Chapter 2: Awakening
It was a bright light shining in Tadashi's eyes that finally dragged him back to consciousness. At first he'd simply tried rolling away from the offending brightness, figuring he'd accidentally forgotten to close his blinds the night before, or that he'd fallen asleep in his lab again, and the brightness was just sunlight. But then he'd realized that the sun wasn't usually blue, or at least he was pretty sure it wasn't, and the light stabbing at his closed eyelids definitely had a blue tone to it. Maybe Hiro was pulling another prank on him? Man, if he woke up to the cat wearing hover boots again, he was going to hide all of Hiro's tools for a month.
But when he finally opened his eyes, it wasn't to Mochi hovering over him, or Hiro shining a flashlight in his eyes with a devious expression, or any of his little brother's usual tricks. It was to a flickering ball of blue flame beaming its light cheerfully into his face.
There was a moment where Tadashi's mind couldn't quite compute what it was seeing, and he simply laid there and stared at the flame. And then all at once his memories came rushing back. Hiro's presentation. The talk on the bridge. The screaming and sirens. Professor Callaghan.
The fire.
Tadashi screamed and jerked back on instinct, the memory of burning pain flashing through his mind. To his horror, the blue flame seemed to follow him, and when he looked around, there were two more nearby. He tried to scramble away from them, but it seemed that no matter how far he moved, the balls of fire followed. To an outsider it probably looked almost comical, the way he ran to and fro, trying to get away from them, but they followed cheerfully along without trouble no matter how far or fast he ran.
He finally gave up after a few minutes and stopped to catch his breath, leaning against the remains of a support pillar. He glared at the balls of fire in annoyance, too tired at the moment to be properly afraid of them. Besides, he'd realized by now that they weren't hurting him, nor were they coming any closer to him than a few feet away, seemingly content to just hover nearby. Instead, he glanced around, trying to figure out what had happened to him. The showcase hall was completely gutted, nothing more than a burned out husk, with a few fires still smouldering here and there. He could remember the fire, remembered getting hit on the head by something, but when he glanced down at himself, he could see no sign of injury. How was that possible?
It was only then that it occurred to Tadashi that the strange blue flames had been hovering nearby him this whole time, floating somewhere between four and five feet off the ground around his shoulder height. A sinking feeling grew in his gut as he realized what the strange flames reminded him of, an old memory floating to the top of his mind. He remembered pouring over an old book his mother had given him for his birthday one year, back when she was trying to ensure he experienced just as much of her culture as his father's. It had been full of stories and myths from her home country, all beautifully illustrated with ink paintings.
The one picture he remembered now was of a pale woman dressed in a white kimono, her long black hair hanging down across her face like a curtain. And surrounding her had been a pair of floating balls of fire, called hitodama if he remembered correctly.
The book had called the woman a Yurei. A ghost.
And just like that it hit him. He was dead.
He took a deep breath. And then another. His hands were starting to shake slightly, and he was sure his eyes were wide enough to see the whites all around them, but he was a bit too caught up on the fact that he's dead to care. He died. He'd died, he was dead, he was dead and he didn't know what to do or what had happened, he was just dead and...and…
He flinched as the hitodama flickered strangely and then a pile of nearby embers suddenly burst back into full flame, crackling cheerfully to life. He quickly moved away from the fire, uncomfortable around it even if it could no longer hurt him. Thankfully the distraction was enough to jolt him out of his panic and get his mind working again. Losing his head was not helpful at this point, he needed to think. He'd died, obviously, but how? What did he remember?
He remembered the fire. He remembered the pain and fear. And suddenly he remembered the other person, standing over him, just watching. He couldn't remember who it was or if he'd seen their face, but he did remember that he'd reached out to them. And they'd turned away. They'd left him to die.
A violent and unexpected rage suddenly overtook him. They'd left him, even as he'd cried out for help. How dare they! If they'd helped him, he might not be dead now! He wanted to find this person, find them and make them suffer for what they'd done to him.
But almost as soon as the rage came, Tadashi forced it down. He was left standing there and breathing heavily, the feeling leaving him scared and breathless with its intensity. He'd never felt so hateful in his life, even after his parents had died and he'd been brought to live with his Aunt that he barely knew. It left him feeling shaky and afraid, uncertain where it had even come from. He wasn't like that. That wasn't him.
With almost physical effort, he banished the angry thoughts from his mind. He told himself that there was no guarantee that the person would have been able to save him, and besides, it wouldn't change anything now anyways. What was done was done. He was dead, and there was no changing that.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on trying to stay calm. He drew on all of his experience getting past his frustrations while working on Baymax, took another deep breath, and allowed the dark thoughts to flow away like water. By the time he reopened them his misplaced rage was gone, and he felt much calmer. Now that he was thinking clearly, he remembered that he'd left Hiro behind when he'd run into the building after Professor Callaghan.
"Oh god, Hiro!" Tadashi shouted, wanting to smack himself for not thinking of his brother sooner. He frantically started searching for the main doors, hindered slightly by how little the remains of the building resembled the intact structure, but he thought he could see them not too far away. He ran for them immediately, ignoring the way the hitodama followed, and that he was passing through any obstacles in his path rather than going around them. He was dead and in a hurry, he didn't have time for walls.
When he came out into the plaza at the front of the building, the first thing that he noticed was how empty it was. There was a single police car waiting on the street, and a line of police tape surrounding the area, but for the most part there was no one there. He glanced across the University campus at the huge clock hanging over the main gate, and gasped when he realized how much time had passed. It was well into the wee hours of the morning, almost dawn, and Hiro must have been taken home by now. At least he better have been, because Tadashi was not willing to consider the alternative.
The University campus was a good twenty minute ride by his moped, so the walk would be closer to an hour and a half, but Tadashi wasn't sure what his alternatives were. It wasn't like he could hail a cab. So with no better plans at that point, Tadashi simply started walking home. The bright spotlights of the campus made way for dimmer streetlamps and the burning neon of the city as he walked, his head down and his mind carefully blank. He was trying very hard to not think about what would happen once he did get home. His only concern right now was making sure Hiro was okay.
He was so focused on not thinking about anything that at first he didn't notice the change. He'd just been absently thinking to himself that the city seemed a little bit more crowded than usual, especially considering the late hour. It wasn't until he actually ran into someone that he finally spotted what had changed.
He stumbled back from the impact, completely caught off guard. He was a ghost, wasn't he? Shouldn't he have passed right through the person, just as he had through the walls in the showcase hall? Still, he instinctively started to apologize, his politeness just as much a part of him as his arms or eyes. But then he finally looked up properly at the person, and the apology died on his lips.
It was an Oni. Or, at least it looked exactly like one, down to the blue skin and tiger print loincloth. It was looking right at him with one raised eyebrow, like it could see him as well as touch him. Normally Tadashi would have dismissed it as someone in a very convincing and elaborate costume, but considering he still had a trio of hitodama floating around his head and he was pretty sure he was a ghost, something told him this wasn't a costume. The Oni grunted at him and shifted its grip on the iron club it was carrying, bringing it up to a more threatening position.
Recognizing that he was seconds away from being clobbered, Tadashi acted quickly, even as his mind screamed at him that this was impossible. He firmly told his mind to shut up for a minute, and then bowed low and respectively, even though it exposed the back of his neck to the creature. "Forgive me, sir. I was not watching where I was going."
He waited for one breathless moment, eyes fixed firmly on the pavement below his feet and a cold sweat building up on forehead. He expected to feel the impact of a blunt weapon to his head and neck at any second, already subconsciously bracing himself for the blow, a thousand stories of violent man-eating Oni he'd heard as a child dancing through his head. But when the blow didn't come, he dared to peek upwards. He was both shocked and relieved to see the Oni simply roll its eyes at him, and dismiss him with a wave, already returning its attention to the nearby shop windows it had been eyeing before. Tadashi rose from his bow with a shaky sigh of relief, but before he could say anything else the Oni scoffed at the window's wares and lumbered off, dragging its iron club along behind it with ease into the swarms of people filling the street. Tadashi watched it go, more than a little shocked at how quickly it seemed to vanish into the crowd. Shouldn't they have noticed the giant monster walking among them? Shouldn't people be freaking out? But then he actually looked at the crowd for the first time. He couldn't help gasping in shock.
Although he clearly recognized the street he was standing on as one of the main roads heading through the city, it was almost like a completely different world. The usual crowds of people were interspersed with people and creatures straight out of mythology and fantasy movies, and Tadashi could do nothing but stand and stare and watch it all go by as he tried to take it all in. A group of people who could only be a family of Tengu were walking down the opposite side of the sidewalk, the woman holding a young black-winged child in her arms even as she chatted up the long nosed man walking alongside them. A pair of red and blue Oni were standing on the street corner arguing about something, while a skeleton steered a gondola full of what looked like ghosts down the street as if it was actually a river. Above him a trio of women dressed in black and wearing pointed hats zoomed by riding brooms, with colourful paper lanterns hanging from the handles to light their way. Zig-zagging above the crowds were more hitodama, being herded along by a tiny person with gossamer butterfly wings carrying a shepherd's staff. He was forced to jerk back as an inhumanly beautiful woman with long black hair and dressed in a white kimono ran by, leaving a trail of snowflakes in her wake that melted almost as soon as they formed. He ended up stumbling backwards a bit, almost falling into a shop that he'd never seen before, despite driving down this very street every day to get to class and back home. The storekeeper looked up at him and grinned, and if her single eye and jagged teeth weren't enough to make Tadashi nervous, here wares were. Various herbs and crystals shared shelf space with bones, dried up animal parts, and dusty glass bottles filled with strange colourful liquids. Tadashi hastily made his way back to the street.
It was all so beautiful and impossible, like something out of a dream, Tadashi thought to himself in a daze. Everywhere he looked, there was something new to see, some new magical creature or person or thing, and he could feel himself getting overwhelmed. His hitodama suddenly flashed threateningly, making him flinch and Tadashi quickly excused himself down a side alley to calm himself before he hyperventilated. He could at least get away from all of the strange sights, even if he couldn't escape the hitodama which were still making him slightly nervous.
He walked about halfway down, far enough away from the main street that he could no longer hear the hustle and bustle, so he could at least catch his breath in peace. It was so overwhelming, seeing this strange new side of San Fransokyo, and he couldn't help but wonder if it had always been like this and he'd just never known, or if this was some strange afterlife that just looked like his home city. How could he have missed all of this if this was all real? Surely there would have been some sign!
He didn't have time to ponder that much further though, because at that moment he realized he wasn't quite as alone as he'd thought. His head shot upwards when he heard growling coming from deeper into the alley. At first, he only spotted a mangy looking stray dog down in the shadows at the end of the narrow space, big for a mutt, but not something Tadashi was too afraid of. But then suddenly it raised its heads and Tadashi was a whole lot more concerned. That was a lot of teeth. With a yelp, he ran out of the alley, the cerberus' loud barks chasing him the whole way up the street.
He could hear people laughing at him as the cerberus chased him up the street, but he found he didn't really care. He wasn't sure if the three-headed dog could hurt him like this or not, but he wasn't eager to find out. Those teeth had looked sharp. Thankfully most of the creatures and monsters got out of his way as he dashed by, and those that didn't move he tended to pass right through. Those must have been the normal people, he supposed, because they didn't seem to react to his presence at all.
He was halfway uptown, closer to home than the University now, when the cerberus finally caught up to him. Tadashi skidded to a halt when a second hell beast suddenly jumped out of a nearby street, cutting him off. A third dog approached him from the left, leaving him pinned up against a storefront that he could have sworn was abandoned when he was alive, but now seemed to be selling painted masks that were blinking at him. Tadashi wasn't much paying attention to the masks though, too distracted by the dogs that were slowly circling closer, their many shiny fangs bared and foam dripping from their jowls. The leader tensed to leap, and Tadashi flinched back.
It never struck though, because at that moment a small round blurr dropped down from the awning over the mask shop and landed on the cerberus' back, hissing and spitting. The cerberus let out a high-pitched yelp, and started bucking wildly, trying to knock its attacker off. The other beasts approached to help, but another hiss and the swipe of a claw across the nearest one's muzzle caused them to jump back yelping. Finally the leader managed to snap one set of jaws close enough to the attacker to knock it loose, and the blurr landed on the sidewalk between Tadashi and the dogs, still hissing and yowling.
Tadashi couldn't believe his eyes, but there was no mistaking that distinctive pattern of fur and familiar rounded body. It was Mochi, their big fat calico cat who seemed to do nothing but sleep and eat and sleep some more. Mochi was standing between him and three hell dogs almost four times the cat's size, his mottled fur puffed up and his tail bristling big enough to look like two tails in one. The lead cerberus growled and started to approach again, but Mochi batted at its face, hissing even louder, and the cerberus backed off. Eventually the dogs decided it wasn't worth the effort, because they slunk off back the way they'd come, their thin bony tails tucked between their legs. Tadashi watched them go for a minute until he was sure they were gone, and only then did he crouch down.
"Thanks, buddy. I think you just saved my life. Or death, I guess," he told the cat, even as he reached out to rub Mochi's head between the ears just like the cat had always preferred. To his mixed relief and confusion, his hand connected, and he could feel Mochi's soft fur underneath his fingers, still puffed up. A few quick brushes of his hand fixed that though, and soon Mochi was his usual soft self, purring happily under Tadashi's ministrations. Maybe ghosts could just pet cats? Tadashi didn't bother to think too hard about it, just happy to see something familiar after the insanity from earlier.
"There. Better?" he asked the cat absently, scritching him under the chin.
"Oh, yes," Mochi said, eyes falling shut in pleasure. "Much better. I always hate having to groom after dealing with those ruffians, my fur lays funny for days."
Tadashi blinked at Mochi for a moment, his hand frozen mid-scratch. Had Mochi just…?
"Oh, why did you stop?" Mochi whined, blinking up at him in annoyance. "You just found the good spot!"
"Aah!" Tadashi yelped, falling backwards onto his butt and scrambling away. Mochi sailed through the air with an angry yowl, but landed safely on his feet on the sidewalk. "You talked!" Tadashi pointed an accusing finger at the cat, his eyes wide in shock.
Mochi sighed in an irritated manner, before slowly walking closer. As he moved, his tail swung in sinuous arcs behind him, bringing it to Tadashi's attention. The ghost was shocked to see that Mochi's usually stubby bob tail was now much longer and thinner, and forked about halfway down. Tadashi gulped at the sight. His old mythology book had also had a section on the cat monsters known as Nekomata, talking cats with forked tails who had lived for a hundred years and could influence the dead. He wondered what that would mean for him now that he was one of the dead himself.
But Mochi was looking at him with a fond expression, and when he reached Tadashi's side, he simply crawled into his lap as he always had, curling up and purring. Slowly, Tadashi relaxed, starting to pet Mochi absently as he usually did.
"Hmm, yes, that's better," Mochi said after a while, and it was a sign of how much Tadashi had been through this evening that he didn't even jump again. "Sorry to startle you, but there wasn't exactly a way to break it to you gently."
"You're a nekomata," Tadashi murmured, more a statement than a question.
Mochi nodded happily. "Why, yes I am. Glad to see you remember some of your mother's heritage, though I was starting to think you'd given up on it. Too bad you had to die before you'd fully learned everything, but I suppose learning by immersion is a way to do it too. You'll certainly learn more quickly, that's for sure. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself," Mochi quickly said with a chuckle. He glanced up at Tadashi, his bright green eyes cheerful, but that cheer quickly melted away when he spotted Tadashi's expression.
The young man was staring blankly down at the ground, his breath hitching, and tears starting to slide down his cheeks. It looked like he'd barely heard a thing Mochi had said. All of the combined events of the night, his death, the transformed city, the cerberus attack, Mochi talking, had finally pushed Tadashi to his breaking point, and it was all he could do to just sit there and breathe. It was too much.
"Oh. Right, you're probably a bit overwhelmed at this point. Newly dead, and all. Here," Mochi leaned up, rubbing his head under Tadashi's chin, and jolting him slightly. His eyes refocused on Mochi, but the crying didn't stop. "I'm sorry, Tadashi. Why don't we just get you home first, and sort out the rest of the details later. Okay?"
Tadashi merely blinked, his expression still empty, his breath still hitching. Mochi gave his chin another affectionate headbut, purring loudly. "Tadashi," the nekomata called again. "Let's go home."
"Home?" Tadashi repeated, and a bit of life started to return to his expression. "Yeah, home. I wanna go home."
"Then let's go," Mochi said simply, hopping out of Tadashi's lap to sit gracefully on the ground. He waited until Tadashi had slowly stumbled to his feet, wiping the tears from his face and still looking more than a little shell shocked, and then started leading the way home, his forked tail flicking cheerfully with each step. Tadashi kept his eyes on that tail, following it hollowly, and tried very hard not to see anything else around him anymore. He'd had enough craziness for one day, any more and he'd lose his mind.
Thankfully, Mochi took a winding path that seemed to avoid the crowded main roads. It took a bit longer than Tadashi's usual direct route home though, and so by the time they arrived at the Lucky Cat Cafe, day had broken. It was a grey day though, promising rain, and sure enough the clouds opened up just as Mochi lead the way down the alley next to the building.
Mochi jumped up the side of the side of the alley behind the cafe and pushed himself into the house through a cracked open window. Tadashi followed by simply passing through the back door, into the kitchen of the cafe. He was mildly surprised to find it empty. Usually by this time of day, the cafe would have been bustling, full of businessmen and students picking up their caffeine fix on their way to work and school. The weather wasgloomy, but not enough to chase everyone off.
It honestly didn't occur to him until he arrived upstairs and found a large group of people all wearing black and talking quietly together that Aunt Cass might have closed the cafe because of him. Oh god, he was walking into his own wake.
He moved carefully around the groups of people, reluctant to touch them even if they wouldn't know he was there. Part of him was baffled at the turn out. There were people here he hadn't seen in years, old classmates or friends he'd lost touch with, some of his professors from school, some of the cafe regulars. There were more people than he'd ever expected to see, and he wasn't sure how that made him feel. He quickly dismissed the thought though, more focused on finding his family.
He found Aunt Cass near the foot of the stairs leading up to the top floor, surrounded by his friends from SFIT offering her comforting words and condolences. He was momentarily baffled at the sight of GoGo and Fred in formal clothing, but his bigger concern was the empty expression in Aunt Cass' eyes, and the way she glanced up at the third floor landing. When Tadashi moved towards the stairs he spotted someone at the top just walking away. Almost immediately after, Mochi appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at him with eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dim lighting, before trailing after the person. Tadashi knew what that meant.
His feet felt like they were made of lead as he slowly walked up the staircase leading to his and Hiro's shared room. Well, Hiro's room now, he supposed. It wasn't like he would need it anymore. Still, considering he'd walked this route pretty much every day of his life, it should not have been this hard. It felt like it took an hour just to reach the landing, every step made through sucking quicksand. But he made it. When he stepped fully into the room, his heart twinged painfully at what he saw.
His side of the room was just as immaculate as ever, his bed still perfectly made and his books and desk still in order. It was like he'd never left, even though it must have been days since the fire if they'd already had his funeral. But Hiro's side of the room…
Hiro's side of the room had always been messy, but now it was trashed. Hiro's sheets were all ripped off and tossed aside, his clothes had been thrown everywhere, a few of his action figures had been smashed, and it looked like he'd knocked everything off of his desk onto the floor in one violent motion. There wasn't one part of Hiro's stuff that looked untouched. It was like a whirlwind of destruction has passed through, leaving disaster in its wake.
As for Hiro himself, he was the complete opposite. Tadashi found him standing perfectly still in the middle of the room with his back to the staircase, clutching an envelope in his hands. Mochi was winding himself around Hiro's ankles, purring, but Hiro was ignoring the cat completely. Something made Tadashi approach with caution, something about the uncomfortable stiffness to Hiro's shoulders, or the way he barely seemed to be breathing. Tadashi stepped carefully around the mess on the floor, reluctant to disturb any of it, until he'd circled Hiro completely and faced him head on.
Tadashi already felt like his heart was breaking the moment he'd seen Aunt Cass, but now he knew that his earlier pain was nothing compared to this. Hiro was staring down at the envelope in his hands with glassy eyes, his lower lip caught between his teeth as he breathed shallowly. As Tadashi watched, tears started trickling down Hiro's face, but Hiro didn't seem to notice them. Instead he tentatively started opening the envelope with shaking fingers, wincing slightly when his finger caught too hard on the edge and tore the paper a little. Tadashi spotted the SFIT seal on the back of it, and realized that this was Hiro's acceptance letter that he'd received at the showcase right before everything had...before everything. He remembered how this letter had been the culmination of all of Hiro's hopes and dreams and hard work, but now Hiro was treating it as if it was poisonous. He'd barely opened the flap when his legs suddenly gave out, and Hiro fell to his knees, barely missing Mochi in the process. The cat yowled and scampered off, though not before tossing a meaningful glance in Tadashi's direction.
Tadashi had no idea what the nekomata wanted from him, but he approached his brother anyways. His hands hovered uselessly over Hiro's shoulders as they started shaking with silent sobs, completely lost. If he was still alive, his first instinct would be to wrap Hiro up in his arms and hold him until the tears stopped, and then quickly cheer Hiro up by dragging him along to work on some project or take him out for ice cream or make him some treat from the cafe. But he was...not really here now, he couldn't do any of those things. All he could do was watch and listen and be useless.
Despite himself, he lowered his hands with the wild hope that it would be like Mochi, and he'd miraculously be able to touch Hiro. But sure enough his hands passed right through Hiro's shoulders, like the ghost he was. For a wild moment he thought that maybe Hiro had somehow felt his presence, had realized that he was in the room with him, because Hiro's breath hitched for a moment when he made contact. But then Hiro shuddered and started crying even harder, like Tadashi's presence was upsetting him even more, and Tadashi immediately moved away.
Suddenly he felt himself starting to cry again too. He was only making things worse by being here, what was he hoping to accomplish? He didn't want to see this, didn't want to stand here and watch as his little brother broke down crying over his stupid mistake. This was all his fault. It was because of him, him and his stupid need to be a hero, that his little brother was sobbing into the floor of their bedroom, while his friends and family stood in the rooms below and mourned. This was all his fault and he could do nothing to fix this.
A familiar anger started boiling up inside his chest, though this time it was aimed at himself instead of the stranger in the fire. He had done this, he had made this mess. He turned away angrily, and spotted the showcase poster he'd stapled up for Hiro all those months ago. If he'd never suggested Hiro try out, none of this would have happened. His fault, his fault, all of it.
In a fit of rage, he reached out for the poster as if to tear it down, forgetting that he couldn't actually touch it. His hands passed harmlessly through the wall, and Tadashi growled in frustration. He glared hatefully at the stupid paper, wishing he could rip it to pieces, but just then his hitodama suddenly flared up even brighter than before, and before he knew what was happening the poster was on fire.
He stared at the paper in shock for a moment. Had he done that? He vaguely remembered before when he'd been upset in the showcase hall, his hitodama had flared up and a fire had suddenly grown, but at the time he'd assumed that it was just leftover embers from the fire. But where had the fire come from here? He'd been angry at the poster, and then suddenly it caught fire? He must have done it, then, it didn't make sense otherwise, especially as nothing else in the room was burning and there were no other sources of heat or flame he could see. But he didn't remember reading anything about ghosts being able to cause fires!
Regardless, he didn't have time to worry about it, because at that moment Hiro noticed the fire. His sobs suddenly tapered off when he spotted the cheerful flames flickering away, and his eyes instantly became impossibly wide with fear. Tadashi thought he could almost see the reflection of the showcase hall burning in Hiro's eyes. All of the sudden his little brother was screaming, screaming and shouting and trying to scramble away.
Tadashi frantically wanted to reach out to Hiro, to instinctively try to calm him even if he'd inadvertently caused Hiro's fear in the first place, but before he could so much as move there was a thundering of footsteps on the stairs and suddenly Aunt Cass was there. She took one look at the room and the fire, taking stock of the situation, and then moved, tossing the tea from her teacup onto the poster with a decisive flick of her hand. Instantly the fire hissed as the cooler liquid spilled over it, and went out.
With the fire taken care of, Aunt Cass abandoned her teacup to Hiro's dresser while she crouched down to the ground and scooped Hiro up into her arms, just like Tadashi would have done if he could. She cradled him gently as Hiro pressed his face into her shoulder, holding him and rocking him and shushing him gently as he sobbed and shook. Tadashi could see Aunt Cass was trembling slightly too, but she hid it well as she devoted all of her attention to her nephew, not asking any questions, just offering comfort. Hiro cried harder and curled even closer.
As for Tadashi, he'd seen enough. His presence here was nothing but a problem for his family, especially if he was accidentally setting things on fire at a whim. He needed to leave. Now.
He ran past where Aunt Cass and Hiro were huddled next to the stairs, practically flying down to the second level and through his group of friends who had gathered at the bottom when they'd heard Hiro's scream. He shuddered as he passed through Wasabi's chest, even though the man didn't react at all. This was just all too much for him. He needed to get away.
He was halfway through the wall heading out to the back alley when Mochi finally caught up to him. The cat practically landed on his head, yowling irritatedly until he stumbled to a stop leaning against the kitchen counter. Apparently he didn't phase through surfaces if he didn't want to. Well wasn't that convenient.
Mochi was glaring up at him, so he tucked that newfound information away for now. "What?" he glared at the nekomata, not in the mood for more strangeness. He just wanted to get away.
Thankfully Mochi seemed to get that, because his expression softened. "Where are you going to go?" he asked gently, his two tails tucked around his paws as he sat in front of Tadashi without a hint of judgement on his face. Tadashi was impossibly grateful for that at the moment.
"I don't know," Tadashi admitted after pausing to think about it. "Away? I have a grave now, I'm assuming, maybe I'm supposed to go there. Or aren't ghosts supposed to haunt where they died? Should I be going back to the University?"
Mochi sighed gently. "No, you don't have to haunt where you died, or go to your grave. Some Yurei do, some don't. It's a matter of preference. Where would you like to go?"
"I...I don't know. I wanted to go home, but being here...I can't stay." Tadashi glanced back up towards the stairs. He wondered if Aunt Cass had managed to calm Hiro down by now or not. Hiro had been pretty upset.
"Hmmm, you're probably right," Mochi agreed, also looking towards the upper floor of the house. "You should probably go, at least until you've gotten that fire habit under control."
"I didn't mean to," Tadashi said very quietly, guilt making it hard for him to speak past the lump in his throat. He scowled at the hitodama that were still cheerfully orbiting him like little satellites. "I just got angry, and...poof."
"No, it's alright," Mochi quickly reassured him, reaching up as high as he could to pat Tadashi on the shin. "It's alright. Yurei tend to be very emotional creatures, you're no exception. Though I must say, I've never seen a Yurei with fire powers like yours. Even the Will o' the Wisps down in the financial district don't have quite that kind of power."
"Will o' the Wisps? No, nevermind, I don't really want to know right now. Just," Tadashi's hands rose to his head, where he'd normally be adjusting his hat in a nervous gesture. But his hat wasn't there, as it had fallen off before he'd died, and instead all he could do was gesture awkwardly around his head. His hands dropped uselessly to his sides. "Just tell me where I should go where I can't hurt anyone."
The nekomata eyed him consideringly. "Well," he said at length. "I have one old friend who would take you in. Normally sending a handsome young man such as yourself to her house would be to send him to his death, but considering current circumstances, I think you'll be okay."
Tadashi surprised them both by snorting at the cat's poor joke. He hadn't thought he'd be able to find humor in his situation just yet, especially considering what had just happened, but maybe it was just the surrealness of everything. He was dead, standing in his former kitchen, talking to his cat who was talking back, all while three little balls of flame with the power to set stuff on fire were flying around his head. It was all more than a little ridiculous.
"Alright, just tell me where to find her."
AN: Welcome to chapter 1! there is an illustration to go with this chapter, which can be seen on my tumblr (machina-rex) and then just plug in this - after /post/105908832112/gotta-get-home-somehow-and-if-following-your
gosh. fanfiction rly needs to get looser about allowing links in stories.
dont forget to check us out on tumblr tho! (ikiracake and machina-rex)!
