Chapter 130

Ten days into watching Overhaul's hideout, Sir Nighteye notices the traffic in and out has thinned. Then Mirio calls Bubble Girl to report the encounter, and the four of them regroup. Mirio apologizes for the slip, which Nighteye waves off and claims as his own error, since watching them from the start would have prevented it. Bubble Girl is just relieved they came away clean, because one wrong move would have put Overhaul on alert.

Izuku says the man radiated danger. Nighteye offers the case that convinced him. A crew of thieves was caught in a truck collision that involved Overhaul's Shie Hassaikai, and nobody died. The thieves felt pain, blacked out, and woke without a scratch. More than that, every chronic complaint they carried, rheumatism through cavities, had been erased. Overhaul's Quirk is the presumed explanation, but with no injuries to point at and the crew already in custody, nothing could be pinned on him. The stolen money was the only thing that disappeared cleanly, which left the Police Force satisfied that no crime had taken place. That, Bubble Girl adds, is when suspicion hardened into a full stakeout.

Mirio hands over what they learned: a girl called Eri is being presented as Overhaul's daughter. Izuku describes the bandages and the terror, certain she was pleading for rescue, and wishes they had taken her away. Nighteye tells him to check his arrogance. Rushing in guarantees failure, and impatience would have cost them Overhaul entirely. First read the opponent's objective, then analyze it through, then prepare for every branch it can take. Determination alone saves nobody, because the genuinely clever villains bury themselves in shadow and force heroes to wait for the opening. With the lesson delivered, he sends the interns back. Izuku's first day of work-studies is over in a blink and leaves something foul behind.

The week starts. In Class 1-A, Mina spots the damage on Katsuki's face, and Denki points out that Shoto looks much the same, both fresh from the Provisional License course. Tenya calls the class to order and asks after Ochaco and Tsuyu; Momo says their absences are authorized, and Kyoka realizes Eijiro is missing too. Minoru and Mina press Izuku about his internship, but he is somewhere else entirely, turning over Nighteye's history as All Might's sidekick, Mirio as the successor who should have been, and whatever is being done to Eri. The fog only thickens, and it costs him his focus. Unable to sit with it, he goes hunting for All Might in the staff room, where Midnight tells him the man is out jogging.

Izuku catches him on the road outside U.A. and asks whether he knew everything Nighteye knew, and whether Mirio was really meant to inherit One For All, and why none of it was ever said out loud. All Might answers that laying all of it out was never necessary. Izuku insists otherwise. Being shut out while knowing nothing infuriates him, and worst of all he cannot see his teacher's intentions, which is precisely why he cannot concentrate. Not as a fan, he says, but as the successor, he wants the truth entire. All Might agrees to give it on the condition that Izuku will not regret hearing it, and Izuku promises he will not.

Nighteye, the story begins, was an obsessive fan who wanted the sidekick job. All Might said no. Nighteye kept asking until the answer changed. He became the mind behind the operation, his body never having been the impressive part, and Izuku fills in the rest himself: a support role behind a man who fought at the front, the two of them working well together. True enough, All Might admits, until six years ago, when his injuries and a gulf in values ended it.

Six years back, in a hidden facility after the ruinous fight with All For One, Nighteye pleaded with him to retire rather than push himself into the grave. All Might refused, saying the world was waiting and he had to answer. Nighteye pressed harder: the wounds would torture everyone involved, his respiratory system was finished, and stepping down would let the legend carry the peace he wanted. Nezu backed the argument and floated U.A. as the place to find a successor, which Nighteye called the best available answer. All Might asked who holds the title of Symbol of Peace in the meantime. All For One had fallen, but in a world full of superhumans another one always follows. Nighteye helped him upright and conceded the symbol matters, yet warned that at this rate All Might would lose the ability to smile at all, and that continuing as a hero would cost him Nighteye's support entirely. All Might caught him then, quietly looking with his Quirk.

Nighteye argued the next number one would eventually rise and that the gap, however ugly, might still hold the villains back. All Might would not accept a gap defined by fear. He noted that Foresight has never once been wrong, and Nighteye said that was exactly what terrified him, because he had already seen it. He laid the future out to force the retirement that would save the man: All Might would meet a villain, and the end waiting there was too gruesome to describe. So the two of them parted. Nezu put Mirio's name forward, and All Might met Izuku before he ever met Mirio. He kept all of it back because Izuku was his fan, and he apologizes for that now. Izuku is left reeling, holding the fact that he was never supposed to be the one.

Izuku and Mirio report their run-in with Overhaul and what they saw of Eri, and Nighteye lays out the casualty-free truck accident that first drew the agency's suspicion.

Ochaco, Tsuyu and Eijiro are revealed to have taken Work-Study internships of their own.

Izuku confronts All Might, who explains how Nighteye talked his way into the sidekick job and how their partnership collapsed once the All For One fight ended, broken by All Might's refusal to retire.

Nighteye used Foresight to see All Might meeting a gruesome death at a villain's hands within a few years, and Nezu's search for a successor is how Mirio's name first came up.

Kohei Horikoshi's one hundred thirtieth chapter was published March 18, 2017 in issue 16, runs nineteen pages, and belongs to volume 15 within the Shie Hassaikai arc. Nighteye and Bubble Girl share the cover, and Episode 67 adapts it.

Hero Work-Studies: Round 1 continues here. Featured Quirks include Engine and One For All, with Foresight seen in flashback. Locations span the U.S.J., the administration office, and Class 1-A within U.A. High School. Team Reservoir Dogs, Eri, Nezu, Gran Torino and Recovery Girl all appear in flashback.

Horikoshi's author comment marks the start of the anime's second season and urges readers to watch it.