NOTES: Alive!Tadashi and for the sake of plot, the legal adult age will be 17.
Hiro finally decides to set up a doctor's appointment after his headaches start lasting longer and become more painful.
He tells the woman what he's been experiencing. Her reaction doesn't look good.
She fetches another doctor, this time a man. He looks stunned at Hiro's young appearance, which the teenager finds suspicious.
The new doctor asks him about every detail Hiro had experienced with his peculiar headaches. Then he asks, "You are sixteen?" And Hiro answers, "Yes."
None of their expressions calm his sudden nerves.
They take him into a new room where he'll be scanned. Hiro is confused, wondering if this is really such a big deal. The doctors seem uptight, though, so he lets them lead the way to the scanning room.
They inspect the images from the procedure. Hiro notices their faces don't look very reassuring.
Something is very wrong.
They tell him he might be dying. They say his brain is in serious danger because of a lethal tumor. Hiro shakes it off.
"This is serious, Mr. Hamada. Don't you want to call your parents?"
"No, thanks." And he flees.
The next couple of days hang over Hiro's head. His headaches continue, and he considers visiting the hospital again. They said they would inspect his scans for a treatment, but he has a hunch they won't find anything.
Hiro heads to SFIT on Monday. Tadashi drives him in the truck he received on his nineteenth birthday.
Hiro always loved car rides. Now? Not so much.
They go separate ways for classes. Throughout the day, Hiro's headaches fade on and off. The only time the pain lessens is when he closes his eyes and lets his mind go blank. His professors won't put up with it, though.
At the end of the day, he collapses onto his bed and sleeps soundly. Tadashi doesn't try waking him, but instead slips Hiro's shoes off and covers him with his bedsheets.
On Wednesday, he gets a call from the hospital. They want to set up an appointment. When he asks if they've found a cure, they hesitate and say, "Not yet."
He hangs up right after saying, "Call me when you have."
Hiro is trying to work on his robotics project. He already created the schematics and gathered his supplies. Now he just has to build it.
His head pounds painfully as he attempts to build the bot he's working on. He eventually grabs a cold washcloth and ties it around his head. It works for the first half hour.
Honey Lemon asks if he's okay when he was rubbing at his forehead and eyes. He just chuckles and answers, "Yup."
The hospital calls. The doctor insists they need to schedule an appointment, or he'll contact his legal guardian, Aunt Cass.
Hiro goes to the hospital, and they inform him of everything they know. They say his case is different from any other's, and they admit they're unsure if treatment is possible.
They scan him again, and hold two laminated pictures in front of him. The one on the left is from his first appointment a week and a half ago. The second is on the right, and the shape symbolizing the tumor has grown just slightly.
They tell him that time is running out. They promise they'll work on a cure, or at least find a way to lengthen whatever time he has left.
Hiro is numb, only able to feel his headaches. He's in shock, even after a week and a half.
He's unsure of what to do.
Hiro spontaneously vomits the moment he stands from bed on Thursday, just a day after his second appointment.
Tadashi notices and rubs his back soothingly while he spills whatever is in his stomach onto their wooden floor.
Aunt Cass cleans it for them. Hiro thanks her and Tadashi, and also thanks whatever God is out there when they tell him he can skip a day of college.
Hiro returns to SFIT on Friday, the next day. He's slightly wobbly, his knees feeling so weak that he walks with them bent.
His friends ask if he's okay. He lies, because apparently that's all he's good at nowadays.
The teenager visits the hospital on his own accord by the ending of the third week. He sets up an appointment last minute, but they almost eagerly accept his offer.
This time, a new professional enters the room. He checks over the symptoms Hiro has been experiencing, and scribbles down on a clipboard.
They prescribe medicine.
"Mr. Hamada, you need to tell your family about your… condition," the first doctor he visited tells him.
Hiro just gives a shrug and a meek smile. "It's okay, I'm good. I'll tell them soon."
He never said 'I promise', so in his mind that means he's not guilty when he doesn't confess his problem to anyone.
Hiro vomits three times in one day on a Saturday. Tadashi is in the garage updating Baymax, and Aunt Cass is out shopping.
No one notices when he vomits one, two, and then three times.
They're busy with their own problems, and so is he. But Hiro doesn't need anyone's help… right?
On Tuesday, Hiro awakes feeling particularly awful. His head hurts, despite the medication the doctors provide him.
He feels exhausted, weak, sick, and overall horrible. He doesn't want to move. It sickens him knowing what's wrong with him, because now he knows he'll be feeling this way for a while.
Hiro falls asleep in each class a minimum of one time. In his third, the teacher had to wake him up five times. Hiro didn't have the strength to stay awake.
When the professor suggests going to the nurse, Hiro just shakes his head and mumbles, "'M fine."
But he's starting to think he's not.
At the end of the day, Hiro practically falls into Tadashi's truck. His older brother jokes, "Long day?" and Hiro just laughs.
It feels good to laugh.
"We've compared the four scans," the male doctor murmurs. "We have some disappointing news, Hiro."
It worries Hiro that they're using his first name now.
"What?" he asks.
"The tumor is growing very rapidly. At this pace you'll be experiencing worse symptoms and problems. However, your family and friends-"
"No," Hiro interrupts. "They don't need to know."
"Hiro, you know we have to-"
"No you don't," Hiro growls. "My seventeenth birthday is in a couple months. I can handle myself then."
A moment of silence passes.
"I don't think you have that long, Hiro."
Hiro is starting to reconsider his decision to not tell anyone. He doesn't want to be remembered this way. He doesn't want to be seen as "The Genius 16-year-old Who Lost His Life to Cancer." He doesn't want to be on the headline.
He certainly doesn't want to be in a hospital bed either.
So what is he supposed to do?
Soldier on.