Izuku Midoriya was a strange boy, quiet, skilled, half-cut with blood, as all the best Hunters are... and determined to become a hero. A Hunter may be a Hunter, even in a Dream, but what about in a school full of heroes?
The Bloodstained Hero
is a My Hero Academia and Bloodborne Fusion Fic in which Izuku spent his ten months of training in the Hunter's Dream. His months of torturous trials have hardened him into a seasoned hunter, but also hardened his Paragon's heart.
The Bloodstained Hero contains examples of...
- Anti-Hero: Izuku wants to help others, but his time in the Dream have made him quick to cold violence and pragmatism.
- Artificial Limbs: Izuku's left arm was lost against the Moon Presence. He made a replacement called Isshin out of porcelain, siderite, and Hunter's bones.
- Blood Knight: Izuku doesn't actively seek out fights, but his experiences have made him a little too ready to resort to violence.
- Bloody Murder: Izuku can ignite his blood to create explosions.
- Body Horror: During the Sports Festival Kinoko attempts to win their fight by covering Izuku in spores and growing mushrooms inside his throat to force him to surrender so they can be removed before he dies of air loss. When Izuku refuses and keeps fighting, it's revealed that Kinoko does not have the ability to control her mushrooms after they start growing, nor does she have any equipment to stop it either, and she's wholly unprepared for the possibility of anyone calling her bluff. It's only because Izuku is death proof that there wasn't an actual fatality as a result of her trying that strategy, and everyone who saw it happen was some combination of horrified and traumatized by what they saw, including herself.
- Broken Ace: Izuku's experiences in the Dream has made him more than ready for UA, but has left him a little...off.
- Combo Platter Powers: Izuku's quirk seems to be the ability to move himself and objects between his own world and the Hunter's Dream (and by extension Yharnam) on a whim. His exposure to the many horrors and wonders of both worlds, however, has given him a massive arsenal of skills, weapons, items, arcane knowledge, Nerves of Steel, and a slew of other things.
- Creepy Good: Izuku. His time in the Dream has altered him physically, but it is his behavior that puts others off the most, as most lack the ability to perceive his physical abnormalities.
- Death Is Cheap: Having grown desensitized to death and gore from his time in Yharnam and his connection to the Hunter's Dream giving him Resurrective Immortality, he doesn't even blink at the thought of killing people or being outmatched by the murderous Nomu. If anything, he's more upset that his own fellow students had resorted to killing in self-defense out of protective obligation.
- Didn't Think This Through: When Momo tests bladed weapons on Izuku, he informs her after each attack that she hit something vital and would kill anyone without regeneration. Momo gets exasperated and asks where a good spot to stab non-lethally is, then realizes that there isn't one. A human body is full of vital organs and large arteries are in each limb, so getting stabbed anywhere is potentially lethal. Izuku, who hadn't actually thought of that, then admits bladed weapons are only good when your opponent can regenerate, you are skilled enough to intentionally miss vitals, or you want to kill someone.
- Dissonant Serenity: Played for Laughs. Izuku's response to the Killing Intent after Midnight announces that the first place contestant in the Sport's Festival is worth ten million points is to stand there smiling.
- Everybody Has Standards: While Bakugo is still the prick that he always was, it isn't until he sees Izuku cut down villains like wheat with the Burial Blade that it sinks in that something horrible has happened to Izuku and worries that he may be responsible in some way.
- Experienced Protagonist: Izuku is one of, if not the best prospective hero at UA because of his time fighting in the Dream. He is skilled enough to fight Mirio on even footing, having a large amount of experience in fights where he had to dodge fast, powerful attacks and gimmicks.
- Fatal Flaw: Izuku's Blood Knight tendencies and time in Yharnam make him forget he can win by incapacitation.
- Hammerspace: Izuku can summon objects from the Dream into the real world.
- Heroic BSoD: Midnight has one after Izuku apparently dies from Kinoko growing mushrooms inside his body. She's visibly broken after the incident, having a haunted look in her eyes. Thankfully, Izuku's Resurrective Immortality ensures she won't have to face the worst possible outcome, but still...
- Heroic Willpower: Izuku, naturally. It is the reason he survived the Dream and the reason he hasn't gone full Great One yet.
- Humanoid Abomination: Izuku, big time. Beings with even a sliver of Insight can see that his body is...off. Chapter 21 reveals that he has eyes on his brain.
- Invisible Streaker: Here it is confirmed that Hagakure's default hero outfit is just a pair of gloves and shoes. Because Izuku's high Insight allows him to see the unseeable, his first reaction is to give her his coat, not wanting to take advantage of her state of undress and get distracted.
- Kill the Great One: What Izuku did in Yharnam, gaining the title of Usurper.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Izuku and the Doll definitely qualify; aside from their intimate moments of conversation and glances at each other, he's shown multiple times taking comfort in her presence and she's shown doting on him, with it being a Running Joke among the Hunters of Yharnam that they always flirt and act like a married couple whenever people see them together. Izuku asks for the Doll's help shaving when his arm is lost, and she deliberately leaves him with some stubble afterwards without his noticing, which
Word of God confirms was because she liked the look on him better than Izuku being clean-shaven. He decides to win the Sports Festival simply because she asked him to try his best. - Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- Everyone has this reaction when Izuku kills three villains right off the bat during the USJ Incident.
- Multiple spectators have this reaction when, during the Sports Festival, Kinoko tries to beat Izuku by growing mushrooms inside of his throat, which could easily kill him. Things only get worse when Izuku does actually end up dying, sending him back to the Hunter's Dream.
- Mundane Utility: Izuku offers to be Momo's opponent when using weapons to defend herself (having accidentally killed a villain in self-defense at the USJ), his blood vials' healing properties and Resurrective Immortality making him the perfect crash-test dummy for such situations.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Midnight has this reaction when her hesitation to call the first match during the Sport's Festival results in Izuku apparently dying. The poor woman practically has a nervous breakdown, with Nezu having to take up her role as referee for the remainder of the festival. And she actually got off easy, because she doesn't know that Izuku really did die, having relied on his Resurrective Immortality to avoid truly dying.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- The normally upbeat and innuendo-making Midnight is visibly broken when it looks like Izuku was killed by Kinoko's quirk.
- When Aizawa is asking Midnight about the fight between Izuku and Kinoko, he's much gentler than normal, implicitly because he's also broken to some degree by what he just witnessed.
- Resurrective Immortality: When Izuku dies in the real world, he wakes up in the Dream, and can simply reenter the waking world. The true specifics are not known, but the original body is still there when he resurrects.
- Self-Harm–Induced Superpower: Izuku often needs to make himself bleed for his powers to activate. Vlad King, whose quirk allows him to control his own blood, states that self-harm tools such as bloodletting knives are very common for people with blood-related quirks, and he himself relied on them when he was younger.
- Set Swords to "Stun": Deconstructed. Izuku points out that bladed weapons are designed to kill. Non-lethal use is only possible when you are skilled enough to avoid all vitals, or your opponent can regenerate. Momo spends a long sparring session stabbing Izuku in various spots, only to hit an organ or artery each time.
- Super-Reflexes: Izuku's reaction time is literally superhuman. He can fend off attacks coming from every direction and he can keep up with Mirio, who is the strongest, fastest, and most skilled UA student.
- Super-Senses: Izuku can perceive attacks coming from every direction. This is because he has eyes on his brain's surface.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: In the aftermath of the first match of the Sports Festival, where Izuku apparently dies from having Kinoko grow mushrooms inside his throat, Midnight is mentioned as having this. She feels responsible for not calling the match sooner.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Izuku's journals about Yharnam are this, according to Word of God. He explicitly refuses to take them out of the Dream for that very reason.
- Tragic Keepsake: Word of God is that Izuku's top hat was originally Gehrman's.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Many people are put off by Izuku's blasé attitude towards violence and his tendency to shrug off being killed.
- True Sight: Izuku's high Insight seems to grant him limited perception of usually hidden or invisible objects in the Waking World. Such as Hagakure.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Monoma definitely qualifies. When he loses control after copying Tokoyami's powers during the Sports Festival, Izuku immediately puts thoughts of winning on hold, calls a truce with Shoto and Bakugo, and leads the effort to save Monoma from the rampaging shadow monster. Monoma immediately tries to copy Izuku's power, seconds after Izuku pulls him out of harm's way. Izuku knocks him out for his efforts.
- We ARE Struggling Together: How most Hunters in the Dream treat each other, usually over ideological differences if bloodlust hasn't set-in yet, according to Izuku.
- Wham Shot: During the story's version of the USJ incident Izuku kills several of the attacking villains with little effort in the first few minutes. No one saw it coming.
- Willfully Weak: During the Heroes Vs. Villains Exercise, Izuku is voted to be the test's MVP for his impressive fighting skills and strategies winning the match. Izuku declines, pointing out that he was holding back and that if he were to hold back in a real life situation, it would be both dangerous and unprofessional. It is not until the USJ attack does everyone – to their horror – realize exactly what he was talking about.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: While Murder Is the Best Solution is Izuku's default goal in a crisis, he feels ashamed when two of the villain deaths were killed by his classmates in self-defense. Not because of anything like pride or hypocrisy, but because he knows how big of a deal one's first kill is and that because his classmates had to resort to lethal means – even by accident – means that he failed to protect them.
- Women Are Wiser: Downplayed. Izuku is not really a fool by any capacity, but the Doll acts as a guiding voice of reason, telling Izuku to properly rest and get his affairs in the waking world in order.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: Izuku's missing arm is completely unaffected by his Healing Factor or even his Resurrective Immortality, considering all that he can recover from. The problem seems to be less the loss of his arm and damage to the stump, but rather the fact that he received the wound from the Moon Presence while inside the Hunter's Dream.
