Chapter 261

Kyudai Garaki watches the falling door kill Johnny and grieves him, remembering their years together and thanking him from the heart for the restless curiosity that made him so useful, while the rest of the laboratory is torn apart around them.

Mirko radios in that the doctor is here along with some unusually sturdy Nomu, and that she intends to kick him to find out whether he is real. Endeavor, tied up with Nomu of his own, tells her to secure the man. Rock Lock checks the evacuation with Mandalay and she confirms it is finished.

Crust is trying to reach Mirko but finds Nomu waiting in every corridor. He does discover a passage leading outside, proving the morgue is not the only way in, and steels himself to cut through the Nomu and join her.

Mirko charges. Garaki insists he is the genuine one, which does not slow her down at all. He weighs waking the High-End Nomu and dislikes the idea, since they are still in testing. Dabi never recovered Hood's body, All For One's absence has crippled production, and Hood alone needed ten hours to stabilize before he was usable. With nothing else left, Garaki reaches for the activation device.

Her leg is inches from his arm when the small Nomu from the pre-raid photograph shoves her aside, leaving only a graze. Garaki calls it Mocha, and it produces a copy of him before Mirko boots both away, wondering aloud whether the thing carries Twice's Quirk. The seconds it bought were enough. Garaki triggers the High-Ends, praising Mocha for acting on its own initiative and promising not to forget its courage, then orders the Nomu to wipe out the heroes. One emerges and hurls Mirko into a large tank. With the High-Ends about to run loose, Crust finally reaches the laboratory, and one of them recognizes him and squares up. Mirko picks herself up and says she is only now warming up.

Pro heroes inside the hospital find themselves tied up by the Nomu Garaki turned loose and by the patients still being moved out.

Garaki activates his remaining High-End Nomu to buy time to finish Tomura's upgrade.

Mirko and Crust both reach the laboratory and find themselves surrounded by High-Ends.

The Nomu called Mocha is revealed to carry Twice's Double Quirk.

The chapter concludes the hospital raid team's fight against the ordinary Nomu and starts both Mirko vs. the High-Ends and Crust vs. Chubs.

Garaki's internal accounting establishes how badly All For One's imprisonment has slowed Nomu production, and Mocha's unprompted defense is the first sign a Nomu can act without an order.

Horikoshi's author comment records his first taste of cheese coffee, which he found novel and delicious.