Chapter Text
Tadashi went up to his room, saying he felt a little unwell after not eating dinner. Hiro and Baymax had already told Aunt Cass about Tadashi's sudden drop in blood pressure that day, so no one objected.
The first thing Tadashi did when he got to his room was stop for a moment to catch his breath. He had traveled through time.
Tadashi was now a time traveler.
If the calculations had been even slightly wrong, he could have been trapped in the infinite void like Callaghan's daughter. Of course, he didn't have a capsule, so he would probably have died in less than a few seconds.
When he woke up, the camera was gone, and he had gone back to exactly a few minutes after the scene he had photographed. Hiro had finished the microbots the day before the presentation—of course, he would leave it to the last minute—and was doing the second test of the robots at the presentation. Oh my God, if even one tiny thing went wrong, it would be a complete fiasco. Hiro would probably have social anxiety for the rest of his life. That day—that is, the next day—Hiro was quite calm compared to Tadashi. Tadashi had felt like he was going to faint, even dizzy, when he first went on stage, but Hiro didn't seem like that at all. Although, maybe Hiro had felt that way too, right? He never got a chance to ask him. A few minutes after starting a new life, Hiro...
Tadashi decided to make a to-do list. He pulled one of his locked notebooks from a locked drawer. Hiro could, of course, open these if he wanted to, but they had always respected each other's privacy, especially things like diaries. Tadashi had kept these kinds of diaries because Hiro had lost his parents when he was only four years old, and even Tadashi hadn't fully grasped it. He hadn't understood what had happened for a while. Four-year-old Hiro thought his parents had gone on an endless vacation and was angry at them for not taking him with them. Although Aunt Cass never said anything, he had heard from some relatives who came to the funeral that his parents had been assassinated. He doesn't remember any more details. Since he had no friends after that day, he started writing, and little Hiro was constantly either tearing up his notebooks or scribbling in them. That's why he had the habit of keeping his diaries in locked drawers and using locked notebooks.
Tadashi opened a new notebook and began writing the date. He had to archive things if he didn't want to relive the same mistakes. He shouldn't forget.
He shouldn't forget, or they would lie to his face again and again.
His first priority was to save Hiro. No matter what, neither he nor Hiro should go inside after the show. Aunt Cass had already had to go straight home after the presentation and had left them there to enjoy themselves.
Aunt Cass could barely stand during the funeral. She regretted so much not taking them home with her, especially the fact that her nephew's body hadn't even been found. Wait a second... Go Go had said Hiro had died from smoke inhalation, not burns. But Hiro's body had never been found? Had Go Go only said that to console her, or did she know something else? Maybe she had mistaken one of the bodies for Hiro. Tadashi wanted to bang his head against the wall. How could he have been so stupid, not seeing what was right in front of his eyes! He felt a warm liquid trickle down his chin as he gnawed at his lip.
- Tadashi, you're bleeding. Would you rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10?
Tadashi had another epiphany. He'd never brought Baymax home before the show, had he? What was Baymax doing here?
- I'm fine, Baymax. How did you get here?
Baymax would have been shocked if he wasn't a robot. Though the poor marshmallow-like robot still looked a little surprised.
- You brought me here because you fainted in your bathroom a few days ago, Tadashi. Talking to your friends might help your memory return. [Searching...]
- Baymax, no..!
It was too late; everyone had already answered the phone.
- Tadashi, is something wrong? Are you feeling dizzy? Short of breath? Nausea?!
He was the only one surprised by Honey Limon's sudden questioning. Even his other friends looked worried.
- No, I'm fine, don't worry. I'm not dead yet...
Tadashi said this in a playful tone, but the others still looked very worried.
- My friend, if something happened, you can tell me. We understand why you're hiding it from Hiro, but don't hide anything from me.
Since when had Fred been talking so seriously?
- No, really, nothing... Aunt Cass is calling, sorry, I have to go!
Then Tadashi hung up the phone abruptly.
- Mr. Max, why are you really here?
- You've been showing signs of a heart attack for a few days, Tadashi. When you fainted today, your heart actually stopped, but suddenly everything went back to normal. My database can't match it with anything.
Tadashi understood what had happened. The Tadashi of this time was dead.
Was it because he had gone back in time? Though, if the Tadashi of this time hadn't died, it could have been either consciousnesses forced to share the same body or a disembodied soul.
The butterfly effect had already begun.
When Tadashi realized this, he understood that other things would change as well. Therefore, he had to create a definite plan. He continued with his to-do list. Second priority was to find out what had happened to Karma. He owed her being here, so at least this time he should treat her well. At least he shouldn't disappoint her so much...
The other, and last, thing to do was stop Obake. He couldn't allow such a massacre to happen again. He would never forget the chaos in the street and the mutilated bodies he saw on the security cameras. What Obake had done was unforgivable.
His plan was ready, Tadashi was ready, but no one was ready for the butterfly effect that would follow...