Capítulo 9: Parkour
Shouta had never really understood the appeal of bars. He supposed that Yamada or Shirakumo probably would have dragged him along when they got old enough if they had actually started their own agency like they'd always planned, but...well, Shouta just thought it was irrational to dull his senses with alcohol and loud music when there was work that needed to be done.
Which was what brought him here, overlooking the bar district while partiers enjoyed the nightlife. Amplifier had only been out sick for a day or two, but since the last trigger incident had been in her territory, Shouta had asked for her permission to stick around and look for any leads. He'd been hanging around for almost two weeks and, while he'd managed to find a few small dealers, there hadn't been another major incident.
Shouta heard Amplifier's voice echoing from a few streets over and he sighed and started running in that direction. It was probably nothing she couldn't handle, but he may as well lend a hand as long as he didn't have any of his own leads to chase. As he got closer to the fight, however, he almost stopped in shock. He wasn't the only one who had shown up to the fight.
Crouching on the rooftop, eyes glued to the fight below, was Viridian. The kid had a small notebook out and Shouta wondered how he could even see what he was writing in the sparse light. It couldn't be good for his eyes. He could see the kid's lips moving as well, so he was probably muttering something, but the words were drowned out by the sound of aplifier's quirk.
The kid had also gotten some more gear, apparently, which alleviated some of Shouta's worries that Viridian wouldn't be able to defend himself. He had added a belt to his costume, which held his tin can and a couple...sticks? Hopefully they were more durable than the ones he'd tried to use last time Shouta had run into him. There was also a slingshot hanging from one of the loops, and Shouta nodded in satisfaction. At least the kid had enough sense to cover his long range defenses.
He decided he'd watched long enough, he should get Viridian to give him an overview of the situation, since he'd most likely been the one to lead Amplifier to the fight in the first place, "Does she need any help?"
Viridian yelped and clutched his notebook to his chest as he turned around with panic in his eyes. Shouta snorted, "Seriously kid? I would think a vigilante would have more situational awareness. How do you manage to sniff out crimes as well as you do if you couldn't even tell I was behind you?"
"W-well, E-eraserhead sir, um, you are one of the most stealth based heroes out there, and Amplifier's quirk is based on volume, so you probably used her quirk to cover your own approach, unless that's not what you were trying to do, but then again, I guess I was kinda distracted watching the fight and…"
Shouta rolled his eyes as he went to the edge of the roof and looked down. Amplifier had stopped yelling and seemed to be comforting the victim as a group of thugs struggled weakly on the ground, "You lead her to this one?"
Viridian nodded frantically, "The guys were drunk and I didn't want them to hurt that girl because she was alone and I really didn't like the way they were looking at her and…"
Shouta cut off the kid's rambling, "Good work kid."
Viridian gave him a bright smile, like Shouta had congratulated him on saving the world rather than just one girl, and practically started vibrating with excitement, "T-thank you, Eraserhead sir!"
"Like I said before, kid, it's just Eraser."
"Oh," Viridian's face fell and Shouta hoped he was imagining the glimmer of tears behind his goggles, "I-i'm sorry, E-eraser…"
"It's not a big deal, kid." Seriously, he hadn't been expecting Viridian to be so emotional. What was up with the kid? He hadn't actually done anything wrong. Well, he hadn't if Shouta ignored the whole vigilante thing, but there was nothing actually wrong with calling him by his full hero name. So why had a simple correction been enough to move the kid to tears?
Maybe he should change the subject, "So, what were you writing?"
Viridian quickly hid the notebook in one of the pouches on his belt, "Oh, um, nothing?"
Shouta shot him an unimpressed look, "Really, kid? If you're going to lie, at least come up with a better excuse. Let me see."
"It's really nothing!"
Shouta raised one eyebrow.
"It's just...my notes are silly and kinda embarrassing." Viridian finally muttered. "It's just some thoughts on the fight so I can figure out what Amplifier was doing and maybe do something similar in the future. I mean, it's nothing special, I know it's kinda creepy."
Shouta raised an eyebrow at him, "You're learning by example, that's smart. I wish my students had half that drive."
Viridian's head snapped up and he looked at Shouta with wide eyes, "You're a teacher?"
Shouta snorted, "Yeah, I expel brats at UA. Maybe if you actually stay off the streets, you could actually be in my class in a few years."
Viridan looked at the ground and started fidgeting with the sleeves of his hoodie, "Do you teach the hero course students?"
"Yes…" Shouta looked at Viridian curiously. "I teach the first years."
"Then I won't be in your class." Viridian shook his head. "I...I can't be a hero."
"Why…?"
"Bye, Eraser! See you later!"
Viridian started scrambling down the fire escape even though the roofs were close enough together that it'd be easier for him to parkour away. Shouta thought fast and wrapped his capture weapon around one of Viridan's wrists. He stopped and Shouta could feel how hard he was trembling just from the way his capture weapon moved.
"Kid, do you not know parkour?"
"P-parkour?"
Shouta rolled his eyes, "Yes kid, parkour. You know, running across rooftops without dying? It's pretty essential in this line of work."
"Um," Viridan had started fidgeting with his sleeves again as soon as Shouta released the tension on his weapon, "I don't...no? I mean, I guess I've considered it, but I've never really learned, so...no?"
Shouta sighed, "Follow me."
He made his way down the fire escape, waving to Amplifier as they passed her and was pleased when he saw that Viridian had actually started following him. He really should be working on finding leads, but it didn't look like anyone else was going to put in the work to make sure this kid didn't die.
It didn't take them long to reach a skate park a few streets over. It was practically abandoned at this time of night except for a few homeless people and drug dealers, but as long as they left each other alone, Shouta wasn't going to worry about them.
He turned around, forcing Viridian to stop quickly to avoid running into him, "Alright, first thing's first, you have to learn how to fall."
"Um...I thought the point of parkour was to not fall…"
Shouta gave him a deadpan glare, "No. the point is to not get hurt when you fall. You're always going to fall, especially early on, and that's why you have to start small." He gestured to the park. "Places like this are a good place to practice early on because you don't have that far to fall. Tonight, though, I'm just gonna teach you how to roll."
"You...you're going to teach me?!"
Shouta rolled his eyes, "Yes, kid, I'm going to teach you. Why else would I have led you here?"
Viridian shrugged, "Catch me?"
Shouta sighed again, "Not tonight kid. Little known fact is that we heroes, especially underground heroes like me, often prefer to work with vigilantes than against them. If you get overly violent or turn to villainy, that'll change pretty quickly, but for right now, we're good. Just don't tell the cops, they're a little more uptight about the whole thing. Alright, now like I said, you're always going to fall. Rolling is a good way to make sure that your momentum gets dissipated gradually so that it doesn't hurt your body. You don't get hurt by moving fast, you get hurt when you suddenly stop moving."
That made Viridian chuckle, which Shouta decided to count as a win considering he'd made the kid cry earlier, "We're not going to start from on top of a wall, you're not ready for that right now, but just watch me."
Viridian cried out as Shouta dove toward the ground, tucking his arm under him so that he rolled over his shoulder and landed back on his feet, "That's a basic roll. Now let's go slow and I'll talk you through it."
Shouta spent the next hour coaching the kid on some of the basic movements of parkour and giving him some exercises that would give him a decent foundation. The kid was obviously unused to the movement, but he was a pretty fast learner, all things considered. Occasionally, Viridian would stop to adjust the tools on his belt so that the weight didn't get in his way, or he would take out his notebook and write something down before putting it away again. Shouta couldn't help but be a little curious about it, even though the kid had told him it was nothing.
"You should take notes on villains too." Shouta said as Viridian reached for his notebook yet again after Shouta had taught him a new movement. "Taking notes on heroes is good, so you can learn what they do, but knowing what villains do is arguably more important."
"Hmm," Viridian finished writing what he was going to and put the notebook back in his belt, "but you don't fight repeat villains all the time, and everyone has unique quirks, why does it matter how a particular villain fights?"
"Think about it, kid." Shouta sat down on one of the low walls and gestured for Viridian to sit next to him. "Yeah, you might not ever come across that exact quirk again, but take Present Mic and Amplifier. Their quirks might not be identical, but…"
"But they're similar enough that what works against one might work against another…" Viridian said slowly. "So the more I understand different villain's quirks, the more strategies I'll be prepared to fight with!"
Shouta nodded. At least the problem child was quick on his feet. Not that Shouta didn't already know that, considering that he'd won his first fight with literal garbage. "You'll also get better at looking for weaknesses. Right now, because you're trying to emulate heroes, you're automatically looking for people's strengths, when what you really need to be focusing on is their weaknesses."
Viridian had pulled his notebook back out and was apparently taking notes on everything Shouta said. Now he really wished the kid was one of his students. Shouta glanced at his watch and stood.
"You'd probably better get to bed, kid, don't you have school tomorrow?"
Whatever eagerness Viridian had been showing only moments before disappeared as the kid seemed to shrink in on himself, almost like he was trying to make himself a smaller target. Why…?
"Goodnight, Eraser. Thank you for your help! Sorry for bothering you!"
He almost stopped the kid from running off again, but by the time he realized Viridian was going to run, he was already around the corner. Damn, he knew the kid was fast, but seriously? He sighed and made his way back to the rooftops. He'd wasted some time, but he couldn't bring himself to regret it.
After all, an extra set of boots on the ground couldn't hurt, right?
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