Homecoming

Across the street at a park bench sat a young man, around sixteen years of age. He looked down at his phone. The moonlit park was a quiet place to hang around, but his expression was quite confusing, almost like that of disappointment.

"Shit. I'm so fucked."

That was his reaction to his bank account, which was on his phone screen.

"A whopping two thousand yen to my name. I'm just so lucky."

His statement was quite sarcastic, as two thousand yen was barely worth anything in this day and age. He went up and looked at the sky, dark clouds began to form which hinted at rain soon.

"I should get back home, maybe mom or sis have got something for me to do," he paused, before continuing, "This day is really fucking boring."

Shutting off his phone and placing it in his pocket, he began to walk out into the streets of Tokyo, which were quite busy at this time of the day.

"What's the time again?"

He lifted up his phone to look at it. 8:30 PM.

"Not too late.."

Sighing, he placed his phone in his pockets and continued to walk through the sidewalk, glancing to the side every now and then.

"I heard being a hero pays like…millions of yen...Damn it."

He sighed again, before walking for a few more minutes until he got to his home, taking his keys and opening the door before walking in.

"Aki, Mom, I'm home." Ace called out to his sister and his mother.

"Welcome home, Ace," His mother, Aiko, responded. "How was your day today?"

"Nothing much, really. I've been trying to get into the heroes association but.."

"Tsk. Tsk. What did I tell you about becoming a hero? It's a very dangerous job!"

"Well, how else are we going to pay rent? Especially because dad, he-"

"Don't talk about him."

Ace paused for a second, realizing what he said.

"Sorry."

"..."

"So, how'd the day go?"

"Not too good. Got into a fight at school and no jobs are available."

"A fight? Again?"

"I can't help it, he was annoying me."

"You need to restrain yourself, Ace," She sighed, raising the heat of the cooking pot, "Was anyone hurt?"

"No, it was a pretty tame fight."

Aiko sighs before walking towards Ace.

"Please stop getting yourself into so many conflicts. It's hard enough as it is, and we don't need a suspension right now."

"Yeah, okay. Sorry."

"Dinner's almost done, call your sister over, will you?"

"Of course!"

Walking to his sister's room, Ace knocks on the door and then yells out.

"Dinner's ready, come out or I'll eat all your food."

"Don't you dare!" His sister shouts from inside.

Ace, Aki, and Aiko sat down to eat. Finishing quickly, Ace put his dish in the sink and looked back to his mother.

"I'm going out to run some errands for money. Be back before midnight."

"Okay, but you better be here before twelve."

"I will."

Ace walked out of his home once more, before looking ahead at the night sky and thinking to himself. Eventually, he made his way to a nearby Dojo. He had no plans of running any errands, instead, he wanted to prepare to become a hero.

Entering the Dojo, he quickly started his training routine. thirty pushups, fifty Sit-ups, and ten punches to a punching bag. He repeated this around three times before falling down out of exhaustion. He had to stop being so weak.

"Shit..it's already ten…I should get home by now."

Exiting the Dojo, Ace made his way out onto the streets. He held his phone as he continued to walk through the streets, however, he noticed some robbers mugging a poor lady, and he was determined to stop them.

"Hey! Leave her alone." Ace yelled out.

"Oh? Who's this little kid?"

"Don't know. I'd like to cut him up though!"

"Oh yeah, he looks rich!"

'Rich? Hah, they have to be stupid.' Ace thought to himself.

"I'm assuming you're not willing to co-operate, then."

Rolling up his sleeves, Ace entered the alleyway. While he wasn't very strong, he was intelligent and agile. Jumping up, he kicked down right in front of a robber, before uppercutting ahead of him. The alleyway was dark, and the woman was horrified.

As the fight continued, Ace managed to avoid getting sliced by the knife the robbers held, and eventually was able to knock away one of them, however, it was still a three on one, so Ace had to improvise if he wanted to get out of this alive.

In an attempt to retain out of this, Ace dashed into a wall, planting his feet into it, and jumped up ahead to strike the robbers. However, this plan horribly failed as they caught him and pinned him to the wall, placing him in deep trouble.

"Shit."

"We've got you now!"

The robbers began to kick Ace, punch Ace, they wanted to inflict as much damage as possible. They even used their knife and cut right across his cheek, though it wasn't a deep cut.

But just as fast as he lost the fight, police officers quickly noticed the commotion, and as soon as they walked nearby, the robbers ran away. Ace, once more, realized the drawbacks of being so weak. He just lost to a bunch of robbers, how would he ever become a hero?

After answering some questions, Ace was on his way back home. Looking at his phone, he realized just how late he'd been. It was already twelve thirty, he had taken too long on a petty robber incident, and had a cut mark to show for it too.

"Fuck. Mom's going to kill me."

***

Inside one of the heroes association's rooms was a very special meeting. It featured three people: The Chairman, The President, and The Vice President.

"I assume you've heard of how sorcerers have started to appear more?"

"Yeah, we've gotten a couple cases on sorcerer appearances. They usually hide themselves really well." 

"I believe they're plotting something." The Chairman, Nakamura, spoke out.

"You could be right, sir, but at the same time….I have a bad feeling about this." The President, Kyoba, responded.

"We'll have to wait for now. We don't have any other possible moves." The Vice President, Takashi, added.

"Very well then, we shall wait for now."

But as soon as peace had found its way, a hurried knocking could be heard on the door as one of the assistants came in with a surprised expression.

"Excuse me, Mister Nakamura, but you have a visitor."

"Can't you see I'm busy?"

"It's a very important visitor, sir. I don't believe you should keep him waiting."

Nakamura sighs.

"Fine, bring him in. We've already finished discussions anyway."