The Second’s Quirk: Shit’s about to get absolutely batshit crazy
With the chapter 349 spoilers out and that one subtle detail that’s likely to be a reveal in disguise, I must now make my case for not only my interpretation of what we just learned but what it means for the rest of the story.
Obviously the night is young. I’ve only had these spoilers for an hour and a half, but if anything happened to them I would kill everyone in this fandom and then myself.
Without further ado, welcome to my Ultimate TED Talk.
Everything Makes Sense Now and Other Horrifying Revelations
Table of Contents
I. What is the Second’s quirk?
II. AFO’s obsession with OFA
III. Heroes Rising makes sense now. Yeah, you heard me.
IV. Bugs
V. The Butterfly Effect
VI. This isn’t even my theory’s final form
I. What is the Second’s quirk?
Let me literally spell it out for you.
In this panel, we have Izuku’s thoughts as he tries to use the Second’s quirk (the fact that he’s trying to use it is revealed in the next set of panels). His two thoughts in the bottom right both are pronounced hayaku in Japanese, but note that they both have different kanji: 早く and 速く
Contextually, we assume Izuku is trying to will himself to go “faster,” because that’s what hayaku means. However, hayaku can also mean “earlier.” This word is a homophone, and the kanji switching from one to the other despite both meaning either “faster” or “earlier” given the context implies that the meaning is different each time Izuku says the word.
In other words, “earlier” is implied to be a potential reading of Izuku’s meaning here.
This clue of “earlier” tied with the Second’s quirk means that the quirk likely involves time travel of some kind.
Now what do I mean by this? Am I confirming the Bak-u-go theory? Well, not necessarily. I shall neither confirm nor deny the theory at this time, because there are suddenly a whole load of new possibilities in that.
Based on Izuku’s behavior, I’m thinking the Second’s quirk may be the ability to jump back to a single point in time for a do-over. All things considered, I have no idea how Katsuki would get such a quirk himself and jump back in time. I can think of...a different scenario though (for later).
Eri rewinds humans, but the Second...he may rewind a human’s place in time. He rewinds the world around the user.
II. AFO’s obsession with OFA
Oh, but it gets juicier my friends.
Second: “Or did you try to use my meta ability?”
Izuku: “......yes.”
Second: “Those options, I’m sure I told you to save them for the end. Along with OFA’s strengthening, our meta abilities also were strengthened. As a result, that transformed into an extremely special* power.”
*(Note: This word tokui I believe is the word used for “singularity point” in the canon.)
The Second implies that his quirk has reached its singularity point in power since it’s the oldest quirk stored inside OFA. If he really has a time jump quirk, that means Izuku could activate it and jump back to a point in time he doesn’t intend to. It could be imprecise in timing, and that could spell disaster. It could jump back days, months, years, centuries...who knows? It’s unstable and unpredictable--and that makes it dangerous.
And it makes complete sense why AFO would be obsessed with OFA since the moment it was created.
OFA was created when the Second received it. AFO has wanted the Second’s quirk all this time.
It explains why the Second was the leader in the rebellion against AFO--because with a quirk like that, he’d be able to survive countless fights against him. It explains why AFO wanted OFA before he faced Star(s) & Stripe(s)--because he’d get to fight her as many times as it takes to defeat her. It explains why he never worries when any of his plans don’t go according to plan--because so long as he gets OFA in the end, he can undo any bad outcomes.
With OFA, AFO can undo his own disfiguration. He can possibly even find a way to live forever.
III. Heroes Rising makes sense now. Yeah, you heard me.
There are hints in the story that the Second’s quirk rewinds time. Namely: how are Izuku’s arms not yet destroyed?
Because the more powerful OFA gets, the more likely he’s unintentionally tapped into the Second’s quirk by mistake.
Every miracle can be explained by this, but the most important one is the ending to Heroes Rising.
Consider: What if Katsuki activated the Second’s quirk in order to give OFA back to Izuku? Perhaps the memories of the alternate events travel with the quirk, meaning Katsuki would forget what happened. Only Izuku would remember it.
It’s not the same as a pure do-over. We don’t know what point in time he rewound to. We don’t even know how the quirk’s parameters work exactly. Maybe he can go back in time and change one thing when he does. But the point is...some sort of rewinding quirk that leads to alternate events only one person remembers makes COMPLETE SENSE out of this “cop-out” ending.
It also explains the end of the Overhaul arc, where Izuku using 100% OFA changes the immutable future Sir Nighteye saw. Izuku has the quirk specifically capable of changing Nighteye’s vision: the Second’s.
IV. Bugs
But wait, there’s more!
The recurring motif of bugs. More specifically: the butterfly imagery.
And the kids with the bug-catching tools.
Have you ever heard of...?
V. The Butterfly Effect
Oh, so that’s what the butterfly imagery was all about!
The Butterfly Effect is a concept from chaos theory that basically states a small action can ripple into big waves felt somewhere far down the line. It appears often in time travel stories.
Actually, I won’t be surprised if the Second’s quirk is literally named this.
What I’m saying is, the combination of OFA with a time travel quirk like this would literally BE the Butterfly Effect. The concept of OFA itself is a form of it, a giant power that grows and changes and becomes something monstrous somewhere far down the line because of a single, seemingly-minor action.
The Second says his quirk changed into something very unique and special as a result of OFA. It just works too well, doesn’t it?
Because it explains why we haven’t known what this quirk is until the very end. I mean, what if Izuku jumps back and...redoes the final arc? Or...his first year of high school? What if he redoes the entire story? What if he jumps back to before he was born? Back to the Second’s era? All sorts of possibilities are suddenly open with this...
VI. This isn’t even my theory’s final form
Where do we go from here? Because I said I can’t write off the Bak-u-go theory now, but this has things get a little more nuanced. We could be talking about alternate realities now. Suddenly other theories have some new avenues to fruition. But that’s looking backwards.
How about we look forwards?
I know why you’re all here.
What if Izuku uses the quirk and changes one small thing that leads to big, unintended consequences?
What if that change is the difference in the outcome of something like a coin toss?
What if we get to see a moment in the story where things went right...and suddenly they all start to go so, so wrong?
Don’t you see? Any theory becomes possible with this.
