Characters / Live a Hero (MHA)

U.A. Highschool

Class 1-A

Izuku Midoriya - Kitten

Izuku Midoriya/Daku Shimura - Kitten

An emotionally and physically traumatized young teenager. As a child, he was raised by villains to kill heroes. However, he was saved from this fate and was adopted by Inko Midoriya. Despite his traumatic upbringing, he doesn't want to hurt anyone and desires to be a hero. Originally born Quirkless, he later had a Quirk forced on him by All For One, which Kirishima decides to dub "Glitch". His Quirk can twist, alter, amplify, or remove the senses of those around him.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This Izuku's background makes the bullying he received in canon for being Quirkless come off as a blessing by comparison. Being raised by the League of Villains to be a Serial Killer via Training from Hell, malnourishment, and watching your sister get gruesomely killed right in front of you and having a Quirk forced on you immediately after do not make for a pleasant childhood.
• Adaptational Badass: While he doesn't inherit One For All like his canon counterpart, he really doesn't need it. He fights off the Sludge Villain by himself with nothing but a handful of knives and is far more skilled in hand-to-hand combat than his canon counterpart.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Literally. Izuku is not Inko's biological son and has black hair as a result. He dyes it green because it makes him feel closer to her.
• Adaptational Name Change: Izuku isn't his original name, but he asks to be called that after being taken in by Inko. His original name was Daku Shimura.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Izuku's backstory and personality is so different from his canon counterpart that he might as well be a completely different character, being stoic, snarky, and a Blade Enthusiast compared to the original's Emotional Bruiser, Cannot Tell a Joke, and Empowered Badass Normal.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Bakugou is Izuku's Childhood Friend and The Bully after Izuku was outed as Quirkless. Here, they're complete strangers at the start of the story. Kirishima is also Izuku's Best Friend and the two are inseparable after the Sludge Villain incident.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Izuku does not inherit One For All in this story. He's instead a Combat Pragmatist knife whose Quirk can amplify and twist the senses of those around him.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Izuku's sister called him "Kitten" because of how meek he was and his proficiency with knives. He called her "Ko-chan" in return.
  • Mina starts calling Izuku "Midori" and Tsuyu calls him "Midori-chan".
• Animal Motif: Izuku's is cats. He can wield multiples knives in each hand like claws, is a Kindhearted Cat Lover, is extremely protective of things he cares about, and is generally subdued unless threatened. He's also good at climbing trees and other tall structures. His sister also called him "Kitten" because of this. He even incorporates this into his Hero Costume, wearing a headband with cat ears that stores additional knives, turning it into a deadly projectile. He later chooses his hero name to be, "The Blade Hero: Kitten".
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Izuku became attached to Inko because she was the first adult he can remember to show him nothing but kindness and understanding, even after he thrashed, bit, and fought his way through the hospital staff. He later grows closer to Kirishima for being so kind to him.
• Berserk Button: Do not call Izuku "my boy". It gives him painful flashbacks to Kowareta's murder at the hands of All For One.
• Black Speech: When Izuku's Quirk is being used against others, his speech is rendered in text as barely legible static created from overlays of other words, letters, and symbols, causing the brains of everyone nearby to stop working and giving the Sludge Villain such excruciating pain that he goes from Evil Gloating to begging for his life. He later uses this to command Nomu get down on the ground, causing it to shriek in pain until it complied. During this time, his voice is distorted to the point that it sounds like the Voice of the Legion.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Izuku was drilled by his abusers to be able to do this with practically any knife. When doing this against the Sludge Villain, he throws two knives as decoys before throwing a third to gouge out its eye with frightening accuracy. Even when he's actively trying not to harm others, he can still throw a knife right next to their head and bury it in a nearby wall as a distraction with no apparent difficulty.
• Blade Enthusiast: Izuku carries a lot of knives on him to defend himself, having been trained to use them to kill others for as long as he can remember. Inko constantly has to clean up after him, because he leaves knives under couch cushions, embedded in the walls, and scattered across coffee tables, which unnerves the neighbors when they come over to visit her. They stop visiting entirely after Izuku nearly kills Misaki when he threw two knives on reflex as she walked past his room. By the time he's 15, he carries around multiple small knives strapped to his belt and keeps knives as long as his forearms up his sleeves. The walls of his room have racks covered in knives that he's collected from alleyways, dumpsters, and other places, with only a few of them being bought by Inko herself. He even sleeps with knives in his hands.

  No, he’s not obsessed with knives. He’s just vaguely terrified of being caught without them.

• Blessed with Suck: The good news is that Izuku isn't Quirkless. The bad news is that he got his Quirk from All For One to watch his reaction. Not only was the process extraordinarily painful and left him with scars all over his body, but the Quirk itself is dangerous as it amplifies, twists, or removes the senses of others in an area around them and fills their thoughts with static. He can't control its area of effect, potentially affecting friend and foe alike. If he overuses it, he starts crying blood before suffering a Power-Strain Blackout, potentially leaving him temporarily blind and deaf. It also cannot be turned off, forcing him to turn it on himself to keep himself from affecting the senses of people around him.
• Brown Note: Izuku's Quirk, forcibly pushed upon him by All For One, allows him to twist, amplify, or even take away the senses of others, causing excruciating pain or leaving others blind, deaf, or otherwise. It also fills their minds with static, preventing them from forming any coherent thoughts. Worse still, he can't turn it off, and he has to constantly turn it inward in order to prevent himself from hurting others. While using it against others, his dialogue is rendered in barely legible static, and he shuts down everyone else's ability to properly think on top of making the Sludge Villain beg for mercy. By the end of the encounter, the Sludge Villain is catatonic and hasn't responded since Izuku got out of the hospital.
• Brutal Honesty: Izuku can be extremely blunt even to his closest friends.
  Izuku: Your grades are terrible.
  Kirishima: I know that! [runs his hands through his hair] That’s why I’m here!
  Izuku: ...Hey, Kirishima, I think I found out what your problem is.
  Kirishima: Really? [peers over Izuku's shoulder] What is it? What’s wrong?
  Izuku: [flips the notebook around and points at it with a pencil] All these answers are wrong.
  Kirishima: DAGNABBIT MIDORIYA I KNOW THAT!! [buries his face in his hands] JUST TELL ME HOW TO FIX IT!!
• Character Tics: Izuku has a habit of sharpening his knives by rubbing their edges against a flint or fiddling with them in his hands when there's nothing else to do or if he's nervous, which unnerves the people around him.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: He can scale a high-rise building with nothing but the knives he hides up his sleeves. This is impressive considering he's almost skin and bones at the start. He's also physically stronger than his appearance would imply, though compared to the powerhouses of his class, he's on the low end of the strength spectrum.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Izuku spent most of his childhood with the League of Villains and was so thoroughly traumatized by his experiences that he just became numb to them as a coping mechanism. This is why he's able to talk about All Might's injury without a hint of shock. But after he speaks with Kowareta when his heart stops, his stoicism finally breaks and he starts crying uncontrollably as the weight of what he went through rushed in all at once.
• Covered in Scars: Because of his hellish childhood, he has all sorts of scars from cuts, scrapes, and gashes from head-to-toe, making his skin look like a glued-together jigsaw puzzle. The process of obtaining a Quirk form All For One was also breaking Izuku's body apart and ripped his skin open from the inside. He gains another one after Todoroki has to cauterize the knife wound he got from Stain shut.
• Crash-Into Hello: Izuku meets Inko this way, running straight into her while fleeing the hospital staff.
• Creepy Good: Izuku's fixation with knives, stoic demeanor and strange ability to traverse nearly any kind of terrain unsettles people around him. He is also more regretful about losing his knives than gouging out the Sludge Villain's eye. But deep down he is a very kind person and would like nothing more than to prevent others from experiencing the kind of pain and tragedy that he's already endured.
• Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Years of being unable to sleep soundly have left him with these, though they're especially pronounced after a particularly bad nightmare.
• Cute Mute: Izuku was extremely reluctant to speak to others after he was rescued from the League of Villains, only answering questions in nods and shakes of his head. It took months of trust building to get him to speak again and even then he can relapse after a particularly bad nightmare or breakdown.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Izuku can't turn off his Quirk on his own, requiring Aizawa's intervention or the use of Quirk suppressants and overuse causes Izuku to bleed. Seeing Aizawa's still, bleeding form at USJ causes Izuku to throw off any semblance of restraint, cranking his Quirk to full power and single-handedly incapacitating every single Villain at USJ, including the Nomu. But he nearly loses himself to his power and lust for revenge, barely restraining himself from killing Shigaraki. After this, he begins puking up blood and not even Aizawa's Erasure can stop Izuku's Quirk, forcing him to inject Izuku with his Quirk suppressants. Unfortunately, this also worsens Izuku's already frail condition and he flatlines twice while in the ambulance.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Izuku is heavily scarred, has been a trained assassin since he was one, possesses a Mind Rape Quirk, and has some very eerie mannerisms, but he's a fundamentally good kid who wants to save people from going through the same hell he went through in his early childhood. Ironically, he's nyctophobic.
• Dark and Troubled Past: After being left to the League of Villains by his parents, Izuku was abused, malnourished, and given Training from Hell in hopes of breaking his psyche and turning him into a psychotic murderer. The one thing that kept him sane was his sister, who constantly comforted and protected him even as she suffered along with him. After seeing her brutally murdered before his eyes, he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that causes him to lunge at All For One. Soon afterward, he ended up on the streets during a mass of Villain attacks. By this point, Izuku was so terrified of everyone else that he instantly turns his new Quirk on Ingenium, who bore it until Izuku finally managed to calm down and fell unconscious.
• Darkness Equals Death: Izuku's opinion. He hates black and loves colorful things with "pretty patterns", splattering the walls of his room with red, blue, green, pink, and purple paint. His favorite hoodie is tie-dyed blue and white like a sunny day with fluffy clouds and he has plenty of blankets and plush toys to swaddle himself in. He also gets notably gloomier whenever it's about to rain and wears light-up sneakers or holds a flashlight if he has to travel in dimly-lit areas.
  • It's later revealed that he has a pink laptop that's covered in stickers and his schoolbag is purple with swirling tie-dye to resemble stars and galaxies.
  • Izuku's new friends at 1-A are surprised when they find that his Hero Costume is mostly black. He balances this with his light-up boots and the silvery lining of his cape. He designed it this way to be intimidating to Villains without looking too much like them.
  • Weaponized by the villains after Izuku escapes from his room. Fails because of his light-up shoes and hidden penlight.
• Deadly Dodging: Izuku spends the entirety of the U.A. Entrance Exam doing this because he isn't allowed to bring his knives and his Quirk is useless against the robots. He even brings down the Zero-Pointer bot this way by getting all the other bots to shoot at it, and manages to walk away with the highest score: 81 combat points and 61 rescue points. Uraraka wonders if Izuku's Quirk makes him some kind of master strategist when she sees this.
• Declaration of Protection: After the Sludge Villain incident, Izuku promises to never let anyone suffer like his sister had again in remembrance of her promise that they'll be free of the League of Villains one day.
  Izuku: I promise. I promise, Ko-chan. As long as I have a say in it... I won’t let anyone suffer like you suffered. I won’t lose anyone else. I promise. I swear it. No matter what.
• Determinator: When Izuku is hell-bent on doing something, he'll keep doing it no matter what gets in his way. He's fully willing to attack All For One while screaming bloody vengeance for his sister. When All For One tries to slow Izuku down by giving him the excruciating and most likely deadly experience of having a Quirk forced on him, Izuku continued to hold on and just fought harder.
  Izuku: I think… I think he did it thinking it’d...thinking it’d slow me down, or maybe—maybe even kill me. But... [his hands shake] He underestimated the strength of someone who’d already lost everything.
• Dual Wielding: Izuku frequently wields his knives this way, sometimes going so far as to hold three knives between his knuckles in each hand at once.
• Deadpan Snarker: Izuku has little kindness to spare for murderers and snarks at the Sludge Villain's expense after gouging out its eye.
  Izuku: You're a Villain. And you attacked me. What did you expect me to do? "Oh, yes, please suffocate me. I’d love that." I don’t think so.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul":
  • Izuku's trainer at the League of Villains frequently called him, "my boy", as did All For One. Because of this, he asks All Might not to call him that because of the painful memories it stirs up.
  • He also takes offense to being called Deku, tackling Bakugou over it even though Izuku isn't sure what it means. It's because his old name before he was adopted was "Daku".
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Izuku's default expression. He's always described as having "dead eyes" except for the few moments where he's pleading, genuinely happy, or surprised at something he or someone else did. Even then, it's hard to tell how he's feeling unless one has gotten to know him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Izuku is pale, naturally-dark haired, is Covered in Scars, and is a creepy Blade Enthusiast.
• Everyone's Baby Brother: Izuku quickly becomes this to Class 1-A as they get to know him. They're all devastated when he nearly dies after the USJ incident and invite him out for a day at the amusement park in an attempt to get him to smile for once. They also huddle around him for a group hug after he cries for the first time in years and take their time to make sure he's comfortable.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Izuku dyes his hair green in order to feel closer to Inko and to distance himself from his past. It's expensive, but she continues to allow him to indulge in this habit because she knows it makes him happy.
• Face of a Thug: Izuku is a creepy Blade Enthusiast with eerily pale skin on top of being Covered in Scars. Despite this, he's genuinely helpful and friendly if treated well and wants to become a Hero to rescue others from the tragedies he's experienced.
• Feels No Pain: Izuku has long since been desensitized to most forms of pain. Even a gash extending down his entire arm barely makes him flinch. This is because he watched his sister get brutally murdered right in front of him. Compared to that, everything else, even after his body torn apart from the inside by having a Quirk forced on him, is nothing by comparison.
• Fights Like a Normal: Due to the volatile nature of his Quirk, he typically prefers using knives and hand-to-hand combat. He's no less effective because of this.
• First-Name Basis: Izuku tends to tell people to refer to him by his first name once he gets to know them. Iida frequently forgets and has to apologize when he goes by the traditional Last-Name Basis.
• Flashback: Izuku frequently has brief flashbacks to his past, which offer insight, context, and contrast to his current actions. They assemble all together in Chapters 4 and 5, giving the reader the full picture of what the hell happened to him as a child and why he has a Quirk. It also works against him in Chapter 4, when a sudden flashback distracts him long enough for the Sludge Villain to get his hands on him.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Izuku's a Creepy Good Blade Enthusiast whose Quirk can instantly incapacitate anyone he targets (and possibly quite a few he doesn't). His Hero Name, though, is "Kitten".
• Forgets to Eat: The reason why Izuku is so thin is because his past trauma has sapped most of his appetite. While he enjoys food like ice cream, the thought of eating itself makes him want to puke and he often loses what little he does eat in the toilet after a bad dream. He often spends meal time just sharpening his knives instead of actually touching the food on his plate. He even has trouble taking more than a few bites of his favorite foods, katsudon and ice cream. Aizawa has to order Izuku to eat more to ensure that he's fit enough to take the U.A. Entrance Exam. After being prodded like this, Izuku barely manages to down an entire bowl of katsudon in ten minutes. He considers the fact that he was able to keep it down to be an even bigger victory than beating the Sludge Villain. By the day of the exam, he's managed to put on enough weight that Kirishima can't easily feel Izuku ribs in the middle of a bear hug.
• Fragile Speedster: Izuku is acrobatic, nimble, and hard-to-hit thanks to his dexterity and small size. He's also so frail and sickly that he can easily suffer broken bones if anyone as strong as Aizawa manages to land a solid hit on him. The Pro Hero has to pull his punches in their spars lest he send Izuku to the hospital. Even after putting on weight, he's still less hardy than most of his classmates.
• Freakiness Shame: Izuku knows that his many scars make him stick out and he hates them. He also asks Inko if they diminish his chances of becoming a Hero.
  Izuku: I-Inko-san...
  Inko: Yes, what is it?
  Izuku: H-Hypothetically, c-can... c-can I be a Hero?
  Inko: Why do you ask?
  Izuku: I-I mean, I-I was just...thinking, recently. I-I mean, H-Heroes don’t really...look like this, do they?
• Fuzz Therapy: Izuku becomes much calmer around his cats, which is part of the reason why Inko lets him take care of all six of them even though money is tight as is. She also sneaks them all into the hospital so he can feel their presence after the Sludge Villain incident leaves him temporarily blind and deaf.
  • When he gets into U.A., he smuggles Rainbow into class. When she's finally discovered, Aizawa acknowledges the effect she has on Izuku and tells him to leave her in the staff office next time.
  • After the USJ incident, Izuku's therapists recommends that Izuku get a therapy animal who could accompany him at all times and fetch his Quirk suppressants. He ends up getting a therapy dog, which he names Cat.
• The Gadfly: Izuku can be this when he's feeling more cheerful, playing Five-Finger Fillet as his friends (sans Kirishima, who's used to it and nudged him into doing it) looked on and screamed (or in Kouda's case, signed) in horror.
  Iida: [wide-eyed] Wait, you’re not going to—
  Izuku: [singing] Oh, I have all my fingers—
  Iida: NO, NONONONO.
  Izuku: —The knife goes chop chop chop—
  Iida: I DO NOT CONDONE THIS BEHAVIOR, MIDORIYA!
  Izuku: —If I miss the spaces in between my fingers will come off—
  Iida: STOP OH JEEZ PLEASE DON’T—
  Izuku: Oh, chopchopchopchopchpochopchop I’m picking up the speed—
  Iida: MIDORIYA NO!
• Good Is Not Soft: Izuku would prefer to not hurt others if he can help it. If you do push him into a fight, don't expect him to pull punches. Just ask the Sludge Villain, who lost an eye within minutes of fighting Izuku.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Izuku is convinced that his many scars look like Evil Scars, even though he genuinely wants to be a Hero. Because of this, he has severe image issues and wears hoodies to keep attention off his face and cover as many of his scars as he can unless he's trying to intimidate someone.
• Happily Adopted: Inko is probably Izuku's favorite person in the whole world. She was the first adult he can remember showing him nothing but kindness and understanding after he ran into her headfirst. He insists that he have relationships outside of taking care of him out of concern for her well-being and knows that he can always go to her if he has problems. Considering the fact that his biological parents were happy to leave him and his sister for dead, it's easy to see why he's so attached to her.
• Hates Being Touched: It takes a lot of trust-building for anyone to touch Izuku without getting an adverse reaction out of him. So far, the only one who can touch him (aside from his cats) without him reacting with hostility is his mom. He had to hold himself back after Kirishima placed his hand on his shoulder and Toshinori had to hold back his urge to ruffle Izuku's hair affectionately out of respect for Izuku's sense of personal space.
  • While recovering in the hospital after the Sludge Villain incident, millions of red flags go off in Izuku's head when Yatchi, the girl he saved, runs into his room and throws herself into his arms. He's extremely uncomfortable with it and can't bring himself to return the gesture, but he's genuinely surprised at himself when he doesn't push her away as he normally would, simply patting her on the head until she lets go, to his relief and guilt for wanting her to release him. He also has a "safe" sign to tell his mom non-verbally that someone is making him uncomfortable.
  • While groggy from the effects of Quirk suppressants and weary from the Heroes vs. Villains exercise, Izuku leans his head against Uraraka's shoulder, showing that he trusts her. He does the same for Kirishima after having a severe panic attack that made him stop breathing.
  • After being kidnapped Izuku accepts a Glomp from Tsuyu, Uraraka, and Kouda.
• Have We Met?: Has this reaction when he meets Iida. He later recognizes him as the younger brother of Ingenium, the hero who saved him when he was nine.
• Height Angst: Kirishima likes to tease Izuku about his height, calling him a "midget" even after he gained weight. Izuku responds by painfully kicking Kirishima in the shin.
• Heroic Lineage: He's the grandson of Nana Shimura, All Might's mentor and predecessor.
• Heroic RRoD: If Izuku overuses his Quirk, he'll cry Tears of Blood and the strain eventually causes him to double over into unconsciousness. This can also temporarily rob him of his sight and hearing, leaving him stumbling, deaf, and blind until he recovers an entire day later. This is why Inko is so insistent on seeing him at the hospital, because she knows he'll hurt himself or someone else if he wakes up in such a state. At USJ, he overuses his Quirk so badly that he starts puking blood and flatlines twice.
• Horrifying the Horror: After having its eye gouged out by Izuku, the Sludge Villain recoils as Izuku looks it dead in the eye, revealing his many scars. The Sludge Villain gets over this in his blind quest for revenge against Izuku, only to be reduced to an unmoving puddle when Izuku unleashes his Quirk.
• In the Hood: Izuku wears a hoodie when going outside to avoid drawing too much attention to his scars. When it's down, people other than his mom and therapist tend to give him strange looks at best.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Izuku does this to himself after spilling his life's story to All Might, asking the Hero why he would want to help him after learning what Izuku is. All Might gently corrects him, telling Izuku that he learned who he is and that Izuku can become a Hero if he genuinely wants to.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Izuku likes cats and ends up taking in a box of six strays because he couldn't bear to leave them outside. He continually takes more and more cats in as the story goes on, having eleven by the time he attends U.A. Inko begrudgingly obliges him, but wonders if she should just open a cat cafe with so many cats around. Izuku perks up at the idea. At least part of his love for cats is the fact that his sister called him "Kitten" to cheer him up while enduring their Training from Hell and to absolve him of his guilt after he accidentally slashed her while learning how to throw knives.
  Inko: Oh, good lord… [pinches the bridge of her nose] Yes, yes, you can keep it...oh, dear, we might as well just open a cat cafe and be done with it…
  Izuku: [eyes shining] Can we?
  Inko: Izuku.
  • Then, on the way home, Izuku picks up two more cats.
    Izuku: Their names are Shiny and Diamond.
    Inko: Izuku.
    Izuku: I love them.
    Inko: Izuku.
  • When Izuku gets a therapy dog, he ends up naming the dog "Cat" purely because of his love for cats.
    Kirishima: [over texting] YOU NAMED THE FREAKIN DOG C A T [Izuku sends a cheeky emoticon] ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW
    Izuku: Nope. [sends another happy emoticon] Cat
    Kirishima: honestly I don’t know why I even bother being surprised by you anymore.
    Izuku: Me neither
  • Then Cat starts bringing home more stray cats even without Izuku's presence.
    Inko: [wide-eyed as Cat drops off three kittens] ...There is no way. What is it about us and cats recently, Izuku?
    Izuku: Ask him. [points at Cat, who walks back to the front door] He’s the one you really need answers from.
• Meaningful Rename: Izuku had a different name before being adopted by Inko that he hated, causing him to pick out his current one to distance himself from his past as best he could.
• Missed the Call: As much as All Might would like to help Izuku become a Hero, he knows that he can't possibly pass One for All onto someone who is so unstable, especially after learning that Izuku was physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred when he received his Quirk from All For One. All Might instead offers to help Izuku prepare for the U.A. Entrance Exam and asks Aizawa to assist with getting Izuku's Quirk back under control.
• Momma's Boy: Izuku is extremely attached to his adoptive mother and dyes his hair green to look more like her. He still can't bring himself to call her mom, but it's clear that he considers her his mother. The reason why he dyes his hair green is to look more like her. As a child, he was positively giddy when people pointed out this "family resemblance" between them, which is why Inko allows Izuku to continue doing this in spite of how expensive it is. He also makes her invite neighbors over so she'll have relationships with people other than him out of concern for her social and emotional well-being, even though they both know that this makes him extremely uncomfortable.
• Mundane Luxury: As a child, Izuku was awed when he and his sister managed to sneak outside for a short while to gaze at the stars. He had never felt the cold, night air up to that point nor had he seen the stars outside of pictures.
• My Greatest Failure: Izuku is still haunted by his failure to save his sister from All For One. Just looking at Yatchi makes him think of her and part of his motivation for becoming a Hero is to prevent other people from losing their loved ones like he has. But the guilt and pain never really goes away until he reconciles with her spirit during a Near-Death Experience.
• Near-Death Experience: Izuku suffers one after overusing his Quirk to the point that even Aizawa can't turn it off. He very nearly flatlines and apparently speaks to the spirit of his departed sister before being shocked back to life.
• Nerves of Steel: While Izuku is normally a Nervous Wreck, he enters a certain kind of focus while in the midst of combat, dodging each of the Sludge Villain's attacks at the very last second while carefully looking for an opportunity to throw a knife into the Villain's eye without a moment's hesitation. He also nonchalantly scales an entire building with nothing but a pair of knives as climbing equipment and is amused to see All Might's flabbergasted reaction.
• Nervous Wreck: Izuku constantly wraps himself up in plush toys and blankets to make himself feel safe and is a total recluse until he turns 15. The idea of seeing other people is so frightening that when Misaki walked past his room by accident, he came within a hairs-breadth of killing her by accident when he threw two knives on reflex. Years of therapy have helped him improve, but he's still has to talk himself down from stabbing Bakugou after he threatened them when they bumped into each other. The night after the Heroes vs. Villains exercise, Izuku has a panic attack so severe that he stops breathing.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: Inko really wishes Izuku would call her "Mom" instead of "Inko-san", though she admits it's still a step forward from referring to her as "Midoriya-san". The story makes it clear that he really does consider her his mom, but he just can't bring himself to call her that after his original parents left him and his sister for dead. When speaking with Kirishima, Izuku does refer to her as "his mom" and he calls her mom in all of his internal dialogue, so he's definitely making progress, even if he can't say it to her face just yet.
• Nice Guy: Izuku is this at his core. He's always kind and polite unless pushed (or if he's snarky) and is wholeheartedly devoted to preventing tragedies like the ones he's endured.
• No Social Skills: As a child, Izuku could not trust anyone because of the way he was raised and his lack of social interaction with anyone his own age aside from the two other kids the League of Villains was training, including his sister. His first instinct when meeting Ingenium was to throw knives and try to dig another one into Ingenium's face out of terror. Lots of therapy and time to adjust means that he can at least hold a basic conversation without flipping out, but he's still extremely uncomfortable with any gesture that involves touching unless it's with his mom and can't emote properly due to his trauma and being so horribly out of practice.
  • He's so used to throwing knives that when he's trying to play catch with a Frisbee, he instinctively throws it as he would his knives, accidentally tossing it into the distance to Yatchi's displeasure.
  • Izuku is also rendered speechless after Yatchi's father visits him in the hospital to thank Izuku for saving her.
  • Despite his lack of social skills, Izuku's ingrained combat instincts have made him exceptionally good at reading body language to determine if someone is a threat, not a threat, or an empty threat. It takes one glance at Todoroki for him to notice that Todoroki is being a threat to himself.
• No Social Skills: Due to being isolated his entire life, he has little experience with other people. As a child, the very thought of speaking to someone other than Inko caused him to throw knives at Misaki and locked himself in the closet out of fear and shame. Even after years of therapy, he has a noticeable stutter, has trouble showing positive facial expressions like smiling (you can tell when he's happy because his Dull Eyes of Unhappiness give way to a more normal looking expression, but it's subtle), and is extremely awkward when people run up to speak to him. He jerks away when a deaf girl tries to hold his hand because she reminds him of his sister, only fumbling out the excuse that his hands are cold and that she wouldn't want to hold them, which leaves her sad and hurt. On the other hand, his cats adore him and are constantly climbing on top of him in search of affection and petting.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: Izuku is terribly thin from years of being malnourished, barely managing to tackle Kirishima and a girl named Yatchi out of the way of a careening car. He also mentions that he'll never obtain a healthy weight because of his lack of appetite, often sharpening his knives at breakfast rather than eating and throwing up what little food he does eat into the toilet when he's under stress or having a nightmare. Despite this, he's also surprisingly strong, casually climbing the side of a high-rise building with only his knives to help him.
  • Aizawa forces him to eat more as part of his training to enter U.A. Kirishima happily points out that he can't feel Izuku's ribs when they're hugging anymore, which is a sign that he's gained some weight.
• Not Me This Time: After coming home from a sleepover with Kirishima, Inko confronts Izuku about the fifteen new cats strewn about his room. Izuku insists that he had nothing to do with it, but Inko doesn't know who else it could be until Cat walks in holding three kittens by the scruff of their necks.
• Older Than They Look: Years of malnutrition, abuse, and Training from Hell have stunted Izuku's growth, leaving him at just about five feet tall, a half-foot shorter than his canon counterpart. As a result, he can easily be mistaken for a 10-year-old at 15 and wears child-sized clothing. This is further enhanced by his fear of the dark, which causes him to carry around a flashlight and wear light-up sneakers to ensure that he'll always have enough light to see. He has another pair sneakers that have wheels in the heels, which he uses to his advantage while fighting the Sludge Villain.
  Kirishima: [after watching Izuku climb up a tree] Whoa, that was really cool, actually. Do you do that a lot? Climb trees, I mean.
  Izuku: No, I just... I’m good at navigating.
  Kirishima: Navigating? That’s... a nice word. How old are you, again?
  Izuku: Fifteen.
  [Beat]
  Kirishima: WAIT, I thought you were, like, eleven!
  Izuku: I get that a lot.
• Only Friend: In the year leading up to the two attending U.A., Kirishima becomes Izuku's best (and only) friend, learning how to respect his boundaries while broadening his horizons and generally being a good person. When Izuku starts having his most severe panic attack ever, Kirishima is the first to rush to his side and Izuku later buries his face against Kirishima's neck in an unprecedented sign of trust.
  • It should be noted that this is no longer the case after he starts attending U.A. While his behavior is initially offputting and unnerving, Kirishima's explanations help the other students understand Izuku's issues, moving gently to slowly get close to them. He bonds with Tsuyu after she gives him an embroidered cartoonish kitten to sew onto his blazer, Kouda over their shared appreciation for cats and sign language, and Uraraka due to surviving the U.A. Entrance Exam together.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Izuku has so many nightmares that he stays awake a lot, and thus is a victim of Sleep Deprivation.
• Power Incontinence: Izuku's Quirk can't be turned off. Because of this, he constantly has to turn it inward on himself to prevent others from experiencing excruciating pain or having their senses ripped away from them while he's around them. He compares it to having a third limb sown onto him that he can feel but can't move properly. When he does use it on others, he still can't contain its effects to a single person, causing everyone, even innocent bystanders, police officers, and Heroes, to fall under the effects of his Quirk when he's busy torturing the Sludge Villain. This only compounds his existing mental and emotional issues. It's later revealed that the "medicine" mentioned in earlier chapters was a batch of Quirk suppressants designed to keep his Quirk under wraps should it ever start leaking out. Naomasa sends in the request to give Izuku clearance for stronger suppressants after the Sludge Villain episode. After a lot of training and following the Hosu incident, he's finally learned how to turn it off.
  • When Izuku starts getting feverish, he immediately bolts from his home and hides where no one can find him out of fear of repeating an incident where he accidentally tortured Inko with his Quirk even while under the effects of Quirk suppressants. He only returns three days later in the pouring rain after his fever diminished enough that his Quirk would not be an immediate threat.
  • He later trains with Aizawa to learn how to focus its effects on a single person, but he still can't control it at will and carries Quirk suppressants to shut it down forcibly when he's done using it. But this has the side-effect of leaving him groggy and other the verge of falling unconscious. His exhaustion combined with using this more powerful Quirk suppressant multiple times in one day after the Heroes vs. Villains exercise nearly kills him when he has a panic attack.
• Primal Fear: Aside from his obvious distaste for being around people more than necessary (though he has gotten much better than his instant fight-or-flight response as a child), he is especially terrified of the dark, having been locked in a pitch-black room in one of his flashbacks. Because of this, he carries around a flashlight if he's walking under dimly lit areas like bridges and underpasses and wears the kinds of sneakers that light up when you run around in them, which only enhances his child-like appearance. He also sleeps with five nightlights on at all times. He instantly starts panicking when he realizes that his Quirk has removed his ability to see and hear, only calming down when he realizes that his mom is right next to him.
• The Promise: Izuku's sister promised him that she would do everything in her power to allow them both to escape the clutches of the League of Villains. Unfortunately, this promise was broken when Kowareta was murdered in front of Izuku. He still regrets the fact that she wasn't able to taste the same freedom he could, but in a way she continues to live on as Glitch's Imprint, though Izuku doesn't realize it until years later.
• Related in the Adaptation: Inverted. Izuku is not Inko's biological son, having taken him in after he was left to the League of Villains by his parents and rescued by Ingenium. All Might even takes note of the fact that they don't particularly look alike while visiting Izuku in the hospital, but her concern makes it clear that she cares for him and is his mother nonetheless.
  • Izuku and his sister are Shigaraki's cousins and Nana Shimura's grandchildren.
• Replacement Goldfish: Yatchi, a young girl Izuku meets while out on a walk, reminds him of his sister, Kowareta. When Yatchi gets hurt trying to protect him, he instantly gets flashbacks to Kowareta's own death, starting his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Required Secondary Powers: Izuku learned how to use sign language because overusing his Quirk can temporarily deprive him of his ability to see or hear.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Izuku attacks All For One after the latter killed Izuku's sister. All For One then grabbed Izuku and forced a Quirk on him in order to slow him down or kill him, but that made Izuku just fight harder. We don't know the outcome of the fight, only that Izuku either escaped then or shortly after.
  • Izuku has another one after the Sludge Villain attacks a deaf girl that had tried to save him from it. After this, Izuku lets his Quirk loose, shutting down the cognitive processes of everyone in an area around him and making the Sludge Villain writhe in pain and beg Izuku for mercy. Even All Might could do little in the face of this ability. It takes a Cooldown Hug from that same girl in order to finally get Izuku to stop, after which he has a Power-Strain Blackout.
• Rollerblade Good: Izuku has a pair of sneakers that have wheels in the heels. He uses them to slide around while dodging the Sludge Villain's attacks. To stop himself or turn, he slams one of his knives into the ground.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: As broken as it made him, Izuku's training has made him terrifyingly good at maneuvering around terrain and holding his own in a fight, repelling the Sludge Villain long enough for All Might to arrive by gouging out its eye with a well-placed throwing knife and nonchalantly scaling an entire building as All Might was landing on it with nothing but his knives for climbing equipment.
  • While Izuku can throw knives with deadly accuracy, he never actually learned to use them for domestic purposes. Because of this, he nearly chops his fingers off while trying to cut vegetables, leaving the task to his mom instead. He's also less coordinated when it comes to slashing things.
    Toshinori: [after Izuku gives Inko a kitchen knife] What's wrong?
    Izuku: I can't chop vegetables.
    Toshinori: You can't... what?
    Izuku: It’s weird I know, but I keep almost taking my fingers off whenever I try, so it’s better to just leave it to my mom.
    Toshinori: But... I thought you were good with knives.
    Izuku: I am. Throwing knives. And sometimes slashing, depending on the situation. But I’m uncoordinated when it comes to actually chopping things. [Toshinori is reduced to Stunned Silence]
• Say My Name: Along with a Full-Name Ultimatum as Izuku desperately tries to remain with his sister as she's pulled away from him to be killed before his eyes.
  Izuku: KO-CHAN! KOWARETA!
• Security Blanket: Izuku is always cold and is very attached to soft, warm things. This is why he uses so many blankets at night and always wears hoodies more than anything else if he can help it. When the Sludge Villain incident leaves him hospitalized, Inko brings him his blankets, cats, and hoodies to make him feel better. He also has to carry at least one knife everywhere he goes, or else he feels unsafe.
  • When he starts attending U.A., he ends up sneaking Rainbow, one of his kittens, into class.
• The Shut-In: Izuku was a total recluse for years, refusing to see anyone other than Inko. Even then he's extremely uncomfortable in crowds and he struggles to control himself after bumping into Bakugou on the street. Unlike his canon counterpart, who is a Hero-Worshipper in every sense of the word, Izuku doesn't even recognize the name or face of the world's most famous Hero, All Might, which emphasizes just how awkward and out of touch Izuku is with normal people.
• The Stoic: Izuku feels a lot more than he shows. He has trouble showing anything but fear and anger, never smiling and never crying. His eyes sparkle a little when he's happy and he simply goes silent when he's in a bad mood, but it's extremely hard to tell how he's feeling at any given time. He develops a sardonic sense of humor and a bit of sarcasm in his teens as shown when he snarks at the Sludge Villain for complaining about losing an eye, but his delivery is monotone and he's still extremely soft-spoken otherwise. All Might is unnerved at the mental and emotional ease Izuku can talk about gouging out a Villain's eye and scaling a building with nothing but a pair of knives.
  • This quickly treads into Tranquil Fury when he sees Yatchi getting attacked by the Sludge Villain when she tried to protect him, causing him to declare that the Sludge Villain had no right to take lives while activating his Quirk in anger. But Izuku's expression doesn't change in the slightest throughout all of this.
  • Played for Laughs when he's dragged out for a day at the amusement park by 1-A. Despite their efforts, they're completely unable to get him to smile. When he poses for a picture with Todoroki, they both end up looking completely disinterested and unemotional, which makes their photo absolutely hilarious.
  • Izuku is starting to show more emotions as he begins to open up, crying after going to the amusement park and smiling when hugging Rainbow after being kidnapped. As of moving into the dorms, Izuku has been witnessed smiling at least three times.
• Stunned Silence: After being thanked for saving someone for the first time, Izuku's reaction amounts to this. While there are things he wants to say to Yatchi's father, he can't get the words out, only managing to say "you're welcome" after a long pause.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: When Izuku's Quirk is turned on others, his eyes turn an unnatural gold. When it's turned back on himself, there are still specks of gold in his eyes.
• Tears of Blood: Izuku cries these as a sign that he's severely overusing his Quirk.
• Tears of Joy: Izuku has not cried in all of the years that Inko has known him. He finally does after a day at the amusement park makes him realize an entire network of people who want to see him smile after everything he's been through.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After the cavalry battle, Izuku called out Monoma for his petty action which could have caused fatal consequences had Izuku not told him to calm down and let the time limit of Monoma's quirk pass by.
  Izuku: Your Quirk is great and I don't want you to get it in your head that it's not. But your personality sucks. We're all fighting for something here, but we're not against each other in the long run. Petty stuff like this won't matter once we've graduated.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: He will slash. He will injure. He will maim. The one line Izuku won't cross is killing someone. He doesn't want to hurt people at all, but he has no problems with causing serious injury to defend himself if the other party attacked him with the intent to kill first. He comes dangerously close to breaking this rule after being launched into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Sludge Villain, and again when he confronts Overhaul.
• Training from Hell: Izuku was put through this as a child to make him extremely deadly with any kind of knife. For reference, he learned how to throw knives by being forced to aim at a target behind his own sister.
• Training Montage: In the months leading up to the U.A. Entrance Exam, Izuku gets hand-to-hand combat training from Aizawa, who also tries to help him control his Quirk by turning it off whenever it goes haywire.
• Troubled, but Cute: Izuku has issues. He's traumatized, a Blade Enthusiast, terrified of being around people, is sickly, and is constantly being tortured by his own, haphazardly given Quirk. In spite of it all, he genuinely wants to be a Hero.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Inko finds Izuku in this position in the bathroom after a particularly bad nightmare, accidentally unleashing his Quirk on her as she goes to comfort him. She fights through it and manages to successfully calm him down.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Izuku is constantly carrying knives around and can throw them with uncanny precision and accuracy, knowing just how to distract someone with the first two before throwing a third to actually maim them. When Ingenium tried to rescue Izuku, the boy's first instinct is to try and dig a knife into the Hero's face. Even after years of therapy, Izuku has to talk himself down from stabbing Bakugou after they bump into each other on the street. He is also completely unperturbed by All Might's injury, merely saying that he's also been hurt by Villain's before, which creeps the Pro Hero out. Aside from this, he tends to classify people as "threats" and "not a threat", becoming far more prone to violence when he registers someone as a threat. He also created a third category, "empty threat", by the time he turned 15 to avoid attacking every jerkwad who treats him poorly on the street. His thoughts become jumbled and distorted when he's facing someone he considers a threat, being w r i t t e n l I K e t H i S before coming back together in bolded all caps LIKE THIS.
  Narration: Toshinori is forced to tell him. He tells the boy about the injury he’d received while fighting that villain five years ago; the boy listens, nodding periodically, knives sliding against each other, and Toshinori can’t believe he’s taking it so well. He really, really can’t. This kid, this child, is nodding in understanding while Toshinori explains a gruesome injury.
  Something about that isn’t right.
• Tyke-Bomb: Izuku was raised to be one, but he managed to escape. His sister, Kowareta, and Tenko Shimura were also raised the same way he was. Kowareta was murdered, but the other boy was a "success" and would go on to become Tomura Shigaraki.
• What Is This Feeling?: After a day of fun at the amusement park, Izuku ends up being struck with a feeling that he can't recognize at first as he comes to the realization that there is now an entire network of people who love him for who he is and want to see him smile. He ends up crying Tears of Joy for the first time in years.
  He feels something. It isn’t pain, but it could be. His throat goes tight, his chest feels like there’s something stuck in it, trying to break free. He hears their laughter, feels their joy like it’s a tangible thing. Like it’s something he could reach out and touch. He feels weightless. His stomach feels like it’s full of butterflies but he isn’t upset, he isn’t angry, he isn’t sad, he’s not—he’s the opposite of all of that.
  Izuku: What…? ...I don’t get it… ...Why…? ...This feeling, what…? What is it…?
• When He Smiles: Inko has never seen Izuku smile since she took him in. She knows when he's happy when his eyes light up in excitement and loves when she sees that from him, but Inko has started to wonder if his abuse has left him physically incapable of smiling. He hopes to one day be able to actually smile, but he settles for emoticons at the current time.
• You Are Not Alone: When Izuku gets a fever, he runs away from home so he doesn't hurt anyone with his malfunctioning Quirk. When his friends hear about one of his episodes, they find him, bring him home to his mother, and stay with him even as his Quirk saps their senses, toughing it out just to reassure Izuku that he isn't alone.

Ochako Uraraka - Uravity

Eijirou Kirishima - Red Riot

Eijirou Kirishima - Red Riot

A kindhearted young man and Izuku Midoriya's first friend. He's incredibly passionate about the concept of manliness and isn't the brightest student, but he's very capable nonetheless. His Quirk is called "Hardening" and allows him to make his body stone like, if not outright invulnerable. He later becomes All Might's successor and was given One For All, a Quirk passed down for generations and gives him greater strength, speed, and durability.

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• Adaptational Badass: He has his natural hardening abilities and is the successor to All Might, bearing One For All.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed in that Kirishima does have a large presence in several arcs in canon, but this fic has him take the Deuteragonist role originally filled by Bakugou.
• Book Dumb: His poor grades are less the result of actual stupidity and more because of his "rush in headfirst" nature.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Takes an attack meant for Izuku from All For One and spends several weeks in a coma as a result.
• Super-Strength: He bears One For All, so he's got this more than anyone else in his class.
• Super-Toughness: His Quirk in a nutshell, which gets enhanced when he receives One For All from All Might.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: He's adopted by his parents in this AU.

Tenya Iida

Shouto Todoroki

Tsuyu Asui - Froppy

Katsuki Bakugou

Katsuki Bakugou

A loud-mouthed teen with an aggressive attitude. His Quirk lets him secret a nitroglyceric substance and ignite it to create powerful explosions.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: He was never a bully to Izuku, though that's largely due to him having never known him throughout his childhood. Still, he becomes nicer more quickly and openly than his canon self, even outright apologizing to Izuku for the way he treated him, something his canon counterpart didn't do until over three hundred chapters into the story.
• Break the Haughty: His silence and quiet behavior show that he took his loss to Kirishima to heart.
• Demoted to Extra: Due to not knowing Izuku until after they're accepted in U.A., he's not nearly as big an influence on him as he is in canon and his Deuteragonist role is taken by Kirishima.
• The Rival: Seems to develop this kind of relationship with Izuku over time, though it's much friendlier than in canon.

Koji Kouda

Koji Kouda

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• Ascended Extra: In canon, Kouda is mostly in the background of Class 1-A. Here, thanks to Izuku's cat-loving tendencies and knowledge of Sign Language, he's part of Izuku's inner circle of friends.

Others

Kowareta

Kowareta Shimura

Izuku's older sister (also abandoned with him), Kowareta was a sweet, determined young girl who did her best to care for and look after Izuku during their time with the League of Villains.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Called Izuku "Kitten" to lift his spirits, while he in turn called her "Ko-chan".
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Her autopsy after Izuku's escape revealed that nearly every single bone in her body was broken when All For One took her Quirk, and according to Izuku's memories she was in excruciating agony through the whole process.
• Kill the Cutie: Kowareta was a sweet and determined girl who never broke under All For One's abuse, and did her best to shield Izuku from the same. All For One killed her for this as an attempt to finally break Izuku's will.
• The Lost Lenore: She's been dead for six years by the time the fic starts, yet she remains one of Izuku's biggest sources of angst.
• Meaningful Name: "Kowareta" means "To be broken" or "destroyed". Her death was the breaking point for Izuku that led to his rebellion and escape, and All For One basically pulverized her body when extracting her Quirk.
• Spirit Advisor: As it turns out, Glitch/Midas' Touch was her Quirk before Izuku got it, and her Imprint continues to reach out to Izuku through his dreams to help him in tougher times.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: Kowareta was a firm believer in this, seeing that she and Izuku would be no better than the villains abusing them if they stooped that low. Refusing All For One's offer to let her kill her abusive trainer as a final test got her killed.
• Walking Spoiler: Her existance and death isn't this, as it's a major source of angst for Izuku. That she's the original holder of Glitch, though, is a major reveal near the end of the story.