Return of the Shield Deku
Is a crossover fanfic between My Hero Academia and The Rising of the Shield Hero by Shadow_Overlord on Archive of Our Own.
The story originated as a snippet from one of the many alternate universes showed in a spin-off to New Game Plus (2022), by the same author. In it, Izuku Midoriya has disappeared to another world and reappears to his mother Inko from a portal, now the Shield Hero and with Raphtalia, Filo and Raph-chan in tow. The fanfic expands on that, going back and forth between showing Izuku's adventure and the formation of his future family in the new world, and their present back in his world, their roads still leading to UA.
- Adaptational Badass: Hagakure in this universe has already extensively trained her physical prowess and her Quirk by the time of the UA entrance exam: she is introduced as visible and capable of activating invisibility, which also extends to her clothes, at will. She is also the ninth holder of One For All, and is already reaching singularity by the time of the USJ attack.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Toru Hagakure, Hitoshi Shinso, Mina Ashido, and Himiko Toga (whose life has had a much better turn, as she is a nurse at UA) all appear during the U.A. Entrance Exam.
- Adaptational Jerkass
- Ochako is nothing like her usual self and more of an Alpha Bitch. A sadistic bully who trips Hagakure before the UA entrance exam, and succeeds at it with only Villain Points, just like Bakugo. She's incredibly spoiled and with skewed priorities, even during dangerous situation. There are hints she may be the class spy for the villains, and chances she's either possessed by Malty or Medea, or an outright incarnation of the latter in this world.
- Aizawa seemingly enjoys expelling students with "No Potential" while also validating Bakugo's toxic mindset. A look into Aizawa's thoughts in Chapter 9 also shows contempt for some of his students, and considering rescue training useless, showing something is really off about him. Some comments about Aizawa having had a notable personality shift in recent times suggest a negative external influence.
- A milder case with Izuku, whose personality is harsher due to his past experiences in Melromarc. He butts heads with Kamakiri, and mistreats Shiozaki even if the latter hasn't wronged him at all because he's become uncomfortable with very religious people. He later resolves the panic situation after Shigaraki destroys a gate of UA but also needlessly insults most students while doing so.
- In contrast with Itsuki (see below entry), Ren has ended up worse than in the original Shield Hero, due to apparently getting to have the Lust sword. He's currently imprisoned with all signs of insanity, displays abusive sentiments towards Windya (talking of her like a possession), and there are hints he may have killed someone close to Izuku and his group, especially as it's not outright stated but heavily implied that Melty is dead in this continuity.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Itsuki is a lot friendlier with Izuku than he was with Naofumi, due to the both of them coming from superhuman worlds where they faced discrimination. He publicly calls out Izuku's trial as a complete sham. Later, when the duel between Izuku and Motoyasu is rigged by Malty and the King, Itsuki publicly denounces the King, also reminding him he's a King Consort and that the Queen is working to fix the problems he caused.
- Adaptation Deviation: In earlier chapters, it seems that Izuku's adventures in Merlromarc were pretty much the same as Naofumi originally, save a few small differences. However, chapters set in the present make clear that quite a few events went differently sometime in the middle.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Izuku's Hero's Will Shield allows him to fire a magical arrow that ignores Defense and deals damage relative to his current highest stat (In this case, his ridiculously high Defense). The downside is that it requires him to sacrifice 99% of his HP to do so, an act painful enough to leave him immobilized for several minutes.
- Izuku's Spatial Shield can let him jump freely between his world and Melromarc. However, it uses up all of his MP and SP in the process, as well as having a 100 hour(4 day) recharge time.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Filo is eaten by the Zombie Dragon, Izuku sees what appears to be a large amount of blood. It's later revealed that Filo just threw up some berries she had eaten.
- Battle Couple: Izuku and Raphtalia have become this during their time together in her homeworld.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Because Izuku went out of his way to take care of her simply out of kindness rather then his own benefit, Raphtalia chooses to stay with him even after having her Slave Crest forcibly removed.
- Berserk Button: Being called fat is one for Filo.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Izuku states that his reason for wanting homeschooling to finish middle school is not really to avoid bullying from Bakugo and others but rather because the bullies would have a bad time in the hands of Raphtalia and Filo, which leaves Inko perplexed given how sweet the two girls are. Raphtalia's reaction to Fingers at the end of Chapter 3 is an example of how she can get if upset - and that's just after she has single-handedly destroyed a Zero Pointer at the UA exam.
- Big Eater: Filo. The very first thing she does upon unlocking her human transformation is demand food.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Raphtalia almost tells Izuku that she loves him after the Sacred Duel, but cuts herself off and simply says that she cares about him.
- Death by Adaptation: Right from the early chapters, it's heavily hinted but not outright stated that Melty has died in this continuity. Later, we also see the grave of Fohl Fayon.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The bully with a Quirk that allows him to elongate his fingers is simply called Fingers. We are told that even his teachers call him that way, as hardly anyone remembers his real name (which has never been stated in canon).
- Expy: The tailor ends up being this to Mei Hatsume, right down to calling the clothes she makes her babies.
- Family of Choice: Raphtalia, Filo, and Raph-Chan are this to Izuku.
- Groin Attack: Filo does this to anyone who insults her weight.
- Heel–Face Turn: Motoyasu (see I Reject Your Reality below).
- Hypocrite: Raphtalia calls out Motoyasu as being this for claiming that she shouldn't be forced to fight for Izuku's sake, despite the fact that he himself had just forced Izuku to fight in a rigged duel for Raphtalia's freedom.
- I Reject Your Reality: As Itsuki points out, Motoyasu would trust anything a pretty girl like Malty says regardless of evidence to the contrary. As Izuku meets him in Chapter 9, the two now on friendly terms and Motoyasyu even patiently tending to Filolians, something has happened in the middle that made Motoyasu finally snap out of his mindset.
- Irony: The bullying of Bakugo and his cronies indirectly causes Izuku to get isekai'd, as he finds the book that transports him to the Shield Hero world while taking shelter from them. Also because of that, the absence of Izuku causes Bakugo to survive the encounter with the Sludge Villain but with crippling damage.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- With Izuku absent, Bakugo ends up rescued from the Sludge Villain anyway but not before taking long-term and possibly permanent damage to his lungs, suffering breathing problems since.
- Upon seeing Izuku for the first time since he disappeared, Fingers decides to still be a dick to him and also shamelessly hit on Raphtalia; he gets his fingers broken by her in response.
- Kangaroo Court: Itsuki calls out Izuku's trial as being this: on top of Izuku not being allowed to defend himself, he points out how Malty is throwing around accusations without any evidence to back them up, and how the King is very clearly biased in her favor due to her being his daughter.
- The Multiverse: Beside this fanfic being part of the wider multiverse developed around New Game Plus (2022), and the original Shield Hero series using the concept of different universes, all four Heroes are stated to come from different worlds; Motoyasu and Ren are left perplexed by the concept of Quirks, while Itsuki later reveals to coming from a world where a different type of superpowers have appeared.
- Mythology Gag: Despite Naofumi not becoming the Shield Hero in this continuity, Raphtalia uses Iwatani as her surname, when immigrating into the MHA world.
- No-Sell: Iida is completely unfazed by Yaoyorozu's flash grenades during the Battle Trials, due to his helmet having eye protection.
- Offscreen Romance: After being first seen when brought away to another world, Izuku comes back to his original world with Raphtalia, Filo and Raph-chan in tow, already in a relationship with Raphtalia (who is the same age as him here), so deep the two have already decided they'll get married after graduating from UA.
- Shipper on Deck: Izuku's Shield apparently worked to get him and Raphtalia together, going as far as modifying her physical aging to make her the same age as Izuku's.
- Shout-Out:
- In Chapter 5, a version of Maple/Kaede from Bofuri is introduced, possessing a shield and Quirk almost identical to the version from I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Become the Ultimate Defensive Hero by FoxOnPie.
- Reiko Yanagi mentions being a fan of Sam Williams
- In Chapter 9, during one his brief returns to Melromarc, Izuku gets to know two new hires by Keel. Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of Virtual Youtubers will recognize Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssgard.
- In the present day, Motoyasu is revealed to have two Filolials named Ruby and Sapphire.
- One of the Villains attacking the USJ (albeit very reluctantly) is none other than Homura Akemi, a writing choice likely due to her having a shield as her magical accessory.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- In this universe Hana Shimura survived the tragic night Tenko manifested Decay (albeit losing an arm), has become a Pro Hero, and is the homeroom teacher for Class 1-B at UA.
- Rifana and Atla are revealed to still be alive into the present day, as opposed to their deaths in Canon. Ironically, they are also seen at the grave of Fohl Fayon.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Raphtalia gives one to Motoyasu after he forces Izuku into a rigged duel for her freedom.
- Third-Person Person: Filo speaks like this constantly. She ends up getting mocked for it by some kids in Izuku's world, not that she seems to care.
- Undying Loyalty: Raphtalia has this for Izuku.
