And here we go, onto the final arc of one of this story's major storylines, and the climax of one of our heroes' journeys!
I present to you: Life's End!
As the MLA prepare for their Day of Liberation, Momo continues to grow more and more stressed with trying to establish the Future Foundation and work with F.E.A.S.T. in competition with the Life Foundation. By this time, it has been made clear to both Momo, Inko, and all their friends and allies that those in the Hearts and Minds party of government, as well as those in Detnerat, are their enemies, and that, for some reason, they were intent on shutting them down before they could ever get started.
This is made clear when, one day, when Momo and Inko are helping to set up F.E.A.S.T.'s new location in the old warehouse that they'd taken from the Shie Hassaikai, a representative of the Hearts and Minds party would arrive, telling them that all the warehouses had been brought up by Detnerat, and that they needed to leave. Inko would argue that they had brought the warehouse legally, and that they had the legal documents for it, but the representative wouldn't have any of it, and the next day, private guards on the payroll of Detnerat and the Hearts and Minds party arrive and kick them out, tearing down all the modifications and renovations that they had made and turning them into extensions of the Life Foundation.
Meanwhile, Momo is approached by her parents, who have finally had enough and demand that she shut down the Future Foundation, as the Life Foundation are threatening to sue the Yaoyarozus for copyright infringement due to their names. Momo quickly argues that she had come up with the Future Foundation first, but her parents are firm on their stance. She is to shut down the Future Foundation, or there will be severe consequences.
The stress continues to get to Momo, and she begins to fill worn down, torn between her parents' desires and the need to live up to her family's name versus her desire to see everything that she has worked to build come to fruition.
However, her friends continue to come through for her. However, she rejects their help, thinking that she has to do it all on her own, the stress of the situation making her push her friends aside so that she can sort it out all by herself, thinking of it as a matter of pride.
They don't agree.
Her allies on the streets, such as Soga and his crew, alongside Spider-Gang members such as Panda-Mania, Gibbon, and Compress, investigate the Life Foundation and the people that work there, and make contact with those who were attending them, especially those who had once been patrons of F.E.A.S.T. as well. From the sounds of it, there were certain people in the shelters that got special treatment over the others, specifically those with strong quirks.
Meanwhile, Black Cat and Ochako, still operating as She-Venom, would sneak into the Hearts and Mind party headquarters to uncover the documentation that had allowed them and Detnerat to buy up the warehouses despite them already being owned by F.E.A.S.T., and discover a series of communications about a desire to see F.E.A.S.T. and the Future Foundation wiped off the board as soon as possible, as well as the documents that listed the transactions for the warehouses and how the ownership of them had been passed over, revealing that multiple levels of bureaucracy had been skipped over to make the transaction happen.
And elsewhere, Momo is approached by Hatsume, who asks her if she could sit down for a bit. The two of them decide to go out on a walk, wearing hoodies and trousers to disguise their identities as they move, all the while figures approach them in the dark.
On their walk, Hatsume and Momo discuss their circumstances, as well as the strange circumstances of their relationship. Momo still wants to be professional about it and keep it until all of this nightmarish nonsense with the Life Foundation, Detnerat, and the Hearts and Minds party has been sorted out, but Hatsume makes it clear that in this line of work, that will never happen. Hatsume tells her that she is trying to balance being a pro hero and starting a business at the same time, and is trying to do it all by herself. She's always going to be facing competition, and she's trying to do it all on her own without letting anyone else in.
Momo rejects this notion, but Hatsume begins to draw parallels. She pushed away Peter because she wanted to become her own person, and that's cool and all, but now she's pushing everyone away and trying to do it all by herself. Being self-reliant is a good trait to have, but not at the expense of isolating yourself and pushing away all the people around you out of pride. Momo says that it's not about pride, but Hatsume counters by pointing out that she's refusing help based on her pride and desire to live up to her family name. Momo has no reply.
(A long running plotline that is supposed to be running through Momo's storyline, more in the second half after she rejected her crush on Peter than the first, is the fact that she was raised in an upper-class household, and has all the haughtiness that came with it. For all of her kindness and good natured sense, she still has the innate sense of superiority that comes with being born in a higher state of living, and believes that she knows more about the business world than anyone else. The main thrust of her character is overcoming not just her naivety, but also the unconscious biases that come with her position and properly connecting with the people that she wants to help.)
Hatsume then begins to share her story, how before she had met her and Peter and Izuku and all the others, she had always been alone. Her brain never worked the same as everyone else, she was wired differently (it's implied that she's autistic). Because of this, she could never get the hang of interacting with others, always putting them off or creeping them out with her invasive and hyperactive attitude. Not even her parents understood her, not really. Because of this, she began to fall into her machines, developing an obsessiveness about them. Machines understood her just as much as she understood them. They didn't complain about her talking to them. They weren't weirded out by her. They understood her like no one else could, or would.
But then, Momo and her friends entered her life. They came to her and made friends with her and never judged her for who she was. They understood her in ways that no one ever had. They had trusted her and cared for her and even loved her and, for lack of a better term, it changed her life and herself as a person, all for the better.
And Momo... Momo had been her first friend, nay, the first love of her life. She had been there for Hatsume, to offer her a hand and an idea and a smile and sometimes just being there, and Momo may never know how much of an impact she has had on Hatsume's life, but she did, and she was there, and Hatsume loves her for it.
Momo pulls Hatsume out of a dark place without ever knowing about it, and Hatsume doesn't want Momo to fall into that same place as well.
Momo can't find anything to say, but then the two of them find that they don't have the time to say anything at all. They are suddenly surrounded by men armed with blunt weapons. Assassins, intending to kill them.
They do not succeed.
Despite how skilled they were or how powerful their quirks were, they were no match for Momo's training and skill and Mei's Iron Heart suit. During the scuffle, Momo doesn't notice one of the assassins slip Hatsume a USB stick before slinking off, as the two are suddenly attacked by an assassin with an ice quirk, forcing Momo to break out the Iron Spider suit to fend off against him. However, the assassin's power proves to be too much for the two of them, and Momo and Hatsume are forced onto the retreat, Momo ditching the Iron Spider suit and activating its self-destruct to make it seem like the assassin had successfully killed her, allowing them to shake off their pursuers.
Soon enough, Momo would find her way home and slip inside. However, upon walking through their library on her way to her parents' study, she sees a book that has been laid out on the table. Her parents don't usually leave books lying around. Not unless they think that she's not going to be around for a while. She picks it up, and see that it is the Meta Liberation Army manifesto. The newest edition, not the original, as it has had its section on cooperation with the quirkless and quirkless civil and equal rights removed. What's more is that the manifesto is supposed to have been banned after the last Meta Liberation War, so she does not know why her parents would have this.
The book, to her surprise, had been opened onto a hypothetical scenario known as the Day of Liberation, and suddenly Momo begins to start connecting dots. She goes to her parents to try and ask questions of them, to try and understand what they are doing with this banned book...
But then, she hears her parents talking to someone over a voice call, whom she recognises as Rikiya Yotsubashi, the head of Detnerat, who informs them that Momo has been killed. Geten and their newest recruits were successful in their assassination attempt, but one of her friends, the inventor, escaped. Momo's parents, however, tell them not to worry about it, that they will handle it, and that they apologise for Momo getting in the way of the Day of Liberation. Now with their insolent daughter dead, they can finally dissolve the Future Foundation, destroy F.E.A.S.T., and begin the march of the Meta Liberation Army.
Momo is horrified by this and lets out a gasp of anguish at the fact that her parents were willing and eager to try and kill her. Her parents then hear this, and she is chased out of the manor by both her parents and their staff, who she realises have been trained to be MLA soldiers as well. The only person who assists her in escaping is the head butler, who is himself murdered for the efforts. Momo is forced to go on the run, and Re-Destro is furious at both Geten and her parents' failures before they pin the head butler's murder on her.
Now forced to go on the run, Momo shucks off her old clothes and disguises herself as a homeless woman, sneaking past the authorities as she tries to understand what is going on, unable to trust anyone at all. During this time, Momo truly begins to interact with the people that she was supposed to be helping, learning of their struggles and what those who are less fortunate than her - the homeless and the discriminated and the beaten - and realising just how truly out of touch she was with the people she was supposed to be interacting with.
However, all during this time, she is hunted both by the MLA's thugs and goons, but also by the police and pro heroes either on the MLA's payroll or trying to investigate the murder and bring her in as a suspect.
Soon enough, Momo finds herself in one of the Life Foundation's shelters, being surprised by how well maintained it is, but also begins to notice small discrepancies in how the staff of the building treat people, depending on their quirks or if they even have quirks at all. As it turned out, much of Japan's quirkless population has been rendered homeless over the years due to discrimination, and their numbers have been thinned over those same years, with more cases of murder based on quirkless discrimination after the events of Kraven's Last Hunt. Now, here, Momo could see that much of the staff was giving preferential treatment to those with quirks, and also notices that many of the books in the shelter's reading section related to quirks, making her realise just how far the MLA's reach was.
As she moves secretly between Life Foundation shelter after shelter, she begins to gather as much knowledge on the organisation and their connections to Detnerat and the Hearts and Minds party. During this time, she also makes contact with one of the Spider-Gang's underground allies, Soga, who is able to point her to the Japanese Diet, where the Hearts and Mind Party is being stationed. There, she meets up with Black Cat and She-Venom, who share with her everything that they know.
But then she is attacked again by the MLA's assassins, whom she discovers to be Geten, supported by his newest assistant.
Todoroki.
Momo is shocked to hear this, and is forced to defend herself against her former friend, but momentarily pauses when Todoroki whispers to her to meet Hatsume at a specific location. Then, he unleashes a wave of fire and ice that floods the area, allowing Momo the chance to escape whilst making it seem like Todoroki had tried to land the killing blow.
Momo flees from Geten and his men, dazed and confused, but eventually meets up with Hatsume once more, who reveals everything to her...
Elsewhere, Momo's parents are furious that Geten and his assassins allowed their daughter to get away once again, but Geten defends Todoroki, exclaiming that he and the information that he delivered to them is too valuable to lose. Re-Destro and his cohorts take Geten's side, and state that Momo's interference will not stop them. The Day of Liberation is tomorrow, sped up thanks to Todoroki's information. They've alerted too many people up and down their chain of command to call it off now.
And here we get into a major revision to the Meta Liberation Army from in canon: most of their number is made up of civilians. Of all the thousands of people that believe in their cause, most of them are simply civilians who understand and sympathise with the MLA's ideology but are not willing to take up arms to support it. Even worse, the MLA's main leadership is seen more as an extremist faction, and whilst they have been radicalising many people to their cause, they do not come close to the numbers that canon fields.
Nevertheless, the MLA still field a substantial amount of warriors for their cause, whether they be elite soldiers or radicalised civilians, and they are all moving into position to begin taking over multiple government agencies. All they need now is the signal, and they will begin taking them over.
Then, with the Day of Liberation hours away, the MLA's leadership received a sighting that Momo has returned to the Yaoyorozu estate, most likely either to gather information of her parents' dealings with the MLA or to confront them outright. Re-Destro sends the two to deal with her, and despatch Geten and his minions to deal with her.
Soon enough, Momo's parents arrive at their estate, along with Geten and Todoroki, and they find her inside their study, armed with a bow staff and demanding to know what the hell is going on. Momo's parents try to play dumb. but Momo refutes them.
Then, they decide that, what the hell, they'll tell her the truth.
Long ago, Momo's mother had met Re-Destro when they were children. They had been long-time friends, and were even old flames at one point. Throughout their time together, they had learnt of the philosophy of the Meta Liberation Army from Re-Destro's father before he was killed by government agencies, and have since then built themselves up to help others hear the words of the Meta Liberation Army, and the joys of liberation for all those who's quirks are constrained by rules and restrictions. Re-Destro had even been the one to introduce her to Momo's father, and the two have been wedded through the promise of liberation ever since.
And now, that time of liberation is here. In barely the blink of an eye, the MLA's agents will take over their assigned agencies and assist the Hearts and Minds party in launching their coup against the government. The liberated and radicalised masses that have been gathering in the Life Foundation will spill out into the streets and bring forward those who wish to use their quirks as they see fit. And now with not only F.E.A.S.T., but the Future Foundation out of the way, no longer able to provide hope to those who don't deserve it, the joy of salvation against the blight of oversight shall decay, and all will know a prosperous future where people may use their quirks to do with as they wish.
Momo then asks if the quirkless will have a place in this world, and Momo's parents state that they will not be missed.
Momo then makes it clear where she stands. She's been to the Life Foundation shelters, and she sees how the people there treat those who do not have powerful quirks for their causes and those who don't have quirks at all. She knows of how the Meta Liberation Army have disregarded the words of their founder about equality with the quirkless and the disadvantaged, all for the sake of anarchic Social Darwinism where only those with the strongest quirks will survive. The modern Meta Liberation Army have completely forgotten the words of their ancestors, and become nothing more than terrorists and anarchists. Villains.
And as a hero, it is her job to stop the villains.
Momo's parents cannot help themselves. They laugh. The Day of Liberation is here, now. How can one girl, one foolish girl wanted by the law, stop what has been in the work for so long?
Momo isn't deterred. She knows where she stands.
And Todoroki? Where does he stand?
Todoroki states that he knows.
Momo tells him to prove it.
And Todoroki does... by throwing a glacier of ice into Geten and all the other fighters that Momo's parents had brought with them, and burying them.
Momo's parents are shocked by this as Geten frees himself from his icy prison and launches himself at Todoroki, screaming at him for his treason. The two of them try to escape in the confusion as Momo pursues them...
Only to run into Hatsume and the rest of the Spider-Gang (at least those who weren't being hunted by Overhaul's bounty hunters), supported by Adriana and her S.I.L.K. agents.
As it turns out, ever since Hatsume had learnt of the Life Foundation, she has been playing a long game, one that she had let Adriana in on in the immediate aftermath of the Mr Negative incident. The young inventor, the prodigal genius who invented not one, but two, suits of power armour in barely any time at all, has been building a web of information on the Life Foundation, the Hearts and Minds party, Detnerat, and all their related assets, collaborated with Adriana's sources, all into a network of sources and stockpiles of intel. She'd even got Todoroki to act as a spy for her in the MLA's ranks, feeding them carefully constructed information that had been made by Adriana to make the MLA fall into their trap.
The young prodigy known as Mei Hatsume has been playing chessmaster and the MLA all along, and a lot of it was thanks to the MLA's own arrogance.
The thing about a criminal conspiracy such as this, especially one within the government itself, is that the bigger it gets, the harder it becomes to conceal. The amount of people that the MLA have had to bribe, threaten, coerce, and kill, has left a lot of trails that they've desperately been trying to keep concealed, not to mention all the people that they've been conscripting into their services, the way that they've been spreading their message through the manifestos; it has all left a massive trail that, while seemingly inconspicuous on their own, paints one hell of a picture if you know where to look.
And the MLA have been painting such a picture for years. Hatsume just had to pull back the veil and show it to the world.
And what is worse for the MLA? They had grown overconfident. For the longest time, they had considered themselves untouchable due to their positions in politics and commercial interests, and had been thinking that they would be carrying that invincibility all the way to the end of their plans. What's more, they had been growing more and more impatient as their endgame approached them, helped along by the seemingly credible information that Todoroki had been feeding them.
The MLA had been unknowingly digging their own graves, and all Hatsume and Adriana had to do was give them the shovel.
Enraged by this, the MLA's leadership send out the signal to begin the Day of Liberation, but its too late for them. Many of the insurrectionists sent to various government agencies have been swept up by S.I.L.K.'s agents, but others are locked in combat with the agents and sent on the retreat back to Deika, demoralising the loyalists in the Life Foundation and Detnerat and sending many of them running to Deika for protection as well. The MLA leadership retreats too as the Hearts and Minds party members are arrested en masse, and Momo's parents are left on their own.
And even when the two take a secret stockpile of trigger into themselves, sending their quirks haywire as they do their best to try and kill their daughter for her insolence, they are no match for Momo and Hatsume and the rest of their friends, especially when Momo creates a new black and gold Iron Spider suit for herself with her own quirk, dispatching them easily as the rest of the present Spider-Gang and S.I.L.K. agents rounded up the rest of the MLA loyalists on the ground, with Todoroki handily dealing with Geten and sending the assassin crashing into the ground.
Momo rounds up her parents, dragging them to the cops for them to be taken away, no longer having to worry about being arrested herself now that Adriana has cleared her name for her. When throwing them into the police car, Momo states that she's done with the Yaoyorozu name. It has been tarnished now because of them. From now on, she's going to spend her time with the people that she is supposed to help.
From this point on, Momo is going to go her own way.
Momo's parents are taken away, along with Geten and the rest of the MLA loyalists on site, and she is embraced by Hatsume once again, who is glad to see that she is alive.
Momo simply responds that she now owes Hatsume two saves, and kisses her.
Maybe it is time that she started reciprocating her feelings.
But, unfortunately, that would have to wait. Overhaul's bounty on the heads of every spider-person was still up, and the MLA still needed to be dealt with in Deika City.
One day at a time though, Momo thought to herself as she embraced Hatsume, one day at a time.
Elsewhere, the MLA leadership have gathered in Deika City, utterly furious at how their plans have all fallen apart at the hands of children. Or more specifically, the Spiders. Now thanks to them they had to pull out all their remaining assets from Detnerat before S.I.L.K. shut both their biggest supplier and the Life Foundation down, on top of investigating all their associated businesses and putting a hold to all their investigations...
And they have the Spiders to thank for it.
Oh, they will have vengeance for what has been done to them. The Spiders have chosen to keep the quirks of the oppressed shackled and enslaved, and they will face the consequences for denying them the liberation that they are due. They will pay in blood for their insolence, and they will-
The four leaders of the Meta Liberation Army are greeted by a sight that they have been dreading all their lives.
All for One stands before them, having completed the transfer into Shigaraki's body and completely taking over, destroying Tomura's personality entirely. Worse yet, the Symbiote sample that Garaki had taken from Carnage had been fused into his body, turning him into a monstrous new form, an obsidian form with a blood-red and sharpened spider logo on his chest and a swirling singularity in his eye...
And he has had his eye on the MLA's throne for a long time.