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CHAPTER START---
"Mmm," Ryuko groans as she rolls over onto her back. "What time is it?" she asks before even opening her eyes.
Dull sunlight clashes against her eyelids before she raises a hand, resting her forearm across her eyes.
The gentle ocean breeze massages her body and sends a chill through her as she pauses for a moment, listening to small waves crash against the shore.
"Just before 5," Horizon's slightly mechanical voice says. "Had a good nap?"
"Surfing is a bit exhausting, but, it's pretty fun…"
"Oh, are you admitting I was right, that you actually like it?"
"Well, I never said you were right," Ryuko says. "But, a custom board would be nice, if you want to make this a regular thing.""Let me guess, cat themed?" Horizon asks.
"You know me so well," Ryuko says as she finally sits up and opens her eyes.
She looks around the secluded private beach, still not seeing anyone but them here. Stretching for a moment she adjusts her blue bikini before looking at Horizon, seeing him wearing only his new Body Glove.
Similar to the previous version but with the armor plates more pronounced and further reinforcements on the joints, as well as other changes she couldn't see, but could feel.
Seeing him there leaning against their cooler she frowns and pokes him, yet he doesn't stop playing with the holographic datapad being projected from his left forearm.
She pokes him a few more times, then moves closer on the blanket and continues, feeling his shoulders, sides, behind his knees.
"What are you doing?" Horizon asks, without stopping his work.
"I miss the other one," Ryuko says as she gets up, and Horizon leans forward a bit for her to access the cooler.
As she's getting a drink she steps out from under their massive beach umbrella to get a proper look at the magnificent sunset, then sits beside him, leaning against his arm.
"What other one?" Horizon asks as she starts reading what he was working on, only to see chemical structures and long words she'd never seen before.
"The other Body Glove, why is this one so hard anyway? It's not like anything will hit you," Ryuko says. "Cuddling this one is uncomfortable."
"This upgrade is a necessity," Horizon says. "I now have the…delicate touch I needed, to pull off a trick I've been working on since I was a kid."
"So I have to cuddle a robot because you want to be flashy?"
"You'll get over it, besides we usually sleep naked anyway," he says as she pushes his arms away to sit on his lap, resting her back against his chest.
Horizon shuts off the holopad and relents, resting his arms on her midsection as they sit in silence, watching the sunset for a few minutes.
"Did anything happen while I was sleeping?" Ryuko asks.
"Remember Judge Boshu?"
"The guy who gave you a 6-month vacation and called it a punishment, yeah I remember him," Ryuko giggles at the absurdity of Horizon's 'Punishment'.
"Killed himself this morning, cut his stomach open in his shower."
"Oh god!"
"Wife found him a bit too late to be saved," Horizon says. "But anyway, how much time off work can you get? Since I've got all this free time I'd be nice to have company."
"Well, I can probably get a lot, but the kids need me," Ryuko says. "Having a Quirk Counsellor that was a Pro Hero is kind of important, gets them to take what I say more seriously."
"Eh, at least I'll have you during the summer, I get my Provisional License back in September anyway, you will be spending summer with me right?"
"Oh definitely, a free vacation like that, you couldn't keep me away if you tried," Ryuko giggles deviously.
"Babe every day with me is like a vacation."
"Well that goes both ways, so let's call it even," she says."Right, you pay for everything and I look amazing on your arm?"
"And incredible sex, so yeah, it's even," Horizon laughs.
"A win-win scenario if I've ever seen one."
"Are you coming to see the UA Sports Festival this year? Nezu said he moved it up, it's in 3 weeks, and should be even bigger than last year."
"Yeah, spending the day with Kota and Eri at the Culture Festival last year was pretty great, and Eri will be super cute when she's cheering for you."
"Oh, I won't be competing this year," Horizon says in a disappointed tone. "Some crap about the 'student morale' and all that, fighting a god isn't really as inspiring as you'd think."
"And I'm guessing he won't be announcing that, right?"
"Nope, because I'll still be there, he wants me to help out with the games themselves, it should be fun."
"But not as fun as beating up your classmates on stage for the world to see?"
"Nothing is that fun."
She smacks his leg, hard.
"Almost nothing is that fun," he corrects himself.
"Is that what you were working on? All the chemical formulas and stuff?"
"Huh, no, that's uh, something else, something bigger."
"Not sure how I feel about the sound of that, the last time you said you're preparing 'something big' you dropped a city on, um, itself?"
"Let me just show you," Horizon raises his right hand, holding a pebble he picked out of the sand in his palm.
"Ok, I see a rock."
SHAMBLES!
The rock is swapped for a small white flower from nearby.
Ryuko quirks a brow at that, "I'm not really the flowers kind of girl, but you could have at least gotten me some roses, white ones."
"Those are only for pure maidens, and last I checked, I've done a lot to your flower," he crushes the flower in his hand.
Ryuko rolls her eyes, "jerk."
"Hold the flower for a second," Horizon says, and she follows his lead, holding the flower that's now missing most of its petals and has a broken stem.
"Ok, now what?"
"Now, this," Horizon raises a hand over the flower, hovering his index finger directly above it and pointing down at it.
She sees the familiar blue mist manifest on his hand, then become more and more dense as it clings to his hand.
Eventually it becomes so dense, that a thin sheen of blue liquid forms on his hand.
Then it all runs down his gloved hand, down his index finger, forming one bead of solid blue glowing liquid, and dropping onto the flower.
Ryuko's eyes go wide, "Wooowwww," she awes with barely a whisper as not only does the broken stem repair itself, but new petals bloom and a second stem begins growing out of the first to form another flower on it.
"You made a second one?"
"I was only trying to fix the stem and regrow the petals, so it still needs some work before human trials," Horizon says.
"Yeah I don't think people want to grow a second head when you operate on them," Ryuko chuckles. "But why do you need this, can't you already cure, like, everything?"
"Ever heard of the Panacea?"
"Is it related to Pangea?"
"No, Panacea was one of the four daughters of a god of medicine and healing, she had a tool that could cure any disease or sickness," Horizon raises his hand and lets her see a bit more healing energy flow off of him and join the wind. "But in the modern age, we call it the---"
"Miracle Elixir," Ryko leans forward and turns back at him, eyes wide as the realization dawns on her. "You're actually making the Miracle Elixir?!"
"I'm working on it, figured people already call me 'The Miracle' because they think I am the Panacea, why not make one?"
"Right, and this gives you more leverage than anything else in the world possibly could," Ryuko says. "Enough leverage to really strongarm the entire world into doing whatever you want."
"Well, I'm the only one who can make it so, that's just a fortunate, or unfortunate coincidence, depending on what mood I wake up in," Horizon shrugs. "Not like I'd ever use that leverage in any way, I'm a hero remember."
Ryuko rolls her eyes, "how is it that people like you, people who should never be trusted with power, always seem to get the most?"
"Because life isn't fair. Because the devil gives men power to test if they're truly good enough, because if a man lives his entire life without power over others we never learn what his true nature is."
"Are you saying you're above the temptation to use the power you have for…selfish and horrible things?"
"Well, maybe you should ask me when I'm not on a private island I bought through government connections I made by healing people," Horizon laughs.
"Well, you never said you were fair and just."
"I've never even been accused of such things," they both share a laugh at that.
"But the public must think you are, right, since you want to actually see how great of a Pro Hero you can become, if you really try," Ryuko gets comfortable in his lap, leaning her chest against his and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Nobody has more power than Horizon, so nobody has more temptation than Horizon."
"That's true, but everyone knows that, what's your point?"
"Well, after your last showing, will they believe that you're above the temptation, the anger, the pain that can turn even the brightest people into evil and cold things? Are you above succumbing to that kind of suffering and hatred, are you above moral corruption and decay, and will they even believe you?"
Beneath his visor Horizon just smiles, "of course they will, because to be Horizon, that's exactly what you have to be, you have to be better, no matter what…"
END CHAPTER---