Chapter 312

A hospital conversation replays first. Hawks tells Izuku that with Kyudai Garaki and his facilities gone, Tomura Shigaraki and All For One have no way to preserve a stolen Quirk, so they need him alive. That restriction would stump most villains, he says, but not if a certain woman is involved. She was once a senior colleague of his, hunting her is his top priority, and if Izuku crosses her path the only advice on offer is to run.

In the present, the pink and dark-blue fibers in the round that destroyed his phone tell Deku who has come for him: Lady Nagant, once a Pro Hero drawing Hero Public Safety Commission pay. He runs, and the next bullet curves after him. His vanished signal will bring help, but he cannot tell anyone who is shooting. Danger Sense and Blackwhip carry him across rooftops until a shot swings around to meet him head-on. He blocks it and is wounded anyway, likening the impact to a Howitzer Shot, while she remarks that his value to her employer has become obvious.

An old broadcast fills in her record. Appearing on a program about heroes to watch, Snipe conceded that he would be Japan's finest marksman if not for Lady Nagant. His Homing Quirk reaches six hundred meters; her Rifle Quirk reaches three kilometers, backed by natural skill and the ability to shape her hair into any ammunition she likes.

Recalling that, Deku credits Danger Sense alone for keeping him alive and uses her opening shot to place her about a kilometer ahead. Rather than absorb the barrage and flee, he turns toward her. Nagant, surprised he stopped two rounds, hauls Kai Chisaki out of sight as he keeps demanding to be delivered to his boss, and privately wonders whether bringing him along was a mistake.

The contract traces back to the Tartarus break. All For One greeted her as the treacherous hero while she recalled him as an old target, told her Deku would be leaving U.A., and asked her to take him once he was separated from the other heroes. Pressed on why she rated a personal assignment, he cited the hero she supposedly killed and her own wish to see hero society collapse, a wish that dies while Deku stands. Noting Kai at her side, he asked whether they were friends; she said she was simply using his broken mind for her own ends, and All For One filed him away as another casualty of a wicked society. She agreed to the job, and he sealed the deal with Air Walk, handing her the sky.

The assassin is identified as Lady Nagant, formerly of the Hero Public Safety Commission.

Her Rifle Quirk turns her right arm into a firearm with a three-kilometer range, and she hardens her pink and purple hair into the rounds it fires.

All For One assigned her to capture Izuku and handed over Air Walk to help her do it, claiming she once killed a Pro Hero.

Hawks confirms that the Paranormal Liberation War raid took out all of Kyudai's facilities, which forces All For One to take Deku alive.

Fifteen pages, published in issue 24 of 2021 on May 17 and collected in Volume 32 during the Dark Hero arc. Hawks and Deku share the cover, and Episode 133 adapts the material.

Locations span Central Hospital, Jaku General Hospital, Tartarus, and an unnamed city.

Kohei Horikoshi's author comment credits the film Wanted for teaching him that bullets can bend, with thanks to Angie.