Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 58: Communication

Izuku felt slightly ridiculous as he clambered over the rooftops. He'd taken a week off after his somewhat disastrous last meeting with Eraserhead, because as much as he hated to admit it, Eraser had a point, at least on some level. Izuku had been using Vigilantism as a coping mechanism and not a very good one at that, and even if he couldn't be a real hero because he was quirkless, Eraserhead was right.

He couldn't keep doing things the same way he had been. Something had to change.

First of all, he couldn't abandon Denki and Mom. It still felt like a dream, but after spending over an hour crying in Denki's arms just because Mom had noticed he was upset and invited his friend over so he wouldn't have to be alone, Izuku couldn't deny anymore that they actually cared about him. It was weird, but he was determined to get used to it, which meant that he couldn't keep fighting recklessly the same way he had been. He couldn't break his promise and leave them alone.

Second, he couldn't get caught by the heroes. Things were going to be a bit more difficult now that everyone would actually be trying to catch him, but Izuku didn't know what else he could do. It wasn't as if they would actually let him join the vigilante rehabilitation program once they knew who he was. Like he'd told Eraserhead, being a vigilante was really the only way for a quirkless deku like him to be useful, so if he was going to continue being Viridian without dying or getting caught, he was going to need to update his gear again.

Thankfully, with the UA entrance exam being just about a month away, Denki hadn't been picking up as many shifts at the hardware store, so Izuku had been able to drop by when he wasn't there and buy a few things without his friend getting suspicious. He now had a pair of noise cancelling earmuffs hanging around his neck just in case he ran into Amplifier or another sound-based hero, and an extra strength laser pointer in one of his pockets in case he ran into Eraserhead. At the last minute, he'd even picked up a screwdriver and a holding strap that he'd adjusted to wrap snugly around his arm. The heroes, for better or worse, knew where all of his weapons were and the tool belt didn't do much to hide them, so in the event that he somehow got captured, his slingshot, marbles, pipe and knife would all get taken away fairly quickly. If he wanted any chance of escaping before the heroes got him to the station and figured out he was quirkless, he needed at least one emergency weapon in his arsenal that nobody knew about, hence the screwdriver, which he could hopefully use to pry open cuffs or take the hinges off of doors. If worse came to worst, he could also always use it as a stabbing weapon, not that he ever really would, but still, it was only logical to have options.

Third and finally, he couldn't keep going off and investigating on his own. If he had any useful information, he needed to make sure the heroes were aware of it before he moved forward. If they could just communicate better, it should prevent anything like Kohaku's death from happening again, or at least make it very unlikely. So if Izuku thought there was any possibility of danger at all to anyone besides himself, he would give the information to the heroes and let them handle it, assisting only where necessary. He would also be extra super careful from now on to make sure both he and the heroes knew exactly what they were walking into before they attacked.

Which was why Izuku was now walking toward one of the places he normally saw Eraserhead, a full notebook in one hand and a laser pointer hidden in the other in case he needed to escape quickly. With everything that had happened with the debut of the berserkers, Izuku wasn't sure if Eraser had had any more time to look into that lead about the symbol of evil and All for One, so he'd taken all the research he'd done on both that and on quirk transfers in general and summarized it as best he could in a way that he hoped Eraser and the other investigators would be able to understand. He'd had to write a few research papers for his Quirk Theory classes online, so he'd basically used that format, adjusting it to fit the information he'd gathered and included the sources so that they could look deeper in case he'd missed something, but he could only hope all of that would be enough. There was no guarantee that this All for One or someone like him was actually in charge of the villain factory, but it couldn't hurt to pass along what he'd learned!