Chapter 23
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...
[Peter Parker's POV]
As I continued scrolling through the feed, I came across someone's quick pencil sketch.
Spider-Man was inside a big glass jar, and White Tiger was sitting on top of the lid.
Okay, that's funny; I'll save it.
'I wonder how soon old JJ will label Tiger as a racist? She's White! And under that suit, she's white too.'
"Ding"
It turned out I had been sitting on the web for so long that I was only brought back to reality by a text from Cindy asking.
"Where are you?"
I had no choice but to reply.
"I'll be out soon."
I grabbed my suit and sprayed it from my belt.
Unfortunately, nothing supernatural happened on patrol.
We significantly subdued some drug addicts and beat up a gang that was smashing a poor car with a guy inside it with bats.
We managed to save him from the beating but not from the loan payments on the damaged car that the unfortunate victim was mumbling about.
I must admit that the most exhausting part was searching for those incidents.
After remembering my previous idea, I think it would be nice to get a police radio and tune into their frequency, but where would I get one?
I don't want to be judged by people for attacking law enforcement and stealing their stuff.
Hmm... well, whatever, I'll figure it out later, and there's still time ahead. I think Gwen might be able to help because her dad is a real captain.
'Though, if I think about it, I could tune into their frequency with a regular radio receiver if I understand how their system works correctly. However, wait a second!'
I stopped myself.
'I should remind myself that well-trained people can handle most criminals. Moreover, I'm not a watchdog and don't plan on chasing every criminal around.'
'I'll take care of supervillains and those who slip under their radar while they go out and earn their bread and butter. As far as I'm concerned, that's a fair division of labor. From each according to their ability and all that, right?'
After finishing the patrol, we went our separate ways. This time, I brought the spray can to avoid sexual tension between us.
Eh, maybe a little, but perhaps I was just imagining things.
"Though, it seems we're getting used to each other even without the sprayer. It seems the hormones are calming down after all."
Of course, I didn't want to do all of these nightly patrols.
I wanted a fight with a supervillain. I wanted the adrenaline pumping through my veins and my heart racing.
Sadly, the daily grind of a hero isn't always filled with thrilling events.
It seems that Spider-Man isn't needed much in this city, but I'm not really trying that hard either.
I didn't feel like I was being watched, so I was able to get into my room without any problems.
It's back to school tomorrow, and I really missed it.
It mainly was Jessica—well, and Miss Octavius too. Even though she sometimes seemed a bit creepy, she was surprisingly nice to me.
So everything was fine as long as she wasn't slicing up people and talking to her mechanical tentacles.
This time, the night passed without nightmares or other horror, but there was a nagging feeling in my chest.
The bad weather that day, with a gray sky and light rain, seemed to be a sign of something bad to come.
I pondered what could be causing this while gulping down Aunt May's oatmeal, trying not to pay attention to the taste.
Actually, the porridge wasn't that bad; I just wasn't a fan of that particular grain.
On the bus, I suddenly remembered forgetting to do my homework. I had gotten out of the habit of it. I had to quickly write something in my notebooks.
By the way, Cindy was sitting next to me this time since Jessica wasn't on the bus.
She was clearly doing it just to annoy me because it was hard to discreetly use the pheromone neutralizer on the school bus.
It was as if she was deliberately provoking me every time…
The first lesson was history.
Peter wasn't that good at it, and I was even worse since I had originally studied in a completely different country, let alone a different world.
After quickly rereading the necessary paragraphs, I felt educated and prepared.
Everything seemed to be going well.
Flash was ignoring me, just like his friends.
MJ waved at me cheerfully, and I nodded in response.
However, she wasn't wearing the amulet, or it was probably hidden somewhere under her clothes.
After all, Marvel has all sorts of magic, artifacts, grimoires, and so on.
So why not a magical amulet?
I thought I'd read something about a White Tiger, but she was actually a woman tiger, and she had serious mental issues because of that.
Returning to our sheep, Liz sitting next to MJ
Liz was glaring at me threateningly from under her brow.
'Why are you staring? I didn't do anything to you. Everyone saw that it was you who drunkenly tried to make peace with me.'
Apparently, she'd already been kicked out of Flash's group.
She had done a hundred times less than Thompson, but humiliation from cute girls still sometimes hurt Peter's self-esteem.
However, she was right about one thing; it couldn't be called outright bullying, but I'm not defending her.
She's a purebred bitch and enjoys it.
The most important thing was that Jessica wasn't at school at all.
She may have gotten sick. I'll call her later to ask how she's feeling, or I'll text her.
Cindy also noticed the absence of the gloomy Jessica and sat down next to me.
Well, that's not a bad company.
Suddenly, our homeroom teacher walked into the history classroom, her face grim, and my gut felt that bad things were about to happen again.
She informed us that our classmate, Jessica Campbell, along with her family, had been in an accident.
She was the only survivor of the crash and was currently in a coma in some New York hospital.
This sad event happened on Saturday.
That was the day of the trip to Disney World.
Damn!
A phone fell from someone's hand with a loud thud, and everyone turned toward the sound.
It was Jessica's shocked friend, Elizabeth Brant.
Clearly, this was unexpected and unpleasant news for her as well.
"Shit... I just knew it. I really knew..."
I propped my head up with my hand.
"Let me guess. It was that truck from Ajax Atomic Labs? It must have been..."
"Oh... But at least Jessica survived, right?"
Cindy awkwardly said.
"She survived, but she's in a coma..."
I knew little about that state, but it seemed like I'd have to study it closely.
'I don't know how she woke up from the coma in the canon, but waiting for an unknown amount of time is not an option. Though what can I even do?'
It felt like such a crappy situation.
I felt so sorry for her, and no one understands better than I do what it means to lose everything, even if not the same situation.
It's a shame I couldn't go with her back then. I don't feel any guilt about it, but... it's just not good that someone I liked got into such a situation.
I need to visit her, assess her condition, and maybe help somehow.
After all, Jessica is a future superhero and the only one who liked Peter as just a skinny nerd.
I can't just leave this girl to fate, but who am I kidding? I could, but I won't.
"This is a cannon event, right? Fuck that canon, it's just inhumane. I didn't know how she would get her powers, but for it to be like this... it's cruel. The rest of the canon in her comics needs to be cut off at the root. That purple freak Kilgrave isn't going to live. He just doesn't know it yet."
I scowled but swallowed that news, continuing to make noise in my usual rhythm until the bell rang for class.
What do they care about a classmate who got hurt, someone they probably never even spoke to?
If it were me, Cindy, or any other introvert freak, everyone would probably be indifferent. But Flash would probably be mad that his punching bag is in a coma.
'Yeah... reading about tragedies in the news and knowing something like this actually happened to someone you know is a huge difference.'
Propping my head up with my hand, I tried to figure out if this was somehow my fault.
I had skimmed through the comics "Alias" and "The Pulse" about Jessica Jones... and I remembered very little.
I could blame myself for not being the smartest person who got isekai'd here, someone who would remember them all.
However, what could I do?
Nothing.
...
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