Higari Maijima

Higari Maijima, also known as Excavation Hero: Power Loader (掘削ヒーロー パワーローダー), is a Pro Hero and faculty member at U.A. High School who manages the Support Course Development Studio.

Appearance
Power Loader is a short, skinny man with a very youthful appearance for his advanced age. He has spiky ginger hair, reaching just past his shoulders, and dull blue eyes, as well as a notably large mouth. His hands appear to be the largest part of his body, disproportional to his rather small frame, and, due to his Quirk, he has an orange L-shaped piece at the end of each finger.

His hero costume consists of a large yellow helmet in the shape of a rectangular excavator claw, the top piece of which protruding outwards to cover his head and most of his face, and the bottom piece left to act as something of a long jaw-guard. He leaves himself shirtless and also wears a pair of large, fingerless gray gloves with metal guards that extend down his arms, as well as a pair of plain cyan pants. When in battle, his helmet is hooked up to a large steel appliance that he sits on and can use for combat as it includes a pair of sizeable metal arms.

Personality
Power Loader is a strict teacher who desires to see his students excel without constraint. He has a love/hate relationship with Mei Hatsume, being easily angered by her carelessness and frequently threatening her with bans from the Development Studio, but still acknowledges her inventiveness and productivity.

It is revealed that Higari is something of a loner who prefers time to himself and enjoys the company of his inventions rather than other people, although he still cares for his fellow colleagues and students.

U.S.J. Arc
Tenya Ida of Class 1-A rushes to U.A. High School in order to gather Pro Heroes who can save his classmates who are under attack at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. Power Loader is among the faculty members who accompany Tenya and Nezu to go to the U.S.J. Once there, Power Loader rescues Mashirao Ojiro from the conflagration zone.

Final Exams Arc
Power Loader is present for the faculty meeting where the teachers agree to change the practical portion of the Final Exams. He is placed against Mashirao and Tenya. He and the other teachers explain the changes to the exam to the students of Class 1-A.

In the third practical test matchup, Power Loader creates dozens of pitfalls in a dirt field that Tenya and Mashirao struggle to cross. Tenya uses his Recipro Burst technique to cross the field faster than the holes form, but Power Loader confronts him halfway across. Using his quick thinking and Recipro Extend move, Tenya sends Mashirao flying past Power Loader and through the escape gate. Afterward, Power Loader congratulates Tenya on his plan and passing the practical test.

Provisional Hero License Exam Arc
As Class 1-A prepares for the Provisional Hero License Exam, students go to the Development Studio to get improvements for their costumes. Mei joins him after school and nearly blows up the lab. She encounters Tenya, Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka outside in the hallway. Power Loader warns Mei that she'll be banned from the studio if she keeps messing everything up.

Power Loader explains the development process to Izuku, Tenya, and Ochaco. Mei interrupts and has them all try out her gadgets. Power Loader explains despite her wackiness, Mei is the most promising student he's ever had.

Endeavor Agency Arc
At some point, Power Loader becomes fed up with the increasing amount of Mei's inventions, so after discussing the matter with Principal Nezu, he decides to use his Quirk to create an underground storage unit to have somewhere to put them all. However, he ends up getting carried away during his excavation and creates a room for him to relax, a home theatre, and a racetrack for his prized car collection. Even better, he ends up finding a natural hot spring which he renovates by adding a changing room. Power Loader then came up with the idea to create a subterranean training ground for the hero course students, although he digs a bit too close to the surface, causing Tenya Ida, Mezo Shoji, Fumikage Tokoyami, Koji Koda and Eijiro Kirishima to fall into the labyrinth.

The boys were attacked by laser-firing monkey dolls created by Mei, outrun a large boulder, and nearly fall victim to an out-of-control Dark Shadow. After seeing them on the security cameras, Power Loader decides to place gym uniforms and towels in the hot springs for them so they can dry off and change after relaxing their stress and fatigue away. Nezu finds out about Power Loader's labyrinth and goes down to greet the boys, he then fabricates a lie that the underground dungeon was a closed off survival training area, which he had been surveying in a decision on whether to have it demolished or not. The principal ends up escorting the boys out, having them promise not to speak a word of the labyrinth to others, while also giving them permission to visit Recovery Girl so Tenya could have his wound healed.

Power Loader then meets with Nezu and apologizes for getting carried away. The principal suggests opening the labyrinth up as a resting area for U.A.'s staff, Power Loader has trouble interjecting, but Nezu reveals that he was only joking, as he knew that Power Loader wasn't the best with socializing and enjoys his privacy. In the end, the principal allows Power Loader to keep his underground resting area which could also serve as a place for him to devote himself to his work in solitude. Although Nezu does order that he improves its security so that an incident with the boys won't happen again, while also telling Power Loader that he would visit his hot spring on occasion.

U.A. Traitor Arc
In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, All For One has escaped from Tartarus, and proceeded to break into several more maximum security prisons, liberating the inmates. Due to the chaos inflicted by Gigantomachia and the mass breakout of prisoners, the whole country entered a state of total chaos and anarchy. In addition, many heroes resigned and called it quits because of the massive criticism of their work, and the destruction spreading unchecked

When Izuku goes rogue, Class 1-A goes off to search after him, while Power Loader and the other remaining U.A. teachers are stationed at the newly fortified U.A. High, acting as a safe base for evacuees. After Izuku and Tenya came over to the Support Course Development Studio for more costume upgrades, Mei created another explosion which sends herself over to Izuku. Power Loader emerges from the explosions, once again berating Mei, telling the students to come in. Seeing the new set-up in the Development Studio, Power Loader reveals they are in charge of both developing and controlling the U.A. Barrier. Izuku hands Mei his Mid-Gauntlet, asking if she can fix it for him, but she immediately says no, as due to how damaged it is she’d have to create a new one, and they don’t have the amount of condenium required for the compression mechanism. Tenya then asks for repairs for his armor, but just as quickly she shuts him down due to not having a spec sheet.

Tenya is surprised that Mei would turn down the offer due to how much she loves making things, as Izuku looks on to see her currently working on the evacuation shelter blocks. Power Loader tells them that Mei was brought on to help strengthen the barrier, and she’s been busy creating new mechanisms in case of mass evacuation. Power Loader compliments her inventive mind, and she responds with how she always needs to try think up new “babies” to improve themselves.

Izuku compliments Mei on how focused and busy she is with her inventions that she had no idea how the outside world is, but Mei responds calling him dense, saying that even she is aware of the trouble Heroes are facing now. And while they aren't fighters, they’re also doing everything they can to protect people; inventing stuff being how the support course does heroics.

Final War Arc
With Tomura's completion approaching, Shota's plan begins to take into effect. Knowing that All For One is keeping tabs on the Heroes through Search, he needed Yuga and the Aoyama Family to play their roles as infiltrators and spies for All For One. He and All Might recruited Shota's protégée, Hitoshi Shinso, to take advantage of Hitoshi's newest development of being able to make brainwashed people speak, by having him brainwash the Aoyamas so that they can deceive him without detecting a single lie.

The next step of the plan is to make use of Kurogiri's Warp Gate to allow them to warp themselves into the fight, to catch All For One off guard, as well as warp the villains to locations all over Japan, separating them. Neito was able to successfully copy and train himself using Warp Gate, and the heroes waited patiently for Izuku to make contact with Yuga. Once Yuga meets Izuku in a desolated location, All For One has finally re-emerged, and with his prize in his reach, All For One summons an army of villains to overwhelm Izuku and finally steal One For All. However, Neito uses Warp Gate to teleport the remnants of the heroes to confront the villains.

Power Loader and the Support Development Course students were able to retrofit jet propulsion systems into U.A. High and created a Flying Sky Fortress where the heroes are teleported inside of its electric forcefield barrier with Tomura Shigaraki. Tomura attempts to use his Decay Quirk to destroy the fortress, but the plates ejected him into the electric barrier, as deep within the U.A. fortress, Power Loader, Cementoss, Mei, and the Development Class are all working hard to constantly repair the pieces destroyed in the battle, with spare parts being created by Momo Yaoyorozu.

Abilities
Costume Development: Power Loader is the teacher responsible for U.A.'s Costume Development Studio. He is a licensed developer and thus has knowledge about creating, upgrading, and maintaining hero costumes.

Quirk
Iron Claws: Higari's Quirk is that his fingers are tipped with metallic claws that are good for digging/mining through the ground.

Equipment
High Density Weights (Final Exams Arc): Power Loader and the rest of the teachers use these bracelets to give themselves a handicap while they fight their students.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Trivia

 * Higari's name contains the kanji for "to bury" (埋), "island" (島), "dry" (干), and "hunting" (狩).
 * Higari (干狩) could come from shiohigari (汐干狩) which means "shell gathering at low tide".
 * In beta design, his real name was Higari Maishima (埋島 干狩) and his hero name was "Sinker" (シンカー).
 * According to Higari's Volume 12 profile:
 * Higari likes cars.
 * Horikoshi finds drawing Higari's costume/armor quite difficult.
 * Horikoshi describes Higari as a prodigy who can create support items with self-assurance.
 * Higari has a complex over his short height.
 * Power Loader's costume design has several similarities to the from the.

Quotes

 * (To Izuku Midoriya) "The best innovators out there... are unconstrained by convention."

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