Chapter 77 (Vigilantes)

Strategy (作戦) is the seventy-seventh chapter of Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court's My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.

Summary
Soga and his friends continue to train Koichi for when they have to face Kazuho again and free her from the parasitic bee. For this occasion, Soga wants to check Koichi's ability to snipe with his Slide and Glide Quirk, so he makes him shoot from twenty meters away against three targets, two round and the other human-shaped. Koichi uses his new Ultimate Move, Shooty-Go-Kablam, and shoots several concentrated air bullets.

Moyuru and Rapt are confused by Koichi's aim. He did hit the round targets with no problem, achieving even bull’s-eyes. However, for some reason, he couldn't land a single shot on the human-shaped target. Koichi also does not understand the reason why he misses, but Soga concludes that he subconsciously makes himself miss people-shaped targets. This makes Soga have to rethink the strategy against Kazuho. Since Koichi is unable to use his full-power shots against people and the Shooty-Go-Blam has not enough range and speed, he must use his mobility and martial arts to back her into a corner.

Over the next few days, Moyuru and Rapt help Koichi to train, while Soga is planning the entire mission, studying maps of the area, planning what are the best options when it comes to taking action, watching videos of Bee☆Pop's attack to analyze every aspect of her Quirk, etc. One day Moyuru returns from shopping and recon on the area of Pop's attack, informing Soga that the reconstruction is progressing slowly as another attack is feared, there are hardly any people in the streets and that most of the shops are closed, and that there are numerous heroes patrolling the area.

Soga continues watching videos, analyzing every single aesthetic of Queen’s attack to discover every detail about her physical abilities, the destructive power of bees, her control over the swarm, etc, although he admits that it is not an easy task because the videos are taken by fans and not of very good quality. Moyuru advises him to take it easy. When he watches the videos, Moyuru thinks that Pop looks like somebody that's just playing an extreme prank, but Soga replies that, for him, Pop looks like she is suffering.

Koichi, who’s listening on, resolves to have a talk with her, sure that Kazuho will listen to reason. Rapt and Moyuru doubt that his idea will work considering how their previous confrontation ended. Koichi reminisces that on the previous occasions when Kazuho had been mad and he didn't know why, he just spent some time with her and then everything ended up somehow fixed, reason why he thinks that it could works with the current situation. Moyuru and Rapt are still skeptical.

Soga orders the three of them to rest while he puts together a strategy by morning. Moyuru tells Soga that he substitutes him, as he should get some rest too. While Moyuru searches for decent videos, he tells Soga that, considering the situation, helping people is kinda fun. Soga just tells him to take the work more seriously.

Meanwhile, in a high-rise apartment, a possessed Kazuho is bloodied and nearly broken. She crawls from her bed to the apartment window to look out towards the city, while her mind is filled with violent thoughts confusing strong feelings of love and hate. She cries over Koichi, saying he will never forget about her, as her left eye bleeds.

The next morning, the police organize several Pro Heroes in groups of two with the mission of patrolling and protecting the streets of Naruhata that were still being rebuilt by last week's attack. Among these heroes is the Villain Number 6, under the alias of the Pro Hero Rock. He's partnered up for a patrol with another Pro Hero, Compass Kid, who from the first moment shows a friendly attitude towards Rock.

While on patrol, Compass Kid tells Rock that his wife does not like the idea that he used his day off to participate in such mission in which he would not be well paid instead of spending time with the kids, but for Compass it is important to give peace in mind to the people of the town. Rock agrees with him, adding that they are not there just for general crime prevention but also as a precaution against Pop in case she decides to attack again, something Number 6 is sure is going to happen that day.

Chapter Notes

 * Number 6 (as Rokuro Nomura) is confirmed to be a Pro Hero under the name Rock.

Trivia

 * This chapter was initially titled Strategy Meeting (作戦会議), but was amended for the volume release.