Chapter 188

Falling debris from a shattered tower interrupts the duel. Endeavor carves the descending mass apart with jets of flame while Hawks shreds the rest using his feathers, sparing the people underneath. Their opponent knits itself back together, then, irritated by ground fire from other professionals, spits out a batch of pale Nomu that scatter toward the heroes and the crowds. Counting what the creature has revealed, Endeavor tallies six separate powers: shoulder jets, arms that stretch, swollen musculature, raw strength, rapid healing, and something that either splits or stores. The dispersal tells him something worse. The thing is reasoning, clearing away distractions so it can keep him to itself, because it rates him as worth fighting. Hawks turns his feathers into blades, cuts two of the pale copies down, and pulls civilians out of the way.

High-End guesses correctly that the flames have thinned for a reason, and Endeavor grudgingly concedes the point. Every burst he throws banks heat inside him, and once his temperature climbs his speed and strength fall off, a deficit he already carries against this opponent. That flaw is the reason he built a family at all. With another power surfacing and stretched limbs whipping at him, he decides the fight has to end immediately, and answers with Prominence Burn, a blast that reduces the Nomu to ash.

The victory lasts a moment. The head and neck survived, torn free before the fire could take them, and while the body rebuilds, the creature drives a limb through Endeavor's torso and hammers his face, apparently ruining his left eye. Elsewhere his family senses that something has gone wrong. Aizawa hands Eri to Thirteen and sets off for Shoto. Toshinori Yagi watches, powerless. Japan's new top hero lies broken while High-End, bored, asks whether anyone stronger exists. In Heights Alliance, Class 1-A turns toward Shoto, who grinds his teeth at the sight of the man who swore he would surpass every hero alive, losing.

Endeavor's Quirk is confirmed to overheat him under sustained use, degrading his physical function, and the chapter implies his marriage to Rei was arranged so a child might inherit both powers and cancel that weakness. High-End is shown to carry no fewer than six Quirks, one of them capable of producing additional Nomu. Prominence Burn incinerates the creature's body but not its severed head. The counterattack that follows leaves Endeavor impaled, his face wrecked, his left eye seemingly destroyed, and the fight apparently lost.

The chapter runs thirteen pages, appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 30 of 2018 on June 25, was collected in volume 20, and is adapted in Episode 88. Endeavor, High-End, and Hawks share the cover. Settings span Fukuoka, Fujitani Hospital, and U.A. High School, and the cast includes Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo, Shoto, a foreshadowed Toya, Aizawa, Eri, Thirteen, Toshinori, Present Mic, and several members of Class 1-A. Flashfire Fist and Prominence Burn are the featured super moves. Horikoshi's author comment thanks Akiama Sensei, who draws Saguri-chan, for a four-panel manga gift.