Chapter Text
This is a story of how the world almost ended.
But don’t worry, it’s actually a really fun story. And technically the original idea isn’t even mine. (Inspired by Caught in Your Web by dazaimaru.)
This is the story of a boy, named Yuuji. (And Fushiguro Megumi)
And it starts with a spider.
***
The class trip itself was painfully boring. Some giant science expo in the middle of Tokyo filled with glowing screens, people in white coats, and words Yuuji was pretty sure half his classmates only pretended to understand. Every exhibit looked exactly the same after the first hour: dramatic titles, blinking lights, scientists explaining incomprehensible things in voices so monotone they could probably put an insomniac to sleep. Nobara, meanwhile, was somehow having the time of her life. She’d spent nearly twenty minutes forcing Junpei to take pictures of her in front of a robotic arm while she cycled through poses like she was attending a celebrity photoshoot instead of a school field trip. Junpei looked one mild inconvenience away from collapsing on the floor permanently. Yuuji laughed every time Nobara rejected a photo for “bad lighting” despite them standing directly beneath industrial fluorescent lights.
“Again,” Nobara demanded, flipping her hair dramatically. “My jawline looked weird in that one.”
“You have taken forty-seven photos,” Junpei said flatly.
“And only six are usable.”
“That is not how photography works.”
“Says who?”
“Says every photographer ever.”
Yuuji snorted into his sleeve while Junpei sighed like a deeply exhausted office worker trapped in the body of a teenager. Around them, students wandered lazily between exhibits, teachers attempting and failing to keep everyone together while overhead speakers droned on endlessly about technological innovation and the future of scientific advancement. Somewhere nearby, someone accidentally set off an interactive alarm exhibit and immediately got yelled at by three separate staff members. Honestly, the entire place felt less like a science expo and more like organized chaos wrapped in LED lighting.
Eventually, Yuuji wandered off ahead of the group, adjusting the settings on his phone camera absentmindedly as he walked. Photography had always been one of his favorite hobbies. Not professionally or anything — he just liked capturing little moments people usually ignored. Sunlight reflecting off train windows. Cats sleeping in strange places. Rainwater running down vending machines late at night. Tiny things that made the world feel softer somehow. It was probably the only reason he’d agreed to come on this trip in the first place. Tokyo looked different through a camera lens. Bigger somehow. Brighter. Like every tiny detail mattered more when frozen in a picture. He paused near a huge artificial jellyfish tank glowing electric blue beneath dim lighting and snapped a quick photo before continuing forward. The further he wandered from his class, the quieter things became. Fewer students. Fewer teachers. The exhibits here looked newer somehow, hidden deeper inside the building where fewer visitors wandered. Ahead, another exhibit glowed beneath silver lighting.
GENETICALLY ENHANCED ARACHNID RESEARCH.
“Oh,” Yuuji muttered under his breath immediately. “That sounds cool!”
Naturally, he walked closer. The enclosure stretched nearly wall-to-wall, filled with thick plants and silver webs that shimmered faintly beneath fluorescent lights. Tiny spiders crawled through the branches, some marked with strange glowing patterns that pulsed faintly red or blue beneath their dark bodies. Digital monitors lined the walls beside the tank, each displaying graphs and medical terminology Yuuji absolutely did not understand. A researcher nearby was speaking to another group, gesturing enthusiastically toward a screen filled with diagrams.
“The Piercing Blood Spider demonstrates accelerated adaptability due to altered DNA sequencing—”
Yuuji stopped listening after that because one of the spiders was missing. “Huh.” He stepped closer to the glass instinctively, squinting slightly as he searched through the foliage. Tiny spiders moved across silver webs inside the enclosure, but one branch near the corner looked strangely empty. Almost disturbed. Then something brushed lightly across the back of his hand. Yuuji looked down. A spider clung to his skin. Its body was black, marked with thin glowing red lines that pulsed faintly beneath the lights. Tiny legs curled against his wrist while its fangs dug lightly into his skin. For exactly one second, Yuuji simply stared at it in mutual horror. Then—
“OH, COME ON—”
Pain exploded through his hand. Yuuji swore loudly, jerking backward hard enough to slam into the display behind him. The spider bit deeper before disappearing instantly into the thick plants surrounding the enclosure. Burning agony shot violently up his arm, sharp enough to make his knees buckle beneath him. “What the hell?!”
The nearby researcher spun around too late. The rest of Yuuji’s class had already moved into the next room. Great. Just great. At first, everything seemed mostly fine aside from the pain. Then the dizziness hit him all at once. The room tilted violently beneath his feet. His heartbeat pounded hard against his ribs while heat rushed beneath his skin like liquid fire, making every nerve ache simultaneously. His vision blurred around the edges. The fluorescent lights overhead suddenly looked painfully bright. “Oh no.” Yuuji stumbled sideways, one hand pressed hard against his forehead as nausea twisted sharply through his stomach. His legs felt weak. Too light somehow. Like his body no longer entirely belonged to him.
“Oh, I’m definitely gonna throw up…”
Before he could regain balance properly, his shoulder slammed directly into someone else. “Oh—sorry.”
The voice sounded distant through the ringing in his ears. Yuuji blinked slowly, struggling to force the room back into focus. The guy standing in front of him looked blurry at first — dark hair falling messily into sharp green eyes, pale skin, a black uniform jacket half-zipped like he couldn’t be bothered fixing it properly. Even through the dizziness, Yuuji’s first coherent thought was honestly just: Pretty.
“You okay?” the stranger asked, eyebrows furrowing slightly.
“I think…” Yuuji swallowed hard. “I got bit by a spider…”
The guy’s expression changed instantly. “…Show me.”
Yuuji lifted his shaking hand weakly. Two puncture marks sat near the base of his thumb, the skin around them already flushed red. The stranger stared at the bite for a long moment, his face suddenly unnaturally still.
“Okay,” he said carefully. “That’s…not good.”
“Cool,” Yuuji muttered weakly. “Love hearing that.”
“How dizzy are you?”
“Like…medium dizzy?”
“That doesn’t answer anything.”
Despite himself, Yuuji laughed softly. “I dunno. Better now, I guess.”
The stranger still looked uneasy. His eyes flicked between Yuuji’s face and the bite mark again like he was mentally calculating something. Like he recognised the spider.
“You should probably get checked by someone,” he said finally.
“Nah, I’m okay.” Strangely enough, the dizziness really was already fading. The burning beneath his skin had dulled into something warmer. Sharper. “I think I just freaked out.”
“Are you sure?”
Something about the way he asked made Yuuji pause. The concern in his voice sounded genuine. Intense, even. “…Yeah.”
The stranger clearly didn’t believe him, but after a second he sighed quietly. “Fine. But if you start feeling worse, don’t ignore it.”
“Okay.” Yuuji rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Thanks for helping me, by the way. What’s your na-”
“GUMI-BEARRRR!” A loud voice echoed from another room. The stranger’s eye twitched visibly. “Found you!” the voice yelled again.
“I should go,” the green-eyed boy muttered immediately.
“Oh. Uh—bye?”
But he was already disappearing into the crowd before Yuuji could say anything else. “…Well,” Yuuji muttered to himself. “He was hot.”
────୨ৎ──── Timeskip ────୨ৎ────
By the time they boarded the bus back to Sendai, the dizziness had vanished completely. Actually, vanished wasn’t even the right word. Yuuji felt good. Weirdly good. Better than good, honestly. Like energy buzzed beneath his skin and every part of his body felt sharper somehow. The sounds around him felt clearer. He could hear conversations happening rows away without even trying. He could smell someone opening chips from halfway down the bus. Even the city lights outside the windows looked brighter somehow. The bus ride started quietly enough. Half the class immediately fell asleep while the others talked too loudly in the back. Nobara dropped dramatically into the seat beside Yuuji and immediately began complaining about the gift shop prices.
“Eight hundred yen for one keychain,” she said in disgust. “That place was run by criminals.”
“You bought three.”
“That is irrelevant.”
Yuuji laughed softly, resting his head against the window. Outside, Tokyo blurred past beneath the evening sky in streaks of gold and grey. Cars crawled through glowing intersections while distant buildings reflected the setting sun like glass mirrors. For a little while, everything felt normal again. Then his phone buzzed.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
“Huh.”
Nobara immediately leaned over his shoulder. “What?”
“No idea.”
He opened the message.
Congratulations! You have officially been accepted into Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High School. Further details will be sent shortly.
Yuuji stared at the screen. “…What?”
“What what?”
Before he could answer, Nobara’s phone buzzed too. She checked it casually at first, then immediately sat upright so fast she nearly hit the seat in front of her. “No way.”
Yuuji turned slowly toward her. “You too?”
“You too?!”
The two of them stared at each other for exactly one second before exploding simultaneously.
“WE GOT IN?!” & “NO WAY—”
Junpei looked up from across the aisle like he deeply regretted being alive. “Why are you screaming?”
Nobara shoved her phone directly into his face. “WE GOT ACCEPTED?”
“WE GOT ACCEPTED!” Yuuji corrected loudly.
“I literally just said that.”
“BUT I SAID IT LOUDER.”
Several exhausted classmates groaned in agony. “SHUT UP!” someone yelled from the back.
“NEVER!” Nobara screamed back twice as loud.
Junpei blinked slowly at both of them. “Wait. Both of you got into Jujutsu High?”
“Yes!!” Yuuji practically vibrated with excitement.
“That's awesome!”
“Why didn’t you apply?” Yuuji asked.
Junpei shrugged. “I already got accepted into that film studies school in Osaka.”
“Oh right!” Yuuji grinned. “Dude, that’s awesome too.”
Junpei smiled faintly. “Thanks.”
The rest of the ride passed in a blur after that. One of the most prestigious private schools in Japan had accepted him. Him. Yuuji practically vibrated the entire trip home. Everything suddenly felt huge and bright and possible. Like the entire world had cracked open just for him.
***
The weirdness started the next morning. Yuuji woke at exactly 6:03 AM to the sound of his alarm blaring beside his head. Half-asleep and groggy, he reached over instinctively to turn it off. The second his fingers closed around the phone, something cracked loudly in his hand. Yuuji blinked blearily down at the shattered remains of his phone resting in his palm. Cracked glass slid between his fingers while pieces of plastic dropped onto the blanket in his lap. For a long moment, he simply stared at it in complete silence, his sleep-fogged brain struggling to process what he was looking at. “…Oh no.” His grip loosened instantly, letting the destroyed phone fall onto the bed. Yuuji looked down at his hand. Then back at the phone. Then back at his hand again.
“…WHAT?”
The panic hit all at once. He shot upright too quickly, only to slam directly into something hard above him with a loud crack. Pain exploded through his forehead. Yuuji recoiled instinctively, clutching his head before freezing completely. Slowly, very slowly, he looked upward. The ceiling was inches from his face. No. Not close to his face. He was attached to it. For one long, horrifying second, Yuuji’s brain stopped functioning entirely. His mouth opened silently while pure confusion short-circuited every coherent thought he had ever possessed. Then reality hit him like a truck.
“…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—”
A loud thud echoed through the room as he lost concentration and crashed face-first onto the floor. “Ow.”
Yuuji laid there for several seconds in complete silence. Then slowly lifted his head. “…Okay,” he whispered shakily. “Okay. Stay calm.” He was not calm. He tried standing up too quickly and immediately stuck one hand to the wall beside his bed by accident. Panic surged again.
“Nope. Nope. Nope nope nope—”
He yanked his hand free hard enough to stumble backward into his desk. Papers exploded everywhere. Somehow, incredibly, his body reacted before he could even think — he caught every falling paper midair with terrifying speed. Yuuji froze. “Woah.”
His heartbeat thundered violently against his ribs while adrenaline surged through every nerve in his body. None of this made sense. People did not stick to ceilings. People did not accidentally crush phones with one hand. People definitely did not move fast enough to catch thirty falling worksheets before they hit the ground. Unless...
“…The spider.”
Silence filled the room. Yuuji stared at his own hands. “…No fucking way.”
Yuuji ran out the house because honestly, what else was he supposed to do? Sit there calmly while his entire understanding of physics collapsed around him? Absolutely not. Now, Yuuji was already a good athlete. Fast runner. Strong. But now? Now he was running so fast the world blurred around him. Wind whipped violently past his face while sidewalks disappeared beneath his feet in seconds. Every leap carried him impossibly far. His body felt weightless. Effortless. Like gravity itself had stopped fully applying to him. “Oh my god—”
He nearly crashed directly into a vending machine before swerving around it with reflexes that honestly should not have been human. By the time he slowed down, breathing hard from excitement more than exhaustion, he’d somehow crossed almost half the city. “…Okay,” Yuuji panted. “This is insane.” A rustling noise echoed from a nearby alleyway. Yuuji froze immediately. The alley looked narrow and dim between two buildings, overflowing with old cardboard boxes and dumpsters. Another rustle sounded from deeper inside. For one brief, horrifying second, Yuuji genuinely thought maybe another mutant spider had followed him home. Instead, a tiny dog wandered out from behind a dumpster carrying what looked suspiciously like half a sandwich.
“Oh.”
The dog blinked at him. Yuuji blinked back. “…You scared me.” The dog continued eating its sandwich. Honestly, fair enough. Still, the alley gave him privacy. And if he was going completely insane, maybe better to do it away from crowds. Heart pounding violently against his ribs, Yuuji slowly placed both hands against the wall this time. Then, cautiously, he lifted one foot off the floor. Nothing happened. “…Okay…”
Slowly, he lifted the other foot too. Now he was standing completely sideways against the wall beside some random dumpsters. “…Oh my god.” The words came out breathless. Yuuji stared down at the floor several feet beneath him while adrenaline flooded violently through his chest. The position should have felt impossible. Wrong. But somehow his body held there effortlessly, fingers and feet stuck securely against the surface beneath him. Then excitement started creeping through the panic. Because this was insane. Terrifying, yes. But also kind of awesome. Very carefully, Yuuji took another step upward. Then another. And another. A disbelieving laugh escaped him as he climbed higher, movements growing steadier each second. Within moments he was crawling across the wall entirely, palms sticking effortlessly against the surface while his heartbeat thundered louder and louder in excitement.
“No way,” he whispered. “No actual way.”
By the time he reached the top, the fear had almost completely vanished. Yuuji hung there upside down, staring at the world from a completely impossible angle while exhilaration buzzed through every inch of him. Then something strange happened. A sharp pressure built suddenly in his wrist. “Huh?” Instinctively, Yuuji flicked his hand outward. THWIP. Something shot across the alley. Yuuji stared. A thin white strand clung tightly to the opposite wall. Slowly, carefully, he tugged it. The strand held firm. “…THERE’S NO WAY.” He could shoot spider webs out of his wrists. How cool was that?! Yuuji spent the next several minutes absolutely losing his mind. Every new discovery somehow felt crazier than the last. The webs were insanely strong. Sticky when he wanted them to be. Easy to remove when he didn’t. He could aim them too — mostly. One attempt accidentally ripped a cardboard box straight off a dumpster and launched it directly into the air. “OH MY GOD.” The tiny dog barked at him angrily. “Sorry!” Then Yuuji looked upward. The rooftops stretched endlessly above him. An idea entered his brain. A terrible idea. A fantastic idea. “This is either gonna be the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” he mumbled. Before common sense could stop him, Yuuji aimed one web toward the building across from him and jumped. Immediately, regret. “WAIT WAIT WAIT—” The web caught. Suddenly the ground disappeared beneath him as momentum yanked him violently through the air. Yuuji screamed the entire way down the street.
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH—OH MY GOD—”
Wind roared past his ears while buildings blurred around him in dizzying streaks of colour. His stomach dropped violently before momentum swung him upward again. Then something incredible happened. The fear turned into exhilaration. Yuuji laughed loudly, the sound nearly swallowed by the wind as he swung higher between buildings. Another web shot from his wrist instinctively. Then another.
Holy crap.
He was swinging. Actually swinging. “This is so coollll!”
A businessman below nearly dropped his coffee as Yuuji soared overhead. “Sorry!” Yuuji yelled automatically while flying past upside down. This was insane. Completely impossible. Completely dangerous. And maybe the coolest thing that had ever happened to him in his entire life. He landed badly on the edge of another rooftop several minutes later, stumbling forward before barely catching himself.
“Okay,” he panted. “Definitely gotta practice the landing part.”
The city stretched endlessly around him beneath the bright morning sun. Cars crawled through distant streets while trains moved like silver lines through the city below. Up here, everything looked different somehow. Smaller. Quieter. Yuuji stared downward in complete disbelief while adrenaline exploded through his chest again. Cars moved through the street far below while pedestrians walked completely unaware that some random teenager was currently defying several laws of physics directly above them. A huge grin spread across his face.
“This is AWESOMEEE.”