Fanfic / The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse

After being rejected by All-Might, Izuku takes Katsuki's advice and jumps off a building.

─ Only to find that they aren't very good at staying Dead. With a strange quirk keeping Izuku from staying dead and forcibly stitching their body back together when it's cut or torn apart, maybe they can become a hero!

The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse is a My Hero Academia fanfiction by Wickerbot wherein Izuku commits suicide after her encounter with All Might, and finds out they have a rather unique quirk.

The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse contains examples of the following:

• Abuse Mistake: Shoto's own history with his abusive father causes him to assume Bakugou is a Domestic Abuser towards Izuku. While Bakugou is a former bully, he's also Izuku's best friend and is concerned both by how casually she harms herself and that she's so painfully naïve that she attempts to befriend everyone she meets, including those she really shouldn't.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Mineta, Shinso, Tetsutetsu, and Momo are all good friends with Izuku before they enter U.A. due to bonding while at a Quirk assessment clinic then surviving a villain attack on said clinic.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Mirio is given One For All by All-Might.
  • Himiko learns much sooner that she can use the Quirks of those she turns into, including Nomu.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Bakugou and not just after Izuku's suicide. His bullying her was a Cruel to Be Kind gambit to keep her from trying to be a Quirkless Pro-Hero, which he was worried would get her killed. Not only that but he planned to recruit her for his own Hero Agency because of her brilliant mind.
• Amazonian Beauty: Izuku is notably attractive and very muscular due to her quirk.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Shinso, Tetsutetsu, and Mei are close friends of Izuku with the former two getting into the Heroics course on a recommendation.
  • Mirio, Nejire, Tamaki all train Bakugo.
• Attractive Zombie: Besides her pale skin, blue lips, and some stitches from her first death, Izuku looks just as cute as she did in life.
• Back from the Dead: Izuku's quirk brings her back to life after a successful suicide attempt.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: In general, Quirks are just Quirks, and people with destructive quirks (such as Retribution or Bakugo) are still perfectly capable of being heroes. However, the highest levels of Quirk instability cause people to be incapable of functioning in normal society. Anyone with Level 10 Quirk Instability is to be executed on recognition. This is not an overreaction. Level 10s really are that dangerous.
• Berserk Button: Bakugou has one in people who don't give their best effort. When Bakugou realizes Todoroki is only using half his Quirk, he's enraged that the other boy would "try to be the best while half-assing it" and goes against his previous intention to not use his bracer's full power, for fear of damaging the building.
• Bloody Hilarious: Izuku's self-maiming is often played as a gag.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Quirk Instability runs into this in a few different ways.
  • The main aspect of Instability is that it rewires the mind of a Quirk holder to want to use their Quirk and engage in behavior that is beneficial to making the most use of said Quirk. Aizawa, for example, mentions that he has a light compulsion to wanting to stare at people.
  • It can also mentally edit out details that might make a person adverse to using their Quirk. Bakugou doesn't fully register how powerful his explosions actually are because of this. Likewise, Izuku doesn't grasp why demonstrating her Quirk freaks people out, considering that she Feels No Pain and has a Healing Factor. She can objectively comprehend that people would find her Quirk disturbing but doesn't actually understand why that is the case.
  • There's a ranking system to measure the severity of the Instability, with the lower ranks being considered minor and the higher ones being more extreme. The lowest ranks typically have harmless compulsions that they consciously can work against. Mid ranking ones aren't aware of the compulsions and have their thought processes reworked considerably, as is the case with Izuku. The highest two rankings are automatically dismissed as unfit for living in society because their thought processes are so distorted that there is no safe way to integrate them with other people.
• Character Development: Mineta starts as his canon Chivalrous Pervert self. By the time of class starts at U.A., he's toned down his perversion by reading a sort of self-help book meant to help him keep from speaking his dirty thoughts all the time. Mineta's rather proud that he got through an entire conversation with Izuku without talking about her figure.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Izuku cuts herself to write on a whiteboard at Dagobah Beach.
• Creepy Good: Izuku fully embraces her zombie theme, including dismembering herself regularly as part of her combat style.
• Cruel to Be Kind: This is the actual motivation behind Bakugou's bullying Izuku. He was worried that she'd get herself killed if she tried to become a Quirkless Hero so he was as horrible as possible to her to make her give up on that dream.
• Dare to Be Badass: Bakugo's speech to the Gen Ed kids on his team is mostly him crassly encouraging them to show they deserve to be in the Heroics program.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Bakugo doesn't realize how powerful his explosions are because his mind is wired to see them as minor things. His mind automatically filters out the noise so they only sound like small pops and what he thought was only enough heat to cause a first degree burn at worst was actually enough to sear and blister flesh even through clothing.
• Dramatic Irony: Bakugou bullied Izuku so much because he wanted her to give up on being a Quirkless Hero, terrified that she'd get herself killed. Said bullying eventually pushed her so far that she decided to kill herself after All Might told her she needed a Quirk to be a hero.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Though Dr. Tsubasa isn't aware of it, he lost favor with All For One due to being too twisted for even him to stomach.
• Feel No Pain: Downplayed. Izuku doesn't feel anything from dismemberment but having her body crushed is agonizing even for her.
• Gender Flip: Izuku is a girl.
• Healing Factor: After her suicide, Izuku has gained one of these, being able to heal from any wound given to her, including body parts cut off and even decapitation. Her body does this by using strings of muscle as sutures while the bones, skin, and flesh heals, and her muscles extend to get hold of the lost body part and bring it back to her.
• Hearing Voices: For the brief time Neito copied Izuku's Quirk, he could hear a voice telling him to simply let himself die because it will make things better. Presumably, Izuku hears said voice all the time.
• Heel Realization: Izuku's suicide causes Bakugou to look back on his treatment of her and realize that he went far beyond mere bullying into assault and abuse. It's one of the things that convinces him he's a budding sociopath and has him start getting therapy.
• Heroic RRoD: One of the nurses at the clinic overuses her Quirk to save Izuku to such an extent that she dies of an aneurysm.
• Hidden Depths: At one point Inko shows that she has the skill to outfight both Mitsuki and Bakugo at the same time, much to the latter's terror. And the incident where this happened was her getting involved because she thought it would be fun, hinting that she wasn't going all out.
• Hypocrite: Bloody Mary talks about how society casts out people with monstrous appearances but herself only cares about those who are "beautiful", as shown when the only one of her minions she tries to help looks like an ordinary (albeit pale) girl.
• I Am a Humanitarian: One of Bloody Mary's minions is a known cannibal.
• Innocently Insensitive: Downplayed. While Neito did intend to rile Izuku up when talking about the attack on the clinic she was at, he didn't realize how deeply traumatized she was. If not for using Tetsutetsu's Quirk her resulting No-Holds-Barred Beatdown would have killed him.
• Kick the Dog: All Might telling Izuku she couldn't be a hero and walking away from her with no further input past suggesting policework. Nezu points out how if the public finds out, his reputation could be destroyed. To his credit, he is deeply remorseful after the fact.
• Logical Weakness: Izuku's healing still needs something to fuel her regeneration so healing too much in a short period of time leaves her starving.
• Magnetic Hero: Deconstructed with Izuku. While everyone who meets the girl adores her, not only do some of them clash because of their different personalities, but she also draws the adoration of unstable villains like Bloody Mary and Himiko.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Izuku has a Healing Factor and doesn't feel pain so she's extremely cavalier about injuries, including dismembering herself to show off her Quirk.
• Mama Bear:
  • Mitsuki towards Izuku rather than her own son. She was willing to let herself be stabbed through the hand (and the story details how excruciating that truly is) to protect Izuku from Bloody Mary.
  • Discussed in regards to Inko. Upon discovering her fighting skills Bakugou is terrified, wondering how the heck she didn't slaughter him after everything that happened with Izuku. What's more is that Mitsuki gave Inko permission to clobber Bakugou ages ago if he acted up. It's implied that Inko was too kind to act against Bakugou, no matter what he did, but it does get brought up that she could have beaten some sense into him with little trouble.
• invokedMoe: Izuku. Everyone who meets her wants nothing more than to protect her optimism, including Bakugo, Gunhead, Mirio, and Shinso.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Izuku uses her immortality and Healing Factor to grab a teakettle from across the room by cutting off her hand and throwing it at the kettle, then letting it reconnect with the rest of her body. She can also use it to pull herself around by throwing her limbs at something heavier than herself.
  • While at Dagobah Beach, she cuts herself and writes in her blood on a whiteboard she found.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Bakugo breaks down crying when he learned Izuku actually did commit suicide. All the times he bullied her over the years were an attempt to keep her safe by making sure she didn't try to become a hero without a Quirk. Bakugo has another instance earlier when he realizes the explosion that killed so many people was caused by him trying to get free of the Sludge Villain.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Izuku delivers one to Monoma when he slams her Trauma Button. Only using Tetsutetsu's Quirk let him survive her screaming beatdown of him.
• Papa Wolf:
  • When Hisashi finally sees what Izuku looks like as a zombie, he's torn between heartbroken grief and all consuming rage at what happened to his little girl.
  • Gunhead after he's tasked with watching over Izuku. He gives her a plush of himself... that is armed and responds to any "unauthorized males" that approach her by opening fire.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Every one of the survivors on the clinic have nightmares about the attack, to the point they've made it a game: whoever has the worst dreams the night before gets to choose what comfort food to have for dinner.
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • Played With with Quirk instability, which is based on how one's quirk affects their thinking. Izuku's instability allows her to use her quirk without freaking out, but she fails to realize how disturbing it is to others.
  • Anther example is Bakugo's mind being wired to see explosions as trivial things so he can use his Quirk to its full extent.
• Running Gag: Bakugo grabbing and shaking Izuku when he finds out she maimed herself frivolously.
• Shout-Out: Himiko's villain name is The Countess.
• Stalker with a Crush: Himiko is obsessed with Izuku, wanting to be with her and to be her, to the extent of killing Bloody Mary for attacking Izuku.
• Stalker without a Crush: Meanwhile, Bloody Mary's obsession with Izuku after the USJ attack is thankfully non-romantic, and is based more on her desire to be surrounded by beauty.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: When they meet for the first time, both Izuku and Setsuna pull the same gag of severing their hand during a handshake. Setsuna freaks out a bit since, unlike her, Izuku bleeds after severing her limbs.
• Teleport Spam: Bloody Mary can travel through mirrors (or surfaces with a mirror polish) and fights by hanging mirror fragments around the area and leaping out of them to attack her enemies. She tends to use either a broken mirror or polished knife as a weapon so she can escape attacks instantly.
• That Came Out Wrong: Mei meets Izuku and promptly declares that with Izuku's help, she'll make so many babies. Everyone's aghast at her declaration until Mei explains she means support gear. It happens again when Mei is teamed with Bakugo and Shiozaki for a project, causing Shiozaki to declare such a thing both immoral and impossible.
• Theory Tunnelvision: One of Todoroki's first interactions with Izuku and Katsuki convinces him that the latter is abusing the former due to them reminding him of his parents. Afterwards, everything gets viewed through that filter no matter how much it contradicts his theory. Inko isn't worried about Katsuki abusing her daughter? She must not care about Izuku. Inko then freaking out over her daughter getting hurt? She must not know about Katsuki's abusiveness. Katsuki blatantly places Izuku's safety above his own during a villain attack? He's just trying to make himself look good to her. Izuku showing absolutely no fear of Katsuki and even berating him at times? She only feels safe because Todoroki is present.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. After the attack on the USJ, all of class 1A attends therapy, though Mineta and Bakugou were already attending for other reasons.
• Too Hungry to Be Polite: Ever since becoming a zombie, Izuku doesn't so much eat as she attacks her food like... well, like a ravenous zombie. Bakugo figured out through experimentation that she only gets like that around food that's good for brain growth, muscle growth, or blood production; anything else, she eats normally. While funny when she steals Bakugo's Greek yogurt in the time it takes him to blink, others are a bit unsettled when she rips a leg off a pig roast and tears off chunks of meat with her teeth. After finishing the leg, she devours the rest of the pig, several apples and parfaits, and most of a chicken before her hunger is satisfied and she snaps out of it.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Bakugo is still abrasive, but after learning of Izuku's suicide, be comes less of an outright Jerkass. Notably, during the Sports Festival, his insults towards his team are more along the lines of Dare to Be Badass rather than attempts to verbally cut them down.
• Trauma Button: Being reminded of the attack on the clinic is one for all of the survivors, but especially Izuku who had to watch one of the nurses die trying to save her, which haunts Izuku more since she's functionally immortal.
• Uncanny Valley Girl: Izuku is noted by many to be very cute if slightly odd looking with her pale skin, blue lips, and bloodshot eyes. But she becomes extremely creepy after awakening her Quirk. According to Naomosa, she has a case of "Quirk Instability" where Izuku knows she's immortal and doesn't feel pain so she doesn't see the problem with dismembering herself and flinging the severed limb at something to draw it towards her when her Healing Factor kicks in. Even pro heroes tend to be at least slightly unnerved when she casually bites off a finger or uses a cleaver to cut off her hand.
• The Undead: After her suicide, Izuku has basically become this, no longer needing to breathe, having no heartbeat, and her pale with visible veins and blue lips.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Bloody Mary can't travel through any mirror that's covered, even if it's only covered by a sheet or blood.

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