Among the most compelling facets of Kōhei Horikoshi’s shonen manga-turned-anime juggernaut My Hero Academia is an elusive mystery figure—the U.A. Traitor. Years of new chapters and fan-led investigations have turned up no answers, but that hasn’t stopped people from following the trail.
It’s been clear since season one that someone inside U.A. High School has been passing along information to the League of Villains, but who might this turncoat be? The question has haunted heroes and fans alike, and we’ve got some answers.
Who is the U.A. traitor?
The theory, first raised by Present Mic in the aftermath of the U.S.J. Incident in season one of the anime (chapters 13-21 of the manga), suggests that only an insider could have known that All Might was supposed to be at the U.S.J. facility for training the day of the League’s attack.
After carefully controlling who knew where the classes would be on summer training, Principal Nezu narrowed down the list of suspects to U.A. freshmen and staff. Subsequent attacks have ruled out characters like Thirteen and Eraser Head, but various fan theories cast a wide net of suspects. These range from Ochako Uraraka to Present Mic himself.
While All Might doesn’t suspect a student is the U.A. Traitor, there’s no way to know for certain if he’s right. Unfortunately, the trail has gone cold since All For One’s sentencing to Tartarus, and Kōhei Horikoshi has stopped hinting at the loose thread all together.
It’s unclear if we’ll ever really know who betrayed U.A., or if the mystery will haunt the fandom to the end. There’s always the possibility that there is no U.A. Traitor after all.
