Fanfic / Whispered Tribulation

After the Provisional License Exam, Yaoyorozu Momo is asked to help look after a boy who Eraserhead suspects to have been working as The Mole for the League of Villains. Who is this supposed spy? Why it's none other than the quirkless, General Studies student Izuku Midorya.

Whispered Tribulation is a My Hero Academia fanfic by Mad_Nimrod (the guy behind Type-2 Hero) that can be read on Archive of Our Own here.

The story is complete as of 15 November 2021 at 11 chapters and 26,868 words.

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Whispered Tribulation contains examples of:

• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • While Aizawa was a dick in canon, he was a Pragmatic Hero to a fault. This version of Aizawa suffered a Sanity Slippage due to the constant villain attacks and his students being forced into life-or-death situations and wound up taking the unscrupulous route, catching and "interrogating" an innocent Izuku until he "confesses". The same applies to his co-conspirators Vlad King and Snipe.
  • Without Izuku becoming a proper rival to him, Bakugo remains the emotionally unstable bully he started out as. He is caught before assaulting a defenseless Izuku to teach him "his place" (thinking Izuku being in the Gen-Ed course is still him being above his station) and expelled by Nedzu.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While Monoma still has a hate-on for Class 1-A, he's on much friendlier terms with Izuku.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Instead of being close to 1-A, Izuku ends up close to 1-B, particularly Monoma and Pony, his girlfriend. He's also well-liked by his peers in Gen-Ed.
  • Rather than being Izuku's love interest, Ochako ends up dating Momo by the end of the fic.
• All for Nothing: Aizawa and his co-conspirators go behind Principal Nedzu's back to abduct their suspected mole, banking everything on the notion that he's right about Izuku. He's dead wrong, and their illegal conduct results in Aizawa being committed to a mental institution while Vlad King and Snipe are arrested.
• Armor-Piercing Question: While defending Izuku, All Might asks why, if he's been giving the information in his notebooks to the League, not a single one of the heroes listed therein has wound up dead.
• Ascended Extra: Tsunotoni Pony has a much larger role here than in canon, being Izuku's girlfriend.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Played With; Stain and Himiko jump in to protect Izuku and Eri from Overhaul, though Izuku got things started by nailing him in the junk, and both follow his lead.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Izuku's kindness towards Himiko, helping cover the cost of their ice cream and telling them that there's no such thing as an inherently evil quirk, touches them so much that they not only spare his life but leave the League and save his life when he runs into Overhaul.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Pony, Momo, and Ochako arrive just in time to prevent Katsuki from giving a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Izuku.
  • The Appendix reveals that Stain and Himiko leapt in to save Izuku and Eri from Overhaul.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Aizawa finds himself standing on one for Momo, Ochako, and everyone else who learns about his treatment of Izuku. The same applies to his co-conspirators.
  • Monoma is shocked to learn that Vlad King not only supported Aizawa's kidnapping of Izuku but continues to write him off as a lost cause. Pony is similarly disappointed.
  • Stain is stunned and staggered when he learns that All Might told Izuku that it was impossible for him to become a hero before leaving him stranded on a rooftop, right after he'd been told that he should throw himself off a roof.
• Coincidence Magnet: Izuku just has the weirdest luck and is always in the right place at the right time to get involved in many major events of the MHA timeline even if he is not a Hero. Aizawa, unfortunately, is a firm believer in the "there is no way this is a coincidence" theory.
• Commonality Connection: Monoma ends up befriending Midoriya upon realizing he's a victim of bullying, as he had been bullied for his quirk in the past.
• Contrived Coincidence: What Aizawa's "evidence" boiled down to is just a protracted list of coincidences that can be (and are) explained away as such.
  • Aizawa happens upon Izuku's notebooks and thinks that he was gathering intel, citing the various notes detailing the hero's weaknesses. What he missed was that he also wrote down ways they can circumvent these weaknesses, something that he had helped Pony and other students in Class 1-B with.
  • He was there at the USJ when the League's first invasion occurred because he was exploring the campus on a bike. He didn't heed the alarms because they didn't go off (one of the villains had a jamming quirk, and Izuku was inside the area being jammed when the alarms went off). He had a first-aid kit on him that he would then use to help the injured students and faculty because he was a frequent victim of Fantastic Racism at his last school and learned not to depend on adults to help.
  • The reason he was in Hosu when the Nomus attacked was that he was retrieving a special large-flake garlic salt (with one of Hosu's shops being the closest of the very few that sold it) for his mother. When he saw the Nomus rampaging, he ducks into an alleyway that happened to be the same alley Stain and Iida were in. He then tended to Iida and Native's wounds, blowing off the Hero Killer as unimportant by comparison, surviving after he shattered the Hero Killer's faith in his own twisted ideals.
  • Inko won The Gemini Croquet Contest, and she and Izuku stayed at a hotel that just happened to be near the Pussycats' training camp, causing them to be in the area when the League of Villains attacked.
  • Izuku also happened to meet Himiko Toga while they were getting some ice cream. When he recognizes their photo during his interrogation, Aizawa immediately declares that they must have been his contact.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Nedzu has Izuku locked away in solitary confinement for weeks solely because of Aizawa's accusations, with only the later lunch visits from Momo and whoever she brings along with her to keep him brief company. As it turns out, it's actually a form of protective custody because everyone involved fully believes Aizawa and his conspirators will try to abduct Izuku again if he leaves, and Nedzu has tried to make Izuku's imprisonment as comfortable as possible. However, how extremely psychologically and emotionally damaging solitary confinement is in and of itself, particularly to an already traumatized child who was just abducted and attacked by school staff, isn't brushed aside. UA pays compensation to the Midoriyas afterwards but Midnight openly expresses fear over how the experience may permanently affect Izuku.
• Despair Event Horizon: Izuku is teetering on the verge of this at the start, to the point that he introduces himself to Momo as 'Deku' out of the belief that it's the only name someone like him deserves. While she's told to collect whatever information she can from her interactions with Izuku, it's strongly implied Momo's lunch delivery was actually a gamble by Midnight and Nedzu to subvert this by giving Izuku some kind of friendly interaction to help him stabilize that his detractors wouldn't argue too hard against, given both Momo's trustworthiness and lack of known previous interactions with Izuku and Nedzu's and Midnight's clear awareness that Izuku's mental health was fast deteriorating prior to meeting Momo.
• Deconstruction Fic: Of the common fanfic plotline of "Aizawa finds Izuku's Quirk Analysis notebooks and assumes he must be the traitor."
  • Rather than everyone else accepting Aizawa's conclusions without question, most are horrified and appalled by his behavior. This includes long-time friends of his like Midnight.
  • Principal Nedzu refuses to expel Izuku or support any of Aizawa's plans to interrogate and break the boy, insisting that they wait until they can get Detective Naomasa and his sister involved.
  • Aizawa and his cohorts are prevented from using the sort of extreme methods that are commonly employed in such stories, and decried for even considering them, as Nedzu makes clear that the ends do not justify such means.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Aizawa engages in this throughout the entire story, making his situation worse and worse because of his absolute refusal to consider the possibility that he was wrong.
• Downer Beginning: Izuku stands falsely accused of being a traitor, ambushed by three of U.A.'s teachers, and dragged off to be interrogated. While Principal Nedzu intervenes on his behalf and fights for him to be fairly evaluated, he's still kept isolated, with Aizawa eager to prove his theories right at any cost. And when Momo walks in, he's blaming himself for having hope that somebody who's quirkless like him could achieve anything with his life.
• The Dreaded: Midoriya Inko turns out to be one, given that they're a famous prosecution attorney known for bringing down corrupt heroes, earning them the moniker of 'The Hero Buster'.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Izuku has these when Momo first meets him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Ultimately, Izuku is found innocent of all charges with Nedzu more than happy to compensate for the damages, even bumping him up to the hero course. Aizawa's teaching and hero licenses are revoked and he is sent to OLYMPUS for treatment, but eight months' therapy later and he realizes the gravity of what he has done and wishes Izuku well, implying that OLYMPUS' program is helping.
• Evil All Along: While the pro-hero Gold Rocket's predilections against quirkless people was public knowledge, he is eventually outed as a secret member of the Meta Liberation Army and has committed embezzlement, being sent to Tartarus for his crimes.
• Eye Scream: In a Beware the Nice Ones moment, Pony implicitly threatens to gouge out Bakugou's eyes after finding him about to beat the tar out of her boyfriend.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Aizawa's main issues are his paranoia and overconfidence in his own judgment. The former corrodes the latter, so once he's made his assumptions about Midoriya, it's full steam ahead — the only thing preventing him from torturing a False Confession out of the poor boy is Nedzu's intervention, and he refuses to accept any evidence that he might have been mistaken.
  • Vlad King and Snipe also put far too much faith in Aizawa's judgment, helping him kidnap Izuku and writing the kid off as 'obviously villainous'.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: It does not matter that Izuku is in General Studies and not the Hero course (and aside from the issues he is suffering — and Katsuki knows they're happening, at least to the degree that Nezu has allowed the students to know — he is quite content to be there), Katsuki still thinks that the "useless Deku" has forgotten his place and stomps right to the dungeon with full intent to give Deku a retaliatory No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. When Nezu chews him over after the attempted assault, Katsuki makes perfectly clear that this is his reasoning for his actions and feels no remorse.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Averted. Though Momo helps Izuku to the best of her ability, this doesn't spark off any romantic interest between them. Plus Izuku already has a girlfriend.
• Foil:
  • Principal Nedzu serves as one for Aizawa; rather than leaping to conclusions and acting upon impulse, he insists on conducting a proper investigation into the matter. While Aizawa insists that they should go to any lengths necessary, Nedzu enforces a strict code of conduct, and is utterly disgusted by those who would cross the line in pursuit of their ideas of 'justice'.
  • Midnight provides a good contrast to Vlad King, Snipe, and Present Mic; her bond with Aizawa doesn't blind her to the horror he's committed and is attempting to continue, and she breaks off her friendship with him.
• Foreshadowing: Nimrod makes sure to add hints regarding many of the events in the story:
  • Aizawa's mental instability is hinted at when he threatens to expel Mina over a nut allergy.
  • Momo notes that Class 1-B drastically improved over 1-A during the Sports Festival. Turns out that was due to Izuku's notes and analysis.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
  • When dressing Aizawa down, Nedzu makes clear that he does not get to hide behind the specter of 'protecting his students'. Particularly when he has no problems terrorizing them himself.
  • Izuku comes to realize this about Katsuki. The staff at Aldera may have enabled him, but Katsuki still chose to bully and beat up others. And his attempted assault demonstrates that he wasn't 'growing out' of his cruel, childish behavior while training to become a Nominal Hero.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Nedzu shouts at Aizawa this way when he refuses to accept that Naomasa's interview has confirmed Izuku's innocence and starts advancing on the boy threateningly.
• Groin Attack:
  • During the Sports Festival, Katsuki got repeatedly nailed in the balls by a flurry of Kendou's kicks, taking them out of the running... and inspiring plenty of memes.
  • Also happens to Overhaul courtesy of Izuku, Stain and Himiko. In that order.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Aizawa secretly calls All Might in to speak to Izuku out of the hope that the boy's Hero Worship would convince him to talk. Since he's unaware of the situation, Yagi takes the opportunity to apologize for how he treated Izuku when they first met... and when he's made aware of what's going on, he promptly calls Aizawa out. Afterwards, Nedzu comments on the situation:
    Nedzu: My mentor had a saying. Part parable, part warning. While he was teaching me how to think like a human, he would often remind me 'You should never hand someone a gun unless you're sure where they'll point it.'
  • Katsuki suffers this when he enters the interrogation room and threatens Izuku, ignoring the fact that there's a camera inside.
• I Reject Your Reality: One of the signs that Aizawa has become mentally unstable is that Aizawa is extremely invested in seeing Izuku as the traitor against all logic and reason. When Naomasa, a police detective everybody in the U.A. personnel knows has a Living Lie Detector Quirk, confirms Izuku is telling the truth and ultimately innocent of the crimes for which he stands accuses, Aizawa's immediate reaction is to say Naomasa is incorrect and begin advancing on Izuku threateningly to get the "truth" out of him in a way Aizawa thinks will get "results".
• Improperly Paranoid: The whole plot happens because Aizawa is this to Izuku.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite not being part of Class 1-A, Izuku ends up being in the vicinity of several of the same incidents and getting involved, however tangentially.
  • After the main plot is resolved, this happens again when Izuku encounters Eri and protects her from Overhaul.
• Insanity Defense: It's heavily implied the only reason Aizawa isn't sent to prison with his accomplices at the end is because he was ruled insufficiently fit to stand trial. He's instead institutionalized at OLYMPUS, the Hero hospital. It's noted in the epilogue that even after eight months of care, he's only stable enough to understand what he did wrong when under the effects of one of the doctors' quirks. He mentions that his doctors expect it will be years before he's stable enough to do so without it.
• Interrogated for Nothing: The only thing Aizawa's interrogation of Midoriya has achieved is destroy the kid's will and has not gotten him any closer to finding the traitor within UA. But Aizawa is too determined to believe Izuku is the traitor, and Nedzu actually begins the tale by placing Izuku in a holding cell just to make sure Aizawa won't do anything crazier like abduct and physically torture him.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • The only reason Nedzu doesn't fire Aizawa and his co-conspirators the moment he discovers what they've done to Izuku is because they're effectively involved in an ongoing investigation — namely the one into whether or not Izuku actually is a mole. Once he's officially cleared, all of them get fired. And because what they did against Izuku was a crime so bad the child had to be held in protective custody to stay safe from them, they're all arrested and charged, with Aizawa only getting off due to insanity and instead being institutionalized.
  • Katsuki's runs out when he decides to track down the room where Izuku's being held just so he can beat the shit out of him. He proceeds to learn the hard way that, unlike their middle school, such behavior will NOT be tolerated at U.A.
• Karmic Jackpot: After everything he's endured, Izuku's karma finally pays off big time in the end, as he's cleared of all charges, Nedzu takes him under his wing to hone his skills into becoming an Awesomeness by Analysis-based Hero, and he's finally able to go on a date with Pony. To top it all off, he saves Eri from Overhaul, with help from Stain and Himiko.
• Kirk Summation: Izuku cites how Entertainingly Wrong the Hero Killer's Black-and-White Insanity is by referring to Forever Knight, a hero who was a very vocal advocate for the rights of quirkless people. He had made plans on making a quirkless support center, but when Stain killed him for not living up to his ideals, that land was instead purchased by Gold Rocket, a pro-hero with anti-Quirkless beliefs (and eventually revealed to be an embezzler and a member of the Meta Liberation Army) who turned that plot of land into a rec-center for "show[ing] off his sick skate moves".
• Laser-Guided Karma: The fic ends with Aizawa, Vlad, and Snipe being interrogated for essentially kidnapping and torturing a minor for what boiled down to a hunch. While Aizawa is sent to OLYMPUS to receive therapy, losing his teaching and hero licenses but avoiding criminal prosecution under the Insanity Defense, Snipe and Vlad King are just straight-up arrested. Katsuki also gets expelled from UA for being an unapologetic bully.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: The final scene of the Appendix is Sir Nighteye and Nedzu walking Izuku through an incident report in this fashion.
• Many Questions Fallacy: Aizawa attempts to seize control of the interrogation this way, asking loaded questions and trying to force out a 'confession'. Naomasa and Nedzu get increasingly sick of this until the latter tases him with a stun prod.
• Memetic Mutation: In-Universe, the results of the Sports Festival created a Fountain of Memes, particularly in regards to Bakugou getting eliminated by Kendou nailing him in the balls. Pony shows one of her favorites to Izuku in order to cheer him up.
• Mistaken for Spies: The general premise of the fic involves Eraserhead and a posse of UA teachers and heroes who, through a series of coincidences, come to the conclusion that Izuku has been gathering intel for the League of Villains.
• Moving the Goalposts:
  • Aizawa constantly engages in this; no amount of evidence of Izuku's innocence is good enough for him.
  • It's not good enough for Katsuki that Izuku is no longer trying to become a hero. His mere presence at U.A. is insult enough, despite the fact he's attending General Education.
• Mythical Motifs: While this world's #1 supervillain prison is named TARTARUS, the #1 medical facility for heroes is called OLYMPUS.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: One of the things Aizawa treats as 'evidence' of Izuku's supposed villainy is his presence and intervention when Stain assaulted Tenya and Native. Izuku's mentioned as also providing first aid to Aizawa's students during the other villain attacks.
• Noodle Incident: Izuku revealed that the League had a presence in Musutafu. The event involved cup ramen and a clown juggling pineapples, but no more details are mentioned.
• Offended by an Inferior's Success: Exaggerated with Bakugo; unlike in canon, where he was angry that Izuku was also in the Hero course, Bakugo tries to give Izuku a beatdown because he thinks the Gen Ed course is also too good for Izuku.
• Only Friend: After every other friend cut their ties with him, the only remaining friend Aizawa has in the epilogue is Present Mic.
• Point of Divergence: Much changes due to Izuku ending up in Gen Ed:
  • Since Izuku helps improve Class 1-B's abilities, they dominate the sports festival and knock out most of 1-A in the first two rounds, although Momo ends up the winner.
  • Tenya's fight with Stain ends up with him in a months-long coma.
  • Pony learns to fluently speak Japanese due to Izuku teaching her.
• Post-Support Regret: Expressed by Present Mic, implied with Snipe and Vlad King. They unflinching believed Aizawa's assessment of Izuku, only to realize in hindsight how far Aizawa's faction went to hurt and isolate a child for the sake of mere suspicions. In Snipe's and Vlad King's case, their support for Aizawa's assertions ruined their careers, as it evolved into equal participation in the criminal abduction and assault of Midoriya Izuku.
• The Promise: Momo swears on her family name that she'll visit Izuku every day and will do everything in her power to make his stay in detention as painless as possible.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • At Hosu, Izuku effectively broke Stain by calling him out on how he murdered heroes who were doing good for the world, just because they didn't measure up to his impossible ideals.
  • Nedzu hits Aizawa with one after the interrogation:
    Nedzu: You're not out for justice, Aizawa Shouta, you're out for blood! And your behavior in that room makes it quite clear that you don't care whose blood you spill so long as you're the one who walks away satisfied! Don't you dare say you're doing this out of caring for your students! Not with all the 'logical ruses' you've pulled over the years, which I should add no other teacher needs!
  • He also gives one to Bakugou before expelling him:
    Nedzu: That boy’s name is Midoriya Izuku. He is intelligent, compassionate, and bears an unrivaled desire to help. You, on the other hand, have been nothing but confrontational and self-centered, as though you expect the staff here to cater to your every whim! You are literally the only Hero Student in UA History to enter the course without a single Rescue Point! During the summer camp attack, you were given direct orders to retreat and you disregarded them! During the Provisional License Exam, you failed not only because you failed to heed the exam parameters, but because you literally went out of your way to belittle the ‘civilians’ you’re trying to save!
    Bakugou: Not my fault they’re pathetic! Heroes fight villains! If those shitty extras can’t help themselves, they’re worthless and should stay out of the way!
    Nedzu: That’s villain talk, young man!
    Bakugou: Are you calling me a villain!?
    Nedzu: YES! (That word shut the teen up quickly. He looked at the principal with bewilderment and anger. Bewilderment from the blunt accusation, and anger from the fact someone dared call him something so unheroic) You are nothing but a villain in my eyes. Your behavior is atrocious, your attire slovenly. You’ve made it abundantly clear you only want to hurt those around you. That you would sooner leave people to die than raise a finger to help. UA has no need for an animal like you.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Nedzu, in sharp contrast to Aizawa, refuses to jump to conclusions with Izuku and does his best to shield him from Aizawa's plans to 'interrogate' him.
• Shock Stick: When Nedzu gets sick of Aizawa interrupting Naomasa's interview with Izuku, he just whips out a cattle prod and stabs him with it.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The Appendix notes that Midnight was saved from her canon death in the Paranormal Liberation Front War thanks to the efforts of the Olympus Medical Facility.
• The Stations of the Canon:
  • Deconstructed. In spite of Izuku not having One-For-All or being a Hero student in this version, events still largely play out as they did in canon and Izuku, despite not really having anything linking him to all of the events, still ends up present and involved with the major stations of the story anyways, including the USJ attack, Stain's one-sided battle with Iida, and the summer camp. This makes Aizawa incredibly suspicious of Izuku's inexplicable repeat involvement.
  • Subverted with a number of smaller events, such as Bakugo being eliminated from the Festival extremely early courtesy of his opponent hitting him really hard in the balls.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Part of the reason Aizawa is so insistent that he must have caught the mole is that he's already committed, and can't admit that his cruelty towards Izuku might have been All for Nothing.
• Talking the Monster to Death:
  • Izuku's encounter with Stain in Hosu included a heavy dose of this, as he called the Hero Killer out on his impossible standards and hypocrisies, exposing All Might's Feet of Clay and getting him to seriously reevaluate his entire worldview.
  • He also does this unintentionally during a chance encounter with Himiko Toga. Unaware of their identity, their chat makes them reconsider their stance and leave the League of Villains.
• There Are No Coincidences: Aizawa firmly believes this, and thus that Izuku being in so many places out of sheer coincidence can only mean that Izuku is one of the perpetrators, and thus the traitor.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness:
  • Convinced that he's got enough circumstantial evidence to prove Izuku's guilt, Aizawa decides that they have to move against him immediately, kidnapping the boy and whisking him off to be viciously interrogated. This sets into motion the main plot, with Momo, Principal Nedzu, and others doing their best to counteract Aizawa's obstinance.
  • Katsuki ends up in extremely hot water with the Principal when he cannot stand anymore the fact that Useless Deku is sharing the same campus with him (let alone the fact that Izuku is in General Studies instead of Hero Studies and is currently being held prisoner) and stomps right into Deku's holding cell with the full intent of giving him what-for for his gall, which gets caught by the cell's security cameras.
• Tranquil Fury: Nedzu is prone to this, making it all the more shocking when he screams Aizawa's full name at the top of his lungs upon seeing him advancing menacingly on the just-cleared Izuku. The Appendix reveals that he shouted at Bakugou as well when he proved utterly unapologetic about his actions.
• The Unapologetic:
  • Aizawa refuses to show any remorse or reconsideration of his actions whatsoever, insisting that he was right to move against Izuku. Therapy helps him recognize his mistakes and start expressing remorse.
  • Also applies to his co-conspirators, Vlad King and Snipe. Though they regret their actions once Izuku is officially cleared.
  • Katsuki, naturally, shows no remorse over how he bullied Izuku, not even when faced with Principal Nedzu's fury.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Present Mic's speculation about a potential mole among their ranks ignited Aizawa's paranoia, making him desperate to determine just who they might be. Unfortunately for all involved, he fixated upon Izuku as his suspect.
• Villainous Breakdown: Aizawa goes through one when Naomasa asserts Izuku's innocence.
• We Used to Be Friends: The appendix reveals that Aizawa's actions cost him nearly every friend he had, with only Present Mic still willing to visit him, and even he admits Aizawa screwed up badly.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Aizawa and his co-conspirators believe that they're doing what they must to protect U.A. and all its innocent students. Nedzu disagrees, as do many others.
• When She Smiles: While watching Momo interacting with Izuku, Nedzu is thunderstruck upon witnessing the boy's face light up when she demonstrates her quirk. Though the moment passes quickly, it further strengthens his resolve to do everything he can to help the boy and see him smile like that again.
• Windmill Crusader: Aizawa. There may not even be a mole at U.A., but by God, that's not going to stop him from finding one.
• Witch Hunt: What Aizawa's efforts to 'find the mole' amount to.
• Would Hurt a Child: Aizawa, Vlad, and Snipe kidnap and terrorize one of the students who is meant to be under their care and protection, and would have done far worse for the sake of getting a 'confession' had Nedzu not intervened.

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