Chapter 178

At U.A., Neito Monoma calls Itsuka Kendo's dress gorgeous and she hears an insult in it, though he insists he meant it, having put her name into the pageant himself and rating her a lock to win. Nejire Hado declines to call it early. She wishes Itsuka luck, and Bibimi Kenranzaki sweeps in to announce the result herself.

Elsewhere, Eri rides toward the school in a taxi with Mirio Togata and Shota Aizawa. Mei Hatsume gets told to wash up before the festival. Midnight and Toshinori Yagi go over Izuku's permission to leave, since the boy had shopping to do.

Back at the site, Izuku Midoriya rides the beam down, finds it still bounces, and confirms that traces of Gentle Criminal's Elasticity remain. He takes the same crane hook the pair used and slingshots after them. He closes fast. Gentle wants La Brava's Quirk held in reserve for a retreat; she is convinced that without it they fail. They come down in the forest. With Gentle in firing range and the elastic barriers' placement in the air still fresh in his mind, Izuku kicks off one and lands behind him. Gentle throws up a barrier at his back, so Izuku fires Delaware Smash Air Force into the forward barrier instead and lets the rebound carry it. It lands hard. La Brava rushes to him, and Izuku's speed pins the pair down. Gentle cannot move. Stop resisting and surrender, Izuku tells them. La Brava's eyes fill as the grand ambition slides away.

Her past surfaces. A love letter came first, written by Manami Aiba as summer break opened during her first middle school year, and the boy read it and took her for a stalker. The rejection cost her belief in anything, and she shut herself in, aimless, welded to a screen all day.

Then a video found her while she was surfing: a man promising to turn the world's deplorable state around. She was inspired, set out to meet him, managed it, and found herself welcomed with open arms. Time together turned into attraction, and Gentle made her his sidekick, naming her La Brava and calling them a perfect combination. In the present, Izuku declares he is handing both of them to the Police Force.

She refuses. Against Gentle's wishes, La Brava triggers Love, telling him she loves him, and he says it back. Whispered, the word grants a brief surge to whoever holds the deepest place in her heart, and the stronger that feeling, the bigger the lift, and a critical moment multiplies it many times over. Gentle tears loose and kicks Izuku aside, still unhappy about resorting to brute force. Apologizing, he drops an enhanced karate chop meant to end it, and declares himself the winner because love prevails in the end.

Izuku answers that he has faced people stronger and faster than himself many times and has yet to lose. The chop caught his arm and scraped it, nothing more, which startles Gentle. Izuku raises the scraped arm across his shoulder and lines up another Delaware Smash Air Force.

The students continue their festival preparations while the fight runs outside the school.

Her real name, Manami Aiba, surfaces along with her history: a mocked love letter turned her into a recluse before Gentle's videos gave her a purpose and a partner she fell for.

La Brava uses her Love Quirk on Gentle, granting him a sharp increase in power.

Titled The Woman Called La Brava, the chapter runs seventeen pages and appeared on April 9, 2018, in issue 19 of that year. It opens volume 20 while remaining part of the U.A. School Festival arc, with Izuku alone on the cover, and Episode 85 adapts it.

Lover Mode is introduced as a super move, and the Quirks in play are One For All, Elasticity and Love.

The fight between Izuku Midoriya and Danjuro Tobita continues, with the Air Force Gloves still in use.