Yuga Aoyama

Yuga Aoyama, also known as the Shining Hero: Can't Stop Twinkling (きヒーロー), is a student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School, training to become a Pro Hero.

He was revealed to have been the "U.A. Traitor", reluctantly aiding the League of Villains and causing most of their encounters with U.A. High. During the Final War, Yuga has ended his association with the League of Villains, choosing to instead help the heroes defeat All For One.

Appearance
Yuga is a young man with a slim build and a feminine face. He has long blond hair, worn flattened down around most of his head, spiked and sticking out to the sides at the bottom with a side fringe that slightly curves upwards before it curves down. He has notably long eyelashes and bright indigo eyes, giving him the appearance of a young prince.

His hero costume consists of a bluish-black bodysuit, over which he wears a suit of metallic lavender and golden armor; a chest plate, two spherical shoulder pads, elbow-length vambraces, and knee-length boots. His chest plate has a high V-neck collar with a golden Greek fret-like trim, as with the lower diaphanous piece under the belt and the edges of the vambraces. It also comes with a long, glittery indigo cape and a belt with a golden ring-shaped buckle with a blue crystal, from which he emits his Quirk, matching the smaller ones over his shoulder pads and knees. He has straight, angled golden lines running down his baggy pants, a matching set around the shafts of his boots, and a red-tinted wing-shaped visor over his eyes.

Personality
Yuga initially appears to be vain and prideful, thinking of himself as superior to the rest of his classmates, especially regarding his Quirk. He exhibits flamboyant mannerisms, is fond of posing, and likes to grab the attention of those around him despite frequently getting ignored by his peers. His expression rarely changes from a closed smile, even while he speaks or gets hurt, and he's also prone to getting upset if interrupted or questioned. Yuga's sentences often end with a star (&#9734;) symbol, indicating a fancy tone. He also plays up his French heritage, occasionally implementing French words into his sentences.

However, this persona is shown to be a façade, as Yuga holds severe insecurities and guilt due to the true nature of his Quirk and upbringing. Born Quirkless, Yuga struggled due to being "different" from everybody, something his parents worried about even more, not wanting him to suffer from discrimination. These reservations directly led to the Aoyama clan contacting All For One, who gave Yuga his Navel Laser Quirk, but as a result, forced their family into his debt and Yuga as an unwilling double agent in fear of death.

Though he desires to have friends, Yuga rarely has the confidence to act upon it. This unconfident disposition is initially believed to be due to his insecurities and lack of social skills; he can unintentionally come off as "creepy" to others when he genuinely means well. But this is later demonstrated to be from the guilt of having to work for the villains and betraying his classmates, thus putting them all in danger, believing himself to be unworthy of having friends due to being a "despicable villain". Instead, he opts to self-isolate, seen through his eating of school meals alone rather than with the members of his class and general avoidance of most social situations. Despite this, he's been shown to be rather observant, able to pick up on Ochaco Uraraka's crush on Izuku Midoriya before she even realized it herself.

Yuga does possess a compassionate side and is shown to sympathize with Izuku due to the both of them having what he perceives as highly self-harmful and uncontrollable Quirks, although how he displays this sympathy initially startled Izuku, with the latter unaware that the messages were also subtle cries for help. Izuku has stated that he's never been able to read Yuga due to his unpredictable nature, however, he still ended up befriending him. Though upon Yuga discovering the truth about One For All and Izuku also having been Quirkless just like him, Yuga is thrown even deeper into despair, seeing just how much Izuku has fought for his beliefs and to protect others, while Yuga aids his mortal enemy.

Despite seeing himself as a reprehensible villain, Yuga is genuinely kindhearted and desires to do good. He shows this during the Provisional Hero License Exam when he was willing to throw away his chance at a license to give Tenya Ida the opportunity to pass. Even during the Quirk Training Camp, despite being the one who leaked the location, he still acted to save Fumikage Tokoyami and nearly saved Katsuki Bakugo when the villains captured them. Once All For One is arrested, Yuga lets himself slowly be more open and friendly with everyone, believing he can move on with All For One incarcerated and the lives of him and his parents no longer in danger, but after the Symbol of Evil escapes from Tartarus, the fear and dread once again begin to gnaw away at the Shining Hero.

After being exposed as the "U.A. Traitor," Yuga considers himself someone who should be locked away for his pathetic and heinous actions to pay for his crimes; however, to his disbelief, the rest of Class 1-A and his teacher Shota Aizawa recognize him as a victim of circumstance who never actually carried any villainous intentions. Instead, they want him to earn their forgiveness and make things right by helping them, a conclusion Shota helps him to reach by helping to fight back against the fear and despair that All For One planted within him. Despite his great fear and now having an uncertain future due to his betrayal, Yuga manages to deceive All For One with the help of his friends and stands against him with Izuku, determined to bring down the villain's reign of terror once and for all.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: While Yuga may not possess any melee combat skills, he does have a good handle on his Quirk, Navel Laser. The beams that Yuga can fire can be shot from short and long distances and have enough force to penetrate metal and concrete. The rays also have enough recoil to propel Yuga through the air at a high speed, effectively boosting his mobility. Yuga has also displayed the ability to manipulate the size and shape of his beams, such as making them razor-thin or into a blade of light that can be used for swinging. Yuga also possesses good camaraderie, using his Navel Laser to distract his enemies from a distance, and even if he reaches his limit, Yuga effectively gives his comrades the opening required to defeat the opponent that stands before them.

Yuga has repeatedly displayed the capacity to effortlessly destroy Villain Bots with a single blast from his Navel Laser. His aim with his beams is also on point, as he was able to blast Mr. Compress in the face before the villain could dodge it, all while Yuga concealed himself in nearby bushes. On Nabu Island, Yuga, alongside Minoru Mineta and Toru Hagakure, had the mettle to face the powerful villain, Mummy. Despite neutralizing multiple mummified targets, with the former two reaching their Quirk limits, the nearly defeated trio bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive and finally defeat Mummy. The next day, Yuga and Momo Yaoyorozu acted as the first line of defense against Nine, Slice, and Chimera, with Yuga unleashing the full power of his Navel Laser, and Momo creating two large cannons, all to barrage the villain trinity into separating from each other. Soon after, an overtaxed Yuga, while being held by an equally exhausted Momo, initiated a surprise attack on Nine from behind, with Yuga shouting for the other students present to run, but the undeterred villain used his Air Wall Quirk to trounce the fatigued duo. His abilities eventually garnered the attention of the Equipped Hero: Yoroi Musha, allowing Yuga to intern under the (now former) No. 9 Pro Hero and improve his offensive and defensive abilities.

Keen Intellect: While he was an unwilling mole, it should be noted that Yuga is also highly elusive and cunning despite his habit of boasting. He could leak the U.S.J. location and the relocated Summer Training Camp without getting caught. As mentioned by Izuku, Yuga is tough to read, given how he quickly hid his actions and, later, his enormous guilt and remorse until the Aoyama family were exposed as affiliates of All For One. With Hitoshi Shinso, Yuga effortlessly tricked All For One into thinking he had betrayed his friends again and delivered Izuku to him, only for Yuga to turn around on the villain leader and initiate a surprise attack. At the climax of battling Kunieda, Yuga haphazardly fired his Navel Laser to throw the plant villain off-balance when it was a ploy to get Toru to redirect the light of the laser assault to ultimately defeat him.

Quirk
Navel Laser (ネビルレーザー): Yuga's Quirk allows him to shoot a powerful sparkling laser cannon from his navel. It is so powerful, it can blast through two meters of solid concrete. If he fires the laser for more than 1 second at a time, he will suffer intestinal distress.

Due to being born Quirkless and given a power from All For One, Yuga's body was incompatible with the Quirk, granting him very little control over his Quirk, requiring a special belt to worn in order to compensate and deceive others by claiming it was a birth defect. However, due to his training in U.A., the negative side-effects of his Quirk have been greatly reduced.

As part of his training, Yuga continuously fired his Navel Laser to build up his body's endurance, increase the range of his blasts, and gain the ability to use his blast even when undergoing stomach pains.

By the time the Provisional Hero License Exam occurs, Yuga reveals that he has increased the duration of his Quirk to the point where it can last longer than one second. This was notably shown when he extends the use of his Quirk to signal his classmates and during the aftermath of Hero Work-Studies II when demonstrating his new Ultimate Move "Navel Saber".

During the Final War, while being close to death at the hands of Kunieda's Plant Quirk, Yuga's Quirk underwent an Awakening and gained an increase in power as a result, with the empowered light even causing Toru's Invisibility to glitch.

Ultimate Moves

 * Navel Buffet☆Laser (ネビル ビュッフェレーザー): Yuga fires successive beams not only from his navel but also from his shoulders and knees, which are equipped with beam openings just like his Sparkle Belt. As a result, this technique puts more strain on him than when he usually uses his Quirk.
 * Navel Saber (ネビルセーバー): Yuga concentrates the energy of his Navel Laser and shapes it into a cutting light blade attached to his bellybutton.
 * Supernova (スーパーノヴァ): Used first during Heroes: Rising. After charging his Navel Laser for five seconds, Yuga can unleash a much more powerful laser that surpasses his normal beams. This move is a giant laser beam with a significantly wider diameter.
 * Warp Refraction: Navel Laser (ネビルレーザー): Yuga shoots out his uncontrolled Navel Laser, which is warped by Toru, spreading the light in all directions, blinding and damaging anything in the vicinity.

Equipment
Hero Outfit: Yuga's hero outfit, though it may look like it was meant to only look flashy, is actually made of high tech so that he can channel his laser beam to other lenses across the costume, thus allowing him to shoot his beam from other parts of his body, such as his knees and shoulders.
 * Sparkle Shades (キラメキ グラス): This equipment is so Yuga won't be blinded by his own shine.
 * Sparkle Inner (キラメキインナー): This equipment is very high tech, as it's designed to send the energy emitted by his navel lasers to his shoulders and knees, who have emitters similar to his belt.
 * Sparkling Emitter Gear (キラメキ噴出セット): This equipment is divided into five "sparktacular" sparkle items that focus the sparkling energy transmitted by his "Sparkle Inner" into a single sparkling sparkle beam.
 * Sparkle Belt (お手軽キラメキベルト): This equipment a simple yet convenient belt that Yuga wears every day.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Trivia

 * Yuga's early design was very similar to how he currently looks, aside from slightly longer, less spiky hair and different pants. His hero name was also supposed to be "Can't Stop Twinkle" instead of "Can't Stop Twinkling".
 * According to Yuga's Volume 1 profile:
 * His favorite thing is himself.
 * Horikoshi says he doesn't really understand this character, but he is fun to draw so that is fine by him.
 * Yuga's surname contains the kanji for "blue" (青) and "mountain" (山), and his first name contains "excellent, superior" (優) and "elegant, graceful, refined" (雅). His surname is exactly the same as (青山), the name of a wealthy and fashionable area of Tokyo, which is often mentioned associating with the word "elegant" (優雅).
 * Yuga uses a rose scented fragrance to give himself a romantic tip.
 * Yuga's known U.A. academic data is as follows:
 * Student No. 1 in Class 1-A.
 * Ranked 14th during the Quirk Apprehension Test.
 * His 50-Meter Dash record is 5.51 seconds. His previous record was 8.25 seconds in middle school.
 * Ranked 18th in Class 1-A's grades.
 * Ranked in the Top 16 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
 * Yuga's Japanese voice actor, Kosuke Kuwano, also voices Hiryu Rin.
 * Yuga shares some traits with many other narcissist-type characters in manga and anime, particularly Shin, the Nameless Asura, and Yuda from the Fist of the North Star series, Zarbon from the Dragon Ball Z franchise, Zechs Marquise from Gundam Wing and Cavendish from the One Piece franchise.
 * Yuga is one of the three students attending U.A. confirmed to be a foreigner, the others being Hiryu and Pony Tsunotori.
 * With his birthday taking place in late May (two days after Mashirao Ojiro's), Yuga is the third oldest student in Class 1-A, as everyone was fifteen when they started U.A.'s school year in early April.
 * He might be aware that he's just a fictional character due to his constant breaking of the fourth wall.
 * Yuga's Quirk seems to be based on Cyclops from the X-Men, who would also regularly wear red sunglasses not unlike the ones Yuga wears as part of his hero outfit.
 * Yuga is the only member in Class 1-A to be from outside Japan.

Quotes

 * (To Izuku Midoriya) "Unless we can face that which pains us... we can never truly sparkle! &#9734;"
 * (To All For One) "Maman and Papa told me something else. They told me what it is you fear most, All For One. You fear the world learning that Japan isn't finished yet. You fear the light and hope that come with recovery. And you fear Japan inspiring the world to unite once more. So today is the day... and this is the place where you fall!!"

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