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Bubbly, cheerful and pretty easygoing, Stealth Hero: Invisible Girl, also known as Toru Hagakure is definitely one of the minor and more mysterious members of Class 1-A. She isn’t often featured, more so tending to be comic relief due to her quirk and the fact that her hero costume (or lack of one) leaves her nude, which is pretty awkward for those around her. We don’t have a huge amount to go on when it comes to Hagakure, which can be good since it means there is a lot of room for speculation and growth.
Toru’s quirk is called Invisibility, and it pretty much says what it does. This is a mutant-type quirk that makes her body completely invisible. This is perfect for espionage and intelligence work as Hagakure excels at undercover scouting, undetectable to almost everyone. The downside to this is that Invisibility doesn’t extend to any clothing or items she holds, meaning she must let them go and be completely naked to function at her best, as well as possibly being in the line of fire when it comes to allies if they are unaware she is nearby. On the upside though she works well in teams, able to take advantage of distractions caused by her allies to launch sneak attacks, or by using her super move to draw attention and create opportunities for fellow heroes. What is interesting about this quirk and what truly makes it actually complex is how this invisibility works; that is by bend light around Toru’s body. This is seen with her super move Warp Refraction, whereby she bends and intensifies light within her body, creating a blinding flash. These light-based skills were improved upon during her work study with Yoroi Musha, which she has shown off by being able to manipulate Aoyama’s Navel Laser.
In terms of fighting style we often don’t see Hagakure in combat, Horikoshi preferring to keep her more as a supporting character who gathers information and generally hides. The few times we have seen her she has quite a bit of confidence in her abilities, using Warp Refraction to blind her targets and taking advantage of her unseen body to barrage enemies with multiple hits, though they don’t seem that strong as we saw during the Joint Battle Training Arc. Considering her strength and what her quirk allows of her though I feel Toru would function better with hit and run tactics, sneaking into groups of enemies and causing havoc by striking and running, her stealth meaning they could never block her attacks. Combining this with her flash-based quirk attacks would make Hagakure a real threat, and definitely hard to fight against what with how she can disorient opponents. She is not one to be underestimated as she can whittle villains down and cause mayhem in big groups. Toru is also very useful when going up against both light and dark based quirks since she redirect light attacks as well as intensify light to ward off dark attacks.
When it comes to improvements outside of her quirk, Hagakure could definitely benefit from support items. First and foremost she needs a proper costume, with the same method used to make Mirio’s costume being used for her as they took his hair so that his costume would be effected when he uses Permeation, therefore not lose his clothes like usual. Toru could donate her hair in order to have a costume made, the purpose of which would be to not only provide her with some extra defence but I believe this would allow Toru to turn her quirk on and off of her clothes, making herself fully invisible without having to strip. The costume would also allow allies to actually see and properly know where she is. But this begs the question of what exactly would her costume look like? The idea I’ve come up with is that it would be a full bodysuit, pink in colour with blue stars all over the outfit, but not traditional stars, like the ones seen in paintings that look like 8-pointed crosses. Even her head would be fully encased, with a horizontal zip opening that wouldn’t show off her facial features as the mystery of what Hagakure looks like is a big part of her appeal. She would also get an upgrade to her gloves, keeping them that same baby blue colour but they would have the ability to store excess light that she absorbs or directs to them. On the palms of the gloves would be two openings from which she could channel and fire the stored light from, essentially becoming a laser that would give Toru some ranged capabilities.
As for Invisibility, there are several different ways this quirk could be improved, all of which revolve around the way the quirk functions; by manipulating light around her body. One thing Toru could learn to do is maintain light around her body, essentially becoming a walking lamp, making it difficult for enemies to look at her as well as acting like a beacon for allies. She could also train to better use this skill in combat, improving her speed and reaction time. Another way to focus on improving her quirk is focusing on directing light. So far her only super move merely intensifies light across her whole body, but it is definitely possible for Hagakure to learn to better redirect light to specific parts of her body. This could not only be good in battle but also when she is spying and scouting. Redirecting incoming light from her limbs towards her eyes would mean that she could see things she normally couldn’t see, for example Hagakure could be behind a wall and stretch her arm out, absorbing light and sending it to her eyes, allowing her to see behind the wall without looking in that direction. This skill would be invaluable for stealth, but it would require intense amounts of focus. As well as being able to manipulate light I do believe that it would be possible for Toru to control colour to an extent since colours are formed from different wavelengths of light. This would require very fine and minute control of incoming light, but if successful then Hagakure could literally change herself to have different colours. This would further improve her stealth skills by making herself similar in colour to her surroundings, or if she made herself into a bright neon colour then that could disrupt someone’s vision. Perhaps the most useful way to use this is skill would be for impersonation. Hagakure could alter the colours on her body to appear as someone else, for instance Mina by changing to pink skin. Along with some lessons in acting so as to adopt different mannerisms and behaviours Hagakure could become an entirely different person, with this sort of disguise also being good for undercover work. Truly Invisibility has more versatility than we think, and I’ve shown this with the 8 super moves I’ve designed below:
Highlight
Searchlight
Flashlight
Floodlight
Spotlight
Lowlight
Warp Dazzle
Disguise Prism
This first grouping of super moves are based around Toru’s light manipulation and are things that she could do currently within the series. For Highlight Toru makes herself constantly glow at a lower level than her Warp Refraction, the purpose of which is to make it difficult for enemies to look at her and fight her lest they be blinded, so she is able to strike them without having to worry about counterattacks. This move does require concentration while multitasking as she needs to maintain her control over the light as well as be directly in combat. Next is Searchlight which is exclusively a support move based around sight and is designed to improve Toru’s reconnaissance skills. In order to see, our eyes absorb light which is processed by the brain, but because this absorption is limited to our eyes we have to look in a direction in order to see things. Hagakure can bypass this because her entire body redirects light, so in theory she could absorb and redirect the light to her eyes, capturing a full image of everything around herself. This would be good when scouting as she could hide behind a wall a place her arm out, redirecting the incoming light to her eyes and brain, seeing behind the wall. Searchlight would also make it practically impossible to hit Hagakure as she would see it coming from any angle. Third is Flashlight, and this is a more concentrated version of Warp Refraction, centred around producing a directional flash of light from her hands which wouldn’t affect nearby allies, being better to use in a team fight whereas Warp Refraction is more ideal when she is alone and surrounded. Last for this group is Floodlight and for this Hagakure has to first grab a target. She then causes her body to intensely glow, the resulting heat produced from the light burning enemies in her grasp. This is a move made for one-on-one combat, Toru being able to single out a target and deal consistent damage that would hurt even after she lets go. I fully believe with the skillset she already has in the series Hagakure could use these moves already.
The last four moves are based around her new and improved equipment, as well as focusing on the potential of her quirk and how it could influence colour. Spotlight involves her new and improved gloves, with Toru firing a simultaneous beam from both of them with her hands together. This would be her only ranged offensive move and she would need to work on her aim and accuracy in order to make it effective. Lowlight allows Hagakure to turn her clothes invisible, with the possibility of hiding objects that she may be holding. This would fully and truly make her the Invisible Hero, and would no longer require her to lose clothing – and therefore a layer of protection – when on a mission. Warp Dazzle is one of the more technical super moves, revolving around Toru manipulating light on her body so as to create a pattern of colours, the combination of which would be distracting and would mesmerise opponents. She would become a walking kaleidoscope that draws focus, the opposite of her usual skills which make it hard to look at her, therefore this move functions best with a team who could take advantage of the opening she creates. Lastly for her super moves we have Disguise Prism, which I consider to be the most complicated move Hagakure could ever have, as well as being the pinnacle of what Invisibility can achieve. For this move Hagakure would focus her control over light on producing specific colours, the purpose of which would be to replicate the appearance of others. Along with some impressive acting skills and maybe a change of clothes Toru would be able to disguise herself and impersonate other people, perfect for infiltration missions to gather intelligent or if she needs to escape then she could hide and change her appearance, seeming just like any other civilian. The level of focus and skill that this super move requires is immense, being able to replicate the appearance and mannerisms of someone else is a very difficult thing to do, but if Toru can pull it off then she would be even more of a threat to villains as they no longer just need to watch out for an invisible person. This super move is one I don’t see her possibly getting until much much later, long after she has been a pro hero and has mastered her quirk.
Toru Hagakure is one of the more overlooked characters on the show and in Class 1-A, especially so because her quirk doesn’t have many skills when it comes to combat and she is shoehorned almost entirely into a scouting support character. This is a mistake as she has huge potential, the nature of how her quirk works giving her much more variety and uses then we are seeing. Horikoshi is touching on these powers, bit by bit adding to Hagakure’s capabilities, but it can be pushed further and quicker. I’m excited to see just how far he is willing to push her, though I hope her potential is fully realised and maximised. She is an asset both in and out of combat and deserves to be recognised.