Hunter x Hunter

In the anime shown above, the main character makes a sacrifice, but it isn’t his life.  I don’t want to give spoilers, but it is effectively his future.  He makes a decision to sacrifice his future in order to defeat a powerful enemy and save the world.  There are ways for him to recover what he lost as the story continues, but this is still a sacrifice at that moment.  To be honest, I haven’t read or watched beyond this storyline.  I only know what people have told me, which is obvious since the main character needs to stay in the story.

Anyway, this makes me think of other things that can be sacrificed besides ones life:

1. Time–  This comes off as a weird one, but it keeps coming to my mind.  It can range from giving up years of life without dying to simply spending time assisting with an adventure.  I think this one is very subtle and gets overlooked, but there’s rarely attention given to it when it’s the latter.  We don’t think about how some heroes or their allies have prior lives, which they left to accomplish their goals.
2. Money– This is similar to time in that we don’t think about it unless the author brings direct attention to the sacrifice.  For example, billionaire heroes spend fortunes to create their tools and make other positive changes to their society.  This isn’t overtly mentioned beyond us knowing they can do the things they do because they are rich.  We do notice if one of them sacrifices their entire fortune to save the world and is now so poor that they can’t be the same type of hero.  To be fair, I guess this category requires the most amount of suspending disbelief, which could make this sacrifice harder to pull off.
3. Power– This is the big one that I thought about putting first, but it seems the most obvious.  Instead of sacrificing their life, a hero gives up their powers to either save or protect.  I don’t mean a little bit of power, but all of it.  One series I was heavy into ended with the main hero realizing the only way to win was to give up the powers they had dreamed of and cherished for their entire life.  They do it and are left a powerless person, but still a hero.  This is what made me think of this topic too because it isn’t something we see often.  Heroes might give up a little power or find a way to regain it, but this story ended with the character losing it for good.  I find this to be a bigger sacrifice than ones life because you have to continue living without being able to achieve the same heroic feats as before.  The urge to save and protect is still there, but not the powers to do so.  It creates a fascinating story of a hero who needs to find a new way of doing things.
4. A Physical Trait– We get close to sacrificing ones life, but this is more about giving up a limb, organs, or sense.  This is typically done in the spur of the moment and possibly on a smaller scale than others.  I find this tends to be when the person is takes a hit for someone else or tries to save everyone, but can’t entirely get out of the way.  This can be risky for authors since it can be perceived as them not having ‘the guts’ to kill off a character.  On the other hand, you now have a hero or ally who needs to adjust to a disability, which can be inspiring.
5. Mental Stability–  I don’t know how I would write this, but I know it’s possible.  A character pushes themself so hard that they go crazy or simply break.  That or they tangle with a telepath and win by snapping their own sanity.  Anybody know how this one would work?