Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 31: Suicide

Izuku couldn't help the pool of dread in his stomach as he followed Eraserhead across the rooftops. What had he done? Was Eraser really going to force him to stop vigilantism? But if he was going to force him to stop, then why didn't he just hand him over to the police? Not that the police were actually going to be able to stop him, considering that he wasn't technically breaking any vigilantism laws, but still, that would have been the easiest course of action and Eraserhead was logical enough to see that. So what was he doing?

When they were a few blocks away from where the fight had been, Eraserhead stopped and turned around, "I wanted to apologize."

Izuku's spiraling thoughts stuttered to a stop, "What?"

Eraserhead sighed., "Last week, when I saw you, I yelled at you trying to get you to stop. I was worried and scared, but that's no excuse. I shouldn't have gotten angry with you, and I'm sorry."

"But..." Izuku was shocked, "But you didn't do anything wrong! It's me who should be apologizing! I mean, I was just being stupid and I really shouldn't have gone out with a broken arm anyway, but I did what you said!"

"It wasn't about the arm, though we will be talking about that later," Eraser started, then did a double take, "Wait, what did I say?"

"Um, you told me to make a friend?" Izuku said, but then his eyes widened as he realized he couldn't actually remember what Eraser had said, "Wait, maybe you didn't actually tell me to make a friend...maybe you just said that you were worried I didn't have any friends? I could have sworn, but...did you even say that...?"

"You...what?" Eraser seemed tired and confused, but not unhappy, "You went out and made a friend because you thought I told you to?"

Well, when he said it like that, it sounded silly, "...yes?"

Eraser snorted and Izuku blushed, "Hey! It's not like it's a bad thing!"

"Didn't say it was." Eraser sounded like he was smiling, "So, you get along ok?"

"Mhm!" Izuku grinned, "He doesn't care about...well, he's different than the kids at my old school, and he's actually giving me a chance. His quirk is really cool too, though it has kind of a big drawback. I wonder if I could help him with that somehow..."

Shouta hid a small smile as Viridian started muttering unintelligibly. He couldn't believe that the problem child had interpreted his trying to keep him alive as a challenge to make a friend, but he wasn't unhappy about it. Seriously, the kid needed some more positive influences in his life, which brought Shouta back for the real reason behind this talk, "I'm glad I could help you make a friend, problem child, but that's not why I wanted to talk to you."

Viridian froze and looked up at Shouta, obviously frightened. He didn't want to scare the kid, but it was a pretty heavy talk. Shouta sighed and sat down on the roof, gesturing for Viridian to sit down beside him. Actually, on second thought, a roof probably wasn't the best place for this kind of conversation, but it was too late to change locations now. The kid hesitated for a long moment before sitting down, still obviously nervous and not taking his eyes off Shouta for a moment. Damn, this kid really was expecting to be hurt.

He took a deep breath, "People would care if you died, kid."

Viridian froze again, obviously not expecting that. Shouta sighed, "I know that this isn't the easiest thing to talk about, and you don't have to talk about it with me, but you should be talking about it with someone. I think it's pretty obvious just by the way you fight that you don't care if you die, but our argument the other day really cinched it. Viridian...you're suicidal, aren't you?"