CHAPTER 322(Our Quirk)

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CHAPTER START---

"No no, you completely misunderstand," Horizon says to Agpar.

Both men were sitting outside at a few tables, at the edge of a massive grassy plain just beyond the base.

On the other tables around them were the engineers who had been working on the new jet, some Quirk researchers here to observe the spar, and some high-ranking military personnel sitting beside Horizon and Agpar.

"So your plan is to...not capture the League Of Villains?" one of the colonels asks. "I don't understand."

"Think about it like this, villains, are rats," Horizon looks around to make sure everyone is following. "They can't really operate in Japan while I'm there, which is why since I've been over here on vacation the Nomu presence in Japan has returned, but what happens when I return?"

"They crawl back into their hole," Agpar says.

"Exactly, but in this case, the 'hole', is anywhere that I'm not," Horizon says. "We've already had reports of them selling Nomu to villains across the world, which means they've found a way to transport them without Kurogiri's Quirk."

"But none of those have been confirmed stateside," one of the colonels says.

"Because they don't want to poke America, they already have me hunting them down, they don't want to give you people an excuse to send Star' after them too."

"Ok, ok," one of the colonels takes a sip of his water. "So you move back to Japan and scare them, then what?"

"Then, I just put my hands on someone they were supplying with Nomu, that villain spreads the word about what happened and the lengths I'll go to to find Shigaraki and his friends, and suddenly all the villains they've been networking with are more scared of me than them."

"Assuming you get permission to operate internationally," Agpar says. "Would Japan let you go abroad every time you get a lead?"

"I'm working on something to handle that, but essentially I want the League Of Villain's network to grow, so when I really scare all the villains who think they're untouchable because they're not in Japan, more people can submit intel in exchange for me not paying them a visit."

"I see," Agpar nods. "Giving Shigaraki a long rope so he can hang himself with it the moment you pull, quite clever."

"But far from 'heroic'," one of the colonels says. "A lot of innocent people could get hurt before you get permission to tug on that rope."

"People get hurt all the time, but trust me, Shigaraki won't give any of the powerful Nomu to other villains, he's not that dumb," Horizon says. "He'll keep those locked up in whatever lab they have, so Pro Heroes around the world should be able to handle Nomu."

"And when your hunt begins villains will be hesitant to use Nomu publicly, since that would put them on your radar," Agpar says.

"Exactly."

"And what about Shigaraki, what are your plans for him?" Agpar asks as he sees Star' walking toward them.

"We fight, he resists, my hand 'slips'," Horizon shrugs. "And his head comes off, nobody will cry for that animal being put down."

"That's a relief," Agpar says.

"Yeah, but first I have to figure out who is creating the Nomu for him, that's more important than stopping Shigaraki himself, and I also have to figure out what All For One is planning."

"All For one?" Agpar looks confused. "He's already in Tartarus."

"Yes, but there's no way in hell someone as old and powerful as All For One didn't have a contingency plan that triggers if he gets captured, but I assume the person creating the Nomu will be part of that plan."

"Two birds, one sword swing," Star' says as she arrives behind Horizon. "Are you ready?"

"To fight you, never," Horizon jokingly says as he gets up and begins walking away from the table.

Star' falls into step beside him as they walk toward the field, even with her incredible eyes she couldn't see the other side of this empty plain.

"What was the hold-up, had to prepare something special?" Horizon asks.

"Phone call with the President," Star' says. "He wants me in L.A. for a while, new leads on the Sentinel issue, the Pro Hero turned Traitor side at least."

"Ahh, does that mean my proposed plan got the green light?"

"Maybe, but if it did, he'll be calling you in a few minutes then you'll have to leave, so let's make this quick."

"Have fun dealing with the muscle side of their failed takeover, I'll have to deal with the backend of it."

"Well you're better suited to politics than me, I prefer to just punch stuff," Star' shrugs. "I just can't believe he's letting you be so open about this."

"Scare tactics work on people who've gone their entire life pulling strings and avoiding first-hand violence," Horizon says. "Now, we'll start when you're ready."

SHAMBLES!

Horizon appears in the middle of the field, and Star' immediately feels the sensation of ants crawling all over her body.

'His Quirk activation and use are instant,' She thinks as a broad smile splits her face. 'Now let's have some fun and really flex our muscles!'

NEW ORDER: My Body will resist Hand Of God!

Focusing her eyes, she sees him 5 miles -8km- away, now drawing his blade.

He sends the scabbard away before touching his palm to the blade, and a blue glowing liquid energy flows from his body onto the blade, clinging to it.

For a moment the blade appears to twist and flex, bending and wabbling, before returning to its sturdy and straight shape.

'That seems like what he did to stop the bomb, but different, a different application of his awakening. Well, that's interesting,' Star' crouches slightly and narrows her eyes at him.

Miles away Horizon raises his blade with one hand, ready to swing down.

AMPUTATE!

He begins a perfect vertical swing, intending to divide the earth between them and test her resistance to his Quirk.

FWOOSH!

Star and Stripe is suddenly at his location, before the tip of his blade could even descend an inch she cleared the distance.

Her face was a hair breath from his visor.

SHAMBLES!

He barely swaps with a blade of grass behind her as her punch sends what can only be described as a horizontal tornado.

Carving out the earth in a 20m wide trench for miles ahead.

'Too fast!' Horizon thinks. 'Need distance!'

Before he can adjust his body she turns on a dime and reaches out to grab his face, only for him to disappear once more, now hovering above her, high in the air.

"What?" Star' instantly spots him, and sees the sword pointing at her.

She moves with the same unreal speed to dodge his attack, but still feels the sensation of ants gently nibbling at her arms and legs.

'No projectiles, just instant damage, good thing I'm resisting his Quirk,' Star' thinks as she experiences Injection Shot.

The ability couldn't affect her, and had she not been focusing intensely on the sensation it would cause, she wouldn't have recognized it affected her at all.

As Star' is moving to the side her eyes are fixed on his location, which instantly changes.

She looks ahead in the direction she's moving, and sees him swinging horizontally, but she is already mid-sidestep moving toward the blade.

'Ok, I'll let this one hit me, let's see what he can do!'

She twists her waist and punches toward the blade.

"HAHAH!" Star's manic laughter echoes through the battlefield as Horizon silently swings Sunder.

The blade, coated in the blue energy clashes with her fist.

Star' can feel her resistance pushing against his attempt to manipulate her being, and she can also see him adding more and more energy to the blade as they clash.

As her feet are planted on the ground once more, she withdraws her fist and punches forward yet again, faster than anyone in the world can possibly match or react to, including Horizon.

SHAMBLES: Flicker!

Horizon's 'glitches' in place, and appears already in perfect position to block the blow with the edge of his sword.

'If I didn't have a resistance to his Quirk, or my durable body, I'd already be dead,' Star' thinks. 'Not many people can take a hit from this sword and walk away.'

"You're a tough nut to crack open," Horizon says with clear strain in his voice.

"HA! This is incredible!" Star' gets even more excited. "I've never had someone last this long against me, usually villains go down after one hit!"

"With power like yours, I'm not surprised," Horizon disappears once more.

Star' turns around, looking for him, then she feels a change in the air.

She looks up to see a lightning bolt descending from the overcast sky directly toward her.

'He gave me an opposing charge while we clashed, clever,' she thinks, smiling at the lightning bolt.

As it's less than an inch from her head, using her absurd speed and perception she steps to the side.

She had to divert a bit more energy than usual into her physical transformation command, but the sight of lightning slowly making its way toward the ground as she casually moved away was worth it.

While in this same super-speed perception, she turns to find Horizon, seeing him, raising hundreds if not thousands of small rocks and blades of grass around the battlefield, at shoulder level.

'Giving himself options to warp away,' Star' thinks as she observes him, and even now he appears to be a statue.

She glances at the lightning bolt that's about to hit the ground, admiring it once more, then races off toward Horizon.

As she's about to punch his visor, at the very last moment he swaps places with a blade of grass, avoiding the hit.

Star' returns her physical transformation order to its standard energy consumption, then turns to him.

"This is incredible," Star' says. "This must be what it feels like to have competition huh!"

Horizon nods and lowers his sword, "I'm not surprised you've never felt it before, you are the first Mystery Class Quirk user after all, you were born peerless."

"Are you saying you've felt this before, you've had a rival?" Star' asks. "Was it one of your classmates?"

Horizon scoffs, "What a bad joke, as if they could dream of competing with us. Ever since I figured out what my Quirk was, you were already a Pro Hero, a rookie, but a Pro. So I've always known that there was one person out there stronger than me, and that's why I improved at such an exponential rate compared to you. And you've been stagnant all your life."

Star' frowns, "It's not like I don't train, but when everyone goes down in one hit, it's hard to improve. What I am to you, I never had. In spirit, I look up to All Might, but in power, I could eclipse him over a decade ago."

"Well, now you aren't alone at the summit, not anymore," Horizon's entire body begins releasing his blue energy mist, then it gets thicker, clinging to him, then it seemingly is compressed beneath his body glove. "And if you don't start improving, I'll be strong enough to kick your ass before I head back to Japan!"

Star and Stripe suddenly feels his Quirk deactivate, not having the sensation of ants crawling across her body anymore.

But her eyes know better, they still see the energy radiating from his blade, only now, none of it is leaking to the earth below.

It's more refined, more controlled, and sharper.

She feels the ants crawling across her once more and he instantly appears in front of her, striking down vertically.

'He didn't flicker this time, he just changed his orientation while he was being transposed, what the hell?!' Star' panics slightly as she raises a hand to block him.

INCISION!

She feels her forearm become hot as her skin gets cut, not even enough to draw blood, but enough.

The feeling of pain is all but alien to her, and she panics at that moment.

She leaps backward, allowing his swing to continue.

The tip of his blade hits the ground and a massive chasm appears as the earth is violently sundered.

'I don't know what the hell he did, but his Quirk is different now, like, layered. Ah, he must have two commands as well, of course, just like me!' Star' thinks before her feet touch the ground.

The moment she's back on the floor she charges forward, but this time, as opposed to when he was a statue compared to her speed.

She could see him moving, slowly, but it still surprised her.

He swung his blade at her while she was in mid-air, unable to dodge.

NEW ORDER: I can move freely through the atmosphere!

She deactivates her resistance to Hand Of God and narrowly avoids the attack by flying upward.

SHAMBLES!

She suddenly appears back at ground level, and this time Horizon is already there, thrusting his blade forward to impale her in the shoulder.

Star' raises her hands to catch the blade, and feels the sensation of warm blood flowing down her arms from her palm, as the sharp point inches closer to her face.

'What the hell, he can cut me!'

NEW ORDER: My body will resist Hand Of God!

His blade immediately is unable to cut her, allowing her to toss him aside.

And thanks to her absurd Quirk, less than a second later her body is completely healed.

'I can never deactivate my resistance to his Quirk, that was foolish of me. I've been invincible for so long that feeling pain surprised me too much, but now I've adjusted,' Star' thinks as Horizon casually lands on his feet.

Deep within her very being, she feels it, blooming, growing.

From a spark, to a raging fire.

Her smile splits her face, as usual, but this time the look in her eyes wasn't calm or gentle.

There was a fire in her, a desire to improve, to grow, to pull further ahead of this person standing across from her.

For the first time in her life, she felt true inspiration to push and surpass all of her preconceived, self-imposed limits!

Feeling this, new Order responds, and Star' feels a swell of energy she'd never had access to before, as if Hand Of God and New Order were challenging each other, pushing the other to go higher than before.

Horizon sees the look in her eyes, and beneath his visor, and a devious smile splits his face.

He considers the battlefield, the things he's just experienced.

He feels his awakening draining him by the moment, incomplete, inefficient, and far from stable.

But C-Room was enough at the moment, enough to ignite the fire in her eyes.

'Star and Stipe, our Quirk truly is incredible,' he thinks as they clash dozens of times more.

Each clash becomes stronger and stronger, clearing the overcast sky and forcing the grass the cower away from them.

While Star and Stipe was relishing the sensation of having someone who can seemingly keep up with her, of having a friend who could walk beside her, Horizon was doing the same.

Her speed was beyond anything he could ever dream of matching, so instead he would flicker between clashes to reposition himself.

They both knew, if this were a real fight, he'd be dead in an instant.

He cannot keep up, cannot hit her, not unless she allows it.

But they were having fun, therefore she allowed it.

But with each clash something else grew, only within Horizon, something he's never felt before.

Jealousy, envy, wishing he had something another person had was so foreign to him that until now, it never truly resonated with him.

And the thing he was so jealous of, of all things, was Star' and Stripe's simple-minded talent.

He always had the theory, he almost spilled this idea to Nezu before he came to UA, but now after meeting her, he knew it was true.

Hand of God and New Order, are the exact same Quirk.

They allow the user to to manipulate the code that makes up reality, but the human brain cannot process this, therefore each user interprets it differently.

For Star and Stripe, she was never a genius in any regard, so she simply 'speaks things into reality', she doesn't understand the mechanics of what happens when her Quirk is used.

But each command temporarily edits the code of the world around them, including the code of other people depending on their will to resist, and understanding of themself.

But Horizon was a genius before he had his Quirk, which is why his road to train and master it has been exceptionally difficult.

Albeit he can reach height even Star and Stripe couldn't imagine.

He knows that he edits the 'code' of the world around him, which is why his alterations can be made permanent, much more so than Star and Stripe's.

This is why, even now, no living person aside from Horizon knows what his Quirk truly is.

Lies upon lies upon lies.

'Warping.

Spatial Slashes.

Invisible Bullets.'

So many lies, because explaining the mechanisms of his Quirk to someone who has never experienced it.

Is like describing a rainbow to a person that was born blind.

How do you tell someone, that instead of opening a gateway in space to enter, you simply appear someone else because that is where you already are?

Even Nezu would be lost as such an explanation.

But even Horizon doesn't know everything, even Horizon doesn't know, that there was another user before Star and Stripe got her Quirk.

Even he, no, especially he, would never consider such a thing, because he could never imagine passing his Quirk to another person.

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Both Horizon and Star' freeze as Horizon's phone rings.

Horizon's hero costume was torn up, his jacket, vest, and shirt were completely shredded and lying on the floor in ribbons.

His body glove was perfectly fine, and his pants had some tears in them.

And beside him, Star' was only missing a piece of her cape and had some slashes in her Hero Costume, but they both stopped for him to answer the call.

"I need to get going," Horizon says as he hangs up.

Star' wipes the sweat from her forehead, "So he really approved your plan, how absurd, but it'll be good to see the politicians getting punished for once."

"That's the plan, now I need to go get ready for the party," Horizon says as he sheathes his blade.

"Party?"

"Sorry, I've already got a date," Horizon says jokingly as he looks around at the miles of destroyed land around them. "You're good to clean this up yourself, right?"

"I---" Before she can respond he warps away, leaving her to pick up after him. "He's so annoying sometimes..."

END CHAPTER---

CHAPTER 17(Two Types Of People), just in case anyone was wondering if this Quirk reveal was hinted at before...