Chapter One – Alleyway

"C'mon, Yama, you're killing me here!" Hiro threw his hands up. "After everything we've been through? I pulled some serious strings, dude, and you KNOW no one has the hook up like you do!" The large man who sat behind the counter, partially hidden in shade, crossed his arms and shrugged.

"You act like I couldn't still crush you, little boy," Yama said, reaching over the counter, and ruffling Hiro's perpetually messy hair. "Just because I'm out of bot fighting doesn't mean I can't still call on my boys to kick out rabble rousers. So if I were you, I'd quit rousing rabbles." Hiro scowled as Yama's obviously amused expression, and turned to Baymax. The large vinyl robot was fiddling with the mechanism on the token machine.

"Baymax, stop playing with that," Hiro huffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "You know we don't have any money."

"It says to insert cash here, to receive tokens," Baymax chirped, as Hiro rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and that's the whole problem." He pulled his pockets inside out, revealing how barren they were. "Nada. Zilch. No cash. And this is the only bath house that allows tattoos, so Yama you gatta let this one slide, dude!" He rounded on the bath house operator again, begging this time. "I can't go to the cheap ones, they won't let me in!"

"Shoulda thought of that when you got inked, huh?" Yama said, a chuckle on the edge of his voice. Hiro scowled.

"You're one to talk, 'Yama'. Like that stands for anything but Yamaguchi-Gumi."

"Hey hey hey!" The big man laughed at this, holding up his hands. "I left that life waaaay behind me! 'Sides, that's why I run my own bath house. Nowhere else would let me in with all my tattoos!"

"That's what I'm saying, man!" Hiro felt like he'd had this conversation a million times; the very few public bath houses that allowed tattoos were so insanely expensive, that the only one Hiro could ever barter the price at was Yama's. But it seemed he wouldn't be having any luck tonight. "You're a real asshole, you know that?"

"So I'm told, little boy." Reclining, Yama laced his fingers together and set his hands on his large stomach. "Now beat it, kid. House rules. Gatta pay to stay." He winked at that, and Hiro finally gave in. Motioning for Baymax to follow, he sulked his way back out to the main street, and started walking.

"After all I did for that guy, can you believe that, Baymax?" he asked, shoving his hands back into his pockets.

"Money is usually exchanged for goods and services," Baymax said, having trouble keeping up with Hiro. "And we have no money, currently."

"I knooow!" He ran a hand through his hair, and sighed. It was true; a 19 year old in college working full time in both microtechnology and crime fighting didn't have many money-making job opportunities. Any money he did get usually went towards either junk food or new parts and pieces, and that left little else for leisure-time activities. "You'd think the leader of Big Hero 6, savior of San Fransokyo would get paid for his services, but noooo, it's "unethical" to charge for saving things all the time." He added air quotes to his little rant, and rolled his eyes. In reality, he wasn't really that bitter about not getting paid for anything, but in this moment, he would have appreciated a little cash flow. "Makes me wish I was still in bot-fighting."

"That is illegal," Baymax said.

"I know, buddy. I know." As the two made their way down the dimly lit sidewalk towards home, Hiro paused at the entrance to an alleyway, contemplating which direction to take. Continuing on the main road was probably a little safer, but cutting through the back alley was most definitely faster. "Whatdya say we take a short cut?" Hiro asked, scratching at the inactive earpiece he wore. Baymax's static expression did not change.

"It is inadvisable," Baymax replied, but Hiro just rolled his eyes.

"C'mon, Baymax, live a little! This'll be faster."

"I am a robot. I am not technically alive." He was dragged by one arm down the alley, and another. Hiro knew exactly where he was going as he took several lefts and rights, weaving his way between buildings, stepping in and out of shadows. He wasn't particularly worried about anything bad happening; he had Baymax, after all. And he always had backup at a moment's notice. No, Hiro wasn't worried.

"Ah, man, this takes me back," he said, smiling as his eyes adjusted to the low light. He remembered several fights he'd hustled in this exact alleyway. He'd never gotten tired of that, and it was such easy money. He briefly wondered if they would be stumbling on a fight anywhere near here, and tried to perk up his ears to pick up any cheering or voices in the maze of allies. He felt like he could take in a bot fight or two tonight, since he wouldn't be soaking in a bath house.

"Hey, buddy, wanna scan for nearby groups of people?" Hiro asked, nudging Baymax's round belly with his elbow. "Maybe the night's not totally wasted."

"I will scan now," Baymax said, his head sweeping from side to side. His upgraded sensor peered through the various buildings around them, filtering out the inhabitants to pick up the heat signatures of others wandering the alleyways. "Two large groups detected," he said, pointing down an alley to their right. "The closest in .3 miles East."

"Sweet!" Nodding to Baymax to follow, Hiro took off in that direction, attitude lifting slightly. This really reminded him of the good old days. He may have been taller now, but he still felt a little giddy, like he had when he was a kid. Rounding a corner, Hiro was slightly puzzled why this so-called group wasn't noisier. Bot fights were usually loud affairs. His query was soon answered, though, when he realized what he was looking at wasn't a bot fight. It was still illegal activity, but not a bot fight.

"Hey!" Hiro froze when the shady figure turned towards him. It was several men, two of which looked to be in questionable shape. A handful of dark-clothed figures formed a semi-circle around what appeared to be their victims, but when the first one turned, Hiro only just barely saw him shove something into his inner coat pockets.

"Baymax, run!" Hiro said, turning on his heel and scrambling out of the alleyway. Several pairs of footsteps followed him, and he could hear the drug pushers shouting for him to stop in Japanese. With Baymax in tow, he reached to his ear and switched the earpiece on. "Guys, I could use a little back up, anyone on!?" he called into the piece, skidding around another corner, still pursued.

"Hiro?" The voice belonged to Honey Lemon, and she sounded utterly confused. "Hiro, what's going on? Are you and Baymax out alone tonight!?"

"We didn't mean to be," he replied, one of the pushers gaining on him.

"What's going on!?" It was Gogo this time, and she sounded pissed. "Hiro, what the hell did you do?"

"Maybe I could explain later," he said, vaulting over a few trashcans, "and someone could help me now?" He shouted into the earpiece, glancing over his shoulder at the Baymax, who was attempting to restrain one of the pushers. Just as the rbot looked up to Hiro, a flash of color caught Hiro's attention. It moved a bit too fast for him to keep up with, but it did whiz right past him, throwing him off balance. He hit the alley wall on his side, stumbling to the ground. "What the-" he said, whipping his head around to try and see what had happened. What he was expecting was not what he got; it was a woman, a small one at that, in what looked like it had once been a traditional yukata, but had been altered nearly beyond recognition. She was wearing what looked like roller skates, and she came to a halt between him and the fastest of the drug pushers, her stance low, and solid.

The first knife flew from her sleeve too fast to see, and whizzed past the pusher's face, slicing his cheek. As he stumbled back from pain and shock, the woman sped forward, and performed one of the most graceful roundhouse kicks Hiro had ever witnessed. It sent the pusher flying.

"Whoa, hey, what-" Hiro tried to get up, holding out a hand, but the woman wasn't done. Two more knives zipped out from her sleeves, pinning one of the pushers to the wall behind him by his jacket. The third pusher took off running. Her shoulder's visibly relaxed once the danger had passed, and she rolled slowly up to the pinned drug pusher. He flinched as she reached up, but all she did was riffle around in his pockets. A manicured hand brushed a few strands of black hair that had fallen out of her intricate top bun as the other shoved a few baggies full of the white substance into her kimono. It was only then, with a scowl on her face, did she turn to look at Hiro.

"Who…are you?" was all he managed to stutter, in shock and awe of this girl. "Who were they? Why did you-" he was cut off suddenly, as one of the girl's throwing knives whizzed past his ear, imbedding itself into the mortar of the brick wall behind him. He flinched, his hand going up to inspect his ear; it was cut, but not badly.

"Stay out of Fujita business!" the girl snarled, her eyebrows knitting together angrily over her deep amber eyes. Throwing one last snarl at the whimpering man pinned to the wall, she spun on her heel and sped off further into the alleyway.

"What…the hell was that!?" Hiro finally asked, looking up as Baymax shuffled over. One of his arms had been deflated, no doubt from the knives the girl had been throwing around.

"She was 5'4," Baymax said, thinking himself to be helpful. "Blood type B negative, 128 pounds, 7 ounces. Her body scan was clean, but she was carrying a vast array of illegal narcotics. She has an allergy to pet dander, and shellfish."

"I feel like I need to upgrade your 'patient confidentiality' module," Hiro sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hiro, the hell is happening!?"

"Yeah, talk to us, buddy! It was Gogo and Wasabi over the communicators, which brought Hiro's head down from the clouds.

"I don't really know," he admitted, motioning for Baymax to follow him out of the alley. "But man, does Baymax have some footage to show you guys!"

This is a short one, sorry guys. As always, reviews always appreciated!