Chapter 2

.:. Damage Control .:.

Yamada Hizashi did not often visit Naruhata on weekends. The ward was a bit distant from the part of Tokyo where he lived and worked. Besides, on Saturdays he usually liked to just relax at home since he often stayed up until nearly five in the morning on Friday nights. Hosting a late-night radio show was hard work, just because the "On Air" sign went off at 2 didn't mean he could always go straight home.

Despite all that, when he got woken up at noon by a call from a Naruhata-based used electronics store about someone selling them a bunch of rare CDs, Hizashi hopped out of bed and was out his door by twelve thirty.

The store had become a favorite of his, having first stumbled upon it while trying to visit Shouta (emphasis on try, since the asshole hadn't given anyone his address). The store turned out to be a hidden gem with an amazing music selection, and since then he'd returned a few times and gotten to know the owners quite well. If they called him about some new stock, he knew it would be worth the trip.

And indeed it was. Hizashi beamed as he sat in the back combing through the box, marveling over the selection. Whoever had sold this box either had no common sense or was absolutely desperate for cash. The box included stuff dating back to the early Quirk era, the sort of things that would make collectors salivate. Hizashi would know, he had to wipe away the trail of drool from his chin at least once so far.

While he sorted through, Koroboshi-san — one of the owners — sat at the table next to him inspecting his recently updated directional speaker. "Have to say, the padding looks much better," the grizzled old man remarked lightly as he inspected the interior of the neck and lightly tapped the casing. "Material's sturdier, too. I'm still not crazy about having something so bulky around your throat, but I doubt it'll break anytime soon. That said," he set down the speaker with a huff, the device making a notable thump. "It's heavy as hell."

"Yeah, I noticed," Hizashi replied with a snort and eye roll. "My shoulders are killing me lately." He'd only been using the new updated version for a month, but it had been a very long month. His manager had taken pity on him and let him assign all his paperwork to an intern at the radio station mainly because his arms were usually too sore and stiff to lift during downtime.

Koroboshi grunted, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Gimme a few days to reach out to some contacts. I've got to know someone who can figure out a better material for this that won't murder your shoulders."

And that was the other reason Hizashi loved coming here.

Part of the reason Hizashi vibed so well with this place was because Koroboshi had formerly worked in the support industry before retiring. The man always loved getting a look at new gear, and never shied from pointing out how something could be improved. The latest improvements had been partially based on some of his previous suggestions, so Hizashi had been more than happy to oblige his request to bring it along.

"Koroboshi, if you can do that, I will be a loyal customer for life," he declared, and Koroboshi snorted.

"You mean I didn't already have your loyalty?" he quipped dryly, and Hizashi shot him a beaming grin.

"Nope, you definitely already did! But I could—"

He was cut off by a loud alarm on his phone, his smile instantly fading as he snatched it from the table. That siren-like alarm was the one used for all emergency notices sent to Pro Heroes within range of an incident, and was only sent in particularly extreme situations. When he unlocked the phone he found a notice with a location pinned on the map.

'Villain attacking all pedestrians at Akakusa Apartments. Villain has some sort of crystal coating their skin that can be reshaped into spear-like protrusions, as well as large number of left arms. Villain has already demolished part of apartment complex. Apprehend immediately.'

His breath caught even before he finished reading it, not needing to check the map to know where to go.

The Akakusa Apartments were where Shouta lived.

"Koroboshi, I'm going to need to take this," he said thickly, exiting out the app and turning around. The man had already opened the clasp on the back of the directional speaker, and Hizashi gratefully pulled it into place. Minutes later he was running down the street, wearing only his t-shirt and jeans, directional speaker and some knee and elbow pads Koroboshi had lying around.

As he ran he pulled out his phone and opened Shouta's contact and hit call. Most people might be up and about at two in the afternoon, but Shouta would most likely be sleeping at this hour. He worried his lip anxiously as it rang out, and he didn't bother trying to call a second time. At least it didn't go straight to voice mail, so the phone was likely intact and powered on. That meant Shouta was most likely fighting.

He ended up hearing the fight well before he reached the apartment complex. Screams and crashes echoed clearly even from a few blocks away, and if that wasn't a clear enough sign, he also passed some people fleeing desperately. After seeing people usually run towards villain attacks hoping to see Pro Heroes in action, that wasn't a good sign. It made Hizashi run a little harder, gritting his teeth in anticipation.

Then, when the battle finally came into sight, he skidded to a halt because what the actual FUCK was THAT?

The villain stood out right away. The black crystal coating its body glittered almost painfully in the sunlight as it swung a freaking mutated-looking blob of a dozen different arms right at a cement fence. If the blow wasn't strong enough to crumble it, the shiny black spikes piercing through it to the other side definitely weakened its integrity enough to finish the job. The cement collapsed into a pile of rubble soon after the villain yanked back its multitude of arms, releasing an unearthly shriek as it charged at a nearby Pro Hero he only vaguely recognized as a junior from UA.

Hizashi's jaw dropped as he watched because seriously, what the actual hell? Over the years, he'd met enough people with extreme-looking mutations that most of the time they hardly phased him, but this—something about this just felt wrong. There was just something about the way the villain moved, how its blob of arms flopped around, and that sound it made... All of it just sent an instinctive shiver of foreboding and caution down his spine, much stronger than the usual villain.

He couldn't dwell on it for long though, and he swallowed as he forced himself to focus on the situation. He quickly assessed the scene: one hostile, with two Pro Heroes engaging it. At least two dozen civilians gawking or trying to retreat, possibly more inside, and it looked like one intern had taken it upon herself to direct the evacuation.

His gaze flitted to the apartment building to get an idea of the damage already done there. Most of it stood intact, much to his relief, but that relief quickly faded when he realized the damage seemed to be centered near the end where Shouta's apartment was. His stomach clenched with horror as his eyes snapped back to the battle, analyzing the scene desperately as he realized one key fact.

Shouta wasn't there. He wasn't fighting it.

Panic seized him for a brief moment before it vanished, replaced by stone cold determination. "Yo, guys, clear the way!" he called in warning to the two Pros. They both turned to look at him and he could see their suspicious gazes, no doubt assessing if he was a threat. One of them startled though, and Hizashi abruptly recognized him as being in the year below his at UA. He clearly recognized Hizashi too and shouted something to the other, and they both jumped out of the way.

With no one in the immediate path between him and the villain or beyond, Hizashi took a deep breath and screamed. It was far from the loudest scream he could do, but it was more than enough. The villain froze just as it had been about to swing at a parked car, its whole body suddenly... shaking? No, not its body, Hizashi realized even while he screamed. The crystal.

As it turned out, his Voice was a perfect pitch for this particular type of crystal.

He felt almost stupefied as the crystal coating shattered, the villain releasing a howl of pain that had him wincing in sympathy. With the shell gone his stomach only sank further though, the villain's disfiguration now on further open display for all to see. Hizashi had no idea what he was looking at, but this wasn't like any mutation or Quirk backlash he'd ever seen. Six eyes bulged and rolled lazily in their sockets with glazed looks, the man's tongue lolling from his jaw which hung just slightly loose. Blood streamed down heavily from his forehead, not that he seemed to care.

Worse though, his arms. The man's right arm looked normal, but the left one was just a giant mess of limbs coated in blood where crystal had broken through skin. Hizashi's initial estimate had been generous, because there were far more arms than than he realized. And to his horror the number only grew, the man's gait tilting towards the side as more and more arms sprouted and started dragging on the ground.

He charged at Hizashi with a mindless look, somehow managing to lift the grotesque limb and reel it back over its shoulder. Several of the palms flopped listlessly with the motion and smacked the nearby fence in the process, confirming in the process that the hands were still powerful on their own without the crystal spikes when the fence collapsed from the light blows.

Shouting with his Quirk wouldn't help this time. Hizashi yelped as he jumped back just before the villain swung the abominable arm forward and slammed it into the ground. He nearly lost his footing when the blow fractured the pavement and created a crater with a web of cracks around it—but fortunately for him, the villain's imbalanced weight meant he lost his footing too. He was knocked off his feet with a shout by the force of his own blow, and the other two Pros quickly descended upon him.

Knowing they had it handled and he wasn't properly equipped for this fight, Hizashi tore away and charged for the apartment building. His heart pounded as he raced to the far set of stairs—the usual one he used had been a victim to the damage—and all but flew up the steps to the second floor. Entering from this staircase felt disorienting, and as he raced to the far edge he silently prayed that Shouta's apartment would still be there.

His tension didn't fade when he realized Shouta's apartment had indeed been spared: the one immediately next door hadn't been. The floor crumbled away a few feet from Shouta's door, and he slid to a halt before he could reach the edge and pounded on the door. "Shouta! SHOUTA! If you're in there, open up!"

No response, and he gnawed on his lip as he pulled out his phone. Please just be at the corner store or something, he silently pleaded as he hit dial. Before he could raise it to his ear he froze though, picking up faint traces of a familiar ringtone beyond the door.

Shit. That meant Shouta was probably inside, so why wasn't he responding!? If Shouta was alive, Hizashi was forcing the bastard to give him a key. Actually, fuck that, he was going to just drag Shouta to his place after this; he couldn't stay here anyway.

Since he didn't have a key, Hizashi backed up and took a running start, delivering a very precisely placed kick at the door near the handle. It hurt to do it with his sneakers instead of his heavy-duty boots, but he ignored the pain, and it only took a few more kicks before it gave in. A quick shoulder-check had him stumbling into the apartment, staring wild-eyed at the largely empty room.

His first thought: holy shit, where's all the furniture!? While Shouta had finally given him the address in case of emergencies, Hizashi had never actually visited until now. He couldn't believe his friend would actually live here!

His second thought: there is a giant hole in the wall. Apparently the apartment hadn't been as spared from the damage as Hizashi had thought, as the wall shared with the one next door didn't... really exist, anymore. Some of it remained around the edges of the hole, but for the most part it had crumbled away.

He didn't stare at it long, his focus quickly redirecting to a familiar yellow blob in the far corner. His heart skipped a beat as he raced over, unlatching the speaker so it wouldn't impede his neck and tossing it to the floor uncaring of any damage. It clattered loudly as he dove to his knees, grabbing the blob and rolling it over to reveal Shouta. Hizashi felt his breath catch at the sight of his friend's face in the opening of the sleeping bag, eyes closed as if perfectly asleep.

"No," he whispered, tears starting to form as he stared down. "No, no, no, no, no... Shouta, fuck, no, not you too..." Shouta couldn't be asleep, not with all that noise from the fighting outside—fuck, from the wall caving in! He grabbed the man's shoulders through the sleeping bag and began shaking, his voice rising in pitch as he pleaded desperately. "Shouta, please, no, wake up man! Come on, wake up Shouta! Wake up, wake up, wake UP!"

His voice rose with his Quirk at the last syllable as he threw his head back with a wail, the tears flowing freely. He shouted, letting out all his despair and horror and anguish as he continued to shake his friend—

And then suddenly, his Voice stopped.

He startled at the abrupt disappearance, and his head snapped down to find a pair of very irritated red eyes glaring at him. "Hizashi, get the hell OFF me," Shouta growled, bangs floating upwards around the opening of the sleeping bag.

The only reason Hizashi's shriek of delight and relief didn't bring down the rest of the building was because Shouta still had Erasure activated and muted his Voice.

He wheezed as he grabbed Shouta's shoulders and pulled his torso upright into a tight embrace, the black-haired man grunting at the sudden impact. With the new position he couldn't use Erasure anymore, allowing the blond to babble freely. "You're alive! Holy shit, you're alive! Thank fuck, I was so scared when I got that villain alert and you didn't answer my call—and then I actually got here, and your eyes were closed, and..."

As he babbled Shouta began squirming to get free, but the sleeping bag effectively trapped him in place. "Hizashi," he growled in irritation. "What the actual—is that a hole in my wall." The man's angry threat fell flat with disbelief, and Hizashi loosened the embrace enough to let the other man sit back. Shouta's gaze never moved from the hole in his apartment wall, eyes wide. "Why is there a hole in my wall."

"I told you, there was a villain attack!" Hizashi replied. "Holy shit, that guy barely even seemed human, Shouta—"

He was cut off by two shrill shrieks from their phones, startling both of them. Immediately Hizashi pulled out his phone while Shouta unzipped his sleeping bag to retrieve his own, and Hizashi felt his blood chill when he saw the notice.

'EMERGENCY: MULTIPLE REPORTS OF PEOPLE TRANSFORMING INTO HOSTILE ENTITIES ALL ACROSS GREATER TOKYO AREA. CURRENT CAUSE IS UNKNOWN. AT LEAST ONE CHILD INCLUDED AMONG REPORTED VICTIMS. ALL HEROES, SUBDUE WITH AS MINIMAL HARM AS POSSIBLE'

"What the hell?" he whispered, looking up. "Shouta, are you seeing this too?"

"I... I think so...?" Shouta stared at his phone with a bewildered look. Outside they could hear the distant whine of sirens, and Hizashi had a feeling that sound would be the background track of the rest of the day.

"Reports of the sightings continue all across Japan. Even now, Pro Heroes are still engaged in battle in various cities..."

Inko felt numb as she stared at the TV screen, the reporter's voice sounding very far away as she struggled to process what she saw. The collapsed wall to the Tachibana apartment was the least of her worries now. For the past two hours, every news station had been reporting near-total chaos on the streets as villains and what felt like monsters rampaged. A state of national emergency had been declared, everyone told to stay indoors.

Beside her Izuku sat with his legs pulled to his chest, watching the screen with furrowed eyebrows. Maybe she shouldn't let him watch this, he was only nine after all, but he had already seen the one villain on the livestream. Knowing him, he'd likely try to look it up anyway if she sent him to the computer room, and... well, she didn't want him out of her line of sight right now.

"Mom, those people don't look okay," he said quietly.

"I know, sweetie," she said just as softly, biting her lip as another battle was shown.

All of these villains looked horrific and twisted in some way, though thankfully none quite as grotesque as the one they'd seen on the livestream. Even now Inko shuddered, unable to forget the way the skin stretched as it swung its arms. However, she didn't know if that was really a good thing, because these...

These looked like people.

People with glazed-looking eyes, skin discolored and bodies that contorted in odd ways that looked so painful. One clip showed a man in a convenience store uniform with feathers all over his body and limbs that seemed to inflate as he literally bounced out of the path of every blow aimed his way. Another showed a woman dressed in an apron with drill-like growths protruding from her arms, and whose jaw unhinged to a painful-looking extent to release an eerie red mist.

Villain didn't seem to fit these people at all. Monster seemed closer, like when Izuku had first called her to the computer room, but even that still felt wrong. Both words implied some sort of malicious intent, but these people's movements seemed more instinctual, more like mindless animals. Even as they fought the Pro Heroes, something just seemed so off.

Inko didn't know what to call them, just knew she couldn't look away.

The screen changed again, this time abruptly cutting back to the studio in the middle of an on-scene report. One of the anchors had run off, the remaining one standing up and facing off-screen with wide eyes. Her head turned back to the camera, her mouth pressing into a thin line.

"Everyone, we just got word that Pro Hero Uwabami has been confirmed among those who transformed," she declared tightly, and Izuku's small gasp of horror echoed Inko's own. "There is no video footage of the transformation itself, but reports say the snakes on her head have become vicious and grown larger, lashing out at anyone nearby. Some witnesses also report one of the snakes spewed some sort of mist from its mouth, and that she can now jump as high as two stories. At the moment she is being pursued across Tokyo by multiple Pro Heroes, mostly from roof to roof..."

Her voice faded to the back of Inko's mind as she covered her mouth, just thinking. Inko knew Uwabami more for her modeling career than her heroics, but even so she was a major household name. However, Izuku would know her much better than she did. When she looked over at her son his face was pale, eyes wide with disbelief.

"That... that makes no sense," he whispered. "Uwabami—her Quirk is Serpentress. Her snakes just have heightened senses she uses to help detect and find people in disasters, that... It doesn't make sense, they can't create mist. And she can't jump that high. It doesn't..." He trailed off, his lips wobbling. "It's like she has two Quirks, but that doesn't make sense."

"It doesn't," Inko agreed softly, but even as she spoke her head turned slightly to the giant hole in the wall connecting to the Tachibanas' apartment. They had taped a bed sheet over the hole as a temporary measure and cleaned up most of the debris, but she could still see some dust on the floor below it. Her mouth thinned, eyes flitting back to her arm which looked just as pristine as the last ten times she looked.

It didn't hurt. It should be cut up or bruised or something; she saw the state of her coat's sleeve, the large rips in it. There had been nothing to protect her arm after those rips were made, she should have been hurt. If not her arm, then somewhere else; her whole body had sagged against the wall after crashing into it. Yet the skin remained perfectly untouched, not even the faintest bruise remaining.

If she hadn't felt herself crash through the wall, felt it break and the plaster jab into her arm and side, she would have almost thought she hadn't actually touched the wall at all. But she had felt that, so clearly. And then there was what Tachibana said, about how the walls shouldn't break that easily from someone bumping into it accidentally.

Her mind flitted back to the end of the livestream before it cut out, the man with the ram mutation who suddenly had leaves and twigs sprouting from his legs.

What if... Maybe, just maybe, somehow...?

Far across Tokyo, several Pro Heroes pursued the heroine known as Uwabami as she fled across the rooftops. The muscles in her legs visibly scrunched up and coiled like springs to propel her with each jump, the enlarged snakes on her head lashing out at one Pro who got a little too close. One unhinged its jaw and spewed ominous-looking red mist at him, and the man recoiled back and screamed in pain as it grazed his arm.

Todoroki Enji, better known as Endeavor, followed the chase from neighboring rooftops with one of his sidekicks, Kido, watching from a distance for the moment. They had only joined the chase in the last few minutes, having been busy enough handling another one of these... people, whose Quirks had made them a much more volatile threat than usual.

Uwabami still resembled herself for the most part, but even from a distance he could see the discoloration to her skin, and how her legs seemed to bulge with each jump. The mist made him wary of approaching her directly. From the few reports he'd heard, it seemed to have some corrosive or melting effect. Nothing overly powerful, but the people who'd gotten caught in it had the fabric of their clothes stuck to their skin.

That alone wouldn't usually deter him too much, but he was more concerned whether the mist might be flammable. The last thing he wanted to do was accidentally cause an explosion. Today was chaotic enough.

As he debated whether he should redirect his attention to other targets, one of the Pro Heroes pursuing the heroine flung a mace attached to a chain at her. It made contact with her side and sent her flying sideways with a furious shout, and as she was flung away the snake that created that mist suddenly spit at the chain.

Enji was too far away to see what happened exactly. All he knew was that suddenly the chain had broken, and suddenly the mace was flying right towards Kido. "Watch out!" he barked to his sidekick, hand shooting out towards the bulky projectile as he spoke—

—and at that moment, he felt something in his mind shift and air visibly swirled around his palm, and suddenly the mace was flying towards him.

Enji stared in wide-eyed alarm at the swirling air and suddenly changed trajectory of the macehead. Kido had already reacted at his warning, the bandages covering his body shooting out to ensnare the mace and stopping its flight. It didn't fall though and Kido grunted in surprise, the bandages wrapping tighter around the mace that was still tugging towards Enji's hand.

"Endeavor, I don't know what's going on, but it feels like it's being pulled towards you even with my Quirk!" he called, and Enji stared. Kido's Quirk, Traject, allowed him to alter the trajectory of any object that passed through his bandages. So for the mace to be resisting his Quirk meant something must be actively pulling it...

He lowered his hand and all at once the mace arced downwards, the sudden drop making Kido shout in surprise as it pulled his bandages with it. As he struggled not to not be pulled with it Enji turned his hand to stare at his palm, eyes narrowing. "What the hell?" he muttered. What was that—that feeling he'd had earlier, in the back of his mind when reaching towards the weapon? It almost reminded him of the subtle little shift in his mind when using Hellflame, like a switch being flipped, but...

Then that feeling suddenly surfaced again and the air began swirling above his palm, and this time the flames around his face began stretching towards it.

Enji jerked back as he promptly released Hellflame so the flames would extinguish. The mysterious feeling faded at the same moment, and the air stilled around his palm. His lips curled downwards as he focused on the feeling one last time, and then the air began visibly swirling again. Though he no longer had his flames active Enji could feel a sort of... suction on his face, feel his hair and stubble ripple towards it.

As he watched the small spiral his mind raced, thoughts straying to those... people he'd seen today. The man he'd fought just before this who attracted wood like a magnet attracted metal while spewing acid that ate through metal. The other one with the clear insect mutation, including wings, and expanding muscles. And now Uwabami whose limbs seemed to bulge and uncoil with each jump while her snakes grew larger and spewed harmful mist.

In the background he noted Kido untangle his bandages from the mace, gaze focused on him the whole time. "Sir?" his sidekick asked worriedly. "Sir, what's going on?"

His jaw clenched as he stared at his palm, air still swirling and trying to lightly pull in his hair. "This is going to sound crazy," he said slowly, "but I think I somehow developed a second Quirk."

Wall Casualty Tally: 2

A message from CocoaNerd:

"As promised, a second chapter this week to get things off to a strong start! We've both been thrilled with how enthusiastic everyone was for Chapter 1, and hope that you continue to enjoy the story.

The first three chapters collectively form a sort of soft prologue, so you guys can look forward to a bit of a reveal next week, and then we'll start getting into the real meat of the main plot the week after that. Until then, we'd love to continue hearing your theories and speculation about what's going on and what's going to happen.

Thank you for your support! See you next week

- Cocoa"

...

If you're reading this on FFN, you may be reading it on the app. At the time I wrote this note on Friday, Aftershock was visible on my browser for the first time since posting it on Monday. After seeing stories come and go this week, I'm not sure if it will stay that way. FFN's site has been broken since Sunday and not showing any new chapters or stories on the browser, only in the app. Aftershock has two reviews, which until today I could only read through the email. I've seen my other new story, Smoke and Mirrors, randomly show up and disappear from my profile.

I've ranted about this so much in my other story Ignite in Chapters 62 and 63, which were published this week, and I don't want to repeat myself so you can just go to those two and scroll to the bottom to see my notes. I also edited the start of Chapter 61 to include this plea:

If you can go to AO3, do it.

FFN has been completely unprofessional about this and even now has not said one word about the downage. As far as I can tell, they only tweet before maintenance, or AFTER fixing an issue. Five days of a serious issue absolutely no word, however, is unacceptable. If FFN were a true business with paid services, this sort of issue would lose customers and clients. And after this, I have zero faith in their ability to fix any other major issues that may crop up in a timely manner. This long gap without any resolution suggests either a skeleton crew of staff, some much deeper, serious issues with the back-end, or (and the one I believe) a mix of both. This site's lack of active maintenance is hurting both writers AND readers.

I'll continue cross-posting existing stories to FFN, including Aftershock, but I won't be posting any new stories here. And if you go to AO3, you may get updates from Aftershock a little earlier because CocoaNerd can also post the chapters if I'm busy. He managed to post today's chapter over an hour before I got up to post it here.

So please, do yourself a favor. Switch to AO3. If you're following any FFN-exclusive stories, consider politely asking the authors to at least cross-post to AO3. I think that after this past week, a lot of writers are extremely frustrated with FFN and ready to leave.

Fan fiction is supposed to help relieve stress, not cause more.