Episode 88

Fuyumi and Natsuo bring warmer clothes to their mother at Fujitani Hospital. Rei is glad of the visit, mentions that Shoto writes to her about school and his friends, and listens as Natsuo bluntly raises the man who took the top rank the day before. To Natsuo, their father is a stranger who neglected his children, mistreated his wife, and never once apologized in ten years while the public celebrates him. Rei corrects him. Enji has come many times, always with the flowers she mentioned liking back when they first met, and they have simply never met face to face because the doctors and her own fear will not allow it. She believes he is trying to face what he did.

In Kyushu the fight is already going badly. The High-End regenerates its burns and taunts Endeavor, who recognizes that the black variants heal and that a talking one is rarer still, and resolves to take it alive for questioning. Hell Spider misses, and the creature's stretching limbs slam him through an entire building and back out the far side. Hawks empties the collapsing upper floors with his feathers before joining in. A stronger Hell Spider slices the Nomu apart along with the falling structure, yet the head crawls clear and starts rebuilding, and when other heroes arrive to help, the monster releases a stock of lesser Nomu into the streets to keep them busy. Endeavor reads the situation exactly: the thing wants only the strongest opponent and is clever enough to clear the field. His own body, meanwhile, is cooking from the inside, the price of a technique that compresses flame past what he can safely hold. Prominence Burn reduces the Nomu to ash except for the head it tore free in time, and the counterattack drives bone blades into his face, likely taking his left eye.

The broadcast shows the number one hero flattened, and the comparison to Kamino three months earlier is made aloud. Toshinori grips his old wound, Class 1-A watches in silence, Shoto grits his teeth, and the crowds start to stampede while a reporter laments the absence of a symbol. Then the fan Endeavor signed for earlier shoves into frame and screams at the camera crew for writing him off, telling everyone to look at the flames still burning. Endeavor rises again, welcoming the pain because it keeps him conscious, gives up on capture, and commits to destroying the head. Hawks buys the opening, taking a hit but sending his last feathers to ignite around Endeavor and hurl him forward like a burning bird. Fist through the teeth, burning from the inside, and still it regenerates, so Endeavor orders Hawks to push both of them skyward where nothing else can be hurt. Calling the creature a reflection of his own past or perhaps his future, he unleashes PLUS ULTRA Prominence Burn. The two fall out of the fireball, and when the smoke lifts, the Nomu is gone and Endeavor stands with an arm raised. Later, Izuku dreams of the previous holders of One For All and watches the brothers who created it. The first user takes his hand and names him the ninth, and Izuku wakes to find his Quirk firing on its own and his room wrecked.

Rei reveals that Enji has visited the hospital repeatedly and always brings her favorite flowers, contradicting Natsuo's belief that their father has walked away from his family.

The High-End is confirmed to have multiple Quirks, including Super Regeneration, Transforming Arms, and Storage, and enough intelligence to disperse reinforcements and protect its head.

Endeavor's Flashfire Fist is explained as a technique that overheats and degrades his own body when used recklessly.

Hiroshi Tameda's outburst on live television turns the public mood back toward Endeavor at the moment the broadcast had given up on him.

Endeavor destroys the Nomu with PLUS ULTRA Prominence Burn after Hawks' burning feathers propel him, and survives to stand at the end.

In the stinger, the first user of One For All acknowledges Izuku as the ninth holder, and Izuku wakes with the Quirk active in his sleep.

The twenty-fifth episode closes season four. It pulls from Chapters 187 through 189, the first thirteen pages of Chapter 190, and short stretches of Chapters 192 and 193.

Shota steering Eri away once the broadcast begins never happens here, and most of the students' commentary while watching goes with it.

Hawks calls out a warning about the incoming strike here, whereas the manga keeps him busy with the Nomu and oblivious. Also omitted are Endeavor's mental tally of the High-End's Quirks, Hawks talking with other heroes after cutting down two white Nomu, and two heroes attempting to catch Endeavor as he falls.