A single ghost had found itself scouring the border of a faraway countryside that bordered a forest only half a mile out. With no guardian to make her own as of late, she had decided to stop slacking and actually make an effort.
There was a point in her search for a suitable person to claim as a light bearer when she spotted a group of Vex in the Japanese Dead Zone. When she saw those odd creatures she should have left and come back later, or even chosen a different place to search entirely. For some reason, she didn't. She had decided to stay and stick to her goal, because if she went back to the tower then she would have sat there for another few weeks.
Even though she set out with a goal in her mind, the ghost had gotten sidetracked. Curious as to what the Vex was doing back on Earth after the Vanguard and House Light had kicked them off the planet, she had stupidly and curiously followed the Vex into their portal.
It didn't take long for the Vex to detect her within their network immediately and boot her out right back where she was. At least it was something to report to the Vanguard, but before that, she had to get back to her task.
She scavenged the now-empty fields of the Japanese Dead Zones for a guardian she could connect to. Yet unlike the field from before the grass was alive and doing well, with growing and green trees as birds could be heard in any direction. There were no rusted-out cars filled with the skeletons of those who tried to escape the collapse, no Hive seeder ships embedded into the ground, no Eliksni skiffs entering and escaping the area, and no taken blighting up the area. The place was serene and alive.
Something was wrong, but she didn't know what. Despite the fact that this area was supposed to be a Dead Zone things seemed to be quite alive. Now she had another thing to report to the Vanguard. All she had left to do was to find a guardian she knew was perfect, one who shone with the right potential to her guardian.
"Hah! Found one!" she exclaimed happily, scanning the tall grass for meters ahead of her.
The ghost immediately raced over to the corpse lying in the field. When she found the body her metaphorical heart had dropped. The segments of her shell drooped down, hanging low, sadly.
"It's just a kid," she noted, melancholy dripping from her words.
The body looked to be fresh as well. No carrion birds, no maggots, no scavenging wild beasts. It was a young man, likely barely even past puberty yet, wearing some kind of school uniform from before the golden age. His hands showed pale skin and his hair was a dark green. She couldn't see the face as the body was lying down face-first on the ground.
She hovered low to the corpse and began to scan more intently, hoping to gather more information on her chosen guardian. Average height, average muscle density, everything else was average too. Nothing was too spectacular about this individual, though he wasn't subpar in any category.
Time was being wasted. The ghost floated over to him and placed itself above the center of the boy's back, lowering itself just enough. It then began to unhinge its shell far apart, all the segments revolving around it like a star, glowing a bright radiant light. Quickly after, it then let off a large burst of energy, enveloping the underaged corpse and the surrounding area.
Immediately the boy rolled over on his back and sat upward. He placed his hand over his chest as he tried to catch his breath.
The shell closed back around her core. She hovered her way around the body, sitting herself in front of the boy's face. "So that's what your face looks like," she said. The kid's green eyes glistened with a sort of potential. Just as his hands had shown his face was pale, as well as littered with freckles. There was still a hint of anxiety and confusion in his face which she couldn't blame him for.
The robotic creature raised itself just a bit over the boy's head before speaking again. "Anyway, I am a ghost. Specifically, I am your ghost."
"What's going on?" The boy asked, still climbing on his feet as the ghost rose with him. "W-why can't I remember anything?"
"Good question!" The ghost cheered. "To start off with you died-"
"I died!?" The boy shouted.
"Yes, you died," the ghost answered. "I know it's hard to come to grips with, but eventually you'll learn to live with it. All guardians do."
"Guardians?" The kid asked. "What are those?"
"I will be happy to explain that later. For now, what you need to know is that you've been dead for a little bit. I brought you back to life. For now, we need to find a ship and get you to the Last City."
"A-and you can explain what happened to me?" The boy asked.
The ghost bobbed up and down in what was supposed to mimic a nod. "Of course! But first like I said, we need a ship."
"O-okay," said the boy, still confused at his situation. "W-where do we go?"
The ghost pivoted away from the boy, off to find their way back home, only to soon realize she didn't know where to go. "Give me one second."
The ghost sent a signal to the satellites orbiting the Earth, hoping to place an objective marker on a nearby ship. When the ping reached back to her, she went through the information she obtained.
There was no jump ship nearby. There wasn't even a "Last City" on this planet, let alone a massive spherical object anywhere near Earth's orbit. The satellite she pinged didn't even belong to the Vanguard, but an organization that had the acronym NASA.
Slowly, the ghost had begun to piece things together.
"I have no idea where we are." Meaning that in a more grand sense terrified the ghost. Of course, she knew where she was, locally speaking, but this was becoming more unfamiliar than she would have liked for a single day. It felt as if she didn't know when she was if that were the most accurate thing in the situation. The Vex and their time manipulation was always a scary thing.
"Then where do we go?" Asked the boy.
The ghost hummed in thought. "I suppose we can just pick a direction and walk."
"Doesn't that seem a bit reckless?"
"Yeah, kinda," the ghost agreed. "It's not like we have any other viable options we can pick from though." She almost turned around fully to pick a direction, but quickly swiveled back to face the boy. "Before I forget, I have a gut feeling that says we should find something to conceal your face. Or at least try to hide."
It's been a week since Deku disappeared. Even though he put the kid through hell Deku was always the type to push through it, even if Bakugo saw him as a little pansy. He was a pansy.
On the first day, Bakugo thought Deku had finally gotten through his head that he was a quirkless loser with no hopes of becoming a hero. He never actually thought Midoriya was that stupid to think he had a chance. It was laughable.
On the second day, Bakugo assumed he was too depressed to come back to school. He made so many jokes about how he may have finally killed himself or run away. Better than applying for U.A. and embarrassing himself. He did the same on the third day, although with a bit more hesitance.
On the fourth day... he didn't actually think Midoriya would kill himself. There's no way, right? Bakugo didn't actually mean it, he just wanted to get it through the kid's head that he was a hopeless loser. There's no way.
And on the fifth day... his parents and Deku's mom had never actually met each other before. A lot of parents were there. He never heard anyone cry like that before. Where the hell was her husband? He should be there comforting her. Deku had to kid his pathetic nature from somewhere, or so Bakugo assumed.
Over the weekend he beat himself up over everything. He should have kept his mouth shut. If he hadn't said anything, none of this would have happened. He couldn't believe that stupid twerp would jump! He was just talking shit!
Bakugo sat in his room, lying in bed staring at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and exhaled, hoping to calm his mind. Maybe Deku didn't kill himself. Maybe Deku encountered a villain and tried to be the hero he wasn't. Maybe he just... got killed.
"Katsuki! Time for dinner!" his mom called.
He didn't answer. He continued to stare at the ceiling, lost in his own world. He couldn't stop thinking about that annoying nobody who would cling to him throughout childhood. Before he got his quirk he was friendly enough with him, but he wouldn't dare say they were friends. Why would he want to be friends with someone like Izuku? That Deku who always looked down on him, offering a helping hand while laughing at him inside his head.
"Katsuki!" he heard his mom shout as she nearly broke the door down. "I've been calling you for five minutes! Dinners ready!"
"Oh... alright, I'm coming," Bakugo said, tired and stressed.
His mom looked at him, surprised. "You finally done with the sassy retorts?"
"Like hell, I am, witch!" Katsuki shouted angrily.
"Watch your damn language you little shit!" His mom scolded him, grabbing him by the hair to drag him off to dinner.
The two continued to trade insults all the way down the stairs, Bakugo's father standing idly by, hoping not to get dragged into it. Even as they started eating they would glare at each other with daggers in their eyes. His father looked towards his mother was a nervous and disarming smile which seemed to calm her down. She sighed and continued eating.
Even as she ate, she still would talk to him with food shoved halfway in her mouth. "What's got you all out of sorts?"
"Mind your business," Bakugo said back.
"First off, watch the attitude, second, I'm your mother," she answered. "If something is bothering you I want to at least know what's going on. Is it that Izuku kid?"
"What if it is? Does it matter?" Bakugo asked.
"Honestly I thought you said you could barely stand the kid," she said. "Why's this bothering you all of a sudden?"
"It's not bothering me!" he said.
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Don't answer that, I'm not in the mood," she says abruptly before returning to the topic. "It's bothering you, and you can't have that when the U.A. entrance exams are so close. It'll throw you off your game."
"What she's trying to say, Katsuki, is that she's worried... we're both worrying about how this is affecting you," his father said. "If it's going to bother you that much then we'd like to figure out what's wrong so we can help you."
"It's just a stupid thing. Nothing I can't handle on my own," he said, picking at the last bit of his curry. "Thanks for the offer, but I don't need help," he added, begrudgingly.
"That thank you was half-assed," his mother stated. "But at least it's a thank you."
Bakugo stood up from the table without another word and took his dishes to the sink. He washed them off thoroughly of any extra residue and put them in the dishwasher before going back to his room. His parents gave him a curious glance before continuing to eat without him.
He couldn't believe Deku would've actually done himself in. Which is why he didn't. He also knew how much of a coward he was. The kid was probably killed or kidnapped by villains. For Bakugo's sake, he hoped that was the case. His future as a hero depended on it. If people ever found out he bullied a kid to suicide he'd never become a hero.
It was dark and smelly. The only thing illuminating the darkness of the sewers was the light emitted by the ghost. The water flowed quickly, carrying debris, algae, and waste from people's homes.
They had been walking in the dark for thirty minutes now. His legs weren't tired, he never felt the need for a break. However, he was sleepy, which he found odd. He was hungry too. In the short explanation he received, he was immortal and could be brought back from death an infinite amount of times. He never got exhausted, but he still experienced sleepiness and hunger, despite being immortal. It was strange.
What was more strange was how this little robot thing claimed to be from another world. She described it as a timeline, where the world is the same as well as parts of its history, but major events are different or non-existent in either version. Not to mention she was sent to this world by other robots who can travel through time, across different timelines, and from past to present to future. They were called Vex apparently.
A lot of things it said didn't make sense to the boy. He didn't even make sense to himself. He's a walking corpse brought back to life by a magical drone. That should be impossible. Or at least he felt it should.
"So I'm a risen who can use this thing called the light?" he asked for verification.
"Yes! Correct!" said the ghost. "It's a paracausal energy that exists in all things. We ghosts are imbued with a lot of by the traveler to give to you risen so that you may protect humanity from the darkness!"
"R-right. The darkness. Like the darkness within people's hearts or the things that lurk inside the dark?" the kid asked.
"No, no. The darkness. It's to be taken literally, but without context, it won't make a lot of sense." The ghost weaved through the darkness ahead of them, trailing in the air. "The darkness is a paracausal energy also. Where the light deals in metaphysics, the darkness deals in one's subconscious mind. The darkness corrupts those it touches, but it can be overcome and utilized against itself."
"I'm still very confused," the boy stated.
"It would be easier to see for yourself or to have someone else explain it. I've never been very good at these things. To be honest, I don't even know how much of that I got right," she admitted, her voice sounding shy and embarrassed. "Ghosts are agents of the light and because I haven't found a guardian to revive yet I still don't know a lot about the darkness. I'm only going off what I heard."
"What's a guardian?" he asked, adding more questions to an ever-growing list. "You, at least soon you will be. It doesn't make much sense to explain what it is in this world. It would be better to explain once we get to the correct timeline. Anyway, enough exposition, why don't we get to know each other? What's your name?"
Another inconvenience of this version of immortality. He couldn't remember a thing. He couldn't remember his name, his family, how he died or anything before being revived.
"I, uhh... I can't-" he began to speak before being cut off.
"Oh! That's right, permanent memory loss! Of course, you wouldn't remember your name!" she exclaimed.
"Maybe I have something on me that can identify me." The boy began to pay himself down, looking for anything that could tell him his name. He reached in his pockets, pulling out a wallet he clumsily dropped onto the sewer floor. He quickly picks it up and opens it. In one of the slots, he sees a school identification card with his face on it.
The ghost hovered over his shoulder, shining a light onto his card. It read, "Midoriya Izuku."
The ghost tittered in the air floating just ahead of him. "Well, now I have a name to call you. But I would choose a different name to go by when interacting with civilians. You died only recently, so your family members finding out about you would cause them stress and grief." She looked at his body again, noting his hair, face, eyes, and body shape. "What about broccoli?" She proposed, her tone unsure of the name. "No, that's stupid. Freckles? Not that either, it would sound like I'm bullying you."
Izuku looked at his card again. He didn't fully understand how the memory wipe worked. He remembered how to speak, how to breathe, how to walk, and even how to read. When he looked at the letters for his first name he saw another way to read them: Deku. He didn't like what it meant, but he felt that the ghost was giving good advice.
"What about Deku?" He proposed curiously.
"You want to be called useless?" the ghost asks, going back to his card. "I can see where you got the idea from, but it's a bit insulting. Deku… Deku... it gives off the air of Ganbaru like you have what it takes. How about... Dekiru? I could call you Deki for short!"
"Yeah! That sounds nice!" Izuku agreed. "What about you? Do you have a name?"
"I don't really have a name. I wasn't a very popular ghost, but no one hated me in any way. I was just a lone drifter for a long time, unable to find a guardian," she answered.
"Then what if I call you drifter?" Izuku proposes.
"Anything but that. I refuse to be associated with that man."
"What man?" Izuku asks, curious.
"Don't worry about it," she advises. "I mean, I was called the lonely ghost by a few guardians, but they were nice to me. Then there was this one asshole who was just terrible to everyone!" she angrily exclaims, her shell segments shifting into an angry expression. "What's he calling himself now? Immaru? I really do hope someone squishes him like a bug!"
Izuku laughs nervously, hoping he never meets this Immaru person. Meanwhile, he thinks of a name. Lonely Ghost caught his attention, but he felt it would be insulting to simply call her lonely, and ghost was a bit too obvious.
Suddenly he had an idea. "What about Samirei? I could also give a nickname like Sami! I-if you're okay with it, that is."
"Ooh! Where'd you get the name from?" she asked, tittering closer to his face.
"W-well you said other guardians called you 'The Lonely Ghost', right?" Sami moved in a way that indicated a head nod. "I combined the words Samishī and Yūrei and came up with Samirei. If you don't like it I can-"
"No, no! I do like it! It's uncommon for so much thought to be put into a ghost's name, although not rare. There aren't a whole lot of ghosts that have a name before meeting their guardian, so the name they get is just a bit of an asspull like Sundance was... I miss her." Sami's tone dropped a bit, reminiscing on the ghost named Sundance. "Thanks for my name, Izuku, I like it. Or, Dekiru, I mean."
Izuku smiled, happy that he made someone's day. If only the environment was more suited to wholesome moments, instead of the sound of flushing toilets overhead. The smell was getting worse as well as if it were getting closer.
The sound of rushing water could be heard from behind him. Izuku and Samirei look at the sound, seeing the dark outline of a tide of sewage rushing towards them. He ran in an attempt to outrun it, seeing how large it was, only to be swallowed whole by the sewer water.
Izuku was thrashed around by the water that dragged him in, being tossed from wall to wall as the disgusting water filled his lungs. He tried to get his head above the surface, but never for long enough periods. It wasn't long until the current of shit water dragged him out to the beach, leaving him as a corpse once more.
Samirei's name would be spelled using a combination of Samishī (さみしい) and Yūrei (幽霊). Her name would be spelt さみ霊, which according to Google Translate translates to Sami Spirit. I am not Japanese and I do not speak the language, although I do have what basically equates to a toddler's knowledge (and a weeb's) of the Japanese language. Please forgive me if I have screwed something up if you do speak the language.