Chapter 348

A narrator observes that for all their run-ins, it never crossed Deku's mind that Himiko Toga actually liked him, because he remains a hopeless nerd underneath everything he has become. He panics and asks what she means. She traces the feeling to their very first meeting, when he was battered and bloodied and looked just like the boy she first fell for, her expression contorting as she describes wanting to drink his blood and turn into him. He stammers something about dates and holding hands, and she corrects him: for her, being a couple means becoming the same person.

As another Nomu shockwave rips through, she puts to him the question she once put to Uravity during the War, asking him what he intends to do about her. She hides her presence and closes in, and Deku tells her he understands wanting to become someone else, since he wanted to be All Might, and he knows how good that feels. What he cannot share is her heart, or the idea of hurting the people he loves. The answer sends her mind back to her parents, to Curious, to Uravity, and her face twists all over again.

He and Uravity are identical to her parents, she decides. To them only heroes and the people heroes protect count as human, which is exactly why she and they are meant to stay apart. She charges with knives and whips. Deku evades and Uravity seizes her, saying she has thought about her constantly since that day. Himiko claims the opposite, that she is done thinking about either of them, and that a world which rejected her earns rejection in return. Whips loop in from behind, Uravity's attention splits, and Himiko drives a knife into her back, calling it sad that they both loved the same boy.

Deku snares Himiko with Blackwhip and Froppy shoves her further off. Uravity insists it is only a graze but warns that the blade carries her blood and has to be recovered. Froppy points out that sending someone this unpredictable to Okuto Island was still the correct call even though it went wrong, then tells Deku to go, since a battlefield is no place to discuss romance, and to leave Himiko to Uravity, who knows her best. Uravity tells him to handle Tomura, thinking back to the talk they had earlier. Himiko drags herself upright, muttering how hard it is to live as someone so full of love, and Uravity screams for him to run as he blasts away.

Himiko confesses her feelings to Deku, then asks him the question she once asked Uravity during the Paranormal Liberation War.

Deku says he understands the urge to become someone else but cannot accept hurting people to get there. Himiko reads this as rejection and attacks both him and Uravity.

Himiko lands a knife in Uravity's back before Deku and Froppy pull her off.

Uravity and Froppy take responsibility for Himiko so that Deku can leave the island and get back to Tomura.

Kohei Horikoshi titled this chapter Unrequited, written as Shitsuren. Thirteen pages, published March 19, 2022 in issue 16, collected into volume 35, and adapted in Episode 145.

Deku carries the cover alone. The entire chapter takes place at the Okuto Aquarium on Okuto Island.

Horikoshi's author comment claims he has stopped getting hungry and is close to evolving into a perfect life-form.