Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30+ chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
SHAMBLES!
Horizon suddenly appears at the UA pool, immediately noticed by all the girls of class 1A and 1B enjoying the mid-day sun.
They all immediately stop their volleyball game in the pool and stare at him, noticing his new body glove with the separations, appearing like armored plates.
"It's like a mini All Might..." Setsuna can't help but blurt out, earning a set of nods from the others.
Horizon was now standing at 194cm -6ft4- and 260lbs -118kg-, completely filled out with muscles, all exaggerated by the design of his body glove, a terrifyingly imposing figure.
While all the girls were wearing their UA one-piece swimsuits, effectively a skin-tight pair of shorts and t-shirt, Horizon had on a pair of shorts and a hoodie over his body glove, all in the same blue and white colors.
None of them even noticed the laptop in his hand, too busy ogling him. And Toru hides behind Momo.
"I'll go get the boys!" Mina says as she hops out of the pool and runs off, snapping them all out of their daze.
"I'm gonna get some work done, try not to bother me," Horizon says to the girls. He turns to make his way to the furthest of all the plastic tables and chairs set up in the shade, all in red and black, Momo's creations.
"You really can't come in?" Kendo asks, causing him to turn back toward them and sigh.
He taps his visor, "I don't like getting the body glove wet, and if the visor fills with whatever it feels similar to getting waterboarded...so no thanks."
"Oh, that's too bad I guess."
"It's fine," Horizon tells her, "it's not like I'd get in that even if I could...it's all fun and games until Kaminari sneezes..." Some of them wince at that mental image.
All the girls watch him walk away, noticing his logo on the side of his shorts and the back of his hoodie.
"Does everything he wears have his logo on it?" Setsuna asks, a short girl with sharp teeth, large eyes, and green hair.
"Yes," all the 1A girls respond at once in the same tired tone.
"He's a lot bigger than I thought, it's pretty intense," Kinoko Komori says. A short girl whose head was barely above the water, eyes covered by the large mop of brown hair stuck to her head.
"He's been bulking, a lot," Momo says with a slight blush on her face. "But yes his physique is quite, mmm...intense."
Kendo rolls her eyes, already fed up with her friend from 1A, then splashes Momo, "you know if you said that to his face...visor? Is there a face under there? Whatever, if you said that to him you'd probably get somewhere, it'd be better than just living with a crus---"
Momo tackles Kendo and slaps a hand across her mouth to shut her up, and Jiro just sinks up to her neck into the water, hoping Kendo doesn't set her sights on her next.
And all of this happens, devolving into a splash fight while Ibara is just glaring at him, remembering the only small conversation they've ever had.
Setting up his laptop and connecting it to the Hero Network, Horizon begins working as all the 1A boys enter. All were wearing UA swim trunks. Horizon notices Sero instantly make a beeline toward Kodai and just shakes his head, delving into his work.
'Last known locations...' Horizon is typing away and marking points on a map of Tokyo. The massive region had almost a hundred red pins all across it, but he eventually noticed a pattern.
'Ok, so Stain kills 6 people in each area before the Hero Presence gets increased then he hops to the other side of Tokyo...makes sense, they'd move the stronger Pros where they think he is.
So that's why he's mostly killed D-listers so far. Picking off the weakest of the pack, makes sense.'
Horizon pulls up a list of Heroes, trying to find any connection between them, and at first, he finds nothing. Until...
'There we go. All D-list losers that can't do shit, aside from Inginium at least. Plus they all had a stack of branding and endorsement contracts, completely going against his ideology of being a hero as a service instead of a job.
He doesn't randomly attack heroes, he tracks them. He's more like a hero hunter, or a creepy stalker.
He just got done in the outer region of Tokyo...so the next place would be, Shinjuku.'
Horizon looks up to see the other students setting up a game of water polo with a net Momo made, then focuses back on the screen.
'Top heroes in Shinjuku Tokyo...' before long he finds his target, or more accurately, his bait.
'Reacher...the stretchy arm hero, honestly Stain, you'd be doing us a favor...'
He continues compiling the data and double-checking his thesis along with a few others. Hoping to catch Stain before his interview Saturday night, five days away.
Leaning back after an hour of working he sees almost everyone getting out of the pool. He also notices Momo and Sato missing.
ROOM!
He immediately finds them at the entrance to the school collecting a stack of pizzas, fifteen boxes high.
Since UA is already closed for the summer Lunch Rush isn't available, so other arrangements were made.
Closing his ROOM and ignoring everyone again he puts the finishing touches on his plan, taking out his phone and checking Reacher's public 'Yay!' profile.
'The idiot is always uploading, still working in Shinjuku, guess I'll head to Tokyo tomorrow and keep an eye on him.
The cops must have found this pattern by now, but I guess they either didn't connect the final part. I guess it makes sense, Stain operates like a more sloppy version of how I'd plan hits with mom.
He's clearly got some training in guerilla warfare, and I hear he uses a sword, could be fun.'
"Hey, mind if I join you?" Horizon looks up to see Sero holding a pizza box in his hand, and two cans of cold soda in the other, already taking a seat beside him at the rectangular table.
Horizon was currently sitting at the head on one end with Sero to his right.
"I'm surprised you aren't eating with your girlfriend," Horizon says as he takes a slice of pizza.
All the other tables were quickly filling up as everyone got out of the pool to eat, and Horizon noticed Kendo making her way over to him and Sero.
"Dude it's really not like that," Sero says.
"Yes, it is," Kendo sits at the other head of the table with a paper plate in hand carrying her pizza, and a can of soda in the other. "C'mon everyone knows you like Yui."
"What!" Everyone stops what they're doing and turns to look at their table, causing Sero to just pretend he didn't yell anything. "I mean, I don't know what you're talking about."
"C'mon, it's super obvious, you should just tell her already," Kendo says. "I'm pretty sure she knows and is just waiting, if she didn't like you she wouldn't spend so much time with you anyway."
"What? Really?" Sero asks.
"Do you really think she'd spend so many lunch breaks eating with someone from another class just because...really?"
Sero looks genuinely confused, "but you eat with Horizon all the time, does that mean---"
"No," Kendo chuckles at that. "I almost did at first...then I spoke to him and I realized," she looks up at Horizon. "No offense, but you're kinda the worst."
"You're objectively wrong," Horizon says. "I'm the best thing that could ever happen to any of you."
Kendo raises a brow at that. "Do you not remember the first time you spoke to Ibara?"
"Hey I call it as I see it, and I don't waste time when I talk."
"She didn't deserve that."
"Yes, she did," Horizon says. "I mean c'mon, who walks up to someone and asks them to repent and go to church to 'cleanse their soul,' that's not normal."
"She means well, and you didn't have to call her...that."
"Well in my defense," Horizon says. "If she wasn't such a 'god-fearing cultist cunt,' I wouldn't have called her that."
"Heathen," Ibara says, standing a few meters away and clearly eavesdropping as she gets her food.
Horizon looks directly at her, "pretentious nun..."
"Ok stop it," Kendo says loudly, stopping this from escalating any further...again.
"You need to repent," Ibara says, completely ignoring Kendo.
"Well I'd say 'go fuck yourself,' but you people still think that'll send you to some fire pit right?"
Ibara's vine hair stands up and Kendo hops out of her chair, then raises her hands to try and calm her down.
"He is a disgusting being!" Ibara tells Kendo, and before she can respond Horizon speaks up from behind her, still casually eating a slice of pizza.
"In all the best ways babe, give up the chastity vow and I'll show you..."
A single vein bulges on Ibara's forehead, then a moment later she takes a deep breath and calms down. "Violence against thy neighbor is not the way of the lord," she says before walking to the other side of the shaded area to join Kodai and Toru.
Kendo huffs and returns to her seat, giving Horizon an annoyed look. "You know as a Class Rep and HERO, you're supposed to de-escalate situations like that, not make them worse."
"Oh please, if she did anything I would have just warped her to the other side of UA, she could use the walk to calm down."
"That's still awful."
"Whatever, can we get back to this moron now," Horizon gestures at Sero.
"Can we not?" Sero asks.
"So anyway, why haven't you just asked out Yui yet?" Horizon asks.
"It's not that easy man."
"Uh, it literally is---"
"What's easy?" Momo asks as she and Jiro join the table with their meals, sitting to the left side of Horizon, with Jiro closest to him.
"Sero is being a pussy about asking out Yui," Horizon shrugs.
"Oh that," Jiro says.
"You guys know too?" Sero facepalms, now even more embarrassed.
"Dude you told Mina, all the girls in our group chat knows about it, including Kodai."
"That blabbermouth is the only reason I'm even here anyway, girl can't keep anything to herself," Horizon grumbles.
"What do you mean?" Momo asks.
"Well when you made this pool party for the girls from our classes, she told Kirishima, then he told Sero, then Sero asked me to come so he could talk to Kodai and see her in a swimsuit," Horizon says. "I only came so he could ask her out, otherwise I'd be in Tokyo right now..."
"I thought you came because I explained that this is a great opportunity for our classes to bond?" Momo asks.
"What? Don't be stupid, why would I ever care about something like that? I'm here because Mei has some equipment for me, wouldn't have come to the pool if Sero wasn't begging me."
"I didn't beg," Sero says.
"I have the chat Sero...it was pathetic."
Sero opens his mouth to respond, but just closes it and accepts his fate.
"Too bad Shodai couldn't make it," Kendo says. "Without him, the boys from our class couldn't come, since he's the male Class Rep...technically the overall Vice Representative."
"The short silver-haired guy?" Jiro asks. "I thought Tetsutetsu was the Vice Rep..."
"Nope, it's Shodai."
"What's his Quirk?" Horizon immediately asks.
"Oh, Twin Impact, he gets to remotely trigger a second impact after making contact with something, it's pretty cool and unpredictable," Kendo says.
"Honestly I'm kinda glad they couldn't make it," Jiro admits. "Kirishima and Tetsutetsu together always gives me a headache."
Everyone at the table nods in agreement.
After a few moments, Sero asks something that's been bugging him a bit.
"Hey Horizon, why are you so adamant that I ask out Yui? I mean...aren't you all about being the best Hero or something, I figured you'd see girls as a distraction or something."
"A life without love isn't really worth living," he says casually, causing all the nearby tables to fall silent and glance over at him, never expecting to hear something like that.
"You sound like you talk from experience..." Momo says.
"Yeah, I do. I figure if you're interested in someone, you owe it to yourself to tell them, because one day they're here, and the next they're gone. Especially in a career path like ours," everyone immediately thinks of Iida. "You can't afford to waste time, because before you know it, they're gone and you're all alone..."
"But, what if they say no?" Sero asks.
"Then don't be a pussy, just get over it..."
All the girls who were listening sighed in disappointment.
'So romantic, but he had to ruin it at the end.'
After a few minutes of casual chatter, all while Sero was deep in thought, Kendo nudges Momo.
Momo gives her a confused glance, before Kendo gestures to Horizon, then stares directly at Jiro.
She was the only girl who knew about their shared crush, mainly from Momo confessing about it one night at their internship with Uwabami.
Both girls pretend not to know what she's trying to get them to do, so Kendo decides to raise the stakes.
"So Horizon," she calls out to him, causing him to look up from the messages Mei just sent him. "Since you're so gun-ho about people dating and following their passion for one another...what if, let's say, I liked you?"
END---
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (30+ chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
"So Horizon," she calls out to him, causing him to look up from the messages Mei just sent him. "Since you're so gun-ho about people dating and following their passion for one another...what if, let's say, I liked you?"
The entire area falls silent, and Kendo almost flinches at the glare Momo was shooting at her, while Jiro was just staring with wide eyes...
"Hng!" Kendo tries and fails at keeping a straight face, flinching as a sharp jolt of pain shoots through her leg, casting an annoyed glance at Momo.
The girl had kicked her as if she was trying to break her shin below the table.
Horizon sighs, then looks over at Momo and Jiro, making it obvious that he knows exactly what's happening.
Both girls look at him in horror, realizing that he's known for a while about their feelings.
But they were completely mortified, petrified with fear and embarrassment, not wanting to react and make what was happening even more obvious.
He turns to Kendo, "well, in theory, if I knew someone had a crush on me I'd hope they come to their senses. My life is already filled with enough things pulling me in every direction, don't need to add romance to the mix."
"I see," Kendo leans forward, propping up her chin on her hand. "But what if I was too interested in you, that no matter how much of a jerk all my friends say you are, I just can't stop myself."
Those words hit Momo and Jiro like an arrow to the heart, having spent many conversations trying to convince themselves to just get over him.
"I feel like you're too smart for that," Horizon says. "Plus I'm not your type."
"Yeah that's true, I prefer passionate and direct guys who are actually kind and nice to people...definitely not you, mostly because of that last part, but can you please humor me?"
Horizon sighs, "fine, I guess we're doing this," he sits back in his chair and thinks for a moment. "Well, if a girl liked me I wouldn't mind, so long as she's actually cute."
"What's your definition of cute?"
"Eh, if she's not fat we can judge from there," he shrugs.
"What if it's her Quirk?"
"Then I'm sure she can find some guy out there that will accept her as she is...but I don't date fat girls."
"How can you say that?" Jiro asks. "You aren't supposed to body shame people, what kind of Hero are you?"
"This is being a hero," Horizon says jokingly. "Maybe if I shame them enough they'll hit the gym, see, I'm saving lives, protecting them from heart attacks."
Jiro is about to start an argument but Kendo interrupts, "ok what else."
"Well, it'd have to be casual if you and I started dating, hypothetically."
"Obviously hypothetically."
"And of course I'd have fun with other beautiful women," Horizon shrugs, and everyone looks at him with either confusion or disgust.
Kendo blinks a few times then comes to her senses, completely thrown for a loop by that last bit of information. "What do you mean?"
"What? I figured it's self-explanatory, you would be my girlfriend and I'd occasionally have fun with other women."
Kendo looks even more confused, her brain slowly frying as she tries to make sense of this, Momo and Jiro were completely frozen, and Jiro looked disgusted by the very idea.
All while the others were staring in bewilderment.
"Ok," Kendo snaps her fingers. "So you'd want an open relationship?"
"Yeah, but only on my side."
Kendo just looks even more confused. "But, how is that fair?"
"It's not," he says without missing a beat.
"B-but...what?" Kendo gives up trying to understand on her own. "Why?"
"Because, I'm Horizon," he sees everyone still looking at him confused, and judging by the look Jiro was giving him she probably wanted to stab him, but Momo didn't seem all that surprised the more she thought about it.
"Let me explain it like this, alright. So I'm impossibly rich, influential, powerful. World leaders have me on speed dial and are sending me emails every other day with offers of insane proportions to move to their countries.
They're willing to do some insane things if I ask. Not to mention I'm one of the single most powerful combatants in the world...all at 16.
Add this to the fact that eventually, I want to have a family of my own, and at that point, she'd have to do nothing but be beautiful, make some babies, not fuck other guys, and deal with the house stuff while I'm out performing the occasional miracle.
I'm literally a golden ticket to the easy life for any woman lucky enough to catch my eye.
I'm standing at the top of the world, I'm irreplaceable and peerless. And all of this for the low low price, of me getting to fuck whoever I want.
All while my girlfriend or wife or whatever is completely taken care of.
See I literally cannot be replaced, I'm the grand prize at the top of the top shelf.
Hmm, seems unfair to you?"
They all think about it for a moment, and it leaves a rancid taste in Kendo's mouth, but she can see his logic at least.
"Ok, that sort of makes sense, even if it's a bit weird..." Kendo says.
"Unless you're a king...or even better, Horizon," he says jokingly. "History is my blueprint on this."
"Ok, but what if a girl you like isn't ok with this?" Kendo asks.
"Tch, so what? I'm too good for any of them, plus beautiful women are everywhere in my world, she'd easily be replaced."
BAM!
Jiro slams her palms onto the table and jumps up to her feet, glaring down at Horizon with venom in her teary eyes.
"You! You! You sexist misogyni---"
SHAMBLES!
She's suddenly swapped for a leaf somewhere on campus.
"Sorry but I don't have any tolerance for crap like that," Horizon says. "She'll walk back in a minute or two..."
"Well, that could have gone a lot better," Kendo sighs as everyone tries to awkwardly pretend that didn't just happen.
"Yeah well, now you know what I'm all about..."
While the casual chatter began once more, and some people dove back into the pool, Momo sat at the edge of the pool staring at nothing in particular.
Taking in everything Horizon said moments ago.
Realizing that both she and Jiro were hesitant to say anything outright to Horizon. Partly because they were scared, and partly because they simply enjoyed things as they were, with the three of them being friends.
'If he even considers us friends and not just classmates,' Momo thinks.
But she will admit that part of her still wanted more, she'd never had a crush before, and being homeschooled she'd never even had a friend before. So they were both very important people to her.
Growing up in an environment where arranged business marriages weren't uncommon she understood exactly what Horizon meant.
'He's truly standing at the top of the world, so why would he ever settle for anything less...than everything...'
But her best friend, Kyoka Jiro, was raised in a much more...modern culture.
Momo can't help but frown as she looks at the water moving about as her friends swim. Realizing that it would be difficult to keep them both close to her if she ever moved forward with her crush, assuming she'd ever work up the courage.
And that Kyoka would never indulge her idea of how this could work out for all of them...
Eventually, Jiro silently walked back into the pool area and just sat beside Momo, still fuming mad.
Partly angry at Horizon, for even suggesting something that clashed with her worldview so heavily.
But far more enraged at herself...because she didn't completely hate the idea.
And both girls just sat in silence for a long while before forcing themselves to try and enjoy the rest of the day.
An hour later Eraser Head comes by and shuts down the fun, telling everyone their pool time was up.
And as everyone shuffles out of the pool area Horizon is still sitting at the table finalizing some things for his summer Hero plans.
"You know you could have handled that a lot better," Kendo says, staying behind a bit as everyone else heads to the showers.
"I prefer to be honest with what I want, besides, hopefully now they'll get over that crush they have."
"Why didn't you just tell them that you're not interested?"
"Because I wouldn't turn down some casual fun, but I figured they'd lose interest once they know what I'm all about."
"And you really never planned to just confront it?" Kendo takes a seat beside him.
"I was hoping they'd get over it over the next month. From tomorrow you'll all be going off to the training camp. No phone or contact with the outside world, including me, for a few weeks. Usually that'll kill a crush, right?"
"Right," Kendo smacks herself on the forehead. "Unless I make you give them something to think about all camp...damn it."
"Yup, you're a moron."
"Hey! I was trying to help my friends face their problems head-on."
"Seems to me like you were just meddling in things that don't concern you."
Kendo rolls her eyes at that, "well considering all the rants I've had to listen to about how great or how cool you are from them, I think it concerns me..."
"Well, in their defense, I am amazing."
"Ugh, whatever. What've you been researching here anyway?"
"Oh, by the time you get back from camp I should have already caught Stain," Horizon says as if it's no big deal.
"Stain! Seriously?!"
"He shouldn't be a problem, it's just another villain anyway."
Kendo is almost creeped out by how casual Horizon is about his target. "So you aren't doing this for revenge or anything?"
"Revenge? For what? Iida?"
"Yeah."
"Nope, he's just another name on the list, nothing more and nothing less."
"Well, I guess that's one way to look at it. Most people really don't like anyone that kills heroes, especially Tetsutetsu."
"Steel boy? Why?"
"Some villain killed his dad about a year ago, that's why he joined UA, to protect other people from things like that, just like his dad."
"Who was his dad?"
"Oh, he was the number 14 Pro Hero at the time, Chrome."
"Oh, I heard about that, unfortunate..." Horizon says, remembering when he killed Chrome on the roof during that fight at the start of this.
"Yeah, well anyway I should go change, and I need to go apologise to Momo and Jiro, I honestly expected that to go a lot better than it did."
"Good luck with that, I'm gonna check on my gear."
A few moments later.
SHAMBLES!
Horizon appears in Mei Hatsume's design studio, seeing the girl work on what appears to be the internal wiring of a piece of chest armor.
"Mei," he calls out, only to get ignored as she grunts in frustration at the noncompliant tech. "Mei!"
She pauses and turns around, glaring at him, "your new visors are on the table," she says harshly then points at the far table, a small metal case the size of a shoebox on it.
"Stressed out?" Horizon asks, a calm and amused tone in his voice.
Mei huffs, "yeah, this damn thing keeps burning out."
"Mmm, maybe you should relax a bit."
Mei takes a closer look at him, noticing that this time he didn't come in uniform or Hero Costume.
"You don't have a tie on, and I don't think I've got anything here that---"
"It'll be fine," Horizon says, walking over to the light switch and raising his finger to it. "Don't need a blindfold in the dark..."
END CHAPTER---
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