Chapter 418

Izuku watches Tenko weep over Mon and recognizes the feeling from their fight at the hospital, then sees Decay bloom and the dog fall apart. Hana appears. Izuku knows what comes next and knows it is the heart of everything, so as Hana screams and Tenko reaches for her, a child-sized Izuku steps between them and seizes the boy's hands. His arm starts crumbling. Because memory takes physical form here, he pictures himself holding on and pictures his hands intact, and keeps them.

Tenko asks why. Because he saw him crying, Izuku manages, thinking that One For All has already been thrown at him whole and that the only piece left is himself. Tenko insists it is all wrong, that he chose this, that destroying his house and family was his own decision, because otherwise what were his hands for and who else would ever say his existence mattered. A tide of Tenko's feeling slams into Izuku and shoves him away, and he holds on regardless, reading hatred and relief tangled up with grief and confusion, feeling Tenko teetering at the edge.

Tenko screams at him to let go while memories of being cast off rush past, Izuku's own thoughts about the vestiges rushing past in turn. The wall of hatred finally cracks enough for Izuku to say that having someone else grab his hand is what gave him peace, remembering Tenya catching him from behind when he went rogue, and that this is why he came. Tenko lets go. Izuku survives with his arms decayed to nothing.

Tenko remembers his friends Mikkun and Tomo, back at the park, telling him he ought to be All Might. Then he tells Izuku what he is: a villain, fighting in evil's name to destroy, the League of Villains rising as visions beside him. Turning back into Tomura, he says that stamping out his hatred changes nothing, that even hollowed out he will serve, because villains need a hero too. Around the world, viewers of the broadcast side with him and call for Izuku's death and for it all to come down, while the Counter-Force reports the fingers collapsing with no sign of Izuku.

Then a memory neither of them owns intrudes: Kotaro at his door with a man from Koga Construction, the two chatting easily, the visitor recommending a doctor. Another follows, the pair out drinking, the man asking after Kotaro's son's Quirk and hearing that nothing has shown yet. Izuku knows this is not Tenko's memory either, and both of them are still asking who the man is when a monstrous All For One vestige surges back and swallows Tomura whole, laughing at his foolish vessel for being out-willed by an absolute nobody, jeering that he chased strength while staying weak, and telling him not one choice in his life was ever his.

Izuku sees Decay manifest in Tenko and kill Mon, then intervenes before Hana can suffer the same fate.

Tenko comes apart under his own feelings while Izuku barely holds together, refusing to release him.

Tenko relents. Izuku lives, but his arms are gone.

Reverting to Tomura, he admits that whatever happens he intends to be the villains' hero, the League on his mind.

Both of them witness memories neither owns, in which a stranger discusses Tenko with his father.

A monstrous All For One vestige returns and swallows Tomura.

"From Midoriya to Shimura" runs fifteen pages, published in issue 18 of 2024 on April 1 and collected in volume 41 within the Final War arc. Episode 166 adapts it. Izuku Midoriya and Tenko Shimura appear on the cover, and One For All, Decay and All For One are the Quirks featured.

The chapter originally shared its title with Chapter 383, "Meek Spirits", and was renamed for the volume 41 release. A continuity slip has Izuku locate Tenko's crying in Gunga when it actually happened in Jaku. Kohei Horikoshi used the author's comment to pay tribute to Akira Toriyama, calling his time judging the Tezuka Award alongside him a memory he will treasure for life.