Chapter 31
[46]
It was 10pm when Ren arrived at the designated location for the meeting, the rooftop of an apartment building. He swung up there in his costume, finally having rested a few hours beforehand. He didn’t even want to think about the fact that Futaba and Yusuke knew his secret now. (Thanks Ryuji.)
Akechi was already waiting for him when he got there. He walked over to the edge where Ren landed to greet him.
“Ah, I’m glad you made it.” He greeted.
“Do you have the kid’s location?” Ren got straight to the point, not wanting to waste any time.
Akechi simply smiled and pulled a slip of paper from his pocket, handing it to Ren. Ren accepted the paper, looking at its content. On it was an address along with a floor and room number. They were keeping him at a hotel?
“How exactly did you come across this information?” Ren questioned.
“A good reporter must have eyes and ears in all manner of places.”
That answer didn’t satisfy Ren, “Really? And you just happened to know the right criminals?”
Akechi finally relented and gave a sigh, “I had a...rough upbringing. I was never a part of any criminal acts, but I did meet some useful contacts whom I still keep in touch with.”
Ren realized that he’d pushed a little too far, “Alright, if you’ll excuse me there’s a-”
“Hold on!” Akechi interrupted Ren before he could leave. “I believe I was promised an interview!”
The vigilante turned to the reporter, “There’s a child being held hostage and you want an interview now!?”
“It will only be a quick one! I was assured that he was perfectly safe and in good health.”
“Ugh. Fine but make it quick. And no questions that could reveal my identity.”
“Of course.” Akechi pulled out a notepad and recording device. “First question: How did you receive your powers?”
“Same as Yu Narukami. Bitten by a spider.”
“I can’t imagine it was any ordinary spider. Where did it occur?” Akechi pressed further.
“Uh, on my hand?”
Akechi didn’t appreciate the attempt at humor, instead waiting for a real response.
“I can’t say where it happened, that could jeopardize my identity. It obviously wasn’t an ordinary spider, someone had messed with it somehow. Whether it was genetically modified or radioactive or something, I honestly don’t know.”
The reporter seemed to accept that that was the best he would get, moving on to the next question. “What made you choose to become Spider-Man? Plenty of other people in the city have powers or advanced technology and use it for crime. Why fight for justice when you could easily benefit from them instead?”
Ren raised an eyebrow, (under the mask) he honestly hadn’t considered using his powers for his own personal gain. “I guess I was just inspired? I grew up a fan of the original Spider-Man and when I got these powers, I just felt like I was meant to do this. Does that make sense?”
Akechi nodded and jotted down some quick notes. “Final question: Where were you on the day of the Shibuya attack?”
That question caught Ren offguard. Unsure of whether answering could result in exposing himself and wanting to finish this interview quickly, he spoke. “I was in Shibuya at the time. On the ground, afraid like everybody else. I didn’t have my powers at the time.” That last part was a bit of a half truth, he had them, he just didn’t know it at the time.
“I see.”
“Alright, if we’re done here I gotta go.” Ren leapt off of the building without awaiting a response.
Meanwhile, across town in a containment cell for powered individuals, Kaneshiro sat on a cell bed far too small for him.
It’d taken over 200 rounds of ammunition, 8 canisters of tear gas, and a second police vehicle running him over to finally bring him down. When he’d finally come to, he was in this reinforced bulletproof glass cell made to hold individuals with superhuman strength. He had come to that conclusion when punching it for 20 minutes failed to even leave a crack in the thick glass.
So here he sat, presumably awaiting his trial. He didn’t know as he hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone since waking up here. The lights remained on at all hours, making telling time nearly impossible, he could only guess based on when meals were sent through a small chute next to his toilet, which was also too small for him.
As Kaneshiro sat in the cell, bored out of his mind for what seemed like the million hours he’d been there, he saw a group of me approaching. The police officers, by the looks of them, approached the cell hastily.
The officers tried to speak to Kaneshiro through the glass, but the sound couldn’t penetrate. Kaneshiro found that odd, shouldn’t they know that it was soundproof? He gestured that he couldn’t hear them. The officers pointed to Kaneshiro, then placed their hands over their ears. Understanding the message, he complied and covered his ears.
A small circular device was stuck onto the glass and the officers took cover and shielded their ears. Soon after, a high pitched ring became audible through the glass, even covering his ears, Kaneshiro was in pain. After a few moments, the high pitched noise was replaced by the sound of shattering glass. The prisoner looked up to see that the walls of his cell were now mere shards of glass on the floor.
With a sharp toothed yellow smile on his face, Kaneshiro stepped over the shards and towards the ‘officers.’ He knew that they had inside men on the force, but he never imagined they would be this useful.
“Welcome back big man.” One of the inside men greeted while handing him a change of clothes. “What’re your orders?”
Kaneshiro accepted the clothes and looked down at his underlings. After sitting in that damn cell for so long, he knew exactly what his next move was.
“Tell everyone on the streets, tonight we go to war. Every precinct in Tokyo is gonna burn.”