Why does Chisaki wear a mask in My Hero Academia? Explored

My Hero Academia's Kai Chisaki or Overhaul was a memorable character from the series. Serving as the main antagonist for the Shie Hassaikai Arc, Chisaki offered fans a view of the Quirk that had creative yet devastating uses. His Quirk, Overhaul, gave him the ability to fully control matter, i.e., deconstruct anything that he touched and then reconstruct it in any way he desired.

From his Quirk to his origins, Chisaki was a villain who didn't take long to become loved by the fandom. There was one question about his appearance though - Why did Chisaki often wear a mask? To put it plainly, Chisaki chose to don a mask (simple black mask, plague doctor mask) to represent his endeavor to rid the world of the "Hero Disease."

My Hero Academia: The reason Chisaki wears a mask, explained

Kai Chisaki in My Hero Academia (Image via Studio Bones)

As per My Hero Academia lore, Kai Chisaki spent his youth at an orphanage believed to be owned by Doctor Kyudai Garaki. This orphanage was intended to raise children as potential vessels for All For One. It was during his stint here that Chisaki came across a book containing an old theory: mice carried a virus that was responsible for the manifestation of Quirks.

Such a hypothesis lacked solid evidence, but young Kai Chisaki leaned toward believing it, i.e., all Quirks were diseases that affected people. This would go on to stick with him through his adulthood as well. Hence, he began to wear a mask, initially a simple black mask before graduating to a plague doctor mask when he took over the Shie Hassaikai.

The mask was meant to symbolize his efforts to cleanse the world of the Quirks or as he termed it, the "Hero Disease." In fact, this is also partly why Chisaki always had a pair of white rubber gloves on as well. It prevented him from getting his hands dirty in situations. However, he would need to remove his gloves before activating his Quirk. But he ultimately wore them to avoid breaking out into hives.

Kai Chisaki's ultimate goal

Kai Chisaki wasn't technically a villain. He was taken in and raised by the Shie Hassaikai's leader as one of his own. Thus, he felt that he owed the old man a huge debt. Chisaki seemed troubled for most of his life, which the old man noticed and attempted to develop him into an honorable Yakuza. The boy would never hold back if someone spoke ill of the group.

It was this feeling of debt that Chisaki wanted to repay, but his way of doing it was flawed. Holding onto the belief that Quirks were a disease, Chisaki (after learning about Eri) wanted to use Eri in a grand plan to restore the Yakuza to power. He schemed to do this by manufacturing a Quirk-destroying drug and selling it to villains. Naturally, they would use it against Pro-Heroes.

Then, the Yakuza would release a serum that could reverse the damage to the Pro-Heroes, albeit at a massive price. Thus, the villains had the Quirk-destroying drug, the Heroes had the serum, and with Eri in between, the Shie Hassaikai could control the market and bank huge profits to eventually step out from the shadows.

In essence, he mainly wanted to reinstate the Yakuza. But as noted by Tomura Shigaraki, Chisaki's goal was ironically to erase Quirks and bring the Yakuza back to the top, through the use of a Quirk.

In conclusion

Kai Chisaki, aka Overhaul, was a complex and morally ambiguous name in My Hero Academia. Shaped by a troubled past and a skewed grasp of Quirks, his beliefs pushed him to take drastic measures that blurred the lines between villainy and misguided loyalty.

Chisaki's adoption of the plague doctor persona showcased his impulse to purify the world of what he deemed a disease. However, his reliance on a Quirk to do so exposed deep contradictions in his ideology. At his core, Chisaki wasn't malicious but had a misguided sense of duty to repay the kindness of his Yakuza mentor.

His methods were problematic and laid bare his inability to reconcile his ideals with reality. Such a paradox fueled his ultimate downfall, given that the fulfillment of his vision of a Quirk-free world was reliant on the very thing he sought to get rid of.