Author's note:Hey everyone, Fire Slash here and welcome to my new fanfic and the start of my DC Dekuverse. Before we get to the story, I want to explain some stuff. First, do not expect long chapters like my other fics. This story's style benefits from shorter chapters. Action scenes will be written in detail however, so don't worry. Second, due to the topic of this story, it WILL have a cynical nature. Izuku will be a bit more apathetic except when it comes to heroics, so he won't deviate too much from cannon. I won't be making him a dick tho (or at least too much of one), so don't worry. Fourth, you might be asking yourself, 'why write a story dealing with such an obscure character like Resurrection Man?' Well, the concept was too good to pass up on. I do have other DC/MHA stories planned in the future btw, including one that will be released this week, so be prepared for those. Finally, I want to do a pairing for this story, but I'm a bit stumped. I have three options in mind. Ochako will bring much needed sunshine in Izuku's life. Tsuyu will be a source of comfortdue to her blunt and stoic nature. Finally, Yui Koda (an unexpected option, I know) would provide a similar form of comfort as Tsuyu would, but it would be a different dynamic due to the fact the two girls are their own different people despite their similarities. Let me know in the reviews what you think should happen.
Also. Izuku's I just want to clarify that quirk functions slightly differently from Resurrection Man's in that Izuku only keeps it for a day and his powers aren't always useful. This is intentional.
Oh, and if you haven't, you should follow my IG account (fire_slash_fanfiction) if you haven't. I post when I plan on updating stories there and it's the best way to reach me.
Now, with all that out the way, let's get right to the story. Review and enjoy :-).
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Society is cruel, a universal fact which never seems to change. Humans have always felt the need to judge one another, using another's shortcomings to justify their worth. They're willing to use anything, whether it be strength, appearance, wealth, or intellect to place themselves on a pedestal, all while they scoff at those who seemingly lack these 'grand' traits.
One can only imagine how the judgemental nature of society grew once humans began developing quirks. Quirks, innate superpowers eighty percent of the world's population are born with, became society's newest means of determining one's worth. If someone has a cool quirk, they'll be worshipped no matter how horrible of a person they were while those with 'lame' or 'useless' quirks were brushed off to the side.
Now, one's power didn't always make them respected. If they had no means to control their destructive power, they'd be treated like rabid animals needing to be put down. Sometimes, a random vigilante or psychopath would do the honors. These people were below those with weaker quirks on a social level due to their unpredictability.
Finally, there were the people dubbed as 'quirkless.' Quirkless people make up twenty percent of the world. As the name implies, they have no abilities, their social power being miniscule. Whether it was better to be quirkless or have an unstable quirk is a topic still debated to this day.
Most who have a quirk are grateful that they aren't quirkless. "Nothing's worse than being society's punching bag" they'd argue. Izuku Midoryia would disagree. Sometimes one's quirk was a huge hindrance to their lives. Due to his quirk, he could never live a normal life even if he tried.
What was his quirk? Well, he can't die.
He first discovered his quirk when he was four years old. His once childhood friend was threatening to beat up one of his classmates for no reason, so he intervened despite the fact he was horribly outmatched. His 'friend,' Katsuki Bakugou, possessed a powerful quirk, the ability to summon explosions from his palms. Even though they were weak at the time, one well placed hit could still prove to be lethal. Izuku learned this the hard way when Katsuki struck him in the temple, the force killing him instantly.
It was then that Izuku found himself in an empty void. He had no idea what was going on other than the fact his body ached. He felt as if he were constipated, except to a much greater degree and that it could be felt all over his body instead of only his gut. When he woke up after who knows how long, he immediately threw up and started crying, the memories of the unspeakable pain haunting him for the rest of his life. He would soon grow accustomed to the pain in a way that it would become bearable, but that was afterm multiple resurrections. Yes, the boy's quirk gave him the ability to resurrect himself at the start of the day he died.
There was at least something good that came with this quirk however, it granted him infinite power. Upon resurrecting and encountering Katsuki picking on the kid again, Izuku went to defuse the situation again, resulting in the explosive boy striking him with another explosion. Much to Izuku's surprise, the attack didn't do anything. Angered, Katsuki continued wailing on him, but to no effect. The boy and his lackeys eventually gave up and left Izuku to his own devices.
It would take Izuku a few resurrections to even realize that each time he would die, he'd be sent back to the beginning of the day with a power related to his death. In the case of his first death, he was killed by blunt force trauma. When he was resurrected, he somehow gained a small amount of invulnerability.
Of course, the world couldn't be THAT nice to him. The powers only lasted until the next day and there was a high chance that the power he gained would be a completely useless one. One time, he had been hit by a drunk driver, only for him to be resurrected with the ability to fold his body into origami shapes. Neat for a birthday party and to avoid large cars, but completely useless everywhere else.
It was no secret that Izuku hated his quirk, but it wasn't a secret that his quirk could be used to help others. Being able to reset the day was something all heroes would beg to have, the existence of heroes being able to become a reality due to the existence of quirks. Izuku knew how death felt like, and it wasn't something he would want an innocent civilian to experience. His quirk can help people, which is why the boy decided that he would become a hero. He had the power to save others, and even if his quirk was simply torture for the boy, it could be someone else's miracle.
This was why Izuku made sure to train both his body and mind to their full potential. Having no friends, he devoted all of his time to gaining knowledge and learning how to fight. Academically, he was the smartest student in his school, something which pissed off his ex-childhood friend. Physically, he was at peak non-strength enhanced human potential. He had mastered various forms of hand-to-hand combat. Having had multiple resets also gave him more time to acquire such knowledge, so he was set. If he couldn't be allowed to die, then he would become the one to push back other people's deaths.
Sadly, this won't be easy for the boy, especially when he has to deal with dying so much to do good, but he was willing to take that risk. He will become a hero, even if it drives him insane.
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"All right, as you all know, you're all reaching the end of middle school," Izuku's middle-school homeroom teacher stated, causing the entire class to start paying attention to him. "Now's the time you all think about your future. Eh, who am I kidding? All of you are planning on becoming heroes, correct?"
Upon saying that, most of the students began cheering in affirmation, some of them even displaying their quirks in a non-destructive manner.
"Hey teach, don't lump me into the same category as these crappy side characters," Katsuki stated, the boy being in Izuku's homeroom much to his annoyance. "I'm off to be the best damn hero you've ever seen."
"Ah, right, you're applying to U.A correct?" His teacher asked the boy, surprising most of his classmates. U.A Academy was considered to be the best hero development school in Japan. The chances of anyone getting in were slim, yet this didn't seem to faze Katsuki, the boy having a smirk on his face.
"Damn right I am, I even aced the mock test!"
As his classmates began fawning over Katsuki, Izuku began to dive into his own little world, not wanting to watch his classmates stroke the ego of his biggest bully.
'Sure, you'll be a hero...the same day you become a decent human being,' Izuku thought to himself. Ever since Katsuki gained his quirk, he became a typical school bully, beating and abusing people for fun. His favorite target was Izuku simply because of the status of his quirk. To the world, his quirk was known as 'Random'; occasionally, the boy would develop a random quirk that would last a day. There was no way to prove that he could die and resurrect. As such, Izuku was known by his peers to have an extremely useless quirk, causing him to become the subject of ridicule, not that he cared. Better that than having them know that they could kill him without repercussions. He knew Katsuki would probably abuse that and use it to make his life harder than it already was. He's already accidentally killed the boy ten times already, and yes, Izuku was keeping count. One would think Katsuki would know not to launch explosions at the boy who was quirkless a good chunk of the time, but of course, the world revolved only around him. Izuku would've done something about Katsuki a long time ago, but he was protected by the school. He was their 'prized student' due to his good academic standing and strong quirk. He would be the one to get their middle-school on the maps as they'd be able to brag about the fact they had helped raise a 'great' hero. Back when he tried telling the teachers about the boy's abuse, they'd wave him off. If he even tried to fight back, he could be expelled, ruining his chances at getting into a hero school.
"Midoryia, aren't you applying to U.A as well?" The teacher asked him.
"Yes," Izuku replied without missing a beat before going back to his journal titled 'Hero Analysis for the Future No. 14. The boy had developed the hobby of keeping detailed notes about every hero and villain he could find. Doing so allowed him to think of ways in which one could effectively use their quirk while also coming up with ways to render a quirk useless. As a hero, one cannot rely solely on their own quirk, even one which allowed the user to undo past mistakes, or at least he hoped he was. There was a chance that his quirk simply threw him into an alternate dimension every time he was 'resurrected,' but he refused to acknowledge that possibility. Doing so would defeat the purpose of his existence. What's the point of being willing to die when it wouldn't change a thing?
"Really? Isn't he quirk unreliable? How does he possibly think he can get into U.A?" One of his classmates asked, everyone else laughing. The only person who wasn't was Katsuki, but Izuku wasn't even paying attention to his classmates to notice.
"Deku," Katsuki growled, not liking the fact the boy was applying to the same school as him, Deku being a nickname the boy gave him out of mockery. Deku was a word meaning useless, and Katsuki latched onto it, using it to mock the boy for his lack of a quirk. Honestly, he felt Katsuki could have a little more variety when calling him names. Seriously, he only latched onto that one and 'quirkless loser' as insults. For someone who was supposedly the second smartest student in the school, behind himself obviously, he sure didn't act like it…
"All right, all right, that's enough," the teacher stated to regain control of the class, though Izuku knew that if it wasn't for the fact that the bell was about to ring, they would've continued mocking him. Nobody cared about the 'useless' after all…
Thankfully, the bell did end up ringing a few minutes later, causing everyone to flood outside the room. Glad that the day was over, the boy began to pack his things, only for someone to swipe his journal.
"The fuck is this?" Katsuki asked out loud, making his victim nervously eye him as he had no idea what was going to happen. "Hm…'Hero Analysis for the future?' You really think this is going to help you?"
In the background, two boys snickered, them being followers of Katsuki despite the fact he simply saw them as extras.
Izuku sighed in irritation, having lost the ability to fear any bully ages ago. "What do you want?" Seriously, he's faced death multiple times, some means far more slow and painful than those caused by being hit with one of the boy's explosions.
"Behind every hero is a story about their uprising," Katsuki explained. "I want mine to be unique. I'll be the only person to have graduated from this shitty school and make it pro. I'd rather not have any setbacks, so don't apply to U.A, got it?"
Izuku rolled his eyes at how pathetic the boy was acting. "No."
If Katsuki was angry before, he was now enraged. "Well, how the fuck are you going to get into U.A without a decent quirk you fucking Deku? You think someone like you can compete with someone like me, huh!?" Izuku opened his mouth to retort, only to be cut off by the sound of Katsuki blowing up his notebook, the boy tossing it out the window a second later.
'Great, now I have to get that.'
"Just do us all a favor and take a swan dive off the roof. You'll be far more useful dead, and who knows? You might even get a quirk in your next life."
"..." An aura of silence surrounded everyone, the three bullies waiting for Izuku's reaction. Most would be put to tears or enraged by such a statement, so imagine their surprise when Izuku began laughing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" If only Katsuki realized how true his words were. During the end of his 'test runs' at figuring out his quirk, he indeed had leapt off the school roof, twice, and had developed a temporary quirk each time. The irony in his bully's words was something Izuku found to be hilarious. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
*BOOM!*
"What a fucking freak,"Katsuki mumbled, having struck Izuku in the chest with an explosion. Despite this, the boy was still laughing. Turning to his lackeys, Katsuki ushered them away from the hysterical boy. "Let's get out of here."
Izuku's laughter ended up continuing for five more minutes, even with his bullies now gone…
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"Ah, just my luck, a disguise, and one of a harmless schoolboy no less. Looks like I can finally get rid of that pesky hero."
Of course he'd run into a villain today. Having wasted enough time retrieving his notebook, Izuku decided to take a shortcut through a small tunnel. Unfortunately, it seemed like a villain was using it as a hideout. 'Fuck my life.'
Izuku simply sighed as the villain shot a tendil at him.
"Get over here!" Pulling him towards his body, the villain began absorbing him. "Don't worry kid, this won't take long."
'Hm… looks like I'm dying again. Wait, what happens when I'm about to die of old age? Will I be stuck in a constant loop or will I eventually stop again at a certain point in my life?' Despite suffocating, Izuku still had the time to think to himself. It wasn't like struggling will do anything.
"Hah, you know, if it wasn't for you, I'd probably be caught right now," The villain mocked his dying victim. "Thanks kid, you're my hero."
Once again, Izuku's world went to black as the familiar pain that came with dying began consuming his body…
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It took Izuku six times to get a quirk he could use to fight the sludge villain. Now, he could've gone a different way, but all that would do is allow the villain to go free, which meant that someone else would die if the hero pursuing him didn't find him in time.
His first resurrection caused by the villain gave him an extra eye, supposedly due to the fact the villain managed to sneak up on him. It was obvious why that quirk was useless. His second quirk gave him the ability to hold his breath for a long time, but the villain simply killed him by entering through his nose and ears. The third time he fought the villain, he was given an extremely weak telepathy quirk. All he could do with it was communicate with the villain without opening his mouth. It's radius didn't even extend outside the tunnel, so he couldn't use it to call for help. His fourth resurrection, the one where he was able to hold his laughter and respond to Katsuki's words with a simple 'k' caused him to have his mouth and nose completely sealed off, removing his need to breathe, but the villain simply took over his body by using his ears. His fifth quirk was an explosion quirk similar to Katsuki's, but weaker, so he was unable to repel the villain long enough for a hero to come in and rescue him.
Thankfully, his sixth time resurrecting gave him a usable ability for a change, a high level ice breath quirk.
Entering the tunnel, Izuku took a deep breath in and wasted no time encasing the entire thing in ice. Walking through the tunnel, Izuku waved at the now frozen villain and went on his merry way, knowing full well that the sludge villain was completely helpless. Unknown to him, exactly when he left the cave, the world's top hero and 'Symbol of Peace' All Might had entered the cave, managing to find Izuku's work.
"Seems like another hero managed to catch you," All Might mumbled to himself, his signature smile present as he admired the sturdiness of the ice around him. "Well, this makes my job easier!"
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Author's note 2: In case you were wondering, Izuku won't be getting One for All. I have plans on making him more like Batman and Green Arrow, when it comes to fighting without his quirk. What I mean will be revealed next chapter.