When he was six, Hiro Hamada accidentally punched a hole in the wall of his aunt Cass's bedroom with a robot he and his older brother Tadashi had built. He had panicked, thinking this was it, he was dead. This was the end of the world. This was the single worst thing that would ever happen to him.
Now, eight years later, as Hiro stood next to his brother in front of the burning showcase hall at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, he realized he was wrong.
He couldn't really comprehend what was happening. He saw people running, he heard people screaming, and he saw the showcase hall being swallowed by flames, but he couldn't process any of it.
Hiro didn't get it. Today had started out so great. He had gotten into the college of his dreams, had earned the respect of his professor, Robert Callaghan, and was going to go to college with his brother. Hiro had it made. So how had everything gone from perfect to awful so fast?
Hiro was so in shock from the sudden turn of events, he barely even noticed Tadashi running past him toward the showcase hall. "Tadashi, no!" he yelled and grabbed Tadashi's forearm in an admittedly pathetic attempt to stop his brother from running in there.
Tadashi turned around to look at his brother and his heart melted when he saw Hiro's face. He had never seen something so pitiful; his brother was so desperate to keep Tadashi with him. Tadashi didn't want to leave him either, honestly, but Callaghan was his mentor, his role model. He didn't quite know how to explain it. He knew it was stupid and dangerous and deadly, but Tadashi knew in his heart that this was right.
He just wished he could get his scared fourteen-year-old brother to know it too.
"Callaghan's in there, Hiro," Tadashi said breathlessly. "Someone has to help." He took one last look at his little brother and ran two steps at a time into the burning building.
Hiro helplessly watched as Tadashi ran into the showcase hall, feeling his stomach twist into knots. His eyes were torn away from the showcase hall when he saw something falling through the air from within the building. At first Hiro thought it was one of the hundreds of ashes that had been thrown from the flames, but as it landed on the steps a few feet in front of him, he realized it was his brother's trademark San Fransokyo Ninjas hat, tilted on its side on the concrete.
Hiro picked it up, and instantly knew what he needed to do. He took off after Tadashi, sprinting into the flames.
...
For a second, Hiro couldn't see anything. All he saw was brightness, stretching around his line of sight for miles, it seemed. At first, he was confused. 'Did I die?' He thought. 'Am I in heaven?'
When he was finally snapped back to reality, he wished he actually had been in heaven.
The showcase hall had been completely overtaken by the flames. There was fire everywhere: on the walls, on the beams in the ceiling, and completely covering the floor. Any machinery that was still in the hall was inoperable now; the fire had done too much damage to them already.
"Tadashi!" Hiro yelled desperately, hoping for any sign that his brother was in here, and most importantly, alive. He squinted through the smoke, and thought he saw a blurry shadow running through the hall. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him, maybe they weren't, but he knew the shadow could only be one of two people, either Professor Callaghan or Tadashi. Hiro ran toward the shadow, praying with all his strength that he could get to whoever it was in time.
Tadashi couldn't believe his eyes. After all this searching, he had finally found his beloved professor. The only downside was, he had found his teacher stealing his little brother's invention.
"Professor Callaghan?" Tadashi asked cautiously. "What are you doing with Hiro's microbots?"
Callaghan turned around to look at his pupil. Tadashi's eyes widened when he saw the look on his teacher's face. It was cold, it was vindictive, it was... heartless.
"Get out of here, Tadashi," Callaghan growled. "Let me be."
Tadashi's jaw dropped when he realized what was really going on. Callaghan was stealing Hiro's invention to save himself! Or maybe it wasn't just to save himself. Maybe he was planning something with them...
"Professor," Tadashi coughed, the smoke now making it hard to breathe. "I trusted you."
Callaghan stared directly at him for about a millisecond before turning his gaze past Tadashi and gasping, "Hiro." Callaghan then lifted his arms and was surrounded by an impenetrable orb of microbots.
Tadashi looked behind him to see what Callaghan was looking at, and what he saw made his heart drop. He took off at a sprint, hoping it wasn't too late.
Hiro looked around the showcase hall once again. The flames had only grown stronger, engulfing even more of what was left of the showcase hall. Suddenly, Hiro saw his brother passing through the thick wall of smoke and running toward him.
"Tadashi!"
"HIRO!" Tadashi screamed, reaching out his arms toward his brother. Hiro stretched his arms to return the embrace, but instead, Tadashi collided with Hiro and shoved him hard ten feet away from where he was. Tadashi looked up at the beam that was falling from the ceiling and turned to look at his brother, who was staring at the scene in horror. He smiled at Hiro briefly, trying to comfort him, before the beam crashed into him and pinned him to the ground in a rush of smoke.
Hiro coughed intensely, clearing some of the smoke away with his hand. Once the smoke had cleared. he saw an unconscious Tadashi lying amid the flames with a beam lying on his back.
"TADASHI!" Hiro cried, running as fast as his legs could carry him toward his brother. He sank to his knees in front of him, shaking Tadashi's shoulder hard in a feeble attempt to wake him up.
"C'mon, Tadashi, you CAN'T die!" Hiro coughed even more as tears began to blur his vision.
Through his tears, Hiro slightly saw Tadashi's soot covered hair moving slightly. He wiped the tears away and stared intensely at his brother.
Tadashi turned his head to look at Hiro. Or, at least, he tried, anyway. He could barely do anything, there was so much pain. Oh, God, he couldn't even tell what was broken. The only thing his pounding head could register was his brother and WHY THE HECK HE WAS STILL IN HERE.
"Hiro... go... please..." He murmured through the intense pain.
"No, Tadashi! I'm not letting you die!" He coughed, trying to keep himself together.
"Hiro... we can't both die..." Tadashi groaned, the pain beginning to overtake him. "Aunt Cass... Gogo... Wasabi... what about them?"
What he said made sense. It would be selfish of Hiro to die and hurt everyone he loved even more. "But... Tadashi..." Hiro whimpered, desperately trying to keep his brother with him.
"Please..."
Hiro looked at Tadashi and allowed more of his tears to fall. "I love you, Tadashi," He said softly. He got up to leave when Tadashi grabbed his arm.
"Hiro..." He breathed. "I will never... ever... give up on you."
Hiro smiled and let out a choked sound from within his throat. He got one last look at his brother, who was smiling weakly at him, and then he took off, trying desperately to keep the smoke from overtaking him. He had just made it outside when his vision began to go dark. He fell down, looking up at the sky. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a fireman with an oxygen mask.
...
"Hiro? HIRO!"
Hiro woke up in a hospital bed. How much later it was, he couldn't tell, but at least he knew he was safe. He saw his Aunt Cass next to him, her brown hair a tangled mess and her makeup running.
"Hey, Aunt Cass..." Hiro murmured sleepily.
"Oh my God, Hiro!" Aunt Cass enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug, which he eagerly returned. "You scared me."
As Hiro began to register more of his surroundings, he began to realize there was one face he didn't see by him. "Where's Tadashi?" Hiro asked shakily.
"Oh, Hiro," Aunt Cass began to cry, embracing him again.
That's when he realized.
They never found Tadashi.
Around then, his tears began to fall and they didn't stop. He rocked back and forth in his aunt's arms, his body racked with deep, painful sobs. He couldn't believe it. He had never been without his big brother. Not until now. What was he supposed to do without Tadashi?
Hiro closed his eyes, remembering the last thing Tadashi said to him.
"I will never... ever... give up on you..."
Then why did he?