"Owww, dammit! Goddamn thumb cramps!" A cry of pain was heard from a dark room in a certain dormitory in District 7.
It was around 8:30 pm, with most of the middle to high school students already in their dorms. The only people outside were college students, teachers, and scientists hanging out in the various bars and restaurants of the economically-diverse Seventh District.
Conpared to the other districts of Academy City District 7 was unique in the fact that, apart from it being the metropolis' main base for secondary education it served as a form of "jack of all trades center".
Originally intended for middle and high school levels it has extended its functions beyond the initial parameters of its conception, with numerous recreational hubs and shopping districts placed and sprinkled all throughout the area. It also has several research centers across the district, at times outmatching the quality of those at the Tenth District of Scientific Research and Development.
It is also noteworthy with being the sole Windowless Building's base of operations, the monolith-like skyscraper watching over the district like an unmoving deity indifferent to the matters of the people living below it.
Even to this day, very few people had any clue to the Building's true purpose.
As with other matters in the City this would be a story for a later time.
Touma Kamijou sucked the tiniest bits of blood off his pricked finger, which has seen much better days.
What was supposed to be a couple of hours with a sewing machine turned into 7 hours of stinging pain in his; due to his misfortune his sewing machine had a tendency to stop working at various points. He had already started working on his mask the day he had bought them, but due to long years of disuse it had started to take in dust.
He had managed to clean up some of the dust inside, but it also meant that he had started stitching very late at night.
It was about 9:55 pm by the time he had partly finished the mask he had made.
Cutting it up with scissors the red shirts (he had to buy a couple more before he could start) served as perfect material for his mask. He already had his red jacket prepared, which was coincidentally at his bed, lying there.
After finishing off he placed the mask in front of him, taking a good long look at it.
Three lines went up and down the front of the mask, curving at around the center of the mask where the nose would be, which gave it a resemblance to an hourglass, while the bottom three lines at the mouth of the mask gave off the impression of mandibles. The bare eye holes stared deep into Kamijou's eyes.
With a sigh he grabbed a small plastic bag, and he removed a small pair of white lenses. They weren't normal lenses though; they were the type of lenses researchers had worn when doing experiments, made of a carbon-based polyglass which was durable, flexible, reduces glare and protects the eyes from dirt and particles from reactive material.
As slow and precise as a surgeon (and praying to whatever god out there not to ruin the process) he placed small pieces of cloth around the sides of the lens and placed them inbetween the eyeholes. Afterwards he placed it under the stitching machine, where he was prepared to stitch it up.
Only for the power to go out.
"....Rotten luck," Kamijou lamented as tears threatened to fall off his eyes.
-
"What the hell girl, you just fried the entire district grid," a woman shouted.
"Whoops, my bad," Mikoto Misaka, the perpetrator, said.
Tailing the group she and Kuroko and earning their trust by pretending to be a helpless girl, Mikoto was led to a small open space out in the back where she engaged in battle with their leader who the boys called Aneri.
She was a tough fighter, her Terrakinetic abilities pushing her to the offensive.
That was, until she unleashed her full power. Which fried the power to District 7.
"Kuroko wont be liking this."
-
Kamijou sincerely wanted to find whoever cut out the power and give'em a good ol' socking to the face, since now the sewing machine was not working anymore. Plus he had not a manual machine around, so now he had to stitch up the mask by hand.
"Fucking... ow shit!" Pricking his fingers Kamijou slowly stitched the lenses on the mask. Which was hard enough considering the darkness surrounding his room. He had to go outside and use the moonlight to see his work, and it still was a fucking hassle.
Grabbing a cotton ball and placing antiseptic he gently rubbed it on his finger, with the enhanced healing factor finishing it all up.
"There you go, all better. Now, back to work... unfortunately."
It had taken him a while; it was already around 11pm by the time he finished. And the continuous pricking of his fingers didn't help.
But, at last the mask was finally complete. It looked great, if he does say so himself.
And good thing he chose red, otherwise the small blotches of blood would've been obvious.
He wore it over his head, and after making sure it was comfortably placed around his head he opened his eyes.
'A slight yellowish tinge on the lenses, but it'll do.' He yawned suddenly as fatigue settled in.
"I should probably get some sleep," he said.
Then an idea reached his mind. He looked out the balcony.
"Maybe a test run would be nice." Grabbing the red hoodie jacket and putting it on he got out of the balcony.
A few couple of meters stood inbetween his dorm and the building in front of him. If someone had jumped from the top of the building in front they've hit the ground faster than they could land on someone's balcony in his dorm.
He reached out his hand, looking at his wrists. Remembering what had happened before, the web he had created...
It was reckless, stupid even, however... his healing and durability would surely take much of the damage, right?
Touma doubted it.
But, it was a test run. This was his first night, and now was as good a time as ever.
He only had to remember how to release the web.
He took a deep breath... and...
He leaped off the balcony!
Normally a regular person wouldn't be able to reach the top roof of a building, even when being able to leap up one feet into the air.
But Kamijou wasn't regular anymore.
With his spider-like strength he leaped up to the top of the roof like a flea up to the fur of a cat.
He had never felt so much power from a leap that high, yet the adrenaline had rushed throughout his body.
The tingling still persisting he ran to the edge of the builidng he was on, and leaped again.
Jumping rooftop to rooftop he continued his trek on top of the rooftops. He jumped and jumped, performing manuvers and flailing his body around as he trys to stick each landing.
He managed to land on the next building and was about to jump off when he stopped at the edge.
A thousand meters had separated between the building he had been standing on. There was a giant crane on top of the building upfront.
He remembered the sensation of when he released his first web. As well as the resulting shameful situation than had happened, but he shook his head.
And he remembered, when he fired another one towards that thug in the alley, who was about to stab Wataru Kurozuma in the back.
He took a deep breath, lined his arm in front of him. Deep in concentration he exhaled....
"Go web! ....Fly. Up up and away web! Shazam!" Kamijou tried to fire the web, but every single thing he did wasn't working. Even the hand motions he did didn't work.
"Go, GO, GO WEB GO," Kamijou exclaimed, doing a fork gesture, a thumbs up, and a rock and roll gesture respectively. He even tried to do the motion with the last one.
"Dammit why isn't this working?" He muttered to himself. He then stretched his right arm out and pressed his palm with his middle and ring fingers.
A line of web shot out of his wrist instantly.
"Woah, what the!?" He was shocked. "Ok ok ok, g-gotta do it again." He did the same thing as before. Another line of web shot out again. Each web flew along in the wind.
"Could it be...?" Kamijou comtemplated. "Maybe if I pressed on it long enough the web could reach the crane over there." He looked up at the crane, which was a good distance away from him. "Well, it's worth a shot."
He aimed at the crane, pressed his palm, and fired the web once more. Pressing on the palm and keeping it like that, the web line had reached to the crane and stuck itself to it.
(YOU HAVE UNLOCKED --> WEB ROPE! USE IT TO SWING ALONG BUILDINGS AND SKYSCRAPERS!) A voice like from a game's rang in his mind. Kamijou was confused for a few seconds before he shook it off and stood on the edge of the building.
He took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," he said.
He jumped off the building and propelled through the air. A loud scream echoed throughout the district.
"This was a bad ideaaaAAAAAAAA!"
The wall came closer to Kamijou's face. He had to act fast. Fast as hell, in fact. On instinct he fired another line on his left. He fired it just a second too late though as he smashed his face on the wall.
[Play SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN SWINGING THEME]
'Fuck!' He thought to himself. He felt the line on his left arm drag his body out in the streets. It was slower than before since he had hit the building beforehand. Seeing that the edge of the building would be closer to him he pushed off the building with his right hand and went forward to where the webline was.
Another building was in sight in front of him, but this time he was prepared. He let go of the line and fired off with his right hand. Feeling it attach to a building he was propelled forward unto the air by the webline. The speed he had felt from swinging was phenomenal.
He felt as if he was flying. Flying through the air. Without a care in the world.
He fired off another line and swung over the streets of Academy City. The quiet lights of the city passed by him as he swung along the skylines inbetween the buildings.
He felt all his problems seem to disappear as he continued to swing by the buildings.
No homework. No annoying iron wall girls to deal with.
To think that, before this moment, he'd stay just the same as always. A Level 0.
He had accepted it lomg time ago, but a part of him still hurt whenever the System Scan showed his results.
'Still a Level 0,' they said. 'Keep on training, and maybe someday you'll get an ability.', 'Forget it kid, nothing's gonna happen no matter how much you try.', 'Kamijou-chan you're gonna have to take supplemental lessons cuz you're a hopeless idiot teehee~'
A tickmark appeared in Kamijou's head as he thought about the various things those grownups had told him in the past.
Monster.
Demon.
Fucking pest...
A plague...
Kamijou landed on a nearvy building, shook his head off to rid the dark thoughts appearing on his mind. Took a deep breath. And exhaled. "Fucking dammit. Not again, and here I thought I got over all of it.
But no matter how many times you try to run away, to move on, it still clings to you, doesn't it? The failures," Kamijou muttered.
Wasn't it just 2 years ago, when he had failed? When he failed to save a certain girl from despair. Even after all this time the lingering guilt from that failure had continued to plague his mind like a parasite.
"Hey," she said.
"Yeah?"
"Do you really and truly think we can get back home safely?" She may have been afraid of tomorrow, so she did not want to go to sleep and "fast forward" to that moment.
He sighed and leaned his own back against the creaking partition. He supported her weight through that thin wall.
"Don't worry about it."
He had no proof of anything. He did not see how they could win and he was also afraid of winning but becoming a criminal.
Nevertheless, he said what he had to say.
"Leave all the dangerous stuff to us. If things really start looking bad, you can run away."
"Heh, and look how things had turned out, she is now gone, and will never be able to get to her normal life and smile once more... Truly... I'm so weak."
Kamijou let out those silent sorrowful words as memories from the past found their way unto his consciousness.
His head tingled as the moon reached at the apex in the sky.
Alley a couple thousand meters away from here... 5 thugs, 2 chasing after a girl, one fighting against 3 people...
3 vs one... that ain't good. He must act fast.
Without a word he leapt off the building and swung off.
-
"Come on, kick his fucking ass!"
"You ain't doing it hard enough!"
"You fucking loser, didya think you can take us on!?"
"Ack! Gah-oofufh!?"
The sounds of hard leather hitting soft flesh echoed in a dimly lit alley as a single boy got brutally beat up by three delinquents. He tucked himself in a fetal position to protect his vital areas but with the way their kicks flung in at different directions it was rather futile to do so. Stomach, face, eyes, nose, legs, ribs, almost every single apart of his body was beaten to a bloody pulp.
Daichi had no idea how it had all came to this.
He was supposed to bring his girlfriend Miku to her dormitory after a night at the movies. After an hour of talking and flirting (Daichi more on the former and less on the latter, with Miku taking up 80% of the flirting), Miku had directed them to a particular alleyway, which was apparently a shortcut to her dorm.
Daichi had a foreboding sense of danger about the alley, especially since there was an urban legend there in which a single boy was brutally killed by a group of people in red suits, who were hunting down a certain individual (it wasn't clear who the person they were hunting down was, but it was suggested that they might be a Level 5, a theory which was debunked by many due to its "unrealistic premise and rather questionable points"). Daichi had heard about those rumours from the online forums his friends would regularly bring to despite his indifference. He had tried to convince her not to, but Miku was unfortunately very stubborn, and brought the two of them inside.
It wasn't half an hour later that they were surrounded by 5 thugs, all looking armed to the teeth.
Daichi was a Level 0, unfortunately, and so was Miku. So they had to do the correct thing in this situation.
The thugs asked for money. They gave it. Then their phones. They handed it over.
Until one of them had landed their eyes on Miku. Then he went close to his friend's ear. Appeared to whisper something.
Then all of a sudden, just when they thought were in the clear Daichi felt a fist land in his gut as Miku was grabbed by her arms, pulled in by 2 of the 5 thugs and was about to be restrained, or worse. Daichi had seen red in his vision as he tackled three of the thugs and bit one of them in his ribs.
And it all led to this moment. Where he was beaten half to death, and his girlfriend was taken by 2 lowlifes.
'I... I don't care whether I don't survive this or not, but please... if there's anyone...' Daichi thought.
"Here's something to teach you buddy, when there's a lot of people ganging up on ya..."
'Please....' he continued. 'Please-' In the corner of his eye the tip of a brown leather boot was on a collision course to his face.
"...Don't fucking turn you back like you did back then! Hahahahaha!"
Before the hit had landed Daichi had managed to let out his thought before darkness consumed his consciousness.
'Please... save Miku... someone please save her...'
He closed his eyes, waiting for the kick to come.
And a loud dull sound echoed in the alley.
-
"Come back lady, we ain't gonna hurt ya! We just want to have a niiiiiiiice chat with ya!"
"S-Stay away! Please, d-don't hurt me!"
"Aww, don't say that. We ain't gonna hurt ya, we just wanna play with ya!"
"Stay back!"
"Hey now, you keel swinging that around and you're really gonna hurt somebody!" Despite the words of concern the tone was light and filled with malice and lascivious intent.
Miku had a pipe in her hands, her tears mixed with the eyeliner she had prepared staining her soft face, her long brown hair frizzed and haggled from the stressful situation she found herself in.
She should have never brought him in here.
After he tackled them and yelled her to run, Miku had sprinted off away from them; but it was all for nothing as she heard a couple of footsteps behind her. She had a couple of near-misses as one of them caught up to her, but she clawed his face with her nails, leaving him to roar in pained rage.
And she ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran ran and ran... until a dead end met her face.
Seeing that there was no way out she grabbed a nearby lead pipe, hoping to defend herself with it.
She was all alone, and Daichi was perhaps killed by the other thugs. She was alone, and there was nothing she can do to change it. She was alone, and no one was there to save her.
At the corner of her eye she saw one of the thugs take a step forward, to which she swung the pipe to her left to keep distance. However the thug to her right took her arm, pulled the pipe off her grasp, and pushed her to the wall behind her.
"Little girls shouldn't be playing with things like this," the thug with the pipe said, dropping it on the ground. "Now then where were we?"
"Business hehehe~" His companion had replied, licking his lips.
"N-N-N.... N-N......" The girl stuttered. She tried to take a step backward, but it was no use.
There were only a few meters inbetween them. The thugs could easily fill in that gap in three steps.
*STEP*
"S-Som-..." She started to say, but the words caught in her mouth.
*STEP*
"Stop-"
*THWIP* *STICK*
"A-aaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!" The thug on the left, who was the bigger one of the duo, was pulled into the darkness by a powerful unseen force.
"S-SABOOO?! WHAT THE FUC-GACK!?" The thug was about to say when his head was whipped back as something impacted his face. When he turned around a white weblike substance covered his eyes. Shouting vulgarities he tried to take the white stuff off his face but to no avail.
It all happened within 2 seconds.
"W-Wha...? What's g-going on?" The girl let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in.
"FUCKING PIG!" A loud male voice called out as a left straight flew towards the blinded thug's nose, breaking it. The thug opened his mouth to cry in pain, but they never got the chance as a right haymaker to the jaw sent their head to the side, hitting the wall beside them and knocking them out.
Miku looked up to see Daichi, wounded and worse for wear, but still alive. "D-Daichi?"
"Oh thank goodness... OH THANK GOODNESS!" Daichi hugged Miku quickly but gently. "I was so worried... Oh thank God..."
"...Did y-you do all that? How did you g-get away from the o-o-other 3?"
"N-No, I didn't." Daichi answered both question as he pulled her off him to look at her. "I got help." And he looked behind him, with Mirai following suit.
A masked man dressed in red stood there. "Are you okay?"
"..." Miku was silent. Then as she opened her mouth tears started to stream down her eyes. But they weren't of sadness, but relief and joy. "T-Thank you... Thank you so much!" She cried inbetween sobs. She felt Daichi hold her within his arms.
"No worries ma'am," the man said, kneeling down to them. "It's what I do."
-
os6045: you playing with us right? You telling me that some guy in a mask swooped in and saved u and your girl?
Chorin109: believe me or not ive seen the guy, what they can do and more
Chorin109: if it werent for him i wouldnt be here talking right now
Daichi took his hands off the keyboard. It has been a day since the attack. His face was still covered in bandages, and he still had to take painkillers to relieve returning pain. But apart from that, nothing truly broken had crippled the 16 year old high school student.
It did motivate him to take up martial arts.
Daichi scrunched his eyebrows in annoyance, but they raised up when his phone beeped. He took the phone and saw that he had a message.
Kitsune: So Daichin do you have any plans for tonight?
'Miku,' Daichi laughed. It seemed Miku had bounced back immediately from the harrowing experience, though apparently according to her "alleys are offlimits from now on."
"Nothing much, I was planning to go to the mall, stock up on groceries," Daichi texted and pressed send.
Not even half a minute later,
Kitsune: I was thinking of the same thing too, meet you there at 8:00 sound good?
"Sure thing." He smiled, and texted back. Pressed send.
Daichi sighed. And winced in pain. "Seriously what a damn pain," he said as he grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen nearby.
Lot of pain, yes. However...
It could've been worse.
-
Leave a comment down below. Vote or share this story. Constructive criticism is appreciated, whether be spelling mistakes or others.
Btw heres my art for Spider-Touma for now:
1. His beta outfit:
I might post other artwork for Spider-Touma in the next chapters. Also will be eventually evolving the costume to be more in-line with Classic Spidey. If that's what you guys want.
I'll see you guys on the next chapter.
Sincerely,
Komigakuo.