My Hero Academia Breaks Hearts with Emotional Flash Forward

My Hero Academia breaks hearts with each new chapter, and it's the same for the smash-hit Vigilantes spin-off as it started off its newest chapter with an emotional flash forward for what could have been. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has been in the midst of its final arc and this has challenged Kazuho Haneyama and Koichi Haimawari in terms of their feelings for one another. The two of them have been steadily growing closer over their work as vigilantes through the last few years, and Kazuho broke out hearts when she imagines what could have been.

The previous chapter of the series began the first steps of the final clash between Koichi and Kazuho as she's taken her Pop Step persona and given it a whole villain makeover due to her being possessed by the Queen Bee. It's twisted how her mind's been working, and it unfortunately led to an emotional breakdown at the start of Chapter 81.

As Koichi and Kazuho begin to attack one another, Kazuho starts imagining a happy future for the two of them together. In her future, Koichi never retires as The Crawler and the two of them continue to fight villains together as they grow older. This goes even further as she imagines the two of them starting a life together with two young children.

This imagined future goes well into their older days as their teenage daughter wants to pursue the life of a pop star like her mother once did. Her heart breaks over the fact that this could have been their future, but resolves to herself that she no longer has a future at all. She believes she "made her own bed" with her current villain trajectory, and her twisted mind is pushing her to throw the rest of her life away.

Queen Bee is connecting to that emotional core of Kazuho wanting to write a song to convey her feelings properly to Koichi, and now it's turned into a final villainous performance for "Bee Pop." Even when Koichi does manage to reach through to her, the final cliffhanger of the chapter sees her shot through the chest and potentially left for dead.

How do you feel about Kazuho's heartbreaking imagined future? Do you think it's still possible for her to have a happy ending with Koichi? Is it possible for the two of them to get out of this bind? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!