Air Hero

Max's waking up

“Where am I?”

Max finally regained his consciousness, and the first thing that he heard is the beeping sound of a life monitoring machine. Feeling the IV tube attached to his hand, Max knows that he is now in a hospital.

“The patient has woken up!”

Max heard the nurse’s voice as she informed other people about Max’s situation. Then, not long after, Max can listen to a familiar voice calling out to him as he directed his eye weakly towards the source of the sound.

“Max!”

Max already knows the voice owner without even needed to look and now looking at Kalina’s distressed state when looking at him, Max feels guilty. It seemed that she is worried so much about his wellbeing.

“B-b-big sis…”

Max wanted to talk, but he found it hard as his chest is hurting.

“No need to talk. Your body is injured, so you should rest for now. Listen to me, how can you face a villain without checking first? Don’t you know that Crawley is a high C-rank villain and almost ranked up to B? he is someone that is out of your league. One wrong move, and you will be dead. Even your condition right now isn’t better than a corpse.”

Max can only smile weakly while looking at Kalina. Once again, he feels happy to be alive. Not to mention the feeling of having someone care and worry for you; it warms his heart.

“Initially, I wanted to teach you about it later when you reach C-rank, but I guess the plan has to be brought forward. Later, when you’re discharged from the hospital, I will explain to you about how a hero’s team should be formed. For now, you should focus on recovering. You can tell me about your battle with Crawley later too. Honestly, all of your bones are almost crushed. It might even take months for you to recover.”

Kalina let out a helpless sigh looking at Max, who is lying down on the patient’s bed. Although when she first met Max, he looked like a gloomy person, but it was all because of the circumstances. After knowing him, she knows that the heroic spirit of the past five years old Max still lives. He has a strong sense of justice and feels responsible for the safety of the people.

That is why he is suitable to become a hero, but this kind of hero won’t last long. Just like Max, most of them perished while fighting enemies stronger than them or survived with a severe injury. However, it is to be noted that this kind of hero is the most dazzling on the TV, and people still remember them after a long time.

For example, Glorious Blue. He is a hero with the most significant number of devout fans when he is still active. That is because just like his name, glorious, Glorious Blue has an unyielding heart and undying will. Never give up in front of evil and always stand up for justice even if all of his limbs are broken. If his fist is damaged and couldn’t punch, kick. Suppose his leg is broken and couldn’t kick, headbutt. If he couldn’t even move anymore, he won’t give up and sent a big bite to the enemy while using his head to drag his body.

As dazzling and glorious as he can be, Glorious Blue’s career is a short one. He is active only for around two years before he has to retire after challenging the impossible. At his closing speech, he even joked that although he has become disabled, he managed to prevent thousands of other people from becoming disabled like him. It is enough for him to be the only sacrifice.

On average, a hero’s career usually lasts for five to ten years, with seven become the average. Of course, there are various reasons for their retirement, but the most common is not because of injury. That is also why Glorious Blue is the respected figure for all new heroes after him. If it wasn’t for his body that couldn’t fight on the battlefield anymore, he might die trying to save other people.

“Alright, I won’t keep you for long. There’s another person that is wanting to meet you. You’ve passed out for two days, yet she still comes every day.”

Hearing what Kalina’s said, Max is curious. As Kalina bid her goodbye and walk out of the door, another figure can be seen rushing inside.

“Big brother, Air!”

Max smiled when looking at the small girl that approaching him energetically. She even started to cry out when she saw Max laying down on the bed with four casts on his limbs.

“*sob sob* This is because of me. Big brother must be hurting right now.”

Max wanted to shake his head and speak, but he feels pain once again, so he can only smile at Thea. Not long after, Thea’s Mama came in and bowed to Max.

“Thank you for saving Thea. I couldn’t express how much thankful I am. If something happened to Thea, I might not even be able to carry on living. Alright, Thea. Let’s leave big brother Air to rest. You can visit him every day and play with him later when he is feeling better. We will take our leave now. Please rest and get well soon.”

Once again, Thea’s Mama bowed down to max to show her gratitude. After seeing them leaving the room, Max, who couldn’t move his body, can only stare at the empty ceiling. However, he is feeling extremely happy right now.

His first day after debuting as a hero seemed more like a child’s joke compared to what happened on the second day. However, he is glad that he helped those people on the first day and didn’t regret his decision to chase after Crawley to save Thea. Hearing the heartfelt gratitude from Thea’s Mama, Max suddenly remembers the reason as to why he wants to become a hero.

The smile on Thea’s face and Thea’s Mama’s face can never be seen if Max failed to save Thea. It shows how important his job is and how impactful it is in their life. Saving people, seeing them smile, is why he wanted to become a hero. Just like how he sees the smile on his parent’s faces every time he talked about heroes to them. Max closes his eye, and the scene is still clear as day in his memory.