Cover Art Drawn by Tunafishprincess at https://tunafishprincess.tumblr.com/post/660878557272227840/art-commission-for-the-lovely
After being hit by a strange quirk, Izuku finds himself holding two white-haired brothers who claim to be from the past. When All for One takes an inexplicable interest in the time-travelers, All Might volunteers to protect the adorable brothers.
OR: All for One loses his shit after his younger self and his long-dead brother travel forward in time and get adopted by All Might.
Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong is an Alternate Universe My Hero Academia fanfic written by katydid / chibikaty.
Other TV Tropes pages for this author include Custody Battle and Fear No Evil.
Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: For Hisashi and Yoichi, their parents were extremely physically and emotionally abusive in separate ways- their father pushed Hisashi to overachieve and neglected Yoichi (when he wasn't hitting him because Yoichi was a convenient target), and their mother convinced Hisashi that he was a monster and poisoned Yoichi. A tradition that All for One later continued with Izuku.
- Accidental Time Travel: The fic starts with eleven-year-old All for One and his little brother accidentally traveling forward in time to the canon time period.
- Adaptational Heroism: The younger version of Hisashi/All for One is heading in this direction.
- Alternate Timeline: This story diverges when Small for One and young First travel forward in time. This story uses the parallel universe version of time travel, so their older selves are also around (as a vestige in the case of the latter.)
- And I Must Scream: Yoichi's fate after Overhaul disassembles him.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Young Yoichi teases his older brother mercilessly about his crushes.
- Bash Brothers: Young Hisashi and Yoichi, when they team-up to beat Stain.
- Befriending the Enemy: All Might pulls an accidental version when he adopts Hisashi, the younger version of All for One.
- The Berserker: Izuku, young Hisashi, and young Yoichi all have feral tendencies. In particular, Yoichi when he bites All for One to stop him from killing Hisashi, and Izuku when he attacks All for One to save All Might.
- Berserk Button: Threating one brother triggers this in the other one.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Izuku goes completely feral when Yoichi is kidnapped by Overhaul, and then later the MLA in the epilogues.
- Big Brother Instinct: Young Hisashi is a very overprotective older brother. So was All for One in the flashbacks, although that went terribly wrong by the end.
- Big Brother Worship: Young Yoichi still worships his older brother, to the disgust of his older self.
- Blood from the Mouth: Yoichi has the same mysterious illness as canon which he believed to be tuberculosis. He was in fact being poisoned.
- Bully Magnet: Both Izuku and Yoichi in the past.
- Cain and Abel: The origins of All for One and the First's ancient feud are explored.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Izuku tells his father exactly how much he hates him at their first meeting.
- Cassandra Truth: Downplayed. The things that First tells Yoichi about All for One (which Yoichi flat out refuses to believe) are all true... but only for the adult All for One. The version that got yoinked into the future hasn't yet become set in his alternate self's toxically protective mindset and hasn't yet thought yet of doing All for One's later Kick the Dog actions like poisoning his brother. And with Toshinori's good influence and his older self as an example of exactly how bad he could get, Young Hisashi outright refused to ever go down that path.
- The Chain of Harm: All for One’s parents abused him, and he later turned a similar form of abuse on his brother and son. Hisashi is horrified when he finds out.Hisashi: I have become my mother?
- Child Prodigy: Hisashi is a little genius... and sometimes too smart for his own good.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Young Hisashi expresses concerns about both Izuku and his little brother’s self-sacrificing tendencies.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Shouto Todoroki, as is popular fanon.
- Culture Clash: Considering they come from the Dawn of Quirks, Hisashi and Yoichi are thrown for a loop when they are summoned to Izuku's time. They have no idea what are hero students or pro-heroes are and flabbergasted that powers are completely normalized instead of getting someone arrested or trafficked.
- Dark Secret: Young Hisashi keeps it secret that he knows his older self is All for One. He also hides that knows his younger brother’s illness is due to poison. He fears that Yoichi would blame him, because he was tricked by his mother into helping her do it.
- Darwinist Desire: Inverted. All for One chose Inko in the hopes that Izuku would be genetically weaker and Quirkless so he would never be able to leave him. In both cases, it rather spectacularly failed to work. Inko ratted him out to All Might (resulting in his near death) so she could escape him, and Izuku was given All Might's quirk and made it even stronger.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hisashi and Yoichi take turns dishing out snark, especially to their older selves. Izuku has his moments too.
- Deliberately Cute Child: Young Hisashi pulls this whenever he wants something, like a pet tiger.
- Designer Babies: Izuku was conceived in vitro. His appearance and Quirklessness were no accident of nature. All for One made sure to manipulate Izuku's genetics so he would look like himself but with green eyes to resemble Yoichi and have no Quirk to decrease the chances of successfully running away from his father.
- Didn't Think This Through: Hisashi thought that crashing the Bakugou vs. Ochaco Sports Festival match with evidence of Bakugou's history as a bully would kill two birds with one stone: it would sabotage Bakugou's performance in his match against Ochaco, and it would make Bakugou pay for what he did to Izuku. Believing himself to know better than Izuku how to handle this bully, Hisashi didn't think about the many consequences:
- Exposing Bakugou means exposing Izuku. It's traumatic and humiliating for Izuku to have his personal history aired on national television, and Izuku is now forced to deal with his personal history being a news-worthy topic of conversation for a national audience. Also, in order to keep Bakugou from being permanently defined by his bullying and villainized for the rest of his life in the eyes of the public, Izuku becomes the only person who can fix the mess this created by lying about Bakugou's character growth in a press conference.
- Because the plan to salvage the situation counts on the public now believing Bakugou has redeemed himself, UA now can't visibly punish Bakugou since his cruel behavior is ostensibly no longer happening and the news is watching closely enough to hear of any punishments counter to the narrative.
- Half the school becomes convinced Izuku arranged the broadcast himself and swooped in to save Bakugou to get revenge and make himself look good. This includes a good portion of 1A, some of whom refuse to engage with Bakugou and some of whom now judge Izuku for the slimey thing he supposedly did. This makes Izuku's trauma an inescapable and freely discussed topic even in class, with many not treating the subject with the sensitivity it is due.
- Doting Parent: All Might's first action after taking in the Shigaraki brothers is a shopping spree. He's also understanding of Hisashi's initial distrust and is patient in earning his trust.
- The Dutiful Son: Tomura follows all for All for One's orders, unlike Izuku. At least until Tomura finds out a few secrets about his past.
- Dysfunctional Family: Hisashi and Yoichi were raised by two parents who were both abusive in different ways, and it left scars on them both. Even after their parents died, their influence on Hisashi is why he continued their abuse by poisoning Yoichi.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: All for One loves his family, but as possessions, not as people. This motivates him to try to kidnap Yoichi and Izuku.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite intending to kill Hisashi after learning about Nighteye's foresight, in a twisted way of protecting All Might, Stain can't bring himself to kill Yoichi when the kid jumps on him, dropping his knife to yank Yoichi off himself. It's exactly this that leaves him open for Hisashi to steal his quirk.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: For all that Hisashi is trying, he still has trouble comprehending things like forgiveness and honor. After he humiliates Bakugo on national television, he's surprised that Midoriya is upset about it because he didn't want Bakugo to suffer that level of Disproportionate Retribution, and that Uraraka isn't pleased that she won the Sports Festival because someone cheated on her behalf.
- Evil Gloating: Young Hisashi suffers from this tendency, which blows his cover after he exposes Katsuki Bakugo’s bullying of Izuku in a hijacked Sports Festival broadcast.
- Fatal Flaw: Hisashi and his future self, All for One, have their tendency to assume things about people, especially that they're dumber or more gullible than they really are. Hisashi gets sense smacked into him. All for One hasn't, and it very much shows.
- Family Eye Resemblance: Yoichi and Izuku share a similar shade of green eyes with white pupils.
- Family of Choice: To All for One's horror, both Yoichi and Hisashi are adopted by All Might. Later, Inko and Izuku move into Might Tower and join the family.
- Food as Bribe: As an inexperienced parent, All Might leans into offering cake as a reward.
- For Want Of A Nail: Due to differences in the circumstances of Stain’s defeat he never inspired the creation of the League of Villains. This led to happier lives for many of the members.
- Forgiveness: As indicated by the title, forgiveness is a major theme of the story.
- Freudian Excuse: The extent to which the trope applies is debated in-universe, but while Hisashi was always precocious and somewhat empathy-impaired, his abusive past definitely played a part in why he became All for One; his father constantly pressured him with unrealistic expectations, and his mother manipulated him into thinking of himself as evil.
- Future Me Scares Me: Young Hisashi is terrified that he'll grow up into All for One, especially after learning that All for One continued their parents' abuse of Yoichi despite hating it as a child. It gets even worse when he realizes All for One accidentally killed his brother. And he's pissed that All for One never got a white tiger.
- Gilded Cage: All for One's vault of choice.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Inko is the reason All Might was able to find and take down All for One the first time. She leaked the location to All Might in hopes of escaping All for One. A completely normal civilian enabled All for One's downfall. Inko never sought recognition out of fear of being discriminated for being a villain's wife, fear that her husband's associates would find her and a desire for a quiet life.
- Growing Up Sucks: Young Hisashi is very disappointed at the mess that his older self made of his life. All for One doesn't even have a white tiger!
- Heroic Suicide: When All for One tries to kill young Hisashi, Yoichi throws himself out the window. He knows that All for One wants him alive, so this forces All for One to stop strangling Hisashi in order to catch Yoichi in time.
- Honesty Aesop: Young Hisashi prevents his relationship with his little brother from deteriorating as it did in the original timeline by admitting he was tricked by his mother into helping her poison Yoichi.
- 100% Heroism Rating: All Might’s heroic reputation at times burdens him and at other times is useful.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: All for One is very concerned about young Yoichi being kidnapped by Overhaul and goes to rescue him... but not without first trying to leverage this into an opportunity to kidnap Izuku. It's also very obvious he doesn't plan to give Yoichi back after saving him.
- Immortal Immaturity: All for One is insanely petty.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In a misguided attempt to ensure Ochaco's victory during the Sports Festival, Hisashi uses his hacking quirk to broadcast Bakugou's bullying of Izuku, including the time Bakugou told Izuku to kill himself. He also exposes the corruption in Aldera Junior High, revealing how they blatantly enabled bullying and mocked Inko whenever she filed complaints. The former's reputation is ruined while the latter has All Might and 'Toshinori Yagi' tear them a new one.
- Lack of Empathy: Young Hisashi suffers from this, and All Might uses psychological techniques in order to teach him empathy.
- Lesser of Two Evils: After Yoichi is kidnapped by Overhaul, Izuku and Hisashi decided that All for One is the lesser of two evils. Normally All for One would be a far greater evil but at least he won't torture Yoichi.
- Like a Son to Me: All Might considers Izuku like a son, and vice versa.
- Long-Lost Relative: Izuku is All for One's son. In this fic, neither of them knew because All for One lost his memories after his fight with All Might.
- Love Makes You Evil: Past All for One was first motivated to commit crimes to protect his younger brother.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: First references Star Wars when trying to tell Izuku that he's his uncle, but his reveal is cut off. Izuku later hijacks his father's reveal.
- Manipulative Bastard: All for One is a manipulative bastard as in canon. He manipulates his younger self not to tell anyone about their connection, so he can reveal it to All Might at the worst possible moment.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Played for laughs with young Hisashi and seriously with All for One.
- Morality Pet: To some extent, young Yoichi serves as this to young Hisashi, although he can't always stop his older brother. As Alll Might earns their trust, he becomes this to Hisashi as well.
- Mouthy Kid: As former street kids, both young Hisashi and Yoichi distrust adults and don’t hesitate to talk back to them.
- Multiple Endings: The series included two alternate endings to the fic.
- Münchausen Syndrome: Hisashi and Yoichi's mother had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, leading to her poisoning Yoichi. As an adult, All for One also started poisoning his younger brother to prevent him from leaving home. Then he continued to poison Izuku.
- Nature Versus Nurture: Whether young Hisashi is destined to become a villain is a theme of the story. A good portion of his antisocial tendencies were due to growing up in an abusive household during an extremely politically unstable time where the suspicion of having powers would gotten him killed or trafficked. However, even with his improved environment, Hisashi still has issues with empathy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Young Hisashi gives Rewind to Yoichi, directly leading to him being kidnapped by Overhaul.
- Not Quite Dead: All for One's survival comes as an unpleasant surprise to All Might.
- "Not So Different" Remark: All for One tries to pull this with his younger self, but Hisashi doesn't buy it.
- Oh, Crap!: At the end of Chapter Ten, it's revealed that Stain is targeting young Hisashi.
- Older Than They Look: All for One, especially after his face is healed.
- Other Me Annoys Me: All for One gets to be on the receiving end of his own snark when he meets his younger self. He doesn't enjoy the experience. The vestige Yoichi/First also finds his kid self annoying, although they do start getting along later when First recognizes that Hisashi is getting the Character Development his original self never had.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The vestiges are similar to ghosts, and their power to interfere with the living world increases over the fic.
- Power at a Price: Young Yoichi’s quirk allows him to increase the power of other quirks, but so much that the quirks can become dangerous and destroy the user.
- Papa Wolf: All Might to all three of his kids (including Izuku).
- Parental Favoritism: Hisashi and Yoichi's parents have an extremely messed up version of this:
- Their father clearly favors Hisashi, to the point of placing all expectations of inheritance on him. Which means their father was controlling of what Hisashi was allowed to do, forbade him from doing child-like, expected perfection from him at all times and would beat Yoichi if Hisashi ever tried to deviate or lash out. Their father deeply hated Yoichi to the point that he openly hoped that Yoichi would die faster from his chronic illness to stop financially burdening the family and distracting Hisashi.
- Their mother favored Yoichi because he was more naïve, adorable and more dependent on her. She had Munchausen By Proxy and would poison or deliberately injure him to bring attention to herself and keep Yoichi dependent on her. The mother despised Hisashi for seeing her true nature, frequently calling him a monster and a sociopath. The mother forcibly enlisted Hisashi into helping her poison Yoichi.
- Precocious Crush: Young Hisashi's first crush is Ochaco, becoming infatuated with her after she becomes the first person to beat him at Monopoly and demonstrating her money-managing skills. However, he notices that Ochaco seems to have feelings towards Izuku. In chapter 23, he's moved on to Fuyumi who has emotional maturity and can empathize what it's like to be an older sibling trying to protect your younger ones from an abusive father. The author confirms this is merely Played for Laughs. Still, this side of young Hisashi is amusing and adorable to watch, and ironic considering his immortal future counterpart.
- Promotion to Parent: Deconstructed. Hisashi is 3 years older than Yoichi and still a child himself. Hisashi was forced to become a parent to his younger sibling to protect him from their parents, leaving Hisashi's abuse at their hands unaddressed as he never learns proper family dynamics and begins to inflict the same mistreatment onto his younger brother. A good chunk of the story revolves around Hisashi unlearning the abuse and letting go of his coping mechanisms of forced maturity and cynicism now that he's in a safe environment and has an adult with his and Yoichi's best interests.
- It is noted in the comment threads that Yoichi also has a degree of this towards Hisashi - he is very aware of his Morality Pet status, and having more understanding of ethics and empathy means he often has to be the one to steer Hisashi in the right direction. In fact, Vestige!Yoichi has a breakdown upon seeing that young Hisashi is turning out better this time around, asking what he did wrong to end up with All For One. A major bonus of finally having invested and trustworthy adults around is that Yoichi can finally share this burden.
- Right-Hand Cat: After young Hisashi finally obtains a white cat, he carries out his fantasy of stroking her while carrying out his schemes.
- Running Gag: Hisashi's obsession with obtaining a white tiger and Shouto's secret lovechild theories in the omakes.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Sir Nighteye predicts that young Hisashi will murder All Might. It later turns out that he misunderstood his vision, and it was actually older All for One possessing young Hisashi's body. In addition, All for One only would have had the opportunity to steal young Hisashi's body if All Might had pushed him away because of the prophecy. The prophecy was self-fulfilling and All Might was able to avoid it by ignoring it.
- Sir Swearsalot: As in canon, Katsuki Bakugo has a foul mouth. Despite being only eight years old, Yoichi can swear in three different languages.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Whenever young Hisashi and All for One meet in dreams.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Izuku looks very much like young Hisashi, but at first everyone assumes that Izuku is a distant descendant.
- Supreme Chef: Inko teaches All Might how to cook.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Izuku is able to persuade Tomura to defect from All for One’s side by revealing that All for One gave him Decay and triggered the deaths of his family years ago.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: All for One tries to give one to young Hisashi, but Hisashi turns around and gives him one back, pointing out that he lost everyone he loved in his pursuit of villainy.
- Thicker Than Water: Played straight with young Hisashi and Yoichi. Averted when Izuku makes it plain that he considers All Might his true father, not All for One.
- Unstoppable Rage: The entire Shigaraki-Midoriya family is prone to going feral, with notable examples including Izuku’s rage when All for One nearly kills All Might and Hisashi’s rage at his little brother being kidnapped by Overhaul.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Played for creepiness value. Inko says that All For One's very first words to her were complimenting her eyes, which look just like Yoichi's. He apparently romanced her solely because of this, in order to produce Izuku as a Replacement Goldfish.
- What You Are in the Dark: All Might faces his ultimate test as a hero when Sir Nighteye prophesizes that either he or Hisashi will die. He must decide if he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save an innocent child who has the potential to become his worst enemy. Initially All Might finds this an easy choice, as Hisashi's identity as the young All For One wasn't known to him and he would gladly give his life to save any child, let alone his own adopted son. When the truth is revealed, it's in the worst circumstances from the mouth of All For One himself, just as the villain had planned; it sends All Might into emotional turmoil as all the worrying behaviours Hisashi had previously displayed line up with All For One's manipulative, cruel villainy. Most people would understand if All Might became at least avoidant of the eleven-year-old version of a terrible villain who has, at the very least, caused him incredible amounts of physical and emotional pain... but all it takes is seeing the distressed Hisashi afterwards for All Might to be outright horrified by some of the thoughts he'd been entertaining.He could never, ever want that. Not for the boy he’d come to love so much. His precious child.
- Whole Episode Flashback: A side story, Kill What You Love, explores All for One and First's past in this AU.
- Yandere: All For One is a familial example. He is so possessive and obsessed with his brother and son that he drugs them so they're too unhealthy to leave and keeps them in vaults like personal treasures, all while trying to force them to act like a loving happy family. Anyone who gets between him and them is put on a kill list, and he uses the lives of those on that list to ensure his family's compliance. He also can't stand sharing the objects of his obsession, as shown by his attempts to murder his younger self.
- You Owe Me: Both All for One and his younger self like to arrange for people to owe them favors. After young Hisashi helped Kuroguri and Tomura escape from All for One, he later called in the favor when Overhaul kidnapped his younger brother.
