Izuku risks it all to save the world but also just one sad, angry, broken child.
Last time on My Hero Academia
Izuku suffered a major loss but stumbled on a way to win. While he’d been able
to hold off Tomura Shigaraki as they fought, Tomura finally broke through Izuku’s
defenses and was able to steal Danger Sense along with Hikage Shinomuri. While
that takes away one of Izuku’s big advantages in this fight and gives it to Tomura,
it gives the Vestige of Kudo an idea. In order to make sure Izuku doesn’t run
off and to facilitate his grand destruction plan, Tomura threatens to decay Mt.
Fuji and thus set off an eruption big enough to destroy Japan. Izuku keeps fighting
off Tomura, but Smokescreen is useless as Tomura can search him out, and he
hits the limit on Gear Shift and is temporarily paralyzed. Nana tells Izuku that
her grandson is too far gone and he should give up on saving him, but Izuku
refuses. He knows that if the past really didn’t matter to Tomura, he wouldn’t
have such a death grip on it. Kudo reveals his plan, to get Izuku to use them
as a weapon. Tomura has hardened his heart into a metaphorical lead ball, but
Star and Stripes left a crack in it after her fight and Vestige rampage. If
they can pierce that, the mental wound might be enough to beat Shigaraki where physical
wounds can’t. The others think this is crazy, but Kudo insists this is the only
way. Izuku hesitates for a moment. Not because he is scared of dying, or
because he wants to keep OFA for his own glory… but because he doesn’t want to
lose this amazing gift All Might gave him. But then he focuses in and prepares
to do just that. This kid is a hero through and through. Enough recapping. Let’s
get to it, shall we?
We jump right into the fight. Izuku has covered his body with Black Whip to
strengthen himself. Like I said in the last post, it is vaguely reminiscent of
his Dark Deku look, just with more of his face on display. He’s essentially puppeteering
his own body with the Black Whip energy threads. This is a move so crazy that
it even impresses Banjo, Black Whip’s original holder. En calls Izuku crazy for
this but like in an impressed way. Kudo thinks that Izuku is doing all of this
due to his deep respect for Quirks in general, and that One For All was truly
blessed to have him in their collective.
Izuku has the general shape of a
plan. One might say 12% of a plan. He needs to get close enough to Tomura
without using Gear Shift, a big ask, and then hit Tomura with his left fist where
he’s mentally concentrated the Second. But first, he has to get some of his DNA
into Tomura’s system, to initiate the transfer. He remembers All Might
explaining to him that ingesting his DNA is part of the process, and later,
after fighting Stain who licked up a LOT of Izuku’s blood, that while he can
transfer OFA to someone even if they don’t want it, OFA can’t be taken from him
unless he wants to give it up. Ya know, barring being touched by AFO. Kudo
tells the other Vestiges that he and Bruce theorized that was the situation back
in the old days and he’s glad that that its been confirmed with time. Izuku
knows that getting blood into Tomura’s wound would be the easiest… if Tomura didn’t
regenerate almost immediately when he wants. He settles on trying to get the
blood in him at the moment of impact and prepares to strike. He’s sure he’s
minutes away from passing out due to his injuries, so he has to act fast.
Tomura regenerates the arm that he
lost in the last clash. He reveals he disarmed himself, as Danger Sense told
him something Izuku was trying to do would be dangerous to him, so he cut it
off as a precaution. It’s weird that that’s your first response, but hey, maybe
he’s still a big Aizawa fan. Tomura knows something is up, Izuku should be
trying to keep himself alive, but his body language is still aggressive. The two
young men charge, Izuku to transfer his power, and Tomura to kill him. When
they get close, Izuku initiates Smokescreen. En is confused by this, as in the
end the smoke is more of a liability to Izuku than Tomura since the other man
has Search. Tomura doesn’t even bother with that, he hits the ground and
activates Decay, intent on just breaking the ground beneath Izuku’s feet to stop
him. But that’s when Izuku rips up the ground using his Black Chains. Tomura
wonders when Izuku even had time to try that. Banjo figures out first, that
Izuku somehow had the presence of mind to send out Black Whip chains after
Shigaraki’s last big hit, to tear up the ground and prepare to rip Tomura into
the sky. Like how they kept him in the Flying Coffin. Tomura senses movement
and grabs at it, but it’s just Izuku’s cape. En connects that to how Izuku fought
Nagant, using the cape to draw Tomura’s attention.
Tomura disintegrates it… only then
realizing that there was a Black Whip tendril holding it and the end was
covered in blood. Izuku knows that Search shows Tomura where people he’s seen
are. He guessed that it would work with his Vestiges as well, so he transferred
Kudo to the tip and used that to trigger Danger Sense. This distracted Tomura long
enough for Izuku to get in close. Izuku’s ingenuity impresses En, who starts
crying. Tomura’s body instinctively understands that whatever Izuku is trying is
dangerous for him, so he starts growing his Hand Armor on reflex. He tries to
fire a plasma burst at Izuku, but he’s too close and to quick this time. He
strikes Tomura with his fist, and sends Kudo and Gear Shift into Tomura’s body
like a bullet. Kudo says his goodbyes to Izuku, saying not to worry about him,
as he’s a ghost already. He dives into Tomura’s body and strikes at the leaden
core inside him.
The hit triggers something in both
Izuku and Tomura. Suddenly, huge holographic projections of Himeko Toga and Dabi
appear in the sky, they look just like they did when Tomura met them. A moment
later, Izuku’s memory of his fight against Shoto plays, but along with Spinner
saying that he looks up to Stain. Yoichi realizes that their memories are merging
and getting mixed together. En tells him focus and keep fighting, the plan is
working but he needs to keep the pressure on. Izuku gets a flash of Mineta and
Tsu during their fight against the original League of Villains in the USJ.
Yoichi has some theories. Just from
watching Izuku’s battles with Shigaraki, he’s seen that the two Quirks AFO and
OFA have a resonance that was already growing rapidly as these young men clashed.
Now that Izuku has forcefully connected them with his last attack, it’s
happening even faster. He thinks his brother was so obsessed with getting OFA
that he tried to attack its very soul. But despite his power, Yoichi and the
others were all there willing to stand against him. He and the other wielders
start running forward, preparing for the next strike. Tomura and Izuku both shout
each other’s name as Izuku breaks through Tomura’s giant finger defense and
strikes him in the stomach. The other wielders flow into him and strike the
leaden ball, but they bounce off. In meatspace, Izuku falls back and is shocked
when he realizes that the transfer didn’t work. Banjo manifests to tell him
that they think that Tomura’s will is strong enough to not only forcefully take
their quirks but also to deny the transfer. The others bounced off, but Banjo
confirms En got in and that did hurt Tomura. There’s a huge dent in his chest
from that last hit. So Izuku is now down Gear Shift, Danger Sense, AND
Smokescreen. Damnit, he’s running out of powers to transfer. He curses the fact
that he had to break through the wall of fingers to get to his main body. He compares
them to fingernails or a wall of grime, they’re not really a part of Tomura’s
body, they’re just obstacles to slow him down. A memory of Tomura walking with
AFO as a child manifests. That tells Izuku, for sure, that they’re getting to
the Tenko at Tomura’s core, the little boy crying while holding his dog. He vows
to keep trying as many times as it takes to break through. Ya got four more
tries, bucko. Less if you give up Float before Black Whip.
As Izuku and Tomura start staring
each other down, we cut back to UA. La Brava is using a high speed spy camera
that Mei Hatsume made to keep tabs on Izuku’s battle. Mei says that she used
this drone to get her babies to Izuku as quickly as possible. La Brava mutters
to herself that she should probably hate Izuku for sending her Gentle to jail,
but as that was somehow a net positive experience for Gentle, she’s willing to
let that go. And she doesn’t want to see ungrateful to him. Gentle himself lowers
UA to the water below and other heroes rush over to help get everyone off the
broken hunk of rock. Cementoss makes cement bridges to get people to shore and
to stabilize the island. Gentle asks how he can help and Cementoss says he can
help with the evacuation, and to prioritize the critically injured.
We cut to Shiketsu high. A very
anxious little white-haired girl turns and starts running. Her minder, Ectoplasm,
stops her and asks what’s up. Eri says that she has to get to Deku to help him
fight. Ectoplasm gently reminds her that he’s hundreds of kilometers away,
there’s no way she can reach him in time. Eri tells him to use the box that
brought her there to bring her back. Ectoplasm says that the tram system was
trashed by all the fighting. And Eri’s horn is still small, indicating she hasn’t
built up enough energy to meaningfully rewind Izuku in the fighting. Ectoplasm tells
her to be strong and remember what happened when she tried to help Aizawa.
There’s a flashback to Aizawa just after the last big battle, where he puts on
a brave face and tells her that he just got a little dinged up and is fine. Eri
remembers her other interactions with Izuku and how he encouraged her and was
just in general a very nice big brother to her. She starts crying, and then we
see a familiar pair of red shoes step up. The original child that Izuku helped,
Kota Izumi, steps up and takes her hand. He asks if she’s noticed how Mr. Izuku
is always crying. He reveals that he’s also tearing up and says he’s a crybaby
too. He says that because Izuku is always trying his best, they need to try
their best too. Everyone watches Izuku battle Tomura, trying to break through
the wall of fingers. The one civilian that asked Izuku if he thought he could
beat AFO and the League if he rested at UA starts tearing up upon realizing he
shouldn’t have ever doubted Izuku.
We jump back to UA and Yaoyorozu is
helping Kaminari from the field. She shows him the feed of Izuku’s fight and
notes he’s in Dark Deku mode again. Kaminari, who’s brain is still a bit fried,
frowns. He asks if she knows about how in comic books, this is the moment where
a support character says something like “I know he’ll win,” or “he’s got this.”
Yaoyorozu says she never really had time for that, and Kaminari says that it really
would be more his thing than hers. He starts crying, asking why he can’t seem to
find the optimism to say something like that, like he would have if All Might
was fighting right now. He asks if this is a sign that deep down, he doesn’t
have faith in his friend.
We jump to Gunga Villa. The reporters
we’ve been following are giving up their helicopters to get the critically
injured to safety. Uraraka is on board the one flying out, she’s alive but
critical. They also find Hawks, still depowered, and Tokoyami. Hawks is pretty
out of it, but registers that the reporters were talking about Uravity even if
the reporters didn’t get her name right. He thinks that if more people could be
like her, if they cared for the people around them, it’d help.
Nagant is found by Rock Lock, who
helped stabilize her. It seems like he asked her why she’s fighting so hard for
Midoriya, as she’s midway through answering. She says that Izuku broke down her
defenses and got to the heart of her. Once he was in there, she couldn’t resist
his earnest pleas to just let him help her. Rock Lock agrees that that’s a
pretty effective strategy, basically break down your opponents will to fight.
They both agree that Izuku is probably trying that right now with Shigaraki.
Nagant says that his dream is taking him down a thorny path. She says that the
look on his face when he fights is so intense, that people have trouble not
rooting for him.
We return to the fight, Izuku is still
trying to break through the fingers, and it looks like his power is starting to
wane. Tomura sees a flash of his father right before he killed him, Kotaro
Shimura shouting at his son to stop. Tomura freaks out and screams at Izuku not
to touch him. Izuku barrels through his fingers and gets another big hit in.
The remaining Vestiges hit the leaden ball. This time, they all seem to get
through, even All Might’s, except Nana. She’s shocked by this. She remembers
when she faced Tomura in the mindscape and how he said that he hates his
grandmother the most. Nana also saw her Kotaro’s face manifest on one of Tomura’s
fingers in that moment. She realizes her grandson’s hate isn’t what repelled
her. She remembers a young Kotaro screaming at her, begging her to not leave
him. She realizes she was too weak to break through that ball.
Izuku crashes through Tomura’s
memories. He ends up standing in front of Tomura’s home in his school uniform.
He remembers Tomura stating that destroying everything even remotely connected
to that house will save him from his pain. Izuku goes to hit the bell but stops
when someone asks him what the point is. He looks over to see a shadowy version
of himself standing at the door. He thinks that this is how Tomura sees Izuku.
Dark Deku asks Izuku why he’s bothering. Izuku says he’s not sure, but he’s not
going to stop until he knows what’s going on. A truck manifests and almost hits
Izuku, which freaks him out because he felt it. Nana manifests and says that he’s
entered the depths of Tomura’s mind. Due to their connection, he can interact
with Tomura’s mind and that’s a two-way street. Izuku asks what she’s doing here,
and she explains that she was the only one kicked back out. She apologizes, but
Izuku thanks her for being with him here. She tells him that this is the core
of Tomura Shigaraki’s mindscape. She thinks he’s at his most vulnerable here
and encourages him to reach deep inside and reveal his past. Stain’s ghost
attacks Izuku, stabbing him to the ground. He shifts faces to Re-Destro and
then Overhaul, all three of his enemies asking what he plans on doing. Izuku
says he doesn’t have one, not really, but he’s going to save Tomura. He shoves
passed them and opens the door. He sees the memory of Tenko’s sister Hana
showing him the picture of Kotaro and Nana together. Nana is touched her son
kept that picture but then horrified when the memory goes forward and we see
Kotaro slap Tomura for going into his office and messing with that photo. Izuku
sees that Tomura’s form in this memory is a black photo negative and is
confused as the credits roll.
Wow, it’s sad to see the Vestiges
go. While they obviously didn’t get personalities until much later, these guys
have been a part of Izuku to some degree since the second season, when they
manifested to help Izuku break out of Shinzo’s mind control during the sports festival.
As they’ve grown and gotten their personalities back, and interacted with
Izuku, they have become a huge part of him. They’re mentors, cheerleaders,
coaches, and confidants to young Midoriya. So, seeing them give themselves up
in order to help Izuku beat Shigaraki and stick to his ideals is a bit
heartbreaking. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves twice in order to stop All
For One and that’s incredibly noble. My one critique is that I wish they’d all
gotten a personal goodbye like Kudo did. I suppose Yoichi did a little as he
led the charge, but Bruce, En and Banjo deserved one too. And All Might’s
should have been like, “look after the living me, he needs you.” Having Nana be
the only one that was rebuffed is going to be a big deal, I just know it. Izuku
is going to have to deal with his greatest challenge yet, helping a very angry
man work through his complicated feelings about domestic abuse. That’s a tricky
subject for a licensed professional, much less a 16-year-old with more of a
dream than a plan. I liked seeing how Izuku’s example helped inspire Kota to be
strong and encourage Eri. He’s had a big impact on those around him. And to
answer Kaminari’s question, no, having doubts doesn’t mean you lack faith in
Izuku. It’s easy to look up to and believe in All Might. Even after learning under
him for a year and change, All Might is still more of an idea than a person to
Kaminari. Izuku is more than that. He’s Kaminari’s friend, someone that has
encouraged him and bonded with him, he’s ‘real’ to Kaminari in a way that All
Might isn’t. With All Might, he can shut off his brain and just believe. With
Izuku, it’s so much harder because if Izuku fails, Kaminari loses his friend. It’s
harder to just blindly root for that, ya know? We’re in the home stretch
people, I can’t wait to see how Izuku resolves this one… in a few weeks. See
you later. Have a good night and stay safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-162564375
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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