WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE END OF MY HERO ACADEMIADeku’sfinal battle against All For One came at a huge cost, as he had to sacrifice hisOne For All Quirk, but the end ofMy Hero Academia’s story had more than a few surprises for its main character and fans. While the beginning of Kohei Horikoshi’s series began with a Qurikless boy who developed into a world-saving hero, it ended in a similar but satisfying manner that brings the entire series full circle.
Izuku Midoriya, who later adopted the Hero name Deku, was introduced as a young teenager obsessed with superpowered Quirks even though he was born without one. As fans know, that all changed when the world’s Symbol of Peace and most inspirational hero, All Might, saw the powerless boy risk his life to save his friend Bakugo, deeming him worthy of inheriting his mighty One For All Quirk.
Deku Gave Up One For All To Save The World
To Save Shigaraki From All For One, Izuku Gave Up His Powers
Throughout the series, Deku steadily masters One For All, unlocking seven distinct Quirks it harbors from each of its previous wielders. By utilizing each and combining their effects,Deku eventually surpassed All Might. However, now that the My Hero Academia manga has officially concluded with chapter #430, readers have discovered the young hero’s ultimate fate andwhat happened to his OFA Quirk at the end of the story.
Like Deku, the young villain Shigaraki was given an incredibly powerful Quirk, All For One, which contained an immeasurable amount of Quirks its original wielder stole from others. In their final battle, Shigaraki was beginning to win the fight whenDeku decided that the only way he could win without killing his opponent was to transfer OFA’s Quirks into Shigaraki. By doing so, the seven vestiges tied to those Quirks would be able to defeat the foe from the inside, partially thanks to a strange psychic-like link between the OFA and AFO Quirks.
With each Quirk that was transferred, Deku lost the power tied to it until there was almost nothing left. That was when he finally created a psychic link with Shigaraki through the connection of their Quirks. The appeal ultimately worked but left Deku’s arms disintegrated and only embers of One For All remaining inside of him. Thankfully, many more heroes arrived, including the injured members ofMy Hero Academia’s Class 1-A, to support their friend against the last remnant of the villain One For All, who’d taken complete control of what was left of Shigaraki’s body but Deku wasn’t done.
In one ofMy Hero Academia’s best moments, each hero played a pivotal role in preventing All For One from killing anyone else until Deku’s arms regenerated with the help of his friend Eri’s Quirk. Much like All Might’s iconic United States of Smash attack, Deku landed the considerable final hit against AFO, completely destroying the villain and clearing the cloudy sky with the force of its impact. It took nearly everything the heroes had to winMHA’s final war, but asDeku revealed to Bakugo while recovering in the hospital in chapter #424, an ember of OFA still burned inside the once Quirkless boy.
While many stories end abruptly,My Hero Academiaattempted to answer lingering mysteries before its finale, with several chapters devoted to its epilogue. In those chapters, Deku is still shown to be capable of feats of super strength, but in an effective montage of the eight years that followed the final war, the final embers of Deku’s One For All Quirk are shown fading away.At the end ofMy Hero Academia’s story, Deku is again Quirkless, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t continuing to make a big difference in the world.
What’s Next For My Hero Academia After The Manga’s End?
My Hero Academia’s manga may be over, but there are still plenty of ways for fans to get their fix of the hit superhero series in the future.
Izuku Finds A Better Job Than Being The Number #1 Hero
The Future Sees Pro Heroes Broadening The Roles They Play In Society
My Hero Academia’s finale follows the story eight years afterAll For One’s defeat. It proves how much each cast member had learned from their trials and tribulations throughout the story and how they used those lessons to flourish and help others as adults. This includesDeku, who became a teacher at UA High School, the best hero school in all of Japan, maybe the world. With his experience handling the multiple Quirks with One For All and his obsession with breaking down superpowers, Deku’s becoming a teacher is the most appropriate career for the Quirkless former Hero.
During the lastMHAchapter, Deku takes a break from preparing to teach a class to visit the All Might statue, where he encounters a young student who leaped at the chance to save someone from harm but fails. In a beautiful and satisfying moment that brought the entire series full circle, the kid asks Deku if he, too, could become a hero, even with a seemingly unremarkable Quirk. Like All Might before him, he tells the child, who reminds him of his younger self, “You can be a hero.”
My Hero Academia Proved That Even The Greatest Heroes Don’t Need Quirks
The emotional moment between Deku and the familiar child with a big dream would have been a satisfyingending forMy Hero Academia’sstory, butauthor Kohei Horikoshi decided to give Izuku Midoriya a plus ultra ending. Although he was supposed to meet the bloody end that Nighteye had prophesized, All Might did not die inMHA’s final arc. He appears at the very end of the series final chapter to give Deku something that’d allow him to perform as a Pro Hero, just as he did years ago.
Although All Might used up the last of his own One For All embers, he still provided fans with an incredible final battle against a de-aging All For One usinghighly advanced Support Gear that allowed him to perform several different abilities and feats of colossal strength. It wasn’t enough to defeat the formidable villain, but it did slow him down enough to give his students the time they needed to prepare for the arcs' winning conditions. The Armored Support Gear Suit also proved that someone without a Quirk like Deku could effectively participate in Pro Hero work.
Now, eight years later, with the data from that battle and the funding from his friends like Bakugo,Deku was given an advanced Support Gear hero costume that gave him artificial abilitiescomparable to what he wielded in the past. While thefinal panel ofMy Hero Academiashows Midoriyajoining his Pro Hero friends to help the victims of a landslide, the full extent of the suit’s abilities is left to the reader’s imagination. Still, it’s likely more advanced than the suit All Might used in the last arc’s battle.
What Happens To Deku In My Hero Academia’s New Epilogue?
The New Epilogue Gives Deku Even More Than He Expected
With the release of Volume 42 of the manga in Japan, one additional chapter, chapter 431, was added to the release. In this chapter, Deku is shown riding in a car with Bakugo and Kirishima, while Bakugo is driving. Deku is very grateful for his new support gear that allows him to work as a hero again, but reiterates that he loves teaching, and probably would’ve become a teacher even if he still had One for All. In so doing, he turns down a position at Bakugo’s hero agency, and receives some advice: if you treat everyone as special, then no one can truly be special to you.
They arrive at a party, celebrating Todoroki reaching rank #2 on the hero charts. All of Class 1-A is there, having a good time and talking about the good old days. They’re soon called out for an emergency, and the entire class goes to handle it swiftly. Deku and Uraraka don’t get a chance to chat, however, leaving Uraraka disappointed… at least, until Deku emerges behind her from a crowd, and emphasizes his desire to reconnect with her. Taking Bakugo’s advice to heart, Deku makes it clear to Uraraka that she can be special to him.
Uraraka herself sees a vision of Toga, pushing her to do what will make her happy, and Deku and Uraraka begin seeing each other. The chapter ends with the pair holding hands, with the promise of more to come from their relationship in the future.
Support Gear played an increasingly prominent role in the series, allowing heroes to replace limbs and assist them in safely using overwhelming Quirks. While Deku’s ending of becoming a Quirkless teacher at UA High School speaks volumes towards the message that even people without super-powered Quirks can help create a better future, giving Izuku Midoriya the tools enabling him to be an active hero allowed Horikoshi to get his message across while also givingMy Hero Academia’s main character a happier ending.
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a multimedia franchise that follows a young boy named Izuku Midoriya, who dreams of becoming a hero despite being born without superpowers. These superpowers, known as “Quirks” are found in most people after birth, but Izuku wasn’t so lucky - until a fateful encounter with All Might, Japan’s greatest hero, Izuku inherits his Quirk and enrolls in U.A. High School to learn the true meaning of heroism. Alongside his classmates, each endowed with unique abilities, Izuku faces rigorous training and lethal threats from villainous forces.
