One week earlier
Hiro lay on the bed with his legs up against the wall – he bored. He felt more bored than he had ever been in his entire life … as far as he could remember at least.
Ever since they had moved to this new place he had been locked up in his room. And he hated every minute of it. Although Obake had come daily since moving in to bring him new things to work with, new materials, new tools and a new computer, Hiro felt bored. He couldn't really understand why he felt this way when he had everything he could ever want within his reach. He just knew that he wanted to go outside, to see the town and the city, to meet people and maybe even make some friends.
Friends …
When he had asked Obake whether he's had friends in the past he was upset to find out that that had not been the case. He was told that he'd been an outsider all his life until he was taken in by Obake.
He and Obake were friends, he thought. But somehow it didn't feel right. It didn't feel honest, didn't feel like a natural friendship. Hiro had thought long and hard about why that was and came to the conclusion, that teacher and student couldn't really be close friends. Or at least that's what he figured must have been the reason for his weird feeling.
Hiro wiggled his toes against the wall and just watched them move – if he wasn't let out any time soon he felt like he was going to start talking to the pictures on the wall. But just when he started thinking about what that might be like he heard a familiar voice out on his small patio. When he peeked over and saw Momokase standing there he jumped up. Her daily visits had become his favorite time of day – maybe she had even become something like a friend.
"Momo!" he greeted her excitedly as he opened the door and jumped into her arms. She chuckled a bit and gently returned the hug. He could feel her long nails stroking his back and relaxed into her arms. "Did you bring me something?"
When he broke away, she couldn't help but laugh at his expression. His eyes were round and sparkling at the thought of her having brought something new for him. And so she took out a small box of gummy bears from her pocket and handed it to him. Since Obake didn't allow Hiro to eat sweets or other types of candy he got excited each time Momo brought him something.
"Nice! Thanks!" he said and quickly ripped the box open and started eating. He stepped outside to join her and the two of them sat on the grass.
Of course Hiro had noticed the CCTV in his room. Although they had been hidden quite well they were no match to Hiro's trained eyes. Somehow he had spotted them so easily and manipulated them via computer so they'd show different images than the ones they were actually supposed to be recording. He didn't mind being recorded, but he knew that Obake did not like him and Momo meeting behind his back. But he didn't really know why.
"How are you?" she asked him and leaned back against the high fence of the yard. Her piercing blue eyes were fixed to him and he noticed her face looking so much brighter and more open ever since she stopped wearing her mask all the time. Her black hair was tied up to a bun.
"Bored." Hiro replied immediately, his mouth stuffed with gummy bears. "This is torture. Why can't I go outside?"
"But you are outside." Momo said jokingly and gestured around. When Hiro shot her a look she chuckled. "You just have to trust Obake and his decisions. I promise it's going to get better soon."
"But why can't I go?" Hiro pressed. "No-one tells me anything but everyone is allowed to go out. It's not going to get better, I know it's not. Everyone else can, so why am I the only one who can't?"
"It's just the way it is." She said. "It's barely been a whole week and all of us must do as Obake says. It's for our safety."
"I can take care of myself." He insisted. "Trina goes out every day to get lunch, you can come and go as you please and even Obake leaves the house all the time! Heck, even Globby spends most of the day outside and he's a bunch of slime! There must be a reason why I'm the only one who's locked up in here! Why just me!?"
"Listen," she said, a bit stricter now as he got more and more upset, "it's for your own safety. Just stay here and keep busy. You've got everything you could possibly want, don't you?"
"Yeah, but-"
"No buts." She stopped him. "That's enough. You must stay here and that's it. You've got me to keep you company and to bring you candy, that's gotta be enough for now."
Hiro fell silent. He looked at her, his heart hammering in his chest. He couldn't really explain why, but he felt betrayed by her. To him, it was so obvious that she was hiding something and he couldn't understand why she wouldn't tell him. He just had a feeling that there was more to it than just keeping him safe, he just didn't know what it was.
When he couldn't hold the eye contact anymore he looked down at his hands in his lap. His knuckles had turned white as he gripped the box of candy. For a while the two of them stayed silent. Hiro could almost hear his heartbeat and felt his eyes stinging. He tried so very hard to bite back the tears but as soon as he felt Momo's arms around him again he couldn't stop himself from crying. Big tears were rolling down his cheeks as he tried to cope with this horrible feeling of betrayal.
"I'm sorry that it is the way it is right now." She said and ran a hand through his hair. "You know I am. I wish you could come with me and enjoy the city, but it's just not possible right now. But I promise, it will be soon." When there was still no reaction from him, she added: "Also, don't forget that you can build the craziest robots. You could build your own botfighting crime ring. How does that sound?"
"Botfight?" he repeated and chuckled a bit. Although he was not happy with letting go of the topic, he decided to try and pick it up again tomorrow. Maybe he was going to be more succesfull then in getting an answer out of her. "What's that?"
When Momo hesitated to respond he thought he saw a glimpse of sadness in her eyes, but it vanished so quickly that he figured that he must have imagined it. And so she told him all about crazy fights in dark alleys where people let the robots they built themselves fight against one another. He listened closely as she told him a story about a robot that had been able to breathe fire and a guy in a lizard suit that could jump higher than a hundred meters. It all sounded so cool and fun that it hurt him even more, knowing that he was not going to get to see it any time soon. Momo seemed to notice his mood change though and continued telling him stories.
"You could build something like that, couldn't you?" she asked as she'd just finished a story about a girl with a purse that allowed her to create little chemical balls that could explode, freeze things and much more. "A purse like that, I mean." She added and raised a brown as she looked at him.
"A … chemical purse?" Hiro repeated and looked at her in confusion. He thought about it for a second and tried to think of a reason as to why he'd ever wanna build something like that. "I mean … I guess I could, but I don't see why I would. Apart from fighting there's no real use to it."
Momo looked at him with that same glimpse of sadness in her eyes that he couldn't understand. He was just about to ask about it when she changed the topic again and said "So what kind of robot are you going to build?"
"None." Hiro replied immediately and leaned back against the fence. "I've got no ideas."
"That can't be right." Momo said with a soft chuckle. "You're a smart kid. If you don't have any ideas now, just look for another angle."
Hiro froze upon hearing the last couple words. Hearing her tell him to 'look for another angle' felt oddly familiar although he was sure that he'd never heard her say these words to him before. He furrowed his brow as he tried to understand why he felt this way but just couldn't get it. It felt like the more he tried to remember whatever it was that had triggered this response from him was slipping farther away the harder he tried to grab it.
"You okay, kid?" Momo asked and looked down at him. He didn't really hear her and just nodded, still deep in thought. He could feel the presence of something in the back of his mind, something that was trying to pull him closer but couldn't. Somehow he felt like he was being ripped into two, one part of him tied to where he was now and the other part being dragged by his foggy memory.
"Hiro?" when she gently shook his shoulder he blinked and looked back up at her. The weird feeling inside disappeared. She seemed worried, yet curious as she watched him. "Something wrong?"
"Hm?" he blinked again and tried to recollect himself. He felt like something was still nagging at him and it bothered him more than he could describe. Not really feeling like it he mumbled that he was fine and grabbed the box with gummy bears again. Without thinking he started eating the last few ones but left the ugly green ones for Momo.
They just sat there for a while and Hiro felt himself getting annoyed at how tense the atmosphere between them was today. The last four days she had visited him it had been a nice break from being locked up in his room, but today it was uncomfortable. She must have noticed it too, he thought. She wasn't really talking like she usually was, nor was she smiling. Instead she just seemed worried as she looked at him.
"What." He mumbled and avoided looking at her. "I'm fine."
"I know." She said. "Just wondering what you're thinking about."
"Nothing." He replied coldly and started taking apart the box. He didn't mean to make the atmosphere even more tense, but somehow couldn't stop himself. And so he turned his head down further to avoid eye contact with her.
"I brought you something else." Momo then said. "Something I think you might find interesting."
Hiro resisted the temptation to look up and just asked what it was. And that's when she put a piece of fabric in his lap. It was a mix of green, yellow and blue all mixed together. When he picked it up and carefully rubbed it in between his fingers he was confused why it felt a bit like what a snake's skin looked like.
"What's this?" he asked and examined the material further. When he noticed the tiny bits of nano-tech sewed into the suit his heart skipped a beat – this was something he had never seen before but somehow just knew. He turned the fabric inside out quickly and ran his finger along the fine lines, trying to understand how it worked. Before he could stop himself he muttered a 'wow' and caused Momo to laugh.
"You like it?" she asked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her smiling to herself.
"Yeah." He replied immediately. "This is super cool. Where'd you get this?" she hesitated before saying that she found it. "Found it where? This is complicated stuff."
"I just-" Momo stopped speaking suddenly and looked up. Hiro followed her eyes and froze when he saw the doorknob to his room start to turn. It must have been Obake who came to check on him. He hastily pushed the torn candy box into Momo's hands and slipped the piece of fabric into his pocket. She was already on her feet and on her way back over the fence. They both knew that they'd get into trouble if Obake caught them out here together. He had strictly forbidden it.
"See you tomorrow." Momo called quietly as she disappeared over the fence just in time for Obake to enter the room. Hiro smiled after her before turning his head back to the door. Obake had come in, a tray with food in his hands. He called Hiro over to have some food and he followed the order immediately.
And so he left the small yard and came back inside to meet his teacher who joined him for lunch.
Ever since Momokase had brought him the piece of fabric Hiro had been working away in his room. Although he was still bored and still locked up, he had found new interest. It turned out to be even more complex than he had first thought. The more he learned about it the more interesting it got. He had synched the lines of nanotech with his computer and was trying to recreate whatever this fabric had belonged to. Although he wasn't completely sure yet he was sure that it must have belonged to a suit of some sort. Maybe a battle suit?
Hiro was biting his nail as he continued drawing a possible suit that would fit the nano-tech within the material. Since the texture reminded him of something snake-like he decided to go with a lizard-type of suit. The closer he got to finishing the blueprint of the suit the more excited he got. Somehow it felt like he had designed something like this before. The ideas were just coming and coming, never stopping. He decided to add the ability of super high jumping and fire breathing. Working on this suit he felt like he had the time of his life and he continued getting more and more ideas. Maybe a suit with camouflage abilities with the same type would be fun too, he thought.
However, as fast as the ideas and the excitement came, it all disappeared quickly, too. After Hiro had worked on two suits and finished the blueprints he realized that he didn't have the necessary materials in order to actually build them. And he knew exactly that he couldn't ask Obake for them … if the man asked him where he got the inspiration for this he'd have to resort to lying. And Obake always knew when he was lying. Sometimes it felt like Obake knew so much more about him than he did, even though the man had promised that Hiro knew everything there was to know about himself.
Since he wasn't going forward with his research on the blueprints, Hiro turned his attention back to what he had been working on before – the three mysterious chips he had gotten from the robot's skeleton in their old home. He had been looking through the purple chip for the last couple days and only found some lines of code that he hadn't really been able to decipher. The tech in the chip was too advanced for his computer, it couldn't get through the firewall the chip had. Hiro had tried everything his computer could do and even though he tried his luck with reprogramming and upgrading his computer, he soon had to give up. He had been at this for the past two days and hadn't gotten anywhere. So he decided to give up trying to decipher this one and to take a look at the other two he had taken.
He got up from the floor where he had been laying with the blueprints and a pillow jammed between him and the floor. The chips were hidden fairly well out of the CCTVs sight in one of the books on the shelf. He had decided to take a book that no-one would ever pick from the shelf, just to be on the safe side. It was a city map of some city he had never heard of, along with some tips for travel and whatnot. Since he wasn't even allowed to head out to the city they lived in, he figured no-one would be interested in the map of another far away place. And so he flipped through the pages until he found the two remaining chips, resting safely between two city maps. He hesitated for a moment, unsure which one to look at first. The labels of both chips were hidden from him and so he decided to just trust his gut and to pick the green one as he felt himself drawn to it more than to the other.
Chip in hand, he walked back over to his workplace. He turned the chip in his hand in order to take a closer look at the label. On the chip there was a stick figure drawn with a smile on its face and a stethoscope. Right next to it was the name 'Tadashi Hamada'. Hiro's head suddenly gave a sharp pain that made him stumble and almost drop the chip.
He cursed in pain and quickly held onto his desk to try and steady himself. His vision started spinning and his mind felt so foggy, for a moment he thought he was going to pass out. With a racing heart in his chest, Hiro tried calming himself. It's just a memory spark, he tried telling himself. He knew this feeling by now, although this spark was so much more intense than the other ones had been.
"Tadashi …" he mumbled and carefully lowered himself down to the floor, his vision still spinning. He kept his eyes closed and held onto the leg of the desk to ground himself. The name somehow triggered him so strongly, that he didn't really know what to do. He couldn't remember ever hearing this name nor could he remember knowing someone who went by it. But the spark was so much stronger than the others that he just knew that there must have been something hiding in the back of his mind. If he could only get to it …
"Hiro?"
He jumped to his feet when he suddenly heard the familiar voice of his teacher at the door. Without thinking about it he hastily shoved the chip back into his pocket and tried to sit up a bit. When he looked over and saw Obake standing at the door, he felt bad as he saw that the man seemed worried.
"Are you alright?" he asked him and stepped closer. Hiro smiled a bit and let Obake pull him back up to his feet. He still felt dizzy but could tell that it was slowly getting better bit by bit. "What happened?" as the man checked his face for injuries Hiro felt safe and comfortable and was finally able to relax a little bit more.
"I-I'm fine." Hiro replied, his voice shaky. He spoke without thinking but knew that he was digging his own grave. "J-Just … memory spark …"
Obake furrowed his brow and seemed even more worried. "What triggered it?" he asked immediately. "Tell me everything."
"N-Nothing." Hiro lied quickly. "Out of nowhere … I-I was reading and it just … happened." Obake did not seem convinced and looked down at him with a stern expression on his face. Hiro started to get nervous and hastily tried to contain the situation: "T-There was a name that triggered me …"
"What name?"
"T-Tadashi …" as soon as he said the name aloud another sharp pain rose in his head. When he looked up at the man he immediately knew that this had been a mistake. And so he decided to keep at least the man's last name to himself.
Obake stayed silent for a moment and just looked down at him. There was an unreadable expression in the man's eyes. Hiro grew more and more worried as the man did not let go of his shoulders, instead his grip on him tightened only more. As the man's nails dug into his skin Hiro winced and tried to carefully shake the hands off of him, without success.
"Where did you read that?" Obake asked. His voice wasn't cold, but rather stern. "Show me."
Hiro froze and blinked up at his teacher. Of course he couldn't show the man the book he had read it in since there was none. There was nothing to show him, nothing except the chip. And no matter what happened, Hiro was not going to hand it over. He was lucky enough that he hadn't been caught just now shoving it back into his pocket. His mind began to race, trying so hard not to give in and to think of a way out of this.
"Show me." Obake repeated. "Now."
"I-I …" Hiro avoided eye contact and looked around the room, trying to come up with some kind of explanation as to why he couldn't show the book and why he had lied. He felt the man's stare on him and grew more and more anxious with each second. The longer he needed to find an explanation the quicker Obake would know that he was lying. But he couldn't think of anything. He had read most of the few books in his room and knew that none of them had the name 'Tadashi' in them. And so, even though he was terrified of being caught in his lie, Hiro eventually mumbled: "I-I didn't read it … I … I-I lied … I'm sorry …"
Silence spread in the room. Hiro could feel the stare of his teacher on him and was hoping so strongly that he would be understanding and not as strict as he had been the last time he'd lied.
"You know how I feel about lying." Obake said coldly. "I do not tolerate lies."
"I-I know." Hiro said and didn't move. He tried his best to appear remorseful. "I'm sorry … I-It won't happen again. P-Please, just-" but before he could finish his sentence he suddenly felt a stinging pain on his cheek. His head flung to the side as the man had slapped him straight across the face.
He had frozen in place, the burning feeling spreading like a wildfire all the way up to his left eye and down to his teeth. He was so shocked that he couldn't move. Although he had expected this man, his teacher, to get angry, he would have never thought that he'd get this mad. He'd never expected him to actually physically hurt him.
"I'm sorry, Hiro." Obake said in a calmer, more collected voice. "But you are making this really difficult. You know what I told you about those memory sparks. They are dangerous and must be contained. We need to get rid of everything that triggers you so you can truly heal from your accident."
Hiro blinked up at him, still in shock. Of course he remembered those rules and the things Obake had told him about the memory sparks and the dangers they posed. Somehow, right now, there was a tiny voice in his head that told him that there was more to these sparks than he was being told. All of a sudden, Hiro was doubting the man's voice.
"So," Obake continued and finally let go of Hiro's shoulders, "I need you to tell me where exactly you heard that name so we can get rid of that trigger. For your own good."
Hiro looked up at him and didn't respond. If he hadn't been determined not to spill his secret, he was more than determined now. He was not going to give up the chip in his pocket nor the ones he was hiding in the book. He might not have known where exactly those memory sparks where coming from or what they meant, but the doubt inside of him told him that there was more to it than he was told. There was more to know, more to find out. If only he could get the man to leave him alone so he could-
"Hiro." Obake's stern voice called out to him. "I don't want to repeat myself. Where did you hear that name?"
Hiro did not respond. He just looked up at the man and stayed silent. Although he had been anxious just a second ago, he now felt braver. It was like the pain had taken the fear and replaced it with determination to find out more. And so he did not respond and just stayed silent. Obake stared him down, but Hiro did not back away. He stood his ground.
"I see you think there's something I'm not telling you." Obake concluded and raised a brow. "You think there's a different reason I'm removing the triggers, don't you?" when Hiro didn't respond Obake continued: "I don't know what to tell you, my boy. I've been truthful and good to you, haven't I? And you thank me with this doubt and rebellious attitude. I must say, I'm hurt. But don't worry," he grabbed Hiro by his shoulders again and, for the first time, the boy actually felt terrified of the man in front of him, "just like before, we can fix this."
Momokase watched as Obake pulled the screaming kid down the hallway and into another room. When the door shut behind them it didn't take long for the screaming to disappear.
She had watched what had happened in Hiro's room closely. She had seen how Hiro had been triggered by his robot's chip – or rather, by his big brother's name. The way the boy had tried to lie his way out of the situation had been laughable, she was not surprised that Obake had seen right through it. When the man had resorted to physical violence Momokase had been just about to intervene … but of course she couldn't. She knew that, if she intervened and exposed herself, Obake would not only hurt Hiro but maybe get rid of her, too. And she still needed the man to help her find her family.
When Obake left the room without Hiro her heart sank. She hid further behind the corner and watched as he closed the door behind himself and walked down the hallway.
As soon as he was out of sight she hurried over to the door and quickly entered the room. What she saw made her heart ache. Hiro was tied to the bed, his wrists and ankles tied together with a belt. Almost his whole face was covered with an oxygen mask and there was a syringe laying on the floor. His face was as pale as marble and eyebrows furrowed. His left cheek was bright red from the slap and there was clearly a bruise forming.
Momokase sighed deeply and tried her best to not start crying. This kid, this little boy, reminded her so much of her own little sister. Her little sister, the young girl with thick, black hair that reached down to her waist and with eyes as blue as the ocean. She missed her so much.
Her little sister had been the same age as Hiro when she died. Momokase and her family had always been on the run as they had to rely on stealing to get by. They had made so many enemies that it was soon too much to handle. And when they got caught, everyone had managed to get to safety – everyone except the little girl that hadn't made it in time.
On that day she had learned what it meant to cry. She had never been as sad and as devastated as she had been on that day. The pain she had felt as she saw her young sister's lifeless body, all the light gone from her eyes, had been too much. And it had been back then that she had decided to never ever let a child die if she could prevent it. She had sworn to herself to protect children at all cost.
When Obake had approached her in Good Luck Alley a few months back she had been skeptical. His plan to wipe out San Fransokyo and to rebuild it had just sounded so crazy right from the start. But she had heard about the man before, he was well known in the community. Everyone knew he was the genius who got rich by letting his robots do all the work and stealing. She knew that, if he hired her, she'd quickly get enough money to finally start the search for her family.
Everything had been going well up until the day Obake announced that their team was getting a new member – a young boy from the city. He told them they needn't worry about how the boy would join them, that he would take care of everything, but Momokase had been worried right about then. Obake was a dangerous man who'd stop at nothing to get his way. And if the boy wasn't going to help him she knew he'd force him. Once she saw the young kid tied to the hospital bed in their old lair she knew immediately that this wasn't right. But the hope inside of her burnt too bright, stopped her from doing what was right from the beginning.
Tears rolled down Momokase's cheeks as she looked down at the helpless boy in front of her. She knew that Obake had once again injected him with the memory wipe so that he would forget about his brother's name, the chip and what had just happened. She figured that he must have adjusted the dosage to not wipe everything once more, to make sure he wasn't a 'clean slate' as he had called the kid before.
However, deep within her heart she knew that Obake didn't really care about Hiro and that, if he were to die, it wouldn't be a big deal to the man. He only needed the kid's expertise in robotics to get Shimamoto's machine running and after that … who knew what he'd do to the kid after that.
As she watched Hiro breathe in the gas she finally had enough. It wasn't good enough to bring the kid candy, bring him collectibles like the piece of his friend's suit and to keep him company. It wasn't enough to get him out of here after he'd fixed Shimamoto's engine. He had to get out as soon as possible and be reunited with his friends and aunt. Who knew what Obake would do the next time Hiro's memory got triggered like this. Who knew how many more injections the kid could handle?
And so Momokase decided that, as soon as there was an opening, she was getting this kid out of here and back to safety. Even if that meant that she might never find her own family again.
*
