BH6 chapter 2

Chapter 2

Later that night, pre Hiro's needing his help to finish with the setup for the big presentation, Tadashi wandered over to the stage where the other SFIT hopefuls were presenting to scope out the competition. He smiled as he heard a familiar name being called and saw Emi make her way onto the stage. Looking forward to a good show, he crossed his arms over his chest and settled back to watch. Emi approached the stage and gripped her watch in her hand. She calmed herself and smiled. "I'm Emi Amaya." she introduced then held out her watch. "This is my project. It may look like a pocket watch but it is so much more." She heard a judge say they had left their pen in a room on the other side of the building and smiled. Next thing they knew she was offering the said pen to the judge. "Is this it?" she asked and they nodded. She handed it over. She soon finished her demonstration.

As soon as she's done, Tadashi started clapping and cheering. It earned him a few weirded out looks from the people directly around him, but hey, he wanted to let Emi know what an awesome job she'd done! Several others clapped as well. They were amazed by her invention. Emi smiled as she noticed Tadashi. She came over to him afterwards. "Hi again." she said, still smiling. "Hey!" he responded with a grin. "You did awesome up there! I think you really wowed the judges." "Thanks. I was a little worried it would malfunction but it didn't so that's good. Has your brother gone yet?" she asked curiously. "Not yet," Tadashi agreed with a slight smile. "He's getting ready to go on fairly soon, and he's a little bit nervous." "I understand that. Could I meet him?" she asked with a smile. "Sure, I'm sure he'd love to meet you!" Tadashi agreed, motioning for her to follow him. "Come on, he's back this way." Emi trailed after him, smiling. Her pocket watch laid soundly in her pocket.

Back behind the stage, Tadashi found Hiro standing by himself, muttering to himself and trying to practice his speech, although obviously the nerves were getting to him. "Hey, little bro," Tadashi said, softly tapping him on the shoulder. Hiro flinched slightly at the sudden contact and then turned back to look at him with eyes full of worry. Now Tadashi's definitely glad that he'd brought Emi back to meet him-the poor kiddo's psyching himself. "Hiro, I'd like you to meet Emi," he told his little brother, gently pushing the boy forward. "She's also an applicant to SFIT. Emi, this is Hiro, my otouto." "It's nice to meet you Hiro." Emi said with a smile. She could tell the poor boy was nervous. "I'm sure you'll do great." she said. "T-thanks," Hiro stammered, still not looking fully convinced but at least attempting to smile. "Maybe you could show him your project," Tadashi suggested, thinking that maybe getting his mind off of his fear would help.

"Of course." she replied and reached in her pocket and pulled out her watch. "This is my project. It still has a couple of kinks but works the way I wanted it too." "A...watch?" Hiro looked slightly confused. "Um, sorry, not to be rude but...haven't they already invented those?" Emi simply grinned. "Yes. They have. But it is much more than a watch. See those bottles of water on the other side of the room? I'll be back with on in a moment." she said, turning a knob on the watch and before they could blink she was offering Hiro a bottle. "See?" "WHOA!" Hiro looked vaguely freaked out for moment and then started grinning like crazy. "How'd you do that?" She grinned. "The watch speeds up the users molecules by turning this knob, then this one slows the molecules around it down. The third one has a few kinks in it while the last one resets everything." she said. "S-seriously?!" Hiro's eyes went wide. "That is SICK!"

She grinned. "It took a long time to build and get to work successfully." she said. "I'll bet!" Hiro stared down at in slight awe, as if still unsure as to how to react to the piece of tech. Emi grinned. "And next up for our presenters is Hiro Hamada!" the announcer calls from the stage. "Oh my gosh!" Hiro squeaked, honestly looking like he's about to pass out. "Hey, calm down!" Tadashi coached him, putting a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder. "Just breathe-you're going to be fine!" Emi agreed. "You'll do great Hiro. Once you get going you won't even feel nervous anymore. Trust me." She replied with a smile. Hiro nodded, giving them as confident a smile as he could, and then headed toward the stage. "Care to come watch with me?" Tadashi asked, turning to Emi as he prepared to go find a spot where he can watch his brother's presentation from. She smiled. "Sure." She replied. "All right then, let's go!" Tadashi gestured for her to go on ahead of him. "Ladies first." She smiled and headed to the stage.

Tadashi followed her and waved to Aunt Cass as he saw her a little ways away. She waved back and came over too. Emi smiled. A few of Tadashi's other friends from the lab gathered around to watch Hiro's performance. Tadashi grinned slightly as Honey Lemon appeared on his left. "Hey," he greeted her softly, leaning down to kiss her gently on her cheek. "Hi!" Honey responded, blushing slightly but looking thrilled by the attention. "Oh, Emi, let me introduce you," Tadashi said, turning back to look at the other girl. "This is Honey Lemon, my best friend and the girl who, for reasons I cannot fathom, agreed to start dating me. Honey, this is Emi-she's the one who lent me the duct tape for Hiro earlier." "Oh, hi!" Honey greeted Emi with an enthusiastic wave and a grin. "It's nice to meet you!" Emi grinned. "It's nice to meet you too!" she said with a smile. Emi couldn't help but feel happy and excited as she was around honey lemon. "Oh, look, Hiro's coming up on stage," Tadashi said, eagerly pointing as the younger Hamada steps onto the platform. "Aw, he looks so nervous!" Honey said with a sympathetic smile. Emi smiled softly. "If he wants in, he needs to have confident in himself." she said, watching.

Tadashi watched his little brother with rapt attention, even gesturing for the little boy to remember to breathe when he started to choke up initially. Somehow that did the trick, and Hiro managed to not only regain his confidence, but to put on a completely show-stopping presentation. "Yes!" Tadashi cheered quietly when it came to an end, a huge grin on his face. "He totally aced it! There's no way he's not getting in now." Emi nodded with a grin in agreement. "Come on, let's go see how he's doing!" Tadashi said, racing off before the others even have a chance to respond. Emi used her watch appearing near Hiro but tried not to startle him. She ran normal the rest of the way. "Hiro! You did such a good job!" she said as she came up. "You bet he did a great job!" Tadashi cried, scooping his little bro up into a bear hug. "Hiro, you were flat out amazing!" "T-thanks..." Hiro blushed at the attention, although he didn't appear to be averse to it. Emi grinned. "After a performance like that, you have to get in!" she said excitedly. "He certainly is." The trio jumped slightly at the sound of another voice. "P-Professor Callaghan!" Tadashi cried as soon as he saw his mentor making his way towards them.

Emi turned and looked at him. Krei had seen the demonstration and was highly impressed. "Both of you did outstanding jobs tonight," the professor told both Emi and Hiro. He held out two envelopes. "I would be more than honored to have both of you in my program this fall." "Are-are you serious?" Hiro gasped, his eyes going wide as he took the envelope. Emi grinned as she took the envelope. "Thank you!" she said gratefully, holding it in her hand. "Oh my gosh, this is going to be so awesome!" Tadashi cried, pulling them both into a hug. "I can't believe that we're all going to be going here together!" Emi embraced the hug willingly. She grinned. "I know! It's going to be awesome!" she replied with a grin. "Totally!" Hiro agreed. Professor Callaghan chuckled at their enthusiasm, but he watched the three of them with a pleased sort of grin. "Thank you again professor!" she said, with a smile. Krei walked over. "Those were some amazing performances you two did." he said. "Thank you." Emi replied, politely. "T-thank you!" Hiro stammered, his eyes going wide with obvious star-struckness as he saw the famed figure of the modern robotics industry.

Callaghan's face, on the other hand, darkened, and even Tadashi couldn't help but keep a slight scowl off of his face-as one of the few people to know the truth about what had happened to Callaghan's daughter (who had once been one of his closest friends), he couldn't help but be suspicious of what the business tycoon might be up to. "What do you want, Krei?" Callaghan demanded in a low tone that meant business. "I would like to buy you're microbots and mass produce them. They could help a lot of people." he said to Hiro. Emi noticed Callahan and Tadashi's moods change and glanced at Hiro. "May I see one?" Krei asked. "U-um, s-sure," Hiro answered, handing over one of the tiny black bots. Krei looked it over. "Interesting. These could help a lot of people. You could become rich!" he told Hiro. Emi watched unsure. "Money isn't everything," Callaghan shot back before Hiro could respond. "There are things like trying to advance your technology just for the purpose of advancing it and helping other instead of just trying to make a quick profit, regardless of the consequences." He gave Krei a death glare. "Not that some people would know anything about that!" "That was an accident. Besides, it's the kid's choice." he said. Hiro looked uncertainly between the two bickering adults, unsure of what to do. He started to slowly back away, only to find himself backing right up into Tadashi.

"It's okay, otouto," Tadashi whispered, gently caressing the younger boy's shoulders. "You don't have to feel pressured into anything." "But what should I do?!" Hiro asked, looking up at his older brother with wide eyes. "Well..." Tadashi bit his lip, seeing that his otouto was extremely confused. "I don't want to tell you exactly what to do... but I really can't say that I trust Krei. At. All." "Well then, I'm not going to either," Hiro said, appearing slightly relieved. He turned back toward the two arguing adults. "I'm sorry Mr. Krei, but I'm going to have to turn down your offer. I want to stay right here-with my niisan." He smiled up at Tadashi, and Tadashi grinned right back. Krei looked a little surprised but nodded and started to walk off. Emi noticed the microbot and tapped Tadashi's shoulder. "The microbot." She whispered. Tadashi's eyes went wide and he nodded his thanks to Emi for pointing that out. "Mr. Krei!" he called. Krei stopped and turned to Tadashi. Emi watched. "I think that you have something that belongs to my brother," Tadashi answered, his usual mellow voice taking on a slight edge that meant business as he puts out his hand for the almost stolen microbot.

Krei realized he still had the microbots and came forward and gently tossed it into Tadashi hand. "Oh, yes. Sorry about that." then turned to Hiro. "Just look me up if you ever change your mind." then he left. Emi looked at Tadashi. "Well, looks like everything ended well," Tadashi said with a slight sigh of contentment, putting an arm around both Hiro and Emi. "And, best of all, we're all going to be here together this semester!" "YEAH!" Hiro cheered enthusiastically. "Yes, that will be...wonderful," Callaghan agreed with a funny sort of smile. "Well, children, I must be going. I have something to...attend to. Enjoy your celebration." Without any further explanation, he nodded to them and walked off. Emi smiled at Tadashi and Hiro and watched Callahan leave. Aunt Cass was saying something about celebrating at the cafe.

"Hey, there's someplace I'd like to take you both," Tadashi whispered, putting an arm around Emi and Hiro. "You guys got a minute?" She nodded. "Yeah." "Cool," Hiro agreed with a slight grin. "All right then!" Tadashi went over to Aunt Cass and told her that the three of them are going off on their own for a little bit, and then led the other two to an observation deck a little ways away from the observation hall. "Best view on campus," he explained with a slight grin, inviting them to come join him at the balcony. Emi smiled and walked at there with him. "It's beautiful." she said. She realized she had left her bag and stuff inside. "I'll be right back. I left my bag inside." she said and quickly left to get it. She walked inside gathered everything and placed it all in her bag.