Chapter 69 (Vigilantes)

License (ヒーロー登場) is the sixty-ninth chapter of Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court's My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.

Summary
At Marukane Department Store, the manager Nomura, Miu, Yu and the sisters of the Marukane Performers are at a meeting where they talk about how the grand finale in the last Narufest will be. After a while, Kazuho arrives and apologizes for being late. Miu and Yu deduce that her delay is because she is working hard at something, and ask if they can help her. Kazuho thanks them for their interest but tells them that it is something she's gotta do on her own for now. After this, the meeting continues.

After the meeting, Kazuho arrives at her home, where she prepares to go back to the streets and perform a solo performance. She can barely sing as three thugs appear, mocking her for her efforts and demanding money for her to continue singing. To Kazuho's surprise, Nomura appears from the crowd and introduces himself to the thugs to deal with him about any problem or legal process so Kazuho can sing on the street, apologizing for any inconvenience. Before they can continue, several police officers appear to find out what they are doing, and Kazuho and Nomura decide to leave to avoid problems.

Kazuho and Nomura go to a cafe to talk about her solo project. Kazuho explains that she is trying to craft a future for herself beyond the Narufest, now that it's about to end. The manager is depressed because he considers himself guilty of it, but she tries to downplay the issue. Kazuho continues the conversation, and explains that she was trying to apply everything she had learned about singing, songwriting, etc. to give another shot herself. The manager considers that busking alone in the streets can be a bit risky, and thinks the company has ways to help her, and he offers himself to help her, but he becomes depressed again when he thinks how useless he is for it.

Nomura asks Kazuho to let him listen to her song, whose theme is about heartbreak. While Nomura listens to the song, Kazuho thinks that she has no skills for what she is doing but, to her surprise, Nomura gets so moved about her song that he starts crying, and tells Kazuho that her song is amazing. The manager says he likes the lyrics and song composition: being obstinate in continuing forward despite the pain and difficulties. He gets depressed again because the song makes him spill his guts that he also wants to do other things but now he is at a standstill in his life and job that does not improve at all.

Nomura tells Kazuho that he wants to help her so everyone can listen to her song. It's not that Kazuho rejects the offer, but the help he offered reminds her of when Makoto was the manager, and how she benefited from Makoto's talents as a means to achieve her own success. Nomura becomes depressed for the fourth time after hearing about Makoto. He knows how successful and talented she was when she was the manager, and he feels dejected when a loser like him is compared to her. Despite this, he still wants to help Kazuho and offers himself to be her second producer.

On the way back, while talking about the project, Kazuho and Nomura meet again with the trio of thugs who made fun of Kazuho earlier. The leader is angry because he considers them responsible for the police hassleing him, and wants payback for that. Nomura mutters to Kazuho to run away when she has the chance. Angered, the leader attacks them. Nomura dodges the blow and Kazuho uses her Leap Quirk to jump to the top of a building to be able to call the police.

The main thug attacks again, but to everyone's surprise, this time Nomura manages to defeat him and retains him with a hold. Nomura advises him to quit picking fights, and that he is a hero, showing his hero license to prove it.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Nomura
 * Sisters of Saint Lila's Academy
 * Yu
 * Miu
 * Kazuho Haneyama

Trivia

 * The designs of the three thugs are based on Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart and Zidane Tribal from the Final Fantasy franchise.