Chapter 297

Tartarus (タルタロス) is the two hundred and ninety-seventh chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
During the night, at the mainland gate of Tartarus prison, which separates the bridge and the facility itself, its guards, Briareos and Gyges, are attacked by the All For One controlled Tomura Shigaraki and his Near High-End Nomus, with Briareos being killed and Gyges calling for a code red.

Inside the facility, two guards on the lowest level are discussing Gigantomachia's eventual arrival for the following day. They talk about how he can’t be killed by guns, and because he’s technically human, there’s still some ethics for them to follow about blasting him with missiles. One of the guards scoffs at the thought, saying how just like the rest of the inmates in the prison, they are all just dangerous beasts that only this Quirk-based society has allowed to live for this long; the other guard reminds him that they’re being recorded and that even the dissolved Hearts and Mind Party could use this to their advantage, but the guard doesn’t care.

As the code red reaches the prison, they realize it to be Tomura and the Nomu, so quickly lower the gate and send drones to attack the Nomu. All For One flies over the chaos on a flying Nomu, when Tomura wakes up, attempting to take back control of his body. All For One tells him to rest, due to the Hyper-Regenration Quirk still needing time to heal the body, but Tomura rebukes asking why he’s using it now in the first place. All For One reminds him that this power is exactly what he wanted, and after Tomura says he doesn’t want to be his pawn, All For One responds that he’ll be “the next me”.

All For One/Tomura uses Decay to destroy the guard tower, escaping from the attacking robots. He uses Search to find his body located 500 metres below sea level, realizing that even if he decayed the entire building, the water pressure would kill him, not to mention seeing that Tomura’s body is starting to fall apart faster. He thinks about how even if he had Gigantomachia with him, and if the body was complete, it would barely be of any help due to the amount of resources Tartarus has on hand. He figures the best and only way is for a coordinated operation, both inside and out, accomplished through a shared awareness.

Inside the prison, the monitoring system is shut down by an EMP attack, and before the system returns, All For One’s original body utilizes another attack within his cell, frying his cell door and unlocking nearly all the others on the floor. Suppression squads immediately head out to deal with the incoming threats, but are easily taken out by the now freed Muscular and Moonfish. An electric-based woman opens up a still locked door, containing Overhaul, who quickly runs out calling for his boss.

The villains relent that even though they’re free, without the bridge they have no way of escaping, when All For One, both in his original body and Tomura's appears before them, telling them to submit if they desire freedom, and that this will be the story of how he will become the greatest demon lord of all.

Chapter Notes

 * The Near High-Ends and Tomura (with All For One's conscience) storm Tartarus by the order of All For One, who is planning to take over Tomura's body. As a response, the Tartarus staff engage in combat.
 * At the same, Tomura and All For One mentally fight for the control of the former's body.
 * Tartarus is hit by a sudden EMP attack, shutting down the facility's security and opening most of the cell doors. The inmates use this opportunity to escape and attack the guards. Among the freed include Muscular, Moonfish, and Overhaul.
 * Tartarus also contains cells that have to be manually opened, which is the type of cell Overhaul was placed in.
 * All For One, along with several other inmates, meet up with Tomura outside of the prison. All For One then persuades the newly-escaped convicts to submit to him and him join him on his path to become the "greatest demon lord of them all".

Characters In Order of Appearance

 * Gyges
 * Briareos (Death)
 * Tomura Shigaraki
 * Gigantomachia
 * Muscular
 * Moonfish
 * Overhaul
 * Stain
 * Kurogiri
 * All For One
 * All Might

Trivia

 * On January 14, 2021, alongside other ongoing WSJ series, the first page was released prematurely on Viz and taken down soon after.
 * Gyges and Briareos are in reference to the brothers of the same name in Greek mythology that acted as the guardians at the gates of Tartarus.