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Danger First

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"You know what this means, of course. It means, my quirk is the most valuable. The greatest power in the universe is the power of anxiety."
Hikage, Chapter 4.

Danger First is a My Hero Academia fanfic written by Marsalias, a.k.a. FiveRivers, who also wrote Life's Great Lie. It can be found here on Archive of Our Own or here on FanFiction.Net.

When Izuku gains One For All, the Vestiges within him become concerned that immediately granting Izuku the raw power of the Stockpile Quirk may be too much for him. So instead they decide on giving him Danger Sense. Things spiral out of control from there.


Tropes that feature are:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: Bakugo calls Hagakure an 'invisible gorilla' as an insult, but she finds it so fitting and amusing she makes it her hero name.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • Hagakure goes by "Invisible Gorilla," finding it funny, but also noting that her original "Invisible Girl" would become awkward when she becomes an adult. See also "Recovery Girl, the Youthful Heroine," who looks like she's pushing eighty.
    • After several chapters stressing over what to choose, Izuku goes with "Wonder."
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • Monoma is put into 1-A, and quickly becomes a close friend of his classmates.
    • Class 1-A (with the current exception of Todoroki) is much closer to each other than they are in canon at this point. Interacting via a group chat; coming to Izuku's defense against Bakugo; and putting together plans to work together at the Sports Festival, including the conclusion that it was better to work on their teamwork more so they could adapt to whatever Nedzu pulled on them.
    • Tokoyami approaches Izuku and Co. about becoming friends. It is noted he is generally too shy to do so, but uses how they snuck through the secret teacher's entrance to avoid the media together as a pretext to start a conversation.
    • Midnight, Present Mic, and Eraserhead are all friends of Ingenium, and consider Tenya a surrogate nephew.
    • None of Bakugo's canon friends and acquaintances get along with him here, as they are in different classes, and quickly develop a negative opinion of him. Especially given how he treats Izuku.
    • Shinso's intended speech to the hero students does not go as he envisions, as 1-A is all enthusiastically ready to invite him in from the get-go, as they have an opening anyways. Granted, they have low standards, noting how Shinso has yet to verbally sexually harass any of the ladies thus far, compared to Mineta who had done just so in the same amount of time. Later he is invited to join in on their plan to eliminate the competition for the sports festival, and does participate, including sharing details about his Quirk.
    • On a similar note, Hatsume also teams up with 1-A for the Sports Festival, and participates in their training sessions.
    • Nana is Izuku's biological grandmother, to her ignorance. Even All For One is unaware of this, as Inko was adopted and only knows some basic medical and Quirk details of her biological parents, and if she did not care to learn more, than neither did he. Unfortunately he is considering investigating now.
  • Adaptational Early Appearance:
    • The Vestiges, Ingenium, Gran Torino, and Hatsume all get introduced before the USJ incident even begins.
    • Shirokumo Oboro's consciousness slips through Kurogiri after Kaminari causes a discharge in his brainwashing.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Due to how Izuku (Class 1-A) fought villains and Bakugo (Class 1-B) didn't, the latter's confrontation with his former friend at U.A is far more toxic. The rest of 1-A openly compares his behavior to that of a villain, and are silently judgmental of Izuku's attempts to defend him.
  • Adapted Out: Mineta is expelled on day one for being an even greater, or more obvious, pervert than canon.
  • Atrocious Alias: The Third wielder saddled Yoichi with the Vigilante name of Dumas. While the idea behind it is great, to the public at large, it gets pronounced as "dumb ass." Yoichi is not happy when he finally learns about this.
  • Awesome by Analysis: In preparation for the Sports Festival, 1-A decides to work together and put a plan in place. Cue Izuku, Monoma, Ochako, and Momo putting together a detailed analysis of all past events, and their predictions for what will happen this year, all culminating in Nedzu himself calling them to the principal's office to commend them for getting so many details right.
  • Bad Future: Given Izuku's reaction to canceling the USJ visit compared to them attending as planned, according to his precognition whatever would have happened would have been far worse.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Izuku. All Might is actually a little intimidated at how much the boy can piece together when motivated enough. Also, he had no hesitation in shooting a grappling hook at villains to reel himself in with them, heedless of the damage it would do to them. He also threw together a plan in short order to turn the tide in the heroes' favor at the USJ.
  • Blessed with Suck: Danger Sense is this in many ways for Izuku, as while it provides precognitive warnings to him, it also leaves him with immense anxiety just from being aware of all the mundane dangers around him. On the morning of the USJ attack, he is nearly physically paralyzed by the stress of what he is feeling and throws up at one point. That said, Danger Sense was considered by the Vestiges to be infinitely better than giving Izuku the Stockpile Quirk, as they were concerned about raw power breaking his bones (if not turning them into powder).
  • Brick Joke: Yoichi learns that Third had been telling stories to his successors about the former being a hero called Dumas, making up stuff to make him look grander. When En learns that Yoichi was involved in ruining a Blood Sport's underground promoters, he complains to Third that he didn't start with those stories instead of the Dumas ones.
  • Cliffhanger: Chapter 19 ends with Tenya failing to show up to his match with Hatsume, and combined with alert Danger Sense was trying to do earlier, the Vestiges realize something happened to him.
  • Demoted to Extra: Since Bakugo is in class 1-B, he appears far less than in the manga.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation: Yoichi was not killed by his brother here. All Might did pass on the story of this happening to Izuku, but the reality here was that Yoichi died of health complications from how sickly he was, and then being on the run from both his brother and the government without proper medical care. The Third User then made up a dramatic and inspiring faked story to motivate his successor.
  • Doom Magnet: Izuku's cover story for his manifestation of One for All's powers is that he has a passive Sensory/Stockpile Quirk that detects danger and 'stores' this up for later use when he's near it, and everyone who knows of his love of Hero fights assumes he was subconsciously chasing moments like this due to his fictional Quirk. This fits so well that All For One completely believes the lie and assumes his son has developed a second-generation Quirk based off of his own* with influence from his mother's family Quirk-Tree.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Izuku and All Might joke about Izuku potentially being a descendent of All For One, with All Might brushing it off since he can't imagine the supervillain having a committed romantic relationship. This is all while not knowing that All For One is actually Izuku's father.
    • On the same note, due to that insider knowledge, you would assume AFO to easily see straight through Izuku's cover story meant to hide who the current bearer of One For All is. Instead, he is completely fooled by it. Shigaraki's attack on the USJ, despite explicit orders not to attack any non-hero classes (since AFO was too busy sulking about his son attending U.A to find out which course Izuku is in), is put down to being too incompetent to read the stolen itinerary properly (which, being blind, AFO cannot do himself). While he does briefly assume All Might is responsible for his son's newfound Quirk, the supervillain actually finds the lie entirely plausible and finds further evidence to support it. After all, as the son of a first-generation Quirk user, it would make sense if there were some unexpected facets to Izuku's newfound power, and it bears similarity to the Quirks of Izuku's mom and biological grandmother, the latter of whom Izuku was unaware of.
    • Continuing the chain of irony, since AFO is so convinced Izuku does not have One For All, he assumes All Might has still yet to find a successor, and is thus still at full power.
    • Aoyama is ordered by AFO to give special attention to Izuku, and is sick with guilt that the villain has hideous plans for the kindly student. In reality, AFO is Izuku's dad, and wants his son to do well.
  • The Dreaded: Nedzu. From stories he heard from his brother, Iida is terrified of the principal, and by all accounts this is a common reaction. Izuku notably is not, but that is because of Danger Sense not going off from him, but also because on their first meeting he only partially noticed all the usual intimidation gestures (because he was so busy being sick from the warnings about USJ), and so no longer surprises.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Midnight likes embarrassing Iida by calling him "Chibiida."
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Midoriya Hisashi, a.k.a. All For One, genuinely loves his wife and son, and hates how his face being destroyed keeps him from being around them as often as he used to. While he let his son remain Quirkless, that is because he refuses to risk making the same mistake as he did with his brother, and just wishes his family would let him kill all those people who inconvenience them in the slightest way (they assume he is kidding).
  • Everyone Has Standards: Aizawa is not a good teacher. In fact, he admits to being a terrible one. So, he is shocked to hear from Izuku that he sincerely considers him the best teacher he ever had, and plans to inflict punishment against Izuku's previous teachers for being even worse than him.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: To Yoichi's consternation, he discovers Third made up completely false heroic deeds that he claimed Yoichi did.
  • Fights Like a Normal:
    • With just Danger Sense, and not gaining access to the Stockpile part of One For All, Izuku is forced to rely heavily upon his wits and physical conditioning to win.
    • Hagakure, who is jacked; is able to heft Izuku over her head with casual ease. All through pure physical conditioning. According to the AO3 tags, she has an 8-pack, and everyone in 1-A wants to know her work-out routine.
  • The Greatest Story Never Told: During all the chaos of the dark days as society collapsed with the emergence of quirks, a lot of people started a massive bloodsport system where people would fight to the death for the entertainment of a gambling crowd. They were all volunteers too, satisfying their post-apocalyptic urge for violence. However Yoichi made the whole thing collapse, despite being near-crippled with all his sicknesses, by stealing the money involved for it, an achievement never known to history. Even the rest of the Vestiges are upset they never heard of this before.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: At the USJ when Izuku is using both Float and a grappling gun, Momo and Jirou fling him around (consensually) as an improvised flail/bola.
  • Grew a Spine: In defense of Izuku, All Might is much more assertive towards Gran Torino compared to his usual terrified self. The old man compliments the boy for this. He later also stands up to Bakugo at the Sports Festival when his bully tries to intimidate him into dropping out.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Aizawa is a licensed Quirk counselor and gives Izuku training and Quirk therapy after class.
    • All Might has an undergraduate degree in nutritional and health sciences, and he uses this to come up with personalized nutrition plans for both Izuku during his training and later Class 1-B at Vlad King's request.
  • Hypocrite: As far as AFO is concerned, what is the point of being evil if you cannot also be a hypocrite?
  • I'm Your Biggest Fan:
    • Five of the seven Vestiges in Izuku's head are major fans of his, although Yoichi, his uncle, is the biggest.
    • To better see every possible piece of media on All Might, Izuku taught himself to be nearly fluent in English from a young age.
  • It's All About Me: Bakugo, even worse than in canon due to him not being humbled. When Izuku uses Float during the Sports Festival, Bakugo tracks him down and violently demands answeres under the delusion that Izuku hid his powers to make fun of him, then attempts to threaten him into dropping out of the Festival.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Played with. When Aizawa used his Quirk on Izuku, they both think Erasure worked as normal, but the Vestiges were actually the ones suppressing his Quirk to hide how unusual it truly is.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Kaminari lampshades canon's tendency for Meaningful Names.
    Kaminari: "It could be his name. I mean, we've got some weird names here. My name's basically thunder electricity. Makes you wonder what my parents were thinking."
  • Life Will Kill You: First died from chronic illnesses that he couldn't get properly treated because he was in hiding. Third created a lie about All For One killing him, which was passed down to All Might.
  • Masquerade: The Pro-Heroes in the know, and the Vestiges, are desperately working to try and keep All For One from realizing Izuku has One For All. This unfortunately means that the Vestiges cannot risk giving Izuku more Quirks just yet, as it would be too difficult to explain away. To say nothing of other shifty forces that would take an interest in him before he is ready.
  • Mundane Utility: Before becoming a hermit, the Fourth Wielder Hikage used his quirk as an safety inspector to notice any defects or minor danger in construction projects.
  • Nutritional Nightmare: In chapter 18, Hagakure mentions that there is an American stall selling deep fried butter. Which is something that actually exists in real life, horrifingly enough.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Izuku calls his father (who, unknown to him, is All for One) to ask for tips on his future Hero name, both speak with enough ambiguity that All For One still thinks Izuku is a General Education student, while Izuku doesn't realize what his father believes. According to Yoichi, this is actually pretty typical of his brother.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Yoichi is so disgusted with Bakugo’s entitled, borderline sociopathic behavior that he starts talking about taking away his Quirk, which the other disturbed vestiges note that sounds more like something All For One would say.
  • Point of Divergence: Izuku getting Danger Sense instead of the strength enhancement quirk leads to several differences.
  • Properly Paranoid: All Might makes it clear he does not trust the Hero Public Safety Commission with his more sensitive secrets, fearing any corruption within the organization. Eraserhead is also very wary of them. Given what the organization got up to in canon, their caution is a good thing. He is also intending to be very careful to show no bias towards Izuku during the Sports Festival, for fear that it would draw AFO's attention.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • Eraserhead
      • Unlike how it is heavily implied in canon, Eraserhead actually stops to read Izuku's file, and notes all the irregularities and accomplishments he managed to get into UA, and considers the danger of dangling hope in front of a teenager and crushing it. So he gives him a fully fair chance, and actively takes the time to help the kid figure out his Quirk even before certain reveals are made.
      • Eraserhead is appalled to discover he is the first decent school teacher Izuku has ever had. And he, and his friends, are very well aware of how low a bar that is.
      • He also ensures that his class goes to Hound Dog for counseling after the USJ attack, and does his best to stop the other classes from heckling them to allow them to recover from their trauma in peace.
      • Initial classes include things like how to fall safely, or throw a punch without breaking your hand. Hand-to-hand combat has to all be supervised until he is sure they will not hurt one another.
    • Nedzu takes Izuku's warnings via Danger Sense entirely seriously, and takes steps to ensure the USJ attack was not as bad as canon. Afterwards, when he realizes from eavesdropping on 1-A's analysis of the Sports Festival that he has gotten too predictable, and villains might take advantage of this, he makes major changes to the entire event, with the exception of the third task (which he would happily change if he could justify it).
    • Vlad King is not amused at Bakugo receiving his canon support gear, when he is a fifteen-year-old with no demolitions training, and perfectly willing to blow up an entire building.
    • Yagi and Aizawa have the opportunity to look over Present Mic's intended canon Sports Festival commentary, and dismiss it as both too biased and inappropriate for a heroics school.
  • Related in the Adaptation:
    • All For One is Izuku's biological father here.
    • Nana Shimura is Inko's biological mother, which makes her Izuku's grandmother. This also makes Tomura Shigaraki his cousin.
  • Rules Lawyer: In preparation for the Sports Festival, 1-A encourages Iida to be this for them.
  • Running Gag: Banjo complaining about the Vestiges not letting Izuku manifest Blackwhip.
  • Secret-Keeper: Unlike in canon, Aizawa is brought into the loop about One For All and All For One much earlier since he's personally training Izuku, who's already manifested two Quirks (Danger Sense and Float), and needs to be aware of the danger All For One could pose to his student.
  • Simple Solution Won't Work: When Izuku's Danger Sense predicts that something terrible is going to happen during the next USJ trip, Nezu decides that the most sensible course of action is to cancel it and reschedule it for a later date... which results in Danger Sense getting so bad, Izuku has to dive for a garbage bin in order to throw up. Nezu then decides to call some heroes to act as a security detail for the trip, which soothes Danger Sense.
  • Spotting the Thread: While Eraserhead (understandably) prefers to believe that Kurogiri is using Oboro's stolen Quirk, Nedzu finds it very fascinating that Kurogiri warped Eraserhead to where Oboro died.
  • Suppressed Rage: The Vestiges are well aware Izuku has this in spades and this is why they veto giving him Blackwhip, as his repressed rage would enhance its power even more and get wildly out of control.
  • Sustained Misunderstanding: Since All for One is convinced that Izuku is a late bloomer and that he's in General Education, he takes any clue that implies otherwise and twists it to fit his preconceived notions. According to Yoichi, this is fairly common for him.
  • Too Clever by Half: Downplayed example since the mistake is caught before harm could be done, but in an attempt to emphasise security for the upcoming Sports Festival when deciding the actual events, U.A. made themselves predictable. So, when Izuku and his classmates (who are admittedly smart) are able to determine what the events are going to be with some degree of accuracy, Nedzu realises their enemies could do it too.
  • Wham Episode: Chapter 12 ending with Izuku planning to call his dad to discuss possible hero names, blissfully unaware at how this might out him to All For One as All Might's successor. The Vestiges are screaming within his head.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • All Might gets a few of these as with how the USJ goes differently definitely confirms All For One is still alive, and he had just given Izuku One for All along with the mandatory target on his back. The adults in the know are not impressed by his defense he believed AFO dead. Also, Recovery Girl is unimpressed that Izuku had been trained by All Might for nearly a year without learning his name.
    • During the battle trials, Todoroki and Uraraka were paired against Asui and Tokoyami. So when Todoroki does his "freezing the whole building" move, Asui, with her frog physiology, was badly affected and ended up hypothermic. This leads to All Might calling Todoroki out, explaining how heroes need to be conscious of the damage they can do and not going too far. Todoroki seems to take this to heart, being much more restrained in how he uses his Quirk during the USJ attack.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: What the Vestiges are initially concerned about in regards to giving Izuku more Quirks. Thankfully they are eventually convinced that Izuku has a similar enough biology to All For One and Yoichi to not be harmed by the process. Unfortunately due to the Masquerade, they cannot provide any more.
  • Wrote a Good Fake Story: The Third user of One For All told the Fourth a Tear Jerker tale of how the First died at his brother's hands, gloriously buying time for a bunch of Quirked children to safely escape. The gist of the story, particularly AFO killing his own brother, was passed down to the rest. In reality, First died because of various chronic illnesses, and was on the run from both his brother and the government without access to proper medical care. The more Yoichi learns of the elaborate story Third put together about him, the more infuriated he is about it.
  • You Didn't Ask:
    • Hikage (the Fourth) is the only one who isn't shocked when Yoichi reveals that All For One is Izuku's father, because he'd already figured it out (by seeing the villain in a family photo at the Midoriyas' house). When the other Vestiges ask him why he didn't say anything, he replies that he assumed everyone already knew and were just being polite in not mentioning it.
    • Later, Banjo tells Hikage that if he finds more "secret relatives", to not assume that the rest also knows, so they aren't blindsided in the future. Hikage then points out that both Inko Midoriya and Tomura Shigaraki have a striking resemblance to Nana.
    • As seems to be the pattern for Hikage, Nana went decades living with him assuming he was a fulltime hermit, only recently learn he was also a building safety inspector.


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