Chapter 306

All Might is still listening in on Izuku's conversation with the predecessors when Hawks and Best Jeanist reach him. He tells them the boy will wake soon and steps away to talk while classmates look in. Hawks presses him on what links One For All to Izuku: retired heroes caught the name during the battle, passed it to the media, and it is spreading, and Endeavor has told him Tomura Shigaraki was hunting the boy.

He wants the truth before matters worsen, since the job now means fighting villains and the public's expectations at once. All Might accepts that the secret can no longer hold back a panic and takes them somewhere to explain everything. At U.A., Principal Nezu processes a request for government assistance.

Three days later, with the country still uneasy, Best Jeanist, Hawks, and Endeavor face the press. Endeavor confirms the whole of what Dabi broadcast about himself and his family, and reactions split. Hawks clarifies for the confused room that Best Jeanist's death was staged to plant him inside the League of Villains, and that everything else stands. He apologizes for hiding his father's criminal record and says killing Twice was the only option, since an unchecked Double would have been catastrophic, admitting shame at failing to stop him any other way.

A reporter confronts them over a mother severely hurt in Gigantomachia's rampage and the homes and lives lost, accusing them of neither easing the panic nor owning the outcome. Endeavor answers that owning it is the only atonement available to him. Best Jeanist adds that with resignations thinning their numbers, protection has grown harder, so a plan is underway: U.A. and other hero programs will convert their campuses into shelters, and the students' parents are already moving in. Asked what good warehousing people with no way forward does, Endeavor says the uncertainty is exactly why it must happen, that the public's worry belongs pointed at him, and closes with "Just watch me."

Heroes keep quitting, yet plenty stay standing and ready, while Dabi laughs that he did not push far enough. The press then ask what One For All is, and Endeavor simply says he does not know, shielding Izuku and All Might.

At Heights Alliance, every member of Class 1-A finds a personal letter from Izuku laying out the truth of One For All, the fact that Tomura and All For One both want him, and his decision to go. His classmates are bewildered, and Ochaco sits uneasy, wondering whether heroes need saving as badly as anyone else. Come April, in a city with no name, Izuku stands alone with braces on his arms and Gran Torino's scarf at his neck, and notices a large villain attacking without much feeling about it.

Before leaving, Hawks and Best Jeanist question All Might about One For All after Tomura's pursuit of Izuku and the pro heroes' loose talk, and All Might tells them everything. The three of them hold a press conference in which Endeavor and Hawks confirm their pasts and Hawks apologizes for killing Twice, calling it the only way to stop worse destruction. Best Jeanist's plan shrinks the area heroes must cover by turning government facilities, U.A. included, into evacuation shelters, and Endeavor argues the imperfect measure is what a clear path forward requires. Izuku leaves U.A., writing to every classmate to reveal One For All, his tie to All Might, and the fact that Tomura and All For One are on his trail.

Nineteen pages, published March 22, 2021, in issue 16 and collected in Volume 31 as the close of the Paranormal Liberation War arc, adapted in Episode 131. Kamui Woods' hair gets its first look here, as does everything below Best Jeanist's nose. Izuku's final lines echo his opening lines from Chapter 1 in a far grimmer register, and his closing pose recalls Batman surveying Gotham City.