When They See, They'll Understand is a My Hero Academia fanfic written by Ernalore. The story serves as a parody to the movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Synopsis: Izuku took Katsuki's "sick" advice, and the explosive blond has been regretting it ever since. So, when Hatsume offers him a chance to bring him back, Katsuki instantly accepts, only to unwittingly create a monster. Now, the question is not if the Heroes can stop "Deku", but if Katsuki can bring himself to kill his old friend a second time?
It can be read here
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This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Mirio has One For All along with his Permeation Quirk and has shown to be able to use the Quirks of the past users of OFA.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Once the Deku A.I. came online, it decides to know more about the real Izuku... only to later Go Mad from the Revelation that not only Izuku committed suicide but his tormentor, Katsuki Bakugo, has faced no charges for his bullying and suicide baiting and has instead become the famous Number Three Hero of Japan. This convinced the A.I. that if hero society is willing to let such people become heroes, then it's not worth saving, and decides to tear it down completely.
- All for Nothing: Katsuki mentally laments how his awful actions have caused his childhood friend's death and how he is nowhere close to becoming the Number One Hero. Meaning that not only what he did was downright cruel but that it amounted to nothing in the long term.
- Ambiguous Ending: The story ends with Katsuki driving to Inko's apartment to finally apologize for his actions leading to her son's death. Though whether or not she accepted his apology is unknown.
- The Atoner: Katsuki deeply regrets all the things he did to Izuku once the latter committed suicide and as a result decides to become a hero who saves people instead of seeking glory to atone for his sins.
- Berserk Button: Being compared to Katsuki is a huge one for Deku as he tore Wolfram's arm in anger when he did so.
- Bitter Sweet Ending: While the heroes were able to successfully stop Deku, there is a large body count of the heroes, most of which included Katsuki's friends. Many families like the Todorokis and Urarakas lost their children in the process, and Katsuki turned in his hero license and resigned from heroics.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Deku uses All Might's blood to paint the message, "A Safer World", for the world to see.
- Death by Adaptation: After All Might told him he couldn't be a hero, Izuku took Katsuki's "advice" and killed himself.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Played for Drama. Katsuki begs Deku to come quietly and serve his time, and he now has a chance to become the hero he always wanted to be. The Deku android tells Katsuki he's not the Izuku he knew and that if he's kept alive, he'll try what he did again and might succeed. Katsuki had to tearfully kill his friend a second time and let him go for good.
- Downer Beginning: The fic begins with Katsuki telling Izuku to take a swan dive off the roof and hope he is born with a Quirk in another life. His family later gets a call from Inko telling them that Izuku killed himself.
- Driven to Suicide: After facing too many hardships, Izuku offs himself to end his pain.
- Expy:
- The A.I. Deku serves as one of Ultron as he was portrayed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Murder Machine from the DC Dark Multiverse storyline, with Deku planning to eradicate all heroes and villains like the former and being a program created from the memories and personality of an already dead individual like the latter.
- Mei is one to Tony Stark from the MCU; both have good intentions of protecting more lives by creating an artificial intelligence peacekeeping device, only for it to go rogue.
- Slice and Mummy are this to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver serving as minions to a genocidal android.
- Wolfram serves as one to Klaw who provided Deku the materials he needed for his endgame.
- I Have Your Wife: Deku reveals to Ochako that he has Slice and Mummy waiting outside her parents' apartment without them noticing and if she doesn't give him access to the WHA files then he'll have the villains kill them.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite Izuku being dead and not inheriting One For All, the events of the Paranormal Liberation War and Final War Arcs all occurred with a large body count like it did in canon.
- Iida still lives even after confronting Stain due to Bakugo arriving in place of Izuku.
- Internal Reveal: After their second encounter with Deku, Katsuki's former classmates and peers all go to confront him about what he knows about the android as it responded to him the most. Katsuki then tearfully reveals the awful actions he committed in the past and how they lead to the death of his one and only childhood friend. Everyone was horrified and disgusted to hear this with even Mirio scowling while telling Katsuki they'll talk about it once they have taken care of Deku.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Deku kills All Might by blasting a hole where his injury was. This was done not only out of revenge, but also as a smokescreen to hide what he is really planning while the world focuses on the former Symbol of Peace's death.
- While the number of civilian casualties were minimum, the same can't be said about the hero casualties. Hundreds of heroes like Ochako, Shoto, Itsuka, Shinso, Endeavor, Nejire, Present Mic, Real Steel, Mount Lady, Welder, Manual, Tiger, Gang Orca, Pixie Bob, Gale Force, Mandalay, Kamui Woods, Suneater, Rocketti, and Shemage to name a few have all been killed.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Katsuki really, really, regrets how his actions lead to the death of his one and only friend and resolves to become a better person who is worthy of the title "hero". It's due to this that he decides to give Izuku's memory a chance when Mei asks him to think about a person he admires who is worthy of becoming a hero to create the base of her A.I. defense system.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Shoto's mother, Rei, and the Urarakas can only mourn the deaths of their children as they died during Deku's rampage.
- Replacement Goldfish: The reason why Katsuki doesn't want to kill the android Deku is because he still feels severely guilty over causing Izuku's death and doesn't want to kill him a second time. Mirio, of all people, spells it out to Katuski that Izuku is dead and nothing can change that. Even as the Android Deku is about to die, it makes it clear to Katsuki that it isn't the real Izuku; that it's just a collection of all his memories of him.
- Revenge: Deku's first victim was All Might, whom he killed for telling the real Izuku that he couldn't be a hero without a Quirk. This was not only done to serve as a smokescreen to make sure the world doesn't notice his actions but out of revenge as well.
- Time Skip: The fic takes place in the future where Katsuki and his friends are now adults and official Pro Heroes.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The Deku A.I. plans on eradicating every single hero and villain in the world; that way the only people left on Earth would be the extras, or average joes.
- What If?: Due to Izuku being dead in this fic, Mirio is the one to inherit One For All.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The whole fic is one to the Age of Ultron movie.
