Kaede Nagamine

Kaede Nagamine is a U.A. Student and a member of Class 1-A.

Appearance
In his natural state, Kaede appears as a small, soccer ball-sized blob of black goo. He bears tiny white eyespots and lacks his trademark Cheshire grin, as he lacks a mouth entirely. In his human state, which Kaede describes as “flexing,” Kaede is capable of being numerous shapes and sizes, but opts to remain a tall, lean young man with expressive eye shapes and a wide, confident smile. Kaede developed an understanding of proper anatomy to be able to maintain this form. Upon consuming a large amount of carbon, Kaede’s form changes to resemble a large, 8 ft tall creature with sharp fangs and pronounced tusks on his lower jaw. It is unknown if this is intentional, but it is possible that the more carbon Kaede consumes, the less precision he may currently have with his aesthetic.

Personality
Kaede is exceptionally confident in everything he does, from his quirk, to his skill, to his taste in clothes, it may be fitting to say that the young man lacks any self doubt. However, this confidence has often led to his downfall as fate seems to almost conspire to ensure that Kaede’s head does not grow too big. Kaede is also known for attempting to make humor during dire situations, a trait that has earned swift payback time and time again. Despite this, his terrible luck has earned him many friendships. Kaede’s constant positive attitude is also apparently good at breaking through otherwise difficult situations, as demonstrated when he befriended Noriko Gumi, Nikko Tabeyami, and Austin Dudley. Therefore, in Kaede’s mind, as long as he has an opportunity to achieve a goal, there are few things that can actually stop him.

Abilities
Creativity: Kaede’s quirk is based on his own creativity, and his overall lack of bodily harm allows him to create truly farfetched plans, as demonstrated when he turned himself into a functional Go-Kart by utilizing the quirks of both himself and his fellow 1-A students in order to catch up to the Hero Exams.

Leadership Skills: Kaede has shown exceptional talent for composing plans and delegating responsibilities to those around him. During his battle alongside 1-A against Muscular, Kaede used his quirk to restrain the villain, while also directing the others to bring him down. It has also been shown that Kaede is quick to react in a dangerous situation, as shown when Kaede turned himself into a “walking table” to quickly escort the frozen Fengxian Addams out of a villain’s warehouse. Unfortunately, Kaede will often lament that “no one listens to me,” due to the strong personalities of his team around him.

Knowledge of Human Anatomy: During his youth, Kaede has learned enough about the human anatomy to be able to create a human-looking body by flexing. This has also allowed him to understand how to transform into someone else at a glance, such as Nikko Tabeyami during his first appearance, or Bakugo Katsuki during Kaede’s battle against Forget-Me-Not. He is not able to mimic anything beyond the shape, however, merely appearing as a “Kaede-like” copy of the person.

Adaptability: As mentioned, Kaede is able to quickly adapt to resolve a problem. However, if Kaede’s focus is shaken, this skill often changes into Kaede creating some sort of absurd method to prevent it from occurring, or merely electing to “stay out of it,” if the stakes are particularly low. This was especially shown when Kaede allowed the “Main Man” to fight a civilian with a “wolf quirk” inside a ramen shop. Kaede noted that his wallet was stolen, his money used, and he was not going to bother fighting a man that his quirk was useless against.

Quirk
Kaede’s quirk, Carbon Gel Body, is a Mutant Quirk that converts Kaede’s entire body into an organic goo that absorbs carbon from the air, which can then isolate and rearrange the carbon gel into any size, shape, and density that Kaede may need. This allows him to versatilely adapt to any situation he may encounter and has led him to be exceptionally confident in his quirk, even stating that his quirk is “Invincible.” This is, unfortunately, very wrong as Kaede is exceptionally susceptible to outside environmental influence. Heat, cold, radiation, and more can cause unpredictable effects and temporary morphological changes. However, above all else, water is the most devastating to Kaede’s quirk, as it dissolves the bonds between Kaede’s body and the carbon that he has absorbed, reducing him to a mere puddle of a man.

Kaede sees his quirk as not only invincible, but also highly useful in enhancing other quirks, a technique that he has deemed as “Artificial Hero Evolution - Symbiosis.” Using this ability, Kaede creates a tool or enhances the user in some way as to make their quirk (or just themselves) more effective. The only seen use of this technique was during Kaede’s battle against the villain, Forget-Me-Not, alongside the other students of 1-A. Kaede equipped Fengxian Adams with additional arms to enhance her martial arts in her Naga form. Kaede is also capable of changing this enhancement if he comes up with a better idea, as shown when he changed the fists of the arms to vice-grip clamps with the intention of “giving him [Nott] the clamps.” UItimately, Kaede’s potential is limited only by his own creativity and focus, but may be held back by his reliance on his powers.

Super Moves
Carbon Colossus, Kuro Titan: A move that allows Kaede to absorb vast amounts of air and carbon to inflate into a massive slime. While in this state, Kaede focuses primarily on consuming the opponent to restrain them, but will also utilize his pseudopods to achieve the same result. Unfortunately, this is both temporary, usually lasting only a few seconds, and exhausts Kaede before reducing him to a fraction of his usual size. This drawback seems to be nullified if an outside source causes him to shrink prematurely, such as the extreme heat of a burning granary.

Kaede also makes use of his quirk to create numerous combos and seems to take great pleasure in coming up with extravagant names befitting their effectiveness. This technique has only been seen in canon during his cooperation with Feng Xian Adams, creating what he called “Drunken Fist Asura - Naga.”

Equipment

 * Kaede’s hero suit is a highly-durable, elastic environment suit which shields him against most elements, especially water. Additionally, it holds a number of small carbon cubes for Kaede to quickly eat for a boost.

Battles & Events
1-A vs League of Villains Goons

Kaede and Shinji vs Koda and Nori

Kaede vs Shinji

Kaede and 1-A vs Sute

Kaede and 1-A vs Forget-Me-Not

Kaede and 1-A vs Muscular

Kaede and 1-A vs Mirio Togata and Gentle Sidekick

Relationships
Class 1-A: Kaede has a strong relationship with most of his class, electing to not make enemies, but rather make new allies. Even Nikko Tabeyami, who arguably clashes with him the most, is considered a strong friend by Kaede.

Family: Kaede considers his family to be a point of great pride and will never pass up the chance to talk about them at length. Particularly, he is proud of his brother’s acting career, while also maintaining that Kaede is undoubtedly the cooler twin of the two, despite what the world may say. Additionally, Kaede seems to have a close relationship with his mother, the Quake Hero, Tough, and cites her as his inspiration for becoming a hero. He has not currently mentioned much about his father beyond that he shares a similar quirk to Kaede, however, it is assumed that the two are on good terms.

Noriko Gumi (Friend): After meeting Noriko by chance, Kaede was resolved to make a good first impression. While this initially failed miserably, during a shopping trip, Kaede managed to earn a single smile from the girl using a Mini-Might carbon clone, which Kaede has now deemed a massive victory and whole heartedly states that “Goo kids gotta stick together.”

Togo (Friend): KAEDE SHALL BEFRIEND THE GOBLIN!

Feng Xian Adams (Friend): While initially scared of the girl due to constant threats to “put him in Tupperware,” Kaede has since grown a strong friendship with Feng Xian, which began after she helped him against Austin Dudley, and would then return the favor when he helped save her from the villain, Sute. It is believed that Kaede has developed feelings for the girl, but this has not been brought up between the two as of now. Additionally, it would appear that Kaede also possibly had feelings towards Nikko Tabeyami, as shown when he had bought flowers to give to her after trying to protect her during a fight against League of Villains goons. However, he never gave them to her, instead putting them out for Class 1-A after the villain attack during the sports festival. It is unknown what became of these feelings.

Trivia

 * Did you know? Kaede is based off of the Marvel Anti-Hero, Venom, in both design and powers. His creator, JcDoodles, is a fan of the character and wanted to create a hero with similar traits that fit into the more traditional “hero kid” archetype.


 * Did you know? Kaede, Tadashi, Forget-Me-Not, and Trauma Center are all based on characters of the same name that appeared in JcDoodles’ old My Hero Academia ask blog. Despite their differences now, they all share a common origin.


 * Did you know? Kaede’s hero suit is based off of Spider-Man, Venom, and Spawn? Kaede’s creator wanted to create a hero suit that incorporated elements from all three, while also making Kaede’s design suitably different from his normal appearance. He also considered a mech suit!

Quotes

 * (To Person) "Quote here" [Link to episode here]

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 * Class 1-A