A/n: Touma Kamijou won't be the only composite I've planned for my story; I've plans for other characters from the Marvel Universe as well to be combined with most of the cast, though I should warn you all that these aren't final, and will be subject to change on a whim.
That said I hope you're excited as I am!
XxX
Touma Kamijou yawned to himself, mask lifted up halfway to allow him a moment to eat his dinner. It was a relatively quiet night, with no snatchers or muggers around. It was the way Kamijou liked it. He had spent the whole day dealing with purse-snatchers, bike thieves, a runaway car, stolen kites, rampaging dogs, a rogue cleaner bot which tried to devour a little kid, bird excrement, street thugs, along with many other crazy stuff going on in this city.
Kamijou was a man of misfortune.
It was an immutable law of the universe: for every action Kamijou does in every situation, there's often an inequal, opposite and disproportionate reaction. If Murphy's Law hadn't been established before it would have been fitting to just call it "Kamijou's Law".
In a way he was relieved. Even after gaining powers he still got into these sorts of unfortunate situations, the only difference being that the nature of these situations change depending on whether he was Touma Kamijou or Spiderman. Sometimes certain events happen in both personas. Like bird shit falling on him. The less is said on where they fell, the better.
He should call this one a night, he figured. His Instinct was coming up with nothing it seemed, so he was free to go.
That was until the earth trembled.
It was slight, but enough to cause him to nearly lose his balance. He stabilized himself by dropping to the ground and keeping still, waiting for the tremor to cease. When it did, he heard several car alarms from below, echoing up onto the building he was resting on.
That was odd. Academy City wasn't in any major fault lines, and even if it was, the foundation was reinforced with concrete strengthened with a unknown compound which apparently was so strong it could withstand a full-on nuclear explosion.
Kamijou wasn't sure whether that was true but he wasn't in the mood to wonder and tinfoil on the subject. He was acting as quickly as he could, swinging down to see if anyone was injured by the earthquake.
He saw several people on the ground, apparently affected enough by the quake. Helping them out one by one he looked around for any sign of significant damage from the earthquake.
"What the hell was that?"
"Don't wanna know man."
"That felt like somewhere between 2 and 3.5."
"I knew it was a bad idea to move into this damned city!"
Kamijou ignored some of the crowd's words and continued on helping up the people still on the ground. He helped out a middle-aged man, wearing a pair of rimmed sunglasses, with slicked-back brown hair and a lean physique.
"Thanks for the help Spiderman. Who knows what could've had happened, if you hadn't showed up. I might've died tonight."
"I wouldn't go so far as that sir.
But it's a bit strange. Academy City isn't built over any fault lines, so that shouldn't be possible."
"What would that mean?"
"...I don't know," Kamijou said.
"I knew tonight wasn't a good time for a night walk. I should've just stayed back in the hotel..."
A car alarm caught Kamijou's attention away from the mumbling man, alongside the street lights going off and lighting on and off without rhyme. Kamijou pondered on what was happening in front of him, when his Instinct blared in his head, and he was forced to grab the old man, and leap to the side as a van ran over where the two stood and crashed onto a nearby wall.
Kamijou placed the man down and went over to the van quickly, checking if the driver was badly hurt. But to his confusion, there wasn't anyone in the driver's seat.
"I've seen some freaky things in my life, and that's something that'd happen to a friend of mine back in the States. Poor Jack, he had just his car painted fresh," the man said.
But Kamijou couldn't focus on his words. He was wondering on how a van came out of nowhere and nearly hit them both before crashing into the wall.
Last time he checked around here there weren't any vans around this area.
Kamijou only sighed. He wasn't an investigator or something, he was a vigilante. Anti-Skill or Judgement would be the perfect people to check this one out, not him.
He looked around to see the damage caused by the tremor. It wasn't much, but there were some people prone to the ground. He went to work, helping up the old lady next to him, and went on from there. It took him a couple minutes until Anti-Skill had arrived, requiring a quick leave from the vigilante.
Afterwards Tessou Tsuzuri and Aiho Yomikawa wrote on their reports the extent of the damage the recent event had caused them, which wasn't much. It still was an odd thing. The land under Academy City did not go through any fault lines, and the foundations laid under it were durable enough to survive a magnitude 10 earthquake. The most recent tremor that had happened before this was at School Garden.
"We should rule out geological activity at this point Yomikawa. The seismographs came up with nothing. There hasn't been any tremors like these since ever ma'am, and there aren't any reports of any outside of Academy City which would be powerful enough to cause this sort of damage."
"I don't even want to go there. But if it's the only probable explanation, then we need all the help we can get. Set up a meeting with all available personnel by 2 days. Bring up all our experts on this, and we'll wait to see what they can gather on this."
"Yes ma'am," Tessou affirmed as she went to work quickly.
Hopefully this would be the last. But she knew that in a place as crazy as Academy City, it's much more practical to expect the worst.
"I'm gonna need a fucking drink by the end of this," Yomikawa groaned.
X
Kamijou stretched out his back, releasing the tension in his spine as he walked along the street, looking for something to do during the day.
He was out of his costume, which was currently drying up in his bathroom suspended in a wire which ran across the room. It was intended for use by the resident in case the weather got bad enough hanging it out the balcony was a no-go. In case of it smell bad afterwards he made sure to buy a special type of detergent which would let clothes retain its clean scent for 72 hours. It was a good thing these sorts of products were cheap because otherwise he might have to swing around the city holding his breath from the cloth stink.
Currently there wasn't any blaring from Instinct currently, which was a good thing for the misfortunate boy. He needed a break from all the swinging and crimefighting. He did enjoy it a lot but he needed a break every now and then.
Thankfully, he wasn't as tardy as he used to back then, but it still wasn't easy. He managed to go through the rest of the first semester without any hiccups, so he didn't have to take summer classes just to catch up, but it wasn't a walk in the park for the unlucky boy; he still got into trouble with delinquents on the regular, had the misfortune of having several of his assignments disappear on him without a trace, and the various other incidents he had brought himself into, especially with the student populace of his school.
Specifically, the other half of the student body.
The less was said about the Ultimax Ramen Incident, the better. The same couldn't be said with the various incidents he got himself into regarding the women's locker room (which involved a crumbling floor), the women's baseball club (which involved a runaway ball and a splintered baseball bat), an womanly emergency (which involved a student, Fukiyose, Yomikawa, and lots of blood), the cafeteria and so many other things he couldn't think up of right now due to the rumbling in his stomach.
Man, he really needed to eat something.
A hotdog would be really good right now. But there wasn't any food trucks around the area he was in. Except for one, a crepe shop 3 meters across from where he was standing.
...Kamijou didn't have much on him, he figured, and a crepe didn't cost much as it did so he decided to buy one and leave the place.
As he walked into its vicinity he stopped in place, seeing someone he hoped he didn't wish to see at this time of hour.
There were three girls, two of them wearing casual clothes. Kamijou felt a blare within his head but he ignored it as his attention was on the third girl of the group, whose shoulder-length brown hair, the slicked-back side of her hairstyle, and Tokiwadai summer uniform had flashed on his vision like a poison dart frog.
"...On second thought, I think I'm not hungry," he said to himself, quickly leaving the place before she took notice of his presence.
Mikoto Misaka, for her part, glanced behind her, feeling a presence behind her before figuring it was something else, like a fly passing through her field. She didn't notice Ruiko Saten's glance at the same spot she looked at, which lingered for a bit before Misaka looked back at the store, to which Saten quickly broke off her stare and aided her new friend Eri Haruue in choosing her first crepe.
X
Kamijou looked around the street, thinking for something else to do before checking out for today. He had his lunch for today, so now was the time to look for something to do. His costume was still drying up in the bathroom, and even with just swinging off to his dorm (which he definitely would never do outside of the costume unless in specific situations) it would take a while to suit up.
The hoodie he was wearing was starting to fade out a bit, its shade of red slowly becoming more light-red. He figured he might need to buy a new one, and so decided to find a nearby thrift shop for him to shop for a new hoodie jacket, brandless and of the same color as his old one. The mask he figured was of the same thing, as parts of it were loosening. He saw loose string sticking out of the mask, which worried him enough; it might lead to it unravelling, and revealing his ugly face to the world.
"I should need to buy some extra cloth, to sew out the mask," Kamijou muttered to himself. "But it would take minutes to make another one from scratch. And the lenses, by God the lenses are the hardest part to get right."
Mirrored lens were cheap, and easy to cut out into the squinty bug-eyes he thought up for the eye holes of the mask, that said it wasn't easy to make the lens fit the eye holes, nor for him to stitch up the sides onto the hole. But if he was to continue this vigilante thing for longer he might need to stack up on enough materials to maintain the costume. The only problem was his allowance; he is a Level 0, and it means his allowance was only limited to a month's worth of cash, which normally would be enough for him to survive on. But his current appetite had been eating up his budget, and he was tempted on snacking through a whole restaurant's worth of food just to keep himself full. Luckily he had enough temperance to restrain himself from doing something that idiotic, but it meant he was almost always hungry. He had had a bento earlier for lunch, and he was already hankering for another meal. It wouldn't be until the next time that his allowance will be given to him, so he had to make do with his current budget.
"But I'm so hungry," Kamijou groaned. He could literally eat a horse; it wasn't a problem before but now it was getting worse. If he wasn't careful with his activities he might starve himself to an early grave. The jacket and mask would have to wait, he needed to find a hotdog stand around here.
"Help! That guy stole my bav!" Kamijou turned around to see a man running from a distance, a young woman chasing him from behind. In the man's hands was a briefcase, no doubt containing valuables. Kamijou noticed the crowd glancing at the snatcher's way and doing nothing about it, some of them even stepping aside to make way for both runners to continue their chase.
Kamijou pulled out his phone, speed-texted Judgement, and waited in his current place. Both runners were at the opposite street across from where he was, and there were only a couple people around. If he wasn't careful though, someone might see him. So he had to wait it out, and make it quick.
The snatcher stopped at a stoplight, seeing it go red, and ran across the crosswalk, sprinting off as the woman continued to give chase. He cursed his luck, glancing behind as the athlete-like woman ran after him. He was beginning to get tired now, but he can't give this up now. He had been waiting for another chance, and when presented it he took it and ran like hell to keep it. He wasn't about to let anything stop him, not even that kid with the spiky hair standing around there like an idiot. He smiled though as the boy stepped aside, and kept running feeling his luck turning around-
Kamijou then shot a leg out right as the snatcher's right leg went to the ground, catching him in his left leg, sending the robber down on the ground. He landed with a loud thud, breaking his nose and few of his teeth in the process. The briefcase flung off from the snatcher's hand, and landed right on Kamijou's arms, and he quickly placed it inbetween his arms to prevent it from opening so suddenly.
"Man, what a workout," the woman said panting. "For a minute there I thought I'd lose the case to this piece of crap."
"It's no problem, Miss," Kamijou moved to give her the bag, and resisted the urge to gawk. The girl was quite beautiful, and looked to be a foreigner, with her shoulder-length red hair and warm green eyes basically attracting eyes on her within a crowd. "Uh, um you okay though?"
"Yeah I'm alright, I was just talking to my sister on the phone, and then this jerk here," she pointed at the snatcher on the ground, "ran off with my bag. Thanks for tagging the guy, I owe you one."
"..."
"Hello?"
"Oh! Um, n-no problem, I uh, I gotta go because I've a lot of stuff to catch on, stay clear of alleyways and keep your eyes around you next time, BYE," Kamijou said the last word too loudly for his liking but he didn't care becausr he wanted to leave before he makes a fool out of himself in front of the stunningly gorgeous redhead-
"ACK!" Which he blew right away as he slammed his back into a street sign, prompting him to quickly run off.
The woman, after a moment of silence, simply shrugged with a chuckle, before turning around to look for another bus stop. She really needed to return to the hotel; her friends were waiting for her. Before walking off she paused however, and looked back at the last spot the boy had disappeared into.
She didn't know why, but the young redhead had a feeling that wouldn't be the last she'd seen of that boy.
X
Night came, and with it, ill intentions arose from within the dark and dim alleyways of District 7. But it was nothing for Kamijou to handle, currently chewing on gum after stringing up his most recent delinquent for the night.
He looked to the currently webbed up thug, stuck immobile to the wall, and offered the man his chewing gum. The man looked at Touma as if to say, "really dude?" to which Kamijou responded with a "your loss" before pocketing it. The criminals would-be victim had long left, leaving him alone here in the alley, killing time.
It wouldn't take long for her to come in and take the burglar in; currently however, Kamijou was kinda bored. He hoped to go out, and do something interesting, but the rest of the day after that meeting with the blonde woman was just him wearing the mask, and going out dealing with petty crime, helping out people, and at one point saved another kite up the tree. As is usual.
Kamijou wasn't about to say it bored him, in fact any sort of activity which would necessitate Spiderman's help was something he would eagerly take, no matter the type. But it still didn't change much; there wasn't anything much to do.
He swung up from the alleyway, and landed on the rooftop with a roll. He removed his mask, kneeling a few inches away from the edge. He didn't want any accidental snapshots of him from the streey below or within any of the building. There was no such thing as "being too careful", he had to take into account everything that could go wrong for him at any moment. It was how he managed to survive so long in this city before the bite, and it's how he'll manage his vigilante identity with.
If anything to delay the inevitable, then so be it, he'll be more paranoid than a noir detective. As long as he gets to help out more people then so be it.
He saw from afar, a couple of students about to enter another alleyway. To have a private moment or to find a way home he didn't know but he wasn't about to stay put and find out right now. He quickly swung over to the duo, who were a lot older than he expected, and were not expecting him to land in front of him so suddenly.
"Hey there," Kamijou said. "If you're trying to find a way home better follow the well-lit areas instead of this musky, smelly alleyway behind me. Pray tell though, you both seem to be in a hurry, so what seems to be the rush tonight?"
"Uh, you know the way to the Academy City Fireworks Display? We were supposed to come in with our friends but they went without us, so we were asking for directions around here," the male half of the duo explained, with the other half nodding along with his words.
"Well, I'll say now, if you go in there you'll be in for a bad time. I'll guide you two to where it is."
"You know where the display is going to take place?"
"Yep. It's almost always at the same place, come with me," Kamijou said as he walked forth, motioning the couple to join him. A part of him is jealous at the both of them and their public displays of affection (Hand-holding!? Of all things!? So scandalous!!) but it passed rather quickly. Kamijou had a lot more to worry about over getting into a relationship right now.
...Kamijou can't help but feel depressed at his own thoughts, much to the couple's bemusement.
He just wanted this to be over with.
Not long after that he had safely brought them over by the riverbank, where dozens upon dozens of stands were placed up along, peddling all sorts of activities and foodstuffs for everyone to immerse in.
"Thanks for taking us here, really appreciate it Spiderman," the girl one of the duo bowed as she said it, with her partner following suit.
"No no, don't need to thank me, just did what anyone would. Go on and have now you two."
"How modest," the girl said. "He reminds me of my older brother, despite his nasal voice."
"Well, everyone matures at their own rate Akiko."
"You're probably right Hitoshi."
"...that was weird," Kamijou shook it off, looking over at the entrance of the temporary park.
On one hand, he should probably take a break by now, enjoy the sights.
On the other, someone out there might find themselves in trouble, with no one to help them out of that situation.
He really, really really really really really REALLY WANTED TO but decided to delay his need for gratification, and reluctantly turned around to off and do another patrol around again-
It's coming
Kamijou stopped mid-turn, looking at the crowded and busy area in front of him. He ignored the stares he had gotten since he arrived her with that couple earlier, and right now he wanted nothing more to do than to stop this entire thing and evacuate everyone from the premises immediately.
Kamijou stilled his hand however, not wanting to ruin the peace and joy of these people, not when tonight should've been a momentary breather for these boys and girls from their stressful lives. Kamijou, despite his own misfortune, never wanted to think that his problems were so much more than everyone else's, much as he was tempted to. It was arrogant, insensitive and immoral to do so. So he fought, hard, to make sure others would be able to smile the way he wasn't really been able to for the past 15 years of his life.
The strange looks weren't going away soon, but Kamijou'll be damned if he lets something horrible happen under his watch.
Meanwhile, farther away from where Kamijou currently was, a duo of girls chased after their friend, who had out of nowhere started to walk off onto the platform nearby. Leaving Mikoto and Kuroko behind, all by themselves, which the latter tried to take advantage of. That was, until she was interrupted by her phone ringing at an inopportune moment.
And is treated, by her senior Konori, to a horrifying discovery.
Kamijou meanwhile continued to look around, the feeling of impender danger sinking into his stomach. He had no clue where it was, but it wasn't about to stop him from looking, not when this venue had hundreds of people visiting. His frantic scanning led him to bump into someone, but he was in a hurry, and apologized to them immediately before continuing, ignoring the redhead's glint in her glasses as she observed the masked man as he went further into the crowd-
THERE. GO NOW.
Kamijou turned to his side, and saw a platform breaking apart, no doubt the cause of another quake. Though he noticed that the ground beneath him barely shook. Confused and shocked as he was he didn't let up as he quickly sprinted over to the crumbling structure, desperate to save anyone trapped in there.
The woman meanwhile quickly left for her Powered Suit, opening her comms to her unit, "All units be advised, a Code Epsilon is in effect. Stand by for procedure." She didn't know if he might ruin her plans, but it won't matter. She'll have to improvise then.
Meanwhile, from the crumbling platform, Saten was having a difficult time trying to hold onto the railing, the tremor growing stronger and stronger. Terro struck her heart as she saw Uiharu and Haruue huddled together, just as a lamppost from nearby fell over, and is about to fall unto the girls.
"UIHARU!" Saten had never felt so helpless, her body frozen in terror as the inevitable was about to happen.
Uiharu, upon hearing her name called, looked up, and saw the post about to come down. She quickly closed her eyes, bracing for impact. She hoped that she would be able to protect Haruue from the fallen post, even if she were to be harmed in the process-
Only to be shocked when it didn't happen. She opened her eyes, and felt a presence over her as she looked up.
Close by, standing over them like an unmoving statue, was the Spiderman, arms raised above as he threw back the post. He dusted off his hands, before turning around and kneeling in front of the two girls. "You two okay?"
Uiharu, despite her shock, found herself nodding in response, and turned her head to see Saten, and a materialized Mikoto and Kuroko a couple meters away, shock in their faces.
"Where..." Uiharu turned to Haruue, who was still prone to the ground, muttering mindlessly. "Where are you..."
"Haruue?" Uiharu shook her shoulder, but no response came from the prone girl.
"She must be in shock. We need to get her down here and find someone-"
"A well-appreciated course of action there Spiderman, but we'll take it from here," he, Uiharu and the girl turned around to see a purple Powered Suit standing over them.
Kamijou clenched his fist. He didn't know why, but there was something odd about the woman.
He swore, he could see the woman within the large visor smirk.
XxX
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it so far let me know in the comments down below. Vote and share this story, feedback is greatly appreciated.
And I'll see you all in the next chapter. Until then, stay safe, and stay tuned.
Sincerely,
Komigakuo.