CHAPTER 287(Switching Sides)

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CHAPTER START---

In a world of absolute darkness, Law hears both his parents clearly, as if they were still here talking to him.

He recalls the important lessons they taught him, things that he must never allow himself to forget.

He feels weightless, untethered to the world around him.

Finally, truly, absolutely…free.

"Focus your mind," his mother says. "Steady your breathing, and focus on your own heartbeat, on the blood flowing through your veins."

"You must steady yourself, and understand yourself, before you act," His father says. 

"You can't exert your will on the world if you aren't in control of yourself," Arsenal says.

"Your Quirk is many things Law, and it wouldn't be wrong to call it a manifestation of desire and will," Corazon says. "But without a clear image and intent, that will all fall apart."

"You must be decisive and trust your instinct, do not falter, and do not give up," Arsenal says. "See what you want clearly in your mind, then reach out and make it reality."

"You can do anything, people view children as balls of infinite potential, but you really are that," Corazon says. "You could level cities, push the oceans away, rip satellites out of the sky and raise islands to the stars."

"But you have to master yourself first," she says. "Boundless possibility isn't easily contained, it will collapse your mind and shatter your body if you don't work diligently to constantly improve yourself." 

"But what if it's too much?" Law asks, his voice small and terrified. "What if I'm not enough?"

To this Kiku laughs quietly, then his father answers, "you will always be enough, because you're our son, and that's all you even need to be."

"And if it ever becomes too much for you, that's what we're here for, to help you," Kiku says. "We will be here to guide you, no matter how many times you trip along the path to becoming whoever you want to be."

"Most people live a full life without even discovering who they were really meant to be, you know," Corazon says. "But you, well, because of who you are now, we know whoever you're meant to be must be beyond our imagination, and that's a challenge us regular people can't wrap our heads around."

"But don't let that deceive you into thinking the person you believe you're meant to be is where you have to end up," Kiku says. "It's an even more rare thing for the person you believe you should be, to be who you must become."

"Think about it for a while, and tell us, who do you want to be?" Corazon asks.

"I want to be…I want to be," Law pauses for a long time, then his voice reaches out again. "I want to be someone who can go anywhere, and do anything, and not be bothered by all the annoying weak little people."

Both his parents laugh as they hear that, but not at him, simply because it was such a simple desire from a genius such as himself.

"Well if that's what you want, you'll have to stay focused," Kiku says. "If you want to be as powerful as I think you do, then losing focus could cause a lot of problems in the world around you. So you'll have to train a lot more than anyone else."

"And if you want to be able to go anywhere without having to hide your presence, then you'd better take your lessons with me even more seriously," Corazon adds. "Doctors are loved everywhere we go, and a walking miracle like yourself will only make that more true."

"And if they don't love you as a savior, they can fear you as a ruler," Kiku says. "Power is the ability to exert your will onto the world itself, and you have more of that than anyone else…or at least you will, so the only thing stopping you, is you."

"That's right," Law says. "Because the only rule of nature is…'Who's going to stop me?', right?"

Hearing that both his parents begin to laugh as Law opens his eyes.

The bright sunset illuminates the ocean just beyond the beach at Matani Manor, causing the ocean to look like shimmering glass while reflecting orange rays directly onto Law.

He stands on the water of his pool, wearing only a pair of blue swimming shorts.

He takes a deep breath, filling his chest with air before exhaling and bringing his hands together.

He cups his hands in front of him and focuses.

Feeling the blood in his veins, the power leaping between each of his cells and rushing toward his hands. His Room shrinking from the size of the pool down to just a meter around his body.

He continues to shrink it, focusing his thoughts more so as he does and increasing the energy used for it.

For the first time in a very long time, he deactivates the command to make his Room invisible, allowing it to be its natural blue form, causing everything he sees within to have a blue hue to it.

Using his Quirk in its more raw and unnatural form, he realizes he'd almost forgotten what this feels like.

To use Room without any specific commands so instinctively inlay.

"Now for the next step," he mutters before slowly shrinking it even more. 

He aims to make the room the size of a baseball and hold it in his palm,a goal he believes will be vital for his Awakening.

But once again, the moment the Room shrinks, too small to fit his entire body, it collapses.

"Ah!" he splashes into the water. Law swims to the edge of the pool and sits with his feet in the heated water. "Still can't get past that rule of needing my entire body to be in the room…" he mutters.

Law lays back onto the heated outdoor tiles as the grooves between them begin glowing slightly to illuminate the outdoor area.

He reaches up as if to grab the orange clouds, moving his fingers without his Quirk becoming active, as if imagining he could make them move so easily.

"I still can't make a Room that I'm not within, and I still have to make my body the center of it, so how the hell do I even get this done with impossible restrictions like that?" he mutters to himself. 

"That's it," Law snaps his fingers as he sits up. "If I just make them- - -"

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Law turns around and opens a Room, sensing Nezu and Endeavor entering his house.

"There goes my quiet night," he says while getting out of the pool.

Walking into the house all the water droplets on his body seem to be held in place, leaving them floating in the air as he walks away from them before they fall to the ground behind him.

"You could have called first," Law says as Enji and Nezu enter the living room, both appearing tired.

Enji doesn't even speak, just sighs and begins walking into the kitchen.

"I should have brought some of my tea," Nezu says as he gets comfortable on the couch opposite Law.

"What's with the visit? And why is Enji all the way out here?"

"Because you ditched me in Tokyo and I needed someone to escort me back to UA, did you forget that?"

"Oh right, my bad," Law says. "And how'd the case go?"

Nezu gives an annoyed, almost pained groan as he rubs his head, "did you seriously not watch the end of it, or atleast look at the results?"

"Well I've been trying to have a good day, so nope," Law stretches out on the couch, laying back and closing his eyes.

"You won," Enji walks into the room with a cup of coffee and takes a seat beside Nezu.

Law's eyes shoot open and he hops out of his seat, "ha, seriously?"

"You sound surprised…" Enji says.

"I ripped a city out of the ground and threw it at the country, so yeah I'm surprised," he giggles quietly as he sits back down.

Nezu and Enji glance at each other, looking more concerned as each second passes.

"Man, this really is ridiculous," Law says as he settles down. "What was the decision exactly?" 

"A 6-Month suspension of your Provisional Hero License, for 'training and self assessment of newfound applications of Hand of God'," Enji grumbles out before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Wow," Law says as he can't seem to stop smiling. "I killed so many people, so many, and they gave me a little vacation, a slap on the wrist, hehehehe."

"Now I'm getting worried," Enji says.

"Nothing to be worried about," Law says. "Its just finally sinking in, that I really can do whatever the fuck I want, this really is what it meant to be Horizon, to be me."

"To be Horizon?" Nezu asks.

Law warps his phone down from his room and begins scrolling through his social media, seeing people rioting in some parts of Japan while in others they're rejoicing that Horizon would remain in the country.

"To be Horizon, is to be able to do whatever you want, but you cannot be Horizon, without first being the strongest, and damn it feels good…" he sighs and sinks down in the chair, happily watching all the riots unfold.

"Now I'm officially concerned," Enji says, glancing warily at Nezu.

"That depends on what he says next," Nezu says, catching Law's attention. "So, you can still be Horizon in Japan, Pantu also got cleared and will be keeping her job. Your contract and parents are like it was before, so, what do you want to do?"

Law doesn't respond for a few minutes, but the sounds of riots playing on his phones.

The sounds of fires and screams echo through the room, and Enji only grows more uncomfortable as Law's smile grows.

Law swipes the screen and the sound immediately changes to chanting and singing.

Enji and Nezu can't see it, but they know what he's watching, the people celebrating outside Horizon tower and UA, people praising him.

And that's when Nezu sees it, the shimmer in his eyes that he's waiting this long to see, the spark of desire to become a truly great hero.

Nezu giggles, confusing Enji, then Law speaks the words he's wanted to hear since they met.

"I'm going to be the greatest Hero…ever," Law says with casual finality, as if he was simply stating something obvious.

Nezu giggles quietly for a moment then catches his breath, "you know, I think I will have some tea…" because even Law's terrible tea is good enough to toast to his victory.

For on this night, Law Matani experienced the first spark of desire to be a True Hero…

---Later That Night, Prime Minister Bosu's Office…

"Lady Pantu, you have a lot of explaining to do," are the first words Pantu hears as she enters the ornate office atop a Tokyo skyscraper.

She wears her clothes from earlier in court that day, with her hair slightly messy, and walks through the ornate office to see an older Japanese man behind a large wooden desk, signing some papers.

The moment she steps in, the guards behind her close the doors and she hears the locks click into place.

"Mister Prime Minister," Pantu says as she approaches the desk. "May I sit?"

"No, but you can start explaining what the hell happened, all of it, now," Boshu says as he sets the papers aside and looks up at her. "And stop using your Quirk, that's an order, Facade is too troublesome at times like this."

Hearing that Pantu complies, and her stone cold features immediately soften to show how tired and stressed she really is.

Facade is an almost entirely unique Quirk, allowing the user to detect lies as well as hide their own lies and falsehoods from other lie detector Quirks, even deceiving Hand Of God.

This Quirk alone has catapulted Pantu's career to get to her current position, alongside her ingenious machinations in the political world.

"That's better, now, start talking, why'd you want Horizon to lose the case?"

"What would you like to know?" Pantu asks, genuinely concerned, so much so that he could see the fear in her eyes.

This causes Bosu to hesitate, but he steels his nerves, "as much as you can tell me without further implicating Japan in whatever mess you are in."

"Well---"

"Just sit down," Bosu says. "I sense this will be a long conversation."

"How much do you know?"

"I know you and Horizon have some sort of clandestine deal, I know he wanted you to be free from charges and retain your position, which is exactly what happened. I know you leaked information regarding your illegal activity of covering his tracks after his murders and sacrificed yourself and three of your top agents in order to do so."

Pantu looks surprised that he knew that.

"And I know that not only were you willing to die for him to lose the case, but you will willing to put Japan into a crisis of magnitudes we have never conceived by doing so…and I know it would have worked if I didn't call Judge Boshu during the recess and persuade him to change his decision at the last moment."

"You did that!" Pantu gets up and slams her hands on the desk, glaring at the man who was unfazed. "After I worked so hard to get all the judges that would have sided with him to quit!"

"Then start explaining why you did all of that, and why Horizon demanded that you be free of charges alongside him…"

Pantu takes a deep breath and sits back down.

"Before Horizon joined UA, before I knew he was a Mystery Class, I made a deal with him. He heals All Might and plays hero, and I give him back his parents, not anything new regarding the kind of deals we've made before."

"Hawks is one of the more successful ones, yes," Bosu says. "And you failed to realize he was a Mystery Class because?"

"Because Nezu intentionally kept that information hidden, because he knew that our protocol is to fold someone like that into the proper chain of command, because…" Pantu scrunches her face as she admits it, the words leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. "Because from where Nezu was sitting, keeping me out of the loop for as long as possible was the right decision."

"But now you're trying to sabotage them, because?"

"Because, when I realized what Horizon was, and that he has a rage in him that can roll across a nation, if not a planet, and that it is an inevitability that it would fall upon Japan, the only option was to make him break the contract."

"Why?"

"Because he has this warped code of honor that if he ever fails to keep his word then he won't get mad and throw a tantrum about the consequences."

"And why would he be mad?"

"Because the deal was he'd get his parents back, Arsenal and the Heart Thief."

Bosu shrugs, "they're in a secret facility off the coast, that's easy enough."

"No, they're not…"

Bosu closes his eyes and immediately pinches the bridge of his nose," please don't tell me…"

"Star and Stripe threatened to fly to Japan and execute them herself," Pantu says. "At the time we didn't know what he was, he was only a doctor with a warping Quirk, an easy problem to sweep off the board."

Bosu sits back in his chair and rolls his fingers on the desk, "and how long have they been dead?"

Pantu sighs, "four months prior to him entering UA, they were both executed in Tartarus…"

END CHAPTER---

Fun Fact: 'Pantu' translates into 'traitor'