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

Issue 70 - The Start of Something

The black suit fits like it was poured onto my bones.

Not stitched. Not tailored. Grown.

My hand is steady, but it isn't just my hand. The gun sits in my grip with a confidence I don't remember learning, the barrel perfectly aligned like the suit is correcting every micro tremor before it exists.

The man in front of me is on his knees, palms up, shaking so hard his fingers keep slipping against each other.

"Please," he says. "Please, I won't say anything. I swear I won't. You don't have to do this. I won't tell a soul what I saw. I promise."

His eyes flick to the gun, then back to mine, as if he can talk physics into changing direction.

"SHIELD won't have any leaks," he blurts, desperate. "I promise. I won't snitch. I won't. I won't."

The words hit something in my skull, like a name dragged across a magnet.

I tilt my head.

The suit shifts at my neck, subtle, like it's listening too. Like it's judging his sincerity and finding it irrelevant.

My voice comes out calm. Too calm.

"Sorry," I say. "Direct orders."

His breath hitches. He tries to crawl backward, but the floor feels wrong under him, like the whole world is slick with oil.

"To safeguard the future," I add, and I don't even know where that sentence came from.

The man's mouth opens again, one last attempt to bargain with a bullet.

"Eddie! Ple—"

I squeeze the trigger.

The bang is enormous.

It fills my bones.

It becomes my heartbeat.

It becomes my—

I jerk so hard the room snaps into place around me, and my body forgets where the edge of the sofa is.

I hit the floor with a thud, elbow first, then shoulder, then my face nearly meets the rug.

For a second I just lie there, staring at nothing, breathing like I ran a mile in my sleep.

My hand is still curled like it's holding something.

Like it's still firing.

I blink. Once. Twice.

My pulse doesn't slow.

"...Another one of those," I mutter, rubbing my face with both hands like I can wipe the feeling off. My skin is warm, but there's a cold line crawling down my spine anyway.

Who is Eddie Brock?

Footsteps rush in from the hall.

"Y/N?" May's voice is sharp with fear. "Are you okay?"

I push myself up, sitting on the floor with my back against the sofa, trying to force air into my lungs like nothing happened. Like I didn't just feel a trigger break under my finger.

"I'm fine," I croak. "I just... fell off the sofa."

May's already kneeling beside me, hands on my shoulders, searching my face like she can read bruises before they form.

"You scared me half to death," she whispers.

"I'm okay," I say again, softer, because she needs it to be true. I manage a small, shaky smile. "Just a bad... nightmare."