Two months had passed since the assumed death of the college attendees, one being a professor and one being a highly educated student. Families and friends mourned for their loss and for a few weeks, an air of depression hung around the city in devastation.
Slowly, life went back to normal for San Fransokyo and people remembered the event as a memorial.
But not for Hiro Hamada.
Things got hard after the accident. He was so used to another presence, he often asked questions to the empty room and often called for his brother, only after remembering that he was gone forever.
Eventually, Hiro got tired of sobbing himself to sleep every night. Friends and Aunt Cass tried to comfort him as best as they could, but to no avail.
The young prodigy didn't go outside for months and cooped himself inside what used to be his safe haven. Depression almost became his middle name. His appearance became sickly and eyebags became a part of his features.
Finally, Aunt Cass had had enough of a gloomy mood moping around her apartment. She walked up the flight of stairs to her nephew's bedroom.
She found him lounging on his red beanbag, staring sadly into the floor.
"Hiro?" She called softly. Hiro glanced slightly at her direction, not moving his body.
"Put your coat on, dear, we're leaving." she tried.
"I don't want to go anywhere now," Hiro whispered. "Thanks."
Cass sighed and walked over to sit on his bed. "Sweetie, hear me out. I have this one place where people have more devastating situations than you and they go to that place for comfort. They come out feeling relaxed. You'll like it, I pro-"
"Where is this place?"
"Psycologist Center for Teens," she answered. "Or PCT for short."
She waited to see something on his face. He furrowed his eyebrows a bit, thinking. He finally sighed deeply, got up slowly, and mumbled an 'okay'.
Cass smiled and put arms around her nephew's shoulders. Hiro hugged her back loosely. She was the first person he had touched in weeks.
On the drive there, Hiro looked out the window sadly. He was sure the therapists at the center wouldn't be able to even move him if they tried their hardest.
They entered a nice looking building about 7 stories tall with tinted windows and an air-conditioned lobby. Hiro didn't want to look impressed, but he was a bit excited to meet their best therapist and put them to the test.
They came up to the wide lobby where three secretaries were hard at work, but all doing different tasks. One was speaking softly to a client on a phone, another was typing away and often glancing at her paperwork, and the middle one was signing some papers.
Cass came up to the middle one, who had a long caramel braid and a long face. The secretary looked up and smiled kindly. She had soft green eyes and her Latino features relaxed and calm.
"Good afternoon, how may I help you today?" the secretary asked and stood up to shake Cass's hand. She didn't shake Hiro's hand and that's what he wanted. No touching, no attention.
Cass smiled weakly. "Hi, I have an appointment with Dr. Mafari at 2:30?"
The woman's eyebrows shot up in recognition and smiled widely at Hiro, finally acknowledging him. "You're going to love her. I promise." She winked, turning back to Cass.
"Yes, I just need you to sign this warrant about him. Is this Tadashi Hamada?" she asked, grabbing a stapled packet from a red folder with the label that read 'URGENT'.
Hiro's heart nearly skipped a beat. He hadn't heard someone foreign speak the name in over two months. His expression must've shown the woman she was wrong because she chuckled and said, "Teasing."
Believe it or not, Hiro had the temptation to smile at her joke. But he restrained himself, remembering his test to this place. He put on a solemn expression as Cass signed away.
The secretary's name tag read 'Regnara'. How do you even say that? Is the 'g' silent? Hiro shrugged and let it off as 'what the heck'.
The secretary to her right, the one typing away, paused and turned to smile at Hiro. She had a Japanese-er, Asian look to her eyes and she even looked excited to see him. Her name tag read 'DT'. Weird.
"Done." Cass announced. She rustled the papers she was handed and slid them into the folder. Shutting it with a pat, she slid it to Regnara, who snatched it up and smiled at the folder, like it was something she wanted for Christmas.
"Dr. Mafari will be with you in a few minutes."
Hiro must've waited for only about two minutes or so, but to him, it felt like time was dragging out. He exhaled impatiently, already fidgeting with his zipper to the jacket.
Finally, the sound of a door opened and Hiro looked up to see a red-headed woman with bright gray eyes walking gracefully towards them. Her glasses hid her smiling expression, but as soon as she saw Hiro's sad face, her expression slowly looked smug, as if she had something giant planned for him.
She extended her tan hand to Hiro. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hamada." The woman's emotions seemed to take all the sadness away from Hiro, but he kept a stoic face.
"Hi." He mumbled and glanced at her name tag. 'Dr. U.V. Mafari' it read. Hmm.
Then, she turned to Cass and shook her hand as well. "How you fine people doing today?"
Cass smiled weakly. "We'll hopefully be alright. I was just dropping my nephew off for a quick visit, since, y'know...you've helped me before with Maemi-"
Hiro's eyes widened. His mother? Cass needed help with his mother's death as well?
Dr. Mafari nodded. "Yes, we spent quite amount of time on that, didn't we?"
Cass bobbed her head slightly, then nudged Hiro forward a bit. "Go on. I'll be back in a few. Grocery shopping and stuff."
Hiro looked at Cass, then back at the doctor. They hugged quickly and Cass walked out the automated sliding door. Dr. Mafari smiled at her secretaries as they glanced happily back at her.
Hiro looked up at the woman awkwardly. "So...where are we going now?"
Dr. Mafari raised her eyebrow at him. "What do you want do to, Hiro?"
Hiro stood there, not knowing what to answer. He wasn't sure if there was a right or wrong answer to her question. Was it rhetorical?
"I suppose you're gonna talk to me or something?" Hiro guessed. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Like not to be depressed and stuff..."
Hiro looked down, waiting for a response, but didn't get it. He looked up to see Dr. Mafari smiling down at him very mysteriously.
Then, she shrugged out of her strange stare. "Alright, if talking's what you want, then so be it. But I think I have something else you're gonna want to hear and it has something to do with your brother."
At those words, she began walking towards a brass elevator and pressed the 'up' button. Hiro began walking after her quickly, suddenly wanting to hear what she had to say about Tadashi.
The elevator dinged and they both walked inside. Dr. Mafari pressed the seventh floor and the elevator escalated a little too swiftly, making Hiro's stomach fly.
Nothing was said in the elevator ride and silence ensued except for the soft saxophone music playing over their heads. They arrived at their destination quickly and Dr. Mafari swiftly walked out, her hands laced gently behind her back.
The boy followed cautiously, as if she were to spring a trap of some kind for him. But nothing of the sort happened and Dr. Mafari sat down in a humble brown chair behind a golden embroidered desk.
She motioned for Hiro to do the same in front of her. He did so, drinking in his surroundings before doing so. The office was a loft with windows as walls, showing off a decent view of San Fransokyo mid-spring.
When he sat down, he suddenly noticed that the room was very warm. Not hot; warm. He slipped off his jacket til his elbows and let the sleeve dangle at the edge of his hands.
Dr. Mafari sat back comfortably. "Well?"
Hiro looked up. "Well what?" He almost bit his tongue for such a fresh response.
Dr. Mafari laughed lightly. It was enjoyable to hear and a bit contagious, if Hiro was honest. "Do you want to hear what you need to hear, or what you think you need to hear?"
The prodigy was lost. "Come again?"
Dr. Mafari leaned forward. "Do you want to hear about what you want to hear?"
"Meaning?"
Dr. Mafari's eyes blazed. "Your brother."
Hiro stared at her, then sighed and looked down. "Don't bother. He's dead. He died in a fi-"
"He's still alive."
Hiro looked up a bit bored. He's heard people around him say that. Tadashi is alive when you remember him and keep him alive inside of you. But then again, the look on Dr. Mafari's face was dead serious, very different from what she looked like moments ago.
"How do you know?" Hiro asked sadly. "That's impossible."
Dr. Mafari gazed at him. "I believe not. I know he's alive because I've seen him recently."
"How recent?"
"Yesterday."
Hiro mused over this. "Maybe you saw someone else that resembled him or something..."
Dr. Mafari laced her fingers together, sliding them in and out with ease. "Tell me, Hiro, you're his closest anything. How many people do you know resemble your brother?"
It was true. Hardly anyone looked like Tadashi, he was unique. True, he was Japanese-American, but he had a look that no one else in the world had other than him. It was look of determination, care, love, and obligation.
It was a look of Tadashi Hamada.
Hiro smiled a bit at the memory. Dr. Mafari saw his smile and reflected it with a cute smile of her own. "Y'see, you admit it yourself. He's alive, so why mope around for no reason?"
Suddenly, Hiro's expression grew dark. "No reason? No reason? You're telling me that my brother's death is supposed to be meaningless to me and that I should skip around, throwing flower petals over his grave?!" His voice wavered at the end of his sentence and he sat back into the cushion of his chair, exhausted.
Dr. Mafari gazed him over gently. "No. I simply want you to have the knowledge that in the back of your mind, in the deepest corners of your subconscious, you should just know and realize that Tadashi hasn't died. He's breathing just as well as you and I."
Hiro looked at her from under his dark eyebrows. "Oh yeah? Where's the proof?"
Dr. Mafari looked down a bit. She stayed silent for a little while as Hiro taunted her with his glare. She stood, her red hair waving around her round shoulders and she walked towards one of her giant file cabinet drawers.
She opened it and pulled out a file that was lit on fire. Hiro jumped up a bit and his brown orbs widened. "That file is on fire, Dr. Mafari!"
Dr. Mafari chuckled. "It sure is, Mr. Hamada. It sure is."
Hiro waited for the doctor to smugly put out the fire with a glass of water or something, like all she wanted to show him was a cool magic trick. But she did nothing of the sort and let the file continue to stand ablaze.
"Uh, aren't you going to put it out?" Hiro asked a little stupidly. Dr. Mafari smiled and shook her head. She back down in her chair, still holding the burning file. No, it wasn't becoming destroyed; just lit. Nice.
"See this file, Hiro?" She asked the boy. The question almost seemed obvious to ask, but he nodded. Dr. Mafari pointed to the center of the file, her thin fingers going through the flames. "I meant this."
Hiro looked closer. His eyes widened. The title the doctor was pointing to was spelled out 'Tadashi Hamada's Soul'. Hiro turned to the doctor. "Wh- I don't understand what that's supposed to mean."
Dr. Mafari glimpsed at him over her glasses. "Why not?"
Hiro almost rolled his eyes. He was getting tired and anxious of this woman's mysteriousness. She should just tell him already! But, no. He had learned in a crash course of psychology that people often want you to use your brains instead of feeding you information you already know. That ruins your brain cells and nerve system.
He took a deep breath. "Because…what does that file represent?"
Dr. Mafari glanced a bit sarcastically at the folder and stared for a while. "Hmm. Let's see. 'Tadashi Hamada's Soul'. I wonder what it contains."
"That's his life existence?"
An encouraging nod from Dr. Mafari had Hiro double-taking. She wasn't serious was she? If Tadashi was still alive somehow, by some miracle, where was he?
"Okay," Hiro replied slowly. "Say you're right and that is his soul or whatever. Where is he then?"
"At this moment?" Dr. Mafari looked up in thought, settling the folder on the table, the flames going on. "At my place, I suppose."
"Your place?"
"Yes," Dr. Mafari said casually. "But he could possibly be somewhere else, depending where Anaya took him."
"Anaya?"
"Yes."
"The secretary at the desk?" Hiro asked doubtfully. The doctor's smile confirmed his question. She began to laugh. "My, do you ask a lot of questions or what!"
Hiro's felt a bit warmer. For some strange reason, he had just noticed that Dr. Mafari was very attractive. Her laugh, her features, words. Why did he feel that way? She looked like she was twenty or so!
Dr. Mafari noted Hiro's silence. But this wasn't shame; it was bashfulness. She leaned in. "Are you alright?"
"Hmm?" Hiro jumped up a bit, his face growing redder. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, just, uh, hot." Maybe if he crossed his legs together…
"Oh, well I'll just turn up the cooler." Dr. Mafari stood up to adjust the temperature. "I apologize, I really adore the heat for some reason.
Man, her body, too? How slim and beautiful can a woman get? Dr. Mafari's hips swayed back a forth as she walked to a wall and settled her weight onto one hipbone. Hiro forced himself to look away. This was not the time to hit on hot therapists, as fun as it was.
Dr. Mafari smiled a little when she felt Hiro's eyes on her, but sensed his stare leave her a bit later. Her back to Hiro, she knew he had finally found her attractive. This would enable him to listen to her better.
Tactics of a therapist go beyond the comprehension of any genius, even that of Hiro's.
Oooooh Hiro love da bootay oh and sorry for the lateness. As you can see, it's long. Oh, and did i mention that last Monday was my birthday? January 18th? No? Okay then back to the corner I go :'(
