Discord: .gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
Sitting in the cafeteria Horizon was at a quiet table with Sero, Jiro, Momo, and Sato. While they were all enjoying their food he had already eaten his meal bar and was just scrolling through his 'Yay!' profile.
"Kamui Woods, that's pretty cool," Jiro says to Sero. "He's new but pretty popular, and he works just one train stop away from here."
"Yeah, honestly I didn't even know who he was until I saw he sent me an offer," Sero chuckles in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his neck. "I looked at some of his videos online, his Quirk gives him wooden limbs that he can grow to swing around and restrain people, basically like a different version of my Quirk."
"That's so lucky," Jiro says. "I'm honestly a bit jealous, sound-based Quirks aren't that rare but heroes with them are. My options would basically be Mic or Gang Orca, but teachers can't use us as interns and Gang Orca didn't send a request."
"Not surprising," Horizon says without looking up from his phone. "You didn't even get past the cavalry game, everyone probably just thinks you have long earlobes since they never saw you use sonic attacks."
Jiro frowns and glares at him, "you say that like you aren't the one who eliminated my team...not that I blame you or anything since it was a competition."
"It doesn't matter how you feel. You lost your headband because you gathered a weak combination of Quirks for your team. Then you attacked someone you knew you had no business fighting out of desperation, so you got punished. If you aren't smart enough to put on a show for the pros then none of them are gonna care about you. Should have at least used your Quirk to shatter the ground or something so they know you aren't just hitting people with your ears."Jiro just frowns and looks down at her food, while Horizon is still casually on his phone. "Right, well I'm gonna be over in Aldera with Death Arms, maybe we'll see each other during the week Sero."
"A team up, that'd be cool," Sero gives her a thumbs up.
"That's actually who I was gonna work with too," Sato says. "But I think I'll apply at someone else, I just don't think Death Arms can teach me what I want."
"What exactly is it that you want?" Momo asks.
"Well, I've been thinking. Maybe I should learn some more technical fighting, like I've been wrestling since middle school but if I'm gonna be a pro I should know something like Karate right? So I'm looking for a martial arts hero, maybe I'll ask Ojiro where he's going and apply with him."
"Bad idea," Horizon says. "That's a complete waste of time. Stick with Death Arms, or maybe someone like...I dunno some other meathead brawler."
Momo gives him a strange look, "but aren't you always saying people should avoid being 'meatheads'?"
"Yeah, I figured if I learned a martial art it'd help me out a lot, like maybe from Gun Head."
"Nope, waste of time," Horizon says. "Villain fights aren't in a ring, or fighting for points, think of it as to the death, no rules. If you try something super technical like Karate it could work, or one of the movements could leave an opening for you to get stabbed. If you try wrestling you'd be able to pin lots of villains, but then their friend stomps on your head."
"Ouch," Sato rubs his head. "Ok, so what should I do."
"Boxing, kickboxing, maybe some Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The goal in a streetfight is to keep your guard up, stay on your feet in case you get jumped, and never take your eyes off the enemy. You do those simple things and you're better than most. Trying fancy shit looks cool and can work...if you're a lot better or stronger. Keep it simple and it's much more reliable. Jiu Jutsu is like wrestling with actual finishers, boxing and kickboxing are endurance, balance, and striking, you'll learn them a lot faster than karate or anything like that."
Sato falls deep into thought as he quietly considers his options.
"But don't you know multiple fighting styles?" Momo asks Horizon.
"Yeah, and they took me 11 years of non-stop training to master, you've got 3 years and you also have to train your Quirk, learn academics, and how to operate as a Pro Hero. Keep it simple and efficient. I don't even need the fancy shit 99% of the time."
"Damn," Sero says, with a dramatic whistle. "No wonder Bakugo couldn't hit you...totally not fair."
"I get that a lot," Horizon sees a message from Nezu pop up, asking him to come to his office. "So what about you Momo?" Horizon says while getting up.
"Oh, I've already requested my internship be with Uwabami," Momo says proudly, clear excitement in her voice as she gives him a dazzling smile.
"Oh," he sounds almost disappointed, but mostly surprised. "I didn't think you were trying to be one of those heroes..."
"Huh, what do you mean?" Momo asks.
"It's nothing important, none of my business anyway," Horizon warps one of his cards into his hand and places it on the table in front of Momo. "I need to go see Nezu, do me a favor and keep this on you in case our talk runs a bit too long..."
He immediately warps away, leaving them all staring at the metal card with his logo on it.
Twenty minutes later Momo is walking at the head of her class, everyone now changed into their Hero Costumes.
While making their way to training ground Beta, she idly stares at the metal card in her hand, intensely studying it.
"Sooo," Mina speaks up, leaning forward a bit to get a look at the card. "Can it do anything cool?"
Momo narrows her eyes at it and shakes her head. "It appears to just be a carbon-metal alloy, the edges are sharp but I doubt he intends to use them like weapons. But it does have his logo on both sides."
"Maybe he needs his logo on it to warp around with it," Mina says.
Behind them Iida speaks up, "but he warps with other random objects and people as well. I think his quirk is less restrictive than needed a marking of some kind."
"Maybe it lets him see us," Mina suggests.
"What do you mean?" Momo asks.
"Like he gave it to you so he could see into the locker room while we changed."
Momo and Jiro blush furiously at that before Jiro speaks up. "I don't think Horizon is the type of person to do something lame like that."
"Yeah," Tsu agrees. "Besides can't he just see through the walls?"
"He can do that?!" Mina asks.
"Well I don't know, but it would explain how he can see where he's warping, right?" Tsu says.
"His quirk is so weird," Mina sighs. "Maybe it's actually part of his Quirk or something? I mean who knows what weird things he can make..."
"Well, you could just ask him," Jiro suggests.
Mina chuckles nervously at that, "uh...I'd rather not get into a discussion about Quirks with him...he can be a bit much sometimes and my Acid isn't really impressive." Mina's eyes shift over to Momo, she gives her class Vice Rep a pleading smile, "but you could ask him Momo."
"Hmm," Momo gets a bit nervous at the thought, but she remembers Horizon hasn't been mean when they discuss his Quirk. She nods, determined to get to the bottom of this, "alright, I'll ask him when we see him. I'm sure it's simply too complex for us to understand, his Quirk is Mystery Class after all, by definition it's beyond human comprehension."
A few moments later they round the final corner and enter the tunnel to training ground Beta, only to get confused by the assembled crowd.
Eraser Head was standing off to the side with Vlad King -class 1B's homeroom teacher. Also joining them were Midnight, Ectoplasm, and Snipe. And in the middle of the road in this city-styled training ground was all of class 1B. Everyone was in full Hero Costume.
The teachers just glance at 1A and turn back to their conversation, but Kendo takes the initiative as Class Rep to walk over.
"Hey 1A, nice costumes!"
"Likewise," Momo says as everyone just stands around confused. "What's going on, is this a joint training class?"
"Huh, your teacher didn't tell you?" Kendo ask. "Apparently Principal Nezu asked Horizon to teach us something today," she shrugs.
Most of 1A wince at that idea, and some begin sweating nervously.
'Maybe if I stand at the back he won't see me,' Deku thinks as he begins taking careful steps to the back of the crowd.
Kendo notices their reaction and tilts her head to the side, completely confused. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, it's just that, well, Horizon has very high standards for everyone around him, and he can be a very...honest, person," Momo says.
"What?"
"Tch," Jiro rolls her eyes. "What she really means is that mister miracle thinks anyone who isn't at least near perfect is garbage and he's a complete ass about it."
Kendo's eyes shoot open in surprise as her classmates begin walking over and introducing themselves. "Really? He was always so cool around us, I never would have guessed."
"Well the asshole in him only comes out when people challenge him, disappoint him, or if he thinks they're wrong...so we have to deal with it a lot," Jiro growls out. "Because mister 'I'm perfect' always finds something wrong with us..."
"It can't be that bad," Juzo joins their little chat, wearing his full costume with his face blocked by the visor, similar to Horizon and Ectoplasm.
"It is," Jiro says. "Just try not to get noticed by him."
"I think it's actually good for us," Momo admits, surprising her classmates. She sees their nervous looks and corrects herself. "What I mean is, whilst I'm sure he could be nicer, and kinder, and more pleasant. His harsh words push us to prove him wrong by improving... it's like he's worried about us in his own sort of loving way..."
Kendo sees the blush on Momo's face and immediately realizes what's going on, 'oh...she's in denial. Well, he's pretty cool at least so I kinda get it, but he just sounds like a jerk to me.'
"Being a bully doesn't help anyone," Jiro argues. "He's just an ass sometimes but gets away with it because he's Nezu's favorite. He can't just go around tearing people down like that, think about their mental health."
"Oh, then you should talk to him about it," Juzo recommends.
"Uhh..." Jiro sputters and begins playing with her earlobe nervously, looking at the floor between them. "Well...I mean... it's not that simple. Like it's Horizon, he's kinda a lot you know."
Kendo raises a brow, looking at Jiro's reaction at the thought of confronting him, seeing right through what most would think is fear of him, but what is more likely a fear of disappointing him.
Looking between Jiro and Momo she just shakes her head, 'maybe his Quirk is pheromones or something, he can't be that bad if he's got both of them acting like this...'
"Huh!" Momo gasps in surprise as Horizon's card flies out of her hand and floats roughly two meters away from them, hovering in the air.
SHAMBLES!
He swaps with the card, appearing in full Hero Costume, sword at his side, with Nezu sitting on his shoulder tapping away on a tablet.
"That really is convenient," Nezu mutters, still tapping away. "Much better than using my adorable tiny legs."
Horizon ignores him and just looks around at everyone, seeing both classes mingling, and already seeing Deku trying to avoid his gaze, standing at the other side of Iida.
Off to the side he sees Sero and Kodai talking, well, Sero is talking, Kodai is just nodding along with a blank expression.
'Really? Took him all of five minutes to find the hottest girl in their class, nice work Sero.'
"Alright, everyone shut up!" Horizon yells out, slicing the crowd. "Welcome to Quirk Mastery 101, a one-time-only class where I explain exactly how to get the absolute most out of your Quirk..."
He sees almost everyone in his class smile widely at that, as if a golden ticket to being a top pro fell into their lap, because that's exactly what him teaching them personally would be.
"Don't get too excited, I'm not gonna hold your hand and spoon-feed you the answers. I'm giving you the breakdown then what you do with it is on you, now... let's start..."
END CHAPTER---