Pneumatophany

1

Dead men tell no tales... but their souls sure do.

That was the same problem that you faced. You could talk to the dead, and to your misfortune, they had a lot to say. Seeing how no one could hear them (and you doubt anyone would be willing to, even if they could hear them), the spirits made it their moral duty to chew your ears off from their unnecessary ranting.

Your father was the one who had a quirk like yours; he could see the dead and talk to them. Meanwhile, your mother had a quirk that allowed her to 'borrow' the quirk of anyone.

But for her quirk to work, the other person had to willingly let her use their quirk. Both of these were amazing quirks on their own, but when they decided to have a child; you ended up inheriting both.

You could see and talk to the dead, and borrow their quirks. Thankfully, the dead didn't exactly mind letting you use their quirks, they were dead anyways. They wanted nothing more than a person to talk to and you were always willing to lend a ear if they let you borrow their quirks.

Most of the times, the spirits ended up enjoying your company, and that happiness of being heard was all they needed to let go of this world and move onto the afterlife. But some of the spirits had bigger regrets, ones that you couldn't solve, being a child and all.

And that was when they tethered themselves to you. They would stick to your side, and it was always an awkward conversation with your father when he would ask about your new spirit friend with an amused look in his eyes.

You could tell he enjoyed seeing you use your quirk to help people. He used it to help people too.

He was a medium.

He would help the spirits move onto the afterlife and fulfill their last requests. Most of the times, they usually revolved around delivering a message to their loved ones and your father took it upon himself to track down the families of the deceased and relay the message.

Your mother always told you, that your father's selfless nature was what made her fall for him.

And your admiration for your father only grew.

So when you told him that you wanted to be a hero, he supported you fully. As did your mother. They were both very, very happy that you had something you wanted to try out. Ever since you were young, you were shy and meek. Maybe it all stemmed from the fact that a kid in elementary school called you creepy when you just wanted to relay his grandmother's message about how much she loved him.

But that one comment gave your child-confidence a pretty hard blow.

You began to seclude yourself from the class, out of fear of being called creepy again. One time was enough to crumble your ego to pieces, you don't need the repetition of it.

So, really. The fact that you want to go in such an industry where you are required to interact with a lot of people as well as the public as a whole, was certainly a big surprise. But regardless, it was a good surprise.

Because your father always wanted you to be a hero. He just didn't want to force that on you, because he knew that he shouldn't force his likes on you just because you were his child. So he would let you explore things that you liked, like making cute collars for your cats (apparently cats and dogs can also see the dead), or painting (because some of the spirits just wanted to have their portraits made, and with no artist who could see them, you learned how to paint, yourself).

Still, the point remained that he wanted you to choose things for yourself without him shoving them down your throat.

Needless to say, the moment you said you wanted to be a hero, your parents took one look at each other and immediately plotted an entire training plan. Since you had both their quirks, they tried to think of ways to train your quirk.

If you want to be a hero, then a hero is what you'll be. And they'll be damned if they don't help you.

Your first choice wasn't exactly UA, that school had too many eyes on it. Everyone was constantly watching the UA students like a hawk and you were terrified of being watched like that.

But there was no denying it that UA certainly produced amazing heroes. And hence, your parents were rather excited to let you try the UA entrance exam. They helped you train to the fullest and told you to give it your all even though you weren't sure you wanted to.

But regardless, you took the entrance exam, with hopes of making your parents proud. There was only one thing that you actually appreciated in your life; your parents.

They were always so doting and caring towards you that you found it hard to not fulfill their dreams, even if you weren't that comfortable with UA. Eh, who cares? As long as your parents are happy, that's all that matters.

The exam itself was rather... easy.

It consisted of destroying robots that, based upon their level of difficulty, gave the applicant points. The easiest ones were the 1-pointers, followed by the 2-pointers, and lastly, the 3-pointers.

You borrowed the quirk of one of the spirits that had been with you since a very long time, Shizuka. She was a 23-year old woman who was murdered by a serial killer. Apparently, her wish was to find her killer and get him punished.

But for you, this seemed quite impossible. So she mainly stuck with you. She had a pretty good quirk, the ability to produce thin but sharp and indestructible strings from the tips of her fingers, that could attach to someone and turn them into her puppet. This also included the ability to attach to inanimate objects and control them as well.

And that's what you did.

You controlled one of the 3-pointer and used it to destroy the other robots that came across your path. While it was extremely painful to control an object that big, but you managed to do so with the help of your other spirit, Rina. She had the ability to heal wounds or transfer the pain from a person, to the surrounding as heat. This also meant that you could overheat while using this quirk.

Healing the pain of the thin strings tugging at your poor fingers, as well as controlling the robot as to not hit other applicants was a pain in the ass.

But none of that could ever surpass the sheer happiness your parents radiated as your results from the exam finally came.

You managed to get into the hero course and even got the fourth highest rank in the leaderboard.

Wow... Guess you're fucked.

But even with all that horror of being in UA and constantly being in the light of the media, you relished in the pride your parents exuded as they boasted about you to your relatives. Your mother told everyone at work that you got in UA and everytime your father went for an exorcism, he would slyly mention to his clients how his amazing daughter was using a similar quirk to his, to save people by becoming a hero and at UA no less.

So, in the end... Despite being utterly terrified of UA and it's mainstream nature, you were still happy to have gotten in.

After all, your parents mean the world to you, and their happiness is all you ever want in your life.