This My Hero Academia Sketch of Kurogiri’s True Self is Heartbreaking

My Hero Academia has debuted a sketch of Kurogiri that is breaking fans’ hearts. The sketch comes from My Hero Vigilantes vol. 11 and reflects some of the tragic revelations about Kurogiri that have been revealed during My Hero Academia’s current War Arc in the manga. (Spoilers) The big reveal has been that Kurrogiri is in fact one of All For One and Dr. Garaki’s earliest successes in creating Intelligent Nomu – using the corpse of Oboro Shirakumo, One of Shota Aizawa’s best childhood schoolmates from U.A. The shadowy legacy of Shirakumo in this Kurogiri sketch reflects a tragic story that has yet to be fully addressed.

In My Hero Academia‘s War Arc, the heroes used Shirakumo’s childhood connection to Aizawa and Present Mic to draw the “ghost” of Shirakumo out of Kurogiri, in order to supply the heroes with key intelligence on where to find Shigaraki and his cohorts.

Things were admittedly moving very fast during the War Arc, so the revelation of who/what Kurogiri is couldn’t be explored in too much depth before other big reveals came flying at us. However, this sketch is a stark reminder that within My Hero Academia’s ever-expanding (and dense) mythos, there are still very powerful stories to tell – even about B-level characters.

Kurogiri’s history with Shirakumo, Aizawa and Present Mic is just one more reason that fans of the series have been for a My Hero Academia prequel. Not so much a tangential prequel like Vigilantes, but rather a true prequel that would flesh-out how Aizawa’s generation came of age being heroes, and how All Might rose to be the Symbol of Peace and defeated All For One. After the War Arc, that prequel could flesh out the stories of pivotal characters fated for tragic turns, like Nana Shimura, and Toya Todoroki. A big part of that story would conceivably by on the trio of friends that became Earser Head, Present Mic and Kurogiri – a chance for fans to finally get to know Oboro Shirakumo as the boy he was.

What we know about Shirakumo so far is that he was a tall boy with wavy-blue hair and a steampunk vibe. He was outgoing and happy – a perfect foil to the quiet and introspective Aizawa – and was known for being an altruistic hero. His quirk is “cloud,” which allows him to generate clouds – a power All For One and Garaki twisted into Kurogiri’s warp gates.

My Hero Academia releases new manga chapters weekly FREE Online. Season 5 of the anime is in the works.