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CHAPTER START---
Caught up in the excitement, the media vultures almost missed a single metal throwing card hovering down from the sky above.
The constantly clicking and flashes from cameras were dazzling to everyone, especially the few socialites, who were mostly namely investors, managers, or owners of major local and international medical facilities and funds.
Established men and women who come here every year to pay their respects to Dr. Kyudai Garaki, a man who launched medical research almost a century ahead through his research on Quirks.
Others were also major investors hoping to make their millions more noticeable by showing face, lest it gets drowned in the ocean of donations the doctor constantly receives.
And some were a chosen few high level medical professionals hoping to get a position at one of his many research facilities or hospitals around the world, brought out tonight as arm candy for their wealthy benefactors.
One of the few ways to get in here and speak to Dr. Garaki.
The atmosphere was so exciting between the high ranking wealth people, a few Pro Heroes who were brought as dates simply to show status over the other guests. The opulence shown in clothes, cars, jewelry, and any other way they could assert their status above each other.Exactly why Uwabami, the Snake Hero, was here. Acting as a date to a older gentleman who owns a extremely profitable pharmaceutical company.
The hero wore her best purple and black gown to match his all black suit, looking perfect as she has her hands wrapper around his arm.
Both the 'snakes' in her hair, her Quirk, delicately perched and as always are on alert, even passively.
The beauty queen of the Pro Heroes here in Japan enjoys the cameras, until one of the reporters looks up. His attention caught by camera flashes reflecting off the slowly descending metal card.
It hovers down, confusing more people and drawing eyes onto it.
"What is that?" Someone from the crowd asks.
Uwabami releases her date and takes a step forward, "everyone stay back," she commands, and they gladly obey the pro her.
SHAMBLES!
The card suddenly disappears, and in its place appears Horizon in his new formal suit. Holding a very well dressed and contrasting Ryukyu in a bridal carry, her arms wrapped around his neck as she stares up at his visor.
Hundreds of pictures are taken before she even comes to her senses.
Uwabami's brow twitches as all eyes are pulled away from her, and the brat who insulted her very style of being a celebrity hero steals the attention.
Along with a Top 10 Pro Hero in his arms.
"Lets just get inside before the auction starts," she says to her date and almost drags him away.
"I hope you all don't mind us warping in, driving isn't really my thing," Horizon says as he still casually holds Ryukyu while addressing the media.
"Does this mean the rumors are true?!" One woman yells out, furiously taking notes. "Are you dating Dragon Hero Ryukyu?"
"What? Why would you ever think that?" he asks as if he wasn't holding the now blushing woman in his arms. "We're just really good friends..."
Ryukyu turns to the cameras and just nods along, mortified by the position she's in, "can you put me down now."
"Of course my dear," he says loud enough for them to hear as he gently sets her down on her own feet.
The crowds eyes go wide at that and they continue taking pictures, only for Horizon to casually place his hand around her waist, and surprisingly she leans against his side.
"You're enjoying this too much," Ryukyu mutters only loud enough for him to hear.
"Gotta give them something to think about, besides, if the world thinks I'm dating a beautiful dragon babe, that's seems pretty cool to me."
"What about your issues with dating as a hero?"
"You're a top 10 Pro, you'll be fine, if anything this will make villains want to avoid hurting you."
"Tch, I don't need anyone protecting me..."
Seeing the change in her attitude Horizon raises a finger to her chin to make her look up at him, "just enjoy tonight, alright. One night at a time."
Ryukyu sighs and just plays along, "alright...dear."
Horizon chuckles as they both look back to the horde of hungry reporters.
"Horizon!" One man raises his hand. "I have a question for you!"
"I hope its one I can answer," Horizon says as he points toward the man.
The crowd quiets down as they listen in.
"Are you here as a philanthropist, or will you be joining one of Dr. Garaki's medical research endeavors?"
"Mainly for philanthropy, donating is a easy way to extend my reach since the Miracle Ward can only do so much. No expense should be spared when people need help after all."
The crowd is impressed by his response.
"Are you against working with Dr. Garaki, or is there some other reason you two haven't gotten together?" a woman in the crowd asks. "You are arguably the worlds number 1 Quirk specialist after all, and since he was considered the greatest before you, a collaboration could change the fate of humanity as we know it."
"We've already worked together at a distance," Horizon says. "Mostly one sided since the Miracle Ward is so new compared to his research facilities and trusts. But Dr. Garaki has given me nearly unrestricted access to the Quirk research database he has built over the years to aid in my own work. I only hope that when he calls for my aid I will be able to repay the gesture properly."
"Is there any rivalry between the two of you?" Another reporter asks.
"Not at all, we strive for the same goal, a healthy and healed world, starting with the people," Horizon says. "But my unique skills allows me to heal otherwise fatal issues, which is why I've mostly focused on that. I trust him to solve anything that traditional medicine can solve, and I'll deal with the rest."
The crowd falls silent for barely a second before another question is hurled at the duo.
"How long have you two been dating?!" is yelled from the back.
Horizon doesn't say anything and simply gives her a gently pat on the small of her back, "you're up."
Ryukyu scrunches her face before she answers, "we aren't romantically involved, but we've been friends for a few months since meeting after a raid on the League of Villains."
From the looks they gave her, it was obvious nobody believed her.
"I'm serious," she insists.
"Alright Kyukyu, lets just go inside," Horizon says as he guides her away.
But as they leave she can't help but hear people muttering.
'Awe he has a pet name for her.'
'They look so good together.'
'Man I can't believe he's dating her, she was supposed to fall for me!' one man laments his luck.
"This isn't going how I expected," Ryukyu says as they walk past walls of cameras and enter the lobby, making their way to the main room.
Yet she still had her hands wrapped around his arm as they walked comfortably side by side.
"Which part?"
"Its just, well, its almost like they want us to be together, isn't that weird?" she asks.
"How is that weird?"
"Because you're still in UA, and I'm ten years older than you."
"Oh yeah," he acts as if he honestly forgot. "But I'm 16 and I'm Horizon, so its fine."
"What do you mean 'I'm Horizon,' what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, if we wanted to be together, how would they stop us?"
"That's a good question, how would they stop you?" she asks absentmindedly, something she and many other have spent days pondering and still don't have an answer to.
"Well, I've only got one weakness, promise to keep it between us?" he stops her at the back of the massive room.
They see a stage at the other side, a large dance floor. A live classical band, and assigned seats at tables spread about.
Ryukyu takes a sharp breath as many eyes falls onto them, and she immediately notices the envy and jealousy in the eyes of men and women alike.
"Alright, what is it?" Ryukyu asks.
"My one weakness is," he gestures for her to lean in as he gets closer to her. "Those beautiful golden eyes of yours."
"Ugh," she swats his chest and begins walking off to their seats, just barely a few steps ahead. Enough to hear him laughing behind her.
Arriving at their table, at the seats Horizon specifically requested at the back of the room away from most of the attention, Ryukyu takes her seat to his right.
She notices some small tablet devices on the table and raises a brow at them.
"They're for the auction, to place bids. The room is big so better than yelling," Horizon explains. "Plus its better this way, bids show up on a scoreboard so everyone gets competitive, and the charities win."
"Charities?"
"Mhm, Dr. Garaki has people here from dozens of charities aside from his. The usual stuff, feed the poor, school supplies, better education, homeless shelters, you know, that stuff."
Ryukyu glances about to see people already entering their names to start placing bids. Then notices the other two seats at this round table were empty and had no nameplates.
"Do we have an entire table to ourselves?"
"Not exactly," he turns his head to the doorway and she follow his lead. "Some associates of mine are joining us."
Chitose -Curious, a general of the Meta Liberation Army-, and Rikiya - Re-Destro, formerly the leader, now a general of the Metal Liberation Army-, walk over and join them at the table.
"Its a pleasure to meet you lady Ryukyu," Rikiya says as he pulls on Chitose's chair. "Horizon mentioned he was brining a date, but this is certainly not what we expected.
Horizon shrugs, "well you brought your secret girlfriend, figured I'd bring mine."
"Its been a while Ryukyu," Chitose says. "We should have another interview sometime, I'm sure people will want to know all about this," she gestures to them as a couple.
"Oh I'd certainly rather avoid that," Ryukyu jokes, now feeling more comfortable with Chitose here.
Failing to realize she was the only hero at the table, and was sitting across from two major villains.
"I feel so out of place here," Ryukyu says. "This certainly isn't pay grade, how do these things usually go?"
"Boring small talk," Rikiya says. "I'm sure Horizon and I will be swarmed the moment the auction is over and people start mingling. Everyone wants him in their pocket and all these people run something to do with medicine---"
"And you own Detnerat," Ryukyu says. "The leading company for Lifestyle Support Equipment in Japan, of course."
"The auction is the fun part," Chitose says. "All these men with the supermodel dates trying to outdo each other, sometimes it can get intense, always makes for a good story," she shamelessly takes a small notepad out of her purse.
"Will either of you be bidding?" Rikiya asks.
"I'd have to sell all my organs to enter this kind of a bidding war," Ryukyu jokes.
"I'll enter," Horizon says. "Money is to be spent after all, plus it doesn't do anything for me, might as well help someone."
"Selfless as always," Chitose says as she takes some notes.
"Oh no, entirely selfish, just like most of the people in here," Horizon says. "We make the billions so we can do whatever we want, then hope donating enough and throwing enough of our wealth at poor people buys our way into heaven, or something like that."
"That sums up most of these people," Rikiya says. "But for all your talk of being selfish, you've done more good that most of this room. Or at least, you will."
"The only person in here who I'm sure has a good heart is this one," he gestures to Ryukyu.
"Speaking of which, how did this happen?" Chitose asks. "Not to make things...awkward, but, a student and a Pro Hero is a bit, you know."
"Well, the truth is," Horizon says, and Ryukyu can already feel the headache coming. "She fell hopelessly in love with me at first sight and has made it her mission to seduce me ever since."
Thankfully nobody at the table believes him, only giving a deadpan stare.
"We aren't dating," Ryukyu says. "He just brought me along for---" she stops and looks up at him.
"My visor will alert me when you find the phone, its not them," Horizon says.
"Right, we're here looking for someone, Hero business," Ryukyu says. "But clearly he likes messing with the media, at my expense."
"Hero business?" Chitose asks. "And I assume you don't want it in the news."
"Obviously," Horizon says, and she immediately scratches off some of her notes.
"Well at least you get date night out of it," Chitose seemingly joins in on the fun of teasing Ryukyu. "But if its hero business, shouldn't you be costume, and doesn't he need his sword?"
"We won't be fighting, so you're safe, just observing," Ryukyu assures the woman.
"And I don't always have a sword on me, but its nearby if I do need it."
"How may of those do you have, they must be expensive," Rikiya says. "You know, if you signed with my company we could make some serious improvements to them."
"The two I have right now is fine. One is usually nearby and the other is either at UA or Horizon Tower, that's more than enough."
As they continue to chat for a bit the lights begin to dim as Dr. Garaki, the mad genius secretly behind the Nomu creation and benefactor of Shigaraki, All For One's most dear friend, takes the stage.
He begins giving his gratitude and hyping up the auction, causing Ryukyu to lean closer to Horizon.
"So, what do they auction off, if it starts at ten million it must be something good right?"
Chitose and Rikiya hear this and have to stop themselves from laughing, causing her to look up at Horizon confused.
"You'll see, but trust me, they're worth every cent."
A few moments late the doctor leaves the stage for the professional auction host to take over, and they roll out the first item.
"What is that?" Ryukyu mutter as she sees a sloppily painted image of a field with a blob in the corner as the sun. "Did a toddler paint that?"
"Probably," Horizon says. "They auction off art pieces from the kids the charities help."
"That's not what I expected at all," Ryukyu admits.
A hologram appears on the stage and Chitose takes out her notepad to write the winning bids as it displays a blank leaderboard of the bids for this art piece.
Suddenly a name and face appears, bidding 10 million dollars on this piece, and Ryukyu's eyes nearly fall out of her head.
"People really have that kind of money, this is crazy."
"Crazy?" Rikiya gives her a strange look. "Says the dragon dating a god, really?"
"Well, when you put it like that---"
25 Million suddenly appears on the leaderboard.
Seeing this Rikiya takes out a coif of all things, on on side is a man wearing a cape and on the other is a man with a knife.
"Hero or villain?" he asks Horizon.
"I always pick Hero," Horizon says.
"Ofcourse," Rikiya mutters as he flips the coin, catching it and placing it on the table, to see the villain side up. "I lose..."
He takes one of the tablets and taps on it a few times, and his name appears at the top of the leaderboard.
Rikiya Yotsubashi: 40 Million.
"You bet that on a coinflip?" Ryukyu didn't even know how to react.
"Its for charity, c'mon," Horizon wraps an arm around her. "Think of all the kids it'll save."
"I can appreciate that, but the numbers are still just hard to wrap my mind around."
After some more casually chatter and a few more art pieces go by, they get to the finally piece. A finger-painting of All Might, horribly done.
"Hey Chitose," Horizon gets her attention. "How much do I have to donate to make the front page tomorrow?"
"Well the highest bid is," she flips through her notes. "Mr. Yaoyorozu at 200 Million, if you beat that I can get you on the front page. You were going there anyway because of this juicy scoop right here," she gestures to Ryukyu.
"Well, do you know what the best thing about my medical services being auctioned to the highest bidder is?"
"The money?" Rikiya asks.
"Oh definitely, but now its more about the bribes and services they offer to get ahead of others, you won't believe how much money the most wealthy people on the planet will pay for a little time."
"Your net worth has been a mystery for quite a while, finally giving a hint?" Chitose gets ready to take notes. "Horizon Tower was estimated to cost at least 200 Million, so the world is curious."
"Well, here is a hint," Horizon takes the data pad and begins entering his bid.
And Chitose can see Ryukyu appear as if she was about to lose her lunch at the sight of the number. From someone who grew up lower class, now witnessing a person give this much money away out of sheer philanthrophy...it was mind blowing.
By no means is she a selfish person, but the sight is still just amazing.
Horizon: 1 Billion Dollars.
There is a audible gasp in the room before it falls silent for nearly a minute.
Everyone looks back at him, and shrugs as if this was normal, "money is nothing compared to suffering of people in need..." was all he says.
And Chitose quickly writes that quote for tomorrows headline.
All while Ryukyu looked at him with a confusing mixture of emotions.
Unsure if it was his desire to have everyone know how much better than them he is.
The constant selflessness he displays despite insisting he's an entirely selfish individual.
Or him truly not valuing above people, above his people at least, exactly like he's said time and time again.
'It's just money...' he always says.
But she knew one thing, she likes this side of him.
Chatting with his friends, playing little games and making bets with Rikiya, joking with Chitose and her.
Even when he was being flirty with her, serious or not, he made it fun.
A startling change from the 'all business' emotionless jerk he usually portrays himself as.
She came here tonight fully expecting the horror stories Ochaco and Tsu told her about him to be true.
She came expecting to see the side of him she's been helping Pantu to prepare for.
But this, was almost more startling that any of that.
Seeing him act as...a human, not the monster they think he is.
But she won't let one night completely cloud her judgement, because she's seen a glimpse of the other side of him. And his words from earlier echo in her head.
'I'm Horizon, who could stop me?'
---2 Hours Later, Horizon Tower...
Horizon suddenly appears in one of the many guest rooms in his building, gently holding Ryukyu at his side.
"Thank you," she says while looking around. "I have some business to deal with here in Tokyo tomorrow, will it be alright if I stayed here tomorrow as well."
"Its no problem, use anything you want and stay as long as you'd like, oh, my team is here in Tokyo and will be getting in something around 3 AM, at least that's the usual. Just don't be too surprised if you bump into them."
"Right, are you going to bed as well?"
"No, I've got to look into this," he raises the device he gave her earlier. "We locked onto a phone but that place was crowded so I need to pinpoint exactly who it is."
"The work never stops huh."
"Not for me, but at least I got to spend some time with you, and tonight was actually pretty fun."
"Yeah," Ryukyu finds herself staring at him a bit too long for her liking before she snaps herself out it. "Now get out of here, I need to get some sleep, and no peeking on me in the shower with that creepy Quirk of yours."
Horizon laughs, "why would I need to do that, I'm your doctor, I've already seen you naked..."
He warps away before Ryukyu's mortified expression can properly settle in. And as she's now alone she breathes a sigh of relief.
'Tonight he was like...a regular person, but I've seen how he acts around villains and people he doesn't like. She said Nezu wants to make him into a real hero, maybe I can help with that too, somehow...'
She mulls it over for a moment then takes out her phone, sending a message to Pantu that she'll be coming in for a debriefing tomorrow.
Because she still had a job to do, personal developing feelings aside...
END CHAPTER---