Chapter 103

Hanta cannot square Inasa's admiration for U.A. with his refusal to enroll. Shota grants the boy is odd but formidable, and tells the class to stay wary. A woman then greets Shota like an old acquaintance, cracking jokes he refuses to enjoy. Izuku identifies her for the class: the Smile Hero, Ms. Joke, whose Roaring Laughter Quirk forces helpless laughter and wrecks both thinking and coordination. Tsuyu notes how close the two seem, and Ms. Joke explains their workplaces were near each other and they covered each other's trouble, which is why she knows him so well. Shota flatly rejects the implication that they were ever lovers. She reveals she teaches Class 2-2 at Ketsubutsu Academy.

Several of her pupils wander over with greetings. Yo Shindo is the warmest of them, saying he admires 1-A for pushing through everything the year threw at them, since clearing obstacles is what the job demands. His attempt to greet Katsuki is rebuffed, and Eijiro scolds Katsuki for the rudeness, though Yo takes no offense. Ms. Joke sends her class to change and asks Shota whether he warned his own about the thing that happens every year. He has not.

Within the stadium, a visibly sleep-starved man from the Hero Public Safety Commission introduces himself as the examiner: Yokumiru Mera. He tells the 1,540 candidates that only 100 will sit the actual exam, to their considerable frustration, and that a First Exam will decide which hundred. The point of it is speed, an essential of heroics. Each candidate takes three targets and fastens them anywhere visible except the feet and armpits, then receives six balls. A target lights when struck, and the third light means elimination, credited to whoever lit it. Downing two candidates with those six balls is the pass mark. Targets and balls will be issued a minute after the round begins.

The floor opens to reveal the stadium ringed by wildly varied terrain. From the stands, Ms. Joke marvels that Shota, notorious for expelling students, failed nobody, and wonders if he actually likes this class. His indifference sends her into laughter.

On the ground, Izuku argues that Class 1-A should move as a unit, expecting the contest to break along school lines. Eijiro, Katsuki, and Shoto peel off to use their Quirks freely and avoid making a clustered target, while others follow Izuku, who points out that rival schools already know their Quirks and habits. Ms. Joke tells Shota that the format changes yearly but one tradition never does, the ritual known as Crushing U.A.

The round starts and dozens of candidates converge on Izuku's group, eager to remove them. Yo, spotting Izuku again, remarks that the boy's power tears him apart on every activation, then joins the barrage of balls. Izuku, Minoru, Mina, Ochaco, and Fumikage answer with their Quirks and hold the volley off. Shota tells Ms. Joke the warning would have changed nothing, because the obstacle has to be cleared either way; a hero digs out of a corner no matter the circumstances. Izuku tells his classmates to brace.

Ms. Joke debuts alongside her Ketsubutsu Academy students, including Yo Shindo, Shikkui Makabe, Tatami Nakagame, and Itejiro Toteki.

Yokumiru Mera, sent by the Hero Public Safety Commission, introduces the exam and reveals only 100 of the 1,540 candidates will advance.

The First Exam is a speed-based preliminary: three targets each, six balls, and elimination on the third light, with two takedowns required to pass.

Izuku urges Class 1-A to work as a group, while Katsuki, Eijiro, and Shoto split off to fight independently.

Dozens of candidates converge on Class 1-A at once, opening the tradition of Crushing U.A., and the class blocks the first barrage with their Quirks.

Chapter 103 of My Hero Academia, by Kohei Horikoshi, spans 18 pages. It saw print in 2016's thirty-eighth issue, dated August 22, and volume 12 collects it under the Provisional Hero License Exam arc. Shoto Todoroki and Izuku Midoriya share the cover.

Horikoshi's author comment recalls opening his umbrella while shouting BAN KAI, offered as congratulations on the conclusion of Bleach.

Ms. Joke, Shikkui Makabe, Yo Shindo, Tatami Nakagame, Itejiro Toteki, and Yokumiru Mera all debut. The action unfolds entirely at Takoba National Stadium, and Stain appears in a mention. The anime adapts the material in Episode 53.