Chapter Text
Not for the first time, an argument broke out over breakfast in the Hamada household.
“A sword? Seriously?!”
Hiro had barely entered the kitchen rubbing the sleep from his eyes when Aunt Cass shouted at him. A sword made out of a slab of black rock lay unwrapped on the table. Hiro paused to stare, and then yawned.
“Whoops, guess King Edmund didn’t get the message in time.”
“It’s not funny, Hiro,” said Aunt Cass, putting her hands on her hips and glaring. “Even if we can’t send it back – I mean, it’d be rude to turn down a gift from royalty – I still can’t let you have it.”
“Aw, Aunt Caaaaass –”
“I’m sorry, Hiro, but it’s going into storage with everything else.”
Cass scooped up the sword and carried it into her room while Hiro sighed begrudgingly, flopped into a chair, and helped himself to some bacon. Ever since he came home for the summer, Aunt Cass had treated him like a priceless vase she didn’t want to break, all because Hiro wasn’t a normal boy. As a matter of fact, he was as NOT normal as it was possible to be.
Hiro Hamada was an enchanter fresh off his first year at the Magic Kingdom Academy. If Aunt Cass was happy to have Hiro home for vacation, then the feeling wasn’t exactly what you’d call mutual.
He missed the Magic Kingdom so much that it was like having a constant stomach ache. He missed the castle with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes (though perhaps not music class with Professor Owl, or the Transformation teacher, Lilith), the mail arriving by sentient airplane, eating banquets in the Great Hall, sleeping in his four-poster bed in his tower dormitory, visiting the groundskeeper Ralph in his cottage next to the Forest of No Return, and especially Questing, the best sport in the world.
Things started out all right when Hiro had returned to his aunt’s; he was happy to spend time with her after having unintentionally forgotten to contact her for so long, and to share all he could about his school days…well, almost everything. While most of his first year at the Magic Kingdom had been fun, there were quite a few moments where he came uncomfortably close to danger. Zhan Tiri, a demon that was part of the group responsible for murdering Hiro’s parents – a group led by the devious enchantress Maleficent, known to many as the Mistress of All Evil – had possessed and manipulated one of his friends into nearly killing him several times before facing him herself. Hiro managed to destroy her by bringing together the powerful Sundrop and deadly Moonstone, but it had been a narrow victory. Even now, weeks later, he kept waking up in a cold sweat, wondering if any more of Maleficent’s sycophants would be coming for him.
Hiro was determined to not let Aunt Cass know about any of this. At the age of one, he had survived a curse from Maleficent with nothing but a mess of thorny scars and a strange black mark on his arm. Somehow – nobody knew why – Maleficent’s powers had been destroyed the instant she failed to kill him, and all the magical worlds that were hidden for ages were exposed and integrated across the globe. That was why Hiro was raised by his dead father’s sister. He had spent ten years with Aunt Cass, never understanding why he kept making odd things happen without meaning to, or why she was so eager to keep him away from anything unusual, believing her story that he got his scars from the car crash that killed his parents.
And then, exactly a year ago, Hiro received a letter from the Magic Kingdom, and the whole story came out. Hiro took his place at school, where he and his scars were famous and he didn’t feel so out of place.
But now that year was over, and he was back in the relatively normal city of San Fransokyo, with a loving but overprotective aunt who’d happily enroll him in an ordinary school to keep the last of her family safe. So, Hiro omitted the dangers caused by Zhan Tiri when relaying his adventures at the Magic Kingdom.
Not long after returning home, however, he and Aunt Cass woke up one morning to find a procession of delegates from the kingdom of Corona waiting for them outside their door. They walked down a purple carpet heralded by a troupe of trumpeters. The most pompous-looking of the lot unfurled a scroll and read it loud enough for the whole street to hear (which caused quite a few people to stumble to their doors to see what the racket was about):
“Master Hiro Hamada, in recognition of your gallantry in the face of danger –”
Hiro coughed loudly, hoping to drown out his voice.
“For your bravery and dedication in overcoming the deadly trials deep within the bowels of the Magic Kingdom –”
Hiro made a slashing motion across his neck, but the man continued.
“And for your valiant defeat of the loathsome demon Zhan Tiri, who would have doomed the Magic Kingdom and the world if not for your cunning and courage –”
“H-he’s just exaggerating!” Hiro choked out with a desperate grin to Aunt Cass, whom he noticed was slowly turning green with each word.
“ – we present to you, on behalf of King Frederic, Queen Ariana, Princess Rapunzel, and Prince Consort Eugene Fitzherbert, the royal seal of Corona and the honorary title of Protector of the Realm!”
The trumpeters blasted a few more cacophonous notes while the rest of the ensemble threw confetti and the pompous fellow draped a large medallion around a mortified Hiro’s neck. When Hiro turned to Aunt Cass, her jaw had dropped so far it could have unhinged.
Once Hiro was forced to come clean and the delegates were sent on their way (partially due to Aunt Cass threatening them with a rolling pin), she had immediately put all of his books, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-line flight armor into storage. What did it matter that he had saved the world a second time? What did she care if Hiro lost his place on the house Questing team because he hadn’t practiced all summer? What was it to her if he went back to school without any of his assignments done? Aunt Cass wasn’t born with magic, but because of how it took away her family, it was difficult to convince her that it was anything other than dangerous. She insisted what she was doing was the only way to keep him out of trouble as long as he was under her roof.
The only reason she hadn’t gone after Baymax, Hiro’s robot companion, was because of the help he provided around the house and at her café, The Lucky Cat. Hiro’s mother and father created Baymax to look after him before they died, and apart from a special invisibility helmet that had belonged to his mother and a photo album Ralph gave him at the end of last term, he was all Hiro had to remember them by.
Between her café duties and “protecting” Hiro, Aunt Cass hadn’t even remembered that today was his twelfth birthday. Hiro’s hopes were usually high since she spoiled him rotten every year, but after everything that had happened, he’d be lucky if she gave him a card; she was probably worried he’d get a paper cut and somehow bleed to death.
At that moment, Aunt Cass returned and said, “So Hiro, we both know today is a very important day…”
Hiro looked up, hardly daring to believe it.
“We’ve got a big night ahead of us!”
Hiro went back to his toast.
‘Of course,’ he thought bitterly. ‘ Aunt Cass is talking about that stupid dinner party.’
She had spoken of almost nothing else for the past week and a half. Some fancy so-and-so had rented out the café for a private event, and Aunt Cass had roped Hiro into playing waiter for the evening.
“Let’s go over the schedule one more time,” said Aunt Cass. “We should be downstairs ready to open the café before seven. I open the doors, you grab the first plate of hors d’oeuvres and offer them to the guests as they mingle.”
“I gotcha,” Hiro said half-heartedly. He got out of his seat and presented his empty plate to invisible partygoers, speaking in a grandiose voice. “Good evening, madam, you look ravishing. Mr. Flibbertigibbet, I saw you on the evening news; do enjoy the cocktail weenies, they’re imported. Why Senator, didn’t you get subpoenaed last week –”
“All right, Hiro, very funny. You can stop now,” Aunt Cass said in an annoyed tone. “Look, just be polite and head back to the kitchen for more whenever the platter’s empty. The party should be over by ten. Oh, that reminds me, I’ve gotta pick up extra cherries for the cake!”
“Hey Aunt Cass, aren’t you forgetting something?” Hiro called to her as she headed for the stairs. She froze.
“Oh! You’re right…” she said, slowly pivoting back. “…My keys, thanks!” Aunt Cass snatched them off the wall and hurried downstairs.
Hiro sighed and loped back up to his room. It felt more like a prison than usual, so he opened the window and climbed out onto the fire escape. He slumped down on the landing, his legs dangling between the bars, and sang under his breath, “Happy birthday…it’s Hiro’s birthday…happy, happy birthday to me…”
No cards, no presents, no phone calls, and he’d be spending the whole evening waiting on a bunch of hoity-toity snobs. He had never felt so lonely. More than anything else at the Magic Kingdom, even more than Questing, Hiro missed his friends – most of all, he missed the first three friends he had ever made: Peter Pan, Wendy Darling, and Arthur “Wart” Pendragon. They, however, didn’t seem to miss him at all. None of them had reached out to him all summer, even though Peter had said he was going to ask Hiro to come and stay with him.
Countless times, Hiro had been on the point of breaking into Cass’ storage unit with Baymax and flying off to see them, but it wasn’t worth the risk. There were strict laws about the magic underage enchanters could and couldn’t use outside of school. For the first couple of weeks back, he had enjoyed showing off some of what he learned to Aunt Cass: small spells to move tiny objects, simple ones to make a watermelon become a vehicle for their cat Mochi that changed back at midnight. Those had been lots of fun. But the long silence from Wendy, Wart and Peter, and even from his friends with easier access to technology such as Anne Boonchuy or Milo Murphy, made Hiro feel so cut off from the Magic Kingdom that even that had lost its appeal – and now they had all forgotten his birthday.
What wouldn’t he give now for a message from school? From anyone? He’d almost be glad to see his arch-enemy, Kay, just to be sure it hadn’t all been a dream…
Hiro suddenly sat bolt upright. He had been staring absentmindedly into the window boxes of the building across the way – and something in the flowers was staring back . Two enormous yellow eyes were watching him between the clumps of begonias.
“Hiro, I’m home!” came Aunt Cass’ voice from downstairs.
Hiro instinctively turned around. When he looked at the flowers again, the eyes had vanished.
Aunt Cass kept Hiro busy the rest of the morning, cleaning up the apartment and making sure he was presentable. After twelve years, his black hair was still an untamable mess, but he did his best. Aunt Cass refused to let him into the café the entire day, claiming preparations were too chaotic downstairs and it was best he didn’t get underfoot. Now, with the afternoon to himself, he spent his time attempting to beat a particularly hard video game level. Frustrated with his lack of progress, he tried to reach Anne through one of her many social media accounts, but none of his messages seemed to go through. There was nothing wrong with the wi-fi, and there were no updates or bugs that he could easily work through. He was supposed to be a tech genius yet he couldn’t figure it out. What was going on?
As evening fell, Aunt Cass rushed about prepping herself and the last bit of dessert.
“Put down those wings, mister!” she said without turning around from the cake she was putting the finishing touches on. “You can eat later.”
Hiro had long ago stopped trying to figure out how Aunt Cass knew whenever he tried to sneak off with some food. His stomach rumbled, but he put down his plate.
“I laid some clothes out for you on your bed. Get changed and come downstairs quickly!” She ran off to the bathroom to finish her makeup.
Hiro was ready to stomp up the stairs as noisily as possible just to spite her when he heard a tiny voice from above –
“Yes, yes Francois! This domain shall be a worthy addition to my empire. You! Plastic minion! Bow to me!”
Someone was in his room.
Trying to recall his martial arts training, Hiro steeled himself, then leaped over the remaining stairs and landed in his room in a fighting stance - which in no way prepared him for what he saw standing on his bed.