Chapter 179

School Festival Start!! (開催文化祭!!) is the one hundred and seventy-ninth chapter of Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia.

Summary
Hizashi Yamada announces the opening of U.A.'s Cultural Festival which is met with a round of applause; Ryo Inui senses the ongoing battle between Izuku Midoriya and Gentle. It is 9:00 AM and Izuku fires his Delaware Smash Air Force at Gentle, hitting Gentle and blasting him and La Brava away. Gentle and La Brava are surprised that their teamwork failed to finish off Izuku. Izuku gets up and while charging begs the criminals to stop. As Gentle throws her to safety, La Brava apologizes profusely for her love not being strong enough. Izuku strikes at Gentle but misses; Gentle still believes that La Brava's feelings are not to blame for Izuku still standing. Gentle uses his Quirk and creates multiple elastic aerial barriers above Izuku and using Gently Sandwich smashes the elastic aerial barriers upon Izuku which squashes him. Gentle refuses to let go of his dream from his middle school years and yearns to accomplish it, wanting to go down in history as an individual who inspired many with his way of living and knows that Izuku as a U.A. student also understands his passion.

Izuku manages to reach out his arm, grab the ground and pull himself away from Gentle's Gently Sandwich. As he gets behind Gentle, Izuku asks the internet celebrity why he must attack U.A.'s Cultural Festival and trample everyone's passion if he understands it well. Izuku tries dragging Gentle but Gentle's cloak begins stretching which drags Izuku back to Gentle. Gentle replies that sacrifices must be made for his passion to be achieved and creates an elastic aerial barrier against Izuku. Predicting this, Izuku jumps above and charges at Gentle, refusing to let him rob of U.A's students' passion.

Gentle thinks back towards his high school years. At age 18 second year of high school, Gentle whose real name is Tobita dreamed of becoming a Hero whose name will be in the textbooks. However, Gentle's grades were terrible, was repeating years at his high school which was not highly regarded and failed the Provisional Hero License Exam four times. Because of Gentle's terrible track record, the life councilor recommended that he withdraw from the hero school as he was not cut out to be a Hero, which brought his mother to tears. On their way out, Gentle was not discouraged and would keep doing his best. One day, Gentle attempted to be a Hero and tried to save a falling window cleaner by using his aerial elastic barrier as a cushion. However, Gentle's elastic cushion prevented a pro hero from saving the window cleaner, who hit the ground and was severely injured. The officials at Gentle's school expelled Gentle and his parents kicked him out of the house. Eventually, Gentle found accommodations to rent and lived as a freeter for fours years. At age 22, Gentle was walking down the streets merrily and spotted his old classmate Takeshita and told him that they were in the same class together. Takeshita had forgotten about Gentle which devastated him; Gentle realized that he was going to live a miserable life to the point of being old and pitiful. Refusing to accept this fate is what resorted him into becoming a villain and Gentle begins his career as an internet criminal celebrity.

After being charged at by Izuku, Gentle creates an elastic trampoline beneath him and jumps behind Izuku. While charging, Gentle decides to become serious and resort to violence for the sake of his dream and passion. Enraged, Gentle yells at Izuku to go ahead and laugh at him because it does not matter since he knows what is important to him. Gentle and Izuku clash once more with Izuku blocking Gentle's enhanced punch with his enhanced might. Izuku replies that he is not laughing at Gentle's passion as La Brava begs for Gentle to be victorious.

Chapter Notes

 * The U.A. Cultural Festival officially begins.
 * Gentle's real name is revealed to be Tobita.

Characters In Order of Appearance

 * Hizashi Yamada
 * Ryo Inui
 * Izuku Midoriya
 * Tobita
 * Manami Aiba
 * Takeshita