Chapter 30 (Vigilantes)

Chained up somewhere out of sight, the Bat Villain mutters to himself that nothing can catch him and nothing is faster. Over at Narufest, the event underwritten by the Marukane Department Store, Kazuho Haneyama thanks the crowd and cues the closing act: The Little Sisters, a singing trio out of Saint Lila's Academy for Girls. Midnight is startled to spot Shota Aizawa in a crowd this loud. He claims duty brought him and lunch kept him, then asks why she would spend a day off here, and she answers that these things please her.

Naomasa Tsukauchi arrives with police business about the villains surfacing across the city. Teruo Unagisawa, he says, was booked twice as an Instant Villain, but between the two arrests his physical form rewrote itself into something that looks at least semi-permanent. Other villains show the same alterations along with Trigger readings grades above a fatal dose, which pushes the force toward one conclusion: someone is deliberately reworking bodies to tolerate heavier hits of the drug.

Backstage, Miu is telling the Little Sisters to make Narufest proud, especially with a Pro Hero booked as the special guest, when Kazuho quietly reports that the hero is stuck filming a commercial elsewhere. Miu covers by promising the guest's identity as a surprise, then scans the audience for anyone heroic, disguised or otherwise. Koichi Haimawari picks that moment to wander in asking for one of the bento boxes and gets shoved onstage, announced as The Crawler. The crowd has no idea who he is; Naomasa's notes file him under "The Cruller," and Nemuri only recognizes Kazuho's manager. His run at "Can't Help Loving You" lands halfway decent by Miu's reckoning, though the trio still want the hero they were promised.

Across town, Captain Celebrity and Tensei Ida finish their shoot until the Captain decides one frame flatters him poorly and calls for another take, praising Ingenium's professional attitude when he obliges. Hidden among the crew, Number 6 pops the roof of a speeding Waku Waku Delivery truck by phone. It plows into the set and dumps the Bat Villain onto it. He goes for Tensei, who recognizes him and grabs on to keep him grounded, only for the villain to anticipate it, slash him, and drop him. The Bat leaves to hunt the Vigilantes instead. Tensei walks off the fall unhurt and gives chase with Captain Celebrity, telling him to keep the target in sight and pull in the city's flying heroes for a trap. Koichi's singing carries on the air, and the Bat turns toward it.

Back at the festival, Naomasa lays out his theory that one organization moves the Trigger and remakes people to withstand it, as with Teruo. Shota counters that disposable pawns of the Next-level and Instant varieties amount to little on their own, so a larger aim has to sit behind them, which is exactly why Naomasa came asking for help. The Bat then swoops onto the stage and carries Koichi off. Captain Celebrity finally closes the gap as the villain slows to drop him, knocks him cold, and catches Koichi before he hits the ground. Calling him perfect bait and finally useful, the Captain lands onstage to thunderous applause, and the organizers exhale over their guest arriving after all.

The police connect the reshaped villains to Trigger concentrations well past lethal, pointing at an organized supplier altering bodies on purpose, and Naomasa formally asks Shota Aizawa to work the case. Number 6 springs the Bat Villain onto a commercial shoot, where Tensei Ida is slashed and knocked down. The Sisters of Saint Lila's Academy debut. Captain Celebrity ends the chase, drops the Bat Villain, plucks Koichi Haimawari out of the air, and closes Narufest as its surprise guest.

Hideyuki Furuhashi writes and Betten Court illustrates. The chapter runs twenty-one pages, published May 26, 2018, collected in Volume 5, and set within the Osaka Incident arc; Episode 13 of the Vigilantes anime adapts it. It first carried the title Investigation, Sōsa, which was changed for the volume printing.