Please forgive me, I am so sick and I feel like something terrible has gone wrong with this chapter. But I'm too messed up to discern what it is. ;A; Guys what have I done? Where is my error?

What?

Wat?

(It's going to be super mortifying, isn't it? Guh, I hate how colds mess me up.)

-Chapter 2-

-I Woke Up To Riots -

It had been about a week since he'd woken up, confused beyond measure, in a hospital bed with Aunt Cass at his side. She'd been fast asleep but not long after his eyes had fluttered open a few nurses hurried into the room and woke her, summoning a doctor along the way. There'd been a lot of tests, gushing, relieved tears, and questions before he had been given the chance to settle down with her and hear what had happened.

Aunt Cass told him about the fire and about Callaghan as his friends rushed to his bedside from a late night of working at SFIT. She told him about his little brother's success at school and about the misery his "death" had caused them. From her Tadashi learned that he'd been discovered, locked in a coma, in a Laboratory on Watanuki Island off the coast of San Fransokyo- his kidnapper having been his former idol; Robert Callaghan. It had been a heavy blow to his heart to learn that the man he'd looked up to for so long, the one that had challenged him, encouraged him, and fought for him had betrayed him so readily. His only comfort was the fact that he had been saved by Callaghan and kept alive for several months due to his efforts.

He'd been saved somewhere in the middle of fall during Hiro's freshman year, but he was a junior now. That was two years ago and his little brother was half-way done with school.

Of all the things that had struck him hard that was probably the worst of them. Hiro, his little baby brother, had grown up without him…

Tadashi had received a full serving of lectures from all his friends and remaining family but it wasn't until he'd heard about Hiro that he realized he would have to wait before he received the biggest one of all.

He'd been stunned by the pride in his friends' faces as they told him, "Your little brother's a genius! He got chosen to join the IRSG on their trip this year! That makes him the youngest attendee they've ever had!" IRSG, International Robotics Study for Geniuses, was a program designed by the dean of SFIT to give leading students the chance to learn from other professionals around the globe. Tadashi had been offered the chance to go to France with them once but that had been back when his little brother was neck deep in botfights and he hadn't felt comfortable with leaving him behind so he had declined the generous offer.

"You should have seen the look on his face when we told him that you'd almost gone on one of these trips, dude!" Fred had exclaimed, eyes aglow with such radiance that Tadashi couldn't help but smile too. Aside from growing a little taller, budding a goatee, and losing the beanie, his friend hadn't changed a whole lot in the two years he'd been gone.

"Yeah, the little man's face lit up like a Christmas tree," Wasabi had laughed. The older man had a short, fuzzy beard lining his jaw and curling over his upper lip, something that Tadashi had immediately gawked at. When asked, his friend had sheepishly told him that while he'd been pulling several all-nighters a few years back he hadn't had the chance to shave and the resulting stubble had, as many had told him, "added to his character and attracted game." It had taken a bit before he got used to the disorder of having a little beard but he seemed to like it. Now, along with his typical headband, Wasabi had taken to pulling his tyke dreads back into a taught pony tail, clearing his face more and enabling him the ability of enhanced accuracy.

"Oooh," Honey had laughed, jumping up and down at the end of the bed until Gogo reached out and stopped her, "he was so excited to go, Tadashi! You should have seen him!" Sometime in the past two years she had decided to cut her hair. As the story went the Latino had finally gotten it caught in one her experiments and hadn't had much choice in the end. He thought she looked pretty cute with it cut to shoulder length, though, and his compliments had seemed to make her happy too. Her pink headband remained to keep wandering strands back and her glasses were ever the same. Honey's skin was a little darker now too but he didn't bother to ask about that.

"Hiro's been in Europe for about almost a week now," Gogo had explained with a laid back smirk. In contrast to Honey she had actually let her hair grow long, draping over her shoulders and pouring down her back. She'd kept the streaks in her hair though this year they were blue instead of purple. Unlike the others she had grown taller, gained more muscle, and her face had matured. The Korean woman's eyes had thinned out, lashes curling thickly and lips just a little bit fuller than before. Overall her face looked longer and she was a few inches taller than before. Her fashion sense was as punk as ever, though.

Tadashi laughed a little at that, pleased to hear that his brother had been doing well in his absence.

"He'll be so happy to hear that you're awake," Aunt Cass had smiled. She had a few more gray hairs and wrinkles these days and she kept her hair drawn up in a bun but that aside she really hadn't changed at all. Ultimately they had decided to hold back from telling Hiro the good news because of the 8 hour time difference between them and his aunt worried that once he heard about it , Tadashi's little brother would throw away this newest educational opportunity, get on the next plane, and fly back immediately.

Now, a week later he was in the hospital mostly for observation with a promise from his doctor hanging over his head. If he was still looking good by Wednesday Tadashi would be allowed to go home. He'd have to come in for bimonthly checkups for a while afterwards though, but he didn't mind too much.

Tadashi's eyes were on the TV posted on the wall across from the end of his bed, a remote in one hand and the other tracing the scars curling over his other forearm casually as he listened to the evening bustle outside his room. The scars he'd been left with were slightly puckered, white in some areas and trimmed with red in others. It looked like someone had ripped off his skin, set the strips in a pot of boiling water, and then tried to stretch it back over his body.

It was definitely going to be a while before he got used to them- as he would most certainly have to as they were by no means easy to ignore. The gruesome picture rolled over his right arm, along his leg, flickered across his back and slipped along his left side. He'd have to undergo a lot of painful and trying therapy but despite the warnings he had received Tadashi was eager to get back on his feet.

It was around 8 pm in San Fransokyo right now and he skimmed past news channels, cartoons, sci fi shows, and such for what felt like forever before something caught his ear.

"Something remarkable was happening in London yesterday evening as troops…"

He keyed in on the mention of the city his brother was studying in and stayed his hand, lowering the remote and focusing on the blond reporter looking into the camera. His eyes froze on the words splattered across a red banner at the bottom of the screen. 'BREAKING NEWS,' they read in big, bold, capital letters, 'LONDON RIOTS; Young ginko forms single-man blockade against English soldiers…' A thick, hot ball of nervousness formed a lump in his throat as he took in the information underneath the anchorwoman's desk:

Young university student stands in front of platoons of British soldiers sent to help maintain the riots between English and Japanese in the city of London.

He quickly turned up the volume, hardly aware of the door opening from across the room as the reporter continued, "The riots in London have only gotten worse despite the efforts of British police in the area and in an effort to maintain the growing problem Commander Joseph O'Connall was sent out yesterday evening with a small army of three fully armed platoons accompanying him. According to what our reports tell us they were hoping that the sight of so much artillery would help to dissuade the Japanese but things haven't exactly gone to plan."

"Tadashi?" he heard Aunt Cass's worried voice as though he was underwater, gaze never leaving the TV. Please, he thought with baited breath, please be okay, Hiro.

"As we see in this video our news copter caught the day before, the intimidating presence of O'Connall's men armed to the teeth and ready to start a war did nothing to sway a young Japanese college student determined to defend a seemingly deserted chapel from the passing tanks." The news reporter disappeared, replaced by a video disrupted by the thick fall of rain. Focused in the center of the camera's field of vision was a small figure probably an inch or so shorter than Aunt Cass. The student's face was mostly kept hidden by the umbrella in its hand but soon it dipped back and a familiar- if not somewhat older- face peered up at them from under the rim.

Tadashi's heart froze in his chest when his little brother's face appeared on the grainy screen and Aunt Cass gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Hiro…?" his aunt whispered, collapsing into the chair at his bedside. Tadashi didn't reply, all color draining out of his face as he watched the report with growing terror.

Then the camera zooned out and his heart froze in his chest.

A few meters in front of his little brother stood an army and a half of soldiers flanking a line of tanks and various vehicles. Every figure wearing the universal, dust colored camouflage of the military held at least one large gun that he could see and they figures pooled across the street like one massive puddle. Aside from the soldiers and his little brother the streets were utterly deserted. Tadashi felt like he was watching a movie, the kind that wrenched your heart out and chewed it to pieces before you even got past the introductions. If his eyes could have moved away from the figure of his baby brother he might of noticed faces in the windows, the presence of onlookers from behind their fortified barriers, doing nothing but watching the scene before them.

Hiro stood in the middle of the sidewalk at a break in the road- where the street broke into a 'T'- with a black umbrella held over him, a plastic grocery bag in one hand, and feet stuck firmly to the ground. It was hard to make out his face even with the camera zooming in so far but Tadashi recognized his little brother anywhere. He looked a little older but it was too hard to properly make everything out in the darkness, the rain, and the uneven filming. "This unidentified young man bravely faced down O'Connall's army single-handedly the other day with no weapons or protection of any kind." The camera moved around and zoomed out a little again to show more of his younger sibling, the helicopter it was stationed on flying back in an arc so his face could be see more clearly.

"We're told the soldiers never had any intention of firing a single bullet as they paraded through the streets of London the day before at 3:40 PM, their goal only to scare and intimidate. However, as we see in this video they were more than prepared to let off a few shots if it meant clearing the way in front of them." The anchorwoman fell silent and audio crackled out of the video. Tadashi could hear the pour of rain, the clack of shifting guns, the rumble of engines and with each sound he heard he felt ice beat through his chest. Then he caught sight of a figure he presumed to be O'Connall; with his torso popped out the hatch of the first tank and head bent over, mouth against the walkie-talkie in his hand as he shouted above the rain.

If Tadashi had been hooked up to a heart monitor it would have been beating a mile a minute as he heard a terrifying command leap through the audio and watched the young, short-haired male raise an arm.

"Mark!"

O'Connal paused, then swung the soaking limb down.

"Fire!"

A choked cry of fear spiraled out of Aunt Cass as she pressed her thin hands to her mouth in terror, eyes as wide as dinner plates. Tadashi's hands fisted in the sheets and he leaned forward, eyes shining with similar distress. They watched the umbrella shoot out of Hiro's grip, snapping and folding back in the rain like a crumping soda can.

His little brother never flinched.

Not even as his hand was yanked back from the force. Not even as blood began to ooze from the wound and mix with the rain.

Not even as O'Connall raised his arm again.

Tadashi was hardly impressed though, mentally urging his dumb, stupid, reckless, little brother to getoutofthere! What are you trying to prove?! He clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached and he swore he felt his teeth crack.

Hiro lowered his empty hand even as another shot was fired and a bullet embedded itself into the concrete at his feet. Aunt Cass visibly flinched at that even as the expression on her young nephew's face never changed.

Tadashi's fists tightened, the fabric squeaking in his hold, "Hiro…"

Then the anchorwoman's voice came back, "This mysterious adolescent stood in front of the soldiers for upwards of a half an hour, resisting all attempts made to move him." A clip was shown of several men trying to shove Hiro aside with no visible success, "For reasons we're unable to explain no one was able to get him out of the way and eventually the soldiers were ordered to take another path." Briefly he saw an image of the soldiers passing his brother but it cut off somewhat abruptly, returning the spotlight to the anchor woman.

"Obviously the violence in England has escalated drastically," Aunt Cass was pulling her phone out as the report continued and Tadashi's cell was going off on the nightstand. He didn't bother himself with it however, watching with fire in his eyes as videos caught of terrible aggression, bloody protests, and lines of bodies piled together filled the screen. Why was it that he was only just learning about this?! "People have begun to call this phenomenon The Ginko Riots and news is spreading all over the internet with reactions from both sides escalating globally.* Since the Japanese military infiltrated the country and sabotaged almost 3/4s of electrical and nuclear power stations two weeks ago, causing several catastrophic explosions and leading to at least 30,000 lives lost, we have seen 143 Japanese civilians murdered, at least 21 unaccounted for, and 74 injured in London alone. All across-"

"Hello?" Aunt Cass's voice, for whatever reason, caught his attention and he looked over, "Yes- yes, I'm Hiro Hamada's aunt- may I please speak to him? Is he there?" Tadashi set the TV to mute and looked at her, concern echoed in his eyes. Noticing that she'd caught his awareness his aunt pulled the cell away from her ear and set it on speaker.

"-not sure where he is," a young, British, female voice was saying, "Hold on a click, let me see if I can find him for you."

"Thank you," Aunt Cass sighed, exchanging a look with Tadashi as she scooted closer to the bed. There was a shuffling sound from over the phone and when the woman's voice came back it was somewhat distant.

"Yo, Marcus!" she called and there was a faint reply, "Where's Hiro?"

"Huh?" came a quiet, muffled answer.

The British woman sighed loudly, "Hiro! Where is he?"

There was a thoughtful pause, an exchange of words between men, then a different voice piped up, "Who wants to know, Mag?" Mag quickly explained the situation to him before another pregnant pause filled the room, "Well, it's like 4 AM right now so either A) he's sleeping like a regular person or B) he's working on something." The girl on the phone must have given this new speaker a dark look or something because he quickly added, "-hey, look, I don't know, okay?! I don't even know why I'm awake right now!"

Another sigh crackled over the speaker before her voice returned to regular volume, "Well, he's probably asleep right now, I'm just not-"

"He's in here, Maggie!"

"Oh- hold on-" she took the phone away from her ear and called back a thank you before returning, "Would you like me to wake him up?"

Tadashi worried his lip between his teeth for a moment and exchanged another look with his aunt before subconsciously shaking his head, "No, thank you, that's alright. He needs all the sleep he can get."

"Sure thing," the woman said, "And just so we're clear; don't worry, I know that, as his family, you're probably all worried that we might murder him or something because we're British. Hiro's safe with us though, and so is any other Asian. We'll look after him for you and if anything happens to him you'll be among the first people we call." Relief swept through Tadashi at that and a smile dared to touch Aunt Cass's face.

"Thank you," she said sincerely, "we both needed to hear that."

"No problem!" Maggie replied and a distain uproar sounded from another room, "is there anything you want me to tell him when he wakes up?"

Another silent message was exchanged between the two Hamadas before Tadashi spoke, "Just, let him know that his family sends him our love and that he needs to be safe. If he pulls anymore heroic stunts like that last one a lecture won't be the only thing he gets from us."

Maggie laughed good naturedly at that, "sure thing. It may help you to know that we've already given him an earful for that one. Anyway, I'll let him know that his family called but my shift is just about over and I'd like to get to bed. Have a good night, you guys."

The phone went dead to a chime of "good night"s from both Hamada's. Then the room was silent.

Aunt Cass muttered something under her breath about stress eating and got up as Tadashi turned his gaze to the TV screen again, watching as riot footage streamed across it.

What have you gotten involved in now, little brother?

*I have a proposal for those who may be interested; while I do plan on using discussions on the internet to highlight certain parts of this story (Like what the rest of the world thinks of the riots, Hiro's, well, heroism, and the international issues between Japan and England) and plan on stylizing them myself I would like to know if anyone wants to help out? You can formulate your own thoughts into a comment, paragraph, etc, and post it in a review. I will then slap that related comment into the story as Tadashi, Hiro, Honey, or some other character surfs through the internet. (I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time explaining this for some reason.) I will, of course, give you mention either in the AN or the story itself. :)

If you want to participate but don't know what to write/rant about here are a few options:

(A.) Pretend you're surfing through tumblr, or facebook, or whatever and you come across a thread about the aggression between students at the college Hiro's attending (ICL= Imperial College London) and how the Japanese students are having a hard time getting to class. Some teachers have banned them from the class room, others refuse to grade fairly, and fellow students harass, terrorize, and even torture some ginko undergraduates. You are supplied with documented evidence in the form of articles, photographs, etc. Some people are saying that, given what they've done, the Japanese deserve it. What do you say? PLEASE BE SPECIFIC!

(B) You find gory images of riots that include; bloody head injuries, body piles, wounded children, armed police, soldiers, and swat teams. How do you react?

(C) You find a thread trying to identify the young man that protected a "seemingly abandoned church". How do you contribute? (Please be reasonable! You don't know anything about Hiro yet.)

(D) You find a report detailing the threat against the Japanese by not only rioters but the police and military as well. What do you think of this?

(E) **You find a thread that shows photos of Hiro's one-man-stand against the army but these actually show the full thing- unlike the 'copter's camera. This means the children and nuns behind Hiro are in the shot and his intentions are more obvious. It becomes clear that this was cut out of the footage the British cameramen got. What do you say? Why?

Please note that the comment you contribute cannot be any less than 2 fully structured sentences or I will not include it. I'm not entirely sure how many of you will contribute and its fine if you decide not to at all, I'm more than capable of coming up with my own stuff. I simply thought it might be kind of cool to give you guys the chance to get involved.

Sorry for the long note!

O means keep posting, X means stop.

Cheers!