Juu Roku: Ban'nin No Namida

Sixteen: A Million Tears

As Hiro had learned in the past month, nightmares weren't always easy to deal with. Some were, he knew, as they only appeared for one night only and then went somewhere else the next day. But for others, however, they appeared on a regular basis, due to things like chronic stress. However, Hiro didn't have anything like that, that he knew for a fact. So why were nightmares targeting him? He just had another one last night, and was trying to play it off, but how could he play off a nightmare about his brother dying in a fire once again?

If it were just once, he could live with it, without question, but these were too frequent. Something had to be wrong with him, he just couldn't pinpoint what it was. Aside from the nightmares, he also couldn't shake that weird feeling he got from that strange customer that came into the café a week ago. The mysterious way he wore his hat as if he didn't want anyone to see his face, and the fact that he ordered Tadashi's favorite. That last part was probably just a coincidence, but for some reason, Hiro wasn't so sure.

Things had been so weird lately, he didn't know what to do anymore, really. He had told Tadashi about the strange customer once, but he just rode it off, saying it was just a coincidence. He was probably right, but Hiro couldn't know for sure. All he knew was that something strange was going on, and he had to get to the bottom of it, if he ever wished to return to his normal life.

Looking out his bedroom window and pondering the meaning of life most certainly was not a fun way to pass the time, but what could he do? His brother, his aunt, and Baymax had all forced him to take a break from his work. That's right, he still had his Microbots that he needed to work on, so he couldn't afford to be wasting his time with nightmares. Unfortunately for him, however, he couldn't chose when they happened.

This was getting too stressful for Hiro to even think about. He wished that something besides his work would come up and distract him, but nothing did. He only had a few months to continue working before the showcase if he wanted to get into SFIT. This wasn't going to be easy, he knew, but he had to pull through somehow. Well, it's not like he would be going to sleep soon, so he might as well catch up on some video games or something.

He was right in the middle of defeating the region's Champion, when he had started feeling ready to drift off. Fighting it, Hiro called out his Empoleon and continue to battle. Things would never be that easy, however, and right as he dodged the opponent's attack, he felt like falling asleep again. It was frustrating to have to deal with this on a daily basis. If he stalled long enough, maybe he could reach the point where he was too tired to have dreams.

That happened quite often lately, and it was incredibly convenient. Well, for him at least, but it wasn't for anyone who would force him to take a break after they knew he had been working for too long. It wasn't until after he had beaten the Champion, that he actually fell asleep.

When Hiro later awoke, he considered himself lucky to find that he had not had a single nightmare since he fell asleep. The thing was, however, he had slept so long that the sky had turned dark and the stars had come out. He had been asleep a few hours and it made sense why no one came to wake him. Standing up, Hiro walked over to the window to see just how dark the sky was and determine just how long he had been out for it, without looking at the alarm clock.

His room was on the second story, so he got a pretty good view of the world below him. As he was looking at the stars in the sky, he couldn't help but notice something strange in the distance. It wasn't a star, exactly, but he could definitely see something glinting on the roof of the building across the street. That building about the size of the Lucky Cat, so it was almost even. Looking further, Hiro found that the glinting actually came from what looked to be a pair of binoculars.

Looking closer, he also made out the shadow of a person. The person was staring right at him, holding binoculars. And just like that, Hiro shut the curtain and dove back into his bed. Now, Hiro especially didn't know what to think. Who was that person, and why were they watching him? Could this possibly have anything to do with that person who entered the café the other day? What was really going on? Now on top of his project and nightmares, he had someone stalking him. If that wasn't saying that something was seriously wrong, he didn't know what would.

Tadashi came back after another minute and found Hiro awake, playing his video games. "Oh, you're awake."

Hiro, never looking up from his game, agreed. "Yeah, I've been awake for a while now."

Tadashi only nodded at that and picked up a schoolbook he had to study with. How could Hiro tell his brother that someone was stalking him? Well first of all, he didn't know if the person was actually a stalker. It could have been someone who was just sightseeing on the roof at night, who just happened to focus on Hiro when he opened his window.

He didn't have any proof that person was a stalker, so he couldn't know for sure. But somehow, he felt that the person was watching him. He just knew it. He couldn't tell anyone though, unless he at least had some proof.

Oh well, that could wait, but first he had to finish the battle he was currently on. A couple of crushing defeats for the opponents later, and Hiro was already feeling hungry. So he gave up that last battle and walked into the kitchen.