WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapter #89: "Tiger Bunny" of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes by Hideyuki Furuhashi, Betten Court, Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook and John Hunt, available in English from Viz Media now.
The master villain All For One seems to be finally showing his face in the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes world, and it's a tease that sparks a lot of questions. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has done a terrific job of shining light on the early adventures of Pro Heroes. From All Might to Eraser Head to Fat Gum, we’re getting to witness the making of greatness among the top heroes.
Chapter #89 appears to be setting up the debut of One For All's fated rival, alongside exploring Mirko’s backstory more, who is referred to as Tiger Bunny. The last couple of chapters have shown her mischievous, joyous attitude in sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.
More specifically, Chapter #89, “Tiger Bunny,” dedicates itself to showing off Tiger Bunny's talents and wild energy. She is described as a “bouncing dynamite guillotine,” and nothing could be more reflective of that truth than her disruption of the underground fighting arena, which allows O’Clock to acquire the evidence needed to expose the Quirk-enhancing drug, but in typical Tiger Bunny fashion, the situation gets out of hand.
As all the contestants and bystanders attack Tiger Bunny, she easily avoids them while delivering devastating kicks with a huge smile on her face. In the midst of all the fun, gas starts to flood in, setting off a chain reaction of berserk Quirk users. O’Clock notices that another gas is appearing that is suppressing the Quirks of some of the fighters, but after closer examination, there appears to be a shadowy hand emerging from the dark clouds...
This was probably the early method All For One had to resort to in order to steal Quirks before acquiring his Rivet Stab. It could also be that the mysterious hooded person seen at the end of the chapter is a mere experiment that was given this same ability.
O’Clock is the only one who notices the additional chaos and saves Tiger Bunny from getting her Quirk stolen. He decides to team up with Rapper and Tiger Bunny to try and escape the scene before things get dicey. Rapper and Tiger Bunny complement each other with their unique characteristics, and could even be described as being two sides of the same coin. It’s also important to note that this is not the first time Tiger Bunny has gotten into trouble by meddling in affairs outside of school. Her demeanor completely changes when her school is brought up, but that only momentarily calms her down.
It’s still unclear who is controlling the Quirk-stealing shadows, but that person must have a visual on the targets since O’Clock was able to avoid them by navigating through the crowd. The hooded person is referred to as a “resource,” so it safe to say that it must be one of All For One’s lackeys, at least.
The mysterious person could even be an early iteration of enhanced beings like Number 6. Since this series is set years before the main story -- before Knuckler and Number 6’s rooftop brawl -- the mysterious person could potentially be Number 1.
All For One is known for collecting a mass number of Quirks and keeping the most versatile ones for himself. Therefore, his experiments inherit Quirks he doesn’t want to keep for himself, making them early advanced forms of the current Nomu from the main My Hero Academia series. The drug that causes Quirks to go haywire could also be the early precursor to creating a Nomu. The drug turns victims' tongues black, the same color as the high-end Nomu. These could be clues as to how Nomu are created, and the trials All For One had to go through in order to achieve a perfect, destructive creature.
The pieces are slowly falling into place, young heroes are going to have their moments to shine, and the story for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is only starting to get more expansive. It was only a matter of time before All For One made a decisive appearance to expedite his plans and achieve his ultimate goal.
