes instantly become glossy, almost tearing up, hand covering her mouth. 3

Tsu looks at her and shakes her head, feeling sorry for her friend.

Mina is almost jumping in excitement.

Jiro across the room in the kitchen is frozen in shock, not even able to process this.

So many colliding thoughts in all their heads, and they all then go out the window once more as he walks right past Momo. 4

And stands in front of Melissa Shield, who was ignoring all of this and watching a video on her phone. 1

She looks up at him, concerned and bewildered.

Horizon sighs, "of course you'd forget, you're always so caught up in making stuff…c'mon babe this is our 1 month anniversary." 1

Melissa instantly snaps to her senses and blinks a couple times, "oh right, sorry. I've just been busy with the festival, and now I'm already a bit tired so…you know."

"It's fine, I know the kind of person my girlfriend is…"

Tsu gives Momo a comforting pat on the shoulder, and in the kitchen Jiro is still frozen in shock.

Horizon simple hands Melissa the bouquet and steps off to the side so they were beside each other, with the girl still sitting on the carpet.

"Uh, um, so," Deku stumbles over his words for a bit. "When did, I mean, how long have you two been together?"

"Yeah," Uraraka says shyly. "When did this happen?"

"Well, about a month ago," Melissa says, "it was a bit of a surprise but before I knew it we got together."

She gives them a bashful smile.

"Actually, no, we didn't…" 5

In one swift motion Horizon raises his hands and warps Scalpel into it, unsheathed, then brings it down directly onto Melissa.

Many of the young heroes including Deku spring into action ready to tackle him away from her, aside from Team Horizon who simply sit and watch. 2

But Deku and everyone else stop at the sound of metal piercing metal, the few sparks emanating from her shoulder.

And the wisps of smoke being released from her body as she goes limp, eyes becoming black as they power down.

She was sitting with her legs crossed, so Scalpel had pierced through her left shoulder, into her left forearm, into her left thigh and through that into her right ankle since her legs were folded.

And at each entry point some sparks were seen.

They all look on in horror as Horizon just sighs and lets go of the sword.

"Damn, I was hoping for a shapeshifter, can't really question a robot…" 10

END CHAPTER-- 2

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Chapter 232: CHAPTER 228(Trails)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"What happened to Melissa?" Deku yells out as everyone else is frozen in shock.

Sero just shakes Yui awake as he sits back awaiting an explanation, while Juzo and Shinso make their way over to the commotion.

"She's a robot, obviously," Horizon says as he casually pulls Scalpel to the side, tearing off the robots arm with it.

They all look at the robot in surprise, then to him for an explanation.

But instead he just takes a knee beside the robot and inspects it.

'They used some kind of strange almost living organic membrane,' he thinks while touching the skin, using Scan on the robot. 'They couldn't have know that I can't Scan within people from range…they got lucky with this part of the disguise.'

"Should we be looking out for other imposters?" Juzo asks.

"My Quirk would be a easy way to tell," Shinso says. "If it doesn't work then the person is a robot."

"Maybe this was just her testing out some new project!" Kirishima suggests, hopeful that this wasn't a sign of something bad.

"This is the only one," Horizon says as he gets back up. "Making any more would raise the chances of being found out, this one tried to act exhausted from the festival to avoid human interaction, luckily I expected that when sending Sero to drag her over here."

Hearing this Sero gets up, leaving the confused Yui on the couch and walks over, "makes sense, but uh, what the hell?"

"Keep this quiet," Horizon looks around at everyone, seeing them nod and wait for his explanation. "Don't need the public finding out UA got breached…"

"Is Melissa alright?" Deku asks, voicing what everyone was thinking.

"She's fine, if they hurt her then its less likely David will play along with their demands. She got kidnapped during the festival, toward the end of it."

Some of them look horrified at the thought of that, and the fact that somehow nobody noticed.

"Hound Dog is already tracking the scent, I sent him to do that before I even came over here to deal with the imposter…honestly was hoping it was a shapeshifter so I could interrogate her…but this sucks."

"You intended to do that to a person?" Momo asks, giving the dismembered robot a worried look.

"Well, the stab yeah, would have left the arm on though," Horizon sighs. "Anyway, stay on alert until I get her back."

"But why the weird anniversary lie?" Sero asks.

"Such a ballsy move means the shapeshifter probably studied her somehow, or was able to take some of her memories, surface thoughts or otherwise. Throwing a curveball like that would confuse her, but since it didn't and she just went along with the lie--"

"She overplayed her part," Jiro says. "Which is why you were confident that the real Melissa wasn't here."

"Essentially yes, now I just need to wait for Hound Dog to track them down. In the meantime, stay on alert and don't leave the dorms. All the teachers are on alert but we doubt there will be anything else at UA.

The entire point of this was doing it quietly because they weren't confident in winning a direct fight, we'll be fine."

"I see, and is there anything you'd like us to do?"

Horizon looks around at all their worried faces, then at the robot at his feet. "Just stay safe, and don't let anyone know about this. But Shinso, use your Quirk on people just to double check."

"Got it," Shinso says.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon appears in Nezu's office, and the robot he was gently touching with his feet is warped with him.

Nezu and Eraser Head were already there, and Eraser Head immediately jumps to his feet ready to fight, his mind sent into overdrive since Horizon's call earlier.

"What's that?" Eraser Head asks as Horizon puts the robot on the coffee table.

"Robot copy, we weren't lucky enough to get a shapeshifter to interrogate."

"On the contrary, this could be even better," Nezu says. "Did you check if it had a bomb?"

"I'm a doctor, not a mechanic, that's why I brought it here."

Nezu immediately hops out of his seat and fishes around in his desk for a tablet device.

Rushing over as fast as his little legs can take him he begins scanning the robot, not at all phased by how lifelike it appears.

Eraser Head and Horizon just take a seat and patiently wait.

"So, how's David?" Horizon asks.

"Asleep," Eraser says.

"Seriously?"

"He's not exactly the mentally toughest person so we left him sleeping," Eraser says. "The instant they make a call requesting whatever ransom they want, he'll fold."

"Yeah but since its his daughter that's his choice to make," Horizon says. "We just have to solve this before that call happens."

"They won't do that until they're out of Japan," Nezu says as he's still scanning the robot. "They know remaining in Japan is a terrible idea with her in their clutches."

"Especially since you can track any call they make," Horizon says.

"Speaking of call," Nezu says. "Melissa's phone is in her room, and her student ID is still on this robot, but there is no bomb."

"Hound Dog would have noticed the scent of any explosives," Eraser says. "Putting a bomb in it would be risky."

"Leaving it in my possession is also risky," Nezu says as he connects a cable between the tablet and the robot.

"The sooner you can find them the sooner I can--" Horizon cuts himself off, remembering Eraser is present. "Have them arrested so the police can get some answers out of them."

Eraser rolls his eyes, "no need to lie for my sake, I know you can be a bit heavy handed when it comes to villains. After all, I've seen how you interact with your classmates, I'd hate to be a villain fighting you."

"Is that why you never let me fight Deku during Hero Training?" Horizon asks playfully. "It could be fun, and if he wants to be the #1 Pro Hero, what better practice is there?"

"Well considering the relationship you two have…that's never going to happen." 1

"W--"

"No, you being able to heal him doesn't put my mind at ease, " Eraser cuts him off. "In fact, it makes me even more concerned that you'll go overboard because of that." 5

"Tch, whatever." 2

"If you two are done," Nezu says. "I've learned some things from this robot."

"Mhm, well don't keep us waiting."

"Well, actually I couldn't learn much," Nezu admits.

"Seriously?"

"This is sophisticated machine, but it didn't have any wireless communication signals being sent or received from it. They expected us to eventually find it of course so this was meant to be disposable and leave no trail."

"How was it able to copy her so well?" Eraser Head asks.

"Somehow it hacked into UA and used camera footage and audio recordings, not to mention when it got ahold of her phone. It was then able to put it all together with the many videos of her receiving awards or being interviewed over the years."

"Plus it acted all tired to excuse any odd behavior," Horizon says. "But her phone and UA are run on your system, how he hell did they get into it?" 1

Nezu disconnects the tablet from the robot and goes back to his desk, connecting it to the computer there, "I'm not sure yet but I believe the villain has some kind of organic virtual interface Quirk."

"A technopath," Aizawa says. "Those are rare, super rare, and they all work for various governments."

"This wasn't a attack by another government," Horizon says. "Between my own value and reputation, plus my connection to America's president, nobody would be dumb enough to do that. Making your nation an enemy of me is putting a target on your back for other nations to pressure in order to win my favor."

"So its an independent body, that's better at least," Eraser says.

"And with this I can counter him," Nezu says. "Luckily he only cared for the things regarding Melissa, but the code in this robot and the relevant signals they used earlier have a brain wave pattern. I can make a program to detect and actively counter it, so event his technopath won't be able to break into my systems again."

"How is that even possible?" Horizon asks.

"Because human imagination to solve virtual coding problems such as this is limited by the methods available, but I am beyond human intelligence," Nezu does an adorable supervillain laugh which just has Horizon shaking his head. 2

As they're waiting Horizon gets a message from Hound Dog.

"The scent got much stronger heading to the southeast, he's almost at Kyushu," he says. "Which only leaves one of Japan's islands as the potential escape route."

"Well we already have airports on high alert," Eraser says. "Even if it was meant to be a quiet alert, apparently this guy controls technology to some extent right? That means they know, so they can't use the airports."

"True, which means they'll need a boat, and if their main goal is just to get out of Japan, its a safe bet they'll head to South Korea since that place is super close."

"Yes but they can't use legal means since we've got those on alert too."

"Yeah well, from the direction Hound Dog gave me, I've got a pretty solid idea of the ports they'll use."

"Really, how?" Eraser asks.

"When I was researching for that black market operation I did, I compiled a list of ports with the most black market naval smuggling to South Korea," he lied. 1

"I see, well you should get your hoverboard and fly ahead of Hound Dog, good luck."

"Yeah, and if they call here, just buy me some time. Even if they enter South Korea, I doubt the politicians over there will mind me paying a visit to get them back."

With that Horizon warps away, on the hunt for his targets… 4

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 233: CHAPTER 229(Metal Storm) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Fukukoa Japan, 9PM…

Soaring through the sky on his hoverboard, Horizon is now entering Fukukoa, Japan's major city on the main islands that is closest to South Korea.

He'd never actually been here before, but it is a hub for associates of his other life.

May it be taking a boat to South Korea, or importing equipment and people via cargo ships. Since the last war, Japan's northern naval port mostly sends cargo toward the USA or South America, but in Fukukoa its one quick ride to South Korea.

And from there, anywhere in Europe or Asia.

Which is exactly why its such a transit hub for the underworld.

Flying above the city Horizon weaves through some skyscrapers to see the modern port, a man-made island just miles beyond the bay.

There were dozens of monolithic ships docked, currently being loaded and manned.

Metal shipping containers stacked high atop each other, set out in blocks containing hundreds.

The island itself was over a mile -1.6km long and half as wide, and the lights on it could be seen from anywhere in the province.

High above the massive stacks of shipping containers and the ships themselves were the cranes, gargantuan feats of engineering that load hundreds of containers each day.

Billions of dollars of investment and commerce simply sitting in the ocean, and Horizon was flying toward it.

"Hello?" he answers a call directly into his visor.

"The other ports are clear," Vlad King says. "You were right, he has to be at that one."

"Yeah, good thing I fed them some intel that the coast guard was patrolling extra heavily tonight, they'll be stuck there until tomorrow at least."

"How did you even manage that?" Vlad King asks.

"That's none of your business, keep the other ports locked down until I get the girl back--" Horizon hangs up.

As he makes his final approach to the port island, only a few miles away, Horizon sees the lights on the island flicker.

On the cranes, the roads, even the ships. They went out for a moment before coming back on, then there was a massive clang sound.

"This is gonna be annoying, isn't it…" Horizon mutters while turning on the camera in his visor.

The sound of metal grinding against metal echoes across the water, all the way to the city behind him.

His Room was already open, using Scan to focus on the port island, but there were so many people he couldn't easily locate Wolfram. 4

"Gotcha," he says as he finds Melissa. With a flick of his wrist he warps one of his metal cards into his hand, "Shambles."

He commands it to swap places with her, but nothing happens. 2

"Ok, that's a problem," Horizon says, then he looks into the distance, and sees a gargantuan cargo ship rocketing through the air directly toward him. "So much for a easy job, guess its one of those nights…"

SCAN!

He checks the contents of the ship, locating all the men on board in an instant.

As if time froze he could see them all stuck to walls from the sudden acceleration, and above were the ship the shipping containers scattered about but also rocketing toward him.

'If I warp them out they'll keep their momentum and just shatter against the water. Time to get creative.'

AMPUTATE!

He slices apart some of the containers from range, while casually standing on the hoverboard.

SHAMBLES!

He swaps all of the men with some of the parts, and then begins flying off to the side to avoid the ship itself.

TAKT!

The ship and most of the containers crash into the ocean after rushing past him, causing a massive splash and sending ripples all the way to the nearby shores.

The water splashes so high that it nearly reaches him, but he simply looks at the impact to make sure nothing else unexpected happened.

But all he hears and sees is the ship crumpling in on itself and breaking apart, slamming into the ocean floor like a spear, obviously unable to maintain its form.

Looking off to the side he sees 5 shipping containers floating over to him, with a few men on each one.

He's caught the men with them and slowed the acceleration bit by bit to safely rescue them.

Most of them were laying flat, either holding on for dear life or heavily injured by the ship suddenly being launched.

With a thought he calls the containers over and connects them side by side, allowing the men to feel a bit more comfortable as he hops onto it.

"Horizon? What happened just now?" one of the men asked, he was barely able to sit up with the blood pouring down the side of his head.

Horizon begins moving one by one to heal all of them, "just another psycho villain, I'll take care of it don't worry. Right now I just need all of you to stay seated as I get you to the shore, alright?" 1

"Uh, yes sir," the man nods.

"Good, now I should get everyone else out of the way too, before fighting that."

"That?" the man asks.

"Yeah, that," Horizon gets up and faces the port island, seeing a swirling maelstrom of metal and concrete.

Like a tornado has started to grab everything on the island as it continues expanding outward.

Horizon looks around at the closest shore, then expands his room even farther, 16km 10mi in every direction from him. Enough to encompass the edge of the city and the port island.

Focusing his mind he raises his hand, as if reaching out to grab the island itself.

"Shambles!"

He thrusts his hand to the side, and in one smooth motion the men sitting around him on the containers disappear.

Swapped with blade of grass or leaves, as do all the people still trapped on the island.

All but two.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon suddenly appears inside the maelstrom as it envelops the entire island, feeling winds pulling him in every direction as metal clashes around him.

But he was in the eye of the storm, where no debris was flying.

He could sense every small piece of debris in the vortex, but seeing it from the inside was an entirely different matter.

As if if were a wall of shrapnel ready to shred anyone who touched it.

Scalpel is immediately in his hand as he looks around, then a moment later he focuses on his target.

In the middle of it all, there was a large opening with metal structures and cables, clearly pulled out of the ground, shipping containers, and cranes.

It flowed through the ground of the entire island like roots of a tree, and now thousands of these 'roots' were reaching upward and connecting directly into a tall, muscular, red haired man.

He had pieces of metal all over his body with a device which appeared similar to the Mechanical Quick Amplification helmet David Shield made.

It was thin, with narrow arms extending outward from the main core at the back of his head, but it seems to sink into his skin and fuse with his skull.

Just as all the 'roots' have done to his limbs, back, and parts of his chest.

The roots were holding him in the air, just as they did for Melissa.

She was wearing a pair of jeans and a pink frilly top, her forehead was bandaged and she had a bruise on her cheek. But she was also fused with these metal roots, making herself, Wolfram, and the entire island into one big body.

'No wonder I couldn't warp her out, shit…'

Horizon suddenly throws Scalpel to the side before swapping with it, then warping it back into his grasp.

At his previous position the anchor of one of the massive ships slams down into the floor, then is easily picked up by the storm and begins swirling around them once more.

"Amazing what a little thing like this can do, huh?!" Wolfram yells down at Horizon. The roots begins taking him and Melissa higher, until they were 20m 60ft above Horizon. "Took my Quirk from just manipulating metal I touch, to all of this!"

"You know I can't let you leave with it!" Horizon yells back.

"Doesn't matter either way, Tech made this one, he's already figured it out. I'm just collecting this girl because its what I got paid to do, can't leave a contract incomplete after all, not that a Hero like you could understand that. 1

But in my business, our word is all we are. So why don't you just leave, let me turn her in, then maybe the boss will let her go since she's useless to us now, huh, Hero?!" 2

"Well, I promised I'd protect her, so I can't got back empty handed," Horizon points Scalpel directly at Wolfram's head.

"Bad idea," Wolfram says. "You kill me, and who knows how far all of this will get launched," he gestures at the maelstrom around them. "Can the mighty Horizon really hold all of this metal in place? Can you protect the entire city from it?" 1

Horizon considers it for a moment, destroying Wolfram's brain from here would be easy, not that he'd simply kill a villain and ruin his image. Plus, the fallout could make him look bad, it would set his reputation back for at least the next few months. 1

'The destruction of this port is already gonna get me into some trouble with the public, and Pantu, having the city get caught in our crossfire will only lead to more problems. And if I kill him then people could find out and I'd be in even deeper trouble…fine, guess I'll play along.'

Horizon lowers his sword.

"That's more like it! Make this fun, let me test out my new power!" Wolfram yells as he gets a manic look in his eyes. "I'm sure you're used to it, being so powerful there isn't anyone in the world that can beat you, but this is new for me, so I'm gonna enjoy it!"

"I've actually never felt invincible before, because everyone can be defeated, even me…but not by you."

"ARGH!" Wolfram angrily swing his hand, and a buckshot of metal launches out of the maelstrom and at Horizon.

A dozen shipping containers and a massive rudder.

CURTAIN!

All the metal slams against Horizon's translucent blue shield, and continues to press against it.

"This is my kingdom, and you're gonna die in it!" Wolfram yells out, and a stream of metal from the opposite side is hurled at Horizon.

TAKT!

The ground all around them breaks apart even more as rocks shoot upward and begin floating in place.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with one of the rocks and arrive on the opposite side of Wolfram.

"No wonder your head is worth so much, ha!" Wolfram has the entire root system turn for he and Melissa to face Horizon. "And my prices are going way up after this!"

'Well, that makes my life a lot easier,' Horizon realizes. 'Keeping him focused on me until he pulls all the metal inward, then I can just get close and end this.

Especially since if I just use Amputate he'd pull himself back together, this guy must have spent quite some time coming up with this plan. Making himself and Melissa into one massive body that he controls with a thought.

I break the device and who knows how the maelstrom will react. I cut them up and he'll use the metal in them like puppet strings and bring them back together. I kill him and the metal could go haywire, same as the device being broken. And he's making sure there isn't anything near him I can warp to. 2

Fuck, this guy actually has a brain. Makes sense since he's a mercenary and not just a moronic Villain…'

"Alright!" Horizon points his blade at Wolfram. "Lets see how strong you really are!" 2

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 234: CHAPTER 230(Metal Storm Pt.2) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Now die!" Wolfram says as he commands pieces of metal from the maelstrom to rocket toward where they are in the eye of this storm.

All directed at Horizon.

He doesn't expect to actually hit him on the first try, but he certainly wasn't ready for what happened next.

As shrapnel closed in on all sides, Horizon disappears, swapped with some floating rock.

And as if it was automatic, more and more shrapnel was fired at railgun speeds, causing sparks in the air and the scent of iron and ozone to spread out.

SHAMBLES: Flicker! 2

Among the metal storm Horizon begins warping faster than anyone else could keep up with.

Faster than the metal could hit, faster than the rogue sparks made from the magnetic storm could hit.

So fast that he appears in dozens on places simultaneously to Wolfram. 2

"Won't work, this is my world," Wolfram says as he narrows his eyes.

Instead of trying to lock onto one location or predict Horizon's absurd warping speed, he decides to rain hell onto this battlefield.

The entire 50m circle they were fighting in that had been scraped apart and cleared out, that had hundreds of small floating rocks spread out among it.

Became a dartboard for Wolfram.

And the darts? Thousands of pieces of metal, ranging from the size of screws, nails, bolts, or other fragments.

To entire crumpled up vehicles or pieces of the destroyed ships.

The sparks in the air kept growing and growing, until eventually large arcs of electricity appeared like lighting, constantly bouncing around the battlefield.

The entire battlefield was hit at once, and he could see a change in Horizon's after images.

There were about a dozen less of them, which still meant at least 20 were up simultaneously. 3

He suddenly felt the metal fused to his spine disconnect at the waist, then at the knees.

For a moment his eyes widen in fear, terrified that his contingency for Horizon wouldn't work. That the months of collaborative effort between himself, Tech, other mercenaries and villains, was for nothing.

"NO!" He increases the fire rate of the metal storm, and is relieved when more slashes don't come for a few seconds.

Precious seconds he used to magnetically control the metal in his body and the metal roots connecting him to the ground to reconnect himself. 5

He still saw Horizon's after images flashing around, and his mind continued racing trying to figure out what was going on.

But Wolfram is a world class mercenary, he wasn't as effective as Arsenal, nor did he enjoy cruelty and bloodshed as much as that monster.

But he was still at the upper levels for a reason, so he immediately figured out what was going.

All while constantly speeding up all the projectiles being sent at Horizon, and picking up more from around the island to keep his ammo supply healthy.

'He knows he can't slash me apart properly,' Wolfram thinks. 'He does that and my bluff about all the metal being shot into the city if I lose control could happen, at least in his mind.

That risk is too big for any Pro Hero to take. He has no choice but to wait for me to exhaust myself, and since he's a Quirk Specialist he knows this device is exhausting to use.

But all this warping must take some kind of energy toll on him, so its a battle of attrition, and if he retreats away from me I'll just rain metal onto the nearby city and bring it down. 1

Can't imagine why anyone would want to be a Hero, its so easy trapping them in shitty situations like this, now he's forced to keep warping until he makes a mistake or gets exhausted, then my metal storm will shred him down to nothing.'

"Agh!" Wolfram flinches for a moment, causing the metal rain to slow for an instant, then he grits his teeth and ignored the sudden pain in his chest, speeding up the metal even faster than before.

The sound of what are effectively thousands of bullets hitting the ground every second wakes Melissa before long.

"What kind of Hero, does that?" Wolfram asks as he's somewhat struggling to breathe now. There was a bit of blood on his lip as he kept exhaling more.

Melissa sees this, then meets his gaze for a moment.

With a thought he has a piece of metal fly by and not-so-gently tap the back of her head, knocking her out. 1

'The last thing I need is some annoying kid screaming in my head, can't even hear myself think here,' he struggles to take a few deep breaths.

By the second he tastes more and more blood on his lips.

'He used that 'Injection Shot' Quirk to fire a hole through me, piercing my lung. Probably not enough to kill me, or maybe just enough to kill me since--'

"AGH!" Wolfram winces as he feels the same sensation in his other lung.

'This kid, he doesn't fight like other Pro Heroes, he's trying to get me to near death, because he knows he can just heal me right after the fight…he's definitely no 'True Hero', I might be in real danger here.' 9

Wolfram flinches again, this time feeling the main artery in his right leg get torn apart, along with the bone and muscle in line with it.

The pain pisses him off, so much that he grinds his teeth hard enough to almost crack them against each other.

With a wave of his hand he calls for the stream of metal to continue raining from above while a horizontal sweep of shrapnel covers the battlefield.

CLINK CLINK CLINK!

The sound of metal bouncing against something different catches his attention, and he commands the metal tree holding up him and Melissa to turn.

Then he sees Horizon in a dome of pale blue energy, just like his shield earlier.

ANTIBACTERIAL CURTAIN: Barrier!

He narrows his eyes at this and focuses more and more on it, calling massive pieces of the ships and cranes to rain down onto this dome.

'Got you!' he thinks as the metal is about to make impact, only for Horizon to disappear.

But so do the massive pieces of metal he hurled at him.

He didn't think anything of it in the moment, but during the entire fight, the more threatening and larger pieces of metal have been disappearing from the battlefield.

But Wolfram's Quirk doesn't province a Scan like Hand of God, it simply lets him control metal, and with the new device, control magnetism like streams.

He has absolutely no idea exactly how many pieces of metal are in the maelstrom, or how big they are, or even exactly where they are.

He simply makes magnetic fields in the air and manipulates them that way.

But Horizon knew, in fact, from the very beginning Horizon has simply been stalling him.

Stalling him until either his injuries cause him to pass out, or till Horizon could warp enough of the larger pieces of metal down below the seabed.

Using Scan to find loose rocks that he could swap them with to send them all the way to the bottom.

Because, 'if he's so focused on me then he won't be reaching far for metal,' Horizon thought at the start of the fight. 'He'll be more focused on exerting control on the pieces he has than on collecting more or tracking where they are…'

In addition to using Scan for constantly tracking every piece of metal and searching the nearby seabed, he's also using it to predict where the lowest concentration of metal will be at any moment, before using Shambles to put himself there.

All while also using Takt to barely slow down or alter the trajectory of the shrapnel at his desired location so he won't get shredded the moment he arrives.

Which explains the question Wolfram couldn't find an answer to, 'how the hell isn't he dead yet? I made the concentration of attacks too close for anyone to survive, even a rat couldn't dance between them this well.'

After nearly a minute of this dance, Wolfram noticed something different about the after images.

BA-DUM!

As if they began glowing blue.

'Are they releasing blue mist, what the hell? Does he have a water Quirk too, this could be bad with the ocean right there…'

But in truth the combination of mental strain and adrenaline was quickly getting to Horizon, it took much more than before, now power that has been bubbling below the surface was punching the barrier.

And his higher functioning mind wasn't quite ready to process it just yet.

BA-DUM!

Luckily, it was time for him to act, all the larger pieces of metal, namely the pieces torn from ships and cranes, as well as many of the whole shipping containers, were at the bottom of the ocean nearby.

So Horizon went on the offensive.

There wasn't anything near to Wolfram, and he needed to knock him out, as to his knowledge killing him could cause problems for the nearby city since the smaller pieces of metal were still swirling.

TAKT!

With much mental effort Horizon launches one of the smaller rocks from the side of Wolfram, out of the floor, carefully weaving through a path of shrapnel, directly toward the villain.

Wolfram doesn't even notice it, so focused on his Quirk even as his nose was already bleeding, until the pebble is directly in front of his face.

He'd made such an effort to prevent anything from getting this close to him that he couldn't miss it, his fear of Horizon being able to warp to him was now realized.

SHAMBLES!

Horizon swaps with it, sword held, blade out but to the side. 1

The last thing he wants is to touch Wolfram with the blade and lose his sword because of it, so in his other hand he already had a fistful of blue lightning.

But as he's about swing his fist into Wolfram, the man's skin begins glowing bright red and releasing steam.

His fist makes contact with the man's chest, and his bones shatter as if he punched a wall of iron.

BA-DUM!

"Weak!" Wolfram says as small sparks erupt over his body, then an invisible force slams into Horizon.

He's sent hurtling backward into the rain of metal, before warping away.

He appears nearby, and his dome barrier is already active, constantly being battered with metal.

"Before Tech, my previous employer paid with a pretty handy Quirk, Muscle Enhancer!" Wolfram says. "Even if you get to me, you can't win. And now that my electromagnetic barrier is up, you'll never get anything close enough to warp to me again, just die already!"

Horizon hears this as his barrier is being beaten more and more, the strain on his mind feels like it'll break his brain in two.

BA-DUM!

His barrier itself begins shrinking, causing Wolframs eyes to widen, preparing for the euphoria that he's sure will come from this kill.

BA-DUM!

Being the man who killed a Mystery Class will put him at the top of the world.

Except it would never come, in fact, the person who enters a state of euphoria is Horizon himself. 2

BA-DUM!

The power bubbling below the surface manages to spill out for a moment, brining a wave of euphoria and adrenaline with it as his entire body begins releasing the blue energy vapor. 4

Wolfram sees it and every instinct screams at him to run away, but he's in too deep.

So he sees the Hero down on one knee, hands up as if he were trying to physically hold up the dome barrier that was constantly shrinking and cracking around him.

BA-DUM!

Pouring more and more energy into it, losing himself more by the second to a power he wasn't quite ready for, yet.

Wolfram lets this fear fuel him as he focuses, and within the barrier Scalpel shatters into hundreds of pieces and begins swirling around.

BA-DUM!

When Horizon was hit with his electromagnetic barrier earlier, he'd taken control of the sword, and this was the time to use it.

Horizon doesn't react as the bits of his own sword swirl around for a moment, but as they begins rocketing toward him.

His head snaps up, as if he was staring into Wolfram's very soul.

BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

Wolfram doesn't even have time to react as Horizon's face is suddenly inches away from his. 2

The villain doesn't even have time to realize it, but Horizon warped into his barrier.

Into a area where he made sure there was absolutely nothing to swap to.

He swapped with nothing. 5

Breaking a fundamental rule of Hand of God, at least when not in space he was familiar with. 23

But just as human conventions never applied to Horizon.

A fully realized Horizon will completely shatter the limits and rules created by his previous self.

And now, looking at this Horizon, with thick blue energy vapor poring off of him, then clumping together like a layer of liquid and clinging to his hand, the hand that was moving to grab Wolfram's face. 1

This villain was the first to experience the reality of a fully realized Horizon. 4

The first of his many, many victims… 7

END CHAPTER-- 8

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Chapter 235: CHAPTER 231(The Calm After)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Fuck…" Horizon mutters as he sits on the floor, inside a small crater.

The port island was a complete mess, torn up not just from the metal storm and Wolfram's Quirk, but from his reaction to it all.

He now sat in this crater, with his jacket shredded apart and pants torn up, exposing the body glove beneath.

His visor was cracked, but still intact as not to reveal any of the features beneath, even as a small steam of blue energy vapor was seeping out of it.

Both his hands, up to the elbows, were drenched in blood and bits of flesh, but he himself was completely fine, even now as he tried to catch his breath and focus his mind.

Feeling himself crashing after the high he just experienced.

In the small crater, at the middle of it, was Wolfram, or at least what was left of him.

His face was smashed in, no, it was missing.

His head and upper torso were beaten until it looked like ground meat, his right arm was mangled with chunks of flesh being torn off.

And his left arm was completely torn off from the shoulder, the separate limb resting only a few meters away within the crater.

His entire torso suffered the same fate, being beaten into a pile of unidentifiable meat, with bits and pieces of his guts scattered about.

Taking a few deep breaths Horizon gets up, swaying side to side, feeling as if he's experiencing the worst hangover imaginable.

He looks down at his bloody hands, and decides not to think about that right now, instead reaching up to his visor and tapping the side of it.

"Call Pantu," he commands, while walking out of the crater over to Melissa.

Swaying with each steps he feels his legs burning as he steps out and sees the girl, laying on the floor with some cuts and bruises across her body.

"Horizon," Pantu's voice is projected into his visor. "I assume this is good news…"

"Not particularly," he says while walking over to her.

"Did you retrieve Melissa Shield?" Pantu asks.

"Yes, she's right here," he steps on Melissa, not using his Quirk right now but nudging her, hard enough to make her groan, which she does. "She'll be fine."

"Well then, the only reason you'd call me is if something went wrong, and if she's alive…what went wrong?"

"I was a bit too heavy handed with Wolfram, I need your cleanup crew."

"How heavy handed?"

"Bring a mop," Horizon sighs. "I got a bit…I honestly don't even know."

"Were you conscious when you fought him?"

"Mostly, I can't explain this over the phone," Horizon says. "Can you send your team."

"Yes, and I'll keep the press and police away from the scene until they're done, the last thing we need is the news getting wind of this."

"Thanks."

"I'm not doing this for you," Pantu says. "Japan simply can't afford to be put in a position where we could lose you, drop the girl off at UA and come see me, and don't tell anyone but Nezu exactly what happened."

"Got it," Horizon hangs up and takes a deep breath, looking around at the destruction.

--1 Hour Later…

Standing atop a skyscraper in Fukuoka, Horizon is leaning on the railing while watching the port island be swarmed by police boats and helicopters.

The news drone and helicopters were barely seconds behind the emergency services and first responders, and he breathes a sigh of relief as the most stressful part of this is now over, at least for tonight.

After he called Pantu she sent in people she trusted, so they had to wait on the port island for almost an hour.

But her people made short work of cleaning up the crime scene.

Officially nobody was allowed to venture there, so he had to warp her people onto the island for them to do their jobs, then send them back to the city.

Now the regular emergency services and media were allowed to venture to the island to investigate and spin the story in a positive light.

Minutes later he takes out his phone, held by his cleaned gloves. His jacket and pants were shredded beyond any usable state so he cast those aside, given to Pantu's team for destruction. Now he was simply wearing the body glove.

Luckily they were high above the roof so nobody would see, especially since nobody was focused on the city itself.

He sees the first news feed to go live is from Chitose's media outlet, as usual.

"We're here live on the port island, just miles away from Fukuoka!" the woman says, gesturing to the city behind her.

She then begins walking as the camera follows her, showing the completely destroyed man-made island being scoured by other news crews and emergency services.

"The destruction of this island will set Japan back countless billions of dollars in trade, not to mention the repair and reconstruction cost of any infrastructure that was here just over an hour ago.

The Hero Public Safety Commission has released an official statement of what happened here, assuring the public that the matter has been completely deal with."

The woman begins walking over to the crater, not able to get too close but just enough for the camera to zoom in on it, nearly 10m wide and half as deep.

From the drones above the public could see inside, and there was not a drop of blood or any semblance of DNA within the crater to be found.

"As it turns out, a international mercenary and Villain, codenamed 'Wolfram', used his Metal Manipulation Quirk to battle Horizon here.

This villain entered Japan weeks ago and Horizon had been diligently tracking him on his own, this led to a confrontation at this port where Wolfram was making arrangements to import extremely destructive and potentially nuclear weapons.

This same Wolfram was also responsible for the now confirmed sabotage at the Keito Nuclear Reactor. This confirms our suspicions that the gas leak scare within that city was simply a cover up, but the Hero Public Safety Commission assures us that the situation there was resolved via the combined efforts of everyone's favorite disaster rescue Hero, 13.

As well as Horizon who greatly assisted in containing the radiation. We believe that Wolfram used that as a trial run to see exactly how capable our Pro Heroes are at dealing with nuclear threats, and when his attempt was thwarted, he resorted to trying to buy large scale nuclear weapons.

Thankfully Horizon was able to intercept his order, and not only was it stopped on our end, but the sellers of such heinous devices oversees were simultaneously apprehended."

The woman continues talking while Horizon nods along, genuinely impressed, 'Pantu came up with all of that so quickly, no wonder she's the head of the Commission…'

He sees the woman pause for a moment and hold her earpiece, then she smiles brightly. "We now have confirmation that not only was no one hurt, thanks to Horizon warping all the civilians and workers away from the port and into the city. But Horizon himself is entirely unharmed, as we've come to expect from our strongest guardian.

In addition to that wonderful news, Wolfram has been secured in a facility and is awaiting private trial to pay for his crimes!"

Horizon nods along, thoroughly impressed, already seeing some notifications from his social media accounts flooding in.

He hops over to his 'Yay!' app, and the first thing he sees makes him chuckle.

'Ryukyu's boyfriend is so strong!' as the caption, followed by a picture of the destroyed island.

He immediately takes a screenshot and sends it to her, knowing when she wakes up to it that'll annoy her.

He then quickly scrolls past thousands of posts singing his praises before hopping back over to the news.

Most of the world would believe this, they'd think he solved this serious matter, saved millions of lives and arrested Wolfram without suffering so much of a scratch.

But then he got one message from someone who could see through it all, a simple, 'Are you alright?' from Ryuko.

'I'm perfect, handling paperwork,' was his only response.

Just in time to hear groaning beside him.

Because this entire time Melissa Shield was laying on the floor, completely knocked out.

"How are you feeling?" was all he asked, not even looking at her as she gets up, all the cuts and bruises healed, yet she stumbles slightly before holding onto the railing.

"Where are we?" she asks. "What happened?"

"Wolfram kidnapped you, I saved you, now we're in Fukuoka, how are you feeling?"

"Sleepy," Melissa says as she now focuses her mind, and sees the island in the distance being swarmed by boats and helicopters. "Is that where we were?"

"Mhm," Horizon casually reaches out and rests a hand on her forearm, using Scan to check on her, but mostly to know if she's lying. "I'm just running another checkup, I already healed you earlier."

"Oh, ok…"

"How much do you remember, what do you remember from the fight?"

"I remember you blinking about everywhere, then I got knocked out, then I woke up here," she says, and luckily for her, he doesn't detect any lies.

Then the concussion wasn't that bad, "he lets go of her and continues scrolling." 3

"Is my dad alright?"

"He should still be asleep," Horizon says.

Melissa breathes a sighs of relief, then just leans on the railing and begins quietly crying.

Horizon stops his scrolling, glances over at her, then just goes back to scrolling.

"Sorry for all of this, for causing you so much trouble," Melissa says.

"Yeah well, its the job," Horizon shrugs. "You really don't have to feel bad about it. You just got caught in the crossfire of your dad and Tech."

Melissa sighs at the thought of that, "yeah, I guess you're right."

"I usually am."

Melissa chuckles at that, and actually manages to crack a smile, "you know, you aren't as bad as I initially thought you were…and certainly not as mean as your classmates make you out to be." 6

"I've literally never been mean to them, ever," Horizon says. 7

"Well I wouldn't say that, but at least you've mostly been nice to me. And now that everything is over and the danger is gone, its kind of nice having a strong hero protecting me."

"Sorry but the last thing I need is to have a third girl at UA trying to get my attention."

Melissa scoffs at that idea, "oh god no! You're a great Pro Hero, but as a person…you're kind of, the worst."

"Ouch."

"Wait, that sounded super mean! I mean I'm thankful for all you've done especially with saving me, but just, you're not my type you know!" 2

"I got what you mean, and believe me its a relief on my end too, even if you're one of the few girls at UA I actually respect, it wouldn't work out."

Melissa looks confused at that, "you actually respect me? Why? Aren't you like a all powerful god who always speaks down to everyone?"

"I'm not all powerful, and I don't speak down to anyone," Horizon says. "I speak to them in a manner appropriate for their worth, they just happen to mostly be trash."

"Jerk," Melissa mutters.

"But as for respecting you, well, you're Quirkless, which means anything you can do, someone with a Quirk can do better. In fact, a certain bear-mouse thing with a High Spec Quick is more of a genius inventor than you and your dad combined, but, you still try."

"Because I try, you respect me?"

"Because you succeed," Horizon says. "Most Quickless people are worse than trash, because not only can they never match up to people with Quirks in a competitive sense, they're also genetically weaker.

I mean you guys don't even have the ability to regrow teeth, or the inherent superhuman adaptability, its like you're humans from hundreds of years ago. But most Quirkless people make themselves even worse by dwelling on these aspects their entire lives and allowing it to destroy them, they don't even bothering to try.

And if they do try, they don't do enough work to be competitive, much less succeed. But you did it, and so did your dad. And as for him, well, if he didn't cause such a big headache for me I'd like him a lot more…" 2

Melissa looks at him in a new light, taking his words to heart and almost crying again, being recognized by the man most of the world looks up to as the pinnacle of superhuman potential.

"You know, if this was the side of you I met first, maybe I would have fallen for you," she says. "Good thing I saw the jerk side of you first, saved me a lot of heartache."

"Tch, you wish you could get a guy like me," Horizon says. "Besides you're leaving UA at the end of this semester and moving across the world, so its for the best really."

"Yeah, but if you ever come to America, we should catch up."

"Ha! Pantu doesn't even like me leaving Tokyo and Musutafu, like hell she'd ever let me leave Japan, now lets get out of here, or ride just called me…" 4

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 236: CHAPTER 232( HPSC Favors) 10

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting in Pantu's office, Horizon has his feet up on the coffee table, arms spread out on the back of the couch, head laid back as he tries to relax.

His entire body was still sore from…whatever happened earlier tonight.

Now it was past midnight, and most of Japan was resting easier knowing Wolfram was arrested and locked away, because Horizon swooped in and saved the day.

Perfect and flawless as always…

Beneath the visor Horizon had his eyes closed, doing his best to stay awake, but he could feel his mind and body begging to just get to bed.

But that would have to wait, first he'd have to get through this meeting, after he'd already debriefed everyone who needed to be informed at UA. Of course certain details were withheld from most people, but that's besides the point.

Now he had to finish up this meeting, then go take some samples of himself at Horizon tower, maybe then he'd get some rest.

'With my luck the moment I lay in bed a bank gets robbed near the tower,' he recalls when he was in a similar exhausted state after the first raid against the League Of Villains recruiting site, and that's exactly what happened after.

'I wonder how Endeavor is dealing with that Dabi nonsense, haven't heard from him in a while. Shoto hasn't been extra moody lately so I guess he doesn't know, smart move. Waiting till he has confirmation is better, at least let me get my hands on Dabi to test it myself.'

As he's trying to relax he gets a message from Ryuko, because only she would be texting him at this hour.

Opening one eye he reads the message displayed inside his visor.

'Are you going to Tokyo like usual?' she asked. Usually he'd head to Tokyo Wednesday night which is in 18 hours, do hero work from Thursday to Sunday, then head back to UA.

At least this is his new schedule for the past few weeks, Yoroi Musha being killed certainly changed how much Pantu and Nezu wanted him out in public.

"Response," he lazily commands his visor to start writing a reply. "Finishing up a meeting, will be there in a few hours. Send"

With that he goes back to relaxing on the couch, for all of two seconds.

Because the door immediately swings open for Pantu to stroll into her office.

Her usual guards remain outside, but Horizon doesn't even react to her entrance. His Quirk was off, giving his brain time to recover, but he just didn't have the energy for a casual greeting.

Pantu had a few sets of documents in her arms, hundreds of pages of work she had to complete before getting some rest.

"Are you asleep?" Pantu asks as she takes her seat, starting up her computer via optical scan a new addition since Horizon is a frequent guest here.

"Yes," Horizon says.

"Would you care to know how much your fight will be costing Japan?" Pantu asks as she begins reading the documents. "You did destroy our main port for trade to South Korea and most of Asia and Europe after all."

"Does this mean I won't get paid this month?" Horizon asks.

"Your payment will be the favor I did by sweeping Wolfram under the rug…"

"Can't I at least get paid for stopping the nuke from getting into Japan?" Horizon says jokingly.

Pantu stops, gives him a deadpan stare for a moment, seeing him still relaxing on the couch, then goes back to work.

"How bad was it?"

"Extremely bad economically," Pantu says. "Luckily Wolfram was wanted by most major nations so they sent their thanks, in the form of money. And the United States sent a sum since he's one of their monsters that went rogue, and the last thing they want is us telling the public that little detail."

"Really?"

"He was a special forces operative that didn't like the pay they gave," Pantu says. "A lot of nations wanted him dead or in a cage…preferably a wooden or glass cage."

"I didn't know he was that bad, hadn't even heard of him till this."

"Probably because he wasn't in the same circles as you. He wasn't a assassin, he's the kind of person you hire to train a private army or a terrorist cell, but he did have a knack for collateral damage."

"I noticed…"

"You're in no position to talk," Pantu says. "Arsenal is infamous for the trail of bodies she enjoyed leaving in her wake, what she did in Los Angeles is still hundreds of times more horrific than anything All For One or Wolfram have done in terms of sheer scale and loss of life." 1

"That…was unavoidable, considering the specifics of the job, which I won't go into."

"And I won't pry, but clearly you don't appreciate the effort that goes into covering up what you did, considering how casually you're treating this."

"Well, you make it look so easy, what can I say?"

"You can start with what happened, and I don't want you killing villains to become a habit. Overhaul was…unavoidable, but from what you said this one was because of mistakes on your end, so, explain, now."

Horizon sits up properly, taking his feet off the table, and looks over at her, seeing the woman sitting back in her chair awaiting his explanation.

In all the time he's known her, and all the times he's tried to get under her skin, even now, after covering up a death, she remains without expression.

He can't help but wonder what kind of things she's done and seen from that chair.

"Consequences?" Horizon asks.

"You mean the contract?"

Horizon nods.

"Our contract states that if you are found guilty of breaking any laws, you forfeit your position as that will get you expelled and barred from the Hero Course programs across Japan," Pantu says. 4

"Which means this counts."

"Yes," Pantu says. "And normally in a matter like this, you could be taken to criminal court."

"Quirk Court," he corrects her. "This was a Quirk issue, not a issue of intent."

"That's…possibly even more concerning," Pantu says. "But, Japan isn't stable, in fact we're quite far from it. So for now I'll sweep this away, and bury it beside the files on Overhaul. We can't afford to have you expelled from every Hero Course and leaving Japan, but if it came to that…"

"I won't hold it against you," Horizon says. "Honestly if you wanted to use this as a grounds to make the contract null and void, I'd understand, and we'd simply part ways right here."

"Because you're the one who broke the terms of it?"

"Of course, I signed it, so I can't get mad when you simply follow the rules we agreed to, I'm just lucky that you're unlucky enough to need me here to stabilize Japan." 2

Pantu detects no lies, which is quite a relief.

While what she said about needing him is true, part of her was terrified that using this to dissolve the contract would cause him to lash out at her, or worse, at Japan itself.

But for better or worse, he's a man of his word.

"I suppose that's one way to look at it, so from this moment we have a clean sheet, as if the incident tonight never happened, assuming you can do one thing for me."

"And what's that?"

"Tell me exactly what happened, and why Wolfram is dead," Pantu says. "You mentioned Quirk Court earlier, that means this is a matter of you not controlling your Quirk rather than you trying to hurt him. But from the pictures I've seen, you were quite clearly trying to hurt him."

"Its my Quirk," Horizon says. "During the summer camp when I fought All For One. I got pushed to limits and levels I didn't know I had, that I guess I didn't even know existed since he was always a myth to me.

After that I encountered some difficulties with my Quirk. I hit glass ceiling of power that I can feel cracking, but every time it cracks and I feel my access to my full potential growing closer, its like my body or mind aren't ready.

Tonight it came out, like a rush of adrenaline and…euphoria. And I guess my training just took over, and obviously not the Hero Course kind. My mind got cloudy, and one minute I'm defending from his attacks, the next minute I'm waking up as my body is tearing him apart piece by piece."

Throughout his entire explanation, Pantu doesn't react, she simply focuses on his words. But she detects no lies.

Obviously she knew he wouldn't tell her the whole truth, that simply wouldn't be smart of him, but this raised even more alarms in her mind.

"So you were pushed to your limits mentally and, your Quirk simply took over?"

"I'm not really sure, but we can go with that for now," he says, and she detects no lies.

"And have you made any progress in controlling these, outbursts?"

"Yes, and it won't be much longer until I get it under control. And when that happens, I'll be so much stronger than even I could have imagined…"

'Fuck,' was the only word that popped into Pantu's head, even while her ice cold fa ade was maintained. 'So he becomes some kind of a rage monster that's even stronger than the regular version of him if he feels threatened? Seriously?' 11

"I see, well then, thank you for informing me, and keep me posted on your progress," Pantu says. "But do remember, I won't be covering up any more bodies for you, one more incident like this and you'll have to fight it in Quirk Court, without my help, understand?" 5

"I understand," Horizon says.

"Good, now why exactly did Wolfram kidnap Melissa Shield?"

"He wanted to force David Shield to make something, or at least give him the plans for it. Someone named Tech hired him and apparently already made the device, but Wolfram got paid and wanted to finish the job anyway."

"Devoted to his contract, sounds familiar."

"Yeah, but I think maybe he just wanted to fight me, to really make a name for himself."

"A foolish decision, and what was this device."

"Sorry, but I can't say. Doctor-Patient confidentiality and all that," Horizon says jokingly, but she doesn't detect any lies. "But now it should be safe for the Shields to leave, which is one less thing for me to worry about."

"Good, that gives you more time to focus on your Quirk, I can't imagine solving Quirk problems are easy for you, since you're one of two Mystery Class Quirks in the world, you have no studies or research to help you." 1

"I'll manage, now, is that all?"

"Yes, if anything else comes up I'll notify you," Pantu says. "Aside from that, have your full report done and send it to me within 24 hours, I'll falsify a report matching the story we fed the media and upload it onto your Hero Network account."

"Thanks, now I'll get out of here, because I really need some rest," with that Horizon instantly warps away.

As he leaves Pantu sighs and relaxes back in her chair, looking at the stack of paperwork she had to deal with.

'So he definitely isn't perfect, but that imperfection makes him even more dangerous. If anything happens to him before he solves his Quirk problem, he lashes out and falls back on the instincts Arsenal instilled into him…which makes him one of, no, THE most lethal person on the planet. 4

And when he does solve this Quirk problem, he ascends from what is seemingly a god to…whatever comes next. Hmm, I should figure out how Wolfram was able to push him that hard at least, it should give me some insight…' 9

With that Pantu makes a quick call, and surprisingly the man picks up on the first ring.

"Lady Pantu, this is quite unexpected," Dr. Garaki's voice greets her.

"Goodnight doctor, I have a body I'd like you to examine regarding a certain associate of ours…" 14

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 237: CHAPTER 233(Rest Day) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Horizon Tower…

7 AM, four hours after he went to bed, Law was still asleep.

Something that hasn't happened since he integrated Energy Saver into Hand of God. But after yesterday and the new breakthrough made, albeit he can't really recall any of it or repeat it, his body and mind still feel the exhaustion.

In fact, he still felt sore even after his body's automatic healing took effect.

Something he was reminded of as he rolled onto his side, and bumped into a smaller, softer, warm body.

His eyes immediately shot open, seeing nothing in the absolute darkness of his room, but he didn't even activate his Quirk, as there was only one person it could possible be.

So he simply wrapped his arms around Ryuko, and pulled her against him.

He was only wearing a pair of boxers, and she wore just a t-shirt and her underwear, which usually led to more than just sleeping.

But right now he was too tired and sore for even his horny 16 year old brain to think of anything else.

--1 Hour Later…

Once again Law wakes up, opening his eyes to see only darkness. There was absolutely no light in his room, allowing him to sleep perfectly comfortable beside Ryuko whenever he wants. And most of the time he never even uses the lights in here even when she isn't here, simply because he's so used to just using Scan to move around.

He opens a Room, sensing her on the couch in the living room, laying down but scrolling through her phone.

Something she couldn't do here since his visor wasn't on, and even if he was sleeping too heavily to know, she wouldn't risk seeing his face. 2

SHAMBLES!

In an instant not only was she warped into the bed beside him, but his body glove was warped onto himself, with the visor.

"Good morning to you too," Ryuko says as she gets comfortable in bed, leaning back against the headboard as he remains laid out beside her.

"Mhm…"

"Still tired? I'm surprised you slept more than one hour."

"Mhm, it was a long night."

"I figured as much," Ryuko says, still scrolling through her phone.

"Why are you here?" Horizon asks.

And fortunately she's been with him long enough to know he really just means 'why didn't you tell me you were coming over?'.

"Because you had a rough day yesterday, either you got hurt, or something didn't go as planned."

"Didn't you hear the news? Everything went perfectly to plan, and I didn't even get scratched, as usual, a flawless victory for Horizon."

"Yes, I saw the news, but I also know you, better than most," Ryuko says. "So I know if you aren't in front of a camera acting humble while subtly bragging, then something went wrong and you aren't proud of the results enough to speak about it, so, are you alright?" 1

"Tired," was all he said, tilting his head slightly to see her looking down toward him with concern in her eyes.

"Physically, emotionally, or mentally?"

"Yes," Horizon says. 4

"Mhm…"

"Yesterday, well, this morning, was the first time I ever came close to…I don't know."

"You always know," Ryuko puts the phone down and gets down into the bed, laying beside him.

"It was the first time I came face to face with, just, not being a Hero anymore. Just giving it up and leaving."

"And how did it feel, to be faced with that possibility."

"Scary…because I liked it."

"Mhm."

"My parents always said, do whatever I want, and they'd support me, no matter what. That's the last thing they said to me, and all this time I've just been doing this for them. But this morning, I was threatened with freedom, and, it was tempting."

"And what's stopping you from taking it?"

Horizon thinks about it for a moment, and could only come up with a few reasons, "love, loyalty, devotion… not much else."

"And are you still thinking about quitting?"

"I think about it every time I put on the costume. Every time I draw my sword, every time I put myself at risk to save some moron that can't save himself, every time I'm sitting in a class I don't need to learn something I already know just because I have to follow the rules, every day."

Ryuko rolls onto her side and drapes an arm across his chest, "you know whatever you do I'll support you. I like Horizon the superhero, but I've always been here because of the admittedly selfish man beneath the visor…even if I can't see that man." 3

"That man has serious trust issues," Horizon chuckles, and she just shakes her head.

"Its fine, I asked you for a lot more than that so, seems fair."

"Its not fair at all," Horizon says. "By the way, how are you here, don't you have work or something?" 3

"I can take a lot of days off. Wait, do you even know what I do?"

"No."

"Do you even want to know?"

"No, it really doesn't matter to me," Horizon says. "As far as I know, you're trying to seduce me so you'll never have to work again, a true supervillain scheme." 1

"Oh no, the great hero Horizon has seen through my plans…"

They both start laughing, and she feels him relax a bit.

"Ready for breakfast?" Ryuko asks.

"Mmm, that sounds good."

"Want to have some fun before I make breakfast?" Ryuko playfully begins tracing circle on his chest.

"Normally I'd be all for that, but, I feel my muscles would hate me if I made them move that much."

Hearing that she sits up, and immediately straddles his hips, "then you just lay there, and let me take care of you…" 1

--1 Hour Later…

Walking into the kitchen after a relaxing shower, Horizon is still only wearing his body glove and visor.

But he enters the kitchen to see Ryuko cooking, in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, all Horizon brand. 2

Her usually attire when in the tower, mostly because its comfortable, but definitely because she knows how he reacts to it.

"What are you making?" Horizon asks as he takes a seat at the counter.

"Omelet rolls and some rice, want anything special? I hope you have time to eat before something happens and you have to rush off." 2

"Well, that sounds perfect," Horizon begins scrolling through his phone to see everything he missed while sleeping. "And as for leaving, today I'll be staying in the tower. Still sore and really not in the mood to be running about Tokyo yet, so how about we just relax here today?"

While cooking Ryuko looks back, seeing him at the counter and smiles mischievously, "its been a while since we've had to building to ourselves, not that I don't like your teammates."

"I know exactly what you mean, and how about after breakfast we go check out some of the Black Market Raid loot downstairs?" Horizon asks. "Its well over a billion in art and all kinds of stuff, could be something cool down there."

"Awe, are you asking me on a museum date?"

"Don't make me retract the offer…"

"Don't be so dramatic, and yeah checking out that stuff sounds fun. Especially since its even more fun because I'm not supposed to know about it."

"Lots of things are more fun because you aren't supposed to do them," Horizon says as he responds to a few messages on the Hero Network.

"Did you enjoy the Culture Festival?" She asks. "Before you had to leave that is."

"Did I enjoy keeping track of that many people all at once for hours? Not particularly. But I saw you, Kota, and Eri having fun and the stalls, especially the cotton candy stall."

"Yeah, Kota loves that stuff, and those two got along great which is a big relief."

"Was managing them with all the crowds easy?"

"Surprisingly yeah, they're both pretty obedient, well at least Kota is now. He's trying to be more like his hero, Deku."

"Oh right, he saw Deku fighting during the summer camp huh, and how was Eri with the crowds."

"Very nervous at first, but I showed her that you were up on the roof and she calmed down, that kid trusts you a lot. And I'll admit I was a lot more relaxed since you were up there."

"Well I did save her from Overhaul, and as far as she knows he's locked up in prison and will never bother her again."

"Well at least the part about him never bothering her again is true," Ryuko says as she starts dishing out the food. "I saw a interesting picture of you from the Culture Festival."

"Oh, and what's that?" Horizon asks as they take their food to the living room, to have breakfast on the couch.

"A certain picture of you, and a mini Horizon," Ryuko says in an excited tone, and as they sat on the couch he could already tell where this is going. "Did you do that on purpose? It was so cute how you gave him the card, and what you said too, made my heart feel like it would explode."

"Why would I want to ramp up your baby fever on purpose? Its already nuclear," he says as they start eating.

Ryuko narrows her eyes at him, "its not that bad."

"Babe, if I didn't have perfect control of what my body does, I'd never have sex with you. You're the type of psycho who'd poke holes in condoms, swap her pills for candy, or just wrap her legs around me, no thanks." 2

Ryuko scoffs and begins angrily eating her breakfast, "its not like I'd do that for anyone else. If anything its your fault for being…well, you."

"You're saying I'm special?"

"I'm saying, that I expected to get married and start a family with some white knight who treats me like a queen while acting like a proper gentleman…but instead I'm here hopelessly in love with a man who has caught the eye of at least half the women in the world, and he's seemingly hell bent on sleeping with all of them."

It takes Ryuko a moment to process exactly what she said during that rant, and after she does she just begins eating, looking down at her plate trying to act like that didn't just happen.

"So, hopelessly in love with me huh," without looking up or even being able to see his face, she could just tell he was grinning victoriously beneath that mask.

Ryuko once again wishes she had the power to reverse time, even if its only by a few seconds.

Because there are few things worse than having to deal with Horizon after giving him a compliment, especially one of this caliber… 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 238: CHAPTER 234(Growing Familiarity) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Sunday, November 10th, 2315…

"I hope you realize this entire situation makes me extremely nervous," Nezu says.

He was sipping tea in his office, sitting on the couch opposite Law, who had his visor and mask off.

After returning to UA from Tokyo, Law was relaxing in some more casual clothes over his body glove.

"Well it can't be helped since Pantu already agreed," Law says. "Just think about how it makes me feel, I'm the one that has his balls in a vice, you know, handing over evidence that I went berserk and killed a villain for no reason." 3

"This situation is stressful for all of us," Nezu says, glancing to the side to see his desk, focusing on the glass wall behind it where the moon hung above Musutafu, a city of civilians so close to them. "I'm concerned that you could lose your cool and there won't be a villain around to grasp your attention."

"What? Scared I'll decide to remodel Tokyo?" Law asks.

"Terrified," Nezu says. "And I'm sure Pantu feels the same way. You're lucky she still needs you."

"I know, and I'm sure she's got all her people working overtime, pulling her hair out trying to figure out what she'll do if I suddenly snap," Law chuckles. "How much money do you think she's spending running simulations about it?"

Nezu rolls his eyes, "if the thought of the best minds under her command trying to solve your Quirk is so amusing, I assume you aren't worried about it."

Law shrugs, "Mystery Class, remember?"

"And you're so sure nobody will ever figure it out? Humanity is moving forward faster every day you know."

"I know, but honestly, I bet even Star and Stripe doesn't understand how Mystery Class Quirks work, but just in case," Law smiles mischievously. "Even you don't know the foundation of my power, actually, even my parents don't know."

"Really? I thought you told each other everything…"

"We do, but in a world where minds can be read, they didn't want anyone but me knowing how to take me down," Law shrugs. "Pretty smart, and since I understand the fundamentals, Star and Stripe is still a bit scary, but not invincible."

"Your Quirks aren't similar," Nezu says. "But you clearly know something I don't."

"I know lots of stuff you don't, and that goes both ways."

"Can you beat her?"

"Not a chance," Law laughs at the idea. "She can probably just make herself immune to anatomical manipulation then punch my head off. So really it'd come down to who has more stamina, and in my current state I'd lose. After I get this Quirk situation sorted… I'll win."

They sit in silence for a while as Nezu finishes his tea.

"You know, I don't think I say this enough, but you're scary," Nezu admits.

"You've only just realized?"

"Oh I always knew, its why you're here, but I suppose maybe its arrogance on my part."

"Arrogance in what way, that I'll never hurt you?"

"That I'd never give you a reason to, and that I'm slowly making you a better, gentler person, maybe even a Hero," Nezu says, and he sees Law scoff and look away. "Would it really be such a bad thing, even you mentioned that you're enjoying it more and more lately."

"No, I said it has good perks," Law starts counting on his fingers. "Authority, power, freedom to use my Quirk as I please, freedom to constantly improve myself. Having the world grovel at my feet and worship me is nice too, but that just feels like it was always meant to be."

"And women," Nezu gives an annoyed look. "You've made it clear that's your preferred recreation lately."

"Well…can't exactly walk into a casino as Horizon," Law says. "And my time as my regular self is getting more limited lately. Its easier to just have Ryuko come over than to go deal with the public, guess I'm becoming a recluse."

"And fathers all across the world rejoice at that announcement." 1

They both share a laugh before Law speaks, "I wasn't that bad you know. I mean I even limited myself to two at UA." 9

"Wow, only two, such incredible restraint," Nezu pours himself some more tea.

Any more and Law was sure he'd be able to see the sarcasm pouring off of Nezu.

"Well considering how many I could have had, I think I did pretty well," Law nods proudly.

"Ahh, I see, another aspect of your Quirk revealed."

"What's that? Being impossibly charming?"

"Patting yourself on the back for having human decency…actually, not that decent since you have them here and Ryuko in Tokyo."

"Hey now," Law feigns offense. "At least I'm honest."

"Says the man living two lives, but I guess that's unavoidable," Nezu sips his tea. "Speaking of women, Mirko--"

"--Ugh! No!" 3

"At least let me finish."

"No, if I go anywhere near her she'll probably try to fight me, the only reason I haven't blocked her again is because she only messages me once a week to pick a fight," Law says. "Hey, you look kind of like a rabbit, can you talk to her?" 1

"First of all, I'm much more adorable than any rabbit," Nezu says. "Secondly, she may have uncovered a lead for you, but I don't think she noticed."

"What do you mean?"

"I track all current events in Japan, and one of the men arrested in a recent incident of hers was also at the League of Villains recruitment village, and he was at the USJ."

"How the hell was he free after those first two?"

"His family has money," Nezu says. "But since I connected the dots I figured you could make something of it, chances are he'll run right back to Shigaraki."

"Hmm, running a operation against them is a bit risky since it could mess up Hawk's infiltration mission."

"Hawk's is infiltrating them?" 1

"Yeah, and from the sounds of it he's getting close to tagging Kurogiri and Twice, when they get a solid location on Kurogiri I'll be called in."

"Well its still worth a try, just don't get in the way of whatever Pantu is doing," Nezu says.

"Alright, send me the info, and what about the Shields? How are they holding up?"

"So you finally asked, how thoughtful. They're holding up fine, Melissa can't rejoin her old school until the next semester starts so she'll be in UA until the end of this year."

"I was asking more about if she had any suspicious of what happened. If maybe her dad has been wanting to get a face to face with Wolfram, anything that can be a problem for me."

"My apologies, for a moment I thought you were concerned," Nezu takes another sip. "They're unproblematic. David is just happy the situation is resolved, Tech is beyond our reach since aside from the robot he sent there isn't any proof he even exists." 1

Law relaxes on the couch, "that's a relief."

"If they decided to pester the problem, would you have--"

"--Don't ask questions you and Yagi don't want the answer to."

Nezu shakes his head, "honestly, how you have two Pro Heroes wrapped around your finger I'll never understand it."

"The Ryukyu thing is just a rumor."

"Yet I'm sure you plan to make it a reality."

"Well…"

"What am I supposed to do with you."

"Accept the things you cannot change, makes life easier."

"And what's that for you, since you have the power to quite literally manipulate the world."

"Words and the agreements we make, unbreakable even by the Hand Of God."

"Unbreakable," Nezu looks at him for a moment. "Well according to Pantu you were willing to walk away, to accept the consequences of what happened with Wolfram."

"I made a deal, got to honor it, besides," Law lays his head back and closes his eyes. "Freedom is all they want me to have, bet I'll get an earful when they get out and learn about the shit I've been through for them. Oh, and I'll have to keep mom away from UA and Tokyo, that could get messy." 1

"Well with her track record, very messy. And considering how much she loves you, what she did in Los Angeles would look like childs play."

"Don't tempt me," Law chuckles. "Watching all the paper Pros run about trying to save people in that mess almost sounds fun. Oh, speaking of Tokyo, I'm taking Jiro there this weekend."

Nezu raises a brow at that, "what do you mean you're taking a student with no Provisional License to Tokyo for a weekend?" 1

"I lost a bet and she wants me to play bodyguard so she can leave UA, its for some concert she wants to go to."

"You don't sound excited for it."

"Its a concert, basically a bunch of losers paying money to stand around with other sweaty people and worship some people on a stage, why would I be excited for that?" 3

"Yet you're going."

"I'm a man of my word," Law says. "But yeah, this weekend."

"Fine, I can approve it, but I'll have to contact her parents tomorrow for permission."

"That'll be fine, she says they love me."

"They've never met you, clearly."

"Well, Horizon's public image is perfect, and old people always believe the news."

"And how will Ryuko react to you having a female guest in Horizon Tower…"

Law pauses for a moment, then releases a loud groan as he looks at Nezu, "she'll give me some attitude for it when I say she can't come to the tower this weekend, but we'll be fine."

"That bad?" 1

"She calls them my 'UA bedwarmers', so what do you think?" 2

Minutes later at almost midnight, Horizon warps back into his room.

He appears on one of the small couches, seeing Momo sitting on the floor doing some school work on the coffee table, and beside him Jiro is listening to music while scrolling on her phone.

"How'd it go?!" Jiro's Earphone Jack unplugs and she sits up beside him, almost shaking in anticipation of his answer.

"Once your parents agree then we're on for this weekend," Horizon says.

"YES!" Jiro springs forward and wraps her arms around his neck, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. "Thank you so much! I'm sure they'll say yes!"

"Of course they will, I'm Horizon, everyone in Japan loves me," he says jokingly while pulling her into his lap.

"Just remember not to leave the tower without him," Momo reminds her. "You could get in serious trouble for that, so be careful."

"I'll be extra careful, promise. Besides, I've got this guy with me," she gestures to Horizon while getting comfortable in his lap. "He's invincible!"

"I'll be leaving Wednesday night," Horizon says as he wraps his arms around her. "But I'll be back Friday after lunch to pick you up, after the Pro Hero Billboard Ranking event." 1

"Oh right, they're holding that in person this year," Momo says. "Its supposed to be bigger than ever."

"Yeah, its to send a message of Hope to the nation, plus I need to be there to show solidarity. Apparently some people still somewhat doubt that that I'm a team player with Pro Heroes."

"Really?" Jiro asks. "They doubt the guy who always talks trash about Pro Heroes can work with those very people…shocker."

"Yeah, shocker--"

"--Ah!" Jiro jolts in his lap as a small current runs through her. "Hey!"

They get into a small playful fight, which eventually leads to him laying on the couch with her on top of him.

Only to be stopped by the sound of Momo giggling.

They both pause and turn to look at her.

"Sorry sorry, its just, this is pretty fun," Momo says. "I never thought I'd end up in a scenario like this, but its quite enjoyable, but only because its with the two of you."

Horizon pulls Jiro onto his chest and releases a deep laugh, "if you're happy imagine how I feel, I'm the one with two pretty girls in my room…" 9

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 239: CHAPTER 235(Top Pro Hero Ladies) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--10 AM, Friday, November 15th, 2315…

Standing on the roof of a Hero Public Safety Commission building in Tokyo, Horizon leans on the short wall at the edge of the roof as he scrolls through his phone.

While he did this, he entirely ignored the masses swarming below.

The entire front of this building was entirely filled with civilians, and some Pro Heroes, called in to beef up security.

Today at noon the Annual Hero Billboard Ranking ceremony begins after all, the top 50 Pro Heroes in Japan will be presented for the nation to see.

Ranked by number of incidents resolved, public image, popularity, and a few other categories.

Naturally Horizon couldn't be ranked until he became a fully licensed Pro Hero, so right now he simply kept track of his projected ranking.

This way he knows the predicted ranking he'll get during the first ceremony after he graduates, and since right now the projected ranking is #1 and he knows Endeavor is waiting to retire.

Exactly 3 years from today, he'll have all the cards needed to demand his parents be freed.

All of Japan will be depending heavily on him for safety and stability, and he'll be the #1 Hero in the official rankings as well.

He would have fulfilled his contract to the most extreme lengths, leaving no room for them to complain or refuse to honor the agreement.

Looking out over the city, he sees many of the buildings around them which are taller, and they already have camera crews setup on the rooves or upper floors.

The official lists of who would be added, removed, promoted, or demoted on the rankings were hidden, and all across Japan people were placing bets.

Media outlets catching a glimpse of Pro Heroes flying in or trying to quietly enter the building to later make their big reveals would get a lot of attention from the hungry masses.

And knowing this most Pro Heroes got here before the sun was even up or snuck in quietly at a side entrance, all for the sake of hiding their new costume designs or making the reveal of them being ranked this highly that much more special for their fans.

Horizon didn't have to bother with any of this so he came to the roof to relax, and show off that he's here so no villains try to attack.

'Although I doubt I even had to be here since Endeavor and the next 9 top pros are here,' he thinks to himself. 'Well I guess the public will just think I'm here to support Endeavor, and this'll make me look even better to the morons that think I don't get along with other Pro Heroes…' 2

Enjoying this time to himself Horizon hears the now familiar sound of large wings beating against the air behind him, but even as the roof shakes slightly he continues his scrolling, not bothering to turn around.

"You're supposed to sneak in to make a big entrance on stage," Horizon says.

"You know I don't care about this ranking nonsense," Ryukyu says as she walks up beside him, already in her human form, and leans on the edge to look down at the crowd. "And I certainly don't think I should be ranked this highly…" 3

Horizon chuckles, putting his phone away to face her, "see, knew you weren't a dragon, they aren't humble creatures."

"Ugh, I can't believe I missed you," she rolls her eyes. 1

"Awe, you missed me?"

"Why did I even say that, after all the warnings she gave me about giving you compliments," Ryukyu facepalms. 1

"Relax, its normal to miss your boyfriend…"

They both look at each other, sharing a silent moment, then they both erupt in laughter.

Over the past few weeks they'd sent each other a few interesting things they've seen on the internet. By now it felt like every day their fans thought of something new in their relationship that even they never would have considered.

Most of it was stupid and hilarious, but some of it was creepily accurate, especially the art on Ryukyu's side of things.

"But seriously Kyukyu, you should be proud, you're #7 now," Horizon says.

"Not because I deserve it," she frowns and hangs her head in shame. "I just got lucky that your popularity rubbed off on me."

'And Pantu insisted on the improvement in my rank,' Ryukyu thinks.

"Yeah, but I don't keep trash around me, and I certainly don't allow rumors about me dating it," Horizon says. "If you're good enough to be my pretend girlfriend you're good enough to be the #7 Pro Hero." 2

Ryukyu just shakes her head, but smiles softly, "I can't tell if you're complimenting yourself or me, or maybe both."

"Men are judged by what kind of woman they get, right? So both."

Ryukyu chuckles and breathes a sighs of relief, feeling much better, "you know, since those rumors about us started, a lot of the Pro Heroes that would try to bring me in on cases just to flirt with me have stopped trying, its such a relief." 4

"Well if it makes you feel any better, cameras all around us are catching ever minute of this, and I'm sure we'll be in some gossip articles later today."

Ryukyu takes a step closer to him, leaning against his side, making it look good for the cameras, "you think they're getting my good side?"

"You have a bad side?"

"Did that line work on Ryuko?" she asks.

"We didn't do that much talking at first."

"Forget I ever asked, I don't need those detail," she playfully pushes him away. "And for the record, its wonderful working with only the men and women who want my assistance in helping people, gives me one less thing to think about."

"Did you have any super persistent ones?"

"Hmm," she thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, like three borderline stalkers…honestly made me question the whole Hero License process since those three creeps got it."

"Want me to go talk to them?" Horizon asks.

"Would you?"

"For you, sure, besides I don't like people touching what's mine." 1

Ryukyu rolls her eyes, "maybe you're the dragon, since you don't like people touching your hoard."

"Well one of us has to be a real dragon, and sadly it can't be you."

"Hey! And no I don't want you to go talk to them, I already settled it, I am a Pro Hero after all. I'm not some helpless girl who always needs a man to fight for her."

"That isn't always a bad thing."

"I know, but I wouldn't be setting a very good example now would I," Ryukyu says. "I mean most of the women in the top 50 are either rescue heroes like 13 and Uwabami, or one date away from being a housewife, like Ryuko's trying to be…no offense to her." 1

"I get what you mean," Horizon says. "Young girls need someone they can look up to and see they can be anything they want to be, and honestly, you're kind of the only good one."

Ryukyu's eyes widen at that, "really? You mean that?"

"Of course, 13 only does recue work because she doesn't like fighting and her Quirk is too dangerous, but that's the clich 'Girl in the group is a healer' deal. Mt. Lady isn't that bad but she's kind of a lazy airhead and causes a lot of collateral damage because of how clumsy she is, not to mention she'd never get this far if she wasn't so hot.

Uwabami just wants to be a celebrity and used the Pro Hero route to do it, the others aside from probably Midnight aren't famous enough, and she's basically a walking billboard for acting like a slut to get attention.

And then we have Mirko…ugh."

"Is it really that bad between you two?"

"She's just persistent and annoying, but she only messages me once a week now."

"I see, and what about me?" Ryukyu asks. "As a Pro Hero I mean, what do you see the Dragon Hero Ryukyu as?"

"A competent and humble woman that just happens to be rather beautiful and have a cool Quirk…even if she can't breathe fire. But there is one fundamental flaw in you."

"Oh, and what's that?"

"You lack the same hunger lots of other Pro Heroes have, you're content with just helping people as they need help, you aren't proactive enough. Best Jeanist is the same way which is why I didn't go intern with him. If you want to feel like you deserve your spot, do more work.

And if you want to show all the little girls out there they can be a top 10 Pro Hero just like you, then show them how much work you really do to get where you are. For the few things I don't like about Mirko, that's one thing I do love about her.

She works harder than everyone aside from Endeavor and Edgeshot in the top 10, if she were more organized and efficient she'd easily be the #3 or #4 instead of where she is now. And if you put in that much work, who knows, maybe we'd have our #2 Pro hero be a girl for the first time."

Ryukyu just stared at him for nearly a minute, mesmerized, brain fried as she tried to process how nice he was being. 2

Then she blinks, snapping back to reality, "I hope you really meant that and you're not just saying that to sleep with me."

"Why can't it be both?" 1

Ryukyu's cheek redden slightly as she looks away, down at the crowd who were taking pictures of them, "you aren't supposed to be so forward with a lady, don't you know anything?"

"I know that as Heroes we could die any day, so we don't have time to waste."

Ryukyu sighs, "yeah, you're right, but one sexy blonde Ryuko in your bed is quite enough, and just because she and I are friends doesn't mean she'll be ok with me joining…" she gestures to him, "whatever weird relationship thing you have with her." 2

Horizon playfully raises his hands in surrender, "hey you're the one that keeps bringing it up, clearly I'm on your mind a lot these days…"

As Ryukyu is about to respond they hear the sound of someone landing on the roof, accented by metal clashing against concrete.

Horizon sighs, and just turns so his back is to the new arrival.

But Ryukyu looks back to see Mirko standing on the roof with a toothy grim on her face, staring directly at Horizon. 1

"All those lies about you two not dating and this is the first thing I see at this event huh," Mirko says.

Ryukyu freezes up, trying to think of a logical response.

But before she can Horizon simply turns around, wraps an arm around her and grabs her by the ass, pulling her against his side.

Ryukyu's face goes bright red as her eyes widen, she freezes up.

Mirko stares with wide eyes as well, not sure where this is going.

Horizon grins beneath the visor, hoping this would get the rabbit to leave him along.

"This is the fate of all the women who challenge me and lose, can you accept these terms for our rematch?" Horizon asks. 2

Mirko's lips twitch as her eyes narrow, the vein on her forehead bulging as she scrunches up her face.

Then a moment later she deflates and her ears droop down to the sides of her head.

She frowns and slouches while walking toward the roof entrance of the building.

"No way am I doing that crap," she says while leaving them on the roof. 2

After he's sure she can't hear them Horizon can't help but laugh, "bye bye annoying fight manic, she won't be bothering me anymore." 1

"Looks like we both got rid of our unwanted admirers, although I don't know if she was an 'admirer' exactly." 1

"Either way, not my problem anymore."

"I'm happy to hear that, now, can you please let go of my butt?" 1

Horizon looks at Ryukyu to see her face bright red, eyes closed as she's breathing heavily.

"But it feels nice and toned, and surprisingly round," he gives it a gentle squeeze. 2

"How does she even put up with you…" 3

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 240: CHAPTER 236(Icarus) 4

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"This is really the list, my god these people suck," Horizon says while looking through some papers. "That moron Deku can beat half these Pros…"

He and Pantu were sitting in a small meeting room on the upper floors of this building, discussing some important matters before the ceremony begins just over an hour.

She was at the head of the conference table with him to the right.

"Power isn't everything, lots of these Pro Heroes lead teams and agencies which efficiently protect their own communities. They make people feel safe which is why they also get recognition from us."

"You say that, but I see Rocklock on this list," Horizon looks over at her, "we both know he sucks."

"It was unavoidable," Pantu says, not reacting to his childish antics. "Need I remind you that he knows exactly what happened with Overhaul, the popularity from working with you on the case as well as his diligence in keeping that secret earned him a small boost."

"Small, going from mid two hundreds to number 47 is small?"

"In the grand scheme of things, and in comparison to maintaining your image for the citizens, its most inconsequential…"

"Well, when you put it like that, yeah," Horizon leans back in his chair and continues looking at the listings. "Hey, did you raise Ryukyu's ranking because of popularity because of me, or was there more to it?"

"Concerned about your girlfriend?" Pantu asks.

"Not my girlfriend," Horizon says, and she doesn't detect any lies. "Its been bothering her so I'm just curious."

"She's done good work, and the public trusts her, she earned the promotion."

"Mhm, what kind of bonus does being #1 get you?"

"Is the man who always donates his monthly pay to charity actually concerned with money now?"

"No, I'm just curious."

"There isn't a bonus for rankings, but companies are naturally more likely to reach out to you for sponsorships and products, it simply makes your name more valuable. But more importantly it shows the public there are people willing to risk their lives to protect them."

"So its useless, got it."

"From where I'm sitting you're enjoying the celebrity aspect of being a respected hero," Pantu says. "Or at least you enjoy other people knowing you're better than them."

"Because I am better than them, no reason to hide it." 1

"You are many things, but humble clearly isn't one of them." 1

Horizon continues reading the listings for a moment until the doors open, and Hawks walks in, holding a can of black coffee in his hand.

"Sorry I'm late, had to get a drink," he gives them both a casual wave and moves to sit opposite Horizon.

"Hey, did you make this guy rank 2 because it makes his job as your little weapon easier? I mean he just suddenly appeared on the scene years ago and started his own agency, and got into the top ten that same year, would make sense."

"Oh please," Hawks rolls his eyes. "As if I'd need any help getting so close to the top…"

"I artificially boosted his ranking and popularity," Pantu says.

Hawks frowns and deflates into his seat, folding his arms. As he was sitting all his feathers separated from his wings and hovered behind his chair individually so he could get comfortable. 1

"Hawks is part of a program where we take especially powerful children and train them to become Pro Heroes that also keep an eye on the more corrupted members of our society." 3

"And you're telling the kid all of this because?" Hawks asks.

"Because if he really wanted to know, he would find out. Not to mention he knows your true name, so he likely knows a lot more than he wants me to think he does, this saves us all some time and puts us on the same page," Pantu says. "Because Dabi was part of the class with Hawks."

"We never did learn about how you got my name," Hawks says, then pauses for a moment as he processes what she just said. "Wait! Dabi was in my class, so Dabi is Toya?"

"95% chance that's the case," Horizon says. "So I guess you can add him to your list of people to investigate while you're spying on them."

Hawks rubs his chin for a moment, "Dabi was the member I had to least info on, and he's the least trusting. After I handed Yoroi Musha over to them I got to meet Toga and Spinner a few times but Dabi still keeps his distance."

"Your priority is still to get locations for Kurogiri and Twice," Pantu says. "If we can secure Dabi that's good, but we'd have to find any data caches he has, if something gets released connecting him to Endeavor it'll cause problems we don't have good answers to. 1

The words of a villain that heinous won't carry much weight, but anything is possible. Your main target is Kurogiri however, that remains unchanged. Once we get him out of the way, Horizon can operate freely in whatever manner he deems necessary to deal with the others."

"Well the last time he operated in 'whatever manner he deems necessary,' it scared them so much they went into hiding while building power," Hawks says. "They're preparing some kind of weapon to deal with Horizon, and won't be out until its ready, for good reason."

"Good reason?" Horizon asks.

"Well, I met Toga, and she's still in a wheelchair." 1

"Really?" Horizon was genuinely surprised. "I broke her spine in ways she shouldn't be able to move anything below her neck…whoever is making the Nomu is naturally able to solve something like that, but if she isn't fully healed yet then they aren't quite as good as me."

"That's still a long list," Hawks says. "And after we checked everyone that matched it in Japan, we still came up empty handed. Either this person isn't an official doctor or is in another country, which makes sense since they've got Kurogiri to make travel easier." 7

"I'm sure you'll find us a lead when they trust you some more," Pantu says. "Right now I simply need both of you communicating and on the same page. The League of Villains has tasked Hawks with keeping track of where you are, so you'll have to give him daily updates as to where you'll be."

"I still think you should just let me take care of them," Horizon says. "I'll have it done within a month."

"And the person making the Nomu for them won't be found," Hawks says.

"I'd find them, everyone talks when I put hands on them."

"Violence isn't always the answer, and unlike you I don't like killing innocent people." 7

"I don't enjoy killing innocent people," Horizon says, and Pantu detects no lies. "And violence has never failed me, when applied correctly." 1

"Well I'm not surprised you think that considering who raised you," Hawks snaps at him.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means," Hawks narrows his eyes at him. "What Arsenal did in Los Angeles is the most horrific act of terror in the past century at least, she killed nearly 80,000 people in an afternoon, if that person raised you its no wonder you're so messed up." 3

"Hey!" Horizon raises his voice, yet Hawks nor Pantu react. "My parents are perfect alright, collateral damage is just part of the job, it just happened to be part that mom liked using to distract heroes and cops. Plus she toned it down after I was born…mostly."

"That doesn't change what she is," Hawks says. "Plus your dad is a traitor to the oath he swore as a doctor, I mean who literally steals a patients heart? You were raised by monsters who think might makes right, and that's why they're both locked up in a deep dark hole for at least a few more years…" 5

Horizon doesn't respond.

No yelling, no screaming, not even moving.

Instead the tension in the room continues to grow and grow, until suddenly Hawks was bombarded by a strange sensation.

Nothing, for the first time in 18 years, he couldn't hear anything beyond his ears. As if he'd been completely stripped of his extra sense provided by the feathers.

"What did you do?" Hawks asks.

"Oh, so when they're 10km away you can't connect to them," Horizon says. 1

Hawk's features twist into a horrified expression as he spins around in his chair, seeing where his feathers were, there were simply floating leaves. 1

His eyes widen as he jumps to his feet, and look over to Pantu, who was gone, warped away somewhere in the building, so nobody can stop what's about to happen.

He turns back to Horizon, only to see him gone as well, then a large hand grasps his shoulder.

Before he can turn around to properly see Horizon, the man palms his face and lifts him up, slamming him down onto the conference table, breaking the table and taking him to the floor beneath.

"MMMMM!" Hawks tries to claw Horizon's hand off his face, barely seeing Horizon looming over him through his own yellow tinted visor.

With practiced ease he reaches onto his belt and talks out a combat knife, and swings it at Horizon's arm, only for the weapon to stop, as if it were stuck in space. 6

He pushes as hard as he can but it wouldn't dare to move,

Horizon lifts him up and slams him back down, cracking the back of his head against the floor.

Hawk's vision gets blurry, the yellow tint of his visor only makes it worse as he sees Horizon look at the knife he tried to stab him with.

"Thanks for the knife, but to operate on you, at least to start, my hands are enough…"

Horizon immediately grabs Hawks's face with both hands, crushing his skull like a apple.

Hawks feels his brain being squeezed as his visor gets blocked by Horizon's thumbs, then before his eyes the reinforced plastic begins to crack, as both thumbs press down.

"No no no no!"

SQUELCH!

"Ahhhh!" Hawks scream bounces off the wall of this heavily soundproofed room as Horizon hollows out his eye sockets with his thumbs.

Hawks immediately black out, only to jolt awake as a current passes through his body.

Still completely blinded he screams and begs for it to stop.

But the same pattern happens over and over for almost ten minutes.

The feeling of Horizon holding him, then tightening his grip until bones started to creak and snap, until bone fragments were piercing skin.

Until pain was the only thing to exist in his world.

Then the cool sensation would wash over parts of him, and he'd feel better for a moment, before Horizon broke them all over again.

"Arhhhh--" Hawk's voice breaks, overstrained vocal cords no longer able to speak.

He silently screams into a hopeless dark void as pain continues wracking his body.

And just when he thinks its all over, finally some relief was coming.

He felt his very same knife tracing the skin on his belly…

Chapter 241: CHAPTER 237(Bits and Pieces) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"Mmm, that feels so much better…" Horizon takes a deep breath as he steps out of the meeting room, looking around the hallway and only seeing two security agents standing nervously, staring at him. 1

One of them men touches his earpiece, not taking his eyes off Horizon as he speaks, "yes ma'am, he just stepped out of the room."

Horizon looks over at the man, tilting his head. Doing a quick Scan he can sense Pantu walking through the building trying to get back here, constantly having to deal with people stopping her to talk while she's talking to this agent through her earpiece.

"Understood ma'am," the agent says as he raises a hand gesturing for Horizon to stop. "Sir, I must insist that you wait here for Lady Pantu." 2

Horizon looks at the man who was clearly nervous and not getting paid enough for this, and sighs, "I'll pretend you didn't just say that to me…" he says before walking past both men.

Neither of which tries to stop him.

Walking down the hallway Horizon finds the person he's looking for and takes a sharp turn into the stairway, avoiding anyone trying to speak to him.

For the first time in a very long time, he felt truly relaxed.

After over a year, he's finally done something he always wanted to do, but accepted he'd never get the chance to do.

Get some payback on Hawks.

Yes, it does go against what he was taught and even what he believes in, pursuing revenge is not useful and should not have been done in this case.

'But damn did that feel good…' 3

While casually walking down the stairs he takes out his phone and sends Jiro a quick text.

'The ceremony will be starting in an hour, I'll be at UA around 5 PM so be ready…'

Seconds later Jiro responds by sending him a selfie of her and Momo in one of the labs at UA, during class.

Both were happy and smiling, although Jiro was sticking her tongue out at him.

Horizon smiles beneath his visor and puts away his phone, making it down to the third floor of the building and opening the door. 4

'I should try to spend more time with them honestly, Momo's sexy and Jiro's cute, keeping them around is worth a bit of time. Especially since as time goes on I'll be called to do Hero Work less and less.

That's the main benefit of being in the media propaganda as some invincible superhero, no villains actually want to make me get to work, so I get more time with my women, and speaking of my women…'

Horizon focuses his thoughts as he sees Ryukyu speaking to Best Jeanist and Edgeshot.

"Oh, Horizon," Jeanist politely waves at him, causing both the other Pros to turn around to see him approaching. "Here to support Endeavor?"

"Sure, if that's what people want to assume," Horizon says as he joins them. "Really I'm just here so Shigaraki doesn't show up and disintegrate a crater into this portion of the city…"

"That certainly has everyone on high alert," Edgeshot says. "I've never felt so helpless as a Pro hero, well, not since All For One, but Shigaraki isn't as bad as that thing was."

"But now Horizon can probably handle All For One from Kamino," Ryukyu says. "Right?"

"Ofcourse, but," Horizon puts an arm around her waist and pulls her to his side, "weren't we just talking on the roof about how you don't need to depend on a man to protect you?"

Ryukyu rolls her eyes, but doesn't look bothered by him holding onto her, which the other men notice, "I'm a Dragon, I can only do so much. It takes monsters to fight monsters after all."

"Sure, Dragon, if you say so Kyukyu."

"Kyukyu?" Jeanist asks. "So you even have pet names for each other, so the rumors are true after all."

"No he's just being annoying," Ryukyu says. "He thinks I'm not a Dragon because I can't breathe fire, it's stupid."

"Well, he does have a point," Edgeshot says. 2

"Dragons do historically breath fire in all their stories," Jeanist mentions. "But at least you do look like one."

Ryukyu just looks at them as the traitors they were, "and here I thought you two were my friends, damn traitors," she shakes her head, mostly playfully. 1

"Anyway, enough with the small talk, you three need to be on stage in just over an hour, so until that, I'm gonna be stealing away this woman," Horizon quickly scoops Ryukyu up into his arm.

Both men look at this with wide eyes as she tries to squirm out of his grasp, but it's like trying to claw at a steel vice.

"Hey, put me down!" Ryukyu yells. She then looks at Jeanist and Edgeshot, "get me out of here, he's kidnapping me!"

Horizon turns around and begins walking away with her in his arms.

"Hey, I need to prepare to go on stage!" Ryukyu says as she still fails to get out of his grasp.

Jeanist chuckles, "honestly, young people show affection in such strange ways these days."

"Much too shamelessly for me," Edgeshot says.

"Yeah, even when we were in UA, you were always a serious prude," Jeanist says.

While those two friends were catching up, Horizon kicked open the door to a secluded conference room, still holding Ryukyu in his arms.

Now she had her arms folded and was sulking, entirely helpless to escape his grasp since her Quirk is either human form or Dragon form, she has no ability to manifest only particular traits.

Meaning if she actually did want to escape she'd damage the building by transforming into a large dragon.

But as much as she'd deny it, she was happy in his arms.

As they enter the conference room they see a massive table lined with leather chairs.

All the windows were closed and the blinds were shut, giving them some privacy, and after a quick Scan Horizon made sure there wasn't any technology spying on them. 1

"Now can you tell me what the hell you're doing? I have to be on stage so this had better not take long," Ryukyu says as he pushes some chairs aside and sits her down atop the table.

"Well, today I crossed something off my list that's been there for a while, figured why stop at one of those today," Horizon shrugs. 2

"Oh, and what might the other one be?" Ryukyu gives him an expectant look…

--15 Minutes Earlier…

Warped down into the press area between a few Pro Heroes and security agents, Pantu was immediately ambushed by reporters.

Keeping her icy fa ade she answers dozens of questions, all while her mind is reeling trying to imagine what Horizon is doing to Hawks upstairs.

"President Pantu!" One of the reporters in the back gets her attention. "There is a growing faction of the public who believe the international Pro Hero License regulations should be lifted in the case of Horizon, do you have any comment on this matter?"

"Those laws were made after a century of tragic and avoidable deaths caused by young and unprepared individuals being given Pro Hero licenses because their Quirks were deemed as powerful.

To make an exception for anyone is absolutely never going to happen, not in Japan, and not in any nation that is recognized by the United Nations Quirk Security Board. Making an exception would set a bad example and cause a chain reaction that would claim the lives of countless children across the world.

Regardless of how powerful and capable Horizon is, do remember he is currently only 16 years old. Even Star and Stripe, the only other Mystery Class Quirk user wasn't giving a Pro Hero License until she was fully trained and already an adult…" 1

"But what abou--"

"I'm sorry but I don't have time for any more questions," Pantu cuts off another reporter as she holds her earpiece and begins briskly walking away.

Entering a connected hallway she signals three agents to follow her on the way back to the top floor.

"Did anyone else leave the room with him?" She asks through the earpiece.

The agents around her don't react even as they all enter the elevator.

"Then don't let him leave, and don't let anyone enter that room," Pantu says, completely void of any emotions in her voice.

Arriving on the top floor Pantu quickly makes her way to the meeting room they were in, and gets another message through her earpiece.

"Horizon and Ryukyu were seen entering a conference room on the third-floor ma'am."

"Just tell me if anyone leaves," Pantu says as she gets to the door.

As her hand is on the doorknob the faint scent of blood reaches her nose.

Pantu sighs and looks around at the agents, "Don't look inside, and don't let anyone near this room."

She then opens the door and the strong scent of blood rushes into the hallway before she shuts the door behind her.

As she enters the room, for the first time in a long time she was genuinely mortified by what she saw.

Her entire career she's dealt with the aftermath of monsters having their way, but she's always had Pro Heroes at her disposal to deal with them, so there was never any real risk of them going entirely rampant across Japan.

But now there is no All Might, and even if he was here she wasn't sure it would matter.

Now she looks around and sees Hawks, feathers scattered about the ground, and his shirt and jacket were torn apart, his body appeared entirely untouched, simply laying on his back in a massive pool of blood in the middle of a broken table.

He looked perfectly fine, but she could tell he wasn't.

She knew Horizon could heal people better than any other, she knew he had a vengeful, violent, and sadistic side to him.

That's to be expected when his mother is Arsenal, arguably the biggest monster of recent history. 2

But now as she approaches Hawks she finds herself stepping over pieces of him.

Guts, livers, what appear to be pieces of his heart, no… hearts. She could casually count 9 eyeballs scattered about the room entirely whole. 1

Looking closely she sees fingers scattered on the other side of the room, and the floor was covered in more teeth than he could possibly have in his mouth.

Arriving at Hawks she gently taps him with her foot, and he doesn't respond, but she can see his chest slowly rising and falling.

He was breathing, even as she could see what appeared to be a whole lung laying on the floor.

Now Pantu finally came face to face with the depths Horizon can go to, and has to seriously consider a terrifying question. 21

What do you do, when your strongest protector, is the biggest monster of them all… 23

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 242: CHAPTER 238(New Rankings) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Pantu doesn't even wait for a second after knocking to push open the door, leaving her security agents on the other side of it to confront her current problem.

She enters the conference room to immediately lock eyes with Ryukyu, who was clearly disheveled and had flushed cheeks. 3

Pantu stepped inside and looked around the room, seeing Horizon sitting on one of the chairs with his feet up on the conference table, already fully dressed.

Meanwhile, Ryukyu was hastily adjusting her Hero Costume, nervously glancing at Pantu the entire time.

"Uh, Lady Pan--"

She cuts off Ryukyu, "out, now, I need to talk to your boyfriend."

Ryukyu's words and excuses die in her throat before she rushes out of the room.

Pantu waits a moment to hear the door close behind her, and still maintains her icy fa ade the entire time.

"Shouldn't you be downstairs getting ready to announce the Top 10 Pro Heroes?" Horizon asks, now scrolling through his phone as if nothing was wrong.

Pantu simply walks over to him, giving him an unamused stare.

"You and Ryukyu, you said it was just a rumor," she says.

"It is, just a rumor, we aren't seriously dating or anything," Horizon shrugs.

Pantu doesn't detect any lies in his words, "and does she know that?"

"Eh, she's a big girl, if she doesn't already know then she'll figure it out."

Pantu doesn't say anything and simply takes a seat close to him, keeping her hands in her lap.

Normally she'd sit across from him, but now she was within arms reach, it made her nervous, but she didn't show a bit of that.

"What did you do to Hawks?" Pantu asks.

"Nothing, well, at least that's what any doctor would say. Medically he's perfectly healthy, healthier than he woke up this morning actually."

Pantu doesn't detect any lies, which raises serious concerns. "He's unresponsive."

"Oh, yeah well, the human brain can only handle that much trauma," Horizon takes his feet off the desk and put his phone away, looking directly at her. "I mean can you imagine it, being held down and watching me rip your guts out and tear apart your organs, all while keeping you alive and awake for the whole thing…can't be fun." 4

"Do you realize what you just did to a Hero?"

"Oh, 'Hero', well I'm one of those too, so the word doesn't really mean much, does it?"

"How long will it take him to recover?"

"Depends on how well his birdbrain can handle it, but if he takes too long just give me the info you have on the league, and I'll handle them for you."

"And what ever happened to not seeking revenge."

"Well, even I have limits, not to mention I'm 16 so, sometimes I just can't control my emotions," Horizon's tone was playful, betraying how serious this matter was. "I just had to remind him that the worst of the monsters is still free, and that'll never change." 2

"I see, and do I need to be concerned about more of these outbursts? I've already covered up Overhaul, and Wolfram, but I will draw the line at Pro Heroes dying."

"I'm not stupid," Horizon says. "I knew you'd understand Hawks was out of line, so it'd be fine, but you really don't have to worry. I mean the only reason I'd ever kill any of them, at least intentionally is, well, you know…"

With that Horizon gets up, and Pantu moves to do the same, only for him to raise his hand and rest it on her shoulder. 1

Her entire body becomes tense, looking directly ahead at his chest, not even daring to look up at the visor.

"Is there a problem?" Pantu asks, focusing her Quirk internally, as her life does depend on it.

Horizon gently moves his hand across her shoulder toward her neck, then just barely holds onto her neck. His large hand is easily able to wrap around her neck, and with his thumb of the same hand, he raises her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"Look me in the eyes woman," his voice was cold, in a way she's never heard him before. This was anything but the cocky young man she's had to deal with until now. 2

This was the thing Arsenal and The Heart Thief raised. 1

As she looks up she has to actively keep herself from reacting, internally or otherwise.

Horizon's visor was warped away for a moment, revealing the ski mask portion of his body glove.

But both his eyes were glowing bright blue, energy vapor pouring out of them and into the air heavily.

'He has so much power its literally leaking out of him…' Pantu realized. 1

As if he was a demon staring through her.

"Wha--" With a simple movement of his thumb he pushes against her jaw and forced her mouth shut.

"Shhh," Horizon tilts his head slightly, getting a proper look at her features, but he didn't see any changes in them. "You know, day by day the idea of walking away like my parents wanted gets less painful to me." 8

He applies just a bit more pressure with his thumb, and Pantu knows exactly how badly this can go for her.

"But I'm determined to see this through till the end, so let's both just do our jobs," he applies more pressure and Pantu feels her jaw bone almost creaking. "But honestly, I don't know what I'd do if you betrayed me.

Well, I know what I'd do to you, there are sooo many things I'd do to you. But Japan, the thing you care more about than anything else, oh that's how I'd really hurt you. And make you live with your failure, just as I'd have to live with mine. But I can't quite think of something painful enough to match what losing my parents would feel like."

Horizon presses a bit harder, and Pantu feels her gums and teeth begin to shift and twist, her mouth already getting blood.

"So, tell me, should I just do that now? Or are we still alright?"

Horizon releases some of the pressure, allowing Pantu to speak, "your parents are alive and well, but out of your reach…" 6

Neither of them moves for over a minute as Horizon performs Scan multiple times, then he lets go of her.

"Good to know, but don't get any ideas," Horizon leans down slightly to whisper in her ear. "Because I know about more than just little Keigo Hawks, but it's kind of fun watching you desperately flail around. Forming all these useless plans that don't have a chance of working. Plus I will admit, some of what you do really is just entertaining…" 14

Horizon shoves her backward, releasing her so she falls back into her chair.

"Anyway, you've got a presentation to do, and I need to go get a good seat."

As Horizon walks past her his visor warps back onto his head, and Pantu doesn't even breathe until the door is shut behind him.

Pantu feels a headache already setting in as she struggles to catch her breath, the strain of having to use her Quirk like that is affecting her more at this age.

Especially since she hasn't had to use it in such a manner for decades.

'Damn monster, but at least my Quirk works against him, so he isn't some omnipotent god. If that went badly, with all the top Pros here Japan would have been plunged into ruin. Him killing everyone here would pave the way for Shigaraki and his League of Villains to take over in days.' 14

Pantu takes a few deep breaths, then looks at the table she was leaning against, where she presumed Ryukyu gave into her carnal desires.

'He isn't dumb, so no way he showed her his face. But I should at least ask, and warn her about exactly what she's just gotten into. And I've already tried finding his civilian identity via blood from his battle with All For One, but Nezu hid it far too well. I'll just have to wait and see how things play out…' 10

Eventually, Ryukyu was able to compose herself, after yelling at Horizon a bit for the impromptu experience in such an inappropriate venue.

And Pantu got ready and presented the Top 10 Pro Heroes.

The new ranking was not quite what the people expected, but they certainly weren't unhappy with the results.

Wash, a rescue and capture-focused Pro hero who was dressed like a washing machine with arms and legs was now the #10 Pro hero. 2

His Quirk allows him to make bubbles that clean anything they touch and are durable enough to capture villains or float civilians and even pieces of buildings to safety. 1

Kamui Woods was able to climb all the way to the #9 spot after his recent fame via Edgeshot and team Lurkers, and his involvement in a few incidents beside Horizon. His girlfriend Mt. Lady was #16 and a bit sad she didn't make it into the top ten, but also happy for him.

Gang Orca now secured the #8 spot, a one-seat move upward due to recent events. He's mostly had a normal year aside from a very select few events, but he's always been a favorite of the people.

Ryukyu now sat at #7, her self-proclaimed undeserved promotion from the #10 spot. Although the public could understand why she was promoted due to all the work she did this year, she knew it was due to Pantu and Horizon.

The unchanged #6 spot is still held by Crust, the Shield Hero. Juzo's mentor and a surprisingly capable Pro Hero, considering his Quirk only allows him to make scales on his body and expand them into shields. He wore a simple green, white, and black gladiator-style outfit, with a cape. 2

Mirko was now promoted to her new spot at #5, and she seemed somewhat annoyed during the entire event, although she did cheer up when the reporter mentioned this is the highest rank a woman has ever been in Japan's Hero Billboard Chart Rankings. 3

Edgeshot also enjoyed a promotion due to All Might retiring, bumping him up to the #4 spot.

Best Jeanist, another favorite of the people also moved up, now holding the #3 spot with ease.

The only Pro Hero who wasn't present to give a speech was Hawks, the new #2 Pro Hero. It was mentioned that there was an emergency in his city so he had to run off and deal with that, so nobody bothered to question it.

And then that left the new #1 Pro Hero. Endeavor, the Flame Hero.

As he walked onto the stage everyone notice the new Hero Costume, with metal components on the shoulder and arms, as well as a new belt and overall design to the pattern of his costume. 3

He now looked much more functional and intimidating, and unlike most people, Horizon knew the mental support equipment on his Hero Costume was there to help focus the heat and pressure from his flames. 1

He was serious about doing anything he can to fill All Might's shoes, at least until Horizon can take over.

And when a reporter asked him about that very subject, if he could possibly do enough to report the people's faith in their Pro Heroes.

If he could win their trust in him as the #1 Pro Hero.

His only response was three simple words, "Just watch me…" 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 243: CHAPTER 239(Horizon's Girls) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START-- 1

--5pm, UA…

In the 1A Dorms, Horizon sat on one of the couches of the common room, the dorms were almost entirely empty at the moment. Everyone was either already gone, or getting ready to go to the Hero Work Studies.

Only a few people didn't have Provisional Hero Licenses and were stuck at UA all weekend.

The TV was on, quietly showing a replay of the highlights from the Hero Billboard Ranking even earlier today.

But Horizon wasn't focused on that, he was a bit preoccupied by Momo who was sitting in his lap with her arms around his neck.

She wore a more casual outfit, some comfortable high-waisted jeans, a red and white 'Genesis' t-shirt, and her Horizon theme hoodie. Her hair was in the classic ponytail and her lips were locked onto Horizon's. 3

His visor was partially opened so they could properly share this moment.

He was in his Hero Costume, only here in Musustafu to have a small meeting with Nezu, which is already done.

He simply had to give Nezu an update on what happened between himself and Hawks, or more accurately, what he did to Hawks.

The last remaining thing was to get Jiro and head back to Tokyo.

But since Momo was still here, he figured why not enjoy some time with one of his girls before he goes back to work for the weekend.

Her weekend backpack was beside them on the couch, and her Hero Costume was resting beside it, simply waiting on Setsuna to get done with some schoolwork before they both went to spend the weekend with Majestic.

But right now she was entirely focused on Horizon.

Separating from him to barely catch her breath she mutters, "I'm jealous, I've never been to Horizon Tower but Jiro gets a weekend there."

"Well I'm a man of my word, nothing more."

Momo gives him another passionate kiss before pulling away again, "so when can I come to the tower?"

"Never," Horizon's hand moves down from her waist and gives her ass a firm squeeze, "you're too distracting, I wouldn't get any work done."

Momo's breath hitches as she begins unconsciously grinding against him, "Is that why you only…spend time with us…at UA," her breathing becomes less stable as she feels like she's melting in his lap.

"Mhm, I'm at UA as a formality, not to learn, if you two weren't here I wouldn't have any reason to ever be on campus…"

"So we're worth being stuck in UA?" Momo gives him a few more kisses before needing to catch her breath again.

"Every second…" 2

After a few more minutes Jiro enters the common area, wearing a pair of simply black jeans and a purple top, backpack over her shoulder with her things for the weekend.

Looking around the common area she only sees Momo and Horizon, both of which were rather occupied at the moment.

Her cheeks redden slightly, and she unconsciously lips her lips while staring at the scene, both the people she's most attracted to were getting hot and heavy right in front of her. 5

Taking a deep breath she squeezes her eyes shut and gathers her courage, then walks over before she can come to her senses.

Recalling all the late nights she and Momo spent discussing this, she hardens her mind and keeps walking forward.

Momo feels a gentle tap on her shoulder, making her pull away from Horizon for just a moment to see what's going on, finding herself looking up at Jiro.

"Oh, you're done packing," Momo says.

There was a gentle smile on her lips, and she recognizes the uncertain hunger in Jiro's eyes.

Before anyone could realize what was going on, Jiro leaned forward and gently cupped Momo's face, locking their lips together and pulling her into an intense kiss.

Momo froze for a moment, stiff as a board.

They'd spoken about this at length, but she never expected it to happen so suddenly, and not while she was still sitting in his lap.

Horizon just leaned back and enjoyed the show, especially as Momo got more comfortable and began kissing Jiro in return. 7

As they continue Momo reaches out and pulls Jiro around the couch and into Horizon's lap. She drops her backpack to the side as Momo slides out of his lap to sit beside him, making space for Jiro.

All without ever separating for more than a moment.

And when they finally do break apart and have to wipe their lips, both struggling to catch their breaths, Horizon just wraps and arm around Momo, pulling her to his side, and bring Jiro closer to his chest.

"Wow…I love it here."

Both girls break into a fit of giggles before Jiro speaks, "see, told you he'd love it."

"It wasn't as strange as I thought it would be," Momo admits, leaning into Horizon. "I actually kind of liked it…"

"Forgetting someone?" Horizon asks.

"How could I ever forget you?" Jiro smiles and leans forward, giving him a long and passionate kiss as well before they separate.

"So, about earlier, does this mean…?"

"Yup," Jiro tells Horizon. "Honestly I feel so stupid for waiting this long to tell Momo, I mean she's the nicest girl ever and my best friend, of course she'd understand."

"Although I will admit I was surprised," Momo says. "I suppose I'm not that good at reading people's romantic interests toward me."

"Its part of your charm," Horizon says.

"Mhm, well I'm not exactly interested in girls, at least normally I'm not," Momo says. "But after a long discussion with Kyoka we came to an understanding."

"I'm just happy my girls are getting along, this wouldn't really work otherwise." 7

After he says that Jiro extends her Earphone Jacks around his neck and pulls him forward, meeting him halfway to give him another kiss.

CLICK!

The familiar sound of a camera going off causes them to break the kiss, and look over at Mina who was grinning like an idiot in the corner.

She was wearing a pair of shorts and her sports bra, now heading out for a run. During the weekends she's actually the only girl in the 1A Dorms with Jiro, but this weekend she'll be alone.

"If you upload that I'll kill you pinky," Horizon says.

"Sure sure," Mina says while sending it to the class group chat. 2

Jiro and Momo feel their phones vibrate and check them, only to both start blushing.

Both the 1A and 1A1B group chats got the picture, explicit and high quality.

Jiro sat on his lap kissing him while Momo nuzzled at his side patiently waiting her turn. But everyone knew better than to put those on the internet, so Horizon didn't particularly care.

"So how can I get in on this?" Mina asks while walking over to the couch, sitting on the arm beside Horizon. 1

Both Jiro and Momo look at her, confused, concerned, and uncertain.

"What exactly do you mean Mina?" Momo asks.

"Not the three ways and the make-out session you closet pervert, the field trip to Tokyo. C'mon! Please! Take me with you!" 7

Mina throws her arms around Horizon and begins fake crying into his chest.

"No, get off me," Horizon says.

"I promise I'll be good, I can be packed in a few minutes I swear!"

"Not happening, I'm not supposed to take any girls to Horizon Tower in the first place, so just give up already."

"Heroes never give up!" Mina lets go of him and does her best puppy-dog eyes. "What will it take huh?"

"Not happening."

"C'monnnnnnnn!" Mina looks like she was on the verge of actual tears. "Do you have any idea how much it sucks being stuck on campus 24/7?! I wanna go shopping, or to a cute caf , or just for a walk outside of UA! Just because I failed the Provisional License Exam it's like I'm under house arrest, please let me come with you!"

Horizon sighs, "even if I wanted to, you'd need your parent's permission and I doubt you'd be able to get that within a few minutes."

"Oh," Mina frowns, suddenly looking like a kicked puppy.

"Plus…" In one smooth motion, Horizon slides Jiro onto Momo's lap, and pulls Mina onto his, wrapping a hand around her waist to hold her stable and putting the other on her thighs. "Horizon Tower doesn't have that many beds, so you'd have to sleep with Jiro and I this weekend, would you be alright with that?"

Jiro and Momo tried not to laugh, seeing Mina's face turn purple as she blushes through her pink skin. They'd both gotten used to Horizon teasing them, even if they still can't help but react.

But now being on the observing side, they can see why he enjoyed doing this.

Momo hugged Jiro from behind as they both noticed the slow motion Horizon's fingers are making on Mina's exposed thighs, and they both shudder at the thought of all the emotions and ideas that feeling always triggers. 2

And judging by the look on Mina's face, she was experiencing the same thing.

Mina hops out of his lap, and they all notice her legs being squeezed tightly shut, even as she walks away stiffly. 1

"On second thought seven months for the next exam is fine ok bye!" Mina yells while all but running toward the elevator.

Horizon quietly laughs while pulling Jiro back into his lap, where she feels most comfortable. "So, think she'll be dreaming about me tonight?"

"Is that what you want?" Jiro asks. "Do you intend to claim every girl in our class?"

"Would that be a problem?"

"I don't think Asui would want to be a part of…us," Momo says, speaking rather seriously.

"And Toru is dating Ojiro," Jiro says.

"Oh yeah, figures the most forgettable people would end up fucking," Horizon says.

Momo swats his shoulder, "They're happily together, don't be so crass. But I actually don't think any of the girls in our class would be willing to join us, which I can't say I'm not happy about. Dividing your attention any more would leave none for us as it is."

"That's a shame, Mina has a nice ass, and zero gravity could be a lot of fun…"

Momo gives an exasperated sigh and Jiro just rolls her eyes, leaning back against his chest.

"Are you sure you don't just want Uraraka because Deku likes her?" Jiro asks.

"Nah, but now that you mentioned it…he still thinks he'll one day be better than me, so fucking his crush would destroy him. But luckily I'm not that kind of person, as if I'd need to put in any special effort to show trash how worthless they are." 12

Both Momo and Jiro frown, getting slightly annoyed but keeping it to themselves.

This was the part of Horizon they didn't like, the part that insists on letting the world know how much better he is, the part that sometimes tears others down either intentionally or not.

The part that took personal offense to anyone it deemed unworthy trying to compete with it, especially Deku.

As they were talking Setsuna finally enters the dorm, wearing some casual clothes and carrying a backpack, as well as her Hero Costume case.

Behind her were Shoto, Bakugo, and Deku, they'd just got done at the support department and were going to start training together.

Since neither of them has Provisional Hero Licenses, they've been training together much more and constantly getting stronger, at least according to what Shinso reported to Horizon.

Because Horizon really didn't know, he doesn't pay enough attention to his classmates, or as he put it to Shinso, 'ants, slightly bigger ants, to me they all look the same'.

As Momo gets up to leave with Setsuna, then newcomers all freeze up.

Momo, Jiro, and Horizon follow their eyelines, to the TV.

On TV the Endeavor Hero Agency was currently under attack by a High-End Nomu. The fight was already well underway by the time the broadcast started, and Endeavor already looked quite hurt.

Burnin and the other Flaming Sidekicks tried to jump in and support him but the High-End Nomu released a dozen regular Nomu from its body to occupy them.

"H-he-ro!" the High-End Nomu's deep and broken-up voice echoed across the battlefield as it flew around fighting Endeavor.

"A High-End Nomu," Horizon says.

"A what?" Bakugo asks.

"Stronger and more intelligent Nomu, they retain parts of the personality of the corpse used to make them," Horizon sighs and gets up, letting Jiro stand on her own. "This is annoying, looks like I'll have to patch him up after this fight, let's go Jiro…"

"Hey, your classmate is worried, can't you at least pretend to care?" Jiro asks as she sees him casually taking out his phone, making sure Pantu knew he was on the way to Central Hospital.

"I do care," Horizon says, looking over at Shoto who was about to have a panic attack. "But I'm not worried, its Endeavor, he doesn't know how to lose…" 3

Those words alone help Shoto calm down, just enough so he doesn't freak out.

And a moment later Horizon and Jiro warp away…

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 244: CHAPTER 240(High-End Results) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Sitting in the hallway of Central Hospital was a surreal experience for Kyoka Jiro.

She has one Earphone Jack plugged into her phone, quietly listening to music as she sat on her chair.

There were nurses and doctors constantly moving around, even this late at night. The hospital was constantly getting a flood of new patients into the emergency room.

Holding her backpack beside her she glances at the door to the side of where she's seated.

Behind her, on the other side of the simple wall, Endeavor was laying in bed after getting healed by Horizon.

But the instant Endeavor was stable and they could only wait for him to wake up, a nurse rushed over and led Horizon to the other side of the hospital.

Dozens of people were severely hurt by the League Of Villains attack earlier today. Now it was nearly midnight and Horizon hasn't stopped working to heal people.

For all his talk about not caring about others, Jiro saw him taking command of the situation immediately and constantly moving around saving lives.

Seeing respected doctors and nurses differ to him, it was surreal. As if suddenly he was even further ahead of her, he already seemed beyond comprehension, but no she knew she could never describe it. 3

She did notice one thing, however, a few times each hour, there'd be a few nurses rushing children in the direction of the Miracle Ward.

Horizon's office was currently chaotic which is why she's here sitting in the hallway.

But she could hear the happy and relieved cheers of patients and their families every time he shows himself.

'No we're still in Central Hospital,' Jiro responds to a text from her mom. 'A lot of people got hurt so Horizon is helping to heal them, he said he should be done soon.'

'Alright, just remember not to be too far away from him.'

Jiro rolls her eyes at her mom's message, 'I'm not a baby you know, I'm training to be a Pro Hero too.'

'And we're very proud of you, but please don't go too far from him.' 1

Jiro sighs, 'yes mom, I'll call you from Horizon Tower.'

As Jiro is finishing up her conversation she sees a nurse rush by, with a small Horizon logo on the shoulder of her uniform.

She looked worried, clutching the clipboard to her chest as she all but sprints down the hallway. Minutes later she's pushing a young boy in a wheelchair toward the Miracle Ward. 4

'She must be one of the people Horizon has to help him organize everyone here,' Jiro realizes. 'I don't think I've seen any adults go toward the Miracle Ward, aside from the people he helped that came in with Endeavor.'

Jiro sits back and thinks about it for a moment.

'He really doesn't care about people…well, adults. But he's got a soft spot for kids. No wonder he always spoils Eri so much, even if he says it's just to annoy Eraser.' 10

Jiro shakes her head, realizing her being here makes him easier to see through.

'All that acting like a jerk, and it turns out he's just a big softie deep down.' 9

"What's with that stupid look on your face?" Horizon snaps her out of her daydream, causing her to jump to her feet in surprise and look at him.

"Uh, I, um…"

Horizon sighs and shakes his head, "Endeavor is awake so let me just go talk to him then we can leave."

"Alright, I'll be here!" Jiro says excitedly, just wanting to get to Horizon Tower and take a nap, then get ready for the concert tomorrow.

Entering the room Horizon sees Endeavor laying in bed staring up at the ceiling, he had a scar on the left side of his face, from the top of his forehead, down over his eye, almost down to his jawline.

"If you change your mind I can always remove the scar," Horizon says.

"It's deserved," Endeavor says.

"Right, well if you ever feel like not punishing yourself just let me know," Horizon saunters over to the chair beside Endeavor's bed and takes a seat, finally getting a moment to relax since leaving UA.

They enjoy the silence for a moment, gentle moonlight trying to break through the curtains, keeping the room slightly dimmed.

"How is everyone?" Endeavor asks.

"A few Pro Heroes got badly hurt, two died, not from your agency but they were nearby," Horizon says. "All the smaller Nomu got dealt with, and Japan saw your fight. Cheering for the new #1 Pro Hero, congratulations."

"I see, and the civilians?"

"All evacuated and got out safe, since the attack was concentrated onto your Hero Agency, and the Pro Heroes."

"That's good," Endeavor says. He tries to get up, but immediately lays back down, feeling his entire body sore. "How badly hurt was I?"

"Well, without me, you'd be in here for at least another week, but no permanent damage either way. But since I got to you, tomorrow you can get out of here. But your Hero Agency is a mess…"

"It can always be rebuilt. Did any more attacks happen?"

"Nope, they just wanted to kill you, kick Japan the same day we officially got the new #1 Pro Hero, smart move," Horizon says. "But, the villains, like most people, don't realize that you're kind of freakishly powerful. It's just when you stand beside people like All Might and I, anyone looks like less than they are."

"It worked to our advantage this time," Endeavor says. "That Nomu that attacked me, it was one of the High-End Nomu you got information on. It was able to speak and think clearly, it wanted to kill me more than anyone else."

"Mhm, that means the consciousness was still somewhat intact, damn, doing some research on it would have been helpful. But you cremated it, not even DNA survived the attack you did."

"The Quirks," Endeavor closes his eyes and tries to remember. "Super Regeneration, Super Power, Muscle Enhancer, some kind of storage Quirk it used to release the other Nomu. A body manipulation Quirk that let it harden and sharpen its muscles, and an air pressure Quirk."

"6 Quirks that we know of, good thing it went after you, almost anyone else would have died immediately," Horizon thinks about it for a moment. "But now they know relying on the basic blunt force type of Quirks won't work against you. They'll start to specialize Nomu for specific Pro Heroes."

"Mhm, what about you, could you have handled it?" Endeavor opens his eyes to glance at Horizon.

Horizon takes a deep breath and raises one hand, opening his palm to collect a small flow of green radiation in his palm.

Endeavor looks more intrigued than worried.

As Horizon's official Pro Hero mentor and boss, he knows more than most people about Horizon's abilities, and the 'Gamma' series is no exception.

But this is the first time he's ever seen it in person.

'Cellular destruction, a scary ability,' Endeavor thinks.

"I think I'd be fine against that Nomu, so long as it's just one," Horizon crushes the radiation in his hand, harmlessly dispersing it as he shrugs.

"You said Gamma attacks were difficult to do…"

"They are, but I've been practicing a lot," Horizon says.

They share another moment in silence.

"I saw on the news that he was there," Horizon says, and Endeavor immediately frowns at the memory.

Dabi, he appeared from a Warp Gate to collect the Nomu after the fight.

"He tried to get the Nomu, and promised to 'destroy' me," Endeavor says. "But he didn't make any direct mentions of 'that', or anything else."

"He tried to attack?"

"Of course, but too many Pro Heroes were there, and Burnin was able to get me out of there."

"So he was sent to get back the Nomu but couldn't recover it. Makes sense, the League of Villains was just testing a new weapon on you. Some of the Nomu I've encountered were clones, imperfect, but it means they can make more of at least the Quirk Factors."

"So we can expect more of these, and more frequently, that's concerning. We need to take more proactive measures to deal with the League Of Villains," Endeavor says.

"I'm sure Pantu will want to talk to you for a debrief, but yeah, I've been itching to start hunting them down myself."

"Well you can start when you get out of here, when you get a lead I'll follow up, she doesn't want me leaving Tokyo too much."

"I assume you'll be in Tokyo this weekend."

"I'm taking Jiro to a concert," Horizon says rather casually.

"Jiro?"

"Classmate, it's…a long story."

"Hmm, I thought you were dating Ryukyu."

"Lots of people think that," Horizon chooses his words very carefully, since Jiro is just outside the room and can likely hear them. "But yeah that's my weekend plans, anyway, I'll give you another checkup the next time I see you."

With that Horizon gets up and begins walking to the door.

"Thank you, for everything," Endeavor says.

Horizon stops, hand on the door handle, then looks at Endeavor, "It's part of the job, oh, and Shoto looked worried about you when I left UA, so give him a call…"

Endeavor actually manages to smile hearing that, "I will, th--"

Horizon exits the room before he can thank him again.

"Honestly these fucking Todorokis," Horizon mutters as Jiro stands beside him. "Alright, let's get out of here." 1

ROOM!

He places a hand on her shoulder.

SHAMBLES! 1

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 245: CHAPTER 241(Above the sheep) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Minato Tokyo, 5AM…

Sitting in the interrogation room of a police station, a gorgeous Japanese woman sits in the interrogation room. 5

Both her hands were cuffed to a bar in the middle of the table, a bored expression on her face as she looks down at the table.

Her outfit was a simple pair of black jeans and a loose white top, with some tears and slashes in it.

CLICK!

The door to the room opens and in walks a detective, well dressed holding a folder in his hands.

"Lady Bonsai," he says. "Not so scary without trees around for you to manipulate huh," he takes a seat opposite her. 3

The woman remains silent, she doesn't even look up at him.

"Now let's see," he opens her file and skims it, as if he didn't have the entire thing memorized already. "Killed 2 people that we know of, injured 3 Pro Heroes and 17 police officers yesterday when being arrested. Caught moving a small convoy of illegal firearms from the countryside into Tokyo." 1

"..."

"You know your organization is pretty smart, doing this while Horizon isn't in Tokyo, very smart," the detective says. "But you were so quick to move in the time he wasn't here, that you got sloppy, and we caught you. So, where did the guns come from?"

"I want my lawyer," the woman says, her only words since being arrested, repeated any time her mouth opens.

"Normally that's fine, but, since you've been filed and officially transferred to Tartarus, not happening," the man says. "You know how this works, when someone is deemed a big enough threat for Tartarus we skip all the tedious legality and paperwork."

The woman flinches at that, she knew exactly what Tartarus was.

Everyone knew, and not everyone liked it. The government tries to keep Tartarus out of the news for this reason, because a lot of people don't approve of them skipping the legal and criminal process and simply throwing major threats into Tartarus. 5

No trial, no wasted time, just a criminal locked in a box forever as quickly as possible.

Stacked atop the numerous concerns of human rights violations Tartarus allegedly does to contain certain individuals, it was a powder keg of civil unrest waiting to explode. 1

Truly this woman didn't quite deserve to be locked in Tartarus.

She was a simple villain, not even that powerful outside of a forest, and even then her Quirk isn't anything any top 20 Pro Hero couldn't casually deal with. 1

"Tartarus is for monsters, not people like me," she says, finally engaging with the detective. "You can't just lock me in there to threaten me."

The detective relaxes in his chair, letting a tense silence form between them.

"That's not for you to decide, the Hero Public Safety Commission gets the final say on that," he says.

"And they know I'm not as bad as people like All For One, or worse, Arsenal."

"Well, you can explain that when you're locked up next to her," he says. "Or, you could give up your boss, and we'll send you to a basic prison, without plants around."

The woman stiffens, clearly caught in an impasse.

"All I need is a name or location, we get what we want and you don't get locked up with the monsters."

"I…" she looks away from him, down at the floor. "I can't, just send me to Tartarus."

"Tch…"

As the detective is about to speak the door opens behind him, and he sees the woman's eyes open wide, as if they were trying to fall out of her skull.

Her breath hitches and the cuff buckle as she tries and fails to get away from the table, but can't move. 1

"Detective, you can leave now, I'll handle this," Horizon's voice causes the man to relax. 3

The man carefully gets up and leaves the room, and Horizon casually takes his seat.

His sword hovered beside him, and her eyes never once left it, which he noticed.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, actually," Horizon leans forward and touched her cuffs, then with his other hand he grabs Scalpel.

SHAMBLES!

He disappears, startling her, and as he does, the sword and the cuffs leave the room with him.

And in the next moment only he returns as if nothing happened, "better?"

The woman was still shocked that he was here, but nods as she rubs the bruises on her wrists.

"So, you know the deal right? You got caught, but we want your boss, not you, blah blah blah," Horizon casually leans back and waves his hand about, completely bored with this process. "So what'll it take for you to give him up?"

"I can't."

"I see…" Horizon thinks about it for a moment. "Oh well, I tried," he shrugs and gets up.

She looks even more confused, not expecting the famed Horizon to give up that easily.

"How about we go get breakfast, I know this great place but I need to get there before the sun is up," Horizon says as he walks over to her.

"What?"

"Get up, lets go."

Hearing those words spoken so casually, she wasn't sure if this was some kind of trick, but she was too scared to disobey. 2

The moment she stands he puts a hand on her shoulder.

SHAMBLES!

They both appear at a small food stall in Minato Tokyo, close to the docks.

The sun wasn't up yet, and usually, within an hour of sunrise this vendor is sold out for the day, so Horizon always comes extra early to beat the crowds.

The woman looks around, still trying to wrap her head around what's going on. Seeing that she wasn't locked up anymore, but is now mindlessly following Horizon as he approaches the food stall.

"Take a seat," he gestures to the tables and chairs set up in front of the stall while walking to the vendor.

She does exactly as he says, still looking around waiting for this to go bad, seeing that only they and the vendor were here, the entire place was deserted.

In a perfect world, if Horizon wasn't here, she could try to make a run for it.

'Or take him hostage,' she thinks while looking at the vendor, who Horizon was casually chatting with. 'But Horizon is here, so I guess I'm stuck here too…' 3

Now even without the reinforced walls of a police station, or the cuffs, or the armed men around her, she felt more trapped than ever before.

All because he was here, not even paying her any mind at the moment as he gets their food.

Walking back to their table he puts a large egg sandwich in front of her, along with a bottle of water.

Then he sat down and began eating his, "You probably haven't eaten since you got arrested right, and you won't be getting food like this for a while, maybe ever again. In Tartarus, they just feed you a bland paste."

The woman waits for the trap to get sprung, but instead, Horizon retracts the mouthpiece of his visor and begins eating, enjoying his breakfast.

Suddenly aware of how hungry she was, and seeing him eating, she couldn't help it and began eating her food.

"Thank you," she says, not wanting to piss him off.

"It's no problem, so, was a sandwich enough for you to give me your boss?"

She stops chewing for a moment, then just looks down at the table, "No."

"You sure? Because I mean, I've tried a lot of breakfast places here in Tokyo, I think this is the best one, I'm a regular here, pretty sure it's worth it."

She ignores him and takes a sip of her water, then continues eating.

"I mean honestly, in about 20 minutes the first set of customers will be showing up, every morning, like clockwork. You can't believe the crowd and the line that will be here, but its definitely worth it."

She continues to ignore him.

"Mhm, oh," he snaps his finger. "Maybe you should bring your daughter." 16

She chokes on her food, but washes it down with some water.

"I mean she's only five, but I'm sure she can appreciate good food right?"

"How do you know about her?"

"Because I'm Horizon, knowing things is half my job," he takes another bite. "Too bad you'll probably never see her again, right? I mean, she'll be dead by the end of the day," he continues eating, casually.

"What?!" the woman drops her food even as Horizon is casually eating.

"Well yeah, I mean I had to get here early just beat the crowd, but also like… they don't tell you this but, being a celebrity is super annoying. People always coming up and taking pictures, or sometimes just taking creepy pictures without letting you know.

Then they post if before you give permission, so I don't even patrol by walking the streets like everyone else, I just stay in my tower until something goes wrong," he gestures to Horizon Tower in the distance, not too far away.

"What about my daughter? Is she in danger?"

"Not yet, but I mean… your boss is probably using her as leverage against you, so when the crowd gets here and sees us sharing a nice meal together, takes some pictures, post them immediately…you look like a snitch," Horizon shrugs. "I wonder what he'll do to her…" 4

The woman begins breathing more erratically, overcome with too many emotions to think clearly.

Then a minute later she sulks in her seat, glaring at him, "You're a monster." 5

"Wow, and all I did was take you for a nice breakfast, such an ungrateful lady."

"Take me back to the police station, I'll take the deal…" 1

--6 PM…

SHAMBLES!

Horizon and Jiro appear in the rafters of a stadium in Tokyo, and below them is the massive concert venue, currently closed.

The place was dimply lit, and would be darker when people are let in and the music starts, but right now they could see all the last-minute checks begin done on stage.

"Wooowww," Jiro's eyes go wide as she looks around, having a full view of the entire show from here. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to see anything, but this is something else."

"You wanted to be in the crowd?" Horizon asks as he stands with his back against the railing, not watching the stage.

"That's where you get the full experience, so yeah."

"You're tiny, you'd get trampled."

"I'm not that small! And you could put me on your shoulders." 1

"To block everyone behind us? Also, I'm not going into a mosh pit of losers."

"What makes you so sure everyone that'll be here is a loser, you're here after all."

"I'm here because this is what you wanted, oh, that reminds me. They also agreed to take some pictures with us after the concert."

"Seriously!" Jiro excitedly hugs him, pressing herself against him. "You got me a chance to meet Deep Dope?!"

"Yeah jeez, they wanted pictures with me so we traded, but told em not to post anything till tomorrow so people don't know I'm here."

"You're the best!"

"Obviously."

Jiro reaches into her backpack and gets out her camera, ready to take some amazing pictures.

"And in floods the losers," Horizon says as the masses begin to enter the stadium.

"And what makes them losers exactly?" Jiro doesn't even bother to look at him, just continuing to take pictures.

"Paying money to stand in a crowd of sweaty and possibly drunk people like sardines in a can, while basically worshipping some people on stage who they don't even know, and who probably don't care about them," Horizon shrugs. "What part of that doesn't scream 'loser' to you?"

Jiro looks at him and scowls, "That's not what concerts are about you know, it's not just about the party and music."

"Could have fooled me."

"It's about the shared experience," Jiro says. "A lot of these people probably had dark times in their life and used the same songs and music to get through it, being here and seeing all these people means you aren't alone in what you went through, it helps us not feel like nobody knows what we're dealing with." 5

"Hmm, maybe you're reading too deep into it," Horizon glances back to see the place quickly filling up.

"Wouldn't you like to know that someone out there is dealing with the same thing as you?" Jiro asks.

"No, I don't ever want anyone else to have my problems," Horizon says. "Not having your family with you, and not being able to rebuild a normal life because of this," he gestures to the distance between him and the crowd.

It's already isolating enough, but now as a top pro, I need to hold myself apart even more and much more literally, most people can't handle that. They'd snap, so I hope I'm alone in this endeavor, at least at my age." 2

Jiro gives him a sad look, "Well when you put it like that, I hope you're right too I guess, now, how about we enjoy the concert together."

"Well, their music isn't bad, so I can try," Horizon admits. 1

"I knew you loved their music too!"

"That's not what I said."

"That's basically exactly what you said…"

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 246: CHAPTER 242(Semester 2 Wrap-up) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--December 16th, 2315, 2PM…

Over 1 month after the new #1 Pro Hero Endeavor was attacked by the High-End Nomu, now named Hood. The Pro Hero recovered within a day of the incident and has been working more than ever to maintain stability in Japan.

In this time the state of affairs across the nation has been stagnant, with no incidents of note interrupting the monotony of everyday life.

But the entire country was holding its breath, feeling an underlying sense of tension, waiting for the next big disaster to appear.

But all the good citizens and Pro Heroes had one desire, knowing this event was an eventuality, they wished for it to happen in Minato Tokyo.

The heart of Tokyo where the most people would be in danger.

But this desire was not a selfish want to put others in danger instead of themselves, no, it was sheer and absolute confidence in Horizon, to immediately snuff out any dangers happening in Minato Tokyo.

According to all statistics, Minato Tokyo no longer has any villain activity, not even petty crime. Even when Horizon is confirmed to be at UA, villains and criminals simply stayed away.

Rumors had quickly spread about him hunting the mercenary Wolfram across Japan, and nobody knew why he did such a thing.

It could have been for a serious incident, or simply because the man took a stroll through Minato Tokyo and Horizon caught his scents, but the outcome was clear.

Horizon stands victorious, and Wolfram is locked away forever. 2

And now, while all the villains are hiding, terrified of Horizon knocking on their door and warping them into a cell. 1

He sits on the couch in the common area of the 1A dorms, dressed casually in his own merch with a few bullets in his hand.

As he inspects and compares them, working on a new case that he got earlier today before returning to UA, Eri is sitting nearby with a few coloring books.

Tomorrow is the last day before UA closes for the winter break, ending the semester with the 1A Christmas party before most of the students go home to their parents.

"I did it!" Eri declares as she gets up and rushes over, showing Horizon the page she colored. 1

Looking at the page Horizon keeps fiddling with the bullet in his fingers.

"All Might huh," he says while inspecting the page, seeing a picture of a healthy All Might nearly perfectly colored in. "You colored out of the lines a bit, but you're getting better." 2

"Yours is next," she says excitedly and turns the page, showing Horizon's logo on it. "I'll do it good, promise." 2

"Alright, I'll be waiting to see it," Horizon says as she goes back to sitting on the carpet and coloring.

Horizon arrived at UA a bit later than usual and decided not to go to afternoon classes today, which surprisingly Eraser didn't mind.

But that might have been because he wanted Horizon to babysit Eri since she doesn't have school right now.

--Elsewhere…

In an undisclosed location, the consequences of Horizon's darker side are still being healed.

Standing in the observation area Pantu looks through the glass coldly, seeing Hawks standing in the middle of an open room, arms raised as he circulates his feathers around him.

She sees his limbs trembling, feathers that would normally be swirling around him, perfectly controlled, were now bumping into each other.

They would bump into each other and fall to the floor, only to then be commanded to rise into the air yet again and continue the training.

After a few more minutes Hawks was drenched in sweat, breathing heavily as he falls to his knees. 1

All the feathers crash into the floor and lay there motionless.

Pantu's fa ade doesn't falter, she simply speaks clearly so the man beside her can hear.

"Take him to another week of mental care, he can't go out into public like this."

"Yes ma'am…"

The man leaves her alone in the room, and she takes this moment to consider her thoughts, and her assets.

'Ryukyu is in much more danger than I realized, but telling her about any of this will make it more like she'll be discovered, what a complicated situation…' 4

--Elsewhere…

Stepping out of a Warp Gate into an open clearing amidst a large forest, Shigaraki takes a deep breath.

He feels the clean air enter his lungs and takes a moment to soak it all in.

"Ahh, I haven't been here in a while, and one day it'll all be mine," Shigaraki says.

As Kurogiri steps out of the Warp Gate beside him, Shigaraki checks his phone.

"Alright, this location will do," he says while checking the map. "Close to some cities, but isolated enough that nobody will notice him."

"Yes," Kurogiri says. "According to our benefactor, Gigantomachia needs time to relearn his limits, and practice the routines programmed into him to counter Horizon."

"Tch, Horizon," Shigaraki scratches his neck. "And he's sure this version of Machia' can deal with that freak?"

"Titans are among the few beings in myth that can kill gods," Kurogiri says. "He was built with Quirks selected by All For One and your mysterious benefactor, using all the data they collected during the battle with Horizon." 3

"His new attack is concerning, that Gamma thing Hawks told us about, it counters Super Regeneration." 1

"Yes, but Machia is too large for him to effectively use it," Kurogiri says as they begin walking around the clearing. "Add to that the variation of many Quirks he was given to deal with being warped about, or at least being somewhat able to stay on the battlefield if he's warped away." 1

"Horizon has too many cheats, we can never be too careful. If we let our guard down he'll cut Machia' up and just scatter him about…but if the doctor thinks he's rebuilt Machia' with enough counters and power to deal with him, I've got no real choice but to trust him." 2

"Yes, but Hawks gave us important data, not only about Horizon's power, but about his mind."

"I remember," Shigaraki says. "Horizon cares more about being seen as a Pro Hero than about actually being a Pro Hero. The amount of cities around this area is perfect, especially since most Pro Heroes are all the way on the other side of Japan, the only one nearby is Ryukyu, but she's weak, so its a perfect place for Machia' to execute him." 3

"A brilliant plan."

"So was the USJ plan, so was the Summer Camp plan, and we know how those ended," Shigaraki says. "We need to get more countermeasures in place, just in case Horizon has some tricks we didn't account for." 1

"More forces, more distractions to keep the others away from him, and something to destroy Hero Network communication systems."

"Yes, make him use the public systems, the media won't be able to resist listening in and broadcasting it live, he will be forced to take our bait immediately."

"Anything else sir?"

Shigaraki thinks about it for a moment, then nods, "Yeah. I think Hawks has done enough to at least get a meeting with me. He gave us weapons and a top Pro Hero, and constantly feeds us information on Horizon and his location…tell Dabi to organize a meeting, I want to talk to him."

"Hawks is unavailable at the moment," Kurogiri says, which surprises Shigaraki.

"What?"

"He didn't respond so we sent someone to extract data from some Hero Public Safety Commission agent's minds, it seems he had a…altercation of sorts, with Horizon."

"Really? And why am I only hearing about this?"

"Because we only learned of it earlier today, Hawks has been in mental and physical rehabilitation for the past month."

"Well, that explains why he's so eager to give us data on Horizon, he's probably more scared of him than we are," Shigaraki says. "We'll keep that information quiet, can't have Hawks losing face, that would limit how useful he can be for us." 1

While he was now someone much more worthy of being an organization leader, Shigaraki was still by far the youngest and least experienced leader of each major faction fighting in Japan.

Nezu is a master of logistics and organizing people.

Endeavor is arguably the best Pro Hero in the world at commanding a battlefield of people he's never met or worked with before. A boon for any constantly shifting battlefield.

But Pantu, she's a master manipulator on every level, even from a position of weakness, everyone around her is simply playing in her hands.

This is why Shigaraki is so blissfully unaware of exactly how many layers of this plan were crafted by Pantu, just for this specific response. 14

--3 PM, 1A Dorms…

"What do you need?" Horizon speaks in his visor as the call connects.

"I need you to come to the training ground," Eraser says.

"You said I didn't have to do this part of the exam, also, I have Eri, so I--"

"I need a tiebreaker," Aizawa says. "And maybe you'll get lucky and get to fight Midoriya, just get here so we can finish this quickly."

Horizon hangs up and sighs, "Alright Eri, looks like you get to see me in action today…" 7

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 247: CHAPTER 243(Final Exam) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"You've all got 15 minutes to plan before he gets here," Aizawa says. "Build a team and form a strategy in that time, this is a luxury you wouldn't get on a real battlefield."

With that, he walks off in the direction of the dorms.

Most of 1A and 1B were standing around in an open industrial area.

A training ground in UA was built to represent a large factory with metal buildings and pipes clustered together.

Some of the students had winter versions of their Hero Costumes, to combat the chill in the air.

Pinky had a small fur-lined jacket atop her usual colorful outfit. Bakugo was also much more covered up with a black long-sleeved top that had a high collar, allowing him to stay warm and produce more sweat.

Genesis had the most obvious change, now wearing a cape that was large enough to close at the front and conceal her entire body.

"Alright, let's put our heads together and figure out how to achieve this objective!" Genesis declares, getting a mix of cheers and groans from everyone.

Battle Fist Kendo immediately approaches her, representing Class 1B as their representative.

"So what's the plan, you should know a lot about him right, how do we win?"

"Um, well," Genesis scratches her cheek awkwardly, "I actually have never sparred with him. He mostly just helped me with ideas, not much direct training."

"Lucky you," Simon Shinso grumbles out.

Most of the students eventually scatter about into their own little groups, deciding to skip the planning process since they didn't have anything to contribute.

Trying to get some rest to be ready if the thinkers of this group decide they need to be on the team.

Moments later, only a few students were sitting in a small circle.

Aside from Simon Shinso, the other members of Team Horizon had no choice but to join the strategy meeting. According to him he's 'not good at things like this, and my Quirk doesn't work so I can't really help…'

Mudman Juzo, is 1B's best strategist, which is what got him a spot on Team Horizon. And Cellophane has been training with Horizon longer than anyone, so he knows him the best.

With them is Genesis Momo, Battle Fist Kendo, Deku Midoriya, Shoto, Bakugo, Froppy Asui, and Phantom Thief Monoma.

Phantom Thief's Hero Costume was a full tuxedo with stopwatches on his belt. 4

"Alright, so what's his weakness?" Kendo asks.

"..."

They all look at Mudman and Cellophane, but neither of them answers.

"Uh, he doesn't really have one," Cellophane shrugs. "Horizon is basically invincible, unless you really surprise him. But the only person who could do that was All For One, and he had like a hundred Quirks Horizon couldn't predict."

"Normally yes, but this isn't a fair match for either side," Genesis says, getting a thoughtful look on her face. "Mr. Aizawa said Horizon won't be allowed to use Scalpel or Shambles, because this is supposed to be a test for him as well." 3

"So he's fighting with one arm and a leg tied behind his back, but he's still Horizon," Battle Fist says. "He can still zap anyone who touches him." 1

"Or hit you hard enough to break bones," Deku adds. "But all we have to do is get the sash from him, just like at the UA Sports Festival, so if we can just grab it then we'll win." 1

"Yeah but if we get it too early that's also a problem," Froppy adds. "Remember he can always take it back before time runs out, then we can still lose. It would be more fair for the sash to be somewhere that we have to find, but I guess we have enough advantages as it is so him starting with it makes sense."

"Ok, so lets think about what abilities he has," Bakugo says, without yelling surprisingly. He was taking this more seriously than anyone else. "If he can't warp then I can just blow him up, but he has that barrier…"

"Antibacterial Curtain," Shoto says. 1

"Too strong to break," Deku says, noticing Bakugo glaring at him. "Uh, not that your explosions aren't strong, but if Horizon is growing as fast as he wants us to think, then its probably like in an impenetrable shield by now."

"Pretty much yeah," Cellophane takes off his visor. "The version your broke and the UA Sports Festival was a prototype, the current one is a lot more refined and efficient, it was even too strong for Wolfram to break, and he threw everything but the port island itself at Horizon."

"But he can't use it while moving," Mudman says. "If you get him on the defensive you'd have to keep hammering the barrier until the time ran out, and this is all assuming you can get the sash in the first place."

"Why not just grab it?" Froppy asks, causing everyone to look at her. "What? Horizon mentioned it a while ago after the USJ, but he said that the Nomu from back then was too fast for his body to react to, so he used Shambles to out-speed it. If he can't use Shambles then I bet Deku can move faster than his body can react to." 2

"Uhhh…" Deku's tries his best to come up with any excuse to avoid fighting Horizon.

"That won't work," Bakugo says. "Horizon has his freaky Scan ability, doesn't that give him a 3D model of everything around him 24/7, he can use that to avoid Deku just like he did to me during our fights. And he'll just predict his moves and beat him up, or just discharge a bunch of electricity and fry him for getting close." 3

"We also have to account for his psychology," Sero says, causing everyone to look at him. "Horizon won't just stall until the 15 minutes is over, he'll hunt down everyone and take you down before that. Because anything less than absolute victory won't be good enough for him."

"Too strong," Genesis says. "Counter Shock, Booster Shot, Scan, Antibacterial Curtain, his physical power and combat skills. Any one of them is a problem, but all together victory is all but impossible." 3

"No one Quirk can match Hand Of God," Deku says. He clenches his fist and feels the bitter taste of acceptance. "I used to think if I got strong enough, with enough power and speed it wouldn't matter, but he keeps making new abilities. Every time I hit a new level he basically manifests a new Quirk."

Mudman snaps his fingers, startling the group, "That's it!"

"What's it?" Sero asks.

"That's our advantage!" Juzo says excitedly. "Without Scalpel Horizon can't use Amputate or Incision, and he definitely can't use Injection Shot, so that's his big and indefensible attacks out of the way. 1

His physical power is probably weaker than Deku's, and his speed is definitely slower, we have that advantage. But the problem is that even if he doesn't have Shambles or his ranged attacks, he can still use Takt to throw thing."

"And he probably knows our Quirks better than us," Froppy says.

"He definitely does," Mudman says. "But just because you know about the Quirk, doesn't mean you can expect it. Plus we'll have numbers, because it'll be him against 4 of us. 1 Quirk, against at least 6…" 1

They all look a bit confused for a moment, then realization dawns on them as they turn to Monoma.

His Quirk, Copy, allows him to copy multiple Quirks for a limited amount of time. But to do this he has to make direct physical contact with his target, and not all Quirks are usable.

For example, trying to process all the information needed to activate Hand Of God will overload his brain. Copying Eri's rewind worked, but the Quirk was useless as he can't hold it long enough to stockpile Chronons to use it. 1

The same goes for One For All and Fatgum's Quirk. 1

"Alright, so what Quirks should I use, and how do I surprise him with them?" Monoma asks. "It's not like he doesn't know what I can do, he'll expect me to have multiple Quirks."

"Yes, but Horizon doesn't have as much information as us," Mudman explains. "He doesn't even know the current capabilities of his own classmates because of how little time he spends at UA or in Hero Classes. So to him, we 1B students who aren't on Team Horizon will fight like brand new people, that's how much we've grown these past months."

"Hey!" Bakugo yells. "Even if we have to depend on you 1B losers, don't think you're getting me out of the fight, if anyone gets to blow him up, it's gonna be me!"

"Well then let's figure out the specifics," Juzo says. "But if this is gonna work, Momo, I need to create some things for us…"

As he begins breaking down his scheme, everyone but Sero is left very impressed.

They knew he was good at commanding a battlefield and making strategies, but under the guidance of Horizon, Gang Orca, and Crust, his skills were quickly taken to new heights.

This is the kind of talent it takes to be a member of Team Horizon after all…

After they've finished planning and preparing, Horizon makes it over to the training grounds.

Walking beside Aizawa.

He wore casual clothes, still his merch. 2

Nezu was on Aizawa's shoulder, wrapped in his Capture Scarf, and Eri was on Horizon's, wearing a large sweater with his symbol on it.

Seeing him everyone gets ready for the battle to start, and Kirishima can't help but say.

"Dud you should put on your Hero Costume, this is gonna be intense!"

"Its being repaired right now, and refit, but I'll be fine. After all, it only you people…" 10

END CHAPTER-- 3

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Chapter 248: CHAPTER 244(1 vs 4) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So, what are the chances?" Mina asks as she watches the fight with most of the other students.

They were now joined by Midnight, Vlad King, Ectoplasm, Snipe, and Eri.

Nezu, Aizawa, and All Might were at the control console, monitoring the camera feeds that are displayed on the big screen.

Standing beside Mina is Mudman Juzo, who everyone looks to as the resident expert on fighting Horizon.

"Well honestly," Mudman says. "They're gonna get beat up, real bad, doubt they have any chance of winning. The best team would have had me there to lock him down more effectively, but--"

"You rather lose than get beat up by Horizon when he's serious?" Cellophane asks, chuckling lowly.

"Hey you've seen him fight," Mudman says. "Me being in a full body cast isn't worth a 2% raise in the chance of success."

"That's true," Simon says. "And part of making a strategy is avoiding impossible fights." 1

Above them on a massive screen is Horizon, standing in the industrial training zone, hands at his side. Still dressed casually, waiting for his opponents.

He had a blue sash from his right shoulder to his left hip, the prize for either side to get.

ROOM!

Horizon expands his range to encompass the entire training area, sensing most of his opponents immediately.

'Bakugo, Tokoyami, Ibara…one person is missing. They're supposed to send 4,' he turns his head in the direction of the observation area and expands his Room even more. 'Monoma isn't in the observation area, he's the 4th.'

He sensed Bakugo rush ahead, splitting from Tokoyami and Ibara as he soars above the buildings, looking for Horizon.

'Still lacking teamwork, that'll bite him in the ass…' But once again Horizon searches, and doesn't find Monoma. 'Maybe I just need to--'

"--DIE!" Bakugo's scream interrupts him.

Horizon turns his head to see Bakugo already preparing a Howitzer Grand Impact.

ANTIBACTERIAL CURTAIN: Barrier!

He raises a hand and from his palm blue energy crystalizes into a dome around him.

The explosion shakes the entire training grounds and blocks the view from the cameras.

Smoke and dust take almost a minute to properly settle, and when it does, Bakugo is hovering in the air via his explosion.

Above a large crater with Horizon in the center, unmoved, the ground around him and his body protected by the unbothered shield.

"You've gotten stronger, but I told you before, I grow faster than any of you."

Hearing that, Bakugo charges forward, propelled by explosions, and Horizon drops the barrier.

"You know how this ends, why rush in alone?" Horizon asks as they begin trading blows.

He narrowly parries one of Bakugo's strikes, diverting his palm and the ensuing explosion to the side.

But Bakugo changes his strategy, instead of trying to land large and direct explosions, he uses smaller explosions between them, before Horizon can parry.

Instead of trying to hit Horizon with a rocket that he would parry, he sets off grenades between them, damaging both of them in exchange for landing hits.

"You can't warp this time!" Bakugo screams as he begins speeding up, but even as the explosion appears to be making contact, he doesn't see any damage on Horizon.

"Don't need it."

BOOSTER SHOT!

Horizon's speed instantly multiplies, now appearing like a blur for short bursts, leaving a small train of blue energy vapor in his wake.

Bakugo leaps back, using explosions to take to the air before putting his hands together.

"AP Machine Gun!" he releases a rapid-fire stream of dense explosions at Horizon.

Seeing the explosions covering a wide area Horizon raises his hands once again and manifests his dome shield.

But as they begin beating against this shield Bakugo does something new.

"He's in position, now!" Bakugo screams.

Everyone is surprised that this entire time he's been seemingly following a plan, perfectly at that. 1

Suddenly a small forest of green thorny vines burst out of the ground. Concrete and dust fill the air as they all rush straight toward Horizon.

Even within his dome barrier, the vines attack him, immediately wrapping him up and holding his limbs apart.

The barrier immediately falls and Bakugo lands.

"Tch, without warping you aren't that big a deal."

Horizon doesn't speak, still feeling the vines tightening and pulling his limbs apart, keeping him bound.

Bakugo seizes the moment and rushes forward, intent on landing at least one solid hit and ending the fight.

The main objective was the grab the sash, but nobody wanted to go that close to Horizon, and Ibara's vines aren't that precise from such a long-range without line of sight.

So he had to score some kind of hit while he had the chance.

As he was ten meters away Bakugo jumped forward, crossing his hands and simultaneously pulling the pin on both his grenadier gauntlets.

"DI--"

TAKT!

Two pieces of concrete rip themselves out of the ground and rocket upward, surprising Bakugo as they slam into the underside of his gauntlets.

Both the explosions are sent into the air and the unexpected change leaves him unprepared for the recoil.

The force slams him into the ground hard enough to crack the concrete, and Horizon doesn't even move during this entire time.

"I'm a lot more than just a guy who can warp," Horizon says. "I command the world, don't ever forget that…"

GAMMA!

The air around Horizon flickers green for just a moment, and all the vines holding him directly stiffen, eventually freezing and snapping as they become brittle.

After ripping all the heat and radiation from the vines to make them cold and brittle, he harmlessly dissipates it within his body.

"Ice?" Shoto asks, he was watching and hearing everything from the observation area.

"That's new," Juzo says.

Bakugo sees this as he forces himself to get up, both his arms aching, begging him to stop.

Horizon points a finger at him, "This is new and unrefined, so thanks for letting me test it. Counter Shock: Direct Current."

An arc of blue lightning jumps from Horizon's finger directly to Bakugo, tasing him and knocking him out. 3

"Not sure about the name," Horizon shakes his hand and the lightning dissipates.

"Another new move," Simon says. "I remember he said he couldn't control lightning after it leaves his body, guess he figured it out." 2

While it looks like Horizon is simply shooting a lightning bolt, and that's exactly what he wants the enemies to think.

Earlier when they fought he didn't try to hit Bakugo, he simply ran a small current through the boy each time he parried a strike.

Continuously changing the charge of his body to a negative state. 1

And when he released a large amount of positively charged lightning, Bakugo became a lighting rod.

Taking a deep breath he looks around at the destruction they caused, and all the vines that were quickly being retracted.

He could sense them underground during the entire fight, but didn't deem them a big enough concern to act against. He also wanted to see exactly what plan his fellow students could conceive of.

Sensing where the vines were going, and Ibara's distressed state, Horizon takes of running directly toward her.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Everyone is surprised at how fast he can run, at 6ft4 196cm and 270lbs 122kg, he was running at over 120kmph. 13

It's not that they aren't surprised someone so large could move quickly, after all, both Star and Stripe and All Might are as large as him or larger in the case of All Might, and they're both much faster.

But for Horizon, he's always warped about, so this was entirely new.

And their concern only grew when he ran straight through a reinforced concrete wall without slowing down, as if the buildings were made of cardboard. 2

Aizawa glanced over to Eri, seeing her cheering with stars in her eyes, and he couldn't help but sigh. 7

Soon Horizon got to where Ibara had set up, only for Tokoyami to pounce on him, or more accurately, Dark Shadow attacked him. 6

Ibara was at the back of the clearing trying to repair the ends of her hair with Tokoyami in front of her, Dark Shadow extending from his midsection to fight Horizon.

The shadow creature was larger than usual, showing Tokoyami's growth, but Horizon was unfazed.

Tokoyami already had a bead of sweat running down his face, clearly nervous about this encounter.

"You know I could end this instantly, right…" A few arcs of blue lightning run across Horizon's body. Tokoyami takes a nervous step back.

"Yes, you could, but will you always rely on cheap tricks?"

"Oooh, reverse psychology," Horizon plays along. "But you should know, when the result is that you lose either way, take the less painful option next time, cuz now I'm gonna break you…" 11

Tokoyami and Dark Shadow instinctively take a step back, truly terrified of standing against Horizon. 1

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 249: CHAPTER 245(1 vs 4 Pt.II) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

Tokoyami takes a step back, glancing over his shoulder to see Ibara behind him. She was still trying to recover from having the ends of her hair frozen, the vines needed time and were among the few things they have that could potentially restrain Horizon, even for a moment.

Tokoyami throws both hands forward, directing Dark Shadow to grow and grow until it was the size of a school bus.

"Dark Shadow: Abyss of Hearts, descending judgment!"

"Stupid name," was all Horizon said as the massive shadow creature descended like a bullet, intending to flatten him into the ground.

He raised his hands to catch the creature as it molded itself into a large beak, catching the tip of its face between his palms.

BOOSTER SHOT!

His entire body instantly begins releasing blue energy vapor as the concrete beneath him cracks.

"Hmm, a stalemate," Tokoyami says.

"Not really," Horizon had obvious signs of straining in his voice, surprising everyone. For the first time he sounded as if he was actually trying. "You have Dark Shadow, but the world is my weapon…"

"Wh-- AHHH!" A piece of the concrete floor rips itself out of the ground and rockets into Tokoyami's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him tumbling back.

"Fumi!" Dark Shadow yells, glancing back at Tokoyami.

Taking this opportunity Horizon shifts his stance and pushes Dark Shadow to the side, causing it to slam into the concrete and knock up a small dust cloud.

By the time Tokoyami stops tumbling over himself he looks up to see Horizon rushing out of the cloud much faster than he ever expected, the ground cracking beneath his feet with each step.

"Dark Shadow!"

The tether connecting Tokoyami and Dark Shadow immediately begins shifting and molding itself, as if a dozen tendrils formed from it to grab out at Horizon who ran beside it.

Sensing this change, Horizon stops his rush down and pivots in place, landing three precise and targeted punches onto Dark Shadow's body.

He then leaps away before the creature can grab him while it retracts to Tokoyami.

"Those kinds of attacks aren't very effective against my Quirk, you should know this," Tokoyami says.

"Wasn't aiming at your Quirk, those punches hit their mark," Horizon says.

At those words Tokoyami's and Ibara's eyes widen, their plan had been found out.

"It was a good plan, but all it took was me looking a bit closer," Horizon says as he rushes forward again.

As he's quickly closing the distance Tokoyami closes his eyes and focuses on Dark Shadow, shrinking him back down to his regular size to float beside him.

As Horizon got closer he launched forward in a strong right, intending to knock Tokoyami out in one blow.

In a few moments, Dark Shadow surrounded Tokyami and coated him like a suit, only focused on his upper body.

Tokoyami wore his Quirk like a living Hero Costume, with their eyes resting beside each others to both could see.

He matched Horizon's strike with this new level of power.

"Black Abyss!" Both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow yell, their voices now in perfect unison each time they speak.

Feeling themselves about to lose against Horizon's power, Dark Shadow expands behind Tokyami and anchors them, giving them a bit more leverage.

They couldn't out muscle Horizon, but because of their superior footing, he was pushed back a few meters.

"No way," Kendo mutters in the observation area. "Since when did those two get that strong?"

"Tokoyami's been studying with us sometimes," Sero says, now enjoying some potato chips. "Sometimes he asks Horizon about how to improve his Quirk, this is one of the answers he got."

"How come he helps him but not us?" Kirishima asks.

"Because he thinks you're annoying," Mudman says. "Plus he prefers people with…less straightforward Quirks. He already has a lot of firepower, Team Horizon is supposed to be adaptable to any situation, not just act as a sword or shield, but a scalpel."

They all shift their attention back to the screens as Horizon is observing Tokoyami's growth.

"Black Abyss, not a bad name from you," Horizon says.

"Thank you, I hope this is close to what you envisioned," Tokoyami's and Dark Shadow's voices were perfectly in sync. "When we stop acting as Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, but as one being, when I accept that Dark Shadow is simply me, then I'd understand my Quirk and its full potential. That's when Tokoyami and Dark Shadow can become the Hero, Tsukuyomi." 2

"Yeah, that's what I said, and this is pretty much what I pictured, at least to start. Now show me what you've got, Tsukuyomi."

Horizon raises his hands, and both Tsukuyomi's mouths twist into elated smiles.

As they meet each other and the brawl begins, Tsukuyomi's high of his growth being recognized by Horizon quickly fades away.

Replaced with the fact that, well, he's fighting Horizon.

He was outclassed in all aspects the moment they clashed again.

Horizon had seemingly instantly adapted to Tsukuyomi's new fighting style, his increased speed, strength, defenses, and perception.

Even whenever Tsukuyomi would try changing the shape of his shadow appendages to lash out from unexpected angles, Horizon would either use his barrier to easily block it or his sensory ability to avoid it without looking at it.

'He makes it look so easy,' Tsukuyomi thinks as he's quickly losing ground and energy, feeling his power diminishing by the second. 'I'm fighting for my life and he's just playing with me, he could end this fight at any time with Counter Shock but he said he wouldn't use it. And he's about to win without it.'

Back in the observation area most of the students and teachers were looking at the screen with genuine shock, all while Eri was happily cheering for Horizon. 1

Nezu had a look of pride on his face as he observed the match.

"So he's even freaky good at close combat huh," Vlad King says. "Where did you find this kid again Nezu?"

"Fate brought us all together," Nezu says. "But honestly Horizon using Scalpel is much better for his opponents than him without it. He has a bad habit of overdoing it when it comes to, well, holding back against people. With Scalpel he's much quicker and more efficient, not to mention painless." 3

"Clearly," Aizawa narrows his eyes at the screen, seeing Tokoyami now stumbling about as he gets battered and beaten up by Horizon. "But this is supposed to be a challenge for everyone involved, giving him all his tools would make it too easy. This way he has to break up his usual combat pattern and try out things he's probably not used in a while."

Meanwhile, back in the combat area, Tsukuyomi was stumbling back, the shadow energy retracting from his arms and face.

Both his arms were bleeding profusely onto the floor and his Hero Costume was torn up, but Horizon seemed completely fine.

They had 10m 32ft between them, and Ibara was still behind him.

He feels a signal, and Tsukuyomi sighs in relief.

'He's finally ready, good, I'm about to black out here. Even if Horizon knows where he is, he hasn't shown any concern about our plan, he likely wants to see what our plan is. He doesn't think it'll work, and that arrogance of his will give us the one chance we need,' Tsukuyomi thinks.

"Ibara," he says.

"I'm ready."

"Now!" Tsukuyomi yells out.

"Repent heathen!" Ibara's vines shoot forward faster than ever before. 1

Horizon sees and senses it, and with practiced ease, he moves out of the way.

"Inspired Growth!" Ibara yells out, and from her vines, new parallel vines begin rapidly sprouting.

The sudden expansion surprised Horizon for just a moment before it quickly wraps around his limbs.

The vines hoist him into the air, nearly 10m 32ft above the floor. And by the time they've secured themselves, he's already begun using Gamma to draw all the heat and radiation out of them to freeze them brittle.

At the same moment, Tsukuyomi surged with all the energy he could muster and used his Quirk to leap up toward Horizon.

Seeing Tsukuyomi incoming Horizon doesn't say a word, but uses Takt to rip a block of concrete out of the ground and send it right at his classmate.

It lines up perfectly to intercept them, but one of Tsukuyomi's four eyes spots the incoming projectile, and at the last moment, to Horizon's surprise.

Adjusts in mid-air.

'He can fly!' Horizon thought, and everyone watching the fight thought the same thing. 1

TAKT!

Horizon rips more chunks out of the ground but via flight and form shifting Tsukuyomi either avoided them or materialized limbs to get them away from him.

Eventually flying all the way over to Horizon.

When he was only 2m 6ft away from Horizon, Tsukuyomi reached out for the sash, only for Horizon's right hand to swing out, aiming to deliver a fist to his face.

Using Antibacterial Curtain now could cause real damage to Tokoyami, not to mention the fact that he was curious about this grand scheme they thought could actually work on him.

So the ruthless mercenary went away just for a bit, and the playful and cocky 16-year-old inside came forward.

Something they were hoping for, and did well to capitalize on.

As Tsukuyomi grabbed the sash, his grip tight on it, Horizon fist rattled his brain.

Dark Shadow shrank, barely able to sustain itself anymore, but Tokoyami's grip didn't slacken.

And as that happened, Neito Monoma sprung up on Tokoyami's shoulder.

He popped out of Dark Shadow, his usual fair skin now void black, bits of blonde stains on his formal black Hero Costume.

And both his hands together directly in Horizon's face, sparks crackling just an inch away from the visor. 3

All the explosive sweat he needed to make this attack truly count, even against a monster like Horizon.

BOOM!

The cameras were blinded by the bright light as the entire training area was rocked.

All the way over at the observation area everyone covered their ears, and the Hero Course students' plan, the first phase, was now complete… 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 250: CHAPTER 246(1 vs 4 Pt. III) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

BOOM!

In the observation area all the students and teachers cover their ears as a shockwave pushes wind and light past the borders of the training zone.

They feel a small blast of heat wash over them as they take cover, Deku and Kirishima immediately stand in front of Eri to protect her as the sensation rolls over them.

Seconds later everyone shakes the ringing out of their ears and watches the screens, waiting for the dust to settle.

"That's insane!" Midnight yells. "Was he trying to kill Horizon?"

"Horizon isn't who I'm worried about," Deku says, drawing all their attention onto his words, even as they keep staring at the screens.

"After an explosion like that?" Uraraka asks.

"Monoma's plan was to stay inside Dark Shadow and use Kacchan's explosion to get one good shot in, but he isn't Kacchan."

"So the explosion wasn't big enough?" Jiro asks.

"The explosion was fine, but he can only do it once, that was the plan, right?" Deku asks Juzo.

Juzo nods, "Monoma doesn't have the years of using Explosion like Bakugo, so his resistance to the recoil isn't anywhere near Bakugo's level. But this isn't the final step of the plan…"

Everyone looks surprised at that.

"You planned even further ahead?" Aizawa asks, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, and everything has gone according to plan right now, Horizon is even scarier than I expected, but that's what I'm counting on," Juzo admits. "But I can't say much because Horizon could be reading our lips right now, even if I doubt he'd do that just to win this fight."

"No wonder he has such faith in Team Horizon," Midnight says. "You're all quite talented…"

Sero laughs and drapes an arm around Juzo, "That's our Mudman, Horizon brought him in as a secondary strategist after all, he's basically vice-captain!"

"Hold crap!" All Might yells as the dust finally clears and they see what remains. 3

Monoma takes a few deep, desperate breaths as he's still down on his knees.

Deep in a crater surrounded by rubble and dust, the Hero Costume on both his arms was completely blown apart, along with most of the skin on both arms.

Exposed muscle and flesh were visible to the camera, but the damage wasn't anywhere near what they expected.

With every breath, Monoma feels pain wracking his body as he forces himself to stand up.

Behind him, dozens of meters away Tokoyami was completely knocked out, clutching the sash even as he sleeps.

Beside him, Ibara is trying to recover her hair again after shielding them from that explosion, everyone waiting for the real results of that blast.

"Three timers," Horizon's voice reaches them as he walks out of the dust.

Monoma just frowns, not even surprised that Horizon was still conscious.

But what did surprise everyone is the fact that he was entirely spotless.

"How?" Monoma asks. "You didn't put the shield up, I made sure you were too close…"

BOOSTER SHOT!

"Yeah, well, I've been working on something different," Horizon releases blue energy vapor that begins wafting off him. But it becomes more dense and clings to him, moving more like a liquid than a solid. "Not efficient since it's pure energy, but it works in an emergency."

"Tch, you Mystery Class people really aren't normal."

"Says the man using Copy to wield three Quirks," Horizon says.

Monoma looks a bit surprised, "how can you tell?"

Horizon stops releasing the energy vapor and relaxes, while Monoma takes a fighting stance. He lifts his skinless arms up into fists, ready to give it his all once more.

"Well, you used Kuroiro's Quirk to fade into darkness, and gave yourself the void black look," he gestures to Monoma's skin which absorbed all light. "Bakugo's Explosion to try and surprise me with a big hit, that didn't work. And Kirishima's Hardening, to help you with the recoil, that's why your arms didn't get blown off entirely, right?"

Monoma glares at Horizon.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, plus the Hero Costume gave it away," he points at Monoma's belt which had stopwatches on it. "Only three of those are active, I could sense them moving and knew how many Quirks to expect. It's a good plan, and I'm glad I didn't bother to stop it, but I'm just too much for you to handle…"

Monoma grits his teeth and looks around at all the damage and destruction his attack caused.

Looking down at the state of his arms, then over his shoulder at Tokoyami who was passed out, and Ibara who had to recover for at least a few more seconds before they could try the next phase of the plan.

Taking a deep breath he clenches his jaw and straightens his arms, activating Kirishima's Hardening Quirk to lock them in place.

He could still feel the wind raking against the exposed muscle and nerves, but for now the bleeding would stop, and that was enough.

Before he could consider an approach, Horizon rushes forward.

BOOSTER SHOT!

The concrete beneath him cracks as he rockets toward Monoma, swinging faster and hitting harder than before.

After all of this, they'd yet to do any damage to him, unable to overcome his senses, defense, or cope with his relentless assaults.

'He can't be human…' Monoma thinks as he rushes forward.

He swings his stiff arms like clubs at Horizon, matching his fists and feeling the Hardening cracking already.

After the first volley of blows Horizon visibly changed his stance, now used to the strength of Monoma's defense.

CRACK!

"Ahhh!" Monoma jumps back as the next hit shatters the Hardening and breaks his right forearm.

Just like Bakugo's Explosion Quick, Kirishima's Hardening needs time and training to develop. He was nowhere near Kirishima's current level of Hardening, and it was showing.

With his right arm hanging limply he continues to back up, keeping it away from Horizon while fighting with one hardened arm.

'Why is he still fighting, do they have something else planned?' Horizon wonders as he's quickly beating down Monoma.

"I'm ready!" Ibara yells out, and Monoma immediately perks up.

He leaps back a few meters, "Now! Ibara!" Monoma commands.

Feeling something is off Horizon doesn't bother to indulge them any further.

"Your vines are annoying," he points at Ibara, then flicks his finger upward. "Takt: Celestial Body!"

Ibara barely reacts in time as all the rubble, pieces of buildings, and concrete ground are hurled toward her. 1

As if she suddenly became a point of gravity pulling them toward her.

The girl wraps herself in the thickest sphere of vines possible as they batter her, but instead of shattering and falling apart, they keep pushing against the sphere. 1

Eventually, the ground below her is torn from the earth and rises high into the air with her, holding her dozens of meters above the battlefield as the rubble is attracted to her.

A small moon-like object nearly 30m 100ft wide quickly forms and hovers above the training area, casting a shadow over everyone who sees it. 6

It all happened so quickly that Monoma lost his momentum and stared up in wonder and fear.

"This is the part where you surrender," Horizon says, drawing all their attention back to him.

All aside from Eri who was still staring at the little moon with stars in her eyes.

"You control gravity?" Monoma asks.

"No, it just looks like that," Horizon shrugs.

"Tch, well sorry but I'm sticking to our plan, and surrendering isn't part of it."

Horizon looks at Monoma and shakes his head, "I know all your tricks, and your arms can't do any more explosions unless you want to lose them, just give up…"

Monoma immediately rushes forward.

"Exactly!" he yells while closing in on Horizon. "You're so sure of yourself that you'd never consider," he swings his left arm forward, "that you don't know everything!"

Monoma's entire left side explodes into a massive raging fire.

Searing heat washes over the battlefield and Horizon is genuinely surprised as Monoma blast a wide cone of fire at him, point-blank.

As the heat continues to escalate, Monoma's flesh begins burning up more and more.

The heat burns away the still somewhat wet dye in his hair to reveal a head of half-white and half-red hair.

Horizon's figure disappears in the roaring inferno and everyone waits for Monoma's attack to end.

Juzo's plan was much more layered than anything they would have come up with otherwise.

He had Momo make hair dye so Horizon couldn't tell that Monoma had Shoto's Quirk.

Then he had Monoma only set 3 timers, further misinforming Horizon and playing on his absolute confidence in his Scan ability to collect information.

Send Bakugo out alone so he could go wild, and Horizon wouldn't expect them to use two of the same Quirk on the battlefield, that worked well enough that Monoma managed to build up enough sweat and get a point-blank hit on him.

They didn't expect him to be able to seemingly freeze Ibara's vines, or imprison her that easy, but Tsukuyomi was able to stall and entertain Horizon just enough for Monoma to be ready.

And finally, when Horizon thought all their cards were used, they'd hit him with the strongest fire blast Monoma could muster.

A genius plan that most people cannot survive, much less overcome.

Enough strategy and firepower to take down some of the current Top 10 Pro Heroes if they were in Horizon's situation.

But unfortunately, their opponent isn't a mere top Pro Hero.

It's the third most powerful combatant in the world. 7

Standing behind only Star and Stripe, and more recently Shigaraki's new secret weapon, Gigantomachia. Of course the public only knew of the former. 7

So they weren't even surprised to see Horizon's outline walking through the flames, casually strolling toward Monoma.

Monoma flinches, then redoubles his efforts. His flesh begins turning black as it burns away, but he ignores the pain and keeps pushing further.

He's only now using the Quirk, so he can't balance the elements or even simultaneously use them, this was his absolute best.

Yet Horizon simply walked through it until he was standing in front of Monoma, and with a massive wave of fire crashing into him he reaches out.

Hand covered in the blue energy liquid of Booster Shot, and grabs Monoma's neck, lifting him off the ground. 1

The flames immediately cut off as Monoma is being strangled with one large hand.

"Annoying," Horizon's calm voice says. His entire body was cloaked in the same energy which now quickly faded away. "Standing beside Endeavor when he gets serious in a fight, is like sharing a battlefield with the sun, compared to that, Shoto is nothing, and you're not even close to Shoto…but it was a good plan."

Seconds later Monoma loses consciousness and Horizon simply drops him on the floor.

Looking around Horizon sees Tokoyami's unconscious body still gripping the sash, even now he refuses to give up.

"And then there was one," he looks at the small moon hovering in the air with Ibara at the core, then points at it. "Takt: Skyfa--" 5

"STOP!" Vlad King's voice echoes through the speakers as the buzzer goes off. "Horizon wins, now can you please get Ibara out of there and heal Monoma, you don't need to hurt my students anymore!"

Horizon lowers his hand and sighs, "That move was gonna be so fun, but fine, I'll fix them…"

They then got everyone healed, cleaned up, and back to the dorms.

The entire time Eri never lost that look of admiration for Horizon she'd gained during the fight.

Finally realizing that the man who Aizawa would often hand her off to was on a completely different level.

Realizing that when she's with him, nobody could ever hurt her… 6

END CHAPTER--

500K words in and semester 2 is finally closing, bye bye canon from this point onward… 15

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Chapter 251: CHAPTER 247(Christmas Party) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--December 17th, 2315…

"Are you sure you'll be fine without me? I just know how much you can't live without me…"

Sitting behind his desk, in his room, Horizon is typing away to complete some reports and update ongoing cases while speaking to Ryuko.

Her face was on one of the screens, showing a video of her on a train to the far side of Japan.

"Can't live without you, really? What makes you think you're my favorite 'Ryuko'?"

Her playful expression changes to a soft glare, "that's not funny."

"And that's your opinion. When are you getting back anyway?"

"Early January, you'll have to find some other way to occupy your bed for a month."

"I'm sure I'll think of something," Horizon says. "My plans are pretty much the same, just do the usual Pro Hero nonsense, make some appearances at orphanages, hand out gift, that kind of stuff."

"Oh, since when do you have a heart?"

"Hey! I'm nice to kids."

"I know, and it's cute. Isn't your class Christmas party today?"

"Yeah I can sense everyone getting ready downstairs, they're treating it as if it actually matters. It's just another day," he says.

"Well to some people it's important, like Eri, aren't you guys doing something special for her? I think you mentioned that before, right?"

"The Secret Santa thing, basically everyone pulled a name from a bag and has to get that person a gift, plus a gift for Eri."

"Oh, and who'd you get?"

"Asui."

"Frog girl, so what'd you get her?"

"Salt…" 4

Ryuko gives him an annoyed look, "that had better be a joke."

"It is, I got her a sword, a green one." 1

Ryuko looks confused, "why would you get her a sword?" 1

"What else was I supposed to get her?"

"Anything a teenage girl would like, did you ever consider that?"

"Yeah, and a sword is just better." 1

"Should I ask what you got Eri?"

"A gun." 1

"Babe!"

"I'm kidding," he laughs at her distress. "I wouldn't get her a gun yet, she's too young. And Aizawa wouldn't like it."

"And it's illegal! Did you forget that?"

"I'm Horizon, I can do whatever I want. If I got her a gun nobody would be willing to do anything to me about it." 1

Ryuko sighs, "so aside from thinking about handing guns to 7-year-olds, what did you actually get her."

"A knife, obviously." 2

Ryuko just shakes her head in disbelief, "Please tell me this is a joke…"

"She's too young for a taser, so I figured this would be better."

"How are you so smart and so terrible at this all at once."

"Hey it's a good idea, her Quirk isn't exactly good at self-defense and she's had a rough past, so getting her a knife is a good start." 1

Ryuko sighs, "I really hate how much sense that makes, but please don't give a child a knife."

"I'll teach her how to use it."

Ryuko holds her head feeling a headache starting, "You're…unbearable."

"Nah, you love me for it," Horizon looks at his door for a moment and stops typing. "I have to go, call me whenever you get away from your team."

"Yeah, the last thing I want is Mandalay realizing I didn't keep that promise, see ya…"

The moment they hang up there is a knock on Horizon's door, and with a thought he commands it to swing open.

And in walks Momo, wearing a green Santa Claus outfit with a matching fluffy hat. However, her hat had a little book at the top of it.

But Horizon was more concerned with the blue and white Santa Claus outfit folded in her arms. 4

"No," is all he says while she walks over to him.

"Everyone else is wearing theirs."

"They aren't me, I have an image to maintain," he says as she casually seats herself in his lap.

"You can still pretend to be a jerk while wearing this outfit. Plus I made this one different, it's the only blue and white one. All the others are like mine or the classic red and white."

"Hmm, tempting, but still never gonna happen," he wraps his arms around her as she leans back against him.

"How about just this" Momo takes out the hat from his outfit. Blue with a fuzzy white lining, and at the very top was a tiny scalpel. "You should at least wear just the hat, get in the Christmas spirit."

"Mmm…"

--30 Minutes Later…

Now sitting in the common area with the other members of 1A, Eri, and Aizawa, Horizon is wearing the hat just as Momo suggested while they start the Secret Santa reveals. 1

Deciding to go in seating order, Mina was up first.

Which is why she's currently dancing in place, celebrating while holding up the new boots Momo bought her. 2

After she got her gift, Eri's present from Momo was revealed, to be a thick stack of children's encyclopedias… 1

Apparently, Momo thought this was normal as she always asked for them while growing up, and even now reading encyclopedias is her main hobby.

"Well, who got Asui's name?" Momo asks, feeling embarrassed about her gift to Eri.

"That would be me," Horizon says, and everyone got a bit nervous. They really didn't have any idea of what he'd gift people.

In fact, they were expecting him to simply refuse to participate…but later that day Nezu convinced him to play along.

"Merry Christmas froggy," Horizon waves his hand and a piece of confetti floats into the air, and is suddenly swapper with a katana.

A light green scabbard and matching hilt with black accents. 2

Everyone's eyes open wide, not expecting that.

'I wish he got my name…' Tokoyami and many others think.

"A sword?" Asui reaches out and holds it, realizing it was short, the perfect size for her, and nowhere near as heavy as Scalpel.

"A normal one," Horizon says.

She draws the blade, seeing it really was standard, then looks a bit closer at it, "This isn't blunted…"

"Why would I get you a useless blade?"

"I thought it was a decoration."

"No this is for cutting people, although I don't think it fits the child-friendly Froppy style."

"I think I'll just hang it on the wall, but thank you, this is a nice gift," Asui says. "But what did you get Eri?"

"This," Horizon raises a hand and warps a white and yellow pocket knife into his palm.

Eri's eyes go wide as she recognizes what it is, and wanting to be like Horizon she excitedly reaches out.

Only for Aizawa to reach out and grab it first, "no knives, she's only 7."

"She's already 7, and when I was her age I could already use a sword, she'll have to learn sometime," Horizon shrugs.

"I'm trying to give her a normal childhood, not whatever you had," Aizawa says as he puts it in his pocket. 4

"Tch, normal doesn't keep the monsters away…" 13

--2 Hours Later…

While most of the students, and Eri, were asleep, some were up late watching the snow fall. 1

And others like Kirishima were outside playing in the snow, or as he calls it, 'testing himself against the elements'...he just wanted to play in the snow.

Now Horizon, Shinso, and Momo were sitting in the common area. 1

"So I'll have the tower all to myself until after Christmas?" Horizon asks.

"Yup," Sero says. "I haven't seen dad in a while so we've got a lot of stuff to do and talk about this winter break. Honestly, he wanted me to stay at home until the new year starts, but I don't think I can sit still for that long."

"Hmm, looks like I've been teaching you well," Horizon says. "Most of these people aren't gonna be doing any Hero Work during the winter break, it's a good time to get ahead of the competition."

"Well, you won't be doing my actual Hero Work either right?" Sero asks. "Minato Tokyo is pretty much a safe zone these days."

"Yeah but I've got things to do all across Japan, I need to take the time I have and get it all done, before the next semester starts and I'm stuck in UA again."

"What about you Yaomomo?" Sero asks.

Momo snaps out of her daze at the sound of her nickname, "I'm sorry what was that?"

"Winter break plans?"

"Oh, I'll just be here at UA, training."

"Seriously? Figured you'd be more happy than anyone to run back home, considering you live in that awesome mansion and all."

"Oh, about that," Momo's brain begins scrambling to think of a lie, not wanting her falling out with her mother to become public. "My parents are already abroad on a business trip so they wouldn't be there. So I just figured I could use the extra time to train and catch up to everyone else." 2

"That's pretty smart," Sero says. "But you really don't have to talk like that, you're almost at the top of the class. Honestly, the only person ahead of you is Horizon, and he's a cyborg."

Horizon sighs, "Can you please stop spreading that rumor? Honestly, the number of villains that have tried to hit me with saltwater because of it…so annoying." 14

Sero just begins laughing hysterically.

"And Momo, if you want you can visit Horizon Tower, since we're the only students basically spending the Christmas season alone, having some company could be nice."

Momo blushes, knowing how picky Horizon is about who he invites into his headquarters, "right, I'll be sure to visit!" 2

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 252: CHAPTER 248(Midnight On New Years Eve) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"So did you come here with a date, or are you available tonight?" An older man asks.

He had a head of salt and pepper hair with a matching mustache, a well-tailored suit, like every man in this massive ballroom, and was surely respected in whatever field he worked in.

But even as he hovers above the beautiful woman in front of him, he was anything but appealing or refined, the way he clearly drank in her appearance with his eyes.

Viewing her as a piece of meat.

Worse, an easy to get piece of meat.

But Ms. Midnight was used to these looks, even as tonight she's Nemuri Kayama.

She gives him a polite smile and takes a sip of her champagne, and he takes a moment to keep staring at her.

Her dark purple gown, deep neckline barely showing any cleavage, long gloves, a matching and fur-lined scarf.

Her outfit was much more conservative than what she usually wears out as Ms. Midnight, but all the men and women here knew exactly what hid beneath it.

Her Hero Costume made sure the world knows exactly what her body offers.

"Sorry but I'm only here on business, maybe some other time," she says politely before sauntering off, her habit of swaying her hips making his eyes track her across the room.

'So shameless,' she thinks, recalling the wedding ring on his finger, and his wife who was chatting across the room.

Contrary to what the media and people may believe, she actually hasn't had more than a handful of partners.

Her reputation keeps any men worth involving herself with at bay, quite the double-edged sword she's placed at her own throat.

Without her Hero Costume she wasn't easy to recognize, especially behind her regular glasses, but her would-be admirers would always spot her. 1

As yet another person takes the stage to give a speech she grabs a fresh drink and makes her way to the empty balcony.

Pushing open to door and feeling a cold winter breeze cash against her face, light snow falls onto Tokyo as she shuts the door behind her.

But the thankfully heated balcony wasn't unbearable, and happened to be entirely empty.

Looking up she sees the entire top half of the large skyscraper this ballroom is in looming above, and looking around there are some shorter buildings around them.

But the other skyscrapers block the true beauty of the Tokyo Skyline at this time of year.

All the Christmas decorations and lights were hidden away by monuments of glass and concrete.

Taking out a phone she sees a text from her manager, asking how the night is going, but she doesn't bother to respond.

Simply sipping her champagne and waiting for the night to be over.

After a few minutes, she hears a chorus of people trying to speak over each other.

Quickly turning around she sees a younger man step onto the balcony and close the door behind him before the crowd could enter.

A larger man steps between the crowd and the door, preventing them from following him outside, and he sighs in relief.

He turns around and gives an unapologetic smile, "Sorry about that, they're just…annoying."

"That's one way to put it," she nods and goes back to looking at the street below.

Glancing back she sees the man taking a phone call and realizes that's why he had to get away from the crowd.

Minutes later, as she's nearly finishing her drink she suddenly feels a gentle tap on her shoulder, and looks back to see him offering his jacket.

"Avoiding annoying people probably isn't worth freezing out here, at least not for the entire event."

As he's standing closer she gets a proper look at him, short dark hair, bright blue eyes, knuckle tattoos, and his suit was black and gold of all things. 11

Quite a strange person.

"Thank you," she says while allowing him to drape the jacket over her. "I didn't realize there were actual gentlemen at this event."

"There aren't," they both chuckle as he's joining her at the railing. "I hope you don't mind me interrupting your escape."

"You're the best company I've had all night, it's a welcomed change."

"Are the other guests that bad?"

"Well, I'm Ms. Midnight, so they think I'm just that easy."

Looking at the man she sees him staring at her, squinting as he observes her, "huh, never would have recognized you," he lies. "And I didn't think there would be any Pro Heroes here."

"Well, apparently whoever is running this event invested in the company that owns my fashion line and brand, so they thought it would be good if I said hello in person."

"You don't sound excited to meet him."

"Excited to meet some rich man who will expect me to act like a wh--" she cuts herself off. "To act unladylike, just because he has money…why would I ever be that."

"Well that's a relief," he says. "Finally a beautiful woman here that isn't trying to seduce me for money," he laughs.

"Seduce you?" Midnight turns to look at him, only getting a mischievous grin. Then it slowly dawns on her, "Oh, you're Law Matani…" 1

"The one and only, and what should I call you?"

"So you aren't mad about--"

"--There isn't anything to be mad about, and honestly it's a nice change from people always trying to flatter me."

She visibly relaxes at that, "well, I'm Nemuri Kayama, Pro Hero Ms. Midnight, so you can call me Ms. Midnight."

"Mmm, no," he shakes his head. "I don't really care for Ms. Midnight, so I'll call you 'Nemuri', and you can call me 'Law', sounds fair?"

Nemuri isn't quite sure how to react to that, so she just nods, "Yes, I suppose that sounds fair."

They share a comfortable moment of silence just observing the streets below.

Then she speaks, "So were people hounding you for money, is that why you ran away?"

"Pretty much, that's always the case, how about you, Nemuri?"

Nemui takes a sip of her drink, almost finishing it. "My reputation as Ms. Midnight isn't exactly, flattering. So men only come around for one thing, and they expect it to be easy."

"Well, I can somewhat relate," he raises his hand to show her the tattoos. "People always think I'm some kind of Yakuza or Mafia boss. The reputations we chose define how the world sees us, and it seems like we've both chosen a bit…prematurely." 1

"I'll drink to that," Nemuri down the rest of her drink. "And now every day I can't stop thinking about it, what a life, right?"

"Indeed," Law says. "I assumed it started as a publicity stunt maybe, something to separate you from other young aspiring female Pro Heroes, was it?"

"Not exactly," Nemuri gathers her thoughts for a moment. "Pro Heroes, we aren't just about punching villains in the face…"

Law raises a brow at that.

"At least for me, part of it is inspiring the other people, and younger generations. So naturally I chose to most extreme aspect I could, just to show people that no matter what you are, you shouldn't let society shame you and keep you caged. 5

You owe it to yourself to be yourself…but the message got a bit lost along the way. Now I'm just 'Ms. Midnight the dominatrix Pro Hero', which was never the intention." 2

"People find it hard to hear and focus on a message when a body like yours is almost naked in front of them," he says jokingly. "But I see what you mean, you tried to make yourself a martyr, it just got the wrong message across."

Nemuri relaxes, and gives him a softer smile, finally getting that invisible weight off her chest, finally feeling like someone understands. 10

After a few more minutes of surprisingly deep conversation, Law checks his watch, then they both look over at the gathered crows waiting for him to enter the main room again.

"Your money-hungry public awaits," Nemuri jokes.

"Yes, but, it's New Year's Eve, so how about we actually get a nice view."

Nemuri raises a brow at that, "what are you saying?"

He offers her his hand, "How about a simple deal, you save me from the masses as any Pro Hero would, and we'll go up to my penthouse where you can actually enjoy the skyline, and the fireworks that are about to start…"

Nemuri looks around at all the buildings still looming over them, then at the man she's become fast friends with.

And with no further hesitation, she takes his hand. Onto an adventure of breaking in the new year with her new friend… 7

END CHAPTER--

Next up, Volume 8-Horizon: Ascension 15

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Chapter 253: CHAPTER 249(Weight of Leadership) 1

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Friday, January 5th, 2316, 10 AM…

"I have some more people here!" Kamui Woods yells out as he reaches out, slowly extending his wooden limbs like twisting roots to invade the rubble.

Overnight an entire city on the northeast coast of Japan was hit by a typhoon. The winds raged to such an extent that the nearby beach was overtaken by the sea.

Waves reaching dozens of meters high flooded the city after obliterating the sea wall, ripping homes apart and tearing down massive buildings.

Now they stand in the rubble and carnage, looking for trapped people and recovering corpses.

Kilometers of destruction and death that most had no chance of surviving, much less stopping.

As Kamui Woods parts the rubble he sees an older man, holding what appears to be his granddaughter.

Narrowing his eyes he focuses, slowing the progress of his branches to avoid destabilizing the house they were trapped under.

With each movement, he sees the fear in their eyes, up to their knees in filthy brackish water that tried to drown them hours ago. 1

"It's ok, the Pro Heroes are here, a lot of us," Kamui Woods says as he slowly wraps the branches around them. "We'll get you to safety, and Wash will get you cleaned up and give you something to eat, sounds good right?"

The older man nods but the girl just keeps shivering, lips already blue and skin rather pale.

"I'll get you and your grandpa out of here," Kamui Woods says as he slowly removes them from beneath the rubble.

But as he gets them out safely he doesn't let it collapse, terrified of the idea that someone else could be under there.

He holds them up with his branches and begins walking through the devastation, ankle-deep in thick mud and water.

Both the man and little girl look around in horror at the surroundings.

The city they've lived in their whole lives, is entirely gone. Pieces of houses and broken buildings were scattered about.

Teams of Pro Heroes and rescue workers as far and wide as their eyes could see, constantly working to rescue anyone they could.

Even skyscrapers were reduced to loose rubble by the freak typhoon last night.

Seeing the look in their eyes Kamui Woods ignores the scent of salt, blood, concrete, and mud. Ignores his aching feet and waterlogged boots, and tries to distract them.

"Once I get you and your granddaughter to safety you'll get to dry off and eat something," he gestures to the edge of the city where an army of white tents was.

"She's not my granddaughter," the man says. "I just saw her floating away and grabbed her…" 3

"Oh…" Kamui Woods feels his heart break, yet again, for what felt like the millionth time today. "Well, please stay close to her until we find her family."

"I will," the man says.

While walking through the disaster site Kamui Woods picks up some more survivors by extending his branches, allowing the other search and rescue teams to continue working instead of having to walk back.

"Kamui!" a deep and rough voice calls out from behind him.

He turns around to see Ectoplasm and Hound Dog approaching him.

"Didn't expect to see you two here, UA's security team, but we need all the help we can get."

"School doesn't start till Monday, and our Quirks are good for this," Ectoplasm says while Hound Dog is already sniffing the air and listening for survivors. 1

"Did you bring anyone else?" Kamui Woods asks.

"He should be here soon," Ectoplasm says, understanding the importance of not mentioning Horizon by name.

"That's a relief."

"But until then, you're in charge of the search and rescue, so where do you want us?" Ectoplasm asks.

"Since you can work as a duo and go wherever Hound Dog's nose carries you, search wherever you want, focus on survivors of course, and take them to Wash when you get them."

"Got it," Ectoplasm immediately begins releasing white goo from his mouth, which becomes a small mob of clones.

As the clones spread out the help wherever they can, Hound Dog leads the main body to the nearest survivors.

Kamui Woods sighs and continues up to the hill beside the city where all the tents and survivors are gathered.

After passing the survivors off to Wash he's immediately approached by Ragdoll, who was holding a clipboard.

"Kamui," she gets his attention, nodding for him to follow her a few dozen meters away from where people are being treated.

Standing on a hill overlooking the destroyed city she stops with him to take in the destruction once more.

"We have a serious problem," Ragdoll says. While speaking her eyes were locked onto the city, tracking all the present Pro Heroes, including her friends Tiger and Mandalay.

"Another one?"

"One of the roads to this city collapsed, there was a landslide."

"What about the boats bringing help?"

"They won't be here until this afternoon, that typhoon tore up the entire coast, and the seas are still rough."

Kamui takes an annoyed breath, "So supplies will be delayed even more, damn it."

"They got close, if we could send some Pros out there maybe we could get some of the lighter supplies, these people really need it."

"The team we sent to clear up the rivers should be back soon, that's our most conventional muscle," Kamui Woods says, then sees Ectoplasm's clones moving about, and remember something. "Actually, tell the people bringing supplies to stay where they are, I'll send someone to get them."

Ragdoll looks confused for a moment, then realization dawns on her. "I see, alright, I'll tell them. Aside from that the first five zones are clear of survivors."

"Good, that just leaves 20 more…"

After discussing where the new supplies and tents should be placed, Ragdoll leaves Kamui Woods alone on the hill.

And he takes this precious moment to steady his own thoughts, looking out at all the people who expected him to take charge and have all these answers.

'So this is what being a Top Pro Hero is really like huh…' he questions if he would have tried to get so hard to be here, if he knew from the start how heavy this pressure would feel.

"Hey boss man, how ya doing?"

Kamui Woods doesn't react as Mt. Lady saunters up beside him and leans against his shoulder.

"I've been better," he says. "Did your team manage to clear all the rivers, bridges and roads?"

He looks down at her, seeing she's almost entirely covered in mud.

"Yeah, and we even found some…unfortunate people in the mud."

"Oh, I see," both Pro Heroes tune out the world for a moment and simply enjoy each others company.

And even as the familiar sounds of rescue and news helicopters flying above reaches them, they don't part.

Too tired to care if people learn about their not-so-secret relationship.

"What do you need me to do?" Mt. Lady asks a few moments later. 1

Kamui Woods takes out his phone and begins sending a text, "go check in with Ragdoll and clear a spot for the new trucks and busses to setup the supplies we have incoming."

"Alright," Mt. Lady stretches a bit. "Heroes never rest huh, time to get back to work." 3

After she walks off a few Pro Heroes and first responders rush over to Kamui Woods, and more than anything he wishes there was a higher ranking Pro Hero here.

But until then, he's the one everyone expects to take control of this situation.

Even now there were already pictures and articles reported by the present news crews scattered about the scene in circulation. All pushing him forward as a great Pro Hero and leader, but he had bigger things to worry about than popularity right now.

As the minutes go by, adding more and more hours to the clock.

The pile of corpses grows, thankfully dwarfed by the number of survivors. 1

But he could see the toll it took on their morale.

Pro Heroes and civilians alike were walking around with tired and saddened looks on their faces, trying their best to put on fake smiles to keep everyone's spirits up.

'So this is what its really like not having All Might, to not have that ridiculous smile around all the time…' most of the people realize.

Before noon however, while helping Mt. Lady and a few others clear a spot to receive more aid and personnel, a sudden wave to cheers and excitement resounded across the medical area.

The Pro Heroes looked up at the hill, trying to spot the commotion, only the see dozens of objects descending from the sky.

As if descending from the heavens, a fleet of trucks and busses slowly lowers onto the disaster site.

Many of the Pro Heroes are on guard until Kamui Woods raises a hand, and they relax as they see Horizon standing atop one of the busses.

Setting them all down in the clearing, much to the relief of the drivers and medical professionals on board, he hops off the roof and is caught by his Hoverboard which he stands on.

A wave of relief washes over the camp as they take in Horizon's appearance, now feeling as if this disaster was already handled.

The news crews immediately aim their cameras and microphones at the duo as they begin talking.

"Sorry I'm late," Horizon says.

"I'm just glad you're here, and a bit surprised you could get permission to leave Tokyo so easily," Kamui Woods says. "Now, can you please take over already, everyone is tired and our morale was getting low before you got here."

"Nothing could stop me from coming here to help, so you don't need to worry anymore, I am here," Horizon waves at the survivors being treated under tents as he floats outward, over the destroyed city. "Good call with me passing by to bring the convoy of supplies, now get everyone ready to provide first aid, I'll warp everyone to safety…" 3

"We're already ready!" Kamui Woods yells out as Horizon flies forward.

"Good," Horizon says as he raises both hands, palms facing downward.

ROOM!

He opens a new Room, 28km wide, enough to envelop this small city.

SCAN!

His mind is instantly flooded with information, every person and object down to the size of a single finger is imprinted perfectly into his mind. Information constantly being updated in real time as it all moves.

He expects mental feedback, expects a headache, expects a nosebleed.

But nothing happens. 6

'Hmm, I'm closer than I thought…' he thinks as locations of survivors and corpses appear in his mind. 2

SHAMBLES!

Suddenly he begins warping the survivors, swapping them with pieces of rubble close to the medical area, where people were waiting anxiously to attend to them.

Over the next few minutes, thousands of people would be saved with seemingly absolute ease. 2

A job that would take hundreds of people days to do, and it was handled with effectively the wave of a hand.

Before long Horizon began moving to the medical tents to assist with aid, and Kamui Woods looked around to see smiles everywhere.

Even in the face of such a disastrous and tragic event, his presence was enough to inspire a feeling of safety and hope.

This was what he, Kamui Woods, and no other current Pro Hero could do.

This is something he hasn't seen since All Might. 1

'You make it look so easy kid…'

After only 9 months in the public eye, Horizon is already revered as a Top Pro Hero, placed on a pedestal above most if not all the Fully Licensed Pro Heroes in Japan.

All while he only had access to the most basic understanding on his Quirk, of himself.

All while his Ascension to become fully realized, was 65 days away… 16

END CHAPTER--

This is the first chapter of VOLUME 8-HORIZON: Ascension. 7

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Chapter 254: CHAPTER 250(Arsenal's Legacy) 3

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

When Horizon arrived at the destroyed city, the wave of relief was immediately followed by a sense of urgency.

He instantly took command of everyone, Pro Heroes and civilians alike and organized the site as needed.

With a wave of his hand he cleared out massive sections of land and had people setting up tents.

Constantly using his Scan to relay orders via Mandalay's Telepathy Quirk while she stands beside him, because since arriving he hasn't once left the main medical tent.

Keeping track of everyone and everything within the ruined city and organizing them while simultaneously performing life saving operations one after the next.

Even as the other medical professionals and heroes rush about outside they could see pieces of rubble and debris moving as if possesses.

Carefully and perfectly floating through the air, avoiding collisions with each other and the nearby people as Horizon is constantly making more space for the ocean of smaller medical tents being assembled around his.

Hours after arriving on the scene, Horizon had already performed hundreds of operations, and yet that was not the most miraculous thing he'd done thus far.

This was all within expectations, after all, he is Horizon.

Rearranging the destroyed city, performing surgeries, healing those who need it, and commanding all the people present while tracking them with his Quirk.

According to him, that's all simply what's expected of him.

But everyone present and the people watching around the world via the dozens of news crews here were entirely amazed.

Watching someone contend with the aftermath of a force of nature so easily, it was breathtaking.

Inspiring.

Calming.

Everyone was able to relax, knowing the worst had already passed.

Even if another typhoon appeared now, nobody would be worried, because Horizon is here. 9

Now Horizon is standing in the large tent, curtained off from the other patients as he operates on a man with severe internal bleeding.

Beside the curtain is Mandalay, sitting on a chair with her eyes closed, constantly using her Quirk to relay his commands across the area.

But within the entire tent was a faint blue fog, cool to the touch.

Simply standing within it was soothing, causing everyone to relax as their muscles and joints didn't feel tense anymore.

Suddenly feeling as if their body was actively resting even while moving.

This energy vapor that was pouring out of Horizon and filling the tent is a miracle in itself.

The first and only occurrence of a mass area of effect healing ability.

The strange fog itself is enough to heal minor injuries such as scrapes, cuts, and bruises.

It takes a few minutes to heal such wounds, thus the Pro Heroes and civilians would constantly rotate groups of people into the tent after their wounds are cleaned to be healed.

Simply being in the presence of Horizon was enough to heal them, one step closer to the entity he shall soon become. 2

And now even more people understood.

They took one step closer to believing that Horizon isn't a person, but a blessing, a miracle born of mankind's need for him.

While the tent filled with two dozen people, all of which were having their minor injuries healed at a visible rate, was quiet.

Mandalay broke the silence yet again, "Ectoplasm says the next convoy of busses should be here with the hour, the roads leading through the mountain is almost repaired."

"Any news on the boats?" Horizon asks while still working.

"The seas are still too rough, they have to move even slower the closer they get to us."

"The busses will have to do," Horizon says as he finishes the operation and steps out from behind the curtains. "Mandalay, tell Kamui and Ectoplasm to meet me at the camp entrance."

Seeing him already walking toward the tent entrance Mandalay gets up and begins walking beside him, quickly catching up.

"What's going on, more people are being brought in for healing," she glances back at the tent, seeing the healing vapor already fading away.

The sea of people injured and otherwise part as Horizon walks between them, making his way to the edge of the camp, overlooking the destroyed city.

"I sensed something, it ran away before I could act, but it'll be back soon," Horizon says much more quietly as they leave the crowded areas. "Have all the available Pro Heroes standby on defense, leave any combat to me and Kamui Woods, Ectoplasm needs to spread his clones out to catch anything I miss in the chaos."

Mandalay's expression immediately gets much more serious as she concentrates, relaying his orders via Telepathy.

Horizon raises his hand and grabs the air, only for Scalpel to warp into his grasp.

Seeing this the onlookers immediately realized something was wrong and became curious.

The other Pro Heroes immediately take action, now getting their orders from Mandalay and making sure everyone was quickly ushered into the camp, behind a line of Pro Heroes.

Looking around Horizon sees all the news cameras and helicopters focusing on him, clearly sensing a story about to manifest itself.

"What's going on?" Kamui Woods asks as he rushes up beside them.

"Nomu, and Shigaraki," Horizon points out in the distance. "Looks like the same thing Endeavor fought, guess they have clones of that one…"

"Seriously?" Kamui Woods was disgusted. "They would attack when we're just here helping these people, just when I thought they couldn't get any worse."

"How far away?" Mandalay asks.

"17km," Horizon says. "16, 15…they're rushing right for me."

"What do you want us to do?" Kamui Woods asks.

"You and Mandalay stay with the people, no need to evacuate, I'll just keep the fight contained."

"Are you sure?" Kamui Woods asks. "I saw what Endeavor had to do to beat that thing, this could get messy."

"Especially with Shigaraki here," Mandalay adds.

"Yes, it could, but it won't, because I am here," he looks back at them. "Now go make sure everyone stays calm, these people are in no condition to be rushing anywhere so its better that I just keep this contained. Besides, if I can't stop them, nobody here stands a chance…" 1

"Right," Kamui Woods immediately retreats back to the other Pro Heroes setting up defenses with Mandalay rushing after him, heading back to the main tent.

It only takes a few seconds for everyone to notice a small dot in the distance, quickly growing and growing as it approaches them.

The civilians weren't aware of exactly who was approaching, but they were quickly informed and almost began to panic.

But looking out at Horizon's back as he stared at the approaching villains, a sense of calm and peace washed over them.

Something they haven't truly experienced since All Might.

And it was already here, within reach.

The image of a man raised with unconditional love and devotion to and from his parents, who now fights for their memories. 8

A man who shall build his name as a Pro Hero upon the great lessons of compassion and integrity they taught him. 5

The calming sensation of standing behind a truly unbeatable Superhero.

Seconds later the Nomu arrives, skin torn up and loose around its head and neck, forming a hood which hides its face.

Two glowing yellow eyes shining brightly on the otherwise dark purple skin, exposed muscle glowing slightly red, which is new.

All while it hovers in the air, constantly releasing air from different angles of its body to stay airborne.

And on its back, the would be king of villains, Tomura Shigaraki. Wearing a simple outfit, long black pants and a matching t-shirt, grey boots, and no longer sporting the dismembered hands which were held to his body.

His eyes immediately narrowed onto Horizon, and a standoff began.

Shigaraki glances at the crowd for a moment, his hands begin twitching as he can feel his skin itching. The desire to disintegrate everyone here bubbles to the surface.

But he takes a deep breathe and calms his mind, knowing of all the people in this world, Horizon is among the two he can take the least amount of chances with.

"He, he-ro?!" The Nomu asks, deep and grating his voice echoes across the mostly quiet area. "Hori-zon?"

"That's him," Shigaraki says. "That's the strongest Hero in the country, or maybe even the strongest in the world."

"Second in the world," Horizon says. "Star and Stripe is still a monster…"

Shigaraki takes a mental note of that, "so guess that means you aren't invincible after all, and you're clearly not as sharp as I thought. Letting me get this close was a bad idea."

Shigaraki raises his hands and cracks his fingers.

"Doesn't matter, its only you," Horizon shrugs. 5

"You dam--!" Shigaraki begins getting riled up, but composes himself once more. "I'm not the same person you met at USJ."

"I didn't even meet you at USJ, you weren't even good enough to get to me, remember?" 1

"Hood!" Shigaraki commands, "lets kill him, then everyone else here!"

"Fina--" the Nomu instantly disappears, swapped with a single leaf. 2

Shigaraki suddenly finds himself 30m above the ground, falling, unable to do anything about it.

'Alright, lets call your bluff,' Shigaraki twists his body into a direct nosedive toward the ground below. 'Now you have to save me, otherwise your sheep will watch you let me die, and you care so much about what they think, isn't that right, hero…'

As Shigaraki suspected, the public was truly shocked at this move, and when he was less that 3m from the ground Horizon immediately warped him away.

BOOSTER SHOT!

He felt and everyone heard most of the ribs on the right side of his body shatter as Horizon stops his vertical momentum with a strong right, sending him rolling through the mud and dirt. 1

Shigaraki eventually rolls to a stop, now covered in filth as he forces himself to stand, holding his right side.

He was already struggling to breathe, blood running down his lip as he forces his eyes to stay open.

'It shouldn't take Hood long to get back here, if I can stall him until then, maybe we can split his focus with some of Hood's new ranged energy attacks…that could let me get a hit in.'

Shigaraki immediately rushes forward, all the while Horizon stands still, not even drawing his blade.

'Something isn't right, there has to be some kind of trick. This has to be a trap. Why isn't he doing anything? Is Hood doing something to split his focus this much?'

His thoughts are still racing, doubting this situation as he closes the distance and jumps forward, and to his disbelief, to the horror of everyone watching.

Horizon doesn't react.

Not even as both Shigaraki's hands are wrapped round his neck.

Shigaraki's eyes go wide as a feeling of ecstasy overtakes him.

"Ha! You got too cocky Hero!" Shigaraki screams as the body glove only around Horizon's neck immediately disintegrates and he sees his real skin, he feels Horizon's skin below his fingers.

All the onlookers and people watching at home feel their hearts break as this happens, but after a few seconds, nothing else happens.

The battlefield is entirely silent, and even Shigaraki is confused.

Because the familiar feeling of matter becoming dust beneath his touch, isn't there, he could still feel Horizon's skin.

"Wha--" Shigaraki's confused expression become one of horror as Horizon grips both his forearms.

He spreads his arms, holding the smaller man in the air as if he weighs nothing.

Horizon stretches his neck, allowing Shigaraki to see his unbothered skin, then explains to the now relieved audience what juts happened.

"So, your Quirk really does work by tactile telekinesis, but instead of telling matter to stay together, you tell it to fall apart," Shigaraki's eyes wide, realizing this was all just a game. "That's too bad, nobody can tell Hand of God what to do…" 7

"You were just tes--ARGH!" Shigaraki feels and hears the bones in his forearms get crushed and snapped, fragments immediately break the skin.

The onlookers are slightly horrified, but after all they've been through at the hands of these villains, and all Horizon has done and risked to protect them.

They couldn't bring themselves to care as much as they would have months ago.

Horizon's ideals of being less restrained against violent villains was becoming more popular through the public at every level, something the government was vehemently against. 4

But he is Horizon, so they cannot stop him.

Even when he completely snaps Shigaraki's forearms and rips them off, dropping him into the mud as if he were nothing. 2

"AHHHH!" Shigaraki's screams echo across the battlefield, the media crews gets every moment. As the severed limbs are tossed aside and blood mixes with water, as the so called king of villans wails and cries in the mud in unbelievable pain.

As Horizon stands unbothered, looking down at his victim, as if daring anyone to speak out against this.

Yet nobody bothered to protest, and the very few who wanted to, were terrified of standing against Horizon.

Not because they thought he would hurt them, but because of how everyone else would treat them for standing against him.

Because Horizon is a remarkable gentle person when dealing with anyone who isn't a violent criminal, but his fans…are much less kind. 1

Thus small voices begins to cheer, screaming in joy that he was there to deliver 'justice'. 6

Then more begin to cheer with them, that their hero destroyed the monster poised to strike at them.

And the few horrified faces quickly became torn. They could either show their approval, or be amongst the few who wouldn't stand for such brutality.

But just before they had to decide…

"Annnnrh!" Shigaraki's screams suddenly stop, his pain disappears and he sits up, as if he were completely fine.

Then a wave of confusion hits him as his severed limbs dissolve into a brown sludge.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Shigaraki screams as his main body begins to dissolve the same way. "I can't be a double! I'm real! I'm a real person, I'm not a doub--!" his head becomes brown sludge before the realization can even set it. 3

'Huh, Twice has been practicing a lot,' Horizon thinks, he too was perfectly fooled. 'My basic Scan didn't detect anything because that sludge becomes living cells, I'll have to do deeper Scans more often,' he thinks while collecting a sample to study.

But to the public, the infallible Horizon obviously knew it was a double, and they all breaths sighs of relief, now certain he would never treat a villain in such a cruel way. 4

After collecting his sample, Horizon gets up and places it in his medical pouch at his back, turning for the crowd to see him.

All eyes are immediately draws to the damaged part of his body glove, seeing blue energy completely shrouding his skin as it pours off of him.

Further reinforcing the public belief that he need the body glove to sustain his life and contain himself, but the public recently learned that the energy within isn't destructive, but heals those it touches.

His few detractors who thought he was some type of walking talking bomb were relieved to hear that.

"Alright, lets get back to work!" Horizon announces as he begins walking to the crowd.

As he does this he raises a hand and grabs the air beside him, dropping Scalpel so it hovers beside him.

They immediately see bright green motes of energy gathering, being pulled toward him, ripped from a dozen kilometers in very direction to gather at his hand.

They all gather into a pulsing sphere which he compresses and crushes into his palm, and the sounds of glass constantly cracking is heard. The scent of burnt air fills their nostrils.

Horizon casually strikes out to his side with it.

"Shambles!"

Hood, the Nomu which nearly killed Endeavor in their duel months ago suddenly appears beside Horizon, swapped with some rubble.

And before this powerful and feared Nomu can realize what's happening Horizon attacks its brain.

"Gamma--"

The green energy expands into a sharp stake and penetrates its skull, and a small layer of frost forms on the mud around their feet as all the energy is pushed into its head.

"--Knife!" 1

As the bright light disappears Horizon is already walking away, and behind him the Nomu falls to the ground, its entire skull incinerated beyond any healing. 4

So thoroughly destroyed that not even DNA can be recovered from that part of the body.

A monster the entire nation, and most of the world feared, brought down in one swift act.

"Kamui," Horizon commands as he walks past the crowd. "Secure that Nomu, I have to run some tests on it, and have some people guard it since High End Nomu samples are rare," he casually waves his hand at Kamui Woods behind him.

And with that Horizon returns to his duties as a medic.

As if what he did was nothing special at all, because to him, it wasn't. This is simply his job, its what's expected of him. Nothing worth celebrating.

But to everyone else, this was the moment Horizon showed that when he is around, they truly have nothing to worry about.

This is the moment they realized, all the hard work his parents did to raise him into the great Superhero he is, has now been focused on protecting them. 1

And when the video of this event spreads, the legacy of the people who built such a great hero will only grow… 10

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 255: CHAPTER 251(Arsenal's Legacy Pt.II)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

-- USA, Los Angeles, January 11th…

Angel's Park is a massive area in the middle of Los Angeles, a city that has expanded in the centuries since the advent of Quirks.

Its size is slightly larger than New York's more famous central park, but its origin is drowned in blood and tragedy.

Now, nearing noon, tens of thousands of people swarm to the festival being held in the park, enjoying the food stalls that area already setup and waiting for even more to arrive.

Children are playing games, families are having picnics at the many ponds.

All while stages are setup all across the park and the scheduled performances take place.

In the middle of the park is a labyrinth of massive stone obelisks that could be seen from the surrounding cities. Standing out in the greenery as almost unsightly, but demanding reverence. 4

Many people were walking by, taking moments to gaze in awe at all the names carved into it, and some stopped at the memorial stone for the tens of thousands of people who could not even be identified of found to be etched into the stones. 1

And a few families were placing flowers at the stone memorials, for the people who were lost during that night.

But the faces of all the people looked strangely happy, considering what they were doing.

As if they were finally at peace.

As if they knew their lost loved ones could finally rest. 1

As if they could finally believe in justice again.

--Elsewhere…

While all of this is going on, surrounding the park there are streets of impressive skyscrapers, even by 2315 standards, and on top of one of the tallest is a woman, standing on the helipad.

At 150 stories in the air she looked down, barely able to hear herself think over the howling winds.

She wore a pair of grey sweatpants and a matching hoodie, with the hood currently on.

She stands at only 5ft2 157cm. Her loose, short, brown hair swayed slightly in the wind but was mostly tucked away.

A pair of thick black rimmed glasses helped her dull brown eyes to see even on the clearest day.

And on her feet were a pair of blue boots that looked a few sized too big.

She looks down at the park, and sees all the people like ants swarming about, celebrating justice and vengeance in one festival.

But her heart is still gripped by fear, the kind of fear that many of those people recently overcame and a few could let go of.

But to her, who had more power than anyone else in the world.

Power she flexed and used to threaten entire nations to exact that justice and vengeance on her behalf, fear still grips her heart.

As if deep down she knew, that the monster was still coming after her.

She looks down at her phone, and sees the timer.

'Only 11 seconds, and I feel like my heart is already about to explode,' she wipes her forehead, and the sleeve of her hoodie is covered in sweat.

Even in the cold wind at this height, the fear was affecting her this severely.

'Still scared of a ghost, as if that monster can ever hurt you now, as if she could hurt me from in the grave…' she berates herself. 2

But even thinking about the object of her fear that much had her stumbling back away from the edge, breathing heavily and slowly succumbing to a panic attack.

Luckily absolute focus is needed to activate her Quirk, or else an even worse tragedy would have befallen this city…

--Angel's Park…

Down below as all the people are enjoying the festivities, closer to the memorial stones a few camera crews were setup in front of a small stage and podium.

On it was a older white man in a fine suit, ready to answer their questions.

"Mr. Major," one reporter raises her hand. "As the mayor of Los Angeles do you really thinks its appropriate to throw a festival on such a… tragic anniversary." 4

The man takes a moment to think, as if he didn't have this answer rehearsed before coming here.

"This isn't a festival to celebrate tragedy," he says. "As the announcement and ads explained, this is about celebrating justice. A horrific monster was put down for what she did to us and a uncountable number of other people. That, is cause for celebration.

Because I know that the families of all these wonderful people," he gestures to the carved stone behind him. "Were beginning to wonder how many decades it would take before justice caught up to that monster, and now they can rest easy knowing the worst of humanity has been put down, for good."

The crowd seems pleased with his response and take a few notes, before another set of hands is raised.

"Yes, you," he points to a lady in the back rows who quickly stands up.

"And what do you have to say on the questions regarding the motive behind this attack. Some people still find it hard to believe that all of this," she gestures at the park. "Which used to be busy city streets, would be cleared out for the sake of killing one person alone."

The mayor nods, "yes, I understand that understanding such true and vile evil is impossible for our good intentioned American citizens, but believe me, it exists. And she's among the worst villains." 4

The murmurs stop as the lady sits back down, noting the serious expression on the man's face.

"I, much like some of the people here, was living just a few blocks from this very park when that attack happened. Granted it wasn't a park at the time.

It was just me, my brothers, and my mom. Us against the world, when suddenly there was a loud noise, our ears were ringing, all the windows were blown out.

All the glass from windows shatters and blew into the apartment, hell, if not for my brother jumping on top of me I would be a lot uglier than I am today," a few reporters laugh.

"But as the hours went on, it just got worse. Suddenly we heard noises all around, mom was getting my younger brothers under the bed when I looked through the window and it looked like a meteor was falling from the sky.

But it was just the biggest plane I'd ever see, crashed only a few blocks away into the spot we stand on now. We thought that was it, 'this is the end of the world', couldn't get any worse, right? 3

Well, when the gas mains started exploding, when buildings started falling all around us, things just kept getting worse.

And every minute of the 39 hours we were buried in rubble waiting for someone to rescue us, we couldn't even breathe properly because we were terrified of it getting worse at any minute.

Now my brothers, my mom, and myself, we all lived and only had minor injuries, we got lucky. But the almost 100,000 people who didn't get out, well they didn't get lucky. And their families probably felt like the unlucky ones for being left with a pile of rubble and graves to dig. 2

Now keep in mind one person caused that kind of destruction and death.

One person was that vile and evil, to do all of that, for money. To kill one person, now I personally think that person being put down like the filthy animal she is certainly deserved a celebration, and I wanted it on the anniversary of that day so that they could celebrate with us," he gestures back to the memorial stones. 1

The reporters nod along.

"Now I'm not claiming to be a saint, but I like to think some people have a god given purpose, and I'm still looking for mine. But some people find theirs early in life, for some its their Quirk.

For others its their heart. Some realize their purpose is upholding and representing freedom and liberty while protecting the people of America, and they become Star and Stripe.

Others look into their own hearts and find peace and justice for all, and they become All Might.

Heck some people are lucky enough to be born and raised to heal the impossible as if it were easy, and that's how miracles like Horizon exist…who I did send an invitation to this event by the way." 8

He gets a laugh from the crowd, because they all know Horizon can't leave Japan so easily. 3

"But others, they're just born evil, and unlike most people, they don't try to change. They embrace the evil, and sadly for us good people of the world, some of them are too damn good at it.

Good enough to become arguable the most brutal, excessive, and bloodthirsty villain in the history of Quirks, and that's how Arsenal was born.

Now we're here to celebrate her being put down like the filthy animal she is, after every member of the United Nations hunted her for decades, she was caught in Japan just over a year ago. 5

So how about we make the next few questions quick and join the others in celebrating the good work of our friends in Japan for helping us rest easy at night…"

--Elsewhere…

Back on the roof, the young woman was on the floor gripping her chest, breathing heavily and sweating as if she ran a marathon.

No matter how deeply or quickly she breathed, it was never enough.

It still felt as if the entire world was resting on her chest.

Her eyes were already watering as she tried to focus her thought, trying to use her Quirk to make the fear go away.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

The emergency alert on her phone suddenly snaps her out of her panicked state and draws her attention.

That familiar beeping triggers her Pro Hero instincts and focuses her mind.

"Hello?" she immediately answers in a very high pitched voice, then slaps a hand over her mouth.

"Huh, why do sound like that?" the nab on the other side of the call ask.

"Uh…what did you need?" she deepens her voice slightly and tries to dodge the question.

"Why are you in LA? When you said you were stepping out of you agency for lunch, I thought you meant down the street not to the other side of the country."

"I just felt like going for a fly."

"2500 miles?" the man sighs. "First time since that night you've been back to LA, and this is the day you choose, when what stupid festival is going on, really Cathy?"

She frowns, "I thought I could handle it alright."

"But?"

She rolls her eyes, "but…I still need time. Every time I think about her, I feel as if there is part of her out there that'll still be coming after me. And I saw what she did to my family, I can't just ignore that."

The man is silent for a moment before speaking, "Arsenal isn't sending some kind of ghost to haunt you Cathy, you just need to trust that she's really gone for good. I mean you pretty much threatened to attack Japan yourself to get to her if they didn't do it, no country is dumb enough to risk that." 7

"Yeah, especially since now we know All Might was already sick back then," she says. "But still, doesn't feel right unless I did it with my own bare hands."

"That doesn't sound very heroic of you."

"I don't care," she says.

"She's dead Cathy, she can't come back for you from in the grave, and even if she did, you're the most powerful being in the world, you'd crush her." 7

She smiles at that, "yeah, you're right. Ok, I'm coming back now, I'll be there in an hour or two…"

The man hangs up and she sees the timer on her phone, paused at 20 seconds.

'I couldn't even last 20 seconds without falling apart, how pathetic,' she thinks while holding the phone very gently.

She begins walking to the middle of the helipad and focuses on herself.

' NEW ORDER: I will be just like All Might!' 4

Her mental image of a prime All Might is fed into her Quirk yet again, and she begins growing.

As she grows her casual clothes is torn apart to reveal the Hero Costume beneath.

The red white and blue, striped costume like the American Flag takes full effect as the cape expands out from the back of it. 4

All her hair shifts from brown to blonde and her eyes become shining bright blue. And as he eyes shift her vision becomes better than perfect, allowing her to put her glasses away and put on the thin domino mask similar to Ms. Midnights, but red.

Her boots now fit as she grows to 6ft4 193cm, just an inch shorter than Horizon and Endeavor, but not close to All Might's 7ft2 218cm in his muscular form.

Because even her Mystery Class Quirk has , and pushing her own physical body to the point of matching One For All is certainly a limit of it. 1

But she is roughly 90% there, most impressive considering this effect has no exact time limit. In fact, all the time she's spent out of this form across her life since receiving her Quirk, can be added up to less than ten minutes. 2

This, was her first command of New Order, to make her into the man she saw as invincible.

And among her new few commands was…

' NEW ORDER: I can move freely through the atmosphere!'

Star and Stripe immediately begins hovering off the floor, suddenly gaining flight. 1

Over her career Star and Stripe has used her Quirk to create hundreds of effects, most of which are listed online by the media and fans.

But this is her most common combination, and its almost always more than she needs.

Without any more hesitation she rockets into the air, clearing the city skyline and soaring into the clouds.

And with one last look below at the gathering crowd, her eyes zoom in to see the faces of the happy crowd, then lock onto the horizon toward New York. 3

BOOM!

A small sonic boom is left in her wake as she goes from floating in place to hypersonic instantly, heading back to her Hero Agency in Manhattan.

Still feeling as if Arsenal would still come after her one day, in some unknown form. 1

Luckily, she is still the most powerful being in the world, but that would change in the coming months… 7

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 256: CHAPTER 252(Bird Of Prey)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--January 23rd…

"Look, its Hawks!" A woman screams on the sidewalk while pointing toward the sky. 2

Soaring through the city streets, weaving between the skyscrapers they see the #2 Pro Hero Hawks, moving casually and waving down at them.

Everyone on the street stops and some take out their phones.

"Hey everyone!" Hawks yells back, giving a friendly smile and gentle wave. "You all doing ok?!"

"We love you Hawks!" the same woman screams, excited to see her favorite Pro Hero in person.

"Who is that ahead of him?" a man asks while looking further up the street where Hawks is going toward.

They see someone swinging between buildings by constantly stretching his arms and retracting them, and they look to be in a hurry.

"That's Reacher!" a child says, excited by all of this. 3

"The guy Horizon saved from Stain?" A man asks, slightly confused. "I guess Hawks is working with small time Pro Heroes now huh…"

"He's so cool," the woman keep staring at Hawks as he catches up to Reacher.

If those people could see Reacher up close, or hear how his heart was pounding against his ribs, they'd see a very different situation.

Reacher glances back, seeing Hawks closing in, and speeds up.

He grabs the side of a building and swings right, putting him on a straight route to his target.

Sweat is pouring down his face, drenching his Hero Costume.

"Reacher!" Hawks yells, "c'mon buddy slow down!"

He instinctively pats his pocket to make sure his cargo is there when he hears Hawks closing in.

"Stay away from me!" Reacher yells.

He glances down, considering going to the street level and getting the crowd involved, but the last thing he wants it to put the civilians in danger.

He couldn't even trust other Pro Heroes to help him, he was alone against the entire world.

Because that's what happens when you try to stand against Horizon.

Hawks keeps smiling, but narrows his eyes as some of his feathers disperse, taking alternative paths around the buildings.

Reacher looks ahead, seeing a large police station at the very end of this long street, and suddenly safety was that much closer.

Reacher glances back a moment later, and doesn't see Hawks.

'Oh n--' He feels the wind get knocked out of him. "GAHHH!" 1

His eyes close for a moment as he's suddenly moving faster than he every could on his own, and he barely opens his eyes fast enough to see the city street disappearing below him.

Eventually the entire city becomes distant below them, and he realizes what happened.

Hawks tackled him, knocking the wind out of him and wrapping his arms around Reacher, taking him into the clouds and away from the city.

Now they were miles above the buildings.

"Let go of me!" Reacher rears back and punches Hawks in the back of his head, but the smaller hero doesn't let go of him.

"Just listen!"

"They have to know!" Reacher extends both his arms upward 33ft 10m and brings them back in much faster, transitioning into two palm strikes at Hawk's shoulders. 1

"Argh!" Hawks lets go and drops Reacher, who instantly nosedives through the clouds, ready to grab a building and make his vertical momentum into a horizontal swing.

But he was over a mile above the nearest building, so before he could even get close Hawks wrapped his arms around his torso again.

"Don't make me hurt you, please!" Hawks says while dragging him out of the city again.

"You can't protect him! He's a murderer!" 3

"I know that, and I'm not trying to!" Hawks yells while continuously being punched in the head, but even as blood flows through his hair and down his face, he doesn't let go.

"AHHHH!" Reacher feels two feathers pierce his back, into the joints at his shoulders.

His arms fall limply at his side for a while as Hawks takes them to a small forest outside the city.

"There, now can you please let me explain?!" he asks while dropping Reacher on the ground in a clearing.

"Explain what? That you're covering up a murder?!" Reacher asks as he gets to his feet, flexing his fingers and trying to move his arms.

All of Hawks feathers leave his back and begins hovering around Reacher, like hundreds of swords at his sides.

"I don't want to hurt you Haru," Hawks says.

"These feathers tell a different story," he looks around nervously at Hawks feathers. "I'm just trying to do the right thing, to be a actual Pro Hero, or did you forget what that was like? How dirty are those talons, huh?"

"This isn't like that, its just a matter of timing, I promise. Just let me explain, please."

"There is no timing, I saw a murder and I will act on my instincts and report it, everything that happens after will be justice!" 4

"Its not that simple!" Hawks yells, and his calm expression gives way to anger. "If it was that simple I wouldn't be in this problem, but it's Horizon!"

"That's why we must act now! He's dangerous!"

"I know that!" Hawks screams. "Believe me, I know that more than anyone. If you got past the first few files on that flash drive you stole, you would have seen what he did to me. How he tore me apart piece by piece and kept putting me back together. Why do you think I was missing for a month."

Reacher looks shocked as Hawks begins to tear up, clutching his head as if physically suppressing the memories.

"I couldn't function after the things he did to me, after he made me stay awake the entire time…I don't want him to do that to you, to everyone. So please, just give me the flash drive, and we can go talk to Pantu together."

"Pantu?" Reacher finally puts the pieces together. "So that's why my phone hasn't been working, she blocked me out…so she's in on it too. The police…"

"That report was never going to happen Haku," Hawks says calmly. "I don't like hurting innocent people, but if you got to that police station a lot of people would have had to die after hearing that report. But that's a lot less than what we'll lose if Horizon goes crazy. 2

So please, just give me the drive, I don't want to hurt you, or worse…"

"If you keep covering up his crimes, they'll only get worse, you'll make a real monster!"

"I trust Pantu to deal with him before it gets completely out of hand. Right now he's just being a bit excessive with villains."

"Just 'A bit excessive'?! That's what you call what he did to Wolfram?!" Reacher looks disgusted. "The man was begging for his life and Horizon just kept tearing into him, he looked like bloody burger meat when he was done!" 8

"A freak incident, not a pattern."

"The amount of files on this drive say otherwise, and what about you, don't you want justice for what he did to you?"

"Yes, I do. Believe me, there isn't a day I don't dream about locking him up, or worse. But he's Horizon, its impossible, plus that was part of my job, I knew what I was doing."

Reacher grits his teeth, "yeah well, being a Hero is my job, and if I'm the only one in Japan with any sense of justice then so be it. I'll just upload it and let the world decide!"

"Wait!"

Reacher begins extending his arm forward to grab Hawks, but before his attack can even begin dozen of feathers pierce his back.

He flinches for a moment, and unconsciously blinks.

And by the time he opened his eyes Hawks was in front of him swinging a feather sword at his neck…

"Damn it," Hawks says as Reacher's head falls to the floor, rolling away from his body.

All of his feathers return to his back after shaking off the blood while he searches the body.

Taking a few steps away he examines the drive while calling Pantu.

"Did you get it?" Was the first words out of her mouth.

"Yeah, but he's dead."

"Good, that's better than him being alive and us having to worry about him eventually talking."

"He had a family you know, and now they'll never see him again."

"That's the occupational hazard of being a Pro Hero, he just ran into a villain on patrol and didn't make it back home, send them a card if you care so much."

Hawks sighs, "how the hell did he even get this info anyway?"

"This morning someone hacked into our most secure servers looking for info on Horizon, they left a small back door and that information got out." 1

"So they hacked us for data on Horizon?"

"No, they wanted something in his file but none of the personal data, and honestly aside from this there wasn't anything else there. He really doesn't exist in our files, they only got this because we used it for his counterpart in the simulation."

"Right, so they got what they wanted and left a back door, then that group Reacher just busted up got these files using that same back door?"

"Yes, and I've already sent a team to deal with them, him arresting them made things much easier."

"Gotcha, and what did the actual hackers even want?"

"Our people are still working on that, I should know by the end of the day."

"Good, just tell me as soon as you--" Hawks stops talking as a purple Warp Gate manifests in front of him. "I'll call you back, my bestie needs me."

As he hangs up Dabi walks out of the Warp Gate, "since when are we friends?"

"Awe, and here I thought we were best friends…"

Both men glare at each other for a moment, then Dabi glances down at Reacher's corpse. "Nice work, trying to impress me?"

"He got a bit too nosey, had to cut it off," Hawks shrugs.

"You missed the nose then," Dabi walks forward and observes where they are.

"So did you need something?"

"Yeah, the boss is calling a meeting, now, lets go."

"The boss, Shigaraki will be there?"

"Everyone will be there," Dabi says. "Congratulations, you're more useful than untrustworthy, now lets go. And obviously don't try anything stupid," Dabi begins walking to the Warp Gate, but stops in front of it.

"What?"

"Mind if I take credit for this?" he gestures to the corpse.

"Sure, make the league look good and cover my tracks, that's perfect."

Dabi rolls his eyes, "when you say I'm helping you it almost makes me not want to do it…but I just love watching heroes burn." With a wave of his hand he sets a raging fire in this part of the woods, starting at the corpse.

"A bit much, don't you think?"

"I like the scent of burning trees," Dabi walks though the Warp Gate. 1

Before Hawks steps in the looks back and tosses the flash drive into a blue flame, making sure it melts before he fully enters the warp gate. 4

'Time to meet the boss…'

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 257: CHAPTER 253(All Against One) 2

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

"No pat down?" Hawks asks as he steps out of the Warp Gate, entering a well lit hallway that gave the impression of a mansion.

"Don't need it," Dabi says. "Keep those feathers to yourself and follow me." 1

Walking behind Dabi he looks around curiously, wiping the blood from his face with his sleeve, and he does contemplate sending a few feathers to get a proper look of this building.

But ultimately, he plays along.

"Awe, and here I thought you didn't trust me."

"Tch, we don't need to take your phone, the Radio Wave Nomu controls all broadcasts in this area, including blocking any trackers, microphones, GPS in your phone."

"Sounds useful, can I have one?"

Dabi stops walking and looks back at him, annoyed at the smiling Pro Hero, then continues walking.

Eventually they make it to the end of a hallway and Dabi pushes open the double doors.

"Wooowwwwwww!" Hawks gawks about as he hovers through the room.

A massive formal dining room overlooking the ocean.

He entirely ignores all the villains sitting around having lunch.

Around the massive table was Shigaraki, at the head.

Spinner to his right and Twice to his left. But beside Twice was Toga, in a wheelchair, which Hawks made special note of.

Across from her was Magni, and a seat prepared for Hawks.

On the table was a monitor that remained blank, but right now everyone was glaring at Hawks who hovered above them.

"Take your seat so we can get started," Shigaraki says in a annoyed tone.

"Sure thing boss," Hawks says as he sits beside Magni, who continues to glare at him.

"Kurogiri, lets begin," Shigaraki says. 1

Immediately a Warp Gate appears behind him, and another appears above his right shoulder.

Kurogiri stands behind him as the larger Warp Gate closes but above his right shoulder a small Nomu, reminiscent of a frog drops onto his shoulder.

It has dozens of large eyes all across its body and back, each of which are tracking the people in the room.

"Cute," Toga says.

"Gross!" Magni covers her mouth in disgust.

"This is Shinji," Shigaraki says as he pats the Nomu, who nuzzles up to him. "In light of recent revelations, he'll always be with me from now on." 2

Dabi rolls his eyes, "I hope this isn't just to show off your new creepy pet."

"No, this meeting is about this," Shigaraki snaps his fingers and the monitor turns on, showing a picture of Horizon midway through ripping the arms off his Double.

Toga sees this image for the first time, laying eyes on Horizon for the first time in months.

And immediately begins hyperventilating.

Hawks looks at everyone as they are immediately concerned about her.

"You don't have to worry about him baby he isn't here," Twice says as he pushed her out of the room shutting the door behind them.

"Horizon really left some scars on you guys huh," Hawks teases.

Shigaraki gives him a bored look as he rubs his arms, "well after seeing what he's willing to do to me, you can understand why we've been extra cautious since."

"Not like you're one to talk," Dabi says to Hawks. "You're sweating more than us…"

Hawks passes a hand on his forehead, feeling it drenched in cold sweat, and holding his hand out they could all see him shaking, even before he realized it.

"Yeah well, you got the hypothetical, I got the real thing," he adopts a somber expression. "He did things to me that I'll never get over."

"We heard as much," Shigaraki says. "That's why you're here now, we finally realize that you don't really care about our cause, right?"

"I do."

Shinji ribbits on Shigaraki's shoulder.

"That means you lied," they all get ready to attack him. "Stand down."

"But--"

"I said stand down," he silences Magni. "Hawks was never on our side, but he was always against Horizon. Because let me guess, the government thought they could control him, but he's a bigger monster than any villain, right? And he turned against them…"

"Not exactly," Hawks says. "Pantu has a deal with Horizon, and she's willing to let him literally get away with murder if it means he'll stay in Japan as our #1 Pro Hero. Because his presence is more than worth a few bodies in the ground ever so often, especially since they've all been villains."

"But you disagree?" Dabi asks.

"Horizon isn't that simple. First he didn't want to be a Pro Hero, but now he's enjoying it, but now the public is being swayed to accept his more…honest self." 4

"You mean them cheering when he tore the arms off my Double?" Shigaraki asks. 1

"Yeah, and that kind of stuff has been happening a lot," Hawks says. "You guys have done so much to hurt the public that they want you gone, by any means necessary, and now they're just taking bets on how he'll do it."

"Are there any other Pro Heroes that want to help us out?" Shigaraki asks.

"I know a few," Hawks admits. "But, they wouldn't associate with Villains, especially not your group. And even if I got all of them together, its Horizon, we can't win."

Shigaraki sighs, "I want to become an invincible demon king, but it seems I'll have to get rid of one first, there is always a bigger monster, for now." 4

"Yeah, even Horizon isn't the absolute strongest right," Magni says. "That Star and Stripe chick is a monster, and I remember he said she was stronger than him, but that was a few weeks ago."

"Well, we might have something that can kill him," Shigaraki surprises them all with that. Only he and Kurogiri knew about Machia's new upgrades after all. "If I leave a trail of breadcrumbs can you feed it to Horizon and put him where I want."

Hawks considers it, "it'll have to seem like I spied on you to get it, since Pantu sent me to spy on you and he figured that out. And it'll only be possible once, because if this goes wrong and you miss, he'll probably kill me."

"Kurogiri?" Shigaraki asks.

"It can be arranged, within a matter of weeks," Kurogiri says. "And what bait might entice Horizon?"

"Pantu has us collecting info on two people," Hawks points at Kurogiri. "You, and twice. Everyone else she just knows we can get whenever you pop up."

"Well that's insulting," Dabi says.

"It makes sense," Shigaraki says. "They're the backbone of our operation."

"This places us in great danger," Kurogiri says. "Judging by Horizon's track record he likely won't fall for the same Double trick again, the bait will have to be…live."

"Then you will be our bait, we'll collect some samples and have Twice use his Quirk to replicate yours."

"Aren't you getting a bit cocky there brat," A mechanical voice comes from Shinji.

"It can talk?" Hawks asks.

"Its not the Nomu you moron," the Nomu opens its mouth so they can all hear. "I'm speaking through it, something I didn't think was necessary until this brat decided to put one of my most prized Nomu in danger."

"Kurogiri will be fine, if your weapon actually works."

"You're doubting my work! How dare you! Don't forget that I'm not one of your loser lackeys, I'm a dear friend of your master, the true demon lord. You only get to use OUR Nomu soldiers because for some reason he thinks you're worth more than gum under my shoe! And I can take them back whenever I want."

"Are you saying you're so scared that your newest masterpiece can't handle Horizon you aren't willing to use Kurogiri as bait."

"Mmm, I'll consider it," Shinji's mouth closes as Shigaraki plays on his mysterious benefactor's ego.

"That guy is also on Pantu's list by the way," Hawks says. "I'm suppose to be collecting data on whoever is making the Nomu for you."

"Well you'll need to get in line, or question All For One," Shigaraki says. "Even I don't know who he is, he says I haven't earned that honor yet."

"Seems like we're all working with some annoying people," Hawks relaxes a bit. "So, what info do you want me to feed Pantu about you guys, after we sort that out we can deal with what to do about Horizon."

"Hmm, well you can tell her we'll be expanding out reach and being more aggressive in controlling contraband movement in Japan. I already have all the major criminal groups under me, its time we put them to work and stress out the public."

"You want me telling her all of that?"

"We'll be operating too loudly to hide it, the new year has begun, now get to stress out the public and show them they can't rely on Pro Heroes to solve everything, that they have to fight for themselves. And slowly we'll erode the Quirk Regulations of this nation."

"Alright, I'll tell her I uncovered that, oh," Hawks snaps his finger. "Someone hacked into the Hero Public Safety Commission to get into Horizon's files, was that you guys?" 3

"No, the last thing we want is a trail leading back to us, plus that what you're here for."

"Did they get anything good?" Spinner asks.

"They weren't looking for personal files, Pantu is still looking into it."

"Hmm, getting that person on our side could be useful, keep your ears open for anything about that."

"Got it," Hawks says. "Right now we're keeping that incident away from Horizon, because then he'll go on a warpath to silence loose ends." 3

"I'd imagine so, now, lets discuss the breadcrumb trail we need to setup to trap him…" 4

END CHAPTER--

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Chapter 258: CHAPTER 254(Incremental Improvement)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Wednesday, 25th January 2315, 6 weeks until Ascension… 10

After lunch at UA class 1A are all dressed in their PE uniforms, sitting outside at the training area on some bleachers for close combat training.

Horizon was at the top row of the bleachers sitting beside Jiro, she had one of her Earphone Jacks plugged into his phone as he showed her a new song. 2

As she leans against him and nods along to the music, just as he was doing, they carefully watched Ojiro and Bakugo fight in the field.

Trading blows in the small circle painted on the dirt field, both aspiring heroes give their all in this exercise.

But Ojiro was quickly gaining the upper hand.

"Tail boy got better during the winter break," Horizon says.

"That almost sounded like a compliment," Jiro says. "Careful, or else people might think you have a heart."

"Can't have that, my public image would be in pieces."

Jiro giggles and leans into him a bit more, and he drapes an arm around her, "I bet Bakugo wishes he had more room to use his Quirk in that circle." 1

"Mhm," they see Bakugo continuously try to line up his explosions only for Ojiro to react faster and swat his hands away. "He should just use his explosions away from Ojiro, spin himself with them to gain momentum for powerful kicks. He's so used to swinging his palms he only fights like a boxer in times like this…"

"That's pretty smart, any insight on how I could have done better in my fight?" Jiro asks.

"Yeah, don't fight Kirishima close up."

Jiro sighs and Horizon pats her head, "some matchups just aren't good no matter how you try to go about it."

"Yeah well I've got the bruises to show for it," Jiro says.

While they were talking, on the other side of the bleachers was Momo, chatting with Uraraka and Toru, who as usual was entirely visible.

"She really offered you that, already?" Toru asks Uraraka. "You've only been working with her for like 3 months."

"Yeah, its kind of a strange situation since this really wasn't in my plan."

"But you have to at least consider it," Momo says. "We know your heart is set on being a rescue hero, but a contract with Ryukyu for after you graduate isn't something you can simply turn down."

"Yeah!" Toru cheers. "You've gotta think about her ranking too, she's super high ranked, almost in the top 5. If you work with her even for a year or two then every rescue hero will send you offers and you can just pick any one you want."

"And you'll be able to negotiate for better pay," Momo adds. "That is why you're becoming a Pro Hero after all, if you do this then you can better provide for your family."

Uraraka blushes a little but awkwardly smiles a them, "well yeah, and I guess its better to know how to fight strong villains before I go into being a rescue hero. The last thing I want is to get caught off guard and be defenseless, and since rescue heroes don't fight much I won't have many chances to sharpen my skills when I find a rescue agency to work with."

"Exactly," Momo says. "Better to be a warrior in a garden than the other way around, just be sure to think carefully before you commit to any contracts. Consider how popular and capable you'll be at the time of graduation and judge the offer against that version of Uravity." 7

"Yeah, I'll be sure to think a lot before giving her a answer, but what about you Toru?"

"Huh, me?"

"Yeah, didn't Mt. Lady sent you an offer to work with her, that'll make you a member of team Lurkers…sort of."

"Oh yeah I already accepted," Toru says. "Working with a team that does stealth and infiltration stuff is perfect for my Quirk, plus two of the top 10 Pro Heroes are on that team so everyone will be watching me." 2

"That also means you'll be seeing Sero a lot," Momo says. "He's still working with Edgeshot after all, and his previous Pro Hero mentor Kamui Woods is also on that team."

"Ooo, maybe I'll even get a part in whatever next big operation Horizon is planning!" Toru gets so excited she fades in and out of visibility for a few seconds. "That'll make me super popular for sure!"

As they continue talking, not even a minute later a loud whistle is blown.

All eyes go to Aizawa as he raises a hand, "Bakugo is out of the circle, Ojiro wins," he announces.

Ojiro respectfully bows as Bakugo just gets up and stomps back to his seat, not returning the gesture.

"Alright the next match," Aizawa reaches into a box and takes out a ball with the number 18 on it. "Midoriya, you're up."

Deku jumps out of his seat and rushes over to the circle, confident in his close combat skills.

"And his opponent," Aizawa takes out another ball, and winces when he reads it. "Seat 19, Horizon…" 1

The entire class goes silent as they look back to Horizon, even Jiro stiffens as she's leaning against him.

"Me and Deku, well, its about damn time…" 4

SHAMBLES!

He warps into the small circle, standing opposite Deku. The entire circle was only 5m 15ft wide, and suddenly it felt entirely too small for Deku's liking.

Aizawa looks over at them, seeing Midoriya already getting nervous.

"Horizon, when I blow the whistle you stop, understand?"

"..." 3

"Understand?!"

"Yeah, I got it," Horizon says.

"This is a training exercise, so don't use Counter Shock, I want to actually see Midoriya's progress, not just watch him get fried in the first second."

"Play it out and have some fun, got it," Horizon raises his hands in a boxing stance. "C'mon Deku."

Taking a deep breath Deku enters a low stance, ready to pounce forward at any time.

' ONE FOR ALL: 30%'

Small arcs of current begin bouncing across Deku's body as he focuses on Horizon.

BOOSTER SHOT!

"Begin!"

Deku launches forward and upward, spinning his entire body and kicking toward Horizon's face.

Horizon raises both his arms and takes the hit onto his forearms.

"Hngh!" Horizon's bones quake as the hit was much much harder than expected, but he immediately uses Booster Shot to amplify his physical strength once more and pushes Deku back.

'I've barely seen my classmates train these past few months, that caught me by surprise,' Horizon thinks.

Deku recovers instantly before even approaching the edge of the circle and rushes back in.

'A lot faster too,' Horizon thinks as he notices Deku's features becoming harder to track. 'One serious hit from him and I'll get pushed out of the circle, need to be careful.'

In the same millisecond it took him to realize this, he also analyzed the result of the Scan he did when they made contact.

'Deku's teeth are different now. Quirkless people can't regrow teeth, they're less evolved like pre quirk era humans, but this Deku can regrow teeth and metabolize enamel. One For All must be fully integrated into his body, that's why he can use this much power without breaking himself apart.

He's no longer a Quirkless little shit that got handed a Quirk, now its more like he was simply born with One For All. He's indistinguishably melded with it, just like All Might the first time I scanned him and couldn't tell he was born Quirkless. 1

Looks like he's one step closer to surpassing All Might, maybe if we ever get a real fight it'll actually be fun, well, at least until I get bored. He's still only human after all…' 5

In the millisecond it took for this analysis to happen Deku also realized something, for the first time against Horizon, he had an advantage.

His mind doesn't move as fast as Horizon's, but when they clashed he could feel Horizon buckle and have to summon more power before pushing him away.

And that was all the confidence boost he needed. 1

'One for All: 32%- Shoot Style!' 1

Deku crouches down and leaps forward, intent on spinning to deliver another kick without ever making contact.

Horizon knows what he's about to do and rushes forward, getting into Deku's personal space before he could finish the kicking motion and grabbing his leg.

Realizing his kick wasn't possible anymore Deku takes advantage of Horizon's grip keeping him in the air, leaving Horizon to hold his ankle he twists his body and kicks at Horizon with his other foot.

BOOSTER SHOT!

Horizon grips his ankle so hard it felt as if he would snap it, then pulled downward, slamming Deku's back into the dirt. 1

"Ngh!" Deku spins on the floor, trying to kick Horizon's leg and sweep him off his feet.

But his foot makes contact with nothing as Horizon leapt up.

He barely rolls out of the way before Horizon lands on the dirt, right where his chest was.

Deku does a flip and gets back onto his feet, raising his hands once more to continue the fight.

'I need to keep things simply and contest him with just pure strength, and I can't take my eyes off him even for a second,' Deku thinks as he rushes in once more. 1

This time he performs a non-stop barrage of punches, all at 30% power.

Horizon and the spectators alike can feel the air being pushed past them with each attack.

Horizon constantly uses Booster Shot to heal the damage being done to his forearms as he blocks all the attacks, beneath the body glove the muscle and bone were constantly being damaged and healed.

"So that's how strong you've gotten," Horizon says as he begins emanating blue energy vapor from his arms.

He pushes Deku back and immediately prepares a strong right and launches it at Deku.

"Let's just wrap this up, show me if you're even worth having a real fight with!"

Hearing this Deku smiles, looking back he wouldn't even understand.

But it just felt right, and he couldn't help but smile.

He rushes forward and the ground gets cratered beneath him when he launches into another Shoot Style attack.

Horizon's entire right hand is shrouded in the blue energy mist as they make contact, but even as Deku pushes away all the air around them the mist clings to Horizon.

Deku's foot makes direct contact with Horizon's gloved fist, and a shockwave rips through the air.

BOOM!

A cloud of dust covers the area as everyone covers their eyes and gets caked in dirt.

A few people begin coughing and moments later the dust begins to settle.

"Argh, I can't feel my leg," Deku winces as he sits at the edge of the circle, holding his right let.

"Did you break it again?" Aizawa asks as he swats the dust away from his face.

"No, its just numb," Deku says. 'Why did I do that? I've never used 45% before, but in that moment it just came out…'

"Looks like you won, congratulations," Horizon says as all the dust is finally cleared. "My new variation of Booster Shot still needs some work…"

And everyone is shocked to see both his feet carved out a trench in the dirt, ending a few inches outside the circle.

Deku is most surprised to see this, but he frowns at the result, "you only moved back a few inches further than me…I've still got a lot of training to do."

Horizon chuckles as he casually walks up to Deku, who was still on the floor, "and here I thought you'd be happy to finally beat me at something."

Deku forces himself to stand on his numb leg, "a fight where you could only use you weakest attribute…which happens to be my strongest, how can I become the #1 Hero if that's the only victory I can get?"

"That's the thing, you don't become the #1 Hero, I do…"

"I'm still growing too you know," Deku says, surprising everyone as he actually stands against Horizon. "Don't count me out yet."

Aizawa looks at the scene carefully, ready to intervene, and everyone stares on in silence.

But Horizon just looks down at Deku, clearly more amused than anything else.

"Alright, 'Small Might', then prove it in a real fight--"

Deku's face immediately pales.

"--I'll be in the finals at the sports festival, as usual, just meet me there and you can show me what you've got, that should be easy, right? Mr. #1 Pro Hero…"

As Horizon walks back to his seat Deku is finally able to breathe again.

'What the hell is wrong with me, that could have gone so badly, but, he's right. If I want to prove it, then the sports festival is the best place to do that, and I've only got a few months to master my new moves…' 7

END CHAPTER-- 1

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Chapter 259: CHAPTER 255(Global Test)

Discord: https/discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y

pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)

CHAPTER START--

--Friday, 27th January 2315, Berlin, Germany…

Just as the sun was about to set, alarms began ringing all across the city.

The cold winter air was disrupted as explosions began ringing out through the city.

Lumbering through the streets, smashing buildings with each clumsy movement, a massive quadrupedal robot stomps about.

75m 246ft and 50m 150ft wide tall and firing off an assortment of artillery and guns.

Dozens of Pro Heroes are already assaulting this enemy, but the tough armor is harder than even modern military tanks, causing their attacks to barely do anything.

Hours nearly an hour into the battle the civilians in this section of the massive city have all been cleared out, now news choppers buzz around trying to record as much of the battle as possible. 2

"It seems that the Pro Heroes have made little to no progress in stopping this weapon, either manned or unmanned we aren't sure, and we'll only know when they break it apart and look inside!" a news reporter says from inside a helicopter.

"Hold on!" the pilot screams, and the man looks back at the battlefield to see a rocket heading directly toward them, too fast to be avoided.

The man doesn't even have time to scream before a bolt of electricity descends from above and detonates the rocket at a safe distance.

The purple electricity immediately causes a wave of hope to spread across the battlefield as the Pro Heroes and civilians realize what happened.

The camera looks up to see a group of Pro Heroes descending, one of them is creating a floating platform of green energy beneath his feet while two others ride on it beside him.

To his left is a woman who has her eyes closed as her black hair constantly pulses blue.

As they descend past the helicopter the camera zooms in on the man standing to the right.

He wore a skin tight purple suit with pieces of armor sparsely spread across it.

There was a purple and black lightning bolt across his chest and his mas only covered his eyes, leaving the top of his head free to show off his short blonde hair.

As they quickly descend there was already purple lightning crackling around him, and his gaze was fixed on the enemy.

"Do you sense a pilot inside?" he asks the woman beside him.

"No, its a drone, or a pre-programmed robot, either way you can hit it hard," she says.

"We need to make this quick, these things are attacking in other countries as well, this could just be the first wave," the man maintaining the platform says.

"I told everyone to give you some space, you can go in now," the woman says.

"Alright, I'm going in, stay above and coordinate the other heroes, and send me any electric types if this thing manages to get back up," he says before jumping off the platform.

He immediately goes into a nosedive, dropping over a thousand meters toward his target.

"Blitz just dove into the battle!" the reporter yells as they watch him descend, approaching the top of the skyscrapers. "With our #1 Hero here the situation is about to be resolved in a flash!" 4

Locking his sights onto the massive robot Blitz activates his Quirk and embraces the acceleration toward the ground.

As he falls in the dim sky, he shines brighter with every meter.

Starting off as a barely noticeable purple flicker.

Into a consistent purple dot.

And now into a massive bright ball of purple light, with electricity crackling all over it.

As he descends between the skyscrapers and directly above his target, arcs of electricity leap from him and onto the nearby buildings, melting and shattering the glass windows as well as some of the concrete holding it up.

The people present and watching at home are once again forced to sit back and take in the grandeur of their #1 Pro Hero as he uses his maximum output super move.

"Ultimate Blitz Bolt!" his voice ripples across the are, carried on the small currents that spread out from him as he suddenly absorbs all the arcing electricity and purple light into himself. 2

And for a moment the battlefield dims…

KRAKOOM!!!!

A pillar of purple electricity is shot downward, almost 10m 33ft wide and descending from 100m above the road.

The robot is hit in the middle of its head and immediately topples forward.

Its large back is easily sliced and melted by the beam as it falls forward, cutting the entire thing in two as if it were pushed into a table saw.

As the attack ends and people can finally uncover their eyes, they see the robot cut in half with molten metal leaking out of it, and the road directly in the middle of it has a hole that they couldn't see the bottom of.

But the sides of it were entirely molten.

This is Blitz's peak.

His Quirk: Kinetic-Electric Conversion, allows him to convert his kinetic energy into electric energy.

No, it allows him to convert it into a vastly disproportionate amount of electrical energy. 1

But he cannot store this energy and must discharge it before he stops moving, this is why from the moment he left to come to this battle, the entire hour he has been storing energy on the ride here.

And when he began falling he only added more and more energy into his attack. But the downside is, the more energy he uses the longer he must wait for his Quirk to cooldown, meaning right now he is vulnerable. 4

These are all facts the public is blissfully unaware of, as they think he has a basic electricity Quirk, but his teammates are already at his side ready to protect him on the road. 1

"How long?" they ask, looking at the damage.

"At least a day after something like that, but I definitely beat my old record," Blitz says jokingly.

"Might have overdone it," the woman says. "What if they have another one?"

"We'll be alright, we aren't alone remember," Blitz says as the other Pro Heroes begin returning to the robots location. "Besides, I've got the most powerful electric attacks in the world, wouldn't look good if I couldn't fry a robot…"

Both true statements.

Blitz does in fact have the global record for the most powerful documented electric attack of all time, and on this day he even beat his previous record.

But he would not hold that record for much longer.

In fact, in 3 months it would be beaten, during the final round of this years UA Sports Festival… 14

--Mexico City, at the same time…

Just before people began going on their lunch breaks, a set of quakes rocked the massive metropolis.

Those closest to the epicenter got the horrific pleasure of witnessing the roads and some buildings break apart and pieces of a identical quadrupedal robot to the ones attacking all across the globe assembles itself.

Unfortunately for this robot however, Mexico's top Rescue Hero happened to be in the capital today.

In fact, she woke up in her hotel room because of all this excitement, grumpy after a long night of saving people.

And she could see the robot from her bedroom window.

"Cha," she sighs and closes the curtain. "On my day off too!"

Moments later she leaps out of the window, 5 stories above the road she freefalls down.

Wearing a blue and green hero costume, her slender figure is well hidden beneath an assortment of pouches and equipment to make her more effective on the job.

One of these items is her bulky helmet which comes with a built in snorkel and air canister, giving the appearance of armored scuba diver even in the middle of the city.

Her helmet unfolds to secure itself around her head as piece of her backpack launches itself into the air, expanding into a drop looking down at the area.

All of this happens before she belly flops into the stone sidewalk.

SPLASH!

The stone she impacts splashes and is transmuted into crystal clear water.

Her bulky boots acts as jets and propel her forward as she dives a bit lower, transmuting a tunnel of water beneath the road and hiding her approach. 3

In her helmet she gets a ultrasound reading of the streets to know exactly where she can go, as the drone gives her a view from above.

As the civilians are running about in a panic and Pro Heroes from all around the city are rushing to this location, only a handful of the closest responders arrive in time to see the robot.

Because as they arrive they witness the entire gargantuan robot become gelatinous over the course of a minute, then fall apart as clear water, almost flooding the street.

As people arrive and take out the phones to record, they see Transmuter pull herself out of the road as if it were a swimming pool.

Her Quirk is Water Transmutation, it allows her to transmute inorganic material into water, or water other inorganic materials. 3

She can and has reached into a barrel of water before and pulled out perfectly crafted tools needed to rescue people, and her creations as so well made its as if they were always the tool they are.

And there is no time limit on anything she transmutes. 9

Mexico's #1 Rescue Hero, but #3 Pro Hero overall…

--Brussels, Belgium, at the same time…

Stepping onto the roof of a skyscraper hotel, a 13 year old boy clutches a crystal puppy in his arms.

Not a toy puppy at all, but a animated puppy made of green crystal was was translucent.

It nuzzles the boy as he steps out of the stairwell into the snow, and reaches up to bite the edge of his hat and pull it down properly, protecting him from the snow.

He steps into the snow protected by his winter gear and holding his puppy and walks to the edge, and beside him is a tall, thin man, wearing similar and casual winter clothes as he walks to the edge.

"Woooowwww," the boy stares out as he reaches the edge of the roof, the stone wall ledge almost blocking his vision.

"A nice view right?" the man asks.

"Yeah, look we can see it from here!" the boy puts the puppy on the ledge and points out at the giant robot causing havoc in the distance.

The man pats his head and begins fiddling in his own pocket, "yeah, those Pro Heroes are really giving it their all, I wonder how the new kids are doing down there. Everyone says that new kids Quirk is a lot cooler than mine you know…"

"Mmm, I still think you're cooler."

The man chuckles and takes his cigarettes out of his pocket, "yeah well, I'm your dad, of course you think that. But just between us, I still think I'm cooler too."

The man lights his cigarette and takes a long drag of it.

He closes his eyes and focuses his energy, and a circle of blue energy begins spreading out from his feet.

It encircles everything for 3m around him as he leans against the ledge, and his so doesn't even react.

"Alright, lets start the show," he exhales the smoke as blue crystal lions begins rising from the circle. 2

One of them rises directly below his son and holds the boy up so he can see better, and the others hop onto the ledge and begin running down the side of the building at full speed.

Moments later nearly 50 blue crystal lions become blurs as they rush toward the enemy.

"Wooow," his son is amazed at the sight of it, especially as in the distance the lions begins tearing into the robot.

But ever so often there would be a explosion of blue energy, causing the robot to stumble after it takes damage, but the man also winces.

"Are you ok?" his son asks.

The man takes another drag of his cigarette, "I'll be fine, just shouldn't be using this much energy with my condition…but can't just sit by and watch people die right?"

"Yeah but, you're sick."

"Yeah but I'm not dead," the man says. "Which is more than I would have been able to say for them. Besides I'll be around to bother you and your mom for a few more years, don't worry about me." 4

As the duo watch the robot fall, they enjoy this moment together.

The soon to be retired #1 Pro Hero of Belgium, Leeuw Golf Lion Surge. 1

His Quirk, Pack Tactics, is passed through his family to all the men. Allowing them to manifest crystal versions of certain animals from a area they determine as their starting point.

Their body begins releasing energy into this area to make the constructs out of it, and must remain within this zone to maintain them, but Lion Surge was able to overcome this by extending his senses through his constructs, and far surpassing his predecessors in the amount he can make.

Capable of stopping entire swarms of villains on his own, even if he lacks a super destructive super move, his efficiency is commendable.

And his quantity is a quality in itself.

END CHAPTER--

Hi, author here. I hit a pretty rough burnout so taking a small break from writing, won't be more than a month long ideally. 9

The next volume is…amazing, everything we've been waiting for as you can guess from the title being 'Ascension'. So I need to be at my best when writing this, thanks for understanding…