Chapter 254

Shota turns over his U.A. years with Hizashi and Oboro, who died on an internship the three shared, crushed under a collapsing building not long after floating the idea that they all start an agency together.

Naomasa now says Kurogiri may be a Nomu built on Oboro Shirakumo's body. Hizashi, who remembers the trio being called the dumbigos of Class A, cannot process it. Gran Torino recalls All For One's remark that the better Quirks pool at U.A., and reads it as Oboro's corpse being swapped before cremation and converted. Hunting for meaning past that is a waste, he says, since nothing but evil sits behind that reasoning.

Kurogiri is sedated after trying to use his Quirk. Shota warns that betting on bonds is wishful thinking, but Gran Torino counters that a strong enough foundation can produce miracles. Reports on Endeavor's fight with Hood described a Nomu with a personality of its own, fixated on strong opponents, whose base body DNA traced to a cage fighter. Shota presses on why Hood kept that personality when the Kurogiri he faced at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint spoke differently and showed no recognition. Naomasa suggests altered or erased memories, and asks the pair to stir whatever attachment to his old life survives. Told the family would only be approached if they fail, Shota switches on Erasure and says he will be damned before Oboro's parents hear any of it.

Kurogiri wakes, remarking he has not seen Shota since the U.S.J. Incident. The fog holds even under Shota's gaze, meaning the body itself is made of it. He rejects the Oboro theory, asks whether Tomura is safe, and says his mission is to watch over him. Hizashi erupts that such a job is idiotic, then catches sight of Shota's expression. Kurogiri answers that the work never pained him, because he is the sort who cannot abandon anyone.

Shota remembers a stray kitten he walked past and Oboro scooped up without pausing. He talks on: always hesitating, always leaving things half done, and Oboro always dragging him along, lending him goggles so he could face a villain. Kurogiri suggests he has mistaken the cell for a confession booth.

He mentions that he teaches now, and hard. Gran Torino raises the expulsion rate; Hizashi hints it is worse than reported. Over in Class 2-A, students pick over the look on Shota's face as he left, some comparing it to the day he expelled them, a few still sore and a few crediting it with their growth. Shota, it turns out, asked Nezu for the authority to expel and re-enroll, reasoning that self-sacrifice and throwing a life away are different things and that tasting death once would push students higher. Nezu agreed.

Back at the cell, Shota shouts that the ones like Oboro are exactly who should end up heroes, dragging others forward and living long lives. He holds up the goggles and, crying, says that if anything of Oboro remains inside, the three of them can chase that dream a second time. The words start to land.

Kurogiri is confirmed to be a Nomu made from Oboro Shirakumo's body. Shota grows convinced once he recognizes the old energetic loyalty in Kurogiri's insistence on watching over Tomura.

The class All Might reported Shota as expelling is revealed to have been re-accepted into U.A. The implication is that Shota expels students who cannot tell self-sacrifice from recklessness, so that tragedy makes them grow, an authority he requested from Nezu himself. The chapter ends with Shota's plea starting to affect Kurogiri.

Fifteen pages long, part of the Paranormal Liberation War arc and collected in volume 26. It ran on December 16, 2019, in issue 3 of the 2020 Weekly Shonen Jump run. Oboro Shirakumo, Hizashi Yamada and Shota Aizawa share the cover, and Mawata Fuwa debuts.

The chapter was first published as "You Could Be More of a Hero than Anyone" and shortened for the volume release, the Japanese title staying the same. The panel of a young Shota realizing Oboro is dead restages a comparable image from the Vigilantes spin-off, specifically its Chapter 64, viewed from a fresh angle. Horikoshi's comment notes the movie opening in Japan that week and his hope of making opening night. Episode 107 adapts it.