Opposite of Amnesia
"How is he?" Honey Lemon asked softly seating herself beside Tadashi. Tadashi had remained with his brother, holding him until Hiro fell asleep. It hadn't taken too long, the combination of injury, emotional distress and sedatives effectively took him out. Tadashi wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing. Hiro clearly needed the sleep but on the other hand it generally wasn't a good idea to leave a concussed patient to sleep.
He'd remained there even after Hiro had fallen asleep, reluctant to let the still slim figure go. Hiro had grown a bit taller since Tadashi had last seen him but he certainly hadn't bulked out. The growth spurt also didn't appear to be all that big. Hiro was only marginally taller than Aunt Cass. It was a fact Tadashi was certain Hiro wouldn't appreciate having pointed out which is why as a big brother it was only his duty to do exactly that the moment the first opportunity to do so presented itself. The thought had made him smile. It had also reminded him that Aunt Cass hadn't yet had an opportunity to see Hiro, so he'd reluctantly placed Hiro back onto the hospital bed and slipped out of the room swapping places with his Aunt. Baymax had remained with Hiro.
"He's fast asleep." Tadashi replied running a tired hand over his face. "It's probably for the best."
Honey Lemon placed a hand on Tadashi's shoulder in understanding. "Give him time. He probably has a lot to deal with right now. You know what it's like."
"Yeah." Tadashi sighed running a hand over his face once more before shaking himself out of the funk he could feel himself slipping into. "You guys went back to the warehouse, right? To see if Hiro's captors left any clues behind? Did you find anything?"
"Not exactly." Honey Lemon suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable. "Gogo, Wasabi and Fred are still combing the scene to see if we missed anything in our initial sweep but it looks like they're gone. We found traces of a large experiment, similar to those we found on Akuma Island but the actual experiment has been removed. It looks like they dismantled it before we even got there."
Tadashi frowned in confusion. "Dismantled it? Why would they do that? We didn't really give them any time to realise we knew where they were hiding, did we?"
Honey Lemon shook her head. "I don't think we're the reason they left. We found a whole bunch of packing boxes. It looks like they were moving. Also there weren't that many people there when we raided the place. Not enough to fill the lab-space we found anyway. I think we caught them just before they left for good."
Tadashi paled at her words the implications of what that meant hitting him hard. If they had waited another day or even a few more hours before raiding a warehouse they'd only targeted on a hunch, they would have been too late. "Why do you think they moved then? They clearly invested a lot of money into the hideout. They wouldn't abandon it for no good reason."
"Maybe they realised the same thing we did." Honey Lemon said thoughtfully. "They probably figured out the time machine they are working on is tied to the location it is situated in. Maybe the thing they're actually looking for isn't located in San Fransokyo?"
Tadashi nodded. "Makes sense." He agreed with a sigh before turning to face Honey Lemon head on letting her see the anguish in his eyes. "If we'd waited… if we'd taken the time to first investigate our suspicions, we would have missed him. Hiro would've been gone." Tadashi's voice was filled with torment and fear.
Honey Lemon reached out to touch his shoulder once more. "But we didn't." She said, unwavering in her faith. "We found him just in time. Hiro is here. He's back with us. He's safe and all of it is thanks to you." Honey Lemon fell silent for a moment, giving her words time to sink in before continuing. "We…" She nervously cleared her throat, reaching into her handbag. "We did find something in the control room attached to the main lab space." She pulled something out of the bag and held it out towards Tadashi.
Tadashi glanced down at it, his breath catching in the back of his throat. The notebook Honey Lemon held out towards him was innocent enough, the emblem on its cover was not. Hand drawn on the cover was an all too familiar logo. "Have you…" Tadashi licked suddenly dry lips. "Have you seen this symbol before?" Tadashi asked running the fingers of his right hand over the familiar black block with lines extending out of it.
Honey Lemon nodded handing the notebook to Tadashi. "It's Hiro's trademark. He puts it on everything to do with Big Hero 6. He created it a year ago. I think it's actually quite clever. It's made up of two H's stacked up on top of one another. He coloured the block where the two letters intersect to turn it into a logo. Those are probably his notes. We found it taped beneath a table in the main control room. I think he was trying to leave us a clue… In case we didn't get there in time…" Honey Lemon's words trailed off.
Hiro's trademark? The all too familiar logo was actually Hiro's trademark? Then that would mean… The strange bracelet he'd found attached to his wrist on the day he'd miraculously stumbled three years into the future suddenly weighed heavy, reminding Tadashi of it's presence. How had something Hiro had made years after Tadashi's death, found its way onto his body and better yet, did it have anything to do with his presence here?
Ignoring the Goosebumps covering his skin, Tadashi reached out and flicked the book open, both anticipating and dreading what its contents would reveal. It was blank. "What the?" Tadashi flicked through several more pages. With the exception of a tiny version of Hiro's logo inked onto the bottom right hand corner of the first half of the notebook, the pages were all completely blank. "There's nothing here." Tadashi looked up at Honey Lemon in confusion.
"Oh, one moment." Honey Lemon turned to rummage around in her handbag once more. "Here it is." She pulled out a small spray bottle and handed it over towards Tadashi. "It's probably written in invisible ink. It's a special chemical creation I created just for Big Hero 6. That way we could communicate without worrying about someone else getting hold of our messages. This mixture should make the ink visible once more."
Tadashi reached out and took hold of the bottle twirling it between his fingers before flicking the notebook back to the first page. He hesitated, staring at the blank page. What secrets would it reveal?
…
"I'll leave you to it, then." Tadashi felt the ghostly trace of Honey Lemons lip's on his cheek as she kissed him in farewell and left, leaving him to face Hiro's words alone. Screwing up his courage, he took a deep breath and sprayed the first page. A fine mist escaped the nozzle of the bottle, drifting softly and settling onto the page before him. One… Two… the white page began to change, faint pink writing appearing out of nowhere growing ever brighter and clearer before slipping sharply into focus.
Tadashi's heart broke a little as he began to read:
Hiro Hamada – Captivity: Day 18 (Assuming the calendar is correctly synchronized)
I've finally managed to access a calendar (Default function available on every PC). Go me. Apparently I was kidnapped 18 days ago. Nice to know though to be honest I no longer know where one day ends and the next begins.
- BH6 - BH6 - BH6 –
A/N: Did anyone other than Rizard13 make the connection between the cover page image, the logo on Tadashi's bracelet in chapter 7 and the logo on Hiro's journal?
Kiki Anderson: Hi! Thanks for dropping a review. I agree with you, I also adore the brotherly love between Hiro and Tadashi!
Alexissenpai: Agreed. I just want to scoop the two of them up and cuddle them like crazy!
CrazyBlueOwl: Don't die! There is still a lot more story to go! Where am I going to get new reviewers from?
Anony mouse101: I will take that as one hell of a compliment. Thank you. I like writing from an emotional perspective and really feel I've accomplished something when my stories resonate with my readers on an emotional level.
Ern Estine 13624: I really enjoyed writing the reunion. It was a dificutl moment but so very sweet.
shooting2stars: Agreed. Together at last! Baymax was awesome. I loved using the main quote from the movie in that chapter.
Dreamer: GLOMP! My long lost anime buddy is baaaaack! Though I think you may have missed a chapter? You commented on the cliffhanger in chapter 27 even though chapter 28 was already up?