Provisional Hero License Exam Arc

The tenth arc of My Hero Academia and the opening arc of the Rise of Villains Saga, covering chapters 98 to 121 and episodes 51 to 62. It follows the Hideout Raid Arc and hands off to the Shie Hassaikai Arc.

Two things happen in parallel. Class 1-A moves into the Heights Alliance dormitories, builds signature moves, and sits the Provisional Hero License Exam, while crime rises, new villain groups form, and All Might's absence starts to reshape everything around them.

Principal Nezu converts U.A. into a boarding school, both to protect the students and to watch for the suspected traitor among them. Shota Aizawa tells the five who went after Katsuki Bakugo that only All Might's retirement spared them expulsion, and the class buries the tension with a contest to crown the best dorm room, which Rikido Sato wins on the strength of his cake. Tsuyu Asui finally says what has been eating her, and the rift closes.

Preparation follows. With Cementoss, Ectoplasm, and Midnight assisting, the class spends the rest of the break developing two signature moves each. Izuku Midoriya, unable to think of one, visits the Development Studio, where Mei Hatsume's disregard for convention shakes loose the point All Might had been making: he does not have to inherit a punching style along with the Quirk. Shoot Style is born, kick-based and built around speed, backed by iron soles and arm supports.

At Takoba National Stadium, 1,540 candidates learn only 100 will proceed. Everyone tapes three targets to their body and receives six balls; two eliminations earn a pass. Ms. Joke warns Shota that the exam has a tradition, which is the crushing of U.A. It begins immediately, with Ketsubutsu Academy's Yo Shindo shattering the ground under Izuku's group while Inasa Yoarashi of Shiketsu High School removes a hundred and twenty candidates in a single gust. A Shiketsu girl calling herself Camie hunts Izuku for information, impersonates Ochaco Uraraka, and is caught out because the real Ochaco would have floated and would never have arrived without a plan. Shoto Todoroki dismantles a Seijin ambush by turning their arena against them, Momo Yaoyorozu out-thinks Saiko Intelli and is rescued by classmates who refuse to pass without her, and Katsuki, Eijiro Kirishima, and Denki Kaminari break Seiji Shishikura's contempt along with his flesh prisons. Tenya Ida refuses to abandon Yuga Aoyama, whose Navel Laser signal draws the rest of the class back together, and all twenty of them clear the first stage.

The wrecked arena becomes the second exam's disaster site, staffed by the Help Us Company, whose elderly and child performers deduct points for every clumsy word and gesture. Izuku's first reaction to an injured boy is judged pathetic, and he corrects it by borrowing All Might's assurance. Ochaco recognizes her feelings for Izuku and sets them aside to focus. Then Gang Orca invades with a dozen grunts, and Shoto and Inasa waste the crisis arguing, because Inasa despises Endeavor for refusing him an autograph and despises Shoto for having the same eyes. Izuku's fury at their carelessness lands on both, and they answer it with a whirlwind of unstable flame that pins the No. 10 hero in a burning cage.

Eighty-nine of the hundred pass. Everyone in Class 1-A clears it except Katsuki and Shoto, who along with Inasa can retake the exam in April or attend a supplementary course in March. Afterward, the Shiketsu student Izuku fought walks off and melts back into Himiko Toga, who spent three days wearing the real Camie's face and leaves with a vial of Izuku's blood.

Elsewhere the aftershocks spread. Jin Bubaigawara watches organized villain crews rise as All Might's absence sinks in, and Kai Chisaki's group takes a robbery crew apart while their leader talks about curing the sick. All Might visits Tartarus, where All For One admits he groomed Tomura Shigaraki as an heir the way any man passes on what he built, and predicts a powerless retirement for his rival. All Might promises to smash that future as many times as it takes.

That night Katsuki drags Izuku to Ground Beta, having worked out that All Might can transfer power and that Izuku received it. Their fight is about neither victory nor the secret; it is about the guilt Katsuki has carried since Kamino. All Might stops them, explains why he chose a powerless boy over a talented one, and then tells Katsuki the whole truth about One For All, which Katsuki agrees to keep. Shota punishes both with house arrest and cleaning duty. The second semester opens with Nezu naming his students the successors of hero society, while one third-year in the crowd takes a particular interest.