chapter twenty-five;

     "WHERE'S YOUR BRAVADO, RE-DESTRO?", SHIGARAKI MOCKED. "it seems to me that your numbers are also dwindling quite a bit".

     re-destro clenched his fists as he got ready to snap off shigaraki's wrists for murdering his comrades.

     "is that the best you can do, shigaraki?! please, a man who can't even protect his own subordinate shouldn't be called a king! A MAN WHO CAN'T EVEN PROTECT HIS OWN DAUGHTER SHOULDN'T BE CALLED A FATHER!!", re-destro shouted, catching shigaraki off guard by a moment with that strong statement.

shigaraki froze.

     youko had wanted to intervene, but noticed a blast of brilliant blue flames cascading from the west of her.

     it could be assumed that that was from dabi. though youko had desperately wanted to help, she knew she was in no condition of doing so.

     part of her hoped that shigaraki and the rest would finish up quickly, as she worried that her quirk might not be able to last much longer on the brainwashed male that was still carrying her.

     "what do you know about being a father?", shigaraki snarled, suddenly upping his speed as he only needed two fingers to activate the full potential of his quirk.

     "I asked, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BEING A FATHER?!"

     re-destro, sensing the man's rage bursting through the roofs, was done playing. the orange-haired man bulked up his body to 80% liberation, in which his body contorts into an inhuman like nature.

youko suddenly felt the man carrying her run far far away, as she wondered why he had suddenly done that.

that is, until youko had felt the impact of re-destro's special move: stress output burden.

     a black, wide range shockwave wiped the floor, nearly making youko feel herself fly away as her only anchor was the villain she had controlled.

     then it suddenly dawned upon her.

     "PAPA!!!! BRING ME BACK! BRING ME BACK TO HIM!", youko shouted, though she suddenly felt the man's demeanor shift.

     immediately, youko was dropped to the floor.

     youko was doomed.

     her quirk had worn off and the male was definitely conscious, as he bared his gnarly yellow teeth at the girl and reached forward to attempt to capture her.

but youko wasn't having it, not when shigaraki was so close. she refused to go back and wait there in silence.

feeling the harsh adrenaline pumping through her entire body, youko gathered up the last of her strength, as she ran towards the two villains.

with re-destro amping himself up to 100% liberation, he attempted to destroy shigaraki with his stress meta ability activated.

however, shigaraki easily retaliated. disintegrating re-destro's tendrils with ease, shigaraki nearly demolished all of deika city, crumbling the buildings until there was nothing but a few dark figures looming behind the smoke.

     little youko choked as she urged herself to crawl to shigaraki, who stood in all his glory, with his shirt gone and his pants tattered. though he looked like a homeless bum, the victory grin on shigaraki's confident face said otherwise.

     as the blue-haired male proceeded to mock re-destro, the struggling man tried to gather up 150% of his quirk with his support item: claustro.

"come on re-destro, is this the best you can do? isn't a bit unfair that you get a plate of armor while I'm bare?", shigaraki grinned, enjoying the pleasure of ridiculing this man.

for once, re-destro had felt fear, reminding him of his childhood.

struggling to defend against shigaraki's sheer power, re-destro felt his claustro armor break as shigaraki's quirk has gone beyond limits.

and as the male deactivates his armor, re-destro ended up cutting off his legs to stop the decaying from spreading.

it was quite the bloody scene, and shigaraki tomura loved it.

as shigaraki inched closer to re-destro once more—especially now that the man didn't have legs to run away with—a shit-eating grin had smeared across shigaraki's face.

"now tell me, what was it about me being a father?"

re-destro felt himself choke up at the blue-haired male's closeness.

with re-destro's comrades, lead by trumpet, spinner, and the rest of the league appearing beside them, re-destro suddenly caught a good glance of how ruined his beloved city was.

and out of nowhere, a hurt and tired little girl came running from behind the smoke, mixed in with the dust.

"p-PAPA!!"

shigaraki's smirk immediately dropped as he looked up, standing taller and feeling his heart rate excel.

"PAPA!! I-I'M HERE!!", youko cried out, with tears streaming down her face as she ran as fast as her wobbly legs could take her.

     the man chasing behind her had nearly caught onto her hair, but with shigaraki's presence, not even a fly is to touch her right now.

     "stand off", re-destro commanded, not only to the buff guard, but to trumpet and the rest of his subordinates.

     youko ran into shigaraki's arms, who had tightly embraced her, as if she would fly away if he held her any looser.

     examining his little girl, he noticed the scars, the dark eye bags, the messy hair that resembled to that of a rat's nest, and the shaking.

     youko was visibly shaking in fear at the sight before her.

     shigaraki felt a never ending pit of guilt wash over him. this was the moment that youko was going to leave him; hate him. this was when she'll realize that he was no good all along, that he couldn't even protect his own daughter from such a measly villain.

     "p-papa...", youko cried, tasting her own salty tears in the process.

     "youko...you look awful", shigaraki mumbled.

     though the blue-haired male had more visible scars and was more tired than anyone could ever imagine, youko's injuries hurt him more than his own.

     no response was heard, only confirming shigaraki's theory of how scared youko was of him.

     "are you..scared of me?"

     youko shook her head in denial. "never of you, papa".

     "but you look worse", youko whimpered, cupping the male's face as she could feel his eyes droop with remorse and fatigue.

     "I missed you papa...I was so lonely and scared", youko suddenly started to cry even more, hiccuping as she continued to speak.

"t-they put me in a dog cage and called you names. I'm sorry for b-being so weak", youko coughed out, wiping her seemingly never ending tears.

"...they put you in a what?"

"a dog's cage..."

shigaraki immediately glared at re-destro. if the orange-haired man had thought that was shigaraki's ultimate potential, he was far beyond right.

it was one thing to kidnap his precious daughter, but to stick her in an animal's cage and deprecate her as a human being, that was going far even for a villain.

"any last words, re-destro?"

the man's breath hitched as shigaraki loomed over him; shigaraki's red eyes glaring like daggers, waiting for him to speak so that he could quickly end him for humiliating not only him, but his daughter.

"I-I...I apologize", re-destro spluttered out.

youko sniffled as she turned around, nearly screaming at the man's bleeding thighs, as majority of his legs were gone.

"I apologize for putting her—"

"her highness. you have no right addressing her so casually", shigaraki interrupted.

"y-yes...I apologize for putting her highness through such a traumatic experience...but I hope I can compensate by joining under your majesty. we will fully follow your lead, no questions asked, as long as you allow us to live", re-destro offered.

     shigaraki clicked his tongue. usually, he would've immediately taken up the offer, considering how low he was in manpower.

     however, he would never be able to live it down if he had let this peasant wander around freely after what he had done to youko.

     "what do you think, youko? should we accept, or should I just end them all right here?", shigaraki softly asked, making the little girl surprised.

     "m-me? but papa always makes the decisions..."

     "you're my little queen, of course you get a say in this. now tell me, do you want me to end his pathetic life, help you take revenge?", shigaraki urged.

     youko quietly hummed as she truly thought about it. the little girl glanced around them as she noticed many lives awaited on her single answer.

     she couldn't. she couldn't possibly carry the weight of having all these people die because of her, even though re-destro was cruel.

     as even her own father needed second chances himself, so what's the difference now?

     "papa...you should...you should put him to good use", youko mumbled, to which re-destro had looked up in shock.

     he was almost certain that she would've asked shigaraki to end him once and for all.

     shigaraki frowned a bit upon hearing the answer, as that had meant he couldn't go on a killing spree with the rest of the league.

     though on the bright side, he now had more men under him, assisting him for his next plan of steps.

     "smart choice youko".

     youko simply nodded as she laid on shigaraki's shoulder, closing her eyes as she had exerted all her energy into escaping.

     shigaraki grimaced at re-destro and now his subordinates.

     the paranormal liberation front was thus born.

✦ . . . . ────────☀️