Hiro Nakamura - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

Hiro possessed the power to control the space-time continuum, giving him the power to manipulate the flow of time, travel through time, and teleport to any location at will, until Arthur Petrelli took it away when he traveled back to 1991. Specific examples of temporal manipulation include slowing time relative to himself and rewinding time specific to certain objects (a clock, a train, and a gun in various episodes). As demonstrated by his encounters with Daphne, a woman with the power of enhanced speed, Hiro does not stop time completely. Hiro has shown the ability to teleport both himself and others in physical contact with himself, both through space and time.

Although stressful events and practice have helped Hiro to develop his abilities, Hiro initially has trouble with the more complicated teleportation and time travel abilities. For example, when he teleported to New York, he inadvertently traveled five weeks into the future as well. Although he was able to travel back to the same time and place from which he left, he was only able to do so when his life was in danger from a nuclear explosion. Later, when he attempted to save Charlie's life by traveling to the day before her death, Hiro accidentally traveled six months into the past. He also inadvertently teleported to present day Japan from Texas just as he and Charlie were about to kiss and then could not teleport back, no matter how hard he tried.

After the incident with Charlie, Hiro's powers began weakening, eventually becoming completely unusable. He seeks out Takezo Kensei's sword in the hope that it will focus his failing powers. After obtaining the sword, Hiro exhibits the ability to teleport other people along with himself, which he uses to rescue himself and Ando from an impending attack by casino guards in "Parasite", though this too resulted in an inadvertent trip five years into the future, after the explosion had occurred. The episode "Five Years Gone" marks his first successful use of teleportation and time travel. By "The Hard Part", Hiro has improved his skill in teleportation, as he uses it twice without traveling any discernible distance through time. His father attributes this to a matter of confidence rather than any effect caused by the sword. In addition to his power over time, Hiro is skilled with a katana, having been trained by his father.

In "It's Coming" and "The Eclipse", Hiro is mentally reverted into a ten-year-old, but still possesses his powers. After Ando teaches him how to use them again, Hiro shows great control over them even in his young mental state, being able to stop time with ease (and using it to play tricks), teleport himself and others and time-travel 16 years into the past with Claire Bennett.

In "Our Father", Hiro's abilities are stolen by Arthur Petrelli, rendering him a normal human.

In the episode, "Cold Snap", Hiro regains some of his ability when the son of Matt Parkman, whom he dubs "Toddler Touch and Go," touches him and turns his ability on. At the moment Hiro has regained the ability to stop and restart time, but is still unable to teleport or travel through time. In "I Am Sylar", Hiro manages to regain more of his abilities from Parkman's son, allowing him to make Ando unaffected by his time-freezing. However problems have now arisen, when Hiro and Ando prepare to infiltrate Building 26, Hiro's powers falter and he instead receives a blistering headache and a nosebleed. After the two rescue all of the evolved humans, Mohinder states that for some reason Hiro's body is now rejecting his powers and he can't risk freezing time again. Hiro does it one more time to save Noah Bennet from Danko, but it proves to be too much of a strain on him and causes him to pass out.

Hiro appears to regain the full extent of his abilities in the fourth season episode "Orientation". After focusing on a photograph of himself, Ando, and his sister Kimiko taken at the Sullivan Bros. Carnival 14 years ago, he inadvertently travels there. By doing so, he used both his time-traveling and teleportation abilities. He seems to have little control over his power. He seems to travel through time when he's thinking of something from the past. As of Hysterical Blindness, Hiro has the ability to teleport back. However, like his ability to time travel, his first teleportation seemed accidental and instinctual. It took him from Yamagato to Peter Petrelli's apartment. He then collapsed from presumably the strain the teleport put on him in his condition.

His time-stopping ability, if he uses it too much, exhausts Hiro and causes him pain. As of "Tabula Rasa"", Hiro is beginning to have more control over his power. An unfortunate side effect of this ability is the strain it puts on the body can cause inoperable tumors.

As of "Once Upon a Time in Texas" and "Brother's Keeper", Hiro is regaining control over the other aspects of his ability, but he lacks perfect control. When Samuel provoked him, Hiro managed to teleport them both to Samuel's carnival, but later he was unsure if he could time travel eight weeks. Hiro managed to perform this task, but it took him two tries to get it right as he said the first time took him ten minutes too late. The time travel caused him to have a minor nosebleed, but besides that he seemed to suffer no ill effects. He later displays just teleportation, teleporting Mohinder to Florida where he checks him into a mental hospital under a fake name in order to keep him out of sight for eight weeks in order to preserve the timeline.

In "Thanksgiving", Lydia has him take her back eight weeks into the past to see Joseph Sullivan's death. He teleports them easily, but he indicates Lydia was responsible for it not him, but this is unclear. In the past he has trouble teleporting them back due to his lack of full control and probably the stress of the situation. However, with Lydia's help, he manages to bring them both back to the present.

In "Close to You", Hiro lacks the ability to properly use his powers due to his mind being messed up, but once Ando restores his mind, Hiro is instantly able to teleport at will with Mohinder Suresh and Ando, taking them both to Noah Bennet's apartment. Hiro shows no trouble teleporting at will this time and takes more than one person with him, something he hasn't done since before he lost his powers.

In "Brave New World," Hiro tests his powers out after his brain tumor is removed and learns that removing the brain tumor has restored full control over his powers to Hiro. Hiro is easily able to teleport himself and Ando to Central Park where the Carnival is with no issues. There, Hiro is asked to teleport over a dozen people away from the Carnival. Hiro has everyone hold hands and manages to succeed in teleporting everyone thanks to Ando supercharging his powers which give him the boost to his powers he needs to teleport such a large group of people.