MANIA - Katsuki Bakugou

━ epilogue

chapter 70

EIGHT YEARS LATER

An explosion lit up the sky, dazzling the blue horizon with sparks of yellow and orange. A red plume spewed into the air as a nearby tree caught fire from such an explosion. The bulky hero crashed down through the sky, landing a few yards away from the flame. His silhouette rose as he stood to face his opponent in the center of the city.

The female figure soared down to the ground from the sky, landing like a cat on her feet. She bounced on the cement as if she were on a cushion and stilled herself, standing up just as straight if not straighter than the hero a ways away from her. Her pearly whites gleamed as she grinned at her opponent. The female's purple extensions lengthened behind her and swarmed around her head like weaponized ropes, ready to strike at any moment.

The green and yellow scales of her armor reflected the sunlight into his eyes when she raised her arm to him, as if to raise a glass. "So you decided to come to our little meetup!"

The hero snarled and clenched his fists. "It's not a meetup! It's a duel!"

The purple headed figure rolled her eyes. "Okay okay, duel. But still! You decided to come, Ground Zero!"

The hero, Ground Zero, gave her a sickening grin, his eyes flared with a certain fire hidden behind them. Maybe it was the fire of the tree beside him that sparked such passion. "I'll show you who's the number 1 hero!"

"It's me!" The purple headed hero grinned. Ground Zero rolled his eyes, huffing.

"Get ready to eat my dust, sissy!"

"My name is the Tendril Hero: Gorgon! Get it right!" Gorgon huffed just as much as he did, stomping her foot on the ground in retaliation.

"Whatever! Eat my dust!" The hero repeated, as if it was the only line he knew.

The purple hero frowned at him, creasing her hairless brows. The purple tendrils flopped in the air around her as she started off into a sprint, running at her opponent. Ground Zero exploded off of the ground a few feet, sending a mini explosion behind him to propel him forward. They both yelled as they prepared for impact against one another.

But just as soon as they had both rushed at each other, they were stopped.

A shadow suddenly split the difference right where they might've run into each other and stopped the two from fighting. The shadow looped their arms underneath Ground Zero's shoulders and swept him away. Gorgon stumbled but caught herself, putting her hands on her knees as she stopped on the cement, suddenly alone. She blinked and looked to her right.

"Hey!" Her voice rang out, but much different from before. Her voice was that of a child's.

The shadow washed over the hero again and suddenly she was no hero at all. The scenery was not that of a Japanese city, either. Instead, the three figures stood in the center of a small carpeted living room. There were black leather couches on either side of where the two 'heroes' had come from, which explained 'Gorgon's' bouncy landing, and a nearby table lamp that had a small flame alit at the very tip of it. It must've been damaged by 'Ground Zero's' explosion, of course.

In the center of the living room stood a little girl with curly blonde hair which lengthened just past her shoulders. Her eyes were a brilliant blue with specks of gold within her irises like bright stars in a day's sky. She had fair skin and dark freckles across her nose and her arms. She crossed her arms across her chest, staring at the shadow that had cut through the heroes.

"We were playing!" The little girl, who couldn't have been more than 7, argued.

The shadow laughed. In fact, the shadow was no shadow at all.