'Rena's been like... 20 minutes now. Christ, how hard it is to pull Tadashi away from his work?' Gogo said, rolling a snowball between her hands.
'I thought Tadashi loved snow?' Honey Lemon asked.
'He does.' Hiro said. 'I would've thought he'd be the first out here.'
'He needs to come see this!' Fred shouted i between breaths. He was rolling a massive snowball along the ground. It was easily the size for the base of a snowman, but he kept insisting it was a snowball. 'I mean, look at her! She's beautiful!'
'Who are you throwing that at?' Wasabi asked nervously, eyeing up the huge ball of snow with apprehension.
'Hmmm... I'm not sure yet.'
'What about Caine?' Gogo suggested, smirking m. 'I'd love to see a big ass ball of snow thrown at his head.'
'Oh come on, he's not that bad!' Honey Lemon said, 'Rena likes him!'
'I don't even know who this Caine guy is!' Hiro said, 'I mean, don't you think it's weird that it's now December and I've not seen him once?'
Gogo studied him. 'Are you sure you've not seen him?'
'Yes! I am certain!'
'You probably have, you might not just remember him.' Wasabi said, shrugging. 'He's not the most memorable guy on the planet.'
'I actually find that an insult. You think I straight up just wouldn't notice?'
'Hiro, that wasn't an insult.' Honey Lemon said gently, 'I think it was more of an insult to Caine.'
But Hiro wasn't listening. The fact that he hadn't seen Caine in the flesh had bothered him for a while, but now he was beginning to suspect something was up. 'Yeah but... it just makes no sense. Like, at all. I'm here just as much as you guys; I always hang out with you. But... I've never seen him before? I thought Rena and him were really close? So how does it make sense that I've never met the guy?'
'Hiro, one thing you will come to learn is that there are many mysteries in life. It's merely just a coincidence.' Wasabi said.
Hiro rolled his eyes. 'Yeah yeah, whatever you say.' He sighed and looked around, 'okay seriously though, where have they gotten to?'
'Should we go find 'em?' Wasabi suggested, shivering. 'I'm happy to go look with you, it's freezing.'
'I'll come too.' Said Gogo, 'he's nicked one of my wrenches anyway, it'll be a fine chance to get it back.'
Hiro nodded and they turned to go back inside. 'I can't believe Tadashi's choosing to miss the snow. Unbelievable.'
Gogo laughed. 'Yeah, but you'd be lucky if you could drag him away from his work.'
'True. But still!'
They reached the stairs and climbed, discussing Christmas.
'Oh, I got Honey Lemon that phone case she was looking at.' Gogo said as they turned the corner, nearing Tadashi's lab.
'Oh, the one with all the pink glitter?' Wasabi asked.
'I think I remember her mentioning that, actually. I don't really know what to get her, I was planning on just-' Hiro stopped dead in the middle of his sentence. 'What the fuck?'
The door to Tadashi's lab was wide open. There was a huge pile of papers on the floor; his older brother's frantic scribbles were staring at him from the tiles. His computer was cracked, the desk chair lying on its side. Baymax's charging port was on its side and disconnected from the wall. The light was still on, as though he'd left in a hurry and forgot to turn it off.
'This... this isn't Tadashi.' Gogo said, stepping into the room and peering around, as though she expected him to jump out from behind the door.
'Ewww, look how messy it is!' Wasabi exclaimed, cringing. 'What the hell happened here?!'
Gogo bent down and started shifting through the papers, attempting to put them in some kind of reasonable order. Wasabi was peering at Tadashi's laptop suspiciously, examining the extent of the damage.
Hiro stepped over Gogo and gently lifted Baymax's charging port the right way up. He straightened up and surveyed the room, chewing his lip anxiously. Wasabi was right. This wasn't Tadashi. Sure, he'd expect this kind of chaos from Rena. But Tadashi? Not a chance.
Something caught the corner of his eye and he walked over to the bookshelf, crouching down until he was eye level with it. A red stain was on the edge of the wood. He cautiously placed his index finger to it and, sure enough, it came away red.
'Blood.' He muttered under his breath. 'Has to be.'
'What?' Gogo said, turning around sharply. 'What did you say?'
Hiro ignored her. He straightened out and loudly declared 'OW!'
Baymax inflated at once and waddled over to him. 'Hello Hiro. What seems to be the problem?'
Hiro stepped back and gestured to the book shelf. 'Can you uhhh... can you identify this?'
Baymax bent forwards and scanned the bookshelf. 'My scan shows that this substance is: blood. Specifically, type A.'
Hiro sucked in a breath. '...Who's?'
'My scan detects a match with another scan in my database. The match - Rena Hamada.'
'Hahahaha!' Jason crowed, 'well DONE!'
The girl lay crumpled at his feet. Her older brother stood above her, staring lifeless into Jason's face.
'You know,' Jason said, 'to really get to a person, to REALLY enact revenge... you need to hit them in their weak spot.' He began pacing around the room, hands behind his back. Two bodyguards stood by the door, not saying a word in response. 'Killing them? Pathetic. However... hitting their family...' He turned and gestured dramatically to the two older Hamada's, 'THAT'S where it really hurts.'
He strode over to Rena and bent down, gently tipping her lifeless face upwards. 'And you, my pretty... you. Are where it's going to hurt.'
Rena stirred, aware of a stinging sensation in her elbow. She seemed to have cut it on something, blood was seeping slowly through her jacket.
But that was the least of her worries.
She opened her eyes and groaned softly, her stomach churning as a result of the ether. She looked up slowly as she saw Tadashi, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. 'What the...?'
Jason grinned. 'Over here!' He trilled sarcastically.
Rena got to her feet, brushing off her jeans. 'And... who are you?'
'What an excellent question! I am the man who's going to destiny you and your family. Nice to meet you... Rena Hamada.'
Rena's heart was hammering. 'I don't... I don't understand...' She stepped backwards and smacked into Tadashi. 'Tadashi! What's going on?!' She questioned, but he did not respond. She waved a hand in front of his face, but it remained blank. 'Tadashi! Tadashi!' She pleaded, her voice rising with poorly disguised fear.
'Oh, don't even bother. He won't answer you, you know...' Jason said, grinning evilly.
Rena's fear immediately transpired into anger. 'What did you do?! WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HIM?' She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. 'Tadashi! It's me!'
Jason laughed. 'Oh, I'm going to have so much fun!'
He clicked his fingers and Tadashi moved. Within a second, he'd pinned Rena to the wall.
'Tadashi!' She shouted, clawing at her throat. His arm was pressed to her neck, holding her to the concrete wall.
Jason watched, his face slowly melting from glee to anger. 'You know why I'm doing this, girl?'
He clicked his fingers and Tadashi dropped her to the floor. Rena's head cracked against the wall and she winced sharply, her eyes streaming as she struggled to breathe. Her mind was reeling. 'What did you do to him?' She asked again, quieter this time.
'Nothing you need to concern yourself with.' Jason said smoothly. 'Now, I won't ask this again. Do you know why I'm doing this?'
A creeping horror arose in her chest, flowering across her entire body. She had an inkling why, but she didn't want to admit it. 'I... No.'
'Ah.' He said, smiling to himself. 'Then we'll save that part for later.'
Rena didn't dare say another word. Her eyes drifted to Tadashi stood above her and she was filled with a fresh wave of guilt and anger. She knew something was going on with him, and instead she chose to pretend it wasn't happening. Maybe if she wasn't so wrapped up in her own pathetic affairs, she wouldn't be crouching against a filthy wall, struggling to breathe.
And maybe if she had been a better sister to Hiro then this would never have had happened. Rena wasn't stupid; she knew exactly what this was about. Sure, she didn't know the specifics. But one look at that man's angry face gave her enough of an idea about what this was all about. Botfighting. It had to be. it was no coincidence. Hiro had almost been killed at a botfighting match recently. Yama said he had a lot of enemies. Now all that was catching up to him. Rena had let both of them down. And now she had to live with the consequences of that.
Jason clicked his fingers. 'Here.' He commanded.
Like a dog, Tadashi wandered over aimlessly to him. Jason jerked his thumb over his shoulder and Tadashi left the room, despite Rena's calls for him to stay.
'He won't listen to you.' Jason said, shaking his head and tutting. He walked over to Rena and crouched down next to her, lifting her chin up with one finger. 'You and I are going to have a lot of fun.' He purred.
Rena cringed. Before she could think about it - she spat in his face. 'You. Repel. Me.' She said in a low voice, her voice shaking with fury.
Jason's face contorted with fury. 'You will regret that.' He said dangerously.
He stood and swept out the room. In strode two men. One of them was holding a chair, rope and towel. The other a bucket of water, a baseball bat and a wicked looking blade.
'Now.' The first man said, stepping forwards and placing the chair onto the floor. 'Let's get started.'
