Chapter 120: The Three

Katsuki gets his arm up in time to stop a kick carrying eight percent of One For All, and the block costs him the limb's condition. Izuku is startled by his own pace, aware that eight percent is a marginal gain yet pleased to have edged in front of Katsuki even briefly. Katsuki answers with an explosion; Izuku meets it with another charged kick, the two forces cancel, and both of them are flung apart. Izuku is back on the attack first, jeering as he closes. He hates the part of himself that talks trash the moment he wants to win, and he knows that same ugly streak is what carries him.

The fight climbs into the air, Katsuki following him up. Midflight, Izuku decides that Shoot Style exists to spare his arms, not to forbid them, and he loads a Full Cowl punch meant to justify All Might's choice. It connects with Katsuki's face hard enough to draw blood. Katsuki refuses to fold, seizes him, and rides an explosion straight down, driving Izuku into the dirt.

Pinned on top with a grip on Izuku's arm and face, both of them wrecked and gasping, Katsuki calls the win and demands to know how he still lost while holding All Might's power. A voice tells them to stop. All Might is there, apologizing for having listened in. Katsuki wants his reason, and All Might gives it: on the day that mattered, Izuku behaved more like a hero than anyone present, and helping him into the arena felt like an obligation, while Katsuki was already standing in it. Katsuki calls himself weak and blames his own capture by the League of Villains for reducing All Might to a husk. All Might refuses that framing, saying every road ends and his own would have ended regardless, then pulls him into an apologetic embrace and tells him he is strong.

Katsuki shoves free. All Might turns to what separates them: Katsuki's fixation on winning and Izuku's fixation on rescuing are each crude on their own, and neither can hold a hero's sense of justice while missing the other half. Now that they have finally spent those feelings on each other, they know the truth of it. If they can acknowledge one another and pull each other upward honestly, both could become heroes who win and save at once. Katsuki still cannot square Izuku losing despite All Might's backing; Izuku answers that he will grow strong enough to beat him. Asked who else knows, All Might names only Nezu and Recovery Girl. Katsuki, seeing the effort spent hiding it, declares he will say nothing, and the secret of One For All closes around the three of them.

Katsuki Bakugo defeats Izuku Midoriya, ending their second fight.

All Might reveals himself, explains why he chose Izuku as successor, refuses Katsuki's guilt over his retirement, and tells both boys they must learn to save and to win rather than one or the other.

Katsuki commits to keeping the truth about Izuku and All Might hidden.

This twenty-page chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's series ran on December 26, 2016 in the combined fourth and fifth issue of 2017 and was collected in the fourteenth volume. It belongs to the Provisional Hero License Exam arc.

The cover gathers Katsuki Bakugo, All Might, Shota Aizawa, Eijiro Kirishima, Tsuyu Asui, Ochaco Uraraka, Tenya Ida, Kyoka Jiro, Shoto Todoroki, and Izuku Midoriya. The chapter was adapted as the sixty-first anime episode.

Action takes place at Ground Beta and continues the Deku versus Kacchan rematch. Explosion, One For All, Full Cowl, and Full Cowl Shoot Style are all in play. Horikoshi's author comment thanks readers for the popularity poll votes and notes surprise at the placements of Bakugo, Jiro, Kirishima, and Shindo.