Number 7

One: Element

A/N: To the few readers I do I have, I'm doing a lot of rewrites, sorry ;-;

Perched atop the skyscraper of my Pro Hero Agency, I looked down on the city below, the street lights illuminating my watch areas. Nothing seemed out of place tonight, but I had to be on high alert. There was increased criminal activity around the city the last few weeks and I couldn't afford to let anything slip past me. Not on the night before I was supposed to start the new school year at UA and teach my third class of freshman since becoming a teacher.

I would need to go to bed soon. I was only going to be getting 6 hours of sleep if I stayed out here for twenty minutes longer. That would give me about 10 hours of power usage. Perhaps I could sneak in a nap before my nightly patrols tomorrow. I was stretching myself thin and I knew it, but I was so busy and had so many responsibilities that I couldn't afford to slack off for some sleep. Even if I desperately needed it.

A frightened scream from behind me caused me to jump and whip around, using my wind power to push me to the opposite end of the roof in only seconds so I could look at what was happening. In the darkness below, I could barely make out a man attacking someone. In the light of a street lamp, a young child ran into the street, sobbing and calling for help. "He's hurting my daddy! He's hurting my daddy!"

I jumped into action, flinging myself from the 90th floor of the skyscraper and nosediving toward the ordeal below. I summoned the cement from the sidewalk toward me, allowing it to swallow me and absorb my fall. Gently, I revealed myself a few meters from the criminal, the cement melting off of my body and returning back to it's original shape and place on the sidewalk like nothing had happened at all.

"Element!?" A ragged voice cried out in shock and I witnessed the criminal release his hold on the child's father and retreat backwards. "What is the number 7 hero doing interfering with something so small?" Their voice didn't sound right.

"My job." I said flatly, unraveling two meters of the thick metal wiring I had installed into my hero suit. My hair was already solid white, floating around me weightlessly.  My eyes must have already started glowing because a new violet light illuminated the dark alley the criminal was attempting to slink into. Without much effort, I tossed a single wire at him, encasing his body in my strong metal grip, and jerked him back toward me. As he got closer, he broke out of my chains, using his quirk to shrink his...muscles? That's a creepy quirk. But it worked, because he escaped my wires and puffed back up, this time making himself bigger than before. "You're not getting me that easily." He threw a punch at me, only able to land a few of his knuckles on my shoulder before I dodged and escaped the rest of his blow.

"What makes you think boxing a pro hero is a good idea?" I asked him, engulfing my own fist in flames before throwing a punch at the villain.

His eyes widened in fear as he tried to escape my punch, but he dodged the wrong way and I knew it. I never could bring myself to cause more harm than unnecessary, so I killed the flames just before my fist collided with his face, knocking him backward. Maybe I would regret that but most of these crimes were petty thieves with weak quirks rather than true villains. As he stumbled a bit, I took advantage of his distraction and wrapped him in my metal wires again, this time prepared to tighten them if he shrank. As he cried out in surprise, I retracted my wires. Once at my feet, I swallowed his body in the cement he landed on, leaving only his head out so he could breathe.

"You'll stay there until the police arrive." With that, I turned my attention to the injured man, noting the bruises on his face. "Are you alright?"

He nodded and grabbed his daughter, pulling her close to his side. "Just got smacked around a little bit. I'm just glad he didn't hurt my daughter."

"What happened?" I asked, sending a brief text to the police chief, including my location.

"He was trying to rob me. He wanted my briefcase."

"Anything special you think he was after besides money?" I asked, slipping my phone back into my pocket and crossing my arms.

The man hesitated, but relented the truth anyway. "I'm a scientist visiting town. I have some personal vials of...supplements in my briefcase, but they need more testing before they can be used on real people. I'm not sure why he would try to acquire something so dangerous."

"Dangerous?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. These supplements are meant to enhance quirks. But they don't work like they're supposed to. They're far too concentrated and the additional power has killed multiple rat subjects."

I grimaced, but kept my serious tone. "Perhaps it's not such a good idea to wander around alone at night carrying something so....dangerous, as you put it. You may want to look into hiring a bodyguard." I suggested.

The man agreed with me, but it still didn't put my mind at ease. Why would a scientist be so careless with someone so deadly? Or something that could be detrimental to society if villains acquired it?

It was then that red and blue lights lit up the street, heading in our direction. When the cops arrived, they arrested the criminal with no further issues and took the man and his daughter down to the station for his statement. I thanked the officers before they left and used my metal wires as climbing gear to scale the side of my skyscraper and resume my position on the roof of the 90th floor.

As I reached the top, I noticed a tall dark figure standing alone in my usual perch spot.

"Shouldn't you be at home sleeping? It's not your patrol hours anymore." I called to the dark figure, already knowing who it was.

His tired, bloodshot eyes looked into my own, his long raven colored hair laying around his face in the mess it always was. "Your shift ended over an hour ago. Why are you still out?" Aizawa retorted.

I pulled myself over the ledge completely and sauntered over to my friend, squatting beside him and looking down at the same street his eyes were now trained on. "It's hard to just stop looking for danger and go to bed. I feel like the moment I look away, somethings going to happen." I admitted and he hummed in response.

"Doesn't your quirk get recharged by sleep?" He argued, knowing the answer to his question. After all, he had been my friend for 16 years now. Of course he could argue with me and win.

"I'm managing just fine." I lied.

"Managing fine until your quirk gives out and you get hurt." He muttered to himself and I didn't grace him with a reply.

"You need to be at UA by 6am, Shota. Go home and get some rest." I insisted.

"I'm not leaving until you do. You've been over doing it way too much. You just got out of the hospital two weeks ago!"

"Um, that wasn't my fault, that dude snuck up on me. And why do you care anyway?"

"Because I'm your friend." He answered flatly.

"Mmhmm." I hummed, sounding unconvinced. "But I don't need you to babysit me."

"It's not babysitting. Think of it as having a partner."

"A partner that makes sure I go to bed on time?" I snorted, shouldering him gently.

"Well since Magnetica can't do it anymore, I guess I'll have to."

"Dude," I argued. "I have at least 4 straight hours left of my quirk. Im fine."

"Like you were fine, what, 4 months ago? When all the bones in your leg were shattered?"

"Weirdly enough, I didn't need anyone to get me out of there though, isn't that right? I got myself to safety. So thanks, but no thanks, Shota. I don't need your help."

"You are impossible." He rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he did so.

Aizawa got to his feet and made his way to the back of my building. "Don't over extend yourself." He said in his usual apathetic tone before he dove over the side of the building and disappeared.

"Tch. Never." My reply was to only the empty air.

A/N: So this chapter was sort of slow but I wanted readers to understand the relationship between Aki and Shota. Also, the quirk enhancement is also obvious foreshadowing if you missed that lmfao.