"you okay?"

the voice, deep and a touch cheeky, cut through your daze.

freshly washed clothes, the faint scent of detergent, and... a blue costume?

wait. did you know this guy?

Kyoto had recently gained a peculiar hero, a "spiderman" of sorts, who'd swoop in whenever trouble arose.

the students at your new school, where you'd arrived as a foreign exchange student, buzzed with gossip about him. you'd dismissed it as overblown, a childish fantasy. Kyoto wasn't exactly a hotbed of danger. however, the chatter had been persistent, and so had the attention you'd received since arriving. especially from one student: a man with striking white hair and piercing blue eyes, relentlessly trying to befriend you. satoru, he called himself. annoyingly persistent, but undeniably sharp.

and now, here was this spiderman, his voice oddly familiar. a disconcerting thought flickered: could they be... the same person?

"miss?" the masked man's gentle voice broke through your thoughts. "you shouldn't be here. do you work here? it's really late."

right. you'd been working a late shift at the cafe near school. how had you ended up entangled in this? more importantly, how had you ended up face-to-face with a curse spirit? you'd been mere seconds from being its next snack if this spiderman hadn't intervened.

and he was carrying you. bridal style.

ugh. why does he sound so concerned? and put me down! this is humiliating. you thought.

meanwhile, under the mask, satoru was practically vibrating with suppressed glee. contact! communication! he was finally getting through to you. was this a dream?

"do i need to take you home?" he asked, his voice laced with a concern that felt both genuine and... oddly playful.