‘My Hero Academia’ Theory Suggests Izuku’s Real Quirk Was Stolen

The central conceit of Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia is Izuku Midoriya’s journey to overcome the fact that he was born without a quirk to eventually become the greatest hero in the world. But what if he actually had a quirk to begin with, but it was taken from him without him realizing it? What if the doctor who told him he did not develop a quirk actually was involved with something far more nefarious?

The latest chapter of the series gives fans a better look at All For One’s mysterious doctor, and now the pervasive theory is that this is actually the same doctor who told Midoriya he was quirkless. But instead of this being true, he and All For One stole Midoriya’s quirk and altered his memories somehow.

In the first chapter of the series, a doctor (who is wearing some suspicious goggles in retrospect) tells Midoriya that there’s no hope for him. He explains that Midoriya has two joints in his pinky toe, signifying that his body has not evolved like quirk users and thus will not develop a quirk. This was taken at face value because fans had no reason to doubt this information at the beginning of the story.

But as the series progressed, fans were introduced to the idea of quirks being transferred from one person to another with One For All and All For One. Now that All For One’s mysterious doctor has been revealed in the manga (though his appearance is still mostly obscured by shadow), this theory suggests that Midoriya’s real quirk was a victim of the doctor’s Nomu experiments.

Given All For One’s ability to steal quirks and place them within Nomu, and the Nomu having connections to Midoriya’s childhood, fans now suspect Midoriya’s quirk was stolen and he was instead shown a fake x-ray to “prove” that he was not going to develop a quirk. If he indeed was born with a quirk, this could explain why his connection with One For All is different than All Might’s.

All Might truly did not have a quirk before inheriting One For All, so he did not experience things such as visions of the previous vestiges like Midoriya has. The more Midoriya masters One For All, the more it’s starting to change. It’s even starting to give him access to more quirks, and perhaps the fact that his body originally had a quirk could be throwing One For All out of whack and closer to its singularity. But fans will see whether or not this theory will pan out as the series continues.

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.

My Hero Academia will be returning for its fourth season later this October, and it’s one of the most anticipated returns of the year. Season 3 left the series on quite a few cliffhangers, so fans will be there day one to see what comes next. The series will be releasing its second big movie later this year as well.

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