As the youngest son of the number one hero, by all rights Izuku Midoriya should have been a spoiled brat. In another world he might have been, but in this world he wasn't. In fact, at best his family ignores him. All because he has no quirk. Without a quirk, he cannot be a hero.
When he gains access to a power far older than quirks, he will turn his dream into a reality. Izuku Midoriya will be a hero. He will make a family of his own.
In this world that worships power above everything else, he is not powerless!
Not Powerless
is a My Hero Academia fanfiction series created by Spulenspul
This series contains the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed; Koui is very interested in Izuku since he is the only human in a thousand years to resist his charms, and he is very vocal about his affections, much to Izuku’s annoyance. However, Koui always respects when Izuku says no to his advances and Izuku still considers Koui to be one of his closest friends.
- Abusive Parents:
- Like in canon, Endeavor was physically abusive towards Shoto, and mentally abusive to Natsuo and Fuyumi. It got to the point where both Natsuo and Shoto had a restraining order against him.
- All Might was emotionally and mentally abusive towards Izuku while favoring his older sister.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon Izuku’s school life before U.A wasn’t great, since Bakugo and the rest of Izuku’s classmates teased and bullied him due to his quirklessness and the teachers did nothing to dissuade them. At the very least he had a loving mother who wanted the best for him. That isn’t the case here. His father All Might clearly favors his older siblings over him, particularly his older sister. His mother sees him as fragile and something to be protected while simultaneously seeming to forget his existence at times. And don’t even get started on his sister. The only member of the family who seems to care about Izuku before he runs away is his older brother Haru, who expresses guilt in the role he played in how Izuku was treated at home.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- In canon, Nezu shows up after Izuku makes it into U.A., here he shows up months prior to the entrance exam.
- In canon, Kirishima first shows up at the entrance exam, and is properly introduced after the Battle trials. Here Izuku meets him prior to the entrance exam.
- In canon, Ojiro and Shoji are introduced after Izuku attends U.A. Here Izuku meets them both during the entrance exam.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: In canon, Bakugo appears in the very first episode/chapter, here Bakugo appears only after Izuku starts U.A. This is Justified since Bakugo transferred out of Aldera Junior High in their second year.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed Since Bakugou transferred out of Aldera Junior High in their second year he never got the chance to suicide bait Izuku. While his anger issues still remain after reflecting on Izuku’s words during the sports festival and his internship with Best Jeanist, he has calmed down ever so slightly.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Nezu becomes Izuku’s legal guardian here and they develop a closer relationship than in canon as a result.
- Izuku and All Might have a very close bond in canon, here however All Might is an abusive father and Izuku wants nothing to do with him.
- In canon Kirishima and Kaminari are two of Bakugou’s closer friends, their closeness to him forms the basis of the ‘bakusquad’, which Mina and Sero are also a part of. Here however Kaminari and Kirishima are much closer to Midoriya so the bakusquad never forms. Bakugou instead becomes a bit closer to Tokoyami and Shoji instead.
- In canon Tsukauchi and All Might are good friends. However, when Tsukauchi finds out that All Might was abusive towards his son, he loses respect for the hero but maintains the friendship so he doesn’t reveal that he knows Izuku’s whereabouts. After Izuku’s identity was revealed to the public, he cut off his friendship with All Might.
- In canon Kaminari and Jirou met when they started attending U.A High and had many moments of Ship Tease, here they have been friends since middle school and show no romantic feelings for each other.
- While in canon Kirishima and Mina did attend the same middle school they didn’t become particularly close until they started attending U.A., here they seem to have become closer friends in middle school.
- In canon Ojiro met Toru when they started attending U.A High and had many moments of Ship Tease, here they have known each other since they were in diapers and think of the other as their sister/brother.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- In canon Izuku only shows romantic interest in girls; here he realizes that he is only interested in boys since, the form that Koui takes depends on what the person looking at him finds sexually attractive and Izuku always sees him as a teenage boy.
- In canon, Ojiro has many moments of Ship Tease with Toru Hagakure; here however while he is still interested in girls, his crush on Izuku makes him realize he is into guys as well.
- In canon Kaminari is shown to only be into girls, here however he is implied to be interested in multiple genders since Jirou remarks that he used to get crushes on everyone in their middle school.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: In canon, Izuku is quirkless but becomes the ninth bearer of one for all, gaining a superpower. Here, Midoriya remains quirkless but gains the ability to use magic which he passes off as his quirk.
- Attempted Rape: The slime villain attempts to rape Izuku before taking over his body, fortunately All Might arrived in time to save Izuku before it escalated even more.
- Closet Key:
- Izuku serves as this for Ojiro, he has had crushes on girls in the past but Izuku is the first boy he has ever liked.
- It is implied that Izuku also serves as this for Todoroki. Before U.A., it is unlikely he ever had romantic feelings for anyone since he was completely focused on his goal to become a hero without his fire to prove his father wrong. When he developed feelings for Izuku, it took his brother describing what having a crush on someone feels like for him to understand he felt more than friendship for Izuku.
- Continuity Nod: During the mall encounter Izuku is saved from Shigaraki by Crawler.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Well more like Curb-Stomp Race, with Izuku’s ability to create portals he easily wins the obstacle race at the sports festival by simply making a portal to the end.
- Due to this whenever they participate in similar activities Aizawa always makes a point to tell Izuku to not use his portals to teleport to the end.
- Emotional Powers: ‘Sight’ is one facet of Izuku’s magical abilities it allows him to see people’s emotions without having to even look at them.
- Got Over Rape Instantly: Extremely subverted; the effects of the slime villain’s attempted rape stick with Izuku and the idea of exploring sexual intimacy in the future makes him uncomfortable.
- When Koui discovers this, he leads him to Sei who is in charge of the afterlife that helps those who were victims of rape experience sex at their own pace. Izuku takes this offer, which helps him become comfortable with sexual intimacy.
- Loincloth: Koui tells Izuku that when he enters Koui’s realm he must only don a fundoshi, much to Izuku’s embarrassment at first. This is Justified since the usual purpose of this realm is to punish rapists, the loincloth makes others aware that Izuku is under Koui’s care and not to be punished.
- Magical Accessory: Using his magic Izuku makes a choker for Kaminari that allows him to use his electricity quirk without the danger of short-circuiting by redirecting the electricity away from his brain.
- Marry Them All: In this case, it’s Date Them All; Izuku is conflicted about what to do about his feelings for Todoroki, Ojiro, Kirishima, and Kaminari, his brother offers up this solution.Izuku: But there’s five of us! Relationships don’t work like that!”Haru: You do realize polyamory is a thing, right?”
- Mythology Gag: The name that Izuku takes to conceal his true identity is ‘Mikumo’ which is the name of canon Izuku’s prototype design.
- Only One Name: Invoked by Izuku who deliberately only chooses ‘Mikumo’ as his pseudonym.
- Point of Divergence:
- The main change is the power Izuku received after being quirkless for 15 years. In canon, he received All Might’s quirk ‘One For All’; here he doesn’t receive a quirk, instead gaining magical abilities.
- Izuku wins his fight against Todoroki in the sports festival and ends up winning the entire festival.
- Polyamory: It is foreshadowed that Izuku will be in a relationship with multiple guys in chapter 13. This is brought to fruition in chapter 73 where Izuku, Todoroki, Ojiro, Kirishima, and Kaminari all start dating each other.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Koui is a psychopomp who specifically brings rapists to an afterlife designed to punish them for the actions they committed while they were alive.
- Related in the Adaptation: In canon, Izuku is All Might’s successor and All Might is his mentor; here, All Might is Izuku’s biological father though their relationship is much worse.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Even before he is legally bound Nezu promises that he won’t reveal Izuku’s whereabouts to anybody.
- While Tsukauchi was legally bound to not reveal Izuku’s true identity, he helps cover up the existence of magic of his own volition.
- When Shoto finds out that Izuku’s guardian is Nezu, the principal of their school, he keeps it to himself, until Izuku reveals this information to Ojiro, Kirishima, and Kaminari.
- When Haru realizes who Izuku is, he promises to not tell anyone, especially not their family, unfortunately this information will get exposed to their family and the entire world later.
- Izuku tells his boyfriends; Ojiro, Shoto, Kirishima, and Kaminari about most of his past including his real identity, and the existence of magic and they all promise not to reveal this information to anybody.
- Self-Duplication: One of Izuku’s magical abilities is the ability to make copies of himself.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Subverted; Koui harbors sexual feelings towards Izuku, whom he is teaching magic. However, Izuku shuts him down at every turn.
