Chapter 45: Time to Pick Some Names

Riding to U.A. with the Sports Festival two days behind him, Izuku Midoriya draws recognition from strangers on the train who remember his performance. Tenya Ida overtakes him on campus with a lecture about arriving ten minutes early, then, once inside, insists his brother will pull through and apologizes for causing needless worry. Class 1-A is still buzzing about the attention when Shota Aizawa walks in, recovered enough to shed his bandages, and scatters everyone back to their desks.

Hero Informatics, he announces, will go toward choosing hero names, because the Pro Heroes have filed their nominations. This year's picks read less as job offers than as statements of interest in what these students might become. The tally he displays is unusually top-heavy, with Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki drawing most of it, but nominated or not, everyone is going out for workplace experience. The U.S.J. gave them a taste of the real thing under terrible circumstances; watching professionals work should teach them more. Midnight arrives at Shota's request to judge the names, and he warns the class that the image a name projects will shape the career that follows.

Fifteen minutes go on the clock, and the reveals begin. Near the end only Izuku and Tenya remain, with Katsuki sent back to rework his. Tenya has agonized over Ingenium, which Tensei asked him to carry forward now that his crippled legs will never let him return to hero work. He cannot bring himself to take it, and submits his own given name instead. Izuku goes last. Classmates ask whether he is really at peace with his choice, and he admits he hated it for years, until someone changed what it meant to him. He commits to Deku, Katsuki glaring, Ochaco Uraraka beaming.

In the faculty room, Cementoss tells All Might a late nomination has come in for the freshmen and that it is for Izuku. All Might hurries off to see who sent it and is left flabbergasted by the name. Back in class, Katsuki offers Baron of Explosion-Kills, which Midnight rejects on the spot.

Class 1-A become minor celebrities after the Sports Festival and are drafted by professionals based on their showing, with Shoto drawing the most picks despite finishing second.

The class settle on hero aliases under Midnight's judgment, and Izuku claims Deku.

Tensei asks Tenya to inherit Ingenium, and Tenya declines.

A late draft pick arrives for Izuku, leaving All Might shocked when he learns who sent it.

Kohei Horikoshi's forty-fifth chapter, 19 pages, published June 8, 2015 in issue 28 of 2015. It falls in the Vs. Hero Killer arc, collects into Volume 6, and adapts into Episode 26. Izuku Midoriya takes the cover, and Crimson Riot appears in picture form as a new character.

Mina's pitch of "Ripley Hero: Alien Queen" comes with a panel styling her after the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise. Horikoshi's author comment describes visiting the Kim Jung Gi exhibit and finding it painfully good.