zerotohiro | Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

[ As always, Yu is a good audience. Quiet but attentive, nodding along, making soft affirmative sounds to show he understands, expression soft when Hiro smiles, somber when Hiro talks of death and fire.

When the other boy finally stops talking, Yu is quiet for a moment, absorbing all of that information and making sure he's actually following along. Of course, Krei seems like the most obvious villain, and if it wasn't Krei...

He thinks back. To the fire, the reason Tadashi had died, and he feels his skin flash cold. Technically, theoretically, the man behind the mask could be anyone. Couldn't it? Anyone with reason to want to steal Hiro's microbots. But it wouldn't just be anyone. It would be someone with an interest in robotics. Someone who would have been there that day, and expressed an interest. Someone else who spoke to Hiro.

To try and convince me to apply to the school...

Yu can't say he understands the whole story yet. But this much he feels he's on the right track. ]

... it was Callaghan.

[His mouth's drawn into a thin line and he nods slowly.] None of us expected it...we all thought Callaghan died in the fire, but he used my microbots to protect himself. Tadashi went in there to save him and...[A pause. He averts his gaze.]

He said that Tadashi going in to save him was his own fault. That it was his own escape. He didn't care about what happened to him. Tadashi admired him and he didn't even care that he lost his own life trying to save him. [Another beat...] ...I kinda lost it after that...and I told Baymax to kill him. I pulled his nursing chip out so he was just using his fighting chip and set him to destroy Callaghan. He pushed my friends out of the way and he only listened to me and kept his sights set on Callaghan to follow his orders.

...Honey Lemon put his nursing chip back in before Baymax could finish the job and Callaghan got away. I was really mad at all of them for stopping us...so I took Baymax and left them on that island to go fix Baymax's scanners to track down Callaghan. I didn't need them. I knew how to fix everything. At least...I thought I did.

[And there's one more pause...before he finally explains the rest. He explains his anger, Baymax showing him Tadashi's recordings, his friends coming to the garage to forgive him and showing him that one flashdrive. He explains about Callaghan's daughter and why he was seeking revenge on Krei, the missing pieces of Silent Sparrow.

He's not even aware that his voice is more rushed and quiet the longer he talks and explains about the final fight, the way they were doomed and the way they overcame it. How they'd stopped Callaghan and saved Krei...and by the time he gets to the piece about the portal and Abigail he's barely above a whisper up until he finally finishes. Saving Abigail and losing Baymax. The last piece and the last thing he says is:]

...saying goodbye to Baymax was like losing Tadashi all over again. But it was his job to protect me, kinda like how Tadashi's always protected me before he died, too. That's why I can't risk losing anybody else. I'm not going to get lucky a second time. [Second time, Hiro?]

[ There are a lot of things here he could talk about. About the fact that Hiro did need his friends, or he wouldn't have gotten through. About how fixing everything couldn't have just come down to him alone, and yet here he is trying to do just that again. About how this must be the thing Hiro thought would change Yu's impression of him, but it changes nothing, because Yu almost did the same thing himself, once.

But first. ]

There are a few things I want to say. But... a second time?

Oh...yeah. Baymax's fist was the only part of him that made it out of the portal with me, but somehow he'd shoved his nursing chip into it. I found it a couple of days later. It's the chip that really makes Baymax Baymax...I could rebuild his body really easily but I could never rewrite all of his programming the way Tadashi had. The Baymax here? It's all the same coding but his body's my own work using Tadashi's old blueprints.

[...something occurs to him then.] ...it's almost like getting Tadashi back a second time, isn't it?

[ Yu's expression is gentle as he nods. ]

Yeah, it is.

[ He's quiet then, thinking on what he wants to say next. ]

There are a lot of things I want to say. But first... am I right in thinking that you believed your story about how you almost killed Callaghan would change my perception of you?

[There's a slow nod and he bows his head, almost ashamed of himself even now.] What kind of a hero tries to kill people? It's not what Tadashi would have wanted...Baymax reminded me of that.

[ Yu braces the heels of his palms on the edge of the bench, leaning forward. ]

Remember what I told you, about Nanako getting involved in the serial killer case back home?

[ He glances sideways at Hiro. ]

There came a critical time in the case when we thought she was dead, and we thought we had all the pieces to the puzzle... we thought we knew who the killer was, but we were wrong. We were alone in a room with that man... and we thought if we didn't act right then, he'd get away from us forever. The girls weren't sure, but...

[ Yu looks up, away, his face hard. ]

I seized his collar and started dragging him towards the TV in the room. If I'd dropped him in there, he would have been killed for sure. We would have been murderers... no better than what we thought he was.

[ His expression softens, and he looks at Hiro again. ]

"What kind of a hero tries to kill people?"

[It's his turn to listen and his eyes widen just a bit at the mention of Nanako. He knows how important she is to Yu's...everything (sister-complex, etc) and so to hear that Yu had been put in a similar situation and had acted the same way Hiro had...

...well, it puts a lot of things into perspective. Someone he idolizes and someone who's a better leader than he is has faced the same things. Truthfully, it helps that it's almost exactly the same thing. He wasn't sure anybody would really understand. By the time Yu looks at him again he's nothing but sympathetic and he finally understands.]

What made you stop? What changed your mind?

The sense that we were missing something. [ Yu presses his mouth into a line. ] That there was an answer still out there. It turned out I was right, because that man, Namatame, wasn't the killer at all. You could say he'd hurt my friends, but he'd actually done so out of a misguided attempt to save them. He'd definitely never killed anyone.

[ He breathes out. He'd left the hospital that night and broken down in sobs, not knowing if he'd done the right thing. Only Yosuke knows that. For a moment, Yu's eyes are far away before he can bring himself back to the present. ]

It was a close call. Grief can drive you to do some pretty terrible things.

[There's a soft "oh" at that. He doesn't speak again for the time being as he ponders that over, but he knows Yu's right. Grief does weird things to people.]

...Callaghan wanted revenge on Krei for what happened to his daughter because he didn't have anyone to convince him otherwise. We tried to talk him out of it but he was too focused on his anger. That was before we knew Abigail was still alive. [A pause.] But...how do you stop grief from completely taking over like that?

[ Yu gives that question the consideration it deserves, and is quiet for a time himself. ]

I guess that depends. I wanted to find the real truth. That's what stopped me. But there's your friends, too. In the end, I couldn't have gotten through everything that happened with Namatame and Nanako without my friends to support me.

...[It's really all about friends, isn't it? He realizes that without his own friends he would have been crushed by the same thing as well and he bites on his lip.] And that's why you're really intent on making sure I'm not doing these things alone, too. I get it. My friends...well, Baymax especially, helped me back there.

Is there ever going to be a time it's okay to do these things myself?

What do you think?

[ He's not teasing, he's not mocking. It's an honest question, and his expression is open, serious. ]

...I think that by the time there is a time I can do these things myself I probably won't want to anymore. [He glances up at Yu again, smiling softly.] Just give me time to really get used to it, okay?

[ Yu's expression softens, something that isn't quite a smile, but partway there. He's satisfied that Hiro has found his own answer. ]

Yeah.

[ And he'll be there to back him up in the meantime, too. That goes without saying, and he knows Hiro knows that by now. ]

Edited 2016-02-02 02:48 (UTC)

Thank you. [...] Sorry for...sorta...crying all over you. [Yes he's highly embarrassed about that, forgive him senpai.]

Hiro, you don't have to apologize about that.

[ Now he's a little more serious again, his brow knit over a thoughtful look. (Besides, he's used to it. A lot of people do that to him.)

A beat. ]

Though, I guess you could buy me a new shirt if you really felt terrible.

[ ?????????????? ]

[This is Hiro's hand. This is Hiro's hand pushing at Yu's face even if he's grinning lightly.]

Shut up, get Minato to buy you a new shirt. [He looks up from under his bangs, expression pinched into something a little more solemn.] It's just...I don't know. I'm usually better at keeping stuff together? I didn't even cry at Tadashi's funeral. [Though that's probably due to being still in shock more than anything.] I kinda feel like since coming here everything's been really crazy.

Everyone needs to let go, sometimes. Like I said, you don't need to apologize about that. Cerealia is the kind of place that pushes everyone to their limits.

[ He should know. ]

Then we've gotta push right back. That's what I'm gonna do...[Pause.] What we're gonna do.

[He untangles his limbs from the bench, picking up the onigiri that had been neglected.] ...do you mind if I take these with me?

Go right ahead.

[ He's happy Hiro's recovered his appetite enough to even ask. He can always make more. ]

Thanks. For everything, I mean. [Awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.] Ready to head back?

Anytime, Hiro. [ He gets to his feet. ] Let's go.

Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

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