Fanfic / Mean Rabbit

"Kid, you ain't got no quirk, no muscle, and no battle sense. There's no way you'll be a hero like the big man./ But that's fine. Cause instead of dressing you up in star-spangled underpants, I'm gonna make you fuckin' mean."

When Miruko saves Izuku from the Sludge villain rather than All Might, the world will never be the same.

Can be read here. See also Midoriya, Plus Three-Sixty-Five, another Point of Divergence work by the same author.

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Mean Rabbit contains examples of:

• Adapted Out: In the wake of the USJ, Jiro, Kaminari, and Mineta all advocate leaving Izuku behind instead of helping him escape the villains. Jiro eventually has a Heel Realization and tries to apologize, and gets a lighter sentence but since Mineta and Kaminari are unrepentant, they get expelled.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Aizawa is incredibly hostile towards Izuku, trying to boot him out on the first day and using any excuse to punish him further.
  • Most of Class 1-A dislikes and distrusts Midoriya, either for standing up for his place at U.A. against Aizawa or for defending himself against Bakugou during the Heroes and Villains exercise.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Canon Izuku is noted for his intelligence, particularly his analytical skills. This Izuku doesn't even grasp that people can be faster and stronger than him without having an enhancement Quirk, instead insisting that what they're doing is impossible, such as Sir Nighteye running circles around him in a spar.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Izuku only wants to be a hero "for the fame and popularity", responds to any hostility by being even more hostile back, and is an incredibly sarcastic and often insulting deadpan snarker to his only friends. He also shows shades of a Hair-Trigger Temper, such as throwing a punch at Knuckleduster because he refuses to believe the man could possibly be quirkless and successful.
  • Aizawa's "Tough Love" veers straight into outright sadism, as he immediately establishes that none of his students can come to him with their problems or trust him with anything, as he'll throw any signs of weakness back in their faces. He effectively takes Katsuki's bias against the Quirkless to its logical conclusion, taking it upon himself to teach Izuku that nobody will ever accept him due to his Quirklessness and that he just has to 'suck it up' and take the abuse, going out of his way to make his time at U.A. as miserable a slog as possible. Even when he tells Izuku why he's acting the way he is, Aizawa still outright states he's never going to give him a break for any reason.
  • Most of Izuku's classmates, at least the ones who actually interact with him, range from disliking him for not submitting to Aizawa's blatant prejudice to outright leaving him to die because of it. Kyoka tries to excuse the latter by saying Izuku is "just so hateable".
  • The School and public in general as well, as unlike in canon where they merely yell at Bakugou after he bests Ochako until Aizawa scolds them, when Izuku does the same they throw insults, threats, food, and even pieces of the stadium at him. Though the school does get a few security guards after that, they still riled up the crowd to the point. They also allow Aizawa to discriminate against one of his students, and the story heavily implies the rest of Izuku's teachers aren't any better than Aizawa (except All Might).
• Armor-Piercing Question: While being harassed by a Paparazzi looking for heroes to decry Midoriya's Quirklessness, Miruko asks whether they think they could do better than him. When they answer "Yes", she follows up by asking if they want to fight him themselves.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Once they see that the five 'expelled' students are still part of their class, Mina asks Aizawa why he put them through such stress:
  Ashido: Just... why? Why threaten us? Why did you let him do that to the others? We made it into U.A. Aren't we all worthy of being here?
  Aizawa: No. None of you are. Not yet. Right now you're a bunch of whiney, hormonal, carefree teenagers. U.A. trains heroes. You are not heroes. Until you are, you're not worthy of being here.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: Bakugou's gauntlets are so powerful that when he loses his proper stance, their recoil badly breaks both of his arms.
• Blatant Lies: During a press conference following the Sports Festival, Nedzu claims that Midoriya has been treated just the same as all of his peers despite his Quirklessness. Setsuna, who has seen firsthand how Aizawa blatantly mistreats him and how most of the staff turns a blind eye, calls this a "crock of shit."
• Boring, but Practical: Izuku outperforms several classmates in the Quirk assessment simply because he frequently works out, as opposed to his scrawnier classmates who rely on their Quirks.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Izuku's regard for U.A. is completely destroyed after Aizawa attempts to expel him on his first day despite him outperforming several of his peers.
  • Downplayed after the media learns of Midoriya's Quirklessness and goes around asking various Pro Heroes for their opinions about it. Izuku is disappointed but not really surprised to hear people he looked up to insulting and disparaging him.
• Brutal Honesty: Miruko holds nothing back when giving Izuku advice, bluntly acknowledging that their society doesn't care about the Quirkless and will push back against his efforts.
• Bullying a Dragon: During his internship, Izuku starts a fight with Knuckleduster. The vigilante effortlessly kicks his ass.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: After the battle trials, Izuku is given three weeks detention, a punishment that doesn't actually exist in Japanese schooling.
• Crime of Self-Defense: Izuku is given two weeks' cleaning duty for defending himself against Bakugou's lethal attack during the Heroes versus Villains exercise.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Aizawa claims he's singling Izuku out because the boy will face prejudice for being Quirkless and he's trying to toughen the boy up. Instead, his actions come across as being a Sadist Teacher who just hates Izuku.
• Curse Cut Short: When Miruko chews out a reporter, the station cuts back to the newsroom as she declares that "Anyone who's called that kid weak and worthless can take all of their grievances and shove 'em up their—"
• Cutting the Knot: Hagakure was able to pass the Entrance Exam thanks to discovering that the robots had off switches. Izuku wasn't aware of that little detail and is taken aback upon hearing it.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Aizawa is very fond of this, particularly when it comes to Izuku and his friends. Such as hitting them with six weeks of detention for hopping the wall...and 'talking back'.
  • Jiro, Kaminari, and Mineta are so sore over their expulsion scare that they are willing to consider screwing Izuku over by abandoning him during the League's assault on the USJ.
• Distinction Without a Difference: When Setsuna claims Izuku hates U.A., he insists he doesn't. He hates his teacher, his classmates, his reputation, and that everyone treats him like crap.
• Distracted by the Sexy: In Hagakure's match with Bondo, he's immediately distracted by her removing her jacket, despite not being able to see anything.
• Double Standard: Bakugou is extremely used to benefitting from this, and the treatment continues at U.A.
  • While punished for his behavior during his first training exercise, his three-week suspension is counteracted by Izuku also being punished for defending himself against what could have easily been a lethal attack.
  • Izuku is disgusted but unsurprised to see that Katsuki is still being allowed to participate in the Sports Festival despite the aforementioned punishment, commenting on how he always gets special treatment.
  • Katsuki's first match ends with him severely damaging his opponent, leaving Setsuna in literal pieces and critical condition. Yet Izuku faces a much nastier reaction to the crowd in response to his first match.
• Double Think: Izuku believes he can be as good as any hero despite being Quirkless. He also insists that Knuckleduster being a hero without a Quirk is impossible and must be some kind of elaborate lie and that Knuckleduster (along with various heroes with non-physical Quirks) can't possibly be as fast and strong as he is without a Quirk enhancing him.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: During the Sports Festival, Bakugou and Todoroki effectively take each other out during their match, inflicting enough damage upon each other that neither is able to continue, even after being healed. Without which, it would be impossible for Izuku to win.
• Dramatic Irony: All Might takes Midoriya aside before their first exercise, offering to switch the teams around because he's "not ready to take explosions to the face". He is, naturally, blissfully unaware that Izuku has been dealing with being bullied by Bakugou for years, explosions and all.
• Fantastic Ableism: When Izuku's quirklessness comes out, the absolute best he receives from anyone is "He can't be a hero because he's quirkless." The majority of the reactions he gets include things like a petition to invalidate his victory at the Sports Festival which garners over three million signatures in less than twenty-four hours, or most news stations' top stories revolving entirely around trash talking him.
• Foil:
  • Miruko and Aizawa are both harsh teachers who recognize the challenges Midoriya will face as a Quirkless Pro Hero. But while Miruko works with him, Aizawa decides that the best way to 'toughen him up' is to be just as unfair as the rest of the world, singling him out to make his life even harder.
  • In sharp contrast to Aizawa, Toshinori is set up as a more Reasonable Authority Figure — less experienced as a teacher, but more willing to actually work with his students and offer them guidance. While concerned about Izuku's Quirklessness, he responds by trying to go easier on him and offering him an out, not wanting to see him destroy himself in his efforts to become a hero.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • Izuku quickly gets a concussion during the USJ incident, then meets up with several of his classmates...who hold a grudge so severe against him that the majority want to leave him to die. Then his only ally among them gets knocked out, and the others remain hostile. Then they come across Aizawa being brutalized by Shigaraki and the Nomu, and things only spiral further downhill from there.
  • The Sports Festival sees Midoriya's reputation rapidly tanking, the crowd immediately turned against him after witnessing his argument with Monoma without audio or context. Then he witnesses two of his few friends in Class 1-A having awful matches, before going up against Uraraka and having to listen to Present Mic egging on the crowd and encouraging them to turn even nastier.
  • The aftermath of the Sports Festival and Izuku openly revealing his Quirklessness on camera is even worse, as heroes decry him, the general public disparages him, and the media do everything in their power to defame him.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-Universe example. Izuku has a following in Norway, which has a high percentage of quirkless people. One of the very few positive letters he gets after the Sports Festival comes from there via a man named Bjorn. He also has a following in other countries, including the US, Mexico, and others who all sent him small souvenirs. He's taken to wearing all of them at school, calling them his "emotional support souvenirs".
• Glory Seeker: Unlike canon, Izuku wants to be a hero specifically for fame and popularity, not to help people.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Aizawa attempts to be a Stern Teacher and impart to his students that hero life isn't fair and they have to give their all if they want to succeed. Instead, he teaches them that the only way to succeed is by stepping on those weaker than them and that Quirkless people don't deserve the same rights as everyone else. He also teaches Izuku that anyone with a position of authority can and will abuse him without hesitation.
• Graceful Loser: In contrast to Shinso, Momo is perfectly cordial to Izuku after he beats her in the Sports Festival.
• Hated by All: Izuku is so hated that after winning the Sports Festival, news stories trash-talking him are the top story on various news channels. A petition to take away his medal earns over three million signatures in three days. And, besides Miruko, the most positive opinion any Pro Hero seems to have of him is "He's Quirkless so he can't be a hero".
• Hero with Bad Publicity: From day one in his first year at UA, Izuku is pegged by his classmates as being an abrasive Jerkass perfectly willing to throw them all under the bus if it means he comes out on top, when in reality he's a victim of a system actively fighting against him who had since stopped letting it without a fight, said system (i.e. Aizawa) hoisting the punishment onto them when Izuku refuses to lie down and take it. This carries over into the Sports Festival, Izuku becoming Hated by All when it looked like he was bullying Monoma when he was the one defending himself from harassment. It only gets worse after his fist round in the third round of the Festival, where he gets verbally torn down by Mic and he defeats Ochako, with the crowd yelling abuse and throwing food and even pieces of the stadium at him seemingly without reprisal from the school.
• Honor Before Reason: Todoroki's match against Bakugou ends in a draw when the latter forces him to freeze them both together. Todoroki's left hand is still free, but he refuses to use his fire to free himself, causing Midnight to declare the match a draw.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When Katsuki attempts to use his gauntlets on Izuku during their match, sneering that he'll be fine if he dodges, Izuku does — and flips the script by darting in to pull the pin on his other gauntlet, causing it to explode around his arm.
  • Katsuki forces a draw against Todoroki when the latter starts freezing him by pulling him close and forcing him to freeze them both.
• Hopeless Suitor: Miruko has a huge crush on Inko, but refuses to act on it because Inko is married.
• Hypocrite:
  • Katsuki calls Izuku a "Cocky bastard" after he tells his classmates that "We better not have a problem today".
  • Jiro proves massively hypocritical during the USJ assault, resisting all of Izuku's efforts to rally their group together and help them defeat the villains, then yelling at him when he doesn't immediately comply with HER demands.
  • Shinsou accuses both Tetsutetsu and Izuku of riding high on their amazing Quirks and never actually working for anything when he's the one who's put in zero effort towards improving himself and is hopeless without his Quirk.
• I Hate Past Me: Implied to be part of the reason why Izuku dislikes Shinsou, seeing a lot of himself in the embittered Gen Ed student. Namely his jealousy of those with better chances of achieving their dreams, seeing him as lazy and unwilling to work for what he wants due to his disadvantages. It's later shown he still hates himself, though now for being quirkless rather than lazy.
• I Reject Your Reality: Izuku outright refuses to believe Knuckleduster is quirkless, no matter how many people tell him.
• I Shall Taunt You: Shinsou tosses out every barb he can think of while trying to provoke a response out of Izuku, accusing him of being a privileged, arrogant Spoiled Brat who's taken everything he has for granted.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Though they have different teammates, Izuku and Katsuki still face each other in the Heroes vs. Villains exercise.
  • Despite Izuku not being particularly popular with most of his peers after he hospitalized Katsuki for attempting to blow him up, he still ends up as the class representative. Much to his frustration.
  • Though their relationship is much more hostile, Izuku still races in to try and save Aizawa from the Nomu.
  • Present Mic still shows blatant favoritism towards Ochako during her match in the Sports Festival, talking up how sweet and beloved she is while tearing down her opponent.
• Informed Attribute: Inko states she didn't withdraw Izuku from U.A. despite their horrendous treatment of him and the fact he nearly died on two separate occasions in the first semester... because "he's so happy there". Pretty much every scene of Izuku at U.A. makes it clear that he's completely miserable there and only tolerating it due to Setsuna and Tetsutetsu (and to spite Aizawa).
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • Izuku's classmates think he's a violent maniac because he broke Bakugou's arms (or more accurately, caused the boy to break them himself) after the other boy nearly killed him with an attack that blew up a significant part of the building.
  • Izuku is determined to prove Aizawa wrong by staying in his class and graduating to be a great hero. When told that doing that won't prove Aizawa wrong, but make him believe he'd been in right in his treatment of Izuku (and other Quirkless students) by claiming his training was the reason for Izuku becoming great, Izuku counters by stating that he'll still prove Aizawa wrong by becoming twice the hero Aizawa is.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Miruko bluntly tells Izuku he has no hope of becoming a hero. Not because he has no Quirk but because he has no physical conditioning or fighting experience.
  • While most of his peers see Midoriya as selfish for defending his place at U.A., Hagakure acknowledges that he did outperform her and several others physically and that it wasn't fair for Aizawa to claim otherwise.
  • Izuku is disgusted to learn about Kaminari's poor control of his Quirk; when Jirou snaps that he sounds like Aizawa, he shoots back that "the man's a bastard but he's not an idiot".
  • While Aizawa makes clear that he does not care why Todoroki is so adverse to using the fire half of his Quirk, Shouto finds that he can't really counter his Armor-Piercing Question about whether or not he would find it Worth It to let innocent people die due to his discomfort.
  • Knuckleduster gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Izuku about how the boy clearly hates himself, particularly for being quirkless. Izuku's response is to try and punch the vigilante in the face and outright refuse to believe that Knuckleduster could possibly be quirkless.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • Played With through Jirou. While she expresses remorse for her behavior during the League's assault on the USJ, she also makes excuses for herself and gets upset at Izuku for questioning her apology, declaring that he's "just so hateable".
  • During the Sports Festival, Monoma tries his usual speech of 1A being a bunch of glory hounds because they survived a villain attack. Unfortunately for him, he pulls this on Izuku who's not only fed up with everyone's bull but also had part of his face melted off in said attack. Izuku furiously calling him out on it causes Monoma to tearfully try to apologize as he realizes how bad things were.
• Kick the Dog: Aizawa is prone to these, eagerly going out of his way to insult, belittle, and undermine Midoriya. When they run into each other while Izuku's on his way to his internship, he scornfully declares that Nighteye tends to take on 'pet projects', and that Izuku wouldn't be worth the effort... though he might make a good lab rat.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: It's pretty much the premise of the story. Every time Izuku comes into conflict with anyone, everyone else present assumes he's a massive jerkass. It doesn't matter if he's refusing to put up with a prejudiced teacher, defending himself from a classmate's lethal attack, or calling out on someone insisting he's happy to have been caught in a villain attack that resulted in half his face being disintegrated. Present Mic gets in on this during the one vs one portion of the Festival, talking up how sweet and lovable Ochako is while calling Izuku "UA's resident bad boy with a chip on his shoulder the size of Hokkaido". This only gets worse once Izuku wins the Sports Festival, with Pro Heroes and the media all portraying him as a menace.
• Misplaced Retribution: Most of Midoriya's classmates blame him for Aizawa's 'logical ruse' during the Assessment Test, acting as though he's more responsible for five students being threatened with expulsion than their teacher.
• Moral Myopia: Kyoka insists that Izuku "has to prove himself" at the USJ as the reason she refuses to listen to his suggestions. At the same time, she gets angry at him for not immediately doing what she tells him to.
• More Expendable Than You: Izuku justifies his decision to try and help Aizawa against the Nomu this way:
  Izuku: You or me. Better a fuck-up than some pro, right?
• Morton's Fork: No matter how Izuku responds to Aizawa's 'tough love', his teacher will remain convinced that he was 100% right to treat him horribly. Either Izuku sticks it out in U.A., 'proving' that Aizawa's tactics molded him into a better hero, or he transfers out and proves that he couldn't take the heat. Either way, Aizawa will never acknowledge having done anything wrong.
• Moving the Goalposts: This seems to be Aizawa's modus operandi in regards to Izuku. If Izuku passes a test, Aizawa will either claim he didn't or just give him another test right away.
  • Izuku passed the entrance exam and did reasonably well on the quirk assessment? Aizawa declares him last place anyway and tries to expel him.
  • Izuku stands up for himself and calls Aizawa out on how he performed better than half the class? Aizawa makes him and five others redo all the tests if Izuku wants to stay in the class. Then he gives the five students an expulsion scare for "not being able to beat a quirkless kid".
  • Izuku gets a by to the finals of the sports festival because his would-be opponents suffered a Double Knockout? Aizawa tries to make one of the already disqualified students fight Izuku instead.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Implied when Midoriya muses about how much it stings to hear Pro Heroes that he once admired insulting him and his efforts. And also Mount Lady.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Aizawa's stunt after the Quirk Assessment test heavily fractures Class 1-A, as they're left distrusting their teacher and torn into factions about whether or not to blame Midoriya for the incident. It also completely shatters Izuku's faith in U.A. beyond repair.
• Never My Fault:
  • Aizawa refuses to acknowledge that there are any issues with his teaching methods. Despite creating the animosity that led to the USJ incident being even more of a shitshow, he offers Izuku no apology afterwards, just more self-justifications.
  • Mineta and Kaminari insisted they were the victims during the USJ incident, rather than the classmate they were willing to leave behind.
• Not Helping Your Case:
  • The morning after the Assessment Test, Izuku tries to smooth things over with his classmates. Unfortunately, the words that come out of his mouth are "We better not have a problem today."
  • Several of the students who blame Izuku for their expulsion scare act incredibly unheroic during the USJ incident. Their complete lack of discipline, teamwork, or regard for others doesn't exactly convince him that they deserve to be there.
  • After the USJ, Aizawa insists he's practicing Tough Love because he knows Izuku will face a lot of discrimination for being Quirkless, especially at the Sports Festival. Then he actively sabotages Izuku's performance at the Sports Festival by forcing him to continue with his detention, making the boy clean U.A.'s walls for several hours after class lets out the day before the festival.
• Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Setsuna accidentally reveals that she found and read Hero RPF featuring Midoriya, claiming she only did so out of morbid curiosity. Izuku admits he used to read such stories when he was younger but grew out of it.
• Only Sane Man: Sero finds himself thrust into the role of mediator during the USJ when his group runs into Midoriya, as he's the only one unwilling to consider simply leaving Izuku there to die.
• Point of Divergence:
  • The story diverges from canon right from the start when Miruko is the one who saves Izuku from the Sludge Villain rather than All Might, winding up as his mentor instead. Her style of teaching is very different from Toshinori's.
  • Tokage Setsuna, Shiozaki Ibara, and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu wind up as members of Class 1-A, while Yaoyorozu Momo, Kirishima Eijiro, and Uraraka Ochako end up in 1-B.
  • Because Izuku is Quirkless, Aizawa decides to single him out during the Assessment Test and attempt to expel him. Midoriya stands up to him, and the 'logical ruse' he enacts in response leaves Class 1-A severely fractured.
  • Izuku ends up dealing with a much less cooperative group of classmates during the USJ incident, and gains some serious scars from his encounter with Shigaraki.
  • The USJ incident also resolves with Shigaraki and the rest of the assailants being apprehended.
• Powers Do the Fighting:
  • While watching the one-on-one matches during the Sports Festival, Izuku notes that few students fight with any skill and instead just rely on their quirk to win.
  • This trope is one of several reasons why Izuku dislikes Shinsou and turns it into a curb-stomp.
• Pragmatic Hero: One of the lessons Miruko drills into Izuku is that given his options, Combat Pragmatism makes more sense when lives are on the line than playing fair.
  Miruko: Is it more heroic to win a fight by pulling someone's hair or to lose that fight and risk people being hurt because you refused to fight a little dirty?
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Monoma and Midoriya trade these during the first round of the Sports Festival, with Monoma accusing him (and Class 1-A) of being cheating Glory Hounds who 'milked the USJ attack to make themselves look better' and Midoriya demanding to know whether he'd actually like to trade places and deal with the hell he's gone through.
  • Shinsou positively rips into Tetsutetsu after forcing the boy to walk out of bounds, mostly just accusing him of being a Spoiled Brat who thinks he's all that because of his Quirk.
  • Following the Sports Festival, Aizawa calls Todoroki out on his reluctance to use his fire, questioning whether he'd allow others to die simply because he didn't want to use his full power.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Kyoka, Kaminari, and Mineta try to pull this on Izuku at the USJ. Both he and Sero give them a What the Hell, Hero? over it.
• Revenge Before Reason: Setsuna points out that Izuku hates U.A. and is absolutely miserable there before suggesting he just apprentice under Rumi if he doesn't want to transfer to another school. Izuku refuses to do so because "He doesn't want to prove Aizawa right" and doesn't listen when Setsuna remarks he's proving the man right either way.
• Rule of Drama: Izuku can't simply transfer to another hero school because U.A. is the only one that doesn't actively ban quirkless students from their heroics course. Given that U.A. is both the most popular and most successful hero school in the nation, there's no rational reason other schools wouldn't have imitated them other than making sure Izuku doesn't have an easy out.
• Sadist Teacher: Aizawa treats Izuku very harshly out of prejudice against his Quirklessness, presumably to get him to drop out. He also shows shades of a more reasonable Stern Teacher, such as when he punishes Bakugo for trying to use his gauntlets on Izuku. Though he also punishes Izuku for defending himself.
  • Played with with Miruko, who Izuku claims is a sadist as a joke.
• Scars Are Forever: After the USJ, the left side of Izuku's face needed a skin graft to replace what was destroyed.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Aizawa blatantly ignores Izuku's performance during the Assessment Test, slapping him with 20th Place and expelling him simply because he can. Izuku has to prove he deserves to stay by rematching against the five other lowest performers. Then Aizawa promptly expels them for "failing to use their quirks to outperform the quirkless kid".
• Selective Enforcement: Izuku is far too used to dealing with this, watching Katsuki and other bullies get away with everything. By contrast, he's punished for defending himself.
• Shout-Out: Tetsutetsu suggests that Izuku suffering more misfortune after netting a win is 'equivalent exchange'; Setsuna thinks he's referring to a science term, but an appalled Hagakure corrects them both.
• Skewed Priorities: Played for Drama during the USJ assault. Most of the classmates Izuku finds himself stuck with are far more concerned with sniping at him and giving him grief than dealing with the actual villains attacking them. Jiro accuses Izuku of having the same problem when she yells at him to use his taser and he sarcastically comments on how she was calling him useless mere moments before.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: While their relationship is master/student, a lot of Miruko and Izuku's interactions usually involve back-and-forth snarking, Miruko being the foul-mouthed wise-ass and Izuku responding to her sincerely.
  Miruko: Just because I can squat a thousand kilos doesn't mean I do it daily.
  Izuku: You have a Quirk, I don't. I have to make up for that.
  Miruko: Yeah, but that ain't gonna happen if you keep killing yourself with exercise every day.
  Izuku: I'll rest tomorrow.
  Miruko: Do whatever, just as long as I don't have to carry you to the fucking hospital.
  Izuku: You called me scrawny, though. Wouldn't that make carrying me easy?
  Miruko: It's the principle of the matter, dumbass. I carry one teenager and then suddenly I'm a taxi service.
  Izuku: That's a slippery slope fallacy, which is a sign that you can't come up with a better argument.
  Miruko: You think I give a shit?
  Izuku: ... No.
  Miruko: Good.
• Take a Third Option: Faced with the throng of Paparazzi choking U.A.'s gates, Izuku and his friends attempt to circumvent them by scaling the outer wall. This gets them slapped with six weeks of detention by Aizawa.
• Tempting Fate: In the wake of the Sports Festival, Izuku finds himself surrounded by his friends, watching his mentor defend him from the media vultures, and thinks that he couldn't be happier. Then there's a knock on his door, with a harried mailman dumping piles of letters and boxes onto their doorstep.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • When he finds Izuku being forced to clean the school's walls on the night before the Sports Festival, Toshinori steps in to offer him some comfort and takes over the job for him, encouraging him to go home and rest.
  • After Bakugo's and Todoroki's fight ends in a draw, Aizawa tries to convince Setsuna or Koda (who were both eliminated) to fight Izuku instead. Both refuse, resulting in Izuku getting a bye to the finals of the Sports Festival.
  • After receiving tons of hate mail, which thankfully have been filtered and scanned for biological weapons like anthrax by the Japanese Post Office, Izuku finds that he also got a fan letter from a guy from Norway named Bjorn who has written that he, his family, and Norway itself loves him, even sending him a box of foreign sweets, and a scarf modeled after the Norwegian Flag.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Going by Izuku's comments and what is shown of his time at U.A., All Might is literally the only teacher who's even remotely friendly with him.
  • Downplayed with Izuku's immediate circle of friends, where Hagakure is the one most likely to suggest nicer courses of action and strives to be more positive.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Under Miruko's tutelage, Izuku goes from a Wide-Eyed Idealist who's quick to rationalize away the unfairness of the world to somebody bitterly determined to spit in the face of a society that deems him practically worthless and prove them all wrong.
• Tough Love: Deconstructed with Aizawa; this is his primary excuse for singling out Izuku and making his life hell... because he 'needs to be prepared' for how the whole world will always be biased against him. In practice, all he's actually proving is that HE is just another asshole, teaching not just Midoriya, but the rest of Class 1-A that they can't rely upon him and encouraging all of them to be bigger jerkasses themselves.
• Tranquil Fury: All Might goes into one upon arriving at the USJ and immediately seeing Izuku and Aizawa bloody, battered, and barely standing after their desperate struggle against the Nomu. Izuku notes how bizarre it is to see the Symbol of Peace without his signature smile.
• True Companions: Averted for Class 1-A. The "Logical Ruses" that Aizawa uses means that no one in class trusts him, particularly after he fudged Izuku's numbers to try and expel him. No one is considering him a "Dadzawa" as other interpretations of the character would take. Further, due to Izuku standing up for himself, the class is sharply divided between those who dislike him and Izuku's friends.
• The Unapologetic:
  • Aizawa. Even after Izuku saves his life at the USJ, he makes clear that he has no intention to treat him any better, coldly stating that he needs to 'get used to' being mistreated for his Quirklessness.
  • Neither Mineta nor Kaminari shows any remorse for their treatment of Midoriya at the USJ, leading to their expulsion.
• Verbal Backspace: Izuku does this when Iida attempts to take his offer to become the class rep.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Exemplified during the USJ; most of the classmates Izuku finds himself with are hostile towards him, making no real effort to work together while demanding that he prove himself.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Izuku calls Aizawa on his blatant discrimination during the Quirk Assessment Test, outright refusing to let his expulsion go unchallenged and telling him that if he goes through with it, he'll hit U.A. with a lawsuit.
  • During the USJ, Izuku trades barbs with Jiro, Kaminari, and Mineta, calling them out on their blatantly unheroic behavior and willingness to abandon their concussed classmate.
• Worf Had the Flu: Momo doesn't bother eating before her final match, despite already being low on lipids, which allows Izuku to beat her.
• World of Jerkass: It would be easier to list off the handful of characters who haven't taken a few levels in jerkass. It only gets worse once it becomes widely known that Midoriya is Quirkless. Later subverted when Izuku receives a legitimate fan letter from Norway that is in support of him, and even sent him sweets from their country, and a scarf modeled after their flag. There are also packages and letters from other countries as well, implying that he's got other fans outside of Japan.
• Would Hit a Girl: Izuku is heavily criticized for hitting girls during the Sports Festival, even though it's a fighting tournament and him not really having a choice in who he fights against.

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