J.K. Rowling shook up the status quo of her own world when Harry Potter left Hogwarts to gallivant on his own separate, Quidditch-free quest in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Mangaka Kohei Horikoshi recently did the same with Deku, spawning what is clearly My Hero Academia's most stunning break from its usual formula.
Before The Deathly Hallows, the vast majority of all six preceding books in Harry Potter's saga transpired at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was a simpler time. The dreaded Lord Voldemort had been ostensibly vanquished, and the most harm came from uttering his name. But the start of The Deathly Hallows heralds a terrifying time for those in the wizarding world. The dreaded Dark Lord has finally returned and now leads his powerful army of Death Eaters and loyal servants who up until now have all been incarcerated in their world's most secure prison, Azkaban.
To prevent Voldemort from launching a devastating war on the wizarding world, Hogwart's late headmaster Albus Dumbledore entrusts Harry Potter with collecting and destroying seven fragments of Voldemort's soul that the Dark Lord has stored away in various objects known as Horcruxes. No longer free to roam within the confines of Hogwarts' walls, Harry is now lost in a bleak and dreary world, in constant peril of falling to Voldemort's wrath with little to protect him except his friend Hermione's spells that, while useful, don't compare to Hogwarts' defenses. What's worse, Harry received little to no direction from Dumbledore before his untimely death, a severe point of contention between himself and his other companion, Ron Weasley. Tensions are exacerbated by the one Horcrux in their possession that exploits their innermost darkest thoughts.
In My Hero Academia, Deku undergoes an almost identical experience. Japan is at the mercy of the villain All For One, whose once-weakened physical state made dominating the world a more difficult endeavor. But the powerful quirk user has recently rectified this by possessing the body of his apprentice Tomura Shigaraki, who has just awakened a new power within himself. All For One is also surrounded by a large army of quirk-users who have been broken out of their world's version of Azkaban known as Tartarus.
Learning that All For One is after him specifically and his One For All quirk, Deku decides to leave the protection of his own Hogwarts, the school U.A. High, to face the villain alone. Much like Harry, Deku faces an equally insurmountable task with little direction. He doesn't know where All For One is hiding, so all he can do is wander aimlessly, hoping that his presence will lure the villain out into the open or that he'll somehow stumble upon All For One's lair. Deku is driven to journey alone and even fights his classmates when they come to bring him back to school. Deku is so weighed down by his destiny to face off against his own monstrous nemesis alone that his burden sometimes manifests in dark ways similar to Harry's ongoing conflict with Ron.
My Hero Academia and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows share many correlations during the darkest moments of their final chapters, adopting a form of storytelling that deviates from the normal structure that once defined their respective series as a way to further underscore the magnitude of each momentous crisis. Deku and Harry Potter leave the safety of their powerful schools to face an overbearing evil with little to no direction and few promises of success. Their unfortunate predicament is only worsened by the oncoming threat of a much larger horde of enemies now at their arch nemesis' side, a host of villains who had once been contained but are now on the prowl once more. Harry Potter manages to survive his trial. Will Deku?