Chapter 116 (Vigilantes)

Destruction Style hammers the building until Koichi is sealed under the wreckage. Overhead, the news helicopter keeps broadcasting, urging Naruhata residents to shelter and wait for the Heroes, while the crowds watch from a distance and wonder what is left of their town.

Koichi comes to in the dark, bleeding and privately conceding this may be where it ends, when Knuckleduster appears in front of him. Elsewhere, Soga Kugisaki watches the distant explosions and tells himself to trust Koichi, turning back to the unresponsive Knuckleduster to start first aid.

Seeing his master convinces Koichi he is dying and this is his life replaying, but Knuckleduster asks whether that is really the case. Unable to move without something to lean on, Koichi takes his suggestion and wraps his damaged parts in his Quirk like a cast, and it holds. He extends the coating across his whole body, producing something close to Captain Celebrity's Flight, and finds he can drift through the air to travel.

Working his way out of the darkness, he trades jabs with the vision. Knuckleduster notes he has managed on his own since the day he walked away, and Koichi admits it has been rough. His old master credits how far he has pushed his body and how resourcefully he uses it, and Koichi mentions he has been practicing his landings too.

Then he hits a dead end and asks what comes next. Knuckleduster congratulates him for making it this far, which reads to Koichi as the end of the road. He takes comfort in having helped Kazuho and the others and in getting this far alone. Knuckleduster cuts him short, telling him the fists are taking over from here.

Above, Number 6 keeps pulverizing the site, taunting his target that hiding is finished and preparing to level everything nearby, until a blast erupts from underneath. Koichi punches his way out through the rubble with Slide and Glide channeled into his knuckles, a technique he calls Knuckle Style.

Buried under the wrecked building and bleeding out, Koichi finds himself talking to a vision of Knuckleduster.

He coats his body in Slide and Glide, splinting his broken bones and gaining the ability to float and move.

Soga Kugisaki begins first aid on the unresponsive real Knuckleduster.

Koichi debuts Knuckle Style, channeling his Quirk into explosive punches, and blasts his way out of the rubble.

Titled Final Lesson, the chapter runs twenty-one pages and was released on December 25, 2021. It is collected in Volume 14 and belongs to the Naruhata Lockdown arc, following Chapter 115 and preceding Chapter 117.

Knuckleduster and Koichi Haimawari share the cover. The series is written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and drawn by Betten Court.

The chapter first ran under the title Yami no Naka, meaning In Darkness, and was retitled for the collected volume.