Episode 164

Inside Makeshift Fortress: Troy, some days out from the war, the heroes and students assigned to "Tomura Shigaraki" walk their battle plan. Best Jeanist insists the Coffin in the Sky must be the battlefield, because solid ground undoes everything. Nejire Chan and Suneater assume he means tactics, since the cities below are evacuated, but Edgeshot and Best Jeanist clarify the point: guarding the ruined streets guarantees the survivors a place to return to. The greater danger is which half surfaces. All For One at least wants something left to rule, whereas the Tomura half, handed that much power and hatred, would erase everything, and whatever comes after victory needs a foundation.

In the present, Decay has rotted and sunk a huge stretch of Shizuoka, moving the fight out over the water. Tomura claims he could drown the country inside a week. Deku answers with Danger Sense, Fa Jin, and Gearshift stacked into one offensive, plus a respirator to steady his breathing in the swells, but nothing he lands sticks. Sensing his master's death, Tomura thanks Dynamight for meddling, since it returned him stronger, and reaches for Deku's face with All For One and Decay together. Danger Sense fires in time to sever his fingers, but the Quirk pays for it: Hikage is dragged out of the vestige realm along with Danger Sense's Factor, after shoving the others clear of the hand that came for them. Tomura dodges Gearshift-boosted Blackchains, blasts Deku skipping across the ocean, and asks why the boy keeps insisting there is a human in front of him. Deku crashes near Mt. Fuji, his respirator crumbling; Bruce notes the stockpiled strength lives separately and survived, and En, realizing the whole Quirk and every vestige inside it could now be ripped away in one motion, urges a tactical retreat. Tomura, who hears all of it, starts rotting the forest, intending to kill the vestiges here and then flatten the horizon Spinner wanted, starting by Decaying Mt. Fuji from the summit.

Deku refuses. Recalling Ochaco's admission that she could not follow how Himiko's mind worked, he keeps insisting a person is buried under the villainy, pushes One For All to full power in his right arm, shattering his Mid-Gauntlet, and uses Blackwhip to force his own muscles to flex and max out Fa Jin's charge. A colossal Delaware Smash launches Tomura and tears up the Decaying ground. Smokescreen slowed to Low Gear gives him a lasting cloud to misdirect Danger Sense from, and he breaks the villain's hand off with a clean hit, until Search locates him and Gearshift's timer runs out, leaving him gasping under Rivet Stab tendrils. Tomura argues that people invent whatever explanation flatters them and that Deku is doing exactly that. Even Nana tells the boy to stop, calling her grandson the highest wall his philosophy will ever face and asking him to blow the man away instead of climbing. Deku answers that a man beyond saving would not have kept a lid on his childhood, and swears to punch until it breaks; Kudo, who once found the idea naive, decides to trust him. Then Star and Stripe's vestige appears and points at a crack in Tomura's core, a scar she left, and Kudo proposes the unthinkable: force One For All into that wound and attack from inside. He volunteers Gearshift as the test case, over En's protest, reasoning that parting with it cancels Deku's recoil instantly and would leave Tomura open if he tried using it. Deku agrees, wraps himself in Blackwhip as Deku Overlay, and light gathers in his clawed hand where the Quirk's core now sits.

Tomura steals Danger Sense and Hikage Shinomori's vestige through All For One, proving the whole Quirk is now stealable in a single instant, and sinks a large portion of the Shizuoka Prefecture with Decay.

Deku maxes out Fa Jin using Blackwhip to force his muscles to flex, landing an enormous Delaware Smash, and pairs Low Gear Smokescreen with Blackchain to misdirect the villain's stolen Danger Sense.

Star and Stripe's vestige reveals the mental scar in Tomura's core, and Kudo proposes forcibly transferring One For All into the wound, offering himself and Gearshift as the trial run. Deku Overlay debuts.

The fifth episode of season eight adapts chapters 410 through 413, airing in Japan on November 1, 2025, and in English on November 15.

Added on screen: Bruce and Kudo reacting to En's retreat suggestion, Tomura breaking the ground by hand before the forest crumbles, a brief flashback of him and Spinner talking happily when he mentions the flattened horizon, him dodging with Danger Sense before Deku punches his arm off, extra dialogue of Katsuki insulting Izuku during the paper-passing flashback, and a full transformation sequence for Deku Overlay followed by a second arm severing.

Cut material includes the dialogue accompanying Ragdoll's Search flashback, the evacuees' lines during Tomura's speech on narrow worldviews, and Deku's egg-in-the-microwave analogy for the forced transfer.