Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 9: Parkour

Shouta had never really understood the appeal of bars. He supposed that Yamada or Shirakumo probably would have dragged him along when they got old enough if they had actually started their own agency like they'd always planned, but...well, Shouta just thought it was irrational to dull his senses with alcohol and loud music when there was work that needed to be done.

Which was what brought him here, overlooking the bar district while partiers enjoyed the nightlife. Amplifier had only been out sick for a day or two, but since the last trigger incident had been in her territory, Shouta had asked for her permission to stick around and look for any leads. He'd been hanging around for almost two weeks and, while he'd managed to find a few small dealers, there hadn't been another major incident.

Shouta heard Amplifier's voice echoing from a few streets over and he sighed and started running in that direction. It was probably nothing she couldn't handle, but he may as well lend a hand as long as he didn't have any of his own leads to chase. As he got closer to the fight, however, he almost stopped in shock. He wasn't the only one who had shown up to the fight.

Crouching on the rooftop, eyes glued to the fight below, was Viridian. The kid had a small notebook out and Shouta wondered how he could even see what he was writing in the sparse light. It couldn't be good for his eyes. He could see the kid's lips moving as well, so he was probably muttering something, but the words were drowned out by the sound of aplifier's quirk.

The kid had also gotten some more gear, apparently, which alleviated some of Shouta's worries that Viridian wouldn't be able to defend himself. He had added a belt to his costume, which held his tin can and a couple...sticks? Hopefully they were more durable than the ones he'd tried to use last time Shouta had run into him. There was also a slingshot hanging from one of the loops, and Shouta nodded in satisfaction. At least the kid had enough sense to cover his long range defenses.

He decided he'd watched long enough, he should get Viridian to give him an overview of the situation, since he'd most likely been the one to lead Amplifier to the fight in the first place, "Does she need any help?"

Viridian yelped and clutched his notebook to his chest as he turned around with panic in his eyes. Shouta snorted, "Seriously kid? I would think a vigilante would have more situational awareness. How do you manage to sniff out crimes as well as you do if you couldn't even tell I was behind you?"

"W-well, E-eraserhead sir, um, you are one of the most stealth based heroes out there, and Amplifier's quirk is based on volume, so you probably used her quirk to cover your own approach, unless that's not what you were trying to do, but then again, I guess I was kinda distracted watching the fight and..."

Shouta rolled his eyes as he went to the edge of the roof and looked down. Amplifier had stopped yelling and seemed to be comforting the victim as a group of thugs struggled weakly on the ground, "You lead her to this one?"

Viridian nodded frantically, "The guys were drunk and I didn't want them to hurt that girl because she was alone and I really didn't like the way they were looking at her and..."

Shouta cut off the kid's rambling, "Good work kid."

Viridian gave him a bright smile, like Shouta had congratulated him on saving the world rather than just one girl, and practically started vibrating with excitement, "T-thank you, Eraserhead sir!"

"Like I said before, kid, it's just Eraser."

"Oh," Viridian's face fell and Shouta hoped he was imagining the glimmer of tears behind his goggles, "I-i'm sorry, E-eraser..."

"It's not a big deal, kid." Seriously, he hadn't been expecting Viridian to be so emotional. What was up with the kid? He hadn't actually done anything wrong. Well, he hadn't if Shouta ignored the whole vigilante thing, but there was nothing actually wrong with calling him by his full hero name. So why had a simple correction been enough to move the kid to tears?