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CHAPTER START---
"Well, there won't be any competition by then..."
Horizon's words strike fear into the hearts of millions, and sets a sinister smile on the face of a few heinous people.
"What do you mean? Is All Might planning to retire?" Chitose uses all her focus to sound worried and not let her excitement surface.
"No no, he's determined to be a hero as much as possible," Horizon says. "But All Might just turned 50, do people really expect him to be their hero for another 50 years?"
"Oh, so then what exactly are you saying?"
Horizon sits back for a moment and considers how he should word this, then he nods and just speaks honestly.
"The fact is, All Might is 50, he does so much work, an insanely disproportional amount in fact. That other heroes have slowly become complacent and weak.
Even if they don't realize it, they've started just depending on All Might to do most of the work himself, but he's only one man.
Everyone thinks he's invincible, but time is undefeated, and eventually, it'll beat him too, and this country isn't ready for a world without All Might. Minato Tokyo is a perfect example of that.
Villains are becoming more populous and bold there every day because he's teaching in Musutafu now, that's a microcosm for what'll happen in all of Japan within ten years maybe. And heroes aren't ready."
"But Japan has 116 thousand Pro Heroes," Chitose says.
"Yeah, a good number on paper. And those same papers will tell you that our society is oversaturated with Pro Heroes, but none of that data matters when the people are useless.
I was appalled by what I saw at my license exam. The government is going for a quantity-over-quality approach, allowing in thousands of people who have no place on a battlefield, especially not as heroes.
Obviously not everyone is a combat-oriented Hero, Thirteen and Uwabami are the top search and rescue heroes for a reason, but a lot of people are going to be in combat-based environments and have no business being there.
Our society is too over-reliant on All Might holding us up on his shoulders, and the moment he steps down everything will descend into chaos. Nobody wants to think of a world without him, but if you don't accept this reality then how can you prepare for it?
The only Pro Hero who never accepted this status quo, who kept pushing to do as much as he possibly can, is Endeavor, and that's why I'm working with him and nobody else.
Half of all the Pro Heroes aren't worth the plastic their license is printed on, just sitting in their office or walking down the street collecting money and attention.
That's why the Nomu attacks on the other Hero Courses have been so successful, most of those Nomu aren't anywhere near as strong as the USJ Nomu. Yet dozens of Pro Heroes are dying every time they show up.
The League of Villains realized this status quo and is punishing us for it, because they know All Might can't be everywhere. So yeah, there is no competition, and apparently, I'm the only one seeing this problem and taking steps to prepare for the eventuality.
All Might is 50 and Endeavor is 46...who is gonna be your Symbol Of Peace after them, some lazy hero like Hawks? Tch, I don't think so..."
"I see, that is a scary reality to accept for most people," Chitose says. "People around my age have never even known a world without All Might protecting us..."
"Accept it and prepare for it, that's all you can do."
"I agree," Chitose was both excited at the idea of a world without All Might, but also terrified at the thought of a more powerful and mature Horizon taking his place, someone who they seemingly can't even hide from. "And how would you recommend this be done?
Some people have always been pushing for the Quirk restrictions to be lifted to an extent so they may take a more active part in stopping villains, do you agree? Should those with what society deems as 'heroic Quirks' be allowed to use them?"
Horizon takes a moment to understand the question. Realizing immediately that she was asking about a few different issues.
"No I don't think that's the right way to handle this at all, because then you'd just get the same problem with more collateral damage," he says. "Allow me to make it clear that I don't believe in these nonsense labels. There are no inherently 'heroic' or 'villainous' Quirks, only Quirks and the people who use them.
If you gave All Might's Quirk to a bad person you'd have a supervillain. So the Quirk doesn't make the person into a hero or villain, only what they chose to do with it.
Putting people in these stupid brackets, especially as children, is how you get villains. Because if all your life people are telling you that you were born to be a villain...why would you bother trying to become anything else?"
"I couldn't agree more," Chitose says. "For both my appearance and my Quirk people always expected me to become a villain, I've had to overcome a lot of adversity to get here because of how I was born."
"And I wish the world would stop doing that, and allow people to become who they want to be, instead of simply expecting them to conform to a hero-centric worldview. And clearly, you've overcome all of that to be the head of a massive publishing company, well done Chitose."
"Thank you," she gives a polite nod. "But why don't you think people should simply be allowed to use Quirk, and what about if the Quirks were harmless?"
"Because that's how you cause chaos and villains. Allowing people to use their Quirks will cause chaos. For every person that can fly a house will burn down because some kids were playing with a fire Quirk.
This will lead to only some Quirks being publicly accepted. Not to mention some people without flashy Quirks will begin to feel left out as everyone around them is using a Quirk while they can't, the same problem some people have now with the Quirk License system.
The alternative would be making only the harmless Quirks legal to use, but that's just another form of discrimination for things that people cannot control.
Discrimination and envy will lead to resentment...and that's how some of the worst and most horrific crimes happen.
In this world, some Quirks are the equivalent of being born with a gun for a hand a few hundred years ago. Our society works as a superhuman society because everyone must assume unless they know otherwise, that if they're in a room with strangers, at least one person was born with a gun for a hand, or some other dangerous Quirk.
This subliminal fear and understanding keeps people in line, that's why more people don't go around using their Quirk. Villains tend to be people either stupid, desperate, or arrogant enough not to care about this unspoken rule."
"So you're saying a world with open and unrestricted Quirk use would devolve into chaos, and a world where only harmless Quirks are allowed to be used would build more villains?"
"Exactly, the best way is the current system, where nobody but the Pro Heroes are allowed to use their Quirks. Therefore everyone has a path to get a Quirk License that they can choose to take."
"But not everyone has a Quirk that can get them there," Chitose says.
"True, but life isn't fair. And at least this way they're part of the 99% of the world that isn't a Pro Hero and don't feel as left out, even if I'm sure some of them will still try to become villains in some attempt to prove they don't need a license.
Atleast until an actual Pro Hero puts them in jail..."
"I see, but what do you recommend we do to prepare for whatever the country will look like in twenty years?"
"Well, you'll have me here, so that handles a lot of major threats," Horizon says jokingly. "But the problem is that we're saturated with useless Pro Heroes.
Like Compass Kid...he literally points in cardinal directions, that's his entire Quirk. Or Leaf Man...he throws leaves at people, and they aren't even that sharp, if you can't even stop a corner store robbery why are you even a Pro Hero?
The 116 thousand Pros in Japan need to stay as is for now, but the license exams need to be improved.
One thousand people passed at my venue alone, and everyone has six tries in their time at Hero Courses, or they can even be held back to try again later.
I think they should only pass around 50 to 100 people for each exam, preferably 50. Making it more competitive to weed out less valuable people.
A more competitive environment will force improvement. Right now Japan is relaxed because we have All Might and that's what'll ruin us. Make the exams more competitive as well as the actual environment outside it.
Set a percentage of incidents resolved per region, and if Pro Heroes working in the area can't do their part, kick them out. Do it gradually over time so you don't have an influx of unemployable citizens but over ten years it should be done.
Currently, a lot of Pro Heroes deal with one incident per week because they patrol in the middle of nowhere out in the country and just accept a government salary every month. That behavior is only tolerated because All Might does so much work that his presence suppressed crime across the country. Currently, we can afford to have them slacking off, but the world won't always be peaceful.
We need to crush those pathetic parasites before they get us killed..."
"Wow, you're clearly very...passionate, about this," Chitose says.
"I don't like people who do things like that, sitting on the sidelines and allowing others to do all the work but still getting a piece of the prize...I don't believe in participation trophies. You either do the work or you get nothing."
"I completely agree," she nods along. "But as a Quirk specialist, aren't you concerned about what such a difficult environment will do to us as a species?"
"What? I'm sorry I don't understand the question."
Chitose takes a deep breath, knowing exactly how much was on the line, how close she and the other executives came to death just so she'd be forced to ask this one question.
"Quirks are said to be an evolutionary product of a plague centuries ago, humans adapted faster than ever before, leaping hundreds of years ahead in one generation.
Because of this, some people are worried that we can't actually keep up with that adaptation. Your Quirk Mastery Thesis has been publicly adopted by Hero Courses around the world and was even approved by the United Nations Quirk Research department.
However, a popular theory was rejected by them a century ago and has become something of a dark rumor or myth, I was hoping as a Quirk Specialist I could get your opinion on it."
"The Quirk Singularity Theory, right?" Horizon asks in a bored voice.
"Yes, that's the one..."
"Well, that matter is quite simple. You're worried that people will instinctively breed more powerful Quirks because of the suggestions I just made. And since the theory said this type of instinctual breeding will create Quirks that the human body can't handle...those generations will eventually begin to, self-destruct, for lack of a better term, Right?"
"Precisely."
"Well, contrary to what some fringe cultists and fanatics will have you believe, that theory is actually a pile of garbage."
"Really?"
"Entirely. Whoever wrote it was a pessimist with no faith in humanity as a biological lifeform, they clearly saw Quirks as a deific gift of some kind that was so far beyond us, and that adoration of Quirks lead to negligence of the obvious.
We adapted to Quirks in one generation.
Yes some of us are born with mutations that make it difficult to safely use our own Quirks, but mutations happen in every species. Only ten in every hundred million people have those, and it's almost always because of a hereditary gene issue from a recent relative like a grandparent who was Quirkless.
As the generations keep going on there will be fewer Quirkless people. In my generation, less than 0.01% are Quirkless or born with such a mutation. Humans are annoyingly resilient, the earth wants us gone more than any other species, but we're stubborn.
Our bodies will naturally adapt along with Quirks, we won't just suddenly start being born with Quirks we can't handle, at least not on a large scale. There will only be a very rare few that have that issue. And I'm actually a perfect example of why this theory is garbage."
"You? How so?" Chitose asks.
"Think about it. Of all the people in this world, don't you think if this theory was real the two people with Mystery Class Quirks, would be the first to die..."
"Ah, that's an excellent point, I hadn't even considered that."
"Assuming reproduction rates remain as they are and all the people with the absolute strongest Quirks only have kids with each other. If we ignore the side effects of inbreeding, I've already estimated it'll take nearly 1300 years before the first person outside of a freak mutation, is naturally born with a Quirk comparable to mine or Star and Stripe's. Humanity will be fine."
"Well, I'm sure many people will be happy to hear that," Chitose sounds genuinely relieved, especially since it would now be easier to get people into the Meta Liberation Army. "So, is it entirely impossible?"
"In a world of superhumans nothing is impossible, especially when you consider that you're talking to the guy that can warp around and divide reality."
"That, was not the answer I wanted to hear, if I'm being honest."
"You don't have anything to worry about, the only way for a Quirk Singularity to occur would be if---"
Horizon freezes. Then leans forward, clearly deep in thought. All the pieces came together in his mind. Something so far-fetched that he didn't even consider it, especially since as far as he knows, he was the only person that can make it possible.
He completely forgets about the cameras on them as all the puzzle pieces come together...
"The Nomus," Horizon says in a low voice.
"I'm sorry but, what do you mean the Nomus?"
He sits up and looks at her, "the Nomus are the key. We've been looking at them all wrong. The cops and heroes think that the League of Villains just wants to destroy all heroes, but that's not a realistic plan.
They want control. Nomus aren't weapons or a labor force, at least not intentionally. That's why no two are the same. They're experiments, intentional and focused experiments.
Because people think that the Quirk Singularity will make people strong enough to end the world, and the only way to make that theory into reality is...to force multiple foreign Quirks into one body."
Chitose's eyes opened wide, horrified that not only had he figured this all out so quickly, but that someone was actually attempting this insane plan. "Can they pull that off?"
"It's not impossible, but I'll never be stable unless---" Horizon considers what they'd need to do, then shakes his head. "No, they can't do it. The best they'll be able to do is make stronger Nomu."
"So they plan to make an invincible Nomu?"
"No, Nomus are just failed trials...they plan to weaponize the Quirk Singularity, they plan to upgrade Shigaraki..."
END CHAPTER---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30+ chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
"What an unexpected outcome..." All For One's deep and shrill voice mutters quietly.
He was sitting in his dark room atop the large and comfortable chair, multiple life support devices plugged into him to help keep him stable.
And off to the side was a screen playing the final moments of Horizon's interview between himself and Chitose.
The entire interview took just over an hour, but for the future demon lord of Japan, it gave enough answers for a lifetime.
Standing beside All For One at the moment was Kurogiri, the most essential of all their Nomu, currently waiting patiently for any command his master gives.
"Call Ujiko," All For One commands, and the screen hears his voice and obeys.
"Master," Dr. Ujiko answers, his camera shut off so only his voice was coming through.
"I assume you saw that interview doctor..."
"Of course, and once again I must insist that we do away with those pathetic League Of Villain children. You only took control of the Paranormal Liberation Army weeks ago when this interview was announced, and look at how well they did with your instructions.
Perfectly executed, they got all the answers we needed out of Horizon, without alerting him of any villain involvement."
All For One sighs, once again having to deal with his friend being sick of sinking precious Nomu resources into Shigaraki's little games.
Kurogiri speaks up, "shall I transport Gigantomachi to terminate the League Of Villains master?"
All For One shakes his head, slightly annoyed that he seems to be the only person interested in keeping Shigaraki around. "No Kurogiri, I still have use for Tomura Shigaraki."
"Do you still intend to stick to your original plan?" Ujiko asks.
"No, we now have confirmation that the plan is unnecessary. I no longer need any successor, transferring my original Quirk into storage until Tomura is ready for it is pointless. And I certainly prefer using the superior original than the cloned version I would have had."
"Then why do we need the brat if you don't plan to pass everything down to him?"
"Because, my dear friend, I will live forever. But before that, I will use Tomura as an ace to wrench All Might's heart, my greatest heinous act to spite him, and Nana Shimura. Until then we shall keep Tomura in the dark about the Meta Liberation Army, so long as they don't clash we shall be fine."
"I shall inform Tomura of this new rule," Kurogiri says.
"Yes, now doctor, shall we discuss the exact contents of that interview? It seems Horizon is already lined up to the next Symbol Of Peace, I'd like to do something about that if possible, after I get healed."
"Hmm, do you still believe he can heal you?" Ujiko asks. "The risk is quite immense, exposing yourself to someone so close to All Might, it could be detrimental."
"Has he not proven his genius time and time again doctor?"
"Well, he has. Although I still believe my Quirk Singularity theory is correct, I can admit there is much merit in his analysis. His mind is wasted as a hero, just imagine all the things he could do without those silly things like 'Human Rights' and 'War Crimes' limiting him, nonsense ideals only made to hinder the progress of science...he could be truly great standing beside us."
"True. And he clearly has a deep understanding of Quirks and medicine. Not to mention his terrifying intellect and intuition, Aoyama was able to confirm many things, but listening to those many recordings of him talking in school is nothing compared to the way he so easily figured out our goals."
"He's a problem master."
"No Ujiko, he's the one and only solution. Because I now know that for certain he can heal me..."
"Hmm, perhaps we should sacrifice the spy and have him ask for some sort of confirmation. The moment you make contact they will surely find him, so it makes no difference. Not to mention the risk involved in revealing yourself is too great, they'll instantly be searching for you."
"A problem if I followed our backup plan. But now I shall retain my original Quirk, I have nothing to fear. But of course, this is assuming they'd ever find me. I have purposely kept crime low in this area since Horizon entered the scene. His omnipresence is quite problematic, I can't afford to have him anywhere near me."
"I see, and what exactly did he say that has you so sure that he can perform this operation?"
"Because he said he can."
"What?"
"You still fail at understanding people Ujiko, Horizon is a being of arrogance and absolute certainty in himself. When asked if creating a perfected Nomu was possible, his exact words were, 'they can't do it...', so he must think that he can."
"And with his track record, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch. But rebuilding someone from the genes up, even with a century of practice I'm still working on the process."
"Yes, but as brilliant as you are my friend, you aren't Horizon. Do remember that he's a living miracle doctor, you should try to have some faith..."
"Sigh, alright, but only because this man is our only hope at fully healing you."
"Thank you."
"But that leaves an even bigger problem now," Dr. Ujiko says. "Now we know he can heal you, how do we make an appointment?"
"Hmm," All For One falls deep into thought, considering his hundreds of contacts in and out of Japan that had enough leverage to make most people in the world do whatever he wants. But none of them could affect people like Nezu or Horizon.
They were the kind of individuals that nations would have gone to war for just centuries ago, they cannot be pressured by political or financial means. And he knew physically threatening Horizon wouldn't work, it would be the same as if he was threatened, and it would end very poorly.
His usual offer in cases like this would be a Quirk. Giving someone a second Quirk, a minor one that wouldn't overload their brain. That was enough to make most people do whatever he wants.
'His arrogance would see that as an insult, and we'd get into a pointless fight...'
"We need leverage," All For One says. "Aoyama reported that Horizon has no family, and from what he said during the interview I detected no lies."
"Classmates?" Ujiko asks.
"He doesn't particularly care about them."
"What about Principal Nezu? With an army of Nomus, Gigantomachia, yourself, and Kurogiri, it's possible."
"But unlikely, not to mention holding a hostage doesn't work with Horizon. I believe the best plan is to wait. One of my friends in the Hero Public Safety Commission gave me some interesting information and I'm trying to make certain connections. But it will be a week or more before any answers are found."
"That would leave two weeks before he heads to the training camp to meet up with his classmates, a perfect place for an ambush."
"Not an ambush doctor, just a chat. I have nothing to gain from fighting him, but everything to gain from bringing him to our side."
"I see, Shakedown is almost ready for such an encounter, either way, that is, it should be ready in ten days."
"Good, but I'd like to have as much information as possible before going into a potentially dangerous situation, at least now that I'm not as powerful as I once was, how about we provide a little exercise to Horizon..."
"Hmm, what do you suggest?" Ujiko asks.
"Let's just send a few demolition squads of Nomu into Tokyo and see how he does. Such an intense situation should force him to show more of his cards."
"Standard Nomu?"
"Mmm, no, I think it's about time he had a rematch with the Brainless, let's see exactly how much stronger he has become since the USJ..."
"This should provide useful information," Ujiko says. "Kurogiri, warp all the Nomu from lab 17 into Shibuya, I'm sending them a command to destroy everything and kill everyone..."
"Understood," Kurogiri says before expanding his Warp Gate and leaving the room...
While these plans were being made, just above the Shoowaysha publishing building, standing on his hoverboard 100 meters above the city, was Horizon.
Currently, he was apparently looking out at the massive Tokyo area, the skyline expanding beyond the reach of his vision, brightly lit to the point where he couldn't see any stars in the night sky.
But an important conversation was taking place in his visor at the moment.
"And you're sure about this?" Nezu asks from the other side of the call.
"Of course," Horizon says. "Cloning takes a lot of power and requires these preservatives and chemicals in bulk, track those shipments and you'll be one step closer to finding the Nomu production facility."
"Hmm, alright, I'll forward this to the police, but how did you figure out that they were cloning."
"How else would they have so many copies of Super Regeneration? It's a one in 300 million Quirk but they've had multiple Nomu with it, seems fishy. Not to mention at the rate they're burning through genetic material it makes sense to invest in cloning.
Cloning sentient beings is against humanitarian law, but clearly they don't care about those laws. And since only around 5% of Quirks can be used offensively in any useful capacity they can't just destroy every useful Quirk when a Nomu dies, they need spares."
"Curate as many useful Quirks as possible for when they operate on Shigaraki...how terrifying."
"Pretty much."
"But I must ask, what if a person was born with multiple Quirks? Would all of this be necessary?"
"What? That's a weird question," Horizon says.
"I'm simply curious."
"Ok, well...if you were born with multiple Quirks your body would have a safeguard so all of this wouldn't be necessary, not at all. You'd just exist like that and be fine," Horizon shrugs. "But it's not like that's possible. The way Quirks work there can't be one person with multiple Quirks."
"What do you mean?"
"The best way to describe it is like this, Quirks aren't attachments onto a person, they're part of a person. It's like adding a scope to a gun, the scope is the Quirk. Then you add a laser sight, in a sense that's another Quirk.
But the entire thing, the entire person is still one weapon, with appropriate attachments. That's why it all works together. So suddenly instead of a scope and a laser sight, the Quirk is just 'attachments' or something like that."
"Like Todoroki?"
"Exactly. If he was a Nomu he'd have Endeavor's Hellflame Quirk, and his mom's ice Quirk. But since he was born like that his genetic structure made it into one Quirk, half-hot half-cold.
Compared to that, Nomu is like the gun but instead of proper connectors you use tape to hold it all together, that's why they aren't fully stable, because the tape is always falling apart.
A person cannot be born with multiple Quirks, because when you're being made from the genes up they'll be treated as one Quirk, even if you have multiple abilities."
"I suppose we've grown so accustomed to Quirks that we identify abilities as Quirks rather than the Quirks themselves," Nezu says.
"Yeah, that's why Shoto's Quirk name is so stupid, Endeavor was clearly thinking of it as his Quirk and his wife's being in one body, but it's an entirely new Quirk..."
"I suppose I should add this to your Quirk Specialist data, along with your breakdown of the Nomu structure."
"Yeah, that'll----"
BOOM!
A loud explosion rattles the area, reaching all the way to Horizon from nearly 20km away.
"What was that?!" Nezu's panicked voice asks.
"Check the news, I'll call you back later---"
Horizon hangs up and begins racing into the city on his hoverboard, moving 100km/h.
Toward a massive skyscraper that was on it was down, about to flatten the streets around it that were already on fire...
END CHAPTER---
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