Chapter 4 (Vigilantes)

"True Face" is the fourth chapter of Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court's Vigilante - My Hero Academia: Illegals manga.

Summary
Kouichi Haimawari walks in the street and thinks about his livelihood, not wanting to let his admiration of Heroes cloud his daily responsibilities such as normal life and his job. Kouichi sneaks off into an alley, uses his Sliding Quirk to slide up onto the roof of a building. Kouichi has arrived at his home which is an old beat-up penthouse on top of an old beat up apartment; a five minute walk from Higashinaruhata Station is where one will find his apartment. Kouichi enters his apartment and is startled to find an old man sitting and eating while watching his television. The old man puts on his mask, revealing himself to be Knuckleduster, much to Kouichi's relief. Knuckleduster was able to get in through the window. As Kouichi attempts to fix his window, a knock on his door. Kouichi answers the door and sees a schoolgirl with messy hair. The school girl enters the apartment and fixes herself up, revealing herself to be Pop Step. Kouich is surprised that Pop Step's civilian appearance is rather pretty. Moving along, Kouichi asks if they were supposed to go patrolling this evening. Knuckleduster left work early and is waiting for nightfall while Pop Step has a live performance to attend to. Kouichi prepares to go to work, leaving the spare key for Dustbuster and telling Pop Step where all the toiletries are and the bath. Pop Step thinks Kouich has an ulterior motive, but Kouichi rejects that idea but gets depressed for some reason. Pop Step wonders why Kouichi is sad.

Kouichi tells her. Back in April, he rented out the beat up old penthouse on top of an old building for a cheap price. At the time, Kouich thought it was a good penthouse to live in as it would easily kick start his campus life. One night after going out with friends, Kouichi invites them to his penthouse. The next day, Kouichi's colleagues thank him for inviting them, but they hurry off. Rumors about Koiuchi's penthouse on an old building fly around which cause Kouichi to be seen as a perverted and dangerous student, making many of his colleagues to avoid him. As a result, Kouichi's campus life debut was a failure. The college life he was looking forward wasn't the ideal experience he was hopping for.

Pop Step tells Kouichi that he should head to work. As Kouichi heads to work, Pop Step gives her live performance to her fans. One of her fans tries getting closer to Pop Step, but another shoves him all the way back. Juubei tells the fan to not jump the gun to Pop Step while Ichimaru informs the fan of the proper etiquette of being a true fan. Ichimaru's passion causes him to accidental release his laser Quirk into the sky, which causes Juubei to chastise him on being a man. The fan that Juubei and Ichimaru were talking to tells them to keep quiet and injects Trigger into his neck, causing him to transform into a slug-like monster.

The Trigger-enhanced fan chases Pop Step, to which Kouichi sees as he leaves work. Kouichi puts on his costume and heads out while encountering Juubei and Ichimaru who have been chasing after the slug-like monster. Knuckleduster arrives and he formulates a plan with Kouichi. Kouichi grabs the slug-like monster while Knuckleduster hits it from above. However, the Trigger-enhanced fan's slippery slime body causes Knuckleduster's punch to have minimal affect as his attack slides off while Kouichi's holds slips off as well, causing them to bump into each other. Knuckleduster spots a udon shop while Pop Step hides in an alley.

Pop Step gives up and decides to let the over-enthusiastic fan shake her hand. The fan does so, but is not satisfied and demands a kiss as well, coiling Pop Step in his slime body. Suddenly, the fan's slime-like body is covered in flour which Knuckleduster got from the udon shop. The flour drains the moisture from his mucus, nullifying his slimy defense. Knuckeduster beats up the Trigger-enhanced fan, which causes him to return to normal. Knuckleduster and Kouichi decide to leave while Pop Step decides to have a bath after all.

Back at Kouichi's apartment, Knuckleduster and Pop Step tell Kouichi to buy them beer and shampoo respectively. Kouichi leaves to do these tasks as Knuckleduster and Pop Step argue over each other's living etiquette and immaturity. Outside, Kouichi mulls over the fact that he didn't get the college life he was expecting. However, as he hangs their costumes over a line, Kouichi thinks that his life isn't so bad with Knuckleduster and Pop Step around.