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super-paper · 8 months

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Rereading the early chapters of MHA, and tbh I think we can pin this scene as the exact moment Tomura develops his fixation on Izuku.

Everyone in this scene assumes that All Might doesn’t need any help and starts wandering off, leaving All Might to face Kurogiri and Tomura alone. Izuku is the only one to intervene, "offering help that no one asked for." Of course, Izuku is the only one with actual insight into All Might’s condition and realizes that he's in danger— but from Tomura’s perspective, Izuku is some rando kid that's throwing himself into danger to help someone who doesn’t appear to need any help. And the emphasis on everyone else being willing to just sit back and do nothing while All Might handles everything is something we know ties directly to one of Tomura’s biggest traumas:

Tomura: "Don't just watch. Help Me. Someone please look at me. Don't just tell me not to cry. Don't just smile and pretend that everything is alright. Don't pretend you don't see me." MHAReddit: Ah, I understand-- obviously, the series is saying that Tenko is dead and we can beat this guy by punching him harder! :)

I gotta stress that Shouto and Co. are kids and I'm not faulting them for deciding to let an adult handle the situation (and I don't doubt in the slightest that they would have also chosen to intervene if they were privvy to the same information abt Toshinori's health as Izuku)-- but from Tomura's perspective where he holds pretty much everyone equally responsible for society's failings, this act was enough for him to start subconsciously singling Izuku out.

Meanwhile, the sports festival just reinforces Tomura's budding interest bc it reinforces that Izuku is actually batshit crazy and Tomura's response to this is to ask ".... how crazy we talkin'? 👀"

Oh, Izuku, you were definitely gonna get kidnapped at some point 😭

Anyway, stuff like this is also why I feel that Horikoshi likely planned on having Izuku save Tomura from the very beginning (And I've seen ppl argue that Hori had planned to have Tomura be the final boss and get defeated/killed because of Nine's existence, but let's be real-- Nine was an AFO expy parading around in a Yoichi expy's body and ya'll know it). There's a lot of set up for why Izuku is ultimately the best person to save Tomura scattered throughout the early stages of the manga, like, literally starting from the very first page:

Izuku: *crying the biggest and ugliest tears mankind has ever seen, snot pouring out of his nose, sweating a frankly concerning amount, and fighting back his own tears because he just can't ignore the tears of others* I GOTTA SAVE THAT CRYING BOY....!!! Shigaraki Tomura, famously a freak, inching himself closer to Midoriya Izuku's splash zone with every chapter: ....... :) :) :)

Izuku saves others despite being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess--often times while he's being a sobbing, snotty, sweaty mess. It's antithetical to All Might and Nana's beliefs about saving others with a smile and about cultivating an "image"/"mask" meant to reassure others-- but that's not a bad thing, and the whole series is built around showing us why it isn't a bad thing.

Izuku cannot separate his own inherent humanity and desires from his heroism and is driven by impulse/ego/pain the same way Tomura is. He remains a crybaby who wears his emotions on his sleeve throughout the entirety of the manga-- and the lesson he ultimately learns isn't that he should "just stop crying and hide all his fear behind a smile," it's that he shouldn't run from that aspect of himself because it's the part of himself that allows him to empathize with others. Izuku saves a piece of himself every time he gives his all to save those who are in tears, and he's become the exact type of hero who would've given it his all to save his child self.

This might not be the sort of hero Izuku fantasized about being-- but it's exactly the sort of hero Tomura needs after a lifetime of having his own tears downplayed and ignored by everyone.

on that note, the anime having Tenko and Izuku's "masks" basically evaporating to reveal their soft, sparkly, shoujo-y centers in that one season 6 OP remains one of the most on-point visuals the anime has ever given us lmfao. can't wait to see what they do for s7.....!

#sophie.txt #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #just rambling a bit so this post doesn't have much in the way of direction/cohesion. no matter...........!!!#mha.txt

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candlecoo · 1 year

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So I’ve recently reread the wooden doll au, and I feel kinda bad that I forgot about the deku doll aspect. So other than the entrance exam, do you have any scenarios where he uses it, like in training or a real emergency?

Yeah!

So Izuku uses his doll aspect as an ace up his sleeve, pulling it out and catching everyone by surprise. Everyone forgets about the doll aspect and focuses on his flashy masks, it is everyone's downfall!!

Izuku uses it to repeatedly trap the Nomu at the USJ. He also uses it to take down Shinso in the Sports Festival. Shinso was expecting Izuku to pull some big stunt or do something flashy. So he's thrown for a loop when Izuku charges him and slaps him in the face, next thing he knows everything goes dark and all of a sudden he's outside the ring!

When push comes to shove Izuku will just slap a motherfucker into dollhood.

#wooden doll au #candle answers #ask the candle #bnha au #bnha #bnha headcannons

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sapphic-agent · 9 months

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I remember the interview with Hori saying how he regrets introducing Bakugou the way he did and that got me thinking about what he really meant by that.

Now I can understand writing a character a certain way and going back to it to see how cringe and or bad it was, that I can understand.

But here's the thing... you would think Hori would find a way around it instead of just... writing it like it never happened.

And it also seems to me that he says he regrets it because it makes Bakugou look bad. And since we all know how he's treated in the narrative it comes across that way to me at least.

This is very interesting. As a writer myself I definitely relate to rereading and going "wtf was I thinking this character sucks." In fact, I think most of my early OCs from like 7th-10th grade are like that. But ignoring the cringe doesn't make it go away lmao.

I know he admitted at one point that he didn't know what to do with Bakugou in the beginning. And it shows because after the Battle Trials he really isn't present through season 2 other than winning the Sports Festival. Then he started to gain popularity so he started getting more limelight. So your guess that he regrets it because of how terrible Bakugou comes off at the start of the show is definitely on-point. Most of what he did at the beginning is absent from his "apology" as well so I think Horikoshi did retcon it (in his mind at least).

#anti bakugou katsuki #bnha critical #mha critical #anti bakugo katsuki #ask #anti bakugou

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bakerstmel · 5 months

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Fall Favorite Fic Festival, Entry 5

Remember, winter doesn't officially begin until December 21, she said pedantically.

I've delayed writing this entry because I was trying to define the reason (or reasons) why I love this fic so damn much. I read this fic at least twice a year, usually sometime in February and then again in the fall. It's a sports fic, and while I am not in general a sports person, I do love me some baseball. But the sport isn't the reason I love this fic, and I think I may have figured it out. Stick with me.

I started the link at Chapter 2, because Chapter 1 is a guide to baseball for the uninitiated. Some of it is out of date now, because MLB in its STUPIDITY has messed around with the rules this year because GOD FORBID people have to wait longer than a minute for anything to fucking happen on a sports field, and of course only HITS matter, but it is still fun to read. You don't need it to appreciate the fic, though.

Whilst I was processing this fic, I spent some time thinking about sports fics in general, and that led me to reread a couple of other favorites. One was A Study in Winning, by Jupiter_Ash. I really like that fic as well, even though I know next to nothing about tennis. I like the drama of the story, I like Sherlock faking his nationality just because, and I enjoy John being a petty little bitch to Moriarty there at the end. I feel like there for a while everyone had read or was reading that fic. Another one I went back to was Of Ice and Men, by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John, which is an OT3 set during the Winter Olympics. That one has John in the Paralympics, which gives the relationships an entirely new dimension. There are other good sports fics - throw your favorite in the comments, if you like. I'm mostly limiting my scope in these musings to Sherlock, as I've said before, but I'll read anything if it's good. Links to these two fics are below.

One of the ways in which sports fics have an advantage is that they have a built in structure. There's a match, or a tournament, or a season, and the relationship drama plays out against that backdrop. Writing classes always talk about the "ticking clock" approach to narrative tension, and almost every sport has some type of literal ticking clock. The Bang and the Clatter plays out over a full baseball season, including Spring Training and the postseason. That's basically a year minus the main American holidays, and EarlGreyTea does a really good job of letting the story play out at an appropriate pace. That's very impressive considering that she was posting this as a WIP over the course of an actual season.

(I need to take a minute to talk about my issues with EGT, and by "issues" I mean "soul churning jealousy." EGT is ridiculously prolific. If you go back into the fandom annals and look at the timing of some of her biggest fics, she was posting what became major reference points for the fandom in tandem, writing multiple fics at the same damn time, while, you know, teaching law or moving cross country. She is the best example I know of the importance of writing regularly. Of course, she's incredibly gifted, highly skilled at plotting, characterization, pacing, and just words. She has a fabulous imagination. Her dialogue rings true, and it's fun. But she can turn really good stuff out relatively quickly because she's limber AF. She writes. Anyone who comes to Word Sprints on Sundays or just hangs with me writing knows I'm not fast. I'm lucky to break 100 words in 15 minutes. Part of that is that I edit as I go, but it's also that I don't write as often as I would like to, so it takes me some time to warm up. I would like to be more like EGT, which probably sounds kind of creepy. I hope she doesn't see this. Anyway, she's written many of my top 20, and she actually finishes her stuff. So, yeah. Issues.)

So here is where I ended up: this is a good AU that takes advantage of the time crunch of the sport in which it is set, but that is not why I read it 2+ times per year. I read it because this is one of my favorite John and Sherlock relationships ever. It feels so in character for the way we see them in the show (at least through S2; this was written in 2013). We see them meet, we feel their attraction, we feel Sherlock's very authentic confusion. We feel their fear at being caught out, at first by each other and then by the world. They earn their angst. The way to my heart is good characterization, and this has that. Alongside the battery, the OCs (especially Sherlock and John's families) are complex and have issues of their own. Moriarty doesn't show up until the All Star Workout, which is halfway through the season for those of you who don't know, but it works because by that point, John and Sherlock have things to lose. Lestrade is the best effing choice for a beleaguered, exasperated baseball manager there ever was. Mycroft saves the day AND fucks it up, which I wish we'd seen more of in those days.

Also, John and Sherlock never get too far away from each other, and when they're separated, it's usually for narrative reasons. I like that in a fic, I've come to realize. I like to watch the characters' interplay. It's hard for Sherlock to keep secrets from John when they work together, commute together, and live together, and John is no fool. Their office isn't 221b Baker Street, it's a stadium in Austin, TX, where shit plays out in front of 30k people. John loves baseball. Sherlock loves John. They fight, they fall in love, they eat Chinese food, and they play baseball. And best of all, they are themselves together.

If you read the parts that EGT wrote after the big story, there's a mention of Sherlock pulling together a pick up game in London made of American ex-pats for John's sake, and I'll tell you what. That really pulls this fic together for me. This Sherlock would do that for this John, and we end up a little on the outside looking in, and it's just charming as fuck.

In conclusion, read this even if you don't know baseball, if you want great characterization, a chance to be reminded of how beautiful John and Sherlock were together back in the golden age. Pay attention to the ticking clocks in your favorite fics; intentional or not, there's almost always some time pressure ginning up the conflict. If you're a writer, the best way to get better is to write more. Feels like bullshit, but it's true. And finally, fuck MLB forever for going the completely wrong way on the DH. Pitchers in both leagues should have to/get to hit, and more to the point, DHs should have to fucking do something when their teams are out in the field. I will die on this mound.

(Also, if I'm being honest, Bull Durham is probably my favorite movie, so maybe I'm more of a baseball fan than I'm letting on. I do generally love baseball in popular media. But I still think it's the characterization.)

#fall favorite fic festival #FFFF5 #The Bang and the Clatter #EarlGreyTea68 #A Study in Winning #Jupiter_Ash #Of Ice and Men #sincewhendoyoucallme john

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theloganator101 · 1 year

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So i was rewriting the sports festival arc for my fic and i had to reread Bakugou's fights.

I hate them all.

First off, Monoma should have stolen that headband and kept it. I was rereading and there's no explanation for how Bakugou breaks through the air shield aside from a retroactive one that it was weak then but somehow became stronger for the joint training?? It feels like an asspull since how??? How would you even train that to be stronger?? It just feels like hori didn't want his favourite to lose.

Second, you're telling me he beat Uraraka with a bigger explosion with no recoil?? That victory was plain bullshit. Bakugou should have never won the sports festival whatsoever.

In short: The Sports Festival was pretty much to wank off Bakugou and show off how powerful he is when it just shows how much of a Gary Stu he is.

Oh, and then have him bitch how his victory over Shoto wasn't legit and tried to attack him when he was unconscious.

And I'm not even gonna touch on the whole chaining him up scene!

And this event is somehow more popular than the Olympics!?

#bnha critical #mha critical #anti bakugou #antibakugo #anti katsuki bakugou #anti bakugo #bakugou bashing #bakugo bashing

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just-an-alligator · 1 year

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Izuku Midoriya and the Pointless, Quirkless, Origin Story

More of a ramble than an analysis but-

Rereading My Hero Academia I couldn’t help but notice that Once Izuku gets OfA he never really addresses or acknowledges his quirkless roots. Sure there are some brief moments, like his short interaction with All Might at the sports festival, but nothing ever comes of it.

None of his classmates, bar Bakugou, have any idea that Izuku was quirkless or that he ‘got his quirk late.’ I am also fairly convinced that after changing his official quirk status there was no way for any of his teachers (except those already in the know about OfA) to know where he came from and why he had such dramatic struggles with control. It’s not like teachers can get full and unlimited access to their students medical history after all.

It’s such a shame too because actually having it addressed, showing how quirkless people are treated in a society of superpowers, beyond references to bullying, could have added such an interesting dimension to his character. It’s also a missed opportunity considering how Horikoshi has alluded to quirk discrimination (villainous and mutant types specifically).

As it stands Izuku has all but forgotten his own origin story. MHA could have started out with Izuku as a boy struggling with an extremely powerful and yet extremely self destructive quirk with very few changes to the plot.

The only reason it really bothers me is that the premise of the story is, “how does the one normie in a super human society function and make an impact on the world?” And the story did not stay true to its own premise and it has done everything it can to forget that this was a huge aspect of Izuku’s character.

#bnha #mha #midoriya izuku #bnha deku #bnha critical #quirkless midoriya izuku #mha critical #my hero academia #boku no hero academia

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redrobin-detective · 3 months

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*waves at you* Robiiiiiiiin! For the ask game, please!

10. What scene was the most fun to write for you and why?

Oh that's an easy one.

Chapter 14 of TLWA, the Izuku/Shouto Sports Festival fight.

I remember it so clearly, it was Halloween day of 2017 and I'd been avoiding writing the chapter for a bit bc I knew it was going to be a Big One, a chapter that completely changed the course of the story. But I had a party to go to that evening so I was determined to at least get started and found myself unable to stop.

Let's See How Far We've Come by Matchbox 21 was playing on repeat on my headphones and I got way into the zone. I could see the fight playing out before my eyes and I typed so hard and so fast I barely remembered what the last word I wrote was before moving onto the next. I was possessed, insane. I finished that chapter in one sitting and was shaking and soaked with sweat by the time I typed the last words.

I had been convinced that it wouldn't be as good as I felt it was on reread only to be blown away by some of the most smooth and effortlessly descriptive action writing I'd ever done. I've tried so many times to replicate that ease of movement with words and never quite captured the same energy.

I still have my issues with that story as a whole but that seriously is some of the best writing I have ever done.

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deusvervewrites · 1 year

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You know, rereading through the early chapters of MHA, there are some moments that I wonder "why did none of Midoriya's friends ever follow up on this?" Like when Uraraka was right there when Midoriya asked Shigaraki "What does All For One want?" Or when they see All Might's skinny form, do they not remember when he visited Midoriya during the Sports Festival and think "Wait a minute..." The Float training is arguably a little weird too.

Yeah there's a lot of small stuff like that which never receives any kind of follow up

#asks

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aconstantstateofbladerunner · 1 year

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This is a very random ask, but I randomly thought abt angel's egg (the loving but strained father son relationship is chefs kiss), and there's many moments in that fic that i love and that i go back and reread, one of them being that izuku line: "Did you hear he’s taken on an apprentice from UA? This big, strong-looking, blond-haired, blue-eyed- ". The weight and the layers behind that line, how its connected to not only izuku's low self esteem and his need to prove himself as worthy, but also his feelings regarding the adoption, is so good. Reading him wonder why he doesnt look like toshi back when he was a kid, and then chapters later have him sound so hurt and almost full of self hatred while describing mirio, ties it all up incredibly. Especially with him describing physical traits, not only showing how similar mirio and toshi look and thus creating a "connection", but also how different mirio, and by logic toshi, and izuku look, which creates a bigger "rift" between them and worsens izuku's mentality that he's not good enough. Idk maybe I could be reading too much into it, but that's what I interpret from it. So yeah, I just wanted to say that i love that scene and its meaning and I think you do an amazing job creating and exploring realistic conflicts between the two in your fics!

No you are reading in the exact right about, that’s exactly what i was going for with that line. The unfortunate thing about that fic is that the strained parent-child relationship was really the only thing it had going for it. A lot of the story was repetitive and everything planned after the sports festival was just kind of mid, which is why i lost motivation to work on it.

#answers

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delawaredetroit · 1 month

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This poll is from a nostalgic time when the popularity polls actually made any sense

#bnha reread #bnha 62 #bnha #back when izuku and shouto and iida got the focus they deserved #ochako on the other hand never was given enough panel time - sports festival was the peak of her writing until after the war arc

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orbitsdrawings · 1 year

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If you haven’t read it already, go read canary by @cloud-nine-and-three-quarters on ao3, it is absolutely amazing. I just finished rereading the sports festival, and it’s so good

#art #my art stuff #drawing #digital art #bnha #mha art #digital drawing #deku midoriya #bnha deku #midoriya izuku #izuku midoriya art #bnha art #fanart of fanfiction #canary by cloud-nine-and-three-quarters #read on ao3 #it’s so good #so worth the read #I definitely cried reading it #it’s that good

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13ghostlytitties · 10 months

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Recap: The Heart of a Hero (chapters 1-143)

As promised, here’s a recap of most of The Heart of a Hero. Including 144-147 pretty much doubled the length since I was going play-by-play, so I’ll just leave those for y’all to reread if you need it. This’ll be a long one, so let’s just dive in

Class 1-B spent its first year trying and eventually succeeding at proving their merit compared to their sister class, 1-A. Kendo led them as class rep with some unofficial, volatile leadership coming from her childhood friend Monoma. Throughout the first semester, they would face a disguised All Might in combat, battle villains during their weeklong internships after a less-than-stellar Sports Festival Performance, take on their teachers in Final Exams that would push students such as Ibara and Monoma to the breaking point, and finally, survive a hellish camping trip and watch All Might fight his last battle. Soon after, they would move into dorms together, and it was around this time that Monoma and Kendo would begin a romantic relationship.

Up next came their License Exam, which saw them take on the multinational hero school Gaikoku Academy and their haughty leader, Victoria Hope, only to then join together in the second phase alongside four students from Isamu High School. Against the mock-villainesses Ryukyu and Nejire, the three schools prevailed together and received their provisional hero licenses. Not long after, they finally proved their mettle in a training battle against 1-A, besting them. Things were looking up for the class. That’s when Head Games enters the scene.

Head Games was a criminal group focused on designing, creating, and selling black market support items and weapons. They had first run afoul of the pro heroes and some of 1-B during the post-Sports Festival internships. While their hired muscle, the electrically powered Overdrive, was defeated and imprisoned, their mysterious leader, Kashiko Dokasuru escaped.

In December, 1-B would again run into this group, this time as their main targets. Looking to make a name for themselves as an independent villain group, Head Games lured them into a killing game with Kendo as the bait. The rest of the class went out to Head Games’ base and fought against their pre-chosen opponents. Ibara and Tetsutetsu defeated the weapon designer Yusen Setsuzoku and his tank, the Goliath Maxim. Kaibara and Tsuburaba took down their costume maker Airi Yokubo. Reiko, Kinoko, Shishida, and Kamakiri defeated their researcher Densen Byoki. Pony had a close call with the assassin Rocket, AKA Atsuen Sokudo, as did Shoda when he and Awase fought the item designer Suberidai Musei.

Yui had a reunion with her older brother Mugon Kodai, now going by the villain name Hush, one of the top officers of Head Games. His goal was to leave this life with Yui, convinced that the people he’s helped outfit with weapons will be too strong for anyone to handle. Yui refuses to leave her friends or her dream behind. Mugon tries to force Yui to submit and leave the country with him, but he is defeated. The truth of his involvement with Head Games stemming from trying to protect Yui from Head Games’ reprisal is left unsaid. An even closer call came from the battle between the battle-hungry assassin Chimera and Honenuki, Kuroiro, Bondo, and Manga, where Honenuki was forced to take a dosage of Trigger than ended the fight in his favor, but nearly made him lose himself to it. Setsuna and Rin’s battle nearly ended in death as they contended with the pair borrowed from the League of Villains, Dabi and Toga. Rin’s determination to live on and save his partner pushed his Quirk to new heights, unlocking the Full Dragon transformation, but the stress nearly killed him when Dabi’s desperate last stand struck his chest. Thanks to Kuroiro, though, he pulled through.

Monoma’s battle to save Kendo ended in failure as the Quirkless brawler Seijo Senbo nearly beat him to death, but Kendo cut a deal to save him, giving herself up to Kashiko’s Quirk, Absorption. Unfortunately, Kashiko had no intention of truly keeping her word and used Kendo’s Quirk to attack Monoma. Only the timely arrival of Tetsutetsu and Ibara saved him. Kendo was freed by the two, but in the confusion of a flashbang, they were absorbed by Kashiko in her place. In her rage, Kendo freed herself, letting her finally bring Kashiko down while Monoma, given a boost of confidence by Kendo’s freedom, defeated Seijo. Class 1-B had won the day, though it wasn’t without their fair share of physical and mental injuries.

The interim stories Draconic, Atlas, and Wild West Hero take place between this night and the beginning of their second school year. Draconic follows the psychological struggles felt by Setsuna and Rin after their near-fatal battle. With Ryukyu’s help, the pair accept what happened and what they need to do to heal. Atlas shows Kamakiri’s sparring bout with his new twin katanas against the hero Yoroi Musha. Though he doesn’t earn a place as an intern, Yoroi Musha assures him that his skills are great and that such a position may not be far off. Wild West Hero sees Pony visiting home and reunite with her now-retired aunt, the hero Cow Lady, as well as Pony’s visiting girlfriend, Melissa Shield.

With the new school year comes a new student in Hitoshi Shinso. Now sporting 21 students, Class 2-B is set to make waves at the inter-school meet, the Academy Clash, alongside their sister class. It’s here that we see Gaikoku Academy and Isamu High School team with Ketsubutsu High School and Shiketsu Academy in a joint team to take on 2-B, as there is an odd number of classes at the event. A lot rides on 2-B’s shoulders, as not only is this Shinso’s first real outing as a Hero Course student, but several students are being scouted for internships. Yoroi Musha is giving Kamakiri another chance to show him his swordsmanship, Ryukyu wants to see where Rin and Setsuna are after working through their pain in Draconic, and Miruko has taken an interest in Kendo.

During the battle, multiple groups split off and took on their share of opponents, with some growing a good deal in the heat of the fight. Setsuna, having decided that Rin is too nervous about her being in danger, is able to show off her strength by defeating Shishikura alone. Kaibara holds his own against Makabe, realizing that projectiles may be another way he can augment his fighting skills with support items. With help from Reiko and Awase, Shinso is able to assist in the defeat of three opponents. Honenuki leads Kuroiro, Bondo, and Manga against Inasa Yoarashi, wondering if he’s even close to his level after seeing him long ago in the Recommended Students’ assessment, and ultimately falls against him. This isn’t without bringing Inasa to the brink, though, and the four boys are succeeded by Rin, who is able to finally perform his Full Dragon transformation for the second-ever time and finish off Inasa. Against Shindo, who had been antagonizing him all afternoon for his unassuming appearance, Shoda is able to turn the tides and take him down. Finally, despite a brief panic attack where she imagines still being the captive of Head Games, Kendo is able to pull herself together in her rematch against Victoria Hope. With support items sent from I-Island’s Melissa Shield — a Full Gauntlet built for her hand’s size — Kendo is able to put down her rival just as the buzzer beeps. In the end, 2-B is victorious.

Those who had been scouted receive their internships, but Kendo doesn’t take hers yet, citing that she still has much to work out regarding her trauma. Miruko says the offer is available for the future, and Kendo has one last talk with Victoria Hope. Victoria talks about how her jump in strength hadn’t been just from training, but from an emerging idea among Quirk studies that extreme danger could force about changes in a Quirk. This “Sudden Evolution” as she calls it could bring about amazing growth and branching abilities in Quirks, and Kendo connects this possible phenomenon to a few similar instances in this past, from Shoda’s first use of Surge Impact and Rin’s unlocking of his Full Dragon form on the night of the Head Games battle, to all the way back to their battle against All Might when Monoma unconsciously used two Quirks at the same time. Victoria goes on to say that her own grew while fighting a strange enemy who seemed to have a transformative Quirk that turned his skin to bronze, but also could release sound attacks. Victoria warns Kendo of big things yet to happen and the event ends.

After the Academy Clash, 2-B enjoyed a semester without any major happenings, but with certain problems bubbling under the surface. Despite taking a mutual interest in Tatami Nakagame after the Academy Clash, Yui is unable to hold back her true feelings. Her hidden, lasting love for Kendo is revealed to the other girls, with Yui deciding that it isn’t the right time to say something. Having bonded with Nakagame, she tries to start a relationship with her, but after the first date, Yui realizes that letting go isn’t as easy as she’d like. Setsuna and Rin begin their internship with Ryukyu in an explosive way, fighting with her and Nejire, who at this point has changed her hero name to Wavelength, against the notorious Volcano Thieves. They win in the end, but are left with more questions than answers. Somehow, two of their members had been modified with mechanic enhancements and impossible-looking cybernetic implants. The third member’s special baton is able to lead the search back to Head Games, showing that their old items are still on the black market. Finally, and most importantly, is the sunrise tattoo with the kanji for “new” on each of their bodies.

During this time, Melissa Shield’s schooling at I-Island ends and she winds up in Japan on an extended vacation, bringing with her a pair of modified Full Gauntlets to replace the one Victoria Hope had broken. Kendo takes them and agrees to Awase’s name suggestion of the B.F.G.s while she is ecstatic about the upgrade. Pony is overjoyed, as is U.A.’s tech maniac Hatsume. Melissa and Hatsume end up bonding, working together on items such as a metal ball for Kaibara to spin-pitch at enemies and a not-yet-seen pair of special shoes for Shoda. Hatsume also shows she has reverse-engineered certain Head Games items like their Concussion Discs, happy to give inventions like these a new life as the tools of heroes. Melissa is glad to hear this and wishes to have the same ideals as she works her own internship as a Junior Developer at Kaiburu Labs. We’re also told that item manufacturers like Kaiburu Labs had been seeing many items and blueprints stolen mysteriously.

Shortly after this, two more chance meetings set the stage for a new menace to emerge. Kendo and Miruko, in stopping as robbery, have a chance meeting with a former hero called Deep Crimson, now a civilian who had been one of the robbery’s hostages. Kendo doesn’t recognize her at first, but Miruko does and is not happy to see her. Deep Crimson had been in jail for quite a while and needed clearance by a therapist to be released, having done something despicable long ago. Kendo tells herself that people can always change, but something sinister is indeed brewing with Deep Crimson at the center.

After this, while chaperoning Pony’s and Melissa’s day on the town in Zerutoro, Vlad encounters what seems to be a low-tier villain enjoying using his Quirk to make others suffer. He catches the villain and finds the same tattoo on his person that the Volcano Thieves had, and learns that on July 2nd, something terrible would happen in Zerutoro. The villain then disappears from out of Vlad’s grasp, likely teleported by some unseen villain’s Quirk. During all of this, Vlad reminisces about his past, including the time he was comforted by an upperclassman after a terrible showing at his first Sports Festival. The third-year student had told him that none of it mattered in the end and that the festival was terrible anyway, giving an unfair advantaged to physical fighters and those with flashy, destructive Quirks while leaving those with more niche abilities behind. Vlad doesn’t catch her name, but knew her by her hero name of Deep Crimson.

After everyone in 2-B passes their final exams for the semester, they and 2-A are asked for volunteers to assist on July 2nd. 10 from each class agree to go and are briefed on this mysterious organization. On the day of the attack, Kendo and Monoma fight against the bronze-skinned enemy Victoria had warned them about, “Sound Shocker” Bell, and find his skin to be merged with bronze plating while the sound attacks were his true Quirk. They go outside after defeating Bell to find Zerutoro in chaos and their classmates not doing nearly as well. Ibara had been frozen solid by another villain, Frostbiter, who also badly mangles Tetsutetsu’ hand with his icy teeth. Only through the intervention of Shoji, Bakugo, and Kirishima do they escape. Pony, Honenuki, Todoroki, and Midoriya take on the most destructive villain, Tusk, who seems to truly possess two Quirks — a transformation Quirk that changes him into a mammoth, and a rusting Quirk that corrodes anything in his vicinity. Armed with Trigger, he ruins much of Zerutoro and nearly crushes Pony, who is narrowly saved by Honenuki. Iida stops to help, joined soon by Kuroiro and Ojiro, only they are being chased. A large, musclebound villain with red skin and steam pipes built into his flesh begging to be attacked more is on their tails, and Kuroiro and Honenuki run for it. The situation is the same all over with such menaces as the bat woman with shocking kicks, a brutish cyborg with an explosive third eye, and a woman with razor straw under her command. This last villain reveals to Miruko that this group is called the New Power Generation, and their aim to dismantle Hero Society.

Operation: Nightfall, as the villains call it, comes to an end soon after. A lava-powered villain far stronger than Volcano encroaches on a safe space for civilians, leaving Rin and Ryukyu as the only ones capable of fighting him. The burning-hot Hellhound nearly takes Rin out, but Ryukyu dives in the way just in time to take the hit, leaving her on the verge of death. The villains leave after this with the same disappearing trick, leaving behind Bell as the only prisoner for the heroes, but not without taking one more thing. Monoma had stumbled upon Deep Crimson in an alleyway alongside a well-dressed blond man who seemed to be giving orders over an earpiece. Just as he puts two and two together, Monoma is attacked. In the aftermath, all heroes and students are accounted for except Monoma. The only trace that his companion could find is his blood and his tie.

At the hospital, Kendo is in a daze, unable to process the loss of the one closest to her and with only a stopwatch her had let her borrow to hang onto. Pony is shell-shocked after her near-death experience. Yui is wracked with guilt, feeling as though her wish from long ago to be rid of Monoma inadvertently caused his disappearance. Setsuna is furious at Rin, who is ashamed at his reckless behavior. Reiko’s intervention brings Setsuna to her senses about how Rin is feeling just after Vlad gives the boy a pep-talk. They are both told after making up that Ryukyu is awake, though likely not for long. Ryukyu assures Rin that it wasn’t his fault and that she’s proud of him. Motivated to not forget the lesson he’s learned, Rin cuts off his braid, vowing on it to never put those he cares for in jeopardy again.

All Might and Tsukauchi deliberate on their next move and the identity of their enemy’s ringleader. All they know so far is that he’s likely the one modding people’s bodies. Whoever took Monoma was likely blending into the crowd, they’ve concluded, and there’s nothing Bell can tell them. Tsukauchi’s instinct tell him that Bell’s memories of their organization have been blocked through another’s Quirk as his own lie-detecting Quirk has been ineffective. Though Tsukauchi is hesitant to bring in students for any upcoming mission involving this group, All Might argues in their defense, saying that with one of their own taken, they’d be all the more motivated to do something. Tsukauchi is convinced to start of the Team Up Mission initiative, putting All Might’s words to the test.

#the heart of a hero #class 1b

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