Chapter 8
*****(BH6)*****
Emi woke up on the sidewalk beside the lucky cat cafe and stood up and went inside. Aeiko looked up and saw Baymax. She didn't recognize him without his armor. "What is that marshmallow thing?" she asked. "I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion." He said. Emi looked about and sat down inside. "Wait, so I thought he was red?" Aeiko scrutinized him, confused. "That was armor," Hiro told her. "This is the real Baymax." "Oh." Aeiko didn't find him nearly as intimidating as the previous night. "Nice bruise, by the way," Hito added. Aeiko remembered the black and blue injury on her forehead. "Oh," she replied, "thank y-" then she broke off. Sitting at a table behind Hiro was Emi, or so Aeiko thought. She walked past him and over to the table. "Emi, what are you doing here-" she broke off when she realized she could see right through Emi. But could Emi still communicate? Emi stood up. "Aeiko? I could ask you the same thing!" She replied. "Oh! Um here hang on." She turned and grabbed a napkin and put it in her pocket. "How did you...you can talk...you're a ghost?! Wait, what?" Aeiko was flabbergasted. "What?" Hiro was insanely confused. He had never seen Emi around the café before and was curious to how Aeiko knew her. Probably friends or something...
"No! I'm not a ghost. I am sleeping in your house in san Francisco." "What? Then how are you here?" Aeiko turned to Hiro. "Is this a dream world?" He was now flabbergasted. "Uh, no? Is your place real?" "Duh!" Aeiko responded. "How are you sleeping and being awake at the same time?" she asked Emi. "I don't know. Tadashi is rather confused too. I tried to explain it to him and Keisuke but both were super confused. Tadashi told me to come here with this map he made me." Hiro froze. "Uh, who's Tadashi?" he asked, hardly daring to even hope. She turned to Hiro noticing him for the first time. "You're Hiro..." She muttered softly. "Um, man...I don't know how to explain this...you're Hiro Hamada right?" "Ummm, yes. Are my microbots that famous?" "Your what-what bots?" Aeiko asked. "Microbots. And to answer your question, yes and no. I saw you and your Microbots in a dream I had... that sounds weird... Tadashi's your brother right? Tadashi Hamada?" "You know my brother?" Hiro was listening completely now, his hope surging. "You mean you're lucid dreaming right now?" "It is a dream world," Aeiko remarked. "I guess so. But I'm also in your dimension."
"Wow," Hiro said. "So, how does Tadashi fit into all of this?" Aeiko asked. "The fire... At the Sanfransokyo institute of technology. He was kidnapped and he escaped into our dimension. He met Keisuke and me then you at the Mexican restaurant. He's Hiro's brother." Hiro stared at her. "How do you know about the fire?" he exclaimed. "You must be from the other end of that portal we built! Baymax said he saw something...Baymax! Was it Aeiko or...ah, sorry," he said. "What's your name?" "Emi Amaya." "So that was you Baymax saw in the portal!" Hiro exclaimed. "That was me," Aeiko corrected him. "Unless Emi found the portal too." "I haven't seen any portals..." "But how would you have opened the portal?" Aeiko asked. Hiro pulled the portal key pendant from his pocket. "We made this," he answered. "Who's 'we'?" Aeiko asked. Hiro glanced at Baymax. "I guess you and Emi should meet the team," he said. "Baymax, can you contact the rest of the big hero six?" "Yes. Contacting them now." Great!" Hiro turned to Emi and Aeiko. "You guys are going to love them." Meanwhile, Callaghan had just finished his lunch as the dimension times were a couple of hours apart.
He got up from the table and decided to visit his study for the time being. Opening the door, he immediately noticed that something was not right. There was a great crack in his experimental floor-length mirror. "What?" Callaghan muttered, looking closer. He fingered the crack, which was almost as thick as his thumb. Had someone been in here? There had been no crack after Tadashi had left. Callaghan ran downstairs to see if there was a crack on his mirror that the girl had come through. It was unmistakable. There was a slightly smaller crack there as well. What if...no! No; it couldn't have worked! A long time ago, Callaghan had created a dimension portal that was accessible with some kind of key. Not an actual key or gun, but just a trigger that was activated by its reflection. The science behind it was so confusing, Callaghan wondered how he had ever managed to figure it out. But he knew what could destroy the whole thing: magnetism.
*****(Live)*****
Tadashi noticed that Emi had fallen asleep again but hadn't woken up as quickly as she did the other times. Maybe she was finally completely asleep? He wasn't sure. Keisuke continued checking on the two of them as he anxiously waited for Emi to wake up.
*****(BH6)*****
The others finally arrived and came inside. "Hi Hiro! We came as soon as we could." Honey said. "GoGo didn't drive this time," Wasabi said. GoGo rolled her eyes. "What's up?" she asked Hiro, who grinned. "This is Aeiko, and this is Emi. They think they know where Tadashi is," he said. Honey and Fred grinned. "Really?! Is he alright?" They asked. Emi nodded. "He's fine. Probably worried about me not waking up by now but otherwise fine." Aeiko rubbed her sore bruise. "I don't really know him that well," she admitted. Hiro spoke over her. "Emi's lucid dreaming sort of right now, which is why you can see right through. Aeiko came here through the same portal that we built. But how she got it-I don't know how you found the portal key." "It landed in a mud puddle several days ago," Aeiko told them. "Wait, do you guys are from a different dimension?" GoGo asked. "Yeah. We are." she took a napkin out of her pocket.
"Do you guys want to write something to Tadashi?" "Yes!" Hiro exclaimed. "Oh man," Wasabi mused. "What to write, what to write. This is harder than I thought." Honey and Fred weren't quite sure either. "Hiro, how about you write it and we all sign it? We could tell about everything that's happened." honey suggested. "Okay. Um." Hiro took the pen and poised it above the paper. "Dear Tadashi," he read aloud as he wrote, but then he stopped. "Does that sound too formal?" he asked. GoGo rolled her eyes. "It's fine," she said. Hiro uncertainly continued. "We took down Callaghan and now he's under house arrest-whoops I ripped the napkin-um, we hope you are okay. Love-no wait-" he scribbled the word out and ripped a hole the napkin. "Uh, not love, but, ah, your brother, Hiro. And-" Hiro handed the napkin to everyone else for them to sign it.
Honey and Fred signed. "Oh wait!" Hiro took the napkin back and scribbled something else on it. "Btw, Baymax misses you. I think. Do you?" "Yes. I do miss Tadashi." "Great!" Hiro finished writing Baymax's regards and handed the napkin back to Emi. She put it in her pocket. "Alright. Aeiko I'll let Keisuke know your whereabouts and give this to Tadashi." She smiled. She sat down and closed her eyes and vanished after a moment.
*****(Live)*****
She woke up sitting on the couch, startling Tadashi. "Emi! You're awake we were getting worried!" He exclaimed. She simply smiled and handed him the note. "What? What is this?" "Read it." He unfolded it and read through it and smiled and tears brimmed his eyes. "Thank you..." "Your welcome." "No, really Emi. This means the world to me. Thank you so much." She smiled. Keisuke heard Emi's voice and came running. "Hey Emi! You're up!" he exclaimed. "Yeah. Aeiko is really in Sanfransokyo." Keisuke stopped in his tracks. "Aeiko's where?" "Sanfransokyo. With Hiro and Baymax at the lucky cat cafe." "Who on earth are...? With who? My sister is in a dream world? I...I can't even...I don't know what to think of this! I mean...no! It can't be! Aeiko's upstairs icing that bruise of hers! I'll prove it to you." Keisuke dashed up the stairs, practically skipping steps. Emi looked at Tadashi and they slowly followed him. Keisuke found Aeiko's closed door and knocked. "Aeiko!" he called. No reply. "Aeiko, it's Keisuke. Do you feel okay?" When there was still silence that followed his question, Keisuke opened the door. There was no one. "I told you." Emi said.
"Eh heh heh," Keisuke slowly shut the door, then turned to his friends. "You were saying?" "She's in Sanfransokyo with Hiro and Baymax." Emi explained. "What's Baymax?" Poor Keisuke asked, flabbergasted. "Is it a movie theatre?" Tadashi chuckled. "he's my invention. He's a personal healthcare companion robot." "You created a robot...the best thing I ever created was an exploding volcano in the sixth grade. And teaching my sister how to skateboard, but that's not really creating anything. Oh gosh..." Tadashi smiled. "I'm sure aekio is fine." "I hope so," Keisuke answered. He trusted Tadashi, but wished there was some way to get to Aeiko. Emi fiddled with her pocket watch. Keisuke's mind was far away, wondering what horrors or wonders his younger sister was encountering. Mom and Dad would kill him if they found out! "I'll go check on her." Emi said. Keisuke started. "You don't have to fall asleep on demand," he protested. "It's fine! I want to let Hiro and the others that Tadashi got the note." she said. "but I guess I can wait until tonight." "Okay," Keisuke said. "Hopefully Aeiko will be-" suddenly there was a loud noise, then a thud.
Aeiko had just tumbled out of the foyer mirror downstairs. "Ow!" She exclaimed. "-back," Keisuke breathed a sigh of relief at this last word. "Aeiko! You're back!" Emi said running over. "Yeah, I am." Aeiko acknowledged. "It's nice to see you opaque and not see-through." "Aeiko!" Keisuke cried. "You scared the crap out of me! What would Mom and Dad say?" Aeiko shrugged. "I don't know," she answered. "did anything happen once I left?" Emi asked. "Not really," Aeiko told her. "but I told Hiro that we'd find a way to get Tadashi there or them here or something. We'll figure it out, I'm sure." Emi and Tadashi nodded. "how'd you get there?" "With this," Aeiko replied, reaching in her pocket for the keychain. Her fingers only grasped fabric. Aeiko froze. She reached into the other pocket. Nothing. Aeiko searched everywhere: all of her hoodie pockets, her jeans, and even her hood, but the keychain was nowhere to be found. "I'm sure it was here somewhere," she muttered. She took off her shoes and looked in those. "I had it when I went through there...otherwise I wouldn't be here at all."
*****(BH6)*****
The portal opened and the keychain spat out of it, sliding across the table and landing right in front of Callaghan. "Excellent!" he exclaimed jovially, and watched the portal closed. "It worked! This could be better than the Kabouki mask!"
(Dun Dun Dun!)