Chapter 75
[103]
Haru Okumura shot up out of bed screaming, awoken from a nightmare. As she looked around at her surroundings, she was taken aback by the unfamiliar layout. Where was she? Whose bed was this? She began to imagine the worst before the bedroom door flung open.
“Haru! Are you okay? What happened?” A woman with short blue hair wearing a black tanktop and shorts asked. After a moment, Haru was able to recognize her. It was the school nurse, Dr. Takemi.
Memories from earlier that day flooded back into her mind. Back in the nurse’s office, after being introduced to the nurse by Ren and being informed that she was in on the secret too, the two of them began speaking after he left. Haru explained what had occurred earlier to land her in there, as well as confessing her lack of sleep and constant feeling of unease lately. She didn’t know why she told the doctor everything she did, maybe it just felt nice to speak to an adult who would believe her, or maybe it was because Takemi’s personality vaguely reminded Haru of her late mother.
After telling the older woman about her troubles, Takemi surprised her, asking if she needed somewhere to stay for the night. Haru hadn’t been able to sleep in her own bed since that night. Every time the floorboards creaked, or the wind blew against her window, she would flinch in fear, thinking Sugimura was somewhere in her house, watching her.
Haru accepted the offer, not being able to stand another night in that empty house. After school, she joined Takemi on her ride home, surprised to find that an M.D. would choose to live in a back alley apartment in Yongen. The apartment itself was quite small, a sparse few pictures decorated the walls, and a single potted plant sat in the corner of the living room. The entire apartment was roughly the size of Haru’s bedroom back home, but she welcomed the new environment, glad to not be spending the night alone.
When Takemi showed Haru where she would be sleeping, she was surprised when the doctor offered up her own bed, while she would sleep on the pullout couch. Initially refusing the generous offer, she was more or less forced to take the bed at Takemi’s insistence. After changing into some pajamas the doctor provided, she suddenly felt how tired she really was after days without sleep, she fell unconscious the moment her head hit the pillow.
“-ru? Haru?” Takemi asked, snapping the girl out of her thoughts. “You with me?”
“Oh! Dr. Takemi!” Haru said as she snapped back to the present. “Y-Yes, I’m alright. Just a nightmare is all.”
Takemi let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I heard you scream and assumed the worst.” She relaxed, taking a seat next to Haru on the bed. As she studied the girl’s expression, she noticed fear and unease in her eyes. “Would you like it if I stayed in here for a bit?”
Haru, hugging her legs to her chest, nodded softly.
Takemi laid out on the bed, silently glad that she didn’t have to go back to the pullout couch (whoever designed those clearly never had to sleep on one) but she chose not to share this for her guest’s conscience.
“Why don’t we talk for a while?” She suggested, thinking of a topic. “Oh, that shirt you’re wearing? I got that back in my high school days.”
Haru looked down at the t-shirt Takemi had given her, it was black with bold white letters in a strange font spelling out something in English.
“‘Revelations.’ That was the name of the metal band I was in. I know, shocker, right?” Takemi said cheekily. “We didn’t last very long, everyone else wanted to go professional, but I wanted to go to medical school, so we went our separate ways. Eventually, all of them broke off to pursue their own interests. What you’re wearing is the one and only t-shirt we could afford to make.”
“Oh my, I’m so sorry! Here, let me change out of it-” Haru stood up and began to remove the shirt.
“Whoa, slow down! It’s fine, I dug that out of my closet, I haven’t even worn it in ages. I actually forgot I had it until I saw it earlier.” Takemi smiled. “It’s funny how you remember more than you think. How seeing an object from your past can bring back memories you’d long forgotten. Know what I mean?”
Haru sat back down on the bed. “Yeah. I get that. Going through my father’s old things, I found a model spaceship he kept in his closet, still in it’s box. I found it when I was little and tried taking it out to play with it, *sniff* he got so scared that I would damage it. Apparently, it was a collectible from his favorite show as a kid and he wanted to keep it in mint condition.”
Tae looked over at the young girl, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.
“Y’know *sniff* I always remembered the scolding he gave me afterwards as a bad memory, but now? It makes me oddly happy. Is that weird?” Haru asked.
Takemi wrapped her arms around the girl. “Not at all.” The two of them sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the other’s company. Both had lost something important to them a short time ago, and whether she was willing to admit it or not, Tae needed this as well.
After another minute of silence, Takemi released Haru. “Hey, how about I make us something to eat? We can watch some TV for a bit. Maybe there’s a movie on. Would you be up for that?”
Haru responded with another silent nod and Tae led her into the living room. Placing the girl on the couch (still folded out) she turned on her TV and went into her apartment’s kitchen. It was tiny, basically just a refrigerator, microwave, and sink in the back of her living room, but it served its purpose.
“I mostly go out to eat, but I’ve got a few ingredients lying around. Now I’ve gotta warn you, my cooking skills are a little rusty, so don’t expect anything on the level Ren can make.”
“Oh, is Ren a good cook?” Haru asked, looking back into the kitchen.
“Are you kidding me?” Tae asked. “He’s incredible. That boy can make rice and an egg taste like a five-star meal.I’m shocked he’s never cooked for you before.”
“We...don’t actually know each other that well. We’re both just lab assistants to Dr. Maruki, I’m actually a year older than him, so we don’t share any classes together.”
“Oh. I thought you two might be together.” Tae said, a small part of her relieved. “Y’know, what with him princess carrying you into my office.”
“N-No, we’re not like that!” Haru waved her hands frantically, dismissing that notion. “I only found out his secret by accident. H-He saved me before I could fall off the roof.”
“Yeah, he told me about that.” Tae nodded, throwing some old takeout onto a pair of plates.
“What about the two of you?” Haru asked. “Y-You seem pretty close.”
“Well, I have seen him naked.”
Haru’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock. Tae laughed at her reaction.
“Relax, I’m his doctor. Whenever villains carve him up, I’m the one who has to patch him back together. It helps that he heals pretty fast too.” She sighed as she looked away. “I do wish he wouldn’t put himself in so much danger though. It’s...difficult to see him like that.”
“Yeah. I can imagine.” Haru said, remembering the scene of her father’s murder. The two stood in silence before the microwave dinged.
“Food’s ready.” Takemi said as she grabbed both plates and brought them to the couch. “Now, let’s see what there is to watch.” She began to flip through channels, searching for something the two of them could watch.
“-irefighters are still on the scene, trying to put out the blaze. Spider-Man was spotted on the scene rescuing civilians, but disappeared during his fight against Scorpion and another masked assailant. He was last seen heavily injured and still fighting the villains who have also disappeared.”
Takemi dropped the noodles in her mouth at the news.
“Ren…” Haru said weakly. She turned to Tae, fear in her eyes, “He’ll be okay, right? This is normal for you guys...right?”
“...Yeah, he’ll be alright.” Tae assured the girl, masking her own uncertainty. She no longer had a clinic in which to treat him, and he looked pretty exhausted when she saw him earlier today. Fear crept up her spine as her thoughts raced. “He’ll be okay.” She said, more to herself than Haru.
“He has to be.”
[104]
Ren awoke to a loud popping noise and a sharp pain in his side. As he let out a cry of pain and tried to move, he felt his arms being pushed down to his sides. His other senses gradually returned to him and he slowly became aware of his surroundings. There was a light bulb just above him and he seemed to be strapped to a wooden table by leather belts.
“Hold him still! I can’t do this if he’s moving around like that!” A female voice yelled from somewhere.
“I’m trying! He’s really strong though!” A male voice yelled back.
“Where am I!? Who are you!?” Ren yelled as he continued to struggle.
“Calm down!” The female voice responded angrily. “We’re trying to help you! But we can’t if you won’t lie still!” As she said this, Ren heard another popping noise and felt the pain in his side once again.
“Agh! What are you doing!?” He yelled, trying to pull free, but he felt too weak, too exhausted to break free.
“I’m stapling your wounds shut. We don’t have time for stitches.” Another pop and more pain. “Sorry, but if I gave you any painkillers, you’d probably die. I need you to stay conscious for me, alright?"
Not waiting for a response, the woman continued to staple his side. From there, Ren’s recollection of events became blurry, going in and out of consciousness as the people around him continued to work on him. When he finally came to again, he felt cold, he looked around, realizing that he was no longer on the table, he was now sitting in a leather armchair. As he tried to turn his head, there was a crunching sound next to his ears.
“You shouldn’t move too much. You’re still recovering.” A voice said.
Turning his eyes to the source, Ren saw a middle-aged woman with black hair and brown eyes. She was dressed casually, sitting on a folding chair across from him.
“W-Where am I?” He asked, jaw shivering from the cold.
“You’re in my apartment. Don’t touch the bags of ice.” She said, as Ren began to reach for his head. “You have a cerebral edema, probably from your fall. You need the ice to keep your brain from swelling.”
“W-Who are y-you?”
“My name is Sayoko Uehara. I’m a nurse at a local hospital. And you sir, are Spider-Man.”
Suddenly, Ren realized something, he reached up to his face. “M-My mask!”
“Relax. So I saw your face, it’s not a big deal. I still have no clue who you are.” The nurse dismissed his concerns.
Ren turned his gaze downward and noticed his suit was gone, leaving him in his boxer briefs. When Sayoko saw him notice this, she immediately jumped on the defensive.
“Hey, you were dying and I needed to operate on you! I’m not some pervert!”
Ren rolled his eyes, though immediately regretted it as his head flashed in pain. “It’s fine, I’m more used to this than you’d think.” He realized what that could imply and rephrased. “Being operated on, I mean. I try not to make a habit of waking up near naked in strangers’ houses.”
“I can tell. Your body looks like a used training dummy med students practice on. I’m honestly shocked you’re still alive, much less leaping across rooftops. At this point I’d say you’re nearly 20% scar tissue.”
Ren ran his hand over the staples on his side, holding together a wound nearly 5 inches in length. On his chest, there was a large patch taped right over his heart.
“One of your super powers must be insane luck. You got shot through your chest and the bullet missed your heart by less than an inch. If I’d operated on you a minute later than I did, you would’ve died.”
“How did you find me anyway? I don’t remember anything after falling off the roof.”
Sayoko crossed her legs as she recalled the story. “I was standing outside of my apartment building watching the fire when some fat guy in a bathrobe came around asking if there were any doctors in the crowd. When I asked him what for, he led me to a dumpster in an alley. That’s when he showed me you.” She looked over to the kitchen table. “He carried you up here and put you on that table and held you down while I operated on you. I guess you owe him your life as much as me.”
Ren had a feeling he knew who that man was, but didn’t comment on it. “So when do you think I can go?”
“Well, normally when a patient comes in with life threatening injuries, we tend to keep them a few days for monitoring. But I think we can both agree that you’re no normal patient. I’d say to give it a few hours and if you don’t pass out anymore or y’know, die, you can leave.”
“Great...Um, do you have any clothes I can put on?”
Several hours later, as the sun rose over the city. Sojiro yawned as he began his usual walk from his house to the coffee shop. Every day this walk seemed longer and longer, maybe that was just the arthritis setting in.
Getting old sucked.
As he stood in front of the doorway, fiddling with his keys, he was surprised when it was already unlocked. “Ren? Are you in here?”
“Over here.” A hand weakly raised from one of the booths.
The cafe owner walked over to the booth and found his apprentice lying on his side. Ren’s choice of attire was...questionable, to say the least. Wearing a pair of sweatpants that read ‘JUICY’ on the butt and a pink shirt that said ‘Ask me about my feminist agenda.’ Sojiro didn’t exactly understand what any of that meant, but he chalked it up to kids these days.
“Rough night?” He asked.
“Yeah, real rough.”