Chapter 176

Deku vs The Gentle Criminal (デク ジェントル) is the one hundred and seventy-sixth chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Gentle praises Izuku for figuring out his identity while La Brava recognizes Izuku from somewhere. Izuku checks his surroundings and sees that he cannot call for help since there are no people passing by nor are there any Hero Offices in the vicinity. Izuku thinks about asking the shopkeeper to call for help, but quickly decides not to and instead activates One For All Full: Cowl 8%, intending on stopping Gentle by himself. Gentle tells La Brava to keep the camera recording on. As he removes his cape and hat, Gentle tells his listeners to bear witness to his dazzling ambitions, deciding to call his video "Check This Out! I Snuck Into U.A!".

Izuku charges at Gentle but suddenly stops moving as he has run into an elastic sheet. Gentle reveals that his Quirk is Elasticity which gives him the ability to grant the property of elasticity to anything he touches including air. Gentle uses Gently Rebound on Izuku which blasts Izuku across the street as Gentle comments on his dislike for using violence to solve his problems. La Brava is surprised at Gentle's elasticity power to send Izuku far away, to which Gentle surmises that Izuku processes considerable speed to make his Elasticity do so. Gentle and La Brava attempt to make their escape but Izuku comes charging at them, warning them to keep their hands off his school. Gentle turns around and uses his Quirk on the ground. Izuku gets caught by Gentle's Gently Trampoline and is shot into the air. Gentle admits that he also did his due diligence with school festivals when he was at school and is aware that Izuku is also burning with the same passion who doesn't want anyone ruining it, but refuses to waver in his venture in infiltrating U.A as it is his first step into building his legend. Gentle bids Izuku farewell as the self-proclaimed internet celebrity and La Brava bounces away on his Gently Trampolines. La Brava remembers that Izuku is from U.A's Sports Festival and tells Gentle this fact, which surprises Gentle who now wishes to not be further involved with Izuku and decides to quickly infiltrate U.A before he gets the chance to tell them.

Izuku remembers everyone putting lots of hard work into making the U.A Cultural Festival a fun success; from Eri to Kyoka and Katsuki and refuses to let that passion be for nothing. Izuku thinks he needs to land but decides to use his wind pressure attacks that he's been practicing with All Might. Using his finger, Izuku launches Deleware Smash Air Force which hits Gentle. Even though he was hit by Izuku's move, he refuses to waver and continues on-wards. Using One For All Full Cowl's enhanced speed, Izuku jumps onto a telephone post and charges at Gentle, grabbing him by his arm and cloak. Izuku refuses to let Gentle ruin U.A;s Cultural Festival since it is more than just him. Seeing Izuku's determination and passion, Gentle apologizes for his rudeness.

Izuku takes Gentle and smashes him into a construction building as La Brava cries out.

Chapter Notes

 * Gentle's Quirk is revealed to be Elasticity.
 * La Brava recognizes Izuku Midoriya due to his participation in the Sports Festival.