Fanfic / Ignited Spark

Cover by ebroo19

When Midoriya Izuku was four years old, his Quirk finally manifested - not a combination of his parents' Quirks, but an entirely different mutation of its own. With the ability to blast lightning out of his body, a horrible accident convinces Izuku to give up his dreams of becoming a hero, despite the support of his childhood friend Ochako Uraraka despite her own feelings of insecurity. But a chance encounter leads to the two meeting Itsuka Kendou, a student from a different school who has a problem with a responsibility thrust upon her.

Together, Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka become fast friends as they attend U.A. High School, battling supervillains, bullies, and stupid teenage hormones all along the way. And together, they'll work to become the world's greatest heroes!

Ignited Spark is a My Hero Academia fanfic written by 3PeopleInACoat (who also wrote Our New Roommate), and can be read on Archive of Our Own here or FanFiction.Net here.

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General Trope Examples

• Adaptational Early Appearance
• Ascended Extra
• Wham Episode

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Ignited Spark provides examples of:

# — E

• 11th-Hour Superpower: In the midst of his match against Bakugo during the Festival, just as he is about maimed by the explosive blonde with a point-blank explosion, Izuku unlocks a new aspect of his Quirk: Elemental Absortion, which he displays by freezing Bakugo in a replica of Todoroki's ice.
• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Vortex from the Flash Forward. Itsuka and Ochako are naturally disgusted by the villain's crush on them, especially when they find his Stalker Shrine.
  • Mineta. Not only does he grope Momo like a leech to pass to the second round, but he also is not even subtle in his ogling towards the poor girl, making her and Mina uncomfortable.
• Abled in the Adaptation:
  • All For One, surprisingly. When he finally makes his first appearance in Chapter 17, he lacks his trademark scars and appears to be in full health without the need for medical equipment to keep him alive.
  • When Hood transforms back into Muscular, he's shown to have regrown his lost eye, albeit with yellow sclera.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Endeavor, as always. Meeting with his son at school has him telling Shouto to stop with his temper tantrums, and making it clear that he only sees his son as a means to surpass All Might.
  • Overhaul as well, to the surprise of no one. In addition to the horrific abuse he put Eri through, he is mentioned to only feed her the bare essentials to survive, with Eri mentioning that she never had salty food before and only got apples as a reward. Needless to say, everyone who hears this is completely horrified, and the implications are easily picked up by Midnight and Aizawa.
  • Daikoku Yaoyorozu is just like Endeavor, way more concerned about how Momo's actions will reflect on him than Momo herself. He also tells her to apologize to Shoto when Shoto was the one being a rude jerk towards her during the Festival.
• Accidental Discovery: While checking on Izuku after the second event, Nejire finds out about the Todoroki family situation. And later, eavesdropping on him and Itsuka, she also finds out about One for All.
• Accidental Pervert:
  • When Izuku catches himself on fire when using his Quirk on the beach, he quickly rushes into the ocean to kill the flame, realizes he got himself wet, and takes off his shirt - right in front of Ochako and Itsuka, not realizing that he was showing off his new muscular body in front of them. Cue the girls Eating the Eye Candy.
  • When they first reunite after the entrance exam, Nejire gives Izuku a big hug, with him mentally noting that he was feeling something soft press against him - and quickly realizing what exactly was pressing against him. Que Luminescent Blush.
  • When hanging out in the garage, Itsuka ends up bending over to retrieve a fallen screw, and Ochako looks up just in time to have a good look at her butt - which Ochako doesn't seem to mind at all.
  • Mirio dodges a blast from Izuku's Quirk by making himself intangible - and unintentionally ends up flashing all of Class 1-A.
  • Izuku ends up walking in on Melissa when she's getting out of the shower while he was still half-asleep. Luckily neither saw anything they weren't supposed to, but they're both embarrassed the whole morning long afterwards.
• The Ace:
  • The Flash Forward shows Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka in their primes, with Izuku effortlessly catching up to a villain with a speed Quirk while saving countless people (granted, while somewhat pulling a muscle), Ochako floats a large boulder and launches it at the henchmen, and Itsuka herself shows mastery in Black Whip and Float as they all team up to fight Vortex.
  • All Might, as per usual. When Ochako asks to fill up a few water bottles with his soda so as not to waste them, he somehow does this in enough time to stop the sludge villain from escaping behind him.
• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • Nejire casually talking to Ochako about how she went on a date with Izuku weeks prior causes the gravity girl to be distracted for long enough for Nejire to steal her points.
  • Melissa was completely oblivious that she was taking the test for the Hero Course recommendations exam instead of Support Course until after she concluded and was congratulated by Nezu for passing on it.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • Izuku's Quirk is supremely powerful, and implied to have the same kind of firepower as Katsuki's explosion and One for All itself - but using it severely injures Izuku's hands and arms, and holding it for an extended period results in severe electrical burns. Part of the reason why he has the Full Gauntlet is to use his Quirk safely until he finds out how to use his Quirk correctly.
  • Nejire's Quirk, similarly, is extremely powerful, with about five-percent outbursts able to bring down concrete walls, and a full blast able to create a tsunami out of the flood zone. However, as Nejire reveals, the Quirk draws on her stamina, meaning that the more power she uses, the quicker her endurance runs out, and judging on how much she uses, she can be passed out for very long periods of time.
• Action Prologue: The story begins with a Flash Forward of at least eight or nine years in the future, with Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka hunting down a Big Bad Wannabe named Vortex and his minions.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • When Itsuka tells Izuku and Ochako that she inherited All Might's Quirk, Ochako is quick to call bullshit. Itsuka, who had been pretty tense about revealing this to them, actually bursts into laughter.
  • Mitsuki is roaring with laughter after seeing Itsuka kicking Katsuki right in the face.
  • The Consortium can't help but laugh at Izuku's predicament when the boy and Ochako accidentally launch themselves in the air so high that they nearly go into orbit. Even Nine chuckles a bit.
• Adaptation Distillation: The events of the Humarise arc happened two years before the story begun, with the Big Three, plus Mawata Fuwa from Class 2-A, taking Izuku and his friends place as the ones to defeat Flect Turn.
• Adaptation Deviation: Almost all of the 1A internships are changed:
  • Izuku, Ochako, Itsuka and Nejire end up working together in a joint internship between Ryukyu, Miruko and Lady Nagant.
  • Shouto still goes to Endeavor, but Momo and Kyouka join him.
  • Yui ends up being the one to intern with Manual, while Tenya interns with Stendhal.
  • Setsuna and Hanta intern with Majestic.
  • Pony and Mezo intern with Gang Orca.
  • Eijirou, Mina and Tetsutetsu intern with Fat Gum.
  • Reiko joins Fumikage in interning with Hawks.
  • Yosetsu interns with Lock Rock.
  • Denki ends up going to Takeshita.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Due to moving to Musutafu, Ochako gets to know Izuku much earlier and they end up becoming childhood friends. And because she's Izuku's only friend, she gets bullied alongside him by Bakugou and ends up with a strong hatred towards him.
  • Likewise, Itsuka is mostly on acquaintance-level terms with Izuku and Ochako in canon, but here she is their first friend outside of each other, and the three of them share a much closer relationship.
  • Katsuki's relationship with Class 1-A ends up being this as well. In canon, they tolerate his crass and bad behavior and see him as True Companions. Here, since Katsuki never got humbled in the battle trial, he's on far worse terms with his class, with the majority of them seeing him as a jackass and treating him disdainfully.
  • Yui and Setsuna aren't shown interacting in canon, but here are borderline Those Two Girls.
  • Itsuka and Nejire, in canon, have, at most, a Friendly Rivalry during the beauty pageant, complimenting each other and wishing each other luck. Here, on the other hand, they are depicted as being friendly with each other, but due to both of them having an infatuation with Izuku, Itsuka seems rather jealous of her, something that Nejire picked up but has yet to comment about.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Izuku's Traumatic Super Power Awakening scarred him so badly that he pretty much gave up on his dream of being a hero. Being repeatedly called a villain thanks to Bakugo's bullying only made it worse.
  • Ochako was severely bullied by proxy due to her poor upbringing, to the point she doesn't anyone would ever think she is attractive, not even a pretty and Nice Girl like Itsuka.
  • Nejire was an outcast in her previous school, with many people creeped out by her Constantly Curious personality and seeing her as nothing more than a Brainless Beauty. Yuyu was her Only Friend until U.A.
  • Shoto and Fuyumi go through one as well, since not only do they have to deal with Endeavor's bad parenting, but also Toya is emotionally abusive towards his youngest brother.
  • Momo is forced to deal with an abusive father that only sees her as an extension of himself, not to mention, being into an arranged marriage with a rude and cold heart jackass. It becomes eased up after the Sports Festival, once Shoto finally gets over his own issues.
  • In addition to being an outcast due to being Quirkless, not to mention due to jealousy over All Might being her Honorary Uncle, Melissa used to suffer from Appearance Angst, and while she is way better off these days, these self-esteem issues aren't completely gone.
  • Nagant already had it bad enough due to all the emotional and psychological trauma she went through due to being forced to act as the HSPC assassin, but in addition to this, there is also the fact she was separated from her daughter, Ochako, as well as her partners, Miwa and Taiyo.
  • In general, Class 1A took the events of the USJ invasion far more poorly than the canon counterparts, mostly due to it being ten times more terrifying and how close many of their classmates came to death, that returning to the USJ has several people nervous and shaking and the mere mention of them facing the Villain Consortium has the entire class flinch.
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • All for One still retains his former good looks despite All Might's own injuries, hinting that he may have discovered a Quirk that could have healed him.
  • While he still bears scars from surgeries, Toya is considerably more attractive than his canon counterpart, whose body is burned to a crisp and barely held on together by patches.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Toya still almost died during the Sekoto Peak fire, but was saved by someone else and came back home months after it. Toya eventually became a Pro Hero working directly under the HSPC. Whether he was saved by the Commission or All for One like in canon, has yet to be revealed.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Itsuka, being the ninth wielder of One For All. Besides that, Itsuka actually manages to earn the top spot on the entrance exam, with over 86 total points, whereas in canon she is only in 5th place with 65 points.
  • The League, here The Villain Consortium, since they are composed of a very competent and deadly crew.
• Adaptational Diversity: Class 1-A is more inclusive and balanced than in canon thanks to a few girls being moved over to this version of the class - in fact, there's one more girl in the class than the boys, making it 11 girls and 9 boys instead of canon's 6 girls and 14 boys.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Two In-Universe examples - both Tenko and Itsuka end up dyeing their hair black; Tenko to hide his pale white hair and not remind himself of what happened, and Itsuka to disguise herself for the Sports Festival when the teachers believe that Eri's caretaker may have seen her taking the little girl away.
• Adaptational Expansion:
  • During the USJ arc, all the students/groups of students get sections dedicated to showing them fighting off the villains in the areas they were warped to, and how they counteracted against the Trigger the villains took to overwhelm them.
  • The Preparations arc, from Chapters 19 to 24, sets the gap between the USJ and the Sports Festival.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • In the original series Tomura Shigaraki is one of the main villains. However since he was saved by All Might before being corrupted by All for One, he still goes by his original name Tenko Shimura, while working as a teacher's assistant.
  • Himiko Toga is a hero student, a member of the Big Three, and works as an assistant nurse to Recovery Girl.
  • Toya Todoroki is a Pro Hero and not a psychotic arsonist bent on killing his family. Although he is a Big Brother Bully towards Shoto but only Shoto. However, the fact he works for the Hero Commission, who is confirmed to be corrupt a villainous, makes him a Nominal Hero at best.
  • Zigzagged with Chizome Akaguro. At first sight, it seems like he became a hero, going by his former vigilante alias, Stendhal, and is the biggest expert when it comes to the Hero Killer. Except, after meeting up with Tensei to discuss their hunt against the villain, he takes a drop of the speedster's blood for some unknown purpose. Time will tell if Akaguro is actually playing his fellow heroes by acting as a double agent or something not so nefarious.
  • An Anti-Hero example with Gentle and La Brava, who are vigilantes working alongside Knuckleduster, Pop☆Step and Soga Kugisaki. Ippan Josei, the Ordinary Girl, also works with them. Atsushiro Sako, also known as Mr. Compress, and Rapt Tokage are also members of the team, Compress, however, has gone missing during a mission.
  • Played With when it comes to Hawks. Hawks was already a Hero in canon, but he was still forced to go through with the orders of the HSPC, even the ones morally questionable, like killing Twice. Here, he is firmly working against the Hero Commission, alongside the Vigilantes.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Bakugo, of course. Here, he bullies Ochako as well, because he believes he is the only student from Aldera destined to go to U.A. He also grows to hate Itsuka because he can't stand the thought of someone being better than him at anything.
  • Nighteye. Not only does he constantly harass Itsuka to make her give One For All to Mirio, but he also sends poor Bubble Girl to spy on her during the beach training. Later, he brings Gran Torino to spar with her to make her feel unworthy of being All Might's successor, and when an accident happens during the session (Gran Torino kicked a car and almost crushed Ochako), he blames Itsuka for it.
  • Monoma and Shinso as well. Not only they are openly antagonistic towards Itsuka before the Festival, but Monoma claims he will gladly sabotage their team if it means helping someone from 1-B getting to the next round. The only thing that stops him from doing so is the threat of Itsuka and Yuyu kicking his ass. Of course, as soon as the opportunity presents itself, he goes along and attempts to get rid of both her, Izuku, and Ochako so 1-B students can make it to the third event. Shinso openly brainwashes Itsuka into attacking her classmates, only failing because One for All snapped her out of it.
• Adaptational Karma: It's made pretty clear after his horrible behavior in the Sports Festival that Katsuki will not be getting away with his behavior, unlike canon. Come Chapter 34, U.A.'s teachers have finally decided to simply demote him down to the general studies course once their attempts to help him fall flat, making it clear that he has no way to get back into the Hero Course. Word of God also reveals that in addition to being expelled from the hero course but stuck in general studies, his costume and support items have been confiscated in the event of vigilante-ism, and he has received a month's worth of detentions on behavior and regulated therapy with Hound Dog. But seeing as he wouldn't care about those, he wouldn't mention them.
• Adaptational Modesty: Downplayed in that she still has the same costume as in canon, but Momo's hero costume comes with the addition of a zipper that covers her up when her Quirk is not in use.
• Adaptational Name Change: Several Hero names go through changes:
  • As the Flashfoward showed, Izuku picks "Elemental Hero: Spark" instead of "Deku".
  • Mina chooses "Alien Hero: Venus" instead of "Pinky".
  • Kyoka goes by "Hearing Hero: Amplifier".
  • Nejire picks "Spiraling Hero: Fae" instead of "Nejire-Chan".
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Tenko Shimura by a substantial amount. Whereas he's embittered and nihilistic in canon, plotting the downfall of hero society, here he is presented as a likable, dorky guy who has a genuine desire to help students. It's rather justified, seeing as Tenko was rescued by All Might before All for One could corrupt him.
• Adaptational Protagonist: Both Ochako Uraraka and Itsuka Kendou are depicted as sharing Izuku's role as the main protagonist, and Nejire Hadou and Melissa Shield take Bakugou's role as the deuteragonists.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Ochako, Itsuka, Setsuna, Mina, and Yui are shown to be bisexual in this story, as opposed to canon's silence on the matter.
  • Thirteen, meanwhile, is confirmed to be aromantic.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Instead of One for All, Izuku has a Shock and Awe Quirk called Spark, that allows him to shoot lightning from his hands. However, it eventually turns out to be a case of Power Misidentification. As it turns out, Spark also displays Elemental Absorption capabilities, with Izuku successfully copying Todoroki's ice and using it against Bakugo during their match.
  • While she retains Rewind, Eri also has some kind of secondary Quirk, simply referred to as "light", that can counter act Rewind's effects.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Nine mentions that the Hero Commission is still in the business of killing people they deem a threat before they become too powerful (whether by Lady Nagant, Hawks, or somebody else, that is to be seen). It would sound far-fetched given his Unreliable Narrator status if it wasn't for the fact that Nezu mentioned that the HSPC is purposefully withholding information from heroes that are not affiliated with them (such as the Trigger theft, and the murder of the two heroes that were blamed on Stain, both of which were committed by the Consortium). President Kanshi Shiryoku confirms that the Commission killed any person who tried to snoop around Nagant's fake retirement story. That's also not to mention how they are all clearly in the Inner Circle, and by extension All For One's, pocket, and have no problems with hiring amoral mercenaries like Wolfram and Beros to act as their enforcers.
  • Camie Utsushimi. Rather than the ditzy but still well-meaning Genki Girl from Shiketsu High who wants to become a hero, this Camie is the newest recruit of the Villain Consortium, using her Quirk to spy on the members of Class 1-A and stalk them, and only wears a Shiketsu cap to camouflage on the streets. However, Chapter 42 complicates this by revealing that she's actually being possessed by the Queen Bee.
  • Shuichi Iguchi/Spinner is an agent of the Hero Commission here, and is Nagant's handler. He's not afraid of threatening her and holding her at gunpoint, either.
  • An Anti-Villain example. Rody Soul is a member of Humarise working directly under a Flect Turn, and complicit in several of their criminal activities. That said, it's clear he only agrees to be part of said schemes to help provide for his younger siblings and it's deeply disturbed by Flect's ruthlessness. It's made clear that Rody doesn't serve Flect out of any kind of genuine loyalty, but fear of what he'll do the rest of his family after framing his father for the terrorist attacks.
  • Another Anti-Villain example are the Isamu students, except for Fujimi and Habuko, who clearly comply with orders from the Hero Commission school out of fear.
  • Inasa Yoarashi and Seiji Shishikura only pretend to be Shiketsu students here, and are members of a gang trying to get in the good graces of the Villain Consortium.
• Adapted Out: Todoroki, Aoyama, Ojiro, Koda, Sato, Mineta, and Hagakure are absent from Class 1-A, with their spots being taken by Itsuka, Nejire, Setsuna, Yui, Reiko, Pony, and Yosetsu. With that in mind, it's implied that most of them may have just been switched over to Class 1-B, as both Todoroki and Ojiro are seen there - except for Aoyama, who's revealed by All for One to have not made it past the entrance exam.
  • Fully averted for Shouto by the time of the Sports Festival arc, in which he serves an important role as Itsuka's rival and the antagonist of her storyline.
• Adults Are Useless: Aizawa recognized Bakugou as a potential red flag, but prevented Midnight from dragging him into therapy with Hound Dog as he had his own plan for improving his behavior - namely, throwing him at Izuku and Ochako and forcing them to work together. It backfires spectacularly, and the parents of the Trio give Aizawa a scathing What the Hell, Hero? speech for it.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Just like in canon Ochako refers to Izuku as Deku, in addition, Izuku refers to Ochako as 'Occhan'.
  • Taiyo calls Ochako "Chipmunk".
  • Both Itsuka and Ochako have a habit of referring to Izuku as "our boy". Izuku, for his turn, calls them "my girls", and they don't mind.
  • Much to Fumikage's annoyance and embarrassment, Dark Shadow calls Reiko "Rei-Rei".
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Izuku is utterly terrified of his Quirk after its manifestation resulted in Katsuki and Inko being injured. A lot of Izuku's Character Development involves him getting a handle on his unstable Quirk.
• Age Lift: Nejire is a first-year and part of class 1-A, while in the original she's a third-year student.
• All for Nothing:
  • Aizawa wanted Katsuki to get a lesson in humility, and he chose to do so by having Izuku and Ochako take the blunt of Bakugou's wrath during the Sports Festival, believing that if they beat Bakugou or at least make him fight for it, it would serve to Break the Haughty. Not only does it only result in Izuku and Ochako having to drop out of the festival due to their injuries, Bakugou's destructive personality and performance causes Nezu to pull him from the Hero Course entirely.
  • Played for Laughs example. Nejire spent the entire night before the beach party making schemes for the main trio to have the day for themselves and finally come up with their feelings. Except, all of it turned out unnecessary since they already talked and gone through a Relationship Upgrade on the morning before the party. While upset at first, Nejire quickly gets over it by getting excited over this new development.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Slice is arguably a deconstruction of this trope, as she is fanatically loyal to Nine, who doesn't seem above gaslighting and using her to his own advantage, while she practically worships the ground he walks on and his ideas to a new world ruled by the strong.
• All Men Are Perverts: The boys of 1A and 1B discuss their beautiful classmates during the Beach Episode, much to Izuku's discomfort when the conversation turns to his (unknown to them) girlfriends and love interests.
• All Women Are Lustful:
  • Setsuna and Yui, especially Yui. Those two never miss an opportunity to tease or thirst over someone they think is hot whenever the situation presents itself.
  • Himiko, who never misses a chance to tease anyone, especially Izuku and Ochako in her provocative outfits, or drag students to make out in the infirmary.
  • Itsuka and Ochako ultimately turn themselves into this after their trio goes through a Relationship Upgrade. Once Itsuka and Izuku get to make out after kissing each other for the first time, she is eager to feel Izuku as much as she can, with All Might's alarm being the only thing preventing her from escalating their make-out session into something spicier. And once Ochako finds out about it, she is extremely annoyed over not being involved in said make-out.
    Ochako: Yer both hot as hell! Fuckin' hell, Deku! Do ya know how fuckin' sexy ye've gotten?! I wanna smush my fuckin' face against yer abs, yew comin' outta tha' water back las' summer and takin' off yer shirt is fuckin' burned into my fuckin' memory! And Itsuka! Yer so sexy, it makes me so mad! Do yeh know how many times I've looked at yer ass?! I just wanna touch it and hug it and - and - Deku! Did'cha grab her butt or did she grab yers?!
    Izuku: I - uh - might've - touched her butt.
    Ochako: Yeh bastard! I'm so fuckin' jealous!
    Izuku: I - well, you - you also grabbed my butt! That happened! You grabbed my butt!
    Ochako: Well, yeh were the one tha' pinned me to a pole! Who kisses like that?! Like you were seducin' me!
    Izuku: I - I didn't mean to turn you on!
    Ochako ''Yeh didn't turn me on!''
• All Your Powers Combined: All for One is a given considering his powerset, but Nine is a downplayed version of this, only having two additional Quirks in addition to his own destructive one. This actually gives All Might the hint that All for One survived their encounter several years ago.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Izuku and Ochako have a moment in the forest during their planning for the second round of the sports festival, only to be interrupted by Mei.
  • Nine and Curious almost have a kiss before she gets interrupted by someone from the MLA.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The author has confirmed that the setting of Ignited Spark is this, and Chapter 39 reveals why - one of the main differences of this universe is that All For One came across a person who he stole a precognitive quirk from, and discovered every possible future ends in his defeat. So he goes ahead and manipulates the future to end in his victory, which is implied to have caused a butterfly effect that completely changed several characters' backstories.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Nine is a serious threat on his own, but he and the rest of his Consortium know that All For One is in a league of his own, and Slice points out that if Nine wishes to become the next future king, it's not the heroes or All Might or Class 1-A he'll have to overcome - it's All For One himself.
• Always Someone Better: Mirio seems to be set up as this to Itsuka, according to Sir Nighteye, although his bias doesn't quite make him a good judge of character. However, in the one fight they do have, Mirio is shown easily beating Itsuka, giving Nighteye some credit for his belief that Mirio would be a superior candidate.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
  • After their conversation with All Might about the beach, Inko and Tenohira, Itsuka's mother, immediately pull out the baby books to show off Izuku and Itsuka as infants. The two teenagers can only lie down and practically die of embarrassment for the next hour. Later, the two of them and Miwa find Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka sleeping in a cuddle pile together, and take several pictures of the sleeping teenagers, much to Izuku's mortification.
  • Nejire's mother Mimi wastes no time embarrassing Nejire about her crush on Izuku, saying she already made plans for their wedding and having babies, much to Nejire's horror.
• Amazonian Beauty: Working for ten months on the beach lifting garbage and training at the Kendous' dojo means that Itsuka and Ochako are quite muscular, with Mina even calling Ochako an Amazon when they see her getting changed for their Battle Trials, much to Ochako's embarrassment.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The Aoyamas. It's mentioned by All for One that Yuuga did not succeed in passing the entrance exam, and that the family learned what happens when they disappoint him. Time will tell if he killed them for their failure or something worse. Chapter 26 reveals that Yuuga was placed in the hospital in a similar state that All For One's victims were in, indicating what his punishment might have been. Chapter 36 reveals that the entire family was left catatonic as punishment for his failure.
  • All for One's situation. All Might says that his body was cremated after their fight, but somehow the villain is very much alive and completely healed from his injuries.
  • The situation with Jin and Twice. The person on the vigilante's side has canon Twice's Split Personality and Immediate Self-Contradiction speaking patterns, yet, we clearly see Jin Bubaigawara, mentally stable as well, as one as a henchman to Daikoku Yaoyorozu, and Jin also has a cloning Quirk. Whether they are going through a case of Decomposite Character or Twice is actually one of Jin's clones that survived his Ambiguous Clone Ending, has yet to be revealed.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Both Itsuka and Ochako play with this, as the Flash Forward shows them both in a relationship with Izuku, but in the past, they both react to their Big Damn Kiss with confusion and conflict:
    • Itsuka, in particular, lampshades this as she thinks about this kiss, pointing out that she had never considered girls in a romantic light, and is clearly conflicted about what it could mean. Chapter 19 later has her fantasizing about both Izuku and Ochako when alone, which causes her no small amount of frustration and confusion.
    • Ochako, on the other hand, is even more ambiguous - while she is also confused and conflicted by the kiss, it appears to be more about her specific feelings for Itsuka, and her inner dialogue doesn't seem to be unopposed to seeing Itsuka in a more romantic light, especially in contrast to Itsuka's own thoughts about Ochako. Not to mention Ochako later lets Himiko kiss her while they are alone together, and, despite not feeling many fireworks, mentally mentions that she would like to kiss her more.
  • Pony confirms that she had checked out the butts of everyone in class, and later begins dating Shouji, but she never clarified that she checked out only the guys. From what Setsuna suggests, she was also looking at the girls as well.
  • Eijirou. While he has a Ship Tease with Mina (she even inspired his Expository Hairstyle Change) and they are said to be living together in the flashforward, he seems to be seriously questioning his sexuality upon seeing Mirio's naked body during his spar with Izuku.
• Ambiguously Evil:
  • Teko Kendou, Itsuka's grandfather. He's shown having enough authority with the Shie Hassaikai to gather information about the Villain Consortium and doesn't seem to care about whether or not people get hurt in the process, but there's nothing to indicate that he's part of the yakuza, or that he even has sinister intentions.
  • Stendhal. Whether he is a hero who has been in pursuit of the Hero Killer for years or is Dirty Cop who pretends to be so while secretly acting as the villain, has yet to be clarified.
• Ambition Is Evil: Nine has great ambitions to become the 'Future King', and create a world where the strong rule over the weak. And as shown during the USJ, there's no low that he won't swoop to to get what he wants.
• American Accents: Pony is a downplayed version of this trope most of the time, seeing as she merely sprinkles English words in her dialogue, but Yosetsu sitting on her after they crash land in the conflagration zone and Izuku and All Might tricking her by dressing All Might up as a villain attacking her class has her yelling at him in a heavy Texan accent.
• Amicable Exes:
  • Setsuna and Mina used to date in middle school, but apparently broke it off since both of them wanted the relationship to go in different directions. Regardless, they're both shown still being close friends, with Setsuna affectionately calling Mina her 'side-piece'.
  • Hisashi and Inko are this in the present. They are separated, since it is too difficult to maintain a marriage from across another continent, but are still very close, with Hisashi considering her his best friend and even shipping her with Toshinori.
• Analogy Backfire: While meeting with Overhaul, Nine once again brings up his speech about Might Makes Right and how he and his followers are lions while anyone weaker than them are monkeys. This time however, Teko makes sure to point out how flawed this point of view is, since lions are not the most powerful animals in the jungle, that much stronger animals like elephants and hippopotamus can just as easily scare or kill a lion, so Nine's entire line of thought only works in way to make himself a lot more powerful than he actually is. And when things don't go his way he's just as likely to run with his tail between his legs.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: After sixteen chapters of focusing on Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako, and occasionally Nejire, Chapter 17 explores the thoughts of the rest of Class 1-A in response to the events of the USJ, taking time to explore how they feel about the invasion and their relationships with the other students.
• And I Must Scream: The Aoyama family's unfortunate fate after Yuuga failed to get into UA's hero course.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: Inverted. During Itsuka's Love Declaration to Izuku, she describes him as "this amazing guy who showed when she was pretty beaten up and never failed to inspire her to be better and is always there to lift her up".
• Anger Born of Worry: This tends to be Ochako's reaction when Izuku does something stupid or keeps something secret from her. She discusses this with Itsuka in Chapter 7, explaining that, as they'd been all each other had for years, she knows that she gets overprotective of him and feels guilty for immediately jumping to anger. When Izuku comes out of the hospital room after nearly being beaten to death by Hood, Ochako immediately pins him up against the wall in anger, only for her to succumb to tears.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Setsuna's younger sister, Sera, seems to enjoy making fun of Setsuna while in front of her other friends.
• Apple of Discord: Class 1-A all get along and are friends with each other - with the one exception: Bakugou. This is something the teachers quickly realize and want to try to avert his lone wolf and antagonistic behavior in hopes that his presence doesn't fracture Class 1-A's unity.
• Appropriated Appellation:
  • Izuku's hero name "Spark" was originally a case of In-Universe Memetic Mutation, which embarrassed him to no end. However, once he is recognized by Katsuma, he started to see it as recognizable, catchy, and inspiring, eventually embracing it for good.
  • Tenko didn't know exactly what to name himself, so he just went with his first name. By the time he came up with a Meaningful Name, "Duststorm" (which fits both his Quirk and nerdy personality), his original choice was already well known and approved by the general public.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: When Itsuka reveals the secret of One for All, Ochako calls bullshit, seeing as Quirks that can be passed on from person to person is impossible. Itsuka, for her part, gives her that.
• Arc Villain: Each small arc has its own adversaries, no matter how big or small, for the trio to attempt to overcome:
  • It's Downplayed in the first three chapters, but Chimera essentially acts as the villain with the Sludge Villain being The Heavy, overseeing the villain's attempts to defeat All Might.
  • The Training for U.A. arc has Sir Nighteye acting this way, being Itsuka's biggest critic and at one point bringing Gran Torino along to try and convince All Might to make Mirio the true successor.
    • Nighteye seems to be set up to serve as this again in the Heights Alliance arc, telling Mirio about One for All in an effort to get his apprentice to help convince Itsuka to give it up.
  • The Attending U.A. arc has Bakugou acting as his pleasant self during the Battle Trial.
  • The USJ arc has the Villain Consortium attacking the USJ.
  • The Preparations Arc is another downplayed example, but Overhaul essentially serves as a Greater-Scope Villain once it's clear Teko has some connection to the Shie Hassaikai and Eri comes into the picture. Otherwise, Camie Utsushimi acts as the Hidden Villain of the arc, initially approaching Izuku and Nejire as a friendly student before being revealed as the Villain Consortium's latest member.
  • The U.A. Sports Festival arc has Shouto essentially acting as the direct antagonist to Itsuka, while Izuku is forced to deal with Bakugou. Monoma and Shinso are also openly antagonistic towards them as well.
  • The Heights Alliance arc has Kanshi Shiryoku, a.k.a. Intelli, acting as the antagonist, while Nighteye returns with Mirio in tow to hassle Itsuka over One for All.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • By the end of the USJ arc, Nine and Izuku are officially this to each other.
  • Slice has become one to Ochako by the end of the arc as well.
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Nighteye reveals to Izuku that Mirio was supposed to be All Might's true successor, he attempts to point out how superior Mirio is in comparison to Itsuka, in the hopes that he could convince Izuku to take his side. However, Izuku ends up shutting Nighteye up with one response to Nighteye's comparisons:
  Izuku: She's still worthy.
• Arranged Marriage: Momo and Shouto are revealed to be in one - their parents arranged an engagement between their children when they were both young, with them posed to be married when they both become twenty and are ranked in the Hero Billboards. Complicating this, however, is the fact that Momo and Shouto's relationship has become cold over the years.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy:
  • Bakugo and Todoroki serve as this for their respective classes. Both are incredibly powerful, skilled, and talented individuals, ranked amongst the best students in the first years. Both are also abysmally insufferable, with Bakugo being a quick-to-anger manchild who doesn't take well when things don't go his way or when someone seems to be better than him in literally anything, while Todoroki is cold heart jerk who thinks he can succeed by using half of his power and doesn't seeing any of his classmates other than Itsuka as worthy of his attention.
  • Monoma and Shinso are examples where they make up for the "Kung-Fu" part by doubling down on the "Arrogant". While Monoma's Power Copying and Shinso's Compelling Voice are powerful, even if not very flashy like many Quirks, both boys express a massive case of Inferiority Superiority Complex, often blurring the line between jerkassery and straight-up evil with their actions, especially during the Sports Festival.
• The Atoner: After getting several The Reason You Suck Speeches from other different characters, Aizawa finally comes to realize how horrible he's been treating both Izuku and Ochako, and formally apologizes to them both. From that point on, he tries harder to be a better teacher to his students.
• Attention Whore:
  • Bakugo, per usual. He constantly demands to be the center of attention as if the world, especially Izuku, owes him everything.
  • Nine is annoyed that All Might is more concerned about helping the mortally injured students when the hero arrives at the USJ than paying attention and answering his taunts.
• Author Appeal: The author has admitted in the past to enjoy Itsuka Kendou as one of his favorite characters, and has frequently shipped her with Izuku in previous fics, and also enjoys Izuku and Ochako as the main pairing. This story was effectively a way to combine both.
• Awesome by Analysis:
  • Both Izuku and Itsuka come up with viable strategies within minutes of being paired against each other in the battle trial, correctly guessing each other's plans and working to counteract them.
  • Itsuka also quickly comes up with several plans and counter-plans during the invasion of the USJ when she, Ochako, and Kyouka are surrounded by the Trigger henchmen.
  • Nine himself also counts as this - he is very quick to realize that Aizawa is the one shutting down people's Quirks, quickly figuring out how his Quirk works, and advises his henchmen on how to counter the pro hero. He later is smart enough to realize that All Might is bluffing them after defeating the Nomu, and attempts one final strike on him while he's almost down for the count.
  • Izuku is the one who realizes that the way One for All works is very similar to how Nejire described her own Quirk working and realizes that asking her for advice is how Itsuka can get a better grasp on how One for All works.
• Awkward Kiss:
  • Ochako and Itsuka share one in Chapter 15, having a long messy kiss before Izuku breaking out of the USJ's fire zone shook them out of it, and they're reduced to blushing, stuttering messes.
  • In Chapter 34, Izuku and Ochako, similar to her kiss with Itsuka, end up getting lost in their First Kiss very quickly, both of them going from lightly smooching to hardcore making out within seconds, and is only stopped when Ochako ends up grabbing Izuku's butt in her passion, causing both of them to quickly snap out of it and run as fast as they can away from each other in their humiliation.
• Ax-Crazy: Battling Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka eventually causes Hood to completely lose his mind, attacking friend and foe alike as he further mutates. He eventually has to be warped out of the USJ by Kurogiri to make sure he doesn't finish with the three teenagers and move on to the rest of the Consortium.
• Babies Ever After: In the Flash Forward, Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka are a married throuple with Eri as their adopted child. The Flash Forward in Chapter 36 also reveals that one of the girls (implied to be Ochako) is pregnant.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: When the trio tends to be split up, they end up becoming this, with Ochako and Itsuka paired together against Chimera in the USJ and later Izuku and Ochako working together during the Sports Festival.
• Backstory: Chapter 2 goes into how Izuku met Ochako, how his Quirk manifested, and how it injured Katsuki and Inko.
• Bad Boss: The Villain Consortium's leaders are this to their underlings. Nine flat-out admits to Aizawa that he's going to throw his henchmen at All Might to slow him down enough so that Nomu and Hood will have enough time to pin him down.
• Bad Liar: Izuku and Ochako are awful liars when it comes to One For All, barely able to stammer out a lie when in front of other people and talking to All Might subtly about it. Itsuka frequently rolls her eyes whenever they even struggle to come up with a response that isn't honest.
• Bad Powers, Good People: A recurring theme in the story.
  • Izuku's Lightning Quirk is highly destructive and when it manifested, he seriously injured Bakugo and Inko. Nevertheless, he’s still an All-Loving Hero who wishes to save everyone.
  • Tenko Shimura's Quirk is still Decay. And while he still killed his abusive father, and accidentally killed all his family save for Hana, he works as a rescue hero alongside Thirteen.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Nejire pulls Itsuka aside before the third event, she initially believes that Nejire wants to talk about her feelings for Izuku, but is caught completely off guard when the curious girl questions her about One for All.
  • The second Flash Forward reveals that Izuku is married to someone other than Ochako and Itsuka, with the wording vague on who it is other than calling them the fourth member of Team Clover. One would assume that Nejire is the fourth member due to her Ship Tease with both Izuku and Itsuka, but the end of the chapter reveals that Melissa is actually the fourth member of their polyamorous relationship.
• Bastard Understudy: Nine has shades of this in his deal with All For One. AFO appears to be grooming Nine to become the next Future King by slowly but surely supplying him with new quirks, only for Nine's private conversations with Slice to indicate that he's well aware that AFO is withholding details of his plan, and plans to eventually betray him.
• Batman Gambit: This is essentially both Izuku's plans for the second round of the Sports Festival:
  • His first plan has Izuku running around with the 10,000,000 points to get everyone's attention and chase them, while the rest of his team sneaks around, snabs other points, and brings them to Ochako so that they can pass through to the next round even without their massive amount of points. This works almost effortlessly, with everyone paying little attention to their or Itsuka's teams in favor of going after Izuku's points. The only one who isn't fooled is Itsuka, who sends Nejire to go and find Ochako and take her points.
  • When Ochako's points get snabbed, however, and brings them down to zero, Izuku launches into their backup plan: engineering an accident that would send him launching towards Ochako, and when they crashed together, he gave her the 10,000,000 points as they crashed into a nearby pond, allowing them to use their wet hair to cover the headbands and disguise that there was a switch. And naturally, when Shouto, Monoma, and Shinsou arrive, they're too focused on Izuku to realize there was a switch, and once they do, the game ends with Izuku's team the victors.
• Beach Episode: Chapter 37 has Class 1A and 1B celebrating the end of the sports festival on Dagobah Beach, complete with swimsuits, volleyball, barbequing, and teenage hookups.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • The basis of the Trio's friendship. Izuku and Ochako become friends due to the implication that they're the first kids who wanted to befriend each other (Izuku having been bullied by Katsuki and his gang, and Ochako not getting along with her old classmates due to her clear poverty). And Izuku assuring Itsuka and defending her from Sir Nighteye's criticisms during their first meeting is the first clear sign of friendship between them.
  • Nejire's infatuation towards Izuku also has this going on: it's all but said that Izuku is the first person outside Yuuyu to not treat Nejire's oddities as something to avoid, and for that, her fascination (and eventual feelings) grow stronger with each interaction.
• Been There, Shaped History: Chapter 39 reveals that All for One stealing the precognition Quirk was what allowed him to cause the Point of Divergence that led to the story's current setting. By looking into the five possible futures, the villain was able to develop countermeasures, such as stealing Super Regenaration before his fight against All Might on Endor Forest.
• Berserk Button:
  • Bakugo's existence is this to Itsuka. Having heard from Izuku about his abusive and Jerkass behavior, meeting him in person only makes her hate him even more.
  • Being called weak is a major one to Nine. After Izuku presses it during the USJ, Nine sends Hood to beat him to an inch of his life.
  • In the same vein, insulting or harming Nine is one to his colleagues, especially Slice. After Izuku hits him with a lightning bolt to save All Might, Slice is enraged and only fails to kill the student because Himiko arrives and stabs her in the shoulder just in time.
  • Izuku's is simple: Don't touch Ochako. Hood attempting to crush her to death prompts him to wake up from unconsciousness and blast the Nomu with enough electricity it would have killed him had he not had a regenerative Quirk. The same goes for Itsuka. After Monoma attacks her during the Tag game, Izuku enters a state of Tranquil Fury and promises to kick the crap out of the 1-B copier.
  • To Mei, is insulting her babies. When Nejire innocently says that her items are nowhere as cool as the Full Gauntlet, Mei snaps and tells Momo to blast the flying girl out of the sky with her cannon. The same goes for Melissa, when Mei goes on trash-talking the Full Gauntlet during her match with Izuku, the American inventor can barely contain her rage, which genuinely scares her father.
• Beta Couple: Besides the main trio, Tenya and Yui's relationship gets the second most focus, with both of them becoming aware of their feelings for each other much quicker than the trio.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • Ochako and Itsuka are the Betty and Veronica to Izuku's Archie. Incidentally, their hairstyles are switched, with Itsuka's being the lighter-haired one and Ochako the darker-haired one. Complicating this is that Itsuka and Ochako seem to begin to realize they share an attraction between each other as well. As the Flash Forward from Chapter 1 shows, it'll be ending as a throuple.
  • In a twist, this also applies between the two girls and Nejire, with Itsuka and Ochako as the Betties and Nejire as the Veronica to Izuku's Archie.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Itsuka is probably one of the nicest characters, but even she has limits. Especially when it comes to Bakugou - his attempt to get answers out of Izuku and Ochako, screaming while Nejire is obviously suffering from a concussion, prompts her to grab him by the face and very angrily tell him to shut the hell up.
  • Izuku is perhaps the kindest of the Trio, but seeing Hood attempting to kill Ochako makes him throw away all restraint and launch a bolt of lightning point blank into Hood's chest, with the full intent to kill him. It's only thanks to Hood's regenerative abilities that he survived.
  • Himiko keeps a very playful and easygoing personality, but she can become mortally dangerous when facing off villains. She immediately throws a knife at Slice when she arrives at the USJ.
  • Tenko is a very kindhearted and compassionate person, but seeing his mentor Thirteen mortally wounded at the USJ prompts him to launch a massive Decay wave against the villains that hurt her, with full intention to kill.
  • Setsuna. The line below explains better:
    Izuku: All those pokes and teases from before … all of those while trying to understand what it took to get a reaction out of him. This was … this was what Setsuna Tokage was capable of. He had never noticed it before, but … but quite honestly, she was probably one of the more dangerous members of their little group."
• Beyond the Impossible: This is the general reaction of All Might and Sir Nighteye when they discover the possibility of All for One's survival, with Nighteye mentioning the horrible state the body was in and that they specifically cremated the body to ensure his death.
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • Nine and his Villain Consortium are allied with All for One although Word of God confirms Nine as the main antagonist of the fic.
  • Another one seems to be forming between The Consortium and the Meta Liberation Army as of Chapter 30.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Nine and All For One serve as the main antagonists of the fic - a lot of the story focuses on Nine's rise to power and his ascension towards becoming the Future King, while All For One focuses on securing his new empire as the rulers of the new world, and his obsessions with getting One for All and his brother back from Itsuka.
• Big Brother Bully: Touya, full stop. He emotionally abuses Shouto, casually brings up their mother, and makes it clear that she didn't ask about her youngest son, and when Shouto states that he wants to make Touya proud, he merely scoffs and casts doubt that Shouto even could.
• Big Damn Heroes: Several in rapid succession occur in Chapter 16:
  • Ochako and Itsuka manage to rescue Izuku from Hood after the villain is about to finish him off, and both girls engage the monster, leading to ...
  • ... Izuku returns the favor once he wakes up, using his Quirk to blast Hood off of Ochako as he was attempting to crush her to death - but it's not enough to stop Hood from getting back up and leaping back into battle ...
  • ... until All Might makes his appearance, which forces Kurogiri to evacuate Hood, and All Might leaps into battle, beating away several villains and rescuing the trio. Slice manages to recapture them and hold them hostage, and Nomu manages to pin down All Might so that Kurogiri could give him a Portal Cut ...
  • ... and then the rest of the class, led by Momo, interfere, with Katsuki pinning down Kurogiri, Reiko, Tsuyu and Yui restraining Slice as she was holding Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka hostage, Eijirou and Denki pin down Mummy, Chimera is tackled by Fumikage and Dark Shadow, and Tenya kicks Nomu to distract him and let All Might slip away to continue the battle. All Might manages to defeat Nomu, but is weakened, and Nine prepares to finish him off with a lightning bolt ...
  • ... only for Izuku to hit him with a lightning bolt in return, forcing Nine and Slice to flee when the teachers finally arrive.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • Itsuka and Ochako share their first one with each other during the USJ.
  • The first kiss between Izuku and Ochako very quickly becomes this.
  • Izuku and Itsuka share their own in Chapter 36.
  • Inko and Toshinori also have one during All Might's confession of his true identity.
• Big Eater: Eri is this after being freed from Overhaul - she eats toast that Izuku makes her, pancakes that the Kendous make her, and even after that huge breakfast, eats some candy that Recovery Girl gives her during their checkup, and ends up eating candy apples and popcorn during the Sports Festival. It's a bit justified since Eri is implied to have lived on a poor diet under Overhaul's care, so she has a much bigger appetite.
• Big Fancy House: The polycule's dorm in the Heights Alliance area stands out as the fanciest one out all. Ochako straight up calls it a mansion. Appearently Nezu decided to spare no expanses when it came to the place where Eri would live, including a room exclusively for her to play, a garage big enough to fit three cars and a pool.
• Big Friendly Dog: Gūdo, Itsuka's Bernese Mountain Dog, is extremely excitable and friendly, and pretty much immediately warms up to any visitor that comes to their home. Ochako describes him as her favorite animal in the world and doesn't waste any time sliding up and cuddling with him whenever possible, to the point that she shows up to the dojo for her training an hour early just to play with him. And when Eri begins staying at the Kendou household, Gūdo pretty much immediately attaches himself to her.
• Big "WHAT?!": What all of Class 1-A shouts together when Aizawa casually informs them that no one is being expelled after his tests.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Izuku and Tenko pretty much immediately begin bonding when they meet, bonding through their shared love of heroes and All Might, and relating to each other over their shared pasts of being traumatized by their Quirks.
  • Izuku and Nejire as well, with both of them being outcasts in their middle schools (Izuku because of his Quirk injuring Katsuki, Nejire for her outgoing and curious personality), only having one friend to keep them company (Ochako for Izuku and Yuuyu for Nejire), and both of them clearly hiding a lot of sadness behind their smiles. It's so much that Izuku mentally compares himself to Nejire's plight and sees himself in her. The chapter itself is even called 'Birds of a Feather' to drive their similarities home.
  • Melissa and Ochako both have body issues concerning themselves, facing bullying from their classmates that doesn't make them feel any better about themselves. These issues allow Melissa to give Ochako genuine advice about her body in contrast to Itsuka and Himiko's attempts to make Ochako feel better about herself and allow both Melissa and Ochako to form a much stronger friendship between each other.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: It's mentioned between Chapters 6 and 7 that Izuku and Ochako completely forgot about Izuku's birthday until he got home from training at the beach, where he only barely had time to open his presents and eat the cake before he collapsed in exhaustion. Itsuka is incredibly salty about missing it even a month later.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Slice is capable of pulling a very convincing Nice Girl act when she wants to. When Ochako meets her disguised as a reporter one day before the USJ, she remarks that she was the nicest person amongst the sea of vultures surrounding the school.
  • Nobody suspects that the ditzy, flirtatious and gorgeous Camie is actually the newest member of the Consortium.
  • Shoto and his family are the only ones who know that beneath Toya's cheeky and laidback Nice Guy attitude lies a Big Brother Bully jerkass.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • The characters often go to a fast-food restaurant called WcDonald's.
  • Melissa watches the Sports Festival on Yap!Tube.
• Blatant Lies: Itsuka insists that Izuku stayed in a separate room when he stayed over after the USJ while the group chat they shared with Class 1-A teased them - while she, Ochako, and Izuku knew full well that he not only stayed in the same room, they ended up waking up cuddling.
• Blood Knight:
  • Deconstructed with Bakugo. The teachers point out that his willingness to jump into a fight with no regard for his or his teammates’ safety is an issue that needs to be addressed and curbed down before it gets out of control.
  • Slice is shown very excited during her fight against Eraserhead at the USJ.
  • Hood very quickly loses himself during the battle with Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka, eagerly launching himself into battle and thrilling whenever they show off some display of strength of power, eventually going completely Ax-Crazy.
  • Coming out of the USJ after defeating the Trigger Villains, Mirko is seen grinning from ear to ear.
  • Mirio is very excited to fight against Izuku, never mind the fact that his Quirk is extremely dangerous and he doesn't have good control over it.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The USJ arc is way more brutal than canon thanks to the Villain Consortium. Izuku is subjected to a merciless beatdown at the hands of Hood, and is left within an inch of his life with most of his body broken. Ochako and Itsuka, who were pushed to their limits in their fights against Chimera and his villain henchmen, also barely survive the fight against the High-End, and Nejire is almost drowned by the Trigger villains during her fight.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Nine, and by extension the Villain Consortium, seem to run on this. For Nine, he is legitimately frustrated that the strong don't rule over the weak and sees the suffering of Slice, Chimera, and Mummy as proof that those who deserve more don't get it, never mind the fact that at least two of his friends are criminals even before they joined the Consortium. To Nine, in a mix of pride and prejudice, power is all that matters, and those in higher positions who don't have that power are undeserving to rule.
• Book Dumb: Eijirou is mentioned to be fully prepared for the entrance exam - the physical part, that is, not the written part. When the Kendousquad take the exam and comes out in high spirits, Eijirou is the only one who wishes he had studied a bit harder.
• Both Sides Have a Point: All Might and Nighteye's argument about One for All and who the successor should be is this. On the one hand, Nighteye does have a point that Mirio is prepared now for the Quirk, having been trained over the last few years and is at the top of his game, not to mention the possible survival of All For One meaning that Itsuka, who only recently got the Quirk and is still struggling to understand how it works, is ill-prepared to face him. But on All Might's side, he is right that Itsuka only did just get the Quirk and deserves a chance to learn how it works rather than rip it away and give it to Mirio because of Nighteye's biases, and Gran Torino notes Nighteye's unfairness since Mirio was just as bad at controlling his own Quirk as Itsuka is.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: The training Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka did in Teko's dojo included several martial arts training so that they were not limited to long-ranged attacks and could at least fight without their Quirks. Izuku gets to show this off during the battle trial, fighting Itsuka without using his Quirk and being able to at least keep her on her toes.
• Break the Haughty:
  • After Nighteye blames Itsuka for an accident on the beach that wasn't even her fault (Gran Torino clearly takes the blame for what happened), both Gran and All Might give Nighteye a complete dress-down and make it clear that they will not tolerate him on the beach anymore. Nighteye, for his part, realizes that he took things too far, but remains resolute that Mirio would be the superior candidate.
  • Like in canon, Shinso smugly makes a declaration of war against 1-A before the Sports Festival. Unlike canon, thanks to Itsuka, no one is affected by it, since she points out the teachers will not just kick a student out for underperforming at the event, leaving Shinso speechless.
  • Deconstructed during the Sports Festival. Aizawa intended to exploit this during the second and third events of the Sports Festival in order to curb Bakugo's selfish and insufferable behavior by forcing him to work alongside Izuku and Ochako, but not only does it make the arrogant blonde even more aggressive and insufferable, it gets both other students nearly maimed during their match at the Third Round.
  • Shinso and Monoma go through this during Chapter 30. Shinso gets one shot by Todoroki during their match, while Monoma is easily knocked out by Itsuka during their match.
  • After over forty chapters, Nighteye finally gets brought down a peg when Mirio makes it clear that he doesn't want One for All, with the pro hero unable to even get out a counterargument, and ends up leaving the Kendou household in disgrace.
• Breather Episode:
  • Chapter 19. After three intense chapters of the USJ Invasion and two more of dealing with the repercussions of the attack, this one is set during the main characters’ day off, mostly focused on relationship building and the main trio recovering from the event.
  • The Clover Rising arc (Chapters 34-36) as well as Chapter 37, covering the beach party, act as an extended example of it after the Sports Festival.
• Brick Joke:
  • When first meeting All Might, Ochako is shocked that he would dump two perfectly good bottles of soda to imprison the sludge villain and has him pour its contents into the empty water bottles in her backpack, with All Might letting her keep them. Later that night at dinner, Izuku is confused as to why they were drinking soda out of water bottles.
  • When trying to lift Ochako's spirits, Itsuka mentions the possibility of having Izuku record a video of Ochako flipping off her classmates at Aldera High. After the entrance exam, Ochako sends the video to their group chat.
    Itsuka: ... uraraka don't take this the wrong way but i love you more than life itself-
    Ochako: ;)
  • When she was being drowned at the bottom of the lake in the USJ, one of the things Nejire wished for as she fought to survive was a bridal carry from Izuku. In Chapter 24 she gets her wish after getting knocked around by Mirio and needing to be carried to the changing room - but due to her possibly suffering a concussion, she was too out of it to properly enjoy.
  • During the entrance exam, Izuku went to town on one of the robots, with one of their fallen crying out for their fallen comrade and saying that he was close to retirement. Come the Sports Festival, the robots recognize Izuku and immediately declare vengeance.
    Robot: It is him - the murderer of Villain Bot Serial Number 1678323!
    Ochako: The ... murderer of who?
    Izuku: I ... I don't even know.
  • Throughout the Sports Festival, Itsuka is mentioned as feeling absolutely exhausted and just wanting a chance to sleep. She finally gets her wish in Chapter 34, passing out on Izuku's bed without meaning to and being unfortunately left there while Izuku, Ochako, and Katsuki have their confrontation.
• Bring It: Itsuka pretty much tells the students who came to intimidate them for the Sports Festival this, with the rest of Class 1-A jumping on to make sure that they knew that they would not be surrendering their seats to anyone.
• Bully Hunter: Izuku's been noted to have to hold Ochako back from fighting his bullies, and Itsuka is frequently mentioned as having stood up to and beat up a few bullies back in middle school.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Itsuka and Ochako attempt this against Chimera during the USJ, but he is smart enough to not fall for their taunts... at least until Nejire causes the tsunami and floods the whole building, then he decides he had enough of them and tries to kill both of them alongside Momo and Kyouka.
  • Izuku decides is a good idea to push Nine's Berserk Button and call him weak. This prompts Nine to order Hood to kill him at that moment.
  • In order to distract Mei while Ochako shuts down the force field drone protecting her during their match, Izuku decides to smash her Berserk Button and says that the Full Gauntlet alone is cooler than all of Mei's inventions together. It works, painfully well.
  • Deconstructed with Monoma and Shinso during the Festival. Their I Shall Taunt You tactics fail completely against opponents who already know (like Itsuka and Nejire against Monoma) or an opponent who doesn't care about whatever insult they have to say (like Shoto against Shinso). Result? Both boys are easily defeated during their matches.
  • Nine seems to be repeatedly on the receiving end of this trope, with the lieutenants of the Meta Liberation Army laughing at him in his face over his defeat at the hands of Izuku. Re-Destro, sensing that Nine is about to hit his Rage Breaking Point (which would be counteractive to their attempts to ally with the Villain Consortium) very quickly moves to avert this trope at the last minute.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played for Laughs during the Sports Festival, in which the robots declare vengeance on Izuku for a robot he destroyed during the entrance exam, but due to the high-stress situation, Izuku has no idea what they're talking about.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Bubble Girl always seems to get the short end of the stick at the Nighteye agency, ordered to spy on Dagobah Beach in a bush, where she gets various scratches and itches, and later has to climb into the wreckage of the mountain zone at the USJ to take pictures for Sir Nighteye. She has more often than not stated that she is starting to hate her job.
  • Denki also seems to be this, frequently being the butt of the joke (whether it be Kyouka ordering him around, Denki's Quirk paling in comparison to Izuku's, and being tossed around by Katsuki and carried out the window of the building they were fighting villains in by Eijiou - and that means falling over six stories to the ground).
• Butterfly of Doom: All For One meeting a woman with a precognitive quirk, which he steals and uses on himself, is implied to be the reason that things are radically different in this universe. Had All For One not encountered this woman, things might have played out the same as in canon - instead, he gets a vision of his defeat, and moves to change the future, and the lives of several characters.
• Call-Back: When meeting Tenko to get advice on how to overcome a mental block, Tenko advised Izuku to picture someone, specifically mentioning Ochako, in a state of danger in which Izuku could only use his Quirk to save her. This ends up coming true in Chapter 16, with Izuku using his Quirk to blast Hood off of Ochako when the High-End was attempting to crush her to death.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After revealing he lied about being on board with Nighteye's scheme to get One for All, Mirio calls his mentor out on his biased attitude, saying they need to work together against the upcoming danger All for One is bringing.
• Canon Character All Along:
  • Chapter 32 reveals that Daikoku Yaoyorozu and his teleporting chauffeur, Skip, are actually Flect Turn and Rody Soul. Daikoku/Flect has a mask that allows him to conceal his identity and power, while Rody was given a new Quirk by All for One.
  • Originally believed to be an original character, Kanshi Shiryoku turns out to be Saiko Intelli
• Canon Foreigner: Itsuka's family, including Tenohira, her mother, Hakushu, her father, and Teko, her grandfather. Not to mention Gūdo, her Big Friendly Dog.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Vigilantes manga characters, Mister Blaster, (Eraserhead and Present Mic's classmate) and Enigma (Ingenium's sidekick) appear during Chapter 25 as members of the Hero Killer Task Force. Knuckleduster, Pop☆Step, and Kugisaki are mentioned to be around in Chapter 30 as well.
  • The Wild Villains (Curator, Zookeeper, and Bearhead) and the Volcano Thieves (Volcano, Dusty Ash, and Gast Boy) all came from the My Hero Academia: Clash! Heroes Battle Arcade Game.
• Cast Full of Gay: So far, Ochako, Itsuka, Setsuna, and Yui are shown to be bisexual, with the Flash Forward showing Ochako and Itsuka married alongside Izuku, Setsuna mentioning having dated Mina previously, and Yui checking out boy and girl alike. Mirio and Tamaki are also tagged in the story, meaning that they are either together or will get together in the future, which is supported by Tamaki seeing Mirio naked and blushing.
• Casual Kink: The Flash Forward flat out states that Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka have a healthy sex life, to Eri's mortification, and Itsuka makes it clear that, seeing as she playfully bemoans that she missed both Izuku and Ochako's embrace, that the Midoriya-Uraraka-Kendous don't exactly wait turns.
• Cat Fight: A Played for Laughs example - when Melissa figures out that Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka are together, Nejire attempts to pin her down and stop her from speaking that out loud, prompting a small wrestling match between the two girls that pretty much just has them roll around on the floor.
• Cavalry Betrayal: Monoma and Shinso betray Itsuka by the end of the second event in order to seize spots in the third event for themselves. First, Monoma tries to knock her out in order to take Izuku's points for himself and Todoroki, and then Shinso tries to brainwash her into attacking Izuku.
• Character Development: As shown in the Flash Forward, Izuku will eventually grow out of his shyness and fear of his Quirk, and become a far more confident hero.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Nezu mentioned back in Chapter 12 that Kuin had survived the events of the Naruhata Lockdown arc, and she was locked on Tartarus, only for Kuin, possesing Camie, debut in Chapter 22 and reveal the truth about her identity in Chapter 42.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Izuku and Ochako have known each other since they were five years old, and were each other's only friend until they met Itsuka. And as the Flash Forward shows, they'll eventually fall in love (if they aren't already) and get married to Itsuka.
  • Miwa is revealed to have been this with Kaina Tsutsumi, a.k.a. Lady Nagant, as they became friends in middle school and later started going out with Taiyo together and eventually getting married.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Surprisingly, Yui is a female example. As mentioned in Favors for the Sexy below, she wanted to see Setsuna in her new two-piece swimsuit. And when Tsuyu mentions how Tenya has a "pole up his butt", Yui nearly mentions how she would like Tenya to "stick his pole up" Yui's something before catching herself.
• Cliffhanger: Several chapters end this way, but the most notable are:
  • Chapter 13 ends with the reveal of the villains attacking the USJ - but instead of the League of Villains, it's Nine and his gang of villains from Heroes Rising.
  • Chapter 14 ends with Nine ordering the villains to take the syringes of Trigger they were given, confirming that Nine was the one who stole the Trigger barrels, and unleashing them on Class 1-A.
  • Chapter 15 has Izuku confronting Nine - and then Nine sics Hood on him.
  • Chapter 18 ends on an unexpected twist - Teko Kendou, Itsuka's stern yet loving grandfather, contacting the Shie Hassaikai to try and track down the Villain Consortium.
  • Chapter 27 ends with both Ochako and Itsuka finally realizing that both girls have fallen in love with Izuku, putting a huge complication on their friendship.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Both Itsuka and Ochako show signs of this - Itsuka was clearly displeased with Setsuna and Yui checking out her training partners on the beach. And that's not getting into any time Nejire interacts with Izuku, with both girls giving Nejire a blank Death Glare if Nejire so much as pokes Izuku. This is mostly due to both Itsuka and Ochako having problems really understanding why they feel jealous of other people around Izuku.
  • Yuyu, whose feelings for Nejire clearly run deeper than just friendship starts to more and more jealous of Izuku whenever he is around her friend and crush. This rears its head in Chapter 31, where she ends up alienating Yuuyu and revealing that she's disliked Izuku all along, practically urging Nejire to stay away from him because of his flirting with Ochako and Itsuka.
  • La Brava, who is well aware that Gentle only has eyes for her, can't stand the idea of her boyfriend going on missions with Ippan.
  • A Played for Laughs example with Melissa, who becomes uncharacteristically catty and insulting towards Mei when the other support student attempts to take Izuku as a guinea pig.
  • Himiko is barely restraining her anger and the urge to stab Habuko while seeing the snake girl and Tsu's clearly not platonic displays of affection.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder:
  • Yuyu has known Nejire long enough to know how to rein her in and even gives her basic instructions that she knows Nejire will be out of her depth with, such as voting for herself as class representative.
  • This is Recovery Girl's relationship with Himiko as well, frequently having to smack her around with her cane when Himiko comes onto the patients or wears revealing outfits.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Izuku as in canon. He genuinely doesn't recognize Ochako, Itsuka, and Nejire giving him certain looks that can't exactly be read as platonic. There is also Melissa, who was blatantly checking his ass out during the obstacle race.
• Cluster F-Bomb:
  • When Izuku clings onto All Might's leg, he ends up leaving Ochako behind. After All Might leaves, Izuku gets a call from his best friend. What follows is...loud, to say the least.
    Ochako: You dumbass, fucking piece of shit, garbage! Ya fuckin' green-haired asshole! Ya piece 'a shit, mutterin', microscopic, rot-brained, fuckin' - ya fuckwit, goddamn -
    Izuku: Mm-hm.
    Ochako: - piece a' human excrement, shitty-faced, dickheaded, shit fer brains -
    Izuku: Yeah.
    Ochako: - DENSE MOTHERFUCKER!
    Beat
    Izuku: ... Occhan? Are you still there?
    Ochako: Yeah. I was just takin' a breath, I think I got everythin' out of my system.
  • Ochako lets another one after being dragged at high speed by one of Mei's inventions across the Tag game field, and much to her horror, the whole thing is caught on by the microphones spread across the place, meaning that every single person watching event listened, including her very embarrassed parents.
• The Comically Serious: Tenya has a penchant for taking things way too seriously, which is best exemplified when Yui confesses that she finds him attractive - it's so shocking to hear that someone fancies him he has utterly no idea what to say in response to her flirty remarks, and flails around.
• Commonality Connection: Upon figuring out that Itsuka needs to use One for All in small percentages while she builds endurance to it, Izuku reaches out to Nejire, since her Quirk works on using small percentages so she won't wear herself out.
• Compensating for Something: Upon finally meeting Katsuki at the entrance exam, Itsuka notes that she had thought that Ochako was overstating it, but then realizes that Katsuki really did have 'small dick energy'. Katsuki does not take that well.
• Composite Character: Given the heavy amount of changes from canon, several characters are this.
  • Since Nejire is a first-year student, Himiko takes her spot as the only female member of the Big Three.
  • Yosetsu Awase takes Mineta's role as the guy with the Quirk who attaches things up and becomes Kaminari's friend. Yui Kodai takes his role as the Plucky Comic Relief of the class, and unlike canon, both of their antics are endearing.
  • Since Tenko Shimura never fell to the dark side, Nine takes his role as the story's Big Bad and Izuku's Arch-Enemy.
  • Chapter 17 reveals that Muscular was converted into the High-End Nomu in place of the brawler he was made of in canon.
  • Since Aoyama failed the Entrance Exam, someone else took his role as the U.A. Traitor.
  • Camie takes Himiko's role as the ditzy, yet dangerous Stealth Expert of the Consortium.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Itsuka's strategy to fight Gran Torino on the beach is to slide under a car and punch it into the air to catch Torino off guard - a move that Izuku used in canon against the same hero, albeit with a couch instead of a car.
  • During the staff meeting on Chapter 21, the teachers recall the time when Tensei had to fight a Trigger-infected cat.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Itsuka's idea of punishing Eri when she shows up during a villain fight in the Flash Forward? Talk about what her parents will be doing after going to bed. Eri's left begging to be punished normally.
• The Corruptible: A discussed trope. Nezu is not willing to expel Katsuki from U.A. altogether, not because he doesn't want to, but because he firmly believes that the Hero Commission will attempt to get their hands on Katsuki and mold him into a hero of their own making, doing nothing to tame his flaws or make him a better person.
• Costume Evolution: An In-Universe example - when Itsuka shows Izuku her design for her hero costume, he gives her some thoughts about it. In the end, she adopts a pair of knee and elbow braces, gloves made of similar material to Mt. Lady's costume so she has protection for her hands, a vest to protect her, and a sturdier pair of boots.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Similar to Yui, Pony is a surprising female example. Just before they moved to get out of the conflagration zone, Yosetsu suggests getting their darkest secrets off their chests, and Pony admits (in English so no one understands her) that she spent most of the battle trial checking out everyone's butts. Word of God confirms that Izuku is ranked #4.
  • Both Ochako and Itsuka get into this in Chapter 19, with Ochako blatantly checking out Itsuka when she wasn't looking, and Itsuka remembring Izuku's Shirtless Scene and her Big Damn Kiss with Ochako while very much shivering about it. Ochako would later cap off her Big Damn Kiss with Izuku by blatantly grabbing his butt, and Itsuka's Big Damn Kiss with Izuku very quickly gives away to a rather spicy make-out session.
  • Much to her embarrassment, Melissa makes a note to check out Izuku's butt while designing his costume upgrade when she invites him for I-Expo, something she didn't realize until she wrote it down.
• Cry into Chest: Izuku lets both Itsuka and Ochako cry into him after his near-fatal fight with Hood.
• Crush Blush: Izuku is prone to these around Itsuka and Nejire when they get close to him. It's Downplayed with Ochako since they've been close for years and he's used to her clinginess, but her hug after he is nearly killed by the sludge villain makes him go a bit red.
• Cue the Sun: Twice during the USJ arc - once when All Might broke through Nine's storm to make his way to the USJ, with Nine only noticing when he realizes that it's much brighter in the USJ, and then after Nine retreats from the invasion, and the storm gradually fades away before the sun starts shining, symbolizing the threat of the Consortium leaving USJ and allowing its innocence to shine back in.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Katsuki delivers one to Pony and Mezo during their Battle Trials, with the two of them barely able to break through Katsuki's attacks before he defeats them.
  • Hood delivers an absolutely brutal one to Izuku, beating him within an inch of his life using his superior strength and Quirk. When Itsuka and Ochako arrive to save him, they put up a slightly better fight, but Hood still completely overpowers them and would have killed all three of them had Kurogiri not warped him away.
  • Shoto vs. Shinso and Yuyu. The brainwasher barely has time to activate his Quirk and take control of Momo before Shoto freezes him and the 1-B representative into an iceberg.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: In spite of Hood nearly beating them to death, Izuku, Itsuka, and Ochako still give their all in the fight, with Izuku managing to blast him across the USJ with lightning, Itsuka giving him a Megaton Punch, and Ochako crawling onto his back and pushing her thumbs into his eyes. Hood is utterly delighted by their brutality all the same.
• Cute Bruiser: Ochako is naturally this after her time training in the Kendou's dojo.
• Damsel in Distress: A discussed trope. In Chapter 44, Ochako notices that a lot of Izuku's development when it comes to his quirk tends to happen when Ochako is in danger - whether it be from Katsuki, the USJ, the Sports Festival, etc. It's also deconstructed, however, in that Izuku clearly doesn't like the implications of having to step up when Ochako is in danger, and would rather find another way to learn how to use his quirk that doesn't endanger her life.
• A Day in the Limelight: Several times during the Sports Festival arc, there will be a cutaway to other characters working throughout the events of the day:
  • Chapter 25 has Ingenium working on catching the Hero Killer with several other heroes; Ryukyu and Miruko coming to the Sports Festival to look for potential interns; and Ms. Curious infiltrating the school to research the Villain Consortium and Class 1-A.
  • Chapter 26 has Melissa discovering the early stages of David and Sam's plan to steal back the Quirk amplifier, and has her convince her father not to go through with it.
  • Chapter 28 has Momo take the limelight as well, focusing a section on her relationship with her abusive father and what will be expected of her.
  • Chapter 29 has the end focus on Lady Nagant being freed from Tartarus by the HPSC's new director to begin hunting for the Hero Killer herself.
  • Chapter 30 explores Nine's other side effects and his new recruits, as well as an upcoming meeting with the Meta Liberation Army and his plans to get two new slots for Quirks. It also focuses on Ippan Josei and the reveal that she is spying on the villains for a group of vigilantes that includes Gentle and La Brava.
  • Chapter 32 focuses on Daikoku Yaoyorozu, revealing his true identity as this universe's version of Flect Turn and his plans for U.A..
• Deadly Euphemism: After Class 1-A manages to completely screw over his plan to kill All Might, Nine casually decides to 'improvise' by siccing Nomu on them.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Implied and downplayed. While Muscular is technically still around as this universe's version of Hood, he shows behavior similar to the original Hood (who All For One mentions was used to combine them both), so it's currently up in the air if Muscular is technically still alive, or has suffered a Death of Personality. This is averted completely by Chapter 39, with Muscular reemerging from Hood and forming his original body back, albeit with Hood's abilities.
  • Slidin Go was killed off-page by Nine a month prior to the Sports Festival arc.
  • Re-Destro ends up biting the dust offscreen in between Chapter 41 and 42.
  • The meeting between the Villain Consortium and the Shie Hassaikai in Chapter 44 ends with both Mummy and Rikiya Katsukame dead.
• Death Glare:
  • 'The Danger Pout', as dubbed by Izuku, is Ochako's version of this. It's both adorable and terrifying, according to him, as he is a frequent victim of said gaze. As it turns out, it's hereditary, with Nagant showing that she pouts the exact same way.
  • Izuku and Nine exchange these after Izuku strikes him right in the chest with a bolt of lightning that forces him to flee from the USJ with his tail between his legs - Nine for Izuku daring to deny him the chance to kill All Might, Izuku for Nine's attempts on his and his friends' lives. It's implied that this is the start of their rivalry.
  • Overhaul sends a furious and murderous one to Itsuka after seeing the hero student save Eri and run away from him
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Referenced by Itsuka during her fight with Gran Torino, correctly pointing out his strategy: a single hit didn't hurt too much, but Gran connecting every hit pretty much takes her out.
• Deconstruction Fic: While the story already deconstructs several character and story aspects that canon barely glances over, Teko's perspective of the Sports Festival really shows how students (mainly Bakugo) take their competition over a school tournament too far, even if it is an event broadcast worldwide that will help their careers on the long term.
  Teko: He had seen much today - students fighting each other, harming each other, getting shot by cannons and thrown down dark holes, fighting out in the forest surrounding them, fighting in an arena as though they were in some kind of death match that the crowds could cheer on. He had seen both Izuku and Ochako being injured, the teachers acting as though they were suddenly responsible even after purposely setting things up so that they would get injured. He had seen his own granddaughter be trapped in an ice prison, come out bloody and wounded with weird lightning flickering around her, and then just … awarded medals at the end, like nothing of consequence had really happened.
  It was clear now, at least to him, that he could not trust Itsuka's safety to U.A.. Not when it had been them that had put her in so much danger in the first place.
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • This seems to be the case for Momo and Kyouka, with Momo and Yosetsu defeating her and Denki during the battle trial, but Kyouka shows no hard feelings and walks back to the class with a surprised and delighted Momo.
  • It happens again with Itsuka and Shoto after their match at the Sports Festival. Come the following Monday, Shouto apologizes to everyone he offended on Friday, and he's informally welcomed to the Kendousquad.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Lady Nagant makes it abruptly clear to Ochako that she's not going to be giving her any hugs by the end of their internship, and is a cold and stern mentor to her daughter during their training. However, after Ochako catches her attempting to drown her sorrows, Nagant shows a softer side when Ochako falls asleep in her bed, making it clear that being around her daughter is already affecting her.
• Demoted to Extra: As listed above, Todoroki, Ojirou, Sato, Koda, Mineta, Aoyama, and Hagakure are not in Class 1-A.
• Determinator: Izuku during the USJ, especially during his battle with Hood. He gets the utter hell beaten out of him, thrown around, punched, kicked, practically spat on ... but he doesn't let any of that stop him from protecting Ochako and All Might.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • The Villain Consortium were ready for anything when they invaded the USJ with an army of villains hopped up on Trigger. What they didn't expect was for one of the students they were attacking to create a goddamn tsunami out of the flood zone.
  • When Shinsou does his 'we're going to take your spots in the hero course' threat, he clearly doesn't expect the girl he's taunting, Itsuka, to have done her research into the Sports Festival for an assignment back in middle school, and debunks his threat by pointing out that the chances of the teachers kicking someone out for underperforming at the festival are less than zero.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • When starting to train on the beach, All Might, Izuku, and Itsuka didn't really consider how it would look for the two teenagers to vanish for long periods of time, and that it would be picked up on by their parents, with Inko, Taiyo and Miwa pretty much immediately realizing something was up. Once Itsuka's grandfather found her training sheet and forbade her from continuing it, it took All Might coming clean with them (while leaving out the more important details) and making a few compromises in order for their children to continue cleaning the beach.
  • Izuku realizes too late that he didn't have a plan after Mezo and Pony saved Aizawa from the Nomu. Not only he doesn't have any way to restrain the villains surrounding him, but he is outmatched on four to one.
  • Itsuka runs into this after pretty much telling the students coming to scout them out for the Sports Festival to Bring It. She only realizes after the fact that she pretty much painted a target on her back and only made them more eager to take down Class 1-A.
  • Izuku once again runs into it during the Sports Festival. He didn't think what would happen upon shooting a lightning blast, point-blank against the ground with his and Ochako's gravity off. Result? Both nearly launch themselves into orbit.
• Disabled in the Adaptation:
  • Bakugou is mentioned to have scars on his chest and arm from being blasted by lightning in the past.
  • With her Spared by the Adaptation, this version of Hana Shimura lost her legs during Tenko's Quirk accident and has to get around with assistance from a wheelchair while also working from home.
  • Mei is also revealed to have had her middle and index fingers removed during an accident with one of her babies in the past. Rather than mope about it, on the other hand, Mei expresses the desire to have all her limbs removed to become a full cyborg ... much to the confusion of her teammates.
  • Instead of being just paraplegic, Tensei is left in a coma following his encounter with the Hero Killer.
  • Aoyama and his parents are left catatonic as punishment for his failure at the Entrance Exam. It's unclear if he had his Quirk forcibly taken away or something else, but he is all but confirmed to be left braindead after his encounter with the villain.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Izuku calls out Nine for being a hypocrite. Nine responded by telling Hood to kill him.
  • Played for Laughs. Bakugo once pushed Ochako into a pool of mud. Her revenge? She mailed spiders to him. He didn't know it was her until she admitted it during the Sports Festival.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • After Izuku accidentally sets himself on fire at the beach and dunks himself in the water, he removes his shirt so he doesn't accidentally chafe. In front of Itsuka and Ochako. The girls then spend the next minute in twin crises.
  • A Discussed and weaponized version of this appears during the battle trial, in the fight with Itsuka and Izuku - to get past him to go help Ochako, Itsuka pretends to be this, telling Izuku that she's holding back because she doesn't want to damage Izuku's face, and outright calls him hot. Predictably, Izuku becomes very flustered, and Itsuka manages to get past him.
  • Izuku tries his hardest to concentrate on his 'not date' with Nejire, struggling to keep his eyes on her face and not the rest of her body due to the bikini she was wearing.
  • Majestic, while flying around with Setsuna and Hanta during their internship, advises Hanta that the best way to not run into any buildings is to strictly keep his eyes on the sky, and not on Setsuna's impressive backside.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: It's clear that Itsuka underestimated how powerful One for All would be when breaking a mountain apart and shattering every bone in her arm.
• Doing Research: As it turns out, Itsuka, Setsuna, and Yui did a school project back in middle school about the Sports Festival, giving all three of them knowledge about the ins and outs of the festival.
• Doorstopper: As of October 4, 2023, in its second anniversary, the fic finally concluded the Sports Festival arc, with 33 chapters and 823,071 words.
• Dope Slap:
  • Itsuka tends to hand these out to Izuku, Ochako, Setsuna, and Yui.
  • Yuuyu has a variation where she uses her Shock and Awe Quirk to apply an electric jolt to whoever she's reprimanding, with Nejire and Monoma being recipients.
• Double Entendre: An unintentional one by Pony:
  Pony: And - and I do have my hang-ups about the tentacle stuff -
  Mezo: P-please watch your phrasing.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • During Teko's meeting with the Shie Hassaikai, Nemoto mentions that Overhaul couldn't meet with the old man due to a situation with 'runaways', which Teko dismisses haughtily. In Chapter 23, that very same runaway ends up running into Teko's granddaughter, and this time, Itsuka makes sure Eri escapes from the yakuza.
  • Despite Touya's hatred of his father, in the end, he ended up becoming very similar to his father in his treatment of Shouto.
  • Nine's biggest problem with his Weather Manipulation Quirk is the cellular degeneration and seeks out Izuku's Quirk due to its power. Unknown to him, Izuku has the exact same problem with his own Quirk.
  • Gran Torino mentions if All for One is still alive as they fear, there is no way he would be in any better shape than Toshinori, considering the villain got his skull crushed by All Might's most powerful attack. Not only All for One is very alive, but worse, he is healthier than his nemesis.
  • Shouto and the gang think about where Rei has gone after being discharged from the hospital, and how difficult it would be to find her. As it turns out, Rei has moved next door to the Midoriyas and Urarakas, but since she's using her maiden name (and Shouto never mentioned her first name), Ochako and Izuku are none the wiser.
  • A major point of contention between All Might and Nighteye is the fear of Nighteye's prediction that All Might will die, with both of them suspecting All For One or Nine being the ones returning to finish the job. Unknown to either of them, as it turns out, All For One also has had a prediction of his future - five, in fact, that all end with his defeat. Unlike All Might and Nighteye, who believe that destiny cannot be overridden, All For One is doing everything he can to prevent his fate.
  • When Ochako reveals her connection to Lady Nagant and her parents hiding it from her, Itsuka comments that she would feel similar complicated feelings if her own family hid things from her.
  • Tenya is determined to find the Hero Killer to avenge his brother, and to do so, he ends up interning with Stendhal, a hero who's very much implied to have something to do with his brother's crippling ...
• Dream Sequence: Izuku has one of these at the start of Chapter 19, dreaming about sleeping in a soft and comfortable bed with Ochako, with her calling him by his first name and being surprisingly intimate with him. It quickly becomes a Nightmare Sequence when Hood suddenly appears, and appears to crush Izuku's head into mush before he wakes up.
• Drunk with Power:
  • Nine is this in spades, basking in the strength of his Weather Manipulation Quirk and repeatedly using it to strike terror in the hearts of Class 1-A while he has his Consortium torment them.
  • The villains who took Trigger immediately let the power go to their heads, becoming little more than shrieking beasts taking out their newfound power on everyone and each other.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Chimera briefly appears during Chapter 3, being the one supervising the Sludge Villain as a potential recruit for the Consortium, although he is unnamed until his next appearance in Chapter 13.
  • Twice is mentioned to be working for Daikoku.
• Eating the Eye Candy: As mentioned above, seeing Izuku shirtless makes both Itsuka and Ochako's imaginations go wild, with Ochako struggling to realize that the last time she saw him shirtless was when he was as thin as a noodle, and Itsuka clearly takes the time to admire his arms. Izuku, of course, is oblivious to this and very confused as to why their faces are red.
• Embarrassing Old Photo: After the Kendous and Midoriyas talked to All Might, Inko pulls out a few baby photos to show Miwa, including one of Izuku running into a glass window, and Tenohira, in turn, revealed a story of Itsuka being frightened of a man with a snake-head when she was a child. Both teenagers are rightfully mortified.
• Emotional Powers: Izuku's Quirk is connected to emotions, which means that whenever he is too insecure or anxious over something, especially his unresolved feelings over Ochako and Itsuka, he can't properly access it. Which is why he decides to handle this matter once and for all before his match with Bakugo.
• Erotic Dream: Melissa has one of Izuku seducing in her Chapter 40, but unfortunately, she ends up rolling herself off the bed and jerking herself awake before she could get to the good part.
• Et Tu, Brute?:
  • Played for Laughs when La Brava undercuts Leader's attempt to be serious by revealing that he'd been spending his time either watching the sports festival or watching a gif of Midnight sensually squirming. All he can muster is a shocked "Et tu, La Brava?"
  • Played more seriously, however, when Nighteye's requests for Mirio to gain One for All are brushed off one time too many, and he decides to go behind All Might's back to reveal One for All to his pupil.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Itsuka has one of these while quietly wondering how to destroy the mountain in the zone to get away from the Consortium's henchmen, quietly conceding that only All Might's power would be able to shatter the rock - and then suddenly realizes that she does have All Might's power.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Inko, Miwa, and Taiyo can easily see that Izuku and Ochako are in love with each other, with Miwa whining at one point that she has been waiting years for them to realize it.
  • This later extends to their classmates, with Kyouka's eyes rolling into the back of her head as Ochako and Itsuka discuss their Clingy Jealous Girl reactions to Nejire without really putting much thought into why they were feeling jealous.
  • Setsuna and Yui can easily see that Itsuka has feelings for Izuku, and are flabbergasted when Itsuka reacts in shock and confusion when they confront her about it.
  • Apparently the entire class is aware of Kyoka's crush on Momo.
• Evil Is Petty: The villains from this story never miss an opportunity to be cruel for no reason other than their own amusement.
  • Nine has Slice hold Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka, hostage to prevent them from escaping during All Might's fight with Nomu, wanting them to watch their hero dying out of what is implied to be pure spite for the trio standing up to them.
  • When Curious offers him her services, Nine has the choice of using her power as a reporter to ruin the reputation of an enemy. His decision? Tell Curious to run a smear campaign against Izuku, stating that he needs Izuku broken.
  • Three words: The Yoichi Party. That's right. All for One named the political party that he is using as a front for his criminal activities after the brother he abused and killed just spite him and his successors from the grave.
  • Intelli not above mocking Nagant to her face, with it serving utterly no purpose other than to make Nagant squirm. She forces Nagant to watch helpless as she tricks her Ochako into joining the HPSC after graduation just because she finds the prospect of corrupting the assassin's daughter amusing.
  • Not only Toya purposedly lied to Shoto by saying that their mother blamed him for the incident that sent her to the mental hospital, he also ommitted the fact that Rei was discharged from said hospital two years before the story just to spite his brother in case he wanted to make amends with her.
  • Assuming that Camie is somehow conscious inside her own body, Kuin is forcing her to watch the poor girl's mother pleading on TV for her daughter to come back and laughing about her host's misery, not to mention how she used Camie's Quirk to drive her own classmates insane for seemingly no reason.
• Eviler than Thou: The Consortium pulls this against the Humarise terrorists by brutally killing them and stealing their Trigger gallons to power up their forces during the USJ Invasion.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • The Hero Killer, who up until Hosu had exclusively targeted and murdered Heroes, is the one to kill Re-Destro off-page between Chapters 41 and 42, implying they were aware of his secret identity as the leader of the Meta Liberation Army.
  • The Consortium find themselves fighting against the Shie Hassaikai with both of their leaders as claimants for the throne of Future King of the Underworld.
• Expy:
  • Teko Kendou, Itsuka's grandfather, is mentioned to be one of these for both Sakonji Urokodaki from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Heihachi Mishima from Tekken.
  • Kanshi Shiryoku, the new chairwoman of the HPSC, is said to be one of Makima from Chainsaw Man.
  • Mimi Hadou, Nejire's mother, is pretty much Akemi Aizawa, from Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, but with blue hair.
• Extra Parent Conception: Specific wording implies, and later confirms that Lady Nagant is Ochako's biological mother, but due to Ochako's heavy resemblance to Miwa, it's made clear that her birth was an odd one, to the point her hair starts to become pink as she reaches puberty.
• Eye Scream: Ochako ends up shoving her thumbs into Hood's eyes during their fight.

F — N

• Failed a Spot Check: Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka find it odd but curious that they all seem to be heading towards the same spot for their internship, and it's only when they're almost there and the coincidences keep pilling up that they stop and compare their internship addresses, revealing that they hadn't noticed that they were all going to the same place, right down to the same room.
• Fan Disservice: In order to cheer up the crowd after the match between Izuku, Ochako, and Bakugo ends badly, All Might decides to gather the students from Class 1-A and 1-B to make a cheerleader number. Nothing wrong with that, some of the guys even manage to pull a Wholesome Crossdresser. One problem though. All Might is leading the cheerleading number. Complete with outfit and pompons. No one can't help but cringe at the sight of the Symbol of Peace wearing such an atrocious costume.
• Favors for the Sexy: Played for Laughs - Yui was not willing to go prank Itsuka on the beach during a very hot summer day, until Setsuna promised to show Yui her new two-piece swimsuit, to which she immediately agrees to take part on it.
• First Kiss:
  • Itsuka and Ochako get theirs from each other.
  • Later on, Itsuka ends up taking the first kiss from Nejire (although in that case, it was Nejire kissing her), and Ochako ends up taking Izuku's first kiss as well.
• First-Name Basis: Starting in Chapter 18 and Chapter 19, Itsuka and Ochako have begun referring to each other by their first names. Izuku's a Zigzagged example, as he's still struggling to address Itsuka by her first name even when asked to, and referring to Ochako by a cutesy nickname, but Itsuka doesn't mind, allowing Izuku to take his time calling her by her first name while she in turn begins to address him by his first name. Several characters are very quick to notice the trio referring to each other in a more informal way. By Chapter 30, she is also this with Nejire as well.
• Flash Forward: A couple appear in the story, showing events roughly a decade after the main events of the story:
  • The first chapter consists entirely of one, showing Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka are all Pro Heroes and married to each other. They've also adopted Eri, who's training to go to U.A. with (and dating) Kota and Katsuma.
  • Chapter 36 has one at the end revealing more details of the future: Katsuki becomes a police detective, 1-A and company all live in the same neighborhood together, several romances between characters are confirmed, and 'Team Clover' is revealed to have a fourth member; Melissa Shield. There's also a hint that something occurs that kept Nejire from being with everyone in the present.
• Flat "What": Itsuka's reaction to how exactly All Might will be giving One for All to her. Accompanied by large amounts of Squick.
• Flawless Victory: Deconstructed when Katsuki gains one during the battle trial with Shouji and Pony as his opponents, curb-stomping them and earning the win without Eijioru's assistance. But as Tenya points out, the point of the exercise was for the two members of the team to get a win, and thus, Shouji is awarded as the MVP of the match instead of Katsuki.
• Foregone Conclusion: Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka will get together and marry, and adopt Eri as they become a hero team. It's also mentioned in the Flash Forward that Katsuki and Izuku worked together to catch a thief, implying that they'll eventually reconcile their differences or at least be civil enough to work together.
• Foreshadowing:
  • To overcome the mental barrier that's preventing Izuku from using his Quirk, Tenko advises Izuku to imagine a scenario where he has to rescue Ochako from a situation, and the only way to do so is to use his Quirk. This hypothetical scenario ends up coming true during the USJ invasion, in which Izuku uses his Quirk to save Ochako from Hood as he was attempting to crush her to death.
  • All For One shows surprise when Nine details 'the orange-haired girl with two quirks' to him, before demanding more information. Initially, this comes across as AFO realizing that All Might has chosen his successor, but then comes the reveal that he and Garaki had been keeping an eye on Izuku for a long time thanks to AFO's precognitive quirk. This isn't just AFO discovering that a new One for All successor has been chosen, this is him being surprised that his butterfly effect has drastically changed the timeline.
  • Camie's appearance is quite out of nowhere and aggressive in her getting Izuku and Nejire's attention, but to note is that she's patrolling a part of Musutafu on her own in a time where internships aren't currently happening, and before the events of the Provisional License Exam arc. While it could be attributed to Shiketsu doing things differently than UA, it actually foreshadows that Camie is not a Shiketsu student, but a villain who was stalking Izuku and Nejire.
  • Every time someone mentions the Hero Killer, they refer to him with that nickname - but never as 'Stain'. This is meant to foreshadow that Chizome Akaguro is still using his 'Stendhal' alias.
  • Chapter 24 has Gran Torino criticize Izuku, Ochako, Itsuka, and All Might for talking out loud about One for All, telling them that if they aren't careful, they might be overheard by someone and that they were lucky that he already knew. This ends up coming back up to bite them in Chapter 28, in which Nejire overhears Izuku and Itsuka talking to All Might about the traces they found in One for All.
  • Izuku's Elemental Absortion capabilities. Back in Chapter 27, Izuku felt a flash when he got frozen in Shoto's ice, and he hasn't been able to use his Quirk since then. At first, it seems to be a matter of Emotional Powers that are taking a tool from his Unresolved Sexual Tension with Ochako and Itsuka, and that might be the case, to some extent, but not entirely. The most likely possibility is that since Izuku never fought against another elemental Quirk user before, this aspect of Spark was dormant until Todoroki forcibly activated it. As it turns out, it goes all the way back to Chapter 2, since Izuku only started to manifest his Shock and Awe powers a while after being zapped by his father's defective laptop.
  • Two instances in Chapter 32 foreshadow Daikoku Yaoyorozu being Flect Turn. The first is when he checks his reflection in a mirror before his meeting with Re-Destro, and the second is the commercial for the Yaoyorozu Corp. that plays during it, which ends with the line: "and with you, our future is bright, Yaoyorozu Corporations - reflecting the future onto you."
  • During the Vigilantes' chat, La Brava points out that Leader had spent most of his time either watching the Sports Festival or watching a gif of Midnight squirming sensually. One of Oboro Shirakumo's character traits in Vigilantes is that he has a not-so-subtle crush on Nemuri.
  • Right before we find out that Camie is being possesed by Queen Bee, she tells none of the boys to bother her while she is alone, or she will tell them to buzz off. Kuin is particular fan of making puns about bees.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Midnight calls Eraserhead out on projecting his trauma and grief over Oboro's death onto his students, saying that while what happened was tragic, the kids don't deserve to be treated in such a cold and heartless way and he needs to stop living such a lonely life.
• Freudian Slip:
  • Yui has one when Tsuyu mentions that Tenya has a pole up his butt, muttering that she 'wishes he would stick his pole up her ...' under her breath before managing to stop herself. There aren't many guesses as to what 'pole' she is referring to.
  • "Putting myself on top of Izuku and Ochako was never going to be a problem."
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The rest of Class 1-A dislikes Bakugou because of his abrasive and Jerkass nature, with Itsuka having no problems throwing insults at him that he returns to her in kind, and Hanta and Setsuna tease him when he expresses outrage that he wasn't voted class representative. Eijirou seems to respect him, however, so at least he has that.
• Friend to All Children: Itsuka is mentioned as having helped her grandfather out in the dojo with the younger kids, and she's the one who rescued Eri and prioritized her comfort and safety. As such, Eri is usually shown holding her hand and hiding behind her.
• The Gadfly: Setsuna, Yui, and Himiko. These three have no input. If you are cute, hot, or both, you are their target for teasing. And Izuku just happens to be all the previous options.
• Geeky Turn-On: Izuku mentally states that Melissa coyly asking if he wanted to help her design a robot was 'one of the most arousing things he'd ever heard'.
• Generation Xerox: Eri ended up becoming a split image version of Izuku when she becomes a teenager. She is a massive hero fangirl, who often shows up during villain fights, and ends up in a polyamorous relationship with her two best friends, Kota and Katsuma, much to her parents' chagrin.
• Gilligan Cut: Happens quite often, but most notably during Chapter 24 when All Might tells Itsuka that Principal Nezu wants to have a meeting with her, but assures her that everything is fine:
  Nezu: I will be frank with you, Kendou - I have summoned you to my office today to consider having you pull out of the Sports Festival this year.
  All Might: (chokes on his tea)
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Heavily Downplayed to a Glad-To-Be-Alive-Kiss - Itsuka and Ochako manage to barely escape the destruction of the mountain zone after Itsuka destroys its mountain with One for All, and they only manage to make out for a little bit before Izuku escaping the conflagration zone draws their attention.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: A few of Shouto's memories are jittered, indicating that there are mistakes that Shouto can't differentiate from reality. The most focused on is the reveal that Rei didn't give him his injury, with Shouto flashing between an image of Rei pouring water in his eye (and realizing that he didn't recall the pain of feeling water hit him) and his mother holding an icicle and stabbing Endeavor with it.
• The Glomp: Nejire seems to be a fan of these; she pretty much jumps Izuku when they reunite after the entrance exam, and her vow to live after being cornered by the villains at the USJ is that she plans to hug him even more.
• The Gloves Come Off: When Bakugou blasts Ochako out of the ring with a Howitzer Impact, severely injuring her, Izuku grows deadly serious, and stops holding back on his old childhood friend. It even becomes literal, with Izuku ripping the broken Full Gauntlet off his arm before going on the attack.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Nezu arranges for the Top 10 to deal with the Trigger Villains during the USJ.
  • The Hero Killer presents itself as a threat so big that the HPSC decides to take Lady Nagant out of Tartarus to take them down.
• Good Parents:
  • Inko is this to Izuku, even after his Quirk manifests and gives her a permanent scar on her arm. She never holds it to her son and doesn't even bring it up while supporting him the best she can, even when she can see that Izuku's in a Heroic BSoD about being a hero.
  • The Urarakas are this to Ochako as well, being supportive and loving to their daughter despite the near poverty they are in, and encouraging her to confront Izuku when he was avoiding her in the first few weeks of his training with All Might.
  • Tenohira and Hakushu, Itsuka's parents, are this especially compared to her stricter grandfather. It's best exemplified when Itsuka brings Eri home - while Teko does accept her presence in his home he reprimands Itsuka for not thinking things through and potentially bringing trouble to them. In contrast, Tenohira and Hakushu welcome Eri with open arms, seeing how scared and traumatized she is and immediately setting out to make her comfortable, and Tenohira assures Itsuka that she's proud of her daughter for saving Eri, and don't hesitate to allow Eri to stay with them permanently while the police investigate where she came from.
• Government Conspiracy: The HPSC, the law enforcement that connects heroes to citizens, is in the back pocket of All For One, working with him in his Evil Plan to conquer Japan, and hire mercenaries and turn their heroes into assassins to keep their control of society.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Nine is this for the first ten or so chapters. He's first mentioned in passing in Chapter 3 and orchestrated the theft of the Trigger barrels during Chapter 8. It actually takes him thirteen chapters, and six months in-story, for him to finally make an appearance at the USJ, where he takes the reins as the Big Bad.
  • All for One, who arranged the joint team-up between their organization and the Consortium by allowing Kurogiri, Nomu, and Hood to join their mission to kill All Might.
• Hated by All: Katsuki. Once he gets into U.A., it becomes clear that no one in Class 1-A, with the possible exception of Kirishima, really likes him, with Hanta and Setsuna constantly teasing him and Itsuka making her dislike of him clear the moment they meet. This only gets worse when Katsuki blames them for letting the Consortium get away and orders them not to mess with him, thus increasing the dislike between them.
• Hate Sink: Several villains stand out as particularly despicable:
  • Vortex only appeared for half a chapter during the prologue arc, and yet it already feels to much. He is a sadistic, annoying and disgusting coward obssessed with two (very well married) heroes that thrieves on bringing destruction around him.
  • Daikoku Yaoyorozu. His overall Manipulative Bastard act, not to mention his treatment towards Momo both in the past and the present already paint as disgusting man, capable of making Endeavor and Kotaro Shimura horrible parenting look not as bad by comparison, but once we find out he is a corrupt bastard who is good friends with Re-Destro and is the leader of a terrorist Doomsday cult, before brutally murdering poor Rapt in unnecessarily display of cruelty, really cements him as one of the nastiest villain of the story.
  • There's nothing sympathetic about Intelli - she's cruel, manipulative, sadistic sociopath and isn't above using her own half-brother to her own ends and loves to make people she deems inferior to her suffer.
  • Toya stands out as one of the biggest examples of it in the story. To put it simply, any remotely sympathethic qualities he had from canon (mostly from before becoming a monster Beyond Redemption) is non-existant in this story. Toya is nothing but a disgusting, arrogant, manipulative, psychotic, self-centered, spiteful bastard who goes out of his way to make torment Shoto for no reason other than some one-sided grudge against his own brother and his father.
• The Heavy: The Trigger henchmen act as this in Nine's plan - meant to take the Trigger when All Might arrives, and wear him down enough for Kurogiri, Hood, and Nomu to finish him off.
  • Nine himself appears to be this for the Inner Circle.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: Izuku, Itsuka, and Ochako are friends outside of school and training, having mentioned studying together in cafes, attending birthday parties, and otherwise hanging out together, with Chapter 7 specifically showing a sleepover the trio had with Setsuna, Yui, and Eijirou.
• Heroic BSoD: Izuku briefly goes through an angry one when it's revealed that his Quirk is giving him a case of cellular degeneration. He's only snapped out of it when Itsuka gives him a kiss on the cheek to calm him down and distract him with something else.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • A few during the zombie episode, most of them Played for Laughs - Eijirou and Kyouka stay behind to Hold the Line while the others escape, All Might attempts to sacrifice himself, only for the zombies to recognize him as one of their own, and then Izuku throws himself in front of the girls when it seemed as though they were surrounded with no way out.
  • According to Oboro, Mr. Compress sacrificed himself to make sure that he got out of Jakku alive.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Ochako takes what happened at the USJ pretty hard, blaming herself for Izuku's being nearly beaten to death by the Consortium for her being too weak to back up him and Itsuka, and seems determined to improve herself so that she could keep up with both of them.
• He Was Right There All Along:
  • Camie is capable of pulling this off to unnerving effect, using her illusion quirk to make herself invisible. She used this to approach Izuku and Nejire during their date in Chapter 22, and then in Chapter 37 to spy on Class 1A and 1B at the beach with them none the wiser to her presence.
  • Played for Laughs example. Shoto pulled this during the Kendosquad meeting in Chapter 38. Once he noted Melissa was amongst the new additions to the class, he calmly stood behind the group, for over 10 minutes, until the opportunity for him to present himself to them. Nobody noticed until he spoke up.
• Hidden Depths: A recurring theme is that characters who initially appear to be ditzy or dumb are much smarter than they look:
  • Nejire initially appears to be a ditzy klutz, easily distracted by anything that floats by. However, she shows a surprisingly emotional maturity comforting Izuku about his doubts about using his Quirk against Itsuka and Ochako during the battle trial, and when fighting Ochako, shows a surprising competence while fighting her. She also shows to be surprisingly attentive to details and able to put pieces of information together, although her Cloudcuckoolander tendencies tend to get in the way of her making progress on any of her theories - for example, she actually recognized All Might's voice when she overheard his talk with Itsuka about One for All, but dismissed it as him since he was in his weakened form, and sounds relatively different than when he's buffed up.
  • Yui is initially a comical pervert and in a shy relationship with Tenya, but when the riot happens at U.A. due to the reporters and causes their friends to be separated, she is the one who comes up with the plan to get Setsuna to Itsuka so she could help restore order.
  • Despite Hood's single-minded insanity, he shows himself as a surprisingly competent combatant, expertly fighting both Izuku and Itsuka with the martial arts skills that were installed in him by the Nomu experiments, and only after Ochako and Itsuka press too many of his buttons does he devolve into a roaring monster.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ochako manages to distract Nejire when she is about to fire at her during the battle trial, leaping up to touch her and float her away ... only for Nejire to lose focus during the blast due to Ochako's distraction, blasting at the ground, sending her flying and crashing into Izuku, and thus sending both of them tumbling down the stairs.
• Honorary Uncle: The Midoriyas and the Urarakas grew close over the years as next-door neighbors, and pretty much consider each other family, with Ochako describing Hisashi as a person who felt like an uncle to her, and Taiyo states that Izuku is pretty much their kid as well.
• How Do I Shot Web?: As Izuku begins using his Quirk years after it manifested, he has utterly no idea how to use it safely, and requires Melissa Shield's modified Full Gauntlet to fire off shots at safer levels.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Mezo and Pony have this dynamic, with Mezo standing a good head and shoulders taller than Pony.
• I Am Not Pretty: Years of being bullied by her classmates at Aldera High leaves Ochako with a serious case of body issues, as Chapter 18 reveals. She immediately disregards any possibility of Itsuka having feelings for her because of how unattractive she considers herself.
• I Can Still Fight!: Izuku says this to Midnight when she attempts to call off the fight after Bakugo seriously injures Ochako with his Howitzer Impact (something he was warned against doing). She eventually realizes that if doesn't comply, both boys will take the fight elsewhere, and if that happens, there is a good chance they will kill each other.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Nagant gives one these speeches to Izuku once she realizes he and Ochako are together, which is almost unnecessary, given how Izuku would throw himself off a window if ever hurt her feelings.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: A lot of Izuku's angst about his Quirk circles around to this; there are several points where he wishes that his Quirk was normal to use and something he didn't have to worry about, like everyone else. He's initially excited when he discovers the true scope of his Elemental Absorption powers but brought back down to earth with the reveal of his cellular degeneration, clearly hurt and angry that his Quirk is apparently dangerous enough to kill him.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: This is clearly Aizawa's reaction to meeting Nejire Hadou. He later tells Nezu that he's considering going out for drinks with Midnight on the weekend after just two days of having her in his class.
• I Read It for the Articles: Izuku apparently keeps a magazine of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, and claims that he only reads it for the interviews. Ochako isn't convinced, and wonders which Pussycat he's 'reading' about.
• I Work Alone: This is Katsuki's primary behavior, in both the entrance exam, Battle Trials, and USJ invasion. The teachers notice this, however, and point out that it's a red flag - especially since most participants in the entrance exam get at least one Rescue Point, even if it was an accident, and Katsuki's zero Rescue Points show that he deliberately went out of his way to work alone and gather all the glory for himself.
• Identical Stranger: Invoked and Played for Laughs when Yui and Setsuna meet Izuku and Ochako. Set says that Itsuka replaced her green-haired and cute friend duo with another green-haired and cute friend duo. This also acts as a meta joke, since Yui's character design and Quirk were originally meant to be Ochako's.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Taiyo and Hashuku find themselves in this position whenever Midnight does her thing during the Sports Festival. Considering their wives are right next to them, it's probably for the best.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Shoto ends up destroying one of the Zero-Pointers during the Sports Festival.
• Incoming Ham: How does Star and Stripe introduce herself into the story? Knock on the Midoriyas' door hard enough to send it flying down the hall, drop David unceremoniously on the floor, and then order Melissa to go find the owners of the apartment so she could apologize.
• Internal Reveal: In Chapter 42, Izuku, Ochako and Itsuka reveal their relationship to Setsuna, Yui, Himiko, Mezo, Pony, Eijirou, Fumikage and Reiko.
• In-Universe Catharsis: Itsuka experiences this when she finally kicks Katsuki in the face, something that she's been clearly wanting to do since Izuku first told her about him.
• Innocently Insensitive: Denki has a rather bad habit of accidentally rubbing salt in the wound over situations that would usually call for more tact, such as Izuku getting nearly beaten to death by Hood. Kyouka's usually the one to deal out the punishment.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • The main trio is this towards each other. Izuku and Ochako don't believe someone as beautiful as Itsuka (and Izuku's case, Nejire as well) would ever have feelings for them other than friendship. Itsuka for her turn, is aware of her feelings about them, but since she can see the clear signs of romance between the childhood friends, she decides to keep these feelings to herself and help them get together.
  • All Might knows that his feelings about Inko are not platonic, especially after finding out that she and Hisashi are separated, but can't act on them since not only it would make her a target to All for One, but also because he doesn't think she would be attracted to him on his Small Might form.
• Internal Reveal: After several highly implied moments, Taiyo and Miwa finally sit Ochako down and confess to her that Kaina Tsutsumi, a.k.a. Lady Nagant, is Ochako's biological mother.
• Irony: Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka agree not to take first place during the first challenge of the Sports Festival, with Itsuka correctly predicting it would be a trap. Unfortunately, she is responsible for Izuku ending up in first place when she tries to catch him and Ochako from falling through the sky, Izuku bouncing off her enlarged hand and head first through the finish line.
• It's All About Me: Katsuki, to the surprise of absolutely no one. He's a completely self-centered person who believes himself to be the future number one hero, doesn't care about other people, and outright believes that Izuku and Ochako are beneath him and is infuriated when they earn praise from their teachers and classmates or do surprising acts of heroism.
• It's All My Fault: Both Pony and Mezo blame themselves for Izuku being beaten nearly to death by Hood, thinking that they could have done something if they had gone to help.
• Jerkass:
  • Bakugou, as per usual.
  • Nighteye as well, being an arrogant know-it-all who believes that he has the moral superiority to choose All Might's successor, while completely ignoring All Might's own wishes.
  • Death Arms, who scolded Izuku for jumping in to fight the sludge villain despite sitting on his ass, and when seeing him again a year later after being horribly beaten by Hood, makes a callous remark about him being an attention junkie.
  • Touya Todoroki. His entire first scene has him scoffing at Shouto, ordering him not to mess up at the Sports Festival and bullying him into repeating Touya's orders, and then switches into acting like a playful, older brother when Fuyumi comes out to invite him in, only to turn back on his Big Brother Bully behavior once she's gone.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Downplayed with Katsuki - while his rant at Class 1-A during Chapter 17 for inadvertently letting the Villain Consortium escape the USJ was out of line and reeks of Never My Fault, he does raise a point that had he completely taken Kurogiri out of the picture, the villains would not have had an escape when the heroes arrived, and would have been captured due to Nine being hit by Izuku's lightning and Slice being in no position to fight either.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After years of bullying Izuku and Ochako, he finally receives karmic justice when the teachers demote him for clearly being unstable and unwilling to better himself after deliberately injuring Izuku and Ochako during their round in the Sports Festival.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Bakugo becomes this after being expelled from the hero course. When he tries to intimidate Melissa after she ends up taking his spot at the hero course, he ends up getting tackled on the floor by Mineta and Shinso, and the three Gen-Ed go on to fight at the schoolyard like a bunch of toddlers.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Bakugo loves doing it. He tells an already emotionally exhausted Class 1-A that is their fault that the villains escaped, acting as if he would have, alone, beaten Nine, his crew, and the Nomu. He does it again during the second trip to the USJ, saying that Itsuka and Ochako's closeness means they are probably going to kick Izuku out of their friendship, which only serves to make his insecurities worse.
  • Toya does it to Shoto when they meet. He offhandedly says that he visited their mother, and no, she didn't ask for him, because there is no reason for her to do so since it’s Shoto's fault she is in the hospital to begin with.
  • After Aizawa's attempt of Break the Haughty against Bakugo backfires immensely, Midnight attempts to reason with him to not project his trauma over Oboro's death onto his students. Aizawa, however, accuses her (who was one of Oboro's best friends just like him), of not taking his death seriously, acting as if he was the only person who suffered from it. Needless to say, this deeply hurts Midnight and all but ruins their friendship from this point on.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • The Villain Consortium, led by Nine and his crew, is this. Considering they are a group far more competent, efficient, and deadly than the League was in early canon, their appearance takes the story in a darker and scarier direction.
  • Daikoku Yaoyorozu. At first, he seems like your typical case of abusive parent, nothing new amongst the ensemble of bad parents from My Hero Academia, until other characters start to point out how off, disturbing, and suspicious his personality is. And then we get the big reveal during his second Establishing Character Moment in Chapter 32. The man is none other than Flect Turn, leader of Humarise and member of the Big Bad Ensemble known as the Inner Circle. His first official act to establish himself further as one of the vilest monsters of the story is to mercilessly beat vigilante Rapt Tokage and crush the man's skull with his bare hands, all while being watched by his henchmen.
• Lady Swears-a-Lot: Both Ochako and Itsuka are normally polite and don't swear often - until they both get confronted by the zero-pointer in their entrance exam. They spend the next minute screaming obscene curse words out of both terror and rage as they realize that they would have to fight the fake villain in order to make sure everyone else is okay.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Bakugo laughs out loud when he sees Izuku and Ochako launching themselves into orbit, only to get hit right in the face by a cannonball.
  • When Bakugo attempts to attack her during the obstacle race, Itsuka responds by kicking the explosive blonde square in the face.
  • After breaking free from Shinso's Brainwashing, Itsuka's first order of business is to sucker punch the hypocritical teen right in the jaw.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Oh, a lot. The author often brings up plenty of elements from future arcs from canon as well as from the Vigilantes manga.
  • Chapter 12 reveals that Pop☆Step was freed from Queen Bee's brainwashing and that Number Six was killed by the end of the Naruhata Lockdown arc in Vigilantes.
  • Chapter 17 reveals Aoyama is the canon U.A. traitor, but was replaced by somebody else in this story.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: As much as an abusive bastard as Endeavor is, Shoto admits that Daikoku Yaoyorozu is even worse, mainly because Daikoku is a Manipulative Bastard who hides behind a Stepford Smiler while treating his own daughter as a piece of property.
• Like Brother and Sister: How Ochako describes her and Izuku's relationship. The narration casts doubt on this.
  "- well, that was what they were, weren't they? Like brother and sister? Yeah, yeah, she nodded to herself, Izuku was like a brother to her. Obviously. Nothing more than that."
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • The Flash Forward shows Eri in a relationship with her own two best friends, Kota and Katsuma. Izuku and Itsuka blame this on them being bad role models while Ochako's busy jumping up and down in joy.
  • Despite clearly hating Endeavor, much like him, Toya is way more concerned about how Shoto's actions in the Sports Festival will reflect on him than anything else.
  • In a rather hilarious example, Hisashi is as much of a Clueless Chick-Magnet as his own son, managing to score a date with Midnight. Both him and Inko are shocked by this development. And the flash forward reveals they are actually gonna get way closer to each other.
• Look Behind You: How does Ochako get around Nejire when her classmate has her pinned down during the battle trial? Gasp, point over Nejire's shoulder, and ask "What's that?!". Nejire falls for it hook, line and sinker.
• Love at First Sight: Downplayed, but Eri is implied to have gained a crush on Katsuma soon after their first meeting, and Katsuma is shown to be incredibly shy around her. And knowing how the Flash Forward goes, it becomes clear that this is the start of Katsuma and Eri's own Childhood Friend Romance.
• Love Confession: The main trio finally gives their own to each other on Chapter 36, becoming an official polycule. Although the flash forward does reveal Melissa and Nejire will join them eventually.
• Love Dodecahedron: Hoo, boy. Let's see - there's Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka, who all clearly have feelings for each other. And then there's Nejire, who has feelings for Izuku and Itsuka, and Yuuyu, who likewise has feelings for Nejire and is jealous of Izuku. And then there's Himiko clearly having a thing for Ochako and kissing her, and later saying that she likewise fancies Izuku. And then there's Melissa who clearly nurses a minor crush on Izuku, or at least likes him physically, and then there's Pony who admits to having looked at and enjoyed his butt (although this one is far more clearly Played for Laughs, and she has far more Ship Tease with Shouji). All in all? A fairly complex scenario for a throuple.
• Love Epiphany:
  • In Chapter 18, Nejire seems to have realized that she has feelings for Izuku, giving him looks that both he and Yuuyu notice at once, and she's seen walking away from the school with a lovesick grin.
  • Itsuka, meanwhile, has an interesting case that doesn't even involve her, realizing that Izuku and Ochako are in love with each other. Based on her heartbroken reaction, it's pretty clear that she has feelings for either one of them or both of them, and she just doesn't understand it yet.
  • After several chapters of denying that she feels anything more for Izuku than just seeing him as a friend, Itsuka seeing him passionately defend her from Nighteye in Chapter 24 and calling her by her first name for the first time has her finally admit that she's fallen in love with him.
• Love Hurts:
  • Itsuka realizing that Izuku and Ochako are obviously in love with each other utterly breaks her heart, for reasons that she does not understand. This probably stems from her own unspoken attraction for the both of them.
  • Chapter 28 has this out in full force with all members of the trio, with Ochako and Itsuka arguing about their feelings for Izuku and showing each other how they feel that they don't deserve Izuku, with Itsuka showing that she's afraid of destroying her relationships with both Izuku and Ochako if she were to ask Izuku out, and Ochako finally revealing to Itsuka how horribly she feels about herself. This results in a kiss between the two girls, one that ends up making their relationship even more awkward. Izuku, meanwhile, is clearly conflicted about his evolving feelings for Ochako and seems to want to distance himself from both his best friends to figure things out. It gets so bad that Itsuka, who is already exhausted over the first two events, plus dealing with Todoroki, Monoma, and Shinso, not to mention One for All acting weird, decides to let all of it go and vents her insecurities to Nejire. Izuku, for his turn, decides that he will not be able to compete, much less against Bakugo, unless he comes to terms with whatever is going on between him and his friends, so he decides to call them and handle the matter at once.
• Loveable Sex Maniac: Both Yui and Setsuna have shades of this.
  • Yui is notorious amongst her friends as a total pervert despite her unchanging face, frequently mentioning checking out several characters. She blatantly peeks down Ochako's shirt when she was hunched over, casually mentions that she checked out Itsuka's chest when sitting down for lunch, and deliberately looks away from Tenya because she'd be tempted to let her eyes wander.
  • Setsuna, meanwhile, is very bold and confident in her appearance. She specifically designed her suit to look appealing, and rather than be offended by Hanta looking at her butt, teases him and admits that she in turn checked him out.
• Make-Out Kids:
  • Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka have some difficulty keeping their hands off each other once their attraction becomes known to them.
  • During the beach party, the kids stumble upon the 'make out spot' of the beach, with Mirio/Tamaki, Pony/Shouji, Setsuna/Hanta, Ibara/Chikuchi and Himiko/Tsuyu going at it.
• Make Wrong What Once Went Right: All For One is revealed to have taken a precognitive quirk that allowed him to manipulate the next forty years into his favor, creating an inner circle of villains that will help him rule the world, and thus changed the entire history of the story. It is implied that because of All For One unknowingly changing history, it's Itsuka who got One for All instead of Izuku, Izuku gaining a powerful quirk of his own, and other events that change and characters who become connected.
• Male Gaze: Apparently, according to a few different characters, Itsuka has a great ass. Amusingly, it's Ochako who tends to look a lot more, with Setsuna joking that Ochako distracting herself by looking at it will end up with her running into a street lamp at some point.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • The reactions to the Zero Pointer at the entrance exam.
  • The collective reaction of EVERYONE at the USJ when Nejire causes a tsunami at the flood zone.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Itsuka's parents, similar to her own name, have Punny Names based on hands - Tenohira (Te no hira) literally means 'hand', while Hakushu means 'applause'.
  • Chapter 22's title, 'Birds of a Feather', plays on two fronts - one, and the most obvious, to draw parallels between Izuku and Nejire. But it also takes on a more literal case when Overhaul makes a surprise cameo at the very end.
• Meaningful Name: The Inner Circle's plan, the 'Day of Genesis'. Other than the Ironic Name of the Book of Creation, genesis literally means 'beginning' or 'birth'. And if their plan for the Vessel and turning Japan into the origin point of their empire is any indication, the Day of Genesis may be the birth date of All For One's new legacy.
• Meet the New Boss: To drive home the point he is the one in charge of the Shie Hassaikai, Overhaul reduces Rappa to Ludicrous Gibs in front of Teko and makes clear he no longer orders from the old master. In fact, he makes clear that Teko will take orders from him moving forward, and he will be making more appearances to check on Tenohira from now on.
• Mêlée à Trois: By the time of the Sports Festival several factions are setting themselves up for an upcoming conflict: U.A. and the Pro Heroes on one side; The Villain Consortium backed by All for One; the Shie Hassaikai, who is searching for Eri; the Meta Liberation Army, who is very interested in both the Consortium and the U.A. students that survived their fight with them; the Hero Killer, who is operating on Hosu, the HPSC, who decided that the Hero Killer is too much of a threat to live and finally, the Naruhata Vigilantes (Knuckleduster, Pop☆Step, and Kugisaki) joined by Gentle, La Brava, and Ippan Josei, and led by an unknown figure.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe example with Izuku. During the first round of the Festival, when Izuku's name came in first place, there was an error on the news networks that no one had a display of his name. Since no one online knew his name, by the time it was corrected after a commercial break, the internet decided to start calling him "Sparky" (there is even a hashtag to it). Of course by the time of the second round, the "Y" was dropped and the fans started to call him "Spark", also giving the title of Memetic Badass. Ochako also got one, being "Miss Cuss Word" due to the Atomic F-Bomb she unleashed during the second event.
• Missed Him by That Much:
  • Overhaul just barely misses Itsuka when she saves Eri, with the narration showing that Itsuka ran off the moment his shoe came into the line of view.
  • Similarly, All For One leaves Itsuka, Nejire, Shouto, and Momo just as All Might arrives, and the pro hero only barely catches a glimpse of the villain rounding the corner, causing him to clearly think that he was seeing things. This, of course, was probably All For One's intention.
• Mistaken for Related:
  • Instead of Izuku, Todoroki believes Itsuka is All Might's secret love child.
  • After running into Curious during lunch, Denki asks Mina if the reporter is her aunt, which Mina denies.
• Moral Myopia: The Villain Consortium have no problems with subjecting children to a Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of villains filled up with Trigger, but when Izuku calls Nine out on his hypocrisy, they act like he just spat on them.
• Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: In order to finally get a point over how much his actions during the Festival were screwed up, Midnight tells Eraserhead that if Oboro was there to witness them, he would be ashamed, and as much as Aizawa wants to deny it, even he acknowledges his friend would kick his ass over what happened.
• Mouth of Sauron: Nemoto and Tengai act as this for Overhaul during their meeting with Teko.
• Mr. Fanservice: Izuku gets a brief scene where he takes off his wet shirt in front of Ochako and Itsuka, unintentionally showing off his toned body and making both girls (who were at the time unaware of any feelings towards him) to blush up a storm.
• Multiple-Choice Future: Forty years before the events of canon, All for One stole a precognition Quirk from a woman that allowed him to see five possible futures, of which only one would become reality. This eventually helped him prepare his survival after the fight on Endor Forest.
• Must Have Caffeine: Itsuka loves her pot of black coffee, and suffers when she forgets to pour herself some in the morning. When Izuku offered her a cold cup of it after being beaten up by Gran Torino in their spar, she didn't hesitate to chug it down.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Whenever she meets the main trio, Himiko's standard reaction is to flirt with Izuku and Ochako and completely ignore Itsuka.
  Himiko: Good luck with the results, cute kohai! I hope you both get in. I think the three of us can have a lot of 'fun', if you catch my drift. (Beat)... oh, and good luck to you too, Kendou."
• Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: One presents itself in the form of the Inner Circle, a secret cabal of major villain organizations that operates both in and out of Japan, composed of All for One, Daikoku Yaoyorozu and Re-Destro. And those are just the villains we are aware of.
• Never My Fault: Katsuki's rant to Class 1-A about letting Nine and the Villain Consortium escape in Chapter 17 absolutely reeks of this, blaming them for making him go along with their plan of restraining Kurogiri instead of incapacitating him. While he may have a point that taking Kurogiri out would have prevented their escape, he fails to mention the likelihood of what would've happened to him after the rest of the Consortium got their hands on him.
• Never Split the Party: Izuku, Itsuka, and Ochako attempt to stick together during the invasion of the USJ, but Kurogiri takes it out of their hands by teleporting Itsuka and Ochako to the mountain zone and Izuku to the conflagration zone. When they manage to finally meet back up, Izuku is near death at the hands of Hood, and Itsuka is injured from using One For All for the first time.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Aizawa's attempt to curb Bakugo's insufferable behavior by forcing him to work alongside Izuku and Ochako during the Sports Festival backfires immensely when the explosive blonde doubles down in his aggressiveness and nearly maims the both of them during their match.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Nine's defeat at the USJ can be attributed in part to his wounded ego and pettiness. Hadn't he decided to send Hood to kill Izuku because the boy pissed him off, Hood would not have been overwhelmed by Blood Lust and lost control, which forced Kurogiri to warp him away before he started to kill everyone, friend or foe alike, and both the Nomu and the High-End, plus a couple of Trigger Villains, would definitely managed to kill All Might.
• No Hero to His Valet: All Might may be Japan's Number One Hero and the Symbol of Peace, but Itsuka and Ochako aren't afraid of poking fun at him, which he takes in stride.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Hood subjects Izuku to one of these during the invasion of the USJ, to the point that the High-End nearly beats him to death.
  • After reaching their respective Rage Breaking Point, Shoto and Itsuka give one to each other during the last match of the Sports Festival.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: An internal example. After getting some pep talk from his mother and realizing that he will not be able to win his fight against Bakugo until he gets a hand over his feelings, Izuku decides to pull Itsuka and Ochako aside and settle down the issue over their emotions for good.
• No Sense of Personal Space: The concept of personal space seems to be a foreign concept to Nejire, constantly getting up close and personal with everyone and not noticing their fluster. This is especially bad with Izuku, who tends to have all the blood rush to his face when Nejire gets up in his business.
• Noodle Incident: The 'mochi ice cream incident', as Izuku puts it, is apparently one of the few things that Ochako will outright threaten Izuku with death.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: This seems to be something Katsuki doesn't realize - he's absolutely flabbergasted that Itsuka scored higher than him in the entrance exam and that Ochako and Izuku scored equally as high. He doubles down on his need to prove himself better than everyone else, and reacts with outrage during the battle trial when Mezo is named the MVP of their match after Katsuki's victory, and clearly looks down on Nejire as well, only pausing briefly when Yui points out that she created a far larger explosion in the shipwreck zone than he ever could before he changed the subject.
• Not a Date: Izuku and Nejire's 'training' during Chapter 22. Curiously, it's Izuku himself who's trying to convince himself that it's not a date or anything more than that, while Nejire is clearly willing to see their little adventure in a more romantic light.
• Not a Morning Person: Ochako is mentioned as having to need at least three alarms to properly wake up in the morning, calling Itsuka and Izuku, who are early risers, complete and utter psychos for just needing one alarm.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Izuku and Ochako celebrate passing the entrance exam results in Izuku lifting Ochako off her feet, and their parents walk in just in time to see him holding her up. They quickly attempt to clear the misunderstanding, much to Miwa's disappointment.
  • It happens again during Chapter 19 when Izuku wakes up cuddling Itsuka and Ochako, and Tenohira arrives just in time to witness the scene.
  • Happens again in Chapter 40, this time with Nejire and Melissa, as the two of them get into a Cat Fight when Melissa figures out that the main trio is officially together and Nejire tries to shut her down. Not really helped when Nejire's mother Mimi walks into the room and the two girls on the floor, with their hair a mess, their clothes ruffled, and looking flushed, as well as Nejire's explanation sounding more like a Suspiciously Specific Denial than the truth.
    Nejire: Yeah, Mom! We weren't making out on the bed and rolling around on the floor! We were wrestling!
    Mimi: 'Wrestling' is exactly what I assumed you two are doing, little missy!
• Now or Never Kiss: A variation during Chapter 31, in which Itsuka decides to throw caution to the wind and kisses both Izuku and Ochako's cheeks before their match with Bakugou and Tokoyami.

O — Z

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: President Kanshi Shiryoku offers a chance for Nagant to see her daughter, as well as her (restricted) freedom in exchange for services for eliminating the Hero Killer.
• One Degree of Separation: It turns out that Hisashi works in a position at Yaoyorozu Corporations, and Izuku becomes friends with Momo, the daughter of his bosses.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • After getting the hell beat out of him by Hood and seeing Nine collapse from his Power Incontinence after going on about Izuku being weak, Izuku calls out Nine for his hypocrisy, practically hissing about him being no better than Izuku before outright stating that Nine was even weaker than him.
  • Upon hearing from Izuku that Nine "traded Quirks" with someone for the USJ Invasion, All Might is seen growling with rage, since that can only mean that All for One is still alive.
  • There is only one thing that can make Tenohira drop her chipper and upbeat attitude. Her father's criminal past. She acts so cold towards him upon the possibility that he is still in contact with the Yakuza, that you have to wonder if it is the same woman.
  • Nejire's past experiences with bullying are the only thing capable of making the Genki Girl genuinely sad and even cry.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: While getting a shovel talk from Nagant, she asks Izuku who gave Ochako her hickey. Izuku's brain decides to betray him that moment and ask which one, since he left one in her neck and Itsuka left another on her stomach.
• Operation: Jealousy: Setsuna and Yui attempt a version of this in Chapter 23 to have Itsuka admit her feelings for Izuku, pointing out scenarios where they would take Izuku for themselves. It's a bit of a mixed bag as to whether or not it worked - Itsuka makes it clear that their attempts to make her jealous wouldn't work as she doubles down on her determination to get Izuku and Ochako together, but later, in private, she has a bit of a hard time shaking Izuku out of her mind.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Despite being able to fool almost every single person with his Toshinori Yagi disguise, Ochako is smart enough to see that All Might and his "personal assistant" are actually the same person. As she points out, both have the same height, voice, eye, and hair color and drive the same old white truck.
• Past Experience Nightmare:
  • Izuku has been plagued by nightmares of what happened when his Quirk manifested, and also about accidentally using it on Ochako.
  • Played for Laughs when he reveals to Pony and Awase that he once stole Ochako's pudding cup and blamed it on her dad.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: The only reason Shoto doesn't freeze Mineta in an iceberg after seeing him groping Momo during the obstacle race is because the midget is still on the poor girl's back. As soon he detaches himself from her, Shoto yeets him across the room.
• Pet the Dog: Nine actually takes the time to assure Izuku when he's holding the villain and Slice up, and tells him to take a breath to calm himself.
• Polyamory:
  • The main trio, Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka, will end up in a polyamorous relationship.
  • As the Flash Forward shows, Eri will follow in her parents’ footsteps and enter a poly relationship with Kota and Katsuma.
  • A retroactive example: Nagant was once in a relationship with Miwa and Taiyo Uraraka, from which Ochako was sired through artificial insemination.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Due to a mixup, Ochako and Itsuka's first meeting nearly ends with them throwing hands with each other - Itsuka hears Ochako calling Izuku "Deku", and, having heard Izuku's stories about being bullied with that nickname the night before, assumes that Ochako is a bully herself. Ochako, having woken up earlier than she would've liked to find Izuku and clearly overworked with stress and worry, gets angry, and Izuku can only watch in horror as both girls prepare to beat each other's faces in. It's only solved once Izuku finds his words and explains the misunderstanding.
  • In a rather ironic case, Star's incapacity to reign in her inner fangirl in front of her idol All Might and often dismissing or staying away from him during their meetings ends up giving him the impression she hates him. David is aware of the truth, but will never say it.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia:
  • After sharing a Big Damn Kiss, Ochako and Itsuka realize what they did, and promptly freeze up, going red as beets.
  • Happens again during Chapter 31, when Itsuka gives both Izuku and Ochako a kiss on the cheek for luck in their match against Katsuki. Izuku freezes for a good few seconds while touching his cheek before his Quirk suddenly activates.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Izuku's Quirk will injure himself if he uses it, and prolonged uses of it line his arms with electrical burns.
  • Nine's Weather Manipulation Quirk has the side effect of cellular degradation, weakening him when he uses it too much.
  • One for All, as per canon, is extremely powerful and breaks every bone in Itsuka's arm when she uses it to destroy a mountain during the USJ invasion.
• Power Misidentification: As it turns out, Izuku's Quirk isn't a simple Shock and Awe emitter that allows him to shoot lightning from his hands, but also has Elemental Absortion and Power Copying aspects, allowing him to accidentally copy Todoroki's ice after being encased on it during the second event.
• Precious Photo: Aizawa keeps one from his days as a student on his phone. Said picture includes Mandalay (his girlfriend at the time), as well as the other Pussycats, Midnight, Mic, Tensei, and Oboro, all happy and smiling. Fond memories before tragedy fell upon them.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • All Might's reaction to Ochako unexpectedly showing up on the beach and seeing him in his true form addressing Izuku and Itsuka is an apt "Oh, shit."
  • Izuku, who is already in a bad mood due to his unresolved feelings over Ochako and Itsuka, not to mention Quirk not going well during his first match has enough of Bakugo interrupting him on the way to his talk with the girls, when the explosive blonde demands answers over why he didn't use his Quirk during the match, so Izuku promptly tell his bully to "fuck off", leaving even Bakugo shocked.
  • After Bakugo cracks the Full Gauntlet with a kick, Melissa lets out an "OH MOTHERFUCKER", loud enough to scare her father out of the room.
• Proud Beauty: Reconstructed with Melissa. She already was an outcast due to being Quirkless and the jealousy of other girls due to parentage to All Might, which led to her developing serious issues with her appearance. Nevertheless, with her dad's assurance and some needed therapy, she started to value her own appearance and become proud of her looks, like complimenting herself, letting her hair grow, wearing clothes that value your figure, and not caring about what others say. She passes this knowledge to Ochako, who also suffers from appearance issues.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Villain Consortium ultimately does not succeed in their plan to kill All Might and are forced to flee the USJ, but as All for One points out, the fact that they essentially spat in All Might's face and got away with it will gain them attention in other villain communities.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • Shoto gets one during the Festival. From Izuku and Itsuka calling him out for not using his full power, to being reminded how Toya will never acknowledge him no matter how hard he tries, to remembering how much an abusive bastard Daikoku Yaoyorozu is, and finally, talking with Endeavor before his match, as soon as Present Mic gives the green light, he furiously freezes his opponents and the stadium in a massive iceberg.
  • Izuku goes through one after Bakugo seriously injures Ochako during their match. No longer caring if his bully will get hurt by his Quirk, Izuku lets out a massive No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against Bakugo.
  • Momo reaches her own during the last match of the Sports Festival. After being constantly sidelined by Shoto and seeing her former friend willing to maim their opponents during the fight, Momo smacks him in the head and calls him out on his resentment and blind worship for Toya.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Izuku gives one to Bakugo when the explosive blonde goes on one of his It's All About Me rants after he is kicked out of the Hero course, having finally grown tired of his attitude and putting him right in his place.
• Refusal of the Call: Izuku spent years refusing to use his Quirk or even entertain the possibility of becoming a hero, due to his complex about it. Ochako can clearly see that Izuku wants to be a hero more than anything, but his fears of injuring someone like he did his mother and Bakugou make him hesitant. Thankfully, All Might manages to give Izuku a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech that inspires him to pursue his dream.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • While previously hinted during his interaction with Hekiji Tengai and Shin Nemoto, it's outright confirmed in Chapter 34 that that Rappa Kendo is Teko's son and Itsuka's uncle.
  • Momo's father, Daikoku Yaoyorozu is Flect Turn, who is unknown to have siblings in canon.
  • Slice is Moonfish's daughter in this story.
  • Kanshi Shiryoku/Saiko Intelli is both the daughter of the previous HSPC President and Neito Monoma's half-sister.
  • Thanks to a case of Extra Parent Conception, Lady Nagant is also Ochako's biological mother.
• Repressed Memories: Shoto suffers a case of it from the night of when he supposedly got his scar. He didn't witness Rei having a psychotic breakdown over his likeness to Endeavor, but his mother attempting to kill his father.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Played for Laughs:
  Aizawa: Transfer Hadou over to Class 1-B or I quit.
  Nezu: Oh, Aizawa - as if I would simply let you quit! I'm afraid I'll be having you teach here until your hair is completely grey.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Mimi Hadou believes that the teachers purposedly paired Izuku with Ochako during the Sports Festival as a way to sabotage Nejire's chances with him. Well, yes, the teachers (or rather, Aizawa) paired them up on purpose, but because it was all part of a Zero-Approval Gambit to fix Bakugo's behaviour, that ended up not working at all.
• Rocky Roll Call: Izuku, Ochako, and Bakugo go through a tense one before their match... only to be interrupted by Dark Shadow loudly introducing herself.
• Rule of Symbolism: During Shoto's match against Itsuka and Nejire, the full power of his ice and Nejire's Wave Motion causes the ice to reshape itself into a dome that traps him, Ituska, Nejire, and Momo inside, much like his own emotions got surpassed by his hatred and resentment. Once he overcomes his emotional handicap and unleashes his flames, the ice dome completely melts down, symbolizing how Shoto is finally letting go of negative feelings in his heart and embracing himself entirely.
• Rule of Cool: Mirko decides to name the joint team between her Ryukyu and Nagant "Revengers" simply because it sounds badass, even it doesn't really make sense.
• Rule of Three: Played for Laughs example. As Itsuka points out, after the main trio becomes more intimate, they have no problem feeling each other's butts while making out. It starts when Ochako grabs Izuku's in Chapter 34, then Izuku grabbing Itsuka's in Chapter 35, and finally comes in full circle when Itsuka grabs Ochako's in Chapter 41.
• Running Gag:
  • People calling out Katsuki on his Compensating for Something attitude.
  • Other characters calling out aloof or temperamental characters for having 'sticks up their asses the size of Mt. Lady's finger'. Yuuyu used it to describe Shouto for his standoffish attitude, and Mina later refers to Katsuki with the same euphemism, grossing Tsuyu out.
  • Itsuka and Ochako's Oblivious to Love attitudes, which make Setsuna, Kyouka, and Yui roll their eyes every time.
  • Recovery Girl hitting Himiko with her cane when she is too flirtatious with the patients, mainly Izuku and Ochako.
  • Members of the Vigilante Group insulting Pop☆Step by saying that 'at least they aren't attracted to Skycrawler', much to her frustration.
  • Someone telling Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka a shocking development that requires all three of them to ask for clarification. This happens at the end of both Chapter 11 and Chapter 37 - the first time was All Might informing them that Izuku would be fighting Ochako and Itsuka with Nejire during their battle trial, and the next being Melissa revealing that she has become their new classmate in 1A.
    Izuku:… huh?
    Itsuka: Excuse me?
    Ochako: Sorry?
  • Someone giving another person a case of Brutal Honesty, and the second person responding with a variation of "Ouch! But fair."
  • Mirko tossing Itsuka onto Izuku during trainning. It gets to the point Itsuka believes even if Izuku is not training in the same gym as them, Mirko will go look for him and toss Itsuka on Izuku whatever he is.
• Sadistic Choice: Kanshi forces Nagant onto one: Either mentor her daughter when the girl reaches out to intern with her, or the Commission will simply toss her back on Tartarus and have another of their agents to do so. Kaina has no choice but comply.
• Sanity Slippage: Hood goes through an absolutely terrifying one during his fight with Izuku, Itsuka, and Ochako. Starting off relatively calm, Izuku blasting around, and later Itsuka and Ochako's unrelenting attacks, cause Hood to gradually get lost in his blood lust, until he fully transforms himself into an enlarged monster that's practically feral, crawling on all fours and snarling like a beast.
• The Scapegoat:
  • The Villain Consortium acts as this for the Inner Circle, taking the fault for the terrorist campaign the cabal is about to enact across Japan.
  • The HPSC is framing the Hero Killer for several crimes, such as the heroes were murdered and had their Quirks stolen by Nine, as well as any heroes Intelli deems a threat to them.
  • While it's not clear if he did so willingly or was forced to, Edward Soul took the fault for Daikoku's crimes and for all effects and purposes, is the infamous terrorist Flect Turn.
• Season Finale: Chapter 18 is described as the finale for the first season of the fic, which covers the Prologue until the USJ Invasion.
• Secret-Keeper: Chapter 19 has Izuku and Ochako be brought in on the secret of One for All. As of chapter 41, Nejire and Melissa are brought into the known.
• Secret Test of Character: Mirio pretended to be on board with his mentor's plan to take One for All from Itsuka whether willingly or not in order to understand how deep goes her conviction and determination to be a wielder, and she successfully passed on it, much to his happiness.
• Serious Business:
  • To Himiko, love. She doesn't accept when people around her, especially someone she is interested in, to self-depreciate themselves into thinking they don't deserve to be loved. That's why, even though she knows Ochako will not reciprocate her feelings, she still goes out of her way to cheer the girl up and convince the girl that she is pretty and anyone would be lucky to have her.
  • For Izuku, his analysis. He does not take well when people leave information out of his research about Quirks. When he finds out Tenya wasn't completely honest about his speed limit, he gets so upset that Ochako needs to talk him out of using the idea of sending him spiders in the mail.
  • To support students, stepping on one another's turf is grounds for total war. Mei attempting to get Izuku to become her new guinea pig causes Melissa to become cold and catty, and both girls treat the other with complete and utter scorn.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl:
  • According to Setsuna, the reason for her costume to be skintight is because she is sexy, and wants to look sexy.
  • Himiko has the bad habit of showing off at Recovery Girl's office in the most scandalous Hospital Hottie outfits. Ochako describes the outfit she is wearing when they meet as something Midnight would wear if she worked in a hospital.
  • Nejire has zero problems with Izuku or anybody else staring at her ass whether in her hero costume or while she is wearing a bikini.
• She's Not My Girlfriend:
  • Izuku says this to Tenko when the teaching assistant finds out he spent the weekend at Itsuka's place. Which he finds weird since Izuku asked for Thirteen's autograph for Ochako as a Christmas gift.
  • Izuku says the same thing to Nejire when she asks if Melissa is his girlfriend, much to the blue-haired girl's happiness.
• Ship Tease: Besides the main trio, there are a few other hints to potential couples:
  • Tenya and Yui get a bit of this since their first meeting, with Yui heavily implied to find Tenya so attractive she can't even look at or speak to him. Eventually, after the USJ incident, Yui confesses to Tenya that the reason she avoids his gaze and doesn't respond to him is that she finds him attractive, but won't ask him out since neither of them know each other. It's heavily implied through the conversation, due to Tenya's reactions, that he may be just as attracted to her as well, especially now that both of them now know of the attraction between each other.
  • Setsuna and Hanta also get a bit of teasing during Chapter 12, with Setsuna noting Hanta looking at her Sensual Spandex and admitting she also checked out his butt. After Setsuna's crisis after the USJ, Hanta gives her a much-needed You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, with Setsuna hugging him afterward and asking for his number.
  • Reiko and Fumikage agree to walk home together, with Reiko asking Dark Shadow about manga she can catch up on.
  • Pony and Mezo comfort each other after both of their guilt about Izuku fighting against Hood, and after Pony apologizes for unintentionally alienating him, they walk home together. They later become friends at the sports festival, make out during the beach party, and finally start going steady by the Heights Alliance arc.
  • Both All Might and Inko show signs of clearly liking each other, with Inko pretty much asking All Might to accompany her on a group date with the Urarakas and Kendous so that she wasn't 'fifth wheeling'. Both Hisashi and Miwa pick up on it.
  • Melissa and Nejire get a bit of this in Chapter 40, with the two girls bonding with each other after having a relatively suggestive wrestling match, which Nejire's mom overhears and assumes that they're up to something far more naughty in nature.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In the future, Ochako is one for the Eri/Kota/Katsuma polycule, and can't wait to share the news with her friends. Izuku and Itsuka don't share this excitement.
  • Miwa, Ochako's mother, is for Team Izuku/Ochako, while Tenohira, Itsuka's mother, is for Team Izuku/Itsuka. According to Inko, they're both pretty much rivals over who will confess to Izuku first. Inko herself is for both teams, as long as Izuku is happy.
  • Mina pretty much immediately boards the Izuku/Ochako ship when hearing that they were childhood friends, while Setsuna points out that, mostly due to loyalty, she has to be team Izuku/Itsuka.
    Mina: Mm-hm. I'm a hundred percent onboard with this. Team green plus pink, let's go. I'm invested, I'm gonna make this happen.
    Setsuna: Well, good luck, girl, but if we gotta pick teams, as cute as those two would be, I'm unfortunately gonna have to oppose you. Team Ken, all the way. Our battle will be legendary.
  • Hisashi seems to be one Toshinori and Inko.
  • Dark Shadow seems to be one for Fumikage and Reiko. Hawks as well. In fact, their closeness during the Sports Festival was one of the reasons why he offered to teach her as well.
  • To Itsuka's surprise, Nejire turns out to be a shipper for Izuku and Itsuka herself.
  • Out of all the main characters' parents, Mimi Hadou is the most fervent supporter of her daughter being in a relationship with Izuku, pretty much making plans for the wedding and grandkids before the two of them even get together.
• Shout-Out:
  • Word of God says that Izuku's lightning Quirk was inspired by inFAMOUS and Zenitsu from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Chapter 31 shows more inspiration from inFAMOUS, namely inFAMOUS: Second Son.
  • Ochako's Accent Slip-Up when she is stressed as well as her rapid-fire answers to Thirteen trivia during the USJ are references to The Future Briefing Island. As well as Nejire's desire to go down the slide in the shipwreck zone, just like Kaminari wanted to in FBI.
  • The Urarakas' first names, Taiyo and Miwa, are references to One for All and Eight for the Ninth. And much like in this story, All for One's name, or at least the one he intends to use in public, is Mugen Shigaraki.
  • Izuku having an edition of the Wild Wild Pussycats magazine that he claims to read for the articles is a reference to Green Tea Rescue.
  • When learning that Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka had been injured during the USJ while she was unconscious, Nejire asks "Are they safe? Are they alright?"
  • During their hangout in Chapter 19, Itsuka shows Ochako and Izuku a video about puppets that clearly horrifies them.
  • Present Mic says that Itsuka going toe-to-toe with a Zero-Pointer is something out of Shadow of the Colossus.
  • All Might mentions that the island where All for One killed Nana is called Jed'ha Island, and the place where he and the villain faced off five years prior was Endor Forest.
  • Mineta says that since he didn't take a dump earlier, his Quirk should be very sticky. He says the same thing after the Battle Trials in Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!.
  • Setsuna calls Izuku "Parsley-hair". That's her Affectionate Nickname to him in Our New Roommate.
  • At both points in which Itsuka and Ochako have a Ship Tease moment with Izuku, both Miwa and Tenohira taunt each other by saying, "That's love, bitch.".
  • One of Mei's inventions is a suit of armor that bears a remarkable resemblance to the Mark 42.
  • The scene in Chapter 30 where Nine pukes out black blood (amongst other fluids is similar to one where Emperor Belos had his first outrage moment as a slime monster. The author confirmed to be a fan of The Owl House.
  • Dark Shadow interrupting the Rocky Roll Call between Izuku, Ochako, and Bakugo just like Donkey in Shrek 2.
  • While dropping his Affably Evil facade in front of Rapt Tokage, Daikoku Yaoyorozu asks the vigilante: "Tell me, Mr. Tokage, would you like to see my mask?".
  • Arc 7 is titled, "Clover Rising" which is both a nod to Black Clover and a case of Ascended Fan Nickname towards the future polycule and their future team name.
  • When talking about Nejire kissing her, Itsuka defends herself by calling herself 'the kiss-ee, not the kisser'.
  • Tenko's original hero name was going to be "Duststorm" since he could decay anything to dust, he could be "the storm that approached". Fumikage and Reiko naturally approve it.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Izuku manages to knock Nine down a peg when the villain collapses from his Power Incontinence. He calls out Nine on his hypocrisy and states that despite all his boasting about power and strength, he was truly the weaker one there. And later, when Nine attempted to use the Trigger drop to enhance his power and kill All Might in a last-ditch effort, Izuku used his lightning to put the villain on his ass.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis:
  • Miwa and Tenohira are this towards each other, always competing over which of their daughters will get Izuku. Best shown during the School Festival.
    Tenohira: (poking Miwa in the shoulder after Izuku and Itsuka are caught smiling at each other on camera) Hey, look at that. (Beat) Look at how my daughter is smiling at him. (Beat) Look how he's smiling back at her. (Beat) That's love, bitch.
    Miwa: Fuck you.
  • Himiko is constantly warned by Recovery Girl to not flirt with the patients and not use her office to make out with other students. She simply ignores her senior's orders even when means to get whacked by Recovery Girl's cane.
  • Nejire is completely oblivious to the fact that Miwa and Tenohira made her their personal enemy for interfering with their respective kids pairing with Izuku.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • After All Might struggles to restrain the Sludge Villain, Ochako is more concerned about wasting the soda bottles that she bought before handing them over to him.
  • A Played for Drama example. As she is being drowned, Nejire thinks about all the things that she hadn't had the chance to accomplish in order to find the strength to overpower her attempted killers.
    Nejire: No. No, she couldn't die here. She wasn't going to die here. She still needed to be bridal carried. She still needed to visit the beach with all her friends. She still had so much she wanted to do. She went her whole life with only Yuuyu for a friend, and when she finally made a bunch of cool new ones, what, she was going to die and leave them because stupid shark villains killed her?! No! She was going to hang out with them all the time! They were going to have so much fun! She was going to talk and laugh and play with them, ask Itsuka how big her hands could grow, how long Ochako could float something, how fast Tenya could run! How little Yui could shrink something, how many body parts Setsuna could split apart! She was going… she was going to ask Izuku to hug her! And not some little tiny 'yay' hug, a big long one! She wanted him to hug her! She thought that would be nice! Hold his hand, jump in his arms! Yep, sorry, Mezo, his arms looked nice and comfy, but it was going to be Izuku to give her a bridal carry!
  • Nighteye will take any opportunity as an excuse to prove his point about Mirio and One for All, whether is right after the USJ attack, or when All for One announces his campaign for Prime Minister.
• Sleep Cute: Ochako and Itsuka fall asleep together during their slumber party, resulting in Itsuka cuddling her in their sleep. Upon getting up, they also see Izuku cuddling with Gūdo, prompting the girls to quietly Squee and start taking pictures of them together.
• Slice of Life: With the amount of Character Depth that the author puts in for all three main characters, half of the fic is dedicated to Izuku, Itsuka, and Ochako going about their daily lives as students at an Academy of Adventure.
• Smooch of Victory:
  • After using One for All for the first time to immobilize all the villains by destroying the mountain zone, and narrowly escaping the ensuing rock slide, Itsuka and Ochako share a passionate if somewhat inexperienced kiss.
  • Itsuka gives one to both Izuku and Ochako in order to cheer them up after they are both disqualified due to being too injured during their match.
  • Hilariously enough, she finds herself on the receiving end of one by Nejire before their match.
• Sneeze Cut: In Chapter 22, Izuku mentions that he is not oblivious when it comes to girls. Cut to Itsuka and Ochako waking up with a sneeze.
• Something Else Also Rises: When Itsuka kisses his cheek, Izuku freezes for a few seconds before his Quirk suddenly activates, noted to be looking a lot more fiercer and alive than usual. Subtle, Izuku, subtle.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • In canon Hana Shimura was the first to talk to Tenko when he awakened his Quirk and was killed by him. Here however she was inside their family house, which Tenko collapsed with his Quirk. Hana was the only survivor but lost her legs in the accident.
  • Nezu mentions that Kuin Hachisuka/Queen Bee is still alive after being extracted from Pop☆Step and is currently imprisoned in Tartarus.
  • Oboro Shirakumo survived being crushed by debris during Garvey's attack and didn't became Kurogiri after the incident, although he still lost his Quirk in the process.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To My Hero Academia: Entropy. Both fics have the Fandom-Specific Plot of Itsuka being Ninth Wielder of One For All, in both the Big Bad is a Dark Messiah leading a rising villain organization (here Nine and the Villain Consortium, in Entropy, Izuku Midoriya/Seraph and The Syndicate.) and both are very Darker and Edgier stories set in the MHA world. However, while here it follows The Stations of the Canon, in Entropy the story is set two years in the future and has a very spy thriller genre theme to it, and is mostly set from the villains’ point of view.
• Squishy Wizard: Izuku's Quirk is extremely powerful, but the rest of his body is still fairly fragile, meaning that, once he is confronted by Hood's Super-Strength, every blow from the villain breaks more and more of his body as the battle goes on.
• The Starscream:
  • Slice says that one of Nine's goals is to overthrow All for One and take his throne as the ruler of the world. Given how the older villain intends to dispose of him as soon as the Inner Circle's plans have been successful, it's a matter of who will betray the other first.
  • Two Jerkass examples during the Sports Festival. Shinso and Monoma go out of their way to sabotage Itsuka's team for their own selfish reasons, Monoma due to his grudge against 1-A and Shinso to get rid of competition for the third event.
  • Curious, who is well aware she is the most disposable amongst the MLA lieutenants, plans to overthrow Re-Destro and her colleagues, in order to seize control of the MLA and join Nine. Said opportunity presents itself with Re-Destro's death.
• Stealth Expert: Himiko Toga, as shown during the USJ's invasion - she manages to sneak down, stab a Trigger henchman to get his blood, moves up to Slice, and reveals herself just in time to throw a knife at the villain. The only reason Slice gets away in one piece is because she moved to the side fast enough for Kurogiri to defend her. And that's not mentioning that she somehow managed to sneak into Class 1-A and surprise Izuku - and no one sitting behind him even noticed her until she popped up.
• Story Arc:
  • Arc 1 - Prologue (Chapters 1-2)
  • Arc 2 - Training for U.A. (Chapters 3-9)
  • Arc 3 - Attending U.A. (Chapters 10-13)
  • Arc 4 - USJ Invasion (Chapters 14-18)
  • Arc 5 - Prelude to Sports Festival (Chapters 19-24)
  • Arc 6 - The Sports Festival (Chapters 25-33)
  • Arc 7 - Clover Rising (Chapters 34-36)
  • Arc 8 - Heights Alliance (Chapters 37-42)
  • Arc 9 - The Revengers Agency (Chapters 43-??)
• Straw Hypocrite: What Izuku, despite being already nearly beaten to death, accuses Nine of being. The villain goes on with lectures about strength mattering about all else, or mocking Izuku for his feeling of weakness here, but after a breakdown from his own injuries, Izuku rubs it in Nine's face that with his impairment and considerations of resorting to Trigger, he is effectively the weakest here. Nine does not take that well.
• Stunned Silence: Every single person in the audience of the Sports Festival gets like this by the end of Izuku and Bakugo's fight, when Izuku freezes Bakugo in a small iceberg.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Nejire runs into a version of this when she suddenly has the thought of finding Itsuka sexy. Her attempt to just pass Itsuka off in her mind as naturally good-looking ends up causing her to think more and more about how attractive Nejire finds Itsuka to be. She ends up flustering herself and pushing the thought off for later.
• Sucky School: The faculty of Aldera Middle School did nothing for Izuku and Ochako as they get bullied by their classmates, with Izuku referred to as a villain due to the incident in his childhood, and Ochako mocked for standing up to him.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Nejire constantly hitting her head in the battle trial results in her getting a concussion.
• Take a Third Option: Kaina finds herself in this position during her mission to hunt down Stendhal and the Hero Killer, either refusing, getting sent back to Tartarus and having some Commission agent to corrupt her daughter into joining them, or she kills the villain and gets to live alongside Taiyo and Miwa as the HPSC recruits Ochako with her help. She decides however, to try her luck and steal the HPSC data that Kanshi intends to send to Iguchi during the Hosu operation, gaining leverage against them while also getting their attention focused solely on her instead of her daughter.
• Taking the Bullet: Ochako steps in to save Izuku from Bakugo's Howitzer Impact during their match at the semifinals, seriously injuring herself in the process.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Nine attempts to kill All Might with a bolt of lightning - and Izuku interrupts him with a lightning bolt to the chest. Nine is then forced into bedrest for potentially weeks to recover.
• Team Killer: A non-lethal example. During the second event, Kaminari attempts to take Izuku out with his "Indiscriminate Shock" attack, but as Izuku dodges it, he ends up taking out all of his teammates, minus Setsuna and Hanta.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Twice during the Sports Festival. Ituska is forced to work alongside Todoroki, Monoma, and Shinso during the second event, while Izuku and Ochako have to work with Bakugo and Mineta.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted with Tenko and Hound Dog. Aizawa even mentions to Izuku that he would set up appointments with both of them for the boy if he didn't figure out the complexities behind his Quirk. After the USJ, Midnight joins the therapy crew given the amount of trauma the class went through.
• There Is Only One Bed:
  • Izuku and Itsuka run into this problem when they're trapped in Izuku's room with only one bed for them to rest on. They eventually agree to sleep together, which leads to their Love Confession and Big Damn Kiss.
  • Hillariously enough, Izuku finds himself running into this exact same problem during his first night at the Revengers Agency, this time with Nejire.
• There's No Kill like Overkill:
  • Nine's plan to kill All Might at the USJ can be described as this. First, give a syringe full of Trigger to all the villains and sic them on to All Might to wear him out. Then dispatch the Nomu and Hood to finish him off. AND IF THAT FAILS, Nine will take a tiny dose of Trigger (ironically a legal one) turning himself into a Person of Mass Destruction up to eleven.
  • The first phase of the Sports Festival counts as such, with an obstacle race that includes floating platforms, robots, and canon balls being fired from everywhere.
  • In order to make sure that All for One died and stayed dead, not only after All Might caved his head out with his most powerful punch, Nighteye and Gran Torino made sure to burn the villain's body to ash and have the ashes disposed of. Which only serves to raise questions over how All for One is still alive and in full health.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Slice is by far the most normal-looking member of the Consortium, which is why she was chosen to infiltrate U.A. and steal the schedules for the USJ trip. It wasn't until she let slip up that she met the kids before the attack that Ochako realized that Slice was the reporter she bumped into on the prior day. She later goes to shop for Nine's dinner and notes that no one recognizes her.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • The trio's reaction upon realizing that who their respective partners for the second event are.
  • Itsuka's reaction when she realizes that Setsuna and Yui united their teams to take her and Izuku out during the Tag game.
  • Izuku, Ochako, Tenya, and Midnight's reaction when Mei hacks the stadium speakers and turns their match into a commercial for her inventions. Midnight herself is the main person to blame since she allowed Mei and Tenya to bring the items for it.
  • Yuyu's reaction before her match against Shoto, and it's absolutely justified, given how the boy knocks them out not even seconds into their match.
  • Itsuka's reaction once she realizes she and her friends/crushes will have to fight against a horde of their zombified classmates.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: A hilarious meta example to Hisashi from the author. Hisashi didn't have the best frame-up in his previous works, being dead in Disciples Rising and a cheating douchebag in Like Rabbits, so this time 3PeopleInACoat decided to do something nice for the man, and paired him up with Midnight. Readers approved.
• Training from Hell: In addition to having to clean all of Dagobah Beach, Izuku, Itsuka and Ochako also have to go to the Kendous' dojo to be trained by Teko, who makes it clear that he won't take it easy on them and subjects them to hundreds of pushups, sit-ups, laps and complex martial arts.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • After Monoma betrays Itsuka during the second event and temporarily knocks her out, Izuku calmly tells his teammates to go on with plan B without him, as he charges, possessed with rage towards the copying user, and tries to kick the everliving hell out of him.
  • Izuku goes through it again after Bakugo injures Ochako, no longer holding back and unleashing his Quirk at full power.
• Troll: Setsuna and her entire family are pretty much composed of these - Setsuna will take every opportunity she gets to tease Itsuka, and her parents, after hearing Izuku has green hair similar to their own, immediately claim that he's their long-lost son to Sera, their youngest daughter, who spends the rest of the night pretty much clinging to Izuku despite his protests that he wasn't actually her brother.
• Tsundere: Ochako is a Type-B for Izuku, being a mostly cheerful girl who supports him even when he doesn't believe in himself, but is also quick to anger when he doesn't take care of himself or puts himself in danger.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Slice, one of the best examples of Ms. Fanservice in the story, is Moonfish's daughter here. Even if you take aside the fact that Moonfish is an Ax-Crazy cannibal who himself is like a gimp, you can’t help but notice Slice probably inherited, well, anything related to beauty from her mother, whoever she is.
• Unbroken Vigil: Both Itsuka and Ochako wait outside Izuku's hospital room after the USJ invasion.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: The clear romantic tension between Izuku, Ochako, and Itsuka is blatantly obvious to everyone who can see it - sharing longing gazes, hugs, and (in Ochako and Itsuka's cases) occasional make-outs in the spur of the moments. This really begins to come to a head at the Sports Festival, where the three of them become more and more aware of their growing feelings for each other, and how afraid they are to either take the next step or explore those feelings.
• Unstoppable Rage: Itsuka and Ochako's reactions to seeing Izuku near death at the hands of Hood is to immediately give away their positions so they could run over and beat Hood down, both of them described by the narration as looking incredibly furious about their training partner's state.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • While trying to use the Shie Hassaikai to get information and revenge against the Consortium, Teko ends bringing his family back into the Yakuza affairs he wanted to stay away from, threatening to expose the Kendo Family dark secrets.
  • [[spoiler:Ochako's insistence in attempting to find out more about Kaina's reasons for abandoning her ends causing her to become a person of interest to Kanshi, who intends to make Ochako one of the Commission's agents.
• Vagueness Is Coming: The 'Day of Genesis', as said by Fujimi in regards to the HPSC's plans.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • When Izuku uses his Quirk to blast out of the conflagration zone, Nine immediately notices it and regrets not having the room to take it from Izuku as he's having him beaten to death by Hood.
  • Upon hearing from Nine about a girl in Class 1-A appearing to have more than one Quirk, All for One is immediately interested. The villain also has become interested in Izuku as well, especially after finding out how close he and Ochako are to Itsuka, and has Garaki check on details from the boy's hospital records.
  • According to Curious, the Meta Liberation Army is very interested not only in the hero students who survived the USJ but also in the Villain Consortium due to their Social Darwinist ideology being similar to Destro's. After interviewing Denki and learning how Izuku went up against Nine himself (as well as seeing his "intense" conversation with Bakugo during the Festival) Curious seems to be especially interested in Izuku as well.
  • After finding Izuku was supposed to become the Ninth Wielder of One for All in the original timeline, All for One decides to use the boy as a Soul Jar for his consciousness.
• Villain Team-Up: Nine's overall goal forming the Villain Consortium - due to the heroes being a singular force opposed to many villains forming gangs, Nine's plan is to ultimately bring all villains under the banner of the Villain Consortium, effectively building an army that he can use to take over Japan.
• Villainous Friendship: While all the core members of the Consortium share this, Nine and Slice seem to be particularly close. During her fight against Aizawa, as soon as the Erasure Hero was about to hit Slice, Nine intervened, saying he will not let anyone hurt his friend.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend:
  • Itsuka and Ochako manage to find Izuku - just as he is being beaten within an inch of his life and about to be finished by Hood. Both girls then proceed to go absolutely feral in their attempts to get Izuku to safety and make Hood pay for what he did.
  • Slice is an implied example. Word of God mentioned in their previous story, A Few Interesting Offers, that they believe Slice was in love with Nine, but never declared to him. It would also fit since she is Ochako's Arch-Enemy.
• We Will Meet Again: Unsaid by either of them, but Izuku and Nine's mutual Death Glare means that both of them are clearly expecting to meet again sometime down the line.
• Wham Line:
  • The end of Chapter 7 has Izuku introduced to someone who could help him out with his Quirk, with the person introducing himself immediately establishing a major divergence point from canon:
    "It's nice to meet you, Midoriya, I've heard about you from All Might. My name is Tenko Shimura."
  • Hood delivers one during the USJ that reveals its true identity:
    Hood: THE POWER! S-SHOW IT TO ME A-AGAIN! SH-SHOW ME - Y-YOUR - B-B-BLOOD!"
  • Chapter 28 ends up with a big one:
    Itsuka: I … w-what did you say?
    Nejire: I asked, what is One for All?
  • Two instances happen in Chapter 32, that to a Canon Character All Along reveal. First with Skip:
    Daikoku: Yes, well … I imagine living in Japan's far more exciting than the country you used to live in. Remind me, what were your sibling's names again?
    Skip: Roro, and Lala, sir.
  • And then with Daikoku which is actually preceded by a Wham Shot of his appearance transforming into Flect Turn after putting his mask on.
    Daikoku/Flect Turn: When I was a young man, I had difficulties with using my Quirk. It was quite the mischievous one, you know … able to reflect any movement it perceives as an attack back onto the user.
  • Momo delivers one halfway through Chapter 33.
    Momo: Shouto, you've … you've always had that scar. Ever since we met as children.
  • Another one is dropped at the end of the chapter, also concluding the Sports Festival arc.
    Mugen/All for One: My name, is Mugen Shigaraki. Future prime minister of Japan.
  • Hawks drops one in Chapter 35 that reveals Leader's true identity.
  Hawks: Ah, come on, Shirakumo,you gotta admit, you've got a pretty punchable face.
  • During Oboro's nightmare in Chapter 41, the readers understand why exactly All for One is so interested in Izuku, besides being in a relationship with the current One for All wielder.
  Garaki: He's … well, I'll say that he's relatively a normal baby boy. But I'll continue to keep an eye on him - there must be some reason that All Might chooses him as his successor, if your visions were correct.
  All for One: Excellent, Doctor … our plans will be continuing to go forward, then. If All Might is to choose this boy as his successor, it would serve me well to choose him as my successor as well! He would make a fitting Vessel, would he not?
• What Is This Feeling?:
  • Both Itsuka and Ochako have these thoughts come Chapter 18, mostly concerning each other and Izuku after their kiss.
  • Izuku has absolutely no idea what's going on with him concerning Ochako in the Sports Festival, unaware that his feelings for both her and Itsuka are slowly becoming stronger.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gran Torino calls out Nighteye on his Jerkass behavior after he blamed Itsuka for an accident that was clearly Gran's fault, and points out his bias is blinding him to the possibility that Itsuka will eventually improve enough to be worthy of One for All.
  • The main trio's parents all call Aizawa on his attempt to fix Bakugo's atrocious personality by using their children to do so and nearly getting all of them maimed in the process. Inko even slaps the homeroom teacher across the face.
  • After reaching her own Rage Breaking Point, Momo smacks Shoto with a fan and calls him out on his willingness to nearly kill Itsuka and Nejire for the sake of a one-sided grudge.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 2 is spent entirely in the past, depicting Izuku and Ochako's first meeting, the start of their friendship, and the manifestation of Izuku's Quirk.
• Wholesome Crossdresser:
  • Averted. All the way to hell with All Might. Unlike Tiger from the Pussycats, he is too buff to wear a cheerleader outfit and not come out as cringe.
  • Played Straight with most of the first students, like Denki and Eijiro, who actually pull it off pretty nicely. Even Yosetsu doesn't look so bad, even though he hated it.
• Willfully Weak:
  • Izuku is this, being reluctant to use his Quirk against others due to its destructive power. This backfires twice - once in the battle trial in which he loses, and the second in his fight with Hood.
  • As in canon, Shouto is this as well, not using his fire at all during their exercises. This backfires a bit on him, with Yuuyu growing resentful of him for 'not even trying'.
• Xanatos Gambit: After Overhaul gets on his bad side, Nine arranges for the MLA to go after the Shie Hassaikai by revealing about the Quirk erasing bullets Overhaul is producing. Either Overhaul is killed by them, or the Yakuza kills the MLA lieutenants that will be a problem to him, whichever happens, Nine gets rid of competition.
• X Days Since: Itsuka keeps a board counting the days since Melissa's experiment caused something to explode. Current record is 3 days.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Ochako makes a note to remind Izuku that "Deku" means "You can do it" after Katsuki pulls one of his Kick the Dog moments during the Festival.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • This was Itsuka and Ochako's reaction to the zero-pointer. Accompanied by lots and lots of swearing.
  • Itsuka's reaction when both Bakugo and Todoroki stand in her way when she is trying to save Izuku and Ochako from falling.
• You Monster!: Played for Laughs with Izuku destroying the villain bots, with many of them crying out for their fallen brethren and immediately turning to kill the 'plain looking green person' in vengeance.
• You Remind Me of X: Gran points out that this was Nighteye's greatest disadvantage - that he was comparing Mirio to All Might, but both he and All Might were comparing Itsuka to Nana Shimura due to their similarities.
• Zerg Rush: This was supposed to be the role of the Trigger Villains during the USJ attack. Overwhelm All Might in number, make him waste time to weaken him enough so Hood and the Nomu would finish him off.

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