The New Power and All For One

With the contest behind them, Izuku Midoriya compliments Hitoshi Shinso on how skillfully he handled the Capturing Weapon, and Eraser Head does not disagree. Vlad King adds that a few formalities remain, but Hitoshi is all but certain to transfer into the Hero Course, news the students greet with noise and questions about which class will get him. Neito Monoma, meanwhile, is pleased with himself: having copied One For All and found it empty, he insists a rematch would go differently. Izuku is left puzzling over why the borrowed power did nothing at all. Eraser Head cuts through the gloating with an odd request, asking Neito to drop by and see Eri the next day.

Katsuki Bakugo takes the direct approach to Izuku's problem, hurling Explosions at him in the training room in the hope of shaking Blackwhip loose while All Might shouts for restraint. Nothing surfaces. In an earlier conversation, All Might had brought both boys together and learned, to his unease, that other Quirks sleep inside the torch he passed on, something even Nana Shimura likely never suspected. Katsuki draws the uncomfortable parallel out loud: a man who holds many powers and gave this one its start is All For One, which makes Izuku's inheritance his mirror image. Izuku eventually works out the truth on his own. Because the ability answers to his feelings, and because he decided it was more than he could handle, he has sealed it away himself.

Later, Neito's visit produces an explanation. Copy takes only the core of an ability, never the reserves it has built up, which is why Eri's Rewind registers as nothing and why One For All did not tear him apart. Eraser Head's hope was that Neito might learn Rewind well enough to coach her. Eri apologizes for the trouble her power causes, and Izuku compares it to a knife: dangerous, certainly, but capable of making something wonderful. That night, as snow falls, Katsuki and Shoto Todoroki finish their supplementary course and immediately run into a gang of water-Quirk thieves working the streets. Shoto's Flashfreeze Heatwave flattens the carbonation the leader relies on, All Might pulls a filming bystander clear of a toppling lightpost, and the pair are congratulated by Slidin' Go. Back at Heights Alliance, their classmates ambush them with a party.

Hitoshi Shinso is effectively cleared to join the Hero Course the following year, though his class placement stays undecided. Neito Monoma reveals the limitation at the heart of Copy: stockpiling Quirks come across as blanks, since only the essence transfers and never the accumulation. This retroactively explains why copying One For All was harmless to him, and why Eri's Rewind gives him nothing to work with.

Izuku identifies the reason Blackwhip will not answer. His emotions govern access, and his own judgment that the ability is too much for him has locked it behind a mental door. Katsuki, All Might, and Izuku also name the resemblance between One For All's growing collection of Quirks and All For One himself, a thought none of them enjoys.

Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki pass the provisional license course and immediately debut as licensed heroes against the Cider House gang, capturing the whole crew and recovering the stolen property. With their success, every member of Class 1-A now holds a provisional license. Elsewhere, Shoto contacts Endeavor asking to learn Flashfire Fist, and Eri quietly writes thank-you letters to Izuku and Mirio.

The episode adapts material drawn from four chapters, closing out the Joint Training Arc and stepping into the Meta Liberation Army Arc. It aired in Japan on June 12, 2021, with the English broadcast following on June 26. No.1 serves as the opening theme and Footprints as the ending.

Two scenes have no direct manga equivalent. Eri writing her letters began life as bonus material in Volume 23 rather than the main story, and the surprise party Class 1-A throws for Katsuki and Shoto was created for the adaptation. Running the other way, a flashback involving Oboro Shirakumo present in the source was dropped here.

Present Mic needles Eraser Head about whether Hitoshi reminds him of himself, or of Oboro, a thread the season picks up much later. The battle credited to the episode is Katsuki and Shoto's hero debut against the Cider House.