In the Nick of Time! A Big-Time Maverick from the West! is the one hundred and thirty-ninth episode of the My Hero Academia anime and the first episode of the seventh season.
Summary#
In a secluded cave tucked away from the chaos unleashed onto the country, All For One, Spinner, and the Near High-End Nomu, lie in wait as the former relishes in the fact that eventually, due to how overwhelmed the Heroes are with containing the Jailbreakers, his plan will succeed through a war of attrition. Spinner says they could've won by simply leaving the country altogether, but the Villain clarifies that this victory is only a small-term goal and adds on that his supposed grand plan of stealing One For All is only a midpoint by comparison. Spinner asks what his ultimate goal is then if it's not the previous objective, and the man says he has a long-term plan in the back of his mind, and its biggest obstacle towards its success is headed their way.
That being the No. 1 Hero of the United States, Star and Stripe, who's currently flying across the skies of Japan with her personal fighter pilot squad in order to aid Japan directly amidst the political standstill of several countries in regard to sending Heroes to deal with the fallout of the Paranormal Liberation War. All For One calls her the "strongest woman alive", and someone who is excellent at countering cheap strategies and tactics. While a significant gamble, he says that if he's able to steal her Quirk, the fight's as good as won on his side. All For One then turns his attention back to Spinner and says that like the rest of the League of Villains, he should be making major moves as well.
He asks him to help strengthen and mobilize his regiment of the Paranormal Liberation Front to help Tomura in his fight, as they are made up of discriminated heteromorphs much like he is, who see themselves in Spinner and wish to tear down the old regime they suffered under for so long. Their radicalization and recruitment efforts are stoked on by posters and audio logs produced and distributed by Skeptic, who still wants to see Re-Destro's dream of Meta Ability liberation to the end, even if he doesn't necessary like the League of Villains or what they represent in relation to his group's goals. Either way, he presses on, and hopes that with enough support and worship, they'll become genuine liberators of the current system, and they'll be able to plant the seeds of it in the future where Tomura succeeds in destroying everything.
Meanwhile, Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist, head towards the area where Star and Stripe and her allies are scheduled to land and assist them. The three then receive an emergency call from Naomasa, who states that Tomura, whose body has reached around 98% completion and is riding atop a flying Nomu, has suddenly confronted Star and Stripe in the air around 50 kilometers from their designated landing spot. The woman asks if he is All For One, and "Tomura" says that he's not sure what he is at this point.
The brigade's leader, Ethan Drive, orders his men to disengage autopilot and active their anti-pulse shields to protect themselves from any EMP-based attacks the Villain might use. He then asks Star and Stripe out of courtesy what their next move should be, and as he likely expected, the woman says to engage. She calls out her squad to go into battle formation "Delta", and asks them to go all out, while promising she'll deliver the remains of anyone who falls to their families afterward.
"Tomura", while struggling to differentiate and identify himself now that the vestige of All For One has taken partial control of his body, initiates the first attack on the squadron: a humongous blast combining Radio Waves, Air Cannon, and Heavy Payload, which Star and Stripe and the jets manage to dodge. The Villian plans to keep her at a manageable distance away from him, as he says like his Decay, her Quirk also depends on whether or not she can touch him. The Hero dives forward on top of Ethan's plane and proclaims that knowledge is useless, since her ability can easily nullify any counters he might have for her.
Star and Stripe throws both her hands in the air and prepares to activate New Order, a Quirk that allows her to bestow new properties onto any object she calls out by name and rewrite the way it interacts with itself and its surroundings. The woman then proclaims that the air 100 meters in front of her will cease to exist and punches a star-shaped vacuum in "Tomura's" direction to try and asphyxiate him. With no medium to travel through, "Tomura" begins to suffocate and the Nomu he's riding on begins to fall, though he only gets excited at how terrifying her Quirk is.
The jets then move in to finish him off by firing a barrage of lasers in a ring formation, which to their horror are caught by "Tomura" using Reflect. He then sends the attack back with Scatter, and one of them is intercepted by Star and Stripe, who used her Quirk to make the lasers graspable. As "Tomura" regenerates the hole in his torso that the lasers burned into, he notices that the air vacuum has disappeared and chalks it up to some type of limitation to New Order's power. The man takes a gambit and leaps off the Nomu to try and steal her Quirk, to which Star shuts down by lunging off Ethan's jet and punching him backward.
The apparent limitation of New Order's power is due to the fact it only allows Star to modify two subjects at a time, as she keeps one constantly active on herself: to have strength, speed, and power similar to her hero and inspiration: All Might, who she strived to model herself after, following a time early in his hero career when he was studying abroad in the United States, and stopped two bank robbers from crushing her family during their escape attempt.
"Tomura" then lands on two of the jets, as Star and Stripe crouches over him and admits that she called out his name during that last clash, and states that "Tomura Shigaraki's heart will stop if he moves a single inch". Her second attempt at killing him fails, as the hatred instilled into "Tomura" by the All For One "half" of him begins to boil over, causing his hair to grow longer and to send her flying back with a powerful shockwave.
As "Tomura" collects himself, he finally figures out all the limitations of New Order, which were previously marked as classified to the general public. Firstly, there's a hard limit to how much raw physical power she can grant to someone's body, otherwise she would've instantly obliterated him when he punched her before. Secondly, the rules only apply to objects she makes contact with herself, so she can't call out for something to change from a distance.
Thirdly, she can only enact a rule on something if her perception of the target perfectly aligns with its self-identification. Due to the fact that "Tomura" his unclear on his own identity, Star and Stripe wasn't able to make his heart stop, as she only knows him as "Tomura Shigaraki" alone. On the plus side, this makes it easier for Star and Stripe to manipulate non-living objects, as they have no sense of self to come into conflict with.
As he starts getting giddy while further theorizing the ins and outs of New Order, Star and Stripe tells Ethan to contact Commander Agpar and request "special authority" for an undisclosed method of killing "Tomura" that Japan lacks access to. She says the Villain has now become a threat to the entire world and asks her bros to give her a place to stand on as she sets this attack up.
Star and Stripe then grasps the air once more and creates a hardened construct of herself one thousand times her size out of it. Mimicking her moves, the construct unleashes Fist Bump to the Earth and strikes "Tomura" with a supersized blow of her solid air fist, sending him flying. The giant air mold then claps her hands onto "Tomura" and immobilizes him, as Star and Stripe asks the pilots to fire the lasers into the construct's hands. They then materialize into Keraunos, a large lance of energy that is then speared into Tomura, as the Villain begins to violently burn.
While having an effect, this is only to slow down his regeneration, otherwise Endeavor could've easily done the same with his flames. Commander Agpar then reaches her on the phone and tells Star and Stripe that this call will cause way more harm to her than just losing her Hero License. The woman says she's willing to take the risk and asks the commander if "it" is ready. Agpar confirms it, and tells her to surpass All Might and take down the Villain even the former Symbol of Peace couldn't deal with.
As the call draws to a close and everyone stays in position, a swarm of missiles with "Tiamat" written on them fly behind Star and Stripe and her comrades, as the stage for the killing blow against "Tomura" has been fully set.
Characters In Order of Appearance#
Izuku Midoriya Ochaco Uraraka Katsuki Bakugo Gran Torino Tomura Shigaraki Mon Yuga Aoyama Eijiro Kirishima Mashirao Ojiro Minoru Mineta Kyoka Jiro Fumikage Tokoyami Tsuyu Asui Mina Ashido Rikido Sato Denki Kaminari Mezo Shoji Tenya Ida Momo Yaoyorozu Toru Hagakure Koji Koda Shoto Todoroki Hanta Sero Ethan Drive All For One Cider House (Pictured) Dictator (Pictured) Muscular (Pictured) Star and Stripe Near High-End Nomu Spinner All Might Dabi Takaie Kanigumo Re-Destro Skeptic Himiko Toga Stain (Fantasy) Endeavor Hawks Best Jeanist Naomasa Tsukauchi (Voice) Doctor (Mentioned) Hana Shimura Chizuo Magi Mako Magi Nao Shimura Kotaro Shimura Nana Shimura Timothy Agpar L.A. VIllains David Shield (Photograph)
Quirks#
Cider House Leader's Quirk (Screen) Despot (Screen) Muscle Augmentation (Screen) Blackwhip (Screen) Stress Hellflame Wing All For One Radio Waves Air Cannon Heavy Payload Reflect Scatter Super Regeneration Springlike Limbs New Order Fist Bump to the Earth Keraunos One For All
Locations#
U.A. High School Heights Alliance Central Hospital One For All's Vestige Realm Brightman Air Force Base Tokyo (Screen) Tartarus (Screen) Ground Zero (Screen) League of Villains Cave Hideout New York City (Fantasy) Santa Monica Pier (Mentioned) All For One's Vestige Realm Shimura Family Home United States Military Command Center
Battles & Events#
- "Tomura Shigaraki" vs. Star and Stripe (Started)
BGM#
- Anguish of the Quirkless
- The cinders of liberation
- DIVISION
- All For One
- All for my sake
- DIVISION
- Todoroki's counterattack
- The Demon Lord
- Master Criminal
- STAR AND STRIPE
- Mysterious villains
Anime & Manga Differences#
- An intro of Izuku doing laundry in the dorms before reuniting with his class is shown.
- An original sequence is added of Star's squad watching a news broadcast on the state of Japan, leading to her requesting their aid.
- The anime adds additional depictions of New Order's functions when "Tomura" begins breaking down the Quirk.