History Fanfic / IfIOnlyHadAHeart

** [[spoiler:After Inazumi has a breakdown and screams at him about the fact that he doesn't understand what the members of CUT go through everyday, Katsuki makes it a point to try and be more sympathetic.]]

* KidsAreCruel: Many of the kids at Izuku's new elementary school are quick to [[BullyTheDisabled mock Izuku for his disabilities]] and even steal his prosthetic arm just to get a reaction out of him.

--->'''Inko:''' We believe in you, Izuku. I... believe in you. I don't think I've made it very clear how much I believe in you, and that's on me, but this isn't about what you can build and what you can test. This is about instinct, common sense, and awareness, and you develop these things not from an IQ, but by living. By growing and experiencing life.\\

** By the time he enters U.A., he's fluent in Japanese, English, German, Spanish, has replaced his missing arm and eye with a special non-metallic polymer called "Hera" that's extremely strong and shock absorbent, and is developing PoweredArmor to make up for his lack of a Quirk.
** On the other hand, his passion for inventing has also dulled his FanBoy and {{Otaku}} traits present in canon. As a result, he's not as quick on the uptake when it comes to meeting then rising heroes like Aizawa (Eraserhead), Hizashi (Present Mic), and Nemuri (Midnight), failing to recognize his neighbors as the same heroes he's looking up to.
* AdaptationNameChange: Izuku isn't taking Deku as his Hero Name this time, but as of Chapter 13, he's still not sure what it's going to be aside from the opener, "The Genius Hero". Cue WildMassGuessing in-verse and out-of-verse to try and figure out what it is. [[spoiler:He ends up picking the name "Titan", for being a larger-than-life figure as well as a being a that predates the Olympian Gods that he names his inventions after.]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Izuku and Mashi frequently get bullied and discriminated against simply for being Quirkless.

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Izuku gets paid 600,000 yen to license his miracle material. That's roughly 5,000 dollars, which should be at most a bit more than his mother makes in a month. Yet everyone acts like this is a an incredible amount of money. Even if it was 600,000 dollars, it would be a pitance, considering the material can stand Bakugo's explosions, yet was made by borderline poor Izuku using what materials he could afford/scrounge. He also gets 2% royalties, which makes more sense.

* BigEater: A side effect of Izuku's prosthetic limbs is an increased appetite, since his prosthetics use his body's energy reserves to power them with some additional help from solar power.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Mashi is adventurous enough to want to become a hero despite her own Quirkless and wholeheartedly supports Izuku's craziest inventions. But when it comes to actually implanting them in his body, even she starts feeling squeamish.

* EyepatchOfPower: Izuku wears an eyepatch to cover his missing eye. Unlike most examples, he does suffer from the lack of depth perception, but his missing eye does nothing to dull his intelligence. He ditches it after finishing his artificial eye.

* HatesBeingTouched: Izuku here doesn't like being touched if he hasn't gotten to know you, but once you're good friends with him he'll be very touchy-feely.
* HeelRealization: Watching Izuku make all of his amazing inventions even while handicapped and Quirkless makes Katsuki realize that he's spent his entire life up to that point obsessing about how powerful his Quirk is, as well as the fact that everyone else did too. He admits that he was jealous of Izuku for being smarter and more creative than him and that he was terrified of losing his position as the best to the kid he called worthless, leaving him all alone. This was enough for the two to agree to work side-by-side rather than constantly being at each others throats while trying to outdo the other.
** [[spoiler: After Inazumi has a breakdown and screams at him about the fact that he doesn't understand what the members of CUT go through everyday, Katsuki makes it a point to try and be more sympathetic.]]

* JustAKid: Part of his unwillingness to let others in on his work is his belief that the adults were stop him since he's "some stupid kid", regardless of how much work or testing he puts into his creations.

* KidsAreCruel: Many of the kids at Izuku's new elementary school are quick to mock Izuku for his disabilities and even stole his prosthetic arm just to get a reaction out of him.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Most of the people in Izuku's life aren't given the full details of how his inventions work simply because he uses so much TechnoBabble and jargon that it's difficult for anyone around him to understand. The underlying reason for him keeping it that way is his fear that they will stop him from continuing his work out of fear for his safety, since no one will know quite how dangerous his experiments can be if they can't comprehend the full gravity of what he's telling them. [[spoiler:It gets him chewed out later when his artificial eye (which doubles as a supercomputer) accidentally gives him an epileptic seizure.]]

** When his mother finally confronts him about his self-experimentation, he agrees to talk to her about it before doing any more to reassure her, conveniently leaving out the fact that he's already installed everything he's wanted to already.

* ParentalNeglect: Hisashi is more present in Izuku's life than in canon at first, but finds himself spending long periods of time away from home after Izuku's injuries. By the time Izuku is twelve years old, he has stopped calling Hisashi his father, going so far as to derisively refer to him as a "sperm donor".

* ProfessorGuineaPig: His spinal implant was so experimental that no doctor would dare test it on a person, much less use it on Izuku himself. So Izuku did it to himself anyway to get his new arm working. When the adults find out, they're understandably cross with him due to how dangerous and stupid it was for a nine year old to experiment on himself, even if he had performed thousands of tests and trials beforehand.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Frustrated with their inability to join a club in junior high school due to being continually rejected on the basis of being Quirkless, Izuku and Mashi decide to make their own club, the Club of Unrecognized Talent ([=CUT=] for short) where those ostracized like them, be they Quirkless or not, can gather (though it's also named after a place in ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn''). [[spoiler:Hitoshi Shinsou is one of its first members.]]

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Played with. Mashi points out that Izuku wouldn't even have to be a hero to help lots of people if he could just mass produce his amazing inventions. Izuku then points out that there are still tons of kinks to iron out (namely the intense pain that comes with getting things like his prosthetic arm to work) and he doesn't feel ready to reveal his inventions on the world stage.
** When Katsuki insists on Izuku selling his inventions to fund new projects, Izuku points out all of the difficulties in the process as well as his fear that his new technologies could be weaponized to dish out severe harm if they fall into the wrong hands, since patents involve making the process used to create and mass produce an invention along with its properties public. He does patent and license his Hera material for sports equipment, [[spoiler:receiving 600,000 yen[[note]]$5,469[[/note]] from one of his two licensees as an upfront payment and 1,200,000 yen ($10,833.60) as his 2% monthly royalty check, allowing his mom to leave her stressful day job (though she still goes in if they need help or someone calls out sick).]]

* ScarsAreForever: Even six years after the accident, the left side of Izuku's face is still badly scarred from the incident that took his eye and arm, with scars streaking from his eye to his jaw. The bones of his eye socket are also visible. While he still managed to keep his eyelids, one of them has a clearly healed split down the middle. He thinks it looks freakish and laments that he won't be able to get rid of his scars even after he installs a new eye. Mashi is initially shocked at the sight of them, but then tells him that no one will care once the eye is completely installed.

** Hera: Super shock absorbing material with multiple states.

* TranquilFury: Kaito's gang at school end up giving Mashi a concussion, Izuku is stunned and panicked as he tries to resuscitate her. When Kaito begins to taunt Izuku about his disabilities again, our hero becomes menacingly soft-spoken to the point of sounding like a MadScientist while under the influence of Kaito's TruthSerum Quirk. When Izuku snaps to his senses, even ''he'' is horrified by what he just said, to the point that he questions his own qualifications to become a hero.
-->'''Kaito:''' But you're quirkless, Midoriya-kun! You can't be a hero. Come on, you must have been taught this before?\\

'''Izuku:''' I... I don't know...? I just... I just really wanted to do this... There was... so much... ''[begins to keel over]''

* ThreeAmigos: Izuku, Mashi, and Katsuki become this by Chapter 10.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Izuku decides to begin growing his hair out and tying it into a bun to match Mashi's and to look less "normal". He also plans on styling it like Aizawa's since thought it looks cool, though whether or not it's going to stay that long is an experiment in and of itself. By junior high school, Izuku has let his hair grow out into PeekABangs and puts it in a ponytail.

* MixAndMatchWeapon: At Mashi's behest, Izuku develops a "gunstaff", or a SimpleStaff with functional blasters (that shoot bursts of compressed air and pyrotechnics) at either end. These blasts are powerful enough to damage a new polymer Izuku designed more than Katsuki's explosions could and required Mashi to wear a vest and helmet to protect herself.

''If I Only Had a Heart'' is a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' FanFic written by [=LumartheDragon=] on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. Noticing the abundance of fics where Izuku manages to become a Quirkless hero through raw training (or gaining a CharlesAtlasSuperpower ala [[Manga/OnePunchMan Saitama]]), they decided to take a different approach to Izuku's path to heroism, making him a teenaged mix of [[{{Cyborg}} Genos]] and ComicBook/IronMan. You can read the story [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705821/chapters/31483173 here.]]

* AdultFear: Inko suffers from this as her son continues to experiment on himself with devices she doesn't understand. In some cases it's almost relieving to know that she can't comprehend how Izuku's inventions work, since they include performing surgical procedures on his own spine, burning out excess blood while implanting an artificial eye, and dosing himself with painkillers of his own design in order to handle each procedure. One only wonders how she would react if she caught Izuku doing these things to himself. Izuku himself is aware of this, only performing the procedures while she's away at work and soundproofing the bathroom to make sure that she doesn't hear them should she get home early to avoid worrying her.

* MismatchedEyes: Izuku's replacement ElectronicEye has an iris that glows a vibrant blue in contrast to his natural forest green.

* RealityEnsues: The costs of treating a young boy who lost an arm and an eye of top of having a damaged spine after being put into a medically induced coma are astronomical, forcing the Midoriyas to find cheaper housing.
** Izuku finds himself begging Aizawa, who happens to be his new neighbor, for hand-to-hand combat training. Izuku struggles with this due to his lack of depth perception caused by missing eye, his weak footing due to his injured spine, and the stiffness of his own movements due to his prosthetic arm.
** While the adults are in awe after Izuku shows off his new and improved prosthetic arm that's directly linked to his nerves through an implant in his arm, they are understandably horrified at the prospect that a kid who hasn't even left elementary school is performing medical experiments on himself without any sort of oversight.
** Even if your friend is an incredible super-genius, it's still terrifying to help him effectively perform surgery on himself while fearing the worst.
--->'''Mashi:''' This was fine. This was totally fine. [[ARareSentence She was just an eleven-year-old performing surgical-like procedures on her best friend’s spine.]] [[BlatantLies Totally normal.]]
** No matter how many times you test something, there's always the chance that something will go wrong. [[spoiler:Like when Izuku has a seizure after installing his new spinal reinforcements and eye.]]
** Aside from the villain attack that left him handicapped, Izuku just hasn't been exposed to danger that isn't self-inflicted. [[spoiler:So when he chases down a monster (implied to be a Noumu) that's following Eraserhead, Izuku loses his composure when he comes face to face with it and ends up setting it ablaze with the Equalizer.]]

* DisabledInTheAdaptation: Inverted. In canon, Izuku has no health issues aside from his own Quirklessness. Here he's Quirkless and legally disabled due to his missing arm and damaged spine, but he's working on remedying the latter.

* DreamCrushingHandicap: Two-fold this time, being both Quirkless and legally a cripple. He's working on remedying the latter part. He also defies this trope since he sees his Quirklessness as more of an opportunity than a curse, as he's free from the expectations of those with Quirks have, allowing him to do his own thing.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Izuku decides to begin growing his hair out and tying it into a bun to match Mashi's and to look less "normal". He also plans on styling it like Aizawa's since thought it looks cool, though whether or not it's going to stay that long is an experiment in and of itself. By junior high school, Izuku has let his hair grow out into PeekABangs.

* NeverRecycleABuilding: By Chapter 10, Mashi's connections led her to point out a decayed and abandoned two-story building for her, Izuku, and Katsuki to use as their "clubhouse". She justifies it by pointing out that it's in an inconvenient location and that it would cost too much money to knock it down or renovate it. Katsuki and Izuku point out that this is technically trespassing, even if it's a condemned building, but Mashi brushes this off by expecting Izuku to come up with a cloaking device. Even a full year later, they've still managed to get away with running around in it and are busy renovating it in their free time (though robots built by Izuku do most of the work, often while they're away).

** When Katsuki insists on Izuku selling his inventions to fund new projects, Izuku points out all of the difficulties in the process as well as his fear that his new technologies could be weaponized to dish out severe harm if they fall into the wrong hands, since patents involve making the process used to create and mass produce an invention along with its properties public. He does patent and license his Hera material for sports equipment, [[spoiler:receiving 600,000 yen[[note]]$5,469[[/note]] from one of his two licensees as an upfront payment and 1,200,000 yen [[$10,833.60]] as his 2% monthly royalty check, allowing his mom to leave her stressful day job (though she still goes in if they need help or someone calls out sick).]]

* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Katsuki. When they were younger, they were extremely close, designing all sorts of gadgets together, including the Firework Flasher that was Izuku's last gift to him before they had to move apart due to the Midoriyas' financial troubles. The next time they see each other, Katsuki has gone full {{Jerkass}} as he is in canon, deriding Izuku as a worthless Quirkless cripple. They begin to mend the bridge later, but he still derisively refers to Izuku as Deku, but Izuku notes that Katsuki left out the "shitty" part at least.

'''Izuku:''' I... I don’t know...? I just… I just really wanted to do this... There was... so much... ''[begins to keel over]''
He is also the big cinnamon roll

* {{Autodoc}}: Izuku's "Neko Nurses" are these, being what are essentially cat-shaped [[Disney/BigHero6 Baymaxes]] to act as first-aid for people who need them.

* AbledInTheAdaptation: Inverted. In canon, Izuku has no health issues aside from his own Quirklessness. Here he's Quirkless and legally disabled due to his missing arm and damaged spine, but he's working on remedying the latter.