Chapter Text
Yuji Itadori had always possessed a strong sense of justice. Even as a kid, helping someone in need came as naturally as breathing. Looking the other way was never an option, not when someone else was hurting.
His empathy ran deeper than those around him, and while that made him an easy target for bullies, it never changed who he was.
Unlike most kids his age, Yuji was blessed with extraordinary athletic ability. Rather than standing by and watching, he used that gift to step in whenever someone needed help.
It made sense why he became Spider-Man.
However, before the masked identity, Yuji was just another normal high school kid.
Despite everyone telling him the year prior that his senior year would be a piece of cake, it was not. Yuji was barely surviving, drowning in college applications and assignments. Usually, he was better with these kinds of things. Usually.
So instead of doing whatever other teenagers in high school did— partying, drinking, smoking— he was at the gym. Because he’s Yuji and he doesn’t do anything conventionally.
He punched the leather punching bag with such force and ferocity you’d think that he had a personal vendetta against it, as if it’d personally offended him.
SMACK!
He pants softly, finally lowering his fists and looking down at his bruised knuckles. Yuji had been at it for hours, not feeling an ounce of exhaustion in his body. He wipes his forehead, sweat trickling down as he stares at the empty gym with an unreadable expression.
Yuji walks towards his gym bag, slipping on his red hoodie over his bare chest. He sighs as the soft fabric clings to his slick skin, a weird combination of contact, but oddly he didn’t mind it. Adjusting his black sweats in the mirror, he doesn’t notice the small black spider crawling down his sleeve— likely being there before he even got the hoodie on.
He reaches down for his headphones, as well as slinging the gym bag onto his shoulder. The gym was quiet except for Yuji’s soft breathing, still slightly out of breath from his session.
Yuji begins to walk towards the gym exit, scrolling through his phone and opening Spotify to listen to music on his walk home. The spider slowly crawls onto the back of his hand, resting there as he barely registers its presence.
He finally settles on a song, “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees.
He hums along to the familiar melody, and as if on cue, the spider strikes— biting Itadori. Yuji blinks as he feels the stinging on his hand, looking at the spider in confusion, before slapping it off and continuing as usual.
.𖥔 ݁ ˖🕸️🕷.𖥔 ݁ ˖
“Hey baby, won’t you look my way? I could be your new addiction!”
The next few days of Yuji's life were anything but ordinary. He woke up feeling... different.
Every sound seemed a little sharper, every movement around him a little easier to follow. His reflexes became almost instinctive, his body reacting before his mind could catch up.
Then came the strangest part of it all, everything he touched seemed determined to stick to him.
Yuji woke up, hand stuck to his comforter for the fifth time in 2 days. He huffs and forcibly rips it away, tearing a bit of the fabric in the process. He groans in annoyance and stands, fixing his hair and staring at his appearance in the mirror. He looked relatively normal, yet he felt anything but that.
He gets ready, following his normal routine. Brush teeth, put on clothes, fix hair, make coffee. Except, when he goes to the kitchen and clumsily knocks off a mug from the counter— he thwips out his hand in an impossibly fast motion.
Looking down, expecting to hear the shatter of glass, he found the mug attached to a stringy, web like substance that came out of nowhere.
“…What the?”
He stared at the mug for another second.
"...Nope."
Yuji wasn't even going to pretend he understood what had just happened.
Over the past few days, his body had been acting like it belonged to someone else. Waking up stronger than usual? Weird. Hearing conversations from rooms away? Also weird. Randomly sticking to walls, blankets, and now apparently launching... whatever that was from his wrist?
That was definitely a new one.
There had to be an explanation.
...Right?
His thoughts drifted back to the spider bite. It couldn't actually be because of that, could it? That sounded ridiculous—like the plot of one of those old superhero comics. Radioactive spider, mysterious powers, secret identity... Yeah. No way.
Yuji shook his head.
I'm seriously overthinking this.
So he did what he always did whenever life stopped making sense.
He went to school.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much of an escape.
Every hallway felt louder than it used to. He could hear sneakers squeaking against polished floors from down the corridor, conversations bleeding through classroom walls, even the faint buzz of the lights overhead. It was like someone had turned every dial in his brain all the way up.
By the time classes finally ended, he had a headache.
Walking home, Yuji absentmindedly fidgeted with his hands—a habit he'd never quite managed to break. He'd always talked with them more than his words anyway.
The shortcut through the alley behind the convenience store didn't bother him. It had been part of his route since freshman year. Most people avoided it because of New York's crime rate, but Yuji had never been too worried.
Lately, though...
Something else had been bothering him.
A familiar tingling crept across the back of his neck.
He slowed.
"...Again?"
The feeling had started less than a week ago. Every time it happened, someone—or something—was watching him.
Yuji let out a quiet sigh before glancing over his shoulder.
There he was.. Tall, white hair, piercing blue eyes.
The stranger from before.
"...Look, man," Yuji called, rubbing the back of his neck, "if you're after my wallet, you're gonna be pretty disappo—"
"That's not why I'm here."
Yuji blinked.
"...Then why are you following me?"
Yuji frowned, his confusion only deepening.
If the guy wasn't trying to rob him... then what was he doing?
The stranger let out an amused chuckle, like he'd already figured out exactly what was running through Yuji's head.
"You got bit by a spider, didn't you?"
What?
Yuji's brain came to a complete stop.
Out of everything he could've said, that was the last thing he'd expected to hear.
How did he know about the spider?
No— more importantly, why did he know?
“M-me? Haha— why would you say that??” Yuji laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh... that's a pretty random question.”
Smooth.
Real smooth.
The man's grin only widened.
“You noticed me before I made my presence obvious,” he said matter-of-factly. “Most people wouldn't. That's not something an ordinary civilian can do.”
Yuji instinctively took another look at him.
White hair. Bright blue eyes. Tall.
…Way too confident.
His stomach dropped.
Oh shit.
He'd seen that face before.. on magazine covers, news broadcasts, and billboards plastered across the city.
Infinity.
The hero everyone knew.
The strongest hero New York had ever seen.
He'd supposedly retired from active duty months ago, disappearing from the public eye almost overnight.
“Y-you…” Yuji's eyes widened. “...You're Infinity?”
"Bingo." The hero smiled, slipping his hands into his pockets like this was the most normal conversation in the world.
He held Yuji's gaze for a moment, the playful smile never quite leaving his face.
“Yuji Itadori…” he began. “You didn't just get bitten by a spider.”
A brief pause.
“You stumbled into a world you were never supposed to know existed.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖🕸️🕷.𖥔 ݁ ˖
“Everybody talks, everybody talks—”
This wasn't as cool as Yuji thought it'd be.
Okay, seriously, he should've realized it the second he started gaining his powers, but this was a whole different level.
Being a superhero was, in fact, not cool.
Satoru Gojo— or Infinity, as the city knew him —was an incredible hero.
He was also an absolutely terrible teacher.
Not because he lacked experience. Quite the opposite.
Gojo had been New York's strongest hero for years. He could fly without effort, manipulate space itself, stop speeding bullets inches from his face, and dismantle entire villain organizations before breakfast.
Yuji… was Yuji.
The gap between them was impossible.
Gojo would demonstrate something with effortless precision, only to shrug when Yuji asked how he'd done it.
“Just... feel it.”
That was his answer to everything.
Feel it.
Yuji was beginning to think Gojo had never actually learned any of his abilities. They'd simply appeared one day and decided to cooperate.
Today's lesson had somehow ended with the two of them standing atop a forty-story skyscraper overlooking Manhattan.
The wind tugged at Yuji's red hoodie as he peered over the edge. Thousands of people moved below like ants, yellow taxis weaving through traffic while distant sirens echoed between the buildings.
His stomach twisted. He wasn't afraid of heights anymore.
He was afraid of landing.
Gojo rested comfortably on the ledge, balancing on one foot with his hands tucked into his pockets.
“You're overthinking it.”
Yuji looked at him flatly through the white lenses of his mask.
“Easy for you to say.”
“It is.”
“You fly.”
“I do.”
“I don't.”
Gojo nodded thoughtfully.
“Good observation.”
Yuji stared.
"...You're impossible."
A grin spread across Gojo's face.
"And yet, here you are."
Without another word— he shoved Yuji off the building. The world disappeared beneath him. Glass blurred past. Wind screamed in his ears. His heart leapt into his throat as forty stories became thirty-five... then thirty...
“HOLY SHIT—!”
Instinct took over long before panic could and his arm shot forward.
Thwip.
A strand of webbing snapped onto the side of a neighboring building.
The force nearly ripped his shoulder from its socket as he swung sideways, narrowly missing a billboard. His feet bounced awkwardly off a wall before he overcorrected, sending himself into an uncontrolled spin.
Another web.
Another swing.
Too early.
He releases.
Too late.
His body clipped the corner of an apartment balcony before tumbling into another swing entirely by accident.
It wasn't graceful. It wasn't even close.
But...
He hadn't hit the ground.
High above, Gojo floated effortlessly, watching with his arms folded.
“See?”
Yuji glared up at him.
“I'm filing assault charges after this.”
“You'd have to catch me first.”
Yuji was just about to fire back when the city itself seemed to shudder beneath him.
A low vibration rippled through the buildings, subtle at first, before the concrete below groaned in protest and windows all across the block began to rattle. Heat rolled over the skyline in an oppressive wave, thick enough that Yuji could feel it even from halfway up a skyscraper. The playful smile that had been plastered across Gojo's face all morning disappeared in an instant.
“Looks like training's over.”
Several blocks away, the pavement ruptured with a deafening crack. Molten rock erupted from beneath the streets like a volcano breaking through the city itself, swallowing intersections whole as abandoned cars were tossed aside like toys. Smoke climbed into the sky while terrified civilians fled in every direction, their screams echoing between the buildings.
From the heart of the inferno, something enormous emerged.
Its body looked as though it had been carved from cooled volcanic stone, veins of glowing magma pulsing beneath layers of cracked obsidian. Smoke poured endlessly from the volcano that formed its head, and every lumbering step left puddles of molten earth in its wake. A single burning eye swept across Manhattan before the creature drew in a slow breath.
“Humans…” Its voice rolled across the city like distant thunder. “Your fragile little city burns today.”
Gojo let out a quiet sigh.
“Magma.”
Yuji swallowed hard, unable to take his eyes off the monster.
“So that's him.”
“The one and only.”
Magma slowly raised an arm. Instantly, the streets surrounding him liquefied as buildings trembled and massive chunks of molten asphalt were hurled skyward like artillery shells.
Gojo didn't even look away from the destruction.
“Yuji.”
The lighthearted tone he'd been using all day was gone. His voice was calm, measured, and impossibly serious.
“The civilians come first.”
Yuji didn't answer.
He was already moving.
His body launched itself from the rooftop before he'd consciously decided to jump. Twin strands of webbing shot from his wrists, anchoring themselves to opposite buildings as he slingshot through the streets below. Everywhere he looked, people were running—but they weren't fast enough.
A mother carrying her son stumbled just as a river of lava rushed toward them.
Without thinking, Yuji fired.
His webs wrapped around both of them, yanking them across the street only moments before molten rock swallowed the sidewalk they'd been standing on. They hit the pavement safely, dazed but alive.
Another cry for help rang out before Yuji could even catch his breath.
An elderly man was pinned beneath a collapsed traffic light, desperately trying to free himself. Yuji landed beside him hard enough to crack the pavement, grabbed the twisted metal with both hands, and tore it free almost effortlessly before helping the man to his feet.
He blinked.
“...Whoa.”
The pole should've weighed hundreds of pounds.
He barely had time to process it.
“Kid!”
Gojo's voice echoed overhead.
Yuji looked up just in time to see a city bus hurtling through the air.
Not toward him.
Toward the crowd gathered behind him.
His pulse spiked.
No time to think.
No time to panic.
He sprinted toward the nearest building, his feet planting against the wall before carrying him straight upward. One step became another, then another, until he was running vertically without even realizing it. At the peak of his climb, both wrists snapped forward.
Thwip.
Webbing latched onto the front of the bus.
The force nearly ripped both arms from their sockets.
His entire body screamed as the weight dragged him through the air, every muscle straining to keep hold while the bus continued its descent.
“Come on…”
He grit out as the webs stretched to their limit.
For one terrifying moment, Yuji was certain they would snap.
Instead, they held. Just long enough.
The bus slammed into an empty intersection with a thunderous crash, missing the civilians by only a few yards.
Yuji dropped to the pavement a second later, breathing so hard his chest hurt.
“…I actually did it.”
High above, Gojo watched him with a small smile.
Not the smug grin he'd worn all morning.
A proud one.
Magma's roar shattered the brief moment of relief.
“You insignificant insects!”
A tidal wave of lava surged toward an apartment complex packed with people.
Gojo finally moved.
The space in front of the building distorted almost imperceptibly before the molten wave bent around it as though reality itself had changed course, flowing harmlessly into a vacant construction site instead.
Yuji couldn't help himself.
“Show-off.”
“I heard that.”
“You were s’posed to.”
Magma's burning eye narrowed.
With another earth-shaking slam of both fists, pillars of molten stone erupted beneath Yuji's feet.
This time, he didn't hesitate.
One web.
A clean swing.
Release.
Another web caught instantly, carrying him into the next arc before he'd even thought about it.
His movements felt... different.
The panic was gone.
Every swing fed naturally into the next, every release happening exactly when it needed to. His body already understood the rhythm. The only thing slowing him down had been his own hesitation.
“There you go,” Gojo called from somewhere above.
“I didn't tell my body to do that!”
“You don't have to.”
Yuji glanced toward him, confused.
“What?”
Gojo floated effortlessly above the chaos, watching Yuji weave between collapsing buildings.
“You're trying to control every movement,” he said. “The webs. The strength. The reflexes. Stop micromanaging them.”
Yuji vaulted over a collapsing fire escape before instinctively flipping beneath another stream of lava.
“Your powers already know what they're doing,” Gojo continued. “You just need to catch up.”
Something finally clicked.
Yuji stopped calculating every swing.
Instead, he trusted the momentum— the invisible pull of each web, the heightened reflexes he'd been fighting since the spider bite, and the instincts his body had been trying to teach him all along.
For the first time, swinging didn't feel like surviving.
It felt natural.
A grin spread beneath his mask as another web shot forward, landing exactly where he'd intended.
“…Okay.”
He launched himself straight toward the towering villain, the wind roaring past his ears.
“I think I'm starting to get it.”
Above him, Gojo laughed.
“Took you long enough.”
.𖥔 ݁ ˖🕸️🕷.𖥔 ݁ ˖
Infinity made quick work of Magma.
By the time the authorities arrived, the villain was already restrained, the lava had begun to cool, and the worst of the damage had been contained. Yuji watched from a nearby rooftop, still catching his breath, unable to look away from the man who'd done it all.
It was strange.
Gojo and Infinity felt like two completely different people.
Gojo was loud. Annoying. The kind of person who'd push you off a building just to prove a point.
Infinity was... focused.
Every movement had purpose. Every decision came effortlessly, like he'd already thought ten steps ahead of everyone else. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in him. It was hard to believe the man cracking terrible jokes an hour ago was the same one calmly directing emergency responders and reassuring terrified civilians only moments after stopping a city-wide disaster.
Yuji couldn't help but stare.
“...So,” he finally asked, rubbing the back of his neck, “what happens now?”
Gojo dusted a bit of dried ash from his sleeves before glancing around at the destroyed intersection.
“Now?” He shrugged. “Insurance claims.”
Yuji blinked.
“...Seriously?”
“Yep.”
Gojo gestured broadly toward the crater they'd unintentionally left behind.
“I'll cover it.”
“...You can just... do that?”
“I make a lot of money.”
Yuji looked from the shattered buildings, to Gojo, then back to the buildings again.
“...Right.”
A beat passed.
“You know,” Gojo added with a grin, “property damage isn't technically part of the training curriculum.”
"You literally threw me off a skyscraper this morning."
“I said technically.”
Yuji sighed.
“I'm never winning an argument with you, am I?”
“Nope.”
An hour later, the two arrived at Gojo's house.
Calling it a house felt generous.
It was a mansion.
Yuji stood in the foyer for a solid ten seconds, taking in the impossibly high ceilings, polished marble floors, and windows taller than most apartment buildings he'd ever lived near.
“...You live here?”
Gojo kicked off his shoes without a second thought.
“I do.”
“You live here?”
“I feel like we're repeating ourselves.”
“You own a mansion.”
“I own two.”
Yuji stared.
“...Why do you own two mansions?”
Gojo shrugged as he disappeared upstairs.
“I forgot I bought the other one.”
“...That's the most insane sentence I've ever heard.”
A laugh drifted down the hallway.
Yuji eventually peeled off the homemade-looking suit Gojo had designed for him, tossing the mask onto the couch before pulling on the hoodie he'd arrived in. The transformation was almost comical.
One minute he looked like New York's newest masked vigilante.
The next, he looked like any other high school kid who'd wandered into a millionaire's living room by mistake.
Gojo returned a few minutes later wearing a loose black shirt and sweatpants, carrying two bottles of water.
He tossed one to Yuji.
“You did good today.”
Yuji caught it awkwardly.
“I almost dropped a bus.”
“But you didn't.”
“I almost got people hurt.”
Gojo leaned against the kitchen island, folding his arms.
“But you didn't.”
Yuji looked down at the bottle in his hands.
“...I still messed up.”
“You will.” Gojo's answer came so quickly it caught him off guard. “A lot, actually.”
Yuji looked up.
Gojo wasn't smiling anymore.
“You're going to make mistakes. You're going to miss things. You're going to wonder if you're good enough.”
He paused, studying Yuji for a moment.
“Every hero does.”
The room fell quiet.
Then Gojo smiled again, smaller this time.
“But I also watched you throw yourself in front of lava for people you've never met.”
Yuji blinked.
“You never stopped to think about whether they deserved saving.”
“...Of course not.”
“Exactly.”
Gojo nodded once.
“That's why I picked you.”
Yuji didn't know what to say.
He'd spent the last week convinced he'd been stumbling through all of this by accident.
Hearing someone like Infinity say those words...
It meant more than he expected.
“...Thanks,” Yuji said quietly. “Seriously. For... all of this.”
Gojo waved a hand dismissively.
“Don't get all sentimental on me. It'll ruin my reputation.”
Yuji laughed.
“I don't think you have one.”
“Ouch.”
Before Gojo could come up with another comeback, his phone buzzed against the kitchen counter.
He glanced at the screen.
The smug grin he'd been wearing all afternoon softened almost imperceptibly.
“...Huh.”
He picked up the phone with a small sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Sorry, kid. I've gotta take this.”
Yuji nodded. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Gojo answered almost immediately. “It's someone waiting for me.”
He answered the call without much ceremony.
“Hey.”
A pause.
“Relax, I'm on my way.”
Another pause.
Gojo rolled his eyes, though the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“I know you can get home by yourself.”
...
“No, I'm not saying you can't.”
Yuji raised an eyebrow, quietly pretending not to listen.
“Megumi, you don't have to wait outside in the rain just because you're trying to prove a point.”
Another beat of silence.
Gojo laughed under his breath.
“Yeah, yeah. Keep pretending you don't need me.”
The call ended.
Yuji blinked.
“...Who was that?”
Gojo slipped his phone into his pocket.
“My kid.”
“...You have a kid?”
“Adopted.”
Gojo said it so casually you'd think he'd mentioned stopping by the grocery store.
Yuji stared.
“You... have an adopted kid.”
“Mhm.”
“...And you never thought to bring that up?”
Gojo shrugged.
“You never asked.”
“...”
“Besides,” he continued with a grin, “he'd be annoyed if I started introducing him as my son.”
“So... he calls you ‘Dad?’”
Gojo laughed.
“Oh, absolutely not.”
“Really?”
“He usually goes with ‘Gojo’... occasionally ‘benefactor.’”
Yuji couldn't help but laugh.
“...Sounds rough.”
“It builds character.”
There was a brief pause before Gojo grabbed his keys from the counter.
“You'll meet him eventually.”
Yuji tilted his head.
“Yeah?”
Gojo opened the front door.
“I've got a feeling you two will get along.”
He flashed that annoyingly confident smile again.
“...Or you'll drive each other completely insane.”
For some reason… Yuji had a feeling it might end up being both.