The Fastest Maniac Alive [My Hero Vigilantes 56]

And, here I thought No. 6 was your classic by-the-books villain. Turns out the well goes deeper than I thought. How deep? Let’s find out.

Motivation. A big reveal we got from this chapter is No. 6 having separate goals from the Villian Factory. Well, it’s not official yet, but I don’t think The Doctor’s long term plans involve turning No. 6 into a hero. That’s what No. 6 wants. We knew for awhile he was obsessed with O’Clock, Knuckleduster’s old hero persona, but I had no idea he legitimately wants to follow in what he thinks are O’Clock’s footsteps. Sure, to him that means beating up criminals before they start trouble, but the fact he wants to be some kind of hero at all and he admired O’Clock before receiving his power is shocking to me. Quite a coincidence he got O’Clock’s stolen quirk, huh? Well, we’ll get to that later.

Succession. In the main My Hero Academia series, we’ve seen both All Might and All For One pass their hopes on to their disciples. Deku is tasked to become the next All Might/One For All user, and Shigaraki to be the next number one villain. They found their successors and the successors themselves are taking on that task, for themselves as well as their mentors.

And, then when have Knuckleduster and No. 6. A successor who, unlike my two examples, stole his power from this mentor instead of it being given or having their blessing. And, worse, he wants to kill said mentor to legitimize his actions! It gets even worse, Y’all. The mentor/successor premise is turned on its head a third time because Knuckleduster already picked a successor, Koichi! If he wasn’t before, our main character is without a doubt on No. 6’s kill list.  A confrontation between the two was a safe bet, but given the current situation, it has to happen. Koichi VS No. 6 is coming and no one can stop it.

Origin. We got clues last chapter, but I think it’s safe to say No. 6 is an artificial human. We’ve seen people kidnapped and experimented on, and we’ve seen artificial monsters in the series, this all seems like a step The Doctor would’ve taken at some point on his way to creating Nomu. Remember, the Nomu are modified people given multiple quirks and turned essentially into mindless creatures. It stands to reason Doctor Ujiko didn’t create such beings right out the box. This is where My Hero Vigilantes comes in. Since the beginning of this series, whether part of the main plot or in the background, we’ve been seeing The Doctor’s agents gathering loads of quirk data and conducting experiments, all leading to the eventual creation of his prized Nomu. All the pieces have assembled. The quirk data, the human experimentations, the artificial creatures, and as of this chapter… artificial humans.

So, why aren’t Nomu built from the ground up as artificial humans? I don’t know. But, maybe that’ll be answered in this series. What I do know is it makes more sense for AFO to give No. 6 a valued superspeed quirk considering he was probably created to have that particular quirk. Maybe that’s the issue. Maybe The Doctor has to make too many modifications in his artificial humans and concluded it’s easier to start from a regular person. Whatever the reason is, No. 6 is most likely to be classified as a failed experiment at some point.  Yep, No. 6’s days are…well, numbered.

Another great chapter from the spin-off series. Again, we see My Hero Vigilante’s strength comes from putting the characters themselves first and having them drive the plot. While I’m sure both No. 6 and Knuckleduster will survive the fight, the stage has been set for No. 6’s future downfall at the hands of Koichi (and friends) with the Villain Factory itself putting the final nail in his coffin. And, will Knuckleduster be able to walk away unscathed? Well, if not, he\ll share a hospital room with his daughter. Yay, I guess?