Chapter 80: Regret?

Bonus Chapter at 2.5k stones.

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...

"Today was quite the productive day indeed." John leaned into his chair to catch a quiet moment for himself.

Listening to the sweeping French horns and emotional strings that captured the scale and sorrow of the world of Princess Mononoke, he nodded to himself while imagining the scenes playing in his head.

After a while, he stood up and stretched his arms a bit.

Colleen was a bit competitive, but that’s good. John needed more experience against actual sword users.

Task Master was more into copying after all, and that didn’t exactly help against John’s type of fighters. It was honestly getting a bit stale fighting him over and over.

The difference in physical stats was a huge hurdle; that’s why John was looking into technical fighting styles. Sparring with Colleen also helped him improve his control over how much strength he could put into his punches.

That alone was a huge step forward. He had started to see the good points of improving his fighting skills, but within reason.

’It’s a bit uncanny how clear my head becomes in those moments now.’ He could only accept this with a shrug; at least it wasn’t a violent urge to rip someone to shreds.

Well, the bar itself wasn’t that high thanks to his experiences with the Hanma bloodline.

For now, he wanted to take a cold shower and get some rest. He had completed the first three volumes of Disastrous Life of Saiki K and needed to work on Fullmetal Alchemist from the next day.

’I hope the mutants can connect with Saiki at least.’ John was wondering how his current readers would react to that as he pushed open the door to his bathroom.

However, he stepped back and looked at the half-open window. He had made sure to close the window and draw the curtains as well. But these curtains were swaying with the languid night wind as someone slipped in.

And it wasn’t just anyone; it was Spiderwoman.

A very battered Spiderwoman. She collapsed to the floor the moment she entered. Her legs folded when they touched the floor.

John grabbed her before her head hit the floor. But her condition already looked serious enough. There were several cuts on her suit. And the patchwork of webbing used to cover the injuries had become bright red.

"Gwen?" He took off the half-torn mask and placed a finger beneath her nostrils.

Her breathing was short. She kept groaning with each rise and fall of her chest. Seemed like broken ribs and damage to her right lung were the problem.

How she got this injured and how she ended up here was a matter he didn’t care for at the moment. The Reversed Cursed technique was already running at full power before he even thought of it.

Because he couldn’t ask for her help with visualization, it cost him more energy, and his reserves were tanking fast. But since the positive energy kickstarted the healing process, Gwen’s own body started to aid him in the process.

The first thing he focused on was the damage to her lungs, then he moved to the spleen. By the time the numerous cuts on her body had closed, John should’ve been out of cursed energy three times over. But he already had half of his reserves.

It wasn’t that he got better at controlling it. The generation of cursed energy in his body had increased several times.

’To injure Gwen to this level, it isn’t really possible with her spider sense.’ The only way this happened was with numbers and making sure she had little time to defend herself.

John placed her on the bed for now and opened the curtains. Someone had followed her all the way here and was stalking the place. John opened the curtains after making sure they couldn’t see Gwen on the bed.

The person in question rushed away from the terrace of the building across the street the moment John met his eyes hidden behind a mask.

By the time he had leaned on the windowsill, his cursed energy was overflowing. He reached to the left to grab something and found a floppy disk.

His cursed energy covered the disk as John threw it after the running guy like a frisbee.

However, the one it was aimed for jumped off the terrace and started to glide. The floppy disk bounced off the metal wings, lodging into one of the feathers. It did nothing of substantial value.

Just that the CD wasn’t exactly a weapon. A sharp clap followed right after.

"What?!" Vulture was pulled back by his right wing as a foot crushed his right shoulder.

John, who was in his room a moment ago, now stood on his back. Vulture tried to slash at him, but he ripped his right wing off like it was made of actual feathers.

Losing his ability to fly, Vulture nosedived into an alley below. Bouncing between the emergency staircase like a pinball, he had little time to react and curled up in a ball. After cracking a few ribs on an outside AC unit, his body slammed onto a metal trash can and bags of garbage.

If it wasn’t for the reinforced suit and his experience, he would’ve died for sure. But the reason he didn’t die was quite different than what he thought.

’Who the fuck is that guy?’ Climbing out of the trash, Vulture groaned.

But the moment he took off his cracked glasses, he came face to face with the same guy he was wondering about.

John stood there like he had been waiting for hours. He wasn’t saying anything. He wasn’t moving or letting his Haki flow. He was just standing there.

It didn’t matter if the guy beneath the suit was an old man. And he didn’t care if he was quivering in his boots while holding his broken shoulder.

"W-Wait..." Adrian’s bald head became slick with cold sweat in an instant.

This guy, he was definitely involved with Spiderwoman since she entered his place. This anger was about her injuries for sure. He was cursing his luck for being assigned to follow her back.

Every cell in his body was telling him to just bow his head and comply, and he was already doing that like it was the most natural thing.

’Those eyes... they don’t belong on a human.’ He thought he had met the epitome of human malice in that prison, but this young guy in front of him was on a different level.

"I can tell you what happe—!" But before he could finish, John had gripped his face, making him look up.

"Did I ask something?" John plucked one of the metal feathers from Adrian’s left wing and studied the edge. "This thing is quite sharp; you use it in combat, right?"

Adrian shook his head as John sniffed the wing.

"Did you use it tonight too?" The second question got a frantic refusal.

Still, John could already smell the blood on the metal; it was Gwen’s.

’I am on the verge of doing something I might regret.’ John looked at the trembling old man as the steel crumbled inside his closing palm.

But maybe it was about time to make a choice.

***

It had been a little while since Gwen had learned about the gathering of villains under Doc Ock. Although she had first met them on her mission to find Kraven, they had been on her mind ever since.

It wasn’t until she joined SHIELD that she gained key information. Doc Ock had basically hired some security: Vulture, Rhino, Scorpion, and the dead Kraven, so he could build a fusion reactor.

Gwen went there as fast as she could to stop the unstable reactor before it could possibly destroy half of the city, and that resulted in an all-out fight.

’It wasn’t the smartest choice, but I got it done. Should’ve definitely waited for the SHIELD backup.’ Now rolling on the soft mattress, Gwen groaned.

Last night’s fight was already an afterthought; she was already dreading having to change her bedding because of the possible blood on it.

The property inspection was going to happen in a few days, so she had to make sure to get the mess sorted before that. Thankfully, her body didn’t ache as much as it usually did after such a hard beating; maybe she had become more resilient?

"Last night, an abandoned factory by the river collapsed after what could only be described as a terrorist attack." Triple J’s annoying voice echoed in her groggy head as she sat up on the bed, rubbing her eyes.

Why was the TV on? More than that, where was her suit? She was in a soft cotton hoodie on her body at this moment.

As she wiped the crusts on the corner of her eyes, Gwen’s blurry eyes regained focus on the one sitting by the bed. More than that, his hand was on hers this entire time.

"You are finally awake." John looked at her.

"...Yeah." A thousand thoughts ran through Gwen’s head at this moment.

The most important one being, how did she end up in John’s house? He didn’t kidnap her while she was out cold, right?

’Yeah, right, Genius.’ Her head turned into a mess; too many hits to the head do make one dumb indeed.

The answer was clear. Instead of her own house, like she usually did, she had crawled into his house half unconscious for some reason.

Why would she even do that? What was her brain even thinking? Was it even thinking?

"Earth to Gwen." His finger poked at her cheek as she noticed the concerned eyes. "All good?"

"Never been better." She smiled as his fingers swiped the unruly strands of her hair behind her ear, as the thumb slowly caressed her cheek.

"I’ll cook something for you. Take your time getting up." He stood up with a small smile.

As he walked to the kitchen, Gwen traced the place his thumb was. Watching him cook, she slipped into the bathroom and looked at her reddening face.

She had become used to waking up alone. Tending to her injuries after an uncomfortable and painful few hours of sleep. Making herself something that could be barely called a meal as her body still felt the aftereffects of the last fight.

But there wasn’t any of that today. Her injuries had already healed when she woke up. She didn’t jump out of the bed like a fish out of water after opening her eyes to change into new clothes. And for once, she had someone waiting for her when she opened her eyes after a tough night.

It reminded her of the night he forced her to rest. She hadn’t been able to forget that at all these days.

’I get why I ended up here.’