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Mei isn’t really sure she believes in ghosts, but she does love running experiments and inventing new babies to help out her friends, so when Izuku asked her if she could make him new ghost hunting equipment, Mei was quick to agree. With the caveat that she got to come with him when he tested everything out. Izuku has a habit of exploring supposedly-haunted places, and Mei is curious about what makes them so haunted in the first place. Surely there are non-ghost reasons for changes in electromagnetic fields?
Either that, or Mei is about to make the scientific discovery of a lifetime!
“Remember, stick close to me,” Izuku tells her, as they make their way inside the half-built house that was his destination of choice for this venture. “Even if there aren’t any ghosts or spirits around today, the architecture isn’t sound.”
“Right!” Mei nods sharply. She pulls her own EMF reader from her bag—she ended up making doubles of most of the things Izuku asked for, just in case. Besides, double the testing means double the improvements she can make! “So…you said you’ve been here before? What sort of ghost-y things did you see? Is there, like, a pattern for it? If there’s a pattern, I could probably analyze it and figure out if it’s really a ghost or if it’s something else. Oh! Maybe it’s an alien!”
Izuku frowns. “An alien?”
“Wouldn’t that be cool?!”
“Not as cool as a ghost,” Izuku defends. “And usually, I get the best readings in one of the upstairs bedrooms.” He points his flashlight towards the stairs, which are little more than planks of wood. Yeesh, he was right about this place being unstable. Maybe Mei should work on reinforcing the floor rather than creating tools to locate the undead.
She follows Izuku as he makes his way towards the stairs. They climb carefully and slowly, though Mei would much rather just bound up and see what might await them. Surely the ghost here can’t be some sort of vengeful spirit, considering Izuku has been here multiple times in the past and always lived to tell the tale. Maybe it’s, like, a lost soul that needs help getting closure before it can pass on to the afterlife?
If there even is a ghost. And if there’s even an afterlife. Mei hasn’t decided where she stands on that yet. She likes to keep her options open, just in case she stumbles upon the truth someday. Maybe one of her babies will end up being able to raise the dead.
The light on Mei’s EMF reader stays green all the way up to the second floor. Izuku doesn’t have his out yet, keeping one hand free while his other holds the flashlight that’s illuminating their path.
One of the floorboards creaks under Mei’s foot, and he jumps.
She giggles. “That was just me.”
He turns back, shooting a half-hearted glare in her direction. “If you’re too loud, we might not find anything.”
“I thought the ghosts were supposed to be scaring us?” Mei asks. Isn’t that how it always goes in the movies? If people have the power to scare ghosts, why are they the monster in so many horror stories? If Mei can just shout BOO! and make a ghost disappear, then really, ghosts aren’t any different than people who are alive. Except for the fact that they can’t be seen. And they’re dead. But those are just technicalities.
“They’re not all evil,” Izuku says. They reach the landing for the second floor, and the light on Mei’s EMF reader flickers up to yellow for a moment, then goes back to green. Hm. “Vengeful spirits are the ones to be scared of. Other than that, it’s not about them scaring us or us scaring them; it’s about proving their existence. Which I’m going to do!”
“And if it turns out they’re not real?” Mei challenges, because she’s curious how Izuku will answer.
“Can you prove they aren’t?” Izuku retorts. “There’s so much evidence that they do exist—I mean, if you dig into ghost hunting forums for even twenty minutes, you’ll see there are literally hundreds of thousands of stories people have shared about their experiences with ghosts. And obviously some of them are made up, but there are so many pictures and videos you can find with just completely inexplicable phenomena! Plus, a lot of people throw around the ‘fake story’ accusations because the thought that even half of those stories might be real terrifies them. And also, look—”
Izuku takes Mei’s wrist in his hand, guiding the EMF reader towards the second doorway. As soon as it crosses the threshold, all of the lights flash, and this time, they stay on. The red light glares damningly at Mei.
She moves her hand out of the doorway, and all but the green light dim. Back into the doorway, and it lights up again.
“Woah…”
She’s still not convinced it’s because of a ghost, but now she wants to know what is causing it. She grabs the flashlight from Izuku’s hand and shines it directly into the room.
“What are you doing?!” he cries, lunging for her hand and redirecting the beam of light. “You can’t see a ghost in bright lights like that!”
“Okay, okay, so get the camera out!”
Izuku rummages through his backpack for the camera Mei designed that should—hopefully—give a look at where, exactly, the electricity is gathering. It was the one thing Mei didn’t make a duplicate for, because she used a regular camera as a base, and those things are expensive.
While he’s doing that, she crouches down to check for outlets or wires or something else that might explain the sudden change. She’s not sure how close this house came to being finished. Was the electricity ever hooked up? Did the builders even get around to the wiring for light switches and outlets? Or is she totally on the wrong track?
“Mei!” Izuku hisses.
“Hm?” she looks up and finds him pointing the camera into the room, standing stone-still. Maybe there is something there? Does that mean the camera works!?
She shoots up, crowding close to Izuku so she can peer over his shoulder and observe the image displayed on the viewfinder. For a split second, it seriously looks like the electromagnetic field they detected is shaped like a person. They’re just sort of standing in the doorway, not doing anything, maybe not even facing Izuku and Mei—it’s impossible to tell.
And then it disappears completely.
Mei blinks. “Was that—?”
“You saw it too, right?!” Izuku exclaims. She can imagine the way his eyes are sparkling. “That had to be a ghost! Why else would it have such a human-looking form? Mei, ohmygod, holy shit—” He grabs onto her shoulder, and even in the poor lighting, she can make out his massive grin. “Do you understand how huge this is?!”
“We don’t know for sure that it was a ghost,” she points out, although she has to admit, the idea isn’t totally off the table for her. “We’ll have to look closer at the footage, and see if we can get anything else while we’re here. Ideally, I’d like to make some upgrades to the camera as well. If I can improve the quality of the lens, maybe we could get a better look at whether it’s just random static electricity from some open wiring in the house, or if it’s actually a spirit.” And the more Mei knows about what they’re dealing with, the easier it will be to invent some sort of device that could fully allow them to communicate with the ghost that might be here—or to prove that there isn’t a ghost.
“So you’ll help me?” Izuku asks.
Mei scoffs. “Obviously. I can’t just leave a mystery like this unsolved. What sort of scientist would I be then?”
“Yes!” Izuku cheers.
And while Mei might not yet be totally convinced in the existence of ghosts, she does know that she’s having fun here with Izuku, and she had fun making babies to help him out. So she’ll gladly assist in his ventures until he finds whatever proof he’s looking for—or, until they disprove the supernatural entirely. Whichever comes first.
As long as Izuku is her partner in crime, Mei knows she’s going to have a blast either way.