Fanfic / Torchbearer (FalseSeraph)

Torchbearer is an ongoing My Hero Academia fic by FalseSeraph

A sharp change in the Joint Training exercise leads to major new developments and explorations for classes 1-A and 1-B, having major implications.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The excuse for Bakugou's Karma Houdini status in canon is explained by the societal instability caused by All Might's retirement and the League of Villains slowly rising to power, making Aizawa unable to expel him due to the risk of him being targeted again by the League. In fact, Aizawa was planning that there was a 50/50 chance of him expelling Bakugo at the USJ, believing it very likely that the student's reaction to rescue training would be sufficient grounds to expel him.
  • There are several chapters dedicated to class 1-B's first days of class, including their own Quirk assessment test, battle trials, and class election
  • Midoriya is still clearly affected by how he was treated when he was still Quirkless.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Several.
  • Togaru Kamakiri's [Razor Sharp] , as discovered by Izuku, is actually a form of silk manipulation, allowing him to make constructs out of material similar to spider silk and absorb them back into his body. It's essentially a less advanced version of Momo's Quirk
  • Kinoko Komori's [Mushroom] went through some sort of change off-screen, even greater than Kamakiri's example above, but it hasn't been revealed yet. Thus far we have seen it can bolster her strength though.
  • Monoma's Quirk is hinted at having gotten a major boost in power after he copied [One For All], but the details of this change haven't been revealed yet.
  • Tokage also gained a small portion of [One For All], specifically a small part of [Fa Jin]and [Energy Absorption].
  • Instead of [Gearshift], The 2nd User of One For All's Quirk is [Quirked Animal Registry].
  • Midoriya, All Might, and all other Quirkless people in the world do in fact have Quirks; they're just rendered dormant due to having side effects that would instantly kill the user upon activating. Monoma, by nature of his own Quirk, is one of the few people in the world who knows about this, and refers to the phenomenon as the "Cold Quirk Theory".
  • Izuku's own dormant Quirk has awakened, with [One For All] being able to keep it from killing him. Providing him with [Energy Absorption].
  • The "stockpiling" quirk at the heart of [OFA] turns out not to be a "stockpile" quirk at all, with it instead being a [Willpower] quirk instead. [Willpower] draws power from the user's mind and emotions, with the "stockpile" coming from when it merged with First's quirk, [Baton], allowing [Willpower] to take the will left behind by previous users that coalesce in the form of the vestiges
  • After hours of using his flames non-stop at the highest intensity, Shouto's flames become blue.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Aizawa is subject to this in-universe. Monoma outright hates the man, and Tokage is mortally afraid of him, and a lot of Monoma's more recent issues stem from the man's performance as a teacher; which a growing number of students have concerns about as well. On the flip side, they are Locked Out of the Loop on the rationality behind many of Aizawa's decisions, generally made with the joint approval of Kan and Nezu, which come off much more as a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Ascended Extra
  • Class 1-B as a whole plays a major role in the story, and are expanded upon.
  • Setsuna Tokage is given more focus, with much of the story going in depth about the complications that come with having a Quirk like hers
  • Rather than being 1-A hating fanatic that he is in canon, Monoma is one of the deuteragonists whose fierce competitive streak towards 1-A stems from his outright hatred towards Eraserhead, their teacher, not the students themselves. In addition, a desperate need to keep all the focus on himself, and the classes separate, lest Aizawa's casual use of [Erasure] kill or cripple Tokage.
  • Togaru Kamakiri is part of the same friend group as Tokage, Monoma, and Pony. He starts off as openly antagonistic towards Tokage after she refuses to train with him, citing their quirk synergy, before growing to become a close friend of the three.
  • Pony Tsunotori is the unwilling leader of the 'Pony Squad,' consisting of herself, Monoma, and Tokage.
  • More information is given on the lives of the previous users of [One For All]
• Character Depth:
  • Monoma
    • Instead of canon where Monoma seems to hate 1-A because they got attacked by villains. Monoma's hatred of 1-A instead masks the actual target of his hatred and fear: Aizawa. He grew up in the man's shadow as part of an all Quirkless family, with Aizawa revered by the Quirkless population. However the constant comparisons to the Pro Hero, to the point they actually care more for him than Monoma, and realising Aizawa was unwilling to use his actually considerable influence to improve things for the Quirkless, made it his life's mission to upstate the man as the hero of the Quirkless. At UA itself, he also fears Aizawa's casual use of Erasure could kill or cripple Tokage, and as she refuses to speak up about the same fear, instead devotes himself to being either the one Aizawa entirely focuses on, and keeping their classes separate.
    • Underneath that front, he is actually a highly respected hero student and does a lot to help everyone. His dream is to help the Quirkless as much as possible and raise awareness of them. Including publishing his and his sister's discovery of what the truth what Quirkless really are. He also loves Quirks, and has a seething hatred of Quirk Counselors and how much they mess things up.
    • Upon copying [One For All] during the Joint Training Exercise, [Copy] has now undergone an unknown change.
  • Tokage
    • Rather than being a stepping stone for Bakugou's development, Tokage faces Midoriya's team during the Joint Training Exercise and becomes one of the fic's main characters.
    • Tokage is a mischievous teenager who wants to make her grand-aunt, Chiyo Shuzenji aka Recovery Girl, proud. However, she is very insecure about her quirk, having taken years to get it under control and how it impacts her life.
    • A purple leopard gecko reoccurs throughout the fic in Tokage's mind. It unsettles Tokage despite being trapped within a chained cage.
    • After biting Midoriya during the Joint Training Exercise, Tokage now possesses a fragment of One For All. Implications of this development have yet to be seen except for an instance of her using it by accident during a hero training exercise. In addition, First calls her 'Tenth.'
  • Hagakure's issues from being invisible are explored, and the Quirk discrimination others have suffered are also evident.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Shouto is very much this to the severe exasperation of his friends and classmates, with Shiozaki joining him in this.
  • Shiozaki is also privately investigating Shouto's personal life, to determine the source of his scar. It is clear she is connecting together some uncomfortable things.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Uraraka, influenced by Aoyama and Ashido's earlier comments about her and Midoriya's relationship, thinks that Midoriya wanting to tell her something means that he wants to confess to her. In actuality, Midoriya wants to tell her about [One For All].
• Foil: Kamakiri is very much this to Bakugo. The former starts his time in 1-B as a Blood Knight, gives offensive nicknames to everyone, is short-tempered, has surprising control and skill with a dangerous Quirk, loud and verbally offensive mom paired with a soft-spoken dad, and generally has a foul personality. Except Kamakiri develops and grows into a close and genuine friend with all his classmates, discovers Endeavour's abuse the same way, and works hard to mature beyond his worst traits.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Sixth user's Quirk is [Smokescreen], and he came the closest aside from All Might to killing AFO, very nearly choking him to death on smoke.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Bakugo's current situation, as he is well aware by now that if it gets out what he did to Izuku growing up, which he does not at all regret, he will be kicked out of the hero course. More and more people are becoming aware of this though, or are noting inconsistencies in what they assume happened in the past, with Monoma taking glee in spelling out that Bakugo remaining in the hero course will end the instant that Izuku finally accepts what an awful person Bakugo is, and how Bakugo should never be a hero. The very same Izuku whose new Quirk development has left him functionally immune to Bakugo's explosions, can fly like him, and easily bests him at strength. As things are, Bakugo concludes that the only way out for him is to prove that he is too indispensable for his combat power to be rid of, and even that falls flat when Kamakiri decisively beats him twice in a row in the same match.
  • Ironically, Bakugo is unaware of how truly thin the ice is at that, as Nezu, Aizawa, and Kan are well aware of the truth, and are seeing what the best way to handle the fallout is. Indeed, if not for the League of Villains attack at the USJ, Aizawa likely would have expelled Bakugo then and there.
• Internal Reveal:
  • [One For All] and its secrets have been revealed several times throughout the fic.
  • [Razor Sharp]'s change into [Silk Trade] is revealed to Kan, All Might, Aizawa, Bakugo, and Monoma in chapter 59 after they were kept in the dark about the change for most of the story.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Quirks are always placed in brackets to display their importance, e.g. [One For All]. The exceptions to the rule are sentient quirks when they are referred to as a person. For example when Tokoyami's quirk is talked about the characters use [Dark Shadow] to specify they are talking about the quirk, with Dark Shadow being used when referring to them as a person.
    • This is also something Izuku and Monoma do in-universe when referring to quirks in writing as shown in their texts
  • Bakugo also consistently refers to [OFA] as "All Might's Old Quirk" and not Midoriya's quirk
• Jerkass Has a Point: As much as the members of 1-A are upset by Monoma's negative characterization of Aizawa, they are having difficulty defending his actions as a teacher.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Aizawa assumes Monoma is a fan given his family, and has a little resentment for the major miscommunication over saving Izuku's life, but ultimately things are alright between them, even if the teen could be less dramatic. In reality, Monoma hates and fears Aizawa to a degree it is a defining trait of his behavior, and Aizawa has only ever witnessed a false persona to keep the classes apart. Driven by these emotions, Monoma is also working hard to undermine Aizawa by making 1-A see Aizawa as an inferior and irresponsible teacher; all while ignorant of how there are sound (if not necessarily correct) reasons behind many of Aizawa's questionable decisions as a teacher, which have the approval of 1-B's own teacher Vlad King at that.
• Mood Whiplash: When Monoma first interacts with the Vestiges he starts continuously screaming in horror, which the Vestiges interpret as just him being freaked out by encountering them, and played for laughs, culminating in them giving Monoma a slap. However, then he reveals he has already put together that he Copied seven actual individuals who are going to die when his Quirk ends, and that this process is going to kill Izuku in short order as well; which means that he has just committed eight counts of manslaughter. While Izuku is saved, he still grieves for the deaths of the duplicate Vestiges.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Recovery Girl is Setsuna's Great Aunt and the one who sponsored her for the recommendation exam.
  • Honenuki is Cementoss's nephew, being sponsored by him for the recommendation exams, something he's very smug about.
  • Third's daughter and Daigoro Banjo were on-and-off-again lovers.
• Rotating Protagonist: The story rotates between focusing on Midoriya, Monoma, and Tokage.
• Secret Test of Character: A big reason that Aizawa keeps Mineta and Bakugo around is part of this. For the pervert, he is trying to goad his students to take the initiative and handle it like heroes should. With Bakugo, it is a test for Izuku to see if he will finally open up about how he was abused by the explosive teen.
• Running Gag:
  • Both Midoriya and Monoma are able to magically obtain items out of thin air. For Midoriya, he pulls his quirk analysis notebooks out of thin air whenever he so desires (they even come themed for whoever he's writing about). Whereas Monoma is able to summon his phone to him whenever his sister calls him. They also seem to be unaware that they are doing this. As whenever someone asks them how they got the book/phone, they are confused and don't understand what they are talking about (this even applies to the other's magic space).
  • Monoma also can't seem to understand someone when they tell him Pony has a crush on him, as he thinks they are speaking Korean.
• See the Invisible: Thanks to being in the pool, the other students can see Hagakure's hair. It also freaks her out that Monoma and Izuku give her eye contact as no one else does.
• Ship Tease: There are several couples in the making:
  • Pony and Monoma. Pony is openly attracted to Monoma, however he is completely oblivious to this, and if you tell him that she likes him to his face, he thinks you are talking Korean.
  • Ashido and Kirishima. However, a misunderstanding means people falsely think Monoma has a crush on her.
  • Kodai and Shouda. He helped her with a panic attack when the reporters broke in and is the only one to reliably understand her. Everyone can see them as a couple, but neither is willing to make the first move.
  • Kuroiro and Komori. Both are pining for the other and are seemingly oblivious to the fact that their feelings are mutual.
  • Jiro and Kaminari. They have both been worried about what the other thinks of them and Jiro feels bad for making fun of Kaminari.
  • Fukidashi and Hagakure. They are slowly bonding over their lack of visible faces and the difficulties it causes them.
  • Kamakiri and Tokage, to which both of them are blind to.
  • Shouto and Shiozaki, with them finding surprisingly common interests.
• Slice of Life: Downplayed, there are still moments of action, as seen with the battle trial in the opening chapters, and showing class 1-B's battle trials in a flashback, but the fic mostly focuses on the personal lives and struggles of the characters and their interactions with one another.
• Soap Opera: The last tag jokingly describes this fic as such.
• Spotting the Thread: More and more of Izuku's classmates are picking up inconsistencies or things seeming off about his relationship with Bakugo.
• Switching P.O.V.: Rather than being the omniscient point of view, the points of view switch from one character to another.
• This Is Unforgivable!:
  • Monoma is livid at seeing Izuku's memories of the years of abuse Bakugo put him through after copying One For All, swearing to destroy his hero career and make his life hell.
    Monoma: TAKE A SWAN DIVE AND WISH FOR A QUIRK!? I'LL MAKE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE TAKE A SWAN DIVE!
  • The vestiges of the past users of [OFA] also hate Bakugo for everything he has done to Midoriya and actively warn Midoriya not to be near Bakugo. They even have t-shirts proclaiming as such.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 29: First and Monoma are both introduced to the story in present day, after only being seen in flashbacks, with both of them proclaiming that Midoriya is going to die.
  • Chapter 36: Near the end of the chapter, every Quirkless person is revealed to have a latent quirk that remains inactive so as not to kill its user.

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