Discord: .gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
You.tube: @KeanuEugene
CHAPTER START---
"You know, I could have warped her into the cell," Horizon says to President Pantu.
"Protocol exists for a reason," she says as they watch the guard unload Himiko Toga from the convoy. "You're not even supposed to be within ten miles of Tartarus, let alone overseeing prisoner transport."
"What, do I make you nervous?"
"Yes," she says as they step aside for the massive elevator to open and the guards to take their positions.
She and Horizon step into the elevator after the guards have taken their positions, waiting for Toga to be brought to them.
Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady stand closer as they roll her out of the truck, chained to a trolley and wrapped in restraints.Himiko rattles about feebly against the steel restraints.
"Quit struggling. You'll only hurt yourself," Mt. Lady says as they place her in the elevator and step onto it.
Toga grumbles and groans, gagged yet trying to speak. She's left with mainly her sense of hearing as the blindfold covers her eyes.
"Beginning descent," the guard captain says as he inputs the security key to activate the elevator. "Descending to Level 5."
As they descend 600m below sea level, Toga continues to rattle her restraints, causing Mt. Lady to ask her once more to stop.
"She'll be out of them soon enough," Kamui Woods says.
"It won't matter soon enough," Horizon says, and Toga freezes.
Hearing his voice for the first time in a long time.
"Oh, are you shy around me now, Himiko?"
She begins violently rattling her restraints, hard enough to bruise her body and even break her skin, drawing blood.
Mt. Lady tries to step forward to stop her, but the guards block her.
TAKT!
All the restraints freeze in place, even as she crashes against them.
Mt. Lady feels Kamui Woods holding her hand, pulling her focus away from everyone else.
Until Horizon takes a casual step forward, warping in front of Toga.
Even the strict guards of Tartarus dare not challenge him.
"You seem scared, are you scared?" he asks while using Takt to remove the gag from her mouth.
"Fuck you!" she immediately spits blood at him, revealing some of her broken teeth as she does so.
Horizon warps the blood away before it touches him.
"So ambitious. Most girls your age want to do that, but you're at the bottom of the list."
Toga bites her lip, hard enough to rip the flesh, "You know, one day you'll die too…someone will kill you. I just hope it hurts. Even if you suffered one percent of what you put other people through, it would break you." ŖáＮÔ𐌱Ěş
"For that to happen, I'd have to lose. But I cannot lose, because I am Horizon."
Toga releases a primal, aggressive groan as she tries and fails to lunge at him. "Shigaraki was right. I hope he destroys this entire shitty world. That's what it deserves if it's a world where you're the best hero it can have."
Horizon reaches up and removes her blindfold, allowing everyone to see the tears flowing from her eyes.
"Maybe you're right," he says. "But, you know what? They may be cheering for me now…but imagine how hard they'll cheer when I tear out Spinner's heart, the heart that loves you so much, even until his death."
"Wha—no, that's impossible!" she hurts herself more against the restraints. "You'll never find them!"
"True, but he'll come to me, because I have you. He just needs to believe I hold the key to you, and he holds the key to me.
As Toga considers his words, her tears keep flowing, knowing that if Horizon willed it, the only boy ever to love her would soon be dead.
But her mind puts the pieces together, after a lifetime of desperately seeking to understand love.
She opens her eyes to see Horizon, and understands him.
"I get it now," she says. "The key to you, the blo—"
Horizon grabs her mouth and a sickening crack is heard before her agonized, bloodcurdling screams fill the elevator.
He then steps away, allowing the guards to place the blindfold on her.
Unfortunately, everyone was forced to endure her cries as they couldn't gag her shattered jaw and mouth.
The elevator opens and the guards roll her to her cell.
Leaving Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods behind as Horizon and Lady Pantu trail behind Toga.
"She's smarter than you thought, or are you just getting sloppy?" Pantu asks Horizon as they follow the guards.
"No, she shouldn't know about that. Could Gentle Criminal be more well-connected than we initially believed, possibly linked to the League of Villains?"
"Shigaraki has been going out of his way to avoid you. He wouldn't send someone to attack you, especially not at your home."
"Well, that's the only way a villain would know about that person."
"Do you want me to reinstate her security team?" Pantu asks. "I'll have to assign new people since, well, we cleared out the last set."
"No, she'll be fine. Just keep your eyes away from her."
"It's not her that I'm worried about," Pantu says.
Horizon stops walking, causing her to stop beside him and the guards to move around them, taking Toga to her cell.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asks while looking down at her.
"It means that I thought you were dangerous before, when you had nothing else to lose. But now you're…attached to her. And I can't imagine what kind of creature you'd become if you ever lost someone you loved. So I'm just trying to save the world from that version of you."
They share a tense moment, then Horizon chuckles and continues walking.
"Even Horizon couldn't save anyone from that version of me…"
Moments later they arrive at the solid steel door, six inches thick, built into a wall of metal alloy.
"She's secure, ma'am," the guard captain says to Pantu as he prepares to lock the door.
"Good, confirm in your files that the prisoner is captive and alive," Pantu says. "Horizon, she's all yours."
The guards look at Horizon after they lock the door, and he instantly disappears.
They recognize what's going on and hear muffled screaming from inside the cell.
Then Horizon warps back beside Pantu, rubbing the back of his visor. "Damn, that always gives me a headache."
"Did you get it?" Pantu asks.
"Yeah, I tore everything I could from her brain before it melted, but I got enough. Spinner should have more."
As they're speaking, the guard captain opens the cell, seeing Toga's corpse on the floor, her head smoldering, her brain incinerated in her skull.
"You killed her," he says. "But, I don't understand…"
"Tartarus has leaks," Horizon says. We picked all of you for this task because someone who is not part of this group is sharing information with the League Of Villains.
"That's impossible!"
"Or unconscious," Horizon says. "Telepathy exists after all."
"Only one thing matters," Pantu says. "You keep her status as alive in your files and to the knowledge of anyone else. Her boyfriend should attempt a hostage exchange for her, but she must remain alive for it."
"You tell me someone in my compound is a spy and expect me to do nothing about it, seriously?"
"Exactly," Horizon says. "Because this is all part of the plan."
The man sighed, "Fine. I'll clean this up afterward."
"Thank you for your hard work," Horizon says as he begins walking away.
Pantu falls into step beside him. "So, is Tartarus everything you expected?"
"More boring than I expected. But the new floors look fun."
"The tenth floor is confidential," Pantu says.
"I know. I read the confidential files. Moving All For One down there makes sense, but, Shigaraki…"
"What about him?"
"You think I'm going to let him live?"
"Seizing him offers an immense ideological advantage; it sends a global message."
"Tartarus has enough prisoners. I have no interest in adding to it."
"Globetrotting won't go as well if you're acting like an assassin. Countries will be much more willing to let you ignore borders if it's to capture, not kill."
"I have something in mind for that. Once I release my next project, they won't dare question anything I do."
"What about Dabi?"
"I owe his dad a favor, that's different," Horizon says. "As for the rest of them, well…"
"Capture and detainment?"
Horizon laughs. "No prisoners, only trophies," he says as they board the elevator.
As they leave, below the ocean in the most secluded corner of Tartarus Level 5, the demon lord smiles.
Sensing Horizon and Pantu walking by with Toga, then leaving, walking past his cell, casually discussing a hopeful future.
Everything's coming together for him.
Now he was even more reassured in his bet.
That Japan will crumble, and he will rule as the demon lord.
Meanwhile, seconds later, back in Horizon Tower, Horizon arrives in his living room to see his entire team and Mina Ashido having lunch.
"How'd it go?" Sero asks.
"She's dead, but I got all the info she had," Horizon says as he sits on the couch, pulling Mina into his lap. "Did you buy something sexy for our first date?"
Mina rolls her eyes at him, but doesn't bother to get up. "You're enjoying this a little too much."
"Learn to enjoy the peaceful moments. We're heroes. It's what we fight for."
"Doesn't mean you have to put your hand there…"
Horizon flexes his fingers, tightening the grip on her ass for just a moment. "As far as the world will be concerned, it's mine. I'm just playing the part…"
END CHAPTER---