Chapter 82

What a Twist! (転転転!) is the eighty-second chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Inside the facility at the time of Mandalay's telepathic notice, Eijiro Kirishima and Mina Ashido ask Vlad King to allow them to fight in order to help Katsuki Bakugo. However, Vlad King prevents the students in the building from fighting because although Shota Aizawa's order allowed them to fight, his order was meant to allow the students to defend themselves. Dabi approaches the facility and blows down the door with flames; Vlad King saves Eijiro and Mina from the impact of the flames. Vlad King takes action and smashes the Dabi clone into the wall. Unable to escape or fight back due to Vlad King restraining his body with Blood Manipulation, the Dabi clone explains another goal of the Vanguard Action Squad besides capturing Katsuki. The Dabi clone states that while society could forgive U.A. for the attack on the USJ, society will not be so forgiving when another attack happens again. The Dabi clone explains that the Vanguard Action Squad's attack at the training camp and the capture of Katsuki will cause society to criticize U.A. for its sloppy management as well as blame U.A. for letting another attack happen again, which will hurt U.A.'s reputation and slowly sever society's trust in Heroes. Suddenly, Shota appears and defeats the Dabi clone, causing the clone to extinguish. Shota hands Kota Izumi's safety over to Vlad King. Shota notes that the villains are using clones to keep the Pro Heroes occupied due to their lack of numbers; the students of Class 1-A wish to fight since there are a small number of villains. Shota refuses their action and orders them to stay with Vlad King since they do not have enough information on the villains' mission, deciding that the safety of all students is top priority; he goes back outside and heads to the frontlines.

Back in the present at the Vanguard Action Squad's rendezvous point, Dabi asks Mr. Compress to dodge and launches his flames. Mr. Compress uses his Quirk to compress himself to avoid the attack; Shoto Todoroki is able to dodge Dabi's flames, but Izuku Midoriya and Mezo Shoji are not able to, causing their right and left arms, respectively, to be hit by the flames. In an instant, Twice appears behind Shoto and attacks him, only for Shoto to block Twice's attack with his ice which sends Twice reeling. Himiko Toga also decides to fight and attacks Izuku, telling him her name and thinks that he should bleed more. Mezo smacks Himiko off Izuku while Shoto deals with Twice. Mr. Compress deactivates his Quirk and approaches Dabi, preparing to give the captured Fumikage Tokoyami and Katsuki to him. However, he searches his pocket and is unable to find the marbles containing the targets; Mezo reveals that he took the marbles from Mr. Compress immediately after they landed on the ground.

Suddenly, the Vanguard Action Squad's Nomu appears as well as Kurogiri who has arrived to teleport them away. Himiko, Twice, and the Nomu go into Kurogiri's Warp Gate and successfully teleport away. Mr. Compress reveals that the marbles Mezo took are not the captured targets and are decoys instead; the marbles Mezo took transformed into ice, which shocks Mezo. Mr. Compress removes his mask and sticks out his tongue which has the actual marbles; the magician puts his mask back on while explaining that he wanted to give the young Heroes a sense of false hope and is satisfied by it as well as his flaunting which he considers a bad habit. Mr. Compress slowly enters Kurogiri's portal after bidding farewell. Having overheard what is happening, Yuga Aoyama takes action and fires his Navel Laser at Mr. Compress's face, which breaks Compress's mask and causes him to spit out the marbles containing Fumikage and Katsuki. Izuku, Mezo, and Shoto rush to grab the marbles, although Izuku starts succumbing to his injuries and falls to the ground. Mezo and Shoto continue rushing towards the marbles; Mezo grabs the marble containing Fumikage, thus saving him. Shoto is almost in reach of the marble containing Katsuki and nearly grabs it, but Dabi snatches it away before Shoto can grab it.

With Katsuki in his grasp, Dabi orders Mr. Compress to deactivate his Quirk; he does so which frees Fumikage and Katsuki from their marble prisons. Dabi and Mr. Compress begin teleporting away along with Katsuki. As the teleportation is nearing completion, Izuku gets up and desperately tries to stop Dabi from taking Katsuki but to no avail. Before teleporting with the villains, Katsuki tells Izuku to stay away. Dabi, Mr. Compress, and the captured Katsuki successfully teleport away.

The Vanguard Action Squad has disappeared from the battlefield along with Katsuki. Izuku howls in grief due to being unable to save Katsuki.