Chapter 393

Back when the League of Villains was still in hiding, Twice floated the idea of giving Himiko a Villain name, with Mr. Compress and Spinner noting that only she and Tomura lack one. She turns it down. Spinner pitches Vampiress Carmilla, Twice offers Suck-Suck and Lickitung, and Dabi dismisses the custom as a leftover from before Quirk registration. Tomura lays out the theory: heroes and villains were once indistinguishable, and aliases began as labels for anonymous enemies, later adopted as cover, and finally embraced wholesale from comic books until the world started resembling one. He passes on a name himself, though he grants they can look cool. Himiko celebrates, since living as Himiko Toga is exactly why she joined.

In the present she rails at Uravity for pitying her. Ochaco denies it and floats her away with Zero Gravity. Himiko counters that whatever gets said, the ending is a death-row cell or an execution like the one Twice got, and there is no exit from a fight for survival. Ochaco allows that this may be true of them both, which Himiko reads as ego rather than pity, and if egos are what collide, hers loses. She answers with Sad Man's Legion, pushing her Doubles to their limit until heroes, villains and Nomu alike vanish beneath them and the neighboring city is flattened. On air, a reporter connects it to the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory, Quirks growing past control, and sees one girl's emotions reshaping the world.

Gunhead Martial Arts turns the incoming wave into floating bodies. Himiko mocks the result, and Ochaco insists her Quirk was never meant to hurt anyone. Ochaco concedes the ego charge, since Himiko has killed on purpose and no slate gets wiped, yet her face still convinces Ochaco there was a reason, and she remembers how sad that face looked during the Paranormal Liberation War. Himiko snaps that the sad one was her. Both of them were, Ochaco says. What frightened her at their first meeting was not understanding how such a genuine grin was possible. Himiko tells her to die quietly, while Twice's blessing to live as herself and drop whoever she wants runs alongside old jeers about her creepy smile.

Ochaco admits to having pushed her away before, and grants this is no place for Himiko to be herself, but she has seen too many happy faces to pretend, and someone who can declare her love with her whole face leaves her jealous of that perfect smile. Himiko is crying when Ochaco's hand touches the swarm and it bursts open, Doubles and heroes drifting upward together. Earphone Jack realizes the Quirk has spread body to body through everything in contact. Ochaco closes in, promising she can neither erase nor bless what Himiko has done, but if she still wants to talk, there is a lifetime of blood waiting, and she would like to talk about romance.

A flashback shows the League offering Himiko a Villain name, which she rejects in favor of living as herself.

Tomura explains the theory that hero and villain aliases grew from names given to anonymous enemies and hardened into comic-book codenames.

Himiko unleashes Sad Man's Legion, flooding the battlefield and a nearby city with Doubles at maximum output.

Uravity declares herself jealous of Himiko's smile rather than pitying her.

Zero Gravity undergoes an Awakening, spreading through every body in the swarm and holding them all in mid-air.

Chapter 393 of My Hero Academia, by Kohei Horikoshi, arrived July 10, 2023 in issue 32 at seventeen pages, sits in Volume 39, and is adapted in Episode 158.

Spinner's Vampiress Carmilla suggestion nods to the vampire of Carmilla, the novella widely cited as the definitive lesbian vampire story, while Twice's Lickitung is a Pokemon reference.