Fanfic / Nutricula

Nutricula by Chrysanthos is a My Hero Academia Fanfic.

Once, Bakugou Katsuki offered his 'old friend' Izuku a cruel piece of 'advice': "Why don't you take a swan dive off the roof? Maybe you'll get a Quirk then!"

In this world, Izuku listened. Much to his surprise, it worked — though he doesn't realize this at first. Turns out he had a Quirk all along; it just requires him to die first. Not only that, it's actually super-powerful... or at least, has the potential to become really, really powerful.

Mainly because he can add more powers to it. He just kinda has to die first.

A dark-humored take on the notion of Izuku having a Death-Activated Superpower, Nutricula explores the impact this has upon the world, as Izuku pursues his dream of becoming a professional hero while trying not to dwell too much upon the nature of his powers... or freak everyone else out.

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This fanfic includes instances of:

• Accidental Murder: One of Izuku's many deaths comes at the hands of Bakugou himself, during their first exercise under All Might's supervision. Another occurs at the end of his match against Todoroki; Izuku isn't even aware of his death until he instinctively uses his new Quirk.
• Adaptational Badass: Uraraka manages to win her fight with Bakugou and ultimately comes in second place in the tournament. It's strongly implied that All Might is seriously considering her as a potential successor of One for All.
• Adaptational Name Change: Katsuki takes the hero name "Ground Zero" rather than his more violent canon ideas.
• Ambiguously Bi: Izuku is initially flustered when Uraraka talks to him the first few times, though he gets over it eventually. He also refers to Shoji as "hunky" and is mortified when he shows his upper body to two male classmates he describes as "handsome." Katsuki later remarks that he's pretty sure Izuku's bisexual.
• Amulet of Dependency: Izuku's quirk protects him to some degree from the pain of his deaths. However, Izuku seems to simultaneously experience the pain of all his deaths after exposure to Aizawa's quirk, and the author has implied losing the quirk would be similarly painful and overwhelming.
• Animal Motifs: Hydrozoans, though it's predominantly jellyfishes due to their connection to biological immortality. To explain:
  • The fic's title, Nutricula, is a reference to Turritopsis nutricula, one of the two hydrozoans that can revert back to a healthy, youthful state.
  • Izuku's Quirk is called Turritopsis, named after the entire genus of hydrozoans.
  • The first chapter's title, "Dorhnii", refers to the immortal jellyfish, turritopsis dorhnii, and was once classified as T. nutricula.
• Ascended Extra: As Mineta is not part of Class 1-A, Shiozaki Ibara serves as the twentieth classmate instead. Yoarashi Inasa also serves as a 1-B student in U.A. instead of Shiketsu.
• Batman Gambit: Hagakure pulls off one during the 'Heroes vs. Villains' exercise by tricking Ojirou into waiting for her to engage him.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Kouda barely says a word to anyone during the Battle Trials. Kaminari shocks a group of rats surrounding him and Kirishima and pays for it dearly with a busted face and a trip to the infirmary.
• Berserk Button: Never hurt animals when Kouda is around, or he'll show you how he managed to get into the Heroics track in the first place.
• Came Back Strong: Izuku's Quirk in a nutshell that goes along with Resurrective Immortality. Whatever kills him makes him stronger, as he gains a new ability based upon it.
• Cassandra Truth: When Izuku first confesses how his power really works, he's met with disbelief — Katsuki naturally assumes he's lying. Subverted now that the class knows of Izuku's quirk.
• Cast Full of Gay: Every character with a stated sexuality is bisexual or homosexual, along with a few who mention being trans. Word of God is that Enji Todoroki is the only heterosexual cisgender character in the entire story.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Ochako lets out an internal one over the fact she's facing Bakugou in the quarter-finals.
• Colony Drop: Ochako pulls two off in her match against Bakugou. The first one was comprised of debris from his explosions but Bakugou managed to explode it. The second was a massive chunk of the arena, which took him out.
• Combo Platter Powers: Since his powers develop in response to the various ways he gets killed off, there's no immediately obvious theme to an outside observer. Naturally, this makes it harder for Izuku to keep his secret. Such abilities include:
  • High-Velocity Impact - Imparts a large amount of kinetic energy into an object by impacting it. Cause of Death: Suicide via jumping off of the school roof.
  • Antibiotic Blood - Cures illness by ingesting his blood. Izuku can just activate it and it'll work immediately on him, though. Cause of Death: Infection from Sludge Villain.
  • Aqua Stream - He can spew a steady stream of water from his mouth. Cause of Death: Drowning in his bathtub.
  • Thread Weaving - Can create highly-tensile threads from his skin, but it's easier to create them from his hands. Cause of Death: Spider-bite.
  • Marathon - Can reach a running speed of sixty kilometers per hour in ten seconds. Cause of Death: Being hit by a car on the way to school.
  • Self-Destruct - He can explode his own body with incredible force. This produces some heat and has incredible upward force, enough to smash through four layers of cement. Using this power instantly kills him though, and dying in this manner does not grant him any additional abilities. Cause of Death: Incineration via point-blank blast from Bakugou.
  • Hard-Headed - A localized form of Hardening that focuses entirely on his head, rendering it more durable than titanium. Doesn't protect his neck, though. Cause of Death: Skull crushed by Noumou.
  • Pull-Apart - He can segment and pull off any part of his body! He can't move them around, however, and he can't regrow them, so it's probably a good idea to at least keep an arm on your body! At least when detached, he feels no pain from it! Cause of Death: Portal Cut by Kurogiri.
  • Temp. Control - He can cool and heat up anything via touch. This change is limited to an upper and lower limit of ±30°C. Cause of Death: Half-Hot Half-Cold.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: During the Sports Festival, Izuku is disguised as a Quirkless Gen Ed student and can't overtly use his Quirks. Once his cover is blown, Izuku unthinkingly uses too many of his Quirks, causing Aizawa to claim he has a multiple ability one called "Four Elements".
• Death Glare: When she thinks he's insulting her "babies", Mei gives one so impressive that Izuku genuinely fears for his life.
• Death Is Cheap: After becoming used to the morbid nature of his own quirk, Izuku has since lost any real fear of dying. Whenever he comes close to dying in some manner, all he can think about is just what new power will come out of his predicament.
• Doom Magnet: After activating his quirk Izuku finds himself suffering lethal or potentially lethal accidents more frequently.
• Dramatic Irony: Common due to Izuku's efforts to keep everyone Locked Out of the Loop, meaning they're unaware that he's not as lucky as he seems.
  • Katsuki expresses his joy at Izuku not heeding his suggestion to go and commit suicide since they were matched against each other during the Battle Trials. Readers would know that the story started only because Izuku did.
  • Katsuki's declaration of "He won't die if I don't hit him!" is absolutely thick with irony, given how he does, in fact, hit him.
• Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged. Izuku forgives Katsuki for killing him twice but after her match against him, Ochako makes clear she has no intentions of forgiving Katsuki.
  • After Katsuki confesses what he did to Izuku, Eijirou punches him in the face and makes clear that while he's willing to give him another chance, he isn't forgiving him for his bullying.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Aizawa determines that Izuku has too many different powers and comes to the conclusion he has an Adaptive Ability.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Aoyama is as flashy as ever as he is in canon. Even when Shoto freezes him, he silently wonders if Aoyama's sparkles were frozen mid-twinkle.
• Everyone Has Standards: Bakugou may be a total Jerkass but even he's horrified and infuriated by Kurogiri murdering Izuku.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the teams for All Might's first exercise being completely different, Izuku and Katsuki still end up facing off, and Katsuki still tests out his new gauntlets against All Might's orders.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Picked apart with Momo; Mina convinces her that her initial costume needs improvement, and when brainstorming ideas later, it's noted that she hadn't thought much about it due to how common Ms. Fanservice-heavy costumes are among the professional circuit.
• Invisible Streaker: Averted with Hagakure — when asked about this by Tsuyu, she clarifies that her suit is made with her own hair with light-reflective properties. This doesn't stop her from pranking Satou later, mind...
• It Only Works Once: Bakugou's counter against Ochako's first Colony Drop is so massive that he's left dehydrated and unable to counter her second attack.
• Jack of All Stats: Izuku has several powers similar to other students, though weaker. His explosions are less versatile than Bakugou's, his Super-Speed is slower than Iida, his hardening only covers his head unlike Kirishima, and his temperature control is less powerful than Todoroki's. But combined with his other powers, Izuku has a power for nearly any situation he might face.
• Last-Name Basis: Following his confession, Eijirou starts calling Katsuki 'Bakugou' instead of Bakubro. Katsuki recognizes this as a sign of how he's lost significant regard from his Only Friend.
• Losing Your Head: After being dismembered by Kurogiri via Portal Cut, Izuku is reduced to nothing but a talking head.
• Major Injury Underreaction: How Izuku comes off to those unaware that he didn't actually survive things like being hit by a car.
• The Many Deaths of You: Izuku dies. Repeatedly.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Class 1-A's collective reaction during the USJ incident when Kurogiri snares Izuku and sets up his Portal Cut.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Bakugou has this reaction to the Internal Reveal of how they were responsible for causing Izuku's death twice, especially since the second one was outright murder on his part.
• Not Me This Time: During the brainstorming process for Yaoyorozu's new costume, Kaminari is briefly blamed for their inclusion of a Cleavage Window. Shiozaki had actually suggested it and reluctantly admits as much.
• The Nudifier: Downplayed; while Inko made Izuku's first costume partly out of blast-resistant material, the rest is shredded by Bakugou's explosions in their first match-up, leaving Izuku half-naked.
• Point of Divergence: The entire story happened because Midoriya went through with Bakugou's suggestion, leading to the dynamics of the cast and the story subtly changing.
  • Among them, Uraraka is implied to have become the ninth holder of One For All instead of Izuku.

• Resurrective Immortality: Izuku's quirk also functions this as while he can be killed, he will Came Back Strong above with a new quirk based on how he died.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chapter 12, Halitrephes, has Hagakure asking about Fumikage's Dark Shadow as if it were a Stand.
  • Chapter 14, when Izuku walks into class Hagakure is in the middle of explaining the plot of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to Fumikage.
  • In chapter 28, Izuku briefly considers the hero name Zombie Man.
• Sorry, I'm Gay: Jirou tells Izuku that she has no interest in boys after she saves him from a reporter. Downplayed in that he had no interest in her. When asked about who she has her eyes on, she says Momo's name.
• Starts with a Suicide: Opens with the immediate aftermath of Izuku's swan dive.
• Stations of the Canon:
  • While Izuku and Katsuki still face off in All Might's first exercise, they're on different teams — Midoriya's playing a villain alongside Shouji, while Bakugou and Sero are the heroes.
  • All of the other teams for the exercise are different, and we see how each test plays out accordingly.
• Superpower Lottery: Despite the unfortunate circumstances in which his quirk activates, "Turritopsis" not only makes Izuku functionally immortal but with every death he is granted a brand-new quirk that is added to his stockpile of abilities, making him more powerful and less predictable with every momentary defeat.
• Tame His Anger: After having their My God, What Have I Done? moment, Bakugou decides to try and reign in his literally explosive temper as part of making himself a better person. His mentor Mirko picked him specifically to teach him how to do this, due to possessing a similarly volatile temper.
• Viking Funeral: Many of his fellow classmates almost did this with Izuku's dismembered corpse before they found out that he was actually still (technically) alive.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 13, Conulariida. Kurogiri executes Izuku in front of all his classmates via Portal Cut. Heck of a way to ensure his secret's exposed.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Kirishima learns that Katsuki suicide-baited Izuku, he immediately punches him in the face and tells him that is not okay.
• Worthy Opponent: Implied when Katsuki makes a point to learn Ochako's name and apologizes for calling her "Moon face" after she defeats him. Confirmed a couple chapters later when he admits she's a worthy rival.

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