Hero For Lust

"Ah… 'that man?!'" one of the Heavenly Ninja Party shouted.

"Shouldn't the wound he got from Blast have changed his looks…?" another murmured.

Caspian tuned them out, his eyes fixed on two particular individuals.

"Void! Are you back to normal?"

"Blast," Void said, pressing a hand to his forehead. "Yeah… I don't know. It's like the haze just cleared."

"That's good to hear!" Sonic darted from his crater, slashing at Void with his ninjato.

"Hey…"

A sharp poke on his shoulder drew Caspian's attention. He turned to see Tatsumaki's eager gaze.

She's ready to express her thoughts.

Several seconds of silence passed, punctuated only by the distant sounds of Sonic and Void's foolishness.

"Well..." she started.

Go on, Caspian cheered mentally. You can do it!

But the Heavenly Ninja Party's uproar shattered her chance, their outcry erupting in the wake of—

"I have to return to the front line against 'God' now," Void announced. "Once everything's settled, I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. Until then, control yourselves and don't interfere."

"Make it up to us?"

"We didn't do it because we wanted you to make it up to us!"

"That's right!"

"We did it to fulfill our duty and live our lives as shinobi!"

On cue, Sonic crossed his arms. "If you want to live as you please, you need strength. You're not strong enough yet. Train, you idiots."

His moment to deliver his line arrived. But as Caspian stepped forward to do so, a small hand caught his wrist, and a familiar emerald aura enveloped him.

"Wait," she muttered.

A proud smile touched his lips before he said, "So, you finally worked up the courage to tell me what's on your mind."

"…"

¤ ¤ ¤

No matter how I tried to suppress Void, I couldn't remove 'God's' power from him. But then he did it; another feat I would have deemed impossible.

Then there's his relationship with Tatsumaki; the fact he could reach through the walls of her past… He claims he takes actions to cure his boredom. Is she just another source of entertainment? Or is there something genuine between them?

Blast wasn't sure how to broach the matter. He had interacted so little with Tatsumaki since her rescue, and she was an adult now, capable of making her own decisions.

Best to leave it alone. It's none of my business. Still, I wonder why he's enveloped in her green glow. Judging by her current expression, he's definitely in the doghouse.

Up ahead, the Heavenly Ninja Party approached Caspian. A man with dark hair and a light-colored headband stepped forward: the one known as Violent Force.

"Ah, Caped Baldy, correct?" he began, kneeling on the pavement. The other members immediately followed his lead. "As a hero, you showed us the flaws in our ways. For that, I have a request: will you lead the Heavenly Ninja Party as our new master?"

Violent Force continued, "Your strength is undeniable. And considering you don't seem to fit in with the other heroes… what do you say?"

Just as Busho's investigation suggested, people are drawn to him.

Caspian tore his attention from a frowning Tatsumaki and looked down at the kneeling ninjas.

"Sure. You all can join my Carbonated Alliance."

Blast could linger around no longer. He approached them. Caspian. Tatsumaki.

His gaze found the man first. "Caspian. For the final battle against 'God,' your power will be needed for sure. When that time comes, lend us your strength."

Then his attention shifted. To her. Tatsumaki.

Blast saw not the Tornado of Terror, but the child he had rescued. And the hero she had become. "You've come a long way," he said, his voice softer now. "Be proud of what you've accomplished."

Her eyes shot to the ground. "Y-Yes... thank you."

Asking her to stand against 'God' wasn't something he had planned. She'd already been through more than enough, and according to Busho's investigation, she'd recently gained a circle of friends; people she could count on.

Tatsumaki's present circumstances stood in stark contrast to the advice he'd given her all those years ago: 'When the time comes, don't go expecting someone to come save you.'

Now, he felt a profound sense of relief that she had broken free from it. That rigid creed, borne from the hardships of his own life, had only ever been a warning meant to protect her.

Void appeared behind him: the signal it was time to go.

Blast slammed his knuckles together, generating a 'Hyperspace Gate.' "I will come for you when the time to fight is nigh," he told Caspian. He then turned to Tatsumaki and smiled. "Take care. Live the life you wish to, not one constrained by the past like I..."

The duo vanished from the derelict western portion of Z-City and arrived in the 'Rift in Spacetime.'

It was a surreal expanse. A dark sky, painted with alien planets and innumerable stars, stretched above a pale desert. Beneath their feet, rolling dunes of shimmering, untouched sand swept toward the horizon — as if no wind had ever stirred them. And off in the distance, half-buried in that silent sand, lay the colossal, broken forms of Genbu and Byakko.

"What the…?!" Blast's eyes shot wide open.

Void asked him. "You, did you do this?"

Blast stared at the remains of the Divine Beast Kirin. "No…"

He couldn't even call them 'remains.' The scene defied description, a grotesque tableau that twisted the very definition of 'dead.' What kind of being could inflict such a thing on another living creature?

"Who could have done this?"

"I-I don't know."

Before they could process further, a flicker of motion in the air above resolved into a tall, armored individual landing before them.

"King Boris, what are you doing here?"

"I sensed a dimensional disturbance from my post and rushed here," Boris answered, "only to find... this." He gestured to the ruin of Kirin and his tone grew grave. "Whatever did this didn't just kill a Divine Beast, but melted a hole straight through spacetime."

"Melted a hole through spacetime…?"