The Ethics of Imagine Breaker: Smashing That Illusion

*This article is approximately 8300 characters long.

Chapter 1 | The 'Story of Excuses' Created by a Thirst of the Heart

When people are hurt, they cannot go on living as they are.

So, they give it a name.

And they give it meaning.

'It wasn't because I was weak that this happened to me.'

'The unreasonable person was at fault.'

'Someday I'll get back at them.'

—In this way, thirst becomes a story.

▫ Thirst is the source of unspoken pain

• I was ignored during my school days.

→ A story remains that 'I am a person who is not needed.'

• I was not praised by my parents.

→ A self-evaluation pattern is formed where I constantly feel 'I am never enough.'

• I was unreasonably scolded by someone.

→ A value system grows that 'justice is something you push back with force.'

In this way, the thirst of the past becomes the seeds of current values.

However, it is rarely recognized as such.

Most of it is processed as 'personality quirks' or 'character.'

Even though, in reality, an unspoken past is always lurking there.

▫ When thirst becomes words, it becomes a weapon against others

Having a thirst is not bad.

However, when the story that gives meaning to that thirst
turns into a justification for attacking others, the problem begins.

• 'I am the greatest' = A reflection of the memory of once being powerless

• 'That's unfair' = The anger of someone who has never been loved

• 'It's your fault' = The justice addiction of someone who has only ever been blamed

• 'Just talking' = The contact impulse of someone who was never touched

All of these are, at once a proxy for an unspoken thirst and an 'illusion' hurled at others.

▫ An illusion is a story constructed because one cannot bear the pain of thirst

An illusion is not a lie.

Rather, it is 'a truth to look away from the truth.'

The person believes it.

That is precisely why the story becomes strong.

It becomes impossible to doubt.

It makes one want to force it on others.

In this way,

'a story to heal one's own past'
transforms into 'a story to attack others.'

▫ Perhaps this is what I really wanted to say

• 'I wanted you to look at me'

• 'I wanted you to love me properly'

• 'I wanted you not to blame me'

• 'I wanted someone to listen to my story'

But I couldn't say it.

There was no guarantee that I would be accepted even if I did.

So instead, narratives like 'I am right' and 'they are unfair' emerge.

That is the prototype of an illusion.

Chapter 2 | An illusion is my story that justifies attack

People strike others with the face of justice.

While saying 'you are wrong,'
it might actually just be that they cannot bear the 'thirst they cannot carry themselves.'

Attack is a story of self-preservation.

An illusion is the device for that justification.

▫ Attack is a converted expression of unspoken sadness

• 'That guy is getting carried away.'

→ No one paid attention to me

• 'That guy needs to read the room.'

→ I could only read the room

• 'Even though you haven't made any effort yourself.'

→ I knew no way to be loved other than through effort

In this way, behind aggressive narratives

is the experience of 'I was not treated that way.'

But it is difficult to say that honestly.

So, one creates a composition where 'the other party is bad.'

And one paints one's own pain into that composition.

In this way, an illusion is completed.

▫ An illusion distorts others to protect the self

An illusion is 'a story that protects oneself by making others the villain.'

• My pain is legitimate, and others' happiness is 'unfair'

• I wasn't understood, so I can't forgive 'people who are understood'

• I have made efforts, so I want to hit 'people who look like they have it easy'

These all masquerade as 'correctness,' but
they are just throwing the narrative of thirst at others.

The brilliance of others illuminates one's own void.

That is why one wants to extinguish it.

▫ An illusion wears the mask of 'ethics'

The most troublesome thing is that illusions blend into society as 'good,' 'justice,' or 'common sense.'

• 'You usually do it this way, right?'

• 'People who make proper efforts should be rewarded'

• 'Society is a place to live by following the rules'

These look like 'decent opinions' at first glance.

But hidden inside them, the following true feelings sometimes lurk:

• 'I have been suppressing myself, so I can't forgive that only they are free'

• 'I wasn't rewarded even though I made efforts, so others shouldn't be rewarded either'

• 'I lived thinking I would be rejected if I spoke my true feelings. So, I am afraid of their true feelings'

An illusion is also a technique for replacing personal thirst with social 'ethics.'

▫ When people are drunk on their own righteousness, they become the most cruel

When intoxicated by illusions, people do not realize that their words are touching the wounds of others.

Rather, they wrap them in the language of justice, calling it 'justified criticism'.

And they say things like:

• 'You deserve to be told that much, don't you?'

• 'I'm saying this for your own good.'

• 'I've suffered too, you know.'

—That is nothing more than a projection of one's own pain.

However, when this is pointed out, they become enraged.

Why?

Because when an illusion is shattered, one's 'true thirst' is laid bare.

That is precisely why illusions are so robust, and why breaking them requires resolve.

And the words that break them require the will of ethics.

Chapter 3 | Shattering That Illusion: The Ethics of 'Sogebu'

An illusion is a story that the wounded 'I' needed to survive.

However, to others, it can also be a form of violence.

Disguising one's own thirst as 'righteousness,' and using that as a basis to judge, control, and attack others.

That is why someone must say it.

I will shatter that illusion.

That is what is commonly known as 'Sogebu'.

▫ What is Sogebu?

On the surface, it is nothing more than a 'catchphrase'.

But structurally, it is an act that destroys the other party's narrative of self-justification,
and at the same time, it is an ethical leap that involves the resolve to accept one's own deception.

Because Sogebu is not merely a negation.

• 'Do not replace that pain with justice.'

• 'Do not blame others for that sadness.'

• 'Do not cover up that emptiness with anger.'

Pointing out these things that could not be said is the essence of Sogebu.

▫ The destruction of an illusion exposes shame

The terror of Sogebu is that it directly touches the other person's 'weakness' or the 'root of their thirst'.

• Telling someone who said 'I am right,' 'That's just jealousy, isn't it?'

• Confronting someone who said 'For the sake of society,' with 'You just want to be acknowledged, don't you?'

It is an act of stripping away the 'true voice' of another.

That is why the other person gets angry. Denies it. Flies into a rage. Or falls silent.

If the other person falls silent, let's say this to them.

'Target, completely silent.'

But that is when the illusion finally crumbles.

▫ Why 'Sogebu' even then?

It is not to correct the world.

It is not to preach to others.

It is because relationships cannot be built upon illusions.

As long as you are inside an illusion, dialogue becomes a lie.

Emotions, words, and motives all become distorted.

Even if you say 'I want to help you,'
in reality, the desire 'I want you to fill my emptiness' seeps through.

Therefore, 'Sogebu' is not destruction, but purification.

Only after shattering the illusion can the true voice emerge.

▫ 'Were you able to dream?' — Another version of Sogebu

There is another, more vulgar but sharper version of 'Sogebu'.

'Were you able to dream?'

—It is saying this:

• 'That story of yours, isn't it really for your own pleasure rather than for someone else?'

• 'Has that anger gone beyond pain and become a pleasure?'

• 'You just wanted to say it to feel relieved, didn't you?'

This question is a provocation against the illusion of self-satisfaction.

▫ 'Sogebu' shatters one's own illusion before shattering the other's

Sogebu is not something you should just unleash on others.

Because a true illusion-breaker is a 'mirror-like act'.

The moment you point out someone else's illusion, your own illusion is also exposed.

'You're hiding something too, aren't you?'

'Isn't your language also a desire for approval disguised as justice?'

Yes. The one who unleashes Sogebu is always being tested themselves.

That is precisely why this is ethics.

It is not destruction, but the exercise of responsibility.

Chapter 4 | Tonegawa's Hammer: The Resolve That 'This Is Not a Cradle'

'The world is not your cradle.'

How many illusions have been blown away by this one phrase?

Tonegawa, who appears in the manga 'Kaiji',
is a figure feared for his ruthlessness and violence.

But this line alone isa 'flash of ethics' that cuts through all self-indulgence.

▫ What is a cradle? — The premise that one deserves to be protected

'A cradle' is a place where a baby sleeps.

Warm, soft, and safe, even if you do nothing.

You can sleep defenselessly, assuming the world is kind to you.

But Tonegawa says:

The world is not like that.

• No one will automatically understand your suffering.

• No one will unconditionally accept you.

• And your thirst is your own responsibility.

This statementdirectly denies the 'victim's narrative' that assumes an illusion.

▫ What sustains illusions is an unconscious 'cradle desire'

When people vent their anger at others,
at the root of it often lies this kind of unconscious premise.

• 'I should have been treated more kindly'

• 'Someone should have sensed how I felt'

• 'Since I am this hurt, those around me should have been more considerate'

But that is no longer looking at reality.

It is an unfinished narrative that still mistakes the world for a cradle.

Tonegawa's lines destroy that.

▫ These words are not cruel, but a demand for resolve

Tonegawa does not coddle.

But that is not to inflict despair.

It is a strike to break through the illusion and truly 'stand.'

'No one will save you from your pain.
That is precisely why you must change yourself.'

These are words rarely spoken in the modern age.

In a world that emphasizes only empathy and understanding,
the words 'resignation and responsibility' are avoided.

But Tonegawa says them.

And something collapses within those who hear them.

▫ What truly smashes the illusion is the voice saying, 'Stand on your own'

The 'Imagine Breaker' is not merely a denial saying, 'What you are saying is wrong.'

Essentially, it is saying this:

• 'No one will carry your sadness for you'

• 'Even if someone apologizes, your thirst will not vanish'

• 'Therefore, live in reality, not in an illusion'

It is a recommendation to 'endure loneliness, not isolation.'

The world is not a cradle.

But it is those who stand in that reality without breaking who find the freedom of ethics.

Chapter 5 | Smashing illusions is not for others. It is for yourself.

'Isn't that just an excuse?'

'Weren't you actually just scared?'

'You were just angry because you wanted someone to save you, right?'

──When you throw words like that,
it is natural for the other person to get angry.

Because that is an act of denying their narrative.

However, words that smash illusions are not meant to destroy others.

They area 'clearing of the ground' for you to truly face others.

▫ Dialogue cannot exist while illusions remain

I want to understand someone.

I want to build a relationship.

I want to share pain.

──These all begin only 'outside the illusion.'

As long as you make others characters in your own narrative, conversation cannot be established.

As long as you are trying to make the other person fill your own thirst, it is not a dialogue.

An illusion is a masquerade of dialogue.

That is why it must be destroyed.

▫ Smashing the illusion is for your own sake

In truth, you were the one who believed in the illusion the most.

'I am right'

'The world is wrong'

'Someday I will be rewarded'

'Someone is watching over me'

It is scary when that breaks.
But──

Living inside an illusion is even more painful.

Because no matter how much time passes, you are never rewarded,
you never meet a true other,
and you cannot stand on your own two feet.

Smashing the illusion is
not an act to judge someone,
but a response to the question, 'Can you stand as yourself even in a world without illusions?'

▫ The place where you stand after smashing the illusion──that is ethics

What remains after you smash the illusion is a barren wilderness.

After correctness, anger, sympathy, and narratives have all peeled away,
'only you' remain in a place where only a dry wind blows.

But that is when you see things for the first time.

• The fact that I have lived this way, not because of anyone else

• The possibility that I can speak of pain without blaming anyone

• The courage to face others without entering anyone's cradle

That is not correctness, nor is it winning an argument; it is ethics.

It is in the place without illusions that new relationships, new words, and a new me arise.

▫ In closing──smash that illusion

When a person cannot endure their own thirst,
it appears in the form of anger toward others.

But that anger is the aftermath of unspoken sadness.

That is precisely why, instead of coating unspoken pain with illusions,
you must smash the illusion to put it into words.

Smash that illusion.

Not for the sake of others.

But to take responsibility for your own thirst without entrusting it to anyone else.

'Empathy' and 'justification' are different

People have been hurt in the past.

That should not be denied. Rather, light must be shed on the suffering that has been buried without being spoken.

But even so──

'It does not mean you can attack others because of that pain.'

Rather, in that moment, the pain transforms from a narrative into a weapon.

And that narrative becomes an 'illusion,' an excuse for attack.

We bear the responsibility of facing others again with new words, while empathizing with past wounds but not being bound by them.

'What is needed to destroy illusions is the resolve to accept the pain'

There is a clear 'qualification' for the act of smashing illusions.

It is whether or not you have the 'resolve to reach out to the other's pain.'

It is not about just holding up correctness to smash them.

It is not about just pointing out facts to expose their helplessness.

Those who smash illusions are only those who can say,

'I, too, have tasted that pain once.'

And only those who can gently witness the trembling that remains in the silence after the smash
are allowed to call themselves an 'Imagine Breaker.'

Supplementary Chapter | Even so, if you are to empathize──the ethics of 'I get it'

Shattering an illusion is sometimes cruel.

It can also mean denying the other person's narrative.

If you expose the justice disguised as emotional wounds,
that person is left exposed.

And, in many cases, you will be rejected.

That is why 'Sogebu' (Imagine Breaker) is a lonely act.

However, I do not want it to end there.

If it ends with just breaking, it is no different from violence.

That is precisely why what is needed afterward is—

"I get it."

This phrase.

▫ "I get it"—not understanding, but resonance

This phrase, which Naruto uttered time and again, is not mere empathy.
not mere empathy.

• "I have tasted your loneliness, too."

• "I can see your pain."

• "I know the reason for your anger—I won't say I know everything, but I know."

It is a phrase offered to the 'voiceless pain' that remains even after the illusion is shattered.

There is no salvation in this phrase.

But there is companionship.

▫ The responsibility of the one who shatters illusions—it is not to abandon

If you stand on the side of shattering someone's illusion.

If you can say, "That justice is a deception" or "That anger is a desire for approval."

Then, you must also have the resolve.

• The responsibility to witness "what remains after it is broken"

• The courage to admit that "I, too, was holding onto an illusion"

• And the ethics of "not leaving them alone in a place where they have been broken"

Naruto said, "I get it," and reached out to the sadness within his enemies.
To stay by their side after exposing them.

This is the paired structure of "Sogebu" and "I get it."

▫ Even if you cannot understand, you can "be present"

People cannot fully understand others.

Much less is it possible to know in a single word the background of a thirst or lack accumulated over many years.
However, what is still possible is—

To be present in the silence after it is broken.

To be able to say, "I am still here," even while saying, "I don't understand."

Shattering the illusion, yet not leaving.
Only that stance crosses the boundary between pain and ethics.

▫ Finally—the strength to say "I get it"

"Sogebu" is also a question to oneself.

If so, "I get it" is also a vow to oneself.

• Admitting that you also have a thirst.

• Admitting that you, too, were binding others with illusions.

• Yet, having both the resolve to shatter and the resolve to stay by their side.

That is the completed form of the "Ethics of the Imagine Breaker."

Added on April 18, 2026

On the pleasure of the one who shatters illusions

Up to this point, I have spoken of shattering illusions as an ethic.

The narrative that disguises thirst as justice and uses it as a basis to judge others must be shattered.
That idea itself remains unchanged.

However, one unsettling thought remains here.

Are people truly shattering illusions for the sake of the other person?

This question is heavy.
Because the act of shattering an illusion itself is sometimes accompanied by a strong sense of pleasure.

When you see through the other's deception.
When you see through that the other's justice is actually just a rephrasing of their wounds.
When you see the desire for approval, jealousy, or thirst peeking out from behind the other's anger.
People can feel a kind of superiority in that.

I see through it.
The other person is still drunk on their own illusion.
I am looking from a deeper level.

This feeling is dangerous.

Because in that moment, the one shattering the illusion feels as though they have stood on the side of truth.
But in reality, a new illusion might be born there.

Only I can see it.
Only I have transcended the deception.
Only I have reached the essence of the other.

This feeling itself is already a pleasure, already an intoxication.

Shattering the other's illusion sometimes transforms into an act of satisfying one's own thirst, rather than saving the other.
A past where you couldn't talk back.
A loneliness that went unnoticed.
An anger that was not understood.
For a person carrying such things, exposing the distortions of others can become a means to confirm their own existence.

In other words, the one who shatters illusions is not innocent either.

While intending to shatter the other's illusion, in reality, they might just be satisfying their own thirst.
While intending to correct the other, in reality, they might just be drunk on the feeling of standing above them.
While intending to awaken the other, in reality, they might just be gaining a sense of victory by silencing them.

Herein lies the second trap of illusion-shattering.

The first trap was the wounded person turning their pain into justice.
The second trap is the one shattering justice turning their own insight into a new justice.

The structures are similar.

The former places their own pain at the center of the narrative.
The latter places their own power of insight at the center of the narrative.

But both are, in the end, movements that attempt to place oneself in a special position.

That is why, to truly shatter an illusion, one must doubt not only the other but also one's own pleasure.

Am I truly speaking for the other's sake right now?
Or am I drunk on the fact that I saw through them?
Am I truly trying to return the other to reality?
Or do I just want to savor the other's silence as a victory?
Am I truly trying to open a dialogue?
Or do I just want to destroy the other's narrative and overwrite it with my own?

The moment you lose this question, 'Sogebu' ceases to be an ethic.
It becomes mere violence.
Moreover, it becomes violence wearing a mask of righteousness.

It is not only those who are drunk on illusions who are truly terrifying.
Those who are drunk on the pleasure of shattering illusions are just as dangerous.

In fact, they are even more troublesome.
Because it is easy to convince oneself that one is on the right side.
Without the awareness that one is causing harm, one might step into the other's inner world, destroy their support, and even call that collapse the truth.

Therefore, what is needed for the one who shatters illusions is not righteousness.
What is needed first is suspicion toward one's own pleasure.
To watch whether the thirst to be satisfied is moving within oneself at the very moment one exposes the other's distortion.
A 'Sogebu' unleashed without that self-monitoring falls into mere condemnation.

A true 'Imagine Breaker' is not one who only shatters the other's illusion.
It is one who can even doubt their own pleasure that seeks to be satisfied by breaking the other.

Otherwise, the illusion will not be shattered.
It will only change form and move to one's own side.

And perhaps, the most difficult part is what comes after this.

To shatter the other's illusion while not being drunk on one's own pleasure, and yet not abandon the other.
To not make silencing them a victory, but to be present for the pain that remains after it is broken.
Only by going that far, I believe, does the act of shattering an illusion become an ethic rather than destruction.

The one who shatters illusions also
cannot escape the danger of being drunk on their own righteousness.
This point was developed in a separate article,
The Narcotic Called Justice.