Characters / Conversations with a Cryptid

This is the character page for Conversations with a Cryptid. Canonical characterization applies here until it doesn't. List only tropes coming from the work, canon tropes go here.

The Midoriya Family

The Midoriyas as a whole

Izuku's family, consisting of himself, his mother, and technically his father Hisashi, who they haven't seen for years.

• Meaningful Name: For the whole Midoriya family.
  • In Ch.9, Izuku wonders why someone would name their child Hisashi, which translates to "a long time ago". Fitting for a centuries-old being. The same kanji makes an appearance in Izuku's given name.
  • Inko is usually translated as "parakeet". The author makes reference to her "bird in a gilded cage" status in the same chapter, confirming it was intentional in the comments.
  • Izuku's name can be generally translated as "Nine's turn to carry on the ancient story".
• Mugging the Monster: Messing with Inko or Izuku is basically asking All for One to turn you into paste (if he's in a hurry or feeling merciful), as the Sludge Villain and his fellows found out too late.
• Secretly Wealthy: To Izuku's surprise, the Midoriyas are loaded, since Hisashi is a media baron who owns the Heroes Mirror, among other things. Oh, and he's also a supervillain, which helps a lot.
• Spanner in the Works: Inko and Izuku's very existence is one to All for One.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Izuku, who greatly resembles his father, which is an upsetting fact for Inko. The resemblance even gives Shigaraki and All Might moments for pause.
  • It's revealed that All for One looks like an adult Izuku with black hair, less round face, smaller eyes and a different complexion.
  • Inko is a green-haired version of her mother Nana Shimura.

Izuku Midoriya

The Quirkless son of Inko and Hisashi Midoriya, who later received One for All from All Might. He is its ninth wielder.

• The Anti-Nihilist: Izuku knows personally that the world can be cruel and shows no compassion to those who are different. Izuku stays compassionate and kind in sheer spite and to work to becoming the hero he always needed but never received. Izuku state that he knew that no one would save him or anyone so he works to save himself and to save anyone he can.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Essentially Izuku's true superpower. He can make quick and detailed analyses to figure out people's powers, personalities, histories, and motivations.
• Brought Down to Badass: In the second story he has to take down a group of villains holding a school hostage while he's down an arm due to recovering from surgery, weaker than normal due to months of inactivity, and can't be seen, panic, or be injured due to his father monitoring him with Search. He's able to do it and notes that if he had both his arms, he could have done it in half the time.
• Deadpan Snarker: Izuku, of all people, tends to get snarky with All For One.
  All For One: How are you still alive? You haven’t even had access to [your Quirk] for a full year.
  Izuku: Well, after years of Bakugou and his friends, I’m relatively good at judging which limbs I can live without.
• Did I Just Say That Outloud: Izuku has his moments.
  • When he realized that All For One is basically drawing attention away from himself and focusing it on Izuku so he could withhold information, he unconsciously says all that in front of All For One, much to his embarrassment. The guy sure finds the whole things funny.
  • He did this again when he realized All For One's other alias, which is "Sensei", is an honorific for some professions, including doctors. It explained how he's faking his own death if he really is a registered doctor or at least, has connections with them. Cue panicking Toshinori and Detective Tsukauchi.
• Distressed Dude: Izuku is kidnapped and it ends very badly for him.
• Dramatic Irony: Much drama comes from the fact the moral and heroic Izuku is the son of the most powerful supervillain in the series.
  • Izuku succeeds in six months with an news article what All for One attempted for 200 years with supervillainy: take down the Japanese government and the pro-hero system.
  • Izuku spent most of his childhood desperately wishing he had a quirk, and trying to activate both his parents' Quirks. Turns out, he did inherit his father's quirk, but it's not the Quirk he thought his father had, and it's also the one quirk he would never have wanted.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Frequently Izuku comes to logical and horrifying conclusions when he tries to connect the pieces of an explanation to him to what he already knows.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Izuku's Selective Obliviousness gives him strong Nerves of Steel to maintain a level head but causes him to miss subtle but vital clues until it's too late.
  • Izuku constantly picks up more and more responsibilities due to his Chronic Hero Syndrome. Izuku ends up with so many things to do that his classmates rarely see him and gets so little rest that he gets kidnapped in a moment of distraction.
• Gallows Humor: Izuku constantly makes snide jokes about his probable death as a pro-hero and jokingly threats to commit suicide if his father continues to piss him off.
• Had to Be Sharp: Growing up in a society where the Quirkless are heavily discriminated against, Izuku absolutely had to develop thick skin, analyze cost-risk benefits at a moment's notice and forge toward his goals no matter what. Izuku had many people from his doctors, his teachers and his classmates attempt to force him to give up. Some used words, others like Bakugou used force. The only reason Izuku manage to survive but to get into Yuuei was by sheer determination.
• Hates Their Parent: Izuku doesn't give a single damn about his Disappeared Dad and events of the story turned that apathy to outright enmity.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: With a haircut and custom-tailored suit, Izuku ends up looking rather suave and handsome at Endeavor's gala.
• Heroic Suicide: Hisashi sees Izuku's heroics as a way for Izuku to kill himself while still helping people and getting paid for it. Considering Izuku's heroic but borderline suicidal past acts, Toshinori admits he has a point.
• Important Haircut: Izuku gets his curls trimmed so he could pull his hair back for a black tie event. The haircut gives him a striking resemblance to his father.
• It Was with You All Along: All Izuku ever truly wanted was a quirk and busted his behind when finally given one. As it turns Izuku already had a quirk as he inherited All for One from his father. He understandably takes it rather badly when he finds out.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: All for One comments that Izuku has one of these.
  All for One: It's called optimism, Izuku.(...) I shouldn't be surprised at your lack of understanding. The longer we've spoken the more I've become convinced that you've rarely had enough happiness in your life to even be familiar with the concept of optimism.
  Izuku: You're probably not wrong.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Despite his nature as The Paragon for his classmates, Izuku is really cynical due to a lifetime of horrific cruelty and systematic discrimination that no one was able or willing to help him with. Although Izuku refuses to let any of that stop him and continues to be heroic person in spite of it.
• Luke, I Am Your Father:
  • Izuku is rather horrified when he finds out who is his father is.
  • Nana Shimura is his grandmother, which means Shigaraki is his cousin.
• Mafia Princess: Genderflipped as his estranged absentee father is the supervillain crimelord, All for One, running one of the most powerful and oldest criminal empire in Japan.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: A light variant. In his attempt to complete his group project, Izuku unintentionally causes the collapse of the Japanese government and prohero system.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Until All Might gave him One for All. Subverted, the doctor just didn't test for his dad's real quirk, which wasn't fire breath...
• Nerves of Steel: Izuku has an uncanny ability to stay calm and maintain a straight face when dealing with the likes of All for One or Shiragaki. While Izuku is still a Nervous Wreck at his core, he refuses to show weakness to them and refuses to give two damns about them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Izuku attempts to help the stalled investigation of All for One by interrogating the villain himself. While in the short term Izuku gets valuable intel, in the long it proves to be Izuku's undoing.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Izuku attempts to uncover the mystery of All for One's quirk to get some desperately lacking intel. Not only does this make Izuku suspicious as hell since he succeeded where professionals failed it directly results in All for One breaking out of prison.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Casually tells All for One how his only real relationship with his father is resentment for his absence and how much he's hurt Inko. Unbeknownst to Izuku, All for One is his father and deeply regrets not being able to be there for his family.
• Power Parasite: He's revealed to have always had the quirk All For One, and had never realized it due to its non-intuitive method of activation. He's understandably upset.
• School Bullying Is Harmless: No. Despite forgiving Bakugou, Izuku is still deeply traumatized from Bakugou's bullying. When Izuku has self-doubt or empathizes with someone else's discrimination, he hears Bakugou's voice calling him useless or worthless.
• Selective Obliviousness: Izuku had to develop this as a coping mechanism to willfully ignore the systematic discrimination and bullying he faced in order to pursue his goals. While this trope gives him Nerves of Steel, it causes Izuku to ignore All for One's more subtle hints because he lacks the context and desire to figure it out.
• Stress Vomit: When Izuku finds out Tsubasa's fate when he puts two and two together, he vomits in his wastebasket and starts sobbing.
• Suicide as Comedy: Izuku constantly makes jokes about killing himself to his father. His father does not find it funny.
• Superior Successor: All for One begins to see Izuku as the better choice in a heir over Shiragaki. Considering the climax of Kidnapping of a Cryptid, he has a point.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Izuku was fully willing to destroy his own reputation and chance of being the future Symbol of Peace by planning to go public with the information he gathered which implicates his own father for being part of All for One's inner circle. Despite the impending destruction of his own future, Izuku refused to allow All for One to continue getting away with his crimes.
• Too Clever by Half: Izuku is a talented and driven person out a desire to prove himself after a childhood of being called useless and seeming to have no future. Izuku's ambition is a double-edged sword however. His drive pushes himself to go beyond his limits until he gets overwhelmed by the backlash. Izuku pushes his Quirk beyond his limits until he nearly cripples himself. Izuku investigates All for One despite Toshinori's multiple warnings without considering the possible consequences. Izuku takes a criminal investigation, a news internship, his hero training and his education without considering maybe giving something up to avoid burn-out.
• Triple Shifter: Izuku maintains his grades, trains his Quirk and his martial arts, is a superhero-in-training, does research on behalf of the police and regularly interrogates Japan's most fearsome super-villain. This kills Izuku's social life and proves to be his undoing.
• Unreliable Narrator: He doesn't misreport what he sees, but he does fail to notice some very obvious hints staring right at him.

Inko Midoriya nèe Shimura

Mother of Izuku. Technically married to Hisashi Midoriya, but currently the only sign of him is the financial support he gives her.

• Almighty Mom: When Izuku wants permission to interview All for One, he ignores All Might's refusal. He asks his mom instead. Izuku jokes that he would be more afraid of his mother if All for One and Inko showed up at his school for a parent-teacher conference.
• All Take and No Give: Hisashi Midoriya is the Giver, being Inko's absentee and rich husband who gives Inko and their son Izuku as much money as they need. Unfortunately for Inko as the Taker since she quit her job to marry him and have Izuku, she has no way of reprisal. Since she is dependent on him for income and for Izuku's tuition, she can't divorce him for disappearing on her for 8 years. Inko can't refuse his help because it would be difficult to get a job since she has been out of the workforce so long and she has no family for support.
• Badass Bureaucrat: Inko was a fearsome corporate executive who worked with several different hero law firms and time has not made her lose her touch as she effortlessly takes over Ashido and Yaoyorozu's budding fashion line and sues Nedzu and Yuuei to do her bidding.
• Career Versus Man: Inko quit her job as a corporate executive to marry her boss Hisashi Midoriya. It may have resulted in Izuku, but man did she pay for that decision. See Gilded Cage below for some details.
• Cast from Calories: Using her quirk a lot burns a lot of calories and body fat if she uses it on a regular basis.
• Family Versus Career: Inko takes over Izuku's accidental clothing line and turns into a viable company. Inko had been wanting to return to workforce for a while now that Izuku could take care of himself. With a startup company, she doesn't have the long time between her jobs stopping her.
• Formerly Fat: At the end of Kidnapping of a Cryptid, her young co-owners in the Ashido-Yaoyorozu fashion line inspire her to practice using her quirk which causes her to lose a lot of weight until she's back to her young mother weight and figure. This causes Izuku and Toshinori to find out her true relation.
• Foster Kid: Inko was put into foster care as a baby and aged out of it as she was never adopted. As a result she doesn't any family from her time in foster care to turn to.
• Geeky Turn-On: Luckily for Hisashi, Inko geniunely enjoyed Hisashi's complaining about legal violations and liberal political views.
• Gilded Cage: Her marriage to Hisashi. He's never there and this has caused her considerable stress, but he pays for her living expenses and she's afraid to just divorce him because she'd lose that money, and after being out of the workforce so long it would be difficult for her to get a job.
• Grew a Spine: After being a Nervous Wreck for most of the story, Inko was finally had enough when Izuku is kidnapped and nearly tortured to death. Inko sues Yuuei for criminal negligence of their students and the lawsuit is severe enough to bring Nedzu to his knees. She refuses to allow Izuku back to school until her demands for better security, more transparent medical treatment and real medical professionals are met. She and Hisashi agree to have Izuku to undergo surgery to repair his damaged arm and make have a full medical rest.
• Hidden Depths: Inko used to be a ruthless corporate shark and still knows the ins and outs of the trade despite being out of the business. Once given the chance, Inko quickly gets back into the game.
• Hilarity Sues: Sues Yuuei with a massive lawsuit for criminal negligence and medical malpractice. She's winning and has come the closest to bring the Hero industry to its knees.
• Identical Stranger: A newly skinny Inko looks like Nana Shimura. Her resemblance to Nana is the reason All for One approached her to begin with. There's a reason for that.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Nana is Inko's mother and she gave Inko up for adoption without telling anyone. Shiragaki's father was her twin brother which makes her Shiragaki's aunt.
• Mama Bear: Yuuei learns to fear Inko as she rakes them over coals for negligence and mishandling of student safety.
• Quitting to Get Married: Inko quits her job as executive when she gets married. Boy does she regret it.
• Spanner in the Works: Inko unintentionally saved her own life when she unintentionally had All for One fall in love with her despite his plans to have her killed.
• Secret Legacy: Inko was originally Nana Shimura's daughter and twin sister to Tenko Shimura/Tomura Shiragaki's father.
• Strong Family Resemblance: A slim Inko looks like a green-haired Nana Shimura. Because she's her daughter.
• Trauma Button: Formal wear and business wear is this to Inko since her husband only wore suits, so seeing someone dress like he did reminds her of her husband's sudden and painful abandonment.
• Unequal Pairing: Inko was a secretary for the HR department for the Heroes Mirror. Hisashi Midoriya was the CEO of the company she worked for and was the one to hire her. Deconstructed as Inko had no way of retaliating against Hisashi when he abandons her without a reason why, and her dependence on him is giving her considerable stress.

Hisashi Midoriya

Inko's husband and Izuku's father. Up and abandoned his family years ago, and while he still supports them financially, they haven't seen hide nor hair of him since.

• Adaptational Name Change: From Shigiraki to Hiashi Midoriya.
• Composite Character: In this story, Hiashi Midoriya and All For One are one and the same.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Hisashi Midoriya owns major news outlets such as the Heroes Mirror, Heroes Weekly, Quirk Focus and darkweb conspiracy website the Conspiracy and is implied to be working for the League of Villains.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Hisashi Midoriya is revealed to have understandable reasons for not contacting Inko and Izuku for 8 years.
• Disappeared Dad: Left his family 8 years ago and hasn't been back since, though he does send them money. It rather confuses other characters that he's willing to spend the time and effort to help the Midoriya's financial situation and doesn't divorce Inko, but still makes absolutely no contact with them. This is also deconstructed, as it seriously hurt his family; Inko is a Nervous Wreck because of her unstable financial situation, blamed herself for her poor choice in husbands, and couldn't properly parent Izuku on her own, which led to some of his issues.
• Endearingly Dorky: According to Shu, Hisashi Midoriya was one despite a corporate overlord. He was awkward around Inko because he didn't know how to speak to women. Hisashi would complain about the many legal violations just so he would have an excuse to visit her at HR. Shu eventually got Hisashi to propose by saying that if he looked like a stupid twenty-five year old and was acting like a stupid twenty-five year old, he was twenty-five enough to propose to the girl he liked.
• Glorified Sperm Donor: Since he left before Izuku could even remember him, he regards him as glorified bank account at best and a sperm donor at worst. Something Hisashi attempts to remedy when he finally came back.
• Love Makes You Dumb: By all reports, he dropped an IQ point or two (dozen) when around Inko. When he married her, he didn't think of the problems his status as Japan's most powerful supervillain would mean for her and later, Izuku. He wound up all but abandoning them except for financial support, which hurt them deeply.
• Marry for Love: Hisashi was a hopeless romantic and married Inko, his subordinate, because he'd fallen hard for her.
• Mundane Utility: Apparently he used his fire breath for party tricks.
• No Social Skills: According to Shū, he would spend his time in Inko's office making idiotic expressions at her and dramatically declared whose life in public policy he'd be ruining for the day. Fortunately for him, Inko thought it was incredibly Endearingly Dorky and romantic.
• Parental Neglect: He pays for his son's tuition. That's about as close to parenting as he gets. Izuku doesn't really have an emotional connection to him other than annoyance that his disappearance hurt Inko so badly.
• Playing with Fire: Inko mentions in canon that his quirk is fire breath, and this carries over to here.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Apparently looked like an adult, less-messy version of Izuku. Still does, after he gets Eri to fix the massive injuries All Might gave him.
• The Ghost: He gets flashback descriptions and confirmation that he still exists in the present, and that's about it. Subverted; he's one of the main characters.
• Walking Spoiler: You will notice how most of his section focuses on his backstory instead of his present state.
• We Will Not Have Appendixes in the Future: Hisashi joked that he was a mutant since he still had the extra jointed toe despite having a quirk. Makes sense since he was a first generation quirk user.

Yuuei Academy

Toshinori Yagi

Also known as All Might, the top superhero of the country, and Izuku's mentor. Gave Izuku the One for All quirk. He and All for One have met before- a confrontation which resulted in Yagi losing several internal organs and All for One nearly dying and his head being Covered in Scars. They, rather understandably, don't like each other.

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• Achievements in Ignorance: All for One put in a lot of work to find Tenko Shimura and raise him as a successor in order to spite All Might (Tenko being the grandson of All Might's mentor Nana). All Might turned the tables by choosing Izuku as the next wielder of One for All without any idea of All for One was doing or what his actions meant to his arch-nemesis.
• Always Someone Better: Has been unintentionally upstaging other heroes for years which earned the envy and hatred of other heroes.
• A Day in the Limelight: After spending 11 chapters on Izuku's perspectives, chapter 12 brings Toshinori as the new main focus.
• Lonely at the Top: As All Might he was the number one superhero which unfortunately earned the deep hatred of supervillains, caused him be isolated from his peers out of jealousy or desire to be out of the spotlight and prevented him from making outside connections.
• Love Is a Weakness: Toshinori doesn't have any family and prevented himself from getting close to people to prevent them from being targeted by his enemies.
• Only Sane Man: Attempted to forbid Izuku from doing the titular interviews with no avail.
• Parental Substitute: Is effectively Izuku's father all but in name, since Izuku's biological father Hisashi is a Disappeared Dad. All for One, when he returns, acknowledges this and makes an attempt to reconcile with him.
• Properly Paranoid: Toshinori's self-imposed isolation made him Lonely at the Top and wrecked havoc on his mental health. It turned out to be the right call in the long run. All for One couldn't find anyone that he could inflict Revenge by Proxy through, so he had to resort to tracking down Nana's descendants to find someone to hurt Toshinori with.
• Revenge Through Corruption: A heroic version. Toshinori unwittingly gets the greatest possible revenge on his Arch-Enemy All for One by becoming Izuku's idol. The one thing All for One wanted most of all was to be with his family, but his conflict with All Might forced him to abandon them for years, and in the meantime Toshinori took his place as Izuku's primary father figure.
• Unreliable Narrator: Is just as biased as Izuku in a different way.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Its due to Toshinori that All for One finds Inko and indirectly the reason for their marriage and conception of Izuku.
• Vengeance Denied: Toshinori can't get justice for his mentor Nana Shimura because All for One is too powerful for him to stop. Well, except for the accidental Revenge Through Corruption mentioned earlier.
• Worth Living For: After receiving career-ending injuries and losing One for All for good, Toshinori contemplated ending it all. It was his paternal love for Izuku and desire to keep guiding him was what pushed Toshinori to keep going.
• You Killed My Father: Toshinori despises All for One for killing his mentor Nana Shimura.

Recovery Girl

The medic at Yuuei, with a powerful healing quirk.

• Adaptational Villainy: Zigzagged. The narrative takes Recovery Girl to task for her canon actions. However, its doubtful that she doesn't have a license or committed malpractice in canon.
• Broken Pedestal: Recovery Girl is the trusted and grandmotherly Team Mom and White Mage for Yuuei. She makes sure everyone is healed from their wounds and has many medical expertise to allow them to be treated at the school. So it's rather horrifying to find out that she has a long history of medical malpractice with students dying under her care and never went to medical school. It's horrifying to find out that she's the actual reason Izuku and Toshinori haven't recovered from their injuries.
• Cerebus Retcon: As convenient to the plot Recovery Girl's actions are, a lot of her actions would be very illegal in real life. And here, they are.
• The Ghost: She is never seen in Kidnapping of a Cryptid but the early chapters focus on her impact on Izuku, Yuuei and the medical community.
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Recovery Girl's quirks heals better and more effectively the more medical knowledge she has. Izuku's poor recovery and lack of rehabilitation for his injuries are major signs that Recovery Girl isn't as educated as she appears.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Recovery Girl already made things bad for herself by refusing to allow other medical professionals heal her patients, but she shot herself in the foot when Izuku reveals to Hisashi and Doctor Yuasa that she outright refused to heal him anymore after Izuku crippled his arms. They are both disgusted by Recovery Girl's unethical behavior and have her banned from school premises along with her getting disbarred from practicing medicine period.
• Holding Out for a Hero: Thanks to having Recovery Girl around, Yuuei could afford having their students fight as recklessly with their quirk as possible. She would have just fixed the damage. Due to her being gone, the school shifted on teaching their students restraint and fighting quirkless to avoid students maiming themselves.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Recovery Girl's refusing to heal Izuku due to his unintentional Self-Harm due to his quirk is noble and well-meaning. Too bad for her, that's actually illegal for doctors to do.
• Open Heart Dentistry: Recovery Girl's hero license only allows her to give first aid on crime scenes. Despite that she practices surgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, physiotherapy, sports medicine, pediatric medicine and general practice, all without licenses or schooling for any of them. Subverted that it's implied that Izuku's crippled right arm is due to her and several students died due to improper medical treatment.
• The Reveal: Recovery Girl doesn't actually have a medical license!
• Persona Non Grata: Banned from school premises or ever practicing medicine again.
• Put on a Bus: In Kidnapping of a Cryptid, she isn't seen because she was fired.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!/Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Recovery Girl got away with practicing medicine without a license, ignoring medical hierarchy and medical malpractice due to her connections with Yuuei Academy and the power of her quirk. Inko Midoriya and the Japanese Medical Association put a stop to that.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: No mentions what happened to her after the lawsuit and Doctor Yuasa takes over her position.

Katsuki Bakugou

A bully of Izuku in school, with a quirk of causing explosions with his hands. Has improved a lot since then.

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• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bakugou may be a bully and has a history of cruelty to Izuku, but he does help Izuku when the latter is in genuine emotional distress by sending Todoroki to help him. While Bakugou is still a massive asshole, he can be kind in his belligerent way.
  • After figuring out Hisashi's true identity, he promises to rescue Izuku from his father.
• Break the Haughty: Bakugou is arrogant and cruel person who still calls Izuku useless to his face. Unfortunately his past as a bully finally catches up to him when Bakugou makes the mistake of insulting Izuku in front of his very defensive father, Hisashi who despises Bakugou for the long-term bullying of Izuku. Hisashi effortlessly chokes Bakugou unconscious while threatening him do to worse if Katsuki hurts or insult Izuku ever again. When Bakugou is hospitalized as a result, Hisashi gives him a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech tearing apart Katsuki's personality deficiencies and failures before taking Bakugou's quirk.
• Brought Down to Normal: To punish Bakugou for his long-term abuse of Izuku, All for One takes his quirk. Izuku returns it back in the final chapter of Kidnapping of a Cryptid.
• Freudian Excuse: Izuku points out that Katsuki is the product of the unjust system they live compounded with an abusive upbringing. In the public, Katsuki has his ego inflated by people like their teachers, classmates and Izuku himself praising him for his quirk. Which verified to Katsuki that powerful quirks are the only things that matter. At home, Katsuki has a verbally and physically abusive mother, who in her attempts to curb Katsuki's ego, belittles him, screams at him and mocks him for any sort of weakness. His father doesn't do anything to stop his mother and enables her. Katsuki saw becoming a hero not only as the way he could truly become the strongest but a way to escape his mother. All this made Bakugou into the massive jerk he is.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: But All for One points out that Katsuki's abusive upbringing doesn't absolve him for his own abuse of Izuku. Katsuki deliberately chose to make Izuku's life as miserable as possible by bullying him, mocking him and suicide baiting him.
• Having a Blast: He can secrete nitroglycerin from his palms and detonate it.
• Humble Pie: Bakugou constantly belittled Izuku and bullied him for his quirklessness. He learns firsthand how it feels on the other side of it when All for One takes his quirk.
• Ignored Epiphany: Getting his quirk back after his own family and the hospital treated Bakugou as an invalid when he was seemingly quirkless, does Bakugou reflect on his past treatment of Izuku? Nope. Bakugou just assumes the doctors are quacks and his parents aren't worth listening to.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Since childhood Katsuki has physically and verbally abused Izuku for refusing to give up his dream of being a hero despite his quirklessness, continues to demean Izuku and constantly disregarded Izuku's opinion. So in revenge, All for One beats the utter crap out of Katsuki, gives him a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech and steals Katsuki's quirk.
• Never My Fault: After meeting Hisashi Midoriya in the flesh and getting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Bakugou blames Izuku's nervous disposition on him. Bakugou completely ignores his own physical and emotional abuse of Izuku and that Hisashi had no part in most of Izuku's life.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After finding out Tsubasa's fate, Bakugou goes out of his way to contact his old elementary school and middle school lackeys whom he disregarded as extras. To his horror, he can't find any of them.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Points out to Izuku that if people he knew from their childhood were being specifically targeted, there's a good chance that Izuku would be too. While Izuku was being specifically targeted by a villain, it was an entirely separate person from the one who was targeting the others. All for One would never hurt his own child, but the Sludge Villain carries a grudge against Izuku for getting caught.

Shoto Todoroki

A fellow member of Class 1A, and the son of Endeavor. Has very understandable issues with his dad. His quirk is half fire powers, and half ice powers.

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• Calling the Old Man Out: Does an epic, if offscreen, one at Endeavor's gala when Endeavor tried to use him as another tool to beat All Might's legacy.
• An Ice Person: Half of his power, which he inherited from his mother.
• Playing with Fire: The other half, which he refused to use for a while because he inherited it from his father, a nasty piece of work who married Todoroki's mother specifically to have a child who could have both of their powers.
• Superpower Lottery: Endeavor essentially rigged the lottery in his favor by getting into an quirk marriage with a woman who had ice powers.
• Tempting Fate: Comments that his father really needs a long hospital stay, but that it's unlikely because Endeavor would need to upset someone strong enough to deal with the country's number 1 hero... while (unknowingly) within earshot of All for One, a Person of Mass Destruction who already dislikes Endeavor. It's lampshaded by Izuku, who hopes that All for One doesn't get any ideas (He does).

The Heroes Mirror/The Mirror

A gossip rag for the pro-heroes that Hisashi Midoriya owns.

Tropes applied to them collectively:

• Berserk Button: Endeavor. So much so that they have a Dartboard of Hate dedicated for him.
• Cassandra Truth: Attempted to report on Endeavor's abusive behavior for years but they either get ignored or censored.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: A group of people working for a supervillain dedicated to finding out the dirty secrets that pro-heroes and the government don't want found out. A spy ring? No. A gossip magazine! In the magazine's defense they don't realize they're working for a supervillain.
• Intrepid Reporter: While they are a gossip rag, they are devoted to exposing the darker sides of pro-heroes regardless of the backlash.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Most of them are just doing their jobs, and have no idea about the darker side of their business.
• Streisand Effect: In-Universe The hero magazine "The Mirror" gets most of their publicity from all of Endeavor's attempts to sue them over their accurate articles on him.
• Unwitting Pawn: Only two people in the entire company know of their association with the League of Villains or that they unintentionally gathering information for them.

Mai Maki

The head of The Heroes Mirror.

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• Intrepid Reporter: Mai Maki started out as a reporter attempting to expose the abuses of power committed by pro-heroes. She joined the trashy gossip rag that is the Heroes Mirror so no one would stop her like other magazines would.
• Loophole Abuse: Legally Maki can't show Izuku her past articles on Endeavor due to them being sealed by court action. However if Izuku becomes her employee, Izuku would be allowed to review over past editorials.
• Older Than She Looks: Mai Maki hasn't aged a day past her first court appearance twenty years ago.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Maki wears a bun and glasses to denote her authority as the Heroes Mirror's editor-in-chief
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Has made her career to report on Endeavor's abuse and failings as a hero despite him being the government's golden boy. Despite the fact she gets sued over it and could go to jail she still does it.

Zach Smith

The head of the Australian branch of the Heroes Mirror and online pro-hero critic.

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• Covert Group with Mundane Front: Zach is the head of the Heroes Mirror's Australian branch to help the magazine escape censorship. His true job is running the dark web criminal forum the Conspiracy.
• Fiery Redhead: is deeply passionate and confident and has red hair and beard.
• Look, a Distraction!: Yells that a pro-hero's sex tape is being auctioned off to free Izuku from a media scrum. It's actually his quirk.
• Not Afraid to Die: Willingly helps Izuku publish an article defaming All for One, who a)knows where he lives, b) is a Person of Mass Destruction with no problem killing people, and c) might take it personally.
• Perception Filter: Zack's quirk is to change people's perception of what's important when he is near. It's very useful to All for One.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Uses a lot of foul language.
• Token White: Is the only confirmed Caucasian character.

Shu

A legal advisor for Heroes Mirror, whose quirk makes him look more like something out of Lovecraft than a human. Despite his looks, he's soft-spoken and sweet.

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• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason he's loyal to Hisashi Midoriya is because the guy never judged him for his quirk.
• Brick Joke: When he greets Izuku, Izuku's first thought is that he was right- a tentacle monster did have better manners than All for One.
• Combat Tentacles: Subverted- he's a Non-Action Guy despite being essentially made of tentacles.
• Face of a Thug: Shu looks like he came out of the Cthulhu mythos but is otherwise a sweet and shy man. Unfortunately he has limited job options as no one wants to hire a man terrifying to look at.
• Just Following Orders: Shu is too afraid of losing his job that he doesn't questions his boss' orders despite wondering why does Shu have to keep the Midoriya finances a secret from Izuku and Inko themselves
• Lovecraftian Superpower: He's faced discrimination for looking like Cthulhu's little brother, despite being a rather nice person.
• Not So Above It All: Shu happily goes along with publishing The Mirror's expose interview with Shouto because he hates Endeavor as much as the rest of them do.
• Only Sane Employee: As the legal advisor of the Heroes Mirror, Shu's job is to keep the wackier personalities in line to prevent them from publishing something that would get them sued.

Civilians

Tsubasa and the rest of Bakugou's middle school friends

Elementary and middle school students who bullied Izuku back when he was Quirkless. They found out the hard way that he was a bad target to pick on, which is why they've all disappeared by the time of the story.

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• Asshole Victim: Brought up, but ultimately averted. While All for One targeted them because they were bullies, what he did to them is a definite case of Disproportionate Retribution.
• Death of a Child: Tsubasa was killed at age 15 when Stain killed his Nouma-fied body.
• Disproportionate Retribution: All for One had them kidnapped and either killed or subjected to a Fate Worse than Death for bullying Izuku. Again, these were middle schoolers.
• Fate Worse than Death: Tsubasa was experimented on until he was turned into a monstrous Noumu. The process of which is implied to be very painful. The fact Noumu!Tsubasa was killed by Stain is a mercy.
• Gang of Bullies: Bakugou's cronies were always quick to join him in bullying Izuku.
• Guilt by Association: All of Bakugou's former cronies have vanished and all they had in common was their association with Bakugou.
• Late to the Tragedy: By the time Izuku finds about Tsubasa's death and Bakugou investigates his former friends, they're all gone.
• Mugging the Monster: Bullying Izuku turned out to be this; while he's nice enough to not strike back, his Knight Templar Parent is Japan's most powerful supervillain.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Tsubasa is the only one whose fate is confirmed. All the others are just gone.
• Revenge by Proxy: All of them are collectively victims of this. All for One had Tsubasa experimented on by his own grandfather in revenge for crushing Izuku's dreams. Bakugou's middle school friends were disappeared because they were friends with Bakugou, Izuku's biggest bully.
• Satellite Character: Their only relevance is their connection to Bakugou and Izuku.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: It's implied that they went along with Bakugou's bullying of Izuku out of fear of Izuku's intelligence. As All for One points out Izuku has such intimate knowledge of their quirks and viable strategies to take them all down had he truly wanted to.

Eri

A girl with a powerful Time Master quirk that she can't control very well.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Invoked by All for One to get her to heal himself and Izuku.
• Healing Hands: Eri can rewind things to their previous state to when the injury hasn't happened. So she is brought in to heal All for One, Izuku and All Might.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Eri has no idea that the guy who taught her to control her powers is Japan's most dangerous supervillain.
• Mundane Solution: How does Eri finally gain control over her powers so dangerous that professional heroes and doctors couldn't help her? All for One teaches her how to internalize a sense of time by grounding it to a tv schedule or important milestones in her life so she doesn't go to far back.
• Time Master: Her quirk. Would be a Superpower Lottery winner if she had full control over it, which All for One helps her with.
• Unwitting Pawn: Eri's gratitude toward Izuku is used against the heroes by All for One, who uses the fact that he's Izuku's father to her to trust him. All for One has her heal him and Izuku.

Doctor Yuasa

• Cassandra Truth: Had campaigned against Recovery Girl and Yuuei's handling of their students' health but was ignored until Inko's lawsuit.
• Everyone Has Standards: Doctor Yuasa is horrified when Izuku tells them that Recovery Girl refused to heal him after Izuku had crippled his arm in the Summer Camp Arc as that outright violates the Hippocratic Oath.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Doctor Yuasa treated one of Recovery Girl's former patients but it was too late for the patient. As a result, Doctor Yuasa spend years campaigning to draw attention to Recovery Girl's medical malpractice and Yuuei's shady handling of their students. When he gets to treat Izuku, its a chance to save someone from Recovery Girl before its too late.
• Original Character: Created by the author as a Foil to Recovery Girl
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Doctor Yuasa tells Izuku that his father can't force Izuku to have a surgery if Izuku doesn't truly want it. Then Yuasa carefully explains to Izuku to why the surgery is necessary and the effects not having it will have on his health so Izuku can make an informed decision.
• Unknown Rival: Its unknown whether Recovery Girl and Yuuei had known or cared about Doctor Yuasa's campaign against them. What's known that Inko's lawsuit finally give him the spotlight.
• Who's Laughing Now?: No one can ignore Doctor Yuasa's concerns now that he's now the head of Yuuei's medical staff.

Mitsuki and Masaru Bakugou

Bakugou's parents. They're half the reason he's the way he is.

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• Abusive Parents: Mitsuki is verbally and physically abusive of her son Katsuki. She frequently verbally puts down Katsuki, communicates by screaming at him and mocks him for being weak. Mitsuki would also beat up her son to put him in his place or to show her displeasure. No wonder Katsuki turned out the way he did.
• Adaptational Villainy: Their actions are the same as canon, just the narrative is far less excusing of abuse.
• Adults Are Useless: Katsuki attempts to tell them that Hisashi attacked him, Izuku was in danger and that he wasn't helpless because of his lack of quirk. Mitsuki and Masaru more or less ignore him completely, treat him as if he was delusional and tell Bakugou to just comply with the doctors.
• The Chain of Harm: Mitsuki physically and verbally abuses Katsuki while her husband does nothing. Which leads to Katsuki physically and verbally abusing Izuku while their teachers do nothing.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: They attempt to help Katsuki after he's attacked and left quirkless. They show themselves to be completely useless by refusing to listen to him, listening to the doctor despite Katsuki's own concerns and preventing him from seeing his friends.
• Hypocrite: Mitsuki calls Katsuki weak for needing to be rescued. Katsuki's quirk is making things explode with his sweat and is actively training to fight and rescue people. Mitsuki's quirk is sweating lotion! And she's a civilian woman who refuses to help even her own son.
• Like Father, Like Son: Mitsuki is the older, civilian version of pre-Character Development Katsuki.
• My Beloved Smother: When she sees that Katsuki refuses to cooperate with the doctors, she forbids his friends from visiting him. One, she did it to cut Katsuki off from negative influence. Two, to give Katsuki a reason to cooperate. The only one she allows to see Katsuki is Izuku.
• Never My Fault: Mitsuki blames the school system blowing up Katsuki's ego for him being an abrasive jackass. While partially correct, she completely overlooks how her abuse did just as much in forming Katsuki.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Hisashi calls Masaru worthless for having his wife pursue him instead of the other way around.
• Satellite Character: Their only relevance is their relationship to Katsuki.
• The Social Darwinist: She mocks Katsuki for being weak and getting himself hurt.
• Useless Bystander Parent: Hisashi sums up Masaru's character and his impact on Katsuki's life:
  Hisashi: I know that your father was so worthless that your mother had to chase him. That he’s a spineless, pathetic wimp that’s at the beck and call of his emotionally abusive wife. That not once in all your years has he ever defended you from her stupidity about strength and weakness, as though she were a chimpanzee frolicking about in the jungle as opposed to a functional human being raising a vulnerable child.

Heroes

Endeavor

The number 1 superhero in Japan, now that All Might retired. Plagued by scandals and general bad publicity, which he hasn't helped by being a total Jerkass.

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• Abusive Parents: He sees his son as a tool to increase his own glory, and the only reason he even had kids was as part of a eugenics experiment to see if one would inherit both his quirk and his wife's. Todoroki comments that Endeavor would call him weak if he was bullied.
• Arranged Marriage: He married his wife as part of a 'quirk marriage' in hopes that their child would receive both their Elemental Powers.
• Asshole Victim: All for One turns him into a literal dumpster fire.
• Closest Thing We Got: The government knows about the public's discontent with Endeavor. However with crime on the rise and Endeavor's the hero with the most captures and rescues now that All Might retired. So the government backs him out of necessity.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Endeavor heavily endorses Shouto so he could get himself public goodwill by proxy. Shouto ends this by publicly calling him out.
• Domestic Abuse: He cares about his wife about as much as he does his son.
• The Ghost: He does have a big impact on the story, but it's all offscreen. He shows up in Kidnapping of a Cryptid.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Towards All Might.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Tells Shouto to keep an eye on Izuku and warns Izuku to watch his back because Endeavor won't be able to protect him. Despite it coming from Endeavor, Shoto and Izuku admit he has a point.
• Open Secret: Endeavor's family life is non-existent in the public eye and his wife is never seen. Many reporters recognize Endeavor's behavior and actions as signs of a quirk marriage but risk lawsuits and censorship if they speak out.
• Playing with Fire: His power.
• Revenge by Proxy: All for One attacks Endeavor as a gift to Izuku, who hates Endeavor for abusing his best friend Shouto.
• Victory Is Boring: He didn't like becoming the country's top superhero because he was only able to do so when All Might retired, instead of actually surpassing him. So now he's turned to propping up Todoroki as a sign that he could defeat All Might's legacy.

Nana Shimura

A heroine with a really big impact despite being dead. She was All Might's mentor and the seventh wielder of One for All, who passed the quirk down to him before being killed by All for One.

• Awful Truth: One for All drives its past users to suicide to get it passed on to new users and exacerbates suicidal tendencies. Nana committed suicide like her predecessors.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In canon, Nana was a casualty of All for One, being killed before Toshinori could complete his training. Here, Nana committed Suicide by Cop in her fight against All for One and allowed the latter to kill her.
• Driven to Suicide: As a result of One for All draining her of her will to live, Nana killed herself like the six holders before her.
• It Runs in the Family: Heroism and suicidal tendencies clearly run through her line as seen with her grandson, Izuku.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Nana is Inko's biological mother and thus Izuku's grandmother.
• Posthumous Character: Despite being dead for decades, her influence and impact continues between Toshinori, All for One and her descendants.
• Properly Paranoid: She only told Toshinori and Gran Torino about her son and forbade them from ever making contact. Nana took the secret of having a daughter to her grave. Which she was right to do since All for One eventually found out about her son and found her grandson, Tenko/Tomura. All for One had no idea about Inko until he crossed paths with her on accident and got curious about Inko's resemblance to Nana.
• Related in the Adaptation: In canon, Nana's only known relatives were her husband, son, and grandchildren. Her husband had been killed by villains, so she put her son into foster care to protect him, only for him, his wife, his daughter, and his in-laws to all die at the hands of her grandson Tenko's out of control quirk, allowing All for One to turn him into Tomura Shigaraki. Here, her son had a twin sister who was also put into foster care, and she would grow up to be Inko Midoriya, making Nana both Inko's mother and Izuku's grandmother.
• Stepford Smiler: Nana believed one should always smile in the face of fear to give people hope. She also had suicidal depression.
• Suicide by Cop: With the reveal of One for All draining Nana's will to live, compounded with loss of her husband and the permanent separation from her children, It's heavily implied that Nana was driven to kill herself while fighting All for One once he indirectly gave her an opening to do so.
• Suicide is Shameful: All for One says Nana died shamefully. Because she gave up on living instead of continuing to fight for her life. Toshinori nor any of her friends were enough for her to live for. All for One is disgusted with her for this.
• Suicide, Not Murder: Nana used All for One to commit suicide.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her daughter Inko, especially after Inko loses weight.
• Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Nana had fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. She gave both of them up for adoption when her husband was killed. She only told Toshinori and Gran Torino about the boy.
• Walking Spoiler: Nana spoils the major reveal of the climax of Kidnapping of a Cryptid and the darker nature of the quirk One for All.

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The League of Villains

Tomura Shgaraki

• Butt-Monkey: Nobody takes Shigaraki seriously despite him being an at-large supervillain. He's also constantly getting beat up and strangled by Izuku everytime he attempts to ambush him and his attitude and views mocked.
• Broken Pedestal: Izuku comments Shigaraki is set for this when Shigaraki realizes what's his actual purpose to All for One. Shigaraki worships All for One as his savior, mentor and freedom fighter. Shigaraki's adoration gradually cracks as Izuku points out All for One's many flaws and the holes in his ideology every time they meet.
  • It finally comes to head in the finale of Kidnapping of Cryptid when he sees All for One comfort and hug Izuku and apologize for indirectly ruining his life. One, Shigaraki realizes that All for One never truly cared for him like he does Izuku. Two, it puts all of Izuku's rants against All for One into context. Shigaraki finally realizes Izuku's point of having to be his own savior if his beloved All for One couldn't save him.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He spent the first few decades of his life training with Decay to kill people, so when he undergoes a Hazy-Feel Turn and starts helping All Might rescue people, he's a bit rusty on how to do things that don't involve a lethal solution.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Shigaraki manages to walk in and watch as All for One reveals the truth of Izuku's actual quirk and comfort him in the resulting breakdown.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: After pondering over the truths that had revealed to him, Shigaraki ends up helping All Might rescue civilians from a burning building out of spite against All for One and a lack of other direction.
• Hidden Depths: As All Might points out, he may be emotionally stunted and lacking in social skills, but that doesn't mean that he's unintelligent. He asks a number of questions, especially regarding Stain, that has All Might realizing that crimes, especially people disappearing, were going largely uninvestigated, which how almost entirely how All For One and Stain were able to act as brazenly as they did.
  • He points out that with Endeavor hospitalized, Endeavor's agency preoccupied with the newfound anarchy in the streets, and himself in the custody of All Might, Dabi's almost certainly going to start calling the shots in the League and go for an attack on Endeavor.
  • When passing down the street with All Might and Tsukauchi, he throws something at a guy who was hanging off some woman's purse. Tsukauchi points out that with him willing to do that, he could try out a career taking on criminals who don't use their quirks, as his quirk doesn't really lend itself well to arresting villains.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Context clues shows that Shigaraki knew that Izuku was All for One's son long before Izuku figured it out. Shigaraki would ask Izuku questions about All for One and ask him if All for One had any impact on his life. Shigaraki would be rather surprised that Izuku's response would be negative and All for One's impact was either non-existent or indirect.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Averted as without All for One's resources to keep the League of Villains afloat, he has to resort to drug-dealing.
• Promoted to Scapegoat: Izuku theorizes that Shigaraki's true purpose is to be All for One's fall guy so Shigaraki will get all the blame while All for One could retire quietly. All for One ditches him once he escapes prison and has Izuku.
• Related in the Adaptation: In canon, Izuku and Shigaraki's closest relationship is that they are enemies and the disciples of the mortal enemies All Might and All for One. Here, not only is Shigaraki effectively Izuku's adoptive older brother by virtue of Hisashi/All for One, he's also Izuku's cousin by virtue of their grandmother Nana.
• Riches to Rags: Shigaraki spent as much money as he wanted for the League of Villains. Then All for One cuts him off when he ditches Shigaraki for Izuku. Kidnapping of a Cryptid has him resort to drug-dealing to keep the League afloat.
• The Unfavorite: All for One doesn't take Shigaraki seriously at all and constantly mocks him behind his back. Even though he raised Shigaraki since childhood, All for One doesn't consider him his child. Once All for One gets away and has Izuku, he abandons Shigaraki without any hesitation and cuts him off from his support.
• The Watson: Its through Shigaraki's questioning Izuku for what he feels about All for One that Izuku details All for One's many failings and various crimes.

All for One

A criminal mastermind and supervillain, currently incarcerated.

For tropes pertaining to his civilian identity, see 'Hisashi Midoriya' above.

• Abusive Parent: All for One is very controlling and possessive of his child. He walks over his children's opinions and often isolates them to the point of feeling helpless. While he does treat Izuku a tad better, his adoptive son Shigaraki is more less abandoned and constantly mocked.
• Affably Evil: All for One comes across as this to Izuku. He despises Fantastic Racism, shows genuine concern for Izuku's health and intelligence and has a love for trashy gossip tabloids and conspiracy theory websites. He is also the head of a 200-year-old criminal empire.
• Bait the Dog: At first, All for One's hatred for hate crimes make him seem sympathetic. Only to reveal that he had a child disappeared and experimented beyond recognition for bullying a quirkless child. To make matters worse, he had many other children disappeared for the same reason.
• Been There, Shaped History: All for One was alive during the rise of quirks. He found Japan's earliest vigilante associations which became the first supervillain league when it was outlawed. Behind the scenes, he has backed many government officials, doctors, and police. He also owns several major news corporations.
• Blessed with Suck: All for One's stolen Quirk 'Search' allows him to track anyone he has met in person. Pretty darn useful, but it means that when Izuku gets in trouble and All for One is still in prison, he gets a front row seat to his son's suffering while not being able to do anything about it.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: All for One's morality is unconventional to say the least:
  • All for One has no problem having children tortured and killed. He is against the idea of Yuuei Academy as he sees it as a glorified military school making socially palatable Child Soldiers.
  • All for One is strongly against bigotry and institutionalized racism but has no problem mocking people for having weak quirks.
• Bully Hunter: Deconstructed. All for One is not an underdog, and his retaliation goes way too far.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Had pretty much forgotten about Nana Shimura until Toshinori came for him in revenge.
• Character Check: Kidnapping of a Cryptid shows him to be an eager and doting parent to the reluctant Izuku. Hisashi goes out of his way to spend time with Izuku and encourage him despite Izuku deliberately doing things he hates or would put him at a disadvantage. He even tries to help Izuku by getting him surgery to fix his arm injury and shows genuine concern over Izuku's well-being. In Chapter 5 with his gleeful strangulation of Bakugou in broad daylight and vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech reminds the reader that All for One is a horrible person who committed many atrocities.
• Character Development: He's ever-so-slowly loosening up as he spends more time with Izuku.
• Chekhov's Skill: All for One mentions missing his elemental Quirk which he can't use due to his oxygen mask. Guess which quirk Hisashi has and what All for One uses to save Izuku.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Being All for One, he had to clean up lose ends for his criminal empire. After his fateful fight with All Might, he stayed away so his numerous enemies wouldn't find his family.
• Cuddle Bug: He is very physcially affectionate with Izuku and often tries to hug and cuddle Izuku much to his ire.
• Cynicism Catalyst: His experiences as a vigilante and having his brother sent after him with the beginning of the pro-hero system.
• Desperately Craves Affection: After being away from his family for so long and cut off from all positive human contact for a decade, the first thing All for One does is hug his son. He is rather physically affectionate with him afterwards. Izuku is rather creeped out since he knows All for One is still a murderous supervillain.
• Didn't See That Coming: He's surprised by Shigaraki's reaction to Izuku in formal wear.
• Doting Parent: He is super proud of Izuku's skill and intelligence even when Izuku attempts to turn it against him. He outright wallpapered his office with Izuku's defamatory article about him!
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: All for One's love for his family is one humanizing feature for better or worse. He is remorseful that he had to abandon them to protect them. Likewise, he genuinely cared for his brother as the brother is the only family he ever mentions having. However this means he's perfectly willing to commit any sort of atrocity to avenge any slights against his family.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • For a supervillain who spent around two hundred years spreading terror all across the nation, All For One seems content that he never used his own relatives as part of a eugenics experiment, unlike a certain hero. Izuku contemplates it probably isn't a good sign for Endeavor that even someone like All For One refused to be in the same category as him.
  • All for One abhors Fantastic Racism and hate crimes.
• Evil Is Petty: Extremely so. If anyone wrongs him, he will aim for where it hurts. For the crime of brutally crushing his son's dreams, he had Doctor Tsubasa experiment and mutiliate his own grandson beyond recognition. For the crime of annoying him and trying to avenge someone he despised? To hurt Toshinori, he deliberately tracked down the grandson of his beloved mentor and brainwashed him into villainy. He even tracked down the daughter of Toshinori's beloved mentor to kill her as part of a Revenge by Proxy scheme.
  • Plus he uses his powers to cut in long lines!
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: All for One wanted his son to be safe and have a normal life. All for One is horrified at Izuku's desire to become a hero and the risks he takes. Subverted, as All for One regrets not knowing about Izuku's brilliance and cunning as he would have given Izuku a chance.
• Family Versus Career: The crux of All for One's problems that he wants to have his cake and eat it too: he wants to have a family and wants to have his criminal empire. This decision has disastrous effects on not only his family but all of Japan! He starts a family, only to abandon them when his criminal activities caught up to him which scarred his wife Inko and his son Izuku emotionally. He attempts to purge his enemies which left many heroes and civilians killed and maimed in the cross-fire. All for One attempts to leave by having a successor to take over the empire and take all the blame. By the time All for One reunites with his family, his son has no idea who he is and is extremely bitter over being abandoned. Japan is on the verge of falling apart as the government and the heroes have no control over the criminal element which grows more wilder without their leader's guidance. In all, there's a strong implication that the Midoriyas and all of Japan would have been better off had All for One just stuck with one to begin with.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Hisashi Midoriya is strongly against his son Izuku from being a superhero. One as the top supervillain, Hisashi wants Izuku to avoid people from finding out their relation which could destroy Izuku's life. Two, he justifiably thinks that Izuku will get himself maimed or killed. Third, he knows how smart Izuku is and believes that Izuku could be more successful in other careers.
• Faux Affably Evil: Izuku knows that for all of All for One's civility and cooperation lies a ruthless master criminal who's not afraid to murder, mutilate and silence anyone who gets in his way.
• First-Name Basis: All For One insists on calling Izuku by his first name, much to the latter's displeasure.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: All for One was originally one of many vigilantes in the time of the first generation of Quirk users. Then he organized his fellow vigilantes when he and his contemporaries were outlawed. Now, he's been terrorizing Japan for 200 years and almost total control of the criminal underworld.
• Given Name Reveal: All for One's birth name is Hisashi Midoriya.
• Graceful Loser: Surprisingly so. When attempting to have Izuku accept him back as a father, Hisashi decides to involve Toshinori and reach an understanding with him. Hisashi understands that Toshinori is Izuku's actual father figure and gets along with him to get into his son's good graces.
• Hanlon's Razor: All for One's answer about why he married Inko? "I'm an idiot."
• Hen Pecked Husband: All for One is over 200 years old and has been terrorizing Japan and ruling its underworld for that long. Inko Midoriya is sweet and fiercely intelligent Housewife. When they reunite again, All for One does what he can to stay on Inko's good side and bows to her demands. Which is rather justified since she's understandably furious with him abandoning their family and returning without a word and All for One is trying to get her to not divorce him.
• Hidden Depths: Murderous supervillain who terrorized Japan for hundreds of years. Also a complete romantic, a Cuddle Bug, and a fan of gossip magazines.
• Honor Before Reason: All for One used his real name for his marriage and when he starts a family as proof of his love for them. Too bad this would expose him if anyone finds out the family's connection to him.
• Hypocrite: All for One disparages Endeavour for making his own family into a eugenics experiment. This is the same man who committed many genetic experiments on the families of his followers and other hapless victims.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: Despite his chronological age, a restored All for One still has the physical age of "a stupid twentysomething".
• In Love with the Mark: All for One originally planned to have Inko killed in the crossfire of his fights with All Might as part of his Revenge by Proxy plan. Only to fall deeply in love with her which forced him to scrap his own plan.
• It's Personal: All for One personally despises All Might out of the past One for All users because All Might took something from him—namely, the chance to have a family life; see Even Evil Has Loved Ones above.
• Knight Templar Parent: All for One is fiercely protective of Izuku. This leads him to torturing and experimenting on most of his son's childhood bullies, set Shigaraki up to be his fall guy, spies on his family to extremely invasive levels and slaughters everyone in his prison and his son's kidnappers.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Izuku finally realizes that All for One is his father when All for One shows an Informed Consent form for Izuku's impending arm surgery. One of the signatures is his mother's and the other's is Hisashi Midoriya's.
• Mayfly–December Romance: He's over 200 years old. Inko was in her 20s when she met him.
• Mirror Character: Despite his hatred of Endeavor, All for One shares many traits with him. He has a burning hatred of All Might that led him to finding Inko which later resulted in Izuku. All for One like Endeavor, attempts to isolate Izuku from his friends and family so no else finds out his true nature. All for One is an Abusive Parent to his biological son Izuku and his adoptive son Shigaraki and clearly favors one son and practically abandoned the other. All for One also emotionally scars his wife and child through his neglect. When All for One couldn't win directly against All Might, he resorted to intermediaries to achieve his goals. Like Endeavor when he realizes the impact of his actions had on his family he attempts to make amends with his family, who don't forgive nor forget his past actions. Like Endeavor, All for One is never referred to by his actual name.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: All for One is a legitimate medical doctor, he isn't called Sensei for nothing.
• Moral Myopia: All for One has tortured and manipulated children without any remorse in the Painful Transformation of Tsubasa into a Noumu and his brainwashing of Shiragaki. All for One is genuinely horrified at Izuku putting himself in danger and is moved to tears at nightmare of Izuku committing suicide. Izuku snarks at him for it.
• Mundane Utility: Uses his immense powers to skip to the front of lines.
• My God, What Have I Done?: All for One is genuinely remorseful for what his abandonment did to his family.
• No Social Skills: Despite only having a single proper conversation with Izuku, All For One proceeds to call him by his first name without his consent in their very next meeting. For you non-Japanese folks, using someone's first name and no honorific is a sign of extreme trust and closeness, and to do so without such a relationship is extremely rude. In hindsight this may actually have been a form of parental affection.
• Not So Similar: For of All for One's flaws and similarities to Endeavor, there are some ways that he's pointedly different. For one, he's a supervillain while Endeavor is a superhero. Two, he refuses to engage in any social Darwinism as he hires people for their talents, not for their appearances. All for One also married Inko because he loves her unlike Endeavor. All for One loves Izuku in spite of his apparent quirklessness and various actions against him just because. Three, he never physically abuses Inko nor Izuku and is accepting of their talents and goals in spite of what they are. Four, once given the chance to, All for One is ecstatic to spend time with Izuku or Inko while Endeavor only spends time with his family when he has to. Five, unlike Endeavor All for One apologizes to Izuku without prompting.
• Obfuscating Disability: Izuku accused All For One of feigning his blindness to a certain degree, considering that he could still correctly perceive All Might's facial expressions multiple times at Kamino Ward. He, at the very least, has a capability to recognize his surroundings.
• O.C. Stand-in: As of the time of the fic's publishing, very little of All for One has been revealed. All for One's character is created wholesale from the author from speculation from what was revealed of All for One.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Very rarely that All for One is referred by his actual name, Hisashi Midoriya. Only Shu and Inko call him by his true name. It's only when All for One's civilian/fatherly side is shown that Izuku calls him Hisashi despite thinking him as All for One in his internal monologue. Its only until the finale of Kidnapping of a Cryptid that Izuku refers to his father as Hisashi in his thoughts.
• One-Man Army: When he cuts loose, people think that the results were done by a group of people.
• Papa Wolf: All For One, in his own villainous, murderous way—as the villains that kidnapped Izuku found out to their detriment. Also see Disproportionate Retribution above.
• Parental Favoritism: Clearly favors Izuku to the pointing of being a smothering Doting Parent. He pretty much drops Shigaraki like a hot potato once he has Izuku.
• Parental Hypocrisy: All for One had many children experimented on or horrifically killed. So Izuku thinks its extremely hypocritical that All for One would rather have Izuku leave the heroing and investigating to the adults.
• Parental Neglect: He pretty much abandoned Izuku once his crimes caught up to him. Once he was able to become part of Izuku's life again, he clearly abandons Shiragaki.
• Parents as People: The man does genuinely love his family, but he has No Social Skills and Izuku has understandable difficulty trusting a murderous supervillain.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He can destroy cities if he's motivated.
• Pet the Dog:
  • All For One teaching Eri how to control her Quirk. Though it was ultimately for his own purposes, he certainly could have been a lot less nice about it.
  • He also gives Mineta advice on how to control his quirk better.
  • He helps Mirio's father donate his quirk to Mirio.
• Power Nullifier: All for One steals a Quirk with this ability from an unnamed government official to contain Izuku.
• Randomly Gifted: As it turns out, All for One and his brother were born to an ordinary Quirkless couple back when Quirkless people were still the majority and were nothing special genetically. Yet, All for One is a premier example of a winner of the Superpower Lottery and his brother is an example of Heart Is an Awesome Power.
• Retired Monster: All for One's endgoal is to retire from supervillainy and be with his family. All for One doesn't regret one bit of his atrocities.
• Revenge by Proxy: This is All for One's favorite method of dealing with his enemies to break them.
  • All for One's horrific experimentation of Tsubasa was to get revenge on Tsubasa's grandfather for ruining Izuku's life with his Brutal Honesty.
  • The fact that Toshinori doesn't have any family is what lead him to targeting his mentor Nana's surviving family members like her grandson and daughter.
• The Sociopath: Is called one and fits all the traits In-Universe except for one- despite otherwise being a textbook sociopath, he clearly and deeply loves his his family and is willing to change for them on some level which makes All for One a subversion.
• Sweet Tooth: All for One is constantly making sweets for himself and his guests.
• The Don: It becomes increasingly clear that All for One is less of a supervillain and more of a mob boss with superpowers.
• They Look Like Everyone Else: To Izuku's disappointment, the fully restored All for One looks like a normal person that he would see on the street. And he bears a surprising resemblance to Izuku.
• Villain Has a Point: All for One is a horrible person, but he's an extremely perceptive one.
  • All for One constantly disparages and criticizes All Might and his practices. While most of the time, its undeserved, All for One does have a point that All Might isn't actually the best of teachers.
  • All for One states that Izuku's continuing disregard for his health will cripple him. He's not wrong.
  • His brutal physical and verbal beatdown of Bakugou is somewhat deserved due to Bakugou's lack of remorse and lack of punishment for his abuse of Izuku. But All for One being All for One, takes it too far and crosses into Disproportionate Retribution.
• Villains Out Shopping: He likes tabloid magazines like the Heroes Mirror. One chapter in Kidnapping of a Cryptid has him literally going shopping, which he apparently likes to get over with quickly.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Upon finding out Izuku's competence in Quirk's analysis, All For One rather seriously ponders whether he and All Might should switch students with each other or not.
• "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: As shown with his genuine joy for Izuku's safety, All for One wants to reconcile with Izuku and become father and son in truth.
• Who's Laughing Now?: All for One was originally a vigilante who was trying to protect his family and working alongside with his brother, the First One for All wielder. But then unauthorized Quirk use was deemed illegal and out of hundreds of vigilantes, only seven were permitted to become the first pro-heroes. While All for One didn't make the cut, his brother did. In protest, All for One gathered his fellow vigilantes and formed the League of Villains. From then on, All for One terrorized Japan, for two hundred years and become the most feared supervillain.
• Why Are You Not My Son?: All for One makes it clear that he admires Izuku's intelligence and cunning and wants him as his own successor. All for One doesn't even consider Shigaraki as his child despite Izuku pointing out at multiple occasions that All for One is effectively Shigaraki's adoptive father since he raised him since childhood. Which is doubly ironic considering that Izuku is his biological son.
• Would Hurt a Child: All for One and his associates have no problem torturing or killing children.
• Yandere: A platonic example; All for One is psychopathically possessive of Izuku, to the point of having several of Izuku's childhood bullies tortured, murdered or outright disappeared for the crime of hurting his son. All for One despises All Might for being the reason he couldn't be in Izuku's childhood and for becoming Izuku's father figure.

Others

Sludge Villain

A minor criminal with a body made out of slime. He kickstarted the events of canon by indirectly prompting All Might to give Izuku One for All. He returns with some fellows to kidnap and torture Izuku in revenge for being caught. It... doesn't work out as planned.

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• Blob Monster: He's entirely made out of sludge. This makes him hard to hurt, but that doesn't stop All for One, who burns him to death in retaliation for trying to torture and kill Izuku.
• Kill It with Fire: His fate, courtesy of All for One's fire breath quirk.
• Moral Myopia: His Would Hurt a Child behavior? Perfectly fine. Izuku being All for One's kid, prompting said supervillain to attack the Sludge Villain in order to retrieve Izuku from his kidnappers? That bastard!
• Revenge Before Reason: Twice. First, he kidnaps Izuku in revenge for attacking him (fruitlessly) and All Might putting him in prison. And after that plan goes pear-shaped, he decides not to count his lucky stars that he survived an encounter with All for One and exit dodge like a sensible person, instead going after Izuku for supposedly leading All for One to him and his friends. He doesn't survive this mistake.
• Sole Survivor: He's the only one to survive All for One's rescue of Izuku. He doesn't last for long afterwards, however.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no problem with going after Bakugou and Izuku.