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TOGA braided manami's long silvery hair. since manami had so much hair, toga did a mermaid braid, where she connected four braids into one. manami's hair then sprouted flowers for the finishing touch.

"kore, what are you wearing to the party??", toga asked.

"party?? what party??", manami asked, picking up golden earrings that had hanging butterflies on them. she loved them as they reminded her of earth's beauty.

"we have a party with all the underworld beings every year! for no reason!!", toga exclaimed, walking with manami towards their underworld clothes designer.

"what can I do for you ladies today?", the designer asked. she had 8 hands, so she was very skilled and efficient in making clothes. some say she's the descendant of arachne.

"hi aretha!!", toga smiled. "we're here to order our dresses for this year's masquerade ball!!"

"hey aretha!! looking great as ever!!", manami smiled, making the eight-armed woman laugh.

"thank you manami. and no problem toga! what dresses are you two looking for?", aretha asked.

"umm...I want a princess gown that's RED!", toga giggled. "and a black mask with black heels to go with it please!!"

"of course!! and for you, manami?"

manami put on her imaginary thinking cap. "umm...can I have..."

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the day of the masquerade ball arrived quickly. hell was decorated beautifully with black and red ribbons hanging from wall to wall.

red and white wine was served in skull glasses. silver platers were filled with food from all over the world. chinese, american, korean, italian, you name it.

kurogiri had spent a lot of time and effort preparing everything, as even the floor was re-polished.

"welcome!!", kurogiri greeted at the entrance to the main hall. even cerberus was there, and he was dressed in his little doggie tux.

many of shigaraki's workers appeared. it was one of the rare times in hell that they got to relax and party.

shigaraki sat on his throne bored. he watched over all the people that was entering the main hall, none was manami.

he wore a white button up and a dark blue suit. he had his usual black gloves on, except his cape was hanging on his throne behind him. masking the top half of his face, he wore a simple black mask.

after another 10 minutes, manami finally walked in with toga. like toga ordered, she was wearing her poofy red dress, black heels, and black mask.

beside toga, was manami.

manami wore silver heels with a light blue mermaid dress. it was embedded with gems and sparkled from top of bottom.

her mask was also silvery and sparkly, matching her cute heels. manami's hair was down, letting it drag on the ground. she smiled at kurogiri as he greeted the two girls.

"welcome toga and manami".

at the mention of manami's name, shigaraki immediately looked up, seeing the beautiful female at the front of the door.

he quickly stood up and walked down the stairs towards her.

"manami", shigaraki softly said, giving her a small smile.

"oh shiggy!! you look great!!", manami exclaimed, holding shigaraki's hand. over the past few weeks, manami has made it a instinct to hold shigaraki's hand whenever she can, as she learned that shigaraki has never really held anyone's hand before.

"t-thank you. y-you too", shigaraki mumbled, adverting manami's innocent gaze.

manami giggled as she pulled shigaraki towards the table of food. she looked around in amazement at all the different cuisines.

"wowww!! shiggy, why don't we eat these butterfly pastas!!", manami said excitedly. she grabbed a plate as she placed scoops of the bow tie pasta onto the plate, along with a piece of garlic bread.

"here you go!", manami said, handing shigaraki the full plate. she then got herself the same thing, grabbing utensils too.

"manami, don't eat so fast. you're going to choke", shigaraki warned, grabbing a napkin.

"I won't", manami said, with her cheeks stuffed. shigaraki let out a chuckle as she looked like a squirrel.

but in the end, she did end up choking. shigaraki quickly put his plate down on the table as he grabbed some water.

"are you okay??", he asked.

manami just laughed while still coughing a bit. "yeah yeah, I'm fine!!"

after drinking some water from a fancy skull glass, the music started playing. there was a whole band of lyre, aulos, and kithara players sitting in the corner of the room.

"oohh shiggy, let's dance!!", manami exclaimed, grabbing shigaraki's hand and pulling him to the middle of the dance floor.

many underworld creatures and beings watched in shock as shigaraki stepped onto the dance floor, especially with a girl.

shigaraki never danced. ever.

manami loved dancing. parties in heaven were the jam! manami would always be found dancing with her friends or occasionally, her fathers.

she was about to jump in her heels and party hard until shigaraki stopped her by shaking his head.

"this is formal dancing. no jumping around", he said.

he placed one of his arms around manami's waist and one of her hands on his shoulder. he held her other hand, giving her a small smile.

"formal dancing??", manami asked confused. usually she just skipped around and held hands with all her friends, twirling around.

"follow my steps", shigaraki said. he took a step back, letting manami take a step forward. repeating like so, manami slowly started to get the pattern.

"aw man!! I've been missing out!!", manami laughed, looking up at shigaraki with half his face covered.

shigaraki just looked into manami's ocean blue eyes. her hair swayed along with her body and her smile was as bright as ever.

her whole self was shining in this dark realm.

if manami was the sun, then shigaraki was the moon. she was his light and he was her darkness. together, they were like yin and yang.

"hey shiggy?", manami said. shigaraki nodded, letting her continue speaking. "can I call you tomura too?? himiko does it".

shigaraki stiffened a bit. 'firstnamebasisfirstnamebasis!!'

"o-of course", he said. "then can I call you...k-kore?"

"mhm!!", manami happily nodded.

after the musicians finished playing the song, manami and shigaraki bowed.

"let's go get some dessert, tomura!!", manami excitedly said.

"right behind you, kore".

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