章 152: A Cold, Heartless Meeting - Part 0 [Hasegawa Mio]

I wasn't always like this.

***

It would be fair to say that most of my life was guided by the joy of defeating someone who's good at what they do. It was fun to beat my dad at chess. It was fun to beat the fastest boy at school. It was fun to get the highest score in the class.

However, it was around this time that I realised something. Most of the people around me simply weren't driven by the same motivations. Eventually, there was no one who I felt could speak on equal terms with me.

Children naturally tend to avoid things that are hard for them. This was something that I noticed in the people around me. It was impossible to get them to actively engage with me in anything. They never put in the time, effort or dedication required to genuinely challenge me.

Still, I still got a little amount of joy from playing with them. But it always seemed like I was an adult, looking down at them, aimlessly explaining things to them over and over.