Chapter 168: CHAPTER 164(Insufficient Clearance)
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CHAPTER START---
"I'm fine," Horizon says, looking Momo up and down, seeing her glance between him and the heavybag across the floor.
"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."
"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...'
"---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.
'These people are the fucking worst,' Horizon thinks as he rolls his eyes.
"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."
"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."
"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.
"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.
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."
"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."
"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."
"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.
"And less stress on Midoriya, right?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Yagi says.
"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..."
"Uh, sorry, I won't really be that good at training those Quirks, maybe give them to Midnight..."
END CHAPTER---
Chapter 169: CHAPTER 165(New Team Applications)
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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."
"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."
"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."
"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?"
"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."
"Most people don't need to be worried..."
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?"
"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?"
"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."
Horizon groans in response, "we'll have to change that. Try 'Simon', that'll work."
"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."
"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.
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..."
END CHAPTER---
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