History#
Sometime during his career at Feel Good Inc., Tomoyasu Chikazoku suffered a cyber attack in the company servers, replacing their ads with the "Optic☆Kitty" mascot, triggering his trypophobia. That incident cost the company lots of money, and since then, he considered it his one and only failure.[1]
Synopsis#
Meta Liberation Army Arc#
Tomoyasu is present at the meeting of the Meta Liberation Army executives.[2] When Re-Destro shows surprise that Giran has been brought to them so quickly, Tomoyasu reminds him that he was the one who gave the order to do so and that his words are those of Destro, so he should choose them carefully.[3] Although Giran has destroyed his client data, Tomoyasu is able to restore it, allowing the Army to figure out the identities and locations of the League of Villains members.[4]
As the Revival Celebration proceeds, Tomoyasu expresses disappointment that Curious entered the front lines and was defeated, lamenting that the footage she collected is now unusable and that Curious should have used Himiko to play up the tragic heroine angle. When Giran asks about the footage, Tomoyasu derides his inability to understand what they're discussing before explaining that they have security cameras installed throughout the town to record the battle between the Army and the League, allowing them to spin the conflict into heroes protecting the town from villains.[5]
Tomoyasu continues to monitor the battle, waiting for Twice to encounter Himiko. He sends out his puppets to kill Himiko and retrieve Twice for the Army so that they can use his Anthropomorph Meta Ability to create clones of Re-Destro in case of their leader's death. Knowing that Twice was almost killed by clones of himself, Tomoyasu transforms his puppets into copies of Twice to traumatize him and make him easier to capture.[6]
He orders a pair of puppets to hold down Twice while the rest restrain Himiko and begin twisting her neck until it snaps. Meanwhile, he taunts Giran by telling him he obtained the information about Twice's psychological disorder from the client data Giran failed to erase and that Himiko will soon be dead while Twice will belong to the Liberation Army.
Twice manages to break free of the puppets' grasp and rushes to Himiko to rescue her. Tomoyasu, surprised, muses that he had expected Twice to either run away or continue cowering, noting that Himiko and Twice have a stronger bond than anticipated. Nevertheless, he remains composed and orders his puppets to beat Twice into submission before having them grab his arms and break them. As Twice screams from the pain, Tomoyasu threatens to break his legs next if he refuses to stop his futile struggling.
Observing that Himiko has regained consciousness, Tomoyasu casually mentions that he will have to adjust the power output of his puppets to break her neck. However, Twice's survival in the face of his injuries inadvertently allows him to overcome his fear of being a clone and fight back against Tomoyasu by generating a group of his own duplicates, causing the latter to grit his teeth in frustration.[7]
Re-Destro remarks that it is a rare occurrence for Tomoyasu to fail, which Tomoyasu, bearing a manic expression on his face, refutes by saying he has only failed once in his entire career and that he simply needs to take additional measures to rectify the situation.[8] This results in Tomoyasu entering the front lines, creating more puppets with his Meta Ability and leading them while approaching where Twice and Toga are, ranting Jin's name and constantly denying that he has failed.[9]
However, he has no chance to fight Jin, because at that time Gigantomachia arrives in the city destroying everything in its path. A panicked Skeptic calls Re-Destro to try to warn him about the League's monster that is heading towards his position, sweeping everything and everyone in his path. At those moments, Re-Destro is too busy fighting against Tomura Shigaraki.[10]
The fight is over when Tomura unleashes the full power of his Quirk, destroying much of Deika city and leaving Rikiya Yotsubashi legless. Tomoyasu expresses concern for Re-Destro who admits defeat and lends the MLA's strength to the League of Villains.[11]. In the following days, Skeptic and his puppets were editing and manipulating the footage of the battle and destruction of Deika City to make it look like a terrorist attack perpetrated by a group of twenty villains with a "grudge against heroes", with the inhabitants of the city fighting against them.
One week later after the Revival Party, the League of Villains dines on sushi while waiting for a meeting. Skeptic and Trumpet enter to lead to the League to the meeting. Skeptic is annoyed at the League's slow response and complains that it was the Meta Liberation Army's money that paid for the sushi, medical treatments, Himiko's coat, and doctored videos and Twice replies if it weren't for them Re-Destro would be dead. Koku tells Tomoyasu to stop, and accept the decision of their former commander.
The group goes down to the fourth level of the Army headquarters basement where Re-Destro holds a ceremony to announce the merging of the League of Villains merge with the Meta Liberation Army, with Tomura as the leader of the new "Paranormal Liberation Front", with the prominent members of both groups as his Lieutenants.[12]
Endeavor Agency Arc#
At the Paranormal Liberation Front base, Tomoyasu overhears Slidin' Go's words about being in a higher rank than Hawks and quickly puts him in his place, bluntly reminding him that he is just a low-ranking hero. Thanks to his position, Hawks has access to the Hero's central information network. For this reason, Skeptic planted twenty microdevices on Hawks, allowing him to have access to all kinds of information, proclaiming that nothing the heroes do is hidden from him.[13]
Skeptic is later at a meeting with the other lieutenants, during which Hawks reported that Heroes aren't aware of the Front's existence and Skeptic remarks on how Endeavor took upon three trainees. Hawks leaves the room and the lieutenants continue discussing a plan that would require four months to put in motion.[14]
Through the devices he implanted in Hawks, he monitors his conversation with Twice who reveals to him important information about the status of Tomura Shigaraki, honestly believing that Hawks is on his side. Tomoyasu, for his part, decides to keep a closer eye on Hawks. However, the Winged Hero manages to transmit this information to the heroes without him noticing.[15]
Paranormal Liberation War Arc#
Thanks to the information transmitted by Hawks, the heroes organize an operation to end the Paranormal Liberation front, and a large force led by Edgeshot assaults the Gunga Mountain Villa. Tomoyasu is panicking when the heroes were attacking and begins searching for Twice, blaming him for what's happening. Although he acknowledges that it was possible for Hawks to deceive him despite having kept such a sharp eye on him, he insists that Twice is still at fault.[15]
When the villa cracks open, he shouts, canceling the conference of the lieutenants, while ordering violet, black, and brown regiments to engage the heroes, but directing carmine to the assembly hall. The regiments soon attack the heroes, while Tomoyasu retreats to the villa.[16] He returns to the monitor room to find out Hawks' position, but watches in frustration as Hawks destroys his microdevices.[17]
Later, when Tomura awoke and ordered Gigantomachia to gather the League of Villains members and bring them to him, Dabi grabs ahold of Skeptic to take him with them, telling him he always knew he'd be of good use to him, while he screams out in confusion.[18][19] He proceeds to complain that he was the only non-League lieutenant on Gigantomachia's back and that they should protect Re-Destro, to which Dabi replied that he should stay put because heroes still haven't noticed them.[20]
Gigantomachia and the League get rid of the heroes that try to stop them. However, the hero students manage to pin down Gigantomachia, as the lieutenants on his back were holding him back. While the giant's lying on the ground, Skeptic notices the heroes start swarming his back.[21] Gigantomachia stands up, sending the heroes falling to their death, and realizes he should take out the heroes before he goes to Jaku City.
He then is attacked by the heroes flying on Majestic's rings, after Red Riot threw the jar with the sedative into his mouth.[22] Gigantomachia defeats all the heroes and starts running towards Tomura's location, with the lieutenants on his back, as the rest of the PLF follows behind.[23]
In order to get to Tomura as soon as possible, Gignatomachia decides to cross several cities, without caring about having to destroy buildings in its path. Skeptic has to protect himself from falling debris. Later, the news of Endeavor fighting Tomura at Jaku reaches Dabi, who tells Skeptic to prepare as they're going to tear down the hero society.[24]
The Heroes, however, start regrouping which Skeptic notices using his Satellite Image. He says that there are not as many heroes as at the villa, but still a formidable number. He starts forming a strategy to counter them, but Mr. Compress tells him to zoom in on Uravity and Froppy, which catches Himiko's attention and she rushes towards them.[25]
When Gigantomachia finally arrives at the battlefield, Skeptic broadcasts Dabi's pre-recorded video, in which he reveals his past, his identity as "Toya Todoroki", and how Endeavor abused him and drove him to the path of villainy.[26] Skeptic managed to edit Dabi's pre-recorded message as well as the footage of Hawks stabbing Twice in the back to make Hawks look like a cold-blooded killer as they were all riding on Gigantomachia.
He proudly boast about his computer skills and sarcastically orders Dabi to bow down to his skills.[27] Before Dabi can kill Endeavor though, Best Jeanist appears on the battlefield and uses his Quirk to restrain the Lieutenants and Gigantomachia, with Skeptic getting trapped on the giant by the wires.[28]
Mr. Compress then starts making his escape, after Gigantomachia has started feeling the effects of the sedative the U.A. Students injected. As he's making his way on the giant villain, Skeptic notices him and pleads for rescue, which Compress does, by compressing him and continuing getting to Gigantomachia's top.[29]
Mr. Compress then puts the marble containing Skeptic and Dabi in Spinner's scarf, as he's dragged out of the battlefield by the Near High-End Nomu, after Tomura woke up and his body was taken over by All For One.[30] That same night, after All For One assaulted Tartarus and freed its prisoners, the villain asks him, Dabi, and Spinner to watch over Tomura's body, as he needs to rest to recover from the wounds suffered throughout the day.[31]
Star and Stripe Arc#
Skeptic collaborates with All For One to extend the image of Spinner as a symbol of liberation. Although he still doesn't like the League of Villains, despite having been recognized by Re-Destro, it doesn't matter whether they are true liberators, but that their influence is real, so they will help sow the seeds of the future once Tomura and them have destroyed all.
Skeptic leads the remaining members of the Paranormal Liberation Front, specifically the other heteromorphs who served in Spinner's squadron, ordering them to stoke the embers of the Liberation and eliminate all remaining resistance to the Paranormal Liberation Front.[32]
U.A. Traitor Arc#
In the villains' hideout, while Tomura was recovering from the aftermath of his fight against Star and Stripe, Skeptic tells Spinner that he has become an example to follow for many heteromorphs who have felt discriminated against by society and have great resentment towards heroes.
Spinner replies that he is not some kind of messiah nor does he serve a great cause, but Tomoyasu says the die has already been cast, and the common rioters in the street are awaiting his lead: he will pull the trigger in Re-Destro's stead, and hands him a communication device. With the support of All For One and Tomura, Spinner accepts to serve as the Paranormal Liberation Front's public face, guiding the heteromorphs to their mission.[33]
Final War Arc#
As All For One summons a majority of the Paranormal Liberation Front in order to take One For All and fight the Heroes, Skeptic stays behind in the hideout for his part of the plan. During his fight against his brother Shoto, Dabi calls out to Skeptic, who answers through a communication device he had implanted into the Near High-End Nomu, asking him not to pester him with his daddy issues, but still informs him of Endeavor's current location at the ruins of the Gunga Mountain Villa fighting All For One.
He manages to regain control of the Feel Good Inc. satellites, ranting about how the corporates tried to cut him out of his company and ran away overseas. Despite this, he claims he will be the one to support Tomura and achieve Re-Destro's dream to create a world where people are free to use their Meta Abilities as equals, and create a society without "Heroes" and "Villains". He then starts to hack into U.A.'s systems, saying that just like All For One, he will do as he pleases, and that there will be no place for any of the old ways in the new world.[34]
He successfully is able to take control of both U.A.'s main system and its subterranean evacuation system, preparing to cause the floating U.A. in the Sky to plummet toward the ground. In the hideout he manically gloats about his accomplishment, declaring that the ignorant masses and Heroes will perish in the name of liberation.
However, he is caught completely off guard when an unknown voice suddenly speaks to him through his monitor. He is shocked to discover that his system has been hacked by La Brava, working alongside the Police Force who declares that while it was a lot of work to track him down, nothing is too much for her, all for the sake of Gentle.[35]
While continuing to hack Skeptic's servers, La Brava reminisces about the time when she was still a shut-in when she hacked into Feel Good Inc.'s servers, commenting on how his coding habits haven't changed since then. Skeptic is flabbergasted and enraged upon the revelation that it was her who sabotaged and hacked his advertisements, asking if she had any idea how money it cost to fix the damage. La Brava further decides to taunt him by playing them again on his monitors. As she proceeds to take over everything, Skeptic prepares to flee, insisting he won't relinquish control over U.A. or the evacuation system, taking the data with himself and the puppets. He yells that it doesn't matter if she found his location if he flees, and that his flames of revolution won't be doused.
However, outside the Villains' secret hideout, Skeptic is shocked to see him cornered by several Heroes, including the Ketsubutsu Academy High School students and Hound Dog, as they were given a heads-up on his location and were in the area.[36] With the hideout compromised, Skeptic is captured and apprehended, taken in for transport by the Heroes.[37]