Stars (Dead Deku AU)

Chapter Five - Shadows

''The person who tries to keep everyone happy often ends up feeling the lonliest'' -Unknown

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Izuku felt bad for lying.

He had tried never to lie before and yet here he was, continuing to pretend to have a quirk.

All because he was selfish.

He just wanted a friend. Someone to talk to. That's all he had ever wanted. Even when he was alive. Kacchan had made sure that no one wanted to be friends with the quirkless loser.

Good ol' Kacchan.

Now, he wanted somebody to talk to even more. And Izuku had found someone.

But who would create an emotional bond to a dead boy?

He knew he wouldn't.

Izuku waved cheerfully back to Shoto before turning around, still holding his oh so fake smile. Izuku knew why he was still smiling. The only reason was to stop his tears from falling. He wasn't stupid. He knew Shoto would find out sooner or later and, selfishly, he wanted it to be later.

He liked having a friend.

Izuku finally turned the corner after what felt like an eternity and glanced up and down.

''I guess I should go home.''

Home.

It was a funny word. It tasted... wrong in his mouth. As if Izuku didn't have a home. No place to go and no place to stay. He would just sleep in the same room each night. Well, 'sleep'. Izuku didn't actually sleep, that apartment was just somewhere he would go so he didn't feel lonely anymore.

Who was he kidding? He was always lonely.

That apartment wasn't anyone's home anymore anyway.

At least... so he thought.

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Shota Aizawa didn't necessarily believe in ghosts.

Of course, ever since quirks had appeared the belief of paranormal activity had also increased. Shota was a realist and if there was ever any news about mysterious circumstances he automatically linked it to someone's quirk.

That was part of the job of being a pro hero after all.

So when he was woken up in the middle of the night by a crying child he wasn't scared.

Freaked out? Yes.

Scared? No.

Shota crept down the stairs of his new apartment, slowly grabbing his capture weapon and preparing to use his quirk. The crying had now turned to a mixture of muffled screaming and sobbing, the child's breath coming fast and shaky.

It was coming from his living room.

Shota slowly pushed the door open and the screaming stopped, the silence still broken by occasional sobbing and quick breaths.

There was a boy.

It was quite hard to see the boy, after all, the furniture was covered in shadows, casting strange illusions around the room and making things appear scarier then they would have if the lights had been on. But it wasn't that hard for Shota to see, after all, you get used to shadows if you spend your whole life in them.

''What are you doing here, boy?'' Shota finally managed to get out, forcing his voice to sound dominant. ''Did you accidentally go into the wrong apartment?''

Shota knew there was no way the boy could have 'accidentally gone into the wrong apartment' he had checked and double checked that all the windows and doors to make sure they were locked. And yet here was a boy, obviously in pain about something.

They boy let out a shaky breath, looking up at Shota who felt his eyes widen at the amount of cuts and blood on his face. The boy let out another sob, from his strangely dry eyes, causing a scratch on his neck to show up clearly that lead Shota's eyes to... more.... and more... and... more...

''That makes two...'' the boy mumbled as he stared up at Shota, not answering the question.

''How did you get in here?'' Shota repeated, gripping his capture weapon even tighter. His thoughts seemed to be in slow motion and even though he urged them to go faster they were stuck, staring, at the cuts on the boys face.

The greenette brought his knees up to his face and buried his face in them, ''you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you.''

''Try me kid. I've been through a lot. And you raise a lot of questions.''

He let out a soft laugh before asking, ''oh yeah? Like what? Might not be able to answer it though.''

Shota slowly let his capture weapon go and swung it around his neck. Even though this boy was clearly hiding something, he didn't seem dangerous. Yet.

''Such as how you survived all those cuts.''

The boy laughed again before looking up at Shota, the cuts on his body slowly disappearing. ''But that's the thing...

''I didn't.''

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Shota had met a lot of problem children in his career, but this one took the bait.

He tried not to think about it which was rather hard as currently the boy that had introduced himself as Izuku Midoriya was waving cheerfully to him from Shota's front door.

That night they had talked about a lot of things.

Izuku had mentioned that he had died about 9 months previously and had been 'wandering the city' ever since. Apparently, Shota was the second person who was able to see him, although Izuku didn't say who was the first and Shota didn't ask.

He couldn't even begin to imagine the pain of being a ghost.

Shota entered the Class 1-A room and told his students to quiet down. So far only 19 of the 20 students remained. He had expelled one of them on the first day of school. The kid had no potential.

Potential...

Why was that word sticking in his head?

Shota shook it off before starting the lessons of the day with his students.

Even so, as his current batch of problem children argued and listened to him, Shota couldn't help think about the question he hadn't asked Izuku.

''How did you die?''