Chapter 142

A single tentacle laced with a mild dose of poison keeps Hojo, Setsuno, and Tabe paralyzed where they lie. Tamaki strips their masks, hopes his allies got clear, and then his own wounds catch up with him. He collapses, glimpsing a face somewhere ahead of him as consciousness goes.

Further in, Eijiro Kirishima cannot shake his worry, and Izuku Midoriya feels the same. Fat Gum answers that trusting the person guarding your back completely is the mark of a real man, which lifts Eijiro's mood so quickly that Izuku is taken aback. Sir Nighteye finds a staircase while Eraser Head puzzles over Mimic's silence. Because the labyrinth has thrown nothing at them, Shota concludes that Mimic cannot work the whole structure at once and is currently occupied with the police overhead. Rock Lock sums it up as a limited range of control, and Shota theorizes the range follows Mimic's body as it travels the wall surfaces. Mimic, meanwhile, looks in on the room where the three Bullets fell and is stunned they lost.

On the surface, close to where the passage down begins, Bubble Girl and Centipeder have the yakuza rounded up. One prisoner says cooperating with heroes was never possible, because Kai would have killed them for it on the spot. They describe a boss they respected, a man searching for a place the yakuza could still exist in the modern world and stung that his organization had been labeled a villain group. The successor took a villain name after he fell and became what he now is, and began letting real villains in, which several of them fear marks the end. Bubble Girl notes how thoroughly disliked Overhaul is, and the captives agree that the truly dangerous ones are those who never weigh consequences.

Below, a slab of manipulated wall comes at Shota, Mimic apparently annoyed that his Quirk was decoded. Fat Gum shoves Aizawa clear because the team needs him, and is hurled into another room, arriving with Eijiro in tow: the boy had gone to shield Shota too and got swallowed by Fat Gum's Quirk. Kendo Rappa steps in and opens with a storm of bullet-fast punches, and Eijiro's Unbreakable cracks under them, leaving his arms bleeding. Rappa dismisses guns and swords as boorish shortcuts, insisting a real fight means testing your own strength. Fat Gum's counterpunch stops dead against a barrier, and Hekiji Tengai voices his disappointment at facing two defensive Quirks. Another volley leaves Fat Gum bruised and barely upright. Tengai frames it as spear and shield against shield and shield, and Rappa complains the matchup is unfair. With Eijiro dreading one more punch and furious at his own lack of growth, Fat Gum tells him that a broken spirit ends them both, that beating villains means taking away their will to fight, and asks what happens if theirs breaks first. Eijiro resolves to crush them, and Fat Gum swears they are getting back to the others.

Tamaki restrains the three defeated Bullets and passes out from his injuries.

The captured yakuza explain how Kai took the group from their previous boss and why many of them resent his direction.

Fat Gum and Eijiro are separated from the raid party and forced into a fight with Kendo Rappa and Hekiji Tengai, whose Strongarm and Barrier combination immediately overwhelms their defenses.

Titled Shield and Shield, Spear and Shield, the chapter appeared on June 26, 2017 in issue 30, runs twenty pages, and sits in volume 16. Episode 72 adapts it.

Sir Nighteye, Fat Gum, Red Riot, Deku, Eraser Head, and Rock Lock share the cover. Mimicry, Fat Absorption, Hardening, Strongarm, and Barrier all appear, along with the Eraser Goggles and Capturing Weapon.

The Battle of Spears and Shields begins here as part of the continuing Shie Hassaikai Raid. Horikoshi's comment notes he bought a fidget spinner and now spins it all day to stay calm.