U.A. School Festival Arc

The U.A. Cultural 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.

Summary
Aizawa informs Class 1-A that U.A. is having a culture festival. It will be exclusively held in school and each class must choose a program. Iida and Momo take charge and the students volunteer ideas. None are decided on immediately; however, later on, Class 1-A settles for a dance. Jiro is selected to be the performer.

Later at Eri's hospital, Izuku and Mirio meet Eri, who they recognize to still be scared. They offer for her to come with them to the Culture Festival and she accepts to learn more about them.

At a convenience store, a man prepares for a robbery. He is stopped by heroes, but cuts them down and claims to be Gentle Criminal. He is revealed to be a youtuber being recorded by La Brava. In order to receive more views, ​​​​Gentle strives for something that will make him more extraordinary.

In a video, Gentle talks about the strongest heroes and villains. While he is shown contemplating his robbery, he receives little credit and negative comments.

Class 1-A needs a drummer. Katsuki Bakugo is shown to be a talented drummer and Jiro attempts to persuade him into drumming during the festival. Eventually he gives in, but takes his rage out on U.A.

On the day of the festival, Izuku receives a pair of gloves specially made by Mei to allow him to use long ranged attacks via air pressure generated from his hands, he then goes out to buy a Caramel apple to give to Eri like he promised and some rope for Yuga's performance. 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. In mid-air, Izuku remembers the promises he made to Eri and the rest of his classmates and fires off a Delaware Smash Air Force at Gentle and La Brava. Gentle launches the two of them into the air but Izuku rebounds off a power pole and grabs hold of Gentle, crashing towards a construction site.

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. Seeing his opponent's resolve, Izuku prepares to launch another long range attack. La Brava arrives at the scene after making her way past the guardsman of the area and looks on as Izuku beats Gentle in a battle of words before Gentle jumps and bounces off the beams using his Quirk to catch Izuku off-guard and attack him. As Izuku recovers, Gentle tells him one of the beams is about to snap as it is still bouncing whilst recovering it's original hardness. Izuku catches the beam with botu hands and prevents it from falling on top of the guard. With Izuku occupied, Gentle tries to escape with La Brava by launching himself from a crane. At this point there are only 15 minutes left until the start of the Festival and everyone in Class 1A is preparing for their performance and wondering where Izuku could be and what's keeping him.

Gentle and La Brava continue on their way to U.A despite the setback, 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 mesmerised. 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 Cultural 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 licence 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 a support item created by Mei, Izuku develops a new long-ranged move called Delaware Smash Air Force.


 * Izuku defeats his first villain, on his own, in public, since gaining his hero license.

Characters Introduced

 * Gentle Criminal
 * La Brava
 * Brave (mentioned)
 * Oji Harima (mentioned)
 * Destro (mentioned)
 * 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 most, once per day.