The Witch Princess
is a crossover between My Hero Academia and Destiny by Syber_Slash on Archive of Our Own.
Life has many secrets, many games and many paths.
For some, life is but a breeze, a lazy stroll to take at a slow pace.
For others… for Izumi, it’s torment, pain, hardship and endless suffering.
Or, so she’d thought.
Life brought a surprise, a single gift before throwing her aside, and hurling her into a foreign place.
This new place, new life, brought her joy, it brought her strength, it brought her family and friends.
It gave her the Power of Life, and she’ll use it to better the lives of those around her.
This fic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Having to live on the streets by herself among a society that dehumanizes those who lack superpowers hasn't exactly done Izumi much good in terms of mental health.
- Adaptational Heroism:
Word of God is that Savathûn and her brood will eventually ally themselves with the Last City, something that they never did in canon even with the tentative alliance they set up in Season of the Witch. - Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed; Savathûn and the rest of her brood are nicer than they are in canon, but that kindness only extends to Izumi, her cohort, and humanity. The rest of the time, they're still brutally warlike Social Darwinists that show no mercy to all other races.
- Alternate Self: In addition to Guardian versions of Izuku, Bakugo, Kyouka, Shoto, Mina, and Momo, Destiny-verser counterparts of Lady Nagant and Reiko Yanagi also show up as Guardians.
- Animal Motifs: Izumi's appearance as a Hive-human hybrid evokes that of a scorpion with her two claw-tipped tails and six arms.
- Because You Were Nice to Me:
- While Izumi has no love for the rest of the Hive, she has nothing but good memories regarding Savathûn and her brood since they were one of the few people to treat Izumi with kindness in her entire life.
- The whole reason why the Cohort are so loyal to Izumi is that she actually treats them like people and allows them to develop and grow on their own, something that other Hive would regard as heresy.
- Benevolent Boss: Izumi treats her Cohort well, and in return, they are unfailingly loyal to her.
- Berserk Button: For Izumi, it's seeing anyone hurt her loved ones. An Eliksni Archon who was foolish enough to try crushing Mikumo and Momo's Ghosts in an attempt to permakill both Guardians gets himself eviscerated by Izumi for his troubles.
- Character Development: Being Izumi's guardian and mother in all but blood has definitely helped Savathûn re-develop her sense of love and empathy in a form that isn't twisted by the tenets of the Sword Logic.
- Cool Old Lady: Misaki Kawahara was a flowershop owner who treated Izumi like her own child and taught her everything she needed to know about raising and growing flowers.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In her old life, Izumi was not only homeless, but faced insane amounts of Quirkist discrimination from everyone else around her. To make matters worse, just when things seemed to look up for Izumi after she met Misaki Kawahara, she then lost her after a battle between a Villain and Pro Hero destroyed Kawahara's flower shop while she was still inside the building.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Izumi, in spite of her nature as a Half-Human Hybrid with the Hive, is unambiguously on the side of good.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Mikumo once had the unflattering title of “Nut Blaster” due to his first death as a Guardian involving a crotch-first landing on a hardwire fence in Old Russia after a shot to the leg from a wire rifle knocked him off balance.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Izumi views how Ogres are created with disgust, noting that the process of transforming Thralls into those monstrosities goes far beyond mere torture.
- Ikora and the Speaker are appalled at the sheer amount of cruelty Izumi's old universe put her through after Izumi shows them her past memories.
- Gender Flip: Izumi is practically Izuku's female counterpart, which she takes note of when she first meets Mikumo.
- Genki Girl: Sinnu, Izumi's Ghost, is always chipper and hyperactive around everyone she meets.
- Heroic Neutral: Izumi, while a good person at heart, is none too inclined to intervene in others business, only helping them indirectly whenever possible.
- I Owe You My Life: Ir Izak and Merktik are especially loyal to Izumi thanks to her saving them respectively from imprisonment at the hands of the Vex and a torturous death at the hands of Xivu Arath's brood.
- Interspecies Friendship: Izumi strikes up a friendship with Riven of a Thousand Voices after she accidentally visits the Ahamkara's prison in the Keep of Voices while refining Hive teleportation spells. They end up enjoying each other's company due to the interesting conversation they hold on everything regarding the universe and about themselves.
- Loophole Abuse: Savathûn devises a ritual that allows Izumi to implant herself into the Worm Gods' Tithe structure as the "God-Daughter", giving her a method to stockpile power for herself through Sword Logic without needing to give any of it to the Worms.
- Parental Substitute: For Izumi, Misaki Kawahara and Savathûn are the closest people she's had to actual parents who genuinely care for her.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: Downplayed for Izumi; while she's more than happy to protect the humans of the Destiny universe, the same cannot be said for the people of her home universe, who she has no love for given all the abuse they heaped onto her.
- Trapped in Another World: Izumi is transported into the Destiny universe after another person in the same crowd as her, running from a fight between a hero and villain, lost control of their Quirk. Given how Izumi has nothing but bad memories towards her old universe, she has no desire to leave the Destiny universe anytime soon.
- Undying Loyalty: Izumi's Cohort are intensely loyal to her and are willing to lay down their lives if the need arises.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: For a bit of time in Izumi's old universe, it almost seemed like Izumi could find happiness living with Misaki Kawahara as her adopted daughter of sorts. Unfortunately, the world Izumi lived in had other ideas, and soon enough, she would lose it all after a Pro Hero misfired their Quirk while fighting a villain, causing an explosion that killed Miss Kawahara when it hit the flower shop she operated.
- You No Take Candle: Branok's speech is simple, blunt, and to the point thanks to his terse personality, though he is by no means stupid.
