#it MIGHT be cuz of remasters but I doubt it and that would still be really scummy

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 128: He’s Hired

Previously on BnHA: Deku’s bizarre attempt to make Nighteye crack a smile resulted in abject failure. Never one to give up that easily, Deku appealed to Nighteye’s All Might otaku side instead. Surprisingly, this attempt was convincing enough that Nighteye agreed to give Deku a chance. That is, if he can pass a test consisting of “swipe this stamp out of my hand within the next three minutes.” Deku powered up full cowl and gave it a go, but as it turns out, Nighteye’s quirk lets him literally see the future and predict what his opponent will do next. So. That made things a bit challenging. Nighteye declared that Mirio should have been the successor to One for All instead of Deku, and that it was the one decision he didn’t agree with All Might on. Rather than getting down on himself, Deku got fucking fired up and charged at Nighteye again with the intent of proving that he -- the successor All Might chose -- is worthy as fuck.

Today on BnHA: Deku tries to beat Nighteye’s foresight with speed, but has no luck. As a last-ditch effort he starts throwing random shit at him, but Nighteye still manages to dodge and Deku ends up slamming into a wall. Nighteye announces that the three minutes are up, and berates Deku for getting sloppy in the end. Deku says he was trying not to damage the vintage All Might poster on Nighteye’s wall. Nighteye is all “...” and realizes that Deku purposely went out of his way to avoid wrecking any of that sweet All Might merch, even while bouncing around Gran Torino style. This actually does win a chuckle from him, and Deku ends up being hired. Nighteye reveals that he planned to hire him all along, because he thinks that by showing Deku “the real world” of the pros, he can convince him to give up OFA. Deku accepts the internship. The next day, he and Mirio go out on patrol and run into an adorable little girl who, spoiler alert, turns out to be on the run from none other than this arc’s main villain, Overhaul.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 155 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

before we get started, I would just like to say that when Bakugou Katsuki, the most arrogant boy who ever lived (and someone not particularly known for his great fondness of Deku), learned that All Might had chosen Deku as his successor, he did not think, “well then All Might was fucking wrong.” actually, he immediately started questioning whether everything he’d ever believed was wrong instead, and subsequently accepted Deku for the first time ever. because that’s how real All Might bros do it, Nighteye. you punk

anyway

Deku doesn’t know how far Nighteye can see into the future, so his plan is just “attack him really fast and a lot”

he’s mad lol

incidentally, the title is “Boy Meets...” and honestly my TGIF-raised brain is gonna be really disappointed if it’s anything other than “world”

(ETA: I really don’t know what this was referring to. the most accurate title would be “boy meets traumatized little girl”, but that’s probably not what he was going for?)

so Nighteye’s accusing Deku of being a Gran Torino ripoff, and yeah, he’s got a point

he says that so long as the conditions are met, he can see everything Deku is going to do, no matter how far into the future it is. surely there must be a limit though, but okay

he says in two minutes’ time, Deku will be doubled over in grief, “neither seal nor paper in hand”

lol now I’m trying to think of scenarios where this could be the case and yet Deku still wins. ...

and now Nighteye is commenting on how frustrated Deku seems to be

he says the first thing he should have learned from All Might is that heroes should never show worry or doubt

ugh he’s so goddamn smug. but also tbh I can see why

come on Deku you need to deliver here

oh my god

for a minute I thought he was crying here. Deku, bud. deep breaths. don’t let it get to you

I feel like we’re seeing more and more impatience in him since that fight with Kacchan. he has more drive than ever lately

oh shit now he’s grabbing hold of a bookcase. well Nighteye did give him permission to use whatever

interestingly, this is the first time Nighteye has had an even remotely surprised-looking panel

now Deku’s hurling the whole fucking shelf of books at him lol

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

lol he’s apologizing, “but you said you didn’t care what happened to the room”

oh SHIT everyone DEKU IS USING HIS BIG HERO BRAIN

it seriously wouldn’t surprise me if he was never actually quirkless and it turned out “Big Hero Brain” has been his real quirk all along

OH MY GOD HE’S SO CLOSE

he’s fucking screaming “I AM ALL MIGHT’S DISCIPLE”

but Nighteye closed his fist and whipped his hand out of the way in the nick of time. goddammit

but he can’t attack though! he promised he wouldn’t. so Deku, just keep him on the defensive

Nighteye says whatever he sees didn’t change. Deku losing? I guess?

what the

not going to lie, this gave me Yamamoto flashbacks. fucking ouch

somehow, even though he just brained himself, Deku’s saying he can still fight

but Nighteye cuts him off and says the three minutes are up. well shit

I guess all we can do is hope Nighteye saw enough of Deku during those three minutes -- and whatever additional future-seeing that he also did? -- to pique his interest in taking him under his wing after all

come to think, every single one of Deku’s mentors thus far has dismissed him on first glance. even All Might initially wrote him off. Aizawa was this close to expelling him on the first day. Gran at least had a little faith in him because he trusted Toshinori’s judgment (even though he acted like he didn’t lol), but even he was surprised by what Deku was actually capable of. so I suppose it’s only fitting for this pattern to continue

-- oh wow

are you telling me that you gave yourself a fucking concussion because you didn’t want to risk damaging this asshole’s vintage poster

and now Nighteye’s realizing that Deku left all of his All Might shit intact

he seems surprised? something else you didn’t predict, huh

wow now he’s so impressed that the whole fucking art style changed

(ETA: so this is one of those chapters that Horikoshi wasn’t able to finish before it initially ran in Jump, which seems to happen every so often. Fallen Angels released an updated scanlation using the volume scans, so I’ll use those whenever possible.

here’s the remastered version of this scene, for starters

I like how remastered Deku has upgraded from sighing to cursing. it suits him much better. you know when people say “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed?” this is the opposite of that. he’s not disappointed. he’s mad. I think it does an even better job of showing how much he really wanted this, and how hard he’s been pushing himself.)

well. there’s that scene that Nighteye foresaw, I guess

I don’t know why, but all of Nighteye’s standing around and predicting stuff only to suddenly get surprised now at this juncture makes me really want to see him star in a cereal commercial. “Sir Nighteye, you can see into the future but can you see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch?” “hmm. [examining a piece of cereal] its wrinkles are approximately 0.6 mm.” “NO YOU STUPID FUCK, IT’S CUZ THERE’S CINNAMON AND SUGAR SWIRLED OVER EVERY BITE!!!”

like, can’t you just picture it though

anyway. look what Deku made him do

(ETA: for some reason Horikoshi added shading to his face but took away the speech bubble saying “kuku.” so just to clarify, this is indeed a laugh)

that was a chuckle y’all. because Deku is just so fucking ridiculous

now Mirio and Bubble are barging in all, “pardon us.” and again the art style has gotten all sketchbooky. is this Nighteye’s quirk vision?? or just Horikoshi taking artistic license because he feels like it. who can say

(ETA: yep, once again, this is just what happens when the mangaka doesn’t have the chapter done by the deadline)

lol omg

“I like him now”

fuck me look at Deku’s face though, I’m fucking dying

he’s all “BUT I DIDN’T PASS YOUR TEST?”

and Nighteye’s all “[finger wag] ah, but I never said I wouldn’t hire you if you couldn’t”

do you know, I actually went back to look at it. and I guess, technically it’s true. but he sure did fucking imply it lol

anyways, Mirio knows what’s what

what the fuck, now Nighteye says he already made the decision to hire Deku the moment he heard he was coming there

is he full of shit or is this true

but he says it doesn’t mean that he’s acknowledged him yet

he says that the people aren’t waiting for a faint light, but a dazzling one. and he intends to make it clear who is suited for that power, even if it means going against All Might’s will

you know, even if I don’t agree with him, I have to admit that dazzling light line is pretty good

anyway. so Deku understands that Nighteye intends for this to be his first taste of the “real” world, with the expectation that he’ll realize he’s not cut out to be the next successor after all and will voluntarily give up OFA. since the only way it can be passed on is if he willingly transfers it to someone else

haha lol. fat chance of that

anyway!! so Deku’s clutching the stamp and says he would be honored to accept the internship offer

and now we’re cutting to day one of the internship. wow. that was fast

(ETA: how is it that the pacing in this arc began so efficiently, and then ten chapters from now we literally spend 15 whole pages entering a fucking building. wtf happened)

they’re setting out to do patrol and surveillance. who are they surveilling?

Deku lucked out, he gets to go with Mirio rather than Nighteye’s condescending ass

fucking look at all this shit Mirio is wearing that’s just going to come sliding right off the instant he quirks too hard

(ETA: you’ll hear more ranting about this in chapter 139, but it sure is some bullshit that Mirio gets a special costume woven from his hair or whatever and Momo and Hagakure can’t get the same thing. that’s very convenient indeed)

Mirio what does your chestplate say? it looks like “1,000,000” but that’s so weird lol

Bubble explains to Deku that Nighteye’s office is in the middle of an investigation -- !!

holy shit, that’s right. Nighteye’s agency was investigating Overhaul!

“odd actions”, like meeting up with Shigaraki Tomura and blowing up one of his main guys. odd stuff like that

Bubble’s explaining that “Chisaki” (whom I’m just gonna keep referring to as Overhaul even if Deku doesn’t know his villain name yet) has started reassembling the yakuza groups, and that they recently made contact with the League of Villains

Deku’s all “the League of Villains?!” yeah, you know the guys. kidnapped your boyfriend, creeped on you at the mall, etc.

apparently they haven’t been able to get direct evidence of him plotting evil. wow, really?? his quirk isn’t exactly subtle

but Nighteye says they can’t treat them like villains until they get proof of criminal activity

well then, putting Deku on the job is the right fucking call, let me tell you right now. bad guys love to do evil shit around this kid. you’ll have your evidence before the day is out

semi-unrelated side note, have you guys heard Overhaul’s theme from the OST? because it’s fucking sick. like, if you’re looking for kind of a Naruto-meets-trap-beat vibe, this is your fucking jam right here

(ETA: honestly his theme is too good for him. he doesn’t deserve such a badass theme)

anyway so now we are cutting to a group of people, and then to two panels of people’s feet

who even knows who these people are, but one of them is barefoot

it looks like a little girl...?

what the

ohhhhhhh dang

okay, so. I recently couldn’t resist AO3’s siren song and did some careful fic scouting. I was very careful, so I’ve managed to avoid pretty much anything potentially spoilery thus far -- except for one thing. I know that there is a little girl character named Eri. I don’t know who she is or what’s her deal but I know she exists. and she’s a little girl

so like. is this her...?

by the way Mirio is fucking oblivious huh. just continues to walk along with his heroic patrol posture, totally unfazed

awww

Eri’s kind of adorable??

Deku’s apologizing to her -- “my bad, that must have hurt.” even though she ran into him. always so damned smooth, Deku

she looks really upset though

ohhhhhhhhhhhh shit

hahahahahaha OH FUCK

okay so I immediately have several questions and several more immediate concerns. is she related to Overhaul?? is she a hostage? are those bandages around her arms for a reason??

(ETA: MOTHERFUCKER DON’T GET ME STARTED. THIS IS THE MOST FUCKED UP THING I’VE READ IN A MANGA SINCE NINA AND HER FUCKING DOG)

she seems really scared and I think it’s because she thinks she’s about to get in trouble with Overhaul. and like, I don’t fucking want him to come one step closer to her lol. and I wonder if Deku’s hero instincts will prevent him from letting her go back with him

no wonder they had that whole “we can’t treat them like villains without evidence” thing. so now this becomes a case of “do I compromise the investigation in order to protect a scared child from potential abuse even though I’m not sure?”

and I think there’s only one answer to that question, particularly for Deku

well buddy, good luck with that internship

 bonus:

 just some random end-of-volume stuff

apparently Stain placed 29th in the character popularity poll. can you believe he got 25 fucking votes while Best Jeanist got only 22. I don’t fucking understand people

8 people voted for Bakugou’s mom and these people are good and smart and handsome and I like them

somehow Yoarashi got only 14 votes. I seriously thought he’d be more popular than that. I guess that’s what happens when you cross Todoroki and make him fail the provisional license exam. I still love you Yoarashi

the 23 people who voted Mineta as their favorite character should be automatically placed on a sex offender registry

Aoyama only got 17 votes and it’s a travesty. unappreciated in his time

and there is a fantastic page where the remaining class A kids who finished outside of the top 10 get to do their own cosplay two-page spread. sans Mineta, which is even better

Tokoyami is just. I have no words

somehow Mina even managed to work that 90s leopard print into her damn ren faire outfit. this girl will not be fucking deterred

what the fuck is this prototype Mirio hair

what a fucking liar. don’t act like you didn’t fully intend to give him the Tintin hair the entire time. are you trying to avoid being sued or what

(ETA: so is this why Mirio has a different hairstyle in every single flashback? can this be considered a running gag? because it’s amazing)

lastly, Nighteye apparently has green hair just like Deku, which I did not see coming. All Might what is it with you and green haired apprentices

(ETA: somehow I keep managing to forget this fact and it always surprises me lol)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #sir nighteye #toogata mirio #eri (bnha) #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #so tell me gen z kids #does that cinnamon toast crunch reference mean anything to you guys #or is it the single most 90s thing I've ever posted #the taste you can see #there are some cultural things I just take for granted #but every now and then I stop and go 'wait... is that still a thing' #'or am I actually just really really old now' #I mean this was back when cereal still came with fucking prizes in the box #so chances are it's the latter #I am in fact old as fuck