WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 5, Episode 5: "Operation New Improv Moves", now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
It's no secret that Fumikage Tokoyami is a strong candidate to top the ranks of up-and-coming Pro Heroes with his incredibly versatile Quirk, Dark Shadow. Despite being a background character for most of the series, he placed third in the sports festival, where he caught the attention of the current No.2 Hero, Hawks. It is under Hawks' supervision that Tokoyami learns to further tap into his potential and create a new special move that comes into play in Episode 5 of My Hero Academia Season 5.
Apparently, Tokoyami interned twice with Hawks, with the first instance taking place right after the sports festival. During this time, Tokoyami is barely able to keep up with the Pro Hero, who stops crimes at an incredible rate. This is due to the fact that Hawks specializes in and is known for his astounding speed. But this also means that Tokoyami struggles to participate in the action, essentially spending his entire internship chasing after Hawks and only able to clean up after much of the work has already been done.
Hawks' lax attitude only frustrates Tokoyami when he claims that the only reason he became interested in the young hero was to learn about the villain attack on U.A. High School and sharing the novelty of them both being bird-based heroes. Despite this, Tokoyami is eager and keeps trying to accomplish something, anything. Unfortunately, in the week that he spends with Hawks, Tokoyami leaves desperate and longing to do better after having learned nothing.
Since he did not participate in the Shie Hassaikai arc, not much was known about Tokoyami's experience during the second bout of internships until now. Taking his frustration from the previous internship, Fumikage channels that energy into creating a new special move: Dark Fallen Angel. This ability enhances his pre-existing strengths and allows him to keep up with Hawks by wrapping Dark Shadow around himself, allowing him to fly. To combat his weakness to light, Tokoyami keeps Dark Shadow is shielded by his cape, which keeps it shaded.
In Episode 5, Fumikage gains a rival in the form of Class 1-B's Shihai Kuroiro (a.k.a. Vantablack), sparked by how both of their Quirks thrive in the dark. Vantablack's Quirk allows him to merge with and travel in shadows at high speeds. This becomes a great opportunity to show off Dark Fallen Angel as Tokoyami uses it to save Aoyama, even giving Aoyama a proper vantage point to use his naval lasers to push Vantablack out from the shadows.
While Hawks' take on mentoring is definitely unusual, it was apparently for the best, as Tokoyami's skills and awareness of his potential certainly grew. After showing off Dark Fallen Angel for the first time, Hawks admits that he was also interested in Tokoyami because he thought the student hero was wasting his potential with a narrow-minded mentality. And while this new ultimate move came in handy during this training battle, Dark Fallen Angel also marks Tokoyami's new outlook and is likely only the start on his journey to unlocking his full potential.
