Chapter 180

Izuku and Gentle trade blows with La Brava shouting encouragement, and the student begins losing ground to a strength he correctly attributes to her Quirk. Asked why he wants to be a hero at all, Izuku answers that the dream stopped belonging to him alone: he carries it now for everyone who believed in him, and means to become someone capable of pointing people toward a brighter future. The reply makes Gentle smile. Knocked back, Izuku watches La Brava produce a computer and prepare to breach U.A.'s network with special wireless gear, though she is out of range and has to creep closer.

Gentle keeps the boy occupied, dropping from a barrier into him and then ricocheting off a spread of platforms to batter him to the ground, declaring that he will throw away both his reputation and his elegant style to win. His respect for Izuku is genuine now. La Brava, meanwhile, gets no nearer: Ryo Inui and several Ectoplasm clones have caught the noise of the fight. Izuku answers with a barrage of wind pressure, and the one blast that connects staggers Gentle badly. Izuku vaults in front of him and lands St. Louis Smash, which finally puts the villain down and leaves him unable to move. Taking him into custody, Izuku admits this was the hardest fight he has had.

La Brava returns to find Gentle beaten and refuses his order to run, sobbing and striking Izuku while she insists that the man poured his heart into their plan and that she cannot live without him. Gentle understands that she would happily commit worse crimes so long as they were his, and he holds himself responsible for what she has become. Knowing she will be charged as an accomplice regardless, he gathers what her Quirk left him, bounces Izuku off into the air, and embraces her while telling the boy to take flight so that her future can stay bright. When Hound Dog and the clones reach the pair, Gentle declares his surrender.

Izuku defeats Gentle, concluding their battle. La Brava's attempt to disable U.A.'s security fails because she is out of range and because Hound Dog arrives with a batch of Ectoplasm clones. Her Quirk turns out to carry a limit, usable only once in a day. Gentle surrenders once the heroes arrive on the scene.

Titled Unbeknownst, or Hitoshirezu, the seventeen-page chapter ran on April 23, 2018 in the combined issues 21 and 22 of that year and appears in Volume 20 of the U.A. School Festival arc. Izuku and Gentle share the cover, and Episode 85 adapts it. Horikoshi's comment mentions the warm feeling of receiving pictures of his cat and his niece from his parents, with a promise to visit sometime.