To Cross the Line
by JustaPerson1 is a My Hero Academia fanfic.
Izuku has been told he can’t be a hero, that he can’t be anything by everyone. He never thought he’d meet All Might but he was, unconsciously at least, holding on to the hope that the Number One Hero, the man who inspired and lifted up everyone, would tell him, he could be a hero. When he was told he couldn’t, everything just snapped and all the words that everyone had ever said, telling him he was useless, he couldn’t do it, came back, including the words he’d heard from his old friend Bakugou earlier that day.
This time, Izuku didn’t push them away, this time he listens, and that night goes back to the building where he met All Might and tries to end it all.
He fails obviously but that begins the series of bad events that push him to joining the up and coming League of Villains. Bakugou and All Might really should have thought about the consequences of their actions, but since they didn’t, the League’s first recruit will make that happen for them.
At least until others show that they care for him. That wasn’t meant to happen.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: While Izuku seem largely over his childhood bullying in canon and has no such implication of self harm, the first chapter ends with a suicide attempt.
- Break the Cutie: Izuku is the normal, loveable kid, right up until things start to go wrong, then they keep going wrong until he reaches the point of no return.
- Broken Pedestal: All Might pretty much jumps off it on his own by breaking Izuku’s dream with his words ‘you can’t be a hero without a quirk’.
- Condescending Compassion: While All Might is a good hero, he believes that people with no quirks or impractical quirks should leave the dangerous heroing to people who won the Superpower Lottery. Which sounds practical on paper...but isn’t, especially when telling someone to abandon their dream. All Might has obviously forgotten his past where he wanted to be a pillar for the world, but was quirkless.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Izuku loves his mom, and while she’s not the sole reason for villainy, her injuries sustained at the hands of a careless hero, are the reason he takes the plunge.
- False Utopia: The hero system in ‘’To Cross the Line’’ is shown, initially as the ‘’My Hero Academia’’ world believes, but quickly loses its shine when heroes are shown to be more interested in their own reputation and pay than truly helping people.
- Good All Along: Even though Izuku is a villain he still wants to help people, and stops a mugging and calls the ambulance for people.
- Kids Are Cruel: Being quirkless, Izuku has been bullied for much of his life, by his childhood friend. Mostly he ignores it, but he does still hear it all, and it does all register, especially when it moves to suicide baiting.
- Revenge: Izuku’s initial reason for being a villain is to get revenge on All Might and Bakugou.
- Trauma Conga Line: Izuku is a tough kid. He has to be since he’s quirkless, so in order to break him, everything has to go wrong. There’s all the canon stuff, he’s humiliated in class for wanting to go to UA, Katsuki burns and drowns his notebook, Katsuki tells him to take a swan dive, All Might tells him to keep his dreams realistic, and we know none of that broke him. Then there’s the failed suicide attempt, the lack of general decency when a hero injuries his mother, Inko in a permanent coma facing the possibility of paralysis and no support from anyone.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Izuku always wanted to be a hero. He always wanted to help people. No one ever thought he’d turn out to be a villain.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Izuku’s internal reasoning shows a very high degree of maturity and the ability to properly analyse pros and cons of the situation.
