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CHAPTER START---
"One For All: 65%!" Midoriya yells out as power flows through his body, small arcs of current dance around him as his hair begins moving wildly.
"Gah!" he shuts off his Quirk and stumbles back, sitting on the bench in this changing room as he catches his breath.
"I guess my new limit for constant use is just 50%," Midoriya says as he looks up at the small screen in the corner of the room, seeing the stage almost fully reconstructed as Present Mic excites the crowd for the final match.
As he sits on the bench he looks over at his Hero Costume case beside him, and opens it to reveal his upgraded costume.
Then begins changing his sports sneakers into his new Hero Costume books and gloves, made to enhance and protect himself while using his Quirk.
As he's done with his shoes and about to pull on his gloves, however, the door slams open, startling him.
"Huh?""Izuku!" His mother rushes into the room, tears streaming down her face.
"Mom? What's going on?" he asks as All Might enters behind her, trying to catch his breath. "Why are you guys here?"
"We need to go, come on," His mother begins dragging him away, which he resists.
"Go where? What's going on?"
"To call off this match," she says. "I don't want you fighting him of all people, we need to hurry, we can tell them you aren't feeling well..."
As he hears this Izuku becomes immovable to the woman, causing her to look back at him in surprise.
"No," he says, causing All Might to awkwardly stand watching this unfold.
"But---"
"No mom," he says again. "I challenged him in front of the entire world, I can't back down now," he sits back down and continues getting ready.
"Is that what this is about?!" she begins crying even more, which he ignores. "This is because of your pride or something silly like that?! What does that matter if he accidentally kills you Izuku, this is bad and you know it. You don't have anything to prove, not to me, and not to All Might, he chose you above everyone else for a reason."
"I don't think it's that simpl---" All Might's words die in his throat as she glares at him.
"It's not just that mom," Izuku says. "Sure, part of it is that I want Horizon to see that I'm not the same loser I was when we started UA, I want him to acknowledge how much progress I've made.
But I also want to see what the top of the world really looks like. This Quirk I have is supposed to be a light that can overcome any darkness, but if that light has a massive hand shrouded in darkness falling upon it, will I be enough to ever shine through?"
"I don't get it, what are you saying?" she asks.
"I think he's worried about the example Horizon sets," All Might says.
"Yeah," Midoriya confirms. "Horizon is great at being a Pro Hero, he's probably the best there will ever be. But, if the entire world thinks like him, there won't be much of a world left. I want him to acknowledge me, not just for me, but so people can see that he isn't the only great hero they can use as an example.
I want to be for people, what All Might was to me.
Maybe I am being a bit selfish, I know I should only care about saving people, but, I want to be more than just another Pro Hero saving people and never being recognized, I want to help inspire people to be better than they were yesterday.
And I'm willing to fight Horizon, to be acknowledged by him, and maybe even hurt...a lot, if that's a way to make this journey easier."
As Izuku and his mother cry and hug each other, All Might observes everything and smiles.
Reminded of a conversation he had with the previous user of One For All, with Nana Shimura.
'Being a hero and saving people isn't enough, people need someone they can look up to, can be inspired by. They need a pillar to support them and let them know everything will be alright, someone who shows them a better path, a brighter path...' he recalls his exact words, and the radiant smile she gave him in response.
'Izuku Midoriya, you can see it without me ever telling you, being a hero and saving lives isn't enough. If you can't inspire people to change on their own, then your impact will only be as long as your career, I'm proud of you, for realizing this on your own,' All Might thinks as Izuku finishes getting dressed.
"So, do you have a plan?" All Might asks as the Midoriyas settle down.
"Yeah, I've got a few," Izuku says. "But I can't say them out loud, Horizon could be reading our lips with his Quirk."
"I doubt he'd ever do that," All Might says. "He really doesn't think so much of you that he'd try to look at your playbook, also he's a man of his word."
"That's true," Izuku says.
"Can he really do that?" his mom asks.
"Oh yeah, it'd be super easy," All Might says jokingly. "Horizon is sensing every minute movement on UA and in most of Musutafu right now and has complete control of everything within that range, just as an invisible layer of security."
All the color drains from her face as she grabs onto Izuku, "Please don't go fighting this person Izuku!"
---Minutes Later...
Walking out of the tunnel leading into the arena, Izuku immediately notices that the concrete stage was extended to occupy more of the space.
It was thicker and had a greater surface area, but the floor of the games area was lowered deeper into the earth so the combatants would be even lower than before, further from the crowd.
As he climbs the stairs he takes note of all these changes.
'They reinforced the stage and made it larger, plus the walls of the arena as well to protect the crowd. I still have to be extra careful with my Shoot-Style and Air Force shots.
But this means I can be a lot more lenient than before since most of the air won't even reach the crowd because they put us in a deeper hole.
The negatives of these changes are bad too, a larger stadium means he has more space to warp about, so getting a Ring Out victory will be even harder, although I can't imagine what could be harder than 'impossible'.
But at least I don't have to worry about him trying to knock me out of the ring, knowing him that'll be an absolute last resort, him doing that is like him admitting he couldn't make me submit, and he'd never admit that.
I just have to land hits without holding contact for more than a fraction of a second each time, so no grappling, otherwise he'll electrocute me with Counter Shock...'
As he's done thinking Midoriya is standing in front of Horizon, looking up at the boy.
While Horizon was now 198cm -6ft6-, Midoriya has grown as well, standing at 175cm -5ft9-, with more lean muscle on his frame to accommodate his power.
Both students wore their UA PE Uniforms, with Midoriya also wearing his gloves and boots from his Hero Costume.
While across from him Horizon had the jacket of his PE Uniform open with no shirt beneath, showing the Body Glove directly to the crowd, and on his back is his symbol as usual.
"You took my offer and actually decided to use it," Horizon says. "But I'm a bit disappointed you didn't come wearing the full costume."
"These are the main functional parts," Midoriya says as they continue to ignore the crowd. "No sword?"
Horizon shrugs, "figured I'd keep things reasonable, besides I'm still not entirely used to the new sword yet."
"Is everyone ready?!" Ms. Midnight asks, causing the arena to go silent and both students nod.
She pauses, allowing the tension to build, then lowers her fan.
"BEGIN!"
Horizon, Midoriya, Ms. Midnights, and Cementoss, all instantly disappear from the arena.
The cheers fade as confusion blooms in its place, cameras turn to Ms.Midnight and Cementoss who appear at the same instant in the stands, at the lowest level nearest to the stage.
Both teachers turn to each other, just as confused as everyone else.
"Huh," Present Mic looks around, just as confused but understanding his role as the announcer. "Well if they both left the arena then---"
KRAKOOOM!
The sound of thunder nearly deafens the crowd, but not from the overcast sky above, from the stage below.
KRAKOOOM!
It continues rumbling, and this time the stage itself explodes into dust and derbis, the entire stadium, no, all of UA, no, all of Musutafu and this entire stretch of Japan's coastline shakes.
Over and over, like the world itself was falling apart, like an invisible force was rolling through reality to a choir of thunder.
People in the crowd cover their ears, for what little that can do, children who were cheering moments ago begin crying, begging to go home.
The entire world watches, confused, as if reality itself was coming apart in the arena.
KRAKOOM!
One final thunderous explosion echoes out from what's left of the stage, but instead of kicking up more dust.
The dustcloud is pushed aside, revealing Horizon, looking completely untouched.
His energy was visible and radiant, his entire being cloaked in a flowing blue energy vapor, that had they not known better, people would have assumed to be flames.
He had one fist outstretched, clashing with the fist of Izuku Midoriya, who was also enveloped in the energy vapor as it leaked off of Horizon, but Midoriya had bruises and scratches on his body.
Pieces of his PE Uniform were torn, and his eyes looked more serious than his peers could ever imagine.
No, at this moment, he had no peers.
There is no being equal to him at this exact moment, there are only those who are above him, one of which he is clashing with.
And there are those that are coming to the realization, that they simply cannot keep up.
'One For All: 85%!' Midoriya commands as his power increases by yet another magnitude, and they both disappear again.
This time the clashes are more visible, if it can even be called that.
The chorus of thunder echoes out as they flicker about, like floating holograms all about the arena.
In every instant they clash, Horizon warps them away.
They appear above the stage, Midoriya kicking toward Horizon's visor, and Horizon's hand already raised with Curtain on his forearm taking the blow.
The clash happens, and then they warp away, yet their afterimage stays in place.
With each clash another afterimage is formed, then they warp to the next, then the next.
Seeing dozens of these appear before the first begin to fade away, Eraser Head scoffs.
'If he can afford to do all of these little tricks while guiding the fight, he still isn't taking Midoriya seriously...' he realizes.
Horizon cannot simply make illusions such as this, and while most people think this is a byproduct of the fight, Eraser Head knows better.
He's warping them back and forth while conducting this fight like a dance, and each time moves are repeated he warps them into the exact same spot.
Making the illusion of dozens of frozen clashes perfectly in the air.
KRAKOOM!
All the afterimages disappear and Horizon and Midoriya appear on the stage one more, and Midoriya kicks forward with everything he has.
'Shoot Style: 85%!' his metal shoe collides directly with Horizon's fist that'd manifested a Curatin on itself.
The curtain instantly shatters, knocking Horizon's hand back.
SHAMBLES!
He warps away, swapping places with Midoriya to avoid the follow-up punch.
The moment he appears, however, the fist is millimeters away from smashing into his visor.
SHAMBLES!
He warps to the other side of the stage, and the moment he appears his vision is blocked by Midoirya's fist yet again.
This dance continues on for a while, with Horizon always barely avoiding a direct attack.
In such a cramped space, Warping and Super Speed are much closer in use than in a larger place, and against Midoriya, Horizon's usually invisible faults are being shown.
Horizon can Warp at the speed of thought, but his body cannot move at that speed.
He cannot raise his hand fast enough to block a strict to his face, and Midoriya has broken his hastily made shield countless times before.
He simply does not have the time he needs to contest an enemy with immense speed and instant maximum acceleration in such a confined area.
While he works to solve this issue, Midoriya simply has to use his accelerated perception and capabilities to look around, and the instant Horizon appears he charges directly toward him.
The goes on for a few more seconds, until Horizon begins using one of his newer moves.
SHAMBLES: Flicker!
He simultaneously appears all across the stage at once.
'Doesn't matter,' Midoriya thought. 'These aren't illusions, so if I connect with one, that's all I need, all he did was make himself a bigger target!'
With that Midoriya charges forward, fist reared to crash into the visor of a flickering Horizon.
Yet as he's above to make contact, it flickers and reappers with a fist raised to meet his.
'He changed the position of his body while he was warping, how?!' this realization came to Midoriya as they collided and sent a shockwave through the stadium.
Horizon's arm is knocked aside and he's sent flying away through the air, while Midoriya barely feels anything at all.
In fact, he feels better than ever.
'One For All: 90%!'
He launches into the air, away from the designated fighting area and above the stadium where Horizon was still sent flying.
Before anyone could blink he'd arrive below Horizon, ready to kick him into orbit.
SHAMBLES!
Horizon appears on the stage, standing perfectly relaxed as he flexes his arm.
Unbeknownst to most, including his opponent, with every clash all the bones in the connecting limb, and sometimes all across his body, were shattered.
The shroud of energy around him was focused entirely on healing, and that was all he could do to keep up in this fight.
The moment he appeared, Horizon, Midoriya was inches away yet again, a foot about to crash into Horizon's face.
Midoriya has punched the air from high above the stadium to rocket back down, a mix of All Might and Bakugo's techniques, and now he unleashed his power directly toward Horizon.
"SMASH!"
The entire coast shakes as the 95% One For All attack collides with the arena.
Just as Horizon held everyone to the earth via their clothes in previous rounds, he does the same thing again to keep the ground itself from caving in and swallowing UA.
The sound is deafening, the wind more intense than any hurricane, but only for a fleeting moment.
And the dust cloud blocks everyone's view of the arena.
In the middle of the cratered stage, Midoriya gently waves his hand, clearing the dust cloud, and looking around for Horizon.
'That attack was so massive it must have made contact,' Midoriya thought. 'He couldn't have warped away and stayed within the fighting area at once...'
He looks around to see the crowd more scared than anything else, looking at him with fear and awe in their eyes. They knew he wanted to be a Pro Hero, but in the face of such power, intent is not what stirs human emotions to the surface.
"How are you feeling?" Horizon asks, and Midoriya's head snaps to look up, seeing the man standing in the air with his hands behind his back.
He shuts his eyes and shakes his head, forcing the memories of All For One away before looking up at his classmate.
"Since when could you fly?" Midoriya asks, still using 95%, energy arcing off of his body every few seconds.
"Not really flying," Horizon says. "More like standing in the air, I got sick of people wondering why I couldn't fly, so I got creative..."
"And just when I thought I did an attack you couldn't run away from."
"I'd be foolish to take one of your serious attacks head-on," Horizon says. "I could, of course, but this isn't the time and place for that to happen. But again, how are you feeling?"
Midoriya raises a brow at this, "Better than ever, in fact, I feel like I could do this forever," he clenches his fists and closes his eyes,
ONE FOR ALL: 100%!
The earth begins rumbling, hundreds of tremors compounding onto each other as his power is pushed to its current limit.
This was not intentional, but simply his muscles constantly twitching while he was standing on the ground.
"You should get up here before you destroy the place," Horizon says.
Taking a deep breath Midoriya focuses his mind, and with the most gentle movements he could muster, flicks his finger.
The quakes stop as he appears before Horizon, a dozen meters between them as Midoriya keeps flicking his fingers at his sides to hover in place.
"That looks familiar," Horizon says.
"I got the idea from Kacchan," Midoriya admits. "I kept it a secret in case I got matched against him, or you."
"Good decision, and your Quirk?"
"I feel like I've fully mastered it now," Midoriya says. "I don't know why but, I feel like fighting against you brought out my full power, and I must have instinctively managed to control it."
"The answer will reveal itself soon," Horizon says. "Just give it a few seconds..."
"Oh," Midoriya looks slightly confused, but both students and the crowd are enjoying this moment between them. "And what about you, how long were you going to save the fact that you can fly...walk on air."
"Well, I plan to disappear from the public eye while I get some training done, then maybe at my big reveal after the suspension is over," Horizon shrugs. "But you ruined it, I had to use it to avoid that kick."
"Oh, sorry, I just---" As Midoriya is speaking One For All suddenly shuts, off.
He feels all the muscles in his body cramp up as he blacks out from the immense pain.
And Horizon watches him fall, onto the stage below, completely unconscious.
While he's lying face down in the rubble, Horizon raises one hand, and condenses some of his energy into a single drop, then allows it to fall.
It falls directly onto Midoriya, and the boy gasps back to life, the heart attack that was killing him immediately stops.
"Gah!" Midoriya tries to sit up but just falls onto his back once again. "What?!"
Most of the onlookers are confused, so of course they turn to Horizon for an explanation.
"You blacked out, so you lost," Horizon says. "I told you, 'give it a few seconds', remember?"
Looking up at him, Midoriya has an expression of immense pain and confusion on his face, "My Quirk, I didn't master it in this fight, did I?"
"Not even close," Horizon says as his energy shroud manifests once more. "This energy around me doesn't hurt people, it heals them. Every time you got close or we clashed, I healed you, hundreds of times until you were so saturated with energy that your body didn't even realize your Quirk was trying to rip it apart."
"What? Why?" Midoriya asks, but sees Horizon isn't planning on answering him.
"Because he had no choice," Eraser Head cuts in. "This arena, these rules, the handicaps placed on Horizon by them. They made the perfect scenario for someone as powerful as Midoriya to defeat Horizon.
And they left Horizon with no real way of forcing his opponent to submit. Instead, he used the fact that your own body can't handle the immense power of your Quirk to his advantage, baiting you into thinking you finally got control, then he simply stopped healing you.
And your Quirk did the rest for him..."
"Tch, that man refuses to just let people live with the mystery," Horizon grumbles. "But, he's right, a battle with you in such a confined space is very annoying, this was the best-case scenario for you to ever defeat me."
"Yet I couldn't even scratch you," Midoriya says.
"Don't be too hard on yourself for this defeat De---" Horizon cuts himself off.
He takes a moment to collect his thoughts, and decides his next moves very carefully.
"Do not be dejected, Izuku Midoriya, you are strong," his words surprise everyone, especially Midoriya. "I always knew your strength and speed would surpass All Might, and your intellect was always ahead of his.
Today we saw the true limits of those, and they were great. I am sure you'll become a great Pro Hero, and your strength will grow to greatly surpass all, even All Might, this I see as an absolute truth."
Horizon's words surprise the world, his classmates most of all, and as Izuku Midoriya has tears of joy streaming down his face, the entire world takes note of this incredible young man.
"But strength isn't everything," Horizon says. "Strength and power are far from the same thing. I will never match your strength, I couldn't even truly match it today, and you will only grow more with each day.
But even if you had the strength of 100 All Mights, in a world of true superhumans, there are those who simply have real power.
Real power is bending the world to your whims, real power is being able to reach up, and sunder the heavens," Horizon raises one hand toward the overcast sky, and everyone expects him to part the clouds, but he continues.
"Real power, is the will, to reach up, and rip power from the sky..."
With that he takes his raised hand and grips the air, making the same motion as his now globally infamous Gamma Knife.
But instead of the horrifying green energy the world fears, dozens of lightning bolts strike out from the sky directly at him, all gathering in his palm.
He brings his hand down in front of him as a blinding white light causes everyone to look away.
The sound of thunder is heard, then the scent of ozone fills the stadium.
And when the light fades, they look up at Horizon, to see him standing in the air, holding a crystalized lighting bolt, brimming with power.
Its very presence causes everyone's hair to float upward toward it.
"Counter Shock: Charged Bolt," Horizon says, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
With that he stretches his hand out, still holding the object, and begins to squeeze.
The absolute silence of the stadium allows the small hairline fractures in the glass-like material to be heard, and everyone feels their hearts skip a beat.
"Lightning Smite..."
KRAKOOM!
The air is vaporized as a massive pillar of lightning punches a hole in the arena below it where Midoriya lays, and extends all the way to the sky, punching a massive hole in the cloud cover.
"Oh god," was all Present Mic could say, not in a scream, but in a soft mutter.
"God indeed," Eraser Head says as the light and pillar of lightning disappear, to reveal the area having been completely vaporized by it.
A hole for hundreds of meters into the earth was glowing red, walls slick with molten rock.
Yet there are pillars raised in it where the lightning seemingly didn't hit, forming Horizon's logo, the smiling face with checkered teeth.
And on one of the eyes, lays Izuku Midoriya, completely untouched, smiling, with not a single drop of fear in him.
"This is gonna take all day to fix," Cementoss grumbles while looking at the hole.
The people and cameras look around, only to find no sign of Horizon.
For just as he said, he disappeared from the public eye.
On this day, April 23rd, Horizon made his last public appearance for quite some time, until he later emerges, to save the world...
END CHAPTER---
VOLUME COMPLETE!