Fanfic / Cheat Code: Support Strategist

For the Want of a Nail Series: Deku? I think he's some pro... | Mastermind: Strategist for Hire | Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy^note sequel to Strategist For Hire unrelated to the series | Viridian: The Green Guide | Cheat Code: Support Strategist | Shadows: The Horror Movie Heroes | Erazerhead: The Unknown Hero

Art by Beehave Children

After All Might gives Izuku a much-needed reality check, he has to find a new dream. When he learns that the support course at U.A. offers an emphasis on Intelligence and Analytics, it sounds like the perfect new passion for him to throw himself into. Who knew? Maybe Hero Analysis for the Future was never meant for his future as a hero, but for his future helping heroes...

Cheat Code: Support Strategist is a My Hero Academia fanfic by myheadinthecloudsnotcomingdown. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here.

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Tropes in Cheat Code: Support Strategist include:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Hitoshi's foster parents are emotionally abusive. His foster mother is blatantly terrified of him (and is stated to be afraid of everything) while his foster father is constantly suspicious and accuses him of lying. They don't even let him talk while he's in the house. Then, after he wins the Sports Festival, they force him to write apology letters and reveal how his power works. Needless to say, the moment a better option shows up Hitoshi takes it running.
  • Endeavor, as per canon. After the Sports Festival, he's glad Shouto lost because it would teach him a lesson, and when Shouto calls him out and presses his Berserk Button, he stops the car and forces Shouto out mid-way to their home. He follows that up by yelling at him for being caught petting a cat during his internship, since that doesn't fit the image HE wants his successor to have, and kicking him out of the house again.
• Accidental Innuendo: In-Universe. Izuku is amused by Mei's...particular way of talking about making support gear.
  Izuku: Most girls have to actually meet a guy before creating his children.
  • He later uses this in order to embarrass Hitoshi in front of 1-C by sending Mei to retrieve him.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Mineta is a cowardly pervert in canon, but here he is a skilled villain known as Trapper and his perverted side is just an act. He was able to single-handedly take down Stain.
  • Spinner is much more of a threat than in canon, having Stain's quirk. His kill count is even higher than Stain's.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Originally, Mei didn't get introduced to the series until the Sports Festival Arc, and Power Loader first appeared during the Final Exams Arc. Here, Izuku meets Mei during the Support Course Entrance Exam, along with Power Loader. Hitoshi also wasn't introduced until the Sports Festival in canon, but here he shows up before the USJ incident as Izuku and Mei's extra-credit project.
• Adaptational Heroism: Shigaraki wants to quit being a villain and follow his dream of being a video game streamer. He eventually assists the heroes.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Mineta is a mole for All for One.
  • Rather than being the least villainous member of the League of Villains, Spinner is the second Hero Killer with a high kill count.
• An Arm and a Leg: Iida's fight with Stain goes so poorly that his arm is medically amputated, to Ochako's horror.
• Appropriated Appellation: Izuku takes on the name that Shigaraki gives him, Cheat Code, as an identifier during the USJ attack. Mei decides to cement it by designing him a logo.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Endeavor insists that Shouto doesn't need to be relatable, he just needs to be the best, Shouto asks, "Are you only saying that because you never accomplished either one?"
• Armor-Piercing Response: Mei uses a series of these to make Izuku realize Katsuki is just a Jerkass and a bully, not his friend, such as pointing out that if he's been that way since getting his Quirk, then that means he's been treating Izuku like garbage for over a decade.
• Artificial Limbs: Mei creates a new arm for Iida after his original one gets amputated due to his fight with Stain.
• Ascended Extra: Multiple.
  • Mei goes from being an occasional source of comic relief who appears whenever the hero students need something from the support course to being Izuku's first friend (and eventual love interest).
  • Power Loader also becomes much more important, being one of Izuku's main teachers, along with the head of the course that he's in.
  • Nedzu becomes Izuku's primary teacher for the Analysis course, with Izuku being his personal student.
  • Hitoshi Shinsou was originally a minor character from the Sports Festival Arc, while here, Izuku decides to take him on as a student of his own.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Izuku passes the written portion of the entrance exam with flying colours, with Power Loader describing the portfolio he provided as impressive.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Hitoshi's Quirk, Brainwashing, makes him the target of his foster parents' and siblings' mistrust.
• Badass Normal: The other students in Class 1-F certainly think so of Izuku.
  Shiguro: Um...being quirkless doesn't make you any less terrifying, Midoriya.
  • This is the argument Nedzu uses in the final chapter to convince Izuku to become a hero.
• Bad Boss: During the USJ attack, Shigaraki disintegrates the technopath villain for not being able to track down where Izuku's interference is coming from.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Izuku's analysis skills are top-notch but he has to take time to learn how to write coherently, with his mother pointing out his run-on sentences and other issues that make his analyses gibberish to anyone but him.
• Break the Haughty: Todoroki's refusal to use his father's flames costs him the Cavalry Battle, as he was unable to keep Dark Shadow from stealing his points at the last second.
• Breather Episode: The chapter after the USJ Arc finishes, rather than having any large events, Mei and Hitoshi visit Izuku at his house to help him pick out a logo.
• Brutal Honesty: When Tenya laments that he should have been punished more harshly for trying to kill Stain, Tensei actually agrees with him, but encourages him to make use of his second chance anyway.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Izuku's meeting with All Might changed his life by making him give up being a hero to focus on supporting heroes, but for All Might it was just another day and he doesn't even remember Izuku.
  • Played with in that All Might should have remembered the interaction (according to Nedzu at least), given that Izuku discovered All Might's greatest weakness that he has been hiding from the public.
• Casanova Wannabe: Weaponized by Mineta. Everybody sees him as a coward who only cares about getting ladies, which comes to his advantage when nobody bats an eye at him investigating Mei and her possible connection to Cheat Code.
• Cassandra Truth: In the penultimate chapter, Shigaraki comments about live-streaming from his prison cell and everyone takes it as a joke.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While the earlier chapters had more of a focus on the insanity that Izuku, Mei, and eventually Hitoshi were running, later chapters' emphasis on Mineta being the traitor, Shouto's homelessness, Ochako dealing with having One For All, and Shigaraki's realizations that he may not want to be a villain begin giving the fic a more serious tone.
• Chekhov's Gun: Hitoshi tricking everyone into thinking the condition to trigger his Brainwashing Quirk is different from the real one lets him trap Mineta when the League attacks U.A..
  • Arguably when Hitoshi figures out how to brainwash Dark Shadow the process later comes up when he meets Spinner with Stain's quirk
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Izuku serves as this for Mei. Hitoshi serves as this for Izuku.
• Comical Overreacting: When Mei complains to Izuku about the teachers being cruel at U.A., he worries about them being like the teachers at Aldera... for about five seconds, before Mei reveals that she's complaining about not being allowed lab access on the first day without supervision (something completely sensible, given that she caused at least three explosions during her entrance exam).
• Completed Fic: as of 2022-01-29 is completed.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Both Shouto and Shigaraki are used to being abused by the men grooming them into their 'successors'. Shigaraki is even surprised when his streaming chat reacts to this with shock or when Shouto tries to convince him it isn't normal.
• Corpsing: In-Universe.
  • During the Cavalry Battle, Izuku, Mei, and Ochako shake with silent laughter after Hitoshi manages to use his Quirk to make Tokage's team not notice she has just lost her headband.
  • Hitoshi barely manages to restrain his laughter when Izuku and Mei pop out of a hole in the ceiling and pull him up through it in front of his classmates.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • One-off character Slugger is killed by Stain shortly after Mineta lures him into an alley, to use him to bait Stain.
  • Mineta stabs Stain to death after All For One takes his Quirk.
  • Shigaraki, Spinner and Mineta kill Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady.
  • Mineta and All for One end up dying at the hands of Spinner/Stain.
• Defiant to the End: Hero Killer Stain glares angrily at their captor even as they're bleeding out.
• Demoted to Extra: Since Izuku doesn't join the Hero Course, Bakugou is the only member of Class 1A to appear in person before the attack on the USJ. Though Izuku's semester project is to analyze the students of the first year Hero Course.
• Didn't See That Coming: Hitoshi certainly didn't think that Spinner would come after him to follow on a comment Hitoshi made about him having another person in his head, much less that he'd agree to a brainwash to learn what was going on.
• Didn't Think This Through: All Might assumed that One for All would give Uraraka Super-Strength much like his own. Instead, he's caught completely off guard by it enhancing her Quirk to the point she starts teleporting randomly, making it significantly harder for him to keep his secrets secret.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Iida's arm gets amputated after his fight with Stain.
• The Dog Bites Back: All for One's lies and manipulations end up biting him repeatedly. Shigaraki goes to the heroes and tells then everything he knows about All for One and the League of Villains once he learns All for One intends to possess him. Later, Spinner kills Mineta and All for One after learning they killed Stain and blamed it on the heroes.
• Double Entendre: Mei refers to her inventions as her “babies”, often provoking shocked confusion.
  Izuku: Mei, um, this is my mom. Mom, this is Mei-chan.
  Mei: It's awesome to meet you, Midoriya-san. Your son and I are gonna make so many beautiful babies together!
  Inko: Beat
• Dramatic Irony: After seeing Todoroki’s stream with Shigaraki, Aizawa and Hitoshi are convinced that Todoroki is a mole. The actual mole is Mineta.
• The Dreaded: Played for Laughs.
  • Izuku and Mei become this to the other students thanks to their reputation for chaotic hijinks. It's not unjustified, especially when they get access to Nedzu's Tunnel Network and cause Class 1A to panic by abducting Hitoshi through the ceiling.
  • Epurr, the cat Shouto befriends, is a menace that many Pro Heroes, including Edgeshot, fear.
• Eccentric Mentor: Izuku decides to take an extra credit assignment to help Hitoshi get into the hero course from Gen. Ed.. Naturally, Mei joins him in his endeavor.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Mei pranks Bakugou with a glitter bomb, which leads to the entire class getting covered with glitter. Aizawa even makes an assignment out of it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Izuku's fellow support students are disgusted that he used to get in trouble for reporting discrimination.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Shigaraki ends up hearing, by pure chance, All for One's actual plans for him, causing him to decide to defect to the other side.
• Exact Words:
  • When Hitoshi orders Izuku to sit on a stool in a room that doesn't have one, the brainwashed Izuku leaves the room to find a stool to sit on.
  • All for One isn't exactly lying when he states that Stain was killed by a hero. He just "forgets" to mention that the one that killed him was actually a traitor hero-in-training.
• False Flag Operation: All for One tricks Spinner into thinking a hero was behind Stain's death, when it was actually Trapper that did it. Ends up blowing in his face when Hitoshi manages to connect to Stain's vestige and lets Spinner learn the truth.
• Foreshadowing: While speculating on the nature of Ochako's Quirk, it's suggested that if one of the people she's 'anchored' herself to goes through a major physical change, it will disrupt her ability to teleport to them. A few chapters later, this theory gains more traction when Tenya's arm has to be amputated, and she teleports to the hospital right before it's removed, then is unable to teleport to his side afterwards.
• Friendly Enemy: Surprisingly, Shigaraki, who becomes Vitriolic Best Buds with Todoroki as they play together and stream their gaming.
• Heel–Face Turn: Shigaraki betrays the villains for the heroes, as he wants to quit being a villain and become a streamer.
• Hidden Depths: Mineta isn't just a pervert, or a pervert at all; he's playing a role to cover for being All For One's spy.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard:
  • During their 1-on-1 match, Izuku turns Mina's own acid against her by setting it on fire to force her out of the ring.
  • All for One giving Stain's Quirk to Spinner backfires when Spinner finds out the truth about Stain's death and turns on All for One.
• Hollywood Hacking: Terms are usually kept vague, but Izuku once hacked an attacking one-pointer robot, and then flawlessly controlled it in barely a few minutes, using only his cellphone.
  • Averted with the unnamed tech villain from the USJ attack, who logically points out that even if he could somehow "trace" Cheat Code's signal, it'd only give an IP Address, not a location a teleporter could use.
• I Resemble That Remark!: When Aizawa gives Class 1-A Izuku's abbreviated analysis of their Quirks, Bakugo promptly blows up his packet and throws the remains out of the window because it said he had impulsivity issues. Aizawa pulls out a copy, saying that Izuku knew that would happen.
• I Have a Family: The reason Mineta is working with the League Of Villains is because All For One threatened their family.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Even though Izuku is in the Support Course, he wins the Obstacle Course during the Sports Festival - he even does the "jump on the mines" trick to reach Bakugou and Todoroki and jump from their backs.
  • Two of Izuku's teammates for the Cavalry battle are Mei and Uraraka.
  • Tensei is crippled in one of Stain's attacks.
  • By the end of the fic, Izuku joins class 1-A to become a hero
• Innocently Insensitive: Played for Drama. Kirishima assumes that Bakugou and Midoriya are friends, unknowingly pressing his Berserk Button until Katsuki snaps and beats the shit out of him during their match.
  • Mina's comment during her and Izuku's match.
    Mina: Honestly, I feel kinda bad for beating you. Bakubro said you were quirkless, so this is kinda a bad match-up for you, huh?
• Insult of Endearment: Hitoshi calling Izuku and Mei "his kidnappers" eventually reaches this, though it's more of a statement of fact than an insult.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Hitoshi, Aizawa, and Present Mic all find out that Todoroki is streaming with Shigaraki in Chapter 68.
  • Hitoshi and Spinner learn that All for One was the one that had Stain killed and then ripped his Quirk out of him.
• Kansas City Shuffle:
  • On Izuku's and Mei's advice, Hitoshi masks how his Quirk activates by doing random things like holding eye contact too long or touching people before using his Quirk. As such, people will be so busy avoiding the fake activation conditions that they don't realize the real one is replying to him.
  • At the beginning of the Cavalry Battle, Izuku has Ochako use Zero Gravity on the 10 million point headband so Hitoshi can throw it, knowing that people will now be fighting for it and it won't be easy to keep a hold of it, while Hitoshi, Izuku, Mei and Ochako go around stealing low-scoring headbands, which is considered a tactic to stay out of the way and get enough points to reach the last round. It's all a ruse to allow them to steal enough headbands to cover half the points not in the 10 million headband, so that when Mei activates the microexplosives she put in the headband two minutes before the end, their team suddenly jumps to first position.
• Know When to Fold Them: Izuku steps backward out of bounds the second his match against Bakugou begins to avoid getting the beating he knew Bakugou would give him, as well as deny Bakugou the satisfaction of actually earning his victory.
• Konami Code: Frankly, it's inevitable given the fic is named Cheat Code. Izuku, Mei, and Hitoshi design a logo for Cheat Code, the design of which ultimately ends up paying homage to the code.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Thanks to Izuku, Hitoshi finds out he can modify people's memories with his Quirk. While the extent isn't yet known, Hitoshi has made Bakugou forget about him, made Mei think he had green hair (until she saw him again), and got Tokage's team not to notice they had lost their headband in the Cavalry Battle.
• Loophole Abuse: At the beginning of the Cavalry Battle, Izuku has Mei do something to the 10 million points headband, which he thinks can be done since there is no rule about it. This turns to be filling it with micro-explosives so they can destroy it before the end, thus denying the points to everyone else.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Nedzu is Izuku's teacher, as he's in the Intelligence and Analytics track of the support course, and Izuku takes Hitoshi on as an extra credit project in order to get him into the hero course.
  • And of course, there's the "lineage" of One For All – of which All Might has now asked Ochako to become the next bearer.
• The Mole: Mineta is spying at U.A. for All For One, who orders him to find Cheat Code.
• Morton's Fork: Todoroki initially decides to listen to Cheat Code's advice because Endeavor holds no value in support workers, only to want to ignore the advice after Cheat Code recommends Todoroki use his fire. Todoroki then realizes that by ignoring Cheat Code, he would be emulating his father, but if he listened to Cheat Code, he would be doing what his father wanted.
• Mundane Utility: As it turns out, the fire half of Todoroki's quirk is very helpful at keeping cats warm, which is what endears him to Epurr and a bunch of other cats.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Katsuki has a Downplayed one during the Sports Festival after his match with Kirishima, as it sinks in that he just took out his anger over Izuku forfeiting on his Only Friend.
• Mythology Gag: For the written portion of the Support entrance exam, Izuku is required to write an essay about two different Quirks. Izuku recognizes the first Quirk as belonging to a (retired) Hero named Glimmer, whilst the other, whom he doesn't recognize, belongs to Gran Torino.
  • Bakugou has to be tied up to keep from attacking others at the Sports Festival podium, but this time it's because he cannot stand losing to Hitoshi.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Mineta suspects that Izuku is Cheat Code and tries to kidnap him by laying a trap on his usual route home. Not only did this fail, since Izuku didn't go home that day, but Mineta's actions also allowed Izuku to pick up on Kurogiri's signature when he's teleporting using the same program he made for Ochako, so he now has a way to track the villain.
• The Nicknamer: Mei, not being very good with names, tends to give people nicknames. Hitoshi, for example, gets called "Extra-Credit-kun".
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Izuku has Mei plant tiny explosives on the ten million point headband during the Cavalry Battle. Near the end of the battle, they detonate it while Bakugou's and Todoroki's teams fight over it, ensuring no one gets the points - and pushing their team to first position, although Bakugou taking some of their points at the last minute means they finish in second.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Closer to obfuscating perversion, with Mineta using his reputation as a Casanova Wannabe in order to fly under the radar at U.A..
• Odd Friendship: Todoroki seems to be developing one with Shigaraki of all people, to the point that they stream gameplay together.
• Oh, Crap!: Todoroki is "sitting" in a back alley with a number of cats that have decided he makes a good bed... when Shigaraki shows up and finds him. Fortunately, he leaves soon after without causing trouble.
• Only Sane Man: Hitoshi serves as this to Mei and Izuku, though he's Not So Above It All, as clearly shown in their antics when the three of them team up with Uraraka, and later the rest of Class 1-A when the two of them are the only people in the hero course not to react to Mei and Izuku popping out of the tunnels.
• Parents as People: Izuku admits that Inko was very much this when he and Melissa discuss their experiences about how they were treated for being quirkless. Even when told her son was instrumental in defeating large villain attacks at U.A., Inko completely misses the proof of Izuku's capabilities and only seems to comprehend him as a fragile victim who needs others to save him. She cares about her son deeply, but the limited view she has of him means the two part on strained terms.
• People Puppets:
  • Izuku's most likely theory for how Hitoshi's Quirk works, as it can't force people to use higher brain functions, like speaking, and while Izuku failed to do a backflip under Hitoshi's control, Hitoshi also doesn't know how to do one either.
  • A later experiment shows that Hitoshi can make people talk, but only to say things he already knows. For example, Izuku doesn't respond when asked his name but does give his name when Hitoshi orders him to "Tell me your name". From the information they gathered, the reason the latter worked when the former didn't is because the former relied on Izuku's memories while the latter worked on Hitoshi's.
  • Further experimenting with his Quirk reveals that he can make people give him information that he doesn't already know, but it takes a lot more concentration. Practicing this aspect of his Quirk on Ochako has him accidentally make her reveal that she has a crush on him.
• Playful Hacker:
  • Izuku tries, unsuccessfully, to hack into U.A.'s servers when he first arrives and later tries to hack them (again, unsuccessfully) during the practical part of his entrance exam. During the USJ attack, he's able to jury rig a signal to get past the Quirk preventing the alarms from sounding, and takes control over the USJ's disaster zones.
  • Later, at the Obstacle Course, Izuku successfully hacks into one of the robot's systems and rides it all the way up to the minefield.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Izuku does not receive One for All from All Might. Whilst this does not prevent him from going to U.A., this does end up pushing him into Support.
  • Izuku sat on the rooftop for a few minutes after his meeting with All Might to process the fact that his Pro-Hero dream is over. As a result, Izuku didn't come across Bakugo being attacked by the Sludge Villain and the Pro-Heroes who were at the scene and All-Might managed to save Bakugo without Izuku having to rush in to try to save him first. Izuku didn't even know about the whole incident until he arrived home.
  • Izuku watching the USJ when the villains attack allows him to warn the teachers the moment it begins, and taking control of its defensive measures lets him help the students fight the villains off. His actions also cause Shigaraki to kill the technopath jamming the signal, giving Aizawa a clue about his Quirk, and with the students being led around the plaza, Shigaraki tries to kill Aizawa instead of Tsuyu.
  • In the second round of the Sports Festival, the destruction of the 10 million headband ensures that Team Todoroki does not make it to the final round while Team Monoma does.
  • Hitoshi ends up winning the Sports Festival after defeating Bakugo, giving him a chance to transfer to the Hero Course. He's also adopted by Eraserhead and Present Mic.
  • Due to their impressive performance in the Sports Festival, Izuku and Mei are offered an internship from I-Island.
  • Ochako's tenacity and strength during her match against Bakugou impresses All Might enough that he offers her One For All.
  • Without Izuku there to save him, Iida's encounter with Stain ends with him getting his arm so wrecked that it has to be amputated.
  • Tensei decides to use support equipment to continue being a Pro Hero, with the long-term goal of fighting alongside his brother. To this end, he starts attending U.A. again, sitting in on classes.
  • With the aid of Trapper, All For One takes Stain's Quirk and passes it to Spinner, who continues killing 'false heroes' in his idol's name.
  • Due to Izuku locating Kurogiri's signal at the training camp, U.A. brings both hero classes back to campus, which also gives them the opportunity to question Shouto about Shigaraki.
  • Shigaraki eavesdrops into All for One discussing his Grand Theft Me plans, so he decides to defect to U.A..
    • As a consequence, the League of Villains is forced to attack U.A., which plays wreck with their plans as the students are able to use the school's layout to fight the villains on even terms.
• Poor Communication Kills: Aizawa and Yamada didn't tell Hitoshi why they were adopting him. As such, Hitoshi (mistakenly) believes they intend to keep an eye on him in case he goes villainous. Confiding his fears to Izuku and Mei causes them to barge into Nedzu's office to call him out. Fortunately, Nedzu understands and defuses the situation by telling them the truth.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Izuku delivers one to Shigaraki (who cannot hear it, sadly) as he prepares to unleash the weapons of the disaster zones on the USJ villains.
  "Alright villain, you wanna treat this like a game? Then let's play."
• Precision F-Strike: Kohaku has one after Izuku asks if he'll get in trouble for reporting discrimination against him:
  "You used to get in trouble for reporting discrimination?! What the fuck?!"
• Pyrrhic Victory: Invoked. The moment the match between Izuku and Katsuki starts, Izuku walks out of bounds, depriving Katsuki of the fight Izuku 'owes' him, making his victory meaningless.
• Rules Lawyer: Izuku and Mei help Hitoshi figure out the exact specifications of his Quirk. The last on a list of orders Izuku has Hitoshi issue him is to perform a backflip, something that's theoretically possible but that Izuku doesn't know how to do. After Izuku fails, they learn Hitoshi doesn't know how to perform a backflip either, so they insist on further testing to see which person's brain is being accessed for said information.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Izuku claims this fairly frequently regarding his partnership with Mei. Not only can Everyone Can See It, but pretty much everyone earnestly thinks that they are dating before he corrects them. It takes until he compares his and Mei's relationship to Ochako and Hitoshi's that he realizes everyone is actually right about him having feelings for her, prompting the two Support students to start dating mere seconds later.
• Shipper on Deck: Mina is greatly on team Ochako/Hitoshi, and later becomes one for team Izuku/Mei as well upon realizing that the two Support students aren't already together.
• Skewed Priorities: During the attack on the USJ, Mei covers Izuku's eyes so he won't see Momo's Wardrobe Malfunction. According to Hound Dog, it's likely an overreaction due to having witnessed Shigaraki kill someone.
• Sore Loser: Bakugou, much like his canon self, is unable to accept defeat and explosively reacts to the idea. As shown by how he attempts to attack Hitoshi after he brainwashes him into stepping out of bounds.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To Mastermind: Strategist for Hire, another fanfic by the same author. While both involve a Quirkless Izuku Midoriya putting his analytical skills to use to help others, Mastermind involves Izuku using them to produce plans for Villains, as the titular Mastermind, whilst Cheat Code involves him attending U.A.'s Support course in order to help other Heroes.
• Take That!: Slugger, whose sole appearance in canon saw him do nothing against the Sludge Villain, then try to stop Izuku from saving Bakugou, is mentioned as having a reputation for leaving difficult fights to other heroes. Said reputation leads to him being killed by Stain, after Mineta calls him in to lure Stain into a trap.
• This Is My Human: Epurr, the cat Shouto befriended, sees him as one of her kittens and treats him appropriately. She also sees his classmates as his 'littermates'.
• Timmy in a Well: Epurr pulls this off when she leads Shouto and Edgeshot to where Tenya fought Stain.
• Too Dumb to Live: All Might crosses into this by not remembering Izuku, despite the fact that Izuku saw his weakened form and All Might wanting to keep said form from the public.
  • Mineta falls for Hitoshi's "offer" to give him Mei's number and jumps out of Shoji's cover, allowing Hitoshi to punch him, take control of him, and take his headband.
• True Companions: Izuku, Mei, and Hitoshi greatly care for each other. Besides keeping each other "more or less" sane and minding their well-being, when Hitoshi tells them he is worried he was taken to custody by Eraserhead and his husband out of fear he might go villainous, Izuku and Mei are livid and barge into Nedzu's office.
• Tunnel Network: U.A. has a huge, sprawling labyrinth within and beneath the building, constructed by Nedzu for his own purposes and rigged with countless locked doors and hidden passageways. He tasks Izuku with exploring them, who of course brings along Mei.
• Un-Sorcerer: Izuku, as he does not receive One for All.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: During her internship, Mei barely reacts to Ochako randomly teleporting right beside her, simply asking them to make themselves useful and assist them with lab work while Izuku is busy elsewhere.
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: For Izuku's practical Support entrance exam, Nedzu has Izuku attempt to hack U.A.'s servers. Izuku is devastated when he's unable to succeed but then feels better when Mei points out that since the school's cybersecurity is top-notch and impossible to be hacked by any random hacker, it's very likely that Nedzu's test was to see how Izuku dealt with problems he couldn't solve. Izuku's acceptance letter in the following chapter confirms this, with Power Loader admitting that if Izuku had been successful, he would be extremely worried about the quality of U.A.'s cybersecurity.
  Mei: A lot of inventions are just about learning the process. Even if they don't work, they still weren't a waste of time because they make the next invention faster! UA's security wouldn't be the best in the business if a first-year could ram through it, right? They probably just wanted to see how you approached a problem that you couldn't solve. They wanted to see your process!
• Villainous Legacy: Spinner is given Stain's Quirk by All for One and takes up his mantle (and katana) as the new Hero Killer. His own Quirk even mutates slightly to compensate for the change.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Slugger, a one-off character in canon, is killed by Stain almost immediately after his debut in the fic.
• Weaponized Teleportation: Ochako uses the fact that teleporting someone drains that person to forcibly teleport Muscular several times across the school, leaving him unable to continue fighting, and then delivering him to Aizawa so he can keep him under check.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 44 ends with One for All teleporting Uraraka to I-Island.
• Wham Line: In Chapter 70, while Hitoshi is practicing his Quirk on Ochako:
  Ochako: Because [Mina]'s trying to set [Izuku and Mei] up. She was also trying to get us alone together because she knows I have a crush on you.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Aizawa chews out All Might after Uraraka's accidental One for All-induced teleportation to I-Island:
  "So you're telling me that you not only gave my student an extra quirk without informing me, but that this impossible miracle quirk has painted a target on her back a mile wide because it comes with a nemesis that runs the goddamn League of Villains! Oh, and considering that she disappeared into thin air, they're probably the ones who took her, especially since you didn't even give her any extra security after handing her a giant I Am Here sign. Am I missing anything, All Might?”
• Wrong Assumption:
  • After Chapter 44, most of the cast operates under the assumption that Uraraka was kidnapped. In reality, One for All supercharged her existing abilities, causing her to uncontrollably start teleporting to anyone she starts thinking deeply about. As such, she's actually on I-Island, as she wished that Mei was present to give her some advice. She comes back to Japan when she starts worrying about how freaked out Hitoshi must be about her poofing into thin air.
  • Also occurs during the mall attack; while Todoroki quickly realizes that Shigaraki didn't know anything about the attack and thus isn't an enemy, Hitoshi, already knowing that Todoroki has been streaming with Shigaraki, thinks that his classmate has become a traitor.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After taking Stain's Quirk, All for One declares that they're of no further use to them.

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