My name is Shinsou Hitoshi, and I was bitten by a radioactive spider

Retcon

A citrus aroma lingered on sterile white walls. In the waiting room, Hitoshi paced back and forth as he passed a can of coke from the vending machines between his hands. The ice-cold touch of aluminum numbed his urge to sit down on a rickety plastic folding chair. He didn't want to sit down and wait for an eternity only to discover that the new cavity in Uncle Shouta's chest might never heal.

Not a trace of gel in sight, Dad's blonde hair cascaded over his face as he reached out to grab Hitoshi by the wrist. As he sunk into Dad's embrace, Hitoshi's chest tightened. Because if Hitoshi hadn't let the thief get away or hadn't gotten the spider bite, then Uncle Shouta wouldn't be strapped to a hospital while surrounded by a chorus of heart-rate monitors.

"It's all my fault," Hitoshi muttered.

"No, Hitoshi. It isn't – you're just a kid."

Setting the soda can aside, Hitoshi rubbed the corners of his swollen eyes rawer than they already were. "Doesn't matter. I was right there. And I didn't stop him from getting stabbed."

"You sound just like him." With a stern sigh, Dad placed both hands on Hitoshi's shoulders and looked him directly in the eye.

"Just because you didn't intervene in time doesn't mean it's your fault he got hurt. You know that, right? Besides, you did call the ambulance."

Hitoshi answered with a non-committal hmm. If he'd managed to reach out a little further – attach his webs to the knife and reel it in rather than simply graze it, then Uncle Shouta wouldn't have bled onto the asphalt. Contacting emergency services paled in comparison to what Hitoshi could have done.

Nevertheless, he hoped that getting Uncle Shouta to the hospital would be enough to ensure that he and Dad wouldn't find a corpse lying on a thin mattress after passing the twenty-four-hour mark of the hospital stay.

As the door to Uncle Shouta's hospital room creaked open, Hitoshi untangled himself from Dad's embrace. The doctor's clipboard clacked while Dad and Hitoshi rushed past her and headed straight for the hospital bed. Perched upright, Uncle Shouta sat with his hands clasped together and bandages wrapped around his chest.

He let out a grieved sigh as his family hugged him. Hitoshi marveled over Uncle Shouta's warmth which confirmed he was still alive. The doctor's words became background noise as the sound of labored breaths overshadowed them.

"He was lucky. The wound was mostly surface level. The shock of the impact triggered most of the bleeding."

"Thank God!" Turning away from Uncle Shouta, Dad nodded at the doctor. "His health really doesn't need to take another hit."

Hitoshi's jaw stiffened as he took in the faint aroma of gel pouches that seemed to follow Uncle Shouta everywhere. The timing of his hero's destiny couldn't have been worse. Uncle Shouta had just escaped from his mummified cocoon – and here he was encased in bandages yet again.

The doctor spoke up again. "You should take out the stitches in a week."

"Understood," Uncle Shouta sighed.

The doctor tapped a ballpoint pen against her clipboard as she turned to leave. "You'll be good to go in another couple of hours. We just need to run some tests on the knife to confirm there isn't a tetanus risk."

As soon as the doctor was out of sight, Uncle Shouta summoned his strength to whack Hitoshi in the shoulder. Hitoshi could tell the blow was hardly a percent of what his uncle was capable of. Regardless, he found himself gaping at Uncle Shouta over the act. What the hell was that for?

"Idiot," Uncle Shouta grumbled. "What were you even doing outside in an alley at that hour?"

"Restless leg syndrome is a bitch," Hitoshi lied. He couldn't exactly proclaim, oh I thought you were going to get murdered because I was bitten by a radioactive spider. It's one of those niffy promo deals. Buy one spider bite, get one father figure death for free.