After offering his Quirk to the boy he knew would be his successor, Toshinori Yagi, the number one hero All Might, is asked to explain the situation to the boy’s parent. All Might accepts, expecting a quick talk with the boy’s mother to avoid any unfortunate implications.
All Might didn’t expect to find out that his old fling was the boy’s mother. Or that said old fling was previously married to his greatest enemy. Or that said old fling was a former S-Class villain. Or that his successor was his biological son.
The two old lovers are married within a month.
Now armed with the intelligence and quirk knowledge of his stepfather and the quirk and heroic spirit of his father, Izuku Midoriya will shake up the world of heroism all while becoming the best hero he can be.
Ties that Bind
is a My Hero Academia fanfiction created by Mirrond. It is the second part of the Curious cases of family bonds or lack thereof series. It can also be read on Fanfiction.net here.
As of 1 August 2022, it has completed at 70 chapters and 298,946 words.
For other works by this author, see Cure to Evil
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: A surprisingly large number of villains in canon are either on the side of the heroes or much better people here.
- Mr. Compress is more of a Robin Hood-type thief, stealing from the rich, exposing corruption, avoiding direct conflict, and never killing. Contrast this to canon, in which he is a member of the League who is more than willing to hurt and kill heroes and teenagers.
- Stain is not a killer here due to Izuku hearing of his original plans and telling him they were counter-productive for his goals. Rather, he sticks to exposing the Heroes he targets and revealing who they truly are to the public.
- Tomura Shigaraki/Tenko Shimura and Himiko Toga are both placed in the Villain Rehabilitation course at U.A. Himiko is shown to be very enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a hero, and while Tenko seems to be less happy about the situation he is in, to the point that it appears he would betray U.A, this turns out to be a lie and he does legitimately wish to remain on the heroes side.
- Mustard is also revealed to be in Class 1-B’s rehabilitation program.
- Within the series canon, multiple of the younger OCs who were a part of the League in Cure to Evil or villains in Mirrond’s other fics are either citizens or redeemed villains here. These include Rabbit/Asa Midoriya, who is a civilian, Toxicity/Miyuki Tagawa, Zealot/Yoshihiro Maki, and Blueberry/Mieko Eto, all of whom are a part of 1-B’s rehabilitation course.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Nedzu is portrayed as extremely vindictive, sadistic, and cruel to his enemies, the only thing keeping him from being a villain being that his enemies largely deserve it and that no one is willing to risk his wraith to attempt to expose him, not that the heroes wish to do so given that Nedzu is still a good principal and hero despite all this.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Downplayed with Inko, who was the former thief and S-Ranked villain Mischief. The fact that All Might had a crush on her and nobody who knows her secret in the present is willing to turn her in suggests that she wasn’t that bad of a person, with it being said that she was more of a vigilante than a villain.
- Also Downplayed with Hitoshi Shinso, who, before being found and helped by Izuku, was forced to become a petty thief to not only survive but to keep Toga sane. Even if he had to enter the Villain Rehabilitation Program to join U.A., nobody seems to hold his past against him.
- The staff of Aldera Middle School is revealed to have been actively grooming arrogant heroes to increase their reputation, many of these “heroes” going on to become villains when they are called out on their behavior.
- Overhaul is even more of a monster here than in canon, being the battlefield commander of the Paranormal Liberation Front and someone willing to commit mass genocide on the Heroes to take over Japan.
- Tsuyu Asui is revealed to have been a spy for the Paranormal Liberation Front, helping them in revenge for all of the bullying she went through and to, in her eyes, avenge Habuko. With that said, she does regret what she did after bonding with Class 1-A and abandons the PLF after the USJ incident.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Inko and All Might go from strangers who are only connected by their relationship with Izuku to old lovers who get married after reuniting.
- With Tenko and Himiko on the side of the heroes this time, a lot of their relationships are flipped. Himiko, in particular, is best friends with Ochako and Tsuyu instead of enemies.
- Adapted Out: In terms of Mirrond's previous work, Cure to Evil, Juggernaut is thus far the only OC that has yet to show up or be mentioned in the story. note
- Almighty Mom: All Might genuinely believes that a mad Inko is the single most terrifying person on the planet, surpassing any villain he faced and even Nedzu at his most cruel.
- Ascended Extra: Inasa Yoarashi is a part of Class 1-A in this story.
- Awesome by Analysis: Izuku is extremely fond of this, creating plans to manipulate his opponents into making mistakes and capitalizing on them. He can turn near-hopeless situations around and almost completely destroy any plan his enemies make. This is best showcased during the Kamino Ward raid, in which Izuku is able to get Tenko to fake defecting to the villain's side and destroy their means of teleporting and jam their communications so that they couldn’t get back up, turn Dabi and Spinner against the PLF, identify that Tsuyu was a former spy for the PLF and convince her to contact the villain group and have them prepare for the raid on a different day than when it was happening, and have Compress, Stain, and La Brava neutralize their sentries and hack into their network. The result is a hopeless situation for the heroes that would have left half of them slaughtered being turned into a Curb-Stomp Battle that left several top villains either dead or arrested, and leaving the PLF fractured.
- The Bad Guys Win: While not in the way he expected, Re-Destro achieved much of his actual goals, enough to potentially achieve Destro's Golden Ending for the Second Meta Liberation War in the future: the remnants of All for One's empire plus other hostile groups have been wiped out or otherwise so weakened they're effectively neutralized, the HPSC has been discredited and disbanded and its members jailed, the Heroes have been weakened and the new levies are generally better persons, public faith in Heroes and the system has been weakened enough the populous is asking for reforms, Destroist ideology represented by the Heart and Mind Party is being rehabilitated to the point the party stands a legitimate chance to win the next elections and become so powerful that while Nedzu has realized their existence he also realizes they can't afford to start a full war.
- Bad Powers, Good People: The vast majority of members of the Villain Rehabilitation Course have quirks that can be construed as villainous. While they were all villains beforehand, everyone in the course is dead set on turning their lives around and becoming heroes.
- Big Good: All Might, like in canon, is this. Unlike in canon, however, not only is All Might well aware of the negative effects his status as the Symbol of Peace has had on Japan, but he even somewhat resents his position due to it promoting the idea that heroism is based on strength instead of character.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Chapter 2 introduces the trio of Thunderbolt, Red Wing, and Nightshade, all of whom use their status as Heroes to brutalize the villains they fight and even kill those with villainous quirks. They are portrayed as a few of the many “Heroes” who do similar things, hiding behind the Commission and their status to get away with hate crimes and villainous activities.
- Chick Magnet: Izuku has the interest of Ochako, Himiko, Tsuyu, and Momo.
- Contrived Coincidence: Played for Laughs: The sheer amount of coincidences surrounding All Might and Inko’s reunion and history, from Izuku being All Might’s biological son, Inko being a former villain that All Might had a crush on, to Inko’s former husband being All Might’s dead arch nemesis whom she also had children with, is all done not only for comedy but to set up the tone of the fic. Later turns out to be a subversion as All for One reveals he staged several key parts of that series of events.
- Cool Uncle:
- Yoichi is this to Aiko, being one of the few people who can crack through her creepy façade and being the only person within the vestige realm who isn’t the slightest bit intimidated by her.
- Mr.Compress, Stain, and Gentle are all honorary uncles to the Midoriya children, and all three are badass anti-heroes who both love and are made better people by their nephews and niece. La Brava and Lady Nagant are also gender-flipped examples.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Subverted. All for One attempts to groom Izuku for villainy, but the effort doesn't pan out.
- Creepy Child: The way Aiko Midoriya acts, from her jokes about death, her mysterious power, and her terrifying stares, wouldn’t make her out of place in a horror movie. Hell, she even references The Shining at one point! It turns out to be invoked by her. She wants to be a Hero with a Villainous aesthetic like Gang Orca and wanted to practice her acting skills.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Part of the plan the Gen Ed kids, on Izuku's suggestion, created during the sports festival was to inflict this on as many Hero Course students as they could during the first round, allowing the Gen Ed kids to stand out and prove they were just as worthy to be heroes as everyone else. It works, needless to say, with 21 of the 46 hero kids being taken out.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Shinso and Toga were both ostracized for their Quirks at a young age and abused by their respective families. Toga would eventually snap and commit a few stabbings while in a blood-fueled state while Shinso would be kicked out of his home and forced into a petty thief to survive. To make this even worse, soon after meeting each other, the two are targeted by corrupt heroes who seek to beat them within an inch of their lives and throw them in Juvie, if not just kill them outright. Thankfully, Shinso and Toga are saved by Izuku, who gives them a chance to enter U.A. and become heroes.
- Dating Catwoman: When All Might was younger, he had a crush on the notorious villain Mischief, unaware that said villain was actually his brief lover Misaki Kawamura, aka Inko Midoriya. When the two reunite years later, their relationship very quickly resumes.
- Death by Adaptation:
- One of the major changes to canon here is that All for One did die after his first battle with All Might.
- Habuko Mongoose, Tsuyu’s friend from Middle School and a student from Isamu in canon, is revealed to have committed suicide as a result of the bullying she received due to being a complex mutant.
- In the Overhaul raid, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Slidin'Go meet their ends trying to stop Godhaul.
- Death of Personality: Izuku, with Eri’s help, inflicts this on Dabi, turning him back to when he was 6 without any of his memories or his hatred of Endeavor.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Torino is genuinely surprised that his last-ditch attempt to get through to Bakugou actually works, better than expected. He fully expected to never see Bakugou again after sending him to U.A. for three days, only for the boy to return, much more subdued and set on The Atoner path.
- In the raid against Overhaul, the heroes were not expecting another clone of AFO to appear. The Heroes and Re-Destro were not expecting Overhaul to take control after the clone tried to assimilate him.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Crust dies holding off Godhaul alongside Slidin'Go as opposed to being disintegrated by Shigaraki while saving Aizawa. Nighteye also meets his end while attracting Overhaul's attention away from the field hospital.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Kyoka Jirou has a history of eavesdropping as a consequence of her quirk. The first time she decides to eavesdrop on some of her classmates, she learns both Izuku’s true relationship with All Might and Endeavor’s history of abuse.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Re-Destro does not like Quirk Supremacists, only keeping them around as additional muscle for the Meta Liberation Army but otherwise hating their guts due to their toxic ideals being so obviously detrimental to even those with powerful Meta Abilities. Geten came from one such group and in spite of his own powerful ability, was treated as trash due to his sister being even more powerful.
- Fantastic Ableism: More emphasis is placed on complex mutants such as Tsuyu, Miruko, and Himiko being discriminated against due to their bizarre, inhuman traits and appearances and often hitting the Uncanny Valley. It’s so bad that suicide is common, and even good people such as Tsuyu could snap and turn to help villains for some vague promise of making everything better.
- Foreshadowing:
- After learning of Shoto’s past during the sports festival, Izuku gets uncharacteristically angry, being extremely blunt and rude with Shoto and refusing to entertain his logic for a second. He explains that this is due to not believing someone when they told Izuku about Endeavor and that they were right all along. That person is eventually revealed to be Dabi, whose descent into villainy and acts of meaningless killing could have been stopped had Izuku believed him.
- The discussion about how Class Six Quirks interact with each other is how it explains Overhaul evolving when taken in by an AFO clone, Nemesis, and become a major threat.
- Happily Married:
- All Might and Inko, after the first chapter. Eraserhead and Ms.Joke as well.
- Chapter 44 reveals that Lady Nagant and Knuckleduster are also this, with Nagant even giving up on destroying the HSPC after her daughter was born.
- Inko and All for One used to be this, up until Inko discovered the true depth of her husband’s crimes and how inhuman they were.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Crust, and Slidin'Go all give their lives to buy Izuku enough time for his plan to stop Godhaul. Nighteye also sacrifices himself getting Godhaul's attention to provide a timeline where they can win.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation:
- Izuku is not used to praise given his backstory, so he tends to undermine his accomplishments and gets embarrassed when others compliment him. It also turns out a lot of this is due to a severe case of guilt caused by Izuku very nearly becoming a villain after being rejected by All Might.
- Mineta, like in canon, thinks little of himself and his quirk. Unlike in canon, this is given much greater focus, to the point where it’s revealed that Mineta is suffering from depression.
- Yoshihiro, due to being a former member of the Creature Rejection Clan, thinks himself to be inferior to anyone with a mutant-type quirk. This is a massive problem given that his quirk works on how morally superior he feels to his opponent.
- In Spite of a Nail: Shouto still comes to the conclusion that Izuku is All Might's secret love child. He just so happens to be right this time.
- Lampshade Hanging: Nana Shimura would throw one on the sheer absurdity of All Might’s former crush also being an S-Ranked villain and formerly married to All For One.
- This is literally the least probable thing in the entire world.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to Cure to Evil and even canon, while still not without its dark and tragic moments this fanfiction focuses more on the humor and slice-of-life aspect of the world of MHA. Comparing the number of characters who die in Cure to Evil to this fic makes the difference very clear.
- Love Is a Weakness: Subverted. Ochako ends up realizing her crush on Izuku during her internship with Gunhead and begins to go down this route. Gunhead then ends up throwing her logic back in her face by pointing out that just because heroism is a hard and cooperative career doesn’t mean that having someone to lean on and help you is a bad thing or a distraction. This ends up pushing Ochako to confess to Izuku.
- Magical Girl: Aiko wants to be a Magical Girl Hero, albeit one with a villainous aesthetic and wanted to practice her acting early, hence all her creepy behaviour. It has been remarkably successful in terrifying people, which she's pleased by.
- Metaphorically True: Aiko manages to convince other Hero schools that U.A. made a deal with an eldritch being to become the top hero school through phrases such as "That honour belongs to my great father. UA is delivering him periodic tributes in exchange for sharing his knowledge and power with its students..." and "He used to be powerful enough to level cities with a gesture. People built shrines to him, and the entire society was shaped in his image. Alas, he lost most of his power. He decided to leave this world for his progeny to shape. That would be me and my older brother, who is taking the exam today." Aiko is technically telling the truth, but it is highly misleading when the actual situation is that her father is All Might and he works as a teacher for U.A.
- More Dakka: All Might has a machine gun, and he uses it when two fools try and kidnap his daughter after he used up One for All.
- Not Quite Dead: All for One turns out to be barely alive in Dr Garaki's basement, but he commits suicide to deny All Might the pleasure of killing him a second time.
- Not So Above It All:
- All for One wore Paw Patrol pajamas.
- Godhaul's first use of his quirks is to give himself blonde spiky hair and note how nobody can recognize the reference.
- Not So Stoic: Aiko (after making an Incredibly Lame Pun) is actually caught off-guard when Eraserhead prematurely expels her before she's even started attending U.A.
- Papa Wolf: All Might toward his children, adopted and not. Even after he can't use One for All anymore he remains extremely dangerous to any would-be kidnapper - just ask Magne and Moonfish.
- Phantom Thief: Asa Midoriya is very efficient in robbing anyone he chooses to rob blind without them noticing. He can even do this to people like Endeavor.
- Point of Divergence: The reason why this fic doesn’t go down the same path as Cure to Evil, despite taking place in similar universes, is due to Inko being revolted at All for One’s career path and divorcing him.
- All Might killing All for One not only leads to his empire scattering across Japan, with Kurogiri and Doctor Garaki going to join the Paranormal Liberation Front but also leads to the capture of Tomura Shigaraki/Tenko Shimura, who is promptly put under the guardianship of Gran Torino.
- Thanks to Shinso helping her at her lowest, Himiko Toga doesn’t go on to become an Ax-Crazy serial killer and instead is able to regain her sanity and eventually join U.A.
- Because of Aldera being exposed and shut down, Bakugou is left with a black mark on his record and thus unable to apply for any hero school. While he would make it into U.A by the rehabilitation program on Izuku’s insistence, this does change several things during the few days in which he is not at U.A.
- Inasa Yoarashi ends up taking his spot in 1-A.
- Izuku and Ochako face Iida and Inasa during the battle trials.
- With All for One dead and his original plans being stopped much earlier, the criminal underworld and Villain factions unite into the Paranormal Liberation Front.
- Thanks to the efforts of the Gen Ed kids, a large amount of 1-A and 1-B are taken out during the first round of the Sports Festival, with the notable losses of Sero, Kirishima, Kaminari, Aoyoma, and Tetsutetsu, all of whom made it to the finals in canon.
- Thanks to Jirou, several hero students and members of the U.A. staff find out about Endeavor’s abuses sooner than in canon.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Though we don’t see it, a member of the general education course, Ayako Nakahara, spends the entirety of her opening speech at the sports festival dumping on the bias against less flashy quirks and the Heroes Commission policy to favor heroes that the public finds "inspirational", aka those with flashy quirks. Humorously, this is an abbreviated version of a massive manifest that was published on the internet.
- Izuku unleashes a massive one on Todoroki after he reveals his reasons for not using the fire side of his quirk, pointing out that judging heroism based on strength is flawed and that, despite his hatred of him, the way Todoroki acts makes him no different than his father, sans the fact that Endeavor is a criminal, and ends it by rejecting Todoroki’s rivalry.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Izuku is quite literally All Might’s son here, a product of a fling between his mother and Yagi years prior.
- Eri is Izuku’s adopted sister.
- Inko is Nana's daughter, which by extension makes her Izuku's grandmother.
- Running Gag:
- Lawful characters such as Tsukauchi, Aizawa, and Present Mic, being traumatized and/or terrified by the Midoriya's.
- Aiko terrorizing everyone who isn't used to her.
- Aiko being treated like an eldritch being and being worshiped by characters such as Tokoyami.
- Saying Too Much: AFO clone Nemesis mentions how Re-Destro sent him which informs Overhaul he's been betrayed and lets Nighteye know about another key player that he passes on to his allies. Re-Destro is very angry about that.
- Shout-Out:
- All Might and Mischief's relationship comes across like the Trope Namer, Batman and Catwoman. The fact that Mischief was a thief and even had a cat-themed bodysuit suggests that this was no coincidence.
- All Might considers going back into heroics after his retirement as a Quirkless Hero called Y'All Might.
- Godhaul's first use of his quirks is to give himself blonde spiky hair akin to a Super Saiyan. Sadly none of the heroes recognize the reference.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To Mirrond’s previous work, Cure to Evil. Both fics feature an Izuku who uses his analysis skills and Quirk to change the current hero society and follow their mentor and father’s path, gathering loyal allies, many of whom are small-time villains, to do so. Both Izuku’s ultimately wish and fight for a better world, and seek to gain an influential position in society to do so, all while fighting various villains and villain groups who seek to tear society down and kill Izuku and his allies. The difference? Ties that Bind focuses on Izuku following All Might’s legacy and becoming the number one hero, gathering allies from U.A., and helping small-time villains get the chance to redeem themselves. Izuku attempts to change hero society from the inside and take down the corruption within it in non-lethal ways. Cure to Evil, on the other hand, focuses on Izuku following the path of his father, All For One, and becoming the new symbol of terror. He mostly gathers allies from villains and promotes them from small-time to major, and focuses on violent change, oftentimes killing his enemies to get his way.
- Story-Breaker Power: Godhaul, as a result of AFO clone Nemesis assimilating the original Overhaul and his quirk only for the latter to take control, gains the ability to copy, bestow, and erase quirks.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The different Villain factions of the Paranormal Liberation Front have different, sometimes outright opposing ideologies and the only reason they're in an alliance at all is to take down Hero Society before each faction can try their own individual goals.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After their efforts in the sports festival to stand out and show that they deserved to be heroes as well, Nedzu would end up turning Class 1-C and 1-D into Hero Course classes.
- To Win Without Fighting: The original Destro's goal was to start reforms and be elected into power, and only resorted to civil war when that failed - and when he realized he would lose he left to his eventual successors instructions on how to succeed where he failed, his Golden Ending. Re-Destro has got far enough that the Hearts and Minds Party is poised to win the next elections, and while Nedzu has discovered his existence and identified the public fronts of the MLA he also realizes that they're too powerful to go after them with force without starting a civil war the MLA could well win.
- Too Powerful to Live: Godhaul is quickly killed by Izuku having Asa and Aiko provide him and his friends the means to counter most of his abilities. This all occurred in one chapter after his initial appearance as he would've been unstoppable if allowed to grow barring a Deus Ex Machina.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- While far from a complete Jerkass, Momo Yaoyorozu did start out in the story struggling with jealousy towards Izuku and a tendency to look slightly down on her classmates due to her social status, especially the former villains. After Izuku helped Mineta, someone Momo wanted to see expelled, she begins to lighten up, read up on quirk discrimination, and even becomes close friends with Izuku and Mei Hatsume.
- Mineta’s perverted, near-harassment tendencies are dropped after Izuku points out to him that he’s likely depressed and using his interest in girls to cope.
- After Gran Torino ripped into his personality and made it clear that he was heading down the path of many mass-murdering villains who wanted to be heroes at one point, Bakugou’s arrogant attitude completely breaks and he becomes The Atoner.
- Uncertain Doom: Overhaul and the Shie Hassaikai were dealt with years prior to canon thanks to several of the villains the Midoriyas were close to launching an attack on Overhaul’s base, seemingly killing him when the building collapsed. While Overhaul was very quickly revealed to have survived and Chronostasis managed to get out as well, the fate of the rest of the Shie Hassaikai is unknown.
- Villainous Rescue: When Godhaul appears and Izuku needs the warp quirk canceller's lowered the army denies it due to not understanding the situation. Re-Destro sends Geten to kill the soldiers and lower the warp canceller for him due to knowing how dangerous Godhaul is.
- Villain Team-Up: The Paranormal Liberation Front is an alliance of different Villain factions and groups.
- Wham Shot: Chapter 59. Re-Destro's attempt to use the AFO clone Nemesis to kill Overhaul and ambush the heroes results in Overhaul's consciousness taking control from the Vestige World and evolving his powers to become Godhaul who according to
Word of God is much stronger than he was in Cure to Evil.
