Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 8: Looking Ahead

Izuku kept an eye on the clock and put all his books away five minutes before school ended. He saw some of the other students shooting him looks as the seconds ticked away and swallowed thickly. Hopefully, he really had been getting faster since becoming a vigilante because he wasn't looking forward to what would happen to him if he didn't manage to get away in time.

The bell was like the gun at the beginning of a race and Izuku was out of the room before most of his classmates had even grabbed their bags. From there, it was just rushing to his locker, then out the door. The only one who could even hope to catch up to him at this point would be Kacchan, but Izuku hoped that his luck would hold and Kacchan would just go home like he'd been doing for the last few weeks. He didn't know why Kacchan seemed to be taking it easy on him, but maybe he'd finally realized that Izuku didn't have any hope of being better than him! Maybe if Izuku kept his head down, then Kacchan wouldn't see him as a threat and he'd keep leaving him alone! It was almost too much to hope for.

Mom was at work when he got home, so he sent her a quick text saying that he was going to go watch hero fights as he got changed, then grabbed his slingshot and a few dozen marbles and walked out the door. He needed to get used to his new weapon, considering he'd never actually used a slingshot before, and it might just be his poor self-esteem talking, but somehow he didn't think that the middle of a fight was the best time to practice his aim. Hence why he was going to do some target practice.

His first thought was to go to a park, but he didn't want to risk running into any of his classmates. They tried to destroy his things on the best of days, but if they were to see him practicing with a weapon...well, Izuku didn't want to have to go back to the hardware store so soon. Besides, it was probably better to practice someplace secluded anyway because if people saw him practicing with a slingshot and then Viridian started using a slingshot shortly after, then that might be suspicious enough to lead the police to his doorstep and he'd rather not make Mom worry.

So, parks were out. He could go to the woods where he used to play with Kacchan, but he didn't really know if Kacchan still hung out there after school and he'd really rather stay off his radar right now, so he couldn't go to the woods. That, of course, left the beach.

Dagobah beach definitely wasn't as pretty as it had been a few decades ago, but that wasn't really the beach's fault, just like it wasn't Izuku's fault that he was useless. It was just kinda a fact of life. Izuku had been introduced to it a few years ago when he'd tagged along with Kacchan and his friends for an afternoon and they'd walked by it.

Hey, that's where you should live, Deku! You'd feel right at home with all the other trash.

He'd kinda been right. Yeah, the beach didn't smell the best since the weird fishy smell of the ocean mixed with the rotting piles of garbage, but the ventilation was okay, so it only took a few minutes for Izuku to stop noticing the smell, but it was secluded and peaceful. There wasn't anyone here to beat him up or tell him to kill himself, it was just him and all the other useless garbage that people had thrown away. It was nice.

Izuku dug through the piles before he found a piece of sheet metal that wasn't too rusted and set it up against an old washing machine, then stood a few meters back and got out his slingshot. It took him a few tries to figure out how to pinch the marble through the pouch so that he didn't drop it, but soon enough he'd lined up his shot and aimed for the dead center of his makeshift target.

Izuku took a deep breath and let go. Now, if he was right, the marble should make a sound when it hit the target and...well, either his target didn't actually make a sound or he'd missed. Of those two possibilities, Izuku had to admit that the latter was much more likely. He looked in the sand under the target, but couldn't see the marble, so his aim was obviously a bit off. He searched for a full two or three minutes before giving up and searching for a tarp to put behind his target instead. He didn't want the trash piles to eat all his marbles before he even had the chance to practice!