AN: Back a bit sooner than I expected...Fearful Asymmetry, Chapter 2.

I don't have that much to add this time around, actually. I'm surprised by how many of you guys decided to follow, favorite, and review; as always, I appreciate it, and I'm glad you liked it enough to do so.

Hope you guys enjoy this one as much as the last!

Walter Kovacs wandered down the street at a brisk pace, his unnervingly blank stare looking the city around him over as he attempted to piece his new situation together. Jon's death blow was seemingly ineffective, sending the vigilante somewhere else rather than obliterating him outright.

No. Doctor Manhattan didn't make mistakes. Whatever the purpose was, this was intentional. Whether it was a matter of convenience or an act of "mercy" was of no consequence.

The man's pace slowed as his eyes met a large rectangular sign, its face covered in bold, white print meant to draw the attention of tourists and passerby. Unlike many of the other signs in the area, the message on this one was written entirely in English.

Musutafu: Retail District

Kovacs stared at the sign for a moment before returning his gaze to the obscenely colorful, almost epileptic district in front of him. Droves of tourists ambled about the place, many of them stopping for merchandise or to take pictures on the palm-sized devices that seemed to be almost universally carried by everyone he saw. The sun was higher now, illuminating the area in a bright, almost painful glow.

He didn't like this place already.

The rough-looking man stopped at an electronics shop's storefront and peered into the window. The displays had been carefully laid out and organized, each one holding an instance of what Kovacs assumed was the newest exciting product for the masses to blow their money on. Razor-thin screens touting "LED" technology and boxy, high-price "smartphones" adorned the walls and shelves beyond the window, the large price tags showing long strings of numbers that Kovacs knew were steep, even with the currency difference factored in.

"Nixonomics," as the liberal press called it, had hit hard, but this was almost ridiculous. Japanese electronics were all the rage in the U.S. as well, sure, but these items also had an element of mystery and advancement to them, like they were something out of a science fiction novel than real life.

Deciding that windowshopping any further was pointless and a waste of time, Kovacs went to the right, in search of a payphone. Two young women dressed as maids lingered on the street, calling something in Japanese out as he passed by. Kovacs grunted as he looked past the two and into the windows of their workplace, a café of some kind. The place was filled with middle-aged salarymen, their perverted eyes oggling at the costumed waitresses as they filled their mouths with all sorts of fattening sweets.

"Disgusting," Kovacs muttered, stuffing his hands into his coat.

Suddenly, a collective and awestruck gasp escaped a crowd in the middle of the main plaza, its collective gaze glued to a large, high-resolution jumbotron fixed to one of the buildings. Intrigued, Kovacs walked over and looked up, his expressionless eyes reading the headline in silence.

"All Might Thwarts Another Villainous Scheme"

"Hrmm."

The vigilante watched quietly with the crowd as a large man in an absurd, brightly colored suit seemingly punched a much larger spider-like abomination into oblivion, the shockwaves emitted from his fist shattering windows and crumbling the concrete of the street like papier-mâché. The whole scene was utterly unbelievable to Kovacs' finely-honed mind; the media spun stories to fit their agenda all the time, but running such a "story" on a major network was either a clever and audacious marketing ploy or some kind of joke.

'Who is this clown?' Kovacs thought.

"Man, All Might is cool!" a young, American-looking man said as the crowd dispersed. "This is, what, the sixth time this week? He's making the newer hero agencies look bad!"

'Hero agencies?' Kovacs thought. The Police Strike of '77 had turned the public against people in his line of work, and the Keene Act had made "costumed adventuring" downright illegal, at least in the States. There was also the fact that this All Might character had punched a man-sized arachnid into nothing with some sort of super-strength, but Kovacs decided he'd believe it when he saw it himself. This part of the city was clearly a tourist trap, and the detective chalked the broadcast up to just another entertaining circus for the rabble.

Turning away from the crowd as it broke up, Kovacs decided to leave. He walked into an alleyway and began in the opposite direction before again stopping at an inconspicuous pile of discarded signage, a particular piece catching his eye: a white handheld sign with a blank rear panel.

"Hmm..."

Sweat poured down Izuku's forehead in an endless torrent of beads as he gritted his teeth, his sneakers crossing the starting line of the U.A. running track for what must have been the hundredth time. His legs ached and his lungs burned with every step as his body practically begged for a break, and even his unshakeable will was beginning to erode.

That, of course, wasn't an option. With the U.A. Sports Festival coming up in a little over a week, he couldn't afford to ease up.

...Well, All Might had said that overdoing it wasn't beneficial. Izuku was sure he had just a little more left in him before he got to that point, though.

"Deku!" a female voice called, enthusiastic as always. "Wait up!"

Izuku grinned and looked back, watching as a winded Uraraka ran towards him. "Oh, hey, Uraraka!" he wheezed, coughing as his lungs once again reminded him that they didn't appreciate being ignored.

"Is this your training for the Festival?" his classmate asked, slowing her pace to match his as she caught up to him. "...You look a bit tired, Deku…"

"T-tired?" Izuku coughed. "Nah...not at all!"

"I know that the Festival means a lot to you," the girl continued to push, reminding Deku of something his mother would say. "But...look at yourself, Deku!"

"I'm f-fine, r-really!" Izuku wheezed. "I can keep goin-"

Without warning, Izuku's legs gave out, one of his feet catching on the other and sending him hurtling to the ground face-first. Ochako gasped before throwing her hand out toward her friend, the marks on her fingertips meeting his body in midair before he hit the ground. Izuku braced for the impact that never came, sighing in relief as his body came to a stop right before he hit the ground.

"Release!" Ochako commanded. Right on command, Izuku's weightlessness ended, and he fell to the ground with a dull "thud" as his hands hit the track. The boy dusted himself off and stood up, trying to make himself look a bit more presentable as he turned toward her.

"...Thanks, Uraraka," Izuku said, an embarrassed blush on his face. "That would've hurt…"

"I-it would've been bad luck if you fell…" Ochako replied, bringing back memories of the Entrance Exam in Izuku's mind. "Come on, let's get you some water."

Nodding, Izuku joined Ochako as she walked toward the adjacent pavilion, his eyes glued to the inviting, deliciously cold drinks on display in the vending machine. A trickle of saliva rolled from the corner of his mouth as he stared into the glass, completely missing whatever his classmate was talking about and giving nothing but an incoherent groan in response.

"-and I don't think Iida is going to- You're not hearing anything that I'm saying, are you, Deku?" the girl asked, puffing her cheeks in mock frustration. Izuku's beady, vacant eyes met hers as he weakly shook his head "no," the long stream of drool running down his chin as the sound of the vending machine's refrigeration system came within earshot.

"Sit down, Deku," she said, pointing to one of the shaded tables under the pavilion. Ochako walked toward the machine, pulling a wadded-up banknote from the pocket of her U.A. gym uniform before slipping it into the slot on the machine's front panel.

"Uraraka, you don't have to buy it for me," Izuku said. The boy frowned as he thought back on the talk he and Iida had with her earlier in the week, feeling guilty about the poor girl spending her own money when he had his own. "Here, I'll pay you back-"

"Deku, I don't mind! Really!" Ochako said, her face flushing a bit. "I like spending money on you!"

Both of them froze in place as Ochako finished, their eyes locked and their faces changing to an identical shade of red. The drink machine went along undeterred, throwing a bottle of water out of the bottom and sending it rolling across the concrete floor. A lone cicada buzzed in the background as the two students stared at each other for a few more moments, the noise serving as the only break in the moments-long awkward silence.

"...B-because we're friends, of course," Ochako stammered.

"Y-yeah," Izuku agreed, shakily walking over to the overturned water bottle before scrambling to twist the cap off like his life depended on it. The young man gulped the water down at an insane pace, emptying the whole bottle in roughly two seconds.

"...Feel any better, Deku?"

"Y-yeah! Thanks!" Izuku replied. "...We have a few minutes until we have to head back in, right? Wanna just hang out here?"

"Sure!" Ochako agreed. Going at an easy pace, the two returned to the table and sat down side-by-side on the bench.

"...Man, I still can't believe what happened last week!" Izuku said. The USJ attack had sent the public and the school administration into a frenzy, and really, even he was still in shock over the whole event. The stakes were incredibly high and All Might's time limit had fallen again, but they had made it through...that time.

"Me neither. I'm glad they decided to go ahead with the Festival, though!" Ochako replied. "We're going to have to do our best despite the attack, of course!"

"Yeah!"

The conversation was interrupted as the sharp ringing of the U.A. bell pierced Izuku and Uraraka's ears, signalling the end of the period. Despite the fact that the school was giving them a significantly reduced classroom time requirement so they could focus on training, they still had to head in for things like lunch, something that Izuku was definitely in the mood for at that moment.

"Race you to the stairs, Deku!" Ochako said, practically jumping from the bench and breaking out into a run.

Izuku laughed, following suit as his energy returned. Maybe he did have more left in him, after all…

Humid, sweltering city air filled Kovacs' lungs as he walked through the narrow streets, his empty eyes unnerving the occasional ruffians looking for easy prey that loitered in the street. The fine, bright exteriors of the commercial district had given way to the faded, cracked concrete of the slums.

This was the city's true face.

Apprehension hung in the air like fetid smoke, the few normal people in the street shrinking away from the Westerner as he walked. The man slowed as he arrived at an abandoned video rental storefront, an artifact of better times left to rot as the world seemingly moved on. Pulling the large sign from his shoulder, Kovacs briefly glanced at the message.

"The End is Nigh"

A tried and tested method, for sure. The apocalyptic statement typically deterred most passerby, the public preferring to simply avoid his kind rather than give him any trouble. It worked in New York, and it would most likely work here.

After all, human nature didn't change.

The red-haired man stepped back from the sidewalk, leaning back on the store's crumbling, beige-colored wall. His trained gaze came to rest a few feet ahead, on a cluster of newspaper racks and trash cans.

If he watched the can long enough, this "Musutafu" would open its heart to him.

And when it did... he could get to work.

AN: As you probably saw, I started to try to address how Rorschach adjusts to this new world. It's not much of substance right now, admittedly, but this won't be the last you see of the topic. There's also a nice scene between Izuku and Ochaco in there, which was actually harder for me to write than the Rorschach segments.

I hope you enjoyed reading this installment. As always, feel free to leave me a review if you have any critiques or comments.

See you next chapter.