Chapter 3 (Vigilantes)

Koichi turns over an idea he once heard: a world full of Quirks is a world that must keep them muzzled. Let everyone use their powers freely and order collapses, so rigid rules push people toward ordinary lives with their abilities kept small. One group is exempt. Heroes are licensed to cut loose on the public's behalf, which is why boys grow up chasing the job, and why the ones who cannot reach it and still want to use what they have drift somewhere past the law.

Pop Step spots a scrap between two middle schoolers, Ichimoku Samazu and Jube Namimaru, and calls it in. Koichi races over on Slide and Glide, orders them to stop, and plows into a pile of garbage, unhurt when they check on him. Hours earlier, Knuckleduster had asked how fast the Quirk goes; Koichi said roughly bicycle speed, since anything more is uncontrollable without brakes, and showed the scar to prove it. Knuckleduster handed over motorcycle gloves, told him to learn how to fall, and insisted he needed a name with more menace than Nice Guy. So Koichi announces himself as The Crawler, which lands badly, since the boys know him as the guy who picks up litter, and they hear it as Cruller. His attempt to break up the fight gets him shoved, then kicked by both once Ichimoku fires off his Quirk, though the padding takes it. Knuckleduster arrives ready to flatten them, arguing that on-sight beatings make wrongdoers cooperative and feel refreshing besides, and Koichi's objection to that logic leaves him genuinely puzzled. Pop Step ends the argument by descending and using her appeal, which stops the fight cold.

Autographs are interrupted by Akira Iwako, whose Trigger-boosted rampage sends a baby tumbling from its carriage, and Koichi snatches the child in time. Knuckleduster's punch does nothing and the return blow launches him. Akira gloats about his defense and shows a blackened tongue doing it, which delights Knuckleduster, while Pop Step explains Trigger to the boys and calls the two men volunteers working to keep the drug off the black market. Knuckleduster reads the Instant Villain instantly: the man has not learned his own power, hardened himself so heavily that he moves like a statue, and drops the hardening the moment his concentration breaks. Koichi slides into a knee, Akira falls, focus goes, and a flurry of punches finishes him. The face means nothing to Knuckleduster, so Koichi photographs the villain and his tongue while Pop Step returns the baby and warns the boys off drugs. Sirens send the three scattering, and Koichi names them as mysterious new heroes on the way out. At the scene, Naomasa Tsukauchi identifies the Gigantification and Hardening mix and the tell-tale black tongue, and Sansa Tamakawa recognizes an Instant Villain. Told no heroes were dispatched anywhere nearby, Naomasa concludes vigilantes did this, and when Sansa calls that convenient, he cuts him off: there is such a thing as law, and taking it personally is a crime. Back home, Pop Step reports the incident is already circulating online, which thrills Koichi until he hears the names attached, Weird Fist Grandpa and Cruller.

Koichi retires the Nice Guy alias and debuts as The Crawler, equipped with protective gear from Knuckleduster and advice on falling safely. Pop Step breaks up a middle-school fight with her appeal, and Akira Iwako, an Instant Villain running on Trigger, attacks civilians. Koichi rescues a baby, then exploits Akira's over-hardened body so Knuckleduster can beat him down. Naomasa Tsukauchi and Sansa Tamakawa investigate the aftermath and identify unsanctioned vigilantes at work, with Naomasa stressing that vigilantism is illegal regardless of outcome. Online rumors give the pair unflattering nicknames.

The chapter is written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court, running 35 pages in the first Vigilantes volume as part of the Vigilantes Beginnings arc. It introduces Ichimoku Samazu, Jube Namimaru, and Akira Iwako. The adaptation divides the material unusually, with the opening five pages appearing in Episode 14 and the remaining thirty in Episode 2.