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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene (Unlimited chapters ahead)
CHAPTER START---
---7:33 AM...
Walking around the living room in his penthouse, Horizon is constantly looking at the hologram being projected up from his coffee table.
It was a 3D map of this very building, the top two floors where the penthouse was had been colored green.
The remainder was the standard blue with small patches of red in certain areas.
He had returned from the party at almost 4 am, got an hour of sleep then got right back to work.
After doing some research and putting out some of his contacts underground to look into the would-be kidnappers, he set that matter aside and came out here to focus.
Leaving Ryuko in his bed, and luckily Sero was already asleep in his own room by the time he got back.After giving the plans another look he takes out his phone and calls the contractor, not connecting it to his visor, wanting the man to hear his slightly mechanical voice.
"Good morning sir!" the man answers excitedly. "Is everything alright?"
"Perfectly fine," Horizon says. "I just got done looking at the revised plans you sent. This is exactly what I wanted, start immediately."
"That's perfect, I already have the machinery and men on standby. I'll send people over to get the job site ready later today."
"Right, and about the two-month project completion time?"
"Well, we'll be gutting most of the floors, breaking down walls and building new ones. Its much faster than making a whole new building but it'll still take time. Not to mention the time also includes setting up the equipment you requested and furnishing. You won't get this done faster with anyone else, we've got more licensed Quirk users working for us than any other construction firm in Tokyo..."
"I remember," Horizon says. "And you're already faster than the second-best option. But I'm raising the completion time bonus. As I'm sure you can imagine, the faster I have a building with everything I need in it the faster I can improve my efficiency. And improved efficiency means ---"
"More lives saved, yes sir," the man says. "Well depending on the bonus I can leverage some men or equipment from some of our smaller jobs."
"I'm tripling the bonus, and I'll have food trucks at the site for lunch every day, on me."
"Well, that, I mean," the man stutters for a moment.
"I trust you to get this done as quickly and efficiently as possible, while doing quality work. I can do that, right?"
"Of course! We won't let you down."
"Good, now I need to get to work, have a good day."
"You too sir."
Horizon hangs up, taking one last look at the building plans. And a few minutes later he was sitting on the couch, in the middle with his arms spread across the backrest on either side of him.
He was honestly amazed by the scope of what he was doing, he was already sitting in 'Horizon Tower', a monument reaching the sky with his logo on the front of it. The slightly creepy smiling face looked down at the city below.
And now here he was, improving it to further suit his needs. A not-so-small fortune was thrown at various companies to make the most efficient all-in-one Hero Agency in the world.
"Do you ever stop working?" Ryuko walks in, seeing him sitting on the couch now.
"Says the sexy blonde that's with me because of how hard I work..." he says jokingly as she drops onto the couch beside him, leaning into him and resting her head against his side.
Looking down at her he finally gets a proper view of what she slept in. One of his t-shirts hung off her, white with his logo on the front. A pair of blue pajama pants, and some fuzzy slippers.
Her hair was currently a mess, but he's seen her in much more disheveled states.
She points at the hologram, "is this where we are?"
"Mhm, Horizon Tower."
"Well, you never claimed to be humble."
"For the record, I didn't pick the name, the news reporters that learned about me buying it started calling it that, then the name stuck."
"But I know you, and you would have named it that either way, right?"
"Mmm, maybe. It is the largest Hero Agency in the world, atleast when it's completed."
"Mhm," Ryuko nods. "Ours was just a small house in the mountains. Even Jeanist and Hawks only have 5-story buildings. I guess you, All Might, and Endeavor are the only people with big buildings huh? But this is like twice the size of Endeavors, and All Might's was half that size..."
"Size matters...but you also have to know how to use it."
"Ugh, no dick jokes please, you're better than that."
"Whatever, but technically this isn't a Hero Agency until I have my full Pro Hero license. I can't even sell merch while I have a Provisional License."
Ryuko thinks about it for a moment, then looks down at her shirt. "But you do sell merch..."
"Yeah, but Horizon isn't a hero identity, it's just who I am."
"Ohh, so you aren't selling it as a hero, it's just some guying selling merch of himself and people are buying it."
"Mhm, plus all the profits go to charities," he shrugs. "Buying my way into heaven."
Ryuko shakes her head, not even bothering to correct his heathenistic statements anymore, "so what's this agency got? And why is the top of the building green?"
Horizon begins gesturing to certain parts of the hologram.
"Renovations start tomorrow, but don't worry you don't have to move out or anything. Just use the same back exit you already use so nobody knows that you live with me."
"Yeah, can't have them kidnapping me like some damsel in distress, but I'm sure my knight would come rushing in to save me, right?"
"What, no."
She leans away from him, frowning at that response, "and why not?"
"Because you're a former Pro Hero, if you get kidnapped then they can keep you, because you deserve it."
"Jerk," she pouts cutely, and he just pulls her back to his side.
"Anyway, the top is green because that's the penthouse, that won't be affected by the work because I had it altered when I first bought this place."
"Yeah but most of it is red, I mean do you really need to change...what like 120 floors?"
"135, the other 15 are fine as they are. But this building was a mess of cubicles and a few law firms before. I need to break down a lot of walls to make bigger rooms."
"For?"
"Hero stuff. Training rooms, equipment storage, indoor Quirk training."
"A pool?" she gives him a hopeful look.
Horizon sighs, "yes, a pool. And a wind tunnel to train the fliers."
"Smart, and what about these," she gestures to ten purple floors in the middle of the building.
"That's the design and testing lab, purple requires extra extra reinforcement. Those places tend to have explosions from what I know."
"An in-house design studio and manufacturing floor...whew, spare no expense..."
"Mhm, the only agency in the country that can afford it, and I've got the perfect person in mind to run it."
"The girl who made your new gear?"
"Mhm, Mei is a genius, a good person to keep close."
"Mhm," she gives him a look out of the corner of her eye.
"What?"
"Just, are you and her...like---"
"Friends, in the same way you and I are..."
"Oh," Ryuko didn't like that she wasn't as ok with that as she agreed to be. As she should be since summer is just about to end. "Well that's good, that you have other people somewhat close to you."
"Oh we aren't really close, just two workaholics that need a simple way to relax," Horizon shrugs. "She's convenient, but you're special..."
And suddenly all was well in Ryuko mind once more...
"That reminds me, I need to get her opinion on some upgrade ideas for my costume, but I don't think my control is good enough to support it yet. Maybe when up my game a bit more."
"Oh, anything fun?"
"Very fun, but I'll save that surprise for later."
After a few more minutes of talking about his future Hero Agency, Ryuko finally arrives at an unavoidable question.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Ask me anything, but I don't have to answer..."
"Right," she bites her lips. "How much is this whole building gonna cost?"
"Mmm, I try not to think about prices."
"A luxury most don't have," she says.
"Well, I'm lucky enough to have it. So the building is around 2.8 billion, I had to buy out every lease and the property rights etc from the deed holder. Then I had to buy the land itself. Then I had to pay for the legal fees and renovations of this place," he gestures around the penthouse they were in.
"Wow, I'm definitely never going to live in a place like this again after this..."
"Then the real Hero Agency renovations and upgrades, plus the cost of expediting the legal fees and permits for some of the equipment... so all in all, around 3 billion dollars. I did get some discounts in certain areas because companies want to be able to say they contributed to Horizon Tower, but it's still a lot of money."
Ryuko just sits back, barely able to process all the big numbers he so casually mentioned.
"Do you think it's worth it?" she mindlessly asks. "I mean...is anything really worth 3 billion."
Horizon thinks about it for a moment, until he thinks about his parents.
Then the answer was obvious.
All of this, and after graduation he's only expecting to use it for 2 years at most before the Commission hands them over to him and he goes to America, to live a quiet life.
Leaving all this Pro Hero business behind him.
"Yeah," he says in a gentle, almost sad voice. "It's just money, and all the money in the world can't buy a person back once they're gone. So I'd gladly give up everything I have to protect them..."
And with those few words he sends Ryuko's thoughts spiraling and her heart fluttering.
Taking in her surroundings, and the man beside her who spent so much on more efficiently protecting others.
Realizing he really was one in ten billion, exactly how lucky she was, and that she only had one more day before he returned to UA to start the semester.
The realization that she never wanted this summer fling to end finally settles in...
"So what do you want for breakfast? My eggs are great, I'm sure you'd like them," she asks, trying not to think about the heavy conversation they just had.
"Hmm, and pancakes..."
Ryuko hops off the couch and gives him a dazzling smile, "anything you want, I'm on it..."
END CHAPTER---