Chapter 1: When I See You Again
Hiro looked out over the passing landscape, fighting back the urge to sigh again. He'd already been called a swooning victorian maiden by GoGo about five minutes ago, to the rest of the team's amusement, and he wasn't interested in seeing what new creative insult she'd come up with. He was seriously starting to regret upgrading their comms so that they had enough range to communicate over sixty miles. He'd originally kept the comms open so he could keep tabs on the team he was leaving behind as they continued to help with relief efforts in Bodegawa, but if they were going to keep teasing him he was going to turn the comms off. He couldn't help it, he was bored!
Honestly, he never thought he'd be able to say something like that while flying on Baymax's back at full speed, the wind whistling by his head and over his helmet, tugging at him strongly enough that if it wasn't for his electromag hand and foot holds, he would have been ripped away into the open sky long ago. It was just that out here, in the countryside between San Fransokyo and the small town of Bodegawa, there was really nothing to look at or do. Baymax was flying in a straight line headed back to the city, with nothing to dodge around and no loop-de-loops to keep things interesting, and after the first ten minutes of watching the world below go by, all of it monotonous green and brown with the occasional tiny farmhouse to break things up, Hiro was thoroughly sick of it. He'd much rather zoom through the skyscrapers and bridges of San Fransokyo any day.
But hey, at least he wasn't driving back like the rest of the team. At their current flight speed, they'd be back to San Fransokyo within the hour, hopefully long before Aunt Cass noticed his absence and started to worry. But until they got back, Hiro was stuck with being bored.
He absently glanced over at Baymax's left wing, where he could sense Tadashi's ghost hanging on, but almost immediately turned away again. No point in trying to talk to his brother to alleviate the boredom, it would essentially be like talking to himself since he still couldn't see or hear Tadashi, no matter how much he tried. And he had tried.
Even after months of training with Mochi to harness his medium powers, he still couldn't do anything more than sense where Tadashi was standing, which was completely unfair, and slightly concerning. He'd started seeing and hearing other ghosts around the city about a month back, and when they'd realized that there was an actual medium in town, they'd started flocking to him in droves. So far he'd handled the attention well, most of the ghosts asking simple favours that Hiro was happy to grant, such as returning a lost item to the ghosts' families or helping the spirits to pass on. There was the occasional more aggressive ghost, but it was nothing Mochi couldn't handle id Hiro got overwhelmed. All in all, Hiro was feeling pretty good about his role as San Fransokyo's medium. The only downside was that he couldn't see Tadashi yet.
Mochi kept saying it would come with time, but Hiro had seen the way the Nekomata's face had pinched with worry whenever he thought Hiro wasn't looking. Something was wrong, Hiro knew it. But unfortunately he didn't know what to do about it, so with a growl, he pushed those upsetting thoughts away to focus on at a later date.
Instead, Hiro let his mind wander to other things as the endless rolling hills and fields passed by below. It had been about three months since their confrontation of the Onryo, though sometimes he still thought it had been only yesterday. Since then, the team had really gotten into their roles as defenders of the city, both on the regular and supernatural sides of things, to Hiro's surprise. He knew they had originally only agreed to his crazy plan to keep an eye on him, and to gain justice for Tadashi, and he expected that once it was all over they'd give up their suits and settle back into regular lives. But they'd all surprised him. Well, all of them but Fred. Hiro would have been more surprised if the comic book-loving young man hadn't wanted to continue being superheroes. Secretly Hiro was very glad they'd all decide to stick with him. He didn't know if he'd have been able to keep this up alone.
Not that he would truly be alone. Baymax would obviously do whatever it took to keep Hiro safe and healthy, even if that meant helping him fight crime on both sides of the veil. Hiro could admit that the nurse robot had proven himself invaluable to the team over and over since they'd taken up superhero work. More importantly, he'd proven himself a good friend, and now Hiro couldn't imagine his life before the soft and squishy robot waddled into it.
And, of course, there was Tadashi.
Hiro glanced over at the wing again despite his best efforts not to. He couldn't help it though. Through everything the team had experienced, Tadashi had been right by their side, unseen but present. He usually just watched over them when they were facing regular human criminals, as the team had decided early on that they'd do their best not to mix the two worlds if they could help it, but whenever they confronted supernatural threats, Tadashi was ready to possess Hiro at a moment's notice, turning the brothers into a force to be reckoned with.
And the supernatural community had noticed. Hiro lost count of the times he'd walked around San Fransokyo at night, working on his new powers, only to have some creature or spirit run up to him and thank him for his work. He didn't admit it to anyone, but those moments made him feel so warm inside. He was helping people. Just like Tadashi had wanted to do. Just like Tadashi had wanted him to do.
His thoughts were treading towards dangerous waters again, so Hiro quickly shook his head to clear it. Enough thinking, all it seemed to be doing was making him sad, so with a growl, he tapped the side of his helmet to open a private comm channel to Baymax so the rest of the team couldn't hear him.
"Hey Baymax, what's our ETA to home?" he asked his flying companion, his voice raised a little even though he knew Baymax would be able to hear him clearly. Beneath his knees, he felt Baymax hum a little as his processors started running calculations on top of controlling his flight. Sounded like Baymax needed some updates, his memory was probably getting a bit full.
"We are estimated to reach the city limits in precisely...twenty two point five minutes," Baymax reported pleasantly. "We should reach the Lucky Cat Cafe within...nine point three minutes after."
"Hmmm," Hiro murmured to himself, looking at the clock in the corner of his helmet's HUD and doing a quick bit of mental math. "That'll be right around the time I told Aunt Cass we'd be back from that 'school trip'. Perfect. She shouldn't suspect anything as long as we land a few blocks away and walk home. I'll just tell her the bus dropped me off at the corner."
Baymax turned his head slightly to look at Hiro over his shoulder. "Hiro," he began, but Hiro already knew what he was going to say, and quickly cut him off.
"No, Baymax. I'm not telling her, and that's final."
Baymax looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but then without another word he turned back around to focus once more on flying. Hiro let out a relieved sigh.
They'd had this discussion over and over, with Tadashi chiming in on occasion through Baymax's chest screen, and Hiro wasn't going to budge on this. Aunt Cass knew absolutely nothing about what he and the others were up to, nor did she know about Tadashi, and that's the way Hiro wanted to keep it. What they did was fun and for a good cause, of course, but it was also very dangerous. If Aunt Cass knew what they were up to, she might be put in danger herself, or worse, she might try to stop them.
Besides, after years of having to raise two genius boys who were far too fond of building robots out of whatever they could find lying around the house, Hiro figured any more stress on his poor Aunt might finally drive her to eating the entire cafe's stock, and he refused to be responsible for that.
That's why when an earthquake had hit the nearby town of Bodegawa and Big Hero 6 had gone to help with relief efforts, Hiro had told her that SFIT was holding a week-long field trip to the Exploratorium and the new robotics exhibit, working with younger students, so that she wouldn't miss him while the team was gone for a few days. He'd even had Fred help him write up a permission slip to convince her, even though he didn't think anyone outside of high school used permission slips anymore. Still, she'd bought it, or at least Hiro was pretty sure she had, and they'd been safe to fly out to Bodegawa and help. The only problem was it meant Hiro had to be back by a certain time so that Aunt Cass wouldn't get suspicious, and that meant leaving the others early. Still, the team had been understanding, and they'd been confident that they would be able to finish their work even without Hiro and Baymax, and so the pair had flown off, headed for home. It had all been a pretty complicated ruse to keep Aunt Cass in the dark, but as long as she didn't find out, Hiro was okay with putting in some extra effort.
Rather than give Baymax the chance to bring it up again, Hiro turned his comms back to the team channel, just in time to hear Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and GoGo groaning. Hiro smiled beneath his helmet. That meant Fred had started up with the puns again.
"…no guys, I swear, I'm really rocking at this," Fred announced to the others while he presumably worked his way through the rubble. Wasabi groaned again, and GoGo snapped at Fred to get back to work, but Hiro could tell the English major was on a roll.
"Don't be like that, GoGo. That last one was a real gem!"
"That one wasn't even relevant to the situation!" Wasabi cried out. "There are no gemstones involved in this cleanup!"
Fred, however, would not be deterred. "iYeah, sorry, guess I hit rock-bottom there. Hopefully the next few are up to slate."
More groaning. Hiro could hear GoGo and Wasabi talking over each other, threatening and pleading Fred to stop respectively, however there was a worrying silence on Honey Lemon's end.
Hiro was about to call out to her by name, when he heard her grunt quietly over the comms, and then let out a little giggle. "Hey guys!" she called, trying to get the team's attention. After a pause where Hiro assumed they all looked over at her, she giggled again. "Don't be so down in the dirt! I think Fred's jokes are rock-solid!"
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, GoGo found her words. "Are you kidding me right now?" she asked flatly. It was bad enough that Fred couldn't stop the horrible puns, there was no way they could deal with Honey and Fred in a pun-off.
There was another pause, and then Honey Lemon spoke again, her voice strained like she could barely hold onto her laughter. "I schist you not," she announced.
As one the team, including Hiro, burst out laughing. They couldn't help it, even if the puns were terrible, the combination of being overtired and hearing it from Honey Lemon was enough to send them all into hysterics. Hiro was once again grateful for his electromag grips, because he was laughing so hard he wasn't sure he would have been able to hang on otherwise.
At first, the noise didn't really register to him. There were so many other sounds, the team's voices on the comms, the wind rushing past, the roar of Baymax's rocket boots, that the noise was almost lost beneath it all. But there was something about it that was both incredibly familiar and yet novel, that it took Hiro a moment to even realize where it was coming from. Then, all at once, it hit him, and he immediately slapped his hand against his helmet to silence the team comms.
And there it was. Barely audible over the wind, but still bright and strong. It was laughter. But more importantly, it was Tadashi's laughter.
Hiro's breath caught in his throat. Even though he hadn't heard Tadashi's voice in months, Hiro still knew it as well as he knew his own face, as familiar as breathing. There was no mistaking it. He fought down his first instinct to just rip his helmet off so there would be less between his ears and Tadashi's voice, knowing that would only make the wind louder. His whole body was tense as a bowstring, his ears straining to hear anything more. He was breathing heavily enough that it echoed inside his helmet, so he quickly sucked in his air and held it. Even still his pulse pounded in his ears, impossibly loud.
Tadashi must have registered Hiro's alarm, because the laughter quickly trailed off. For a moment, it was silent other than the rushing wind, and Hiro wanted to cry out in frustration. No! he'd finally been making some progress! He groaned in disappointment
But then, he could faintly hear the sound of rustling fabric. He turned up his medium senses to max, even though he knew from experience it would give him a headache later, and the faint feeling of Tadashi beside him solidified enough that Hiro could tell his brother was shifting closer, probably checking him over for injuries and trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Hiro? What happened?"
Hiro drew in a short, sharp breath, his eyes going wide. The laughter he might have been able to excuse as wishful thinking, but that was no trick of the wind. He'd definitely just heard Tadashi's voice. His eyes stayed fixed straight ahead though, focusing on the back of Baymax's helmet with all of the intensity of a laser. His heart was pounding in his chest hard enough that surely Baymax's scanners would pick up on it soon, and he could feel his breathing becoming irregular. He didn't dare look to his side, terrified of what he'd see…or wouldn't see.
But then Tadashi kept talking, to him, to Baymax, to himself. He was sounding more and more concerned, and Hiro could tell that if he didn't answer his brother soon he'd go into full mother hen mode. Thankfully at that very moment, Hiro spotted the tell-tale glitter of skyscrapers in the distance.
"Baymax," he snapped, tapping the robot on the shoulder for good measure, "take us down to the first safe rooftop you see. We need to land now."
Baymax looked back at Hiro, and then over at Tadashi. His sensors must have picked up that something was wrong, so he simply nodded and poured more power into his rocket boots, changing his trajectory slightly for their new landing pad.
The rest of the flight into the city felt like an eternity to Hiro. Tadashi had initially kept talking, mostly to himself, but eventually he'd gone quiet when he'd realized he could do nothing but wait. At least Hiro hoped that he'd just gone quiet. He didn't know what he'd do if he found out his powers had finally kicked in enough to hear Tadashi, only for them to give out again right before Hiro could check.
He barely dared to breathe as Baymax set down on the nearest empty rooftop on the edge of the city. Almost before they'd touched ground, Hiro was already disengaging his magnets, dropping to the concrete a bit harder than he meant to and almost collapsing on his suddenly weak legs. Baymax was quick enough to grab him and steady him though, thankfully.
Taking a deep breath, Hiro removed his helmet. He could feel twin stares on his face, from both Baymax and Tadashi, but he made sure that his breathing was under control before he dared look up at either of them.
Baymax was right in front of him, holding him up, and tilting his head at Hiro questioningly.
"I'm okay, bud," Hiro quickly reassured him. "Just...medium stuff."
"Medium stuff?" Tadashi repeated from behind him, and his voice was enough to make Hiro's breath hitch. So he could still hear him. But then, maybe that meant…
Slowly, ever so slowly, Hiro started to turn around. It felt like the whole world had gone silent, even the wind, waiting for this one moment that was so long in coming. Finally, Hiro lost his patience, and just spun around all at once.
And there he was.
Tadashi.
At first, Hiro had to squint to see him. He was fuzzy around the edges, and he seemed to flicker in the air like a candle flame. Hiro could almost pass it off as a mirage created by the hot air rising from the dark asphalt of the roof, a trick of his imagination brought on by his wishful thinking. But then the haze stepped closer, and the image started to solidify.
Tadashi faded in like someone was playing with an opacity filter, at first so pale that Hiro almost couldn't see him, but slowly gaining colour. He was still translucent enough that Hiro could see the sky through his chest, but slowly he gained enough definition that Hiro could finally make him out, enough to let Hiro know that it wasn't an illusion or a trick of the light. And then Tadashi was there, standing before him and looking exactly the way he had the day he'd died, aside from his missing hat and the three little hitodama flames floating around his head like little birds.
There was a moment of stillness. He could see his brother looking him over with a concerned expression, clearly checking him for injuries. It was something so familiar, just like Tadashi used to do every night after he'd dragged Hiro home from bot fighting, too angry to actually speak, but too worried to just let Hiro go to bed without comment. Hiro could feel his eyes starting to water as Tadashi approached. It was all so similar that Hiro could almost ignore Tadashi's hitodama, could almost pretend that he couldn't see the rooftop through his brother's translucent body.
"Hiro? What - " Tadashi called out again, and then he suddenly drew up short, his eyes darting over Hiro's face. Hiro knew the moment Tadashi understood, because his brother's face went slack, his jaw dropping open and his eyes going wide with wonder.
"Hiro?" he repeated, his voice sounding much more choked up now. His hand rose, shaking slightly, and reaching out.
"Tadashi," Hiro sobbed, his throat growing tight, but there was a happy smile on his face. Sure, he might be crying a bit, but those were happy tears. And really, who could blame him. Finally, finally he could see his brother again. After months of waiting. Hiro couldn't have kept the grin off of his face if you'd paid him. He reached his own hand out, instinctively curling it into a fist, just like they'd always done.
Tadashi noticed, and followed suit, his own face wet with tears. But he was grinning even wider than Hiro, so wide his eyes were squeezing shut. He brought his fist up level with Hiro's, lining them up perfectly.
"Hey, little brother," he greeted quietly, his fist reaching out to bump against Hiro's. "I - "
Their fists never connected.
One moment Tadashi was standing in front of him, faded but there, where Hiro could see him and hear him, and the next there was a dark shadow, a powerful gust of wind, and then the rooftop was empty. Hiro stared blankly at the spot his brother had been standing not even a second ago, all of his senses screaming at him, but his mind just couldn't catch up fast enough to realize what had happened. He was frozen, stuck trying to compute what had happened and drawing a blank. Tadashi was just...gone.
But then he heard his brother scream, and everything slammed back into motion. His head snapped up, searching for the source of the noise even as he threw out a net of his supernatural senses, trying to locate Tadashi that way as well. At the same time, he was already running towards Baymax, who must have detected that something had gone wrong, because his wings were already released and his rocket boots were warming up. Hiro slammed his helmet back onto his head with one hand as the other latched onto its magnetic pad, and then they were airborne, Baymax tracking Tadashi's signature with his specterscope.
Hiro's eyes darted left and right, straining with all of his power to try to spot Tadashi. "There!" he shouted down at Baymax, pointing a bit to their left. He could just barely see Tadashi's arm poking out of the strange mass of shadows flying through the air, flailing like he was struggling against whatever held him. That was good, Hiro decided. That meant he was okay, he could still fight back...right?
"Hurry, Baymax!" Hiro urged the robot on, pressing himself closer against Baymax's back to lower wind resistance. In response Baymax pushed even more power into his rocket boots, bringing them up to speeds just below the sound barrier. Normally they would never travel this fast in the city proper, but normally they weren't trying to rescue Tadashi from the grip of some mysterious shadow creature. Now was not the time for caution.
And yet still, it wasn't enough.
"Hiro. I am detecting that at our current speed, we will not catch up to the creature," Baymax reported.
"Can you go faster?" Hiro demanded.
"Not safely."
Growling, Hiro grabbed at his helmet in frustration. He didn't have time to enter the override codes he would need to convince Baymax to break his speed limitations. Running his hands over his fins, he started thinking. Well alright then, if they couldn't outrace whatever it was, maybe they could outmaneuver it.
Hiro started looking around desperately, comparing the nearest buildings with his mental map of the city. He'd been getting to know it well between flying on Baymax and travelling to help supernatural creatures, and so he quickly could identify where they were and, more importantly, what their next step would be.
He glanced ahead at the shadow creature and Tadashi, making sure whatever it was wasn't about to change direction.
"Okay buddy, at the next skyscraper, pull back a bit, let it get a bit ahead of us. Then, hang a sharp left just past the statue on that sushi house where the Tanuki like to hang out, you know the one?"
"Yes," Baymax confirmed.
"Okay. Let's do this, Baymax."
The city passed by in a blur as they sped between the buildings, Hiro calling out directions and Baymax following them as smoothly as if they were of one mind. They'd long lost sight of the creature, but that was okay. Hiro had already run all the mental calculations, and he knew this city. He knew exactly where they needed to go.
Sure enough, just as Baymax flew below one of the many Torii dotting the city, a dark shadow passed overhead, just barely missing them as it swooped over the red-painted gate. The thing let out a terrible cry in surprise, and tried to jerk back, but Baymax shifted his rocket boots so they were pointing straight down. Boy and robot soared straight up at the creature, Baymax's fist leading the way, ready to deliver a devastating punch to knock the creature down.
But it dodged. Hiro almost couldn't believe his eyes. One minute the creature had been hovering like a dense blob, with Tadashi trapped somewhere in the middle, the next it had stretched out, elongating like a serpent, and with a sinuous motion it moved out of Baymax's way. The robot went shooting past, not prepared for missing, and nearly collided with a magical carpet flying by overhead. Hiro screamed, the passengers screamed, and only Baymax's quick reaction time saved them from a collision.
There was a few moments of chaos as the Djinn driving the carpet shouted at them, and Hiro tried to make peace while apologizing profusely. The Djinn shot him a dirty look, as did all of his passengers, but they seemed satisfied enough because they flew away without further comment
They fell back to a hover, and Hiro immediately started looking around frantically. But it was too late. There was no sign of the creature or Tadashi anywhere, and even with Hiro's senses at max, he couldn't detect any sign of them.
Tadashi was gone.
"Baymax," Hiro cried out, refusing to give up. They still had one other method of finding supernatural types. "Quick! Fly up to that wind turbine, we need to scan the city for Tadashi and that creature."
Baymax rushed to comply, his thrusters going on full. The pair shot up into the sky, heading for the highest wind turbine they could see. Baymax landed on the painted metal surface much more roughly than his usual landings, but they didn't have time for grace. The robot didn't wait for Hiro's directions once they'd stopped, immediately firing up his scanners and searching the city.
On his back, Hiro bit his lip and barely held himself still, waiting with bated breath for Baymax to finish scanning, and announce which direction Tadashi and the creature had gone. He waited. And waited. And waited. Every second longer it took for Baymax to scan, his heart fell lower and lower in his chest. Scanning never took this long.
Finally, after almost a full minute of searching, Baymax let out an angry-sounding beep. "Scan complete," Baymax announced. "There were no matches found for Tadashi or the unknown subject."
"What?!" Hiro shrieked in disbelief. "That's impossible! Scan again! Widen the search this time!"
"My scanner has a range of roughly 100 miles. I have scanned the entire San Fransokyo area. No results were found."
Hiro let out a string of words that would have gotten his ear nearly pulled off if Aunt Cass was around to hear him. "Fine, we'll just search the old fashioned way, then," he said, adjusting his grip on Baymax's shoulders. "We'll start where we last saw them, and just fly in a grid pattern until we find them."
"It will take several hours to cover the entire city, even at our highest speed," Baymax pointed out.
"I don't care," Hiro responded. "We're going to find Tadashi."
Baymax didn't argue after that. Instead he simply waited until he was sure Hiro was firmly attached to his back, and then walked towards the edge of the wind turbine. He tipped off of it, letting his wings flip open once more, and then let his thrusters kick in. He swooped down a bit before levelling off, already heading for the last place they'd seen Tadashi.
But suddenly there was a worrying beep from both Hiro and Baymax's helmets, followed up by a weak spluttering sound from Baymax's rocket boots.
"Oh no," Baymax said simply.
"Oh no!" Hiro repeated.
That was all the warning they had before Baymax's rocket boots ran out of power. There was a moment where the pair hung there in the air, weightless, and then gravity caught up to them and they started to fall. Hiro let out a short scream, clinging tightly to Baymax's armour as the ground started rushing up towards them far too quickly for his liking. Baymax was trying to use his wings to control their descent, but without the thrust from the rocket boots, he wasn't able to do much more than shakily glide and hope they didn't hit anything. Once again skyscrapers blurred past them, but this time there was no plan and Hiro was just hanging on for dear life.
He saw a temple coming up straight ahead of them, but there was absolutely nothing he or Baymax could do to avoid hitting it. All he could do was close his eyes and hope that his armour would take the brunt of the fall.
He was just bracing himself for impact when he felt Baymax shudder beneath him. There was the faint groan of tearing armour, and then they were rising just a bit, just enough to clear the temple with a foot to spare.
When they weren't dashed to pieces against the temple's wall, Hiro dared to look up as they slowed down, and was shocked to see a scaled belly directly above him. The dragon that had caught them grunted as it flared its wings, slowly bringing them to a halt and setting them down in a small park nearby. Once they'd landed, it dropped Baymax heavily, jarring Hiro enough that his teeth clacked together, but a much nicer landing than what they would have accomplished on their own.
Hiro just sat a moment and breathed, adrenaline shooting through his system and making him shaky. Once he was sure he could walk, he disengaged the magnets holding him to Baymax's back and dropped to the ground. Baymax himself slowly rose to his feet, his armour in shambles, but his soft body thankfully in once piece. Hiro had spare armour for Baymax in the garage, that was easy to replace. He did not have a spare Baymax.
Once he'd finished checking Baymax over for damage, he looked up at the dragon. It was one he was familiar with, as he'd previously traded a batch of his Aunt Cass' pastries to it in exchange for scales and claws to arm Fred with, and they'd maintained a good relationship ever since. Now, though, he was pretty sure he owed this dragon his life.
Shakily, he walked over to the dragon, his legs not wanting to support him fully. Thankfully the dragon saw him struggling, and moved its long swan-like neck closer.
"Thank you," he said unsteadily as he reached the dragon's side. "You totally just saved my life, I think. I just...thank you." He bowed then, respectfully, as Tadashi had taught him to do when they'd both been much younger. He remembered Mochi telling him about dragons, and how they were friendly enough if you showed them the proper respect, but could be easily offended. And Hiro did not have time right now to deal with an angered dragon. It felt like a timer had started up in the back of his head, tracking how long Tadashi had been taken.
The dragon gave him an amused look. "No need for such formalities," it teased him gently with a shake of its great scaley head. "It's no trouble. I just happened to be flying by and saw you were in need of help."
"Still, thanks," Hiro repeated as he rose out of his bow. "We'd be pancakes if not for you."
"Of course," the dragon said with a knowing smile. "After all, I can't let anything happen to you. You're more important to this city than you know. As a medium, you play a key role in maintaining balance. I was just doing what any of us would have done, to keep you safe."
"Buuuuut," the dragon drawled, a sly look on its face. "If you happen to want to offer me more of those Cats Paw pastries in thanks, I would not object."
Hiro smiled and laughed weakly. "I think I can manage that," he told the dragon, before his expression once more turned serious as something occurred to him. If the dragon had been nearby when Hiro and Baymax were flying through, maybe it had spotted Tadashi!
"Oh, man, wait a second. When you were flying through the city, did you happen to see a large, shadowy creature flying by at high speeds? I don't know what the heck it was, but it kidnapped my brother. Please, have you seen anything?"
"Your brother?" the dragon gasped, before its eyes narrowed to slits. "Something kidnapped your brother? But who would...no one would dare... your brother..." The dragon snarled something then in a language that Hiro didn't understand, sparks flying from its jaws, before it quickly settled. "No, I am sorry to say I didn't see it," it told him sadly.
Hiro's heart plummeted again. He had hoped...god, where could Tadashi have gone?
"But this is very concerning," the dragon continued. "There are none in this city that I know of who would dare harm your brother, and if something new has arrived perhaps we should be worried. I'll send out the word, and I'll ask my fellow dragons to keep an eye out for this creature. Don't worry, if we see it, we'll capture it."
"Please," Hiro begged the dragon, feeling tears growing in his eyes. He'd finally been able to see Tadashi, finally. And not even a second later his brother had been ripped away from him. He wanted to scream in frustration and disbelief. "I...I don't know...We tried searching...I can't even sense him anymore…"
The dragon seemed to realize he was getting far too upset, because it hushed him gently and bumped him with its head. The force nearly knocked him onto his backside, but he managed to keep himself upright by grabbing onto its snout. The dragon made mournful noises as Hiro took the opportunity to bury his face in its scales for a moment and just remember to breathe.
When he felt like he was more under control again, he stepped back, wiping at his face with the back of his gloves. The dragon thankfully didn't comment about his red eyes.
"I speak on behalf of all the dragons in my clan when I say this; we will do everything we can to help you get your brother back," the dragon told him seriously.
Hiro sniffled a bit, but nodded. "Thank you," he said again, understanding the weight of that. To have a dragon clan on his side...that would help.
The dragon nodded back to him, and then suddenly drew up short, shooting a bewildered look over Hiro's shoulder. Hiro started to turn around to look at what had caught the dragon's attention, only to have his face smushed into a soft white belly that was beeping at him.
"Oh no," Hiro said flatly, muffled by soft vinyl.
"Heeee!" Baymax said drunkenly. "Healthcare!"
Hiro started shoving at the robot, trying to get him off, but low battery Baymax was a handful on the best days, and Hiro was already pretty tired. With a huff, Hiro just accepted he was going to be hugged whether he liked it or not, and did his best to turn back around to face the dragon once more.
"Having a bit of trouble?" The dragon asked, amusement thick in its voice.
Hiro simply sighed in frustration. "I don't suppose you could give us a lift home, could you?" he asked hopefully, fluttering his lashes up at the dragon and giving it his best puppy dog eyes.
Just like before, the dragon melted like butter.
Tadashi coughed and spluttered as he was unceremoniously dumped to the ground without warning. He hadn't been expecting the sudden drop, and therefore he'd landed flat on his face, getting a mouthful of dirt in the process. He quickly started spitting it all up, groaning in pain and disgust. What had just happened?
One minute he'd been standing on a rooftop, finally communicating with Hiro the way he'd been yearning to since he'd first died, and the next there had been a great shadow swooping down on him. He'd been trapped in pitch blackness and what felt like scales against his skin for what felt like an hour, though it could have just as easily been minutes, and no matter how hard he'd struggled he couldn't get free. Even his hitodama had no effect on whatever had grabbed him. What had it been? And where was he?
Slowly Tadashi pulled himself to his feet, glancing around in curiosity. He seemed to be at the bottom of a deep and narrow crevice, the walls of stone rising up so high above his head he could barely see daylight above. Where he had landed was a few feet wide, enough for him to sit comfortably with his legs splayed out, but in either direction it narrowed so much he didn't think he'd be able to squeeze through if he was still human. Above the fissure seemed to be very rough and jagged, but he couldn't see much detail in the dim lighting.
Frowning, he poured a bit of energy into his hitodama to make them grow, hoping to shed more light on the area. The hitodama obeyed quickly, swelling in size and slowly drifting up higher over his head to spread their light further. The stones and walls were most likely the usual dusty red and brown of this area, but in the light of his hitodama everything took on an unnatural greenish tinge. If he wasn't so used to their light, Tadashi might have been unnerved.
He might have also been unnerved by the skeleton lying next to him if he wasn't already dead himself. As it was, he merely gasped when he spotted it, shifting over so he could study it more closely. He wasn't a medium like Hiro, but he was dead, and it had given him a few senses that he'd been learning to use. For example, as he looked over the skeleton, he could tell that it was completely empty, no spirit around nearby belonging to it that he could sense, and that it had been down here for a long time. Maybe someone had fallen into the fissure from above? Pretty likely, considering the state of the skeleton. Its bones were covered in cracks, smashed in some places like it had been impacted by something hard. Like stone.
He shook his head sadly at the sight. There was a good chance that no one ever found out what happened to this person, considering their body was still down here. Normally this would have probably resulted in a spirit Hiro would need to help to reach their final rest, but apparently this spirit had managed to pass on by themselves if they were nowhere nearby. Too bad, he could have asked the other spirit for help.
After carefully looking around the rest of the bottom of the crevice, Tadashi concluded that there was nothing else there but rocks. Nothing useful, anyways, so he pushed his hitodama upwards, hoping they'd reveal an easy route to climb out.
A face loomed out of the darkness.
Tadashi screamed and scrambled back, though he couldn't get very far in the narrow space. The face loomed closer, more of it becoming visible as it came into the light, and Tadashi shrank back even further. The light was not making it better, if anything it made things worse.
The face was almost human, but it was gaunt and pale, like a person who had been starved almost to death. In place of a mouth, though, it had a hooked beak like a bird of prey, the serrated edges stained red with blood. Its sightless sunken eyes reflected the faint light from his hitodama like mirrors, burning like embers and reminding him uncomfortably of the Onryo. The body beyond was hard to make out past the terrible face, but Tadashi got the impression of glittering black scales and rustling wings.
It didn't help that it just kept coming closer. Tadashi was already pressed as far back against the stone walls of the crevice as he could get, but the face was now so close he could smell its rank breath and feel it rustling his hair. He choked down the frightened whine that was trying to build up in his throat. His instincts were screaming at him that whatever this thing was, he did not want it near him.
Thankfully it stopped when its beak was just inches from his chest. But then it just kept staring at him, watching him like it was a hawk and he a mouse. Tadashi was not liking where this was going. Still, while he was pretty much completely sure at this point that this was the creature that had kidnapped him, it didn't seem to be doing anything to him other than just staring at him now. Maybe it was friendly?
With that in mind, he lifted his hand in a small wave, mimicking Baymax's usual motions. "Uh, hi there," he greeted the creature weakly. "What's, uh. What's up?"
The creature stared at him for a moment more. Then, it opened its terrible beak wide. And screamed.
Tadashi's hands slapped against the sides of his head, trying to block out the horrible noise, but it was like a banshee's scream, there was no escaping it. It felt like knives were being stabbed into his head through his ears, and it sent waves of pain down his spine all the way to his toes. He couldn't hear anything over the horrible noise, but he was pretty sure he was screaming in pain. It felt like the earth itself was shaking with the sound. And it just kept going.
When it finally ended, when everything finally went blissfully silent, Tadashi came to curled up in a ball on his side with his hands pressed over his head and tears running down his cheeks. His hitodama had dimmed to tiny candleflames, and he could feel little cuts in the skin above his ears where his fingernails had dug in enough to draw blood. His head was pounding, and he could still hear the echoes of the scream rattling around between his ears. Or maybe that was just the echo through the crevice. He slowly, tentatively pulled himself upright, shooting a terrified glance over his shoulder at the creature.
It was watching him again, though now he thought it looked almost satisfied. As if he'd reacted exactly as it had hoped. It waited until he was fully upright before swinging its head closer again. Tadashi fliched back, waiting for it to scream at him again.
It spoke instead, catching Tadashi off guard. Its voice was powerful and booming, but there were many layers to it, like it spoke with several voices at once. It was not helping Tadashi's headache at all. "You will help me," the creature said, no, demanded.
"W-what?" Tadashi shook his head, struggling to clear the ringing noise in his ears so he could hear better. "Help you? With what?"
The creature tilted its head at an angle that made its neck look broken. Somehow the beak curved up in a smile. "Revenge," it told him simply.
But Tadashi knew enough about spirits and revenge after watching after the whole Callaghan fiasco, and he knew he wanted no part of it. Someone always got hurt when spirits wanted revenge. He quickly shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry. I'm not sure who or what you are, or what it is you want revenge for, or even if I could help you, but my answer is no." He carefully climbed to his feet, and started inching his way backwards, towards the narrowing of the fissure. The creature was a lot bigger than him, he might be able to squeeze through and escape, so long as this thing wasn't too fast. But he kept his eye on it the whole time, not wanting to expose his back to it. He might be dead, and therefore impossible to kill, but he'd fought other supernatural creatures before, and he knew that they could seriously hurt him. "Sorry. Can't help you."
The creature didn't like that answer though. Its eyes narrowed to slits, and then it suddenly shot forward. Tadashi yelped and was forced to dive to the ground to avoid getting skewered on its beak. This threw him further into the crevice, though, and farther away from the narrowing. The creature's face turned towards him again, its beak opening threateningly.
"I'm sorry!" he quickly shouted, hoping to cut off that horrible scream before it started. "What would you even want me to do?" It couldn't hurt to ask, right? It's not like he was actually agreeing to help the thing.
The creature's beak thankfully closed, and its eyes stopped glaring at him so intently. It was still curving its long snake-like neck around him so that he couldn't run though, leaving him feeling more than a little claustrophobic. It made a strange sound deep in its throat, a hiss mixed with what sounded faintly like laughter, and the strange almost-smirk returned.
"I want revenge," it repeated. "You will help me get it. Medium."
"M-medium?" Tadashi gasped. "But I'm not a…" He trailed off. The creature's face was getting closer again. Too close.
"You will help me, or else…"
It's beak opened wide, and once again all Tadashi knew was pain.
AN: Heh, you all said you wanted Hiro to see Tadashi again, right? :)
But yeah, alright! This show is officiall on the road! Here's chapter one ready to go, and the rest are soon to follow!
Art for this chapter can be found at machina-rex on tumblr /post/120052126242/eeeyyy-the-dead-bury-themselves-has-been
Hope you all enjoy! Let us know what you think!
