History#
En Tayutai was a Pro Hero in the past going buy the name "Smoke-Eater". At some point, he met the Pro Hero Daigoro Banjo, otherwise known as Lariat, and eventually learned that he was the fifth user of the Quirk One For All, alongside his crusade against the Villain All For One. En wanted to assist Daigoro, however the older Pro Hero insisted against it for his protection. Eventually, All For One found and fought Daigoro, unable to defeat the Villain and was left fatally injured after getting trapped under a pile of rubble.
En witnessed these events, and facing certain death, Daigoro extended his injured hand to him so En could acquire One For All after consuming Daigoro's blood, telling him it's "his turn". En would soon lead a resistance movement of Heroes to more thoroughly combat All For One's influence. Among those Heroes recruited were Gran Torino and the husband of Nana Shimura. Nana herself wanted to join in, but was discouraged against for her own safety.
All For One eventually found En and fought him too, and just like he did with Daigoro, tried to steal One For All, but it failed and the Quirk resisted him. After being fatally wounded in the battle by being cut in half and his left arm cut off, En managed to give some of his hair to a nearby Nana, using one last release of his Smokescreen Quirk to protect her as she escaped, becoming the seventh user of One For All.[1][2][3][4]
Synopsis#
U.A. Sports Festival Arc#
During the fight between Izuku and Hitoshi Shinso in the tournament of the U.A. Sports Festival, Izuku is brainwashed by Hitoshi's Quirk, who orders him to walk out of bounds. Although Izuku tries to resist, he cannot disobey the order, when he is about to cross the edge of the ring, En and the rest of the previous users appear to Izuku as shadowed mental figures. They uncloud his mind and allow Izuku to use One For All in his fingers, allowing him to escape the trance and win the fight.[5]
Pro Hero Arc#
For several months, none of the users reappear to Izuku again, until the night before the Joint Training Battle, where En and several of the previous users, including All For One's younger brother and Nana, appear in a dream but with his real appearance, and not as a shadowed figure. The dream shows Izuku memories of the first user, Yoichi.
En says nothing, but Yoichi speaks for everyone and assures Izuku that he is not alone. Izuku's dream concludes with all of his predecessors looking at him with kind expressions, seemingly aware that he is the ninth wielder of One For All and welcoming him.[6]
My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising#
During a devastating battle between a villain with a copy of All For One's Quirk, in a last-ditch effort to defeat him, Izuku transfers One For All to Katsuki Bakugo, even at the cost of rendering himself Quirkless once more. Through the dual power of the One For All's, the two manage to take the villain down, even as the remaining embers of One For All seemingly disappear from Izuku. However, En and the other users of One For All, wanting Izuku to continue to harness the power, and recognizing his heroism of being willing to sacrifice his power to save everyone, only temporarily transferred the power over to Katsuki, while the full essence of One For All remains within Izuku. Toshinori tearfully thanks the predecessors for staying with Izuku.[7]
Paranormal Liberation War Arc#
In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, when Izuku is rendered comatose, he speaks to all the vestiges within One For All. Yoichi mentions how originally they were only able to interact with Izuku during specific instances within his consciousness, but that in the last four months, the power has been growing exponentially, and has reached the point that the vestiges are now able to more freely communicate with each other, even more so after All For One's attempt to steal One For All.
Hikage introduces himself to Izuku, and asks Izuku about his age and cause of death, which he recalls that he was forty and that All Might had scratched out his cause of death in the notebook, which Hikage reveals was "old age". They all realized that All Might managed to hold onto the Quirk longer than him and it was because he was Quirkless, meaning the Quirk perfectly fit his previously empty vessel, and became his Quirk. They further state that due to the dwindling Quirkless population, Izuku may possibly be the last successor of One For All.[8]
Afterwards, Nana Shimura asks Izuku if he can kill Tomura Shigaraki, clarifying it isn't a request, but a question of his resolve. She reminds him of their last interaction and that since all of the inheritor's are connected to his emotions, they could telepathically sense that he saw him as someone who needed saving. Daigoro states that he and the other users, including En, don't feel the same way, and that even if Tomura is suffering under All For One, that doesn't necessarily mean he would want their help, since even they could see his eyes were still filled with hate.
Yoichi speculates that his older brother purposefully raised Tomura this way, and now that All For One has taken over his body and mind, he believes this is part of another plan to claim One For All. Daigoro reveals that All For One had attempted to steal One For All from him and En, twice, but failed, and that one must have an incredibly strong will and overbearing emotions in order to override the basic principle of One For All, which means All For One is using Tomura's hatred to complete the job.
After Izuku's resolve is questioned, he says he knows that countless people died and many of his precious friends were hurt because of Tomura, but he stands his ground believing that One For All is a Quirk meant to save lives, not kill; that All Might taught him that, and that he and all the other users who have helped grow and cultivate the power, have in the process saved and brought hope to countless people. He accepts the real possibility that Tomura can only be stopped by killing him, and he doesn't know how he will deal with everything exactly yet, but he still wants to try and save "that little boy".
En and the other users happily agreed to aid Izuku, just as Yoichi turns to the Second and Third users asking for their assistance. Met with an awkward silence, Daigoro breaks the ice by playfully messing around with Izuku, telling him he should first focus on learning more about Hikage and En's Quirks, of which En agrees to, them all starting to instruct him on how to understand their Quirks.[9]
Dark Hero Arc#
In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, All For One has escaped from Tartarus, and proceeded to break into several more maximum security prisons, liberating the inmates. Due to the chaos inflicted by Gigantomachia and the mass breakout of prisoners, the whole country entered a state of total chaos and anarchy. In addition, many heroes resigned and called it quits because of the massive criticism of their work, and the destruction spreading unchecked.
Izuku decides to leave U.A. and his friends behind in order to protect them so he can hunt down the Villains, with all the users on his side ready to back him up.[9] During this time, Izuku reunites with a villain, Muscular, after he brutally defeated Grand. Muscular jumps toward the bottom of the building, and throws it into the air, forcing Izuku to jump away, as he screams to go at it with full power. In short, Izuku uses En's Quirk: Smokescreen to cover the building.
Izuku proceeds to talk with En asking if he overdid the use of his Quirk. En provides him some advice to keep control over it, and that bearing the weight of the power across the eight generations, he should try to relax a little. He suggests that since their Quirks are mostly standalone abilities, rather than seeing them as ultimate moves, to think of them as tools in his arsenal to strategically organize a plan. Izuku did what En told him and takes Muscular over the edge in the bank of the river where he defeats Muscular with a Detroit Smash at 45%.[10]
Soon, Izuku would then encounter Lady Nagant and has difficulties dealing with her sniper shots. Izuku would then unleash Smokescreen at "Full Blast", catching Nagant off guard by this revelation that he has multiple Quirks too as he covers himself under thick layers of smoke. En scolds Izuku for releasing that much smoke because once he emerges, he will be a sitting duck for someone like Lady Nagant. Izuku tells him that he wasn't planning on escaping as En realizes what he plans on doing, causing him to advise against it. Utilizing the Third User's Quirk, Fa Jin, Izuku was successful in taking out Lady Nagant's Rifle and incapacitates her, but she ends up getting exploding due to a failsafe from All For One after she failed to capture Izuku.[11]
Shortly afterwards, Izuku starts to tire out as he becomes increasingly obsessed with solving every problem all on his own, even ignoring the other Heroes' suggestions to take it easy. En and the other inheritors of One For All try to convince him to rest before Danger Sense warns him of another threat and heads off, ignoring their words. In the vestige world, Nana fears that her emotions are getting the better of Izuku, while En and the other inheritors assure her that by going over his limit, he's acting like a true hero would do.[12] It is all through his former classmates that Izuku is finally able to rest easy knowing that they still got his back.[13]
My Hero Academia: You're Next#
Under Deborah Gollini's Day Dream, Izuku finds himself back in his youth, surrounded by his All Might memorabilia, and having fun with All Might himself. However, he is brought back to his senses by the vestiges of One For All, making him realize it is all a dream.
Nana tells Izuku that everyone affected by Day Dream are interconnected with each other, as Izuku can see brief snippets of several of his classmates' fantasies. They remind him that everyone has dreams and desires they've always wanted, with Izuku wanting to be a Hero, but a Hero isn't something like becoming All Might or a Symbol of Peace, but to do what All Might wants him to be: a Hero to save people, and to reach out for those who are in need. However, they warned that even if he realizes that he's dreaming, he's still under Deborah's spell, she he must find a way to break it.
Izuku then sees Giulio Gandini' dream, acting as the butler for Anna Scervino, taking care of her, and helping her when she starts to reel in pain due to her Quirk.
In reality, Deborah attempts to have one of the bystanders strangle him to death while Giulio is hypnotized, which he sees as Anna doing so to him. When she does, Izuku calls to Giulio in his dream, which makes him snap back into reality, and thanks to his prosthetic eye, he is able to see through Deborah's deception and turns his right robotic arm gun toward her, shooting her in the shoulder, causing Deborah to deactivate her Quirk, and freeing everyone who was hypnotized by her Day Dream.[14]
Final War Arc#
As the final battle between the heroes and villains commence in the Final War, Izuku prepares for his final encounter with Tomura. While a snag in the plan delays his arrival, he eventually makes his way over to the U.A. Floating Fortress designed to contain Tomura to fight him.[15] After regaining his bearings after seeing the other Heroes' comatose bodies, Izuku confronts Tomura, who over the course of the battle has transformed himself into a hulking beast covered in fingers, and addresses him as "All For One", asking if Tomura is still within him.[16]
"Tomura" claims that he no longer exists, as he and All For One's psyches have melded together into a perfect new being. However, Mirio Togata reveals that during their battle, the villain reacted to one of his taunts like that of a child, believing them not to be as melded as he thinks. Seeing the faces of the Shimura family on his left hand confirms this thought, and the battle resumes.[17]
Izuku activates the Quirk of the Second User, Gearshift, and now with all the Quirks unlocked, unleashes the full power of One For All upon Tomura, overpowering him, with En and the other predecessors right there behind him.[18] After Izuku destroyed Tomura's absolute defensive Form, Tomura releases the pent-up damage in an explosion which weakens All For One's influence over him, allowing Tomura to regain control of his body. Izuku drags Tomura out of the U.A. Floating Fortress to confront him now with his Quirks returned.[19]
Over the course of Izuku and Tomura's battle, the real All For One attempts to reach them and retake control of the body, but fails, and is rewound to death due to the effects of a special drug he took.[20] With him now out of the picture for good, the users discuss amongst themselves in the vestige world, with Yoichi telling them not to cling to sentimentality, as now the fight has passed on to the successors, and bringing down Tomura is their entire reason for existing.
During the fight, Tomura goes on the offensive and attempts to touch Izuku's face, but he is just barely able to dodge using Danger Sense to slice his fingers off. However, in that brief moment of near contact, Tomura managed to successfully invade the vestige realm. Hikage is the first one to sense the sudden danger, as he turns around to see Tomura's giant hand appearing above, about to consume them. As everyone rushes to evade it, Hikage stands in the way and is caught. As the hand retreats, Hikage tells the others that the Ninth is in their hands, before disappearing. Soon after, his chair crumbles too, with Tomura now in possession of Danger Sense.
With Tomura now effortlessly able to dodge all attacks, Izuku is forced to go on the defensive and takes several blasts from Tomura, being knocked all the way to Mt. Fuji. While Bruce warns Izuku that his Gearshift is almost over and to survive until he's recovered, En anxiously intervenes, wondering why Izuku isn't just trying to escape and save himself. He continues that now that Tomura has the willpower to overcome One For All, since Hikage and Danger Sense were what saved them just then, if Izuku gets touched again, he will snatch them all up all at once and it will be the end of everything. Tomura overhears the vestiges speaking to Izuku, declaring that he intends to destroy everything before they can even think about escaping. As he gleefully dances amongst his own destruction, the vestiges realize that he chased them to Mt. Fuji on purpose, as the mountain will erupt when he decays it, and realizing he is no successor to All For One; he only delights in destruction, being "ruin incarnate". Despite all this, Izuku stands his ground, declaring that despite the villain's own insistences on the matter, he is a person.[21]
Izuku unleashes a massive Delaware Smash to destroy Tomura's Decay area, as well as releases a Smokescreen to keep him distracted, blasting in-and-out of it while attacking him. En then appears before him, realizing he's been doing all of this to build up Fa Jin, but also warns him about his plan to hide since Tomura still has Search, allowing him to spot his location, and attack him with a deadly black lightning. Tomura is still attacking Izuku mercilessly, and with Gearshift's time up, the recoil blowback is kicking in, making him unable to breathe.
Tomura proceeds to remind Izuku that just like he can see the One For All vestiges, he tells him to take a deep look inside himself, where there exists a visage of crumbling buildings melded together, declaring he overcame and buried the crying little kid a while back, that he's gone and his worldview has taken over; only "Tomura Shigaraki" is left and he's doing fine. Nana attempts to tell Izuku that he's too far gone and that he must finish him off with one final blow, but Izuku refuses, believing he only put a lid over his suffering, and intends to continue smashing it away.
In the vestige realm, Kudo tells the other users that was why he opposed Izuku as a successor, believing his desire to save one's archenemy a delusional madness that will disrupt their destined path. He says he thought it was arrogant thinking born of naivety, however having observed from within, he knows the truth, Izuku clings to one driving notion; that anyone, whether the most vile among them or the Quirkless, each one of them as an innately human heart, which he wants to believe. Then, after seeing a hand pointing through the realms, Kudo and the All Might vestige realize a weakness in Tomura.[22]
Deep within Tomura's warped core, Star and Stripe has inflicted a mental scar that can't be healed with his Regeneration, and since Tomura has become so powerful Izuku doesn't stand a chance, to defeat him, Kudo says they must attack from within, and that by transferring One For All, they can break through the scar, to give his soul a good beating. En and Izuku were adamant about this plan because if the Quirks of One For All get stolen, then Tomura can use them like what happened with Hikage's Danger Sense, but Kudo says to use a broader understanding of "transfer". Using the idea of "visualization" that All Might suggested to Izuku in the past, Kudo uses the example of Katsuki harshly passing something to him, saying that the right sort of transfer can break the thing being passed, so they'll put that into practice with One For All.
Kudo admits there's no guarantee it'll work, but if he goes first, Izuku will parts ways with Gearshift, and he will be free of the recoil so Tomura will end up getting ahold of the Quirk, and the backlash will transfer to him instead. En suggests he go first since his Smokescreen is the most useless right now, and that Gearshift is the cornerstone of the fight, so worries about if the plan fails and Tomura gets the Quirk, but Kudo insists on him, cause if they don't do anything, Izuku will die now. As Tomura starts to rush toward them, Izuku retaliates with a hoard of Blackwhips he uses to consume his body, allowing him to move once again.[23]
En and Daigoro react in shock over how instantly he was able to jump into action and creatively utilize the Quirk. Kudo responds he's working perfectly since he's not driven by duty, but rather respect, and his admiration for Quirks will make One For All shine even brighter. As the two charge toward the ground, Izuku blows a large volume of Smokescreen, which confuses En since he considered it the most useless of the Quirks, as Tomura pushes through and touches the ground. But then, suddenly, Izuku uses Blackchain to rip the earth from underneath Tomura, lunging them into the air and preventing Decay from spreading. Izuku then uses his cape alongside a Blackwhip tendril with Kudo's vestige as a decoy, which reminds En of the tactic used against Lady Nagant. With a clear opening, Izuku comes in close and charges at Tomura with his fist. By launching the blood straight at Tomura, Izuku was able to create an opening to get up into his face, exploiting the fact he can track him with Search while using Smokescreen to make him misjudge his position for the sneak attack. En reacts surprisingly to Izuku making such effective use of his Quirk, as they recall back to how he admires each and every Quirk.
Tomura's body begins to instinctively re-enter its "absolute defense" form as fingers start to form around him, and before Tomura can touch him, Izuku executes a point-blank punch right at Tomura's stomach, successfully transferring Gearshift along with Kudo's vestige. Tomura reacts in shock as the Gearshift's recoil paralyzes his movement, and in that moment, both Izuku and Tomura experiences visions of their memories mending with each other. En yells for Izuku not to let up, since Kudo's plan appears to be working but it's still not enough, and as Tomura struggles to recover, Izuku prepares to keep going.[24]
With Tomura's absolute defense form struggling to adapt to Gearshift's recoil, Izuku charges at Tomura once again. Yoichi notices how their memories are blending together, figuring that because One For All and All For One have already been rapidly resonating with each other, Kudo's transfer has caused it to reach a critical point. As Izuku and Tomura scream each other's names, Izuku executes another point-blank punch into Tomura's stomach. Imbued within Izuku's fist, En and the other users all try to enter Tomura's scar, but through sheer willpower alone, Tomura rejected the transfer. However, En was the only one who managed to get through and sacrifices himself by successfully piercing right through the scar, inflicting more damage on Tomura.[25] Soon after, Izuku manages to transfer all the vestiges including their Quirks into Tomura, effectively destroying the leaden soul.[26]
Unfortunately, when Izuku defeated Tomura in the battle of willpower, the "All For One" vestige within Tomura reemerges after the latter's will was weakened, allowing him to retake control of Tomura's body and expel Izuku from the vestige realm. [27] As an army of Heroes assembled before "All For One", they charge the villain, countering every single attack from "All For One" until Izuku comes in and deals the final blow to "All For One" smashing him right through his chest.[28]
As a result of all the damage, Tomura's body begins to shatter along with his Quirks crumbling away. Izuku lands the finishing blow, smashing Tomura's fists with his own. In the vestige realm, En and the other vestiges of One For All were reawakened by Izuku. En and the other vestiges comes together to land one last hit on All For One, destroying him for good. In the physical realm, Izuku defeats Tomura once and for all, just before he succumbs to his injuries and dies as his body disintegrates into ashes.[29]