#bnha au ideas

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU: Villain's Quarter

Some areas of Japan are known officially as 'dead zones' or 'ghost towns'. Some were destroyed in the early quirk riots, some victim to a villain attack that resisted clean up, some the site of an attack so brutal the vast majority of the people living there left. They have no police, no heroes, but not no people. They are well populated, by those unwelcome anywhere else - the poor, the mutants and, most of all, the villains. Southwest Mutsutafu is one of them - the locals call it the Villain's Quarter.

Midoriya Izuku's mother dies a few days after he turns 13. Her funeral comes and goes, leaving Izuku all alone.

After Inko dies, Bakugo is nicer. Not nice, exactly, but on one memorable occasion he asks if Izuku's foster family is ok. Izuku cries, because Bakugo is the only person who would care to ask, and he cries because there is no foster family. He thanks him and tells him they are nice enough.

Here, the quirkless are considered legal adults at 12, he's already aged out of the foster system/any legal protections for children.

He has no money other than what was in the house - he knew his mother had a will, but he got nothing. She left him something - she told him, but apparently whoever was in charge of her will didn't see fit to give him anything. He was hungry. He was tired. He was so lonely.

Bakugo may have gotten nicer, but the other students had only become more cruel. He'd arrived to school only to see Bakugo throwing flowers out the window - the 'go join your mother' notes still inked directly onto the wooden top of his desk. A girl bumps into him, tells him she thought he was a ghost with a nasty laugh. A group of boys tell him to jump off a roof. A particularly nasty teacher asks him why he's still even here.

One month since his mother died, Izuku is done. He ran out of food 3 days ago, and he ran out of hope not long after. Entering the Villain's Quarter is said to be tantamount to suicide - so thats just what he does.

Shigaraki often wandered the streets of the villain quarter at night - Sensei ran the show, and everyone knew who he was. Those who didn't and tried to pick a fight - well.

He's not expecting to run into a kid - skinny and short, still dressed in his well worn gakuran. His eyes are empty.

Faced with what feels like an echo from his past (a little older, but he'd been just as crushed an alone and hopeless, without a hero in sight) he invites the kid back to the bar. He cringes a little, because hes some guy in the villain quarter inviting a cute little kid back to his place, that looks so fucked on so many levels - the kids gonna book it - But. The boy just nods. They get back to the bar in minutes, Tomura makes him a cup of tea (he can feel sensei's heartbreak at whatever way he must be ruining the leaves but thats sensei's problem).

He didn't really think he had much of a heart, but it sure fucking breaks when the kid asks him why he hasn't killed him yet.

(More under cut)

So! This AU features a much nicer AFO (he's trying to raise tomura well! hes. not great at it, but he is legit trying) who has morals of a sort. The morals include - touch children and die by my sword, quirk discrimination bad, and 'i will give u the chance to leave before i kill you, because im nice like that'.

He doesn't see the problem with experimenting on dead bodies - but hes not ok with experimenting on living people. Nomu are, as far as he knows, only made of dead people.

He, admittedly, just kinda likes being a villain. Crimes are fun, only some murder is bad, I like beating people up and stealing their quirks. The tale of him being a massive evil is. Kinda not true - he's just a theatre kid. But only OfA could beat him at this point so. Fair. He's not mad ab All Might beating in his face he's like "good fight. good fight - its nice to be on the ropes for a change!" All Might is not aware of this.

Tomura is also nicer! His aim isn't murder All Might, but defeat him so badly it destroys the stupid hero system. He doesn't hate All Might - well, he does, but he's aware that what he really hates is the system and All Might is just tragically easy to dislike if you are Tomura - but there are some people he's of the opinion that them dying is just an all round positive. He wants to murder them.

So when a very depressed baby Izuku shows up, they try to find out what hes doing so they can return him to the correct authorities and hopefully get him some therapy. Then they find out there are no authorities and they suddenly want to murder the whole government. All for One didn't want to rule Japan (too much effort) but at this point it seems like he straight up could not do a worse job than the actual government.

So, they keep him! Izuku helps Kurogiri around the bar and, eventually, starts cooking. Its the only restaurant in the villain quarter and its very popular - you can pay in anything with value (money, gold, information, a lot of drugs, weapons, one time just a whole puppy that Izuku instantly adopted). Izuku is actually kinda happy, for once. He doesn't agree with Tomura or Sensei, but he doesn't disagree - he helps with planning, and he and Sensei have a dedicated time each week were they play with some of his quirks.

Basically Izuku gets adopted by every villain in the prefecture. It is very stressful when you are Eraserhead, chasing up on a lead about a quirk analyst in the villain's quarter and you see a whole child wandering around some stalls selling very illegal goods in broad daylight like hes at a farmer's market.

[cherryblossombombs]

you know, I would really like to see an Wizard of Oz!AU in MHA:

maybe it starts off as a typical day at UA and Class 1-A are having a training session, but our main character in the episode gets hit too hard and is out cold, hence their dream being the whole movie but with them and other 1-A characters in the dream.

Either Ochako or Bakugou is playing as Dorothy.

***This is a Quirkless dream, so Bakugou!Dorothy can't try to just blow up the dream to get out, he has to do it the way the movie intended lol.

Scarecrow is Midoriya, he wants to go to the wizard to obtain the book of all Oz knowledge

Tin-Man is Kirishima, he wants to go to the wizard to become the most manliest tin-man of oz

Cowardly Lion can be Kaminari, he wants to go because he has nothing better to do

Wicked witch of the west is Iida (w/the flying monkeys being Mina, Aoyama and Todoroki)

The Wizard is All Might

Good Witch is Momo

Toto is Tokoyami

That is all.

(***Dead wicked witch of the east is aizawa (wasn't really dead when house landed on him, was just sleeping and didn't care enough to respond/react when the house did or when Momo took his ruby shoes))

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

circus AU i make with my friends :3

[nina-scribbles]

Finally done with this piece for my 🪐🛸Space Au🚀🌌 !!!

+ some bonus closeups on details i really liked 💕

[classical-bluess]

The MHA Spider-verse AU I couldn't stop thinking about featuring grumpy sweatpants All Might trapped in Izuku's dimension

This version of All Might wasn't planning on having a successor so he never met Izuku but now he's stuck in a dimension with a student without his teacher I've thought about this 🤚

[chiquilines]

Ochako my relatable academically exhausted queen

[pocketramblr]

Tomura: Did you fuck my dad, Sensei???

so like do you think AfO was thinking 'oh yeah ive seen this trope, my future evil successor will be soooo mad that i knew his dad carnally and i can use that to... control him better'(i guess???)

[moonsvillain]

hotwings au where hawks is a vampire, dabi is a human, and they meet through the vampire equivalent of doordash.

dabi shows up at his door, scruffy and woozy (guy who's been doing this as a full time job and is not coping with the blood loss very well)

hawks is (rightfully) concerned and is ready to cancel his order but dabi immediately disagrees because "that'll fuck up my ratings sooo bad dude don't be an asshole"

hawks: "???"

dabi: "i really need this job man"

hawks kinda shrugs and asks if dabi's up to anything for the next few hours and dabi doesn't have anything going on so hawks invites him in and immediately sits this guy down on his couch to feed him and let him rest for at least four hours so he's not indirectly accused of manslaughter

one must imagine the disposition of an alley cat encountering canned food for the first time: internal battle of mistrust versus yummy treats

dabi goes down kicking and screaming

(the day he goes over to hawks' place it's raining so hard you can barely see and all dabi has is a cheap plastic poncho. hawks' place has heating—he very 'reluctantly' curls up on the couch)

hawks is probably the worst cook on earth but when he tells dabi this, he refuses to let hawks order food for him; dabi would literally rather die than subject another minimum wage worker to the storm outside just to come to this rich asshole's home

which ends up with dabi in hawks' kitchen, making himself a meal

(which, he probably wouldn't usually do this, but the blood loss is kind of getting to him. dabi's decision making has slowly trickled down to the average level it is when he gets drunk)

when he's fed and warm and hawks has forced him to watch two animated movies dabi could not give less of a shit about he finally turns to dabi like

"ok i know we're having a great time but also i really need to eat something. like. you. preferably."

dabi shrugs and offers up his arm, getting progressively more sleepy while hawks finishes his meal before falling asleep pressed against hawks' side

wakes up the next morning with a blanket pulled over him, cheek pressed to a throw pillow with a littleee bit of drool staining the fabric under him

sits up and looks around, armed only with blurry memories of the night before

("did i... sleep with this guy...!?!??!?")

finds a note on the table and unfolds it, trying to figure out what the hell is going on

(lovedddd hanging w u yesterday :P off at work feel free 2 make urself breakfast before u go. U should know where everything is. tip on the counter 4 u. xoxo hawks)

dabi, slightly mortified at the implication he rooted around in this guy's kitchen when he was out of it yesterday finds the tip

it's literally, like, $500 dollars

dabi scribbles down his phone number and sticks it on the fridge with a magnet

(half because he really needed that money and is pleasantly surprised that he got rent money a week earlier than he was expecting)

(half because he might not remember yesterday entirely, but he remembers feeling safe and warm and being addicted to that rare sensation)

hawks is very happy when he gets home, even if dabi isn't there, when he finds his little gift on the fridge

[lerrryyyyy]

Villain!Izuku AU but his villain aesthetic is still his iconic shirts

Tomura hates those shirts because when people see Izuku, they tend to take their group less seriously, and that pisses him off.

Izuku finds it kind of funny how worked up Tomura gets. Sometimes he purposely makes the shirts as silly as possible just to see Tomura rage about it.

But aside from Izuku just genuinely liking the shirts, they also serve the purpose of making people drop their guards around him - giving him better opportunities to observe and gather information w/o their suspicion.

Doesn't mean Tomura hates the shirts less though.

°°°°°°

Tomura: You're coming on this raid. At least wear a fucking costume

Izuku: Ok

Izuku:

Tomura, seeing the jacket in front: Fcking finally! It was time you upgraded your equipment!

Tomura, seeing the jacket's back: *makes incoherent angry noises while attempting to decay Izuku, who happily dodges his hands*

°°°

Do not edit or repost my art.

[nottspocket]

Mermaid AUs are so lovely to see. Are they childhood friends in yours, too?

Maybe, i imagine Katsuki has kept gifts Izuku might have brought to him. Seashells, or nice looking rocks, probably with a few fossils inside them?

Ohoho I’m so glad you see my vision (prev here)

Ramblings in the tags

[rarepears]

i don't know why but i really REALLY want to see an AU where endeavor is the japanese prime minister's wife (also we need more fanfics talking about Japanese government outside of the hero public safety commission)

Actually, would be pretty funny if Endeavor is still the husband in this scenario. No malewifing Endeavor here. He marries a woman.

In fact, he finds a better ice-quirk user to marry - someone with stronger ice powers than the top candidates that he was considered (ahem Rei). It is "unfornuate", as Endeavor concludes after their first blind date, that this woman is steadfast determined to continue her career trajectory (a degree in politics/policy/policy science?) and most assuredly not willing to be a housewife, but it's fine, Endeavor decides. It means he'll either have to arrange childcare or do it himself but that also means he can influence the child more directly and train the kid more.

Everything seems all good and dandy... Until he discovers, after the birth of Touya and Natsuo, his wife girlbossing too hard and had managed to complete college, grad school, and now had a full time position in the Japanese government. While juggling two pregnancies by the way. What agency he didn't know or care since it wasn't anything related to heroics. She's still doing her job of popping out more babies for him. So he stayed out of it.

When she decided to quit her job as staffer to some member of the National Diet (when did she start such a position? Endeavor wonders how he didn't notice it.), Endeavor blinked in surprise when she said she was gunning for something more ambitious. But he still didn't say anything. She stayed out of his work so it was only fair that he did the same to her career. Their partnership was good. (Duh, it's two workaholics who barely spend any time at home and say very little to each other if it didn't involve kids.)

And then one day Endeavor wakes up to the news that the prime minister of Japan was assassinated and his successor was predicted to be... his wife. A fact which none of the public seemed to be aware of by the way until this emergency election was announced. But now it was released... without Endeavor or his agency being made aware of such an announcement - bah, a "leak" the media called it. Endeavor was experienced enough in PR after all his years of heroics to know when a leak was planted.

It was unsurprising to see his wife win the election later that night. Especially unsurprising after the, now former and deceased, prime minister being assassinated by a villain (rumored to be connected to All For One who appeared to just gone off the grid a couple weeks ago from what Endeavor's intelligence team told him).

But now Endeavor has a wife who's the Prime Minister. And they have 4 kids - the youngest which is 7 years old. The nanny he had been using (named Rei) just had a mental breakdown after seeing the estate being besieged with reporters and the public and Endeavor was pretty sure she wasn't coming back to work ever. Oh, and he can kiss his dreams of defeating All Might and becoming the new No. 1 hero goodbye because even if he does become the new No. 1, he's never going to feel like he earned it himself - he's going to always wonder if it's a reflection of how popular (or not popular) his prime minster wife is with the public. And considering how, historically, prime ministers usually don't have such high approval ratings with Japan's regular villain attacks among other social problems...

Oh boy.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Idea: Getting what you're due often means you have to lie a little bit.

TL;DR: Izuku can't get into UA without a registered quirk. This is a much simpler problem to fix than he'd let himself think about. A little breaking and entering is fine if its for a good cause - right?

Izuku is in his second last year of middle school when he is attacked by the sludge villain. Endeavor is the hero to save him - burns the sludge until it bubbles and boils and Izuku is so hot he feels like hes dying but growing up around Kacchan has made him good at keeping his mouth shut while he burns - and the villain releases him, unconscious due to the pain.

He asks. "Could I be a hero? Even without a quirk?" He knew the answer before he received it, before Endeavour said a word. It was the malice in his eyes that gave it away.

"Quirkless?" He spat, cold fury and grief tangled up in a way Izuku could only read as anger. "You'd be lucky to get a job picking up trash."

Izuku's heart broke, like usual. A practised kind of heartbreak, one that happens the same way over and over until its not really breaking anymore, because it never healed.

At least the next day, Bakugo corners him, throws the first punch with sparks dancing across his knuckles and Izuku is just Done. He and his mother had been attending self defense classes since Izuku turned four - since his father left, since their family became a quirkless child and a pretty young mother in a rough neighbourhood. Izuku is tired and he is angry and he punches back.

It devolves into a violent scuffle, biting and yelling, both boys furious with the other, beyond words. It ends with them both slumped on the ground, heaving for breath through bloodied noses. When the teacher comes around the corner looking shocked and then angry, Izuku is ready to be expelled. Kacchan doesn't have to say a word for it all to be blamed on him.

"Some fuckin-" Kacchan coughs, choking a little on the blood running down his throat. he coughs, looking disgusted as pink spittle stains his sleeves. "Some fuckin creep was on school grounds. He's gone now."

Izuku was silent, wide eyed, as Kacchan refused to look at him, as the teacher fussed over him for getting in Bakugo's way, but that it was still nice of him to help his friend, but that they should both really get a teacher next time. They didn't question his story. Why would they? Kacchan was their golden child.

"If you weren't quirkless." Kacchan muttered as he left the nurse's office. "You could have been worth a damn."

If he wasn't quirkless.

Well. He could fix that. On paper, anyway.

Ok so! Quirkless kids cant apply to UA. But its worded weirdly - as 'those marked medically quirkless on their files can not apply to UA. So if he gets in, but the letter of the law, he's fine. He just cant be medically quirkless on record.

The only student at aldera with a shot at UA is bakugo. He's the only one who put in the work, and had the inclination. Izuku thinks that maybe - maybe - he might not sell him out. Might let him apply, might keep his mouth shut.

Izuku's ability with computers isn't good enough to hack. Hes pretty sure hacking doesn't even really work like that, and there is no way for him to learn how hacking works in like 2 years - at least well enough to get into a high security government database.

The easiest option would be a pediatricians office - they have the ability to update quirk records. But they show as updated, not original. A quirkless kid gaining a quirk at 13? One he can't show off on command? Very dicey.

The main server for the records is kept at the HPSC offices - they actually advertise it, which. Izuku thinks is pretty silly.

So - how does he get in? His simplest option is also his riskiest - just walk in an hope no one asks any questions. Possible, but the risk is just way too high. So, plan too - have a Reason to be in there.

They could probably use an analyst, right?

featuring :

Izuku befriending Hawks and becoming faintly horrified at the HPSC's treatment of him

Izuku getting access to their dirty little secrets because no one thought the cute kid was a security risk.

Izuku has a fake idenity he was hired through - same name but the son of an I-Island scientist. I-Island will not release their records to any government unless there is a criminal case so Izuku's pretty good there. He did need a personal reference but one of his online friends is a quirkless girl who lives on I-Island, she gets her dad to do it. Izuku is very grateful - she just asks that she get to be his support tech. Izuku cries, just a little.

Izuku keeps working there even after he's at UA, his mum is now in on the plan. She never actually married Hisashi so there are no records contradicting Izuku ab his 'dad'

1A still becoming convinced All Might is his dad, but this time is small might.

All Might considers asking Izuku to become his successor but when asked if he wished he had a quirk, Izuku said 'not any more. im doing good like this, i think'

He topples the whole commission in second year.

[starrytonesart]

what if inko midoriya got there first

[thebnha-auhoard]

How about 5 headcanons for an AU where All Might can't pass on One for All unless all the vestiges agree? They are super-picky and have been preventing him from finding a successor for decades. It gets harder to get a unanimous vote with each new ghost added. Instead of clearing a beach, Izuku must win each vestige's approval to succeed All Might. Thank you!

*finger guns*

On it boss!

Let's make it clear that the choice for the next Successor is only taking so long because the Vestiges now have time. They have time to choose. Before it was so fast. They had to choose fast because the Users dropped dead far too fast. Shinomori, Banjou, and En's decisions were all unamionous agreement so quickly because their current holder was dying and they have to pass down the Light that may defeat AFO. With Nana and Yagi, they had time to choose. And boy oh boy they were using the time with Yagi to fucking choose.

Sir Nighteye here I feel like would be so frustrated over the fact that every single one of the Past Users have to agree. He is trying so hard to find a perfect successor for not only All Might but also the past users. The reason why Mirio was rejected was due to how Third and Second felt like he wouldn’t have the determination to truly push through all the boundaries to do the right thing.

When Yagi chose Izuku as his successor, he had to go and disclose to him that he must not only win the approval of Yagi but all then past users of OFA. You got to rizz them up Izuku. You got to win their approval so that OFA won’t just simply be “Unfortunate. You just swallowed hair.” Izuku still needs to clean up the garbage in the Beach though. Still got to get in shape and rizz Yagi after all.

Do want to say that all users have a different reason why they don’t believe Izuku is the right successor. En I always headcanon to have been the youngest OFA user before Izuku and when he got OFA that messed him up bad mentally. Do not have a kid be the next user that will ruin him. I don’t have everyone’s reasons but I do believe that Second would still have the doubt that Izuku wouldn’t be able to go through with the convictions and may be too soft.

Izuku basically goes through a history lesson and workout with this. He is learning about the world and what the past users went through and trying to empathize with them. Early past OFA user meet is always something I love.

[goosegooserevolution]

spinneraki fic where they become roommates and it sparks the most insane "Am I the Asshole?" reddit story hero society has ever seen.

It starts with Kurogiri being captured before the canon story starts and AFO sends Shigaraki to a safe house out in the boonies. Giran owns the safe house, and since he never thought it would be used he rented it out to one of the locals, Spinner.

Shigaraki enters, already pissed, and there's just some guy there.

Spinner is innocently playing GTA when a villain breaks into his house and starts screaming about how he shouldn't be there. He takes to the internet asking for advice, and if he's the asshole for staying in the villain's house unknowingly. He is met with a myriad of responses, most of which consisting of "what the fuck dude call the police", but Spinner ignores these sane responses because "actually i think hes pretty cool for being a terrorist."

Shigaraki and Spinner slowly learn how to live with each other, and the original reddit post is given plenty of updates. People especially freak out when Spinner reveals that Shigaraki has been attacking him, but Spinner theorizes that "he's testing my strength and skill set". This theory ends up having merit when Spinner gets the drop on Shigaraki, and he says he's proud of Spinner.

So, they're sort of friends?

Spinner notices Shigaraki is a bit sheltered and hasn't experienced tons of the outside world. Spinner takes him out to arcades, festivals, all sorts of things with the intention of broadening his sort-of-friend's horizons, but any outsider would think they're on a date.

While spinneraki is learning how to tolerate each other, Kurogiri was spilling AFO's secrets. His DNA was matched with Shirakumo's, and Eraserhead and Present Mic have stuck by his side as he's been deprogrammed. The result of this is AFO flailing around trying to keep his villain organization together but failing miserably. He's been rather sparse with keeping in touch with Shigaraki, so Shigaraki has unlocked free thinking.

This comes to a head when Shigaraki is playing Minecraft and has a moral crisis over killing a baby sheep. He ends up naming the sheep "Red Pill" and firmly decides that murder is bad, actually.

Spinneraki share their first kiss when Spinner wins Shigaraki a stuffed Minecraft sheep from a claw machine. Spinner's now large reddit fanbase goes insane over the update.

[kickbutts-singsongs]

I know no one asked, but I have exactly zero (0) people to talk about bkdk with irl so here you guys go

My BKDK Journey

Yes, this sounds stupid, but my god it’s been almost three years of an absolute rollercoaster of feelings and denials and tears and revelations…

and if you don’t mind, I’m gonna rant about it.

(not spoiler free)

_____

May 2021

To start off, i wasn’t always a bkdk shipper.

I shipped izu*cha at first (not saying it’s a bad ship btw; it’s actually quite cute. im just afraid people’ll be mad if I accidentally invade their tag lol), primarily because I assumed that would be the ship that became canon.

But also, my veryyyyy leasttttt favorite character… was Bakugou Katsuki.

When I tell you that I would’ve loved nothing more than to somehow spawn into the bnha universe and punch that brat in the face— AGHHHHHHHHHH

Now this wasn’t all his fault: A) I watched the dub first lol, and B) he reminded me of someone that i was not in a place to stand up to at the time, and his constant anger, yelling, and harsh treatment of Izuku—who i began to relate to—made me hateeee him.

There was a time when I literally said “if he died, I wouldn’t miss him.” <- this was later proven false lol

So, I was watching the anime dub with an absolute animosity for our resident deuteragonist, but on top of that…

I was watching it with a friend with a crunchyroll account who lived in another state that I was visiting and staying with for two weeks, so by the time i had to go back home, we’d only gotten up to the part where All Might was getting Inko’s permission to let Izuku stay at the UA dorms.

Anddddddd in my drive to consume more bnha once I got home, i somehow stumbled across an Instagram account that posted bnha sub episodes divided into parts,

but they only had season four and onwards.

Sooooo I never saw the second half of season three… more importantly,

I NEVER SAW DEKU VS KACCHAN 2!!!!!

(I will say that I had seen a couple photos/edits/etc, but I never knew what had been said, or why they fought)

_____

June 2021

At this point in time, I’d been exposed to a lot of the fandom. My fyp on both IG and Pinterest were filled to the brim with all things bnha (because this is what happens when one has a hyperfixation), so I saw a lot of stuff.

Especially fanart.

This is where I started learning about the different ships.

I saw a lot of the side character ships and thought they were adorable (kamijirou, todomomo, even kiribaku), but then I saw some with Izuku.

Izu*cha was a given for me. I didn’t think there was a single person that didn’t ship it. But then I started seeing fanart of ships like tododeku, shindeku, and bakudeku.

And my first reaction to finding out that people shipped my beautiful baby sunshine boi with the person who bullied him for years?????

HELLLLLLLLLLL NO

So with my (unknowingly) limited knowledge of their relationship, i was very much an anti (i never spoke out or anything, i just reallyyyy didn’t like the ship lol)

(And then, you know, I started to see all the bkdk hate online and kinda went “okay not touching that”)

But that began to change…

_____

August 2021

…after I saw a manga leak for the first time.

I was scrolling thru my feed and all of a sudden. BOOM!

I was like 😧

IS THAT IZUKU?????

And i looked in the comments and yes it was.

I checked out the page and found that they had an entire account of manga leaks and was so happy.

I quickly began to read from the very bottom of that account, and it started from right about where Izuku first began his vigilante arc (i had no idea how much was in between then and where I left off on the anime, but I was willing to read it lol)

And so I waited diligently for the leaks every week (a practice I have continued to uphold lol), until one day, i came across an untranslated series of panels from the latest chapter. I looked at it and it was of Katsuki and Izuku, facing each other in the rain (you know the one). I knew the leaks would be coming a day later, but I wanted to look through them anyways, so I did.

I didn’t understand a word they said, but the pictures and imagery of them as kids then middle schoolers then where they were now seemed so touching…

And then I came across a pair of kanji that I recognized.

I was like “wait WHAT???”

I zoomed in and went “that— isn’t that—? That’s part of Midoriya’s name, right???”

And then I was like “wait a second… omg that’s Izuku, isn’t it. That’s the freaking kanji for Izuku.”

And it was!!!!!

So inside I’m having a mini freakout cuz—

Bakugou just called him IZUKU

Fast forward to the next day, and I looked at the translated version, and found out that not only did he call him Izuku,

He

Freaking

APOLOGIZED

And I was like “huhhhhhhh”

What happened between now and the most recent anime episodes for this to occur???? For Bakugou to do a complete 180 and apologize????????

Well, I finally got my answers…

_____

November 2021

…when I started reading the manga.

I started from the beginning, cuz I wanted to see Horikoshi’s art style and the extra drawings and all the other stuff…

And when I tell you that Katsuki became a whole new character to me—

First, I read everything about early-on Bakugou— without hearing him yell in his dub voice—and realized “oh wow he really is just a kid with issues and a worldview that he’s now having to change.”

Then, I finally read what happened in that space between moving into the dorms and the beginning of season four (most importantly, DvK2).

Cried.

Then, oh then, I got up to where season five ended and the rest of the manga began.

. . .

Funny thing: back when I read the leaks to ch322, I remember thinking to myself, “huh. what did Bakugou mean by Shigaraki making swiss cheese outta him?”

😦

THE WAY I GASPED

AND THEN CRIED

OH MY FREAKING GOD

That was the moment where i truly ceased to hate Katsuki cuz holy character development batman

Then, of course, we see them in recovery

And then the vigilante arc and apology scene *sobs*

And then I was caught up.

(Btw I finished the entire manga up ‘til ch334 in just over a week. I read for nine days straight. During the school year. My emotions were all over the place goodness gracious I could barely concentrate.)

So that’s how I went from being a Bakugou hater to going “you know what he’s a complex character and he’s slowly becoming a better person” and realizing that he was now one of my fav characters and therefore cursed to die but I’ll talk about that later

Was I now a bakudeku shipper?

Hah nope.

_____

December 2021

I began my dive into the true essence of any fandom: fanfiction.

Over the course of winter break, I had started off with fics that had no romantic pairing (I just wanted to see my boi Izuku), but then somehow stumbled across Mastermind: Strategist for Hire and then read the entirety of the For Want of a Nail series (shoutout to Clouds btw ❤️) cuz I was like “ok whew no bkdk fics” which was my mindset at the time.

But somehow (I can’t even remember how I found it) I came across a bkdk fic. It was called For Want of Izuku’s Toe Joint by Talavin (okay now that I think about it there’s probably a simple explanation lol).

I don’t quite know what compelled me to start reading it, but I did.

And I really liked it.

But not in the “I’ve been converted” kinda way.

It was like an “I shouldn’t be enjoying this why am I enjoying this?” kinda feeling. Like my head says no but my heart says yeah.

A really really really really guilty pleasure.

So, from that day on, whenever I came across any form of bkdk media, I would simultaneously feel discomfort and yet an odd sense of satisfaction.

A snippet of my daily life:

Me: *comes across bkdk fanart on pinterest*

Me: eww

Also me: *stares at it for like five minutes straight*

Me: who even likes this?

Also me: *saves pin to my mha board*

Me: not my ship

Also me: *scrolls down to more like this*

Bless my heart I was in such denial.

_____

July 2022

Bit of a timeskip, but nothing of note really happened in those last six months so here we go.

We’ve gotten to the point in the manga where the final arc is underway and Bakugou is about to KICK SOME BUTT

He’s revealed his Panser Strafe support item and I’m gushing about it to my friend (she kinda fell out of the fandom but still tolerated my rants bless her)

Oh, side note: it was then that I also expressed my concern for Bakugou’s “alive” status

Evidence:

For reference, some of my favorite characters are:

Beth March (Little Women)

John Reese (Person of Interest)

Joss Carter (Person of Interest)

Leonard Snart (Arrowverse)

Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

Fantine (Les Mis)

Eponine (Les Mis)

Jean Valjean (Les Mis)

Simon (Lord of the Flies)

Piggy (Lord of the Flies)

Grace Stone (Manifest)

Bubaigawara Jin — Twice (BNHA)

Wanna guess which of these guys died?

Trick question! It’s all of them (:

Yeah so anyways those following chapters really made me excited and nervous cuz YEAH KICK HIS ASS BAKUGOU but also IZUKUUUUU WE NEED YOU

hah hah.

_____

August 2022

Utterly gobsmacked. Cried. Disbelief. Horrified. Confusion. Anger. Went through the five stages of grief and then some.

Sometimes I hate being right 🥲

But the good thing that came from this was that my positive view of Katsuki only grew after seeing his utter faith in Izuku (and his thoughts being on him in his final moments???? 🥺🥺🥺)

And it was at this point in time where I could admit to myself “you know what? i see it. i see the appeal. i wouldn’t mind this actually becoming canon.”

Did I think that it would actually become canon?? No.

_____

September 2022

I don’t know how I thought Izuku was gonna react to seeing Katsuki’s body on the ground, but GOOD LORD IT WASNT THAT

Even sweet little blind me realized “oh wow he like really feels intense stuff for Katsuki huh”

(But some things I missed—cuz I was still a bit wired for izu*cha—were shigarakis implications “yeah u looooove the present I got u” and the freaking HEART that blackwhip caused??? when Izuku reeled himself back in???? like how did i miss that i read that chapter like fifteen times??)

So this is all to say that I’ve missed any and all actual bkdk hints up until this point. I finally lifted my head out of the izu*cha fog when…

_____

July 2023

…Ochako and Toga had their chat about romance.

The first actual hint was when Ochako had told Toga “I’ll give you my blood for the rest of my life.”

Little blind me became a bit less blind that day, cuz I was like “um. ochako? that— that sounded kinda like a proposal. like. a marriage proposal. ochako??”

And then those chapters just kept getting better!!

Bebe Ochako’s determination???

The Spirited Away moment?????

“I’m envious of your smile”????????

“YOU REALLY THINK IM CUTE?” “THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD” LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭

For the first time, I was looking at the manga without the assumption that izu*cha would be endgame. And it only got better after I…

_____

August 2023

…got Tumblr!!!

Everything was downhill from here folks.

In the best possible way.

I came across some analyses of what was going on with togachako, and consequently led me to some bakudeku analyses. I read them and my goodness they made so much sense.

Like not even just personality-wise!! Those metas brought in actual things Horikoshi said about wanting to go outside the norms of shounen (and about not liking the Naruto ending 💀), and compared bkdk to tropes in different works of fiction, and even discussed how bkdk made sense narratively. They properly convinced me of the ship.

And then for good measure, I reread the manga in its entirety thru a bkdk filter, and lo and behold things took on new meanings and my eyes were opened.

I totally and irrevocably shipped them! And I actually thought they had a chance at being canon!!

(And then I binged so much bkdk fanfiction omg you wouldn’t BELIEVE like I read the ones with the highest kudos first and then just picked the biggest collections I could find and read down the line

It was like being on drugs like each fic gave me more dopamine than the last I was so happy oh my god)

_____

October 2023

And then finally, the day came.

The answer to “is bakugou alive yet?” became a yes.

We screamed. We cried. We jumped for joy. We told bakugou antis to suck it. But most of all, our bkdk hearts soared to see our boys make eye contact with each other for the first time in over a year 🥹

And from that moment on, I truly began to believe that bkdk would indeed become canon.

_____

And so, this concludes my 42672288 page rant about how I came to be a bkdk shipper.

Thank you for reading, and before I go, I want to ask:

How did you guys get into bkdk?

Did you convert over from izu*cha? Or perhaps tododeku? Or maybe kiribaku? Or are you one of the few who have shipped them since the beginning??

In any case, I’m happy you’re here. And while it may have taken me a couple years, I’m happy that I’m here too :)

(and thank you @animelover32456)