WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia #300, by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook and John Hunt, available now in English from Viz Media.
Japan is in dire straits in the latest chapters of My Hero Academia. Citizens no longer trust pro-heroes to protect them in the fallout of the Paranormal Liberation War; even popular heroes like Best Jeanist receive hateful glares and harsh condemnation. Anxieties about All Might's retirement were barely kept in check even amid peacetime, and now that villains freed from six maximum-security prisons are wreaking havoc across Japan, fear is at an all-time high. Untrained civilians are using their Quirks to fight back, causing ever-increasing destruction and death, and all the blame is falling onto the shoulders of one man: Endeavor.
Enji Todoroki, better known as the pro-hero Endeavor, wakes up for the first time since the war in Chapter #300. Reporters are swarming outside his hospital, awaiting answers about his mass-murdering son and failures as the #1 hero, but public fallout is the least of the burdens he has to bear.
Now that he's off the battlefield, Enji's guilt and regret are truly sinking in. He's spent the majority of the story attempting to atone for his past, but until the war, he couldn't understand just how badly he'd broken his family. The pro-hero is horrified his son Toya survived only to become the mass murderer known as Dabi. Not only does he blame himself for the dark path Toya now walks -- Dabi is the human incarnation of all his worst traits -- but for freezing up when his sons were fighting each other to the death during the war.
Enji tells himself he was a fool for thinking he could atone, and that the pro-hero Endeavor is now dead. His reputation was deeply devastated on account of Dabi's nationwide broadcast during the war. Endeavor was already unpopular because he couldn't bear the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders like All Might. The broadcast pinning the blame for the nation's devastation on him was the final nail in the coffin. Worst of all, he might just have to fight Toya, and he can't bring himself to raise a hand against his son.
Brimming with guilt, Enji breaks down into tears and cries alone in the hospital. His children Fuyumi, Natsuo and Shoto arrive at the same time and stand there watching him cry. He repeatedly tells them he's sorry -- and that all the regret and guilt he feels now is too late to mean anything. Fuyumi reacts with sorrow, Natuso is coldly unsympathetic and Shoto keeps his emotions unreadable. Yet Enji trails off and finds himself speechless when his wife Rei steps into the room, telling him they need to talk about their family, Toya most of all.
Enji is rightfully shocked at Rei's appearance. She's been living in a mental institution ever since Shoto was a toddler, so this is likely their first reunion in over a decade. It seems the next several chapters will detail the dark truths of the Todoroki family -- and whether it can survive the nation's hatred.
