Chapter 111 (Vigilantes)

Leaning on a cane for his wrecked knee, Knuckleduster climbs an abandoned building, aware that a contest of pure speed is one he loses, so the answer has to be a plan. He finds Number 6 lining up his sniper shot at Koichi Haimawari, and understands the shape of it: the trap was laid because his own speed registered as a threat, and that instant of satisfaction is the one moment the boy's guard drops. So he jumps in and swings.

Years earlier, All For One and Doctor Kyudai Garaki study Experiment Number 6, a boy with agnosia who has no grasp of himself or of society. The Doctor writes him off as unsuitable for a pupil. All For One sees the opposite, a magnificent mass of potential, possibly the twisted thing they have been looking for, capable of taking any shape he wants. Seated in front of footage of Pro Heroes, the boy is told he may become anyone and claim whatever Quirk appeals most. He picks O'Clock. All For One praises the choice, instructs him to hold that figure in his head as his mentor, and quietly installs himself in that role as "Master O'Clock".

Back in the present, the punches keep coming. Knuckleduster judges the Knuckle Sandwich the dependable option, since anything less would let the boy simply run, whereas staying pressed against him gets inside his head. Goaded into speaking, Number 6 reverts to his rock face and eats more blows, screaming to know why Koichi was chosen instead of him, when becoming him was the only thing he ever wanted, and firing a round straight out of his hand.

Still racing, Koichi hears the shot and cannot place it, then notices Soga Kugisaki right behind him. Knuckleduster slips the bullet, seizes the arm, and tells the boy he idolized the wrong man. A decent Quirk and a working brain, he says, have nothing to do with what a man is actually worth, and whatever was worth anything in him has already gone to people who deserved it.

All that remains to hand over is his own worthless life. He raises a detonator to Number 6's face; the building beneath them is packed with explosives. Far off in the mountains, Tamao Oguro looks up from her guitar and catches a shooting star crossing the sky.

Number 6's origin is laid out. A nameless boy afflicted with agnosia, he was taken in as a research subject by All For One and Doctor Kyudai Garaki.

Handed a lineup of Pro Heroes and told to pick whoever he wanted to model himself on, the boy settled on O'Clock, and that single choice built his identity.

The O'Clock illusion in Number 6's mind is confirmed to be All For One himself.

Knuckleduster beats him down and corners him, intending to detonate the building and end them both.

Written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court, chapter 111 of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes arrived on October 9, 2021, runs nineteen pages, and belongs to the fourteenth volume. It sits in the Naruhata Lockdown arc between Chapter 110 and Chapter 112.

Knuckleduster takes the cover alone. The lineup of Pro Heroes shown to the young Number 6 includes Crimson Riot, Crust, Yoroi Musha, Endeavor, Ectoplasm, Lady Nagant, Gunhead, and Gang Orca, all appearing as pictures.

Tamao Oguro closes the chapter, while Pop☆Step, Rapt Tokage, Moyuru Tochi, Naomasa Tsukauchi, Sansa Tamakawa, and Eizo Tanuma feature in flashback.