CHAPTER 073(Nightmare House)

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CHAPTER START---

Sitting in the back of the car Horizon is leaning against the door, head nodding along to the music being played in his visor. He wore a simple blue t-shirt with his logo on the back, a pair of matching pants, along with his Hero Costume boots, and his watch. Keeping his cards in his pocket just in case.

Across from him on the other side of the back seat, Shoto stares out the window as they drive past the houses.

And in the front seat Endeavor and the driver are entirely silent the entire ride.

Getting an alert Horizon takes out his phone to check it, seeing a text from Nezu.

'I got your request, but support items for Hero Course students must be designed by fellow students. I'll pass the request to Power Loader for him to assign the appropriate student...'

As Horizon closes his phone the car comes to a stop in front of a traditional Japanese mansion.

'Huh, I expected more...' Horizon thinks as they all get out of the car and follow Endeavor to the front door.

Walking through the courtyard he opens a room for 100 meters in every direction, 200 meters across in total.

SCAN!

He senses an old woman, setting a table and finishing up some cooking. Helping her is a younger lady with glasses. Aside from them nobody else is here, and he doesn't sense anything unusual for a place like this.

Entering the main house they all take off their shoes as Horizon hears a set of footsteps approach, feeling the younger of the two women doing a small jog down the hallway.

"Shoto!" Fuyumi Todoroki rounds the corner with a wide smile.

Fuyumi was a plain-looking woman, 22 years old with a slim build and short stature, only standing at 160cm -5ft3-. Her most striking feature was the head of white hair with small patches of red sprinkled about. Along with the square black glasses on her face just barely hiding her gray eyes.

'Huh, she sounds just like Jiro...' was Horizon's first thought, while Fuyumi just froze for a moment, trying to process what she was seeing.

Her eyes widened for a moment to take in Horizon's jarring look, not expecting him to always be in a mask and body glove, and also not expecting him to be almost as tall as Endeavor, although you'd have to look very close to notice the 1cm difference.

But then her stare turned into a harsh glare and scowl, "why are you here?"

"Huh?" Horizon looks at Endeavor. "Your dad said you wanted me here."

"He told me one of Shoto's classmates was working with him...he didn't say it was you," she growls out.

"What's your problem with me?" Horizon was genuinely confused, all while Endeavor and Shoto wisely kept quiet. "I've never even met you before."

"You nearly killed Shoto!"

"Tch," Horizon scoffs. "I barely touched him, and he was never at risk of death. Honestly, he got off lucky considering how much he ran his mouth before the fight."

"Got off lucky?!" Fuyumi gestures at Shoto. "He still has nightmares about waking up with no heart!"

Horizon looks around even more confused, "how is it my fault that he's a complete fucking pussy, just get him therapy or something. Isn't that what you losers do?"

Fuyumi's face goes red, but Endeavor steps in before she goes into a full tirade, "let's all just take a moment and go to the dining room, we can talk this out there."

The harsh glare he gives Fuyumi immediately has her mouth shut, but Horizon just rolls his eyes when it falls upon him.

As Fuyumi stomps away Horizon just sighs and follows Endeavor into the dining room.

Stepping into the dining room Horizon sees a low table and floor mats for them to sit on. A full traditional dinner to match the clear style of the house was laid out for them.

"So your family doesn't believe in chairs," Horizon says. "Or anything from the past four centuries..."

"You don't believe in tradition?" Endeavor asks as they all take their seats. He sits at the head of the table with Shoto and Fuyumi to his left, and Horizon opposite them.

"Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people, it's obsolete. And if I don't let living people tell me what to do why would I ever listen to corpses."

The room falls into a tense silence as everyone starts eating, Horizon mainly eats white rice and some grilled fish. But eventually, he just gets annoyed by Fuyumi sitting opposite him staring daggers at his visor.

"What?" He asks her.

"Nothing," she begins glaring even harder.

"Just say what's on your mind already."

"Why did you do that to Shoto at the sports festival?" Fuyumi asks. "He doesn't talk about it, but I'd like to know what someone could do to deserve that. I know my brother is a good person so I just can't believe he deserved it."

Horizon puts down his chopsticks and looks at her, closing his visor before he speaks. "He decided to run his mouth about my parents, so I made an example of him. Now everyone knows if they do something like that I'll kick their teeth in, happy now?"

Fuyumi looks even more confused now. "That doesn't seem like Shoto," she turns to her brother. "Shoto, did you really do that?" she asks in a much more concerned tone.

Shoto takes a while to think about his words, trying very carefully not to repeat his same mistake. "I made a wrong assumption. I couldn't understand. You always spoke of how harsh they were with the training you, from the same age as me. I just...I never considered that you could be trained and raised to be this powerful without hate and abuse."

"Wait, so it was a misunderstanding?" Fuyumi asked. "Shoto assumed that your parents were like our dad?"

"Yes," Shoto says, and Endeavor hangs his head in shame. "But clearly I was wrong, very wrong."

"And now you know better," Horizon says. "Because as anyone who saw the finals knows, my parents were perfect, and everything I do is for them."

Fuyumi's eyes dart back over to him, "then why didn't you just explain the situation to him?"

"Because my family situation is none of his business, just like this family isn't any of my business. I don't need to explain a damn thing, I just have to make sure that if he runs his mouth I teach him a painful lesson that he will never forget."

"That's not very heroic," Fuyumi says.

"Neither is what your dad did, and he's still the #2 Pro Hero," Horizon completely shuts her up.

"I was only trying to help, as Midoriya did for me," Shoto says. "I figured we could walk the path to healing together."

"Of course Deku had something to do with it," Horizon rolls his eyes. "Well the important thing is I taught you a valuable lesson, don't meddle where you aren't wanted...and I certainly don't want you."

The table falls into a tense silence for a few more minutes before Fuyumi starts up another conversation. "So, do you still look up to my dad after knowing all of this?"

All eyes move to Horizon as he answers. "I never cared and I still don't care about Enji Todoroki. But the hero Endeavor is still my gold standard for pretty much everything needed to be a Pro Hero, that hasn't changed."

Endeavor puts down his chopsticks and gets up, startling Fuyumi. "Shoto, come with me, we need to talk..." he says before walking into the courtyard.

Shoto sighs and follows him, leaving Horizon and Fuyumi at the table.

"So...enjoying the food?" Fuyumi asks.

"It's good, did you help that old lady cook?"

Fuyumi looks surprised, "how do you know about the housekeeper, you haven't seen her and we didn't tell you."

"I know everything."

Now she looks creeped out, "uh yeah, it's actually my recipe but she helped me prepare it."

"I guess that makes you my favorite Todoroki."

"Really?" she raises a brow at that statement.

"It's not that hard to do. Shoto sucks at literally everything in my eyes, as a person Enji is 'meh' at best. I count Endeavor separately so he's still great. But you've cooked for me and you're willing to stand up for your brother in the face of someone who can literally shut your brain off with a thought. How am I not supposed to like a woman like that?"

"Her eyes go wide in surprise. Can you really do that? The brain thing."

"No, but half the fun of my Quirk is that I can say crazy stupid things and people have to assume at least a little bit that I can really do it," he chuckles.

Fuyumi sighs and shakes her head. "I hope this isn't you trying to flirt with me. You're 16 but I can't date anyone so young, it'd just feel weird, not to mention I don't date heroes...plus, I'm a teacher so I'd feel extra creepy."

"This isn't that, I promise. You can't pay me enough to date someone with this much family baggage."

"Oh wow, exactly what I want to hear right now," she sighs. "It's already hard enough getting a date when people learn who my dad is, they're either scared of him or trying to use me to get to him..."

"One more reason to keep my identity private. So my kids won't have to deal with that crap one day."

"Yeah, you won't have any trouble finding someone, mister genius, doctor, hero, Quirk researcher," she rolls her eyes at how absurd his resume was.

"Plus handsome and rich, can't forget those."

"Sigh, because of course you are. Why did you decide to be a Pro Hero anyway? Adrenaline?"

"Nezu made me a deal, he'd get me something I want if I graduate UA, that's all."

"No wonder he published your Quirk Research paper on the official UA website."

"You read it?"

"All fifteen pages. All the genetics stuff about superhuman potential went a bit over my head, but seemed pretty smart. It's so weird for someone young to be an official Quirk Researcher, it's usually old men."

"Well that's because you need time and experience for it, that's why it's usually older doctors."

"Yet you did it at only 16."

"I've lived a lot of life," Horizon shrugs.

As Fuyumi is about to respond suddenly the entire house shakes violently.

Horizon instantly opens a ROOM and scans around, realizing the problem was just outisde.

With a deep sigh he gets up as she's trying to crawl under the table, thinking it was an earthquake.

"Not an earthquake, just dramatic people..." he slides open the paper doors leading to the courtyard for them to see what was happening.

Shoto had an absolutely furious look on his face in the middle of the courtyard. Across from him Endeavor was standing with a flame in his right hand. All around Endeavor was a massive pool of boiling water, and to the far sides were the massive ice shards that didn't instantly evaporate.

Shoto tried to use a Heaven Piercing Ice Wall, only for Endeavor to instantly melt it the moment it even got close to him, showing that as they are now, Shoto is nothing compared to his dad.

Endeavor deactivates his Quirk and just looks heartbroken as Shoto starts yelling.

"You think you can ever atone, that we'd ever forgive you! After you destroyed us! You tore us apart! You put mom in the hospital! And now you want to tell me that I can choose to stop being a hero?! If I stop now then what was all our suffering even for?!"

Shoto was seething with rage, and Endeavor just stood there, not saying a word to defend himself as his son stomped away into the house.

Shoto looks back over his shoulder to say one last thing, "I never want to see you again, consider this the end of my internship..."

Fuyumi breaks down into sobs and runs after her brother, and Horizon just shakes his head at all this family drama.

'This house really is a fucking mess...'

END CHAPTER---