WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Vol. 27, by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook and John Hunt, available now in English from Viz Media.
The English-language release of My Hero Academia, Vol. 27 is 184 pages of supercharged action. Covering Chapters #259-267 of the manga, the united hero forces of Japan ignite a war against the Paranormal Liberation Front (PLF), which has become a threat too great to ignore now that Shigaraki will soon awaken in his ultimate form. It's a battle on all fronts, with Endeavor, Eraser Head and Mirko leading the charge to apprehend Dr. Ujiko in his underground laboratory; Class 1-A and a legion of Pro-Heroes raiding the PLF's headquarters, and Hawks making a deadly play as a double-agent.
The volume opens with a mission briefing led by Detective Tsukauchi. He informs the Pro-Heroes present that Dr. Ujiko -- the man behind the nomu and All For One's right hand -- has an underground laboratory beneath Jaku Hospital. It'll be his duty, alongside several top heroes including Endeavor, Eraser Head and Mirko, to neutralize the threat that Dr. Ujiko poses with his nomu. But he also makes it clear that the success of the mission doesn't depend on them alone -- heroes have assembled en masse to surround PLF bases all over Japan. It's a mission of unprecedented scale with the intent of taking out the PLF all at once.
The signal goes out to heroes across the country to move in, and the Jaku team rushes into the hospital. Dr. Ujiko mutters that Shigaraki's ultimate form will be complete in just over a month when Endeavor's team confronts him and manages to speak the activation phrase for the nomu just before melting into a pile of sludge. It turns out that he was just a double created with Twice's Quirk. Meanwhile, the entire hospital is being rapidly evacuated by the Wild, Wild Pussycats in case a battle with nomu breaks out.
The real Dr. Ujiko is deep in his underground laboratory. Having found out that the heroes are coming for him, he's distraught at having to abandon his life's work -- the replicated Quirk cache as well as his incubating nomu. That's when Mirko crashes in. As she destroys nomu tanks before they can awaken, Endeavor orders her to capture Dr. Ujiko over their communication line.
Dr. Ujiko rushes deeper into his laboratory even as Mirko kills his two little nomu named Johnny and Mocha. Johnny had a copy of All For One's Warp Quirk, which was Dr. Ujiko's exit plan in case anything went wrong, so he activates five high-end nomu in order to buy him time to finish Shigaraki's procedure -- his only other course of escape. High-end nomu are the most powerful kind to exist, but they take hours to stabilize upon activation, leaving them weaker but still with a formidable numbers advantage over Mirko.
Mirko gleefully rushes headlong into battle with them. Though it comes at the cost of her arm, she manages to kill two of them by crushing their brains with powerful kicks. She tourniquets the remains of her arm with her hair while fending off the remaining nomu. In the darkest corner of the laboratory, Dr. Ujiko works at a computer with a progress bar revealing Shigaraki is 70 percent complete.
The story then cuts to Gunga Mountain Villa, the PLF's main stronghold. It's 80 kilometers away from Jaku Hospital and is surrounded by a legion of Pro-Heroes including Edgeshot, Fat Gum, Cementoss and Midnight. Class 1-A is stationed on the back lines to catch fleeing villains attempting to escape, with the exception of Tokoyami and Kaminari, who each fulfill specialized tasks with their Quirks.
Cementoss rips open the villa with his Quirk, initiating a massive melee between the heroes and villains. Edgeshot rallies all the heroes with a cry not to allow a single villain to escape as Kaminari freezes up at the chaos of the battle before him. In order to get him to focus, Midnight tells him to think of the person who matters most to him right now. Kaminari thinks of Jiro.
This thought gives him the courage to do the task all the heroes were relying on him for -- neutralizing a PLF commander's Supreme Discharge attack. Kaminari sucks up the electric attack with a move called Thundernet, allowing Edgeshot to dart in and take out the commander for good.
Deeper inside the villa, where it's still quiet despite the looming battle, Hawks steps into Twice's room with a shadowy expression. He tells Twice that he was a double-agent all along, thanking him for being so eager to befriend him that he happily shared PLF intel. The real threat here is the numbers the heroes are up against, Hawks comments, so he's been keeping an especially sharp eye on Twice and his Double Quirk.
Twice reflects on how he always gets his friends killed or leads them into trouble despite his desire to help them. So when Hawks tells him he can make a fresh start if he comes quietly, he replicates himself into multiple doubles and cries, "I'd trade my soul for the League's happiness!"
Meanwhile, Fatgum, Suneater and Tokoyami are guarding an escape passageway connected to the PLF assembly hall beneath the villa. They charge down the stairs and begin fighting the villains attempting to escape through the passageway. Tokoyami unleashes his Ultimate Move, Ragnarok, to fight off Redestro's stress-induced monster form. Redestro's artificial leg snaps and Tokoyami easily takes the win.
Back aboveground, Hawks uses his sharp feathers to annihilate the Twice doubles attacking him. Twice rushes him and Hawks pins him down and holds a feather to his throat. Twice tells him that he's not at all heroic -- that none of the heroes are because of their willingness to crush down-trodden folk. He also mentions that this is the second time he's screwed all his friends over, including Toga who has shown him nothing but kindness. He vows to protect her happiness just as Dabi unexpectedly arrives to attack both Hawks and the pinned-down Twice.
Hawks escapes while saving Twice, but Dabi burns most of his feathers in the process. Twice crawls out from under him and also escapes toward Dabi as the latter urges him to let loose his full power upon the heroes -- which he does: Sad Man's Parade -- while Dabi attacks Hawks with flames to finish him off.
But Hawks swoops in from behind them. With speed so quick he was able to fly outside the window and circle back, killing Twice in a slash of a sharpened feather. Dabi is coldly unbothered and reveals that he knows the truth about Hawks, using the Pro-Heroes' real name -- Keigo Takami -- to prove it.
At the same time, one of Twice's doubles escapes the clash between Hawks and Dabi, determined to protect his friends. He kills a hero who is apprehending Toga and Mr. Compress, freeing them. His friends celebrate the rescue but Twice tells them he's only a double and has already been damaged from dropping down onto the concrete from the floor above. It's taking all he's got just to hold his form together.
He returns Toga's hankie to her and apologizes for failing the League yet again. She hugs Twice as he melts into a pile of goop, thanking him for saving her.
As the story returns to Hawks, he tells Dabi that he investigated the backgrounds of every League member, but came up with nothing on him and Shigaraki. Hawks asks him who he really is -- and Dabi tells him. His speech bubble is blacked out, however, and all readers can see is Hawks' shocked reaction. Bidding farewell to Hawks, he readies his flames to finish the #2 hero off for good.
The volume concludes by cutting between the perils heroes are facing on all fronts. Mirko bursts into the darkest heart of the laboratory to destroy Shigaraki's tank, Tokoyami spots a featherless Hawks at Dabi's mercy and Endeavor fights against nomu to protect his comrades.
"If you're gonna die, get the job done first!" Mirko tells herself. "Because a hero never ever quits!"
