(Crossover between Worm and My Hero Academia; Post-Golden Morning) Izuku Midoriya has always been determined to become a hero. Unfortunately, although he had more than enough intelligence, determination, and force of will, he was Quirkless. Nobody believed he could be a hero, even his own mother. Just as was at his lowest point, a humble store owner with a prosthetic arm DID believe in him. Sometimes that's all it takes.
Can be found here
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Tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Taylor gives Izuku her old nano-thorn knife for the exam, calling it "The Stinger".
- Adaptation Name Change: Since the setting is swapped to America, several of the secondary characters have their names changed to fit it better. Nedzu's name, for example, is changed to "Patches", and Tsu's name is listed down in Race Lift below.
- The Ageless: Taylor still looks like she's 20 or so at the earliest, her aging having apparently halted after Scion's death, or soon afterwards.
- Alternate Universe: Besides Izuku meeting Taylor before meeting All Might, Izuku and U.A. are in America in this universe.
- Artificial Limbs: Taylor has a Tinkertech arm to replace her missing arm, which may be lifelike enough to not be easily noticeable.
- Badass Bystander: Izuku was watching Endeavor fight a pair of villains when the hero, apparently provoked by what they said about his treatment of his wife, accidentally set fire to a building. He then rushes over, grabbing a fire extinguisher from Tsu's family's restaurant, and together with her, helps rescue the few people who didn't get out in time.
- Badass Normal: In this fic, Izuku actually enters the U.A. exam while still Quirkless, with just his physical skills from training under Taylor and some gadgets...and still does fairly well. Taylor even cites Eraserhead (whose only power is the ability to nullify Quirks) and the Quirkless vigilante Knuckleduster, who fights solely through Charles Atlas Superpower, as examples of why he can do this.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Taylor notes that, either through some innate quirk of this Earth or some side effect of the process that turned what remained of Scion into the seeds of the Quirks, humans of this Earth, powers or no, can actually accomplish physical feats that would rank them a Brute 2 and Mover 2 rating by the PRT system through enough training, even her. She actually uses this as an example to Izuku about how he can still get into U.A. without a Quirk.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome:
- Izuku heads into a burning building to rescue the remaining residents, roping Tsu in to help him.
- Later, Izuku keeps rescuing other examinees.
- Dirty Communists: Hammer and Sickle, two villains Endeavor fights, though he argues that they care less about the ideology of bettering the poor and downtrodden and more about taking out their frustrations on the well-off.
- Expy:
- Taylor, in-universe, designed villain bots for the U.A. exam clearly based on some members of the Slaughterhouse Nine, like Mannequin and Shatterbird.
- Penny Akk is one of the U.A. examinees.
- Fights Like a Normal: Yagi/All Might notes that Eraserhead and Ectoplasm are far from Quirkless, but are a lot more mundane about how they operate than other heroes. Incidentally, they're among the ones who bet on Izuku getting into U.A..
- Hero of Another Story: Taylor helped save the multiverse several times after Scion's defeat.
- History Repeats: It's apparent that Taylor has noticed parallels between what's happened to Izuku and Bakugou and what happened with her and Emma.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite meeting Taylor instead of All Might, Izuku still gets put on what is implied to be All Might's training regiment, although Taylor personalizes it to him a bit more, increasing the focus on actual combat training and movement.
- The events directly preceding the entrance exam to U.A. happen largely similarly to canon.
- Despite being Quirkless in the exam, or maybe because of it, Izuku, who had been noticed earlier by All Might after the fire, gains more attention from All Might, with the principal hinting that he might be a good inheritor of One For All.
- Le Parkour: Izuku starts using this to get around, as Taylor emphasizes mobility being an important skill for a hero, especially one without a Quirk.
- Loophole Abuse: Izuku can apply to U.A. while still Quirkless because it doesn't actually say that you need a Quirk to apply there, unlike most other hero schools.
- Meta Origin: Quirks, like parahuman powers, come from the Entities; in this case, the information and power left behind in the shards after Scion's death that was somehow infused into the human genome.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: Somehow, after Scion's defeat, the power and information in his shards were infused into humanity across various Earths, resulting in Quirks.
- Murderous Mannequin: The type B villain bots chosen for Izuku's U.A. entrance exam are based on Mannequin, and even All Might is creeped out by them.
- Never Found the Body: Taylor lampshades this trope when thinking about what is implied to be All For One.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Izuku plays up the idiot act and draws the attention of most of the other U.A. examinees in his group to distract them after realizing that Present Mic isn't going to give them a heads-up, playing on the idea that they'll underestimate him.
- Point of Divergence:
- Izuku meets Taylor instead of All Might.
- The Endeavor battle has Izuku meet Tsuyu before making it into U.A.
- Precursor Heroes: Three individuals named the Warden, Matriarch, and the Valkyrie, along with their Renegades, helped restore order after Quirks rose to prominence.
- Race Lift: Because this AU is set in America, several of the other Class 1-A characters and others have their ethnicity changed. This is due to America being more ethnically diverse than Japan, which is almost entirely racially pure. Tsu, for example, is actually Indian and her full name is Tsuranadi Poryprayrana (call her Tsu) and Tenya is now Caucasian.
- Retired Badass: Taylor, after defeating Scion and helping to save the multiverse several other times, finally retired after an incident, implied to be the one that involved All For One.
- Side Bet: When the U.A. Staff learns that Izuku is Quirkless, they start betting on whether he'll make it in or not. Taylor bets on him passing with full colors, and among the faculty Yagi/All Might bet on him passing, as well as Eraserhead and Ectoplasm, but most bet against him.
- Training from Hell: Izuku goes through an even more intense version than his canon self did under Taylor, with actual combat training mixed in.
- Weak, but Skilled: What Izuku is right now: Quirkless, but with combat training. Taylor even tells him that his options are his greatest strength.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Endeavor gets a lot of flack for setting the apartment building on fire.
