Chapter 94 (Vigilantes)

Osaka celebrates. All Might sets another record by putting down close to a hundred villains in one sweep, pitches in on the cleanup, and leaps home toward Might Sleep. A young Fat Gum watches the whole thing, works out how much mass a man like that must carry, and orders another round of takoyaki.

In his hideout, All For One shuts down a still-raging Hood, explaining that a few minutes of combat gutted the creature's strength, speed and regeneration. He had expected the martial arts training to carry it, but that devotion to brawling conflicts with the shape-shifting he installed. He hands it to Kurogiri for delivery to the Doctor and further modification. Patience costs him nothing, he decides, since every step narrows the distance to All Might, though Overclock would have accelerated matters. He already knows what he will do with it once it is his.

Outside the garage, Tiger Bunny turns down O'Clock's offer to write her into the report for compensation, saying she will earn her place as a full hero herself. The Rapper has no plan past the next fight, and she promises to save her gentler kicks for him if he stays a villain. He wanders off hunting a new playground, unbothered by O'Clock's warning that the Masquerade will surface again somewhere under another name, just as lethal. If they meet again, he says, he will not be holding back. The next day O'Clock tells Eizo Tanuma that his Quirk suits intelligence work rather than open combat, that he prefers to gather enough and let other heroes finish, and that this case pushed him into recruiting two accomplices. Eizo wants names and details. O'Clock wants to dig further first, wary of an enemy crafty enough to be tipped off through official channels, and says the situation demands more caution than that before he runs off.

In the present, Eizo finishes the file: the Underground Masquerade traced back to All For One, apparently settled in a secret showdown with All Might. He starts lining it up against the Instant Villain cases in Naruhata, the Next-Level Villains, the Sky Egg Incident and Bee Pop's attack, and concludes the Villain Factory shares the Masquerade's mastermind. An archivist appears asking to review the documents Eizo has signed out. Told exactly what connection is being drawn, the man detonates the paperwork, then the floor. Number 6 leaps clear as an imagined O'Clock congratulates him on erasing the past before anyone above could move, and he savors the thought of an enemy left blind and a life left untouchable.

All Might's Osaka sweep sets a new record, and the spectacle inspires a young Fat Gum to bulk up.

All For One punishes Hood for the failure and ships it to Doctor Garaki for rework while continuing to scheme toward Overclock. Tiger Bunny and The Rapper part ways, one bound for a hero license and the other for the next brawl, and O'Clock chooses to keep investigating rather than surrender what he knows.

Eizo Tanuma ties the Masquerade to All For One and to three years of Villain Factory incidents. Number 6 destroys the documents and buries him in an explosion to keep the link hidden.

Nineteen pages, released January 23, 2021, collected in Volume 12 and closing the Underground Masquerade arc. Eizo Tanuma and O'Clock appear on the cover.

The serialized title was The Underground Masquerade Case. It became Underground Roots for the volume edition.

Nearly the entire chapter is flashback. The final sequence returns to the present day and sets up the Naruhata Lockdown arc.