Chapter 319

Days after Izuku walked away from U.A., his classmates work out that he must be riding with Endeavor's team. Tenya asks the students with outside mentors, Katsuki, Shoto, and Fumikage, to press their contacts, but every line goes quiet, which only sharpens the suspicion that something is being hidden. Kyoka points out that All Might has not come back either, and Mashirao notes the rough situation for digging: lessons are frozen, nobody has moved up to second year, and the hero course is parked on standby doing security.

Katsuki assembles the pieces. Best Jeanist and Hawks were visiting Izuku's hospital room, All Might was almost certainly there too, and Izuku is far too frightened of coming back to have written those farewell letters himself. That leaves All Might as the author, which means the pair are operating as a set. Yuga finds that reassuring and Denki cites reports naming only the top three heroes, yet Katsuki insists that nobody knows those two like he does, and this pairing is the worst outcome available.

Eijiro wants a way to reach them and Ochaco proposes leaning on Endeavor through his old school. Nezu duly summons the number one hero, who walks into the principal's office to find all of Class 1-A waiting. Shoto asks why his father has been stonewalling him and whether the promise about Toya still stands, then challenges the idea that Izuku deserves an exception. Endeavor's silence confirms Katsuki's theory. Katsuki argues that Izuku has always been reckless in the same way All Might was, erasing himself from his own calculations while insisting he is fine, and the two of them cannot be left together.

Endeavor hands over his phone with Izuku's position marked. Classmates from Koji to Hanta admit their bond is only school deep and say they want in anyway. Tenya declares that Class 1-A will follow Izuku wherever the path leads, because whatever One For All demands, he is their friend and he will not walk it alone. Nezu adds that Izuku can return, since acceptance letters made these students people the school protects, and explains that evacuation sites were chosen with more than geography in mind while the U.A. Barrier has been reinforced since the Culture Festival.

Returning to the present, the remaining classmates secure Dictator and free the controlled civilians. Deku insists he is fine and orders them away. Katsuki mockingly welcomes the news, then asks whether he is still smiling. Deku answers that moving forward is the only way anyone gets to smile, and demands they clear out, earning a taunt about being an All Might wannabe. Ingenium concludes that words will not turn him, so the class braces to fight their own friend.

U.A. has suspended classes and graduation, with hero students on standby or handling security.

Backed by Nezu, Class 1-A corner Endeavor and confirm that All Might and Izuku are both riding with the top heroes, then win permission to go after him. Nezu prepares the U.A. Barrier originally installed for the Cultural Festival.

The class captures Dictator in Kamino.

When Izuku refuses to hear them out, his classmates prepare to take him on.

Eighteen pages long, the chapter appeared in issue 32 of 2021 and opens Volume 33, with the cover spotlighting Tenya, Ochaco, Shoto, Fumikage, and Katsuki. Episode 135 adapts it.

The story jumps between Heights Alliance and the principal's office in flashback and Ground Zero in the present, putting Creation, Blackwhip, Earphone Jack, Half-Cold Half-Hot, and Dark Shadow on the page, plus Shoto's Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall and Katsuki's Grenadier Bracers.

Horikoshi's author comment mentions how much Final Fantasy IX shaped him and his hopes for its anime adaptation.