Fanfic / To Love A Frozen Heart

Nothing comes for free.

When he hits rock bottom, Midoriya Izuku is offered a chance that he has always wanted, but not without great personal cost.

Armed with a power and a heart as cold and frozen as the Arctic north, Izuku is determined to forge his own path to heroism, regardless of all the physical harm and hurt feelings that he inflicts upon those who cross his path.

Fate, though, has other plans.

To Love A Frozen Heart is a My Hero Academia fanfic by TheUnseenKaito99 who also authored Rise of the Phoenix. It can be read on Archive of Our Own here. The original story was abandoned after TheUnseenKaito99's sudden departure from the Archive, but was picked up by author RarepairKai22, who also wrote Rise From The Ashes. The remade version can be read here.

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This fanfic and its remade version contain examples of:

Original fic

• Adaptational Diversity: 1-A is more inclusive and balanced, in terms of gender identity, from their canon incarnation. Tokoyami and Shouji are female, Aoyama is a transgender female, and Kouda is non-binary.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Izuku has only expressed interest in girls in canon. Here, Izuku will be romantically paired with Todoroki Natsuo sometime in the future.
  • It has never been explicitly stated what are Todoroki Shouto and Shinsou Hitoshi’s sexualities in the canon series. Here, they will become a couple sometime in the future.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the canon series, Izuku inherits All Might’s quirk, One For All, which is a stockpile of raw power and an assimilation of quirks from its previous wielders. Here, after Izuku hits rock bottom after All Might destroys his dreams of becoming a pro-hero, a mysterious entity gifts him a terrifyingly strong and versatile cryokinetic power. It is also evident that this power is not a quirk, as quirk-suppressant cuffs have no effect on it.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Izuku is far from his energetic, bubbly canon incarnation. The entity may have gifted him with god-like powers, but at the cost of his emotions. Izuku has become the textbook definition of an ice king – cold, no regard towards the feelings of others, and methodical.
• Arrested for Heroism: Aizawa had Izuku arrested for killing Shigaraki Tomura and Kurogiri during the USJ invasion. See Death by Adaptation below for further context.
• Ascended Extra: We hardly see Natsuo in canon prior to the Pro Hero, Endeavour Agency, and Paranormal Liberation War arcs. But given how Natsuo will be romantically paired with Izuku here, it is not far off to suspect that Natsuo will have an expanded presence than his canon counterpart.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: In a testament to Izuku's frigid coldness and lack of regard towards others after he received his cryokinetic powers, he calls Inko by her given name, without even acknowledging that she is his mother, when questioned by Aizawa after he and Nezu come to visit the ice king in his pagoda on Mt. Rishiri.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A few instances.
  • During the battle trials, Izuku immediately encases Aoyama Yuu in ice to help his team win their battle.
  • This story has, arguably, the shortest incarnation of the USJ invasion in the fandom. None of the villains, not even Shigaraki, Kurogiri, or the Noumu, are able to act before Izuku has them all frozen with his ice.
  • During the Sports Festival, Shinsou Hitoshi does not get to use his quirk before Izuku encases him in ice.
• Death by Adaptation: Izuku has Shigaraki and Kurogiri turned into ice, and then smashes both to tiny particles with one roundhouse kick each.
• Demoted to Extra: We only see Midoriya Inko for two chapters, before she gets effectively Adapted Out following a complete mental collapse and subsequent long-term stay at the city hospital’s psychiatric ward. See Point of Divergence below for context.
• Groin Attack: Izuku had Endeavour's reproductive organs ripped out of his groin in self-defense after the man tries to attack him. The pain is too much for Endeavour to bear, and he passes out immediately.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Izuku is still quirkless at the beginning and is relentlessly bullied for it.
  • Izuku still gets suicide-baited by Katsuki.
  • All Might still destroys Izuku’s dreams on the rooftop.
  • Aizawa puts 1-A through the quirk assessment test.
  • All Might conducts the Foundational Heroics lesson with battle trials.
  • The press descends upon Yuuei upon hearing that All Might is a teacher there.
  • The press trespassed into the campus, triggering the intruder alarm and sending the students in the cafeteria into a panic.
  • The villains, led by Shigaraki, still invade the USJ.
  • Izuku finishes first in the Sports Festival obstacle race just like in-canon. However, since he can fly, he finishes far ahead of Shouto and Katsuki with enough time to meditate while waiting for the rest to return.
    • Izuku's Cavalry Battle headband is therefore also worth ten million points.
  • Izuku wins his match against Shinsou Hitoshi.
  • Ingenium is still attacked by the Hero Killer.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nezu points out to Aizawa that by having Izuku arrested for killing Shigaraki and Kurogiri, any trust between them and the ice king has completely evaporated. Nezu reasons that since Izuku is driven by logic, the ends justify the means, and seeing himself being treated like a criminal for saving his class and teachers is a complete betrayal on Aizawa’s part. It also currently remains to be seen how far the fallout goes from here.
• Point of Divergence:
  • The events leading up to All Might destroying Izuku’s dreams of becoming a pro-hero take place two years earlier than in the canon timeline.
  • Katsuki does not get attacked by the Slime Villain, as All Might never dropped the bottle containing it.
  • Instead of inheriting One For All from All Might, Izuku is gifted a powerful cryokinetic ability, at the cost of his emotions.
  • In a move that definitely screams Frozen, Izuku runs away from home, travels all the way up north to Rishiri Island, which is off the coast from Hokkaido. He makes the mountain that bears the island’s name his new home and training grounds and builds a pagoda out of ice to live in.
    • This has the consequence of Inko seeking help from the police when Izuku failed to return home. However, as he is officially quirkless, the police’s efforts to locate him are half-hearted at best. The sheer prejudice rears its head when the police call off the search after only four days. Inko is left so emotionally devastated, she suffers a total mental collapse and has to be sent to a psychiatric ward for an undetermined length of stay.
  • Dagobah Beach does not get cleaned by Izuku.
  • Izuku earns the top spot in Yuuei’s entrance exam, earning more than enough villain and rescue points to surpass his peers.
  • Nezu, not All Might, is the one to deliver Izuku’s entrance exam results to him.
  • Katsuki's horrid abuse of Izuku is never properly addressed in the canon series. Here, after Katsuki attempts to attack Izuku following his reveal during the quirk assessment test, Izuku spills their entire history to their classmates and Aizawa. Later, Aizawa has Katsuki booted to the general education department, after apparently learning every single horrific thing he has done to Izuku. The only reason Aizawa didn’t outright expel Katsuki is due to the possibility of the latter going villain.
  • Izuku performs far better in the quirk assessment test, placing second behind Yaoyorozu Momo instead of last in canon.
  • Aizawa Shouta expels Mineta Minoru for coming in last and for displaying perverted behaviour towards the female students.
  • Izuku's hero costume is far different than in canon. A few of his classmates point out the similarities with Cygnus Hyōga from Saint Seiya, though Izuku apparently has no idea about that.
  • As Katsuki and Minoru are not in 1-A come the battle trials, several of the pairings have changed. Izuku is paired with Yaoyorozu Momo, and Iida Tenya is paired with Kaminari Denki. Later, because there are only nine teams, one is disbanded and incorporated into teams of three instead.
  • Izuku faces off against Yuu and Ashido Mina during the exercise, instead of Katsuki and Tenya.
  • When the press shows up at Yuuei's gates, Izuku gets them to leave him alone after freezing a microphone into ice.
  • Tenya and Momo are elected as 1-A's class representatives. There is actually an impasse between Tenya and Izuku during the first round of voting, but Izuku declines the position immediately.
  • When the press trespasses into the campus and triggers the intruder alarm, sending the students in the cafeteria into a panic, Izuku continues eating his lunch as if nothing had happened.
  • The USJ invasion ends before it could properly begin, courtesy of Izuku. As a result, Aizawa and Thirteen are spared from injury, and All Might’s time limit is not shortened further. See Death by Adaptation above for further consequences.
  • Izuku, not Katsuki, opens the Sports Festival with a speech.
  • Izuku, alongside getting a ten-million point headband, is given a handicap where he is forced to participate in the Cavalry Battle all by himself, barred from forming a team with other students.
  • Uraraka Ochako forfeits her match against Katsuki in order to protect herself from possible fatal injuries, considering how overly aggressive and murderous the explosive blond was acting for a school-sanctioned battle.
  • Izuku wins his match against Shouto.
  • Since he defeated Shouto during the quarter-finals, Izuku is up against Tenya during the semi-finals. Again this match ends before it can properly begin, thanks to Izuku completely encasing Tenya in ice.
  • Izuku defeats Katsuki during the final match, thereby winning the Sports Festival.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Izuku uses his relationship with Nezu to have Hitoshi immediately transferred into 1-A despite losing the match against him.
• Shout-Out: Saint Seiya is referenced during the battle trials chapter due to Izuku’s hero outfit being incredibly similar to Cygnus Cloth.

Remade version

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Several characters appear much earlier than their canon counterparts. Most notably, the number 5 hero, Edgeshot, the number 9 hero, Ryukyu, and the Hero Commission President. The number 3 hero, Hawks, is also mentioned by Edgeshot.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Izuku has been hinted to be straight, given his crush on Uraraka. Here, he is either bisexual or gay, as he will be paired with Todoroki Natsuo in the future.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: When he would have inherited One for All, which is essentially a stockpiled quirk, from All Might in the canon series, here, he trauma-manifests a godlike cryokinetic quirk after All Might rips his dreams to shreds on the rooftop.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Turns out, trauma-manifesting a cryokinetic quirk results in a frozen heart. Izuku loses his bubbly and energetic personality, turning into a cold-hearted, aloof, and uncaring ice king who thinks nothing of blanketing the entire Japanese archipelago in an ice age, nearly bringing all of society to its knees.
• Death by Adaptation: Two heroes, Yoroi Musha and Wash, are presumably killed during the heroes' plan to apprehend Izuku when an avalanche sweeps them away along with twenty soldiers from the Self-Defence Force.
• Deconstruction Fic: Unlike in the original story, where the snow that fell upon Musutafu cleared up after a day, the remade version highlights the real-world implications of the fallout that occurs when Izuku unleashes winter all over Japan.
  • As the snow falls at a rapid pace (growing to a metre in an hour), highways and roads become blocked and vehicle accidents happen simultaneously across the archipelago. All train services are brought to a halt by the sudden onset of snow. Critical utility infrastructure like electricity fails as the rapidly piling snow topples power lines and ruptures generators. And the entire country's water supply collapses when every single source of water freezes solid.
  • Izuku unleashing an eternal winter of Japan also has overseas, diplomatic repercussions. As every source of water in Japan freezes, the ice spreads over 500 kilometres beyond the archipelago. Neighbouring countries like Korea and Taiwan see parts of their territory frozen and buried in snow, which escalates into a diplomatic incident, especially with the former accusing Japan of trying to invade and colonise the peninsula a second time. Japan becomes a beleaguered pariah as the international community takes swift action, establishing a no-fly zone over the archipelago and banning all Japanese nationals from their borders in a bid to prevent waves of refugees.
  • As for the ordinary citizens, life rapidly descends into hell. Confusion quickly erupts into anger, panic, and chaos as riots break out across the country, with local governments helpless to do anything. Looting becomes widespread as desperate citizens fight one another for any supplies left, and when law enforcement and heroes are called in, the bloodshed only escalates as due to confusing orders, the authorities open fire on the rioters. The unusual snowfall also poses deadly threats to citizens' lives, as toppled power lines electrocute those caught in them, and the record amount of snow falling causes homes and buildings to collapse, killing those inside either from their injuries or from exposure to the freezing temperatures. The sheer number of casualties also overwhelms the country's healthcare system, with hospitals and clinics inundated with thousands of dead and dying that they are unable to treat or properly dispose of due to a lack of supplies, electricity, and water.
• Point of Divergence:
  • After trauma-manifesting a cryokinetic quirk, Izuku unleashes an eternal winter all across the Japanese archipelago, with devastating consequences. He then leaves Musutafu for the slopes of Mt. Fuji, and in a move that is definitely based on Frozen, Izuku creates a castle of ice on the mountain, and uses his ice to turn his gakuran uniform into an outfit fit for an ice king.
• In Spite of a Nail: All Might still tells Izuku that he cannot be a hero without a quirk on the rooftop.

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