Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 83: Defeat
It's a bit of a recovery chapter, opening with the awesome 'WE LOST' narration. We get a bit of a recap that makes it known that despite the arrival of other help and the defeat of at least three villains, both teachers and students were injured, Bakugou and the crazy-eyed Pussy Cat's locations are unknown -- with a large amount of the latter's blood found at the scene. I mean, Chainsaw Noumu was carrying around a smashed Pussy Cat helmet thing, so she might just be dead and the manga is not mentioning it because it's too gruesome... or, y'know, it's the standard 'missing guy turns out to be working with the villains' switcheroo.
We've got a bit of a media backlash, and the teachers of Yuuei are discussing this. All Might naturally blames himself, and there's this short scene where Presenter Mic mentions the possibility of a traitor among their midst -- the other heroes agree that while it's not out of the question (the principal even lampshades that even he himself is not out of suspicion) there is no concrete evidence either way and it would do no good to suspect each other. Though Mic does mention that only the teachers and Pussy Cats know the location of the lodge... and one of the Pussy Cats are conspicuously missing... Tsukauchi the policeman contacts All Might with some information that some people might've seen the the villain bar, so All Might's gonna deliver some pain.
Midoriya wakes up in the hospital with some wince-inducing descriptions about how he remembered nothing of the ordeal but pain, a note from his ever-suffering mother. The rest of Class 1A come to visit, except for three (Jirou, Hagakure and Yaoyorozu) who are injured and Bakugou, of course. Midoriya, of course, blames himself with all the 'my hands could've reached him if I was strong enough' speech, but Kirishima and Todoroki apparently overheard Yaoyorozu telling about the tracker she placed on Chainsaw Noumu to All Might. All Might notes the character development since the mid-term exams, which is nice.
Iida calls bullshit on them trying to go off and rescue Bakugou on their own, but Kirishima talks about how as a man, as a hero, they can't let this slide. Kirishima offers Midoriya a chance to reach Bakugou -- though probably telling someone with all his limbs in casts that 'your hands can reach him' isn't the best choice of words. Sides are being drawn, though, as Tsuyu and Kaminari agree with Iida... are we getting Captain Kirishima: Civil War here? #TeamKirishima or #TeamIida?
Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 84: From Iida to Midoriya
We get a bit of a recap as Todoroki explains in detail that they can't be sure that the villains won't kill Bakugou eventually. Shouji (who actually points out that he understands how Todoroki feels, being unable to save Bakugou himself), Tokoyami (who's kinda bummed at being rescued all the time), Tsuyu (who's really against breaking the rules) and Aoyama (who's weird) also agree with Iida, and honestly it is the logical thing to do. It's the same argument we make every time in fiction like Naruto or Harry Potter where there is a larger governing bodies of teachers who also happen to be ninjas/wizards/superheroes that are far more competent and powerful that they could leave things to...
But, y'know, you gotta be a hero and all that. It's nice that the majority is in favour of the far more logical thing to do, which is to leave things to the pros.
While Kirishima's all like "we'll be waiting for you since you're the most frustrated of all", the doctor that handles Midoriya tells him how his injuries are absolutely severe and I think that's one of the best things that this manga does -- it makes the descriptions and depictions of Midoriya's injuries whenever he uses One For All really, really excruciating. 'Firecrackers going off in your bones'? The doctor also notes that while bones and muscles might recover, his ligaments are getting torn up and Midoriya can at most do that amount of injury two or three more times. Or, y'know, learn to control it like what he was trying to do in the training camp and with Grand Tourino. Except, again, real life is gonna be a bitch and it's forcing him into combat again to rescue Bakugou in the very near future.
We get the obligatory thank you note from Kouta, which seemed to motivate Midoriya enough to meet up with Kirishima and Todoroki. Yaoyorozu shows up with the tracker, but so does Iida... who makes it clear that he's not trying to be Prefect Percy Weasley, but is just trying to stop Midoriya and company from making the same mistakes he made during the Stain arc. And, again, a nice, organic and concrete evidence of character development -- it's moments like this that really gives me faith that Boku no Hero Academia might just be a really, really good long-running manga that doesn't lose steam and just goes stagnant and repeats the same one or two character traits for each character (RE: Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail). Iida delivers a really good and deserved punch to Midoriya's face. He's got a really good point -- Yuuei and the students are under deep political shit, and Iida himself has suffered seeing his brother Ingenium get totally fucked up and permanently disabled.
Todoroki and Kirishima then tell Iida that, well, they're just going to do a stealthy grab-and-go covert mission without combat (sh'yeah right that's going to happen). Yaoyorozu notes that she is coming with them as a failsafe to prevent combat, Midoriya gives a 'we need to save him' speech, and Iida decides to come with the same reason as Yaoyorozu.
Meanwhile the adult heroes are actually doing something -- the top four heroes All Might, Endeavour, Edge Shot (who is this spike-haired ninja we've never seen before) and Best Jeanist (this weird fucker is #4?) are also assembled.
Also meanwhile, the Villain Alliance are trying to recruit Bakugou with a simple 'join us'. To which Bakugou replies also simply 'spare me your shit and die'.
Yeah, a confrontation is coming!
We... also get a bonus chapter, 'Tsuyu's Ribbit Diary'. Apparently Tsuyu's this awkward kid back in school who has to take care of her two siblings in between studying to be a hero, so she didn't really made a lot of friends other than this snake-girl (who in spite of having a snake head has human teeth which is weird) stalker lady. Who she's friends with. A short little character building moment that really doesn't mean much. But I like Tsuyu. She's funny.
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