Chapter 3

.:. March 19th .:.

Yagi Toshinori woke up in a bed feeling dazed and confused.

The steady beep of a heart monitor was the first thing he registered, telling him even before he opened his eyes he must be in a hospital. And that... that was part of what made him feel confused. Not the fact that he was in a hospital—no, the fact he was lucid enough to recognize that right after waking up.

Logically, he should have been on painkillers. He should have been so doped up that everything else was left in a muddied haze. He could count the number of times he'd woken up in a hospital on one hand, and every single one of those times had been due to severe injuries that needed urgent treatment. Injuries that called for a lot of painkillers.

Yet other than the usual grogginess from waking up from a deep sleep, he was able to think perfectly clearly. Clearly enough to remember why he would be in the hospital, at which point his eyes snapped open and he jolted with a gasp. His eyes darted around the room as his heart raced, quickly settling on a familiar face seated not far away.

Sasaki Mirai, more commonly known as Sir Nighteye, had a haunted look on his face as he sat in the chair next to him. His hair, usually combed neat and tidy, looked unbrushed with the golden strand lingering out of place next to his face. His suit looked neater, but still a bit more rumpled than usual. One hand covered his mouth, eyes trained on his phone with an almost wild sort of wideness to them.

"Mirai," Toshinori gasped, and his sidekick—his sidekick startled . Mirai gasped and nearly dropped his phone, wide orange eyes snapping his way as the man stared in obvious shock. His expression soon smoothed out though, relief coursing through him as he jumped to his feet.

"T-Toshinori," he managed, and then stopped short, eyes flicking over Toshinori's form. Toshinori let his own eyes wander down to the blankets covering him for the first time, taking in the fact that it really was just blankets. Not a giant mess of wires and tubes like he'd expected. He looked back to Mirai when he heard the younger man suck in a sharp breath before speaking again. "You're awake... I just might have to become religious now, because that's a miracle if I've ever seen one."

That was one the weaker attempts at a joke he'd ever heard from the man, the delivery falling flat. "Mirai—" Toshinori cut himself off with a cough. His mouth was dry, so dry. Mirai was at his side almost instantly, pressing a... juice box to his lips? Toshinori didn't question it, just letting the straw slide in and coat his mouth with refreshing, relieving moisture. Apple juice, he noted distantly. Not bad.

"How do you feel?" the other asked while Toshinori drank, and he had to pause to think it over.

"I feel... fine." And he did. The grogginess had already vanished, and other than his mouth he didn't feel any pain. Which... didn't make any sense. After all, he'd just—

He sucked in a breath and pushed the memory away to focus on the present. Right now, he felt no pain even without pain killers. That meant a good amount of time must have passed, allowing the wound to heal to some degree. Taking a breath, he braced himself as he asked, "How long... How long was I out?" At that Mirai faltered.

"...Twenty-six hours," he replied after a moment, and Toshinori once again froze because... what? Twenty-six hours? But— how? He—he was beaten so badly. He remembered getting impaled , getting—getting—

He shifted a bit, pressing a hand to his side beneath the covers. Even through the thin hospital scrubs, he could tell he didn't have any bandages. The spot didn't feel tender or sore. Nothing felt tender or sore. Even with healing Quirks, that—that shouldn't be possible. Not in just a single day.

"Mirai," he said slowly. "What... what happened ?"

At that Mirai cracked a small smile and chuckled, but it wasn't a cheery one. No, the look in his eyes was more manic, his quiet laughter closer to hysterics than anything truly happy or amused. "So much, Toshinori," he whispered, and his laughter grew a little louder, a little more crazed as he shook his head. "So fucking much, you have no idea...!"

" Authorities are still struggling to understand just what happened yesterday. Most of the victims have been subdued and taken into custody for examination. Meanwhile over one hundred other people have admitted themselves to hospitals for urgent examination across the country, though it's suspected many more are waiting for various reasons... "

Todoroki Fuyumi listened to the news almost gravely as she sat on the couch of their living room, knees hugged to her chest. Natsuo was in the kitchen looking for snacks right now along with Shouto, and Father was away. Their housekeeper, Minami-san, had headed to her room to take a nap at Fuyumi's insistence. Later Fuyumi would handle making dinner, but for now, the house felt... quiet. So very quiet.

Yesterday had been loud and chaotic. Sirens had sounded late into the night, the sounds of battle occasionally drifting close to their house. She and her brothers had holed up in the living room watching the news coverage with wide eyes until Minami-san came to call them for dinner. After that, the woman had kept them away from the news, occupying them all with a few movies until they fell asleep on the couch.

When morning arrived, Fuyumi had been only mildly surprised to wake up still huddled in the living room with her brothers cuddled against her. The fact that she'd woken up naturally meant that Father must have not come home last night, otherwise he would have woken them when he came home. All things considered, his absence didn't surprise her; the news coverage yesterday had made things seem incredibly hectic.

But then Minami had told them he'd called to say he wouldn't be home at all, and he didn't know when he'd be back. It worried Fuyumi, because he hadn't even called her , and he usually always did that since she was the oldest. Minami had no explanations, just shrugged and said he claimed something urgent came up.

Fuyumi bit her lip as the television switched to show a photo of Uwabami. " At present, Snake Hero Uwabami is the only Pro Hero to have been reportedly affected by yesterday's event, " the news anchor said. " After being subdued yesterday, she has been admitted to a hospital for urgent examination. No word has been given on her status at this time. More victims' identities have been verified since then, though authorities have refused to release their identities. It has been confirmed however that the youngest is a second year middle school student. "

That made her suck in a soft breath of horror. Fuyumi herself was only nearing the end of her first year of high school, and Natsuo was only a year younger than that victim. No one understood just what had happened yesterday, but it seemed to be completely random with the victims.

More than that though... The Quirks.

Rumors had quickly spread online about several people claiming to have somehow developed a second Quirk, either shared second hand or claimed directly. The news avoided mentioning it entirely, but pretty much everyone knew about it. Fuyumi had only seen a trickle of it on her phone, mainly from her friends texting her links to clips and posts on social media.

Most of the video clips had a slew of comments calling them out as fake. She remembered one showing a girl demonstrating her obvious chameleon Quirk before lifting books using telekinesis, which led to accusations someone else off-screen was doing it. Another, with a teenage boy who spit out blobs of some kind of colorful ink that splattered in explosions of color on the walls, had multiple users mocking him as Quirkless. Fuyumi had to exit that one because the comments were just so cruel.

Normally, Fuyumi would just dismiss all the claims. People just couldn't have two Quirks, it just didn't work that way. Even Shouto's Quirk was a singular Quirk, the two facets playing off each other directly. Her mom had tried to explain it once when she was little, something to do with chimerism, or hybridization, or something like that, but ultimately it boiled down to a single, very powerful Quirk. People having multiple Quirks just... didn't happen.

That had been before yesterday though.

No matter how she looked at it, those people who'd transformed... Every single one of them seemed to have at least two Quirks. Maybe if it was just the physical aspect she'd be able to write it off as someone else's Quirk being used on them, but no two transformations looked remotely the same. Many of them obviously had at least two completely different, unrelated abilities, abilities which couldn't be explained by physical mutation alone.

Her mind flicked back to Uwabami, in part because the news still showed that photo of her. The media hadn't released anything, but one of her friends had texted her a link to a shaky cell phone video someone took of the chase. The quality was low, but even then Fuyumi could tell something was going on with her legs whenever she'd jump. And then her snakes had spit... something , she didn't know what, but it left a hole in a nearby wall.

Fuyumi had no idea what was going on. Nothing made sense.

A crash from the kitchen had her startling and leaping to her feet with wide eyes. That crash was loud, too loud to just be something getting knocked over. "Natsuo? Shouto?" She took off running as she called to her brothers, pounding towards the kitchen at record speeds. "Are you okay? What was… that..."

She trailed off as she burst into the kitchen to find the table and chair completely knocked over... along with the door to the fridge, which now rested against the wall. Natsuo stood with his jaw hanging open, Shouto just staring blankly at the damage. For a moment none of them spoke. Then the fridge door toppled over with an even mightier crash, making them all wince but it knocked them out of their stupor.

"What happened?" Fuyumi demanded.

"I don't know!" Natsuo whined. "One second Shouto was trying to reach up, and then the next his hand went whoosh and suddenly there was a blast of wind that just knocked everything over!"

"I... didn't mean to?" Shouto said faintly beside him. He still stared at the fallen furniture, eyes wide with disbelief. "I—I can't do that though? How did I do that?"

"I don't know, but dad is going to flip," Natsuo replied solemnly, and that had them all wincing. Fuyumi bit her lip, looking at the damage. Yeah, they weren't going to be able to clean this up. They could pick up the table and chairs, but the fridge was missing the door—and on that note, the wall had a noticeable dent in it. None of them knew anything about fixing... that .

As they stared at it she heard footsteps pound behind her, and Minami slid into the room. "What was that—oh my gosh." The woman faltered at the damage, eyes wide. "Oh my gosh. What did you do ?"

"It was an accident!" Natsuo cried.

"How do you rip off the fridge door on accident ?" Minami asked incredulously, and Natsuo winced. Before he could answer, there was a sudden burst of wind and another crash. They all whirled to see Shouto standing with palm stretched towards the counter with air just exploding from it, with enough force it actually looked visible. Everything on the counter either blew to the floor or smashed into the wall, leaving small dents and cracks.

As soon as it started it stopped, the wind dying in an instant, and dead silence followed for a moment before Shouto looked at his hand. "...I think I figured out how it works?" he asked uncertainly, biting his lip as he looked at them.

Fuyumi just stared at the fruit bowl now embedded in the wall. "Shouto," she heard herself ask. "Why did you do that?"

"...I don't know? I wanted to see if I could do it again...?"

"And you did it in the kitchen... why? "

Shouto had no answer for that. After several long seconds passed, Natsuo clapped his hands. "Okay! So, we're running away now."

" We're WHAT!? " Fuyumi whirled to face her brother in shock, and he shrugged.

"Fuyumi, Shouto just blew up half the kitchen. Dad's going to kill us, and then try to figure out how to force him into more training. So, we're running away! Minami-san, would you be willing to drive us or hide us out at your place for a couple days?"

Their housekeeper palmed her forehead. "Kid, I like you guys, but I need this job, and I am not going to be murdered by your father for basically kidnapping you."

"Well, I guess we're on our own then!" Natsuo declared, and turned to Shouto. "Okay Shouto, go pack your bags."

"Are we really leaving?" Shouto asked wide-eyed.

"Yep! No time like the present, let's move, move, move!"

"But—but, I still don't know how I did that." Shouto frowned at his palm. "Wouldn't it be dangerous if we left now? What if it happens again?"

"Shouto, you did it the second time on purpose, right?" Natsuo asked, and Shouto nodded. "That's good enough for me! Let's go!"

Minami's palm loudly met her forehead again, while Fuyumi just stared . She would love to write this off as her little brother joking, but she knew him well enough to know he might be serious.

She looked to Minami for support, but the housekeeper was shaking her head. "Screw it, I'm going back to my room," she muttered, already turning to shuffle off. "If you guys actually run away, I won't say anything, but I'm not having a role in this."

So much for being a responsible adult.

Fuyumi turned back to her brothers, her mouth pressing into a thin line. Natsuo had moved to kneel next to Shouto, speaking in reassuring tones. "Come on Shouto, life on the road won't be that hard. We can go hang out at my friend's house for a couple days, and then we can go buy an apartment on the other side of Japan."

"Doesn't that cost a lot of money though?" Shouto asked doubtfully. "Do you have enough?"

"Shouto, what do you know about finances?" Natsuo asked dismissively.

"I heard dad talking to one of his sidekicks about looking for a new apartment in Tokyo. I don't know how much your allowance is, but I don't think you can afford one hundred thousand yen every month." The number had Natsuo wincing and Fuyumi sucking in a breath. Apartments tended to be very pricey in Tokyo compared to other areas, but it occurred to her Natsuo probably didn't realize how much apartments usually cost.

"He's right," she said, jumping on the opening. "Natsuo, you can't afford to rent an apartment. And besides, they won't let you rent one! You're only in middle school." Natsuo frowned at that, seeming to think.

"...What about dad's credit card?" he asked thoughtfully, and Fuyumi wanted to scream. "He's got that emergency credit card stashed away in the kitchen drawer, right? We can use that to buy a bunch of stuff, return it for cash, and then just—rent hotel rooms, or something!"

That was even STUPIDER than the first idea. However, Shouto—sweet, innocent, naive nine-year-old Shouto—didn't know how utterly ridiculous this all was, and seemed to be considering it. "Why can't we just use the credit card to rent the rooms?"

"Because dad would be able to track when the credit card's used," Natsuo explained patiently, while Fuyumi felt the beginnings of a headache. "If we return stuff and get cash, he can't track cash though. Okay?" That seemed to placate their youngest brother who nodded slowly, apparently accepting the logic.

"Okay."

"Great!" Natsuo stood up and clapped. "Okay! Shouto, go to your rooms and pack your stuff. Clothes and any toys you want. Fuyumi-nee, can you help me find the credit card? Dad told you the PIN code for it, right?" The question directed at her had Fuyumi snapping out of her stunned stupor, blinking and shaking her head rapidly. That was it, this had gone on long enough.

"Natsuo," she snapped, "You are NOT running AWAY!"

At the last word her voice suddenly rose in volume and took on an odd, echoing quality, bouncing off the walls. Natsuo and Shouto abruptly froze and stood straight to attention, staring at her wide-eyed and alert. Fuyumi slapped a hand over her mouth, her own eyes going wide with disbelief.

"...Fuyumi," Natsuo said slowly. "What was that...?"

Fuyumi hesitated to answer, suddenly not trusting her voice. She swallowed and forced herself to speak, keeping it to a whisper. "I... don't know...?" The words were slightly muffled by her hands, but she didn't dare to remove them.

"Your hair rose," Shouto said, staring at her. "And your eyes looked really weird." That had her startling, gaze snapping towards him in shock.

"My eyes looked weird?" she repeated before she could think, and winced briefly before relaxing as she realized her voice hadn't done the thing it just did. Her hands fell away from her mouth with a sigh, her lips curling downwards. "What the heck was that?"

"...Do you want to maybe, uh, try again?" Natsuo suggested timidly after a few seconds, and Fuyumi hesitated. Did she want to try that again? How did she try it again though? How did she do it at all?

"Maybe it's like my Quirk, and—and that wind thingy I just did?" Shouto suggested, trying to be helpful. "The wind thingy felt kinda like when I use my Quirk, but—different." His eyebrows furrowed, obviously trying to think of a better way to explain it, but Fuyumi already felt a chill as something clicked .

"A second Quirk," she whispered to herself, and her brothers perked up.

"What?" Natsuo asked, and Fuyumi glanced up at him.

"A—a second Quirk," she repeated more loudly. "People online—a bunch of people say they have a—a second Quirk. Or just, just a Quirk, if they were—are?—were Qu-Quirkless..." Her voice wavered on the last word as she realized just what she was saying. A second Quirk? That was preposterous. People didn't magically spawn another Quirk—

People also didn't transform into monsters though.

"Fuyumi," Natsuo said, voice oddly somber and serious. "Yell at us again."

" What? " She startled and gawked at him, but he met her gaze resolutely.

"Yell at us like you're mad!" he told her. "See if you can do it again! Shouto's right, your hair and eyes were acting weird when your voice did that thing, but I didn't get a good look so I don't really know what it did! You were kinda mad when you yelled and you never get mad, and your voice hasn't done the thing again, so maybe you just gotta yell like you're mad!"

Fuyumi just stared at him, and when she looked to Shouto he had that same earnest expression Natsuo sported, silently daring her to do that. For a second she just stared because, really? Really? They wanted her to yell at them, just to see if she could do it again?

...Then again, Shouto did just test if he could do the air blast a second time in the middle of their kitchen . And Natsuo had just been talking about how to run away. The fact they wanted her to test it wasn't surprising at all, her brothers clearly lacked some basic common sense.

And know what? "Screw it." Fuyumi was always the responsible one, but right now something weird was going on, and her brothers had already been reckless enough. One more reckless Todoroki wouldn't change a thing. She turned and stalked out of the room, throwing out a loud, "Come on!" over her shoulder.

Her brothers scrambled to follow, no doubt confused, but she didn't care to explain. She marched straight to the bathroom and slammed her hands on the counter, glaring at her reflection in the mirror intently. If her hair and eyes did something weird, she wanted to see it for herself. She took a deep breath, and shouted .

"What is gOING ON WITH ME!?"

Her voice shifted mid-syllable, pitch deeper and volume higher as the echoing effect sounded again. In her reflection the whites of her eyes bled black, strands of hair rising from either side of her face and floating up like—like horns.

As soon as she registered what happened she jerked back with a gasp and her eyes returned to normal, her hair falling limply as she slapped her hands over her mouth. From the corner of her eye she could see her brothers staring, but they didn't say anything, and neither did Fuyumi.

Fuyumi's Quirk was Thermal Expulsion. She could produce and radiate thermal energy—heat and cold—but she couldn't create fire or ice like Shouto. Basically, she could just make her body and immediate vicinity warmer or colder. A weak and passive Quirk—well, by their family's standards—and one that had absolutely nothing to do with her voice or making her hair float like devil's horns.

As she slowly processed this Natsuo spoke up. "Well, it's official. You guys both got a second Quirk. Man, I'm so jealous ," he added, folding his arms behind his head. "I'm still just stuck with freezing things over. It feels so lame."

"Do you know you don't have a second Quirk?" Shouto asked, and Natsuo paused.

"...That, is actually a good point," he admitted, and nodded. "Alright, I'm gonna go to the dojo to experiment! Come on Shouto, let's go!" He turned and stalked off, Shouto trailing behind, and it took Fuyumi a few seconds to register what he'd just said. Once it did she jolted and spun around, racing after them.

"Natsuo, you are not trAINING WITHOUT SUPERVISION!"

Her voice changed again, second Quirk no doubt activating again, but she didn't care. Her brothers were idiots , and she had to make sure they didn't get themselves killed.

" At the moment, this phenomenon seems to have exclusively affected Japan. Other countries have not reported anything like this, leading many to suspect this is the work of a villain or a network of villains based out of Japan... "

Shouta barely paid any attention to the radio, wishing desperately he could sleep as his head slumped against the car window. Last night had been the single most chaotic night of his entire career, and today was no different. It had been hectic enough he hadn't even been able to sleep for a minute ; the only rest he got was when he'd bundle up in Hizashi's car to be driven off to the next location.

The public hadn't been given any official confirmation or notice yet, but Shouta had: whatever happened yesterday, somehow it involved hundreds of people getting new Quirks . It seemed to be most common among children, people with simple Quirks, or people who had always been Quirkless. The transformations were already theorized to be the result of people receiving multiple extra Quirks instead of just one.

Shouta only knew this because as the Erasure Hero, he was in high demand. Suddenly he was getting messages pinging him to every hospital in Tokyo and the nearest prefectures to use Erasure on panicked patients who couldn't control their newfound powers. His dry eye was reaching new levels of irritating; he'd used up an entire bottle of drops over the past twenty-four hours and was well on his way to finishing a second.

At least he wasn't alone in his misery. Hizashi had volunteered to chauffeur him everywhere, more because he was probably freaked out by finding Shouta apparently comatose in his half-destroyed apartment. Normally he'd find the blond's clinginess irritating, but this time Shouta honestly didn't blame him.

He still had no idea how the hell he'd managed to sleep through his neighbor transforming and breaking a hole in their shared wall . He'd have only been asleep for less than half an hour by that point, he should have been no where near deep sleep. And even then, he was FAR from a heavy sleeper. In a way it was good he was getting called to so many hospitals because he was able to get a checkup during a rare lull, but the doctors gave him a clean bill of health.

Shouta was naturally unsettled by it, but he could only dwell on it during the car rides when he wasn't being forced to use Erasure on crying and panicking people. Honestly, he'd used Erasure more in the past day than he usually did in probably an entire month. It had never occurred to him that he might have a limit of how much he could use it each day before side effects set in, but he thought he'd find out soon if he had to keep it up.

Thank goodness they were done for now. The Hero Public Safety Commission had actually bent the rules and pulled a few civilians with similar erasure Quirks to help out with the situation. The ability to nullify Quirks was rare and could be dangerous in the wrong hands, so the Commission kept a close watch on people registered with such powers. He'd been relieved at the last hospital by a woman who could cancel Quirks through physical contact. Limited her from people who could make themselves non- physical, but he wasn't going to point that out. She'd be more useful than him if someone with an invisibility Quirk had been affected, anyway.

Now they just had one last stop, and then they'd go to Hizashi's apartment. Shouta had already resigned himself to the blond forcing him to move in. He knew Hizashi would probably insist once he saw Shouta's apartment, but the giant hole in the wall gave Shouta even less ground to argue right now. He'd already silently decided he would claim the bed and force Hizashi to use the couch. Hizashi owed him that much, considering this last stop was a personal one.

"We're here!" Hizashi declared, the car turning off, and Shouta peeled his head away from the window to look up. They were in front of a small ranch house, nothing too fancy or shabby. Totally average looking and unremarkable.

He waited for Hizashi to exit before following suit, trudging after the blond to the front door. Hizashi barely finished knocking before it opened, revealing a woman with silver hair tied in a bun and fuzzy deer ears that flicked slightly. "Yamada-san, thank you for coming," she said pleasantly, and her eyes focused on Shouta. "And you as well, Eraserhead-san. Please, come in!"

She ushered the duo inside, leading them down the hall. Hizashi made polite small talk, Shouta kept his hands in his pockets and just zoned out their voices. Damn he felt tired, after this he'd have to sleep for twenty-four hours to make up for this. He only tuned back into the conversation when the woman stopped outside a door and knocked on it. "Goro, Yamada came with Eraserhead."

"Great, send them in!" a man called, and she slid the door aside for them to enter. A grizzled-looking man stood in the center of the room, grinning at them widely. "Hey Yamada, I hear you had a busy night last night!"

"...You did too, Koroboshi," Hizashi replied faintly, staring at the books, pillows and tools floating around the room. Shouta eyed the objects silently, mentally huffing to himself.

"I'm guessing telekinesis is new," he drawled, while thinking to himself, Another one? This marked the third Quirk he'd seen which could be classified as some form of telekinesis.

The man—Koroboshi—laughed heartily. "Yep. It suddenly triggered a bit after Yamada left yesterday. If you'd stuck around a few minutes longer, you would've been in for one heck of a show!" he added to Hizashi with a grin. "Anyways, I thought I got it under control and headed home. But after taking a nap today it activated again and, well, I don't exactly know how to turn it off, y'know?"

Shouta just grunted while Hizashi laughed and made more small talk, he didn't care to listen to it. Couldn't even if he wanted to, it was hard to focus with such little sleep. "I'm just going to erase it now," he declared bluntly. "Make sure you're clear of anything." Koroboshi nodded and Shouta activated Erasure, hair rising around his head like a halo.

All at once everything in the room dropped with a series of crashes, and even before they hit the ground Shouta had already blinked and went to pull out the bottle of eye drops. Yep, he'd need to get a refill soon.

"You sure you don't want to go to a hospital or something?" Hizashi asked while he applied them. "You should probably get this checked out."

"I should , but I'm not going until folks have a better handle on this," Koroboshi replied, crossing his arms with a huff. "You know I worked in the support industry, I know a bit more about how this stuff works than the average person. It could be weeks before they make any headway, and once you check into the hospital, no way you're getting out until they have some sort of idea what the hell's going on. I have a life I'd rather not put on pause, thank you very much."

Shouta should probably try to argue that, but he didn't feel like it. He could respect this man's desire to avoid a lengthy hospital stay; Shouta would absolutely do the same thing. "For the record, I'm not coming back to erase it if you have problems again," he said flatly, and the man flashed him a grin.

"Figured not. Now go back home or whatever and get some rest. You look like you haven't slept in a month." An exaggeration, but Shouta had been up for over twenty-four hours, and before that he'd been awake for thirty-six aside from a short two hour nap. He definitely needed sleep, he was impressed he'd managed to remain so functional. Especially after using Erasure so much in such a short time. Guess I don't have a limit outside the cooldown.

"I'm beat too, so no complaints here!" Hizashi proclaimed next to him with a loud yawn. Shouta glared at him, because unlike him Hizashi had gotten to sleep here and there while they were at the hospitals. "C'mon Eraser, let's head out."

Shouta grunted and followed after him, not bothering to say goodbye to Koroboshi. He barely even nodded at the woman who'd let them in, ignoring Hizashi's chatter and heading straight to the car. Thankfully he hadn't locked it, so Shouta was able to just climb inside and close the door, slumping against the window and closing his eyes.

Right now, it was so tempting to just fall asleep. And he almost did before he heard the other door open, followed by Hizashi climbing inside. "Okay, let's go home!" he declared. "I'd offer to stop by your place to pick up your stuff, but it's pretty much a crime scene and last I heard the floor in your apartment actually collapsed, so that's not an option. Good thing you don't actually have anything, right?"

He laughed but the sound was pointed, a certain scolding edge to it. "I had a suitcase," Shouta felt the need to point out. "And my sleeping bag, and a laptop for work. That counts as having something."

"...I am telling Kayama-senpai tomorrow," Hizashi declared flatly, and Shouta groaned miserably. Great. Now he'd have her on his case too. Goodbye peaceful, quiet life. Maybe they'd let him move out on his own again after a few months. He could try to just run away, but they'd chase him down unless he left Tokyo entirely, and he'd rather not move and learn a whole new area.

"Just drive already," he grumbled, and Hizashi obliged silently. The radio came back to life, this time a talk show with the hosts discussing the reports online of people with two Quirks. The hosts were debating whether it was actually true, one arguing against it, but Shouta already knew it was. It would only be a matter of time before the authorities had to issue official confirmation, if only to encourage people to admit themselves to the hospitals for immediate examination.

Shouta had no idea what the hell was going on with the world and how all these people had suddenly spawned extra Quirks, but he didn't care right now. He just wanted to go to Hizashi's house and go to sleep for the next year. Sadly, the year wasn't an option, so he'd have to settle for " until the Commission called him back to work " instead. Hopefully they'd at least wait until tomorrow.

Still, he'd be lying if he claimed he wasn't curious about what caused this whole mess.

Toshinori felt numb.

He didn't know how else to feel as he stared at the tablet Mirai provided him, slowly scrolling through article after article. His heart pounded faster and faster as he saw videos and photos of people with monstrous deformities, showing signs of more and more familiar Quirks. The mist Uwabami's snakes spewed, the drill-like growths on that one woman— damn, that one nurse whose arms had stretched and pulled at the skin in such a horrific way...

"The media hasn't been given confirmation yet, but many people have also developed a second Quirk," Mirai told him, drawing his attention. His voice was quiet and subdued, more tired than Toshinori had ever heard him. "I only know because some of them have been admitted here. There was a woman who could teleport in a range of two meters at a time who almost accidentally came in here. I saw a young boy with a clear limb mutation who can change the color and texture of his skin while I was in the hall, as well."

Toshinori's jaw clenched as he grit his teeth, his mood grim. "And you said," he said slowly, "This started yesterday? After I...?" He trailed off, but Mirai nodded.

"Yes. Right after you defeated All For One."

All For One.

Yesterday after so many years, Toshinori had finally managed to defeat the foe who had plagued him and his predecessors—had finally managed to avenge Nana's memory, and end this cycle after two hundred years of conflict. The battle had been savage and long, and by the end, Toshinori didn't really expect to come out in one piece. He couldn't even celebrate though, not now.

Defeating All For One had somehow done— this .

It had scattered every single one of his stolen Quirks all around Japan.

Toshinori sucked in a breath at the thought, hands shaking around the edge of the tablet. Before passing out he remembered seeing a dark cloud with red lightning sparking through it, letting him know something would happen, but he hadn't expected… what could you even call this? The emergence of Quirks was the only thing in history that came close. A second, sudden Quirk boom, impacting people at random.

Not even he had been spared. The sole reason he was in such good condition now—the sole reason he was even awake , let alone alive —was because he had gotten some sort of healing Quirk. Mirai said they'd found him in some sort of state of regeneration, though it hadn't really helped with the worst of his injuries. When he had tearfully used his Foresight on Toshinori he saw Recovery Girl kissing him and the healing accelerating, which prompted them to call her.

Of all the Quirks to receive from his foe's demise, the fact he got a healing Quirk that left him in perfect shape left him wanting to laugh. It was almost like some last slight against his fallen nemesis, that All For One's own power had ultimately been what saved Toshinori's life. He couldn't enjoy the irony of it though, not when that same event warped so many innocent people into mindless monsters.

He knew enough from Nana and Gran Torino to understand that those people were beyond saving. All For One rarely gifted people multiple Quirks, as it tended to overload their brains and leave them mindless. Over the years he had occasionally given relatively useless Quirks to particularly pesky foes, to leave a message that could be at times heavier than if he had simply killed them. According to Nana, he had done it to a friend of her mentor's, and had later taken back all three Quirks just to show it couldn't be reversed.

Toshinori just felt grateful that some people hadn't been adversely impacted by this. That they didn't get corrupted by the extra Quirk, that their bodies seemed to accept the second Quirk. That didn't mark the end of the battle though. Based on the data Mirai had received and pulled up in one of the tabs, the distribution of Quirks seemed to be mostly random. There would be a high learning curve for some of these Quirks, and others might not mesh well with the owner's original one.

He sighed tiredly as he held out the tablet to Mirai to take it back. "When do you think I'll be cleared to leave?" he asked. He'd already been missing from the public eye for over twenty-four hours, missing the worst of the disaster. Mirai had worked with the PR department at his agency to issue a statement that he'd had a sudden case of appendicitis to explain his absence. Which... explained the mountain of presents already gathered in one corner of the room.

It was one of the most ridiculous excuses he'd ever heard, but then, he couldn't really come out and say he'd been injured in a battle with a villain and needed to recuperate. People would want to know who that villain was, and that would lead to public unrest and questions he'd rather not answer.

Still, the public needed All Might now more than ever. He could surely at least make some sort of showing, even if he was supposedly "recuperating" from the nonexistent operation.

Mirai frowned as he took the tablet from him. "I don't know," he admitted slowly. "The doctors and Recovery Girl want to keep you here for observation. We don't know how that healing Quirk... works..." He trailed off as he looked at the tablet, blinking slowly as he turned it over in his hands. "...Toshinori. There are glowing handprints on the edges of the screen."

Toshinori startled. "What!?" Mirai lifted the tablet to show him its back and sure enough, there were glowing palm prints on either edge of the device, lining up perfectly with where he'd gripped it. Toshinori blinked slowly and looked at his hands. Hesitating, he slowly reached for the covers and lifted it, and in the shadows he could see more handprints along the sheets and the side of his shirt.

For a moment neither of them spoke. "...You're sure I have a healing Quirk now, right?" he asked faintly.

"...Yes, yes I am."

"And you don't think that maybe... the glowing handprints are a side effect of that healing?"

"I sincerely doubt that."

Two Quirks. Toshinori got two Quirks from his nemesis. He templed his fingers near his forehead, grinding his teeth. Nana, give me strength.

The day of March 19th was supposed to be unremarkable for all of Japan. The downfall of All For One would never be public knowledge, and no one would have any reason to remember that day.

Instead, it would now go down in history as the start of the Second Quirk Boom. If the appearance of Quirks shook the world, then this was the aftershock.

"Idea: All For One dies as a result of his fight with All Might, but his quirks don't just disappear. Instead, they're randomly dispersed to the people nearby, with the closest people having a greater chance to receive more quirks. So suddenly you have this new class in society of people with two or more quirks, and society trying to adapt to that. And of course, Deku happens to be close enough to get a quirk of his own. Essentially a second, more contained quirk boom." - the prompt that started it all, though with a few tweaks made since then. For somewhat obvious reasons, we couldn't reveal it right off the bat.

Speaking of, congratulations to AlienGhostWizard14 over on AO3 for guessing the twist right off the bat, that was pretty amazing. Gold star for you!

(Also, fun little story: over on AO3 I replied to a comment that we wouldn't kill off or maim anyone before the main story started. As Cocoa reminded me on the Discord: "THE MAIN ANTAGONIST IS DEAD, APPLE". Whee!)