Chapter 123: Unrivaled

The Big Three come to brief Class 1-A on hero internships. Izuku recognizes the odd-faced one from last year's Sports Festival and remembers he posted nothing worth noting; the other two also finished outside the top, which leaves Izuku wondering what kind of heroes these are supposed to be.

Shota calls on Tamaki Amajiki, the one with unruly black hair and pointed ears, to introduce himself. His stare puts a chill through part of the class. He seems unimpressed, seeing everything about them as human except their heads, which register to him as potatoes, and since he cannot manage to see them as anything but people, he presses his forehead to the blackboard and wishes he were home. The class has no idea what to make of it. Nejire Hado introduces herself and means to discuss internships, but her curiosity derails her into questions about whatever catches her eye: Mashirao's tail, Mina's horns, the mask Mezo wears, what species of frog Tsuyu counts as, the burn marking Shoto's face, and Minoru's hair. Shota concludes the Big Three are short on reason. Mirio Togata, the last of them, tells him not to worry, since today he is the headliner.

Mirio shouts a call-and-response opener, the class does not respond, and he explains they were supposed to complete it. Some of them find these three strange. Seeing the confusion, he says he understands the feeling, and notes the class must be riding high after earning provisional licenses as first-years. With his introduction dead on arrival, he offers instead to let the whole class team up and fight him, which lands as a shock. He reasons that living the experience beats hearing about it. Shota tells him to do as he likes.

At Gym Gamma, Hanta asks whether he really intends to take all of 1-A at once, and Mirio confirms it. Tamaki, forehead against a wall, warns him not to crush their spirits. Nejire, busy playing with Mina's horns, mentions that Mirio had a hard time as a child and advises the class to think before they swing. Fumikage and Eijiro like their odds, and when Eijiro asks whether he sees them as small fry, Mirio says yes. He invites attacks from any direction at any time and asks who is first. Izuku and Eijiro both step up, and Eijiro yields to Izuku's determination.

Izuku switches on Full Cowl and charges while the class readies their Quirks. Mirio's clothes drop off, startling several of them, and he apologizes for the difficulty of managing his outfit. Reading him as wide open, Izuku lands an enhanced kick to the face that passes straight through. Intangibility, Izuku realizes. Hanta's Tape, Mina's Acid, and Yuga's Navel Laser all phase through him without effect, and when the smoke clears he is gone, materializing behind Kyoka Jiro ready to strike. Eijiro assumes teleportation is part of the package. Tamaki corrects the envy: the Quirk is not the thing to covet, the technique is. After being scouted, Mirio poured himself entirely into an internship under a particular hero and was deliberately cultivated.

Blending the Quirk with that technique, Mirio takes down half the class in minutes: Hanta, Momo, Yuga, Kyoka, Tsuyu, Fumikage, Minoru, Mina, Denki, and Mezo. Shota tells the survivors to learn from this, because by his reckoning Mirio Togata is the closest person alive to becoming the number one hero, professionals included, which stuns the rest of them.

The Big Three introduce themselves to Class 1-A, with Tamaki Amajiki retreating from the room's attention and Nejire Hado derailing into questions about the students.

Mirio Togata challenges the entire class to fight him at once and defeats half of them within minutes using an intangibility Quirk and refined technique.

Shota Aizawa reveals that Mirio is the closest person to the number one hero spot, counting professionals.

This nineteen-page chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's series ran on January 23, 2017 in the eighth issue of that year and was collected in volume fourteen. It falls in the Shie Hassaikai arc.

The cover carries Nejire Hado, Tamaki Amajiki, Mirio Togata, Kyoka Jiro, Denki Kaminari, Mina Ashido, Mashirao Ojiro, Yuga Aoyama, and Izuku Midoriya. The anime adapted it as episode sixty-three.

The fight begins at Gym Gamma and features Permeation, One For All, Hardening, Dark Shadow, Acid, Earphone Jack, Frog, Navel Laser, Tape, and Invisibility. Horikoshi's comment recalls spending the turn of the year at his parents' house with the cats.