chapter thirty-nine;

━━━━━━ "THE HELL HAPPENED TO HER?!", dabi growled as chisaki and inasa also anticipated shigaraki's answer.

     "nothing much. my ribs just hurt a bit", kisa answered for the blue-haired male as she lied on her front, with her back completely exposed with bruises.

     did kisa purposely get hurt so that shigaraki could unlock past his current abilities? most definitely. after all, the girl owed it to him after taking away some of his chances for improvement.

chisaki sighed as he took some herbal medicine and spread it across the girl's back, making kisa shiver at how cold it was.

     spreading the medicine with a soft brush, chisaki stopped as he reached the girl's lower back, where there was a scar that inasa and dabi already knew about.

     "traitor...?"

kisa hummed as shigaraki inched closer to get a good look of the word that was carved into the girl's smooth skin.

it definitely wasn't a recent scar, as the wound didn't look fresh. though that had brought up the question of how old was kisa when she had received it.

"what do you think? like it?", kisa joked, to which not even dabi had joined in for a laugh.

     "I've been meaning to ask how you got it", inasa honestly said, meanwhile chisaki had continued applying the medicine and gently wrapping the girl's waist so that the herbal medicine stayed.

"my father", kisa bluntly answered. "when I was ten...on my tenth birthday, to be exact".

     "is that why you want to overthrow him?", dabi asked, knowing that feeling all too well.

     "overthrow him? well...that is just a bonus. I want the throne because it's the only way kaoru will be safe without having to worry about being pressured to be a king at such a young age", kisa smiled, as she laid her head on her pillow with her arms under it.

     "after all, children should act like children".

     "then what are you going to do? kill him?", dabi joked, to which kisa's smile had turned into a cynical one.

     "why of course. it never fails to make my blood boil with excitement when I stab him with a sword", kisa grinned.

the four raised a brow at the girl's statement, though looking past it, as they were probably just overthinking.

"why did he...do that?", inasa asked, as the fox king himself seemed quite well-rounded on the outside.

     but what did the outsiders know?

     "because on my tenth birthday, my mother decided that it'd be a brilliant idea to escape and leave in all the midst of my birthday chaos", kisa reminisced.

"why did she run away?", shigaraki quietly asked, as he held onto kisa's hand with only four fingers.

"because of my father's first wife, the mother of kasumi, kimiko, and kaoru. she was a full-blood nine-tailed fox, meanwhile my mother was just a mere human. and obviously, no woman wants to share their husband, so that woman did everything she could to chase my mother away".

     kisa then closed her eyes as they reopened with a tint of sorrow.

     "and it worked".

     "why didn't she tell your father?"

     "my mother had no evidence. she was too kind and naïve. so? she ran away, and when father found out that night that she had left him, he took his anger out on the only connection to that woman: me".

inasa brushed through kisa's short dark locks, kissing the top of the girl's forehead as she relaxed.

the four didn't need to speak to know that they all mutually had their own scars, whether it be physically or internally.

and the four didn't need to talk for kisa to know that they're there for her, just like how she's there for them.

━━━━━━ • ✿ • ━━━━━━

thankfully kisa recovered quickly, as she was only half human after all.

hence, the girl had inasa reserve a table at a fancy western restaurant, where the five of them will have a nice dinner before heading back to the yōkai world.

"what do you think of this dress, tomura?", kisa asked as she held a yellow flower dress up to her chest.

     shigaraki just stared at the girl meanwhile kisa hung the dress and walked over to the male, who was sitting on the edge of his bed.

     the other three were getting ready for the dinner as shigaraki was already done, not exactly pleased with the tight fitting suit and dark blue tie.

     "something wrong tomura?", kisa asked as she straddled the male by sitting on shigaraki's lap.

     the blue-haired male looked up as he stared into kisa's mellow eyes. gently combing through kisa's hair, shigaraki cupped the girl's cheek with a finger lifted.

"did you do that on purpose?", shigaraki suddenly asked, to which kisa had immediately knew what the male was referring to.

     "you mean when we fought machia?"

     shigaraki just nodded.

     "did you purposely get hurt so that I would be able to defeat gigantomachia?", shigaraki seriously asked.

     kisa found no point in hiding it, so she just hummed in agreement.

     "mhm".

     shigaraki's brows furrowed. "why'd you do that? why'd you get hurt for me? do you know how dangerous that could've been if my quirk didn't activate properly? it could've been game over for you!"

     kisa just chuckled as she leaned her forehead against shigaraki's.

     "but I didn't die did I? plus, I took too many opportunities from you already. dr. ujiko was right. I've spoiled you all too much", kisa smiled, with shigaraki running his other hand up and down kisa's back, where all her bruises resided.

"what do you mean by—"

kisa immediately shushed the male by kissing him, leaning in as her lips strongly pressed against shigaraki's.

shigaraki would never admit it, but he had come to love the feeling of kisa's lips on him. and this was no different.

     suddenly, a knock on the door had brought the two out of their own little world.

     parting for a gasp of air, kisa escaped from shigaraki's warm grasp and swung open the door, revealing dabi.

     "still not ready yet? man, you women take forever just to pick something", dabi joked, to which kisa had invited the male inside, much to shigaraki's dismay.

     "hmm...I suppose I'll go with the dark blue dress since it matches", kisa smiled as she started slipping the straps above her shoulder.

"dabi, would you mind helping?", kisa smiled, having to have already zipped up half way.

"of course princess", dabi smirked as he walked over to kisa, hovering behind her.

     "dabi?"

     "mhm?"

     "zip up, not down", kisa chuckled.

"right".

as the dress was now fully zipped up, kisa sat down beside shigaraki as she stuck her right leg out, to which dabi had picked out some black heels from the closet and started sliding them onto kisa's feet.

dabi's hands helped buckle the girl's heels as his hands trailed up the girl's leg, to which kisa had gently placed her heel on dabi's chest, stopping him from going any further.

kisa shook her head as she stood up, to which dabi had promptly followed. aggressively pulling dabi's tie, kisa leaned in real close, placing a kiss on the scarred male's lips as a reward.

shigaraki looked away as he too stood up, standing beside kisa, wanting to hold the girl's hand, but hesitating.

"shall we head out now?", shigaraki grumpily asked, to which kisa had smiled and clung onto the man's arm.

"we shall, my love".