Best Fighter: Stain the Hero Killer vs. Shota Aizawa (Eraser Head)

Within the world of My Hero Academia, the rise of abilities known as Quirks made way for heroes and villains alike. However, not all were created equal. Some were best suited to face-to-face battle, some were better suited to stealth, some were good at crowd control, others were best in one-on-one fights. These two fighters seem like opposites in some ways but are quite identical in some ways as well.

Stain the Hero Killer was a young boy who wanted to be a Hero but was disillusioned with the fact that everybody in his class was doing so for the fame and money and not because being a Hero is the right thing to do. Frustrated with this kind of society, he learned the killing arts and decided to take up his villain name to kill Heroes with the understanding that All-Might would be the one to kill him.

Similarly, Shota Aizawa wanted to be a hero as well. Though much of his background is unknown, he seems to have a similar view toward hero work to Stain, with him wanting to be a hero outside the public view just to avoid corruption from fame and fortune. For him, doing what's right is based on logic and he does so in the most efficient way possible. On the other hand, Stain is far more passionate and took up villainy as a way to send a message with that passion.

If these two were to come to blows, however, who would win? That's the question I'm here to answer. Today, I'm going to largely do away with my stat system since these two are quite close physically and their ability to fight isn't solely based on physical power. That said, I will be taking physicality into account.

Physical Abilities

In terms of physicality, these two are quite similar. Both are quite slender, with nimble acrobatic movements and swift takedowns. Both rely heavily on their mobility as well as their ability to restrict the opposition's movements. That said, they do this in different ways which I'll get into later.

Speaking in terms of physical build, the Hero Killer seems to have a much greater degree of muscle on him based on how lean he looks in his admittedly pretty revealing outfit. That said, Eraser Head isn't lacking in strength either, capable of throwing villains of greater build and denser material.

That said, where I think the major difference lies is in their durability and pain tolerance. While it is true that both can sustain massive amounts of punishment, the wounds necessary to knock out Aizawa were not incredibly fatal, though he did sustain significant damage to his eyes. Likewise, Stain took a while to knock out between fatigue, physical damage, and even burns. However, it wasn't until a punctured lung made breathing painful that he was fully incapacitated.

Both are capable of dealing with immense punishment but it took more for the Hero Killer to go down. Thus I give Hero Killer Stain a slight edge for his Physical Abilities.

Skills and Powers

These two seem to be at odds with each other in terms of powers. On the one hand, the Hero Killer has the ability to paralyze anyone whose blood he ingests. Generally the paralysis will last for multiples of 2 minutes going up from O to A to AB to B. However, in a one-on-one fight such as this, even the 2 minute time limit for a O type will still be sufficient for the Hero Killer to land the final blow.

The issue arises when we take into account Aizawa's quirk. Aizawa's quirk has the ability to negate the abilities of anyone he looks at. In a best case scenario, Aizawa could look at the Hero Killer to prevent his power from taking effect. However, there are some caveats with this.

Firstly, it is stated in the first season that Aizawa's Erasure quirk cannot negate heteromorphic powers. In the Japanese version this is listed as Mutation-Class quirks. What this means is that the only powers he can negate are the ones that the user can turn on and off at will. If a power is constant even for the user, Aizawa can't negate it. Since we're uncertain if the Hero Killer's power can be turned on and off or if it's constant until he ingests blood, we're uncertain if Aizawa can shut it off. However, I'm going forward with the assumption that he can.

The other issue is a bit less arguable. Aizawa's ability turns off when he closes his eyes and, after the events of the USJ, he needs to recharge before he can use it again. This means that the only way for the Hero Killer's power to be completely useless would be for Aizawa to hold his eyes open for the duration of the quirk's effects, which is easier said than done since he has dry eye. Ultimately what this means is that, when fighting the Hero Killer, the Erasure quirk is not going to do much other than buy him some extra time or allow him a sneak attack when Stain drops his guard.

Normally, for either of these characters, their quirks are only useful if they get the chance to use them. However, since their quirks are so counter to each other, it would seem that their special abilities are largely going to have to be supplemented by martial skill. Thus, for Skills and Powers, I grant no edge.

Weapons and Equipment

Here is where we see some major contrasts. The Hero Killer has a number of different weapons on him but effectively all are blades and come in two types: short swords, which he uses for close range combat, and throwing knives, which he uses at a distance.

Aizawa has quite a bit more but only three thus far have been shown: eye drops for when he gets dry eye due to his power, carbon-fiber ribbon which he uses to restrain targets, and caltrops which he uses to reduce his opponent's mobility. The eye drops I don't see being useful here, as The Hero Killer is not likely to give him enough time to be able to use it. The caltrops might offer him a small advantage but only with some preplanning.

For the Hero Killer, the throwing knives have somewhat less utility due to Aizawa's mobility but they're more useful than Aizawa's secondary equipment. Ultimately, this is most likely going to come down to the short sword and the ribbon. The ribbon cannot be easily severed due to its tensile strength so if Aizawa can get it around him, he can win. However, The Hero Killer will be tough to restrict at a distance.

Here, I give a slight edge to the Hero Killer.

Conclusion

Let's set up this fight. Let's say it takes place in a network of Alleys in Tokyo Japan. The following is a hypothetical of how I think the fight will go down.

Early Fight: In the early fight, I see these two being mostly even, with neither capable of using their quirks, Aizawa due to lack of something to erase and Stain due to lack of blood to ingest. Physically, they're very similar so I give a 2-2 advantage for these two fighters.

Mid Fight: In the mid fight is where I see the fight start to get going. More than likely, this is where the Hero Killer will start using his knives to try to draw some blood to restrict Aizawa's movements. However, if he does so, Aizawa will have to choose whether to use his Quirk now to prevent the effects from taking hold as long as possible or wait until the effect does take hold to use up some time while the Hero Killer drops his guard. Either way, I see a 3-2 advantage in favor of the Hero Killer, making the total 5-4.

Late Fight: In the late fight, Aizawa will start running out of energy. Even if he waited a little bit for the Hero Killer to drop his guard to run the clock a bit, once he activates his Quirk, he's going on a time limit. And that time limit is ultimately shorter than the Hero Killer's duration. Thus I give this part a 1-0 advantage in favor of the Hero Killer, bringing the total to 6-4.

I predict this fight will end in the mid-to-late fight where Aizawa is less likely to be able to hold himself. Being equal in every other way, the Hero Killer will have to capitalize on his greater stamina to win the fight. Thus, if I were a betting man, I would bet the winner would be Stain.

Of course, this is all my opinion based on information from the Anime. If you disagree, let me know. And as always, have a wonderful day.