Episode Zero

Izuku Midoriya, at U.A. High School, puzzles over the word vigilante until All Might arrives with an explanation: someone who takes public action for the sake of public safety with no regard for legality. The roots of heroism itself trace back to them, All Might notes, and Izuku works out the implication. During the early Quirk phenomenon no body existed to license or organize Pro Heroes, meaning the very first Pros were vigilantes by definition. Shota Aizawa adds that today's Hero Regulations criminalize handing out punishment without credentials, so modern law draws no distinction between a vigilante and a villain, though he considers them relics who have mostly died out.

In an alley, a criminal with a blade for an arm corners a girl and demands her bag. A muscular figure in bandages drops from above with a kick, catches the blade arm to render it useless, and puts him down with a punch. Furious at the intent behind even a petty crime, he declares every offender a villain worth punishing. He is Knuckleduster. Elsewhere a teenage girl flies on her Quirk, irritated that the regulations bar public Quirk use and force her to walk like everyone else, a rule she finds childish; she is Pop☆Step, and she perches on a rooftop with no interest in rules. A third figure, a boy in a hooded jacket modeled on All Might, sprints along the ground with his own Quirk, recovering a lost phone, guiding a stranger through town, finding a missing child, and helping elderly women cross streets. Nice Guy finds these small acts wonderful.

Back in the classroom, Shota labels the three heinous criminals and forbids imitation, which bewilders Nice Guy. Shota cites his public Quirk use, while All Might zeroes in on the parka and wonders aloud whether it happens to be the Official Online-Exclusive Limited Edition model, leaving Nice Guy stunned to meet him. Shota then dresses him down for wearing misleading clothes and doing misleading deeds without a proper costume or qualifications, and Nice Guy defends himself as someone helping people. Knuckleduster turns up to scold him for behaving like a criminal and Pop☆Step calls him stupid, and all three scatter when Shota reaches for the Police Force. He was bluffing. Guiding how ordinary people live is not a hero's work, he says, and as long as vigilantes do not turn their Quirks toward evil they can be left alone. He goes further: plain fan admiration can produce someone like Nice Guy, so heroes should keep fan interaction within reason, a thought All Might finds frightening. Class 1-A promises not to associate with vigilantes, and Shota closes on the paradox. Inwardly they are heroes, but measured objectively they are villains, and whatever else happens these illegal heroes must never be copied.

All Might defines vigilantism for Class 1-A and establishes that the first Pro Heroes were themselves vigilantes, since no regulatory body existed when Quirks first appeared.

Knuckleduster, Pop☆Step, and Nice Guy are each introduced through short field vignettes that illustrate their approaches, and all three end up in the classroom before fleeing a fake police call.

Shota articulates the series' central tension, calling vigilantes heroes on the inside and villains by any objective measure, and warns the class against imitating them.

The chapter is non-canon and runs fifteen pages, collected in Volume 4 and followed by Chapter 1 of Vigilantes. Its Japanese title is given as Trailer marketing, matching its purpose as promotional material.

Knuckleduster, Pop☆Step, and Nice Guy appear on the cover under their vigilante identities.

A VOMIC adaptation of the chapter was produced to promote the debut season of the Vigilantes anime.