Chapter 317

Scars, Blood, Filth (、、) is the three hundred and seventeenth chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Despite the mansion’s explosion, all the Heroes were able to come out unscathed. Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and the Lurkers meet privately in a warehouse as Edgeshot asks if they can get any more information out of Lady Nagant. Hawks doesn’t think so, saying that she is currently being treated at Central Hospital, and can’t believe she is still alive considering how severe her injuries are. Kamui Woods says that even when someone is overwhelmed by disappointment and despair, they will still fight to stay alive.

Edgeshot brings up the idea of all of them banding together the other heroes and share One For All’s secret so they can create a larger network of investigations. Mt. Lady adds that following this incident with Lady Nagant, the brunt of investigating the League is falling all on Izuku, and with the police dealing with their own problems and there being zero witnesses regarding the League, they should gather as many allies as they can while they still can. Endeavor, however, reminds Mt. Lady that Death Arms retired two days ago. As it turns out, Death Arms chose to retire because despite keeping up the fight, he had gotten nothing but criticism and doubt, and even though there are people who believed in him, one negative comment hurts more than ten positive comments. He confesses that he thought he was different, but he has come to accept the truth: he isn’t a hero, he is just human.

Best Jeanist also adds that Death Arms took the lead during the war exposing the spies of the Paranormal Liberation Front, and with his grit, he believed he could still fight until the end, but as they can see, heroes are quitting one-by-one and the last threads holding them together are starting to tear. Endeavor also adds that the retired heroes are leaking information regarding One For All, and the public are getting close to uncovering the truth about Deku. Endeavor says that if the public finds out about One For All’s nature, Deku will be caught in a cycle of negativity. Hawks adds that they can theorize doomsday all day, but it is here now.

Mt. Lady says that she wonders why All For One hasn’t revealed One For All himself to the public, which Endeavor responds that if he did that, they would do everything they can to keep Deku hidden, so that is the reason why he hasn’t done that. However, he admits they don’t have any clues unless they and Deku move, and all of them come to face the reality that there aren’t enough police forces and heroes to handle it all.

After a moment of silence, Endeavor’s phone rings, and he sees a text from Shoto asking him to pick up. He remembers Shoto telling him to let them work together to stop Dabi and he silently apologizes, saying that he needs to wait a while longer. Hawks then gets a notification from All Might and learns that Deku was attacked by another assassin, but he has immediately taken him down.

At the scene, Deku immediately tells All Might that he knew nothing and to be careful in case he is rigged to explode. All Might yells to Deku to stop so he can give him some more food, but Deku tells All Might that he doesn’t need to follow him anymore, saying that he is fine on his own now. All Might tries to speak but Deku claims he can practically move at 100% without injury just like he could, so he shouldn’t worry about him. All Might realizes he doesn’t want him involved in his mission out of concern for his safety, and as much as he wants to protect him, he understands more than anyone the weight of the responsibility he is carrying. He wants to tell him to rest, but he can’t as Deku leaves, and All Might trips as he tries to reach out to him. Unbeknownst to him, Stain overhears their conversation from the shadows.

As Deku continues alone, people start talking about him. Some of them notice his many Quirks and fear he is a Nomu of some kind, but others see he is helping others. Some, however, say he doesn’t look like a hero at all.

Chapter Notes

 * It is revealed The Lurkers know the truth about One For All.
 * They suggest revealing the truth to the rest of the Heroes, but decide against it so as not to put more of a burden on Izuku.
 * Death Arms is revealed to be one of the Heroes who recently retired, unable to handle all the stress and criticism.
 * Shoto tries to contact Endeavor but is ignored.
 * Izuku swiftly defeats the second assassin with ease.
 * Izuku leaves behind All Might, as rumors start to spread about Izuku's new "heroic" persona.
 * Stain secretly spies on the two.

Trivia

 * The panel where Death Arms walks away may be a reference to a similar panel in The Amazing Spider-Man #51, better known as Spider-Man No More.