Fanfic / The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock

After nearly a decade in America, Izumi Midoriya is offered a teaching position at UA University. When she had originally left Japan, she had left as a quirkless little girl, but she was now the number two hero of the Lone Star State, and far stronger than she had previously thought she could ever be. How will the students of UA be affected by the presence of this new category of hero?

Only time could tell.

The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock is a My Hero Academia fanfiction written by Damian02 and ProfessorDonger that takes Izuku Midoriya, makes him older and a girl, and throws her into the unexplored American hero school system, turning her into an extremely talented hero. These alterations result in many changes in character relationships, both previously existing and not.

It can be read here on Archive of Our Own, and here on Fanfiction.net.

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This fanfiction contains the following tropes:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Several characters make early appearances in the context of the canon timeline of events as a result of Izumi’s actions and presence.
  • Himiko Toga and Jin Bubaigawara are living with Izumi at the start of the story, having been adopted into the family. This came to be after Izumi saved the two from human traffickers at the age of nineteen before bringing them into her home.
  • Melissa appears after the events of the USJ Attack, where it is revealed that she was keeping track of Izumi's vitals, and was notified by her computer that she had supposedly flatlined during the USJ Attack.
  • Izumi encounters Eri way earlier than she would in canon, meeting her almost immediately after the USJ.
  • Lady Nagant shows up after the USJ, is married to Snipe, and helps Izumi babysit her class while she recovers.
• Adaptational Name Change:
  • Izumi’s hero name has been changed from the canon name of “Deku” to “The Gunslinger Hero: Flintlock”. She still responds to Deku from Katsuki, though he’s the only one who is allowed to call her that.
  • Because of Snipe being adopted by Inko’s family, and knowing Inko’s maiden name, we know that Snipe’s legal name in this story’s universe is Han Akatani.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Most, if not all, of the cast has been hit with changes to their personalities in order to make certain instances a bit more comedic. However, some of these changes are more drastic than others:
  • Izumi’s personality has been changed from Izuku’s rather introverted but passionate self to one that shares that passion tenfold, and in much more than heroics. She enjoys pranks, references, and teasing anyone she can. She also still enjoys quirk analysis and heroism, though possibly to an even greater degree than in canon due to her time spent outside of the environment that forced her canon self to be an introvert in the first place, allowing her more extroverted personality traits to bloom.
  • Katsuki is much nicer than he is in canon, being less of a jerkass and more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. His relationship with 1-A is a lot less rocky than it is in canon as well, with him forming cordial relationships with a few of his classmates and even friendships with Momo and Kyoka. He’s still abrasive and cusses like a sailor, but he’s not a bully or abusive to his peers in this universe like canon Katsuki was.
  • Denki is shown to be smarter than he is in canon, knowing how to jump a boat and forming pretty decent plans when he needs to.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Izumi’s tendencies to adopt individuals either figuratively or literally, among her more outgoing and extroverted personality in comparison to canon Izuku, causes compounding changes in personality among many characters, which further alters canon relationships:
    • Izumi, Himiko, and Jin are adopted siblings in this universe, this having happened after Izumi found them in her second year of university. Having joined a raid on human traffickers, she found Himiko and Jin amongst the victims, and the three quickly became attached.
    • Izumi and Melissa meet well before I-Island's I-Expo that happens during 1-A's first year at UA, and are in a romantic relationship before the start of the story, as revealed in chapter 13.
    • Due to Izumi and Melissa's closeness, Izumi has also taken to Mellisa's habit of referring to All Might as "Uncle Might", and has a similar relationship to him.
    • Eri is Izumi's adopted daughter.
  • Inko Midoriya and Snipe, although entirely unrelated in canon, have been altered in this story to be adopted siblings.
  • Minoru Mineta and Tsuyu Asui are shown to be a lot closer than in canon, with Tsuyu responding to Minoru's typically perverted behavior with comments just as, if not moreso, perverted. This is a result of Tsuyu being a firm believer in brutal honesty.
  • Mt. Lady is the same age as Izumi, and they were close friends in school. She is also like an annoying big sister to Katsuki.
• Artificial Limbs: Izumi has a robotic arm which is much better than her old one. She came about getting this arm in a past event that has not yet been revealed to the audience.
• Bag of Holding: Downplayed. In chapter 17, it is revealed Aizawa’s sleeping bag acts as one, it is questioned by Izumi, he talks about how great it is briefly.
• Battle Cry:
  • Pony will scream “Dakka!” at varying lengths whenever she uses her multi-barrel assault rifle, Sweet Business, which she borrowed from Izumi, before it was later gifted to her.
• BFG:
  • A gun formerly owned by Izumi, later gifted to Pony, known as "Sweet Business". It is an assault rifle with a gatling barrel firing system.
  • Another gun from Destiny that Izumi owns, Gjallarhorn, is named after the horn that announces the coming of Ragnarok. A rocket launcher that fires a missile that, when it makes contact with a target, explodes into several cluster tracking missiles that hit anything that is leftover.
• Bitch Slap: Momo gives one to Monoma when he tries antagonizing Class 1-A over the USJ Incident.
• Blood Knight:
  • Katsuki. His love of a fight over caring if he particularly wins is showcased particularly in the Battle Trials, and the second event of the Sports Festival, the former being a two versus one fight against Izumi, and the latter being a team-based brawl against a group of robots that are themed entirely around different Star Wars enemies from the Galactic Empire. He even calls being slammed through several floors by the boss robot awesome. He also references Khorne from Warhammer 40,000 a lot.
• Body Sled: Katsuki does this during the USJ Attack after ambushing someone trying to attack Kyouka and riding him partway down the Mountain Zone of the building. Murder was avoided thanks to the villain’s quirk.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Tsuyu practices this, a lot, to the point where some of the things she says can get a little out of hand.
  • Izumi also practices this when someone is being an idiot, or in need of a wake-up call.
• Clark Kenting: Mount Lady, also known as Yu, does this in order for her old childhood friend, Izumi, to recognize her, as Izumi was unable to recognize her without her wearing her glasses.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Most of Izumi’s Battle Trials against the teams of students.
  • She and Aizawa were on the receiving end of one thanks to the Nomu at the USJ, but she still provided the time and resources for her students to kill it off.
• Cute Bruiser: Ochako has started to turn into this, when during the USJ, she was given a shotgun with capture rounds that she used to great effect, even hitting someone with it as a literal bat. She really turns into one during the Sports Festival’s second event, Ochako takes an extreme liking to one of the opponents’ weapons, based on an Electrohammer from Star Wars. She uses the weapon to great effect after stealing it from that opponent.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Izumi is one. She quite frequently makes comments in relation to events or situations that bother her, or in response to characters making decisions or statements she finds to be stupid. Occasionally combos with her Brutal Honesty.
  • Tsuyu also makes comments that would qualify her as one, and similarly to Izumi, it is a consequence of her Brutal Honesty.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Izumi, as of the start of the story, is missing an arm and an eye, both of which have been replaced with technology.
• Electronic Eyes: Izumi has one to replace her lost right eye, with it granting her a plethora of enhancements, including but not limited to: a built-in Heads-Up Display, the ability to hack into electronics, biometric scanner, access to her armory, and so on. Her original cybernetic eye was damaged at the USJ and she received an upgraded one after. Her original organic eye was lost in an event not yet revealed.
• Feed It a Bomb: Toru does this against the Nomu in the USJ attack. She also places a miniature nuke within the hole of 'Darth Vader' to make sure he is actually dead.
• The Gunslinger:
  • Izumi. While she doesn’t exclusively use guns, her main source of combative prowess comes from the absolute power of lead-based projectiles.
  • Pony falls under this by virtue of her excessive use of Sweet Business, classifying her as The Vaporizer.
  • Momo is also showing signs of this as time goes on.
• Hammerspace: Played with. Izumi’s electronic eye gives her access to her armory, allowing her to summon weapons out of seemingly thin air as long as they are in the arsenal space. To someone who doesn’t know she has this capability, it comes off as her having a Hyperspace Arsenal instead.
• Ironic Echo: Played with. At the end of chapter 13, Shigaraki is speaking with All For One, and he echoes the words that All Might told Izuku in canon just before the Sports Festival: “‘’Prepare to show the world that you are here’’.”
• No-Sell:
  • In chapter 4, Izumi does this against Shoto’s ice, being able to effortlessly break out of the ice prison he had made for her after some taunting.
  • Kaminari's electrical abilities make him immune to most weapons the robots in the Sports Festival throw at him.
  • Izumi uses Gjallarhorn against the Nomu, along with Shigaraki and Kurogiri. However, due to the quirks of Shock Absorption and Regeneration, the Nomu is able to completely tank the attack.
  • The Darth Vader boss robot in the Sports Festival does this to most attacks. Melissa later admits she had not realised she was supposed to make a beatable robot and had designed it to the point it could withstand one of All Might's full-powered punches.
• Not So Invincible After All:
  • Despite Shigaraki having talked up how powerful the Nomu that he brought with him to the USJ was, it was still able to be taken out, and not even by All Might, which it was designed to take down.
  • During the second event of the Sports Festival, a robot with the same look and power-set of Darth Vader was used as the final boss. Despite his nigh invincible nature, and him having eliminated several teams from the running, he was still eventually able to be beaten by the combined efforts of several students.
• Reference Overdosed: This work contains a wide variety and a high number of references to several other franchises, among the list being Star Wars and Destiny.
• Small Girl, Big Gun:
  • Despite Sweet Business being moderately sized for someone taller, Pony being vertically challenged causes her to fall into this category.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • Izumi follows this policy to the fullest extent when she can, and is actively frustrated when people advise or prevent her from doing so. She has Gjallarhorn and other large guns for when she needs to truly follow this practice and is upset that the US Government wouldn’t let her have a Fatman launcher. Another example of this is when she is criticized aggressively by Aizawa for using her rocket launcher against villains, thinking she killed them.
  • Pony takes any chance she can to use Sweet Business, and has occasionally found herself using it to the degree of running out of ammunition.
  • Toru takes no chances with the Darth Vader boss robot after everything it has survived and put them through. Despite it lacking its limbs and a huge hole in its torso, she still cuts off its head and detonates a hand-held nuke within that hole.
• Thou Shall Not Kill:
  • Japanese heroes follow this policy as closely as possible, as their hero culture makes them a mix of celebrity and non-lethal law enforcement.
  • Subverted with Izumi. Her time in America taught her that when a criminal or villain is dead-set on using lethal force, or the threat is too severe to chance it, you need to be willing to figuratively (or literally, in Izumi's case) pull the trigger to prevent innocent lives from being lost.
    • She also kills a bunch of criminals on orders for the CIA and would have executed Sir Nighteye if he had not said he would pretend to have not witnessed anything in time.
• Took a Level in Badass: Izumi, as shown at several points, is extremely talented, having taken the level up in many categories. She’s a master marksman, a skilled close-quarter combatant, and you can count the list of people who actually send fear down her spine on a single hand.
• Tournament Arc: The Sports Festival, an event for the students to compete using their quirks in order to prove their skills to Japan. While the canon events had their own placements, as well as event structure of an obstacle race, a cavalry battle, and a final 1-on-1 tournament, there are some changes made to this story’s version.
  • The cavalry battle is replaced by Trooper Elimination, an event where students, in teams, are tasked with eliminating as many Star Wars-themed Troopers as they can, with the event not ending until the boss target of a Darth Vader robot was eliminated.
  • Because of the altered final results of the second event, the first round of the tournament ended up with the following match-ups: Katsuki Bakugou vs Kyouka Jiro, Fumikage Tokoyami vs Hitoshi Shinsou, Yui Kodai vs Pony Tsunotori, Tenya Iida vs Ochako Uraraka, Momo Yaoyorozu vs Toru Hagakure, Neito Monoma vs Minoru Mineta, Tsuyu Asui vs Ibara Shiozaki, Shouto Todoroki vs Denki Kaminari.
• Use Your Head:
  • Izumi does this during the USJ Attack, pulling Tomura Shigaraki halfway through one of Kurogiri’s portals before giving him a wound-up headbutt.
  • During the second event of the Sports Festival, a Purge Trooper Robot does this as a counter to Ochako’s attempt to use her quirk, pulling her close by her wrist in order to strike her with a headbutt.

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