Good man

      Dabi was clearly in a bad mood today. Nothing had worked since this morning, and everything, literally everything was annoying. The day had just begun, and he already had to fight off a couple of annoying heroes who really thought they were heroes. He was walking down a busy street, with his hands in his pockets, staring dejectedly at his feet, not noticing the people scurrying by on their errands. Just then he felt a tangible push on his shoulder. He turned around. Standing in front of him was a guy in his early twenties, a green-eyed blond with a short haircut, wearing glasses, jeans and a light windbreaker, with a overweight bag. The guy was holding a map of the guidebook.       "Watch where you're going," Dabi said, his blue eyes flashing unkindly.       "I'm sorry," the guy apologized in very good Japanese, adjusting his glasses. "Can you tell me how to get to the bookstore?"       "Foreigner," Dabi guessed, and that only added to his irritation. He just didn't say it out loud: "Come and get it." Dabi walked over to him and turned over the map the tourist was holding upside down. He looked around, figuring out where he was.       "You go straight to the intersection, then turn right. At the end of the street," Todoroki explained.       "Thank you, good man," the blond replied, smiling radiantly. And went in the direction indicated.       It was as if Dabi was electrocuted. He was beside the boy at lightning speed and stopped him, turning him around to face him.       "How kind I am to you! You don't know me at all! How do you know what I'm like?!" Dabi yelled, unashamedly, shaking the boy by the collar of his shirt.       "But you showed me the way. You helped a complete stranger," the stranger replied, a little confused, but not at all frightened by Dabi's rage.       "So what?! Maybe I'm a thief and a murderer!" Todoroki continued, still not letting him go.       Surprise flashed in the stranger's green eyes.       "But you didn't rob or kill me," he objected.       "Maybe I am!" Dabi continued to be stubborn.       The boy smiled and shook his head negatively. Dabi caught himself that this foreigner was starting to piss him off, which was very rare. He had always been an island of tranquility among the unstable company of the League of Villains.       "There are no evil people," the blond said confidently, looking at him calmly.       "What?" stiffened in bewilderment, thought Todoroki, doubting the adequacy of the foreigner.       "Maybe they're all so...crazy," was another of his thoughts.       "You're out of your abnormal," Dabi said aloud.       "You don't like that I think so," the blond man guessed.       "You're talking outright nonsense. Maybe I've killed over thirty people and am a member of the League of Villains. I'm not going to tell you now that I'm good," Todoroki sneered.       " Yes," answered the stranger confidently.       "Do you think everyone is good?" asked Dabi, who was starting to get sick of the holier-than-thou guy.       "Of course. No one is born evil. They become evil because of the influence of other people, because of the misfortunes that happen to them and that they are unable to cope with. Over time, they stop wanting to be good. But all people are good to begin with. I just try to remind them of that. What if they remember," said the boy.       Dabi looked at him for a long time. A radiant green stare. It reeked of hideous purity and faith in people.       "I'm sure he's a wuss and a pacifist," Dabi thought with undisguised disdain.       "Bullshit," he said out loud, let him go, and walked away from the weird guy.       Suddenly two men in brightly colored, strange-looking suits jumped out of an alleyway.       "Dabi of the League of Villains. You're under arrest. Resistance is futile!" one of them declared loudly.       "Frazzle out" the villain said quietly, blue flames shooting from his open palm. A stream of roaring flame was headed in the direction of the negligent heroes. Maybe that's why he didn't hear the yell.       "Look out!!!"       Dabi felt someone wrap their arms around his waist and knock him down. Once on the ground, he turned to look angrily at the man who had dared to interrupt his attack. It was the same guy. Scarlet blood dripped from the corner of his lips. Three iron bars were sticking out of his back. Opposite him stood an obviously distraught hero, one whom in the heat of battle he had not noticed. He had planned to attack from behind, but it didn't work. Stabbing me in the back was so heroic.       "Idiot, why? What the hell for? Who asked you to?!" yelled Dabi, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, turning pale with anger. He stared at the fading flames in his green eyes, and for some reason he found it hard to breathe. The boy tried to smile.       "Why? I'm the villain!" Dabi said, seething with rage and incomprehension.       "Now I know... what your name is... good man," the boy said faintly, and his eyelids slowly closed. His body went limp. Dabi held him for a while and watched in shock. Everything that was happening was more like a nightmare dream. Then he slowly lowered him to the sidewalk, and hurried away. A tingling feeling pervaded his chest, and he knew it was wrong. He should never have met this strange fellow who had so foolishly sacrificed his life for a stranger. After all, Dabi didn't think he was worthy of such a sacrifice.       "Why?" was a question that kept haunting him and wouldn't go away. He would never have acted so recklessly. A stupid, idiotic death.       "Good man," a stranger's voice suddenly emerged in his subconscious.       Dabi stopped and looked back to where he had left the guy. But there was no one on the road. Only the heroes were looking around in confusion. Dabi continued on his way.       "He thought he was saving a good man. Only I'm not good at all," he pondered as he returned to the headquarters of the League of Villains.       A few days later he was out of sorts again and was walking down a busy street without noticing the passers-by. And all these days the words of that stranger did not leave his mind. His pure and somewhat naïve gaze lingered before his eyes. All the time he had been trying to figure out what it was that the boy from the strange country could see in him. A name he didn't even know. And why he thought about it in the first place. After all, he didn't think he cared about that guy. But the most unpleasant thing was to know that he owed his life to such a man.       "A good man. What does it even mean to be a kind man. To save everyone. To love and forgive everyone. Even scum and murderers. Taking kittens out of trees. Crossing grannies across the street. Not to be indifferent to other people's misfortune. Indifferent..." - he repeated mentally, as if he had found the root of all trouble, feeling the resentment that had flared up go away.       "Yes, with such an outlook there is no way to survive in this world. So he didn't survive," Dabi reflected, confident in his judgement.       He walked down the street without any purpose, without looking around. "Thank you, good man," he heard behind him and froze in surprise. Then he turned around sharply.       Opposite the middle-aged man in the hat and mackintosh was a guy in his twenties, wearing light-coloured jeans and a denim jacket, with a bag over his shoulder. His hair had a reddish tint to it. In his hands he held a map of the guidebook. Clearly another tourist. The man he was talking to smiled at him and walked away on his own business. The guy rolled up the map and looked around. The look in his grey eyes stopped on the bewildered Dabi. He smiled at him with that same open beaming smile. Todoroki shuddered. An unpleasant chill ran down his spine.       "There are so many more of those around here," he thought irritably, and turned sharply to walk away, speeding up his pace. Away from the strange guy, not wanting to meet anyone like that again.