The special train roared down the tracks, midday news bulletins cycling endlessly on cabin screens. Mirror October sat with fingers loosely interlaced, eyes half-lidded and distant as he gazed out the window. Opposite him, Ruosui Jing gnawed fiercely on her coffee straw, offering not a shred of warmth despite him being her older brother.
*Just a child’s tantrum.* No matter how she sulked, she’d eventually hold her nose and put on a sour face to board this train to City C with him. Superheroes had evolved from chaotic vigilantes—back when a scrap of cloth over your face qualified you as a protector—into a regulated force.
“Why?” The question slipped out as Mirror October sipped complimentary cheap tea, his posture effortlessly elegant. The silence of the journey must have weighed on him.
His teacup cradled just so, he radiated an allure that drew glances—especially from women. Humans were visual creatures. Even as Ruosui Jing despised him, her pulse quickened beneath that idol-perfect face. *A stoic beauty smiling like that… it’s unfair.*
“Why become a superhero? Grandpa wouldn’t have wanted this for you.” *Grandpa*—the nickname for the orphanage director who’d raised them. That gruff old man with the raspy voice and ever-present cigarette… Mirror October’s deepest regret.
“If you have to ask why,” Ruosui Jing’s voice dimmed, “you never understood Grandpa at all.” The sunny girl’s eyes held shadows. “He always told us to avoid danger. But he was a fool… He shielded us from the world’s storms. Now he’s gone. I’ll learn from him. I’ll be someone’s shield. A *real* superhero.” Her finger jabbed toward the cabin TV. “Like putting scum like *that* behind bars! Every last one!”
The screen showed a ghastly pale doll in a tiny suit, crimson eyes gleaming with vivid malice—a demon that seemed to peer into souls. Instinctive dread coiled in the air.
Yet Ruosui Jing felt no fear watching City C’s most wanted SS-Class criminal: Saw.
As if she’d been born to bury filth like him.
Mirror October’s warm smile softened as he met her fiercely bright eyes. *So dazzling. So familiar.* He saw a ghost in her gaze—a ghost long gone, cold as stone.
“You’ll need to work hard,” he murmured, sipping tea. His eyes drifted to the broadcast—a dramatic incident in City C days prior. “Superhero work carries real risks…”
“I’m not afraid! Scum like him are exactly who I’ll crush!” Even Ruosui Jing, who disliked her brother, fell silent watching the midday superhero updates. For someone about to join their ranks, nothing was more magnetic.
*Saw’s become every hero’s nightmare…*
The news editors were clever. They couldn’t hide the live-streamed death trial in City C, no matter how they spun it. Mirror October watched with detached amusement as the commentator vilified *himself* (Saw)—painting him as a law-flouting monster.
How ironically selective. They glossed over the victims’ atrocities with a few vague strokes, then launched into full-throated condemnation of Saw’s “threat to society, the people, and superheroes.” Mirror October almost wanted to applaud the performance.
*The Central Bureau’s pet propagandist? Or some washed-up pundit doing damage control?*
None of it mattered. His game had already achieved its purpose. This was never about spectacle or bloodshed—it was a lesson in justice.
“A true villain!” Ruosui Jing’s eyes burned with tangible fire. That fierce, future-bright gaze was almost beautiful.
Mirror October tilted his head, intrigued. “Undeniably evil. If you ever caught Saw… what punishment would you give him?” He knew his sister’s black-and-white heart. If the day came…
“I’d send him to prison.” Such naive certainty. Mirror October shook his head slightly. The Super Criminal Penitentiary was a true hell on earth.
“And if prison couldn’t hold him?”
“Then I’d kill him.” She waved a delicate fist unconvincingly. A flicker of sorrow crossed Mirror October’s gaze. *Super criminals deserve death. They have no rights. Superheroes stand above the law, free to trample others.* Everyone accepted this truth. Even the clever ones stayed silent beneath the tidal wave of hero worship.
“This path won’t be easy, Ruosui. Hold fast to Grandpa’s belief. I believe you’ll succeed one day.” A brother’s blessing for his willful sister—even as their roads diverged utterly. Even as Mirror October had long glimpsed the desolate horizon at the end of the superhero path, he wouldn’t shatter her dream.
Outside, the rushing landscape remained brilliantly unchanged—just like the view years ago when a hopeful boy had stolen onto this same train.
Mirror October’s crimson eyes held the still depth of blood-drenched rubies. He kept his gentle smile, his polished charm—the perfect orphan waiting for someone to claim him. *Grandpa would’ve beaten my legs raw with his cane if he saw me now.*
“Don’t forget your belief, Ruosui.”
“Mind your own business.”
One game ended—Ruosui’s game. But if her belief ever soured? Mirror October wouldn’t hesitate to begin a new round of bloody moral lessons.
