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CHAPTER START---
"What do you mean he paid for it?" Horizon asks.
Currently, he, Sero, and Tokoyami were sitting at the couches in his massive dorm room. Tokoyami was on the floor leaning on the coffee table, filling out some Villain Insurance paperwork.
Sero had some of his paperwork in hand, as both boys came to Horizon for advice on handling the logistics of Hero Work and some career planning.
"Check it," Sero hands Horizon a page which he quickly reads.
"Ok," Horizon shrugs and hands it back. "So the seemingly ungrateful billionaire asshole...wasn't that ungrateful."
"Doesn't matter to me," Sero says with a chuckle. "All I need to know is he paid my Villain Insurance for that helicopter rescue, makes sense since I saved him in that."
"And now you can get paid, correct?" Tokoyami asks. "Because otherwise the cost of the collateral damage would have been deducted from your payment?"
"Pretty much," Sero says.
"But that begs the question, when can we hold the Pro Hero responsible for the damage, and when do we blame the villain?"
Sero looks at Tokoyami, but can't come up with an answer, so he looks to Horizon who was sitting opposite him scrolling through his phone. "Uh, care to give us your idea of how that system works?"
"They rate it based on your history alongside some considerations based on the recordings or witness accounts, as well as the Quirks involved," Horizon says.
"Uh...wanna dumb that down for me?" Sero asks.
"Ok, think about it like this," Horizon says as he puts down his phone. "Mt. Lady has to stop a villain with a Tape Quirk, when the cops show up the entire street is torn up with massive craters, what do you think caused them?"
"Her stomping," Tokoyami says. "That's one of her Super-Moves..."
"Mhm, but the government has to pay to repair that, which is where Villain Insurance comes in. But since, in this case, it wasn't necessary, it gets detracted from her pay. If the villain was someone like Kirishima and she had to stomp him to crack his shell, then it would have been fine."
"And if the villain did the damage, it would have been fine, right?" Tokoyami asks. "Plus if it keeps happening they'll just stop investigating it and just continue charging her."
"Exactly, this is another reason Sero and I have cameras on our Hero Costumes. Most heroes don't bother with body cameras outside of America, that's one of their ancient regulations with Law Enforcement forces that just transferred over to the Pros after all."
"Plus most of them would just break it," Sero says. "Fragile things and fighting villains don't go together..."
"Exactly, plus more content means more popular in the Pro Hero world."
"Yeah, but I don't get why they had to cut my pay to zero after that helicopter rescue, I think I did pretty good with that," Sero says.
"You literally paid nothing compared to the full cost of fixing the damage you caused to that building, you're lucky they didn't put you in debt," Horizon says.
Sero chuckles nervously at that, "yeah, when you put it like that I did get off easy. Stills sucks thought."
"Mhm," Tokoyami stops writing and looks up to Horizon. "So for the section about my maximum damage output---"
"The higher the output the more eager they will be to charge you for Villain Insurance since the chances of the collateral being caused by you in higher."
"I see, so I should put my lower power output in order to preserve my payment, yes?"
"No," Horizon says. "I mean yeah that's an option, but you won't get many team-up requests or assignments from the Hero Public Safety Commission if they think you're weak. Just put the truth then do your best, get stronger, get popular, then you'll get more chances to help people."
"Or in my case," Sero says. "More sponsors and popularity!"
"I see," Tokoyami leans back against the foot of the couch and looks down at the papers. "I didn't realize such deceptively trivial paperwork had such dark meanings behind them----"
Sero gives Horizon a confused glance to which he just shrugs in return.
"---But I suppose paperwork shall be part of my life now. I have much of this to endure during my work studies with Hawks this semester."
"Well, that's a dramatic way of putting it," Horizon can't help but rolls his eyes beneath the visor at Tokoyami's usual persona. "Just don't break things and you'll be fine, and be sure to look good for the cameras."
"Mhm," Tokoyami just nods as he continues chewing through the paperwork.
"And save people," Sero adds.
"Right, that too," Horizon shakes his head, then the conversation continues.
A few moments later, another career-focused reveal surprises Tokoyami.
"You really don't plan to sign on with Edgeshot as a Sidekick?" He asks Sero. "But he's the number 4 Pro Hero."
"Yeah but he mostly does stealth stuff and detective work," Sero says. "Honestly Jeanist is a better fit for my Quirk but his style is way to reactive for my liking."
"Well you'll be working with Kamui Woods again," Horizon says. "Just like your internship since you spent it with him."
"Mhm, since he, Edgeshot, and Mt. Lady formed a team they've been spending a lot of time together, so I basically get 3 Pro Heroes to teach me stuff at once," Sero chuckles deviously. "No way I could pass up on this offer. But they really should have come up with something better than 'Lurkers' for a team name..."
"I see, but that begs the question, who do you intend to work for?" Tokoyami asks. "Atleast after we become Fully Licensed Pro Heroes."
"Well, I'm planning to go solo once that happens, skip the Sidekick stage all together."
"That's risky, but you're already quite popular with Horizon's help, if you follow his lead it shouldn't be impossible. I don't envy the amount of work that will take."
"Yeah its a real pain in the butt," Sero admits. "But it gets me ahead of the competition."
"So you intend to be like Mirko? Running about Japan without an established agency anywhere?"
"Kinda," Sero says. Then he glances at Horizon who wasn't paying them much attention, still on his phone, then back down to Tokoyami. "But its more likely I'll be working with someone, but not like a Sidekick."
"Ahh, a Hero Team," Tokoyami pauses for a moment as he considers it. "A wise choice, operating alone has become more dangerous lately."
Both Sero and Tokoyami discuss the positive and negative aspects of being solo vs being in a Hero Agency or Team.
But Sero leaves Tokoyami mostly oblivious to the fact that he'd just sign on to work out of Horizon Tower when they receive full licenses, skipping the cost of setting up his own agency and forcing himself to operate in an environment where he cannot slack off.
But Tokoyami isn't an idiot by any means, and everyone knows they've both been operating out of Horizon Tower this past week.
It was a simple issue to reason that they would continue operating as they are.
As a moment of comfortable silence passes Sero begins laughing quietly, "I can't believe this is a real conversation I'm having, back when I was little I'd dream about even meeting a Pro Hero. Now I'm so close to becoming one, and I talk to them every day..."
"I understand what you mean," Tokoyami says. "I've never been a 'fanboy' like some of our classmates. But I've always admired the control and precision Pro Heroes have, and here I am, actively learning from them and being mentored directly. Sometimes I still find it hard to believe."
"Mhm, never thought I'd be here either," Horizon says, surprising them. Atleast before he clarifies, "not because I believed my skills aren't enough, obviously. I just never saw myself playing hero, but here we are..."
A few minutes later and while they were enjoying the silence Horizon warps one of his metal calling cards into his hand, then tosses it forward.
It hovers in the air between both couches for a moment.
"Shambles," Kyoka Jiro suddenly appears in his room, standing frozen with a hand reaching up.
Warped inside just before she could knock on his door.
It takes her a moment to realize what just happened, then she just puts her hand down and huffs, giving Horizon an annoyed look.
"I thought Principal Nezu told you to stop doing that!"
"He did, but you literally can't stop it," he shrugs. "Now, why were you about to knock on my door?"
Jiro just rolls her eyes, "why didn't any of you respond to the messages we sent in the class chat?"
"Uh, my phone is in my room, the battery died," Sero says.
"Same here," Tokoyami says.
Then Jiro looks to Horizon who still had his phone in his hand, "why would I ever have the class chat notification settings turned on, I don't care what you people usually have to say..."
"Whatever, just...they're planning to watch a movie downstairs," she looks at Sero. "Your girlfriend and Juzo are here for it and helping set up. If you guys want to vote for a movie then get down there before they start it, I've already cast my vote."
"Uh, who's winning?" Sero asks, with clear concern. "Mina and Toru started an alliance."
"Oh crap!" he hops off the couch, and Tokoyami immediately stands up with him. Before they rush off he looks back at Horizon who still hasn't moved. "Uh, you coming?"
"Jiro and I will be down in a second, I'll watch whatever you all vote for," Horizon says, surprising them that he'll actually be attending.
"Uh, right," Sero glances between them but doesn't ask any questions, quickly leaving the room with Tokoyami.
Leaving the awkward Jiro standing before Horizon, who was looking her up and down in her shorts and an oversized t-shirt.
"Do you wanna sit down to say whatever it is you've prepared?" Horizon asks.
"Uh...what?" Jiro tried to play dumb, failing miserably.
"Stupid doesn't look good on you," Horizon says. "And I saw you practicing some speech in front of my door for five minutes, well, spit it out already, we've got a movie to watch."
And just like that Jiro felt her heart hammering in her chest, as if it would soon try to break her ribcage...
END CHAPTER---