Chapter 294

Best Jeanist reads the sedative's timing as earned rather than lucky. Many people spent themselves grinding Gigantomachia down until the drug could finally catch, and even the thinnest thread, woven together, makes a ray of hope. One more push is needed. Elsewhere, Eraser Head, Mirko, Gran Torino, and Ryukyu are being treated.

While Best Jeanist holds the giant, Lemillion works the Near High-Ends and figures out what has been mauling the Pro Heroes. The movements are crude, but the speed and power are off the scale, comparable to the Nomu from Kyushu, and he warns everyone accordingly. Ingenium shouts at Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, telling him to pull out, and the boy privately concedes the point about his injuries, yet he and Nejire Chan hold position to keep the Nomu off Best Jeanist, who has shifted his attention to the League of Villains.

Trussed up, Mr. Compress takes stock: the cables are out of reach of his hands, and the only thing he can touch is his own rear. He looks at Tomura, wrecked and unresponsive, and turns over what Spinner said, that Tomura gathered all of them, Dabi and Himiko Toga included, told them to run wild, and not one of them has finished what they came for.

Best Jeanist unveils Blackout Bind, tightening on the League to choke them unconscious. Mr. Compress gets words out to Spinner first: he loved this group, and Tomura is the key, so help him, and here comes some time. He fires his Quirk into his own flesh, gouging out enough of himself to free an arm, compresses Spinner and Tomura, and starts climbing the giant.

Best Jeanist grabs the fibers of his clothing to slow him, telling him wounds like that leave no escape, and Mr. Compress simply keeps popping pieces off his body and shredding his own clothes to deny the grip. A trapped Skeptic begs to be taken too, and is compressed. Climbing, he thinks about the peerless thief Oji Harima, a figure out of the distant past who robbed counterfeit heroes and handed the proceeds back to people in the street while preaching reform, and about being told that his family exposes injustice, that righteous blood runs in them.

Shoto reaches for Flashfire Fist and eats a Jetburn instead, and goes down. Dabi tells his unconscious brother there is no value in continuing while Endeavor is out cold and unbroken, calls him a masterpiece one more time, and rejoins Mr. Compress, who compresses him as well.

Mr. Compress decides the reform Oji Harima wanted is his boss's to carry now. He names himself Oji Harima's great-great-grandson, the Bandit King's blood in his veins, throws away his mask, and announces the trick he has been holding back: the first and last escape performance of Mr. Compress. Spinner and Tomura spill out into the open, right in front of Lemillion.

Best Jeanist gets Gigantomachia fully restrained and credits the students and Pro Heroes who ground him down first, without whom it would not have held.

The students keep working the Near High-Ends. Lemillion pegs them as roughly Hood's equal. Ingenium urges a withdrawal on Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, given his critical state, and he stays anyway to hold their attention off Best Jeanist, who turns his focus to the League instead and debuts Blackout Bind to knock them out.

Mr. Compress mutilates his own body with his Quirk to slip the restraints, compresses Spinner and Tomura, and begins his escape. Dabi beats Shoto with Jet Burn and leaves him burned but alive, since Endeavor is unconscious and cannot watch, then is compressed himself.

Mr. Compress reveals his descent from the legendary thief king Oji Harima, pulls off the mask he has never once removed to show his face, and escapes atop Gigantomachia carrying Spinner, Dabi, Skeptic, and Tomura, calling it his greatest performance as Lemillion closes in.

Final Performance is chapter 294 and runs seventeen pages, published December 14, 2020 in issue 2 of 2021. Volume 30 collects it under the Paranormal Liberation War arc.

The cover assembles nine heroes: Crust, Eraser Head, Mirko, Manual, Rock Lock, Gran Torino, Ryukyu, Present Mic, and Hawks. The anime splits it between Episode 125 for pages one through eight and Episode 126 from page eight on. Horikoshi's author comment is a thank-you to Chainsaw Man, calling it fresh and revolutionary every week.