Naruhata Vigilantes

Knuckleduster assembled the group with one target: the Trigger traffic running through Naruhata and the Instant Villains the drug produced. Patrolling the ward against ordinary thugs and small-time criminals came bundled in whether the team wanted it or not.

Away from joint patrols the three pulled in different directions. Koichi Haimawari, working as The Crawler, filled his hours with unpaid public service, hauling litter and returning lost property. Kazuho Haneyama performed as Pop☆Step, chasing fame as an illegal street idol before going legitimate. Knuckleduster's motive was private and far darker: the Villain Factory had ended his career as the professional O'Clock by stealing his Quirk, then attacked his family and turned his abducted daughter into the dealer Kuin Hachisuka. Knowing how lethal that hunt was, he kept it from his teammates rather than drag them into it.

Their work broke the law, yet professionals including Ingenium, Eraser Head, and Midnight repeatedly worked beside them, untroubled by the technicality because the trio meant well and never abused their powers. Naruhata was a crime-ridden ward established heroes tended to overlook, and the team filled that gap so thoroughly that residents treated them as the neighborhood's real protection. For cover they ran a non-profit, Creating A Better Life Together, recruiting young volunteers for community service and night patrols while Knuckleduster, as the civilian Takeshi Kuroiwa, taught self-defence. Every word of the pitch was true, and none of it mentioned what they actually did at night.

The team formed when Knuckleduster watched Koichi try to protect Pop☆Step from Soga Kugisaki and his friends and decided the boy had something worth training. Koichi refused at first, put off by the older man's violent methods, but a confrontation with a dealer changed his mind. Kazuho joined partly to help and largely to stay near Koichi, on whom she had a quiet crush.

Their steady stream of defeated Instant Villains soon interfered with Kuin's work. She wanted them gone, but her employer, All For One, preferred to let them meddle so the Factory could harvest combat data from the interference. Kuin kept generating trouble until Knuckleduster beat her, tore the parasitic bee out of his daughter's body, and destroyed it, saving Tamao. Then he left the team without a word.

The other two carried on. Makoto Tsukauchi and the American hero Captain Celebrity joined their orbit, and Makoto brought Kazuho into the FeatherHATS so she could perform legally. Meanwhile the Next-Level Villains emerged under a new agent, Number 6, dragging the pair into incident after incident. That link made them targets during the Sky Egg Bombing, an attempt to kill Captain Celebrity before a crowd of thousands that All Might broke up. As Number 6 withdrew, Knuckleduster reappeared and attacked, wanting the agent who carried his stolen Overclock; their fight collapsed the building and both vanished.

Quiet years followed until Number 6, disguised as the FeatherHATS manager Rokuro Nomura, abducted Kazuho and turned her into Bee☆Pop. Soga, assigned by Knuckleduster to watch over them both, rescued Koichi and trained him with Moyuru Tochi and Rapt Tokage toward a plan to destroy the bee again. Koichi pulled Kazuho clear despite Endeavor trying to apprehend her, and Midnight got her safely to a hospital. Number 6 answered with Operation Anonymous, cutting the city's power and deploying fresh Bombers. Vigilantes, heroes, and police set their disputes aside while Koichi held the villain alone long enough for help to arrive, discovering applications of his Quirk he had never imagined. Number 6 became the Hi-Crawler, then the plasma kaiju Destruction Style, and All Might and Endeavor finished him.

Knuckleduster, the former professional Iwao Oguro, led first and remains the team's hardest asset. Quirkless, he relied on the body, knowledge, and instincts left from his hero career, and he was always the one beating villains down, reaching without hesitation for tools and firearms on his private vendetta. His crude manner hid a sharp mind that produced workable plans and the right equipment for each Instant Villain.

The Crawler took over as leader and worked mostly as support. Never physically imposing, and with Slide and Glide never especially strong, he fought defensively when alone, buying time until someone more capable arrived. Training and constant combat changed that, unlocking new facets of the Quirk. Pop☆Step's Leap usually put her at the scene first, but with no combat experience she stayed out of fights, contributing through investigation, evacuation, decoy work, and first aid.

Soga Kugisaki, Rapt Tokage, and Moyuru Tochi joined the later roster, reformed criminals who trained Koichi and fronted the group publicly. The team never had much raw power, but coordination and timely allies carried it through everything it met. It disbanded at the end: Kazuho entered rehabilitation with Soga visiting often, Koichi left for America as The Skycrawler after Makoto and Captain Celebrity declared him a sidekick to keep him out of custody, and Knuckleduster went back to working Naruhata from the shadows.