Chapter 174

Golden Tips Imperial (ゴールドティップスインペリアル) is the one hundred and seventy-fourth chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Mina Ashido tells Izuku Midoriya what she means by "fired". He has been removed from the dance team and requested by the staging team. Mina informs Izuku that they plan on using Yuga Aoyama's Quirk to act like a disco ball and require Izuku's manpower. 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.

At 6:30 AM, Izuku is training his wind pressure attacks with Toshinori Yagi. As Toshinori advises Izuku to avoid internal bleeding, Izuku has been able to use his wind pressure attacks freely but struggles with maintaining control of the wind pressure at critical moments and asks Toshinori for his advice. Toshinori does not have any helpful suggestions since he was able to use One For All freely. Toshinori catches a ball which is revealed to have been thrown by Mei Hatsume who has been testing her inventions. Mei informs Izuku that an item he requested is similar to one of her inventions and is customizing it for his use, to which he thanks her. As Mei leaves, Izuku tells Toshinori that the item he requested has to do with a new technique he has developed. Toshinori shocks Izuku with the revelation that he once used support items as well, but the equipment was too bulky for him and was not effective in close range combat. While he finds reinforcing oneself with items to be a good strategy, Toshinori reminds Izuku not to rely solely on support items too much.

In U.A. High School's 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 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 and this is worrying La Brava since they have not had a tea break in an entire week. As La Brava goes to fetch some tea, Gentle notes that dissatisfaction is growing towards Heroes nowadays because of their feeble minded nature. Gentle praises U.A.'s preparations but criticizes their resourcefulness when faced with the unpredictable. La Brava wonders if Gentle will involve the U.A. students, to which he finds that simply invading U.A.'s Cultural 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 Cultural Festival; they will take empty streets to a park and after traversing through it, they will go to a lonesome house owned by an elderly seventy year old where they will drink tea for ninety minutes there because Phantom Black Tea "Imperial Golden Tips" is offered there. Afterwards, they will go through a construction site, climb a hill, and will then reach U.A. Gentle is well aware that Ryo Inui is assigned to patrol the perimeter, so they will mask their scent with dirt. When they reach U.A.'s Barrier, La Brava will hack the network to allow them access because she is a pro hacker. Gentle praises La Brava for her excellent support.

In the past, Gentle struggled with using social media and the video he uploaded by himself did not attract any attention. One day, La Brava came to his home after hacking to find his address, telling him that she was his fan and desired to help him carve his name into history. Thanks to their teamwork, Gentle's internet persona grew slowly but surely. Gentle pats La Brava 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. Cultural Festival infiltration.

Chapter Notes

 * La Brava and Gentle's first encounter is shown.
 * It is revealed that All Might used a support item to bring out 20 to 30% of his power