A Young Woman's Declaration

Before the class went out after Izuku, it was Tenya who proposed that they fight beside him in the city instead, conscious of how the evacuees taking shelter at U.A. might react to their missing classmate turning up. Nezu tells him the decision to back them was not sentimental: the school's defenses now rival Tartarus, and Izuku is safer behind them. Momo counters that Tomura broke into Tartarus and, long before that, walked into U.A. ahead of the U.S.J. Incident while far weaker.

The principal answers her. The U.A. Barrier has been rebuilt on a grid, so its spaces convert into shelter boxes able to move up or drop into an underground network sealed behind reactive plating, and those shelters can be shifted to other hero schools or comparably secure sites, Shiketsu High School among them. Fumikage recognizes it as a counter to Decay, which now travels past whatever Tomura touches. Told the Quirk could not do that a year ago, Nezu shrugs that he designed for it on instinct. Izuku returning is more than defensible, he concludes, even if the civilians will not swallow it immediately, and he sends his students off.

They did not swallow it. The mob outside grows and hardens while the faculty fail to talk anyone down. Thirteen reports that some people did follow the reasoning, and then the coverage, the rumors, and the speculation undid it. Best Jeanist takes the front, promises their safety is paramount, and admits plainly that dangling the boy to lure the villains out has produced nothing at all. He is indeed what the villains want most, and he is also among the most valuable assets they have, so leaving him outside any longer is lethal. He asks them to let the boy heal inside so he can go back to fighting for them.

The quiet lasts a moment. Then a man accuses the heroes of punishing civilians again for the mess made during the Paranormal Liberation War, and the crowd reignites. The hostility spikes hard enough to set Izuku's Danger Sense screaming and overwhelm him, and the professionals are out of moves.

Ochaco takes it. She goes weightless, lifts Present Mic's megaphone, rises to the roofline above them all, and begins talking. What she fights for is a world where everyone can smile with her, and that has to include looking after the heroes themselves when they are the ones bleeding. She tells the crowd Izuku carries a special power, that leaving was his idea to keep them all safe, and that bringing him back was hers and her class's choice. Look at the state of him, she says, and understand that anyone could come for him at any hour, and that nobody alive wants this fixed more than he does.

Someone twists it, accusing her of wanting the civilians beaten and filthy too. She answers that only people like Izuku are living that, and they have earned time to recover from it. She asks them to let him care for himself and brace for what is coming, because the burden of One For All does not stop him being a high schooler with everything still to learn. She asks again, crying, and Izuku breaks, dropping to his knees and sobbing.

Kota and the heteromorph woman he pulled out of the rain push through the crowd in tears to reach him, while Tenya holds Minoru back, saying their class should not be the ones going to him now. Kota apologizes for being too frightened to move sooner and credits Ochaco with getting him moving. The woman, taken in by U.A. after other shelters refused her for being a heteromorph, is simply glad to see him again.

The mood turns. One man, star shaped growths sprouting from his scalp, tells everyone to listen, because with the glossy coat scraped off heroes it is obvious they are people too, and shoving away the ones still fighting guarantees nothing goes back to normal. One of Izuku's earlier detractors asks whether things really will recover once he heals, and the boy promises they will, because everyone is behind him now.

Endeavor, Hawks, and Shoto walk into a barrier where students, teachers, and refugees are finally talking without shouting. Endeavor says they put Izuku through all that for nothing. Hawks disagrees. Like One For All itself, a power that hardens through connection, All Might and Class 1-A reached the boy, and those bonds reached the crowd in turn. That is the future he wants, he says: everyone minding each other, leaving heroes with far too much free time.

Nezu phones Shota, healed up now, an eyepatch over one socket and a prosthetic where his foot used to be, to report the mission's success. Asked about Kurogiri, moved to Central Hospital for testing, Shota says daily attempts to talk to him have gone nowhere. They also review the countermeasures built against Himiko, since the staff have mapped how much blood Transform actually requires and, through isolation, ruled out any refugee being her in borrowed skin. U.A. remains the fortress it claims to be, and Shota says it is time to prove it and get back to the villains.

As things settle inside, All Might drives out to look for anti-hero holdouts still refusing evacuation. From a rooftop above the highway, Stain watches his car pass with something burning behind his eyes.

Nezu details the rebuilt U.A. Barrier, a movable grid of shelters over a sealed underground network designed as a counter to Tomura's expanded Decay. Best Jeanist publicly concedes that the bait strategy built around Izuku has failed.

Ochaco Uraraka's rooftop speech turns the hostile crowd, and Kota Izumi and the heteromorph woman Izuku saved come forward to comfort him, prompting the refugees to accept his return. Shota Aizawa returns from his injuries, one eye covered and one foot replaced, reporting no progress with Kurogiri and confirming that countermeasures against Himiko Toga are in place. All Might leaves to scout and is tailed by Stain.

Built from Chapter 323 through the opening page of Chapter 326, this Dark Hero arc episode aired in Japan on March 18, 2023, with the dub on April 1.

The adaptation lengthens Ochaco's flashbacks during the speech and brings the Ordinary Woman fully into frame in the scene where everyone gathers around Izuku, where the manga panel had cropped her out. All Might's plan to search for stranded civilians is spoken to Ectoplasm on screen rather than delivered as voiceover from the car, and a shot of Stain stalking him while he drives is added.