Eijiro Kirishima

Eijiro Kirishima (切島鋭児郎) is a student at U.A. High training to become a Pro Hero.

Appearance
Eijiro has spiky red hair that resembles horns (which is not its natural appearance) and a little scar above his right eye that can be mistaken as a single long eyelash. Despite his young age, Eijiro possesses an impressive physique and a muscular body.

In his middle school days, Eijiro's hair was black and not spiked. He changed it to his current style shortly after being accepted into U.A.

In his costume, he wears a vest that consists of two shoulder pads that are shaped like gears that wrapped around his shoulders while his chest is left uncovered, and wears a skirt with a ripped pattern over pants with an "R" belt. He also wears a mask that somewhat resembles the same mask that the main character of Akumetsu wears. His costume looks like an Aka Oni (red troll-like creature). During the Hero License Exam Arc, his costume gains long crimson sleeves.

Personality
Eijiro is a very boisterous, outgoing guy with a fondness for the concept of manliness, often using the terms "manly" and "unmanly" to describe stuff he does or doesn't like. Those who showcase a noble, brave or determined attitude tend to emotionally move him to tears, quickly earning his complete admiration, respect and friendship. Similarly, he will call out traits that are the opposite of that, such as cowardice and dirty play. He is also a big fan of Crimson Riot, a retro hero that he takes inspiration from, including his own hero name.

Eijiro is honest and kind-hearted, with All Might praising his heroic spirit. In addition, he seems capable of making friends with most people, as he is one of the few classmates who is friends with both Katsuki Bakugo and Izuku Midoriya. Eijiro is very dedicated to his friends and is even willing to break the law and the rules in order to help them, showing regret if he becomes unable to do so.

Eijiro has stated more than once that he does not think very highly of his own Hardening Quirk, thinking that it lacks the flashiness usually found in the Pro Hero scene. In fact, he will get downright offended if he finds someone with a similar Quirk. Eijiro also voices his concerns about not having a good enough Quirk to Kaminari, Tokoyami and Bakugo, worried that his skills could not compare to the others. A lot of this self-doubt seems to have come from an incident in Junior High, when Eijiro saw Mina stop an underclassman from being bullied and save some students from a threatening figure. Eijiro's friends pointed out that Mina will easily become a hero due to her outgoing personality and athletic nature. After this, Eijiro thought of himself as dull and boring.

Regardless, in the present, Eijiro is a more confident and hot-blooded fighter, although not to the same degree as Katsuki. However, he does not shy away from comparing himself to Katsuki, with Izuku stating that the two have managed to develop a relationship between equals. Because of this, Eijiro is notably one of the few people that Katsuki holds some respect for.

History
When he was three years old, he was in bed and woke up since he had to go to the bathroom. When he rubbed his eye, his Quirk manifested for the first time. This made his hand harden and caused Eijiro to cut himself, which left a scar on his right eye.

During Junior High, Eijiro and Mina attended the same school and although they were not close, Mina's outgoing nature and strong personality made Eijiro self conscious of his own appearance and personality.

Quirk and Abilities
Hardening (硬化): Eijiro's Quirk gives him the power to harden and sharpen any part of his body. The ability not only protects him from physical attacks, but also from heat and shock waves. The drawback to his Quirk is that there is a limit to how much damage the hardened skin can withstand and will cause the hardening to slowly dissipate.

Moves

 * Red Counter: While hardened, Eijiro endures a close-range attack with his skin, and then counters with a straight punch.
 * Red Riot Unbreakable: Eijiro reaches his maximum hardening level by turning his entire body extremely hard and rugged, leaving him with a monstrous appearance and practically invulnerable to most forms of attack. This form can only be maintained for around 30 to 40 seconds.
 * Red Gauntlet Eijiro rushes towards the enemy and delivers a single strong punch against them.

Enhanced Strength: While using his Quirk, Eijiro's physical strength appears to increase. He demonstrated it multiple times during the Sports Festival, first digging through several tons of metal scraps, then withstanding Katsuki's explosions without stumbling, which, according to the latter, was not due only to Eijiro's armor. In his arm-wrestling match against Tetsutetsu, his fingers dug through concrete and he eventually broke the surface the match was taking place on. He was also able to break multiple metal blades with a single elbow strike, as well as to destroy a wall with Izuku's help.

Enhanced Durability: Eijiro has enhanced durability thanks to his Quirk. His Hardening was able to withstand Katsuki's explosions for an extended amount of time and allowed him to emergence from the remnants of the huge faux villains that fell on top of him completely unscathed.

Battles
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Unforeseen Simulation Joint Arc

 * Katsuki Bakugo & Eijiro Kirishima vs. Villains: Win
 * Toshinori Yagi, Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki & Eijiro Kirishima vs. League of Villains: Win

Sports Festival Arc

 * Team Bakugo vs. Team Monoma: Win
 * Eijiro Kirishima vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu: Draw, later won on the arm wrestling contest.
 * Eijiro Kirishima vs. Katsuki Bakugo: Lose

End of Term Test Arc

 * Eijiro Kirishima & Rikido Sato vs. Ken Ishiyama:Lose

Hero License Exam Arc

 * Denki Kaminari, Katsuki Bakugo & Eijiro Kirishima vs. Seiji Shishikura: Win}}

Denki Kaminari
Since they happened to be seated one behind another in class, they became good buddies and often make comments to each other.

Katsuki Bakugo
Despite differing personalities, Eijiro and Katsuki are on good terms with each other. Eijiro admires Katsuki, and despite his lone-wolf attitude toward him, he admires the fact that even though all the things he does may be a little too much, he still sees him as a very "manly" man and insists he assists Katsuki. Out of all of his relations, Katsuki's relation with Eijiro has the least conflict, suggesting that Katsuki views Eijiro as a friend. However, Eijiro can still become frustrated with Katsuki as seen when he complains that Katsuki is going too far in his fight with Izuku during the battle training class with All Might.

At the beginning of the cavalry battle ark when Katsuki makes a remark about the importance of winning, Eijiro is visibly moved by Katsuki's words and calls the other manly. During the cavalry battle, Eijiro approaches Katsuki in an attempt to form a team with him. Katsuki calls Eijiro "hedge-hog hair" at first but after Eijiro presents himself as rock who will not waver, the two form a team together with Ashido and Sero.

Over the series the relationship between the two improves greatly and Eijiro and Katsuki become close friends. While Eijiro is friends with a wide range of people in his class, he can constantly be seen talking to Katsuki and making an effort to include him in on activities while others would have ignored him. In one case, Eijiro invited Katsuki to go shopping with the class and in another he made attempts at conversation when the class results were handed out.

One of the most significant points in Eijiro's and Katsuki's relationship development was during Katsuki's kidnapping. After it was revealed that Katsuki was kidnapped, Eijiro was visibly distressed and immediately wanted to form a group and rescue him, even buying a pair of 50,000 yen night vision goggles in order to take back Katsuki from the villains. During this arc, Eijiro stated that ''"When I heard that they were after my buddy...I couldn't do anything!!" ''which confirms that he views Katsuki as a friend and was distraught upon hearing that Katsuki was kidnapped.

During the rescue, Izuku explains that only Eijiro can take Katsuki's hand and rescue him without Katsuki taking offense and refusing. This illustrates the intense and trusting connections that the two share and reveals that Eijiro and Katsuki are very close as Katsuki would not accept the help of any other person.

After this arc, Eijiro and Katsuki were more connected than previously, sticking close together during the hero license exam and hanging out together in free time. Often when Katsuki's whereabouts are unknown to the rest of class 1-A, they will ask Eijiro for an explanation.

While versing a particularly difficult villain, Eijiro thinks back to a time when he was voicing concerns about his powers to Denki and Katsuki. Katsuki speaks up and attempts to support Eijiro by talking about how strong he was. Eijiro seems to use this memory to motivate him and allows him to unlock his "unbreakable" state.

Similarly, when Eijiro is versing villains in the lair of The Eight Precepts of Death, he thinks back to Katsuki's words after he has failed to defeat a villain. This illustrates that Eijiro feels that he has failed Katsuki by not living up to his expectations. Eijiro obviously looks up to Katsuki and feels motivated by him but also feels disappointment when he cannot impress him.

Hanta Sero
Eijiro and Sero are good friends with each other.

Izuku Midoriya
Eijiro seems to be on good terms with Izuku. When Shoto told Izuku that he will defeat him, Eijiro tried to stop any further arguing and when Izuku started to talk negatively about himself, Eijiro tried to encourage him. He also told Izuku that he is envious of his Quirk.

He also seems to admire Izuku's growing confidence and seems to be impressed by his quick thinking and logical reasoning. He also seems capable of understanding Izuku's feelings to some extent, understanding how he felt when he was unable to rescue Katsuki. In more recent chapters, Ejiro and Izuku are shown to be on better terms than previously, often interacting in friendly ways.

Crimson Riot
Eijiro idolizes Crimson Riot and wants to become just like him.

Mina Ashido
Eijiro gets along well with Mina despite not interacting with her as much as he does with his other classmates. The two collaborated together on Team Bakugo during the Sports Festival Arc and seemed to work well together. In chapter 144, it was revealed that Mina was the source of a lot of Kirishima's self-doubts. The two went to the same junior school. During their senior year, Eijiro tried to stop two students from bullying an underclassman but did not succeed. Afterwards, Eijiro witnessed Mina step in and solve the issue by forcing the student and the two bullies to break dance, diffusing the situation and ending the issue. One of Eijiro's friends point out that Mina is very athletic, outgoing, strong and eye-catching while Eijiro and the others are boring. Eijiro seems to admire Mina for this but also begins to feel self-conscious and envious of the fact that Mina is exciting and heroic while he is not. This is reinforced when he attempts to stop a villain on the same day as the bullying incident but his legs freeze up and Mina stops the villain instead.

Trivia

 * He is student No. 8 in Class 1-A.
 * He ranked 2nd during the Entrance Exam and 8th during the Quirk Apprehension Test.
 * His rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
 * He ranked 15th in the First Popularity Poll.
 * He ranked 5th in the Second Popularity Poll.
 * His name contains the kanji for cut (切) and sharp (鋭).
 * He likes meat and manly things.
 * Horikoshi mentions that Eijiro was made to tie the class together with his personality.
 * He ranks 15th in Class 1-A's Grades.
 * Eijiro ranked in the Top 8 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.

Quotes

 * (To his classmates about Katsuki Bakugo's kidnapping) "When I heard that they were after my buddy...I couldn't do anything!! I didn't do anything!! If I don't act now...forget being a hero, I'm not even a man!"