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 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 get a negative opinion of him.
- 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 agrees to join up.
- 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).
- 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. 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, since 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.
- 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.
- For Want Of A Nail: Izuku getting Danger Sense instead of the strength enhancement quirk leads to several differences.
- Izuku spends the entire Entrance Exam saving people from dangerous situations, which gets him even higher points than in canon, putting him in first place.
- Aizawa puts Monoma in Class 1-A partly because he wanted him to copy Izuku's Quirk so he could understand it (since Izuku's files about his Quirk are inconclusive). This means that Bakugou is placed in Class 1-B instead.
- Because of Danger Sense, Izuku is able to warn Nedzu that something bad was going to happen at the USJ, which leads to the principal asking Ingenium to come in as backup. Also, because of this warning, All Might is present at the USJ from the start, instead of wasting all of his Quirk's time doing hero work around the city.
- Kurogiri, acting on Oboro Shirakumo's instincts, teleports Aizawa to the place where Oboro died. This, combined with how Monoma reported having copied three Quirks when he touched the villain (and one of them being a cloud-forming Quirk), leads the heroes to figuring out both Kurogiri's identity and All For One's continued existence much earlier.
- Being placed in Class 1-B leads to Bakugo having an explosive confrontation against Izuku in cafeteria and hunting him down through the hallways, which led 1-A bonding closer together than canon.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- 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.
- 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.
- Related in the Adaptation: All For One is Izuku's biological father here.
- Rules Lawyer: In preparation for the Sports Festival, 1-A encourages Iida to be this for them.
- Running Gag: Banjo complaining about the Vetiges 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.
- 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.
- 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. They 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.
