Chapter 23: CHAPTER 021(Toxic Matanis)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
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CHAPTER START---
Law leans back into the couch with his arms spread across the backrest as he nervously taps his foot. Feeling his heartbeat in his ears, staring at the black screen on the laptop as it connects to Tartarus.
He glances to the left to see Nezu sitting quietly waiting for the connection to be established.
"I can't believe this is happening," Law mutters quietly. "I expected that the next time I see them would be when I get them out..."
Nezu nods, "I know that's what you expected, but with more and more international pressure demanding their executions we have to move them into isolated confinement for a while, at least until the next big story overshadows them... this is the only chance you'll have until you get them out."
Law runs a hand through his hair, "thanks."
"It's the very least I could do, although getting a connection through Tartarus was difficult, even I didn't have enough leverage for it to happen alone, thankfully All Might is a UA alumnus," Nezu says.
"All Might? Did you---"
"No," Nezu waves off his concern. "He trusts me enough to allow me to use his name without asking questions. And I sent Naomasa ahead to inform them not to say any names on the call, the camera in the laptop also isn't working, you'll be able to see them but they can't see you."
"How much did he tell them?"
"Only that they'll get to speak to you without revealing your identity or connection, what you decide to speak about will only be known to yourselves and me, even the Tartarus guards won't be able to hear you..."
"Right," Law sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes to focus his mind. "Just a few minutes to unpack all the things that happened...no big deal," he says bitterly.
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Before he can even focus the screen goes live, split down the middle, the left showing his mother and the right his father.
His heart drops at the sight, a sickening feeling permeates his body as he stares at the screen for a few moments.
To the left is his mother, strapped and chained to a metal cross with her limbs spread out, stuck upright with her body wrapped in white durable metal mesh fabric, and tubes flowing into the floor from in her wrapping, likely for waste. All to avoid her using her Quirk. Her long black hair seems to blend and merge perfectly with the sleek grey metal cross holding her. Taking a closer look he sees the division between flesh and metal is non-existent, it was as if the cross was attached to her very skin.
As he feels his rage bubbling up he looks at his father, the man was in a much different cell. While his mother was bound to a cross in her empty cell, his father had much more relaxed accommodations.
The man sits on a metal chair, a metal table in one corner of his cell while a small single bed was neatly made in the other, wearing a white jumpsuit. What Law noticed however was a metal cord connecting to his left wrist, it didn't take a genius to assume that it was also fused to him like Kiku's cross.
'They basically merged them with Tartarus, since I can't warp only part of an object I can't just grab them out of their cell unless I can move the whole prison...and they probably have implants that explode if I do move them,' he scowls at the screen.
Taking in the forlorn look of both his parents Law speaks up, "hi mom, dad..."
They both suddenly burst with excitement at his voice, "Son!" they yell in unison, both equally surprised to hear each other's voice, the entire family on this three-way call.
"Have you been ok?" His father asks.
"I should be asking you two that," Law frowns. "I'm sorry things went like this. I---"
"It's not your fault," his mother cuts him off sharply. "We trained you to do exactly what you did, and you performed perfectly."
"But---"
"She's right son," his dad cuts in. "You can't blame yourself for this, you did everything right, but sometimes that doesn't mean you win, that's just life. We're just glad you're not in here with us," the man chuckles, he actually manages to chuckle in this situation.
The sound of his laugh surprises Law, bringing back memories of old.
"So what have you been up to?" Kiku asks, "how did you manage this call into Tartarus of all places?"
Law takes a deep breath and gets right into it, without mentioning the specifics he explains everything, and their faces shift from curiosity to complete disappointment.
"---And when I've done enough then I can get you guys out on some special conditions, then we'll all be back together again," he says with a hopeful tune in his voice, for the first time he sounds like what Nezu would expect a fifteen-year-old to be like.
That youthful vigor of hope that he always tries to nurture in his students. As expected it only comes out when he speaks of or to his family.
Dead silence fills the air as both his parents take in exactly what they just heard, and in one voice they speak in unison.
"No."
"What? What do you mean 'no,' what's wrong?" Law asks.
"This isn't right," Kiku says. "You got out fine, and now you're giving up this chance at a new life, to be truly free, for us...no."
"We chose the lives we did," his father says. "Now you get to start a new one, why waste so much of it chasing after the past?"
"But I...no...this is how we get back together," Law argues, "this is how I fix it, how I make our family whole!"
"You sound so fucking pathetic," Kiku spits out the words harshly. Nezu almost falls off his seat in shock. "We taught you better than this!"
"Apparently not enough," Corazon agrees.
"We don't bow to anyone," Kiku says. "We do whatever the hell we want, because we're adventurers. And we certainly don't play that stupid hero-villain game, we're above that."
"And we especially don't do things we don't enjoy," Corazon adds. "You'll hate every moment you spend risking your life and wasting your time to save those useless people who can't fend for themselves, people who always need some wannabe hero coming to hold their hand just to cross the street. You're too good to be spending time on people like that."
"But I'm not doing this for them!" Law argues. "I'm doing this because I want you two back. I just need to save enough people."
"You need to follow your training!" Kiku yells. "Did you forget what the fuck I taught you?! Always talk only to the man in charge, and if he has leverage on you, get rid of it, so why haven't you gotten rid of it?!"
"..." Law sits back and just stares at the screen, he knew this is what he was supposed to do, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. "Because you're my parents..." he says in a quiet voice.
"Yes," Corazon agrees. "And parents exist to help their children, to nurture them and build them up. We've done that perfectly, you're perfect son. You're more than we could each ever be, you've taken everything we taught you to heights we could never have dreamed of, you're a god, and now we're holding you back from living the life you want."
"Let us go," Kiku says. "Just let us go and they won't have any leverage, then you can really do whatever you want, and nobody in this world can even hope to stop you."
"But...but, you'll die," Law says in a quiet desperate voice.
"And you'll be truly free," Kiku says, and both of them nod. "You're a perfect god, and we've clearly outlived our usefulness, it's time for you to show the world what you're really about, and do it all your way."
Nezu nervously fidgets about, not at all expecting this turn of events, and now slightly unsure of how things would go.
A tense silence befalls the trio as Law leans back and considers his options.
"You're right," he says, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, fingers knitted together under his chin. "I am a god, you trained me to be perfect and peerless, and I am. You've both outlived your usefulness to me."
Both his parents smile at that, at the prospect of their son being truly free.
"But," Law says. "Since I can do whatever I want, that means I can save you... because all I want is for us to be whole again, and to fix my mistake. So I'm going to play this game out, complete this contract, and save both of you, you'll see."
Corazon shakes his head sadly, but with a small smile on his lips.
Kiku scowls, "you really are a fucking disappointment," she curses. And after a tense moment she cracks a wide smile, " but I also couldn't be prouder, deciding your own path and not letting anyone stop you, not even us, that's exactly the kind of person you're meant to be son. Just do us one favor."
"Anything."
"Show them why you're the best, peerless, a god. If you're gonna play the hero-villain game, then crush everyone and everything that tries to compete with you, alright."
"Of course, that was always the plan," Law chuckles.
"We really couldn't have asked for or raised a better son," Corazon admits. "Don't let what happened to us distract you anymore, and remember, we love you, no matter what."
"Yes, no matter what, we love you, always," Kiku says.
"I love you too," Law says. "And I promise I'll get you out of there, and then we'll never have to worry about anything else again."
Kiku chuckles, "in that case, we can't wait to see what you'll have become by that time, we're counting on you."
"I'll be on top of the world, I promise."
"We don't doubt that one bit," Corazon says. "That's where you've always been meant to be, we'll see you then."
"Yeah...I love you two..." Law says as the connection cuts off.
As the screen shuts off Law leans back, head tilted back on the soft couch to stare up at the ceiling. Taking a deep breath he suddenly feels mentally and emotionally exhausted.
To his left Nezu is breathing a sigh of relief, the conversation ended how he expected, but the road to get there was certainly filled with surprises. But at least now he's seen firsthand where Law inherited his thought process.
Nezu checks his phone then sets it aside, "they're already moving them down to level-5 of Tartarus, down there on the deepest floor it's inevitable the world forgets about them, we just need to wait for the international pressure to settle down."
"Right..." Law sighs and gets up, opening a massive ROOM reaching 5km in every direction, enough to cover UA's main building. Feeling it straining his energy he doesn't let it show at all, the perfect facade of effortless power. "With that out of the way I need to get back on my routine, and I'll need to go to Monaco to check the modifications on the new Megayacht."
"Oh... And perhaps visit that Nami girl you were running around with a few months ago in Monaco?"
"I prefer new shiny things," Law shrugs. "I just need to get as many miracles under my belt before UA, when Horizon goes public during the sports festival the higher the number the better it looks."
"And how many have you done thus far?" Nezu asks.
"Only eighty-seven."
Nezu's supercomputer brain instantly does the math, "with a fifty million minimum bid that's at least 4.3 billion, not bad for nine months of work at 15."
"Yeah, nothing compared to you, but thankfully I don't have most of my money wrapped up in UA and other companies, so I have more spending power than pretty much anyone else."
"The joys of working in cash," Nezu muses. "Well, you can send me back to my office now, I'll contact you if needed, aside from my usual calls."
"Gotcha, see ya," Law snaps his fingers.
SHAMBLES
Nezu disappears from his seat, swapped with a single pen from in his office.
Closing the ROOM, Law takes a deep breath and wipes a hand down his face, feeling the emotions hammering away at him.
"C'mon," he says to himself. "You're perfect, let's just get the job done, just three months left until UA, time to make the most of it..."
END CHAPTER---
UA starts the next chapter, expectations?
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Chapter 24: CHAPTER 022(First Day At UA)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.reon (5 Chapters ahead): Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
---April 7th, 2115, Matani Estate...
"So are you excited for your first day?" Nezu's cheery voice asks, excitedly waving to Law through the video on his phone.
Law just sighs, silently cleans up his kitchen after making his protein shake, and grabs it as well as his phone. "It's too early for you to be this excited," he grumbles.
Nezu can't help but shake his head as Law's bare upper body comes into view, all the tattoos exposed for him to see. "It's your first day of school, the first day in a place where you can use your Quirk without having to hide, you should be excited too."
SHAMBLES
Law appears in his bedroom and sets the phone down on the dresser. Wearing only a pair of shorts he walks over to his bed and sighs, then looks out to the sun already hanging above the ocean.
"So early, is Yagi even there yet?" he asks.
SHAMBLES
His white body glove appears on his body, already covered by his UA uniform,grey blazer with green pants, long red tie, and a white shirt beneath. A single button on each shoulder to indicate he's in the Hero Course. In addition, he has a white Rolex on his left wrist and a pair of white dress shoes on his feet. The visor is already on his head, his voice now becomes slightly more mechanical.
"He's on his way," Nezu says, seeing Horizon turn away from the camera and walk across the room. On the back of his grey UA blazer, he sees Horizon's logo. "Did you really have to put that on the uniform?" he scoffs. Shaking his head at the sight of Horizon's logo printed in the same UA green on the back of the uniform.
"Would you believe it helps with my Quirk?"
"No."
"Oh well," Horizon shrugs as he gets to the other side of the room. Reaching his table to pick up a katana, safely stored within the white scabbard decorated with Horizon's blue smiley face logo is a 120cm -4ft- long white blade, the guard is square with blue accents and connects to the 25cm -10in- hilt, which is also white with blue accents.
Overall, his sword from the tip of the blade to the end of its hilt, is one inch shorter than Tsuyu Asui.
Picking up the sword he also grabs the briefcase-like metal case that was resting beside it, previously silver with '19' on it, but now repainted in white with his logo in blue on both sides.
"Do you really have to put your logo on everything?" Nezu asks.
"Branding is important."
"I sent you your hero gear early for you to 'get used to it' -and you still haven't told me what that's supposed to mean by the way-, not for you to deface UA property."
"It's not like anyone else is gonna be using my stuff," Horizon says as the hero gear disappears and the view suddenly swaps to his office. As he grabs a fresh ring binder notebook and pencil case, both also with his logo, Nezu sighs.
"How do you even do this, is there anything you didn't add it to."
"No. Is this really gonna be a problem?"
"Mmm, just try to only put it on things that are yours, meaning no more UA property."
"Done," Horizon says as the view once again changes, this time Nezu recognizes the inside of his car. "Just gotta get this off..." he mutters before removing his visor. "Can't let people see Horizon driving Law's car after all..."
While Horizon secures everything in the back seat Nezu can't help but make a suggestion, "you know if you went for the collapsable sword design we recommended this would be a lot easier."
"And it would also be weaker, plus I needed the extra length in case I ever have to get too close to a power type or something, I'm tall, I might as well use it to my advantage."
"And did everything else meet your standards?"
"Yeah, looks good too."
"Have you considered one of the more heroic designs I sent you, perhaps one with the giant scalpel for a sword?" Nezu asks.
"Oh fuck no, I'm not some gimmicky hero, sleek efficiency, that's part of the image," Law starts his car and begins driving.
"I suppose your outfit does better fit your image, I'll set out a spot for you to warp to, Toshinori has almost arrived..." Nezu hangs up, letting Law enjoy the short drive to UA in peace...
---15 Minutes Later...
Law sits in his car and carefully puts on his visor, already parked in the garage of his Musutafu building.
"ROOM," his perception expands, the few thousand meters between him and Nezu's office are covered. He focuses on Nezu's office and notices a single leaf, likely from one of the plants in the room, resting on the couch.
"Shambles," he appears on the couch, sitting comfortably in his uniform. In front of him is a coffee table, on the other side is an identical black couch. To his right is Nezu's desk with the principal sorting out some paperwork, a cabinet along the wall to the side of the room with a teamaking station, and a massive glass pane behind Nezu, looking out as Musutafu.
"I can foresee that many people won't appreciate your warping around campus," Nezu says without even looking up at him.
"They'll get over it," Horizon says. He raises a hand and snaps his finger, the katana and metal case appear on the couch beside him. With him getting more attuned to them he can freely summon them to his location once they're within his room, but this is the extent of his control thus far.
He closes his massive ROOM and opens a smaller one.
'SCAN,' he gets an entire 3D map of the main building, four fifteen-story buildings connected by walkways halfway up and at the base, making a massive square shape. Four pillars supporting the future of all its students.
He can 'see' everyone moving about, all he gets are vague forms. As if they were all in black and white with blank features, simple 3D outlines.
With more dedicated focus he could hone in on singular components, effectively if he were more perverse...or simply someone who wasn't a doctor that was used to seeing people naked. He could peer past their clothes once it isn't melded to their body and get a true outline of them.
Looking around campus he could only see less than a third of the people he expected, not surprising since it was only 7:20 am, but he focused in on the cafeteria especially.
'I need to get used to this campus as quickly as possible so I can warp around, get ahead of all the lines Lunch Rush must always have, a cafeteria run by a pro chef hero must be good...' he muses to himself as Nezu finishes up his paperwork.
"Yagi is in the elevator," Horizon says. "He just got off the phone..."
Nezu puts his completed paperwork to the side and hops down from his chair, nearly disappearing behind his desk if not for his ears, casually walking over to his tea station. "Tea?"
"I'm good," Horizon lifts his protein shake.
"Ahh," Nezu begins making two cups of tea. "So will you ever tell me how that whole 'sensing people through walls' ability works?"
"That one, probably not," Horizon opens the base of his visor to take a drink of his shake. "But I'll reveal some of my abilities during the sports festival."
"Really? I recall you saying that information is power, I'm surprised you'd be willing to do such a thing," Nezu moves to sit on the couch opposite Horizon, two teacups in his paws.
"It is, but I realized that I'm a rare case where knowing what my Quirk is will act as a deterrent, it's like if you know someone has super strength you would work around it. But if you know someone is invincible you'd just avoid them entirely. Plus it helps that even if someone knows what my Quirk is, it's indefensible," he shrugs.
"I see," Nezu scampers up to take a seat on the couch, then takes a sip of his tea. "Well healing is one thing, but Warp is certainly one that no villain will be rushing to challenge, certainly not your type of instant warping. I haven't revealed your abilities to anyone, not even your homeroom teacher. In fact, only detective Naomasa and I know that you can both Warp and Heal, even Yagi only knows about the healing."
"Any particular reason?"
"Your homeroom teacher, Eraserhead, he disagrees with me allowing you into the school without taking one of the entrance exams, but he trusts me enough to not question it...at least not anymore. He said he doesn't care what Quirk registration forms say, only how you apply it, although Hand of God is left blank in the description section, that made him curious."
"Right, his Quirk erases other Quirks, but he needs to see part of me that is still connected to me," Horizon raises his gloved hand. "My body glove prevents me from being influenced by his Quirk, but you already knew that since you always planned to pair me with him, so why allow it?"
Nezu takes another sip of his tea then rests the cup on the table, "I trust you enough not to do anything drastic and get expelled, you're a man of integrity, and you have too much to lose."
Horizon nods and just leans back into the couch, taking another sip of his drink. "Good assessment," he looks at the door, "come in!"
CLICK
The door opens and Yagi shyly peeks inside, "just as I was about to knock," he says while entering and closing it behind him. Wearing a simple black suit a few sizes too big for him. "Good morning Horizon, principal Nezu," he sits beside Nezu, directly opposite Horizon's gear. "Nice sword."
"Thanks, how are you feeling?"
"Much better," Yagi takes his cup of tea. "I honestly didn't realize how much I missed solid food."
"Have you been sticking to the diet?" Horizon asks in a near-threatening growl.
"Of course! And I've been taking the vitamins you prescribed, I haven't strayed once from them I promise."
Horizon shrugs, "well it's your life, end it if you want, now can we get this over with, I wanna go walk around campus. Are students allowed on the roof?"
"No," Nezu immediately says.
"Uh-huh, sure..." Horizon says with amusement in his voice, chuckling at the exasperated sigh Nezu gives him.
"Just try not to cause too much trouble please."
"Of course principal, now let's get this over with, you know the drill," Horizon leans forward and extends a hand to Yagi, noticing that the man was slightly less skeletal than when they met a year ago.
"Actually there is something else I'd like your opinion on before that," Nezu says.
Horizon leans back and looks at him, "only Yagi is in my contract, I'm not Recovery Girl, I'm not healing everything you point me at..."
"Nothing like that," Nezu waves his hands around dramatically. He then reaches into his vest and pulls out a remote. With a click, a hologram appears to hover above to coffee table. In it is a massive robot and what looks to be a girl with brown hair trapped under some rubble. The focus of the image is a green-haired boy in a tracksuit who looks to be running toward the robot while everyone else runs away.
"What is this, a picture from the entrance exam?"
"A video," Nezu says. "What happens next can potentially reflect poorly on UA, I'd like your analysis of his Quirk. His name is Izuku, and he's about to destroy that Zero-pointer robot."
"Why me?"
Yagi raises a hand slightly, "principal Nezu has touted your analytical abilities when it comes to Quirks as second to none, this is a chance for you to prove it."
"I am second to none," Horizon insists. "Doesn't mean I do charity, my minimum bid is 50 million for a reason, just give me the remote."
Nezu tosses the remote and he casually catches it, laying back and playing the video.
In the video Izuku runs forward a few steps before crouching down slightly, then his right arm and both legs buckle and strain unnaturally as the road beneath his feet cracks.
Horizon pauses the video. "I've seen enough," he tosses the remote back to Nezu.
"What?" Yagi asks, shocked and somewhat disappointed at how quickly the video was dismissed.
"Let me guess," Horizon leans forward and pokes the hologram with two fingers, zooming in on Izuku's feet. "Since the floor beneath him cracked so easily while his body didn't naturally position itself to handle the impact, either he isn't used to fighting or for some reason has never bothered to train his Quirk before coming to this exam. Then considering the angles his legs are about to be strained at I'm guessing he breaks them, and his arm since he looks to be gearing up for a strong right, worse form than a rookie but it's still a punch. Then he breaks his arm and falls to his death because he's worthless trash, right?"
Nezu and Yagi look at each other in amazement before awkwardly turning back to Horizon.
"Someone caught him thankfully," Yagi says. Horizon plays the video and it happens exactly like he expected, aside from Izuku being caught. "Your analysis is truly incredible..." he says in awe.
"Honestly I'm more surprised mister '12 supercomputers for a brain' even needed help," Horizon chuckles and nods toward Nezu, taking a final sip of his shake.
"My aptitude is almost entirely in logistics, the inner workings of Quirks is an entirely different situation," Nezu says. "Thankfully we have you, and you're incredible both."
"Is there anything you'd recommend for this boy?" Yagi asks, trying and failing to hide his excitement at the thought of Izuku having someone who can solve his problem with One For All.
"Yeah, go do something where he doesn't need his quirk," Horizon shakes his head at the video. "Can't believe someone as pathetic as that actually had the balls to take the exam, honestly it's so reckless and irresponsible that it's almost impressive, but assuming by some miracle he doesn't die the next time he does that, likely by accidentally sending power upward and breaking his own neck or spine, he'll end up a cripple after a few more of those hits," he shrugs. "Recovery Girl is good but she makes the body functional, she can't completely undo damage to nerves, bones, and tissue, that's all me. He's just lucky his joints didn't break this time."
Yagi nearly throws up at those words, Nezu gives him a small pat on the leg to help him keep focused. He kneads the fabric of his pants and looks across to Horizon. "And how would you recommend he gets that power under control?"
"Oh god," Horizon looks at Nezu, "please tell me you didn't actually accept this useless fuck!"
"We did."
Horizon groans, "and is it in my class?"
"HE, is."
Horizon throws his head back and groans even louder, "you promised me competition and now give me a fucking cripple, what a disappointment."
"You know in any other school you'd be punished for that kind of language," Nezu says. "Your lucky our Hero Course students are expected to deal with that kind of behavior, the public won't hold back with their words so we can use you to prepare them for that."
"I don't care about helping you train heroes," Horizon says. He points at Izuku on the screen, "and I'm not here to be a teacher. His problems are his level of mastery with the power flow, distribution, and regulation, and he's clearly a moron for going this long in his life without solving that. Figured ten years of having a Quirk you'd stop hurting yourself, he must be a special kind of dumbass."
"What do you mean by that exactly?" Yagi asks, hoping to get some insight into what his protoge needs.
Horizon just shrugs, "that's all you're getting. I don't help self-harming garbage, especially not for free."
"Bu---" Yagi is about to launch into a speech when Nezu rests a paw on his leg, already knowing this would only escalate, as has many conversations between him and Horizon this past year.
"How about we get to why we're here," Nezu suggests, getting a nod from both men.
"Alright, just take my hand," Horizon reaches over the table.
Yagi nods and takes his hand, and Horizon immediately begins scanning him.
After a few seconds, Yagi lets go, but Horizon tightens his hold, "Hmmm, that's odd..." he mutters Quietly, visor staring directly at Yagi's chest. "It's as if your Quirk is suddenly gone---"
Both Nezu and Yagi stiffen at that, not liking where this is going, Yagi tries to yank his hand away only for Horizon's free hand to also hold onto it.
Horizon shakes his head muttering under his breath, "that's impossible...Quirks can't just...what..." he keeps scanning over and over for a few more seconds before looking at Yagi.
"What happened to your Quirk?" he asks in a strange voice, both menacing and curious. All while constantly pouring more and more of his energy into scanning Yagi. Over and over, still unable to believe or make sense of what he was sensing in each cell.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about..." Yagi tries to lie and fails miserably.
"Tch, even if that was a convincing lie," Horizon raises his hands, still holding Yagi's one massive right hand, "while I'm touching someone I act as a polygraph, something I developed after meeting the detective...so, be honest this time, what happened to your Quirk?"
END CHAPTER---
Wow what a way to start the weekend, see ya'll Monday :)
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