Chapter 61 (Vigilantes)

An investment office in Tasomiya Ward is being robbed with hostages inside. The Robber Villain, rattled that police have already arrived, demands to know which hostage tipped them off. That distraction is enough for Midnight to slip in through the window with Loud Cloud right behind her, announcing themselves as Team Purple Revolution. Rather than trade blows, the robber throws up a smoke screen with his Quirk and bolts, taking a bag of cash and the safe with him.

Oboro wants to give chase, but Nemuri stops him: the smoke could be toxic, and the hostages still need evacuating. He concedes the point and shouts for Shota to intercept instead. Shota catches the criminal's arm with his capturing weapon, only for the man to blind him with a fresh cloud. Shota pulls back a beat too late and realizes the robber has used the cover to hurl the safe at him. His Purple Highness arrives in time to boot the safe skyward and shield him. The hero squares up, but the robber flees again behind more smoke, hauling off the rest of the loot.

The hero who saved Shota is revealed as Nemuri's employer, the same pro who accepted him and Oboro for their Hero Work-Studies. He praises both of them, Nemuri for valuing innocent lives over a collar, Oboro for deciding fast and never hesitating on the next move. Shota gets a question instead of a compliment: what did he do wrong? Shota answers that he ceded the initiative and let the man escape. Wrong, says his mentor. The failure is that he plays hero with a gloomy face. If Shota wants the job, he has to inspire confidence, and that means trusting his own strength and smiling.

In the Purple Revolution Agency shower room, Shota chews on the advice, wondering how anyone smiles after a villain gets away. Oboro's answer from behind the curtain is to keep smiling like he always does, which Shota points out is impossible since he never smiles that way to begin with. Oboro cannot argue. Nemuri floods Shota's phone with messages, all of them pictures of Sushi; he asks why she sends so many while plainly enjoying them, and when Oboro steps out of the shower he catches Shota wearing a big, genuine grin. Shota denies it.

Days afterward the robber strikes again and Shota goes after him. Recognized as the boy from before, he takes the Quirk head-on, but this time he does not stop, pushing straight through the smoke with his eyes shielded by goggles. The idea came out of that shower-room conversation: asked what he would do in a rematch, Shota explained the bad Quirk matchup, since distance let the smoke block his line of sight and closing in only irritated his eyes, so Erasure was useless either way. Oboro's solution was to lend him his glasses.

Erasure shuts the smoke down. The Robber Villain swings the money bag to crush him, Shota dodges, and Oboro drops in to knock the man out with his quarterstaff. His Purple Highness congratulates the pair, and with passersby gathering he tells his trainees that these are the moments worth smiling for. Oboro manages it easily; Shota produces something awkward, drawing a shout that his smiles still need work and laughter from the crowd. The 19-page chapter released September 13, 2019, was collected in Volume 8, and was adapted as Episode 20 of the Vigilantes anime. His Purple Highness and the Robber Villain debut. Serialization titled it Combo, or Konbi, before the volume revision, and one panel poses His Purple Highness in imitation of the cover of Prince's album Lovesexy.