Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 79: Moving Forward

Katsuki sat on the crumbling boardwalk and stretched as he waited for Shinso to show up. When he'd suggested the beach as a training location back after the entrance exam, he wasn't expecting to have almost died there. He'd had to practically fight his old hag to convince her to let him go out, but the doctors said there wasn't anything to worry about and his strength was already almost back to normal, which was more important than ever with classes beginning in a few days.

There was no guarantee the Shinso was going to show his face, but hey, at least Katsuki was trying to pass it on or whatever the redemption program wanted him to do, and he wasn't about to turn his nose up at some extra physical training so that he was ready to face the villain factory when he found them. If Shinso really wanted to be a hero then it was up to him to put in the work. If he wasn't willing to do that, then that wasn't Katsuki's problem.

"This place is a mess."

Katsuki glanced up and saw Shinso hesitantly picking his way across the rotting boards, nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell. Katsuki turned back toward the beach and scoffed "Yep. One wrong move on these boards and you'll fall through, so watch where you step."

"That's comforting." Shinso said wryly. "Why are we here instead of, I don't know, a normal gym or park? Wasn't there a villain attack here a couple of days ago or something?"

"Something like that..." Katsuki clenched his fists, "But that just means it's more of a mess than usual. And we're here because it's good for training. If you can get used to being aware of where you place your feet to avoid falling through a boardwalk, then you'll be more aware of how and where to step on a rooftop to move silently or to avoid traps, depending on what you need. If you can get used to running on sand, and you won't immediately roll your ankle when you're faced with a street filled with debris. And if you build muscle hauling trash, then that'll help when you're taking down villains. Now come on, you're gonna help me clean up this beach."

Shinso raised an eyebrow skeptically, "Seriously?! This whole beach? Are you actually insane?"

"Probably." Katsuki shrugged, "But I don't think you have a whole lot of room to talk. You're trying to do the impossible too, right? Unless, of course, you did get into the hero course after all and you're not counting on a hail mary during the sports festival."

Shinso was notably silent, not that he expected anything different, and Katsuki stretched, "Come on, let's get started. If we wanna be heroes, we're gonna need both mental and physical strength. All the determination in the world isn't going to be enough if any thug on the street can overpower you."

He jumped down off the boardwalk and onto the sand, only to slip a little on the landing and end up on his hands and knees. This sand was what had made the chase with Ogawa so damn difficult. When Shinso when he started laughing at him, Katsuki just brushed the sand off his hands and raised an eyebrow, "Alright, you think you can do better? Let's see it."

Shinso's eyes widened slightly, but he quickly rose to the challenge and jumped down after Katsuki. He didn't do any better.

Katsuki's laugh echoed across the beach as he reached a hand down to help Shinso up, "Looks like we both have work to do, Eyebags. Show me what you got."

Dabi groaned and spread the pictures out in front of him again. He'd pulled on every single one of his connections to get even this much, but it still seemed like things were missing. He could trace the villain factory's influence, he could figure out a few people they'd abducted, but there wasn't even a single clue as to where they were located or who the people behind it were. No wonder the police hadn't been able to find Endeavor in time, it was like trying to figure out what a puzzle was supposed to look like based only on the edge pieces.