Chapter 108 (Vigilantes)

Koichi Haimawari recoils from the beast Number 6 has become, a shape the villain claims was built to endure his real speed. Calling it the Hi-Crawler, he tears across the distance and rakes at Koichi's legs with claws that Koichi barely avoids.

Koichi reasons that the villain has to slow down to strike with his hands, so distance is the answer, and gets a headbutt for it, then a body slam, then a stream of slashes exploiting every hesitation. Worse, he realizes the slowdown never happened at all: Number 6 has been carving at his weak points the entire time, and on this trajectory he dies soon.

The O'Clock illusion argues against the current approach even so. Normally the acceleration state of Overclock crushes the body under its own pressure, but the modifications have changed that, and a remodeled muscular structure plus additional eyes now let Number 6 hold the accelerated state indefinitely, an apex predator without a shutoff.

Then the illusion names the problem: the opponent is The Crawler. Heroes and police strike first, but years of vigilante work put Koichi permanently on the receiving end, absorbing the opening blow again and again. That history built a fight-or-flight response into him without his noticing, producing a variant fighter conditioned to answer any attack, which is exactly what carries him through this assault. Exhausted and startled by his own survival, Koichi holds on, while O'Clock tells Number 6 that overwhelming him with speed is not the way and points toward another strategy, the real purpose behind Phase 6.

Number 6's beast form, the Hi-Crawler, is revealed to bypass every physical limitation Overclock would impose on his ordinary body, letting him remain accelerated permanently.

Koichi counters the onslaught almost perfectly, his years as a vigilante having drilled unconscious defensive reflexes into him.

With raw speed failing, the O'Clock illusion redirects Number 6 toward the true objective of Phase 6.

The nineteen-page chapter by Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court ran on August 28, 2021 in the Naruhata Lockdown arc and opens volume 14, with Number 6 on the cover.

Magazine readers saw it as The Variant (Igyō no Mono) before the volume renamed it Dweller of the Depths.

Only three figures appear: Number 6, Koichi, and the O'Clock illusion projected by All For One.