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CHAPTER START---
"So, you plan to get in on this?" Sero asks Todoroki.
Both of them were sitting on the steps in front of the dorms, watching just a few students walking about while everyone else is inside studying.
And beside them was Deku, scribbling in one of his 'Hero Journal' books.
"I have a brain, so no, I don't want to fight Horizon," Todoroki says. "Besides, he'd probably just remove my heart again, and I'd rather not deal with that all over again."
"Oh, right," Sero leans forward and looks over at Deku. "What about you Deku?"
"Huh?" Deku snaps out of his own little world and looks at Sero. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"You gonna help Bakugo out or just watch? You and Todoroki are the strongest in our class after Horizon...well you're probably tied with Tokoyami most of the time.""Hmm, I don't think Kacchan will like me getting involved, this seems a bit personal for him."
"Everything is personal with Bakugo," Shoto says. "But even if we did join, I don't think our chances would increase by much."
"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that," Deku says, opening his book and skimming his notes. "But I do have a theory."
"Really, to beat the unbeatable?" Shoto asks. "Please, enlighten us."
"Ok," Deku flips through some more notes then looks at Sero. "You've spent the most time with him, so tell me if this makes sense, alright?"
"Sure thing man."
"Ok, so. My idea is a team attack, not a single person."
"A combo move?" Shoto asks.
"Exactly, because from all the information I have Horizon can't lose 1 on 1, not unless you can completely surprise him---"
"Like being the only person in the world with an arsenal of Quirks that he can't predict or react to," Shoto says.
"Yeah, I've even been asking All Might and he agrees."
"So what's the plan?" Sero asks, clearly skeptical that this would ever work.
"Well alright, we need a few people. Kacchan, Yaomomo, Uraraka, and Mina."
"That's an unusual combination," Shoto says.
"That's the idea!" Deku says excitedly. "Kacchan is the only one with the power, speed, skills, and most importantly, the combat sense to adapt to anything Horizon throws at him, or atleast adapt faster than anyone else. Plus he can fight at any angle thanks to his mobility."
"So he's the vanguard," Shoto says. "A distraction and stalling tactic while the girls get the real attack ready?"
"Yeah! Yaomomo can make anything, and she's sure to know the optimal items to distract him, and since her potential attacks are so varied he can't prepare in advance for it."
"A distraction and something to surprise him," Shoto thinks about it for a moment. "But I can't imagine Uraraka and Ashido being able to do much damage to him."
"Well, they can't, not really," Deku says. "But if Uraraka manages to make something weightless, he shouldn't be able to sense that so it can surprise him, like ripping the ground out from under his feet."
"And Mina?" Sero asks.
"Well all she has to do is hit him once," Deku says. "See I noticed something. Horizon never lets any attacks hit him, even when taking a hit to counter attack would be smarter and more efficient. He always avoids every hit. Why do you think that is?"
"Because his ego won't allow it," Sero says, hitting the nail on the head.
"No way, he's too logical for that," Deku says. "It must be his suit, his visor and body glove combo. Nobody knows what's under it, and he's mentioned a few times that he's like a living ball of energy, right? So..."
"You think it's a containment suit?" Shoto asks. "And if you get some Acid on it---"
"She ruptures the suit and he loses a lot of energy faster than he can generate it."
"So you plan to pop him like a balloon and let him...leak out?" Sero asks.
"Well, that's one way to put it, yeah, so what do you think?" Deku asks Sero.
"I think you haven't seen him fight, I mean a serious fight."
"But, at the Sports Festival---"
He interrupts Shoto, "Horizon was playing around, trust me, if he's serious, nobody can touch him, and he'll see through any plans made against him. Hand of God is one thing, but he's a different level of aware and paranoid, he thinks of every possibility. If you want to surprise him you'd have to pull a second Quirk out of your pocket, but you'd have to do that before he makes physical contact and Scans you.
But I think since All For One used that trick, it won't work twice," Sero shrugs.
"Nothing we didn't already know," Shoto says. "But I'm more curious about why Midoriya has put this much thought into it..."
"Uh, well," Deku stutters nervously. "I just feel like eventually we'll get matched up, and he'll be a bit rougher on me than anyone else."
"Oh definitely," Sero says, causing both of them to wince. "That's probably why Eraser doesn't let you two spar during class."
"That's a bit concerning," Shoto mutters. "Maybe we shouldn't let Bakugo fight him."
"You talking about my icy-hot!" Bakugo yells as he walks out of the dorms, in full Hero Costume with Kirishima beside him, who was in casual clothes.
'Nevermind, this should be fun to watch,' Shoto thinks.
"We're just here to watch the fight man," Sero says as Kirishima joins them, sitting on the steps of the dorms. "Good luck out there."
"I don't need any damn luck, I'll show you losers exactly how much stronger I am! Then I'll be the #1 Hero!"
"That's a lot of talk from a silver medalist," Horizon says as he steps out of the dorms.
He was casually scrolling through his phone, after warping Momo to her room from the meeting and leaving her to catch up with Jiro, he changed into some white and blue sweatpants and a hoodie, all his merchandise of course.
Leaving the hoodie open to show off the body glove below and its muscular design.
"Where are we doing this?" Bakugo asks, adjusting his gauntlets which he's already filled.
"Right here is fine," Horizon doesn't take his eyes off his phone as he walks onto the lawn, waiting for his opponent. "But remember, after I beat you here, no more rematches."
"You'll be begging me for a rematch after I win," Bakugo grumbles. "But we can't fight here. My explosions will get me in trouble this close to the dorms and main campus," he gestures to the buildings around them.
"You really don't need to worry about that, trust me," Horizon puts his phone in his pocket.
"Tch," Bakugo takes a spot opposite him on the lawn, and drops into his fighting stance, ready to rush in. "You should give that to tape face before I break it, my explosions are stronger than the last time you saw them."
"My phone will be fine, after all, it's only you..."
Bakugo growls loudly, and they could see the vein on his forehead bulging already.
"One of you needs to call it," Horizon says to the spectators.
"I'm on it," Kirishima hops up, and rushes inside, away from the fight.
Moments later all of 1A in their casual clothes comes out to watch the fight.
"Alright!" Kirishima yells and raises his hand. "Begin!"
ROOM!
Horizon opens a Room just large enough for the main campus area.
Bakugo lunges forward, already having considered most variables.
'Not much here to swap places with, every explosion has to be a double, one at him, and one behind me in case he swaps out places like before.
I need to grab him and throw him in the air, that way even if he swaps out places I'll still have an advantage since I'll fly up after him, and he can't fly...atleast I don't think so.
And I've got to make sure when I grab him it's only to align myself to blast him away, if he feels me holding on he'll use Counter Shock and end the fight...just like he did with Mirio.
The final hurdle is that damn shield of his, Curtain, he rarely uses it. But at the Sports Festival, I forced him to use it since he couldn't warp out of the ring, and my explosion covered the whole thing.
But I can't just bomb this place, I'd probably still get in trouble, even if he says I won't get in trouble for this fight. This is just like fighting a villain in a civilian-heavy area, perfect training.
Because no villain is gonna give as good of a fight as Horizon!'
All these thoughts rush through Bakugo's mind in the time it takes him to move two steps, at a full sprint.
Now Horizon was only 10m -33ft- away, and he still hadn't moved yet.
'He's waiting for me to strike, then he'll swap us so I blow myself up, he always does this crap, but I'm ready this time!'
An excellent plan, but unfortunately, in this world especially.
What you don't know, can hurt you. And in the case of Horizon, it hurts a lot.
SHAMBLES!
Horizon disappears, swapped with nothing, because very few people know he can freely warp about in a space he's familiar with.
Bakugo's and most of his classmate's eyes go wide as many of them see this for the very first time.
CRACK!
The sound of metal shattering reaches Bakugo's ears, before the searing pain in his right arm has him screaming out.
In an instant Horizon had warped beside him, and struck the gauntlet on his right arm with a heavy punch, amplified by Booster Shot.
The gauntlet shattered along with the bones in Horizon's hand. But he quickly and subtly beings healing them.
The metal of Bakugo's equipment is sent scattering about the lawn.
But Horizon's strike continued to Bakugo's forearm beneath, hitting hard enough to crack the bone in multiple places.
"ARRGH!" Bakugo cries out, feeling a pain that he recognizes, but much worse than ever before.
Like the pain of his bones and muscles straining under the recoil of his explosions amplified a dozen times over, pain making it obvious using explosions with that hand will do permanent damage.
Damage he can't afford to take if he wants to keep fighting in the future.
Before their classmates can react to give a wince---
SHAMBLES!
He warps to the other side and does the exact same thing, causing Bakugo to stumble and begin falling over.
SHAMBLES!
He warps directly in front of Bakugo and kicks him in the stomach area, just barely lifting him off the floor with the sheer force of it.
And as Bakugo is an inch off the floor, with his foot still making contact.
SHAMBLES!
They both appear 10m -33ft- above the lawn.
Horizon lands a strong right as Bakugo is disoriented, causing his vision to go black for a moment.
SHAMBLES!
He warped them another 10m -33ft- directly up the instant he made contact, then brings down a elbow to Bakugo's right shoulder, easily dislocating it.
"Argh!" Bakguo's pained scream was bone-chilling, and most of his classmates winces at the sound.
Before Horizon warped to the other side and did the exact same attack, all while they were now beginning to fall.
Now satisfied with how useless Bakugo's arms are, Horizon uses Shambles to adjust their positions. Putting his foot on Bakugo's back as if the boy was lying on the floor, then---
SHAMBLES!
They warp back down onto the lawn, and Bakugo luckily only feels the momentum of falling less than 1.5m -5ft-, but unfortunately with Horizon's 275lbs -125kgs- dropping onto him, standing with one foot on his back, shoving his face into the dirt.
"See, told you the explosions wouldn't get you in trouble," Horizon chuckles as he gets off of him and steps to the side.
The spectators stand in amazement and horror, the entire fight took barely 5 seconds, and Bakugo didn't even get a chance to strike.
"Bakugo, are you ok?!" Kirishima yells out.
"Take him to Recover Girl, I don't heal annoying things," Horizon says as he begins walking toward the dorms, ready to perform a procedure he's been planning since summer, then have some fun later tonight.
"Argh!" Bakguo uses his forehead to push off the grass, barely raising his torso to look at Horizon's back. "I'm not done!"
But in his excitement a jolt of pain wracks his arms, causing him to lose balance and go face-first back into the dirt.
"Yeah, you're done, and if anyone needs me, don't..." Horizon says as he enters the dorms, as does almost everyone else.
Sero, Shoto, and Deku are left watching Kirishima take Bakugo to Recover Girl.
"Told you that plan wouldn't work," Sero shrugs. "It takes a bit of getting used to, but I think it's pretty obvious now. You relied on Horizon fighting like a classic Pro Hero, like All Might, but he prefers ruthless efficiency."
Deku looks at Bakugo being escorted away, then down at his book, "I guess I know even less than I imagined..." he mutters.
But deep down, he could feel it, and he knew it to be true.
If he wants to be the best, Horizon is the mountain in his way.
This is the person he must rise to overcome, or atleast to challenge.
And what better challenge to force his growth...
END CHAPTER---