Fanfic / Peace's Apprentice

Izuku didn't impress Eraserhead in the test, because Eraserhead decided to expel Izuku before the test even began. How will Izuku's absence affect the events of canon?

Peace's Apprentice is a My Hero Academia fanfiction written by Jk1013 that takes a far more cynical approach than canon due to taking Aizawa's initial characterization and flaws and running with them. This leads to multiple butterfly effects occurring that affect everyone involved.

It can be read here on Archive of Our Own.

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This fanfic contains the following tropes...

• Accidental Murder: During the assault on the USJ, Bakugou and Kaminari collectively kill over two dozen people by accident. Bakugou's gauntlets were altered to collect three times the amount of nitroglycerin they were supposed to, so his blast killed all the villains in the immediate vicinity as well as one of his classmates. Kaminari was dropped in the flood zone and became so anxious over what he should do and what Aizawa might do to him in response that he shocked out, killing all the villains in the water with him.
• Accusation Fic: The story takes great pains to call out Aizawa as a horrible teacher.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Following Izuku's expulsion, he, All Might, and Gran Torino head to I-Island to visit David and Melissa to help him train.
  • Pro Heroes such as Miruko, Edgeshot, and Sir Nighteye also appear to take part in his training regiment.
  • Kizuki Chitose aka Curious has written an article that slanders Yuuei for the USJ Attack.
  • Himiko Toga and Twice appear in the end of Chapter 14.
• Adaptational Heroism: Himiko Toga and Twice are handed over to All Might's custody for rehabilitation rather than joining the League of Villains.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the original series, Manual was completely clueless over Tenya's true intentions with interning under him. In the story, he points out that he's fully aware of Tenya's desire for taking revenge against Stain while also reminding him that heroes don't have the actual authority to arrest or punish villains no matter what sins they've committed.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Aizawa takes this almost to the point of Adaptational Villainy, as his less-than-stellar traits as a teacher are heavily emphasized and exaggerated. Canon has him using expulsion as a scare tactic, with students getting re-enrolled after having some time to think; here, he brazenly abuses his authority in order to make room for his apprentice. His canon thoughts about Shinsou are also the opposite of what they are here, as he recognizes that Shinsou's lack of hand-to-hand capability is a clear weakness and personally trains him in combat before allowing him to get involved with the hero course, while here he jumps the gun on the basis of Shinsou's quirk and allows him in despite his inability to defend himself without his quirk.
  • Shinsou taunts people in canon, but mostly as a combat tactic to get them to respond to him so he can activate his quirk. In this fic, he antagonizes everyone around him seemingly just because he knows he'll get away with it, such as using his Quirk to humiliate Momo for his own amusement.
• Adaptational Modesty:
  • Toru's costume actually includes a bodysuit made from her hair (much like Mirio's suit in canon). Apparently, it was at the suggestion of U.A. as her original suggestion of just gloves and boots was illegal. She just likes messing with people by claiming she's naked.
  • After learning about the disappointing design for her costume, and wanting to repay Momo for her kindness, Izuku gets in touch with Melissa Shield to make the Everything Hero a cooler and more modest costume.
• Adaptation Name Change: Half of Izuku's would-be classmates change their hero names from canon, some also adding additional titles that were previously not present:
  • Aoyama goes from "Shining Hero: Can't Stop Twinkling" to "Sparkling Hero: Supernova".
  • Ashido goes from "Pinky" to "Acidic Hero: Queen".
  • Jirou goes from "Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack" to "Acoustics Hero: Beat Wave".
  • Ojiro goes from "Martial Arts Hero: Tailman" to "Sun Wukong", with the same title.
  • Sato goes from "Sweets Hero: Sugarman" to "Sugar Rush", with the same title.
  • Hagakure goes from "Stealth Hero: Invisible Girl" to "Wraith", with the same title.
  • Todoroki goes from "Shoto" to "Climate Hero: Ice Age".
  • Uraraka adds "Floating Hero" as a title to her pre-existing name.
  • Yaoyorozu goes from "Everything Hero: Creati" to "Creation Hero: Pandora".
  • Bakugou goes from "Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight" to "Explosive Hero: Dynamight".
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Izuku doesn't get the chance to form the same relationships with the class of 1-A. He keeps in touch with Momo and Uraraka and, through them, gets to know their friends Tsuyu, Ashido, Jirou, and Hagakure, but that's about it so far.
• All for Nothing: Aizawa expels Izuku without just cause to make room for Shinsou since all the slots in the Hero Course are taken. Mere days after, the USJ attack kills one student and traumatizes another so badly he drops out, meaning there's plenty of room in the course. Unfortunately, Izuku being totally expelled rather than transferred to another course means they can't just put him back now that there's room again. Worse, Shinsou being present at the USJ leaves him badly injured and unable to use his Quirk, so he drops out too, and Aizawa ensures his own firing when he attempts to browbeat Shinsou into undoing his decision. Aizawa wrecked Izuku's hard-earned U.A. career and his own professional career for nothing.
• An Arm and a Leg: Mina manages to burn off a Nomu's arm using her Acid Quirk.
• Apathetic Teacher: Aizawa, with shades of Sadist Teacher. He's so unsupportive, quick to threaten, and unconcerned with giving his students reliable direction to learn from that by the time of the USJ, they can't tell a real villain attack from one of his tests. As a result, they suffer from anxiety and indecision at critical moments because they fear Aizawa will ruin their U.A. careers if they can't somehow read his mind and predict what he wants them to do. The only student whose education he's invested in is Shinsou, and even then it turns out that he's not all that interested in Shinsou's well-being as a person, only in validating the time and effort he's put into grooming him as his protégé at the rest of his class's expense. It is all deconstructed as his lack of due care and diligence towards his students makes it incredibly easy for outside influences such as Detnerat to affect his students without oversight.
• Artistic License – Education: The story is kicked off by one teacher arbitrarily and unilaterally expelling Izuku before he even sets foot in a classroom, with no avenue for argument or appeal. The principal of the school is unable to do anything about it because of the teacher's employment contract despite the teacher in question acting in nakedly and provably bad faith, abusing the trust granted to him to give his own favored disciple a leg up at Izuku's direct expense.
• Asshole Victim: Subverted. Momo notes that while Shinsou has been a needlessly antagonistic jerkass up to this point, he doesn't deserve getting his throat burned in a villain attack.
• The Atoner:
  • After the USJ incident, Aizawa realizes his own failures and agrees to keep an eye on Iida, who has gone Revenge Before Reason thanks to Stain, as a way to make amends.
  • The same applies to Bakugou who wants to make amends to Izuku for his decade of bullying along with recognizing the destructive capabilities of his Quirk.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Aizawa wanted All Might out of U.A., seeing him as unfit to be a teacher. Once the man resigns, Aizawa finds himself saddled with all of his classes.
  • Shinsou did not want to be a hero with a "villainous" Quirk. He gets his wish by being rendered functionally Quirkless in the USJ attack and resigns from the Hero course. He's also noted to have believed in his childhood that it would be better not to have a Quirk at all than to have Brainwashing, only to face the prospect of living the rest of his life functionally Quirkless and immediately want his Quirk back.
• Blaming the Victim: True to his favoritism, Aizawa chews out Momo for "antagonizing" Shinsou into using his Quirk on her without caring that he just brainwashed her for the sake of humiliation.
• Blatant Lies: Aizawa justifies expelling Izuku to the class by stating "I’m here to teach people who already know their Quirk and its capabilities and how to use it in heroics. I’m not a Quirk counselor, and I am not teaching a student who has no clue what he’s doing." In the very next section, All Might internally notes that yes, Aizawa and, in fact, all of the teachers are licensed Quirk counselors, precisely because that is supposed to be part of their job.
• Break the Haughty: Following the USJ incident and the deaths of Mineta and a dozen villains by his hands, Katsuki realizes how dangerous his Quirk truly is, resulting in him seriously evaluating himself and his future. He even declares that he has a new dream of becoming a hero that All Might can be proud of, rather than simply aiming to be stronger and usurp his idol's glory.
• Broken Pedestal: Many people used to hold Eraserhead in high regard. That changed with Eraserhead abusing his authority to expel Izuku from U.A. without even giving him an actual chance. Izuku himself used to admire him but he turned out to be just another teacher who had it out for him for reasons beyond his control. Tsukauchi also lost his faith in him.
• Brought Down to Normal: Shinsou's throat is severely burned in the USJ attack, rendering him mute and functionally quirkless.
• Career-Ending Injury: Shinsou suffers burns to his throat that mean he might never really speak again, rendering him functionally Quirkless. In the aftermath, he chooses to leave the Hero Course.
• Cassandra Truth: The press announced that All Might was not working at U.A. but the League of Villains don't believe them (due to having credible but outdated intel) until they attack and realize All Might really isn't there.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Aizawa unfairly expelled Midoriya Izuku from the Hero Course to free up a place in the course for his personal protégé, Shinsou Hitoshi. This decision causes Nezu to immediately revoke Aizawa's ability to expel students, destroys his students' ability to trust he'll support them in a crisis, and puts Shinsou and the rest of 1-A in the path of the USJ attack without Izuku or All Might. The result is the end of his career as a teacher and the end of his protégé's career as a hero student.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 6 ends with a news announcement about the USJ attack confirming that there are multiple deceased.
• Control Freak: Sir Nighteye makes no effort whatsoever to hide his dislike of Izuku, resenting the fact that Toshinori dared to choose his own apprentice rather than following his "strong recommendation" of Togata.
• Cool Teacher: In contrast to the nightmare that was Shouta Aizawa, Midnight becomes Class 1-A's new teacher after his dismissal and is proven to be more kinder, reliable, and sensible. She even protects the kids when the other students try to antagonize them before the Sports Festival.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: Much like Aizawa, Sir Nighteye has a grossly inflated sense of his own importance and judgment, deeming himself to be smarter and "more logical" than Toshinori and thusly better qualified to choose All Might's successor. He is immediately biased against Izuku and makes no effort to hide it, and is stunned when this turns out to have consequences. However, where Nighteye is different is that he actually teaches Izuku things he needs to know, making him a step up from Aizawa who quite blatantly had no intention of putting in the effort.
• Crying Wolf: When the League of Villains appear at the USJ, Aizawa's senseless mind games mean that the students don't know whether to believe his claims that they're actual villains and fear that if they make the wrong choice, he'll expel them. It takes the Nomu showing up for Momo to realize that Aizawa is telling the truth.
• Culture Clash: The Japanese Izuku has a brief moment of culture clash when he first meets the American Melissa Shield and is taken aback when she immediately refers to him by his given name. Doing so has much greater connotations of close friendship in Japan than it does in the United States.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Thirteen, Mineta, and 26 villains die in the USJ attack.
  • Aizawa dies during the Hosu Incident, killed by one of the Nomus.
  • Native has his throat slit by Stain.
• Death Equals Redemption: Fatally wounded by the Nomu and aware there's nothing more he himself can do, Aizawa asks the person who finds him—Izuku—to go save Tenya. Upon Izuku's promise, Aizawa's last words are an apology to Izuku, and the name "Oboro." He then dies. Izuku covers his body as a sign of respect and leaves to keep his promise.
• Declaration of Protection: After hearing how his former student Iida is about to get himself entangled with the Hero Killer Stain, Aizawa promises Midnight that he'll do everything in his power to keep the boy safe from his suicide mission.
• Deconstruction Fic: Has its own page.
• Didn't See That Coming: Aizawa is blindsided by three things simultaneously: A) All Might is leaving the staff, B) All Might is Izuku's mentor, meaning C) Aizawa now has to teach All Might's would-be classes.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: During the events of USJ, Shinsou suffers permanent damage to his vocal cords and it's stated that the damage is severe enough that Shinsou decides to drop out of the Hero Course due to him risking even worse damage if he tries to use it again.
• Double Standard: Aizawa supposedly values many traits in his students that his clear favorite, Shinsou, lacks, such as good fighting form and not being overly reliant on one's Quirk. He also criticizes and enforces rules on the other children but not Shinsou, and blames and scolds the rest of 1-A for not getting along with Shinsou when Shinsou freely uses his Quirk on them and insults them without instigation.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • When Nezu says that Aizawa's decision to expel Izuku will have "disastrous" consequences for U.A., he's likely thinking about the PR disaster of expelling All Might's apprentice. Only the audience knows that 1-A is heading for the USJ attack with its trust in the teacher tasked with guiding them nonexistent and without Izuku or All Might.
  • Because of what he did to Izuku for little to no reason, the entirety of 1-A walks on eggshells around Aizawa, fearing he'll expel them at any time for anything they do that displeases him. This seriously messes with their ability to function in the USJ attack. What they don't know is that because of what he did to Izuku, Nezu took away his ability to expel students, meaning he couldn't get rid of them if he wanted to. Justified, as it's implied from his comments about finding a way around this that he kept them in the dark about this development. Nezu's later scolding him confirms that Aizawa did indeed refrain from mentioning the change so he could continue ruling them through fear.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • When Nezu reveals that Aizawa unknowingly signed off on a version of Bakugou's gauntlets that had been deliberately altered to make them much more dangerous, Aizawa openly admits that he never reads the student paperwork, claiming that it's to teach his students to regret their own choices. The fact that this makes him responsible for the deaths caused by Bakugou's explosion, which included one of his students, is completely lost upon him.
  • Similarly, when Nezu explains to him that Shinsou chose to transfer out of the Hero Course after his Career-Ending Injury, Aizawa's takeaway is that he needs to 'fix this' by threatening Shinsou into changing his mind.
  • An overarching theme of the story is that Aizawa's teaching philosophy misses the whole point of a school: to give students the opportunity of a structured, relatively safe environment to succeed or fail as they learn, because everyone develops different skills at different rates and failure when learning is inevitable. From the point they passed the Entrance exam, these students were deemed to have enough potential for U.A.'s Heroics coursework. If any failure, even those prior to any training, can disqualify a student from the school if the teacher so chooses, and subsequent failures are not met with adequate instruction as to how to avoid future failures, then there is no point in the course's existence, because you're effectively asking your students to come in already trained and punishing them if they aren't.
• Dwindling Party: Aizawa's poor classroom management has cost 1-A a number of students: Izuku (unfairly expelled), Mineta (dead), Kaminari (transferred), and Shinsou (transferred). Word of God implies this will continue.
• Everyone Has Standards: Bakugo, for all his aggressiveness, is highly shaken up with his Accidental Murder during the USJ as he never intended to do that at all, and is stunned to learn that the design of his gauntlets was altered without his knowledge.
• Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: Due to sheer exhaustion from doing the work of four teachers due to one resigning, one dying and one being fired, Midnight completely misses that Tenya plans to confront Stain in Hosu.
• Failed a Spot Check: Midnight misses that all of Iida's chosen internships have a route in Hosu due to pure exhaustion until it is too late.
• Fame Through Infamy: Even though Shigaraki is outraged over Stain's holier-than-you personality along with his refusal to join his rankings, Giran convinces him to let him be as the Hero Killer's murder spree will inevitably lead to Hero Society associating him with their League. This not only will tarnish Stain's "moralistic" crusade but will also inspire potential villains and scoundrels to join the League.
• First-Name Basis: Downplayed. Izuku is allowed to call All Might "Toshinori-sensei" after his expulsion from U.A. followed by the hero sticking by him.
• Foreshadowing: After hearing Jirou's story about her mother's cult, Ochako comments that stalker fans are the absolute worst. Izuku would deal with his own stalker-fan (Himiko Toga) in the climax of Chapter 14.
• Hero Insurance: Discussed between Izuku and Mt. Lady. The latter reveals that the Hero Commission helps to cover major property damages done during public hero fights. Mt. Lady even mentions that they provide her with twenty million yen on a regular basis.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: U.A. as a hero institution is under heavy fire as a result of Aizawa's direct and indirect actions. Him creating a culture of fear led to the USJ incident becoming a disaster and U.A. is criticised for trying to hold the Sports Festival anyway. It also comes out that All Might was supposed to teach at U.A. only for him to leave in solidarity with Izuku over his unjust expulsion, and the fact that U.A. allowed that unjust expulsion to begin with is disastrous for their already bad PR.
• Heroic BSoD: Bakugo is left completely unresponsive for two hours after the attack on the USJ due to accidentally killing a dozen villains and one of his classmates.
• Hold the Line: Before Izuku rushes off to fend off the attacking Nomu, he assigns Himiko and Twice to protect the civilians on the train and use their Quirks however they can.
• How We Got Here: Chapter 7 begins with Momo in the aftermath of the USJ attack, and the next two chapters explain how things got to this point.
• Hypocrite: For all he pretends to be a champion of logic and rationality, Aizawa's arbitrary standards (the application of which vary from person to person) make him come off as highly irrational to everyone around him. This is made worse by the fact that it's implied he thinks very highly of himself and his "logic" and sees nothing wrong with his decision to kick Izuku out, having yet to express a shred of regret. Everyone else who learns of Aizawa's actions either sees it as a sign that Aizawa is deeply untrustworthy or immediately concludes that Aizawa's actions will bring about "disastrous" consequences for U.A.
• Instant Home Delivery: In chapter 6, Izuku asks Momo hair for a DNA-based costume redesign, which he keeps a secret as it is intended to be a surprise gift. Despite his expectance for it to show up the next day, or the day after, a package with the hair arrives around an hour after her haircut.
• I Warned You: Right before expelling Izuku, Aizawa declares that he warned him that he couldn't become a hero with a self-destructive Quirk.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Shinsou, of course, to the entirety of 1-A. It doesn't go well for him.
• Insane Troll Logic: Aizawa's sole reason for why he didn't know that the design for Bakugo's gauntlets was modified is that he deliberately doesn't read his students' paperwork so they'll "learn in the field". The fact that the modifications weren't actually made by Bakugou and it wouldn't be fair to force him to take responsibility for someone else's error is lost on him, to say nothing of the fact that the modifications could (and do) result in someone getting killed when the equipment doesn't function as intended.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In Chapter 15, Class 1-A, and all of U.A., learn that All Might was supposed to teach at their school but quit because of Izuku's expulsion.
  • In the same chapter, All For One figures out that Izuku was chosen as All Might's successor.
• Ironic Echo: When expelling Izuku, Aizawa tells him to "get the hell out of this school." When firing Aizawa, Nezu returns the phrase, only switching out "this" with "my".
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Deconstructed. Regardless of his background or Quirk, Shinsou's biggest problem is actually that he assumes everyone will be mean to him because of his Quirk, and thus acts with preemptive hostility and incites all of the negative feelings and alienation he faces in 1-A. In something of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, he makes himself the bad guy in all of his interpersonal conflicts.
• Jerkass Has a Point: After Izuku reviews Himiko's case along with the grim implications behind her Dark and Troubled Past, Nighteye softly reminds him that he won't have the luxury of reviewing less-than-horrific cases given his upcoming role as the Number One Hero's apprentice which means he'll be expected to take on cases that his master reviews on a regular basis.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Giran uses his memory-wiping Quirk on Mina after his first attempt to abduct her in public fails.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Shinsou being a jerk to his classmates even during the USJ attack results in a villain breaking free from his brainwashing and giving him severe electrical burns on his throat. Shinsou is rendered functionally Quirkless as a result.
  • Aizawa unfairly kicking Izuku out despite Izuku earning his place means All Might leaves as well and Nezu dumps responsibility for All Might's classes onto Aizawa. Further, Aizawa's actions put him under intense scrutiny by Nezu. Meanwhile, Izuku not only gets a more personalized and supportive education as an apprentice but is spared from going through the hardship of the USJ attack, which ends up going significantly worse for 1-A than it did in canon.
  • Aizawa put in as little effort as possible in teaching and is fired from U.A. after four major failures of his responsibilities (Izuku's unwarranted expulsion, the inability of his students to trust him at the USJ, Aizawa's signing off on Bakugou's lethal grenades without checking if they would be safe, and his attempt to coerce Shinsou back into the Hero Course). Having begun a more thorough oversight of Aizawa's teaching, however, Nezu notes that action wasn't taken soon enough to help any of the former students whose lives Aizawa had negatively impacted.
  • The story begins with Aizawa trying to end Izuku's dream career by asserting that he doesn't have what it takes to be a true hero. In Chapter 17, Aizawa's hero career, and life, is cut short by a Nomu and his last moments are seeing Izuku fighting back as an official hero.
• Last Request: Before dying by the hands of a Nomu, Aizawa begs Izuku, the boy he tossed aside because of his own biases, to protect Tenya before he fall prey to Stain.
• Meaningful Rename: Realizing how careless he was with his Explosion Quirk along with seeing his former target rise up as a new hero hopeful, Bakugou makes an effort to call Izuku by his first name instead of the insidious nickname as a way of making amends. Likewise, Izuku is now calling him Katsuki instead of "Kacchan".
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Played with. The minor subject that inspires the investigation isn't a crime, but a secret: Izuku decides one early morning to do some digging into All Might's history after a dream about the past holders and ends up following the One For All line all the way to a man called Shigaraki. It's implied All Might, at least, has made the connection between Izuku's findings and the leader of the USJ attack.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Both Bakugo and Kaminari feel guilty for the actions they took during the USJ attack due to the unintentionally fatal consequences.
  • After the fallout from the disastrous USJ attack, Aizawa has plenty of time to reflect in guilt on his own egregious errors in judgement.
• Nepotism: Aizawa's decision to expel Izuku was done to make room for Shinsou, who knows what he can get away with due to Aizawa favoring him.
• Never My Fault: As far as Aizawa is concerned, none of the consequences that have occurred in the story are his fault, even though he's the direct or indirect cause of all of them.
  • The attack on the USJ going so poorly for the heroes? Aizawa expelling Izuku from U.A. entirely resulted in All Might resigning, removing two heavy hitters from the defending side.
  • Kaminari killing over a dozen villains by accident? Aizawa's culture of fear, along with not admitting he no longer has the power to expel students, caused the boy to panic, believing the whole thing might well be another of their sadist teacher's tests. Or failing that, that not performing perfectly would see him expelled.
  • Bakugo killing a dozen villains and Mineta? Aizawa refuses to look over his students' paperwork, insisting they be Taught by Experience when it comes to costumes and support gear, meaning no one realized the boy's gauntlets had been tampered with.
  • Shinsou suffering a Career-Ending Injury? Aizawa's blatant favoritism meant the boy never bothered to make friends and instead continuously antagonized his classmates under the belief he'd suffer no consequences. As such, he's too distracted insulting two of his classmates to notice a villain sneaking up on him during the attack on the USJ.
  • U.A. getting smeared by the media in the wake of the USJ incident? Aizawa blames that upon All Might and his reputation as the Symbol of Peace leading the public to believe Pro Heroes must be infallible, while refusing to acknowledge the insane amounts of pressure he put upon his students and how he punished them for not entering U.A. as perfectly trained little soldiers in the making.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Aizawa expelling Izuku without just cause gets Aizawa what he wants in the short term: an excuse to move Shinsou up into the Hero Course. It also causes All Might to Resign in Protest, 1-A to see Aizawa as a threat to their educational careers rather than an asset to learn from, and local Jerkass Shinsou to be at the USJ instead of The Heart Midoriya Izuku. As a result, the USJ attack becomes an unmitigated disaster.
  • At the start of the Internship Arc, an overworked and exhausted Midnight approves of Iida's decision to intern in Hosu only to realize too late that he plans to hunt down the villain who ruined his older brother's life.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: During the USJ, Mineta sticks several villains and goes in to properly capture them. His bravery and work get him killed when Bakugo blows them all up with his gauntlets.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Izuku is forced to push himself to his limits while fighting Stain.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Defied with Himiko. As part of her rehabilitation process, she has to abide by a strict policy on personal space whenever she interacts with Izuku. And given that the girl is making an effort to change, Izuku is open to simple requests like sitting next to her during lunch.
• Not Helping Your Case: Shinsou doesn't want to be typecast as a villain because of his brainwashing Quirk. Understandable as that is, it probably would help if he didn't use it without provocation on Momo, violating her autonomy and privacy and giving the class justifiable reasons to avoid him. The fact that Aizawa disciplines Momo for her resulting anger and not Shinsou for his illegal Quirk usage—with the implication that Shinsou was counting on this favoritism when he instigated the conflict—doesn't help his alienation.
• Not in My Contract: Aizawa claims being a Quirk counselor isn't part of his job only for Toshinori to later point out it is his job and the job of every teacher at U.A.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: In Chapter 15, All For One orders Curious to use her resources to create an article that would further ruin U.A.'s reputation. Anything less will ultimately result in her untimely death.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Minoru Mineta predeceases his parents by a few hours. Bakugou accidentally kills him during the USJ attack because his equipment was overclocked without his knowledge, and then Shigaraki kills his parents while throwing a tantrum over the attempt to lure All Might out being for nothing.
• Pet the Dog: In spite of Shinsou generally being antagonistic and hostile during his time in 1-A, he thanks Asui when she offers an olive branch and acknowledges the potential heroic uses of his Quirk.
• Point of Divergence: Aizawa becoming Shinsou's mentor earlier than in canon and preemptively choosing to expel Izuku to make way for Shinsou in the Hero Course leads to All Might leaving U.A. with Izuku, allowing him to learn heroics apprentice-style. This has a terrible effect on the outcome of the USJ attack, as not only are All Might and Izuku absent, but Aizawa's intimidating and untrustworthy behavior towards his students means they handle the situation much, much worse.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Izuku gives one to Sir Nighteye over his unwillingness to help train him mixed with his need to be overly aggressive during training. Especially since Izuku never asked for his help to begin with.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In direct contrast to Aizawa, Nezu proves to be one, explaining the situation to Toshinori, accepting his resignation with grace, and taking steps to mitigate the damage done by the Sadist Teacher. He himself notes, however, that he allowed the situation to reach this point in the first place.
• Recursive Fanfiction:
  • The story is specifically noted to be inspired by Apprentice by Silversage861 and Expelled by SunflowerDrake.
  • More generally, the author states in the comment section that "a lot of this fic has been a PSA about how absolutely false Dadzawa actually is"—"Dadzawa" being a popular trend of portraying Aizawa as a fatherly and near-ideal teacher and role model, usually accompanied by heavy scrutiny of All Might's character and teaching practices.
• Resign in Protest: All Might quits U.A. to leave with Izuku in solidarity after Izuku's unjust expulsion.
• Secret Test of Character: Stain delivers one to Shigaraki when the League of Villains tries to recruit him by attacking Shigaraki and seeing how he responds in the face of death. Shigaraki basically passes, displaying a seed of conviction that Stain decides is worth nurturing.
• Sent Into Hiding: Now that the word is out about All Might's connection with Izuku, his entourage arranges for Izuku and Inko to hide out in Might Tower in case All For One tries to attack them.
• She's Not My Girlfriend: After Gran Torino jokes about Izuku stringing along three innocent girls (Momo, Melissa and Himiko), Izuku frantically assures him that they're just friends who happen to be girls.
• Shipper on Deck: Recovery Girl ships Izuku/Momo.
• Shout-Out:
  • In chapter 10, Melissa lists the two heroes she has ever seen make heels work for a costume. The second one listed, "Lightning Jack", is a reference to Raiden from the Metal Gear series. More specifically, a nod to two of his nicknames, "Mr. Lightning Bolt" and "Jack the Ripper".
  • Ojiro's new hero name, Sun Wukong, is a direct reference to The Monkey King of literature.
  • Sato's new hero name, Sugar Rush, is lifted from the sweets-based cart racer of the same name featured in Wreck-It Ralph.
  • Momo's new hero name, Pandora, is a direct reference to Pandora's Box, a box said to have contained the evils of the world, along with hope, in most interpretations of the myth.
  • Bakugou briefly refers to Kaminari as "Pikachu".
  • The obstacle course Izuku is seen training in during chapter 16 is loosely based on the most common first round course from Wipeout. The tennis ball cannon Gran Torino uses against Izuku is also from this series. More specifically, the Wii video game adaptation of the game show.
  • One of the scientists Melissa Shield is working with is a tall, rotund man wearing green overalls and a pink shirt, who is an expert in robotics and is called Mr. Tinker.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Aizawa is a deconstruction.
  • He claims to believe that his job is actually to watch his students fail so they can learn from their own mistakes. As such, he does nothing to minimize the impact of errors he believes to be their fault since it's implied he thinks suffering and lack of guidance will teach them well enough, either not considering or not caring about the emotional damage this obviously would inflict on a bunch of developing children put in his care specifically to receive guidance and allowed to fail without support time and again. This policy comes back to bite everyone when he doesn't check whether his students' support gear is actually safe, leading to over a dozen deaths.
  • The lack of grace room to fail is why he gives them challenges he hasn't prepared them for, which causes them to panic. In an almost literal deconstruction, when the panicked stress response from both the USJ attack and Aizawa's threatening and confusing teaching style causes Kaminari to short out while submerged in water, Kaminari, far from adapting to the extreme circumstances, actually ends up accidentally killing everyone in the water with him.
  • This is likely why he targets Izuku specifically when looking for someone to throw out, since Izuku's poor Quirk control would need actual guidance for him to avoid "sinking" without permanently harming or killing himself, and Aizawa doesn't want to put in the effort. He claims it isn't his job to put in that effort but in actuality...
  • In true deconstruction fashion, it's made so obvious this teaching style isn't the best he could do for his students that this trope is shown to be just an excuse for Aizawa not to do his job. That he knows he could do better to actually teach them but just isn't willing is revealed by the effort he puts into his favorite student, Shinsou.
• Slave to PR: After the USJ Incident, U.A.'s school board decides to prioritize salvaging its guttered reputation over the welfare of its students. Despite knowing that Iida is hunting down Stain in revenge for his brother's attack, they refuse to move him to a different internship out of fear of looking bad, forcing Midnight to ask Aizawa to keep an eye on him.
• So Proud of You: Inko says this to her baby boy over his beautiful transformation as a rising hero.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Polite, respectful Nezu tells Aizawa to "get the hell out of my school" when firing him. Justified since it's an Ironic Echo.
• Sour Supporter: While Sir Nighteye doesn't agree or approve of Izuku becoming the next holder while openly complaining about it, he still decides to support him to not only save the world but also to restore his friendship with Toshinori.
• Stealth Expert: Downplayed. Izuku is "leagues ahead" of most hero trainees at stealth, and while not an expert, it still takes seventeen minutes for Edgeshot, a classic Stealth Expert, to catch him during training. It's implied that Izuku is only as good as he is because it's a holdover from how he survived middle school.
• The Tease: After the 1-A girls see Izuku shirtless by accident, Toru declares it's only right that he sees them shirtless too and promptly takes her shirt off. Of course being invisible, all Izuku sees is that she wasn't wearing a bra.
• These Hands Have Killed: Kaminari and Bakugou are traumatized after they kill twenty-six villains and one of their own classmates between them. Kaminari drops out of the hero course outright.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Toru's Quirk evolves during the USJ attack, allowing her to turn Aoyama invisible so they can hide from the villains.
  • Izuku himself has become a more competent rising hero thanks to receiving extensive training from Toshinori and the visiting Pro Heroes which allows him to have a better handle on One For All compared to canon.
• Training Montage: Chapter 11 focuses on Izuku going through different training regiments by various Pro Heroes.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: At the end of Chapter 19, a desperate Izuku unlocks Black Whip to keep Stain from crippling Tenya.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: All Might's decision to Resign in Protest and not remain at U.A. after Izuku's expulsion has several unforeseen and horrific consequences.
  • Firstly, his absence means that the League's assault on the USJ goes far worse, as Toshinori was on I-Island at the time, leaving Aizawa, Thirteen, and Class 1-A to fend for themselves. This results in multiple casualties on both sides.
  • Later on, Curious figures out the correlation between his departure and Izuku's expulsion and publishes a bombshell article, resulting in several Internal Reveals. Namely that Class 1-A gets blamed by all the other students at U.A. for All Might's resignation, while All For One figures out that Izuku is Toshinori's chosen successor.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • All For One views the camera feed of the USJ attack and tells Detnerat he's specifically interested in three students. One is Bakugou, the second is implied to be Kaminari, and the third is unclear. Chapter 12 heavily implies it is Mina.
  • All For One also takes an interest in Izuku upon figuring out that Toshinori resigned from U.A. after his expulsion.
  • The Meta Liberation Army is noted to have an interest in Bakugou as well, being the ones responsible for increasing the yield of his gauntlets.
• We Used to Be Friends: After every act of cruelty and neglect Aizawa committed, by the time Nedzu fires him, Midnight and Present Mic end their friendship with him, telling him they do not want to interact with him outside of purely professional circumstances.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Nezu calls out Aizawa not only for expelling Izuku so quickly but for filing the paperwork before the first day of classes, showing he legitimately didn't care how well the boy did or not, Aizawa fully intended to expel him either way just so he could place his protege in the Hero Course.
• The Workaholic: Melissa admits to having been neglecting her sleep so she can finish her projects and Izuku's presents.
• Wrong Line of Work: Aizawa is a skilled pro hero with a very useful Quirk, but he blatantly thinks he's above the dedication and effort teaching a bunch of teenagers requires. The result is that he's a very talented person, but an incredibly toxic teacher who creates a culture of anxiety, distrust, and dysfunction, harming the development of every child we see put in his care. He's fired after cornering a student and trying to pressure them to change their course enrollment status in the wake of the USJ attack, but it's too late to undo the damage he's already wrought.
  • He's condescending and hostile to students' questions, frequently neglects his class in favor of sleeping, doesn't pay attention to his students' files and permits before approving them, callously denies them an orientation leaving them clueless as to the general functions and resources of the school, and expels students for having uneven personal development that would require more effort towards guidance than he's willing to put in.
  • He plays mind games with his class about the reality of their circumstances, which, when combined with his neglect of duty in terms of actually teaching, means his students are constantly questioning the reality of their circumstances in his class and fearing retribution if they can't predict him.
  • Instead of helping Shinsou integrate with the class by encouraging the students to act as a cohesive unit, Aizawa further alienates Shinsou by instating a Double Standard, refusing to acknowledge Shinsou's wrongdoings or give him proper criticism for his mistakes and scolding the other students for lighter transgressions and their reactions when Shinsou antagonizes them, feeding into Shinsou's "Me vs. Them" issues and giving his behavior support and validation from an adult he trusts, even when Shinsou uses his Quirk on his classmates to upset them.

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