Everything slowly came back into focus.

Weight was crushing the entirety of his being, both physically and emotionally.

His body was pinned under so much debris. He couldn't even see light outside. There was no way for him to break free. A haphazard wreckage of concrete and steel cruelly kept him immobilized, remnants of the overhead collapse.

Was he going to die?

For the second time in as many days, Hikigaya Hachiman wanted to cry. He was scared and cold and so alone, so scared, more scared than he had ever been. Scared scared scared scared scared SCARED OH GOD, SCARED-

A loud wail reached his ears. It wasn't his. It snapped him out of his own panic.

He recognized the voice belonging to a young boy, begging for his life. Desperate pleas from someone who knew the end would soon come, and could only helplessly refuse to accept it.

It was hopeless, wasn't it?

No. No, it wasn't hopeless. He refused to let it be so. Hachiman wasn't just any high-school loner any more. Those supplications dripping with despair - he wouldn't let those be someone's last words, much less those of a child.

Mustering strength he didn't know he still had left, he began to lift the imprisoning wreckage off him. Yet, as his head pulsed violently from the strain, he focused on a single thought.

He wasn't just Hikigaya Hachiman. Not anymore.

He was Spider-Man, and he'd carry the weight of the whole world if he had to.

THE SPLENDID SPIDER-MAN

(Cover Art by glorycolors on twitter)

YESTERDAY

The briefing room, abuzz with activity, wasn't designed to accommodate so many people simultaneously. Of course, this wasn't your everyday occurrence - the attendance of so many members of Chiba's Special Assault Team would attest to that. Their very presence presented an imposing pressure.

The SATs were Japan's premier urban counter-terrorist tactical units, and would never be deployed under normal circumstances. It would be clear to even the least perceptive of onlookers: something had to be going down. Something big.

"...as you already know, the nature of the bioweapon is still a mystery," the unit captain, Kamiya, stated. "The same goes for the identity of any prospective buyers. What we do have is the location the sale will take place."

"Hard to believe they'd choose a high school to hold an exchange. Are we sure our intel is correct?" A burly man with many years of experience, Imagawa, asked from the back.

"Even if it wasn't, we cannot simply ignore it," Kamiya answered.

Someone else spoke up. "The location makes sense. Sobu High is near sea. Assuming they're transporting the cargo over water, which they most certainly are, it would be quite simple to arrive at the location."

Imagawa turned towards the speaker. "The specialist from Aichi Prefecture's SAT...Enatsu, right? Still, why a school, of all places?"

"If this group is truly connected to that terrorist organization," Enatsu Masaru continued, "they won't care who gets hurt. Even kids." Imagawa grimaced.

On the other side of the room, a rather relaxed officer elbowed the comrade next to him. "Hey, don't look now, but that Enatsu guy? One of my pals from Aichi tells me he's with Team Rainbow."

"Team Rainbow? You actually believe they exist? You might as well say Shocker is real and Kamen Rider is a documentary."

Kamiya inhaled deeply. "We cannot notify the school's directive of what's going to take place. Should we take any preemptive action, the terrorists and the bioweapon may forever remain out of our reach. Thankfully, considering the operation will take place at night, civilian endangerment should not come to pass. Regardless, should you encounter any noncombatants, your secondary objective would be their prompt extraction. Prioritize securing the bioweapon first, though. Who knows how many lives would be in danger should it fall into the hands of domestic subversive elements."

Kamiya paused for a moment before continuing. "Gentlemen, Japan is one of the world's safest and most peaceful countries. Let's make sure it stays that way."

'Save me someday.'

Yukinoshita's words ran through his head. A conversation with Professor Hiratsuka earlier that day had them brought them back to mind and given them an invasive quality. So invasive, in fact, he just had to forget his house keys at school the day his sister wasn't home. Her entrance exams were coming up and she was staying over at some friend's house to study.

Worst part is he'd arrived home only to notice then that he'd been locked out. As such, Hikigaya Hachiman had no other recourse left but to return the way he came, his destination being Komachi's residence for the night.

Like an automaton, he pedaled onwards, his thoughts elsewhere.

'Hikigaya, you're always helping people. Have you given thought to the reason why you do that?' in his mind, he saw Shizuka Hiratsuka,

Of course. It was because he wanted to understand others. He selfishly wanted to understand everything while not caring about being understood.

'Are you sure that's the only reason?'

He'd been in an accident in the past. Saved a Dachshund from being run over by a limousine. Rescuing Sable had just been instinct. After all, he couldn't hope to understand a dog any more than he could understand his cat.

Then there were the times he committed "social suicide" as a member of the Service Club. He always told himself that was just part of the job. People came to them with their personal problems, they solved them one way or another. It was simply a matter of efficiency. And yet, he had hurt those around him by allowing himself to be hurt. For someone who at first had no interest in the Service Club's mission statement of providing a helping hand to whoever requested it...

He broke off his contemplation to slow down near Sobu High School. Surprisingly, the main gate was open that late at night. Wow, wasn't that careless? Well, there was no point in staring a gift horse in the mouth, so he wheeled off to the bike rack, secured his vehicle, and walked straight in.

His keys must've been in his desk. Making his way to Class 2F, he made his way through dimly-lit halls illuminated only by moonlight. The atmosphere of the school was really quite eerie, like some urban legend could unfold at any moment. It was a good thing he wasn't superstitious.

He finally reached his classroom and tried the door. It was unlocked, too. He slid it open, and breath caught his throat.

There was someone else inside.

Someone who'd fallen asleep at his desk, drooling over his own workbooks. They were no longer asleep either, catapulted from his slumber by the sound of the door banging against the frame.

"WUH...wuh, wuh time is it?"

Hachiman recognized him as Kakeru Tobe, a classmate. Sporty, loud, part of the popular clique. Exactly the sort of person Hachiman did not care for.

"Hiki...tani?" Tobe uttered, still groggy. Good to see he still got Hachiman's name consistently wrong.

Wordlessly, Hachiman strolled towards his desk and retrieved his misplaced keys, stuffing them into his pocket.

"How did you get in here?" Tobe asked.

"...Gate was open."

Tobe raised an eyebrow, not that Hachiman could make it out in the moonlight. "That never happens."

"Is that so."

"For real, Hikitani!"

Hachiman shrugged. Not that he cared, but it might just be easier to humor the other student. "How would you know?"

"Ehehe, well...this happens to me a little more often than I'd care to admit. Dozing off here, I mean," Tobe grinned sheepishly.

"Just study at home," Hachiman replied, uninterested.

"No way, man! I always get distracted by something else!"

"If you're going to fall asleep, the end result will be the same," Hachiman longed to end the conversation. "Go home, seriously."

"C'mon, Hikitani! Don't you feel you can focus better at school? When I stay here, study sessions are like, twice as eff-"

"POLICE. YOU ARE SURROUNDED."

Both boys froze. "What the he-" but before Hachiman could finish, loud crackling sounds, like a thousand firecrackers going off, interrupted him.

Real gunfire may sound completely different to how it does in TV and movies, but nevertheless Hachiman identified it immediately. As far as he could tell, the noise came from the outside the windows.

The situation was completely surreal. One moment, he was retrieving his house keys without much of a care, and the next, he was in close proximity to World War III.

"Hikitani! What do we do, man?!" Tobe's agitated voice snapped him out of his trance. Right...right, they had to do something!

"Back of the room!" Hachiman called, "Away from the windows!"

Both high schoolers sprinted and hunkered down in relative safety. Shakily, Tobe whispered, "What do we do?!"

"C-Call the police," Hachiman said, trying to maintain his own composure and failing miserably at that. His entire body was shaking violently. "Before the shooting started, s-someone announced they were with the police. They might be able to send someone up here to get us."

"G-good idea! You're a genius, Hikitani!" Tobe lamely attempted to lift his own spirits. Considering how he fumbled and dropped his cell phone on the floor, that didn't work as intended. Silently muttering curses, Tobe scrambled to pick the device up.

And then, Hikigaya Hachiman realized his one critical oversight.

"Thought I smelled rats."

Both students became paralyzed with fear. It took Hachiman some time to turn his head, ever-so-slowly, towards the source of the voice.

"Hey, boss. We got potential hostages over here. Two of 'em," a large man, probably American, spoke heavily-accented into what Hachiman could only assume was a wireless earpiece.

There are many actions that can expose you to peril, but Hachiman would've never included 'not closing his classroom door behind him' to that list.

"D-don't kill us!" Tobe stammered a panicked plea. The thuggish intruder, in response, raised a lethal tool and aimed it directly at them. The sight of the pistol drew an undignified yelp from Tobe.

As for Hachiman, his mouth was too dry to even make such noises.

"I'll think about it if you kids don't try no funny business."

Hachiman barely registered the exchange, though. He was more focused on a shadowy, square-like figure... floating lazily just above the ground? It was hard to make out in the dark, but he thought it was some sort of...drone?

"Y-you got the gun, you call the shots!" Tobe blurted out.

"A pun? Cute. But you know what? Boss said we only needed one of you, and I don't like wordy guys."

"I-I DIDN'T MEAN TO," Tobe pleaded in frightened desperation. "PLEASE, I'M JUST A TEEN, I WANT TO L-!"

The man raised his weapon at Tobe.

He didn't have the time to think 'this will get me killed, for sure'. Fueled by pure, unbridled adrenaline, Hachiman tackled Tobe to the ground. The loud explosion of the handgun firing burnt itself in his ears, and the bullet headed straight for his flank.

He must've spent a lifetime's worth of luck as the bullet pierced his coat's jacket and lodged itself in the nearby wall, missing his fleshy bits entirely.

"Pfeh. I changed my mind. Wordy beats stupid."

He was dead. Hikigaya Hachiman was so, so dead-

It was then that the assassin was hit by an intense blast of concussive force seemingly from nowhere.

"ARGGGHH!" the man dropped his weapon and tripped, completely disoriented.

What just happened?

It was then that Hachiman noticed the drone from earlier, somehow stuck to the ceiling.

A tinny voice came from the drone: "Run!"

They didn't need to be told twice. They sprinted out of the classroom as fast as they could, maybe even faster. Tobe, being the more athletic one, put quite some distance between them.

Enough distance for Hikigaya to notice him come to a dead stop, raise his hands and slowly back away from the shoe lockers by the entrance. Instinctively, Hachiman hid on the other side of the lockers.

"Now, now, young man. You're coming with me," he heard an unseen individual say. "You're my ticket out of here, so if you'd please..."

Hachiman could see sirens flashing blue and red in the distance. If he approached the exit quietly, he'd be home free.

He'd also be leaving Kakeru Tobe to this fate. Was that so bad? He'd already saved Tobe's life once tonight. He should be grateful already, right?

Somehow, despite reason ordering him to escape as quickly as he could, that didn't sit right with Hachiman.

So, coming from behind the lockers, he lunged with a howl and grabbed onto the man from behind, toppling him to the ground.

With a yelp, a sharply-dressed man fell forward, his lower body pinned by the result of Hachiman's attack. The man's pistol slid past Tobe, and the reinforced cylindrical container in the man's other hand bashed against the floor, bursting open.

Out of the container came something black and bigger than a fist, eight appendages landing on the man's neck.

A spider. A gigantic, frightening huntsman spider.

"Oh fu-" the felled man couldn't even finish his sentence before the arachnid bit down. What came next shook Hachiman to the very core. He couldn't tear his gaze away as the hapless victim he'd knocked over began convulsing and foaming at the mouth. He was clearly dying, and Hachiman could feel the bile rising...

He didn't notice the spider had chosen another target.

"Hikigaya!"

A shoe slammed against his forearm but it was too late. He could feel the fangs piercing his clothes, and his skin...and heat. Unbearable heat.

He was going to die now. It was his turn.

Hachiman wanted to cry, but he wouldn't even get a chance to do that much.

Darkness, merciless darkness, claimed him.

"Quite the complicated arrangement you've come up with," a tall, well-built man stared down at Chiba City from his lavish penthouse. With slicked-back hair and clad in an expensive designer suit, he immediately impressed power both physical and financial.

"A way to make sure the police's attention would be elsewhere, as well as rid ourselves of...troublesome employees," another well-dressed man, carrying a silver briefcase, approached the first from behind. Curiously, he wore sunglasses indoors, at night. "The kind that would make back-door deals detrimental to our organization."

The first man smirked. "It's hard to get good help these days. Still, I must ask, giving them the spider?"

"I assure you, Mr. Kimura, all my moves are calculated," the other man said. "A bite from the experiment is guaranteed to be lethal, so it still had use for me. A final insurance policy, if you will, coupled with a credible threat to misdirect law enforcement."

"You handle your business however you see fit, Salesman," Kimura Keisuke retorted. "All I care is you deliver on the product you promised."

"Naturally," Salesman placed his briefcase atop the nearby mahogany desk and undid the latches holding it shut, revealing its contents. A jet injector loaded with a vial of green liquid sat on a foam tray, alongside a pair of devices resembling cuff bangles and an assortment of capsule-like objects. The bespectacled man took the injector in hand, approaching his client. "Clothes off, please."

Kimura removed his suit and shirt, revealing a toned, herculean physique. The most striking feature of his bare torso, though, had to be the gigantic irezumi tattoo of a monstrous spider-creature occupying most of his back. The beautiful ink-work created an impactful contrast with its grotesque subject matter.

Salesman placed the needle-free injector to Kimura's arm. Finally, he'd see the results to a decade-long wait. Soon, power would be his, power unlike any seen before. All his, inimitable by anybody else.

Soon, the world would know the truth.

TODAY

[A Day Unlike Any Other]

'I DON'T WANT TO DIE!' his mind screamed. His body reacted in turn, catapulting him awake and off the hospital bed with blinding speed.

His heart was beating a mile a minute. Wait, his heart was beating. He was breathing. He was alive. Alive. He began to inhale slower, and slower, but then-

"Hiki...tani?"

He stared down at Kakeru Tobe, his eyes wider than they'd ever been, mouth agape.

Wait a moment...

He was...staring down?

Staring down?

What was going on? Was he dreaming? Was this some weird sort of dying fantasy?

He was staring down at Kakeru Tobe. Staring down, UPSIDE-DOWN, at Kakeru Tobe, whose expression was slowly changing from bewildered to giddy.

Hikigaya Hachiman was stuck to the ceiling.

Before he could get a chance to process the situation, though, he felt a prickling, tingly sensation on the back of his head.

"Keep it down," Hachiman ordered, aware knowing Tobe could be ridiculously loud. "I need you to keep it quiet for once."

Tobe, who nearly blurted out in excitement, admirably composed himself. He still had to say his piece, though, albeit he thankfully controlled his volume this time. "Holy crap, Hikitani. You...you're like Spider-Man!"

"Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?" Hachiman retorted, attempting to maintain his composure by dissenting.

"Do you realize you're stuck to the ceiling?"

Hachiman shook his head. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening! This couldn't be real! There's no way the abilities of an American comic book superhero could ever be real! He wasn't Peter Parker, Spider-Man! "There...there has to be a logical explanation for this."

"There is! You were bitten by a spider! A radioactive spider!"

It was true he'd been bitten by a spider - a spider whose bite had meant death to someone else, no less. "Okay, yes, I was bitten by a spider, but it's too early to say if that's the cause of all this."

"What else could it even be, Hikitani? Spider bite," Tobe gestured with his hands, "Spider-Man," he gestured again.

"Stop calling me Hikitani, that isn't my name," Hikigaya jabbed, feeling the onset of the mother of all headaches. Still, if he focused on how infuriating Kakeru Tobe could be, he might be able to keep it together. He then rubbed his palm across his face. "Just...just tell me what happened."

"I know it isn't, but I kind of kept using it as a nickname, y'know?" Tobe shrugged. "Anyways, aren't you going to get down first?"

'Right. This is going to take some getting used to', he thought.

With a flip, he landed effortlessly in front of Tobe, causing him to gasp and jump a little.

"Whoah, Hikita-Hikigaya, that was seriously sick!"

"Focus. I need to understand the situation at hand," Hachiman said. In truth, he was trying to keep himself from freaking out.

"I-I guess. You're being awfully calm about this whole thing, though."

He looked calm?! Had his experiences as a loner made him so stoic he could project composure while losing his mind?!

Tobe cleared his throat. "Anyways, you fainted yesterday after getting bit. I tried to crush the spider, but...I wasn't fast enough."

'Clearly not...' Hachiman thought.

Tobe continued. "It wasn't long afterwards that the cops came in and got us out. Took us to the hospital, and here we are."

"The hospital, huh...? That might be a problem," Hachiman said.

Indeed, it very well could be. His new ability meant his body had to have gone through some drastic changes. Changes that would no doubt show in medical tests, tests no doubt ran on him while unconscious. Was he going to be studied? Analyzed? Vivisected?!

The tingling sensation Hachiman had been experiencing since his awakening exploded with sudden intensity.

"No need to worry about that. I've got it under control."

The voice belonged to neither of the two boys, yet they were the only two people in the room. Looking up, he saw a drone affixed to the ceiling which hadn't been there before. Or had it?

It was roughly the same size and shape as the one he'd seen the previous night, the one who bought them the opening they needed to escape their first assailant.

The unsettling sensation was completely gone now. Odd. Regardless, Hachiman decided not to dwell on that. "Are you the one who saved us yesterday?"

"That's right. I'm Enatsu Masaru, Aichi Prefectural Police. I'd rather you call me 'Echo', though," a man spoke through the drone.

Why was a police officer from Aichi involved in a case from Chiba? There was something big going on here, Hachiman was sure of it. For now, though, it was better to play along. "I don't have to worry? Care to elaborate?"

"Let's just say someone gained backdoor access to the hospital's servers and replaced your test results. You're welcome."

Hachiman released a sigh he hadn't known he'd been holding. Who knows what would happen if word got out. He was already uncomfortable enough with two people, one a complete stranger, already privy to his strange situation.

"You know spying on people isn't the best thing to do, officer," Hikigaya snarked, staring at the device affixed to the ceiling.

Echo snorted. "I'd prefer calling it keeping you under surveillance. Oh, the footage from the hospital's security feed has been altered as well. Shouldn't you be glad I'm around?"

Hachiman shrugged dispassionately. "Beats me."

"Come on, Hikigaya," Tobe assuaged. "I met Mr. Enatsu yesterday. He got us out of the school and stuck with us all the way here!"

'So he could place his little spy drone', Hachiman retorted internally. 'What's his game?'

He decided to ask directly. "What am I to you? You're going through quite some trouble for my sake. Shouldn't you report this to your superiors?"

Echo chuckled, causing the speaker he talked over to crackle. "What's the fun in that?"

Hachiman groaned, reminded of a certain troublesome woman. "Give me a break..."

"Let me cut you a deal - I'll get you out of the hospital. Front door, no funny business, I'll check you out personally. In exchange, I want to see what you're able to do."

"What if I refuse?" Hachiman glared at the intruding device still stuck to the ceiling. He also would've stuffed his hands into his pockets, if he had any. He then realized he'd been changed into hospital wear; thankfully, it was the type that resembled pajamas rather than a gown.

"I'm not going to coerce you into doing what I want-" Echo answered, "-but just think about it. You need to learn what you're capable of doing, sooner rather than later. You slip, show someone something they shouldn't see because you had no control over it, and next thing you know, you're the next viral video sensation. Something tells me that's not what you want."

"Is that really it? This is out of the goodness of your heart?" Hikigaya's eyes narrowed. There was no way he'd buy that.

"...Listen, boy. I was interested in you before I-"

"Is that really something a grown man should be saying about a high school student?" Hachiman interjected with his usual dry wit.

Echo decided to ignore the verbal bullet. "Before I knew you could stick to walls. I saw how you saved your friend there."

"He's not my friend," Hachiman retorted. "He barely registers as an acquaintance."

"Hikita-Hikigaya!" Tobe protested meekly, yet loudly.

"Could've sworn you two were close. Guy stayed with you the whole night."

"Hey, he saved my life! Twice! Least I could do is make sure he's alright," Tobe said.

"By the way, you're digging yourself deeper," Echo said. "You risked your life for an 'acquaintance' without second thought."

"I had plenty of second thoughts!" Hachiman said.

"All I'm saying," Echo continued, "is that in my line of work, you learn to appreciate guys like you, always ready to take a risk to keep others safe."

Hachiman shook his head. "Not interested in becoming a cop." Not after the incident yesterday, at least. He was more house-husband material, in his opinion…

"I'm not trying to take you under my wing or anything like that, if that's what you're thinking. I said I can appreciate people like you, and that just makes me want to help you out. So, will you accept my aid?"-

Hachiman sighed once more, pinching the bridge of his nose. Accepting Echo's offer was the logical recourse left available to him, but he knew he wasn't being told the whole story. "All right. I accept. Come get us out."

"Now, Kimura, care to elaborate on why you called for this meeting?"

A throng of important-looking men sat around a rectangular table many times longer than it was wide. The enormous room was part of a traditional Japanese estate, known to Chiba's law enforcement as neutral ground for Chiba's Yakuza families.

At the head of the table sat Kimura Keisuke, his back to a majestic tapestry depicting a fierce warrior entangled in battle with a many-headed dragon monster. He was flanked by suited bodyguards, just like the rest of the attendees.

"I called this emergency session to deliver an ultimatum: work for me, or suffer the consequences."

The room stayed deadly silent. Security personnel tensed and slid their hands into their suits, ready to produce their firearms at a moment's notice.

An older-looking man, halfway bald with graying temples and sporting thick-rimmed eyeglasses, was the first to make a sound, laughing at the ridiculous assertion. Soon, he was raucously joined by many of the others in attendance. "Beg pardon?" he wiped a tear with his finger. "Have you lost your marbles, boy?"

His disrespect earned him a faceful of goop connected to a gossamer strand. It pulled him down, crashing his head against the edge of the table with a sickening crunch. The victim slid down his seat, limp, leaving a grotesque stain of dark red dripping from the mahogany finish.

The laughter stopped, and pistols from everywhere in the room were pointed at Kimura Keisuke, who smirked at the pointless gesture.

"KIMURA! This is a declaration of war!" a portly man bellowed as he rose from his seat, his guards clustering tighter and tighter.

"There will be no war," Kimura replied confidently, resting his cheek on his fist.

"You're damn right there won't be!" Another man shouted, motioning with his arm. Dozens of guns went off, filling the air with a cacophony of crackles.

"H-how?!" One of the bodyguards stammered. He'd emptied his entire magazine, as had done several others, yet Kimura had evaded the projectiles with ease and superhuman grace. That question was the last thing he'd ever say - Kimura's fist struck his chest, shattering his sternum and caving his ribs in.

All with a single punch.

"H-he isn't human!"

Terror.

"He's sticking to the wall!"

Gunfire.

"Oh God, he's coming this way!"

"Run, run!"

Screams.

When you see yourself as the apex predator, it's impossible to imagine someone or something higher than you in the food chain. The broken, tattered bodies of the top players in Chiba's underworld were proof of that. They thought themselves untouchable, enduring, all but immortal. They had achieved stability among themselves, with no cause to sleep uneasy at night. They feasted on the city like a parasite feasts on its host, lining their greedy pockets at the cost of dread and blood.

Now it was their blood that pooled under the deranged Kimura Keisuke's leather loafers.

It had been a slaughter. Just as well, for they deserved their just desserts, he thought. He'd sold his soul to them, and they no longer served him any purpose. Like a tumor, they had to be excised.

He couldn't hear the tiny whisper of his suppressed conscience, crying that this was wrong. That this wasn't how he should do things.

No, it wasn't wrong, because Kimura Keisuke was a man on a mission, and the mission was everything that mattered. It'd already cost him everything.

He was thinking clearly. More clearly than ever. He was focused on the mission. His mind was clear.

…Right?

The few remaining gunmen had all dropped their weapons, kneeling prostrate, pressing their heads to the ground. They all blubbered apologies and begged to accept his original offer.

"I have use for you yet."

They showered him with a chorus of gratitude and praise. Kimura noticed one of the men had become incontinent, but paid it no care. He walked behind that one tapestry and retrieved a rectangular crate almost as tall as him, hoisting it on his shoulder like it weighted next to nothing. Placing it in front of his new followers, he tore the lid open, revealing an impressive array of assault weaponry.

"Call everyone you know who'll take a job," he tossed an M4 Carbine to one of his lackeys as casually as one would lob a canned drink at a friend. "We're going to rock the town like it's never been done."

"I'm all right, Komachi. Just had to stay out for the night with...a classmate."

"Eeeeeh!? Big bro...you're not with a girl, are you?"

"Don't get any funny ideas," Hachiman deadpanned, holding his smartphone to his ear. "You know him. It's Tobe. Remember him from Chiba Village?"

"Hello-hello, Komachi!" Tobe chirped from the backseat of the white sedan Echo drove.

"Since when are you two friends?" Komachi asked doubtful, and Hachiman could picture her raising an eyebrow.

"We aren't," Hachiman retorted dryly. He ignored Tobe's protests in the background. "I'm just helping him with something. Service Club business."

"Well, make sure to answer your phone next time! Mom was really worried. Dad was totally calm, though."

"Of course he was," Hachiman shrugged, struck by small pangs of both guilt and disappointment in tandem. "Sorry, my phone battery died and I forgot to turn it on till now. I'll be home by evening."

"You better not make your little sister worry so much! She really can't imagine a life without you! Ah! That won a loooooot of points in my book!" Komachi said.

Hachiman snorted and allowed himself to grin a little. He was overwhelmed with all he'd experienced in the past few hours, but his little sister's ever-constant antics brought with them much needed normalcy. "See you soon, Komachi."

Not long after the call had ended, Echo stopped near what appeared to be an old, dilapidated warehouse. "All right, kids," he reached for and then popped open the glove box. "Masks on."

Hachiman, sitting on the passenger's seat, retrieved two balaclavas alongside two sets of dark-tinted tactical goggles. He handed one of each to Tobe before pulling the concealing garment down over his face, followed by adjusting the eyewear. He glanced at the rear-view mirror, making sure his features were entirely hidden.

His outfit was spartan and not the best fit for the current winter season: he wore a short-sleeved white t-shirt alongside a pair of dark blue sweatpants, a pair of white stripes running down the outer leg on each side. Finally, his hands were covered by rather thin full-fingered gloves. How Echo had managed to obtain these clothes on such short notice, though - alongside running shoes just the right size - eluded him.

"Now go," Echo gestured with a tilt of the head.

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Hachiman asked as he reached for the door.

"That wouldn't be efficient," Echo grinned. "Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on you with my Yokai," he pointed his thumb at his flying drone, propped on the seat next to Tobe's.

'Does he use his drone for everything? Maybe this guy's just lazy,' Hachiman pondered as he swung the door open.

They stepped out of the car, leaving the driver behind and making their way towards the ruined building, the Yokai drone leisurely trailing them. As they neared their destination, the officer's voice spoke into their left ears. "Testing, testing. How's the integrated earpiece?"

"Wow, this is cool!" Tobe yelled, and Hachiman had the displeasure of hearing it from two places at once. "Wait, you can hear us?"

"Ten-four," Echo replied. "Just a little something I've been working on."

"I thought you were a cop," Hachiman questioned.

"I'm an engineer first, policeman second."

"Uh-huh. Did you build your drone, too?"

"I did," Echo answered. "I got an offer from Security Bureau of the National Police Agency. They've been sponsoring my projects since, and I get to test them in the field myself."

"So you're really an engineer?" Tobe asked in disbelief as both he and Hachiman spotted what looked like a door-less entryway.

"I could show you my diploma if you'd like," Echo replied somewhat grumpily.

"All right, all right," Hachiman interjected. "We're here already. Let's get this over with."

The ground floor of the warehouse had piles of rubble strewn everywhere. Empty crates were left turned over, their contents long gone. A flight of rusted steel stairs led to a mezzanine floor, with a structure that had once been an office residing in the far corner. Pieces of the sheet-metal flooring on said upper level were missing. Elsewhere, dirty-looking graffiti evidenced that while the two boys might've not been the first visitors to this place, they might as well been the only ones in quite some time.

"This place sure has seen better days," Hachiman thought out loud.

"It was a rather important staging area for a few high-profile contraband operations," Echo said. "Legitimate businessmen don't want to scoop it up in case former management decides to show up, and said management consider it compromised."

"Perfect for our little test run, then," Tobe punched his palm with his fist.

"...What's he doing here, again?" Hachiman narrowed his eyes behind his goggles.

"Thought you would appreciate the company," Echo replied.

Hachiman sighed. "Clearly, you've just met me."

"Wow, Hikigaya, that's cold, man," Tobe protested.

Echo chuckled. "Consider him a control group. In any case, let's get started. How about you run around a bit, see how fast you can move?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's do it."

He willed his body onwards with a mighty stride, then another, and then another. He was picking up speed, deftly dodging the refuse that littered the place as if on instinct. No, it was definitely instinct. It was an exhilarating sensation, his movement so fluid and so elegant, as if he'd been practicing it for years. He came to a large slab of concrete resting at an angle against a pillar, stepped on it and ran up the column before realizing he wasn't sticking to it. Before he could start falling, he kicked and propelled himself upwards through the air, straight towards another pillar. This time, he grabbed on with his hands.

"...That scratches superhuman speed and agility off the list," Echo assessed after being wordless for a short moment. "I must admit, that was… well, amazing."

"I think I can't stick to surfaces with these shoes," Hachiman panted, less from exhaustion and more from unparalleled excitement. "No problem with the gloves, though."

"That's good to know. Okay, next up: Tobe, please find something heavy. Something so heavy you can't lift it."

"W-whuh?" Tobe shook his head, snapping from the trance brought by spectating the greatest display of athletic prowess the world had seen to date. "R-right. Maybe we can use that chunk of concrete Spidey just used."

"Stop calling me Spider-Man!" Hikigaya groaned. "I'm not Spide-"

That sensation again. So strong! Telling him to move! So he did.

Hachiman dodged an invisible blast. "What th-"

It was tingling again! He had to jump!

Another attack followed. "-thehellareyoudoing?!"

Once more! He leapt straight into the air and flipped at the apex, landing on a crouch!

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Hachiman glared angrily at the Yokai drone, affixed beneath the steel frame of the mezzanine.

"Spider Sense, check." Echo answered.

"...Spider Sense," Hachiman repeated. Holy crap, it's true, he had, of all things, SPIDER SENSE.

…And once again, it was telling him to move! He evaded another blast wave, and then another, and one more for good measure.

Then something hit him.

"Ow!"

Something struck him in the back. Something round. Turning, he saw a tennis ball roll along the ground.

"What was that for?!"

Tobe rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Heheh, sorry."

"In the event you had Spider Sense, I wanted to test how well it managed simultaneous threats," Echo clarified. "Maybe it prioritizes threats? Well, until we can come up with a way to further test it, it's all meaningless speculation. In any case, we know for certain you have Spider Sense."

"I would've liked a heads-up..." Hachiman grumbled.

"Would've defeated the purpose of the test, wouldn't it?" Echo retorted. "Time for the strength check."

Tobe attempted to lift the slab of concrete Hachiman had run over. Naturally, it was too large and heavy for him to even budge it. "Okay, now you try."

Hachiman grabbed onto the chunk. He strained and grunted but it still felt far lighter than he thought it should be. Holding onto the piece of masonry, he spun and with the aid of his angular momentum, sent it flying across the warehouse with such force it struck the ceiling.

"Uh...wow," Echo stammered. "I saw the dust cloud all the way out here. Super strength, definitely che- hold on, I need to take this." Both Tobe and Hachiman didn't register his words, though, as they were both busy staring in awe at the pieces of concrete raining down from above.

"So far, it looks like you got all the powers," Tobe declared, struggling to tear his gaze from the new skylight Hachiman had just opened. "Do you have webs?"

Hachiman stared down at his wrists, studying them carefully, before shaking his head. "Not from here, at least."

"I think that was only in the movie that came out when we were ki-" but Tobe was interrupted before he could finish.

"Come back," Echo ordered bluntly, urgency and agitation dripping in his tone. "Right away. Bring Yokai."

They gave each other an aside glance, neither able to read the other's expression behind their headgear. Wordlessly, they complied, and with a brisk pace, both exited the makeshift training grounds and made their way back to the car.

Once inside, they could tell the driver's countenance was unbearably grim.

"W-what's going on?" Tobe asked, gently placing the drone on the seat next to his.

"...Multiple armed disturbances are being reported all throughout Chiba City," Echo breathed huskily and Hachiman felt a chill run down his spine. "From hostage situations to armed robbery and everything in between, all at once."

The engine roared to life and Echo floored the accelerator. "It's bad. It's really, really bad," he kept explaining to the befuddled teenagers as he exceeded any conceivable speed limits.

As Echo tore down Keiyo Road, Tobe's thumb urgently swiped at his smartphone. "Yeah, it's really happening everywhere...social media is on fire. Wait, what's this...? H-hey, Hikigaya, you really need to see this."

Hachiman, having just sent a text message to Komachi, pocketed his phone and accepted Tobe's. The other boy had just presented him with amateur footage of the situation further into the city. Police officers exchanged arms fire with criminals in the plaza outside Chiba-Chuo Station. A few of the officers took cover behind an inoperative water fountain, a pyramid made out mostly of stone bricks.

Then, his blood ran cold.

A shirtless man, tall and muscular and wit, landed near the middle of the policemen's formation, seemingly from nowhere. He kicked one square on the chest, sending him flying somewhere unseen. Another combatant tried to punch him, but the assailant sidestepped with blinding speed, caught the forearm...and squeezed.

Bone snapped, twisting the victim's flopping arm unnaturally backwards. His screams of pains didn't last, though, as the attacker spun with a leap and landed an airborne high kick on the officer's neck, silencing him forever.

Hachiman winced, unconsciously reaching for his own throat.

The playback continued. Officers began to discharge their weapons at the killer, despite the possibility of friendly fire in such close quarters. Their enemy moved swift, danced around their attacks, and leapt forward. Something, unseen in grainy video, latched onto one of the policemen and made him trip, as if the assailant was pulling them.

The attacker's feet hit the ground and he pivoted, swinging his arm as he did. The unfortunate policemen rocketed through the air and smashed into his comrades, like some sort of human flail.

There was no doubt about it, Hachiman knew. The man with the full-back spider tattoo had to have been holding onto a web. The silver bangles on his wrists, those must be web shooters. This man had to have the same powers as him.

The man in the video let go of the web, and the camera followed the battered human weapon. The poor officer headed straight for a tree...

Hachiman had to look away. The crunching sound alone was already nightmarish enough.

With a trembling hand, he thrust the phone back at Tobe.

An explosion went off in the distance, and the reality that Chiba had become a war zone dawned on the passengers.

"Where...are we going?" Hachiman asked despondent. The cold, slimy tendrils of fear slithered through his back and grasped at his being.

"Police Station. I need to report in and gear up. Also need to figure out what to do with you guys."

Was he expecting Hachiman to fight? No, no, no. He couldn't. Law enforcement would never ask civilians to fight their battles.

Or could he? Could he be asked to face off against the tattooed killer, being the only other person in the world with comparable abilities?

His mind screamed, his body trembled. He never asked for these powers...was there a relation between the timing of Hachiman receiving them and the appearance of that super-powered murderer?! He didn't care. He wasn't a fighter. He was only a teenager. A terrified teenager. A terrified teenager with powers he didn't ask for.

Echo made a sharp turn and abruptly braked, tires skidding on asphalt.

There was a police blockade a few meters away from them, under heavy automatic fire.

"Out! Out!" Echo commanded. "Stay low, stay in cover!"

No. No, Hachiman wouldn't stay around and fight. It wasn't his responsibility. He was young and afraid to die, and he'd already been through too many close calls.

Fueled by terror and adrenaline, Hikigaya Hachiman bolted as fast as his legs could take him. He ran. He ran, disregarding Echo and Tobe calls for him. He ran because he didn't know what else to do. Where was he going? He couldn't say. Just anywhere but towards a fight, towards risking his life for the faceless and the nameless.

He scaled the side of a low building, darted across the roof, and made a long jump onto another. He did it again, and one more time, ignoring the cold in the air, just wanting to get as far away from the killing and the maiming as possible.

He was stopped by a scream, followed by automatic gunfire, and then whimpers.

A hoarse voice called out. "YOU UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION NOW?! NEXT TIME WE'LL ACTUALLY HIT ONE OF YOU."

He was standing atop the Seiyu in Kasuga, and underneath him, a shady thug in sunglasses held an assault rifle on one hand while keeping a salaryman on a headlock with his other arm. He wasn't alone, either, as a crowd of terrified onlookers, seeking to flee the scene, were threatened by more heavily armed, suited gunmen.

"NOW GET INSIDE, ALL OF YOU! UNLESS YOU THINK YOU CAN OUTRUN A BULLET."

Hachiman felt his throat dry. He-he wanted to run away. This wasn't his problem...right?

He wanted to run away. So why wouldn't his legs move?!

Why would they refuse to budge?!

'Save me someday.'

Why was he hearing Yukino's voice now? Why did those words come have to come back to him?

'Hikigaya, you're always helping people. Have you given thought to the reason why you do that?' Now it was Professor Hiratsuka's turn to haunt him.

Why? Why? Why? Why?!

How come he knew he should escape-

-yet his very soul screamed 'do something'?

He was no hero.

He was just a kid. A scared, cowardly kid who couldn't even handle social interaction. A kid who would normally mind his own business, keep his head down and stay out of trouble.

Yet, he couldn't. He never really could do that, could he? Not this time, not ever.

He gazed down at the mewling hostages, corralled into the building with guns to their back. He saw himself in that crowd. They were powerless individuals cruelly trampled underfoot. He understood that pain.

But now, he wasn't so powerless anymore.

He'd always prided himself in following his own twisted logic, but that had been a lie. He was never all that logical.

'Hikigaya, you're always helping people. Have you given thought to the reason why you do that?'

The answer was simple.

He had none. He didn't need one. Do you really need a reason to help people?

The chill of fear was replaced with courage burning hotter than the sun.

He clenched his fist, grit his teeth, and began to look for his way in.

"Now list'n here, folks. We rather keep y'all alive. Orders from above, you see? But you try anything stupid, and we make an example out of ya."

To emphasize his point, the speaker racked the slide of his pistol with a clack, causing the hostages rounded up near the cash registers to whimper some more.

"That means no cell phones. Big load'a good calling the cops will do you, anyways. They're otherwise preoccupied. So don't try it! No recording, either, unless you want your skull ventilated."

Slinking through the aisles of the ground level's grocery section in his socks, Hachiman formulated a plan on the fly. Spotting some cans in a nearby rack, he grinned nervously behind his balaclava. Maybe it wasn't too late to double back?

"Alright," the apparent leader of the hostage-takers drawled. "Now, folks, straight file, towards the escalators...get moving."

A can of miso soup soared in the general direction of the armed thugs...only to miserably clank onto the ground before reaching its intended target, spilling its scrumptious contents all over the floor.

"Damn it!" Hachiman cursed under his breath as he quietly ducked into another aisle. He held back on his throw too much. If he didn't control his inhuman strength, he could accidentally kill someone, but putting too little strength into his pitch was no good either.

"...What was that?" One of the criminals raised an eyebrow.

"We've got company. Stupid company from the looks of it. Spread out and look for 'em. Kentaro, Hideo, with me. We're escorting the collateral."

This, Hachiman knew, he had to use to his advantage. He'd counted eight gunmen, so if he could thin their numbers...

The sensation from his Spider Sense started to intensify. No doubt one of them was getting close.

The gunman walked down the aisle with calm, deliberate steps, aiming down his iron sights. So focused was he on meticulously sweeping, he didn't realize a masked figure behind him cleared the rack between that aisle and the adjacent one with a single bound.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. The rifleman turned and a gloved fist immediately introduced itself to his cheek, scrunching his features.

Hikigaya Hachiman had never thrown a punch in his life before, yet his first strike had been powerful enough to put a guy that looked like a boxing champion out cold.

Before said would-be pugilist crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes, Hachiman grabbed him by the wrist and gently controlled the descent of the unconscious goon. It had been a completely silent take-down, thanks in no small part to the presence of a rifle sling which kept the gunman's weapon from clattering against linoleum.

'One down, seven to go.'

Sneakily making his way to one end of the superstore, he cleared over the meat refrigerators and crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling. Advancing from above, he spotted two more goons about to converge with one another around the produce. Perfect.

"Looks clear to me," said one of the gunmen.

"Yeah, nowhere to hide around here," the other replied.

"Wow, you two aren't winning any hide-and-seek games anytime soon."

Hachiman had reflexively taunted the thugs as he sprang into action. Those two only had time to gape in awe as his form darted from overhead and landed between them, for he then smashed their skulls together. Another clean knock-out, and this time Hachiman prevented a noisy fall by grasping at the back of their collars.

'Five left.'

The back of his neck started to prickle. Another one was just around the aisle, and was closing in fast - he could hear his heavy footsteps approaching. Next to Hachiman bushels of bananas were on display, and with no time to conceal himself, he decided to try his pitching arm one more time.

The bananas struck the ground a split second before the next scout turned the corner, becoming a gooey mess of mush and peels. The encroaching stalker, splashed on impact, was caught completely unaware. His moccasin slipped on the pulpy mass, causing him to fall over backwards and take a nasty blow to the head against a display refrigerator.

Dazed and supine, the gunman tried to get his bearings back, but he wouldn't get a chance to do so.

"Sorry, forgot to put up the 'wet floor' sign."

A punch from Hachiman, and it was lights out for the searcher. Only four left, and the last three were on another floor.

Hachiman let go of a deep, nervous sigh. This was working, much to his own surprise, but it didn't change how tense and apprehensive he felt. Those little, anxious quips from earlier had escaped his lips before he even realized he was talking, but he had to admit they took some of the edge off.

It wasn't time for contemplation, but for action, he admitted to himself. Action was heading quickly towards him, too, and he didn't need Spider Sense to hear the last of the searchers frantically sprinting in his general direction. No doubt his improvised attack made some noticeable noise.

He'd have to face this one head-on. The realization made him reflexively gulp.

He could see the remaining thug, and that meant his antagonist could see Hachiman and his victims as well. "WHAT THE-?!"

There was only a single thought going through Hachiman's head as he charged full speed ahead. 'Don't let him fire his gun. The moment he does, they'll hear it upstairs.'

Hachiman's foe raised a submachine gun in what the teen perceived like slow motion. Hachiman needed to delay him from firing, and he only had one way to achieve that. He jumped to his right and his feet made contact with the wall. Thanks to his clinging ability, he could keep sprinting towards his opponent.

The sight of the marvelous masked male, racing along a perfectly vertical surface, defying gravity, would give anyone pause. That gunman was no different. It made him slower by a few fractions of a second, and by the time he had trained his aim at his target, said target was already zipping through the air, lunging at him.

In midair, Hachiman yanked the submachine gun away from his enemy's grasp, twisted his body, and struck his unfortunate adversary with a mighty flying roundhouse, flooring him.

That took care of the grocer section. Only the last three hostage-takers on the upper floor remained.

He quietly trotted towards the escalator. His Spider Sense started to prickle slightly. Perhaps there was a sentry stationed atop the stairway? After all, they were the only way up to the first floor.

For a normal person, that is.

Hachiman headed past the cash registers and out the main entrance to the building, stepping out to the hauntingly deserted streets of Chuo Ward. He'd previously entered the building by prying open a roof access and making his way down the emergency staircase. Said staircase was blocked off with doorways on each level that would only open from the descending side with a push bar.

He scaled a sheer, tower-like structure, atop which a gigantic black sign displayed the superstore's logo in bold white letters. Clearing from the edification to the roof of the two-story building proper, he caught a glimpse of his sneakers before heading back inside. Descending one flight of stairs, he quickly scanned the second floor before concluding it was deserted. His exploration wasn't completely fruitless, however: he spotted nylon cable ties for sale and decided to pocket a pack, figuring they would be useful later.

The youth clung to the wall boxing in the descending escalator and crawled alongside it, staying close to the ceiling.

The subtle stinging of his Spider Sense meant they had to be close.

Taking care not to be seen, he spotted the sizable group of hostages huddled around what would usually be a relatively open space between hanging racks in the apparel section. They cowered before the leader of the marauders, who was pacing back and forth as another of the interlopers was stood nearby, hand resting on a combat shotgun resting over his shoulder. A few feet away, the last remaining invader pointed a carbine down the escalator, ready to mow down anybody who so much as attempted to ascend.

Hachiman analyzed the situation carefully: dividing and conquering had worked exceedingly well for him, but he wouldn't be able to rely on the same strategy as before. If he tried to lure them away, he figured the possibility of one of the thugs threatening to bargain with one of the hostages at gunpoint was highly likely, and Hachiman had no way to win if that came to pass. No, he had to strike fast and hard, not giving them a chance to process what was happening.

He formulated his plan and loathed what he knew with certainty: he was going to get shot at.

He slithered across the ceiling, towards the man guarding the escalator.

"Hey...what the hell are y'all slack-jawed for?" the thug calling the shots raised an eyebrow, perplexed at a sudden change of disposition in several of the previously cowering captives. More and more of their number transitioned from fear to astonishment, and the unsavory fellow finally decided to turn and witness the answer to his question himself.

He craned his neck just in time to see a masked figure drop from the ceiling.

Hachiman landed on his haunches in front of the stairway's sentry, forcing him to yelp undignified. The masked teen struck with a swift sweep, tumbling his adversary towards him. He relieved the stumbling combatant of his weapon, tossed him over his shoulder, and sent him rolling down the same escalators he'd been protecting a moment before.

The wall-crawler was where he wanted to be - with his back to the stairway, bullets wouldn't tear through hostages to reach him.

Tossing the carbine aside, Hachiman closed the distance between him and the shotgun-toting gunman in a flash. His opposition's finger was on already on the trigger, and left with no other options, the teen used his superhuman strength to wrestle the scattergun away, the weapon discharging during the struggle. The shotgun's barrel unloaded onto the ceiling, splashing pieces of plaster everywhere. Hachiman ignored the painful ringing in his ears and the terrified screams of those he was there to rescue, choosing instead to focus entirely on sliding his foot between the other man's legs before hooking it against their ankle. The movement forced his antagonist to topple backwards onto the ground. Weapon wrested free from his opponent's grasp, Hachiman smashed the shotgun stock into his fallen foe's visage.

His Spider Sense bellowed, and Hachiman sprung into a leaping somersault. A projectile whizzed past by him, grazing his shoulder. It was hot and painful and distressing but the boy had no time to spare a thought to that. He shifted his body to avoid another shot and came down on a powerful axe kick that relieved the last remaining threat of his semi-automatic handgun.

Instead of backing away, though, the thug's leader took a lunging swing at Hachiman. The blow struck at his temple, causing the teenager's skull to explode with aching agony that gave way to a dull throb. But Hachiman was undeterred. He would win this fight - he had to! Another strike crashed against the youth's chin, causing teeth to chatter and rattle, but he would not back down. Despite his body being rocked back from the last punch, Hachiman caught himself from losing ground, hopped a step ahead, and countered with a swinging right hook to the flank.

Hachiman's rival grunted, stumbled a little, and attacked with his own counterpunch. Hachiman weaved under the swooping arm and answered with an elbow strike under the chin. The powerful hit made the other fighter's trunk arch back. The teenager's hands shot out, bunching up the clothes under the lawbreaker's collar, and he lifted his captive as high as his arms would allow him.

"You want to keep going?!" Hachiman growled. "Want me to pull all the stops?! Cause I can hit harder - a LOT harder that this!"

"All right, all right! I yield! I yield!" the helpless wrongdoer flailed, panic starting to set in. "I get it! You can do the same crazy comic book crap as the boss-man! So let me go!"

Hachiman's eyes narrowed behind his googles. "Boss?" He tightened his grip. "Who's this boss of yours?!"

"C-c'mon now," the crook stuttered, cold sweat dripping the side of his face. "He's gotta be all over the news by now. W-why don't you turn on a TV or sumthin'?"

"I'm too busy dealing with punks like you," Hachiman snarled, suddenly yanking his quarry close, so close he could feel the terrified thug's agitated breathing against his balaclava. "Better answer before I decide to really deal with you."

"Tsuchigumo! It's the Tsuchigumo of Chiba! There, ya happy?!"

Tsuchigumo? The yokai monsters from folklore? Was it a nickname? "Who is this Tsuchigumo?!"

"Big time gunrunner, gave me n' the boys them toys and told a whole buncha others to raise hell all around town. Said to round up as many hostages as we could take, and to help us to their belongings if we wanted."

"For what purpose...?!"

"I don't know! Honest!"

Hachiman knew he wasn't lying, for his captive was far too distraught for falsehood. Deciding the thug would give him no further information, Hachiman let go with one of his hands, still holding his victim aloft with a single arm.

"What are you gonna do!? No! Don't-!"

Hachiman produced the pack of zip ties from his pocket and lobbed it in the direction of the hostages. "Tie him up while I keep holding him, please."

"O-oh," the wrongdoer's shoulders slumped in relief. "For a moment, I thought..."

"...I'm no killer," Hachiman finished the thought.

"Then what ARE you?!" the thug blurted out.

The one brave soul who decided to honor Hachiman's request, an office lady in her early thirties, spoke as she opened the pack of cable ties. "Um, isn't it obvious? He's Spider-Man."

"Thank you, Spider-Man!"

"I never thought you could ever be real!"

"I love you, Spider-Man! You're the best!"

Soon, he was surrounded by the previously terrified people. Eyes that had once been drowning in despair now sparkled with admiration, elation, and confidence.

He'd done it. It was because of him. Hikigaya Hachiman, who had never once in his life been saved by someone else, even if he had once desperately wanted to be, had in turn protected others from that misery he knew all too well. They no longer knew of desolation or abandonment, for he'd been there to help.

It felt good. It felt so good. For the first time in his life, triumph truly swelled in his heart.

The crowd, amidst their cheerful chatter, began to work on immobilizing their former captors and rounding up their weapons. Hachiman took the opportunity to check on his arm; his sleeve was torn and his skin had reddened, but it didn't seem as if he'd been cut by the projectile, let alone experienced serious injury.

He requested a group accompany him to secure the neutralized gunmen downstairs, and it didn't take long for them to be tied up as well. The initiative proved fruitful, as the downed wrongdoers had started to groggily come to.

Danger past and hostage-takers rounded up, it was time for Hachiman to leave. When he climbed the escalator to the first floor, the people that stayed behind surrounded him. A middle-aged man stepped forward, holding a bundle of brightly-colored cloth in his hands.

"Thank you so, so much for saving us," the man said. "There's not much we can do to show our appreciation, but...it's winter and you're dressed so light. We wanted you to have this."

Hachiman was presented with a zip-up hoodie - red, blue, black cobweb pattern, the symbol of a spider sitting on the middle of the chest. Of course that's what they'd go for. After all, to them, he was Spider-Man.

To accept the gift, Hachiman knew, would be to accept permanent change in his life. He was being offered a choice: he could disappear after his altruistic intervention and go back to his life as an ordinary high schooler, at least pretend to...or he could shoulder the burden of defending his ailing, weeping Chiba. Would he fight? Or would he flee?

'Save me someday.'

Within him resounded those words, but it wasn't just Yukinoshita Yukino's voice uttering them now.

He also heard Yuigahama Yui, the third and last member of the Service Club. Isshiki Iroha, the foxy, manipulative, yet kindred Student Council president. Totsuka Saika, the captivatingly feminine yet bafflingly male tennis club captain. Zaimokuza Yoshiteru, the aspiring but lacking writer. His own sister, Hikigaya Komachi. His parents. His teacher, Hiratsuka Shizuka. That one rough but caring girl with the scrunchie he always forgot the name of. Tsurumi Rumi, the elementary schooler he'd attempted to assist in more than one occasion. Kakeru Tobe, the one classmate privy to his secret.

Voices he wouldn't have expected also resounded within. Hayama Hayato. Miura Yumiko. Ebina Hina. Orimoto Kaori. Shiromeguri Meguri. Even Yukinoshita Haruno.

Hikigaya Hachiman reached out and accepted the offering, embracing all the responsibility it entailed.

He decided to embrace the role thrust upon him.

"I'll ask the police to come and help," Hachiman said as he zipped the jacket up. "Stay safe."

"Go get 'em, Spidey!"

"You can do it, Spider-Man!"

"We believe in you!"

He made his way towards the roof one more time, retrieved his sneakers, slipped them back on, and once again ran, this time for the direction he'd first come from.

They were pinned.

The shooters were clearly untrained, as evidenced by their abysmal aim, but they had so much firepower at their disposal it didn't matter.

Echo tried to return fire, but he could only pop a round before hunkering down behind the squad car's engine block. He was armed with a New Nambu Model 60 revolver borrowed from the injured lawman taking cover against the rear wheel of the vehicle. The hurt officer's was far too busy applying pressure to the gaping wound in his leg to operate a firearm.

"Talk to me, kid!" Echo spoke into his microphone, firing a shot blind over the hood.

Tobe, a safer distance away, agitatedly examined the image displayed on the touchscreen for the drone control device Echo had entrusted him with. "It's the same as ever!" They don't seem like they'll run out of ammo anytime soon! What's more, there's a new SUV pulling up alongside them!"

"Damn it!" Echo cursed. "I don't know how much more of this we can take before we start losing people!"

"...Oh no. No no no no!" Tobe cried. "You guys have to get out of there, now! Now!"

Dread snaked its way through Echo's back. "Focus! What did you see?!"

"They...they're..." Tobe swallowed dry, "The sunroof! They're pulling out a turret from the sunroof!"

"...Oh." Echo said, dumbfounded. The crackling of sustained suppressive fire stopped, and then Echo heard a whirling, spinning noise. There was no way their vehicles would protect them against such an armament. So this was how it would end, huh? This was not how he'd pictured it would happen. He wasn't holding onto his MP5, he didn't have his body armor, and his usual comrades were nowhere to be found.

Ah, there were still so many things he wanted to do before he went...

"HOLY-!"

Tobe yelled, and the shredding hail of high-caliber bullets never came.

Despite his better judgment, Echo peered over the hood of the car. Other officers would also slowly be overcome by curiosity as well and followed suit, peeking warily from their shelters.

They'd behold the most unreal of sights. A rotary turret, projecting from a sunroof, split across its barrels. A manhole cover, embedded firmly past the grille of another SUV and into its engine, splitting the surrounding metal. A blur of blue and red, swiftly darting from one place to the next and striking just as quickly. Punching, kicking, leaping atop someone's shoulders, vaulting onto another foe and bringing them down with its momentum...rolling backwards to evade gunfire, pushing itself with its arms into a backflip, to then twisting in midair and landing with both of its feet square on the chest of another adversary...

That blur fought as if possessed by a demon of fury and lightning. Awe-struck, star-struck, the officers could do little more than gawk transfixed as the Spider-Man battled.

Spider-Man brawled, unleashing attacks with dozens upon dozens of openings any experienced combatant could identify and exploit; and yet, his blows were so overwhelmingly fast, none of his antagonists could capitalize.

He dodged a kick, grasped the leg close to him with both his arms, and tossed his attacker at a pair about to open fire at him. He sensed someone else taking aim at him, sprung into the air, landed behind this would-be shooter, and bashed against his back with his elbow. Some other combatant gave up on shooting and charged at him with a knife, hoping to run him through, but Spider-Man merely spun on his heel, avoiding the blade, and then caught the pouncing individual on the back of the head with a backhanded swing, downing him. The other man, the one whose back he'd elbowed, launched himself at Spider-Man and managed to lock his arms around the masked fighter's shoulders and armpits. The knife-wielder got up, grinned menacingly through a bloody nose, and thrust his steel implement towards the restrained amateur hero.

The rushing blade was instead caught between the soles of Spider-Man's shoes. The hooded vigilante threw his torso forward and then back, striking his captor with a mighty head-butt, no doubt breaking a couple of teeth. The grapple on him loosened, Spider-Man contorted his body, his feet wresting the dagger free from the grasp of his other adversary.

He landed on a crouch, rising immediately into an uppercut that sent the knife maniac reeling down, and followed up by turning into a high kick that crashed against the grappler's ear. Next, he vaulted and slid over the trunk of a sedan, clearing just in time to protect himself from gunfire behind the real wheel.

A single detonation rang out over the sustained crackles of assault weaponry, and the projectile assault stopped. The buzzing of his preternatural sense ceased.

"It's over, man," Tobe's digitized voice spoke into his earpiece, relieved. Hachiman had forgotten about that feature in his mask. "It's over, and it's all thanks to you."

Hachiman made his way out of his shelter, doing his best to pay no mind to the gazes fixed on his hooded figure. Several officers had moved in and had started cuffing the defeated gunmen, but for the most part, all attention was focused on him.

"Do you think it's him? The guy HQ warned us about?"

"No, it couldn't be. He just helped us. Has to be someone else."

"Yeah, I've had the displeasure of coming face to face with the Tsuchigumo before all this went down. This guy is definitely shorter."

'Tsuchigumo. So they already know,' Hachiman thought.

His earpiece came alive again with the sound of Echo's voice. "You left us hanging for a wardrobe change, huh?"

"No. I ran into a hostage situation on the nearby Seiyu," Hachiman spoke into the microphone. "...I know it was stupid, but I intervened."

"And the hostages?"

"All safe," Hachiman answered. "Gave me this hoodie before I left. Can you make sure some policemen go down there, by the way? Christmas was a few days ago and all, but there's still a bunch of thugs gift-wrapped inside."

Echo chuckled despite himself. "I told you I liked guys like you. I think now you know why."

"Because we do all the heavy lifting for you?" Hachiman barbed.

"That too. What can I say, delegating can be the epitome of efficiency."

"Are you sure you're not just lazy?"

"...So, what will you do now, Peter Parker?" Echo abruptly changed the subject, which wasn't lost on Hachiman. He decided not to dwell on the swerve, nor to think about how he just referred to him by the name of the fictional Spider-Man's alter ego. It was time to get back on track. "What else? Nobody else could stop that Tsuchigumo person."

"So you found out about him?" Echo grinned. "Good job. There's hope for you yet."

"That's what my guidance counselor always tells me."

Echo snorted. "Okay, play along with me now."

Before Hachiman could ask what he meant, Echo came around from behind the vehicular barricade and approached him, arms raised in a welcoming gesture. "Thank you for helping us...Spider-Man, is it?"

"Uh..." Hachiman nodded once.

"The situation is extremely dire, Spider-Man. We need all the assistance we can get," Echo continued the charade. "Can we count on you?"

"I guess..." Hachiman mumbled.

"Put some conviction into it!" Echo chastised, his voice now barely a whisper.

Hachiman groaned, but complied: "Yes. I'm here to lend a hand."

"Louder!" Echo whispered again.

"I'M HERE. TO LEND A HAND," Hachiman yelled, aggravated.

"Did you hear that?" Echo turned back toward the barricade, this time projecting his voice much louder. "Spider-Man's going to help us!"

The previously imperiled crowd of officers cheered and roared.

"Okay, that'll do," Echo murmured. "You got the boys in blue fired up."

"Uhh, you're welcome…?"

"...We are reporting live near Makuhari Cineplex," a female NHK reporter spoke into the camera televising her both locally and abroad. "Inside, a special police team is currently attempting to apprehend Kimura Keisuke, a local businessman believed to be the organizer behind the attacks occurring all throughout the city. A video that went viral on social media about an hour ago, far too graphic for television broadcast, depicted a fight between Kimura and police officers where the former displayed, for the lack of better description...superhuman agility and strength."

The reporter experienced a mixture of apprehension, disgust, and bewilderment at her own narration, and it showed in her face for a split second before she could regain her professional demeanor. Clearing her throat, she continued.

"Kimura has released a list of demands, including 100 billion yen in cash, as well as the publication of all national intelligence agency documents for the past twenty-five years. He is, by his own account..." that uncomfortable expression returned to her countenance, "...holding the entirety of Chiba City hostage."

She took a deep breath before continuing: "The mobilization of JSDF forces has been approved by government, officials describing this as the worst national crisis sinc-"

The lifeless body of a riot-geared cop defenestrated through the glass doors of the movie theater, slamming sickeningly onto the pavement, and forcing the reporter to yell in agitation. "Point the camera away! Away!"

The viewfinder, fleeing from the corpse, instead found Kimura Keisuke across the street, exiting the theater through the shattered door. He dragged another officer behind him like a rag doll, paying no mind to the glass stabbing itself into his captive. He stared directly at the camera crew with a twisted grin, sending chills down the spines of the physically present and television viewers alike.

The deafening and unmistakable sound of helicopter rotors gradually intensified, causing Tsuchigumo to look up and the cameraman to zoom in at its source. Materializing from behind a building, a police chopper turned to expose its flank to the Tsuchigumo. Two SAT officers were harnessed by the open door, one holding a machine gun and the other an assault rifle.

Tsuchigumo scoffed, released his victim, and broke into a sprint. The gunmen opened fire.

He zigzagged, leapt, shot a web at the door of a bus abandoned nearby, yanked, and tore it from the chassis. Spinning in the air, he swung it around and released, launching the door as a makeshift projectile.

It sheared the main rotors clean off.

The helicopter barreled down, spinning uncontrollably during its precipitous descent.

It headed straight for the news team.

The reporter screamed. The cameraman raised his arm in front of the camera in a futile attempt to defend himself.

It all happened so fast, the newsroom wouldn't get a chance to cut the live feed before the gruesome impact.

It wouldn't need to.

Somehow, both journalists were still alive, the airframe somehow held up above their heads. The cameraman, in a daze, aimed his camera lower, and lower...

Until it met the red emblem, a crimson circle with eight projections. A spider.

The photojournalist zoomed out, and realized it was a design emblazoned on the back of a person's jacket.

A person who, despite the impossibility of it all... caught a falling helicopter by the nose, preventing their grisly demise.

"RRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!"

The hooded figure, squatted under the astonishing load, hauled the vehicle so its landing skids touched the ground. With his incredible labor completed, the mysterious benefactor placed his hands on his thighs and began to pant violently. The occupants of the helicopter, lightly injured but mostly shaken and no worse for wear, filed out of what could've been a coffin of steel and fiberglass.

The journalists approached their savior, with the cameraman's tool of the trade was pointed directly at him. "You...you saved us."

The stoic figure nodded, once. "It's too dangerous here. You need to get to safety."

"W-wait! A-are you...are you really..." the woman stuttered, overtaken by awe. The hooded youth followed her gaze, fixed on the spider logo in his chest.

"Yeah."

Hikigaya Hachiman had been a cynical loner all his life, and as such, barely knew how to provide words of comfort and care. Yet, he was smart, and knew that right now, behind those camera lenses leveled at him, the world was surely watching. Even he knew the people of Chiba, the people of Japan, the people of the world, had need of such words.

So, he kept it simple.

"Yeah. I'll put a stop to this. I promise."

With that, he darted away, towards the danger, towards the chaos.

"...De, dear viewers," the reporter's spoke, still disconcerted. "That was...that was...I can't believe it. That was him. That was the real deal..."

The woman had been moved to tears. The cameraman, capturing her image, hadn't realized it, but he too was weeping.

Never had either been in such dangerous an assignment. Yet, never in their lives had either of them felt so reassured, so safe.

"That wasn't some...that wasn't some cruel, psychopathic phony! That's him! He became real! He became real because we needed him to be!" Excitement and passion overtook her, and any semblance of detached professionalism had been thrown to the wind. Now was not the time for such trivialities. For this moment was too monumental, too important, for human emotion to find itself absent.

The world stood still.

This was one of those moments that changed humanity's history forever, and everyone viewing it throughout the world knew.

How many, across generations, around the globe, had once upon a time gazed upon that gallant hero, who refused to yield despite overwhelming odds, and dared them to dream impossible dreams...?!

And yet he, who should only belong in the realm of amazing fantasies,

had become flesh and blood simply because he'd been 'needed'.

It was a declaration heard around the Earth. The rallying cry for the downtrodden, the suffering, the cowering, and the hopeless. A second wind for all inhabitants of this blue star.

"It's him! It's SPIDER-MAN!"

The entire planet celebrated.

The victorious shouts of the global community even awoke its sleeping denizens. Those who weren't were instead roused by their parents, or by phone calls from loved ones, or the like.

From a small laboratory atop an ancient television shop in Akihabara, where its residents huddled around a 21-inch monitor, to a restaurant in Nairobi, to an apartment in Rome, to the gigantic displays in Times Square, New York...people everywhere celebrated the resurgence of hope following the grim situation Chiba was subjected to.

Somewhere in California, a mustached elderly gentleman who'd stayed up late following the news coverage dropped his mug of coffee. His trembling hand slowly removed the tinted glasses he wore even indoors, a peculiar habit of his.

"Steve, I hope you're seeing this up there. Our ol' webslinger... he's still finding new ways to amaze."

To everyone's surprise, Spider-Man came running right back, carrying the limp, bleeding form of a police officer whose body had been mangled by glass – the one Tsuchigumo had been dragging earlier.

"This man needs immediate medical attention!" Spider-Man yelled. "Can you get it for him?!"

The operators who'd been rescued from the falling helicopter took their victimized comrade onto their shoulders. "We're on it!"

"Thanks!" With that, Spider-Man dashed away once more, this time to join the ongoing fight.

"Echo!" Spider-Man yelled into his mask. "Can you get the team engaging Tsuchigumo to pull out?! I don't want to get caught in the crossfire!"

"I'm on it!" The older man replied. As he got closer, Hachiman could hear the gunfire becoming more and more sporadic.

"Done!" Echo called out. "Just told them Spider-Man was coming in to cover them as they fell back!"

"Right!" Spider-Man said just as the combat was coming into view. The man known as Tsuchigumo, a head taller than him, still shirtless and with a peculiar belt around his waist, held onto the torn door of a police armored car, using it like a shield. Bullets plinked from the thick metal plate.

Spider-Man could see his tattoo - his back was facing him! Spider-Man dove into a tackle.

He instead crashed into the metal door-shield, crumpling to the ground.

'Right. Spider Sense. He has to have it too,' Hachiman processed as he groaned and picked himself up.

His own sense went wild. The door smashed against his side with such force it sent him flying through the air, landing on stone with a hard thud and a pained grunt.

Tsuchigumo loomed over his prone form, raising an eyebrow, genuinely intrigued. "Think you're a match for me just because you put on some superhero sweatshirt? What are you, nuts?"

"No, not nuts."

Spider-Man scampered to his feet with a twirl, ripping the slab of metal from Tsuchigumo's grasp and coming back for a blow that caught his opponent flat-footed. It was then Tsuchigumo's turn to rocket through the air and land on hard ground.

"Came here to offer some community service. Heard the city had a garbage disposal problem?" Hachiman blabbered, secretly terrified and eagerly trying, and failing, to hide the frightened quiver in his voice.

Tsuchigumo kicked himself up to his feet. "That hurt, you mouthy bastard."

A strand shot from the yakuza's wrist, and Hachiman evaded its trajectory with a sidestep. His Spider Sense flared, and he realized he had not been the target in the first place. Tsuchigumo pulled the strand towards him, and Hachiman jump-flipped backwards, clearing a bicycle swooping past beneath him. His feet weren't planted on the ground for long, though - the armored door swung towards him, and he threw himself onto the ground, the metallic slab swooshing above his head.

Seeing he'd missed, Tsuchigumo swung the webbed door back towards his opponent. Seeking reprieve, Spider-Man sprung upwards, clinging atop the makeshift flail, and rode the door back to the ground.

"You're the first person to call me 'mouthy', you know? People usually say I don't talk much."

"Don't you ever shut up?!" Tsuchigumo pulled at the strand, rocketing the door and its unlikely rider towards him. Sensory alert warned Hachiman of impeding harm, and he propelled himself away his steel mount in the last possible second. As Hachiman flipped in the air above Tsuchigumo, the latter struck at the metal with his fist, causing the door to dent.

Hachiman, perched atop a lamppost, sighed in relief. That'd could've been his face...whoa!

He dropped down from his roost just in time to avoid the armored door from tearing him down alongside the post.

He wasn't fast enough, however, to avoid a gossamer strand from sticking to his shoulder.

"Oh shi-"

Next thing Hachiman knew, he was flying through the air, straight towards Tsuchigumo...

A clothesline struck him like a runaway train.

"Oof!" Hachiman groaned miserably and fell hard on his back. Before he could get a chance to ponder if he'd been paralyzed for life, he willed his hands to grasp at a shoe that was about to stomp his face.

The foot was pulled back, and beckoned by his Spider Sense, Hikigaya rolled to the side. The fancy leather loafer, scuffed from wear but otherwise intact, trampled the ground where Hachiman's head had been with such raw power it violently cracked the stone bricks underneath.

Hachiman, lying prone, blinked behind his goggles. "That, that's a quality shoe."

"Shut up already!"

Tsuchigumo, infuriated, went for a soccer kick to Hachiman's head.

"Ahh!" Hachiman instinctually raised his body with his arms. The kick whiffed thanks to Hachiman's sudden push-up, and the young man scrambled back to his feet. Figuring he had to attack eventually, Hachiman threw a haymaker of his own.

That proved to be a big mistake. Hachiman had never engaged in a brawl before today, but his adversary? His adversary had plenty of experience. His telegraphed moves would perhaps be too fast for a normal opponent, but Tsuchigumo was equally speedy, without even getting into the subject of their Spider Sense.

Hachiman's blow was easily parried with a swatting motion. The distance between the two combatants was short; far too short for the warning from Hachiman's inexplicable perception to make any difference.

A shovel hook plowed straight into Hachiman's gut, knocking the air out of him and making his world explode into hurt. His legs wobbled and he took to a knee, clutching his stomach. The aggravation of a different sensation, extraordinary in nature, loudly proclaimed he would not be receiving any mercy or reprieve. A front kick slammed against his jaw, lifting him off the ground, and sending him crashing against his back.

Groggy, punch-drunk, every nerve screaming in agony, Hachiman realized he would never win in a fair fight. He needed to even the odds somehow. Maybe something like a weapon...but before he could finish that thought, Tsuchigumo sailed through the air and came down on an elbow drop to the boy's solar plexus. Hachiman wailed.

"Heh. Still alive after that?" Tsuchigumo mocked, rising. "Stay down if you know what's good for you."

He...he couldn't stay down! He needed to get up! So he did, despite his protesting body and trembling legs.

"You're one stupid son of a bitch, you know that?"

Hachiman knew he only had one shot at this. He pulled his fist back . Tsuchigumo charged in with a killing blow...

Spider-Man's sense did not fail him. He weaved under Tsuchigumo's running punch, breaking into a sprint away from his torturer. The feint had been a risky gamble, but the only play left to him he could use to make some distance. He urgently ran for the fallen lamppost; perhaps it could be the weapon he needed!

Two strands of webbing shot past him. He didn't need Spider Sense to know he should duck. Skidding to a halt, Hachiman pulled himself low to the ground, a hand between his spread legs for balance. Tsuchigumo zoomed over, right past him, making landfall by the fallen pole.

Without a chance to think what action to take next, something splattered onto Hachiman's face. He couldn't see! Some sort of gunk covered his goggles. Had to be - webs! That was it!

Spider-Man ripped off his goggles, just in time to respond to his alerting impulse and hurdle over the lamppost swooshing horizontally towards him. Having cleared the hazard, Hachiman slapped a button near the jaw of the mask. "Echo! Where's your Yokai drone?!"

"Ask Tobe!" Echo answered urgently. The popping sound of gunfire leaking into his microphone informed Hachiman he wasn't the only one involved in a dire situation.

"I-it's near you, Spidey!" Tobe answered. "Like, super near!"

"Set it up on the bus stop behind this guy!" Hachiman ordered, dodging a horizontal swing from the lamppost. "Quickly!"

Hachiman evaded a few more blows, trying to close the distance between him and his foe. Then, Tobe spoke up. "It's ready!"

Hachiman got low to the ground and glared intently at Tsuchigumo. "On my mark, hit him with the drone's blast attack. Ready..."

"A-ah, w-wait-!"

"...Go!" Hachiman had no alternative but to set his plan in motion and brace for the consequences. It was now or never; this was the turning point. He dashed at Tsuchigumo with an animalistic roar. He launched himself into the air, stretching his leg out in a flying kick.

As expected, the lamppost was heading to intercept his attack.

"NOW!"

The airborne Hachiman was swatted away like a human baseball, but despite the excruciating pain, he smirked behind his mask.

If there was one thing Hikigaya Hachiman was good at, it was scheming. His plans didn't usually have to be formulated on the fly, but this wasn't the first time he had to do so, either. Him getting hurt during the execution? Something he was trying to avoid as of late, but this time it was required he relapsed into that habit.

He'd learned something very important during the short training session earlier, taught to him by something as innocuous as a tennis ball: it was difficult for their Spider Sense to warn them of a lesser threat when a greater menace was imminent.

A wave of concussive force struck Tsuchigumo from behind. Hook, line, and sinker!

Hachiman arched back and landed on his feet, ignoring the agony from his struck side. Immediately, he rushed towards the disoriented, thrashing Tsuchigumo.

He worked fast. With astounding dexterity, his hands undid the latches of the gunmetal bangles around Tsuchigumo's wrists, avoiding wild swings as he worked. The whole ordeal couldn't have taken more than a couple of seconds, and by the end, Hachiman had relieved his dizzied adversary of his web shooters.

Crouching under a haymaker, Hachiman added insult to the injury by ripping off the utility belt around Tsuchigumo's waist before scampering off.

"Why you little-!"

Hachiman jumped over the fence to a bicycle parking space and then dived behind a raised bed of shrubbery. He raised his sleeves and quickly began to don the appropriated devices. If he could never win in a fair fight, he could at least take one of Tsuchigumo's advantages away and make it his own.

No sooner had he mounted the second device on his right wrist did he hear the gate to the parking racks clattering against the ground. Tsuchigumo was no longer disoriented and had to be looking for him. How come nobody gave him a chance today to ease into things? Hopefully, the shooters would work just like in fiction. The presence of a steel band projecting from the bracelet, ending in a circular, wafer-thin switch sitting high on his palm just over the wrist, made the wishful assertion substantially likely.

Hachiman slung the stolen belt across his torso like a bandolier and trained his new devices at the top of the Souk Makuhari building looming overhead. He bent his ring and middle fingers inwards in both hands, depressing the switch on both gadgets.

Nothing happened.

"Huh?"

He tried again. Nothing. Distress welling within him and his enemy drawing closer and closer, Hachiman tried once more, hitting both switches twice in quick succession.

Finally the strands of webbing shot into the air, flying true, sticking to the side of the structure. The devices worked on a double tap!

The boy ceased applying pressure on the switches and the web lines were shorn at the nozzles. He quickly grabbed the strands, one in each hand, and tugged, his incredible strength rocketing his battered body into the sky. A rush of cold winter wind buffeted him he ascended.

For a moment, he forgot all about life-or-death peril and simply allowed himself to marvel. There were no words to describe the sensations bubbling within him, except perhaps pure, unadulterated wonder.

This exhilarating experience, though, was spoiled when he realized he was about to crash against the side of said edifice. "Aah!" He contorted himself sideways and fired a shorter web from his left wrist, held onto the glossy filament, and allowed himself to arc over the roof.

He realized he had to let go of his lifeline on the cusp of the swing, and when he did, his velocity caused him to hurtle uncontrollably ever ahead, on his way to just overshoot the building altogether.

He fired another web behind, blindly, and held on for dear life. It brought him to an abrupt, aerial halt which was then subjected to the third law of motion: for every action, an equal reaction. With a prolonged yell, he came down hard on top of a van, fiberglass deforming under the impact.

"This...is going to take some practice," Hachiman lamented, attempting to tune out the cacophonous, incensing blaring of the ruined automobile's alarm. He picked himself up, rubbing his poor back like an arthritic elder, and studied his surroundings. A large portion of the Makuhari Souk building was a parking garage, connected directly to the shops therein. It was, in essence, an indoor mall, except almost every establishment was either an eatery, a pub, and in one case, an internet café.

"Hey, Tobe..." Hachiman actioned his mask's push-to-talk toggle. "Where's the meathead?"

"Taking his shoes off...aaaaand climbing up the building."

He pondered for a moment whether he should make a stand right there, but quickly decided against it. A direct confrontation would no doubt continue to prove disastrous.

Inside, however, he might be able to set up an ambush, or find something that might give him a further edge. No doubt the shirtless maniac would be focused on him now and would search high and low for his prey. That was a far better alternative to Tsuchigumo departing and further toying with hapless officers.

"I'm going in," Hachiman declared, jogging down the parking ramp. "Let me know if anything changes outside."

The interior of the Souk Building had been abandoned in a hurry by its occupants, as half-eaten meals and overturned bottles could attest. Even a hardened loner like Hachiman experienced unease at the eeriness of the desolate vicinity.

Taking care to step over a fragmented bowl and not slip on its wasted broth and noodles, the wanderer exited a ramen restaurant, having concluded the premises would not provide a trump card in the battle to come. All he'd managed to scrounge were some packets of dried fish powder, now sitting within his pockets.

His intuition warned him the prowler was nearby. Moving silently, he climbed the stairs back up, to the fourth floor. He could hide in the internet café and, at the very least, take the time to figure out how to reload his web shooters ahead of his next encounter with Tsuchigumo.

Stepping into the first booth he found in the café, he closed the wooden door behind him and began to fiddle with the contraption mounted on his left.

He spotted a small, flat, and thin bar ending in a paddle-like shape. It projected from a circle-shaped section, sitting on the side away from his thumb. The paddle shape pointed vertically down towards his forearm, parallel to the nozzle. He pulled at the lever, turning it 180 degrees around a hinge, first towards his body and then ending at his palm. His action caused a small cylinder, which had already been jutting out from the bottom of the circular portion, to rotate and shift downwards, now loose.

'Has to be a system to keep the cartridges secure,' he concluded, retrieving the protruding capsule.

He opened a pouch on the bandolier he'd seized, fished for a fresh cylinder, and placed it in the new opening. It clicked into place, but was still not as far in as the previous cartridge had been. He lowered the lever once more, back to its original position, and the cartridge drilled itself inwards, properly affixed.

'There, loaded.'

His attention then turned towards the round shape the cylinder bolted into. He gently turned at it and discovered an outer ring served as a dial, rotating with a satisfying click.

'These might be different settings. I can't experiment with these now, better turn it back.'

He repeated the reloading procedure with the other web shooter, much faster this time, before taking a deep breath and opening the door to his booth.

To his surprise, another booth door slammed shut when he stepped out.

He walked over to the entrance to said cubicle. His Spider Sense was silent, so it was probably okay to knock. He rapped his knuckles against wood, asking: "Anybody in there?"

Hachiman's ears picked up a panicked gasp. That…complicated things.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

"G-go away!" a frightened, high-pitched voice reverberated.

"...Seriously, you can't stay. You need to get out."

"I-I'm fine here, thanks."

Hachiman sighed in annoyance. "You do realize the building was evacuated for a reason, right? Why are you even still here?"

"I...I didn't notice something was happening, okay?!" the inhabitant of the enclosure admitted.

Hachiman pinched between his eyes. The person inside must've been so engrossed in whatever he'd been doing he missed a complex-wide evacuation. What a dubious talent to have.

"Come on, open up. I can get you to safety." Hachiman said. The ramen house he'd visited earlier had large walking windows leading to the outside. It'd be a simple matter to drop the guy at street level and web back up, hopefully with no painful mishaps this time.

"I said I'm good!"

"You open this door right now," Hachiman growled, "or I'll pry it open for you."

"I'd love to see you try!"

Hachiman groaned in aggravation. He didn't have time for this. So, as promised, he grabbed the handle and pulled, snapping the locking mechanism to the sliding door with ease.

"Aaah! You broke it! You really did!" a young boy, middle school freshman at most, squealed.

Hachiman rolled his eyes. "Now are you going to force me to restrain you, or will you come quietly?"

"I'll come, I'll come!" the boy said, anxiously stepping towards the super-strong teen, but the unwanted rescuer was no longer paying attention.

Hachiman's Spider Sense was going haywire.

A glass bottle zoomed through the air at breakneck speed. Spider reflexes kicking in, Hachiman pushed the boy back into the booth, the youngster stumbling backwards onto the leather office chair which in turn struck the desk, causing the monitor to rattle and the over-the-ear headphones provided by the café to slip from their perch. Hachiman arched his body backwards, the container streaking past his face and finally colliding with the wall at the end of the hallway. It loudly shattered into oh so many shards, dispersing with so much energy it resembled a fragmentation grenade. Hachiman rocked himself forwards and flipped into the booth, firing a web as he did, sliding the door shut with the strand and using it as an improvised blast shield.

"Whoa!" the boy exclaimed in awe. "You're like-"

The child's obvious observation would not be delivered, as the door slammed open once again. Imposing, Tsuchigumo stood in the threshold, reeking of alcohol.

Cornered, Hachiman would've made a sarcastic remark at the expense of the scent if he hadn't been was paralyzed by tension.

"Salesman told me I was the only one," Tsuchigumo bore a deadly glare at the Spider-Man. "The hell are you?"

"Sales...man? Who's that?" Hachiman repeated, questions emerging in his head. Questions that would immediately disappear as Tsuchigumo wrung his hands around the teenager's neck, slamming him against the desk, forcing wood to buckle, and sending the other occupant of the booth sprawling across the floor.

"I'm supposed to be the only one, YOU HEAR ME?!" the killer snarled, strangulating his victim. Hachiman, wheezing and hacking, dug into his pocket.

A brownish powder sprouted from Spider-Man's palm, thrusting itself into Tsuchigumo's eyes. His eyeballs stinging, Tsuchigumo was blinded, and he released his choking grasp on Spider-Man to instead cup his afflicted organs. Pulling his knees towards to his chest first, Spider-Man shot his legs out and struck Tsuchigumo's exposed torso with both of his feet. It sent the villain barreling backwards, through a door and into another booth.

Back on his feet, Spider-Man aimed his wrists at his foe, and began to quickly unload strand upon strand of web. It soon proved ineffective, with Tsuchigumo easily ripping through the sticky filament.

'Maybe I'm using these wrong,' he thought to himself, regretting he didn't have time to experiment with the web shooter's other settings.

Tsuchigumo charged like a bull. Hachiman skipped and grabbed onto the space between the ceiling and the doorframe, pulling himself up and allowing the burly attacker to smash face-first against his knee.

Despite the lucky shots Hachiman had gotten in, he knew brawling within such a confined space, with barely any space to maneuver would eventually favor the larger, more experienced combatant. Almost prophetically, his leg was wrenched downwards and he plummeted, making landfall next to a shocked middle schooler.

"What are you sticking around for?! GOooooooOOOOOOOOoooo...!" His vociferation wavered, for Tsuchigumo hurled him by the ankle, flinging him into the opposite booth. The child took the chance to make a break for it.

Battered, tired, and aching all over, Hachiman tried to pick himself up one more time, but instead it was his opponent who pulled him up by top of his hood. He punched him on the sternum, and then was punched again. Again. And Again.

The blows weren't as strong as they could be; Hachiman could tell through the pain. He was being played with. Tsuchigumo was enjoying this.

The final blow struck him across the face. Hachiman's abused body wobbled backwards, his limbs going limp at his sides, his jaw open, wide and slack beneath his balaclava. He was completely stupefied.

Victorious, Tsuchigumo decided it was time to end this match once and for all, and reclaim his title as the sole human capable of such incredible feats. One final time, a hand found itself around Spider-Man's neck, but now it elevated him off the ground. In his wickedness, Tsuchigumo smirked, a twisted idea burning into him. His free hand reached for the top of Spider-Man's mask.

"You know what? I want to see your pathetic face before I beat it into a pulp."

He lifted the balaclava off his victim's face, revealing the battered, bruised, bloody face of one Hikigaya Hachiman.

Tsuchigumo's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "You...you're...!"

Right then, Hachiman's own eyelids snapped open. Every single cell in his body shrieked in alert and begged him to move. Swaying his body forward, he swung into a somersault kick, freeing himself from Tsuchigumo's hold. He then fixed his mask, dangling from the top of his head, with a downwards pull.

His opponent, however, offered no resistance.

"...You're just a kid..."

"Awful late to grow a conscience," Hachiman snarled, far too focused on the situation at hand to even notice a tinny voice speaking into his ear. "Do you have any idea what you're done?"

"What I've done? I've done what...wait...what have I been doing?! What have I done?!" Tsuchigumo grabbed his head in horror. "Oh no. No. No, no, no. This is not what I wanted!"

Hachiman was completely lost. They may be the same physically, but the person in front of him acted nothing like the bloodthirsty psychopath he'd been struggling against.

"...pider-Man, Spider-Man! If you can hear me..." Tobe's voice, dripping with the utmost urgency, resonated in his ear.

Hachiman's Spider-Sense screeched louder than ever before.

The worst part was, he knew he wasn't the only one perceiving it, for Tsuchigumo shared a confounded glance with him and spoke.

"Do you...feel that?"

"JSDF gunships are...!" Tobe's voice was disregarded once more.

A swooshing sound in the distance, like those in a movie, infiltrated into his ears. Then, a booming like thunder reverberated, followed by more rumbles. The whole building shook.

Those were explosions.

That was all he could surmise before the other man pushed him away and the roof caved in on them.

Everything slowly came back into focus.

Weight was crushing the entirety of his being, both physically and emotionally.

His body was pinned under so much debris. He couldn't even see light outside. There was no way for him to break free. A haphazard wreckage of concrete and steel cruelly kept him immobilized, remnants of the overhead collapse.

Was he going to die?

For the second time in as many days, Hikigaya Hachiman wanted to cry. He was scared and cold and so alone, so scared, more scared than he had ever been. Scared scared scared scared scared SCARED OH GOD, SCARED-

A loud wail reached his ears. It wasn't his. It snapped him out of his own panic.

He recognized the voice belonging to a young boy, begging for his life. Desperate pleas from someone who knew the end would soon come, and could only helplessly refuse to accept it.

It was hopeless, wasn't it?

No. No, it wasn't hopeless. He refused to let it be. Hachiman wasn't just any high-school loner any more. Those supplications dripping with despair - he wouldn't let those be someone's last words, much less those of a child.

Mustering strength he didn't know he still had left, he began to lift the imprisoning wreckage off him. Yet, as his head pulsed violently from the strain, he focused on a single thought.

He wasn't just Hikigaya Hachiman. Not anymore.

He was Spider-Man, and he'd carry the weight of the whole world if he had to.

So, he strained. He strained under the weight, past the hopelessness, past the despair. His legs, his arms, his entire musculature pushed beyond their superhuman limits and the imprisoning rubble above began to yield.

Even as his vision began to waver and his felt like he was about to split, he didn't give in.

He was back in the Service Club, in his precious place. Yuigahama Yui chattered spiritedly about something or the other, he couldn't really tell what. Yukinoshita Yukino poured tea into the cup the two had gifted him recently, emblazoned with the panda mascot of DestinyLand. Both smiled gently at him. It was the only place outside of home he truly felt welcome, and he would return to it. No matter what challenge he had to overcome to do so, he would return…!

With a roar that could split the very heavens, Hikigaya Hachiman stood once more.

He tossed the rubble aside, his entire body burning up from the effort. He craned his head and gasped at his handiwork: he'd heaved thick slabs of concrete alongside two cars and a van, and who knew what else. How had he done that?

He did it because it had to be done, he decided. Shaking his head, Hachiman scanned his surroundings and spotted an unconscious Tsuchigumo, head and right arm the only parts of him free from the wreckage. Blood trailed from his forehead, yet he still drew breath.

Hachiman elected to leave Tsuchigumo be for now. He had to focus on the boy. Following the cries of the young lad, Hachiman exited the café and saw him pinned under the remains of what had once been a wall, but was now one big, smoking hole.

Lifting the piece keeping the boy prisoner without much fanfare, Hachiman spoke: "Can you move?" The boy answered by rapidly scurrying away from his entrapment.

The explosions continued in the distance. Did they mean to level the entire building?

"Okay, now we really need to get out of here," Spider-Man said, and the boy nodded dumbly.

"Tobe, Echo, anyone! Get them to stop shooting!" Spider-Man barked, leaning out the man-sized breach only to witness a trio of Apache combat helicopters unloading their payloads throughout the damaged structure.

"Spidey! You're alive!" Tobe radioed, relief flooding him.

"Already tried!" It was now Echo speaking. "We can't get them to, the JSDF won't heed the police!"

"Just gr-" Spider Sense howling, Hachiman recognized he had to act immediately. He wrapped an arm around the child's midsection and spiraled out the opening to the outside. A large cylindrical object whizzed past them, a voracious fireball emerging following its impact.

Now in free fall with a boy howling for dear life, Hachiman slung a web at the undercarriage of a gunship, and firmly grasping the strand, swung back down to safety.

"Whoo! Go, Spider-Man!" Tobe celebrated, having spectated the daring escape through to the drone's camera feed.

Patting the boy on the shoulder, Hachiman turned back to the building. "Go on, kid. I still got some work to do."

"W-where are you going?" the boy asked, mystified by his rescuer.

"Me? I have a supervillain to catch."

With that, Spider-Man let loose a web that stuck right above the fiery aperture they had just exited from. Disregarding the onslaught of rocket salvos and chain gun fire, the youth gracefully soared into the leaden sky, swooshing into the opening feet-first. Clearing over the flames, he fired another strand, heading further in while avoiding the inferno below.

He was back to where Tsuchigumo lay trapped, still unconscious. He began clearing the rubble, much easier this time now that he could do it piece by piece. Finally, he lifted a final piece of concrete, webbed the wounded yakuza, and liberated him with a tug. Hachiman cringed as the fallen man's form came into the light: the man's wounds were beyond gruesome, complete with open fractures at the left arm and both legs, limbs twisted and bent in all sorts of abnormal, disturbing angles.

Explosions continued to rock the building, and there was no way to know how much longer the edification could hold before it collapsed in its entirety. Placing his fainted former foe across his shoulders in a fireman's carry, Hachiman gazed at the space that had once been the ceiling, deciding it was his best exit route. He skipped onto a relatively flat part on the pile of debris he'd just been working on, sprung into the air and grabbed onto the edge of the aperture, pulling both himself and Tsuchigumo up.

No sooner had he hauled himself and the yakuza onto what remained of the scorched roof parking, did the building start to cave in under its own weight.

Uttering a startled curse, Hachiman fired a web at the roof's railing across from him. They traveled like streaks of light towards the fence, with Hachiman kicking at its topmost part and tumbling both him and Tsuchigumo away from the crumpling edifice. A web-line later and they were on the adjacent building's roof, hitting the ground running and sprinting away from the noxious cloud and forceful gale consequence of impromptu urban demolition.

Another leap, another web, and they were safely back on street level. Hachiman crouched and laid his injured foe on the pavement, taking care to be delicate with his wounds.

Tsuchigumo had awoken sometime during the getaway, droopy eyelids struggling to stay open.

"You...saved me. Why?" he weakly struggled to ask.

"Couldn't I ask you the same?" Spider-Man shot back. An uncomfortable silence settled between the two.

Hachiman had a lot of questions and this man may be the only one with answers - that much was true. However, had that really been the reason he'd braved the besieged building again? No. He had to be honest with himself.

Still close to the ground and casting his gaze away, he decided to answer truthfully, not only to Kimura Keisuke, but to Hikigaya Hachiman as well. "...Turns out...I can't stand to leave someone to die if I know I can do something," he muttered softly.

Tsuchigumo's bleary eyes watered. "You're a good kid...don't let anything change that. Don't repeat the same mistakes as me."

Whatever this moment the two shared was, it wouldn't last. It was interrupted by the shuffling of heavy tactical gear as they were surrounded by a group of armed men wearing navy blue uniforms and body armor, submachine guns trained at the duo.

A man broke through the perimeter, hands behind his back. He wasn't wearing the face mask or helmet the rest of the team did, exposing severe features and hair cropped short. "I'm Captain Kamiya Yuusuke with Chiba SAT. Step away from the perp, Spider-Man."

Hachiman clenched his fists, tensing. "Are you going to kill him?"

Kamiya shook his head. "No. We're police officers, and our job is to take him into custody. His punishment is for the courts to decide."

The youth relaxed his tightly clasped hand. "I would like to make a short statement. This man's personality changed completely during our encounter. It was like he was under the influence of something and not truly in control of his actions."

"You can tell us more down at the station," Kamiya said.

"I can't do that."

A dozen of index fingers left their disciplined positions at the side of their weapons to hover over triggers. "And why is that?" Kamiya asked.

"...There's still a city to save."

The faintest ghost of a grin snuck onto the corner of Kamiya's lips. He nodded. "Stand down, men." He gestured to the side with his chin. "Go on, help our boys. And Spider-Man? Good work."

With a web, he was gone from their sight and disappeared into the darkening sky.

"Hey, kid?" Echo radioed as he zipped through the air. "Come meet us inside the train station."

A couple of swings later, he reached the aforementioned rendezvous. Both Tobe and Echo waited for him, the former carrying the Yokai drone under his arm, the latter instead holding onto another pair of goggles.

"Here," Echo offered the accessory to him. "Your eyes are quite...distinctive. You're going to want to cover them up."

"Where to next?" Hachiman asked, donning the eyewear.

"We've got plenty of places around the city that are hot as hell. Looks like our work is cut out for us," Echo said.

Hachiman nodded. "Let's not keep them waiting."

With that, the unlikely trio stepped out into the arriving night.

"Man, you look like crap," Tobe said, a hint of mirth in his voice.

"I feel like I look," Hachiman, now back in his winter clothing, with face swollen, bloated and battered, replied.

The night had to eventually give way to daylight, and two exhausted students reclined onto the back seat of a dinged rental sedan. They'd worked tirelessly throughout the night, protecting civilians, aiding in search and efforts, and of course, rounding up bad guys. Weariness sneaked up on them after the adrenaline had worn off, and now if there was one thing both yearned for, it was the sweet embrace of sleep.

"This the place?" Echo asked, far more accustomed to all-nighters. They'd pulled over in front of the Hikigaya household. Hachiman nodded, and stepped out of the vehicle with Tobe in tow.

As soon as he stepped out of the vehicle, the door to the residence slammed open, and out came a blur known as Hikigaya Komachi. "Big Brotheeeeeeeeeeeeeer!"

The girl impacting against his bruised ribs caused him to release a pained grunt, but nonetheless Hachiman grinned and stroked a hand on the back of his kid sister's head. "I'm home, Komachi."

"Where were you?! Why do you look like that?!" Komachi desolately sobbed into his shirt, wetness pooling onto his chest. By now, his parents had approached the car too, and Echo took the opportunity to step out himself. "Hello. I'm Masaru Enatsu with the Chiba Police Department," he addressed the two adults. "Hachiman volunteered to help public services during search and rescue efforts. Your son and his classmate are, undoubtedly, heroes."

"He...ro?" Komachi tore herself from her brother's chest and accusingly glared upwards at him. "That doesn't sound like my trashy big brother at all. What were you really after?" Her eyes narrowed. "Pictures of Spider-Man?"

Hachiman chuckled. "Come on. You know I wouldn't endanger my self-preservation over something like that. It just sort of happened." He stroked his sister's hair a little more. That much was true - Hikigaya Hachiman would never willingly dive into danger.

But Spider-Man? That was an entirely different story.

Issue #1 - Certainly, Splendid Fantasy Would Once More Birth a Symbol

In a darkened room lit only by the glare from dozens of monitors, a man in a well-tailored white suit fiddled absentmindedly with a butterfly knife, unconcerned with any dangers the flickering blade may pose, as he processed visual information from all throughout Chiba City behind ever-present sunglasses.

He allowed his cheek to rest on his unoccupied fist, grinning viciously.

"Everything is going according to plan," uttered Salesman to nobody but himself.

He'd singlehandedly created a profitable new market, and soon, business would be booming.

[THE LETTERS COLUMN!]

Face front, true believers! Thank you for reading the first issue of "The Splendid Spider-Man"! This section will be dedicated to answering your questions in the future, just like Smilin' Stan himself used to in the days of yore! Of course, this being the premier issue, there are no questions to answer yet…so how about a little background?

There is no shortage of stories where Hikigaya Hachiman becomes a superhero. Heck, there's already two stories I can tell where he's to become the world's favorite webslinger, aside from this one. That's without counting all the jokes about him being Gotham City's eternal protector. By the by, I highly recommend the long-running epic where he becomes inspired by the Dark Knight himself into a crusade against crime. It was even referenced in this ish – with that said, that type of spider works perfectly for our story, for its ilk is known for striking swiftly, moving deftly, and finally, not making use of webs once they reach adulthood! Of course Hachiman would need mechanical web shooters!

Back to our teenaged hero, I was mentioning the running joke of equating Hachiman to the Caped Crusader. While these comparisons are on point, Hachiman also reminds me of how Peter Parker used to be at the start of the Lee-Ditko run all the way back in Amazing Fantasy #15 – a troubled, brilliant, outcast youth with a chip on his shoulder. Then, there's his actions throughout his series. It got me thinking – "without a doubt, this bitter teenager has the right stuff to be a superhero."

It was then that it hit me that all the stories dealing with Hachiman taking onto the role of costumed adventurer, at least that I know of, have origin stories that play out earlier than his series; that is to say, his story diverges before the source material. I wanted instead to have a story where the divergence occurs during his series, carrying with it all the story and character development up to that point.

Oh, yes; there's one rather prominent guest star in this issue, is there not? What can I say? The world is a vast place, and a fledgling adventurer like Hachiman is going to need all the help he can get!

One very important bit of special thanks before I go – the cover art has been provided by the ever-talented glorycolors on twitter! Please make sure to check her gorgeous art!

That's it for this month's issue – yes, hopefully, I can deliver a new issue monthly. Here's hoping to no schedule slips!

Make sure to write in, true believers!

…Ah, I've just realized I should have a catchphrase to sign out on. Sadly, 'Excelsior!' is already taken, so I'll have to go back to the drawing board.

That's it for now! See you next month (fingers crossed)!

{UPDATE 11/12/2018}

I never would've imagined that just a scant few hours after uploading this, we'd come to learn that our world lost one of its greatest creative minds.

I considered removing his cameo in the story, but I want to honor him, and I want to honor Steve Ditko as well.

Life is such a fleeting thing. I'm just glad his came into the world to change ours forever.

Rest in Peace, Stan Lee. You and the rest of the Bullpen made the world a little more marvelous.