To Balance

She was (obviously) not unaware that she was not alone in her evening descent, but since they were to part ways for the night, they both fell independently.

"Independently" is used loosely, as trailing behind her was a man magnetically attached to a Giant Bear. Like Gale, he was not afraid of falling, however unlike Gale, he hadn't the equipment to do so on his own. Up until this point Gale had been his ride, but their upcoming missions required a vehicle to account for non fliers, a supercomputer to analyse and inform, and a huggable companion for those who needed it during rough times.

Hence, Tedi, the Bear.

It being Hikari's first flight with Tedi did not bring the expected floundering, as it required minimal time getting used to riding the bear. As he attached himself to the flufferino his posture almost instantaneously became intentful, gaining balance. They started to dive behind the already caught up Gale in a more convincing manner.

She took a glance behind her and murmered "ugh." before instantly speeding up to seperate herself and continue on her lonesome [as per chapter 1].

This "ugh" is less deep than it seems, though this sentence seems to ironically put more attention towards it. To elaborate (lol), the combination of Gale's slightly pretentious character and her almost unrivalled strength prevented her from taking a liking to those who lacked ability. Those who didn't, however, earnt Gale's respect, and sometimes even friendship. Hikari was one of those people.

That said, her fiery ambition to be the best created a strong friendly-rivalry between the two in almost everything they did. So it come as a mild surprise that this "ugh" wasn't because she was jealous of his now higher rank. It was in response to seeing Hikari quickly warm up to the new cute vehicle, which annoyed her. "Oh so now he's good at this too?" she thought to herself. Flight was supposed to be her thing.

This friendly competition was rather one-sided though, as Hikari himself wasn't too fussed about the whole kerfuffle. Some may falsely attest this to him newly attaining a higher position, however Hikari had always felt this way. While he too was attracted to those with such power, he saw not the need to compete but rather strong allies that he could trust and rely on. A quality befitting Vanguard's newly appointed Commander.

Hikari's name was as prominent, if not moreso, than Gale's within the Kingdom. He became incredibly popular and respected after saving the Empress during her speech at his graduation ceremony. A terrorist opposition group sought this event as an easy opportunity at the Empress.

They were wrong.

The only opportunity that had manifested was one where Hikari could show his might, fending off these villians and protecting the Empress. His stats from that event include deflecting 400 fire blasts, evading a further 200 ice shards, redirecting 3 lava grenades and single-handedly defeating 400 terrorists using only his warhammer, his signature weapon of choice. This hammer was an ordinary warhammer, however imbued with the [Nova] sOr.

{Insert Conveniently Placed Exposition}. Zephyria had classified sOr based on their rarities, the rarest being the most powerul: Common (Unlimited Per Type), Uncommon (100k Per Type), Rare (100 Per Type), Super Rare (15 Per Type) & Ultra Rare (1 Per Type). [Nova] is an Ultra-Rare sOr.

After this incident, Hikari was immediately recruited into Her Majesty's Royal Guard, and after only 3 years of countless battles and rank progression, he had become both the Captain of this squad and a 7-star Knight.

Hikari was a very stable person. He was confident and knew very well of his power, but humble enough to understand that this power made him no better a person than any other. He respected his peers, not hesitating to protect anyone in danger, but also unafraid of calling them out for stepping out of line. He did not let duty compromise his moral compass, but he similarly did not let his values compromise his duty. That, along with possessing incredible strength, speed, fighting skill, agility and intelligence made him perfect fit to lead Vanguard. He excelled in everything. He was well-balanced.

Particularly now in flight too, as he and Tedi cut clean through the sky. Hikari, however, wasn't as big of a flight person, so once they approached the mainland, Tedi eased to a leisurely pace towards his living quarters, an enormous structure at the center of the Capital. Similar to the rest of the Capital, the building was lit up majestically. It wasn't overwhelmingly bright to the point of hurting the naked eye, however it stood beautifully as the nucleus of Zephyria.

He lived in the Royal Palace. Lucky him.

Hikari dismounted Tedi on the terrace of his apartment within this spectacular building. He stared at it with hope, it countering with a blank expression.

"Will that be all, Hikari?"

The Bear's AI spoke. It had a soft female voice.

Hikari smiled. "Can I hug you?" he asked curiously, poking multiple times at the bear's soft torso. Seemed huggable.

Tedi nodded and approached Hikari slowly and embraced him, before jetting off to an unknown yet unimportant location.

Hikari sighed. Maintaining a well-balanced physique, duty and personality came naturally to him, but it certainly was exhausting. He understood that the bear was needed for the mission, not just because he couldn't fly independently, or that it would contain incredible environmental and battle information, but also because it would make for a great comforting companion.

He hung his cloak up, entered his personal study, turned on the visual processOrs and examined the graphic on the large screen mounted on the wall. On it contained the images of all the other remaining newly appointed members of Vanguard. He stared at every member, internally processing every strength and weakness and acknowledging the roles each were to fulfil within the team. He then glanced over at himself at the center, recognising that he were to be the stable, impartial rock of this team, and lead them to great success.

He was chosen to balance.

"Ah fu-".

He shivered in annoyance, as Gale's voice abruptly and violently invaded his previously silent room, her face immediately following it on the screen. He then learnt that bird droppings had coated her wings.

These calls occurred often.