Stars (Dead Deku AU)

Chapter Two - Ghost

"When people die they become stars, so that if we miss them, we can find them in front of our eyes, so near yet so far..." -Rat Jaga Tara

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It had been 9 months since Izuku Midoriya had died.

A lot had happened since then.

The majority of it having started just three months ago.

For the first 4 or so months, Izuku had watched his mother. He'd stayed by her side and watched. But that was all he could do. Watch. And it was so painful only being able to watch when Inko cried herself to sleep, so painful only being able to watch when Inko collapsed from panic attacks, so painful to only be able to watch his mother wither away before his eyes.

So he left.

He didn't have any intention of leaving for long. Just a month or two.

But of course in that month or two (honestly maybe even three, Izuku didn't sleep so he didn't count), Inko decided to move away.

Where?

Izuku had no idea.

In all honesty, it kind of hurt. He understood she didn't want to be reminded of all the bad memories and the fact that she had a dead son but- it still hurt.

One day he had arrived home, walked through the door expecting to see Inko sitting there, knitting or reading or something.

But she wasn't.

There was a cold dark feeling to the house, as if no one had ever lived there before. As if there hadn't been a boy named Izuku Midoriya that wanted nothing more than to become a hero, living there. As if there hadn't been a women named Inko Midoriya that had been the proudest mum in the world of her son every time she thought of him, living there. As if, as if, as if.

Izuku crept around the rooms, his red shoes moving soundlessly on the dusty floorboards. One by one he peeked into the rooms, each one a replica of the other. Sheets covering every piece of furniture with dust laden upon them.

There was a cold draft seeping through that Izuku couldn't feel. But he could sense it. His imagination ran wild with thoughts of 'if I could touch something I would be feeling..' but the feelings he thought of were all muted. Izuku had forgotten what it was like to be able to touch things. To be able to feel the wind in his ears or the feeling of his chest moving up and down.

Izuku didn't look the same as he had nine months ago either.

He had figured out how to get rid of those scars and blood he was so afraid of, though they still hovered under this new layer of skin as a reminder that he was dead. As if he needed reminding of that anyway. With said new layer of skin, his clothes also changed. Always to the same thing though. No matter how hard he tried.

A dark green hoodie and black trousers.

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So far, Izuku hadn't found very little truth to any film suggesting what a being a ghost was like.

For starters, he didn't float a few feet off the ground. His shoes were always touching the ground and gravity still worked against him. He just left no footprints.

Secondly, if anyone were to see him (as far as he could tell, no one had. That was something that corresponded with ghost films), they would just see a perfectly normal human flesh-bag boy. He didn't look like a ghost at all. He wasn't see through or slightly paler than the normal person, he was the exact same.

Lastly, in almost every single film, a ghost can interact with some sort of object, be it a pencil or a full on human. Izuku could do neither. The only thing he could touch was the ground and himself. And boy it got tiring having to squeeze his finger so he wouldn't forget what it felt like to be touched.

He supposed in some sort of way it was ironic. All he had wanted to do was die. Partly so Kacchan would leave him alone but also partly so finally someone would notice he was hurting. But now, no one could see him. He was even more invisible than before.

"Maybe you should pray you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!"

Izuku clenched his teeth and fists simultaneously as Kacchan's voice echoed through his head. That idiot. If only he hadn't said that then I wouldn't have-

Oh well.

It was no use fantasying over what could have been.

He was dead.

That's all there was to it.

And nothing could change that.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

These words whirled round and round Izuku's brain, before he shoved them into the back of his mind. He could lose his sanity later.

Izuku slowly got up from lying on the cold ground and stared up at the sky. The stars twinkled above him and he wondered if it was really true that if someone died they became one.

Couldn't be, could it? After all, he was down here, wondering why in the world he was if no one could see or hear him?

Probably something about unfinished business.

He had a lot of that.

Izuku slowly made his way up towards a bridge that overlooked some sort of highway. The bright headlights of cars flew under him and the red lights of the opposite side left little little images in his retinas.

Maybe he should jump.

You can't exactly die twice.

Maybe if he did die again he would finally make it to Heaven. Or Hell. Or whatever in the world came after.

Yeah, Izuku decided, I'll jump. It can't hurt to try again.

He was just about to move when a voice spoke to his right.

''You should be careful. Those railings don't look safe.''