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CHAPTER START---
"Need more practice," Law mutters.
Sitting in his building a few kilometers away from UA he's currently on the couch. Looking through the one-way glass wall at UA atop the massive hill at the edge of the city, the gargantuan stadium he was in moments ago dwarfing all the nearby buildings.
Currently, he was on the couch, the same place he last spoke to his parents. His visor was on the coffee table in front of him, accompanied by his second meal shake of the day. And his upper body was completely exposed.
Looking down at his left arm he could see reddish-purple bruises littering his hand and arm. The entire limb and connected shoulder were sore.
And both his legs were in the exact same state.
"Energy efficiency of Curtain is still trash," he says aloud. Then takes his shake and downs a mouthful of the vanilla-flavored drink.
He turns on the tv, muted, to track the progress of Cementoss making an entirely new stage and repairing the arena after the finals.
"Blocking one of those attacks from Bakugo nearly took everything I had," Law says, now delving into his full assessment. "Curtain is new but that's still unacceptable, not to mention I need to get my physical power up so if I'm unable to handle the constant shockwaves my body doesn't get messed up."
He takes a look at his arm and shoulder before the bruises begin to heal, and two seconds later they're completely gone. In truth, he could have healed them whenever he wanted, but confirming the visual state of his body is always good to be absolutely certain. At atleast in situations where the enemy can't punish him for such cocky actions.
"I'll also need to get Curtain down to being second nature, it still takes almost a second for me to go from thought to action with it...way too damn slow for me. I guess I could drop rubble on myself to train it, but I need to make it at least six times more efficient. I would have passed out if I had to make another Curtain for even one second after blocking Bakugo's attack."
He takes another mouthful of his drink, forcing it down.
"God I hate this weight gain diet...there has got to be a better way to get the amount of calories I need...whatever, problems for tomorrow."
He notices the rubble almost cleaned up for Cementoss to begin repairs.
"At this point if I fought the USJ Nomu again it would go the exact same way. I don't have a way past super-regeneration yet, and my Curtain can maybe take two punches at best before I black out from fatigue... I'd have to pull another one of those omni-slash moves out of my ass to kill it...fucking pathetic," he mutters before getting dressed.
Leaning back in his seat and forcing himself to drink the 1800 Calorie shake, his second of three daily shakes.
At this point eating is a genuine chore for Law, at first he tried preparing meals beforehand. But now he's so sick of seeing food that he just blends everything into a shake and has it that way, and it's only been two weeks.
The thought of doing this for years to bulk up and maintain his new muscles is excruciating to him.
"There has got to be a better way to---" his words are cut off by his phone ringing on the table.
Someone he hasn't seen in months, but he certainly expected this call the moment he went public as a Mystery Class. In fact, the main reason they kept his Quirk classification a secret for this long is to prevent Japan from being flooded with calls exactly like this.
The caller ID only had three words, 'President John Harrison', with a small American flag picture behind it.
Law puts back on his visor as he answers, wanting to maintain the slightly robotic tinge to his voice that the visor gives.
"Horizon?" A cool and collected voice asks, clearly an older gentleman, seemingly amused by this whole situation.
"John, it's been a while," Horizon says, speaking perfect english. "Don't suppose you're calling because you need another check-up?"
A soft chuckle flows through the phone, "no no, the whole family is fine. Honestly, we've never been better than these past few months after you came to clean us up."
"And you've been sticking to the diet?"
"Religiously," the president says. "But, well, I didn't expect my family doctor to be Mystery Class, I mean. YOu mentioned that you'd be starting school this year but I didn't think I'd be sitting on the couch with my kids and seeing you at the UA Sports Festival."
"Well, it never really came up," Horizon shrugs. "How'd the family take the whole 'cutting Todoroki's head up' thing?"
"The missus is mad at you for showing our kids that, the kids cried...they'll get over it, not like you hurt anyone."
"Very true, and I won, it's been a good day."
"That it has been...and I'm hoping I can make both our day a lot better," John says. "But before we continue, you are a real Mystery Class, right?"
"Yes, don't believe me?" Horizon asks. "Nezu would have released a statement countering it if I wasn't."
"I know, and I do trust you, you're my doctor for christ's sake. But it's just a bit odd that your Hero Commission hasn't sent me or any other world leader a notice not to contact you. That's standard procedure for any top hero. Hell, I can't even contact any of Japan's top three hundred without calling Pantu first."
"Hmm, I assumed she would have put a warning out too."
"I guess she has absolute faith in your patriotic spirit huh? So...how unshakable is it?"
Horizon chuckles, knowing exactly where this is going. "Very shakable, but, she knows I don't ever break contracts, you know this too. And I've got a few more years playing hero for Japan until the contract is up and I get what I want."
"What if I can double her offer?" John asks.
"You can't," Horizon says. "Look you control the richest most advanced country on the planet, but I need to finish this contract before I do anything, at that point, we can talk."
"Mmm, fair enough, a man of integrity, that I can respect. But seeing as I'm up for re-election next year if you even just made a small trip back stateside I'd help me out a lot, and I'd make it worth your time."
"I'll probably be too busy becoming a top hero over here, but I do plan to leave Japan when this is all over."
"Ohh..."
"Yeah, what can you offer?"
"Well considering I control America, a twenty billion annual salary, on top of having all expenses paid so long as you take residence and citizenship within our borders. You'll have a full Pro Hero license immediately but only work when we really really need you, best to keep our miracle elixir safe after all. And whatever else you want...oh, and you don't pay taxes ofcourse."
"And this is for the current me, what about me after a few more years of training here?"
"That entirely depends on your status at that time, how high are you aiming, top 10?"
"More like Symbol Of Peace," he hears the president choke on the other side of the call.
"Won't it be a bit disastrous to become their Symbol Of Peace then just leave?"
"Not your country, do you really care?"
"Fair enough. Well, we can always negotiate at that time, but what I offered you earlier is the baseline since you're a Mystery Class...and a warping healing one at that."
"Mhm," Horizon mulls it over for a second, seeing much merit in moving to America after this contract is complete. "America is nice enough, has everything I really need, I guess after this contract is done we can talk John, assuming you're still president at that point."
"Oh, I will be," John laughs. "After I tell the big political lobbyists that I have you already considering moving to America in a few years they'll make sure I get elected next year, can't have a man with Horizon's personal number out of office right."
"So you insured your spot with this one phone call, very clever."
"You have to be clever to become president, but you need to be a good president to remain president," John says. "I'd like to think I'm both."
"I don't think even the people who hate you can deny that," Horizon shakes his head at how ridiculous this man always is. "There is one thing I'd appreciate if you could do for me actually..."
"Oh, what's that?"
"Can you stir the pot in the background, just a bit?"
"How so?"
"Well, I assume you were the first to call me because you used America's influence to bully the other world leaders into backing down, right?"
"Threatened them with sanctions they couldn't afford," John says. "What about it?"
"Then you're in a perfect spot to get them thinking I'll never leave Japan, everyone wins, especially since Japan will feel extra safe with me so persistently sticking around."
"But you'd lose out on the other offers."
"Can they offer me anything better than you? Because I don't think they could even match your offer," Horizon says.
"True," John thinks about it for a few seconds before he grunts. "Alright, I'll put the word out that you refuse to abandon Japan as things stand, that should help boost you in the local hero ranks over there, and I'll tell my people over here that when your contract is done we get the first bid. But I hope you know there is already an intense political shadow war behind the scenes just for access to you, this could get ugly, you cool with that?"
"Sounds like we've got a deal, and next year if I'm not busy doing hero work or school I'll pop over to the states to shake your hand, maybe some lucky press takes a few pictures of us at lunch or something."
"That'll easily keep me in office, just the usual annual checkup."
"And everybody wins, perfect," Horizon says. "It's always a pleasure talking to you mister president."
"Likewise doctor, now it looks like the stage is just about done...oh, that reminds me, congratulations on the gold medal by the way, certainly a performance for the history books."
Horizon chuckles at that, glancing over to his tv to see the arena nearly fully repaired. "The first of my many entries in the book of history sir..."
END CHAPTER---