The students prepare and the mole is finally revealed.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
titans clashed. The US top hero Star and Stripe did her best to try to finish
off Tomura Shigaraki by dropping a few dozen Tiamat cruise missiles onto him.
Unfortunately, he escaped the destruction by using decay to bury himself deep
underground and used his Nomu as a decoy to throw them off. The two clashed
again, and ultimately Tomura touched Star and absorbed her power. He also hit
her with decay at the same time. Star tried to protect herself with an Order,
but decay overcame her power. AFO within Tomura starts gloating, admitting that
taking New Order from Star was on his to-do list but it was much farther along.
He says that she was one of the few people that could ruin his plans, but
having defeated her like this his victory is basically assured. But then Star
reveals her final gambit. In a desperate attempt to ensure AFO couldn’t get her
Quirk without regretting it, she set a new Order just before they clashed, for
New Order to destroy any other quirk it comes into contact with. Star’s Vestige
within Shigaraki rampages, destroying quirks within the villain. Shigaraki
panics and tries to escape, searching desperately for someone he could dump New
Order into. Star’s squad slows him down for a bit but he’s able to escape. He
tries to dump New Order on a petty criminal he found, but just before he could,
New Order gets used up and disintegrates within him. AFO had too many stored-up
Quirks for her to destroy them all, but Star’s Vestige takes solace that she
put the fear of Heroes back into him. All Might gives his students the bad news
but also reveals that Star’s final attack has bought them a week to prepare.
The damage she did to Shigaraki’s body not only removed some of his Quirks but
also slowed down Shigaraki’s metamorphosis into AFOs new Vessel. He advises his
students to redouble their training in that time, which they reveal that
they’ve been doing that since before Izuku left. All Might is immensely proud
of his students as the credits roll. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall
we?
The episode begins with the League
of Villains in their hidden cave base. AFO, Toga, Spinner, and Dabi watch as
Tomura Shigaraki writhes on the floor and screams in agony as his body attempts
to recover from the ordeal that his fight with Star and Stripe put him through.
AFO tells his ‘other me’ to endure the pain he’s going through. He uses his
quirk to make his life support system to float behind him so he can check on
Tomura. He says that Tomura’s Quirks are fatigued after all that he’s been
through and that once he’s recovered a little, he’ll get access to his powers
again. Toga and Spinner look incredibly uncomfortable with this situation, but
they’re unable to do much about their situation at this point. Tomura screams
that he’ll make everyone pay, he won’t stop until everyone that so much as
remembers All Might’s face has suffered. AFO senses that his Vestige within
Tomura have begun to merge, the rage that Tomura is feeling seems to be
accelerating the process. He laments not getting hold of New Order but thinks
that Star fueling Tomura’s rage so much that integration became easier was a
blessing in disguise. He tells Dabi that he’ll have to wait a little longer
before acting. Dabi is annoyed by this, as he feels it’s unfair that he has to
be cooped up while his father runs free. AFO says that he and Dabi are alike in
a lot of ways, but how they differ in how they handle problems. Dabi is single
minded on his goal, while AFO says the wise man tries multiple paths to try to
get to their destination. He boasts about how he has set up multiple
contingency plans in order to reach his desired goal of ‘being the demon lord.’
Tomura’s eyes shoot open and we follow his senses towards UA. AFO says that
while it’s unfortunate that Izuku made it back to UA and is now recovering and
preparing to face them, he has “many friends” that can help in this situation.
We see a brief flash of Hagakure’s outline and her gloves, which, ya know,
heavy handedly implies that the UA spy is the invisible girl.
At UA, we see the students
practicing with their powers. Koda and Sero are helping Tokoyami work on
fighting while using Dark Shadow as armor; Kirishima is trying to perfect his
defenses by having all the super strength guys wail on him; Yaoyorozu and Kaminari
use their powers to make a bunch of generators and charge them up in one go;
Mineta hurls his sticky balls at Ashido and Jiro to help them practice
destroying targets; Tsu and Uraraka combine their powers to turn Tsu’s tongue
into a rubble covered flail to try to hit Iida, who is trying to go faster; and
Izuku is using Blackwhip and Air shot to duel Bakugo. Bakugo blasts Izuku out
of the air and gives him an explosion Afro. Bakugo brags that he’s perfecting
using multiple explosions one after the other for increased power. Izuku
figures out that Bakugo is in his winter uniform to sweat more so he has more
nitro sweat to work with. Izuku comments that everyone is improving as he
watches Shoto try to use his left and right side in perfect synchronization.
Shoto himself thinks that he’s almost reached the point where he can use both
sides at the same level and hopes that his fire and ice combined will be enough
to stop Dabi.
We shift focus to Kaminari and
Mineta taking a break together. The lightning kid is rehydrating, while Mineta
keeps pulling his sticky balls from his head. I assume to both give them more
ammo to practice with and to try to increase the amount of balls he can make
before his scalp starts breathing. Kaminari comments that while All Might said
they’ll be going into an all-out war, he thinks that the two big bads are at
their most vulnerable, particularly because Gigantomachia is still being held
prisoner. He thinks that they could take them down pretty easily. Bakugo comes
up and says that he’s an idiot that forgot three things. One; AFO is a master
at hiding himself. They’ve found a lot of his individual bases, but the man
himself is always long gone when they do. He also calls him a nutsack face,
which is one of Bakugo’s better insults. Jiro and Yaoyorozu join, Yaoyorozu
adding that even in a weakened condition they barely survived fighting Tomura,
so a more complete version of him is going to be even tougher. And Bakugo says
that at the end of the day, the League will be the one to decide where and when
they fight. He says that with the Search quirk AFO stole from Ragdoll, he’s
basically impossible to sneak up on, but he hopes that that was a Quirk New
Order destroyed. Izuku starts saying that his next move will have to be
extremely precise, but before he can go into detail about that, Iida karate
chops his explosion afro and corrects him that their next move needs to
be precise. The others gather round to reinforce this statement. Izuku asks if it’s
cool for him to look around campus for a bit, and Iida says that should be
fine. He makes a point to say that after Uraraka’s speech, the students and
civilians have been getting along well, much to her embarrassment.
We cut to the woods just outside of
the UA dorms, with Hagakure commenting that ‘you’ve’ been extremely depressed
since the raid on the PLF. That ‘you’ took it worse than anyone else. We hear a
woman with a noticeably French accent telling her son that they’ve gotten new
orders that they must act on, and not to worry as they were in code so no one
should realize they’re ‘bad’ orders. If the French accent comment didn’t give
it away, yes, its revealed here that the mole is Yuga Aoyama. She says that
Aoyama has been depressed for a while and that he even looked sad when they got
Izuku back. Aoyama’s mother insists that with AFO out of prison, that
everything that he wants will happen and that Aoyama has to follow
orders or he and his parents will be killed. Aoyama sobs during this
conversation, especially when his mother explicitly states that he was the one
that leaked to the League of Villains about the USJ and the Training Camp.
Hagakure is horrified when she realizes that Aoyama has been the mole from the
beginning. We learn from Aoyama’s parents that Aoyama was originally Quirkless,
and in an attempt to give him as normal a life as possible, his parents sought
out AFO and got a Quirk from him. His father insists if they’d known what AFO
would demand in payment for it, they’d never have done it, but his mother says
they’re in too deep to say no now. Hagakure tries to find a way to slip away to
get a teacher or someone of authority. Aoyama, still crying, says that the
guilt of what he’s done has been crushing him despite the brave face he’s been
putting on. He says that when he saw AFO losing to All Might and begin captured
after the Kamino Ward incident that he let himself hope that that was the end
of his involvement with the villain and he could live a normal life… but
obviously that isn’t the case. He hates that he has to keep doing this. There
is a rustle in the grass, and the Aoyamas look up to see… Izuku, looking
shocked and heartbroken. He says that he ran into Hagakure who told him about
what was happening. Mrs. Aoyama tries to play it off as Hagakure being
mistaken… but Yuga can’t keep lying to Izuku. He says “of course, it’s you,
Midoriya.” He admits that the hates himself for being the only student that
couldn’t say anything to get Izuku to come back to UA with the others. Izuku
tries to say something, but Aoyama cuts him off. He flashes back to when he got
the message that told him that Izuku was given his Quirk by All Might and that
AFO wanted it. Izuku cuts into his reminiscence and says that he wasn’t here by
accident and had actually gone looking for Aoyama since he thought Aoyama had
been acting oddly since he got back. Aoyama admits to everything, calling
himself a ‘revolting villain.’
Back with the League of Villains,
Dabi scoffs at this idea of having ‘friends’ and at AFO trusting a bunch of
Randos to get stuff done. AFO compares his ‘friends’ to a cheap lighter, a tool
that can be useful but that you throw away the moment it stops working
properly. The tool helps him, maybe gives him a laugh, but ultimately it is
just something to use up to get to his final destination. None of them are
essential.
Back in the forest, Aoyama shoves
his parents away and tells them to run. He gives us a brief overview of his
life story, which was like Izuku’s in some ways. His parents came from wealth
and were very happy and loving towards him. They discovered he was quirkless at
four or five and had the ‘he’s got the full pinky toe’ explanation that Izuku
and his mom got. Because the Aoyama’s were rich, and even more socially
paranoid about their son being outcast for being different, they found AFO and
were able to get Aoyama a Quirk. Naval laser wasn’t all that compatible with
Aoyama’s body, hence his stomach issues whenever he overused it. His parents
got him his first belt to help alleviate his issues, and the Aoyamas did their
best to act like everything was fine. We see brief glimpses of Aoyama looking
terrified as we hear the start of his conversations about UA with AFO, “Tell me
when your class will be unsupervised,’ and ‘Tell me more about this training
camp.” He was also ordered to lure Izuku out into the open if he ever returned
to UA. As Aoyama and his family try to run, he admits that when he read Izuku’s
letter about how he got his powers, it filled him with despair. Trying to let
his family escape, Aoyama fires off a full power naval laser at Izuku. Izuku
preps full cowling to take the hit, but Hagakure jumps in the way. Her Quirk
lets her refract light, not just be invisible, so she blocked the attack with
almost no effort. She asks Aoyama how he could possibly sleep at night and act
like he wasn’t a part of all of this for so long. In this moment we also, for
the first time, see a glimpse of Hagakure’s face and she looks as heartbroken
as Izuku. Aoyama’s parents try to defend him, but Izuku captures all three in
Blackwhip. He tells Aoyama that Hagakure set him free, that he doesn’t have to
keep lying and hiding anymore. Izuku asks him to stop fighting so they can work
this out.
Yuga Aoyama and his parents are
restrained and are brought before All Might, the teachers, Detective Tsukauchi
and the cops, and the entirety of Class 1A. Tsukauchi sums up the situation,
Aoyama was given his Quirk about ten years ago and he was forced to be AFO’s
mole in payment. He’s thankful he wasn’t rigged to explode like Lady Nagant.
Present Mic flashes back to when he pointed out that there was a mole at UA and
admits that he never thought it’d be a student. Principle Nezu asks the other
students to give them the room, but they refuse. None of the students want to
believe it. Hagakure and Ashido, whom to me always seemed to be very close with
Aoyama, are taking it extremely hard and need to be physically supported by
their other friends. Ojiro asks what he would have done next for AFO, and
Mineta asks if he was brainwashed or something. Bakugo comments how odd it was
to have two hero course students without a Quirk. Tsukauchi says that with the
current state of things, the Aoyamas could get more leniency if they gave up
all they knew about AFO. Mr. Aoyama says that they don’t have much to tell,
they were low level pawns in this game. They were given orders, told to report
back, and were shown what the price of disloyalty was. Mr. Aoyama says that
anyone that tried to go to the police was murdered shortly thereafter. He says
that death is inevitable if one betrayed AFO, he always found traitors. He
tries to protect his son, saying that Yuga never learned any of the particulars,
that he was told to lay low and report. Yuga remembers seeing Hagakure’s
horrified face when she confronted him, and apologizes to his classmates. He
says that he laughed and tried to be friends with them because that is what he
wanted more than anything. He says that when he learned all about Izuku’s
situation, he grew disgusted with himself and hated himself for focusing on
himself when Izuku was hurting just as bad. He calls himself rotten to the
core. This sets off Izuku, as one thing he cannot stand is someone ragging on
one of his friends. He calls out all the good that Yuga did despite his mole
status, how he tried to save Bakugo and Tokoyami at the training camp, how he
left Izuku those weird but encouraging messages made out of cheese, or his
other encouraging words though out the year. Izuku realized that that cheese
message was a desperate cry for help that went over his head at the time. Izuku
realizes that Yuga is like Lady Nagant, someone that was used by AFO and had
their spirit broken. But just as importantly, that he’s someone that doesn’t have
to be a villain forever. Izuku says that the tears Yuga is crying isn’t because
he failed his mission but because he hurt his friends. Izuku begs Yuga to take
his hand and realize he can still be a hero. Tsukauchi stops this speech,
though, and says that they need to bring Yuga in. He orders Yuga gagged, not to
be an asshole, but for fear that Yuga might still be boobytrapped in some way
and if he says the wrong thing he could explode. He has to be gagged for his
own safety at least until they can check him out at the hospital. Tsukauchi
asks why they didn’t warn AFO about the Kamino Ward raid. Mr. Aoyama admits
that that was because they couldn’t reach him. AFO controlled everything, he
decided when they met and he changed the method each time. Tsukauchi realizes
that that was to make them useless if they were ever captured. A still crying
Izuku suggests that their situation has changed, that he can still be of use.
The other kids get it, that with Aoyama’s status as a mole revealed they could
potentially use him to trick AFO into a fight on the heroes terms. Izuku nods
and assures Yuga that he can still be a hero.
So, I’d been aware that Yuga Aoyama
was the mole for some time. I’m one of the rare individuals that does not care
if a twist is ‘spoiled’ and didn’t try that hard to avoid the information when
the manga chapter dropped a couple years back. So even knowing that he was the
one slipping info to the League of Villains it was still a gun punch to get
that revealed in universe. Using Hagakure to find out about the treachery was a
good call from a writing standpoint as I recall basically from the moment that
a mole was suggested, a noticeable bit of the fandom immediately assumed it was
Hagakure. Is it stereotyping to assume the person with invisibility is a spy?
Yes… but that’s a stereotype for a reason. It’s doubly effective to me given
how close Hagakure seemed to be to Aoyama. My summaries aren’t perfect, but I
hope I’ve conveyed that those two were often seen together in larger class
projects. The story never focused on the two of them, but I recall often seeing
them work together along with Ojiro, and Aoyama often did things with the 1A
girls, so imagine the horror you’d feel at learning a good friend of yours was
working against you this whole time. I appreciate how Horikoshi went about
setting him up as well, because he gave us a few clues about Aoyama. Basically
the first thing we learn about the dude after his name and his faux French
accent was that overusing his quirk gave him a stomachache. Now, we learn this
in the first dozen chapters, so one could just assume he’s just young and
doesn’t have much stamina with his power yet. But its been commented on a few
times that compatibility is hugely important with Quirks and just shifting
abilities from one person to another doesn’t work perfectly. While he loves
being in the spotlight, he always seemed to disappear when things got hairy. Heck,
even giving him this super flashy quirk that was firing a laser from his
stomach was a good red herring (anti-red herring?) to suggest why he wouldn’t
be a mole. I do wonder if Horikoshi knew from the beginning that this is where
he’d go with Aoyama or he came to the decision about who the mole was while
writing. Something to ask if I ever meet him I suppose. I liked that Izuku
never gave up on him, and that he was the one to suggest that Aoyama could
redeem himself and be a hero. That is like his whole thing that anyone
can be a hero if they want. We’ll have to wait and see how this plan turns out.
See you tomorrow. Have a good night and stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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