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

Issue 60 - Frozen Rain

Peni came back into the support workshop like a woman on a mission.

Pizza box tucked under one arm, hair a mess, sleeves rolled up, eyes sharp with that specific kind of exhaustion that turns into stubborn fuel. If she just got enough progress done tonight, enough parts fitted, enough wiring mapped, then maybe tomorrow wouldn't feel like a mountain with teeth.

She dropped the pizza box on the nearest table with a thud, flipped it open, and immediately grabbed a slice like it owed her money.

Cheese stretched. Sauce dripped. The first bite hit like comfort and grease and victory.

"Okay," she mumbled around the mouthful, already turning her gaze to the schematics spread out beside her. "We're gonna fix the actuator alignment, reroute the—"

Behind her, metal scraped.

Soft at first. Like a chair leg dragging by accident.

Peni didn't look up. She was already poking at a note on her tablet with her free hand, chewing, eyes narrowed.

Another scrape.

Closer.

The half-finished mech suit, hanging behind the curtain earlier like a sleeping giant, shifted.

One step.

Then another.

A slow, wrong shuffle that didn't belong to anything with no power core online.

Peni's brow furrowed. She swallowed. "Did I leave something—"

A noise cut through her thoughts.

Not the mech.

A different sound.

A human sound.

Peni snapped her head toward the entrance and nearly jumped out of her skin when someone was just... there.

Chui.

Standing in the doorway like she'd been poured out of the shadows.

Peni clutched her pizza slice to her chest like it was a weapon. "CHUI!"

Chui lifted a hand in a half-wave, totally unbothered. "Hey."

Peni let out a breath so dramatic it could've qualified as a weather event. "You scared me! What are you doing here?!"

Chui shrugged, like "breaking into the support wing after hours" was an everyday hobby. "Practicing my quirk."

Peni's eyes lit up instantly, pizza grease forgotten. "Quirk training? Does that mean you're actually going to put your name down for the hero course waiting list?"

Chui's confidence flickered. Just a tiny stutter in her posture. "It's... more of a want than a thought these days."

Peni leaned forward, grin widening. "That's huge."

Chui made a face, tugging at her sleeve. "Still on the fence about, you know... getting arrested. Being Screwball. Hacking government databases to change my quirk record to hide being Screwball. That part feels like a tough crack."

Peni's eyebrows shot up. "Oh yeah. What'd you change it to?"

Chui's lips twitched. "Glow-in-the-dark pee."

For a second, Peni just stared.

Then she lost it.

A loud, bright laugh that bounced off the workshop walls. Chui cracked too, shoulders shaking like she'd been waiting all day for someone to laugh with her instead of at her.