Prologue: The Beginning of the End
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This is a story from back when I was still weak.
Nearly two years ago, I had a friend so close I could’ve called her my best friend. We were always together, every day was fun, and I truly believed there couldn’t be any greater happiness.
But that belief was betrayed one day, out of the blue—not a gradual drifting apart or a slow fade into distance, nothing gentle like that. She looked me in the eye and said, ‘Don’t talk to me anymore,’ laying it out plain and clear. ‘Being with you was never fun, not even once.’ ‘I only hung out with you because I’d be lonely without friends.’ ‘Now that I’ve got plenty of real best friends, I don’t need you—you’re suffocating.’ …She probably said a lot more, but I think some kind of self-defense mechanism kicked in and locked those memories away. In short, it all boiled down to ‘the serious me was annoying.’ She’d felt that way for a long time, put up with it, and finally hit her limit.
Honestly, it’s not that unusual a story. People don’t always click, and relationships come and go—it’s just how it is. But… even knowing that, I couldn’t stop the flood of emotions welling up inside me. Because that girl was in every single one of my middle school memories. My phone’s photo folder, my mind, everything—it’s all her. Always laughing with me. …If that smile was a ‘lie,’ then what were my memories? Were the moments I felt happy, the times I thought I was blessed, nothing but pain for her?
Just thinking about it made my chest feel like it would burst. I couldn’t recover, and I shut my heart off completely.
But then—
‘That’s right. We’re 《＊＊＊＊＊＊》—heroes of justice, you know.’
—they saved me.
A righteous organization that never forgives lies, corruption, or evil. To me, they were heroes. Every time they crushed some wrongdoer, I felt encouraged, like I was being acknowledged, saved by their dazzling light… It didn’t take long for me to start feeling something close to admiration, a longing to become like them.
So there’s no doubt they’re the ones who saved me. Without them, I’d still be lost, unable to move forward. Helping the weak, crushing the strong—true, genuine ‘heroes of justice.’
Yes—for so long, I clung to that fantasy.
