Hajime Hinata did not have a normal mother. He kind of wished he did, because then maybe he would go to school like a normal person and do normal things and go to school and stuff. Maybe he would be special and have some mind rending secret and just think he was normal. Those were just things he daydreamed about though. In reality, Hinata had a mother that was never going to be 'normal'. No, his mother was far too powerful to ever even be considered normal. His mother was the real leader behind the two most powerful companies in the world; Reliable Excavation Demolition and Builders League United.
Hinata did not remember a good portion of his early life, and he has no reason to believe he would want to. His first firm memory was of him looking up at his mom and her assistant. He remembered riding in a car and a really big house. And he remembered how boring everything was. He was, and still is, tutored; as his mother didn't want him to go to public school, or private school, or any school really. She told him that 'School is taught by imbeciles to those who will grow up to be imbeciles that teach imbeciles.' Hinata simply accepted that as something his mom said and left it at that. He learned not to question his mom. She was scary enough as it is, and he's seen first hand what she does to people who make his mom angry. The one thing he didn't like about it was that he never made any friends, because there was no one to make friends with. Sure, Ms. Pauling was nice enough, but she was his mom's assistant. There was really no way for them to be friends. All Hinata had to occupy himself with was the rather ludicrous amount of things his mom let him buy. And so he sat alone a lot of the time, with nothing but everything to keep him company. It was when he turned sixteen that his world was flipped over. His mom let him go hang out with some other kids.
"W-what?" Hinata stuttered out. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You heard me. Don't make me repeat myself." His mother was mostly obscured from his view, her enormous chair blocking out everything but her arm which occasionally popped into view, like a snake, to tap the ash off of the cigarette it held.
"Y-yes ma'am." Hinata scrambled to salute. His mom made all of her employees do it, and while it wasn't required for him, he still picked up the habit.
"Get ready. You leave with Pauling in ten minutes. Don't make me regret this. I'm trusting you, alright?" The hand retreated behind the chair again, and by the click of a hidden keyboard, Hinata could tell the conversation was over. His heart beat a little faster. His mom rarely put trust in him, much less told him so. He thanked her and left the room, eventually ending up sitting shotgun with Ms. Pauling in the driver's seat of his mom's street car, an old Volkswagen. Hinata could barely contain his nervousness, picking at his clothes and staring out the window. He was so focused on trying to calm down that Ms. Pauling's voice made him jump.
"You'll be fine Hinata. I think the other kids will love hanging out with you." Ms. Pauling's reassuring tone actually made him start to believe her. He stopped bouncing his leg and sighed.
"Thanks, Ms. Pauling. I'm just nervous. I've never even interacted with another kid before. I... have no idea what to do... ya know?" Hinata got all nervous again and wiped a few beads of sweat that began budding up on his forehead. Ms. Pauling just nodded and reassured him again.
"I think you'll know what to do. I've met some of the kids myself and, while they certainly are a handful, are really nice. You'll like them. I promise." She shot him a smile before turning back to the road. Hinata still felt jittery, thinking about what to say and do and... boy, he had no idea at all. Just thinking about these other kids made him a bit light-headed, so he closed his eyes and drifted off. Just as he began to dream, though, the car came to a stop and Ms. Pauling shook him awake. Hinata rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and climbed out of the car, staring at the pathetically small brick building for a few moments before coming to with a start.
"Hey, Ms. Pauling. This uh... this is a preschool." Even though he didn't get out much, he could still tell what it was by the multitude of bright colors and the words 'TEUFORT PRESCHOOL' plastered onto a sign on top of the squat building. Ms. Pauling just shrugged.
"It's a front company. It actually does run as a preschool, but it's Sunday, so there aren't any children here today." She started walking and Hinata could only follow. Seven cars sat in the small parking lot, not including the one he had just ridden in, so Hinata assumed that there were probably seven other kids. They walked through the double glass doors and into the air-conditioned building (Hinata hadn't even noticed how dry and hot it was outside until he felt the blast of cool air) the only sounds being the clicking of Ms. Pauling's heels on the linoleum and the shouts of what could only be a rowdy group of teens in a far off room. Each step brought more and more apprehension to Hinata. Maybe he should have just stayed home. Surely his mom wouldn't have minded. His eyes clouded over with all these thoughts and he was so caught up in them that he didn't realize both sounds had stopped until Ms. Pauling nudged him with her elbow. Hinata's vision cleared up to find nine kids about his age staring at him, having stopped what they were doing to check out the new kid. There were also nine men, who he assumed to be their fathers, (although one was wearing some sort of mask and suit, so he couldn't tell.) Some of the kids went back to what they were doing, but others actually came over to greet him.
The three kids, two girls and a boy, that came up to him were interesting enough, Hinata supposed. One of them, the boy, wore a yellow jumpsuit and a beanie. The hair he could see was a bright pink, which slightly startled Hinata. The boy grinned, showing a mouth full of sharp teeth, and held out his hand.
"Yo! I'm Souda." Hinata very carefully shook his hand and Souda laughed. "I ain't gonna bite'cher head off! I'm nice!" He seemed to have a bit of a Texan drawl. Huh. The other girl had red hair cut kind of short and pale eyes. She wore an olive-green suspenders/skirt type thing which took Hinata a moment to wrap his head around, and a white shirt that looked like part of a school uniform. A camera hung from a strap around her neck. It took him a few moments to pry his eyes off of her, which made her turn and mumble something that only Souda caught, making him chuckle.
Hinata was about to introduce himself when he felt something poking at his back. A quick glance revealed that the girl was no longer standing there. Hinata heard something that sounded like sniffing and whirled around to find her slightly bent down, apparently smelling him. He brought an arm up defensively, which made the girl laugh. It had a musical quality to it that made Hinata bring his arm back down. In response he heard Souda's slightly gravelly laugh and an angry huff from the red-haired girl. The girl who was sniffing him had blue, white, and pink streaks in her hair and some strange horns on top of her head that look like they've been twisted from her hair. Her clothes look very punk rock, like things Hinata had seen on the internet. She also had a bunch of piercings which glinted as she moved. When she caught Hinata's eye, she immediately stood straight up and saluted.
"Hellooooooo! Ibuki Mioda, at your command! Although she really hopes you don't command her to do anything too dirty..." Mioda bit her lip and Hinata took a step back in surprise, blushing and stammering.
"I wouldn't... I uh... I mean... um... I-I don't... unless you uh..." Mioda laughed her melodic laugh in response and slung her arm around Hinata's shoulders, pulling him close. He heard another huff from the red-haired girl.
"No worries! Ibuki was just foolin'. Although if you do want to..." Hinata shook his head to cut her off.
"I uh... would rather not? I mean, we just met."
Mioda spun him around and smiled. "Ibuki's just joshing you, new guy! Playing, joking, Ibuki knows all kinds of words for having fun!" Hinata took a few moments to recover, taking a few deep breaths, and stood up straight again, facing the red-haired girl, who looked pretty peeved, maybe because she hadn't got to talk yet.
"First things first, I'd like to thank Souda for blatantly ignoring the 'ladies first' expression." She shot a glare at him and he shrugged. Mioda chimed in with a 'Yeah, dummy!' The girl cleared her throat and continued speaking.
"I'm Mahiru Koizumi. It's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand and raised an eyebrow. "You being... who, exactly?"
"Oh uh... I'm Hinata." He reached out and grabbed Koizumi's hand to shake it. It kind of surprised him how smooth it was. Most of the hands he's shaken have been rough and calloused, but her's was soft, almost like a pillow. He must have zoned out, because he was suddenly staring at her again. Mioda and Souda choked back laughter and Hinata quickly retracted his hand. Koizumi's face matched her hair in color, and she turned around, facing her two barely restrained friends.
"Sh-shut up you guys." Koizumi walked away from the three; while Souda and Mioda let loose, leaning against each other for support. Hinata scratched the back of his head, embarrassed, and left them alone for now. Hopefully he'd make a better impression on some of the other kids.
