In Loving Memory

The Problem With Being A Ghost

Izuku decided to spend the rest of the day roaming the city. He looked at all the other people, then looked at his feet and sighed. He missed being alive. He missed walking the way everyone else did. He missed being with everyone else. And he really missed his mom's katsudon. Being a ghost had its perks, like how he had been able to visit some people and help them through rough times. He had stopped around four suicides that month, which was more than he had ever expected to do well, ever. A few schoolkids were walking down the street, catching his attention and bringing him out of his thoughts. He stopped in his tracks. One of the kids was the boy he had talked out of jumping soon after he'd died.

He smiled, wondering how the boy was doing. Izuku decided to follow the group. The boy was walking with a girl about his age. She was petite, and her school outfit was a bit big for her. She smiled, a chilling sight, as Izuku realized she possessed vampire-like canine teeth on her top and bottom jaws. Her blonde hair was pulled into two little buns at the top of her head and her eyes had slitted pupils like a cat. She would have been cute if Izuku wasn't so irrationally scared of her. The feeling was weird, like hearing boss music in a video game but not seeing the enemy. She was staring at the boy so weirdly, so obsessively. It was creepy, but the boy walking next to her didn't seem to notice. Izuku narrowed his eyes. Something was up.

"So, have you heard any ghost stories?" the girl asked with a chuckle.

"Toga, stop," the boy complained. "You know how much I hate those creepy legends."

"C'mon, you've got to have heard at least one," Toga said, skipping a little bit.

"Well, there was this one weird thing that happened to me some months ago," the boy said, starting to trail off.

"Oooh, tell me, tell me!"

"I was on the roof. I was in a really bad place at the time and was considering killing myself."

"Oh no!"

"I was on a roof, about to jump off, when I was spooked by someone yelling and started to fall by accident. Some kid with green hair caught me and pulled me to safety. He talked to me and helped me to start on the path to dealing with everything. When we finished talking, he was gone."

"Woah, really?"

"Yeah, and I always thought something was weird about that kid. He came out of seemingly nowhere, and I didn't see him coming anywhere near the door to the roof."

"Maybe he was a ghost," Toga said spookily. "I've heard stories of a helpful ghost floating around. Some say he helps people with little things like the story of the time he had scared off a boy following a woman home. Others say he talks people out of suicide or comforts them in times of grief."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, people say he just shows up out of nowhere in places where he shouldn't be able to go and talks to them if they need help. They call him the Dead Hero!"

"That's a little morbid," the boy grimaced awkwardly.

"There are so many cool stories about him!" Toga squealed. "But he's a relatively new ghost from what I hear."

This sounded strangely familiar, Izuku noted silently. Either they were talking about him, or someone else died around the same time he did and started helping people too. Was he a ghost story? Still, whatever he thought of or how much he tried to shake the feeling, he knew something was up with that girl.

The next day, he spotted the two of them walking to school and decided to follow them. He studied the pair as they hurried along. Something wasn't right and Izuku had no idea what it was. However, whatever was up with this Toga girl was by all means a problem. He scurried after them as they sped up, thoroughly glad he could move faster than he could have in life. Being a ghost had its benefits, as much as he missed being alive. The two of them vanished into the school and Izuku passed through the walls. The school was big and open, much bigger than any school Izuku had ever gone to. He looked around in awe at the sheer size of the school before remembering why he was there and scrambling to follow the duo again.