Fanfic / Dekugate

After narrowly saving Nabu Island from powerful villains, Class 1-A elects to stay behind and help with recovery efforts, though Izuku needs a few more days to heal before he can do much of anything. Thankfully, retired Symbol of Peace All Might and current revered urban rescue hero Parakeet, his beloved parents, arrive to help look after him and the others. But not everyone is as happy to see them as Izuku is. And he soon finds out that the absurd rabbit hole of hatred extends to him as well.

Dekugate is a My Hero Academia Fan Fic by aconstantstateofbladerunner. Izuku, his parents, and his class decide to continue their stay on the Nabu Island community to help restore things after Nine's destructive presence. But everything takes a turn for the worse when the Little Prince discovers an unconventional antagonist who proves to be more dangerous than Nine himself.

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Dekugate provides examples of:

A-I

• Adaptational Badass: Thanks to her new profession, Inko is well trained when it comes to rescue missions and defeating mid-level villains.
• Adaptational Job Change: Inko goes from an average office worker to a Pro Rescue Hero.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In their canon universe, Toshinori and Inko were just acquaintances with the shared goal of supporting Izuku's hero dream. In this reality? They're an Official Couple with Toshi being Izuku's biological father.
• Ambiguous Situation: A heart-wrenching example. Izuku is a fifteen-year-old boy who has just discovered that there is an entire Internet community dedicated to hating him, and it’s obvious that he isn’t equipped to handle it yet. Over the course of the story, he tends to vacillate between understanding that the Dekugaters are a vocal minority of crazy people that could never be talked out of their views, knowing this but still wanting to be “perfect” so he can protect his loved ones from suffering at their hands, or believing that the Dekugaters actually have some valid criticisms to make. This can make it hard to get a precise reading of Izuku’s mindset at a given moment; when his thoughts call him a Spoiled Brat who only got where he is because of his father, is he merely “workshopping” the way the Dekugaters will spin certain events, and feeling crushed by their baseless hatred? Or has his self-esteem been damaged enough from the online assault that he actually believes that about himself?
• Amicable Exes: Toshinori admits that he used to date David Shield while they were in college. Even though they lasted a semester, they remained lifelong friends until the I-Island Incident.
• Anger Born of Worry: Like any good mother, Inko gives a serious scolding to Izuku after he decided to venture out into a serious typhoon that would have left him drowning if she and her team weren't around to find him.
• Animal Stereotypes: Dogs are known for being good trackers and have the instincts to find anything of interest. Omori Aimi can transform into a dog and has been spying on Toshinori and the hero agency looking for dirt to slander his son and wife. And if that wasn't enough, she also has multiple social media accounts and keeps tabs on anyone associated with Izuku and Yuuei for potential information.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Inko's hero name is Parakeet and her uniform brings the colorful bird to mind.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Chapter 3, Izuku wakes up in the middle of the night hearing noises and is worried that someone is breaking into their agency to attack them. When he goes to stop the perpetrator, it turns out to be Jiro who came down to investigate some noises herself.
• Battle Couple: In the past, All Might and Parakeet would team up to take down rampaging villains or save civilians from ongoing disasters.
• Beach Episode: The last chapter has Izuku and his friends and classmates enjoying a well-deserved break at a local beach while his parents supervise them.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Chapter 9, just before Izuku succumbs to his wounds and almost drowns, his mom and her rescue team manage to pull him out in the nick of time.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Nitta Mari pretends to be sweet and polite towards Izuku. In truth, she detests him under the belief that he's bringing down the image of her beloved Number One Hero.
• Bittersweet Ending: The story ends on a happy note with only a dash of bitterness. Dekugate still exists and its followers will continue to harass the Mighty Family for a long as the sun is shining. Despite their existence, Izuku has decided not to let their influence tarnish his road to heroism as he can instead focus on the more positive aspects of his life, such as his loving parents and his reliable friends. Also, Toshinori and Inko manage to record Nitta Mari for illegally recording minors along with her online crimes so she may be doing some jail time for her antics.
• Broken Pedestal: Not that it bothers him but All Might's post that publicly criticizes Dekugate for terrorizing his family resulted in many of his former fans renouncing their love for him.
• But Not Too Bi: All Might and David Shield both identify as bisexual (at least in this continuity), but both married women. All Might is still Happily Married, while David has shown no romantic interest in anyone after losing his wife to cancer.
• Cliffhanger: The last scene of Chapter 7 has Class 1-A answering questions for the Nabu community. It ends with Nitta Mari preparing to ask a clearly petrified Izuku her question.
• Conveniently an Orphan: Subverted by force. Inko mentions that she grew up in foster care. But through the power of Dekugate, they found her true father who's revealed to be a deadbeat, small-time, gangster-wannabe doing time in Thailand just to slander her.
• Content Warnings: The opening notes of Chapter 5 flat out state that the chapter is filled with toxic fandom-related discussions involving all types of triggering content that many readers would find uncomfortable. The author even gives the reader the option to skip the chapter and proceed to the next one without reading it if they wish.
• Dead Guy Junior: Inko considered naming Izuku after her husband's master and mother. But Toshinori was against it as he wanted his child to be their own person and not be stuck in the shadow of someone close to him.
• Death by Adaptation: The absence of David Shield's wife is left unexplained in canon. Here, she's stated to have died of terminal cancer shortly after Melissa was born (though the conspiracy theorists don't believe it).
• Demoted to Extra: Despite playing a prominent role in stopping Nine, Bakugou has little to no relevance in the story/restoration process as he keeps to himself to recover at the agency.
• Die for Our Ship: The more rabid MightyShield (and NightMight and EndMight) shippers hate Inko for being an obstacle to their favourite ship and openly pray for her death. There are also numerous death threats and at least one actual attempt on her life.
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: Izuku gets a taste of hearing his own ramblings when Nitta Mari brings up All Might's hero statistics.
• Doting Parent: Both of Izuku's parents shower him with unconditional love and affection.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Izuku constantly frets that Nine is still out there and will strike again, yet he's unaware that the weather-manipulating villain was already taken care of by Shigaraki.
  • Nitta Mari correctly calls out how odd it is that Izuku suddenly shows up with a quirk extremely similar to All Might's after All Might publically stated his child was Quirkless for a decade. However, instead of figuring out the true explanation she takes this as evidence for the Dekugate conspiracy.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Toshinori casually identifies Nitta's online handle, she gleefully gasps "You've read my blog!" He then bluntly reminds her that she prayed for his wife and son to die on that blog.
• Easily Condemned: The Dekugaters might be single-minded in their efforts to tear down Izuku and Inko, but they’re just as willing to place people on pedestals. Since they assume that it’s an Open Secret among heroes that “Deku” is an actor who’s being molded into a figurehead for the Commission, they’re quick to assume that anyone who fought Izuku in the Sports Festival or joked about him being a “big target” in the License exam is an “ally” who hates the situation as much as they do. The trouble is, these “fans” are just as quick to condemn these “allies” for “selling out” the instant they say anything positive, or even neutral, about Izuku.
• Enemy Civil War: A very Downplayed example, but it’s there. Once Omori’s friends start distancing themselves from her after she crosses a line even the Dekugate community thinks is too far, she retaliates by posting screenshots of the posts they deleted (supporting her stalking and promoting barely coherent theories) to sink their credibility in turn.
• Engineered Heroics: The denizens of Dekugate genuinely believe that all of Izuku's fights were orchestrated by the Hero Commission just to make him look good.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even Mineta agrees that it'd be unpleasant to listen to strangers talk about wanting to bang your parents.
  • The Dekugate community might be a really toxic segment of the Internet, but not everyone is on the same page regarding what behavior is “acceptable” in pursuing their theories. When Omori Aimi, aka “@redroverrover,” actually posts online to complain how “Deku” had ruined her chance to spend a few hours stalking All Might and playing with him disguised as a dog, she receives massive backlash from her peers that sends her former friends scrambling to delete any evidence that they had ever supported her.
  • The effects aren’t actually that different, but at the very least the Dekugaters' disconnect from reality means that they generally don’t literally want Izuku to die to end Dekugate. Since they regard all his battles as publicity stunts, "dying" would simply mean that the actor playing Izuku would move on to other projects- just as they believe "Mary Shield" moved to Arizona after she died of cancer. However, this doesn't apply to Inko, who was clearly a Pro Hero before even "meeting" All Might- the community really does anticipate the possibility of her dying. And, as Inko explains, the concept of "forcing the end" means that fanatics like this community will only wait for the "fated" end of Dekugate for so long before attempting to bring it about themselves, so Izuku wouldn’t necessarily be safe forever.
  • As much as Izuku would love to lash out and potentially hurt Dekugaters, he admits to feeling uncomfortable when his father utterly destroys Nitta Mari to the point that she's breaking down in tears. His parents would later commend him for being better than the two.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: In-Universe. The Dekugate community consider All Might and David Shield, or MightyShield, to be the superior ship compared to Toshinko.
• Fangirl: Ochako is a huge fan of Parakeet for her rescue work and is in absolute heaven when she meets her in person.
• Female Misogynist: Dekugaters, comprised mainly of women, hold a strong hatred for Inko, believing that she's setting back feminism because of her supposedly “shameful” performance as a Pro Hero mixed with her hooking up with their cherished Number One Hero. They also post many unflattering comments about the 1-A girls.
• Force and Finesse: Toshinori considers his hero dynamic with Parakeet to be this as his All Might persona would use his brute strength to take on major villains and high-level disasters while his wife used her skills for small-level crimes and helping with disaster aftermaths.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Izuku browses through the comments of an All Might x Parakeet fanvideo, he finds one comment that bitterly remarks "imagine unironically supporting this propaganda". In Chapter 5, a recurring conspiracy post in Dekugate is that the Hero Commission forced All Might to marry Parakeet and have a child in order to push the idea that the Number One Hero is "heteronormative".
  • During their boys-only sleepover, Kaminari brings up All Might stans and jokes about how they have their own "religion" in his honor. We soon learn that Dekugate is infested with older, die-hard fans who have it bad for the Number One Hero.
  • Late in the morning, Jiro mentions to Izuku that there was a dog making its way outside their apartment. It's revealed that the "dog" was a Nabu woman using her Quirk to spy on Izuku and dig up any incriminating information.
• Happily Ever After: In Chapter 2, Toshinori uses this phrase to wrap up the tale of how a Mighty Hero and Princess Parakeet fell in love and had a beautiful baby boy. But as we all know, the end is just the beginning.
• Happily Married: Toshinori and Inko prove to be this. They're openly affectionate, trade jokes and light-hearted bickering with one another, and are very blessed to have the other in their lives.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Inko tells her son that there will always be people who think you aren’t good enough regardless of what you do. So the best you can do is ignore them and do the best you can with your own life.
• Hated by All: Deconstructed with Inko. As she explains in Chapter 10, she grew up with 18 years worth of criticisms and unreasonable hatred from strangers who loathed her just because she was involved with their favorite hero. This has led to the poor woman developing paranoia over her actions along with an eating disorder as many of them took shots at her physical appearance. This was what led to Izuku being born premature and having to stay in a hospital during the first days of his life.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Toshinori's go-to outfits consist of tacky but colorful Hawaiian shirts. His wife even has a dress or two that compliments his style.
• Heroic BSoD: Izuku gets an emotional breakdown in Chapter 6 when he realizes that anyone around him could be a member of Dekugate who hates him just for existing and that there isn't anything he can do to stop them.
• Hiding Your Heritage: At some point in his childhood, Izuku agreed to keep his identity as All Might's son a secret knowing that too many people would try to take advantage of his friendship just to get close to his father.
• History Repeats:
  • To Inko's horror, she had to witness the two most important people in her life be stuck in hospital rooms with the possibility that they couldn't make it. The first was when Izuku was born premature, and the second was after her husband's fight against All For One.
  • Just like how Izuku discovered the atrocities of his personal hatebase and became paranoid and grief-stricken, the same happened to his mother when she and All Might came out as a couple.
  • Izuku worries about putting Ochako through a similar nightmare if he decides to pursue her.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Nitta Mari casually stalked Izuku and filmed him without permission, sneering about how he couldn't do anything about it. Her Humiliation Conga is Caught on Tape, doubling as an Accidental Public Confession of her crimes.
• Homeschooled Kids: Izuku was home-schooled until he was ready for middle school due to his parents' fears of being picked out by potentially perilous pariahs or pestering paparazzi.
• Honorary Uncle: Izuku considered David Shield to be this, especially since the Shields would care and watch over Izuku throughout his childhood.
• Hostile Weather: In Chapter 8, a sudden typhoon forces everyone to take shelter and prepare for the worst. But after worrying that his mom is still out on patrol along with the fear of the Dekugaters getting to witness the death of "Inkstain", Izuku escapes the shelter and feels the unyielding wrath of mother nature.
• Humble Hero: Parakeet isn't as powerful or well-recognized to be on Top Hero Rankings as her husband and she rarely works in other areas unless necessary. But the Green Avian Hero doesn't mind as she's more interested in using her abilities to support her small community which was in desperate need of a hero.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Downplayed in the last chapter. Toshinori brings up explicit examples of Dekugate's infamy in order to tear apart die-hard fan Nitta Mari. His son could tell from the tone of his voice that he always wanted to bring up those references in retaliation.
• I'll Kill You!: Inko mentions having received countless death threats after she was revealed to be pregnant.
• Improperly Paranoid: The Dekugate community believes that they are bravely defying a shadowy conspiracy to tell their “truths,” so suspicion towards outsiders is the norm. This reached its peak after Sir Nighteye was killed, as a good percentage of the community was convinced that he’d been assassinated for opposing the Hero Commission. Naturally, the only thing the Dekugate community needs to fear is being judged as crazy online and the occasional flame war.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even though Izuku is the biological son of All Might, he still grew up Quirkless and dealt with a rough and lonely childhood.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • This is a story about a toxic Real Person Shipping community rife with conspiracy theorists- what did you expect? One standout example would be the fans' reasoning for labeling Parakeet an Attention Whore; "Why do we never see her out doing errands without the paparazzi in attendance?"
  • Nitta Mari provides another example when explaining why Izuku battling Nine when he attacked her home island hasn't changed her opinion of "Deku" one bit. As she explains, "Quirk registration exists!", meaning the Hero Commission should have known that a villain who could create storms was approaching Nabu. That leaves two options; either the Commission had recklessly endangered the public by sending the Kid Hero Deku to fight Nine instead of a real hero, or the "storm villain" was working for the Commission all along! Either way, Deku’s "heroism" came at the cost of nearly destroying her home, so Nitta would never dream of worshiping him for it like the "sheep" around her.
• Irony: As Shoji points out, Bakugou could have had the opportunity to meet his idol All Might much sooner if he hadn't bullied and cast out his son since childhood.
• It Runs in the Family: Inko comments on how Heroic Self-Deprecation runs in the Mighty Family.

K-R

• Lack of Empathy: One of the most appalling things about the various fandoms shown in-story is that since they refuse to acknowledge that the situations reported by the media are real and not a "narrative" constructed by the Hero Commission, they have no problem dismissing, or even rooting for, major personal tragedies that befall their idols. One fan actually became offended by people calling them out for insulting Mary Shield, who had died of cancer years before, since it's been "proven" that Mary's actress simply went to Arizona when her contract was up. Omori Aimi actually outlined an "ideal solution" for Dekugate that involved Izuku "dying" against Nine, All Might and Inko "splitting up" out of grief, and Yagi finally getting together with David after "realizing things about himself" in the wake of his loss. She simply assumes that the public would just move on from "Deku", and All Might would be able to finally reveal how ridiculous the whole act was several years down the line!
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the first posts on Dekugate criticizes how All Might explained to her daughter in real life how he and Inko got together and fell in love, describing the setup and dynamics like something out of worldbuilding for fanfiction.
• Loony Fan: Several of the Nabu women are dedicated fans to All Might and are ecstatic to see him in person. However, they have zero affection for either his son or his wife and are looking for information on them to break apart their happy "family". And to Izuku's horror, there's a whole community of deranged fans on Dekugate who obsess over All Might, ship him with David or Nighteye, and believe that Inko and him are poxes that deserve to die.
• Love at First Sight: All Might admits to having fallen head over heels when meeting Parakeet for the first time. Inko, on the other hand, brushed him off as a showboating chump and needed more time to truly love him.
• Loving a Shadow: As the story demonstrates in detail, this is one of the perils of fame. All Might may be Loved by All, but not every fan is going to take his actual emotions into account. For instance, one fan complains about All Might's post-Kamino haircut "triggering their depression" without considering the emotional fallout their "idol" was dealing with at the time. More seriously, the Dekugate community adamantly refuses to see him as anything but The Woobie In-Universe. They have built an entire narrative around him being tragically separated from his true love, David Shield, and feel justified in spewing hatred towards his real-life wife for standing in the way of their fantasies.
• Malicious Misnaming:
  • Dekugate has given Inko the unflattering name of Inkstain and Izuku is often called the ball and chain.
  • Apparently the whole reason why it's called Dekugate to begin with is that the fans who learned of Izuku's pregnancy when his name was released misread it as "Deku", just like Bakugou.
• Manchild: In all honesty, Nitta Mari is so petulant and illogical that you have to feel sorry for the way she embarrasses her actual child when they're out in public. At one point she confronted Izuku by saying "You never answered my question" in the middle of a soup line- when she had never had the chance to ask said question, due to an emergency evacuation. After she finished harassing her fifteen-year-old nemesis, she immediately went online to complain about him. And all the while, she publicly "worries about the future", if a couple of "brats who have no idea what harassment is" are the heroes they have to look forward to!
• Meaningful Name: The Avian Hero confides in her son that she chose his name because it had the same kanji for "nine", which fits with his father and his father's mother being the eighth and seventh holders of One For All.
• Mind over Matter: Inko has strengthened her telekinetic Quirk throughout her hero career.
• Mood Whiplash: In Chapter 4, Izuku and his friends engage in a friendly game of hide and seek with the Nabu children during a local cookout. But when Izuku goes to hide, he discovers three of the townswomen express their disgust towards him and his mother while trying to find new ways to get some dirt on them.
• More Insulting than Intended: After Izuku makes the mistake of running into a typhoon to try to save his mother, Inko furiously points out that she could have his hero license revoked for that stunt. Her reaction is entirely justified, given the circumstances, but in the moment, she had assumed that her son had let the legacy of One For All go to his head, so she needed to reinforce the fact that Izuku still had a lot to learn. This was ‘not’ the right thing to say to a kid who was already in a spiral of needing to be ‘perfect’ to ward off the Dekugaters. By the time Izuku’s parents sent him to bed, he had already started to convince himself that his mother ‘would’ take his license, and that he might in fact deserve it for being unworthy of his parents’ legacy.
• Morton's Fork: Seeing as the crux of the Dekugate community is that they hate Izuku Midoriya, mainly due to his existence, his every action, and the actions of others relating to him, tend to run into this.
  • If All Might focuses more on interacting with fans when he's out with Izuku, the community points out how strange it is for such a kind man to neglect "his own son". If All Might focuses on showing Izuku affection instead, the Dekugaters state that "real" families aren't that openly affectionate, meaning they're playing it up for the fans- and typically, they'll resent this "farce" cutting into their experience of meeting All Might.
  • Since All Might and Parakeet kept their social media posts on Izuku to gushing about what a good boy he was, the whole situation is officially “too good to be true.” From the very start, children are loud, messy, and aggravating, so if they really had a son, they’d have some choice remarks to make (and no, it’s not possible that they might have occasionally been annoyed at Izuku and simply chose to keep those moments off the Internet.) On the other hand, any moment that could conceivably imply that All Might is unhappy with his wife or child is taken deadly seriously as the Dekugaters mourn the pain he’s no doubt going through.
    • Going even further than that, if All Might mentions his son on social media, the Dekugaters resent the obvious effort to raise Izuku's stock among the public. Focus on other things instead, and the fanbase will once again point out how out of character it would be for All Might to ignore his own son.
  • If Izuku doesn't maintain a stellar record against villains, the Dekugaters would scoff at how they're supposed to believe that such a weakling is the son of All Might. But when he triumphs against high-level villains, they point out how ridiculous it would be to have one teenager run into such dangerous threats and lambast the Hero Commission for putting people in danger just to set up their new "golden boy".
  • If Izuku emerges from a tense battle acting just as usual while around the cameras, the Dekugate community pounces on that as "proof" that the whole thing was staged, and he was never in any danger. React with understandable nervousness, however, and the community calls him too spoiled and fragile to ever succeed All Might- or else too lazy to be a pro hero, since a simple video shoot was enough to exhaust him.
  • When Izuku interacts with fans, there's just no way to win where the Dekugaters are concerned. If he fumbles in any way due to having less than a year’s experience in public speaking, then what more proof do they need that he can’t be the son of All Might? Show any sign that he’s an overwhelmed teenager? That triggers a field day of people comparing him to a sulky toddler. If he manages to get his act together enough to honestly say that he has a lot to learn but is doing his best, with the help of his friends and rivals, the Dekugaters just sneer at how transparent his act is, to the point of teaching others how to “see through” him. If he somehow became self-assured, eloquent, and socially adept overnight, that would just trigger another round of outcry over how much he loves the spotlight he’s leeching from All Might!
  • One of the factors that first clued Izuku into the "Dekugate" theories was a Loony Fan complaining that Yagi had sounded like he was laying out exposition for a fanfiction when telling Izuku how he and Inko had met; it all sounded too scripted to be real. But when Izuku had to respond that he didn't know something about his dad's life, the fans pounced on that as evidence that All Might really didn't tell him anything... and made fun of Izuku for "acting like a toddler" by brushing the question off that way.
  • Izuku (unknowingly) took quite a bit of heat from the community for not going on social media to ask for hopes and prayers when his father was in the hospital in critical condition. However, given that one of the main complaints Dekugaters have against Izuku and his mother is that they're shamelessly soaking up the spotlight at All Might's expense, it's hard to imagine that that same community would react well to the idea that he was busy on his phone while his father was fighting for his life. Either way, he's painted as callous.
  • Even his (supposed) love life falls into this! If he publicly associates with the boys in his class more than the girls, then the Dekugaters accuse the Commission of blatantly trying to appease them by bowing to their wishes for the next "Number One's" love life. This goes double if Shoto is involved, as they sense a "political match" being made between the "families" of the current top two heroes. If they believe Izuku's being set up with a girl, however, that's obviously the same heteronormative agenda that's shackled All Might being passed down to the next generation, making Izuku's love interest the next "Inkstain". Uraraka is a favorite option for this, as the Dekugaters detect similar impure motives to Inko's.
• Motivated by Fear: In Chapter 8, Izuku gets so worried about his mom's absence while working in a typhoon mixed with the potential fear of Dekugate turning her death into a spectacle that he leaves the agency to find her.
• Moving the Goalposts: Basically the crux of the "Dekugate" theory is that the hidebound Hero Commission has spent years separating All Might and David Shield since it would be unprofitable to have the Number One Hero be anything but heterosexual. The thing is, both David and All Might are already openly bi — it apparently just doesn't count unless they're currently in a relationship with a man!
• My Beloved Smother: Inko is very cautious about Izuku helping his friends clean up the community along with what he can accomplish on his own. It's justified for the former as he's still recovering from his destructive battle against Nine while the latter is based on how he grew up Quirkless and is still mastering an extreme Quirk like One For All.
• Named by the Adaptation: David Shield's wife is named Mary here.
• Non-Action Big Bad: The main villain of the story is actually a group of older All Might fans who have a great disdain for Inko and Izuku and have channeled their hatred through an online hate site called Dekugate.
• Not So Omniscient After All: The Hero Commission, at least from the perspective of the "Dekugate" community. In typical conspiracy theorist fashion, these Loony Fans have built the Commission up to be a shadowy force capable of legally restraining All Might, the World's Strongest Man, to the point where his entire life is shaped according to their "narrative". In the eyes of the "real fans", a good portion of the world's "villains" are actually hired guns used to make heroes look good (such as Shigaraki and "the laziest hostage situation ever.") Even when the Tinfoil Hats acknowledge that a threat is legitimate (such as Nine's recent attack on Nabu Island), it's taken for granted that the Hero Commission knew about it in advance, and positioned properly "marketable" heroes in place to make a good showing. In the culmination of this line of thought, the Mighty Shield shipping community is convinced that David Shield was framed for unwittingly instigating a major act of terrorism so the Hero Commission could keep the Number One Hero "marketable". Naturally, the Commission never actually claims omniscience, and in fact is often more outmatched than their PR teams would like to admit.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Both Toshinori and Inko have radical reactions when they learn from their son that he was motivated to run into the typhoon because of Dekugate. Toshinori becomes cold and serious after realizing that Dekugaters were on the island and harassing his family while Inko becomes nonresponsive and fragile.
• Original Character:
  • Nitta Mari, a red-headed woman with a Super-Hearing Quirk who's been a fan of All Might since the Bronze Age.
  • Mrs. Katayama, a woman who grows red flowers on her hair and is also a die-hard All Might fan.
  • Omori Aimi, a short Nabu woman whose Quirk allows her to transform into a husky.
• Open Secret:
  • Zigzagged with Izuku's lineage. The public knew about All Might getting together with Parakeet and bearing a child, but it wasn't made clear who the child was until Izuku entered Yuuei. Some of the 1-A kids had no idea until sometime during their first year but others (like Shouto or Tenya) knew to some degree.
  • On a much darker note, the Dekugate community assumes that the entire conspiracy must be common knowledge among everyone involved in the hero industry. As Izuku notes despairingly, the theorists use any "evidence" they can find to label the hero students who interact with him as either leeches who care more about fame than in exposing the truth, idiots who simply can't pick up the obvious, or "true heroes" who are every bit as furious at the situation as the Dekugate fans are.
• Papa Wolf: After being informed about Nitta Mari being a Dekugater who harassed his son, Toshinori becomes a lot more proactive in ensuring that the dumb bitch and her cronies don't try to harass his family again. This is best shown in the last chapter where he gives Nitta a well-deserved "The Reason You Suck" Speech after catching her trying to illegally film his son.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed, but in chapter five, one Dekugater expresses sympathy for Deku, commenting that no kid deserves to be treated like a "sounding board for heterosexuality" and hoping (possibly sincerely) that he at least gets to have fun when he's taken to what the user views as "photo shoots".
• Precision F-Strike: Employed when Toshinori calmly tells Nitta Mari that she and all the Dekugaters "can all fuck off."
• Psychological Projection:
  • Reading between the lines, this is one of the main issues with the Dekugate community. They insist that the Hero Commission is responsible for shaping people's entire lives to fit a "narrative", simply because it would be more profitable than the truth. But even as they rail against this "conspiracy", various Dekugaters are eager to workshop ways that the Commission could end the "Deku" charade, break up All Might's marriage, and get him together with David Shield- basically because they prefer their RP Fanfiction to real life.
  • For all the hatred Dekugaters spew towards All Might's hypothetical homophobic "handlers", the entire community participates in bisexual erasure by absolutely refusing to consider that the openly bi All Might could be happy with a wife and son.
• Related in the Adaptation: Izuku is All Might's biological son in this universe.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Toshinori gives two of these in Chapter 11. The first is to Dekugate via public post where he spells out how all of their conspiracies are full of baloney and that he hates them all for the horror they inflicted on his wife and child out of pettiness. The second is to Nitta Mari for openly hoping for Inko's death and her compliance with the other acts of depravity she was involved in. He also points out that she's setting a terrible example for her own children.

S-Y

• Self-Deprecating Humor: There was an online user known as "aconstantstateofwhyamidoingthis-deactivated".
• Sent Into Hiding: Parakeet confesses in Chapter 10 that the reason Izuku was homeschooled for most of his early years was to keep each other safe from Dekugaters who began harassing their family with death threats.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: In-Universe. On the internet, there's been bad blood between MightyShielders, EndMight lovers, and the somber NightMight fans. But one thing they can all agree on is that they despise Inko for getting in the way of their ship(s).
• Slumber Party: Chapter 3 features Izuku and his guy friends having a slumber party where they talk about Izuku's parents and other assorted questions.
• Small Name, Big Ego: This is very common among Dekugaters, since their best explanation for why they’re censured or sidelined by the Internet is that their theories are so on-point, the powers that be need to Make an Example of Them to keep the conspiracy going. This also shows itself in their entitlement; one fan felt genuinely offended that the Hero Commission hadn't read one particular blog theory of "a perfect end to Dekugate" and changed their plans for Yagi's whole life to match!
  • Certain segments of the Dekugate community are absolutely unconcerned with the "narrative" because they're convinced that they're All Might's largest source of income, and if the Hero Commission ever actually pushed them away, they'd lose their jobs shortly afterwards.
• Spoiled Sweet: Gender-inverted with Izuku. His parents are professional heroes, with his father being the Fairest in the Land, and is treated with never-ending adoration by the two of them. And yet, Izuku's heart remained humbled and he constantly thinks to himself how lucky he is to have two of the greatest parents in the world.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Izuku was conceived much sooner than Toshinori and Inko were expecting.
• Take That!:
  • The story is a hardcore critique of fans who engage in Real Life shipping and bully others for not agreeing with their over-the-top or even ludicrous beliefs.
  • Chapter 7 has Izuku discovering Bakudeku and is slightly disturbed by how the fans portray him as a fragile, effeminate wimp who needs to be dominated by his aggressive rival. That and the fan content which features the boys in very intimate situations.
• Tautological Templar: Naturally, the Dekugate community takes the normal Conspiracy Theorist view that ‘’they’’ are the only ones smart enough to see the truth, with various wordings. For instance, one fan lamented how hard it was for The Empath such as herself to watch the Sports Festival and see Deku’s schoolmates try to get some catharsis for being trapped in Deku’s shadow by throwing punches his way. Another influential fan, @thestarscantlie, publicly cleared themselves of the potential moral ramifications of spreading predictions without the subject’s consent by basically saying “Those with my level of psychic sensitivity are gifted with the morals and sensitivity to treat that knowledge with respect.”
• Tears of Joy: In Chapter 10, Izuku cries these after his father cracks a joke on the livestream about a stupid conspiracy about Izuku not being his real son. Toshi, Inko, and the Yuuei kids laugh it up leading to the little prince to laugh at how absurd the whole thing was.
• There Are No Therapists: Subverted. Inko considers assisting Izuku in looking for a therapist to help him with his feelings over Dekugate. And it's suggested that she herself has her own therapist given the hate she's been forced to live through for 18 years.
• They Just Dont Get It: Dekugate has existed for 18 years and remains insistent that All Might's relationship with Parakeet is staged by his higher-ups. Even after Toshinori makes a public post chastising Dekugate for harassing his family while proclaiming his love for his wife and son, the fanatics continue their work believing that he's being forced to say those horrible things just like in the past.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: After discovering the existence of Dekugate, Izuku is horrified to realize that any random person he passes on the street could be a lunatic who hates him and his mother and wishes for them to die painfully.
• Think Nothing of It: While Nabu Island is thankful for Izuku's heroic feat and rewards him and his friends with food and praise, the young boy feels he doesn't deserve it given the disastrous state of the community and how the free food and gifts should be used for the restoration efforts.
• Unwanted Assistance: At least a good portion of the Dekugate community have honestly convinced themselves that All Might and David Shield have tragically had their entire lives controlled by a corrupt Hero Commission for decades on end. In the view of these fans, everything they do, from writing graphic smut depicting the "couple", to campaigning to have David's accessory to terrorism charges dropped, to eagerly speculating when Izuku might be "killed off", to sending death threats to Parakeet, is in service of fighting back against this conspiracy and showing these "prisoners" that You Are Not Alone. None of the actual people involved appreciate their efforts, to put it mildly.
• We Are Everywhere: Izuku comes to a disturbing realization that Dekugate's followers hail from all over the world and have existed since All Might made his debut. Even if he were to stop the Nabu Trio from antagonizing him, that still wouldn't stop the countless critics and haters from continuing their absurd crusade against Izuku and Inko.
• We Used to Be Friends: After the I-Island incident, Inko decided to cut ties with David Shield and no longer sees him as a friend. The same applies to Toshi who admits that he's still furious at David for jeopardizing countless lives, including his own daughter's, just for a vanity project.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Inko is 100% Furious that her son willingly disobeyed orders to stay in the shelter so he could run straight into a dangerous typhoon in a failed attempt to rescue her. She also brings up how him needing to be saved by her team could place other potential victims at risk of not being rescued on time. Even Ochako gives him a disappointing glare when they reunite in their sleeping quarters.
• Yoko Oh No: The main reason why the Dekugate fanbase abhors Parakeet is that she got together with All Might, indirectly sinking their beloved ships like MightyShield. Their hatred of her prompts them to not only spew venomous insults and threats at her and her son but also craft a conspiracy theory about the HPSC forcing All Might to make a fake family with her and keep him away from his so-called "true love" David Shield.
• You Are Grounded!: Toshinori explains to his son that when they go back home, he'll be stuck at home grounded with no access to media devices nor is he allowed to go anywhere without his parents' approval.
• You Didn't Ask: Class 1-A never knew that Parakeet was Izuku's mom until her arrival on Nabu Island. Her son confesses that he never brought it up and they never asked him. The same applied to his dad being the Symbol of Peace.
• Your Favorite: Inko loves lemon pesto and her Prince Charming gets the idea to make that dish in a charity livestream alongside some of Izuku's friends (and Bakugou).

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