Dear Journal

Honestly, I don't know where to start. New journal, new day, I guess. Still where to begin? Well, I was born in Dublin to the scumbag supreme Kenneth and Ashley O'Rourke. A heroic couple, Balor the Singularity All Seeing & Morgana the Crimson Light. With more opportunities out west, my parents swept our lives up and made their way to New York City. This is when I was still an infant. Things were good at first. Kenneth joined an elite hero agency known as the Knights of the Round, which mostly comprised similar heroes who had moved to the US. Anyway, yeah, things are good until I turn seven. Then dear ol' Kenneth rains death and destruction on lower Manhattan. To this day, I don't know why. Mum ensured I was tended to, then sped out to handle him. She died. This was over a decade ago now, but the wound remains fresh even still. Can't touch the thought without bleeding. Gotta give it to the ol' girl, though; she did damage enough that a few remaining heroes managed to apprehend the bastard. He's locked up tight now. Haven't seen him since. Good riddance. 

Anywho, turns out life isn't all that easy without parents. They tried to throw me in homes, nana wanted me back in Ireland, but I couldn't leave. Not at the time. I wasn't ready to let it all go. No matter how many times I was caught, I got away. Pretty easy with a quirk like mine. Time's a real bitch, ain't it? Travelled with similar groups of happenstance, just trying to survive here and there, but ultimately I wandered the city's many skyscrapers and sewers alone. I survived. It went well enough until I started seeing things in my sleep. Started seeing myself, but not myself. Bigger, stronger, greater. Doing meaningful stuff. Happy with the perfect, pink-haired dragoness. I kept shoving these visions down and away, but they only came back stronger. Then Barty found me. Apparently, nan wasn't tolerating my living among the unknown. I wasn't inbound for Ireland, though. Barty was an old friend of Mum's, and his quirk left him uniquely qualified to keep me in check, so nan figured it best I go back with him to Japan and remain in his care. 

I fought like hell, but the giant was far faster than he appeared. It kind of worked out in the end. I was trained, and with those visions in mind, the chance to be something more than the bare minimum, to live a life of meaning and value - I guess the idea rubbed off on me. Landed myself in a hero prep school, and you know what? Things got better. I met a girl. She looked so much like the dragoness in my dreams, an angel in scales, just a few years younger. I'm not sure how I made it through hero prep; my grades were not the best, but Sada kept me focused—and helped me to be my best self. I think I may have helped make her a little tougher in turn. I may not be the wealthiest, but I take care of her the best I can. Maybe I can help her be her best self, too? Anyway, before long, we were together! Like together together. One layer melted away after the last in her presence. Eventually, I was even interacting with some of the other kids, like Kenta and a few others. I have to keep my guard up. I know it. Taking all the walls down is dangerous, and there's still the gnawing voice in the back of my head that shouts survival above all else, but I'm trying - and I think maybe(?) things are getting better.

I don't know what's to come, but I start UAU next week. Sada and some of the others made it in, too. Maybe it's here I'll prove it, not to the world, but to myself. I can do this. I can be like the version of myself I see so clearly in my dreams. I can be the world's greatest hero.