"RUSH" is the 18th episode of My Hero Academia's third season, and the 56th episode overall.
The first stage of the Provisional Hero License Exams continues. Seiji Shishikura turns Bakugo into a blob of meat using his Quirk, Meatball, but Kaminari uses his new equipment to electrocute Seiji enough for him to loosen his hold on his victims. Bakugo and Kirishima take him out. Meanwhile, Yaoyorozu and company join Todoroki in the anteroom as they wait for their classmates to pass. Midoriya, Uraraka, and Sero take out a large group of examinees by using Sero and Uraraka's Quirks to trap them in tape and debris, while Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari duke it out with Seiji's other victims and are able to pass as well. Mera notes that unusually, nobody from U.A. has been eliminated yet.
With eighteen slots left and nine 1-A students still in the fray, Iida and Aoyama find themselves cornered by a group of other examinees. Aoyama attempts to sacrifice himself by firing his laser into the sky to draw others to his location, but this simultaneously gives the remaining 1-A students a point to converge on, and the group is able to use their Quirks to take out the others. Everyone in 1-A passes just in time.
Tropes:
- Big Damn Heroes: Aoyama fires his navel laser into the sky, trying to draw attention away from Iida so he can get away and score his points in the confusion. Iida refuses to leave him, and all the remaining U.A. students show up to help, passing in the process.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Kaminari pretends to miss Shishikura when he embeds his discs in the wall behind the latter; this is actually a routing point for his electricity so he is able to electrocute him when his guard is down.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: Aoyama rationalizes that Iida should just abandon him since time is running out and Aoyama is down by two targets anyway. Iida is not having any of it.
- Wham Line: Bakugo passes by Midoriya after they pass the first phase, sarcastically congratulating him on getting by with a "borrowed Quirk". Those two words catch Midoriya off guard, and he begins to suspect that Bakugo has started to realize the truth about One For All after he unwittingly confessed during the first semester.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Iida declares that despite Aoyama's doubts, he is equal to the rest of the class.
