"Why?" Tadashi asked. He was sitting against the wall of the van, on a small crate, in the back. A big man named Tatsuo was in the driver's seat and Kono was in the passenger's seat. Tatsuo had only driven them across the street from the burning school, but then he parked suddenly. Tatsuo and Kono were carrying on a conversation in the front of the car, while the taller girl and the shorter girl were in the back of the van with Tadashi. He knew he should try to escape, but he knew that the two girls could beat him senseless if he even tried. They were supposed to be watching him, but they were just talking to each other. Or, they were talking until Tadashi interrupted their conversation.
The shorter girl cocked her head. "Why what?"
"Why are you kidnapping me? You know, my brother probably thinks I'm dead."
"You have a brother?" The shorter girl looked up at the taller girl.
"Yeah, I have a brother. Just like you have a sister." Both girls looked at him. "Yeah, I can tell you guys are sisters. It's pretty easy to tell."
"Oh, yeah. Everyone says we look alike," the shorter girl said, resting her head on the other girl's shoulder.
"Let me ask you something," Tadashi said, leaning forward slightly. "If one of you thought the other was dead, how would you react?"
The taller girl put an arm around the smaller one.
"Yeah, it wouldn't feel that good," Tadashi said. "Do you feel right making a 14-year-old boy feel that way?"
Silently, they both shook their heads. They both looked uneasy.
"But," the taller girl said, "that's Kono's decision. She's the leader."
"You just let her boss you around?" Tadashi asked.
The taller girl gave him an odd look. "Of course I let her. She's my sister. I could never lead the Fujitas anyway."
"The Fujitas?"
"Yeah, it's our group name," said the smaller girl. "Do you like it?"
Tadashi just glanced at her for a second, then looked at the taller girl again. "You let your little sister tell you what to do?"
"Yeah, but if your brother told you to do something, wouldn't you do it?"
"Depends on what it is."
"That sounds fair. Anyway, are you going to introduce yourself?"
"You've just kidnapped me, and you want me to introduce myself?"
Both girls nodded.
"Unbelievable."
The shorter girl opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted when someone's ringtone when off.
"It's Callaghan," Kono said, mostly to herself, then started talking into her phone intently for a few minutes. Then, she put her phone down and turned to Tatsuo. "Callaghan says to get moving, cuz' the police are going to come soon."
"So, why aren't we picking him up?" Tatsuo replied.
"He says that he found another way to get to headquarters."
"If you say so." Tatsuo started the van again and slid onto the road, driving away from the school which, as Tadashi peered out of the back window, looked like the fire had completely gone out. With a painful gasp, he realized that Aunt Cass and all his friends from school were gathered around Hiro. They must have seen the fire and came rushing back, only to hear that Tadashi had run into the fire and... Well, they would assume the worst.
YOU ARE READING
Be A Hero
Fanfiction"Someone has to help." Those were Tadashi's last words, the words that first go through Hiro's head in the morning, the last words he thinks of before he falls asleep, and every moment in between is spent remembering his brother, who died in a...
