U.A. School Festival Arc

The U.A. School Festival Arc (雄英文化祭編) is the thirteenth story arc in My Hero Academia, as well as the fourth story arc in the Rise of Villains Saga.

U.A. is holding its annual School Festival and Class 1-A decides to perform a dance with a live band in the hopes to ease the public's doubt of their worth. At the same time, Izuku works to get Eri to smile with the performance from his class. A gentleman and his partner, however, plan to make their mark on history with U.A. and the School Festival as their target.

Summary
At Class 1-A, Mina Ashido is showing off her dance moves, which impresses some of her classmates. Interested, Izuku Midoriya wonders if her use of dance, in which she utilizes her entire body, could transfer over to his own powers, so he asks Mina to teach him to dance, to which she enthusiastically agrees. Yuga Aoyama joins them.

Seeing Mina dancing, Denki Kaminari says it's nice be able to apply their own hobbies to hero work to make one self stronger. This reminds him Kyoka Jiro's love for music, as proven by her room. Slightly upset because he talks about her, Kyoka warns Denki not to go any further on about it, threatening him with her Earphone Jack. Denki doesn't understand why she got angry.

Later, Shota Aizawa informs Class 1-A that U.A. High School will be having a School Festival. Everybody gets exited, but Eijiro Kirishima questions if it's a good idea to hold a festival when there’s been an exceptional amount of villain activity as of late. Shota acknowledges the validity of Eijiro’s point, but he explains the importance of the school festival in relation to U.A. High’s other curriculum streams, like the business and support courses.

Since class 1-A also has to participate, Shota orders them to pick out a program to perform at the festival. Tenya Iida and Momo Yaoyorozu take charge and the students volunteer ideas. The class assembles to discuss ideas for what the class will do for the festival: Denki's maid cafe, Ochaco Uraraka's Mochi Shop, Izuku's Hero Quiz, Mina's dancing, etc. Soon, Class 1-A reaches many ideas but fail to reach an agreement before the class ends. Shota gives them the ultimatum that if they don't make a decision by tomorrow, the class will be doing a “public lecture” as their contribution to the festival.

Back at Heights Alliance at night, the students, with the exception of the interns and Katsuki Bakugo, continue to discuss what to do for the festival. Tenya believes that Class 1-A should do a program where everyone can blow off steam. His classmates agree but still do not find the right option. Mina had suggested a dance, to which Shoto Todoroki unexpectedly agrees and goes on to say that relieving stress where everyone can have fun is a great idea, which he got from the Provisional Hero License training. Everyone seems to agree, but Hanta Sero still has doubts about the idea of dancing. Mina offers to teach her classmates how to dance. Then Minoru Mineta suggests that dancing requires music, which Toru Hagakure suggests Kyoka for the task.

Though, Kyoka believes that music has nothing to do with heroism and is simply just a hobby. Denki thinks playing with instruments, however, is great and Koji Koda believes that playing music can help put smiles on people's faces. Encouraged by her peers, Kyoka decides to help Class 1-A with music. All of them agreeing with dance and music, Class 1-A's school festival program will be a live performance and dance with party space.

Next day, accompanied by Shota, Izuku and Mirio Togata visiting Eri in the hospital for the first time since the incident, after she specifically requested to see them. Her energy level is down, as shown by the horn on her head gone down, so there is no danger of her activating her Rewind. Izuku finally gets to introduce himself to Eri.

Eri apologizes to them for all the trouble for her sake; however, she is unaware that Sir Nighteye has passed away. Eri is guilty that Mirio lost his Quirk because of her, but Mirio tells Eri that she is not to blame and everyone is glad that she is safe and they just wanted to see her smile. His words comfort Eri, but she is unable to smile properly because of the psychological abuse Overhaul did to her mind. In a way, Izuku realizes that she hasn't been rescued yet.

Izuku then gets an idea and asks Shota if they can let her out for a day so she can participate in the School Festival with everyone. Mirio likes the idea, and explains to Eri that the U.A. School Festival is an occasion that U.A. High School hosts lots of events on display where people can enjoy themselves while tasting delicious food like candied apples, which catches Eri's attention. Shota agrees with Izuku’s idea and phones to the principal Nezu to get his approval. Izuku asks Eri about his idea; Eri wants to get to know the people who saved her and agrees to go to the School Festival.

Meanwhile, at the Police Force office, the chief Kenji Tsuragamae is informed that a villain has uploaded another online video. Kenji orders his subordinates to investigate where the post come from. This villain is committing a robbery at a convenience store, and when some Heroes appears to stop him, he tells La Brava to stop filming, only to have her start again later with all the heroes defeated and the shop wiggling like a jelly.

The new villain reveals himself to be Gentle Criminal, a fancy and lavish-style villain and tells La Brava that they leave, without taking the money from the robbery with them, because as Gentle clarifies the viewers, he wishes for his name to be etched in history. Then he says goodbye to them until the next video. After seeing that, Chief Kenji doesn't know if Gentle Criminal is serious or not.

On top of a building, La Brava informs Gentle that their video of the store robbery isn't getting a lot of views. Gentle sees that he will have to accomplish a lot more if he wants people to start taking notice of him. While pouring tea, Gentle tells La Brava that he is searching for something that will make him extraordinary.

Later, in his "secret base", La Brava uploads the video of their latest robbery. In the video, Gentle labels himself as a modern-day gentleman thief, who punish those who behave in an ungentlemanly way. For example, the convenience store that he robbed the other day belongs to one of the largest chain in Japan and has come under fire for some shady business tactics, like hiding expiration dates of Plump Pudding.

The video is uploaded, and La Brava is infuriated because their videos receives little credit, as it seems the online community is not interested by Gentle’s actions. Gentle tries to downplay it, but La Brava is enraged because Stain and the League of Villains get all the attention. Gentle agrees with La Brava on the fact that people in general feel a greater interest in violent acts, pointing out the differences in style between them and him.

However, Gentle is not disparaged about their popularity because his new project will surpass even theirs and place him in the limelight. His next project which involves U.A. High School's Festival. As the school was fortified after being attacked and is the current symbol of the Heroes, Gentle believes that if he invades the festival, then he will become the center of attention.

Next day, at the U.A. Katsuki overhears students from other departments criticizing the Hero Course and their class's performance for all of them, seeing them as cocky, arrogant and condescending, and blaming Class 1-A for the damage being caused by the recent villain attacks against the U.A.

Later, at Height Alliance, Class 1-A is deciding who will be the members of the musical band. Katsuki is shown to be a talented drummer and Kyoka wants him for the band. However, he doesn’t want to due to the fact the other departments are mad at them and their attempts to please will only look as self satisfaction from 1-A and will not accept it. Although this generates comments among his classmates, Katsuki clarifies if they are going to do a musical performance, they should do it for the sake of it and not to please or help people. Katsuki announces that he will blow everyone away in U.A. with his sound. Some of Class 1-A are surprised with Katsuki's willingness to participate.

The students continue to discuss positions. Momo is chosen to play keyboards since she's trained in the piano. After hearing Kyoka's beautiful voice, everyone unanimously agrees that she will be Class 1-A's vocalist and also will play the bass. When she asks two volunteers for the guitarist positions, Denki Kaminari and Fumikage Tokoyami are chosen after showing their skills with the instruments.

With the band composed, everyone else will dance, but Mina quickly goes on to discuss the staging, as they need effects to set the mood. An hour past midnight, an exhausted Tenya Iida states that they have all of Class 1-A's roles for the dance hall live performance organized: Kyoka will lead the band with Momo, Katsuki, Denki, and Fumikage; Eijiro will lead the staging team with Hanta, Koji, Yuga, and Shoto; everyone else will be part of the dance team, with Yuga also participaing as the improvised disco ball.

The next day in U.A's break room, Izuku Midoriya is meeting with Toshinori Yagi. Toshinori asks Izuku why he has decided to talk to him now of all times; Izuku tells Toshinori during his fight against Overhaul, he was able to use the One For All at 20%, but it took a toll on his body and he could only use it for a short period of time, and admits that he only won against Overhaul thanks to Eri. Not only that, he could not do much against Overhaul's long-range attacks. All Might advises him that he should use ranged combat as well, which surprises Izuku.

In U.A's school grounds forest sector, Toshinori asks Izuku to activate his Full Cowl at 20%, and then, remaining in position, unleash an attack. Izuku obeys and, fighting through the pain, he jumps up and kicks, which releases wind pressure that shakes the trees. After this demonstration, All Might explains that Izuku is reaching a new level of power: being able to release wind pressure without breaking his body. He had been intending to teach the technique when Izuku reached an overall level of 15 percent but decided to do it now to address his pressing need.

All Might recaps Izuku's training and progress with his Quirk: Using One For All at 100% at one part of his body; controlling a percentage of his power at one part of his body; controlling a percentage of his power across his entire body; developing his Shoot Style, switching from punches to kicks; raising his overall level from 5 percent to 8 percent; and just recently, concentrating and drawing out 20 percent of his power for a short time.

Thanks to his exposition, Izuku realizes that he's actually copying All Might's technique of power control; since having too much power out at once would result in collateral damage, All Might only unleashed it when needed: much like Izuku is doing now. What he has to do is use One For All 20% in one area for just long enough to let it create a wind-based attack: minimizing both the strain to his body and the risk of collateral damage. Following Toshinori's advice, Izuku decides to train with his fingers, as they allow for more control.

One Saturday, while Class 1-A practice their various functions for the festival, they are visited by Shota, Mirio and Eri. Izuku, Ochaco, and Tsuyu Asui are glad to see Eri again. Shota informs that director Nezu has given permission for Eri to attend the festival, although he advised him that he should bring Eri to the U.A. first so she could adapt. Mirio states that he is showing Eri around U.A. and invites Izuku to join them. He accepts.

Mirio and Izuku give Eri a tour of the school, where she meets other students and sees how they work hard for the School Festival. For example, students in Class 1-B plan to carry out a fantasy play at the festival. Nejire Hado intends to participate in the beauty pageant, where he will compete against other students such as Itsuka Kendo and Bibimi Kenranzaki. In the U.A.'s Development Studio, Mei Hatsume is working hard building a giant combat suit as the School Festival offers a greater opportunity to put her work on display.

The three continue with the tour until they decide to go to the Lunch Rush Cafeteria. Mirio and Izuku ask Eri her opinion and she comments on everyone doing their best and she wishes to see how their hard work will turn out in the School Festival. Izuku and Mirio are happy that Eri is feeling excited. In the cafeteria they meet Nezu, who is also eager for the festival, and with Midnight, who explains that the commissioner wanted to cancel the festival due the increase of the criminal activity, but Nezu managed to convince him otherwise after assuring him that they have reinforced security and agree to suspend all activities if alarms sound, even if it is a false alarm.

Nemuri leaves after wishing Izuku his best to at Class 1-A performance. When Eri asks about it, he tells her that Class 1-A will be doing a dance party with live music performance and promises Eri that she'll have a great time at the festival, before returning to his class.

A week passes and Mina tells Izuko that he has been removed from the dance team and requested by the staging team. Izuku is shocked at first since he had promised Eri that he would dance. Mina informs him that they plan on using Yuga Aoyama's Quirk to act like a disco ball and require Izuku's super strength to maneuver Yuga from the rafters while he's above the audience. Eijiro Kirishima apologizes to Izuku for doing this; Izuku decides to go along with their new plan as long as he gets a turn to dance.

The next morning, at 6:30, Izuku continues training under All Might's supervision. Izuku is struggling to shoot wind pressure attacks with his fingers and asks All Might for any advice, but he doesn't have any. Suddenly Mei appears while following one of her gadgets (something requested by Class 1-B for their presentation), that All Might caught. Mei notices Izuku and tells him the item that he requested is similar to one of her inventions, so she's altering it for his use; Izuku thanks her.

As Mei leaves, Toshinori asks him about it. Izuku tells that the device he requested has to do with a new technique he has developed. All Might approves the usage of gadgets and suport items, as long as he doesn't rely too much on them, and surprises Izuku by revealing that he had once used support equipment. Over time, though, he found them too bulky and ineffective at his preferred close range, so he chose to fight relying on his own body. They continue training.

In Heights Alliance, Class 1-A is taking a break and Momo Yaoyorozu has received special tea from her mother called Phantom Black Tea "Imperial Golden Tips". As Momo prepares to let her classmates try the tea, Ochaco Uraraka asks Izuku if he wants some, but he is busy looking for an online video regarding All Might using support items. Izuku accidentally taps on a video on black tea by Gentle. At the end of his video about premium Black Tea "Royal Flush" he announces that his next video will be about society receiving a wake up call. Izuku notes that Gentle Criminal is an infamous villain known for his online videos, impressed that he has never been arrested for it and ponders about his future plans.

Meanwhile, Gentle has been working non-stop in his new plan and La Brava brings him some tea. Gentle notes that dissatisfaction is growing towards Heroes nowadays because of their feeble minded nature. La Brava wonders if Gentle will involve the U.A. students, to which he finds that simply invading U.A.'s School Festival in it of itself is a wake up call for them to grow stronger, which La Brava finds cool.

On his computer, Gentle decides to double check the route they will take to get to U.A.'s School Festival. First, they have to go to a lonesome house that is actually a café where he can enjoy 90 minutes of teatime, drinking "Imperial Golden Tips" tea. Afterwards, He vows that they will infiltrate U.A. They will mask their scent with dirt to avoid being detected by Hound Dog, who will be responsible for patrolling the perimeter. And to surpass the U.A,'s Barrier, La Brava will use her hacking skills to infiltrate the U.A.'s internal network and disable the sensors.

Gentle is glad to have a partner like her and remembers when he started his criminal activity. At first, he struggled with using social media and his videos did not attract any attention, until one day Manami Aiba came to his place after hacking his account to get his address, proclaiming to be his fan and eager to help him to carve his name into history. Gentle says that at first, he was afraid of that situation, but thanks to her help and computer skills his popularity increased.

La Brava gets goosebumps by Gentle's words but he pats on her head and ensures her that he will make the U.A. infiltration a success not only to secure the future of the world but as a response to her love. Crying tears of joy, La Brava hugs Gentle and proclaims her love for him, to which Gentle reiterates the same line of thought and vows to succeed in their U.A. School Festival infiltration.

The night before the school festival, Class 1-A is making their final preparations for their musical performance before the day of the, with Mina working hard to have the dance choreograph precisely. The practice is cut short when Hound Dog arrives to tell them it's nine p.m. and they must return to their rooms.

In Heights Alliance, some of the students cannot sleep from the nervous and excited that they are. Izuku and Yuga are checking the stuff for the mirror ball play. Izuku realizes that the rope is frayed from overusing it during the practices. Denki advises him to ask Momo to create another rope but Mina tells him that she is sleeping right now. Izuku says that since tomorrow morning he has to go out to buy several things, he will take the opportunity to buy a new rope. Before all going to sleep, Class 1-A vows to make their School Festival event a success.

The day of the festival has arrived. At 6:30 p.m., Izuku is training with Toshinori Yagi when a filthy Mei shows up and gives Izuku the support equipment he requested: a pair of gloves specially made to allow him to use long ranged attacks via air pressure generated from his hands. A happy Izuku thanks Mei for her hard work and Toshinori is impressed by how compact the support equipment is. Before leaving, Mei gives Izuku the gloves' manual, and Toshinori asks him to test them, with which Izuku agrees.

Izuku was practicing to get used to the gloves until he was almost out of time. At 7:50 AM, Izuku rushes to buy the things he needs while still wearing the gloves. At 8:30, Izuku hurries back to the U.A., after buying everything he needed. On his way back however, he runs into Gentle and La Brava who are in disguise. Gentle mentions Golden Tips Imperial tea which Izuku remembers as the tea Momo served to everyone the day before. Too late, Gentle realises that Izuku is a U.A. student, at the same instant Izuku recognizes Gentle as the criminal from the videos he saw with Ochaco and implores him to leave U.A. alone.

Gentle tells La Brava to keep the camera rolling at all costs, Izuku charges at them but is bounced back by Gentle's Gently Rebound. The two are surprised by how far Izuku bounces back from it and deduce that he must be quite strong and fast. They flee from him but Izuku gives chase, Gentle uses Gently Trampoline to launch Izuku into the air and warns him not to interfere, as he and La Brava bounce away towards the U.A. La Brava recognized Izuku as the "crazy boy" who broke his arms fighting in the U.A. Sports Festival and tells Gentle this fact, which surprises him who doesn't want to be involved with Izuku furthermore.

In mid-air, Izuku remembers the promises he made to Eri and the rest of his classmates as well Mina's lessons where she advises him that he must focus his attention for an instant as he moves. Deku clears his head of all doubts and and fires off a Delaware Smash Air Force at the villains, hitting Gentle right in the back.

Despite being hit, Gentle Criminal refuses to give up, but Izuku rebounds off a power pole and grabs hold of Gentle, crashing towards a construction site, as La Brava cries out. The crash to the construction site attracted the attention of an old man. La Brava tries to convince him that they are filming and to pass on to his neighbors, hoping to buy some time for Gentle to retreat.

Izuku has landed on the construction site and recovers quickly, thanking Mei Hatsume for building the gloves in time to stop Gentle as well as Mina for balancing his stance with her dance lessons. On the other hand, Gentle's coat gets stuck on a beam and he gently swings himself around while telling Izuku he will not get agitated, because a true gentleman never panics. Refusing to waver, Gentle plans on going through with his infiltration while Izuku asks about Gentle's objective.

Gentle tells Izuku that he prefers not to be lumped as being the same as the League of Villains, because he has no intention of stealing or harming anyone, since all he wants is to sneak into the school festival. As La Brava reaches them, Gentle pleads Izuku to let him go, which shocks her.

Izuku tells Gentle that the moment he enters the U.A. School Festival the alarm will go off and the festival will be cancelled immediately. Gentle assures him that he does not have to worry about that because his partner in crime will disable the alarm system, which will make the festival proceed on and allow his infiltration to succeed. Izuku quickly refutes his argument saying that it will make an even bigger problem, and Gentle can’t deny that Izuku is right, which shocks La Brava again.

Deku tries to bluff Gentle with a false report to the police forces but Gentle wants to accomplish his goal, no matter what,and the battle resume. Gentle uses his Quirk again, bouncing around the construction site by causing all the girders to become elastic, and causing Midoriya to simply be unable to calculate or predict Gentle's movements due to all the bounciness of the girders, as well as causing the air to be bouncy. Izuku shoots Gentle, but he uses his Quirk to make the attack rebound, hitting Deku himself. As Izuku stumbles, La Brava suggests retreating but Gentle plans on dealing with Izuku first.

As Izuku recovers, Gentle removes the nuts and bolts from a construction beam due to them being turned into elastic, and tells it's about to snap as it is still bouncing whilst recovering its original hardness. Gentle jumps from the collapsing construction beam, forcing Midoriya to jumps in the way of the steel beam to catch it with both hands and prevents it from falling on top of the civilian La Brava met before. Izuku is angered because Gentle tried to harm an innocent person, but Gentle retorts that he expected Izuku to avoid that incident, assuring him that he was going to bounce the beam away from the civilian if Izuku didn't move. With Izuku occupied, Gentle tries to escape with La Brava by turning a crane's hook into elastic and launching themself towars the U.A.

It is 8:45 AM and at this point there are only 15 minutes left until the start of the Festival and everyone in Class 1-A is preparing for their performance. Shoto Todoroki sees that Izuku is not there and wonders what is taking him so long, to which Yuga Aoyama concurs, stating that he went out to buy rope. There are 15 minutes remaining until the start of the festival.

Gentle and La Brava continue on their way to U.A., however Izuku musters up some strength and manages to hold the beam with one hand while preparing another aerial attack to fire at the criminal duo. He succeeds in getting them off course as they attempt to dodge his attack. Izuku places the beam down and La Brava says that it is time to use her Quirk if they are to win against him.

Back at U.A. everyone is preparing for the Festival as the teachers get concerned at Izuku's absence. Mirio drives Eri and Shota to U.A. and asks her is she is excited to see Izuku perform. At the construction site, Izuku propels himself towards Gentle and La Brava, who have reached a forest close to U.A. He out maneuvers Gentle and pins them both to the ground and asks them to surrender. La Brava flashes back to when she first got introduced to Gentle. She had been in depression ever since she was rejected by her high school crush who called her a stalker. Then one day she saw one of Gentle's videos and was mesmerized. She sought out Gentle and asked to join him, he accepted her without hesitation and they had been partners ever since. La Brava confesses her love for Gentle, which activates her Quirk Love this grants Gentle a boost in power and he manages to wrest himself and La Brava free from Izuku's grasp. He then karate chops Izuku at the back of the head and Izuku is dazed, he remains conscious and prepares to fire off another aerial blast.

Back at U.A. the School Festival gets underway as Hound Dog catches the scent of the combatants in the forest. Izuku charges towards Gentle again as both the villain and La Brava are shocked at the boy's persistence and can't believe that "Lover Mode" failed them. La Brava apologizes to Gentle saying her love wasn't enough but Gentle tells her no one can say her feelings weren't enough. He attacks Izuku with a Gently Sandwich and says he must accomplish his dream and that it is no longer just his own. Izuku gets behind Gentle and pulls him by the coat tails and asks him if he understands all that why he would choose to trample on the dreams of all those at U.A. We then flashback to Gentle's high school years as he failed his classes, was held back and failed the provisional license exam four times. He is then shown to attempt to rescue a civilian but in doing so he gets in the way of the Pro Hero who was also trying to save them and the civilian ended up getting injured severely.

Following this, Gentle's parents kicked him out and he was forced to get by on his own. Then one day he meets an old classmate of his who had become a Pro Hero but when he speaks with him, the classmate does not recognize him, this devastates Gentle who can't believe he is almost completely forgotten already. That is when he resolved to become a villain and began his current path in life, so he could be remembered by the world. Gentle and Izuku clash head on against each other.

On the ground, Izuku launches several wind pressure attacks which Gentle manages to evade most of them but is hit by one of them. Gentle loses his balance and is stunned as a result of Izuku's wind pressure attack. Using this opportunity, Izuku jumps in front of Gentle and attacks him with Shoot Style: St. Louis Smash. The strength of Izuku's St. Louis Smash is enough to finally bring down Gentle and renders him immobile. Izuku apprehends Gentle and admits that out of all the battles he has fought, the one with him has been the toughest so far.

La Brava returns to the area and sees that Gentle has been defeated by Izuku as Gentle orders her to run away. A flabbergasted La Brava instead demands Izuku to let Gentle go and while hitting Izuku, yells that Gentle poured his heart and soul into their U.A. infiltration plan and is unable to live without him. Gentle musters up the remaining strength given to him by La Brava's Quirk and pushes Izuku off and into the air, using his Quirk to bounce Izuku away. Gentle gives Izuku the victory of the battle before he hugs La Brava and tells Izuku to fly away as Hound Dog and the Ectoplasm clones who were alerted of the battle arrive to detain Gentle and La Brava. Gentle surrenders to them immediately.

Story Impact

 * Izuku has started practicing long range attacks.
 * After receiving support gloves created by Mei, Izuku develops a new long-ranged move called Delaware Smash Air Force.
 * Izuku defeats his first villain by himself, in public, since gaining his provisional hero license.

Battles & Events

 * Izuku Midoriya vs. Danjuro Tobita
 * U.A. School Festival

Characters Introduced

 * Gentle Criminal
 * La Brava
 * Brave (mentioned)
 * Oji Harima (mentioned)
 * Destro (mentioned)
 * Tsutsutaka Agoyamato
 * Chikuchi Togeike
 * Yuyu Haya
 * Bibimi Kenranzaki
 * Takeshita

Quirks Introduced

 * Elasticity: Gentle's Quirk allows him to bestow the property of elasticity to anything he touches.
 * Love: La Brava's Quirk allows her to send a temporary power boost to the person she loves the most, once per day.

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Festiwal Kulturowy U.A. (wątek)