AMERICA
All For One feels like things remain going his way. With the prison escapees keeping the police and heroes busy, he and the rest of the League of Villains continue to recover and prepare for the days ahead.Just one new anomaly threatens everything he has planned up to this point. As the world's leaders discuss how to best assist the Japan crisis, one hero heads out over the red tape: The USA's Number One Hero, Star & Stripe. Possessing a special quirk that practically alters the very fabric of reality itself, it could be the end all to All For One. However, if All For One steals this quirk for himself, then taking One For All and ruling over Japan, and the rest of the world unopposed, will be but a formality.
To that end, he sends his "other self", the All For One possessing Tomura Shigaraki, to intercept the international hero before the Top 3 do...
Tropes:
- Anything but That!: All For One believes the combined power of One For All and New Order is the worst scenario that can be used against him. If Star's imminent arrival means a chance to steal New Order, he can take the gamble of facing it head on; or at least the "him" inside Shigaraki can.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Subverted. Star uses New Order to limit the range of air, turning the area around Shigaraki into an unbreathable vacuum. Shigaraki isn't able to survive this, or at least lacks a quirk that allows him to, so he has to hold his breath while his eyes dry out until she switches to another rule.
- Bittersweet Ending: Shigaraki successfully kills Star & Stripe but she prevents him from harnessing her New Order quirk, which self-destructs and destroys numerous quirks within him. While her death forces the call for all international heroes to be put on hold, his reported crippling from her squadron reaches U.A's hero courses. They, and other heroes, are given time for preparation before they have to strike back.
- Brought Down to Normal: While Star's final command of New Order doesn't do this to Shigaraki entirety, he loses a few quirks in AFO that made him truly unstoppable if he woken up completely.
- Continuity Nod: A flashback reveals how All Might saved a young Cathleen Bates and her family from a pair of bank robbers on the run while in the US. This actually took place in My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, years before All Might traveled to Japan and Cassie herself would grow up to be Star and Stripe in America.
- The Dreaded: Shigaraki becomes this for the entire world, and not just Japan. Star immediately realizes that Shigaraki is a global threat and takes desperate measures to kill him. After her death the leaders of the other nations, who at first were merely waiting to finish paperwork before sending their Heroes over, are now terrifed of the idea of confronting All For One and leaving themselves vulnerable.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- While Star is the threshold, considering how powerful she and her quirk are, it's her authority of launching a set of hypersonic "Tiamat" missles that also count here. She decides this is a necessary tactic and doesn't care how much trouble she gets into if she survives and Shigaraki doesn't.
- All For One is so afraid of Star making contact with Deku and One-For-All that he wheels out an incomplete Shigaraki to go an intercept her before she can make landfall. He risked his entire plan because the alternative would've mean inevitable failure.
- High-Altitude Battle: The entire arc and battle takes place in the skies, with Shigaraki riding a winged Nomu while Star is riding on one of the jets in her squadron.
- Logical Weakness: If Star targets a living being with New Order, she is required to touch the being and call out their name as she creates an Order to affect them. This, of course, requires Star to know their specific name as she makes contact, which is a crucial problem when Shigaraki isn't sure who he is during the arc thanks to AFO. Because she is unable to call out his proper, definitive name, she is unable to create an Order that directly affects him.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Star's sacrifice deals a heavy blow on Shigaraki but, being the number one hero in the USA, her death causes a ripple effect there and other countries, forcing their delegates to postpone in sending their top heroes to aid Japan.
- No-Sell: Shigaraki's Regeneration quirk is in full effect during his battle against Star, so he can come back even after being reduced to bones and muscle by a condensed laser fire and multiple nukes.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: While Shigaraki obtains New Order in the end, Star gives a command that causes it to attack him and AFO from within, destroying as many stolen quirks as it can. Because All For One can only give and take quirks but not throw them away, he escapes and attempts to pass New Order to a random villain for storage after taking his original quirk away. Unfortunately for him, New Order is already destroyed in its "rampage", leaving him with nothing.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Star is killed, but Shigaraki loses most of the quirks stockpiled by AFO and is left in agonizing pain. The Heroes now have a bit more time to prepare for the final battle.
- Reality Warper: Star's Quirk "New Order" is a downplayed, but no less powerful, version of this. By touching something/someone, Star can alter its nature on command ("New Order makes lasers holdable!" for example). Even the very air she breathes can be affected.
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: Star tries to stop Shigaraki's heart once she gets close, but there is a problem: New Order requires the name of the person or thing targeted. Tomura Shigaraki is actually Tenko Shimura, but that's not the reason New Order fails. Instead, Shigaraki's inner struggle against AFO's consciousness has jumbled their personas into an entirely new "identity" altogether.
- Shout-Out: Commander Agpar from the US is a clear waking homage to Star Wars' Admiral Ackbar.
- Story-Breaker Power: New Order is possibly one of the most powerful quirks to date, being a Reality Warper that can literally change the rules on anything or anyone when touched. As such, the plot demands it gets taken out by the end of the arc.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Star is well aware her actions will risk her hero's license and even her life, but believes it is worth it if it means killing or even crippling a monster such as Shigaraki. Agpar, a commander and her ally back on US soil, acknowledges how her brash attitude inspires the freedom in their country.
- Villainous Breakdown: The All For One in Shigaraki displays a rare case of rage after being denied an opportunity to use New Order, losing some of his quirks and, to top it off, seeing a "spectre of All Might".
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We only knew she was influenced by All Might to become a great hero. Unfortunately, her arc only lasts a handful of chapters and she is permanently taken out of the picture.
- Wham Line:New Order revolts against other quirks!
- Wham Shot: Within Shigaraki and under a myriad of hands lies a dormant vision of a scared child calling out for Izuku Midoriya, who appears to represent the last fragment of Tenko Shimura.
