Sorry the chapter came late; I was busy singing mock barbershop, getting sand up my nose, watching Steven Universe, and touring embalming labs with RKBW.

Hinata House chapter should come soon but I'm not making any promises bc I have to worry about getting driver's license/also do piano lessons.

Regardless I hope you enjoy the chapter.

-Scissors

The Demon King, huh….

Fuyuki could not rest. He was required to keep laying on a bed in the back of the temple while the authorities within the temple carried on a vaguely audible conversation. As if he could rest, anyway, with so many priests stationed around the room. They weren't worried about him, of course—they were worried far more about the Demon King who was now taking residence within his body. So while Fuyuki remained trapped in his thoughts, the Demon King took control of him, sending all the priests his nastiest of grins.

"It seems every millennium that I arrive," the Demon King said, using Fuyuki's vocal cords, "humans just become more and more hostile towards me. Why is that?" Using Fuyuki's hand, he gently took hold of the chin of one of the priests, looking her directly in the eyes. The priest shook at the contact. On any regular day, the sight of a experienced, adult priest trembling at the hand of a newly fourteen-year-old boy would have been laughable. But today, they all trembled together.

"I-I-I don't know, your highness," the priest responded, her deer-in-headlights state preventing her from giving a more eloquent answer. "P-p-please, if there is anything we can do to make your stay on Earth more—"

"Oh, how kind of you to ask!" Using Fuyuki's facial muscles, the Demon King smiled. Well, it was more of a twisted, horrid grin, which looked quite unreal on a face like Fuyuki's. "But I really don't need anything. Well, that is, unless you can produce a thermo-hyponuclear cotransit fluorospectrophotometer right this moment."

The priests exchanged confused glances at one another. One whispered, "Whass he wannus to get?" Finally one of the priests called out, "We're on it, your highness."

"Your majesty," the Demon King corrected him.

After grumbling quite a bit, the priests nodded and exited the room.

Is it okay for them to just exit the room? Fuyuki wondered. To get a… whatever-it-is that probably doesn't even exist? Geez, now I'm all alone with the Demon King…. What do I do?

Fuyuki felt the anxiety run through him like a cold chill, even though he still could not control his body at the moment.

I have to take over my body, Fuyuki told himself. I have to… Have to…

He felt himself walking toward the door and entering the main hall of the temple. As his eyes took in the familiar area, they settled on the action taking place in the middle of the room. Startlingly, he spotted his mother, who was being handled by the authorities surrounding her.

"No! You don't understand!" Aki was shouting. "I have to see my son! I have to see—" She paused a moment, then broke free from the man's grip. "Fuyuki!" She ran to him and stroked his face in her hand. "Oh, my baby boy, what did they do to you?" She hugged him. "I'm so sorry that I've let this happen."

I need to talk to her, Fuyuki knew. He didn't know how to do it, though. He strained to gain control over his body.

"I'm fine, Mom." The words tumbled out of his mouth. The authorities in the room looked shocked to hear this from Fuyuki. "I-I was a bit shaken up, I have to admit, but my head's been starting to clear up."

"Oh…." Aki hugged him again, giving him a very tight squeeze.

Yes! I finally did it! Fuyuki cheered. No… wait… That's not what I wanted to say at all.

"And now that everything's a bit clearer," Fuyuki went on, "I've come to realize how terrible a mother you are."

Aki froze. All the authorities in the room froze. She stopped hugging her son and looked him straight in the eye. A tear ran down her cheek. "Do… Do you really mean that?"

No! Mom! Don't listen to me! Fuyuki pleaded. It's not me. It's the Demon King!

"Yes, I really do," came the words from Fuyuki's mouth.

"Then… forgive me, Fuyuki." She bit her lip and raised her hand. Then, with great power, she slapped it across Fuyuki's cheek. It was harder than anyone had ever hit him before and stung like a thousand nettles.

Immediately, the authorities rushed up to restrain her. She didn't even fight back. Instead she yelled at the Demon King, "You are not welcome here! You are not welcome in my son, do you understand?! I will not stand for a second while you mock us all and ruin my son's life!" She fought back a choking sound. "He's all I have left. I'll never let you take that away!"

"Miss, please control yourself," someone begged her. She continued to thrash about, until she was handcuffed, and at last she seemed to quiet down.

Don't take Mom away! Fuyuki tried to say. As usual, nothing came out. He could only watch in misery and helplessness as his mother was carried away by the authorities. The ones left in the room, the Demon King turned to with a grin.

"Kuuu, ku, ku, ku, ku, ku. Well, I'm glad we've settled that," he spoke. "Let everyone know of this little incident. I can't have any of this boy's family looming over me. Who else does he have?"

"Erm… that was it, your highness," said one of the authorities.

"Your majesty," he corrected.

"Sorry. Majesty. Anyway, his sister disappeared a few months ago, presumably dead, and his father is deceased as well."

"Perfect," he beamed. He addressed the authorities behind him next, who were guards. "Additionally, I will have no one monitoring me. That goes for guards, security, cameras…. Whatever tricks you try to pull, I'll know." He tapped the space on his head just above his ears. "And we don't want that, do we?"

The guards didn't seem to quite understand, but they nodded anyway. "We'll send the message right away. To give the Demon King his personal space."

"One more thing…." He stopped them before they headed off. "Get me some ice for this kid's cheek. This hurts like hell."

The news spread quickly, and "personal space" resulted in everyone avoiding Fuyuki on the street.

Fuyuki had never been so nervous. No one ever told him about this. Come to think of it, no one had ever told him anything. He had no idea how to take back control of his body. And if he'd had gotten any other regular demon, nobody would think twice of it. But because it was the Demon King himself that was now taking residence in his body, everyone refused to make eye contact with him.

As if his mom getting arrested wasn't enough.

Will this ever end? Fuyuki wondered. It's not even noon and I already feel like I've lived another ten years of my life!

All of a sudden, the Demon King stopped in the middle of the walkway. "Fuyuki, was your name?"

Fuyuki didn't know how to respond to him, so he didn't.

"I'm going to need you to lead me to your house. Your legs are tired."

They are? he thought. Before he knew it, a dizziness ran through his head and through his eyes. After it passed, Fuyuki found he could clench his hands and flex his legs again.

"I—I'm me again!" he exclaimed with a laugh. "Hoo boy, my legs are kinda tired."

"Yes, I did a lot of walking around for you, ku ku ku," the Demon King told him through his head.

"I—What? You can talk to me?" Fuyuki was shocked.

"Indeed I can. Now make the walk quick!" he commanded. "I'm growing bored."

"O-Okay." Fuyuki made sure to heed this order, not knowing what stunt the Demon King would pull. He had to be very cautious with him, he knew, because the Demon King was very powerful. He would not let him mess any more with his life than he had already.

The second Fuyuki reached his house, he shut the door quickly behind him and leaned against it in relief. No more people avoiding eye contact with him, only to glance and whisper behind his back. He was free. The events of the day were starting to catch up with him—the possession, his mother's arrest. Fuyuki began to cry. He didn't know if he could take any more of it.

"Ohh. There, there, don't be sad," he heard the Demon King say. "I'm not that bad of a guy."

This just made Fuyuki sob harder.

"Noo, noo. I'm a real good demon, honest."

He sniffled. "Then why—then why—then why do you act so mean to everybody!"

"Well, a guy like me just has to have a bit of fun after being caged up in the demon dimension for one thousand years, ku ku ku," the Demon King told him. "And there's really no reason to resent me for that. Unless…." He paused. "Do you hate demons, Fuyuki?"

"What?"

"Do you hate demons?"

"Well… no! They can't be all bad," Fuyuki told him. "They helped us win the war, you know."

"Hng, I wasn't aware," the Demon King told him wryly.

"Really? But you're the Demon King!"

"Ah…! Yes, yes, you're right. Ku ku ku! I seem to have forgotten. Time really flies when you're immortal, it would seem. Don't know where my mind has gone these days. Probably into your body!"

"You better do something about that memory of yours," Fuyuki warned him. He felt a smile creep onto his face. Maybe the Demon King wasn't actually that bad of a guy. He seemed pretty okay, now that the two of them were alone and chatting. Maybe tomorrow he could go get his mom out of jail and apologize to Saburo for the mix-up and then this whole thing could just blow over.

"Mr. Demon King, what do you think these two years are going to be like?" he asked him.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect such a scrawny body to move about in, that's for sure," said the Demon King. He added with a sigh, "I suppose everything has its advantages."

Fuyuki scratched the back of his head. "Sorry for being so weak." He guessed the guy must have not been told by anyone that his host was supposed to have been a different kid.

"No… this will do just fine, I think. Not too different from usual…."

"From usual?" Fuyuki repeated. He dismissed it. "What do you look like? Or… do demons not look like anything?"

The Demon let out another of his chuckles. "You would like to know more about me, would you, Fuyuki?" Fuyuki nodded. "Here's what you'll have to do—look deep into your mind. Concentrate hard on your thoughts. Yes… Yes… that's good."

Fuyuki could feel himself sinking deep into his mind. For a moment, blackness enveloped him, and then was burned away to reveal an odd sort of setting with shifting colors where (who he presumed to be) the Demon King stood before him.

"Perfect," said the man. As his voice matched the one that had been speaking to him earlier, Fuyuki decided that this was the Demon King.

Although it was just in his mind, he could make the form of the man out clearly: Messy purple hair swept up and to the left side of his head, a pair of round glasses resting on his nose, and clothing that resembled a very, very old fashion. He would have never guessed that the Demon King wore glasses. But what stuck out most of all to Fuyuki were the curled horns that rested close to the Demon King's head, right about where his ears ought to have been.

"Um, hi, Mr. Demon King." Fuyuki wasn't sure what else to say.

"Hello as well." The Demon King gestured to himself. "If you wish, you, as my host, are granted the pleasure of referring to me by name, Kululu."

Fuyuki was appalled. "You have a name?"

"Well, yes, of course I have a name," Kululu told him. "All demons have names. What else would my family have called me?"

"I—I'm not sure," he admitted bashfully. Now he felt like a fool for not knowing before that the Demon King had a name. Of course he would! It only made sense. He pointed to Kululu's head. "Um…. Can I ask what your horns are for?"

Kululu touched the side of his head. "All in due time, naturally. You'll find out… let's say… in two years, when we return to this dimension."

"Okay," he said. "What happens then?"

But before he could hear a response, the area shifted back in to blackness and Fuyuki found himself back in the real world, in his body.

It wasn't before long when the authorities came knocking at Fuyuki's door.

"Excuse us, could we speak to Fuyuki Hinata for a moment?" they requested.

Fuyuki opened the door and saw the relief that overtook their faces as he smiled at them in greeting. "Um… yeah… I'm me right now," he assured them.

"Are you sure? Because…" One of the officers cleared her throat. "Anyway, Fuyuki Hinata, as the apparent new host of the Demon King, you have the choice of bypassing your admittance into secondary school."

"Bypassing my admittance? You mean… I don't have to go to secondary school?" Fuyuki asked.

"That is correct."

"But…." He frowned. "I can't stop learning!"

"Yes, but the Demon King is in your body…" one of the officers said quietly.

Fuyuki dismissed this with a wave of his hand. "I won't let that change anything. I know that this is a big thing that happened and all—"

"Mr. Hinata, I'm afraid you don't understand the gravity of this situation—"

"—but I just want everybody to treat me normally. You know? I don't want to live with any of the isolation that Saburo had, I just want us to move on from this. Can we do that?" He smiled at them hopefully.

The authorities turned to each other and began discussing in hushed whispers.

"Should we let him?"

"Of course we should let him! …Poor boy's only got two years."

"But how can we train him? If we put him in that school…. They might say too much."

"We'll just have to have the Nishizawa girl drop hints."

"Ohh, gosh, this is soo bad, you guys."

"It's all we can do. None of us were trained for this, people! We've got to suck it up and stay strong…. For this boy and for the world."

"Um—" Fuyuki broke in.

Startled, the authorities swiveled around and gave him their utmost attention.

"So… is everything okay over there?" he asked.

"Yes! Everything is absolutely in tip-top shape, Mr. Hinata! Or… Or your highness! Whoever you are."

"Fuyuki," said Fuyuki. He could see that the officer who had spoken was trembling. Was Kululu really all that bad? Or were they just worried about the host mix-up?

Fuyuki decided to ask the one expert he knew on this topic: Saburo.

After breaking away from the authorities and wandering around for a bit, Fuyuki found Saburo alone on a park bench, his head in his hands.

"Hey… Saburo." He jogged up to him. "Everything all right? Um… that is, if you are Saburo. 'Cause I know you got your own host today. Can I speak to Saburo? Just Sa—"

"I'm right here, Fuyuki," said Saburo glumly at his shoes.

"Oh. That's…"

"You're dead, Fuyuki."

"…Excuse me?"

"The demon you got?" Saburo brought his head up, seemingly with a vast amount of effort, and looked him in the eyes. "I went through training for my whole life for him. You've had nothing. Absolutely nothing. And now all that training…." Saburo swallowed and blinked his eyes. When he spoke, his voice came out strained, and sounding like he was choking back his anger. "It's for nothing."

"I—I'm so sorry…" Fuyuki told him. "I didn't know that… that it was that important…."

"Important?" he repeated. He threw his hands up. "I was supposed to be the hero of the world, Fuyuki! Now I just have a regular demon and my parents think I'm an embarrassment. They refuse to look at me! 'Oh, no Demon King after all? Hm, what a shame you've brought upon us.' "

Fuyuki was speechless. He had never seen Saburo so emotional. Usually he was so aloof.

A little girl walking by looked up at her mother and asked, "Mommmmy wassa demon king?"

"Shh, not now sweetie," the mother said harshly, tugging her daughter away.

Fuyuki looked nervously off to the side. "We shouldn't be talking here."

Saburo leaned back into the bench. "I don't care. I—I just don't care anymore."

"Well… what do I do now?" he asked him. "At least you can tell me how to deal with the Demon King, right?"

"No, Fuyuki, I'm… not supposed to tell you anything." Saburo ran a hand through his bangs. Then he sat up with a large sigh and started talking quickly. "Taking control will be the most important thing. You'll need to do it as often as you can, because Kululu's got some dirty tricks up his sleeve and he'll play around if you let him."

Fuyuki, though surprised that Saburo knew the Demon King's name, was more than thankful that he had decided to talk finally. "How do I take control?" he asked.

"Immense willpower. Push to the front of your mind with everything you've got. Blacking out and letting him take control is so much easier, but you need to be the one in control, you hear me?"

"Y-yeah," he said.

"And also. Whatever you do," Saburo warned, "do not think any deep thoughts. Do not let him trick you into doing so."

"Wh-what?" Fuyuki gasped. "He—He can't read my thoughts, can he?"

Saburo nodded. "With regular demons, you can control what you say to them if you're not the one in control. But if you're in deep thought, your privacy will be a thing of the past, because Kululu will be able to see straight into your mind if you're not paying attention."

The more he spoke, the wider Fuyuki's eyes became. That Kululu! Fuyuki had pretty much been doing deep thinking all day. And Kululu probably knew this the whole time. It made him want to scream. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't have trusted that guy.

"How do I—"

"That's all I can tell you for now, Fuyuki," said Saburo. "I have to be going now before anyone else finds us talking here. You know how we're not supposed to talk about these kinds of things on the streets."

Fuyuki nodded. "Saburo… I'm sorry about everything. Take care."

He nodded. "Yeah." Giving one last wave, he darted off.

"Ku ku ku. So that was the host I was meant to have?" Fuyuki heard in his head. Kululu.

He frowned. "Yeah. So?"

"Ah, I don't mind this little mix-up. Perhaps things have worked out for the better."

"How, exactly?"

"Well… you'll see."

Fuyuki nearly jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and let out his breath when he saw Momoka.

"Oh, Fuyuki!" She threw her arms around him in a hug. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" Then her eyes turned sad. "I take it that you were talking to the Demon King back there?"

"Oh… um…." He gave a nervous laugh. "You saw?"

Momoka nodded, then gave him another hug. "I'm just glad you're okay."

All of a sudden, he felt himself blacking out, shifting to the back of his mind. He realized with dread that Kululu was taking control and he could do nothing about it. Then he watched in horror as his arms wrapped around Momoka and returned her hug.

"Flattered that you had me on your mind, chickadee," Kululu told her.

In his head, Fuyuki shrieked.

Momoka's face exploded in blush. "F-Fuyuki… you're so forward all of a sudden!" Giggling, she broke from the hug and glanced shyly up at him. But the second that she saw that jerky smirk plastered across Fuyuki's face, her hair spiked and her pupils shrunk. "WAIT A SECOND…. YOU'RE… NOT… FUYUKI!" She pushed him away, not hard enough to hurt Fuyuki, but enough so to send the message. Her hair went back to normal. "Sorry, but I only have eyes for Fuyuki!"

"Tch. Hate it when this happens," Kululu grumbled.

Fuyuki decided to try his hand at communicating by asking Kululu, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"Well, nice meeting you, but the host 'n I must be going now. Lots of important business to attend to," Kululu told her, "certainly more important than you."

Momoka had to fight herself to keep from punching out his brains.

It's official. I hate this guy, thought Fuyuki. As Kululu left, Fuyuki attempted the technique that Saburo had told him about. He focused all his willpower to the front of his head and found himself walking in his body. Then he ran straight to the temple, where he found the Temple Head Priest.

"So… many… stairs…" he panted. After a gulp of air, he looked up at the Temple Head. "Sir, I want to return my demon."

The Temple Head looked at him perplexedly. "You… what?"

"I want to return my demon!"

"Now, is that a very nice thing to do? I can definitely tell you're taking MY feelings into account," said Kululu in his head.

"What feelings? You don't have any!" Fuyuki shouted back.

"E-Excuse me?" The Temple Head looked a bit offended.

"Oh, not you, the Demon King," he explained. "Anyway, can I return him?"

"Return your demon?" The Temple Head shook his temple head. "My boy, demons cannot be returned once you receive them. You…. Well, after two years, they will… leave." He delayed the last word a good few seconds.

"Two years?" Fuyuki panted. "Two years…. Thassright…. It's only two years till this is over." He lowered his head, still trying to catch his breath. After a moment, he stood up again, the kindness gone from his eyes. Kululu had taken over once more.

"These stairs are just what I needed," he remarked.

The Temple Head trembled, recognizing the demon. "A-anything for you, your majesty."

"Please," said Kululu with great modesty, "call me 'your highness.' "

Rainbowkittyblossomwing's here! My sister of course wrote the chapter and in my personal opinion it was amazing.

Anyway, please review!