MHA: Horizon

Chapter 174: (Playing Favourites)

Chapter 174: (Playing Favourites)

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CHAPTER START---

"So you really can't make it more precise?" Horizon asks.

He and Snipe were sitting in Nezu's office on opposite couches. His feet were resting on the coffee table as he hovers his katana above his lap.

Snipe was twirling his revolver, leaning back comfortably as they speak.

"That's the downside sadly," Snipe says. "My Quirk makes it so any projectile I launch hits the target...assuming nothing actively gets in the way. And once a route is set it can't really be altered much further so dodging behind cover works too."

"So it's just aim-assist, like a video game?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh, what'd you expect?" Snipe asks, still twirling his gun. "Bullets curving and tracking people like homing missiles?"

"Honestly, that'd be pretty neat," Horizon admits. "But your Quirk just puts you at the highest level a human can be at when speaking of accuracy."

"Well with guns yes, but I can use other things too you know."

"What, like a slingshot?"

"Well..." Snipe takes out a coin, which catches Horizon's attention.

Flicking it between his fingers he bounces it off two walls, the ceiling, and the table, before it soars directly toward Horizon's visor.

TAKT!

The coin freezes in the air, hovering between them.

"So the slower the projectile the more fancy you can make the shot?"

"And the more direct my contact it," Snipe says. "When I fire a bullet my Quirk actually uses the recoil to try throwing the gun out of my hand and at my target, the gloves are magnetic to help me keep it in my hand."

Horizon casually leans forward, raising his hand for the coin to descend, now hovering an inch above his hand as Scalpel floats off to the side.

"I can sense it," Horizon says. "Tactile Telekinesis."

"Guess the jig is up, but please do tell, how does one 'sense' Telekinesis?"

"Well, it's still moving toward me, or atleast trying," Horizon says. "I didn't stop it, just slowed it down a lot, it's still moving toward me, 1/10th of a millimeter per minute at a time."

"And?"

"And..." Horizon sighs. "My Quirk allows me to make a 3D map of anything within my range, and I can feel the pressure trying to warp this thing, twisting the metal on a scale too small for the human eye to notice."

With that Horizon flicks his wrist and sends the coin back to Snipe, who catches it without even looking.

"Well, I see why they say your Quirk is basically magic," Snipe admits. "And considering how far you sent Hound Dog today...your range is easily many magnitudes beyond mine," he twirls his gun one last time and rests it on the couch beside him.

"Oh, and what's your range?"

"1200 meters," Snipe taps his own visor. "Built-in scope to help with that, can't shoot what I can't see after all."

"Huh, short compared to Lady Nagant."

"Yeah," Snipe sighs. "Always wanted to meet her, but she had her whole metal breakdown and went psycho before that could happen."

"Yeah," Horizon plays along, knowing the truth after reading the files All For One left for him.

"What about you?" Snipe asks. "Why the sword? I mean, I imagine you'd be good with just about anything since your Quirk can do anything you want."

"Swords are just bigger scalpels," Horizon shrugs and gestures to how floating weapon. "And this one is actually named Scalpel."

"Seems a bit on the nose, but fits the whole medical theme."

"That's the idea, clean and precise, hence the white. And blue, like medical scrubs..."

Snipe looks at the door, sits up a bit more properly, then turns to Horizon. "So, the official story is Nezu found you as a doctor to save All Might, but atleast the teachers aren't dumb enough to just believe that, even if it's true.

You must have been in a ton of scraps before that, considering how well you carry yourself against even the most monstrous villain."

"You have a point or just talking in circles?"

"Ever had to use that sword?" Snipe asks. "Or did you just learn to keep in shape?"

"It's been used once or twice, self-defense of course," Horizon chuckles.

"Right right, ever lost any?"

"Well I wouldn't be here if I did, you ever lost a shootout?"

"Mmm," Snipe takes a deep breath, then sighs. "Once, was working security about...almost 12 years ago. Ever heard of Arsenal?"

"Arguably the world's best contract killer, and famous for doing the more...messy jobs, got arrested a little over a year ago," Horizon says.

"Yeah well, her putting five bullets through my chest is how we realized she was a native of Japan, all the evidence just lined up."

"So you fought her, how was it."

"Not much of a fight, I had a rifle, she turned her hand into a pistol and picked up some ammo from one of the security guards she killed.

Her quickdraw was faster than me, shot me in the chest twice, closed the distance, tried to cut off my arms with a darn...I mean, with a sword she transformed her arm into.

Edgeshot showed up and she just decided to call it quits, then turned her gun into some kind of a triple-barreled pistol, and shot the Pro she was after through my chest..."

"So...you lost."

"At the moment I did," Snipe says. "But now I'm sitting here with you and she's rotting in Tartarus. I call that a win, don't you?"

"I certainly would," Horizon admits and a moment later the door opens.

They both turn to see Principal Nezu enter the room, Snipe puts his gun in the holster quickly and sits up properly.

"Principal Nezu, I brought him here like I said," Snipe says.

"Thank you, Snipe," Nezu walks past the couch and sits behind his desk.

As he does this Snipe notices how casual Horizon still is even as the principal walks in, and that Nezu doesn't seem to care.

'I guess Nemuri was right, he is the golden boy... well let's see how the principal deals with him nearly killing a teacher.'

"So," Nezu gets comfortable and looks at them. "Snipe, tell me what happened, why is Hound Dog currently unconscious in the infirmary, soaking wet and still spitting out seawater..."

"Well, sir," Snipe turns a bit toward Nezu. "We were doing the civilian rescue exercise Eraser Head planned for his class, over at the USJ. Hound Dog and Ectoplasm interrupted, it seemed that Hound Dog found that Horizon's scent has changed."

"Right, and protocol in that situation is to apprehend the intruder," Nezu says.

"Exactly sir, we came to a bit of a standoff, Ectoplasm, Hound Dog, myself, versus Horizon. But the kid says it's his Quirk. I planned to call you to get another opinion since you know him best but, after the last few attacks on our students, Hound Dog got a bit...impatient."

Nezu turns to Horizon, "you mentioned Hand Of God allows you to perfectly control your body at every level, is this because of that?"

"Something like that, but yeah," Horizon says.

"You can do that?" Snipe was a bit surprised at that. "Wild..."

"Right," Nezu claps his hands to get them both focused on him. "So, what happened next?"

"Well, before Hound Dog tried to apprehend him, Horizon said he tried to touch him then...he'd warp him to the bottom of the sea."

"Which apparently he did," Nezu sighs.

"Hey, I warned him," Horizon shrugs.

"To be fair," Snipe says. "When someone says something so ridiculous...especially considering the ocean is atleast 10km from UA...we're inclined not to believe him."

"Unless it's me," Horizon says.

"And now we've all learned that valuable lesson."

Nezu pinches his brow and sighs, resting his elbows on the table.

"Great, well you still injured a teacher, he won't be out of bed for atleast a few days, even after Recovery Girl is done. So I'll formulate a punishment for you."

"Well I'm already on house arrest," Horizon says. "Basically have me chained to UA so Kurogiri doesn't show up, what else can you really do?"

Nezu frowns, then sighs, " just heal Hound Dog, and please don't hurt anyone else at UA."

"Is it that bad?" Snipe asks.

Nezu winces, "120 meters of water pressure is too much for his body, a few more seconds and he could have been dead..."

Snipe slowly turns, from Nezu, back to Horizon, then back to Nezu, "right, and his punishment is...' don't do it again', of course." He gets up and straightens his clothes. "Well, I need to get back to the class before it ends."

"Certainly, and thank you for covering for Aizawa," Nezu gives him a polite smile.

"Right..." Snipe just wordlessly walks out of the room.

'Yup, golden boy, can do no wrong...'

The moment the door closes Nezu groans loudly, "this is the second teacher you've had some altercation with, can't you just play nice?"

"Hey I warned the fucker, but he decided to rush in, so I gave him a little bath."

"At the bottom of the Musutafu docks?"

"It's the closest part of the ocean to us," Horizon throws up his arms in annoyance. "Honestly no pleasing you people."

"You could just try to get along with the staff..."

"I get along very well with them, considering almost all of them are Pro Heroes, and I'm, well, me..."

"You do remember that you spent your morning recess in this very room, because you got into a verbal fight with Nemuri this morning."

"Well, saggy should learn to keep her mouth shut."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about, and why---"

At that very moment the door opens, and in walks Nemuri Kayama, Ms. Midnight.

"Princip---" Midnight freezes as she sees Horizon sitting in the room, she gets a bad feeling about this. "What is this?"

"I'm guessing an intervention," Horizon says, clearly annoyed. "He's gonna ask you to stop being such a petty bi---"

"Horizon!" Nezu interrupts him.

Midnight gives him the stink eye as she closes the door behind her.

Nezu gestures for her to sit on the couch opposite Horizon, which she silently does. Folding her arms under her chest and giving him a blank stare.

"Well, is there anything you two would like to say to each other?" Nezu asks.

An excruciating long few minutes pass as they seem to be locked in a staring contest, not a word between them.

"Nemuri..." Nezu says, causing her to sigh.

"Fine, I guess I'll apologize first."

"Well you are the teacher," Horizon says, then mutters. "Even if you dress like a cheap whore..."

"See what I mean!" Nemuri jumps up from her seat and points at Horizon, all while looking at Nezu.

"Horizon..."

"Ugh, fine, I'll just let her talk."

"Thank you."

Nemuri scowls at him for a moment before sitting back down, then schools her expression.

"I, apologize for overstepping your boundaries and speaking of matters I clearly know nothing about. I'm sorry, and I was wrong."

"I know," Horizon says.

Then another long, awkward, echoing silence fills the room.

"Horizon," Nezu prompts him.

"What?" Horizon looks between them. He was genuinely confused.

"This is the part where you apologize," Nezu says.

"Huh, for what?"

"For being a---!"

"Nemuri!" Nezu cuts her off.

Beneath his visor Horizon rolls his eyes, "look, I never said anything wrong or false, you build this street whore persona, you deal with the consequences, get over it."

Nemuri rolls her eyes, more annoyed than hurt, then gets up.

"Whatever, I'm done with this, but just so you know. Compassion is vital to be a true hero, and you aren't anywhere near strong enough to show that side of yourself."

Horizon shakes his head, "haven't you heard, the commission only ranks us based on results, because you can't really measure 'heart'..."

Midnight shakes her head, disappointed, but not at Horizon, at Nezu. "Of all the people that have passed through this academy, you decided to bet on this, to be 'The greatest hero this world shall ever know.'

I hope he isn't the only one who can perform miracles, because, for a transformation like that, a miracle is what it'll take."

Nobody says a word as Midnight casually walks out of the room completely doubting the choices of her mentor.

END CHAPTER---