Check 1 - Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

Cass Hamada leaned wearily against the counter top of her corner café in San Fransokyo, California. After another busy afternoon, part of her wanted to just call it a day but knew she couldn't. They still had the later afternoon shift to worry about, though she had plenty of staff on hand to cover for her if she chose to duck out for a bit. They all knew things had been crazy for her and her nephew recently, though they weren't privy to any of the details.

The bell over the door jingled and Cass straightened as she looked towards the door, pausing at the sight of her nephew, Hiro, as he entered. Chances were good he was coming home from a hard day at school. Despite the smile on his face, he looked tired. Baymax, his ever faithful robotic companion wasn't far behind him. Surprisingly, though, the rest of his usual crew of friends didn't follow behind them.

Not sure if she should worry or not, Cass moved from behind the counter to intercept Hiro before he could slip past and into the back of the café. "Everything all right?" she asked as they met halfway down the one side of the main floor. "I don't see the others with you today."

Hiro's lips spread across his face in an attempt to hide his exhaustion. "Wasabi and GoGo had a presentation for their mid-terms, and Honey wanted to go to an art exhibit," he explained.

"Speaking of presentations, how did yours go?" Cass asked, remembering that he had one scheduled for earlier that day.

The sixteen-year-old rubbed at the back of his neck. "About that." He glanced a bit nervously towards Baymax. "I didn't completely botch it but it's safe to say chemistry is not my strong point."

Hearing that, Cass looked up at Baymax with an expectant expression. "There were no injuries sustained," the inflatable marshmallow assured.

With a bit of a shrug, Hiro continued towards the back, the other two following him to the doorway marking the boundary between storefront and private home. "I did make a bit mess when one of my formulas went wrong. I think I miscalculated how much ammonia I needed. As a result, I had to clean the whole lab while the others evacuated."

"Evacuated?" Cass's eyes went wide. "Just what happened in there?"

Safe behind the door separating work from home, Hiro slumped against the wall. "I kinda blew the lab up," he admitted. Then he waved his hands to avoid any questions. "It didn't really cause any damage, just a really big mess. But, to be safe, the professor had everyone else leave the lab."

"Hiro got to wear a hazmat suit," Baymax added helpfully.

A heavy sigh escaped Cass's lips before she pulled him into a hug. "Well, at least you're okay. You are okay, aren't you?"

The teen let out a slight chuckle. "Yes, I'm okay. Though I think I might want a shower."

Cass sniffed a bit, agreeing with him. Whatever formula he'd played with had left his clothes smelling a bit like a cat-infested alley. "Wise decision," she applauded. "But, afterwards, would you check the mail? It's been so busy today I haven't had much of a breather, and I've still got to prep for the late afternoon crowd."

"You got it," Hiro agreed as his aunt released him from her embrace.

The proprietress watched as her nephew went up the stairs to the second floor, not waiting to see if Baymax had followed. She could hear the vinyl rubbing on the wood as the giant balloon followed. "Right," she said as she straightened her apron and gave herself a bit of a sniff to make sure the smell from Hiro's clothes hadn't transferred to hers. Satisfied, she turned back to the café. "Back to work."

…..

After showering, and changing into a fresh set of clothes, Hiro made his way back down to the street level of the three-story house that served as both living quarters and business. A corner property, there was parking on two sides along the street, and a trolley track leading by down one side. He popped out on the side, through the back entrance. Technically speaking, there was an even more back entrance through the garage, at the rear of the building, but that would require him to go through his pseudo lab and open up the garage door, which he didn't feel like doing. It took more effort than he was willing to give at the moment.

So, instead, he went through the side door and made his way to the mailbox, the one reserved for their private mail. Business mail was delivered to the counter inside, keeping business separate from everything else. With a bit of a tug, Hiro got the box open, pocketing his key. Even though San Fransokyo was relatively crime free, there was always the chance someone might do something stupid and the postal system didn't want to risk that.

From the inside of the box, he'd pulled a decent stack of mail of varying sizes, nothing immediately sticking out. Deciding to wait to see what ads and the like were in the bunch, he immediately turned back and re-entered the living area, heading upstairs to the kitchen and living room. There, he tossed the stack of mail onto a low table, pausing as one envelope in particular caught his eye. It was fancier than the others, larger, on what looked to be expensive paper. In fact, it kind of reminded him of the letter he'd gotten on his sixteenth birthday from Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, inviting him out to New York for a visit.

With a lot more caution than was probably necessary, he picked up the envelope and turned it to face upwards, momentarily confused at the Kanji lettering he saw in the upper corner, grateful to see the sender's, and the recipient's names were in English. While he'd learned enough Japanese to make due, it wasn't his strongest language, despite being encouraged to learn more. He breathed a slight sigh of relief to see Cass's name on the recipient section, but couldn't help but wonder at the fancy logo in the sender's section, something that proclaimed the envelope had come from someone named Kambe.

From the stairway, Baymax watched his young charge scrutinize the envelope before giving up and putting it on top of the pile. "Is something wrong?" he inquired. While the teen's hormones had fluctuated, along with his heart rate, both had calmed down.

Hearing him, Hiro looked up. "No. Aunt Cass just got a fancy letter from some group in Japan. It's probably one of those promotional contests or something." Though rare, such invites had shown up ever since Cass's encounter with the infamous underground cooking contest. Having beaten several well-known chefs, her name occasionally got thrown around. Chances were good Aunt Cass would ignore it, just like she did every other one, but it didn't stop her nephew from being curious.

"You still have homework," Baymax reminded, blinking his large eyes as he cocked his head to one side. "Perhaps it would be wise to complete it before your aunt returns."

There was wisdom in that, Hiro decided as he walked to join Baymax at the stairs. "Yeah, might as well get it done and over with." Thankfully, once mid-terms were over, the university had scheduled a nice break to let the students recover. He and his friends were already starting to make plans, minus any super hero necessities between. Crime stopped for no one, but it was nice to pretend he was a normal teen every now and again.

….

Suzue Kambe sat at the giant monitoring bay that was the nerve center of HEUSC, the AI butler of the Kambe family. It felt good to sit at the old console after what felt like a year but was only a matter of a half dozen or so months. During that time, she'd taken a much needed vacation while Daisuke and Katou had taken it upon themselves to take out black market dealers looking to make a buck off of Adollium, selling to arms dealers.

If they were being honest, the Kambe group had, under various dummy corporations and names, sold to similar before Daisuke had uncovered the true murderer of his mother, but that was beside the point. He was doing his level best to make amends for his family's wrong-doing, and to take the company in the right direction. It was unfortunate that his grandmother had sacrificed Daisuke's mother in the whole guise of "keeping humanity safe". They all knew it was a ploy to keep it to themselves to amass even more wealth, something that was totally unnecessary. The Kambe family had more than enough money.

Various images displayed on the room-size monitor. Some were from surveillance cameras. Others displayed series of data in grids and other manners. And ever present was the characteristic H in its circles, representing the AI butler's computer form.

Behind her, a cylinder cut off part of the view of a drop-off balcony to a bay below, where she could work on various mechanical projects that would help out Daisuke and his team. Her older cousin had come a long way in the short year since meeting Haru Katou, though he still displayed much of the same emotional/mental characteristics as before. But there was a softness to him now, a bit more humanity, some might call it. But she knew better. She knew her cousin chose to remain unfazed by most things, keeping a cool, calm, and collected demeanor that was sometimes off-putting.

One of two elevators, one on either side of the room, opened and Daisuke exited, adjusting his cuffs. Today, he wore the more casual white-buttoned shirt with a vest over, and slacks. Occasionally, he'd even come in wearing something even more casual, a decided influence from Katou, but not today. "How do things look?" he asked as he joined her in front of the console, looking up at the surveillance footage.

"The invitation was delivered not too long ago," Suzue reported. "A young man retrieved the mail and took it inside. I couldn't get a clear view but I think it might have been Hiro Hamada who retrieved it."

Without prompting, HEUSC displayed the basic information on the teen named. The messy mop of hair made Daisuke cringe a bit inside but he suppressed it. "And what of his aunt?"

Suzue typed several commands on the keypad in front of her and the image changed to show inside the café, obviously using a security camera on the premises. "Cass Hamada appears to be preparing for the afternoon rush. If memory serves, she will close early today."

Daisuke nodded. Ever since learning about her existence, he'd had Suzue keep an eye on her through HEUSC, curious about what kind of woman she was. It never hurt to gather what intel one could about anyone he might encounter. And the chances of him meeting her and her nephew face to face were over fifty percent at this point. It was a bit difficult to think of her as anything else than a stranger, at least for now. But it also intrigued him that they shared blood and DNA.

Basic research had told him she was an entrepreneur who had opened the café after dropping out of culinary school. The official story was that her parents had helped her out by co-signing on the loan that secured her the corner property she'd turned into her primary source of income. A bit of digging said there was more to it than that, but he wasn't entirely sure to its validity just yet. What was sure was that she'd turned her café into a successful business after only a year or two. It was long enough to be able to support a sudden family when her brother and his wife were unexpectedly killed due to a drunk driver, leaving her with two young nephews to look after.

Information on Cass's brother was, for reasons unknown, more sparse. Daisuke knew his uncle had been a technological genius, much like his sons. But that was about it. Any other information had either been deleted, or didn't exist. Chances were good it was the former. The only real information he had on him was that he'd married and had two sons. He'd gone to school in San Fransokyo after his family had migrated to the States, where he'd met his wife. From there, he'd moved to a different state for some kind of fellowship, and then out of the country for a while. Whatever he'd been working on was confidential enough that not even HEUSC had been able to dig it up.

What was sure was that when Mr. Hamada and his family had returned to the States to visit his sister, both he and his wife had died, leaving Tadashi and Hiro orphaned. Perhaps it had been a familial obligation that had prompted Cass to take both boys in. Or maybe it was her not knowing of any other family. Cass was, by all accounts, much younger than her brother. And, by default, young enough she might not remember Sayuri, who had married Shigemaru Kambe after meeting him at a research lab owned by the Kambe family. There was a lot more in everything, of course. But the important bits were that Cass was much younger, and may not even have heard about her older sister passing. Without being inside her head, it was hard to tell.

"Are preparations going as expected?" Daisuke asked as he turned to face Suzue, who had remained respectfully silent while he ruminated on events.

Suzue's fingers ran over the keypad again, bringing up images of the Tokyo Mansion's interior. Having been unused for many months, the cleaning process had taken some doing but was progressing as expected. "We should be ready for them on time," she reported.

Daisuke gave a curt nod before checking his stud earring, the main connection he had with both Suzue and HEUSC when away from home. "I'll be at the precinct if anyone needs me."

While the day for his estranged aunt was nearing its end, his day was just beginning. And while there were no reports of Adollium on the black market, at present, he still had a job to do with the Modern Crimes Division. It would not do to keep Katou waiting any more than necessary.

...

It was with a sense of relief that Cass locked the front door of the café and turned the sign around to reflect the closed status. The main lights were already off, indicating the status of the business. She'd only had to usher out a few last minute guests who had taken a little longer to gather their belongings. Mostly students, some had spread out homework on the open tables. It wasn't unheard of, but she was more than happy to see them heading home, or to wherever they might end up, just not there.

With the last of the cleanup done, and her staff gone home, the proprietress made her way to the back of the store for one final check, turning off one coffee machine someone had forgotten. It wouldn't do to let it keep heating without supervision. That's how accidents happened.

She gave a nod of approval before removing her apron and hanging it on a hook on the wall just outside the storage area. She'd need to remember to throw it into the laundry later, but, for now, she wasn't going to worry about it. She still had to make dinner for her and Hiro. And see if anything interesting had come in the mail. There were occasional coupons decent enough to excite, not to mention the usual grocery store ads.

"You still here?" she called up the stairway to the third floor as she made her way to the kitchen. Chances were good her nephew was still in his room, but one never knew. She hadn't checked her phone, having left it on the charger, and so might have missed any messages alerting her to his extra-curricular activities. But she hadn't seen any telltale signs of red armor flying away so doubted he'd gone on any super hero errands.

There were a few thuds from upstairs as Hiro probably managed to trip on his discarded clothes or something similar. She could hear the faint cry of "Ow", a sure indicator he was indeed home and she wasn't just hearing their cat, Mochi, getting into things he shouldn't be.

"I was thinking beef and broccoli for dinner," Cass called up against. "How does that sound?"

Hiro made his way down the stairs, turning at the landing. It looked like he'd dozed off and was just now waking up as he rubbed at his eyes. "Yeah, sounds good. Need any help?"

Cass gave a contented sigh. Hiro was acting like a normal teen, albeit a genius one, but it was nice to see. The last few months had been more recovery mode after the events in Los Angeles County incident. A lot had happened, including Cass learning a lot more about what had happened to her nephew since Tadashi's death. Despite having heard the general gist of events back at Avenger Tower, there were still a lot of things that had yet to be shared. She knew it would take time. But seeing all her nephew had been through, yeah, the recovery time had been more than necessary.

To this day, she didn't understand even a fraction of what her nephew had gone through, with all those reactive reintegrations, or whatever they were. The fact of the matter was the only two people who seemed to understand any of it were not currently within easy access. The Doctor, who had introduced the term in the first place, was who knew where, or when. And Loki had returned to Asgard to take care of some pressing issues. She had no idea when he'd be back, let alone how to get a hold of him.

"If you could get the rice going, that would be a big help," Cass allowed. In his currently sleepy state, allowing him to chop up the vegetables was probably not the wisest choice. She thanked her lucky stars for the foresight to have some pre-cut beef available, which would save both time and potential injury.

Hiro nodded as he headed for the rice cooker. "Got it." Baymax was not far behind, to make sure he didn't do anything that would cause undo harm, such as shorting out the cooker with water or similar.

While her nephew was taking care of that, Cass began heating the wok, seasoning it with some oil. In next to no time at all, she was cooking up the meat and adding the veg. She only glanced over towards Hiro a few times to make sure he had everything set before focusing on her task.

Done with his part, Hiro made his way to the living area and flopped down onto the couch. Thanks to his previous training, he'd managed to get the rice going without much brain power. But now that he was sitting in the room with the mail, the fancy envelope stared up at him. Who was the Kambe Group anyway? And what did they have to do with Aunt Cass?

"Hiro?"

The teen jumped at the unexpected inquiry behind him. "Aunt Cass! You startled me!"

Cass walked around the couch. "It looked like you were lost in thought, or had dozed off again."

Hiro shook his head. "Sorry. I was just thinking. You got a strange letter in the mail today and I wondered about it."

She gave him a funny look. "Strange letter?" She glanced at the pile of mail, noticing the fancy envelope. "What in the world?" She picked it up and opened it, memories stirring faintly, memories she'd not looked at in a long time.

Inside the envelope, there was a sheet of embossed paper, the expensive kind. Cass's hand trembled a bit as she read its contents. Tears pricked at her eyes and a small sob escaped her lips. One hand went to her cover her mouth, causing Hiro more than a moment of concern.

"Aunt Cass?"

Cass sat down next to her nephew. "It's Sayuri," she said, breathless in her shock.

Hiro couldn't help but stare, having never heard that name before. At least not to his knowledge. "Who?"

In response to his question, she lowered the letter, surrendering it to his custody. He quickly scanned the contents before looking back up at her. "I don't understand."

Cass sniffled some more. "Sayuri was my sister," she managed. "I barely remember her, but she was a lot like your dad. Smart. She got an internship working for the Kambe Group when we were young, met the son of the family, and they ended up getting married. That was about the same time your grandparents, your dad and I, moved to American. I was so young. I heard Sayuri and Shigemaru had a son named Daisuke, but I never met him."

Blinking rapidly, Hiro couldn't help but put the paper down. "Wait, you mean I have a cousin I never knew about? And he's a member of a wealthy family like Fred's?"

A funny kind of snorting laugh escaped Cass's mouth. "From what I understand, the Kambe family makes Fred's wealth look like pocket change."

Hiro did a double take. Suddenly, what was written on the letter took on a different meaning. "So they want you to come out for a Memorial Service," he summarized. "I guess that means she died recently."

The shake of Cass's head negated that idea. "I heard she died years ago, murdered. According to that, they recently caught the killer and now want to honor her memory."

Baymax looked between the two Hamadas, reading their vital data. The confusion was understandable. He hadn't heard anything about this prior to that evening. "I have accessed information on the Kambe family," he announced, hoping to be helpful. "Daisuke Kambe is the current acting head of the family."

Before he could give any more information, the rice cooker timer went off with a little electronic tune. Cass sniffled, wiped her nose on a tissue she found, and stood. "I think details can wait until later. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Taking the hint, Hiro joined his aunt in the kitchen, setting the table while she got the rice into a serving bowl. Baymax brought over the hot wok with the beef and broccoli in it, setting it on a bamboo board set out for that purpose.

"So… do you plan on going?" the teen asked as he picked at his food. As usual, the food was good, but he couldn't help but be distracted by the possibility of Aunt Cass going to Japan. After all, this was a memorial for a sister she said she'd barely known and hadn't seen in years.

Cass chewed her mouthful of rice before swallowing. "It's the right thing to do." She took a moment to eat another bite of rice before continuing. "After all, they're family neither of us has met. And it's during your mid-term break. We should be able to go out and be back in time for school to resume. And it wouldn't hurt for you to see Japan."

It was a decent point, Hiro supposed. And it gave him something to look forward to, as a sort of reward for getting through his mid-terms. That only gave them a few days to get everything ready, though. "But what about plane tickets? I mean, I know we both have passports, but can we really get tickets on such short notice?"

A more al dente piece of broccoli gave Cass pause, but she managed to get it down. "I don't know," she admitted. "I think they want us to RSVP first and will probably provide some kind of accommodations. I just have to call and confirm. I'm not going to make you go, though. But I will have to find someone to mind the café while I'm gone, either way. If you want to stay, you can probably convince Fred to let you sleep there while I'm gone."

Faced with the choice of staying or going, Hiro couldn't help but feel like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or doing something he knew he shouldn't. There were pros and cons to both sides. And even though he was doing better on the whole social aspect, mostly thanks to his friends, he was still shy around strangers. The idea of meeting someone he was related to who was richer than Fred was more than a little daunting. But it also made him curious.

"Yeah," he finally replied. "I mean, why not? I'll go if you go."

Cass gave him a relieved smile. Now she only had to worry about getting someone to watch things while they were gone. And feed Mochi, though she was sure Honey Lemon or GoGo would be more than willing. Baymax would, of course, be going with them. "I'll RSVP after dinner," she announced.