wow, this arc ended quickly, but hopefully the consequences stick around for more fun drabbles
disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within
When the Fujitas leave and take the rush orders with them, Marys breaks down.
Her lab is destroyed, the lead Fujita/"Suika" trashed everything. Her split lip still throbs from the backhand Beatrice gave her, and her father can only apply ice and hush down her sobs and it's too much, Marys just gave a group of murderers tech capable of killing even more people. Maybe the Big Heroes can take them down, especially the one with the magnet skates and the one with the hoverboard, but Marys remembers all the terrible things her mother could do and the idea of the Fujitas killing Hiro and Cass Hamada and all of their friends rises up in her throat and
what has she done?
"Daddy," Marys clings to the wall, "I have to confess, they don't know what they're going up against."
Kenichi steadies her shoulders, "But you said that they would kill Hiro if you went forward. And what if," he swallows and Marys can't stand the idea of the lead Fujita carving into her father's chest, she hides her face against his heart and counts the beats. "What if they hurt you, Marys? I can't allow that."
"They're going to kill us anyway," Marys exhales and the truth is so obvious, why did she believe the lie? "You know what they did to the women who tried to leave, they d-didn't even fess up, but they died anyway!" Murderers in geisha paint and roller derby silks, Marys knows how to roller skate but she's going to burn her inlines and use the ashes for rocket fuel.
Rockets, rocket skates, Marys raises her head and bites her lip. Maybe she can still fix this, maybe she can still help after ruining everything.
She pushes her father's hands off and hobbles to her desk, scattering ripped schematics and spilled coffee cups. "Suika" destroyed all of Marys's work, deleted her backups and trashed her 3D printers in case of this exact scenario and screw her, screw all of them. Marys swears and knocks over the table, shrieking at her mother for this mess, but then she looks down and "Yes!"
She holds up the remaining blueprints and scans them into her glasses, "There's one left, I can still fix this!" Maybe the pink Big Hero with the awesome power purse can use this, or the short violet one, anyone at all who wants to race against Suika. Kenichi watches her victory shuffle and asks, "How will you contact them?"
"Should be easy enough," Marys breathes and pushes her bangs back, "heroes can't resist a damsel in distress."
One screaming Marys in the middle of the warehouse district later, and Fredzilla finds her. He reminds her of someone, Marys can't remember with the terror stuffing up her ears, and when she admits that she has vital information as a traitor, he takes her to the rest of the Big Heroes. They're with—is that Nene? Nene's there, with big wanted posters of the old Fujitas (Nene's in the middle of one, blonde wig and pink kimono and eyes so dangerous in the white makeup and Marys knows that she has to give this tech to her, Nene will make it come alive) One of the Heroes, the one in violet, his helmet is off and
Marys chokes on a laugh, "Oh my, we suck at this whole no-secrets dating thing."
And then she cries some more, because in her efforts to save Hiro from the Fujitas she put Hiro in mortal peril and that sounds about right.
Hiro looks down at Marys's work, and exhales, "It's brilliant."
Rocket powered roller-skates are a common fantasy and starting point for aspiring roboticists and troublemakers, but all those who have tried have broken their ankles. However, Marys has a solution: in the obi of the Fujita riding kimono is the main engine, propelling the user forward closer to their center of gravity while the additional boosters at their ankles are mainly used for direction and edging. Hand engines for extra propelling and braking, the whole thing hooked up to a neurotransmitter for subconscious speed control, and the whole set weighing only forty pounds.
It's beautiful, it's something Marys should be so proud of, and it's going to help the Fujitas ravage San Fransokyo. Marys wrings her hands and trembles, "I f-forgot to put in a kill switch in the transmitter in time before Suika came, I'm so sorry."
"Oh no, Marys," Hiro reaches out to hold her hand and pull her away from that ugly insecurity, "You didn't do anything wrong. Let's just get this ready for Nene and save the city, 'kay?"
She hugs him and her warmth stabilizes his core. No, she's not to blame at all, not when she was backed in a corner and threatened with his safety; she squeezes her arms before she lets go and Hiro wonders if this is what real love looks like, knowing that she was afraid enough to create this masterpiece, and brave enough to confess.
It was a mess, Fred had to keep Nene from strangling Marys when she described just how much more powerful the Fujitas will be in these. Then Marys started hyperventilating at the reality and Heathcliff had to come give everyone cool down hot chocolate and Nene and Marys had a very long talk in the bathroom before emerging the best of friends. Not even Abigail could guess what went down, but Marys said that with a lab she could recreate the tech in a night and Nene confirmed that she's ready to skate again.
That made Gogo very uneasy, but Fred and Honey were very enthusiastic for the support, and the memories of Nene on the skating rink and her reputation even wore down Wasabi's insistence on taking things slower. Gogo made the final decision with "I guess out of everyone here, you deserve the chance to smash in Suika's face the most" and that was that.
Hiro and Marys skip class to finish the tech before the Fujitas strike again, and Hiro's never worked with her like this before, not when her glasses are flashing schematics and Nene's measurements and Hiro's doing everything he can to keep up with her hands. Marys isn't smiling but she's not breaking his heart with her crying, and the determination set in her jaw makes the rockets come together even faster. The riding kimono and reinforced undersuit finish in the sewing machine and Marys's eyes widen when she sees all the patterns Hiro has added. "Wasn't that—"
"It seems fitting," Hiro runs a thumb over the apricot trees and the pastel skulls, "to give her back some of Nana and her old identity, since she lost both."
Hiro knows that's risky, that he sometimes can't bear to wear the same colors that Tadashi favored. But sometimes all he wants to do is bury himself in his brother's aesthetic, and the shades of jade and cream mix so nicely on the silk, Nene is going to be lovely and dangerous. Marys color matches her obi and Hiro gets the lightweight and heavy-damage meteor hammer from the cooling bay and Marys grins, "Really, Hiro? It looks like a disco ball."
"Inside joke," and the suit is ready for use. Hiro pauses, then pulls at the obi, "And you used the silk I made for the under suit, right? With extra padding?"
"You could probably shoot it with a machine gun and not dent the fabric, why?"
Hiro remembers too many bloody katakana, too many glassy eyes half closed under smeared white makeup and broken glasses and scattered tears. Elisa looked like Marys, Nana must've looked like Nene, and he rests his chin on Marys's shoulder, "We can't be too careful, this is going to be a bad fight."
Marys hugs him close and he inhales her cherry perfume, memorizes her heart beat, because all he can see behind his eyelids is Marys in the gutter, San Fransokyo burning into the sea with the rest of everyone Hiro loves.
Wasabi looks up when Hiro enters the room with Marys, fine-tuning his lasers to be exactly so. Perfect precision, enough to slice applies into micron slices, certainly a better job than Beatrice's shoddy katakana work. School was a waste of time since his mind kept sliding back to the upcoming fight, and the whole group ended up back at the mansion by midday to work on their tech. Fred goes to mess with Hiro's mussed up hair and they're fine, it's all going to be fine, Wasabi focuses back on what he can control.
He loses himself back to the gentle rhythm, but his concentration is broken again by Nene's quiet gasp. He likes Nene, likes her quiet even though her secret keeping is a little too extreme even for a reserved guy like himself, and he frowns when he can't tell if it's a happy gasp or a horrified one.
He turns to see Hiro and Marys presenting Nene with a Fujita kimono, one with the rocket gear, and he doesn't know why Nene's hands are hovering over the fabric, why Gogo's expression is softening at the girl Wasabi knows Gogo doesn't care much for.
Wasabi looks closely at the kimono and appreciates Hiro's handiwork. The fabric is a rich jade, with delicate branches blooming pastel apricot blossoms and…are those skulls? They are, in iridescent pinks and teals and peaches that complement the light detailing on the white obi; even the skates are coordinated, Hiro ought to get a fashion design minor at SFST. So why—
Oh, the skulls, Nana wore skulls in her wanted poster and Wasabi winces at Hiro's bold design, he hopes she doesn't have a trigger or anything. Even Hiro is unsure, and he stammers, "I-If you don't like the design, I can go whip up another one."
Nene looks up at Hiro from her seat and whispers, "I love it."
And she smiles a genuine dimple-cheek smile, pulling him into a hug. Then Marys too for good measure, and Fred and Honey pile in because they're both hug monsters, and Wasabi can't help but smile. Yep, everything's in their right place, even Abigail pulling Gogo into the circle fits (both hands, she's using both hands and Gogo's eyes are fixed on Abigail's collarbones and Wasabi needs to remind his friends of the rules they've established for a reason
even though he thinks it's pretty cute)
Wasabi's lasers flicker just like he wants them too, ready to be switched off the second a Fujita came too close for her own good. Baymax waddles up beside him and remarks, "It appears that a group hug is taking place. Would you like to participate?"
"Why not," Wasabi slots himself in nicely until Hiro shifts and the whole dynamic changes and throws Wasabi off. But he anchors himself between Baymax and Honey, his hand firmly on Nene's back, and they all fit, it's going to be alright, the Big Heroes will save San Fransokyo just as easily as they've all saved this moment.
Abigail looks down at the twisting alleyways, adrenaline rising in her throat.
This is it, they've got a lock on Beatrice, she's heading out with her Fujitas to kill Kaori Narita and it ends tonight. Marys is back at the mansion, coordinating with the police and unofficial authorities to stay the hell off the streets until further notice, and the Big Heroes are off to play.
She turns to her teammates, pressing her cheek to her hoverboard and counting to the beat of her anxiety. Wasabi gripes about the height, Fred's makes superhero poses, Hiro rests his chin on Baymax's head, Honey fiddles with her purse, Gogo winks at Abigail, and Nene's facing backwards, the strawberry blonde of her brand new wig catching the cityscape constellations.
She wonders what Nene's thinking about, what everyone's thinking about, and suddenly craves to yell at her father again because her tongue needs to be let loose and she might die today if the Fujitas' track record is anything to go by and he deserves every bit of what she has to say. Her mother rises up in her thoughts and Abigail feels for Marys, she knows what it's like to have a fast mother leave when familial love got too boring and illegal thrill rides overcame logic. She should hang out with Marys more, Hiro likes her and they could all use more people piling into the Lucky Cat Café.
Abigail slowly barrels around Baymax for the fun of it, and she gets a few high fives. It takes the edge out of the dirty air but it increases the sting in her limbs, and they're touching down just in time for Abigail's legs to lock up and for Honey to scream, "No!"
Gogo throws a disc at the Fujita dragging Kaori by her hair, and is only halfway startled when Nene flips off of Baymax and rockets forward to punch that poor Fujita into a wall and into unconsciousness. Abigail backs the two up with her flare gun, disorienting the roller geisha as Fred makes it rain fire and Hiro declares, "Hand yourselves over before anyone else gets hurt!"
Beatrice smiles at Hiro in a way that makes Abigail's skin crawl and her pilot instincts scream for flight, because then she's throwing a knife at her little brother's face and that's unacceptable. But damn, now they're scattering and Marys really outdid herself, Abigail only sees their afterglow melding with Nene's and Gogo's.
"I have Ms. Narita," Baymax helps a coughing and mildly hysterical Kaori to a recovery position, "I recommend the rest of you pursue the assailants." He then goes to check on the girl Nene may or may not have put in the hospital, and adds, "Alert me if any of those assailants need further medical attention."
Abigail sits up on her hoverboard so everyone else can fit, and she zooms off through an alleyway portal into chaos. Girlish shrieks rent the air as the Fujitas turn metal fans and bamboo umbrellas into weapons that can tear limbs apart, and Nene bleeds from a shallow cut on her cheek. Fred jumps and spins a fire tornado around them, and Wasabi asks, "You know these Fujitas?"
"Beatrice Nguyen," Nene spits the name, "Junko Degawa, Yue Mangubat, and Chiyo Yokota; I took out Ai Kurosawa, which is great because Ai's faster than me. But don't worry, the last two are new, still in high school, and look ready to bail." She wraps her chain around her fists and pulls her lips back in a not-smile, "Don't hurt the babies, none of them know Vietnamese."
Abigail grins, "Beatrice is all yours," because she knows betrayal from family and knows the urge to rip that traitor a new dimension. Besides, Junko is obscenely tall and powerful, and her meteor hammer is less rave-friendly than Nene's. Abigail takes flight so she can try and ram Junko into the wall but Junko uses her rocket skates and dammit Marys, you and Hiro are too brilliant for your own good.
The collision isn't too catastrophic, and Abigail scrunches her knees to her chest before kicking Junko in the face. "Backup is possible please!" Abigail yells as Junko rebounds and crashes her meteor hammer into Abigail's board. The board survives by Abigail drags too hard on her magnetic attraction and is unlinked and well crap. "Pilot needs her plane and a white knight!"
"Coming at you!" Gogo swings around Yue's clumsy attack and sweeps Abigail off her feet before Junko can hulk smash her into the concrete. "Woman up, Gail, and unleash the storm."
Haha, because Gail sounded like gale and this is not the time for puns. Abigail smooches Gogo's neck and gets back on her board, aiming for Junko. "Wanna dance?" Junko is a wall of angry geisha bitchface and legs that go on at least three miles, and Abigail can only imagine he dynamic she had with petite Nana. Except for the whole attacking Nene part, which Nana would have definitely not approved of if she was a neesan worth her salt
Ok, Abigail dodges the hammer and yanks on the chain, enough manic thoughts. Someone knocks down a lamppost and the dark plays tricks on Abigail's hoverboard, on Junko's kimono, and Abigail sees portal afterglows in the cold white makeup. Junko surges forward with a rocket blast and Abigail rears her board back to fire her flare gun.
Junko dodges but Yue is hit and dazed enough for Fred to pounce and take her down with Wasabi. Yue's screams are high pitched like a schoolgirl shoujo way over her head and good, maybe this is the wakeup call that four dead women weren't.
"Come on guys," Honey sounds off through the transmission, "I don't think we can wear them down if they have rockets and—ay dios mio!—watch out for Beatrice, I don't think katanas were meant to shoot electricity!"
"Your teammates are weak," Junko's voice is low and deep, an event horizon of chaos, "You will not survive the night."
"Nah," Abigail orients her board, "I've got finals coming up and flowers to put on graves, a bit too busy to die." She charges her board and Junko charges her rocket, and when Hiro yells in pain she unleashes her thrusters because why isn't he with Baymax, what just happened, Hiro no!
Junko tries to dodge but Abigail's surging through the portal and yanks back on that meteor hammer chain so Junko can kiss the rim of her board. Something snaps when Abigail rams her into the wall, hopefully just the rocket not crackling and smoking in Junko's obi, and Abigail smiles, "Stay down sweetie, there's a new legend in town."
"Oh yeah Gailstorm, bringing the pain!" Fred's crowing over the radio and Gailstorm? Gailstorm's not bad actually, Abigail likes the edge of it, but Hiro's not responding to Honey's sound offs and Hiro
"Hiro, answer us!" Abigail zooms off to find Hiro, swerving through the chaos of Fred's fire and Beatrice's electricity and Chiyo crying in a corner. Hiro's next to her, Chiyo's wig in his hands and a stab wound spelling death in his ribs and oh god no no no no
"I-It was Suika!" Chiyo cowers away from Abigail's rage, especially when Gogo and Wasabi come to back her up. "I wanted out, I've wanted out ever since Suika killed Nasagawa-san, and when I tried to leave she attacked me! But then he," she points at Hiro breathing shallow and bloody, "He came out of nowhere and stopped her. And then he took my wig with the transmitter thing to turn off my rocket and Suika…"
"BAYMAX!"
Baymax rockets out of the foggy sky and Gogo hisses, "Keep your hands where I can see them" and Wasabi's pushing Abigail back to her board so she can find Suika Suika must be Beatrice where is she
she's electrocuting Fred and nope nope nope not Fred not Hiro not anyone else there's an urn in Beatrice Nguyen's size and Abigail's going to give Eun-seo Kjellberg's family some fantastic news.
Nene boomjams out of an alleyway to tackle Beatrice, and Nene's eyes are black and her's too much blood on her arm to be from someone else, but this gives Abigail and Wasabi time to get to Fred. He's out cold, they push him over to Hiro and Hiro baby no please wake up you can't die like this, breathing in blood in the gutter
"The patient is stable," Baymax's voice is so cold, "but requires immediate attention."
"Go," Abigail watches Chiyo beg for forgiveness at Gogo's feet and sees Nene, sees all the ex-Fujitas, sees Abigail in front of Tadashi's grave, and she can't find it in herself to hate her. Neither can Gogo, who shields Chiyo's tears in her chest armor, and Abigail turns back to Baymax, "Save him, we need a happy ending."
Baymax takes off with Hiro, Fred, Ai and Kaori, and a choked cry of pain from the Nene-Beatrice battle has Abigail jumping back on her hoverboard and piloting Wasabi into the dirty sky. They see Nene whirlwind her hammer into Beatrice's temple and ouch, Abigail hears the crash, but there's a katana sticking out of Nene's stomach where her kimono's been undone and hah, Nene was wrong, guns aren't the worst thing on the street.
Beatrice falls but rockets forward so she can wrap a hand around the katana handle and Wasabi jumps down to slam his elbow down on Beatrice's lower back. Beatrice screams and Abigail swoops down to grab Nene and wrap her scarf around the wound. Nene sits up, looks down at Beatrice squirming under Wasabi, and hisses, "I'm not done yet."
Abigail should stop her but Nene's got a sword in her gut and five dead sisters looming on her back, and that's a kind of rage only Hiro and Baymax know how to fix. Nene slowly skates back towards Beatrice, the sound snakes through the air and crescendos fear down Abigail's spine, and when she stops by Beatrice's face Wasabi says, "You don't have to do this."
Nene is silent, secret-keeper chic in the dead of night, and she nudges Beatrice's trembling chin with her toe before not-smiling, "I want to, though," and Wasabi gets up to let Beatrice scramble onto her back so he can stand next to Abigail. He's got his lasers and Abigail's got her flare gun and Gogo did say that Nene couldn't be completely trusted, just look at the blood dripping from her meteor hammer
Nene kicks aside Beatrice's other katana, steps on her metal fan, and kneels down so she can kiss Beatrice's cheek, "But I'm not going to, because neesan said to never kill family, and I don't ask questions."
Then she slams her fist into Beatrice's nose to bounce her head off the concrete and writes "Suika" with a bloodied finger on Beatrice's obi. "We did it," Nene coughs, "hopefully I get to live to not tell anyone about it.
And she goes down and Wasabi carries her so Abigail can race Baymax and Gogo to the hospital and the Fujitas are gone and not coming back, is it too much to ask that no one else gets taken down with them?
It ends when Nene is eighteen.
By now she's seen people die, people come to life, and heroes battle against her sisters in the bowels of San Fransokyo. She's tasted perfume and inhaled roller rinks and felt chaos thrum from the head of a shattered disco ball to jar against her hips, and knows a thousand ways parents can disown you.
She's blasé and quiet because it hurts less that way, when the hurt is on silent beneath her breath.
But now she's being released from the hospital again on Krei's dime, a new riding kimono that's halfway Anzu and halfway her neesan is tucked away in her messenger bag, and a rocket pulses in her veins to the beat of Beatrice and Junko being carted away to jail to rot with Big Yama for the rest of their lives; Chiyo, Yue and Ai are going to juvie for cooperating with the police, it will be rough for them but if Mari made it and Nene made it then so can they. Nene feels sorry for Junko's son and Beatrice's sisters Gigi and Carol Nguyen who now know just how evil their loved ones can be, but Nene feels more sorry for all the little brothers and sisters of all the dead ex-Fujitas, and life isn't easy
life is loud and fast and needs a dessert bar to balance out the tang of blood, and now she has this super suit and the people waiting for her outside the hospital are asking her to take the plunge and join a new family. She should school her features into a geisha mask but she's crumbling and crumbling fast, she feels like she's fifteen clinging to Nana's kimono to try and stop the blood, so very afraid.
Hiro smiles the way that only good children know how to, with the faith that Nene once had for Nana (still has, always will), and he says, "We could use you on our team, you know the streets better than anyone else and you're unstoppable on your skates."
Even Gogo wants her, grabbing her shoulder to pull her into the circle and grinning, "Almost unstoppable, anyway, but good enough for us."
Nene blinks past sudden tears and Honey clasps her hands together, "Please? You're amazing, and you're our friend!"
Friend. Kanon is Nene's best friend and her family is pulling her life support next wek. Beatrice was Nene's friend and she betrayed her for an old man's murderous ambitions. Nana was Nene's friend and she's dead too, Nene doesn't have friends, they're all gone with her sisters and Nene's alone on the side of the road again
but Abigail's her friend, Marys's her friend, all of them are her friends and they believe in her for some godawful reason, and Nene dares to ask in a cracking voice, "Why?"
Fred only laughs and hefts her onto his shoulders, and the silence is finally, completely shattered like the disco panels to her meteor hammer. They return to the mansion in a flurry of yelling and superfluous tech use and Nene's gasping in the warmth, shrieking and laughing like she's ten again.
She's eighteen though, eighteen and alive and well and in a brand new riding kimono that has heroine stitched into the sleeves. It's scary and new, but Baymax catches her when she jumps, and Marys is there to tease Fred for being a goofball and the whole group orders pizza for Nene's orientation and
and Nene's not afraid to ask for more; she's kinda liking this Big Hero thing, it should be a fun ride.
And there we have it! The Fujitas are dead and gone but Nene/Anzu Fujita is a part of Big Hero 6, ready to help save her city and her sister's memory!
Marys is there as tech support, Abigail has her superhero name, the whole group is decidedly not dead (although now Hiro and Nene have some wicked scars to find excuses for), and three high school girls getting their acts together are going to take their social media fanbase to a whole new level
Yay happy ending! XD
Anyway, I'd also like to thank you all for sticking with me and my horde of bloody OCs for so long, and I wish you all a lovely New Years! Who knows what will happen next in The Jishinko Chronicles, but I hope you all will be here to see it!