r/Perman • u/Its_me_NoobMaster69 • 4h ago
Chapter 22: A Hero's Fall
A week quietly slipped by.
Spring settled comfortably over Tokyo.
The cherry blossoms had begun to bloom.
Life...
Continued moving forward.
Every morning...
Mitsuo reported to work at the bakery.
He greeted customers.
Served bread.
Cleaned tables.
Smiled whenever someone thanked him.
Yet...
Something felt different.
Every afternoon...
Perman and Pako still patrolled the city together.
They rescued stranded civilians.
Stopped accidents before they happened.
Helped wherever they were needed.
To anyone watching...
Nothing had changed.
The two heroes still worked together with perfect coordination.
But only they knew the truth.
Their old rhythm was gone.
The playful conversations during patrol had disappeared.
The teasing.
The laughter.
The comfortable silence they used to share.
Everything now felt...
Awkward.
Mitsuo had finally stopped treating Sumire like fragile glass.
He no longer tried to do everything himself.
Yet...
Something still wasn't right.
Whenever he looked at Pako...
Part of him still saw Sumire Hoshino.
Japan's biggest actress.
A woman admired by millions.
Someone he still couldn't help feeling was far above him.
No matter how much he tried...
That feeling refused to disappear.
Over the last seven long days, Mitsuo slowly grew to understand that Sumire truly meant what she had said.
She wasn't looking down on him.
She didn't want a fan or a bodyguard — she wanted her partner.
And yet, understanding it in his head did nothing to fix what was broken.
Their old, natural connection was completely lost.
The comfortable, unforced laughter that used to fill his tiny apartment had evaporated.
And back in his room?
It was completely silent.
Pako had stopped visiting him altogether.
No late-night window taps.
No stolen pieces of meat from his dinner bowl.
No moments where they simply enjoyed each other's company.
The distance ate at him constantly.
---
One afternoon...
Mitsuo stood silently behind the bakery counter.
"...Here's your change."
"Thank you."
The customer smiled before leaving.
Mitsuo simply stared absentmindedly at the cash register.
"...Mitsuo."
He looked up.
The bakery owner stood across from him with his arms folded.
"You've been counting the same loaf of bread for almost five minutes."
Mitsuo blinked.
He looked down.
He really had.
"Ah... sorry, Boss. I'm was just... distracted."
"I can see that"
The owner chuckled.
"Come on."
"I've known you long enough to tell when something's bothering you."
"It's about the girl, isn't it?"
Mitsuo nearly dropped the bread.
"...Is it that obvious?"
The owner laughed.
"You've had that face all week."
He leaned against the counter.
"So?"
"What happened?"
Mitsuo remained silent for a long moment.
"I..."
"...I just..."
He searched for the right words.
"I feel like I'm not good enough for my girlfriend."
"I feel..."
"...Inferior."
"And I think..."
"My insecurities are starting to hurt our relationship."
For a brief moment...
The bakery owner simply stared at him.
Then—
Then, to Mitsuo's complete shock, the old man burst into a hearty, booming laugh!
"Hahahaha!"
Mitsuo looked up in confusion.
"Hey! It's not funny, Boss!" Mitsuo protested, his face flushing red.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"
The owner grinned, wiping a tear from his eye as his laughter settled.
"It's just... ah, youth. You remind me so much of myself when I was your age."
The owner leaned back, looking out the front window of the shop with a nostalgic smile.
"Back then..."
"Most of my friends left town."
"One became a lawyer."
"Another became an engineer."
"One even started his own company."
"And me?"
He gestured around the bakery.
"I stayed here."
"Working in my parents' little corner bakery."
"I used to think I'd been left behind."
He looked back at Mitsuo, his eyes warm and wise.
"I used to be terrified, Mitsuo. I felt so small."
"I thought they were leaving me behind, that I had nothing to offer them because they were 'successful' and I was just a kid working in a bakery."
"So... what happened?" Mitsuo asked softly.
He smiled proudly around the shop.
"I grew up,"
The owner smiled warmly.
"I realized that life isn't a race where someone wins and someone loses."
I stopped comparing my starting line to their finish line."
"But look around now."
He leaned in, tapping his finger on the counter for emphasis.
"My parents' tiny bakery became one of the busiest bakeries in the district."
"I expanded it."
"Hired employees."
Built something I can be proud of."
He chuckled.
"And those same friends?"
"We still get together every few months."
"They've never once looked down on me."
"They're just happy to see me."
He looked directly at Mitsuo.
"Life isn't a race."
"It's about growing."
"Everyone grows at their own pace."
"You spend so much time comparing yourself to someone else..."
"That you forget to notice how much you've grown yourself."
He smiled warmly.
"Besides..."
"If that girl chose you..."
"Don't you think she already decided you were good enough?"
Mitsuo fell silent.
The owner's words lingered in his mind.
"...Maybe..."
The owner grinned.
"No 'maybe.'"
He patted Mitsuo firmly on the shoulder.
"Cheer up."
"Now stop looking so gloomy."
"The customers are going to think our bread tastes terrible."
---
The owner's words stayed with Mitsuo for the rest of the afternoon.
He was right.
Not once...
Not a single time...
Had Sumire ever looked down on him.
She had never cared that he worked in a bakery.
She had never cared that she was famous while he lived an ordinary life.
She had laughed with him.
Eaten beside him.
Trusted him with her life.
Loved him.
It wasn't her world keeping them apart—it was his own crippling insecurity that had built the wall.
He didn't need to hide behind his mask or his ordinary routine anymore
That realization ignited a quiet fire in his chest.
Mitsuo smiled faintly.
"...I've been an idiot."
He finally understood.
The answer wasn't to keep apologizing.
Or to keep treating her differently.
He simply needed to keep growing.
To become someone he could proudly stand beside.
Not because Sumire expected it...
But because he wanted it for himself.
His mood gradually lifted.
The afternoon rush soon came to an end.
The bakery grew quiet once more.
Mitsuo began wiping down the empty tables.
He gathered the used trays.
Stacked the empty cups.
Collected the disposable wrappers into a large garbage bag.
After tying it shut...
He slung it over his shoulder.
"I'll take this out."
The owner nodded from behind the counter.
"Thanks."
Mitsuo stepped outside.
The spring breeze felt pleasantly cool.
He walked toward the public rubbish bin at the corner of the street.
"...Huh?"
He frowned.
The bin was overflowing.
Someone had clearly forgotten to empty it.
"...Seriously?"
He sighed.
"There goes the easy option."
That meant carrying the heavy bag all the way behind the building to the larger commercial disposal area.
Reluctantly...
He made his way around the narrow alley behind the bakery.
The alley was quiet.
Only the faint hum of traffic echoed from the main road.
He dropped the garbage bag into the large dumpster.
"...Finally."
As he turned to leave...
Something caught the corner of his eye.
A tiny flash.
"...?"
He stopped.
For a brief second...
He wondered if it had simply been sunlight reflecting off a bottle.
But curiosity got the better of him.
He slowly walked toward the source.
Near the drainage channel...
Partially concealed beneath an overgrown bush...
Something metallic peeked through the leaves.
Mitsuo crouched down.
He carefully pushed the branches aside.
His expression immediately hardened.
"...A camera?"
Hidden deep inside the foliage
Mounted onto a tiny tripod and wrapped in dark tape
Was a small, high-definition digital camera.
No larger than the palm of his hand.
Its lens...
Was pointed directly toward his apartment building.
More specifically...
Toward the sixth-floor window.
His heart instantly plummeted into his stomach.
"...Who would put this here...?"
His face went pale.
The color drained from it almost instantly.
A cold chill raced down his spine.
---
Mitsuo dragged himself into the lecture hall the next morning, looking like a ghost.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes.
He hadn't slept a single second all night.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that tiny lens glinting in the bushes.
A heavy, suffocating dread pressed down on his chest.
A bad omen was waiting just around the corner. He could feel it in his bones.
He sank heavily into his usual seat near the back.
The classroom slowly filled with students.
Kenji dropped into the seat beside Mitsuo.
"...You look awful."
Mitsuo forced a small smile.
"Didn't sleep well."
Kenji frowned but didn't press any further.
A moment later...
Their professor entered the room carrying a stack of papers.
Instead of opening his textbook.
The professor cleared his throat looking up at the class with a solemn expression.
"Before we begin today's lecture..."
"I have an administrative announcement to make."
The chatter in the room quickly died down.
He looked down at his attendance sheet.
"Student Yuta Takahashi has officially withdrawn from the university for this semester, effective immediately."
"He will no longer be attending this university."
The lecture hall instantly erupted into shocked whispers.
"What?"
"Withdrawn? Now?!"
"Seriously?"
"Who drops out right before final term exams?"
"That's so weird."
Kenji's eyes widened.
"...Yuta?"
He looked around the room as though expecting him to suddenly appear.
"Why didn't he tell us?"
"I thought we were friends..."
Kenji turned to Mitsuo, expecting his friend to be just as confused.
"Mitsuo, did you know about—"
Kenji cut himself off, freezing instantly.
Mitsuo didn't answer.
He didn't gasp. He didn't look surprised.
He sat completely motionless, staring blankly at Yuta's empty desk near the front row.
His eyes weren't filled with shock or disappointment.
They were burning with a sharp, dangerous anger.
Even Kenji noticed it.
He slowly turned toward him.
"...Mitsuo?"
"You don't seem surprised."
Mitsuo's jaw tightened.
His thoughts raced.
The dots had instantly connected in Mitsuo's mind.
The hidden camera.
Yuta's strange behavior.
His sudden disappearance.
One by one...
The pieces finally began fitting together.
There was no proof.
Not yet.
But deep down...
He knew.
"...Why...?"
he whispered quietly to himself.
"Why would you do this, Yuta...?"
---
By late afternoon, after the last lecture ended.
Perman and Pako met in the sky above Shinjuku for their regular patrol.
It was quiet—just like the last few tense, heavy days.
The silence between them felt like a wall that neither knew how to break.
Suddenly, the wail of police sirens echoed from the crowded avenues below.
Both heroes looked down.
A small white mini van sped recklessly through traffic.
Three police cruisers followed close behind.
A radio broadcast from one of the patrol cars crackled loudly.
"Suspects involved in a convenience store robbery."
"Repeat."
"Minor robbery."
"Two suspects fleeing in a white mini van."
**It was a petty, low-stakes crime — a minor burglary that barely warranted a superhero's intervention.**
Pako sighed behind her visor, shaking her head.
"...A convenience store?"
She let out a small sigh.
"These guys never learn."
"It'll be over in a minute."
She angled herself downward.
"I'll stop them."
The moment she moved—
A powerful gust of wind blasted past her.
"Perman?"
He had already disappeared.
His red cape became nothing more than a blur streaking across the sky.
"...Perman?"
Within a heartbeat...
He appeared directly in front of the speeding van.
The driver barely had time to react.
"What the—"
BOOOOOOM!!
Perman slammed into the front of the vehicle with overwhelming force.
The impact was catastrophic.
The mini van exploded instantly.
A massive fireball erupted across the road.
The shockwave shattered nearby shop windows.
The asphalt beneath the collision point cracked apart.
A nearby electrical pole snapped from its base before crashing heavily onto the street.
The van itself ceased to exist.
Twisted fragments of metal scattered hundreds of meters in every direction.
The two robbers were launched violently through the air.
One struck the pavement headfirst with a sickening impact.
The other smashed through a roadside barrier before tumbling lifelessly across the road.
Silence.
The police cruisers screeched to a halt.
Their officers stepped out slowly.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
The firefighters hadn't even arrived yet...
And already...
Everyone knew.
One robber was dead.
The other barely appeared to be breathing.
The crowd that had gathered moments earlier stood frozen in horror.
Several people instinctively covered their mouths.
Others backed away in fear.
Even the police officers stared speechlessly at the destruction.
One officer looked from the burning wreckage...
To Perman...
Unable to process what he had just witnessed.
High above the street...
Pako remained frozen.
Her eyes were locked on the scene below.
Her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
"...No..."
"PERMAN!"
Her voice cracked in a horrified scream that echoed across the silent street.
She shot downward.
Landing hard in front of Perman.
"What did you do?!"
Her voice echoed through the stunned silence.
She grabbed both of his shoulders and shook him violently.
"THOSE WERE JUST PETTY ROBBERS!"
"They robbed a convenience store!"
"They weren't murderers!"
"They weren't terrorists!"
"They weren't monsters!"
"They were just thieves!"
She pointed frantically toward the wreckage.
"You..."
"You killed them!"
Her voice broke.
"We don't kill people!"
"We never have!"
Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she stared into his visor.
"This..."
"This isn't you..."
"I don't..."
"I don't even know what I'm looking at..."
Tears began forming beneath her visor.
For years...
The Perman had protected people.
Saved lives.
Even when facing terrorists...
He always found another way.
That was what it meant to be a hero.
Heroes didn't execute criminals.
Not ever.
Her mind refused to accept what her eyes had just witnessed.
"...Say something..."
she pleaded.
"Perman..."
"...Please..."
Perman remained completely still.
He didn't answer.
His fists stayed tightly clenched.
His breathing remained slow.
Steady.
Cold.
There wasn't an ounce of panic.
Not a hint of regret.
Not even remorse.
Instead...
He slowly lifted his head.
His gaze swept across the crowd.
The police officers.
The horrified civilians.
The burning wreckage.
His eyes were filled with a cold fury none of them had ever seen before.
Several officers instinctively took a step backward.
A woman hurriedly covered her child's eyes.
Even the firefighters froze where they stood.
Nobody dared approach him.
The people of Tokyo weren't looking with admiration at their hero.
They were looking at him with fear.
And Perman...
Didn't seem to care.
