Chapter 331

United States of America (アメリカ) is the three hundred and thirty-first chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Star and Stripe manages to evade “Tomura Shigaraki”’s explosion, surprised by his sudden hair growth and wondering what’s up with him. “Tomura” gleefully states to himself that he’s figured out how exactly New Order works. He thinks about how the government strictly oversees the Quirk, and the base functions of it, touching a target, saying its name, and assigning a rule of her choice, is alone a jaw-dropping power that is enough to redefine what a Quirk can be.

However, through their battle, “Tomura” has noticed some of its limitations. He figures that while there’s no limit on how much a rule can incapacitate someone, powering up a living, physical body has a limit, or else she would have killed him with one punch, thinking it like a barometer she can set at will. He continues that considering she didn’t say if he touched the air he would die, it assumes either the rule can’t arbitrarily involve things she hasn’t touched, or it won’t be as effective.

He realizes the true utility behind New Order is that she boasts the most amount of freedom with nonliving things than with living ones. He figures the reason has to do with the naming of the target, and that both targets must have the same sense of understanding behind the name being said. When she called “Tomura”’s name, it wasn’t effective because “Tomura” isn’t even sure of his current identity, whether he is “Tomura Shigaraki”, “All For One”, or even “Tenko Shimura”. However, calling the name of an inanimate object, with it having no sense of self, is enough for Star and Stripe’s one-sided understanding to enforce the rule. “Tomura” then starts to think about all the potential limits and ranges New Order could reach, as it becomes all the more irresistible to him.

The air fleet ask Star and Stripe what their next move is, so she reluctantly requests to send word to Commander Agpar, proceeding to explain that now “Tomura” has grown from being Japan’s local menace to now a threat to the entire world, so they must use the tactics Japan lacks and kill him now. The pilot thinks about his first time meeting Star and Stripe, agreeing to follow her all the way.

The pilot of the ship “Tomura” is standing on shakes him off, leading him to land back on the flying Nomu. Star and Stripe then proceeds to use New Order to transform the air into her shape 1,000 times bigger, using “Fist Bump to the Earth” to punch “Tomura” and the Nomu through the air. She thinks about how chipping away at any more damage at him would be pointless so all that’s left is to completely reduce him down to nothing, clapping her hands and sending him further away.

With him still barely surviving, Star and Stripe then has the air fleet shoot their lasers directly at her, using New Order to transform all the lasers into one, and using her gigantic air construct to utilize "United Hyper-Max Output Laser: Keraunos", burning him with a nonstop blast of the laser, and incinerating the Nomu. The pilot asks if this will burn him away, but Star and Stripe says this is only just to pin him down, as Endeavor would’ve done him in if that was really enough.

She then gets a call from Agpar, who warns her that this stunt will potentially cost her more than just her Hero license, which she is perfectly fine with. He lets her know the strike is imminent and Japan has been informed, adding that it’s her defiance for the rules that’s what made their nation shine the brightest, and if All Might couldn’t put an end to the villain, she will surpass him, calling her Cassie. Making their way towards Star and “Tomura” is the "State-Of-The-Art Hypersonic Intercontinetal Cruise Missiles: Tiamat".

Chapter Notes

 * "Tomura" figures out the depth of the mechanics of New Order.
 * A rule supposedly can't arbitrarily involve things she hasn't touched.
 * The Quirk is most effective on nonliving objects, as it only requires Star and Stripe's one-sided understanding of the target's name, whereas for living beings, the target must also recognize themselves as that name.
 * Star and Stripe and the rest of her associates switch to using pure brawn to defeat "Tomura" after their initial plan fails.
 * She uses her Super Moves "Fist Bump to the Earth" and "Keraunos" to pin him down, while also calling for a fleet of missiles from America known as "Tiamat" to take down "Tomura" for good.
 * Star and Stripe's first name is revealed to be Cassie.

Characters In Order of Appearance

 * Star and Stripe
 * Tomura Shigaraki
 * All For One
 * Endeavor
 * Agpar
 * All Might (Photograph)
 * David Shield (Photograph)

Trivia

 * Commander Agpar's name and design is a direct reference to Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars.