Little black ghost

- Location: Japan, at Kei and Jihye's house.

[POV: Jihye]

It has been a year since that incident. I have been practicing my quirk inside my new noise-isolated room that Kei made for me. I learned that I can control the targets of my voice by focusing on those I don't want to be paralyzed.

It's easy to protect one person from my shout, but at most, I think I can only prevent 3 people from being paralyzed for now. "We should go shopping," Henri said as she sat on my bed, holding a stuffed animal.

"I don't feel like it today," I said with my voice, stopping Henri from being paralyzed. "But they are selling limited edition Louise Vethon bags today!" She said with a pout, trying to persuade me.

"You bought at least thirty bags last week," I said as I rolled my eyes. "But this one is a limited edition!" She yelled as she stood up, stomping her foot.

"Fine.. but you better treat me to cakes again," I said with a smile as I stood up from my bed. "It's decided then!" Henri exclaimed in excitement as she jumped out of the bed, looking for her shoes.

But as I stepped outside the house, I saw something peeking through the window, some sort of black silhouette...

....

[POV: Third-Person]

Jihye stood still as if she had seen a ghost. "Jihye? Is something wrong?" Henri said, looking towards where Jihye was looking. "There's nothing there," Henri said, raising an eyebrow.

Jihye rubbed her eyes, and as she looked back at the window, the silhouette was no longer there. 'It must have been my imagination,' Jihye said in sign language as they were already outside.

"Stop staring at windows! Let's go!" Henri urged her, pulling on her sleeves.

Jihye relented as they left for the mall; she then started thinking about what she had seen earlier.

....

Inside the mall, Jihye and Henri walked around as a man carrying so many boxes followed behind them. "Don't tell me you're going to buy more, young miss..." Liam said with a depressed tone as he carried boxes stacked up all the way above his head.

"No, I'm only buying this much today! We are now going to eat some desserts!" Henri exclaimed as she raised her arm.

Jihye suddenly stopped walking as she stared at a certain corner where another black silhouette was peeking from. 'You go on ahead; I'll go to the bathroom real quick,' Jihye suddenly said as she started running towards its direction.

"W-what? Jihye! What's up with you today?!" Henri exclaimed, pouting while stomping her foot.

Jihye followed the black silhouette even as it went out of the mall and into an alleyway. 'Can nobody else see it?!' Jihye thought as she saw that nobody reacted to it as it ran past people.

Suddenly, it stopped at the alleyway's dead end. Jihye arrived with heavy breaths as she tried to speak. "There... you are..".

The black silhouette was fully revealed as it had the figure of a little child with long hair and sharp fingernails, covered in black bandages.

"What are you?" Jihye exclaimed as she finally saw the black ghost up close. Seeing Jihye react like that, the black ghost suddenly started sobbing as it fell on its knees.

"H-hey, it's okay. I didn't mean to yell at you like that." Jihye said as she tried to approach it and pat its head.

But as soon as she did, her head was suddenly flooded with memories she didn't have that happened a year ago when they were kidnapped.

She saw how she ordered a different black ghost to take down those villains. That black ghost had the figure of a tall man with really sharp claws and a hollow face.

Jihye immediately snapped out of it as if she had just woken up from a dream. "W-what was that?" Jihye said with a nervous tone as she looked at the little black ghost that she had patted with her hand.

It nudged its head forward as if it wanted her to pat it more. "Are you a part of my quirk?" Jihye gulped as she smiled wearily.

Some time passed as Jihye just sat on a bench near the alley, and the little black ghost rested its head on her lap. Jihye was lost in thought as she tried to remember the feeling when she was controlling that black ghost from a year ago.

"They really can't see you, huh?" Jihye said as she looked at the people passing by.

BUZZ!

Jihye's phone was ringing, which made the little black ghost sit up. Jihye signaled the black ghost to wait a bit as she picked up her phone.

"JIHYE!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! IT'S BEEN THIRTY MINUTES!" Henri yelled through the phone, which made Jihye pull her phone away as she smiled with a worried expression.

....

After Henri had yelled for another minute, she finally calmed down and spoke again. "A-hem.. just come to the cafe, alright! You have five minutes, or I'm eating your shortcake!" Henri said as she hung up.

Jihye sighed as she stood up, and as she did, the little black ghost also stood up. It looked at Jihye as if it was waiting for her to say something.

'Are you able to disappear or hide for a bit? Although the people here can't see you now, I don't know how this quirk works fully yet, so it's better to be safe rather than sorry,' Jihye said in sign language as there were people around them.

The little black ghost then nodded as if it understood, and the bandages around its body started getting pulled into nothingness; the little ghost was now gone.

'Should I tell Henri about this?' Jihye thought to herself as she started heading towards the cafe.