Chapter 285 Spoilers/TBE Spoilers
Days like today, I wish I just sucked it up and published TBE last year. Maybe then I could’ve caught up to where BNHA is at right now (though highkey doubt).
Note: major BNHA manga spoilers, major TBE spoilers
I’ve briefly mentioned a few times about how amazing it was to sometimes see ideas I’ve come up with years beforehand become canon by pure coincidence. In just One Piece alone, an idea that I came up with around a decade ago when I first started Romance Dawn actually showed up with Momonosuke and Trafalgar Law. At first I was thrilled and excited because even though the nuances were slightly different, the main ideas were EXACTLY the same and I’ll point them out once we hit those moments in Romance Dawn.
Something I did not really expect, however, was this to happen with BNHA.
One of the reasons why I love this story from a writer’s standpoint is that I’ve never been able to accurately guess what would happen next in BNHA. The ironic thing is, the one point of the plot I wanted to add but didn’t know how ended up matching with Horikoshi’s idea.
Basically, Kana is a character that mirrors the origin trio in many ways. With Todoroki, their views on family and Quirks foil each other, and I love writing about the two because there’s always something so comforting about they way they’re there for each other. With Hawks, he and Kana see Quirks as both a gift and a curse, and their different philosophies of the hero world is (in my opinion) what makes their love so sad and lonely.
Midoriya’s a bit of a basket case for me because he doesn’t foil quite as cleanly as Todoroki, Hawks, or Bakugo, but rather than having perfect foils and parallels, Midoriya is just someone that becomes important to Kana in every aspect of her life. His relationship with others, his sense of self-sacrifice and heroism, and his determination to be the best and not let his Quirklessness stop him from becoming a hero is a major source of inspiration for Kana. He gives her a purpose, something that’s so important for people like her who’s never even thought or desired a future.
And then we have Bakugo. I always have trouble writing about Midoriya, but for the longest time, I had nothing that I wanted to write about when it came to Bakugo. Todoroki, Midoriya, Hawks covered all the grounds for Kana and then some, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit him in.
But as I developed Kana’s character as well as her backstory, the Overhaul arc became a major turning point for her and it became very clear to me how Bakugo could fit into Kana’s life.
This wasn’t intentional, but rather than focusing on the past which is how Kana parallels with Midoriya, Todoroki, and Hawks, Bakugo and Kana also grapple with their present and the future, and I realized how many similar things Bakugo and Kana actually go through. Post-Kamino arc they’re forced to become quite close due to something devastating happening to Kana. And then... chapter 285 leaks came out today.
Basically, once Bakugo and Kana become close, Kana gets a premonition from one of the main antagonists—an OC named Eve who has the power to see the future with multiple restrictions. Unlike Nighteye’s Quirk, Eve’s Quirk shows a possible future. Whether it’s a very likely or very unlikely future depends on how many times her mirror shows that future, and unlike Nighteye’s, Eve’s future predictions can be changed. Its major weakness is that the future in the mirror may not always be accurate (and no one knows how likely or unlikely it’ll be), but it’s advantage is that if there is a bad future, everyone can take precautions to stop it. Eve is a pretty unique antagonist (after all, how can she ever lose if she knows what will happen in the future?) and there’s a few more restrictions on her Quirk, but this is the main idea.
I intended Eve to show Kana a premonition of Bakugo dying, but I had no idea where to include it. When this arc started and I saw a city about to potentially get destroyed, I thought ‘aha! This is the perfect place to squeeze my original scene in!’
Little did I know Horikoshi would ACTUALLY do it in the arc I intended to! I’ve included three excerpts from three different chapters below.
This chapter was written on August 23, 2019, a year before Chapter 285 was leaked. The title is Beginnings of Endings.
Note: some spoiler names/titles/plot will be omitted with an (omitted).
“(omitted)” She snapped, azure eyes vibrant like those of a fire’s. “Dealing with the (omitted) was my problem anyways! Stop sticking your nose into it!”
“Hah?!” He cried, standing up with fists clenched to his sides. “You’re the one who’s being a dumbass about this! The white-haired brat said it, didn’t she? Her futures are reversible if we make an effort!”
Kana gritted her teeth, drawing a fist back. “Shut up!”
“And?” He asked weakly. “What was going on?”
Kana shook her head. “I don’t know. But there was so much debris around us—probably the aftermath of a battle. You were bleeding out in my arms. I-I don’t know if I’d tried Overdrive and it didn’t work, but your wounds just looked so fatal…”
“Did I say anything?” Bakugo asked, crimson irises locked into azure.
“(omitted)” Kana said quietly.
The two continued to look at each other silently for a few seconds, Kana with tears continuing to fall slowly, while Bakugo gave her a quiet, passive gaze.
Dim, grey eyes flashed, engulfing him in light. When it disappeared, he realized that he was seeing the aftermath of a battlefield. Crumbled buildings scattered debris everywhere, but it was almost deathly silent compared to how loud the actual fight must’ve been.
“Bakugo!” He heard Kana’s cry. The girl ran towards a bloodied body in the centre of it all. She was wearing a white shirt with her usual thin ribbon and maroon skirt. Her hair hung loosely below her shoulders, and her skin looked marred and injured.
This excerpt is from a different chapter called Where Hands Cannot Reach, written on September 10th, 2020 (two weeks ago).
She suddenly stood up and began to run, much to the shock of Tokoyami and Dark shadow. “Kana!”
“GO!” She screamed, forcing herself to face them. “Go and get help! Do whatever—whatever you can to save him!”
“They’re too far, Kana-chan,” Dark Shadow said. “You’re the only medical support around—”
“If I don’t go, Bakugo will die,” she screamed, shaking her head in despair. “Kei—Hawks might have a chance if you can find anyone else.”
“Bakugo will?” Tokoyami said, eyes widening. “Why... how do you know that?”
Dark Shadow looked down at the hero in his partner’s arms with worry. “But his wings—”
“Focus on his life first and not his Quirk!” Kana cried, reaching into her inner pocket and throwing a glass vial towards Tokoyami who caught it with disbelief. “I don’t know if that’s enough—it probably isn’t, but I need to find Bakugo and Midoriya first. That… that should at least keep him alive. Try to get to Momo if you can—she knows basic first aid.”
Kana sprinted, tears rolling down pale cheeks as she tried to grasp her bearings. Bakugo had been surrounded by rubble in Eve’s vision, which likely meant that he was close to Shigaraki.
And finally, an excerpt from The Ending We’ll Write, which was written on July 4th, 2020.
“(omitted)” Kana mumbled, looking at the ground awkwardly at the entrance to his room. Her toes dug into the floor and her fingers fiddled around, cloudy azure pupils averting his gaze. The boy stood up from his bed and reached for the gauntlets on the desk, tightening them around his wrists with a quiet click.
“What do you want, (omitted)?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Kana’s mind immediately quickened with the answers. What do I want? I don’t know. I think I saw a future where you die—today—so I want you to stay home. But I know you won’t do that. I want to be able to come home tonight. Eat shabu shabu or sukiyaki with everyone at the end of tonight with all of our limbs attached. I want this to not be the end for us because there’s still so many things I want to talk to you about, and I haven’t even thanked you or repaid you for everything—
His voice was quieter and without the exasperated irritation that usually came from calling her name.
Why are you looking at me like that? She thought, carmine clashing with azure. Don’t look at me like that. Like you’re the one worried about me.
“If you have something to say, spit it out,” he said, the usual coarseness returning to his voice. “Get rid of that pathetic look, as if we’ve lost already.”
Kana bit back a scowl. “I can’t help but worry sometimes, okay?”
He gazed at her quietly. “How many people do you think we’ll lose today?”
“I don’t know,” Kana said softly, “but what are the chances of no one getting hurt and no one dying? Probably slim to none.”
I had to hide so much but I hope this can somehow show what I was trying to do. When this arc first started, I saw it as the perfect chance to include Eve’s premonitions, but I’ve written a lot about it even before this arc ever started. And now to see Eve’s premonition (that I intended on it not being true anyways) actually come to life is sort of insane for me.
To be honest, this premonition was supposed to be a bit more about Hawks and Kana, as the second excerpt shows her decision to abandon Hawks to save Bakugo. But hey, if Horikoshi is going to make Eve’s future canon, I’ll run with it.
I highly, highly doubt Bakugo’s injured (much less dead), but it’s just enough angst for me to work with. Seeing my ideas collide in One Piece was frustrating because I wasn’t able to use my ideas (for a hint and some spoilers, something about Momonosuke was supposed to be Falco’s, and something about Law was supposed to be Amare’s), but this time, I was actually able to integrate my plot and what I wanted from Bakugo almost seamlessly into TBE, so I’m absolutely thrilled.
No updates planned at the moment. I’m just having fun writing all these crazy chapters in TBE! Maybe more things will match up in the future.
