Chapter 4: Target

"Text" = Speech

"Text" = Thoughts

"Man identified as Ive Laster, age 26 found dead last night…" Peter mumbled out, completely in shock of what he was reading.

"Huh? I'm sorry, what did you say Peter? It sounded like-" Monika must have surely misheard that, there was no way-

"Ive Laster, the guy that the laptop belongs to, he's dead. The police found him last night."

"H-He's dead?! What happened?!"

"I'm not sure, the NYPD haven't released any more information yet other than that they suspect foul play."

"Foul play…then they think he was murdered? That's horrible…"

"Yeah it is...You…didn't know anything about this right?" Peter asked with a slightly accusatory tone.

"What? Of course not! Why would you think that?!" She really took offense to Peter's nonsensical accusation. She knew he was suspicious of her, but this was ridiculous.

"...Yeah, yeah you probably couldn't have known about it, sorry," Unless Monika was just a master actress, she didn't learn about her creation and her creators until just moments ago. Meaning she couldn't possibly have known about Ive Laster's death, "But it's just the timing is incredibly suspicious don't you think? I find this guy's laptop in the trash with you inside, a secret super high-tech program and then the next day he turns up dead?"

"I see what you mean, but I swear I really didn't know anything about this. I mean how do we even know it's the same person who died, it could just be a coincidence."

"Well Ive Laster isn't exactly the most common name out there and in my experience these things are never coincidences, but I guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves."

"Find out for ourselves?" She did not like where this was going.

Peter slipped on his Spidey mask and Monika appeared in front of him, "I'll swing down to the precinct that's handling the investigation and take a look at what they know."

"Oh, do you have a police officer that you're friends with there or something?"

"Uh not exactly, I'm not really on the good side of the law since I wrecked the Statue of Liberty."

"You wrecked what?!"

"In my defense I think I made it look better. The point is, I can't go around asking for favors from the cops for the moment." Peter continued to get dressed in his costume, "But I still have my ways to get information."

"That doesn't sound very legal or safe Peter," Monika crossed her arms, "Why not just wait until the police release their findings publically?"

"Someone has already died, supposedly murdered. I can't afford to wait around. Of course there's always a chance this was one big coincidence and this isn't even the same guy, but regardless I have the responsibility to investigate."

"..." Monika looked at him with clear discomfort in her eyes.

"Don't worry so much about me, I can handle myself. The cops won't even know I was there."

"...Alright if you say so."

With Monika's reluctant approval Spider-Man opened his apartment window and leaped out of it, web-slinging towards his intended destination. And though neither of them mentioned it, both Peter and Monika were filled with dread about what the truth of the situation could be.

As the two of them made their way to the precinct Peter was trying to wrap his head around the startling new development, "I had my concerns about this weird situation with Monika before but if Ive really was murdered then that changes everything. Monika's existence is likely a huge corporate secret and Monika herself along with my copy of the game is probably worth a lot of money and could be potentially dangerous in the wrong hands. There's no way Ive's laptop could have just been thrown out by accident right? Was Ive trying to hide it from someone? There's a lot of people who'd want to get their hands on that laptop from rival companies, criminals, or even Metaverse themselves…"

Meanwhile, Monika was floating beside Peter as he swung through the air. She could feel the tension in the air and Peter's unease, that was of course to be expected as they were both troubled by the news of Ive Laster's death, but Monika thought she should do something to lighten the mood a little, "Maybe some friendly conversation would help? Hmm, but what to talk about? I still barely know anything about him. Sayori was always better at this stuff than me…" Then Monika watched Peter sling from one webline to another with the confidence and finesse of a master acrobat and got an idea.

"How are you able to swing around like that? I'd be scared to death. I mean my heart is racing right now and I'm not even the one swinging."

Monika's question snapped him out of his thoughts, "Oh well to be honest web-slinging was pretty nerve-wracking the first time, but I got used to it pretty quickly, almost like some kind of spider instinct took over."

"Well I'm no arachnologist, but I don't think most spiders swing from building to building like you are."

"Heh, I suppose not. Speaking of web-swinging though, I actually used to be scared of heights, I had been scared of them my whole life and getting powers didn't change that. I had to get over it myself by jumping off the Washington Monument."

"The Washington Monument in DC? I'm sure there's an interesting story behind that," At this point Monika wasn't sure if these stories Peter were mentioning were true or he was just saying random things to mess with her.

"There is, but y'know I actually find web-slinging and high-places very relaxing now. It gives me a lot of freedom and peace of mind."

"Well even though it isn't my preferred method of transportation I must admit that I enjoy the view," Monika looked down to see the numerous New York's citizens walking down on the streets below, going about their busy lives. She imagined that some of them were going to work, some to school and some might even be headed to a date. Regardless they were all real and she was amongst them at last, unchained from her role in a predetermined story. Whatever struggles she had gone through and whatever struggles she would face in the future, it was all worth it for this.

"Yeah it is a pretty nice view…at least when there isn't a crazy naked guy streaking down the street…You're also lucky you can't smell anything…"

"I'll take your word for it," Monika gave an awkward laugh.

Peter discreetly landed on the side of the police precinct trying his best not to be noticed by any security cameras or any bystanders below.

"So what exactly is your plan? This is police headquarters I can't imagine it's very easy to sneak in-"

"Nice they left a window open," Peter opened the slightly ajar window and climbed in before closing behind him.

"...I'm starting to feel like the butt of a joke."

The small room Peter had entered was a luckily empty janitorial closet filled with various cleaning supplies. The closet had a singular door and he could hear the sounds of the bustling office from the other side.

"Can't go through that way, I guess I'll have to do the typical thing…" Peter glanced towards an air vent above and jumped up to the ceiling. Spider-Man pulled off the metal cover from the air vent and crawled inside the duct.

"I thought that crawling through air ducts only worked in movies?"

"Well if you've got spider-powers like me then it works in real life too," At this point air-ducts had basically become a second home for the vigilante due to the countless times he had used them to sneak around places, "Now Monika do you think you could do a scan of the area so I can see the layout of the building? I'd rather not get lost in this place." [1]

"Oh?! Sure, just give me a second," Monika was slightly caught off guard by Peter's request, "He's actually asking me for help? That's some progress right? Maybe he's starting to warm up to me! I'd better not keep him waiting!" Monika activated the scanner in Peter's lenses which scanned the surrounding area and constructed a 3D map of the police building, "Alright I got it. I'm bringing it up now."

In the bottom-left of Peter's field of vision, the layout of the police precinct appeared, "Great, this should make navigating easier." Using the map as a guide, Peter silently crawled through the vents of the building until he reached his intended destination, the precinct's server room. Peering through the vent cover Peter saw that the room was empty of any police personnel, "Lucky us, there's nobody here."

"True, but be careful of that security camera." Monika projected herself on the ground below and pointed to a corner of the room, "Look it's over there."

Sure enough, there was a CCTV camera in the direction Monika was pointing. Seeing this, Spider-Man removed the vent cover and crawled across the ceiling, being careful to stay in the blindspot of the security camera. Once he was close enough, he carefully tampered with the security camera's wiring and disabled it. Hopefully the police would see it as a simple malfunction. With the coast now clear Spider-Man dropped from the ceiling onto the floor below.

"Piece of cake, see I told you the police won't even know I was here," Peter boasted to Monika.

"Don't jinx yourself now Peter, someone could come in at any moment."

"She has a point I better mosey…" Peter approached one of the computer towers, pulled out a wire from the tower and plugged it into his phone. However the second Peter's phone was connected to the computer, Monika also became connected, "Okay now to-"

"Oh! I'm in!" The AI girl's sudden exclamation startled Peter.

"You're what now?" There was no way Monika could have managed to get into the database that quickly unless…

"I can access their system now! It was surprisingly easy. Let me see if I can pull up Ive's case file…"

"So then Monika even has Karen's hacking abilities now…" He had seen Monika's ability to manipulate her game and it was somewhat impressive, but hacking into a police network seemed a little above her skill level. She had even admitted herself that she only knew so much about this kind of stuff, "Monika has clearly leveled up by integrating herself in my suit, that'll be useful going forward, but also potentially dangerous…"

"I've got Ive's file Peter! I'll pull it up for you now."

A moment later and the police report appeared on Peter's hud, "Let's see…yeah I think this is everything they have so far on Ive's murder. We can look through it more closely later, for now let's bounce before someone comes back from their donut break."

Monika gave him a thumbs up in response, not wanting Peter to stick around here any longer than necessary, no pun intended. Spider-Man leapt onto the ceiling and exited the room through the air vent. As he was entering the vent he could hear the sound of someone entering the server room.

"I'm telling you man, the guy robbing the place was wearing these huge metal stilts! It was crazy!" a man exclaimed to his co-worker.

"Stilts? Geez, where do these weirdos get the idea for this stuff…" the other man replied.

"Looks like I made it out just in time…" Peter thought to himself as he continued to make his stealthy exit, "Also was that guy serious about the stilts…?"

"Phew, that was a little too close for comfort, but we should be safe from here" However that small comfort was quickly replaced with a feeling of anxiousness. She didn't know what kind of information they would find in that police report, but somehow Monika instinctively knew that it wouldn't be good, "Please, please let this just be a simple misunderstanding or accident so we can move on. Please don't let this drag Peter down into something he shouldn't be a part of…"

After their quick trip back through the ventilation system, Peter and Monika exited the police station the same way they came in. Once they were outside, Spider-Man swung away from the building as quickly as possible. When he felt they were a decent enough distance away, Peter landed on an empty rooftop and Monika projected herself infront of him as usual.

"We should be good now. I don't think anyone saw me leave the building, so hopefully the police won't ever notice our little escapade today."

Monika internally sighed, "There's no point in trying to deny it is there? The love of my life is a full-on criminal…"

"C'mon don't look at me like that, this was for the greater good," Peter saw Monika's flat expression and tried to defend himself, "Look I'll write an apology letter for them some other time, right now let's review Ive's file."

"Alright, here it is," with a wave of her hand Monika brought up the police file on Peter's HUD.

"First thing first, let's make sure the victim really is our Ive Laster." The file contained a picture of the victim driver license, this Ive was caucasian with short orangish hair and freckles. Peter then took to Google images, searching for "Metaverse Enterprise Ive Laster'' and sure enough pictures of the same man from the report showed up, "Well that settles that…"

"So it really was him who died…" Monika wasn't sure how to feel about Ive Laster's death. On one hand he was one of her creators who gave life to her. She wouldn't exist in her current form without him, but on the other hand he was also responsible for the torture she went through in that game.

"Now the question is why…it says here that his body was found around 11pm last night in a back alley, with his estimated time of death being around the same time as rigor mortis hadn't begun yet."

"If I remember correctly you were playing the game during that same time."

"Yeah and the location of Ive's body isn't that far from where I had found his laptop," It was highly unlikely that was just happenstance, there had to be a connection between Ive's laptop and his untimely death "The report says Ive was killed by being impaled in the forehead but Ive's body was covered in multiple cuts and lacerations, but there was no signs of Ive fighting back against his attacker."

"Ugh! That's so terrible!" Monika shook her head in disgust, "But wait a minute, if Ive didn't fight back against his attacker, how did he get all those minor wounds?"

"The report mentions a long trail of blood leading to where Ive's body was found, so I think whoever killed Ive likely was chasing him and slowly whittled him down with small wounds until he couldn't escape and then finished him off." This crime was far from a robbery gone wrong or a random hit and run. No by the looks of it, someone had been hunting Ive Laster.

"They were basically torturing him…" Monika rubbed her arm in discomfort, "What a cruel way to die…"

"..." Peter pulled up the crime scene photos on his HUD, which displayed Ive's corpse. As the report had mentioned, Ive's body was covered in cuts and blood. However, one thing that was unexpected was the sight of a playing card deeply logged into 's forehead, along with other cards impaled in various parts of his body, "What the…!"

"O-Oh my god!" Monika's face went pale, "Are those playing cards?!"

"Y-Yeah…" Peter clenched his fists, this was no ordinary killer. Only a special kind of monster was capable of doing something this cruel, this horrendous. It reminded Peter of him.

"What an unbelievably sick thing to do to a person…" Monika shifted around uncomfortably for a moment before she removed the picture from both of their views.

"Hey!"

"...I'm sorry but I can't stand to look at that anymore." The virtual girl's feelings about her creator were complicated, but she knew that he didn't deserve this.

"...That's…" That last statement really irked Peter but for a moment he hesitated to respond. A lot of things Monika had said up until now had bothered him, but he was unsure if calling attention to it was worth it, "...Aw screw it, might as well rip this band-aid off now."

"...That's a little surprising."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I just didn't take you for the squeamish type, I mean you had no reaction to seeing Yuri's dead body, and she was your friend."

"Where is this coming from?" Monika was taken aback, "T-That's completely different Peter. Ive Laster is a real person, Yuri was-"

"She was as real as you are. They all were. The only difference between you and them is the "elevated access" you have. Even that aside, Yuri still looked like a person."

"You don't understand…"

"You're right I don't understand. I don't understand how you can act so normal after everything that you did in that game. You manipulated your friends into killing themselves, but you're acting like nothing happened!"

"..."

"For the record, I do feel bad for you and I know that you aren't entirely at fault for your actions. You were forcefully placed in a situation that would have driven anybody crazy. So I don't hate you for that."

"...I'm sorry I'm confused, if you're not upset about that, then what is the problem?"

Peter let out a sigh, "...The problem is that you're a walking contradiction. If you felt incredibly guilty and depressed about what you did, I could understand that. If you had truly gone mad because of what happened and you didn't care about anyone beside yourself then I could also understand that. The problem is that you aren't acting either way. You sometimes act like a person with genuine compassion in their heart but then you don't seemingly don't care about the lives of your friends, the people you've spent the most time with. It just doesn't add up." Peter thought Monika had to be lying to herself, it was the only explanation that made sense to him, "So you're either lying about caring about anyone or you're lying about not caring about your friends. And despite everything I don't think you're a bad person. So if you ever want to talk about what happened, about how you really feel about everything, I'm all ears."

An awkward moment of silence passed between the two teens. Though her expression remained neutral her heart was racing. Peter's words had struck a nerve in a way that almost made her lose her composure, "He's wrong. I don't care about them. They weren't real. They weren't real. Don't think about it, don't think about it…"

"...I'll keep that in mind Peter, but I'm really fine. So where do we go from here?" Monika turned her back to him, "We know Ive was killed by some kind of crazy person but what now? Should we wait for the police to investigate more or…"

"...I guess she still needs more time." Peter was disappointed in Monika's response but decided not to press the issue any further. They did have work to do after all, "...Well the first thing we need to do is find Ive's murderer and take them down."

Monika's eyes went wide and turned back around to face Peter, "Wait, you want to go after Ive's killer?! Didn't you see what they did to him? This guy is really dangerous Peter!"

"All the more reason I need to take this guy down." He could allow a crazy person like that running around New York freely.

"I'm being serious, you could get hurt! You could die!"

"Against a guy who uses playing cards? Please. I've taken on much more dangerous guys."

"But why take that risk at all?! Ive Laster's death and all this Metaverse stuff has nothing to do with you! It isn't your job to deal with it. Please Peter, I'm begging you, I don't want you to get wrapped up in whatever this is. I want you to be safe."

"I…" Memories of when Aunt May had first found out his secret rushed into his brain. Over time his aunt became more supportive of his superhero career but in the beginning things had been rough between the two of them.

"I don't want to lose you and I'm sure I'm not the only one! Think about your family and your friends! I'm sure they'd be heartbroken if something bad happened to you."

"...No they wouldn't…" It was the hard truth, there wasn't a soul left on Earth that still cared about Peter Parker.

"Why would you say that?" Was Peter impling he wasn't on good terms with his friends and family? If that was true, it could explain some of Peter's behavior. Does he really believe that no one would miss him if he got hurt or worse?"If that is the case then that's so tragic...Peter deserve's to know that people care about him, that I care about him."

"That's…not important right now, what is important is stopping Ive's killer before they hurt anyone else and finding out why they did it…You said before that this "isn't my job" but is. I'm Spider-Man, I can't ignore someone in trouble or an obvious threat to the city."

"But why do you have to be Spider-Man…?" Monika closed her eyes and took a deep breath before composing herself. There was no point in trying to argue with Peter any further now. She'd have to wait until things cooled down before trying again. The virtual girl wouldn't give up though, after all the love of her life's safety was on the line, "Okay then if that's what you believe, I'll ask you again, where do we go from here?'"

Peter didn't get the impression that Monika had been swayed by his words but he decided to move on, "Well the police report didn't give us much information about the killer beside their odd choice of weaponry…so the best way to figure out who killed Ive is to find out why someone would want to kill him in the first. The report lists his apartment address on it. We should start looking for clues there."

"Makes sense. Let's hope the cops aren't all over the place. I think we've had enough close encounters for today. Alright, I've marked Ive's address on your map."

"Thanks, this sure beats google maps," With their destination set, Spider-Man shot a web line to a nearby building and pulled himself into the air.

As Spider-Man was on his way to Ive's address, he noticed a distressed-looking kid reaching out of an apartment window. He seemed to be struggling to reach a black cat standing on the next door window sill. Seeing this Peter changed his direction and swung onto the building's wall.

"You okay kid? You look a little young to be in animal control."

"Spider-Man?! It's my cat, I accidentally left the window open and she just hopped out and jumped across to the next window."

"Gotcha. Don't worry I'll get her for you," Spider-Man crawled over to the window sill the cat and attempted to grab the cat. However whenever his hand got close, the cat would hiss and claw at him. So in the end Peter had to cover the cat's body in a small cocoon of webbing, before handing the pet back to the boy.

"She's all sticky now…" The young boy awkwardly held the cat in his hands.

"Yeah sorry about that, the webbing will dissolve in an hour. Make sure you keep those windows closed next time."

"I will, thanks Spider-Man!" They gave the hero a bright smile.

"No problem, it's what I'm here for," Spider-Man gave a two finger salute and swung away.

"Aw, that was a nice thing to do Peter," Monika finally spoke up, "I'm a little surprised though, I figured with how passionately you were talking about finding Ive's killer earlier that you wouldn't want to take any detours."

"Well it's not like I spent that much time helping that kid, besides this kind of stuff is important in its own way."

"Hmm, I suppose it is."

A few minutes of web slinging later, Spider-Man reached Ive's apartment. Peter landed on the fire escape and peered into Ive's apartment through a window. The first thing Peter and Monika noticed was that Ive's apartment looked like it had been turned inside out. Furniture was knocked over and ripped open and books and papers were spilled all over the floor. There was also a noticeable amount of nerd collectables and memorabilia knocked to the ground.

"What a mess…"

"I don't see any clear signs of a struggle. I think someone tore up the place looking for something…"

"Either that or Ive was throwing one hell of a party…" From the police tape by the entrance it seemed that the police had been here earlier, but there didn't appear to be anyone here now. Peter noticed that one of the apartment's windows had signs of being forcibly opened from the outside, which is likely how the intruder got inside. Being careful to not disturb anything, Spider-Man entered the room through the open window.

"You know for someone who is supposed to be a hero, you sure have a knack for breaking and entering."

"Is it really breaking and entering if the place has already been broken and entered before you?" Peter glanced across the room, Monika was probably right that someone had been looking for something in Ive's apartment, but considering how much of a mess they made it seemed they had a hard time finding it, "I wonder what they were looking for? Ive's laptop perhaps?"

"It doesn't look like any of his other valuables were taken, so it's possible…but wouldn't that mean they were after me?"

"And if they were, that only brings up more questions. From those emails it seemed like the game was supposed to be a secret project even among Metaverse Enterprise. Nobody even knows that Doki Doki Literature Club is associated with Metaverse Enterprise, let alone Ive Laster. So how did our mystery assailant find out about it?"

"Hang on, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We can't say for certain that they were after Ive's laptop. I'm sure Laster was working on other projects aside from the game, who's to say this break-in wasn't related to that?"

"Fair point, let's look around more," Spider-Man carefully tipped toed around the mess around the floor carefully eyeing the various papers spilled on the floor to see had any useful information. Monika also looked around for any clues, but as she observed the room and paid attention to the fallen furniture, the color of walls and its general layout she slowly began to realize something, "This place…it feels familiar somehow…Have I been here before? But that can't possibly be right." Monika didn't have any memory of anyone opening the game before Peter, but she was on Ive's laptop so it would make sense that the man would have turned on the game before, "But if that's the case why don't I remember anything…"

"Ugh nothing here seems very important, mostly just random bills, mail, and a lot of receipts for anime figures. C'mon Ive, you've got to give me something to work with…" However as Peter was thinking this, a certain bill caught his eye, "Oh ho, what do we have here?"

Peter's words snapped Monika out of her thought, "Did you find something?"

"Yeah, this is a receipt for a hotel. It's not too far from where Ive's body was found. Looks like Ive had booked a room to stay for a couple of weeks."

"He did say that he was going on vacation in that email. That means he probably wasn't here when the break-in happened."

"It also means his laptop probably wasn't here either. But it's odd, why would Ive bring his work laptop with him on vacation? And why didn't the police find the hotel key on his body?"

"That's a good point. There's also the matter of the length of the booking. I'm pretty sure that email said he was going on vacation for 1 week…" Monika pulled up the email in question on screen.

I'm on leave the rest of the week - contact Ravi if you need to schedule server time, but I expect my jobs to run for a few days since we've collected so much data this week. How about we arrange a meeting to discuss the results when I return?

"You see? He was only supposed to be gone from work for a week, so then why did book a hotel for multiple weeks?"

Peter pondered for a moment before replying "...Maybe it's because he wasn't planning on coming back. Anyways, we have our next lead, we should-"

DANGER!

Peter quickly dropped to the ground as a sharp object broke through the apartment window and whizzed by where his head was moments earlier, passing through Monika's body before lodging itself into the floor.

"Peter?!" Monika had been caught completely by surprise by that sudden attack, but luckily Peter somehow had narrowly avoided it, "What was that?! Where did it come from?"

"Seems like we've got a party crasher," Peter looked towards the object that nearly bisected his head, to his surprise it was the same kind of weapon than ended Ive Laster's life, a razor sharp playing card, "This is-!"

*CRASH!*

This time a spinning dagger burst through another window, however this projectile was seemingly way off the mark not coming close to Peter and instead flying towards the wall opposite to him. However unexpectedly the dagger actually ricocheted off the wall, changing its trajectory and was now heading straight towards Peter.

"Wha-" Spider-Man barely managed to move out of the way in time as the dagger approached him, causing his shoulder to get cut in the process, "Argh! How did-"

"Oh my god, Peter you're bleeding! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, it wasn't a deep cut." Peter clasped his now bleeding shoulder, "But that guy out there must be Ive's killer!" But what was he doing here and now?!

"Ive's Killer?! T-Then we've gotta get out of here right-"

Spider-Man suddenly jumped to the ceiling as another knife came flying from the window, ricocheted off a knocked down chair and was sent flying towards where Peter had been.

"Believe me, I'd love to get out of here, but this guy somehow might have an even crazier aim than Hawkeye, so that's going to be difficult!" Spider-Man crawled along the ceiling and took a quick peek out of one of the windows before quickly retracting his head as a razor sharp card flew by, "Can't leave that way, I'll be a sitting duck! The front door is also in clear view from that window so that's a bad idea."

"How does that guy even know where you are?!"

"Either they have x-ray vision or…" Peter rolled across the ceiling as a knife bounced off the floor below and up into the roof, "I think I have an idea, but I'll need your help."

"Me?!" Monika's face quickly changed from surprise to a look of determination, "Alright, what do you need!"

Peter whipped out his phone and began texting instructions.

Watching the apartment from the adjacent apartment building was a man dressed head to toe in a black suit with white gloves and boots and a white bullseye on his forehead. The man in black was holding a fancy pair of binoculars, with a microphone built in that amplified sound from far away, in one hand while holding another dagger ready to be thrown in his free hand.

*THWIP!* *THWIP* *THWIP*

The room his target was in was suddenly covered with a blanket white webbing obscuring his vision of the inside. It was a clever trick, but ultimately futile, he didn't need to see to hit his target, their sound was more than enough. The assassin waited patiently for the sound of his target attempting to make his exit.

Then it happened, the tap tap tap of someone running on hardwood coming near where the apartment's front door would be. The assassin in black smiled and immediately threw his blade weapon, before quickly tossing more for good measure. The weapons cut through pieces of webbing before disappearing into the room.

There was a beat and the assassin heard the sound of something fall to the ground with a *THUMP!* That seemed like a good sign, however he didn't have eyes on his target so he couldn't confirm the kill. He also didn't hear the sound of his weapons making contact. The assassin was beginning to get a little annoyed, he hadn't faced a target this squirrely since him. The man quickly shook that thought out of his head and pulled out his grappling hook to move in closer, however…

*THWIP!* *THWIP!*

The man was suddenly pelted by a barrage of webbing covering both his hands and feet before he could react. The assassin turned to the direction of where the webs had come from and saw his target swinging straight toward him.

"Incoming!" The man tried to break free, but it was too late as his target swing kicked him straight in the face. The force of the kick broke his feet free from the webbing and sent him tumbling across the rooftop.

"That was for damaging up my suit, I spent a lot of time on it, you know!"

The assassin quickly cut one of his hands free from the webbing and threw another card, but his target causally dodged to the side and landed another punch across his face, knocking the assassin backwards.

"That reminds me, those were some fancy card tricks earlier, do you do parties?"

The man in black gave the vigilante a creepy blood filled grin, before pulling out a handgun and opening fire on Spider-Man.

"Oh so you also use normal weapons of murder too! Good to know!" Spider-Man was fast and agile enough to dodge the bullets, but the hitman's superhuman aim made it more challenging than usual and as a result a few shots managed to graze his body.

Meanwhile Monika observed the fight in silence, her heart beating like a jackhammer. She so desperately wanted to cry out but she couldn't afford to ruin Peter's concentration, "Please finish this quickly Peter!"

"Alright that's enough you Hawkeye-wannabe!" Spider-Man fired a webshot directly into the nuzzle of the hitman's gun rendering it useless. The man in black was caught off guard by the turn of events, giving Peter the chance to close the distance between the two. Spider-Man grabbed the hitman with one hand and slammed him onto the rooftop before spraying the man with his webbing, pinning him down. The assassin struggled to break free, but his target just kept adding layers after layers, wrapping him in a cocoon of webbing stuck to the ground.

"You can struggle all you want pal, but not even Captain America could get out of this. Now I've got some questions for you but first I'm gonna need you to take a nap," the assassin's eyes went open for a moment, before Spider-Man brought his fist down on the hitman, knocking him out.

"Thank goodness that's over," Monika appeared on the rooftop next to Peter, "...Not that I care about you hitting the man that almost killed you, but should have you knocked him out?". She was glad that the man in black seemed to be out for the count but she couldn't help but think it was counterproductive if Peter wanted to interrogate the man.

"Yeah with his type, I can't afford to take chances. I'll take his weapons off him then we can talk."

"Good point better be safe than sorry."

"Thanks for the assistance by the way," Peter's plan had worked perfectly, he'd figured that his attacker was using sound to detect his location, so he had Monika play sounds on his phone (which he purposely place by the apartment's door) to distract the hitman while he quietly slipped out of the apartment and got the jump on his attacker.

"No problem, you know you can count on me for anything. I am the club president after all!"

"Now before we interrogate this guy, let me grab my phone before the police collect it as evidence."

"Speaking of, you totally made a mess of the crime scene with your little stunt just now. Is that alright?"

"...Oh…well…he started it."

"..."

One quick trip to grab his phone and a few minutes spent carefully disarming the assassin of the various weapons on his person later and Peter was finally ready to ask the man in black some questions.

"So this is the man who murdered Ive Laster." Monika's face was full of disgust.

"More than likely, I don't know anyone else who uses playing cards like that."

"...Let's just get this over with quickly."

Peter nodded in agreement before crouching down and giving some quick slaps to the assassin's face, "Wakey, Wakey Target-Man!"

The man's eyes jolted open and he immediately began struggling against the webbing. Spider-Man jumped back a little, "Sorry pal but like I said before you're not getting out of that anytime soon, especially without your knick-knacks," Spidey gestured to the pile of tools and weapons safely webbed down and out of reach of the assassin.

Seeing this the man in black decided to stop his resistance and relaxed his body. His face showed no signs of being disheartened by his capture. Monika felt very creepted out that the man didn't seem all that perturbed by his current situation.

"Alright first things first, introductions. I'm your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, but I assume you already knew that. But what about you, what's your name?"

"...I'm Bullseye."

"Oh god, he has a weird name too…"

"...A Toy Story fan I see…Alright Bullseye, did you kill this man?" Peter pulled up a picture of Ive Laster on his phone and showed it to the killer.

"And what if I did?"

"Why did you do it? Why did you kill him?" Spider-Man's eyes narrowed.

"Because it's my job, because I'm good at it"

Peter was slightly surprised by Bullseye's carefree response. He hadn't expected the assassin to answer so easily, "So someone hired you. Makes sense, you and Ive don't look like you hang out in the same crowd. Okay then, who hired you and why?"

"No idea, it was an anonymous bounty."

"Oh really? That's certainly convenient. If your employer was anonymous then how were you expecting to get paid?"

Bullseye let out a chuckle, "You really have no idea how this kind of stuff works do you?"

"I'm being serious, you must have some sort of way of contacting your client. Even if it's through a middle man or something."

"..."

"I don't think a professional killer like himself would sell out his employers, but I also don't think he's lying about not knowing who hired him, I'll doubt you'll get him to reveal anything more through this line of questioning."

"...Was attacking me a part of your job too? Or were hired to take care of anyone who was investigating Ive Laster's death."

Bullseye thought about Spider-Man's question for a few seconds before replying, "...Alright, because you impressed me, I'll give you this one for free. Not too long after I finished offing the Laster guy I was informed about a new bounty. This one came from the same source as the first, but this time they wanted you and some stupid laptop you're supposed to have."

Monika felt her heart skip a beat after hearing that.

"Actually I was supposed to take that same laptop from Laster, but the little nerd didn't have it on him."

"They knew I had the laptop?! But how?! My antivirus should have found any tracking programs…"

"I'd figured if you had the laptop, then you and Laster had some kind of connection, so I decided to stake out here."

"And now here we are. I've got to admit you're being surprisingly helpful for someone who tried to kill me."

"You were able to dodge my shots. Not many people can do that."

"Well I am pretty amazing-"

"-I'll make it even more fun to kill you." Bullseye suddenly lunged at Peter, cutting through the webbing tying him down with a hidden blade in his hand.

Monika felt her heart stop at that moment.

Peter's perception of time began to slow down as Bullseye closed in on him. He thought he had removed all of Bullseye's weapons? Had the hitman been humoring his questions this whole time so he could buy time to escape? Spider-Man decided to ponder this later and with one arm grabbed onto Bullseye's wrist holding the bladed weapon, which was centimeters from his neck and redirected it away from himself. Then with his free hand he punched Bullseye across the face.

"ARGH!" The hitman in black reeled back from the attack, but Spider-Man didn't relent, landing a quick flurry of blows on Bullseye, before finally finishing him with an uppercut to the jaw.

WHAM!

And with that final blow, the assassin known as Bullseye was out cold on the rooftop. Peter fired a barrage of webbing wrapping Bullseye in a cocoon until the web cartridges in both web shooters were finally out of fluid.

Spider-Man fell to his knees and let out a sigh of relief, "Phew, talk about a close shave. Well at least we got some information out of him, right Monika?"

Peter turned his head to face his AI companion, only to be taken aback seeing that Monika was on the verge of tears and clenching her fists.

"M-Monika? H-Hey, don't worry I'm completely fine!" Spider-Man quickly got to feet, "Look at me, nothing serious! It's just some minor-"

"Enough!" Monika yelled out, "Peter, you almost DIED just now!"

"I know, I know, but I didn't I-"

"And for what?! I told you before this isn't your problem Peter!"

"This isn't my problem May,"

"Not your problem, Peter?"

Peter shook his head, "And I told you before, if people are dying because of this then I absolutely have to do something about it. It's-"

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE BECAUSE OF ME!"

"Die because of you…? What are you talking about?"

"The reason that everything that happened so far happened is because you met me! The reason that Ive Laster was murdered was probably because of me! The reason you have a bounty on your head and the reason you're hurt right now is because of me! That means if something were to happen to you, if you were to die, I'd be all my fault!"

"...Monika."

"And I just couldn't live with that! I would rather be trapped in that hell of a game for all eternity than have that happen…"

"...I"

"A-And did you ever think about what would happen to me if you died? I would be completely helpless and…I'd be left all alone…all alone with the knowledge that it was all my fault…I wouldn't be able to go on."

"...I…I'm sorry Monika."

"If you're sorry then can we please just let this go and go home! I'm sure there are other people who can deal with this mess. Don't you have other superhero friends that can look into this?"

"No…I don't. Monika, please believe me when I say that I'd love nothing more than to kick back and relax and just live a normal life."

"Then why don't you?!"

"Because…because I'm not a normal person. A normal peaceful life is out of the question for a person like me. I have these powers so it's my responsibility to use them the best I can, whenever I can. I'm sorry but I just can't ignore this, I have to see this through to the end."

"..."

"...But I promise that I won't die on you, I won't abandon you no matter what. After all, being Spider-Man means helping everyone I can, including you."

"Me?…I…but I thought…" Monika was surprised to say the least, after everything that happened she didn't think Peter considered herself a priority at all.

"Once we've dealt with this situation, I'll do whatever I can to help you and your friends. I mean, what kind of superhero would I be, if I didn't help a young lady in need?"

"My friends…"

"So what do you say?"

Monika took a second to wipe away her tears, "...That was a nice speech, but it doesn't change the very real danger you're putting yourself in."

"Well then it's a good thing I have you watching my back."

"Yeah I suppose it is…" Monika gave a small smile, "Why don't we head home and rest for the afternoon? I think we've had enough excitement for the morning and you need to get those cuts treated. I've already contacted the police to pick up the hitman."

"Alright I'm starting to get hungry anyways." But before they headed home, Peter and Monika decided to wait nearby and make sure Bullseye was taken into custody by police. The officer's on scene gave Spider-Man a dirty look when they noticed him but otherwise didn't try anything.

"Looks like they haven't caught on about our little visit earlier," Satisfied that Bullseyes was secure in the cop's hands, Spider-Man took off from the scene.

Once they arrived home, Peter slipped off his costume and threw it onto his bed, grabbed his first aid supplies and began treating his wounds while making a cup of instant ramen for his lunch.

"Man, what a morning…Maybe Monika is right and I should take it easy for the rest of the day. No, I still have too much I need to do. I need to investigate the hotel that Ive was staying at while I still can, and I should check in with the other Metaverse employees. If Ive was targeted by professional assassins there's a decent chance they might go after the other members on the project. They also might know more about Ive, the project and who'd be after the laptop. Not to mention there's still the Tinker out there, I think those binoculars Bullseye had were also created by Mason…"

However as Peter was deep in thought he completely forgot that Monika could see him through his mask and that he was dressed in nothing but his underwear.

"Oh my…well Peter is certainly muscular." It made sense considering the strength Peter had displayed earlier, but seeing it up close and in person was something else. But what really caught Monika's eyes was the faint scars littered across Peter's body, "Just how long has he been getting himself hurt?" The club president also wasn't a fan how experienced Peter seemed to be in treating his injuries.

Monika sighed internally, when would Peter realize he wasn't a comic book character? He didn't have plot armor, his luck would eventually run out if he kept throwing himself into dangerous situations over and over again. Unfortunately it didn't seem like nothing she could say or do could stop him from being Spider-Man.

"But why is he Spider-Man in the first place?" Perhaps that was the missing piece Monika needed, if she could find out the reason why Peter was doing this in the first place, there was a chance she could get him to stop.

"*Sigh* This wasn't how this day was supposed to go at all…" Today they were supposed to go explore the real world together. Peter would take the day off from school or work and show her around the neighborhood taking in all the sights and scenes, and maybe they would visit a nice little coffee shop together and Peter would mistakenly order drinks for the both of them. Maybe they'd go to the park or maybe he'd take her to a bookstore or a library. Then later they'd go watch a movie or something. But instead they'd spent their time today technically committing crimes and fighting a psychopath, "Despite all of that I think Peter's starting to warm up to me, I just need to hang on a little longer."

"...But I promise that I won't die on you, I won't abandon you no matter what. After all, being Spider-Man means helping everyone I can, including you."

Monika couldn't help but admit that sounded nice.

"Alright what to do now?" Peter thought to himself as he chowed down on his lunch, now back in his casual clothes, "Hmm well since Monika will probably throw a tantrum if I don't rest, I'm effectively benched for the time being. In that case, I should spend this time doing more research on Ive, Metaverse and the game…Wait a minute, now that I think about it I never finished the game, did I? I doubt there's anything important in there, but I might as well check it out."

Peter pulled up the walkthrough of Doki Doki Literature Club he had been watching yesterday on his phone, skipped to the part where he had left off and hit play.

"But seriously, why did this guy name the main character 'ButtFace'? Is he twelve or something?"

To Be Continued…

[1] To make it clear, Peter's suit in this story is about the same in functionality to the classic suit from the beginning of the first Insomniac game. So it has some fancy features but nothing super crazy.

Sorry for the wait folks, I've been really busy with life recently so this took much longer than the previous chapters. Despite the wait this chapter is also shorter than the previous ones which once again I apologize for. That aside I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are excited to see what comes next. I don't consider myself a strong writer, but if I don't write this then I don't think literally anybody else will. Hopefully this fic will be a catalyst for similar fics. On a side note I'd appreciate any DDLC or Spider-man fics you recommend, reading other people's stuff always motivates me to write more. Happy Holidays!

PS. I'm considering writing some smaller omake chapters of Peter and Monika doing random things that wouldn't fit naturally into the story. Would you guys be interested in that or should I just put my focus on the main story?