HOME SWEET HOME

Having spent the rest of his eventful first day out skating around, Maru made his way back home. Thankfully, no other villain incidents happened. He lived in fairly secure area with a lot of privacy. Only a few homes were located in the area and though not ridiculously luxurious, they had large outdoor and indoor spaces. This alone said a lot about his family's financial situation. Home was a decently-sized Japanese-style two story house. Despite the house's traditional extrerior, it's interior had a variety of modern amenities added in with an open plan concept for the main kitchen and lounge connected to the outdoor wrap-around deck. This connected the fairly vast outdoors to the interior. Leaving his shoes and skateboard to the side in the engawa, Maru dashed into the kitchen.

Adachi Ran glanced up at her son's loud stomping feet to see him dash into the kitchen going straight for the fridge. She couldn't help the slight tilt up of her lips as she reprimanded her son.

"No running in the house"

"Oh, sorry mom! I didn't see you there. My stomach's about to flip over," Adachi Maru replied as he guzzled down a packet of yoghurt he'd fished out from the fridge.

"I thought you were having lunch at that noodle shop you and your dad loved?"

At her comment, she watched her peppy son go from bright and jumpy to a crestfallen moody teenager. She really couldn't let him hear her snicker or he'd go all emo pretending that feelings are for losers. He got it from his father, the unorthodox flare for drama, overexaggerating every little thing despite spending a large majority of their life in the military.

Adachi Ran was military doctor who worked with her husband, also a military doctor, back at the training facility in the mountains. They both had basic military training with her husband dabbling in tactics assisting in the development strategies for the missions the recruits took on. Perhaps it was due to the strict and formal way of life there that they had such dramatic ways of expressing themselves. She didn't mind, it was quite cute and amusing in her eyes. They didn't need to know that though.

Flopping onto the bar stool at the kitchen island, Maru begun his horrid tale of missing noodles, immortal chefs and the meaning of life. Ran faced her son as she listened and couldn't help but puff her chest out at what a cutie he turned out to be. Around 168cm (5ft 5in.) tall, Maru was on the taller side for his age group. His facial features were smooth and still slightly rounded due to his age. For a child raised in the snowy mountain, his skin was far from pale. The healthy tone of his skin with a hint of pink on his cheeks often tempted her to pinch his cheeks. Something he always tried to wiggle away from. What made it impossible for him to completely blend in the crowd was his silver white hair matched with his slate grey eyes that bordered on blue. It was a mix of her and her husbands eye color, but the hair was all her. Something she sometimes bragged about. The soft locks were often messily held in a small bun, just barely. It was a wonder how such soft tresses were always in such a chaotic mess. How could such soft hair never be so hard to hold back (and stay back) without copious amounts of gel. She had tried. Both him and his father kept their hair long, despite his being a rich caramel brown. Something fairly common in winter regions.

Her husband, Adachi Haru, loved war games and often came up with odd maneuvers that didn't follow any clearly known method of execution. To most they looked childish and borderline impossible, but that wasn't always the case. He occasionally got the chance to attempt them during battle simulations at the training facility and the results always shocked the entire barracks. It would either be an unexpected success that made the core authority in the facility stunned. More often, the result was completely ridiculous that even those involved in the exercise would be left in stitches. Haru's favourite weapon of choice was his son. He had naturally received training since young similar to recruits but at an intensity suitable for a child. Parents so deeply involved with the military naturally had some benefits. Her husband loved the unlikely hero. Unexpected outcomes from 'the little guy'. There's no way he would have missed out on using his very own, original, 'little guy' in the simulations. He never gave Maru more than he could handle and the boy was always underestimated by those unfamiliar with him. As a result, Maru was fit. Not bulky or incredibly flexible but right in the middle with a lithe physic suitable for high intensity mobility movement.

Looking at her adorable little snowflake dressed casually in camel brown cargo pants, a black shirt and red plaid fleece jacket, Ran's smile widened as she reached…

"That's when the villain jumped out of the building. Well, not really jumped out more like crashed out of it. Honestly, I couldn't believe my luck. First, my favorite restaurant is gone, then some brain-dead behemoth thinks I walk around with gold in my pants. Like, dude, what the..."

"What?"

It was said in an icy cold voice that made Maru freeze mid-sentence. He couldn't help the chill that crawled up his spine as he looked anywhere but directly at his mother.

"Could you repeat that dear?"

It wasn't said like a question. He kinda wanted to point that out but knew better than to give in to all his whims. Especially with his mother's tone. He slowly narrated the story, leaving out any threats to his life highlighting his almost immediate rescue and downplaying any possible attacks that could have happened. They never happened anyway. But what mother doesn't know her child. Ran pursed her lips, silently inspecting his appearance. Noting no injuries or discomfort in his movement, her posture slightly eased. Slightly. She needed to check the police report on the incident. As well as confirm the state of the villain. Maybe add a scar or two due to his 'quick takedown'. It would definitely cause problems but what were friend for, she thought with a chilling smile. One that made Maru quickly look away convinced that yes, he was still a little boy.

Can't even look mom in the face. Well, dad can't either.

That gave him some measure of comfort.

His parents were very calm and normal in the eyes of others. Others that didn't know them. In his eyes, 'eccentric' was putting it mildly. Adachi Haru, his father and Himura Ran married early. It wasn't something particularly uncommon. They met in the military and a mix of circumstances brought them together and they tied the knot. Haru was 23 at the time while Ran was 20. A few years later, they had Maru and shortly after, while he was 5, they moved to the mountains. They had been planning to move back to Musutafu for a while but Ran's recent pregnancy made them accelerate the process opting to have their child in their hometown. The move led to Maru applying to go to UA rather than continuing with the local school.

This is not to say that he had to go to UA or that it was an easy school to apply to. It didn't even mean he was particularly passionate about being a hero. Living in the military, he had been exposed to a lot more than a regular child. He was fully aware that most fields were neither a clear nor transparent pool. It was often deep, and the deeper you go the darker it gets. Not to discredit the good but he was never blind to the bad or the messy grey area of the compromises made in between. That's what made UA so attractive. Arguably the best hero school in Japan with the track record to prove it. Known for it's diverse teaching methods left almost entirely to the teacher's whims. He couldn't wait to find out what it truly was like.