Throughout my life, I have never been able to figure out where events would lead me.
First, at the age of four, I was told that I would never have a Quirk and that, therefore, I could never become a hero, that mine it was an impossible dream.
A dream in which, despite everything, I continued to believe, to hope …
… Until, exactly ten years later, the meeting a dying woman in an alley changed everything.
***
“H-Hold on m-miss, I … I’m calling an ambulance, y-you'll be fine ...”
“Dear lord, you’re … you’re so young …” the long-haired white woman in a red costume coughs up blood.
She didn't look like any of the heroes he knew.
In the center of her chest was the icon of a spider whose legs stretched along her shoulders and abdomen.
She wore red reflective lenses, one of which, the left one, was broken revealing the eye hidden under it.
An eye with a dull iris, a blind eye ...
“… I'm so sorry we were meant to meet like this”
“I-It’s okay, I'm sure it's not your fault, j-just don't worry, I …" Izuku's hands are shaking as he try to dial the emergency number.
The woman's blood had stained his middle school uniform.
All around that alley there were obvious signs of a struggle and Izuku had never been so terrified.
As far as he knew the Villain who had done this might still be around ...
“N-No, no ambulance” the woman orders weakly, grabbing his wrist with which he held the phone.
“W-What ...? But you need help!!”
The woman shakes her head.
“It's too late for me dear, it's not to save me that fate has brought you here ..." she says “You … you don't know me, I hope you'll forgive me for what I'm … I’m about to do ... my last sin, for the sake of the web …”
“W-What are you t-talking about ...?” Izuku stares at her like she's crazy.
What was she talking about? What sin? What did she want to do? Why didn't she want him to call for help?
“I'm sorry, ... that the last thing you’ll see is a stranger dying in front of you, but ... this legacy cannot die with me, it’s too important, the WEB is too important”
"L-Legacy? Web?! What …?!” Izuku gasps as the woman's bloodied hands lands on his eyes.
“It’s time for you to see with NEW EYES, Midoriya Izuku …”
***
I was blind in front my own future.
Yet now it's the only thing I'm allowed to see.
The Web of Life.
Having spent most of my childhood and adolescence admiring heroes, I guess it's normal that my first vision as "Lord Web" was my rescue of a guy who wanted to become just like them.
The Sludge Villain was about to kill my childhood friend, Bakugou Katsuki.
At that precise moment I still didn't know what exactly was happening, about the role I had just been assigned.
I was still getting used to my blindness when I saw it, about a week away.
My eyes no longer saw the present reality, but thousands and thousands of possible FUTURE realities.
All threads of an enormous spider's web that intertwined with each other in a constantly changing design.
A web that HAD to be preserved.
Yes, sometimes I also say things like that, it's part of the character I guess.
But the point is, that day I finally understood that being a hero wasn’t my destiny …
… My role in the Web was another.
Even now I don't know what happened to that woman's body.
When I woke up in the hospital they told me that they found me unconscious in the alley, alone, my optic nerves burned with no possibility of saving them.
They took it for granted that I must have been the victim of some villain …
Only I knew the truth.
My forerunner, Madame Web, she had taken my sight but she had left me something in return.
She gave me the possibility of changing the course of destiny, laying the foundations for a better future and this is only one aspect.
It could be said that I have a Quirk now, although the term "Quirk" in my case seems an understatement.
I got stronger, faster, I can stick to surfaces and climb walls easily without the need for any type of equipment, just my hands and feet.
I can manipulate the molecules of my surroundings to create a web-like substance.
***
A figure moved nimbly in the dark of the night, leaping from the roof of one building to another, watching over the city.
Guided by the strings of a giant spider web that only he was able to see.
He wore a tight black kevlar jumpsuit under an elegant black trench coat slightly open on the chest to reveal a dark green spider icon. Black Leather gloves and tactical boots of the same color.
Thick ribbons made of tattered webs were wrapped around his arms, the ends of which swayed freely in the wind, along with numerous threads of the same material that "dirty" the trench coat.
Kind of when you left an object standing on an ornament for years and found it covered in webs.
His face was hidden by a black hood mask with large green reflective lenses.
The final touch was a fedora hat, also black.
He patrolled almost every night, following the clues the web gave him, going where he was needed.
"N-No, leave me alone!! Leave me ... !! HELP!!" it is the voice of an adult woman, frightened and trembling.
And for a moment Lord Web sees it, the thread of her life in the web.
Saki Miwa, is a mother of a family, two children, her husband is currently in prison for participating in a fight with the illegal use of his Quirk and this forced her to find a part-time job to support herself and her children.
That night she left her shift at work later than usual.
Some streets are more dangerous than others at a certain time.
It was destiny that she was attacked by what anyone would consider a common Villain of series C, but who in reality, perhaps, is more desperate than her.
“Just give me the bag damn it!! And nobody gets hurt!!”
Oroku Mashimi lost his job a week earlier, and not because of some lack of him but simply because the company where he worked had found someone else with a Quirk better suited than his to carry out the task in terms of speed. and earn.
He wasn't the only worker to suffer from that choice.
Mashimi has a wife, a few months old son to support, he is trying to find a new job but he needs the money now and he can't wait.
Two lives, two threads of Web that intertwine with each other.
One of the two destined to break forever because no hero was patrolling that precise stretch of road at that precise moment ...
Mashimi is tense, frustrated, he's not a evil person but he's desperate, nobody wants to help him and he doesn't know what to do.
His Quirk allows him to generate weak bursts of electricity from his hands producing a teser-like effect, he is about to use it on the woman to force her to give him the bag, not knowing that even a weak discharge like his on her can prove fatal.
Miwa suffers from a heart disease that in normal conditions would not be a problem but in this case ...
A glowing green cobweb thread attaches to the man's back.
Lord Web gives a violent tug.
The "Villain" falls to the ground with a cry, hitting his head against a garbage can.
Miwa doesn't know what happened, nor does she stop to find out, she just runs away.
Mashimi is stunned by the blow but still manages to get up.
“W-What the hell ...?!”
"Why don't you take off that balaclava and go home to your son, Oroku Mashimi?" Lord Web moves on all fours along the wall, placing himself in a spot where Mashimi can see him.
The light from the street lamp is not particularly strong but it is enough to make him distinguish the outlines.
As well as the large green reflective teardrop lenses that observe him from the dark.
Mashimi stiffens at those words "W-What ...?! Who are you?! H-How do y-you my name?" now he is visibly scared "A hero?!"
"Not exactly ..."
The answer does not make the man feel better, on the contrary ...
"... Are you ... Are you a vigilante?"
"Who I am doesn't matter, what matters is that you must come back home and resist for another couple of days”
“Resist?! What the hell are you talking about -...?!”
“The electric company, Tatsuma" Lord Web lets himself fall from the wall, landing crouched on the dumpster "Exactly in two days, it will open job advertisements for people with your qualifications, there you will find a new job”
Mashimi blinked in disbelief “W-what? How do you know ...?”
“Make the right choice and I wont be forced to make one that I would not want to do" said that Lord Web leaves, shoots a thread of cobweb at the eaves of the next building and disappears into the darkness.
He's not worried that Mashimi might try to rob someone else that night, he already knows he won't.
He knows that he will be returning to his family, scared that he may have followed him and will not move for the next two days.
What he then decides to do will determine his fate.
***
I became a vigilante and for the first ten months things went well.
My poor mom knows nothing about my alter ego and it's better that way, at least for the moment.
She’s not ready yet, her heart cannot bear to know the truth.
When I told her I was going to enroll in the U.A. General Education course to study to become a diplomat with a major in international relations, I had never seen her so happy.
My dream of becoming a hero was definitively put aside and she was convinced that from now on I would be safe.
My blindness had been a bad blow to her, she couldn't bear to see me hurt again.
So I kept the truth to myself.
Mainly I dealt with minor crimes anyway, people that the law would have considered Villain but who basically weren't.
Lost souls, who were not lucky enough to know their future well in advance.
Otherwise, my work was limited to being an informer for the underground heroes.
I gave them information about future organized crime movements, dangerous villains, real threats, completely different from the little pickpockets or kids who for one reason or another had lost their way.
This gave me time to get used to my powers and role.
***
“… Good evening Eraserhead”
If the professional hero was surprised that the figure crouched on the ledge in front of him has noticed his presence even though he was in hiding, he makes sure not to show it when he comes out.
It had been a while that he had begun to take an interest in this mysterious and, above all, elusive vigilante about which strange rumors circulated underground.
It had taken him time but in the end he had managed to pinpoint the areas this guy, if any, used to hang around.
“Are you the one they call Lord Web?” the hero is cautious, he doesn't dare to let his guard down.
However he still doesn't use her Quirk on him ...
“That's the name, yes”
Lord web slowly stands up from the ledge, the green lenses of the mask fixed on Eraser.
“Didn't anyone tell you that vigilantes are illegal?” one of the Pro's hands holds the special scarf he wears around his neck.
He is ready to fight if necessary and Lord Web knows it.
"Are they? Even the informants?”
Eraser's gaze tapers under “Informants?”
“There is a warehouse a few blocks from here where, in a few hours, a meeting between two gangs of criminals will take place ...”
Eraser is surprised at how perfectly calm this Lord Web seems when most of the Villains in the underground, those few who know him, are afraid of him.
Afraid that he will steal their Quirks, leaving them helpless.
“... I can give you an address”
“Who tells me it's not a trap?”
“Nobody” Lord Web doesn't mind turning his back on him and Eraser, in spite of himself, is increasingly curious “But it's not that I'm telling you to go there alone, in fact I would advise you to take the Pro Hero Ingenium and the Pro Hero Miss Joke with you”
“That doesn't change the fact that it could be a trap”
“I'm afraid I have nothing beyond my word to offer you” Lord Web looks at nothing in front of him “It's up to you to decide, I'm only here to give ... suggestions”
“You know I can't let you go”
Lord Web gives a chuckle at that phrase.
“Oh, it will come the time you’ll see the face hidden under this mask, Eraserhead" he says cryptically "But it’is not tonight”
Eraser's attack would come unexpectedly for anyone, but not for him.
Lord Web simply steps aside, dodging the scarf “Not tonight” he repeats, a finger pressed on the lower side of the mask in the typical gesture of someone inviting silence.
Eraser blinks, this time his surprise is evident.
Lord Web knows it's because he tried to use his Quirk on him and it didn't work.
“I've heard rumors about you, they say you can see the future” Eraser's hair falls heavily on his face “Is it true? Is this your Quirk?”
"Go to this address, Eraserhead” the vigilante approaches handing him a piece of paper “And bring with you the heroes I told you, if you want to involve others you can do it but the two I told you ...”
Lord Web turns and walks towards the ledge.
“... They will be VITAL for this"
The hero takes a quick look at the address written on the paper, but when he looks up Lod Web is already gone.
A few hours later, the heroes manage to track down and arrest most of the members of two criminal gangs inside a warehouse.
The Pro Hero Ingenium saves Eraserhead's life by removing him at the last second from the trajectory of a stray bullet while the heroine Miss Joke manages to capture one of the gang leaders who was about to escape.
In that moment Eraserhead realizes that Web was right, his two colleagues had proved to be vital for him in that raid.
***
Without modesty I have to tell you that I think I have done a good job so far, however things are about to change ...
With the start of a new year at the U.A Heros school many things in the web began to change too fast for me to keep up.
I still see some things but others? It's like I'm blind again.
I can help some people prepare for what will happen, but there are some things of which I have no idea …
Then there are these two vermins, part of the reason Madame Web went to Japan in the first place.
One plays the mad scientist by transforming people into this monsters, this “Nomus”, who haven’t no more memories or conscience of themselves, nothing more than empty shells.
The other has been deceiving death for 400 years, stealing, killing, all of this for his mad pursuit of absolute power.
He took a child who just wanted to find relief from his pain and turned him into a killer, a tool for his revenge against his nemesi …
Both of them, in one way or another, broke the natural balance of things, creating gashes in the web.
Of course, these guys have their own motives for wanting to destroy the heroes society.
But that is not all …
There’s even something else at work here.
Something is reweaving the web by folding it to a new pattern, it's becoming a web of deception and, ultimately, death.
With a whole CLASS of future heroes at its center, along with THREE VILLAINS whose redemption could lead to the salvation of many innocent lives.
As sinister as this can sounds, these things fall within the domain of Lord Web, MY domain.
Like warning people and preparing them.
But these corrupted parts of the web keep to block key moments in the future, excluding me.
As if there is someone who knows that there is a spy seer somewhere out there.
I don't like it.
If either I can't see in the dark …
… How am I going to warn the heroes?
...T.B.C ...?
............................................