My Iron Giant
-Sound of Silence-
"So, how did this happen again?" All Might asked Ochaco in his deflated form as they stood outside the school building. With them was Snipe, Thirteen, Nezu, and Vlad King. All were examining Izuku's new form, while still large it was significantly smaller than before.
Vlad King answered for Ochaco. "One of the students has a quirk that can alter the size of things she touches. She tried using her quirk on Midoriya but nothing happened. Soon after he shrunk down to this size."
Thirteen hummed. "Does this mean he can alter his size now?"
Snipe shrugged. "Don't know, but I'm wonderin' why he looks so different now."
"I think it's from one of the shows we watched. He looks a lot like the mecha from it, just different colors." Ochaco said trying to be helpful.
"But why stop there?" Nezu asked thought provokingly.
The rest of them seemed confused, Nezu was obviously hinting at something but wasn't telling them everything. All Might decided he needed some answers sooner. "We should get young Togata here to question Nana about what she saw, then we can decide on what to do."
"And while we're waitin' for him." Snipe said turning to Ochaco. She felt the teacher's eyes and gulped about what he was referring to.
"Come on! It's the first day!" Ochaco complained. She wanted to actually get to know more classmates and not spend her hours slaving away at physical exhaustion.
"You're right, first day of shootin' a gun." Snipe smirked under his mask. Ochaco's reluctance switched to immediate joy as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Really?!" She beamed at the man.
All Might coughed in his hand. "Yes, really? She's only been training hand to hand with you for a week and-"
Snipe cut him off with a cold tone. "And I'm the one training her, not you. If I say she's ready she's ready."
Both men spent an agonizing time staring down at one another, until finally Snipe walked away with Ochaco following. She looked between the two, uncertain as to why there was such an intense atmosphere between them.
Mirio was hoping to be able to spend a nice relaxing day with his peers, until Nezu had called him up about a new development with Midoriya. Sighing, he slipped through his clothes and went straight to where Midoriya would be. He had gotten into the habit of wearing his hero costume under his clothes due to how often he had needed to wear it.
When he arrived near the training grounds, he was surprised to see the new look Midoriya had gotten. Off to the side he could see Snipe with a table full of different guns on it showing them to Ochaco. He gave them both a short wave and they waved back. Returning his attention to Midoriya the head was where he always was, maybe they were still there? Hopefully there was enough room to stand inside. Walking into the boy's foot he repeatedly went intangible to tangible to seemingly fly to the head. When he got there it was much smaller, but still had enough room to walk around in.
Nana turned to face him at the teen's arrival. "You're early, but then again I shouldn't be shocked."
With a wave of her hand a recliner folded itself from out of the wall. Mirio gave a simple thanks and sat down into it. Oh yeah, always worth the trouble if he got to rest in the best quality seats known to man. Well, not like anyone else could understand. Nana didn't have a body, Midoriya was upright suspended by metal arms, and no one else was able to get inside.
"In short, a student had a size altering quirk and asked to try and shrink Midoriya. It didn't work at first, but when she stepped away that's when you changed. Your guys' robo bod looks like a mech from some olden day show." Mirio summarized for them sinking further into heavenly clouds of synthetic cushioning.
Nana waved up a small 3d image of the new body. "Yeah, don't know why we changed to that. You think it's from those movie nights on the roof that he saw?"
Mirio shrugged lazily, he wasn't wanting to disturb the perfect position he was in. "That's the current guess, but who really knows? Anyways what's your side of it?"
"Well, we heard Ochaco say she wished we could shrink down, and then all the walls started closing in really fast. I stopped it before our lovely head of green could potentially get squashed." She pointed her thumb in Izuku's direction.
It always distrubed Mirio seeing Izuku like this. No emotion, just ignoring everything around him as if he wasn't alive. The only sign he was alive was from his eyes moving to somewhere occasionally. Even when he stood in front of him to block his view of the screen it did nothing.
"You don't think it would squish him, do you?" Mirio asked looking to Nana. She had a weird expression he couldn't read.
"Maybe maybe not, we shouldn't risk it until we get more information. Until then let's not try to change his size."
"Wait what?" Sitting up to actually see her, Nana was not looking at him at all. "But this is what we've been trying to work towards! Getting Izuku smaller or finding a way to change him back so he isn't stuck living in UA."
"I get that, but you weren't here. All the walls shifting, getting less and less room to move, the air suffocating you." She folded her arms, her voice getting more and more quiet.
But Mirio noticed something. "Wait, is there a limited amount of air in here?"
Nana shook her head. "No, I've checked, Izuku doesn't even need to breathe with the cables in him. We had him hold his breath and I watched his chest."
"Then...how did you know the air was suffocating if neither of you need to breathe?"
Nana went wide eyed at that and looked back to Mirio.
"Nana, are you claustrophobic?"
She quickly turned her back to him. "You should leave."
Mirio got up from his chair and tried to approach the ghostly woman. "Hey, I'm not judging you if you are. But we need to find a way to help Midoriya to change him ba-"
"I SAID LEAVE!" She swung her arm in a wide arc. Arcs of energy started flooding the room approaching Mirio. The only real warning he got was the hairs on his neck standing up from the static. Making himself Intangible besides his feet, he made his first mistake. The lightning buzzed into his feet making him have to phase out of the robot to escape pain.
Falling through the void he emerged back onto the grass panting, All Might and Nezu next to him. Both became panicked seeing him like this.
"Young Togata, are you alright?!" All Might asked helping the boy up.
"Y-yeah, just a little frazzled is all." He tried remaining cheerful, but neither adults bought it.
"Tell us everything." Nezu demanded. Mirio somehow felt like he was betraying Nana's trust, but he knew it had to be for the better anyways. So he let them know everything down to the last detail he could recall. It disturbed them just how Nana reacted, and the fact that she could kick Mirio out.
"I don't get it, this doesn't sound like how she would act at all. She never even had claustrophobia." All Might said.
"She seemed off from the last time, maybe the shrinking really spooked her." Mirio then tried to reach his arm into the robot, seeing if he could still get inside. When he let his finger become tangible a quick shock gave him his answer. He wasn't welcome anymore.
"We may be forgetting that it has been decades since she walked the earth, so it's not too hard to believe she changed." Nezu said before looking back to All Might.
"How exactly did she die?" He asked suddenly. Mirio winced at the sudden question, but he knew better than to argue with someone much smarter if they wanted answers.
"I hardly think that's an appropria-"
"Your successor is being held hostage by a dead woman. If she is to release him we need answers." He said again, making All Might question everything about what was happening and what he knew. He nodded his head, regretful of his choice.
"We found her body..under tons of destroyed buildings..They say the cause of death was her choking on the blood that filled her lungs." All Might clenched his fist, new anger rising remembering the man that did that to her.
Nezu nodded slowly. "Then, that means the last moments she spent alive were when she was trapped in a tightly enclosed space with no one around."
Mirio felt his heart drop, realizing what Nana went through when Midoriya started shrinking. It must have been terrifying to be in a similar circumstance as how you died. Asking her to do that, just let everything around you become harder and harder to move in, he couldn't do that with a clear conscience. But, how were they supposed to help Midoriya now?
Ochaco was bounding her way back by her toes, exhausted from the training Snipe had in mind for shooting a gun. Apparently that training involved another obstacle course with a super heavy revolver that shot rubber bullets. Not only was the gun hard to aim, it made it harder how she couldn't use her quirk, ran while shooting at moving targets, and had to handle the massive recoil.
She felt like it would launch her back if she didn't brace herself, but if she wasn't moving her feet Snipe shot at her. Now her hands and forearms were stiff and slow to respond from how she exerted them. Because of how tired she was she just used her quirk on her body, kept five pound weights on her ankles, and barely moved her feet to float back to the dorms.
If she wasn't so tired she would bounce around like an astronaut for fun, but she wanted to never move again. At the doors waiting for her was Ida, the good friend he was standing there with a plate of light food and oranges in one arm. She waved lazily as he held the door open for her.
"Thank you so much Ida, I really appreciate it."
"It's no problem at all. We should all be striving to work as hard as you have to be better heroes." He didn't chop his arm this time, seeing as how one had food and the other was busy holding the door open for Ochaco.
As she gently floated in Setsuna sent a hand over to try and swipe an orange from Ida. Ida tried protecting the food but the girl fought back with equal energy.
"This food is not for you! Uraraka has worked hard and needs the nutrients to refuel her body!" He kicked an arm that tried sneaking up from behind.
"Come on! I just want one!"
"You always say that and just keep going for more!"
"Yeah! Because by the time I eat one, I want one more." She laughed with her head spinning in the air, dive bombing for the plate.
As Ochaco laughed at her friend's antics Manga approached with a few other new faces. "Hey Uraraka, I told some of the others that stuck around that we watched movies with Midoriya. Is that alright? I was thinking we could try Alita this time."
As she scanned the faces she recalled each one she saw earlier at the quirk assessment. The guy with no lips, a girl with silver hair over half her face, someone with a braided ponytail (She was having a hard time telling if it was a guy or girl), the dude with a headband, and lastly Pony and Kodai.
"Sure, just let me get showered and changed. I'm still pretty sweaty." She said earning some cheers from the others.
"Now wait just a second." Ida said stomping forth, multiple wiggling limbs shoved in his pockets and under his arms. "We shouldn't force Uraraka to spend her valuable time to frequently indulge in watching entertaining films. She's worked very hard and deserves to rest in a comfortable setting."
Setsuna Tokage's head came around and looked at Manga with a confused expression. "Dude, she can relax AND watch some flicks at the same time."
Manga nodded. "Yeah, what gives? You have always been welcomed to join us."
Ochaco opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Ida. "When she watches those films above it's a duty to serve Midoriya. I hardly imagine watching movies every night is hardly fun after the first two."
Manga, if he had a face, would have looked very uncomfortable by his habits being called out. Ochaco put a hand on Ida's shoulder to get him to look at her.
"It's alright Ida, I have fun spending time with my friends."
"But Uraraka, surely there are other things you like to do?"
She nodded. "Yeah, but none of them are as fun alone. Besides, it's always worth it if Midoriya likes it. He doesn't have anything else to do to entertain himself."
As she walked (bounced) away the others started to talk about making snacks. Only Setsuna stayed behind to get her arms and legs back. When she was pieced together again she didn't have her normal smile on. "Hey, why are you doing this?"
Ida became confused. "Doing what?"
"Trying to keep Uraraka away from Midoriya? It's not like either of them have a choice, but whenever she wants to spend time with him you get all butt hurt."
He chopped the air in defiance. "I assure you my rear is-"
Setsuna scowled. "That's not what I meant and you know it."
Once Ida was quiet she continued. "You don't like her going to the roof instead of staying inside. You don't like it when she tries to figure out new things Midoriya can do. Hell, whenever Midoriya comes up in conversation you try to get us to focus on something else!"
Ida became angrier the longer Setsuna went on, tightly clenching his fist. "She shouldn't have to revolve her life around him like a servant. So far he's only taken up her time and been an obstacle for her progress."
Setsuna slapped him harshly. "HE'S A SLAVE TO HER! She's doing all this to make up for the fact that Midoriya is unable to do anything unless it's to protect her, or do what she says. He can't even say no! It sounds to me like you wished she spent her life revolved around you!"
"I would never ask her to-!"
"Oh but you have, every day! No, every meal you either cook for her or cook with her! And when it's not that you're trying to talk her into something else to do with you."
Seeing no immediate response from Ida she stomped off to the elevator. Once she got there she swiveled around to look at him one last time. "In case you've forgotten, Midoriya can't choose who to spend his time with, but she can. Get over yourself if it isn't you all the damn time."
The elevator closed, leaving Ida standing alone to think about her words.
*crunch*
Ida looked over to see some of the students sitting on the couch with a bag of chips looking at him. Monoma was wanting to say something, but he felt it more rewarding to simply watch. Kendo was doing her best to make it look like she never heard them by watching the not turned on tv. Shiozaki just shook her head, disappointed at what she saw.
Near the hallway, Komori had seen and heard everything. She wasn't too sure how to help, but she knew one thing. Ida didn't like Midoriya for his existence, and that made her mad for her metal friend.
Tetsutetsu decided to break the silence. "So, anyone want to play smash?"
Izuku's eyes blinked as he "woke up". He figured that technically he was never asleep, his mind simply occupied another body and could only think about so little while the rest operated the complicated machinery. Now, he was confused. The room was much more different, it was smaller, and he couldn't see anyone else with him.
"Nana?"
"Behind you kid."
He tried to turn around to see her, but could only catch a glimpse of her holographic frame laying down on a couch with a holoscreen in her hand.
"What happened?"
She didn't move into his sight, just responded in a bored tone. "Some girl used a shrinking quirk on you, made everything smaller except for us. Wanna see what your new body looks like?"
Before he could respond a model of a robot appeared in front of him. He eyed each piece, examining every detail on the new change. His smile grew wider seeing the height on it. "Wow! We're a lot smaller now! We're even smaller than Mt Lady's full size! I bet if roads weren't bad we could even walk around the street without crushing anything. This is great!"
He tried to look back to see Nana's reaction, but she didn't seem to move or care. "What did they say outside? Are they going to try and shrink us more?"
"Nah." Nana waved her hand. "They're going to wait and see if it's permanent or if there's unintended damage."
Izuku looked back to the model. Spending so many hours in here he started to learn more and more about what the numbers mean. It took lots of effort to change things in the room without accidentally waking up the robot body. He could command different holograms and data to appear though. Doing a quick diagnosis everything reported 100% functionality.
"It says we're fine, so no worries about the shrinking hurting us. Will Togata senpai come around to talk with us?"
"He already did."
"Oh.." Izuku was hoping to see his senior. He was such a fun guy and easily noticed if Izuku was uncomfortable with anything. But, he couldn't expect him to always be around. He decided to spend his time analyzing the new barrels located on the arms.
"Hey Nana? Did you check to see if there were any new weapons or features the robot added when we changed? It looks like-"
"Kid, I like you but not now."
That hurt Izuku a lot more than he thought it did. Nana sounded like his Mom whenever he tried talking to her whenever she worked two all nighters. Or when he tried asking about his Dad.
"Sorry...I won't be a bother anymore." Izuku remained quiet, doing his best not to make Nana any more frustrated with him. She probably got annoyed with him after so long being stuck with him. No one really liked hanging out with him, he stuttered a lot, got too excited over heroes and quirks, or just remained quiet and let others talked. Nana was just the first one in a long time to let him talk, let him be himself.
Even All Might criticized him when he muttered, or asked too many questions. He only seemed to be happy around him when he asked questions on how he could do better. Maybe that's why Togata stopped coming, he must have gotten tired of swinging by and playing along with his questions.
He didn't want to bother anyone with his voice again.
[Command Recognized and Confirmed]
[Shutting down all audio output]
Something changed, something happened. But what? He could feel something in his throat but it didn't hurt. He looked back to Nana, he really didn't want to bother her, but he still felt like she should know about this.
'Nana?'
What? He talked, but he didn't hear anything. He knew he tried saying something. Maybe he was just really quiet.
'Nana?'
No, he couldn't hear his voice. Could he even hear? The humming around him didn't stop, and he could hear his breathing. What's happening?!
'Nana? Nana?! NANA!'
Izuku was beginning to panic, this was bad. What if this is what they were talking about?! Oh no he messed up, he messed up bad!
Izuku's breathing became faster and faster, making Nana actually look over to him.
"Kid? Everything ok?"
He moved his head around, moving his lips but still just breathing. It was starting to freak her out. "Kid, tell me what's wrong. What's up?"
He didn't say anything, but he was clearly panicking about something. Nana floated up from her couch and hovered over to be in front of Izuku. "Tell me what's wrong."
Izuku's lips kept moving, little puffs of air coming from his mouth. But no sound.
"Izuku, what happened can you tell me?"
He shook his head.
"You can't tell me or you don't want to?"
He moved his lips again, but then seemed to panic even more. Nana placed her non physical hands against his head and tried to get him to calm down. "Izuku, I can't hear you but I can read your lips IF you talk slowly. Ok?"
Izuku nodded, somewhat calmed down but still panicking. He tried to talk but much slower this time letting Nana say what she saw aloud.
"I..can..hear...everything..but..my..voice..I...think..I'm..mute...now.."
Nana began to think, what the hell does that mean? Nothing should have done this! She was making all the possible errors about shrinking up. What changed? Why can't he talk?
She looked closer at his face. The thought came across her mind that he could have done this as a joke or for attention when she ignored him. But he looked really scared. The only way to modify any part of him so far is if he was instructed. But Ochaco was asleep, so what gives?
She willed a scan over Izuku to see if there was something wrong. Nothing, nothing wrong, so why can't he talk? She looked over the report again and again, fueling more scans with her desire...her desire..
They used desire to command anything in the robot. She didn't want Izuku to shut up..wait, she did. Oh fuck this is not what she meant! Using all her willpower she tried to let Izuku speak again, but his voice didn't come back. He just stayed there, lips moving, little huffs of air to make what should have been noise. But nothing.
She backed away slightly, horrified about what she might have just done. "Izuku, I'm so sorry, I didn't want you to be mute!"
Nana tried to give him a hug, to apologize, to comfort him, but she was an unfeeling hologram, a ghost of herself. 'I'm so sorry Izuku.'
All Might, aka Toshinori Yagi, sat on a bench of the dorm rooftop. When he arrived he knew he couldn't walk in due to doors being closed, so instead he jumped up with some strength to see young Midoirya. The giant's eyes opened once he arrived and watched him, just in case he did anything to prove a threat.
All Might just sagged his shoulders. He felt like he was failing as a mentor. True, he had trained Midoriya physically, but all he really did was give him a workout plan and his quirk. He hardly taught the boy anything to help him be a hero, and now that he realized that he had almost no way to help him.
When he discovered his mentor was alive and with Midoriya, he was shocked, confused, but mostly happy. She was alive in a weird way, and giving Midoriya company. Things seemed to be going well, until they messed up. Now Togata couldn't get in, and they dared not to have young Kodai use her quirk when it's what caused Nana to shut them out from the world.
He was All Might, the symbol of peace, the man who saved people with a smile on his face. But he couldn't bring himself to smile now.
"Nana? Can you hear me in there?" He asked aloud, but internally he knew the reports. They only really heard what Uraraka said, but he was often known to ignore reason.
"I hoped one day we'd get to have young Midoriya turned back, and somehow I could speak to you again, but it hardly seems possible now."
He felt his side, where he got his injury battling the man who killed so many. Including Nana. "I wanted to say to you, for so long, I'm sorry. I failed to live up to your expectations, I failed young Midoirya in helping him inherit One for All, and I failed to save you."
His eyes started to water slightly, his voice cracking with each new word. "I think about it everyday, every time I breathe with half my diaphragm, how I couldn't help you. Now you've done much more from beyond the grave to help young Midoriya than I have while I'm alive."
Toshinori looked up into the soft green eyes. "I don't know how you do it, but you are probably the only one now that can help young Midoirya. He has a life, a future, and friends in this school who are ready for him when he comes out of his shell. So please, help him, because I don't know how I can."
He casted his eyes back to the earth, trying to not accidentally cough out a lung from his shaky breath. But interrupting him he noticed the giant's eyes moved somewhere else.
*click*
'Someone's here!' He thought inflating himself, quickly he jumped to hide behind Midoriya's head, hopefully to see whoever had broken curfew in the school.
Was it an intruder? A daring reporter hoping to get an exclusive photo? Or was it a villain?! Staying in his muscled form he prepared to deal with whatever ill purpose this person had.
"Hello Midoriya! I came up with a new mushroom with my quirk to celebrate your progress today!" It was a girl, one of Midoriya's classmates.
Trying to remember the faces he recalled it was the girl with the mushroom quirk. At least that's what the file said. What is she doing up here?
"Look, I managed to give it a shiny surface with little glowing dots on it! I tried to make it shaped like your face but natural shapes are really hard to modify over texture and color."
He watched as the girl went to the garden section of the rooftop and planted the mushroom next to some others.
"I was really nervous today, everyone had so many amazing quirks to help them. But! I think I did pretty good. You saw me use the super elastic ones to do jumps and dashes, but I need to find ones that can help with lifting or restraining."
Was she, making friends with Midoriya? At this time of night? Well, nothing seems to be wrong here. It was nice seeing this girl, who never knew Midoirya, spend her time keeping him company. If there's ever a time when they can help Midoriya, he promises to give him the attention the boy deserves, and needs.
*SNOOOOORE*
He froze, that certainly couldn't have come from young Urarka in her room could it? Taking a peak at the source of the noise, there was someone laying on Midoriya's shoulder!
"Mhm.." The girl stirred in her sleep, surrounded by tools that were tied to her. "..mmm...yes, just another inch deeper.."
What was this girl dreaming about?! Wait, what was she doing up here?!
"nn..Such beautiful metal..strip you down...so many plans.." *snooore*
Taking a risk, he leaned over to see what this girl was trying to do. Next to her head were various power drills, each drillbit destroyed and a sharpied X on the side of Midoriya's head.
This girl wasn't trying to take apart Midoriya's body was she? Either way, he needs to bring this girl down before she accidentally rolls off the giant in her sleep.
Next Chapter, Battle Training.
Some have reached out to potentially draw covers for this fic, if you thought about it or unsure please feel free to PM me still!
Any suggestions, ideas, comments are extremely appreciated. Thanks for the support.
adisIt:
No, not a separate dimension. The room is inside the head physically, when the giant shrunk down the room shrunk to fit inside the smaller head. If it was a separate dimension I doubt Mirio could have entered it.
RSmallz:
Thanks! Will do.
Zabkiel:
Yeah, Midoirya still needs to get smaller but right now it's much easier for everyone else. I tried loading the links but they weren't working, try PMing them to me and maybe that will work. I don't mind if you imagine him as looking slightly different though.
Hurtturnip:
I said he would learn, I didn't say he'd learn what's right.
Iron-slayer-dragon:
Thanks! And here is more.
Saramus92:
I'm glad you liked it. Part of the reason why he hasn't changed size is so I can keep him in this style for a little longer. I do plan on using that new artwork you drew though! It's great! If you want you can continue to draw new Mechadoriyas and I'll write them in. The next design I have in mind is based off "Nu Gundam ver Ka" It was recommended from early on in the story and I like the design.
Muhammad Ibrahim Faisal:
Well, uh, it just got a lot harder let's put it at that.
Vilkath:
This fic is definitely a new style and one I haven't seen. Later on he'll learn how to shrink down but most of the story focuses on big battles. He'll get a chance to be human sized and do some good.
Dark Raven 19:
Maybe later on I can throw it in, but for now Izuku is stuck..again.
DocMcDuck:
No, no hero name planned yet, but that is a great suggestion that has come across my mind as well.