WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 346, "Super Hyper Unfair Broken Stage,” by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook, and John Hunt, available now in English from Viz Media.
Shigaraki Tomura has finally achieved the transcendent status Dr. Garaki promised his operation would grant him. He has access to most of All For One's store of Quirks, innate strength and speed on par with All Might at his peak, and near unlimited regeneration abilities. Currently, he's the most powerful character revealed so far in the My Hero Academia universe, and stopping him seems like an impossible goal. However, even with the odds massively stacked against them, the heroes have formed a plan to take down this monster.
In the previous chapter, Shigaraki was teleported to a floating UA High School. Principal Nezu's boast about the school's travel capabilities was finally validated when the school and a sizeable portion of its grounds were shown among the clouds supported by powerful thrusters from beneath. The entire structure is bordered by a powerful electromagnetic barrier preventing any escape attempts. UA is clearly intended to be the heroes' final stand against Shigaraki as they have effectively trapped themselves within the school with him.
This new and improved UA was realized through the combined effort of all members of the school; both the teachers and students of the various courses. Again, Hatsume Mei's genius got the chance to shine as she immediately came up with the idea to make the school fly when introduced to the Decay problem. Working in conjunction with Power Loader and Principal Nezu, Hatsume upgraded the school's existing anti-Decay measures and reproduced them on a much smaller scale. UA was divided into many sections, each of them able to independently launch upwards to separate from the main school. With this system, any part of the school Shigaraki activated his Decay on could be easily removed before the effect spread to the whole structure.
When Shigaraki witnessed this feature firsthand, he remarked that it wouldn't be long before the heroes ran out of footholds and UA plummeted from the sky but of course, the heroes had already anticipated this possibility. All the technicians that had worked on the floating structure were aboard, and are conducting repairs even as the heroes fight. Cementoss and Yaoyaorozu Momo, the duo that made this architectural feat possible during their limited prep time are continuing to work tirelessly. Yaoyaorozu created spare parts with her Creation Quirk, and Cementoss filled in the gaps left by the Decayed sections expertly.
The giant structure naturally demands quite a lot of energy, but it's nothing more than UA's Electric-type heroes are capable of delivering. Kaminari Denki, Fukidashi Manga of Class 1-B, and several other student heroes were using their Quirks to produce the power required to keep the school afloat and maintain the barrier that kept Shigaraki trapped within it. Fukidashi has evidently learned to use his Comic Quirk in even more versatile ways as he's now producing electricity just by saying onomatopoeia that matches the desired effect.
The final piece of the puzzle was the Erasure team, made up of Monoma Neito, Eraserhead, and Pro-Hero Manual. Since losing his eye, Eraserhead was unable to use his Quirk but Monoma's Copy granted an opportunity to get around this setback. Monoma copied Eraserhead's Quirk and used it against Shigaraki, preventing him from activating any of his many Quirks after the initial Decay attempt. Eraserhead stayed close to his student's side, allowing Monoma to re-Copy his Quirk whenever the five-minute limitation was approaching and Manual kept Monoma's eyes lubricated. They couldn't afford to break the effect as Shigaraki was capable of untold destruction within the literal blink of an eye.
The team Shigaraki was to fight included Midoriya Izuku, Bakugo Katsuki, Mirko, Best Jeanist, Nejire Hado and Amajiki Tamaki. Unfortunately, this was the first part of the heroes' plan to go awry as Deku was snatched away into a different Warp Gate at the last second. The heroes had also made their plans based on the version of Shigaraki displayed in his two previous battles. Both in Jaku and against Star and Stripe, Shigaraki was in an incomplete state, which might explain both defeats. Unfortunately for the heroes, he's reached his full potential now and has unlocked the terrifying new ability to augment his body’s form at will.
This new attack doesn’t exactly change the type of battle the heroes assumed they’d engage Shigaraki in but it does complicate their plans somewhat. Shigaraki hasn’t revealed the full extent of his new powers but he’s already displayed his increased physical attack range. The heroes will have to work much harder to land hits on him now. This new ability also seems to work like his increased strength and speed, neither of which are affected by Erasure. The heroes may have formulated a master plan and indeed against any other villain, or even previous versions of Shigaraki himself, it might have been overkill, but the Shigaraki they currently face seems determined to make sure his final stand isn’t one the heroes will forget anytime soon - if they manage to survive him.
