#we don’t talk about how I never realized pony was also an American transfer student

[tumbling-darkling]

You Can’t Punch a Ghost

Ch 7. Death comes to those who are assholes

AO3

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Katsuki glared at the ice eyed newcomer from across the cafeteria. He hadn’t been able to get into a battle with him yet, his being in the class a threat to his goals of becoming number one. What business did an American transfer student have in Japan? Couldn’t he just go take up space somewhere else? Anywhere else?

Every day he didn’t fight him felt like a punch to the gut. He needed to prove that he was number one in the class! And how could he do that if the little shit kept avoiding him?

He growled as Icy Eyes laughed at something dunce face said, he already was nearly finished his lunch that had been piled higher than the damn nerds! How did that stick figure eat more than deku? He was probably the scrawniest kid in their entire class! Nothing made sense!

Not to mention that look he would notice from him every so often. That glint in his eyes, the taunting smirk, though there was also something else. Something he would spot in those eyes when he would shout at Deku or bump past him. He thought it was recognition but there was something else to it. And he couldn’t place it.

Those didn’t matter though, all that mattered was finding a way to corner the fucker and prove he was the best in the class!

Which had been so much harder than he ever expected.

If there was one thing that icy eyes was good at, it was disappearing. Katsuki tried to trail him one time to corner him, but he turned a corner and vanished by the time Katsuki managed to make it to the corner himself. Even in the halls of the school, one moment he was surrounded by dekus nerd squad and the next! Gone! Vanished! What a coward!

Yet someone had to be fighting him!

He showed up today with a bandage over his nose. Someone punched him in the fucking face and it wasn’t him!

It was as if he avoided fighting Katsuki just to piss him off! And it was working! He will find a way to fight icy eyes! And he will blast apart his shitty ice along the way!

-

-

-

Danny cast a grin towards Mr. ‘I can make my hands explode so I think I’m better than everyone here’. He was glaring at him again and Danny found a cocky grin always got him to look away. He hadn’t really had a chance to interact with the blonde, but he wasn’t exactly too keen on doing so. Mainly since he reminded Danny a little too much of Dash. Especially with how he acted around Midoriya.

Danny didn’t really understand how everyone was unaware of their relationship but it was definitely not an extremely healthy one. Bakugou was aggressive, but he has different types of aggression. A lot of bark and no bite when it came to people he hung around like Kirishima and even Denki. But with Midoriya, it’s like he had some sort of issue with the fact that he was just breathing. The bark would always become a bite around him, and everyone seemed to treat it like normal behaviour.

Danny could handle bullies. He was used to it. He was a small kid in a small town with the weirdest parents a child could ever ask for. He could take a hit, he was resilient even before the accident. It was always better if the bully targeted him instead of Tucker or some other kid, because he could handle it. He could always handle it. He had to handle it because what if those around him couldn’t? Couldn’t protect them from danger, couldn’t protect them from the pain, themselves, the screaming, the crying, the voices that constantly circle in his head, freak, loser, creep! Her voice, her voice always there, in the corners, the deep and dark corners he tried to bury. To hide in- hide from. The voice her voice echoing whispering, haunting what are you? What are you? Some freak pretending to be human? Or a creepy little boy with creepy little powers? A foot in the grave and the other planted firmly on the unforgiving earth, unable to choose, unable to be whole, always torn, always a freak. Just a freak just a freak just a freak just a freak-

Bakugou was a bully to Midoriya, and lately Danny had been drawing his attention. And he was just fine by it.

Ancients, he could even teach him a lesson, one that Poindexter would be proud of.

He may just do that, actually.

An annoying laugh snapped him out of his thoughts and he glanced up to notice a new blonde staring down at him with the most condescending look possible, “oh? Is Class 1-A ever so broken over their recent loss that they had to bring in an American? Oh how your class has sunk so low!”

Danny very slowly blinked then turned to Uraraka next to him, “who’s the kid with the creepy smile?”

The boy took that personally, dramatically flailing backwards, “Creepy? Creepy? I think that out of everyone in this school, you’re the creepy one! My classmates say they doubt you even breathe! What is your quirk? ‘Being useless and weird?’” The asshole reached out a hand and Danny slapped it away, standing up, “oh? Another aggressive type, are we?”

Danny then grinned, briefly flashing his fangs and causing the bully to jerk back, “Why don’t you go bother someone who cares to listen to your insults? I suggest a bathroom, there’s plenty of mirrors in there.”

He then sat back down as the people around him all paused, then the kid looked ready to scream when a girl grabbed him with … massive hands.

Okay. Yeah, sure. Got it. Big hands. Nothing makes sense.

“Sorry about Monoma, I couldn’t stop him when he saw you and basically bolted across the room. It’s nice to meet you, my name is Isuka Kendo!” She introduced herself with a regular sized hand.

Danny very slowly took it and shook it, “what’s his deal?” Danny asked, casting a quick glance at the struggling student in question.

“He has a bit of a grudge, the classes are numbered 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C and he has a bit of a problem not being in class 1-A so he tries to prove our class is ‘better’. Really, it’s more annoying than helping anything, we all have the same end goal in mind.”

“Huh. May need to get a therapist for that,” Danny shrugged. “So what’s his quirk?” He asked right before shoveling a good amount of rice into his mouth.

“He can copy other people’s quirks.”

Danny could feel the blood drain from his face as he dropped his fork and began choking on his rice. Out of all the people in the world, he knew he could probably find a way.

Just as he began sputtering and coughing, Monoma managed to somehow slip out of Kendo’s grasp. He watched in dawning horror as he saw Monoma’s hand flicker in and out of tangibility, making it much harder for him to stand up, though he seemed to manage to roll to his feet with a loud cackle. He copied his ghost powers.

He copied his ghost powers oh god.

“Now let’s see what great and powerful quirk you happen to have, American boy!” Monoma cried.

Danny saw Monoma’s breath mist just as he launched himself in the mimic's direction, knocking him to the ground and holding him firmly by his shirt, “how long does it last?” Danny hissed, he could NOT let his secret get exposed like this. Especially not like this!

Monoma’s face twisted into another grin, “What? Afraid I will use it better than you?”

Danny noticed his hand go intangible again, did he not notice what was happening? Danny lowered his voice, “look my power- my quirk is dangerous. I don’t need you accidentally killing yourself with it-.”

Monoma then coughed, causing Danny to pull back a little as spit got on his face. He glanced back down to see the other boy's eyes wide in horror, a hand now clutching his chest, “this… this doesn’t feel right.” Danny frowned, slightly confused until he realized that Monoma’s skin felt cool. His skin paling, tinging blue. Deathly blue.

Danny didn’t think. Thinking took too long and he needed to fix this now.

So he hefted Monoma over his shoulder and bolted out of the cafeteria, startling everyone as he slammed out the doors and tore down the halls. He spotted the sign pointing to the nurses office and the door itself shortly after, slamming in and dumping Monoma on an empty bed. He spun around, frantically searching the room before spotting a small lady staring at him in surprise. He pointed to Monoma, “I- he copied my quirk and- and I don’t know, something is wrong,” He managed to blurt out without being too obvious.

The doctor lady nudged him aside and leaned over Monoma, a frown causing more wrinkles to form on her face, “and you think it’s because he copied your quirk?”

“I don’t, yeah I think so, I just-, is he dying?” Danny couldn't tear his gaze away from Monoma, he was out cold now but he was just too still. His breathing was shallow but it was still there, thankfully. He just met the jerk but he didn’t want him to die. Especially not because of him.

“His quirk only lasts 10 minutes of usage, but some quirk suppressants may help,” the doctor said as she revealed a syringe. As soon as she finished giving Monoma the suppressants, colour returned to his face, his breathing became deeper and more even, and within a minute, he looked just like he had a few minutes prior to this mess.

As the blonde slowly flickered awake, Danny let out a sigh of relief.

“What exactly is your quirk, young man?” The doctor suddenly asked. “Especially to cause such a reaction, why doesn’t this happen to you?”

Danny froze.

He presented his quirk as ice… but… he got his powers by dying. Did… did Monoma copy the death aspect of his abilities? Was… was his body dying to accommodate the sudden ghost powers? Or could his body just not handle the ghostly powers so it began to kill him?

He swallowed thickly, clutching his right arm tightly as he tried to think of a lie to connect it to his ice.

“Uh-, it’s er, Phantom Ice. Like really weird ice,” He vaguely explained.

The nurse raised an eyebrow, “how is it weird?”

Danny began to scratch the back of his neck, “uh- it doesn’t, it doesn’t melt. Not unless I make it melt.”

“Hmmm, odd indeed. Did you have any complications when the quirk first manifested?”

Danny glanced down at his hands, remembering when the ice first manifested. Well… remembering what he could. Honestly a lot of it was a bit of a blur. There was Sam, she and the town had been taken over by ghost plants. He remembered he had been cold all week, constantly shivering, unable to get warm no matter what he did. Looking for help. Flying, the ghost zone, so much snow… then waking up and Frostbite hovering over him.

“I was… I was cold. For an entire week. It started with an odd shiver, but then it got worse and worse. It got so bad I thought my entire insides were covered in frost or something.”

“Did it eventually return on its own?”

Danny slowly shook his head, then realized that he probably should have agreed with her speculation, “I… have a friend who knows a lot about ice p- quirks. I went to him and he helped me control it.”

“You went to this friend? How old is he?”

Danny nearly fell out of his chair as he spun around to see Aizawa standing in the doorway.

Oh no.

Oh no his lies needed to be more airtight now that Mr. ‘I can see through all your lies and even your soul’ was here. How old were kids when they got their quirks? Six? Eight? It wouldn’t make sense if the friend was the same age as him. Too young for any control. And Danny really couldn’t picture Frostbite as a child.

Okay maybe he could a little. Like a little puff ball of icicles and fluff.

Focus, Danny.

“He-, he’s a family friend. Was always very kind to me and my friends. My parents didn’t like him a lot because of… because of the way he looked.” Wow he just called his parents ghost-ist. Was that a thing? Maybe, he wasn’t sure. Could be. They did hate ALL ghosts. Because they were ghosts. “He had this really cool ice quirk, parts of him were even made out of only ice. So I… kept it from my parents and went to him for help. And he helped me.”

Danny could feel that dark gaze digging into his skull, trying to pick out every detail that Danny had given and piece them into some sort of puzzle that Danny was trying really hard to keep him from completing. “So how did he help you, then?” The doctor lady asked.

Danny kicked his foot a little, “he, uh… well he said my quirk built up in power for too long. Said the power wasn’t being used and because of that it began to build and build until I was almost basically frozen on the inside. He… he managed to thaw me out, told me that if I had waited another day or less, I could have died.” Faded fully dead not just half all the way full ghost

“Hmm, I have one more question. Where does your quirk come from?”

Danny blinked, “uh… my… parents?”

“Not genetically, where does the quirk come from? When you use it?”

Danny lifted a hand, “well, from my hands. I think.”

“You shot it from your eyes during one of the exercises,” Aizawa made his presence known and once more, made Danny jump a little.

The doctor took Danny’s hands, “so your quirk doesn’t come from your hands, do you know where it does come from?”

Danny stared down at his own hands, “I… don’t think so?”

“Well, when you use your quirk, try to follow it. Follow it from your hands to its source.”

Danny glanced between his hands and the doctor, then to Aizawa, then back to his hands. He took a heavy breath, then summoned a little bit of ecto ice energy into his palms. The energy wasn’t ice yet, just the condensed energy before it became ice when he blasted it across the room.

“Good, now follow it.”

Danny closed his eyes, feeling the energy in his palms. Sure enough, he could feel energy in his arms, pooling towards his palms, but the energy also left his palms back into his arms, flowing back into his body. He mentally followed the stream, feeling that returning energy trail up to his shoulder and down into the centre of his chest. Into… his core. His energy, all his power, why hadn’t he noticed this before? The pulsing of the core wasn’t just a beat in his chest, it was more. It was like a second heart. Pumping power throughout his entire body. And when he summoned his ice, the core would pull some power from the rest of his body and then pour what it had within it towards the area he was wanting to expel it from. Everything about his ghost side started and ended with his core.

He slowly pulled the energy back from his palms; now aware of the cold as he felt it travel back into his core. Then gently lifted a hand to tap the center of his chest, “right here. My power comes from here.”

The doctor nodded once more, “I see, it all makes sense now. So your body must have a built up quirk immunity.”

Danny blinked, unfamiliar with the term. “Quirk… immunity?”

“Haven’t been paying attention to your quirk studies, hm?” She slightly teased, “Quirk immunity is when users are immune to the effects of their own quirk. Such as Bakugou, he can cause hot explosions in the palms of his hands but they don’t get burned. Or Endeavor, he can create and control flames, but will never be burned by his own power. Some children are born with this immunity, which can be dangerous and they never truly understand just how much damage their quirk can cause without experiencing it themselves. Sometimes this immunity is built up over time. Such as yourself. A quirk can be too much for a body to handle and may cause effects such as dropping the body’s temperature. With use and control, the user can build up this immunity, where their body slowly adapts to coexist with the quirk. And some users never gain this immunity and must be much more cautious and aware of their power. Such as Midoriya, who is quite a reckless child in the worst possible ways. Midoriya doesn’t have quirk immunity, and his own power tends to hurt his body when used in extreme amounts. His body will never naturally adapt to this power to make him immune to harm from his own quirk, so he must be constantly aware of how much power he is using. He can build up his own strength to handle more of this power, but this is something he must do on his own.”

Danny had to think for a moment in order for the information to all sink in, “... so… Monoma…?”

“Monoma doesn’t copy quirk immunity. He can’t copy experience. And he can’t copy control. Your quirk requires all of these aspects to at least be used to a minimal degree from how you described it. So an attempt to copy and use it instead had the quirk attempt to adapt his body for use. This dropped his body temperature, absorbed his energy, and ultimately slowed all his functions. He will be fine now that the quirk is no longer active, and I suggest he tries to avoid copying yours from now on,” the Doctor gave Monoma a very stern glare, causing him to sink deeper into the bed.

Danny could feel his blood pressure lowering. No one suspected that he was a ghost. Monoma was going to be fine. And now he had a new angle to work with in regards to making portals.

“Is there anything I should be worried about on your end, young man?” The doctor asked.

Danny shook his head in response, “No issues here, medically wise!” he lied. There was always something wrong, he wasn’t fully alive, now was he?

“Then there is no need to crowd my workplace, shoo! Off to class with you!”

Danny shuffled quickly out the door, realizing that Aizawa had stayed behind since he was nowhere in sight.

Should he be worried about him just showing up and listening to his ‘quirk origin story’?

…

Nah.

-

-

-

Danny sat on a street light in phantom mode, fiddling with his hands as he thought about what the doctor told him about his flowing energy. It all came from his core. He had tested around with it more by trying out his other abilities. His ectorays, ecto-ice, even his poor attempt at duplication stemmed from his core. Ancients, this duplication attempt was probably the best he’s ever attempted now that he understood the source of where the energy he needed came from.

The sound of shattering glass snapped him out of his own thoughts and he couldn’t help but sigh in annoyance.

For a world literally filled with superheroes, you would think that would deter crime. Especially petty crimes like these robbers that seemed to believe that heroes don’t work at night.

He stretched a little as he stood up then dropped off the lamp, gently hovering down and appearing right in front of the criminal. Upside down of course. “Boo.”

The criminal yelped and stumbled back, a black mask pulled firmly over their face and dressed in all black. While he couldn’t see their face, Danny did notice how they trembled, the shifting of eyes between him and what they stole. He lost his grin at the sight, he wasn’t usually met with this kind of fear. Usually it was anger, or a sense of playfulness from the really wild criminals. Even the ghosts at home never really showed fear around him, and those that did usually didn’t want to fight. He glanced over at the dropped bag and the person followed his gaze, then quickly snatched the bag close to their chest and they tried to kick away from him.

“Whoa-, wait a second. What’s in the bag?”

“What does it matter to you?” The person spat, “you’re just a hero doing your job and I’m a villain stealing from a store! Just do your job and get it over with!”

Danny held up his hands, “Hate to break it to you, but I don’t get paid for this,” he joked.

“A vigilante then! Even worse!” They growled, eyes scanning over him, their body tense, ready to take a hit.

Danny drifted closer and they flinched, but he pushed forward and reached through the bag, pulling out one of the contents before the person could yank it out of his reach.

A pill bottle sat in his hands, the orange capsule and white lid a dead giveaway. The label had some wildly complicated word on it, and the instructions indicated simple daily dosage amounts that were needed to be taken. “Who are these for?” Danny asked without thinking, unable to tear his gaze from the little plastic container.

“... my brother.”

He finally looked up, drifting to the ground and landing lightly on his feet.

This… was new territory. Ghosts didn’t have the same problems as the living, they had simple motives. Take over the world, be the best, even just cause problems because it’s funny. Living people… they had other reasons other than just boredom.

He forgot about those.

He tossed back the pill bottle and shrugged, kicking at the ground as his gaze drifted up to the sky, “eh, you’re below my pay grade.”

The person blinked as they barely caught the returned item, “... I thought you said you didn’t get paid?”

“My moral paygrade,” he flashed a grin. “Better run off before I decide otherwise.” He saw the flash of watery eyes as the individual got to their feet, taking a stumbly step back as if they were afraid it was too good to be true. “Go on!”

The person finally turned and began to dash away, which was when Danny saw the shadows dance and light tear towards the running figure at lightning speeds. Danny snarled and instinctively threw out an ectoshield in front of the person he just let go, barely saving them from the blast of fire. The person stumbled, but a quick glance between the shield and Danny was all they needed before they managed to disappear down an alley.

“You just let a criminal go. You vigilantes truly are cheap imitations of real heroes.”

Danny could feel cold rage bubbling at his core as he turned to glare at the culprit of the fire. A man with flames billowing from his shoulders and face, while somewhat familiar Danny couldn’t place his name or face based on his growing anger. His rising emotions keeping him from restraining his otherwise toned down ghostly glow, “You could have killed them.”

“So? A criminal stole, they are aware of the possible consequences. Like you’re aware that you too are breaking the law, and I have an obligation to stop you.”

The man on fire blasted more flames in Danny’s direction, which he managed to pull another ecto-shield up in time to block it. The power and heat of the blast was enough to crack it and throw Danny back. His core pulsed, and suddenly the air around him began to chill. Energy pooled into his hand and he whipped the ectoblast at the flaming bastard, nailing him in the face and sending him stumbling back this time. “Who put you in charge of who gets to live and who does not?” Danny snarled, “Who gets to be horribly crippled, traumatized, or murdered? There’s only one who should decide and it’s not you.”

The man wore his own mask of rage, tenderly touching the forming bruise on his jaw from Danny’s blast, “Who the hell do you think you are? A child, lecturing me on right from wrong? Maybe I should teach you a lesson while I’m at it! To respect those who protect the pathetic and weak!”

He used both hands this time, fire twisted out of the air and towards him before he sent out a much larger and much hotter blast. The pavement began to warp from the heat, growing soft under Danny’s feet. He turned intangible, but could still feel the heat sap at his energy around him. He felt the need to get out.

Escape the heat.

Too much.

Too much heat.

He felt like he was going to fall back, his hand flailing behind him before catching on something, he tugged and there was a feeling of cold.

He didn’t even look, just fell into the hole that allowed him to escape the heat.

And then he was behind the man.

Danny blinked.

The man blinked.

Danny grinned.

The man’s face twisted into a scowl.

He lunged for the halfa and Danny easily leapt over his attempts to grab him, weightlessness returning to his being as his rage fell away. Oh, he was still mad. He thought this man was an absolute prick.

But he could absolutely cause more damage by being childish as he kicked this man’s ass.

Not to mention he was pretty sure he made a portal. Something he would have to figure out more about later but that definitely added to his uplifted mood.

“Man you are a flaming asshole. You know that, right? How did you even become a hero? Must have had daddy get you this far. And with an attitude like that, I bet you are at the bottom of the list too!” Danny taunted, hovering right out of reach of the man as he shot little bits of ectorays in annoying places like his cheeks, back of his neck and even his eyes a few times.

“Don’t act like you don’t know who I am!” The man snarled, throwing more flames that Danny very dramatically avoided with little effort. “I am number 2, the most powerful man in the hero industry who doesn’t cover behind fake smiles!”

“Nah, none of that rings a bell,” Danny yawned, pulling out his phone. “What’s your name? Flaming Prick?” He asked as he searched up the name, “holy shit there’s actually someone named that? Who let him do that?”

“Enough of your games!”

Danny stepped out of the way of more of the man’s blasts in the air, even taunting him more with his shitty dancing skills. “Unfortunately, all I have are games so you’re just going to have to suck it up, old man!” He shot a small beam of ice at the man’s feet, encasing them just in time to trip him and send him crashing face first into the pavement. Danny then slammed both his feet into the back of the man’s head as he tried to push himself off the ground, kicking his head back into the pavement with maybe a little more force than Danny intended.

Either way, all of the man’s muscles went limp and his fire decorations went out as Danny then landed on his back, the man now clearly unconscious. He leaned over and melted the ice, getting rid of the evidence that Phantom could use ice as he remembered. Maybe he got a little too cocky in using it.

He then decided to look the man up, searching up ‘jerky flaming hero of Japan’.

Oh.

This was Endeavor. The man who stole his goddamn credit.

No wonder he was vaguely familiar.

A quick scroll through his wiki and Danny found his last name was also familiar… he had heard it before. He stared at the man’s picture, then scrolled a little more before stopping completely to stare at the family portrait.

It was that peppermint head kid! The one Midoriya would talk to a lot!

Holy shit he just beat up his dad.

Danny glanced back down at the unconscious man, then back at the photo on his phone. Man, either this man had two personalities he only used at home or he was probably just a horrible father.

The kids looked miserable in the picture…

Well… it was a good thing Danny always carried a permanent marker on him for humiliation of his really shitty enemies. He had been saving it for Vlad… but that could wait until he got back home. Then he could hand Vlad his ass for leaving him in another dimension and mess up his face afterwards.

-

-

-

“This just in, Endeavor was personally defeated by the new vigilante, Spooky Boy. A bystander managed to record half of their battle when hearing the chaos outside his home. This new vigilante could prove to be a villain based on his actions towards the hero, though no reports of civilian casualties or attacks have been reported. Endeavor himself has minor injuries from the fight, and claims his defeat was nothing more than a mixture of a fluke and a lucky shot.

Many are wondering if this new menace will become the new hero killer after Stain’s defeat just over a week ago. Only time will tell if this individual will cause a casualty and show his true colours.”

Shouta stared at the screen of the television, the burning hot coffee that coated his hands after crushing his cup barely noticeable as he took in this information. A picture of Endeavor’s face was now on the screen next to a video of reporters trying to interview him as he angrily stalked away after his defeat. The picture had many blurred out spots, though some could still make out the drawn contents, which were very crude.

Honestly, the man deserved the face drawings. But what really concerned him was that this ‘vigilante’ had taken out Endeavor. The only reason he was number 2 was because he was powerful. No other hero could challenge him for his position, only All Might held that power.

He felt a pit in his stomach and glanced towards Danny’s room. The boy tended to turn in early, retreating to his room well before 10, though those bags under his eyes may suggest he either had troubles sleeping or stayed up way later than Shouta thought. The report was recent, only happening within the last half hour.

It didn’t hurt to check.

Shouta stepped over to Danny’s room, and heavily knocked on the door, “Danny?” He didn’t get an answer, and Shouta knocked again. Still nothing.

Maybe he was just sleeping. He was a bit of a heavy sleeper.

Shouta opened the door slowly, and glanced around the dark room. His eyes landed on Danny’s bed and he felt his blood run cold. An absolute mess, blankets bunched up or hanging off the side. No sign of the kid himself.

He turned on the lights and quickly scanned the room, already pulling out his cell as he searched the area while speed dialling Hizashi. Just the general mess, no actual signs of struggle, an open window-!

“Shouta? What’s up? Need help remembering something-,” Hizashi’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Danny is missing,” he stated. “He’s not in his room, I can’t tell if the mess is his or signs of a struggle, and the window is open.”

“Well, is it possible he snuck out like most teenagers tend to do?”

Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, “maybe, I don’t know. All I know is that the new vigilante from the news was just active and he managed to take down Endeavor. I’ve had a weird suspicion that he’s connected to Danny somehow because he showed up right after he was found. And if he is in anyway-.”

“Then you think he may have taken him,” Hizashi finished. “Alright, you aren’t just paranoid. I guess a ghost of a teenager in all systems disappearing would be worrying. I’ll help you look, as well as contact any other heroes in the area to see if they saw anything.”

“Call me if you find him,” Shouta stated before hanging up and tugging out his capture tool. Here he thought he found a child that wasn’t constantly attracting villainous attention. He never should have gotten his hopes up.

Shouta went out Danny’s window, using his capture tool to swing to the next building's roof and start searching for the teen. He didn’t know how long Danny had been missing, it could have been hours at this point. How far should he search? In one direction? Maybe the area where he first found him? He ultimately decided to cover as much ground as quickly as possible, eventually spotting a glowing streak in the sky.

On instinct, he activated his quirk and the streak faltered before straight up dropping like a rock from the sky. Shouta tried to keep him in his sights as long as possible as he tore towards the vigilante, but eventually disappeared behind a nearby building. He did hear a crash when he got close, he must not have been able to recover his flying abilities when Shouta lost sight of him. But that just worked in his favour.

With a quick turn of a corner, he finally caught sight of the vigilante once more, peeling himself off the roof of a parked car that now had a sizable dent in it. He was just as Midoriya described, though he seemed to have missed a few details.

Like how completely inhuman he seemed.

This just didn’t feel like a physical mutation, the way he moved, how his hair floated, that glow that emitted from his very being. Then his eyes, eyes that glowed too brightly, irises that seemed to swirl like thick syrup, pupils too black next to that bright glow.

Was he one of those things? Those Nomu?

Spooky Boy grumbled to himself as he landed on the ground, looking at his hands and then lifting off the ground like gravity meant nothing. He hadn’t noticed Shouta just yet-.

Then his eyes flickered over and he froze, and Shouta made his move, activating his quirk and whipping out his capture tool. The vigilante tried to take off but he stumbled as Shouta’s quirk erasure took hold and kept him from flying off like before. He adapted though, rolling barely out of reach from the tool and jumping to his feet and yelling, “What did you do?!”

Shouta didn’t answer as he made another capture attempt, his eyes slowly beginning to sting as he refused to deactivate his quirk on this one. From what he heard, this kid was a slippery one. The vigilante tried to do something with his hands, then barely twisted out of the way a second time when that didn’t work. Shouta didn’t give him time to think about dodging a third time, whipping it again just as he opened his mouth to speak, wrapping around him and successfully holding him. “-shit,” was all he got out before he fell over from being restrained.

Shouta pulled out a communicator that connected directly to the York suppressant specialists at the police station, “I got the vigilante, get to my coordinates fast with the strongest quirk suppressors you’ve got.” The kid wiggled around like a worm, even attempting to bite the fabric in an attempt to escape. “What is your connection to Danny?” Shouta asked.

The kid paused, slowly trailing those haunting eyes up towards him, “er… who?”

Shouta narrowed his gaze, “don’t act dumb, you showed up the same time he did, now he’s missing and you’re my main suspect.”

Something was going through this kid's head, but Shouta couldn’t seem to read what exactly that was. “Hehe, we have the same floaty hair.”

This made Shouta blink in surprise at the sudden very childish comment.

A mistake.

He must have realized his powers returned because he was out of the weapon within that split second and out of sight. Literally disappearing as he blinked. “Dammit! Where’s Danny?!”

“He’s fine,” a voice came from behind him, but turning around still didn’t solve the answer of where he went. “Strange, my powers are back, so you have some sort of power cancelling power?” The voice came from his left and another glance proved he still couldn’t see him. “I still have them now too, and they stopped earlier as I was flying… so either you have, like a power beam or it’s sight related… and your hair keeps doing that thing. Up every time I talk.” Was he just taunting him now?

“What are you?” Shouta found himself asking.

“Oh that’s an easy one. I’m a ghost. A Spector. A P̸h̵a̸n̷t̴o̶m̷. In fact, can you tell the reporters my name is Phantom? Spooky boy is just… it’s horrible. Not as bad as Invis-o-Bill but it’s still pretty bad.”

“How do you know Danny is fine? What's your connection to him?”

“Oh there's the heavy questions, alright. Uh-, we are… friends? Maybe? Acquaintances? Yeah. He was being a dumb teenager and got attacked by some villain. Roughed up. Saw him getting picked on, kicked the villain into next week, he insisted on walking back to his home though.”

Shouta didn’t trust anything he said, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of his suspicion of the story and coincidences or the echo to his voice as Phantom made it seem like the air was speaking to him.

“Yeah, I get that a lot. No trust. Got it. Well, I gotta ditch. See ya later, A- freaky older man I have never previously met before!”

Shouta could feel a shift in temperature around him, a chill he hadn’t noticed until now disappearing like fog suddenly being lifted.

He didn’t need to see him to know that Phantom had left.

That’s when his back-up finally decided to arrive, weapons out and looking around for the vigilante he had mere seconds ago. His capture weapon laid loose on the ground, unbroken in any way. Like the vigilante just… slipped through the cracks.

He pulled his weapon back towards him as a detective stepped next to him, “you lost him? Does your quirk not work on him?”

Shouta shook his head, “it works, got him to fall out of the sky with a look.” He bundled his capture weapon back around his neck before looking back over to the detective, “he surprised me, made me blink. Either he’s a quick study or he already knew what my quirk was and used it in that split second to escape. I don’t understand how though. My students with much more destructive powers can’t escape my capture tool, and there was no sign of damage to it either.”

“People have been reporting he can walk through walls,” the detective sighed.

I’m a ghost.

“Can any of your officers track him? A heat signature? Tracks? Anything?”

The officer shook his head, scratching the back of his head as he sighed, “unfortunately, he’s impossible to track. Smell is off the table since he just flies over buildings and out of sight. Not to mention the dogs refuse to even try and track him. His heat signature is actually ice cold, blue instead of red. Not to mention, also useless since he moves so fast. No heart signature either. One of our best that can identify anyone by heartbeat can’t find him because she said she doesn’t hear anything from him. Just a hum.”

“No.. heartbeat?” Shouta paused.

A Spector.

“Yeah, she managed to use her quirk to track down countless masked villains and vigilantes because no two heartbeats are the same. But she can’t find his. Do you really believe he could be an actual ghost?”

Shouta looked over, there was no joking spark to his eyes. “It shouldn’t be possible. Ghosts… even if they did exist… they wouldn’t have quirks. They are based on biology, not… spirits.”

The officer shrugged, waving to his team to pack up, “you’re right. Maybe he just has really messed up biology. A ghost… man, he does fit the gimmick though.”

Shouta watched them leave before taking leave himself, heading back to his apartment. But the thoughts didn’t leave him. He was just some kid who thought he was a ghost, wasn't he?

Why was there so much doubt that swirled through his head? A few weeks ago, he would have had no doubts. Just summed it all up to a very strange mutation.

But that voice. That feeling. Nagging at the back of his mind. It wasn’t… it wasn’t just a mutation, was it? There has to be more to it…

The voice echoed in his mind once more.

A Phantom.

-

-

-

To say that Danny was panicking was an understatement. He had just experienced a rollercoaster of events and emotions and now he was waiting in the living room of a man who took him in and has only been patient and understanding with him from the moment they met. Which was something that was still absolutely baffling to Danny.

First he almost killed someone when they copied his ghost powers. Then he discovered a way to potentially unlock more of his ghost powers by accidental lessons from the school's doctor. And then he finally made a portal which may have only been a few feet apart but it was better than nothing at the moment. Then he found out his temporary guardian's quirks turned out to be to turn off his powers with a very scary stare.

So there was a lot to process. Lots of feelings. Emotions. Stuff he was trying not to think about.

Aizawa didn’t recognize him as Phantom, and Danny wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He should be relieved, right? No need to connect his very dangerous nightly activities to the boy he found in a dumpster. Yet… yet he couldn’t help but be reminded of his parents. How they could never see him in Phantom. Never make any connections to the ghost and their son. Only see an enemy. Something to shoot at. Dissect. Hurt. Hurt because ghosts don’t feel pain, they are nothing but echoes, mimics, and monsters. Would it be the same with Aizawa? Did he end up in another world just to hear the same song playing all over again?

The question he asked Phantom… ‘What is your connection to Danny?’

He couldn’t help but play it over and over in his head. The concern of the tone, accusing, slightly fearful of the answer… but the familiarity of it lacked one key aspect.

When Danny would sometimes go missing and Phantom appeared to be at the center, his parents would scream at him. “What did you do to Danny?” Instantly blaming Phantom, hate so clear in their tone.

… why did Aizawa lack that hatred? Why connect his ghost half to potentially hurting his human half and not have a hint of hate in his tone? Everyone hates his ghost side in some way, for some reason. He had to hate it. It was just something people did. They hate the things they are scared of.

Danny would have just left by now. If this was anyone else, he would have tried to get as far away as possible before someone like Aizawa could piece together anything else.

But…

But…

…

The door opened, Danny couldn’t help himself as he felt himself go rigged as the lights turned and he was exposed by the light. He didn’t want to look at Aizawa, he didn’t want to see those glowing red eyes that scared him so badly as they suppressed his ghost side, made him feel so helpless and lost.

“Oh thank god, he didn’t lie.” Danny heard Aizawa gasp under his breath before he quickly crossed the room without even closing his apartment door. Danny focused on a stain on the couch so he wouldn’t watch Aizawa’s movement, but he could still feel as the man stopped in front of him and crouched down. “Danny? Are you okay?”

That made Danny flinch, but he couldn’t understand why.

“Danny, this is way past your curfew! Do you understand how worried your father and I were?”

“You’re bleeding, I’ll get you a bandage.”

“Is that a cut? What did you do this time?”

“This will help,” Danny didn’t even react as Aizawa put on the bandage. “Danny,” Danny finally looked up and met dark eyes instead of red ones. Worried and concerned eyes. Why did this make him ache so much more than his broken ribs?

They never notice the cuts. The bruises. The poorly hidden limp from a bad fight. He always thought he was lucky that they never noticed. They would have looked like this, but always at the wrong times.

“Why aren’t you mad?” Danny blurted out, then continued without giving Aizawa a chance to answer. “I snuck out! Broke the one rule you have! Got myself into trouble and made you run around looking for me, made you worry and probably wasted your time!”

“... you didn’t make me do anything, and you didn’t waste my time either.”

Danny didn’t understand the anger that was boiling inside of him, and he couldn’t stop himself as he snapped, “of course I did! I could have prevented this if I just stayed inside! Just followed your rules! I don’t-! I don’t get it!”

Aizawa moved, slowly standing from his crouched position before he took a seat next to Danny, “teenagers like to break rules. Why did you sneak out?” He asked in such a calm voice, no anger, no disappointment, just a simple question.

For some reason, it made Danny want to scream, instead he looked away and answered in as steady of a voice as he could muster, “I… I needed fresh air.”

“It was more than just that, wasn’t it?”

Danny buckled slightly under the pressure, “Fine! I needed to get a feel for my surroundings! I need… I need to know where I am, where places are and how to get there and back.” How to get home was left unspoken.

Do you even want to go back home?

“I see. I can extend your curfew if you need.”

Danny jolted, “w-what?”

“I would prefer if someone also would watch your back at such late hours. I have an insomniac student who may be up for late night city wandering.”

“But-, wouldn’t you tighten the curfew? Punish me for disobeying rules? Take away privileges I have?”

“Danny.” Worry basically laced Aizawa’s voice, “cutting your curfew off shorter won’t help either of us. You’re old enough as well to understand right from wrong without punishment. My goal is to help you. If you work better at night, and have needs that only can occur at night, I want to help you achieve it in the safest way possible. Not force you to jump more hoops trying to avoid precautions that I set that won’t help you.”

Danny didn’t know what to say.

How could he?

Aizawa waited a few moments before he spoke again, “I need to ask you something important, about the new vigilante.” Here was the moment that everything fell apart for Danny. “Do you think that he would ever cause you harm?”

Danny looked up in surprise, “uh-! No way! He was super chill!”

“No memories about him wanting to cause you harm?” What a weird question.

“Nope.”

It was Aizawa’s turn to look away, but Danny could still tell he was deep in thought. Then the next question winded Danny.

“Do you remember your parents?”

How was he going to answer that?! Should he pretend his supposed amnesia was partially gone? That he only remembers bits? Yeah- maybe go with that.

“A-A little bit,” Danny lied. “Just… bits and pieces.”

“I see,” Aizawa then slowly stood up, “let’s head to bed. It’s late, and you have school tomorrow.”

Danny glanced at his hands for a moment before nodding. “A-alright.”

He missed his parents… he knew he did. He loved them. They loved him. But…

But something… something about this talk. About Aizawa’s reactions.

Why did it make him feel so sad?

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