#U.A. Traitor Arc

[everytsuyuasui]

Chapter 338 ~ The Story of How We All Became Heros, Part 1

[luckyrave]

My Hero Academia Podcast: U.A.  Traitor Arc (w/Steve,MangaReader, and BlueStarSaber)

My Hero Academia is slowly, but surely approaching the finish line since it is currently within the last stages of The Final War Arc.  In preparation for that day to arise, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to talk about the previous arc since it finally delves into a mystery surrounding The UA Traitor.

Special shoutout to lkmnjh aka Steve, MangaReader, and @bluestarsaber for joining.    

[mha-grievances]

Alright, I’m bored again so I’m going to rank all of the arcs from best to worst:

Great:

1. Hero Killer Arc: This arc and number 2 on this list proves that MHA had such potential. Watching Izuku grow and his efforts/impact on other people being acknowledged was great to see. We’ve got fantastic growth for the three main characters and a very good antagonist(despite some issues I have with Stain’s goal). Best of all, no Katsuki.

2. Shie Hissaki Arc: another great arc with a lot of great fights and characters. Watching Izuku vs Overhaul was thrilling and being introduced to The Big 3 and some cool pro heroes was a treat. There are some issues I have with this arc, such as how Overhaul’s motivations suck (he sees quirks as cooties when he literally has the best quirk in Japan) and that some characters could’ve been developed more (I would’ve loved to see more from the Eight Bullets and Nejire), but it was overall a good experience. And again, no Katsuki.

3. USJ Arc: Other than Katsuki’s dumbass endangering everyone and not getting called out for it, I had a blast with this arc. Solid character interactions all around and a fantastic fight to end it all off.

4. U.A Festival Arc: Gentle was a breath of fresh air in terms of villains and I really enjoyed his fight with Izuku. This would’ve been number 3 if not for the fact Izuku gets yelled at for doing his job and Katsuki gets another point added to him being a Gary Stu by revealing yet another talent he has that he shouldn’t.

Good:

5. Entrance Exam Arc: It was a solid setup for getting to know Izuku, All Might, and the world of MHA. It was one of the few times that the narrative wasn’t sucking on Katsuki’s dick too.

6. Forest Training Arc: The final arc that I’d consider good. We’ve got some solid moments here. Fumikage going berserk, Mezou carrying everyone to safety being introduced to the main LoV members, Izuku vs Muscular, and the character of Kota were nice additions to the series. We even got to see some of 1-B, even if it wasn’t much.

Alright:

7: Meta Liberation Arc: Now we’re in the area where these arcs aren’t bad, but they clearly exist just to set things up. This is an arc that would’ve been fantastic if it wasn’t for the fact it led nowhere. Yes, a good chunk of the LoV received fantastic development but the MLA were so lame, and by that, I mean they’re introduced here only to serve as canon fodder in the next arc.

8. Pro Hero Arc: I don’t really have any complaints about this arc nor do I have anything to say outside the fact Endeavor’s fight with the High End was pretty neat.

9. Hideout Raid Arc: only reason this isn’t in the “good” or “great “ category is cause it was centered around Katsuki. All Might vs AFO was a fantastic conclusion to the first saga of MHA and I liked seeing the rescue squad in action… even though Katsuki made it a pain to be rescued.

10. U.A traitor Arc: I don’t really care about this arc for two reasons, one is that the foreshadowing leading up to this moment sucked and that we never really got to spend enough time with Yuuga to care much about the reveal.

Bad:

11. Endeavor Agency Arc: Now we’re at the part where I dislike all of these arcs. This is an arc that Katsuki ruins due to him being a shitty character. Him yelling at a trauma victim to stop talking about her trauma in her own damn house was obnoxious. Katsuki didn’t need to be in this arc whatsoever. Remove him and this arc would’ve had a much higher rating for actually tackling Endeavor’s character and relationship with his family in a solid manner.

12. Sports Festival Arc: The Sports Festival Arc would’ve been fantastic it is weren’t for certain points. First off, this is where the Katsuki dick sucking really began. Shota acts like a mouthpiece for Katsuki even though the people booing him were right in the fact that he could’ve ended the fight easily. He also wasn’t taking Ochako seriously at all, literally announcing “it’s time to get serious” once her strat failed. He should’ve lost against Shoto too seeing as Shoto’s ice is a direct counter to his quirk. Finally, Katsuki had no right listening in on Shoto and Izuku’s conversation and demanding anything from Shoto, a point that’s never addressed. Secondly, all the Gen Ed kids were assholes for no reason. Who in their right mind sees 1-A going through a traumatic experience as them seeing themselves better than everyone else? Yeah, Katsuki gave off a bad impression but he’s just one guy. Finally, this was the arc that introduced Hitoshi, a failed attempt by Hori at tackling the idea of prejudice. Instead of someone bitter at the world for being screwed by society, we got an entitled bitch.

13. Remedial Course Arc: as much as I love Gang Orca, this arc served no purpose. Katsuki gives off a line that feels undeserved seeing as he’d go off undermining people afterwards but this arc’s biggest flaw was that it really didn’t have to exist.

Crap:

14. Battle Trial Arc: Now we’re in the really bad arcs. The Battle Trial Arc is once again ruined by Katsuki. Despite being told by All Might not to fire that explosion, he still does. Yes, he aimed it in a way that it wouldn’t kill Izuku, but the fact that All Might was worried that it could’ve killed Izuku meant that firing that thing in a narrow hallway could’ve seriously injured him. Katsuki suddenly switching up his fighting style despite having no formal training’s the first instance of his plot armor showing up, with the second being that he wasn’t disqualified. Katsuki being afraid of 1-A’s potential went nowhere cause he ended up winning the Sports Festival and would undermine 1-A constantly. Finally, Izuku telling Katsuki about his “borrowed power” was dumb. Everything else was fine though, but not enough to make up for Katsuki’s flaws.

15. Paranormal Liberation Arc: Would’ve been much higher but there are several glaring flaws. Izuku defending Endeavor’s character was one of those moments where I audibly groaned. Katsuki’s plot armor kicks it up into turbo gear by having him have a quirk awakening, surviving an attack that should’ve destroyed his stomach with zero consequences, and giving him an unearned “my body moved on its own” moment.

16. Quirk Apprehension Exam: This arc introduces Shota… and makes all of his flaws known to the audience. I have several posts going over why he sucks and this is the episode that shows it all off. Only thing keeping this from being ranked lower is cause we were also introduced to 1-A.

Shit:

17. Star and Stripe Arc: We’re close to the bottom of the barrel now. Hori introduces a character he never foreshadowed once despite Star and Stripe being the top pro hero of another country and immediately kills her. It does nothing to the plot either. “Oh but it nerfed Tomura” that’s what Hori tells us. Do we actually see what quirks Tomura lost? In fact, after this, his quirk evolves to counter Eraserhead’s. At best all this arc did was stall for time.

18. Dark Hero Arc: what a waste of potential. This would’ve been ranked lower if it wasn’t for Ochako’s speech, Izuku vs Muscular 2, and Izuku helping that fox lady. What makes it shit though? First off, Izuku suddenly unlocks the rest of his quirks. Secondly, 1-A thinks that the best way to get Izuku back is to show up, beat him up, and then kidnap him back to U.A. Third, the pros were offering Izuku no support. He was hungry, tired, and dirty, yet not once did any of them think “hey, if we’re using him as bait to draw AFO out, maybe we should keep him healthy so he can help us once we ambush AFO”. Fourth, Katsuki’s role in this arc. He demeans Izuku in front of his friends, daring to compare Izuku’s desire to protect everyone to him having an ego, and then gives an absolutely poorly timed and terrible apology. God this arc sucks.

19. Joint Training Arc: Oh look, another Katsuki dick sucking session. Sorry, but 1-B does not redeem how awful this arc is. Katsuki’s praised to the moon and back, insults his classmates and the former OFA users with no repercussions, and earns yet another victory. “But he saved Kyouka” but not out of being a good person. He only wanted the victory. Maybe this could’ve been a good step if Katsuki’s arc wasn’t Hori’s attempt at speedrunning a character arc. Yui getting beat by Ochako so effortlessly will forever bother me as one of Yui’s 5 fans (this girl has a 5/6 A+ skill stat, which is higher than Ochako’s). Also, Hitoshi’s here, but he’s actually tolerable here so I’m not going to rant about him.

Super Shit:

20. Provisional License Arc: This is going to be a short write cause there’s not much to be said. It’s yet another Katsuki dick sucking session where the narrative wanks him off. Then there’s Kacchan vs Deku 2, which if you’ve read any of my blogs, you know that this was once my least favorite moment of the series. If you wanna know why this moment was so crap, I have dozens of posts about why it does. And yes, I said it was once my least favorite moment. What’s to come somehow managed to beat it in terms of sheer crap.

I can’t think of any singular phrase to describe how terrible this arc is:

21. Final War Arc: How ironic that the end of the series is also at the end of this list. Where do I even begin? Well, there’s Miruko being the subject of someone’s gore fetish for the third time, AFO overstaying his welcome, Izuku hardly even doing anything, Tomura getting BS power ups up the wazoo, AFO and Izuku never meeting, the mutant portion being handled poorly, Dabi somehow gaining a power up that ultimately served no purpose, and Ochako and Himiko’s portion also being wrapped up poorly. However, what really makes this arc the bottom of the barrel is the dick sucking. Somehow, Katsuki’s able to last the longest against Tomura. Somehow Katsuki manages to score a hit just because he scared Tomura. Somehow Katsuki managed to survive having his heart, arm, and chest blown out via amateur surgery with absolutely no injuries despite being dead for like 5 min without a damn heart and heart surgery not being an answer for a broken arm. And finally, Katsuki gets yet another quirk power up and is now able to compete with AFO. This is THE arc where it’s clear Hori wanted Katsuki to be the protagonist and god damn I will argue that The Room and My Immortal is better than this clusterfuck of an arc.

[theinternetarchivist]

Was spit balling ideas with my friend about a villain Bakugo au, this is what I’ve got. It’s all formatted as notes though, just thought I wanted to share lol

Taken as a child by AFO right after manifesting his quirk

AFO leaves Izuku behind because he thinks of him as useless

Izuku puts a lot a more effort into being a hero from a child in order to save Bakugo because he know he’s not dead

Bakugo writes little notes to Deku that never actually get to him

Because being raised by AFO he is technically a villain, having been manipulated into being such.

He’d annoy Shigaraki so bad, Kurogiri has to stop them from fighting

He doesn’t see AFO as a villain, he thinks he’s doing the right thing so he wants to protect Deku by bringing him over to the villains

Deku is his only good memory before he was taken

He infiltrates U.A. and Deku’s like WTF

Bakugo would pretend to not remember him to not blow his cover

He goes under a different name, Kudo, AFO gave it to him out of spite

Bakugo has a sort of quirk given to him by AFO that enhances his explosion

He’s using Bakugo in a way to torture Deku

Scene idea: When first seeing him, Deku whispered under his breath ‘Kacchan?’. Bakugo side eyes him before returning to taunting Iida.

Bakugo knows about the USJ attack but plays a less important role than in the show lines. He tries to set up All Might’s defeat, he purposely doesn’t go after the Nomu

During the sports festival there’s a short cutscene to Bakugo’s parents watching knowing that he wanted to go to UA and that this would have been his first year, and they see him and are like ???

Bakugo’s still extra as hell, villain name: Lord Explosion Murder God Dynamite

Kidnapping arc would be interesting because they’d target Izuku

He wants to see Izuku smile, he’s confused though when he sees Izuku’s face of absolute betrayal and it’s kinda devastating to him. It sorta puts things into perspective

During this arc to keep appearances they kidnap Bakugo and Deku, but at the lair they reveal Bakugo

At the end he’s revealed to U.A. as the traitor. He leaves U.A. because he can’t go back cause his cover is blown, but this does plant a seed of doubt in him about AFO

Bakugo helps save Izuku, the LOV sort of know that he did but can’t be sure, same with UA. Izuku meanwhile does know for certain, which makes him believe that Bakugo can be saved.

Shinso joins 1-A question mark????

This is when AFO switches to using Aoyama as a spy

At this point, Izuku is having a breakdown 🎶.

FULL OUTFIT CHANGE WOOOO

Dorms are implemented

UA’s being shady, saying that Bakugo left of his own accords

After this, Aoyama is revealed as a back up which places another seed of doubt in his mind, he’s sorta realizing that AFO isn’t that trustworthy

During the Overhaul arc, he’s hearing reports about Eri and whatnot, doesn’t like it and gets more doubts seeing similarities.

He’s helping the league full time at this point (in a way). He and Dabi don’t get along.

He and Toga match each other’s freak in a way, but they do fight over Deku. She explains the whole provisional license thing, he explicitly asks about Deku not really understanding why. He also has a short thought of “maybe I’ll take it next year.”

Toga wouldn’t really care at all that he asked about Deku

Meanwhile Deku puts all focus into the Overhaul arc. There’s a small meetup, Bakugo tries to apologize HUG PERCHANCE, Deku tries to convince him to come back that they can make everything right, but Bakugo refuses and leaves. Bakugo isn’t very angry during this.

Izuku sort of seeks out the second the user.

Kudo sort of pays attention more when realizing about Bakugo

Best Jeanist was a good mentor we love Best Jeanist

Oh and also take this, it’s for an art class project

[haebeomsleftbuttcheek]

Since MHA is close to an end, there’s one(a few) secrets I have to share with you all!

I did not care about Midnight or Stars’n’Stripes, and didn’t feel any ounce of sadness over their deaths!

I sympathise/empathise with Rei, but I unapologetically remain only a stan of the Todoroki kids/siblings!

I never really actually hated Mineta, he’s a side character who is so easily forgotten if you just focused on actually important characters. I forgot he existed most of the times!

My biggest fear has happened, and so now I must worry about my next two biggest fears - Shouto taking Endeavor’s hero name(fuck don’t think the theory hold any grounds or goes with Shouto’s arc or desires but ugh I fear it still) as some kind of honour to his father or something. Second being that Aoyama gets kicked from U.A, and punished for being a traitor even though it was out of his control and he was a victim! He will most likely be fine but let me worry ok 😭!

I hope we never see or ever will be introduced to Izuku’s father, because at this point I feel only negative emotions towards him!

[libertastandem]

This is just me being a hater. I'm not trying to discredit anyone or anything. Don't read further if you can't handle one person's opinions.

It's so disappointing to be a huge fan of a piece of media and then seeing it get bad and worse every week. In my opinion, Jujutsu Kaisen stopped being good after the Culling Game Arc, My Hero Academia stopped being good after the U.A. Traitor Arc and I don't even know what Fujimoto is trying to do with the Academy Saga, I stopped reading it a long time ago for how disappointing I thought it was. Which is so frustrating because all three manga were GOATED (at least in my opinion). They all did a 180 when the Shinjuku Showdown Arc, the Final War Arc and the Academy Saga started (again, my opinion). Maybe my expectations were too high? And listen, I understand that I'm not the authors (none of us are) but jeez...

[lowkxytears]

[Let me preface that I wrote this months ago and forgot to post it]

Helloooo people of the MHA fandom! I have finally decided to catch up with MHA manga, starting from the end of season 6, as I am currently sick of being spoiled by the internet!!

For anime-onlys I advise you not to read under the cut, I will also be tagging this under spoilers, so stay safe !!!

OKAY, So first and for most I started and finished the Star and Stripe Arc AND the U.A. Traitor Arc. I started writing this a quarterway through the first chapter of the final war arc, chapter 343.

SO, here are my thoughts:

Star and Stripe just dipping without the higher-up's consent actually made me giggle, she just ZOOMED her way to Japan and I mean ZOOMED cause she got there in about 4-5 hours as the distance from America to Japan is 10,144 kilometres (6303.1894 miles) and fighter jets have a top speed of Mach 2 (between 2,100-2,200 km/h / 1,300-1,360 mph / 1,100-1,150 knots), so this lady just YEETED herself across the ocean to help All Mights ass.

ShigAFO just being confused about WHO he is actually HORRIFIED me. You can literally SEE the amalgamation of Shigaraki's and AFO's personalities/spirits(?) within and outside himself through AFO's want of Star and Stripes quirk and Shigaraki's want to destroy her.

I HATE AFO, not because he's a villain, 'cause I've grown to (like many people) empathise AND sympathise with many villains and just genuinely like them but because he's not really a villain you're SUPPOSED to sympathise with, he's an evil power-hungry man who wishes to be God.

ALSO(this has nothing to do with this post) Y'know Tsubasa the kid who was friends with Bakugou with the Wing Quirk? Yeah, HE'S THE WINGED NOMU FROM THE HOSU INCIDENT THAT PICKED UP MIDORIYA?! He's ALSO the GRANDSON of Dr Garaki, the man turned his GRANDSON into a NOMU. There is no love in that man's heart other than for AFO.

Star and Stripe making the air version of herself? Had me BARKING, S'n'S fine as hell, so two of her? Take. My. MONEY! I want her to sit in my LAP and I KNOW she'd crush me but IDC.

Anyway. That air version of herself? Fucking GENIUS, the fact ShigAFO couldn't see it? Even better. And the giant laser sword?? Ugh, she can strike me down with that ANYDAY. Ehem. Skipping to her death (which WOW I did not expect her to be nerfed that fast), New Order is so OP like her last act before dying? "My Quirk will fight against other quirks". WHAT?! I STARTED SCREAMINGG.

[flower-boi16]

Me after watching the U.A traitor and Stars and Stripes arc and realizing the war arc is next:

[bluelizze]

To be or not to be, a sinner's invitation

tomura shigaraki x oc (oc-center)

*This arc takes place the same time when the U.A Traitor Arc took place. a week before the Final War Arc. however, this arc specifically took place right before the war arc began (right before ep 5)

*also yes, this is hugely inspired by Focalors’ Execution from 4.2 bc fun fact, this scene was one of the first scenes I developed when creating my oc and that cutscene really inspired me to write it

tw: dialog heavy, religions/cult talk, hints of child abuse, oc death (by suicide, mention of killing oneself), deaths, sexual harassment hinted, grammer errors maybe, manipulation (by the bastard afo)

Tomura woke up and saw Rochelle but she had an entirely different look. Her hair turned completely white like the moon, her outfit is now more simple but it’s white as well.

“Ah… you’re awake… thank goodness…”

She looked relieved and helped Tomura up. “Stay in the circle.” she ordered gently, and he listened. She was the only one who could tell him what to do.

“Rochelle…”

“Ah… she’s not here.” What does she mean?

“I’m not Rochelle. That was never my name.” She stood up and stepped back so that Tomura could get a full view of her.

He noticed that she was barefoot and had bandages around her right ankle. She looked like an angel.

“I am Yukina Mizumoto.” She began. “The goddess of the Mizumoto Estate. At least that’s what everyone says I am.”

“... what’s going on? Where are we?” Tomura has so many more questions but these were the ones that came out.

“Hahaha… I know it’s a bit confusing, which is understandable since you weren’t fully yourself back there. To answer your second question, don’t worry,  we are safe. I transported us to a safe location away from him.” She explained.

There was something in her tone that seemed different. Not only has she become less informal… no… she was speaking as if she was not human. 

“The glyph under you helps to keep his consciousness out of you. At least for the time being. I even did my best to ensure the protection will last for a bit in the aftermath.”

“What do you mean ‘for the time being’?” Tomura asked. Deep down, he knows something will go bad and he probably knows what it is. But he refuses to think what he thinks it is.

She chuckled. “Well… to put it simply… you are invited to my execution.” Right before then, a reaper appeared with a scythe ready to slice. 

Tomura's eyes widened. “Your… execution?” He doesn’t know if hearing it from her was better or worse.

“It’s simple really… It's because of All for One… because he is afraid that he will lose and that he will do anything to get his way. Seeing how he can control you… was the final nail on the coffin for “me”.”

“He knew about my real identity all along. But for his successor’s sake, he kept his mouth shut, thinking that it can build up hatred instead once you realized I was a liar.”

What does she mean by liar? No… She wasn’t a liar.

“However, it backfired him. He saw his successor experiencing something that he considered weak. Genuine love. Something that he realized too late. But as soon as he heard that his successor was going to inherit his power, he realized that he could use it to his advantage.”

“Wait.” Tomura interrupted. “What do you mean by real identity?”

“Oh.” She giggled. “I should’ve started with explaining my origins.”

She sighed and started. “It started the moment I was born. I had the most unnatural look anyone in the estate could lay eyes upon. White hair with shades of ocean blue, heterochromic eyes of blue and gray— everyone thought that I was a gift from the gods. But someone else thought otherwise and said maybe I am a goddess, reborn into a moral human.” Tomura stood agape

“I was given the most specialist treatment, but it was suffocating. They always gave me coins and food. But I was always concerned when someone would give me someone else’s belongings, especially if it’s someone or something dear to them. I came to find out later that it was because it was not a place of religious saints… but a cult.”

A cult…?

“Once I found out about it, I was mortified. I’ve done many attempts to escape that hellhole but every time I failed and would always get severely punished. It’s weird. Punishing their goddess? But I see it as if they were punishing an innocent child.”

She turned and looked down as she stepped away from Tomura.

“I never asked for this. I never asked for this role that I was thrusted into. “Life isn’t fair”, is what people always say. But why aren’t they doing anything to make it fair?”

She turned with a smile of hope. “But I did manage to escape once.”

She puts her hands where her heart is and holds it.

“I didn’t know where to go. I was never allowed to go outside of the room since the people at the estate said that it’s dangerous. But I managed to run into some kids my age. They were playing pretend. I was so intrigued that I just watched. But one kid noticed me.”

She looked up and smiled sweetly. Why was she looking at him like that?

“He asked, "Do you wanna play heroes with us?” I didn’t know what a hero was so I told him that I don’t know what he was talking about and he and his friends explained to me. It sounded fun so I joined. My role was to play the person being saved and the boy being a hero.”

She looked at him fondly, but it felt like she wasn’t looking at him.

“For the first time, I felt happiness. I never experienced something like that before… and I craved for more. I didn’t want to leave. Alas, someone had found me and took me the estate… and I got severely punished. It was probably the worst punishment I’ve ever received.” 

He was horrified, but he wasn’t prepared for what she asked him.

“Do you know about the boy I am talking about?”

He knows. And he wishes he doesn’t. He had always thought about the girl he invited to play. He thought that maybe she had shared the same looks as her or something. Maybe he knew it was her all along. He just didn’t want to face it.

“It… was you…?” His voice trembled.

She giggled. How can she giggle at a time like this?

“Yes. yes it is, Tenko-kun.”

“Ever since that day, I’ve been more and more disparate. To feel that feeling… that feeling and experience of being a normal human… because to me… it is to be part of the greatest performance.”

Her expression barely changed by Tomura can feel a shift in her tone of what she said next.

“It wasn’t after a couple years later I managed to run away permanently. I found an old opera house and was offered to live there. There I learnt how to play many different roles. But no matter how many roles I played, no matter how different which role was, I was favored for my looks. It takes me back to that hoffied time in my childhood and one day I snapped. But yet, it made me feel relieved. So night after I get chased for my looks, I lead them backstage and kill them. A bad habit I know but… how am I supposed to shake off the disgusting feeling of being known for only my outer beauty?”

Now he understands. The reason why she hates being complemented. It wasn’t because she hated them in general. She just hated their weak meanings behind it.

But Tomura never saw her outer beauty. Rather, he saw more of her inner beauty. Maybe it was because she saw his inner beauty that he was able to see her’s.

“It wasn’t long until I killed off the owner of the opera house, who only took me in for my looks. There, I created the persona. The “me” you see is that of a goddess. The “me” you have gotten to know was a human named “Rochelle de Leblanc.” Unlike “me”, she can feel anything a normal human would feel. Joy, rage, sadness. All the above and below. Despite the laws of a human, she was perfect. She was everything I wanted to be. So, I continued to play as “Rochelle” to fulfill my fantasy of being a “normal human being.”

Tomura’s voice waver. He doesn’t know what to say.

“My acting was almost perfect. I was even surprised that you guys didn’t notice. But the Meta Army created the crack in my perfect mask and it was All for One who finally broke it.”

“So… you’re going to kill yourself… because of Master…?

She turned to him and just smiled. It was sweet yet there was a sort of sinister hint in her eyes. Yet, her eyes had room to have the look of softness for Tomura.

The same softness given to him whenever he takes a break from fighting Machia all those months ago.

She walked towards him. Staying out of the glyph, and cooed, “Aw… getting a little teary-eyed? That’s a little unlike you.” 

“There… has to be another way… I'm back now…”

She looked at him with a small smile, “Unfortunately, this is temporary… I can’t keep this up for long even if I continue to live. Well, he couldn’t allow me anyways so it doesn’t even matter. And it’s taking on a toll for me so…” 

“Then rest… please…”

But he knows that if she does,  he might go back to being him again and neither wants that.

“I will soon. Don’t worry.”

Tomura starts to breathe heavily but he tries to keep it quiet. He doesn’t want to cry in front of her right now. 

She reaches out for him, but doesn’t touch him. “Shhh… it’s okay… it’s okay… you can let it out…”

He didn’t even realize tears were starting to pour down. 

“If it weren’t for him, I would’ve loved to destroy this cursed society along with you. Afterall, they should be the ones who should be guilty of their crimes since we are as equally as guilty. It’s just that society has such standards that one might question if they don’t look hard enough.”

“So Tomura-kun… what will you do now?”

Tomura still has so many questions. Not even half were answered. But he knew no matter how hard he tries, she will always dance her way through them to avoid answering. But she has no intentions of hiding.

So what is she really planning?

“I will still destroy. I can’t turn back to it now.”

He simply said. And that’s the truth.

She had a bit of shock but quickly changed her expression to a more sorrowful one, like she knew that was the answer she was expecting but wishes it was something different.

“Even so… I still want you… to live in a world where you can be who you really are… with me… I want to get to know you more. I want… I’m doing this for you. And yet, you are just giving yourself away like this…”

He’s not begging. He doesn’t want to. Because no matter how much he begged, she won’t change her mind. That just shows how stubborn he is. It’s probably because of him. 

“I love you Yuki-chan. And you’re taking my heart with you… please…” He told himself he wouldn’t beg. But he can’t help it.

“...I’m sorry… that heart belongs to Rochelle… not me… I can’t take it.”

“But Yuki-chan… you’ve always been there. From the first time we met as kids. From the moment you joined the League. When I treated you like a ghost. When taking care of me when I was fighting Machia. Hell, even when I was in surgery you watched me! You see? I don’t care where you came from or what you become after that. I care about you! All of you!”

There was a long silence. Yukina looked shocked. But she sadly smiled and that look alone, gave Tenko the answer.

“You really… are devious ones… but then again… that’s the one thing I love about you… Yuki-chan.”

Yukina smiled and looked up.

“Ah… My final hour is here… and now I must take my final bow. I must say… I’m a little scared of death. But I will welcome it with open arms…”

With a soft look, “Take care, Tenko-kun… I hope you will be able to live a life full of happiness… just like I wish I had… and I hope we meet again… in another life. I love you.”

Tenko held his breath as Yukina softly started dancing under the scythe that would soon drop. He wants to move, but his body refuses. All he could do was watch. Watch Yukina dancing away to her death.

There was a soft look on her face, like she had accepted that this was her end, yet she was happy. What is she happy about? Why is she happy?

What felt like forever, she finally took her final curtsy and waited, as the reaper raised the scythe.

As soon as Tenko reached his hand out for Yukina, the scythe went for her neck and the next thing he knew, he was back in the hellhole of a cave.

He was stunned. He couldn’t even get to at least see Yukina’s corpse. He fell to his knees, processing what just happened before he slowly started to scream.

Shuichi heard the pain scream and went over to the depths of the cave to check Tomura, holding the hand and blue flower that his dearest friend always wore in her hat.

[stillness-in-green]

On Heteromorphs and Heteromorphobia (Arc XIX - XXI-a, Star & Stripe to Final War-a)

Okay, so, I had intended to make one last post to cover through the hospital attack, but as my work week kept me very busy, the write-up on the hospital stuff itself is not finished yet. However, when I checked the word count on the S&S arc up through the end of what I had on the hospital--somewhat shorthanded notes on the first two chapters that would need considerable fleshing out, and bupkis on the second two chapters--I found it was already at seven thousand words, far over the four to five thousand mark I've been aiming for per post in this series. So, this week's somewhat shorter post covers from where we left off up through Chapter 369, the last chapter before the hospital material starts. Hit the jump!

The Star and Stripe Arc (Chapters 329-334)

Chapter 329: 

AFO explicitly pins the blame for Spinner’s difficult life on his being a heteromorph and notes that many in the shadows empathize with his cause, leading to an explanation for the Spinner fanboys from 318: Spinner is becoming the face of a movement!     

Much of this stirring up of heteromorphs around the country is being done by the remnants of the PLF, particularly Spinner’s PLF advisors, who have been putting up posters about Spinner being the voice of discontented and mistreated heteromorphs, posters that also suggest a coming reckoning in grand language steeped in cult mentality: gather soon, liberation, fruition, neutrality is a sin.      (And not just Spinner!  The line about neutrality being a sin is from a set of posters about the tragedy of Toga Himiko, picking back up the tack Curious had wanted to take in using Toga’s story to realize Liberation.[1] It’s unclear whether Spinner’s advisors are also putting up the Togaganda or whether that’s being handled by some of the other remnants we’ll see later.)      The beauty of this is that once heteromorphs are stirred up enough, they’ll be gathering comrades and spreading the word of their own volition, even to those with no contact with the PLF.  Of course, the people ultimately behind this are Skeptic and AFO, neither of them heteromorphs, and both with transparent ulterior motivations, though Skeptic at least is still holding to Re-Destro’s ideology of Liberation and likely does view the subsequent mob activity as helpful to heteromorphs themselves, as opposed to the mere means to his own end of becoming the Demon King AFO has in mind.      [1] And which Skeptic had once scoffed at, feeling Toga a poorly suited choice for that sort of mythologizing.  I wonder if he’s just gotten more desperate or if he’s acceded that Toga’s just fine for bringing about Liberation provided that it’s Liberation à la Shigaraki Tomura?     

But how about Spinner himself?  Well, he looks unconvinced, to say the least.  More on this later, when he gets more context on what the reader is already seeing.     

Chapter 333: 

There’s one lone heteromorph outside of Agpar in Star’s crew.  He’s not a very extreme one—tall but not inhumanly so, with a snouty facial structure and long, upward-pointing ears—but he is still the only heteromorph I’ve yet seen in the default masses of a uniformed group of military-types.  Like, BNHA’s masses of riot squad type cops are all baseline, the guards at Tartarus were all baseline, the probably-JSDF guys in the movie are baseline, and so forth.  These folks are often wearing helmets, of course, so there might be some minor divergences scattered amongst them, but there’s only so much divergence that a helmet and full-coverage uniform will hide!  Odd skin tones, yes, unusual eyes, sure, but not protruding facial features or anything other than very small horns, and divergent body plans are right out.     

The U.A. Traitor Arc (Chapters 335-342)

Chapter 335: 

All Might very conspicuously omits Spinner from the list of threats facing the hero side.  In the moment, it reads like All Might doesn’t view Spinner as a threat.  And sure, why would one random, weak-quirked lizard guy constitute a threat worth mentioning, right?  Later on, we’ll find out that the heroes were trying to keep Kurogiri’s location on the down-low, so this omission may simply be an effort to avoid having to discuss the target of the mob that’s brewing by not bringing up the mob to begin with.     

While I assume that’s Horikoshi’s reasoning for this scene playing the way it does, I do think there are some questions raised by later chapters that imply that heroes are underestimating the situation quite severely.  To wit, it’s already known that the obfuscation has failed and an attack on the hospital is coming—even someone as removed from villain goings-on as the Ordinary Woman had heard about it, news which she relayed to Shouji.  I can’t believe that Hawks and company wouldn’t have intel to match that, if only via also learning of the attack from Josei-san.          If the heroes already know the hospital assault is coming, though, why on earth is it so under-defended?  They can’t possibly be running the risk that an attack set to be led by a member of the League of Villains (as they might presume to be the case thanks to all the posters everywhere!) would choose to target the hospital at random, or that it’s just some kind of generic protest that won’t be trying to breach the walls—surely they must know the mob is coming for Kurogiri?  But then why such paltry numbers of defenders?       I can only assume that the heroes badly, badly underestimated how deep heteromorphic anger and pain ran, and thus equally badly underestimated how many people would show up for the attack.  All Might, being part of that central group of planners, is also one of the people being proven deeply ignorant about, and dismissive of, both the suffering endured and the danger presented by the heteromorphs he knows are coming.     

Shouji immediately picks up on the omission and indirectly challenges it when he says, “It’s safe to assume the list goes on,” which All Might deflects with, “Yes.  They will likely amass more allies,” still not talking about who those allies are going to be.  May I say, then, that if there’s any extent to which All Might doesn’t want to talk about this because he doesn’t want to field questions about why a mob of civilian heteromorphs might choose to ally themselves with the League of Villains, it doesn’t reflect particularly well on him.     

Chapter 341: 

Skeptic gives us the line that ties together every single crowd scene demographic we’ve seen over the course of the entire manga:

My vindication, let me show you it.

There are a few subtly different ways you could read this, so I checked with my translator sis-in-law about her take on it.  She said that what Skeptic’s implying here in the Japanese is that, taken as a whole, a telling proportion of criminals designated as “Villains” are heteromorphs.  That is, by inference, heteromorphs are overrepresented in Villain-level criminality.      So why might that be?  Well, look back at everything I’ve said through this whole essay to date: o Discrimination runs rampant in this society, from minor microaggressions perpetrated by otherwise heroic characters all the way up through dedicated, violent hate groups.  Those facing discrimination may have reduced opportunity, thereby pushing them into harder choices, which may make criminality more difficult to avoid.      o Heteromorphs make up a larger proportion of the population in seedy, rougher areas, suggesting they’re probably lower income, proportionally, than non-heteromorphs.  Lower income means the necessity of facing harder choices, as above.      o The very nature of heteromorphism leading to the laws being applied to them more strictly—for example, if a heteromorph gets into a fist fight with an emitter, the heteromorph’s very body being a part of their quirk may make it more likely for them to be charged as Villains for illegal quirk use than the emitter.  (Think of something like Mandalay not thinking of Spinner as having used his quirk during the training camp, but him being categorized as a villain regardless.)          o Bias against heteromorphs leading to the laws being applied to them more strictly.  If the person in charge of deciding how prosecutors are going to handle an accusation against you, and they just reflexively don’t like the look of your face, or are even openly heteromorphobic, of course you’re more likely to get treated like a Villain than someone a baseline prosecutor more readily sees the humanity in.  This problem in particular will self-perpetuate—more heteromorphs being prosecuted as villains means more cops begin to perceive them as inherently more prone to villainy.      Skeptic doesn’t say outright that criminals who are designated as Villains are more frequently heteromorphs compared to baseline types who committed equivalent crimes, but it sure is easy to read as an implication!  After all, why else would he need to specify “Villain-designated criminals” as opposed to simply one or the other?  If all he meant is that heteromorphs make up a larger demographic percentage of criminals and/or of Villains than they do a demographic percentage in the general population, he could just say that.  It would still imply that there’s some unjust reason for that, but “villain-designated criminals” means that he’s suggesting that the numbers are out-of-whack specifically at that intersection, the place where “criminal” gets modified to “Villain.”     

He goes on to say, “No matter how hard heroes and the government have tried to illuminate our society, the light can’t reach every dark corner.  Plenty of heteromorphs hold deep grudges against the so-called heroes,” referencing ideas of light and illumination that will come up again in the hospital attack.      Most literally, we could say this refers to rural discrimination, far away from the advanced, “integrated” cities, and the way heroes cluster around those urban areas because that’s where the money and fame are at.  But I think it can cover my points above, as well—think back to the purse snatcher from the first chapter, who got run down by a whole passel of heroes and then paraded around in front of cameras in a muzzle, like an animal, for—stealing a purse.  Called “pure evil” by Kamui Woods for—blocking traffic?  Gosh, I wonder if that guy might hold a grudge against heroes?     

Spinner articulates what he was almost certainly feeling back when AFO was first talking him up in 329: that he’s average dude, not some messiah, that he’s only here for Shigaraki, not to serve a great cause.  Still, Skeptic says, the common people are waiting for him; he’ll be the one to pull a trigger Re-Destro no longer can.  The very perception that he’s someone average, Just Another Heteromorph Like Us That Got Tired Of It, is what makes him such an inspiring figure.     

Chapter 342: 

All the students in the little montage bidding farewell to people at U.A. are those whose parents we’ve met, all also there in the scene, with one conspicuous exception: Shouji is talking to the Ordinary Woman, who is most certainly not any relative of his.  I grow more annoyed by her lack of a name by the chapter.     

This chapter features one of the manga’s starkest examples of the dehumanization of villains: Uraraka’s dialogue about how it had never even crossed her mind to consider Toga Himiko’s circumstances and beliefs.  Toga is, of course, a seventeen-year-old girl, only a year and a half older than Uraraka herself, and one who first went on the run at fifteen.  They’re so close in age, even met over the summer, yet Uraraka only realized—truly understood—that Toga was “a person too” when she saw Toga crying.      Further, when confronted when this realization, Uraraka’s instinct is to try to quash it, to assume that even thinking this way makes her some kind of villain-apologist freak, so she has to banish those thoughts by going out and staring at scenes of immensely traumatic destruction to remind herself of what Toga had a hand in and thereby banish her human compassion.      This is not framed as being about heteromorphs, but just last chapter, it was laid out for the reader in black and white that heteromorphs make up an outsized proportion of “Villain-designated criminals.”  Thus, in turn, they’re proportionally more likely than any other group to be subject to the dehumanization faced by villains, and here we see just how extreme that social conditioning is even in a nice, empathetic, thoughtful girl like Uraraka.     

The Final War Arc (Chapters 343-369, for now)

Chapter 345: 

Geten’s #3, a heteromorph right on the border between resembling an animal and just being weird-shaped (if anything, he looks more like a heteromorph based on a Pokémon), calls the heroes Mammonists, a term referring to followers of Mammon, a personification of wealth/lust for wealth.[2]  Professional Heroism as HeroAca’s Japan practices it is an inherently capitalistic endeavor.  It’s wildly commercialized, rewards competition before cooperation, and dehumanizes the human assets that keep it going, hero and villain alike.  Calling heroes Mammonists, therefore, echoes Stain’s accusations, and recalls Mount Lady’s grin way back in the first chapter when she stole the “kill” from Kamui Woods, all in the interest of fame, benefits, and government pay.      [2] In the Japanese, haikin shugisha, literally “money-worshipper”; jisho even gives Mammonist as a direct translation.      I want to reiterate a few points I’ve talked about before, as well as add a few new considerations, to get at what I think is telling about not!Greninja’s Mammonist accusation as it relates to heteromorphobia:     o Mount Lady’s bonus chapter established that more rural areas see less heroism.  This impacts heteromorphs like Shouji and Spinner both because there’s no one around who’s both willing and able to save them from the abuses they suffer[3] and because there are no heteromorphic heroes around to serve as role models.      o Tomura’s Chapter 237 flashback established that rougher areas are slower to see hero agencies established in them—the men shortly to be murdered by Tenko complain about a bunch of new hero agencies being built in the area lately.  That’s over a decade prior to canon, sure, but many long years more since the establishment of professional heroism!      o I’ve demonstrated that higher concentrations of heteromorphs in an area can serve as a visual shorthand for it being a poorer, rougher place to live.      o A hero’s ranking depends on incident resolution, public approval, and social contribution—all things that disadvantage those who work in rural areas.      o Two characters in Class 1-A were admitted as “recommendation” students, i.e. those who can take smaller-group versions of the exams, as well as getting the benefit of an interview portion.  Those two characters are Momo and Shouto—both baseline, both powerful, both wealthy.  Does U.A. offer scholarships?  Any financial aid for underprivileged students?  Any programs to seek out promising youth who may not have the connections to get recommendations?  Who knows!  But, we sure do have a telling window on who gets small-batch exam privileges.[4]      [3] Of course, if you take Vigilantes as canon, there’s no guarantee heroes would have helped them anyway—the people attacking them were doing so with pitchforks and pesticides, after all, not quirks.  That firmly puts those attacks in the category of “not a hero’s job.”  But let’s give Heroes enough benefit of the doubt to assume that even a pretty materialistic one would probably not have stood by while a crowd of adults attacked a ten-year-old with farming tools unless they themselves had already been raised to such violent heteromorphobia—which, if they’re content to be working in such rural areas, odds are they were.      [4]    This particular argument is, I admit, much weaker when you factor in Juzo, Tokage and Inasa, but if Horikoshi didn’t want to make some unfortunate implications about who benefits from the recommendation program, he shouldn’t have made 100% of the recommendation students in the Main Character Class baseline, powerful and wealthy.     

Taken all together, it’s easy to understand why someone might accuse Heroes—especially Heroes who bust out the kind of exorbitantly expensive, last-minute constructs the heroes have just busted out—of being money-obsessed.  Successful heroes live and die on commercialism, on public recognition, on their “brand,” and that structure keeps the money flowing—from the government to heroes, from civilians into the Hero industry, from heroes to the vast array of production companies supporting them on all fronts.  The whole industry is a prayer wheel that turns on money.      Now, Geten’s #3 is a pretty flashy dresser himself—those pinstripes!—so whenceforth this “Mammonist” accusation?  Well, I would point out that he is a heteromorph, and reiterate the story’s frequent utilization of heteromorphs to visually communicate lower income brackets.  Perhaps he himself has experience with poverty, even if he’s clearly doing better for himself these days.  If so, then it’s very likely that the beef that drives his embrace of Liberation ideology is that the Hero System first criminalizes public quirk use for non-heroes and then monetarily disincentivizes getting help where it’s truly needed, all while pouring money into Heroics elsewhere like a busted oil tanker spewing crude into the Gulf.     

Chapter 349: 

Spinner is visually suspended between the desire to change the world he lives in and the desire to destroy “the warped imbalances (…) that we all just came to accept.”  He embodies both—he’s someone who once resigned himself to his warped lot in life, who came to the League because he wanted so desperately to change, because he wanted to believe that change could be brought about by only a single man, and who fell in love with the promise of destruction.  Hero Society never promised him either, so he came to the only people who could.     

Chapter 353:

This chapter places Spinner firmly at Central Hospital, here to retrieve Kurogiri.  The group he’s leading is entirely composed of heteromorphs, including two of his three PLF advisors; this, combined with the set-up about heteromorphs looking to him and Mezo “I want to feature him in the story” Shouji’s conspicuous presence, hints at what’s about to go down at this location.     

Chapter 355: 

AFO’s got a snappish “fowl duo” thought about Hawks and Tokoyami—just “two birds” in the Japanese, but still dismissal of them as animals.     

Of the ones we can see, AFO has exactly one vestige with tiny little horns; every other one attacking him is baseline in their general appearance and build.  Not exactly beating my heteromorphobic accusations there, big guy.     

Chapter 358: 

ShigAFO brings up appearance and form in his monologue about how the post-Advent world is a world beyond hope of a status quo, full of disparities that lead to a lack of understanding, and thence to fear and rejection.  It touches on similar themes as Nedzu’s speech back in 323, but with an ultimately fatalistic bent.     

Bakugou relates this all to Deku—their past relationship, as well as Deku being brought back to U.A.—but, as we will see, the arc’s got some heavier hitting stuff in mind for talking about disparities giving rise to fear and rejection.     

Chapter 363: 

Mirko’s gets another self-referential animal quip that only exists in Caleb Cook’s colorful localization.  The line rendered as, “If only I’d been one hop faster!” only references being one step faster in Japanese.

----------

Next time, I will finally actually cover the hospital! Hopefully it will be in a week, but it's only half-written and is, I suspect, going to require a lot more editing to strike the right balance on discussing what I think is relevant and simply complaining about how egregiously bad it is as a resolution to this whole aspect of the worldbuilding. Followers who read my posts on those chapters will likely find my bitching familiar, but this is piece is bound for AO3 eventually, so it needs to be able to stand on its own without too much reference to other posts.

In any case, it should be up in one or two weeks, depending on how busy work keeps me.

On the topic of work, and with a number of new followers around, this is probably a good time for me to point out again that I'm in a pretty tight financial situation, so if you've been enjoying this series of posts and are of a mind to throw a few bucks my way, I do have a ko-fi you can use to do so!

Thanks for reading, all!

[everytsuyuasui]

Chapter 336 ~ Villian

[oncforallxbroccoli]

MHA Manga Spoilers

I've been thinking about this for a bit since the last chapter of MHA came out.

But I'm actually happy? that we never find out who Izuku's dad revealed. Because for MOST, if not, ALL of the story Hisashi was never a major factor in the overall plot.

He was mentioned like once in Chapter 1 when Inko told Garaki Izuku's doctor about her and her husband's Quirks ... when Izuku was FOUR. But for the rest of the story, he wasn't a major plot point.

Inko played a bigger role in the overarching plot than Hisashi did.

But if Horikoshi wasn't going to make the reveal be that AFO was Hisashi. Then I'm glad Hisashi was never revealed.

Like.. don't get me wrong, I would've loved to have a face to associate with Hisashi's name. But there would've had to be a good ass reasoning why he wasn't around for Izuku's ENTIRE first year at U.A. given everything that happened. (All of the villain attacks that his son went through (that go all the way from the sludge villain to the Final War arc).. and the broken bones that Izuku suffered.)

EDIT:

Like.. as convoluted as it would be to include AFO in yet ANOTHER plot with the "Who is Izuku's Dad?" question. It would've just further added more into the camp of how much of a fan of Star Wars that Horikoshi is. Given the whole Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader family plot that happens in that series.

Not to mention, Horikoshi already did a Star Wars-esque "family plot twist" with the Todoroki family. When he revealed that Dabi was Touya Todoroki.

But AFO was already HEAVILY involved in Tomura's story. He was involved in why Dabi/Touya wasn't dead. And, he was involved in the overarching and main AFO vs. OFA plot. Adding "Oh, he's also Izuku's dad" would be like throwing a dart (AFO) at a dartboard just to get the reveal out of the way.

It would have LESS build up than the whole "U.A. Traitor" reveal.

[ao3feed-izch]

A Young Hero's Journey

by CrazeDocNo7

Hello and welcome back if you enjoy O.N.W they you're going to enjoy my project involving MHA. now for this story it takes place after the Overhaul arc. And i'm also pumped for season 7 can't wait for May 4th to get here.

Words: 679, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga), Naruto (Anime & Manga)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, Multi

Characters: League of Villains (My Hero Academia), Paranormal Liberation Front (My Hero Academia), Midoriya Inko, Original Characters, Iida Tenya, Asui Tsuyu, Class 1-A (My Hero Academia), U.A.'s Big Three (My Hero Academia), Sensei | All For One, Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Akaguro Chizome | Stain, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor, Takami Keigo | Hawks, Kamihara Shinya | Edgeshot, Hakamata Tsunagu | Best Jeanist, Usagiyama Rumi | Miruko, Bakugou Katsuki, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Ootsutsuki Hagoromo, Ootsutsuki Indra, Ootsutsuki Asura, Arcs - Character, Class 1-B (My Hero Academia)

Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Uraraka Ochako, Todoroki Shouto/Yaoyorozu Momo, Ashido Mina/Kirishima Eijirou, Jirou Kyouka & Kaminari Denki, Hagakure Tooru/Ojiro Mashirao

Additional Tags: Eventual Romance, Blood and Violence, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Izuku Is Back To Begin Qurikless, Izuku Learns Charka, Fire Style, Wind Style, Suspected Traitor Midoriya Izuku, Drama, Suicidal Thoughts, Serious Injuries, Tartarus Escapees Arc (My Hero Academia), lightning style, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu | Shadow Clone Technique

source: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52951891

[deusvervewrites]

I sometimes think about Aoyama's character moments had the Training Camp arc not been cut in half and he was revealed to be the traitor then and there. All the unknowns; would he still be in the Hero Course, or at least be in U.A.? We might not get his sacrificial moment at the Provisionals. Would Midoriya learn of Aoyama's Quirkless status and reach out?

It would be an interesting time to reveal that information. After that is Kamino and he basically doesn't do any spying again until the reveal.

Would the class support him as unequivocally so early in the year? This predates his cheese conversation with Midoriya. Does Aoyama even have friends yet in the class?