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CHAPTER START---
---1A Classroom 8 AM...
Horizon leans forward lazily on his desk, idly scrolling on his phone.
Constantly fighting his desire to take a nap as people chatter all around him.
'I'll take a nap on the roof during lunch... I got too into my training yesterday, again...' he shakes his head and straightens up, feeling Eraser walking down the hallways toward them.
Doing a quick SCAN around campus he doesn't feel All Might anywhere, but he notices a massive crowd at the front gate of UA.
'The joys of being a celebrity hero...and most of those morons never wear a mask, so those people and villains can just show up at their house,' he looks around the classroom, recalling how only a handful of his classmates bothered to wear masks, at least of those who could realistically hide their identities.
He didn't judge people like Shoji...hiding all the extra arms was pretty much impossible, but he did question why they'd ever become a hero when they knew hiding was impossible.
He turns to his side and calls out to his seatmate, "hey Tokoyami."
The bird boy looks over at him and gives a polite nod, "yes?"
"Why'd you decide to become a hero?" he asks in an obviously tired voice.
"Oh, that, my Quirk can be difficult to control, dangerous in fact," Tokoyami summons Dark Shadow who happily waves at Horizon, looking more like a docile puppy under the morning sun. "The darkness in my heart is vast, I hope proper hero training can allow me to control the demon within."
Horizon looks between the edgelord and his currently adorable Quirk a few times and just nods, "uh-huh, Quirk control...that's pretty cool I guess."
"What about you?" Tokoyami asks.
"Oh, family reasons, and I made a deal with Nezu that I'd join UA," Horizon shrugs.
"Wait," Sero swivels around in his chair to join the conversation, leaning forward on Tokoyami's desk. "So the principal was the one who asked you to join, not the other way around?"
"Why would I ever want to come here?" Horizon asks genuinely, and all the people around him aren't too sure how to feel about that, about him disregarding what many of them had been dreaming about all their lives.
Sero chuckles nervously, "well, you guys have a lot cooler reasons than me, my family has always been poor, figured this would be a good way to change that," he shyly admits.
"That's actually a really good reason, certainly one of the very few that I respect," Horizon says. "Plus you have a real mask to protect them, better than most."
His response surprises those who were listening in, not expecting him to react positively to what many would deem a hollow desire.
"Wait, what do you mean the masks protects th---" Sero is cut off as Eraser enters the room.
"Get to your seats and quiet down!" he loudly announces, walking to the desk at the front of the class with a tall stack of papers in his hands, sleeping bad draped over his shoulder.
Within seconds everyone is silently facing the front of the classroom, their sleepy teacher yawning as he glances about.
'Yeah me too...' Horizon thinks, feeling sleepy as well.
"Alright listen up, now you'll have to make a decision that will determine your future, so think very carefully about this..." Horizon raises a brow at this while everyone else stiffens nervously, now wary of Eraser's record of expelling students. "You need to pick a class representative."
The entire class bursts into chaos.
Everyone trying to prop themselves up, yelling and shouting, small arguments breaking out.
Horizon closes his eyes to tune it all out...until Bakugo starts yelling.
And suddenly it felt like someone was hammering away at his skull.
"SHUT UP!" the entire class falls silent and stares at him. Taking a breath he turns in his seat to look at them, half of them standing where they were to lobby for themselves. "Write your vote on something and put it on the desk at the front of the class, QUIETLY. I'll count them up, just stop making noise, it's annoying."
Sensing the irritation in his voice nobody argues, simply returning to their seats to prepare their votes.
Eraser opens his sleeping bag and starts getting into it, "I don't care how you do it just have an answer before my nap is done..."
Horizon gets up and walks toward the front of the class, waiting not so patiently for everyone to submit their votes, and one by one they begin flooding in.
Some people like Bakugo only take as long as it would to write his own name on paper, surprising absolutely no one.
Others he could tell were overthinking it, having some sort of internal struggle, he rolls his eyes at Iida who was shivering and sweating at the back of the class, pen shaky in his hand as he considers the options.
'What am I supposed to do here?' Iida wracks his mind. 'Obviously I'd love this position, the first step in being a great leader of heroes like my brother, the first step in living up to the Iida family name...but am I ready?' he looks across the room to see Izuku. 'He's certainly a lot more heroic and perceptive than I am, sacrificing himself to save Uraraka at the entrance exams, and he was able to figure out the rescue points part of the test, while I just ran away and thought about myself.'
He feels shame bubbling up at those memories, the shame of not being the hero he thought he was. The hero he wants to be, a hero just like his brother. To be Ingenium.
He looks to the back of the room, at Momo and Todoroki, 'recommended students, certainly above me. Both powerful and having great analytical minds, nearly peerless,' he looks toward Horizon at the front of the room. Idly standing by as Asui submits her vote. 'Nearly...but he's even above them.'
Iida recalls the first time they met Horizon, all the things he said that made them disgusted and angry.
'His attitude is appalling, unbefitting of a hero, nothing at all like my brother. But he is capable, and a class representative is supposed to be a leader. Someone we look toward in times of crisis or for more mundane activities. My attitude and style will certainly be better for the day-to-day operations of our class...but if a crisis happens, Horizon is easily our best bet as a leader.'
Iida massages his temple, a thin sheen of sweat on his face, 'Horizon showed he can lead, and has the respect of the classmates at the least, with one command he organized this vote and took charge...and I just sat here and hesitated, if that were a dangerous situation I could have cost us lives...'
Iida grits his teeth and begins writing, 'heroes make the best choices to save the most lives, and I'm not quite there yet...'
'H-O-R---' he swallows his pride and makes the only logical choice.
"Alright," Horizon claps once to get their attention, stopping all the murmuring. "All nineteen votes are in, let's get this over with...these are the top three votes..."
He begins writing on the board.
Horizon- 6 Votes
Momo- 2 Votes
Izuku- 2 Votes
Horizon isn't surprised at all.
'I didn't make any effort to actually get votes, but the main thing people are being judged by is likely the Battle Trial we had yesterday. And since I crushed that they voted for me, plus Nezu's big speech about me being the next great leader of heroes certainly helps a lot...guess this was inevitable.'
He looks back to see everyone trying to theorize who voted for who, and some lamenting their lack of votes.
'Yeah I would have definitely given the responsibility for these people over to someone like Iida since he has a stick shoved all the way up his ass, but this'll look pretty good when I'm being scouted, not that I need the help...but every bit counts. And a perfect school record will still hold value...guess I'm class rep,' he decides in barely a moment.
Bakugo is seething at the sight, balling his fist so his palms don't start crackling.
"Wow!" Kaminari gawks. "You got six votes?!"
"Yup," Horizon shrugs and lifts the stack of papers they submitted. "Feel free to come count them if you want."
"Give me those!" Bakugo rushes up and takes the votes and counts them. "ARGH!" he scorches them in his hands then stomps back to his seat.
"Guess it's legit," Kirishima chuckles.
"Anyway we've got a tiebreaker so I guess I'll go with---"
Uraraka's hand shoots up as she springs to her feet, "shouldn't we decide as a class!"
"No, because I didn't vote earlier," Horizon says. "I would have voted for Iida by the way, but I'll use it to get Momo as my second seat."
Momo's eyes widen in surprise, the most capable student in their class actually choosing her, she could almost feel her cheeks burning.
And Iida is dumbstruck at Horizon's words, expecting what he saw as their clear distaste for each other to make that possibility impossible. And a soft smile forms on his face as he realizes that who he saw as the only real choice for this role, also saw him in a similar light.
"That's why you said 'nineteen votes' earlier," Jiro realizes. "Plus I didn't see you write anything, not that you would have to since you're counting."
"Oh...ok," Uraraka says, failing to hide the disappointment in her voice, and sending an apologetic look at Deku.
"Ugh," Horizon rolls his eyes. "Look, I know you wanted your friend to win or whatever, but this isn't about who you like, it's about who is right for the job. If you only think with your heart you're gonna get people killed because when they need a hero that will make the right choices you're gonna let feelings guide you. So how about instead of always propping up that loser you work on yourself and become someone worth voting for...because right now, it's pathetic how you follow him around like a lost puppy."
"I, um," Uraraka just sits down and places her hands in her lap, staring down at her desk and trying not to cry, eventually quickly failing.
"And now it's crying...whatever, Momo, congratulations..."
Momo wants to feel proud of herself for being elected, but looking across at Urarka who was quietly being comforted by Iida, then to Horizon at the front of the room, she wasn't quite sure if she made the right decision voting for him. A sentiment shared by many people.
"Alright," Eraser stands up in his sleeping bag and unzips it, walking over to Horizon. "Congratulations or whatever, these are yours," he gestures to the stack of paper from earlier. "Fill them out before the end of the day and return them to me."
Horizon doesn't react and simply takes the stack of paper.
Then Eraser sees Uraraka crying and sighs, "every time you get up here and address the class someone starts crying, what you said wasn't entirely wrong, but you don't always have to make people cry. Part of being a hero is making people feel better," almost everyone nods along.
"Tch," Horizon sees Uraraka wiping her tears and shrugs. "Heroes also have to be tough, she'll get over it."
"Your path is gonna be a lot harder this way, just saying, anyways make your first address as class reps then get ready for first period," Eraser says before leaving the room, and a moment later Momo is standing beside Horizon.
For the first time she realizes how imposing he is, never really standing beside him before, her head barely reaching his neck, she could certainly disappear behind him. A feeling that she's had since the first time they met. And one that's only gotten stronger each day.
"Well, I guess I'll go first," Momo says nervously, giving everyone her best smile. "As your class vice representative, I pledge to solve as many of your issues as possible within my power for us all to have a comfortable and productive learning experience. That way we can all become our greatest selves and be great heroes in the future!"
She gets a chorus of resounding cheers from the class. And everyone silently turns to Horizon, hoping for something similar.
"Uh...no, fuck all of what she just said," he says dryly, causing everyone to just stare blankly. "You're training to be pro heroes, people that the useless general public look toward as problem solvers. That training starts now, do whatever you can within the rules to solve your own problems before you come whining to either of us, got it?" they nervously nod along.
"Good," he continues. "We aren't here to babysit you, don't only depend on other people, if you've done your best and still need help with something then come to us, but only for things within our responsibilities, that's all." He takes the stack of papers and returns to his desk, silently filling them out.
Low chatter begins once more, but the class eventually agrees with him, not wanting to be heroes that had to rely on others, but heroes people could rely on.
'Maybe he won't be that bad...' Momo thinks as she fills out her own vice representative form...
END CHAPTER---
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