Did Shigaraki become a Vestige? His appearance in My Hero Academia final chapter, explained

Modified Aug 17, 2024 07:13 GMT

Did Shigaraki become a Vestige? His appearance in My Hero Academia final chapter, explained — Deku and Shigaraki as seen in My Hero Academia (Image via BONES)

With the release of My Hero Academia chapter 430, the manga series finally ended and revealed Deku's fate after he lost the embers of the One For All Quirk. The Quirk was priceless to Deku, but he had to transfer the same to Shigaraki Tomura in hopes of destroying the villain from the inside.

While the plan eventually succeeded, Deku was left Quirkless again, forcing him to become a teacher for a few years. But his friends from Class A had not given up on him and commissioned a support item that would allow him to become a hero again. However, just as he returned as a hero, he saw Shigaraki Tomura in a vestige-like form looking at him.

This has led fans to wonder if Shigaraki Tomura has become a vestige. However, in reality, the imagery wasn't a vestige but a ghost.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the My Hero Academia manga.

Shigaraki's appearance in the My Hero Academia finale does not confirm his status as a vestige

Tenko Shimura and Izuku Midoriya as seen in the anime (Image via Bones)

As fans might remember, at the end of the final war, Deku transferred his One For All Quirk to Shigaraki Tomura. Hence, the OFA vestiges attacked the cracks within Shigaraki's mind to cause massive damage to him. As Shigaraki's body began to decay, All For One took over the body and fought the heroes.

During this, All For One revealed that he was the person responsible for Tenko Shimura receiving his Decay Quirk in the past. This was shocking to Shigaraki as the Decay Quirk was what caused him to mistakenly kill his family and become the villain called Shigaraki Tomura. Hence, Shigaraki also turned against All For One and fought him alongside Deku in the vestige world.

Deku and Shigaraki as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

This development saw both All for One and Shigaraki Tomura pass away in My Hero Academia chapter 424. However, despite Shigaraki having been a villain, Deku could not forget him. This is because he did not want to kill him but to save him. Thus, following his death, he kept thinking up scenarios through which he could have saved him.

Fortunately, eight years later, Deku had seemingly come to terms with Shigaraki's death as he no longer seemed filled with regrets of failing to save him. This was evident from the fact that after Deku returned to being a hero and leaped onto the scene again, the first thing he saw when he looked down was a ghostly image of Tomura looking back at him with a smile.

Shigaraki Tomura's ghost as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

Therefore, what Deku saw at the end of My Hero Academia finale was not Shigaraki Tomura's vestige but an imagery of his ghost. While the manga did not explain why it was shown, it was heavily implied that Shigaraki's ghost appeared in front of Deku to assure him that failing to save him did not mean that he was a failure. Essentially, Shigaraki appeared as a ghost to Deku to wish him good luck in his future as a hero.

Also, fans should remember that the manga only showed vestiges within All For One and One For All users. With the Quirks themselves having been destroyed, there was no scope for the concept of vestige to remain.