Soul is the Quirk used by Rody Soul.[1]
Description#
Soul manifests itself as Pino, a small, pink bird-like creature, and is always active. Pino is connected to the user's soul and her actions articulate their true thoughts and feelings.[2]
Weaknesses#
Due to Soul's nature, Rody is effectively unable to lie, as Pino would reflect his inner feelings, which may be different from the one he is expressing.
Rody's current state reflects on Pino as well, and any injuries inflicted upon him will affect her too. This is shown after Rody had been shot by a laser turret and began to pass out from blood loss, Pino temporarily faded away.
Usage#
Rody gets embarrassed when sharing his Quirk's function with other people; however, Soul was deemed a great Quirk by Izuku Midoriya.
Despite being unable to lie to other people, Rody can use this to his advantage, most notably when he uses Soul to feint his actions. This is demonstrated during the final fight against Flect Turn, when Rody was seemingly about to betray Izuku, but Pino revealed that his actions were a lie.
Due to also being a living creature, Rody is capable of giving Pino directions to act upon, such as using her as a distraction in his chase against Izuku and using her to input the deactivation key while he was barely conscious. Pino is also able to act on her own, in accordance to the real feelings of Rody, as was the case when she woke Izuku up when Rody took off with the briefcase, representing his desire to want to be stopped.
Pino was able to grab the disarming key for the Trigger Bombs while Rody was dodging Flect's laser turrets, although one of them managed to shoot Rody through the chest. As Rody made his way to the control center for the bombs, he began to lose consciousness, resulting in Pino fading away in front of him. Although severely weakened, Pino was able to recover and enter the disarming key, shutting the Trigger Bombs off with less than a second to spare.[1]
Trivia#
- Soul is the second known example of a Quirk taking the form of a living being, the first being Dark Shadow.
- Both Quirks are also share the same voice actors as their respective hosts, though Pino's instance only happens in the English version with Rody's child actor.
- Despite Rody being male, Pino is referred to as a female.
- This is also similar to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, where people's souls walk alongside them in the form of an animal called Dæmons. They are the opposite gender of their hosts.
- The origin of Pino's name could come from several different sources:
- It could be a corrupted spelling of "pink", in reference to Pino's color.
- Pino is also similar to piyo piyo, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a bird's chirping.
- Pino could also be short for the famous puppet, Pinnochio, whose wooden nose grows whenever he lies. Likewise, Pino reflects whenever Rody is being dishonest.
- In a way, Soul serves as an inverse of Flect Turn's Quirk, Reflect. Soul displays Rody's true feelings through Pino, while Reflect redirects anything that physically touches Flect. While Soul provides Rody with a companion, Reflect caused Flect to hurt anyone who touched him, even without meaning to, resulting in his ostracization from society.