A Certain Misfortunate Spider

Chapter 31 - Tough Luck

"Hmmm, tonight seems to be quieter than before. Must be because of AntiSkill and Judgement going around nowadays," Touma Kamijou mused to himself, sitting down on his kotatsu. In his hand was a handheld radio, and he was fiddling around with it.
Figuring he might as well continue his daily excursions Kamijou bought this at a thrift store for only 30 yen. For some reason it came with a manual that allowed the user to tune the radio frequency with enough precision. The function was most likely done so that the person using the radio can turn on its AM/FM function.

Ever since the incident a couple weeks back Kamijou thought more about what he could do for the district. Vigilantism was definitely outlawed, sure, but a couple acts of good service didn't hurt anyone, much as they cry about it.

He had had a couple close calls regarding several people in the past.
The most recent one was that busty beauty in glasses.
Before her was Yomikawa's partner (he had seen her a couple times whenever the older woman would stop by).
Before her, was this poor girl who passed out in her arms, in despair.

And before her...

'I'm becoming too sentimental for my own good. I'm only doing this because I got nothing better to do anyway.

Right?'

Kamijou doubted it.

He rarely went out of his way to do stuff like this, because the last time he did someone had died despite his solving the problem. Hence his own reservation with going beyond what he can do in any moment.
He didn't want to make the same mistake as he did back then, with Mitsuari, but if he didn't do something the moment with that certain chill down his neck, and the blaring in his head, he'd never go and forgive himself.
He knew it was a slippery slope. He knew that if he went through with this, he would go and fall down the same rabbit hole as a certain henshin rider in TV and perhaps suffer the same misery as he had.
Kamijou didn't want that, and it wasn't something he'd go and try to fix. His life was too messy to fix properly, anyway.

Kamijou stopped, suddenly. The radio in his hand was in his hands, about to be tuned.

"...What the fuck am I doing?"

Kamijou didn't even know how to tune this even with the manual, so why was he doing this?

Then he realized it. "...You idiot. You couldn't do anything at that point. You did the best you could."

But was that enough? At what point, will "the best he can do" be enough? Until he can save a million people? That was completely unrealistic for Kamijou. Until someone got hurt? Well, it always seems that he'd go and step in whenever that happens thanks to his Instinct, which currently was still silent.

But still.

He should have done a lot better.

There he was. Climbing back from the pit, only to fall back down into it all the same. Like those heroes in the comics, and cartoons.

No matter how many people they try to save, the guilt never goes away.

"...Rotten luck," Kamijou rubbed his eyes.

He took his phone by the table. Opening it, the time read as 10:45pm.

"Off to bed then. No trouble around, so let's go call it a night then," Kamijou said to no one. The radio can wait until tomorrow. Besides, it was a weekend tomorrow. Plenty of time to fix the radio up.

"...But the homework.... fuck it I'll complete it all in time." Kamijou said confidently, as if he was sure his misfortune wouldn't go and mess up his schoolwork even at home.

As he laid his head down on his pillow as he prepared for slumber the familiar blaring in his head aired out.

"About time."