Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 78: Promises

"Flowers? Really?" Shouta deadpanned. "You do know they're just gonna die in a few days, right?"

"You're such a spoilsport Shou." Hizashi groaned. "They're meant to make things more cheerful while you're in the hospital! Add some color!"

"My sleeping bag already does that." Shouta countered.

"Yeah, but these are prettier." Nemuri laughed. "Come on, Shouta, it's not as if you let yourself stay in the hospital that often. We need to take advantage of every second while we can!"

Shouta glared at her, but knew she was right. Even when he was injured on patrol, he was much more likely to go to Recovery Girl or deal with it on his own than go to the doctor. The only reason he was actually following the doctors orders now was because his body was beyond exhausted from fighting the poison and he didn't have enough stamina to stand for more than a few minutes at a time, much less jump out the window or let Recovery Girl work her magic. At least the doctors assured him he'd be back to normal by the end of the week, but for now he was stuck here. Plus, maybe he was trying to set a good example for Viridian just in case the kid was paying attention, but nobody would be able to prove that.

Shouta turned to Tensei, "Any word on Viridian?"

Tensei shook his head, "I had my team comb every alley and rooftop near that beach, but no dice. Either he didn't get stung, or..."

The awkward truth hung heavily in the silence between them and Shouta hated it. The logical part of his brain told him that if Viridian had gotten stung, he would have been in too much pain to get very far, but the illogical part of his brain reminded him to never underestimate the problem child's self destructive tendencies. It would be just like him to refuse to go to the hospital despite being poisoned, simply because he wanted to save the antidote for someone who deserved it more. It was the first time since they'd met that the kid wasn't suicidal and now Viridian had probably been murdered. It would have been darkly funny if it wasn't so tragic.

"What about your other problem child?" Nemuri asked finally. "I've been hearing more and more about this Kacchan lately. He's making quite a name for himself."

Shouta rolled his eyes, but accepted the change in subject gratefully, "He's Amplifier's problem child, not mine."

"He's in your homeroom." Hizashi pointed out. "That kinda makes him yours."

"Classes haven't started yet." Shouta argued. "He's not my problem."

"And yet..." Nemuri teased. "So...? How's the kid?"

Shouta held out for a few stubborn seconds before sighing, "He's fine. I haven't talked to him yet, but the doctors say he's not going to have any long term effects from the poison, which is good. PTSD is another question, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The berserker that was involved in the attack used to be the kid's friend before he went missing."

"Oh..." Nemuri's face fell. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Shouta shrugged, "It is what it is, unfortunately. At least we'll have someone he trusts there to ask questions when the guy wakes up. Maybe we'll actually get a lead this time, assuming we can keep the media from reporting that he survived and protect him from any other attempts on his life."

"That sucks." Tensei said.

"Yeah." Shouta dragged a hand down his face and groaned. "Yeah, it does."

Katsuki chewed thoughtfully on one of the cookies that Auntie Inko had brought. She'd said that Izuku had helped her bake them, which was nice. Katsuki felt a little bit guilty, but he was actually sort of grateful that Izuku hadn't come with her to visit him. What would he even say to him? It wasn't like he could just greet him with: hey, sorry for bullying you for ten years and telling you to kill yourself, how's life? Even if their parents weren't in the room, that would just be way too awkward. He'd have to face him eventually, Katsuki knew that, but he just didn't know what to say. How was he supposed to even start a conversation, much less actually apologize for everything he'd done wrong? He felt like he was a better person now, but would Izuku even be able to see that?