Off to Endeavor's Agency!

Weeks earlier in Kyushu, Hawks fields a call from Dabi, who apologizes for how a recent incident unfolded and offers one final loyalty test: strike a hero, any hero but the top one. Hawks then quietly informs the Public Safety Commission that suspicion still surrounds him, so all traffic must go through code until he locates the Nomu. He visits Best Jeanist, still recovering from what All For One did to him and planning a return to the field, and draws a feather blade. Later, Dabi cannot find him at their meeting point and can turn up no League sightings on the Hero Network. Hawks flies off with a large duffel bag, wondering what has gone wrong on their end.

On New Year's Eve, Izuku goes home to Inko, tells her rather too much about the Joint Training exercise, and shows her Eri's letter, which reduces them both to sobbing. The next morning she sees him onto the bus. At Endeavor's agency, Izuku, Katsuki, and Shoto meet a man who is briefly pleased to see them and immediately pretends otherwise, having taken the other two only to get Shoto. Endeavor abruptly tears off after an incident nobody else has heard yet, and the students scramble into costume behind him. The culprit is Starservant, a raving man who strips glass from cars and buildings and drops it as one enormous mass. Endeavor obliterates it with Flashfire Fist, chases him into an alley, and finds thugs waiting, only for Shoto's ice and then Hawks to clear them out.

Once the arrests are done, Hawks produces the book he has been reading, the Meta Liberation War, praises its popularity, describes Destro's philosophy of personal responsibility, and presses a copy on Endeavor with sections marked. Inwardly he apologizes for the indirection, since he is being watched. Endeavor, remembering Hawks' earlier line about heroes having too much idle time, cannot square the tone with the expression. Hawks hands copies to the students too when Izuku expresses interest, and reminds Endeavor to look at the highlights, especially the second portion. At the agency the trainees meet Burnin and the Flaming Sidekickers and are told to stand by. In his office, Endeavor works out that the second word of each marked passage builds a sentence: the enemy is the liberation army, over a hundred thousand strong, moving in four months.

Dabi gives Hawks a final assignment to prove himself, and Hawks visits Best Jeanist in costume before drawing a feather blade on him. Hawks separately notifies the Commission that all future contact must be coded, since the villains have not stopped watching him.

Izuku, Katsuki, and Shoto begin their work-study at the Endeavor Agency, and Endeavor makes clear he agreed only for Shoto's sake. Endeavor and Hawks take down Starservant, a Trigger-free glass manipulator whose Ultimate Move is stopped outright by Flashfire Fist. The students are introduced to Burnin, Kido, and the rest of the Flaming Sidekickers.

Hawks passes his intelligence to Endeavor concealed in the highlighted passages of the Meta Liberation War, and Endeavor successfully decodes it. The message identifies the liberation army as the enemy, gives their strength as more than a hundred thousand, and sets the timeline at four months. A man with a laptop, later known as Skeptic, is glimpsed at the liberation mansion praising Hawks' access and revealing that micro devices have been implanted in his wings.

Drawn from four chapters and first broadcast in Japan on June 26, 2021, with the dub arriving July 10. This episode changes both themes, bringing in Merry-Go-Round as the opening and Believe as the ending.

The adaptation works hard to withhold information. Skeptic's face and identity are hidden, dialogue between Hawks and Slidin' Go is trimmed to conceal the Paranormal Liberation Front's formation, and Hawks' report that the League has seized control of the Meta Liberation Army never appears. Other liberation members present outside the mansion in the source do not appear.

Hawks and Best Jeanist meet in costume here, where the original had them in ordinary clothes. The credited battle is Endeavor and Hawks against Starservant. Izuku, Shoto, and Katsuki note with some awe that Hawks is only twenty-two.