Chapter 424

In Washington, weather reporter Meryl Hope apologizes for forecasting a week of storms that never came, since the whole country has had nothing but sun. Strong winds are due, she says, the gust from that day having followed a tremendous battle, and she promises updates on what it will bring.

A week has gone by since the Final War ended, and the rebuilding that the Jaku Hospital Raid had stalled is running again at furious speed, with heroes arriving from America and elsewhere carrying supplies and manpower for rescue and reconstruction. Big Red Dot's line to a reporter is that nobody could watch a fight like that and then sit on their hands, while Mr. Uraraka mentions that the survey bureau has sent through the plans so building can start. Work on this scale would once have taken a decade, they note, but with this many Quirks pulling together, normality should not be far off.

At Central Hospital, a doctor sits Katsuki and his parents down and says his body will not return to what it was. His right arm is stitched shut and surgery has taken it as far as it goes; countless bone fragments had to be pieced back together, and no promise can be made that rehabilitation will restore its use. Prosthetics like Mirko's are suggested so he can keep working as a hero, and Katsuki refuses, since Explosion comes out of his palms, and he thinks of someone who never had a Quirk at all. He demands the rehab anyway, and the doctor allows only light exercise, adding that without Edgeshot stitching him up and restarting his heart he would be dead, that nobody understands how he kept fighting or why he crossed all those kilometers afterward, and that a man handed a second life and answering the call should rest for now.

Izuku and All Might are recovering in a shared room, an arrangement All Might credits to Naomasa, since one room is simpler to guard. Asked how he is holding up, All Might says nobody has ever needed that many bolts to be put back together, and Izuku reports feeling in his arms again. He turns to what he could not do: even after reaching into Tenko's heart and breaking his hatred, the man stayed the League of Villains' leader to the last, and his life was not saved. All Might asks what his face looked like at the end. After Izuku told him it had already been destroyed, Tomura answered that it depended on what they did tomorrow, and told him to do his damn best, smiling for real. If what he saw was not a crying boy, All Might says, then the soul was saved, and Izuku did his duty by One For All.

Asked whether the power moved on, since he felt it happen, Izuku says a few embers are still in him, at which point Katsuki barges in with his parents shouting at him for being out of bed. Izuku is glad to see him, but the word embers confuses Katsuki, and it lands: Izuku will be Quirkless again. He confirms it, adding that he started out that way and is not too torn up, because his brief stretch with the power showed him a glimpse of his impossible dream. Katsuki, to his shock, starts crying, wrecked over how he has treated him and over losing the rival he expected to keep chasing. Izuku talks him down, points out the embers are still there, and wonders whether all the injuries have left him this raw.

All Might tells them both how strong they have grown and how far they are from the boys he met. On the day he first ran out, Izuku was already a hero, he says, and now, urging a whole world back onto its feet, he has become one for everybody. He thanks Katsuki for giving him the chance to say it, and thanks the pair of them properly. As they smile through tears, Shoto is shown in recovery, a tray of removed scales sits nearby, and Ochaco looks out over the city with a hand at her chest. Izuku reflects that as a boy he assumed winning the big fight would simply restore peace, and knows their story cannot close that way; the fight may be over, but until they can carry the world toward a bright future, they go further beyond. Later, scarred and with part of his head shaved, he rejoins his class on the way back to U.A.

The week after the Final War is surveyed, with clear skies and heavy winds nationwide thanks to Izuku's last punch.

Heroes from abroad pitch in on the restoration and rebuilding effort.

Katsuki, recovering at Central Hospital, learns his right arm will never function again.

Sharing a room with All Might, Izuku reflects on failing to save Tenko's life and recalls Tomura's parting words.

Katsuki learns only embers of the power remain in Izuku and breaks down over his coming return to Quirklessness.

All Might lifts them both by calling them great heroes.

Shoto and Ochaco are seen recovering, alongside a tray of scales.

Later, Izuku returns to U.A. with his classmates, scarred and partly shaven.

"Epilogue" runs fifteen pages, published in issue 27 of 2024 on June 3 and collected in volume 42 within the Final War arc. Episode 168 adapts it. Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Ida and Denki Kaminari appear on the cover.

Koichi Haimawari, the lead of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, cameos as The Skycrawler among the American pro heroes helping with the restoration. Kohei Horikoshi's author's comment concedes that endings should usually be quick, but says this is not a series that can simply stop once the villain falls, so it will run a while longer.