Chapter 428

The first years apologize for swarming Shoto and Katsuki, insisting the pair inspired them, while Tenya scolds the crowd and the two objects of attention hide behind him, still healing and still human. Hitoshi expected Katsuki to eat up the adulation, but Hanta points out that a mob that size rattles anyone, and Izuku notes that girls have historically kept their distance from Katsuki, so this is uncharted territory. Denki and Minoru take the popularity personally. Before the younger students go, one tells Izuku that watching him fight made them feel obligated to act themselves, a compliment that lands badly, because Spinner's face surfaces in his mind alongside a familiar ache. Eijiro shrugs off the excitement as fair given what the class went through, and Ochaco listens to all of it with a blank expression and a sting under her ribs. Present Mic, back in the staff room, relays fresh interview requests, Eraser Head refuses, and when Ectoplasm argues some students would enjoy it, Eraser answers that the ones who would not come first.

Class A ships out to a city on reconstruction duty, tearing down and rebuilding a block alongside Fat Gum, Suneater, and Best Jeanist. Katsuki spots Edgeshot there too, still a thread but recovered enough to sprout small hands, and asks whether he will ever be whole. Edgeshot answers that he set out to seize the day and win, which is enough to make Katsuki smile.

Locals feed the students at midday. One man mentions the property the battle erased, waves off Izuku's apology, and explains that watching them fight shamed the town out of moping and into helping. Another bus pulls up and Cementoss unloads the first years, who demanded the chance to apologize properly and now want to pitch in because their upperclassmen bled for them. They get small jobs, and a resident observes that one honest effort begets the next. Izuku and Tsuyu look to Ochaco, who says things are turning around bit by bit and bounces off to enjoy an onigiri, and both of them can see straight through the performance.

With dormitory rules relaxed, students who want to go home can. Tsuyu reveals Ochaco went, and that her texts are going unanswered. Ochaco has instead returned to the mountainside facing Troy to look at cities that already read as normal. She thinks about the camera that recorded her fight during the Final War and died precisely as the Doubles faded, leaving no footage of how it ended. Unlike every previous crisis, this one is genuinely finished, and she is glad the world has turned toward the future, glad everyone is smiling again. Himiko Toga's crying face arrives anyway, and the tears come with it, and she is still trying to lock the pain away when Izuku calls out that he has found her.

Tenya scolds the first years for mobbing Katsuki and Shoto, and one of them praises Izuku in a way that recalls Spinner and leaves him unsettled. Class A joins several Pro Heroes rebuilding a city block nearby, where Edgeshot is shown regaining ground, his thread form now growing small arms. The first years return to apologize again and to work alongside everyone.

The cameras covering Ochaco's battle with Himiko are revealed to have failed just before its conclusion, so no record of the ending exists. Ochaco travels to the Troy mountainside, breaks down over Himiko's death, and Izuku finds her there.

The 428th chapter belongs to the Epilogue arc, printed July 22, 2024 in issue 34 at 15 pages and expanded to 17 for the volume 42 collection. Its cover features Tenya, Shoto, Katsuki, Hitoshi, Kyoka, and Hanta. Episode 169 adapts the material.

The title points at Ochaco, whose stated reason for becoming a hero was her love of seeing people smile, a motive the chapter turns against her. Horikoshi's author comment plugs the My Hero movie opening on August 2.