A Small Flower (Tomura Shigaraki's daughter)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

tw: mentions of violence/blood

Teke sat on their bed eating from a box of jelly beans. The troops' morale was steady and Hifumi was happy, so they had done everything Shigaraki had asked them to for the day.

My speech really fired them up, they thought. But it's true, all of it.

They removed their chain whip from the back of their belt and set it in their lap, watching the way the newly polished metal caught the light. It had been upgraded by Detnerat and would prove to be even more effective than it had been already.

Footsteps passed by them, and they looked up. Mika was walking down the hallway, gazing at one of her large knives.

Teke sighed. As good a friend as the cyan-haired girl was, she was a threat to their goal.

"Oh, hey, Teke!" said Mika, sliding her knife back into its sheath and waving.

Teke waved back. "Hey, Hasegawa."

The redhead slid off the bed as Mika came to meet them. They set the box of jelly beans on their blankets.

"You know, it's been pretty boring lately," said Mika. "There hasn't been anyone to fight."

"You got that right," agreed Teke. "Perhaps the heroes are planning. Or maybe they're too scared."

"That'd be no fun. I love the thrill of fresh blood!"

A muscle jumped in Teke's jaw. They moved to cover it up but decided that now was the time for serious words.

"I don't understand you," they said.

Mika frowned. "Why's that? We get along well enough."

"We do. We've shared plenty of laughs. And you are a fun person when you're not talking about cruelty."

"What do you mean? Being cruel to others is my ultimate goal in life."

"That's why I don't understand you," Teke told her. They gripped their chain whip tightly in their hand. "Why have you let us stay alive this long?"

Mika smirked. "Because I need you, that's all. Without other strong villains, how will I be able to carry out my mission? I don't care about any of you, but you've helped me along the path to accomplishing my goal, so it'd be a shame to kill you."

"I see. So we aren't actually friends."

"Yep. Friendship requires caring, and there's none of that going on here. However, you are quite funny, so I want to keep you around." She grinned. "Anyway, I don't see any point in continuing this conversation, so bye!" she sing-songed. She began to walk away.

She was almost out the door when Teke's chain whip lashed out with a flash of metal and wrapped around her arm. She stopped, her grin widening.

"Oh?" she asked. "What's this, now?"

"I'm sick of you," Teke spat. "I'm done pretending everything's fine between us. Akamine, too. You guys are the same. You don't care about innocent people!"

"And why should we? Their innocence makes them the perfect targets." She licked her lips. "The time spent killing them will be especially satisfying!"

"You can do whatever you want to anyone else, but be warned," Teke growled, a shadow passing across their face. "Lay one finger on a child, and I will end you."

"I wasn't planning on hurting kids. You see, there's cruelty that is deserved and cruelty that is undeserved. Children don't deserve cruelty because they're too small to be the perfect victims."