Blair Miriel's Mansion - A BnHA Ghost Hunting AU

Chapter 1 - Introductions

      My name is Izuku Midoriya, and I have always believed in the paranormal. When I was young an incident happened and my father died in a car crash. I was obsessed with proving that he was still among us, but to no avail. I guess it's a good thing though, seeing as that means he's moved on, but I did find out more and more about ghosts and spirits during my research and stayings at "haunted" establishments.

      I've been friends with Katsuki Bakugou since childhood. I pretty much dragged him along on all my ghost hunting adventures. He's always the skeptical one who comes up with "rational" explanations for everything that happens. It's actually nice to have a skeptic around, to be honest. That way, I can make sure I'm not getting too crazy with my theories. At first he absolutely HATED going on these outings with me, but eventually, I think he started to enjoy the challenge. That, or he just likes seeing me scared sh*tl*ss. Either way... It's nice to have him around.

      We met Eijirou Kirishima and Denki Kaminari in high school, and during lunch would mention the few times we've actually spent a night each in a few so called "haunted" places and they actually seemed REALLY excited about it. They actually begged us to come along on our next stay. They've been in our team ever since.

      Our last member was another classmate named Shouto Todoroki. After Kirishima and Kaminari's first few outings with us, we happened to talk about what happened during lunch and Todoroki overheard us. He seemed like even more of a skeptic than Kacchan, if that was even possible. (BTW, "Kacchan" is my nickname for Katsuki Bakugou. I know it's childish, but I've been calling him that since we were kids, and it's kind of a force of habit by this point.) Todoroki refused to believe ghost existed in any way, shape, or form. Kirishima and Kaminari, who were even bigger believers than me, if that was even possible, started defending what we do and started an argument right then and there. Long story short, Todoroki told us to take him with us to "prove" in the existence of ghosts. We took him a few times, but even if we didn't get any full blown "proof", he actually seemed like he was having fun. Heck, once he confessed that staying in "haunted" houses was actually more welcoming than his actual home. He never explained why, but we didn't pressure him. Too bad we only go on Saturday nights.

      And that's everyone in our crew. Once two girls, Ochaco Uraraka and Mina Ashido, wanted to join us, but being all guys staying in the same room and sleeping together didn't really sound too pleasant with girls around. I really hope I'm not coming off as sexist, because I'm really not trying to be! I'm just saying I don't feel comfortable sleeping on the floor next to a girl, if that makes sense. I just don't wanna sleep with a woman 'til I'm married. Kaminari poked fun at me for being "old fashioned", but the others seemed to respect my wishes and helped turn the girls down. I mean, having what's essentially a "sleepover" with the opposite gender is weird, right? Right?

      Anyway, when we first decided to go on these expeditions, back when it was just Kacchan and me, we had always agreed to do it during a break. That way, it wouldn't interfere with school. Eventually, when we got more serious, and started finding more haunted places, we ended up changing our schedule to "the first Saturday night after we find a new place". And that's what we've been doing since then. If we found a place we wanted to explore, we'd pack everything we needed, save for food, a few days before. (Depending on what day we find it on, that could either be a huge window of time, or a tiny one. If we find it on Saturday, though, we'd wait for the next Saturday.) On Saturday, as soon as we got home from school (Since Japanese schools often have school on Saturdays) we'd take a quick nap, pack snacks, meet each other in Kacchan's mom's car and head to the place. We always went there at around 7:00 p.m., leaving plenty of time to do everything else. We won't leave until 6:00-7:00 in the morning. After that, we take the rest of our Sunday to sleep, do homework, and go over video and audio footage. We usually hung out at my house during Sundays, but as our team got bigger, we started staying at Kacchan's instead. His computer is of higher quality anyway, making it easy to see or hear things better. And afterward, we usually take the rest of the week off, and start looking for other haunted places the week after.

      When our team got bigger, a few things started to change. For one, the aforementioned staying at Kacchan's over my place. But also, Kacchan's mom's car wasn't big enough to fit 5 people. (Unless someone wanted to sit on someone else's lap, and trust me that WASN'T happening... Why are all the girls in the room giving me that look...?) At first, since Kaminari and I were the smallest in our group, they tried to squeeze us in the back with Kirishima, while Kacchan and Todoroki, the two tallest, took shotgun... Well, technically Todoroki took shotgun since Kacchan was the driver. Either way, it wasn't a good idea. We were completely squished and always complained about leg room. Eventually though, Todoroki bought our team an RV. Not a big one, but still. When asked about how he could afford it, he just replied with "my father's credit card". We didn't press any further. I don't know why he went for an RV instead of just like a van or even a minivan. I mean, it was just for five people, we didn't need that much space. But he replied with that he had found a few places outside of our city that he'd like to visit, but it'll take awhile to get there. He was going to tell us the week before an upcoming break, but he thought now was better than ever. We were happy nonetheless. Well, me, Kaminari, and Kirishima more so that we didn't have to squeeze into the back. But, I'm guessing Todoroki and Kacchan are happy that they won't hear us complain anymore. Kacchan's mom seemed happy too, but only because she gets to have her car back, and not find empty Doritos bags all over the floor. We always made an effort to clean up after ourselves, but when cramped in a small car, some things fall out of our "garbage" bags, and it's hard to pick them up. (And by "garbage" bags, I really mean just a normal bag you get after shopping at a supermarket. Whenever we go to a "haunted" house and eat something, we ALWAYS carry a plastic bag with us to put our garbage in. Too bad some of it falls out in the car... Can you blame us? Five teenage boys can snack a LOT especially since sometimes we forget to eat dinner.) Todoroki also bought us a new camera with a better microphone, better movement detectors, better thermo-detector, and better recording devices. He also bought a better computer specifically for our ghost hunting. And whenever we'd asked how he paid for these things, he'd always use the same excuse, "with my dad's credit card". Either his dad is on really good terms with him to let him buy all this stuff, or Todoroki absolutely hates his dad and is getting revenge in his own petty way. I sincerely hoped for the former, but considering the reason he even joined us was because he hated being home, I'm going to guess it's the latter.

      That brings us to now, we've been hunting for a long while now, and it's been pretty fun. I wish I could actually interact with a real ghost sometime, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. Spending time with my friends while trying to scare each other in haunted houses is still the best time I've ever had. We've even posted our videos online and get money from the views. We can actually make a carrier out of this! Isn't that awesome?! Although, I do get kind of upset when I read a few comments here and there, yelling at us that "ghost aren't real" or "you should just give up". Just once, I'd want to post a video with an actual ghost in it to show them. Does that make me a bad person? Especially since I know it won't resolve anything? I know there'll always be comments saying "you faked it" or "it's all a hoax". But, still... I just want to see a ghost just once! Maybe then, I could prove there's an afterlife, and my dad really did go somewhere.

      Be careful what you wish for, I guess.

~***~

Welp, this is the first chapter of my first published story. Let me know what you all think. I know it's just the introduction, so nothing really happens, but I'm hoping you'll like where this story goes.

I might revisit this later and make some edits if it need be.

Unitl next time, see you all later.