Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 63: Broker

Katsuki slouched his shoulders as he pushed the door of the bar open. He knew he should leave Ogawa's case to the police. They knew what they were doing and Katsuki didn't really, but with everything going on with Endeavor, he knew that finding a minor villain wasn't going to be on the top of their list of priorities. Katsuki, however, also knew that someone had to know something. It was one of the things his friends had basically pounded into his brain when they started showing him around the underground: nothing stays secret for long and there are eyes everywhere. If he needed to know something, all he really needed to know was who to ask.

"Get outta here, kid." Katsuki didn't recognize the bartender who was standing behind the counter. "This is no place for minors."

Katsuki scowled, "Where's Dabi?"

"Asshole called in sick this morning." The bartender slammed the glass he was polishing down on the counter. "So if you see him, give him a piece of my mind."

"Sure, whatever, I'll punch his lights out or something." Katsuki rolled his eyes. "Now, where can I find him?"

The bartender shrugged, "He lived over on sixth last time he mentioned it, now get outta here before I get someone to drag your ass out."

"Alright, alright, I'm gone." Katsuki turned to leave. "If you see him before I do, tell him Kacchan wants to talk to him."

He slammed the door behind him before the guy could say anything else.

"We assure you that we are doing everything in our power to find the culprits behind Endeavor's disappearance and have both detectives and heroes working around the clock to investigate leads in the case. Thank you."

Tsukauchi bowed and retreated, finally, off the stage and through the door into the back offices, thankfully far from the cameras. Eraserhead was waiting for him with a coffee as soon as the door shut behind him, "How did it go?"

"Terrible, as expected." Tsukauki responded, taking the coffee gratefully. "You're just lucky you're underground and have an excuse not to deal with them."

"Why do you think I chose it?" Eraser huffed. "I finished shaking down the known trigger dealers, but it was a bust, as expected. None of them are high enough in the operation to know anything." He took a sip of his own coffee. "The vultures end up asking about the abuse?"

Tsukauchi glared at him, "What do you think?"

"Hmmm." Eraser grimaced. "I'm sure that went over well."

Tsukauchi sighed, "Yeah, about as well as it'll go over if we can't find him. I talked to All Might about the All for One lead. He said he's fairly certain he's gone, but he'll look into it."

"Well, at least that's something." Eraser sighed. "And Viridian's aware of the situation and knows to stay away."

Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow, "You really think he will?"

"Not a chance." Eraser swallowed the rest of his coffee. "But a man can hope."

Katsuki had no idea where on sixth street Dabi lived, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't planning on just knocking on every door until he found him. Thankfully he didn't have to. He had just arrived on the street when he saw a sketchy looking figure leaving one of the buildings, hood pulled up and jacket zipped all the way past his chin.

Katsuki walked purposefully toward him and knocked him with his shoulder as he passed, "If you're gonna hide your scars, you should be less obvious about it."

"Shut up, Kacchan." Dabi growled back. "I'm not in the mood to babysit today."

"Yeah, you're sick, right?" Katsuki scoffed as Dabi froze. "I don't care, I just want some info."