35 Hero (1/2)
Ed groggily woke up. He tried to rub his eyes before remembering he currently had no arms. He was staring at a white ceiling while lying in a bed. 'A hospital?' He sat up and looked around. There were a large number of flowers piled up in the corner of the room. They literally took up almost a fourth of the entire room. 'The hells with that?'
The door swung open and a doctor walked in with a clipboard. ”Oh, good! You're finally awake! We've all been quite worried about you, young hero.”
”Where am I?” He questioned. 'There shouldn't be any functional hospitals left in Atlanta by now... Why is he calling me such a stupid name?'
”Ah, right. You must be a bit confused. This is Macon, Georgia. A lot of the survivors from Atlanta were brought here.”
”Is that so? Am I free to go now then?”
”Free to go?” The doctor hesitated. ”What about your arms? It looks like you lost them in the battle. We can work on getting you some simple prosthetics before you go.”
”Don't need them.” He replied in a gruff voice. He swung his feet to the left and slid off the bed to stand up. He began walking towards the door.
”Wait!” The doctor yelled. ”Can you tell us who the girl that was with you is?”
”What girl?” He questioned.
”Follow me.” The doctor waved his hand. ”The two of you were originally dropped off here together.”
The duo walked down the hall into another patient's room. A girl was lying on the bed. The entire right half of her face was covered in a lightning scar. It looked like a light pink tattoo of many tree branches.
”Yuki?!” He blurted out in shock.
The girl turned towards him with her calm black eyes. She spoke in a soft voice. ”Doctor. Who's this?”
The doctor smiled, ”This is the boy who was with you when you were dropped off.”
”Oh?” She nodded. ”Then I must be Yuki?”
Ed turned towards the doctor while raising a questioning eyebrow.
The doctor sighed, ”I'm afraid she has amnesia. No idea who she is. Are you related to her? Know any family we can bring her to?”
”I see...” He nodded. ”Well, I'll take her with me for now.”
”Alright then. That'll make things easier for us as well. Almost every hospital in Georgia is filled at the moment.”
”There were that many survivors of the nightmare attack?” He questioned.
”Yes!” The doctor released a beaming smile. ”An esper saved almost every citizen of Atlanta early on in the attack! This has gone on record as the nightmare attack with the least number of causalities in all of history! That esper likely saved you two as well!”
”Is that so?” Ed nodded. ”I suppose I'll have to thank the man if I ever meet him.”
”Ah, that...” The doctor sighed while shaking his head. ”I'm afraid that won't be possible. The man died due to overuse of his powers. A grand ceremonial funeral is being held for him here in a few days. He chose Macon as his resting place after setting his mother up in a home here. The city has already donated the house to his mother.”
”Sounds like things will get crowded here soon. Think I'll go ahead and leave before things get crazy.”
”YOU CAN'T!” The doctor screamed in panic.
”Hmm?” Ed made a confused face. ”And why the hell can't I?”
The doctor rose his hand with his index finger up excitedly. ”You're one of the two guests of honor for the ceremony of course!”
”What?!” He replied in shock. ”Why would an ordinary man like me be part of the ceremony?!”
”Gah!” The doctor slapped his forehead. ”Silly old bones me. I forgot to explain. Yuki dear, could you show him that flier I gave you?”
”Mm.” She nodded. She grabbed a sheet of paper off a nightstand to the left of her bed. Then she handed it over to the doctor.
Ed glanced at the paper and his eyes widened as his body trembled. His face was advertised on the 3rd panel. Included was a brief description of how he'd inspired the esper to save the city. ”Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! What the FUCK?!” He glared sharply at the doctor and growled, ”How many people know about this?! How many fliers were passed out?!”
”That...” The doctor took a few steps back while slightly nervous. ”Everyone should know about it. Fliers were passed out in every city in Georgia. They're quickly being reproduced and spread to other cities as we speak. I've heard that some espers are even bringing back the fliers to other continents to advertise the story. It may inspire other espers to do similar actions in the future!”
Ed stood there frozen like a statue. 'It's all over! My plans! My ambitions! Even if I can fool Fang again, everyone will still think I'm an esper. There's no way Sinless would let me stay in the organization. Everyone in the world will treat me like some dumbass hero because of that stupid esper's mistake!' He woodenly turned towards Yuki. She was watching him with a blank face. ”Let's go...” He sighed.
The girl nodded and stood up from the bed. She followed behind them as they exited the room.
...
Yuki stared at the boy with no arms in front of her. 'He looks upset, but there's nothing I can do to help him...' She hung her head down while following behind him. They were walking down a long hallway towards the hospital lobby. They both looked a bit odd since they were still wearing hospital gowns.
The boy gave some information to the staff at the lobby desk. Then he exited the hospital in a rush, but she had an easy time following him. 'I must be quite athletic...' She thought to herself. 'Who is he though? My brother? A distant family member? He couldn't be that could he...?' Her face blushed as she thought of the final possibility.
They left the hospital and walked on the streets. She looked at her surroundings with curiosity. The buildings were several stories tall for the most part. 'Is this a smaller city?' She wondered. 'Oh, maybe I'm from a big city since this feels small?'
She followed behind him for several streets before her curiosity got the better of her. She spoke so quietly it was practically a whisper, ”Where are we going?”
The boy glared at her. He seemed to be quite irritated. ”Hotel.” He said. Then he turned and kept walking quickly.