[attr="class","header2"]APPEARANCE

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When Aia Ōshiro married Giichi Himura, neither held any illusion that the union was performed purely out of love. With her being the head of Ōshiro Armour - a company dealing mainly in body armour and hero costumes - and him being a politician of some renown, it was clear to anyone with eyes and a brain that they were looking to use the other for influence in areas they had not branched out into yet. Neither had a problem with this at first, as tiring as keeping the act up in public was, since the benefits wrought from their marriage were deemed far too valuable to pass up. However, the birth of their child proved to strain their relationship with each other, professional though it was.

To Giichi, the child was simply a tool to make the marriage appear more legitimate. he did the bare minimum possible to raise Asuka, and even then, made no great effort to conceal his disgust at having to do so. The fact that he was forced to do even that, after having been all but forced into taking his wife's name rather than her taking his, was bad enough. But Aia, despite her detached and cutthroat nature, held nothing but love, concern, and care for her child from the moment that she held him in her arms.

As loving as she was, however, it manifested in ways that most would consider unconventional. She taught him to be cynical, and to always look over his shoulder. She made certain that he always double-checked who he trusted - and even then, he was to keep them at arm's length, in case his hunch was off. When it came to his studies, she was a harsh tutor, no matter what the subject or his aptitude in it. It all inflicted deeply-rooted damage on the impressionable young boy, of course, but she saw her actions as justified. If he was going to grow up in the world that they lived in - one of backstabbers and cutthroats who saw him only as stepping stone for their next payday - he needed to be smart, cunning, and cynical. She wanted to protect him, no matter how much he hated her for it.

Her lessons, as deeply-rooted as they became, nevertheless conflicted with Asuka's inner nature. For every person she forbade him from seeing, he would find another to spend time with behind her back. For every night she had him stay cooped up in his room to figure out his homework, he would find two ways to evade her notice and take time to enjoy himself. She'd raised him to be cunning and conniving, yes - but he wasn't afraid to turn those lessons back on her, and his father wasn't home enough to notice anything. What little he did notice, he didn't care about enough to pay attention to.

However, that game of cat-and-mouse couldn't go on forever. Both knew it, but Asuka was the one that took the initiative to hasten its end. He demanded that he be allowed the chance to enrol in UA University, and pursue a career in designing hero costumes. His mother was only too happy to oblige. Partly because of his passion for the craft, and partly because of the talent that he would no doubt forge connections with. Asuka had his own reasons for applying, however, and not just because of the education or the influence.

Being so far away from the influence of the majority of the people that had been with him throughout his life was nothing short of a breath of fresh air. No stifling influence from his mother, no bitter stares from his father, no playing at politics with peers that had ideas above their station... He could just focus on his work, and give himself time to sort his head out. Even if that meant having to put up with some doe-eyed young heroes-to-be that weren't aware of the harsh realities of life just yet.