#please horikoshi I beg of you please let this happen

[kelin-is-writing]

EVERYONE—!!! TOUYA BY HIS SHRINE!!!!! I’M GOING TO CRY—

[brainrothawks]

if it’s one thing i want to control in mha is that i want Dabi to have a happy ending bro but not in the “oh my family actually loves me maybe i can return to normal” way but in the ‘he kills his father and gets away with it’ kind of way

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 286: VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “what’s the record for most consecutive bone breaks within the span of a single minute” and, without waiting for an answer, proceeded to unleash roughly 17 Smashes onto Tomura. Kacchan was all “THAT DOES IT, I’M TAKING THE REINS OF THIS SHITSHOW” and carried Endeavor and Shouto up to where the action was so Endeavor could hit Tomura with a Prominence Burn. AFO was all “Tomura would you rather burn to death or let me take over your body” and Tomura was all “...” and so AFO TOOK OVER and was all “STABBITY STABBITY” and used his Stabbing Quirk to do some Good Old Fashioned STABBIN’. First he stabbed Endeavor, and then he was all “hee and now I’m gonna stab Deku”, but Kacchan was all “SIR THAT’S MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT RIVAL” and so he rushed on in AND GOT HIMSELF STABBED INSTEAD. And so basically THIS PAST WHOLE WEEK HAS BEEN A RIDE, LET ME TELL YOU.

Today on BnHA: Kacchan is all “sup Deku lemme just downplay how I totally took this fatal blow for you just now” before he dramatically passes out and is caught by Todoroki “BTDUBS I CAN FLY NOW” Shouto, who is also carrying his dad because the kids really are just doing it all, here. AllForRaki Tomura For One is all “HAHA BAKUGOU IS PRETTY DUMB”, at which point Deku just LOSES IT ENTIRELY and ASCENDS INTO A NEW PLANE OF FURY LIKE A LITTLE GREEN RAGE BUDDHA. But then like two seconds later Tomura is all “ANYWAY, SO” and FUCKING TOUCHES DEKU’S FACE, CAUSING THE TWO OF THEM TO ASTROPROJECT INTO THE FREAKY OFA/AFO MINDSCAPE BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER IS BANANAS. Vestige!AFO is all “reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated but aren’t you glad I saved your life though, Tomura”, while Tomura is all “!!” because he’s hopefully starting to get A Clue, and meanwhile Deku just stands there watching all “what the fuck.” The chapter ends with SHIMURA MCFUCKING NANA showing up all, “HI, I HEARD SOME BITCHES WERE TRYING TO HAVE A GIRL POWER ARC, AND THEY DIDN’T INVITE ME.” Go on, Nana. Give ‘em hell.

you guys. I’m not normally one to take pleasure in another human being’s misfortune. BUT THAT SAID, there are exceptions to every rule, and so let’s just say certain events have transpired early this morning which have PUT ME IN A VERY, LET’S JUST SAY, NOT-TERRIBLE MOOD which this chapter will hopefully improve upon!!

oh my god Deku’s one non-fucked-up eye that he still has control over is SO WIDE YOU GUYS

hmm I know I shouldn’t be all (゜▽゜) while the two of them are all (； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) ... and yet here we are. btw I’m worried tumblr’s formatting will ruin those two emojis which I worked so hard to get just right so I’m gonna repost them on another line here just in case

(； ▼ Д ▼) (⁰ Д゜;) that’s them. Kacchan and Deku. my boys 

HERE COMES THE CHEESY “JUST GOT STABBED BETTER PLAY IT OFF ALL COOL!!!” ONE LINER OH MY GOD

(ETA: really love how my son, with what for all he knows could be his dying breaths, decides that the absolute most important thing is to preserve his selfish asshole facade so as not to fuck up his status quo with his rival. “LOOKEE HERE I GOT MYSELF ALL STABBED AND SHIT FOR YOU, BUT I TOTALLY JUST DID IT BECAUSE I WAS TIRED OF YOU GETTING ALL THE COOL HERO MOMENTS” yeah, that’s right! SELFLESS MOTIVATIONS, WHAT ARE THOSE sob.

also tbh I’m glad they didn’t delve any further into their feelings right here and now because this really isn’t the place or time for it sadly. WE WILL JUST PUT THOSE ON HOLD UNTIL AFTER THE ARC ENDS, when they are all recovering from their various wounds and traumas and have time to catch up and have some long-overdue heart-to-hearts. it deserves its own chapter or two or three. maybe time to head back to Ground Beta once they’re healthy? “healthy” perhaps being a relative term given their current condition fjsdjkf.)

by the way it looks from here like only the ones through his torso and shoulder actually hit, so that’s something at least. WE’VE LOST ENOUGH LEGS TODAY. I need to conserve my remaining puns

MEANWHILE TOMURA IS HAVING A CRISIS

ARE YOU MAD AT YOUR EVIL DAD TOMURA. HE JUST WON’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER WILL HE, THAT GUY

anyway so it looks like Kacchan might have caught a break here because AFO/Tomura is pulling the stabby quirk activation tendril things back out! rip, “Kacchan vs. Deku part 3″ theories

p.s. I got ALL CAUGHT UP IN THE DRAMA and thus glossed over the chapter title which is “one among us”! hmmm this is definitely AFO/OFA related, calling it now. ooh lord I am excited

NOW MY SON IS DRAMATICALLY FALLING

THE BLOOD FROM THE MOUTH OOF NOT GOOD AHHHH. DEKU’S FACE AHHHH. HIS BODY JUST WENT TOTALLY LIMP DID HE PASS OUT AHHHH. SOMEONE CATCH HIM!!

BY HIS FOOT, SHOUTO?!

well NOT EXACTLY THE MOST GRACEFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN, but we’ll allow it because HOLY SHIT BOY. ARE YOU ALREADY CARRYING YOUR DAD ON TOP OF THAT?? HORIKOSHI PLEASE CONFIRM, IS TODOROKI MOTHERFUCKING SHOUTO FUCKING FLYING AROUND UNBALANCED AF ON HIS ONE FLAMEY LEG, CARRYING HIS 500 LB POP AND NOW HIS FLOPPY PASSED OUT BEST FRIEND AS WELL?!? HOLY SHIT TODO?!?!

LADIES AND GENTLEFRIENDS OF THE VILLAIN STANDOM, FEAR NOT, TOMURA’S HAIR IS THE FIRST THING THAT GREW BACK LOL

even before his eyeballs kfldkakjk. which, btw, how does he even know what’s going on right now? “this fight has shed a lot of useless blood” sdkmkjl okay well (1) WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT, AGAIN??, (2) SERIOUSLY THOUGH, HOW DOES HE EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO YOU STABBED?? ARE YOU EFFECTIVELY BLIND FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS HERE, WHAT’S GOING ON, and lastly (3) I seriously can’t tell if this is AFO or Tomura talking right now. or are they going back and forth?? help this is so confusing

HEY

THE DISRESPECT. I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW KACCHAN ANGST IS NEVER USELESS!!

AND NOW HE’S BACK TO THE STABBING JFKJLKJLF I AM NOT TOO HAPPY WITH YOU RIGHT NOW MISTER

okay and now we’re cutting to some quick panels of the unconscious Aizawa, Gran, and Ryuukyuu, along with the “still conscious but in a very real sense might as well not be counted” Manual who is really having a day, that poor guy

anyway but then there’s also some dialogue boxes being all “if you act out of rage your power will respond accordingly, the most important part is to keep your head clear.” which I’m like 90% sure is Deku/OFA related, but honestly NOTHING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER IS CLEAR SO FAR YOU GUYS. except for the Shouto-is-a-badass part anyway

HMM YEP I’M GONNA GO WITH DEKU-RELATED

it must be a callback to some line I’m forgetting. maybe Lariat explaining Blackwhip to him that one time. probably should have been in italics if it was a flashback quote, but hey. anyways the point is Deku is absolutely, 100% following this advice to the letter (/s)

(ETA: yep I’m almost positive this is the same quote from chapter 213. “listen, when you use this power out of anger, it’ll really start working for you. what really matters is controlling your heart.” which is still one of the weirdest pieces of advice in the entire series, but basically I think he was just trying to tell him it’s okay to get mad, so long as it’s calmly mad. like, controlled fury, as opposed to this white-hot berserker nonsense he’s been running on as of late. anyways I do still love me some shounen rage all the same but Lariat has a point.)

...

it took me a minute to realize THOSE WERE DEKU’S EYES. holy --

AND ANOTHER MINUTE TO REALIZE THAT DEKU FUCKING GRABBED THE ACTIVATION TENDRIL WITH HIS BUSTED UP OFA HANDS AND BIT INTO IT WITH HIS RABID OFA JAWS AND SNAPPED THAT SHIT LIKE A FUCKING KITKAT KLJLKSJDLKJFLK WOOOOOOOO I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT GODDAMN. POWER MOVE

(ETA: this is a two-page spread omg. I didn’t even realize at first. this scan ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT DO THIS BADASS PAGE ANY KIND OF JUSTICE but I can’t wait to see the real deal on Sunday holy shit.)

LMAO

DEKU RAGED SO HARD HE TURNED INTO AN ANGRY GHOST SONIC THE HEDGEHOG FKLSKG

(ETA: he actually looks a bit like the Vestiges/Kurogiri tbh.)

meanwhile Tomura basically has the exact same face I would have had in his position. yeah for real man. I don’t even know

p.s. WHEN will people learn to STOP INSULTING KACCHAN IN DEKU’S PRESENCE. WHEN, I ASK!!

WHAT IN THE CINNAMON TOAST FUCK

if this was a physical page I was holding I would have FLUNG THAT SHIT AWAY LIKE THERE WAS A SPIDER CRAWLING ON IT. WHAT THE FUCK

HOT DAMN. well uh. so that’s SUPER DISTURBING, what a lovely panel of Tomura’s melted face slowly growing back while his ears lag behind, and meanwhile that little scar that had been growing and growing and which at one point certain people (ME) thought might turn him into a BEAUTIFUL BUTTERLY instead RIPS HIS FACE IN HALF to reveal the KINDER EGG AFO SURPRISE UNDERNEATH AHHHHH TAKE IT BACK

THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T LET MAD SCIENTISTS PERFORM EXPERIMENTS ON YOU, KIDS. PSA. JUST SAY NO

-- NO!!!

HORIKOSHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fuck

oh my god. I almost would have rather cut away right after the Kacchan incident than freaking cut away NOW of all times, jesus. THAT’S JUST A BITCH MOVE, IS WHAT THAT IS. if we don’t cut back within the next three pages I SWEAR TO GOD

anyway so GUESS WHAT GIGANTOMACHIA’S DOING YOU GUYS. if you guessed “the exact same thing he was doing last time we saw him” then you are absolutely right, because it was actually PRETTY EASY TO GUESS

anyway but he says he detects “master’s scent”, except that there’s apparently two of them. interesting! one in Tartarus and one in Jakku, right? lol Horikoshi has burned me so many times already with his excruciatingly slow reveal of this that I’m not gonna hold my breath just yet, but I’ll get the hype train warmed up JUST IN CASE

okay so meanwhile in downtown Jakku, the heroes are handing off the civilians over to the police and rescue forces while they prepare to engage with “the villain”, by which I assume they mean Gigantomachia. does this mean Iida and Ochako are gonna fight Machia you guys omg

OOH!!!

“PLEASE INFORM THEM ON FOOT” well I know a certain SPEEDY BOI who would be PERFECT for that job oh my. make haste, Tenyar FastmLeggy

WAIT WHICH WAY ARE THEY HEADING

ARE THEY HEADING TOWARDS MACHIA OR TOWARDS DEKU AND AFO

so rather than answering my VERY PERTINENT question, Ochako is instead spending an entire page thinking about how their complete clusterfuck of a life keeps getting exponentially worse all the time! well but she’s not wrong though

NOW SHE’S ALL “GUYS...!” and, rather than explaining ANYTHING AT ALL, Horikoshi is again cutting back to THIS, OMG AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: good thing Kacchan wasn’t awake to see his dramatic “I’ll just get myself impaled for Deku’s sake” plan result in this outcome ALL OF TWENTY SECONDS LATER smdh.)

I ACTUALLY PREFER MY DEKUS NON-CRUMBLED, THANKS. ALSO JUST ON A SIDE NOTE, POOR SHOUTO THOUGH. THE LAST NINETY SECONDS OR SO HAVE BEEN ENOUGH NIGHTMARE FUEL FOR A LIFETIME HAVEN’T THEY

so now he’s all “MIDORIYA!!!” because OF COURSE HE IS. his best friend just got impaled, and his dad too, and now he fully expects to see his other best friend crumble to dust right before his eyes holy shit. T R A U M A ™

-- !!!

somehow in the excitement of the moment I forgot his actual goal for a sec lol. meaning I instantaneously switched from HORRIFIED to GRINNING LIKE A MANIAC :D :D :D come on OFA time to show him what’s what

AND NOW WE’RE SWITCHING OVER TO EVERYONE’S FAVORITE TRIPPY DREAM LANDSCAPE FOR ADDITIONAL DRAMA, WELL OKAY

I’M ON BOARD WITH THIS, WHATEVER. also it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Deku is in fact nekkid underneath that mystical cloud bs, so let’s hope one of his remaining yet-to-be-unlocked quirks is a pants-conjuring quirk lulz

“this place...” yeah we all fucking know what this place is son, let’s get on with this. by my count we’ve only got four pages left so PLEASE BUDGET THEM WISELY

OH MY

holy shit. I have so many screaming thoughts about this lol but I just want to keep on reading lkjlkjlkjl okay I’ll come back later and edit them in, how’s that

OR MAYBE I’LL JUST RANT ABOUT THEM NOW GODDAMMIT

shit. okay let me just try and sum this up as quick as I can

so just in case it wasn’t already crystal clear, AFO’s soul being roommates with Tomura’s seems to be just about 100% confirmed now. good for you, All For One For All theory!! the “Kacchan loses his quirk” theory died so that you might live on in glory

AFO does seem to have almost fully taken control now. it looks like Tomura’s still fighting back, but AFO clearly has the upper hand now if their body language is any indication. Tomura on his knees with AFO calmly holding him down and ignoring his struggles... not looking too good for him at the moment

people seem to have somewhat lost sight of this in the midst of the great “heroes vs. villains Who Is Right Who Is Wrong What Are Morals” debate of 2020, but just a friendly reminder that AFO is in fact responsible for 100% of all of Tomura’s suffering from pretty much the moment he was born up till this very moment we’re now witnessing!! like, you can go ahead and blame Nana and Gran and The Complacent Apathy Of Hero Society and whatever the fuck else from here till Sunday, but All for One is the reason Kotarou was orphaned. All for One is almost certainly the reason why the seemingly quirkless Tenko suddenly just magically developed THE MOST FUCKED UP QUIRK OF ALL TIME at the worst possible moment. All for One is probably the reason why no one helped Traumatized Baby Tenko in the immediate aftermath (I can and likely will write a separate post about this in the near future). All for One is definitely the reason why no one helped Tenko at any point after that. All for One is the reason why Tenko grew up all fucked in the head (“HERE’S YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S HANDS, MERRY CHRISTMAS”), and the reason why he grew up blaming Heroes and Society rather than the sole person who was actually responsible who was literally standing right in front of him the entire time. and lastly, All for One is the reason why Tomura has now been manipulated into unknowingly sacrificing his own body and possibly even his mind. so THANKS A LOT FOR THAT. more like jerk for one amiright

basically what I’m trying to say is that Deku and Tomura are not actually enemies here, and they never have been. the two of them have a common enemy, and I’m convinced Tomura’s story is about him eventually coming to realize this. and this looks to be the first step towards that, for two reasons. one, because AFO is finally starting to out himself to Tomura as the rat bastard he has always been. and two, because Deku is catching a glimpse of this now for the very first time. up until now he didn’t have a damn clue lol. but this is now something for him to file away in the back of his mind, and perhaps follow up on at a later date, once all of this craziness finally subsides and he has some time to process

anyway, so that’s basically it! tl;dr AFO is the final villain and unless I’m very much mistaken, this scene is going to finally start to set that up. let’s read on!

OMG

NANA?!?

lKDSJFLKSHGLISHDOGIHOLRKL

NOOOOOO I can’t believe it fucking ended there I can’t fucking believe it, fuck everything

smdh. what a place to end it. didn’t confirm a damn thing. not even whose mental landscape all of this is actually taking place in! like, don’t mind me though Horikoshi, it’s not like THE FATE OF THE WORLD HINGES ON THIS QUESTION OR ANYTHING except oh wait it really kind of does. kljkj

but seriously. because if it’s Deku’s mind, it means that Tomura’s attempt to take his quirk wasn’t successful. but if it’s Tomura’s mind, though... well... hhhhhhkhfff

or it could be both, I guess. more of that “AFO and OFA are the same quirk and thus linked” goodness. oh man. anyways stay tuned for next week when Nana presumably helps Deku out with the rest of that black fog and also hopefully finds him some pants. or maybe Nana can just go fight AFO herself. a little payback for everything he’s done to her protege and to her grandson. either way I CAN’T WAIT omg. VESTIGE ANTICS ARE A GO

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

I swear to God people sleep on all the Shimuras because they are, not kidding, some of the best written characters in the whole manga. This family, their tragedies and struggles, their story, they are so on point that it never fails to make scream.

First Nana takes all the blame and makes herself responsible. Not only that, but she also recognize how unfair and cruel is to put Deku to carry with all those issues. She acknowledges that Deku is only a child, and she looks and sound desperate.

Look how her face is cast in shadows, hoe she looks down and then how her nose and mouth wrinkles, likes she's trying not to cry.

My grandson totally broke me.

And look! In this panel we can see something really interesting. There's a skull in the middle of it and the teeth, the teeth look like hands and fingers. Okay, I'm not saying that this is a parallel with Overhaul and Eri, that Tenko is waiting in the mouth of the skull while the fingers and hands drown him, that he is in the mouth of the evil and that real evil is not just a being, but the summ of many actions, feelings, acts and situations that make a person lost themselves to all that hatred and anger. I'm not saying that, understood?

So if anything like that happened, you never heard talk about it.

Tomura is no longer the person he used to be, but he's becoming something else. We're currently seeing it, so far as in chapter 334. What is amazing is how Horikoshi let's people know Tomura is falling down that path, and yethe immediately puts into words, into the paper, the big key to Tomura Shigaraki as a character: can he be redeemed?

Let's no analyze the very words but the general feeling. What we have is a question to Deku and the readers about Tomura. It's very clearly something to make the readers think about if Tomura will or will not be redeemed. Does he have the qualities for it? I could talk about how the words chosen here are fantastic (forgiven, comprehend and rehabilitated), but I'd rather not because the translation could not be the correct one, so let's skip that part.

But just as a reminder, please pay attention to how the picture of Tomura below is matching the skull, and how that picture comes from Tomura speaking about how unfair is the hero system. That whole speech shows how little people try to understand him or listen to what he's trying to communicate.

Here, you have it super clear. Nana is desperately asking Deku for an answer. She looks sad, she looks like she's trying to go pass all her feelings, but she's in shadows. The words she's saying, she hates them, or she hates the fact that she needs to say them. She's very, hmmmm, I'd say anxious in the sense that she's worried about Tomura but she understands what they are risking.

She knows Deku wants to save Tomura, they share that feeling, but in case it's too late (and she means it like she's in pain), does Deku have the heart to put an end to a kid that wants to be saved but can't? Deku also looks a little horrified to think he can't save someone who's begging him to be saved. They're both suffering in that what if it's too late?

And finally, let's not forget that the past Vestiges risked everything, family, friends, their own lives, to stop AFO. They all are older, so it must be incredibly hard to see a child following that path.

And that's the sad thing. Tenko is a kid, Deku is a kid, they are so young and have suffered so much for a war that it's not theirs, for problems that are not their fault.

I'll talk about what Deku told Nana in a minute, but I really think she deserves the recognition. In three panels, Nana Shimura completely stoles the show. She shows such emotion, she's so alive, that it's hard to believe she's dead in the story.

This woman really deserves more recognition.

And see how the Vestiges reacted to what Nana is saying :(

They look expecting, but also a little sad. Specially All Might and Yoichi. They are seeing Nana suffer, they are about to hear if Deku can save the world, the moment is so :((((

[taraneedspizza]

So i get the feeling people aren’t talking about this enough

in the ch327 leaks all might says something along the lines of:

“even though i am powerless i will still fight”

and it made me think of a certain picture that horikoshi drew a while ago

................

horikoshi PLEASE let this happen i beg of you

[shotorozu]

hello !! I'd rlly like to request Monoma if that's alright! I've had a huge soft spot for him for a while now and I'd love to see more content of him ;v;

anyway! we all know that superiority complex of his is definitely hiding some insecurities, but I also feel like he'd be quite touchstarved too bc of his peers seldom physically interacting with him due to his quirk, yknow?

with that in mind, I'd love to see how he'd handle an s/o who has "physical touch" as their main love language. they can give verbal praise/comfort, but they always get so shy abt it that they prefer giving physical affection to show their love. and maybe combining that with "quality time" being their second love language, they love to just cuddle him or toy with his hands/hair during quiet moments uwu

if you wanna do multiple characters, I'd love to request Shinsou, Midoriya, and Amajiki (separately) for the same idea, but if you'd rather do this with just Monoma then I'm okay with that !! no worries if you don't wanna do all four ♡

thank you if you do this request, and make sure to take care of yourself !! ♡

physically affectionate s/o

character(s) : monoma neito, shinsou hitoshi, midoriya izuku (i cut out tamaki for this one, sorry :[ but i’ll do another part if anyone wants it)

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns used, strong quirk but the details aren’t specific, reader is a part of 1-A

headcanon type : fluff (and if you squint, then crack)

note(s) : yes i do agree :,) monoma should be getting a little bit more content, and i’m sorry that this came out so late! i was multitasking with other requests (because i took a 2 day absence,,) but this doesn’t mean i don’t read people’s requests

»»————-　♡　————-««

monoma neito

monoma 🤝 bakugou “the pros at sending mixed signals”

if there’s one thing he’s known for— then it’s for the persistent teasing, and his quite obnoxious attitude (especially at 1-A)

but he’s not a terrible person, he sure does have his reasons. and by now, people either choose to ignore him, or they simply knock the wind out of him

so, he was not prepared to encounter someone that was tolerant of him, AND also his type— like.. huh. that’s.. odd

and he was even more surprised when they accepted his wild love confession. there must be some catch to it, right?

so like i’ve said— monoma sends a lot of mixed signals. it’s either he’s complimenting your existence, or teasing you in various ways.

so— it’s just another normal day of monoma mouthing off to you, teasing you in a playful way, while you guys are hanging out this is way of making you remember him

but then, you just.. leaned forward and placed your hand on his head— not exchanging any words at all.

monoma’s first reaction is (・・?) because what?? someone is touching him right now.. wait.. someone is touching him!

honestly really shook, and at a lost for words— because everyone has refrained from coming into any physical contact with him? what a surprise! what even is this?

after said incident, you decide to speak “you had something in your hair.” and for once, monoma is the one that’s sitting in silence

“R-REALLY, Y/N? DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT WAS GOING TO W-WORK ON ME OR SOMETHING?” he questions in his usual mocking tone, but his cheeks are accompanied in a flushed red

he’d only experience field day when he realized that touch was basically your love language, with quality time in the second lead

so whenever you guys are spending time together, you’d,, actually go closer to him! this has never happened before, let him be

he doesn’t really like the idea of getting his hair touched, so you usually choose to fiddle with his hands— sometimes observing his details, and other times you’ll be comparing hand sizes

he’ll ridicule you for being so touchy— but he’ll ask if he’s “that irresistable?” while also moving you closer to him. he loves it a lot, okay?

don’t let class 1-b see this, he will flex on them because when he starts getting annoying again, they’ll use you as blackmail.

“monoma, i swear— if you do that, we’ll tell Y/N-”

“HAHA— ok, i’m sorry.”

shinsou hitoshi

he probably has the most chill reaction out of the bunch

again— another person that has been antagonized because of their quirk. he’s been perceived as villanious ever since his middle school days

kids have been told to keep their distance away from him at a young age so.. you’d bet that he’d be really touch starved

he never had any serious experiences with dating, and he never had any real friends— that weren’t cautious of his quirk

that was until he met you, which he just assumed you were another highkey stuck up person in the hero course

but, you were basically the opposite, and you were a real pleasure to have around. one thing lead to another, and now you guys are dating

he thought it was really cute whenever you got too shy to just sit in silence during dates, or to even give out words of affirmations

but hitoshi was surprised at first when he felt you pull yourself closer to him— resting your head on his shoulder. the concept of someone wanting to be in his presence is still sinking in for him

lucky for you! shinsou knows how to adapt to situations quickly, immediately slinging an arm around your shoulder, as he listens to you talk

he’ll be surprised when you start touching his hair, because golly!! are you guys close

but do it more pls, he loves it a lot— it sometimes makes him really drowsy.

if you play with his hands omg, his heart will do somersaults. he’s lucky that he’s able to keep himself composed.

loves watching you choosing to cuddle him, after briefly giving up on trying to form coherent words of affirmations.

it’s something he brings up quite often, but not in a teasing manner!

sometimes he’ll pat the free spot beside him, basically begging you to come closer to him.

eventually, denki notices on how touchy he’ll get whenever you’re around— but hitoshi will just shrug it off

“it’s always been that way.” he simply says, but he’ll turn around with this big ass grin on his face 💀

he’s whipped for your touch. so please, do it more

midoriya izuku

he’s also touchstarved. actually, all of them are really touchstarved, and for different reasons 💀

well.. it’s not like he had a choice from the getgo. he was born quirkless, and that lead to him becoming an outcase— and also the victim of bullying i wanna hug him

and being told constantly that he won’t ever be enough, or he won’t ever be a hero— it’s obvious that he doesn’t have any dating experience

but he didn’t think he’d be dating anytime soon— especially since he was ‘just’ pinning over you. he was convinced it was going nowhere

until you confessed. he’s surprised that he didn’t pass out

ever since you guys started dating, he noticed that you’ve been a little timid— not in the way that you feel awkward, more like,, you wanted to say something

or do something, because when you guys were studying together, you just suddenly sat closer to him— and started counting his freckles

he short circuited for a second.

he was reduced to a stuttering, and blushy mess— and you just laughed, telling him “you should continue what you’re doing!” as you ran your other hand across his shoulders

that night, he was wide awake in his bed— recalling your gentle and loving touch, running his hands along the parts of his hair, that you’ve touched

he loves quality time, because while he does like to ramble a lot— he does enjoy spending time with you in silence, but it’s the touches that makes him flustered

despite him being quite shy to initiate any sort of touch, you— on the other hand, were shy with saying praises. so you coped with physical touch, and quality time

man, izuku never gets used to it. no matter how much he tries to— he’s just.. needy, touchstarved.

he doesn’t realize how lost he looks when you’re sitting beside him, and not touching his hair or hands for once. please feel free to do so

oh, and since we’re on the topic of hands— he’ll tear up if you start playing/fiddling with his hands, and especially when you start tracing his scars. it makes him feel so warm.

okay but,, please give him a heads up if you’re going to act touchy in public. he’ll start stammering and blushing hard you might have to put him in rice or smth

the dekusquad talks about that quite a lot, especially when they accidentally witnessed it in the common room (for the first time)

in short— he adores it. sometimes he’ll initiate it, by asking you if you want to sit beside him, to play with his hair. he’s so inlove

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei. i only own the writing, and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, repost, translate, or use my works for audio readings without my permission :))

[zukuist]

stood you up [hcs]

“it sounds exactly as it looks like. they stood you up on a date, and they realize the damage.”

includes: todoroki shouto, midoriya izuku, togata mirio (part one)

your name is shortened to y/n, they/them pronouns used (quirk up to the imagination)

notes: ANGST 😳 IN MY BLOG?? never thought i’d see it but.. here we are. i plan on doing part 2 with other characters.

—

todoroki shouto

he wakes up on a saturday, as per usual.

and he’s kinda— no scratch that, he’s very irritated

because the other night— endeavor was bothering him about ‘not training properly’ and he was accusing him of slacking off.

which.. he’s not

his father also gave him a scolding (which lasted for hours.),

but nothing too bad. it was enough to make him irritated. so uh oh. todoroki’s really something else when he’s irritated.

and endeavor also blew up his phone with badly written text messages, telling him to train today.

so likely, he also woke up quite irritated.

he just wanted to drown himself in training and school work to forget about it.

completely forgetting the date HE said he’d take you on that afternoon, the date he planned a week before.

because he FINALLY got the courage to ask his crush aka you out. with the help of midoriya

like.. you pass him in the hallway— and before you were able to speak, he just kinda..

glared at you and walked away, not exchanging any words with you. he really needs to cool down

which was.. huh. 🤨 okay then. but you excused it because todoroki had a resting bitch face at some moments

it’s 5pm now, and he’s chilling in the common room— and he finally calmed down, and he’s back to his usual demeanor

midoriya walks in the common room, and he’s like “hey todoroki! how was the date with y/n?”

because midoriya helped orchestrate the date, he wanted to know

todoroki’s just like “fuck.” he forgot, and he also may have glared at you by accident.

realization is shown on his face, and midoriya is left apalled— begging him to “go find y/n quick!”

todoroki literally goes 🏃‍♂️💨 to the meeting place, which was the park in this case

and he can’t find you— so he scans the entire vicinity, and he can see you walking back to the dorm in a distance

immediately, he runs after you— calling for you to just wait and hear him out but you don’t turn back,

because you just want to lay in bed and sleep for 5 days

and besides.. he’s the last person you wanted to see right now

he grabs you, which makes him stop in place— “y/n, please just—”

“oh what now, listen? you were the one that asked me out, todoroki. and you just..” bitterness is in your tone, and he can’t even be mad.

your voice falters, and you were mad at first. but you’re just exhausted at this point

you guys haven’t spoke all day

“i’m sorry, i’m so sorry,” he apologizes, looking at your appearance.

you look beautiful, and he just wasted it by forgetting the occasion. he doesn’t want to imagine what you’ve felt in the last several hours

“my father scolded me last night,” he grips on your hands, brushing his thumb on the back of your hand,

“and it was for a long time. and i was just so frustrated by it, i even looked at you weirdly and forgot about the entire date i planned out for weeks. and i’m sorry. i understand if you don’t want to—”

“just stop, okay?” he looks up, and you don’t seem that mad anymore. “i understand. i just wished you told me about it, y’know?”

it doesn’t seem enough, so he pulls you into a hug, “i’m sorry. may i.. take you out again tomorrow? i promise i’ll make it right.”

you give him a chance, after all— you know he truly cares about you.

midoriya izuku

in this case, y’all are already together

but he wanted to take you out on a date— because you guys have been so busy, that you just had no time for any proper dates

so.. he wanted to take you out during the break, finally relieved by the hectic activities for a day.

out of everyone here, he’s the least likely to forget things like dates, anniversaries, etc.

but izuku being that person that’s always like “i have to keep training and training to master this quirk!”

he might have gotten.. overboard with the training. making him completely forget about the entire occassion.

during days like this, he’ll try to split his time by training for 2 hours and studying for the same amount

but homeboy got distracted 💀

too distracted to the point he didn’t even look at the clock once

and now it’s nearly 5pm (y’all were supposed to have lunch at 12)

when he heads out to go get a glass of water in the kitchen, he runs into bakugou on the way

bakugou looked displeased. and he hasn’t seen him look this displeased since middle school

“aren’t you forgetting something?” he says that in his usual tone, and izuku can only stare at him questioning

“your shitty thing with y/n. they walked in here looking like someone shat in their cereal.”

oh no

how could he.. forget?

izuku immediately storms off to your floor, knocking on your door

“y/n? y/n, can we please talk?” his heart is racing with worry, and he’s not even sure if you’re gonna answer the door

you begrudgingly open the door, but you’re not facing him— you’re still dressed in the clothes you wore going out

and it looks like you’ve been crying

“dear,” izuku wants to console you, but you don’t want to recieve his hugs right now— especially after he stood you up

“this is our only day off, izuku.” you try to make your voice sound normal, but it’s not really working

“i know, i’m sorry. i’m so sorry y/n. i forgot about the entire thing while i was training, and i know i made you feel bad. i’m just so sorry.” he apologizes to you over and over again

you don’t look at him, so he cups your face with his calloused hands—

his touch soft on you as he wipes your tears “please talk to me.”

you huff, “i know how much you want to train your quirk, and be the best at all times. i’m not mad that you want to do that, but i just wished you spent time with me, even if it’s just for a minute.”

izuku listens, and you’re right. you guys haven’t been the best with quality time,

and it wasn’t fair of him to just go out and suddenly forget the date he arranged.

“i’m sorry.”

“stop apologizing,” you sigh, “just bring some snacks so we can watch that movie you’ve been raving about.”

his expression lights up, and he dashes downstairs to retrieve the items

oh and.. how bakugou knows about y’all’s date? he totally suggested it

togata mirio

mirio has always been the best boyfriend for you

never forgetting anything, infact- he’s usually the one that’s always early to the dates

because he’s so excited to hang out with you!

but because of his quite friendly nature, he’s practically a chick magnet

girls swarming him whenever they could, doesn’t even matter that they don’t have to date him— they just want to talk to him

and while he’s nice to these girls, he’s not disloyal to you at all— and that’s why you don’t mind it,

because you trust him

okay but.. you don’t mind it when girls swarm your boyfriend, until it gets in the way

like.. one time he was supposed to be at a date with you— but he got surprised by a bunch of girls

and not wanting to be rude to them, he entertained them

and he considered cutting the conversation short but.. they just kept going and going

until he’s an hour late. y’all were supposed to get lunch together.

eventually, the girls go away— which so happened to be around the time tamaki and nejire started looking for him.

“mirio!” nejire called out for him, tamaki right next to her “how was the— wait, did you have lunch with y/n?”

mirio blinks, and that’s when he realizes that he messed up.

tamaki sighs, and he can only pat his shoulder— “mirio, i k-know you’re a nice guy, but don’t let yourself get distracted.”

nejire can only agree, “afterall, y/n’s the one you’re dating, not those other people.”

they urge him to go find you, and when he does find you— you’re sitting on a bench, not looking amused at all.

“hi mirio,” you deadpan, “how were those girls you were talking to?”

mirio knows he messed up, he really does! “i’m so sorry, y/n!” he tries to explain himself “they got me.. carried away.”

“mirio, i know that you’re nice. i let them talk to you because i trust you. but when you go out and do things like this.. it’s strange! really.”

you want to not be angry, since this was bound to happen— possibly the day where mirio just forgets about you entirely

“i’m really sorry.” he sighs, disappointed with himself, “i really love you, and i’ll only ever date you! but i should’ve dismissed them much earlier.”

your gaze softens, and you cup his cheek with your hand “it’s okay, mirio. i’ll let it be just this once, but please promise me that it won’t happen again.”

mirio nods “yes, yes! i promise. it’ll never happen again.” he smiles, reassuring you

“now let’s get something to eat. i haven’t eaten yet.”

“right, right.” mirio laughs, the tense atmosphere dissipating

mirio tries to be more direct with dismissing them from now on, especially when he has to be somewhere with you.

—

©️izukulie 2021, bnha|mha belongs to horikoshi kohei. do not steal❕

[agentark88]

Think: Chapter Seventy-Nine: Emotional Damage

My Hero Academia Fan Fiction by Agent ARK 88

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fan fiction using characters and settings from My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia created by Kohei Horikoshi. I do not claim any ownership of characters present in this piece that are owned and created by Kohei Horikoshi. I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia.

Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Warnings: This work contains mild language, blood, death, and violence. If you are easily triggered by violent scenarios, please do not read this chapter. This chapter could be triggering to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Please be aware this piece is in second person perspective, following my original character, Think, Anna Kokoro, who is a transfer student from America.

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Emotional Damage

You crashed back into your head with cut breaks. Your mind jolted you awake with painful sparks of consciousness. Aches erupted through your senses as clarity came to your forefront. Your cheeks and eyes were raw with tears. Your wrists ached. Your quirk quivered in your mind as it gained some semblance of traction. You couldn’t remember what happened, not after Kobura appeared. Now that your quirk had come back to life, the fog in your head was lifted.

Bodies, blood, and death surrounded your restrained form. You choked out a noise. It was vile, absolutely horrifying to look at. You turned your attention away from the gore, uneasiness and fear settling in your chest. Your horrified stare finally met the back of Kobura’s head, his white hair stained with blood. One of his many knives were clutched into his hand. Kobura snatched Emiyo by the jacket. Her hand went weakly up to his wrist. Tears pooled in her eyes.

“Please! Mercy! Y-you weren’t supposed to be like this… You’re not a supervillain. You barely show up in the media! You have to understand! The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you! I just wanted you to care for me the way that I care for you!” Emiyo Miya begged for her life.

Nausea crept up your raw throat followed by an unbearable burning. Had you been screaming? You leaned forward, once again putting tension in your binds. Your eyes widened when Kobura angled his knife for her neck.

No. No more death. No more blood had to be shed. You just wanted to leave, wanted to go back to U.A.. Kobura didn’t have to stab anyone else, especially not if he thought it was helping you. He may have thought he was doing the best for you, when he was doing the worst. No one needed to die like this.

A pulsing energy rippled through your flickering quirk, expanding through the cavernous warehouse. The drug must not have completely run its course through your system because your quirk sputtered as you attempted to use it. You whipped a strand of your mind toward Kobura’s wrist, snagging it just before he was able to pierce into Emiyo’s neck.

Kobura’s callous expression was washed clean with realization. Guilt tugged his mouth into an uneasy frown. Your quirk faded slightly in its hold, and you could sense Kobura trying to fight against the strand of your mind.

“I can’t let you,” you choked out. “Stop.” You didn’t know what had happened since he appeared. Despite being tortured by her, Emiyo didn’t need to die. The police could hold her in custody. A true hero wouldn’t just sit by and let this happen.

Kobura took in a quivering breath. “Anna, close your eyes,” he said. “You shouldn’t watch me do this.”

You bit into your lip, tears burning at the edge of your vision. “No, you can’t,” you pleaded. “No one else has to die. Please.” Had Kobura really killed these people? Had he killed all of them for hurting you? You had hoped, begged for him to save you, and this is what became of your wish? You trusted him. You had faith that he would protect you, but you didn’t expect him to take it this far. He knew you were a hero in training. He had to know you would never agree with what he’d done.

Emiyo Miya was pleading for her life, and he was going to end it without remorse. There wasn’t a single ounce of hesitation. Had you not caught his wrist, he would have killed her. Was this truly what Kobura was capable of? Were you so enchanted by his words, you’d forgotten what he was capable of as a villain?

Kobura’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped. Sadness pinched his expression. “Close your eyes,” he repeated.

Your quirk couldn’t hold him. Kobura put more force into pushing the blade toward Emiyo’s exposed neck, and your quirk weakly held on to him, losing strength by the second. Fresh blood began to trickle from the new cut on Emoticon’s skin, but you wouldn’t let go. You couldn’t let go. Your quirk flickered, and you thought all was lost, but you gained a sliver of control back. Your quirk wrapped tighter around Kobura’s wrist, only for your power to slowly trickle away again.

“Please! This is wrong!” You cried out. Your vision blurred from fatigue. Your quirk pushed back, angry that you were still fighting in this condition. Kobura’s thoughts flashed into your unstable mind.

If being a villain is the only way to ensure I never have to hear her scream in pain again, then that’s my only option. If killing someone, means Sweet Anna doesn’t have to suffer, it’s worth the distance it puts in my relationship with her. Emoticon needs to die for what’s she’s done, or she will do it again. His thoughts were resolute, pained but certain. He didn’t want to do this. He felt like he had to for you, and it made your heart ache.

“Close your eyes,” Kobura whispered. “Please, Sweet Anna.”

Your quirk burned down to a mere ember. With fresh tears streaming down your face, you obeyed Kobura’s request, shutting your eyes. Your quirk slipped from his wrist. You heard the blade plunge into Emiyo’s neck. She shrieked for a moment, until she couldn’t. You wanted to cover your ears to keep out the horrid gurgling noises she was making as she fought for breath. There was nothing you could do for her, and it made you sick. You choked on a sob. Kobura swore under his breath. Mercifully, you heard Kobura’s blade plunge into flesh one last time and then silence.

Cold. The room felt cold, lifeless. You would have collapsed had you been standing up. You flinched when something violently crashed ahead of you. It sounded like the tripod, the phone broadcasting this all live to the world. Kobura crossed the room to you in only a few paces, his footsteps echoed off of the concrete. His trembling hands tentatively reached for your face.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here sooner. Please forgive me for what I had to do,” Kobura said. His thumb wiped at your tears but more fell. “I know. It’s terrible. This is terrible. I understand. I get it if you can’t stand me. But, I have to get you out of here. I need you to be safe.” He continued to talk as he cut your legs free first. “She would have threatened you again, kidnapped you again. The police would have done nothing. They’ve done nothing about her for years. She tortured you, Anna. You have to understand that she was hurting you, and I had no other choice.”

You remained quiet, eyes still shut as you tried to catch your breath. Kobura finally made it to your wrists. He carefully cut them free. You let your arms fall to your sides. Your body felt numb.

“Are you…? Are you okay, Anna?” he asked. His voice was laced with worry.

You opened your tear-filled eyes, meeting his concerned gaze. No. You were far from okay. You were captured, tortured. No one knew where you were but Kobura, and he came. Your head was a mess. You were terrified. But, looking into Kobura’s eyes, all you wanted to do was reach for him for a source of comfort. You sprung up from your chair, wrapping your arms around Kobura’s neck and burying your face into his chest.

“No. I’m not okay. I’m not,” you babbled helplessly into his shirt. “I was so scared.”

“Sweet Anna, my blood… I could infect you. You’re in a delicate state right now. I don’t know if your quirk will protect you.” Kobura refused to touch you with his wounded arm, holding it away from your trembling body.

“I didn’t think you were going to come. I thought no one was going to come.”

“Of course I came. I promised.” Kobura rubbed his clean hand over your back.

“But, all of those people…” you trailed off. He killed them.

“Can’t hurt you anymore,” Kobura’s voice deepened as he finished your sentence.

You pulled far enough away to look up at him, stare into those toxic green eyes of his. “But…” It was wrong for him to kill them. You wanted to shout it at him, berate him for the horrible things he’d done. How could he expect you to forgive him for that?

“They sat by and watched you be tortured, Sweet Anna. They helped kidnap you.” Kobura’s words were soft. He could hardly make eye-contact with you. “I killed them to save you. I’m not asking you to agree with it. You did your best to stop me. You’re the last person that needs to feel guilty for what they brought upon themselves.”

“But, you did it because of me,” you said. Guilt ripped through your already bleeding chest. If you weren’t involved, all of those people would have still been alive. You were a part of his villainy, regardless of how indirect that involvement was.

“I did it for you,” Kobura corrected. “It wasn’t because of you. None of the blame falls on your shoulders.” Kobura gripped one of your hands as you retreated further from him, shaking your head.

“I… I don’t know what to do,” you said, conflicting feelings revolving through you. “I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t trust you.”

“And, that’s your right. No matter how much I want us to be together, I would never force you to trust me, to stay with me.” Kobura slowly released the hand he had grabbed. “Let me get you out of here, take you back to U.A..”

Your eyes widened. “The School Festival,” you said breathlessly. A chill ran through you, and a wave of nausea spun its way back into your stomach. Your vision blurred.

“Sweet Anna? You’ve gone pale. Are you…?”

Your legs buckled beneath you. Kobura shot forward, grabbing you before you could collapse. He supported your limp body as if it were made of the finest glass.

“Was it my quirk? Stay with me, okay? Hold on. If you black out, I’m not sure I can do anything to help you. You can’t let the venom take over,” Kobura sputtered out. It was strange to hear him speaking so frantically.

“It’s not your quirk. She lost too much blood, Doku,” Toga said.

Kobura snapped his head in her direction, his expression engulfed by uneasiness.

“Mission accomplished! We saved the sweet angel! Are we sure she’s going to pull through? She looks half-dead,” Twice said.

Toga quickly stepped in front of the tall masked villain that you recognized as Twice. Kobura’s muscles had coiled, but when he glanced at her he relaxed a bit.

“We can’t stay here for obvious reasons. And, I don’t know about you, but bringing her back like this is going to cause issues. We need to get her medical attention without going to the hospital.”

“I need to get back for the School Festival,” you muttered deliriously. “Eri will be so sad if I don’t make it. Aizawa…” Nausea swept your voice away as you tried to hold back vomit.

Kobura clenched you tighter to him. Before you said anything else, he swept you up into his arms. “Anna, it’s going to be okay. We’ll get you back so you don’t need to worry. I managed to redirect your phone’s ping. They’ll think you’re still on campus, even when I tracked you here.” Kobura turned his attention back on Toga. “First, we get her out of here. Can you contact Spinner? The only place that I know there’s supplies is my apartment. We can’t bring her to the new hideout nor the hospital for obvious reasons.”

“Isn’t it a little early to bring a girl home? I’m sure it’s a great idea to bring a hero to your cozy secret base.” Twice crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head.

“Her wellbeing matters more to me than my privacy. I have to move anyway because that psycho ransacked my place. I upgraded the system since, but who knows who else knows where I live. Besides, we’ll blindfold her to avoid the heroes interrogating her when she returns,” Kobura explained.

The three villains left the building with you. The sun was barely above the horizon, blinding, actually, compared to the darkness you escaped from. There was carnage out here too, but it was much less gruesome than what was inside. Kobura walked far enough away so you weren’t able to see anymore gore. The odd bunch of you huddled together as Toga called Spinner. She’d put the phone on speaker, waiting impatiently for him to pick up.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” Spinner asked gruffly over the phone.

“We need a ride,” Toga said. “Can you come get us?”

“Boss didn’t say anything about needing a chauffeur, today. Who’s ‘us?’”

Toga glanced up at Kobura, shrugging. “Doku, Jin, and me, we need a ride. We have one extra passenger too.”

Spinner groaned. “I don’t suppose you cleared this with Shigaraki?” he asked. There was a long pause. “I’ll take your silence as a, ‘No.’ Sorry, Toga. I don’t do anything without the boss’s permission. Can’t you guys catch a cab or something?”

Kobura audibly ground his teeth together. Toga glanced at him, rolling her eyes.

“Can’t you help us out this one time? We promise we won’t say anything to Shiggy. We’re kind of in a hurry here. We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t an emergency,” Toga explained.

“I didn’t sign up for this shit—”

That’s when Kobura lost his cool. In your hazy mind, you watched as he bared his fangs in anger. “Dammit, Spinner! Get the hell off your ass and come pick us up! It’s an emergency! What do you want? Money? A new van? Fine! I know you hate that shitty thing any way. I’ll buy you a brand new one, but you get here now!”

The line was quiet for a moment. “Could’ve just said please,” Spinner muttered. He sighed. “I’m coming. I’m coming. But, this van better be top tier, untraceable. And, this shit better be important because if Shiggy even catches a whiff of us using League property for whatever this is, I’m throwing all of you under the bus. I’m not getting disintegrated for any of you.”

“Just get here. You know I’m good for the money,” Kobura snapped.

“Send me the coordinates,” Spinner said, hanging up.

Toga moved away to send Spinner the details. Twice huddled beside her, curiously watching.

Kobura carefully set you down. He removed his jacket, cutting the seams of his ripped sleeve and removing it with one of his knives. He wrapped the jacket around your front. You’d almost forgotten your dress had ripped down the center. He unclipped a knife vest from over his t-shirt, holding it loosely in one hand before setting it aside. He removed his shirt in the next instant, tearing it apart into strips. He knelt down ahead of you, his abdominal muscles flexing on his exposed chest, barely shielded by another set of knives strapped across his body. The only imperfection visible turned out to be the whip wound on his midsection.

“Get a room. Nobody wants to see that. Woah, dude! You’re totally ripped!” Twice interjected, peering toward both of you over his shoulder.

Kobura ignored Twice, paying close attention to you. He scanned the length of your body, glancing away and clenching his teeth when he came to the puncture wound in your leg. “May I?” he asked, pointing to your leg.

“You can help,” you murmured.

Kobura wrapped the wound with the clean strips of his shirt. You clenched your teeth as he tied the fabric tightly around your thigh to help with the bleeding. “This should have never happened,” Kobura said softly. “And, I will make this up to you. I know it doesn’t seem like that’s possible right now, but I will.”

You remained silent with your eyes downcast and distant.

Kobura pressed his lips closed, clenching his fingers over his knees. He might have been shaking, but he was doing a decent job hiding it. “We’ll get you cleaned up. I’ll patch you up at my place. You can get back to U.A. for Eri, for yourself. You can continue like before. Become a hero like you want to. I’ll bring you back, and it will be like nothing happened.”

“But, something did happen,” you murmured, trembling.

“I can’t take it back,” Kobura bluntly stated. “I know it’s going to take time for you to process what—”

“Time?” you asked, cutting him off. “You killed those people! And…” you trailed off again, shutting your eyes. Your shout only made your sore throat burn, and you felt your open wounds ache under the slightest movement. “…all I could do was watch.” You winced, feeling pain sweep through you again. You doubled over, covering your mouth as you coughed.

Kobura moved to support you, but you raised your hand to fend him off. He clenched his fists at his sides, refusing to touch you without your consent. Your trembling fingers came away from your mouth with splotches of fresh blood. Kobura’s chest rose and fell rapidly as his attention trained on your hand. It was killing him to see you like this. His eyes were filled with worry and regret.

“I know I can’t take it back,” Kobura said, choosing his words carefully. “I just… I could never, no, I would never see you like that again. She was going to kill you, Anna. I know it seemed like she was remorseful, that she wanted to take it all back, but she was lying. Villains like her don’t change. It may seem like they will, but it is ingrained in them.”

You bit into your lip, anger welling in your chest. “What about you, then? Are you like her, like those villains you know so much about? Is it ingrained in you? Will you never change?” You glared at him with tear-filled eyes. You didn’t want to believe that. You never wanted to believe that no one could change, be better. You had hoped Kobura could be better. You believed he could change. Were you just lying to yourself?

Kobura scowled. “I’m nothing like the monster that was in there. She was devoid of anything honest. Her emotions were twisted. She’d gone far too long unchecked, unstoppable. If it weren’t you, it would have been someone else. She needed to be stopped. If she was sent to prison, she’d use her quirk to get out, and the cycle would begin again. She needed to die.”

“What gives you the right to decide that?” you pushed.

Kobura winced. “She challenged me, my devotion to you, and she lost. It had nothing to do with my right to kill her. I killed her because she played a game she couldn’t win.”

“But, she didn’t need to die,” you choked out. “People make mistakes. They do things that they don’t mean!”

“Only, it wasn’t just any ‘mistake!’ That mistake, that thing she ‘didn’t’ mean to do, was choosing to hurt you!” Kobura shouted.

You flinched, shrinking away from him. Kobura immediately retreated, realizing he’d scared you. He let out a defeated breath of air, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I like a lovers’ quarrel as much as the next guy, but don’t you think the two of you are just talking in circles? Go on! It’s good to let off a little steam in a relationship! Shouting means that you’re communicating,” Twice piped up.

“Easy, Jin. It’s not our place to get involved,” Toga said.

“But, isn’t Kobura our friend? You’re right. Why should I care?”

“You’re fine, Twice. Just, give Sweet Anna some time. She went through a lot today. I deserve to be yelled at,” Kobura said. He stood up, combing a hand through his ghostly white hair and looking up to the sky. He sighed, sliding his hand over his face. He glanced at you between his fingers. “Again, I can’t take what I did back, no matter how upset you are about it. I can only say that I’m trying to be better for you. You don’t have to believe me. I don’t expect you to believe me. But, I want to focus on fixing you up. We can talk about this…” Kobura trailed off, probably realizing your phone was gone, and, even if you had one, you might not want to speak to him again. “Let’s just get you back to U.A. in better shape than you are now. I’m not worried about anything else. So, do you mind if we don’t argue about the situation now? I know that’s a tough ask, but I’m afraid your condition will only get worse if we continue like this.”

You considered his ask. Your throat could hardly handle speaking, let alone yelling. This situation was odd enough. You’d been rescued by villains, and they had no intention of using that to their advantage to kidnap you. You could sit on the discussion for now. Kobura had your best intentions at heart, even if they were twisted. He was still your only hope in getting back to U.A. without setting off any red flags and shutting the whole School Festival down. You didn’t have much choice at this point but to follow his lead.

You slowly nodded. Kobura gave you a small smile, kneeling down next to you again. He kept his hands away, but he scanned over you to ensure he was prepared for the damage he’d have to take care of at his place.

Spinner showed up about ten minutes later. You held on to consciousness with feeble fingers. Your quirk weighed heavily in your mind, and your eyes kept wanting to shut. Kobura went to lift you from your place just as Spinner stuck his lizard-like head from the van window.

“Oh, hell no! No one said anything about that kid! Wasn’t that the same U.A. student we kidnapped? We got our asses handed to us in that fight! Are you all insane? She could destroy The League of Villains from the inside out!” Spinner shouted out.

“We’re going to blindfold her,” Toga explained.

“Yeah? Well then, by all means,” Spinner said sarcastically.

“Really? He changed his mind fast,” Twice said.

“No! Idiot! She’s not getting into this van! I don’t have a death wish. If the Pro Heroes don’t catch us, then the boss is going to decay me!”

Kobura clenched his fists at his sides. He turned away from you, rushing up to the driver’s window. Spinner leaned back as he got up into his face. Kobura pulled his wallet out, shoving a wad of money at Spinner’s chest.

“This is only a piece of what I’ll give you. Get whatever car you want. Want a van, a truck? You name it, and it’s yours. I don’t care. Money isn’t a problem. But, don’t give me any more bullshit about not helping. You’re taking her wherever I need you to take her, got it?” Kobura said.

Spinner rolled his eyes, flicking through the bills with his eyes widening. “You carry this much cash on you?”

“Are you driving us or not?” Kobura snapped. “Sweet Anna’s health is on the line, and I’m losing my patience.”

Spinner shoved the wad of money into his pocket. “Get in. Shigaraki better not hear a damn word about this. You’ve got me for three hours. No more, no less. The boss will get suspicious otherwise.”

Kobura spun away from the van. He knelt down beside you. “Is this okay?” he asked, reaching his hands out to you.

You nodded, and he lifted you up. Toga and Twice clambered into the van. Twice handed over a small bundle of gauze to Kobura as he set you down.

“I’ve got to cover your eyes. It’s for your safety and ours, okay?” Kobura asked.

If you really wanted to, you could probably read his mind for the location, so you weren’t sure what all the precautions were for. Then again, your quirk was weak at best. If you knew where he lived, it would be one more secret you would need to keep from your classmates, from Aizawa.

You nodded again. Kobura wrapped the gauze around your head, until you couldn’t see at all. There was a little back and forth about location. All you could tell was that Kobura must have shown Spinner where they were going because he didn’t appear to know where exactly his apartment was. When the van started moving, you had to assume wherever you were going had been clearly communicated.

It took longer than expected for the van to stop again.

“Wait here. It might take a bit,” Kobura said. “I’ll move as quickly as I can.”

“Need any help?” Toga asked.

There was a pause. “No. I mean… Yes, she has wounds on her chest. But, only if it will be more comfortable for Anna if we are both there.”

There was another bout of silence. You hesitated before nodding again, realizing they had been waiting for your input.

“Ooh, three’s a company, and four’s a party. What do you say I come too? I see how it is. Four wheels aren’t good enough for you?” Twice said.

“Will someone make up their damn mind? Clock’s a ticking!” Spinner shouted from the front.

“We are! What’s it to you? You’ll get the money I promised,” Kobura hissed out in annoyance.

“Just saying that we’re wasting too much time on little things,” Spinner grumbled.

“It’s not that we don’t think you’re good enough, Jin. We just want to make sure Anna’s comfortable, okay? Besides, we need you to make sure Spinner doesn’t take off with our ride. Think you can handle that?” Toga said gently.

“Don’t need a babysitter. I’m not going to go back on our deal,” Spinner mumbled out.

“Aye, aye, Captain Toga! Your ship’s safe with me. Does that mean I get to man the wheel?”

Kobura sighed. The van door slid open. Kobura put a steadying hand on your shoulder, but he made sure it was light. “Anna, I’m going to lift you up, okay?” Kobura asked.

You nodded again. Kobura picked you up, entering a building and climbing a few flights of stairs before he stopped again. You barely heard Toga following behind him. A scanner buzzed, followed by Kobura typing into a keypad, and then the door set off a series of clicks indicating several locks opening.

“I thought those types of security systems could only be found in spy movies,” Toga said.

“Couldn’t have been too cautious after the first break-in. Don’t tell the landlord though. He’s not fond of unauthorized modifications to his building,” Kobura said. Kobura shifted you over again to open the door. He gently set you down in a chair. “One second.” Kobura left your side. A few things were shifted in the room. He drew the blinds. And, it sounded like something was aggressively thrown away.

Toga settled beside you. She leaned down to your ear. “He’s just trying to tidy up for you. You know how boys are when they show a girl their space,” she whispered.

You really didn’t know how that was. Kobura might have been the first person to directly invite you over to his place. It wasn’t as if you really had a choice in the invite, but you found it odd how Toga had completely bypassed the very abnormal situation by equating it to an average relationship step. You’d never been to a boy’s home before. It wasn’t like a dorm room. This was where Kobura had been living for a long time.

The blindfold was taken off. Kobura took a few steps away from you, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry for the mess. I would have cleaned up more if I knew you’d be here.”

The place was spotless. In fact, you were utterly amazed that someone had so recently broken in. All of Kobura’s things were organized or contained. The apartment room was modern and sleek. You imagined this is what it would look like if there was a room in a laptop. The color scheme of the place did not sway from green, black, and gray. He had a king-sized bed, with gray sheets and green accents. You’d been placed in a high-end computer chair that was black and electric green that sat in front of a hand built computer desktop with three screens. There were bins, labeled and sorted with all kinds of tech. They were pristinely stacked in a far corner. A small mini-fridge with a microwave seemed discarded in a more hidden area of the space behind a contemporary kitchen table and chairs. The only thing that seemed out of place was the wall behind you, which appeared to have been recently painted. There were several tack holes in the wall as if there were thousands of pictures once there and there was a dartboard that was heavily gashed by knife holes.

“It’s not much, I know. I plan to get a bigger space. One where I can have more company, you know? I’m very aware that this place is more like a Bachelor’s pad,” Kobura tried to explain himself. “I used to have a flat screen too, but you can imagine what happened to that.”

You continued to survey the large apartment in awe. He said it wasn’t much, but everything in the room looked expensive and was clearly bought with his aesthetic in mind. You could only imagine what was there before the break-in because the apartment was complete, as if it was meant for a magazine.

Kobura’s face was flush with embarrassment. He cleared his throat as you’d turned to his extensive keyboard that flashed different colors of the rainbow. You forced down the impulse to press a key. You peered back at Kobura, gulping. It was a lot to take in at once, but you weren’t here to admire his home décor.

Kobura handed you a pile of clean clothes. “I don’t have anything small enough for you, but at least it will be clean. If it’s okay with you, I was going to ask that Toga help you in the bathroom. I wouldn’t want you to fall. Once you’re done in there, you can come out here, and I’ll do what I can for some of the more serious wounds.”

“O-okay,” you said unsteadily. What were you doing? Only moments before, you were mortified by Kobura’s actions and now you were obediently following his orders? You clenched your knees tightly, looking to the floor. He killed people. He murdered someone who was begging for their life.

“Anna?” Toga asked. “You’re looking pale again. Do you feel lightheaded?”

You blinked, shaking your head. You snatched the clothes out of Kobura’s hands. You made a move to sprint to the bathroom, only to feel your own body betray you. Your knees buckled with your next step. Kobura snagged you by the waist before you fell, holding you tightly to his chest to support your body.

“Don’t move too fast. You need to be easy on yourself. You’re lucky that you’re still conscious with the wounds you sustained,” Kobura said with his breath brushing the edge of your ear.

You flushed. Once you’d gained your footing, you pulled away from him, throwing his hands off of you. Kobura didn’t reach out for you as you stormed toward the bathroom.

“I wouldn’t take it too hard on yourself, Doku. She’s been through a lot today,” Toga whispered.

Had you had more energy, you might have argued with her. Instead, you continued forward, knowing that time was of the essence to make it back to the School Festival. You paused in front of the enormous rain shower that was complete with extra jets. There were about four different knobs to turn on the shower, and you were scared to pick any of them.

Toga and Kobura were still talking quietly outside the bathroom. You wondered if you’d ruined your chances for help, until you heard the scrape of a chair from room over. Moments later, Toga came in carrying one of the kitchen chairs with her.

“What are you doing with that?” you asked her.

“Kobura said it was okay to bring this in the shower with you. It will be easier on you to sit down.” Toga shut the door behind her, locking it. “So he doesn’t get any ideas,” she said jokingly. She opened the large glass shower door, setting the chair inside.

“I-Isn’t that expensive? And, part of the dining set?” you asked.

Toga waved her hand dismissively toward the questions. “A chair is less important than your safety, Anna,” she said, her voice echoing off of the natural stone walls. She leaned forward, checking the knobs suspiciously. “I’m pretty sure it’s this one.” Toga let out an unearthly squeal as she turned the knob, and she was blasted by the jets in front of her. “Cold! Too cold! Shit!” She shut off the water, cursing under her breath. She turned on the correct one next and then slipped out of the shower, before she could be drenched further. “I’ll busy myself with prepping the first aid kit, so you won’t need to worry about me watching. Towels are there. Take your time. Kobura said to use the two bottles with flowers for your hair, and…” Toga scratched her head in thought. “…he also told me to apologize for the manly smelling soap. Let me know if you need a hand.” She smiled brightly at you, before she went to retrieve the medical kit from beneath the sink.

You watched Toga for a moment to see if she was being truthful about leaving you alone. Once she began laying things out over the sink, you felt comfortable enough to get in the shower. You went as quickly as your aching body would allow. You winced whenever you got close enough to a wound. There was a lot of blood, so much so you kept your eyes up. When you were done, you stood up from the chair and shut off the shower. You dried off as best as you could, having difficulty bending too much. You slipped on the loose fitting pants and sweatshirt that Kobura had provided, thankful to be out of that sacrificial white dress that was stained with blood.

“I’m done,” you said softly, shivering in place.

Toga spun back toward you, giving you a toothy grin. “Okay. Mind if I take a look at your chest wound?”

Thankfully, the cut on your chest was only a surface wound. The dress had taken the brunt of the lash, but it was still severe enough to need bandages. Toga applied them fast and efficiently. She checked your face next, gently tilting up your chin into the light. You winced when her fingertip skimmed what you could only assume was a fresh bruise.

Toga frowned. “I can’t believe she punched you while your hands were tied. I can cover this up with some makeup, but you’ll need to be careful not to wipe it off. It’s going to be difficult to hide the swelling, let alone the bruise, after it begins to heal.”

Toga was gentle when she applied the foundation, but it still stung. Looking in the mirror, you could hardly tell there was anything abnormal with your face. Toga had been right though, if you looked hard enough you could see the raised area of the bruise itself. You would need to take care to hide your face for a while. That was easier said than done when you had Bakugo as a classmate.

Toga wrinkled her nose at checking your leg. You knew that was going to be the worst of the wounds. It’s where most of the blood was leaving your body too, even if you’d left the shirt tied around your thigh. The longer the cut was left untreated the more dangerous it was for you. Still, she left it be as it was, telling you she was going to wait for Kobura to check it first.

Toga helped you out of the bathroom. You staggered, despite trying your best to seem fine. You were having a hard time keeping it together. Toga assisted you back into Kobura’s gaming chair. She rolled up your pant leg.

Kobura had changed into a fresh set of clothes, his bare chest no longer exposed to the world. He’d even bandaged up his arm. He knelt down in front of you, looking over the injury in worry, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Toga stood back with her arms crossed, looking just as uneasy.

“Has your quirk stabilized yet? Do you think it’s back in place for certain?” Kobura asked, peering up at you with his attentive green eyes.

“No,” you answered honestly. You’d felt it fluctuating since leaving the abandoned warehouse. There was no telling when it would come back fully.

“I’m scared to use my saliva on you like I’ve done before. You’re going to need stitches.”

Your eyes widened. “Stitches?” you squeaked out.

Kobura nodded solemnly. “If we don’t do something, it’s only going to get worse, and you’ll have to notify a teacher as soon as you make it back. I have experience with making stitches, but I won’t do it if you don’t want me to. It’s your choice.”

Choice? You didn’t have a choice. It was either get found out and ruin the School Festival, or get patched up and deal with it after. The hospital wasn’t an option. Recovery Girl wasn’t an option. Everyone’s hard work would go to waste if an investigation was initiated on what had happened. Eri wouldn’t be able to go to her first festival.

You clenched your fist at your side, biting hard into your lip. “Do it,” you said resolutely. “Please.”

[stillness-in-green]

Ahistorical, Absurd, and Unsustainable (Introduction and Part One)

An Examination of the Mass Arrest of the Paranormal Liberation Front

INTRODUCTION

The title states my premise here: the breezy way My Hero Academia presents and resolves the mass arrest of the Paranormal Liberation Front is ludicrous. If taken as presented and allowed to stand without being further addressed, it serves as a breaking point from which the series will be incredibly hard-pressed to recover. Why, you ask?

From a logistical standpoint, it strains credulity. From an ethical standpoint, it suggests deeply troubling problems with the state of Hero Society. From a thematic standpoint, it unravels whole portions of the narrative’s spine. I’ll be looking at each of these facets in turn to discuss the questions they raise which My Hero Academia has not yet seen fit to answer. Many in fandom don’t seem to be thinking about it too hard, so I’d like to lay out—in exhaustive detail—all the reasons I find this plot element so wildly out of touch with causal reality.

Please note that while they are discussed when relevant, this essay is not principally about the named characters in the League of Villains or the erstwhile high command of the Metahuman Liberation Army. The sorts of consequences Shigaraki Tomura or Re-Destro would and should be facing in a courtroom are orders of magnitude beyond what Random Liberation Warrior X would be, but it’s the mass numbers of Random Liberation Warrior Xs that this essay is most concerned with, as they are the ones most in danger of being swept under a rug and forgotten by the series in its current state.

Further, be advised that this essay in its full form is both very long (about 21K words excluding Sources and Further Reading) and will contain extensive discussion of real-life Japan—comparisons to historical events, minutiae of its legal and carceral systems, and general cultural views on criminality. This will include references to imprisonment, government oppression, and incidents of terrorism both real and in the context of My Hero Academia.

Being as it is about quite a recent event in the series, it will also contain heavy spoilers all the way up through the most recent chapter as of this writing, Chapter 310. It likewise contains spoilers for the spin-off series My Hero Academia: Vigilantes up through Chapter 95.

The essay will be posted in parts on tumblr and in full on AO3. For the tumblr posting, I will provide links to other tumblr posts as I reference them; however, as I would like this to actually show up in the tags, outside links containing my sources and further reading will be provided in a separate post following the conclusion of the essay.

Lastly, I spent an entire month writing this as a fan who is sympathetic to the villains in general and the MLA in particular. If your response to the very concept of this essay is anything to the tune of, “Who cares what happens to a bunch of disgusting quirk eugenicists?” know that you and I have radically different views on the MLA, and the role of the justice system in general. You are, of course, welcome to read the essay anyway, but, having said my piece about the MLA and their relationship with quirk supremacy elsewhere, I will not be engaging with arguments or gotchas on that subject here.

PART ONE: The Facts at Hand

Before we get too deep into things, let’s lay out the basic facts: how many people are actually involved in the arrest, as well as some comparisons to real-life events to contextualize that number and provide some referents for the issues the arrest raises.

Re-Destro gives the numbers of the Metahuman Liberation Army as 116,516. A lot of people go on to die in Deika, though we’re never given a solid count. The biggest batch we see killed in a single go are the press of sixty or so people Shigaraki decays, then the sixteen-ish Toga drops, though some of those might possibly have had quirks that allowed them to survive. Any number of people certainly died as well simply in the moments we didn’t see, and who even knows how many were caught in the radius of Shigaraki’s last attack.

Further, there may well have been a measure of organization bleed when the MLA became the PLF (though I imagine trying to leave was a very dangerous proposition, giving an additional reason to stick it out on top of the general cult-like mindset the MLA displays); likewise, I find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t have been some deaths at the Gunga Villa, be it from Gigantomachia’s departure, Geten cutting loose, or combatants—be they hero or comrade—overcompensating somewhat in the middle of a chaotic melee.

I suspect it’s overestimating the depletion, but for the purposes of simplicity, let us call it 115,000 remaining members at the time of the raid.[1]

We are told that, in all, 16,929 people were captured at the villa—just about 17,000. 132 escaped in the confusion; this is a fairly negligible number, save for the fact that it includes high-ranking advisors, but not Machia and those of the Front that were with him.

We are further told, and I quote, “Their bases scattered around the country were hit too, and the sympathizers rounded up.” Horikoshi did not provide any solid numbers for this,[2] but if we’re to assume that it is just the rest of the group (more on the logistics of that bit of spycraft later), “the sympathizers” would be 98,000 additional people.

However, 98,000 may be a significant underestimation. It’s based, after all, on a number Re-Destro cites to describe “warriors lying in wait, ready to rise to action.” This begs the question: is Re-Destro quoting the entire membership of the group, or only those who actually are ready to take action? In other words, does his number account for non-combatants? Is he counting young children? I tend to assume the MLA doesn't have a retirement age as such,[3] but if they do, does his number account for the elderly?

How many more people might be “sympathizers” to the PLF insomuch as they are e.g. the six-month-old infant daughter of an MLA couple? What about the ninety-year-old man in the retirement home whose only real act of war these days is tying up the phone line at City Hall to complain about repressive quirk use laws? How about the fired-up fifteen-year-old that was going to get their official code name next month, just in time to join the first wave of attacks? If he’s being literal in his usage of “warrior,” the actual count of the MLA could easily be twice as high as the number he actually gives.

But okay, maybe Re-Destro’s number does include absolutely everyone. Maybe he’s just being rhetorical—maybe, in his mind, even the six-month-old is waiting to rise to action; she’s just going to have to wait a bit longer than the rest, is all. For simplicity’s sake, let’s stick with the numbers we have: a low-end of 17,000, a high-end of 115,000, captured not merely in a single day, but allegedly in the span of a few hours.

I’m sure I don’t need to stress that that is a lot of people. But how many people is it, practically speaking? Is there a precedent? Anything we can look to for guidance on how this kind of thing would go in real life?

Comparative Analogues

The PLF is tricky to categorize for the purposes of real-life comparison, especially compared to how they’re treated in-universe. In some lights, they resemble a protest movement; in others, a terrorist group. Just looking at the way the government reacts to them—and certainly in terms of their combat capabilities—they might as well be an all-out insurrectionist uprising! Below, I’ll examine a handful of historical incidents that cover that spectrum; they will continue to provide useful reference points throughout the rest of this essay.

The March 15 Incident

In the first half of the 20th century, Japan saw a huge uptick in socialist and communist activity, much to the general dismay of the ruling powers. In response, they passed a series of laws commonly referred to as the Peace Preservation Laws, designed to better enable authorities to suppress political dissent and freedom of speech, particularly that of leftists and labor movements.

The Japanese Communist Party was founded in 1922, but outlawed in 1925. This merely drove members underground, however, from which position they pointed supporters towards the numerous other parties with more legally tolerated leftist policies that had cropped up in the wake of the JCP’s dissolution. Following the February 1928 General Election (the first in Japan held with universal male suffrage), those parties supported by the JCP saw enormous gains in representation in Japan’s National Diet. Alarmed, the Prime Minister declared the mass arrest of known communists and suspected communist sympathizers. Accordingly, on March 15, 1,600 people were arrested throughout Japan.

Over the course of twenty years, some 70,000 people would be arrested under the auspices of the Peace Preservation Laws, the majority of them in 1925 through 1936. The laws would eventually be repealed by American occupation forces after WWII, and the JCP allowed to operate openly once again.

The Rice Riots

In 1918, an inflation spiral had driven the price of rice out of control, exacerbating economic insecurity and hardship. Farmers were being paid a pittance of the market value of their crop by rice buyers and government agents, while urban consumers were being charged an exorbitant price for the staple food, as well as a great many other consumer goods, and their own rents. In response, a series of riots ripped across Japan in late July through September. Beginning with peaceful protesting in a small fishing town in Toyama Prefecture, the unrest escalated to involve riots, strikes, looting, even bombing in demonstrations that reached major cities like Tokyo and Osaka. The scope was and remains unprecedented in modern Japanese history, seeing some 25,000 people arrested.

The Sarin Gas Attacks

If you’ve heard of any of them, it’s probably this one. On March 20, 1995, members of the cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on five different Tokyo Metro trains in the middle of morning rush hour. Thirteen people were killed and over 5500 injured, about a fifth of them moderately to severely so. If not for small errors in the production of the gas and the rudimentary distribution method thereof, loss of life might easily have been catastrophically higher.

Aum Shinrikyo was a doomsday cult, but the motives for that particular attack were much baser than bringing about the Apocalypse: at the time, the organization was under police investigation for its involvement in the kidnapping of a public official. Its leader, Asahara Shoukou, hoped that the attack would divert police’s attention from a planned raid.

It did not do so; police executed raids on numerous of the cult’s compounds, arresting many of its senior members both immediately and over the course of the following months as the investigation unfolded. In all, over 200 members were arrested of an organization that counted its membership prior to the attack as numbering 11,000 people in Japan.[4]

The February 26 Incident

There have been a significant number of uprisings and violent protests in Japan’s modern history; when looking for a representative example, I focused my attention on the military coups of the 1930s and 40s, largely because they took place in what was closest to the modern Japanese legal context.[5] Of that subset, I chose the February 26 Incident for the severity of the government response. The others disintegrated before they could be properly carried out or were met with sympathy for the dissidents despite the obvious illegality of their actions. The February 26 Incident, however, was when they finally became too troublesome to dismiss, and the Emperor himself ran out of patience.

In this period, the Japanese military had become drastically factionalized into two main groups—an ultra-nationalist group, largely powered by a group of young officers, which supported the Emperor and wanted to purge Japan of Western influences, and a more moderate group mainly defined by their opposition to the above faction.[6] Occurring in 1936, the February 26 Incident involved the young officers, believing that they had tacit approval from higher-ranked officers of their own faction, launching assassination attempts against the nationalists’ most prominent enemies in the government (six assorted Ministers and former Ministers in the Emperor’s Privy Council and the Diet) and a bid to seize control of the administrative center of the capital and the Imperial Palace, after which they planned to demand the dismissal of more officers and the selection of a new Cabinet.

The seven ringleaders had convinced eighteen other officers to lend their forces to the attempted coup, a total of around 1,500 men, calling themselves the Righteous Army. Several of their assassination attempts failed, however, and while they succeeded at taking the Prime Minister’s residence and the Ministry of War, they did not manage to secure the Palace. The outraged Cabinet demanded the Emperor take a hard line with the rebels, and by the 29th, the Righteous Army was surrounded by 20,000 government troops and 22 tanks. In this hopeless situation, the officers dismissed their troops; two committed suicide (a third attempted it unsuccessfully) and the remainder were arrested by military police.

International Examples

For obvious reasons, I prefer to limit my examples to events that happened in Japan. However, I will also be briefly referring to a few international incidents of mass arrest, taking place in India, the U.S., and Egypt, respectively.

In the following parts, I'll use these facts and comparative analogues to take a closer look at what readers were told became of the Paranormal Liberation Front.

Part Two

-----------------------------------------------------

Footnotes (Part One)—

[1] Over three months’ time, they likely gained some new blood also, simply in the course of their usual recruitment tactics. You don’t get an underground organization that size by sitting back and waiting for people to come to you, after all. I don’t know a practical way to calculate that, though, so just bear it in mind for when I talk about new members later.

[2] Possibly because he was aware that 17,000 people captured in one fell swoop was difficult enough to swallow without adding on more than five times that number.

[3] We do, after all, see some very aged people fighting in the streets of Deika.

[4] They were considerably more international than you may have heard. They had 50,000 members at the time, some 30,000 of them based in Russia.

[5] The Meiji Constitution was ratified in 1889; universal suffrage (for men) was granted in 1925. The modern constitution was enacted in 1947.

[6] More moderate, mind, in the context of the Imperial Japanese military. Neither of these factions had any time whatsoever for leftist movements, hence all those suppressive crackdowns.

[sarahjtv]

BNHA Chapter 310 Spoiler Thoughts: “The First and Second Holders”

Some fan translations are out and it’s time to flex some thoughts out again!  I couldn’t do them last night because I didn’t have all the scan images with me and I didn’t want to jump the gun with only text descriptions.  Anyway, this was mainly an exposition chapter that properly introduces us to the second and third OFA Holders, especially the 2nd and what his relationship to the 1st is.  This might not be as long as others “Spoiler Thoughts” I’ve written, but let’s see:

First off, we have a colored cover page by Horikoshi-sensei himself!  It’s a solo page featuring Vigilante Deku and he looks badass!  Deku looks ready to kick ass and take names.  And, his Mid-Gauntlet is colored red like a lot of us thought and it adds to the theory that Melissa Shield did create it like she did with Deku’s Full-Gauntlet back in Two Heroes.

The chapter starts in a dark and rainy night.  A large woman (she’s like maybe 10ft tall; she’s taller than All Might who I think is 7ft) with a mutant-type quirk who’s getting attacked by some civilians because they think she’s a villain.  Deku jumps in to stop the attacks and the woman explains that she was just trying to go to one of the evacuation centers at a hero school.  Deku is kind enough to give her her umbrella back and reassure her that things will be ok.  

I gotta say that this whole situation is scarily close to real life right now.  I don’t like getting too political, but we live in a scary world where discrimination is, unfortunately, alive and well...  If you are a POC, you can be attacked from anywhere with the only reason being that “you’re a danger because of the skin you were born with”. It’s horrific, it’s disgusting, and it’s been around for a long time.  Even in the BNHA universe, there used to be cults solely dedicated to discriminating against mutant-type people (we learned this back in the My Villain Academia Arc).  So, like in the real world, this problem has risen again.  Thankfully, there are people like Deku and All Might who are more than willing to help someone in need regardless of who they are.  BNHA hits too close to home sometimes.  

Anyway, going back to the BNHA story.  Before All Might leaves to help the woman in his Batmobile, he hands Deku some Pork Katsu in a cute bento box wrapped in a bunny cloth!  Deku is visibly happy and thanks All Might for the meal.  This is so cute!  I’m so glad to see that All Might is making sure that Deku is being properly taken care of.  Boy needs to eat if he’s going to save the world.  I’m also glad that Deku can still show signs of happiness despite, well, everything.  I swear, if All Might doesn’t legally adopt Deku as his son by the time this series is over, I’m going to jump into this manga and force him to sign those documents myself. 

The next panel shows Deku standing on what looks like Tokyo’s famous Sky Tree (or Sky Egg if we’re going off what Vigilantes showed us).  He’s back to talking to the OFA Holders like they’re angels on his shoulders.  Banjo talks about how it’s like the world’s reverted back in time when things were worse and Deku responds that if he doesn’t use all of OFA’s power, he’ll never be able to defeat Shigaraki and AFO.  I know we’re in the final act, so Deku’s gotta get to 100% fast if he wants to win this war.  Last we checked, he was at 45%, but he might be at a higher percentage now since he’s unlocked En’s Smokescreen.  Also, Deku’s looking more and more like Batman each chapter and I gotta say that it really suits him.

Back to the Vestige Dream back when Deku was still in a coma after the war.  The 1st Holder begs the 2nd and 3rd to corporate with him so that they can provide their power to Deku.  The 1st calls the 2nd and 3rd “My Heroes” which causes some awkward silence lol.  Neither one is responding, so Banjo breaks the silence by suggesting that Deku learn everyone’s Quirks so that he’ll get used to them once he starts using them.  We learn why the 2nd and 3rd are the 1st’s heroes soon, but it’s actually a good idea for Deku to learn about all these different Quirks while he’s sleeping so that he’ll get a good idea on how to execute them when he wakes up.  It’s kind of a way of training for Deku just without actually using the Quirks themselves.  

The 3rd Holder (the one with the spiky ponytail and headband) starts to talk.  He says that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd came from the “Harshest era of history”.  It was a time where AFO ruled all and peaked in power and control.  He was going to take over the whole world if the first 3 Holders didn’t step in to stop him.  My guess is that after AFO was defeated for the first time, society started to calm down and become more or less the world we knew before the War Arc.  So, things weren’t as bad during the 4th Holder’s era and so forth.  This would explain why Shinomori was able to hide in the forest for so long without being detected.  

And now the big part of the chapter: the 2nd Holder.  Who does in fact look A LOT like Bakugo.  Big difference is that he has a massive scar across his face.  I am aware of the whole “time travel” theory that people have going on with Bakugo and this dude, but I’m not on that train.  Instead, I think that the 2nd Holder is one of Bakugo’s ancestors.  Like, a really, really-great-grandfather.  Horikoshi doesn’t just design his characters for no reason.  The fact that the 2nd user looks so much like Bakugo, has a costume similar to Bakugo’s, and that future panels in this chapter straight up parallel that iconic scene with young Bakugo and Deku in the river only add fuel to this fire.  Unless Horikoshi says otherwise, this is the theory I’m sticking to: this “Ancestor” theory.

And we know of the 1st user’s real name now too, which is Yoichi!  If Horikoshi is keeping up with the “numbers in names” theme, then I’m positive that Yochi has the kanji for “One” somewhere in it.  And, if we’re going to believe AFO at all, then that means that the 1st user’s full name is Yoichi Shigaraki.  We don’t know AFO’s full name yet.  But, again, AFO could be lying with his last name, so I’m taking this one with a grain of salt.

Back to the 2nd Holder, he tells Yoichi that a lot of lives were sacrificed in order to stop AFO back then.  He believes that there is only victory or defeat in battle; that there’s no hope of saving their archenemy.  He has doubt about putting his faith in Deku because of this.  Given how the 3rd Holder still has his back turned too, I’m lead to believe that he also thinks Deku is crazy for wanting to save Shigaraki.  I don’t exactly blame them.  Really, none of us know if Deku will be successful in saving Shigaraki.  He might have to kill him in the end.  I think they should offer Deku help, but I don’t blame them for being at least a little skeptical.  

But, Yoichi reminds the 2nd and 3rd users that they saved Yoichi back when AFO locked him up to die.  They found Yoichi with the intention to kill him it seems, but the 2nd Holder showed sympathy for Yoichi and lent him a helping hand despite Yoichi being AFO’s little brother.  This is the parallel panel I was talking about.  Yoichi is kneeling down on the floor and the 2nd user is standing up extending his hand to help Yoichi.  I don’t even need to look back in the manga to know what inspired this.  Hell, I don’t even need to tell you!  We all know what Horikoshi was doing when he drew and wrote this.

Yoichi convinces him that he should believe in Deku as Yoichi does think Deku will save the day.  If the 2nd user didn’t extend his hand to help Yoichi, OFA wouldn’t have begun.  I think that the trust between these two is ultimately the reason why the 2nd user finally agreed to help Deku; the same with the 3rd user too.  And, kind of a tangent, but I really like how Horikoshi draws Yoichi and the 2nd user’s hands as they’re reaching for each other.  Horikoshi has always been really good with drawing hands like they’re facial expressions (something my ass could never do 😭) and this one shows kindness and empathy.  It’s almost like what would’ve happened if Bakugo accepted Deku’s hand for help when they were young instead of letting his pride and ego get in the way.  Oh, the parallels! 

Finally, the 2nd user speaks in present day telling Deku that they’re going full speed ahead now.  My guess is that Deku’s going to have to improve on OFA and the rest of his Quirks quickly in order to find and beat the LoV.  We are in the Final Act after all.  The chapter ends at a good place if we want to switch to the UA kids, which is honestly what I’m hoping for.  Again, I love Deku and his Vigilante adventures, but I miss the rest of the kids.  The new BNHA Exhibition in Japan apparently has a giant drawing of the main class, All Might, Aizawa, and Shinso in his new hero costume!  Which tells me that 1. Shinso probably took Deku’s place in the class for the time being, and 2. We’re definitely going to see the other kids again.  I’m hoping soon.  But, I wouldn’t be surprised if Horikoshi decided to continue focusing on Deku’s Vigilanteism and have him practice with he 2nd and 3rd Holder’s Quirks now that they’re working with him.  We’ll just have to see.

So, that’s it!  Solid chapter overall.  I’m glad we finally got to see the 3rd and 2nd Holder’s faces.  I think the “Kirishima is the 3rd Holder” theroy has been debunked at this point, but I’m still on the “2nd Holder is Bakugo’s ancestor” train.  The similarities and parallels are too strong for me to deny it.  Horikoshi-sensei, please confirm or deny soon 🙏.  We are getting break next week for Golden Week BTW!  All of Shonen Jump is actually, so no One Piece or JJK either (I’m not sure about Jump+, so we might still be getting some Spy X Family for example).  So, basically all our favorite mangakas are getting a well-deserved break as they should!  I hope they enjoy their vacation!  Waiting’s going to suck tho, I’m ngl about that...  Oh well, I’m willing to take the sacrifice if it means having healthy mangka.  Thankfully, we still have the anime and the new exhibition to tide us over until then.

Edit: OR NOT SINCE THE EXHIBITION IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED BECAUSE OF A CERTAIN PANDEMIC GOING NUTS IN JAPAN AFTER ONLY BEING OPEN FOR 2 DAYS 😭 

Edit: I went back to re-read the chapter and I completely missed the date for the next chapter (chapter 311) which is set to release on May 9th!  So, we’re actually getting a 2 week break instead.  Damn...  Sucks for us, but it’s good for mangaka to get breaks when they can especially considering their absolutely insane schedule.

Me reading this chapter:

[bnhaven]

Dad Snipe AU (because I can)

Okay, listen. Just...just give me a second to explain myself, okay? Great, thanks. 

So I love parental All Might stories, and stories where Aizawa becomes a dadzawa for his problem child (which leads to Present Mic also becoming a paternal figure for Izuku, which is a blessed idea), and all of those. But you know what I love even more?

If all of that happens, but Izuku’s dad is actually Snipe. Yes, Snipe. 

Let me explain the story in my head, because it’s a doozy.

-So, to start, let me explain how I got the idea. It’s simple, really- canon hasn’t given me a reason not to get the idea. I mean, we’ve yet to find out Snipe’s real name, so it’s fair game to call him Hisashi Midoriya until Horikoshi himself rips this idea out of my cold, hopefully not dead hands. 

-We also never see his face, and the dreadlocks could either 1. Be a wig or 2. Just be his hair, but the blue-ish shade is what caused the darker coloration for Izuku’s hair. Who knows anymore, the world these heroes live in is a really weird one.

-Now, Snipe may not breathe fire, but shhh. Maybe Inko was lying to the doctor or something, because if she said, “My husband can control the trajectory of any and all of the bullets he shoots”, well, that could’ve given away the identity of her husband! Maybe the Midoriya family doesn’t want to broadcast who Hisashi is.

-Also, having a father with such a Quirk could explain why Izuku is Quirkless (or, in this case, potentially ‘Quirkless’). It’s not like Inko would just let little Izuku play with a gun to see if he could shoot as well as his dad, or anything! So boom, the little joint test is enough, brush it aside, Dad!Snipe explanation over.

Got it? Great! Now, onto the bullshit story idea I came up with, or as I like to call it:

How Snipe Accidentally Ghosted his Family for a Decade, because He is Too Goddamn Dumb Sometimes.

Buckle up folks, and hold your horses a little tighter, because we’re going for a ride.

-So Snipe goes to Texas when Izuku is just a small boy, just barely a toddler. He’s really serious about his whole cowboy aesthetic, and pulls an All Might by working abroad for what he plans to be a few years, but might become five or six if he finds a good agency to work with in the meanwhile.

-Lo and behold, he does!! Nice, nice, Snipe relays the message to his dear wife Inko, lets her know that he’ll be gone for a while- but it’s okay, he plans to call her every chance he gets, make sure she’s doing well with their little boy, and life will be good.

-Things, uh...don’t go as planned.

-Snipe blames it all on a snake. A goddamn snake that decided to hide in his goddamn boot. There was a snake in his boot, what was he expected to do?

Probably not throwing his phone at the thing, breaking it, but uh...Snipe panicked. A lot.

-No problem, right? He’s a Pro Hero, he makes plenty of money, he can just get a new phone, plug in his old number, and all of that stuff. Easy as can be.

-Haha...no. 

-Because Snipe is a fool. A fool who can’t remember any of his passwords for his phone, or the answers to any backup questions. 

-He’s a great hero, he’s excellent at marksmanship...but the man just can’t remember these things to save his life.

-He can’t even remember his wife’s phone number to call her about it (and beg for the passwords because he just can not manage to recall them)

-Snipe is just glad that Inko is the one who set up his bank accounts so he’d automatically send money to their shared account, or else he’d feel awful.

-Figuring that the best thing to do in this situation is to just keep on truckin’ along, Snipe continues working at the Texas agency until it’s time for him to head back home.

But the fun doesn’t stop here, because…

-By the time Snipe yeehaws his way back to Japan, that man realizes that he can’t even recall what his address was. 

-He ends up working at Yuuei, because he was aimlessly wandering around, trying to find Musutafu.

-By the time Nedzu finds him, he’s so embarrassed that he just...can’t bring himself to admit that he forgot literally everything he needed to get back to his house.

-The conversation for the job starts a little like this…

Nedzu: Why were you wandering around Yuuei for over forty minutes?

Snipe, unwilling to admit that he couldn’t remember if he had to go east or west to reach his house: I saw a little doggie. Very cute.

Nedzu: That was probably me, but I digress.

(For the record, Snipe had to go south to start his route home…)

-Some good news: After working at Yuuei for a few years, he finally sees his boy again!!

-Some bad news: it's the USJ attack

-Snipe bursts into the USJ, sees that green haired silhouette and just knows it is his boy, even if it’s been somewhere around a decade since he saw his little sprout and his boy is now stronger and taller.

Snipe, seeing Shigaraki about to hit his child: Villain, you just yeed your last haw 

Snipe: shoots Shigaraki in the hand.

-After USJ, we have more fun, with some lovely dialogue I came up with like:

Snipe, sitting with Aizawa: So, hypothetically of course, if I was to say something like, I don’t know… ‘You’re in charge of my long lost child, who I couldn’t get in contact with ‘cause I couldn’t remember mah wife’s phone number’...how would you recommend starting the conversation with him?

Aizawa, mummified, tired, and already realizing that this child is the problem childTM: I need a drink.

Snipe, a fool: Are...are ya sure I should start off with that?

-Despite this totally hypothetical conversation, it isn’t until finals that Snipe brings it up. 

-Nedzu pits Snipe against Izuku and Todoroki, and it’s beautiful.

-Snipe pulls an ‘I am your father’ moment like in Star Wars, both Izuku and Todoroki promptly flip their shit.

Snipe: Izuku, I am your father.

Izuku: I thought you were dead!

Todoroki: I thought you were All Might’s child!

-Needless to say, the fight ends quickly, because Izuku goes a little feral. 

Izuku, pinning Snipe to the ground: What excuse do you have for ghosting mom for years, huh?

Snipe, sobbing: I forgot my phone number!

-Izuku drags Snipe back to the house once finals are over. 

-Inko...isn’t even surprised when she hears what happened.

-She just sighs and goes, “Do I need to tattoo my number onto you, Hisashi?”

-Snipe wonders if it’s worth the potential security risk, he doesn’t want her getting tracked down and hurt after all.

-There’s a long conversation about microchipping Snipe, so if he disappears again, Izuku can just hunt him down and drag him back home again.

-And voila! Snipe is reunited with his family, the dad fluff can commence.

Snipe: I’mma give him a gun.

Inko, tired: At least he’ll be hurting others instead of himself for once.

-1-A is horrified.

Their precious green bean, wielding a gun?!?!?!?

-It’s made worse when he’s a natural at it, just going feral and having fun with his dad.

-Finally, because I promised more parental figures along with actual, biological Snipe, please consider:

-All Might getting upset because Snipe is stealing ‘his boy’.

Aizawa, trying to be reasonable: All Might, Midoriya is literally Snipe’s child.

All Might, petulantly: But...but he’s my boy.

-For extra humor, make Aizawa also feel like the problem child is his problem child for extra parental jealousy.

-Need more chaos??? Yamada thought he and Aizawa were adopting Izuku for some reason.

Don’t ask how Yamada came to this conclusion, but he is heartbroken when he finds out his almost completed adoption forms were for nothing.

Yamada, sadly: I thought Inko was his older sister...and he didn’t even have a dad!

-Just...Izuku having a dumbass dad and the other potential dads being put off by the realization that Snipe, Snipe, gets actual Dad Rights but somehow lost contact for like...10 entire years.

-Okay rant over, bye.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 322: IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME

Previously on BnHA: Endeavor was all, “Kirishima please take Hagakure and Aoyama and put them away somewhere out of sight until we’re finally ready for the U.A. Traitor Plot.” Shouto was all “HEY DEKU DID IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT MAYBE YOU WANDERING THE STREETS LOOKING LIKE A GOTH PRAYING MANTIS IS EXACTLY WHAT AFO WANTS.” Deku was all “I’M SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF MY CRUSHING MARTYR COMPLEX AND ACCUMULATED TRAUMA.” Mineta was all “HEY DEKU YOU SWEET THANG, IF I COULD REARRANGE THE ALPHABET I’D PUT ‘U’ AND ‘I’ TOGETHER, ANYWAYS HMU 💖”, or at least that’s what fandom apparently thought he said. Everyone was all “WELL SINCE WE’RE BACK HERE IN KAMINO WE SHOULD DO THE THING” and did the whole “launching someone into the air to save someone by dramatically grabbing their hand” thing that everybody fucking loves to do in Kamino so damn much. Iida was all “[bombards me and Deku with feels].” Deku was all, “ू(ʚ̴̶̷́ .̠ ʚ̴̶̷̥̀ ू).” I was all, “(;*△*;).” Horikoshi was all, “my work here is done.”

Today on BnHA: 

oh my god.

so I finally went back to look at what I wrote up for 321 last week, and it’s a hot fucking mess lol, and I really don’t want to deal with that right now, so we’re just gonna skip it and go back sometime in the next few days or something because I really want to read the new chapter and I have no self control. I’M SORRY IIDA

oh my god he’s breaking out the narration word bubbles oh my god. shit is about to get epic isn’t it

has there ever been a chapter that opened with these that WASN’T epic? serious question. anyways all aboard the Feels Express I guess

YEP

I saved a bunch of other crying kaomojis when I was looking for ones to use in the “previously on” summary, and right now it’s looking like that was a good fucking decision you guys. if I’m going to be an emotional wreck I might as well do it in style ʕ ಡ ﹏ ಡ ʔ

AND BY THE WAY!!

SHOULD I JUST THANK HORIKOSHI NOW AND SAVE MYSELF SOME TIME LATER. THE MAN ALWAYS FUCKING DELIVERS WHAT ELSE CAN I FUCKING SAY GODDAMN. IS IT TOO EARLY TO DECLARE THIS MY NEW FAVORITE CHAPTER? I SHOULD PROBABLY READ FURTHER THAN ONE PAGE BUT I’VE JUST GOT A FEELING

(ETA: it’s like. maybe my second favorite lol. A HUG WOULD HAVE PUT IT IN FIRST, I’M JUST SAYING.)

anyway so Ochako is releasing Iida, which is actually hilarious, because idk if you all know this but Iida can’t fucking fly you guys

like, I assume Ochako released him because she already knew that Kirishima was in place to catch him, but I really love this split-second of panic on Iida’s part where he’s all “HMM, IS OCHAKO TRYING TO KILL ME, ACTUALLY”

LOL THERE’S A THOOM AND EVERYTHING

that’s some plus fucking ultra on Ochako’s part right there. “IF THEY DIE THEY DIE” goddamn girl did you leave your chill in the same locker as Momo or what

now poor Kiri is all “DAMMIT DEKU ARE YOU PASSED OUT OR WHAT, I DIDN’T GET TO TELL YOU MY THING GODDAMMIT”

oh my gosh he is curled up so small you guys oh my fucking lord

RESIDUAL “LOST CHILD” FEELS FROM LAST WEEK COMING IN FOR A LANDING!! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR SEATBACKS AND TRAY TABLES ARE IN THEIR UPRIGHT POSITIONS OMG ( ˚͈͈͈͈̥̆ ₍₎ ˚͈͈͈͈̥̆ )

LMAO IIDA IS TRYING TO CONFIRM THAT OCHAKO PLANNED FOR KIRISHIMA TO CATCH HIM, AND KIRISHIMA IS ALL “NOPE I’M JUST HERE BY CHANCE BRO”

Ochako is the U.A. Traitor confirmed. Hagakure I am so sorry I doubted you. Ochako get over here. so are you Toga now or what

anyway so now everyone is running over before Iida can react to this casual announcement of his attempted murder. and now Mina is taking her turn, and Horikoshi is all “HEY BTW IS MINA CRYING ON THE LIST OF THINGS THAT MAKE YOU CRY?” and of fucking course it is, you bastard. I’m not made of stone

( ɵ̥̥ ˑ̫ ɵ̥̥)

SLDKFJLSDKJ:LKWEJ

IS THIS THE PART WHERE I JUST START SCREAMING INCOHERENTLY FOR THE REST OF THE CHAPTER LOL. SURE FEELS LIKE WE ARE GETTING TO THAT TIME

OH MY GOD KACCHAN AHHHHH

I CAN’T OMG LOL I ALREADY GLANCED AT THE NEXT COUPLE OF PANELS, AND HE’S STARTING A WHOLEASS MONOLOGUE ABOUT ALL OF HIS DEKU FEELS AND OH MY GOD

“HERE YOU GO MAKESTE, A WHOLE CHAPTER OF ALL YOUR FAVORITE META TOPICS JUST THE WAY YOU LIKE THEM” THANK YOU HORIKOSHI YOU’RE A BRO (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

SLKASODIFALWKFLKJ

THEY’RE JUST DEKU AND KACCHAN. holy shit you guys. because oh my god, but it’s like when Deku was talking to the Vestiges about saving Tomura, and he turned into his little child self because his heart and intentions were so pure?? and it’s like that again, except that we’re seeing them as their child selves because that’s who they are to each other?? like, not that they actually see each other as children, but just, they can see past all of the stuff on the outside and see each other to their cores, to who they are inside, and when they look at each other they each simply see the other boy that they’ve known their whole entire life. idk?? does that make sense??? DOES ANY OF THIS EVEN MAKE SENSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT WORDS ARE ANYMORE I’M JUST SWIMMING IN FEELS OKAY. I’M TRYING HERE

they’re just boys, is what I’m trying to say, I guess. just Deku and Kacchan. all the walls are down, all the gaps are bridged, and all it is is the one boy reaching out and connecting with the other, and just,,, (꒦ິ⌓꒦ີ)

OH MY GOD [GRABBING YOUR SHOULDERS AND POINTING WORDLESSLY] !!!1LK1

DO YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THIS IS YOU GUYS

HOW PERFECTLY FUCKING RAD. WELL LET ME JUST ENJOY THESE LAST FEW SECONDS BEFORE MY LIFE IS FOREVER CHANGED, I GUESS

OH

MY

GOD

CAN HE EVEN SAY THAT??? IS THAT EVEN LEGAL??? IS HE EVEN FUCKING ALLOWED TO SAY THAT. WHAT IS HAPPENING

OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!

─=≡Σ((( つ ◕o◕ )つ

GET IN HERE, EVERYONE!!

Y’ALL HE REALLY DID IT. “BAKUGOU IS SUCH AN ASSHOLE HE HASN’T EVEN APOLOGIZED” WELL GUESS FUCKING WHAT. GUESS FUCKING WHAT, YOU GUYS!! LET’S FUCKING GOOOOO ((((／￣∇￣)／＼(￣∇￣＼)))) AHHHHHHHHHH

OHHHHHHHH

HEH. I’M ALREADY DEAD, HORIKOSHI, YOU BASTARD. DO YOUR WORST. GO ON

YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON “US”, HE SAYS. ALONG WITH A BUNCH OF OTHER STUFF OMG. KACCHAN, YOU STUDIED!! YOU UNDERSTAND!! PREACH!!

OH NO!!

OH WAIT!!!!

LOL I GOT SCARED THERE FOR A SECOND BUT ANYWAY! EVERYONE GET IN HERE!!! GROUP HUG!!! OR WAIT, NO, WHAT ABOUT -- [GRABS YOUR COLLAR URGENTLY] YOU DON’T THINK -- COULD THEY POSSIBLY -- !!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

ARE YOU GONNA HUG!??!?!?!?! I AM NOT OKAY!!!!!!! !!!hgk

REACTION PANELS LOL EVERYONE ELSE IS ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS TOO WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

LOL OCHAKO

I KNOW THAT IN REALITY THIS FACE IS JUST BECAUSE SHE’S CONCERNED ABOUT DEKU’S FRAGILE STATE RN, BUT I KEEP THINKING ABOUT THE WAY SHE JUST DROPPED IIDA COLD THOUGH, AND I CAN’T HELP BUT FEAR FOR KACCHAN’S SAFETY LMAO. THAT FEELING WHEN THE CLASS PERV AND THE CLASS BULLY BOTH BEAT YOU TO THE LOVE CONFESSION. KACCHAN WATCH YOUR SIX

OKAY BUT LOOK, IT’S NOT THAT I DON’T LOVE ALL OF THE OTHER KIDS, OKAY, BUT CAN WE PLEASE!??!?! HELLO?!?!? MOMO, JUST -- COULD YOU JUST FOR A MINUTE --

NOOOOOOOOOOO

��DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, I HAVE TO SAVE SOMETHING FOR THE FINALE” HORIKOSHI YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, I’M COMING FOR YOU WITH A TWO BY FOUR!! NOT THAT I’M UNGRATEFUL!! BUT JESUS CHRIST, YOU CAN’T JUST DO THAT, AND THEN ALMOST DO THAT, AND THEN NOT!! OMG I HATE YOU

sure let’s cut to Thirteen then, yay. I mean I’m glad they’re alive lol, don’t get me wrong

(ETA: I think that might have sounded a bit sarcastic so I just want to clarify that I really am happy Thirteen is alive and on the job again lol.)

it’s just that if your name doesn’t begin with Baku or Deku I honestly am not interested for just these next five minutes okay lol. like I’m just gonna be completely honest. I am too invested lol, please, they were having a moment, JUST LET ME HAVE THIS PLEASE

OH DAMN U.A. GOT SWOLE AF

THIS SCHOOL HAS BEEN JUICING WTF. I THOUGHT YOU WERE TARTARUS LOL

I’m literally not even reading the speech bubbles though omg I’m so sorry. I really hope there is not a quiz, I promise I will come back to it later scroll scroll scroll

okay so they brought him back to U.A. and he’s all tired and out of it yes

oh goody Hagakure knows all about the security system

(ETA: is it just me or is Horikoshi really laying it on thick with the hints about these two guys lately? I’m on to you sir.)

THAT’S WONDERFUL NEWS. GLAD THIS CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE IS SAFE IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE THAT WE TRUST

ffs Deku

WHAT WILL IT EVEN TAKE TO CONVINCE YOU THEN?? SWEET JESUS

-- holy shit, what??!

they know?? how did they find out??! holy shit???

I’m about to cancel the whole of Japan lmao. fucking try me dudes

-- THE PRINCIPAL!?

NEZU GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!! WHAT THE FUCK

“a ticking time bomb” tell you what, this man is just asking to be punched in the face. literally begging for it omg

(ETA: I have been advised that I misread this part; Rat Principal told everyone how safe U.A. was, but he’s not the one who ratted out Deku; that was “the rumors”, apparently. which, if I had to guess, were probably started by AFO.)

oh I see, so it’s to be Feels, Part II then

he looks so sad and tired and lonely and she goes right for the hand, god bless. though if Kacchan’s not gonna hug him, you’d think someone would at least. or is it because he still smells bad. hmm

AND THE CHAPTER’S ENDING ON HER LOL WELL OKAY THEN

I MEAN IT’S GREAT AND ALL, I LOVE OCHAKO REALLY I DO, BUT WE WERE PROMISED GREAT EXPLOSION MURDER GODS, WHAT GIVES SOB. I WAS ALL READY TO BREAK OUT INTO SONG AND EVERYTHING. SURE, HE DID THE APOLOGY, BUT WHERE IS THE FOLLOW-UP GODDAMMIT

(ETA: just to clarify the reason for my rambling here, I was really waiting for the hero name reveal and the presumed deeper meaning behind it lol. but I guess that is a conversation still to come! and we still need Deku’s response to the apology too for that matter. lots to look forward to still.)

WELL WHATEVER, SO THAT IS THE END OF THE CHAPTER! SHOUT OUT TO MY BOY RAT “LET ME JUST TELL EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD ABOUT DEKU’S SUPER SECRET IDENTITY, I GUESS THAT’S ALL RIGHT NOW, NOTHING BAD COULD POSSIBLY COME OF THIS” PRINCIPAL. listen here you little shit

anyway but if you’ll excuse me... IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME. IF I COULD FIND A WAY. I’D TAKE BACK THOSE WORDS THAT HAVE HURT YOU, AND YOU’D STAY. I DON’T KNOW WHY I DID THE THINGS I DID. I DON’T KNOW WHY I SAID THE THINGS I SAID. PRIDE’S LIKE A KNIFE, IT CAN CUT DEEP INSIDE. WORDS ARE LIKE WEAPONS, THEY WOUND SOMETIMES. BUM~ BUM~ BUM~, I DIDN’T REALLY MEAN TO HURT YOU. BUM~ BUM~ BUM~, I DIDN’T WANNA SEE YOU GO. I KNOW I MADE YOU CRY, BUT BABAY, IF I COULD TUUUUURN BACK TIIIIIIIIIIIME...

[that-bajan-kid]

Boku No Hero Academia Chapter 289 SPOILERS

(IIIIIIIT'SSSSSSSSS SHOOOWTIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMME)

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Is the chapter title another name? Uh names? Also Iida, sweety, I get that you want to return the favour but PLEASE go back. Do not go there. You can't fly. You could die from this. PLEASE HORIKOSHI DON'T TAKE AWAY MY SPEED BABY :(.

We cut back to The Boys and Shouto some how manages to catch Izuku as well and is currently having a panic attack over his dad and two bffs being on death's door. Their all still alive tho so that's good. Someone please help this poor child.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?! TOMURA PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, LEAVE THEM ALONE PLEASE!!!!!! I'm actually hoping he listens to AFO, just this once.

Nejire and Iida picked the absolute perfect time to show up. Well terrible timing really for Iida, who can't fly, since Shiggy is up and really wants to kill people.

They warn everyone about how royally screwed they'll be of they're still here when Giganto shows up. Ooooooo Nejire sees Ryūkyū and she looks pissed. Iida is like "So this is what took you guys so long" but with more panic. Izuku is saying they should all just leave him behind, like self sacrificial idiot he is. Let your friends help you Izu. You literally can't do anything. Tomura looks like some kind of demon.

Speaking of Tomura, he's sounding awfully confident for someone who's regen speed has decrease significantly. I swear fighting him is like fighting the fucking Ender Dragon except the regen boxes can't be destroyed.

SO ANYWAYS BACK TO THE REAL FIGHT

Toga starts talking about why she does what she does and brings that time Curious almost killed her. Damn I haven't thought about Curious since the my villain academia arc. Ochako looks understandably horrified by this and girls start attacking each other.

Wait what happened? Did she get hit?

Oh fuck she took the All Might keychain she got from Deku.

Toga is all "whoops I think you dropped this" and Ochako is all "Hey that's very important to me" and Toga is all " Jin was important to me too, you know"

Now Toga is talking about Ochako's super obvious crush on Izuku and how that makes them the same while Ochako prepares for another surprise attack.

OMG SHE USED HER QUIRK ON HER SURROUNDINGS DURING THE FIGHT. She's calling them Zero Satellites. You love to see it. Ochako yells at Toga to give back the keychain and Toga looks like she about to pull an Ending.

Oh never mind lol. Toga's about to go Plus Ultra.

Oh no Toga's crying. Also TSU TO THE RESCUE.

So Toga dipped and left the keychain behind and is thinking about how she got her answer while looking very depressed about it. Meanwhile Ochako looks kinda concern because she also notice the tears in Toga's eyes.

MEAN FUCKING WHILE

God DAMNIT! They just can't catch a break, can they? Man they're so fucked.

BUCKLE YOU'RE MOTHERFUCKING SEATBELTS PEOPLE, DABI HAS ARRIVED ON SET I REPEAT DABI HAS ARRIVED ON SET

Next chapter better have the Todoroki confrontation from my dreams. Also Endeavour looks like he's gonna keel over any second now. Dabi looks like he's accessing the situation. Mmmmmmmmm I'm vibrating in my seat right now I'm so excited.

Until next time.

[the-powerhouse-of-the-cell]

Drama.

Alright, let’s address the Kiribaku drama.

I had a chat with a moderator from the Kiribaku sub reddit, and they were totally sick of this. These are some of the things we touched:

- Things like this happen pretty often, they’re usually started by anti’s who bring up new accusations and the same screenshots of 3 petitions from a year ago that have already been removed and “call the fandom out” for the third time this year

- The supposed death threats and people spamming his email have no receipts, they’re probably just a hoax made by anti’s

- There are no tweets in Horikoshi’s replies asking for Kiribaku to become canon, just hundreds of tweets telling him not to listen to the supposed spammers

                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~              

After our chat, my post was removed for being unnecessary.

This fandom is fucked.

This drama isn’t helping anybody. Horikoshi hasn’t said anything, although, there are people saying he made it canon, this is false.

Everybody’s tweeting about how much they’re outraged by the “spam”, but most of the tweets are replies to Horikoshi’s twitter. People are making hundreds of identical replies begging him to do something, this is spam and they aren’t even realizing how hypocritical they are being.

There is no proof of death threats, emails, spamming his twitter or of him seeing the petitions (which were most likely a joke), the only thing there is proof of is anti’s spamming his replies with false information.

This scandal is like a bunch of angry blind people shooting a gun all over the place. Everybody is on the same side being angry at a rumor, there isn’t even a culprit. Most people don’t know who they’re angry at, it’s a cesspool of rage, in reality, people are angry at nothing.

Nobody has named any names, nobody knows who they’re angry at.

This is insane please stop spreading all this misinformation, especially if you know it isn’t true and are just trying to fuck with people, stop it, you’re adding fuel to the fire.

Thanks for listening to my hot take on this disaster!

[shotorozu]

hiiii! i was wondering if you could write some headcannons for kirishima, bakugou, and kaminari with a s/o with braces? i got mine on a couple days ago and i’m in quite a bit of pain🧍‍♀️

their s/o gets braces

character(s) : kirishima eijirou, bakugou katsuki, kaminari denki (bnha)

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns used (gender neutral), quirk not specific

headcanon type : fluff, crack if you squint, mainly comfort (x reader)

note(s) : ahh i feel bad for you. it literally felt like my jaw got ripped off by a wendigo when i got braces for the first time. anyways, it’ll feel so satisfying once you can eat again!

»»————-　♡　————-««

kirishima eijirou

he was told to get his teeth fixed when he was younger, but he heard how painful it was— so he never actually went through with it.

moving aside that, he immediately goes to find you when he finds out that you’re out from the dentist

and oh— you have braces now.

“does it hurt?” he asks, when he glides through the soup isle. he doesn’t know why it hurts, but he heard that it helps.

“nope.”

but it did hurt. precisely, it felt like your jaw got bashed in by power similar to midoriya’s quirk.

he’s alarmed, because one, he hates seeing you squirm in pain, and two he made the foolish mistake by giving you one french fry when you asked him to

and your reaction wasn’t very pleasant

so, what can he do? he has no knowledge on this!

but wait, youtube exists. eijirou ends up binge watching on a bunch of braces videos, and he practically comes back a natural expert at taking care of new braces

eijirou lets you at all the ice cream he wants, at the same time- he manages to make yummy, but healthy and chewable meals for you for the rest of the week

when he sleeps in your bed, he makes sure not to turn in sleep— surprisingly cautious of his movements

trust me, when my brother didn’t have his own room yet, he almost elbowed my jaw in his sleep— and i only had braces for 6 hours then. so he’s surprisingly?? cautious.

fawns over the fact that your lips looked really swollen because of the new braces, “are you comfortable, cutie?” is what he says when he checks up on you

reminds you to brush your teeth, AND floss. sometimes he’ll do it for you just because he just so happened to walk in when you were flossing LMAO ITS SO WEIRD BUT 💀 its eijirou

has his way of keeping you away from foods like popcorn and bubble gum “Y/N! if you put that down, we can eat this OTHER chewable thing together!”

anyways— he’s the perfect caretaker in my opinion. but eijirou ends up overdoing the research

“have you ever considered buying a water floss?”

... “eijirou, regular floss is fine, y’know?”

bakugou katsuki

this man- omg. [que shiny teeth and me]

his teeth are perfect. he has no history of cavities, and every single tooth grew in correctly. he brushes, and flosses regularly too.

if you don’t tell him you’re getting braces AT LEAST the day before, he’ll be really mad

he’s probably the one that accompanies you to the dentist. he’s willing to inhale that oddly satisfying and weird dentist office smell, and sit in a chair for a hour, staring at a weird soap drama

just so he could accompany you back.

listens to the dentist’s instructions, because he must. know. everything. and besides— you’re probably too bugged out to pay attention.

he knows that it doesn’t hurt around the first 20 minutes or so, but he’s still going to take some extra precautions.

first of all, no more begging for the usual food cravings, because if you do— oh boy.

he’ll stare at you like you’re crazy “what? and you think you can eat that shit? no.” he says, as he gets a spoonful of soup, blowing on it, so it’s not too hot

second of all, he’ll watch you brush your teeth. he might even scold you if you brush too fast.

watches you floss, and smirks when you finish

“don’t be so down about it,” he’ll say in his usual manner “you can have all the disgusting meals you want after the first week”

that makes you smile

“,,just no more gum, popcorn—”

oh, and he’s really strict about that. he’ll yank it out of your hand if you dare to eat anything that’s in the list of ‘the forbidden’

he’s a mean caretaker :,) but he does an excellent job at being one. on the good side, he’ll kiss those lips for yours after the first week has been completed

“don’t be so down about it. your teeth will be perfect just like mine in [insert year of braces removal]”

kaminari denki

denki probably had a few cavities here and there, but his teeth are okay.

he was sort of left in the dark about it :,) because you thought it would be a great idea to surprise him.

you told him you were going to the dentist again which was weird to him because who goes to the dentist 3 times in one month??

denki’s appalled when he sees your eyes tearing up, as he happily waltz into to your room.

“oh no! what happened?” his expression falls, “are you hurt? what can i do?”

“surprise?” you show him your teeth, now fixed with braces

and he’s just :0 what’s that on your teeth?

“you didn’t tell me!” he whines, since he was left in the dark, and while you sheepishly smile at him— he observes your teeth

you open your mouth to answer him, but he shakes his head “don’t answer! i’ll go fix something up for you, even though i’m mediocre at best with cooking— oh well, want anything?— oh wait, just nothing chewable, right?”

similar to kirishima, he doesn’t know why it’s so painful— but he can imagine the pain with the way you’re describing it.

he distracts you by making you laugh, since laughter is the best medicine— but he makes sure not to go too overboard (because he thinks stretching your jaw out would be too much)

ends up replacing your toothbrush with one that had softer bristles, as he tends to get side tracked with the monitoring thing rip

oh, but he does watch you floss your teeth. y’know— what if you accidentally bump your hand against your jaw? he’s thoughtful of that.

for once, it looks like he actually knows about taking care of your braces, even more than you (it looks temporary but hmm.. we dont know)

but after that excruciating week, he DEADASS asked you if he could touch them 💀

“pleasee? what— it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?”

“denki, don’t even try—”

when you get your braces adjusted, he’s always the one that picks your colors (if you could pick the colors., if that makes sense.)

gets sad when you don’t choose the color he wanted because they ran out of that color. its not even your fault whkdwks

denki was really sad to hear that yellow made your teeth look yellow, and black made it look like you had cavities :,)

overall, he might’ve had some moments where he absolutely missed on the care taking part. but he did his very best! please know that.

the bakusquad is surprised to see his search history— which namely had the keywords ‘braces’ in all of them. they teased him for it

»»————-　♡　————-««

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own bnha/mha and it’s characters. boku no hero academia/my hero academia belongs to horikoshi kohei, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission

[tenacityblitz]

All my 289 thoughts as I read through the chap, under the cut:

-yes good gimme more Nejire food -jfc Shoto’s strength is insane now between carrying Endeavor and Bakugou in one hand each and then using his foot to catch Deku and be flying all four of them with his fire. goddamn that boy’s gotten strong -Baku’s got blood coming out the mouth that’s not good boy you better not fucking die on me -spider Shiggy, spider Shiggy, does whatever spider Shiggy does. can he swing from the ground, no he can’t AFO says no. look ooooout he is spider Shiggy five points for anyone who gets that reference -still so fucking happy to have more Shoto content but I feel for that boy seeing his two close friends be literal fucking messes right now -I know it’s probably just him using his arms to change his trajectory or help him slow down but Iida often looks like he’s dabbing and it cracks me up every time -Nejire’s puffed out cheeks are adorable and I want to squish them -also THANK YOU HORIKOSHI FOR FINALLY GIVING US QUALITY URARAKA FOOD THAT DOES NOT SOLELY REVOLVE AROUND HER NOW ONE SIDED CRUSH ON DEKU LET US SEE HOW STRONG SHE IS AND CAN BE WITHOUT FOCUSING ON HER LITTLE CRUSH. ITADAKIMASU -kinda wish we’d gotten to see Toga become a little bit more unhinged bc I was kinda expecting a full blown sort of yandere episode this chapter but we probably haven’t seen the last of her yet this arc so who knows -Ochako why tf were you carrying that all might keychain with you there is a time and place for that AND NOW IS NOT IT!!! -AND SPEAKING OF THAT GIRL DEKU CAN GET YOU ANOTHER ONE DONT MAKE YOURSELF VULNERABLE OVER A DAMN KEYCHAIN YOURE SMARTER THAN THAT LOL -I take back some of my earlier comment about thanking Hori for good Uraraka food that didn’t heavily revolve around her unreciprocated crush bc it ended up doing that again -tbh I’m mildly annoyed that a great chapter of quality Uraraka content had to once again be slightly tainted by once again bringing up her crush on Deku that hasn’t seemed reciprocated in a long time. you can make her be a badass without beating the dead horse of ‘yes she’s got a crush on Deku WE KNOW WE’VE KNOWN FOR ABOUT 250 CHAPTERS NOW’. Horikoshi ily but please stop that this isn’t Naruto stop giving her the Hinata treatment -also Toga why tf were you biting the AM keychain it’s not food -the Zero Sattelites move was really damn cool I’ll give Uraraka that, just can we see it again in another chapter where the crush isn’t brought up and it’s just about her as a person pls I beg you Hori -kinda curious who the heck taught Toga how to fight and be so nimble like there’s no way she just happened on those combat skills with no prior training lol -and then she really wasted time to go find the keychain and pick it up and get it back, there’s kinda more important things to concern yourself with rn Ocha -sighs- -Shiggy you better hope Gigantomachi doesn’t run you over in his haste to keep running and running LOL -we got like one good Dabi panel and he’s smirking like the little shit that he is