Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 12: Analysis

Izuku hesitated before grabbing a marble out of the pouch on his belt. Why couldn't Amplifier be closer? Or even Rock Lock? He could have dealt with that. But why did it have to be Eraserhead? Izuku instinctively looked back even though the mugging he'd come across was a few streets away. Maybe he'd be able to handle it on his own...he could just go back, but there were five big guys and the victim didn't look like he'd be able to run away fast enough if Izuku were to die, which was likely considering he was still injured from his fight last night.

Izuku groaned in frustration, then threw the marble, which bounced off Eraserhead's back. Izuku's jaw dropped at his reflexes as Eraser whipped around and immediately grabbed the marble out of the air before it could hit the ground. He looked at it for a second in confusion before looking around. Izuku winced as he saw the ugly bruise spreading across Eraser's nose. He was such a bad person.

He froze as Eraser's eyes zeroed in on him, but his expression was strange. Eraser should be really angry and Izuku had been expecting a scowl like Kacchan had when Izuku annoyed him, but instead Eraser looked...relieved? It must just be because Izuku couldn't see his eyes, or he was just be terrible at reading facial expressions because there was no way that someone would be relieved to see the person who punched them in the nose! Eraser must just be hiding his anger.

Izuku smiled apologetically and started running. This was so embarrassing! Eraser probably wanted nothing to do with him and yet here he was asking for help from someone who he'd hurt. He didn't deserve Eraser's help. He'd just have to stick around and help with the fight so Eraser didn't have to work as hard! He couldn't just punch him in the face, then expect him to do all the work.

When they reached the mugging, Izuku ran right in, Eraserhead close behind him. The thugs were big, and at least two of them seemed to have minor strength enhancement quirks, so Izuku should try to handle the others first. He rushed toward a skinny guy who was manifesting short blades from his skin. He would probably get cut a few times, but it was better he got hurt than Eraserhead. He probably deserved some extra pain after what he'd done.

Suddenly, the blades disappeared and Izuku glanced behind him to see Eraser glaring at his villain, "Viridian! You have a slingshot for a reason! Don't just run in recklessly!"

Izuku's eyes widened. He was right, he'd bought his slingshot so he didn't have to get close to villains if he didn't have to. And Eraserhead had had to cancel the knife villain's quirk to remind him of that, which meant that he wasn't able to worry about the others, which meant that Izuku had messed everything up again. Nice going, Deku. He quickly got out of the knife quirk user's range and jumped on top of the dumpster so he had a good view of the fight, then got out his slingshot and a handful of marbles.

He started pelting all five thugs with as many marbles as he could without hitting Eraserhead. Mostly he just distracted the villains long enough for Eraserhead to get a hit in, which honestly worked pretty well. It had only been a few minutes and Eraser had already managed to put two thugs out of commission! He was so cool!

Eraserhead was focused on fighting the two strength quirk villains and Izuku was focused on creating an opening for Eraser, so neither of them noticed one of the thugs literally melt into the shadows and make his way to the dumpster Izuku was standing on. Izuku screamed and almost lost his balance when a creepy smile suddenly popped into exitence in front of him, but before he could fall, the shadow villain grabbed his arm and flipped Izuku over his shoulder, slamming him hard onto the concrete.

Izuku grit his teeth as he forced himself to roll to his feet like Eraser had taught him and grabbed his pipes. He lowered himself into a battle stance as he tried to keep his eye on the villain, but he simply melted into the shadows again, then popped up behind Izuku and kicked him in the back. This fight really wasn't good for his still-bruised ribs.