The ghost of district zero

Ghost has one rule: don't need anything you can't get yourself.He's fifteen, from District 0 — the part of the city that doesn't appear on maps and doesn't produce the kind of people who end up in schools. He knows how to find food, read exits, and disappear into a crowd. He's been doing it alone since he was three years old.Then a man in a clean jacket starts leaving food on walls and coming back the next day regardless of what Ghost does about it.Kageshiro isn't a threat. He isn't a problem Ghost knows how to solve. He just keeps showing up — patient, warm, asking for nothing — until Ghost runs out of reasons to keep walking away.The Third District Academy is nothing like District 0. The students move differently, speak differently, take up space like they've never once had to calculate whether it was safe to. Ghost doesn't know how to be someone who belongs somewhere.But somewhere between a borrowed pen, a white hospital bandage, and a spare room with an east-facing window — he starts to learn. This is my first published story. Updates weekly, hopefully. Feedback is welcome — I'm still learning.