Izuku Midoriya was always a strong child.
In spite of his tears, his childlike innocence, and that go-getter fanboy attitude of his, inner strength drove him to seek out the chance to save people. He dared to dream he might one day be able to give people hope, just like All Might gave him hope.
That dream, that hope, and those leaky eyes are beginning to dry up, as his faith is called into question. But that inner strength still remains. And now it begins to flare with a dangerous strength. The question now is who it will burn.
In the pursuit of information on All Might, Izuku gets mixed up with the villainous side of society. Taken under their wing, for better or for worse, his life might never be the same.
The Tale of the Musketeer
by Dandajiro is a Point of Divergence My Hero Academia Fanfic that shows the natural progression of how Izuku becomes a villain. At Sixty-Nine chapters and counting.
The Tale of the Musketeer provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Mirio, after gaining One For All proves himself capable of taking on the entire League Of Villains, including Izuku wielding All For One singlehandedly.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Izuku meets Tomura far earlier in the story than in canon.
- Adaptational Villainy: Izuku, obviously.
- Adapted Out: Most of the story arcs and students at U.A. are not seen or rarely mentioned, due to the story mainly focusing on Izuku interacting with the League.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a villain, Izuku is still Izuku. He genuinely cares about the members of the League, seeing them as his friends and allies.
- All-Encompassing Mantle: Izuku's first villain costume was a hooded cloak and face mask to better hide his identity.
- Aloof Ally: Thanks to Izuku, Stain develops a much higher opinion of the League, and while he declines full-time membership, he does make it clear that they're allies, and will come to their aid from time to time.
- Attack the Mouth: Izuku does this to Muscular by shoving a flash grenade in his mouth. Thankfully, it just knocks him out.
- Awesome by Analysis: Izuku evolves into a Badass Bookworm while training his body and improving his weapon skills.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Izuku's second villain costume is a stylish suit modeled after All For One, with an armored waistcoat and a mask.
- Badass Normal: Izuku, despite being offered the quirk of his choice by All For One, opts to remain quirkless; he wants to prove he doesn't need a quirk to accomplish his ideals, thus proving All Might and Bakugou wrong. He becomes an Empowered Badass Normal when All For One dies, and passes his quirks on to Izuku anyway.
- "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate: Played for Laughs when Tomura and Himiko debate whether ketchup should be considered a smoothie or a condiment.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Justified as the League's original location had phone jammers to stop people from calling for help.
- Combo Platter Powers: All For One's quirk allows him to take any quirk he desires. As such, he and later Izuku can have practically any power he wants, as long as he takes the original quirk first.
- Composite Character: It's heavily implied that Dabi is Toya Todoroki.
- Cuteness Proximity: When Himiko meets Eri for the first time, she almost immediately falls in love with her and starts gushing about how adorable she is.
- David vs. Goliath: Purposely invoked by Izuku when leading Muscular towards Eraserhead, hoping that either Eraserhead can defeat Muscular who was about to murder a child or Muscular will defeat the hero and actually be useful. Izuku even directly compares Eraserhead fighting Muscular to David fighting Goliath.
- Dead Man Writing: Izuku finds some notes left by All For One that explains the importance of having the All For One quirk, how to use all the quirks that All For One has gathered, and that it will take time to master and gain all of them. Izuku gets more disheartened when the notes show that All For One's quirk analysis is similar to his own.
- Deal with the Devil: Izuku directly compares receiving a quirk from All For One to this. To Izuku, getting a quirk from All For One would make him indebted to him, making up part of the reason he rejects the offer.
- Deathbed Confession: After teleporting to a safe place, All For One tells Izuku why he chose Tomura to be his successor, and that Izuku will have to continue teaching Tomura by taking the All For One quirk.
- Death by Adaptation: All For One is fatally wounded by All Might as part of a quickly devised Thanatos Gambit to not only insult All Might, but to ensure that Izuku becomes a perfect successor.
- Death Is Dramatic: All For One's death is significant not only for Izuku's Character Development but for sending a ripple effect through Hero and Villain society alike.
- Delaying the Rescue: Izuku has a chance to rescue Eri and take down Overhaul, but due to circumstances outside of his control, he leaves Eri there until he can save her.
- Demoted to Extra: This mostly happens to the characters at U.A. since the focus is mostly on Izuku's interactions with the members of the League.
- Designated Bullet: As well as a case of Chekhov's Gun, both metaphorically and literally. Izuku shoots Overhaul with the Quirk Erasing bullet that he gave have with Mustard's gun, which was also given to him.
- Despite the Plan: Even with the hero raid on Overhaul's building and the final battle with Mirio, Izuku and the League still successfully rescue Eri and take down Overhaul, with Izuku stealing his quirk.
- Domino Revelation: After Izuku reveals his knowledge of All Might's weakness, All For One goes on to reveal the origin of All Might's power, as well as his own origin.
- Didn't See That Coming: The League's plan to betray Overhaul and rescue Eri didn't account for the heroes to raid the base at the same time they did.
- Dysfunction Junction: The members of the League of Villains have all had hard lives.
- Elaborate Underground Base: The League's second base consists of a bunker that is connected to the sewers.
- Empty Chair Memorial: Izuku sadly notes that All For One's chair is no longer occupied and that it will stay in its forgotten location forever.
- Evil Power Vacuum: Because of All For One's death and Izuku's inexperience, new villains are coming to take the title of Evil Overlord.
- Evil vs. Evil:
- The League of Villains against the Shie Hassaikai.
- After that they're challenged by Gentle Criminal. Though evil is probably stretching it in that case.
- Everyone Can See It: Himiko's crush on Izuku. Well, everyone but Izuku, anyway. Heck, even Stain teases her about it at one point.
- Exposition Cut: Happens after All For One explains how One For All came to be to Izuku.
- Facial Composite Failure: After the Hosu incident, Izuku notes that his police sketch makes him look much older and fearsome than he really is.
- Feud Episode: Chapter 36 has Izuku reluctantly fighting against an angry and grieving Tomura at the docks due to Tomura believing that Izuku is the cause of All For One's death, pretended to be his friend tho get All For One's power, and seeing him as The Usurper. Izuku manages to calm Tomura down by revealing he knows his true name and escapes with him through Kurogiri's portal. After explaining some things, Izuku and Tomura are on better terms.
- First-Name Basis: After spending months together and playing games together, Tomura and Izuku become comfortable using their first name around each other.
- Im Dying Please Take My Macguffin: After being mortally wounded in his battle with All Might, All For One passes his quirks on to Izuku, including the All For One quirk.
- Inner Monologue: Much of the character's feelings, insecurities, and thoughts about the situations they are in are expressed like this, giving insight into how they view the world and what they're like as people.
- In-Universe Catharsis: Discussed when Tomura tells Dabi that if Izuku kills Bakugou, he will feel so much better by finally getting his revenge after years of bullying.
- It's All My Fault: Both All Might and Bakugou blame themselves for Izuku's fall into villainy. While the former admits he was too blunt and harsh in dismissing Izuku's dreams, the latter points out that it was the straw that broke the camel's back; he was the one putting Izuku down for being quirkless all their lives.
- Learned from the News: Izuku learns about his notoriety when Giran shows him the news report depicting both him and Stain at Hosu.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The League are split into multiple groups when they invade Overhaul's organization, with one group sabotaging from within and two other groups, one attacking from below and one attacking from above.
- Mêlée à Trois: When the League begins to invade the Shie Hassaikai's base of operations and get Eri, the heroes start an attack at the same time, with all sides aiming for Eri.
- Necessary Drawback: After Izuku gains all of All For One's quirks, he learns that not all of them will be available from the start and must train with the ones available to him first.
- Noble Demon: Izuku evolves into this; he won't kill, won't tolerate pointless cruelty or violence from other villains (i.e. Muscular's attack on Kota), occasionally acts to save civilians from other criminals, and is ultimately working for the goal of reshaping society. As Izuku himself points out, he has a much better chance of succeeding at that goal if people ultimately approve of his actions, something All For One never really cared about.
- No Cure for Evil: Averted with Overhaul and Izuku after stealing his quirk, whose quirk can disassemble and reassemble anything he wants.
- No More Lies: When Izuku yells at All For One for not telling Tomura about All Might's weakness, All For One decides to tell Izuku his and One For All's origin.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: All For One's death and Izuku inheriting his power is not only a major change for the League but also for Hero and Villain society as a whole.
- Oblivious to Love: Himiko's feelings for Izuku, while painfully obvious to everyone else, go right over the poor boy's head.
- Point of Divergence: The story begins to diverge when Izuku doesn't help Bakugou from the Sludge Villain and meets Tomura very early on.
- Rousseau Was Right: During Izuku's speech with Katsuki, he talks about how villains were once good people who were abandoned by society for one reason or another, and who simply wish to escape from the pain that they have suffered from. From the reactions of the League members, Izuku's argument seems to be correct.
- Scooby Stack: Izuku, Tomura, and Dabi do this when they watch Overhaul and two of his Expendables fight Mirio.
- Skeleton Key: One of All For One's quirks transforms his fingers so that they can fit into any keyhole and unlock anything. Izuku uses this quirk to unlock a metal case under All For One's chair to get his notes.
- Slumber Party: In Chapter 37, to get the League more comfortable in their new hideout, Izuku decides to organize a movie night.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- Non-lethal variant, but both Stain and Mustard avoid going to prison thanks to Izuku's efforts.
- Magne survives the League's encounter with Overhaul, unlike canon.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: The first condition Izuku negotiates with Tomura and Kurogiri is to not be made to kill anyone, and he sticks to this ideal throughout the story.
- Torture Cellar: Downplayed as it's just a reinforced dark room and nothing else. However, since Tokoyami's Quirk gets stronger and more unstable in the dark, it might as well be a regular torture chamber to him.
