Chapter 60
[84]
By the time the gargoyles came out, Ren was already suiting up to stop him. Normally, on a busy street, Ren would have to hide himself before changing. Luckily, with his (recently mastered) cloaking ability, on top of everyone’s attention being directed away from him, Ren was easily able to change into his suit on the spot.
As the flaming winged beasts approached the windows of the skyscraper, they were stopped when a series of weblines attached to them and pulled them backwards. Ren expected the flames to burn right through his webbing, however he was surprised when they were unaffected.
Ren yanked the creatures away from the building, gathering them all into a single ball. As they were gathered up, the gargoyles began to glow and their fire seemed to burn brighter. His spider sense warning him as to what was coming, Ren swung the ball of monsters in a circle before sending them hurdling into the air where they exploded into a ball of flames.
As Ren stuck to a window of the Shido Sciences building, he heard the employees behind him cheer. If he hadn’t intervened, they would definitely have died. Ren signalled for them to leave before they were hurt, but they either didn’t understand or willfully ignored him to watch the fight.
“Impressive, Spider-Man.” Mysterio said as he floated closer. “I expected this city’s greatest hero to intervene. But I will not let you stop me! My magic will save these people! Liberate them!”
“What? By blowing up innocent office workers? How does that help anyone?”
“My goals are beyond your understanding Spider-Man! I will achieve them even if you stand in my way!” As he said this, green glyphs floated around Mysterio’s hands and suddenly two beams of light shot from them which Ren narrowly managed to avoid.
The office workers behind Ren ducked for cover, finally realizing the danger of the situation as the windows of the floor shattered. Before Ren could react, more gargoyles flew into the office building and cackled as they chased the fleeing workers, breathing fire out of their mouths. He quickly jumped into the building and began webbing up the creatures before they could harm anyone.
Despite his efforts, the cubicles around the office began to catch fire and the workers running around in panic didn’t help the situation.
“Evacuate the building! Use the stairs and avoid the elevators!” Ren ordered as he ran over to the fire alarm. He smashed the glass with his fist and pulled the lever so hard it broke off. Immediately, the sound of warning bells went off and the sprinkler system went into effect.
The sprinklers put out the fires around the office, but had no effect on the gargoyles themselves. He quickly dispatched the remaining gargoyles and tossed them out the window before they could cause any more damage, each blowing up as they were sent out of the building. Seeing one of the creatures webbed up beneath him, Ren punted the creature out the window and it flew off screaming before exploding harmlessly in the air.
“Little flaming bastards.”
With the situation in the office more or less handled, Ren turned his attention back to the villain behind it all. Apparently, Mysterio had taken this opportunity to once again address the crowd in the streets below, speaking more about his grandiose plan to ‘liberate them from the shackles of technology’ and whatnot.
His boasting would prove to be his downfall as Ren leapt out the window to tackle him and put an end to this. However, as Ren flew towards the villain, Mysterio threw up a green smoke screen which Ren passed through harmlessly.
Catching himself on the building across the street, Ren turned back and watched as the smoke dissipated. When it finally became clear, Mysterio had vanished into thin air. Could he disappear as well? Maybe teleport? Before Ren could think any further, Mysterio’s voice seemed to call out from everywhere at once.
“People of Tokyo! This was merely the first of three acts! Over the coming days, the world as you know it will change forever! The empire of technology shall fall and give way to a new civilization! One in which I, Mysterio, shall rule as your benevolent master!”
With that, his voice stopped, and Ren was left wondering what the hell had just happened. Who the hell was this guy? What did he want? He said he wanted to eliminate technology, but if that was his goal, why come here? Why attack an office building?
All of this was too weird, and after the day he’d had, Ren just wanted to go to bed, even if it was only 5 o’clock...Wait 5 o’clock? Oh shit.
Ren remembered that he had agreed to meet with Sumire after school today. They were supposed to meet in Inokashira Park at 4:30! As he checked his phone, he found that he had several missed texts and a voicemail from Sumire. Luckily, he had the perfect excuse in mind to explain his lateness.
After discreetly landing on top of the park bathrooms, Ren crawled in through the window and climbed across the ceiling, finding an empty stall which he could change in, he couldn’t keep up his invisibility for long afterall. As he exited the stall, dressed in a white t-shirt, grey hoodie, and black pants, he went over to the sink and washed his hands, receiving an odd look from the man who had thought he was alone in the bathroom.
Ren acted completely casual as he quickly left the bathroom and went in search of Sumire. Finding the red haired girl standing alone with her phone in hand, he straightened out his sweaty hair and approached her. When he tapped on her shoulder, Sumire panicked jumping backwards.
“AH! Oh, Senpai!” She breathed out a sigh of relief. “I was afraid you wouldn’t show up.”
Sumire looked especially cute today. She was dressed in a grey cardigan with a large blue skirt that nearly reached her feet, she’d also decided to wear her glasses instead of contacts today. No matter what the girl wore, she always seemed to have a cute, wholesome vibe to her.
“I’m really sorry about that, y’see I was in Shibuya and-”
“Wait. I just saw the report! Were you there when that Mysterio guy attacked!? Oh my gosh are you okay!?”
Ren smiled, she’d immediately forgiven his lateness and was more concerned about his safety. “I’m fine. I just got distracted by his fight with Spider-Man.”
Sumire let out another sigh of relief and placed her hand on Ren’s shoulder before immediately pulling it away with a red face. “S-Sorry!”
“No problem.”
“Thank goodness Spider-Man was there to help. I heard he put out the fires and disposed of bombs before any real damage could be done.”
“Oh? Are you a secret Spider-Man fan Sumire?” Ren asked as the pair began to walk out of the park.
Sumire blushed. “W-Well, maybe a little.”
“Cool. I am too.”
“C-Cool.”
The two of them headed to the underground mall in Shibuya, Ren had agreed to go shopping with her to find a new outfit. Sumire had said something about how changing her wardrobe could help her stand out from her sister and improve her confidence. Ren didn’t really understand Sumire’s relationship with her sister, but it seemed to him like Sumire was constantly living in her more popular sister’s shadow.
“Um, what do you think of this outfit, Senpai?” Sumire stepped out of the changing room dressed in an outfit that was...loud, to say the least. A cheetah print jacket, a striped scarf, polka-dotted pants, and pink glasses with star-shaped frames.
“Maybe we should keep looking.” Ren suggested.
After a montage of comically mismatched outfits, Sumire finally stepped out in a purple and white dress that looked amazing on her.
“Wow.” Ren said in awe.
“W-W-What? Is it bad?” Sumire said, a nervous look on her face.
“No! No not at all! You look great! Amazing really.”
“W-W-What!?”
“I-I just mean, it uh, *ahem* it looks nice.” Ren’s voice cracked. Why was he messing this up so badly? Why was he so nervous?
“I’m...I’m really glad you like it.” She smiled at him.
“Sumi! There you are!” An angry female voice called out from behind Ren.
Both Ren and Sumire turned towards the source and saw Kasumi stomping towards them.
“K-Kasumi!?”
“Sumire, what the hell are you doing?”
“We-I...We were just…”
“Trying on outfits for the delinquent!?” Kasumi turned to Ren. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Taking advantage of a naive girl who doesn’t know any better! You...sick pervert!”
“Wha-me!?” Ren was shocked.
“Come on, Sumire, we’re getting out of here!” Kasumi grabbed her sister’s arm and pulled her out of the store.
“Wait, Kasumi! You’ve got it all wrong! I haven’t even paid for this!” But the twin didn’t listen and dragged her sister out of the mall.
“Sumire…” Ren called out to no avail. As he was about to go after them, he was stopped by the store clerk holding out her hand, gesturing for him to fork over the cash. Ren sighed and dug out his wallet.
By the time he made it out of the mall, the twins were gone without a trace. Not knowing what else to do, Ren decided to head home for now. He had homework due tomorrow that he hadn’t even started, not to mention he had work in a few hours. Ren knew he’d promised to give 120% going forward, but he had no idea it would be this exhausting.
When he arrived back in the apartment, he found Naoto sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for him.
“Finally! Where have you been?”
“I was...out. Why, what’s up?” Ren asked the detective.
“We have a lead. We’re gonna catch Mysterio.”