Insignificant Parker

"Go, Peter! Confess to Mary!"

From the street corner nearby, Ned poked out half his chubby face, anxiously watching Peter stand there dumbfounded and at a loss as he kept quietly cheering him on.

"Don't waste your breath. With Peter being such a coward, he probably can't even manage a complete sentence in front of Mary."

Craft crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, sneering.

Things unfolded just as Craft had said. After stammering for quite a while, Peter finally calmed down.

"N-No, that voice just now was one of Craft's pranks!"

Peter frantically waved his hands as he explained himself to Mary Jane, who was leaning both hands on the windowsill with a radiant smile.

"Although I have no idea how he did it, it really wasn't me!"

"Craft?"

After listening to Peter's explanation with a smile, Mary brushed aside her fiery red hair, the smile on her face growing even brighter. Because of Aunt May and Peter, she was fairly familiar with Craft as well. Especially since Craft occasionally used her name as an excuse to tease Peter, and rather than getting angry, Mary found it very amusing.

Mary Jane did have some affection for Peter Parker, but his timid personality displeased her greatly. Her childhood experiences had left her deeply insecure. No matter how outstanding Peter was, as long as he remained like this, Mary could never become his girlfriend.

That was also why, when Craft used her to tease Peter, not only did she not get angry, she would sometimes deliberately play along.

"Yes, him!"

Peter nodded frantically, then finally remembered to take the opportunity to invite Mary Jane to Aunt May's birthday party.

"Actually, today is Aunt May's birthday. He came to invite you to her birthday party for me."

Unfortunately, his timing could not have been worse.

"So if he hadn't come to pull that prank, you weren't planning to tell me at all?"

Mary Jane frowned and put on an angry expression, though she was actually somewhat upset. Regardless of her relationship with Peter, she had always respected Aunt May as an elder. She did not want to miss her birthday party for such a reason.

"Ah... no... I just... temporarily forgot to tell you. I was originally planning to come over again before the party started..."

In his panic, Peter blurted out an extremely perfunctory lie full of holes, making Mary Jane even more displeased.

"I understand. I'll change and head over."

Mary's face turned cold. Leaving behind a bewildered Peter, she stepped away from the window and returned to her room.

"Ah!"

Seeing Mary disappear from the window while Peter lowered his head dejectedly, Ned, who had not heard their conversation, knew Peter must have chickened out again. He punched the wall in frustration.

"What a perfect opportunity! How could Peter just let it slip away?"

As he spoke, he ran toward Peter, who was dragging his feet back.

"You idiot! That was such a great chance! Why didn't you confess to Mary while you had the chance?"

"Ned?"

Peter, who had been staring at the ground, raised his head. Seeing his friend glaring at him irritably, he scratched his head in confusion before belatedly realizing.

"You saw everything!"

Thinking of how embarrassing he must have looked in front of his friend, Peter panicked. But he quickly became dejected again, because something else upset him even more.

"I think I made Mary angry..."

"How did you manage that?"

Ned gasped, utterly amazed by Peter.

Craft, who arrived a step behind Ned, was just as awestruck. He had noticed that Mary had some feelings for Peter, which was why he had teased him again and again. Logically, even if Peter had not taken the chance to confess, Mary should not have gotten angry. If she got upset over things like that, Peter would have angered her to death long ago.

"I don't understand why either..."

Peter scratched his hair in frustration and told Ned every last detail of his earlier conversation with Mary.

Ned: "..."

"You could've just said you had originally come to notify Mary, and I cut you off to use it for a prank..."

Craft, following behind them, was speechless. He rolled his eyes and complained.

That gave Peter quite a fright.

"Craft? When did you get here?!"

Shaking his head helplessly, Craft had nothing left to say to such an idiot. He walked past Peter and Ned toward the Parker house.

"..."

Peter understood that he had said something stupid. After falling silent for a moment, he finally remembered to settle the score with Craft.

"Wait! You tricked me again!"

Peter took two quick steps to catch up with Craft, grabbed his shoulder, and yanked him back.

"I was clearly creating an opportunity for you. You were the one too gutless to seize it."

Craft shook off Peter's hand with a look of utter disdain.

"I don't need you to create opportunities for me!"

Peter stubbornly retorted.

"Oh, Peter, forget it. If it weren't for Craft, you wouldn't even dare speak to Mary."

Yet Ned, his friend, chose this moment to twist the knife.

"If you rely on yourself, you'll never have a chance with Mary Jane in this lifetime."

"Hey! Ned!"

"Yelling at me won't help. Admit it, Peter. You're a coward whenever you're in front of Mary."

"It's not like he's particularly brave at any other time."

Craft curled his lip and mocked him.

"Oh no, I just... I just wasn't ready..."

Peter had no interest in bickering with Craft right then.

"If you keep getting ready, Mary will become someone else's girlfriend. I heard Flash has been courting Mary hard lately."

After Ned said that, Peter became even more depressed. He had heard about it too, but considering the gap between himself and Flash Thompson, Peter had absolutely no confidence that he could win the girl.

"Hey, Peter, would you be interested in going to a movie with me next weekend?"

Just as Peter grew despondent over Thompson, Mary Jane's voice suddenly rang out beside him, instantly perking him up.

"I'm interested! Very interested!"

Overjoyed, Peter spun around, but Mary was nowhere to be seen. All he saw was that brat Craft holding up a small loudspeaker and grinning mischievously at him.

"Then I'll leave the movie tickets to you. I want to see the newest Nightmare on Elm Street!"

Craft continued teasing Peter in Mary's voice.

Meanwhile, Ned was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

"Craft!!!"

At that moment, Peter finally understood exactly what Craft had used to imitate his voice.

What an interesting invention. I wonder how it worked.

As Peter chased after Craft, he thought to himself that despite being filled with rage, he was still extremely interested in the little loudspeaker in Craft's hand.

Although Peter was several years older than Craft, Craft had adjusted his Power-Enhancing Shoes long ago. With Peter's weakling stamina, there was no way he could catch him. After Craft fled back to the Parker house, with Aunt May and Uncle Ben favoring him, Peter had no way to deal with Craft at all.

Before long, the changed Mary Jane arrived at the Parker house as well. Fortunately, America was not particularly strict about bringing gifts, or else Mary, having received the invitation only now, would have had no time to prepare one.

Even so, she did not give Peter Parker a pleasant look. Until the party ended, she barely paid him any attention, leaving Aunt May and Uncle Ben to shake their heads helplessly.

After the cheerful birthday party ended, Craft's life returned to peace once more. With Martin Lee away from home, he could go to Fatty Liao's every day for delicious food, and life could not have been more comfortable. The only thing troubling him was that his dream technology had hit a slight bottleneck.

Because Craft could not control what he dreamed about, gaps had appeared in many areas of his technical knowledge. Even though he could study on his own while awake, he could not obtain many of the relevant textbooks and materials.

And many things Craft was currently capable of making either required equipment he lacked, materials he did not have, or were simply too dangerous.

Just as Craft was wondering whether he should take the chance to rest for a while, new figures appeared in his dreams again.

"This isn't scientific..."

Craft jolted awake from bed once again, then clutched his head and began questioning his life.

This time, another japanese person had appeared in his dream. Like Professor Agasa, her name was simply "Doctor." Judging from the technology she displayed in the dream, she fully deserved the title of Dr. Shinonome.

But the problem was...

What the hell was with her being only eight years old?

Were elementary school students in Japan trying to defy heaven?!

Shinichi Kudo, that young detective he had only heard of but never met, was already outrageous enough. But an eight-year-old little girl like Dr. Shinonome building an intelligent robot indistinguishable from a human all by herself was far too unrealistic, wasn't it?!

Craft had been rather pleased with himself after mastering quite a bit of technology through his dreams, but after seeing the absurdly gifted little Dr. Shinonome, he had truly been dealt a blow.

"I must be dreaming... no, wait! I am dreaming... so it's just a dream. Then it's fine!"

Craft was so shaken that his thoughts had become muddled. In the end, he fooled himself into lying back down, pretending nothing had happened.

When he woke again, Craft had completely accepted the fact that he was inferior to an eight-year-old little girl. Only then did he have the leisure to recall every detail of Dr. Shinonome building robots in his dream.

Then he realized...

"With my skills, I think I can make one too!"

Craft immediately became excited.

A robot nearly indistinguishable from humans in both appearance and behavior could actually be built using such a pile of relatively simple technology. Dr. Shinonome had to be, like Professor Agasa, some kind of unscientific scientist. And if he could truly replicate such a robot, that would prove his dreams did far more than simply impart knowledge.

If he could replicate such strange science, then could magic and Immortal Arts really be far away?

Craft could not help but drift into fantasy.