My Shadow over You

Tadashi and Wasabi were on their way to Hiro's lab at SFIT. Tadashi wanted to collect all of Hiro's notes. Thus far they had all been focused on who had taken Hiro. What they had failed to consider was why? Hiro's micro-bots seemed like an obvious conclusion, especially seeing as it was a sea of micro-bots that had taken him but something in the back of Tadashi's mind told him that wasn't right. If Hiro's bot-fighting career had taught Tadashi anything, it was to trust his inner sense when it came to his brother.

Nostalgia hit him as they walked across a familiar lawn, up all too familiar steps and into a familiar building. Tadashi hadn't returned to campus since he'd been found by Fred and Wasabi. Part of him had been afraid to. SFIT had been a second home to him and he wasn't sure he was ready for what he would see when he finally entered the lab space that had been allocated to him and his group of friends three years ago.

"You sure you want to do this?" Wasabi paused at the entrance to the building. "You don't have to come with me, you know. I can collect all of Hiro's notes and bring them to the café for you to look over."

Tadashi shook his head, rejecting Wasabi's offer to do this alone. "I want to see what Hiro has been working on while I was gone." He stepped past Wasabi, pushed open the door and walked into the cool space, determined to go through with this. He'd been right. Walking into the labs was hard. The space was simultaneously familiar and not. The layout of the building was still, rather obviously, the same but the tools and projects occupying the space were not and it brought to the fore a great feeling of disconnect.

It was only natural that the space would change, as old students graduated and new students entered. It was not unexpected but Tadashi hadn't finished this chapter of his life. As far as his memory was concerned, he was still a student here, was still supposed to occupy this space along with his friends and the change to the space felt alien and wrong. He'd been dealing with a lot of that recently.

Ignoring the feeling, he headed towards what had been his own lab space. His friends had told him Hiro had taken it over. Part of him dreaded being faced with the fact that, like the bedroom and the garage at home, his presence would mostly be gone from this place too but another part of him was curious to see what Hiro was working on. Determined not to give himself time to hesitate, he marched straight into the lab.

The familiar sight of organised chaos greeted him. Notebooks, pens and tools were scattered about the work space, interspersed between neatly ordered and labelled boxes of components. A half-eaten packet of gummy bears lay on the desk, a few stray bears scattered beside it. Post-it notes covered the walls, covered in idea's hastily scrawled down in Hiro's messy script. The swivel chair was half pulled out and turned, no thought given to putting it neatly away. The entire picture was surreal, a strange heart-breaking moment captured in time. Pale sunlight illuminated the lab giving it a warm welcoming feeling, making it seem like like Hiro had just slipped out and would be back any moment.

"We should probably start with Hiro's notebooks." Wasabi shattered the illusion, bringing reality crashing back down. He gently touched Tadashi's shoulder as he walked past heading to Hiro's desk. He began to gather the various notebooks scattered haphazardly about the surface.

Tadashi followed and reluctantly began to help, absently skimming through some of the notes as he gathered them together. "So does Hiro have any idea what his final year project is going to be yet?" He asked trying to add a sense of normalcy to the strange situation. He'd mentally done the math. It had been three years since Hiro got accepted to SFIT. Students were required to work on and submit a final year project in their fourth year but needed to submit their ideas at the end of the third in order to get approval.

"He's already working on it." Wasabi informed him, sliding a few notebooks neatly together and carefully placing them into a box he'd brought. "He finished the course work in two years and started on it at the beginning of this year."

Tadashi glanced up in surprise before shaking his head with a wry smile. He should have expected as much. Hiro never did anything half way. When he made up his mind to pursue something, he did it wholeheartedly, sometimes to the detriment of himself and the sanity of his family. Tadashi really shouldn't be surprised to hear that Hiro was already working on his final year project. "What's he working on?"

"SKIN." Wasabi turned and headed over towards a robotic arm stored on a table on the right hand side of the lab.

"SKIN?"

"Sensory Kinetic Integrated Neurotransmitters." Wasabi clarified, the response not really clarifying anything. He picked up the robotic arm and carried it over towards Tadashi. The Robotic arm was attached to a detailed structure of a human hand. The human hand was encased in a thin flesh colored glove. "It's meant to help burn victims that have lost feeling in their skin due to third or fourth degree burns." Wasabi explained pulling a small device out of a slot attached to the arm. It was shaped like a behind the ear hearing aid. "He modified the design of his neurotransmitter." Wasabi lifted the device and fitted it to Tadashi's right ear. "It receives input from the skin and translates it into a sensory signal." Wasabi reached out and pinched the glove attached to the robotic arm.

"OW!" Tadashi exclaimed at the sudden unexpected sliver of pain, his entire body twitched in response as it tried to localize and identify the source of the pain sending him feedback from all his nerves. It was the strangest sensation.

"This is a generic prototype." Wasabi, removed the neurotransmitter from Tadashi's ear, storing it once more. "It communicates sensations to the human mind but isn't really fully functional yet. Hiro's still working on allowing the system to identify and communicate where the signal is coming from. That way he'll be able to customize it to match the locations of individual burns and only provide feedback when necessary."

Tadashi stared at the project in sheer disbelief and awe. The complexity of it was mind boggling and he really expected no less from his kid genius of a brother but something wasn't quite right. Tadashi was torn. On the one had he was proud that his brother had dedicated his life to something useful for a change, instead of wasting his potential on bots and fighting. On the other hand it felt wrong. Helping people, working in the medical field, had been Tadashi's dream, not Hiro's. Had Tadashi's death driven his brother to live Tadashi's life in his stead?

- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –

A/N: So what do you guys think of Hiro's final year project? I really thought long and hard about it. I wanted it to be something that properly combines who Hiro is and the trauma he went through.

Alexissenpai: Thank you XD. I particularly liked Tadashi's reaction to the news of what Hiro has been up to while he was 'gone'.

Rizard13: LOL. Yes I skipped it. Callaghan? we should be done with him. The fact that he caused the fire has already been addressed in chapter 7? Fred already told Tadashi about it. Tadashi also found out more in chapter 9. Personally I'd be more afraid of a mad Tadashi than a mad Gogo. Gogo is very verbal but once it's done it's done. I get the feeling Tadashi can be a lot more evil in the long run if you cross him.

Ern Estine 13624: Welcome back XD

shooting2stars: Oh man, we make an interesting pair, I must say. I didn't take anything in your review as criticism or discontent. I merely got the feeling you were REALLY waiting for the chapter in which Tadashi finds out about Big Hero 6 and I ended up throwing you for a loop by changing perspective XD. The fact that you were waiting for the chapter so much made me very happy! Thank you soooo much for always reading and reviewing. I always look for your reviews every chapter. Feel free to ramble and muse as much as you want!

Dreamer: I'm so relieved. I also can't do horror movies either. I react to them very badly. But I've taken another look at my story and I can definitely see what you mean. There is a darker undertone in it that can be seen as creepy if you look past the initial surface. That thread continues on throughout the rest of the story too. You are correct in implying that not everything is as it appears. There are 'hidden' aspects to this story which I hope to reveal as it progresses. Hopefully they are interesting. I also particularly liked the confrontation. My favorite part was Tadashi's rant when he first clicked what was going on. I loved how he went off at his 'boneheaded' brother and his idiotic schemes. It was a lighter moment among all the conflict and angst Tadashi has been experiencing and almost brought a tone of normalcy to the things he was going through. As for your new theory... sorry to burst it so early on in the game... The dead ends are not deliberately planned by the bad guys, they are simply a part of the investigation process. It's normal for an investigation to hit several dead ends before finally finding the right path to follow.