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It started out as nothing more than a rumour.
Some girl, new to the school, had reported seeing a boy with green hair sitting on the edge of the rooftop.
He’d looked lost, so apparently she’d walked up to him and said hello.
He’d greeted her, and shyly asked for a favour.
”Could you get my notebook for me? I think it’s by the koi pond but I don’t know.”
She’d gone and searched, but had found nothing.
When she went back, she reported that the boy had gone. Didn’t help that she was in the journal club.
And that one of her friends had told her that the boy she’d met was dead.
So, of course, it all got around.
There’s a ghost on campus.
At first, people flocked to the rooftops, but he didn’t show it there were too many people. One person, though, could go in.
If you didn’t talk to him, he would just disappear. No footsteps, no thump of him hitting the floor. Nothing. You’d sit down, and once you looked up, he’d be gone.
Some people tried giving him other notebooks but he shook his head.
”Not my notebook, but thank you!! It’s yours, not mine.”
And so he stayed. Sitting forever, eternally waiting his notebook.
It took a long while before that changed.
He’d been sitting there for a long while. Never changing, never stopped asking. Even as people moved on and grew, he stayed. Just like any ghost.
That was until somebody returned.
Pushing open the door, they glanced around, until their eyes landed on him.
He was sitting, facing down on the railing. As always.
For a moment he considered going back. His chest felt tight.
No, he shook his head.
He took a step forwards, walking towards the familiar green bean.
His fluffy hair didn’t interact with the breeze. It stayed still as he sat.
For a while, the two just stood, until he spoke up.
”Hey” he managed to choke out.
The green-eyed ghost turned his head, smiling. “Hello!”
He bit his lip.
”Can I ask a favour from you?” He asked shyly after a few seconds.
He gulps. This is it.
”About your notebook?”
If he could blush, he probably would be as he nodded.
His hands tightened, and for a moment he considered just leaving again, before he sighed.
Digging through his pockets, he pulled out the one thing the ghost had been searching for all these years.
He outstretched his arm, and forced himself to look the ghost in those familiar eyes as he spoke.
”I’m... sorry. For everything.”
He knew it didn’t cut it. He knew no amount of sorry's in the world could help the fact that he’d been the one to tell him to do it. That he’d been the one to throw the notebook out the window.
That he’d been the one to pick it up as it skidded away as the small body hit the floor.
Still, Deku smiled at him. Sad, but a smile as he gently took the notebook from his hands.
”I forgive you, Kacchan.”
And, with that, he watched him fade, melting away like candle wax. Finally free, finally at peace.
And with that, he knelt down.
And he let himself mourn.