Shota looked across the desk at Tsukauchi as he finished the paperwork for his latest arrest, "I heard you got yourself a new vigilante."
Tsukauchi rolled his eyes, "If you can even call him that. The kid hasn't actually done anything yet. His MO is that he'll find a crime, then go and find a hero."
"Seems like he's doing some good then."
Tsukauchi looked tired, "Yeah, but it turns out that most heroes don't take kindly to having rocks thrown at them."
Shota snorted, "He throws rocks at them?"
Tsukauchi nodded, "At least he's not actually hitting them with the rocks anymore. The first week or so, the heroes all came in with mild bruises. A few days ago he started just tossing the rocks at their feet, though, so that's an improvement. "
"His goal was always to get the heroes' attention, not hurt them, wasn't it?" Shota said. "The rocks were just a way to make sure they chased him. He was probably trying to get them angry so they'd pay attention to him."
"That's what we decided too." Tsukauchi offered Shota a cup of coffee that he gratefully accepted. "Word of him has been spreading pretty fast though and heroes in the area are starting to recognize him. That's probably part of why he's stopped hitting them with the rocks. Once he's got their attention, heroes know that they need to follow him. Apparently, he's pretty good at sniffing out crimes too, and most of the heroes don't mind the extra help, considering he's not really hurting anything."
"What's he look like?" Shota asked. "In case I come across him?"
"Well, he's kind of plain as far as vigilantes go." Tuskauchi said, handing him a sketch of the vigilante. "He wears a dark green hoodie with matching goggles, then black jeans. The most flashy thing about him is his red shoes, but even those don't appear to be a statement piece."
"Hmm," Shota looked at the sketch. There really wasn't anything that special or eyecatching about him. "It's strange, most vigilantes I've met try to go for something more distinctive. This guy kinda reminds me of myself, he doesn't care what he looks like, as long as he gets the job done."
"Yeah, most vigilantes are failed heroes, so they see themselves as heroes, but this kid is different." Tuskauchi said. "He doesn't even try to fight the villains!"
"You've said kid twice now." Shota looked at the sketch again. "Just how old is he? Early twenties?"
Tsukauchi shook his head, "Amplifier's the only one that has had any close contact with him, but she said that, based on his voice and the way he held himself, he's a teenager, and a young one at that. She pegged him at around 12 or 13 because he was so short and skinny, but I think it's more likely that we're looking in the 16-18 range. Since most vigilantes are failed heroes, he's got to be old enough to have taken and failed the entrance exams."
"But this kid doesn't see himself as a hero the way other vigilantes do." Shota pointed out. "Crawler, Pop Step, and even Stendall all saw themselves as heroes even without licenses, and they each came up with their own particular brand of dress and behavior. This kid doesn't even fight. Has he even given himself a name yet?"
"No, even when he spoke with Amplifier he didn't introduce himself." Tsukauchi said. "But the heroes who've encountered him so far have taken to calling him the Green Guide."
Shota snorted, "The Green Guide? Seriously? They couldn't think of anything less obvious?"
Tsukauchi shrugged, "Well, the kid wears green and leads them to crimes in progress. I don't know, the alliteration is kinda catchy."
Shota rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, cause that's obviously super important to the kid." He sighed. "It's just...I hope he keeps staying out of fights. If he gets in any deeper, he'll only end up getting himself killed."
Izuku wandered the now familiar streets in search of crime. He'd been doing this for two weeks now. Two weeks! He still hadn't mustered the courage to get in a single fight, but the heroes were actually starting to recognize and trust him. He'd never realized just how lax heroes were toward vigilantes. Maybe it was because he wasn't actually doing a lot of vigilante-type stuff but the heroes never tried to track him down after a fight or anything.
And Izuku was actually starting to get stronger! The first few days had been terrifyingly painful just from the dramatic increase in physical activity, but his body was starting to get used to it now. Maybe he was just imagining it, but when he'd gotten dressed before going out, his calves had been noticeably firmer. And he was definitely getting more flexible from all the stretching he did before and after his patrols.
He was also getting more familiar with the sounds that happened every night. There had been a few times in which he peeked into an alley expecting to find a fight, only to find that it was just a cat that had knocked over a trash-can lid, but now he was getting better at recognizing that sound, even if he still double checked to make sure since he didn't want to miss anything.
That familiarity with nighttime sounds was why a slight rustling accompanied by what sounded like muffled whimpers was enough to raise red flags. He rushed in the direction of the sound and his eyes widened when he saw a guy with some kind of mole quirk pressing a brunette woman against the brick wall using one of his massive hands to cover her mouth while the other wandered...to less innocent places.
He should get a hero. Which ones were close to here again? But...Izuku had watched a lot of fights, not only over the last two weeks, but during his entire hero obsessed lifetime. He was familiar with battle stances and how to not get knocked down by an opponent and this guy looked like a strong breeze would blow him over. Probably, the only reason that the girl hadn't been able to escape was because he was so much bigger than she was. The guy was completely off balance!
Izuku should really get a hero, he was wasting time, but his mind couldn't help running through how he'd beat this guy if he had to fight him. He had a mole quirk, which meant that he probably relied mostly on his sense of smell, since his eyesight was most likely poor. He also didn't have good situation awareness, since Izuku had been standing there for almost a minute by this point and he still hadn't noticed. Oh no! He'd been standing there for almost a minute! He needed to go get a hero!
Unfortunately, the woman had more situational awareness than her attacker and right as Izuku was about to turn and run, she caught his eye. Her muffled screams got more frantic and Izuku couldn't help himself as he ran forward to save her.
Crap, crap, crap! What was he supposed to do? This guy was so big and Izuku still didn't know how to fight at all! Umm, ok, the mole quirk meant that the guy was mostly blind, but he could still probably smell Izuku if he wasn't careful, so...Izuku glanced around and saw a half-full takeout container on the floor by one of the dumpsters.
He picked it up and swallowed down his own disgust, "Hey Moleman!"
Oh, Kacchan would be ashamed of that insult. It wasn't even an insult, it was just an observation that was phrased as an insult. Like deku. But even if it wasn't very creative, it did the trick and Moleman turned around only to get a face full of half-rotten takeout. His heightened sense of smell would no longer be a problem.
Moleman let go of the woman as he pawed desperately at his face to wipe away the stench, but Izuku didn't give him much of a chance as he lunged for his legs. The guy was already off balance, so if Izuku could just trip him…
The man fell hard onto his back and Izuku smiled briefly before he realized that down did not mean out. Moleman grabbed Izuku's leg and yanked him down as well, then let go as he scrambled to his feet and kicked Izuku in the gut. Izuku grimaced, but he'd been kicked before, so he just shrugged off the pain and got up.
Okay, so plan A didn't work, what was plan B? Who was he kidding, he hadn't even had a plan A! Ok, so how did the heroes beat villains. Well, they beat them with their quirks, but that wasn't going to work here. So what could Izuku...wait, Midnight had her whip right? That's how she beat female villains or villains that could hold their breath for a long time. So if he couldn't use a quirk to defeat Moleman, maybe he could use some kind of weapon?
He really should have thought this through. He had a pencil in his back pocket, but that was it. Moleman suddenly reached out and slammed Izuku against the wall, holding him a foot off the ground by his throat. Izuku struggled to breathe as the hand started to crush his windpipe and tried to blink away the black that was starting to encroach on the edges of his vision. Was...was he going to die? Had the girl gotten away? He glanced over to the side and saw her watching the fight with wide eyes.
No! He couldn't die yet! Izuku grabbed his pencil and jammed it into Moleman's hand. Moleman screamed and let Izuku go. That trick probably wasn't going to work a second time and Moleman was getting more angry by the minute. What else could he use?
Well, he'd need to knock the guy out. He wasn't strong enough yet to do that by punching like All Might did, but some kind of blunt force trauma would probably be best. Oh, that sounded so bad, maybe it was for the best that Izuku couldn't be a hero.
As Moleman recovered from being stabbed, Izuku glanced around the alley again until he saw a dented can of beans that someone had thrown away. He ran over to it as Moleman charged and grabbed his legs. Izuku slammed onto the cement belly-first, but managed to grab the can right as Moleman started to drag him backwards.
Izuku twisted his body and slammed the can into Moleman's hands with enough force to make him let go. His body was running on pure adrenaline at this point and it seemed like everything was simultaneously going too fast and too slow. Izuku managed to dodge another grab and used his can to bludgeon Moleman's shoulder.
Moleman aimed a punch for his head, but he was broadcasting his movements the way Kacchan sometimes did, so it was easy enough for Izuku to duck. The punch threw Moleman off balance again and Izuku hit him with some weird mix of a punch and a backhand, making him stumble back.
Izuku didn't wait for Moleman to recover before he launched his next attack. The can got slippery as Moleman's nose started to bleed. Or maybe some of that blood was from Izuku's knuckles? Izuku didn't stop hitting though until his opponent was on the ground. He waited tensely for a long moment until he was certain that Moleman was knocked out, then turned to the girl he'd just saved.
"Are you ok?"
She looked at him in shock, "Am I ok? You just fought a guy twice your size!"
Izuku looked down at the guy on the floor, "Actually, I think he's probably more like three times my size, I'm pretty small, but I don't think his size is just because of his quirk…"
"Earth to kid! Are you actually ok? He looked like he hurt you…"
Izuku shrugged, "It's nothing I'm not used to, don't worry about it."
The woman didn't look any less worried, but Izuku decided that trying to reassure her probably wouldn't do any good. He turned to leave, but almost tripped over Moleman who was still unconscious on the ground.
"Oh! Almost forgot about him, um, hmm, I should really get some zip ties or something to bring out, I wonder...do you have any zip ties on you?"
The woman let out a stressed huff of laughter, "No? Are you telling me you ran into the fight without any way to tie the guy up?"
Izuku shrunk back a little, "I normally just run away and get the heroes. I'm sorry, I'm really bad at this. I'm not even a real vigilante."
"No, no, you're doing great." The woman tried to reassure him and Izuku gave her a shaky smile. He wasn't doing great.
"Um, there's got to be something around here we can use…" He muttered. "Maybe if I can find some rope? Oh, I can tear this old t-shirt into strips. Probably won't stop him for long, but hopefully the police will arrive before that'll be a problem…"
The woman stared at him as he tied up Moleman as tightly as he could, "Um, do you need me to do anything?"
Izuku shook his head, "If you could call the cops after I leave, that'd be great. I mean, you should probably stick around so you can explain what happened, cause otherwise they might not actually be able to arrest this guy, but if he starts waking up, you should probably run."
The woman nodded and Izuku grabbed the fire escape. He didn't want her to have to wait too long, which she probably would have to if he just walked out onto the street.
"Wait!"
Izuku stopped with his hands still on the fire escape, "Yes? Are you hurt? Do you need me to give you first aid?"
The woman shook her head, "No, you just never told me your vigilante name. What am I supposed to call you, Green Guy?"
Izuku shrugged, "Sure, if that works. I don't really care what people call me, I just wanna help people."
With that, he turned around and scrambled up the fire escape. He saw the woman getting out her phone as he got to the roof, so that was good. He should probably try to take the rooftops home so he didn't run into any of the cops as they drove to the alley. He'd never hopped from building to building before, but it couldn't be too hard, right?
Izuku backed up and got a running start as he prepared to jump, only the chicken out with a yelp as he arrived at the edge of the roof. He tried to calm his breathing down. That...was a lot scarier than he'd hoped it would be. He could try again, but...he really didn't want to. It was probably best not to try again, anyway, since if he jumped and ended up falling then they'd think it was suicide and that would defeat his whole purpose of being a vigilante which was so that no one would get hurt when he died.
He gave a determined nod, found another fire escape that led into the next alley over, and climbed down. Then he lowered his hood, put away his goggles and started walking home, grimacing as the adrenaline wore off and he realized how much pain he was in. He should call it a night, he wouldn't be able to run fast enough to help anyone in this state.
Good thing he already had practice treating his own injuries.
Hina Yu smiled as she watched the vigilante disappear and dialed her boss. She'd call the police in a minute, but they would ask her to stay on the line until someone arrived and she didn't want to wait to make this call.
"Yu? What are you doing calling me at three in the morning?"
"I have tomorrow's headline!"
"What? What happened?"
She grinned, "I was just saved by a new vigilante, I'm fine, don't worry. He seems to just be starting out, so I'm positive no other paper has talked about him yet. He said he often gets heroes to respond to crimes that would otherwise be overlooked and he's super sweet and nervous. I think he might be a teenager."
"Really?" Her boss sounded much more awake. "That is a headline, maybe not front page, but there's definitely a story there. Get me a peice by morning and we'll run it on the website. If it gets enough hits I'll give you the go ahead to do more research and we'll do a full piece by the end of the week. What's your vigilante's name?"
Hina frowned. He'd said that Green Guy was fine, but a name like that wouldn't sell any papers. She needed something flashier, something that would make people curious when they saw it in the headline. Well, he was green, and he didn't seem to care what people called him, so…
"Viridian." she said. "Let's call him Viridian."