And today is the day we power through the rest of chapter 3! The last three pages have been living rent free in my head since I first saw them, and by god I’m gonna fucking ramble on those as much as my brain allows - but first I need to get there. Well, I know there are more fantastic Izuku faces along the way, so I suppose I can live.
God, that’s an actual small city, what the fuck UA, how do you afford this? Izuku is trembling from nerves (and exhaustion, you can still see the eyebags on him). A picture of the crowds around him:
So there’s Shouji and Aoyama, along with Uraraka, and we know Iida’s here too, so that’s a fourth of 1a in the same arena. We also have the featured extras (right to left): Beaker (The Muppets), High School PE Teacher, MSPA Reader (Homestuck), Big Meaty Elbones, The Pompadour to Pierce The Heavens, and Slenderkid.
(Yes, before you ask, I will be giving all the extras names in the spirit of Bakugou.)
But yeah, Izuku notes everyone’s confidence and the gear that goes with their quirks, and then he notices Ochako, who is getting herself into the zone. He tries to shakily make his way over to thank her, but Tenya comes in again and stops him, telling Izuku that she’s meditating and wondering if Izuku’s there to interfere, which of course freaks out Izuku.
Engineer (TF2) recognizes him and calls him out:
Hello Aoyama, yes we see you looking at the camera, good to know that’s not an anime-only thing. And that looks like proto-Tokoyami, who does appear to be the actual one next time we see him, so that’s six members of 1a in one zone. But yeah, everyone considers themselves lucky, which seems a bit silly when he’s just one out of, what was the number again? 1550 students per cityscape? I suppose this is something future Izuku is narrating, so maybe that’s just how he felt about it.
Anyways, the call to begin goes out, with everyone going ‘hmm?’ all at once in confusion. They all look up to the top of… what the fuck?
How fucking tall is that building?? When the cities are this big??
Is there an atmosphere up there? Is he halfway to low earth orbit? What the fuck UA. (Also poor Izuku, so many nerves.)
By the time Izuku catches on and turns around, the rest of the crowds have already gone off, including Ochako, Tenya, Tokoyami, and the extras Pompadour, Dudley Dursley, High School PE Teacher, Knock-Off Pussycat, and Skull Mask. He panics and starts running after, telling himself to calm down, that it’s fine, that he’s meant to do this, even as the crowds get further ahead of him.
We then flash back to the beach, with this fantastic face:
Hahaha poor kid. Izuku mentions he doesn’t feel himself transforming, and All Might laughs and notes that it needs time to digest and that he’ll feel it in a few hours. Izuku is flailing with nerves as he walks off, thinking about getting home for a shower and breakfast; All Might calls out to him, telling him that he might be a proper vessel, but he was put together in a hurry, and hasn’t had time to get used to the power, so prepare for kickback. He says there’s no time for a detailed explanation, and so we then zone back into the present as his words echo in Izuku’s head, saying that when using OFA, to ‘clench your butt and let your heart cry out, saying…’
Before it’s cut off with a one pointer crashing out in front of Izuku, literally - you can see the wall debris flying away.
Yeah, me too. The one-pointers are noted to be quirk but fragile while the robot that it’s target locked on him. Izuku sees it coming, but he can’t move and his body is shaking from the instinctive terror. He chastises himself, calling himself an idiot as he tears up-
And a laser slices through the bot, Aoyama giving the quick save. He thanks Izuku for the assist, but that he doubts they’ll meet again, giving Izuku a sparkly wink as he zooms off. Present Mic then announces six minutes left, and Izuku starts to panic and think about how bad the situation is.
We see him take in the situation around him:
Yup, that’s definitely Tokoyami, and who might that dark-haired person be close to the middle?
Yup, a discord friend pointed out that that’s Kirishima! So that’s no less than seven members of class 1a in the same battle zone! And considering how Ashido and Kirishima were in the same school and her name comes before his, like Katsuki’s comes before Izuku, I wouldn’t be surprised to know she’s in Katsuki’s battlezone.
(Imagine if all of 1a, sans the recommendation duo, were either in Katsuki or Izuku’s battle zones. The sheer odds of that happening…)
But yeah, Ochako is up to 28 points, Tenya to 45, and Eijirou to 32, all while Izuku realizes there are barely any enemies left. He’s freaking out, tearing up, and you can see just how fucking exhausted he is.
We shift over to the ‘teacher commentary’, where we can see Midnight and Thirteen in the back, and then Vlad, Cementoss, and presumably other teachers in front of and to the sides of them. They note how a wide battlefield with limited time brings out the best in the applicants - intelligence gatherers (featuring Shouji), mobility experts (Tenya), decision makers (Aoyama), and natural born warriors (Katsuki). The abilities the students need to preserve peace are judged by their points.
They note that that year has a bumper crop, but that that’s not confirmed yet, as they push the big button labeled ‘Yaruki Switch’. Which unleashes massive, multistory robots into the battle centers (and where the fuck were they hiding???)
Yeah, me too, kids. Izuku thinks that that’s way too big to be a ‘gimmick’. It punches down into the street with a massive blow, sending wind and debris everywhere, and the other students run while Izuku is sitting there, frozen in terror. Tenya runs past him with barely a glance, while the teachers’ commentary continues - people show their true colors when faced with the zero pointer.
Izuku is in tears and yelling at himself as he picks himself up to run. He knows he has to get away while also getting points, but he’s still stuck at zero, and believes this’ll all be for nothing.
And so we get to the pages that have taken rent-free residence in my head for days now:
God just. The composition, the entire change in his thought process and demeanor because someone was in danger, the fucking smashing blow and the power behind it, everyone else’s reactions to him oneshotting the monstrosity, and that ominous ending, with Toshinori grinning while the narrative notes that Izuku’s current score is zero.
I’m just going to paste in my gushing from discord, to be clear how I feel about all this:
And no, I’m not particularly ashamed of all the gushing or the images or how much I repeat myself. I’m still feeling a whole lotta things from these pages and like. Jesus fuck if I wasn’t already in this fandom, I would be now.
