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CHAPTER START---
Sitting behind his desk early this morning, Nezu is checking the media response from All Might's official retirement last night.
Moments after the Hero Public Safety Commission made the statement the internet had a complete meltdown, as it always does when anything happens.
As expected the general public was terrified of a world without their Symbol Of Peace, and the villains were cheering.
He'd already built a program to track new villain recruitment groups online, and just overnight dozens of people got caught in the net.
But looking through them he only saw small fish.
"The League Of Villains must have a more intricate recruitment system, assuming they'd even bother bringing in people. Thus far aside from the Vanguard Action Squad members they only have Nomu with them...and whoever is making all the Nomu."
Sending the data to the police he moves over to the news websites, seeing much of the same panic and chaos.Then finally over to All Might's 'Yay!' account.
"Well this is surprising," Nezu says as he reads the most recent update.
It was a long-winded message from All Might to the world, as expected.
Going on and on about how thankful he was to have had the time to help people and shared how hopeful he is to see what the world will become in the future.
But what surprised him the most was the second part, about his injury
"He actually told people about All For One hurting him 5 years ago...and thanked Horizon specifically for repairing enough of the damage over a year ago, so he could 'vanquish his evil foe' once and for all."
Nezu hops over to Horizon's profile to see his follower count up by 10 Million overnight, and he immediately puts it together.
He then reads the end of All Might's post, about how committed he is to guide the next generation of heroes to the best of his ability.
"Well, I guess I should be ready for public backlash about him being here, but hopefully it should pass quickly."
After finishing up his analysis Nezu turns to the camera system to find his main investment.
"Hmm, new upgrades maybe?" He asks himself, watching Horizon speak to Mei outside of the Support Course building. He opens a new window on his computer and doesn't see any requested items from Horizon.
"He must now be putting in an order, well I'm sure between Ms. Hatsume and Power Loader it'll be fine."
A few seconds later Nezu sees Horizon abruptly turn his head toward the entrance of the school, and another second later Hanta Sero appears on the lawn beside them. Carrying a suitcase at his side.
His other items were already being sent over later today.
The three students chat for a while before Mei shoves them away, clearly too excited over whatever idea they just gave her to keep chatting with them.
As Horizon warps them away, Nezu notices how disheveled Mei is, but he doesn't think much of it. Support Course students were normally too busy working to care about appearances.
"Well...aside from that one Year-2 girl," he recalls the Culture Festival beauty pageant winner from last year.
Suddenly there is a knock at the door, drawing Nezu's attention away from his work.
"Come in!"
The door opens and in steps Yagi, wearing a similar tracksuit to what he had on yesterday. His arm was no longer in a sling but still tightly bandaged up.
"Principal Nezu."
"All Might, how are you feeling?"
"Better than yesterday at least."
"Mhm, you should be resting."
"Even if I wanted to, I can't sleep anymore," he makes his way over to one of the couches and sits down while Nezu continues working. "I can't stop thinking about what Horizon said yesterday."
"Which part?"
"About Inko Midoriya hating me for endangering her son like that. About young Izuku never being allowed to be a hero again. About her likely forcing him to give up One For All entirely."
"All extremely likely, if not absolute certainties," Nezu says. "And what do you intend to do about it?"
"I don't know. I was actually hoping you'd have some answers for me."
"Hmm, well, maybe it's just time to be honest, about everything."
"But she already knows everything," Yagi says.
"About the Quirk yes. But she doesn't know why you chose Midoriya. You could have picked anyone, but you picked her son. He may not have been your first pick, but he is the successor you chose."
"Yeah, thankfully you warned me against giving my power to Horizon, now that I've been around him for longer I'm sure I made the right choice with Midoriya."
"I suggest you tell her that part too," Nezu says. "People look to Horizon as a golden standard for what Hero Course students should be, and on paper, he is. But we both know he lacks the heroic spirit, and that's what you saw in her son."
Yagi smiles at that, now absolutely sure he made the right choice in Izuku Midoriya, "yeah, I'm sure she'll understand."
Nezu gives the delusionally hopeful man a nervous smile, having dealt with parents after their children get hurt. He knows fully well that they're anything but reasonable, and Inko Midoriya had every right to be absolutely furious at All Might.
"Well, you've got a few hours to prepare, I'll be sure to call you when they get here," Nezu says.
---11 AM, Training Ground Zeta...
In Horizon's personal training ground, both he and Sero were standing opposite each other at one end of the site.
Horizon was currently wearing just a pair of shorts and sneakers over his body glove, matching the blue and white with his logo on them of course.
Sero was wearing a pair of simple gym shoes, black shorts, and a white t-shirt, both were bloodied and battered and stained with sweat, much like the owner.
Standing with his hands squared up Sero's hair was soaked with sweat and matted to his head. His face was bruised and swollen with cuts on it from all the sparring.
His forearms especially were bruised purple with pieces of skin torn off.
As his breathing was tired and uneven, Horizon stood there casually with one hand at his side and the other in front of him.
Sero's back was currently to the wall, so he moved forward, trying desperately to finally get a hit on Horizon.
With a wild right hook, he launches forward.
Horizon knocks it aside before punching him in the gut with the same hand.
"Ngh!" Sero stumbles back.
CRACK!
The same fist knocks out some of Sero's teeth.
The sound of them clattering to the floor is closely followed by Sero dropping face-first against the concrete.
He spits up blood and groans, desperately fighting to stay awake.
He's seen what Horizon's punches can really do, he knew all morning his friend had been going easy on him.
But that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.
This was a new kind of pain, this pain felt different.
"Nghhhhhh!" Sero moves a hand to feel his mouth, crying out in pain when he feels his busted-up gums and teeth, his mouth was already swollen.
Looking up he sees Horizon, still completely flawless, walking around as if they hadn't been training for almost four hours.
"Oh don't be such a fucking baby," Horizon says. "Anything I do to you I'll fix when we're done, how else are we supposed to do it all over again tomorrow."
Sero hears this and reaches up to feel his mouth, another jolt of pain has tears forming in his eyes.
He knew what he signed up for, but he didn't think Horizon was serious when he said it would be this bad.
"Oh great, now it's crying," Horizon says in palpable disgust as he looks back. "You need to get back on your feet, now! Don't you know the longer you stay down the longer you get your ass beat, that goes for fights and life, so get up!"
"Arughhh!" Sero tries to get up only to crumple back to the floor, his body tensing up and aching as pain wracks him.
Horizon begins pacing back and forth in front of him, his patience melting away by the second.
"We've only got 2 weeks before everyone else gets here to finish the training camp! If you wanna get stronger, this is the change! You've got a long way to go, and this is how I'll make you stronger!
I'm gonna beat you, break you, and you're gonna get back up. Because none of it matters if you don't get up Sero.
We aren't moving onto Quirk training if you can't even get up from this. If you can't even function in a normal fight!"
Horizon looks over to see Sero finally on his hands and knees, but it took far too long.
"Did you come here just to waste my fucking time?!" He walks over and kicks him in the side, sending him rolling across the floor and leaving him laid out on the ground yet again. "You took too damn long, now get on your feet, faster!"
Sero can barely breathe, feeling his newly cracked ribs pinching him with every forced breath, trying to roll to get himself upright.
He pushes his forehead against the ground to start getting himself up, tears and blood fall to the concrete in unison as he pushes off it with his tired, bloody, sore hands.
"Finally!" Horizon says as he sees him get to his knees. "Mom had me doing this shit when I was 5, you're lucky she's not the one training you today...hell we won't even have time to get to the really fun stuff before graduation, so I'll only give you the basics. But that's all you'll need anyway."
With one final push, Sero forces himself to his feet. Holding his cracked ribs and swaying on his feet, tears running down his face and blood flowing out of his busted teeth and gums and onto his shirt.
"Finally," Horizon walks up and raises a hand to hold his face, and Sero flinches, "relax, healing time."
Sero sees the blue healing energy forming in his palm and closes his eyes. He feels a strange yet soothing sensation envelop his entire body.
The pain in his side and chest slowly fades away as his breathing becomes regular. He feels the swelling on his face go down and his lips and mouth return to normal.
And the most odd sensation of them all, he feels his teeth growing back as they push his lips away, gums repairing themselves perfectly.
Sero opens his eyes to see Horizon standing in front of him expectantly, he turns to the side and spits out the blood and pieces of teeth that the new ones pushed out.
'His mom must have been a monster to train a kid like that,' Sero thinks, but wisely keeps it to himself.
"See, no need to be such a little bitch about it, you're perfectly fine," Horizon says, taking a step back from Sero. "Now put your hands up, let's go again..."
"But I feel all sore," Sero says even as he raises his hands to fight.
"That's a placebo effect, your body can't tell it's healed because cellular regeneration happens so quickly, you'll still be tired but slightly less so at least, now less talking more fighting, Cellophane..."
Hearing that Sero rushes into another session of pain, but this time with a wide grin on his face, now absolutely confident in Horizon.
---2 PM...
Sitting in a shady forested area of UA, Sero was below a tree with his lunch.
A container with spaghetti, meatballs, a side of steak slices, and four boiled eggs, alongside a bottle of water.
He was currently staring down at the delicious meal, but the thing that scared him the most...the sheer amount of food it was.
He was sure the container was the size of his head.
"Maybe I'll just get used to it..." he mutters before digging in.
He certainly wouldn't complain, his situation was changing for the best with the new changes at UA.
He now had the fancy new dorms instead of the tiny 1-bedroom apartment he and his dad shared. His dad no longer had to pay for him to travel to and from school 6 days a week.
And now Horizon was paying for all his meals to be prepared and delivered by a nearby company.
But that last one is what bothered him so much.
When Horizon agreed to help him he expected just some basic training and advice. But it seems Horizon is obsessive with doing the best he can to keep to his end of the deal.
Now Sero is under a lot of pressure not to disappoint. Because when he's good enough Horizon is gonna help him get the boost he needs, to properly launch his own career, and the very last thing he wants to do is disappoint him.
'But this is just so much food...' Sero thinks as he looks down, only to notice half the food is already gone. 'Wow, I guess I was more hungry than I realized, never mind.'
SHAMBLES!
Horizon suddenly appears a few feet away from Sero, holding two pizzas in one hand, and with his other hand wrapped around Mei, who was holding their drinks.
"Enjoying your food?" Horizon asks, and Sero just gives him a thumbs up as he continues eating.
As they both sit down to join him, Sero looks over to Mei, noticing that she literally looks like she got hit by a bomb.
Her clothes were spotted with black ash and she sat down with her pink hair all frizzy.
"Are you ok Hatsume?"
"Lab explosion, it happens," she says as if it were the most normal thing in the world, then before Sero can say anything else she reaches out and grabs Horizon's left hand.
Horizon was currently eating a slice of pizza with his right hand and turned to look at her, "you built it already?"
"Mhm, take off the watch," she says, noticing his Rolex was still on.
"Shambles," he warps it onto his right hand.
She fishes into her pocket for a second and takes out what looks like a flat white bracelet, with his logo on it. That familiar checkered smile logo that's on everything he wears.
She puts it on his wrist the leans away, "ok, now link it to your phone and set what you want to display. It should link to the visor too through the phone."
"Hmm alright," Horizon takes out his phone and quickly connects it, and it projects a small screen across his forearm, currently displaying his vitals. He slaps his watch other it to help keep it hidden while displaying the screen. "It's perfect, thank Mei."
"Just remember to say who made it on that website of yours alright."
"Yeah yeah, I know."
As Mei begins eating Sero leans over and gives the screen a confused look, "but can't you already monitor your vitals with Hand Of God, why do you need this?"
"It's for more than just my vitals, sometimes I just need to view more data when running some cases," he says.
But that was only half true. This was almost entirely so he can monitor his vital whenever he experiences an 'Overload' and blacks out because of the new Quirks.
This device, in theory, would help him figure out what's wrong with himself.
"---wait so your dorm is finally ready?" Mei asks Horizon, after they're all done eating.
"Yeah, Nezu just sent me the message, I'm checking it out right now, seems perfect," Horizon says while looking in the direction of his room.
"That's still super creepy," Sero says. "How does that work anyway?"
"Eh, think of it like echolocation, but it's super precise. Like I can get a view of someone, what's in their pockets, count how many pieces of candy is in a pack, or if I felt like it I could just see what they're like under the clothes," Horizon shrugs.
A cold shiver runs down Sero's spine, "that last one is super pervy, do you actually do that?"
"No, I'm too classy for that," Horizon says flatly.
Sero's eyes shift over to Mei, seeing her completely unbothered, "this doesn't bother you at all?"
"Huh, why would it bother me, he's already seen me naked a few times," Mei shrugs.
And Sero's brain begins melting, "oh...oh! Sorry I didn't realize you two were a...sorry!"
"We aren't a couple, and stop being weird," Horizon says.
"Yeah, I don't have time to waste on boys!" Mei declares proudly, "I've got babies to make!"
"Uh..." Sero gets confused all over again. "But...don't you need boys to make ba---"
"Gadgets, she means gadgets, oh my god," Horizon groans. "Just keep this between us alright."
"Got it," Sero gives them both a serious nod. "But speaking of Hero Equipment, shouldn't I---"
"Yes!" Mei yells out, eyes lit up and ready to work.
"No," Horizon shuts them down. "When he's mastered his Quirk enough then he can use them, otherwise they'll just be a crutch..."
They both frown at him, but can't deny the logic in that.
Horizon suddenly turns toward the main campus, "damn," he mutters.
"What happened?" Sero asks.
Inko Midoriya slapped the taste out of All Might's mouth is what happened.
"Uh...nothing, we should get back to training, and I'm sure Mei has some stuff to do," he turns to her, "I'll warp you over later, alright."
"I want some chocolate."
"I'll figure something out..."
As they're packing up he senses Inko now hugging All Might as she's crying her eyes out, 'should have expected that, it did make Deku after all...'
END CHAPTER---