History Fanfic / AfOsGuideToAPeacefulRetirement

** It's heavily implied Hisashi's and Yoshito's parents were abusive and that Hisashi's first brush with criminality came from ending up on the streets after they fled their home, [[spoiler:which is why he reacted so severely to Endeavor.]]

** The obvious example being All For One, which is not only a powerful Quirk, but whose most famous user unhelpfully used the Quirk's name as his Villain alias. Despite the fear surrounding this Quirk due to its history, the point is made that it's simply a tool like any power, with a myriad of beneficial uses--such as facilitating quick arrests without drawn out battles and violence, aiding people with PowerIncontinence or Quirks that legitimately harm their overall quality of life, and even temporarily exchanging a person's innate Quirk with a healing or regeneration Quirk to fix previously untreatable medical conditions. It also provides an unprecedented level of flexibility for Izuku's teammates. Further, Izuku's childhood proves that it also has innocent and silly uses, such as the Midoriya family's version of Capture the Flag.

** Shimura Tenko struggled for years to come to terms with his Disintegration Quirk, and his becoming a rescue hero was a deliberate move to prove he wasn't defined by his Quirk's destructive nature. His past struggle takes focus in the story when he witnesses his adoptive family's determination to prove that Izuku is a villain solely because of ''his'' Quirk, which feels like personal betrayal to Tenko.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Veritas demands Present Mic tell him the truth regarding his feelings for Hitoshi. He gets an hours-long rant from Mic about how his beloved adorable wonderful son Hitoshi makes life better simply by existing, and all of Mic's evidence to prove it. Mic continues this even after Veritas' Quirk wears off, because he's delighted someone is finally listening to him. Apparently this was very predictable to all of Mic's friends, as he also gives this rant when drunk.

* BrickJoke: In "AFO's Guide to a Peaceful Retirement," Hisashi plays the villain in Izuku's, Shouto's, and Tenya's make believe hero games by donning the persona "Alt Forty One," who can be defeated by hugs. In "All For UA" a decade later, Tenya is assigned to play the part of a villain. Cue him presenting himself to Shouto, one of the heroes in the assignment, as "Alt Forty One." In reply, Shouto deadpans, "...so what, you want me to hug you?" Alt Forty One quickly demands "SILENCE, [[CallBack PENGUIN.]]"

** Izuku's admiration of heroes in general and All Might in particular helped him work through trauma of his mother's death and the unkind response he received from school and his peers during that time. All Might's reaction once he knows of Izuku's Quirk wounds Izuku deeply.

* CameraFiend: Hisashi, who's so obsessed with taking pictures of every moment of Inko's and Izuku's lives that Inko specifically tells Kurogiri not to let him buy another camera while she's out.

** '''Hisashi.''' He firmly believes there is no one more perfect that his wife and son. As a teenager, Izuku is able to keep him in line by threatening to revoke hug privileges. Shoto and Tenya cite this as the reason they can't imagine Hisashi as a villain, because the mental picture of some evil person interrupting his own evil schemes to act like a HouseHusband and dote over his infant child is comically ridiculous.

* EntertaininglyWrong: In ''How Seven (7) Dead Heroes Stopped Being Bored,'' Nana frequently makes a variety of assumptions--Inko's and All For One's relationship won't last long, Tenya's friendship with Izuku will be short lived, Hisashi will take Izuku's Quirk, etc. She's ''always'' wrong.

* {{Irony}}: In a Meta-Sense: In Canon, by a titanic margin Sir Nighteye was ''least'' accepting of Izuku status as All-Might successor out of all Izuku's mentors. In this story, out of All Might, Sir Nighteye, and Gran Torino Nighteye is the ''the first'' to feel genuine shame for his [[BadPowersBadPeople preconceived prejudice]] against Izuku and the first to try to make amends.

** Katsuki's parents regard letting the above happen as their greatest failure. For starters, they never even explained to their son that his Auntie Inko was dying, and it was his anger and confusion over not understanding Izuku's grieving behavior that toxicified into bullying. Illness may have taken Inko, but they way they see it, their own poor parenting of Katsuki is what cost them a relationship with her son.

** Hisashi was in no way a good person in his past, but is trying to be better in order to be the parent Izuku needs. His villainous tendencies can still get the better of him sometimes.
** Aizawa loves and is very supportive of his young adopted son, Hitoshi, but he's so protective of Hitoshi's wellbeing that he slips into openly UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming Izuku for the "situations" that happen to him, arguing that Izuku is a danger for Hitoshi to be around. This goes so far that he tries to seperate the two children by not only actively discouraging his son from being Izuku's friend, but encouraging his son to exclude Izuku from activities involving the rest of their mutual friend group. This despite the fact that Izuku is the reason Hitoshi was saved from his abusive foster family and the reason Aizawa could adopt Hitoshi in the first place. His partner, Hizashi, eventually talks him out of it.

** Discussed with Inko; Hisashi describes her as so inhumanly perfect that Rei wants to interrogate Mitsuki, since he's clearly an unreliable source.

* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Inverted in the present, implied to have been played straight in the past. Hisashi was apparently at one point a well-intentioned person who tried to fight for justice and correct for the corruption and cruelty of his own time by gaining power and control. However, the bitterness of the fight against the official authorities eventually drove him to [[WellIntentionedExtremist extremes]] and then to legitimate villainy. In the present, this happens in reverse, as gaining a family motivates him to rediscover his capacity for empathy that had been jaded out of him.

* SinsOfTheFather: All Might, Gran Torino, and Sir Nighteye treat Izuku like a born villain for having All For One (the Quirk) and being related to All For One (the man). They even go so far as to use their influence with UA to install Shimura Tenko as an assistant teacher to monitor Izuku. Subverted with Tsukauchi, Nedzu, and the rest of the staff at UA, whose first reaction to learning about the Midoriyas was to provide support and protection due to the potential difficult circumstances resulting from their relation to All For One.

* SureLetsGoWithThat: When Tsukauchi and Nedzu realize [[spoiler:the events of Izuku's kidnapping imply he stole his kidnappers' Quirk,]] they confront Hisashi... with condolences on their mishandling of the All For One case, as they'd never realized the man had family. Since they fully believe All For One is dead, they assume the Midoriyas are his descendents. Hisashi leans into their assumptions by claiming to be All For One's son, conveniently covering any holes they may find in his identity paper trail by preemptively admitting that yes, his documentation was forged so he could hide from his Villain father.

* WhatWouldXDo: When challenged to play the villain in another Heroes vs. Villains exercise, Tenya decides he must go above and beyond to play the role of a villain and thinks about Hisashi, the former villain he knows best. Cue Tenya declaring himself [[BrickJoke "Alt Forty One."]]