CHAPTER 189(The Morning After)

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CHAPTER START---

Momo wakes up in a large and comfortable bed, and she feels a satisfying soreness wracking her body.

Before her eyes open she remains under the blanket, memories of hours earlier flooding her mind, causing a cheerful grin to spread across her face.

He can't help but release a small giggle and roll onto her side, and as the sense of bliss fades away, she realizes she's not in her room.

Feeling around all she finds is more of the empty bed, and all the things she's heard about women waking up to find themselves abandoned and only used for sex flood her mind.

She frantically throws off the blanket, uncaring about her naked form, and looks around.

Then breathes a sigh of relief as her eyes land on Horizon.

He was standing toward the other side of the room, the only light source being the hologram he'd been working on last night before she arrived.

He was now in his body glove and visor again, but she could see what looks like a young white haired girl with a single horn on one of the screens, and a map of Japan on the other.

"You ok?" Horizon asks, not even turning around to look at her.

"I'm," Momo thinks about it for a moment. "I'm happy, actually. I was just worried you wouldn't be here."

Horizon continues making adjustments and notes on the map, "you're here, so where else could I possible be? Besides... it's my room."

"Oh, right."

"How do you feel?"

Momo takes and blanket and sloppily wraps it around herself as she gets out of bed, not wanting to imagine the state of her hair at the moment, "exhausted, is that normal?"

She walks over to him and takes a seat on the couch behind him, then he looks over to her, "you spent the night with what's comparable to a living nuclear power plant...so yeah, it's pretty normal." He then turns back to his work. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it, and I'll try to keep your limitations in mind more going forward."

Momo blushes at that, the thought of doing this again already making her heart race, "what time is it?"

"5 AM, a bit earlier than you usually wake up."

"And around the time Mr. Aizawa does his checks to make sure we didn't break curfew, I should get back to my room before---"

"You really don't need to worry about that," Horizon says as he opens a third screen, and she sees him composing an email addressed to Fatgum. "Eraser Head doesn't check certain rooms."

"What do you mean?"

"Mine, Sero's, Shinso's, yours, Jiro's," he shrugs. "He has very good reasons to stay on my good side, and our understanding makes my life at UA so much easier."

Momo looks genuinely confused, "I understand that Team Horizon would have some privileges, but, why wouldn't he check mine or Kyoka's rooms?"

"Asks the girl who just spent the night in my bed, pretty sure the entire school knows about the not-so-secret crush you two have."

"Can we please not talk about that?" Momo asks. "I still need time to process what happened last night."

"Sure, also, when you're ready to go back to your room, I can warp."

"I'd like to stay here just a bit longer, I'm not ready to be alone with my thoughts just yet, if that's ok."

Horizon chuckles as he sends the email, "I'm a gentleman, I won't just kick you out after sex."

"That's not wh---"

"I'm kidding Momo."

"Oh, right."

Horizon works in silence for a few minutes, sending a few more documents out to top Pro Heroes, many of which Momo never would have expected him to be working with.

'I suppose it makes sense,' she inspects the map even closer. 'His domain is Minato Tokyo and Musutafu where UA is. This map has points all across Japan and some off the coast, he needs dozens of Pro Heroes working together to bring it all down at once.'

"Why do you accept help from other Pro Heroes?" Momo asks. "Isn't your catchphrase 'I am enough'?"

"That's not official," Horizon says. "But as to why I accept help, well, part of being respected is being seen as a competent leader. Even while All Might was the top Pro, for many situations the Commission would call upon Endeavor to lead operations because All Might is more of a solo act."

"So you don't just want to be another #1 Pro Hero, you want to be the respected leader of all Pro Heroes."

"Exactly. But I also can't be everywhere at once, I can hardly leave Minato Tokyo these days, so having pieces on the board is a way of extending my reach."

"You're even more ambitious and incredible than we thought," Momo mindlessly whispers.

"Thank you."

"Oh, I didn't mean to say that out loud..."

"Well I appreciate it anyway, but honestly, the perks of being a Top Pro are barely in effect since I only have a Provisional License...and I'm already starting to like it."

"What kind of perks?"

"Honestly, just being able to do whatever I want, and nobody questions it, people hold Pro Heroes up on such a pedestal that the license and a good reputation is all you need to have the world in your hand."

"That's a dangerous way of viewing it."

"Power not worth abusing isn't worth having," Horizon says. "But don't worry, I still intend to be the perfect Hero, because I've got people I need to save."

"Well, that's a relief, because I'm not quite sure how we'd arrest you," she laughs nervously.

"Well, you can certainly try, but we both know how that'd end."

Preferring not to think about such a seemingly unlikely and impossible scenario, Momo eye's drift over to the files regarding the little girl.

Taking a closer look at her red eyes and white hair, noticing her arms and legs were covered in bandages, and most of the information on her page was left blank.

Only the name 'Eri' at the top along with some basic information, as well as her Quirk being listed as 'Rewind?'.

"Who is the little girl?" Momo asks. "She's so cute, is she someone you rescued?"

"No," he continues typing. "She's currently being torn apart and put together by someone that's being investigated. I'm consulting on the case, they're using her to make Quirk destroying bullets, Deleter Rounds. This is all confidential ofcourse, but I trust you not to gossip."

Momo appreciates his confidence, but also looks disgusted at the very thought of what Eri is going through, "what kind of monster would do such a thing?"

"Some wannabe Yakuza boss, he's trying to make his faction of the Yakuza into a feared gang again, he'll be in cuffs by the end of this month."

"Well I feel better knowing that you're going after him, villains like that, people who take advantage of those that can't defend themselves...those are the worst types of people."

"Well, I'm only consulting, he operates outside of Tokyo so he's not my problem until Nighteye runs out of time."

"Sir Nighteye? Does this have anything to do with why Midoriya isn't doing his Work Studies there anymore?"

"This case is a bit too dangerous so they sent Deku back to UA," he lies, not in the mood to go into Deku's failures.

"Oh, well that makes sense, these people sound dangerous."

"Which is why Sir Nighteye has 8 more days to solve it before I have to step out of Tokyo and put boots on the ground myself."

"But I still don't quite understand," Momo pauses for a moment, trying and failing to make sense of this. "How do you know this girl is in danger, but leave here there instead of simply going to rescue her? It couldn't possibly take you that long, right?"

"Meh, a day or two at most, just fly by the hideouts on my hoverboard, find the girl, and do some light violence," Horizon shrugs.

Momo furrows her brows, "then why don't you just go save her?!" her eyes open a bit in surprise. "Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice, it's just, it's difficult to understand. If you have to power to go save her, why wouldn't you do it."

Horizon stops for a moment, realizing exactly what's about to happen, and snaps his fingers.

The hologram shuts off and the lighting comes on, causing Momo to squint and pull the blanket up higher, even as Horizon sits beside her.

"You've heard me say things like, 'I'm not just a Pro Hero, I'm Horizon', right?"

"Yes I've witnessed your bravado," she says jokingly. "But what does that have to do with it?"

"Well, it's not bravado, it's painfully literal and true. I'm not like other Pro Heroes, my role in the world is entirely different. I don't get to run around putting out fires all day. I have to stay put in Minato Tokyo because my existence makes crime almost non-existent. I leave and villains come out in force to make up for lost time, and the Paper Pros can't handle that.

I don't have the freedom to just go where I please, as much as I say I can do whatever I want, which I can. Being able to do something doesn't mean you should. Like me stepping out of Tokyo to save Eri, I could, but a lot of people would get hurt and a lot of drugs would get shipped since Horizon Tower is so close to the docks."

"But---" Momo tried and tried, but couldn't make sense of it. "How can you just, exist, knowing someone out there needs you, and you're here with me being...happy?"

"Because I see the big picture. I'm holding Japan's feeble Hero Society together by just being here. I'm the big red button the government can push when shit hits the fan. Like the nuclear option when things go very badly. Other nations know this and are always trying to buy my service, wanting me to come live in their countries.

They've offered me everything. Money, political office, a knighthood, lands, titles, women...the ability to make and alter a few laws. Or complete immunity to laws in their lands. Everyone wants Horizon, and the most effective thing I can do for the whole, is not running around trying to save every single person that needs help."

Momo looks back at Eri's picture and falls into deep thought, "I can't imagine the magnitude of the weight on your shoulders. But I trust you to always make the right choice to help the most people."

"Yeah well, that's why I'm here, I deal with the big problems so they don't run over anyone else. All the little people get to live in ignorance of all the looming threats and sleeping giants, hell nobody even knew about the shadow war between All Might and All For One until Kamino, so imagine how many of those happened before that day."

Momo moves a bit closer and leans against his side, and he wraps an arm around her, "shadow wars and political disputes over you, intense."

"Yeah, meanwhile I'm just here spending the night with you, so in a weird way, you're closer than they are..."

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