Chapter 52: Balloon Soul

The standoff continues with Koichi Haimawari bursting each explosive fist before it can reach Captain Celebrity. Then his Quirk's grip simply quits, and he drops, saved only by the hero snatching one of his legs. Get sloppy, Captain Celebrity warns him, and the whole chain fails: nobody catches the vigilante, nobody screens the hero, nobody holds up the Sky Egg. Koichi tells him to stop piling on the pressure, and notices the American is grinning.

The reason begins in high school. Christopher Skyline was adored by everyone, girls in particular, except for one classmate who only ever scowled at him. Nobody had looked at him that way before, so he asked Pamela about it, and she told him the face was simply hers. His fix, taking her flying, made her angrier. When he apologized, she informed him she had no interest in him or his goofy grin and called him a balloon, handsome on the outside and empty within. The words stung, and she walked off.

He came back the next day holding a balloon, a joke at his own expense, and asked whether she was still angry. She was not, and admitted she had been thinking that flying looked wonderful. Another of his wild rides was out of the question, so he offered a balloon ride instead. The two of them drifted inches over the ground, and when she said they looked ridiculous he took them a little higher. Everything he did, he thought, came from wanting to be liked, but her delighted face rearranged that. He fell for her, courted her through her distance, and eventually she chose him back.

The marriage soured quickly. He kept setting her off, hero work stalled, men he counted as friends turned out to be working him, and villains he had put down came back at him through the courts as though he were the guilty party. Whatever he did, trouble followed. Back on the tower, Koichi finally asks about the smile, and Christopher explains it: a villain in front of him, thousands of lives behind him, and no way for even an idiot like him to get this one wrong.

The Bomb Villain loads more force into its next attack. Koichi shatters the first fist, but the blowback masks the second, and it connects with Captain Celebrity. It never detonates. A police helicopter is closing in, and Shota Aizawa cancels the explosive Quirk with Erasure, holding it in check without defusing it. The creature tries to circle the tower and break Eraser Head's line of sight, only to be snared in midair by threads. Best Jeanist arrives balanced on a single strand with the Bomber dangling from his grip, while Ryukyu and Airjet report the authorities alerted and turn to the remaining creatures.

Christopher Skyline's history with Pamela is laid out, from her balloon insult through their marriage and its decline.

Captain Celebrity explains his smile: the situation is simple enough that even he cannot fail it.

Shota Aizawa reaches the scene by helicopter and neutralizes a Bomber's explosive Quirk with Erasure.

Best Jeanist takes the creature out of the air, and Ryukyu and Airjet confirm the outside world has been alerted.

Magazine publication carried the shorter title Balloon (フーセン, Fūsen), which was expanded for the volume release.

Nineteen pages long, the chapter appeared on April 26, 2019, sits in volume 7, and was adapted as part of episode 24 of the Vigilantes anime.

Christopher Skyline appears alone on the cover. Naomasa Tsukauchi and Fat Gum also feature in the chapter alongside the Sky Egg responders.