No one is immune to entropy, heroes least of all.
Midoriya Izuku didn't change overnight. The process was slow and gradual, the end result of a life filled with rejections and roadblocks: All Might's refusal to train him, the daily torment of his friends and teachers, the crushing weight of society's collective dismissal of his existence. Not even life as a student in U.A.'s General Studies course could dampen his ambition - but everyone has a breaking point. Destruction brings renewal, and with the death of his old dream, Izuku has gained a new one - one he intends to share with all of Japan.
All orderly systems descend into chaos. No one is immune to entropy, heroes least of all.
Entropy is a My Hero Academia fanfic by Imperium42
. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here and Fanfiction Dot Net here.
Entropy provides examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
- Asui Tsuyu finds themselves pinned down by Toga, who threatens to cut off their tongue. Toga draws a lot of pleasure from their begging, but decides she didn't ask politely enough and lops it off anyway.
- After losing an arm and a leg to Gentle, Suneater begs them to spare their life, right as Gentle snaps out of his Unstoppable Rage.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The death of Tomura is pretty tragic — they get beaten to a pulp while unable to defend themselves, then casually ignored as Dark Shadow tears them to pieces.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Tsuyu goes through this when Toga cuts off her tongue, though it gets reattached later. She also gets shot in the hip by Hatsume.
- Midoriya ends up cutting off one of his limbs after almost being caught by Kendo.
- A literal example with Tamaki, who loses both an arm and a leg after a battle with Gentle Criminal.
- Anyone Can Die: Casualties in this series include Iida, Tsukauchi, Gran Torino, All Might, Hawks, Uraraka, Vlad King, and Aizawa.
- Apathetic Teacher: Aizawa. This factored into Hakagure's defection. When confronting him, they point out that he never bothered helping her get a proper costume during her time at U.A., as he was more focused on the more powerful members of his class three years she was at U.A. Aizawa himself agrees.
- Arms Dealer: Hatsume is this in order to fund the Syndicate.
- Artificial Limbs: Midoriya after he cuts off half his arm.
- Attack the Mouth: Overlap with Tongue Trauma when Toga cuts off Tsuyu’s tongue.
- Badass Normal: Midoriya is still Quirkless. He is also the undisputed leader of the Syndicate.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- This happens multiple times, most notably on the Black Day, when the Syndicate erases police records, kills the Number One hero Hawks, infiltrates UA and kills All Might, and kills off half a dozen heroes, while injuring Edgeshot and Mandalay severely enough for them to stop heroing.
- Again at the army base, where the Syndicate escape with David and Melissa Shield, gaining some sort of leverage against the United States Government while crippling Red Riot and Suneater.
- One again during the U.A. raid, where they manage to kill Vlad King, Aizawa and Uraraka, blow up the campus, and expose Endeavor’s familial abuse, while painting the next generation of heroes as incompetent and incapable of fighting back.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Mustard, Shinso, Toga, Shigaraki, and All For One all suit this trope, as their Quirks are labeled "Villain's Quirks" by society.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: Midoriya went from wanting to be a hero to public enemy number one in three and a half years.
- Black Mail:
- David Shield gets blackmailed into working with the Syndicate after they learn that he helped organize a terrorist attack, which the government helped cover up.
- Along similiar lines, Kaminari is recruited into the Syndicate when they answer a phone that Shigaraki dropped, exposing his status as the League's mole inside U.A..
- Blatant Lies: Kendo attempts to pass off Black Whip as just another evolution of her Quirk.
- Body Horror: Dabi and Midoriya fit the bill, the former’s skin is burned and rotting, while the latter is missing his arm and his torso is made up of scars.
- Broken Pedestal: After All Might crushes Midoriya's dreams again by backing up Aizawa's refusal to let him try out for the Hero Course, he throws out his whole collection of memorabilia.
- Bullying a Dragon: Uraraka opts to give Midoriya A Taste of Their Own Medicine by hitting multiple Berserk Buttons at once, all with a shit-eating grin on her face. This ends poorly for her in the long run.
- Career-Ending Injury: Invoked upon Tamaki, Kirishima, Edgeshot, and Mandalay.
- Cartoonish Super Villainy: Gentle and La Brava before they join the Syndicate.
- Choke Holds: Toga to Melissa, Izuku to Toga during training and All Might just before his death.
- The Corrupter: Midoriya is meaninglessly responsible for corrupting five former hero students to his side.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: After Spinner and Gentle are kidnapped they are tortured for information.
- The Cracker: La Brava mainly, but Hatsume and Yaoyorozu to an extent.
- Create Your Own Villain: All Might and Aizawa do this to Midoriya, though both deny full responsibility for it.
- Deconstruction Fic: Of Villain!Midoriya fanfic, tackling many of its usual tropes and clichés and picking them apart:
- As the summary above notes, Izuku did not turn villainous overnight. Even without the Sludge Villain getting free again and providing a chance for him to prove himself to All Might, he continues pursuing his dreams, even making it into U.A.'s General Course.
- While Izuku and the Syndicate hold All Might and Aizawa responsible for driving them into villainy, both hold firm that they are responsible for their own decisions.
- Villain!Midoriya is frequently depicted as a nearly unflappable chessmaster. Here, however, while he remains an Evil Genius, he's hardly immune to making mistakes, especially when it comes to sensitive topics...or matters of revenge. This spiteful streak repeatedly works against him.
- The idea of Izuku joining the League of Villains. He goes to Shigaraki to join him but is turned down because he is quirkless.
- Dehumanizing Insult: Deku to Midoriya, Sub-Human to Spinner.
- Didn't See That Coming: Midoriya didn't expect Kendo to come back so soon to save All Might.
- Dismemberment Is Cheap: Invoked with Midoriya after he replaces his arm with a better, robotic version.
- Don't Create a Martyr: the reason not all Heroes who cross paths with the Syndicate die, and why Kendo is spared in the U.A. raid.
- Don't Tell Mama: Shinso gets worried about what his parents will think when they find out he became a villain.
- Doorstopper: As of August 11, 2022, exactly four years after its start, the fic has over 450,000 words, 33 chapters, and does not seem to not even halfway done.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Midoriya Inko attempted suicide twice after the Syndicate's broadcast. Following the second attempt, they were transferred to a hospital and kept under surveillance.
- The demise of Uraraka is made to look like this; in reality, Hagakure finishes them off.
- Dying as Yourself:
- During the opening chapter, Tomura dies as Tenko.
- In their last moments alive, Uraraka regains enough control of themselves to realize what's about to happen to them.
- End of an Age: The Black Day marks the end of the age of peace within the hero community and causes the end of U.A.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite all his crimes, Midoriya and the other UA villains still love their parents.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The members of the Syndicate to one another.
- Eviler than Thou: Midoriya pulls this on Tomura
- Evil Former Friend:
- Monoma to Kendo.
- Yaoyorozu to Class A in general, especially to Jiro and Todoroki.
- Hagakure to Class A in general, Uraraka in particular.
- Kamakiri to Setsuna Tokage.
- Evil Genius: Played with. Midoriya is clever and analytical, but he also makes some very biting mistakes out of spite and malice which end up costing him resources and allies.
- Evil Gloating: Midoriya's trademark most of the time. Played straight with Tomura, Kendo, and U.A. in general. Subverted with Uraraka, who succeeds in making him fly off the handle after mocking his Quirkless nature and past weakness.
- Evil Plan: Midoriya has a bunch of them. So far, notable examples include:
- Kidnapping strong U.A. students to serve as assets for his group.
- Using Toga's affection for him to break up and absorb the League into his own organization.
- Killing Number One Hero Hawks by luring him into a rigged hostage rescue operation.
- Assaulting and sacking the Tokyo PD headquarters to erase police records of Syndicate and Shie Hassaikai members.
- Using the surrounding chaos to infiltrate U.A. and kill the (quirkless and retired) All Might.
- Infiltrating the U.S. Airforce base in Okinawa to capture David and Melissa Shield.
- Letting Gentle Criminal and Spinner get kidnapped by the MLA in order to locate and monitor its HQ
- Hijacking Uraraka's body in order to lure out and execute Aizawa.
- Using sleeper agents to crash the U.A. graduation ceremony, kill several prominent members and humiliate the remaining attendants, Kendo in particular.
- Use the above operation as a distraction to try and extract Gentle and Spinner from Deika City.
- It must be mentioned that, with the sole exception of the last plan, all of these end up succeeding to varying degrees.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The Syndicate is remarkably close.
- Evil Nerd: Midoriya still knows virtually everything about heroes.
- Evil Virtues: Midoriya has ambition, determination, diligence, equality, love, patience, resourcefulness, and valor.
- Evil vs. Evil: The Syndicate and the League of Villains, and later the Meta Liberation Army.
- Face–Heel Turn: Monoma, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Kamakiri, and Hagakure.
- Fake Arm Disarm: Midoriya injures his prosthetic during a fight with Kirishima.
- Friendless Background: It is implied that Hatsume and Shinso were the first friends Izuku ever made.
- Friend in the Black Market: Giran to both the Syndicate and the League.
- Friendly Enemy: Invoked and subverted with Midoriya. He acts friendly and refers to the heroes he is fighting as "friends" but it's clear he'll kill them if given the chance and only acts that way to mock and belittle them.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Syndicate's main top members in general but especially Midoriya, a Quirkless general education student.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Gentle gains this after La Brava is shot by an attack helicopter.
- The Heavy: Midoriya is the main cause for almost all of the conflict in the story.
- Hero Killer: Izuku kills All Might, then later cripples Kirishima.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Despite being formerly Quirkless himself, All Might told Midoriya that heroes need to stand on their own merit. Still, he has a point about heroes needing their own power in order to survive the dangers of their line of work.
- I Just Want to Be You: During an argument, Bakugou admits to Kendo that he's incredibly jealous of her, wishing that he was the one who All Might chose as his successor.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Monoma has this pretty badly.
- It Gets Easier: Mr. Compress tells Gentle this before the battle with Hawks.
- Knight of Cerebus: Midoriya's appearance makes the world of My Hero Academia much grimmer. People die, former heroes are turning traitor, and people are turning against heroes.
- Knockout Gas: Possessed and used by both Midnight and Mustard.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: Midoriya cuts off his own arm after getting it caught by Black Whip to avoid getting killed/captured by Kendo.
- Mad Scientist: Like in canon, Hatsume has the personality of an insane inventor.
- Magnetic Hero: Midoriya like in canon - although on the Villain side.
- Mind Rape: Midoriya to Uraraka, after activating the "Baku" neural chip implanted into her brain.
- The Mole: Kaminari Denki is a spy for the Syndicate.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Mr. Compress evokes this when talking with Gentle Criminal.Mr. Compress: "I've been watching you with great interest ever since you joined us, Gentle. Partly because I've been asked to keep an eye on you, admittedly, but also partly because you remind me of myself when I was young. We're both showmen at heart, we thrive on the stage, on an audience. So while some parts of villainy come naturally to people like us - the theatrics, the scheming and deception, the grand drama of it all, I know that others… are more difficult."
- Never Heard That One Before: Midoriya tells this to Uraraka after she tells him that he will be stopped.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: All Might and Aizawa pushing Midoriya over the edge.
- Never My Fault: Aizawa and Bakugou's attitude toward Midoriya.
- Point of Divergence:
- All Might didn't drop the Sludge Villain, so Midoriya never got the chance to prove himself to him.
- Instead of Midoriya facing off against Muscular at the training camp, Kendo tried to stop him themselves. This led to All Might selecting her as his successor.
- Since Izuku didn't inherit One for All and never made it into Class 1-A, he wasn't around to save Iida from Stain. Both he and Manual were killed, while Todoroki and six other heroes were injured. Endeavor then murdered Stain with the media watching, making him into a martyr and giving Midoriya and his group the perfect opportunity to escape.
- Police State: Japan is on the verge of becoming one with the Japanese government beginning to push for extreme measures to counter The Syndicate.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Syndicate's twin Strike Forces, Visigoth and Vandal, during the Black Day.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Midoriya's intelligence according to the author.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Midoriya gives one to Tomura and gets one from Uraraka.
- Red Baron:
- Midoriya Izuku - Seraph
- Monoma Neito - Chaudron
- Hatsume Mei - Longshot
- Shinso Hitoshi - Synapse
- Yaoyorozu Momo - Pandora
- Toga Himiko - Carmilla
- Hagakure Toru - Lightwave
- Kamakiri Togaru - Scimitar
- Reforged into a Minion: Hatsume made some sort of device that weakened Tokoyami's consciousness and strengthened Dark Shadow's consciousness and blood-lust to the point where Tokoyami was enslaved to his own quirk.
- Refused by the Call: Midoriya's attempts to become a hero were repeatedly rejected and stymied at every turn.
- Satanic Archetype: Midoriya's villain name is Seraph for one. He creates distrust in society. He preys on people's weaknesses and corrupts those around him.
- Save the Villain: Kendo promises Inko that she will save Midoriya to stop her from killing herself.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Aizawa refused to let Midoriya even attempt the transfer exam. When his friends protested, he threatened to bar Shinso from trying as well and got Hatsume barred from working in the lab outside of class before hitting all three of them with detentions.
- Secret-Keeper: Kendo tells Aizawa about One for All.
- Shout-Out: A couple to Jojos Bizarre Adventure when the Syndicate finish their drinks at the same and when Izuku tells Uraraka that it is "useless, useless, useless" to resist.
- Smug Super: Though not exactly smug, inheriting One for All has not made Kendo humble. She has come to expect people to treat her differently ever since being publicly announced as the heir to All Might. Midoriya calls her out on this hard.
- Sniper Rifle: Used by Hatsume during the Syndicate’s fight with Hawks.
- Social Darwinist: Seems to be the main tenet of the Syndicate's ideology.
- The Starscream: Subverted with Neito he wants to be the leader because of his inferiority complex but is still completely loyal to Izuku.
- Start of Darkness: Midoriya's comes when he's refused the right to even attempt the exam to transfer into the Hero Course. This spurs him to try proving himself by arresting a villain, only to end up accidentally killing a purse snatcher in self-defense. Since he used Hatsume's tech, she fears that she'll be charged as an accomplice. Then the brother of the mugger and two other villains break into the Midoriyas' apartment. One of the crooks is killed in the ensuing fight, and Shinso uses his Quirk to make another kill the third before killing himself. After a week, they decide they can't stay at U.A. with the police investigating, and decide to go on the run.
- Sucky School: U.A. gets this reputation after the Black Day and because of all the other scandals.
- Take Me Instead: Kendo attempts to bargain with the Syndicate this way, offering herself in exchange for their hostages. Midoriya flips it around on her, accusing her of considering herself more valuable and important than anyone else.
- Take Over the World: Midoriya's endgame is to take over Japan.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Being friends with Midoriya caused Shinso and Hatsume to become villains with him.
- Tranquil Fury: Kendo when talking to Izuku after he killed All Might.
- Teens Are Monsters: Applies to the first five members of the Syndicate, as well as Toga and Mustard.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Part of Shinso, Mustard, and Toga’s reasons for villainy.
- Tongue Trauma: Overlap with Attack the Mouth when Toga cuts off Tsuyu’s tongue.
- Unholy Matrimony: Toga/Midoriya and Shinso/Hatsume.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Zigzagged and Deconstructed. Midoriya and co. insist that Aizawa and All Might indirectly caused the most dangerous terrorist organization in living memory to form, though both heroes maintain that the actions of the villains are their doing alone. Ultimately, the question is open to interpretation.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Happens with Midoriya, Hatsume, Shinso, Monoma, Yaoyorozu, and Tokoyami.
- Villain Has a Point: Yaoyorozu brings up that the idea of the Syndicate is because of this.
- Villain Respect: Totally subverted with Midoriya. He may respect All Might to some degree but he does not view Kendo as anything more than the next One For All. He invokes this against Kirishima but clearly views him as a toy.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Syndicate gets a cult following larger than Stain’s after the Black Day.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: This happens for practically all conflict in the story. Even the act of creating the Syndicate-hunting Task Force Fenrir is a reaction to the events of the Black Day.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Toga and Tamaki when using their Quirks.
- Worthy Opponent: Midoryia viewed Kirishima as one. Averted as soon as the fight gets going it becomes obvious Izuku only viewed Kirishima as a stupid toy.
- With Great Power Comes Great Opposition: This happens to Kendo after she gains One For All.
- Yandere: Toga even more so than usual. Especially with Midoriya.
- You Have Failed Me: Monoma does this to some of Overhaul’s goons.
- You're Insane!: Yaoyorozu to Midoriya, Hatsume, and Shinso after being kidnapped.
