Fanfic / It's Over, Isn't It (it's only just begun)

Once, there was a great hero. A Symbol of Peace who, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, had taken up a Secret Legacy as well. His Quirk — his power was not solely his own and was handed from one bearer to the next in hopes of eventually growing strong enough to defeat a great evil.

The last of these torchbearers — his mentor Nana — was survived by a son. He in turn had a child of his own. Unfortunately, despite Nana's best efforts to protect her family, All For One's reach proved to be greater than expected, and he took her grandchild in, fully intending to turn that child into a Tyke-Bomb.

But All Might learned of this plan much sooner than the villain anticipated. Nor was he fully prepared for his nemesis to come directly after him. When the dust settled, All For One had fallen, and All Might was soon to follow. He was survived by his partner Sir Nighteye, his wife Midoriya Inko, and their two-year-old son.

It's Over, Isn't It (it's only just begun) is another My Hero Academia Alternate Universe Fan Fic by PitViperOfDoom that explores the world left in the wake of All-Might's noble sacrifice. As painful as it proves to be at times, life goes on without him, as does All-Might's legacy, carried by those who knew him best.

For other works by this author, see Yesterday Upon The Stair, Powdered Gold and Pottery, and Witness (Good Neighbors).

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This My Hero Academia Fan Fic contains examples of:

• Accomplice by Inaction: Fiver effectively accuses Kurogiri of this:
  Fiver: "What the fuck are you actually doing, Kurogiri? You think you're staying out of it, when you let scum like Giran work your bar? Get bent. You’re not neutral, you just roll over for whoever's already winning."
• Adaptation Personality Change: Being rescued from All for One, and raised by Gran Torino, does wonders for Shimura Tenko's mental health. While he's still bitter at society to some degree for ignoring a helpless child - not helped by less than stellar authority figures he finds in the school system - he's channeling those feelings into helping the people society would overlook the way it did him, rather than trying to burn it all down and rule over the ashes.
• Adaptational Badass: Subtle but there with Nighteye. In canon, he left All Might and formed his own agency upon his own admittedly distinguished talent and reputation, while here he is the inheritor of most of All Might's agency. While most of it goes to a charity foundation, he still maintains many of All Might's old contracts, employees, and contacts, making it a much larger organization than canon. To say nothing of his close, personal connection with the man who is seen as a martyr to the rest of Japan.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Inko and Toshinori are secretly married, with Izuku as his biological son. As a natural extension of this, Sir Nighteye is very familiar with them and supports Inko as best he can in the wake of her husband's death.
  • All for One is dead, and Gran Torino adopts Shimura Tenko before he has the chance to become Tomura Shigaraki. Thus, when he and Kurogiri meet again, their relationship is entirely different.
  • Aizawa interns at Sir Nighteye's agency, leading to him becoming acquainted with Nighteye and his office, Inko, and Izuku.
  • Izuku meets Ojiro Mashirao when he starts taking karate lessons at the same dojo as him, and Yorashi Inasa when he transfers into his elementary school.
  • Gran Torino and Nighteye are never seen interacting together, but here they keep in touch, particularly in matters regarding Tomura and that All Might's charity foundation is not being abused.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Inverted; as he's dying, Toshinori acknowledges Nighteye's feelings for him, thanking him and stating that "Loving me couldn't have been easy." Nighteye disagrees with that sentiment:
  Nighteye: "It was. It was the best and easiest thing I ever did."
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Nighteye confronts Endeavor about pushing his interns too far:

  Endeavor: "Don't talk to me of compassion when you know perfectly well that sacrifices must be made for the sake of peace—"
  Nighteye: "You are sacrificing nothing! Forcing burdens on someone else is not a sacrifice. It's cowardice."
  Endeavor: "You should watch yourself, Nighteye—"
  Nighteye: "I am not the one with the burden of every spotlight in the country, Endeavor. You are. I know that the only admiration you've ever held for All-Might's legacy is envy. If you keep treating your fellow heroes this way, the only legacy you'll leave is relief that you are gone."

• Bad Guy Bar: Kurogiri runs a Downplayed version, though the fact that he's downplaying it, is Deconstructed in we've all got nowhere to go, as 'Fiver' reenters his life and challenges his supposed neutrality.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Centipeder, a Pro Hero at Sir Nighteye's agency, has the chitin-covered head and body of a centipede. After meeting him, Tensei comments to Shouta that it's a good thing the bug-phobic Hizashi didn't join them in interning there.
  Shouta: "You know he'd take out every window on the first three floors."
• Broken Pedestal: Throughout everything you have, everything you are, Tensei's regard for Endeavor is worn away until it finally breaks.
• Comes Great Responsibility: In the wake of All-Might's Heroic Sacrifice, some push to follow his example, potentially at the cost of their health. Endeavor intentionally exploits this by using this to guilt his interns and employees into pushing themselves beyond their limits. Such as when he lectures Pinpoint for wanting to tend to her broken wrist and rib:
  Endeavor: "It means you sacrifice whatever is needed. It means no matter how many bones you break, how little you sleep, how little you eat, you work until the job is done. Any less effort than that is worthless. The man sacrificed his life and still won. Surely you can sacrifice a nap, Pinpoint."
• Containment Clothing: Sir Nighteye makes Tenko makeshift Power Limiter gloves out of tape so he won't activate his Quirk. These stop-gap gloves are later replaced with specially designed gloves that cover his fingertips.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Tenko doesn't like anyone referring to him as Shigaraki Tomura, for obvious reasons.
• Double Speak: Tensei, Shouta, and Nighteye spend some time decoding a press release in everything you have, everything you are, starting with this:
  Tensei: "Due to unprecedented circumstances... Unprecedented is basically PR-speak for 'We screwed up, and now we're scrambling to make it look like somebody else's fault.'"
• Even Evil Has Standards: While running his 'neutral' bar, Kurogiri maintains a few rules. Fights are either taken outside voluntarily or get warped out and anyone who attempts to tamper with drinks goes out the door as well. However, Kurogiri doesn't watch as closely as Fiver does — and when Fiver catches anyone breaking the rules, he's a lot more directly confrontational than his boss.
• Foil: Shouta and Tensei are used to complement and contrast each other in strong through their experiences interning at Sir Nighteye's agency.
  • Shouta has little respect for the showmanship and spectacle surrounding Pro Heroism, barely holding back his cynicism until it boils over only to be taken aback when Nighteye handles the situation calmly.
  • Tensei is more used to navigating office politics but is taken aback by the more relaxed and friendly atmosphere at Nighteye's agency. His questioning the more toxic aspects of Pro Heroism is internal, with him wondering if there's something wrong with him until Nighteye offers reassurance that he is more than a tool to be broken in service of some greater good.
• For Want Of A Nail: In-Universe, Aizawa muses about how he turned down an internship at All-Might's agency in favor of a 'no-name office in Kamino Ward.' All-Might was killed in the line of duty a few months later, and he notes that while his internship would have ended before then, it still would have cast an unwanted spotlight upon him.
• Forgets to Eat: Downplayed; Aizawa does eat, but primarily in the form of gel packs. While other agencies he's worked with prior to Sir Nighteye didn't really comment on this, aside from a sidekick praising him for having a system, it doesn't quite work as well at Nighteye's agency. Especially not with Ms. Midoriya around.
  • In everything you have, everything you are, Tensei's chapter of strong, Shouta narcs on him when he misses breakfast and forgets to bring lunch. Tensei initially thinks that he sold him out in revenge for something, but he was just ensuring he'd get an Inko-prepared bento of his own.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: When confronting him about how he's been running himself ragged for her, Inko uses Nighteye's full name for emphasis.
  Inko: "He's gone, I've lost him, and so help me, Sasaki Mirai, I'm not losing you too."
• Honorary Uncle: Nighteye more or less fits into this role with Izuku.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Izuku still inherits One For All from Toshinori — passed down through his bloodline rather than manually. However, he also still gets diagnosed as Quirkless, as the power is lying dormant and undetected so that he doesn't wind up wrecking his body with it at a tender age.
  • Katsuki still bullies Izuku, unaware that he's secretly the son of All-Might.
  • Becoming the Number One Hero after All-Might's Heroic Sacrifice doesn't make Endeavor any less of a Jerkass; it just adds to his arsenal and leaves him obsessed with outdoing a dead man.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: While Izuku mostly resembles his mother, he inherited Toshinori's bright, crystal-blue eyes.
• Innocent Inaccurate:
  • Heartbreakingly, Izuku goes through a period where he hates heroes because heroes die. Heroes die, and he doesn't want Nighteye or anyone else to die — or for people to be happy about it, the way they were when All-Might died. That's how it seems to him at the tender age of five, anyway.
  • A lighter version, when Aizawa sees his new boss Nighteye casually holding baby Izuku while said baby takes a nap, he notices the similar colored hair and briefly wonders if Izuku is Nighteye's son. Talking to Centipeder and meeting Izuku dispels this theory.
  • Similarly, when he meets Inko and Izuku, Tensei sees their green hair and their ease around each other and assumes that Nighteye and Inko are siblings.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Aizawa rants a bit to Nighteye after the anniversary of All Might's passing about his distaste for the attitude of martyrdom that's emerged following All Might's passing since he died doing what numerous other heroes do without fanfare. Nighteye sympathizes but notes that All Might wasn't responsible for the media's aggrandizing his image, and it's a little hollow when he minimizes the impact of All Might's passing to someone still actively grieving. Aizawa understandably feels like a heel afterward.
  • When Nighteye snarks about "Heaven forbid Pro Heroes learn subtlety," Tensei unthinkingly responds with "Wait, but you worked with All-Might." Though he's immediately horrified at his thoughtless reaction, Nighteye shrugs it off:
    Nighteye: "Yes, and that man didn't know subtlety if it jumped up and bit him. I should know, I did the paperwork."
  • Inasa's jokes about his quirk being so useless that he might as well not have one deeply upset Izuku, who'd thought that he'd met another Quirkless kid before he clarified. When Inasa finds out, he thoughtlessly blurts out that he doesn't know what he'd do if he was Quirkless, leading Izuku to throw his words back in his face.
• Internal Reveal: take a moment and find yourself revolves around Nighteye and Inko learning about Katsuki's bullying when Izuku is six, due to Nighteye using his Quirk to get a glimpse of Izuku's future.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Izuku gets hit with this hard; he knows he's not supposed to tell anyone he's related to All Might, but that means he has to hear people talk about his death and can't tell them how losing him hurt those close to him.
• Meaningful Rename: Tenko gives himself the nickname 'Fiver' in we've all got nowhere to go.
• Musical Theme Naming: The titles and chapters of each work are named after/inspired by songs and lyrics from Steven Universe.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Gran Torino regards taking in Shimura Tenko as this:
  Torino: "Nana only wanted her boy safe, and we lost him over a promise I never should've made. I ain't letting the same thing happen to the last of her blood."
  Nighteye: "Which lost boy are you referring to? The one she gave up, or the one she chose?"
• Nepotism: Tensei's chapter in strong explores his mixed feelings about carrying on the Iida name, as he's well aware of the advantages it affords him compared to others.
• Neutral No Longer: By the climax of we've all got nowhere to go, Fiver has successfully gotten under Kurogiri's skin to the point that he's mentally switched from seeing troubled youth as potential problems to seeing them as children.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Through when i talk, it lights a fire in you, Izuku has difficulty putting his self-defense lessons to use: he freezes up and can't fight back, even when trying to spar. A chance encounter with Katsuki changes this when his former friend attempts to beat him up, helping things click together in his mind.
• Nominal Hero: Inko discusses this with her six-year-old son after learning about Katsuki's bullying, gently explaining to him that if his behavior goes unchecked, he runs the risk of becoming this — for what type of hero doesn't protect others or judges them weak and unworthy of being saved?
• Paparazzi: In something that does right by you, Nighteye muses about how if the media knew that Inko and Toshinori were married, they'd drag her and her son out into the public eye and force them to bear the weight of the world's grief.
  Inko: "His idea, in the end. He said it was for my protection. I told him I wasn't afraid. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that he was talking about the media as much as villains."
  • In strong, a reporter named Souzou ambushes Aizawa outside Nighteye's agency, shoving a microphone in his face and bombarding him with invasive questions until Nighteye intervenes, confiscating his tape recorder. His casual rebuff of the reporter makes clear that this isn't the first time they've dealt with his trespassing, and that he's ignoring several orders to stay away and stop lying about his workers.
• Parental Substitute: Nighteye naturally serves as this to Izuku to some extent, though he panics when the two-year-old mistakenly calls him 'Daddy?'
  • Gran Torino taking in Shimura Tenko means he qualifies as well, though their relationship is a bit different.
• Parting-Words Regret: Averted with Inko, who reflects on how she and Toshinori told each other Love Confessions as she saw him off that morning, and how fortunate she was to have that much. Played straight with Nighteye, who interrupted Toshinori's attempt to pass a message on to his family demanding that he tell them himself, and feels guilty for cutting him off.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Nighteye skirts close to saying this outright, pleading with Toshinori to stay for the sake of his wife and son. Toshinori's response hints that he hears this unspoken plea as well.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Inko expresses concern that if Katsuki's bullying is left unchecked, he'll grow up to be a 'hero' who won't bother protecting those he deems unworthy of his efforts, like the Quirkless and supposedly 'weak.'
• Related in the Adaptation: In this world, Midoriya Izuku is Toshinori's biological son.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In strong, Tensei reveals that Endeavor took advantage of becoming the Number One Hero after All-Might's death to turn the whole block around his agency into a dead zone. No internet, no phone, limited electricity. All for the sake of keeping news crews off his doorstep.
  Shouta: "Aren't there other businesses on that block?"
  Tensei: "Uh... I mean. There were."
• Secret Relationship: Toshinori and Inko. 'Midoriya Hisashi' is nothing more than a cover identity Toshinori used.
• Shout-Out:
  • Tenko's nickname of Fiver is implicitly inspired by Watership Down. He brings the book with him while visiting the Midoriyas for the first time, and the plot is briefly discussed... though Inko and Sorahiko are a bit wary of going into any details with Izuku.
  • After hearing Katsuki call Izuku 'Deku', he repurposes it into a The Legend of Zelda-inspired nickname, calling him a Deku Scrub.
• Tell Me About My Father: Zig-zagged. Izuku likes it when Inko and Nighteye tell him about All Might, but he doesn't like it when other people talk about him, because they inevitably talk about his death.
• What If?: Combines two common threads: 'What if All-Might was Izuku's father by blood?' and 'What if All-Might learned about All For One's plans for Shimura Tenko and was able to save him?
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tenko's classmates Asari and Chujo are fond of these. Chujo uses his quirk to give himself nosebleeds and frame others for hurting him, and Asari stabbed himself with thumbtacks in order to make it look like a girl with fangs bit him in order to get her into trouble.

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