The Beginning of the End

The introduction of Aya, one of the story's heroines.

 

For years I’ve wanted to change the world.

For years our world has been torn apart, and I’ve always wanted to make it a better place.

While other little girls dreamt of first kisses, first crushes and dressed, I dreamt of becoming the world’s first super heroine. I’d always draw pictures of myself wearing the most amazing costumes, and I’d run around doing ‘good deeds-much to the dismay of my father. See, my heroic escapades usually got me into a lot of trouble. One time I found myself covered in mud, then there was another time I ended up in the Security Station-a lot of good times were had when I was Aya, the Buttkicking Princess of Justice! Of course my father freaked out, but he was always proud of me.

Time passed, and I became older. I continued my efforts to save the world from destruction, despite my shortcomings. I stood against the Atelier to protect victims from injustice. I adopted animals to keep them off the streets. I started programs to reduce pollution and littering. But you know what? All of those efforts ended in failure. The Atelier shut me down, all of my patients were taken by the shelter, and my little clubs were squashed. I matured with time, and so did my dreams. They lost the sheen of childhood innocence, falling into the despair only reality can bring. Being a super heroine was fun when I was a shrimp, but as time went on, things became serious. To make it all worse, my father was always on edge. His concern for me was really starting to hit, and then there was my mother.

She wasn’t exactly the nicest flower in the bunch. As a matter of fact, she was the villain of our little family. That’s no exaggeration, either. She spent her time torturing me and my father, but I wasn’t really concerned about myself. My dad was such a gentle creature, though, and listening to that witch beat on him was pretty hard. He never harmed a single insect, and still wouldn’t even if someone held a gun to his head. My mom, on the other hand, was a completely different set of pages.

I know cases of abuse against men are rare. I know wives are usually the victims of violence, and the rare cases are just unimportant pansies, right? Well, my father is no pansy. He’s like a king, strong and loyal to those around him-including his sorry excuse for a wife. He might have had the demeanor of a lamb, but he had the heart of a lion. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be his daughter. I wish that the Stars had just given me my Hikaru, and had found a way to leave my mother out of the picture.

Anyways, I tried so hard to protect Dad from her, but I couldn’t even do that. She eventually drank herself to death, but my father was heartbroken over her passing. My efforts to shield him from pain were squashed into nothingness. He spent so many nights crying over her, and was even sad around me.

Some heroine I was. And to tell you the truth, not much has changed. I’ve still got my dreams, but I seem to be cursed with another path-the path of a failure.

All of that’s going to change.

Watch out, world.

I’m going to become your first super-heroine.