Izuku closed his textbook as he reclined in his chair, his head hanging over the backrest as he let out a sigh.
He had read the book back and forth almost 10 times throughout his life, and even though nothing had changed, he felt drawn to the book every now and then, needing to just confirm that he wasn't crazy.
"Such a waste of time. Get up! Go run, exercise! You must be big and strong if you wish to get a good wife!"
Izuku winced at the voice, turning and glaring at the semi-transparent Samurai who was kneeling on his bed, hovering a few centimetres off of the covers. He glared at him for a moment, before sighing and standing up.
"Sure, Minamoto, let's go for a run. But can you stop talking about me getting a wife? I'm 16!"
"Bah! I had 3 girls as potential wives when I was your age!"
Izuku shook his head as the ghost floated alongside him. He put on his tracksuit and grabbed a long case out from under his bed, putting the strap over his shoulder and adjusting it so the case sat snug on his back.
He opened his door and stuck his arm out, the flood of transparent figures floating around the hallway either pausing or moving out of his way as he squeezed out of his doorway and made his way to the kitchen.
"Hey, sweetie! How was school? Oh! Is Mr Minamoto taking you for some more practice?"
Izuku smiled at his mum, nodding his head as he sidestepped the ghost of a sumo wrestler who had fallen asleep in front of the couch. The couch that his shoes were under… "Yea, I am, but I need my sneakers. Could you grab them for me with your Quirk, I can't get down there."
Inko chuckled as she saw him sitting a metre away from the couch, seemingly leaning on the air, his arm moving up and down as if the air he was leaning on was breathing. That usually meant that- "Is Konno in your way again?"
Izuku sighed his palm opening up and squishing his cheek a little. "Yea, he's asleep. It's already pretty weird that ghosts can sleep, and sometimes it's just annoying."
Inko dragged his shoes out from under the couch with her Quirk, and Izuku motioned her to keep going until eventually giving her a thumbs up and picking them up, sitting on the coffee table as he slipped them on.
Inko hummed as she looked at the long case on his back. "Did you remember to pack your gauntlets into the case again this time? You know what happens when you don't! Mr Minamoto is never happy!"
As she spoke, she saw Izuku's head dart forward, and his hand come up to the back of it as he glared at something beside him. "I did, thank you very much! I've had enough of Mr Minamoto's idea of punishment for one lifetime!"
Inko smiled as Izuku finished tying up his shoelaces and jumped to his feet. And then ducked under something, seemingly having to weave his way in and around a hundred invisible objects to cross a room that was completely empty for her.
He ran out of the front door with a grin on his face, and Inko sighed. That was just the weirdness that she guessed happened when your son was able to see and touch the spirits of the afterlife…
"Wrong! Do it again! Like this! 5 laps!"
Izuku rubbed at his wrists, the impact from the ghostly softwood sword that Mr Minamoto had in his hands still stinging as the Samurai performed the 'proper' form. Izuku focused on the way the man's (ghosts?) hips turned as he stuck, and ran off around the clearing he was training in, doing the 5 laps the man had given him.
When he finished them, he got back into his Kendo stance, wooden sword held out in front of him and replicated the proper form as best he could.
"That was better! My word, if we had students that listened when I was alive, haha! We might have even been able to…"
Izuku looked over, noticing that the ghost seemed to pause at that, and he could even kind of sense the feeling of melancholy surrounding Mr Minamoto right then. He smiled sadly, knowing that it was never easy for a ghost to remember the people, places, events… the lives that they could never get back to.
So, as he adjusted his foot so that it was just slightly off the angle he was meant to be putting it at, he pulled the oldest card in the 'dealing with ghosts' playbook, he distracted the man.
"Sir! I think my footing is a bit off!"
"Ah! You would correct, it is! 5 laps!"
Izuku sighed as he rounded a corner and silently ducked into a bush.
Why!
Why in gods name was Eraserhead in the area! This wasn't his patrol route! He should be on the other side of the city!
He sat silently, not even his breathing making a noise as the hero landed on the sidewalk in front of the garden Izuku was hiding in, rolling to a stop and jumping to his feet. "What the…"
Izuku had been training with a great many ghosts over the years, learning many skills, tricks, and techniques that most people weren't aware of, and after he had turned 16, he hadn't been able to hold himself back any longer.
With a sword in hand and a black outfit put together, Izuku had started a habit of vigilantism. Sort of. It was hard to call him a vigilante when he was a Quirkless teenager fighting ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural beings.
None of which had any legal documents saying it was illegal.
Still, he was sure that when Eraserhead has turned the corner of an alleyway and seen a figure in dark clothes cutting a brightly coloured, humanoid figure in half with a sword, he might get a little suspicious about said dark figure being a villain.
Maybe just a little.
Eraserhead searched the area for a while, even shining a flashlight into the garden Izuku was sitting in at one point, but Izuku was crouched low enough and was still enough that the Hero seemed to have missed him.
The man let out a grunt, said 'fuck' under his breath, and flung his scarf out, swinging away like that old American comic book hero. Izuku let his breath return to normal and peeked his head out of the bush after he was sure that the man was actually gone.
Hmm. This could potentially complicate his time at UA.
When he got in, of course.
"Hello, sir! I saw on the noticeboard that you were looking for an exorcist?"
The old man stared down at Izuku from the doorway, and Izuku could tell he had some sort of bug-type Heteromorphic Quirk because he was about 10 feet tall and with incredibly long, thin limbs.
The mandibles next to his mouth just kinda proved his idea more.
"Yea, I am. But you're just a kid."
Izuku frowned, but not at the man's words, as he had heard much worse over the years. He was frowning at the way that the man seemed to be surrounded by an angry feeling aura, and could tell that the man was being affected by some type of spirit.
Coughing into his hand, Izuku continued. "I am young, yes. But I am a capable exorcist. And I don't charge much, so you're not really taking a huge risk."
The man looked him up and down again, and he paused when he apparently finally realised that Izuku had a pack slung across his torso and a sword at his opposite hip. "Why the fuck do you have a sword?"
Izuku just smiled, patting the top of the hilt as he intentionally moved his gaze to the ghosts around the man, who seemed to realise that he could see them very quickly.
"I have to be able to fight back against the really angry spirits, somehow, y'know!"
"RAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!"
Izuku took deep breaths as he knelt outside of the circle he had drawn on the ground as the ghost he had trapped raged inside it. It banged against the air, and the barrier circle shimmered with energy as it kept the ghost from affecting the outside area with its power.
He opened his pack and pulled out a book, flipping through the pages until he found the entries on the various types of ghosts. It was his own writing, based on a lot of folklore and theories that he had proved true or false in his experience.
This specific type of ghost was a 'Raging Phantom', a very dangerous ghost that was able to spark someone's violent impulses if the person had a weak enough will.
They sucked.
Izuku looked over to the unconscious body on the other side of the roof and winced. The Raging Phantom had zapped the bug-man, whose name he now knew was Mushi, and caused the man to attack him.
Izuku had, of course, knocked him out swiftly, not needing a distraction from the Raging Phantom, but it did mean that he was likely that he wasn't going to be paid well for this job, if at all.
He looked at the Raging Phantom again and sighed, reaching into his pack and pulling out the materials needed to banish it carefully, placing them in their spots. A few minutes and a chant later, the room fell silent as the Raging Phantom was sent back to whatever realm it came from.
Izuku made sure to put Mushi on his bed before sitting and waiting for the man to wake back up.
Izuku had a group of people staring at him around for a change as he walked up to the testing grounds at UA High, but he didn't care.
He wouldn't let any of them distract him from his goal. Ever since he was a kid, ever since he realised that the ghosts weren't going away, that he could touch them, he knew what he wanted to do.
He would use his skills, his strength, and his sword to protect people from the things they didn't even know were hurting them.
He would be a Hero. But not just a hero, one that would protect humans from the spirits, ghosts, and whatever other creatures the world of the supernatural threw at them.
Mr Minamoto patted his shoulder encouragingly just before Present Mic let off his yell signalling the start of the test, and Izuku darted into the arena, darting around the various ghosts watching the UA hopefuls sprint.
He just hoped that Eraserhead didn't recognise him from his techniques and try to arrest him…
"I think that's him, sir. Izuku Midoriya."
Nezu hummed as Shota sat down next to him, pointing at one of the screens. Nezu made a grabbing motion, and a copy of the holographic screen zoomed over to him, putting itself into his personal screen.
He watched the boy move with the grace of a ballerina, swinging his sword with the skill of a samurai, and smiled. When Shota had told him about the 'villain in the alleyway using their Quirk to make their sword vaporise a guy with a glowing Quirk', Nezu had to admit he felt some scepticism.
Shota's description felt like such a specific set of circumstances to try and explain something that Nezu had a much simpler answer to. After all, as an animal, his eyes were privy to many things humans weren't.
As Nezu watched Izuku Midoriya dodge and weave between both robots and ghosts, he nodded to himself. "As long as he passes, I think I'll take this one, Shota."
Shota's eyebrows furrowed as he glanced at the screen, and then back to Nezu. "You're going to personally teach a villain?"
Nezu laughed softly, as did the ghosts of the previous principals who hovered around him. "No, no. I believe you are wrong about a few details of that night, Shota. But trust me, Izuku Midoriya is no villain."
He smirked as Midoriya's sword cut through a 2-Pointer and his score passed the basic entry threshold for the school. Nezu saw him give a high-five to the ghost of a samurai that was floating just behind his shoulder and chuckled.
"I just believe that he may need some teaching that only I can give him."
