Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 32: Electricity

Izuku couldn't stop thinking about Kaminari's quirk. There was a familiar feeling of nostalgia that reminded him of when Kacchan's quirk had first manifested, before they found out that Izuku was quirkless. He'd thrown himself head first into figuring out Kacchan's explosions and imagining how they'd be useful for hero work.

It made this whole thing with Kaminari bitter-sweet, because Izuku wanted to be overwhelmingly, deliriously happy that he was analyzing a friend's quirk, but he couldn't shake the dull feeling of dread that bubbled up in his stomach every time he thought of it, like he was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And to make the whole thing worse, he felt guilty that he hadn't been able to keep this dynamic with Kacchan, because it was his fault that they'd grown apart. If Izuku hadn't been born quirkless, then maybe they would still be friends and Izuku would still be analyzing Kacchan's quirk to help him get into UA.

He pushed those feelings down again, determined to ignore them. Eraser had said it was ok to be sad, but Izuku didn't want to waste whatever time he had left feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he went back to thinking about Kaminari's limit. They'd texted a few times since they officially became friends a few weeks ago, and from those conversations, Izuku got the idea that Kaminari tended to think it was better to go over his limit right at the beginning of a fight in an attempt to end things early. His line of thinking was that his brain was going to fry itself eventually, so he may as well take out his opponent before that happened.

Izuku didn't necessarily agree. Sure, every hero had special moves that almost always ended a fight, but the key word there was almost always. There would always be villains who had quirks able to counter him and there would always be factors like civilians and hostages that prevented him from going all out. According to all the fights Izuku had watched and been in, Kaminari's best bet wasn't to end the fight quickly, but to figure out how to fight in an endurance match. But how was he supposed to do that when he couldn't direct his own electricity?

There didn't seem to be much point to him trying to shoot lightning at an opponent, because Kaminari had said the electricity would just go everywhere and hurt anyone around, but it was also a good thing the electricity went everywhere because his limit would be more than enough to kill someone if it were more concentrated, like, say, if he were in direct....contact....with...them...

Izuku's eyes widened and he immediately shot a text to Kaminari to meet him at the park after school, then got out the notebook he'd dedicated to Kaminari's quirk and started making a plan.

Denki was confused. He'd been at lunch when Midoriya had texted him wanting to meet asap, but then there hadn't been any follow-up texts. The text itself wouldn't have been that strange on it's own, but it was strange coming from Midoirya. In the few short weeks since they'd started hanging out, Denki had slowly realized that Midoriya never asked for anything. He let Denki be in charge of when and how often they hung out, almost like he was afraid that he'd stop talking to him if he ever pushed for what he actually wanted, so an urgent text like this was completely out of character and more than a little worrying.

What if something was wrong? What if Midoriya was in trouble? What if he needed Denki to help him get out of an abusive situation or something? Was he even smart enough to help him? What if he wasn't? Oh, no, what if that was why this meeting was urgent? What if Midoriya had gotten tired of how stupid he was and decided that he didn't want to be friends with him anymore?

Denki didn't know if he would be able to handle that. Despite what his mom said about him being a social butterfly, he didn't really have that many close friends. Sure, he could make friends pretty easily, but most of his classmates didn't have the patience to deal with his dumb jokes and short attention span or they thought he was too clingy, so they never really got past the casual acquaintance stage like Midoriya had. Denki didn't want to think about what he would do if Midoriya said he didn't want to be friends anymore.