CHAPTER 269(Breaking & Entering: Aftermath)

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CHAPTER START---

SHAMBLES!

SHAMBLES!

SHAMBLED!

Constantly opening massive Rooms, Horizon warps over and over, more than a dozen times to travel the 400 km -248 miles- between UA and Horizon Tower.

And only a few minutes after receiving the security alert he was already present.

"What the hell," he mutters while looking around at the wrecked penthouse, the familiar sight of Ryuko's Earth Flow Quirk being used all over the rooms.

SHAMBLES!

He warps into his bedroom to find the woman laying on the floor, beaten, battered, and broken, bleeding out on the cold tiles.

With no hesitation he lifts her up and places her in the bed, but the moment he touches her an entire shroud of blue energy vapor erupts on his body and rushes to cover her.

Her broken limbs begin adjusting on their own before the flesh and bone heals itself, perfectly and without leaving a trace on her flawless skin.

Her jaw aligns itself as the healing energy pushes away the blood on her face, revealing her shattered gums being healed before her teeth regrow at a visual pace.

"You'll be alright," Horizon says, not a trace of emotion in his voice. He gently moves some strands of her hair away from her face just as she stirs awake.

"Ah!" Ryuko's eyes shoot open as she immediately tries to sit up, only to feel searing pain in her ribs and hips, and Horizon's hand pushing her back down onto his bed.

"Don't move, I'm still healing you," Horizon says.

"The villains!" Ryuko yells before she gasps in pain, feeling a sharp pain in her chest before a soothing sensation takes over.

"Are gone," Horizon says as he looks around, "And I can't sense anyone unusual in the surrounding area."

Hearing that Ryuko finally calms down a bit, now taking a proper look at Horizon, seeing his melted and burnt Hero Costume smattered with some orange substance.

Her eyes immediately begin to tear up, and a moment later the tears begin flowing.

"Did they---"

"---no, this was a training exercise, I was at UA a few seconds ago," Horizon says as he sits beside her on the bed, gently caressing her head.

"I'm so sorry," Ryuko chokes out as she raises a hand to cover her eyes, wanting to hide in any way she could right now.

"Anyone who attacked this tower must have considered I'd be here, if they're willing to take that fight, I'm just glad you survived whatever they prepared, you did nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," she mutters over and over as the tears continue flowing.

Horizon lets her get it all out, quietly comforting her as he uses Scan on the entire tower and surrounding area.

'It took me seconds to get here, but the villains are already gone, and the only other missing thing is...my backup Scalpel, hopefully they kept it.'

Ryuko's tears stop for a moment as she notices him frozen, sensing the cold void of emotion he's become in this moment.

It makes her uneasy, she expected anger, disappointment, anything, but now he was here, and there was none of that, only concern for her.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

His phone goes off for a moment before projecting a message inside his visor.

"So the cameras caught what happened?" he asks Nezu.

"I'm sending you everything now."

Horizon looks toward Ryuko, performing another Scan on her, making sure she's completely healed before getting up.

"Focus on resting for now, I'll be back in a moment," he says coldly before stepping out of the room, into the destroyed hallway.

Reaching up to his visor he grips it, and with one swift motion crushes it in his hand, ripping it off his head.

"Ahh, much better," he's finally free from the strange attack his classmates did earlier as he walks to one of the monitors built into the wall. "Tell me what you found," he says while loading the camera footage onto the monitor.

"They delayed the alarm by 15 minutes," Nezu says.

"So they had 15 minutes to attack her before we knew, how?" Horizon's voice becomes a slight growl before he takes a deep breath.

"It looks like they got in through the Hero intranet somehow, they must have hacked into another Hero Office or HPSC system to get into here."

"That's supposed to be impossible, didn't you code this yourself?"

"Yes, I did," Nezu says. "And from the looks of it they started making this program not long after you bought Horizon Tower, months ago, they've been planning this for a while."

"Mmm, and who the fuck are these people?" Horizon asks while looking at Gentle Criminal and La Brava on the monitor.

"Danjuro Tobita, aka Gentle Criminal, a small-time villain that likes to be flashy and post his crimes. He had a surge in popularity that got snuffed out by Shigaraki, I'm assuming this was his attempt at stealing the spotlight."

"Mhm," Horizon fast forwards the video a bit to get into the second half of the fight.

"And the little thing he brought with him?"

"Manami Aiba," Nezu says. "She disappeared from public life years ago, made some money developing software on her own...she was actually offered multiple scholarships for her programming skills, and some official positions in the government. A real prodigy."

"Too bad she's dead," Horizon says as he pauses the video just as Ryuko throws Scalpel and pierces La Brava's back. "Were the police alerted?"

"No, I programmed the tower to only alert us, can't have your public image tarnished after all. And luckily it wasn't loud or destructive enough to get noticed."

"And their camera was destroyed, public cameras, anything?"

"No, after they left the tower no cameras caught them, either they found a blacked out route through Tokyo...somehow, or they had a way to hide from cameras already set up."

Horizon raises his phone to look at it, seeing the stolen sword not appearing, "the tracker in the blade must be either disabled or jammed too."

"It's built into the blade itself, so they must be jamming it, that thing is impossible to find," Nezu says.

"Well, if it shows up, I'll be there Quickly," Horizon says. "I'll do some longer warps and chain them together just like I did to get here."

"Honestly I don't understand why you don't do that more often, is it exhausting?"

"A little bit, but mostly it's because most things aren't worth the effort."

"And how would you like to proceed from here?" Nezu asks.

"Keep this one quiet, let me deal with this, Gentle Criminal, but until then, I guess I'm remodeling the penthouse a bit," Horizon looks around at the destroyed pieces of floor, roof, and walls.

"I see, I'll keep looking incase they appear," Nezu says before hanging up.

Horizon sighs and restarts the video, still wearing his burnt and discolored Hero Costume, but now with the Visor off, showing the full mask below.

After a few minutes he hears Ryuko's voice behind him.

"Are you mad at me?" she asks with much trepidation, carefully stepping past all the rubble at their feet.

"No babe, you did...honestly much more than I would have expected," he pauses the video when she swung the blade at La Brava, destroying an eye and chopping off a hand. "What happened to that Hero Training?"

"I've been spending too much time with a bad man," Ryuko says as she stands beside him, feeling his arm wrap around her waist, pulling her to his side. "He might have corrupted me, convinced me some things are worth killing for..."

Horizon doesn't speak for a moment, only restarting the video again, then breaks his silence.

"Protecting this tower is worth killing for?" He asks.

Ryuko frowns and almost starts crying again, leaning her head against him, "they saw my face, and I know how important it is for you that nobody knows about your personal life, so I was...scared."

"That I'd get rid of you after they saw you?"

She nods silently wrapping her arm around him as the tears begin flowing again.

"You don't have to worry about that, I'll deal with this, but you can't come to Horizon Tower anymore..."

"Ok," she says meekly, sniffling a few times. "I expected you to be so mad."

"I am, not at you so don't worry about that, but, I am livid," he pauses for a moment, considering his words carefully. "But I guess I'm more confused than anything, because I've only felt this once before."

"Felt what?"

"Well, usually I don't have to think about this, but now I find myself unable to decide...I'm not quite sure exactly how I'll kill these villains, so many options..."

Hearing that Ryuko isn't even bothered, just happy that Horizon isn't mad at her, or worse, breaking up with her.

"I think I got one of them," She points at La Brava on the screen.

Horizon actually manages to smile at that, giving her a gentle squeeze, "nice throw..."

---Minutes Earlier, Minato Tokyo...

Landing roughly on a rooftop, close to Horizon Tower, Gentle falls onto his back, holding his beloved La Brava to his chest, sword still skewering her.

He feels her Quirk entirely fade now, the pain and exhaustion crashes into him like a wave as his body weakens.

He's barely able to fish around in his pocket and take out his phone, doing something he promised both himself and La Brava that he'd never do.

"Please...Jin...please, answer," Gentle pleads to the heavens as the phone rings.

"Yo!" a voice comes through the phone followed by a loud belch, "thought you said you were a duet and would never join us, huh?! What changed, huh Gentle?"

"We're hurt, please," He begs. "La Brava is dying, we need help! I'll do whatever it takes, I'll join your heist for free, just save my La Brava!"

There is some muttering through the phone before he picks up a conversation in the background, "ha, told ya he'd come around Dabi, let Compress know his team is coming together!"

As he hears more arguing back and forth, friendly as far as he can tell, Gentle sees a purple mist manifest around him, and as his vision is blocked his consciousness fades.

END CHAPTER---