Wounded, lost, but growing, the lone wolf awakens in a land not his own of which more colorful and vibrant life thrives, but also young and weak. Similar to home, but so different, Garou must wander the lands and find his purpose in a world where heroes were frail and weak, where the pain of the powerless was ignored by the many. And he will change that world with wrath and fury.
Taking place after the Monster Association saved him from his near defeat against Bang, Bomb, and Genos; Garou disappeared when surrounded in an unknown black mist (Kurogiri's Quirk being enhanced for testing) and have woken up in a different world. After saving a young Quirkless boy named Ghin, from being kidnapped and learning his surroundings, Garou resolves to change the unfair Hero society by shaking the status quo to the very core.
Written by i4md347h
, this My Hero Academia/One-Punch Man crossover story can be read here.
All spoilers beyond chapter 3 will be unmarked.
This fic contains the following tropes:
- Anti-Hero: Garou tends to toe the line between this and Anti-Villain, but is usually viewed as the latter. Garou is ruthless, willing to fight any hero or villain and isn't above humiliating his opponents. However, he also has a strict moral code and his willingness to help those rejected by society are genuine. None of his hunts have ever involved civilians and the police, and has even made it clear to the people who follow him that they're to be left alone, or face the consequences.
- Black-and-White Morality: The society of quirks runs on this by a mile. In their eyes, anyone who defends the status quo is good while anyone who disrupts it is a villain, hence why Garou is really feared because no one's strong enough to stop him and he's constantly defying the expectations of what a typical villain acts like.
- Break the Haughty: During Garou’s first months hunting heroes, many like Endeavor assumed Garou was just like any other rampaging villain that needed to be taken down and thrown to Tartarus. But despite Allmight repeatedly warning the heroes not take actions as bold as forming a raid team against the hero hunter, they fell on deaf ears. When facing the hero hunter with overconfidence overflowing and their large numbers, they expected victory to be all but assured. Only for those expectations to shatter like glass when Garou curbstomps Endeavor and some of Japan’s strongest heroes without breaking a sweat. All while others like poor Erasurehead were brutally beaten and their confidence in their abilities left in tatters. Especially after learning the man who beat them till they were black and blue was quirkless.
- After the ceasefire is established, Garou had agreed to stop actively hunting heroes but will still not show any mercy to heroes who are foolhardy enough to come face him. One of which is none other than the cocky Mt. Lady who arrogantly believed she can take down Garou because he was quirkless and could make a name for herself. Only for the pompous rookie get a well deserved beat down by Garou in less than a minute.
- Later an overconfident Mirko tries her shot at Garou and while she is much more skilled and powerful than Mt. Lady, it meant squat to someone as overpowered like Garou. While their fight lasts a few minutes longer, Mirko still gets her ass whopped by the Demon of Hosu. Leading to a pissed off bunny hero to swear to train like hell until she can get back at him.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Everyone had assumed from the beginning that Garou was simply a villain with a extremely powerful quirk running rampant throughout Japan. To the point they staked their entire operation to apprehend Garou on the basis of shutting down his quirk with Aizawa’s Erasure ability. Only to be proven absolutely wrong when Erasurehead’s quirk has zero effect because Garou doesn’t have a quirk to erase in the first place. A revelation that shakes everyone in Japan to their very core, since they have adapted to the belief around quirks being the end all to be all.
- Everyone Has Standards: All Might may want to stop Garou's plans for the unforeaseble future that will lead them into probable peril if nothing is done but he refuses to kill Garou, for in his eyes he didn't commit any kind of atrocius crime (well, he didn't kill anyone at least) and he sees good in him. That is why he's trying to redeem him.
- The Dreaded: It doesn't take long for Garou to become this in Japan. It's telling that both heroes and villains are scared shitless of him.
- Character Development: When Garou first came to the world of My Hero Academia, he remained true to his canon counterpart and was a bloodthirsty and violent anti-villain craving to hunt down the heroes of this world and break their bodies and spirits. But once Garou learns the hard way about how utterly weak the vast majority of them are compared to him, does this begin to change. He grows increasingly bored and frustrated with how laughably easy it is to defeat the strongest heroes of the country. A situation not too different from what Saitama endures everyday.
- Because of this growing boredom alongside reluctantly cooperating for a ceasefire with Japan, Garou eventually stops hunting heroes(except for the ones foolish enough to still challenge him to regain their honor or make a name for themselves) and simply sticks to hunting villains causing trouble in his turf. Yet it’s still noticeable how Garou becomes overtime tamer and less aggressive than originally; since there’s no point to pursue his hero hunts so fervently anymore, and eventually allows for self-reflection towards himself and his ideals. But he still becomes determined to face Allmight in his prime to avoid the terrifying prospect of never having a real fight again.
- Later due to deciding to expand his options to heal Allmight and finding a way back home, Garou establishes a power base in Hosu by collaborating with Chisaki and the Shie Hassaika and eventually unites the majority of the criminal underworld to his cause and ideals; forming the organization "Silver Fang". Many people including All Might and previous heroes who encountered him are stunned by these uncharacteristic actions, and have more than once questioned if this is even the same man who brutally beat them months ago. But the simple fact is that Garou has evolved his original philosophy, and realized the world doesn’t need a powerful monster to unite against, but rather a powerful monster to free this world from the rot and ruin of the current system. It truly shows how My Hero Academia eventually changes Garou from the bloodthirsty hero hunter he started as to the ruthless yet wiser and methodical Demon Lord of Hosu.
- Heel–Face Turn: On a technical level. Garou is still very much a man who is determined to become a monster that defeats any heroes who dare challenge him. But due to the boredom of having no real challenge in this world, his bloodlust died down and isn’t as fervent in hunting and breaking heroes; while allowing him to self reflect on his philosophy and ideology in becoming an unstoppable monster to unite the world against. Through his conversations with Chisaki it causes him to have an epiphany to make him understand in this world it would only cause more problems than actually solve, and evolves his ideals. Realizing that the world needs a monster to free itself from the broken and rotted system within society; rather than be a mindless force of destruction. Thus deciding to use the influence he’s accumulated and gathers a following to aid his cause.
- While Kai Chisaki is still a very ruthless man who will kill anyone if it’s for the sake of the boss and the Shie Hassaika, after working with Garou and becoming his advisor, he begins to change a little from having an idol to look up to. From learning how similar their ideals are regarding hero society and quirks, Chisaki becomes more tame and adopts Garou’s ideals to destroy the rot of hero society. Allowing his better traits to surface and become more of a methodical anti-villain than the flat out cruel villain he was in canon. Plus doesn’t lay a hand on Eri due to not wanting to earn Garou’s ire and having better options through the Silver Fang to restore the boss’s glory.
- Dabi alongside several former villains who would’ve joined the League of Villains in canon, instead join the Silver Fang instead due to his ideals resonating with their own. Dabi joins after seeing Endeavor defeated and hilariously humiliated him in the second round, becoming more than willing to adopt Garou’s idea’s and leads him towards a slightly more benign path than the outright dark one he would’ve originally taken. Not to mention Garou has Chisaki use his quirk to heal his grievous burns and restores Dabi’s appearance; acting as a physical representation of this redemption.
- Spinner and his mutant friends also join the Silver Fang, and has a role very similar to when he was a follower of Stain’s ideology in canon.
- Twice and Mr. Compress also join the Silver Fang due to Garou having far more influence early on than Shigaraki would’ve gathered.
- Hourglass Plot: In his own home world, Garou was far from weak, but in the end he lost to Saitama. In this new world, he is Saitama in all but name, considering how below everyone else compared to him in terms of power. Leading to poor Garou suffering from the same crisis as Saitama as he grows bored and frustrated with how weak everyone in My Hero Academia is.
- Irony: In Garou’s world, over the majority of the Heroes possess little to no superpowers, barring cyborgs, espers or genetically altered individuals like Zombie Man. Yet through sheer training and those managing to break their "limiter" have immense skill, talent or raw strength. Yet for the heroes of My Hero Academia, where over 80% of the human race has superpowers, they are significantly weaker in the face of someone like Garou, who deems the vast majority of them the equivalent of B or A class heroes. Which is for heroes who are above average in strength. Allmight and perhaps Star and Stripes are the only ones who could qualify as S-class, but the former fails to meet Garou’s expectations due to being crippled.
- Magnetic Hero: Garou is a darker version of this. Thanks to his crusade in defeating many heroes and villains, it's earned him a following from those who resonate with his ideals. It's very telling that Kai Chisaki, a man who's gemophobic to the point of being willing to murder anyone who so much lays a finger on him, takes off his mask as a way to show respect. Kai was even planning on initially manipulating Garou for the benefit of the Shie Hassakai, but upon seeing just how effective he was and how similar their ideals truly are, was instead content with letting the Hero Hunter take the reins of leadership and instead becomes his advisor.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: While Garou's far from Saitama's level of strength, and has yet to surpass Bang, the fact that he constantly dishes out Curb-Stomp Battle after Curb-Stomp Battle like Halloween candy shows just how dissatisfied he is with the fragile society of MHA. On top of that when he witnesses just how easy it is to make Japan bend to his knees, Garou is even more disappointed, since he expected a much better fight than what he’s been given.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kai Chisaki, someone who's well known for germophobic cleanliness of the highest order to the point of using his Quirk on people who touch him, has his mask off while talking to Garou as a way to show respect, indicating just how much Garou's presence and actions have heavily changed hero society.
- Outside-Context Problem: Garou has been the walking definition of this, in both terms of his power and ideals. With the former, he's strong enough to take on Japan's top heroes and villains, including All Might as easily as swatting a fly. With the latter, Garou isn't some stereotypical mustache-twirling villain out to destroy society For the Evulz like most villains are. While not afraid to humiliate and severely injure, he doesn't go after civilians or anyone who clearly isn't a threat to him, hasn't really murdered anyone hero or villain and has moments of empathy with Ghin and Eri.
- The problem with the society of My Hero Academia is that it's a world of black and white, where the definitions of a hero and villain has been clearly defined societally. Garou's brutality and motives make him a shade of gray, throwing the common man in for a loop since he isn't acting like how either side would.
- Point of Divergence: In so many levels it would've been amusing as equally as it would've been horrifying in-universe.
- The entirety of Garou's actions. From kicking the ass of several pro heroes as well as fighting villains, it exposes society to a character that doesn't fit the mold for a hero or villain, since he's neither but has the qualities of both. If he was in his own world this would've been fine, but the society of My Hero Academia runs on Black-and-White Morality, throwing many people in for a loop.
- While Kai Chisaki is still part of the Yakuza, he serves as the Number Two for Garou as his advisor and it was his idea to prompt Garou to gather a following. Thanks to his success with the help of the Hero Hunter, Eri is spared from a lifetime of trauma and abuse since Kai felt that harming her would earn Garou's ire, which isn't out of character for him considering his Pet the Dog moments with Ghin.
- Unsorcerer: Along with Izuku, Ghin is among the unlucky 20% without Quirks.
