History Fanfic / MeanRabbit

%%* FantasticAbleism: Hoo boy, where to begin?

* PointOgDivergence:

Can be read [[https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/30725990/chapters/75830903 here]]. See also ''Fanfic/MidoriyaPlusThreeSixtyFive'', another ForWantOfANail work by the same author.

* AdaptedOut: [[spoiler:In the wake of the USJ, Jiro, Kaminari, and Mineta all advocate leaving Izuku behind instead of helping him escape the villains. Jiro eventually has a HeelRealization and tries to apologize, and gets a lighter sentence, but since Mineta and Kaminari are unrepentant, they get expelled.]]

** Izuku only wants to be a hero "for the fame and popularity", responds to any hostility by being even more hostile back, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is an incredibly sarcastic and often insulting]] {{deadpan snarker}} to his only friends. He also show shades of a HairTriggerTemper, such as throwing a punch at Knuckleduster because he refuses to believe the man could possibly be quirkless and successful.

** {{Downplayed}} after the media learns of Midoriya's Quirklessness and goes around asking various Pro Heroes for their opinions about it. Izuku is disappointed, but not really surprised to hear people he looked up to insulting and disparaging him.

* CrimeOfSelfDefense: Izuku is given two weeks cleaning duty for defending himself against Bakugou's lethal attack during the Heroes versus Villains exercise.

* CuttingTheKnot: Hagakure was able to pass the Entrance Exam thanks to discovering that the robots had off switches. Izuku wasn't aware of that little detail, and is taken aback upon hearing it.

** Aizawa is very fond of this, particularly when it comes to Izuku and his friends. Such as hitting them with [[spoiler:six weeks of detention]] for hopping the wall... and 'talking back'.
** Jiro, Kaminari and Mineta are so sore over their expulsion scare that they are willing to consider screwing Izuku over by [[spoiler:abandoning him during the League's assault on the USJ]].
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: When Setsuna claims Izuku hates U.A., he insist he doesn't. He hates his teacher, his classmates, his reputation, and that everyone treats him like crap.

* DoubleStandard: Bakugou is extremely used to benefiting from this, and the treatment continues at U.A.

** Izuku is disgusted, but unsurprised to see that Katsuki is still being allowed to participate in the Sports Festival despite the aforementioned punishment, commenting on how he always gets special treatment.

* ForWantOfANail:
** The story diverges from canon right from the start when Miruko is the one who saves Izuku from the Sludge Villain rather than All Might, winding up as his mentor instead. Her style of teaching is ''very'' different from Toshinori's.
** Tokage Setsuna, Shiozaki Ibara and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu wind up as members of Class 1-A, while Yaoyorozu Momo, Kirishima Eijiro and Uraraka Ochako end up in 1-B.
** Because Izuku is Quirkless, Aizawa decides to single him out during the Assessment Test and attempt to expel him. Midoriya stands up to him, and the 'logical ruse' he enacts in response leaves Class 1-A ''severely'' fractured.
** Izuku ends up dealing with a much less cooperative group of classmates during the USJ incident, and [[spoiler:gains some serious scars from his encounter with Shigaraki]].
** The USJ incident also resolves with [[spoiler:Shigaraki and the rest of the assailants being apprehended]].

** Izuku quickly gets a concussion during the USJ incident, then meets up with several of his classmates... who hold a grudge so severe against him that the majority want to [[spoiler:leave him to die]]. ''Then'' his [[OnlySaneMan only ally among them]] gets knocked out, and the others remain hostile. ''Then'' they come across [[spoiler:Aizawa being brutalized by Shigaraki and the Nomu]], and things only spiral further downhill from there.
** The Sports Festival sees Midoriya's reputation rapidly tanking, the crowd immediately turning against him after witnessing his argument with Monoma without audio or context. Then he witnesses two of his few friends in Class 1-A having awful matches, before going up against Uraraka and having to listen to Present Mic egging on the crowd and encouraging them to turn even nastier.
** The aftermath of the Sports Festival and Izuku [[spoiler:openly revealing his Quirklessness on camera]] is even worse, as heroes decry him, the general public disparage him, and the media do everything in their power to defame him.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: InUniverse example. Izuku has a following in Norway, which has a high percentage of quirkless people. One of the very few positive letters he gets after the Sports Festival comes from there via a man named Bjorn. He also has a following in other countries, including the US, Mexico, and others whom all sent him small souvenirs. He's taken to wearing all of them at school, calling them his "emotional support souvenirs".
* GlorySeeker: Unlike canon, Izuku wants to be a hero specifically for the fame and popularity, not to help people.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: Aizawa attempts to be a SternTeacher and impart on his students that hero life isn't fair and they have to give their all if they want to succeed. Instead he teaches them that the only way to succeed is by stepping on those weaker than them and that Quirkless people don't deserve the same rights as everyone else. He also teaches Izuku that anyone with a position of authority can and will abuse him without hesitation.
* GracefulLoser: In contrast to [[SoreLoser Shinso]], Momo's perfectly cordial to Izuku after he beats her in the Sports Festival.
* HatedByAll: Izuku is so hated that [[spoiler:after winning the Sports Festival]], news stories trash talking him are the top story on various news channels. A petition to [[spoiler:take away his medal]] earns over ''three million'' signatures in three days. And, besides Miruko, the most positive opinion any Pro Hero seems to have of him is "He's Quirkless so he can't be a hero".

** Shinsou accuses both Tetsutetsu and Izuku of riding high of their amazing Quirks and never actually working for anything, when he's the one who's put in zero effort towards improving himself and is hopeless without his Quirk.

** Miruko bluntly tells Izuku he has no hope of becoming a hero. Not because he has no Quirk, but because he has no physical conditioning or fighting experience.
** While most of his peers see Midoriya as selfish for defending his place at U.A., Hagakure acknowledges that he ''did'' outperform her and several others physically, and that it wasn't fair for Aizawa to claim otherwise.

** During the Sports Festival, Monoma tries his usual speech of 1A being a bunch of glory hounds because they survived a villain attack. Unfortunately for him, he pulls this on Izuku who's not only fed up with everyone's bull, but also had ''part of his face melted off'' in said attack. Izuku furiously calling him out on it causes Monoma to tearfully try to apologize as he realizes how bad things were.
* KickTheDog: Aizawa is prone to these, eagerly going out of his way to insult, belittle and undermine Midoriya. When they run into each other while Izuku's on his way to his internship, he scornfully declares that [[spoiler:Nighteye]] tends to take on 'pet projects', and that Izuku wouldn't be worth the effort... though he might make a good lab rat.

** Izuku stands up for himself and calls Aizawa out on how he performed better than half the class? Aizawa makes him and five others redo all the tests if Izuku wants to stay in the class. Then he gives the five students and expulsion scare for "not being able to beat a quirkless kid".

** Several of the students who blame Izuku for [[spoiler:their expulsion scare]] act ''incredibly'' unheroic during the USJ incident. Their complete lack of discipline, teamwork or regard for others doesn't exactly convince him that they ''deserve'' to be there.

* OhCrapThereAreFanficsOfUs: Setsuna accidentally reveals that she found and read [[RealPersonFic Hero RPF]] featuring Midoriya, claiming she only did so out of morbid curiosity. Izuku admits he used to read such stories when he was younger, but grew out of it.

* PowersDoTheFighting: While watching the one on one matches during the Sports Festival, Izuku notes that few students fight with any skill and instead just rely on their quirk to win.
** This trope is one of several reasons why Izuku dislikes Shinsou, and turns it into a curb-stomp.

* StraightManAndWiseGuy: While their relationship is master/student, a lot of Miruko and Izuku's interactions usually involve back and forth snarking, Miruko being the foul-mouthed wise-ass and Izuku responding to her sincerely.

** After Bakugo's and Todoroki's fight ends [[spoiler:in a draw, Aizawa tries to convinces Setsuna or Koda (who were both eliminated) to fight Izuku instead. Both refuse, resulting in Izuku getting a bye to the finals of the Sports Festival]].

** Neither Mineta or Kaminari shows any remorse for their treatment of Midoriya at the USJ, [[spoiler:leading to their expulsion]].

** During the USJ, Izuku trades barbs with Jiro, Kaminari and Mineta, calling out them out on their blatantly unheroic behavior and willingness to [[spoiler:abandon their concussed classmate]].

* DoubleStandard: Bakugou is extremely used to benefitting from this, and the treatment continues at U.A.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: During the Sports Festival, [[spoiler:Bakugou and Todoroki effectively take each other out during their match, inflicting enough damage upon each other that neither is able to continue, even after being healed]].

** ''Aizawa''. The man has absolutely ''no'' business being a teacher, making Izuku's life a living hell and spreading his poison to the rest of his students through his apathy and countless casual cruelties.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: After the battle trials, Izuku is given three weeks detention, a punishment that doesn't actually exist in Japanese schooling.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In canon, Bakugou suffers no repercussions from using his gauntlets on Izuku. Here, [[spoiler:Aizawa hits him with a three-week suspension for using deadly force on a classmate, even if Izuku wasn't hit]].
** Aizawa uses cruel 'logical ruses' and threats of expulsion on his students, bluntly telling them not to trust or rely upon him. As a result, Class 1-A naturally distrusts him, especially the ones who suffer the most under his manipulations... and since there's nobody serving as TheHeart drawing them together, the class is far more fractured.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: From day one in his first year at UA, Izuku is pegged by his classmates as being an abrasive {{Jerkass}} perfectly willing to throw them all under the bus if it means he comes out on top, when in reality he's a victim of a system actively fighting against him who had since stopped letting it without a fight, said system (i.e. Aizawa) hoisting the punishment onto them when Izuku refuses to lie down and take it. This carries over into the Sports Festival, Izuku becoming TheScrappy to the audience when it looked like he was bullying Monoma when he was the one defending himself from harassment. It only gets worse [[spoiler:after his fist round in the third round of the Festival, where he gets verbally torn down by Mic and he defeats Ochako, with the crowd yelling abuse and throwing food and even pieces of the stadium at him seemingly without reprisal from the school.]]

** Izuku only wants to be a hero "for the fame and popularity", responds to any hostility by being even more hostile back, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is an incredibly sarcastic and often insulting]] {{deadpan snarker}} to his only friends.

* IHatePastMe: Implied to be part of the reason why Izuku dislikes Shinsou, seeing a lot of himself in the embittered Gen Ed student. Namely his [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy of those with better chances of achieving their dreams]], seeing him as lazy and unwilling to ''work'' for what he wants due to his disadvantages.

** PlayedWith through Jirou. While she expresses remorse for her behavior during the League's assault on the USJ, she also makes excuses for herself and gets upset at Izuku for [[RejectedApology questioning her apology]], declaring that he's just so ''hateable''.

* MortonsFork: No matter how Izuku responds to Aizawa's 'tough love', his teacher will remain convinced that he was 100% right to treat him horribly. Either Izuku sticks it out in U.A., 'proving' that his tactics molded him into a better hero, or he transfers out and proves that he couldn't take the heat. Either way, Aizawa will never acknowledge having done anything wrong.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Going by Izuku's comments and what is shown of his time at U.A., All Might is literally the only teacher who's even remotely friendly with him.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: InUniverse example. Izuku has a following in Norway, which has a high percentage of quirkless people. One of the very few positive letters he gets after the Sports Festival comes from there via a man named Bjorn.

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. [[spoiler:Later subverted when Izuku receives a legitimate fan letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and a scarf modeled after their flag.]]

* AdaptedOut: [[spoiler: In the wake of the USJ, Jiro, Kaminari, and Mineta all advocate leaving Izuku behind instead of helping him escape the villains. Jiro eventually has a HeelRealization and tries to apologize, and gets a lighter sentence, but since Mineta and Kaminari are unrepentant, they get expelled.]]

** [[spoiler: After receiving tons of hate mail, which ''thankfully'' have been filtered and scanned for biological weapons like anthrax by the Japanese Post Office, he gets a fan letter from a guy from Norway named Bjorn who has written that he, his family, and Norway itself loves him, even sending him a box of foreign sweets, and a scarf modeled after the Norwegian Flag]]

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. [[spoiler: Later subverted when Izuku receives a legitimate fan letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and a scarf modeled after their flag.]]

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. [[spoiler: Later subverted when Izuku receives a legitimate fan letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and a scarf modeled after their flag]]
* WouldHitAGirl: Izuku is heavily criticized for hitting girls during the Sports Festival, even though it's a fighting tournament.

** [[spoiler: After receiving tons of hate mail, which ''thankfully'' have been filtered and scanned for biological weapons like anthrax by the Japanese Post Office; He gets a fan letter from a guy from Norway named Bjorn who has written that he, his family, and Norway itself loves him, even sending him a box of foreign sweets, and a scarf modeled after the Norwegian Flag]]

** [[spoiler: After Recieving tons of Hate-mail, which THANKFULLY have been Filtered and scanned for Biological Weapons like Anthrax by the Japanese Post Office; He gets A Fan-Letter from a guy from Norway named Bjorn who has written that he, his family, and Norway itself Loves him; even sending him a box of foreign sweets, and A Scarf modeled after the Norwegian Flag]]

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. [[spoiler: Later Subverted when Izuku Recieves a legitimate Fan-letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and A Scarf modeled after their flag]]

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. [[ spoiler: Later Subverted when Izuku Recieves a legitimate Fan-letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and A Scarf modeled after their flag]]

* WorldOfJerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who ''haven't'' [[TookALevelInJerkass taken a few levels in jerkass]]. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless.

* BrokenPedestal: Izuku's regard for U.A. is completely destroyed after Aizawa attempts to expel him on his first day despite him outperforming several of his peers.

* HatedByAll: Izuku is so hated that [[spoiler:after winning the Sports Festival]], news stories trash talking him are the top story on various news channels. A petition to [[spoiler:take away his medal]] earns over ''three million'' signatures in three days. And, besides Mirko, the most positive opinion any Pro Hero seems to have of him is "He's Quirkless so he can't be a hero".

* MadeOutToBeAJerkass: It's pretty much the premise of the story. Every time Izuku comes into conflict with anyone, everyone else present assumes he's a massive {{jerkass}}. It doesn't matter if he's refusing to put up with a prejudiced teacher, defending himself from a classmate's lethal attack, or calling out on someone insisting he's happy to have been caught in a villain attack that resulted in half his face being disintegrated. [[spoiler:Present Mic gets in on this during the one vs one portion of the Festival, talking up how sweet and lovable Ochako is while calling Izuku "UA's resident bad boy with a chip on his shoulder the size of Hokkaido".]]