Chapter 41, everybody! Bout time we got back to the journal….

Fred is more than happy to channel the Blues Brothers and National Treasure, much to Obake's annoyance—let's be real, he got away with sneaking into three separate joints on three separate occasions in canon, he knows what he's doing. X'D Also…yeah it takes a really high bar to clear the standard of weirdness for college students since Shenanigans is the base measurement. Also from my experiences with my first college…yeah don't touch the foliage they insecticide the stuff to death I had a college buddy who was going to show me how a grass whistle worked, apparently forgetting they had been spraying everything for the past week. "You know that's got insecticides all over it, right?" She stopped that pretty quickly. Obake's quoting Sing, by the way.

In other news, Fred knows how to use his advantages to his advantage, including but not limited to being rich and being underestimated. We use a percolating coffee pot and personally I like it better, mostly because you can also use the pot for other things like tea and heating water for hot chocolate. Obake's quoting a Tumblr thread I found once about liminal spaces, and what Honey Lemon lists are two common sources for the feeling of being haunted (feel spooked in your house? Maybe get a carbon monoxide detector before calling Ghostbusters they probably charge extra for out-of-state visits). Poke is a Hawaiian dish featuring rice and raw fish so it seems like the sort of thing Aunt Cass would serve. And yeah, let's be real if Momakase had wanted Big Hero Six dead they would have been fricasseed way early on.

Also, since Mini-Max isn't a thing now the boys have a different excuse to sneak in. Obake, of course, is experienced in this. And mood on the mandatory stealth missions those are my beloathed. In other news, why would a twenty-year-old student ID still work that feels like a security risk that most campuses wouldn't take.

Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney

Obake really wasn't sure about this second attempt at getting to the journal—mostly because it involved Fred.

"So," Fred said as they headed for SFAI. "We're going in and scoping the place out for research—also for Spirit Week my dude why don't we wait until then? At least then we can touch everything."

Because that was when the journal was discovered the first time and the point of this was to prevent that from happening. "One, because we'll be operating on a timer, and two, it'll be dark then, Fred."

"That does put a cramp on the looking at stuff," Fred agreed, looking pensive before rubbing his hands together. "So at the very least, we can see what kind of booby traps they've got on the statue—and if there's a secret clue there I mean I know you passed on that but I feel really good about that."

"So long as you're not so obvious that they make you out as an SFIT spy," Obake pointed out.

"Dude we'll be fine—I technically go to SFU and you're technically unaffiliated—oh wait we need cover stories. Suggestions?"

"You're method-acting for a class."

"Ooh I like that one—and…hmm, you could be pretending that you're thinking about applying? Or-or-or doing a school project on Shimamoto and you wanted to see her house," he corrected quickly at seeing Obake's death glare.

"And unfortunately I'm saddled with you," Obake said as they ducked through the SFAI gates, Obake ignoring the disgusted prickling being on SFAI grounds brought. "Fred, stop that, you're being obvious enough as it is."

This, he said because Fred was dressed up as some old-timey detective and was currently dodging behind trash cans, light posts, and bushes like he was evading attention that way.

"Method acting," Fred said, waving his hands a little. "Okay so first we need to find a map—"

"I already know where the house is."

"Oh you did your research."

"I've been here before." Unfortunately. Multiple times. At least the very first time wasn't scheduled to happen for another couple weeks.

"Ah so you've already scoped the place out," Fred said, scuttling over like he was going to be chatting incognito. At least most people gave them a cursory glance and continued on their way; Fred's behavior wasn't quite nutty enough by college student standards to warrant continued attention. "Excellent, we can maximize our time and—oh wait you know what like this way would be so much better."

Except Obake had seen what had sent Fred into a stir, and seeing as how he wasn't trying to hail her…."Fred, is this in any way related to the fact that Honey Lemon is that way?"

"Whaaa NO man—besides that probably only looks like Honey Lemon…uh maybe SFAI's planning on infiltrating us with clones, or dressing up like us—"

"Considering the first is beyond them, I'm going with the second," Obake said drily. "Now I know why she's here, so what's your excuse?"

"Well—oh wait you know Honey Lemon has been attending here?" Fred asked.

"Yes, now how do you know?"

"Gogo told me—apparently she talks in her sleep," Fred said, waving that off. "But oh hey this could work for us—HONEY LEMON!"

Considering Honey Lemon dove for the nearest cover, Obake doubted it—sighed and followed Fred when he charged across campus.

"Okay my dudette I know it's tempting but we don't actually dive into the bushes they put all sorts of weird insecticides on the stuff," Fred said when they were close enough—which did succeed in getting Honey Lemon to leap back out and scrub at herself.

"Oh hi guys!" she chirped nervously, trying to play everything off. "I uh…scouting! It's why I was hiding you almost blew my cover Fred."

"So while I do apologize," Fred said, a hand to his chest. "I also feel like being a student is like, the ultimate cover so…no don't glare at him Gogo told me," he added when Honey Lemon's attention shifted to Obake. "She says you talk in your sleep."

"I—" Honey Lemon started. "Wait how did she hear me she has those noise-canceling headphones."

"True…but she also says you sleep in way late on Sundays."

"I…yeah," she admitted, fidgeting.

"My offer of not talking holds so long as you tell no one I was here," Obake said. "Ever."

"And, Honey Lemon, by the most rocking charter of the Bro Code, I am honor-bound to keep your secrets," Fred said. "But hey this could work for us! See, we're trying to sneak into the Shimamoto house to touch stuff—you could be our inside man! You've got like, the perfect cover."

"Wait," Honey Lemon said, taking a beat to process all the nonsense Fred was saying. "Why are you wanting to go to the Shimamoto house?"

"We're on a most excellent mission," Fred said, posing.

Honey Lemon looked him up and down. "To put the band back together?"

"Ooh dude we should totally do that later," Fred said, nudging Obake. "Now come on my dudes let's go!"

Obake exchanged looks with Honey Lemon as Fred charged off. "I'm sorry, I have no control," he told her—which wasn't a lie, unfortunately.

"Maybe I should tell them," Honey Lemon said. "I mean, I was hoping to hold off until after Spirit Week because I figure they'd try to get me to help with the statue and I don't want to have to pick, but…."

"The worst you're risking is excommunication from the friend group, and considering it has Fred, I'm not sure that's much of a punishment," Obake told her—which was about when Fred came back.

"Actually you know what Honey Lemon maybe you lead the charge I'm not really sure where anything is here," Fred admitted.

"Ahhh…right," Honey Lemon said, glancing between him and Obake. "This way."

Getting to the house also involved detouring to see the statue, much to Honey Lemon's chagrin and then Obake's as well—mostly because Fred was being obvious about looking it all over and climbing up and down it and at one point licked it. If anyone asked, they didn't know him, they were just staring along with everyone else, congratulations Fred, you have engaged in sufficiently bizarre enough behavior that it caused college students to pause.

"So," Fred said when he came back over. "While the cursory examination hasn't turned up anything, I'm still pretty sure the statue is somehow related. Just saying."

"Freddie…what are you talking about?" Honey Lemon asked, sounding like she dearly wanted to question his sanity but was far too polite to actually do so.

"So I'm thinking that there's like, this National Treasure-esque thing tied to Shimamoto, Obake's helping me with the nerdy science parts."

Honey Lemon looked at Obake. "I have no idea," he told her. "Mostly I'm just along for the ride."

"Well I'm pretty sure Shimamoto doesn't have any big dark secrets or hidden treasures," Honey Lemon said, continuing on to the house and oblivious to Obake choking on the irony of that statement. Twitched when Fred elbowed him.

"Sorry about that," Fred said. "But I figure if I share my theory, then it's not like, revealing your stuff so we're still good?"

"I'm going to hold off on affirming that until I somehow forget that you licked a statue," Obake told him flatly, following Honey Lemon into the house. And running into the same dork that mixed his tears with ink to write a poem. Oi.

"Obake wanted to see how the renovations were coming along and Fred wanted to tag along," Honey Lemon explained, clasping her hands like she was begging.

"We're here to touch all the stuff," Fred confirmed.

"Ah—we're actually discouraging touching stuff," the dork said.

"Also the Fredricksons are big on preserving the city's history and would totally love to donate to the restoration, just saying."

"You were wanting a tour, you said?" the dork asked, changing tacks smoothly. Which, honestly, was what Obake expected when Fred said that, and was honestly impressed that Fred was willing and capable of flexing his riches like that.

"This doesn't count towards the businesses you're allowed to buy per year?" Obake asked him, unable to resist the dig.

"My dude donations are a different animal," Fred told him. "Dude, my dude, don't rush, let us bask and savor the atmosphere," he told the dork. "Okay my first instinct is to say the globe but we can't judge the past based on current tastes."

"What about the globe?" Honey Lemon asked blankly.

"The only reason people really have globes anymore is to hide secret buttons inside—that and busts, those are good hiding places too."

"Er…what is he talking about?" the dork asked.

"So my dude for my creative writing class at SFU I'm writing like, a smashup of National Treasure and San Fransokyo with Shimamoto as the famous history person who hid all the clues," Fred told him. "So I'm looking at this and trying to figure out like, where would be good places to hide the secrets and stuff. My bro Obake here's writing a report on her for school, so we're comboing our trips to save on gas money and be like, environmentally responsible."

"Fred, we walked here," Obake said.

"Ooh even better. And like, Honey Lemon goes here so she was like yes totally you should come see the house it'd really help, so now here we are."

"I'm going to have to revise my opinion about you," Obake said several minutes later, after the dork had bought it hook line and sinker and allowed them to browse while discussing the house and hold on I have brochures—"That was actually very effective."

"It kind of helps that I'm now really sold on the National Treasure idea we're going to have to work on that after we're done with your thing," Fred said, feeling up the globe. "Hmm, so likely spots for latches would be…."

"Freddie," Honey Lemon said. "I don't actually have to ask you not to lick anything in here, right?"

"I mean I'm not sure that licking the stuff will help but you never know."

What followed was over an hour of exploring the house, the dork occasionally trailing them but also chatting with the reno team, Fred eventually drifting back to the living room because it was the largest room in the house I bet there's like a fake wall or something behind one of the shelves. Which also involved Honey Lemon running in to stop him from tearing the house up.

Granted Fred had a point, the secret room was eventually revealed to be under the living room, but that still left getting into said room without revealing it to the world and therefore his past self. Basically finding out how to get in without tripping it and then sneaking back in the dead of night and getting it, before Spirit Week when security would be on high alert.

"So what's this about a report?" Honey Lemon said, coming back into the kitchen where Obake was poking at an old coffee pot (it percolated instead of dripped, maybe he'd lift this too Cass was talking about the difference between the two). "I thought Tadashi said you didn't go to school."

"It's called a cover story," Obake told her. "I'm not denying that Lenore Shimamoto fascinates me, but learning about something isn't exclusively tied to getting graded for it."

"I mean that is a healthy attitude," Honey Lemon said. "But now I'm wondering if Fred really has a writing assignment."

"He probably does, but at this point I think he's just married to the concept he cooked up," Obake said, turning away from the kitchen—

"Are you okay?" Honey Lemon asked when he stopped abruptly, a shiver dominating his spine.

"I just had the weirdest feeling I swear," he said, looking around.

"Well it is an old house," Honey Lemon pointed out. "There's probably subsonic frequencies, those give off the feeling of being haunted. Carbon monoxide does the same thing, I think they said something about testing the HVAC system."

Haunted—yes, that was the feeling he'd ascribe to it. Haunted in a way that almost made him not function. Glanced in the direction of the living room when he heard Fred apologizing—

"That sounds like Fred broke something," he observed, wrenching himself back to the present.

"Oh boy," Honey Lemon sighed, heading that way. Obake glanced around the room one last time, trying to spot security cameras or something else that would justify the feeling of someone stepping on his grave—

Followed her in to see Fred kicking something under the couch.

"Fred, what did you do?" Honey Lemon asked.

"I might have bumped into a dude and broke his glasses," Fred said. "I offered to pay for them but he just kinda made a face at me and left."

"Freddie, you shouldn't have done that—some of us need them to see."

"My dudette, I know, but he kinda stalked out without needing them so I'm thinking they were just decorative."

Obake rolled his eyes, stooped and scooped the glasses out from under the couch—

Felt ice in his gut when he realized he recognized said glasses.

"Ha, see?" Fred asked, pointing. "They're sunglasses, the dude's fine."

"What did the guy look like?" Obake asked, struggling to keep his voice even.

"Tall, glare-y and scary," Fred said. "Of course part of that might have been me stepping on his sunglasses, so—"

"Obake are you okay?" Honey Lemon asked, putting a hand to Obake's shoulder—he didn't realize until right then how unsteady he had gotten. "You got really pale."

"I'm fine," he said reflexively.

"My dude it might be like, low blood sugar," Fred said. "Let's get back to the Lucky Cat and have some snackage—Tadashi told me that Aunt Cass is working on like, some excellent poke and I am totally here for that."

"Right. Yeah. Sure," he said, following him out and being surprisingly grateful for Honey Lemon keeping a hand on his shoulder—he might have wandered off otherwise in his daze, trying to figure this out—

No. No. This wasn't right, he wasn't due to come nosing around here until closer to Spirit Week, he had not come here this early before…was it his own meddling pushing the dates ahead? Did this mean the catastrophe was doomed to happen earlier?

No. No he had to stop this, he could stop this, he just had to figure out how.

Hopefully before it was too late.

Well that could have gone better.

Scowl as he tossed the ball cap away, reflecting on the idiot surfer dude type that had bumped into him and broke his glasses. Things had gone well for all of five minutes, and then that idiot had bumped into him, danced around going "Oh dude I am SO sorry!" right before stepping directly on said glasses and breaking them beyond repair. Had winced mightily at his glare and gingerly pointed at them. "So…I can pay for that."

Which had necessitated him leaving before he committed a murder and attracted undue attention. So step one had fallen through….

Fortunately, he still had options.

To be fair, hacking into the SFAI security system made him feel icky, it was populated exclusively by sensitive artistes, comforted himself by recalling that if all went well, he'd be rid of the fools soon.

All was not going well.

Especially when he saw that brat traversing the campus alongside the idiot that had bumped into him. This had just gone from unfortunate accident to intentional sabotage.

Okay no think rationally—somehow this kid had nosed into his business and was somehow guessing at his every move. Not exactly reasoning Occam would prefer. The scouring of Krei Tech and Sycorax had not revealed anything conclusive—so far as he knew this boy had just dropped in out of nowhere with the singular goal of making his life miserable. Entertain himself with sending Momakase to bump him off, discarded that just as quickly—she had, when explaining her do's and don't's, said she tried to avoid killing someone unless it was absolutely necessary. While it was toeing dangerously close to necessary, it wasn't quite there yet.

Besides, she wasn't the right tool for the job—just like asking her to sneak in and search the Shimamoto manor wasn't the right job for her. She'd go in and slice everything to ribbons, and this required a tad less of that and more actual looking. Flick through his files, thinking….

Ah.

Go back, review the files…well they weren't his first pick, but he might be able to use them. Start digging for the pertinent information…finally found something that would be a good fit for Momakase's skills.

She answered on the second ring. "I take it you have something fun for me?"

"I think it would be to your liking, yes," he said, eyeing the energy orb on the screen.

The Hamada brothers had spent the past few days working on their projects, Hiro still banging his head against a wall while Tadashi worked on repairing and upgrading Baymax. Obake was tempted to assist on the latter, but unfortunately that would count as bonding, oi.

So he settled for scouring pictures and blueprints of Shimamoto's house, puzzling over how to get into the hidden basement. There had to be some sort of tripping mechanism, and unfortunately the suggestions Fred e-mailed him had merit—there wouldn't be a direct way into there, Shimamoto was smart and if he thought anything like her he'd have it hidden from normal view or handling…books were too obvious, had probably been handled already anyway.

All this was still buzzing through his head that night as he tried to fall asleep—was startled awake by Hiro flopping on him. "Hiro—what the—"

"I figured it out finally," Hiro said, grinning as he held up the schematics. "I've figured out the biometric sucker for the remora."

Blink, blink again—"Finally," he muttered, shoving himself upright. "What do we do first?"

"First we need more than what we have in the garage," Hiro said. "I know SFIT has it, but they're closed by now—"

Held up a hand, check to make sure Tadashi was still sleeping and hadn't just recorded his snores (doubtful, this would require him acknowledging that he did in fact snore), flip up an end of his pallet to procure the invisibility cloak.

"I'm sure this falls under the blanket of shenanigans, but at the same time she did want me sneaking onto school grounds," he explained when he picked up on Hiro's blank look.

"Seriously?" Hiro asked. "She gave you permission?"

"She did. Shall we go?"

"Oh we are totally going."

Hiro stayed pressed close to his side the whole way there, one hand gripping his, the other gripping the tote bag with the schematics and the remora.

"You'd think you'd never snuck out before," Obake teased.

"Well, yeah, but never this late," Hiro admitted. "Why can't the muses strike at a reasonable hour?"

"I think they derive some entertainment at making us lose sleep. For that matter: SFIT."

Hiro nodded. "For the record, it's mondo weird that we're totally invisible right now."

"Totally invisible, but not soundproof. Keep it down."

Nod again, stay close as they made their way to the labs, blink at the sign saying they were closed for maintenance—

Obake slapped his hand when he got ready to scan his ID card.

"OW—hey," he hissed, rubbing his hand.

"Oh hush I didn't hit you that hard," Obake said. "And you don't want to use your card, there are data logs that will say you were out here late."

"So what's your big idea for getting in?"

In response, Obake held up a blank ID card. "The keys to the campus," he announced. "Untraceable, and—" Scan it. "Unbeholden to security lockdowns."

"Very nice," Hiro said, pocketing his ID. "Okay quick—all we gotta do is run to my lab, machine this up, and run back out. Super-easy, only three steps."

"Which means it'll be anything but."

"Hush don't jinx it," Hiro scolded as they scurried through the labs. Duck out from under the invisibility cloak once they were in his lab, squint at the computer screen doing the super-blinding thing, start typing—

"Are you going to help?" Hiro asked.

"One minute," Obake said, fiddling with his spy watch. "I want to make sure we're not surprised while we're doing this."

Okay that was fair. Kept working while Obake kept watch, him finally coming over to help out after assuring him that they'd have fair warning if anybody or anything came by—briefly wondered what he meant by anything before recalling the monster that had been on campus. Okay, fair enough.

"Okay, okay," Hiro noised when it was so close to being done—put it together and….

"I think that's it!" he hissed excitedly at Obake. "We have to test it and iron out the coding but—"

Obake's watch beeped.

"Is that bad?" Hiro asked when Obake checked it.

"It means we're about to have company," Obake said, darting for the cloak. "Turn everything off."

Hiro did so quickly, stuffing the remora and the schematics back in the tote bag—Obake ran for him, throwing the invisibility cloak over them both—

Right as some round thing on four spindly legs scurried in.

Both of them froze, Hiro keeping a hand clasped to his mouth as he stared—okay, who made the Portal turrets mobile that was so not cool—

It scanned the room, lasers darting all over—don't panic don't panic don't panic—

Finally scuttled backwards, heading down the hall.

Hiro waited, listening intently…gusted a sigh of relief. "What was that? Why didn't it see us? I mean I know why but—didn't think the cloak would fool machines—"

"Scan jammers, remember?" Obake asked, showing him his watch. "Now come on, let's get out of here before we find out that thing had buddies."

That thing did indeed have buddies, Hiro had problems with this, he hated stealth missions in video games and part of the reason was the same reason his anxiety was through the roof right now—

Took off as soon as they were clear, Obake keeping even with his longer legs but sounding like that wouldn't last long, something sharp-sounding in his breathing—grabbed his wrist and tugged, trying to keep him even—

Finally slowed down and stopped several blocks from SFIT, wheezing on a corner.

"Okay, so," Hiro gasped finally. "Maybe we don't do that again."

"Might have to agree with you," Obake wheezed.

Granville tapped at the computer bank again, going over the coding for the new security drones. Seemed to be operating without hiccups, would need to move on to the test for intruder protocols next.

Although…one, at least, had reacted to perceived intruders, operating in the Hamadas' lab.

Pull up the data for that, noting that the computer had been activated, as had the 3D printer…and then nothing, some external force had scrambled the data logs, as well as the security cameras leading to and from the lab. The investigating security drone had been unable to pick anything up either, despite scanning the room thoroughly.

It was enough to make her highly suspicious, enough for her to send an e-mail to campus security for a more thorough sweep, another one to the general campus population announcing that morning classes in the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab were cancelled due to continued maintenance. Might have to extend the due date for the midterm projects if this took too long.

Something occurred to her as she went over the data again—that lab had been solely Tadashi Hamada's before he insisted on sharing it with his brother.

Before that, when she had been teaching here before, it had been his lab.

Consider this, look up his name on the database…gone, scrubbed from the servers. Probably to be expected, it had been twenty years.

Although…there was that handle he enjoyed…and was that not the name of the boy the Hamada brothers kept insisting she meet sometime?

Scowl at that as she scanned through the database again. Sometimes she thought that perhaps they were talking about him, that he had found a nice family to settle down with and live out his life. But that wasn't accurate, to hear them talk this person was about Hiro's age. So…a child, maybe, the next generation. One he decided to saddle with his old handle.

Sigh. She had tried looking him up recently, now that past restrictions had timed out…nothing. All she knew was that he had survived the explosion. Everything else about his life? A total mystery.

And now here she was, with yet another precocious young man to deal with. At least this one had a network of people he could rely on, wouldn't necessarily be at the labs late working on things that would blow up in his face. Hopefully.

Deep sigh, trying to excise those feelings. Hope was nice, but she also had to do everything in her power to ensure that another catastrophe like that didn't occur. Hiro chafed at limits, and that was understandable.

But she couldn't afford to make those same mistakes again. Perhaps someday she could afford to explain her reasoning to him. But until then….

She simply could not fail another student. If that made her hard and cold, then so be it.

But she couldn't handle another Bob Aken on her conscience.