Guess who's publishing another story with a questionable update schedule?

At least I'm kinda getting back into the fandom, while simultaneously being obsessed with Star Wars for the thousandth time.

Anyway, enjoy my dudes.

▬▬ι══════════════════════════════ι▬▬

Business-class seats on commercial jets were awesome, no discussion. The seats themselves were like sitting on freakin' clouds, the tray tables actually lived up to the name of 'table', and the food...

Ah, the food.

At the moment the plane was soaring through the darkening sky, a rather short boy with a head of dark curly hair was attempting to wrap noodles around a pair of chopsticks.

Specifically, a pair of chopsticks that he was holding in separate hands and glaring down at with scarlet eyes shining bright.

A muffled snicker sounded across from the young teenager, the source being a well-dressed man of average height, his straight black hair fashioned neatly. Akira Hayashi—or Hayashi Akira, if you wanted to get all technical about it—was a pretty important businessman for a worldwide travel agency, and just so happened to be the young teenager's dad. "You know, you're going to have to learn how to use chopsticks considering we are moving to Japan for the next three years."

Daniel Hayashi, known as just Danny to most, made sure to close his eyes before tipping his head back with a dramatic groan. He didn't really feel the burning urge to accidentally make eye contact with someone and have them try to jump out the emergency doors or something. That would suck. Oh, and he'd probably be charged for unintentional manslaughter if there wasn't anyone with a flight Quirk onboard. That, too. "Yeah, yeah, Tou-chan, I knoooowwww. Also, can't I just carry a fork around everywhere?"

"That's disgusting," his older brother commented, blue eyes that Danny had pretty much only seen in pictures—which were the same color as their dad's—presumably looking up from his phone. He brushed a wavy strand of hair out of his face, the overly dramatic motion easy to deduce through the sound his hoodie made moving through the air. "Please tell me you're at least gonna wash it."

Danny made a face, closing his eyes a little tighter to 'look' at the annoyingly taller Ignacio Hayashi. "Whaddya take me for, Nacho, un imbecile?"

"Yes," Ignacio replied flatly, the challenge clear in his tone. The sound of him shifting forward in his seat reached the curly-haired teenager's ears. He was probably lacing his fingers together like one of the villains from a cliché movie, the jerk. "Now then... what do I gotta trade you for the rest of your food?"

A scandalized gasp escaped Danny's lips at the mere offer. He placed a hand on his chest to complete the offended look. "I beg your pardon, this is my food. Touch it and gain an irrational fear of noodles for the rest of your existence."

"Boys, keep it down a little," Akira murmured, barely louder than the humming of the plane that the family was used to after moving so many times. "The girls are asleep, and we all know how your mom gets when she's cranky."

Ignacio grumbled something about being hungry but shut up. Danny settled for a thumbs up, the mere thought of waking up his mother invoking the fear of God within him. He focused back down on his food and experimentally tried to twirl them around the chopsticks like he would spaghetti on a fork. Why he'd never learned how to use chopsticks, the scarlet-eyed boy would never know, considering he was half Japanese. Hell, Danny could only speak basic sentences and phrases in the language. Mainly from anime, if he was being honest. It was kinda a habit of his to only learn a country's language once they moved there.

Whoops. At least he wasn't completely clueless this time around, like when he'd been nine and couldn't understand a lick of French. It'd definitely taken Danny a while to learn the language, even if he could mimic accents pretty easily with a little practice.

He 'looked' up to his dad, a hand tugging the black cloth that hung around his neck back into place to conceal the scarlet of the boy's eyes fully. "Hey, how many different writing forms or whatever does Japanese have?"

If Akira tried to keep the grin out of his voice, he failed miserably. Danny mentally died inside, dreading the answer only for it to come anyway. "Three. Hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Technically four, if you count rōmanji."

The curly-haired boy paused in his mental funeral, holding up a finger halfway. Rōmanji... he knew enough from all those anime wiki pages he'd visited to know what that was. Kanji, if it was anything like the Chinese version, wouldn't be too bad, considering seven-year-old Danny had painstakingly learned it and could still read, write, and speak Mandarin. But hiragana and katakana... nope. "Which one is most common?"

"Hiragana."

Oh, a la mierda con un maldito árbol.

Danny settled for a "Dang it," out loud, not exactly wanting to say 'Oh, fuck me with a goddamn tree' in public. His mom was right there with his little sister, and even if she was sleeping, Rosa had a sixth sense when it came to her sons cursing in her presence. And Danny didn't exactly feel the burning desire to, y'know, scrub the toilets in their new house as soon as they got there. Or make a deposit to the swear jar that had currency from pretty much every country they'd lived in or visited.

The number wasn't that big, but he still doubted that the average guy his age had lived in six, going on seven countries in their lifetime by only fifteen. Moving pretty much every three or so years was kind of annoying sometimes when it came to making friends, but it wasn't like people were lining up to begin with. They were all a buncha scaredy cats, even though Danny never took off his blindfold unless he was with family or alone. Like, come on, he couldn't make eye contact when he couldn't even see light through the blackout fabric.

Danny settled back in his seat, grabbing his bowl off the tray table after tapping it lightly with a finger. He abandoned the chopsticks, instead just lifting the bowl to his lips and downing the rest of the bowl like it was oxygen. Japanese people did that, right? It wasn't like you could eat broth with chopsticks, and he'd seen it done in anime so many times. On the other hand... how were you supposed to pick up rice with two sticks?

Ah, whatever. Danny'd figure it out eventually. He tended to be pretty adept with his hands, considering he was technically blind around other people. Well, unless he was fighting a villain or something, but his request for a Japanese provisional license was still in processing, so he wasn't going to be using his Quirk anytime soon. The fifteen-year-old had one for back in the States, seeing as he'd gotten it during his freshman year, but moving countries... it was gonna take a little while for all the paperwork.

On the plus side, Yūei High was the Japanese equivalent of his old school, Carmine Academy of Heroics, and his transfer request to the hero course had been accepted. All Danny had to do was take a test or two of some sort in person to solidify the transfer, and boom. Entry to the best hero school in the country, even if he was going to have to take the subway–er... train–every morning to get there. Being in overly-crowded areas when you had to rely on every sense but sight... not that fun.

He let out a satisfied sigh while setting his bowl back down, turning his head to 'look' out the window. Since windows were reflective, it wasn't exactly a good idea to actually pull up his blindfold. So Danny just settled for imagining what was on the other side of the glass. The Hayashi's were almost there, just a half hour out from the airport, so he figured the cities would be bright with lights since it was the middle of the night.

Was it cloudy out? Danny had no idea, but in his imagination the sky was clear so he could actually see the stars. He chose to ignore the fact that light pollution and smog from big cities kinda rendered the stars unseeable. After living in so many big cities, the curly-haired boy was used to pollution, even if the environment had gradually begun to be restored after the dawn of Quirks.

Although tech definitely had slowed in its advancement, if the old textbooks had anything to say about it. Seriously, there'd been progress and all, but like... Earth hadn't even colonized another planet yet.

Danny raised his eyebrows at the topic of his thoughts changing for, like, the thousandth time, wondering how the absolute heck he'd gotten from the logistics of using chopsticks to space travel. In all honesty, at this point, he didn't even question it. He just blamed his Quirk messing with his head and that was that.

The teen sat back and relaxed for the rest of the flight, listening to the movements of his various family members and the other passengers. He heard his bowl be taken off the table, nodding in confirmation in the direction he knew the flight attendant to be that he was done with it.

The next thing Danny knew, the plane was jolting as the wheels touched down. An all-too-familiar feeling for the Hayashi family, evidently, since his mom and sister were still asleep. Nothing could keep them from sleeping on a plane, no matter how rough the flying or landing was, or how loud the engines or other people were.

Disembarking came quickly, as business-class came before economy, and it wasn't long before Danny was lugging along his carry-on suitcase and getting through customs right behind Ignacio. Considering the airport was an unfamiliar area that he wouldn't be visiting again in around three years, he was also making good use of his retractable cane.

He would've liked a seeing eye dog because, y'know, dog, but that didn't exactly work out with how much the family moved. Or the fact that Rosa was deathly allergic to dogs.

Eventually, the Hayashi's made it out of the airport with claimed luggage in tow alongside their carry-ons. Well, technically Ignacio and Akira were pushing carts with all the suitcases piled on, but same difference.

"Anyone see the car?" Ignacio asked, huffing out a breath as they stood out on the sidewalk.

Danny picked a random direction and pointed. "Yup, over there."

"Uh. That's a fire hydrant," Emiko Hayashi reported dutifully, probably clutching the back of Rosa's sweater with how many strangers were milling about.

He shrugged. "Worth a shot."

"I see it," Akira jumped in, patting Danny's shoulder and lightly tugging his coat to the left. He followed the direction, the only indication he was still with the rest of the family being the echoes of their footfalls and the fact that no one was calling his name. Sure, Danny could just take his dad's arm or something, but a little thing called pride got in the way of that.

"Hayashi-san desu ka?" an unfamiliar male voice asked when they stopped, presumably the driver. As far as Danny's Japanese knowledge went, the guy was asking if Akira was, in fact, Mister Hayashi.

His dad replied affirmatively, also in Japanese, before all the luggage was allocated to the trunk of whatever car had come for them. Danny hooked a finger under his blindfold and took a quick peek through his eyelashes, whistling appreciatively at the sight of the vehicle. An all-black Honda Elysion, the color most corporate-owned cars tended to be, that would easily seat all six people plus luggage.

"Nice," was all Danny said before ducking inside, clambering over the middle row, and claiming the back right seat. He left putting the luggage in the back to Akira, also known as the Neat Freak™. Seriously. The man had a system, and it was not to be trifled with.

Ignacio dropped down heavily into the seat to the left of him, ignoring the tiny middle seat in between them. "Going through the trunk would be easier," he muttered, clipping in his seatbelt.

"No," their dad promptly replied as soon as he sat down, his tone leaving no room for argument. Also known as his Dad Voice, even more powerful than his Very Important Businessman Voice.

Danny silently noted where each member of his family sat, leaning back leisurely in his seat as the car moved away from the curb. He and Ignacio were in the back, space between them courtesy of the tiny middle seat. Akira was in front of Ignacio in the middle row, and Rosa was in front of Danny. In between them sat Emiko, since she was the only one small enough to sit there without discomfort.

"So, what's the house look like?" the teen asked idly, head lolled to the right as if he could actually see out the window. As far as he knew, Eden—the name of the travel company his dad worked for—should've sent Akira some pictures while they were in the air.

Danny could feel his dad's unimpressed look back over the row of seats, and he sighed. "Uh... Ie no... us?"

Ignacio clapped sarcastically at the half-assed attempt. "Wow. Truly a master of Japanese," he drawled.

"Urusai," Danny replied with a groan, 'shut up' being one of the few words he could say reliably. Besides, it wasn't like his brother knew any more Japanese than him. The only fluent one in the Hayashi household was Akira, and that was only because he'd been born and raised in Japan. "You try it, then."

His brother coughed out an awkward laugh, trapped. "No thanks, I'm good," Ignacio attempted to dodge, only to also be caught in Akira's unimpressed gaze. Well, probably, considering Danny no longer felt it on himself. "Um..." he faltered, the sound of his thumbs tapping hurriedly on the screen of his phone reaching Danny's abnormally-sensitive ears. "Watashitachi no ie wa dono yō ni miemasu ka?"

Now it was Danny's turn to clap sarcastically. "Fluent in Google Translate, this one," he stage whispered, mildly annoyed that he hadn't thought to just look up the translation. Not that it'd be completely accurate, y'know, because it's Google Translate, but he digressed.

Their dad just chuckled, settling back in his seat with a pleased sigh. "You'll see the house when we get there, boys. But we're in for a long ride, so until then..." Akira began, pressing a button that flipped out a small screen from the car's ceiling. "Who's up for a movie?"

▬▬ι══════════════════════════════ι▬▬

So that's chappie numero uno, done. Took a while for me to actually get past the plane scene, but I got there eventually for a grand total of 2,438 words.

Thoughts so far? 

I love going from writing an emotionless and formal-talking guy to an overly expressive and slang-using one. Kazue would think Danny's a moron, no doubt about it. My sons are great.