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"COME ON, SHO, GET UP!"

Todoroki Shoto groaned, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand until it stung, stretching his arms up and yawning as the bright morning light hit him.

"You don't have to yell," he grumbled.

She appeared in the corner of his room, suddenly visible though she hadn't been mere seconds earlier - h/l h/c hair done neatly as opposed to the red-and-white sleep-ruffled mess Shoto was sure he was experiencing, e/c eyes lighter than their usual shade in the shine of the open windows, s/c skin mostly exposed by the white sleep slip she wore.

"You weren't waking up," she teased, folding her arms and doing her best to lean on the wall of his bedroom, despite her shoulder melting into said wall. "Besides, you're still the only one who can see and hear me, right?"

Shoto's memories flashed violently back to an occasion where he and the girl had been singing karaoke together at the ages of seven, and Natsuo had walked in and laughed at his little brother "singing alone".

Natsuo had laughed even harder when Shoto had insisted he was singing with his "best friend, Y/N."

"Yeah," he muttered, motioning for her to turn around so her could pull off his pyjamas, changing quickly into his school uniform for the first day. 

If he was honest, UA was somewhere he genuinely didn't want to go. But with the combination of his Quirk and his Pro Hero father, they'd offered him a spot, basically guaranteed, and with Enji staring over his shoulder at the Recommendations Letter with a literal burning fury, he'd been unable to decline.

"I'm coming with you."

Shoto turned around, his blazer only hanging off one shoulder and one of his hands frozen in the act of taming his messy hair, his eyes wide.

"Absolutely not."

"Please," she pleaded, and he was taken aback when her eyes suddenly filled with tears. "Please, Shoto. It's really lonely being ... like this."

He sighed, opening up his arms and waiting for her to come into them. She moved across the room, gladly coming into the space in front of his chest ...

But when he went to hug her close, his palms just ended up splayed on his own chest.

"That's right," the girl sighed, moving backwards through his hands and staring at her feet. "Your best friend - Y/L/N Y/N, the ghost."

"You alright?" Shoto tried to ask, though the question was often one that couldn't help Y/N as much as he wanted to.

She nodded, pulling on a lock of her hair and bending her knees, jumping upwards and disappearing through the ceiling.

"I'm getting changed, save me some breakfast!" she shouted from the floor above.

"You can't even eat!" Shoto yelled back, a laugh in his voice as a faint "fuck you!" echoed back to him. 

Sometimes, he forgot Y/N was no longer alive.

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

"Good night, Shoto. Please don't worry. You- You will be okay."

Shoto's eyes flashed open, his brother's face still scarred on the inside of his eyelids, his words echoing through his dreams.

Inescapable.

"Touya," he whimpered, holding his blanket to his chest. "Touya, come back. I need you. I miss you."

The six-year-old sat up in his bed, close to bawling but barely holding it in. He knew Natsuo and Fuyumi missed their brother too, but sometimes he selfishly wondered if he was the only one Touya had understood - the two Fire Quirk users had been incredibly close. 

"Who's Touya?"

He almost screamed, slapping his hand over his mouth so as not to disturb his parents sleeping in the next room as he desperately scanned the shadows of his room for the voice - that of a little girl, no older than him.

"Who's Touya?" the voice- the girl, asked again, and this time, he could see her ... right at the end of his bed.

Shoto scrambled backwards, whacking his head on the wall and letting out a tiny groan as he rubbed the back of his skull.

"Wait, where am I?" the girl cried. She had short h/c hair, obviously being young enough that it hadn't had time to grow out, terrified e/c eyes flicking all around her, and a f/c nightgown at contrast with her s/c skin. 

"In my house," Shoto responded bluntly, embarrassed that a little girl his age had scared him so much. "In my bedroom. What just happened to you?"

She panted, clutching fistfuls of her hair and trying to breathe. "I- I heard someone screaming, then someone else telling me that I needed to help ..."

Turning to Shoto, she let out a small "oh!", folding her legs to make herself comfortable, evidently having gotten over her fear. She took in his unblemished face, mismatched grey and turquoise eyes shining with fear from behind hair the colour of a Christmas peppermint.

"You're Todoroki Shoto, right? The voice was telling me to watch you and make sure you were alright."

The boy felt shivers ripple down his body - this short girl, who'd appeared out of nowhere, knew his name, and was sent to ... protect him?

"Who are you?" he replied, trying to even out his voice. "And who told you to watch me?"

"I'm Y/L/N Y/N, easy," she responded, her hands cupping her face as she said her name. "As for who told me to watch you ... I don't know. But they were dead."

Shoto reeled back a second time, barely stopping short of the wall and another minor concussion. "Dead?"

"I'm a Necromancer."

"A what?"

"I can talk to and summon dead people. It's my Quirk. The person said you were fire and ice, and that one of your brother's had- oh. It was Touya, right?"

Y/N hadn't said what one of his brother's had done, but he still nodded anyway, turning away and blinking rapidly so she didn't watch him cry.

"I miss him."

"I'm sorry, Shoto. I know what it feels like."

Y/N extended her arms to hug him, but ... she passed right through him, leaving Shoto feel truly cold for the first time in his life.

"What?" Y/N scrambled back, looking down at her convincingly solid-looking arms, twisting them palm side up, palm side down. Again and again.

Shoto's eyes widened, coming to the only obvious conclusion.

"Y/N ... you're dead."

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thank you for reading this
book and i hope you enjoy it!
~ jazzi