Chapter 265

Fat Gum and Suneater bring Tsukuyomi onto their team. The Paranormal Liberation Front has retreated into an enormous sanctuary beneath the mansion, served by five passages to the outside, the rest already covered by heroes. Fumikage grasps that their job is to seal the one exit sitting beyond Cementoss' reach.

Liberation soldiers defend the passage to the last. Suneater clears them out using Vast Hybrid Chimera: Centaur, an Ultimate Move of his own, and once they are inside Fumikage answers with a technique of his own, Ragnarok, which drives Dark Shadow to its ceiling. He floods the tunnel with the berserk shadow and the soldiers inside break and run.

Trumpet and the others fall back, but Re-Destro pushes out of the retreating crowd and drives his Stress to maximum. He holds Dark Shadow off by raw strength until his prosthetic legs buckle under the weight, and he is blasted through the tunnel's rear wall, exposing the Front's secret passage. Fumikage recalls Dark Shadow, which warns him that a genuine monster waits below, one far beyond the man who just withstood Ragnarok. Fat Gum explains that Gigantomachia only moves on his master's direct order, intelligence that came straight from Hawks. Fumikage thinks back to training under him, to the strengths that tutelage sharpened, and hopes Hawks can see how far he has come.

Hawks, for his part, is shredding the clone barrage of Sad Man's Parade without effort. He notes the astonishing rate at which the copies appear, and that they grow flimsier the more the Quirk gets used. He tells Twice he does not let himself grow attached and has to finish the job now, reminding him that surrendering at the start had always been an option, since he genuinely likes the man. Twice will not, and instead conjures League of Villains Doubles, calling them his only allies, which Hawks erases on the spot. Heroes put villains down fast, Hawks says, because someone who refuses to quit is what a hero fears most, and in his experience such a person never stops fighting. Twice, hysterical, charges, and Hawks puts him on the floor in an instant, a bladed feather hovering inches from his face.

Because Twice will not stop, Hawks says quietly, he sees no option but to kill him. Twice throws it back at him: no hero cuts down the ones who fall behind. He remembers Himiko Toga offering him a handkerchief when he was falling apart, and fears she will never comfort him again after he endangered the League a second time. Even so, he swears he will keep the League's happiness safe and starts one more Double. Hawks promises to pass the message along and drives a feather through the clone forming over Jin's face. Then the wall detonates into blue flame that swallows the room. Dabi announces that nothing will be passed on, because Twice came through loud and clear. Hawks rolls himself and Twice out of the fire, and Dabi stamps on his head, shattering his goggles, flames curling around his feet as he tells Hawks that his sentimentality tripped him up in the end.

Fat Gum, Suneater, and Tsukuyomi break into the villa's underground sanctuary.

Tsukuyomi unveils his newest Ultimate Move, Ragnarok, and blows Re-Destro away once his prosthetic legs give out.

Hawks beats Twice by destroying clones faster than they can be made, and moves to kill him.

Dabi intervenes, pinning Hawks and saving Twice.

The chapter continues both the villa raid team's fight against the Paranormal Liberation Front and Hawks vs. Twice and Dabi.

Dark Shadow's warning about the monster below is the reader's first hint of Gigantomachia's proximity, and Fat Gum confirms the giant needs a direct order from his master to act.

Horikoshi's author comment mentions buying a handpan for its sound and enjoying hitting it at random.