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CHAPTER START---
Tokoyami takes a step back, glancing over his shoulder to see Ibara behind him. She was still trying to recover from having the ends of her hair frozen, the vines needed time and were among the few things they have that could potentially restrain Horizon, even for a moment.
Tokoyami throws both hands forward, directing Dark Shadow to grow and grow until it was the size of a school bus.
"Dark Shadow: Abyss of Hearts, descending judgment!"
"Stupid name," was all Horizon said as the massive shadow creature descended like a bullet, intending to flatten him into the ground.
He raised his hands to catch the creature as it molded itself into a large beak, catching the tip of its face between his palms.
BOOSTER SHOT!
His entire body instantly begins releasing blue energy vapor as the concrete beneath him cracks.
"Hmm, a stalemate," Tokoyami says.
"Not really," Horizon had obvious signs of straining in his voice, surprising everyone. For the first time he sounded as if he was actually trying. "You have Dark Shadow, but the world is my weapon..."
"Wh--- AHHH!" A piece of the concrete floor rips itself out of the ground and rockets into Tokoyami's gut, knocking the wind out of him and sending him tumbling back.
"Fumi!" Dark Shadow yells, glancing back at Tokoyami.
Taking this opportunity Horizon shifts his stance and pushes Dark Shadow to the side, causing it to slam into the concrete and knock up a small dust cloud.
By the time Tokoyami stops tumbling over himself he looks up to see Horizon rushing out of the cloud much faster than he ever expected, the ground cracking beneath his feet with each step.
"Dark Shadow!"
The tether connecting Tokoyami and Dark Shadow immediately begins shifting and molding itself, as if a dozen tendrils formed from it to grab out at Horizon who ran beside it.
Sensing this change, Horizon stops his rush down and pivots in place, landing three precise and targeted punches onto Dark Shadow's body.
He then leaps away before the creature can grab him while it retracts to Tokoyami.
"Those kinds of attacks aren't very effective against my Quirk, you should know this," Tokoyami says.
"Wasn't aiming at your Quirk, those punches hit their mark," Horizon says.
At those words Tokoyami's and Ibara's eyes widen, their plan had been found out.
"It was a good plan, but all it took was me looking a bit closer," Horizon says as he rushes forward again.
As he's quickly closing the distance Tokoyami closes his eyes and focuses on Dark Shadow, shrinking him back down to his regular size to float beside him.
As Horizon got closer he launched forward in a strong right, intending to knock Tokoyami out in one blow.
In a few moments, Dark Shadow surrounded Tokyami and coated him like a suit, only focused on his upper body.
Tokoyami wore his Quirk like a living Hero Costume, with their eyes resting beside each others to both could see.
He matched Horizon's strike with this new level of power.
"Black Abyss!" Both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow yell, their voices now in perfect unison each time they speak.
Feeling themselves about to lose against Horizon's power, Dark Shadow expands behind Tokyami and anchors them, giving them a bit more leverage.
They couldn't out muscle Horizon, but because of their superior footing, he was pushed back a few meters.
"No way," Kendo mutters in the observation area. "Since when did those two get that strong?"
"Tokoyami's been studying with us sometimes," Sero says, now enjoying some potato chips. "Sometimes he asks Horizon about how to improve his Quirk, this is one of the answers he got."
"How come he helps him but not us?" Kirishima asks.
"Because he thinks you're annoying," Mudman says. "Plus he prefers people with...less straightforward Quirks. He already has a lot of firepower, Team Horizon is supposed to be adaptable to any situation, not just act as a sword or shield, but a scalpel."
They all shift their attention back to the screens as Horizon is observing Tokoyami's growth.
"Black Abyss, not a bad name from you," Horizon says.
"Thank you, I hope this is close to what you envisioned," Tokoyami's and Dark Shadow's voices were perfectly in sync. "When we stop acting as Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, but as one being, when I accept that Dark Shadow is simply me, then I'd understand my Quirk and its full potential. That's when Tokoyami and Dark Shadow can become the Hero, Tsukuyomi."
"Yeah, that's what I said, and this is pretty much what I pictured, at least to start. Now show me what you've got, Tsukuyomi."
Horizon raises his hands, and both Tsukuyomi's mouths twist into elated smiles.
As they meet each other and the brawl begins, Tsukuyomi's high of his growth being recognized by Horizon quickly fades away.
Replaced with the fact that, well, he's fighting Horizon.
He was outclassed in all aspects the moment they clashed again.
Horizon had seemingly instantly adapted to Tsukuyomi's new fighting style, his increased speed, strength, defenses, and perception.
Even whenever Tsukuyomi would try changing the shape of his shadow appendages to lash out from unexpected angles, Horizon would either use his barrier to easily block it or his sensory ability to avoid it without looking at it.
'He makes it look so easy,' Tsukuyomi thinks as he's quickly losing ground and energy, feeling his power diminishing by the second. 'I'm fighting for my life and he's just playing with me, he could end this fight at any time with Counter Shock but he said he wouldn't use it. And he's about to win without it.'
Back in the observation area most of the students and teachers were looking at the screen with genuine shock, all while Eri was happily cheering for Horizon.
Nezu had a look of pride on his face as he observed the match.
"So he's even freaky good at close combat huh," Vlad King says. "Where did you find this kid again Nezu?"
"Fate brought us all together," Nezu says. "But honestly Horizon using Scalpel is much better for his opponents than him without it. He has a bad habit of overdoing it when it comes to, well, holding back against people. With Scalpel he's much quicker and more efficient, not to mention painless."
"Clearly," Aizawa narrows his eyes at the screen, seeing Tokoyami now stumbling about as he gets battered and beaten up by Horizon. "But this is supposed to be a challenge for everyone involved, giving him all his tools would make it too easy. This way he has to break up his usual combat pattern and try out things he's probably not used in a while."
Meanwhile, back in the combat area, Tsukuyomi was stumbling back, the shadow energy retracting from his arms and face.
Both his arms were bleeding profusely onto the floor and his Hero Costume was torn up, but Horizon seemed completely fine.
They had 10m -32ft- between them, and Ibara was still behind him.
He feels a signal, and Tsukuyomi sighs in relief.
'He's finally ready, good, I'm about to black out here. Even if Horizon knows where he is, he hasn't shown any concern about our plan, he likely wants to see what our plan is. He doesn't think it'll work, and that arrogance of his will give us the one chance we need,' Tsukuyomi thinks.
"Ibara," he says.
"I'm ready."
"Now!" Tsukuyomi yells out.
"Repent heathen!" Ibara's vines shoot forward faster than ever before.
Horizon sees and senses it, and with practiced ease, he moves out of the way.
"Inspired Growth!" Ibara yells out, and from her vines, new parallel vines begin rapidly sprouting.
The sudden expansion surprised Horizon for just a moment before it quickly wraps around his limbs.
The vines hoist him into the air, nearly 10m -32ft- above the floor. And by the time they've secured themselves, he's already begun using Gamma to draw all the heat and radiation out of them to freeze them brittle.
At the same moment, Tsukuyomi surged with all the energy he could muster and used his Quirk to leap up toward Horizon.
Seeing Tsukuyomi incoming Horizon doesn't say a word, but uses Takt to rip a block of concrete out of the ground and send it right at his classmate.
It lines up perfectly to intercept them, but one of Tsukuyomi's four eyes spots the incoming projectile, and at the last moment, to Horizon's surprise.
Adjusts in mid-air.
'He can fly!' Horizon thought, and everyone watching the fight thought the same thing.
TAKT!
Horizon rips more chunks out of the ground but via flight and form shifting Tsukuyomi either avoided them or materialized limbs to get them away from him.
Eventually flying all the way over to Horizon.
When he was only 2m -6ft- away from Horizon, Tsukuyomi reached out for the sash, only for Horizon's right hand to swing out, aiming to deliver a fist to his face.
Using Antibacterial Curtain now could cause real damage to Tokoyami, not to mention the fact that he was curious about this grand scheme they thought could actually work on him.
So the ruthless mercenary went away just for a bit, and the playful and cocky 16-year-old inside came forward.
Something they were hoping for, and did well to capitalize on.
As Tsukuyomi grabbed the sash, his grip tight on it, Horizon fist rattled his brain.
Dark Shadow shrank, barely able to sustain itself anymore, but Tokoyami's grip didn't slacken.
And as that happened, Neito Monoma sprung up on Tokoyami's shoulder.
He popped out of Dark Shadow, his usual fair skin now void black, bits of blonde stains on his formal black Hero Costume.
And both his hands together directly in Horizon's face, sparks crackling just an inch away from the visor.
All the explosive sweat he needed to make this attack truly count, even against a monster like Horizon.
BOOM!
The cameras were blinded by the bright light as the entire training area was rocked.
All the way over at the observation area everyone covered their ears, and the Hero Course students' plan, the first phase, was now complete...
END CHAPTER---