Fanfic / Bone of My Sword

Bone of My Sword is a My Hero Academia fanfic on Archive of Our Own by Bronywankenobi that can be read here

Izuku’s parents bring him to the United States to take part in a secret experiment to give him a Quirk, where he ends up meeting and befriending Pony Tsunotori.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: Due to their general jerkassery and arrogance, combined with Iida’s habit of jumping to conclusions and unwillingness to reign in Monoma and Mineta’s behavior, Class 1-A quickly earns the ire of the entire student body.

• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Class 1-A, due to All Might constantly canceling classes with 1-B as well as having gone through the USJ Incident, turn into a bunch of arrogant jerkasses who brag about their experiences on social media. This quickly earns them the hatred of the rest of the school.

• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite the seriousness of the situation, the majority of U.A.’s staff can barely contain their laughter when they see the blackmail video of Mirio Togata accidentally activating Permeation on the toilet.

• Adaptational Badass: Due to a combination of having a Quirk, better training, and more confidence, Izuku is much more capable here, even being one of the top scorers in the U.A. Entrance Exam.

• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Aizawa is much worse here then in canon, his teaching style fostering a toxic environment among his students and causing most of them to develop an every man for himself mentality. He also forbids his students from being in relationships with each other, and attempts to expel Uraraka after she accidentally damages blackmail evidence, and even advocates the expulsion of students who aren’t even in his class simply for being victims of said blackmail scheme.

  • Monoma, due to being in Class-A here, is even worse than his canon counterpart, going from taunting his sister class to outright bullying and trying to spy on their training sessions.

  • Iida makes very little attempt to try and curb Monoma and Mineta’s behavior, and even joins the rest of class in trying to pressure Ashido into giving up information on Class-B’s training sessions.

  • This can be said for most of Class-A here, due to the toxic environment of their class making them unwilling to help each other out to the point Uraraka has to start training with Class-B out of desperation.

• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In canon, Izuku and Pony have very little interaction with each other. Here, they’re childhood friends and are currently dating.

  • Due to Izuku having moved away when he was young, he and Bakugo have extremely vague memories of each other at best, and Izuku grows to hate Bakugo after the latter taunts him for saving a group of trapped students from the Zero-Pointer in the entrance exam (Something that Bakugo was responsible for causing in the first place.)

  • Due to being in Class-B, Izuku has a much poorer relationship with Class-A.

  • Monoma, likewise, is constantly taunting and even outright bullying Class-B due to being in Class-A here.

  • Class-A as a whole. Due to Aizawa fostering a toxic environment, the class has developed an every man for himself mentality and are perfectly content to leave their classmates out to dry.

  • While not as close to them as Class-A, All Might is said to still have a pretty good relationship with Class-B in canon. Here, his relationship with them is strained due to his Chronic Hero Syndrome causing him to constantly miss classes with them, and then later destroyed outright after he expresses his belief that Quirkless people cannot be Heroes.

  • Due to not having One For All, Izuku’s relationship with All Might doesn’t go beyond teacher and student, with Izuku later losing respect for All Might after the latter expresses his belief that Quirkless people can’t be Heroes.

  • Uraraka and Setsuna have little to no interaction in canon. Here, they enter into a relationship with each other.

  • Monoma and Mineta don’t interact much, if at all, outside of the Joint Training Arc. Here, Mineta is Monoma’s lackey, and joins in his harassment of Class-B.

• Adaptational Sexuality: Uraraka and Setsuna are canonically straight as far as everyone knows. Here, they’re both bisexual and enter into a relationship with each other.

• Adaptational Superpower Change: Instead of One For All, Izuku’s Quirk is Bone of My Sword, which allows him to change the density of his bones as well as pull them out and use them as swords.

• Adults Are Useless:
  • Aizawa is the most prominent example. He is almost criminally negligent towards his own class to the point Uraraka and Ashido sign up to transfer to 1-B due to his negligence causing them to fall behind. He also sticks his neck out to protect Monoma from a very well deserved suspension while trying to justify the latter’s actions. He even outright states that he refuses to actually teach his class and wants them to figure things out on their own.

  • Zigzagged with Nezu. He comes off as genuinely wanting to help his students and even helps Uraraka out when her poor living conditions come to light, and even rips into All Might over his negligence of 1-B. However, he also keeps Aizawa around despite it becoming quite clear that the latter is almost single handedly dragging down U.A.’s standards with his extremely negligent teaching style. He also allows Aizawa to talk him out of suspending Monoma, despite said suspension being very well deserved.

• Apathetic Teacher: Aizawa, hands down. He constantly neglects his class in favor of sleeping and does nothing to try and help them improve. He even outright states that how his students improve is not his concern and that he fully expects them to figure things out on their own, which goes against the point of U.A. being a school.

• Ascended Extra: Hisashi Midoriya’s presence in canon is limited a passing mention in the first chapter and he is stated to be working abroad. Here, he is a much more active part of his son’s life.

• Big "WHAT?!": Nighteye gives this when Nezu threatens to fire All Might over his negligence of Class 1-B.

• Bilingual Backfire: Pony’s American friend Sarah points out that Pony pleasures herself to a picture of Izuku, believing he won’t understand a word she’s saying. Izuku points out, in fluent English, that he can understand her.

• Blaming the Victim: This is what Aizawa's attempts to expel everyone who has blackmail evidence against them boils down to. Nezu points out that unless he wants photos and video footage of naked UA students to come out of discovery, to drop what is essentially a massive class-action lawsuit waiting to happen.

• Broken Pedestal: All Might becomes this for Izuku and the rest of Class-B after he expresses his belief that Quirkless people can’t be Heroes.

• Chick Magnet: Izuku becomes this in his previous school after he passes the U.A. Entrance Exam. It’s outright stated a fight nearly broke out between between at least a dozen girls who wanted to sit with him at lunch.

• Childhood Friends: Izuku and Pony. Despite living on opposite sides of the planet, the two manage to keep their friendship strong through occasional visits and daily video calls.

• Childhood Friend Romance: Izuku and Pony, who have known each other since childhood, have recently gotten together by the time of the present day.

• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed with All Might, as his it causes him to miss several classes with 1-B to the point that Nezu has to put his foot down and threaten to fire him if he misses another class without a very good reason.

• Contrived Coincidence: Not only do Izuku and Pony live on the same floor in the student dorms, but they’re also in the same class as well. Izuku even muses on the odds of this.

• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Saotome, one of the students behind the blackmail scheme, states that his reasoning was due to being treated as nothing more than a glorified janitor during his Internships. The U.A. Staff point out that he could have just reported the Companies in question.

• Didn't Think This Through:
  • All Might and Nighteye were so set on giving Togata One For All that they didn’t consider the possibility he would turn it down.

  • Aizawa’s attempt to advocate for the expulsion of all the blackmail scheme victims leads Nezu to point out that he can’t justify doing so without it being a breach of the victim’s privacy due to the illegal nature of the footage.

• Disproportionate Retribution: Aizawa attempts to have Uraraka expelled for what basically amounts to minor vigilantism and accidental destruction of evidence, and later noted that he would have both her and Ashido locked away in the deepest parts of Tartarus for the rest of their lives if he had his way.

• Everyone Has Standards: For as much of an asshole and a terrible teacher as he is, even Aizawa is not amused by Monoma, Mineta, and Iida making asses of themselves in front of the entire school.

• Fantastic Racism: One of the students involved in the blackmail scheme is Quirkless. Not only was he screwed out of all job opportunities due to his extra joint, but he had to resort to blackmailing people with their darkest secrets so that he didn't end up being one of the many Quirkless who become statistics. Though it’s also heavily implied that he’s just internalizing otherwise innocent situations as Quirkism.

• Foil: Aizawa is this to Vlad King. While Vlad is shown to care about his class and goes out of his way to help them all succeed, Aizawa neglects his class, opting to focus on specific students who catch his interest while leaving the rest to figure things out themselves, as well as fostering a toxic environment that leaves the class unable to work together.

• Honor Before Reason: Uraraka is reluctant to accept any kind of aid with her poor living conditions due to not wanting to accept handouts. Setsuna puts a stop to that real quick.

• Horrible Housing: Uraraka’s student apartment is a small, one room place with a cramped bathroom with no shower, dirty water, flickering lights, an oven that doesn’t work half the time, outdated locks, an improperly sealed door, and violent neighbors. This, combined with Uraraka’s meager supply of food, leads Setsuna to get Principal Nezu to intervene and put her in the student dorms out of fear the gravity girl won’t even survive her first winter there.

• Hypocrite:
  • Setsuna refers to Aizawa as this for being so willing to expel his students for dating yet keeping Mineta around despite his constant sexual harassment of other students.

  • Vlad King calls Aizawa out for constantly punishing Uraraka’s faults when he has done nothing to try and help correct them.

  • Iida comes off as this for calling Mina selfish when she refuses to break her promise to 1-B to not divulge information about their training sessions, all this while joining the rest of the class into selfishly trying to pressure her into breaking said promise.

  • The entire UA staff call Aizawa out for wanting to expel Uraraka over accidental destruction of evidence and vigilantism when he has defended students who are either sexually harassing all the girls or exposed themselves in front of an entire class (both of which are very serious and for the former, a career ender).

• I Reject Your Reality: Fujita, one of the students behind the blackmail scheme, states that his reasoning was because he had been screwed out of several internships because he was Quirkless. However, his homeroom teacher states that at least one incident was apparently due to the company he was supposed to intern with having accepted too many applicants, and that he was guaranteed a spot next year, something that Fujita refuses to believe.

• Noodle Incident: A more serious example: Nedzu’s statement that Aizawa is constantly reminding his coworkers that he is allowed to punish the students in his class as he sees fit implies that his attempted expulsion of Uraraka is far from the first time he has dealt out punishments his coworkers didn’t agree with or found too harsh.

• Oh, Crap!:
  • Monoma’s reaction when his attempt to spy on Class-B’s training results in him standing buck naked before the entire class and an angry Vlad King after the Quirk he had copied from Hagakure runs out.

  • Played for laughs when Pony’s American friend, Sarah, realizes that Izuku is fluent in English and therefore understood her when she revealed Pony pleasures herself to a picture of Izuku.

• Point of Divergence:
  • Izuku still ends up cleaning Takoba Beach, this time with the assistance of his entire class and some teachers from U.A. supervising.

  • Because Aizawa's teaching methods do not even qualify as teaching, Ochako and Mina get their classes switched to 1-B as it becomes clear the environment is toxic and in many ways, very unsuitable.

• Skewed Priorities: Aizawa does nothing more then scold Mineta for his constant sexual harassment of his female peers, which the other teachers state would destroy his career otherwise, and at one point even outright states he feels Mineta’s ‘potential’ outweighs his disgusting behavior, yet he is perfectly willing to expel his other students just for dating.

• Smug Snake: Monoma. He’s so bad that he continues to act like an insufferable prick even after very narrowly avoiding suspension.

• Sole Survivor: Izuku is the only subject to survive the experiment designed to grant Quirks to the Quirkless population.

• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • The entire student body quickly turns on Class 1-A when Iida attempts to downplay Monoma’s bullying of 1-B and Mineta’s sexual harassment of another student.

  • Vlad King chews All Might out for his constant negligence of Class-B.

  • The rest of the faculty are disgusted with Aizawa’s reasoning for wanting to expel Uraraka, which basically amounts to vigilantism and accidental destruction of evidence, when he hasn’t batted an eye to the rest of his class’ antagonism of Class-B.