Sand in Her Shoes
Sunako Shiraishi was tired.
Last night's shift took a toll on her very being, having left her exhausted and looking for rest. As such, Sunako rubbed her eyes as she payed no heed to her trench coat left on the floor or the purse she wielded being left open as she laid herself on the sofa.
Sunako put her hand inside her pocket, pulling out a pile of cash. She smiled, playing with the money now in her possession.
She and her brother Rai had lived by themselves for the vast majority of their lives. To avoid being evicted from their apartment, she sacrificed a promising university career to focus on taking care of her family. Sunako took several decently paying jobs to pay for the rent and for Rai's education.
Sunako loved Rai with all her heart. Her little brother was a very model student, a fact that she could only be proud of. She only prayed and hoped the best for his life.
For now though, since Sunako figured he was going to busy with the Kendo Club after school, she thought she could afford some rest until she's called for another job.
RIIIIINNNG!
She thought wrong.
Frustrated, Sunako picked up the phone and answered it.
"Shiraishi residence, who is it?"
The answer almost made her drop phone.
Doors were violently pushed open.
The elder Shiraishi ran past various nurses and doctors, searching desperately for a single room inside the hospital.
When she came upon a corner, she found three middle schoolers waiting right outside, with looks of worry and nervousness upon their faces.
Sunako recognized Tsuyoshi Kotei among the three. The boy was practically family, having been Rai's best friend for years now. The other two she was not so familiar with. A brown haired boy with blue eyes and a black haired girl with red eyes with a mole a little under her mouth. They must be students, considering their uniforms.
Kotei was the first to step up, bowing to the elder Shiraishi. "Sunako, thank God you're here! Rai-"
"The doctor already told me what happened, Tsuyoshi." Sunako interrupted, wrapping the life long friend in a tight hug. She looked over him to spot the two strangers standing there awkwardly. "Who are you two?"
The girl bowed, "Oh excuse me, I'm Yamagishi Mayumi."
The boy looked away. "Um, Ikari Shinji. W-we got him here as soon as we could."
Just then, a doctor came out from the emergency room. Adjusting his tie, he acknowledged the elder, "You're Shiraishi Sunako, is that right?"
"How is he?!" She demanded to know. She couldn't wait another second.
"Well the good news is that your brother was able to make it. If it weren't for these students over here we wouldn't have been able to save him. You should thank them."
Sunako didn't care one bit. She pushed herself past the doctor to enter the room.
The sight of a fully bandaged boy, lying motionless on the bed nearly lifeless…
His lips moved to let out a slight whisper.
"Sunako…"
A dam broke in Sunako's heart.
"RAI!"
Sunako grabbed hold of the handles on Rai's bed, standing next to her little brother, her body refusing to move even the slightest inch away from it.
The doctor looked on with a sad look on his face. He turned to the three students waiting outside.
"Listen, we're going to run some tests." The doctor adjusted his glasses. "You kids will probably need to head back to school."
The three students nodded, bowing in response. Kotei was reluctant to leaved, wanting to remain by his best friend's side… but deep down, he knew there wasn't anything he could do. He could only hope the doctors would do their jobs, so Kotei walked with Yamagishi and Ikari back to classes.
Meanwhile, water was present underneath Sunako's eyes. She held her head down as tears fell down her face.
She felt a hand on her cheek. "Hey don't worry… I'm okay." Her brother tried to reassure her. "I'm alive, see?"
"But Rai…" She said whimpering amid her tears. "Y-you won't be able to walk anymore… you won't be able to swing your sword anymore…"
The boy winced at that. "That's true… I'm just more sad that I'm such a burden for you… you're not gonna be able to pay the hospital bills…"
Sunako held her brother's hand. "You're not a burden. You never are." She kissed it, putting on a brave smile for Rai. "We'll find a way… No matter what."
A knock on the door interrupted the scene. The doctor opened it, checking to see who was on the other side. Then he spoke to the elder sibling, "Shiraishi, there's someone who wants to see you."
Sunako glared while turning around, "Tell them to go awa-"
Her face went from anger to terror when she saw who it was.
"No no, Ikari, it's You can't pray a lie - I found that out."
One week later, and life returned to normality. Shinji and Mayumi sat together in a study session, with the latter trying to tutor the former by testing him on his english.
"Yuu can't prai a tie— I found dat ouut?"
It was… not that good to be honest.
Mayumi sighed, the slightest bit of frustration growing evident. "How about this one… If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!"
"If you… tell trooth... no need good memree?" Shinji tried to recite, putting more emphasis on certain vowels to see if it helped pronounce them better.
The subtle twitch on Mayumi's eye showed it did not.
"Ok, ok, one more." She said, her patience starting to run thin. "Human beings can be awful cruel to one another."
Shinji knew he couldn't screw this up. With all the willpower he could muster, he summoned the words right onto his lips-
"Hoomana cruel to eachodar?"
And apparently screwed up so badly Yamagishi, shy and quiet as she was, visibly cringed and had to keep herself from hitting him with the book in her hands.
Mayumi instead let out a groan, "Ugh, you're getting a little better, but you should really keep practicing! There's no way you're going to do well on the English exam this friday with THAT grasp on the language."
Shinji could only scratch the back of his head and chuckle nervously, "I know, I know, I've just been… busy with things."
Translation: Beating the crap out of criminals as Spider-Man instead of doing his homework. You know, like a student should be doing.
"I promise to do better." The boy said as he placed the books on his back pack. "I wish I could speak english as well as you do."
Mayumi let out a small chuckle of her own. "That's only because my father travelled a lot. Since I had to go with him, I had to learn some languages to keep myself from falling behind."
The two got up from their chairs and left the classroom.
Outside though, Shinji felt his spider-sense tingling. Sure enough he felt himself being shoved to a wall, the boy quickly realizing his attacker was Kotei.
"Ikari. I'm going to be quite busy today since I've got a meeting to attend."
Kotei shoves a bunch of folders to Shinji.
"Since you're obviously not, you are going to deliver this homework to Rai's apartment building. The address is inside the folder, understand?"
Shinji nodded in response.
"Good." Kotei walked away from Shinji, adjusting his uniform to look more presentable.
"Have you heard anything from Shiraishi?" The blue eyed boy dared to ask.
Kotei, with an eyebrow raised, looked over his shoulder towards Shinji. "No I haven't… and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. Don't see how it's any of your business."
"I just… wanted to know if he was alright." Shinji admitted, scratching the back of his hand as he said it.
Kotei snorted at that.
"You know… Rai talked about you. He said you were a good guy… I don't know how you convinced him, but I don't buy for a second. I won't forgive you for what you did!"
And with that, Kotei disappeared into the hallway. Shinji, knew on some level that somehow this would happen.
Even so, that didn't mean he wasn't disappointed as well.
'This must be the place.'
Shinji stood right outside the door. All things considered, he wanted to know if Shiraishi was doing alright.
He delicately raised his hand to knock.
Except when his hand connected to the door, it opened by itself.
Through the door was a living room. Or rather a dead room… since no living soul was there.
Shinji couldn't help himself. He went inside.
Taking a look around the place, it was sparse. Only a small screen television, some chairs, little pictures were present around the whole area, the kitchen area not even separated from the main room. It looked like the place hadn't been taken care of for over a week. Or if anyone lived here, they did a poor job. Cobwebs were on the ceiling, and there was some broken stuff on the ground.
Shinji felt his shoes step on something. He looked down to spot he had stepped on a track of dirt. He saw the line of dirt lead into a small hallway. Curiosity on his mind, he followed the trail to see where it lead…
The tracks changed the more he followed. They turned from a line, into circles… into footsteps that ended outside a flat door. Over it was a sign that read Shiraishi Rai's Room. Knock first before entering (especially you Sunako)!
The boy raised a hand towards the door about to knock on it.
However, it slid open.
"How did you get in here!?"
Shinji yelped in surprise. He quickly saw it was the elder Shiraishi (the boy recalled Kotei calling her Sunako. That must be her name).
"Um- sorry! I came by to leave this work and the door was open! It's f-for your brother!"
Sunako looked over the boy. Carefully, she grabbed the folders in Ikari's hands and took them from him.
"Thank you, Ikari was it?" Sunako said. "I'll be sure to take it to him."
As she was about to slide the door closed, Shinji had to ask.
"Sh-Shiraishi? Is he… going to be alright?"
Sunako stopped in her tracks just as the door was about to close fully. The elder Shiraishi opened it back sightly to spare a brief glance, a cold look present in her features.
"He will be."
She entered the room and closed the door behind her.
Shinji took that as his cue to leave. He had no business in this matter.
After that awkward moment, Shinji decided to clear his head.
As such, Spider-Man swung through the city during the nighttime, patrolling the streets he was watching over. He jumped from his web line onto a rooftop, landing on his own two legs.
'Solid landing.' Shinji thought to himself as he stretched out his arms. He looked over the area he was in. The buildings, the people down below…
And the train line that's under construction.
'That's still being built?' Shinji thought to himself. 'I would have thought they had finished by now. I guess construction takes longer than I thought.'
He thought about the earlier visit to Shiraishi's apartment, his mood turning gloom. 'Nobody had seen Shiraishi in a while. I hope he's ok…'
The boy thought the talk they shared during the detention hours was good. He had hoped, even if a little bit, that they could see each other again.
Unfortunately that wasn't what happened.
Shinji knew Shiraishi's disappearance had affected Kotei as well. Credit where it's due, Kotei did care about Shiraishi a whole lot and was worried for his safety. He kept quiet, and hadn't even targeted any students for beatings on the roof for over the week.
Too bad Kotei wasn't going to give Shinji a break any time soon either.
Spider-Man shook his head, launching another web line and swinging on it.
'Since last week, crimes seemed to have decreased.' Spider-Man thought to himself. 'Everything's been quiet, not even a mugger around my neighborhood. Maybe they all decided to pack things up and go home… or is thinking about it going to lead to a huge crime happening?'
BOOM!
'Dammit, why did I have to be right about that?'
Spider-Man swung to where the explosion was heard.
'Oh… Bank robbery. This shouldn't be a problem.'
Spider-Man landed on the crime scene. He crawled up to the ceiling to the place, which gave him a neat vantage point to inspect the robbers. It was a group of five. Three gunners, one familiar man with gauntlets and…
The fourth one weirded him out. Green striped shirt, brown pants, a mask over their face… It seems like there was some light padding around the shoulders. They didn't seem to be carrying any sort of weapons. Shinji couldn't tell from a glance if the person was a man or a woman. Even in spite of carrying no weapons, they had a strong and determined aura radiating off of them.
Shinji decides to be cautious when dealing with that one. For now, he'll go on the offensive. He jumped straight down to meet the criminals below.
"Hey it's you! Uh… I don't think I got your name the first time." Spider-Man taunted to the gauntlet wearing man. "So Shockleberry Finn, back on the streets already?"
Oshiro turned to him with an angry expression. "Shockleberry- MY NAME IS OSHIRO YOU WORTHLESS MAGGOT! This time I won't let you get away, pathetic creature. Kill him!"
The criminals pointed their guns at Spider-Man, but he effortlessly shot webs from both his hands to jam two of the gunners, pulling their guns away in the process. The third gunner managed to fire at the costumed boy, but Spider-Man jumped over him and kicked his legs, knocking him down.
Oshiro prepared his gloves, and soon fired at the wall crawler. The costumed vigilante jumped away from the blast, which instead hit the two disarmed gunners.
"Stay still, Spider-Man!" Shocker yelled out, blasting at the jumping jack Spider-Man dodging all his blasts.
"Sorry, I'm not a big fan of staying still." Spider-Man taunted his enemy. "Or getting killed, that would probably hurt a little. Now let's see if you can take this shocking development!"
THWIP!
The webs surrounded the gauntlets like last time, and shorted them out, just like last time. The difference between this time and last time was that Oshiro wasn't knocked out by the shortage. He turned to the fourth criminal, who had just been standing there the whole time seemingly unsure of what to do.
"Don't just stand there… Sandman, GET HIM!"
Before he could even react Spider-Man jumped right in front of the criminal, punching him directly in the face.
"And that about wraps it-"
However… the surface that the fist connected with began to shift and morph, turning into a softer… sandy one.
"-up?"
The criminal- Sandman, Shinji heard Oshiro call him- raised his own hand… the hand rearranging itself from ordinary human skin before coalescing into hard rock sand, forming a large hammer where the hand used to be!
With the transformation done, he swung the hammer directly at Spider-Man, which sent him flying right into a nearby table.
"Of all the weird things that I thought would happen this month… this I did not see coming-" Shinji said to himself while rubbing his head. His spider-sense tingled, which made him turn his eyes to see the criminal raising both of his hands, sending huge chunks of sand directly onto him!
He managed to dodge the attack by jumping onto the wall, unfortunately sacrificing a perfectly good table in the process by allowing the sand to smash it under it's weight.
Before he could even begin to think of a strategy, Shinji's eyes widened when he saw the criminal's ENTIRE BODY had turned into sand!
The living sandstorm launched itself right at Spider-Man, who couldn't avoid the living sandstorm that surrounded the costumed boy.
The sand shifted downwards, sending Shinji down onto the floor. He groggily tried to get up, but the sand surrounded him again. Inside the whirlwind, several closed fists were formed around the boy, and they all punching him. Hard.
Even with his Spider-Sense ringing off he couldn't do much more than get hit with the insane barrage of punches.
In the end, a final power punch knocked him out of the bank.
While Spider-Man was left utterly wounded and powerless on the streets, the living sandstorm reformed back into their normal form. They walked over to the area they had previously stood throughout the confrontation, and picked up the padded pieces they left behind when they transformed their body.
With the disguise reassembled, the five criminals escaped the bank and drove off in their van, having successfully gotten away with the money.
"Pffft!" Shinji spat out the sand from out of his mouth.
Shinji felt a sense of déjá vu coming over him as he got back on his feet. He thanked God for the healing factor he possessed, otherwise he might have needed to go a hospital.
He opened up the jacket, revealing that sand had gotten into his costume. Shinji then pulled his pants a little bit, sand pouring out through his legs.
A lot of it.
Groaning loudly, Shinji realized he was going to have to clean this off when he got home. He was left wth only a single question.
'Who would ever expect to find a beach in the middle of the city?'
Professor Inumaru expected the boy to leave him alone after that night. He just wanted to finish up his day and leave the classroom as it is so he could see his wife and son. Maybe invite them to a movie.
Shinji Ikari coming through the door and slamming it basically destroyed that hope. He stomped over to the professor, slamming his hands onto the table.
"You mentioned before that there were projects being done in the city." Shinji said. "Yashida provides the facilities for them. Since you work for him, you must know something right?"
Inumaru raised an eyebrow. "I may or may not know… but you're going to have to explain yourself first or else I won't be able to answer your questions, you brat."
Shinji folded his arms. "Last night there was a bank robbery. I went over to stop them as Spider-Man, but when I tried to punch one of the criminals all of a sudden he turned to sand and attacked. What, are you turning people into mutants or something?"
Eyes widening in surprise, the professor rubbed fingers over his chin trying to process this information. "It can't be… they're already conducting human trials?"
"Human trials?!" Shinji cried out in surprise. "What do you mean?"
At that, Inumaru's face became serious. "I don't know for sure… but this must be the work of the elemental division. Much like how our genetics division try to combine the DNA of animals with… something else… they're probably trying to combine elements with the same strands."
"Like sand?" Shinji asked.
"Not just sand, electricity, fire, water…" Inumaru continued. "I didn't expect them to finish up so soon."
"So is there any way of stopping someone like that?" Shinji asked.
"I'm not sure… wait." A bulb lit up on the professor's head, "Did this… Sandman… release sand from their body?"
Shinji looked at him oddly. "Yeah… where you going with this?"
Inumaru continued from there, "Then it's entirely possible the DNA could only affect the host's body, which means they probably can't manipulate the environment around them. Even so, you should avoid areas of sand just in case. No doubt water or cement will be be enough to beat him."
Then the professor grabs a hold of Shinji's shoulder. "Now get out of my office. I don't want to deal with you any more than strictly necessary."
With those words said he pushed the boy out the door like a person would shoo out their annoying dog who peed on the carpet from their house. Harshly and with little remorse.
This did little to weaken Ikari's resolve. He knew exactly what he had to do now, so the boy walked out with a mission to perform.
"Ikari!"
He turned around to see Yamagishi near the corner of the hall.
"Are we going to continue the tutoring today?"
Shinji shook his head negatively, "Sorry Yamagishi, but something important came up. I need to go. Definitely tomorrow!"
She watched him run off. Deep down, Mayumi understood that Shinji had his own things to deal with. Everyone did. Even so, she couldn't help but wonder if he was intentionally avoiding her.
She hoped he didn't see her as worthless.
"Here's your pay for today."
Shun Oshiro handed an envelope to the person in front of him. The Sandman, as codenamed by Kenichiro Yashida, opened up the envelope, retrieving from inside of it a pile of cash. Sandman counted over 200,000 yen in the stack, and was very satisfied with the amount.
"You should feel proud of yourself." Oshiro continued having sensed the Sandman's mood. "Not only do your sand powers work exactly as intended, you also managed to beat the Spider-Man close to a bloody pulp. You'll be getting your money in no time."
No one could see through the mask, but the way the body shook revealed the news filled Sandman with relief.
Oshiro raised one finger to put an end to that though. "However… there is one last thing you need to do. One more job, and the medical treatment will be paid for in full."
The Sandman nodded, eager to take the assignment.
"You must kill Spider-Man."
That eagerness turned sour when those words were heard.
"Don't look so surprised. The little insect has been a disrupting influence on the boss' operations for well over a month! We can't just let him hang around for much longer. Kill the spider, you get your money. Deal?"
The Sandman opened lips to refuse the offer… but stray thoughts drifted to the very reason this was being done to begin with. Why the grafted powers were accepted.
Sandman had no choice but to accept. It would be massively irresponsible to stop now.
Oshiro smirked. "Good. Now here's where you might find him…"
Spider-Man swung through the city once more.
'Whoever the Sandman is, clearly he's working with… Ocean-o?' Shinji went over the situation. 'Those guys are members of the same gang.'
He kept himself on the lookout to see if there was any bank robbery in progress, or some shipment being made.
What he had learned over the course of a month was that the shocker guy was just a small fish in a large pond. He's limited to bank robberies for some reason, probably a test before he earns Yashida's respect or something. Yashida must also trust him enough to use the sand person experiment in these robberies.
With this information, anywhere where that Oshiro guy was doing crime, the Sandman would there too.
That's why the costumed vigilante was swinging to make sure he's not missing anything in his search. He has to track down Sandman fast or else. 'I mean, who knows what might happen?'
Suddenly a sandstorm came, the strong currents pushing Spider-Man onto the ground.
'That… that might happen.'
Shinji pulled himself up from the ground, ready to fight.
He looked around to notice he was… in a construction site.
The same construction site where he fought the Rhino last week.
Which was filled with lots and lots of sand.
'Greattoo,' Shinji thought to himself in engrish. He noticed around the area there was the exploded canister from last time, some construction trucks, a cement mixer, and a hose connected to a pipe. The building being made had made some progress, the beams going slightly higher than before.
Then, a small whirlwind appeared in front of him, reforming into a vaguely humanoid shape with no obvious features.
Huge sand bags for fists punched Spider-Man into a support beam before he could even react. The sand then starts surrounding the web swinger, sticking Spider-Man to the beam slowly crushing him to death.
Shinji knew he had to act fast. His body slowly losing to the sand made it hard to think. He took a quick glance to see if there was anything he could use.
He saw the cement mixer was next to the Sandman. Spider-Man launched a web line to the switch, pulling it. The mixer released the cement, making it drip around on the ground. Just enough cement passed through Sandman's feet to trap them.
As Sandman looked down confused, the sand arms briefly let go of Spider-Man, a big mistake since he jumped away and took cover behind a truck.
The Sandman was unable to break out of the cement on his own. However, he decided that even with the cement there was still potential for a counterattack. His arms turned into giant hands that surrounded the truck.
Too bad for Sandman, Spider-Man hid under said truck.
Shinji took his time to analyze the situation. The fact that Sandman has reached out with his hands rather than summon the sand around the area had confirmed Inumaru's theory that it could only be generated from the body rather than the environment. This makes things easier, since now he could have something approaching a plan.
The cement was a neat trick to keep Sandman in place, but Shinji doesn't know if there's enough to hold them there. Water… Shinji needs to find water-
Spider senses tingling immediately alerted him to dodge a squashing hand.
With Spider-Man now out in the open, the Sandman turned both hands turned into hammers, trying everything possible try to whack him with them. However, Spider-Man's reflexes were just quick enough to dodge the incoming attacks!
The wall crawler jumped around the beams, none of Sandman's attacks hitting him. Shinji caught sight of the hose on the ground.
With the goal set, he jumped from near the top of the beams across the court… landing on the ground behind the Sandman. He grabbed the hose and sprayed it all over Sandman before they could even react.
Having had enough of the fight, Spider-Man jumped right in front of the muddied Sandman and punched his lights out!
The living sandstorm landed on the ground. Their feet stuck to the cement, the muddied legs stretched out and as the sand slowly coalesced back into a more human form. Their hand reached out to the sky, as if they were looking for someone.
"No… not like this…" They groaned out.
"I'd say that was a fun time in the beach… but then I'd be lying." Spider-Man walked over to the Sandman. This time, he could get a good look at the face.
He was surprised at who it was.
"… Shiraishi?"
Shun Oshiro tipped his hat to Sunako as he shooed away the doctor.
"Good afternoon, Miss, My deepest condolences to you and your brother."
Recognition was in Rai's eyes. "Wait a sec- I know you. You're the Shocker guy Spider-Man fought!"
Oshiro gave him look that was… well, like a convicted felon who didn't want to be reminded of the time he got caught. He ignored the comment. "Anyway Shiraishi, you've always done good work for the Kuzuryu. Which is why we have a proposal for you."
Rai's widened. He turned to face Sunako. "Sunako… you work for him? You're a criminal?"
Sunako turned away, making sure Rai couldn't see her eyes. She stood up and confronted the man in front of her.
"What kind of proposal?"
Oshiro smiled. "A proposal that could save your brother's life and restore his ability to walk… for a price."
Sunako Shiraishi laid before Shinji, her eyes wide in fear. Her muddied body was unable to change it's shape, having hardened already.
"Get away… stay back!"
The boy was surprised at this turn of events. He tried to reach out with his hand, "Shiraishi, what happened to yo-"
"SHUT UP! You have no idea what I've been through! What I've sacrificed!" Sunako shouted, trying desperately to escape but could not.
The gate opened up behind the two, sirens sounding off.
"Sacrificed what?" Shinji said, "What happened, let me help you!"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
The boy turned around and saw the cops, who were all pointing guns at the two of them.
Shinji raised his hands, "Wait stop, you don't understand-"
"YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR"
"But hold on, I can explain!" The costumed vigilante tried to say, but his words were drowned out by the sirens blaring.
"WE SAID STAND DOWN! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"
Shinji realized at this moment the cops would only shoot him if he stayed. As such-
THWIP!
"FIRE!"
As the gun shots fired on, Spider-Man swung on a web line to make a clean get away. When he stood on the rooftop, Shinji looked back to the construction site one more time.
He had so many questions about Shiraishi he wanted to ask… but those answers will have to wait. Spider-Man leaped across rooftops to leave.
For now, the fate of Sunako Shiraishi shall remain uncertain…
"Good news Mr. Yashida, the Shiraishi girl has been contained."
Yashida was pleased at this news. Their first experiment with combined DNA was a success. While 'Sandman' was defeated by the obnoxious wall crawler, it was shown that the HERZ science divisions he housed not only were viable, but could produce effective weapons of mass destruction. Already he realized he can make money selling it off to military contractors or black market dealers.
Either way, the Kuzuryu crime boss is happy for once.
"Wait… oh no, this isn't good sir. Shiraishi has escaped the containment cell!"
That happiness came to a swift and unfruitful end. Yashida closed his hand around the phone tightly.
"What?! How!? We had the cell made specifically to contain her!" Kenichiro shouted into the phone.
The other line let out a small gasp, then continued.
"No sir… the other one… Shiraishi Rai. He shorted out the doors with his bare hands!"
Author Notes:
The great thing about Spider-Man villains is that they're very flexible and prone to change. Unlike Batman's bad guys who are always meant to have fixed identities (Edward Nygma is always the Riddler), you can basically make up new characters to fulfill the same roles. That's why I've made the changes I did to the villains. Shinji Ikari has similarities to Peter Parker, but that doesn't mean he IS him. He's not a super genius, in fact I see him working more in a restaurant than in any scientific field. His journey has to be different, and his enemies need to match. They can't just be Spider-Man's villains… they need to be Shinji Ikari's villains too.
I've noticed some people were confused as to what costume Shinji is wearing. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 2:
He had a red jacket with no sleeves, instead showing white sleeves which were also the color of his pants. He had some black gloves and a white mask, with some odd yellow lensed goggles on top of it. In the center of the jacket was a little squiggly symbol of a spider.
Basically, it's a version of the Homemade outfit Peter wore in the MCU before getting the suit from Stark. The differences are in that the blue parts of the outfit and the mask are grayish white instead of blue and the goggles have yellow lenses. This is due to Shinji basing the design off of the original Ultraman. He won't get the classic outfit until waaayyy later. It's something he has to "earn" so to speak.
Anyway, tune in next time, for how Rai Shiraishi managed to escape, and probably the second, and arguably bigger change to the Evangelion canon aside from the very premise of this story!