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CHAPTER START---
"So, how does it feel being the new 'Big 3' in Japan?" Horizon asks as he sits in the cafeteria.
The entire cafeteria was empty aside from Team Horizon at the moment since they'd left class a bit early to get ahead of the lines, wanting to have some of Lunch Rush's food for a change.
Now they were all in full Hero Costume having lunch before they got back to training.
Horizon has two steaks on his plate, while Sero has some rice and grilled fish, Juzo is enjoying a burger, and Shinso is having Miso Soup.
"I still don't get why I'm in the Big 3 and you aren't," Juzo says before taking a bite of his burger.
"Wouldn't really be fair to compare me to other people, plus the point of Team Horizon is to get all of you in the spotlight instead of just me."
"And he made it a three-person team because of this," Sero adds. "Oh, what's happening with Tokoyami anyway?"Horizon shrugs, "told him if he does well in the sports festival I'd let him join the team, when I'm done with my suspension that is."
"And you still can't tell us what they're planning for the sports festival?" Shinso asks. "Would be pretty useful to know, and since they've got you helping with the games..."
"How would that even help us?" Juzo asks. "Horizon doesn't want us competing and showing the world who we are remember."
"Yeah but I can make more educated bets if I know what the games are," Shinso says. "The business and management courses put up a lot of money for this kind of thing."
Juzo rolls his eyes, "isn't that technically insider trading or something?"
"Not quite," Horizon says. "But I still won't be telling you since I promised Nezu I wouldn't, now, how was your first day as the new official Big 3?"
"Awesome!" Sero says. "Those first years were totally a bunch of fanboys, just like when we met Nejire and the others last year."
"Feels weird being on the other side of that," Juzo says.
"It's annoying," Shinso says. "I don't get why we need to do a presentation like that, just give them a booklet or something."
"Or make Horizon do it," Juzo says. "He is the main attraction after all."
"Yeah but he's not a realistic goal," Sero reminds them. "The point is to inspire them not depress them."
"They did have some cool Quirks at least," Juzo says. "But I'm sure you've already read about them so that's old news..."
As they continue talking students begin pouring into the cafeteria, and nobody can miss the way many of the students look at Horizon.
Most of the new students stare at him with awe and amazement, almost having stars in their eyes.
Others make it clear that they're trying to keep some distance between him and them, and the fear was almost palpable from them.
A select few made their disgust apparent with the looks that were fired his way, but of course, nobody had the nerve to voice their disapproval of him returning to UA.
After another short discussion, Team Horizon finished their lunch and immediately warped back to Horizon's training grounds, ironing out their training schedule for the next few months.
---Later That Day...
"I'm still having second thoughts about this," Snipe says. "Just remember these are my 1st year students, not your classmates, don't go making them quit UA this early."
"I'm always gentle with fellow students," Horizon bites back a chuckle.
He and Snipe were standing in the observation area of one of the many new massive Quirk Gyms in UA, this particular one built to accommodate more intense sparring sessions.
Looking through the glass above the control panel they could see the main combat are two floors below them, massive and well-lit with concrete tiled floors and cameras positioned to record everything for teachers to review.
"They're here," Horizon says. "And looks like you were right, he is a loner, I can sense him walking in the back."
"I still think he just needs time to adjust," Snipe says. "I mean he still came to UA even with you being here so it can't be that bad."
"I dropped a city on his family... it's probably that bad."
"I was being optimistic," Snipe sighs as the main doors open into the sparring chamber and the new class 1B enters.
Many of them look around curiously while most of the others are still shaking with excitement at finally getting some combat training in their Hero Costumes.
Horizon could see many generic Hero Costumes, a few were inspired by obvious sources such as Samurai or Ninja, along with what he could only guess was a Gundam-inspired design.
"I don't recall anyone in your class having a Quirk that needs a Hero Costume like that," Horizon says.
Snipe sighs, "He doesn't, but he likes Gundam."
"Ah, he's a mecha nerd."
"Alright everyone time to focus," Snipe says through the speakers, getting everyone's attention. "This is your first real battle drill, normally I'd start you off small but the UA Sports Festival is in less than 3 weeks so we have to accelerate the physical component of your Hero Course training."
He sees most of the students' excitement only grow at the mention of the UA Sports Festival.
"Now, all of you get into positions, this will be a 20-vs-1 battle," Snipe says. "I'll be throwing you as far into the deep end as possible with this, so just know that you'll likely never face any challenge as daunting as this in your entire life."
He sees all the students spread out but they keep looking up at the observation area, even though they couldn't see past the one-way glass.
"Your task is to last 5 minutes, begin," Snipe announces.
All the students are immediately on edge, turning toward where a pair of large reinforced doors are, below the observation area, made for the release of Nezu's combat robots, something they're all familiar with.
But nothing happens.
"What's going on, is this part of the test?" One of the girls asks, she has both hands raised and glowing green with flames, aimed at the door.
"It has to be," the boy behind her says, he had one hand raised on his temple ready to use his Quirk.
"AH!" one of their classmates, a more muscular boy yells as he falls onto his butt, at the entrance to the facility.
Everyone looks over at him, shifting their attention from the reinforced doors to see him trembling and sweating, a look of horror on his face as he breathes heavily, pointing at the far end of the facility.
They all turn around to see Horizon casually standing there with one hand in his pocket as the other waves at them.
"So your battlefield awareness is, just awful," Horizon says jokingly.
It takes a moment, but quickly they all realize exactly what their test was, and their reactions are quite varied.
Some begin to panic and back away, terrified. Others are excited by the challenge.
More than half of them are simply starstruck, tempted to ask for an autograph of some kind.
But while all of them are processing, Horizon's main focus rushes forward.
The boy is wearing a simply armored body suit and helmet, gold and blue, and both his hands are glowing gold as he rushes forward.
"You're supposed to let long-range fighters start the show...well, I suppose against me would be the one exception huh," Horizon shrugs as he casually avoids the shorter boy's wide and wild swings.
"AHH!" the boy yells in frustration as Horizon reaches the edge of the room, and sidesteps a punch that slams into the wall.
The boy's punch shakes the room and sinks his arm elbow-deep into the reinforced concrete wall as Horizon casually walks away from him.
"Damn it!" the boy yells as his arm is stuck in the wall.
"Well that was dramatic," Horizon says as he slowly walks toward the students.
"C'mon just work together, I'll make an opening for you guys to land some hits," a boy with his fingers on her temple announces as his eyes glow white for a moment. "Argh!" all the veins and arteries on his face and head pop and burst as blood flows from his nose, eyes, and ears.
They all look horrified as he collapses on the floor in front of them.
"This is why you never try to read my mind," Horizon says as he walks up to the boy and kneels beside him, starting to heal him. "He should have focused on linking all your minds together to coordinate the fight, you've never worked together like this before so that would have been more efficient."
"Please take him to Recovery Girl when he's stable," Snipe says through the speaker before Horizon disappears then reappears in the same spot.
"Done."
Immediately the girl with green flames on her fists charges forward, "No long-range attacks! He'll just warp us into them!" she yells before leaping into the air and coming down with a fire-infused punch.
Horizon steps back, which she responds to by raising the same hand in an uppercut after she scorches the concrete floor.
He takes another step back, and much to the horror and amazement of her classmates, flicks her on the temple, knocking her out.
Once again he steps back as he crumples to the floor, then he simply steps over her body.
The muscular and bulky boy who first noticed him rushes in beside a girl who transforms into a lioness, and seeing this the boy begins to grow.
Gigantifying himself to be 7m -21ft- tall.
The lioness jumps at Horizon, only for him to catch it and throw it to the far side of the room, where the first attacker is still stuck in the wall.
Then without looking back he raises a hand and catches the goliath's fist slamming down onto him.
The impact is enough to drive him nearly an inch into the concrete floor, but his body doesn't even budge.
He pushes the arm to the side and the boy's weight brings him toward Horizon's fist, which easily taps his head with just enough force to knock him out.
Seeing this the other students immediately throw everything they have at Horizon, but naturally, it would all be meaningless against him.
"Forty seconds," Snipe says over the speakers while looking at his completely defeated students, only a few of whom were knocked out. "Not bad considering who it is, but he rarely went on the offensive and didn't warp once, he was studying your Quirks more than fighting you."
"You have some interesting Quirks," Horizon admits. He then turns back to the far side of the room where the first attacker finally gets his arm free from the wall. "You missed the fight."
The boy begins walking over to everyone else, massaging his sore arm, "next time I'll at least hit you," he says.
"I doubt that," Horizon says. "Why are you even at UA?"
This question confuses everyone in the sparring area, "to be a Pro Hero," the boy says.
"So it's not to try and kill me in my sleep or anything like that? Considering, well, you know..."
"That my parents were in the Gigantomachy," the boy says, shocking his classmates. "No, revenge is not my goal, justice is."
"Oh, so you want to be strong enough to arrest me or something?"
"Yeah, you're only free because the side of justice can't deal with a monster like you, I plan to change that, and if you step out of the light again, I'll be able to take you down," the boy says with a refreshing amount of conviction.
As he spoke he raised his fist to point it at Horizon, then flattened his hand which began glowing once again.
This time the light shifted across his hand and extended into a sword of hard plasma, radiating heat as he held it beside Horizon's visor.
And to no one's surprise, when the energy blade suddenly extended forward, Horizon didn't react, he was still looking down at the boy who was more than a head shorter than him.
After a tense moment, Horizon chuckles, and much to their surprise he raises a hand and grabs the blade with his fingers.
"You clearly don't understand how the world really works," Horizon says as the energy of Booster Shot begins leaking out from his finger onto the blade.
The energy blade seems to crack slightly, before Horizon flexes his fingers and shatters it in his hand, holding the broken half blade in his hand as the boy backs away, horrified.
"How?" the boy mutters.
Horizon holds the blade and inspects it while speaking, "When the energy is disconnected from you it quickly fades into the environment, it loses its 'sentience', which means it's mine to manipulate at that point."
Horizon drops the energy blade, and it dissipates before even reaching the floor, "this, is why your so-called 'justice' cannot exist. Justice isn't about what's right and what's wrong, it's about who has the power.
Governments decide justice because they have the military, Heroes are justice because they have more power than villains, and Shigaraki wishes to have the strongest force so that his will becomes justice.
And I get to walk about freely after the things I've done, because I'm, arguably, no, I'm probably the most powerful being on the planet. So if you wish to become whatever version of 'justice' you want to be, I suggest you make a lot of friends.
Because you aren't Horizon, you aren't strong enough to become justice while standing alone..."
END CHAPTER---