Chapter 96 (Vigilantes)

Miu and Yu turn up at Hopper's Cafe to find the rest of the Narufest crowd already gathered, all chasing news about Pop. The Hotta brothers relay Midnight's message: her condition is stable, Koichi is doing everything he can, and the kids should stop carrying it. Since the mood refuses to lift, the brothers offer food instead, noting business will be thin until the streets calm anyway.

On a rooftop, Koichi sorts through two phones, one dedicated to Soga and a personal handset he powers up once daily. It floods with missed calls from his mother and texts from his father, who has been following events, and he assures them everything is fine. Rapt appears on the next roof ready to throw his food across, though Koichi simply glides over to collect it. In the process Rapt lets slip that the apartment was broken into and that Soga went to look, insisting there is nothing to worry about.

Soga surveys the penthouse and notices Koichi is the last tenant in a building bought out for redevelopment. Reading the intruder as someone hunting one specific thing, he follows disturbances in the dust to an empty room where something sits stashed under a sheet in the corner. He lifts it just as Moyuru calls to say the police have reached the hospital. Naomasa informs Soga that the ward is now police business and that his group will be cooperating. Soga agrees, then points out how slowly the authorities moved, how unlikely they are to guard an unconscious girl indefinitely, and how the structure of the system guarantees that anything falling through the cracks stays unresolved. Midnight pushes for cooperation as a stopgap, but Naomasa raises the warrant for The Crawler, arguing that a man left to his own devices will eventually run into a genuine villain and cause genuine damage. Soga asks whether he thinks Koichi is unprepared for that. The opposite, Naomasa answers, and that is the problem.

Ordered to summon Koichi, Soga reluctantly complies, telling Moyuru to send the Wake Up Call. The alarm reaches Koichi's phone, a signal he was taught means run and hide, and both men bolt. Naomasa sends half his officers after Soga until Midnight reminds him those men are supposed to be guarding the hospital and calls him a terrible negotiator, which he sourly concedes. He rings Team Idaten instead. With talks failed, Ingenium is cleared to move on the high-speed villain known as The Crawler.

The Hotta brothers update the Narufest group on Koichi and Pop, keeping the younger crowd out of the situation.

Soga investigates the break-in at the penthouse and finds a mysterious object hidden in the building before he is called away.

Naomasa's attempt to negotiate over hospital protection and Koichi's arrest collapses. Koichi and Soga both flee, and Ingenium is deployed to capture Koichi.

Twenty-one pages, released February 27, 2021, collected in Volume 12 within the Naruhata Lockdown arc. Soga Kugisaki, Rapt Tokage, Moyuru Tochi and The Crawler appear on the cover.

The object Soga uncovers connects to the theft established in the previous chapter, and Midnight's role throughout is that of a mediator neither side is willing to accept.