Izuku Midoriya’s father is a Hou-ou — a Japanese phoenix.
For some reason, this means yōkai have a standing invitation to pester Izuku with their existence. Birds assemble choirs for his birthday. If there’s no cedar leaf under the welcome mat, the amazake babaa that lives two apartments over will be knocking on their door by evening. His yokai-purifying excursions get mistaken for vigilantism far too often.
(What’s going on with All Might? Is Principle Nedzu a yokai? Tokoyami, could you please get Dark Shadow to stop calling me ‘my Lord’?)
Simply Superstitious is a My Hero Academia fanfic by CryCaladrius
. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here.
Simply Superstitious provides examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Izuku encounters Tokoyami, Aizawa, and Shinso during his adventures with various yōkai, and before their canonical first appearances at U.A.
- Adaptational Species Change: Hisashi is a Hou-ou, making Izuku half-Hou-ou, consequently.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Instead of One For All, Izuku has spirit magic that allows him to use a variety of spells.
- Adapted Out: Mineta is expelled after coming last in the Quirk Apprehension exam.
- Ascended Extra: After Izuku saves Tokoyami and Dark Shadow from an oni attack, the three becomes fast friends.
- Combo Platter Powers: Izuku's magic lets him use a wide range of spells, including telekinesis (his most common spell and the one he passes off as his Quirk), healing, changing the shape of his weapon, limited Shapeshifting, and fire magic.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Terasu, the kitsune who serves as the Quirk One For All, was born a little before the dawn of Quirks with her brother Kioshi. As the only two kitsune in a world of hostile yōkai, they trusted only each other, until they met a human named Shigaraki whose Quirk allowed him to see yōkai. They were happy to have a new friend, but then Shigaraki betrays them in the worst way, stealing Kioshi's soul and using him to steal Quirks from other humans. Furious, Terasu made a pact with Shigaraki's younger brother, agreeing to serve as his Quirk in exchange for freeing her brother. Unfortunately, the younger brother dies in the fight, and the terms of their pact made it impossible for Terasu to reveal herself to his successors. After centuries of being hosted by humans with no idea of her existence, forced to watch as All For One forced Kioshi to carry more and more Quirks inside of him and being unable to save her brother, and more recently, having to mitigate All Might's injury by being constantly drained of her magic, Terasu is left cynical, bitter, fatalistic and completely incapable of trusting others. After hearing her story, Izuku makes it his goal both to free her brother and to become her friend.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Izuku is a half-human, half-Hou-ou. This allows him to see and interact with yōkai, and he uses magic instead of a Quirk.
- Healing Hands: One of Izuku's spells. While it's nowhere near as powerful as Recovery Girl's Quirk, it's very handy in emergencies, such as when Izuku used it to help mitigate some of Aizawa's injuries during the USJ attack. He later starts training this aspect of his magic under Terasu's instruction.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite Izuku having a "Quirk" (actually magical telekinesis), Bakugo still bullied him growing up because of how weak it was when it first manifested.
- Even without All Might's input, Izuku still trains by cleaning up Dagobah Beach, with the beach's secluded nature making it the perfect place to practice with his magic.
- Living Weapon: A variant. Kutsuhimo is an ittan-momen (a cloth-like yōkai) who Izuku convinced to possess Aizawa's capture weapon, so there are times when he acts independently, such as when he tried to strangle Shigaraki during the USJ attack after Aizawa was knocked out.
- Meaningful Name: Lampshaded by Shinsou when he hears that the Hero Killer Stain's given name translates to 'bloodstain', and his last name has the kanji for 'red' and 'black'.Shinsou: That’s so on the nose. It’s like his parents wanted him to be a serial killer.
- Morph Weapon: Izuku can use his magic to turn his dagger into a sword or an iron club.
- Parents as People: Hisashi is a genuinely loving husband and father in this story and makes sure to check on his family when he can and when an actual emergency arises (like after the USJ incident), but he lives in America to serve as a mediator between the wildly different and clashing mythical creatures there, and on top of that, because Hou-ou are considered to be omens, it's dangerous for him to stay somewhere like Japan where he can tell that something big is on the horizon.
- Playing with Fire: Hisashi starts teaching Izuku fire magic after the USJ attack because he had a feeling things were going to get more dangerous for his son soon. There’s also the added bonus of fire magic being especially effective against yōkai.
- Point of Divergence: Izuku being half-Hou-ou leads to multiple differences in the story.
- Because he spends his nights regularly fighting of hostile yōkai, he's developed a reputation as a vigilante known as Phoenix.
- When All Might saves Izuku from the Sludge villain, he was distracted by the (seeming) ghost haunting the hero, so he never grabbed onto All Might's leg to ask him if he could be a hero. That means that Izuku doesn't know All Might's secret (at least, not at first), and the Sludge villain never goes free to attack Bakugo.
- Izuku saves Tokoyami from an oni and they become good friends.
- Since Izuku scores higher in the Quirk Assessment exam, Mineta ends up in last place and gets expelled.
- Because Izuku wants to be an underground hero, he, as well as Shinso, make a deal with Aizawa that if they come 5th in the second event of the Sports Festival, they could intern with him.
- Since Izuku didn't make it to the 1-on-1 tournament, he never fights Todoroki and therefore never convinces him to use his fire.
- Power Misidentification:
- Izuku passes off his magical telekinesis as a Quirk.
- All Might assumes that both One For All and All For One are Quirks, albeit unusual ones. They're actually a pair of kitsune siblings who are sharing their power with humans (unwillingly, in All For One's case).
- Secret-Keeper: Inko and later Tokoyami know about magic and Izuku's vigilantism.
- Shapeshifting: Izuku has a minor version of this that lets him alter his facial features as well as hair color. He uses it as part of his vigilante disguise.
- Weak to Fire: Most yōkai have a weakness to magical fire and to fire Quirks (since all Quirks are basically a human kind of magic anyway).
