History Fanfic / WithConfidence

* CollectorOfTheStrange: Izuku winds up getting an incredibly ugly, cursed-looking All Might knockoff figurine. He got it autographed. Toshinori loves the thing and wants one himself, since the only All Might merch he collects are the ugliest, cheapest knockoffs he can find.

* CharacterCatchphrase}}: Because of Izuku's memetic status in the aftermath of the Sludge Villain incident, he is forever linked InUniverse to the phrase "Break it down for me". Izuku using it against Iida is how many UA Entrance Exam participants recognized him.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Because of Izuku's memetic status in the aftermath of the Sludge Villain incident, he is forever linked InUniverse to the phrase "Break it down for me". Izuku using it against Iida is how many UA Entrance Exam participants recognized him.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787300/chapters/68025400 With Confidence]]'' is a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' PointOfDivergence fic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessTears/pseuds/TimelessTears TimelessTears]]. The premise is that at the beginning of the show, Midoriya Izuku is hit by a quirk that, for one day, swaps out his anxiety and empathy for untold levels of confidence. When he comes down from the resulting boost the next day with the realization that he just forced his homeroom into fearful submission, successfully blackmailed his middle school's faculty, and told off a pro hero on live television for failing at his job, he realizes a few things: he could be far more ruthless and blunt than he ever thought possible; the horror of his own behavior is mitigated by a not insignificant level of satisfaction; and, if his mom's oddly feral approval and the praise of his childhood hero is of any indication, working to one day truly become as self-confident as he was under that quirk's influence can only be a good thing.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787300/chapters/68025400 With Confidence]]'' is a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' PointOfDivergence fic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessTears/pseuds/TimelessTears TimelessTears]]. The premise is that Midoriya Izuku is hit by a quirk that gives him the confidence to tear into his bullies, their enablers and anyone else trying to break him down.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787300/chapters/68025400 With Confidence]]'' is a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' ForWantOfANail fic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimelessTears/pseuds/TimelessTears TimelessTears]]. The premise is that Midoriya Izuku is hit by a quirk that gives him the confidence to tear into his bullies, their enablers and anyone else trying to break him down.

* ForWantOfANail: The premise of this fic is that Midoriya Izuku randomly encounters a man whose Quirk accidentally boosts his confidence, encouraging him to stand up to his bullies and tear them down instead. Things progress rapidly from there.
** Death Arms managed to escape criticism for his inaction during the Sludge Villain incident in canon. Here, Izuku criticizes him when Death Arms tries to lecture him, causing bystanders and news crews to begin recording Death Arms making an utter ass of himself and causing his reputation to plummet as he is mocked and criticised by online commentators and other heroes.
** After seeing their son nearly murdered on live TV and learning about his relationship with Izuku, Mitsuki and Masaru take a more active role in Katsuki's life and make him attend therapy.
** While training Izuku, All Might realises he isn't that good of a teacher. [[spoiler:After discussing it with Nedzu, they change his planned position at UA from teacher to teaching assistant. With that change, there's also no longer any reason to inform the rest of the staff about All Might's condition and they are told that the new staff member is just Toshinori Yagi]].

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Bakugou Masaru is normally very quiet and passive, but he is ''not'' happy when he hears about his son's bullying. When his son tries to protest, he finally barks at him to shut up and slaps the table for emphasis, causing his own chemical sweat to leave burns in the wood.

*** This in itself leads to a situation that was in canon- All Might being a teacher. All Might realizes this trope is in effect, that he didn't think through all the little details regarding teaching people, and talks with Nezu about it. [[spoiler: Instead of being a Heroics Teacher, he's a teacher's aid- able to provide help and expertise, but not out-and-out responsible for the class.]]

* DontYouDarePityMe: Inko almost slipped into this after [[spoiler:her brother committed suicide]]. Luckily one of the first people to speak to her was her principal, who knew exactly what she was going through, and asked her not to get too upset with people who mean well but say the wrong thing.

** [[spoiler:Inko]]'s parents were also emotionally abusive. They blatantly favored [[spoiler:Inko]] over her younger brother and whenever they do acknowledge him, it's to criticize him for not being like his sister. They also never bothered to check if he was being bullied at school or not. When he eventually commits suicide to escape his misery, [[spoiler:Inko]]'s parents treat his death as if he was just a guest. Their actions angers [[spoiler:Inko]] so much that she [[CallingTheOldManOut yells at them]], and her relationship with her parents is incredibly strained afterward.

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: All Might's relationship with the UA staff besides Nedzu is changed from canon in that [[spoiler:none of them know about his deteriorating condition]]. As far as they know, All Might's [[spoiler:personal assistant, Toshinori Yagi, is just switching careers to be a teaching assistant at UA]].

** The staff at Izuku's middle school are worse than useless due to their casual reinforcement of the FantasticRacism towards Quirkless people displayed by his peers. They are only willing to act when Izuku makes clear that he knows just how ''illegal'' their actions are and that he can prove they effectively signed off on his abuse.
** Death Arms did absolutely nothing during the Sludge Villain incident. The other heroes were at least helping out in someway but Death Arms just stood by. When he's called out for it by Izuku and makes himself look even worse, his reputation takes a bad hit.
** Inko was well aware that her son was being bullied, but felt as though her hands were tied -- especially since Izuku refused to tell her about what was going on, and the school actively stonewalled her whenever she tried to get answers.

* BrilliantButLazy: Hisashi was the top scoring student in high school despite frequently ditching class, and ''that's'' when he wasn't ''sleeping in class''.

* CharacterWitness: Working at a soup kitchen, Izuku comes across a homeless man who he helps by getting him food and passing word from the other visitors of the soup kitchen on where to avoid getting mugged or jumped by drug dealers. Aizawa, pretending to be homeless to bust said drug dealers, is quite grateful for the kid's help and kindness as it allows him to complete his mission where otherwise he wouldn't have succeeded at all.

** Inko [[spoiler:had a younger brother who committed suicide when he was ten because of the bullying he received, and to make matters worse, their parents showed blatant favouritism to her and never really helped him]]. As a result, she abandons her family name at the first chance she gets and [[spoiler:becomes the BullyHunter that Mitsuki knew her as]].

** One of Izuku's classmates, Hada Shiro, is a double example. On the one hand, Hada ''really'' should not have been posting incredibly quirkist posts online, particularly if he wanted to be a hero, and shouldn't have been surprised about [[spoiler:Izuku gathering the information and sharing it with potential Hero schools]]. On the other, the way Izuku handled it [[spoiler: basically destroyed any chance of the kid getting into normal high schools]]. Nedzu has to pull some strings to get the kid into a high school that specializes in cases like his, so that Hada won't be forced into villainy thanks to [[spoiler: a non-existant school future]].

* DontTellMama: Izuku tells Bakugou if he committed suicide like Bakugou wants him to, he would tell Bakugou's mother ''everything'' he did to him and that Bakugou pressured him into taking his own life. The thought of his mother's reaction horrifies Bakugou.

** It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Izuku's mother, Midoriya Inko]] was similarly feared in her youth for being a BullyHunter who bore a no-nonsense attitude towards bullies, and would go after those who tormented other students the moment she heard of it. Among the students she helped was [[spoiler:Bakugo's mother, Mitsuki]]. The reason [[spoiler:Inko]] became that way is because [[spoiler:her younger brother was constantly bullied at school for having a dangerous Quirk and his parents wilingly turned a blind eye to it, leading to his early suicide]], and she felt she had to make up for it or else [[spoiler:she could never face her brother again]].

* ExtremeDoormat: Inko used to be this in highschool. While she was well-liked by her family, peers and teachers, they also tended to pile up too much responsibility on her and she was too afraid of troubling people to say no. [[spoiler: She grows out of this after her brother's suicide, [[GrewASpine growing a spine]] and becoming a BullyHunter.]]

* FantasticRacism:

** Izuku's classmates all agree that to be a successful hero, they must have a strong quirk, an interesting personality, and be good-looking, and/or have a unique costume. Izuku then turns this around on them by pointing out none of them meet the criteria ''they'' say they need to be a successful hero. For example, the kid who wants to be a hero but whose quirk is "I can pop my eyeballs out."

* HumbleParentSpoiledKids: Katsuki is TheBully while his parents Mitsuki and Masaru are a lot nicer. However, because Katsuki's teachers were covering for him, they didn't know what Katsuki has become until the day of the Sludge Villain incident. Once they do, they are not happy with their son and take measures to subvert the trope.

* {{Irony}}: Aizawa spends months undercover as a surly homeless drunk as part of an investigation. Several of the people who frequent the soup kitchen Izuku works at mention how antisocial and irritable the man is. Yet the information Aizawa needs to crack the case ultimately comes from those same people who he refused to interact with, passed on by Izuku. He likely would have caught the drug dealers he was after much sooner if he'd been willing to simply talk to others.
* JerkassRealization: Invoked. [[spoiler:His therapist and Inko force Katsuki to admit he is a horrible person for everything he did to Izuku, but Inko isn't going to leave it at that. She double downs on it and makes Katsuki research Quirkless statistics from the discrimination they face and volunteer at a Quirkless charity]].

** [[spoiler:Inko]]'s parents constantly treated their younger son like a disappointment while [[ParentalFavoritism favoring their more successful daughter]], and ignored his bullying problems at school. When their son commits suicide at a young age, they treat his death as if he's just a departing guest. [[spoiler:Inko]] is furious with their apathy and [[CallingTheOldManout yells at them]] for it, with their relationship being incredibly strained afterward.

* LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman: Aizawa likes Yagi while disliking All Might. Since Aizawa doesn't know they are the same person, Yagi had to calm him down from going to confront All Might for the perceived mistreatment of Yagi. It should be noted though, that Aizawa was ''looking'' for things to dislike about All Might.
* MamaBear: When calling Inko to tell her that Katsuki has been bullying Izuku for years, Mitsuki starts the conversation with asking Inko not to murder Katsuki for it. A later conversation has both Inko and Mitsuki agreeing that if she was still fifteen, she'd "have kicked Katsuki's ass" for what he did.

** Played for laughs when the quirk's effect wears off of Izuku and he starts freaking out over everything he said and did while under the effects of the confidence boost.

* OnlyTheKnowledgableMayPass: The Forum is an app for quirkless people which one can only join by answering a series of questions from the admin. Said questions are specifically things that only quirkless people would know.

* PowerMisidentification: Several Quirkless people fake having Quirks, through the use of support items, sleight of hand, etc, to avoid the discrimination they face.

* ScarsAreForever: After Masaru deliberately pressed his son's TraumaButton to prove a point, he's had a hand shaped burn mark on his arm from Katsuki's Quirk.

* SternTeacher: Principal Abe, the high school principal of Inko, Hisashi and Mitsuki. While he comes down hard on [[spoiler: Inko when her [[BullyHunter bully hunting]] leaves several students maimed]], and Hisashi's irreverence drives him up the wall, he still does his best to teach them and sympathizes with Inko [[spoiler: after her brother committed suicide and helps her by sharing his own experience of loss with her]].

** When rescuing Ochako from the Zero Pointer, Iida states that if he and Izuku work together, they should be able to lift the concrete slab she's trapped under enough for Ochako to get free. Izuku promptly lifts the entire slab by himself and hurl it at the Zero Pointer.
** Toshinori might be thin as a rake compared to his All Might form, but he's able to effortlessly defeat [[HeroicBuild Kan]] in an arm wrestling competition without a single ounce of his power in order to [[TranquilFury prove a point]] against Quirkless Discrimination. The narration of said scene makes it quite obvious that Toshinori is ''berely'' trying, actually, and the only reason it lasts as long as it does is because Toshinori wants the lesson to sink in on both Kan and everyone watching the match.
* SuckySchool: Aldera Middle School encourages bigotry, so Izuku is at the bottom of the social order up until he shows he has enough evidence to rain hellfire on every teacher and student that discriminated against him. [[spoiler:Izuku isn't even the only victim. Other students had their grades sabotaged to make Katsuki look as good as possible]]. Aldera is also on a list of the top 3 schools to be condemned.
--> '''Izuku''': I’ll stop when the roof is fixed and the floor tiles stop coming undone. There’s a betting pool on when the rail on the second floor stairway is going to fall off.

* TranquilFury: Both Izuku and Inko are known for smiling politely and speaking calmly as the verbally destroy someone who truly manages to piss them off. People who meet Inko after angering Izuku tend to realize he inherited it from her.

** After pulling up the StupidStatementDanceMix video Nico made of Iwamoto revealing Midoriya's plans to apply to Yuuei, Izuku warns him that schools are allowed to check the social media accounts of applicants. [[spoiler:Hada Shiro suffers the full consequences of this.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Izuku was seven, Inko discovered his hidden supplies he squirreled away for when she "got tired of him" and kicked him out. Inko is absolutely horrified Izuku would think that of her and does her damnedest to show how much she loves him from then on.

* CaffeineBulletTime: Izuku makes the mistake of drinking an entire All Might branded 5-hour energy drink in lieu of lunch before the UA written entrance exam. He completes the short answer section in record time, writes out every single essay in several times the required length - on some occasions completely erasing a previous answer to redo it in more detail - and then burns off the remaining energy by doubling his high score on Dance Off! at the arcade.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Just because a person has a quirk, it doesn't make them automatically powerful or capable. Quirks like pulling your eyeballs out or stretching your fingers aren't actually all that useful for heroism, which Izuku points out in his BreakingSpeech. This, coupled with their terrible personalities, means that his classmates probably wouldn't have made it as heroes.
** Death Arms just standing there doing nothing while Katsuki was being attacked by the Sludge Villain gets him heavy criticism from Izuku, Mitsuki, and the public, and his reputation takes a serious hit. Bad quirk matchup or not, a hero acting like a bystander while a kid is about to lose his life is not acceptable.
** Inko was ''not'' [[LockedOutOfTheLoop completely unaware]] that her son was being bullied. Despite all his efforts to hide the AwfulTruth from her, she still helped him deal with the aftermath, such as replacing all of his destroyed property. They went through so many bandages and ointments that the convenience store started setting some aside for them to ensure they'd have it. However, there was only so much Inko could do, as not only would Izuku not admit to being bullied, but the school actively stone-walled her every time she tried to find out what was going on. Now that she knows for certain? She goes to Aldera and has a [[MamaBear little]] [[TranquilFury chat]] with the principal...
** All three of the Bakugou's end up requiring therapy after the incident with the Sludge Villain, Katsuki because he was almost murdered and his parents because they almost had to watch their son be murdered.
** Izuku refuses to clean Dagobah Beach without any safety equipment out of justified fear of infection, used needles, and tetanus from the rusted metal.
** While Izuku's revenge against Hada Shiro is justified and the bully needed to learn a lesson, Nedzu points out that a kid who feels like he has nowhere to go and no options left would probably turn to villainy. He asks Izuku to tone down his response next time.
** All Might may be the Number One hero, but this doesn't qualify him to be a teacher. Spending time with Izuku shows him that he can barely handle his protégé, let alone an entire class of teenagers. Because of this, [[spoiler:he requests that Nedzu allow him to be a teaching assistant so he has enough time to learn the ropes]].
** Izuku mentions that Quirk analysts like himself have to be careful with how much they reveal, especially if their analyses are made public. One analyst unthinkingly revealed a major weakness in a hero called Zephyr. The next villain Zephyr fought exploited said weakness and injured him badly enough to force the hero to retire.

* StrongerThanTheyLook: When rescuing Ochako from the Zero Pointer, Iida states that if he and Izuku work together, they should be able to lift the concrete slab she's trapped under enough for Ochako to get free. Izuku promptly lifts the entire slab by himself and hurl it at the Zero Pointer.
** Toshinori might be thin as a rake compared to his All Might form, but he's able to effortlessly defeat [[HeroicBuild Kan]] in an arm wrestling competition without an single ounce of his power in order to [[TranquilFury prove a point]] against Quirkless Discrimination. The narration of said scene makes it quite obvious that Toshinori is ''berely'' trying, actually, and they only reason it last as long as it does it becuase Toshinori wants the lesson to sink in on both Kan and everyone watching the match.

* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange: [[spoiler:Izuku rejects getting One For All on grounds that he might become an unstoppable villain. All Might is fine with that since the part of him that was once Quirkless wants Izuku to prove to the world that even Quirkless people can be heroes]].

* LameExcuse: Hisashi's mother refused to take custody of him because she was planning to move across the country and felt she "shouldn't uproot him when he only has two years of high school left".

* AdultFear: Watching their son almost murdered on live TV while the heroes who were supposed to save him just stood there and did nothing really wasn't easy on Mitsuki and Masaru, and they start attending therapy just to cope.
-->She leaves out how she had played head games with herself, saying ''‘It’s 4:03 right now. If I step out now, Katsuki will be alive. If the clock turns to 4:04, he’ll be in bad shape but alive. If it goes to 4:05 then he’ll be - he’ll be...’''

* CaffeineBulletTime: Izuku makes the mistake of drinking an entire All Might branded 5 hour energy drink in lieu of lunch before the UA written entrance exam. He completes the short answer section in record time, writes out every single essay in several times the required length - on some occasions completely erasing a previous answer to redo it in more detail - and then burns off the remaining energy by doubling his high score on Dance Off! at the arcade.

* NotHelpingYourCase: Death Arms' attempts to defend himself from Izuku saying he did nothing to help with the sludge villain just makes him look worse. He first tries claiming that hostage situations are delicate, and while that's technically correct, as Izuku points out, the Sludge Villain was suffocating Katsuki, so it was a ''murder attempt'', and Death Arms looks incompetent for not knowing the difference. He then tries to claim that his quirk was a bad matchup and that it was better to wait for backup, but that just results in Izuku telling the public that that means that if they are in danger and Death Arms shows up, there's a good chance he ''won't do his job'', further damaging Death Arms' reputation.

* ToWinWithoutFighting: Izuku completely destroys Hada Shiro's future without touching him by [[spoiler:getting him blacklisted from every hero school]]. When Hada stops showing up to Aldera, all the other students realize Izuku did ''something'', but no one can prove anything.

* MamaBear: When calling Inko to tell her that Katsuki has been bullying Izuku for years, Mitsuki starts the conversation with asking Inko not to murder Katsuki for it.

* DisappointedInYou: Mitsuki and Masaru are not happy with Katsuki after learning of him bullying Izuku and their teachers covering it up [[spoiler: because of Mitsuki herself being a victim of bullying and ''her'' teachers covering it up. Mitsuki is actually fine that Izuku threatened bodily harm on her son because of it]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: The principal of Aldera is unrepentant about looking down on Izuku for being Quirkless, and his opinion about him hasn't improved after being blackmailed into reigning in the rest of the staff, but he has some standards. When he heard that a Quirkless student was bullied into committing suicide at another school, he warned the rest of the staff that he would end them himself if something similar happened at Aldera. For all he dislikes Izuku, he doesn't want a child to die on his watch.

* SuckySchool: Aldera is on a list of the top 3 schools to be condemned.

** It's later revealed that [[spoiler:Izuku's mother, Midoriya Inko]] was similarly feared in her youth for being a BullyHunter who bore a no-nonsense attitude towards bullies, and would go after those who tormented other students the moment she heard of it. Among the students she helped was [[spoiler:Bakugo's mother, Mitsuki]]. The reason [[spoiler:Inko]] became that way is because [[spoiler:her younger brother was constantly bullied at school for having a dangerous Quirk and his parents wilingly turned a blind eye to it, leading to his early suicide]], and [[spoiler:she]] felt she had to make up for it or else [[spoiler:she could never face her brother again]].

** The staff at Izuku's middle school are worse than useless due to their casual reinforcement of the FantasticRacism displayed by his peers and are only willing to act when Izuku makes clear that he knows just how ''illegal'' their actions are, and that he can prove that they effectively signed off on his abuse.

* TheDreaded: Izuku towards his class. Those who thought he might go back to normal after that one off day are horrified after he destroys another kid's future for taunting him with a young girl's suicide. One outright states he just prays Izuku ignores him so long as he leaves the boy alone.

** Inko [[spoiler:had a brother who committed suicide when he was ten due to regularly being compared to his perfect sister, which turned her from a good girl who did what she was told into a BullyHunter]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Hada Shiro [[SuicideDare suicide baits]] Izuku and is an overall bigot against both Quirkless people and people with mutant quirks. Izuku retaliates [[spoiler:by bringing his online activity which is full of his discriminatory behavior to the attention of every hero school he could think of. They promptly issue Hada ''pre-rejection'' letters, destroying his future]]. The next time he sees Izuku, Hada instantly knows it was Izuku's doing, why he did it, and stops showing up to Aldera soon after.