Mystery from Another World--MHA

Part 18: Meeting Shinso

The next day it was the actual festival, and the campus was crowded with all the classes outdoors at once. 

Shine had a rather uneventful morning just looking at the exhibits, but Wally ran into Deku on his way back from an errand, and Deku told him he'd had an encounter with a villain named "Gentle Criminal."

"Crud, are you okay?" Wally knew how often Deku broke bones, but he seemed all right on the outside.

"Oh, I'm fine..." Deku said, not sounding fine. He explained briefly what had happened.

Gentle Criminal didn't sound like he'd even make a Gotham D-lister file at home, so Wally decided Deku was probably fine. If anything, it sounded like Gentle might have wanted to improve society in a very unconventional way--which was weird.

"It's too bad about him. He doesn't sound so bad," Wally said. "A little loony, but not hopeless..."

"Mr. West," Deku said strangely, "Do you think that some villains, might not really be villains... if things went differently for them?"

"Oh, I'd say a lot of people wouldn't be criminals if things went differently for them," Wally said, "But you guys also call every criminal a villain. That implies all criminals are deliberately trying to screw people's lives up. That's just not true. A lot of criminals are desperate, slightly unstable people who think this is the way to solve their problems, and some of them are dragged into it by family or friends. Some even get in an accident that drives them crazy. It's real sad, really. We have to have compassion for them."

He frowned. "A villain, on the other hand, a true villain, would be a villain whether they had an easy life or not, because there's something in a villain that completely disregards other people and any kind of moral compass that doesn't match exactly what they want. That's what I call a villain. There's enough of them to worry about without confusing things. But, hey, I don't think crime is excusable just because some people don't want to commit it. There's a lot of other things to turn to other than crime. When a person turns to that, it's because something in them broke, and they either don't think they can fix it, or think it's easier to just stay that way. That's a choice, buddy. But, I guess, it's one all of us are tempted to make when we snap."

"It's important that a hero never loses heart," Deku said soberly.

"Kid, I'm going to let you in on a little pro secret," Wally said, "Every hero loses heart, sometimes... We get low and wonder if we really should do this, and if we can, and who we are... Not the same stuff causes it for us all, but it happens to everyone. What's important isn't avoiding that--you can't. It's what you fall back on when that happens. When you have good friends, and a strong belief system, then when you break, they'll put you back together again... One time, I ran so hard I almost died...and my friends pulled me back from the edge of it. That's what we all need... I mean, I'd never go back to being a solo hero. Now I just wonder how I did it as long as I did. Come to think of it, Shine says the same thing about her job. It's not a solo thing..."

Deku didn't look happy to hear this. "I don't know, Mr. West, some of us have a burden we have to carry by ourselves because we can't share it."

"Well, there's this movie in my world, " Wally said, "Lord of the Rings, and in it there's this cool guy Sam who says to his friend, 'Maybe I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you.' You get me? If you can't share that burden you've got, then let people carry you while you carry it. I think that's even in the Bible somewhere... But, another tip, most burdens can actually be shared, even if it's not quite the same for the other person... but, hey, if we all felt the pain equally as much, we'd all be equally screwed. We need to go to people outside the problem sometimes. You understand?"