Swan dive (BNHA)

Death and decisions

Bakugou entered his classroom like normal. He took his seat, yelling something at one of his cronies who dropped his bag on the floor.

He looked over at Izuku's desk. He felt like beating him up. He still hadn't forgiven the nerd for daring to want to go to UA. Even after yesterday, he clearly hadn't given up yet. The nerd had bothered to get his notebook back from the pond he had thrown it into.

The desk was empty. Izuku was normally here by now. He must have been late, or maybe he didn't want to show his face after yesterday. Whatever, Bakugou would beat him up when he arrived.

By he never did.

The teacher entered the room, a solemn look on his face. He cleared his throat and looked down at his student.

"I'm sorry, but I have to inform you that you're classmate Izuku Midoriya died last night. The death is suspected to be suicide. If anyone has any information, either talk to me after class or go to the police."

Bakugou felt his blood run cold as he remembered what he had said to Izuku the day before. "Why don't you just take a swan dive off the roof and hope for a quirk in your next life?"

He stood up and ran out of the room, rushing to the bathroom. He locked himself into the stall before vomiting.

It was his fault. Izuku had died because of him. He had killed his childhood friend. He was responsible for the death of the only person who actually liked him. He was a murderer.

But he couldn't go to the police. It would go on his record and he would never be able to become a hero. He wouldn't be able to go to UA.

"I'm sorry, Deku, but I will become a hero, for both of us."

***

Izuku's eyes slowly opened. He was still on the rooftop where he had met All Might. Had he imagined it? He remembered feeling the wind rushing past him as he fell. He remembered taking that last step over the edge. How could he still be standing there?

"Izuku! Izuku, no..."

He looked down and saw his mother, covered in blood, hugging his dead body to her chest. It was then that he noticed that he wasn't standing on the rooftop, but rather floating above it. His red sneakers dangling above the building.

He placed his hands over his chest, but he couldn't find a pulse. He wasn't breathing either. He reached out for the guardrail but felt his hand pass right through it. He looked down at his hand.

He was dead.

He took one last glance down at his mother. She would miss him, so much. She should have thought about her. How could he forget her, the one person who really loved him. "I'm sorry." she said, knowing she couldn't hear him. And never would.

It had been 24 hours since Izuku had died, a whole day since he had become a ghost. He had floated around the city aimlessly. He had checked up on Bakugou, who had gone home early from school, claiming he was ill.

Maybe Bakugou wasn't as heartless as he had seemed.

Now, he was floating above the high street, watching people pass below him.

"Hey, kid! You're not allowed to use your quirk in public! Come down here!" A police officer yelled. He ignored him and floated onwards.

"You, green haired kid! Come down here, now!" That caught his attention. He turned and the officer was looking right at him. His eyes opened wide and he flew over to the man.

"You can see me?" He held his hands in front of him and turned them over a few times. "How? What's your quirk?"

The officer backed up a few steps. "Of course I can see you. And I don't see what my quirk has to do with this."

Izuku's eyes shot open. "Can everyone see me? Do... Do I have a quirk after all?" He smiled widely and flew around the man. "I'm not quirkless! This... This is amazing! It must be some sort of ghost quirk which activated when I died."

Izuku started muttering, trying to figure out more about his quirk. He flew over to a nearby building and reached out his hand, focusing as hard as he could. The tips of his fingers reached the wall, but instead of passing through, they touched the wall. They were solid.

His smile grew and he flew back over to the officer. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" He tried to hug the man, but passed right through him. "I guess I can't make my whole body solid." He muttered, floating away, making his way to a nearby beach.

The beach itself was covered in litter, things that and either been dumped there or brought there by the currents. Izuku flew over to an old fridge and concentrated on solidifying his hands.

He reached out and pushed on the fridge a hard as he could, managing to move it about a meter. He smiled and worked harder to push it as far as he could possibly push it.

He spent the next few months working to clear the beach, but part of him felt that he shouldn't be. Part of him felt that maybe he shouldn't try to get into UA. He was legally dead, and actually dead. He had killed himself.

He sighed and stopped moving the chest of draws he was pushing. UA probably wouldn't let him in, a boy who was, legally speaking, dead and quirkless. And if he used his new quirk to get into UA, wouldn't that be changing his suicide into a positive thing?

He still wanted to become a hero, but he knew he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. He made his decision. He wouldn't become a hero, that would be his punishment for killing himself.

He nodded to himself and carried on pushing the draws off of the beach. Still something was nagging at him, he still wanted to be a hero, but he wasn't going to be a hero, and couldn't become a police officer due to the whole being dead thing.

He got the draw to where he wanted it to be, and flew off into town, heading to the library. He floated around the shelves about heroes, picking out random books. He found one at the edge of the shelf, hidden by a book on All Might.

This book was different from the others, rather than being about heroes, it was about something similar. Vigilantes. He picked the book out and scanned through it, adding it to his pile of books.

He found a seat in the back of the library and sat down, or as close as he could. He was more floating just above it. He placed the vigilante book open on the table in front of him, so he didn't have to focus on keeping himself solid.

He slowly read through the book, taken in by the pictures of different vigilantes and the descriptions of what they did. It would be similar to being a hero, only he wouldn't get paid and he wouldn't get the fame.

He smiled to himself, that would work for him.

"Damn Deku." A familiar voice muttered from behind him. Izuku glanced behind him to see a pair of angry red eyes and spiky blond hair. Bakugou wasn't looking at Izuku, but rather at a book on All Might.

Izuku recognized the book as one that he and Bakugou had read together when they were little. They borrowed it from the library whenever they could, it was the best book on All Might either of them had found.

Bakugou wasn't reading the book though, but rather looking in the inside cover. He knew that's where the list of people who had borrowed the book would be. He also knew that it would consist mostly of their names, as they were basically the only people who ever borrowed it.

Izuku watched as Bakugou started to look up, his eyes slowly moving in Izuku's direction. Izuku panicked and floated down through the floor. Through the ground, he heard a confused "Deku?" but he stayed still, waiting until he heard footsteps moving away from him.

He peered up through the floor and saw that Bakugou had left the library. With a sigh of relief, he reappeared and picked up the vigilante book, grabbing the rest of his books and putting them back on the shelf where he had found them.

He peered out of the library, making sure Bakugou had left, before floating out again. If he was going to be a vigilante, he needed an outfit. Looked like it was time to get a job.