The Shocker

Takuya Yamashiro, wearing his red and blue armor, walked through a rural part of Kuinzu with his sack of belongings hanging from his back. People were glaring at the boy with eyes that told many different perspectives. Some feared the boy, mistaking him for the hooligans running around causing trouble at the local businesses, whereas others felt disgusted by him.

Walking around with a blade was illegal during this time, however, this law was not enforced in the slightest by any law enforcement. The only thing that stopped people from openly carrying was the fact that troublemakers would immediately start trouble with anyone having a blade by their hip.

Takuya planned on becoming a wandering swordsman, trekking from town to town whilst acting as a vigilante of sorts. The reason he chose to help people was because of a saying his uncle used to always tell him, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

Because of this, Takuya promised his uncle that if he were to ever find the Spider Spirit, he would use that power to eliminate all evil from this world, no matter what it took. Wanting to make that goal a reality, the boy started from his homeland of Kuinzu and planned on traveling throughout all of Japan.

As the wandering ronin strolled through the city, walking past the onlookers, a female voice spoke to the boy behind him, stopping him in his tracks. "There you are! Shocker! You murderer!" she shouted, gathering everyone's attention on the streets.

'Shocker?' Takuya thought to himself, never having heard of such a silly moniker in his eighteen years of living.

Takuya slowly turned around, finding a young woman around the same age as him standing in the center of the road, pointing her blade directly at him. Her hair was jet black and smooth, stopping just before her shoulders. She wore a red mask over her face and was wearing a black and white kimono.

'A woman warrior?' Takuya thought to himself. 'She's adorable too.'

"I don't know who this 'Shocker' is, but I'll have you know that I am not him." He told her, standing with a hand on his hip while his other held onto his bag of belongings. "And if you ask me, it's a really foolish name, I'd never call myself something so stupid."

The girl's eyebrows furrowed, finding the boy's carefree attitude to be somewhat bizarre. 'This man killed twenty people yesterday morning? Impossible.' The young woman thought to herself, referring to the Shocker's last known massacre.

"Explain the costume then! He was described wearing a mask with a red outfit!"

"You think I own the color red, lady?" Takuya quipped, still standing in his carefree stance.

The young lady began growing more frustrated by the moment, feeling as if she were being mocked by the boy. 'He thinks this is a game? I'll show him what happens when you mess with the Tsuki clan.'

Dragging her blade into the dirt, the young lady dashed toward the wanderer, though he didn't move an inch as he stayed in the same pose, watching her continue to get closer. "Haaaaah!" the young woman of the Tsuki clan screamed as she raised her blade high in the air, delivering a downward slash aimed directly at Takuya.

Her blade could be heard cutting through the air, she was clearly highly trained, though the blade didn't connect with a thing as Takuya simply dodged to the side. 'What!?' the young swordswoman thought to herself. She didn't even see the boy move at all he was so fast.

"Don't hurt yourself." Takuya spoke plainly, though his intentions were to tease her.

Gripping the blade tightly, the girl delivered another strike with her blade, this time aiming a horizontal strike at the boy's throat.

However, her eyes fox-like eyes widened upon seeing her blade stopped in its tracks by the boy using only his pointer finger and his thumb. "Are you done yet?" he asked her, growing bored of this fight that was nothing more than a waste of time for him.

Takuya had been training in swordsmanship ever since he was a child, having been taught by his late uncle, Benji. His training combined with his new abilities, namely his Spider-Sense, made it to where any normal person, regardless of their training, stood no chance of even landing a simple strike on him.

The girl tried her best to pry her sword from his grip, however, it did not budge due to his superhuman strength. "Unhand... my blade..." the girl spoke through her straining as her efforts of breaking free remained fruitless.

"Only if you promise to tell me what's going on. And that you'll stop trying to hit me." Takuya spoke to her like a disappointed older sibling or father, annoying the girl even further.

"Fine. Now release my blade." She commanded him. Takuya let go, allowing the girl to take her sword back and place it at her hip. She still maintained that pouty look on her face, looking to the side in order to avoid looking at the man in front of her.

"What's your name?" Takuya asked, noticing the moon crest on her kimono. "Tsuki?" he asked her. "Are you the daughter of the Tsuki clan?"

The young lady continued to plaster that angry look on her face before she spoke her name to the boy. "Chiaki Tsuki is my name." she told him reluctantly.

"Great. You mind telling me about this Shocker character, Miss Tsuki?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'm pretty good with a sword. You mentioned him being a murderer, so I wanted to help stop him before anyone else gets hurt."

Chiaki seemed reluctant to speak at first, however, based on the young man's skills, he seemed to be able to prove useful to her. "He's been going around robbing and killing people. He and his gang robbed my family and killed my brother."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Miss Tsuki. You notice any patterns? A specific time of the day maybe?" he asked her, feeling sorry for her loss. That explained why she was acting in such a way, and he completely understood her feelings.

"He's always spotted at sunrise, that's why I was looking for him just now." As Chiaki said this, the sound of people screaming could be heard in the distance.

Takuya's head turned slightly and his eyebrows frowned beneath his mask. 'Found you.' he thought to himself, knowing for sure that this must be who the girl was talking about.

In an instant, Takuya took off, leaving his satchel and the girl behind as he sprinted down the road at an inhuman speed. As he dashed toward his destination, he found himself approaching an intersection with a massive carriage crossing it.

Chiaki watched as the boy continued running full speed toward it before he lept up over twenty feet in the air and cleared it as if it were nothing to him. Chiaki was shocked, picking up the boy's belongings before chasing after him.

Inside a dojo, a man wearing red and yellow armor was seen walking toward the center of the room, approaching the presumed master of the dojo who was protecting his students behind him. "Who are you!?" the master demanded an answer, holding his blade in both hands while nervously standing his ground.

The man in front of him was tall and large, he also seemed to have shotgun barrels attached to his wrists. If that wasn't intimidating enough, the man had a group of lackeys behind him and outside of the building, all posing confidently and blocking the exits.

The man wearing the red and yellow armor laughed before proclaiming his name for all to hear. "Name's the Shocker. If you don't wanna get riddled with holes, tell me where you keep the goods."

"We have nothing to give you, Mr. Shocker. Now leave!" The master spoke as if he had any power over the hulking man in front of him.

Shocker scoffed before pointing both fists at the man and clenching his fists.

𝘽𝙖𝙣𝙜!

From his wrists, the Shocker released two shotgun blasts, hitting the swordsman in the body and killing him instantly. "Sensei!" his students screamed out to him, still too afraid to move as the Shocker glared at them from beneath his mask.

Standing in the same spot, the Shocker looked down at his now steaming wrists as the revolving cylinders rotated around them, locking into place and loading shells that were ready to be fired.

"If you don't wanna end up like him. Tell me where the-" Before Shocker could interrogate the teens, the sounds of one of his own men screaming interrupted him.

They turned around to see a single blade protruding from the other side of one of the sliding doors and through one of the thug's arms before the blade was pulled back outside. The thug continued to scream, holding onto his arm as he bled all over the wooded floors.

"What the-" Before anyone could say another word Takuya, wearing his red and blue armor, busted through one of the doors, kicking the injured thug in the head and knocking him out cold. Two more thugs stepped forward, attempting to attack Takuya with a pincer attack, coming from both sides.

Takuya dodged, causing one of the men to nearly slice his teammate in half. Using his fast reflexes, Takuya caught the sword with his fingers and deflected it back toward its user, knocking him out with the reverse side of his blade. Still in the same motion, Takuya then elbowed the other in the face, knocking him out cold.

"Hey!" Takuya shouted. "Are you the Shocker!?" He looked over at the dead master, frowning beneath his mask before once again asking his question, this time with more fury in his voice.

"ARE YOU THE SHOCKER!?" He clamored, though his young voice didn't scare the man in the slightest.

"And what if I am?" The Shocker taunted.

"Whether you are or aren't, what you've done here will not be forgiven." Takuya slid his foot backward, getting into a ready stance with his sword, prompting the Shocker to continue to mock him from a distance.

"Yeah? Some kid is gonna give me punishment?" The Shocker laughed, finding it hilarious that a mere child of all people was standing up to him. "How about I riddle you with holes, just like the old man!"

Shocker started to lift his arms, preparing to point them at the boy and fire his shotgun wrists at him, turning him into a bullet bag. However, Takuya dashed over toward the murderer at an inhuman speed, and before the Shocker could even aim at the boy, Takuya sliced both of his arms off in one swift strike.

The Shocker was shocked to see that both of his wrists had been cleanly removed from his arms, looking down at them as blood spewed out from the cuts. "M-my-" he didn't scream, he didn't shout, he was far too stunned to do so as he fell to his knees, still looking down at where his hands used to be.

As soon as his knees hit the ground, Takuya took his blade and sliced the Shocker's head off in one clean cut, killing him, and absorbing his soul into the Spider Spirit's blade. The ronin then flicked his blade to the side, flicking the blood off of it and onto the Shocker's corpse before slowly placing it back in its sheath behind his back.

As his blade clicked into place, Chiaki Tsuki stood at the front of the dojo, looking forward with wide eyes at the mayhem before her. She observed as Takuya walked over toward the children, kneeling in front of them and speaking to them softly, trying to comfort them for their loss. Takuya, noticing the girl standing behind him, got back up on his feet before approaching her.

"The Shocker is no more." Takuya told her as he slid his feet back into his sandals at the dojo entrance. It was a sign of disrespect to wear shoes inside such a sacred place, so he removed them before entering.

Chiaki said nothing, just looking at the boy as she held onto his belongings against her chest. She wasn't afraid of him, far from it, she was astonished, enamored even. Her emotions were so strong at the moment, she couldn't even bring herself to speak.

"Oh, thanks for bringing my belongings." He told her, grabbing his satchel from her hands and throwing it over his back.

Takuya walked away from the girl, hopping and skipping over the dozens of unconscious thugs he left outside of the dojo before he'd entered. He took them all out so quietly, no one inside noticed.

As the boy strode away, the cloth over his armor swayed in the wind, showing that spider-shaped insignia on his back to Chiaki and the children of the dojo.

From this moment on, that symbol would slowly become something known throughout the entirety of Kuinzu, and maybe even the entire nation of Japan.