Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 20 - All Steam Ahead

After school, the world did that thing where it pretended everything was normal.

The sky looked like it couldn't care less about villains, conspiracies, or my personal habit of almost dying on weekdays. People laughed outside cafés. Cars honked. A dog yanked its owner toward a lamppost like it had somewhere important to be. Meanwhile, I was on a sacred quest.

Eggs.

Aunt May had asked me to pick up eggs. Not "maybe if you remember." Not "only if you have time." Eggs. The kind of mission that sounds easy until you realise I've got a long-standing curse where I forget eggs the way most people forget algebra.

I stepped into my local shop, hoodie up, hands in my pockets, trying to look like a totally normal sixteen-year-old who didn't have bruises in places bruises shouldn't exist. The air smelled like warm bread and cleaning spray. The fluorescent lights made everything look slightly miserable, including me, which felt appropriate.

I went straight for the refrigerated aisle, crouched down, and stared at the egg cartons like they were a puzzle box designed to ruin my day.

"Six... twelve... free range... organic... 'happy hens'..." I muttered, reading labels like I was defusing a bomb. I checked the end dates, then opened a box to inspect the eggs like a suspicious detective.

No cracks. No weirdness. No surprise yolk crimes.

"Alright," I whispered, nodding like I'd accomplished something great. I slipped the carton into my backpack carefully, as if it were made of glass and my dignity.

I grabbed a few other things May wanted. Bread. Milk. Something that was supposed to be "healthy" but looked like it tasted like punishment. By the time I reached the counter, my backpack had that awkward lump shape that screamed teen boy carrying groceries like a goblin.

The clerk, a guy with tired eyes and a shirt that had seen too many shifts, nodded at me. "Afternoon."

I nodded back, setting my bag on the counter and starting to unload.

That's when I noticed the TV above the till.

The news was replaying footage from USJ. Smoke. Sirens. Students running. Pro heroes moving as they belonged in a movie. The headlines were dramatic, the way they always were when the cameras needed something to chew on.

The clerk glanced up at the screen and whistled low. "Crazy, isn't it? Villains these days. Reckless. Attacking students, All Might... like they've got a death wish."

I forced a neutral sound out of my throat. "Yeah. They... uh. They stood no chance against the pros."

He scoffed, leaning an elbow on the counter, eyes still on the TV. "Those villains are all brutes. Clueless. They'll run through a building without a second thought."

And right on cue, my spider sense detonated in my skull.

It wasn't a gentle warning. It was a screaming siren wrapped in adrenaline, the kind that made the air feel sharp.

I didn't even think. I just moved.

I dove backwards as something massive tore through the front of the shop.

A huge figure, built like a wrecking ball stuffed into a man's shape, slammed into the counter and obliterated it like it was made of cardboard. Wood splintered. Glass exploded. The till went flying. My backpack went with it.

My eggs.

My eggs were dead before they even had a chance.

The clerk screamed, stumbling back, hands shaking. Customers scattered, slipping on spilt drinks and crushed packets of crisps. The villain didn't even pause. He kept charging, shoulders hunched, breathing loud and animalistic, like he'd decided the world owed him a path and he was going to carve it.