Chapter 59

Class 1-A files into the locker rooms after Foundational Hero Studies. Izuku puzzles over what had All Might so serious while Minoru turns up a gap in the wall and shares his plans for it. Tenya objects, Minoru looks anyway, and Kyoka's earphone plug goes straight into his eye. On the other side, Momo, Toru, and Mina thank her for the intervention, and Kyoka privately smarts that her name never came up.

Changed into his uniform, Izuku meets All Might in the break room and is told to lock the door. All Might apologizes for having been absent through the Hosu Incident, which Izuku waves off, then raises the problem: the Hero Killer ingested Izuku's blood, and One For All passes that way. Izuku panics before the limit is explained. The Quirk only moves when its holder wills it, so it cannot be stolen, though it can be forced onto someone. Then the history begins.

When Quirks first appeared, society had no framework for them and an age of upheaval followed. One man carried a Quirk named All For One, able to strip powers from others and parcel them out at will. He hoarded what he took, gathered people beneath him as pawns, took Japan for himself, and ruled it as a tyrant. Izuku has heard the rumors, he says, but nothing like this turns up in any textbook, and All Might notes that underground dealings never make it into textbooks. Recipients who could not bear a granted Quirk ended up brain-dead like the Nomu, while some survivors saw their Quirks mutate. That is where One For All started. A younger brother, born without a Quirk, had a power-stockpiling Quirk forced on him by the tyrant, who did not know the boy already carried one that transfers itself to others. The two merged.

The irony lands on All Might: justice grew out of evil's own bowels. Izuku objects that a man from that era could not still be alive, and All Might suspects a stolen Quirk that halted his aging or granted outright immortality. The younger brother could not beat his sibling, so he passed the merged Quirk down, trusting that generations of accumulation would eventually produce the strength to finish All For One. All Might believed he was that successor. Instead the man has returned and now leads the League of Villains, which means Izuku will have to face him too. All Might apologizes for the load. Izuku promises to accomplish whatever is asked as long as All Might stands beside him, and All Might, unable to say that he probably will not be there, only thanks him.

In class, Shota Aizawa announces a forest lodge over summer break and warns that anyone failing the end-of-term test gets stuck in remedial classes. Somewhere else, a man notes Stain's capture with surprise and satisfaction both, since events still track his design. Tomura's assignment is to oversee and bind together the villains now flocking to the League. His doctor doubts the boy is up to it and suggests things would move faster with direct involvement; the man only asks to be patched up quicker. He is Tomura's master, the holder of All For One, and he means to let the boy do the hard work and earn the succession he was born for. All Might, he says, should enjoy this transient peace while it lasts.

All Might explains that One For All cannot be taken by force because it transfers only at its holder's wish, though it can be forced onto an unwilling recipient.

Both Quirks get their origin story, One For All and the older power it grew out of, along with All Might's conclusion that All For One survives and leads the League of Villains. Eraser Head announces a forest training camp over summer break, and All For One discusses his plans for Tomura with his doctor.

Nineteen pages, issue 43 of 2015, published September 21 and collected in volume seven, with Kyoka Jiro on the cover.

All For One and Daruma Ujiko both debut. Earphone Jack and Invisibility appear directly, while Quirk Bestowal, Power Stock, and Life Force come up only through All Might's account. Episode 33 adapts the chapter. Horikoshi's comment notes he bought a BB-8 droid but owns a smartphone too old to play with it.