Number One and Two heroes vs the Demon Lord, ready? Fight!
Last time on My Hero Academia
we were given another chapter from the book of Dabi. The story is partially
told by Dabi to Shoto, and partially by Dr. Garaki to a random guard he was
trying to scare. Seems that after his Quirk went out of control, setting
himself ablaze as well as the mountain around him, Toya Todoroki fell into a
river which ultimately saved his life. He was found by All For One and chosen
to be an emergency backup vessel for AFO if anything happened to Tomura. They
performed radical surgery on Dabi, sticking regenerative tissue and other cutting-edge
science to save the boy’s life. He ended up in a coma, waking up three years
later. AFO and a minion of his, Mr. Sunshine, tried to keep Toya contained, but
he refused to learn under anyone besides his dad. He set fire to the building
and ran off. He returned home to find Shoto being put through an abusive training
regimen from his dad and believed the family moved on from him. He ran off,
swearing to destroy his family. He spent the next few years training,
rebuilding the strength he lost after the fire and coma, and eventually surpassing
it. When he returned to join the League, Garaki and AFO dubbed him too obsessed
with death to be an adequate vessel for AFO. In the present, Shoto and Dabi
faced off. Dabi unleashed his full power, creating heat so intense even other
fire elementalists couldn’t handle it. He ruined his own flesh, burning himself
to a blackened husk. He initially overwhelmed Shoto, dubbing him a spoiled
child that refuse to embrace his destiny. Shoto then unveiled the fruit of his
own training, Flashfire Fist: Phosphor, a cold fire to protect him from Dabi’s
heat. The brother’s clashed, Dabi insisting they’ll destroy each other, but
Shoto saying that he’ll make them see eye to eye again. He struck his brother
in the stomach and flash froze the area around him, dousing his fire and
knocking him out. Well, that was emotionally draining. Enough recapping. Let’s
get to it, shall we?
The other members of Shoto’s team
recover to see Dabi fall. Burnin shouts to report to everyone that Dabi has
been defeated. This revitalizes the rest of the Kamino Ward heroes and they
rally to take out the lesser villains and Nomu. At Central, All Might starts
crying, saying that that must have been hard. Tsukauchi says that this is a
great thing, its proof their plan is working even if Izuku has been delayed. He
tells All Might to spread the word. The team protecting Gigantomachia, comprising
Ashido, Kirishima, Mineta, Mt. Lady and members of Class 1B hold off a villain
strike team that attempted to free the behemoth and are inspired by the news.
The leader of this attack calls it a wasted effort, they’ll overwhelm and
defeat the heroes, leaving them trampled like ‘that pathetic UA teacher.’ Ashido
dodges a strike from Mr. Sludge from the first episode and a few other
villains, hears this comment and freezes up for a moment. Kirishima leaps in
and knocks out this dude with a hammer that tries to hit her while her back is
turned. He tells his friends that Shoto has shown them how manly he is, so it’s
their turn now.
At the Stadium, Ojiro, Sero, and
Sato are also excited to hear the news. Sato says they’ll have to party after
this. Ojiro agrees, but says that they shouldn’t be that surprised. He
remembers back in their first mock hero test, where Shoto soloed the students playing
the villains by flash freezing the area. He says that Shoto has been impressive
since day one.
Back at UA Bakugo and company are
holding off Tomura. Bakugo unleashes a barrage of blasts to push the tentacle
fingers back. He smirks and says of course Icy Hot did it.
We then leap back to the sight of the
ambush, Fat Gum announcing to Aoyama the big news. One of the league’s newer
members, someone that manipulates flowers, says that he figured out the
strategy. He knows that they tried to remove the League’s heaviest hitters in
that ambush and left the others behind to be handled by the lesser heroes. If I
were Fat Gum I’d be pretty POed at that comment. Flower man, Kunieda, says that
they’re either confident or stupid. He tells them that anyone that has gone up
against AFO has failed and ended up drenched in their own blood. Kunieda says that
Dictator robbed him of his victory and that he is AFO’s top assassin. I guess
he was one of the villains charged with taking out Izuku. He swears to make
them pay, especially Aoyama.
We cut to another part of the
battle where a mob is rushing cops. They’re stopped by Koda sending a flock of birds
at them. His attack is cut off by a massive sword made from a bunch on smaller
swords stuck together with belts. I guess Spinner decided to dust off that old
weapon, I don’t think he’s used it once since the attack on the training camp. He
looks… different. Where once Spinner was an averaged sized, slight man with the
look of a lizard, he’s now easily ten feet tall and rippling with muscle. Shoji
grabs Koda and pulls him out of the way of the attack. Present Mic lets them
know about Shoto’s win, which inspires them. Shoji says that “Dabi will harm no
one else.” This royally pisses off Spinner, who loudly shrieks that that must
be information warfare. Dabi can’t possibly lose, according to him. He flashes
back to before the fight. AFO offered to give Dabi an additional Quirk, but
Dabi refused it, walking off. This greatly impressed Spinner, who obviously took
a gigantification Quirk of some kind. He says that Dabi had everything, power,
a reason to fight, and skill, there’s no way he’d lose to anyone. He orders the
Heteromorphs to break into the hospital and free Kurogiri. They’ll free him and
tear down society. Shoji prepares for more fighting, telling Koda that
regardless of what happens, he’s been proud being in the same class as him.
In Kamino Ward, everyone tries to recover.
Iida keeps Shoto upright, Shoto apologizes for the big fire and causing Iida’s engines
to stall again. Iida asks him why he’s apologizing, since he was just
incredible back there. Two heroes look over Dabi, noting that he’s still alive,
which seems impossible given how badly he was burned. We see a purple light
starting to glow from the center of his chest, which probably isn’t good.
We shift to Gunga Villa. The
fighting is going on in earnest below, but it looks like Endeavor and Hawks
haven’t started trading blows with All For One yet. Endeavor is stunned to hear
that Shoto beat Toya. He remembers Shoto vowing to stop Toya with him once he
is done crying. AFO starts mocking him, saying that Endeavor’s poor parenting
has hurt both of his sons. He’s clearly trying to provoke a reaction, but so
far Endeavor isn’t biting. Hawks has a flashback to the planning session for
this fight he had with Endeavor and Jeanist. They know that AFO has a weakness
right now, his headgear. The Skull like mask he wears to battle is also his life
support system. They know if they can break it, they’ll either kill or at least
severely weaken AFO with that strike. Hawks says that if AFO was anyone else,
they’d throw everyone they have at him, but since AFO’s whole thing is stealing
Quirks, they need to limit who fights AFO. So it’ll just be the Endeavor and
Hawks. They rush AFO, Endeavor briefly distracting AFO with a big firebomb.
Hawks tries to slice him from behind, but AFO predicted this and threw up a
slime wall. He notes that Hawks is moving slower than before. He knows that
even with healing from Recovery Girl and several support item feathers to
augment his existing plumage, he’s not back at 100% yet. Hawks smiles and says
they’ve both seen better days. Endeavor charges. He knows that they need to
keep this fight close to stop AFO from unleashing his big shockwave attack like
he used in Kamino Ward but stay far enough back so he can’t touch them and
steal their powers. He summons fire fists and tries to pummel him, but AFO
throws up a barrier. Hawks tries to hit him, but he blocks with a sword. He
tries to keep up the mocking tone, but the heroes know he’s not at his best
either. Endeavor knows he doesn’t have super regeneration this time, so they
can beat him. He unleashes a big fireblast that melts AFO’s shield. He tries to
distract them by attacking his ego again, saying that Endeavor’s heart doesn’t
seem to be in this fight, even though he’s surrounded by heroes giving it their
all, even students are fighting harder than him. He says that Endeavor’s ‘Masterpiece’
(Shoto) mopped up his failure (Toya) and asks why he’s not elated. This pisses
Endeavor off and he unleashes a big blast. Hawks yells at him to not fall for
it, reminding him of how AFO used this tactic against All Might. AFO reveals
how he knew about Endeavor’s dirty laundry for some time, and how he used that.
He reveals how he stole Toya’s body from the mountain that day, and how he ‘gave’
Endeavor his son back. Endeavor is livid with this taunt and unleashes
Hellfire. Hawks realizes for sure that Endeavor would have not been able to
stand against Dabi today and tries to get Endeavor to focus again. Endeavor
screams that he’ll kill AFO, unfortunately he’s distracted for long enough to
allow AFO to take a huge chunk of flesh from his side. Endeavor falls, and AFO
turns to finish off Hawks. He raises his hand and prepares to unleash a
shockwave. Hawks realizes that he’s dead, but chooses to use the last of his
strength to save Endeavor and sends some feathers after him. He thinks if
Endeavor can recover, he can unleash a Prominence Burst and destroy AFO.
The shockwave is launched but
countered by Jiro’s sonic boom. She’s flown in by Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, who
tells Hawks to move. Hawks tells them to run, saying that this is too much for
them. Tokoyami refuses, saying they can help, and that he and Hawks work well
together. AFO is clearly getting frustrated by the interruptions, asking why
All Might draws so many gnats to him. He says that these two are like minor
characters in the comic he read as a child, who acted like main characters but
were cannon fodder. Jiro tells him not to monologue until he actually takes
them down. Hawks wonders what happened to Endeavor. He landed thanks to the
feathers, but throws up blood. He wonders about his boys, if they’re alive and
safe. Endeavor realizes that he shouldn’t turn his rage on AFO, he knows that
this is all on him. Hawks knows that he’s alive from the vibration of his
breathing, so he resolves to hold out until Endeavor joins them. He tries to
get Tokoyami to fly off again, but he refuses. Hawks accepts that they won’t go
and takes their offer of help.
AFO mentally strategizes as he
makes a huge claw out of his left hand. He knows he needs to protect Tomura,
his other self, from harm. Endeavor is still a threat, so he needs to take him
out quickly. He knows they’re buying time for Endeavor to recover. He decides that
the weakest link of the three right now is Jiro and sends his tentacles to kill
her. She’s knocked off Tokoyami’s back, but Hawks is able to distract AFO long
enough for Tokoyami to grab her. Tokoyami yells at her to focus her blasts on
AFO’s mask. Jiro freezes up, as this is way more intense of a threat than she
thought. She’s amazed that Izuku and the others have been dealing with this for
so long. AFO tells her that she’d been practicing in the classroom, but this is
real life. He morphs his tentacles into a huge cannon and fires plasma at them.
Hawks throws his feathers at the cannon and moves it out of the way… mostly. It
slices off one of Jiro’s earphone jacks and Tokoyami coughs up blood. He fires his
bladed tentacles on Hawks, skewering him. He asks these lesser characters if
they really thought they could stand up to the Demon Lord as the credits roll.
Well, that was a rollercoaster of
emotions. It was good that we took a moment to see how the lesser fights were
going and how Shoto’s win inspired the other students. inspired the other
students. Obviously, Dabi isn’t out for good just yet, that energy burst at the
end there was a dead giveaway, but the temporary victory is helpful. I like the
fact that the heroes were really prepared for this fight for once, what with having
some heavy hitters held back to guard Gigantomachia and Kurogiri. While they’ve
been off the board for a while, the two would be indispensable to AFO right
now. Best to keep them locked down for as long as possible. The fight between AFO,
Endeavor and Hawks is really well done. Is it a bit of cliché to try to piss
off the guy with anger management issues with taunts? Yes, but I like that Endeavor
was able to hold out until AFO basically said, “I took your son from you.” That
would set off most parents, even ones as objectively terrible as Endeavor. And,
to his credit, he probably would have killed a lesser villain than AFO with his
big attacks. I can understand the war raging in Endeavor right now. He can’t be
there for his children, and his actions directly caused the situation that forced
his oldest and youngest to fight. Despite how horrible he was to them in the past,
I do think Endeavor genuinely loves his kids, so worrying for their safety
right now is a totally understandable explanation for why his head isn’t fully
in the game. Shame it may have cost him a kidney. Hopefully he rallies soon.
The big save by Tokoyami and Jiro was great. I was sure Hawks was going to bite
it with that big blast, but then a counter shockwave saves the day. All
Tokoyami has wanted to do for a while now is to fight with Hawks and prove
himself, so its good to see him get the chance. Hopefully he and Jiro didn’t already
have their big moment. That hit looked like it hurt badly. The Demon Lord has
them all on the ropes, hopefully they can last. But we’ll have to wait and see.
Have a good night and stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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