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

Issue 38 - The People v. Spider-Man Part 2

The judge barely let the last echoes of my "ready" settle before he made a chopping motion with his hand, like we were all clockwork and he'd just wound us.

"Very well," he said. "We will proceed. Opening statements."

Mr Zenith stood again, suit immaculate, voice calibrated. He didn't look at me the way people look at a person. He looked at me the way people look at a problem they intend to solve.

"Members of the jury," he began, pacing slowly in front of them, "people of this court. Today you are not simply judging a boy in a mask. You are judging a message."

He turned, gesturing toward me without actually pointing, like my existence might stain his hand.

"Y/N Parker," he said, then paused, letting the name hang there, "or as he would prefer you call him... 'Spider Man.'"

A ripple of whispers ran through the public benches. The press leaned in like hungry birds.

Zenith's voice hardened.

"This defendant acted above the law. Not alongside it. Not beneath it. Above it. He decided that his judgement outweighed due process. He decided that his hands were more righteous than every officer, every investigator, every licensed hero operating under regulation."

He took a step closer to the jury, lowering his tone, turning concern into a weapon.

"And what has that earned this city? Property damage. Escalation. Panic. A trail of chaos stitched together by a teenager who believed he was untouchable because the public cheered."

My jaw tightened. My cuffs felt colder.

Zenith continued, widening his reach like he was casting a net.

"And perhaps most dangerous of all... inspiration. Because if we do not treat these actions with the seriousness they demand, we will be flooded with sympathisers. We will be flooded with copycats. Children in masks. Adults in masks. People deciding the law is optional if they feel strongly enough."

He let that sit, then hit it again, sharper.

"This is not heroism. It is vigilantism. It is an illegal act masquerading as virtue."

Zenith finally stopped pacing. He faced the jury fully.

"The question before you is not whether Spider Man saved someone once, or twice, or ten times. The question is whether society can survive if we allow anyone with power to decide the rules no longer apply."

He turned back toward his table and sat, folding his hands like he'd just delivered a sermon.

The room buzzed with it.

My throat felt tight. I tried to swallow and it didn't do much.

Matt stood.

He didn't rush. He didn't perform. He moved like he'd done this a thousand times and never once needed to raise his voice to be heard.

He faced the jury and, for a second, the whole courtroom felt... quieter. Like it leaned toward him without meaning to.

"Members of the jury," Matt said, "people of the court."

He paused, and I hated that his calm was so contagious.

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that what my client did was perfectly legal," he said simply. "It wasn't. In the eyes of this system, his actions are crimes."

Zenith's mouth twitched, like he'd just tasted blood.

Matt lifted a hand gently, like he was asking the room to stay with him.