Fanfic / Juxtapose

Izuku and his friends. From left to right, Kensei Katsura, Hitoshi Shinsou, Megumi Yamato, and Izuku Midoriya.^note Art by radioactivepeasant at Tumblr.

"I don't need a different Quirk to be stronger. After all, all I need are these ten grams."

—Izuku's thoughts on his Quirk

Izuku Midoriya, an aspiring Hero with a useless Quirk, is heartbroken when his lifelong idol tells him to reconsider his options. He doesn't know what else to do but cry in the park until a husk of a man offers him ice cream. The man, named Toshinori Yagi, tells Izuku that he might still have a chance: If he worked hard and entered Yuuei's General Education program, then Izuku could potentially transfer into the Hero Course if he won the Sports Festival.

With a new path forward and a mentor to guide him, Izuku takes a very different road toward becoming a hero.

All it takes is a boy with a useless Quirk and a Hero with a slightly healthier body to lead them both down on an entirely new journey.

Juxtapose is a My Hero Academia fanfic by readerdreamer5625. It is an Alternate Universe fic that explores the ramifications of Izuku being born with a "useless" Quirk instead of being Quirkless.

The fic was last updated on December 31, 2019, and thus is a Dead Fic.

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Juxtapose contains examples of:

#-K

• Adaptation Name Change: In regards to hero aliases, due to some Point of Divergence events:
  • Since Tensei Iida remains alive and well as the hero Ingenium, Tenya follows his brother's lead of taking Italian car-associated names, and names himself Cambio, the Gear Hero ("Ingenium" being Latin for "excellence", "Cambio" being Italian for "gear" or "change").
  • Katsuki decides on the name "貘壊", read as Bakuha, which means "shockwave". See Meaningful Name below for his reasoning.
  • Shouto doesn't encounter or is influenced by Izuku during the Sports Festival, so he takes the name "Frost King, the Absolute Hero" since he still doesn't want to be associated with his father's flames.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Katsuki feels genuinely guilty for having treated Izuku poorly after overhearing the latter's talk with All Might. Because of this, he swears that he'll get Izuku into the Hero Course somehow and angrily attacks anyone who thinks otherwise.
  • Toshinori manages to make peace with Sir Nighteye after coming to the realization that his life as Toshinori Yagi is as important as his heroics as All Might. Because of this, Sir Nighteye happily agrees to mentor Izuku during his one-week work experience session and they're generally far more cordial with each other.
• Adaptational Badass: Kurogiri, of the League of Villains, was never a slouch in the source material. However, here he really shows off his stuff, chaining portals to create high-pressure water cannons powered by the ocean and single-handedly holding off numerous pro-heroes.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Katsuki of all people becomes this after realizing how Izuku admired him despite the abuse Katsuki dealt him over the years and how his actions could have possibly turned Izuku into a terrifying murderer. Because of this, Katsuki becomes fixated on helping Izuku become a hero and instantly flies off the handle when someone suggests that Izuku can't.
  • Sir Nighteye spends his introduction in the original series trying to rip apart Izuku's self-esteem and convince him that One For All should have been given to Mirio. Here, he makes peace with All Might and happily agrees to foster Izuku's development during the one-week work experience session. He's also fully supportive of All Might's decision to make Izuku his successor and wants to prepare Izuku for the day that it happens.
• A Day in the Limelight: Class 1-B gets more focus during the Sports Festival. The author even gave Monoma a backstory.
• Adults Are Useless: Defied. At the end of the Musutafu Attack Arc, it seems like the government has something horrible planned for Izuku with the reveal of Project Elpis. As it turns out, the entire plan had been Izuku's own idea, as a measure to reduce the chaos of All Might's retirement.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: After Izuku uses his Quirk to cripple the villain Tsuchigumo in a desperate attempt to keep his friends safe, he becomes terrified of his own destructive potential. He manages to get over it after Recovery Girl brings him to treat a man with painful kidney stones who would otherwise require expensive open surgery, seeing his Quirk as the tool it is.
• Almost Dead Guy: Even though Izuku saved Toshinori's life after the attack on Mustafu, it's still made abundantly clear that the man will be bedridden for the rest of his life from his extensive injuries.
• An Arm and a Leg: In chapter 30, Shigaraki realizes what Izuku does not- that Izuku is All Might's disciple, the one who he's chosen as his successor. So, while holding onto Izuku's neck, he tries to use his quirk on him... only for a cliffhanger to happen as Izuku uses his power on Shigaraki's hands. In the next chapter, Kurogiri manages to retrieve only one of them to be later reattached to Shigaraki by Doctor Tsubasa.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Izuku questions if Shinsou's power can work if someone responds non-verbally and when Shinsou questions how someone could respond non-verbally, Izuku sticks his hand out for a handshake. Shinsou is shocked and admits he never considered body language.
• The Atoner: Turns out Katsuki is this, having finally realized that, despite all the abuse he heaped on Izuku for having a "worthless" Quirk and how unheroic he has behaved towards Izuku in general, Izuku still looks up to him. The realization of the true application of Izuku's power is the catalyst for this Heel Realization, and he does everything to try and make up for the damage he inflicted by searching for Izuku when he gets into General Education, challenging him at the Sports Festival, singling him out as his Rival, and working to knock out Izuku's competition and meet him in the finals, ultimately in the hopes of getting Izuku into the Heroics Department "where he belongs." When Katsuki instead gets knocked out of the tournament in the first round, he ends up breaking down in front of Kirishima.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • Izuku seems to be able to come up with creative uses for any Quirk aside from his own. He also sees through Momo's use of a dust explosion against Katsuki and tries to warn him before it's too late. After realizing the true potential of his own Quirk, he starts brainstorming ideas that not even the Pros could have imagined like banishing a large volume of air in front of him to propel himself forward. His intelligence and analysis skills are high enough to impress Nezu to the point where he would’ve taken Izuku in as his protege on the spot during their first meeting if All Might hadn’t already called dips on him.
  • As an information gathering specialist, it's no surprise that Sir Nighteye is this too. He quickly comes up with uses for Izuku's Quirk that Izuku never dreamed of, refining his control by having him treat patients at the local hospital and eventually teaching him how to fly. Later on, he realizes that a panicked civilian who ran up to him was actually an impostor when he recognizes the civilian's face as the victim of an assault that appeared on the morning news.
• Bad Powers, Good People:
  • After Izuku realizes the true destructive potential of his Quirk banishing parts of people's vital organs, everyone present is glad that it's in the hands of someone as morally upright and kindhearted as him.
  • Hitoshi has his canon issue of his power potentially being very villainous, but overcoming it.
  • Katsuki is a...special example. His power is making explosions, which is all well and good, but his Quirk Counselors were not good at their jobs and told him over and over again that his power was only good for destruction, which is implied to have contributed to how Katsuki's personality came out so...prickly. That being said, Katsuki does want to be a hero and does care for Izuku in his own way.
• Bait-and-Switch: After the Sports Festival, with the Hero Internship arc coming up, Toshinori is seen giving a call to Gran Torino and thinking about how Izuku will love his internship. In the following chapter, Izuku and Toshinori meet Gran Torino and Izuku is excited about the internship, but Toshinori clarifies that Gran Torino isn't mentoring Izuku, he's mentoring Katsuki and Shouto. Instead, Izuku would be mentored by Sir Nighteye and Mirio.
  • Tenya losing in the Tournament earlier than in canon, at the first stage rather than the semifinals, may at first seem the reason why Tensei does not end up meeting Stain because he rushes to UA to see his little brother before that can happen. Not long after, however, it's revealed that Tensei wouldn't have met Stain in any case, as by then Stain has already been captured and turned into a Nomu.
• Battle Discretion Shot: When Katsuki and Shouto quarrel outside the room, their new mentor Gran Torino goes out to discipline them. When Izuku and Toshinori poke their heads out a moment later, he is dragging the two unconscious boys away.
• Berserk Button: One of Principal Nedzu's buttons is hit when Izuku tells him that because his grade school thought his Quirk was so useless, the teacher passed Izuku off as Quirkless and never assigned him a Quirk counselor. Because of how fundamental Quirks are to a child's growth, this constitutes nothing less than child neglect, and Nedzu is all but planning to bring the school up on every charge possible for that. It gets hit harder when he learns that they told Bakugou that his Quirk, and thus Bakugou himself, are good for destruction and thus molding Bakugou's personality around that.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted with Tamaki and Momo. Despite being a few years older than her, Momo sees Tamaki like a little brother.
• Big "WHAT?!": Class 1-A's reaction when they hear what Izuku's Quirk is.
• Blessed with Suck: Mineta's Quirk is also the cause of his dwarfism due to his sticky balls absorbing so many nutrients his body needs. Even dietary supplements don't help as the balls just absorb the extra nutrients as well.
• Blinded by Rage: Momo pulls off some pre-game Trash Talk before her match with Katsuki and fights a game of keep-away, keeping him so distracted and frustrated that when he finally gets a blind blast off, he does so in the middle of a cloud of aluminium dust. Cue dust explosion. Though admittedly, blinding Katsuki with rage isn't exactly hard...
• Blood Knight: During the Sports Festival's second round, Bakugou unnecessarily hunts down and battles as many of his own classmates as he can, even after completing the objective himself and being free to go. The disturbed audience subsequently concludes that he's this, especially given his cocky declaration at the start of the festival. In actuality he's trying to exhaust and hopefully eliminate the biggest threats before they can reach the third round, so Izuku is more likely to win the tournament and join the Hero Course. This unfortunately ends up blowing up in his face when his actions combined with his utterly brutal defeat to Momo when she takes advantage of his aggressiveness causes many people to see him as a brutish blowhard, who flubbed things when it mattered the most. As a result, he ends up receiving no offers and a bad reputation after the Sports Festival.
• Body Horror:
  • Izuku all but dismantles Tsuchigumo's insides, 10 grams at a time.
  • Later, Stain gets turned into a Noumu.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: In Chapter 2, the teachers discuss the tendency of students who rely only on their Quirks and in doing so, ignoring their physical conditioning. Later on, Izuku and his friends enforce this trope by training under Toshinori for physical conditioning, and later, Aizawa for weapons. Later on, Izuku goes to Recovery Girl to learn more about human anatomy in order to learn how best to use his Quirk non-lethally on people.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: All Might breaks Izuku's heart by telling him that he can't become a hero with his limited Quirk. While speaking with Izuku as Toshinori, Izuku says that he doesn't resent All Might for saying that because he knows that the hero only wanted the best for him. But that's when Toshinori tells Izuku that if he worked hard enough, he could apply to Yuuei's General Course and get the recognition necessary to enter the Hero Course by winning the Sports Festival.
• Break the Haughty: Katsuki is on the receiving end of this after Momo manages to curb-stomp him, leaving him borderline catatonic and he begins calling himself worthless for being unable to have the fight he planned to have with Izuku.
• Broken Pedestal: Hitoshi doesn't take it well that his idol Eraserhead just accused his friend Kensei of being a spy. He gets better about it later.
  • This actually becomes important, as Toshinori's tomfoolery becomes what differentiates him from All Might, which is what solves his miniature identity crisis.
• Call-Back:
  • Class 1A spends some time speculating about Izuku's Quirk, only for him to tell them openly. After the attack on Mustafu, there's entire threads dedicated to guessing what his Quirk is.
  • The entire third interlude is filled with these. A few include:
    • During the second interlude, Kensei mentions how Pro Heroes Online had been debating about Izuku's Quirk. An arc later, the third interlude follows up by giving a peek into Pro Heroes Online at the beginning, with a very familiar format.
    • The forum also mentions a Noodle Incident that happened during the Sports Festival, where Toshinori and Inko presumably made a big enough mess that they were recorded on television and were kicked out of the stands for it. This has led to in-universe Shipper on Deck on behalf of the people who believe Izuku to be All Might's illegitimate son.
    • The chapter is a massive callback overall, as it is all about Tsukauchi following up on the progress of his cases.
• Cannot Talk to Women:
  • Kensei, which is really not helped by his Psychometry powers enabling him to know everything about a girl's body when he touches them. Thankfully, once he has something to talk to them about, he's generally fine, as demonstrated by his match with Mei or sharing blueprints with Momo.
  • Izuku is also this at first, barely working up the nerve to speak with Megumi until they start talking about Quirks.
• Chekhov's Skill: The medical training Izuku undergoes along with Megumi and Kensei during the internship, for which he also earns a Quirk Paramedic certification, becomes important later as he uses it to try and save All Might in the aftermath of the Musutafu attack.
  • In a similar vein, his ID becomes the Chekhov's Gun, proving to a Pro Hero his qualifications for being the one to operate.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 30 ends with a captive Izuku Scalpeling off Shigaraki's hands.
  • Chapter 31 has All Might on the verge of death as Izuku, Kensei and Megumi prepare to perform on-field surgery to save him.
• Character Development:
  • The Sports Festival arc is this for several people, most notably Neito Monoma, Katsuki Bakugou, Momo Yaoyorozu, and Toshinori Yagi.
    • Surprisingly averted with Shouto, who gets none of his canonical development with the way he and Izuku never end up crossing paths in the Festival.
  • In chapter 30, Mineta gets some and examines his issues, with the author implying that more will come in the future.
• Combat Breakdown: Over the course of the Sports Festival's tournament, Izuku and Hitoshi both lose or damage their weapons and overuse their Quirks during their fight, causing their bout to devolve into a brawl.
• Combination Attack: Izuku's, Kensei's, and Megumi's Quirks are practically made to work with each other. Kensei scans the exact structure and condition of a target with a touch, Megumi transmits this information to Izuku, who can then delete any part of the target at will.
  • A non-combat version of this involves Megumi, Ragdoll, and Mandalay, who combine their Quirks to allow them to locate and establish telepathic communication with anyone within a large radius (which includes most of Musutafu). They call it The Norn, after the Norse Mythological figures.
• The Commissioner Gordon: Apparently, this has been the role of the Commissioner General for several generations to the successors of One for All.
• Continuity Nod
  • When Izuku ends up having to ask for rescue when Tsuchigumo popped up, he does it by the use of his cellphone to share his location like during the Stain Arc in canon while he played as distraction. However, Tsuchigumo, having been warned about Izuku's intelligence beforehand, ends up seeing through it.
  • Momo's internship with Fatgum also has them discussing ways of dealing with opponents with non-standard biology. Fatgum's response references the manga by mentioning how he had to fight such opponents a few years back.
  • Mineta's internship with Kamui Woods also shows signs of this, referencing Kamui Wood's traumatic past from his character notes.
• Cool Teacher:
  • All of the teachers at U.A. are respected Pro Heroes who care deeply about their students. Toshinori is this in particular to Izuku, Hitoshi, Megumi, and Kensei, becoming almost fatherly towards them (particularly towards Izuku, which Hitoshi repeatedly lampshades).
  • Sir Nighteye becomes this post-Character Development. After making peace with All Might, he becomes a stern and demanding yet reasonable teacher to Toshinori's protégé. He offers criticism when necessary but also heaps praise on Izuku for his accomplishments. He's happy to congratulate Izuku when he succeeds and plans on inviting him to an expensive yakiniku dinner party until the Stain Noumu reveals the League's plans to wreak havoc in Musutafu and assassinate All Might. This is a noted departure from canon, where he disliked Izuku strongly and wanted to make him quit so that One For All could be given to Mirio.
• Cue the Sun: Izuku meets Toshinori for the first time, not All Might, during a sunset. He meets Tsuchigumo at night.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During the Sports Festival:
  • Katsuki vs. Momo ends up going this way - with Katsuki on the losing end. Thanks to Momo borrowing the knowledge of some of Mei's inventions via Kensei and Megumi, she has all the maneuverability to stay out of Katsuki's reach, and uses a cloud of aluminium dust to turn Katsuki's explosions back on him with more force than he can take.
  • Then Momo is on the receiving end from Itsuka Kendou - troubled by her victory over Katsuki, she is in such a bad headspace that Kendou eliminates her in the next round.
  • Like in canon, Sero is this by Todoroki, though for slightly different reasons. For one, this time around it was done on purpose, with Shouto revealing in his narration that he intends to do the same, only slower, to Hitoshi just to spite Endeavor. He ends up losing due to Underestimating Badassery.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A few.
  • Kensei was raised by the villain Tsuchigumo and taught to be a criminal; it was only later that he was rescued and re-adopted by Detective Tsukauchi.
  • On account of being bullied as a kid, Monoma Neito was obsessed with getting the Quirks of powerful heroes (via their hair) so that he'd always have some form of power on hand, which only got worse after he accidentally copied a villain's Anger Point Quirk and went berserk, culminating in a full-on Never Be Hurt Again mentality. It comes to a head when he obsessively searches for Izuku after seeing his Quirk take down a Zero Pointer robot - only to enter a Heroic BSoD when he finds out what it is.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Momo knew that her potential had increased by getting Kensei and Megumi's help in understanding extremely complex objects and materials, but she wasn't ready to be in command of that potential after she eliminated Katsuki from the Sports Festival via extreme overkill, leaving her in a bad headspace. As such, after the Festival, she asked for Power Loader and Mei's help and use of the Support Department's facilities to gain a better understanding of her creations and learn restraint, in exchange for providing them with more exotic material.
• Determinator: Stain is still the raving lunatic who won't stop until he's either killed or sedated. Even being turned into a Noumu isn't enough to destroy his mind and sense of self, breaking free and escaping to try and foil the League's plans to assassinate All Might.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Yaoyorozu and Izuku's friends feel they dealt this to Bakugou. When Izuku stepped aside out of loyalty, his friends decided to help Yaoyorozu strategize with a side of petty revenge. During the match, she fills the arena with aluminum powder and explodes him so severely that she herself needs a full-body aluminum shield for safety. Not only does this severely injure him, but because aluminum powder explodes when it oxidates, it appears to Present Mic that Bakugou blew himself up, which Present Mic announces on live television, giving those watching the impression that he has poor control of his Quirk. Because of this and his fiery temper, Bakugou's reputation as a hero student is severely damaged and he receives no offers during the Internship arc, with most of the pros badmouthing him aloud during the tournament. This leaves a lasting impression on the viewing public, as in the aftermath Bakugou can't go anywhere without being recognized and judged harshly.
• Dungeon Bypass: Since Tsuchigumo is stopped before he can manipulate Kensei into delivering the plans for the USJ facility, the USJ villain invasion never occurs.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Wild Wild Pussycats show up earlier than canon to help with the Sports Festival while Hawks appears as a spectator.
• End of an Era: Chapter 32, which concludes both the "Work Experience" arc and what the author considers the "first season", is explicitly called such in its introductory tagline, as the status quo has been profoundly changed: All Might's career is over as he currently lies comatose in a hospital bed, Izuku and the world at large now know that he and Toshinori Yagi were one and the same, and Izuku has been passed One For All but still doesn't know it.
• Everybody Knew Already: Downplayed. By the time Toshinori's Secret Identity as All Might spills, it's a shock to most of his students still, but basically all of his friends and loved ones whom he didn't tell have already figured it out. Kensei knew because of his Scan, Megumi knew because of her Touch Telepathy, and Inko knew because he'd transformed directly in front of her at one point. The last to know were Izuku and Shinsou, specifically because Izuku didn't try to figure it out, wanting to wait until Toshinori told whatever secret he obviously had on his own, and Shinsou followed suit. It's also heavily implied Toshinori tried much harder to keep the secret from Izuku out of fear of their relationship changing, and so wasn't as careful when he wasn't around.
• Fainting
  • Sir Nighteye is knocked unconscious after seeing a horrifying prediction of the future when he uses his Quirk on the Stain Noumu. Mirio has to use specialized smelling salts to wake Nighteye up.
  • Izuku, after finishing the field surgery to save All Might, and not before throwing up. Ever since he was taken hostage by Shigaraki, the boy was practically running on fumes.
• Famed In-Story:
  • Izuku. The Sports Festival puts him on the public's radar as one of several notable students, but his profile explodes in the wake of the Musutafu attack, after which a combination of admiration for his acts of heroism, fascination regarding the mystery of his quirk, intense speculation regarding the nature of his relationship to All Might, and intentional use of this attention to deliver a galvanizing Rousing Speech to the public and hero community in the wake of All Might's coma appears to turn him a household name almost overnight.
  • Katsuki is a negative example. His notoriety isn't anything like the more frenzied fame Izuku gains, but his seemingly poor and irrationally violent behavior during the Sports Festival does mean he's recognized on the street and in stores afterwards, and the reception isn't positive.
• Fantastic Ableism: The discrimination against Quirklessness that happened in canon is discussed to be not a commonly accepted belief. Indeed, it is approached the same way as normal sexism and racism - something that isn't socially acceptable but happens anyway. Aizawa is both shocked and suspicious when he finds out how entire schools like Izuku's grade school have managed to persist in this kind of attitude without being noticed.
• Foreshadowing: Plenty, as the author loves to use this trope.
  • During the first chapter, Izuku uses his Quirk to clean blood stains from his clothes. This soon turns out to be what causes Katsuki to begin his atonement, as the realization of Izuku's potential makes him realize what kind of villain he might have unleashed if he kept up with his bullying.
  • Most of Kensei's scenes in the early chapters reveal some very suspicious things: he knows how to break into places, offhandedly mentions that his position in Yuuei hadn't been his choice, and upon being targeted by Hitoshi's Quirk, also says that he has had prior experience with such Quirks. As it turns it, this is because of his past as a former criminal under the Arc Villain Tsuchigumo.
    • Upon first meeting, Izuku's friends shake hands with Toshinori, and Kensei is noted to give Toshinori an "odd look." With his Scan, was there really any surprise that Kensei figured out Toshinori's identity?
  • The first time we get a scene of Shigaraki in the Sports Festival Arc, the scene ends with Kurogiri asking Shigaraki if he wanted to meet 'him'. At first, one might think that Kurogiri is talking about All for One, but then Shigaraki says:
    Shigaraki: Sensei did say that he had this special Noumu waiting just for me, and how could I resist his invitation? Not when I’m such a big fan…
    • As it turns out, Stain is the Noumu Shigaraki is referring to.
• Four Is Death: The four Nuomu designed to defeat All Might in the Musutafu Invasion arc are the result of a set of quadruplets sharing a Quirk where effects on one sibling happens to the rest.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Izuku and his Four-Man Band fit well into it.
  • The very friendly (if a bit awkward) Izuku is Sanguine.
  • The excitable Kensei is Choleric.
  • The aloof Hitoshi is Melancholic.
  • The quiet Megumi is Phlegmatic.
• Fights Like a Normal: None of Izuku's three friends have any damaging component to their Quirks at all, so they make up for it with martial arts skills and handheld weaponry. To a degree, this also applies to Izuku, because his power is lethal if used directly, and as such, he learns to rely on a staff come the Sports Festival.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Katsuki realizes early on that Izuku's Quirk has far more potential than he knows but refuses to tell him because it'd be pointless if he didn't figure it out himself.
• First-Name Basis: Hanging out with the lax and rough Kensei has gotten Izuku to drop the formalities around his friends, insisting that they call him by his first name rather than his last.
• Flight: Izuku learns how to fly by the time the Work Experience Arc comes in. He achieves this through Sir Nighteye, and later, Inko's guidance.
• Formerly Fit: Inko used to be a much slimmer woman before the stress of raising Izuku alone got to her and she started stress eating. Now that he's at U.A. and chasing his dreams, she's started exercising and performing community service with Thirteen's help, slimming back down.
• Gadgeteer Genius: As per canon, Mei is this. However, to a lesser extent, Kensei applies, with predictable results when they meet.
  • By combining Mei's plans, Kensei's psychometry, and Megumi's powers with Momo's quirk, Momo can make pretty much anything she wants to, of any design or complexity.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Twice.
  • First is during Tsuchigumo's Breaking Speech on Izuku. When asked why, Kensei answers:
    Kensei: Of course I just did! I warned you to not listen to Tsuchigumo, to ignore what he says, and what do you do? You listen to his nonsense anyway!
  • Second is on Monoma by Tsuburaba.
    Tsuburaba: Smack-The-Stupidity-Out-Of-Monoma Punch!
• Good Old Fisticuffs: After exhausting each other of their creative options, Izuku and Hitoshi's match ends up as this, much to the amusement of the audience.
  Present Mic: The finals of the Sports Festival… has now devolved into a mere fistfight from the combatants!
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • The narration mentioned that Nezu became envious of All Might when he learns just how intelligent Izuku is and he states that had All Might hadn’t already claimed him, he would’ve taken the freshman in as his own protege.
  • "Vlad King" Sekijiro Kan is a little salty when he hears that both new entries into the hero department, Izuku and Hitoshi, will be going into Aizawa's class instead of his. Though he is mollified by the proposal of more frequent inter-class activities.
  • Downplayed with Mirio. He tells Izuku it's very difficult to not be envious of him when Izuku has accomplished in one year what it took Mirio three to do - make his weak Quirk strong - but he's still just as supportive of his kouhai as ever.
• Gone Horribly Right: Kensei, Shinou, Mei, and Megumi help equip Momo with a strategy to defeat Bakugou using Aluminum powder, which is extremely reactive and explosive. It never occurs to them that this particular strategy would make it appear as if Bakugou had blown himself up. Their tactics not only injure Bakugou so badly as to permanently scar him, but add insult to injury by making him look utterly incompetent at controlling his own quirk on live television, causing him to be derided as a Super Loser by the public and the entire hero community.
• Happily Adopted: Kensei thinks this about his adoptive father, Detective Tsukauchi.
• The Heart: Class 1-A isn't shown as much in the earlier chapters, but Izuku's canon status as The Heart of 1-A is shown to be missing. There's definitely more tension between different members of said class, with Ashido openly mocking Katsuki, or Tenya being his pre-entrance exam levels of stiffness, or Todoroki not developing as he would have if he'd known Izuku. Changing this is the reason why Nedzu wants Izuku in this class by the end of the Sports Festival Arc, much to Kan's dismay.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: As a theme, this applies to Izuku and his friends, as well as several other characters in the story.
  • Izuku's Quirk Minor Banishment is the core of the fic's premise. At first, with its ability to only banish up to ten grams of matter from things Izuku touches seems useless, but then Izuku realizes that he could use it to even banish people's internal organs. He can also bust nearly any kind of restraint by wiping the seams from existence, and gain temporary super-speed by banishing the air, though at the cost of doing damage to his own body. Sir Nighteye points out that Izuku could potentially slice apart an entire building if he refined his control to banish matter on the nanoscopic scale. He also plans on training him to use Air Step to fly.
    • Ironically, despite most of Izuku's peers in primary school thinking otherwise, someone who doesn't agree is Katsuki - who could see how strong Izuku's Quirk really is and singles him out as his Rival. Apparently, Katsuki had come to a realization of Minor Banishment's true power when he saw Izuku banish Toshinori's blood from his clothes. After all, if Izuku could banish organic matter from outside a person's body, there was nothing stopping him from doing the same thing with their internal organs. Which Izuku, Recovery Girl, Megumi, and Kensei figure can be used in combination with their quirks to get rid of unwanted objects inside the body without surgery, which they are able to do on the first day they figure it out (to remove kidney stones). Izuku later effectively cures cancer with his Quirk.
  • Megumi's Touch Telepathy also applies. See the trope below for details.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Neito Monoma is dumbstruck when he finds that Izuku, the guy who could take out a giant robot with zero effort, has the seemingly useless Quirk Minor Banishment. So much so, in fact, that he nearly falls off the Sky Garden.
  • To a lesser extent, Izuku and Kensei due to Tsuchigumo's Break Them by Talking.
  • Nighteye when he foresees All Might's death during the Mustafu attack.
• Hero-Worshipper:
  • Izuku absolutely adores All Might, collecting all of his merchandise and looking up to him as the ideal Hero. He's devastated when All Might tells him that no, he can't be a Hero, but continues to look up to him regardless.
  • Sir Nighteye is obsessed with keeping Toshinori alive and begs him to retire peacefully, cultivating Mirio as the perfect successor for this purpose. Nighteye's appreciation for him goes so far that he's willing to leave Izuku in the hands of the League of Villains if it prevents a future where Toshinori dies.
• Hidden Depths: Mineta of all people gets this. His perverted and hedonistic behavior is a consequence of his terrible self-esteem over his height, appearance, and having a silly-looking Quirk. He actively sabotages himself and acts pathetic because he's too scared of what would happen if he does try to act up to his full potential, predicting it just won't measure up. He's also self-conscious about his height as a result, resulting in his irritation when Mirio says that Mineta will be as big as him one day.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During their Sports Festival battle, Momo keeps disorienting Katsuki and then dumps a cloud of aluminium dust over his head, such that when he finally gets off a blast, he consumes himself in an accelerated explosion that even he can't take.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Tenya in chapter 20. Instead of taking the win because Izuku is holding back (so as not to accidentally seriously injure him), he decides to purposely hold back, talks Izuku into going all out, and gets utterly thrashed by Izuku's new move.
  • Averted in the case of Hitoshi's match against Shouto. While he doesn't use Shouto's issues with Endeavor against him, he also doesn't try to help Shouto like Izuku did in canon.
• Hope Spot: During the Mustafu attack by the League of Villains, All-Might has just beaten the anti-All Might Noumu... and then Kurogiri reveals they have three more just like it.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Stain Noumu is so monstrous that Izuku calls Tsuchigumo cuddly next to him. He's described as a hulking patchwork of creatures so enormous that he could easily kick a man's head off with one of his legs. He can also use his proboscis to suck his victims dry and take their forms to ambush others.
• Hypocrite: Played for Laughs. Hitoshi complains about having to keep all of his and Izuku's shared fitness equipment in his room because Izuku's room is too full of merchandise. He lectures "‘Practicality over hobbies’, that’s what Aizawa-sensei always told me." Kensei points out that Shinsou is at that moment holding a giant cat pillow, and has a room full of cat-themed paraphernalia.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Izuku isn't Quirkless in this story, but his Quirk was considered so pathetic that he might as well have been while growing up. Because of this, he still gets called Deku all the way through middle school, is a Shrinking Violet without anyone to call a friend until he gets to U.A., and scribbled his way through more than a dozen notebooks of hero analysis. Toshinori is still planning to name Izuku the next successor of One For All, and ultimately passes it to him.
  • Despite all of the changes it took to get there, when Sero fights Shouto, he still gets curb-stomped.
  • Midoriya ultimately does join 1-A, albeit after the Sports Festival.
  • While Todoroki doesn't get to use his fire at the Sports Festival due to never directly confronting Izuku there, he's eventually pushed to by the latter in a different circumstance: he helps with the emergency surgery on All Might by cauterizing his internal bleeding with careful use of his flames.
• Innocently Insensitive: Uraraka initially asks why Izuku and Hitoshi care so much about the Sports Festival as it's mostly just for the heroics department, not knowing that they want to win so they can join the heroics department.
• Instant Expert:
  • Defied hard with Neito Monoma's Power Copying Quirk. The fact that he doesn't gain any experience with any Quirk he copies has had a big impact on him growing up, like not getting any skill with his hero Best Jeanist's fibers, not being used to a villain's Anger Point Quirk and going berserk as a result, and not seeing any utility to Izuku's Minor Banishment Quirk despite witnessing it taking out a giant robot.
  • Downplayed with Megumi, who quickly learns martial arts through her Touch Telepathy. While she can learn it quickly, the knowledge she gains is more broad than deep, and she is mentioned to practice hard in her downtime to master the things she picks up. In the middle of a fight, though, the "Broadness instead of depth," more than makes up for it.
• Involuntary Group Split: During the second stage of the Sports Festival, Izuku and his friends are split up by trees and the ground of the forming Sky Garden. Several characters later suspect that Nedzu did this entirely on purpose, as the team would've easily completed the stage if they hadn't been separated. As a result, Izuku and his friends end up prioritizing reuniting with the rest of the team before they actually make an attempt to clear the stage.
• Ironic Echo:
  • During his match against Izuku at the Sports Festival, Tenya calls Izuku out for holding back against him. This is especially ironic, considering Izuku's own match against Shouto in canon.
  • In Shouto's match against Hitoshi, this irony is even more exemplified by the match-up and the differences between the relationships Izuku has in canon.
    Izuku: Hitoshi-kun, don't lose!
  • In another moment between Shouto and Hitoshi, the latter drags the former to eat with his friends Kensei and Megumi, and Shouto makes clear that he just wants to see what's going on, not because he wants to make friends, in an exact parallel to how Hitoshi acted when Izuku dragged him in to make friends. Kensei is in hysterics at the irony.
  • While Izuku is struggling to use his Quirk to manipulate the air and fly, Inko gets him out of his Centipede's Dilemma by making him realize that his Quirk is a part of him and would not betray him. The words she uses? "After all, it's your power, right?"
• Is That Cute Kid Yours?: Toshinori is frequently mistaken for Izuku's father or stepfather. It helps that Inko and Toshinori themselves have chemistry. After All Might's secret identity is blown, one of the main theories floating around the internet is that Izuku is his secret son.
• Kid Hero: This is the source of Tsukauchi's dilemma during his interlude once he starts to find out about how Izuku is turning into the Symbol of Hope. In the end, he promises to support him all the way once Izuku explains his position.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Before his Character Development, Monoma tries to lecture Tsuburaba on how to use his Quirk. When Monoma tries using Tsuburaba's Quirk the way he insisted, he finds his barrier is too weak to even slow Izuku down.

L-Z

• Laughing Mad: Monoma has a bout of this after he acquires Izuku's Quirk, believing it to be the strongest present, only to learn it's actually quite weak.
• Level Grinding:
  • Just like any muscle, using your quirk and training it over and over again will make it much stronger. When the story starts out, before Izuku starts training it, he can only banish 10 grams at a time. By the time of chapter 29, that limit has been increased to twenty grams, twice that of the original limit.
  • Another of these limits is that previously, Izuku could only banish up to 3 kilograms in total per day. That is, combine all the matter he banishes in a day, he banishes 3 kilograms' worth before he starts getting headaches. Like the limit stated above, by chapter 30 this limit has also doubled. It's to be known whether or not this kind of growth also applies to Izuku's range limit.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Tsuburaba's barriers are made with the air in his lungs, which not only limits the volume of air he can place in one barrier but having to make several in quick succession leaves him gasping for air.
  • Nedzu's intelligence enables him to understand things far before anyone else, but Juxtapose shows that it does not make him immune to making mistakes, or letting his own biases cloud his judgment. If Nedzu is in a situation where he believes that his theory is true, then he will distort and force the pieces of logic into his theory as opposed to considering the evidence properly. When he realizes that Kensei isn't the traitor of their own free will, and are being controlled by a dangerous villain because of him putting too much faith in his theory over judging the evidence objectively, Nedzu outright panics at his colossal error in judgment.
• Magnetic Hero: Izuku. Nedzu is aware of this and puts him in 1-A specifically to help them unify and develop as people.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Katsuki's hero alias: "貘壊", read as Bakuha, which means "shockwave". It's a Double-Meaning Title in many ways: the first kanji, normally read as "explosion", can also be read as "tapir", in this case, which relates to the Baku, a Youkai in Japanese folklore that both consumes good dreams from people and keeps nightmares away. As such, Katsuki's alias could be interpreted as "The demon who destroys dreams" or "The protector that crushes nightmares". This all stems from his Break the Haughty and Character Development during the Sports Festival, where he finally came to terms with how he bullied Izuku and tried to crush his dreams, and how he's starting to see beyond his Quirk which he once thought was only good for destroying.
  • To a lesser extent, also Shouto and Tenya's Hero Aliases. As per one of the author's notes, Tenya's name as "Cambio" also refers to the change in his and his brother's fate from canon. Shouto's name, on the other hand, is about his lack of the character development he had in canon, with the double meaning of "Absolute Hero" being an attack to both Endeavor's fire and his less-than-heroic actions despite being a Pro Hero, as well as a pun on the phrase "Absolute Zero," the point at which no more molecular motion can occur (the point where it is physically impossible to get any colder).
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Investigating Izuku's old middle and elementary schools for their neglect in letting Katsuki bully other students reveals a potentially nation-spanning conspiracy by the Meta Liberation Army to indoctrinate people with strong Quirks.
• Mistaken Identity: When she first meets them, Ochako comments to Hitoshi that she believes that Toshinori is Izuku's step-dad (while the latter two are absent), and Hitoshi doesn't correct her. A week later, Ochako tells the same thing to Izuku, and the infuriated Izuku immediately goes after his three friends for not correcting her before clearing up the misunderstanding.
  • The third interlude shows a considerable number of people are certain that Izuku is All-Might's illegitimate child.
• Moment of Awesome: Izuku's effortless takedown of the giant robot in the obstacle course is this In-Universe. It causes hero students to come congratulate him or perceive him as a threat, utterly astonishes the audience (who weren't expecting much from general education students) and, on a more plot-relevant level, inspires Monoma's fixation on Izuku which comes to a head in the second challenge. Izuku saving Monoma from falling off the Sky Garden also counts; the two incidents cause Izuku to be crowd's clear favorite contestant by the time the tournament begins, with the stadium even cheering his name en masse.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Izuku can use Minor Banishment to clean stains from clothes. Izuku using this is later on revealed to be how Katsuki manages to figure out Izuku's real potential. Later on, he refines his control enough to perform non-invasive surgery, banishing everything from kidney stones to brain tumors.
  • Maybe a bit more fantastic than normal, but Mei employs Uraraka's help to put a satellite in space.
  • Gran Torino reveals that when Endeavor was his sidekick, he used to make Endeavor heat up his tea for him to teach him to control his Quirk. Endeavor found this and many other mishaps to be so humiliating that he quit a few months later.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • The reason for Katsuki's Heel Realization: he was the first to realize the true power of Izuku's Quirk, and that he did his damn best to fill him with anger and hatred. The fact that Katsuki didn't turn him into a villain doesn't matter; he could have succeeded and that's more than enough.
  • Izuku has this response after he deletes parts of Tsuchigumo's eyes and internal organs. The Villain happily points out that Izuku could easily become a mass murderer with a Quirk like this. It ends up taking Kensei to smack him to get him back to normal.
  • This is Momo's reaction after she curb-stomps Katsuki, through Trash Talk, explosive accelerator, and extreme overkill, leaving him a scorched, unconscious wreck. It leaves her in such a bad headspace that she loses in the next round. She later clarifies that she talked to Recovery Girl, and found that Katsuki, if he doesn't seek treatment from a specialist, will carry scars from what she did to him.
    • To a lesser extent, all of the people who helped Momo also have this reaction. Even Mei is left speechless.
• Mythology Gag: Uraraka, when fighting Sero in the Sports Festival, comments that she's glad she's not fighting Katsuki, as "That would have been messy." In canon, she did exactly that, and it destroyed the ring in a man-made meteor shower.
• Never Be Hurt Again: What fuels Monoma's motivation after he goes on a rampage after absorbing a villain's Berserker Quirk.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: During their match, Hitoshi is rather disappointed when it seems Izuku fell for his Quirk right at the start.
• Non-Indicative Title: The first arc is labeled in-story as the USJ arc. It is formally completed by Chapter 10. Not only does the USJ attack not even happen due to the Tsuchigumo incident robbing the League of both coordinates and opportunity, owing to UA now being on high alert, but the arc actually ends before anyone even attends the USJ exercise. Instead, it occurs in a post-arc interlude.
• Noodle Incident:
  • During the Sky Garden Treasure Hunt, Team Hatsume apparently gave the audience a "show straight out of a cartoon." This for some reason involved Iida carrying Mineta and Hatsume on his back while zipping around Sky Garden in a manner compared to a "runaway train." Mineta begs a change of subject when this is mentioned because he's trying to repress the memories.
  • During the sports festival, Inko and Toshinori got kicked out of their front-row seats in the stands for littering and causing a disturbance. This was apparently caught on camera. We don't hear exactly what happened, but Inko blames Toshinori and the scene they made created Shippers on Deck.
  • Gran Torino shares several stories about Endeavor's rookie days with Shouto, such as "the time with the tractor and the soggy cat".
• Not Helping Your Case: Bakugou's basic demeanor tends to cement a negative first impression into people's minds. His actions during the Sports Festival did him no favors since him intentionally attacking and trying to eliminate the most powerful students in the early rounds even when he'd completed the objective and no longer needed to fight them made him seem like an out-of-control, fight-hungry glory hound. While he does have an issue with pride, in reality he was trying to prevent heavy-hitters from making it into the tournament so Izuku would be more likely to win and get into the Hero Course.
• O.C. Stand-in: After Chapter 199 of the manga, Kuroiro of Class 1-B is effectively this, with a different Quirk of the same name and a quieter personality.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During the League of Villain's raid on Musutafu, Kensei and Megumi take out their fair share of Villains with nothing but their hand-to-hand combat skills and a few tasers. Mineta does the same with Inko's help.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Bakugou sees Izuku as this for Bakugou himself. It's abundantly clear that this is just how Bakugou is dealing with his guilt in the aftermath of his Jerkass Realization over previously treating Izuku like he was worthless.
  Bakugou: "I’m not just aiming to become better than All Might. I need someone who I can fight me for it, and that’s Deku. Nobody else deserves to get the chance to be my rival.”
• Parental Substitute: Toshinori acts like Izuku's father, not only offering support and guidance but also doing familial things like working with Izuku's mother to help Izuku move into his dorm at UA. It's to the point that he's frequently mistaken for Izuku's dad by people who see them interact.
• People Puppets: What Tsuchigumo can do to his victims with his silk thread.
• Plot Parallel: The second stage of the Sports Festival is an event called "Sky Garden Treasure Hunt." On one level, the plot is a treasure hunt for parachutes, the acquiry of which allow teams to escape the Sky Garden and win the stage. On another level, the arc plot focuses on Monoma using the Sky Garden as an opportunity to hunt for powerful Quirks.
• Point of Divergence: A major theme in the fic, as per Word of God, is the divergence from canon events due to small changes butterflying into major effects. Several of these changes include:
  • The USJ Attack never happening because of how Kensei's kidnapping was prevented, something that was greatly implied to have happened in canon and a crucial part of what led to the Attack happening in the first place. This then leads to...
  • The Sports Festival's second stage changing due to the availability of a higher budget combined with forewarning of the increasing Villain Threat.
    • Said second stage has Nedzu pulling in Kamui Woods and Pixie-Bob to help create the battlefield, and as a result of meeting, the two start dating afterwards.
  • All of the above culminate into the League's large-scale invasion of Musutafu, having none of the experience from USJ to make them move cautiously and spending much more time preparing with little unchecked ambition.
    • Toshinori even almost dies by the end of the arc, barely keeping himself conscious enough to pass on One for All to Izuku.
  • Katsuki loses badly to Momo in the first round of the third stage of the Sports Festival. Because of his loss (and with the boasting he did earlier, not to mention the nature of the loss), many of the potential Hero Agencies that did submit requests for him in canon (he got the most of anyone in 1-A) form the opinion that he's a volatile loudmouth who has no business being anywhere near their agencies. What's more, the League of Villains also loses interest in Katsuki, preventing his future kidnapping.
  • Todoroki loses his match against Hitoshi, and a big part that causes it is what happened above with Katsuki. Because there wasn't an All Might-lite in his class, due to Izuku being in Class 1-C, Todoroki had fixated on Katsuki during the Sports Festival. When Katsuki lost against Momo, Todoroki did not take it well, and decided to use his power to toy with his opponent... which led to his defeat.
    • Thanks to Katsuki and Shouto losing, the League loses any and all interest in their original plan to steal the Sports Festival winner and convert them to their cause, since the "Top Hero Kids," were taken down by General Education students, and thus weren't impressive.
  • Thanks to them not being more humble and careful after their loss in the USJ (which didn't happen in this fic), the League of Villains decides to go big and captures Stain to turn him into a Nomu.
    • As such, Tensei isn't crippled and instead shows up at the Sports Festival to cheer his brother on.
  • The aftermath of the Sports Festival sees a few Class 1-A members choose different hero aliases; see Adaptation Name Change above for specifics.
  • A talk with Kensei leads Toshinori to reach out to his old colleagues like Gran Torino and Sir Nighteye earlier.
  • With some insight into the Todoroki family dynamics, Toshinori wants to keep Shouto away from Endeavor's agency while the investigation is going on, and with Katsuki receiving no internship offers due to his behavior in the Sports Festival, Toshinori decides to fix both problems and sends both Shouto and Katsuki to intern with Gran Torino, someone who even Endeavor won't argue with.
    • Izuku in the meantime, gets sent to intern with Sir Nighteye.
• Police Are Useless: First this is downplayed, before outright averted. While Tsuchigumo ends up only taking them hostage during Kensei's abduction, later on Tsukauchi's activities end up becoming crucial for solving major issues in the story.
• Power Misidentification: After the Sports Festival, Class 1-A, as well as many of the spectators, try and speculate exactly what Izuku's power is, on account of all it has accomplished including making its user one of the festival's winners. Their best guess so far is matter manipulation since they remember it doing something with the air. And then Izuku just tells them.
• Power Perversion Potential: Kensei's quirk has the potential to know everything about a girl's body if he so chooses. Thankfully, a) he's a good boy and b) he Cannot Talk to Women and gets so flustered he'd never actually use it for that purpose. This is discussed during his match with Mei.
• Pride Before a Fall: Without Izuku in the class, Todoroki challenges Bakugou as his greatest competition. Once Bakugou loses, Todoroki stops taking his opponents seriously and starts toying with them instead to prove a point, leading to his own defeat.
• Pulled from Your Day Off: Just as Izuku and co. are about to relax and enjoy an expensive yakiniku dinner, the League decides to lay waste to the city with an army of Villains and Noumus.
• Putting the "Pal" in Principal: Nedzu is the friendly and cheerful head of U.A.'s faculty who wants nothing but the best for his students. In this story, he's also a pronounced Papa Wolf who intends to sue and ruin the Quirk Counselors whose negligence gave Izuku and Katsuki their respective complexes.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The aftermath of Katsuki and Momo's Sports Festival spar is this: Momo beats Katsuki, but the means she had to resort to to do so and the broken state of her classmate afterward left her so mentally weakened that she loses in the next round.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The author goes as far as to namedrop this trope by the third interlude. See Adults Are Useless.
  • The lead of the interlude is Tsukauchi, who is following up on the progress of his investigations, as requested by the other characters. Fair, sympathetic, and willing to bend the law slightly to do his job, he ends up solving several of the problems in canon, such as forcing Endeavor away from his family and inadvertently finding out about the Meta Liberation Army months before their first appearance in canon.
  • As always, Inko is this to her son Izuku. She ends up advising Tsukauchi to trust in the teenage protagonists, while also giving him motivation to work even harder in his job.
  • Nezu had already been a Papa Wolf in the earlier chapters, but in the interlude, once he finds out about the Meta Liberation Army, he takes the lead in the plans to defeat them.
  • Then there's the Commissioner General. He's stiff and cynical, but as it turns out, part of his job as the Commissioner involves helping the next successor of One for All, and he correctly identifies Izuku as the latest owner. He ends up colluding with Izuku to initiate Project Elpis.
• Refusal of the Call: Megumi wants to do this. She might have heroic instincts and is willing to help out her friends, but she really does not want to go into the Pro-Hero business.
• Revenge Before Reason: Subverted. Initially Todoroki refuses to use his fire even if doing so could help save All-Might's life, only giving in when Izuku gives him a What the Hell, Hero? over it.
• Rule of Three: Three matches end up as ties in the Tournament. First is Megumi's match against Tsuyu, where Megumi wins but she refuses to move on to the next round to give Hitoshi a bye. Second is Kensei's match against Mei, where they barely even fight and just end up connecting over gadgets. The third? Happens during the finals between Hitoshi and Izuku, which ends up transferring them both into the Heroics Department.
• Running Gag: All of Toshinori's first meetings with friends and future family are various kinds of awkward and bizarre. They all openly tease him for it.
• Secret-Identity Identity: Discussed and ultimately subverted when, thanks to his interactions with Izuku and his friends, Toshinori realizes that while being All Might is a major part of his life, All Might is ultimately just a facet of his real identity Toshinori Yagi, and not vice-versa. As a result, he begins reaching out to his old associates, like Gran Torino and Sir Nighteye.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Turns out that Toshinori is really bad at keeping his identity secret. Of the core cast of Izuku and his friends, Izuku himself was one of the last to know—Kensei, Megumi, and even Inko had figured it out.
  • Even the Commissioner General gets in on this, though to give Toshinori credit, apparently everyone who gets the position knows, and they help the successors of One for All as a secret duty.
• Serious Business:
  • Quirk Counseling, since how a child grows up thinking about their Quirk (strong, weak, useless, or otherwise) has a big impact on their personal development. So Nedzu hearing how Izuku was essentially written off as Quirkless because his grade school thought his Quirk was useless and essentially had his mental growth stunted is a big insult for him.
  • Mandalay of the Wild Wild Pussycats treats the existence of Megumi as this, as those with telepathic gifts (like hers and Megumi's) are very rare. She makes it a point to say that even if it's unprecedented and General Studies students aren't supposed to get a work studies internship, the Pussycats are going to extend one to her.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • Class 1-A had a running Side Bet over who could guess what Izuku's Quirk was, only for Izuku to anti-climatically tell everyone later.
  • After spending years grooming Mirio to be the perfect successor to One For All, Sir Nighteye ultimately decides to go along with All Might's plan to name Izuku his successor after seeing Izuku and his friends restore the value All Might places in "Toshinori Yagi" when Nighteye had failed for years.
• Ship Tease: Every scene involving Inko and Toshinori just overflows with this. By Chapter 29, even Izuku starts to think that the two of them are getting together and is understandably conflicted over the idea. In the end, though, he decides to support them if they ever do get together.
• Shown Their Work: If it involves science of some form, the author has extensively researched it for the fic before including it in the story.
• The Social Expert: Kirishima proves himself to be more socially savvy than he first appears when he helps improve Katsuki's social standing in his class after he makes an honest effort to change by means of spice, milk, and misdirection.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Momo's victory over Katsuki is one for Shouto. He planned to do much the same as in canon, beat the strongest person in the tournament purely with his ice side to spite his father. Unfortunately, he chooses to fixate on Katsuki, the other strong person in 1-A, who gets knocked out relatively quickly. Since the person he fixated on wasn't strong enough, Todoroki assumed that he could breeze through the remaining competitors, not even taking his semi-final opponent seriously to show how strong his ice is... which gets him knocked out of the tournament when Hitoshi takes him by surprise.
  • The same victory is also one for Katsuki. Katsuki had planned to build Izuku up in the eyes of the public as his Worthy Opponent so Izuku would get public attention despite being in Gen Ed, and then to push and challenge Izuku on live television while knocking out the toughest of the competition so Izuku was more likely to meet Bakugou in the tournament's final round, wherein Bakugou planned to throw the fight so Izuku could get in the Hero Course. Instead, his unexpected defeat cuts that plan short.
• Spider People: The villain, Tsuchigumo.
• Spock Speak: Sir Nighteye seems to be very prone to this.
• Stations of the Canon: One of the very few fics that takes pains to avoid this as much as possible. Due to butterfly effects and Point of Divergence, many canon events have been modified or even avoided entirely, such as:
  • From Chapter 1, due to Toshinori having better health than in canon, he doesn't hurry to leave as much and Izuku successfully convinces him to stay and talk as All Might. As a result, his secret identity remains intact and Muddy doesn't get away.
  • Due to Izuku heading directly to the General Education Department at Toshinori's behest, the Entrance Exam, Quirk Apprehension Test, and Battle Trial Arcs have also been skipped.
  • The USJ Arc is replaced by another conflict entirely. See Point of Divergence above for details.
  • Izuku doesn't have One For All, meaning that he doesn't get trained by Gran Torino after the Sports Festival. Instead, Sir Nighteye happily agrees to foster Izuku's development after making up with All Might. Gran Torino instead teaches Katsuki and Shouto.
  • The author has stated that the end of the Work Experience arc is where things will go completely off the rails. And it wasn't like that arc was a shining example of stations, either- Shigaraki loses one of his hands, Kurogiri is captured, Izuku's work placement is with Nighteye, Stain gets turned into a Nomu, All Might reveals his true identity to Izuku and gives him One For All and is forced to retire from his injuries, and it's implied that Izuku's speech at the hospital ended the era where people rely on a Symbol of Peace and start standing up for themselves.
• Super-Empowering: As a result of Kensei and Megumi downloading so many schematics and object properties into her mind, as of the second interlude, Momo has overcome most of her Quirk's limits, which she demonstrates by creating graphene sheets with next to zero electrical resistance, rolls of ultra-tough, ultra-light spider silk-like cloth, and a cube of diamond in quick succession to the support department.
• Super Loser: This is the opinion most of the public and many of the Hero Agencies have developed about Katsuki during the Sports Festival. On account of his loudmouth boast at the start, followed by his loose cannon personality during the Sky Garden round, and ending with a crushing Curb Stomp loss to Momo, a lot of them now think he has too much bluster and too little heroism potential to have as an intern, with the result of him getting zero offers afterwards, much to Izuku's dismay. Even the League of Villains has lost interest.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Izuku and Hitoshi entered the U.A. Sports Festival believing that only one of them could be the winner of the tournament and thus gain entry into the Heroic Department. When their final battle ends in a draw, All Might reveals the secret judging protocol of the school and enters both of them into the Hero Department.
• Telescoping Staff: Izuku has one of these designed by Kensei. Its purpose is as follows: it allows him to fight without having to use his bare fists, he also can use it to fling himself and/or teammates to places, and it conveniently extends the range of his Scalpel.
• There Are No Therapists:
  • Subverted. Quirk Counselors are a major part of a child's development in this world, and keeping a growing child in a good headspace about such a fundamental part of themselves is very Serious Business. Thus, it really puts Principal Nedzu on the warpath when he learns that Izuku's grade school had deemed his Quirk so worthless that he was treated as Quirkless and given no counselling.
  • Revealed to have been played with Katsuki's own childhood Quirk Counseling later on. As it turns out, even though he did get his own counseling, Adults Are Useless had been in play. Not only has Katsuki been left believing that his Quirk - and by extension, himself - was made for violence, their failure with Izuku has left Katsuki skeptical of counselors in general. It had earlier been revealed that these are the same counselors that Nedzu is pursuing lawsuits against for their treatment of Izuku, and Nedzu had speculated that they were just as bad to other kids.
• Throwing the Fight:
  • Kensei and Megumi throw their respective matches after forcing ties in order to give Izuku and Hitoshi a better chance of reaching the top of the Sports Festival.
  • Is later revealed to be what Katsuki had planned to do if he ever came to fighting Deku in the Sports Festival finals. Kirishima is surprised when he finds out, especially considering Katsuki's obsession with winning.
• Too Clever by Half:
  • Izuku is so convinced of his Quirk's worthlessness at the start of the story that he never thinks to explore it even when he's able to find countless new applications for the Quirks of others. It takes him unusually long to come up with ideas for it that others easily point out to him simply because he's too focused on the fine details rather than the larger picture.
  • Nedzu admits this of himself, as when he declared Kensei a traitor due to his past of being raised by a villain, he fell into the trap of those with Super-Intelligence Quirks to make the evidence fit their theory instead of the other way around.
  • Izuku's friend group, and especially Momo, end up falling into this trap during the Sports Festival tournament. Faced with Bakugou's poor attitude and the prospect of Momo being utterly crushed by one of the strongest and most relentless students in the class, the group bands together to come up with a brilliant counterstrategy. Momo is reassured that she has plenty of support from her friends, and the group is able to get some In-Universe Catharsis for how Bakugou had treated Izuku growing up, and the "extras" since he arrived at U.A. What they all fail to grasp until it's too late is that their payback involved putting Bakugou at the epicenter of a dust explosion. Even with his resistance, Bakugou came out with serious scars, and it would have been worse if Izuku hadn't screamed a warning in time. In addition, nobody considered the impact the display would have on Bakugou's reputation. Far from looking like a worthy foe who forced Momo to pull out all the stops, Bakugou looked like a complete idiot who blew himself up under pressure. This all happened on live TV, basically ensuring that he wouldn't get any offers for internships- which was the main goal of the Sports Festival. Needless to say, no one was all that happy with the way that match turned out.
• Took a Level in Badass: A bit of this and Adaptational Badass for a lot of characters.
• Touch Telepathy: Megumi's Quirk. However, as it activates itself whether she wants it to or not, early on in the story, it causes her some issues. With her friends' help however, as well as the encounter with Tsuchigumo, she soon realizes that her Quirk has more uses than what she had previously thought.
  • For one, combined with Kensei's Quirk, this allows Kensei to scan objects before Megumi passes the blueprints to someone else, with amazing synergistic effects with certain other people such as Momo and Izuku.
  • It also later lets her learn her opponent's martial arts to Instant Expert levels.
  • While only briefly shown, she can use it with multiple people at once to temporarily create a miniature Hive Mind.
  • She can use her powers to transfer information to other people, best shown when she copies plans from Mei or Kensei and transfers them to Yaoyozoru for her to create.
  • And then she combines her Quirk with Mandalay's thought transmission and Ragdoll's Psychic Radar to form a real-time dispatching service during the Mustafu attack.
• Tough Love: Bakugou's way of showing support for Izuku and trying to inspire Izuku to achieve his full potential is declaring war on Izuku. Repeatedly. Even in Bakugou's televised opening speech in the Sports Festival. It turns out aggression is the only way he thinks he can interact with someone, due to his quirk counselors convincing him that it's his nature to be destructive.
  Bakugou, to Izuku: "We’ll have a match so overwhelming that even when you lose, you become a Hero!”
• Tsundere: Bakugou, to the point that those who aren't familiar with him just think he's a violent loudmouth. Kaminari lampshades this when Bakugou unexpectedly makes lunch for Izuku and gives said lunch to him while cursing and avoiding his eyes.
• Underestimating Badassery: Shouto does this to Hitoshi. It's because of him playing with Hitoshi instead of ringing him out immediately that Hitoshi is able to beat him.
• Warrior Therapist: Kamui Woods is trying to be this for Mineta during the Work Experience Arc. Not only does he take in Mineta as an intern with the intention of trying to rehabilitate Mineta, he also correctly pinpoints that the core of Mineta's issues lie with his self-esteem problems. In the end, he calls Mineta out for this, saying that as a Hero, Mineta couldn't continue what he was doing.
• Wham Line: The author loves leaving these at the end of certain chapters.
  • In Chapter 6:
    Izuku: Toshinori-san, Kensei-san is missing!
  • Followed by the next chapter:
    Midnight: Principal Nedzu! We’ve found something in Katsura Kensei’s dormitory room!
    Nezu: "What did you find, Midnight? Is it something that we can use to pinpoint Katsura Kensei’s location?
    Midnight: No, it’s a withdrawal letter from Katsura-kun on how he is leaving Yuuei!
  • Which is then followed by:
    Tsuchigumo: Come to my web, said the spider to the fly.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: A recurring theme in the story is that many Quirks, even those that seem useless on the surface, can be powerful or even devastating if used with enough ingenuity and effort.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: A conversation in Chapter 27 has everyone jokingly discuss a manga series with Izuku as the main character.
• World Tree: The giant tree in the center of the Sports Festival's second stage, Sky Garden, references this and bears this name.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: A variation. Monoma spends the entirety of the Sports Festival's second stage attempting to get Izuku's DNA, believing from Izuku's takedown of the giant robot that his Quirk is inherently overpowered. When Monoma finds out Izuku's Quirk is Minor Banishment, Monoma's mind snaps.
• You Leave Him Alone!: Mineta, up until that point doubting his own effectiveness as a hero, finally steps up when he and Inko Midoriya are confronted by villains in Mustafu and Inko, a civilian and the mother of the boy he looks up to, suggests that he, a Pro Hero in training, run and leave her behind. This prompts him to finally stand his ground and hold them off while she runs, only for her to declare she'll stay to protect him as well.

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