Fanfic / Lamarckian

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

A My Hero Academia Self-Insert Fic by October_Daye. It can be found on SpaceBattles, Sufficient Velocity and Archive of Our Own.

When I died, I didn't expect anything to come afterwards. I couldn't have possibly anticipated that I would be reborn into a world of miraculous powers and amazing superheroes. And unfortunately, I never once considered that a world of heroes would have a dark side... nor that it would be so horrifying. In which Native is an actual human being, Pony is adorkable, Monoma isn't a jackass, Bakugou is less of a jackass... and thanks to Nedzu, being a self-insert (and Native's daughter) actually isn't suffering.

See Pound the Table by the same author.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: Though it starts off as an insult, Katsuki calling Kanna "Teddy" in relation to her love for teddy bears and her ability to deliver a literal Bear Hug counts.
• Animorphism:
  • Kanna's mother, Kimiko Yaseiki, has a quirk called Skinwalker, that allows her Partial Transformation into any animal that she wants, even down to the cellular level.
  • Kanna inherits part of this Quirk, allowing her to change parts of her body into that of an animal with all the attributes that entails.
  • Kimiko's father, Therian, can select 1 animal every 24 hours, and change into as much or as little as that animal as he wants.
• Animal Battle Aura: Native and his animal totems.
• Adaptational Badass: While the manga does not give Yaoyorozu her chance to shine until her fight against Aizawa, the fanfic displays her high ingenuity as early as the Battle Trial Arc. It even carries over to the Sports Festival, where instead of facing a Curb-Stomp Battle against Tokoyami, she fights him to a draw.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • While in canon, Bakugou's desire to be top hero is treated as one of his few redeeming qualities, in the fic he is shown to be quite protective of Kanna, and gradually expanding that to his classmates.
  • Monoma is a lot more tolerable and heroic here, and in part due to inter-class bonds present here that were not in canon so he is not as nuts about mocking 1-A.
• Ascended Extra: Many characters such as Native, who gets a personality, flaws, backstory and justification for his power. Class 1-B is much more involved, namely Pony Tsunotori, Monoma, and Ibara. Even some members of Class 1-A gets this treatment.
• Arch-Enemy: Aizawa specifically refers to Wendigo as such for Kanna and her father.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Principal Nedzu. Through sheer intelligence and observance he deduced that Kanna had already died and been reborn, and from a world where they are fiction at that.
• Bad with the Bone: The main Quirk of the Wendigo, along with his strength and Healing Factor, is to manipulate the bone tissue in his body, and which has only grown stronger.
• Ballroom Blitz: During Best Jeanist's latest fashion unveiling, the Wendigo crashes the party, infuriated at the Quirk Factor breakthrough gotten from his blood used for other purposes.
• Better as Friends: Tenya had a crush on Kanna since childhood, but after taking her out on a date when they were thirteen, this was the conclusion he ended up drawing, to both of their mutual agreement.
• Big Damn Heroes: Pony in the Stain arc, while All-Might, perhaps more than canon, is this personified. Kanna takes time to explain the All-Might phenomenon and how when he says everything is fine now that he's here, people believe him.
• Bizarre Human Biology: In a world of Quirks, this was bound to come up eventually:
  • Dr. Kaiya Jakuzure, who works with Kanna's mother, has two snakes growing from her arms. Their venom glands also serve as decontaminants for her bloodstream, since she has no kidneys.
  • The Iida family not only has their organic metal engines, but also have overall reinforced bodies to use them.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: During the USJ invasion, Kanna ends up employing what she thinks to be lethal force against some villains (electric eel and pistol shrimp weapons, scaled up proportionally), and doesn't take the aftermath well.
• Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Kenta Yaseiki, in his Pro Hero identity as Native. He actually has Navajo ancestry, and after tracking down his heritage and regaining touch with it, he took on that new hero identity in honor of his heritage.
• Brown Note: During her sports festival match against Tokoyami, Kanna uses ultrasound against him to disorient him and keep him off balance, enough that Gang Orca, who is spectating, is given a severe headache. The potential shown is one of the reasons he decides to offer her an internship.
• Cannibalism Superpower: The Wendigo gains more power the more people he eats, when he consumes their Quirk Factor to strengthen his own Quirk.
• Chance Meeting Between Antagonists: The Wendigo crashes Best Jeanist’s fashion event in order to sabotage the release of one of Onigashima’s newest products. Little did he expect that Kanna, the girl he wants dead, would be in the very same room. Not that it stops him from noticing her, though.
• Declaration of Protection: Katsuki Bakugou of all people makes a promise to Aizawa after he tells the class about Wendigo and his grudge against Kanna and her family. After all, he remembers the time when he was in trouble from a villain, didn't want any outside help, and yet got some anyway.
  Katsuki: I didn't want any fucking help. Help didn't give a shit and came anyway. [...] Her Deku wasn't there for her. It won't happen again.
• Defeat Means Friendship: On one outing with his family, Native subdued a Vegan Vigilante named Organos, who could turn organic matter into animals. The next time Kanna sees him, he's her dad's new sidekick, Safari.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: During the Wendigo's assault on Best Jeanist's fashion unveiling, Wilhelm Schutz deliberately draws the attention of one of his Noumu backup creatures and gets a claw in the gut for his troubles, but it's long enough for Best Jeanist to shackle it and for Wilhelm to pull off a headshot with his Blitz Quirk.
• Deus ex Machina: Deliberately invoked, subverted, and eventually deconstructed. Per Word of God, no Deus ex Machina that has happened (or will happen) actually results in a true victory all on its own. Without aid, they simply turn an absolute loss into a more even field, and only actually give a win with assistance. See Next Tier Power-Up.
• Elopement: Happens in Kimiko Yaseiki's backstory. With her father Therian about to shanghai her into an Arranged Quirk Marriage that would've been all but indentured slavery, she dragged Kenta to the courthouse and married him on the spot.
• Exact Words: Pony promises Mineta that if he keeps secret the fact that Pony speaks Japanese already, Kanna will give him a kiss. She never promises that Kanna's head would be human when she does.
• Fallen Hero: Native's canon situation is given backstory. With Wendigo gunning for Native as both someone with Native American heritage and the hero who put him away the first time, Native started gunning for him right back, spending more money and time away from his family trying to narrow down his location. After one encounter where they nearly had him, Native actually resorted to using his family as bait to lure Wendigo out, almost cost them their lives if not for All Might's intervention, and ruined the official investigation into Wendigo's resources. For his actions, All Might suspended his Pro Hero license, and his wife and daughter left him.
• Fantastic Racism: In the shapeshifting community in particular, Mutation-type quirks are not popular, nor any other Quirks that permanently affect the body.
• Finger in the Mail: A variant: Kanna finds the girl's locker room trashed and a letter enclosed with a melted ring: the same ring the Wendigo bit off Native's fingers.
• Forgiveness:
  • Prominent in Ibara Shiozaki's backstory: after her parents were unable to have another child after her, her mother lost her faith in the Lord and left her family. It took three years to re-find herself and God again, but when she tried coming back, it took another two years for Ibara and her father (who had grown up without her) to let her back in.
  • Kanna finds it really difficult to forgive Native for putting his own family in harm's way, but she eventually gets back on speaking terms. Her mother Kimiko has a bit more difficulty.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Kanna loves teddy bears.
• Godzilla Threshold: Normally, unauthorised Quirk use is a criminal offence, but in this universe, there is an SOS Protocol written to authorise Quirk use with no repercussions, used to enlist citizen or junior hero aid in a crisis, with the only caveat being that the invoker of the protocol be related to the reason it was invoked. Kimiko invoked the protocol during the Noumus' attack on Hosu City, allowing Native to be saved from Stain.
• Good Is Not Soft: Gang Orca. He shows his Sink or Swim Mentor credentials by fighting Kanna in a fish tank on their first meeting, and later Kanna gets a first-hand look at her internship mentor tearing a Noumu apart with his bare hands and teeth.
• Heel Realization: After Katsuki witnesses the Wendigo's antagonism of Kanna firsthand, he ends up comparing himself to the villain and realizes just how needlessly hostile he's been toward Midoriya over the years. This leads Katsuki to personally visit Midoriya in order to seek closure and, when he sees that the latter had written an entry on addressing the injuries caused by Explosion, he fully grasps what he’s done and apologizes.
• Hero-Worshipper: Everybody loves All-Might, in an even more over-the-top manner than canon. At one point, it's mentioned how Japanese malls have 'Mall-Mights' like Mall Santas, who listen to children's problems and give the advice they think All-Might would.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Mineta may be an unrepentant pervert, but he's not only intelligent, he can actually teach concepts better than Momo.
  • Katsuki effectively taught himself rocket science while trying to master his Quirk.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When the Wendigo sees Gerhardt Schutz approaching him with a syringe, he subdues him and injects Gerhardt with his own serum, believing it to be some way to weaken him. However, he made a grave mistake: inside the syringe is Gerhardt's prototype Super Serum, and it was always meant for Gerhardt himself.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Count the number of times some convoluted reference to the US Constitution is made so some wit can bring up Kanna's right to bear arms.
• Jerkass Realization: If having his wife and daughter leave him after knowingly putting them in danger doesn't do it for Native, what does is seeing Tenya go after Stain the Hero Killer just as fanatically as he did going after the Wendigo.
• Lethal Chef: Downplayed; Kanna knows how to cook a few dishes semi-decently, and she's alright at food prep, but outside of those and put her in front of a heat source, and she's a disaster.
• Little Bit Beastly: Due to a Power Incontinence accident when she was young, Kanna's legs have been transformed into a horse's from the knee down. She doubled down by giving herself a tail to aid in balance and combat.
• Little Miss Snarker: Kanna doesn't hesitate to give anyone she has issues with snark and sass.
  • This actually ends up Deconstructed - when she has issues with her teachers Present Mic and Midnight (the former for trying to teach her English when she's already fluent and the latter for trashy dress around kids), instead of talking to them in private, she snarks off and disparages them in front of her class (challenging the former that she can teach English better than him and borderline Slut-Shaming the latter). She ends up chewed out by Midnight, Aizawa, and Nedzu in that although open speech is welcomed by their students, disrespecting one's teachers in public crosses that line into unacceptability.
• Love at First Punch:
  • Neito Monoma introduced himself to Pony by trying to teach her various curse words under the false impression that she didn't know Japanese. After a shared detention where the joke was revealed (she swore in front of teachers and then blamed Neito for it), they ended up dating.
  • Kanna's first personal interaction with Katsuki started with her beating him anonymously at a video game, and the second was her sparring with him during a training session. They too end up dating after a while.
• Magnetic Weapons: The Quirk of Wilhelm Schutz of Wesenproduktion Germany is named Blitz, allowing him to charge up any object he holds with power and momentum and fire it railgun-style. Though it's a bit of a misnomer, since he doesn't need to use metal ammunition.
• Missing Mom: Pony Tsunotori's mother, Sylvia. She was a victim of the Wendigo.
• My God, What Have I Done?: How Hitoshi reacts when Kimiko blatantly explains how his Quirk use during the cavalry battle had harmed Ojiro and Shoda's future prospects and nearly harmed Kanna's body.
• My Suit Is Also Super: Thanks to some work by Best Jeanist and some experimentation with the Wendigo's blood, a special kind of reagent is created that can integrate a person's Quirk Factor into their clothing, allowing it to react properly with the wearer's Quirk and change appropriately. Its unveiling involved Itsuka Kendo and her giant hand Quirk, and Best Jeanist creating a pair of opera gloves that will change size with her hands.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Invoked and deconstructed. Native cannot use his Thunderbird totem without a substantial cost, either supplied from someone else (Kamuy) or drawing from himself, which is implied to have a cost he is unwilling or unable to pay himself. Per Word of God, the consequences range from mild nerve damage, to grand mal seizures, coma, and permanent paralysis.
• Not Hyperbole: Katsuki manages to follow through on his promise to blow out the Wendigo's guts and feed them to him. Pity the Wendigo's superior Healing Factor meant that he never got past step one.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: At one point, All Might was transported to the Marvel Universe via an enemy quirk. He got out of there after some interesting team-ups.
• Perception Filter: Taiki Suiren, Gang Orca's secretary, has this power as his Quirk that allows him to act as Mission Control in the field, keeping his surveillance van beneath notice.
• Poisonous Person: A recurring tactic of Kanna's is to employ animal venom against her opponents, such as when she uses bullet ant venom to weaken Katsuki during the final round of the Sports Festival.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Wendigo, who is a descendant of President Andrew Jackson (or at least thinks he is) that wants to finish the work of the Trail of Tears, i.e. get rid of everyone with Native American heritage. He rarely calls Native and his family anything other than "Injun". He's no better when it comes to other cultures, either, such as referring to Best Jeanist as "Jap" and Gerhardt Schutz as "Kraut".
• Power Incontinence:
  • If Kanna doesn't transform her body the right way, revert to human form between transformations, or if she loses focus while transforming, she can end up permanently stuck in her new Partial Transformations. It's why she has hooves instead of feet.
• Prehensile Tail: In order to regain her balance after the accident that permanently transformed her legs, Kanna gives herself a thin but powerful tail.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Gang Orca gives a rather biting one to Uwabami for wasting Kendo's internship, specifically after the Snake Hero indirectly insults Kanna. It's made all the more harsh when he blatantly points out that, among the three U.A. students present, Kendo is the only one who wouldn't return to her original choice of agency if given the chance.
  Gang Orca: And what exactly are you implying, Uwabami? That I seek interns for their own merits, as opposed to squandering them in photo shoots and commercials?
  Uwabami: W-why I never—!
  Gang Orca: Never what, thought about the disservice you've done to Kendo-san this past week? [...] It seems possible that you forgot the purpose of these internships, Uwabami. They are for your benefit in the long run. For this week? It should have been for her. Not your latest perfume commercial.
• Reformed Rake: Katsuki counts somewhat after he starts dating Kanna. With her by his side, he is less prone to explosive outbursts, quits bullying Izuku as much, and is a lot more mellow. Of course, it's offset somewhat by her snarking.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Iida Tensei is married to Rei, a relative of Mei Hatsume.
  • Katsuki Bakugou and Yuu Takeyama (Mount Lady) are cousins.
• Revenge Before Reason: Native will do anything to capture the Wendigo, including using his daughter and wife as bait.
• Running Gag: Ibara smacking someone for taking the lord's name in vain.
• Secret-Keeper: Neito Monoma becomes this for All Might's secret after his Copying Quirk identifies All Might as quirkless.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: In order to gauge Kanna's learning curve, Gang Orca throws the girl into an aquarium, turns the lights off, and proceeds to viciously attack her until she manages to escape. And all of this occurs within seconds of the two meeting each other.
• Shipper on Deck: Gang Orca is this to his secretary, Taiki, and an aquarium employee Umiko. When he finally asks her out, he gives Taiki a raise.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Kanna's family has the surname Yaseiki (Japanese for "wild spirit"), and all of them have animal-based Quirks.
• Stop Being Stereotypical: This is Kimiko Yaseiki's advice to Shinsou Hitoshi, in that for all he hates being given a "villainous" Quirk, and is doing all he can to shuck the villain label, he's still using his Quirk like a villain would - controlling ally and enemy alike and forcing them to do his bidding - because that what he thinks someone with his Quirk should do. Kimiko's advice is for him to take a closer look at his actions and think about if they're really worthy of a hero.
• Stripperific: This applies to Pony's first hero costume, an ensemble which she designed to mimic a Clydesdale's riding harness to allow her to carry people, and unfortunately has a more-than-passing resemblance to bondage gear. Pony doesn't understand why Kanna is horrified at it at first, but after Kanna shows her a porno, she gets the message.
• Super Serum: Gerhardt Schutz, a Quirkless scientist, managed to develop some from experimentation with Quirk Factor and the Wendigo's blood. When the Wendigo crashes a function, he successfully injects himself, causing himself to Hulk Out and kick the Wendigo's ass.
• Take That!: Potshots at Naruto and Pokemon occur by Kanna's inner-snark.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Kimiko has some sharp words for Shinsou Hitoshi after his use of his Mind Control Quirk during the Sports Festival Cavalry battle has him use it on Kanna, forcing her to use her Quirk in ways it wasn't meant to be used and which could further permanently mutate her if not careful. For her part, Kanna is extremely hurt by the event and vows to never forgive him.
  • Kanna is put on the receiving end of this for practically Slut-Shaming Midnight in front of the class. First by Midnight herself, and then by both Nedzu and Aizawa.
  • A downplayed example occurs when Gang Orca throws some shade at Uwabami for treating Itsuka Kendou, her intern, as a commercial prop. Meanwhile, Orca was actively cultivating Kanna and had already offered her a spot when she graduated.
• Worth It: Pony says as much after she swears in front of a group of teachers and then thanks Monoma for teaching her Japanese (who up until that point did not know she was bilingual), and Vlad King gives her detention as a result.
• You Are What You Hate: Endeavor, known in canon for utilizing a Quirk Marriage to produce children with strong quirks like Shouto, was the foremost proponent of the Todoroki Act that outlawed Quirk Marriages. This is more or less an Exploited Trope, as very little of the public actually believe that the person who lobbied against Quirk Marriages actually has one himself, making it annoyingly good camouflage.

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