Warning! Spoilers ahead for My Hero Academia chapter 342!
Fans have rightfully been in a tizzy ever since My Hero Academia randomly gave up on the romance between Izuku Midoriya, aka Deku, and Ochako Uraraka ostensibly without any explanation. But revisiting a key scene during the Paranormal Liberation War with Himiko Toga, along with Ochako's later confession to Deku might explain why, at least, Ochako has been distant.
Aside from the many appealing aspects of My Hero Academia, undoubtedly, some of the most celebrated moments in the series involve the cute interactions between Deku and Ochako. Their bashful giggles and awkward encounters are so adorable that they made all of the battles that followed feel like nothing more than filler - even though fighting oftentimes brought the two closer together. So when this befuddling dynamic suddenly stopped, fans understandably felt robbed of one of the series' most endearing qualities.
But fans need to consider the last time Ochako acknowledged her relationship with Deku in such an endearing manner and some key words Himiko told her during the Paranormal Liberation War. After stealing an All Might keychain from Ochako, Himiko learns that Ochako cherishes the object because it was a Christmas present from Deku. Himiko - who already cared for Ochako - became overly excited that the two of them liked Deku. The way she termed it, she now considered the two of them the same.
Alone, Ochako's disgust for being in any way attributed to Himiko was made apparent during that fateful confrontation at the tail end of the war just by how the hero vehemently rejected the ways in which Himiko used her stolen Zero Gravity quirk to hurt others. But that fear of association actually runs much deeper than fans initially thought, for in chapter 342, Ochako Uraraka confesses an inner duality regarding Himiko to Deku. At times, the hero feels sorry for the villain, and that thought is so terrifying to her that she actively participates in a ritual whenever these disturbing thoughts enter her mind to remind herself of the devastation Himiko has caused. Ochako doesn't just refuse to accept how Himiko used her own quirk, but she actively fights against emotions that come naturally to her because they cause her to view Himiko somewhat positively. Ochako's perpetual rejection of Himiko is made more apparent by how Deku views this act of feeling sorry for the enemy. Deku not only experiences this phenomenon himself but refers to it as something he can't ignore.
It's plausible, based on Ochako's need to reject Himiko and how she obviously doesn't agree with Deku's assessment that this type of feeling shouldn't be ignored, that the mere thought that her liking Deku could in any way make her like Himiko Toga is enough for Ochako to try and repress those emotions to prevent that association from ever coming to reality. While compellingly tragic, there's one problem with this theory. If this is true, mangaka Kohei Horikoshi obviously decided to hide this fact from readers since he no longer provides access to Ochako's thoughts. Fans knowing what Ochako was thinking during the early days of her relationship with Deku are what initially gave them hope that she might actually feel for Deku. Before this, she just seemed like a person who was nice to everyone. And while that's true, Ochako's inner struggles with how she felt about Deku proved it might actually be more than that. So, while keeping fans from Ochako's thoughts keeps the mystery alive, it has in turn stripped My Hero Academia of one of its most celebrated storylines - the romance between Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka.