How did Shouta get himself into these situations?
There had been a trigger enhanced next level villain attack earlier that day, so he was doing the rounds, shaking down any trigger dealers he knew to try to get some leads while the police tried to figure out the poor guy's identity. The first few had been just what he expected, but this last one had shot up as soon as Aizawa started asking questions and now he was trying to figure out how to lead this guy away from populated areas. And he was a mutant type, so there was that.
The dealer had a crab-type heteromorphic quirk, which hadn't been a big deal when his skin was just a bit more durable and there was an extra pair of arms, but now his skin had hardened into an armored shell and his hands and turned into razor sharp claws and Shouta couldn't erase it. So far, he'd just been dodging all of the villain's attacks and waiting for the trigger to wear off. This batch must have been more potent than most, however, because they'd been doing this dance for ten minutes now and the guy wasn't even out of breath.
Sneak attacks were really much more effective, not that he couldn't do drawn out battles, but he didn't prefer them for various reasons. One of those reasons being that the longer he fought, the more likely it was for him to blink and miss something important, such as one of the claws reaching out and tangling itself in his capture weapon. Within seconds, the crab villain had managed to spin his claws in such a way that Shouta was tangled in his own weapon and his hands were pinned to his side. Dang it. If he made it out of this alive, Tsukauchi would never let him live this down.
The villain was grinning down at him as he gradually tightened the weapon until Shouta couldn't breathe, then tightened it some more. Suddenly, Shouta felt something whiz by the top of his head and hit the villain right between his eyes, making him stagger back and loosen his hold on the capture weapon. Shouta gasped for air and tried to yank his capture weapon back, but the villain had already recovered. Swearing, he reached for his knife to cut the weapon right as his opponent moved to tighten the noose again.
Suddenly, the villain cried out in pain and clutched his eyes. Shouta didn't waste any time cutting the weapon free of the villain's claws and stepping back to catch his breath. Now that he wasn't about to die, he glanced to the side to see who had helped him, only to see Viridian trembling beside him with his slingshot still at the ready. The kid's expression was frozen halfway between determined and terrified, a fact that Shouta probably would have laughed at in any other situation.
"Get out of here, kid!" Shouta yelled. "This guy's on trigger, he's out of your league."
Izuku knew that he should listen to Eraserhead. This guy was...a lot bigger than most of the small fry he'd managed to take down alone. Even Eraser was having trouble with him! But that was exactly why Izuku knew that he couldn't leave! If he left, even if it was to go get another hero, then there was a chance that Eraserhead would be dead by the time he came back and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if that happened. Besides, it's not like he was taking a huge risk fighting this guy. Eraserhead would be able to save so many more people than Izuku could if he survived this fight, and he was a hero that would still be able to fight his way out even if the villain killed Izuku.
That was why Izuku didn't hesitate to run forward, ignoring Eraser's yells behind him as he switched his slingshot out for his pipes. If only one of them could survive this fight, Izuku had to make sure it was Eraserhead and not a useless Deku like him. Izuku just hoped he could distract the villain long enough for Eraserhead to beat him.
He'd been aiming for the villain's eyes to get him to let go of his victim earlier, but Izuku's aim wasn't very good yet and it had taken a few tries, which was why he'd decided to switch to close range. Besides, he didn't think his marbles would do much good against the villain's shell anyway. He didn't know if his pipes would do much better, but at least they were easier to aim.
He tried to review what he knew about crabs as he got closer, but he couldn't think of any obvious weaknesses, except for maybe the joints. Even if the guy's skin was hardened into a shell, there had to be breaks in it so he could move around and Izuku had had enough action figures break at the joints that he knew how fragile they were.
He brought both pipes down on the bend of one of the villain's arms, hoping he was right, and had to duck quickly as one of the claws was aimed toward his head. He rolled just like Eraser had taught him to and got to his feet to see the arm he'd targeted hanging a little more limply.
"Eraser! Aim for the joints!"
He heard Eraser yelling something at him again, but focused on running forward again and hitting one of the villain's knees. If he could just decrease his mobility…
He rolled away as the villain stumbled and he looked to see that Eraser had wrapped his capture weapon around one of the villain's arms and used that as leverage to singshot himself and kick at the villain's hips. So cool! The only problem was that even though the villain had collapsed onto the ground from the combined force of both their attacks, he still had a solid hold on Eraser's capture weapon and was trying to tangle it around Eraser like he had been when Izuku arrived.
Izuku dodged another hit from the villain's flailing arms and switched to his knife. He was still nervous to really use it, but it's not like he was actually using it on the villain, right? He just needed to cut the capture weapon so that Eraser could get free. He unfolded the blade and ran forward, trying to slash the cloth as close to the villain's arm as he could. It took a few passes, since the cloth must be mixed with some kind of metal, but Eraserhead had gotten out his own knife and together they managed to get him free. Izuku hesitated only a moment before tossing his pipes to Eraser, who caught them with a confused look on his face.
"Your capture weapon isn't a good match for this villain. It's only gonna keep getting tangled." Izuku's eyes widened as he realized he'd just told a hero what to do. "Not that you have to use my pipes! I mean, you obviously know a lot better than I do and you've been doing this a lot longer and…"
"Viridian, look out!"
Izuku only caught a glimpse of the freaked-out look on Eraser's face before the blunt part of one of the villain's claws hit him in the stomach and threw him hard against one of the walls. Good thing he'd already given Eraser his pipes.
Shouta froze as he watched Viridian, a literal child, get batted against the wall and pass out. Or hopefully pass out. The kid was slumped over and had gone limp, but Shouta didn't know what he'd do if the kid was…
He turned back to the villain with rage in his eyes, clutching the pipes Viridian had given him like a lifeline as he practically growled, "Big mistake."
He ducked and dodged every attack the villain threw at him and used the pipes to bludgeon the joints. He wasn't used to fighting with them, but he had to admit that they were much more effective than his capture weapon against this particular villain. Within minutes, the villain collapsed in a pile on the floor and started to shrink down as the trigger finally wore off. Shouta texted Tsukauchi to come pick the villain up and ran to help Viridian.
"Kid, can you hear me?"
Viridian groaned, "Eraserhead? Are you ok? Did you win?"
Shouta looked at the kid in shock, "Am I ok? Am I ok? You just got thrown against a wall, problem child! You're lucky you didn't die!"
Viridian shrugged as he got to his feet. Shrugged!
"Well, you beat the villain, didn't you? So it was worth it."
Shouta opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to figure out how to respond to that, "No! Kid, that was stupid and reckless! Don't do that again."
"...ok."
He didn't like the fact that he could tell Viridian was lying. If the kid kept putting himself in dangerous situations like this, which it sounded like he was going to, then he was going to get himself killed. Shouta needed to make sure that didn't happen. And he needed to make sure the kid was actually okay after that blow.
"Come on, kid. I'm taking you to the hospital."
The kid shook his head frantically, only to stop with a wince, which meant that the kid most likely had a headache and probably a concussion as well. All the more reason to get him medical attention. He grabbed onto the Viridian's arm, careful not to hold on too tight in case the kid was bruised there.
"No offense, problem child, but I'm not giving you a choice. You need a doctor."
Viridian frowned, but stopped fighting and let Shouta start leading him down the street toward the nearest hospital. Shouta sighed with relief and tore his eyes away from the kid so he could see where they were going, which was why he missed the way the kid's arm wound up for a punch.
The hit was sloppy, but Viridian actually managed to punch him right on the nose with a surprising amount of strength. Instinctively, his hands went to his face as his eyes watered and by the time he'd recovered enough to see again, Viridian had already disappeared.
"Damn problem child." Shouta muttered as he made his way back to the downed villain. "What am I gonna do?"