Tear Jerker / It's Over, Isn't It (it's only just begun)

When an Alternate Universe opens with the Symbol of Peace dying and follows the impact of that upon those who knew and loved him best, you know you're in for an emotional roller-coaster.

something that does right by you

• Tenko's recovery is bittersweet, as the poor boy is clearly already traumatized. Nighteye compares his expression when found to that of a lamb that knows it's about to be slaughtered.
• Nighteye finding All-Might in the wreckage, unintentionally cutting off Toshinori's attempt to pass on one last message to his family as he begs him not to give up.
  • This simple act leaves him grappling with a Guilt Complex over the notion that he robbed Inko and Izuku of the ability to know Toshinori's final words.
• This passage:
  The breath leaves him. The smile does not.
• Torino trying to convince Nighteye to let him adopt Tenko by freely admitting that he doesn't have the best track record with such things.
  Torino: "Nana only wanted her boy safe, and we lost him over a promise I never should've made. I ain't letting the same thing happen to the last of her blood."
  Nighteye: "Which lost boy are you referring to? The one she gave up, or the one she chose?"
  • In canon, Toshinori's fear of Torino was Played for Laughs. Here it's... not.
  Nighteye: “The last child you raised for her sake could hardly say your name without fear. And this one actually is a child—”
  Torino: “I ain’t here to fight you on that. What’s done is done. Did I hurt him? Yes. Was it necessary? I damn well thought so. Has it kept me up wondering if I did more harm than good in the end? Every goddamn night. Everything I did to Toshinori, every bruise and scrape and broken bone was to make sure he lived to see twenty. Was it right? I don’t know. And maybe that’s my punishment; I’m never gonna know and I was never gonna know, ‘cause that fool boy turned around and forgave me for it, and I never asked him to, but he did it.”
• The world doesn't know that Inko was married to Toshinori, or that Izuku is their son. Their relationship was kept secret, and at All-Might's memorial, Nighteye muses that this might have been for the best, as otherwise their pain would be nothing more than "a tragically beautiful story" to be paraded out before the world, carrying the weight of everyone's grief.
• The two-year old Izuku innocently calling Nighteye 'Daddy', spurring a panic attack that he struggles to tamp down before the toddler picks up on it.
• Nighteye's breakdown when Inko calmly reveals that she was aware of his feelings for Toshinori all along, and tries to convince him not to feel guilty about this.
  Nighteye: "He loved you. He loved you more than life itself."
  Inko: "I know that. I won't ever forget that. So—don't forget that he loved you, too."

just a thought, suddenly swarming

• Despite having One For All dorment inside of him, Izuku is still diagnosed as Quirkless. The very evening that they learn this, he asks a heartwrenching question:
  Izuku: "Can I still be like him? Can I still be like Dad, even without a Quirk?"
  Nighteye: "You already are."
  Inko: "You always have been."
  She wishes that words alone could fix everything.
• Five-year old Izuku declaring that he hates heroes, and that he doesn't want Nighteye to be one anymore... because heroes die. And he doesn't want Nighteye to die, and for everyone to be happy when he dies.
  Izuku: "Heroes on TV, and other people, and Teacher said—she said it in class! Kacchan asked her why All-Might was a great hero, and she said it was because he was brave and he died That's what everybody says, and they're always smiling when they say it, and—and—"
  Inko: "Oh, Izuku... That's not what they're saying at all, I promise."
  Izuku: "Yes it is, I heard them! And I wanna tell them they're wrong, but I can't, because you said I can't tell people who dad was, and—and that means I can't tell them it makes you sad! And I can't tell them Nighteye was sad last week! I hate it! I don't want people to smile about something that hurts you!"

strong

• Endeavor getting the title of Number One Hero after All-Might's death hasn't made him any less of a Jerkass. It's simply granted him more power to abuse — such as arranging for the whole block around his agency to become a dead zone, driving away all the businesses that once surrounded it by cutting off phone and internet access, barely allowing any electrical work. Why? So he doesn't have to deal with Media Scrum around his office.
  • The very fact that Endeavor has twisted and distorted All-Might's legacy by using his Heroic Sacrifice to guilt trip heroes and interns under his employ into pushing themselves to an unhealthy extent, as evidenced in his lecture to Pinpoint — who's nursing a broken wrist and cracked rib:
    Endeavor: "It means you sacrifice whatever is needed. It means no matter how many bones you break, how little you sleep, how little you eat, you work until the job is done. Any less effort than that is worthless. The man sacrificed his life and still one. Surely you can sacrifice a nap, Pinpoint."
• Tensei's disquiet throughout everything you have, everything you are, as he grapples with questions that he can't quite find the right words for, second-guessing himself and finally finding some measure of reassurance by talking to Nighteye and hearing something he didn't consciously realize he needed to hear:
  Nighteye: "You're a hero, Ingenium. Not some tool to be broken."

take a moment and find yourself

• Izuku's meltdown over Nighteye using his Foresight to learn about Bakugou's bullying.
• Izuku is six years old and has already internalized the idea that his health and happiness are worth less than Bakugou's 'bright future'. That because he's Quirkless, he's worth less — or at least, that it's not worth getting Kacchan into trouble for things like using his Quirk to hurt him or beating him bloody.

when i talk, it lights a fire in you

• Even after transferring to another elementary school and starting self-defense lessons, the seven-year old Izuku is so traumatized by what he endured with Bakugou that he keeps anticipating the worst. Waiting for the other shoe to drop... because being Quirkless means that it's only a matter of time before he's rejected, right?
  • Tenko's own circumstances mirror Izuku's; like him, he expects to be rejected and despised purely because of who he is. The twelve-year old's just had a little longer to build up walls, and spends his first visit to the Midoriyas isolating himself as much as possible and prickling at their efforts to reach out, expecting to be hurt.

i always thought i might be bad

• Tenko's homeroom teacher and principal turn out to be worse than useless, blaming Tenko entirely for an incident and refusing to hear out his side of the story. And when one of his classmates reveals the truth — that the kid he's accused of bullying is known for pulling Wounded Gazelle Gambits — they immediately dismiss her testimony because she's known to have a bad home life. To top it all off, the principal implies that Tenko's doomed to be bad because of how he was kidnapped by All For One.