Fanfic / Dead on Arrival (MHA)

World War Three has ended. Japan, though not the worst-off nation from the conflict, suffered badly. Izuku, after being heavily bullied and the loss of his sister to suicide, is practically a zombie wishing to be a superhero as his own form of escapism.

That's when he realises he can be a superhero. Izuku discovers he has a superpower. The Dawn of Quirks has just begun and Izuku can either succeed in helping Japan and the world adapt, or die trying.

Dead on Arrival is a My Hero Academia fanfiction created by Mirrond. It is the third part of the Curious cases of family bonds or lack thereof series. It can also be read on Fanfiction.net here.

As of 7 November 2022, it is completed at 100 chapters and 420,690 words.

For other works by this author, see Cure to Evil, Ties that Bind (MHA), and Exiting the Stage.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• A World Half Full: After World War Three, the entire world is more or less a giant ball of crap with the worst-off nations suffering civil wars and even better-off nations having rampant crime. This does not stop the protagonists from doing their best to change things around, with key successes such as working out the kinks in the fledgling hero system before the Japanese Government officially adopts the system. Validating all the optimists, the best anyone hoped for was metahumans being accepted and Japan and the world only suffering a decade of chaos, but the Metahuman Network's and allies' spectacular victory over the Shie Hassaikai, the first documented supervillain organisation, which was broadcasted live, got people believing they don't have to worry about the chaos and skip straight to stability as soon as possible. The author outright states that Defiant's actions brought about the Age of Heroics thirty years early, and that the supremacist groups of their other fics are functionally nonexistent due to less of a divide between Quirkless and Quirked.
• Abled in the Adaptation: In canon, Dabi suffered from serious injuries from his own Quirk. Here, Overhaul cures him of most of his internal injuries (he specifically requested to keep the aesthetic of his external injuries).
• Achievements in Ignorance: Poland, after discovering Quirks, immediately concluded the larger nations must already have their own labs and super soldiers up and running, and hurried to 'catch up'. By the time they learn they are actually the frontrunners on studying Meta Abilities, they've already created rudimentary Quirk Suppressants and a device to block teleportation.
• Adaptational Badass: The first generation of quirk users are much stronger to combat the power of the almighty gun.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Mina gets kidnapped by a gang and is forced to be their body disposal because of her acid powers for six months before she manages to escape.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Instead of Super Strength, Izuku has Telekinesis that allows him to fly, lift heavy things, create barriers, etc.
• Adaptational Heroism: Being an AU with very different circumstances, some characters are nicer than their original counterparts:
  • Toga Himiko: The meta-abilities started to manifest around two years ago for the second generation, so Toga had to deal with the bloodlust aspect of her quirk for much less time than in canon, making her more stable and wanting to be a hero to redeem herself of the times that she lost control and killed innocent people.
  • Spinner: Instead of being a member of the League of Villains like canon, here, he's a member of the Metahuman Network.
• Adaptational Job Change: The characters of My Hero Academia are transplanted from when the Hero System has been in place for decades to the Dawn of Quirks, long before there was one, so everyone who in canon was a hero had some other job.
  • Aizawa is a mundane (if high-ranking) police officer. Many other characters that are Heroes in canon are also either mundane law enforcement or military.
  • Yagi is a politician.
  • Backdraft is a firefighting chief.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Izuku calls himself Defiant instead of Deku for his code name.
  • Mei calls her quirk Scope instead of Zoom.
  • Ochako calls herself Singularity instead of Uravity. She also calls her quirk Gravity Control instead of Zero Gravity.
  • Kirishima calls himself Gargoyle instead of Red Riot.
  • Kyouka calls herself Earworm instead of Earphone Jack.
  • Shinsou calls his quirk Hypnosis instead of Brainwash.
  • Himiko calls her quirk Blood Transformation instead of Transform.
  • Tomura calls himself Duststorm instead of Decay.
  • Inasa calls himself Tornado instead of Gale Force.
  • Goto Imasuji gets called Carnage by Overhaul instead of Muscular.
  • Momo calls herself Arsenal instead of Creati.
  • Ibara is called Thorn instead of Vine.
  • Hagakure Tooru calls herself Chameleon instead of Invisible Girl.
  • Moonfish is called Impaler in this story.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In canon, there was no indication Yoichi had anything besides average smarts. Here, he's such a genius that he cracked what causes Quirks, and was able to make something that forced Quirks to manifest in the global population.
• Adaptational Wimp: Many characters that had quirks in canon are common people here (the term quirkless yet to be born) including but not limited to: Hawks, Death Arms, Yagi Toshinori, Kurono, Midnight, Present Mic, Recovery Girl, Enji Todoroki, etc.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The villains in this story tend to take much more horrific actions than in canon. And instead of being in a society where Heroes are seen as champions, and All Might as the number One Paragon and Winner above all, this is a post World War III society where crime runs rampant, and the police can barely do their job. As a result, many characters are members of villain groups as opposed to heroes in canon.
  • By not growing up with heroes or All Might to admire, Katsuki is left only with the worst of his personality, to the point where Izuku hates him, his family has disowned him, and other characters are horrified when they learn of his actions to the point of comparing them with war crimes.
  • Burnin (called Blaze and later Firestorm in this story) is a first-generation quirk user, which makes her mentally unstable, and a pyromaniac with no worries for the safety of others.
  • Shirakumo Oboro was a hero student in canon before his death and being turned into a Nomu. Here, he is a willing villain.
  • Togaru Kamakiri, Sei Kaibara, Kashiko Sekigai, Shihai Kuroiro, Hiryu Rin, and Kaminari Denki were hero students in canon. Here, they are part of the Abegawa Tenchu Kai Yakuza.
  • Nedzu is an SSS-Rank Villain working for the Meta Liberation Army as the head of the Meta-Abilities Research Division.
  • Ryuko Tatsuma was a hero in canon. Here, her dragon instincts make her haughty and greedy which leads to her joining Kuroiro's League of Villains after the Gunga Mountain Raid, albeit under some degree of duress since she wanted to be the leader. Also joining the League of Villains after the raid are Yo Shindo, Saiko Intelli, Seiji Shishikura, and Camie Utsushimi.
  • Zigzagged with Hagakure Tooru. She was a hero student in canon. Here, she's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is part of a terrorist organisation that has done very bad things to stop another organisation, including starting World War Three in a genuine belief it was necessary. She later pulls a Heel–Face Turn and becomes a proper hero.
  • Romero Fujimi was a hero student in canon. Here, he joins the Shie Hassaikai Yakuza after the Gunga Mountain Raid.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Due to the altered history, many people have different relationships from canon.
  • In canon, Aizawa is annoyed by Emi constantly pestering him to marry her. Here, they are married and are more or less happy with each other.
  • Tomura hated Overhaul in canon. Here, Tomura is a willing subordinate.
  • Izuku and Yagi don't really have much interaction with one another, while Sasaki and Aizawa are his main contacts and the best help he has.
  • Toga and Shinsou are a couple.
  • Moe Kamiji and Dabi are enemies in canon. Here, they've been lovers since before they got powers.
• Age Lift: Izuku and his classmates are around eighteen years old in this story instead of fifteen.
• All According to Plan: Subverted with the Shizuoka Massacre. The good guys think everything went as Overhaul planned, but a scene change shows him berating his forces not following along his plan correctly.
• The Alleged Boss: Played with. The CEOs belonging to the companies in the Todoroki zaibatsu put the appearance of listening to Enji while running things how they want. Shouto himself says Enji is only the head of everything by inertia.
• Anachronic Order: The Gunga Mountain raid is not shown in chronological order. The beginning is shown, then skips to the aftermath, and the middle is explained by Aizawa to Yagi in the debriefing of the raid.
• And Then What?: Aiko asks Hisashi what he could possibly be planning to do after he escapes when he has no plans or resources left.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Overhaul threatens to go after all of Defiant's loved ones, and even people who only smiled at him, if he continues to oppose him.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Sasaki is minorly offended that a worldwide conspiracy mind-controlling important people did not target him with the mind-controls. It later turns out he was mind-controlled for a time, but All for One needed to release a slot to save another branch of the conspiracy, so Sasaki was released and All for One never reapplied it.
• Ascended Extra: Lots of characters that barely appeared in canon are more central to the story in this fic, including but not limited to Shinso, Overhaul, and Mei.
• Ax-Crazy: Dabi is insanely murderous and wilfully causes a lot of collateral damage to get his targets. Izuku explicitly compares him to Joker of the Batman comics.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Izuku is a superhero nerd and very good at analyzing quirks, which makes him the closest thing to an expert in practical applications of the meta-abilities in this setting. In one notable case, it only takes him a few minutes of footage of Chisaki doing something innocuous for Izuku to correctly deduce that Chisaki has a touch-based superpower.
• Back from the Dead: Overhaul can use his quirk to revive his troops, but only in a timelapse of about 20 minutes after their death, and the person revived has to rest for a while after coming back to life, due to a form of mental stupor they're in.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Hiryu Rin, Miyuki, and Kaminari Denki all worked for the Abegawa Tenchu Kai Yakuza because it was them that helped them out when other people didn't.
• Benevolent Boss: Played with. Overhaul is a decent boss to his subordinates not because he cares about them, but because he knows it is a good way to encourage loyalty.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Hawks does not act like the most professional person, acting very goofy even in serious situations, but he is damn good at his job as a high-ranking and elite police officer.
• Break the Scientist: The story takes place at the Dawn of Quirks, and the discovery of the bullshit they are capable of leaves science-minded people in complete shock at the gross violation of the laws of physics. Mei, herself a metahuman, keeps being surprised at the start of the story, culminating in breaking down crying when witnessing someone teleport.
• Breather Episode: After the absolute shock of the Gunga Mountain Raid and its immediate aftermaths, there were several chapters where some much needed emotional and relationship talks happened that helped the characters and readers alike process the events and recover.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • Sasaki votes to save Firestorm in spite of her being an insane criminal because she is Dabi's girlfriend and if she dies, her already kill-happy boyfriend might go genocidal.
  • A yakuza group is secretly released from the prison in order to prevent Overhaul from taking over their turf. They will become this world's League of Villains.
• Cardboard Prison: Discussed and partially defied by Tartarus. Izuku, Aizawa, Sasaki, and Torino all work together to develop a system that can keep villains in proper containment based on their danger level. Some are however seen as simply impossible to be restrained in the long-term, requiring either specialized containment cells or even causing talks about exiles to uninhabited island or even execution in some cases.
• Casual Kink: Himiko is a sub and loves being hypnotised by Shinsou, but no one makes a big deal out of it.
• Chekhov's Gun: Ochako's backstory and Mei's pregnancy turns out to be the key things that help Izuku recover from the Gunga Mountain Raid clusterfuck and the shock of Bakugou reappearing in his life and murdering his mother.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Mei's disgraced uncle, only mentioned in the early story in the context of why Mei wants Izuku to get himself mistresses she approves of, turns up again after allying himself with Kuroiro's League of Villains, becoming the guy who makes their Support Gear.
• The Chessmaster: Overhaul, Izuku, Aizawa, Sasaki, Destro, Kuroiro, and countless others are all very intelligent and able to plan and understand the logistics and shifts in power that are coming.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 36 ends with Overhaul's forces ambushing the protagonists.
  • Chapter 44 ends with the reveal that Overhaul took control of Shizuoka, slaughtering the local heroes and villains.
  • Chapter 91 ends with Hisashi aka All for One meeting Izuku.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Kuroiro's League of Villains is torturing Overhaul's people to send a message he isn't welcome in his turf.
• Cold Equation: Played positively. Sasaki wants to help everyone he can, but even he has limited resources. So he helps the ones he feels will have the most positive impacts, which contributes to his decision to help Defiant.
• Commonality Connection: Shinsou and Todoroki bond over hating their respective fathers.
• Composite Character: Mirai Sasaki is like his version from canon, except he is also the principal of UA, a Chessmaster, with some slight sadistic tendencies, attributes that come from Nedzu.
• The Consigliere: Hari Kurono is one of Overhaul's most important subordinates in spite of his lack of Meta Ability, being able to see when his boss is making a mistake and advising him against it, and while Overhaul is an excellent strategist, he is merely good at tactics and Kurono is the one who helped with that. His death results in Overhaul's organisation being less effective and is a key factor in his final defeat.
• Content Warnings: Chapters 14 and 39 begin with warnings that the respective chapters contain references to non-con.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Izuku successfully recruiting Ochako, someone who just happens to have construction skills right when his group needed those skills is considered by him and Mei to be so absurdly lucky they seriously consider divine intervention.
  • Overhaul is stunned that the guy that the prospective recruit Bakugou Katsuki wanted to kill, Midoriya Izuku, turns out to be Defiant. In his own thoughts, there were thousands of young adults in Takoba. The odds of the one Katsuki wanting to kill just happening to be Overhaul's archnemesis was low.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When Izuku and Aiko try to convince Hisashi to surrender, Yoichi is able to see that Hisashi actually considered it. This forces him to realize that all the pain he caused to the entire planet in order to defeat Hisashi could have been avoided if he hadn't given up trying to talk Hisashi into stopping what he was doing.
• The Coup: There is an attempted coup against Nana Shimura's government in Chapter 94, but due to various factors, it fails. Izuku suspects the perpetrators were Yoichi's Moderates trying to purge Hisashi's Radicals and their mind-controlled puppets from the government. Chameleon showing up in Shimura's office with a grenade seems to confirm that..
• Covert Distress Code: After learning of Himiko's shapeshifting abilities, Mera implements countermeasures for villain infiltrators that use code phrases. It comes in handy when Duststorm infiltrates his precinct disguised as a police officer. It's not enough to save his life, but it did allow his subordinates and the present heroes to be on high alert before the fighting starts, reducing the number of casualties on their side.
• Dark and Troubled Past: In a post-war world that is about to go through the Dark Age of Quirks, this is expected for everyone.
  • Izuku suffers from a medical condition where torn muscles don't heal properly and his adopted sister died of suicide either due to Bakugo's abuse or to stop him from hurting Izuku anymore. This also affects Inko and Bakugo's parents.
  • Tsuyu was abandoned by her parents following the development of her uncanny features and grew up in the wild. It is later revealed her parents also abandoned her brother and sister.
  • Ochako's is worse than Izuku's by a substantial degree. Deserters from Japan's military turned to banditry while posing as guerrillas. They murdered her parents and their leader captured her and raped her. Then she accidentally killed them all while escaping.
  • Mina's parents were murdered and she was kidnapped by a gang and forced to dispose of material evidence, including bodies, for the gang. This included the bodies of her own parents. Even when she escaped, she still had to walk for miles alone just to find her friend's home.
  • Mustard was tricked by a girl as a part of a campaign of bullying that resulted in him being gang-raped.
  • Rabbit had his body altered by his mother's Quirk to look more girly. Without Eri reverting him to before the biggest changes, he might not live to his forties.
  • Immortal was found in a one-woman organ farm. She's a war orphan whose sole remaining relative put her there.
• Darker and Edgier: This AU is after the third World War., the countries are trying to get back on foot, the law doesn't apply to all the cities because the government and the police just can't maintain order everywhere and has to be selective with their resources. And on top of that, superpowers start to become a reality? As Aizawa said: “What a time to be alive”.
• Dating Catwoman: Tokoyami started dating Aiko, daughter of All for One, before she pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
• Death by Adaptation: Given the darker tone the story takes as a whole, many characters who are alive in canon end up being killed off here.
  • Uraraka's backstory quickly establishes that her parents were killed during the third World War.
  • The Shizuoka Massacre ends with Itsuka Kendou, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Yosetsu Awase, Nagamasa Mora, Togaru Kamakiri, Sei Kaibara, and Kashiko Sekigai as the fatalities from the Shie Hassaikai's attack.
  • Hekiji Tengai is among the Shie Hassaikai members who are tortured to death by the League.
  • Yokumiru Mera is assassinated by Tenko before the Gunga Mountain raid.
  • The Gunga Mountain Raid ends with Spinner, Backdraft, Tensei Iida, Edgeshot, Manual, and Inasa Yoarashi all dying during the battle. Kyudai Garaki is also revealed to have been killed a year before the battle thanks to Nedzu.
  • After a long fight, Inko Midoriya is killed during the aftermath of the Gunga Mountain raid thanks to Katsuki Bakugou, who demanded both her and Izuku's death so he could be recruited into the Shie Hassaikai. Izuku ends up returning the favor to Katsuki, ripping the villain to shreds with his quirk. Chronostasis also dies due to Torino catching him fleeing from the fight between Inko and Katsuki and blowing his head off with a shotgun.
  • Dabi is killed in battle by Shouto at Hosu during the final confrontation with Overhaul.
  • Muscular is killed during the final battle with Overhaul as well.
  • Overhaul dies after his final battle with Defiant.
  • In the epilogue, thirteen years after the establishment of the Hero Association, Ochako dies during a rescue operation. Izuku later dies aged 54 due to heart failure. A few years later, Mei dies in a lab accident. Tsuyu lives to old age and dies aged 98.
• Death Is Cheap: Overhaul's Quirk lets him revive his subordinates if something kills them, which means they are more inclined to risk death for him, knowing he can easily bring them back. Case in point, Dabi unleashes a powerful but suicidal attack that causes a lot of damage and also kills him, but Overhaul is able to revive him in time.
• Delayed Reaction: While the Bakugous are watching the news of Defiant's and Overhaul's battle, Eri tells them that Defiant is Izuku. Mitsuki spends half-a-sentence trying to tell Eri she shouldn't watch the gruesome news before what Eri said sinks in.
• Description Cut:
  • After hearing so many zaibatsu families have heirs that are metahumans, Izuku finds it reassuring that one, the Yotsubashis, are not involved. Cue an immediate scene change where Rikiya Yotsubashi, aka Destro, recruits Koku Hanabata to his faction of metahumans.
  • Izuku thinks Overhaul is ecstatic over his forces wiping out the Shizuoka heroes, police, and his rival Yakuzas. Cue a scene change where Overhaul tells his forces they actually fucked up, badly.^note More of their people died than should've happened during the Massacre, the tactician of the heroes survived, and the Yakuza leader's heir is still around to rally his people if he ever comes back.
• Destroy the Evidence: As the Metahuman Network closes in on him, All for One gives the order to his few remaining subordinates to destroy as much data as possible.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • The Gunga Mountain Raid was a complete clusterfuck because of several reasons. One, there were three SSS-Rank Villains present, a category the Metahuman Network and their allies did not ever think was possible. Two, it turns out Overhaul played them with the "defector" who was actually meant to point them to the Gunga Mountains so that the Metahuman Network bears the risk of attacking an unknown force while Shie Hassaikai gets the spoils. Three, it turns out there is a fourth faction with stakes in the facility who arrived and made things even more chaotic. After Yagi hears all that, he changes his mind about firing Aizawa and instead commends him for how the casualties on his side were surprisingly low in light of all that.
  • All For One repeatedly encounters this: Defiant resisting his Quirk and nearly killing him in the hospital (while revealing he's Yoichi's son), the MLA having thousands of metahumans with abnormal Quirks and the means to hide them from detection, Aiko switching sides at the end of the story...
  • Chameleon didn't expect any of how her conversation with Defiant went, from detecting her following him to him refusing an alliance (despite being Yoichi's child).
• Didn't Think This Through: A recurring problem of the Council, especially the Moderates. Due to not identifying as metahuman, they had no problem staging a nominally anti-metahuman coup to remove All For One's puppets in government, with no regard for how inflaming anti-metahuman sentiment might make the country more unstable. According to the author regarding the backstories of their other fics, this was a big reason why the Dawn of Quirks was so much worse than in this fic: the Moderates didn't realize the government (who were only exposed to unexplainably hostile metahumans from day one) would remain hostile to them even after the mind control was broken.
• Discussed Trope: Some characters discuss and use tropes, usually but not always from the superhero genre, to explain problems, or situations that they are facing now that superpowers, superheroes and supervillains are real. Even the villains.
• Dramatic Irony: Yagi thinks Aizawa is happy to keep getting promotions, but Aizawa hates that more responsibility is heaped on him.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Izuku had an adoptive sister named Ayako that was bullied by Bakugou and the rest of the school so badly she committed suicide.
  • Barely subverted in Ochako's backstory. Her parents were forced to work for Chinese occupiers. JGSDF guerrillas didn't care about the duress part and killed them and took her so that their leader could rape her. She escaped by killed them after her Quirk manifested and found herself in the abandoned home Izuku found her at. She was close to committing suicide before Izuku's arrival in her life gave her hope that things would turn around.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Against all odds, the Metahuman Network and their allies manage to win peace and stability for Japan, an outcome that is better than they ever hoped for, with their best forecasts predicting only Metahuman acceptance and the Metahuman Network having to pull the country out of a complete collapse. But they had to fight tooth and nail and shed blood, sweat, and tears to achieve it, with several friends dying along the way.
• Eldritch Abomination: Musician, the hypothetical entity responsible for the birth of quirks, is most certainly this. Possibly timeless, impossible to locate much less understood, its mere influence (quirks) almost ending the world in the far past and having the power to do it again in the future. It's not even known if it's aware of the existence of Mankind.
• Elite Mooks: Overhaul's Yakuza has the Praetorians. Largely composed of former elite soldiers or police, they are the best of his combat forces that don't have Meta Abilities and are right below those that do have them.
• Exact Words:
  • Early in the story, Izuku tells his mother he got his new laptop from a friend and the reason he's been disappearing a lot is because he is doing community service. That is technically true, while also hiding that Izuku is doing vigilantism and the laptop is part of that.
  • When Yagi gives Izuku the command to not risk his life too much, he asks if the message is clear to Izuku. Izuku replies yes. It is only later that Yagi realises that Izuku only confirmed the message is clear, not that he'll actually follow the command. It stings Yagi to be on the wrong end of it after using it to his advantage so many times during the war.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Nedzu may be an SSS-ranked Villain, but his intelligence allows him to see all the flaws with Hisashi's supposed utopia that he wants to implement, and wants to prevent that from happening.
• Evil Is Petty: Overhaul steals a chair from a news station because he could and he felt like being petty at that moment.
• Evil vs. Evil: Aizawa and his allies hope all the villain factions will fight each other and take each other out. It'd make life so much easier for them.
• Fake Defector: Played with. The informant who defected from the Shie Hassaikai turns out to be a plant by Overhaul, but was hypnotised into believing they were a genuine defector to fool potential Quirks that could test the sincerity of their defection.
• False Flag Operation: Subverted. The Metahuman Network thinks one of Destro's recruitment methods is to have some of his people pose as a government anti-metahuman black ops unit that kidnaps metahumans, and then have different people subsequently free them and offer recruitment into his forces, and after their treatment at the "government's" hands, they'd gladly join. The truth is the Meta Liberation Army are not aware that Nedzu took over the facility. Overhaul and the League help themselves to some of those prisoners during and after the raid.
• Famed In-Story:
  • After Izuku's amazing victory over Chisaki, both Defiant and Overhaul become world-famous, immortalised in history as the First Superhero and First Supervillain. The former even gets a statue at U.A..
  • Tsuyu is the key reason why the rights of Mutants are so strong, and has so many descendants they make up a not insignificant part of Japan's population.
  • Mei is immortalised in history as the first Support Engineer.
• Fantastic Legal Weirdness: Politicians and legal experts in the know realise that with the Dawn of Quirks, several legal questions needs to be asked and answered. What authority should the incoming superheroes be allowed to have? To minimise the risk of villains continuing to be villains, what level of leniency can and should be granted to those wanting to change? What checks can be put in place to prevent the rehab program from being a "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free" card? Should Meta Abilities be registered, and if yes, how should that be organised? What is the extent of legal usage of a meta-ability in the line of duty? What about usage of meta-abilities for commercial and personal use? And so on and so forth.
• Fantastic Science: Izuku and Mei develop the science of Quirk research from the ground-up with their limited resources, and Sasaki Mirai builds on what they found out with his much vaster resources, with one key goal being to find some method of suppression for quirk-using criminals.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • The girl responsible for Mustard's trauma is now imprisoned by him (stated to be limbless thanks to Overhaul's quirk), with Mustard free to do whatever he wants to her. It's never established if the heroes ever find her.
  • Dictator becomes a lab rat for Overhaul after failing a secret test of character.
  • The mad scientist in the mountains (later shown to be Nedzu who killed and replaced Garaki) has also been doing this to others by turning them into Nomus.
• Fictional Geneva Conventions: After Meta Abilities are publicly revealed, the United Nations pass a resolution banning their use in war, though not a lot of people actually followed that.
• Foreshadowing: A lot of things added up to the reveal that Izuku is Yoichi's son and that Izuku has One for All. Izuku has a genetic disorder that makes him weaker, which is exactly what Yoichi has. His Ignition is visually similar to when One for All activates. Inko also describes Izuku as being as heroic as his father, which fits how in canon, All Might describes Yoichi as a heroic figure.
• Gambit Pileup: In a war between multiple chessmasters this can occur in many battles. Especially the Mountain Raid where four factions were involved, all with their own plans, and all of them needing to improvise, making the whole thing a clusterfuck.
• Genre Savvy: A lot of characters (Overhaul, Izuku, Aizawa, chief among all) recognise that they are in the superhero genre now that superpowers are a thing, and try to take full advantage of the relevant tropes to come out ahead.
• Glad He's On Our Side: After being enlightened on just some of the Meta Abilities out there, Governor Yagi is of the firm opinion the government needs Metahumans on their side.
• Godzilla Threshold: Izuku shudders at Aizawa seriously considering sending death squads against villainous metahumans, but admits that if they cannot find a way to actually keep people like Overhaul in jail, sending death squads might in fact be the only viable option of keeping innocents safe.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Metahuman Network and their allies may be idealistic about their goals, but they are also realistic about their ability to meet them. They'd like to save the day with no casualties, even on the enemy's side, but they know that's not feasible and will inflict serious injury or kill their opponents if that results in the best outcome for everyone.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Izuku offers Asa adoption as his brother. Asa happily accepts, having already looked up to him as a big brother figure anyway.
  • Eri is officially adopted by Masaru and Mitsuki to all of their joys.
• Harmless Villain: Compress and his troupe of villains sticking to bloodless robberies, and only against targets that themselves committed a crime or something otherwise unethical, is a breath of fresh air to Izuku who previously had to deal with criminals that are at their best dangerous murderers and at their worst an existential threat to Japan. Compared to that, Compress' activities are downright entertaining for him to read about.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power:
  • Izuku's power consists of only pulling things. He uses it to devastating effect.
  • Inquisitor's Quirk forces people to tell him the truth. It explicitly has little use in combat, but it's true worth is information-gathering, intelligence operations, and counter-intelligence. He's the perfect interrogator, and as long as he knows which questions to ask, can find out anything and everything he wants. He's considered a high-priority target for the Metahuman Network and their allies for this reason in spite of technically being a D-Rank villain.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam:
  • One enlightened individual realises the problem with this trope and the wisdom of the Villain Rehabilitation Program the Metahuman Network has. If one powerful metahuman wants to turn good, you do not reject them, as that more or less guarantees they keep doing dangerous criminal acts with a lot of innocent casualties.
  • Zigzagged with the Moderates. After the mind-control is lifted over the majority of the global governmental, political, scientific, and media elites, most of the Moderates in Japan decide enough is enough and jump ship in exchange for the amnesty Defiant offers, but Hagakure is excluded since her crimes include an attempted assassination on Japan's Prime Minister, and even with Defiant being the Number One Hero of Japan, he can't help her shrug that off. So Hagakure flees Japan for the United States and becomes a Hero there. Izuku for his part is happy to not bring up her history to the US authorities.
• Heroic BSoD: Katsuki murdering Inko leaves Izuku dead to the world after he killed Katsuki in kind. Ochako eventually pulls him out of it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Hisashi screwing around with various women screws him over when one woman gave birth to Asa, and having ignored him for not having a potent Quirk, Asa later becomes a key member of the Metahuman Network and is instrumental in Hisashi's setbacks from the Gunga Mountain Raid.
• Horrifying the Horror: Overhaul is a powerful and ruthless supervillain of a Yakuza boss, and even he gets a little scared of Carnage when the latter smiles his sadistic smile.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Overhaul controls his minions through a combination of being a decent boss who rewards loyalty and competence and a ruthless boss who severely punishes traitors and those who screw up in ways that were avoidable.
• Idiot Ball: Overhaul name-drops the trope when explaining to several of his subordinates that they fucked up the plan to destroy the Shizuoka heroes, police, and his rival Yakuzas badly. Dabi especially is called out for not following Overhaul's plan, especially since he explained the tactical decisions made in the plan clearly, as well as ignoring the priority targets he gave, which resulted in him getting sniped just like he warned, while Kurogiri is called out for getting close to Kuroiro in spite of Overhaul warning him he could enter his mist and turn his own power against him, which almost results in his death.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Takoba Beach is still a dump that Izuku trains at in spite of the story taking place at the Dawn of Quirks instead of much later.
  • Enji is still a terrible father who has been abusive to Shoto by treating him as a tool for his own ends. Only the goal is different.
  • Touya still is presumed dead in a mountain fire, only resurfacing as a pyromaniac named Dabi who wants to destroy his family.
  • Several characters still bear the Hero Names they had in canon in spite of being general law enforcement in this story. Usually as nicknames of some sort.
  • Someone still wonders if Izuku is Yagi's secret lovechild in spite of how they only met a few times.
  • UA is still around and still a prestigious education institution in spite of there being no heroes.
  • Aizawa still calls Izuku "Problem Child" in spite of the fact he is an adult when they first met.
  • Tsuyu still helps Selkie dismantle Innsmouth's smuggling operation. It just happens to be part of a larger campaign against Overhaul's overall operations.
  • Overhaul's defeat still involves his hands getting cut off by his enemy on the road. He just doesn't get to be conscious enough to worry about it.
• Irony: In canon, Overhaul was trying to eradicate Quirks to restore the Yakuza to prominence. Here, he's at the front of trying to make use of metahumans to become bigger than a 'mere' yakuza boss.
• I Told You So: Sorahiko warned that letting the Abegawa Tenchu Kai Yakuza's Villains free to help push back against Overhaul is a bad idea. He gets to pull this card when Kuroiro, the leader, starts torturing and murdering Overhaul's people.
• Insistent Terminology: Knuckleduster calls the vigilante murders committed by him and his companions "permanent discouragement from murdering civilians".
• Internal Reveal:
  • Before the inevitable Reveal Day happens, those not in the know about metahumans are slowly brought into the know on a case-by-case basis.
  • In Chapter 65, Aizawa reveals to Yagi that meta-abilities were not the minor issue he thought they were. He also enlightens him on Tartarus and the Metahuman Network full of heroes that are cooperative with the law that they have in place.
  • In Chapter 73, Izuku finds out Mei is pregnant with his child.
  • In Chapter 78, Yagi reveals everything Aizawa told him about meta-abilities and the fledgling superhero system he helped built to Nana, also telling her her grandson Tenko is a supervillain called Decay.
  • In Chapter 87, Dabi reveals to all of Japan that he is Touya Todoroki, while Amplitude reveals he is Shouto Todoroki.
  • In Chapter 89, Eri reveals to Mitsuki and Masaru that Defiant is Izuku.
• Karma Houdini: By the end of the story, Vantablack and his lovers successfully flee the country to tropical island retirement. The heroes never work out where exactly they went (assuming they looked that hard).
• Lesser of Two Evils: Aizawa and Tsukauchi don't really like that their deal with the Metahuman Network means that they have to deal with a thief and a murderer, even if they are willing to reform, but the alternative is that they are without their help when fighting against supervillains who would never consider reforming themselves.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Several high-ranking police officers, like Hakamada, are completely unaware that the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency has been assassinated and that the National Police Agency is collapsing as a direct result.
  • The secrecy surrounding metahumans is so strong that Kaina (Nagant), who knows about them and is working with them, did not know her own daughter is also a metahuman and is working with a neighboring police branch until they saw each other at a meeting.
• Long Game: Shoto has a long-term plan for defying his father's expectations of making him the heir of the family. He plays along, pretends to be the heir Enji wants, and when his father transfers control to him, he will immediately transfer control to Natsuo. He manages to cut down on that time by publicly becoming a superhero.
• Malicious Slander: Commissioner Oh Koji attempts a smear campaign against Aizawa and Hawks over Hawks resigning from his command to join Aizawa in protest over Koji refusing to do anything about Overhaul's spy somewhere in his forces, claiming Aizawa is incompetent by citing incidents without full context. Mirai Sasaki intervenes so that it backfires spectacularly on Koji by providing the full facts that make Aizawa look good.
• The Masquerade: There is a national government-mandated gag order on anything that might reveal the existence of meta abilities that was implemented during the war. It's finally broken when the 'Golden Baby' story goes public.
• Meaningful Rename: When the Metahuman Network is legitimized and adopted by Nana's government, they rebrand as the Hero Association.
• Meet the In-Laws: Izuku meets Mei's parents for the first time in Chapter 93. Her mother approves of him, but her father doesn't like him and only acquiesces under the combined might of his wife and daughter.
• Meta Origin: Nedzu reveals in Chapter 69 that Yoichi discovered that humanity has always had the genetic adaptations for superpower manifestation, but evolutionary pressures resulted in genetic selection for the suppression of these genetics. The cause of the manifestations in the present is due to him releasing a DNA-altering retrovirus deactivating the Minus-Ultra genes preventing the manifestations. Nedzu explains that this is permanent, and that there are no genetically Quirkless people left. This is also the case for all other fics in the author's series.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Yoichi was able to justify all the horrible things he and his Moderates did to break Hisashi's conspiracy to himself when the casualties were just numbers. Seeing the faces of all who suffered, and the ruins of war, forces him to realise the true horror of what he did.
• Mind-Control Conspiracy: The Council of Twelve, the first group of Quirk Users of the current age, created one to try and bring about world peace. They lost their power after Yoichi started World War Three to break most of their control.
• Mind over Matter: Izuku develops a Telekinetic-type Quirk in his late teens.
• Minor Living Alone: Tsuyu has been living on her own ever since she was a child all the way into adulthood.
• The Mistress: Mei once had an uncle who had a mistress. That in itself was not the issue since in upper-class society, marriages are arranged and having lovers are normal, even to the point of being rather open about them. The issue with Mei's uncle was that he pretended to love his official wife while having secret mistresses and the dishonesty is what caused issues.
• The Mole:
  • Overhaul has a spy in the police forces.
  • Before the final battle, Himiko manages to replace one of Overhaul's praetorians and infiltrate Overhaul's forces.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Mei gets pregnant with Izuku's child, and purposely does not tell him so that he can focus on being a superhero without worrying about the child. He finds out after Gunga Mountain.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Defiant defeating Overhaul by using a powerful punch to slam his head into the ground, followed by Defiant raising his fist in victory on live television is reminiscent of All Might defeating All for One at Kamino.
  • A wielder of One for All in the distant future calls himself All Might and his own chosen successor is Mikumo Akatani, the version of Izuku from the My Hero Academia pilot.
• Naked People Are Funny: Tsuyu initially prefers going around naked due to growing up in the wilderness, much to Izuku's entertaining embarrassment.
• Never My Fault: Bakugou refuses to accept any responsibility for his role in bullying Izuku and driving his sister to suicide.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Izuku being a superhero to save Eri from Overhaul gives Overhaul the idea of becoming a supervillain in turn and recruiting other metahumans to join him as supervillains.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In a twisted way, Overhaul made the Metahuman Network an overall better organisation in his conflicts with them. By opposing him, the Metahuman Network and their allies are able to gain valuable experience, as well as test what works and doesn't before it gets applied more broadly. He also accidentally helped sell the idea of sanctioned superheroes to the public when he demanded a public battle with the Metahuman Network and their allies, got it, and is beaten in an epic way that solidified the positive image of superheroes in Japan and the world.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After learning Bakugou killed his mother, Izuku first destroys his hands, and then repeatedly slams him into the walls, ceiling, and floor until his corpse is in pieces.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Two business heads formerly aligned with Overhaul once tried to betray him. No one knows what happened to them since Overhaul knows not knowing makes it scarier.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Deconstructed by Sasaki when discussing the possibility of a large conspiracy hiding the existence of metahumans. Among other issues, a conspiracy that large simply isn't sustainable. Eventually, someone is going to notice the suspicious money and logistical flows. You'd have to bribe them to not reveal anything, but that results in more things to cover up. Repeat the process and it just gets too big. Sasaki didn't take into account judicious use of mind-control, which is how the Council of Twelve managed to cover up metahuman existence for so long.
• Older Than He Looks: Izuku is eighteen, but looks two years younger.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sasaki Mirai is not the kind of person to use expletives. Him using "fuck" when he sees the power of Dabi's Prominence Burn attack just highlights how devastating it is.
• Parental Substitute: Out of all the teachers and metahuman-student relationships, Kayama and Tsuyu are the closest with Kayama being the one to help Tsuyu on how to live in human society. Kayama decides to make it official by formally adopting Tsuyu. Tsuyu accepts after talking about it with Izuku.
• Parents as People: Stain is not the best father as his daughter Rini would gladly attest to, but at least he can admit he fucked up there and hopes he, his wife Rumi, and Rini could all go to a family therapist together and fix things.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Mei's parents did not quite have a choice in their marriage to each other, but are actually very happy with each other.
• Personality Powers:
  • Justified and Played for Drama. Numerous first-generation quirk users are unstable and destructive due to their quirks influencing them that way compared to the more stable second-generation ones. This has also resulted in several heroes in canon being villains like Burnin, who is a pyromaniac on par with Dabi.
  • Unfortunately for All for One, the first-generation quirks he steals also negatively influence him. Two hundred years after the end of the main story, he is still holding a grudge over being defeated, and Yoichi suspects that is due to the Immortality Quirk he stole being a first generation one that froze his mindset.
• Point of Divergence:
  • Inasa attends UA instead of Shiketsu, which results in him joining Izuku's friend group and hero team.
  • Izuku's actions as Defiant during the Dawn of Quirks results in the future of his world, canon's present, being so much better for everyone except the villains.
• Polyamory:
  • In Chapter 30, Tsuyu officially joins Izuku's and Mei's relationship. In Chapter 73, Ochako joins too.
  • In Chapter 74, Rabbit, Rini, Immortal and Deadshot all enter into a relationship with each other.
  • Kuroiro, Sunako Oboro, and Intelli Saiko are a stable threesome.
  • Aiko, Tokoyami, and Shadow could technically count. She insists within One For All that all the times they've had sex were threesomes.
• Power Incontinence:
  • A common problem for the first generation of meta-humans is that their powers are too powerful for their bodies to handle. Many died when manifesting their abilities for the first time.
  • Aizawa has no idea how to turn off his eye-based meta ability, which results in his eyes getting strained. Getting special glasses from Mei helps him a lot.
• Power Misidentification:
  • After Dark Shadow first manifested, Fumikage thought his voice was just a sign of him being insane without knowing he has a sentient power.
  • Everyone is led to believe Destro has a potent Meta Ability to be an SSS-Rank Supervillain and the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, but in fact, he has no superpower.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Overhaul does not kill subordinates for failures they had no control over. It's bad for morale and highly wasteful of quality minions. He also does not normally execute minions for their first failure since they can learn to do better.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • When Overhaul sends his plant to the police to tell them about the Gunga Mountain facility, he makes sure to hypnotise his plant into believing they are a genuine defector to fool potential Quirk Wielders that could check the sincerity of their defection.
  • Izuku keeping a panic button even when not doing Hero work, turns out to be the correct choice of action when Katsuki tries to murder him after having already killed Inko.
• Punch-Clock Hero: When the Metahuman Network starts to work with the police, they negotiate getting paid for their services to cover living expenses.
• Rape as Backstory: Ochako was raped by guerrillas nominally fighting for Japan but really were deserters who turned to banditry.
• Redemption Rejection: Izuku and Aiko offer Hisashi a chance to surrender, end his mind-control conspiracy, and try to turn a new leaf. Hisashi briefly considers it, but by this point is so sick of losing everything to Yoichi and rejects it.
• Refuge in Audacity: Overhaul literally sent a letter to the police about Imasuji's survival and recruitment into his Yakuza to taunt them. Aizawa is fuming over it but could not do anything about it.
• Required Secondary Powers: Izuku and Mei explicitly explain during their foundational lecture on meta-abilities that they also come with additional adaptations to limit the effects of drawbacks, such as Mina being resistant to her own acid.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Defied. If one of Overhaul's Yakuza wants to leave, he will let them leave without a fuss instead of forcing them to stay where resentment and disloyalty may grow. The only condition is that they cannot provide information on him or his operations to his enemies.
• Retired Monster: Kuroiro, Sunako, and Saiko retire from villainy, faking their deaths in the process, during the epilogue.
• Secret Identity: The heroes in Musutafu keep their identities secret from the police and rescue services more for security reasons than anything else. But with their teachers, it would be impractical so that is not an option in UA.
• Shared Family Quirks: The cousins Izuku and Asa are both nervous wrecks who managed to attract several girls willing to share them. After Izuku learns they're cousins, he could see the strong similarities.
• Shoot the Dog:
  • The good guys imprisoning villainous metahumans at the secret detention facility they call Tartarus without trial under less than ideal circumstances for the prisoners is explicitly stated by themselves to be unconstitutional, but since the alternatives are either letting them run rampant or executing them without trial, the police and heroic metahumans settle on that as a short-term moral compromise until fairer methods of incarceration that actually work can be implemented.
  • Because of Dabi's sheer power and disposition, Aizawa gives the order that if he is engaged where there are civilians, the police and Metahuman Network are to fight to kill. Izuku reluctantly agrees as apprehending him is not as important as civilian lives. This principle extends to other dangerous Villains and even non-superpowered criminals. If they're that dangerous, superpowers or not, fight to kill. Things in Japan are bad enough anyway that the public won't care as long as they aren't blatant about it. Rabbit strongly suspects Aizawa told Sorahiko to execute Overhaul when he is delivered to Tartarus as he is too dangerous to contain properly before trial, and his Quirk is too powerful to risk falling into All for One's hands.
  • Izuku thinks Sasaki grooming him into the Number One Hero of Japan without talking to him about it is of questionable morality, but given how desperately Japan needs hope and his own state of being, understands where he is coming from.
  • Aizawa gives the directive to Izuku that any SSS-Rank Villains are kill-on-sight where possible. The threat a villain of that calibre poses to Japan is too high to risk the country's safety by merely imprisoning them.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mei paraphrases Nick's line when she tells her parents that she recognises that they made a decision regarding meta-abilities, but since it's a stupid ass decision, she elected to ignore it.
  • Mei asks Izuku "What'cha doing?", which Izuku recognises is her referencing Phineas and Ferb.
  • Chapter 69 references Riddler and Joker from The Batman (2022) and Syndrome from The Incredibles.
• Sidekick: The heroes that are not supposed to fight villains are categorized as this. They are also the ones who contribute the most to the day-to-day operations of the police and rescue services, while superheroes are typically deployed only during larger engagements involving supervillains.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Sasaki asks Chiyo about recreating Yoichi's research into the Quirk-related genes since reverse-engineering it should theoretically be possible, but Chiyo says that it simply isn't possible without accurate DNA-records from before Yoichi unleashed his creation that permanently deactivated the Minus-Ultra genes, and the accuracy of those records are in doubt since all the world's governments made them state-secrets out of fear their enemies would create bio-weapons targeting specific ethnic groups, and the Council of Twelve would in all likelihood tamper with them.
• Single-Target Sexuality: By Mei's own words in Chapter 73, she was not interested in anyone until she met Izuku.
• Slave to PR:
  • One thing the Metahuman Network and their allies take into strong consideration is how the public will react to the revelation that there are people with superpowers, which directly impacts the well-being of the superhumans. Making sure there is as positive an image as possible affects several decisions they make.
  • When Prime Minister Nana Shimura reveals the existence of Metahumans, she pretends her government knew about it and was working on the issue all along since the last thing anyone needs is the government collapsing due to lack of faith in it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Bakugou Katsuki does not actually appear in the majority of the story, only a few chapters at most (and all as flashbacks), but his bullying is what made Izuku the wreck he is in the beginning, and Izuku recovering from that, helping so many others in the process, helped make him and his Metahuman Network the great institution it is by the end of the story.
• Sore Loser: Hisashi does not take his defeat during the Dawn of Quirks well, keeping the fight up against One for All wielders for two whole centuries. Izuku is actually impressed by Hisashi's ability to hold on to his grudge. Yoichi for his part suspects the immortality Quirk Hisashi stole had the negative side-effect of freezing his mindset.
• Spit Take: Defied. Shino makes sure to swallow her coffee before Mei says something shocking specifically to avoid this trope.
• Spotting the Thread: Izuku realises Commissioner General Haru Toyoda, nicknamed Thunderbolt, must have known about metahumans since he did not panic and fought more or less rationally against an invisible assassin.
• Squishy Wizard: Some characters are very powerful, versatile, and capable of killing at a distance with little effort, but they are still very vulnerable up close, to bullets, or both.
  • Izuku with his Telekinesis is an absolute powerhouse, but his genetic disorder makes him very weak physically speaking.
  • Overhaul can do anything to anybody and anything he touches, but a good shot to the head would be enough to kill him (a fact that makes him typically act as a backseat commander). And Izuku's Telekinesis is a perfect counter to him.
  • Momo only had her quirk for less than two years, so she doesn’t have the years of experience and knowledge that she has in canon, nor the training to use any of the weapons that she could create, and less training and practice in general than that a police officer. Izuku would not put her on the frontlines, not even by a long shot.
• Starter Villain Stays: Overhaul is the first true villain Izuku faces, and he continues to be a menace throughout the story until his final defeat that gets broadcasted to the world.
• Super-Intelligence: Chiyo thinks Yoichi has to be a genius beyond compare as she can't fathom how else he is able to discover the Minus-Ultra genes, which part of the genetic code is responsible for said genes, and create something that permanently deactivates the Minus-Ultra genes in the entire global population.
• Super Mob Boss: Overhaul is one in canon, but here, it has to be reiterated since he is a prominent long-term antagonist as the leader of the Shie Hassaikai Yazuka and is the primary threat Izuku has been working against.
• Super Registration Act: Aizawa supports the creation of a registry of all Metahumans with their Meta Abilities listed on it, and to make it palatable to the Metahumans, the registry should, at least in the beginning, be maintained by the Metahuman Network.
• Super Soldiers: Overhaul has been trying to create them by studying body parts imported from China. Unfortunately, he succeeded and improved several of his subordinates that way.
  Yagi: You're telling me that the head of the local crime organization in MY prefecture was and IS producing literal, goddamn supersoldiers?
• Superior Successor:
  • The first users of meta-abilities started to appear about twenty years ago, but their abilities were either weak or powerful but unstable sometimes to the level of becoming self-destructive and influencing their users mentally (the so-called first-generation metahumans of the latter group are as a result typically villains). The second generation started to manifest their abilities about two years ago, are usually between seventeen and nineteen years old, and their abilities are neither unstable nor self-destructive, some are weak but they are a minority. In nearly every category except power, and even then not by much, the second-generation meta-ability users are superior.
  • ALL metahuman organizations established in this story prove superior the The Moderates and Radicals. While the Council remnants are mainly older and have had more time to train their powers, they tend to see their meta-abilities as just tools installed in their bodies and are used to the simple and straightforward manifestations they have. All newer organizations (Hero Association, MLA, even the League and Overhaul's forces) have much more versatile powers they treat as an extension of themselves, giving them an advantage. They also are FAR better at considering the long-term effects of their actions, unlike the Council members (who are either focused on maintaining the status quo or breaking it without thinking of how to make it better later).
• The Team: How Izuku initially starts out by gaining allies and forming The Network. Initially he has Mei as Mission Control and then recruits Tsuyu, Ochako, Kirishima, and Mina. He also parties up with Jirou, Eclipse (Mieko), Hitoshi, and Toga later on to help build the base. Later additions include Momo, Shoto, Inasa, Reiko, Rabbit, and many others.
• Tears of Joy: When Izuku reunites with his long-dead sister in One for All, he cries happy tears while hugging her.
• Their First Time:
  • Mei and Izuku have sex for the first time in Chapter 10.
  • Tsuyu and Izuku have sex for the first time in Chapter 30.
• There Is a God!: Izuku seriously considers the possibility of a god helping him out and Mei considers going to church when Izuku recruits someone who just happens to have the construction skills they needed.
• This Means War!: Overhaul, having decided to settle his feud with Defiant and the Metahuman Network once and for all, makes several large-scale terrorist attacks and issues an open declaration of war against them and their allies in Chapter 86, prompting them to answer in kind.
• Title Drop: Played for maximum drama in Chapter 72, when paramedics pronounce Inko Midoriya Dead on Arrival.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed; Izuku and the heroes don't want to kill — after all, they are just eighteen years old — but they know that is gonna be necessary sooner or later. And for some of the villains, death might simply be the only option.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Sasaki tells Izuku about a potential cure to the Hayes-Wilczak Syndrome he inherited from Yoichi that he invested in to help Izuku.
• Underestimating Badassery: The Council/Radicals and Moderates (likely due to previously being the only quirk organizations in the world) repeatedly underestimate both the Hero Network and its allies as well as the Meta Liberation Army, from All for One constantly losing men to them (ESPECIALLY at Deika Valley) to Hagakure being surprised Izuku could detect her.
• The Unmasqued World:
  • The worlds' governments officially announce the existence of Meta Abilities to their citizens in Chapters 83 and 84.
  • Overhaul forces the reveal of Supervillains and Superheroes in Chapter 86 by launching multiple terrorist attacks, taking over a news broadcast station, and revealing everything on live television.
• Villain Respect: Overhaul hates Defiant but sincerely respects him as an adversary because, like Overhaul, Defiant had a vision of the future he worked hard towards. It just so happens to be that their visions are diametrically opposed.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Yoichi Shigaraki, One For All's first Holder, was this to the same - if not greater - degree than his brother, allowing the latter to take over the world through mind control of its leaders, before deciding that it leads to nowhere. His reaction to that and his brother's refusal to see reason? Causing the Dawn of Quirks (despite the risk of it resulting in the Quirk Singularity destroying the world centuries in the future), and causing World War III - with a death toll measurable in millions directly from the war, and more deaths happening due to the aftereffects of the war - to break All for One's tight control over the world.
• Why Won't You Die?: Overhaul yells "WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!" when he sees Defiant survived his trump card.
• Will They or Won't They?: Defied. When Mei realises she likes Izuku, she decides that going through the phase where both parties awkwardly dance around each other on their feelings is a waste of time and confesses to him as soon as possible.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Endemic among First-Generation Quirk Users is that if they have a powerful Quirk, they also tend to be complete nutcases. Dabi and Firestorm are both first-generation, and they're gleeful arsonists. Carnage is another first-generation, and he's a vicious murderer who kills because he can. Even Overhaul, who is relatively stable, is a complete sociopath with no qualms about committing mass murders and other atrocities.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 63 reveals that there are Nomu even during the Dawn of Quirks.
  • The chapters where Nedzu reveals the origin of quirks, the government conspiracy, that Yoichi was Izuku's father, and that Inko gave him One For All (Ignition). The author also mentions how these events (the Midoriya's presence notwithstanding) are actually the backstory to his other stories.
• Wham Line: In Chapter 28, Mei (rather casually) drops a shocking line to start confessing her secret activities to her parents. "I'm pregnant".
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Izuku gives a small one to the Network members eavesdropping on Asa and Rini's Relationship Upgrade, stating that's not how heroes are supposed to act.
  • Izuku is furious with the Moderates for their attempted coup against Nana's government to purge Hisashi's puppets. He was already mad at them for starting World War Three to defeat Hisashi, but since he could not know the extent of the threat Hisashi's conspiracy posed to the world, he could not say if that was the right call or not. However, launching the coup, and inflaming anti-Metahuman sentiment as a part of it, is nothing but a net loss to anyone on the side of good, and he tells Hagakure who is one of them as much.
• Wild Child: Tsuyu was abandoned by their parents because of her appearance when she was five years old and survived in the wild on her own in Takoba river with practically no human contact, so she doesn't understand social cues, and it takes her a while to accept wearing clothes.
• World of Technicolor Hair: It is quite explicit that new natural hair colours develop as a result of Quirks due to Izuku's hair turning green after he develops his Quirk.
• You're Not My Father:
  • Kurogiri's daughter hates him for not being ambitious and actively works with her boyfriend to nearly kill him if not for Overhaul.
  • As far as Paladin is concerned, his mother Purity is just a stranger who happens to be a monster that needs to face punishment for her crimes. No more, no less.

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