Episode 9 (Vigilantes)

Makoto turns up at the penthouse posing as Koichi's girlfriend, a favor she intends to collect on later. Shoko is charmed for exactly as long as it takes her to see through it, then punishes her son from across the room with Fly Swatter, on the grounds that the girl is far out of his league. Furious at being lied to, she announces that not a word he has said about college can be trusted now, and that she will simply take him home. Makoto salvages it by vouching for his studies, refusing to rule out dating him someday, and winning Shoko over completely. Kazuho arrives dressed up and flustered, nearly bolts, and is talked into staying so Koichi can look popular. She heads off his instinct to introduce her by her hero name and gives her real one instead, which is news to him.

Knuckleduster's arrival should be a disaster, except the man walks in well dressed, introduces himself to Shoko under the name Takeshi Kuroiwa, and hands out business cards for a local non-profit. Asked what the work involves, he describes supporting a neighborhood the local government struggles to reach, with volunteers doing cleanup and patrols, plus some self-defense taught on the rooftop, all of it technically true. Makoto, taken with his build, wonders whether he was police, military, or a hero. The word sours Shoko, who condemns the way heroes are used until their lives collapse and their families are neglected, and recalls a son who imitated All Might, fell in a river, and failed his entrance exam. Kazuho starts to defend him, freezes under everyone's attention, and flees when Shoko shouts at her to speak up. Sent after her with Makoto's advice to compliment her effort, Koichi catches her on the stairs and tells her she looks casual, which earns him a slap.

The next day is sightseeing, with Koichi calmly weathering his mother by following his father's advice to wait out the storm, and secretly buying an Asakusa Thunder Gate All Might hoodie after being told not to. On the tour bus, a bee of Kuin's stings a stray cat with Trigger while Kuin watches from a cafe, and the amplified Monster Cat fuses with the vehicle and floors it. Knuckleduster spots the runaway from a rooftop and would leave it to the pros, until he sees who is inside, and calls Kazuho for packing tape, a duster, and a flagpole. Ingenium boards and finds the brakes and steering useless with a shopping district ahead, then the cat swerves after the enormous toy Knuckleduster and Pop☆Step have built, which drags it onto the expressway. That road is broken further along, leaving five minutes to empty the bus. Team Idaten pulls alongside and Enigma lifts passengers across with Gigantification, until Kuin ups the dosage and the enraged cat wrecks the truck, throwing the driver and guide clear and forcing Ingenium to abandon Makoto to save them. Out of fuel and slowing, Ingenium takes juice from Koichi, who has suited up in his new hoodie, and reluctantly accepts The Crawler as backup. Koichi baits the cat, whose attention is caught by the hoodie's All Might hair, and Recipro Burst saves him. With meters left and the bus falling, Rocket Charge carries Ingenium off the edge, but Koichi's fingers miss his hand. Refusing to drop Makoto, he pushes his Quirk into something new, repelling off empty air with his feet to fly, and reaches the hero. Everyone lands. Kuin collects her cat unnoticed. Shoko later tells Kuroiwa that her son floated before he could walk, and that she swatted him down so often he forgot he could, and Kuroiwa answers that children fly off eventually and all a parent can teach is how to fall. Practicing afterward, Koichi manages thirty centimeters and calls the rescue a one-time miracle of Asakusa.

Shoko Haimawari immediately detects the fake relationship and disciplines Koichi with Fly Swatter, but takes to Makoto anyway and floats the idea of a real match.

Knuckleduster is introduced to civilians as Takeshi Kuroiwa, a non-profit worker, and describes vigilante work in language that hides nothing while revealing nothing.

Shoko's dislike of heroes and her memory of Koichi's failed entrance exam expose why she considers him unreliable.

Kuin Hachisuka doses a stray cat with Trigger through her bee, turning it into a runaway cat bus, and raises the dose again mid-rescue to keep the chaos going.

The Crawler teams with Ingenium and Team Idaten, and Ingenium burns Recipro Burst and Rocket Charge to save him.

Koichi unlocks flight with Slide and Glide, saving Makoto in mid-air and revealing his identity to her. Shoko confirms he could always float, and that her swatting buried the ability.

The ninth episode of the Vigilantes anime adapts the back half of Chapter 16 along with Chapters 17 and 18. Kekka Alright opens it and Speed closes it.

Shoko's complaint that heroes leave their families for strangers echoes Kotaro Shimura, a line she does not deliver in the manga, where she instead complains that the profession uses people up until their lives collapse. The Tokyo Sky Egg replaces the Might Tower among the landmarks, introducing it earlier than in print.

Because their first meeting was never adapted, Koichi does not recognize Enigma, and Ingenium never notes she is a new recruit. The rescue is condensed, and the anime adds a moment where Ingenium must peel off for the driver and the guide, which explains the manga's unexplained decision to leave Makoto aboard, plus a vision of her death if he fails.

Kuin's phone labels the insect with a codename, Hutch The Solitary Bee, nodding to the classic series The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee, and Knuckleduster spots the bus while perched on a Shonen Jump+ sign, the magazine that ran the series.