My Hero Academia Reveals Aoyama’s New Technique

My Hero Academia‘s young heroes of Class 1-A have all wrapped up their recent mandatory work studies. And while there’s definitely a darker purpose behind the rushed training for these students, each of them is blissfully unaware as they continue to learn and improve under their respective pro heroes. The latest chapter of the series sees Class 1-A take on a new training exercise, and it’s here that each of them is able to show off just how much they have learned over the past week away from the school.

While this has resulted in all kinds of adorable moments between the young heroes, it also showcased some new skills for lesser highlighted members of the class such as Yuga Aoyama. He’s managed to finely hone his laser to a fine point and can now use it as a blade.

Chapter 256 of the series sees Aoyama quickly take down some of the training robots that would have given him trouble in a much earlier moment of the year. With his “Navel Saber,” Aoyama cuts down a few of the robots and manages to impress the other members of his class like Kaminari (who once wanted to forge a sword of his own with electricity). Toru Hagakure manages to bend this light and use it herself too, and it’s revealed that these two did their work study together.

Together with Mina Ashido and Hagakure, Aoyama did his work study with the Equipped Hero: Yoroi Musha. This samurai armored pro has yet to be shown in action in the series officially, but the three of them reveal that the pro had come up with so many different plans for both attack and defense that new moves were necessary in order to keep up.

So while the work study arc focused mainly on Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and Shoto Todoroki and their time with Endeavor, this trio weren’t the only ones who grew and improved with their latest stint working in the real world. Aoyama might have started the year off as one of the less combat heavy heroes in the class, but it’s a much different case now that he’s got a Navel Sword!

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. Funimation will soon be bringing My Hero Academia’s second big movie, Heroes Rising, to North America sometime later this year.