U.A.'s first semester has ended and summer break has begun; Class 1-A go on a school trip to a training camp under the supervision of the hero team, the Wild Wild Pussycats.
Following his confrontation with Shigaraki at the mall Midoriya is taken to the police for a debriefing. After telling Tsukauchi everything he knows Midoriya runs into a worried All Might. Pondering what Shigaraki said Midoriya asks All Might if there was ever anyone he couldn't save. All Might answers that yes, despite his great strength, there are countless people that he hasn't been able to save and that it is a bitter pill to swallow for any hero. Midoriya goes home with something new to think about while All Might vows to Tsukauchi that he will defeat All For One for good and destroy the League of Villains.
Despite the excitement of what happened the training camp is still a go, although it is now being moved to a secret location for the students' safety. This location is a remote forest lodge owned by a superhero team, the Wild Wild Pussycats. Training begins right when they step off the bus; the first task is to get to the lodge while fighting off the golems created by Pussycat member Pixie-Bob's quirk Earth Flow, and second task is making themselves dinner. At the lodge, Midoriya dramatically fails to befriend Kota, the young nephew of Mandalay (leader of the Pussycats). Kota hates heroism because both of his parents were heroes who were killed by a villain. Izuku of course wants to help, but has to put it off for the moment because first thing next day, they begin their training.
This training differs from previous training in that it is designed especially to strengthen Quirks (while past training was focused on the mundane parts of their bodies), so each student gets to torture themselves in an unique way to push their Quirks beyond their limits. Bakugo puts his hands in hot water before creating explosions to expand his sweat glands, Todoroki tries to use his fire and ice in tandem to maintain the temperature of bathwater, Ojiro beats up on Kirishima with his tail, Iida runs around, Uraraka is put in simulated zero gravity, Tsuyu climbs a mountain with her tongue, Shoji plays hide-and-seek with Toru, Koda learns vocal exercises (presumably to be heard over Bakugo) and so on. Midoriya's quirk isn't tied to a specific bodily function, so he just gets the tar beaten out of him by the Pussycats' sole male member, Tiger.
The first day goes great and Izuku even manages to make some progress with Kota, but guess who's here to ruin the fun? The League of Why We Can't Have Nice Things, now with a shiny new Vanguard Action Squad, consisting of Dabi (horribly scarred follower of Stain with a blue fire quirk), Twice (clone-making Deadpool Expy), Himiko Toga (blood-obsessed Yandere Stain follower), Spinner (teenage mutant ninja lizard), Mr. Compress (stage magician who can compress things into marbles), Muscular (super strong Blood Knight), Moonfish (creepy nutcase who can grow and sharpen his teeth), and Mustard (young guy with a poison gas quirk). They also have a Noumu, just to make things worse for everyone. They have a suspiciously good plan to take advantage of the night's Test of Courage (essentially, pairs walk through the forest while everyone else tries to scare them silly), when everyone is scattered through the woods. Dabi sets the forest on fire while Twice pins down the teachers, and the rest of the Vanguard Action Squad attacks the students.
While Yaoyoruzu and Awase are chased by the Noumu, Kendo and Tetsutetsu fight Mustard, and Spinner fights Mandalay, Midoriya notices a very important absence- Kota. He's gone off to a little personal hideaway, but has been discovered by Muscular, who it turns out was the villain who killed Kota's parents. Midoriya saves Kota, knocks Muscular unconscious, and restores Kota's faith in heroes at the cost of shattering both his arms. This seriously restricts his ability to do hero things, but he's still able to help with his planning skills, aiding Moonfish's defeat by leading a rampaging Dark Shadow to him. Kendo and Tetsutetsu defeat Mustard with the help of Yaoyoruzu making gas masks, thus taking out a large chunk of the Vanguard Action Squad, but Mr. Compress manages to capture Bakugo and Tokoyami, but loses the latter when he decides to gloat and Aoyama decides to be a Spanner in the Works. As the Noumu leaves with the League, Yaoyoruzu and Awase perform one last Spanner in the Works by fusing a tracker to it.
Bakugo is gone, Midoriya's arms are broken almost beyond repair, and the Pussycat member Ragdoll has been kidnapped. As the students recover in the hospital, the arc ends on a distinctly low note.
Tropes
- Arc Villain: The Vanguard Action Squad, led by Dabi.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The end of the arc saw the League of Villains get what they wanted (Bakugo) and manage to get away even though a few were beaten and captured, including the villain who killed Kota's parents.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: The U.A. students undergo 'Quirk Extension' training; essentially, pushing your Quirk to a comfortable limit, and then beyond that. As they're physical abilities, a comparison is made between Quirk Extension and strength training, as muscles have to tear themselves and then repair before they are strengthened.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. Midoriya is forced into to fight the villain Muscular, who has even greater Super-Strength than he does. He ultimately wins by figuring out how to go beyond 100% power, but by the end of it both of his arms are shattered and useless; he then spends even more time running around, relaying messages, and coordinating allies, but is nonetheless unable to rescue Bakugo from the villains. By the end of that disaster, his arms are so mangled that he's on the verge of paralyzing them.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: The League of Villains invokes this again by sending in a squad of specialists instead of the army of thugs they tried during the USJ arc.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Tokoyami (or more accurately, Dark Shadow) provides one against Moonfish, showing just how powerful Dark Shadow is at night.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: After realizing that Koda is in danger Midoriya runs off to his secret place to find him being attacked by Muscular. Due to the fact that he didn't bring anyone with him, and because his phone gets broken, Midoriya is forced to fight a villain, by himself, without any back up for the first time in the series.
- It's All My Fault: Midoriya ends up blaming himself over his inability to rescue Bakugo, reasoning that if he hadn't so thoroughly broken his arms fighting Musculur, he would have been able to rescue him.
- Mood Whiplash: The camping trip was meant to be a fun yet effective training arc for the students to hone in their Quirks. However, when the villains show up, it becomes a desperate fight for survival.
- The Mole: As the U.A. faculty talks about the situation regarding Bakugo's abduction, Present Mic wonders how the villains could have obtained the camp's location when only they and the Pussycats confided in it. The only possible reason is if a teacher, or even a student, would be responsible for the leak. Snipe and Nezu tell him how serious the accusation is and mention that anyone in the room could be responsible, even if by accident. This subject has been on and off before, but eventually returns late in the story for full confirmation.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Aoyama prevents the League of Villains from taking Tokoyami by firing his laser at exactly the right moment, when Mr. Compress revealed the balls containing Bakugo and Tokoyami.
- Awase and Yaoyoruzu attach a tracker to the Nomu, which leads the pro heroes to the Nomu factory.
- Quality over Quantity: To show how the League of Villains are more of a serious threat than they were in the attack on USJ, they send a team of 10 skilled and experienced villains instead of the mobs of random thugs that had been using previously.
- Training from Hell: The class' summer training camp is intended as this. One of the very first parts of it is using their Quirks near-constantly to increase how far they can go before their respective Heroic RRODs kick in.
