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CHAPTER START---
"I don't think that's ok, not at all," Shinso says.
He and all of 1A were on a bus heading to the USJ, now fully repaired.
They were all in their gym uniforms, and he was currently speaking to Horizon about some advice he received.
"Trust me, it's imperative for you to get better," Horizon says.
Before Shinso can respond Snipe stops the bus and everyone steps out, quickly finding themselves standing in front of Snipe.
"Today your training will be simple students," Snipe gets their attention. "We've scattered a number of rescue dummies in the USJ, you need to find and recover them. The safe zone is the entrance.
This is training for the rising collateral damage as villains become bolder across the nation. During your Work Studies, you'll be working alongside Pros but they'll likely relegate you to controlling crowds of civilians and such, this is a warm-up for that.Horizon, you'll stay at the entrance with me, your Quirk has some sort of radar feature so we don't need you making this too easy for them."
"Sidelined for being too good," Horizon shrugs, "story of my life."
"Alright settle down partner, everyone else, let's get this started," Snipe turns and begins leading them toward USJ.
Horizon, Shinso, and Sero fall to the back of the group as the other students begin to get excited for the upcoming exercise.
"Look," Horizon says. "All I'm saying is you need to be more liberal with your Quirk. You're sitting in a classroom with a bunch of idiots who say nonsense all the time, just make them shut up whenever they get too annoying, it's good practice."
"Seems a bit rude," Sero says. "I mean, it's kind of like how you always warp about without warning. But that's not the same since his Quirk is literally mind-controlling people."
"Well not mind controlling, that's a bit beyond him," Horizon says.
"Either way I don't think I should do that," Shinso argues. "A few days of that and nobody would talk to me, because nobody wants to say 'Hi' to a guy that'll brainwash you for no reason."
"Well allow me to speak from experience," Sero says. "Not a fan of that experience."
"Yeah well, the problem with your Quirk is that you need a test subject to train it. You can do vocal exercises all you want but at the end of the day, the only way to improve your ability to get past mental defenses is with practice.
It's better, I can feel that tingle becoming a little stronger, but it's still easily ignorable. And by the nature of my Quirk it will never control me."
"Well you're one in ten billion, right?" Shinso asks. "Literally anyone else would be under my control."
"Yes but you have to prepare for the worst-case scenario. And I'd imagine people like Mandalay have higher than average mental resistance because of her Quirk, and we all know how you'd fare against All For One."
"That's a good point," Sero says. "A villain with telepathy might be able to resist it, then you'd be basically Quirkless."
"I'd still rather not just Brainwash everyone I talk to..."
"Then just keep practicing on me," Horizon says. "Every second of every conversation, then once you're at the point where someone can be Brainwashed but they can still talk, you can just do it to everyone. But don't give them a command until necessary."
"So I just need to work extra hard to get to that point, then training it will be easier since nobody would be able to notice it."
"That's a start," Horizon says as Snipe signals for everyone to begin.
As everyone scatters across USJ, Horizon is left standing atop the massive staircase with Snipe and Momo.
Before speaking to Momo Snipe turns to him, "since you aren't allowed to help them, your job is to move around the dummies and make it hard for your friends to rescue them. But we made them fragile, so you'll also have to be careful. Oh, and you can't leave this area."
"So using Takt for a game of 'keep away', sounds fun atleast," Horizon says as he takes a seat on the staircase and focuses on the dozens of dummies around USJ.
ROOM!
He creates a room spanning 300m around him, allowing him to encompass all of the USJ.
SCAN!
He feels a searing migraine as a flood of information comes crashing into his mind. He has to stop himself from instinctively reaching up to hold his head while doubling over.
Instead, he remains completely unreactive and stoic, ignoring everything thing else as he focuses on the dozens of rescue dummies.
Focusing on the dozens of rescue dummies he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.
TAKT!
They are all captured by his mental grip, rising off the floor for a few seconds before---
BA-DUM!
Pain like a red hot nail being hammered into his skull.
His Room collapses as he feels blood leaking out of his nose, eyes, and ears.
Rolling his shoulders he takes a deep breath before starting the entire process again, determined to push past his boundaries and master his improved power.
Because while he is more powerful in terms of how much energy he can use.
Before meeting All For One the largest room he could create was 14km wide, now it was almost 25km after a mere 5 weeks.
His abilities are each stronger by a large margin, but moments of fine control cause the mental strain he just isn't ready for.
And reaching out to grasp too closely to his new upper limits causes his Quirk to collapse.
He is certainly stronger than he was weeks ago, but to approach his new limits is to invite ruin, until he solves the issues between mind, body, and instincts.
As Horizon settles into his spot atop the stairs, Momo stood off to the side with Snipe, consulting the resident firearms expert on her latest recommendation.
"So rubber bullets?" Snipe asks.
"Precisely," Momo nods excitedly. "I know Hero Support Equipment is only allowed if it compliments a Quirk in some manner, but since my Quirk allows me to create my own equipment---"
"You want special permission to make ballistic weapons, even without a Quirk that would consider ballistics as a necessity like mine."
"With the compromise of rubber bullets of course," Momo says sheepishly. "Honestly, I rather not use real bullets...I don't even like the thought of using swords against living people, much less guns."
Snipe sighs, "well, I can't say a lot of the teachers haven't considered this. It came up during our review of the showing at the Sports Festival, knowing you can make a lot of things but always fallback to staff and shield is a bit...underwhelming."
Snipe looks up to see Momo's lip quivering as her eye looks sad.
"Wait! I mean no offense of course it's just that, well, you've got so much potential that we have ideas of how you can use it. That's our job as teachers after all!"
Momo focuses on the task at hand, "so is it possible, to get me permission for ballistic weapons?"
Snipe rubs the back of his head, "I'll have to run it by Power Loader, and Principal Nezu, they'll have to review whatever designs you come up with before sending it to the commission. But once its entirely impossible for a regular person to pick up the weapon and use it in the event that you drop it...then it won't be impossible."
"That's wonderful!" Momo gives a dazzling smile.
"But you'll also have to spend a few months at the least in firearms training with me."
"I expected as much," Momo bows. "It will be an honor to learn from you, Japan's resident top marksman."
"Uh...right, thank you," Snipe still isn't sure how to handle praise. "Now, why don't you go join the others and I'll talk to the other teachers after."
"Right, thank you again sir," Momo bows again before rushing off.
As she leaves Snipe recalls what she said, even now he isn't used to being referred to as the Top Marksman in Japan.
When counting only the free citizens he certainly is, by a large margin at that.
But as someone who tries to stay knowledgeable of his competition, it didn't sit right with him.
Because to his knowledge, there are two women locked away that far outclass him in a gunfight at any range.
Putting that thought aside he looks to his left, at Horizon who was sitting atop the stairs, completely still.
Unknowingly looking at the son of Japan's second-best marksman.
From the outside, it was impossible to know the pain and agony his Quirk was causing him in this moment.
'Huh, three dozen target dummies and he isn't even breaking a sweat,' Snipe thinks as he looks down at his phone, seeing a map of USJ with all the trackers in the dummies moving about erratically.
'Nezu really struck gold with this one...'
---5 Minutes Later...
"THERE!" Hound Dog yells out as he bursts through the door of USJ. Behind him, there are two dozen of Ectoplasm's clones.
"What's going on?" Snipe asks, turning around to see the resident guidance counselor, Hound Dog, running on all fours at them.
"That's an intruder!" Hound Dog yells as he rushes toward Horizon.
"What?!" Snipe immediately draws his massive revolver and aims it at Horizon, who was still sitting but now looking back at the newcomers.
"What the fuck is he on about?" Horizon asks as they all begin a standoff atop the stairs.
"Hound Dog, you sure?" Snipe asks, finger already on the trigger, not a fan of getting infiltrated again.
"His scent, it's different," Hound Dog growls out. "The true scent of a person doesn't change..."
'Fuck,' Horizon realizes what's wrong.
DNA determines the base scent of a person, and with a Quirk that can sniff out people from miles away, Hound Dog can effectively smell the change in his DNA.
"I'm the same person, it's just my Quirk," Horizon slowly rises to his feet to face them, and at this point, the commotion is drawing the attention of the entire class.
"How, that doesn't make any sense!" Hound Dog's words become deep growls, he was clearly stopping himself from barking and rushing in.
"My body, my business, and either way I think it's above your paygrade."
"Rrrgrarhhhh!" Hound Dog barks, fingers sinking into the concrete floor as he gets ready to lunge forward.
"Tch, I'm the real and only me, and I promise if you snap your leash and try to touch me...a trip to the sea floor will remind you of that..."
Snipe and Ectoplasm glance toward each other, slowly lowering his gun and Ectoplasm relaxes, not wanting to start an avoidable fight.
But Hound Dog was already flooded with adrenaline, emotions, and anger building up from a new scent at UA that he couldn't recognize.
His sense of duty to protect his students pushes him forward to act.
And as he leaps forward to tackle the potential villain.
"Shambles..." Horizon's bored voice says, and the burning sensation of seawater flooding his lungs is the last thing Hound Dog feels, before his world goes black...
END CHAPTER---