Chapter 331

Cathleen Bate slips the explosion, startled by the villain's sudden mane of hair and wondering what has come over him. Tomura, meanwhile, is pleased with himself for cracking New Order. He reflects on how tightly the American government polices the Quirk, and how its basic loop of touch, name, and decree is by itself enough to redraw what a Quirk can be.

The exchange has exposed limits, though. Nothing seems to cap how thoroughly a rule can cripple a target, but powering up a living body has a ceiling, or one punch would have ended him, and he imagines a dial she can set at will. Since she never simply declared that touching the air would kill him, either a rule cannot arbitrarily reach things she has not touched, or it lands weakly when it tries.

The real value, he concludes, sits with nonliving things, and the reason lies in the naming. Both sides must share the same understanding of the name spoken. Calling his own name did nothing, because he can no longer say which name is his. Tomura Shigaraki, All For One, Tenko Shimura, not one of them settles. An object has no sense of self, so her one-sided understanding is all the rule needs. He starts running through the ranges and limits New Order might reach, and it grows harder to resist by the second.

The fleet asks for the next move, and she reluctantly sends word to Commander Timothy Agpar, explaining that this villain has outgrown Japan and become a problem for the whole planet, so they will reach for the options Japan never had and kill him here. Ethan Drive thinks back to meeting her the first time and resolves to follow her wherever this goes. The pilot beneath Tomura shakes him loose, dropping him back onto the flying Nomu, and Star and Stripe reshapes the air into a version of herself a thousand times her size, driving Fist Bump to the Earth through him and the Nomu and then clapping them further away. Chipping at him is pointless; only total erasure will do.

He survives even that, so she has the fleet fire at her, folds every laser into a single beam with New Order, and pours the merged beam through him without pause as Keraunos, her united hyper-max output laser. Asked whether it will burn him to nothing, she says it merely pins him, because Endeavor would have finished the job if that much were sufficient. Agpar calls to warn that this stunt could cost her far more than her hero license, and she accepts that. The strike is inbound and Japan has been notified. Her disregard for the rules, he tells her, is exactly what made their nation shine brightest, and if All Might could not end this villain then she will surpass him. He calls her Cassie. Racing toward them is Tiamat, a flight of newly built hypersonic cruise missiles able to cross continents.

Tomura reasons out the mechanics of New Order and concludes that a rule cannot arbitrarily involve targets she has never touched.

He also works out why the Quirk bites hardest on objects. An inanimate target needs only her one-sided understanding of its name, whereas a living one has to recognize itself by that name, and he no longer recognizes any of his.

With her opening plan spent, Star and Stripe switches to raw force. Fist Bump to the Earth lands, Keraunos holds him in place, and she calls in the American Tiamat missile fleet to erase him.

Agpar addresses her as Cassie, the first time her given name reaches the page.

Part of the Star and Stripe arc, the chapter runs seventeen pages in Volume 34, published November 1, 2021 in issue 48, and is adapted in Episode 139. Timothy Agpar debuts here, and Star and Stripe shares the cover with Tomura Shigaraki.

Both the name and the look of Commander Agpar point straight at Admiral Ackbar of Star Wars.

Japanese airspace is the only setting, with New Order the featured Quirk, two super moves on display, and Tiamat the featured item. Kohei Horikoshi's author comment recounts five days of carsickness that turned out to have nothing to do with cars.