- "If I can't be a hero, what's stopping me from being a vigilante?"
The Black Fox
series is a My Hero Academia fanfiction series created by A_ToastToTheOutcast featuring a Quirkless Izuku taking a path to vigilantism due to certain events.
The series is ongoing and has currently four entries:
- The Thin Gray Line (Complete)
- Bakugou Katsuki does not deal well with sassy Dekus (Complete)
- Organized Protection (Complete)
- Show ‘em what you’re made of (On-going)
This series contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Dabi, by virtue of not joining the League of Villains and working for the seamstress.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Izuku, courtesy of the Point of Divergence. Downplayed that while he is still kind, he doesn't have the big heart that canon Izuku had. Making him more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Badass Normal: Kuroda and eventually Izuku.
- Broken Pedestal: Izuku's is broken when All Might tells him he can't be a hero. This is further broken down once his vigilante training starts showing him that All Might is great, yes...but the effect on society he has is long-term detrimental (since everyone is dependent on him, they're looking at a major problem if he ever gets hurt or killed).
- Chekhov's Gunman: Before meeting Izuku, Kuroda saved a politician's wife and child. The child was Kahiro, who plays an important role during the course of Izuku's capture by the league of villains.
- Deadpan Snarker: Kuroda, and what Izuku becomes as the story progresses.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Sir Nighteye planned out how he would let Izuku into the internship at his office, which consisted of breaking him down so that Izuku would see that he wasn't a worthy successor to All Might. He had no idea that All Might hadn't told Izuku he wanted the boy to be his successor, nor was Nighteye prepared for someone who wasn't in awe of the Symbol of Peace.
- When Nighteye challenges Izuku to the same challenge as in canon, Izuku points out that Nighteye's Quirk is publicly known and that it would be foolish of him to try to beat someone who can see the future.
- The Seamstress, after the events of the first story, organizes a group of her minions and minor villains to keep an eye on Izuku and his mom to watch out for them in case the villains come back. Izuku knows none of this and just knows he's being stalked and watched, driving him to paranoia before he's told what's going on.
- The Dog Bites Back: Izuku no longer reacts in fear in response to Bakugou's bullying by "Show 'em what you're made of" and it shows.Izuku: In middle school, you kept knocking me down, telling me my dreams were impossible, that I should "jump off the roof and pray for a Quirk in the next life". Ever since we were little, you’ve done nothing but hit me and tell me I’m nothing. So what is it? Are you mad that I won’t take any more of your bullshit?
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Stain, as skewed as his morals might be, disapproves the fact that the League of Villains had taken to attacking Inko and crippled Kuroko. Which prompted him to find Izuku and tip him off about it.
- What led to the seamstress, a friend of Kuroko's to pull the strings and stop the rest of the villains from attacking Izuku during the course of Organized Protection. She already helped out Kuroko a lot and having a niece herself, she hates the idea of attacking someone else's kid for the sake of agenda or just because. And a whole lot of the villains who are her customers are actually mad at the League of Villains for it. With the thug working for her saying this word to word.Thug: We may be villains, but we've got standards.
- Holding Out for a Hero: According to research Izuku did, the laws and cultural mindset that only heroes are allowed to help people have resulted in two thousand people a year dying because everyone stood back and waited for a pro hero to show up and solve the problem rather than do something about it themselves - in Tokyo. National and global statistics are worse.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Nejire greets Izuku by asking how he transferred to the Heroics department without a Quirk as the first thing she ever says to him. Given everything else that Izuku is going through, this pretty much permanently sours his first impression of her.
- All Might's offer of giving Izuku One for All, while well-meaning, also clearly insults Izuku.
- In Spite of a Nail: All Might, after the first story, intends to make Izuku his successor. However, Izuku rejects the offer because he's insulted that after he proved what he could do while quirkless, he's still asked if he wanted a quirk as if his accomplishments weren't good enough to show he didn't need one.
- Loophole Abuse: Izuku being quirkless makes him suffer fewer charges than he was supposed to have when the heroes found him, as the legal definition for vigilantism had been changed from taking the law into one's own hands to using your quirk for heroic purposes without a license, which a quirkless person cannot do by definition.
- My Greatest Failure: For All Might, bluntly telling Izuku that he can't be a hero, which led to a chain of events that had said boy take up the path of vigilantism.
- Original Character: Kuroko, real name Nagaki Kuroda is one likely created as a Foil to All Might. There is also the Seamstress, a Cool Old Lady who helped sew Izuku's vigilante costume.
- Point of Divergence: Hoo boy...
- First off, Izuku calling out the heroes' reluctance early on led to him not taking the path of a hero and finding his way to vigilantism, which got him to meet Kuroda, becoming the Kuroko's successor. And in extension, All Might couldn't get to offer him to succeed as the wielder for "One For All" as a result.
- Izuku taking the path of vigilantism led to the villains discovering Kuroko's identity early which led to the villains attacking Inko and Kuroda during the sports festival arc later.
- The field trip arc went far differently with Izuku as Kuroko having to face an enraged Iida with Stain. Then villains attacked them near the end of the arc and the story went off the rails afterwards.
- Due to the above, several villains that joined the League of Villains due to Stain, such as Dabi, didn't join the league at all during the course of Organized Protection.
- Several of them combine when Izuku goes for an internship at Sir Nighteye's office. Sir Nighteye makes disparaging remarks about Izuku's potential as a successor to All Might and threatens not to let him continue. Unfortunately, a) Izuku in this world is not enamored with All Might, and in fact thinks that All Might's effect on society is harmful in the long run, b) All Might has not informed Izuku about One For All (nor that All Might plans to make Izuku his successor) so Izuku doesn't have any idea what Nighteye is talking about, and c) Unlike canon Izuku who wanted to learn the art of prediction, Black Fox Izuku only wanted a way to get back on the streets to deal with pent up feelings but is not so desperate that he'd willingly work with someone who's only going to be a total jerk to him, so he just leaves once Nighteye starts getting rude with him.
- A Rare Sentence: Mirio and Izuku's first meeting.Izuku: What the fuck.Mirio: Language!Izuku: You're in the floor, don't tell me what language I can't use.
- Refusal of the Call: When All Might offers to make Izuku his successor, after Izuku had become a successful quirkless vigilante, Izuku is hurt and insulted, and both refuses the offer to take All Might's quirk and tells All Might to leave him alone.
- Stations of the Canon:
- While some of the arcs stayed relatively similar to canon (Mostly the entrance exam arc up to the field training arc), the changes come that Izuku taking a path of vigilantism led to him joining the general course instead of the heroics to avoid having his vigilante activities found out, the league of villains knowing that the vigilante, Kuroko is still around, Inko and Kuroda getting attacked during the sports festival arc due to the villains knowing who Kuroko's identity is, and by the end of the field training arc, the story completely diverges from canon.
- "Show 'Em What You're Made Of," has started to get back on the stations, but reinterpreted in a new way of an Izuku who is tired, stressed, and much more cynical. He still meets Mirio, but their interactions do not go as smoothly. The meeting with Sir Nighteye also seems to go (initially) as canon would, but it ultimately ends with Izuku refusing to take Nighteye's abuse.
