U.A. School Festival Arc

The thirteenth arc of My Hero Academia and the fourth belonging to the Rise of Villains Saga, running from Chapter 169 to Chapter 183 and Episodes 81 to 86. It follows the Remedial Course Arc and precedes the Pro Hero Arc.

U.A. holds its annual festival while public confidence in the hero course is low. Class 1-A answers with a song and dance performance, Izuku works on ranged combat and on Eri, and Danjuro Tobita, styling himself Gentle Criminal, decides that invading the fortified school will finally carve his name into history.

Mina Ashido's dancing catches Izuku's eye as a route to better body control, and when Shota Aizawa announces the festival the class talks itself in circles before settling on a live performance. Kyoka Jiro, who has kept music and heroism in separate boxes her whole life, is pushed into leading the band. Katsuki joins on drums, refusing to do it as an apology to the other departments and insisting they simply go all out. Momo takes keyboards, Denki and Fumikage take guitars, Eijiro leads a staging team, and Mina drills everyone else in choreography.

Izuku visits Eri in hospital with Mirio Togata and finds she cannot smile properly, still gripped by what Overhaul did to her mind. He arranges permission for her to attend the festival. Meanwhile All Might teaches him to release wind pressure without shattering himself, and Izuku decides his fingers offer the precision the technique needs. Mei Hatsume builds him gloves to match.

Gentle and La Brava post their genteel robberies online to almost no audience, which infuriates her and does not deter him. His plan is simple: break into U.A. during the festival and be noticed forever. She will hack the network to silence the alarms so the event proceeds and the intrusion lands.

The morning of the festival, Izuku goes into town for rope and meets the pair leaving a cafe. Rare tea gives them both away at once, and the chase begins. Gentle's Elasticity bounces Izuku into the sky and turns a construction site into a trampoline where movement cannot be predicted. Izuku catches a falling girder to protect a bystander, lifts it one-handed to keep firing, and refuses every chance to quit. La Brava confesses her love, triggering Lover Mode, and Gentle overpowers him.

They fight on while she crawls closer to U.A. for hacking range. Gentle asks him why he wants to be a hero, and Izuku answers that his dream stopped being only his own long ago. A volley of four Delaware Smash Air Forces fired together finally staggers him, and a St. Louis Smash puts him down as Lover Mode fades. He bounces Izuku away to erase the evidence of the boy's involvement, then surrenders to Hound Dog and Ectoplasm's clones, claiming he acted alone and begging them to pardon La Brava.

Izuku covers for him, telling the teachers it was a prank and a small disagreement, and Hound Dog reports no emergency so the festival continues. Before he is taken away, Gentle mentions that he too was once in a hero course and hopes his feelings reach someone. Izuku recovers his shopping, arrives at 9:50, and takes the stage bruised.

The performance detonates. Even the upperclassmen who came to sneer end up dancing, and Kyoka, finally understanding that music and heroism both exist to give people joy, sings without reservation. The energy reaches Eri, Overhaul's hold on her cracks, and her first real smile breaks through while Mirio weeps. Nejire Hado wins the beauty pageant with a rose drawn in the air, and Izuku ends the day handing Eri a candied apple he cooked himself because no stall was selling any.

At the station, investigators marvel at La Brava's skills and get told everything she does is for Gentle. Danjuro tries to take the blame for both and is refused, since love is not brainwashing. The interrogator notes he was stopped before hitting bottom and still has the will to rebuild, which breaks the man completely, and then denies his request for proper black tea. Izuku, for his part, has fought his first villain alone and in public since earning his provisional license, and now owns a long-range move.