The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 389, "Relief and Prayers," by Kohei Horikoshi, translated by Caleb Cook available in English from Viz Media.
My Hero Academia chapter 389 was released earlier today and once again, it proved to be rather shorter than fans expected. The chapter didn't cover too many incidents and was completely focused on the Todoroki Family, as was expected from it. At the same time, this chapter of My Hero Academia also pushed the Toya Todoroki plotline to its boiling point.
It should be wrapping up any chapter now and fans expected My Hero Academia chapter 390 to do the job. This week's chapter saw Toya execute his plan and the Todoroki Family struggled to contain the flames of his vengeance. That said, Heroes always have to have hope and that is why they continue to fight.
Toya's Fate
Toya Todoroki has suffered tremendously in My Hero Academia. Endeavor's treatment of him was horrible and that has led him down this path of vengeance and madness where he wants to eradicate everything to do with his father and his remaining family. He holds his mother guilty as well and wants to see the entire family punished for what happened to him. Toya is in a very sad state and all of that has to do with his father, Endeavor. My Hero Academia chapter 389 hinted at the fact that Toya was always hoping for his father to look at him. Now that he's close to exploding, his father is directly staring at him and acknowledging his power, begging him to stop his flames.
Toya even laments this, saying that if only his father's gaze met him sooner, all this would not have happened and he would have been a happy child throughout his childhood years. Instead, the tragedy that befell him has led him to this point and he has been consumed by the flames of vengeance. My Hero Academia chapter 389 showed fans that Toya successfully executed his plan and the flames were expanding at an increasingly growing rate. His plan was to take down Endeavor, his family, and a huge chunk of the city along with him and go out in a burst of flames, however, thankfully, the Heroes are there to avert this disaster.
The Struggle Of The Todoroki Family
Previously, fans saw the Todoroki Family join the fight against Toya as well. Endeavor was carrying the burden of Toya all by himself, given that he was the primary culprit for his condition, however, at the end of the day, the Todoroki Family can only solve this situation together. Endeavor's wife, Rei, jumped to her son's rescue immediately as she felt that she needed to do this. Using one of the robots, she got to him and started using her Frost quirk powers to lower the chances of him exploding and cool his flames down. What's even more surprising was that Natsuo and Fuyumi both joined her and, given that they also have the powers of the Frost quirk, they could contribute to slowing his flames down.
In My Hero Academia chapter 389, the three did just that and it was pretty clear to see that they were managing to hold down the flames to some extent. However, none of them are powerful heroes and do not have a high level of proficiency over their powers. What they are doing is commendable, however, it is not enough and if this continues, the Todoroki Family, along with quite a few citizens, will go up in flames. At this point, even Toya cannot control his flames even if he wanted to so the only way to stop him is through external usage of ice powers, which is precisely what the members of the Todoroki Family are trying to do.
Shoto's Race Against Time
My Hero Academia 389 also gave the fans a glimpse of everyone else in the city who had taken cover from the war. Quite a lot of them are within the blast radius and this also includes the children who want to spend time with the UA students during the Provisional License Exam. At this point, everyone has decided to stop running because they simply cannot make it that far and it is pointless. So, all they can do is pray that Toya is successfully stopped. While some cower in fear, the children are hopeful because they know that they can pin their hopes on someone they met long ago and that person is none other than Shoto Todoroki.
Shoto is currently on his way and, thanks to Ingenium, he will be there in no time. Once he does get there, Shoto will use the powers of his Half-Cold Half-Hot and likely break through his limits to ensure that Toya's flames are stopped. Everyone has pinned their hopes on Shoto and this also gives him the opportunity to become a big hero and save the city. In stopping Toya, not only will he save his brother's life, along with his entire family, but he will also save countless civilians, which is the most heroic act that he could have done. For now, Shoto continues his race against time in an attempt to be the savior that the world needs.