Chapter Text
Orange light bled onto the horizon, blooming onto the hues of the oncoming morning sky. Yuji Itadori, in his Spider-Man suit, sat perched on the Empire State Building eying New York City like a vulture stalking the dead. He loved to do this, to get a break from everything and just watch the city wake up.
Beside him laid a Starbucks order. Yuji let out a relaxed sigh before gripping the brown paper bag and swinging to his High School dorm. Calming moments like this was one of the things he loved about being Spider-Man. Along with people calling you a hero, the fame, hot chicks grabbing onto you, and (most importantly) saving others. But sometimes it sucked, too. Yuji’ll think about that later.
He swung into the balcony of his dorm , quickly pulling off his mask and putting on normal clothes over his suit. Thankfully, it was a closed off area with nobody but an older lady walking her dog outside. Yuji grabbed his Starbucks order, opened the window and broke into his own apartment, knocking over a plant in the process.
“Crap,” He whispered to himself, quickly arranging the pot back on the shelf before a familiar voice rang in his ears.
“Itadori?”
Yuji’s breath caught in his throat. He turned, facing the beauty-of-a-roommate, Megumi Fushiguro.
His raven hair was messy (well, messier than usual) given that he had just woken up, his emerald green eyes sharp and clear, similar to Spring cutting through Winter. Megumi’s skin was rather pale, not in a fragile way, but like moonlight–cool, quiet, brooding. There’s a certainty in Megumi’s presence that makes Yuji stop.
“Uh, hey, Fushiguro.” Yuji breathed, an awkward twist in his throat.
Megumi’s eyes narrowed, like they always did when he’s deep in thought.
“What are you doing?” Megumi forced himself to stifle a laugh, just confused as to why Yuji looks like he just broke into their own room.
“I got you coffee,” Yuji flashed a smile, but the grin never really faded as he saw Megumi’s eyes subtly light up, taking the Starbucks bag. “I knocked over a plant trying to set it down.” Yuji quickly explained as Megumi placed the bag onto the kitchen counter, sniffing the coffee before drinking it.
“I still don’t understand how you can drink it black.” Yuji commented before drinking his own coffee.
“Itadori, you drink yours with a thousand pounds of sugar and cream.” Megumi deadpanned.
“Better than no sugar or cream at all. I remember when Kugisaki accused you of only drinking coffee black when women were around to impress them,” Yuji laughed at the memory.
“God,” Megumi chuckled, his head craning as he stared at his drink. His dimples showed at the memory.
God, his dimples .
Yuji admired him for a moment before he allowed himself to lock back into the conversation. His laugh, dimples, and the way his eyes would crinkle as he smiled was like a reward for Yuji every time he was able to make him laugh.
“That was the day Ozawa came to visit, wasn’t it?” Megumi remarked.
“Oh, yeah.”
Then there was silence. Usually, silence with Megumi was never awkward. Always peaceful. But this time there was a stillness in the air that Yuji hated.
“Are you still in touch with her?”
Yuji hummed a response, giving a strained smile. “Mhm. She’s really sweet. It’s mainly just her and Kugisaki who hang out, though.” Yuji loved Yuko, don’t get him wrong, but it was kind of painful to talk about her in front of Megumi. He hasn’t quite figured out why yet.
“Ah.” Megumi sighed as he put his coffee down. “Those two…” Megumi was reminded of the memory of them gossiping about boys right in front of him. Snickering about how they would set Itadori and Ozawa up on a surprise double date or something. He was never quite fond of the idea.
“Always up to something,” Yuji grinned, the awkwardness leaving as quickly as it came.
“If Kugisaki has a girl to talk to, she makes it her priority to match-make them.”
“Right! Like with Okkotsu and Maki–”
Yuji’s cellphone began to vibrate in his pants. Reaching up to see who, so very rudely, interrupted him, he sighed.
Sukuna.
AKA Yuji’s uncle, AKA Yuji’s agent, AKA the only person who knows Yuji Itadori is Spider-Man.
His job was to call Yuji whenever there was crime happening, Yuji saves the day as Spider-Man, Sukuna makes a news report about how Spider-Man saved the day once again, gets money (giving a generous 7% of earnings to Yuji), and everybody wins!
“Sorry, Fushiguro, I gotta go.”
“Itadori, Classes don’t start until another hour–”
“Thank you for the coffee, Fushiguro, bye!” Yuji called out before slamming the door behind him, singing the last word before running out of his apartment and dropping his clothes in the alleyway. Hopefully that didn’t seem weird to anyone passing by.
Yuji swung between the buildings, calling Sukuna in his airpod as he did so.
“Brat, you need to pick up the phone sooner! The police are already on their way to the crime scene.”
“Yeah, yeah. What is it this time, Ryomen?”
Yuji could hear him audibly mumble something (probably insulting) before coming back into the speaker. “Patch-face again, tormenting and scaring civilians. Armed with a Glock-19. Standing next to a girl tied up, who seems to be a hostage.”
“Did he shoot anyone?” Yuji tried his best to conceal the panic in his voice. It didn’t really work.
“If you don’t hurry your ass up, he might.”
“If we already know that his real name is Mahito, why does he still show up?”
“Well, the police still haven’t arrested him, so he probably knows it doesn’t really matter–apparently he didn’t have much of a life before the whole crime thing. Guess he just doesn’t care. I don’t either. Swing faster, jackass.”
Yuji chewed on some silent thought before hanging up on his fuckass uncle. As much of a dick he was, Yuji couldn’t find it in himself to hate him. He’s raised him since he was a baby, since his parents were dead for as long as he could remember, and his grandpa was far too old to raise a kid. He wasn’t the best parental figure, but he didn’t hit him or anything– though if that was the bare minimum for being a good parent for Yuji, he should really raise his standards.
He swung onto a lamppost, instinctively perching on it before calling out to Mahito.
“Alright, playtime’s over, Patch-face.” He sighed, stretching his arms before the blue-haired psychopath turned to face him.
“I was waiting for you, Spider-Man! I was really considering if I should shoot someone just for the hell of it– maybe that’d make you swing here faster.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Yuji didn’t really take his threat seriously. It was only him Mahito wanted, after all. Quickly, he shot his web onto Patch-face’s chest, bringing Yuji in as he went to hit him. Mahito, unable to dodge, blindly fired at nothing. Still not wanting to risk getting shot, Yuji reeled to the left, causing his punch to not have the direct hit he wished it would have had. Still, Mahito stumbled, shooting at the web attached to him causing it to falter.
Yuji stayed close-range, swinging another first directly into Mahito’s ribs.
Mahito coughed up blood, before laughing. Like, manically. Head swinging back and everything.
Yuji stared blankly at him, unsure of what exactly to do, because he might just piss himself. Hearing that shit mid-battle is terrifying. He swiftly regained his senses as he reached for the hostage before Mahito shot at him, missing by just an inch, causing Yuji to step back.
“Bold of you to assume that this is just some classic villain vs. hero fight, Spider-Man!”
Well, shit. Yuji has been assuming that.
Mahito shot at Yuji again, this time he was able to scrape his arm. Yuji hissed, throwing up his arm to land another solid punch before Mahito slammed the sole of his foot onto Yuji’s chest, sending him flying into the window of a hair salon. The glass shattered against his back, sending in tatters across his skin. Crimson red blood pooled from the glass wounds as Yuji struggled to sit up, groaning as he did so.
The civilians inside screamed, quickly evacuating as Yuji got to his feet, stumbling.
“Humans are so one-dimensional. So full of hate. I was born of that hate.” Mahito reached into his pockets. Not something you want to see when giving an evil monologue.
“Heyheyhey, wait, what are you doing?” Yuji flapped his arms forward, wide-eyed. His arm lunged forward, sending jolts of pain to his back, shooting a web at Mahito’s hand pulling out what seemed to be a needle. The web missed thanks to Mahito’s dodge.
“Let me show you, Spider-Man… the true self embodiment of perfection!” Slurring his words, he immediately went to stab the woman with the needle.
Yuji immediately sprinted towards him, tackling Mahito to the ground and landing a punch directly to the nose. He turned around, checking to make sure the woman was okay.
Fuck .
The needle was planted into her neck, and she was seizing. Bad.
Yuji mumbled curses, worried sick to his stomach as he shot a web on Mahito’s chest and face to ensure he didn't get up before sprinting to check on the woman. Something was wrong. So, very wrong. In an instant, she grew disfigured and became more of a fat lump of flesh rather than anything human.
What the hell. What the hell!?
Police sirens pulled up to the scene before Yuji could process what just happened. He knew that Mahito was still apprehended behind him, but that hardly made him feel better. At all. What justice was there if he was unable to save just one woman, a woman who was right there in front of him just a second ago. He could’ve saved her. Why wasn’t he able to save her?
Yuji’s hands scooped under what was left of her head, finding himself far too emotional for someone he didn’t even know. But it still felt so terrible. Awful. Inhumane.
As the cops left their cars, Yuji fled the scene.
-
Yuji didn’t feel like going to classes that day. He simply laid on his bed, not having the motivation to do anything, really. His phone was full of Sukuna’s happy voicemails.
“You failed to even save one hostage, brat?”
“How the fuck am I going to make you seem like a hero now?”
“And you fled the scene! Great!”
Yuji knew that when he first started this job it wouldn’t be easy. He knew he couldn’t save everyone. But why, every time on the rare occasion he does fail to save someone, does it feel just as bad as last time? He feels just as guilty for it.
There was a knock on the door.
Yuji debated on answering it, wondering if Megumi should see him like this.
Though, it wouldn’t really be fair to Megumi, would it?
“Come in,” Yuji answered, his head half buried in the pillow.
“Hey,” Megumi called, gently opening the door.
“It’s dark in here,” he commented.
“You can turn the light on.”
Megumi did just that, gently turning on the soft light that illuminated the room. It outlined Yuji’s tired features. His droopy eyelids, dark circles around the eyes along with the red puffiness that told Megumi he’d been crying.
“You didn’t show up to class.” Megumi sat down beside Yuji, who took a mental note of Megumi fidgeting nervously with his thumbs.
“I didn’t feel like it,” Yuji stated simply, wincing as he sat up, shocks of pain running from his back. Megumi squinted at him.
“Itadori, are you okay?”
“What?” Yuji chuckled. He was going to play dumb at first, but then decided that Megumi had a right to be worried.
“You’re clearly physically hurt, not showing up to class, laying in bed all day… have you even eaten yet? It’s two in the afternoon.”
“It’s just been kind of a long day.” Yuji knew that saying stuff like that was ultimately useless, Megumi could see right through him. In fact, since they met, Megumi always knew when something was wrong. And he’d always genuinely care.
Megumi stayed quiet for a moment before sighing. Something stirred on the end of his brain. Then he disappeared into Yuji’s bathroom.
Oh.
Well, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Yuji awkwardly just began to scroll on TikTok. Send Megumi a few. Not like he’d see them right now.
He came out of the bathroom, holding something Yuji didn’t have time to identify before Megumi asked him quite a stunning question:
“Take off your shirt.”
Well, not much of a question. More like a demand.
“What?” Yuji’s palms quickly grew sweaty to match his beet-red face.
“You’re hurt, aren’t you?” Yuji quickly identified the mystery object Megumi was holding: a First Aid kit.
“Um, yeah. Yeah. A little.” Losing his hesitation, Yuji quickly removed his hoodie.
Megumi shuffled so that he would be more behind him while Yuji would be half-off the bed. “Sorry, this might sting a little.” He cooed before gently pressing cotton coated with disinfectant spray onto Yuji’s open wounds. Yuji felt so exposed . Megumi had seen him shirtless before, sure, but it was never as intimate as this. It made his stomach churn in a way it shouldn’t have. And he also felt exposed in which Megumi could see right through his disguise. Yuji knew how smart he was, it felt like he could figure it out in a heartbeat if he took a moment to put the puzzle pieces together.
“Apparently, the cops finally arrested Patch-face today, after he took another victim.”
Speak of the devil.
“Really? I haven’t heard about that.”
“You haven’t?”
Yuji quickly realized that maybe playing dumb wasn’t always the right answer, but he was too far deep now.
“...No, who was the victim?”
“Natalia Grace, I think. Two first names.”
Megumi joked with the last comment to try and lighten the mood with Yuji, but it didn’t feel right when that person died in your arms. Megumi soon placed the cotton balls down, now moving onto wrapping the bandage tight around Yuji’s upper body to ensure his safety. He paused for a moment.
“Itadori… is this glass ?”
Yuji swallowed. “I fell on it while walking from Starbucks. Hey, now that I think about it, that might’ve been from the Spider-Man vs. Patch-face attack!”
Megumi continued wrapping.
“That happened after you went to Starbucks.”
“Oh.”
“And I didn’t mention anything about Spider-Man.”
“Oh.”
Yuji felt like such a fucking idiot. He was really going to kill himself. Right here. Right while Fushiguro was tending to his wounds.
“Itadori,” Megumi breathed, softer now. It made Yuji shiver.
“What?” Yuji turned to face Megumi now, their faces a lot closer than Yuji anticipated. It kinda made him panic. Just a little.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
It felt like the air grew still, everything frozen in place. Like time slowed. But it didn’t. Yuji was still right here with Megumi and his upfront questions. Yuji’s face crumpled with guilt, forming into a grimace. God, how his heart ached whenever he had to lie to Megumi, even if it was for the greater good. And it sucks when it feels terrible to lie to a certain someone and you’re secretly a masked vigilante.
“Don’t worry about me so much, Fushiguro.” Yuji said.
Him and Megumi were staring into each other’s eyes now, reading and studying each other. Because they understood each other like no one else did. There was this yearning feeling in Yuji’s gut, almost like…
“Okay,” Fushiguro said, his voice laced with hurt. Because he knew there was something Yuji wasn’t telling him, but he wished that Yuji trusted him enough to tell him.
And oh, how Yuji did. He’d trust Megumi with his life; which is why he couldn’t find it in himself to tell Fushiguro: because having him hurt was better than having him dead.
Megumi soon finished wrapping the bandages around him and Yuji took this as a chance to put his hoodie back on.
“Hey, Fushiguro?”
Megumi hummed.
“Do you want to go out for lunch?”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yeah. Is that okay?”
“Yeah. Of course it is.”
-
Sukuna might’ve rang Yuji’s phone once or twice on the way to Yuji’s favorite foodstand in Times Square (don’t ask Megumi why he expected they’d be going to a romantic restaurant), but Yuji ignored it. He figured that there wasn’t any harm in not being kickass Spider-Man for a couple hours. The police are here for a reason.
“Oh, you’ve gotta try their hotdogs,” Yuji beamed, earning a blank stare from Megumi.
“Their hotdogs,” he repeated as they got ready to order.
The two roommates sat on the park bench, eating the two most god-blessed hotdogs known to man.
“Y’know, these are surprisingly really good.”
“Surprisingly? Fushiguro, you always love what food I recommend. Like the ginger meatballs–”
“The ginger meatballs.” Fushiguro remembered the taste of those mouthwatering sweets.
“Well, you like anything with ginger.”
“That’s not true.”
Yuji hummed before taking another bite of his lunch. Megumi gazed at him, hesitating to say something.
“Itadori,” Megumi murmured, his voice squished and strange like it was working its way through gritted teeth. Yuji’s eyes shifted his focus to his best friend, a gnawing, alien feeling growing in his gut. “Yeah?” He said, his voice strained.
“Can I ask you something weird?”
“...Okay.”
“Are you in a gang?”
Yuji stared at Megumi for a moment, genuinely considering that he might’ve misheard him. His cheeks grew red as Yuji barked laughter, his grin so wide that his canines peaked behind his lips.
“I’m serious. You disappear for hours at a time after picking up a phone call, you’re hiding something in your closet, skipping classes, and you randomly come back with injuries!”
It pained how much Yuji was clearly making him worry. Now he feels like a dick for laughing at him.
“Fushiguro, please, you have nothing to worry about.” Yuji assured him, his voice softer now. “It’s just…” Yuji’s eyes drew, his mouth flickering silently, words dying before he could breathe life into them. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”
“Itadori, I haven’t stopped worrying.” He told him.
“I know.”
The silence was still now. Megumi hoped that bringing up his concern would be enough to bring Yuji to tell him what was going on, but it wasn’t. So now he felt useless. What kind of friend was he if he didn’t help Yuji, who was obviously struggling?
Yuji sighed as his phone buzzed again, knowing it was from Sukuna before he even glanced to check. Now it was getting a bit weird, how much he’s called him in such a short time span. He glanced worriedly up at Megumi, as if asking for permission to answer it. Megumi just looked away.
“ What ?” Yuji slurred on the phone.
A chilling voice answered from the other line.
It was still his uncle, but something was different about his tone. Something menacing. Something sinister.
“Look on the billboard in front of you, brat.” Sukuna said on the other line in a voice that rasped like claws scraping against bark. Yuji put his phone down. Looking up at the digital billboard placed on one of the largest buildings, was his uncle. A video of Sukuna and his pink hair, piercing red eyes, tattooed body from head to toe speaking into the camera.
“Many of you know the hero, crime-fighting vigilante known as Spider-Man,”
Yuji gazed at the crowd, eying at the amount of people that looked up at the board with pure curiosity on what Ryomen had to say–Megumi being one of them. Yuji had a terrible feeling about this.
“But it begs the question: who exactly is Spider-Man? What if I told you that his identity was exposed?”
Yuji began manically texting Ryomen:
What the fuck
wjat the fuck did yiu do???
this isnt funyn
whats ur pklan??/
He glanced at Megumi. Poor, sweet Megumi who just wanted what was best for Yuji. It was always about what was best for Yuji.
“Fushiguro, we should really go.”
“Hold on.”
“I’m serious.”
Megumi turned to face him, eying him like he was seeing through his soul for a brief minute before standing up. “Okay, let’s go.”
But Yuji severely miscalculated how loud a billboard is and how fast it could still grab your attention.
“Spider-Man’s real name is Yuji Itadori.” A picture, implanted with Yuji’s yearbook photo, was plastered on the screen. Gasps exchanged from the crowd. Words consisting of: “Who?” “I think he’s in my biology!” “Spider-Man’s a teenager?”
Megumi immediately turned to face Yuji, his doleful eyes misty with confusion, concern and shock all at once.
Yuji’s vision blurred and spinned like a whirlpool, the air grew stale. It hurt to breathe. It felt as if the connection between Yuji and the rest of the world– along with Megumi, was severed.