MHA: Horizon(Ope-Ope No Mi)

Chapter 289: (The People Of Japan VS Horizon II)

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CHAPTER START---

An eerie hush befalls the courtroom as Horizon enters.

One step behind Nezu, followed closely by Mirko and Edgeshot who close the doors behind him.

He stops for a moment and looks around, seeing the room filled with Pro Heroes and Press, rows of cameras facing forward to capture and broadcast everything to the world.

And many people were holding cameras to capture his first moment in the room.

Ahead of him he could see the judge's desk, fifteen chairs elevated above the room with two seats slightly lower in front of it.

In front of them are two tables, one on each side. Nezu walks to the right side while an older Japanese woman is sitting at the table to the left, a stack of documents on the table and three assistants sitting behind her.

The prosecutor was currently having a meeting with her assistants, and Horizon just ignored it to get to his seat beside Nezu.

"She seems serious," Horizon says as he sits beside Nezu, glancing over to the prosecutor for just a second.

"Win or lose this case is a career ender," Nezu says.

"I forgot to ask before but, how many times have you had to use your law degree?"

"Every time I want to really get new things done at UA, or deal with a mess on campus," Nezu says. "You should have seen the mountain of paperwork after USJ and the summer camp incidents."

Horizon chuckles at that, "two national assets and this is what we have to do."

"I didn't slam a meteorite into Japan," Nezu says.

"Tch," Horizon leans back and takes his Provisional Hero License out of his wallet, dropping it onto the table. "Can't wait for this whole thing to just be over..."

"Why'd you take that out?" Nezu gestures to the card.

"That's what this is all about right, might as well remind everyone."

Watching Horizon relax in the seat beside him Nezu realizes something, that since Horizon woke up after the Gigantomachy, he never once asked, "how do you feel about all of this?"

"Honestly, tired, really damn tired," Horizon says. "But this ends today, so that's good."

Nezu looks at him strangely, "this case could last days, if not weeks."

"No, it won't," Horizon says.

After a few more minutes of soft murmuring across the room the Supreme Court Justice enters the room from the large double doors behind the judges desk.

Everyone in the room stands as the older Japanese man looks around, eyes lingering on Horizon for a long moment before he moves to the middle chair.

"Please be seated," the man says as two other men enter the room behind him, moving to the seats in front of his desk slightly lower, facing the room.

These two men are the Judicial Truth Seers assigned to this particular case, belonging to a collection of men and women who have pledged to use their lie detector Quirks to uphold honor and honesty within the courts of Japan.

"I am the honorable judge Boshu, here to preside over the case of, 'The People Of Japan VS Horizon', the prosecution on behalf of 'The People Of Japan' is being represented by," he gestures to the woman sitting at the other table with her assistants.

"Lady Gisei of the Gisei Law Firm, your honor," the woman stands and says.

The judge nods and gestures for her to sit. "And the defense on behalf of 'Horizon' is being led by," he gestures to Nezu who stands up on his chair to be seen.

"Principal Nezu of UA Academy," Nezu proudly says before he's instructed to take his seat.

"Now that everyone is introduced, please do be aware that everything within this room is recorded," the judge says. "This case is a matter of both national and international interest and therefore all records of it will be made public by regulation, I urge both prosecution and defense to keep that in mind before any evidence is presented to the court."

He gets nods from both Nezu and Lady Gisei.

"Very well then," Judge Boshu gestures to lady Gisei. "Let's begin, as of 9: 13 AM, we shall now begin with opening statements from the prosecution, lady Gisei if you'd speak."

"Thank you, your honor," Lady Gisei says as she stands and takes a deep breath. She glances over at Horizon for a moment, seeing that he was apparently more focused on the license on his table than her. 

"On behalf of 'The People Of Japan', I am here seeking justice for the millions of people affected by the excessive damages caused by Provisional License holder Horizon.

Over a quarter of a million people have been confirmed dead or missing and countless more are injured, not to speak of the billions of dollars in property damage stretching from every side of Japan all the way to South Korea's coastline.

These damages and tragic losses are so severe that if it were anyone else, they'd be locked in Tartarus for the remainder of existence, yet here we are, holding a case in our sacred Supreme Court.

The very act that proves how far Japan's preferential treatment of Horizon extends, and now we are here to question how we should treat him moving forward, if this is how allowing him to act freely in good faith is rewarded.

This, is our chance, to truly show the world, that at least within these islands we call home, not even Horizon is above the law..."

Lady Gisei takes her seat as her words reach far and wide across the globe, emboldening many that resonate with them.

"And for the defense," Boshu gestures to Nezu.

"Thank you, your honor," Nezu stands on his chair. "I would like to bring it to the attention of the court that Horizon was not in his proper state of mind when this tragedy occurred.

Had he been operating as per usual, he would avoid unnecessary destruction and strive to save everyone as he normally does.

This was a ploy made by the villains specifically to target Horizon, just as Shigaraki confirmed multiple times, a trap designed to push him to his limits and kill him to leave us defenseless.

I do not believe Horizon should be held fully responsible for the events that occurred, considering the magnitude of the threat he faced and exactly how much effort it took to destroy Gigantomachia."

Boshu gestures for Nezu to sit as the room remains silent, the man contemplates his next words very carefully.

"I see, so you argue that Horizon wasn't thinking clearly, somehow adversely affected by the experience?"

"Yes, your honor," Nezu says.

"Then please elaborate, give us all the details you can regarding this event. If what you speak is the truth, then this is not as simply as deciding a punishment for Horizon, but ruling on whether or not he should be allowed to use his Quirk at all if this can be the result of him losing control."

As Nezu dives into the elaborately scripted and practiced explanation's they'd rehearsed, Horizon zones in and out of the conversation.

Looking at the judge from behind his visor with a bored expression as he recounts all the fond memories he'd taken for granted.

All the times he's spent with his parents, and now surprisingly some of his moments with his new friends from UA, and even teaming up with certain Pro Heroes or fighting some unique villains.

All the new and interesting Quirk's he's been able to study and the research the Miracle Ward has allowed him to access.

"Is that true Horizon?" The judge asks, snapping him out of his daydream. "Can you say with absolute certainty that such an incident will never happen again?"

"Yes your honor," Horizon says. "As Principal Nezu said, this was caused by a defensive mechanism of my Quirk, one which no longer has control over my power."

"I see," the judge seems to write a few notes at his desk, then glances off to the side. 

Horizon can sense him looking at his phone behind there before he reads his notes once again.

"And should we assume that you can and will return to your previous mode of operation at this current moment?" The judge asks.

"I'm ready to resume Hero Work at this very moment, your honor," Horizon says.

"Hero Work which is shaping up to credit him with the greatest record of public service…prior to this tragedy," Nezu says. "The sooner we can get him back to stopping villains the better for everyone."

"Hmm," Judge Boshu rubs his chin for a moment while he looks at Horizon. "Yes, considering how instrumental this case is for the future of both Japan and the world at large that would be the ideal scenario, and if the loss of life wasn't so egregious I would have already had you back to working to protect the people.

But too many have died or been hurt by this for me not to peer deeper into the past, present, and potential future of both Horizon and his mental state, along with the root causes of this event."

"A very wise decision, your honor," Gisei says, as she stands up, holding a stack of 50 pages in her hands. "But the public record is only the heroic side of the story, as I've recently learned…"

All eyes shift to her, including Horizon's as he's not sure what she's talking about.

"Permission to approach?" she asks.

"Granted, and you may explain yourself for the record to show," judge Boshu says.

Lady Gisei begins begins to elaborate as she moves to hand him the documents, "it appears that the scale of this catastrophe we now call 'The Gigantomachy', was so great that some people deem it necessary to place themselves in harms way to bring light to our so called 'Miracle'," she turns her back to the judge after handing him the papers but remains in the middle of the floor, all cameras focused on her.

"Some of these people include members of public stations, namely, high-ranking members of the Hero Public Safety commission who have been sworn to secrecy."

Horizon's eyes widen as both he and Nezu stop themselves from glancing back at Pantu.

Using his Scan he can feel her eyes widen for a moment as her features take a look of surprise and confusion before they return to normal unnaturally fast.

"These brave men and women knew they would surely be tried for treason for sharing this information, but it is necessary for the sake of us understanding exactly what we're dealing with.

The documents I handed Supreme Court Justice Boshu, share detailed, signed accounts, of multiple acts of cruelty, brutality, and even capital murder of a surrendered foe, all done by Horizon."

The crowd gasps and the judge raises his hand to silence them, then gestured for lady Gisei to proceed.

"At a certain point in preparation for this case I simply had to describe the brutality at the top and have the next few pages only listing names, three columns per page, both sides, well into the thousands of names," Gisei says. "All covered up by Hero Public Safety Commission President, Lady Pantu."

As she gestures to Pantu the doors open and a group of eight armored police officers enter, making their way toward the woman.

"What is the meaning of this?" Pantu asks as the men get her away from the crowd and move to put handcuffs on her.

"Lady Pantu, you're under arrest," the man leading the group says as all cameras shift to them.

"You're making a mistake, those records she has must be fake," Pantu says.

"Lie," both the lie detectors sitting before the judge say in unison, sensing her lie.

"You're under arrest for perjury, fraud, falsifying government documents, complicity in capital murder, hiding evidence, and treason," the man says as he quickly puts the cuffs on her and begins shoving her out of the room.

The murmuring grows into loud chatter for a moment before the judge slams the gavel, silencing everyone.

"Prosecutor, please continue," he says while continuing to read the documents she handed him.

"Thank you, your honor," Lady Gisei says. "The most notable examples were printed on the first page, namely Horizon's murder of Wolfram.

He was admittedly a villain and the cause of the metal storm months ago which decimated Port Island, however the sources who are here and willing to testify their accounts of what happened have all stated that Wolfram surrendered, yet Horizon seemingly became enraged and 'beat him and tore into him with his bare hands until the upper body looked like burger meat', to use their exact words.

Pictures were also included in the documents of that specific example."

As she says that the man has a disgusted look on his face as he turns the page, "yes I saw the pictures, very detailed…"

"The second example is Horizon's excessive use of force against the League Of Villains," Gisei says. "Now while the League Of Villains do hold the disdain of the world, this encounter simply showed how far Horizon's cruelty can stretch when he believes there isn't anyone who will stand up for his victims.

He split the villain known as Mr. Compress's arm in two, down the middle, fractured his skull and neck, left him covered in 3rd degree burns, and multiple broken bones all across his body.

The villain known as Spinner was brutalized in much the same way but suffered extreme nerve damage in his legs, most likely permanently impairing his ability to walk.

And the villain knows as, well, her name, Himiko Toga. She was afflicted with a spinal injury which left her paralyzed from the neck down, along with a fractured skull and broken jaw."

The judge can see the crowd go from not caring to being surprised by the brutality delivered to these villains.

"The records show that Horizon's brutality grows with the severity of the crimes as he must clearly think less people will care for worse criminals, but that is simply not how the justice system works, at least not in this great nation.

The following pages go on to list the names of his victims, people who suffered everything from fingers and limbs being cut off, permanent disability, drowning only to be brought back at the last moment.

And there are even some cases of him constantly warping people into the middle of the forest, and every time they reach civilization he'd warp them deeping into the middle, for days at a time.

All to get answers out of them. Or warping someone to a river, and every time they try to drink he'd warp them back to their previous location, torturing them by dehydration.

The documents show no end to his creativity in regards to cruelty…"

"Yes I've noticed that," the judge says as he keeps reading, trying his best not to show any emotion. He glances up to see the crowd unsure of what to think anymore while some are glaring at Horizon. "Horizon, do you deny any of these accusations?"

Horizon stands up, "no, your honor," he says.

"And were you aware of President Pantu's manipulation of government forces to hide your activities?"

"Yes I was your honor," Horizon says.

"Then you may take your seat," the judge says. "I hereby add perjury, excessive cruelty, torture, capital murder, cruel and unusual torture, misuse of Quirk, and Heroic misconduct to your list of charges. Do you believe that within the eyes of the law these charges apply."

Horizon stands up, "Within the eyes of the law, yes your honor."

The judge is so surprised by this he actually looks up, noticing Nezu isn't shocked either, but Endeavor looked confused, which all the cameras saw.

"I see, then you may take your seat."

"Your honor may I call for a short recess to discuss this newly presented evidence?" Nezu asks.

Without looking up the judge sighs and nods, "it will take me atleast 20 minutes to read all of this and take notes, so we shall resume in thirty minutes…"

END CHAPTER---