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CHAPTER START---
"Billion? With a 'B'? Seriously?" Star and Stripe ask as she carefully eyes the vial of glowing blue liquid in her hand.
"Well, I can't put a price on it, but that's a good guess for total health, right?" Horizon asks.
They sat atop Lone Star Base's air traffic control tower, eating lunch while several million-dollar fighter jets hung upside down above them, noses pointed toward the runway.
"Right, can't put a price on life. But you said it's incomplete, so why are you giving me this?"
"No, I said it wasn't perfect. It's more than complete. Besides, I made that one specially for you; if you get hurt, drink it, and you'll be healed back to your current form," Horizon says. "But it could get weird considering your Order that transforms your body."
"I can't even get sick, much less get hurt.""I had to heal you after Tech."
"But I have my Quirk Awakening now, so that'll never happen again," she says.
"Just accept the gift before I take it back," he grumbles.
"Alright alright, fine, at least if anything happens you won't have to do that sword thing to get back over here."
"Yeah, that's always a pain in the ass," Horizon mutters. "Anyway, I need to go organize some stuff now before I officially return to Japan. Have fun explaining this."
"Explaining what?"
Horizon finishes his food and points up at both the fighter jets.
And before she can look back at him, he disappears.
"Tch," Star' frowns, already feeling the headache explaining this would cause her.
---Minutes Later, Horizon Tower, Minato Tokyo…
"What do you mean it's permanent!?" Agpar yells, his voice bouncing around the inside of Horizon's visor through the call.
"Yeah, I figured out how to make it stick, but I can't undo it, so they're just like that now," Horizon says casually as he walks into the living room. ȑ
Sero, Shinso, Juzo, and Tokoyami are all there in casual clothes, and he signals to them he's on the phone while taking his seat.
"That's eighty million dollars of military hardware! Get back here and fix this, now!"
"Just put some paint on it and call it art. You're the only place in the world with two permanently floating jets."
"That's not how th—" Horizon ends the call
"All done?" Sero asks.
"Mostly, now. Are you ready for the plan?"
"Always, but it would be better if you told us the details," Juzo says.
"There are only three steps," Horizon says. "Step one, show off to the media that you all caught Toga. Step two, show off that she's being locked in Tartarus. And step three, set the bait. The rest will handle itself."
"So we don't want them to hit the prisoner transport between here and Tartarus?" Tokoyami asks. "Everyone thinks you're in America until you announce something different. We could use that. The moment you officially return, the crime rate will plummet back down to 3%, probably lower now."
Shinso nods, "The government is projecting less than a 0.1% crime rate when you return."
"Wow, I didn't think I was that inspirational," Horizon chuckles.
"You're not," Juzo says. "But criminals fear what the public will allow you to get away with, considering you didn't really get punished for the gigantomachy, and now after saving the world…"
"You could probably execute Toga on live TV and nobody would say a word," Sero says.
"Mmm, well, I'm going to kill her, but if people know then we lose our leverage in the hostage exchange."
"Hostage exchange?" Juzo asks. "I feel like we're missing some important information here."
"You don't need to worry about that right now," Horizon reaches into his jacket and tosses Juzo a vial of green liquid.
Juzo casually catches it and raises it to the light, seeing that it's extremely thin, a few steps from being an aerosol.
"What am I looking at?"
"Trigger, another new strand," Horizon says. "New strands have been popping up in labs all over the world these past three years, but only the basic strands are on the streets."
"So they're developing it for a specialized use," Juzo says. "Private military or new villain group?"
"Unlikely, every strand gets more lethal than the last to the user. The overdrive it causes kills them by depleting their resources or overloading their nervous system, which fries their brain.
"Biochemical weapons," Shinso says. "Why not just take a walk around Japan and find all of it?"
"Because they aren't making this in Japan. A Canadian lab made this, but all of it is flowing toward Europe. You and Juzo will follow the money trail and uncovering how they ship this stuff."
"So we aren't on this Toga plan?" Juzo asks.
"Don't need you, because I am here…"
Hearing those words, Team Horizon smiles, even the ever-dark Tokoyami.
Assured that with their boss back in Japan, they were untouchable.
---Pantu's Office, at the same time…
"So they aren't the same range," Pantu mutters while staring at her screen.
Sitting comfortably in her chair, she eyes the map on the screen, seeing the two points, Lone Star Base and Horizon Tower.
'It only took him one Warp to go from Texas to Tokyo, but he can't actually apply this constantly. So it must be part of his Awakening. He's ten years ahead of our predicted power growth for him.
Between that and his first real super move, Divine Divine, challenging him in a direct fight would destroy whatever region it happens in, if not the entire country he fights in.
That will have to remain Plan B, first I'll use—'
"Lady Pantu," Dr. Ujiko says as he enters her office. "I was surprised to get your call this late at night."
"I hope I didn't interrupt your work, doctor."
"Oh no, I was simply looking over some notes, nothing more," Ujiko says as she directs him to the chairs in front of her desk. "What can I help you with?"
"I'd like a direct report on your progress with All For One," Pantu says as the man takes his seat.
"Well, progress is slow, as always. If I could make some modification to his cell in Tartarus that would help. But without bringing in some custom equipment, I must move extremely slow to avoid giving him leeway to use his Quirks."
"An unfortunate but necessary reality," she says. "Will you be able to learn enough to reverse the Nomu process by studying his body? Before he dies, that is."
"I estimate his body can sustain at least three more years in its current state, which should be enough time to study him. However, the detonation Quirks in his body still make executing him rather…unwise."
"And moving him would simply bait Shigaraki into rescuing him."
"Horizon could do it," Ujiko says. "He could move and execute All For One at any time. Why not have him do it?"
"The less I have him involved, the better. The stability of Japan is most important, so I'd rather simply have All For One die naturally while being studied."
"And might I ask, why this waiting game?"
Pantu reaches into her desk drawer as he continues.
"What outcome are you waiting for, exactly?"
In response, she slides a thick folder across the desk, with a large red 'TOP SECRET' stamp across the front. "Hard copy only."
Dr. Ujiko nods and opens it, amazed by what he's seeing. "These documents, you've built a Level 10 of Tartarus. I thought there were only five levels."
"There are only five levels," she says. "Each level is 100m below the last, with Level 1 starting 100m below sea level. All For One and some other villains live on Level 5, and the organization recently finished levels 6 through 9. But they will remain empty aside from housing redundant systems."
"All for Level 10," Dr Ujiko's eyes widen as he sees the designs. "A cell that can run by itself for decades. This says you intend to move All For One here, or change it for Shigaraki's Quirk."
"On paper, yes. Those details are for when he eventually uncovers those documents."
"Who?"
"We both know who," Pantu says, causing the man to shift nervously in his seat. "My only question is, can you make a cell to contain something like that?"
"Well, I designed the cell for All For One—"
"Who is barely a fraction as dangerous as Horizon."
Dr Ujiko stops for a moment, considering all sides.
'My master said this would happen,' he thinks. 'He told me the government would have two jobs for me. The first was containing and researching him…this must be the second. How did he know this would happen?'
"Doctor?" Pantu snaps him out of his daydream. "Can you do it?"
"In theory, it is possible."
"And what do you need to make that theory a reality?"
"To severely injure him, nearing death but without triggering his Quirk's self-preservation instinct. If that triggers while below Tartarus, he could instinctive warp the entire facility onto the mainland, or countless other disastrous scenarios."
"Alright."
"Hm, 'alright'? That's it?"
"You want a half-dead Horizon, and so you shall have it."
Ujiko looks at the woman, trying to understand how she could say such an absurd thing with such confidence.
"You have a plan for this?" Ujiko asks.
"Two, ideally the first one works, since that is the most…precise. But if that fails, I'm sure the second will deliver what we need."
"I see."
"Doctor, I have one question for you."
"Anything."
"Why are you so willing to help me betray Horizon? Aside from me forcing your hand and implicating you."
"Part of it is patriotism," he lies. "The other part is, I don't want another gigantomachy to happen, and without Horizon, I'd like to think another won't. He is simply too unstable to have such power."
Pantu detects both his lies, but nods anyway. "Thank you, doctor, have a good night."
"Same to you, Lady Pantu," the man takes the folder and leaves the office, allowing Pantu to plan for the next two years in peace.
END CHAPTER---
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