Chapter 16
[30]
“Who is this new Spider-Man? He’s a criminal, that’s who he is! A vigilante! A menace!” Toranosuke Yoshida sat at his desk reading this morning’s article and smoking a large cigar. “Things were finally getting back to normal with the last one gone and just like that!” He snapped his fingers, “Another one! There’s an infestation!”
Yoshida’s top reporter, Ichiko Ohya, stood impatiently in front of her boss’s desk waving away the smoke that had floated towards her face. “Well, menace or not, the article is blowing up online. People are excited by the news and finally feeling hopeful again.”
“Hopeful?! They should be outraged! Spider-Man shows up, and on the same night a helicopter crashes from the sky? He obviously caused it for the publicity! Why am I the only one around here who isn’t an idiot?!”
Ohya rolled her eyes at her boss’s yelling, he’d always been like this, even before the original Spider-Man first appeared. She walked out of his office without him even noticing, he was so busy rambling on. She knew that he could keep going on for another 15 minutes and she didn’t want to be there for that.
It had been a few weeks now since their original office building collapsed in the Shibuya attack. Ohya thought back to that day as she moved through their temporary office. It was terrifying, she’d been trapped in the building as it was coming down, many others had too. She would have died if not for the actions of one young man, he’d done the seemingly impossible and lifted a block of concrete out of the way of the door and gotten everyone out safely.
She hadn’t seen that young man since, but she had a feeling he was alive. In fact, Ohya had a theory as to who that boy could be. If only she had learned his name, all she had to go on right now was the school uniform he wore. But if she could get to the bottom of this, it’d be the story of the century. For now however, she was going to be joining her partner, Kayo Murakami, in investigating the flying man from last night.
Elsewhere in the city, Rise Narukami marched into the police precinct. “Where is she?! Where’s Naoto?!” The officer at the front desk, who was well aware of the woman’s relationship with the detective, pointed her in the direction of Naoto’s office. Without a word, the national celebrity burst through Naoto’s door and slammed it behind her.
“Rise? I thought you were out of town? Is this about your apartment? We’re already on the case-”
“I don’t give a shit about the apartment Naoto! Explain this!” She held up her phone displaying this morning’s news with pictures of Spider-Man saving the officers last night.
“Rise-”
“I know you’re helping him, you’re the only one who has access to Yu’s webshooters and you gave them to him! Are you crazy?! That boy has no idea what he’s getting into! He’s going to get himself killed!”
Naoto lowered her voice before responding. “I’m teaching him so that he doesn’t get himself killed.”
“How can you be serious about this, Yu’s… He’s dead because this job, i-it’s inhuman! It’s too dangerous for anyone! Yu did it for 8 years and I watched it destroy him. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, much less some innocent kid!” Rise turned to Naoto angrily. “He is just a kid isn’t he?”
“He’s 17! He’s older than Yu was when he first started!”
“Unbelievable, you-”
“No!” Naoto stood up, slamming her hands on her desk, “You don’t get to judge me! You don’t know what it’s like, out there on the streets! People are dying! The police are stretched too thin! We need his help! I’m sorry if it offends you that he’s out there using your dead husband’s identity, but he’s saving lives Rise! So you can go ahead and judge me from your ivory tower, but I’m not going to stop and neither is he! He made the choice, he understands and he’s still out there risking his life! What have you been doing?!”
Rise was speechless, her mouth was agape and her eyes showed pain and anger and sadness all at once. Without saying anything, she ran out of the room and the station. The other officers watched the woman leave, then turned to the detective in her office.
“Shut the door.” She said in a surprisingly calm tone that frightened them into complying. She didn’t need to worry about the other officers overhearing, she had soundproofed the room on her first day here. Naoto collapsed into her chair and placed her head into her arms. Why had she said that? She had hurt her best friend and made a mockery of her grief. Was that really how she felt? The Detective Queen didn’t know the answer. Now wasn’t the time to dwell on feelings, so instead she did what she always did. Immerse herself in her work. She picked up her phone off of the desk and called the kid.
“Hello?” Came the voice on the other end, his breathing was heavy for some reason.
“Hey it’s me. I’ve been looking over the charts trying to figure out where I went wrong with the pattern.”
“Any luck so faAAHHH!” Ren cried out in pain.
“What’s happening?!” Naoto raised her voice in concern.
There was a moment where he didn’t respond, it sounded like he was talking to someone else with him.
“I’m at the clinic having my arm relocatED!” His voice raised again in pain.
“Oh.” Naoto paused for a moment. “Well like I said, I’ve been reviewing the targets and I can’t find where I went wrong. I’m going to review the cases further, I’ll get back to you when I have something worthwhile.”
“Yeah, I’m fine thanks for asking.” Ren responded while catching his breath.
“We’ll talk soon.” She hung up without another word and planted her face directly on the desk.
“This fucking job.”
Meanwhile, in the Madarame estate, Ichirysu Madarame wheeled himself through the halls of his home. Each room he passed belonged to one of his proteges, and inside each was a young student hard at work on their next art piece. He loved his students and wanted to see each of them succeed in their field.
As he reached the end of the hall, he came to a stop at his prized pupil’s door. He knocked twice before letting himself in. Upon entering the room he saw his pupil, Yusuke Kitagawa concentrating on not a painting, but rather a large piece of cloth. He sat hunched over a sewing machine, pausing every few seconds whenever he’d prick himself. He was muttering to himself as he worked.
“Hmm yes... A mournful black... Highlighted by the red of rebirth! Brilliant!”
“Yusuke! I’m pleased to see that you seem to have finally gotten over your artist’s block! However I didn’t expect to find you sewing, of all things.”
“Ah, Sensei!” Yusuke jumped in surprise. “I didn’t hear you come in. Yes, I was suddenly struck by inspiration last night. I’m working on what is sure to be my next masterpiece. All of Tokyo will see it!”
“It sounds amazing Yusuke. Mind if I take a peek?” Before Madarame could roll over to his student’s side, his phone rang, the number was listed as unknown. “Excuse me for a moment.” He apologized before going back out into the hall.
“Hello?”
“That was a sloppy job last night Madarame. They caught you on camera.” Came the voice on the other end. It was Madarame’s superior. Known throughout the criminal underworld as Kingpin, Madarame knew him as Kobayakawa.
Sweat began running down Madarame’s forehead “It was only briefly, the payload was slowing me down. I swear it won’t happen again.” He reassured the man on the other end.
“You’ve done good work for us over the years Madarame. I’d hate to think that old age is slowing you down.”
“Not at all sir.”
“Well either way, you still completed the mission. If this package is what we think it is, then the boss will be very pleased. Item 17A is currently being extracted from its container as we speak.”
Madarame still didn’t know who ‘the boss’ was, it was a closely guarded secret that few were privy to. It was possible that even Kobayakawa himself didn’t know who he was.
The voice on the phone continued. “Your payment has been transferred, we’ll contact you for the next job.” With that, the Kingpin hung up and Madarame let out a sigh of relief before putting away his phone.
He looked down at his legs, or rather the stumps that remained of them. Madarame had lost them 14 years ago in a car crash with a drunk driver. That same crash had resulted in the death of his passenger, Natsuhiko Kitagawa, Yusuke’s mother. She had been an amazing artist who Madarame had supported financially, upon her passing, Madarame had taken her son in and given him a home.
The crash had ruined him financially, his hospital bills while recovering had depleted his funds immensely and his injuries left him incapable of painting anymore masterpieces. Now at 57 years old, Madarame makes his large estate a home to dozens of aspiring artists including his surrogate son. The reason he was able to afford this now is because of his ‘other job’, he didn’t enjoy it, but it paid well and allowed him to continue contributing to the art world.
Madarame had first become a criminal after he was approached in the hospital by a representative of Kobayakawa who had offered him a way to make his fortune back. At first, he’d refused, but when time passed and Madarame realized his painting days were over, he accepted the offer and began his work. Initially he had only been a means to launder money, but his work eventually became more involved a few years ago when they recruited a man known as The Tinkerer. He had built Madarame a new pair of legs as well as mechanical wings which he could expertly pilot to commit his crimes. The first thing he’d done with those wings was track down and kill the driver who had caused the crash that had ruined his life, that had been the one time he had taken pleasure in his work.
As he rolled back towards his own room, Madarame thought about how far he had come. After so many years of work, he was close now. Only a few more jobs and he would have enough money to pay off his debts and focus entirely on his students. He had to get out of this business as soon as he could, last night had made that very apparent. And if anyone got in the way of his goal, God help them.