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"THIS IS HOW I DIED."

Shoto blinked, a hint of accusation narrowing his eyes, both of his parents showing in the colours that were reflecting clear suspicion. 

"You said you didn't remember how you died."

"I lied," Y/N said, without a hint of hesitation or remorse. "Because I didn't want to relive the worst thing that had ever happened to me. Fair?"

"Fair," Shoto mumbled. 

"I think Midoriya already knows-" she cast her e/c eyes to the side for confirmation, receiving an incline of a nod. "-but no one knows the full story except for me."

The wind seemed to blow ominously loudly, low murmurings in the the gusts of air. Y/N's image flickered for a moment, before a flash of purple Necromantic energy restored her form to ridiculously realistic. Her Quirk was good that way.

"I don't know if you know about my home life," Y/N started. "But it ... wasn't the greatest. My parents were never at home, and I had to learn how to do adult things when I was five or six years old. I missed my parents so much, because some days, some nights, all I wanted was a hug, or an 'I love you'. I knew they loved me so much, but it often seemed like their lives were too busy to worry about a kid."

"I died on my sixth birthday, about to see my parents for the first time in three weeks. I'd had to get myself to the airport, and the final step was just to cross across an intersection. They were waiting for me on the other side of the traffic lights, looking ... bored and impatient. The last thing I saw was a green light, and then I remember stepping out onto the road, and ..."

She swallowed, balling her hands into fists and taking several deep breaths in and out, willing herself not to cry. She couldn't break down, not in front of them.

"This ... this indescribable pain flashed all through my body and then it just ... vanished. I don't know what happened but then this voice told me-"

Y/N cut herself off, glancing at Shoto, who was listening to her story. Sympathy and guilt squeezed her heart so tightly it felt as though all the blood was being forced out of her body. She wouldn't put him on the spot like that.

"Anyway," she continued. "I died painfully. Quickly. And I kept thinking ... I'm a Necromancer - what if I could bring myself back?"

Midoriya inhaled rapidly. "I remember - Kindergarten, first day, where we had to write up a thing about what we could do with our Quirks. You said if you ever died ..."

"'I can just bring myself back'." Y/N finished his sentence, giving a tiny smile as a peace offering. 

She'd missed the ease at which she'd used to interact with people, and ... she'd missed her friends. She liked Shoto, she really did, although it was admittedly pretty nice to talk to someone else, especially when she'd been invisible for the past nine years of her life. 

However, whilst Midoriya was currently giving her a happy smile, finally looking like the cheery six-year-old she'd used to know, Shoto was ... pale.

Ghostly pale. 

"No," he shook his head violently, almost like a dog would, messing up his hair from the neat style it usually was. "No. No. No. You can not be talking about anchors."

Y/N propped her arms behind herself, leaning back with a confused quirk of her eyebrow. "How do you know about anchors?"

"I'm a Todoroki," was his only explanation. "You seriously can't mean to use the anchor method - it's so dangerous, especially for you, and we don't even know who your anchor is!"

At the last part of his statement, a flash of guilt visibly darkened Y/N's e/c eyes, and she awkwardly played with her h/c hair to avoid looking at or, really, addressing him. 

"Oh, no." Shoto's shaky tone told her that he'd reached precisely the right conclusion. "That was the whole point of this conversation? You can't really think-"

He broke off, running his hand through his hair and breathing dangerously quickly. "It's so dangerous, Y/N - I don't want to lose you!"

"I'm so confused," Midoriya interrupted, trying and failing to read the glances passing between the two old friends as Y/N looked up and locked her gaze with the Todoroki's, engaging in a silent conversation. "What's going on? What's the anchor method?"

"The anchor method," Shoto bit out. "Is in the rare event where someone dies and becomes a ghost, they are anchored to someone in the mortal world, and with the aid of someone with a Necromantic Quirk, like Y/N, they can use that tie with their anchor and come back to life. And it is incredibly dangerous."

Y/N ducked her head as Midoriya joined Shoto in the 'glare at Y/N' club, both of them having found a cause to be peaceful over.

Years and years of tidbits of information had all led to this, a final solidification of how to carry out an anchor procedure, and yet, both boys had chosen to be good friends over supportive ones and want to stop her from doing it.

She couldn't decide if she hated them for that, or loved them all the more.

"Who's the- oh."

"What?" Midoriya asked again, as Shoto suddenly turned red and pale in the same millisecond, fiddling with his palms.

"There are very few who can see a ghost, after they've died," Y/N explained, ticking them off her fingers as she mentioned some. "Necromancers. Other ghosts. And ... anchors."

To his credit, Midoriya understood incredibly quickly, and he stumbled to his feet, falling back down again in a mess of gangly limbs, clutching his head between his hands.

"Oh, shit, no," he muttered, over and over. 

Y/N gave a sad smile. "You were always quick to understand, Midoriya."

"I wish I wasn't," he admitted, with a biting truth. "Y/N, I'm so sorry for being a jerk. I didn't know that you thought-"

Some, maybe cowardly, part of the ghost, didn't want to hear his apology, nor to break down in front of him.

"One of you two must be my anchor."

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