Warning! Spoilers ahead for My Hero Academia chapter 357!

Eri, a fan-favorite character who possesses the incredibly powerful Rewind quirk, will be returning to My Hero Academia in the most tragic way imaginable as All For One's unwitting pawn, and it's quite possible that the villain will use her against Deku.

Despite her young age, Eri had already undergone numerous life-threatening experiments by the time she was six years old while also being subjected to excruciating forms of mental torment, all in an effort to repurpose her Rewind quirk for nefarious means. The main perpetrator who has put this young girl through hell is the villain Overhaul, who saw her ability to reverse the state of a living being to an earlier moment as a means to eliminate all quirks. These obscene actions were so traumatizing that Eri actually lost her ability to smile and struggled for quite some time to relearn what should be an inherent reflex.

Related: My Hero Academia: Endeavor Confirms Deku Has Already Surpassed All Might

Although she has been experiencing a much better life ever since coming under the care of heroes and students at U.A. High, chapter 357 of My Hero Academia reveals that All For One intends to somehow use Eri's Rewind quirk to benefit himself. After Endeavor brutally disfigures the villain through multiple methods, All For One reveals that he has another ace up his sleeve, asking himself why he shouldn't try something out as the scene shifts over to Eri herself. But it's not just Eri that readers see during this monumental panel. Around Eri are canisters that share a shocking resemblance to the Quirk-Destroying Bullets Overhaul created during his experiments on Eri.

All For one asks why he shouldn't try something out just as the scene switches over to Eri, implying that he will somehow use her Rewind quirk to help him in My Hero Academia chapter 357.

The obvious reading is that All For One could use Eri's quirk to "rewind" his body back to a previous state before Endeavor severely wounded him — or even before all of his battles against All Might. But that doesn't explain why the villain also says that his body has already served its purpose and was destined for the scrapheap anyway. That doesn't sound like someone who is planning to use his current body in any way. It sounds like someone who is about to leave his body behind and hijack another one. But if that's the case, how does Eri factor into the equation? Does he plan on rewinding the body of a powerful hero to a state that would better accommodate him? Could he possibly be thinking about fusing with Deku?

Deku is currently hosting every inheritor of One For All, and they would pose quite a challenge for All for One should he assume control of Deku's body. Destroying their quirks would eliminate their vestiges that have been aiding Deku in battle. This theory definitely pans out when considering that the chapter's last panel shows Deku sensing a power in front of him after All For One makes the shocking comment about his own body. This development would be appropriate, too, since Eri shares a special connection with Deku.

Although this is all just conjecture, My Heo Academia fans are undoubtedly excited that Eri is back in the picture. Ever since Overhaul's defeat, Eri has been limited to random cameos, the biggest of them being during the school festival when class 1-A's performance causes her to smile once more. The power of Eri's quirk, along with how much she influenced the events of Overhaul's storyline, prove that she deserves much more than just being relegated to the sidelines like so many other My Hero Academia characters. Eri's relationship with Deku also makes her the perfect puzzle piece in All For One's plot. Her powers being used against the young hero would most assuredly cause Eri to tragically experience even more pain that she already has - especially when Deku helped her smile again.

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