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CHAPTER START---
"Wow everyone is already training, pretty good," Horizon says as their car arrives at the main building.
A small two-story spa building surrounded by a massive forest walled off on all sides by mountains.
"You can sense them?" Eraser asks as he shuts off the car.
They both get out and Horizon takes a moment to stretch his limbs, finally free from the cramped seat.
"Mmm, yeah. Everyone is training in a rocky field a few hundred meters that way," he points in the direction of the training area. "Some are in the forest with some big dude...guessing that's Tiger, doing muscle training. And Momo and Sato are...eating cake?"
"Fuel for their Quirks," Eraser says as Horizon retrieves his bag and sword. "Can you warp these into the training area for me?" he gestures to the boxes on the back seat.
"Yeah, Shambles," Horizon snaps his fingers and they disappear, swapped with a lone leaf.
"Well that really is convenient, anyway I'll get back to your classmates, I'm sure Pixi---"
"HORIZON!" Pixie-Bob steps out of the main building with a broad smile on her face.
Wearing the Wild Wild Pussycats uniform, a miniskirt, boots with metal soles, and a crop top designers like a frilly vest. A spin on the 'french maid' outfit people enjoy. Her signature color is blue to make her stand out from her allies.
All wrapped around a 166cm -5ft5- fit and toned stacked blonde with long hair. Wearing a long blue and white striped tail and oversized cat paws in the same colors to match her outfit.
And a large metal headgear shaped similar to cat ears with a transparent glass visor across her eyes.
Seeing her marching toward them Eraser wisely decides to leave and go find Mandalay, "she'll show you around..." he says to Horizon, not in the mood to deal with this blonde ball of energy.
As she gets up to Horizon, seeing him standing there with his bag in one hand and sword in the other, suddenly Pixie-Bob is staring up at him. Almost a foot taller than her with a physique like All Might.
"Wow, you're a lot bigger than I expected, you look smaller on TV..."
"Well hello to you too, and that's probably because you've seen me standing beside All Might...he isn't normal."
"Ohh, that makes sense! Follow me I'll show you to your room," she gestures to the main building.
"Lead the way." As he's walking beside her Horizon can't help but notice a small child in the training area with one of the Pros, but doesn't think much of it. "So Eraser says you're a fan, what caused that?"
"Tch, I told them not to mention that," she leads them into the reception area of the spa and begins walking toward the stairs. "It's not like I'm a fangirl or anything. It's just that my life would be a lot easier if more capable men who thought like you existed."
Horizon chuckles at that idea, "another me...don't think the world can handle that. But what do you mean exactly?"
They begin going up the stairs.
"It's just that when we were all watching the UA Sports Festival, the things you said, the conviction in your voice, it was incredible," she takes a deep breath before continuing.
"I've been trying to find a nice guy to have a family with for the past year, but all the strong capable guys just want younger girls and don't want anything serious...and I'm running out of time. Hearing you talk about how you'd fight and fight no matter what for the family you'll have one day. It just gave me real hope, it was everything I needed to hear."
Horizon looks over to her as they reach the second floor, seeing her smiling happily at him, with teary eyes and all.
"I'm sure the right guy will come along, you're young and hot, he won't be able to resist."
Pixie-Bob wipes her eyes as they begin walking down the hallway passing a few rooms." thanks, it's just nice to know I'm not the only hero that wants this future for themself.
It feels like everyone around me just wants to work until they die and keep focusing on Hero Rankings, then that makes me feel like I'm some kind of a fake hero that's being selfish for wanting to have a family and quit."
"That's the same plan I have," Horizon says, catching her off guard.
"What?"
"I don't plan to go full throttle on being a hero forever. When I have a family of my own I'll focus more on the Miracle Doctor side of Horizon again. I'll leave the fighting villains for people that rather save strangers than go home to their families.
It may not be what people think is heroic, and maybe it is selfish, but I just don't care. My people always come first, nobody else matters." They stop in front of the last door and Horizon sees her staring up at him. "Don't ever feel guilty for putting the people you love first, and wanting to be in their lives to take care of them and watch them grow, I think that's the most beautiful thing a person can do in this life, and its the least you deserve for all you've done..."
Looking into her bright blue eyes Horizon sees her pupils dilate as her brain short circuits, staring up at him with pleading eyes, 'wow...strong reaction and I haven't even started trying yet...'
"I wish I thought as far ahead as you," Pixie-Bob admits quietly.
"You've still got time, just trust the process."
She gives him a toothy smile and nods happily. "Alright, we can chat after you get all settled in," she slides open the door to reveal a simple but comfortable room, with a connected bathroom and shower.
"Wow," he says as they both enter.
"Yeah, we all bought the land in this valley and set up this resort a few years ago. Usually, we're never here so we rent out the place year-round. The Hot Springs are pretty popular actually."
"Smart move."
"Yup, you got one of the rooms, the Pros are in the other rooms but the other students are down on the first floor. Nezu said your special circumstances need privacy so this is your place for the week.
The boys from each class are in one of the big open rooms downstairs. All the girls got put into one big room since its not many of them. But you're up here."
Setting down his bags and sword Horizon turns to Pixie-Bob who was standing at the window in the room looking out at the forest, "so, what other fun things are there for us to do this week?"
---10 Minutes Later...
Walking up the stairs toward Horizon's room, Mandalay, the leader of the Wild Wild Pussycats.
A woman built much like Pixie-Bob, only a hair thinner and slightly less curvy, with dark red hair and a light red version of their team's uniform.
As she arrives at the second floor she keeps her casual pace toward Horizon's room, until she stops dead in her tracks.
Her ears just barely pick up Pixie-Bob's giddy voice, hearing her speaking between giggles.
"Wow, it's so big---" Mandalay blinks a few times, not sure of what she just heard, she takes up a more brisk pace.
"Are you sure---ok let me, just...like this?" she hears Pixie-Bob's voice even clearer now.
"Yeah, just like that," Horizon says. "Don't let the size bother you it's just like any other one..."
Mandalay breaks into a full power walk and arrives at the closed sliding door.
BAM!
The slams the door to the side, looking at them with pissed-off and manic eyes, gritting her teeth.
"WHAT THE HELL IS---" she freezes, seeing Pixie-Bob waving around Horizon's sword with a wide smile on her face.
Looking between Pixie-Bob's confused expression, Horizon sitting on the bed casually instructing her, and the 145cm -4ft9- white Katana with a blue edge...it all came together.
And Mandalay decides to pretend she didn't just barge in here expecting something else.
"I mean, what's been taking you two so long?" Mandalay asks.
"Oh, Horizon was showing me how to use a Katana, but this one is really heavy."
Horizon shrugs and gets up, "the alternative was a collapsable one, but that's less durable, I rather have this. Also, I asked Pixie-Bob to show me her Quirk."
"Yeah look," Pixie-Bob gestures to the dresser, where a small dirt statue of Horizon, just three inches tall was standing. "I made him this with Earth Flow."
Mandalay just sighs and rolls her eyes, "you'll have time to chat later, right now you've got students to deal with. They need more earth walls to practice on, let's go..."
"Want me to warp us there?" Horizon asks as they all file out of the room.
"Actually I wanted to ask you a favor," Mandalay says, and Pixie-Bob immediately falls back a bit so they were both walking in front of her, something Horizon didn't fail to notice.
"Ok, what do you need?"
"It's about my nephew, Koda."
"So that's the kid with..." Horizon pauses and opens a room, finding his target. "With Ragdoll."
"Wow Eraser really wasn't kidding," Mandalay says. "That's both impressive and really creepy, and it works on people you've never seen before, it's like a better version of Ragdoll's Quirk."
"I'm the better version of a lot of Quirks, so what do you need?"
"Koda's parents, my cousin and his wife, they were a hero team, Water Hose. They died recently and well, he hasn't been the same ever since."
"How'd they die?"
"There was a villain that wanted to go on a rampage, and they died protecting the civilians, but he got away..."
"Ok, so what the kid needs me a sign a shirt or something? Hoverboard ride?"
"It's a bit more complicated than that," Mandalay sighs. "You see Koda's staying with me now. But ever since his parents died, he's really grown a hatred of heroes. He blames people wanting to be a hero for why his parents didn't come back home, and when he saw that clip of your speech from the Sports Festival, it only made him hate heroes even more."
"Oh, the whole 'heroes sacrifice themselves and their families to save strangers thing,' ok, so?"
"Well, I was hoping you could talk to him about that, maybe tell him that what they did was right. I mean they saved dozens of people from that monster. They're heroes. So if you, the only hero he doesn't hate, and the person everyone is calling the 'true hero' says they made the right call, maybe he'd listen."
Horizon stops, causing Pixie-Bob to bump into him and stumble back a bit.
"Sorry," she says.
He ignores her and turns to Mandalay, "so let me get this straight. You want me to say that they made the right call. When not one, but both parents decided to die and orphan their kid, to save people they don't even know.
Did you not listen to anything I've been saying? About how people with families waiting at home shouldn't be heroes exactly because of things like this. And now what? You want me to go back on everything I said just because it's someone important to you?
The people close to you should always come first, and I'm sorry for what happened to him and his parents, but they knew exactly what they were doing, I just wish their kid didn't have to live with the consequences of it.
But the way I see it, I tell him they did the right thing and he becomes just like you, another person brainwashed by the hero-centric media propaganda to throw your life away and destroy your family for some losers on the street...absolutely disgusting.
Your people are supposed to come first, anyone else is an afterthought, parents should know that better than anyone. So no, I won't be talking to him, because at least now he won't grow up to throw his life away like them. He'll actually be there to see his kids grow up."
"How can you be so cruel!" Mandalay yells. "His parents, my cousin, they were good people, good heroes, real heroes! Don't you think every child should grow up knowing their parents were good and just people, that every child should look up to their parents as heroes! That's what I'm asking you to help me with!"
Horizon's voice becomes a low growl, causing a shiver to travel down Pixie-Bob's spine and Mandalay to take a careful step back, "I'm not lying about my beliefs just because it's convenient for you. Just be glad I was polite about it this time..."
He immediately begins walking away, leaving both women in the main building.
Mandalay was fuming, "how can that be a hero, he's such an...an...an ass."
Pixie-Bob looks at her friend, nodding along but the voice in her head couldn't disagree any more.
She agreed entirely but just didn't have the heart to start that catfight.
Then came Horizon.
The conviction and intensity in Horizon's words as he spoke the things she's wanted to say for so long, it cemented the idea in her mind even more.
'I need to find a guy like him...'
END CHAPTER---
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CHAPTER START---
Walking through the rocky training area Horizon is surrounded by a circus of students training. Everyone using their Quirks none stop, he sees Sero atop a small hill constantly firing off streams of tape non-stop.
Sato and Momo are sitting at a table eating sweets while constantly using their Quirks.
Mina is trying to melt a massive boulder while Jiro is standing slightly off the side talking to Eraser Head.
Horizon sees a set of massive gashes in the boulder away from Mina, 'so Jiro was constantly stabbing into the rock with her jacks. Since they're organic they should work like bone and heal to be stronger and more precise...Eraser must be giving her my suggestion about her heart rate.'
Sparing a few people a glance, and having a small chuckle at the sight of Uraraka inside a gain bubble ball rolling down a hill, 'training to fight the nausea of using her Quirk huh', he makes his way to the edge of the training area where the forest begins.
There he finds yet another member of the Wild Wild Pussycats. Yawara Chatora, Tiger, standing at 190cm -6ft3-, he had brown skin, lighter than the color of his particular Pussycat's outfit. Wearing the same crop top and skirt combo as the others.
He was slightly shorter and less muscular than Horizon, but the way he was treating his students and the looks on their faces clearly showed he was intimidating.
But after training with Arsenal, it takes a lot to rattle Horizon.
Approaching the small grassy clearing between the trees Horizon sees the man yelling at the Power Type students.
Or more accurately, Power Type student. Because only Deku technically fit that description, and the only other student in this training section was Hitoshi Shinso.
Both were in their PE Uniforms like everyone else, but Shinso was stuck training physically since nobody else could actually resist his Quirk, and he needed to catch up physically to Hero Course students.
Looking at him Horizon could see that he put on some muscle, nothing absurd like Horizon's gains but he certainly wasn't the lanky stick from the Sports Festival. He was also wearing a shorter version of Eraser Head's scarf capture weapon around his neck.
'Oh...so we have two Aizawas now,' Horizon thinks as he sees the bags under Shinso's eyes.
"C'mon!" Tiger screams at Deku.
One For All: 5%!
Deku launches a smash directly at Tiger's chest.
Using his Quirk, Pliabody, Tiger makes his body pliable and flexible, twisting his torso for the strike to miss.
"Too obvious!" Tiger yells as he connects a right hook into Deku's side, knocking him a few feet away into a tree.
Deku falls to the floor, and within seconds he's back on his feet, much faster than the first day of camp.
For everyone here, their 3 weeks of training have caused extreme improvements.
"Nice hit," Horizon says, causing all three people to turn toward him. "Atleast I think it was, hard to tell with how your Quirk works."
"Thanks," Tiger says as both Deku and Shinso stop training to listen in, then he immediately turns to them. "I didn't say you could rest! Pushups! Now!"
They both instantly drop down and continue.
"I'm actually here for Shinso, time for his Quirk training."
"Oh, alright, Shinso you're training with Horizon now." Tiger turns back to Horizon as Shinso gets up and dusts himself off. "So how'd you like your room?"
"It's great, honestly this entire resort is exactly what I needed after the last few weeks of Hero work."
"Mhm," Tiger nods, frowning as he knew what Horizon meant. "That last League Of Villains attack was despicable, honestly I was against you even leaving Tokyo to come here. And that was even before that attack happened, taking you out of the field just isn't smart.
But Principal Nezu insists on you helping them with their Quirks. Besides it's not like us Pro Heroes are helpless, and now the villains know that too after Endeavor incinerated the USJ Nomu."
"Yeah, but most people aren't Endeavor," Horizon says.
"That's true, but while you're a one-of-a-kind occurrence, you aren't the only powerful future Pro Hero in your class. In fact, I don't think UA has ever had a class with this much talent in it."
BOOM!
The sound of a loud explosion echoes through the training area as Bakugo starts training on the other side of the camp.
"Speak of the devil huh," Horizon chuckles. "Yeah, by regular standards there are some impressive people here, but nothing about me is normal, and that includes my expectations from people."
"That much I've overheard," Tiger says quietly. "Your classmates were worried about having you see them train, you really should work on your attitude, it'll make it much easier to have friends."
"Tch, if they're so worried about what people think then they're too pathetic to be around me anyway, just get better, it really is that simple."
Tiger frowns at that, "for some people it's not that easy."
"Whatever," Horizon turns around and begins walking away, "Shinso, c'mon..."
Shinso falls into step behind Horizon as they walk across the field, all the way to Ragdoll who was sitting on a stack of wooden boxes.
Sitting beside her was Toru, earning her PE Uniform, and they were both watching Sato and Momo constantly eating at a table a few feet away, seemingly chatting about something that was making Toru nervous.
As Horizon comes into view of everyone Momo immediately starts choking, scrambling to find her water. Not wanting him of all people to see her like this.
Sitting at a short table scarfing down a whole wedding cake with her bare hands while constantly using her Quirk...not ladylike at all.
But while she scrambles to wipe her hands and face and drink some water, Horizon walks past without even sparing her a glance.
"Toru, training time," Horizon says.
Toru just looks away and leans over to Ragdoll.
Ragdoll was the final member of the Wild Wild Pussycats that Horizon would meet, completing the set. She's also the person who came up with the idea for the group.
She was a short woman with long green hair and large eyes, with golden pupils. She wore a yellow version of the Pussycat's outfit and had pink whiskers drawn onto her face with makeup.
Toru fails to make herself small enough to hide behind Ragdoll before the woman hops off the crates and stands in front of Horizon.
"Hi there!" She says in an excited voice...far too excited for him to deal with at 8 am.
"Hey, I'm Horizon, I'm just here for Toru to start training."
"Yeah about that," Ragdoll gives him a sheepish look. "So before you start...could you maybe give her a small apology?"
Sitting nearby both Momo and Sato stop eating, suddenly becoming very worried for everyone involved. Shinso just stands back, not interested in any of this nonsense.
"Why would I ever have to apologize to her?" Horizon looks up to see Toru looking down at the floor, almost two weeks after he'd revealed he could see her and she hasn't been able to talk to him or even look at his face...visor.
"Well you embarrassed her," Ragdoll says. "C'mon just a small apology."
"Mmm," Horizon looks past Ragdoll and directly at Toru. "I don't owe you anything, and you'll never get one. And since I'm the only person that can train you to control that Quirk, either get over it and stop wasting my time, or go fuck yourself..."
Horizon turns and begins walking away, toward a spot he can use to train them, not even bothering to wait for Toru.
As he's a few steps away he feels a tingling at the back of his head, someone trying to make a connection to his mind.
He slowly turns around to look at Ragdoll, "Don't try that again."
She looks confused and scared, "why didn't that work."
"Because I don't want it to."
Ragdoll shakes her head, not understanding. Her Quirk, Search, allows her to make a connection to up to 100 people and save them in her mind, within the range of a few miles she can then locate them. This Quirk has no time limit, and if the about of people stored is reached then the first to be added is replaced.
"It's for safety," Ragdoll says. "Everyone at camp has to be in my Quirk in case someone gets lost."
"I'll be fine, just stay out of my head..."
Before Horizon can even take a few steps away, Toru stops him, running up to him and Shinso.
"Wait!" she yells out. "Please, teach me how to control my Quirk!"
Horizon turns around to see Toru staring up at him with a determined look, forcing herself not to look away. "Good, now hold still."
"Wha---" Toru freezes as he puts his large hand flat across the middle of her chest.
"This is step one," he says before anyone can start yelling, holding her shoulder so she doesn't break contact. "Listen very carefully to me, your Quirk cannot be deactivated in your current state. Have you been doing the meditation exercises I suggested?"
"Mhm," Toru nods stiffly, eyes closed and blushing up a storm. Off to the side, Momo absentmindedly glared at the scene, angrily eating pieces of cake.
"Good, that makes you aware of this state, next I'm going to remove your heart."
"WHAT!" Toru screams out.
"Wait you can't do that," Ragdoll says, approaching to try and separate them.
"She'll be fine, this is what my Quirk does," Horizon says. "This will put her body into a kind of 'emergency power' mode. Right now her power consumption on her Quirk is so minimal that she's never even noticed it, but this should shut it down anyway."
He feels Toru breathing quickly, terrified of the idea. But she's so desperate for this. Desperate to have somewhat of a normal life. Meet a boy, fall in love, have a whirlwind romance, and have a family. And now she didn't have to wait to become a Pro Hero for someone to finally notice her.
"Mes," Horizon says, and out comes her heart. He cradles her with one arm so she doesn't fall and puts the Heart behind his back. All before her eyes open.
Showing someone their own beating heart always ends in disaster.
And everyone around is amazed at what they see, Toru Hagakure, short, slim, stacked, pale skin and greenish-pink long wild hair.
As she comes to her senses and looks down at her hands, the tears begin flowing, and they can't seem to stop.
"Ugh," Horizon drops her to the floor causing her to wince as Ragdoll rushes over. "Focus on your own body and get used to this state, then when I give you back your heart you should be able to mentally put yourself into this state."
The girl barely responds between sobs and Horizon just begins walking away, signaling Shinso to join him.
Shinso actually has a horrified expression on his face, seeing this on a replay is one thing, but witnessing Horizon remove a heart in person was downright horrific.
The already intimidating reputation and presence just seem that much heavier.
Off to the side, it took everything for Momo and Sato not to lose their lunch.
Sato quickly lost that battle, while Momo forced herself to hold it down, trying her best not to appear weak in front of her crush.
As Shinso falls into step behind Horizon he glances over to see Pixie Bob working with Juzo and a few others. But she gives him a small wave which he actually mirrors.
"Alright Shinso, let's get some actual training in..."
END CHAPTER---
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