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CHAPTER START---
Sitting in the waiting room Horzion is leaning back in a metal chair by the wooden table, lockers and benches on either side of him as he taps his fingers on the surface.
In front of him was his phone, face up showing his profile, the follower count now breaking past 50 million.
He didn't bother returning to the stands after his match, Tokoyami was already in the tunnel by the time he defeated Todoroki, so he simply warped back into the waiting room.
Currently, Cementoss was still fixing the arena, but the world was already reacting.
"900 Million, that's the goal," he mutters to himself, seeing the follower count begin to plateau. "If I can get to All Might's follower count then I know I'm in a spot comparable to the best hero in history...that'll give me all the leverage I need..."
His plan was simple, for most it would be impossible, but for him, it was a set of basic steps that pose barely any challenge.
First, he would need to make his grand debut, which he did against Todoroki. Albeit a bit angrier than he intended.Now the entire world knows he's a Mystery Class, everyone will want to have him on their side, assuming they didn't already want him as a miracle doctor.
His following and influence would immediately balloon, which he can easily track as online followers for a simple metric, keeping the goal to surpass All Might in influence and reach simple.
Next, he simply has to finish up his match against Bakugo and win this tournament, proving he's a truly peerless student with unfathomable potential.
After a few simple months, he'd get his provisional license and start doing actual hero work to continue growing, and if things go as planned he'll enter the top 10 Pro Hero Ranking the minute he graduates.
"Then a few more years of this hero crap...and by that time All Might will be retired or dead, so naturally people will look to me as his next replacement, and I'll be their perfect Symbol of Peace until I get what I want..."
He smiles at the thought of that, having the entire country, maybe the entire world groveling at his feet. He'd finally be able to fix his mistake and bring his family back together.
Then they'd never have to set foot in Japan again.
CLICK!
Horizon looks up to see Nezu entering the room, his tablet held under his arm as he reaches up to lock the door behind himself.
"Here to congratulate me?" he asks jokingly.
"I never doubted you, but you were a bit rougher than expected," Nezu says while taking a seat beside Horizon, placing his tablet on the table and taking out his phone as well. "You knocked out some of his teeth, not to mention the things you did with your Quirk."
"I barely touched him, he'll get over it," Horizon scoffs.
Nezu just sighs and shakes his head, not at all surprised by this response. "And yet he's still in shock laying in the infirmary," Nezu shakes his head. "Anyway, you said that he mentioned your parents, I assume what he said couldn't have been good. But I never expected behavior like that from Todoroki."
"He made assumptions and tried meddling where he shouldn't, he won't make that mistake again, and now everyone else knows not to do the same," Horizon growls out.
"And what did he---"
"I'm done talking about this."
Nezu bites his tongue and just nods, "understood." After a long pause, he realizes Horizon was in a bad mood from simply recalling whatever Todoroki said and decides to change the subject. "Aren't you going to ask why I'm here?"
"No, but you'll tell me anyway."
"Fair enough, so, you slash...reality?"
"That's one way to put it yes, it ignores all defense and material composition, can even slash Warp Gate to make them collapse."
"But you couldn't just dice up the USJ Nomu because?"
"Super-Regeneration, it acts like stitches pulling the parts back together, I don't think all will be that fast, but for that one it was. It's like since the Nomu is so full of energy and reactive stem cells they start growing to reach out and reconnect, even if I don't technically hurt them..."
"I see, and I assume the Injection-Shot bullets operate the same, but they somehow do real internal damage."
"Pretty much."
Nezu sits back in his chair just taking in the power of his Quirk, understanding that there was still so much he didn't know, and would certainly never be allowed to know. By definition Mystery Class Quirks are beyond human and scientific comprehension, he knew no matter how hard he tries, and how much time he has, without Law explaining it he'd never get any closer to figuring it out.
"I assume you're banning my sword," Horizon says.
"Oh most definitely, many people were concerned seeing a student cut into pieces, and the morality of removing a person's heart is still being questioned."
"It's not like it killed him," Horizon shrugs.
"Well Pantu already called me the moment you made the reveal, she'll be calling back any minute now to discuss the contract we all agreed to."
Hearing that Horizon sits up, "is she trying to change it?"
"She didn't say, but I decided no matter what she wants everyone who signed it should be in agreement...seeing as we all have much to lose and gain from it."
"Mhm," Horizon just nods and leans back, trying to clear his mind.
Not even a minute later Nezu's phone rings, he immediately answers and puts it on speaker, resting it on the table between them.
"You're on speaker," Nezu says. "Only Horizon and I are here..."
'President Pantu' was the name on the screen, the head of Japan's Hero Public Safety Commission.
"Good," her calm and feminine voice flows through the phone. "Let's skip the pleasantries, I just got off the phone with a lot of very powerful people, they don't want Horizon taking the hero route."
Nezu doesn't react, expecting this outcome, simply nodding along. "Because they want to keep their potential miracle elixir safe?"
"Essentially yes, people aren't comfortable with the man that can cure and heal any non-genetic disorder putting himself in danger like a common hero, he's been deemed an Invaluable Resource, a class zero security case."
"What?" Horizon asks, not understanding what that means.
"That classification list was created by the United Nations," Nezu says. "Until now the only class zero was me, people deemed too valuable to mankind to allow any risk in insuring their safety, that's why UA is able to become an armed fortress in such a restrictive nation like Japan."
"That's putting it lightly," Pantu says. "UA is all but its own sovereign nation, I can't even send officials on campus without presidential approval. Not to mention any action Japan takes against UA needs United Nations approval, plus every other country wants Nezu to live in their borders..."
"Ok, so what does this mean for me?" Horizon asks.
"Whatever you want," Pantu says. "Money, influence, land, we'll get you whatever you want, and provide full-time 24-hour security, not that you need it. But we can't take the risk of losing you."
"What about my parents? I don't alter or renegotiate contracts, and I definitely never ever break them, if I change anything then I want them out," Horizon was a hair away from angrily growling out those words. Even now the idea of not completing a contract as he agreed to made him sick.
"They can't just be let out that easily," Pantu says. "Look, you're mom killed a lot of powerful people, and a lot of people between her and her targets got killed too. She was the most effective killer in the world and everyone knows that, which means all the powerful people in every country in the world want her locked up, forever, because she is one of the few people who could kill most of them. If we let someone like that out with any kind of deal suddenly big countries and companies stop trading with Japan, or start pressuring us in other ways."
"How bad is it? And how soon can they get out?" Horizon asks.
"It'll be at least a few more years," Pantu says. "And as for how badly...well the last time you spoke to them I had them moved into solitary and they'll be there until release. A lot of powerful people were lobbying for immediate execution but I sold them a story about getting intel from them to buy time. They've been in solitary since Christmas."
Horizon sits back for a moment and considers his options, then decides to just test the waters a bit. "OK, and if I drop out of UA and take the safe life, what's the deal to get them out?"
"Uncertain, I'd have to move some things around."
"Mmmm, don't like that," Horizon says, tapping the table a few times. "Guess I'm staying in the Hero Course."
"But the risk---"
"Is fine," he cuts her off. "See I'm gonna be Japan's greatest SUPER-Hero, unrivaled. I'll fulfill the contract the three of us agreed to in a few years, then you do your part and get them out of Tartarus, because otherwise, things get messy."
"Are you threatening a government official?" Pantu could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"No no no, that's not very heroic at all...but. If say, you break the contract, or try some underhanded government bullshit to stop me from being a hero, or I so much as sense any foul play, this story goes from me being a hero to protect all the idiots that can't defend themselves...to everyone counting how many people...and heroes...and cities...get between me, and you, and I just don't think you have enough."
A pregnable silence fills to room, the air tense in anticipation of Pantu's response, until a soft and defeated sigh sounds through the phone, "alright," she says. "I'll try to get them out before approaching you again with this offer. I technically don't have any legal grounds to stop you from being a hero so this was all a matter of your choice anyway, not that any legal red tape would work with Nezu in your corner."
"Very true," Nezu says.
"Look on the bright side of things," Horizon says to her. "You'll get an unbeatable super-hero, Nezu gets his new Symbol of Peace, and I get my parents back, you keep your end of the deal and everyone wins, simple."
"I'll take care of it," Pantu says. "I suppose the only thing left is to congratulate you on winning the sports festival."
"The first step to being your next Symbol of Peace," Horizon says jokingly.
"Right..." she abruptly hangs up.
"So did that go how you expected?" Horizon asks Nezu.
"Entirely."
He looks at Nezu skeptically, "you really predicted that even being a miracle elixir isn't enough to get my parents out? Really?"
"Of course," Nezu says. "Humans at their core are fragile and scared creatures, for most of the powerful people that could sway such a decision releasing the best contract killer in history, the person most likely to eliminate them or their families...simply isn't worth protecting a miracle elixir that they'd likely never need or use for themselves or their loved ones."
"I see, because people never think bad things will happen to them. They never think they'll be the one to get sick...just like those idiots who run around playing hero never think they'll be the one to have a villain track them back to their family..."
"Sadly that is the nature of being human, you all think you're so special and unique, and that very fact makes you all the same."
"Is that how you think I view things?" Horizon asks, a soft curiosity in his voice.
Nezu looks at him a bit surprised, "is that not how you see yourself? Special and unique, unlike anyone else, I figured that's why you're so harsh on others."
"It's...it's not that simple."
"We've got some time," Nezu says, gesturing to the screen in the corner showing the stage now about to be completely repaired.
Horizon thinks about his words for a moment then speaks, his voice taking a softer and kinder tone, an almost startling change from his blunt and abrasive way of speaking.
"When I was a kid," he says. "When I first asked my parents to teach me, medicine, fighting, this was even before I knew how to use my Quirk, they never held back. It was tough, but I did it, because it's what's expected of me. Push me, break me, watch me fall, and just wait as I pick myself back up, over and over and over.
It taught me a lot, and they taught me a lot. I knew I was different, smarter, stronger Quirk, just better than anyone else. But it wasn't enough, I had to train and study every day for years, until I figured out what it means to be truly perfect.
The world doesn't slow down for you to learn, so I had to learn fast or deal with the pain of failure, and there was a lot of pain...but it made me stronger. It made me the culmination of everything they are in my own ways, and I couldn't be happier to be who I am now, I just wish they were here with me to see it. But coming to this place, honestly.
I don't expect anyone to ever match me, no Pro, no classmate. But I despise people who clearly aren't trying hard enough to live up to their full potential. I don't care if they want to live a life of mediocrity, but I've worked too hard and sacrificed too much for them to think they're my equal or even comparable just because they're a Pro or in my class.
And I especially don't like when they think we're the same.
We just aren't the same. People who never try to be more than they currently are, than the world tells them they are... those people don't deserve to ever stand beside me, and sadly almost everyone I've met here is doing exactly that. But at least most of them know their place by now.
As for things like Quirks, since we're training to be heroes it matters a lot, some are just so obsolete that they should never have gotten this far. But once a Quirk can be truly useful I don't really care so long as the user has decent Mastery of it.
But some people are just so pathetic...ten years with a Quirk yet you still break your arm to throw a punch, or can only control half the Quirk, or don't even know what your Quirk actually does.
I'm stuck in a classroom with that after all I've done...and you expect me to just play nice, really?"
"I see," Nezu nods solemnly, taking a moment to consider everything he just heard. Now gaining a deeper understanding of how Horizon thinks. "So you don't like when people think they are your equal, without living their life always giving their all, constantly going Plus Ultra..."
"Not Plus Ultra," Horizon says. "That means to go beyond your limits, I have no limits, I just am. But the point is they just don't try hard enough..."
'A massive ego,' Nezu thinks. 'Powered by years of hard work, boosted to absurd levels by his superhuman talent, and all balanced by apathy toward anyone or thing not relevant to him...a dangerous sociopathic combination, especially with such a powerful Quirk...'
"Well this certainly taught me a lot," Nezu says happily, hopping down from his chair.
"Like what?" Horizon asks.
"Well...the only time you ever speak with such care and love in your voice, is when you speak about your parents. I think that's the most important thing to take away from this, now I'll let you get ready for your next match," he gestures to the screen in the corner.
Turning to it Horizon sees Tokoyami pinned down by Bakugo, a constantly exploding palm held close to Dark Shadow like a flashlight.
"Guess its time to wrap this up..."
END CHAPTER---