Seven Heroes Redux

In a dark and messy room, the only lights present came from a screen and the cracks in the door. The window was closed, so there was no hint of day or night.

A young man was sitting in front of this screen. His expression was unhealthy. It felt like his soul had already left his body a long time ago. The door opens and a female figure walks through it.

She was a girl wearing a japanese school uniform. She had probably just got back from school.

— Yuto, are you okay?

— Oh, is that you, Haji? I'm fine, just like any other day.

— What have you been doing these past few days?

— The same as usual... why?

— You know what? I'm tired of you. I've been asking you to leave for I don't know how long, but you keep doing what you want! The world doesn't revolve around you.

— Did something happen, Haji? You're angrier than usual.

— Of course I am angry! Your parents work hard to support you and you just sit there and do nothing! By the way, what happened to all the part-time jobs you've taken in the last few months?

— Hm… I think I was fired the second to last… and maybe the last one too… But what's the problem? The choice to support me is my parents', not mine. I didn't choose to be born, they did.

Haji had already lost all the trust she had in Yuto. She approached him and slapped him, almost crying.

— You saved me… you were my hero! What happened to you?

Yuto didn't think he was wrong, so he didn't understand the reason for the slap. But before he could ask, the girl ran out of the room, crying.

— What's gotten into her? She's never confronted me like this before.

Haji was the green-haired girl who had given powers to almost all of the heroes of Shichi Nichi Ju. When she touched them, the next dream they had would reveal what power they would obtain.

If, within the dream, Haji touched the same place as before, the person would wake up immediately. She didn't need to sleep for that, just daydream.

She had been found as a baby by the Boss. He saw her potential, and soon founded the association. He adopted her, but didn't treat her like a daughter.

His power, if any, was unknown. Perhaps that was why he tortured his own daughter. The name Haji was given by him, as she symbolized the beginning of everything.

On the fateful Halloween, she was found by Yuto and his sister, imprisoned in a cell that was revealed by the destruction of the building. However, she was unharmed. Not from the torture she had received her entire life, but from all the fighting that took place a few dozen meters away.

With the trauma of having his sister murdered in the blink of an eye, Yuto moved back in with his parents, and took Haji with him. More than 5 years passed in this phase, from the end of 2041 until 2047, the current date.

It was a luxury apartment in the center of Osaka. His parents worked in politics, so they had a well-paid job. And that didn't stop them from loving their son more than anything, because he was the only one they had left.

The association's influence was small outside of Tokyo, but it did exist. In the center of a big city, they were much safer than anywhere else, as there was greater enforcement.

The house that Yuto and his sister shared was far from the center of Tokyo. It was in her name, and she supported them both with the generous salary of a level 7 hero. But after she died, it continued in her name and was not occupied by anyone else. It was a ghost house.

Now, Haji had just come back from school. She had never had a family before, so she felt indebted to him. But she had never been the best at dealing with her own emotions. Sometimes, she would get overwhelmed by them and let it affect her decision-making.

Yuto's condition worsened. He quit all the part-time jobs he had so he wouldn't have to depend on his parents anymore. Since he didn't want to be involved with heroes anymore, the job that interested him the most was being a police officer. But he quit a few months after starting.

Since his parents supported him now, he saw no reason to try hard. He could use their weakness to live as a hikikomori. And he used them for a few years.

By the way, Haji was a tsundere.

Yuto came out of his room after hours of confinement. He was worried about Haji and went looking for her. It had been a long time since he'd cared about anything else, so he didn't even remember the feeling anymore.

The hallway light was too bright for someone with a bat habit. He saw a woman entering the apartment, and immediately recognized her:

— Mom… what time is it?

— Yuto? I didn't expect to see you out of the room. I just got back from work, so it's after five in the afternoon.

— Have you seen Haji?

— No. I thought she was already back from school. Did she get lost on the way?

— What? This has never happened before. She's always here before you arrive.

— How strange… Did you do something to her?

— Of course not! Well, maybe I was a bit of an idiot earlier…

— Maybe she wants to be alone for a while. Things work themselves out after you've waited long enough.

— Are you sure you should be saying this to me? You should be motivating me to look for her.

— A-Ah, so that's what you wanted me to say… All right, if you go after her, I'm sure she'll like it. Maybe that's exactly what she wants.

— Thank you mom. I'll take a walk to see if I can find her.

— Am I really hearing this? Are you leaving the house? That doesn't sound like you.

— She doesn't respond to any of my messages. I think she really wants me to look for her. If there was a way to solve this without leaving home, I would.

— Congratulations, Yuto. You began to understand how she feels.

Flattered by the compliment, Yuto looked away.

— I-It's not like I care that much about her… It's just… nevermind. Thank you mom.

Yuto said goodbye to his mother as he reached for the doorknob.

Yuto looked for Haji in all the places she used to go. At school, she wasn't. Her friends said she was crying when she ran away.

The messages were received shortly after Yuto sent them, which meant that her cell phone still had battery life.

The search continued. At the bakery, she wasn't. In the square near the house, where she used to be alone, neither.

All the people replied that they hadn't seen her that day, so she had probably used a different route than usual. She had left school, running, and taken a different path. She would arrive there quickly, in a matter of minutes.

But there was no route that led to any place of interest to Haji other than the conventional one. All the way through, Yuto used his gravitational sensor to look for her.

One of his abilities was to detect surfaces affected by gravity. It was like a sixth sense. The problem was that the city was enormous and many people were walking in the streets at that time. The sensor couldn't make out Haji's silhouette, relatively common in the crowd.

After a few dozen minutes of searching, his cell phone received a call.

Haji was sitting in a subway station, her head down. She didn't even know why she was there. It was crowded at that time, when many people were heading home. The sun was about to set, but she had no intention of going home.

— That idiot… How did it all end up like this?

— We would love to meet the idiot you're talking about, but, if you don't mind, we have to take you to the Pope.

Haji raised her head. The voice came from a girl, about 17 years old, wearing a short black t-shirt, a black cap and blue jeans. She had short black hair and green eyes. Her bangs covered her right eye.

Behind her, three tall men stared at her with a sense of superiority.

One was bald, black and had no eyebrows. He wore a black jacket with a white t-shirt.

One of the others wore a white and purple hoodie and his hood covered his head. He had purple eyes and long, white and purple hair. He was the tallest of the trio.