This World

by Lee, TD

  Sadie nods slowly. “Yeah, sucks, but such is life,” Sadie answers me quietly, she’s probably not up to full strength yet since she woke up today. “How have you been?”

  “Better now, really. How about you?” I ask back, this is so awkward.

  “I’ve had a fast month,” she tries to joke again, but even she can’t really smile to it.

  “You and me both,” I say. She quietly pity laughs as her eyes move back to the window for a moment. “Miss him?” I ask, getting straight to the point to cut the sad silence in the room.

  “Yeah,” she answers with a nod.

  Shit, now that I’m actually here I have no idea what to say to her. We hardly know each other. Why did I come visit? Maybe I should go, Ainia told me to hurry up after all.

  Before I could get up to leave, Sadie asks me, “So did you see the news?”

  “What news?”

  “That I got replaced in the Mobile Knights. Didn’t take them long,” Sadie answers somberly.

  Oh no. It would make sense for her to know that there’s a new Guinevere, but something about her telling me makes it a lot sadder than when I saw it earlier. “Yeah, I saw that. I can’t believe they did that to you.”

  “It makes sense though. According to my parents, they decided to replace me as soon as they found out I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. Guess I’ll just work in the bakery from now on,” Sadie speaks a bit sadly.

  “That’s really messed up, how could they do that to you?” I ask.

  Sadie sighs, her voice starts to waver a bit, “It’s just how things are done with the Mobile Knights. Once a pilot is officially out of commission, a replacement is brought on board. They have to be ready for any attacks after all so if they’re low on any pilots it means low defenses. It’s all business.”

  Is that really the harsh truth behind the Mobile Knights? The pilots are just that expendable? That’s seriously messed up. “How could they do that do you and Hiro? So quickly too, where’s the respect?”

  “It’s all business Ridley. That’s all it is. We as pilots knew what we were getting into and what would happen when we couldn’t pilot anymore. It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” Sadie explains. Her hands slowly move to the letter on her lap. “I wish I could keep going for him.” Tears start to fall from her eyes. She takes a couple of deep breaths to try to regain her composure.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay, such is life,” Sadie breathes. She changes the subject, “Did you get a letter too?”

  I nod even though she’s not looking at me. “Yeah, how did he know to write a letter to us?”

  Sadie replies, “Every pilot of a Mobile Knight leaves a letter or video behind saying goodbye since we never know when we’re going to die. Hiro did his the same time I did with the echo scribes. I can remember him leaving the room where we talked to the echo scribe with tears running down his eyes, but he looked happy too. As soon as he saw me, he hugged me so tightly that it felt like time stopped. We were just having such a special moment. I wish I could go back to that moment.”

  Even though Sadie looks like she’s smiling, it’s a sad, nostalgic smile. Tears continue to fall from her eyes, her fingers clutch onto her letter. I can tell she’s trying really hard not to completely break down. I might not know Sadie that well, but I can tell how much she cared about Hiro. Here I thought I was the only one that really cared, but she definitely had a special bond with him. If only there was something I could do to help her out even a little. I feel so powerless, isn’t there anything I can do to help her? For Hiro’s sake too. Damn, I really am useless. No! No, I need to stop thinking that way.

  “Hey Ridley,” Sadie calls out to me, I look at her and she makes direct eye contact, “why did you come visit me?”

  That’s so forward. It takes me a bit to respond, “I-I’m not really sure myself. It just felt like the right thing to do when I heard you woke up today.”

  She smiles again, saying, “That’s an honest answer, but I appreciate it. Other than you, just my family has come to visit so it’s nice. Thank you for visiting me, I appreciate it.”

  “Oh, yeah, for sure. Don’t even mention it. Did none of your old teammates visit?” I ask. With what she told me, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t visit or won’t.

  Sadie shakes her head and looks out at the window again. “No, I don’t really expect them to visit. They have an entire world to protect after all.”

  It’s hard talking to her. It’s like the opposite of the Prospector, she’s just being quiet which I don’t blame her since she just woke up after all. Maybe coming to visit was a mistake even though she said she appreciated it. She’s probably just saying that to be nice. God, I should just go already. I’m probably annoying her by staying so long. Sorry Hiro, I don’t think I can really make friends that easily.

  I stand up and before I say anything, I notice Sadie shaking a bit. She’s crying more now. Her fists are tightly gripping the blanket over her legs. What happened?

  “S-Sadie, are you okay?” I ask, a bit scared.

  She takes a couple of deep breaths between sobs. The tears don’t stop coming down, her cries are more audible now. Teardrops fall onto Hiro’s letter. I didn’t notice this before, but I can see the corner of a picture tucked into the letter. Sadie turns to me, eyes completely puffed and red. “I just miss him so much!”

  Chapter 23

  It took me a little longer to get home after visiting Sadie. I did my best to help her crying, but the best I was able to do was give her an awkward hug. She was so sad that she continued to cry into my arm. Hiro meant so much to her. After a few minutes, Sadie composed herself and immediately apologized for breaking down even though I basically did the same. I told Sadie that I might come by her bakery to visit her. She smiled and agreed that would be nice. I’m glad Sadie and I are on good terms, otherwise things would be a lot more awkward.

  I left the hospital and Ainia walked me home. Ainia immediately left as soon as she actually saw me enter my house. My mom greeted me happily and asked how the recovery camp was. I lied about it, obviously, but my mom didn’t know otherwise. I told her that I’ll be out of the house a lot more often which she said she didn’t really mind as long as I’m safe which is something I can’t guarantee.

  As soon as I change and sit on my bed, I really felt how tired my legs actually were. The day was absolutely crazy with how much happened. Traveling across time and space with the Prospector, Adele, and Grania was really weird, but definitely a memorable experience. Never would I have thought to even do space travel, not that many people consider that now. What a ride. I come back from outer space to find out that a month has passed which I’m still trying to process. I would say that it makes sense, but it really doesn’t and I’m too tired to understand it.

  I fall back onto my bed and completely relax. Wow, has my bed always felt this comfortable? A couple of deep breaths helps me relax more. I wonder how working with Adele is going to go. If it’s anything similar to being around the Prospector then I definitely have to prepare for that. How do I even prepare for stuff like that? I just hope that I learn how to really observe and think like Adele. She seems like she has such a good eye on her and I want to learn how to be like that. It seems like if there’s anything that I can do to be useful, it would be that I can at least use observation and thinking. I mean, I feel like I do tend to notice things better than other people, but maybe that’s just me fooling myself. We’ll see.

  Sleep comes to me quick.

  A dream. Did I have a dream? Or was my night just complete darkness? It’s weird because even if you know you had a dream, it fades away so quickly. It just goes away once you wake up. Does it even matter if I have a dream? All I see is darkness then glowing lights that fade back to darkness. Spots of purple shows up sometimes. If this is a dream, I don’t know what it’s supposed to be or tell me. Maybe nothing. Not everything has a meaning after all.

  The afternoon sun wake
s me up, I slept in a lot later than I wanted to. Yesterday was a really tiring day after all. I slowly get ready for the day, there’s no rush to do anything in particular today before heading over to Adele’s agency.

  Adele said to come to the agency in the evening. Does that mean at like five or six? Maybe I’ll go at five just to be safe. I wonder what why she wants me to go so late and what she’s going to have me do. Hopefully I can manage it. Without realizing it, I’m shaking and I can feel my nervousness rising. Why am I nervous? It’s not like I’ve never been around Adele before. First day jitters maybe? Whatever, hopefully it goes away soon.

  I head downstairs to grab something light to eat. There’s a large box sitting next to the front door. What is this? I look at it really quickly and notice that it’s addressed to me. What is this? To my memory, I don’t remember ordering anything. Huh. I grab a bagel and the box and head upstairs to my room. What is in this thing? I shake the box, but I don’t hear anything distinctive inside.

  I pull out each item one by one, examining each of them carefully. An action figure of Meteor has so many nicks and scratches that it really shows its age. A large poster of Meteor that has a faded signature and ripped a bit shows how many times this thing has been hung up. More figurines of Meteor come from the box, some still in their respective boxes as others show just as much wear as the one earlier. There are even some Meteor styled postcards, trading cards, and playing cards. Is there every sort of merchandise of this guy? There’s a couple of other posters of a superheroine with ice powers.

  Last I pull out are three sets of comic books. One with Meteor as the focal point, another of the lady hero named Diamond Dust, and last has the Mobile Knight Lancelot. There’s a couple of comics that has all of the Mobile Knights of the Round Table. I flip through the pages of the comic books with Lancelot. The last volume drops something from between its pages. It’s a picture. A picture that I forgot was ever taken. There’s a picture of me and Hiro at the capsule toy sushi place when we talked everything out. I forgot we even took a picture that night, I was just so absorbed by everything else, mostly the fact that Hiro ate 100 plates of sushi.

  Damn Hiro, way to make the waterworks come.

  A small smile creeps on my face as I browse even more through the Lancelot comic books. Hiro’s right, it’s basically just a biography of his life. It details when he first was scouted to be a pilot, the training and tests he had to go through, and even the mundane aspects of his life. Shit, I’m even in these comics a couple of times. Hiro had to really want me to be in these. There’s a specific panel of when he first piloted Lancelot that paints him as such a cool guy. He is a cool guy. Sadie’s in here a lot too, of course she is they’re together after all. Although, the comics definitely make Arthur seem like a nice guy when he’s really not. There’s a couple of details here and there that definitely are exaggerated, like when he saved me from getting shot by the GUARD. Instead of simply just blocking me from the bullets, it shows that he put up some sort of force field and a triumphant speech. None of that happened, they even omitted Meteor out of the entire thing. But overall, these comics highlight Hiro in a positive light. Good, he deserves that. On the last page of the final volume of the Lancelot comics, Hiro signed it and wrote:

  Succeed in the world, I know you can do it. Keep that fire in your heart burning. Love you.

  Goddammit Hiro. How many of these messages has he left me?

  I pick up the Meteor comics. Some of them are definitely worn down and date more than a decade back. Meteor really has been around for that long. The things I know about Meteor all came from Hiro. I can tell Hiro really loved Meteor and looked up to the guy simply by how much stuff he has of him. My eyes start flipping through the Meteor comics.

  Meteor started his superhero career at the age of thirteen. He’s a Deviant that discovered his powers when he was twelve and accidentally caused a forest fire during a camping trip. He was being bullied on the trip which caused him so much stress and anger that his powers manifested. When everyone discovered that he had superpowers through natural means, they thought he was weird and ostracized him even more. He was found by another Deviant, who simply went by Mother Earth. She became a mentor for Meteor and had him enrolled in a special school for Deviants and he started his superhero career from then on.

  Meteor was a charismatic, happy, proud, and whimsical superhero when he started off., spouting witty one liners to villains and win over the hearts of many people. He was a successful hero for a time, but encountered one of his biggest villains, Kitsune. Meteor was fifteen when he first encountered Kitsune. Kitsune was a mind controlling woman who used magical smoke to draw people in who Meteor was in love with, she seemed to reciprocate, but couldn’t break out of the villain mold. Meteor defeated her and had her put in custody. The next major villain Meteor would ho against is the Puppeteer. Hiro always told me that the Puppeteer was the main antagonist against Meteor and what caused Meteor to be so popular for so many years. Meteor was seventeen when he went against the Puppeteer and the struggle persisted for three years. The Puppeteer was able to control the people around him, so another mind controller too. All of the feuds against the Puppeteer consisted of Meteor fighting against the mind controlling himself and saving innocent people from sacrificing themselves for the Puppeteer’s sake. The stakes were high as the Puppeteer even kidnapped Meteor’s girlfriend at the time. Meteor ultimately defeated the Puppeteer by killing the controller. This was the descent to Meteor’s popularity. Superheroes shouldn’t kill and Meteor did so. The comics even have a heavy bias against Meteor from this point on. Each issue starts painting Meteor as a violent vigilante that takes the extremes. Even to the point that he’ll kill innocent people if that means he’ll be able to get to whoever the villain is.

  The last villain that I read about is the Nymph, but the comics show Nymph to be an innocent person that just so happened to get on the wrong side of Meteor. Meteor ultimately kills her during a peaceful conversation. Did that really happen? The comics suddenly drop off and end abruptly with Meteor killing innocent bystanders during an anti-Deviant protest. This last comic was published five years ago.

  I wonder how much of this stuff is true. Hiro said things are exaggerated in these comics for effect and I know after reading his comics that things definitely are exaggerated. Even though I don’t know Meteor as well as Hiro does, even I can tell that a lot of these details are really weird. The later issues make him out to be much more of a villain than anything else. Weird. As I move the comics around again, something falls out of one of the comics. How did I miss this?

  A small picture fell on my floor. It’s a picture of Meteor and Hiro together during a Hero Con seven years ago. The picture is definitely worn down from the years, but you can tell Hiro tried his best to keep this picture in good condition. Hiro looks so happy here standing next to his favorite superhero. Meteor looks super clean and in his prime, nothing like the guy I’ve seen before. On the back is a signature from Meteor and a message:

  To my biggest Meteorite: Keep that fire in your heart burning! Become the superhero you know you’ll become, with your potential, kid, you’ll do amazing things.

  Hiro really loved this guy as a superhero and role model. I wonder why he gave this picture to me anyway, I feel like it should really belong to Sadie if anyone else. Whatever, I’ll carry it with me like a momento, considering I can’t really carry these comic books with me everywhere I go without it looking weird. I pull out my wallet and put the picture inside a safe spot.

  I check the time and it’s almost time for me to head over to Adele’s agency. Wow, did I really spend all this time just reading comics? There’s still that last set of comic books with Diamond Dust that I haven’t been able to get around to yet. Even after life, Hiro finds a way to get me to do something superhero related. I put on a jacket and head out the door.

  A nice breeze hits me as I start making my way to the agency. Seriously, I wonder what Adele is going to hav
e me do. It seemed like she knew I was going to ask her if I could work for her, maybe that was her plan all along. She did say that she’ll protect me under Hiro’s request so maybe working for her will actually be beneficial since it’ll be easier for her to protect me that way. Maybe Adele planned all of this. If she did then she’s a lot more like a fortune teller than a detective.

  When I make it to the agency I knock on the door. Dom opens it and greets me, “About time. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  “Oh, uh, sorry,” I say, stepping in. Shiko comes running up to me and climbs on my leg.

  “If there’s anything you’ll learn quickly working here is that you’ll always want to meet in Adele’s office,” Dom says, leading me down the hall to Adele’s office. Dom opens the door and I’m greeted by one strangely familiar face with Adele.

  “Kirika?” I question, seeing the famous singer in pretty standard civilian clothes.

  “Hello, you must be Ridley,” Kirika says walking up to me. She puts her hand out for a handshake. “We’ve met before haven’t we?”

  “Um, yeah. At-”

  “Hero Con,” Kirika finishes for me. “What a coincidence that we’re to meet under these circumstances. I look forward to working with you.”

  “Y-yeah,” I say a bit star struck. Can’t say I wasn’t blindsided by this. I would think that Kirika would be doing more important things than to hang around a detective agency. Doesn’t she have concerts to do or something?

  Adele greets me, “Ah, Ridley, welcome, welcome. Nice to see that you are already acquainted with Kirika. She will be helping us, even if it is for a temporary time.”

  “Okay,” I mumble.

  Adele sits down behind her desk and says, “So, let us get down to business now that all five of us are here. Dom can you explain what it is that you all will be doing tonight?”