Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku discovered his quirk at his father’s funeral

His father, Hisashi, was working overseas when he became a victim in a villain accident. His body was moved to Japan so his mother and him could rest him in peace. Izuku had just turned four the day before his father died, and there he was standing at the casket.

Inko, his mother, cried standing next to him when he heard something. Izuku looked up to see a curly haired ghost standing beside his mother. He fully turned around to recognize the tall ghost with freckles was his father.

But his father had died? What?

“Mommy, why is daddy standing next to you?” Izuku asked curiously.

Inko looked up to see him at the same time as his father. They both looked confused at what he just said.

“What do you mean, honey? Your father, he passed on.”

“No, he’s right there next to you, mom,” Izuku insisted.

‘Son?’ Hisashi’s ghostly figure asked to receive a nod from him.

“Hi, Dad.” Izuku replied while his mother tried to understand what was going on and why was her son looking like that until she remembered that her bloodline could be the reason.

*

“Well, he does indeed have a quirk, a mental quirk of some kind. Would you mind telling me the ancestry behind you and your late husband’s quirk?” The doctor said to the mother.

A week after the funeral, Inko decided to bring her son to the doctor to finally get some answers of why he saw his father and if he actually saw him. After a week of grieving, it was time to get an answer.

“I have a weak telekinesis quirk and my husband, Hisashi, had a fire breathing quirk,” Inko replied. Izuku noticed how his father placed an invisible hand on her shoulder, calmly. Trying to stop her tears from falling even in death. Izuku smiled at his dad before getting distracted from movement outside the open door of the room. With the doctor and his mother distracted, he went towards the shadowy figure that walked to the stairs.

“Hmmm, is there anything from the sides of family that might contribute to his mutation of his quirk. So far as I can tell, I don’t really know what the capabilities are.”

“Well, his mother had a gas quirk that allowed her to lit her fingers aflame and his father could breathe sparks of embers. My mother could move things away from her and my father could pull things closer to him by a few feet.”

“Was there anyone in either family tree that could communicate with the dead or have any connection to the spirits or ghosts?”

“Well, I believe my late aunt on my mother’s side was able to communicate with another realm from what my mother told me, but I don’t really know what she was able to do. My mother didn’t really understand either.”

“Well, right now, your son seems to be able to talk to figures he can only see. He might be imagining his dad as a ghost right now. We can’t tell for sure as of now, unless there is concrete proof.”

“Okay, thanks for your time doctor, now Izu— Izuku?!” Inko started to say goodbye before noticing her missing son. “Izuku?!”

The doctor went with her out of the room. He spotted a nurse and stopped her, “There is a missing child somewhere in this hospital. We need to find him.l the nurse nodded before going on the intercom to inform everyone in the hospital of the missing child. 4 year old kid with curly green hair and freckles.

Inko walked down the halls fast, checking every open room for her son. Hisashi tried to point her in the direction that he saw Izuku go in.

‘I know where he is! Honey, please!’ Hisashi pleaded to the deaf ears of his still-alive wife.

“We have a sighting!” A nurse called out for the doctor and Inko. “A patient reported seeing a young child go up towards the roof. He was alone, but they reported him looking like he was following something ahead of him.”

Inko headed up straight towards the stairs with some hospital staff following behind her. She pushed onwards in the multiple flights of stairs to push open the door leading out to the roof.

“Izuku!” She shouted to the open rooftop, upon seeing a welcome sight of curly green hair. Izuku was staring smiling at the sunset, sitting in a metal bench. He swung his feet lazily, but when he heard his mother he looked at her and waved.

Inko matched right up to him and asked, “Why did you come all the way up here for? I was so worried!”

“Sorry, Mom. Lily looked lonely when she walked through the halls, so I kept her company until we reached the rooftop.” Izuku responded to the worried look on his mother’s face.

One of the nurses straightened up at the mention of the name, “Lily? Was that her name?”

“Yes. She had pretty brown hair and brown eyes. But she was sad because everyone was ignoring her.” Izuku replied

“What else?” The nurse asked quickly, gaining the attention of Inko.

Izuku tilted his head and answered slowly, “She had on a white dress and a white face mask like you guys wear. Um, she had on red shoes with a bow on them. She was really nice! She talked about how she wanted a garden and stuff!”

The nurse’s face dropped. Her face went completely white before turning around to face the others in a low tone. “Lily was a medical student at college. She died from Sepsis from not putting on her gloves on while tending to her garden at home. She scratched her hand after dealing with the manure after a week she started having very strong symptoms. We tried to treat her as best as we could, but the bacteria had already spread too quickly. Her organs failed soon after, and then she died in the next hour.”

“That means…”

“Izuku can communicate from beyond our living realm. He can talk to ghosts.” Inko finished off their thought, looking at the gentle face of her little boy.

As he swung his feet and looked at the sunset, with Lily sitting right next to him

Chapter Text

Deku was his new name.

Izuku was so excited to tell his best friend that he could talk to ghosts! How useful would that be?! He could gather information from the dead if the living couldn’t help. He thought it was going to be great.

But Kacchan didn’t think that way.

Kacchan thought he was lying to him. But there was no way to actually prove it to him. When he said that he talked to a nice girl on the roof, Kacchan scoffed and claimed he was making it up or he created an imaginary friend.

In school, Izuku was being called a liar. People teased him about his fake quirk if it was even real and others ignored his presence like he was the ghost. Outside school, he was a fake to the person he considered his only friend. He got beat up those times, especially when he tried to put a stop to him trying to do that to others. Afterwards, he made some ghostly friends in the park who were concerned about the situation. He visited them each day and listened to their stories of what their life was, back when they were alive.

*

‘Are you going to tell your mother or should I?’ His father asked from behind his desk. His ghostly eyes trained into the back of Bakugo’s spiky hair.

Izuku subtly shook his head at his father. Ever since his quirk was discovered, Izuku found out that certain ghosts have tethers to the world.

Ghosts could have tethers to what kept them happy, to their family to protect them, to keep a promise that they made when they were alive, and etc. He didn’t know the rest of them since he had only had his quirk for about a week now.

Right now, his father had a tether of protection on both him and his mother. Hisashi had promised that he would make sure he would do anything it took to protect his family because he loved them. And now he could watch over them each day until they both joined him in the afterlife.

He didn’t know much about ghosts, but soon he would eventually figure it out with the help of his quirk. He started to write in a journal about things he found out about his quirk. And in another he wrote down his favorite pro heroes and what their quirks are. His father said he suspected his hobby would last a long while.

With another insult from Bakugo at lunch, his ghostly father decided he had enough.

‘Screw this! I am going to give that Katsuki a piece of my dead mind!’ His father snapped before floating quickly towards the blonde.

“Dad—,” Izuku started to say with his hands outstretched towards his ghost dad. But it was too late for any interruption because his father had a plan.

Hisashi, oh so awesomely, picked up Katsuki’s lunch tray and…

Dumped it all over the young boy.

‘Yeah,’ Izuku thought to himself as he watched the blonde quickly turn red with anger, ‘I better start running.’ Izuku quickly hid between the two vending machines in the lunchroom

“DEKU!” Kacchan shouted before hurrying to where he last saw the green haired nerd.

“Why are you blaming it on me?” He said to himself as he watched Bakugi race by his hiding spot. Thank god he decided to hide before he turned around.

‘Wasn’t that hilarious?’ His father questioned between bouts of laughter when he waltzed right over to his hidden son.

“Funny.” Izuku replied to his ghostly father right before the lunch bell rang, signaling the end of lunchtime.

*

“Deku.” An angry voice stated from in front of him.

“Not my name, but yes?” Izuku mumbled to himself before facing the blonde

Bakugo narrowed his eyes at him, “You were the one who dumped my lunch on me, weren’t you?”

“No, that was my dad.” Izuku retorted, plucking a pencil out of his pencil case.

“That’s a load of bull! Your dad is dead! He couldn’t do that,” Bakugo argued back to him. Izuku let him have the last word before the teacher started the last lesson. He was lucky that Bakugo didn’t try to report him to the headmaster.

After school, Izuku made sure to rush out before Bakugo could lay a hand on him. His father right behind him, following his son’s footsteps.

Izuku made it all the way to Dagobah beach with his father following right behind him. He breathed out many times before straightening up.

“I think we are okay. You can tether yourself to mom now. I’ll go talk to my friends in the park.”

‘Are you sure buddy? I can always walk you home, it’s no problem for me. I don’t have anywhere to rush to!’ Hisashi exclaimed, making a Izuku giggle at his father’s insistence.

“I’ll be okay, home isn’t that far away.”

“Alright, but I’m coming back if I feel like you are in danger. I may not be dead on the outside, but I’m alive in the inside!’ Hisashi commented before slowly vanishing to go watch over his mother.

Izuku smiled, walking to his favorite place in the park near his home. He couldn’t wait to talk to the others today. Maybe Miss. Banamufin can talk about her cats again, Izuku wants to hear more about Mr. Whiskers.

When he got to the place, he noticed a new face alone on an old metal bench covered in rust.

“Hello, Ma’am,” Izuku greeted the old woman.

The old woman turned to him in mild shock, “You can see me?”

“I can hear you too. My quirk allows me to talk to other like you.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful, young man.i was beginning to think I would pass on alone with no one to watch with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m about to pass on to another life today. I wished before I died that I could watch the sunset each day until my husband joined me in the same spot where we had our first kiss.”

“That sounds romantic.”

“It was for me. After this last sunset, I will be reunited with him in our own little paradise.”

“That sounds amazing, Mrs..”

“Mrs. Amari. and you are?”

“Midoriya Izuku.”

“Oh, what a lovely name. Say would you join me in watching my last sunset?”

Izuku smiled gently at the ghost, “I would love to.”

Slowly, he hopped up onto the old bench right next to the ghost as he watched the sky fades from blue to orange.

The sunset seemed to be closer than usual, but that didn’t really matter. They talked as if she were his own grandmother, and he was her grandson. It wasn’t until she recognized that the sun would set very soon that she then turned to him quickly with a huge grin on her face.

Mrs. Amari looked at him withhidden excitement, “For many years, I kept a family recipe for many years, but I want you to know my special cookie recipe. My daughter knows the recipe, but doesn’t use it to bake since, let’s be honest, she was very terrible at it. Would you allow me my last wish to pass on my recipe to you?”

“Yes! I would love that!” Izuku responded very happily.

*

It was a long time before Izuku walked into his door with his worried mother pacing in the living room.

“Izuku! Where have you been? Are you alright?” Inko asked worriedly to the somber child.

“I’m fine, mom. I met a friend today who gave me a recipe for cookies.”

“Oh? What’s their name?”

He sniffed before looking toward the window with the fading orange being covered with the blue of the night. “Her names was Mrs. Amari.”

Izuku looked back to his mom with a small smile, “Can you help me make some cookies?”

Chapter Text

Izuku didn’t know how his life turned out to be like this, especially now getting choked by a sewer villain under a bridge His ghost father crying out for him while his vision started going black, no longer recognizing the curves of his father’s face

It all started from the moment that he told his mother about the bullying.

*

Izuku walked shoulder to shoulder with his floating father, who was still talking about when he should tell his mother about what has been going on with Bakugo. He was just entering the first year of middle school.

‘— it would be better if you can just switch to being homeschooled, so you don’t have to deal with that sucker anymore.’

“I will soon, dad. It’s just I don’t want to worry her. She does so much, so I think I can stick it out a little longer.”

His father grunted as Izuku sped up towards the park where he could see all his friends. “Dad, go to mom. I’ll be back home in a little bit. I just want to check out the park for a little while.”

Hisashi relented, vanishing slowly from Izuku’s side to rejoin with his wife.

Izuku continued on his way to the park to see multiple faces he has gotten used to seeing everyday. There was Daisuke, who was an old man sitting on a park bench watching the pigeons eat breadcrumbs. He always wore his boat hat on his head, complete with a little fishing hook sticking out of it. Hidehiko was an average man that gave Izuku advice every now and then when he wasn’t surveying the nature around the park. His oversized glasses that complimented his slick black hair. Kikue was a teenage schoolgirl who acted as a big sister to Izuku. Her school uniform dirtied up around the edges with dirt stains and a darker red around the corners.

He checked in on the regular three before spotting a new face under the tree near the huge fountain. Izuku decided to not pay him much attention as he recalled the recent encounter with Bakugo he had with Kikue.

“You should dump him, he is very bad for you.” Kikue said, looking up into the sky as she listened to him.

Izuku sighed, “I know that I just-,”

“You need to tell your mother if you can.” A new voice piped in.

Izuku turned around to face the newcomer. “Huh?” Izuku asked. Theteenager boy’s ghost had a scarf around his neck accompanied by a turtleneck and jeans. They wore simple dark boots and a dark cloak around their shoulders. “Who are you?”

“Hello, I’m Hirooki. I’m sorry for banging into your conversation. But.. I would advise you to tell before anything bad happens.”

“What?” Izuku asked, with more eased hesitancy.

Hirooki replied, “Trust me. Tell her. It will be better for you.”

“Why? Why are you telling me this?” Izuku asked curiously.

Hirooki looked to the sky, melancholy tainting his words. “I was too late to tell my mother about the bullying before it got too bad to stop. If I told her ahead of time, I wouldn’t be here. ”

Izuku nodded his head at the heavily implied words the new ghost teen said to him.

“I will tell her. Tonight.” Izuku responded, taking his words to heart.

“That’s good.” Hirooki said before walking away. As he walked away, Izuku noticed purple bruises around his neck from where the scarf didn’t cover. Bruises shaped like hands.

Izuku told his mother that night about what Bakugo has done. Hisashi giving him support from beyond his grave as Inko took everything he said truthfully. Inko made sure she could do anything to get him away from the bullying.

*

It was after his homeschool lessons that Izuku was allowed time to walk outside the apartment. His father took up most of the lessons in the morning while his mother taught him when she returned home from work.

Right now, he loved to just walk down to the first floor and sit down on the curb of the next apartment complex across the street. He sometimes drew absentmindedly to take his mind off the school subjects. His dad allowed him his break from homeschool by staying up in their home during this time.

When Izuku was just sketching out a tree branch, he heard a groan from an older woman behind him. He turned around to see a ghostly figure that looked very worried.

“What’s wrong?” Izuku asked, standing up from his drawing spot on the curb.

The ghostly woman paused in her worried pacing, “It’s just- oh dear. You can see me?”

“And hear you.” Izuku stated, getting a rather relieved look from the woman.

“Oh my goodness. Thank god! You might be who I need.” She said to him.

“What exactly do you need?” Izuku questioned, tilting his head to one side.

“Wait no! Not me, it’s the child upstairs. They need help! They are getting abused by their caretakers, the poor thing only has a blanket on a rotten floor.” The ghost woman paused, “If only I knew before it was too late for me. I didn’t find out the truth behind the door upstairs until after I passed on. They seemed.. fine. They weren’t loud or anything.. I found out the truth when I floated upwards into the room to find them. Just… just… alone. Alone and I couldn’t… it’s not too late for them. Please help me help them. That’s all I ask.”

Izuku didn’t know what to say after that story, but he knew what to do. “I’ll call the police straight away.”

“Please. I would, but my hands can’t grip onto the thing.”

“I know,” Izuku smiled at her, trying to lighten the dark mood while the phone rang for the authorities,

After a short phone call where Izuku reported the situation, the police arrived to investigate into the apartment.

An officer with three eyes asked, “Who would have known that these good-for-nothings were doing something like that?”

“To their own kid, no less,” the officer that traveled inside the room commented, their tail puffed up in agitation.

“it’s a shame. Real shame.” Tuskauchi mumbled as he watched the kid get escorted into one of their police cruisers to a highly rated orphanage that could take care of them.

“Who called this in anyway? I didn’t get a name. And everyone who lived here reported that they haven’t made a call and that they didn’t know anything about it.” One officer questioned to Tsukauchi.

Tsukauchi turned to look around the area to see if there was anyone around, but all he could see was a kid with green hair disappearing into the night. He scrunched his brows, trying to follow the form, or at least see anything recognizable. But the kid was gone from sight.

A short distance away from the apartment complex was Izuku standing under the light of a pole with the woman ghost right next to him.

“Thank you for helping me. I can finally pass on, knowing that I helped them.” The ghostly woman said.

“Why didn’t you pass on earlier since you didn’t know to protect them until after you died?” Izuku questioned, his curiosity getting the better of him.

The woman shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess I always had my suspicions towards them, but I never knew.”

“Maybe you were to stay behind to look after them. Maybe that was your purpose.” Izuku theorized.

The ghost woman laughed slightly, “Like a guardian angel of sorts, watching after them, huh? That makes sense since I didn’t really have much to anchor me down to the living. No connections to anyone or anything, so your theory might not be that far off, kid. Well, I don’t really know the rules of the afterlife, but I do know that I never could have helped them out without you.”

Izuku smiled at the woman, “No problem. What was your name?”

“Lin. It was nice to meet you this day, Midoriya.” Lin said as her ghostly form faded into bubbles that drifted into the night sky like fireflies seeking the light of the moon.

“Nice to meet you too. Goodbye.” Izuku whispered upwards with only the passing wind as his answer. The moonlight shone brightly as he walked back home that night.

*

He was happy that he got to help out at least one person before he died. At least he knows that he was someone’s hero.

‘Let go of my son! LET GO OF HIM!! Please, I can’t lose him! HE’S MY SON!! I don’t want him to die! He deserves to live! Let him go!’ Hisashi screamed out, his see-through tears running down his ghostly face as he tried to place his hands on the sludge villain. But with each swipe of his hands, he couldn’t get a good grip onto his son.

Hisashi looked up with his tears eyes to see his struggling son, and when their eyes connected, Hisashi felt something. Something like a familiar heat that he hasn’t felt since… he was alive.

‘Izuku!’ Hisashi cried out before unleashing a flame from his throat. The fire breath was enough to allow Izuku to take in a long breath of fresh air. Just as his father feared, the sludge tried to envelop Izuku again to try to take control of his body. But before Izuku or his father could do anything, a yell from the opening of the tunnel rang out from the walls.

“NEVER FEAR FOR I AM HERE!”

‘TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH!’ Hisashi yelled in his ghost form. Izuku laughed weakly before collapsing onto the floor of the tunnel

*

When Izuku came to, his father was looking down into his eyes while All Might was standing over him with clear relief on his face.

Izuku squinted, coughing while sitting up. “A-All Might?”

“HAHA, THAT’S RIGHT MY BOY!” All Might started before noticing the flinch from the boy, “Are you alright?” He asked much quieter than his loud yelling.

“I.. I’m fine” Izuku stuttered on his words as he looked up to his idol. “What the hell?”

“What is it?!” All Might asked, sweating. ‘My time limit is almost up!’ He thought to himself.

“There is like a dark haired woman like aggressively pacing behind you.” Izuku commented, staring right past All Might’s shoulder

“Huh?” All Might questioned.

“And there are like six other people… oh, and now they know I’m talking about them apparently.”

“What in the actual hell?” Nana asked as the small green haired kid stared right at her. The other six figures looked at him curiously, trying to get a read on him.

Hisashi looked up to her, “Welcome to the club.”

Chapter Text

“What wait?! He can see me? Wait who are you?”

“I’m his father, Hisashi. Nice to meet you.”

All Might coughed, gaining back the attention of Izuku who was more focused on his father talking to whoever All Might was connected to. All Might asked witha. Worried look on his face, “What do you mean about someone behind me? There is no one around..”

“Oh. It is my quirk. I can see and communicate with ghosts.”

“Oh! Well that seems to be quite the quirk! But who is behind me? And you said seven people?!”

“Ah yeah..”

Izuku looked to see the other ghosts standing behind his idol. Out of the six, only one was clearly visible. Izuku has seen this before happens to ghosts. Either the ghosts would be forgotten by the people in the living world that makes them less visible to anyone around or that their spirit has been around so long that their visibility deteriorates. Izuku couldn’t really see their faces or what they were wearing at all. All that he could see were their aura outside their black outlines.

Izuku looked to the woman that his father had introduced himself to. “My name is Shimura Nana. Taught him everything he knows.” She said eagerly.

“Um, her name is Shimura Nana.”

All Might froze, completely forgetting about his time limit before he burst into smoke. Izuku coughed at the smoke, promptly screaming out in surprise when a tall lanky man appeared from the smoke.

“Whhaaattt??!” Izuku

“Calm down! It’s me All Might!” The imposter said before he coughed up blood.

“What the heck?” Izuku

“Ah, geez. Toshinori, you shouldn’t have let it become this bad.” Nana reprimanded softly, wishing she could pat his back when he continued to cough. She only kept her form strong enough to lay a hand on his back for a second before her hand slipping through his body.

“Okay. You must not be an imposter because she is still here.” Izuku mumbled, All Might shook his head slightly.

All Might looked at him and replied, “Nana couldn’t be here. She would have moved on to her next life..”

Nana looked at him sadly before her face became determined. “Quick! Do this thing!”

All Might watch as Izuku looked confused at what seemed to be air. He kept bringing his hands up, pointing his fingers before he finally nodded. All Might watched as Izuku brought his pointer fingers up to poke his cheeks while smiling brightly.

All Might’s eyes widened, “It couldn’t be…”

Izuku looked over to Nana who told him what to say, “Give em’ a smile. The people who can smile are always..”

“The strongest…” All Might finished, his smile growing a bit more melancholy. Nana smiled at him floating right next to Izuku.

“Thank you,” Nana responded with a bright smile, she clapped her hand on his back. Which actually managed to make a hit on him. “Huh?”

“The power to touch things in the living world just depends on how strong your emotions are. And sometimes, when I am close enough to a ghost, they can even last a bit longer with that ability.”

“That is so amazing, kid!” Nana complimented which made Hisashi smile. Hisashi took his place on the left side of Izuku, rubbing his hand on Izuku’s arm comfortingly.

All Might smiled at the young teen. “Well, it seems you have quite the unique quirk. Be sure to make the most out of it. You have quite the interesting life ahead of you. I’ll never forget this interaction. Thank you, young man.”

“You.. You’re welcome?”

All Might nodded before walking away slowly with Nana and the other darkened shadowy ghost figures following behind. They turned to Izuku to raise multiple hands to wave and give a thumbs up to him. He raised a hand up to slowly wave them off, All Might taking the villain in the huge soda bottle.

*

Izuku offered his father to go off to watch over his mom since the sludge villain was brought in. Hisashi hesitated before agreeing.

“I’ll come back if I feel you are in any trouble.” Hisashi retorted back at his son before traveling back to the apartment to protect his living wife.

Izuku smiled. He didn’t expect the day to turn out like this. And he surely wasn’t expecting his father to breathe out fire. He thought about it out loud mumbling, “Would that be another part of my quirk? That if I’m near them when they have a sincere spout of emotion, they could be able to use their quirk? Is it even my part in being there that he was able to use his quirk and affect the living world with it? The only way he could touch the living world is because he has strong feelings to protect. Then maybe it was just a fluke?”

“Hello?” A child’s voice called out. It didn’t seem to be any younger than around maybe 7. Izuku looked around but couldn’t find any living person near him. But he did see a tiny figure walking the beach, yelling out for anyone to see him.

“Why can’t anybody see me? Hello? Please! You can’t leave me here! The others are still there!” The child repeated into the air, their ghostly figure being ignored by the passing jogger. “Is there anyone out there who can help me?”

Izuku walked over to the ghost boy, who was still pacing the beach. “I can see you.”

“What?” The boy asked, turning back to face him. “You can see me? Really? You can hear what I’m saying?”

“Yes. Do you need any help?”

“Please!”

“Okay, I will help. What do you need?”

“I don’t know what happened to me or what even my names is. But there was more people with me when I died. They were in trouble, we were all in trouble. And they might still be in trouble.”

“Okay. You don’t know your name. So let’s start by trying to figure out what your name is.” Izuku said, squinting at the ghost’s face. He knew he recognized that face at least once. “Let me bring you to the police station. They have missing person posters everywhere. We might be able to find out your name by your face somewhere in their database.”

“Okay,” The boy replied, following after Izuku as he made his way to the police station only a few blocks away from the beach.

“From what I can tell, you are recently dead. Based on your aura and color, you have been dead for less than a day honestly.” Izuku mumbled absentmindedly.

“Wow. You must have a lot of experience in this kind of thing.” The boy retorted back at Izuku.

“Kind of.” Izuku responded, opening the door of the station.

“Hello, um, can I see the missing person’s posters?”

The officer raised their brow and shrugged. “Over there are the most recent cases we have been looking into. Knock yourself out.”

Izuku nodded and went to look at the wall when Detective Tsukauchi entered. Tsukauchi gave the curly green hair a double take when he passed the boy. ‘I know I’ve seen that hair from somewhere.’ He thought to himself. He sat down at one of the desk in front of the station next to the officer who let Izuku look at the posters on the wall.

Izuku looked at each of the posters until he found one that looked exactly like the ghost he wants to help. The boy’s face was smiling in the picture. Their purple hair falling to their shoulders in waves. Their bright red eyes looked so happy, unlike what they look like right now.

The name Ito Amida was written at the bottom. His quirk named Hydrokinesis detailed under his name. He was only six.

Izuku looked back towards Ito to see tears dropping from their eyes. “I remember. I got captured on my way home from school about two weeks ago. They… they put me in a room with four other kids my age. I think they wanted to make us villains or do something with our quirks? I… I didn’t get so lucky one night when I was trying to figure out a way to escape. The others were looking at me with fear in their eyes while the man pulled his trigger…”

Ito pulled back part of his ragged shirt on his ghost form to reveal a hole through his chest where his heart should be. “That’s how I died.”

“I’m so sorry.” Izuku whispered to him, gaining the attention of Tsukauchi.

“Don’t be sorry,” Ito said before remembering what was most important, “The others! They are still there! You need to rescue them!”

“Okay. Where did you last see them Ito? Do you remember where?” Izuku asked, not noticing Tsukauchi walk over to him.

Tsukauchi was spending his time searching through the database to find a picture of this kid in the quirk area. From there, he found out why their case of the apartment abuse case turned out to have no one coming up to claim the phone call. He only got news that the lady who died recently had suspicions. And with that retreating curly hair, I think he had a gut feeling what happened.

“Excuse me. Are you Midoriya Izuku?” Tsukauchi came up to the young teen, who froze when the officer approached.

“Yes?” Izuku answered back as a question.

“Your quirk is Ghost Whisper, correct?” He questioned the young teen.

“Yes.”

“Were you there the night we dealt with the abuse case in an apartment? I have a lie detector quirk, so don’t try to escape the question.” Tsukauchi asked.

“Yes. But I need to do something now.” Izuku said in urgency, looking back to the ghostly form of Ito.

“What do you need? I heard you talking to someone named Ito…” Tsukauchi looked back at the posters to see the matching poster. “I’m guessing your quirk is helping you talk to him. So that means..”

Izuku shook his head, “He is already dead, but at least four other kids will follow suit unless you help me.”

Tsukauchi knew the boy was telling the truth. He also knew that the case might be a tough one without his help. He picked up his walk-in talkie to report in to other officers. “Any available unit able to work to solve a code 214 please respond.”

Izuku listened as police officers started to chirp in the device, signaling their participation in the case.

*

Police sirens rang in the air as officers attended their wounded and others brought the handcuffed lesser villains in their police cruisers. Ito was able to tell them exactly where he remembered them being captured. He described warehouse that sounded close to water and somehow close to the road with lots of cars passing by. Tsukauchi found out where exactly that was with another detective.

Ito pointed out where they kept the other children, which led to their rescue from the empty closet. All of the bad guys were arrested since they didn’t anticipate anyone breaking into their secret spot anytime soon. Ito even pointed out the guy who sit him, which led to another charge on him.

“Thanks, Midoriya. We couldn't have done this without your help.” Tsukauchi thanked him after all the police were already wrapping up the arrests.

“It’s no problem. Ito did the most with helping out.” Izuku waved away the statement by placing it on Ito.

“Oh, shut up! They wouldn’t be able to find them without your help to communicate the message to them.” Ito countered.

“We wouldn’t have been able to find this place without your help. In fact, if you would be willing… We have too many cases that end up going cold or unsolved for years. With you help, we might be able to solve these missing child cases, murder cases, and all others. So what do you say to becoming my helper?”

“Like.. you being my mentor and stuff?”

“Yes. You don’t have to become an officer or detective if you don’t want to, but I would like your expertise every now and then.”

“Yes! Thank you for the opportunity!” Izuku yelled out in excitement

Izuku excused himself from the detective, when Ito signaled his time to go. Izuku followed his ghost about teepn feet away from all the ruckus to have some quiet conversation.

“Thanks for helping me, Izuku.” Ito said, their ghostly form already beginning to slowly disappear into the setting sun’s rays.

“There is no need to thank me. I was just doing what is right.” Izuku replied.

Ito laughed before hugging Izuku. “Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to move on. You are my hero.” Ito pulled back to reveal a tear filled face holding a bright smile. Ito pulled away from the embrace to wave as the last of his body, vanished into the pink and yellow colors of the sunset.

Izuku geared up, wiping away the teardrops from his cheeks. Tsukauchi approached gently, placing a hand on his shoulder as he cried for a few minutes.

When Izuku was finally done, he smiled up at the sun before looking at Tsukauchi. B he could say anything more, his phone rang. Izuku looked from the detective to his phone, which he pulled out to reveal his mother calling him. “I should get back home.”

“You should, don’t want to worry your mother about you. Thanks again.” Tsukauchi called out to him while Izuku started to walk off.

“Hello?” Izuku shakily answered.

“Where are you? Are you okay?” Inko’s worried voice poured out over the phone.

“I’m fine. But you won't believe what just happened today!” Izuku responded with a bright smile, watching the last bit of sunset be replaced by a blue sky of stars.

Chapter Text

It’s been ten years since the deal was made of Izuku having Tsukauchi as his mentor.

Bakugo Katsuki was the only one in their school to be accepted into Yuuei while Izuku opted for a more easy life in a normal high school that allowed him to do online courses from home. With those online courses with flexible scheduling, he was able to do many things with his apprenticeship under Detective Tsukauchi.

When he graduated from high school, Tsukauchi offered him a spot in the Police Academy to train to become an officer, and Izuku thought about the offer. He respected the job that the police did for their country, but he wasn’t really sure. When he brought up his thoughts of possibly not becoming a police officer fully, Tsukauchi understood.

“You don’t NEED to be a police officer. But at least take the training, so it would look good on your resume. If you prefer, I can mostly teach you about my job, teach you self defense, and make sure you know how to fight.”

Izuku accepted his offer happily. So while Bakugo was training to be a hero for three years, Izuku was training under Tsukauchi’s wing. When Bakugi graduated with a pro hero license, Izuku got his own black belt in karate and a special badge to use when he had to investigate ghostly cases with no backup near him.

Afterwards, Izuku became a Mixologist and got a job as a bartender at one of the cleanest bars in Japan. The last Izuku had seen Bakugo was on the billboard as the third ranked hero in Japan.

The bar he worked at was a clean family establishment during the day, but it closed for a few hours during the afternoon to set up for a more party setting for more night dwelling social people. Izuku’s job is simple. He mixes up the drinks for any patrons who pay for them, keeps his eyes out for anything that guys might slip into said drinks, and call the cabs for any intoxicated people that need help getting home. His job is to make sure everyone is safe in the establishment and taken care of.

Right now, it was a slow night for both the living and the dead. Izuku normally talks or at least sees a few ghosts during the nighttime near the bar where he worked at. But tonight, no ghost was around and the living people didn’t stick around that long to keep the bar full. Izuku was drying some glasses while a friend of his that Tsukauchi’s friend Eraserhead introduced him to.

“Hey, can I get another one of these?” Shinso asked, holding up his coffee cup that Izuku refilled many times before.

Izuku sighed, “I think you are good with three cups of coffee for your night patrol, Shinso-kun.”

“But Midoriya!” Shinso complained.

“No buts. If you ask nicely, I might just get you some caffeinated tea that might actually keep you awake.” Izuku relented, making Shinso pump his fists into the air with delight. Shinso then froze when his words fully registered.

Shinso arched a brow, “What no sugar?”

“You can have honey. No sugar. I don’t want you to have a sugar rush in the middle of your patrol.” Izuku said.

“No fun… May I please have the tea?” Shinso asked slowly.

Izuku smiled at his friend, “Of course. Coming right up.”

No sooner did Izuku place a cup of tea in Shinso’s hands, Tsukauchi strolled into the bar looking serious. He strolled over to Izuku with a case file in his hand.

“Izuku. We have a case.” Tsukauchi said directly to the point. No one else was in the bar except Shinso and Izuku, so there was no need to keep the information on the low.

Shinso stood from his chair, grabbing his to go cup to pour his tea into. “Welp. That’s my cue. Thanks for the tea.”

“You’re welcome. Bye, good luck.” Izuku waved goodbye to his friend who raised his hand in a short farewell. Shinso took a long sip of his tea before looking back at him.

“Thanks. I’ll need it!” Shinso called back over his shoulder.

Izuku told Tsukauchi to wait while he checked out of his shift. It ended a while ago, but he was just waiting until Shinso finished up. Tsukauchi stood outside the bar while Izuku took care of closing up for that night.

Izuku locked the doors to the front and looked up at his mentor, “So, what is the case?”

Chapter Text

Izuku sat in the back of a police car sitting right next to Detective Tsuakuchi as he broke down the case for him.

The detective cleared his throat before explaining the case to his helper, “There has been a suspected murder in one of the second floor apartments in Hosu. The victim had been missing from their home for a few days according to their neighbors. So far, it looks like they were one of the only members of their family left. The elders passed and the only living members were his sister, her husband, and their daughter. He was quite a loner, only keeping up in his apartment in Musufatsu to do his job of video game testing. Then he went missing a few days ago only for him to be found outside of an apartment in Hosu by the landlord.”

“And you want me to talk to him and figured out what happened in between that time?”

“Yes,” Tsukauchi replied, “It looks to be a simple open and close case, but we just want to make sure. Just a warning, the apartment is very trashy, so be careful where you step.”

“Yeah, no problem. Let’s see how well this will turn out.” Izuku responded, unbuckling his seatbelt as the police car slowed down to a stop in front of the supposed apartment building.

The apartment building looked pretty old, but the thing that stood out the most was the yellow police tape wrapped around the entrance of one of the second floor apartment doors.

“That’s the place?” Izuku asked, nodding his head towards the taped up door.

“Yep.” One of the other policemen chimed in, confirming the site.

“Got it. I’ll go in and try to connect with the victim’s purity since they just be around in there somewhere. Then I’ll do a little search around the apartment and report back to you guys.” Izuku cracked his knuckles before walking ahead to the building.

Tsukuachi nodded, “Good luck, Midorya. And be careful.”

“When have I even been not careful?” Izuku retorted back loudly, climbing up the first flight of stairs.

“I can count multiple times just over the last year….” Tsukauchi replied quietly as he watched the young adult walk up the stairs into the apartment. When Izuku disappeared behind the tape, he let out a sigh. ‘Hopefully this is just an open and close case,’ Tsukauchi thought even though he has a feeling that it won’t be so easy.

“They weren’t kidding when they said the place was trashed.” Izuku remarked, whistling low at the mess. There was empty beer cans, balled up paper, dirty laundry all over the place, and empty pizza boxes strewn all over the floor. He could barely see the beige carpet underneath all the trash and stains. Izuku travels around the apartment just finding more and more trash.

“Hello? Anyone? Um, Jun?” Izuku asked to the open air, hoping to find the ghost of the missing murder victim. “I can help you. Where are you? Just tell me where you are, so I can help with your case.”

“Hmm? Help?” A distant voice called out. Izuku turned toward the voice and rushed towards it to the back room. He carefully opened up the door to see a mostly empty room. There was a dirty mattress on the ground that was covered in holes. It just had a flimsy sheet of material for a blanket. Next to the bed, was an empty desk with its matching wooden chair pushed out. The markers of where they found the body was outlined right near the pushed out chair. And an old computer sitting on the desk.

Izuku turned his head to the far right to see the ghostly figure of the recently deceased facing the wall trembling. “Jun?”

Jun waved his hand in greeting, “That’s my name, right? Heh, don’t wear it out.”

“Hello. My name is Midoriya Izuku. I have come to help you out to solve your case.” Izuku introduces himself squatting down next to Jun.

Jun tilted his head, “My case?”

“Yes, you were reported as a missing person.” Izuku stated.

Jun replied honestly, “Oh, didn’t think people would care that I was gone when they took me.”

“Your neighbors were very worried about you. Can you tell me what happened?” Izuku responded.

Jun blinked, “Oh, I was kidnapped.”

Izuku wanted to roll his eyes, but he knew he shouldn’t. “Why? When? How? Can you tell me something specific.”

“Hmm. I was walking back with my groceries to my apartment. Then, a black van pulled up and dragged me in… They just left me alone for about a day before they made me sit in that chair by the desk. The last thing I remember is… something bad going on with the computer.. I think I read something?” Jun explained.

“Okay, That helps a lot. So, the computer you say?” Izuku nodded, looking back at the computer.

Jun weakly said, “Yeah. They said something about ‘true ideals being shown’ and something about ‘bringing him back’. I don’t remember that well. I don’t remember their voices or faces, so I’m pretty much if no use to you.”

“Hey, don’t say that. You provided very useful information. And you can live on peacefully after this case is closed shut.” Izuku responded.

Jun leaned his head against the wall, trying not to phase through it, “Ahh. That would be nice, but maybe I’ll just stick around for my sister to look after her. We got into a fight a few years ago and never made up. Now I’m dead so I can’t really apologize to her in person, so I’ll make it up to her by watching over her and her family.”

“Sounds great. I’m sure she would love to know you are with her. I could even come in contact with her and wish her well from you.” Izuku offered.

“You could? That would be very nice of you.” Jun smiled.

Izuku nodded with a gentle grin, “I will. Now, let me see about this bad computer thing you are talking about.”

Izuku walked his way over to the computer, leaning over the desk to turn it on. The flickering light of the screen burst to life with a groan from the old built in speakers.

Izuku squinted as the computer flashed onto a screen filled with writing. When Izuku peered is to get a closer look, Jun jumped out in front of his eyes to block him from the screen.

“Don’t read it all the way down. Don't read the whole document!” Jun exclaimed as a warning.

Izuku’s eyebrows raised, “What? What’s wrong with it?”

Jun replied seriously, “It's a curse. When I read the whole thing, I died.”

“Are you serious?” Izuku asked Jun.

“Yes!” Jun yelled, “I remember the guys who brought me here sat m down in front of this chair to read something, I thought nothing of it, it was probably a ransom note or something like that. But they pulled up this THING! And told me to read it fully. So I did.”

Izuku watched in silence as he continued.

“The first two pages I read with no problem, but the last page is when something scary happened.’ Jun recounted.

“You remember what happened…” Izuku mumbled.

Jun nodded, “When you opened up the computer, it brought back the memory. The last page is a kind of cursed spell that makes whoever reads it die in order to collect their living breath.”

Izuku questioned, “What?”

“I know it sounds weird, but just read the first page and you will know why. It’s written by a serial killer known as K.” Jun whispered.

Izuku’s eyes widened. He recognized that name from the various records he found long ago in the police station. His file stood out the most.

K was an infamous serial killer that murdered his way through the entirety of Japan killing over 80 people. He had no morals, purpose or reason behind his multiple murders. He kills his own parents when he was 19. The way he killed was his quirk. His quirk was titled ‘Influence.’ His quirk allowed his words, text, and speech to influence people’s mind to a point of basically brainwash. He killed his own parents by convincing them to jump off a bridge because there was a pot of gold at the bottom to pay off their debt. He was known to manipulate people into killing themselves or killing other people with just a whisper in their ear. He had his own cult following who made up a story of why he was doing such awful things. His followers even volunteered for killing people themselves to pledge their soul to their leader. When he was finally caught, he killed himself with no known reason other than his upcoming trial.

Izuku didn’t know he had left behind a document like this, and apparently it can kill people by just reading it?!

Izuku looks at the top of the page through Jun’s body to see a blurred out picture of the famous K smiling in his mugshot straight at him. Izuku steps back in fear when he reads the first line.

‘The time has come for me to rise from the dead.’

It’s only then that Izuku looks at certain words in the document, not reading the whole thing. With each word of warning, he gets more and more worried.

Izuku and Jun escaped the apartment after Izuku turned off the computer.

“So find anything?” Tsukauchi asked.

Izuku breathed a heavy sigh before looking at him with fear hidden behind his eyes, “This won’t be a simple open and close case. We are dealing with an undead serial killer.”

Chapter Text

Understandably the threat of having an infamous serial killer coming back from the dead sounded like it might be fake the first time you hear it. But for Tsukauchi Naomasa, it was all too real.

Somehow the document left by K had a curse inlaid in the words that made it have the same effect as if he was there right next to you ordering you to do as he said. Naomasa formulated an idea that the cursed writing might be writing from K himself that was influenced by one or multiple quirks from his followers that are in hiding.

With each new day, more people are dying. Multiple people are getting killed with no warning, but they don’t fully know if it was related to their main case until Izuku helped interrogate some of the ghosts while other police officers interviewed people involved. A person who just killed an elderly man in cold blood would have no memory of the incident and just seemingly wake up with blood all over their hands. There was a case where they cuffed someone that was reciting the words from the cursed letter, but once they brought them in for questioning with Tsukauchi they would tell the truth about how they don’t even know what they said. Izuku’s tumbled upon different cases similar to Jun’s were random people with no connections to family or that had a distant family away from them were taken away and forced to read the document until they ended their lives once they got to the end.

There was only one thing that tied all these incident ps to each other. That was the cursed letter of K, his last document he wrote before he ended his own life. At the beginning of the second page, it provides a hint of him promising to ‘grace the living world with his presence yet again’ and ‘being reborn as the ultimate being.’

*

Naomasa was swarmed as Izuku kept working around ten city, trying to connect to any spirits that knew an ounce of what was happening. Most of the time it was some witnesses that saw people get taken into black vans only to see them later as a ghost.

Izuku was having enough trouble as it is p, trying to think of ways of how K could possibly come into the living world.

“What does he mean by that? Is he just making this up to scare off people and for his followers to just sacrifice people to him for no reason? No, that couldn’t be it. Someone in the followers must have some kind of quirk. Or maybe there is a whole group of followers, possibly the same ones that are kidnapping people, that have quirks that can be used together to bring him back to life?”

“Bring me back to life~ Wake me up..Wake me up inside~!” His father mumbled as he trailed behind him. Hisashi looked up, “What? Look, I know it’s bad timing, but that song was my jam.”

Izuku allowed himself to laugh for the first time in what seemed like days, bringing a smile onto his father’s face. Izuku’s laughter calmed down as he felt the vibration of his phone. He looked at the caller ID before answering. “What the problem?”

Naomasa’s voice came through the phone, “Can you come into the station? We need to talk more about the details of the case. And I need to introduce you to someone who is going to help us in the investigation.”

“Okay, be right there in about ten. See you soon.” Izuku responded before hanging up. “Alright, dad. Go back to mom and make sure she is safe.”

“Gotcha, I’ll be her protector like always. But...let me stick around until you get to the station to make sure you get there Alright.”

Izuku smiled softly, “Okay, dad. Maybe you can tell me more about the songs that were your jam?”

“Oh yeah. Haha, be prepared to be stuck here for a while then as we walk and talk. Well you are doing most of the walking, I’m more floating next to you.”

“Dad..”

“Okay, Okay. Let’s see… I was—and still am— a huge fan of Queen. You always liked to crawl into my lap while their music was playing through my phone as I worked. You were so small, you just learned how to walk…” Hisashi started to explain, smiling as the memories flooded back into his mind.

Izuku smiled as they kept walking to the police station. “Do you have any memories about before I was born?”

Hisashi gasped excitedly, “Of course! I could never forget about the day I met your mother. It was set back in my high school days…”

Izuku sighed, “I feel like I regret this already.”

“Too late. Shut up. Feast on the mushy gushy kind of love that your mother and I experienced when we met as young lovers.” Hisashi shushed his son, holding up a ghostly finger up to his lips. “Okay—Where was I? Oh, right! Okay, there I was! A devilishly handsome teenager.” Hisashi took a pause to run a hand through his curls.

Izuku snorted as his father continued, “It was a rainy day, and like always, I brought my umbrella. Well not always, I forgot it sometimes...Okay a lot, but that isn’t the point. So I’m walking out of school with an umbrella raised when I see across the way...the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. And she was standing under an awning all lonely in the middle of the train. I was a kind gentleman with an umbrella, she was a beautiful girl who needed some shelter from the rain.”

“Didn’t she have the awning protecting her?” Izuku questioned with a raised brow.

Hisashi shushed him again, “Not important. It was my moment to shine and no old ass awning was going to get in my way of wooing the girl of my dreams.”

“Okay?”

Hisashi paused in his story, “Right. So, oh wait backstory, I had already known her a bit before this moment, but I never really had a full on conversation with her without choking on my own embers. I think the farthest I had ever talked to her except that moment was just a simple hello before running off. She had the sweetest laugh, always laughing easily at some of the jokes her friends told her. She was so smart, so she was always placed in the top twenty in the school when I was around top fifty. She was practically out of my league.”

“So you took this as your chance to woo her?” Izuku asked, taking another turn.

“Exactly. This was my moment. I had to impress her before I lost this chance. So I was approaching real smoothly with my umbrella. I’m thinking about what to tell her when I got there. Something like, ‘Hello. I’m Midoriya Hisashi. This weather, huh?’ Just something simple to get the conversation rolling.”

Izuku hummed as his father started to act out what he did with an imaginary umbrella.

Hisashi fixed his hair, holding his imaginary umbrella. “So I went up to her, and held the umbrella above her to not let a drop of the rain from the leaky awning touch her.”

Izuku raised a brow, “Uh Huh…”

Hisashi paused with a frozen smile on his face before he slowly turned led to his son, “I looked straight into her eyes and said, ‘Hello, I’m weather.”

Izuku snorted before he started to full on laugh in the middle of the sidewalk with a lot of people looking at him strangely. He sniffles as he held back more of his laughter as he continued walking.

Hisashi threw a hand over his forehead dramatically, “I. Was Mortified. I just wanted to run, change my name, and move out of town.”

“And what made you didn’t?” Izuku asked, dodging a person who was jogging.

Hisashi smiled happily, floating up beside his son with a shine to his eyes, “She looked at me with a smile and laughed. Then she asked, ‘But isn’t Hisashi your given name Midoriya-kun?’ Oh, that was the moment I was totally on board with marrying this perfect woman. If she can handle me at my most embarrassing teen years, she can survive me at my embarrassing dad years. Soon after when I wasn’t making myself a complete fool, we started to date which led to where we are now.”

Izuku smiled at his dad before the police station came into view. “That was a wonderful story, dad. When I get back home, you have got to tell me more.”

Hisashi nodded with a soft grin, “I’ll be sure to tell you the most embarrassing ones. Well, I’ll go back to your mother, but if you ever need me…”

Izuku tilted his head with a smile, “I know what to do. Thanks, dad. Love you.”

“Love you too Izuku.” His dad tilted his head in return before gently disappearing to go back to his beautiful wife.

Izuku walked into the police station in a particularly better mood than he had been in the st few days. The case was really taking a toll on him, even his bartending job with interesting patrons didn’t lift his spirits for long. But his father was always able to make him forget about the troubles of the world even for a short moment.

But his mood dropped almost immediately when he saw a familiar face from his childhood. The one that was gracing the billboard that declared him the third ranked hero, Ground Zero.

“Kacchan?!”

“Deku?!”

Naomasa walked up to them with mildly raised eyebrows. “Good to know you two know each other already. Well, Midoriya Izuku, this is Ground Zero. He is the pro hero that is here to help us with this case. Ground Zero, this is Midoriya Izuku. He has been my apprentice for the longest time, a bartender, and the famous Ghost Whisperer that has helped us in countless cases. You two will be working together until the case is solved.”

Now, Izuku trusted Naomasa….

….but why the fuck was HE doing here?

Chapter Text

Hello, everyone.

I have never done an author’s note before. The previous issue has been dealt with! None of my stories will be limited now! Everything is okay now!

Also another update:

I plan on finishing...

Ghostly Whispers
Oh No, She’s Cute
Screw You Kacchan
Flowers Can Make Even the Worst Situation Better

...by May

Hopefully I can also finish The Quirkless Gamer of North Musutafu by May as well, but who knows with my schedule.

So if you are looking forward to certain updates of specific fics, I apologize for the wait. I do hope to update about three or four other fics per month if I have the time.

Thanks for reading!!

^_^

If you want to talk or ask anything about the fanfics I write, just use the links below. Ask me stuff on tumblr or talk about stuff on discord.
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/passingghostfriend
Discord:https://discord.gg/D8S2FDz

Chapter Text

“Naomasa-San…” Izuku started while staring intensely at Bakugo.

“Come along you two, let’s talk further in my office about the details of the case.” Detective Tsukauchi said, turning around for the two follow him back into a more private setting in the police station.

Izuku gave one look over to his old friend before he followed Tsukauchi to his office with Bakugo right behind him. Izuku knew that if he looked behind him that Bakugo would be wearing his trademark scowl. He knew because of the familiar feeling on his back that he constantly tried to avoid back in middle school.

“What are you doing here, Deku?”

“I’m part of the case, the one who is dealing with the other side of things. I think Naomasa-san already told you about it when he introduced us, Ground Zero. Were you not paying attention?”

“Cut the crap.”

“I’m not lying.” Izuku responded sharply. “How about you listen to the case and do your damn job if you want to help us solve it.”

Bakugo scoffed as he followed behind Deku right into the Detective’s office. Bakugo pushed past Izuku into the office, leaving Izuku to roll his eyes before he closed the door after him to give them some privacy to talk about the case.

“So What is the case so far? What have you gathered?”

“There has been a cursed document left behind by a serial killer named K. It seems that his followers resurfaced and are now kidnapping random people with almost no family connections to read the document.”

“Why would they kidnap people just to read the stupid paper?”

“It causes them to lose control basically. They were forced to read the letter written by K himself as his last document before he committed suicide. Once they read the last page, something took over them like the hands of a deadly curse that caused them to end up dead by the time they were done reading.”

“What the fuck do you mean that they reported to you afterwards? Wouldn’t they be dead?”

Izuku sighed, pushing his fingers into his temple as he rubbed between his eyebrows. “I already told you I wasn’t quirkless. I can talk to the spirits who left this living world, I can talk to ghosts.”

“Hah?” Bakugo remarked back to him in mild disbelief and shock

Tsukauchi nodded, “It’s true. I actually took him under my wing around the time before he started high school for him to help us on cases that we were often stuck on. His help is greatly needed with many cases we end up running into. His quirk grants him the power to talk beyond the grave which gives us an advantage in many investigations. We solved cold cases that we had put away for years all thanks to his help.”

“So what we are dealing with is the followers of a dead serial killer and this cursed chain letter or something.” Bakugo summarized.

Izuku nodded, “What is strange about all of this is that the document actually says something about K coming back in an ‘ultimate form’.”

“Who the heck is this guy? He is just a serial killer from what I read up on him. Is it his quirk that is affecting the letter.” Bakugo asked, looking at the mugshot of K inside the folder.

The mugshot showed K smiling gently at the camera with a sinister look behind his eyes. His shockingly bright blonde hair was brushed away from his face in a slicked back look. His muted red eyes took a more bored look despite the bloodlust hiding beneath them.

“We came to the conclusion that his words might have worked while he was still alive. But since he is dead, we are trying to figure out how his words are still affecting people even though he isn’t alive anymore.”

“Is it a quirk?” Bakugo asked, checking the details on K’s quirk.

Izuku shrugged, “We don’t know yet, but there is a possibility that one of the followers is using their quirk on the document. It might be some kind of quirk that makes something new again, or kind of keeps something in prime condition. Like maybe one of them has a quirk that can keep the influence of K’s quirk on the document.”

Bakugo hummed, “Or maybe K’s quirk is more complex than any of us think. It does say that he could control people to commit homocide or suicide without them even knowing about it with just an order with his words, text, and speech. What happens if his words can affect people beyond the grave?”

“We are looking into that possibility as well.” Naomasa answered.

Bakugo raised a brow after setting the folder on K back down, “Anything else I need to know?”

Naomasa answered back, “That’s all we have on the case so far.”

“Okay, what’s the plan of action right now? What do you want me to do?” Bakugo questioned.

“We need you to provide necessary backup because of your strength and tactics. I’m enlisting you two to be partners further on this case.” Tsukauchi replied.

“What?!” They both said at the same time, glancing at each other.

“You heard me. We need both of your expertise. I have no doubt that both of your minds together can solve this case.” Naomasa answered honestly before waving them off, “Now go discuss the case with each other while I further look into these suspect profiles. I might have a lead, but I won’t know until I have checked up on these files.”

*

Izuku isn’t happy.

“So, you actually have a quirk?”

“Yes, I do. I’m not lying at all, you can check my quirk with the official record if you don’t.”

“I get it, okay? Ha, I’m sorry for not believing you back in middle school.” Bakugo quickly said before continuing on, “Now, tell me anything that I’m missing in this damn case.”

Izuku’s rolled his eyes at Bakugo’s weak apology, “What Naomasa explained was basically all we have gotten so far. I have been doing recon with a few ghosts in the area who seemed to have witnessed some of the kidnappings have taken place.”

Bakugo asked, “So there is no pattern at all?”

“There seems to be a slight pattern at first, but then they would go somewhere completely different from what you expected. It’s like they are one step ahead on where you think they are.” Izuku responded, walking along with Bakugo outside to talk. On the way to the door, Izuku picked up a glazed doughnut for himself.

Bakugo continued as Izuku snacked on the delicious pastry. “Are you going to talk to more stupid ghosts today to gather more information?”

Izuku rolled his eyes, “First off, they aren’t stupid, I know way too many that can knock the brain right out of your head. Second, I don’t have any ‘scheduled’ meetings with ghosts today. If I happen to run into one that can help, then I will go with them to collect insight that they might have.”

“So are you?”

“Listen, witnesses don’t just appear out of nowhere! What I can do is walk around the park and ask around again.” Izuku added.

“How will that be helping out when our time might be limited?” Bakugo asked while his footsteps almost seemed to grow louder in volume as he grew more agitated by Izuku.

Izuku turned to him, “You think I don’t know that?! I have been hurrying to find any piece of evidence that can help with the investigation.”

“Hello?”

“That why-?!” Bakugo started to say before Izuku our a finger to his lips.

“Shhhh.”

Bakugo narrowed his eyes, “Did you just shush me?”

“Yes, I did. Now shut up.” Izuku snapped back, looking towards the scared spirit. “Hi there.”

“You… you can hear me?” The ghost reacted.

“And see you.” Izuku smiled.

The ghost looked grateful, “O...oh! That’s wonderful news!”

Bakugo raised an eyebrow at seeing Deku apparently talk to nothing for several moments. He frowned when he saw Deku laugh during whatever conversation he was having. Seriously, he looked crazy talking to himself like this out in the open.

“Hey, should we be working on a case together?” Bakugo whisper yelled to his ‘partner’. Deku turned to him with narrowed eyes.

“Hey, shouldn’t you not be a dick to your partner?” Izuku responded before turning back to his new ghost friend. “I will be glad to help you.”

Bakugo started at him, “What? You can’t just leave behind-,”

“Bakugo, I need to help this ghost move on and they have already said that they might have something related to our case. I’m going to help them and they are going to help with the case. It's a fair deal. Now come on.” Izuku interrupted, turning to walk with the ghost in the direction they needed to go to.

“Where the fuck are we going?” Bakugo asked.

Izuku replied, “An old abandoned house in uptown. They need help finding their husband’s gift for them to move on.”

“That is the stupidest thing. Sounds like a fucking side quest in a video game that no one wants to perform…” Bakugo complained before Izuku shut him up with a sharp glare.

“If you don’t think you can handle my way of dealing with things, you can just sit this one out.” Izuku teased as he walked ahead of him, intent to keep talking to his ghost friend.

“Like hell.” Bakugo muttered before running up to him. “I will lead, just tell me where to.”

*

Much later than sooner, they had arrived at a small town house uptown. It was a simple looking house that reminded Bakugo of his parent’s house.

The ghost said, floating into the house, “I want to find my husband’s gift. He wanted to give it to me before he passed away, but I couldn’t find it anywhere I can’t pass without it. It was his last gift to me, I can’t just leave without ever knowing what he gave to me.”

“I promise to find it.” Izuku told the older ghost as he walked in through the door after using the spare key that was hidden under a rock.

“Thank you, young man. In return, you can take some candy in those little bowls. I can already imagine that our son is already planning to either move back in or take some furniture out to his house with his family. “ the ghost commented as they looked around their old place.

Bakugo asked, “What are we looking for again? Can the ghost just tell us the information already?”

“Patience.” Izuku whispered, “It’s an equal trade. I help them, and they can help me. Most of the time, they don’t give me anything in return because I help them just because I want to help them...We are looking for a gift that their husband left for them. When we find it, it will help them pass on to the next world. Before they do, they will give us the information we need. All you need to do is help me find the gift. The sooner we find it, the sooner you get the information.”

Bakugo scoffed before searching around the cramped living room first. He scoured every inch in sight for any wrapped gift in the room. Izuku tried to go to the kitchen before the ghost shook their head. “I have searched every inch in there. The kitchen, the bathroom, and the spare bedroom have all been checked by me. I haven’t checked the master bedroom, the attic or the living room that thoroughly yet.”

“Found nothing! I’m heading to the master bedroom to find the stupid gift.” Bakugo said in what seemed like a growling tone as he angrily stomped into the master dons the hallway.

“Okay. Where is the attic?” Izuku asked before following the ghost up the stairs in the hallway.

“I loved these stairs. Me and my husband would come up here to have breakfast while looking out the window.” The ghost reminisced with a smile as he guided Izuku up to the attic. “It is sort of cramped in here though, so we don’t keep many things in here.”

Izuku smiled in return as he finally stepped into the attic. The attic’s only light source was the setting sun’s warm light coming through the window at his far right. There was a table covered in a light yellow tablecloth with a few coffee stains on top of the cloth. There were a few dressers along the walls, but there wasn’t anything else up there.

Izuku took the search every dresser in the attic starting from the far left. The ghost smiled as they sat at one of the chairs at the table. Eventually Bakugo climbed up the stairs as Izuku was looking through the last dresser.

“Find anything yet?” Bakugo asked hurriedly.

“No, but I think I’m getting close...” Izuku said before the setting sun’s light seemed to bounce off something near the chair that the ghost was currently sitting on. “Hang on….”

Izuku crouched down to see a small charm bracelet taped to the bottom of the ghost’s chair. The ghost looked down only to gasp in surprise. “Oh goodness! Of course, he would do something like this… I can’t believe I didn’t find it before...Oh, I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

“Not at all, Sir. Here this belongs to you.” Izuku said, placing the bracelet onto the table, watching the ghost’s happy smile as he looked at the gift his husband had left for him.

“Thank you so much. As far as your investigation goes, I saw the face of one of the guys. The man had ram horns and orange hair. He might work at the grocery store at the corner where the old florist is.” The ghost responded, his figure seemed to shine in the setting sun. “Oh goodness, I hear him already.”

“Go to him. And thank you for your help.” Izuku smiled gently.

The ghost smiled at him before his figure seemed to fade through the window. Hit he looked close enough, he could see the other meet with another figure halfway before floating upwards to the darkening sky.

Bakugo watched in silence as Izuku watched the window before Izuku finally piped up. “We have to look into a worker in the grocery store near where the first incident happened. He has orange hair and ram horns.”

“Finally… did they..?” Bakugo asked quietly.

Izuku turned around, “Move on? Yes, they did. They finally felt complete.”

“Complete?”

Izuku’s face was illuminated by the sun’s light as the night sky began to take over the sky, “A lot of these ghosts are here because they have a reason. It could be as simple as waiting for their significant other or protecting their family to wanting to see a sunset for the last time before they go.”

“Well, I’m happy that they finally found their little bracelet. And now I can go ahead and call Tsukauchi about the new suspect.” Bakugo said before freezing as he looked at Izuku with the moonlight behind him.

Izuk smiled softly through the window as the sun finally set, letting the moonlight finally shine through brightly. The stars decorated the dark sky, lighting up the attic in a soft blue light. Bakugo continued to stare absentmindedly at Izuku before he turned around again to face him.

“What?” Izuku tilted his head as he met Bakugo’s red eyes with his own calm green ones.

“I… I heard you were a bartender as well as being a ghost detective.” Bakugo asked slowly.

Izuku chuckled softly, “I am. You can come over sometime if you behave.”

“What! What do you mean behave? I’m not a dog! I have manners!” Bakugo yelled, making Izuku laugh.

“Nothing Kacchan.” Izuku smiled as he looked up at the moon, “Nothing at all.”

Chapter Text

With the ghost’s tip, Tsukauchi was able to track down the ram horned guy in question. They followed him for two days, noticing how he stopped at an unmarked building for exactly twenty minutes before walking back to his apartment. With his hunch, Bakugo and Izuku were called in for their undercover work on the third day.

Their plan was to sneak in during those twenty minutes and see what the hell was going on inside the building. It had been a few days, but other than the ghost’s tip, they had nothing. They had no lead and no idea where to follow this case since each spot was mostly random. The police did, however, issue a warning to the main area where the kidnappings were happening to warn people to watch their surroundings closely.

So there they were, Bakugo and Izuku, waiting until that ram horned guy from the store approached the building.

“This guy is fucking taking forever.”

“Do you have no patience? What about your pro hero work?”

“Most of the time I get called in for times where we know all the details from the building design to the reason why the villains are meeting here. We have the intel to move forward and strategize. But with this fucking thing we just have to guess our best and hope we don’t die when we get in. “

“Are you getting bored? Is that it?” Izuku asked, receiving only a scoff in his direction before Bakugo angled his head away from him. He understands why Bakugo must be like this since the case is taking him away from most of hero work just like he had to cut back on his hours as a bartender. Luckily for him, the bar owner is very understanding and lets him work flexible hours to let him focus on cases. “Tell me more about you hero work while we wait.”

“Eh, what’s there to say? I always win the fights I come across, striking fear into those villains to never mess with me unless they want a cactus shoved down their throat.”

‘Where the heck did the cactus come from?’ Izuku thought for a moment.

“I never slack off in any fight I get into.” Bakugo proudly said before looking towards the building for a quick glance. Scowling he turned to Izuku, “So how is the bartending going for you? And the whole… part-time detective thing?”

“Rather great. With bartending, I get to meet a lot more people, so I can get more social skills with living beings that way. I also encounter a few ghosts there as well who get a bit sad since they can’t really drink what I’m serving,” Izuku replied. “The detective work is mostly me just using my quirk to help them out. Sure I sometimes help with the minor things, but I never really tackled something as huge as this is turning out to be. Most of the cases I have worked on have been fairly simple. I just hope that I can help as much as I can with this one in particular.”

Bakugo listened before his eyes trailed into familiar ram horns, “It’s time.”

Izuku looked over to see the man enter the building quietly. They looked to each other, nodded, and silently headed over to the entrance that the man walked through. Bakugo paused him in his stride to point up at an open window on the second floor. With a single look at each other, Izuku felt a bit nervous on how Bakugo will accomplish his plan.

*

Izuku coughed into his fist silently before Bakugo shushed him. The plan worked, they got through the open window to avoid any suspicion from going in from the door that ram horns got in through.

“Follow me. I hear voices downstairs, that must be our suspects.” Bakugo whispered. Izuku nodded, silently following after the blonde as he carefully walked down the concrete stairs.

Once they got to the bottom of the dirty concrete stairs, they were faced with a rundown looking hallway. The exterior of the abandoned building was fairly okay looking, but the inside looked like it was ransacked at Black Friday. The hallway’s paint was chipped away to show off the almost moldy brown wood underneath. Half of the tiles on the floor were missing, leaving behind a stained wooden floor. From down the hall, they heard a boost of laughter.

“...the plan going?”

“The message should…..”

“...so he is going it hack into the main…”

Bakugo looked over to Izuku to see him sending their location from inside the building to the police chief for any backup they would need. Izuku looked up to him and nodded.

With a few more quiet footsteps, Bakugo was able to peek into the room containing the followers. They were all surrounding a hooded figure dressed in dark blue as they typed away at a computer. Izuku tapped his shoulder twice to let him know that police is just right outside the door to help when they need it.

Izuku readied a support capture gun from Hatsume Industry. It had five capture nets ready to go that can help them easily capture them before they try to run away. He only had five before he had to reload, hopefully they were less than five people inside the room.

Bakugo gestured with his fingers to show that there were eleven people inside the room. Izuku nodded, making sure his support gun was ready to capture K’s followers. With a deep breath and calculating eyes, Bakugo moved back to gesture Izuku to cause a distraction. They had a silent argument about how to distract them.

Bakugo gestured with the gun towards the big guy in the corner of the room. Izuku looked at him, not exactly getting the message before he finally got the plan. Izuku gaped with his mouth dropped slightly open before aiming his capture gun through the small opening in the door. With a small wish, he fired the funnel looking gun towards the big guy.

Bang!

Everyone looked over to see the pair biggest guy taken out by a huge net that tightened over his form. Some looked over right into time to face Bakugo’s gauntlets as he punched straight into them. Bakugo then took out another escaping follower with a blast to the back.

With quickening breath, Izuku looked around to take down the heavy hitters with the capture gun. His second one was used on a guy with praying mantis hands. Then another with an arm that shifted into a huge sledgehammer. The next one with the familiar ram horns tried to ram into a Izuku this top him only to be bested by the strong net. After his fifth load, he started to reload as Bakugo took down his fourth follower.

Without either of them noticing until it was too late, the hooded figure had slipped past them. With a shout, Bakugo looked back to see just the flash of the dark blue hoodie escape down the hallway. Izuku went to follow after him as Bakugo took down the tenth person in the room. Izuku ran out into the dirty hallway only for him to lose track of the final follower, the eleventh one.

The police came in shortly after to back them up only to see that ten of them were already taken care of. Tsukauchi ordered a cruiser to go east when Izuku told him of the escaped hooded figure.

*

Bakugo was pacing as Izuku waited as Tsukauchi did interrogations. It was about three hours after the take down of the follower meeting.

Tsukauchi eventually came out to deliver the information he had gathered. “Okay. I gathered quite a bit.”

“What is it?” Bakugo asked, pausing in his pacing.

“The followers met with the hacker tonight. They plan to hack into most of Japan’s websites to allow everyone to read the last letter of K, their savior.”

Izuku questioned, “What is the deal with the hacker? It was the one we let away wasn’t it?”

Tsukauchi nodded, “The hacker is apparently very good at their work. Too good.”

“As in?”

“As in we really need to bring them down. If we don’t, the entire country might get this letter in no time at all. On this level, we have about less than a week before most of the websites are hacked into to show the letter all over the country of Japan.” Tsukauchi explained.

“Only a week to find a single hacker in the entire city? He might have moved somewhere else. How can we find them?” Bakugo asked before slowly turning to Izuku.

“And that’s where my expertise comes in.m” Izuku said before standing up from the chair he was sitting in. “I’ll go and see if there are any ghosts near the place we were at to see if they got any visual on the hacker in question.”

Naomasa nodded, “Good. My men will look anywhere you send them in. We will find this hacker together before they can do any serious damage.”

“Even if locating them will be like finding a needle in a haystack,” Officer Sansa added from his chair across the room

It didn’t take long for Izuku to find a spirit that saw the hacker heading towards the ports. With the first hint, the police cruisers headed off to see if they could find anything. And with that, Izuku had to go to his second job..

*

Izuku was shaking up a bloody orange cocktail as a familiar tall figure with blonde hair walked into the bar. Izuku smiled as he saw the gentle smile that Yagi had when he walked in.

Yagi greeted, “Hello, young Midoriya. How are you and your parents?”

“I’m good. My mom is doing alright and my dad is protecting her as always.” Izuku answered after sliding the cocktail towards a lady with short orange hair near the end of the bar table.

Yagi asked, “I heard about the case. Is everything going okay?”

“Hopefully. I know that we can solve this in no time,” Izuku replied honestly.

“How’s Nana? Is she behind Lemillion now?” All Might asked.

“She is still behind you, all the way. Just like you will be with your new successor All Might.” Izuku replied.

All Might sighed with a knowing smile, “Is she still doing the finger bunny thing”

“Yeah. She has been doing it since we started talking,” Izuku grinned, “Did you want anything to drink?”

“Just water. I just wanted to stop in and see how you were doing.”

“Never wrong with that. Your presence is always welcomed here.” Izuku responded before the door opened once again to show a blonde coming in.

“Hey”

“Hey. You actually came. That’s surprising,” Izuku remarked. “Would you want some cinnamon whiskey or do you have another patrol?”

“I can only have about one drink for tonight. I have patrol tomorrow along with the case detailing for the next state.”

“Well, I best be going, you two go ahead and talk.” Yagi excused himself after finishing his small glass of water. He walked out of the bar, leaving the two mostly alone save for the guy who looked like he was about to nap in the booth farthest to the wall.

Izuku handed over the cinnamon whiskey over to Bakugo. “So how was the patrol after the interrogations.”

Bakugo shrugged, “It was short, but I did take care of a purse robber before clocking in. I changed before coming here because I didn’t want to cause a ruckus here or anything.”

“Wow thanks for that,” Izuku replied.

“No problem,” Bakugo added. “How’s it going with you?”

“Pretty good. Bartending is still fun. My parents are still doing great. We just have to deal with this K guy.”

It took maybe only a few minutes before they started to talk more deeply.

Bakugo blew out air from his mouth before he started to talk, “Hey, just so you know, I am sorry about how I treated you back then.”

“Kacchan…”

“I’m serious. I was a piece of shit when I was younger and slightly older, but I grew up when I got to UA. I finally recognized how I was. I wasn’t the strongest there even though everyone around me had been praising me for how strong of a quirk I had. I just realized that they were basically just feeding my ego and letting me get away with stuff that I shouldn’t have gotten away with.” Bakugo explained, “After I graduated UA, after all of the villain attacks, I grew up. I realized that I was acting like a villain to you all of our lives, calling you a liar, doing all that stuff to you… I’m surprised you didn’t kick me in the stomach when you saw me at the station.”

“Would it help you if I said that I consider it for a moment?” Izuku asked.

“A bit,” Bakugo barked out a laugh, “But seriously, I apologize for my past actions towards you.”

Izuku mumbled, “This might be the whiskey talking.”

“Hahhh? No it’s not! I’m not a lightweight!” Bakugo argued back.

Izuku laughed before Bakugo’s eyes focused directly on him. Izuku’s laughter slowed as they both stared at each other for several moments.

Yagi came back in and interrupted the two, “Oh! Sorry. I forgot my wallet… so I’m going to just…”

“Uh Huh…” Izuku mumbled back as the retired pro hero hurriedly took his wallet back and rushed off. Meanwhile Nana’s ghost winked at him before following after him.

Izuku blushed while Bakugo coughed over the awkwardness before they both slowly started to laugh. Their laughter grew until they both relaxed around each other once again.

The case was getting serious, but at least they had a bit of time to unwind before everything became more complicated.

Chapter Text

Izuku was resting at home after returning back from his work the next night. Tsukauchi has been giving him small updates, but nothing major has gone down yet. They are still uncovering a few hints or clues to where the hacker might be hiding.

He thought that it might take another day until his phone starting ringing at five in the morning.

Izuku shot away, pulling himself into a seating position to grab his phone on the nightstand. Izuku checked the phone to see it was Tsukauchi before answering quickly, “Hello?”

“We got the hacker,” Tsukauchi voice came out from the speaker.

“Really? When? How?” Izuku asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he listened intently to what Tsukauchi was about to say.

Tskuachi answered, “We finally caught her, but it was only after she killed someone. Apparently, she might have been affected by the curse herself when she was hacking it into the websites. Either way, we have her at the station. We informed Bakugo already about the development.”

Izuku asked, already standing up to get to his closet. “Do you need me to come in right away? I can, I just have to get dressed,”

“That would be appreciated. We might be able to use your expertise. It might be possible that K is still affecting her body since most of the time, these cases always ends up in suicide after a murder takes place. Or we could all be wrong, and she isn’t possessed as of right now.” Tsukauchi explained.

Izuku hummed, picking up a shirt and pants before throwing them on his bed, “I’ll be right there to help. Give me...fifteen minutes? Bye.”

“Goodbye. See you then,” Tsukauchi said before hanging up, saving Izuku alone to change haphazardly into random clothes he chose in the dark. Hopefully it wasn’t too crazy.

*

Izuku arrived breathless to the station in some acid wash jeans and an old All Might shirt with the graphic mostly rubbed off by now. He was glad he didn't pick anything obnoxious when he was frantically grabbing stuff in the dark.

“Pfft. Nice outfit,” Bakugo’s familiar voice came from behind him followed by a yawn.

“Why aren’t you in your hero costume? You have been dressed in it for the last few times when dealing with the case.” Izuku questioned. The only time he dressed up casually was when he visited the bar, but he only suspected that it was to not draw any attention.

“They didn’t need Ground Zero, they needed Bakugo Katsuki to debrief in the situation. I’m just here to see what the new information is.if they need the hero to step in, I have my hero costume for an easy change if needed in my duffel bag,” Bakugo said, patting the duffel bag resting on his hip.

Izuku smiled, “That’s good,”

“What's good? The fact I’m not in my hero costume?” Bakugo asked with furrowing brows.

“No. The thought of you knowing when to turn off the hero stuff,” Izuku snapped his fingers, trying to say what he wanted to mean but not finding the right words, “Like you knowing when to just be who you are. Some people don’t really tune off the personality, but you are still the same. Your personality never changed to seem appealing to others because you are still yourself. And you just know when to turn it off unlike others who push themselves too hard sometimes...Do you get what I mean or do I just sound crazy?”

“I’m thinking both,” Bakugo smirked, bumping his shoulder to pass him to get to the inside of the station first. Izuku froze a bit before walking in after him.

“Perfect, right on time, Tsukauchi was going to start interrogating the hacker. Sansa will take you to the room behind the two way mirror for you to hear and see it for yourselves. He will call you two into the room if he needs any help with the interrogation.”

Sansa simply asked them to follow him and it didn’t take them any time to reach their destination. Sansa escorted them in for them to see Tsukauchi’s back facing the hacker. The hacker looked pretty standardly normal except for her eyes. On the file in front of them, they supposedly had brown eyes, but they looked very red under the intense lights in the interrogation room. It might just be the lighting or she must have a lack fo sleep, but it did make Izuku worried. Didn’t K have red eyes?

“So Miss. Grey. Do you mind telling me why you think you are here now?”

“Oh, I haven’t the slightest clue, officer. Why don’t you tell me?”

“Oh, this will last a while. Mind as well pull up a seat,” Bakugo grunted, flopping back into the chair and shoving his bag on the ground. Izuku frowned before sitting down as well, focusing on the aura the hacker put off. When he saw her that night, she had nothing like he was feeling right now. It felt more dangerous, desperate, and it didn’t feel like it belonged to her.

“You are here because you are part of an investigation. You are currently a suspect,”

“Oh, do tell me more. Is the investigation about the murder? Oh no! I’ve been arrested for homocide! What ever will I do?” The hacker acted dramatically before chuckling.

“Is she fucking crazy or something?” Bakugo asked roughly.

Izuku had a hunch, a really bad one. “Kacchan, I don’t think that she is in control,” Izuku admitted, staring at the hacker. He watched as a movement almost seemed to mick hers, like a badly performed puppet show with a master pulling the strings too harshly.

Bakugo stared at him before his eyes widened a bit, “Are you saying?”

“Stay here. Be my backup if anything happens. I need to deal with it before K kills the only lead we have left,” Izuku replied.

“Deku-,” Bakugo started, reaching out his hand to stop him.

Izuku turned back to face him while he had his hand on the doorknob, “Just give me a minute before rushing in, okay? Trust me.”

Bakugo groaned before relenting. “I give you thirty seconds, after that I am coming to help.”

Izuku nodded. “That would be enough time for me.”

Bakugo gave him a stare, “29...28.”

Izuku rushed out to the hallway to get into the interrogation room. He kept mumbling to himself if his plan would actually worked.cit has worked before when he accidentally pushed a ghost. He could make contact with them just like they can make contact with him when they are close enough to him and their emotions are strong. He just hopes that his theory is right and that he wasn’t about to push a grown woman out of her seat for no reason other than acting crazy.

“Midoriya, What-?”

Izuku rushed across to the room to physically push the spirit out of the hacker. “Get out of here, K.”

K’s ghost seemed to seepage out of amiss agrey’s body in slow motion. One moment she has red eyes, but in the other moment the red eyes were now facing him on the familiar face of the infamous killer. Miss Grey’s eyes returned to normal while she rubbed her head. Tsukuachi went to help her up while Iuku was still staring at K intensely.

K seemed to look shocked for a moment before smirking, holding back a laugh while Izuku heard Bakugo approaching the door. Once Bakugo opened the door worriedly, K disappeared from Izuku’s sight with a few chilling words.

‘You seem very interesting, Midoriya’

*

After that, Bakugo came rushing in to check the situation. Izuku waved him off, saying that K was gone which caused the woman to physically calm herself doesn’t. She was cam enough to actually respond honestly to Tsukauchi about what happened to her.

She explained she was part of a tech company that dealt with viruses. She was known across the office a s being very good at coding, able to hack into computers to stop viruses at their core. Last week, she came across an article that seemed to have a computer virus attached to it in some way from what she could tell. She went in to try to stop it, but she ended up reading it uncontrollably. Next thing, she knew that her body seemed to have been taken over.

She had brief memories of meeting at a building while working on the document to cause it to hack into places to make it more known. She remembered bits and pieces of things between Last week and now the one who she ended up killing was of her coworkers that she never quite got along with and came to check on why she was missing from work.

She eventually revealed, much to the horror of the ones listening, that K is planning something big.

“He plans to collect as many souls as possible. That’s why his followers have been trying to force people to wreak the document. Once he gets them, he gets their souls.” Miss Grey said.

Tsukauchi asked, “Why does he need them? What is he doing this for?”

“He is trying to use them to conjure up a new resurrected body from their old ones combined with their lost souls that wander between the living and afterlife.” The hacker revealed, “I heard his thoughts while he was inside of my head, he wants to have a strong powerful body like the ones that the old league of villains had. The nomus. He saw them years ago, and have always craved for an impenetrable body for himself.”

Bakugo listened to all she explained. If that was true, this K guy was looking to become a powerful Nomu, and not only that he was planning to basically take over people’s mind. Create his own little world of zombies with him as the impenetrable king.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Izuku admitted. K wanted to basically create an undead, unstoppable Nomu to house his spirit so he can wreak havoc on the living world. And with the propel being influenced by his last words, there won’t be enough people awake enough to stop him.

*

After the long interrogation, Izuku invited Bakugo over to his house to unwin and talk further about the case. Bakugo didn’t voice his agreement, but the rumbling in his stomach made it obvious that Izuku had a deal as long as he had food.

Once they arrived, Hisashi’s welcoming smile fell.

“Hello, my wonderful,” Hisashi greeted with a smile before his expression fell from looking at Bakugo’s face, “What the fuck, son?”

Izuku smiled, “Don’t worry, dad. He is my partner on the case I’m working on,”

“You told me about the case, you just didn’t tell me your old bully was your partner. If you did, he would have faced me already.” Hisashi replied, clawing at the air towards Bakugo. “Once I get my hands on him…”

Izuku whispered, “He isn’t a bully anymore dad. We are grown adults now I’m a grown adult, he is an adult, and he apologized already for it.”

Hisashi glared at Bakugo who was greeting Inko in the kitchen. “Hmmm. Fine, I’m keeping my eye on him though. The entire time he is here, I will be watching him. Like a hawk watching a mouse or whatever they eat. They eat mouse, right?”

Izuku rolled his eyes fondly at his father before looking over to see his mother sit Bakugo down with some rice. “Sit down, Izuku. I’ll cook you two something to eat.”

Hisashi dramatically gasped, “Honey, I know you can see or hear me, but I want you to know that you are defending me here. It hurts my achy breaky heart.”

Inko looked over to the couch see part of the blanket floating, “Darling, calm down.”

Hisashi looked towards her with a ghostly smile that was returned with her own. She might not be able to see or hear her ghost husband, but she can feel him. She feels his presence by the mirror in the bathroom every morning. She sometimes sees how random or light objects will start to float around her without her using her quirk in the slightest. Inko always loved how she would wake up in the couch after falling asleep watching the television with a blanket wrapped around her that Izuku admitted that he didn’t do.

Bakugo and Izuku worked on the case after Kenner on the couch. Izuku did most of the analysis while Bakugo informed every person in the hero business she knew to spread the world about an incoming attack that might happen anytime now. Miss grey might not be inhabited by K anymore, but the hacker document will still be able to launch this rattack if Miss Grey can’t stop it in time. Miss Grey apparently hurt her dominant wrist by spraining it while she...killed her coworker which will hinder her typing ability.

Hopefully the cyber attack with K’s last words don’t happen as soon as they think it might.

*

Hisashi yawned as he escaped the old shared bedroom his wife was sleeping in soundly. He smiled as he visited his son's room only to find him missing from the bed. Curious, he crept out to the living room to see why he was gone from his room.

His son was resting his head on Bakugo’s shoulder while the latter's head was tipped back onto the back cushions of the sofa. Bakugo’s arm was wrapped around his son like he was holding a teddy bear to his chest. Hisashi squinted at Bakugo, flicking his forehead only to see his finger go through. Breathing out, he placed a blanket over the both of them.

Hisashi looked back at the two, “Maybe the kid changed after all of these years. Maybe he can actually be someone worth counting on...”

Chapter Text

Bakugo woke up in the morning lazily, shifting over to turn off his phone’s alarm. He stretched over to finally slide the button over to finally get rid of the sound. He yawned before looking over to see Izuku shift in his sleep right next to him. Bakugo’s eyes widened as he realized that Izuku was practically sleeping on his lap right now.

‘Damn, how many freckles does he have? I could have sworn he had like four on each cheek or something, but they look like tiny constellations on his face.’ Bakugo thought to himself as he watched Izuku peacefully sleep.

Bakugo looks over to see he got a notification on his phone. Frowning, he picked up his mobile to see what it was. He opened up his phone to see that Tsukauchi was asking both of them to come in before lunch to discuss new details on where they might find the last piece of this case.

Bakugo checked the time before taking a deep breath. “Hey Izuku, wake up.”

Izuku weakly opened his eyes, “Hmmm? What?”

“It’s morning, time to wake up,” Bakugo replied.

“Hmm, too early. I’m going back to sleep,” Izuku states before snuggling against Katsuki’s leg.

Bakugo took a deep breath in, “Izuku, you are on my lap. And I’m not your fucking pillow.”

“Seems like it to me right now.” Izuku replied while Bakugo scoffed. Bakugo tried to move away from him only for Izuku to grab onto his arm tiredly, “Stop moving, I was just getting comfy again.”

“I have to. Tsukauchi wants us to come to the station soon to talk more about the case. I have to get back to my apartment and get ready. That means you need to wake up and get ready too, you moron.” Bakugo explained as he slowly shoved Izuku’s head from his lap for him to stand up.

Izuku groaned before opening his eyes fully. “I’m awake now, I’m just tired.”

“Well, get up and get ready. I’m going to be in police station in an hour. When will you be there?”

“Give me a little over an hour. I should be there. But if I’m late, can you write the notes for me? I shouldn’t be too long if I’m that late.”

Bakugo looked at him, “Haah? Not my fault if you come in late. It’s not like I’m going to do your shitty work for you.”

Izuku laughed silently before sitting up slowly, “I’ll be there eventually after I get ready. Go on and go get yourself ready. I’ll go shower and stuff.”

“Hey, make sure you be there, okay? This shitty case is only going to get worse if we don’t find the main source of it.”

Izuku watched as Bakugo put back on his hoes after gathering all his belongings, “I’ll be at the station. Don’t worry about me, Kacchan.”

“Whatever, Deku. See you there,” Bakugo said before he shut the front door behind him. Bakugo smirked when he shut the door behind him before wiping his eyes to get rid of any trace of sleep. Then, he hurriedly made his way back to his apartment to change into something more presentable after a quick shower.

When Bakugo left, Izuku reluctantly got up from the couch to get ready. After he showered, he dressed in a crisp gray shirt and jeans before walking out to see his dad relaxing on the couch he slept on.

Hisashi asked, “Hey, kiddo. Where are you going? Mom is still asleep by the way.”

“I’m heading out to the station. I’m meeting Kacchan there to talk over the case with everyone.” Izuku answered back.

“Kacchan?” Hisashi mumbled as Izuku snagged an apple on the way to the door. “Alright, be safe out there. And don’t be afraid to call on me when you need someone.”

Izuku smiled, “I won’t forget about that. Love you dad. See you later.”

“See you soon, son,” Hisashi responded with a wave as his son walked out the door.

*

Izuku was on his way to the police station, ready to take notes on any new case details that might have surfaced when he stumbled across a new face in the park on the way.

Izuku spotted a new face and thought no harm in talking with him for a couple of moments. He looked so new to the afterlife, like he only recently just showed up.

“Hey there,”

“You can see me?” The ghost asked, pointing at themselves surprised.

Izuku nodded, “Yep. Welcome to life as a ghost. I can see ghosts with my quirk and talk to them as well. I can do a few other things but that’s about it. Did you recently show up here…?”

The ghost responded slowly, “Wow... that means my attempt worked…, but that means… I passed... without making a single friend...”

Izuku furrowed his brows at the ghost before looking back in direction of the police station. Maybe he could cheer them up before the case talk begins.

“Well then, the key to get you to the beyond is to make sure you make at least one friend for you to pass on if that was your wish. You did want to do that above all else, right?”

The ghost nodded happily, “Yes.. I have always wanted a friend to... go to a cafe together or... walk in the park together… That’s all I wanted...”

“Uh sure, let’s do both. I can invite my other ghost acquaintances around here for you to make even more friends,” Izuku suggested, which made the ghost smile in joy. Izuku smiled a bit nervously, hoping that he can help the ghost pass on to the next life peacefully without spending too much time.

The ghost said, “Thank you… I never had someone care for me like you have. No one wanted to get close to me…. they didn’t like me,”

“Why?” Izuku asked curiously, thinking about who to ask to come to the cafe. He might be able to get a snack for Bakugo in the meantime while there.

The ghost replied, “Because I’m quirkless.”

Izuku’s eyes widened at their confession. ‘Yeah, I might be a tad late to the meeting. Hopefully, I can make them see that I have almost been through the same thing. The bullying and discrimination from my classmates because they thought I was quirkless as well.’

*

Bakugo sat in the cafe meeting room with a notebook as he scribbled down notes harshly into the paper.

‘Where the fuck is the nerd? Is he sleeping?! Why the fuck is he missing this meeting?’

Tsukauchi continued, “The hacker revealed that she might know the general location of where the virus will launch from. She remembers going to a certain building with no windows into a room filled with computer screens all around. She remembers it being past the building that the followers would often meet up at, but not much else. She could remember that it was east of that building, but not exactly how far from it.”

‘Did he get hurt on the way here? What if K had controlled someone’s body just to get rid of him? No. No that can’t possibly be it. The nerd is too smart, he wouldn’t allow that to happen without a fight. But where the heel is he?’ Bakugo thought to himself as he took down more important notes from what Tsukauchi was saying.

Bakugo looked down to the notebook to wonder why he was even taking spare notes for the nerd in the first place.

*

“Wow, I can’t believe that someone like me was out there this whole time… if I only met you before it ended. And all of you as well…. You all seem like good people that I would love to be friends with…” the ghost remarked as the rest of their ghostly friends led them through the park with Izuku following them with a paper bag. It lasted a little longer than he thought, hopefully today’s meeting is a long one.

And he recognized the look the ghost had. Finding friends wasn’t what they wanted to stay for, but having friends is their goal. So either he will see the ghost again, or they will continue onto next life. It is their choice, but he has a feeling that they won’t let go of the friends they made today. Kiku and Hirooki seemed like the perfect fit for friends that they could have.

Izuku commented, “Ah, I should get going now. I hope you enjoy being friends with everyone here. Trust me, they are very nice.”

They waved at him as he rushed to the police station only to see Bakugo walking out looking angry. Or for a better word, pissed off.

Izuku collected his breath before approaching the angered Bakugo. “Hey, Kacchan. Did I miss the meeting?”

“What do you think?” Bakugo asked, pushing by him.

“I-,”Izuku started to say, touching Bakugo on his shoulder.

“Where the hell were you?” Bakugo yelled, throwing a crumbled up piece of paper at him. Izuku caught the ball and unfurled it to reveal the spare notes that Bakugo seemed to have taken for him.

“Kacchan, I-,”

“This is by far one of the most important cases I have taken on. This requires every single inch of time I have to make sure this doesn’t affect the people of Japan.and where were you? Why were you late? What was so important that you had to kiss this?” Bakugo started.

Izuku said, “I… There was a ghost that needed some help moving on. They just wanted a friend because they never had one because they were quirkless. I just..”

“Oh, you just had to, right? You had to care about the dead when the actual living people in Japan are going to be in real danger. When will you care about them?!” Bakugo responded.

Izuku yelled, “I do care! I know that this case is important! I tried to hurry as fast as I could after I helped them. “

“Keyword: dead. They are dead. If they are a ghost, you could have helped them after the meeting. When will you actually start giving a fuck about the people living? Are you going to start helping when you can see them as a ghost?” Bakugo asked.

Izuku replied, “You don’t understand. I shared the same as them, I have no friends and I want them to know that they weren’t alone. I know it might have been selfish to act right then and there. But I didn’t know how long the meeting would be and how long it would take….I’m sorry, Okay?!”

Bakugo answered back at him, “Seems like to me you care of the dead first and then the living. Are you going to let some people die just because you wanted to help out one ghost. Are you going to start paying more attention to the case when your mom ends up dying from the hacker’s virus. Are you not going to be late when your mom is a ghost? Is that it?!”

“Don’t talk about my mother! I would never fucking-!” Izuku argued back loudly before taking a deep breath in. “You wouldn't understand. You don’t. They were like me. I saw myself in them, all alone. You couldn’t understand because you weren’t them. You were their bully, you were my bully that always made me.”

“What?”

“Tell me, did you only start to care about me during this case because I have a quirk now? Did you only start to deal with me because you realized I wasn’t fucking lying? Would you have treated me differently if I had been quirkless?” Izuku rambled before adding. “They were quirkless, they suffered the same treatment that you and your little groupies put me through each and every day. The only difference is that you went to UA and I stayed behind. They probably had to deal with their aggressive bully for a hell of a lot longer. I saw myself in them because I could see the other path that would have been taken if I hadn’t made it this far. If I had let all those words get to me more personally then they did.”

Bakugo looked back at him with angry eyes now widened. Izuku’s eyes started to water before Izuku threw a paper bag at him with a cinnamon pastry that he knew that Bakugo would like since it wasn’t too sweet inside of it. Izuku swallowed down an apology after what he said because he thought that maybe he crossed a line before he walked quickly away from Bakugo.

*

Izuku wiped the glasses clean from his previous customers, keeping his station area less cluttered for the next group to come in. He was thankful that he only seemed to work the slow nights since the case seemed to take him away from his work for a long time.

He sighed to himself, fighting back the urge to cry just to get his frustrations out, he knew that he should have hurried to the meeting. He knew that this case was of the utmost importance, but he needed to help out that spirit. He wanted them to feel like they had a friend for once in their life before they passed on peacefully. He did it as fast as he could, but he knew that he got too sidetracked with them.

He was hoping that Bakugo could see his side of things, but he just saw Izuku as being selfish.

And he knew that people were in trouble if they couldn’t find that source of the incoming hacking virus, but he just felt like…

Izuku took a deep breath at the counter. He placed his elbows down onto the countertop and rested his head in his hands. He was just feeling so conflicted. He was angry at Bakugo for not understanding, angry at himself for getting distracted too long while others are in danger, and disappointed that it all ended with a fight.

“What’s up, Green?”

Izuku raised his head up to see the unmistakable spiky hat of Kota, “Kota! How are you? Aren’t you hmmm.. 10 now?”

“Funny. Real funny. You and I both know I’m only ten years younger than you,” Kota said as he climbed up onto the stool, “I’m fine. Everyone in the Wild Wild Pussycats are good. How about you, green?”

“I could be better,” Izuku answered back honestly as he watched the ghosts of the Water Hose duo sit next to their son on either side of him. Izuku smiled at him, glancing back to both sides of him to give him the signal.

Kota smiled softly, “They are here, huh?”

Izuku grinned, “Never left. By the way, your mother says that you could improve your math.”

“I’m trying! The tutor is just bad at their job. I’ll do better than anyone in the class, just watch!” Kota proudly declared before crossing his arms with a pout. His dad laughed, rubbing his hand on Kota’s hat. Izuku focused on Kota’s dad presence to allow Kota to feel at least the slightest bit of contact from the hand.it seemed to work from Kota’s sentimental smile on his face.

“So Kota, Tell me about your day. It has been so long since I have seen you. You should be in middle school now?” Izuku asked to get his mind off his pretty crappy day.

Kota laughed, “Of course I am in middle school. Where else would I be?”

Izuku smiled back, allowing Kota to continue on about what happened that day. He laughed when his parents added their own commentary about what went on. He expressed wanting to go to UA because Eri, his friend, seemed to want to go there as well. He felt like he wanted to be a hero with her. His parents expressed how proud they were of him and how they loved Eri like their own daughter.

His father grinned, “Or should I say, daughter-in-law?”

His wife fixed him a look, “Honey, it might be too soon to say that. Although, he does seem to have a bit of a crush on her.”

Kota’s father looked to his wife with a raised brow, “A little? He freaks out in his pillow almost every day about how she laughed at his joke. Trust me, it will only be a matter of time.”

“I betcha it won’t happen until they get to UA.” She responded back as Izuku handed Kota another orange soda.

His father huffed, “I bet it will happen after their first year in UA.”

“What are they talking about?” Kota asked, looking at the expression on Izuku’s face.

Izuku shrugged it off, “Oh nothing. Just talking about how proud of you they are.”

Chapter Text

Bakugo ran his hands down his face while looking over the files. The police were out there trying to find the room, and there he was stuck at his apartment trying to find a clue as to where the computer countdown room would be.

It has been a while since Izuku and he talked. It has been two days of them ignoring each other when they were both in the same place under the police station’s roof.

The cyber attack was hypothesized that it would happen in under a week, but they don’t know how long it will be until then. They have no idea when it will happen, so everyone is keeping an eye out.

Bakugo had already contacted everyone he knew from his parents to the last pro hero he had on his phone. He told them all about the attack and warned them to stay away from any technology for the week. Which would be hard for some of them, but they know better than to take the chance.

Bakugo didn’t know how to feel about Izuku while all of this was weighing on his mind. He knew that Izuku cared for the living as much as the dead. He knew that Izuku would save lives no matter if they were already dead or not, that’s the way he is. He would probably sacrifice his own life just like a pro hero would do. Just like what All Might would have done.

He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face while looking over the paper in front of him.

He didn’t like how he shared blonde hair and red eyes with the villain in this case. When he stared too long at the smirking mugshot, he saw himself. And it scared him.

*

Izuku was resting his head on his chin while his mother was reading a book in her room. He was thinking about what he said to Bakugo that day. It was quiet between them even though they were still partners in this case. He regretted what he said towards the end of their conversation. He shouldn’t have said that to him.

He should have paid more attention to the case since it’s a danger to both the living and the dead. He just wanted to save people.

Hisashi was floating down the hallway to look for his son. When he finally did, he smiled sadly at Izuku before sitting down next to him on the couch.

“Hey, kiddo. Why do you look so down in the dumps?” His father asked, leaning back his ghostly form into the couch cushions. Izuku shook his head while looking down at his feet.

“I just… something happened between me and Bakugo,” Izuku explained.

“What did he do? Do I need to use my ultimate undead power move of fire breath. I mean, you have to be there to activate it, but other than that I can do that for you,” Hisashi replied back, causing his son to laugh.

Izuku smiled, looking over to his ghost father, “No, dad. We just got into an argument about something. I said some things I didn’t mean and he did too. It was just over a small thing, but it feels so much bigger since we aren’t communicating with each other about it. I mean, it has been a full two days of ignoring each other. And I feel bad, but I don’t know when to apologize or how to.”

“Ah, arguments. I know that Inko and I got into many small arguments. It was mostly what we wanted to have for dinner which is ridiculous. It was like ‘what do you want to eat?’ ‘I’m good with anything’ ‘Pizza?’ Eh, not in the mood’. It was exactly like that. It was just mostly good we would have disagreements about. But if it was a larger fight, we would both apologize after we had calmed down. If you feel like you are in the wrong, just apologize,” Hisashi said with a gentle smile.

Izuku laughed while Hisashi continued, “Everything will be okay, Izuku.”

Izuku looked at his dad after several moments of silence, “I thought you didn’t like Bakugo.”

“Eh, the kid looks like he changed these past few years for the better. He looks like he honestly changed from a bully into a real hero. A real protector for everyone including you,” Hisashi admitted with a tired smile.

Izuku replied, “Thanks, dad. I will apologize to him tomorrow at the station. The group is still trying to locate the building last time I heard from Naomasa. I’ll think about what to say during the late shift.”

Hisashi allowed his son to hug him tightly in response. “I love you, Son.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

Inko interrupted with a teasing expression, “What is this? Am I missing on hugs?”

“You aren’t missing anything, mom.” Izuku said, pulling his mother into his arms for a happy embrace.

Inko gladly accepted her hug, “Have a good day at work, Izuku. Be safe.”

Izuku threw a blanket over his father’s shoulders to help his mother see him. “When have I ever not been careful?”

“Oh, you want me to count?” Inko asked as his father started to count on his fingers loudly behind her. Izuku heard a mention of the one time at the tall building before waving his hands for them to stop.

Izuku argued back, “Okay, Okay. I get it. I’m not always safe, but I do try to be!”

“Oh really? That would be a first,” Hisashi countered while Inko hid her smile at their interaction. She couldn’t hear what her husband was saying, but she had a guess from the way Izuku acted.

*

After sulking at his apartment with the reports of everything, the police finally told him to come to where they were currently located. It was already nightfall when Bakugo donned his hero costume. He meets them at the location Tsukauchi sent, the same place where the hacker remembered where the virus would launch.

Bakugo approached the detective who was standing right next to the hacker. “What’s the plan? How do we proceed?”

Tsukauchi replied, “Ah, Ground Zero. We need you to secure the place when we charge ahead. She says that she can navigate the way, so you and I would be right by her when we enter the room. We never know what might be in there or who might be protecting it.”

“Got it, detective. Give me a few minutes to check the surroundings with some of the men to see around the building. I’ll signal you when it’s safe to come in,” Ground Zero responded, nodding over to a few policemen behind him.

Carefully, he led the way for a group of policemen behind him. He searched around the building, paying attention to every window and door that the building had. The building looked like a regular one fro: the outside, almost similar to one to the others around them. The only difference was the red and purple graffiti painting one of the sides in the back. Ground Zero narrowed his eyes at the artwork, inspecting how the red eyes floating in the purple background.

Ground Zero led the way back with the policemen following him. He walked up to the detective and nodded his head. Tsukauchi gave him a nod back before waving to everyone to follow him. The hacker followed after his lead as they walked into the building.

As they entered the building, certain small groups of backup went through the rooms the6 passed to make sure it was all clear. The hacker started to lead them all the way back to a door that had blue light coming out from the bottom crack. Ground Zero furrowed his brow as he tried to keep an eye on each doorway they passed to make sure nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

They finally reached the door while the police backup was just making their way out of the rest of the rooms. Tsukauchi nodded to Bakugo before pushing open the door forcefully.

In the room, there were plenty of screens covering the walls with a single desk in the center of it all with all sorts of buttons on the metal surface. Ground Zero entered the room calmly while the hacker got to work on the computer to try and stop the plan.

They were in that room for maybe twenty minutes while the hacker worked diligently at the desk. Ground Zero focused his attention to one television that seems to flicker on and off every three minutes or so. Once his eyes were distracted entirely from the hacker, he heard a very high pitched scream coming from the desk behind him. Turning around, he saw the detective try to help the hacker calm down before she pushed him aside.

From the hacker’s body, a sinister chuckle arose from her throat. The hacker tilted her head back as he waved her finger from side to side.

“Miss Grey!” The detective shouted towards her only to receive a scowl from her possessed body. The hacker smirked, reaching into the desk drawer behind her.

“Detective, look out!” Ground Zero charged forward, yelling out when the blade went into his shoulder. The hacker pulled the knife out to strike at his back twice before Ground Zero blasted her way in defense. The hacker landed on top of the desk surrounded by the computers.

“Hahahaha!” The hacker laughed as everyone watched. “Hehe, Miss Grey will always be my little puppet until her body is no longer alive. She has a very useful quirk for my cause as well.”

The hacker raised her finger, transforming into what looked like the end of a jar drive. “She has photographic memory and her quirk allows her to project it into computers. Do you know what that means?”

“The document!” One of the policemen shouted.

“Ding ding ding! We got a winner! Give him his prize!” The hacker screamed out as she shoved her hardrive finger into the desk. “Too bad, she was almost done trying to get rid of the virus.”

The hacker’s red eyes landed on Bakugo’s, “Thank you for taking your eyes off of her for one second, that was all I needed.”

Ground Zero watched in shock as Miss Grey's body slumped forward before falling to the ground. At once, the computer screens started to buzz , letting a pixel of K’s wanted picture on all the screen. But on the biggest screen a timer had been started, counting down from 60 minutes. K’s sinister laughter rang out through the whole room as the countdown started.

Bakugo stared at Miss Grey’s body before letting the other policemen start to care for her unconscious body.

He needed to warn everybody. He can’t let anyone get hurt from this. This was his fault. THIS WAS HIS FAULT. Why did he take his eyes off her?!

K’s voice rang out once again before he disappeared from the screen. His words chilled him to the core…

“I can’t wait to see little Midoriya again. Sounds like a good little boy to help with my plan...hahahaha!”

He needs to get to Izuku fast.

*

Izuku’s late shift was only about an hour in when the door opened to some very surprising faces.

“Hello, Shoto,” Izuku greeted first before turning his attention to the other four pro heroes next to his friend. They were all dressed casually instead of their normal costumes, but he could recognize them from their familiar faces. “Welcome, Pinky, Cellophane, Chargebolt, and Red Riot. I hope you four enjoy your first time at this establishment.”

“Hello, Izuku. I hope you don’t mind that they are here. They came here to talk to you about something,” Shoto greeted warmly as he sat down at his usual barstool.

“I don’t mind. I think I know what they want to talk about,” Izuku answered back before smiling over Shoto’s shoulder. He gently nodded at the long white haired woman standing over Shoto’s shoulder supportingly. Shoto glanced behind his shoulder and then placed his hand on top of his left shoulder where his mother was. His mother teamed up and softly placed her ghostly hand on top of his while Izuku slowly separated away from them to give them some time.

“Hey, dude. You are Deku, right?” Chargebolt asked quickly, leaning across the bar table to get close to Izuku. “Bakugo’s partner in the case he is working on, right?”

Izuku raised a brow, “Yes. You can call me, Izuku.”

“Well, uh, we heard what happened. And we just wanted to tell you that Bakubro has been acting kind of weird these past few days,” Kirishima explained. He thought about the look on Bakugo’s face when he saw him just yesterday night.

“That means he feels bad. He only ever distances himself when he feels that kind of way. Like he just throws himself into something until he either gets his mind off it or the issue is resolved. It happened a few times when he would get into a fight with one of us or during the job.” Cellophane added in, thinking about a particularly bad time when Bakugo pretty much isolated himself for two weeks when he couldn’t save a life.

Pinky nodded, “And we just wanted to check on you since we heard you were his partner. And then we heard what happened and we just wanted to say that whatever he said he feels terrible for. I know he doesn’t really express it that much, but we got used to it so much that we can spot it.”

“Are we helping or confusing you? I can’t really tell sometimes,” Chargebolt admitted. “Look, we just wanted to let you know that he feels guilty and bad about what went down. And we wanted to check on you just to see you were okay as well.”

“I know. It has been a while since I have seen him these past years, but he has a few familiar aspects that I remember well. But he has also changed in ways I always hoped for him. He has become a great hero since I last saw him in middle school,” Izuku explained as Red Riot tilted his head like a puppy would. Chargebolt furrowed his brows at the words ‘middle school’.

Izuku continued, “I want to apologize for what happened the next time I see him. I haven’t gotten any news or update yet on the case, but when I do I’ll just head in and talk to..”

Izuku’s words were interrupted by the door to the bar slamming open. The group of six turned their heads to see Ground Zero with a knife wound at his shoulder. He charged forward with a wince when his shoulder moved while blood continued to leak from the wound.

“Izuku...it.. started,” Bakugo mumbled before slumping against the barstool. It was then that the others noticed how much blood was staining his costume, it seemed he wasn’t just injured at his shoulder.

“Kacchan!”

Chapter Text

“Kacchan! Are you okay?” Izuku’s voice came muffled as Bakugo opened his eyes weakly. Bakugo squinted form the lights of the bar only to relax when Kaminari dimmed them down.

“Ugh, my head. How many times did that bitch stab me?” Bakugo questioned, looking down at the wrapped gaze around his shoulder and back.

Kirishima replied, “I counted three entry wounds. They are minor, but you might want to take it a bit easy.”

“Yeah, one of them was your shoulder,” Sero said.

Izuku asked with a worried tone,“Kacchan, why did you come here? Why are you hurt?!”

“K started the countdown to the virus by taking over Grey’s body again. It said it was only 60 minutes, so....” Bakugo’s red eyes widened. “Shit, what time is it?!”

“19:27.” Todoroki read out loud from his watch. His late mother’s eyes were transfixed on the digital clock on his wrist.

Bakugo breathes out, “Goddammit! Okay. How long have I been out?”

“Only...ten minutes. I think,” Kaminari replied, checking his own Pikachu themed watch.

“So that means we have about until 20:00 that the virus will spread. Get everyone on alert and away from any electronic. This virus will try to take anything connected to wireless. Sparky, send out the message to everyone to give them the heads up. Tale Face, go with Racoon eyes to contact the agency to see about them sending out the warning through television before it gets too close. Shitty Hair, go to the police station. If anything, they might need your hardening quirk to destroy the computers to see if that will help. Icyhot, ...What are you doing here? You know what. I don’t care right now, just make sure that the others are alright.”

“What do I do?”

“Can you come with me? Tsukauchi and the others will need all the help they can get to deal with this. Once it hits, the police will have their hands full of cases if something goes wrong with the prevention.”

Shinso strolled in to the bar casually, “Hey, Izuku! Can I get a coff- oh hello. What’d I miss? Why does the Pomeranian have stab wounds?”

“No time, dude. Come with me and I will guide you,” Chargebolt said, jumping up from his seat excitedly once he saw him walk in.

Shinso shrugged, “Alright, Sparkplug. Let’s see what I can help you with, but after I get a coffee. I don’t think I have the amount of chaotic energy you have.”

Izuku sighed, fixing a Togo cup for Shinso quickly while everyone went over what to do. Cellophane and Pinky had already left to get the word out to the major agency they both worked at. Red Riot rushed out of the bar after giving his best bro a manly hug. Shoto went with Chargebolt and Shinso after Shinso took his coffee.

Which left Izuku all alone with Bakugo.

Izuku sighed, “Kacchan, I wanted to say that I’m sorry. I just...I shouldn’t have missed that meeting because it was important to the case. And I’m sorry for calling you all those things. I didn’t-,”

“Hey, if anyone should apologize it’s me. I blew things out of proportion when we should have just focused on the case instead. I’m sorry too. And once we get out of this mess, let’s just have an apology dinner or something since this isn’t really the time to apologize. We have to get out there and try to prevent this K virus from getting loose to all of Japan,” Bakugo replied.

“You’re right, Kacchan. When we make it out of her,e let’s go to that spicy ramen place down the street,” Izuku suggested with a smile, “I heard they have a spicy competition to see if anyone can handle the heat from the spice.”

Bakugo snorted, “When we get out of here, I’m defiantly beating that fucking challenge. But for now, let’s get rid of the K guy.”

*

Shoto ran off ahead of everyone, with his phone right next to his ear, “Fuyumi? Is Natsuo with you as well. Oh thank goodness! Look, whatever you do, don’t turn on any electronics. No television, no phone, no gaming system from here on out. I think you guys can still use the lights before the attack hits.”

“Attack! What attack? What’s going on, Shoto?”

“Fuyumi. Trust me when I say I love you and Natsuo. I don’t want anything to happen to you two. There will be an attack of a virus soon that will overtake Japan if we can’t get it under control in time. Just go to sleep early or stay on alert. But whatever you do, don’t look at anything that can be hacked into basically.”

Fuyumi agreed softly, “Okay, Okay.”

“Shoto, will you be okay out there? Why can’t you come home too? I don’t want to lose you either!” Natsuo’s worried voice came through the phone.

“I’ll be safe. I need to look after the innocents that have no idea what’s going to happen.i will see you two soon. Save the cold soba from lunch for me, okay?” Shoto’s voice tried to remain steady as he reassured his family. His mother’s form was over his shoulder the entire time, trying to provide him comfort by just being by his side.

“We will both see you soon, Shoto. I love you,”

“Love you, little bro! Don’t get hurt out there!” Natsuo yelled through the phone, making Shoto chuckle.

“Love you both. Goodbye,” Shoto said before hanging up the phone. He focused ahead on his journey as he contacted everyone he knew while making his way to the Endeavor Agency.

Meanwhile Pinky and Cellophane had already managed to get back to their agency to discuss an emergency tv broadcast before 20:00 would hit. Within minutes, they were already setting up what was needed to make an emergency message to all of the nation. Chargebolt has already told every contact he had like his old classmates, old teachers, sidekicks, mentors, retired pro heroes and other heroes that he snagged a phone number from. Shinso made contact with the underground heroes through his burner phone, contacting Eraserhead first so he could get the message out faster.

Back at the bar, Bakugo and Izuku called their parents to tell them about the warning. Inko sounded very worried while Mitsuki’s first response was to ask if it was a joke that Katsuki was trying to pull on her. But by the tone of his voice, Mitsuki learned really quick that he wasn’t fucking around

*

By the time of 19:42, the message went out on all television stations.

“Emergency message ti anyone listening. A cyberattacking virus will strike Japan at exactly 20:00 from several reliable sources. Please citizens of Japan, heed this warning. Don’t use any electronics from this point on to protect yourself. If at any time, you see a letter pop up onto a screen, do not read it. Look away unless you want to endanger yourself and others.”

Dabi craned his neck up from the deserted bar around him in the seediest part of town. He knocked back a glass of whiskey before looking down at his hands.

“All worked up about a stupid cyber virus,” Dabi states, raising his hand up. With a flourish of blue flame, he destroyed the television hanging above the bar that was providing him the only entertainment he had. The television burned from the intense heat before falling to the ground hard.

“At least the electronics can make for an electric kindling for my flames,” Dabi joked, stealing a handful of peanuts from the bucket in front of him. With no one else there, he was all alone. All alone at the same place the League used to hang out before All Might’s big fight and retirement. Dabi’s blue flames burning the tv proved to be an almost sad campfire in the old abandoned bar.

*

“TURN OFF THE DAMN PHONE WOMAN! I DON’T WANT TO GET KILLED FROM YOU BEING STUPID!” A man’s voice yelled from another room as a silent young kid sat in front of the television. The quiet child turned around amongst the muffled yelling to watch the clock change to 20:00.

The child rubbed his eyes, ignoring the large eye bags underneath his eyes to once again turn to the screen. The boy’s sad eyes focused immediately on the weird letter on the screen. The boy furrowed his brow before he began to read the letter to himself while his parents argued. They had just grounded him a few days ago for talking back to them. His stomach growled from the lack of food and the bruises in his body started to itch as he kept reading the letter.

He didn’t stop even when his angry father rushed into the room to check if the television was still on. His mother yelled at the boy from the hallway as the the man went to turn the television off. When the father turned off the television, the screen just came back on to static. The parents tilted their head in confusion until they heard the boy began to squeal in laughter.

How joyous he sounded out of nowhere as they began to laugh their little butt off from who knows what. But the boy’s lighthearted laughter turned more sinister when the voice started to deepened into a very evil sounding tone.

The boy’s sullen red eyes turned towards his abusive parents with a crazy smile on his face. With an unfamiliar voice, the kid greeted his scare audience, “Boo.”

Not even the neighbors heard the parents’ cry for mercy when the possessed boy launched himself at them with murderous intent. Nobody cried when the boy continued to laugh as every screen in that building they lived in turned to static. All that was heard was the boy’s laughter when his eyes filled up with red tears. The corpses in front of him started to glow as the bodies slowly started to combine into one mutilated form. The boy’s sullen form continued to chuckle as every body that was collected from reading the letters from his followers began to form together as one from the power of the curse.

Every body that was killed in any case related to K and his suicide letter was now slowly starting to join together.

“Hahahahaha. All according to plan. Now, let’s see how mommy and daddy dearest will contribute to the heavenly body I have been working towards. I’m sure you two would fit right in as the soles of the body I have wanted for so long. People like you disgust me, so I would take great pleasure as using your bodies for shoes,” K’s voice rang out from the kid’s form.

When the corpses were combined, they slowly started to move out the door to find the other pieces needed.

“Alright, I found two new additions. Let’s see how much more I can rack up. Lovely being your host, but I don’t really want to have a weak child’s body in my perfect masterpiece. So I must bid you farewell, but you have been a lovely guest. Thank you and you’re welcome,” K giggled before releasing his hold on the scared child. K watched from the television as the kid backed away from the bloodstains on the carpet only to faint on his dirty mattress.

“Reminds me of when I was young. Ah, bad times. Good times when I got rid of my parents though. Oh yeah, almost forgot that I have a whole world conquering virus thing going on. See ya kid. Wouldn’t want to be you when the police show up,” K whispered from the screen allowing the television to turn back off.

*

Despite the warning, people still were in trouble. They either didn’t take the warning seriously or they missed the warning entirely. Either way, now there were people in the street running around in chaos. Only a few of them seemed possessed which caused more people to freak out when they saw another murder happen before their eyes.

The heroes lunged in to prevent anymore casualties from the possessed. Some sidekicks went to check on people in their homes still to see if they were affected. Other heroes helped out by escorting the hysterical innocents towards a library where the librarian unplugged any single electronic. She even unplugged her lights and left batter powered candles all around to help with the lighting.

And the glowing bodies and body parts were slowing coming together one by one. One person did notice it happened by they were the one who got killed in front of everybody. Slowly, K watched from one static screen in an electronic store as his perfect creation was slowly being built in front of him with no one paying attention.

All around the streets, the police were trying to hunt down any suspect or trace of K. If they came across a possessed person, they would cuff them before they could harm someone. If they saw suspicious behavior or anything related to a television being on, they would take care of it right away.

Eventually all of the heroes were fighting against the virus all around the city. The virus was trying to reach other parts of Japan, but Chargebolt had already cut off K’s way there. Shinso had basically form the plan with Eraserhead to turn off all power between the big city and the other parts of Japan. With this plan, K couldn’t reach the other parts of Japan. All of the other heroes stationed in other parts are taking this seriously and made sure that everyone’s phone, television, and their laptops were turned off. Everyone was either reading a book to await an6 news or were just taking this time to sleep.

Some heroes were even evacuating some people to some remote parts where the technology couldn’t reach them. Like any library without their laptops on, gyms, some parts of forests, and other places were technology was limited or nonexistent.

Not only the living were freaking out, but also the dead were losing their mind in the chaos. Nana was holding onto Toshinori as he tried to help out in a impromptu shelter in the library. The Water Hose duo was watching over their son as he helped calm Ragdoll down as her teammates went to help out anyone in need. Rei was looking after her son as he froze any power lines to help limit K’s reach.

Izuku and Katsuki exited the bar to go he,p out when they saw the Big Three. Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire Chan run to the scene. Nejire Chan helped Shoto right away in taking down the lines while Suneater captured two possessed people at once. Lemillion was fading through a wall to help out a poor elderly woman by her radio.

Izuku looked back at the chaos they walked into before Katsuki clapped his good hand on his shoulder. Katsuki asked calmly, “Ready, Deku?”

Izuku nodded, looking ahead of him, “Ready as I’ll ever be, Kacchan.”

Chapter Text

“Ah, drat. They cut off my reach,” K remarked through the static filled screen of a radio shop. He watched as many people filled the streets with panic while the heroes tried to reign everybody under control. He had been trying to reach out further beyond the city just for fun. He already had enough bodies possessed to fulfill his big plan, but he wanted to see what kind of chaos he could still bring. But apparently the heroes had but off his power for only this city. “No matter. I can still have so:e fun around here. Now where is that Midoriya fellow? This ghostly quirk seems to be quite interesting. I must ask him what it does before I finish him off. It might prove useful.”

K’s laughter rang out through the speaker of the small television before the static screen faded back into black.

*

“Get to safety! The library should still have room.” Izuku reminded many citizens who were trying to escape the utter disorder in the streets. “Avoid anyone with red eyes, they will try to hurt you. Stick close to any heroes you see along the way along with any policemen you find. They will guide you and protect you.”

“If not, make your way further down to the training center. They can still fit a few people inside their doors!” Bakugo yelled out, firing off a explosion towards the alleyway when a possessed being tried to launch themselves at a child. “Shit! Deku, we need to make these people move faster!”

“I got this, you two! Find somewhere safe for now!” Mirko called our cheerfully before guiding the citizens along with Tentacole beside him.

“Right,” Izuku answered back with a nod. Izuku followed after his partner as he fired off mild explosions towards any possessed person in sight. “At least there aren’t as many as it would have been. The warning worked for the most part.”

“If only I didn’t let my eyes wander...”

“What?” Izuku asked curiously.

Bakugo sighed with regret flashing in his red eyes, “We were at the building where the virus would begin. Miss Grey was hacking into the virus and was almost done... but then I took my eyes off of her for one second and K ended up possessing her again. That’s why the virus started in the first place. If only I wasn’t so stupid,”

Izuku furrowed his brows, “Hey, you aren’t stupid! It wasn’t your fault at all. And I’m pretty sure you would t have been able to stop the possession from happening either. It was more of my fault since I wasn’t there to knock him out of her again.”

“If we didn’t get into that fight, then you would have been there with us...”

“It wasn’t the fight. Tsukauchi thought that I wouldn’t be needed since there wasn’t any ghostly matter to deal with, but then K just came out of nowhere to surprise us all,” Izuku said before widening his eyes. “Wait, do you think we could stop the virus from that room? Is there anyway we could?!”

“The only way as far as I knew was to hack into it before it started. I have no idea if we could actually affect it now. Plus, I tried to destroy the fucking thing to get it to stop, but it didn’t work at all. We could try if that is are only option left, but I don’t know if that will make any shitty difference,” Bakugo replied, dragging Izuku to his side. Izuku crashed into Bakugo’s chest as the sore sign above them crashed right behind him.

“Thanks for that.”

Bakugo looked back at Izuku, “No problem. Now where do you think K will be ‘resurrected’?”

“No idea. I might have to guess near the park since it’s more open,” Izuku suggested.

“Good, we start our search there,” Bakugo said, charging ahead towards the park while Izuku ran by his side.

It didn’t take them long to reach the park with Bakugo leading the way. Well, it was mostly because Bakugo picked Izuku up before flying using his explosions to propel them. When they landed, Bakugo winced from his previous wounds that seemed to start to bleed through the gauze again.

“Dammit,” Katsuki whispered to himself. Izuku looked all around the park with his eyes as Bakugo choked on his wounds that were wrapped in gauze.

“Arrrggh!” An unfamiliar woman’s yell cam from behind Katsuki. Izuku looked behind him to see Katsuki get blown harshly to the ground. Katsuki’s skin scraped badly on the concrete as the woman started to approach Izuku threateningly.

Izuku stared at the woman before rushing forward to her. Before she could take another breath that was meant to blow Izuku to the ground as well, Izuku threw a lunch aimed at her stomach. The woman above his head coughed out a bit of blood before stumbling backward.

Izuku side stepped to Bakugo. “Are you hurt?”

“Ack, I think that bitch made more of my wounds start to bleed out again. Ah, nothing I can’t handle.” Katsuki responded with a tired smirk. Izuku returned the smile, placing his hand on his uninjured shoulder to see about redressing his wound quickly if they had enough time. Izuku was able to take off his white button down he was wearing for work to try and stop the bleeding that was trying to flow down Bakugo’s back. The red blood was staining the orange X on his hero suit.

But just then they heard the woman cry or again. Izuku and Katsuki looked back as yet another possessed person killed the one that threw Bakugo to the concrete with a wind quirk.

Katsuki watched, letting Izuku tighten his grip on Katsuki’s hand as they watched the possessed killed start to drag the woman’s body into the park. Both of their eyes widened as they start a huge mass of....something forming in the center of the park. It was a huge flesh covered thing that seemed to be steadily moving up and down slightly like it was breathing. It honestly looked like a deformed flesh egg just waiting to hatch among the trees in the park.

“What is that thing?”

“Do you think that’s K’s new form? The form that he is modeling after the Nomu...”

“That thing is huge...” Katsuki stated as he watched the possessed man who killed the woman throw her body close to the mass. He turned Izuku’s head away just in time as the man sacrificed his own body to the mass.

The mass seemed to absorb the dead bodies presented before growing larger. With a groan, the breathing if the egg became much more steady.

“Kacchan.....”

Katsuki looked up to see Izuku staring at the flesh covered egg with more emotion than he had ever seen on his friend’s face. The amount of sadness wasn’t anything like when Izuku was like in front of him during their last fight. The amount of horror wasn’t like anything that he had ever seen on anybody he was rescuing.

The amount of fear on Izuku’s face was enough to make him worry.

“....I’m scared...”

*

Hisashi raised up from the end next to his wife. “Izuku?”

Izuku was calling for him no doubt, his son was in trouble. And he needed to protect him. He silently slipped away from the covers to smile down at his wife apologetic.

“Sorry, honey. Our son needs me. I love you, Inko,” Hisashi smile to himself before letting himself be pulled in his son’s direction.

Hisashi fescues on the spiritual pull before ending up near the park. Except this time, the air was polluted with all kinds of sirens and yelling everywhere. He turned to see his son helping an injured Katsuki before looking up to see a very weird looking egg in the park.

“What in the actual hell is that?” Hisashi asked out loud before watching the egg burst. Hisashi rushed to Izuku, placing a hand on his shoulder to let his son know he was there to protect him.

“Dad...?”

“I’m right here, son. I’m right here,” Hisashi reminded, worried from the expression that Izuku had on his face.

The three watched as the egg burst out fleshy red covered arms. It was followed by two very giant legs that just grew suddenly out from the mass. It wasn’t until a huge head popped out from the top revealing a head of multicolored hair from black all the way to white strands covering the creation’s head. The creature looked up to reveal three giant eyes of red that looked down at themselves.

The creature continued to grow in height, drawing everyone to look at the huge creature rising from the park. It easily stood half as tall as Mt. Lady’s giant form. An electric wire was seen running rapid towards the body until it finally connected to the skin of the creature. The creature cried out before their voice was replaced with a much more familiar sinister laughter.

The pussycats were crowded next to each other at their office building, hearing the news straight from one of their colleague about what was happening. They never would have imagined Kota mad Eri’s play date to turn out like this. Shouta and Hizashi couldn’t com pick her up because of the pure disorder that they had to deal with at the moment. Eri hugged Kota for comfort while the Water House duo watched over their son.

Dabi didn’t expect to walk out of the bar to hear laughter that chilled him straight to the bone. With a sneer, he lit up his right hand in blue flame before heading towards where the sound was coming from. He had a god feeling that it was the reason for the whole panic with the televisions happening.

Shoto was creating ice to form an almost ice like prison around a group of possessed people before the creature drew his attention away. His mother’s ghost put a hand over her mouth in shock.

Everyone watched as the resurrected serial killer clapped his hands, “It’s showtime, folks! I’m back!”

Chapter Text

“Oh, he did not just use my favorite quote from one of my top ten movies from the pre-quirk era,” Hisashi whispered despite the fear he had growing inside him from the look of the monster.

Izuku looked down at his partner, “You have any ideas?”

“Beside exploding it in the eyes? Not one,” Bakugo answered back honestly.

“Look, it’s nice to talk and stuff. But can we talk while we walk, or better yet, how about run away? Run far enough to com duo with a better plan than to just shoot the eyes out?” Hisashi suggested.

“Good idea, dad,” Izuku mumbled, helping Bakugo tot stand on his feet. Together they rushed into an alleyway to gain back their thoughts to come up with a solid plan.

Once they settled into the alleyway, Izuku’s phone started to ring. Bakugo raised a brow when Izuku checked the phone caller ID. “It’s Tsukauchi,” Izuku said before answering the phone, “Hello?”

Tsukauchi greeted, “Izuku? Are you and Bakugo safe?”

“Kind of. Bakugo got stabbed quite a bit. We are currently hiding out in an alleyway while some of the heroes are trying to stop the huge monster that K made from escaping,” Izuku responded, “Besides that overall fine....ish. How are you?”

“Honestly? Pretty shitty right now,” Tsukauchi replies. Izuku could hear many voices in the background. “My men are scattered around trying to restrain anyone who seems possessed. Others are searching for homes to make sure the civilians are safe. And I’m trying to check in on Miss Grey at the urgent medical care to see if she can pull through this.”

“Is there any lead on how to defeat this thing?” Izuku asked.

Tsukauchi said, “The only thing I have are K’s medical records and something unspecific on his quirk record.”

“Medical records?” Izuku questioned.

Bakugo groaned, “Dammit! Just get the damn records, we need all the help we can get.”

Izuku replied, “Okay. What is on them?”

“Apparently K had been suffering from tuberculosis in the later part of his living years. It was such a severe case that it seems like if he didn’t end his own life, he still would have died from tuberculosis around the same time. He died young, still in his twenties,” Tsukauchi revealed.

Izuku asked, watching Bakugo grit through his pain. “Anything else?”

“His quirk records that I could dig up say that there might be a weakness to his quirk. But I can’t really tell what it means.” Tsukauchi said.

“What does it say?” Izuku asked quickly as he watched the huge monster punch their arm into a vacant office building. The punch caused so many glass shards to rain down onto the street below. “Anything can help, seriously!”

“Okay. It says something about how his quirk can only be affected if reversed,” Tsukauchi stated.

“What?”

“I don’t know what exactly it means. His quirk basically functions to be a tool to make others do his bidding, but I guess the revise would be to throw it back at him. Like to throw his order or victims back at him in some way? There is almost no report or case from before or after his quirk if anyone trying it though. There is only one single instance when a girl used her own quirk to get away from his orders. There aren’t any details, but she said something about it being like a genie wish.” Tsukauchi continued, shuffling paper, “She said that you would have to move around the order, find a loophole in order to act back upon him.”

Izuku hummed, asking over to Bakugo to help him relax his back against the dumpster for support. “So we just need to find a loophole in his orders. So that means the order we need to find a loophole in is in the document he sent out, right?”

“But That would basically mean suicide! If one of us reads it, we are doomed.”

“So we just have to find someone who already read it, but is still coherent to tell us about it.”

“Like who?”

‘Midoriya?! Is that you?’ A strangely familiar voice called out.

Izuku turned around to see Jun’s ghostly figure coming up in them. In the distance, Izuku heard another crash of a building being crushed upon the monster’s impact. “Jun?!”

“Who?” Hisashi and Bakugo asked at the same time.

“Jun. He is one of the ghosts in the K case, the one which caused the case to be open. We wouldn’t have gotten any warning or lead in this case if it weren’t for him.”

“Oh, I didn’t do much of anything. It was all you,”

“Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“I saw that K had actually accomplished his whole virus document thing and ran out here. I don’t know exactly why, I just feel a pull to that huge thing.”

“The monster?”

“Wait, are you saying you feel a pull? Like a pull as in...?”

“I just feel like he has something that is keeping me here. Like I have the lock and he is holding back the key from me if that makes any sense.”

“Like a tether. K’s Nomu creation is most likely made up entirely of the human corpses that he got from his last document. Jun isn’t able to leave into the next life without moving on naturally. But since he died so suddenly even if he fulfilled or doesn’t have a purpose anymore, he wouldn’t be able to sense his spirit isn’t at rest.”

“Wait, so what you are saying is that this ghost can5 move in because K’s Nomu creation is technically holding him back.”

“Yes! Tethers can hold the ghost or spirit to the living world in multiple ways. Like with my dad, he has a tether to protect me and my mom. Others have tethers of love or friendship that keeps them there to fulfill their main purpose of staying here. But in order to do that, all souls must be in some sort of rest whether their body is buried, cremated or kept sacred. But when K started to create this monstrosity, all he is doing is keeping the souls from. Moving on. Effectively trapping them here tied to the Nomu that they wanted no part in.”

‘So what happens now?’ Hisashi asked. ‘How can we help them? How can we stop this K person?’

“Jun, you read the document,” Izuku said, “Can you please read it to us? Or at least the last page of it since that is where the curse is? We need to find out if there is any kind of loophole in his document,”

Bakugo liked his tongue, “And we might want to do it fast before he ends up destroying the city.”

“Alright, just bring me to a computerized something,”

“I know where it will most likely cause damage. Ugh, follow me,” Bakugo grunted, holding his side for a moment. “We need to get back to that warehouse place. Not too far from here actually, I ran from there to the bar you worked at. Of course, we some extra power behind my hands.”

“We can’t exactly make it past K without him spotting us.”

“Then we use the firepower to get us there quicker. I can call on Icyhot to make a distraction long enough for us to sneak by. And then just tell the others to hold him back from the warehouse while we figure this out. I figure since he launched the virus there, it would be more connected to him to something. Plus, it seems to be the best place in town to get a working connection,” Bakugo answered back. Izuku bit his lip when he saw Bakugo grit his teeth in pain.

Izuku shook his head, “Are you sure you will be able to make it? Kacchan, you’re still hurt,”

“So what? The city is still in danger. A couple of stab wounds never killed anybody. Well, at least not like four of them. Plus, they weren’t in any lethal ass areas, so I’m fine for the time being,” Bakugo replied.

“Fine. We really don’t have the time to come up with any backup strategy. We barely even had time to talk amongst ourselves out in the open like this... Okay. Call on Shoto. We need his firepower to aim right at the middle eye of the creature to throw K’s depth perception off. Tell him to find anybody near that can also help. We need all the help we can get to slow K down,” Izuku relented, throwing an arm around Bakugo’s waist for support. “Just tell me what to do, Kacchan.”

“Alright, nerd. Let’s do this,” Bakugo smirked.

.

Shoto kept throwing ice wall after ice wall to slow down the creature from coming any further down the street. Lemillion was phasing through buildings to make sure every civilian was accounted for. He eventually found a crying child next to his two dead parents in an apartment close by. Lemillion helped the boy out and brought him to the daycare center where some school nurses were gathered to take in the children who were hurt during the whole crisis. Tamaki was using his tentacles to rush through the debris to make sure nobody was trapped underneath.

Shoto just kept staring up at the creature. If he looked closely enough, he could see the parts where some areas of the skin were stitched together to another. His arm could be made up of skin patches ranging from the weirdest shade of green all the way to the palest purple on its shoulder. It looked like a Frankenstein version Nomu matchup of the ones he fought during his time in UA. The three eyes were unnerving as the red eyes stared down at all the heroes like they were nothing but tacks in his way.

Shoto grunted, allowing his left side to warm him up in preparation for another attack. Maybe he should aim fire at the joints to see if any damage could be done. His ice didn’t seem to affect the creature, it just seemed to slow them down.

“Hey, Icyhot!”

“Ground Zero, where are you? What is your condition?”

Bakugo growled back, “You Poland flag bitch. You already know that I got stabbed!”

“Did you get stabbed again?” Shoto asked.

He could hear Bakugo breathe out angrily, “Yeah.”

Shoto rolled his eyes, “Not surprised.”

“Look, I didn’t call for your sass, alright? Deku and I need to get to a warehouse. It is in the direction that the Nomu thing is looking towards. I need you and whoever the fuck to distract him, so he doesn’t see us crossing.” Bakugo responded.

“Why does it matter if he sees you?” Shoto questioned.

Bakugo sighed, “I don’t know why. But he has an eye out for Deku. I need to try to get to the warehouse because it might actually have something that can help us take care of this huge bitch.”

“Got it. What do you want me to do?”

“Just hold it off, block his vision and distract him,” Bakugo ordered.

Shoto furrowed his brows, “What do you think I have been doing all this time?!”

“Well do it better. It looks like you aren’t succeeding much at your job!” Bakugo growled out. “I don’t care what backup you use. You can call a villain in for all I care, block their vision!”

“I’ll do my best. I’ll send you a signal.”

Bakugo said, “Don’t bother, I can see you from here. When I see that thing isn’t looking, we are rushing towards the warehouse.”

“I’ll just freeze the stop sign for a signal. At least to tell the others around me to clear a path,” Shoto sighed.

“Thanks,” Bakugo said.

“No problem,” Shoto replied.

Shoto looked towards where some blue light was coming from. Suddenly he sees a burst of blue fire erupt from the alleyway closest to him. He sees Dabi come out from the flames, staggering past the garbage bags strewn about.

“I don’t like the looks of that guy. It would be better as kindling then whatever destructive shit it is trying to pull here,” Dabi complained.

“Hey, I need your help.” Shoto said.

Dabi frowned, “Ehhh? Why should I help a hero?”

“Because if you don’t this thing will kill you and me. There is a bigger threat than threatens both heroes and other villains. So, just call this a truce for a night you can get back to trying to get rid of all of us the next day. Okay?” Shoto offered.

Fine, hero. I’m only taking it since I get to cause real damage.” Dabi stated before lighting up his arm in blue flames. Shoto rushed forward with Dabi.

Dabi’s right side illuminating with blue and Shoto’s left side protruding red flames. Together they launched a swirl of blue and red flames directly into the Nomu’s face. With the distraction, Shoto froze a stop sign right as he saw Deku getting half dragged by Bakugo who was exploding his way past the street

Dabi clicked his tongue, “Not too shabby, Shoto.”

“Nice work, Dabi,” Shoto returned.

Meanwhile, without the two hearing, their mother was looking upon the two of them with a smile. Just happy that her eldest and youngest son was there with her together. “Touya...” she said, reaching out with her hand to brush against his black hair, trying to tuck it behind his ear. Dabi turned his head when he felt a touch of the wind before turning his attention right back on the freak in front of him. The smoke around the eyes of the creature cleared, greeting them with the sight of the skin around the eyes being burnt.

“Awww, look at that. The Nomu can withstand a little fire to the face. Let’s see how much it will take to crack,” Dabi stated with a devious smirk.

*

Meanwhile, back at her apartment in Musutafu, Midoriya Inko was getting very worried about her son. She knew better than to turn on any electronics, but she couldn’t help the feeling that something was wrong.

What does she do? Her baby is in trouble and she has no idea where he is...

Wait, she has a very old school phone that can only make calls. It couldn’t connect to the internet, so she must be safe with it. It could bare,y even save a picture it wouldn’t be able to download any kind of document that Izuku warned her about.

Now, who to call?

Chapter Text

“Ow, Ow,” Bakugo mumbled as he continued to drag himself and Izuku towards the warehouse. They were picking up speed, but with each step, he could feel with stab wounds tug down. Izuku’s support was the one if the things that were actually helping Bakugo run at this point.

“Should we slow down?” Izuku asked, glancing back to see his father sneaking glances behind them to make sure the creature wasn’t behind them.

“We can’t. We can’t right now. Shoto can’t hold him for that long and we need to find its weakness. If we can’t, we are all fucked,” Bakugo said with a grimace as they slowly got nearer to the location. “There! That’s it. The other policemen should be in the area, but I don’t think there are any left inside. Let’s go!”

Izuku picked up the pace towards the building while Jun and Hisashi continued to follow the two. Bakugo pushed past the broken door to charge inside with Izuku on his arm.

“This is it,”

“Okay. What exactly do I do? Does the computer work still?” Izuku questioned, staring at the bright screen that was still on. But the only thing it was showing was a partner of white static that danced across the screen.

“It fucking better!” Bakugo whispered yelled at the white screen. Bakugo threw a fist down onto the controls to fix the screen. Once he looked up, the screen was fading from static to a continuous screen of words. “I got it working!”

“Look away!” Izuku whispered yelled hurriedly, turning Bakugo’s head away. “I don’t know if that is the actual letter or not. But better to be safe than sorry.”

Izuku looked over to Jun who was staring at the screen with determination in his faded eyes, “Jun?”

“I’m on it. All I have to find is a weakness in the words, right?”

“Yes, anything like that. If you could get anything like a hint at a weakness in his quirk, that would be helpful,” Izuku retorted. Izuku held his arm on Bakugo’s waist as they both looked away from the screen. Hisashi looked at the screen skeptically while Jun started to read the document again.

Izuku continued to stare around the room before fixing his gaze in Bakugo, “Kacchan, are you okay?”

“Define Okay,” Bakugo groaned. “I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with worse in bigger cases, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

“When we get out this, I’ll get you help right away. I don’t want you to suffer for long, so hopefully we can figure this out quickly,” Izuku responded reassuringly.

“Yeah.”

The ‘hopefully’ went unsaid as both of them waited for Jun to finish reading the document as quickly as he could.

*

Dabi and Shoto continued their fight against the monster. Lemillion and the other rescue heroes had already gotten the people in safe places all around the area. The police reported that they have captured every last possessed person they could find in the area that was infected with the virus.

“Get the right! It’s wide open!” Shoto yelled. Dabi scoffed, following the order to launch his blue fire towards the side torso of the creature that was unblocked. The creature recoiled when the fire made contact with the skin. The creature scratched down at Dabi with a giant hand in irritation, only to hiss when Dabi moved away at the last moment.

“God, this piece of shit won’t stop, huh? What does it take to get this bitch to go down?!” Dabi shouted in anger. The flames and ice would only prevent the creature for a minimum of a minute before the area regenerated. It would do enough damage to stall, but not to defeat them.

“I don’t know. It feels like the nomus we had to face back in high school,” Shoto admitted.

Dabi snorted, “Heh. Is this making you walk down memory lane?”

“Yes, and in all the worse ways,” Shoto muttered, throwing up an ice wall to seize their walking before freezing them down underneath their feet.

Both of them watched as the creature slipped in the ice in almost slow motion before landing on their back on the street. The cars that the creature’s back almost crushed started their alarms, causing the area to be filled with noise. It was annoying for them, even the creature who immediately shushed the alarms by smashing their fists against the cars to quiet them.

Their mother watched over their shoulders as the creature tried to get back up. Rei’s eyebrows scrunched up when she noticed a lot of spirits gather around the body of the creature. ‘They aren’t going to help them, are they?’ She thought for a moment before truly watching how they interacted with the body of the creature.

Rei watched as many spirits tried to pull at the body, almost like they were trying to grab at the creature to pull it apart. They look like they were trying to get something back from the late creature.

Then she turned her head when she heard something happen in the same direction that Izuku ran off to. She noticed that the other spirits took notice of it too.

It was even scarier when the creature took notice of the noise coming from that area as well. Shoto tensed when he saw the creature look toward the same direction that Izuku and Bakugo ran off toward.

“We need to stall him quickly before he makes a move!” Shoto shouted to Dabi. Dabi shrugged. Shoto nodded towards the villain, using both of his quirks at the same time. A flame on his left hand with a spike of ice in his right. They nodded to each other before throwing a triple attack against the creature’s back as it started to crawl upon its knees. The ice, red fire and blue fire combined into one attack, the ice melted from the attack turned into boiling water that hit the creature’s back harshly.

The creature cried out while Rei took notice that the spirits started to move toward where the commotion came from. Rei took a second glance at the monster before moving in front of her boys to protect them with whatever she could do in her ghost form.

There is no way some undead Nomu creature is going to hurt her babies.

*

Jun looked up, “I can’t really find anything in this.”

“Anything at all? You can’t find anything?” Izuku questioned worriedly.

“Not really. All I’m reading is him talking about how his life went, how he loved his quirk because it controlled people, and how he was going to rise from the dead. There might be something that I’m missing.” Jun explained while Izuku explained the situation to Bakugo.

“We have no time to keep reading the document over and over. K is outside and the only thing stopping him is Heroes that can’t stall him for that long!” Bakugo shouted, wincing when he moved.

“I think I know,” Hisashi said, moving towards the screen.

“Wait, Dad, you aren’t affected by it, right? So this must mean the document doesn’t work on ghosts. This is basically a confirmation of that,” Izuku commented while his father pointed at the screen.

“There. Right on the last page,” Hisashi said, “I know you can’t see it, son, but it says how this new Nomu body dream of his is his wish. It’s nothing else but how he craves for an impenetrable body like the ones he saw before when he was living. It seems like that is his only reason.”

“But what about the huge virus leading to the army of possessed people. Wasn’t it part of his plan detailed in the document to wreak havoc and take over the world or something? Was it?” Izuku questioned, thinking back to the case.

Hisashi continued, “Nothing detailing it really. All it says is that he needs to take a lot of lives in order to make the body, and once he does the others will eventually snap out of it. The only details it says is how his only plan was to create a Nomu body for himself to control. That means that the Nomu body is the only tether he has to this world. It doesn’t say anything about taking over the world or controlling anything else. It also says something about the bodies created from it won’t be affected by the living as well.”

“So he is basically just wreaking havoc for the fun of it while he still can,” Izuku summarized. “So K is tethered to his Nomu creation like the other spirits like Jun are tethered to their bodies that make up the Nomu. So that means...”

Hisashi walked over to his son with a smile. “The way that we can defeat him is using his own wish against him.”

Izuku mumbled to himself, “So all the spirits need to gather and take K down themselves. It says that quirks form living people can’t affect them as much. So that must mean that the people who died to make the creature can affect it if they could use their own quirks, right? And other spirits as well. It just says the living can’t do any lasting damage, so other ghosts can help too... K is a spirit himself, so only the other undead can touch him...The one weakness in his quirk is the non-living, and his quirk can only affect the living...”

“Maybe that’s why he finds you interesting. That’s the reason he wants to go after you,” Bakugo whispered almost to himself, but Izuku could hear him in the silence of the room.

“What?” Izuku asked quietly.

Bakugo explained, “He knows that you can make contact and communicate with the undead. You are part of his weakness. That’s why he is after you, he said something about finding you when he made the virus go online. Your quirk would affect him as well.”

“Tsukauchi! What’s going on? Is Izuku with you?” Inko greeted.

“Midoriya-Kun? No, Izuku isn’t with me at the moment. The last I heard from him was about twenty minutes ago. He is trying to work with Ground Zero to find any weaknesses to the danger at hand.” Tsukauchi explained.

Inko asked worriedly, “What danger? Is it the..?”

“Yes. Are you safe?”

Inko pauses to look at her situation. She was currently driving with the entire kitchen drawer of knives she used for cooking. She was using GPS to find out where the incident was happening to get close enough, but not too close to the action.

“Well... technically I am...at the moment.”

Chapter Text

“There. Right on the last page,” Hisashi said, “I know you can’t see it, son, but it says how this new Nomu body dream of his is his wish. It’s nothing else but how he craves for an impenetrable body like the ones he saw before when he was living. It seems like that is his only reason.”

“But what about the huge virus leading to the army of possessed people. Wasn’t it part of his plan detailed in the document to wreak havoc and take over the world or something? Was it?” Izuku questioned, thinking back to the case.

Hisashi continued, “Nothing detailing it. All it says is that he needs to take a lot of lives to make the body, and once he does the others will eventually snap out of it. The only detail it says is how his only plan was to create a Nomu body for himself to control. That means that the Nomu body is the only tether he has in this world. It doesn’t say anything about taking over the world or controlling anything else. It also says something about the bodies created from it won’t be affected by the living as well.”

“So he is just wreaking havoc for the fun of it while he still can,” Izuku summarized. “So K is tethered to his Nomu creation like the other spirits like Jun are tethered to their bodies that make up the Nomu. So that means...”

Hisashi walked over to his son with a smile. “The way that we can defeat him is using his wish against him.”

Izuku mumbled to himself, “So all the spirits need to gather and take K down themselves. It says that quirks from living people can’t affect them as much. So that must mean that the people who died to make the creature can affect it if they could use their quirks, right? And other spirits as well. It just says the living can’t do any lasting damage, so other ghosts can help too... K is a spirit himself, so only the other undead can touch him...The one weakness in his quirk is non-living, and his quirk can only affect the living...”

“Maybe that’s why he finds you interesting. That’s the reason he wants to go after you,” Bakugo whispered almost to himself, but Izuku could hear him in the silence of the room.

“What?” Izuku asked quietly.

Bakugo explained, “He knows that you can make contact and communicate with the undead. You are part of his weakness. That’s why he is after you, he said something about finding you when he made the virus go online. Your quirk would affect him as well.”

Shoto was defending against the huge monster in front of him with Dabi trying his best to use his blue fire on their legs to slow them down further. But Dabi’s first wasn’t working to slow the creature down like before, it looked like the monster creation was pushing forward past the flames to get to the place where Bakugo escaped to.

Dabi gritted his teeth, holding one of the staples holding his face together as the creature screamed in agony from the flames. He wouldn’t be able to hold out for much longer, the scars were already getting irritated from the number of flames he was using. The staples holding him together were now constructing his skin tighter, chasing him to be a slight pain while he continues to use his flames against the huge thing.

Despite their efforts, the creature was getting closer and closer to the target in sight. With a last-ditch effort to create more time, Shoto pushed his ice wall into the creature, knocking them down onto an empty building. The creature yowled as they crushed the building under them. The sight was similar to how a child would look if they fell into the toilet seat if that made any sense.

“Dabi!” Shoto shouted, running up to his ally in the fight.

Dabi breathed out, “I can’t handle this much heat anymore, I’m pushing to my limit at this point. What about you, Hero?”

“I’m starting to tire myself out. I can’t keep doing this much longer honestly, but I have to. Ground Zero needs as much time as I can get him to try and figure out a way to stop this...thing from creating even more lasting damage,” Shoto answered back honestly as the creature slowly rose from the debris of the building they had fallen on top of.

“Well, looks like we don’t have much time left before we both go down. Are there any other heroes to help out?”

“They are working support and rescue right now. Most are protecting citizens. And anyone that can help against this creature is still too far out,”

Dabi chuckled bitterly, “Heh, classic heroes. Can’t depend on them too much.”

Shoto shrugged, not knowing how to respond. “Heroes do their best, but we are all human. We can’t be at every single place at once when needed. We all make mistakes. Trust me, I know.”

Dabi stayed silent at that, allowing a moment of peacefulness between them right before it was disturbed by the terrifying screech of the monster that sounded like a crowd of people screaming at once. The monster had gotten up, starting to walk faster to the place where Bakugo and Izuku had gone.

Shoto used his ice to skate over to the monster with the intent to ice the ground for them to slip on only to be reminded that anything can ruin a plan. In this case, was the giant hand that threw Shoto into the wall of the small building behind him.

“Shit!” Dabi shouted, running to the scene while the monster walked further down the empty street past him. The villain looked around the street, moving down the wrecked cement to find what he was looking for.

“Fucking tear ducts,” Dabi cursed, feeling the discomfort of his burnt tear ducts when he feels the desire to cry. He hovers over Shoto’s still body, he placed his hands on his arms to slowly rock him from side to side. “Hey, Hero. Come on. Wake up.”

“Shoto, this isn’t funny,” Dabi commented, leaning his head down to check on his pulse. He held his breath as he pressed his ear against the younger male’s chest. He let out a harsh sigh of relief when he could still hear his heart beating although his breathing was weak.

Dabi looked back to see the creature starting to pry the roof off of a building. He could already see paramedics heading towards their location. His grip on Shoto tightened unknowingly.

In the air, Rei looked down at her sons being escorted by the paramedics. Shoto was transferred to a gurney while Dabi fought off any hands coming near him to follow after his brother. Rei stared back at the monster before following after the other spirits that were following after Jun.

She would get revenge for what he did to her children.

*

Bakugo and Izuku looked at each other after Bakugo had said that. Midoriya raised a hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat accelerate from the sheer amount of stress the situation had.

Midoriya turned to the spirit, “Jun, can you gather as many spirits as you can and bring them over here? If they can help us, we can defeat K once and for all. Dad, stay with me during this.”

“You got it,” Hisashi responded while Jun just gave him an obedient nod before rushing off to find more recruitments.

“And I’ll slow that Nomu bitch down,” Bakugo turned to look at Izuku. He flexed his and set off some sparks in his palm. “The living quirks won’t exactly hurt him, but it can slow that bastard down. We all need as much help as we can before you face him head-on.”

“Me?” Izuku asked, pointing at himself.

“Yeah,” Bakugo answered back honestly. He rolled his eyes before staring at Izuku right into his eyes, red eyes staring directly through him. “Okay, look. Your quirk is the only thing that can logically defeat him. As long as you don’t read his fucking cursed will or whatever, you are in the clear. You have the power to take this guy down with the help of the spirits he dragged into this mess. I can’t do shit with my explosions against this thing except slow his ass down.”

“But-,” Izuku tried to argue back before the roof seemed to creak. In the distance, they heard large footsteps coming closer and closer.

“Shit. Nomu K is moving in fast,” Bakugo informed him. He backed up, looking up as the roof made sounds each time another footstep was made.

“Alright,” Izuku looked towards his father. “Dad, are you ready?”

Hisashi nodded, “Yes, but make sure you don’t push yourself.”

“I’ll try,” Izuku promised with a small twitch to his lip to form a short-lived smile.

“Son, I—,”

Just when his father was about to finish, the roof started to tremble. Pieces of debris fell from the ceiling as the roof creaked with each of K’s attempts to rip it off.

Bakugo cursed before dodging bricks and stones that were falling from above them. Midoriya covered his head with his arms, staring up at the ceiling.

Hisashi’s eyes widened when he saw a huge chunk of debris heading right at his son. He was about to move towards his son to protect him like he promised he always would until Bakugo got in his way. Hisashi watched as Bakugo pulled his son backward before he could even reach for him. He acted as his injured knight when the debris hit the floor with a huge smack that made it break into smaller pieces.

And Hisashi continued to watch the two. Izuku looped an arm around Bakugo, shielding him from any debris. Hisashi followed after them as they made their way to the side entrance of the building, the emergency exit.

Both of the men in front of him were nothing like the little kids he remembered. Bakugo had grown up into a more respectable hero that protects. And his son became someone that he didn’t need to protect anymore, he had grown into his strength. And he just realized it when the light from outside rushed in through the emergency exit to illuminate how the two old friends were supporting each other.

Midoriya sucked in a breath while he listened to Bakugo’s ragged breathing. “Kacchan. You need medical attention.”

“I can’t leave you here to face him alone. That shitty ghost hasn’t come back yet with backup, right? You need someone to hold him back until then.”

“Kacchan, I will be alright,” Midoriya adjusted his grip, guiding Bakugo to the other side of the alleyway to sneak his way past the huge monster. He had to hurry before K-Nomu could notice. You need to get help for your injuries. Please before K gets through the roof and causes more damage, you need to leave.”

“I can’t just leave you behind. Not again,” Bakugo murmured, wincing as he struggled against Midoriya’s grip.

“You aren’t leaving me. I’ll be right behind you, I’ll just be a little late.”

Above them, Midoriya shuddered when he heard K laughing as he destroyed more of the roof. He could hear the banging against the top of the roof with its huge fists. K’s laugh with a distorted voice that sounded multiple people of ages were laughing in unison like a morbid choir.

Bakugo looked up with an unreadable expression on his face before he looked back at his old friend. “You better not die.”

“Wasn’t planning to,” Izuku patted him softly on his shoulder.

“Kill that fucker!” Bakugo called out as he started to make his way towards the direction they came in originally using the next alleyway over as a shortcut.

Midoriya took in a deep breath and released it. He turned around right as K had succeeded in taking off the roof of the building he was previously hiding in.

*

Inko doesn’t exactly know what’s happening, but something very bad from the debris she is seeing everywhere.

She has her satchel open slightly to hide all the kitchen knives she had impulsively brought with her. She couldn’t do much with her quirk, but she taught herself a few new tricks over the years with her son being an excellent analyst of her skills.

Inko looked around her, seeing the damage done from all sides. The streets were covered in trash from cans and dumpsters that seemed to be tipped over onto the sidewalk. There were unending sounds of sirens from police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks that came from what seemed to be all around her.

She hurried down the street, abandoning her locked car that’s as parked on the side of the street. Inko looked up to see a hunched figure of a tall creature with unruly hair of different colored strands. The creature looked terrifying.

Ignoring the shiver down her spine, Inko ran to the only familiar face she could see which was the face of Detective Tsukauchi.

“Tsukauchi!” Inko grabbed the man’s attention with her small shout, “Where is Izuku? Where is my son?”

“I don’t know, all I know is that he is with Bakugo right now. I hoped they found that thing’s weakness by now,” Tsukauchi replied softly.

Inko looked past him slightly to see the hero Shoto laying down in the ambulance as the paramedics looked over him. She could also see a dark-haired gentleman with burn scars that were holding tight to the injured hero’s hand in the vehicle. With another look, Inko saw a tall, lanky gentleman with blonde hair talking with several heroes who looked exhausted.

She was about to ask where Izuku’s last whereabouts were when she heard a loud screech come from the monster just up ahead of them. Inko turned her head with the other onlookers to see the creature is pushed back into the opposite side of the street.

The creature was thrown back?!

Inko last saw the creature crouching over a building and now it was slumped against a tall drugstore. Unknown to her, the dark-haired man named Dabi held his brother’s hand more tightly before peeking outside to see what was going on. They could both spot the limping form of the explosive hero as he jogged towards them. Inko met Bakugo halfway, walking fast up to him despite the wreckage around them.

“Katsuki! Are you okay?” Inko asked with worry at seeing all of his previous wounds.

“Oh, hi Auntie,” Bakugo responded as calmly as he could. “I’m fine, just a couple of stab wounds and a possible concussion. Nothing to worry about.”

“Stab wounds?! Oh goodness!” Inko fretted over him, holding his face with her gentle hands. “Don’t worry, the ambulance is right over here. You will get patched up in no time. Where’s Izuku?”

“He’s—,” Bakugo was about to answer.

A loud crash came from the building that the creature was previously peering into.

Inko looked past Bakugo to see a figure come out from the rubble of the fallen wall, her mouth falling open when she squinted to see the familiar green hair of her son.

“Izuku,” she muttered.

Her son was about to go up against that thing?!

*

Izuku gritted his teeth as he looked up to the pure monstrosity that K wanted to be so bad. He would never get used to looking at the patch-worked skin covering its body like a human skin quilt.

“Dad?”

Hisashi hummed, “Right behind you.”

“I hope Jun comes back quick.”

“I’m over here!” Jun’s voice called out from close by. Izuku glanced behind him to see an impressive amount of spirits floating behind him with Jun in the front. “They were already one step ahead of us. I also gathered any spirit I could find in the park who wanted to help out!”

“Hi! I’m ready for anything at this point!” One of the spirits called out. Many others agreed with them in different ways.

Another spirit commented, “I’m already dead. K can’t do shit to me.”

The spirits all joined in a lively harmony of cheers rising above one another that was filled with life.

Midoriya Izuku focused on his breathing, smiling at the ghosts surrounding him. He just had to be careful when using his quirk. He could allow his quirk to flow through other ghosts for them to access their quirk but only one at a time. He had to pace himself with his plan.

“Alright, everyone. We can defeat him once and for all if I use an aspect of my quirk. Everyone’s emotions are strong enough to use against him. But I could amplify those emotions and increase the durability of it which makes everyone can use their quirk against him with me as your support,” Izuku explained. “I haven’t used it with this many ghosts before, but I know that this will all work out.”

Izuku turned around to face K who was now looking around in the building still under the assumption that he was hiding under the debris that had fallen. He glared at the huge Nomu, “So let’s do this.”

Rei readied her fists along with many others including familiar faces that Izuku recognizes from the park. His friends.

When K finally noticed Izuku in the alleyway just left of the building, he immediately tried to reach for him. Hisashi blocked the nomu’s reach by blowing fire directly into their palm, burning the skin. The Nomu reacted by taking their hand back quickly right before a spirit with a strength quirk hit them directly in the chest along with a spirit with a power enhancement quirk.

Just like that, K had been thrown back.

Using the opportunity of throwing him back, two ghosts teamed together to freeze him in one spot. One used their glue quirk to stick the monster to the ground while the other used their quirk to make the glue go rock-solid to make the monster unable to move.

One by one, K was attacked by each spirit of people he had killed. One of them flew up to its ears to use wet sand to fill the hole so it couldn’t hear anything. Another used their weapon quirk to suddenly chip through half of the nomu’s arm just past its elbow.

Hisashi waved his hands in front of his son’s face, “Son, you can’t handle all of this stress under your quirk. You could seriously hurt yourself if you keep pushing your limit.”

“I have to,” Izuku sadly said, he could feel the effects of quirk exhaustion starting to hit him. He could feel himself getting drowsy, but he would not let that stop him. They had to beat him or else. “I’m sorry for not trying hard enough, dad.”

He allowed his quirk to flow through Rei who launched a handle of ice spikes through the monster’s eyes to blind the huge creature. K’s creature screeched as it raised its hands to cover its face. Rei smirked, wiping her hands off with a satisfied smile on her face.

“I need to get closer to his face!” Izuku yells. He had to strike where it was more vulnerable to get to K. “Maybe I can reach his spirit there.”

Inko heard her son, biting down on her lip as she thought about the possible repercussions for half a second. If her son needed her, she will risk the possibility of going to jail for vigilantism. She ran past the policemen, opening up her purse. She could hear them call out to her for her to stop. Inko clenched her fist as he got closer to the giant monster who still had their hand blocking their vision.

She felt her quirk flow into her fingertips. Inko peeked down to see a kitchen knife start to float up. Izuku looked back at her right as she started to fully utilize her quirk. Inko quickly floated each knife away from her to stab the monster in the leg with the kitchen knife. One after another, a large kitchen knife stabbed itself through the leg of the monster in a weird semblance of a mix of rock climbing and stairs.

“Thanks, mom!” Midoriya laughed looking at his mother with a fond expression. He glanced back at his dad’s spirit next to him, “Dad, get her out of there quickly. I don't want her to get hurt.”

“Already on it. I’m not a protector for nothing!” Hisashi called out, floating to his wife. Subtly allowing her to feel the cold drift around her to let her know that he was around her. Inko stayed out in her spot to watch her son climb up several kitchen knife steps before deciding to head back where she came. She was met halfway by a police officer who quickly escorted her back while the Nomu was still distracted.

Even when Midoriya felt the tiring effects of his quirk overuse when climbing, he didn’t stop. He didn’t slow down. When one of the knives slipped loose, he was held upright by Nana’s spirit right behind him.

“Shouldn’t you be with All Might?”

“He is close by. I just wanted to give you a push, or more accurately a ride up,” Nana said, floating him up using her quirk for a couple of moments that passed by quickly. But that made all that difference since now Izuku was on the shoulders of the Nomu.

Slowly, the ghosts and their quirks overpowered the Nomu into falling back with their legs still trapped. Midoriya held on, yelling as he fell with the huge body of the monster. The nomu’s fall was broken by the empty drugstore behind them. Midoriya winced as the spirits above him celebrated at bringing the monster down.

He barely noticed how the spirits made sure that Nomu didn’t move by slicing their other arm off and gluing the inhuman creation to the destroyed building. Midoriya focused on crawling his way up the face to truly face down K.

He climbed up to walk across the monstrous face of K’s creation. He paused on the bridge of its nose, staring into the squinted red eyes of the creature.

Izuku fought against the feeling of drowsiness from the overwhelming usage of his quirk all at once. “K. K. I know you are here. Answer me.”

Surprisingly, K’s spirit strangely materialized in front of him. K’s spirit splintered inside the skin of his creation. His face was straying right at him, but the body angle of his pilot looked like it was stuck inside some sort of haunted house mirror from the weird shapes it was making.

Even his spirit knew that it didn’t belong in this body no matter how hard he tried to force it.

“What are you even doing here? I’ve already won,” K smirked. His slicked-back hair looked greasy even if his spirit form. The three red eyes of the Nomu were trained on him, looking at the bridge of its nose with overall calm and collected.

“That reason why is it important right now,” Izuku sighed. He tapped his foot against the skin of the nose. “The reason why I’m here is to ask you something.”

“You think I’ll listen to anything you have to say?”

“I just want to know one thing. I’m impressed,” Izuku smiled back at K who stared at him curiously. “Over the past weeks of me investigating in this case, something about it always interested me. Like how your quirk worked and how successful you were. You had an entire group that would do anything for you.”

K’s red gaze flashed with arrogance, “You know what? Talk more. I loved to be praised.”

“And you rebirthed yourself with no one to help you. You did it all by yourself. And here you are now inside a creature that you made to be strong and powerful,” Midoriya gestured down at the face of the Nomu he was standing on. He stumbled back a bit when he felt the creature take a breath beneath his feet.

“Go on.”

“You were successful in life. In death...” Izuku gestured to the spirit in front of him, “And in your second life. You made all of this happen just to accomplish your goal. Your dream. And I have to applaud you on that. I mean, I gave up on my childhood dream. And here you are, living your own in the perfect body you designed yourself.”

K laughed, throwing his head back. “Yes! Someone understands the hard work I put in. And here I thought you were as dumb as they come.”

Midoriya gazed at him with a sad smile, “So you have done everything you set your mind out to do?”

“I had everything I ever wanted!” K said proudly. “And it was better than I ever dreamed it would be!”

“That’s good to know,” Izuku smiled, already noticing how K’s feet were starting to fade away. “That means you have completed your purpose.”

“What?” K questioned back at him. He followed his gaze right down at his shoes and his red eyes widened. He finally realized he had been tricked, “Wait, no! No! NO!”

“I, Midoriya Izuku, am proud to announce...”

“Do you have any idea how long this took me?!” K protested, glaring down at his legs, his arms starting to fade away into nothingness. “I still have so many things I could do. Stop! Stop it!”

“...that K has fulfilled his purpose...”

“SCREW YOU! When you die, I will find you and—,” K tried to promise until the sparkles reached toward his mouth cutting him off.

“...Your tether to the living world will disappear. And you can move onto your new life,” Izuku ended gently. K’s eyes burned right through him until the last of him faded into the air. “Preferably in hell.”

And then it was all over.

Midoriya Izuku had taken care of an undead serial killer.

He could hear the celebratory cheers above him, making him look up to see what was happening at that moment. He called up to them and promised that he would take care of their bodies. Izuku vowed that he would respectfully lay their bodies to rest. With that promise, K’s victims were slowly fading away as well since they had finally gotten revenge against the horrible serial killer. They no longer had a tether holding them back.

They could finally be free.

Chapter Text

Izuku waved to many spirits who were fading away into the sky after fulfilling their revenge against K. Some spirits just waved back to him before floating back to where they came from. Jun gave the biggest farewell of all before finally fading away with the others.

The body of the Nomu slumped down to the ground. But before he could go down with it, his father and Nana’s spirit picked him up to float him down. Red rushed her spirit over to her two sons since the danger was taken care of.

With that, his legs could ‘t hold him up anymore from the exhaustion that came at him full force. Izuku knelt on the street in front of the fallen body of the K Nomu. He twisted around to stare up at the cloudy sky to take a deep breath in.

Midoriya turned his head to see Bakugo had fallen asleep on one of the ambulance’s gurneys with two EMTs looking over him. His mother was talking to the police, but he was too far away to hear exactly what they were saying. It was something about a kitchen and legal use.

“Dad?” Izuku asked, looking back towards the cloudy sky, trying to focus on his father’s figure hovering above him.

“Hey there, kiddo,” Hisashi greeted with a relaxed smile on his face, staring down at his tried son.

Izuku blinked several times trying to fight off the drowsiness, “Did I do good?”

Izuku could feel his father’s hand ghosting over his curls, “You did great, son.”

“That’s nice,” Izuku hummed with a small grin on his face. He peeked his eye open to look at his father’s face, “I made you proud?”

“Yes, I’m very proud of who you grew up to be and what you have done,” Hisashi answered back, brushing his hand over his hair again. Izuku wanted to lean into his hand right as he noticed several figures rushing over to his body, “Izuku, you can rest now. You must be feeling exhausted from it all.”

“M'kay,” Izuku mumbled, letting his eyes shut, hearing voices call out to him before he slipped into unconsciousness.

*

When Izuku woke up, the nurse next to him called for the doctor right away. He squinted his eyes from the hospital room’s lighting. The nurse noticed his discomfort so he turned down the brightness to be dimmer to allow his eyes more comfort to adjust to the set.

He turned his head to see Bakugo in a separate bed next to him, sleeping under the light covers of the hospital bed.

When the doctor came into the room, he explained the situation. His extreme quirk exhaustion made him go into a week-long coma to regain all his energy that he used during the attack. Izuku thanked both him and the nurse before his mother came rushing into the room with another nurse as her guide.

Their reunion was tearful of course because the Midoriya tears never failed to flood any room they were in. His mother was so thankful that he was getting better as the doctor ran multiple tests on him to make sure everything was going well.

His mother stayed with him as the doctor wanted results from different labs. After one hour or so, Izuku received news that he would be alright to get out of the hospital as early as the day after the next. They just wanted to monitor to make sure he got all of his energy back.

It all felt like a blur. And he finally became aware that his mother and the hospital staff were no longer in the room with him. With a sigh, he relaxed back into the hospital pillows.

“Hey, nerd.”

“WOAH,” Izuku jumped back further into the pillows when he heard Bakugo’s voice out of nowhere. He turned to see that Bakugo was now awake with his arms and chest wrapped up in gauze bandages. “You scared me.”

“Really? Didn’t notice,” Bakugo replied.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m better. They stitched up everything they needed to. Now they just wanted me to rest so they stuck me with you since the entire building was filled with this affected by the attack.”

“How did you find out this?”

“Well, I wasn’t the one in a coma the entire time. So I just talked to the police to catch up to speed about what happened. Icy hot and the others are fine by the way if you were worried or anything.”

Izuku relaxed into his bed, “That’s good.”

“Hey, Kacchan?”

“What, nerd?”

“Did I do a good job?” Izuku asked nervously.

Katsuki furrowed his brows, “Hah? Why are you asking me that?”

“It’s just that... I feel like if I did better no one else would have gotten hurt. There was so much damage that I wasn’t able to prevent,” Izuku brought up his arm to cover his eyes. “I sound pathetic, don’t I?”

“Look at me nerd,” Bakugo ordered, making Izuku drop his arm to stare at Katsuki’s red eyes. “You did better than any other extra could have done. I have never known anybody that could ever do half what you did.”

“That means a lot, Kacchan,” Izuku tilted his head towards his friend to direct a grateful grin at him. Katsuki scoffed back at him which made Izuku laugh at his old friend.

*

It was late at night when Izuku woke up with Bakugo sleeping next to him in his bed. Midoriya looked out the window to see the sun setting on the horizon, making the hospital room lit up in colors.

He looked out the door of his hospital room to see a glimpse of someone passing by the room. He stared at the figure’s curly hair and noticed the resemblance.

“Dad?” Izuku mumbled, throwing the blankets away from himself. He dragged behind the IV behind him as he headed towards the direction where he saw his father heading. He used the IV pole as a cane to help him while he walked. He followed him up the diary with some difficulty since it had been a week since he had walked.

He threw open the rooftop door to see that he wasn’t wrong in his guess. It was his father’s spirit that was watching the sunset from the rooftop.

“Dad? What are you doing out here?” Izuku called out, walking over to where his dad was leaning against the railing.

His father sighed, “I was thinking about something ever since you took down K’s creature. And I wanted to wait until now to tell you.”

Izuku furrowed his brows in confusion, “What is it?”

“Izuku,” Hisashi frowned. “My tether with you has been broken.”

And just like that Izuku’s heart felt like it stopped.

“How?”

“During the fight,” Hisashi started with a gentle expression on his face. “The protective tether I had with you went away when I realized that you can protect yourself. You no longer need me at your side.”

“Wait, no! Dad, don’t leave,” Izuku shook his head.

“Izuku,” his father sighed, reaching out his hand towards his son.

Midoriya started to tear up, tears dripping down his cheeks. He wasn’t ready to see his father pass on. “You can’t leave yet.”

“Izuku, I’m still here,” Hisashi waved his hands, trying to calm down his son. “I had two tethers remember?”

Izuku sniffled, “You have a tether with mom...”

“Yeah. She is the last tether I have on Earth. My time here isn’t up just yet,” Hisashi looked towards the sunset with a smile. “I want to be here to guide her up with me. Until then, I will still be here to protect her. The only difference is that I can’t pop in with you as much as I usually do because I have no tether to pull myself to you.”

Midoriya smirked through the tears, Hisashi hushed him quietly to calm him down. Izuku leaned forward, focusing on the feeling of his father’s embrace to ground him. “I’ll still be here, kiddo.”

Sad Alternative

“Izuku,” Hisashi frowned. My tether with you has been broken.”

And just like that Izuku’s heart felt like it stopped.

“During the fight,” Hisashi started with a gentle expression on his face. “The protective tether I had with you went away when I realized that you can protect yourself. You no longer need me at your side.”

“Wait, no! Dad, don’t leave,” Izuku shook his head.

“Izuku,” his father sighed, reaching out his hand towards his son.

Midoriya started to tear up, tears dripping down his cheeks. He wasn’t ready to see his father pass on. “You can’t leave yet.”.”

“But what about mom? You have a protect tether with her too!”

Hisashi nodded, “I did. I think that faded away slowly but surely when she was raising you to be the best son anyone could ever ask for. She is already strong by herself, she doesn’t need protection from me anymore. Plus, I saw her out there when she didn’t hesitate to help you out in the fight.”

“You both are strong separately and even stronger together. You don’t need me any longer,” Hisashi smiled at his son. “It’s time for me to move on.”

“I don’t want to say goodbye to you yet. I don't think I’m ready,” Izuku answered back honestly, letting the tears drip down as the sunset-colored the sky in pink and orange shades.

“It’s not a goodbye. Think of it more like a ‘see you later’. I’ll be waiting for your mother and you to come to the other side. Plus, I can still watch from beyond, but it will just be more of a distance,” Hisashi reassured.

Midoriya nodded back at his father, sniffling back his tears. Hisashi took a deep breath before wrapping his arms around his son. Izuku wrapped his arms around his dad, allowing himself to feel his father’s touch since it was going to be the last time. “It has been amazing watching you grow up into the man you are now.”

Izuku sniffed, “See you, Dad.”

He could feel his father smile into his hair, “See you Later, Izuku.”

Midoriya nodded as he could feel his father’s embrace leave him as he started to fade away. He pulled back to smile back at his dad as he faded into the colors of the sunset sky. He stared on the rooftop until the unset colors were replaced by the cool purple and blue of the night sky above him with millions of stars looking down at him.

With a deep breath, Izuku looked up to the stars with a soft grin on his face.

Chapter Text

Epilogue

One year later.

The bodies of the Nomu had been taken apart piece by piece and given a proper and formal burial in a special spot in a cemetery. It has the names of all the people affected by K’s attack craved into marble for people to remember them.

Every trace of electronics affected by virus was taken care of. Any flash drive or physical document of K’s curse was burned all down to ashes and molten metals.

They even went into dark web to completely delete the document from existence. Safe to say, no one would be looking for it anytime soon. Any trace they could find was erased so even if K had moved on, the document wouldn’t affect anyone else. It was completely erased with Nedzu’s help and a large skilled team.

*

Dabi accidentally revealed who he truly is to his family when Shoto was still in the hospital. Because how else was he going to explain how he was in the same hospital room as him, waiting on his recovery.

Nowadays, Dabi is in therapy just like the rest of his family members. All of them meet up each week or every other week to talk over dinner.

It took a while before Dabi fully settled in again as a Todoroki.

Natsuo and him grew closer than before. Natsuo always poked fun at him since he was taller than him, swinging him around at every chance to reduce the scary villain to nothing but a ragdoll swishing through the air.

Fuyumi and him weren’t as close as they were when they were younger, but they still cared deeply for each other. Fuyumi often told him about her job teaching the little children at school and wouldn’t talk anything about their father since she knew the topic made him uncomfortable.

Shoto started adapting new habits from Dabi like sponge. Shoto’s cold glares matched his older brother’s more often than not. He even had a piercing in his left ear that he got from Dabi using a heated needle at home. Safe to say, Fuyumi wasn’t a big fan of it at first when they came out for a reaction to Shoto’s new jewelry addition. At least Natsuo thought it was cool.

Their mother was watching over them the entire time with a smile on her face. A bigger smile grew on her face each time that her family would visit Deku to talk with her to update her on their lives even though she already knew because she was watching over them.

*

His mom was doing great. Her dad still had his tether to her which meant she spent even more time with her daily, watching over her as she watched television.

He still remembered last time he visited when his dad leaned over to light a candle with a quick fire breath aimed right towards the wick. His mom looked toward the candle with teary eyes and a warm teacup in her hands. She laughed, “Hey, weather.”

As for Izuku himself, he worked more at the police station to help more directly with the police and the underground heroes. He still worked at the bar on the weekends as more of an undercover job to gain intel and talk with his regulars.

Over the past year, Bakugo and him worked on their friendship, becoming closer to each other through the year. Bakugo reflected on his past mistakes with him and Midoriya got reminded to take care of himself by Bakugo a lot more often than he would admit.

Midoriya ended up helping Bakugo with advice on how he fought as they both reviewed previous footage from a earlier attacks he has involved in. He even got introduced to many other heroes because of Bakugo because they were insistent to know how Bakugo was getting all the extra help. He was even added to the group chat with all of Bakugo’s friends, the same group chat that Bakugo has muted most of the time from the amount of notifications he would get.

In return, Bakugo really dived into learning more about the paranormal to study more on ghosts. In the beginning, it was for future cases that night pop up, but the reason slowly changed to become more about helping Deku more than anything.

Bakugo and Midoriya ended up binge-watching a series online about two guys going to investigate about urban legends with ghosts that may or may not be included.

And now, both of them were sitting on a park bench under a night sky after having a big meal at Midoriya’s apartment. Izuku waved to a ghost who past right by the pair.

Bakugo leaned his head back to look at the night sky above them, “Would you believe it if your future self went back to the past and said where you were with me right now?”

Midoriya thought for a moment, “Maybe.”

“Why?” Bakugo raised an eyebrow at him. Izuku’s green hair looked more bright under the starlight shining down.

“It depends,” Midoriya shrugged, “My younger self would probably ask a bunch of questions on how that happened like if I actually became a hero and gained you respect that way. Or I just gained your friendship back eventually.”

Bakugo continued to stare at him with a doubtful look on his face until Izuku chuckled

Midoriya smiled, “l mean, look at us now. A lot has changed.”

“Yeah, I think I like what the future holds,” Bakugo replied.

And they might not know what the future might bring to them. An obstacle or two thrown their way. Hell, maybe another ghost causing trouble in their country.

But for now and the incoming future, the two were ready for whatever came their way. Whether it be from the living or the dead.