Wednesday January 22nd, 2042

The café bustled with activity and people, many of them rushing in to avoid the cold and to grab a hot chocolate. Navigating through the crowd, Hiro was once again grateful that he was just the sometimes-help again, and not the one running the show. Days like today would be hell, there were just too many people in such a small space. Three years wasn't enough time to prevent the stress from nagging at his brain from so many customers, even if it wasn't his problem anymore.

Café work just wasn't for him, not in the long-term. If his Aunt hadn't recovered when she had, Hiro had doubts he would have kept the doors open for much longer. It was a great load off of his shoulders to have his Aunt Cass back in business. On top of removing the stress over her condition, it also allowed him time to work on his other projects… and keep an eye on his brother. There was an increased need for it today with all the people crammed into the room. Thankfully, hopefully, he had a bit of help this time around.

Currently Hiro busied himself with trying to get their two-and-a-half-year-old dog to sit. still so he could clip the leash on his collar. The Akita enjoyed rolling around far too much, but his barks were loud, and he was loyal, which was all Hiro could really ask for. The breed was also known for being particularly vicious towards intruders, which meant they'd had to be extra careful about training him while owning a café. Not that you'd guess it looking at him now.

"Takeo, hold still," Hiro chided, though his heart wasn't in it. "Yes, you're adorable, and so excited to go outside, but you can't if you don't- ah, got it!"

Tadashi took the leash from Hiro now that it was properly attached, winding it around his wrist. The instant Hiro released Takeo's collar, the dog bounded between and around some of the chairs, getting it hopelessly tangled as he tried to investigate the strange people. Sighing far too solemnly for his perceived age, Tadashi went to work undoing the mess.

There was stifled laughter from the front door, announcing the arrival of Angela and Mari. They were a few minutes early to their agreed upon arrival time, but it wasn't like the 'youngest' brother had had anything better to do until then. This was, after all, his 'playdate'.

"Having trouble there?" Angela approached, pulling a chair up to allow the leash to come free.

Hiro shook his head, leaving the task to his brother. "No more than usual."

Mari excitedly helped the 'good dog' free himself from the various table legs, only allowing Buttercup (as the dog had officially become, despite attempts to the contrary) just enough room to sniff Takeo in greeting. Only once both dogs were under control did Hiro get ready to give his typical speech, a phenomenon both sisters had grown accustomed to, and found more amusing than anything.

"Okay, so," Hiro began, "if anything happens I'm to be notified immediately, even if you think you can handle it, and both Takeo and Tadashi need to be in sight at all times. No wandering off."

The statement was targeted at Tadashi, who'd only just started paying attention. It earned Hiro an unimpressed look, but he refused to be dissuaded.

"Also, no unplanned stops anywhere unless I'm notified-"

"-and be back by three, and if he loses his phone for any reason that he should find a landline and call home. I know the drill, Hiro," Angela finished for him, only half teasing. "I'm not that slow."

Hiro sighed, nodding and chewing his lower lip in uncertain thought. "You know, maybe I can just come with you, I'm sure the client wouldn't mind rescheduling."

"Hiro." Angela fixed him with a look. "He'll be fine. Just like last time, just like the time before that."

Gritting his teeth, Hiro forced himself to nod in agreement. Worst come to worst, Tadashi had the necklace, and his abilities… if he could be convinced to use them. Besides, it wasn't good business or good morals to postpone a meeting where prosthetics were involved. Even if he could come up with a very probable excuse by now. He'd gotten plenty of practice.

"Right. Fine. Get going." Hiro watched them leave before heading back to the garage to grab his stuff to head to the meeting.

After making sure everything was secured, he pulled out his phone, checking the tracker. He could never be too cautious, and even this was a stretch of his will. Oh well, best to have someone around that at least tries to live up to the expectations of trust, and three years without issues probably meant that she wasn't planning anything herself. Now he just had to make sure to defend against anything from the outside.

The meeting went well, as it always did this far in the process. It was just a matter of ironing out the details and making sure it was exactly to the specifications of the person ordering it. It wasn't an hour later when Hiro arrived back at the café, tucking away blueprints and notes for future use.

Checking the tracker again, Hiro noted that Tadashi was safely (hopefully) in the main of the building. It didn't take but five minutes to poke his head in to make sure, and there he was. Sitting in the still over-sized beanbag was his brother, making sure to carefully lose at video games.

A triumphant Mari, the nine-year-old, or was she ten, who had decided Tadashi was her absolute best friend in the world, whooped in celebration at another victory. Hiro had once overheard her proclaiming he was her best friend even though he was 'awful' at video games, which she was always very nice about. Oh, if only she knew.

The safer part of his brother's 'playdate' underway, Hiro allowed himself to become immersed in his secondary project. It strongly reminded him of his early days as part of the "Big Hero 6" team, when he poured himself into one mystery after the other, determined to be useful. It was typically only small-fry he had ever managed to unearth, but this time he felt he was on the trail of something, or someone, more sinister. He knew he had to be much more careful this time around.

A string of reports that seemed to go unnoticed by newscasters, or at least hardly mentioned if they were at all acknowledged, had caught his attention. At first, he had assumed he was seeing something in nothing, desperate to find a way to distract himself from his fears. However, the more he looked into it, the more it stood out to him that there was a pattern developing.

People would be admitted to the hospital with odd symptoms, such that the doctors were unable to diagnose exactly what was causing them. The 'oddities' would vary, from constant headaches to fading vision to an itch they couldn't manage to scratch, but without fail, all of them would describe or develop the sensation of "fire in their veins". There didn't seem to be any connection between the victims other than that, besides all of them dying or ending up comatose. (The latter case was a singular person, who was then shipped off to a more expensive, intensive, and, most obstructively to Hiro's investigations, private care center. His current fate remained unpublished.)

Hiro shook his head, not even that could be constant, could it? The hospitals they were admitted to, their workplaces, their hobbies, ages, previous health issues, the entire lot (which Hiro wasn't technically supposed to have access to, but who would care about defending a dead person's privacy) ranged across the board. The only factors Hiro could tie together were that none were elderly or children. Whatever it was, it worked the opposite of what one would expect. A disease usually hit the weakest the hardest, unless it was carried to the initial, more social people first and then later spread. But the victims didn't even live close to each other, besides being in and from the Bay Area.

That was another odd thing. Hiro searched and searched but couldn't find another potential example of cases like this anywhere. Anything that could explain similar symptoms or results left marks, which he doctors wouldn't have missed on this many patients. Hiro had sent out a request to the physicians at the hospitals his 'Beta'-maxs (what he finally decided to refer to them mentally as) worked at, hoping to get some more information. He had asked that they at least allow such patients to be scanned before succumbing eventually to the seemingly unpreventable cold hand of death. Of course, he didn't word it like that, but it was the general idea.

And now he had to wait. Wait and dig into more and more of these people's identities to try and find some connection. He told himself it was to help, to put a stop to this entire thing before it spread like a plague. However, he couldn't deny the thrill of a puzzle. It was addicting, feeling the pull on his brain, to actually exert mental energy on something difficult. It had been a while since the 'brain-buzz' had been a thing.

Sighing after going through a particular victim's social media, which had quite the collection of frankly bigoted posts, Hiro leaned back in his chair, giving himself time to process out the stupid. It was amazing what people with money could convince themselves of, in particular. He frowned, remembering that he himself had a fair amount of money, but it never really felt like he did. That was for emergencies. Or the future. Or something. In any case, it wasn't to spend unless he needed more supplies or something similar.

He chastised himself again when he checked his buzzing phone to see Fred had texted him about something or another. Fred was the furthest from bigoted or snooty, and he had a flipping mansion. Hiro scrolled through Fred's excited rambling about the weekend he'd spent with his dad, the giant snakeskin they'd found, and all the cool ideas he'd gotten from talking with a father that was clearly as creative as his son. You could always count on Fred to bring the spark into the group.

It was sorely needed, as Hiro couldn't escape the feeling that they were slowly drifting apart. Sure, they were all adults now with their own lives, and college was something to look back on, but it made maintaining relationships that much harder. Of course they were still close, of course, but… Hiro sighed, shutting his laptop a bit harder than necessary. He was overthinking things.

Just because he had yet another thing he couldn't relate to anybody else about didn't mean it was the end of the world. With the kid genius thing, he'd just had to find friends that were older and not jerks. Now he just needed to focus more on maintaining those past friendships, the whole mutant/hybrid/whatever thing didn't matter. Right. At least he didn't have it as bad as Tadashi.

Letting his feet carry him, Hiro wandered to the living room, watching the two finish another round of gaming. Tadashi was kind of stuck, unable to fit in fully with either group, but he'd found a way to adapt. Tadashi had compared it to working at a daycare, and admitted it was nice to just be able to play again, despite the other drawbacks of 'resetting' as a child.

Hiro paced aimlessly for the remainder of their visit, trying to keep himself semi-occupied. He couldn't sit still long enough to have a decent conversation with Angela, only offering token comments when she and his Aunt were talking. When it was time for them to go, it couldn't have been too soon in his opinion.

Hiro'd thought it would just be another standard evening if not for the solemn look that Tadashi wore for the entirety of dinner. Preparing for the worst (or a thousand worst possible situations) Hiro followed him back to their shared room, waiting for the hammer to fall.

"Hiro…" Tadashi's words were measured, and this sounded more like he was getting ready to ask for something, rather than delivering bad news. It could still prove to be just as much of a problem, however, and Hiro did his best not to feel relieved.

"About this whole… what do we even call this? We never talk about this, and I know you don't want to and you'd rather pretend we were normal, but we're not, you know we're not." Tadashi shook his head, trying to stick to his point. "But… there's no way it's, that is, that we…" He sighed in frustration. "We can't be the only ones, Hiro. Stuff like this doesn't just drop in out of nowhere and then disappear."

Hiro frowned, knowing exactly where this was going but determined that'd he'd already thought too much on this. "No, you heard Aunt Cass… you did hear, right? This was mom and dad's project? And in case you forgot-" Hiro opened his arms wide, indicating towards the room, but meaning the house in general. "Not here. There's no reason there should be more. And yes, I did look into the people she'd mentioned, and guess what? Dead. No chance for them to try again, and no successful results up to that point. Am I forgetting anything?"

"No, but." Tadashi huffed, trying to make his brother at least consider the possibility. "What if they'd… I dunno, showed someone. Or their supervisor, or… I don't know, but you can't just ignore it…"

He wasn't. He absolutely wasn't, it just didn't fit so there was no reason to consider it. Whatever he'd seen… whatever he'd thought he'd seen, had to have been something different. He refused to think there were any other living successes. Surely, they would have come to light by now, if for no other reason than for a scientist somewhere to win an award. It probably wasn't even profitable, considering all that he imagined had to go into it.

"I'm not ignoring it," Hiro finally said after an extended silence. "I just… no. It's not- there aren't any others, I'm sorry, it sucks to be," Hiro indicated to the child's body, "But even if there were, we'd probably never find out. It's not like there's a support group online or something."

His joke fell flat, his brother looking at him in disappointment. But at least Hiro had thought better than to share his suspicions about Kyouji. They didn't need to know anything more about him than that he wasn't even who he'd said he was, and that if they ever met again, he wouldn't get away so easily. Tadashi surely would have looked further into it, and that was trouble they didn't need.

Hiro clenched and unclenched his fist before sighing, careful not to breathe too deeply. "I'm sorry. I really am, Tadashi."

*A.N.: Thank you for the reviews! The story is finally beginning to pick up, and I for one am looking forward to it. See you next week.*