Peter Parker overlooked the Musutafu skyline from the rooftop of his new apartment building, the events that brought him there still fresh in his mind.
He had been arrested and put into house arrest by the police after All Might, Japan's number one hero punched him in the face for being a wanted vigilante in New York City. The hope of him being a hero died that day, but he guessed the universe had other plans.
3 weeks later, All Might himself showed up at his doorstep to offer him an 'opportunity'. He didn't know if it was pity or guilt or what, but that morning he got the opportunity to attend Japan's number one hero school, U.A high school. While he kind of didn't want to go to spend his time getting a license while he could be swinging around and helping people, it couldn't be helped.
All Might, being the charismatic wall of muscle that he was, paid for the trip to Japan and even bought him an apartment in a nice building complex. While May had to stay behind back in Queens to help run the F.E.A.S.T center, she seemed fine with him going to Japan by himself.
Since Peter was done with all his education before high school because he graduated incredibly early, he now had to... hang around by himself as he waited for the U.A entrance exam.
'Heh, hang around... I'm a riot...' He chuckled to himself.
So for the past 8 months, Peter Parker has been living by himself in the hero infested country of Japan, trying his best to get used to the new culture.
And it has been incredibly boring.
He leaned on the railing of the roof as he studied the morning sky, trying to memorize the shapes of random clouds to pass the time. It was obvious that there were way better uses for his time, he could be trying to get better at Japanese or something, something way more productive.
Looking at the buildings far off on the horizon, towering over the random people walking around the city's streets made him incredibly nostalgic.
He missed the feeling of the wind in his face while he swung from incredible heights around the city, but for now, he was stuck to the ground.
Quickly getting bored with his current activity, he decided to take a stroll around the city, enjoy the April air and relax. God was he bored, he should try to meet some new people or something, he was getting tired of tinkering in his apartment and aimlessly walking around town.
Walking down the stairs that led to the roof, the boy entered his apartment for a change of clothes and to grab his new MK. 4 web-shooters, just to be safe. Japan had a lot of villain attacks, after all.
After a couple of minutes of getting ready in his quiet apartment, he walked out the door and down the building stairs, only to be met by a short woman with green hair struggling to hold her groceries.
This woman was none other than Inko Midoriya, the nice lady who lived 2 floors below him. She seemed nice enough, maybe a bit jumpy and emotional, but she made really good food so he didn't complain.
What intrigued Peter the most was her son, a boy about his age with wild curly green hair and freckles. He seemed... weird if Peter was being honest. The brunette had tried to talk to him sometimes when he saw him in the hallways but he'd either be muttering and staring at a notebook or would just stutter and run away when addressed.
Peter guessed he was anti-social or something, and just left him alone since he didn't seem to want to be talked to anyway.
The American was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of into struggling to hold the many bags of groceries, prompting him to walk forward and give her a hand.
"Hey, Midoriya-San! Need a little help there?" The boy greeted with a slight chuckle.
"Oh! Parker-San! Good morning! And yes, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, good job on using the correct honorific!" The woman looked up to meet the brunette's gaze and smiled, congratulating the American in his Japanese.
Peter quickly patted himself on the back for using the correct honorific in conversation, one time he called some dude 'chan' and nearly got into a fight. The boy walked forward and took the majority of the women's bags into his arms, this was a situation where his 'stick 'em powers' came in handy.
The pair walked up to the woman's apartment while exchanging polite conversation and catching up with each other.
He got the bags onto the kitchen table of the woman's apartment then got ready to be on his way, but was stopped halfway our the door by a hand on his shoulder.
The brunette turned around to meet the worried emerald eyes of Inko, she was looking at him with a conflicted expression.
"Parker-San... You're going into the city, right? If you see my Izuku, please let him know to be safe." She asked with a small smile towards the boy.
Peter didn't know the guy, he had never been in a situation in which he talked to him that much, but Peter was observant enough to know that Izuku has something going on with him.
"Yeah, sure thing," Peter told her, trying his best to sound reassuring.
Peter and Inko exchanged goodbyes, and the young man started to jog out of the building, starting to a playlist that reminded him of home.
Truth be told, Peter missed New York, he missed it a lot. He missed those random food stands that littered every corner, those old ladies that would give him candies when he helped them cross the street. He missed all of that.
If he was gonna be honest, Japan was kinda weird. He wasn't used to heroes being around every single corner he would turn, do they just patrol out in the open? Not like, from rooftops or anything? They just walk around? God, that's weird.
Japan also had an incredible fascination with heroes, people would swarm any costumed man in front of them, asking for autographs and pictures even if they didn't know who he was. It just felt... off, New York basically treated heroes like cooler cops, they didn't idolize them like this.
They were just people doing their job, sometimes they'd do commercials or have merchandise, they were at most celebrities, but just... not this.
God, was he bored. There was nothing to do! He needed a hobby, and needed it fast. Maybe get back into photography or start crocheting, Now that he didn't spend his time working at F.E.A.S.T, he needed something to fill that void. who would've thought he'd miss doing community service?
*CRASH!*
A loud rumbling filled the air, gusts of wind blowing past the boy as he staggered. Turning his head, Peter made out the aftermath of some giant lady dropkicking a huge guy with the head of a shark off of a bridge, then announcing her debut to the crowd. A crowd who stood incredibly close to the villain attack.
The woman started laughing loudly and posing for pictures in... none family-friendly poses, so Peter chose to get away from that as soon as he could. Although the boy stopped when he saw a mop of black-green hair in the crowd, before it disappeared off into another street.
'Was that Midoriya? He's probably on his way to school or something, what a way to start off your day.' He chuckled to himself before resuming his journey off to nowhere in particular.
He aimlessly walked around the bustling city, taking in its sounds and sights to try and get accustomed to it. At least Japan still had that New York noise, he didn't know if he could survive without it.
2 hours passed like this, with Peter just letting whatever force there was in the universe guide his feet, it probably knew better for him. Well, he walked aimlessly until he saw a familiar sight.
Dagobah Beach.
The one place in which he found some sort of purpose, something he felt made some sort of difference. And that thing was hauling trash off of a beach.
He really couldn't wait for when he got to U.A.
Seeing the beach gave him a small sense of pride, he had cleaned about 2/3 of the beach in the past 8 months. Imagine what he could if he, for example, used it as a training ground and spending nearly all of his time cleaning it to harness incredible power for 10 months?
'Man, that'd be crazy.'
After he finished reminiscing, he hopped over the sidewalk railing and let himself elegantly fall onto the warm sands, the grains sticking to his fingers before he wiped them off.
Getting to work, he pulled trucks and refrigerators from one side of the beach to the other, using it as a miniature playground of sorts to finally let loose.
He stacked trash piles into towers, jumping over and off of them, making them collapse into piles of the soft ground. Finding random soda cans that he could barely read the labels of and used them as target practice for his web-shooters.
Making hoops and makeshift monkey bars to swing off of, giving him the ghost of the feeling that he got from swinging around skyscrapers. It gave him... peace, a feeling that he was proud of being the only one who could know how it felt.
He swung and jumped and messed around at that beach, feeling the absolute high of using his powers freely. Giving whoops as he leaped off of trash towers and hollering when he landed trick shots with random plastic bottles.
He loved this feeling.
The feeling of thrill.
The feeling of home.
Sadly, his newfound high was quickly interrupted by his spider-sense quietly buzzing and a feminine voice he didn't recognize calling out to him.
"Hey! Whatcha' doing?" It spoke from right next to his ear, it sounded like a girl about his age, he could practically hear the smirk the girl was wearing.
Peter turned around to see a girl with curly, shoulder-length moss-green hair, green eyes, and a grin full of sharp teeth who had her arms behind her back.
She was wearing yellow sneakers, jeans, and a black t-shirt with a picture of a stegosaurus wearing sunglasses.
"Uh, messing around I guess? Who are you, by the way?" Peter finally spoke after a second of silence, making the girl somehow grin harder.
Peter was expecting a lot of things, he was even expecting for her to straight up start fighting him, maybe his vigilante experiences made him a bit paranoid.
But what he wasn't expecting was for the girl's right hand to quite literally detach from her body, and float up to him for a handshake.
Needless to say, he was silently freaking out. A fact that the girl found very amusing.
"Setsuna Tokage! Pleased to meet ya!" Tokage introduced herself while flashing a confident grin, as Peter slowly shook her floating hand.
"P-Peter Parker, it's cool to meet you. Also, are you like, ok? cause of the whole floating hand thing?" Peter asked. He felt it'd be appropriate to ask about someone's wellbeing when they detach their hand from their body.
The girl laughed at his reaction, quickly reattaching her hand back to her wrist. She then started to walk around him, looking him up and down with an expression Peter didn't know what to think of.
"So," She broke the silence, stopping in front of him once again after a couple of seconds, "What's a cutie like you doing in a dump? Community service or somethin'?" She asked him, an almost predatory smirk on her face.
Peter blushed slightly at the comment, he really wasn't used to people like this.
"Guess you could say that, I've been cleaning this place up as a hobby for a couple of months now. Basically use it as a little training ground to jump around in." Peter shot a web at a nearby plastic chair and pulled it towards him, quickly taking a seat in front of the late morning sun.
"Dude, you're not gonna get a fair young maiden like me a chair too? That's kinda rude."
"Oh, my bad!" Peter apologized in English, shot up from his seat, jumping high into the air, pulling the first chair he saw into his arms with a web line, and then gracefully falling back down, putting the chair next to his.
"There! Man, that was awesome." He said to himself in English then looked towards the girl next to him, who was currently doing her best to hold back her laughter.
Something she failed to do.
The sound of her cackling filled the trash covered beach, Peter was sure they were getting stares from people on the sidewalk.
'I didn't sign up for this, I was just trying to clean a beach!' He thought to himself as Tokage continued to laugh.
"Oh, man! God, I needed a laugh like that! Y-" She said between breath before devolving back into laughing. "You're great, Parker!" she finished, falling back into the chair while holding her sides.
"Too bad you actually got the chair though, I could've sat on your lap instead~" She teased
The American could only groan and drag his hands across his face to hide his blush. He really didn't sign up for this.
She grinned up at the boy, propping her elbows on her knees. "Those were some crazy moves ya' did right there. What's your quirk, anyway?" She asked
"I can do whatever a spider can, cool, right? I have the proportional strength and agility of a spider, and I can stick to things with my hands and feet. Weirdly enough, I got a sixth sense that alerts me to danger." He said, running a hand through his long hair.
'I'm gonna get a haircut after this, I can't believe I manage to fit all of my hair inside a mask!'
"Does that white stuff come outta you? I'm an expert in male biology or anything but I don't think it's supposed to come outta your wrists." She asked in an amused tone.
"W-what?! N-No! I made support gear and a chemical compound to act like spider webs! Dude, are you always like this?" He pulled down his hoodie sleeve to show the wrist device, feeling heat quickly work its way up to his face.
"Wow, looks and smarts wrapped up in a cute package? Aren't you special, bugboy~?" Peter's groans of annoyance were barely heard over Tokage's laughter at the boy's reaction.
The 'conversation', if you would call it that, continued on like this for about 2 hours. With Tokage doing her best to try and get a reaction out of Peter and then laughing at him when she inevitably got one.
Oddly enough, the American enjoyed the green-haired girl's company. It might've been the general lack of interaction with people his age for the last 8 months, or the huge amount of radiation in his blood but having Tokage around wasn't so bad.
They told each other about themselves, Tokage saying how she was visiting from Saitama prefecture and how she had the day off from school. She told him about her friend Tetsutetsu who could turn into metal and how the R-rated hero 'Midnight' was friends with her dad after he represented her case against the hero association when they censored her first costume.
Peter told him about New York, his aunt May and how he spent weeks working on his web-shooters. He would've told her about the whole 'go to U.A and we'll expunge your criminal record' thing but Japan had an even worse opinion on vigilantes than New York did.
And New York absolutely hated vigilantes. Well, at least the police hated them, the people were cool with him most time. But he had seen videos of random teenagers trying their hands at vigilante work and getting jumped by random bystanders on the street, then getting tied up to a light pole and turned in.
God, he had nightmares about that video.
Soon enough, the sun hung high over the sky. Tokage had to leave to run some errands, they exchanged phone numbers before she walked off with a "See ya later, hot stuff!" and the sound of her laughing being heard as she left.
Peter continued cleaning the beach as best he could, the ocean breeze cooling him down during his work. Funny enough, cleaning a beach was an amazing way to work out, although it didn't compare to the work out that was web-swinging around the city.
Over the months he spent cleaning the trash off of the coast, Peter's physique improved immensely. He'd be more proud of it if he wasn't so self-conscious about his body due to the scars he got from being Spider-Man.
He had a rough first couple of months.
Soon enough, the boy got bored of hanging out on the beach and went off back into the city, desperately looking for something to do.
And you know what?
It sucked.
Incredibly.
Not ONE interesting thing happened to him, no villain attacked him and gave him a chance to use his powers, he didn't find any long lost blonde clones or alternate versions of himself.
nothing.
It was a literal walk through the city. In New York there would have been a cool car chase to watch or something.
U.A's entrance exam was in 10 months, so he had to find something to in the meantime. wait, maybe he could design an actual suit! U.A would give him an actual budget so he wouldn't have to run around in a sweatsuit!
He wouldn't have to take apart random phones and toasters to make his gear! Should he get a cape? Or like a sword? He should totally get a sword.
Just thinking about it made him so excited to-
Out of nowhere, his Spider-Sense rung in his ears, alerting the boy to danger with the telltale vibration at the back of his skull.
"You'll make a *perfect* skin suit!" A dark voice rang out, starting Peter out of his thoughts
Under the bridge he was about to pass through, a mass of green sludge with eyes and a mouth oozed out of a sewage grate and pounced on... Midoriya?
The sludge was entering his mouth while the villain slushed around him, trying to suffocate him. Midoriya must have been on his way back from school. God, what would Inko think if he died right there? She'd have to go through the pain of losing someone!
Peter wouldn't let that happen, not to anyone ever again.
The brunette dashed forward, jumping on the wall of the tunnel so he'd be facing Midoriya, and shot a web that hit the boy straight in the chest.
Using as much strength as he could, Peter yanked on the line, pulling Midoriya out of the pile of sludge with a gross wet sound.
"Ugh, gross!" He let Midoriya down softly on the ground, the green-haired boy having passed out due to the lack of oxygen.
Yellow eyes and a mouth full of crooked teeth swam around the man's body, looking around to try and see who had interrupted his attack. The eyes landed on Peter, the sludge making an expression which he guessed was him frowning.
"I was in the middle of using that, would you mind giving him back?" The mass gargled, sending a chill down Peter's spine.
"Not gonna happen, how about you say please and then I'll think about it?" The American sprang forth, attaching a web to a random cinder block that was laying on near the wall, and swung it into the villain, sending dust everywhere and making the sludge man yell in pain.
"Damn it! That fucking hurt, kid!" He snarled, pouncing at Peter in a mass of green sewage. Peter backflipped away from the villain, shooting a web into his eyes, making him yell in annoyance.
"Yeah, it was supposed to! Are you new to this whole villain thing? You don't seem that good at it, man!" Peter quipped, shooting more webs into the mass of green.
The mass was about to jump at Peter again until a gust of wind blew from behind the villain, leaving a dark figure behind him.
"IT'S ALRIGHT NOW! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!" The man exclaimed.
All Might stood proud, his fist cocked back in preparation for what was about to happen, the sludge villain barely had time to widen his eyes.
"TEXAS SMASH!" A blast of wind pressure filled the small tunnel, sending bits and pieces of the villain everywhere as he was knocked unconscious.
Peter knew All Might had to be strong to be the number one hero, but creating gusts of wind with the sheer force of your punches? That just didn't seem real.
The hero waved his fist rapidly, trying to get the small pieces of sludge off of it, he was frowning yet smiling. It was a super weird expression in Peter's opinion.
"All Might? What are you doing here?" Peter asked, also trying to get the pieces of sludge off of himself.
All Might perked up at the voice, and quickly met the boy's eyes as his smile widened.
"Young Parker! It is incr-" All Might boomed before be was quickly cut off.
"Dude! Relax! You don't gotta yell! Also, can we catch up after we wrap this guy up? That kid's unconscious right now so we should really make sure he's ok."
"O-Oh, of course! You are correct, young Parker! You truly know how to be a her-"
"All Might! Villain! Now!" Peter cut the man off once again, quickly moving to sit Midoriya against a wall to check on him. That had been one of the few times someone had ever cut All Might off.
Peter noticed that the hero was putting the villain into 2 soda bottles that he had in a grocery bag he was carrying, the brunette guessed All Might was chasing the villain already.
After getting the villain secured and moving Midoriya out of the dark tunnel, the two sighed, glad to be finally able to catch their breath.
Too bad it the quiet didn't last long, with Midoriya waking up screaming.
"A-A-A-ALL M-MIGHT!!" The boy screeched, shaking uncontrollably in excitement. Peter didn't know his neighbor was such a fanboy. Or so loud, for that matter.
"It's alright, young man! For me and this boy right here came just in time to save you! You must really thank him!" All Might responded with a booming laugh, was everyone in Japan this loud?
"Y-Y-You have t-t-o sign m-" Midoriya, still shaking uncontrollably, reached into his dirty backpack and pulled out a burnt notebook that was titled 'Hero Analysis For The Future No.14'. He opened it to a blank page and squealed in glee when he saw All Might had already signed it.
"I am sorry, but I must be off! The duty of a hero never ends!" All Might waved a sludge free hand towards the two and got ready to leap off to who knows where.
"W-W-wait! I have to ask you something!" Midoriya quickly sat up and ran towards the hero, trying to grab onto him.
Was he crazy?! All might was about to leap hundreds of feet into the air! A fall from that height could kill anyone but All Might! And Peter was pretty sure Midoriya wasn't All Might's secret love child!
Peter quickly panicked and shot a web at the boy's back, pulling him away from the hero a second before he leaped away.
Midoriya looked around in complete astonishment and confusion as tears appeared in his eyes after seeing that he hadn't been put into an incredibly dangerous situation right after he almost died.
"Why did y-you do that!?! That was my one chance to ask him if I could b-be a hero!" He yelled at Peter, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.
"Dude! You could've gotten killed! if you grabbed on to him! Why did you-" Peter stopped mid-sentence when he felt his spider-sense ringing softly, so soft that it was probably ringing to warn him of a minor inconvenience instead of actual danger.
Peter sidestep at the green-haired boy stumbled forward to try and punch him, the momentum of missing his attack making him fall face-first on the ground.
He picked up his head, his face stained with dirt, snot, tears, sweat, and a bit of blood as he shot Peter a weak hateful glare. Peter almost felt bad for pulling him away from All Might, but he knew it was for the best.
Midoriya picked himself up, standing on shaky and unsteady legs. He then started to sprint down the street, the sounds of his sobs and hiccups being heard until he disappeared around the corner.
And Peter could do nothing but look on as the boy left.
