CHAPTER 292(In Horizon's Palm)

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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene 

CHAPTER START---

"Is there anything else you can tell me about him?" Chitose asks. "Anything I should know about?"

She was sitting in the back of an SUV, phone in one hand and notepad in the other as she anxiously clicked her pen.

Blue skin accented by her well-fitting red dress and matching purse, legs crossed as she leans back and tries to relax, failing terribly at that endeavor.

"No he's been busy these past three weeks leading up to today," Rikiya says on the other side of the call. "Hatsume did mention he got a new sword, but aside from that I couldn't get any more information out of her."

"And here I thought you offering a contract with his equipment girl would get us useful intel," Chitose mutters.

"It's Horizon, his hands are more than enough for our forces, all I needed from her was some insight into his plans, which we got."

Chitose rolls her eyes, "him sequestering himself to train for a few months isn't new information, that's literally what the court ordered him to do."

"Well you're the professional interviewer, I'm sure whatever you gather today will be far more substantial," Rikiya says.

Chitose doesn't respond, just looking ahead as the driver takes her through Musutafu.

"You don't have any reason to be so scared my dear," Rikiya says in a soothing tone. "Horizon doesn't know anything that would make him aware of what we are. As far as he knows I'm just a business partner using his name to grow my company, and you're my secret girlfriend using our connection to land some interviews."

"That doesn't make this any less nerve-wracking."

Rikiya sighs, "I wouldn't put you so close to that thing if I had any other choice, you know that, but we have to see where Horizon stands. He could be a key player in helping us liberate people from this restrictive society."

"And what do we do if he sees us as the enemy?" Chitose asks. "We could leave Japan, just the two of us."

"We could, but that would betray the people as much as the current governing system already does."

Chitose chuckles, expecting that response, "Well, hopefully, whatever All For One has in motion will get him out of our way, if he refuses to join us."

"Our mystery benefactor says the Demon Lord's plan is going perfectly thus far, but regardless, we're too weak to stand against either of those monsters. Horizon is too strong and All For One is too connected, best to let them kill each other instead."

"Tch, it's too bad we aren't allowed to wipe out the League Of Villains, those fools are making our jobs harder."

"One thing at a time my dear," Rikiya says.

"Ma'am, we're here," the driver says, and she looks up to see that they're directly in front of UA.

"Don't park too far away, I doubt I'll be staying for the entire event," Chitose says as she opens the door and steps out of the car.

At the entrance, she looked up to see gargantuan stadiums built, similar to last year, but this time the stadium in the middle was at least 5 times larger, expecting a much greater demand for seats in the 2nd Year's arena.

She could see the cloudy sky moving to become overcast, and looking at the massive crowd all around the main entrance area of the school nobody seemed concerned with rain dulling this event.

'Ok Chitose, you're a villain walking into the most heavily defended facility in this half of the world, you can manage this,' she thinks before crossing the threshold.

At the entrance, she sees people lined up to enter, but due to her VIP Pass, she's allowed quick access, skipping the lines entirely.

"It looks similar to the previous years, but, something is different," she says while looking around, slowly moving through the crowd.

There was a sea of people and stalls set up, food, games, drinks, snacks, and hero merchandise as far as her eyes could see.

Among the crowd, she sees Endeavor, who couldn't hide even if he tried as he towers over most of the people here, and is glowing slightly.

His flames weren't active but his Hero Costume was bright enough.

She sees him standing awkwardly beside Shoto Todoroki and Fuyumi Todoroki.

Chitose quickly takes note of that as the family is at one of the game stalls.

Looking around she sees families enjoying the games and a few Pro Heroes near the merchandise stalls signing things for younger fans.

But then she realized why something felt different compared to the previous years.

She looks around quickly and does a rough headcount.

'Only 20 Pro Heroes in this area,' she double checks her numbers and gets the same result. 'Even if Endeavor and Edgeshot are here, there were at least 4 times as many last year, did they cut back on security that much?'

She spends a few more minutes walking about and observing the crowd, spotting some of the more popular students walking among them, easily spotted since they were all wearing their PE Uniforms for the competition.

Eventually, she finds someone who she recognizes and knows is, or at least was friendly with Horizon.

Itsuka Kendo is sitting on a bench in a playground area answering questions from some children who are all dressed up as different popular Pro Heroes.

The moment they leave Kendo leans back and takes a sip of her drink, taking out her phone to check the time, and Chitose swoops in.

"Hi!" she says excitedly, startling the girl.

Kendo looks to her left to see the woman sitting beside her, notepad ready and not blinking at all, "Uh, hi, can I help you?"

"Yes actually, I'm Chitose Kizuku, and I was wondering if you could give me just a small interview, I promise this won't take too much of your time."

"Uh, sure, I'm---"

"Itsuka Kendo, right?" Chitose asks. "I'm a pretty big fan of Battle Fist so it wasn't really hard to spot you."

"Oh wow, this is the first time someone actually recognized me, at least for more than the modeling we did," Kendo says in a sad tone.

"Oh no, I'm much more interested in showing the world that girls can fight, not just be a pretty face."

Kendo smiles, eyes shining at those words, "Exactly! So what'd you like to know?"

"Well, mostly about whether things have changed at all on campus since," Chitose looks around and leans in, speaking in a whisper. "The Gigantomachy."

"Oh, right," Kendo thinks for a moment. "Well, UA added a bunch of new facilities for the students of different year groups to train with each other, and they're taking a lot more precautions in case of villain attacks here, but aside from that I haven't really noticed anything."

"And how does the student body feel about Horizon still being in UA?" Chitose asks, and immediately sees Kendo recede a bit. "You don't have to answer anything you don't want to."

"No it's okay," Kendo says. "Well, not everyone is ok with Horizon being here, but it's not like the school forces us to be ok with it exactly. We can voice our complaints and a lot of people have even told Horizon this to his face, but he understands our grievances and concerns and just lets us get it all out."

"So students aren't afraid of him?" Chitose asks.

"Well I think it's only natural to be concerned when a person with that much power exists, but we know he won't just wake up one day and decide to destroy the country, we trust him that much at least."

"I see, and lastly, is there anyone I should keep an eye out for during the games?" Chitose asks. "Will you be taking home a medal this year?"

"Well, I'd say don't count class 2B out of the running, we've gotten a lot stronger since last year!"

Chitose's mood is lifted after that interview, so much so that she's ready to go see Horizon directly.

So enamored with the information she has, that she's writing in her notepad while walking through the crowd.

Only to bump into a small girl, appearing to be only ten years old, with two extra arms below her main arms.

As she bumps into the girl she drops her pen and notepad, while the girl lets go of her Mt. Lady balloon which begins floating away.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Chitose immediately apologizes, taking a step back to look at the girl. "I'll buy you another balloon."

The girl looked up at her, seemingly confused, "Horizon will bring it back," was all she said.

Chitose gives her a strange look, and before she can question what the girl means, the balloon seemingly descends on its own, with the attached ribbon coming down to the girl's hand.

The girl reaches out to it, but it instead ties itself around her wrist, to prevent this incident from repeating itself.

The girl looks up at the sky, a broad smile on her face, "thank you mister Horizon," she says before running off into the crowd.

Chitose just stands there, stunned by what she just saw.

She looks around, seeing the massive crowds of people, all smiling and enjoying the festival.

And suddenly the distinct lack of Pro Heroes makes sense.

'Horizon, he's everywhere,' her eyes dart around, seeing all the people and things blissfully aware or unaware that this force was here, all-encompassing and seemingly benevolent.

She looks down to get her pen and notepad, but as she turns to where they fell, she sees them hovering, waiting for her to claim them.

Her breath hitches, mind reeling in understanding at how absolute his power was.

Looking around she sees all the innocent lives, she sees Endeavor.

She knows even a great hero like him would be nothing if Horizon willed it.

All the speeches and rallies she's written and heard, all the years of secretly campaigning for this oppressive government to be brought down.

All these years of building their forces to intact a great change.

After a lifetime of work, of generation of planning.

And now she's surrounded by the smiling faces of people, who don't realize the situation they're truly in.

Happy to be here, under his absolute control.

Chitose realizes how infinitely insignificant all the power and connections they've gathered are, as she stands her, like a single grain of sand.

In the hand of a god.

A god, that can, and will close his hand, and there is nothing the entire world could do about it...

"Are you alright?" a voice snaps her out of her panic attack, and only now she realizes the cold sweat on her forehead and how difficult breathing had gotten.

She turns to the woman, seeing a blonde woman roughly the same age as her, with a young boy beside her and a little girl with a single horn on her head.

"Oh, sorry I just...I'm not good with crowds," Chitose says as she tries to compose herself.

"Oh, well inside should be a lot more quiet, until people start entering the stadium," Ryuko says. "And you should get out of the sun."

"Right, thank you," Chitose says as she turns back to her notepad and pen. 

She grabs the notepad, but the pen moves to avoid her grasp, spinning slightly and pointing, then moving slowly.

"I think he wants you to follow it," Ryuko says.

Chitose swallows nervously, "Right, well enjoy the festival..."

END CHAPTER---