Fanfic / Pro Hero Metal Bat

Izuku Midoriya had no quirk and had no one outside of his mother. And aside from his smarts, he didn't have anything. All he ever carried with him was the weight of insults and depraving speeches everyone gave him for being him. So when the heroes yell at him for saving Kacchan's life, he escapes to the beach to find peace. Instead, he found a chance to make his dream come true.

Pro Hero Metal Bat is a My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man crossover by Phantos God of Horrors that details Izuku's gradual transformation into a bat swinging hero in the style of Metal Bat.

The fic can be read here on FanFiction.Net and here on Archive of Our Own.

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Pro Hero Metal Bat provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: Zigzagged. Izuku gets progressively stronger as the story goes on. By the time of the entrance exam, Izuku can destroy villain bots with only his bat and physical strength. He lacks the raw power of One for All, but the strength he can wield is far above his canon output at the time.
  • This is most apparent during the entrance exam. First, Izuku destroys several villain bots, earning 15 villain points. Then comes his confrontation with the Zero-pointer. As opposed to destroying it as in canon, Izuku whacks its wheels until the ground beneath it collapses. It is left relatively undamaged and is only trapped, but Izuku showcases real super strength and does not hurt himself. This ends up netting him 75 rescue points, putting him in first place.
  • At the USJ, Izuku is able to keep fighting even after a chunk of his scalp has been torn off, and was even able to stand up to the Nomu, hitting it so hard that it's launched into the lake.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Izuku meets Iida early into his training. This also leads to them becoming friends much faster. Mei also shows up early as she harvests metal from the beach, meeting Izuku when she noticed someone else was taking the scrap away. Ojiro is another of Izuku's friends, and they meet at a martial arts class. He meets Momo at the mall, and she has a significant role in the chapter.
  • Mirio becomes All Might's teaching assistant, so he meets 1-A in their second day of class.
• Adaptational Intelligence: All Might didn't pick Izuku as a successor because he realized Izuku was very timid, physically weak, and had no experience with a quirk. Both would cripple his ability to use One For All. This is in contrast to canon where he picks Izuku based on a single action and didn't realize just how badly Izuku was fairing. Crosses over with Adaptational Angst Upgrade and Cruel to Be Kind because he acknowledges Nighteye's prediction and doesn't want to place so much of a burden on a child with a timid personality.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While Bakugo was a Barbaric Bully in canon, here it is taken to psychopathic levels. Since Izuku starts to stand up to him and even becomes a public hero by saving Eri from the mall shooters, Bakugo's attempts to beat Izuku's dreams out of him become more and more absurd. This is accentuated by the fact that he believes in Might Makes Right and finds the idea of saving helpless citizens from villains and catastrophes superfluous in becoming a hero, completely ignoring the fact that Izuku saved a girl's life and thinking that Rescue Points don't count as "real" points.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Iida. Downplayed, in that he was never really mean, just strict. His first meeting with Izuku occurs at random when Iida heads to Dagobah to see the state it's in after his brother tells him about it. He apologizes to Izuku for startling him and they have a civil conversation. When Iida leaves he notes he would like to talk to Izuku again and Izuku's impression is that Iida is a nice person. This is a far cry from the rocky first meeting they had in canon.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In One-Punch Man, Garou/Hunter is a Badass Normal who wins fights with his superior technique and martial arts (at least until he starts going through the Monsterification process). In this story, Garou is heavily implied to have a Quirk, though the specifics are unknown, that he uses in conjunction with his martial arts.
• Adapted Out: Sato, Hagakure, and Mineta have been replaced in 1-A by Itsuka Kendo, Shiozaki Ibara, and Pony Tsunotori.
• Bait-and-Switch Compassion: When Bakugo confronts Izuku after he survives the Mall-Shooting and tells him he shouldn't have been involved, Izuku thinks that Bakugo was concerned for his well-being... only for Bakugo to scold him from making the other heroes "look bad." It's at this point that it occurs to Izuku just how selfish Bakugo really is and lays one out on him.
• Batman Gambit: During the Hero Vs. Villains Exercise, Izuku pokes and prods Bakugo to pull the pin on his second grenade gauntlet regardless of All Might's orders not to use it, knowing that Bakugo's fragile ego would override his respect for All Might, giving him and Ochako the opening they need to win the challenge.
• Batter Up!: The major premise of the fic. Izuku finds a metal bat in the garbage of Dagobah Beach and takes it as his weapon. It ends up destroyed by the end of the Entrance Exam.
• Body Horror: The Nomu takes a hell of a beating thanks to its regeneration. Special mention goes to its arm folding up like an accordion when Izuku and Mirio strike it simultaneously.
• Boring, but Practical: After Todoroki freezes Ojiro to the ground, he stops and apologizes/gloats about how he's sorry but he had to do this. Ojiro just waits until Todoroki is about to walk past and winds him with a powerful tail blow, leading to Todoroki's capture and his team ultimately losing the match.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: Izuku's continued training results in him gaining super strength that can be confused with a quirk. Chapter 11 reveals that this is a somewhat strange case, as he only seems to have superhuman abilities when holding a baseball bat- and it doesn't have to be a specially prepared one, as Izuku was able to repeat some of his feats when UA gave him a fresh one.
  • After getting hurt in the combat exercise, Izuku is fully healed within a few minutes by Recovery Girl's quirk, a rate far beyond a normal person. This insane healing rate is seen again at the USJ, where it only takes him a few seconds to wake up after Recovery Girl heals his torn-up face.
• Declining Promotion: Izuku turns down the offer of a recommendation to UA by Gang Orca after the attack at the mall.
• Disappeared Dad: It's heavily implied, and later confirmed by Nedzu, that Izuku's dad is dead in this story.
• Disco Dan: Sero comments that Izuku would look like one with his new sunglasses if he hadn't shaved most of his afro.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The girl that Izuku and Momo save from the villain attack at the mall is Eri, before she was taken away by Overhaul.
  • The mall is also where Izuku meets Gang Orca, who didn't show up until the Provisional License Exam, as well as Momo, who didn't show up until 1-A was gathered for the first time.
• Everyone Has Standards: Unpleasant Jerkass though he may be, Endeavor genuinely respects Izuku for his drive and determination, to the point where he helps Ectoplasm stop some of the spectators from trying to interfere in Izuku's match with Bakugou because they didn't like a quirkless kid coming so far.
• Facial Horror: Izuku gets punched in the face so hard by the USJ-Nomu that when Shoji, Uraraka, and Sero go to help him, part of his face falls off and needs to be bandaged back on. It leaves a very prominent scar.
• Fantastic Ableism: This is shown by the Sports Festival spectators when Bakugou outs Izuku as being quirkless. Not only do they immediately turn on the boy they were cheering for just moments ago and demand that Izuku be disqualified, some of them go as far as trying to interfere in the match themselves, only being stopped by Aizawa erasing their quirks and Ectoplasm setting up a perimeter to prevent them from reaching the arena.
• Gag Haircut: After getting scarred at the USJ and the doctors shaving half his hair to treat his face, Izuku shaves the other half leaving a mohawk. He was notably trying to avoid this trope, but nearly everyone thinks the mohawk counts. Pony compares him to Bazz B and Mei suggests a spartan-like helmet with a gap for his "funny hair".
• Gathering Steam:
  • Subtly. During his match with Monoma, Izuku still "hits like a cinderblock" after getting his arms cut with Kamikiri's Quirk.
  • This is more obvious in his match with Bakugou during the finals. He goes from not being able to dodge Bakugou's attacks or retaliate, to shruging off his explosions and landing powerful hits of his own that almost knock out his opponent.
• The Grappler: Izuku describes himself as this when he doesn't have his bat. By his own recollection, he can't remember the last time he threw a punch.
• Guns in Church: Averted. Izuku enters a jewelry store after training, his bat still under his arm. Momo Yaoyorozu assumes he's there to steal something as his weapon and appearance make him look like a delinquent. She subtly preps to stop him until he asks a clerk for help finding a necklace for his mom.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted, Mei suggests Izuku wear a helmet, and seems to be motivated by a desire to see Izuku injured less often.
• Heroic RRoD: After using his ice to combat the Nomu, Todoroki uses up the last of his strength to try and freeze it into a glacier. It fails.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: One of All Might's reasons for not choosing Izuku as a successor is Izuku's quirklessness means he has no experience using a quirk. Toshinori was a quirkless boy given One for All but Izuku's lack of experience in canon is a major reason he hurts himself so much.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Downplayed, as Izuku does not intend to murder anyone. However, he grapples with his anger against his bullies and in Chapter 8, realizes that if he fought as Bakugou did, beating up people he doesn't like, then he would become just like him.
• I Know Madden Combat: Defied, Izuku makes it clear to Mei that he isn't going for a "baseball" motif; he simply fights with a baseball bat.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Izuku still trains by cleaning up Dagobah Beach.
  • Izuku and Uraraka still go against Bakugou and Iida in the Battle Training and win in a similar manner.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • A lot of what Bakugou says is bullying and telling Izuku to give up, but he does make a point that Bakugou has been training to enter UA since he was four years old, while Izuku only really started training himself in the last ten months. Even Izuku has to give his bully that much.
  • Despite Endeavor's treatment of Todoroki and his refusal to take any responsibility for his son's hatred of him or his wife's mental breakdown, he's still not wrong when he says that heroes have a duty to uphold the principles of morality and justice, and Todoroki is failing that duty by refusing to give it his all.
• The Juggernaut: Izuku's fighting style involves tanking hits and hitting back. Even injured by the zero-pointer, he gets back on his feet. Later, during the USJ, he gets a chunk of his scalp torn off after being launched into a tree and still takes down three villains and helps Mirio fight the Nomu.
  • After finally reaching his limit and passing out thanks to the Nomu punching him as hard as it can in the face, which tears part of it off, Izuku regains consciousness within a few seconds of Recovery Girl healing him. He has to be held down and calmed by three classmates to stop from trying to fight again.
• Magic Feather: Izuku's bats seem to function like this. He can display casual super-strength with one, but he only performs averagely without one. Izuku seems to realize this himself, as he later throws a headbutt that utilizes his Super-Strength.
• Made of Iron: Izuku still gets injured in fights, but he can really handle punishment. In the Entrance Exam, he gets up and keeps beating the zero-pointer despite his injuries.
  • Earlier, he mostly let the robots hit him before hitting back.
  • Later, at the Battle Training, he continues fighting despite receiving a point-blank explosion.
  • At the USJ, he takes out three thugs and even fights the Nomu after having a chunk of his scalp ripped off.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Izuku doesn't realize he's been shot until after reporting to the police about the villain attack.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Izuku is Quirkless, but then he pulls off stuff that he really shouldn't be able to do, like smacking a fridge across the beach with his bat or carving a hole under the foot of the Zero Point Robot with just the force of his swing. Nezu theorizes he may be an example of human evolution.
• Morton's Fork: Izuku realizes that Bakugo is offering this when he's confronted about saving Eri- he realizes that he's getting yelled at for saving Eri, and would get yelled at if he didn't save Eri. He decides then and there that there's no real point to try and please Kacchan.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Momo mistaking Izuku for a delinquent, when his character is based on the fighting style and character of Metal Bat. Metal Bat, in One Punch Man, was designed as a send-up to the "Delinquent Hero" style of character.
  • All Might's reasons for not making Izuku his successor are Izuku's canonical problems as one. These include his low self-esteem, recklessness, and lack of any experience with a quirk.
  • 1-A begins to suspect Mirio is related to All Might, just like Todoroki theorized Izuku may be All Might's child. Todoroki also considers that Izuku may be related to All Might after seeing him damage the Nomu.
• Nice Guy: Iida's first meeting with Izuku is much more positive than in canon. When he learns of Izuku's quirklessness, he remains civil, besides a minor moment of surprise, and does nothing to discourage Izuku's dreams. Izuku is left hoping to see him again.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Downplayed, but Izuku is visibly a little uncomfortable about Uraraka trying to get close to him. It's mentioned that this is due to his poor social skills- he's used to meeting his friends in the middle of doing other things and isn't used to people just walking up and introducing themselves.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • During the Hero vs. Villain Exercise, one of the ways Izuku baits Bakugo (see Batman Gambit) is by comparing him to the shooters at the mall in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. It is not until the exercise is over does Izuku realize just how appropriate those claims were.
    Bakugo: I'm not a fucking villain! I'm a goddamn hero! I have the powerful quirk! I have people who know what I'm going to be! This exercise is just a cheap fucking act—!
    Izuku: And nothing about you is[.] Nothing you say is part of an act. I know this isn't from some improv classes Uncle Masaru tried to enroll you in. Every word you say is genuine. Tell me to stay down; to back off; to let you do your shit and stay out of your way; you mean all of it, from whatever it is your heart is. And I've heard it all before; not just from you, but from the guy who shot me in the fucking shoulder. Do you remember that? Me being shot? You yelling at me because I got shot? Because the alternative to not getting shot was letting a goddamn child take the bullet instead? I remember it. I remember the three thugs terrorizing people for shits and giggles. I remember the guy with guns tapped to his hands trying to mow me down. I remember doing everything I fucking could to not let that kid get shot too. Last I checked, protecting people and not blaming the victims of attacks was what heroes did. And would you look at that? The universe puts me in the hero role for a class exercise, and who else deserves to be on the opposing villain team than you?
  • During their match in the Sports Festival, Todoroki compares Izuku to himself in how both of them have people around them trying to tell them what to do and who to be, and how both of them are determined to spite those people. While Izuku acknowledges Todoroki's point about their motivation for heroism being spite, he still denies that they have similarities, because, unlike Todoroki, Izuku is genuinely trying his hardest to win and reach his goals despite having a power he doesn't understand and doesn't work right for him.
• Percussive Therapy: Izuku reveals that his Desperation Attack where he slammed the remains of his bat into the Zero-Pointer's wheels was basically him having a tantrum when he felt he could do nothing meaningful.
• Point of Divergence: Izuku does not become All Might's successor.
• Psychological Projection: Todoroki becomes increasingly angry with Izuku over the course of the Sports Festival when he sees the latter "barely trying" in his matches against Monoma and Tetsutetsu, and refuses to lose against someone who's so arrogant that he doesn't feel the need to use his full power in his fights, saying that he won't be beaten down by Izuku's "disrespectful superiority complex". This is all while Todoroki is still handicapping himself and not using the other half of his Quirk.
• Rage Breaking Point: Having spent his entire life mistreated by people on the basis of his quirklessness, Izuku snaps a few times when it becomes too much for him.
  • In Chapter 8, at first it seems that Bakugo was worried for Izuku's safety when he saw footage of the mall incident. When Izuku realizes that it is actually because he thought that Izuku was "playing hero" and would have made the profession look bad, Izuku gives him a "fuck you", finally realizing that nothing he could ever do would ever get through to him.
  • In the same chapter, when Inko voices her suspicions that his "friends" are forcing him to become a hero to hurt him, Izuku snaps into a rant about how little faith the world seems to have in him,
    Izuku: 'Forcing me to'—What? No! No! No one is forcing me to be a hero! This is all my choice!
    Inko: I-Izuku, you keep getting hurt! What—
    Izuku: It’s not like I asked to be hurt! What, you think I asked Katsuki to bash my head into the ground? You think I asked him to practice his quirk on me all the time? Do you think I asked to be shot?! Why is everything my fault? How is it every bad thing is because of me and anything good is because of literally anything else?!
    Inko: Izuku...
    Izuku: Oh, you weren't born with a quirk? Shame you drew the short straw in life! Guess you don't get anything, but it's not like it's a loss to watch you suffer! Oh, you risk your life to help fucking Katsuki of all people from losing his? Well, let's just praise him for doing absolutely nothing and tell you off for it!
    Inko: I-Izuku!...
    Izuku: Saved a couple people and stopped a few criminals in the act? How about we give all the credit to the quirk you don't have but we'll act like you do so we can’t thank you as a person any?
    Inko: Izuku.
    Izuku: What's that? You took a bullet for a kid? How pathetic, but what were we to expect from someone who can't do anything? Maybe if the bullet had killed you then and there, then maybe something good would have finally come from you!
    Inko: Izuku!
    Izuku: What?!
  • Izuku calls out Todoroki for not using his fire despite the dire situation at the USJ, stating that he is stupid and will kill himself at that rate.
• Rejected Apology: In Chapter 14, All Might finally apologizes to Izuku for crushing his dreams and inadvertently making him feel like he could never amount to anything. Unfortunately by that time, Izuku has spent so long being hurt by people's words and telling himself that All Might's opinion doesn't matter to him anymore that he can't bring himself to accept. All Might promises to prove himself through actions instead of words by being the best teacher to Izuku that he can.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chapter 12 is named "Super Smash Bros. Melee".
  • When she sees that Izuku has gotten a mohawk, Tsunotori compares him to Bazz-B.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Izuku curses frequently. It is still not as bad as Bakugo but helps establish his more delinquent character.
• Super-Strength: Izuku gets progressively stronger as the story goes on. He's strong enough to embed a man in a wall with a swing of his bat and when he stops a fall with it, he stabbed the end at the ground hard enough to crack the brick it hit. By the USJ, he is at least as strong as All Might, being capable of sending the Nomu flying with his bat.
  • Most impressively, he stops the zero-pointer by smashing his bat into its wheels until the ground beneath it gives out. The shockwaves of each hit can be felt by the teachers watching the exam.
  • At the USJ, he hits one of the thugs hard enough to send him through a tree, and one of his swings launches the Nomu straight into the lake, which makes Todoroki suspect that he might be related to All Might.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Izuku gives a very good one to Bakugo during their Battle Training match. Besides being very cathartic for Izuku, it also angers Bakugo to the point he attacks without thinking, so Izuku can trick him, and he and Uraraka win the battle.
• Wrecked Weapon: Izuku's metal bat is absolutely ruined in the entrance exam. In the end, it is broken in half.
• Wrong Assumption:
  • All Might and Vlad King worry that Izuku has made a Deal with All for One for a quirk, but he is really just a case of Charles Atlas Super Power. Downplayed in that they aren't sure, just very worried.
  • All Might gets worried that Izuku has become a delinquent when he sees Izuku's combat outfit and lack of tie with his school uniform. In reality, Izuku couldn't figure out how to tie a tie and his attempts at making a costume were so bad that he just selected everything he liked and it coincidentally came together in a slightly thug-ish package.
• Wrong Context Magic: As of chapter 11, Aizawa and Nezu have determined that due to multiple third-party witnesses, genetic tests, physiological tests, hospital records, and more, they are one hundred percent sure that Izuku does not have a Quirk. They even had Aizawa use his Quirk on Izuku the whole time they were testing him. They still have absolutely no idea how Izuku is able to become superhuman when he gets a hold of a baseball bat since normal people can't knock holes in concrete, stop giant robots, shrug off bullet wounds, or bat a baseball 2.5 kilometers.
  • This is even more pronounced in later chapters once Izuku becomes consciously aware of his insane feats of strength. Despite numerous medical tests, he still doesn't display any signs of a Quirk Factor, Aizawa can't erase his power when he's using it, Monoma can't copy it, and notes that it feels different from any other Quirk that he's tried to copy, and Izuku can't consciously turn it on or off because he doesn't feel any noticeable change whether or not he's using it. The only way to even notice Izuku's power is either when he's using it on his bat, or observing its effects, like his resistance to injuries.

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