"First in the ring is a fan favorite, who you all know and love! The youngest student in UA's history to get a provisional license, with over twenty villain captures to his name! The only one in class 2-A, UA's Golden Boy, Midoriya Izuku!"
Or: Izuku is born a year early, and nothing (read: everything) changes.
Midoriya, Plus Three-Sixty-Five
is an AU fanfic of My Hero Academia written by Skeleton_of_society. See also Mean Rabbit, another Alternate Universe fic by the same writer.
Midoriya, Plus Three-Sixty-Five provides examples of:
- Accomplice by Inaction: When several of Izuku's classmates decide to play a cruel prank on him during their visit to the USJ, Aizawa is ready to expel the entire class save him in one go since the rest stood by and allowed it to happen. On top of that, he threatens to have Principal Nedzu get them all blacklisted from every hero school 'on this side of the Pacific'.
- The Ace: Izuku is considered UA's golden boy by his second year. He is incredibly powerful, honorable, and has multiple successes to his name before graduation.
- Adaptational Badass: Izuku’s training progresses much faster than it does in canon, and he starts training under Gran Torino much earlier so that he has a much better handle on One For All by the time he enters U.A. On top of that, by the time he enrolls, Izuku has already unlocked Float and unlocks Blackwhip during the Final Exam Arc. Furthermore, thanks to ending up as the sole remaining member of his class after the Sports Festival, Izuku is able to receive dedicated, personalized training from nearly all of U.A’s faculty, placing him on a track that’s even more accelerated than his canon one.
- Adaptational Explanation: In My Hero Academia canon, Eraserhead's expelling of the previous year's 1-A class in its entirety was seen (In-Universe and out) as proof of him being a hardcore Sink or Swim Mentornote . This story takes the alternate explanation that the whole class (except for Izuku and Oto Kenji, who switched classes the moment he figured out he was not cut out for Hero course) was a bunch of Entitled Bastards no different from early-series Bakugou and they all screwed up so bad for one reason or another (although for some of them it was because they did not took the Quirk Appreciation Test with the seriousness Aizawa demanded of them) that by the time of the Festival Izuku was the only student that had not been expelled.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In canon, the Big Three were role models to Izuku, and he only interacted with Mirio. Here, they are his closest friends, and Izuku and Nejire are a couple.
- Age Lift: Izuku is one year older than in canon, which serves as the primary Point of Divergence.
- Arrested for Heroism: The police arrest Izuku for vigilantism three days after his licensing exam. Izuku was acting legally and lawfully within his licensed parameters and even had his license on him, which he presented to the police, but despite having been given his license with no notable restrictions as to its use, the Commission's bureaucracy hadn't processed him into the system or warned him that it would take time for his license to come on line. This initially threatens Izuku's public image as news coverage jumps on his arrest without details, until Nedzu decides to steer the narrative with an interview regarding the wrongful nature of the arrest and encourages the story to blow up, putting public opinion solidly in Izuku's favor and taking the Hero Commission down a peg.
- Blackmail: After learning how Endeavor abused his family for years, Izuku makes clear that the only thing keeping him from immediately revealing it to the world is All Might's absence. In the meantime, however, he expects the #2 Hero to "Do as I say," offering him a chance at redemption by relearning what really makes a hero.
- Brilliant, but Lazy:
- Aizawa expels several students in the Quirk assessment because they are lazy and mock those who score worse than them. He also accuses Midoriya of being this until he explains he cannot properly use Float yet.
- Most of 1-A are implied to be youths with powerful Quirks, and thus they are used to coasting by on their power and the esteem their Quirks grant them. When he meets his classmates for the first time, Izuku notes that many act like Bakugou: they feel they can bend the rules or that the rules will not apply as strongly.
- Oto Kenji is noted to be an inversion by Aizawanote . He scores the worst out of the Quirk Assessment test and is overall the weakest member of 1-A, but is given a second chance by Aizawa for having one of the best mindsets and trying his hardest.
- Aizawa expels several students in the Quirk assessment because they are lazy and mock those who score worse than them. He also accuses Midoriya of being this until he explains he cannot properly use Float yet.
- Can't Catch Up: This factors into Oto Kenji's decision to switch to the business track, as they fear that they won't be able to measure up to the other aspiring heroes and would only slow them down.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Katsuki ambushes Izuku on his way back from U.A., he learns the hard way just how much of a difference over a year's worth of training makes and finds himself on the wrong end of one of these.
- Deadly Prank: Narrowly Averted in "Minus 8", when a group of Izuku's classmates decide to send him bungee-jumping off the side of a cliff without his consent, supported only by one of Moku's stretchy arms.
- Deconstruction Fic: The majority of Izuku's classmates are used to illustrate why giving Bakugou and others with 'naturally strong Quirks' preferential treatment is a horrible idea: you end up with a lot of Entitled Bastards who have no clue how to handle actual consequences, and refuse to believe that the rules have started applying to them.
- Disappointed in You: Aizawa gives Oto Kenji a deeply disappointed look when they come to him asking to transfer to a different course.
- Dwindling Party: All of Izuku's classmates are either expelled or transferred out of the hero course by the end of the Sports Festival, many of which for exceptionally stupid reasons. Most notably:
- Five are deemed to have little potential during Aizawa's test and are ordered to transfer to Gen Ed.
- Four are expelled for thinking it would be funny to push Izuku off a cliff (with four other accomplices getting punted to Gen Ed instead)
- Four more decided to get publicly drunk at a party only a couple of weeks into the semester.
- Noburo Mai and Oto Kenji end up being the last remaining members of Class 1A alongside Izuku, only to leave themselves, albeit on much less humiliating terms compared to their other classmates. For Oto, he decides that he isn't capable of handling the workload of being a hero after seeing just how far behind he is compared to his peers, and transfers to Business. Noburo ultimately has to leave after her Internship to help her father take care of her ill grandmother in the Philippines, although plans to continue her studies in a Hero School there, and she parts on good terms with Izuku.
- Epic Fail: With this story's alternate explanation of how Aizawa expelled all of the previous year's 1-A class, they shall go down in UA history as the biggest collection of screw-ups that were ever enrolled (however short that period was).
- Faking the Dead: All Might and his allies are all firmly convinced that All For One is still dead. They even point out that they averted Never Found the Body, and that All For One’s corpse was even cremated. However, other parts of the narrative make it clear that, as per canon, All For One is still very much alive, and is plotting his return.
- Foil: The bulk of Izuku's classmates reflect what Katsuki could easily become. Just like him, they were allowed to get away with various misdeeds simply because they have powerful Quirks, and fully expect this special treatment to continue. Even when Aizawa makes clear that he won't tolerate their behavior, they keep pushing the envelope... and get themselves expelled as a result.
- Foreshadowing: It was stated that the crop of students this year was particularly poor. Izuku notes on the first day that a lot of the students act like Bakugo: they are used to their strong Quirks getting them respect and leniency when breaking the rules.
- Grade Skipper: What Izuku effectively becomes due to the rest of his class leaving or getting expelled. Once it's clear he's advanced enough to handle it, his teachers put him into the Big Three's special combat classes to ensure he has some kind of peer group, despite them being a year above him.
- Heroic BSoD: Seeing Tomura Shigaraki murder a small child in front of him predictably leaves Izuku traumatized. While he’s assigned to Hound Dog for therapy, Izuku initially refuses to talk to him and continues to do so until he forces his way onto the team tasked with taking Tomura and his associates down, after which Izuku begins to take the therapy seriously and deal with his grief.
- Holding Out for a Hero: Brutally shown in the very first chapter. All it takes is one mention of All Might's name for the crowd watching Quake struggling against a villain to start expecting the Number One Hero to show up and save the day. Even other heroes like Death Arms make no move to help. Only Midoriya is willing to act rather than keep waiting for All Might, and gets lambasted for it by the very same Pros who stood by and did nothing.
- Identity Breakdown: Downplayed. While he's stably himself when fully awake, Izuku loses his sense of identity during dreams, instead taking on the identities and the memories of past One For All users. After particularly emotionally strong dreams, this can briefly carry over when he wakes, in something of an inversion of sleep paralysis: Izuku can move and interact with reality but his mind is still caught up in the other identities of One For All, leading to brief periods in which he struggles to identify which One For All holder he is and identifies himself and the others simply by number.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Izuku still meets up with All Might one day, is informed he can't be a hero, then impresses him by intervening against a villain.
- Izuku uses "Deku" as his hero name.
- Izuku does a Work-Study under Endeavor.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Nedzu takes advantage of Izuku's unlawful arrest to elevate Izuku to a household name and provoke outrage against the Hero Commission for the injustice.
- Miscarriage of Justice: It's mentioned that, due to the Hero Commission's lax regard for their duty to upkeep the Hero License Database, there's an unfortunate precedent for the wrongful arrest of licensed heroes, some of whom had even spent days in jail due to the Commission's neglect of duty.
- New Rules as the Plot Demands: In chapter 39, Izuku has Shigaraki captured and about to be slapped with Quirk suppressing cuffs and arrested. Shigaraki spontaneously gains the ability to decay Black Whip (something that's completely impossible in canon), allowing him to break free, murder a toddler, and escape.
- Nominal Hero: Deconstructed. Most of 1-A consists of students who are used to being respected and breaking rules because they have strong Quirks. The students continue to act inappropriately and most are kicked out for delinquent behavior or lacking the mindset to be good heroes, such as a close to Deadly Prank, underage drinking or lackluster effort, and mocking those who perform worse than them.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Most of class 1-A showcases this. Izuku notes on day one that their attitudes are of local prodigies who were given elevated status due to having strong Quirks. At UA, they are considered mediocre and only got in so that there would be a hero course that year. Aizawa expells most of them with nonchalance because people with strong Quirks are a dime-a-dozen to UA because every child with a strong Quirk tries to enroll at the school.
- Off the Rails: In-universe, Izuku's Hero class breaks so many precedents that the school faculty has to restructure the curriculum three separate times with respect to its Dwindling Party. After being left the only remaining student, the staff basically throw the curriculum out the window and tutor him personally in accordance with his needs. However, things begin to resemble canon again once the next year rolls around, albeit with some key changes.
- Pursuing Parental Perils: Noburu's great-grandmother was a Pro, back when there weren't as many protocols in place to protect heroes and their families. When a villain inevitably attacked, her grandfather was the Sole Survivor. He was only five at the time. Suffice to say, that side of the family does not approve of her career choice.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Izuku calls Katsuki out on being an Entitled Bastard when he attacks Izuku on the street, demanding to know where Izuku's Quirk came from and claiming that Izuku owes him the answers. Izuku makes it quite clear that he doesn't owe his long-time bully anything.
- Upon learning just what Endeavor has done to achieve his goals (vicariously through his own children), Izuku sits him down and makes clear that he needs to relearn just what being a hero means.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: In canon, it's mentioned that Aizawa expelled all of his students the previous year. This is now that year.
- Secret-Keeper: Dr. Amilia Hanson’s Quirk, Locked Lips, makes her this naturally, as she is physically unable to divulge confidential information in any way, shape, or form. This makes her highly sought after as a therapist for people with confidential and top-secret information, including high-level government officials and even All Might himself. Unfortunately, despite being completely unable to share others’ secrets, people still target her because She Knows Too Much.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Endeavor mocks Izuku by asking if he seriously thinks every Pro Hero out there is in it simply for the sake of being heroic, Izuku shuts him down:Endeavor: You do this to me and you might as well do it to every other hero in Japan.
Izuku: And yet not all of those people are abusers. You are. You broke your wife and hurt your son. For that alone you should have your license revoked. - Sole Survivor: Though nobody actually dies, Izuku very quickly becomes the only remaining member of his year’s Hero Course, with all his classmates either being expelled by Aizawa, transferring out, or moving away.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. After seeing Tomura murder a child in front of him, Izuku is required to visit Hound Dog for therapy sessions, but doesn’t begin to actually engage with them until after he’s allowed to be part of the team that captures Tomura. Because some of his experiences are specific to being All Might’s successor, All Might arranges for Izuku to meet with Dr. Amilia Hanson, who is All Might’s therapist and whose Quirk makes her a natural Secret-Keeper.
- Throw It In!: In-universe. Izuku's class breaks so many precedents that by the end of 1-A's Work Studies, the school has needed to restructure the class curriculum three times and are down to a single student. Because of the additional focus, the teachers end up making up and expanding new course directions on the fly. As it turns out, the results are so impressive the School Board permanently restructures the Hero course for incoming students in the hopes of preventing a repeat of the previous year's low standards and creating more heroes like Deku.
- Vicariously Ambitious: Endeavor. In addition to seeing Shouto as a tool through which he can grab glory, he attempts to push Fuyumi and Izuku together in order to continue his Quirk-breeding program through his grandchildren.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Played With; Endeavor is arrogant enough to call Shouto 'a gift to the world', claiming that the way he's treated him and the rest of his family isn't sinful in the slightest. Izuku isn't having any of it... and notably, despite his claims, Endeavor still recognizes that the public likely wouldn't approve of what he's done.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Izuku actually snaps at Aizawa for insisting on pushing his theory that All For One is his father, vehemently denying it. He also calls him out on stalking and ambushing him when he wasn't yet ready to share his secrets with him.
- Would Hurt a Child: After an attempt to kidnap Tsuyu and her siblings results in a confrontation with Izuku, who almost succeeds in capturing Tomura, Tomura distracts Izuku by killing one of the kidnapped children right in front of him. Izuku is understandably traumatized after this.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: While trying to puzzle out Midoriya's secrets and connection to All Might, Aizawa comes to the conclusion that he's the abused son of All For One, and that Yagi willingly let him take his Quirk while taking the boy under his wing. Both are shocked when he bluntly reveals his suspicions.
- You Have Failed Me: All For One gives Tomura a nonlethal variant of this after Tomura is beaten and captured by Izuku. After All For One has Twice create a clone of Tomura to take his place in prison, All For One boots Tomura out of Japan, promising to kill him if he comes back without making something of himself first.
