History#
When she was a little girl, Makoto used to ask other people questions and quickly noticed if they were telling the truth or not. At first, her family thought she was only very perceptive, although the tests showed that it was actually because of her Quirk, Polygraph.
One of the people she used to ask most was her older brother, sometimes uncomfortable questions, to know if he was telling the truth or not. This bothered Naomasa and he asked his sister to stop, although their mother asked him to just humor her.[1]
Synopsis#
Senpai Arc#
Makoto meets Koichi Haimawari in their university while he was struggling with his Heroics Sociology course. Makoto became interested in the freshman, despite him having a negative reputation in the university after a misunderstanding, and decided to help him with his studies, and in return, Koichi will help her on her thesis.
At Koichi's home, Makoto helps him in his studies, moving on to his main problem, Hero Sociology. Makoto reviews the third chapter of his book, Vigilantism's Conflicts with the Official Hero System. Makoto explains that vigilantism, which is identified as "personal justice", was the origin of heroes, which is built upon the idea of "societal justice," but at the same time, vigilantism is a vehicle for opposition towards mass surveillance.
After helping him, Makoto asks Koichi to return the favor. She explains that the topic of her research thesis is to know what was the decisive factor that separated heroes from villains. She asks him to do a field survey investigating the rumored "Vigilantes of Naruhata". Despite being surprised and nervous about her request, since he is one of them, Koichi agrees to help her.[2]
The following Saturday, Koichi meets up with Makoto, who reveals that the purpose of her investigation is to find out how well the "Vigilantes of Naruhata" are accepted by the populace. Koichi and Makoto spend the morning asking the locals about their opinions towards the Vigilantes, and later Makoto compiles all the information in her laptop. Suddenly, it is stolen from her by Emperor Yotsuura. Thanks to Jube and Ichimoku, Yotsuura is stopped and tied up while Koichi manages to retrieve Makoto's laptop.
Makoto thanks Koichi for his help and gives him a handshake while also asking him one final question, which he accepts. As they shake hands, Makoto activates her Polygraph Quirk, and asks Koichi if he is "the Cruller"; the name by which his Vigilante persona is known by the population.
However, since Koichi sees himself as "The Crawler", he replies he is not "the Cruller", and passes her Quirk's test since he's telling the truth. Makoto apologizes for her question and returns to her house to continue working on her thesis, wondering if her intuition is getting stale.[3]
Days later, after the arrival to Japan of Christopher Skyline, a.k.a. Captain Celebrity, Makoto becomes a member of his team of cheerleaders. Due to his womanizer attitude, Captain Celebrity invites her to lunch on top of a skyscraper, with the ulterior motive to flirt with her, she accepts the invitation.
However, during the date and to Christopher's shock, Makoto reveals that she became friends with his ex-wife, Pamela, last week, and tells him that Pamela doesn't want him going back to his old ways and threatens him with another lawsuit. This scares Captain Celebrity, making him give up any desires to flirt with Makoto.
Thanks to this, Makoto gains control over Christopher, and from that moment she becomes his boss, determined to improve the public image of Captain Celebrity.[4]
Days later, due to the visit of his mother, Shoko, Koichi asks Makoto a favor to pose as his "girlfriend", but Shoko realizes at once that everything was a farce, because it is completely impossible to conceive that a girl like Makoto has a relationship with him. Despite this, Makoto and Koichi's mother quickly become friends, and Shoko decides to stay longer to go sightseeing in Tokyo with Makoto.[5]
Makoto spends the next morning with Koichi and his mother touring Tokyo, but when they get on the bus that will take them back, Kuin Hachisuka, a villain who has been responsible for several incidents related to the Instant Villains, decides to cause havoc again.
A cat hops onto the bus and gets injected with Trigger by one of Kuin's bees, and due to its Monster Cat Quirk, the bus transforms into a cat bus and goes out of control on an express lane towards a destroyed overpass. Ingenium, along with the Team Idaten, intervenes and manages to rescue almost all the passengers. However, Kuin gives the cat an extra dose of Trigger, causing it to move away with Makoto still on board.[6]
Koichi, disguised as The Crawler, and Ingenium collaborate together to save Makoto before the bus falls through the edge. Koichi enters the bus and rescues Makoto, as it begins to free fall from the expressway. Ingenium uses his ultimate move, Rocket Charge, to tells Koichi to jump off the bus as he tries to catch him but fails. Koichi makes up with his force of will, allowing him to jump in midair. Ingenium has a hold of Makoto as both Quirk users were able to land on the other side of the expressway, safe and sound.
Back to Koichi's Penthouse, Shoko states she has enough trust with the people she met and is heading home. She also tells Makoto to join the family, in which she states she'll give thoughtful consideration.[7]
Vs. Queen Bee Arc#
Time later, Kazuho receives an email request that asks her to join a live event on the roof of the Marukane Department Store. She is afraid of screws up in public, yet this is a chance that does not appear often. She asks Koichi what she should do, but he does not have a clear answer nor does he know how to help her, so he asks Makoto for help.
When Makoto arrives, she calls her by her vigilante name. Kazuho gets mad at Koichi for her knowing her secret identity, to which he replied that Makoto has a sharp intuition. Makoto promises her that she would not mention her vigilante activities to anyone and that if she plays an active role in helping, she would consider it as a job and not mess with interpersonal relations in the workplace; hence she insists to be relied on. Since Kazuho does not feel Koichi is reliable enough, she half-heartedly agrees to the conditions.
Makoto deduces that the live event at the Marukane is a minor event, something like a neighborhood karaoke tournament, which causes Kazuho to feel insulted. Makoto suggests something to really blow the sponsors' minds. As the chief manager of Captain Celebrity Agency, she calls the event planners and convinces them to make the event something memorable, suggesting how to spruce up the venue for the local talent showcase and using Captain Celebrity's name to appeal more people.[8]
The three meet with other groups of performances like The Feathers duo: Miu and Yu, the East Naruhata High Dance Squad, and the music band The Mad Hatters also join. All together they form the FeatherHATS. Acting as manager during the following weeks until the day of the performance, Makoto is responsible for all aspects of the event, from the choreography of the dance to promote the event everywhere, as well as convince several heroes to make an appearance during the event.[9]
The night of the premiere, a villain causes a blackout and everyone is worried that the show is called off. When the audience begins to get rowdy, Captain Celebrity arrives after hearing that there were problems. Makoto tells him to go and retrieve some spare generators to restore the power, to which he does. The generators are fixed and the festival continues without further incident.[10]
Sometime later, Makoto goes to Koichi's penthouse, finding him washing Knuckleduster's brass knuckles. She asks Koichi where his master is, for she wants to interview him. Koichi tells her that Oguro isn't there, and she goes inside to give Kazuho some fan letters.[11]
Osaka Incident Arc#
After this Makoto becomes the manager of both Captain Celebrity and the band FeatherHATS, doing everything possible to promote both. Makoto pays special attention to improve Captain Celebrity's public image, by making him participate in events, attend to conferences, filming commercials, etc... This was especially difficult for Captain Celebrity, who complains that Makoto gives him a very busy schedule, although he is too afraid of her to tell her.
At one point Captain Celebrity tries to slope off by taking refuge in Koichi's penthouse to get a few moments of rest, but Makoto manages to guess his intentions. She calls Koichi, asking where her boss is. Christopher begs him to keep quiet, but Koichi rats him out as the woman bursts through the door less than a second later, much to C.C.'s dismay. He has no choice but to fly off with Makoto to participate in the filming of a commercial with Ingenium.
During filming, a villain known as Number 6 acts as a member of the production, and causes an accident with a truck that almost crushes Makoto, but she is saved by Captain Celebrity. Number 6's real goal was to unleash the Next-Level Villain Batto Yobayakawa to wreak havoc on Naruhata. Batto had previously been defeated by the Naruhata Vigilantes and wants to take revenge on them, though he is thankfully defeated by Captain Celebrity before he could cause any real damage.[12]
Several days later, Makoto sends Kazuho accompanied by Koichi to Osaka to attend a regional idol collaboration show.[13] Both end up unwittingly involved in a police operation led by his brother Naomasa to put an end to an illegal network of Trigger import and distribution in Japan. Number 6 was in charge of this smuggling, but he was forced to destroy everything and escape, endangering Kazuho and Koichi and injuring several police officers in the process. As a result, Naomasa learned that his sister knew the vigilantes The Crawler and Pop☆Step, who fled to more troubles.[14]
Because of this, Makoto has some arguments with her older brother, since he wants to interrogate her because she has been (involuntarily) involved in the Kanidoge incident, in addition to her past as a Vigilante, but Makoto protects Kazuho and does not want her brother to interrogate her, assuring him that she has abandoned her life as a Vigilante and now has a legal occupation as an idol.[15]
Sky Egg Arc#
Several months later, Makoto is headed to the Marukane to a Christmas meeting, being carried by Captain Celebrity's arms as he flies. During the flight, they encounter Koichi and Kazuho, who are also going to the mall. They offer Koichi and Kazuho the opportunity to ride Captain Celebrity too. They accept and the four of them speed off to their meeting, although Koichi complains about the winter cold now being intensified by the flight.
The group makes it to the store, but Koichi is still shivering, and askes why the girls and Captain Celebrity are not cold, and the hero explains to him how the aerodynamic barrier generated by his Quirk works. Makoto tells Koichi that this information about the quirk is top secret, and while the young man thinks its for image preservation, the woman clarifies that it can be dangerous if the villains know its characteristics and weaknesses.
After the rest of the Marukane Performers members arrived, Makoto then reviews the last event FeatherHATS held for the year and officially declares that the group's run has finished for the year. With all the business taken care, Makoto says that the last thing on the agenda is to kick off their Christmas party.
After the celebration, Makoto informs Christopher that he can return to the United States because his license will be reinstated. When he asks about the lawsuit, she said that most of these lawsuits amounted to entrapment of some kind and were otherwise frivolous, due the fact that he is the type of person that's easy to sue based on demeanor. The woman says they were able to easily counter the cases in court because of these factors, as she smiles proudly and devilishly. Captain Celebrity is frightened by Makoto's behavior and comments that he wants to have her as a friend, never as an enemy.
Makoto then informs him that he is going to be a father, which surprised Captain Celebrity because he did not have the idea that his ex-wife Pamela was pregnant. The woman explains that Pamela personally requested her not to tell her husband about the pregnancy, and told Makoto, who is currently putting it in nicer terms for her boss, that her husband has a good heart but is too soft for his own good at times, and believes he will only have a right to raise his child alongside her once he proves his responsibility and fixes the huge legal mess he made. After learning this, Captain Celebrity promised to become someone a child could respect.
After the party, Makoto calls the Sisters a taxi to shuttle them home. After the girls leave, Captain Celebrity tells Makoto about how much he loves kids and asks her about the idea of him having them. His manager sheepishly tells him to discuss that with his wife, and not to discuss out loud to prevent anymore potential lawsuits.
Suddenly, a flying creature appears from the sky and snatches the taxi with the girls inside. Captain Celebrity immediately gives chase, but just as he's about to reach them, the villain Number 6, who orchestrated the attack, detonates the creature, causing a massive explosion. Despite this, Captain Celebrity manages to rescue the girls from the taxi in time and protect them with his aerodynamic barrier, leaving himself more vulnerable to the blast, though he suffers only minor injuries and his hero suit ended badly damaged.
Witnesses to the incident gather around Captain Celebrity and begin to take pictures and videos of his heroic feat. As Makoto weaves through the crowd to see her boss, Captain Celebrity weakly tries to shield his face from the cameras, asking everyone not to do it because he's looking his worst, but Makoto encourages him by saying that he has never looked better, as the Hero becomes dumbfounded and the civilians keep cheering him on.[16]
The next morning, both the news and the internet echo both the rescue and the decision of Captain Celebrity to return to the United States. Makoto decides to organize a farewell party at the Tokyo Sky Egg. During the following days, while the Feathers Hats train and rehearse for the show, Makoto tries to get some of Japan's most famous Pro Heroes to participate in the show as well.[17]
Finally. the show for the farewell of Captain Celebrity at the Tokyo Sky Egg begins. One by one, various Pro Heroes come on stage, followed by performances until finally, it is the turn of Captain Celebrity, being received by a standing ovation.[18] Once the stage, he decides to show the public a picture with his wife Pamela and their newborn child after the birth, and then he calls her. However, Pamela gets upset when Captain Celebrity tells her that he had shown that photo to thousands of people, and hangs up the call. Makoto decides to move on to the next act ahead of schedule, while Captain Celebrity tries to fix the situation with his wife.
One by one, the other heroes carry out their performances, and Makoto sends Koichi to look for Captain Celebrity because he must soon be back on stage. He found him in the Observation Deck, still trying to apologize to his wife, but at that time, the structure is attacked by five Bombers, sent by Number 6 to assassinate Captain Celebrity.[19] The villain had meticulously planned the attack, damaging the structure to force Captain Celebrity to hold it up to prevent it from collapsing, which leaves him helpless and cutting off communications to delay the arrival of external help as much as possible.
In one of the rooms of the Sky Egg, Makoto and the heroes discuss the situation, what is happening, and what they should do. They decide that the best option is for the show staff and a group of heroes to look after the civilians without telling them the truth about what is happening to avoid panic. Meanwhile, another group of heroes will go out and face the threat.[20]
Thanks to the intervention of the heroes, the Bombers are defeated, and it seems that the threat has ended. In the distance, Number 6 watches everything that happens. Seeing the Pro Heroes managing to get out of the Sky Egg and defeat his creatures while securing the building, he gets angry and does not think to give up. With a device, he causes one of the Bombers to Self-Detonate, with an explosion powerful enough to make the Tokyo Sky Egg begin to collapse, with thousands of innocent people inside.[21]
Fortunately, Detective Naomasa was nearby. Naomasa was chasing the villain and seeing the Bombers attack the Tokyo Sky Egg, he called All Might to come help. Seeing how the building begins to collapse, Naomasa desperately asks All Might to save his sister. Upon hearing this request for help, the number one hero immediately reaches the place, and, with an inhuman feat, he lands the Tokyo Sky Egg dome safely, saving everybody life.[1] Number 6 tries a final attempt to cause a tragedy but is stopped again by All Might.
While the media reports the Bombers' attack on the Tokyo Sky Egg, the Marukane Performers are handing out for free official merchandising of the event (hoodies, food, drinks...) among people to help them feel better. Although she knows that this will leave her in the red for sure, Makoto is not discouraged and says that it is not the time to be thinking about money, in those moments, every one of the Marukane Performers, from the said performers to the staff, should help others.[22]
After the attack, Captain Celebrity is sent to the hospital to recover from his injuries, being visited by Marukame members during the time he is admitted. There, Makoto tells Koichi that her brother Naomasa knows about his participation in the fight against the Bombers and that his intervention helped to save thousands of lives, yet his acts of vigilantism remain illegal. Therefore, the police have put in a request to the heroes and other witnesses to keep quiet about him. However, he clarified that his help bought him a free pass from the police this time. Finally, Naomasa tells him that he is grateful for what he did.
Several weeks later, Captain Celebrity has recovered sufficiently from his injuries to be able to return to the United States with his family. At the international airport, the Marukane members meet to say goodbye to Captain Celebrity and his family. Christopher thanks Makoto for everything, and assures her that he will try his best, and when he needs help, he will look to those around him for strength. Makoto reveals that she will be among those people because, to everyone's surprise, she also goes to the United States, because she is going to study abroad at a college in New York, in addition to continuing to be her manager.
After this, she says goodbye to everyone before boarding the plane.[23]
Final Performance Arc#
In the years in which she resides in the United States, Makoto becomes a celebrity and a successful person, being the general manager of C.C. Corporation, and her thesis about vigilantism is providing a real talking point. Of course, she is not without criticism, but she manages to defend herself and justify herself. She is so well known that even her friends in Japan watch her participate in American talk shows.
However, despite her success, Makoto intends to return to Japan. Since everything with Captain Celebrity and his work is pretty stable, she will look for someone competent to take over her managerial duties, and then she can get to work on what she wants to do next. On a more personal level, she wants to confess her feelings to Koichi and would like to start a family with him. So she starts organizing everything to prepare for her return, prepping in Naruhata for her actual homecoming.
During her visit, she decides to go see Koichi in his penthouse and make curry for him. After a while, Kazuho also arrives, who is surprised to see Makoto there. Makoto invites her to dinner with them and to chat for a while about how things are going with Narufest. Kazuho tries to answer her but Koichi does it first, saying it is rollin' along just fine. Kazuho decides to play along, and then she decides to leave with the excuse that she is busy.[24]
Shortly after she leaves, Makoto decides to have a more serious conversation with Koichi about her plans for the future in which he is included, confessing what she feels for him. Koichi is surprised by Makoto's confession and doesn't know what to answer. Makoto tells him that it doesn't matter if he doesn't answer her at that time. She takes into account Kazuho's feelings. Makoto is sure that Kazuho is in love with Koichi. Instead of putting pressure on Koichi to choose between her and Kazuho, she gives Koichi time to figured out how he and Kazuho feel about it before he makes his decision.
After this, Makoto said goodbye to Koichi and leaves, happy how everything has developed, not knowing that Kazuho had heard their conversation.[25]
She returns to New York to finalize the preparations for her return to Japan. A few days later, she learns of the news of Kazuho's illogical bombardment of Naruhata, a criminal act for which she is registered and considered a villain. Makoto calls her brother Naomasa and maintains a heated argument with him. She complains about Kazuho being treated as a villain, but her brother quickly clips back that Pop is a wanted suspect for a large-scale Quirk based attack, and the fact that she's labeled as a villain means she won't be treated as a minor.
Makoto tries to find a hole in those statements when Naomasa tells her to quit arguing just for the sake of it. Makoto breaks down in tears. Naomasa is aware of his sister's frustration and her desire to help Kazuho. He knows she feels responsible for the girl but warns her to stay where she is and do not try to return to Japan at that time to do something inappropriate.
Naomasa tries to comfort his sister, telling her that her time to help Kazuho will come because the media is gonna spin this in whatever way that they want to. Makoto then asks him about Koichi's whereabouts, because if there is anyone who can help Kazuho at that time, it's Koichi.[26]