Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 51: Host

Shouta stared out over the city and scanned for any nefarious activity. It had been a toss up after the New Years Disaster whether villains would be discouraged by the berserker's decisive downfall or encouraged by Endeavor's publicity and, unfortunately for Shouta, it was the latter. Criminal activity had been steadily increasing since, especially once word got around that Viridian was actually out of commission. Shouta and the other heroes knew that Viridian was good at sniffing out crime, but apparently they had underestimated just how effective he was at deterring the local thugs. Just in the last two hours, Shouta had had to stop three different villains who had seemed surprised that a hero had found them without their "Green Guide watchdog" and it was starting to get ridiculous. It's not like the kid's quirk was finding villains or something!

Shouta paused. Maybe it was? Honestly, it wasn't a ridiculous theory now that he thought about it and Viridian had never actually mentioned having an analysis quirk. He would have to have Tsukauchi check the quirk registry and see if a quirk like that even existed, but if he was right about this then it might explain some of the kid's self confidence issues. With a quirk that was only good for finding trouble, Viridian probably wouldn't have had the best relationship with his teachers and peers, and that's if they didn't simply write him off as having a villain's quirk like they'd done to Shouta when he was a kid. Discrimination was so illogical, why did people...

He heard the faint whistle of something flying through the air and by this point it was second nature to snatch the marble out of midair. He smiled as he opened his hand, then frowned and looked toward the problem child himself, who was shifting nervously at the roof's edge. The hoodie was obviously different, but it was definitely his kid, which brought up the question...

"Red? Seriously?" Shouta held up the marble. "Since when is your gear anything but green?"

"They were out of the green ones!" Viridian whined. "I went to three different stores and then finally just ordered some online, but they're on backorder, apparently, because everyone's been buying these stupid marbles as collectables which makes absolutely zero sense because I'm not a hero and even if I was, then they're buying all the green marbles and there's none left for the real Viridian , which kind of defeats the point! And then I couldn't find any green hoodies either, because people are apparently cosplaying me, which is even worse! Don't laugh, Eraser, it's embarrassing!"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure fame is absolutely terrible." Shouta said dryly, looking at the kid to make sure he was actually alright. The kid was physically alright, but when he reached the hoodie, Shouta did a double take and sighed, "Really, kid? Where did you even get that?"

"Amplifier gave it to me!" Viridian blurted out, tugging at the hem of a black hoodie with a grey hood, the words if lost, return to Eraserhead embroidered across the front. "I was just gonna make do with one of Mom's cardigans and return them before she noticed, since she has a couple green ones, but you know how fights usually go for me and I didn't want to ruin my mom's clothes, so when I ran into Amplifier on the way here and she pushed this into my hands, I thought it might be better if maybe...ugh, I'm so sorry Eraserhead! I can take it off!"

While he rambled, Viridian had gradually grown quieter and curled in on himself and hidden his head in his hands. Amplifier had apparently gotten a few sizes too big to be safe, but all that meant was that the kid was almost completely swamped in fabric as he tried to shrink down into a smaller target and Shouta was brutally reminded of just how young this kid was. What had even pushed him to be a vigilante anyway?

"Um, Eraser?" Viridian tentatively interrupted his thoughts. "W-would you like me to take it off?"

Shouta tried to convey a week's worth of exhaustion in a single sigh, "No, it's still cold and it would be illogical to ask you to take it off. I will be talking to Amplifier about getting you a more appropriate outfit."