My Hero Academia 382: [SPOILER]’s Identity Crisis Is the Villains’ Greatest Obstacle

The following contains major spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 382, “Don’t Let Him Go,” by Horikoshi Kohei, Caleb Cook and John Hunt, available in English from Viz Media.

One of the greatest assets the villains possessed going into My Hero Academia’s final war was the vial of Twice’s blood that Dabi had entrusted to Himiko Toga. Using both her Transform Quirk and Twice’s double, Toga was supposed to overwhelm the heroes by cloning every League of Villains member several times and loosing them unto the battlefield to wreak havoc with their various Quirks.

Toga has managed to fulfill the first part of her plan and has even unleashed the Sad Girl’s Parade. However, come Chapter 382, the young villainess’ own warped understanding of love is preventing her from unleashing her full potential.

Himiko Toga’s Transform Quirk & Its Impact on MHA’s Final War

My Hero Academia 382: [SPOILER]’s Identity Crisis Is the Villains’ Greatest Obstacle_0

Himiko Toga’s Quirk in MHA allows her to transform into anyone else, provided she has ingested some of their blood. The length of her transformation scales with how much blood is consumed, but she can switch between transformations at will to lengthen the time she can spend as someone else. After the Quirk Awakening she achieved in the “My Villain Academia” arc, Toga gained the additional ability to use the Quirks of those she’s transformed into — but only if she loves them.

The unfortunate drawback associated with Himiko Toga’s Quirk Awakening is that her definition of love is fickle. She’s professed her love to characters like Izuku Midoriya and Uraraka Ochaco — who by definition should be her enemies — and the Hero Killer Stain, going on to say that she wished to kill him in the same breath. So far, Toga has used this ability to replicate Uraraka’s Float Quirk and was shown to be immune to Deku’s Danger Sense. She failed to trigger the Fourth’s Quirk even while slashing at Deku with her knives at Okutu Island. These weird situations continue to prove that Toga’s twisted version of love is genuine (for Midoriya and Uraraka at least) but, as she is beginning to realize, this love doesn’t seem to extend to the rest of the League of Villains.

After conjuring up a sizable Sad Man’s Parade, Toga started to use Twice’s Quirk to create doubles of Shigaraki Tomura, All For One and Dabi. The appearance of multiple versions of the League’s three most destructive members on the battlefield should’ve spelled the beginning of the end. However, as Uraraka and Froppy quickly noted, none of these new doubles seem able to access Decay or Cremation. Having foreknowledge of how Toga’s Quirk Awakening operated, Uraraka deduced that Toga’s conflicting feelings were behind this development; the young heroine is currently heading to the villain’s location, so they might have their long overdue chat about romance.

Why Toga Can’t Use the League of Villains’ Quirks in MHA 382

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The easiest answer to Toga’s inability to wield Decay, Cremation and All For One is that she simply doesn’t love the League of Villains as much as she thinks she does. Toga has never classified herself a villain and claims to live her life as normally as her taboo Transform Quirk will allow her to. She joined the League because she wanted to make the world a place she could live according to her norms, and has never shown particular affection for any member apart from Twice. Toga has also never directed the bloodlust she claims comes with her love at any of her teammates, but has tried to kill both Deku and Uraraka on several occasions.

For an answer that delves a little deeper into the lore of their Quirks, Toga might not have enough of Twice’s blood to enjoy its full effects. She’s already using Double in a manner that far exceeds what one would expect from a small vial of blood. Expecting further clones to use even more Quirks might be asking too much from the minuscule amount of Twice’s blood that is being shared across the entire throng. Asking Toga to recreate powerful Quirks like Cremation and Decay might be impossible, especially since she hasn’t ingested any blood from Dabi or Shigaraki.

Twice’s Double Quirk Might Be Resisting Toga’s Killing Intent

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As Midoriya Izuku and All For One’s continuous exploits in their respective vestige realms have proved, Quirks can retain their original wielders’ personalities long after they have been passed on. Twice may have been branded a villain, but he was an extraordinarily brave man in his heart — even though his Double Quirk had the capacity to topple a country on its own. He only ever activated his ultimate move, the Sad Man’s Parade, as a response to other parties putting Toga and the League of Villains in danger.

Twice’s Quirk is heavily linked with his personality. For a while, he lived not knowing if he was in his original body or merely a double. This uncertainty ended up becoming an advantage to his Quirk once he was able to verify his humanity; every double he created perceived themselves as no different from the original. They all carried his latest memories, infinite doubling ability and, most importantly, Twice’s kindness. Even after his Quirk was transplanted into a Nomu, it displayed his selflessness in saving Dr. Garaki during the Paranormal Liberation War. When Mirko directed a powerful kick at the feeble doctor’s way, he was spared a direct hit by the tiny Double Nomu that leapt to intercept it.

Toga might not be able to use Twice’s Double Quirk to its full potential because of how she is attempting to use it. Even though “Kill all heroes” is a sentiment Twice might have agreed with, an unprovoked attack would be at odds with his basest instincts. When Toga’s own complicated feelings toward the heroes are added in, it’s a bona-fide recipe for the block she currently finds herself facing.

Twice would never hurt a friend, and it might be this tiny detail that prevents Toga from fully becoming him and using Double to its full potential. As Uraraka and Froppy noted, Toga’s inaction in this moment could easily be ended since her emotions are as changeable as the weather. It might only be a matter of seconds before she cracks the Double code when My Hero Academia continues.