Fanfic / With Confidence

The more anxious Amida became, the more confident the next person he touched would be. It usually took 8-12 hours for his quirk to wear off. The confidence that Amida's quirk made was real, but to feed that confidence, another emotion had to be the energy supply. It varied from person to person but it was always came from the emotional state they felt the most. Angry people became charismatic, depressed people became the life of the party. Happy people turned into hot-blooded brawlers.

As for kind people?

They became downright ruthless.

By the time Amida made it to work and discovered he was getting a promotion, Midoriya Izuku was feeling the full effect of his quirk.

With Confidence is a My Hero Academia Point of Divergence fic by TimelessTears. The premise is that at the beginning of the story, Midoriya Izuku is hit by a quirk that, for one day, swaps out his anxiety and empathy for untold levels of confidence. When he comes down from the resulting boost the next day with the realization that he just forced his homeroom into fearful submission, successfully blackmailed his middle school's faculty, and told off a pro hero on live television for failing at his job, he realizes a few things: he could be far more ruthless and blunt than he ever thought possible; the horror of his own behavior is mitigated by a not insignificant level of satisfaction; and, if his mom's oddly feral approval and the praise of his childhood hero is of any indication, working to one day truly become as self-confident as he was under that quirk's influence can only be a good thing.

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Contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Two examples.
  • Hisashi's parents were of the emotional variety. They secretly resented being stuck with each other and this boiled over when Hisashi turned thirteen. When they weren't yelling at each other, they would yell at Hisashi for siding with either one of them. Once they finalized their divorce, both of them were willing to abandon Hisashi for petty reasons. The only reason why they were still providing for him is because the judge ordered them to in disgust towards their treatment of their son.
  • Inko's parents were also emotionally abusive. They blatantly favored Inko over her younger brother and whenever they do acknowledge him, it's to criticize him for not being like his sister. They also never bothered to check if he was being bullied at school or not. When he eventually commits suicide to escape his misery, Inko's parents treat his death as if he was just a guest. Their actions anger Inko so much that she yells at them, and her relationship with her parents is incredibly strained afterward.
• Acquainted with Emergency Services: Downplayed. According to Inko, the local corner store keeps bandages and ointment on hold for the Midoriyas due to how much they purchase.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: All Might's relationship with the UA staff besides Nedzu is changed from canon in that none of them know about his deteriorating condition. As far as they know, All Might's personal assistant Toshinori Yagi is just switching careers to be a teaching assistant at UA.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Mina appears long before the UA Entrance Exams and Izuku overhearing her inspires him to go to an arcade to practice dancing to improve his footwork.
  • Tokoyami appears in a bonus scene right after the UA Entrance Exams.
  • Shinso appears shortly before the written portion of the UA Entrance Exams.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Izuku in this fic is a lot more confident than canon-Izuku was. He's more willing to stand up to everyone trying to talk down to him.
• Adults Are Useless: Zig-Zagged:
  • The staff at Izuku's middle school are worse than useless due to their casual reinforcement of the Fantastic Ableism towards Quirkless people displayed by his peers. They are only willing to act when Izuku makes clear that he knows just how illegal their actions are and that he can prove they effectively signed off on his abuse.
  • Death Arms did absolutely nothing during the Sludge Villain incident. The other heroes were at least helping out in some way but Death Arms just stood by. When he's called out for it by Izuku and makes himself look even worse, his reputation takes a bad hit.
  • Inko was well aware that her son was being bullied but felt as though her hands were tied — especially since Izuku refused to tell her about what was going on, and the school actively stonewalled her whenever she tried to get answers.
  • Mitsuki and Masaru get their son into therapy after his encounter with the Sludge Villain, along with addressing the matter of how he bullied Izuku for years.
  • In Inko's youth, none of the staff at her school interfere when her brother is bullied by classmates for having a dangerous quirk, contributing to his suicide. A huge reason behind Inko's rise as a Bully Hunter is to protect the students from being bullied when the adults can't or refuse to act.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • After writing down the three top answers his classmates have to the question "What makes a hero?", Izuku goes through and systematically asks each of them how they intend to meet the criteria they listed. None of them could give anything resembling a good, or even an adequate, answer.
  • Izuku hits Principal Akashi with one when the man tries to tell him that it's not his place to tell his classmates what to do. Izuku immediately asks him a question that exposes his hypocrisy.
    Akashi: Aspiring to become a hero is an admirable dream for anyone!
    Izuku: An admirable dream for anyone but me. Isn't that what you mean?
  • He also summarizes the flaw in the Principal's plan to piggyback off of Bakugou's success with one simple query:
    Izuku: Where did All Might attend middle school, Principal Akashi?
  • There's this exchange between Izuku and Toshinori regarding his belief that quirkless people can't become heroes:
    Toshinori: I know what I said is harsh, but I cannot in good conscious give people false hope. What if they try? What if they fail?
    Izuku: And what if they succeed?!
  • Inko asks Katsuki if he would have left her son alone if he hadn't dreamed of being a hero. Katsuki sullenly admits that no, he would have continued harassing him because he disliked the idea of Izuku 'looking down' on him.
    • She gets another one against him in the same conversation when she admits that she honestly didn't believe in her son:
      Inko: I didn't think he could do it, but I never stopped him from trying, and I never tried to make him pick another path. And you know what, Katsuki?
      Katsuki: What?
      Inko: (smiles sweetly) He already proved us both wrong, didn't he?
• Armor-Piercing Response: Izuku gives one to Iida during the Entrance Exam regarding saving Ochako from the Zero Pointer.
  Izuku: Do you want to be a hero or not?!
  Iida: I - of course!
  Izuku: Then act like one and help me save her!
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Izuku has a highly analytical mind which Nedzu is impressed by. Under the guise of being given a theoretical quirk by Nedzu, Izuku correctly identifies that One for All's growing strength will eventually make it unusable and impossible to transfer as no one will be able to handle it. He then asks several questions about the actual transfer aspect of the quirk, wondering if it's possible to split its power among several users, which Nedzu finds highly fascinating.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Back in high school, Inko threatened to rip the wings off of Mitsuki's bully. Before, she punished some bullies who wanted to cut a girl's hair off by ripping some of their own hair out, and later, she did rip out the teeth of a guy she found harassing a girl.
    Mitsuki: Most days she was this shy, anxious thing that was constantly worrying about if she was bothering other people. The moment she got even an inkling that someone was being mistreated, though, all that anxiety was gone and she was on a war path. Us first years learned pretty quickly that bullying was a no-go at school because Inko would find out. And no one wanted to face her anger.
  • Everyone at Aldera learns the hard way that Izuku is cut from the same cloth. A student from another class taunting him over a quirkless girl's suicide has the other members of Izuku's class "looking like survivors of a horror movie who just learned the danger hadn't passed yet".
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Bakugou Masaru is normally very quiet and passive, but he is not happy when he hears about his son's bullying. When his son tries to protest, he finally barks at him to shut up and slaps the table for emphasis, causing his own chemical sweat to leave burns in the wood.
  Mitsuki: [thinking] Masaru’s rage was like the tide. When it was far off, it looked harmless and small, but if one wasn’t paying attention, the tide would be upon them in a blink, high and daunting, ready to drag and drown. Inescapable. Her husband’s anger was quiet but it was deep. If he had gone to get Katsuki yesterday, Death Arms and a few other heroes would have gone into early retirement.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: In a variation, Izuku comments to the principal that something can only be called blackmail if the person being threatened knows that their actions were unethical and illegal. But since they want to pass off the way he was mistreated at Aldera as simple ignorance, well... that's why they're here to sort things out now, hmm? Before this misunderstanding gets any worse.
• Blatant Lies:
  • When Inko walked in on Mitsuki's bullies forcing her head into the toilet, one of them tried to claim she had been bullying them and they "went too far in getting revenge". Inko responded by forcefully filling one's mouth with soap and threatening to rip the wings off of another.
  • When Mina asks the Silver Comic Arcade employee if they saw green_boi (Izuku), they say no in spite of watching the latter play one of their games for an hour. The entertainment they get from Mina just missing her dance rival is just that good apparently.
• Blessed with Suck: Offhand mention is made of a suicide bomber whose quirk gave him a bomb for a head. Everyone agrees he got screwed by the genetic lottery.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Izuku brings up a (not really) hypothetical situation of having the chance to gain a quirk to some other quirkless people. One side admits that having a quirk would be helpful due to discrimination against the quirkless, though they'd prefer if it was a weak or minor quirk so it wouldn't be a hassle. Another side is outraged at the idea of "conforming to fit with society's standards". Both sides are treated as equally valid, though since Izuku wanted advice on whether he should accept One For All, it doesn't help him any.
• Brandishment Bluff: Izuku holds up his phone in reference to all the evidence on social media regarding the discrimination against him. After the principal gives in to his demands, Izuku mentally notes that he doesn't actually have said evidence on his phone.
• Break Them by Talking: By using only words, Izuku cows his homeroom teacher by explaining his career is as good as over if he complains about the teacher violating Izuku's privacy, exposes to his classmates just how unsuited to being heroes they are, which got many of them to change their schools of choice from hero schools, and makes his principal terrified of a potential lawsuit by showing that social media has mountains upon mountains of evidence of Izuku's mistreatment at the school.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed, but Izuku calmly informs Toshinori of just how much he looked up to him, and how much he liked the idea of somebody being in his corner, though he admits that he only knew what the public let him see and was likely Loving a Shadow.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Hisashi was the top-scoring student in high school despite frequently ditching class, and that's when he wasn't sleeping in class.
• Bully Hunter: Midoriya Inko protected Mitsuki from bullies when they were younger, and the other kids at their school knew better than to try any bullying as Inko will find out, and there will be consequences. When Katsuki's bullying is found out, Mitsuki's first words to her friend are to ask her not to kill him.
• Bystander Syndrome: Death Arms just standing there doing nothing while Katsuki was being attacked by the Sludge Villain gets him heavy criticism from Izuku, Mitsuki, and the public, and his reputation takes a serious hit. Bad quirk matchup or not, a hero acting like a bystander while a kid is about to lose his life is not acceptable.
• Cassandra Truth: After learning All Might's secret, Izuku points out that he now has a lot of power over him. All Might responds that nobody would ever believe him, something Izuku concedes.
• Caught on Tape:
  • There are mountains upon mountains of footage of Izuku being bullied, posted on social media. His classmates instantly regret posting those the moment Izuku points out they can be used as evidence against them and their teachers.
  • Izuku makes a recording of Bakugou giving him a Suicide Dare, and the latter instantly knows that the former holds his future in his hands. Izuku warns him that if he continues bullying Izuku, that recording is going straight to UA.
• Character Catchphrase: Because of Izuku's memetic status in the aftermath of the Sludge Villain incident, he is forever linked In-Universe to the phrase "Break it down for me". Izuku using it against Iida is how many UA Entrance Exam participants recognized him.
• Character Witness: Working at a soup kitchen, Izuku comes across a homeless man whom he helps by getting him food and passing word from the other visitors of the soup kitchen on where to avoid getting mugged or jumped by drug dealers. Aizawa, pretending to be homeless to bust said drug dealers, is quite grateful for the kid's help and kindness as it allows him to complete his mission where otherwise he wouldn't have succeeded at all.
• Chekhov's Skill: Izuku's experience in laser tag comes in handy for the Entrance Exam, because the robots are programmed to fight in a similar way and he's already used to their patterns.
• Collector of the Strange: Izuku winds up getting an incredibly ugly, cursed-looking All Might knockoff figurine. He got it autographed. Toshinori loves the thing and wants one himself, since the only All Might merch he collects are the ugliest, cheapest knockoffs he can find.
• Colossus Climb: Izuku performs one on the Zero Pointer to reach the shutoff switch, though he doesn't make it before the exam ends.
• Commonality Connection: Izuku and Nedzu bond over the fact that they are both smart people who suffered for being different from the norm of society.
• Cruel Mercy: Inko's punishment for Katsuki is to teach him empathy by having him research quirklessness and volunteer at quirkless charities. Reflecting back on this, Katsuki acknowledges that this was a fair punishment, but not as light as he initially mistook it for.
• Cut the Juice: Izuku tries to do this to the Zero Pointer, but he fails to reach the shutoff switch before the test ends.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • It turns out that Mitsuki was heavily bullied growing up, thanks to having a quirk that proved difficult to detect at first and was seen as practically useless once they did figure out that they had one. Due to this, they're incredibly horrified upon learning that Katsuki is a bully, with the whole family entering therapy as a result.
  • Inko had a younger brother who died of suicide when he was ten because of the bullying he received, and to make matters worse, their parents showed blatant favouritism to her and never really helped him. As a result, she abandons her family name at the first chance she gets and becomes the Bully Hunter that Mitsuki knew her as.
  • Hisashi's parents went through a bitter divorce when he was fifteen. That's already traumatic for a minor, but to make matters worse, neither of them wanted custody over him after the divorce.
• Dead Guy Junior: Defied. When Izuku was born, it was suggested that he be named Izumo after Inko's dead brother (who committed suicide when he was 10). Inko decides against it since she doesn't want to give her son a name with that much weight.
• Deadly Dodging: During the entrance exam, Izuku takes out a pair of Three Pointers by standing between them and dodging at the last second.
• Deadpan Snarker: After almost managing to climb the Zero Pointer and shut it down via the emergency shutdown switch, Izuku deadpans at one of the camera drones to "consider us short people" next time they build a giant robot.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Variation; while meeting with Inko, Principal Akashi starts musing about how the atmosphere at Aldera has changed ever since Izuku first asserted himself. While Inko's words that jolt him back to the present are directly responding to the last thing he said out loud, they eerily align with his thoughts in a way that makes it seem as though she's reacting to them.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The teachers at Aldera did their best to make sure that Bakugou got into a good hero school so he'd make the school look good, going so far as to tamper with the grades of other students to make him look better by comparison. Besides the fact that literally no one pays attention to what middle schools heroes went to before getting into hero schools, as Izuku points out to the principal, the It's All About Me attitude that he's gotten as a result of their favoritism means that he's unlikely to give them any credit, and that's assuming that the Sucky School hasn't been condemned or that any of the complicit teachers and staff are even still there to benefit from it somehow.
  • Bakugou watched Izuku blackmail his teacher with a recording of said teacher breaking student-teacher confidentiality. He realizes too late what a horrible idea it was to try and confront Izuku anyway when Izuku uses the same tactic on him to record Bakugou attempting to suicide bait him. If Izuku sends the recording to anyone or posted it online, Bakugou can kiss his future goodbye.
  • One of Izuku's classmates, Hada Shiro, is a double example. On the one hand, Hada really should not have been posting incredibly quirkist posts online, particularly if he wanted to be a hero, and shouldn't have been surprised about Izuku gathering the information and sharing it with potential Hero schools. On the other, the way Izuku handled it basically destroyed any chance of the kid getting into normal high schools. Nedzu has to pull some strings to get the kid into a high school that specializes in cases like his so that Hada won't be forced into villainy thanks to a non-existent school future.
  • When All Might brings up his plan for Izuku to clean up Dagobah Beach, Izuku promptly asks about protective gear, citing the sharp rusty metal everywhere, a nearby biohazard bag, and the guarantee that there's used needles buried in the sand. Furthermore, the place is such a maze of trash and other things that it's pretty much the perfect location for hiding bodies. All Might promises to get Izuku some protective gear and talk to his police contacts before they do anything.
    • This in itself leads to a situation that was in canon - All Might being a teacher. All Might realizes this trope is in effect, that he didn't think through all the little details regarding teaching people, and talks with Nezu about it. Instead of being a Heroics Teacher, he's a teacher's aid- able to provide help and expertise, but not out-and-out responsible for the class.
• Disappointed in You:
  • Mitsuki and Masaru are not happy with Katsuki after learning of him bullying Izuku and their teachers covering it up because of Mitsuki herself being a victim of bullying and her teachers covering it up. Mitsuki is actually fine that Izuku threatened bodily harm on her son because of it.
  • Inko isn't happy with Katsuki either. Katsuki actually finds that a lot worse than if she was just plain angry.
• Don't Tell Mama: Izuku tells Bakugou that if he committed suicide like Bakugou wants him to, he would tell Bakugou's mother everything he did to him and that Bakugou pressured him into taking his own life. The thought of his mother's reaction horrifies Bakugou.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Inko almost slipped into this after her brother committed suicide. Luckily one of the first people to speak to her was her principal, who knew exactly what she was going through and asked her not to get too upset with people who mean well but say the wrong thing.
• Dramatic Irony: When he gets into an argument with Izuku, Death Arms is worried that the kid is the one who's coming off looking like a damned fool and fretting about how this will ruin Izuku's image.
• The Dreaded:
  • Izuku towards his class. Those who thought he might go back to normal after that one off day are horrified after he destroys another kid's future for taunting him with a young girl's suicide. One outright states he just prays Izuku ignores him so long as he leaves the boy alone.
  • It's later revealed that Izuku's mother Midoriya Inko was similarly feared in her youth for being a Bully Hunter who bore a no-nonsense attitude towards bullies and would go after those who tormented other students the moment she heard of it. Among the students she helped was Bakugo's mother Mitsuki. The reason Inko became that way is because her younger brother was constantly bullied at school for having a dangerous Quirk and his parents willingly turned a blind eye to it, leading to his early suicide, and she felt she had to make up for it or else she could never face her brother again.
• Driven to Suicide: Happens several times.
  • A Quirkless person that Izuku didn't know committed suicide at her school, Jakku. One of Izuku's classmates uses it as an attempt to bully Izuku. Not only does it result in Izuku all but destroying the kid's future, it draws the attention of All Might and Nedzu. All Might anonymously pays for the funeral of the girl and starts pursuing legal action against the school.
  • Inko had a brother who committed suicide when he was ten due to regularly being compared by their parents to his perfect sister, which turned her from a good girl who did what she was told into a Bully Hunter.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Because All Might forgot to tell Izuku his name when Inko asked who the man in Izuku's selfie was, he ended up calling All Might "Himawari" (Sunflower). After learning of this, All Might says they'll claim it was a nickname.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • The principal of Aldera is unrepentant about looking down on Izuku for being Quirkless, and his opinion about him hasn't improved after being blackmailed into reigning in the rest of the staff, but he has some standards. When he heard that a Quirkless student was bullied into committing suicide at another school, he warned the rest of the staff that he would end them himself if something similar happened at Aldera. For all he dislikes Izuku, he doesn't want a child to die on his watch.
  • Katsuki is furious to learn Aldera has been sabotaging other students and rigging his own grades to make him look as good as possible.
• Exact Words:
  • When Inko agrees not to file a lawsuit against Aldera for their actions (and inactions) towards Izuku, she pointedly leaves out that the Bakugos are also filing a lawsuit against them.
  • Played for Laughs. When Izuku almost reaches the Zero Pointer's shutoff switch before time runs out, Midnight insists he deserves to get something for it. Aizawa suggests a detention.
• Extreme Doormat: Inko used to be this in high school. While she was well-liked by her family, peers, and teachers, they also tended to pile up too much responsibility on her and she was too afraid of troubling people to say no. She grows out of this after her brother's suicide, growing a spine and becoming a Bully Hunter.
• Eye Scream: Ito, whose quirk is to be able to pop his eyes out and throw them out a foot, tries to proclaim that his having one makes him superior to Izuku. Izuku points out that he could still pull Ito's eyes out by grabbing onto the exposed optic nerve, cut said nerve outright, or crush his eyes in his hands.
• Famed In-Story:
  • Izuku becomes famous as a meme, and he is still getting recognized by the beginning of the UA Entrance Exams ten months later, even by heroes who've never met him in person. On a more local level, Izuku also becomes infamous at the Silver Arcade for dominating both the Laser Tag and Dance-Off games.
  • In her high school days, Inko became infamous as a Bully Hunter after her brother was Driven to Suicide.
• Fan Art: A picture of Izuku's "Break It Down For Me" pic has been made here.
• Fantastic Ableism:
  • Izuku is routinely abused at school with the teachers covering for his abusers all because of his Quirklessness. With a confidence boost, he turns the tables on them and they end up treading lightly around him for the rest of Izuku's final year with the exception of Hada Shiro, though he came to regret trying to pick on Izuku after Izuku has his revenge.
  • All Might does some research and the part of him that was once Quirkless flares up at the indignation of Quirkless people not being treated as people and wants Izuku to be able to become the first Quirkless hero to prove all the bigots wrong.
• Fingore: Daichi, the bully whose fingers extend, gets his fingers squeezed when he attempts to intimidate Izuku, with Izuku threatening to break said fingers.
• Foreshadowing:
  • After pulling up the video Nico made of Iwamoto revealing Midoriya's plans to apply to Yuuei, Izuku warns him that schools are allowed to check the social media accounts of applicants. Hada Shiro suffers the full consequences of this.
  • Izuku points out how easily Ito could be disabled by someone targeting his eyes. Later on, he takes out one of the Sludge Villain's eyes with a rock.
• From Bad to Worse: For Death Arms, who goes from being chewed out by Izuku to being ripped a new one by Mitsuki, whose son was almost murdered because of his inaction.
• Good Parents: Inko and Hisashi do the best they can to be great parents to Izuku to make up for all the discrimination he faces from everybody else.
• Grew a Spine: Izuku is hit with a quirk that temporarily boosts his confidence with which he lays into his teacher, classmates, principal, and some heroes. After it wears off, with some careful nudging from Inko, his confidence boost becomes permanent and he refuses to tolerate shit from anyone, as Hada Shiro found out the hard way.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Inko's Quirk allows her to pull small objects towards her. Back in high school, she once used it to rip out a boy's teeth when she found him harassing a girl and threatened to pull off the wings of Mitsuki's bully.
• Hero Does Public Service: After hearing about how a number of Pro Heroes find ways to help people outside their official work^note Present Mic volunteers for a Suicide Hotline, All Might supports several charities, the Wild Wild Pussycats endorse eco-friendly products, etc, Izuku looks around and eventually starts working at a soup kitchen.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Death Arms' reputation is in ruins after he made an absolute ass of himself on live television, exposing his neglect and incompetence during the Sludge Villain incident. He gets mocked and criticised by civilians and other heroes alike for it and ten months later, his reputation still hasn't recovered.
• Hidden Purpose Test: The Forum is an online forum that requires passing an undefined test by one of the administrators. What nobody knows is that they're actually being tested to check if they're Quirkless as the Forum is a support group for Quirkless people.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Iwamoto encouraged his students' cruelty by outing Izuku as Quirkless, casually commenting on his grades, and turning a blind eye to how they treated him. As a result, his students became so confident and comfortable with bullying that they thought nothing of recording it — so when Iwamoto reveals Midoriya's plans for the future, Izuku is easily able to retrieve evidence of the breach.
  • Izuku's classmates all agree that to be a successful hero, they must have a strong quirk, an interesting personality, be good-looking, and/or have a unique costume. Izuku then turns this around on them by pointing out none of them meet the criteria they say they need to be a successful hero. For example, the kid who wants to be a hero but whose quirk is "I can pop my eyeballs out."
  • Along similar lines to Iwamoto, Hada Shiro's online activity holds plenty of proof of their misdeeds, ensuring that none of the Hero schools want to even touch him.
• Hope Spot:
  • Iwamoto, fearing for his career, relaxes when Izuku says that he'll issue a complaint until he hears that he's taking it to the school board rather than the principal.
  • Principal Akashi relaxes a bit when Izuku admits that there's no paper trail proving that Izuku is being discriminated against at the school, only to be stunned when he shows all the evidence posted on social media.
  • Immediately after suicide-baiting Izuku, Hada Shiro spends a few weeks tense before calming down after Izuku apparently didn't do anything. What he didn't realise was that Izuku was spending all that time preparing his revenge and he shows up at Aldera as pale as a ghost when it finally plays out.
  • The Principal mistakenly assumes that he's gotten off the hook when Inko cuts their meeting short. She then coldly informs him that all further correspondence will be through the Goto Law Firm, and that her offer to avoid dragging their case into court is officially Off the Table.
  • Later on, Principal Akashi manages to pay Inko off anyway and is visibly relieved that she's not suing him. Inko decides that since he looked so relieved, she wouldn't tell him about the Bakugous' incoming lawsuit. Hisashi laughs after realising what Inko did.
• Humble Parent, Spoiled Kids: Katsuki is The Bully while his parents Mitsuki and Masaru are a lot nicer. However, because Katsuki's teachers were covering for him, they didn't know what Katsuki had become until the day of the Sludge Villain incident. Once they do, they are not happy with their son and take measures to subvert the trope.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: A good deal of Izuku's training comes from playing dancing games and laser tag at the arcade. The latter is especially helpful during the Entrance Exam as he has lots of practice being shot at by robots.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After school lets out, Izuku's teacher and principal meet up at a bar. They then get to see the breaking news about the Sludge Villain incident which shows Izuku telling off a pro-hero, prompting Iwamoto to go for the whiskey.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Izuku's principal gives so many ridiculous excuses for why he has to reschedule a meeting with Inko that she and Hisashi start playing Bingo over them. Hisashi is mentioned as winning due to the principal claiming his car caught fire before Inko could get the repeated house flooding she needed.
• Implausible Deniability: Izuku mentions offhand that he's been roped into several conversations at the soup kitchen on how to "hypothetically" hotwire a car if he "forgot his keys".
• Improvised Training: Because he knows training facilities are expensive, Izuku works on his footwork by playing a dancing game at the arcade and his situational awareness and tactics by playing laser tag.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • In his second encounter with the Sludge Villain, Izuku creates a makeshift slingshot out of a piece of Kamui Woods' broken branches and a strip of rubber from torn bits of Mount Lady's costume.
  • During the Entrance Exam, Izuku grabs a pipe from a destroyed robot and uses it to bludgeon and stab the other robots.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Bakugou still blows up Izuku's notebook and tells him to 'take a swan dive off the roof'.
  • The Sludge Villain still attacks both Izuku and Katsuki, and Izuku still discovers Toshinori's secret in much the same manner.
  • All Might still ends up training Izuku at Dagobah Beach.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: The day of the U.A. Entrance Exam, Izuku bought an energy drink, specifically grabbing a small one because he thought it'd affect him less than a larger one. Shinso later points out that the really small energy drinks are more concentrated and Izuku's going to be tasting colors later.
• Innocently Insensitive: All Might has the best of intentions when he offers his Quirk to Izuku, but since he made the offer after the boy had been training for months, the teen finds it vaguely insulting. While logically, Izuku knows he means well and that he'd be able to save far more people with One For All, emotionally it feels like All Might is saying he's not good enough as he is.
• Internal Reveal:
  • On the day of the Sludge Incident, Mitsuki and Masaru Bakugou learn about Katsuki bullying Izuku and their teachers covering it up for years. Mitsuki then informs Inko about it all.
  • Izuku is told about One for All the day before the UA entrance exam.
• Irony: Aizawa spends months undercover as a surly homeless drunk as part of an investigation. Several of the people who frequent the soup kitchen Izuku works at mention how antisocial and irritable the man is. Yet the information Aizawa needs to crack the case ultimately comes from those same people whom he refused to interact with, passed on by Izuku. He likely would have caught the drug dealers he was after much sooner if he'd been willing to simply talk to others.
• Jerkass Realization: Invoked. His therapist and Inko force Katsuki to admit he is a horrible person for everything he did to Izuku, but Inko isn't going to leave it at that. She doubles down on it and makes Katsuki research Quirkless statistics from the discrimination they face and volunteer at a Quirkless charity.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • The staff at Aldera got away with violating the Quirkless Protection Act for years, casually ignoring its existence much like how they turned a blind eye to — or actively encouraged — Izuku being bullied. When Izuku makes clear that he knows about the QPA and has proof of their many, many violations, they're left with Damocles' sword dangling over their collective heads.
  • Death Arms could have avoided blowback for his inaction during the Sludge Villain incident, but he decided to confront Izuku over him getting involved. This results in Izuku pointing out his failures on live camera and Death Arms making himself look worse. As one commentator points out, no one would have noticed Death Arms' screw-ups had he just left Izuku alone.
  • Katsuki's runs out once his parents learn about his bullying and they tell Inko about it.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Hada Shiro suicide baits Izuku and is an overall bigot against both Quirkless people and people with mutant quirks. Izuku retaliates by bringing his online activity which is full of his discriminatory behavior to the attention of every hero school he could think of. They promptly issue Hada pre-rejection letters, destroying his future. The next time he sees Izuku, Hada instantly knows it was Izuku's doing, why he did it, and stops showing up to Aldera soon after.
  • The incident with Hada Shiro above gets Izuku chewed out by Nezu, who points out that Izuku's actions in completely destroying Hada's future would have resulted in a student becoming a supervillain out of desperation.
  • Inko's parents constantly treated their younger son like a disappointment while favoring their more successful daughter and ignored his bullying problems at school. When their son commits suicide at a young age, they treat his death as if he's just a departing guest. Inko is furious with their apathy and yells at them for it, with their relationship being incredibly strained afterward.
  • Hisashi's parents were emotionally abusive to him, arguing in front of him constantly while yelling at him whenever he sided with either one of them. By the time their divorce was finalized, they decided to straight-up abandon him for petty reasons, all without an inch of remorse. They end up being ordered by the court to continue paying for Hisashi's living expenses, having pissed off the judge presiding over their case with their atrocious behavior.
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • Izuku inherits his highly analytical mind from his dad, who is one of the best freelance analytical consultants in Japan. They also both obsess over Quirks, though where Izuku focuses on the Quirks themselves, Hisashi loves the genetics aspect. Izuku notes the "late bloomer" excuse for having One For All wouldn't work because his father would instantly have a powerpoint presentation ready pointing out all the reasons why Izuku couldn't spontaneously have a Super-Strength Quirk.
  • When Mitsuki tells Katsuki how ruthless Inko was to anyone foolish enough to bully or harass others in their vicinity, he immediately draws the connection to Izuku.
    Katsuki: Fuck, he got it from her.
  • When Inko smiles during their meeting, Principal Akashi notes that she and her son have the same eyes and the same smile.
    Akashi: [thinking] Not good. Razors in velvet. Knives in silk.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Aizawa likes Yagi while disliking All Might. Since Aizawa doesn't know they are the same person, Yagi has to calm him down from going to confront All Might for the perceived mistreatment of Yagi. It should be noted though, that Aizawa was looking for things to dislike about All Might.
• Mama Bear: When calling Inko to tell her that Katsuki has been bullying Izuku for years, Mitsuki starts the conversation by asking Inko not to murder Katsuki for it. A later conversation has both Inko and Mitsuki agreeing that if she was still fifteen, she'd "have kicked Katsuki's ass" for what he did.
• Memetic Mutation: invoked
  • Izuku becomes the "Break It Down For Me" kid. Inko loves it and finds it cute. Hisashi has a copy of it framed on his desk. Izuku wishes for the meme's popularity to die down as soon as possible.
  • A picture of Death Arms' startled face with the words "That's Not What I Said!" becomes popular as well.
• Minor Living Alone: When he was fifteen, Hisashi started living on his own because neither of his parents wanted custody over him and the disgusted judge ordered them both to financially support him by giving him an apartment and a monthly allowance.
• Missed Him by That Much: Mina who has been looking for Izuku to challenge him for a Dance Off passes right by him at the arcade.
• More than Mind Control: Even though Izuku was under the influence of a confidence-boosting quirk, the confidence is real, and he meant everything he said to everyone who tried to break him down since it came from thoughts and feelings he had long before he got hit with the quirk, and even after it wore off, he still felt good about laying into everyone he did while under its effects. He remains confident independently of the quirk long after it wore off with some nudging from Inko.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When Izuku was seven, Inko discovered his hidden supplies he squirreled away for when she "got tired of him" and kicked him out. Inko is absolutely horrified Izuku would think that of her and does her damnedest to show how much she loves him from then on.
  • Played for laughs when the quirk's effect wears off on Izuku and he starts freaking out over everything he said and did while under the effects of the confidence boost.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Nedzu pulled some strings so prestigious mundane high schools with strict anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies would accept Hada Shiro so the bully could have some sort of future and be pushed into becoming a better person.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: When Izuku and Nedzu recognize a kinship with each other, Aizawa wakes up in fright.
• Mythology Gag: Inko's maiden name is Akatani, which was Izuku's original surname when Kōhei Horikoshi was first thinking up the series.
• Mundane Solution:
  • Izuku prevents Bakugou from using his explosions by slapping instant chemical compress onto his hands, making it too cold for Bakugou to ignite his hands.
  • Bakugou is slowly being strangled to death by the Sludge Villain and the pro heroes watch helplessly as they are too badly matched to fight him. Izuku makes an improvised slingshot and takes out the Sludge Villain's eye to distract the villain enough to rescue Bakugou himself.
• Must Make Amends: A boy who once bought Mitsuki red spider lilies later sincerely apologized for his prank. Mitsuki notes he smelled vaguely of smoke at the time, suggesting that Hisashi had a "talk" with him.
• Not Helping Your Case:
  • Izuku points out to Toshinori that he described police work as a thankless job before advising him to become an officer. In other words, he did absolutely nothing to sell the idea that it was a good alternative, despite his supposed respect for the work they did.
    Izuku: What are you trying to say to me? That I deserve to be miserable because you don't think I can become a hero? That’s pretty heartless.
  • Death Arms' attempts to defend himself from Izuku saying he did nothing to help with the sludge villain just makes him look worse. He first tries claiming that hostage situations are delicate, and while that's technically correct, as Izuku points out, the Sludge Villain was suffocating Katsuki, so it was a murder attempt, and Death Arms looks incompetent for not knowing the difference. He then tries to claim that his quirk was a bad matchup and that it was better to wait for backup, but that just results in Izuku telling the public that that means that if they are in danger and Death Arms shows up, there's a good chance he won't do his job, further damaging Death Arms' reputation.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Death Arm dismisses Izuku trying to help him as him wanting an autograph in the middle of a crisis. Fed up, Izuku goes ahead to rescue Bakugou himself.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Izuku hears of a "demonic little solo gremlin" at the Laser Tag arena he frequents and shivers in fear, not knowing that the demonic little solo gremlin is him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Iwamoto pales when Izuku casually calls him out on breaking student confidentiality by revealing his plans to apply to Yuuei, just like how he outed him as Quirkless. He then starts to relax when Izuku says that he'll issue a complaint until he hears that he's taking it to the school board rather than the principal.
  • Principal Akashi reacts in fear when Izuku brings up the Quirkless Protection Act. He relaxes a bit when Izuku admits that there's no paper trail proving that Izuku is being discriminated against at the school, only to be stunned when he shows all the evidence posted on social media.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Inko once ripped out two of a guy's teeth for sexually harassing his girlfriend. Over twenty years later, Hisashi asks if she did the same to Izuku's principal.
• Only the Knowledgable May Pass: The Forum is an app for quirkless people that one can only join by answering a series of questions from the admin. Said questions are specifically things that only quirkless people would know.
• The Only Way They Will Learn: Nedzu agrees that sometimes, people can only learn important lessons through ruthless methods such as Izuku forcing Hada Shiro to learn that he shouldn't be a bigot by getting him blacklisted from every hero school. He does however request that the next time Izuku does something like that, he needs to show a little restraint as Hada Shiro was put into a position where he has no future and vulnerable and desperate and all too likely to become a villain. Since Nedzu didn't want a villain to come from this, he tells Izuku that he reached out to a few non-hero schools with strict non-bullying policies and explained Hada's situation, giving him another chance while making sure he learns his lesson.
• Papa Wolf: Hisashi is furious with Katsuki for what the latter did to Izuku. Katsuki describes the scolding he got from him as the most terrifying one he has ever received.
• Parental Abandonment: Neither of Hisashi's parents wanted custody over him after their divorce. That they financially supported him when he was living alone in his own apartment is only because the judge ordered it in disgust over the fact they both abandoned him.
• Point of Divergence: The premise of this fic is that Midoriya Izuku randomly encounters a man whose Quirk accidentally boosts his confidence, encouraging him to stand up to his bullies and tear them down instead. Things progress rapidly from there.
  • Death Arms managed to escape criticism for his inaction during the Sludge Villain incident in canon. Here, Izuku criticizes him when Death Arms tries to lecture him, causing bystanders and news crews to begin recording Death Arms making an utter ass of himself and causing his reputation to plummet as he is mocked and criticised by online commentators and other heroes.
  • After seeing their son nearly murdered on live TV and learning about his relationship with Izuku, Mitsuki and Masaru take a more active role in Katsuki's life and make him attend therapy.
  • While training Izuku, All Might realises he isn't that good of a teacher. After discussing it with Nedzu, they change his planned position at UA from teacher to teaching assistant. With that change, there's also no longer any reason to inform the rest of the staff about All Might's condition and they are told that the new staff member is just Toshinori Yagi.
• Popularity Cycle: Discussed. After Izuku becomes a meme, he hopes its popularity will die down as soon as possible. Unfortunately for him, it's still going by the time the UA Entrance Exams start.
• Power Incontinence: Back in high school, Hisashi sometimes set things on fire when he sneezed.
• Power Misidentification: Several Quirkless people fake having Quirks, through the use of support items, sleight of hand, etc., to avoid the discrimination they face.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Izuku tells his classmates that real heroes make people feel safe, and since his classmates do the exact opposite to him, none of them deserve to be heroes.
  Izuku: A real hero has to care. They have to care about those weaker than them. It’s not just about flashy battles and arresting villains; it’s about calming people down after a disaster, it’s about reassuring desperate people that they’re not alone, it’s about giving civilians a sense of safety and trust. As a Quirkless person, not one person in this class has ever made me feel safe. Every day I feel like I’m walking in here to be eaten alive. In the future if one of you does become a hero and you have to save me, would you? ... and that’s why no one here is qualified to be a hero, sensei.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: All Might apologizes to Izuku for what he said on the rooftop and wants to help improve the lot of Quirkless people, which allows him to become Izuku's favorite hero all over again.
• Scars Are Forever: After Masaru deliberately pressed his son's Trauma Button to prove a point, he's had a hand-shaped burn mark on his arm from Katsuki's Quirk.
• Secret Identity: Like canon, All Might's real name is kept a secret from the public. Unlike canon, the other UA teachers don't know Toshinori Yagi is All Might either. To a smaller degree, his name is this to Izuku, however unlike canon, it's because Yagi honestly thought he had told Izuku. He's contrite when he finds out otherwise.
• Selective Enforcement: After ignoring all of the torments Izuku went through at the hands of his classmates, his teacher chides him for 'disrupting class' and sends him to the principal's office.
• Shout-Out: Twice to John Mulaney:
  • Iwamoto, Izuku's middle school teacher, references an "old" joke on how fourteen-year-olds are the meanest people in the world. They will make fun of you but in an accurate way. They will get to the thing that you don’t like about you. They don’t even have to look at you for long.
  • Izuku had a school assembly every year since kindergarten by a detective on how to avoid getting kidnapped. This leads Izuku to carry money clips in case of mugging and a fear of secondary locations. The author's notes even have All Might telling Naomasa to stop J.J. Bittenbinder from giving school assemblies.
• Slasher Smile: Both Izuku and Inko are known to sport them at times. Izuku's principal compares both to razor blades wrapped in velvet.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Amida Nakamura, the man with the confidence-boosting Quirk, only has a brief appearance in Chapter 1, but him accidentally using his Quirk on Izuku is the nail that causes a lot of changes to the canon of My Hero Academia.
• Spotting the Thread: Hisashi loves quirks as much as his son, but focuses heavily on the genetics aspect. Izuku notes that if he accepted One For All, his father would instantly know his "late bloomer" excuse was bullshit and have a presentation ready explaining why it was impossible for Izuku to suddenly develop Super-Strength.
• Start of Darkness: Discussed. Nedzu admonishes Izuku for being too thorough in his revenge against Hada as with all the prestigious heroes schools rejecting him, the regular schools followed suit. With his future being destroyed, Hada could have turned to villainy.
• Stern Teacher: Principal Abe, the high school principal of Inko, Hisashi, and Mitsuki. While he comes down hard on Inko when her bully hunting leaves several students maimed, and Hisashi's irreverence drives him up the wall, he still does his best to teach them and sympathizes with Inko after her brother committed suicide and helps her by sharing his own experience of loss with her.
• Stronger Than They Look:
  • When rescuing Ochako from the Zero Pointer, Iida states that if he and Izuku work together, they should be able to lift the concrete slab she's trapped under enough for Ochako to get free. Izuku promptly lifts the entire slab by himself and hurls it at the Zero Pointer.
  • Toshinori might be thin as a rake compared to his All Might form, but he's able to effortlessly defeat Kan in an arm wrestling competition without a single ounce of his power in order to prove a point against Quirkless Discrimination. The narration of said scene makes it quite obvious that Toshinori is barely trying, actually, and the only reason it lasts as long as it does is that Toshinori wants the lesson to sink in on both Kan and everyone watching the match.
• Sucky School: Aldera Middle School encourages bigotry, so Izuku is at the bottom of the social order up until he shows he has enough evidence to rain hellfire on every teacher and student who discriminated against him. Izuku isn't even the only victim. Other students had their grades sabotaged to make Katsuki look as good as possible. Aldera is also on a list of the top 3 schools to be condemned.
  Izuku: I’ll stop when the roof is fixed and the floor tiles stop coming undone. There’s a betting pool on when the rail on the second-floor stairway is going to fall off.
• Survivor Guilt: Inko blames herself for her brother's suicide, insisting she should have done more to stop him.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Izuku mentally notes that the arsonist who attacked a Quirkless parade "mysteriously disappeared" shortly after he was cleared of all charges. And that there were some very pointed questions about the man on a Quirkless forum that have since been deleted.
  Now, Izuku’s not saying the arsonist is dead, and he’s definitely not saying that a quirkless person took him out, because there’s no evidence of that. The forum doesn’t like to keep old, painful topics around. That’s all.
• Sword of Damocles: After Izuku reveals that there is a lot of evidence of him being mistreated at Aldera, staff and students alike tread lightly around him in fear of him bringing that evidence to the attention of the authorities. Unfortunately for them and unbeknownst to Izuku, Inko makes the sword fall on them by telling the school board everything and giving them the evidence.
• Take That!: A mild one is given to All Might canonically withholding from telling Izuku his real name, with the author pointing out how silly it is to tell a teenager a state secret but not your name. Instead, All Might just genuinely forgot to share his name with Izuku, something he's rather embarrassed by when he realizes it.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Izuku's classmates have been telling him for years that he will never make it as a hero because of his Quirklessness. Izuku turns this around by telling them that their quirks are not all that useful and combined with their poor personalities, they will never make it as heroes either.
• Tastes Like Purple: Shinso warns Izuku that the energy drink he took before the written exam is going to result in him tasting color.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Katsuki feels this way until his mother angrily tells him that all of them are getting therapy. He freaks out the moment somone touches his neck while his parents have constant nightmares of seeing their son murdered on live television.
• To the Pain:
  • Izuku explains to Ito, in unnerving detail, how easily he could disable his quirk by tugging on the optic nerves or simply destroying his eyes.
  • Years prior, his mother Inko gave a similarly detailed speech to a boy she caught sexually harassing his girlfriend that this time, she only took two of his teeth. And while she'll let his girlfriend decide what to do with one of them, she's keeping the other so he'll always have a gap in his mouth reminding him how to act. Because if she catches him again, she's ripping out all of his teeth, one at a time.
• To Win Without Fighting: Izuku completely destroys Hada Shiro's future without touching him by getting him blacklisted from every hero school. When Hada stops showing up to Aldera, all the other students realize Izuku did something, but no one can prove anything.
• The Tooth Hurts: When Inko sees a fellow student sexually harassing his girlfriend, she yanks out two of his teeth.
• Tranquil Fury: Both Izuku and Inko are known for smiling politely and speaking calmly as they verbally destroy someone who truly manages to piss them off. People who meet Inko after angering Izuku tend to realize he inherited it from her.
• Trauma Button: Touching Katsuki's neck becomes one for him after the Sludge Villain almost suffocates him.
• Underestimating Badassery: Several of the teachers at UA become worried about letting Izuku into the Hero Course once they hear he's Quirkless. It takes Toshinori easily beating Kan in an arm wrestling match and lecturing them about how the boy is obviously both strong and brave to make them realize they don't have to wrap him up in bubblewrap to protect him.
• The Un-Favourite: Deconstructed. Inko's parents subjected her brother to severe emotional neglect by blatantly preferring their "perfect" daughter over him. The misery he felt both in school and at home contributed to his suicide. When Inko learns why her brother killed himself by reading his journal, she starts nursing one hell of a grudge towards her parents for their actions.
• Unknown Rival: Mina latches on to Izuku as a rival in the Dance Off! games since he's the only person to match and beat her scores. Izuku is completely unaware of this, and Mina can't make him aware since she only knows his username and otherwise has no information to try and track him down and has never met him in person.
• Wham Line: While going through her brother's journal after he is Driven to Suicide, Inko finds the words "Why can't I be perfect like Inko?" which mentally breaks her for weeks, and kickstarts her Bully Hunter tendencies.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Deconstructed. In a world where the usefulness of one's quirk determines one's place in society, having a useless quirk can lead to bullying and even social ostracism all the way to adulthood, with disastrous consequences.
  • Izuku's part of Breaking Speech is him viciously and meticulously crushing his classmates' egotism by pointing out that their quirks are useless for heroing, and that they don't have any ground to think themselves superior to him just because they can pop out their eyes or make fingers grow longer.
  • Mitsuki's Quirk is that she sweats glycerin. As in lotion. If it wasn't for the fact that she was unusually sweaty and her parents had her checked, they would have thought she was Quirkless. Mitsuki was viciously bullied for that growing up.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Izuku lays into All Might for his tone-deaf words to him since Quirkless people face a lot of discrimination and at the very least, he should have worded his opinion on how Quirkless shouldn't be heroes to give them some sort of hope. All Might takes it to heart.
  • Izuku also lays into Death Arms for his inaction in saving Bakugou. Izuku mentions that all the other heroes present were at least doing something, but Death Arms just stood there doing nothing. Since this was caught on camera, Death Arms' reputation instantly plummets.
  • Izuku calls Iida out for accusing him of trying to sabotage another examinee when there is no proof of such a thing. He didn't even have cause to be suspicious, all Izuku did was glance at someone else which could have meant any number of innocent things.
  • Izuku himself ends up being on the receiving end when Nedzu admonishes him for getting Hada rejected from every single heroes school as revenge for Hada's bullying. Nedzu explains that by destroying Hada's future, Izuku could have created a potential villain, had Nedzu not stepped in.

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