Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 26: Just Try

"You should go mingle."

Katsuki rolled his eyes at Amplifier, "Yeah, cause a five minute conversation with an asshole is really gonna help these extras reintegrate into society."

They were currently doing an exercise where the villains had broken into smaller groups to talk about what they'd done wrong, something about admitting their mistakes out loud or something to give them the power to fix them. Katsuki thought it sounded fake, but maybe that was just because he was too big of a coward to admit what he'd done.

"I'm just saying," Amplifier nudged his arm gently, "you've been coming to these meetings for weeks and still haven't made a single friend."

There were reasons for that. One, Katuski didn't want to do anything to jeopardize his chances of being a hero. Well, anything more than he'd already done. Which was what led him to his second reason for keeping these extras at arms length: they were better than him. How shitty was that? A bunch of convicted villains with tracking bracelets on their legs were better than the great Katsuki Bakugo! Sure, they'd done bad things, but at least they had good reasons, be it discrimination, or money troubles, or even just bad friends, but Katsuki...he was just a jerk.

Maybe this whole volunteering thing had been a mistake. These people didn't need someone like Katsuki dragging them down. Hell if he was going to admit that though, and he had made a promise, so he was gonna fucking keep it.

"Go on," Amplifier smiled at him encouragingly, "if you go and talk to one of the groups for three minutes, I'll let you brood for the rest of the time. Deal?"

"I'm not brooding." Katsuki glared at her, but Amplifier just smiled. Damn, that face always worked on people at school, even the adults. Katsuki was gonna have to step up his intimidation game.

Eventually, he sighed, "You'll stop bitching at me to be social?"

She nodded, still smiling that infuriating little smile that meant that Katsuki had lost and she knew it. Still grumbling he made his way to the group with that tentacle-haired freak that kept trying to talk to him. What was his name? Ogawa? Whatever it was, it didn't matter, because Katsuki was just there to get Amplifier off his back and then he'd be able to go back to...it wasn't brooding, goddamn it!

Katsuki grabbed a chair and sat on it backwards so his arms were resting on the back. The villain who always wore pigtails, she said it had something to do with her quirk, was just finishing her story.

"So yeah," she shrugged, "I robbed a couple places, what are you gonna do? They were insured, so it's not like I hurt anybody."

Katsuki scowled. Yet another way he was even worse than these scum. Even when committing crimes, they didn't hurt people, whereas Katsuki had spent ten years hurting people for fun. He sucked.

"I don't think that's really the point." Ogawa said. "Just because no one ended up hurt in the end doesn't mean that stealing was the right thing to do. Maybe it has more to do with what effect our actions have on us, you know? Like what kind of person are we becoming?"

Katsuki couldn't help scoffing, "Never took you for the sentimental type."

Ogawa grinned, "Haven't spoken to me enough to really make a judgement, have you?"

"Whatever," Katsuki huffed, "so what about you? What kind of person did your actions make the great tentacle-haired extra?"

The other villains in the circle laughed at the nickname, but Ogawa simply frowned and thought about the question for a minute, "I think...I think it made me lost. My crimes were never very big, like, I never committed any felonies or anything, but...I don't know, I was just obsessed with the thrill more than anything. I think my mistakes made me selfish."