chapter twenty-four;

     THE ENTIRE LEAGUE—EXCEPT MAYBE DABI—WAS MORE THAN WORN OUT. dabi had swiftly arrived at the scene of shigaraki and the rest flat on their backs, sweating and huffing from attempting to defeat gigantomachia.

"dabi? what are you doing here?", toga huffed out as she begrudgingly sat up, groaning at her body's injuries.

      "watch this", dabi demanded, immediately turning on the camera as gigantomachia was already ready for another fighting session.

     with only three hours of rest in between, the rest of the league wasn't exactly in the mood to watch a silly tape from dabi.

"hm, someone new? are you going to fight me too?", gigantomachia asked, marveling at the braveness of the single soul standing before him.

     "no, I don't have the time. now watch the damn video!", dabi sternly demanded, raising his voice slightly and making toga a bit concerned, considering dabi was usually very calm.

     "watch your fucking tone", shigaraki warned, propping himself up as he took a fresh breath of air.

"your fucking daughter's in danger and you're telling me to watch my tone?! listen shigaraki, I could care less about how tired you are, but if you're fine with your damn daughter being kidnapped, be my guest", dabi darkly spat.

shigaraki and the rest of the league immediately stood up. no amount of tiredness or discomfort would stop them from salvaging their little princess.

     "what the fuck are you talking about?", shigaraki scowled, inching closer to dabi and staring right into the male's turquoise eyes with such strong animosity.

"dabi, if this is a joke, it's not a very funny one", toga mumbled, looking serious for once.

     "what was the video you had wanted to show us?", compress asked, getting everyone back on track.

dabi immediately shoved the camera into compress's hands, with everyone hovered over. the league watched the clip of sweet little youko as re-destro soon took over the camera.

"I'm going to fucking destroy that man", shigaraki growled, rashly storming away as gigantomachia had promptly stopped him with a question.

"are you just going to leave in the middle of our fight? I thought you declared yourself a king; a king that will inspire dread, be admired, and be strong?", gigantomachia mocked.

     shigaraki swiftly spun around, facing the gigantic villain that had a tape recorder currently hanging around his neck.

     "I am a king, but right now, I need to retrieve my queen".

_♚_

youko shivered as she wiped her pathetic tears away once again. the little girl's toes curled up as she heard footsteps marching around the corridors.

the little girl wasn't dense. she knew that re-destro had been planning and stressing for her father's arrival at deika city.

though the only problem was that she was majorly concerned.

there was only six league members and dozens upon dozens of meta liberation army members, which was what re-destro referred to themselves as.

     youko sighed as she wondered if she would be able to pick the cage's lock with her skull clip, yet she obviously knew that it would be near impossible, unless she was a pro lock-picker like her uncle twice.

     though as if satan had smiled upon her, the little girl spotted a glimmer of hope laying right beside one of the legs of the chair that re-destro loved sitting in when writing papers.

two smooth slivery paper clips glimmered under the murky dark office room.

     youko silently thanked satan—as dabi had taught her—and tried wriggling her arm in between the bars of the dog cage.

     luckily, yet unfortunately, youko's arms were skinny enough to squeeze through, as not only were the bars more spaced out, but the girl has been starved so many days, that she had truly thinned down a bit.

     'please...just stretch a little more arms. after this, we'll be able to see papa and the rest', youko mentally said to herself.

     feeling her left arm nearly on the verge of dislocating from her tiny body, youko had finally reached the paper clips, clenching on them to dear life as if they were her only hope.

     though apparently she had retracted her arm a bit too fast, as her wrist slammed in between the bars as she pulled back.

     tears started brimming youko's eyes as her cheeks and nose started reddening, along with her entire left arm.

     "stop it youko...you're papa's little queen. and queens don't cry", youko reminded herself, not even surprised at how raspy her voice sounded, considering the low amount of intake on nutrition.

wiping her tears away with her dirty and smelly gown—in which they didn't even let the little girl shower—youko ignored the pain and threaded her arms through the skinny bars once more.

bending the first paper clip like a wrench so that it was like an l shape, youko leaned her head against the inner cage, holding the lock with her left hand as she inserted the paper clip into the bottom of the key hole.

'apply slight pressure...', twice would advise her.

youko then inserted the second paper clip, which was bent so that the tip was sharp, to the top of the key hole, causing her to have to drop the lock with her left hand.

'apply slight torque to the tension wrench and scrub the pick back and forth', twice would instruct.

doing as twice had taught, youko wiggled the two paper clips until all the pins were set.

hearing a click and seeing a slight pop from the lock, youko nearly screamed at her long desired freedom.

     trying to quietly push the door open, youko crawled out of her cage, feeling it hard to stand back up after being enabled for so long.

     it had felt like she was 10 months old and trying to relearn how to walk again.

     youko forced herself to stand up straight as she used the majority of her right arm to support her weight.

     wobbling towards the door, youko debated whether she should go out or not. so far, there was no noise whatsoever as the little girl pressed the side of face against the door.

taking a deep breath in and eager to see shigaraki, youko decided to be a bit bold and somehow managed to reach the door handle to creak open the door.

holding in her breath, youko perked out from the little crevice that was given by the parted doors.

glancing right and left and right and left, the girl's anxiety heightened then relaxed as she realized that no one was around.

pushing open the doors a bit more, youko silently slipped out as she closed the office doors once more, so that if someone were to look for her, they would waste time going into the office before realizing that she was already gone.

although the pain soared through the little girl's legs and arm, youko persevered towards the stairs, waiting a few moments with each step she took.

after hearing no talking nor footsteps, youko tightly gripped onto the railings, only barely remembering where the exit of the base was, considering she's only seen it once.

     though as she trudged around the base, the little girl's stamina was getting lower and lower. youko felt herself getting dizzy and her breathing become heavier while her eyelids desperately wanted to just close.

     'but not here, not now. I need to find papa, I have to'.

     though just as youko opened the door to the exit, a villain that was guarding the base quirked an eyebrow in shock.

     yet that was just enough seconds for youko to make eye contact and gather up the last bit of strength in herself to activate her quirk.

     "I command you to protect me and take me to shigaraki tomura", youko croaked out, to which the man had wavered a bit before gently picking youko up and cradling her in his arms.

     the little princess didn't know what the man's quirk was, but she had hoped that it was useful enough to get her through the chaos that was currently happening outside.

     not only were buildings turned to rubble, but the streets, the trees, their entire surrounding was utterly packed with clones of twice.

     "walk faster", youko commanded, to which the buff man had followed.

     the little girl then nearly choked up on tears, as she watched re-destro increase greatly in size.

     and standing before him, was youko's lovely father: shigaraki tomura.

✦ . . . . ────────☀️