Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 82: Insistence

Izuku was freaking out, but he was pretty sure he had an excuse! What in the world was Kaachan doing in the bad part of town?! And in the middle of the night?! It wasn't safe! What if he got attacked by a villain and didn't have permission to use his quirk to defend himself?! Didn't he usually go to bed at 8 o'clock?!

"Kacchan?!" He squeaked. "What are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here?!" Kacchan looked just as shocked to see him there as he was, which was only a small comfort. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, I..." Izuku hunched his shoulders and stared at the ground. All this time of hiding his vigilantism from everyone and trying to keep the heroes from figuring out he was quirkless and Kacchan was probably going to go to all their old classmates and say hey, guess where I saw Deku last night? He wanted to cry. How was he supposed to get out of this? "I was, um, I was just out for a walk?"

"You're a vigilante." Kacchan gaped at him. "No wonder no one can figure out your fucking quirk!"

Izuku flinched like he'd been slapped. Of course Kacchan wouldn't buy his half-baked excuse, no one would, not when he was dressed as a vigilante and obviously out doing vigilante things. And he was right, no one ever thought that a quirkless kid could be a vigilante, and Kacchan had always known just how to expose his weaknesses, even with just a few words. It was like middle school all over again. Izuku hadn't ever wanted to go back.

Kacchan gripped his hair as he kept staring at Izuku, eyes wide in shock. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, like he didn't even know what to say and Izuku could definitely relate. Finally, he took a deep breath and let his hands fall, "Does Auntie know?"

"No." Izuku said softly. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall, but he wouldn't let them. Instead he gave a wet chuckle. "Fighting villains is too dangerous for...for people like me, so if Mom knew what I was doing, she'd probably bubble-wrap me in my room for eternity. Um...what about you? Does your mom know you're out here this late?"

"I mean, kinda?" Kacchan shrugged. "The old hag knows I've been making a lot of friends and acting as an informant of sorts for the heroes, but I didn't tell her exactly what info I'm after or anything like that. She's kinda sad I ruined my sleep schedule though."

"Wait..informant?" Izuku's eyes widened as he connected the dots. " You were the informant from the beach attack?!"

"Who the fuck else would it be?!" Kacchan complained incredulously. "The easter bunny?

"I just..." Izuku's mind was reeling. "But, I heard Eraser calling you Kacchan. You never liked that name! How...I swear...no offense, but why haven't you exploded him yet?!"

Kacchan sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he sat down at the edge of the roof, "It's a long story."

He didn't say anything else, and Izuku didn't want to die a painful death, so he didn't push. Instead he sat down next to Kacchan and debated what to say. He could say something about how he was glad to see that he was alright after the attack, but knowing Kacchan, he would probably think that was pity, so he probably shouldn't bring that up. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to have to walk on eggshells like this. It made him even more grateful for the friendship he'd formed with Denki. He might have to deal with weird quirk situations and willingly get mildly electrocuted on a semi-regular basis, but at least he didn't have to second-guess everything he said all the time to avoid dying.

"You know you're gonna get arrested eventually, right?" Kacchan said finally. "This shit's illegal, you know that, so what're you gonna do then?"

"Nothing?" Izuku said. "I mean, I'm not even technically a vigilante, when you think about it. Under Japanese law, Vigilantism is defined as using one's quirk to fight crime, so..."