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

Issue 48 - Bad Luck Charm Part 2

The steps up to the shrine felt longer than they looked.

Not because my legs were tired, but because my brain wouldn't stop sprinting ahead of me like it was trying to escape my skull.

Flis was a few steps in front, bouncing on the balls of her feet, humming under her breath like she hadn't a care in the world. The sun was sinking low, turning the sky into warm orange and fading pink, like the day was trying to end politely.

Meanwhile, I was quietly losing a debate with myself.

Because... Ashido.

I did ask her out. I did it in that stupid, messy, word-vomit way where you regret it halfway through and keep going anyway like you're being chased by your own embarrassment.

And she didn't say no. She said she'd tell me after her match. Then everything exploded. Otto went off the rails, I nearly got arrested, she kissed me in the hospital and then immediately apologised like she'd stepped on a landmine she didn't mean to trigger.

There was something there. Or at least... there had been.

So why was I here? Holding hands with a girl I'd met outside a convenience store, walking up shrine steps like we were in some normal universe where my life wasn't a constant siren?

Was I sabotaging my chances with Ashido for someone I just met?

And then the next thought hit, colder and sharper:

Why was I even thinking like that? Like people were prizes. Like my life was a set of branching dialogue options and I could just pick whichever one gave the best outcome.

What was I doing?

We reached the top, the shrine opening up in front of us, old wood and stone and quiet air that smelled faintly like incense and rain that hadn't happened yet. The light caught on the ropes and the little paper fortunes fluttered softly.

Flis stopped dead in her tracks, staring like she'd walked into a memory she didn't expect to find.

"It's... even more beautiful than I remembered," she breathed, voice soft. Real.

I blinked. Remembered?

My confusion clicked into place like a lock.

She'd said she'd never been to Japan.

Flis stepped forward, hands together, bowing at the shrine with a strange kind of sincerity. Like she was doing it properly. Like it mattered.

I took a step after her, words slipping out before I could stop them.

"Wait... remembered?" I muttered. "I thought you said you've never been to Japan."

Flis turned her head slightly, like she hadn't heard me right.

"Huh?"

I opened my mouth to repeat it, then my brain did that thing where it slapped a big red sticker over the thought labelled DO NOT START DRAMA AT A SHRINE.

I swallowed it.

"Never mind," I said quickly. "Must've misheard."

Flis held my gaze for a second too long.

Then she grinned, the moment vanishing like it had never existed, and spun on her heel. "Come on. I need my charm. I need to know what the universe has planned for me."

She practically floated over to the fortunes, hands already reaching. I followed, still feeling that tiny itch of unease at the back of my thoughts, like a splinter I couldn't find.