Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 45: Outrage

"He was a literal child!" Shouta subconsciously activated his quirk as he yelled, which only made Endeavor glare harder in return as the flames adorning his hero costume went out. "You launched a lethal attack at a goddamn kid!"

The crime scene was a mess. Vines and thorns were still everywhere, the city had had to call in tree trimmers to even begin freeing the survivors and dozens of rescue heroes had been woken up and called in to help despite the holiday. So far they had already found five casualties from the attack, and those were all people the villain had killed during his initial rampage. It wasn't even starting on the disaster that was the bar fire.

The flames had long since gone out thanks to the combined efforts of Backdraft and the local firefighters, but the smoldering remains of the building were like a mocking testament to Shouta's failure. Somewhere under those ashes was a kid. A kid with a whole life ahead of him. A kid who was just barely learning how to want to stay alive.

And now he was dead and it was all Shouta's fault.

He should have insisted on going straight to the bar instead of going with Death Arms to clear another exit for the civilians. He should have told them not to call Endeavor despite his quirk being a perfect counter. He should have tried harder to get the kid to stop being a vigilante.

And now it was too late. This wasn't like when Viridian had disappeared because he broke his arm as a civilian. The kid wasn't just going to pop up inside the comms one day like he had then. Endeavor had openly admitted to launching a full strength attack at both the berserker and the vigilante, either not thinking or caring about the fact that the fight was happening in a bar! Fuck doing what he had to, if the great number two hero had had even an ounce of respect for situational awareness and property damage, he would have found another way!

"Eraser." Amplifier put a strong hand on his shoulder. "Be careful, the media's watching."

"Screw the vultures." Shouta growled, but he blinked and stalked away anyway. A viral video of heroes infighting would do more harm than good, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be going through the formal channels to make sure that Endeavor didn't get off scot free for murdering a kid. Nedzu in particular would probably love tearing him apart.

At least the principal's sadism was good for something.

Amplifier walked with him until they were far enough for the media to ignore them, "How are you holding up?"

"How do you think I'm holding up?!" Shouta hissed. "That...he was just...the kid was finally getting better."

"I know." Amplifier said heavily. "I know."

"It's just..." Shouta groaned. "I'm going to have to look this kid's parents in the face and try to explain that I was just trying to keep him alive. Why did I let him..."

"Stop that." Amplifier said sternly. "If you start blaming yourself or insisting that you could have done things differently, it's just gonna keep you paralyzed in the past. Believe me, I've seen it happen often enough in my rehabilitation group."

Shouta sighed, "And it doesn't make the kid any less dead."

"We don't know that." Amplifier said weakly. "They're still sorting through the rubble! There's still a chance..."

It only took half a glare to silence her. As much as Shouta would like to believe that the kid had survived, it was completely illogical to get his hopes up. Even if Endeavor's initial attack hadn't managed to fry him, the building had collapsed within minutes. It was only luck that Amplifier had managed to find a small portion of the wall that had collapsed, or else they'd be digging her out as well. Endeavor, the assole, would have of course survived based solely on his inborn fire-resistance. No wonder he didn't care about bringing down buildings! If it didn't affect him, he couldn't be bothered.