The wonder of the audience knows no bounds as a sea of microbots swims across the show floor. You can feel the audience’s held breaths in the stagnance of the air. A massive spiral staircase forms back on the stage, which slowly turns to reveal the kid behind the invention - Hiro Hamada.
You remember messing things up a lot more when you did the presentation. Everything happened the same, sure, but something about the combination of stress, sleepless nights, and pubescent hormones made the crowd’s enthusiasm feel much weaker- and each mistake much more severe. Somehow, not a single person in the crowd even seemed to notice that your fly was down for the whole show.
As Hiro takes a bow, the crowd’s stunned silence turns to rapturous applause. Aunt Cass, who is standing next to you, explodes with pride. “That’s my nephew!” she shouts ecstatically. She’s so proud. Just a couple of months ago, she was devastated that her ‘nephew’ had been wasting her talents on bot-fighting. Now, she was cheering in delight, proud of what she had become.
Tadashi runs up to the edge of the stage to praise his little bro. You instinctively chase after him, not wanting to spend a second separated. The two siblings immediately exchange a secret handshake you forgot the steps to years ago. Soon enough, you and the rest of Tadashi’s friends all flock to Hiro, showering her with praise. “Not bad,” you say, trying to sound enthusiastic without letting your mask of coolness slip.
You’ve already memorized the next part– Krei offers to buy the microbots, Callaghan talks you out of it, the rest of the gang goes out for dinner while you and Tadashi talk. As you see Callaghan walk up from behind, you briefly think about all of the destruction that’s going to occur because one man couldn’t let go. Then again, you aren’t exactly one to talk.
As you all walk out of the Student Center, you look at Hiro, proudly cradling her acceptance letter and realize that this was the happiest moment of her life. If she knew what was going to happen, would she still be so gleeful?
You wish you could tell Hiro everything– who we are, who we’re going to become, who we’re going to lose, what we’re going to gain. Sadly, that’s just not a path you’re capable of taking. If you tell her about the near future, then you, the rest of the team, and the millions of lives you saved all vanish. Instead, you just have to sit and watch you and your brother stand there, clueless to Tadashi’s upcoming oblivion.
“Aunt Cass?” says Tadashi. “We’ll uh… we’ll catch up, okay?”
It’s already happening. Tadashi’s already going to talk with Hiro. For one last moment, you and Tadashi exchange glances. You know, for the second time, this is the last you’ll ever see of him. You try to hide the soul-crushing guilt you feel behind an expression of ennui. Unfortunately, your lips can’t help but quiver at the thought of what’s about to occur.
As you and the rest of your friends convene around Aunt Cass’ car, the horrified screams begin to emanate from behind. “What was that?” asks a horrified Wasabi. You and your friends turn toward the blazing inferno that has engulfed the Student Center. Before anyone can answer, a massive explosion hits your ears from the same direction. “Oh my God,” Aunt Cass whispers under her breath. “The kids!” Immediately, she hops out of the car and charges towards the burning building, too worried about Hiro and Tadashi to consider her own safety. You follow close behind her, desperate to make sure Aunt Cass doesn’t meet the same fate as Tadashi.
When you arrive, you don’t see Tadashi, you just see Hiro.
No, that isn’t quite right.
When you arrive, you don’t see Tadashi, you just see you, staring in horror at the aftermath of the explosion that just killed your brother.
Why did you do this to yourself? You went back in time, disguised as a stranger, and became one of your brother’s closest friends, risking complete annihilation via temporal paradox, and for what? So you could feel the same heartbreak you did at fourteen again? Surprise, Surprise; watching your brother die hurts just as much the second time as it did the first. You feel devastated, you feel heartbroken, but most of all, you feel stupid.
At the same time, you feel a strange sense of finality. You knew that Tadashi was going to die for a very long time– at the very least, you got to spend eight more months with him. Not only that, you finally got a chance to show Tadashi the real you, in your own strange way. You also got to know Tadashi better– there were so many things about Tadashi that you never knew about him that you finally got to appreciate.
You look at yourself one last time, before sitting down next to her and hugging as tightly as possible. Seconds ago, her world shattered into a million pieces. As you lay there next to her, you realize that it’s your job to help her put it back together again. After, all it’s like Tadashi said– “Someone has to help.”