Fanfic / My Iron Giant

My Iron Giant (alternate link) is a My Hero Academia fan fic in which Izuku awakens a Quirk he never knew he had during the UA Entrance Exam: The ability to manifest a giant robot around himself.

Now, if only he could figure out how to get out of it...

Tropes contained in My Iron Giant...

• Adaptational Badass: Aside from Izuku's Quirk, the USJ Nomu, if it is actually the same Nomu, is much more powerful than in canon. Justified, as it was created with Izuku in mind.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Iida is far more aggressive towards Izuku because he has a crush on Uraraka.
• Adaptational Name Change: Izuku never uses Deku as his superhero name, due to seeing it as the thinly veiled insult it really was.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Izuku has a Quirk that allows him to manifest a giant robot around himself rather than being Quirkless.
  • The USJ Nomu has a gigantification ability as it was designed with Izuku in mind as a potential target. Though it may be another Nomu altogether.
• Adaptational Villainy: Bakugo becomes so obsessed with beating Izuku that he deliberately inflicts crippling wounds on Ochako during the Sports Festival just to bait Izuku into a fight.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Bakugo loses an arm when he attacks Izuku.
  • The crippling wounds Bakugo causes on Uraraka force the amputation of both arms and their replacement with bionics.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Izuku's robot body is well over 200 feet tall, a reporter notes that his Quirk is the largest gigantification Quirk in recorded history.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Izuku's original giant robot body is one of the most powerful Quirks in history. He also cannot leave UA because he would destroy everything in his path from his weight and size. It also limits his thinking to a more simple and machine-like state when he is "awake". Snipe notes at one point that he cannot possibly do any precision work. By the time he fights the Nomu, it's down to Real Robot size and continues improving its size and speed.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Mei spends several days literally dreaming of dismantling Izuku's robot body. After All Might rips Izuku out of the bot, she breaks down crying during the operation to dismantle the robot left behind, as she now realizes that it was an actual living person living in it.
• Berserk Button: Izuku's is threatening Uraraka. Hers is people mistreating Izuku. Both are furious when All Might is killed.
• Bittersweet Ending: Izuku defeats All for One and flies him deep into space so his Dead Man's Switch can't destroy anything. The epilogue shows that Japan is healing and that humanity is making new scientific breakthroughs, in part because of studying Izuku when he was still around. However, Izuku presumably died in the process. There is a hint from how Ochako's cybernetics react when pointed at the star that formed during Izuku's Heroic Sacrifice that some part of Izuku lives on, but it's clear that Izuku himself won't return.
• Brick Joke: Nana makes a bean bag chair for Mirio when he phases into Izuku's cockpit in an attempt to make contact. Later, Uraraka uses the exact same bean bag chair as her seat when she's using Izuku's cockpit.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Mirio does this to Sir Nighteye when he realizes Nighteye only cares about him as a replacement for All Might.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Izuku's dad Hisashi shows up after Izuku becomes famous.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Invoked by Izuku in his first match of the Sports Festival tournament. He is advised by his father Hisashi to win the battle quickly and decisively as All Might would.
• Cyborg: Izuku due to having several pipes and cables suffused through his body. Bakugo becomes one after Izuku sears his arm off.
• Death by Adaptation: All Might is killed by the Nomu designed to kill Izuku. Izuku then reflexively squashes Shigaraki with a punch when Shigaraki starts to brag about it.
• Dragon Ascendant: After the death of Shigaraki in Chapter 17, All For One appoints Kurogiri as new leader of the League of the Villains. Mind you, neither of them are happy with this development.
• Engineered Heroics: Bakugo attempts this by trying to force Izuku to attack him, believing 'Deku' is a False Hero and, by destroying him, he will achieve his dream. He almost kills Uraraka.
• Eye Beams: Izuku can fire lasers from his robot eyes.
• Flawed Prototype: Izuku's robot body starts out with serious flaws that limit its effectiveness: it starts out far too large to really do anything without destroying the environment, its feet sink into the ground, and it partially puppets him.
• Gentle Giant: Izuku may now be a giant robot, but he's still a cinnamon roll.
• Heel Realization:
  • Nana goes through this when she almost murders Monoma after he copies Izuku's quirk, forcing All Might to literally tear Izuku out of the cockpit, almost killing him.
  • Nighteye has his when, after attempting to bring up Izuku passing One for All to Mirio during All Might's funeral, Izuku shares his memory of All Might declaring that he could become a hero and showing the Hero Analysis diary he signed. Nighteye becomes overwhelmed and realizes how terrible his behaviour has been.
• Hope Bringer: Izuku becomes one after All Might's death. His powerful presence is what is keeping society from panicking.
• Humongous Mecha: Izuku's Quirk is noted to be the largest gigantification Quirk ever.
• Kaiju: A specialized Nomu nicknamed Diablo that is able to fight Izuku to a standstill and kill All Might.
• Just a Machine: Mei treats Izuku like this initially, even after she learns about the boy inside the giant robot she wants to learn about.
• Killed Off for Real: All Might by Diablo and Tomura by Izuku.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Sir Nighteye tries to propose Izuku passing One For All to Mirio as a solution to get him out of the robot. He also tries to convince Uraraka to tell Izuku to pass One for All onto Mirio when Izuku is critically injured from All Might ripping him out of the robot. He reasons that they cannot let One for All die with Izuku.
• Logical Weakness: Aizawa cannot cancel Izuku's Quirk as he cannot see the actual Izuku, only the robot his Quirk summoned. Considering the robot does not disappear when Izuku is forcibly removed, it may count as a form of mutation Quirk.
• Made of Indestructium: Izuku's body is so tough that multiple power drills break against him without causing any damage. Only All Might and a specially made Nomu can cause him any damage.
• Mental Picture Projector: At one point, Izuku's dreams end up projected onto a television. He later projects a memory of an interaction with All Might during the Sports Festival.
• Mundane Solution: Izuku's robot body is pre-determined by its prime directive to obey any instruction given by Uraraka, so, when she outright gives him an order to speak to her, he regains his voice instantly.
• The Needless: Izuku has not eaten in months after his robot manifested.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Monoma copying Izuku's Quirk causes him to go berserk, leading to a fight with Izuku. All Might ends the fight by ripping Izuku out of the cockpit, causing him to go into a near-fatal seizure.
• No Ontological Inertia:
  • Averted, Izuku's robot body persists after he is forcibly removed.
  • Played Straight with the suit he made for Uraraka. When she completely leaves the robot it disintegrates. A replacement is made by a parallel universe version of Momo.
• Only Mostly Dead: Izuku is sent into a vegetative state when All Might rips him out of his robot body. He gets better.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Izuku splatters Shigaraki for his part in killing All Might.
• The Perils of Being the Best: Izuku becomes the new target of the League of Villains because his obvious power makes him the new Symbol of Peace: someone the general public can look up to and feel safe for it. The example made by winning the obstacle course at the Sports Festival is subverted. Izuku is so obviously powerful that everyone believes that being his team member is a guaranteed win even with everyone else gunning for him.
• Point of Divergence: Izuku still gets first place in the obstacle course but because he is so obviously powerful, everyone is scrambling to be on his team rather than avoiding him.
• Power Copying: Monoma as per usual. He gains his own robot form-based after absorbing Izuku's quirk.
• Power Incontinence:
  • The first version of Izuku's Quirk takes control of him during the day and gives him a machine-like mindset. He also cannot figure out how to get out of it. By the time the USJ attack, Izuku is fully in control of the machine.
  • A poorly worded upgrade causes Izuku to be rendered completely mute for most of the story, which really hampers his Relationship Upgrade with Uraraka.
• Related in the Adaptation: Izuku is revealed to be Todoroki's cousin because his father is Endeavor's brother.
• Robot Girl: Uraraka ends up as one when she is almost murdered by Bakugo.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: Izuku's giant robot body can be anything from slightly taller than human norms to hundreds of meters tall and originally manifested from nowhere when he activated his Quirk.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ryuko Matoi, Ben Tennyson, and Zero Two are Mei's classmates.
    • Ben is a fan of AC/DC. At one point, he starts Highway to Hell.
  • XJ-9 is one of Mirio's classmates.
  • Izuku's other robot forms are based on various mechs. The first is The Iron Giant, the second is Leopardon, and the third is Gundam Astray Green Frame. Shigaraki mistakes the last for the Nu Gundam.
  • Monoma's first robot form is based on Mazinger Z. He later uses one based on one of the Evangelions.
  • Uraraka and Thirteen bond while watching Superman: The Movie. Izuku later is interested in The Mechanical Monsters.
  • Pony thinks Izuku is Optimus Prime.
  • A boy named Steven Universe shows up when Izuku is making a public appearance.
  • Izuku later becomes a Transformer.
  • Uraraka, after her brush with death, becomes, effectively Gally.
  • Izuku and Uraraka manage to discover a rudimentary version of drifting when trying to stop the Nomu. Later models of Izuku's cockpit include effectively drift controls for both Izuku and Uraraka.
• Slave to PR: Uraraka gets a crash course in handling the media thanks to her bond with Izuku and Izuku's inability to speak.
• Square-Cube Law: The only requirement of Izuku's robot body is that Izuku, and later Uraraka, can fit within the space of the cockpit. Even if the cockpit can only just fit them.
• Superhero Packing Heat: Ochako trains to learn how to use guns from Snipe.
• Superhero Speciation: Invoked by Monoma. He could easily use Izuku's Quirk for success and clout but notes that he doesn't want to make a reputation as another Izuku. It doesn't help that his version of the Quirk is inferior.
• The Kid with the Remote Control: Uraraka is this to Izuku, being the only one he will listen to, and later, is effectively Izuku's co-pilot.
• Tim Taylor Technology: Notable averted despite the story focusing on Izuku's giant robot Quirk. Any improvement made to it is in Boring, but Practical fields such as a better interface, the ability to become smaller and weaker to interact with others better, and finer motor control. The standout example is his fight with Diablo, where he wins thanks to drifting with Uraraka to increase his dexterity and control with no boost to his strength. Later, when he fights Stars and Stripes, his quirk's solution is to become much smaller and faster.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Bakugo decides to attack Izuku after he learns of his identity, even though it is a huge robot that can tank pretty much anything Bakugo can throw at him. He's very lucky he only lost an arm.
  • Shigaraki goes up to and mocks the grieving Izuku about All Might's death. He seems to have thought Izuku was too stricken to move, but Izuku instead Smashes Shigaraki by punching down on him.
• Transforming Mecha: Izuku gains several forms for different functions.
• Virtual Ghost: Nana Shimura becomes one.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Bakugo uses his quirk on Uraraka at point-blank range during the Sports Festival, trying to force Izuku to attack him so he can "save" everyone from him. When she's seen later, she's mostly mechanical from the neck down.
• Weaponized Teleportation: Kurogiri, as per usual. He even teleports All Might into Diablo's hand, leading to the hero's death.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 17, featuring the death of All Might and Tomura Shigaraki.
• World's Strongest Man: Izuku is a strong contender for this following All Might's death. Aside from having One for All, he is noted as having the largest gigantification Quirk in history and his robot body keeps improving in functionality. Only two beings have ever caused appreciable damage to him and One is confirmed dead while the other almost certainly is.

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