chapter thirty-four;

     AFTER SHIGARAKI'S TUBE WAS BROKEN BY MIRUKO, his body laid on the wet ground with no heartbeat or pulse.

with his unconscious body at a 75% competition state, x-less, another hero, then restrained him, just in case.

seeing as there was still another machine running, the male decided to destroy it too, not knowing that it was the one responsible for recreating the quirk canceling bullets that shigaraki had stole from duke chisaki.

meanwhile, shigaraki himself had entered into his past, a facsimile, where he explores his illusions.

man hands bigger than shigaraki himself outstretched towards him, with buildings crumbling as he continued walking straight forward.

at one point, shigaraki had witnessed his older sister: shimura hana.

the little girl reminded him much of his very own daughter. in fact, one could've even mistaken them for twins, if they were currently side by side.

"I'm sorry tenko...it was a secret between us...and I told father", hana apologized.

shigaraki just waved it off.

"it's whatever now", the male said as he continued onward, witnessing his mother, who gave a pitiful yet loving smile.

"tenko, do you still want to be a hero?", his mother asked.

the little tenko with black hair and dull red eyes simply shook his head.

"I'm okay now, mom".

as shigaraki traveled onwards, the man that he hated so much; the man that had pushed him over the edge to become like this, showed up.

shimura kotaro stood before shigaraki, who he had promptly destroyed the illusion of his father, to then see a shadowy abyss slowly swallow up everything around him.

as shigaraki inches closer to the man standing before him, he realizes that it's all for one, his master.

"come tomura", all for one smiled, extending his hand out, symbolic to handing all of his powers to the now white-haired male.

shigaraki marched forward until he felt the hands of his dead relatives pulling him back. even his grandmother, shimura nana, tried to persuade shigaraki to think twice.

"papa?", a small little voice called out, making shigaraki snap towards the tiny figure in front of him.

     "youko...? what are you doing here?"

     "papa you need to wake up. we need to read together and eat blueberry cake", youko stated.

shigaraki was quite conflicted. here he was trying to inherit his master's quirk, yet was being stopped by his deceased family. meanwhile youko stood right before him, in the middle of all this chaos.

"tenko...look at your daughter...don't you want her to go down a better path?", shigaraki's mother questioned.

"tomura, youko will support you whatever you become. she promised", all for one intercepted.

"tenko...don't let her end up like me", hana persuaded. "don't let her die young".

"youko's quirks have manifested beyond excellence tomura. she is capable of protecting herself", all for one interjected.

"tenko...be the father...that I never was", kotaro pleaded, to which shigaraki felt his entire body stiffen.

"papa??", youko once again called out.

the white-haired male kneeled down in front of his daughter.

"are you scared of me, youko?"

the little girl shook her head and smiled. "of course not papa! perhaps of your quirk, but never of you", the girl answered.

shigaraki smiled at that.

"I'll come find you right after. and once this all ends, we'll eat dessert under your favorite oak tree behind the castle", shigaraki promised.

youko excitedly nodded her head.

"hurry up then papa. I'm still waiting for you...in the real world".

as little youko disappeared, along with shigaraki's deceased family, the male continued forward towards all for one, who grinned even wider.

once shigaraki's hand connected with all for one, the entirety of his warped past dispersed into a bright white light.

shigaraki tomura flinched.

most would have not thought much about it, but that was where they were wrong.

the white-haired male immediately propped himself up as he held a power-hungry look in his scarlet red eyes.

before anyone could react, shigaraki merely placed only one of his hands on the floor, causing the entire ground to rumble and the laboratory to decay itself, along with an approximation of a 30 mile radius.

meanwhile midoriya and his crew were trying to get the citizens to evacuate, the green-haired male felt a sharp pang in his chest.

a voice, specifically the voice of the first holder of one for all, spoke.

"all for one...he's coming for the power one for all. you can't let him steal it...you can't".

midoriya clenched his head as he felt his priorities tangle. a part of him told himself to continue helping the evacuation, yet another part strongly convinced himself that he needed to find an open field, so when shigaraki searched for him, the damage wouldn't be as immaculate towards the citizens.

     deciding to head east first, bakugo tagged along, as someone else had followed, noticing their change in direction.

     "you've already made up your mind haven't you?"

     "indeed. I cannot sit there and wait as he's coming for me", midoriya answered.

     "then I'm coming with. I can't let a loser like you get ahead of me!", bakugo determinedly said as the two flew faster towards the empty field.

_♚_

     as shigaraki phoned for gigantomachia, the stone villain finally stood up, with toga, compress, spinner, and a few other plf members standing on top of his shoulders.

machia started traveling at the voice of his new master, pleased that shigaraki finally had a job for him to do.

"where's dabi, twice, and yoko?! I left her here!!", toga exclaimed, starting to freak out as compress tried to calm her.

     "oh look, they're right there! right on time!", compress pointed, to which dabi was carrying youko, meanwhile twice was standing perfectly beside the two.

     "DABI! TWICE! OVER HERE!!", toga excitedly waved, drastically changing her mood as she couldn't be more excited to see the three.

     "aw, my little yoko!! are you tir—"

     toga immediately stopped fawning over the little girl as she saw a sickly pale, pitiful smile.

     "yoko...what...what happened? are you feeling sick? did you eat something bad this morning?", toga asked, brushing the girl's white locks away.

     "wait...when'd your hair turn white? did you dye it?", toga joked, though one could tell that it was forced.

compress and spinner soon loomed over the little princess, who was wrapped up in her favorite red coat, still being carried by dabi.

twice was silent for once, as everyone was confused.

"no I didn't dye it", youko lightly chuckled. "it just...happened...when I used my quirk", the little girl explained.

"used your quirk? which one? when?", toga hastily questioned.

"both...at the same time", youko answered.

"hawks betrayed us", dabi further explained, though the scarred man perfectly knew of the hero's true allegiance since the very beginning.

"he tried to kill me. none of my clones could fend him off for very long", twice chimed in, dejected at his own usefulness.

"and princess over here rushed in and stood right in front of twice, creating a barrier just in time", dabi said.

"while using her quirk, queen, to command hawks to stay away..and leave", twice finished.

"well then that's wonderful!!! I don't know why you guys are so down about it", toga giggled.

dabi and twice were about to say something more, before gigantomachia was being halted by yaoyorozu's group, who had received command to stop the rock villain from reaching shigaraki.

"those little scamps", compress sighed, watching as machia destroyed everything in front of him.

     "uncle dabi...", youko mumbled, immediately catching the scarred male's attention, meanwhile the rest of the pfl members helped clear machia's path.

     "please...I need to get to papa...I need to see if he's okay", the little girl pleaded.

     "I'll get you to him. I promise".

✦ . . . . ────────☀️