Gold Tips Imperial

Class 1-A gives up its Saturday to rehearse, the band on instruments, the stage team debating effects, the dancers drilling choreography under Mina. Mirio Togata and Shota Aizawa bring Eri to meet them, and Mirio's planned grand entrance is spoiled when Izuku spots him, so he performs it anyway by presenting his backside from a hedge. Nobody reacts. Izuku, Ochaco, and Tsuyu are delighted to see Eri. Aizawa passes on Nezu's approval for her to attend, with the caution that she should arrive very early, since years cut off from society make an event this size a lot to absorb at once. Mirio offers a tour and drags Izuku along while Mina calls a break.

The tour runs into Tetsutetsu, Neito Monoma, and Yosetsu Awase hauling a dragon prop. Neito talks up Class 1-B's play and tears into 1-A's concert until Yosetsu knocks him out and apologizes, noting that Itsuka usually handles discipline but is occupied with the beauty pageant. To Eri, Mirio apologizes for exposing her to the school's worse angles. The pageant reminds him of Nejire Hado, last year's runner-up, and they find her in the equipment room mid-photo shoot with Tamaki and her friend Yuyu, wearing something striking enough to leave Izuku commenting on her proportions. She intends to win, dethroning Bibimi Kenranzaki in her final year. At U.A.'s Development Studio, Mei Hatsume is welding a giant combat suit and skipping baths for it, explaining that the festival gives the support course a spotlight the Sports Festival hands to the heroes. She asks after the Iron Soles she made for Izuku and the suit explodes before he can answer. In the Lunch Rush Cafeteria, Eri says the school's determination has stirred something in her and she wants to see how it ends. Nezu and Midnight join them, the principal thrilled and Midnight nervous about the police. A memory shows the chief urging cancellation, given rising crime and U.A.'s standing as a target; Nezu refused, arguing that hard times are exactly when students need this, and won him over with reinforced security and a promise to halt everything if any alarm sounds, false or not.

A week on, Mina fires Izuku from the dance team, then admits she is joking. He has been moved to effects, because a stationary Aoyama disco ball will wear thin and Koji suggested making it move, so Izuku will maneuver Yuga. Eijiro apologizes; Izuku agrees on the condition that he still gets to dance with Eri at some point. At 6:30 the next morning he is in the woods with All Might, struggling to chain movements at higher output and asking for a trick. All Might has none, having mastered One For All almost at once, and falls back on the advice he opened with: build the image in your head. He catches a ball flying at them from behind without looking, one of Mei's tests, and she apologizes before telling Izuku the item he requested resembles something she already built and is being customized, possibly before the festival. All Might surprises him by admitting he once used support gear himself and dropped it, and approves of Izuku's, provided he never leans on it.

The dorms have a night off. Momo credits Kyoka with dragging Denki's guitar to a usable level in a week, then brews Gold Tips Imperial sent by her mother. Ochaco offers Izuku a cup and finds him scouring the internet for pictures of All Might in equipment, until a stray tap lands on a Gentle Criminal video about tea, teasing a coming wake-up call for society. Izuku knows the name: a video villain nobody has managed to arrest. Meanwhile La Brava frets that Gentle has worked a week without a tea break. He speaks of a public souring on heroes for their lack of awareness and assures her the students will only come out stronger for the infiltration. Plotting the route, he digresses at length about a solitary house that is really a cafe where ninety minutes of Imperial Golden Tips awaits. They will coat themselves in dirt and leaves to fool Hound Dog's patrol, and La Brava will hack the internal network to kill the sensors. He remembers the beginning: a man baffled by social media, a handful of views, all of them cruel, until she hacked his account for his address and turned up declaring herself a fan who would carve his name into history. He was frightened then; her skills built everything since. He promises success as an answer to her feelings, and she embraces him in tears, confessing love he returns.

Eri is introduced to Class 1-A and cleared by Nezu to attend the festival, provided she arrives early to acclimate.

Mirio and Izuku tour U.A. with Eri, meeting Class 1-B, Nejire Hado ahead of the beauty pageant, and Mei Hatsume.

Nezu is revealed to have refused the police chief's demand to cancel the festival, agreeing instead to heightened security and an immediate shutdown on any alarm.

Izuku is reassigned from the dance team to effects, maneuvering Yuga as a mobile disco ball, and continues finger training with All Might, who approves his use of support items.

Gentle Criminal finalizes the infiltration plan, relying on La Brava's hacking to disable U.A.'s sensors, and the two confess their feelings.

Chapter 173 and Chapter 174 provide the material, continuing the U.A. School Festival arc.

The preparation scenes for Class 1-A are lengthened, and a close look at the flyer handed to Mirio is added.

A continuity error appears in Kyoka's wardrobe: her blue shirt reads "Deep Dope" in one shot and is misspelled "Deep Dooe" in the next.