chapter thirteen;

"PAPA!!" YOUKO HASTILY RAN OVER TO THE SHOCKED MALE, who couldn't even process what was going on until he felt a warm little body run into him.

     "how'd you—"

     "uncle dabi came to rescue me", youko answered, making dabi choke on his water.

     dabi glanced over at the little girl who just smiled back at him with the biggest smile she could muster.

     "well...crusty over there could barely eat or sleep with you gone. and it was either me or that crazy lunatic", dabi scoffed, making toga cross her arms.

     "I missed you papa!! their dessert wasn't even as good as kuro's cookies", youko whined, crawling into shigaraki's lap as she snuggled her face at the crook of shigaraki's neck.

     the girl then immediately retracted, pouting as she ran her little fingers across the withering skin that was filled with tiny but deep scratches.

     "papa, I thought you promised you'd take better care of your skin", youko softly complained.

     shigaraki simply stayed silent as youko just hugged her father tighter, refusing to let go or leave his side for even a moment now.

     "aw come on!! don't you miss me at all?!", toga whined, to which youko just giggled as she ran over to the pouting blonde girl.

"I missed you too himi!!"

"I GET A NICKNAME?! YOU'RE JUST ADORABLE!!", toga gushed, squeezing the living breath out of youko.

"toga, it'd be wise to give her some air", compress politely suggested, to which toga only loosened her grip slightly.

"how about I call you yoko since you gave me a nickname??", toga grinned, to which youko had just nodded in agreement.

"by the way...where are we?", youko asked as she suddenly noticed her surroundings.

     the league of villains were currently in a traditional japanese room with bamboo paintings hung on the less spacious walls.

     many mats were laid out with separate pillows and blankets for each one.

     "baron giran's house", kurogiri answered, as he finally warped back from wherever he came from.

     it was thanks to kurogiri's warp gate that dabi could even get to the young princess. usually, the mist man didn't do anything without shigaraki or all for one's orders, but dabi had persuaded the man that if they didn't rescue youko, shigaraki would've fallen even more into his insanity.

"KURO!!! thank you for saving me", youko brightly smiled.

"my pleasure, your highness".

"toga, give her back", shigaraki commanded, to which the blonde girl huffed as she let youko down.

little youko ran back into her father's arms as she sat in his lap, twirling her now dirtied white gown.

"starting tomorrow, we need to find new recruits. don't bring them to our new base. we will meet elsewhere", shigaraki explained.

     "all of us?", compress asked.

     "you, me, kurogiri, and magne will be in charge of transporting the nomus", shigaraki clarified.

     youko perked up at the mentioning of nomus. she's definitely heard shigaraki mention it quite a few times, but has never seen or understood what they were.

     "in that case, we have a lot of work cut out for us. we shall rest for the night", kurogiri suggested, to which everyone had crawled into their mats.

     "where will I sleep papa?"

     shigaraki simply didn't answer as he carried youko over to his mat, which was the furthest away from the others.

     "get in", shigaraki bluntly stated as he held the blanket up for youko to climb in.

     the little girl smiled as she snuggled close to her father, feeling the warmth once more. it was way better than sleeping in the cell.

"I'm..sorry youko".

youko's eyes were nearly about to close until it shot open again, looking up at shigaraki's face, who held no remorse whatsoever.

but his eyes betrayed him.

"it's not your fault papa", youko softly mumbled, remembering what all for one had told her.

     "and it's okay because I'm here with you now", youko smiled, boldly kissing the side of shigaraki's face.

     shigaraki flinched under the contact, still not being used to affection even though youko spends majority of her time clumping onto the male like a koala to a branch.

     the blue-haired make simply patted youko's head as he made sure he didn't accidentally put another finger down.

"goodnight...youko".

"sweet dreams papa!"

_♚_

the little princess rubbed her eyes as she felt herself being carried.

youko's bright red eyes fluttered open as she yawned, covering her mouth as it was basic manners according to kurogiri.

"how'd you sleep?"

"very well. where are we papa?"

"the north tower of the castle", shigaraki lowly answered, to which youko definitely has never seen this part of the castle before.

"are we still allowed here?", the girl asked.

"it's our home...of course we are. we're just temporarily abandoning it. we'll gain everything back soon enough".

youko just nodded as she waited for kurogiri to open the locked doors, leading to a laboratory.

     a waft of chemicals and alcohol-like smell filled young youko's nostrils, making the girl instinctively pinch her nose.

     "papa, why does it smell so bad?"

     shigaraki just straight up ignored youko's question as compress, kurogiri, and magne followed closely behind.

as the six entered the dimly lit room, youko could barely make out the containers of greenish-bluish liquid, helping levitate the oddly shaped bodies.

"this is western technology. quite neat isn't it?", shigaraki grinned, feeling excited at the creation of even more nomus.

"why are their brains out?? can they think well like that?", youko innocently asked.

"they don't need to. they only need to heed to our commands".

"our?"

"well of course. you get a special little nomu; curtsy from one of master's old friends", shigaraki said as he snapped his fingers together.

     "grandpa has friends...?"

     magne nearly snorted at that comment, to which youko just smiled at the girl.

     magne and youko has never really talked before, but if magne was a friend of toga's, then she was automatically a friend of youko's.

     "his name is johnny...at least that's what he calls him", shigaraki mumbled, letting youko down.

     as soon as the nomu's name was mentioned, it came waddling over towards the group.

     the tiny nomu—at least compared to the other ones—had a cable-like tube that connected to the bottom of its torso.

     johnny had a strange transparent helmet containing his head, with strange knobs attached to the side of it, and round eyes that slightly reminded youko of her past teddy bear: kimi.

     "mm...I like your shoes", youko smiled, staring at the peculiar western shoes that johnny had on.

     it turns out that youko wasn't the only one that liked western clothing.

     obviously as a nomu, johnny couldn't respond. instead, he just stared at youko, as if anticipating the girl's command.

     "I heard he likes walks", shigaraki chimed in.

     "oh! I guess I can walk johnny", youko said, tugging on the nomu's cord as she started walking deeper into the laboratory.

     shigaraki knew youko wouldn't get lost, as the laboratory was only so big.

     "kurogiri, start warping the nomus. compress, start stuffing them in your crystal balls. and magne, use your magnets to attract them to the other side", shigaraki commanded as he started activating the nearby glass containers.

     while shigaraki and the rest of his comrades worked, youko started humming to herself as she was glad she had received a new pet.

     "nice to meet you johnny. I'm sorry I haven't introduced my name yet. kuro always says I should do that first", youko giggled as she suddenly stopped walking, to which the nomu had halted along with her.

     "I'm shigaraki youko! I hope we become great friends", youko smiled as she tried petting the nomu, only to pat the glass helmet instead.

     johnny just remained neutral as he watched youko stand back up again.

     "I like walks too. we should take walks more often", youko said out loud, even though she knew johnny couldn't respond.

     the little nomu trotted behind youko as the girl just continued humming. she did find it a bit weird that the nomu had its brain out, but who was she to judge?

     after all, johnny was about to become her new best friend.

✦ . . . . ────────☀️