My Hero Academia chapter 413: Why Yoichi Shigaraki called Kudo his "hero," explained

My Hero Academia chapter 413 quickly became one of the series' most crucial chapters shortly after its release, as it featured the second One For All user, Kudo's final plan to beat Tomura Shigaraki. While it was a plan that could potentially end the villain's rampage for good, it could also deal a massive blow to Deku, who would have to lose One For All for the plan to work.

After Kudo proposed that he sacrifice himself and hand his Gearshift ability to Tomura, the first One For All user, Yoichi Shigaraki called him his 'hero' and wished him luck. As such, this moment caused a bit of confusion among some fans, who were left wondering about the meaning behind Yoichi's seemingly last words to Kudo.

---

My Hero Academia chapter 413: Explaining the reason behind Yoichi Shigaraki calling Kudo his 'hero'

The relationship between Yoichi Shigaraki and Kudo dates back to the time when All For One's powers were reaching its peak, which was the harshest era of Meta Abilities. Kudo was a battle-hardened veteran who was also the leader of a resistance that fought against All For One and his rule of terror around the world.

Throughout his life, Kudo had only one goal: to put an end to All For One's tyranny and kill him for mercilessly trampling on innocent people's lives. One day, Kudo, along with his resistance group, stormed the villain's base to assassinate Yoichi Shigaraki, his younger brother, for being affiliated with him.

However, when Kudo witnessed Yoichi's condition in confinement, he took pity on the latter's plight and decided to lend a hand to him, thereby rescuing him despite his initial assassination attempt. Due to Kudo's actions, Yoichi was forever grateful to him for saving him from his brother and viewed him as his 'hero'.

Throughout the years, his opinion of Kudo never seemed to change, seeing as to how he sent the latter off on his final mission of saving Tomura Shigaraki by calling him his 'hero' once again in My Hero Academia chapter 413.

Yoichi had a tremendous amount of respect for Kudo, despite the latter failing to save him from All For One when he attacked the resistance group and killed his brother. Although Kudo was devastated upon witnessing Yoichi's death, he soon realized that he had passed on his One For All power to him. Thereby, Yoichi's will was still alive inside Kudo even after the former's passing.

While Kudo was unsuccessful in his attempt to put an end to All For One, he ensured One For All's survival by passing it on to his loyal companion, Bruce, who further continued the fight against the villain by strengthening the Quirk and passing it on to another Hero.

Kudo proposes handing over One For All to Shigaraki in My Hero Academia chapter 413 (image via Studio Bones)

In the current timeline of the story in My Hero Academia chapter 413, Kudo's vestige, which is still alive inside the One For All Quirk, proposes that they hand over the power to Tomura Shigaraki. According to him, they can try to attack Tomura from inside by using the mental scar that was inflicted by Star and Stripe during her battle with the Villain.

As pointed out by the other vestiges, this plan could work both in and against their favor, since there's a chance that it may backfire on them and render Deku powerless once again. However, Kudo decided to stake everything on this gamble, choosing to be the first to sacrifice his power.

As such, Yoichi bid his old friend goodbye, calling him his hero and entrusting everything to him. With this, My Hero Academia chapter 413 came to a climactic end, with Deku down to his last bit of strength and Shigaraki gaining another Quirk from him.

---

Final Thoughts

My Hero Academia chapter 413 raised the stakes of the story even higher, with Deku hell-bent on saving Shigaraki even at the cost of potentially becoming Quirkless once again. As such, fans eagerly await the release of the next chapter, which will feature the climax of the long-drawn battle between the two rivals.