Alright, another skid with uncomfortable territory. There is mentions of sex and incest in this chapter, so avoid that if it makes you uncomfortable. (Basically Amyoflove skip those parts. -Scissors)

Sorry it's so long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

(Also another note from Scissors) Do not trust this writer. She is evil. Her last chapter was 9,000 words. Before that it was 8,000. What will happen next? Will I live to see that day? I'm her editor. I don't know how long I can last. Send help


Fuyuki's veins filled with something more powerful in his mind than blood - determination.

He had to prove Kululu was a good guy. For his life and his own.

But how to prove the Demon King himself, who had caused the suffering of so many, was someone that Dororo shouldn't kill... that was beyond him.

It was a harder task than it sounded, because Kululu barely did anything nice. Fuyuki needed solid evidence that Kululu was good.

Maybe I could get Kululu to participate in the Victory Festival... Help the class make a booth or something. Maybe that would appeal to Dororo, since the victory festival is fun for all. I mean, the demons did help us win the war... Fuyuki thought to himself. That might prove itself as solid evidence.

"Fat chance, kid. I ain't celebrating that dumb festival if my life depended on it. I've never celebrated before and I'll never celebrate it in the future." Kululu seemed to hear his thoughts, as he immediately shot the idea down, causing Fuyuki to go back to square one.

Fuyuki's smile faltered for a moment at the sheer rejection. That one seemed to not be an option. Not an option at all.

What... could I try to get Kululu to do that would give solid evidence of his niceness? Fuyuki thought. He also needed something that he would be willing to put effort into doing with Kululu, and put his heart and soul on the line of getting him into it.

In mere seconds an idea came to him - a selfish idea that although would prove Kululu's kindness served for as something that Fuyuki wanted.

It was an idea nonetheless, though.

Fuyuki smiled, knowing it was the perfect thing to pursue, and with Kululu's intelligence he was probably the only one who knew the answers Fuyuki sought.

Kululu was probably the only one who could help him find out what happened to his sister, Natsumi.

"Hey, Kululu..." Fuyuki trailed off, considering what tactic to use. "How much power does the Demon King have? Are you really that powerful? Do you have lots of power over the other demons, too?"

"I'm extremely powerful," Kululu bragged. "There's nothing about me that doesn't scream power, and that includes my hold over the other demons. Ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki smiled. Perfect, he thought. "Wow! That's so cool! You sound so strong!" Fuyuki tried to compliment him. "I bet you know everything there is to know about every demon around!"

"Course I do," Kululu answered. "Never know when you'll need blackmail of every single one of your subjects. Ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki tried not to grin from ear to ear. This was going perfectly! Kululu probably did have the knowledge to find Natsumi.

"So... if I asked you where a demon was...would you have enough power to figure out? I bet you would!" Fuyuki flattered him again.

"Ku, ku, ku. Course. I know where all my subjects are, unless they're mortal like Dororo or dead. If they're on the human plane in a host body it's easy enough to locate them, but I need to know their name."

Fuyuki's smile faltered. He didn't know the name of the demon his sister had hosted. He didn't know anything about Natsumi's demon.

"I-if... If I gave you the name of the host, would you be able to find out the name of the demon?" Fuyuki asked.

"Ku, probably. I am the smartest of guys, after all."

Fuyuki felt his hope rise again. "Would you be able to find out who my sister's demon is?" He prayed that his request wouldn't be denied. "Her name is Natsumi Hinata."

"Ku, ku, ku, why don't you know the name of your own sister's demon?" Kululu asked. "Didn't you at least meet them during that lame Victory Festival? Or did she ditch you and spend time with other friends at that lame thing?"

"Uhhhh..." Fuyuki bit the bottom of his lip. "Natsumi... got banned for life from all Victory Festivals..." he admitted.

"WHAT?!" Fuyuki heard Kululu yell in his mind out of surprise. It was the loudest he had ever heard him raise his voice. "Lucky! What did she do to get banned? I've been trying to get banned for years, but every year everybody still is desperate to get the Demon King to celebrate. Even in the stupid demon realm. Ku, every other day of the year they hate me, but during that one day they worship me."

"She... uh... beat up too many teenage boys during the festivals," Fuyuki admitted. "When she was younger, like around five or six, she would go around picking fights. She was a force to be reckoned with. She told me that she liked to beat up cocky boys who thought they could pick on the disadvantaged, but I suppose after a while she just started beating on whoever would fight her just for fun... She ruined one festival in town one year when she fought every single guy and won. They banned her shortly after that. So... that's why I haven't seen her in nearly two years."

"Ku, ku, ku! How amusing! If I had known, I'd be kicked out for starting fights..." Kululu trailed off.

"Please don't," Fuyuki begged. Kululu made a groan of disappointment.

"Wait a second... Why do you want to find your sister? Ku ku ku. When I first started possessing your body, the priests told me your sister was deceased," Kululu reminded him.

Fuyuki frowned. That had been the first time they had used a different word for Natsumi's condition. "I don't know if she's dead," he said. "Everybody I've talked to... Mom, the authorities... Everybody, they've just used the word 'gone' to describe what happened to her. What does that mean? Is she dead? Missing? Where did she go? I... I really want to find out... She's my family."

Kululu listened to Fuyuki's words. "Ku... So that's the situation... I have a guess, then, as to what happened to your sister... The most plausible explanation at least..."

"What? What happened to sis?" Fuyuki asked.

Kululu was silent. "It's not important," he finally told him, clamping up, wrapping his guess in secrecy. "It's just a theory. Anyway, who even cares where your sister is? Siblings suck. You don't want her back. They aren't that great. You're better off without them."

Fuyuki frowned. It had almost sounded like Kululu was interested in talking about his sister's condition a few moments ago, but then he had clamped up and gone off on a tangent about how evil family was.

"Even if your sister turned out to miraculously be alive, she might be different than what you remember. A different person entirely, having changed from your time apart."

"Doesn't matter," Fuyuki brushed off. "She's still my sister and that will never change."

"Ku, and remember what happened with your mother?" Kululu reminded him. "How she rejected you just because I was inside you? I bet that would be the same thing that would happen with your sister. Do you really think your mental state can take another family member rejecting you like that? Family always abandons you. They pretend like they care and you might think they care, but they're always looking out for themselves instead of you. As soon as you aren't useful to them they throw you away."

Fuyuki's lip quivered. The wound from Aki still hurt, and he was honestly scared that Natsumi would do the same, but still... that was better than her mysteriously being gone.

"I bet you're only saying that because you can't figure out where she is," Fuyuki spoke up firmly, challenging Kululu. He knew that Kululu always took the bait when it came to challenges. "Maybe you're not as strong as I was led to believe..." Manipulation would have to work on Kululu over appeal. He obviously wouldn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. All that mattered was that Fuyuki had to make it look like Kululu was doing it out of goodness.

"Ku? Not as strong as you thought? You've got that wrong. I could easily confirm my theories about your sister and find where she is and who her demon was, I'm just warning you ahead of time that she'll hate you for hosting me," Kululu said to him.

"Then prove you can find her. Because it honestly sounds like you're trying to tell me all these things so you don't have to do it. Because you can't!" Fuyuki accused.

"Oh? Are you trying to challenge me? Prepare to be proved wrong! As I said before, I have power and knowledge about all the demons, so be prepared to eat your words! Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu took the bait and agreed to look into it.

Fuyuki was filled with happiness.


Not only was Fuyuki filled with a few bliss-filled days of Kululu not trying to gain control of his body due to Kululu researching, but he knew his sister would be found soon. Soon enough, Kululu finally spoke to Fuyuki again.

"Ku. I was wrong," Kululu admitted. Fuyuki was surprised. It was rare for Kululu to admit he was wrong about something unless he wanted to take someone else's pride down with him.

"You couldn't find out who her demon was?"

"Nah, I found that out. I just was wrong about my theory about what happened to your sister. That's all. Honestly a little surprised, ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki smiled. "So... where is she?"

"I don't know," he told him. "Weirdly enough, her demon went missing too. So it couldn't be what I thought happened." He paused. "The authorities... Your Mom... They were all telling the truth about her. She's gone. Nothing more, nothing less. It's as simple as that, yet still such a mystery."

Fuyuki frowned. "But... But she can't just simply be gone!"

"She probably got eaten by a monster. Knowing her nature from what you've told me, she was probably as stupid as you and left town to pick some fights. Then she got eaten and that's why I can't locate her demon, and nobody can find her body," Kululu explained.

Fuyuki kept his mouth closed, even though the words Kululu spoke stung him and made him frightened. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about how Natsumi was probably dead.

Because although he hated to admit it, it did sound a lot like her leaving town to pick fights with dangerous monsters.

"W-was... Was it hard to find out who her demon was?" Fuyuki asked, gripping a table to steady himself. He needed to change the subject from his sister's death.

"Surprisingly enough, it turned out that her demon also caused quite a stir in the demon realm when he went missing. It's a boring little thing, though, so you probably don't want to hear about it."

"I do! I do!" Fuyuki insisted. He liked hearing about the demon realm and he wanted to know as much as possible about his sister's condition. Quickly, he felt himself being pulled into his own mind, to see Kululu. "Why am I in this realm again?" he asked.

"Easier to tell you the story here about how I did amazing Demon King things," Kululu told him, flicking his pinky for a second to show him a 2D moving image of Kululu sitting in a throne.

"What's that?" Fuyuki asked.

"Some memories of mine that I wanted to show you. I'm very fond of ruining people's lives, and so I thought I'd share one moment with you where I ruined someone's life - Not your sister's demon, don't worry. Kuuu, ku, ku." Kululu let out a particularly sadistic laugh.

Fuyuki was intrigued by seeing Kululu's memories and that Kululu could willingly show him some stuff from demon realm, but also frightened that the reason Kululu wanted to share was because he enjoyed ruining someone's life.

How sadistic could one guy be?

Fuyuki looked at the image and saw that Kululu wasn't alone, and to his side was a dark-skinned demon with big pointy horns and black hair. He wore a visor that almost looked like just colorful glasses.

"Who's that?" Fuyuki asked.

"The brother of the demon who inhabited Natsumi. My adviser," Kululu told him.

Fuyuki looked confused. "I didn't know you had an adviser."

"Ku, ku, ku! That's because I only use him as an errand boy! He advised me when I was a young Demon King, and he advised the Demon King before me. But once I realized how annoying, boring, and strict he was, I demoted him to errand boy. He's adviser in name only!" Kululu laughed. "He doesn't like me very much. I'm very proud."

Fuyuki frowned. This wasn't something to be proud about. He turned to the screen to watch the scene between Kululu and his adviser unfold.

"Please... I know you don't usually help people when they beg, but please... Let me take a host, right now..." The adviser was bowing and begging on the ground at Kululu's feet.

"There are no extra hosts. And you have to be in the demon realm while I'm gone," Kululu told him. "I am preparing for my resurrection, after all. Ku, ku, ku. Remember?"

"If... If there are no available hosts, let me take yours! You can put off resurrecting yourself for another thousand years!" the advisor pleaded. "I'll let you do whatever you want to me in the demon realm for forever in return! I'll devote my life to you... Just show me this one kindness. It's a matter of life or death. I NEED to be in the human realm!"

"Ku, ku, ku. Hmmm... Let me think about it. I've thought, and I've decided, no way, buckaroo!" Kululu told him, like an asshole.

"B-but... I've recently learned that my brother... He's gone missing! His host and him cannot be found! What if he's in danger? I need to find him! I need to protect him!" the adviser begged. "Please... Whatever you have planned for the human realm can wait. Jerking around humans isn't as important as my brother's life - "

In a flash of light, Kululu's horns uncurled into cord-like things and swung forward toward the adviser's neck.

"Don't you dare say your brother's life is more important than me being in the human realm." Kululu's tone was cold. "You have no idea what I do there and how important it is to me."

"I know being on the human realm is our life source, but I'll share energy with you. I'll make sure you can still live, just please..." The adviser didn't seem as frightened as the sharp horn by his throat as he was the idea of his brother being dead.

"No. And that's my final answer," Kululu answered.

The screen Fuyuki was watching went dark.

"Soooo..." Fuyuki didn't know what to say. Had Kululu done the right thing? Waiting a thousand years for a human body must be boring, but still... Would his sister be alive if Kululu had let his adviser go?

"Oh, that's not all that happened! Don't worry," Kululu laughed. Apparently there was still more he had done to this poor guy. "After I rejected him, I guess he thought that the only way to get a human body would be to overthrow me. Poor guy forgot that as the Demon King, I can kill demons in the demon realm. Luckily, not a lot of subjects forgot that, but he still had a small batch of demons, a tiny little revolution. Lamest civil war in history."

"There was a civil war in the demon realm over my sister's demon going missing?!" Fuyuki was shocked. "Why didn't any of us humans hear about this?"

"Probably cuz we demons don't tell you everything about us, duh. Ku, ku, ku. And it was a small civil war. There were definitely no casualties on my side. Can't say the same about their side, but it only lasted a week, which is pretty quick in the demon realm. I completely squashed them!" Kululu seemed so proud.

"D-did... Did you kill your adviser?" Fuyuki asked. The adviser didn't seem like a bad guy. He looked just like someone who was looking out for his brother. Fuyuki could relate to him - his sister had gone missing, too.

"Nah. I hung him up on the castle walls to serve as an example for any other demons who wanted to rebel. Ku, it was more fun than throwing him in the dungeon, and I get to draw on his face whenever I want. All his pride - gone, easily. I can embarrass him whenever I want now. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu bragged. It was such a childish thing to do, yet so fitting for someone like Kululu.

Fuyuki's heart fell at how much Kululu was enjoying how he had ruined this poor guy's life. He wanted to appreciate how it sounded like Kululu was trying to be friendly by sharing a story that he thought was funny, but he was just sickened at Kululu's lack of sympathy for the poor guy. The adviser had lost his brother, and Kululu didn't even seem to care!

How was Fuyuki supposed to prove Kululu was good, when it was likely Dororo already knew about this rebellion that Kululu had been so proud of squashing?

"Your adviser... He must have really loved his brother if he was willing to put his life on the line just for a chance to save him." Fuyuki attempted to stir up some sympathy deep within Kululu. Perhaps he could get Kululu to see things from the adviser's side?

"He probably didn't really love his brother. Maybe his brother helped fuel his ego or let him feel needed and powerful or something. But he probably didn't really love him." Kululu brushed this off. "He just thought he did."

"What if he really loved him, though? Unconditionally, like how I love my sister?"

"His trust would have been betrayed eventually, then. Unconditional love always gets betrayed in the end. Happy families only exist in fairy tales," Kululu easily answered. "Love is always torn to pieces. Letting yourself trust someone enough to give a piece of yourself to them just gets you hurt. You've seen that for yourself."

Fuyuki recalled how Aki had rejected him. He knew she had probably rejected him because of this notion. She didn't want to be hurt any longer and had to hurt him in the process of protecting herself, but it still saddened him.

Even so, it was mighty sad that Kululu kept telling him these words. What kind of life had the Demon King led to bring him down to these sort of ideas?

Fuyuki wondered, trying to reflect on whether the topic of family love was a lost cause when it came to Kululu.

"You can take the body, kid. I kind of want to laugh at some old memories." Kululu let Fuyuki take control, much to Fuyuki's displeasure, due to having to constantly listen to Kululu's laughter in his head.

Still, at least he got to move.


Dororo watched Fuyuki skitter through the halls, picking up books for independent reading and talking to some of his friends.

He waited for Fuyuki to be alone.

His time has run out. I can no longer afford getting distracted, or letting him sway me. Fuyuki might be a nice kid, but Kululu isn't nice... He might temporarily turn over a new leaf, but as soon as Fuyuki's gone, he'll be back to his old ways, Dororo reminded himself.

He couldn't afford to let Kululu ever return to the demon realm. He was just so cruel. Dororo tried not to close his eyes and remember the demons who had died in that small revolution led against him.

All Garuru had wanted was to save his brother, but Kululu hadn't allowed that. Dororo, too, mourned the loss of Giroro, but he had become excited when Garuru had spoken to him about a revolution.

Giroro had turned into a martyr, at least for a few days in demon society, and Dororo's eyes had been filled with hope that Garuru could at least subdue Kululu so that Kululu lived out the rest of his days imprisoned.

However, Kululu had easily squashed the tiny rebellion and turned Garuru into a public example of why not to cross him.

It's all up to me, now, Garuru. I'll avenge Giroro for you. And your rebellion. Dororo was happy he hadn't been caught secretly aiding the rebellion, because it had given him a chance to take down Kululu.

It had been Garuru, after all, who had given the idea to him before to switch Kululu's host with someone else's, making Kululu weaker and at a disadvantage.

Your sacrifice will not be in vain, my friend's brother. Dororo promised silently. He held a small poison dart in his hands, waiting for the perfect chance to appear and shoot it at Fuyuki.

Poison would work nicely. Kululu wouldn't have the chance to defend himself - it would be a quick death.

"Bye, Keroro!" Fuyuki waved to Keroro as Keroro skipped off to play by himself. Fuyuki was finally as alone as he would ever be.

Now was the time to strike. Dororo took a deep breath so he could blow his poison dart. He was ready.

"Mr. Dororo! Why aren't you at the teacher's conference?" A teacher, Rallen Tando, approached him curiously, not noticing the poison dart in his hands.

"T-teacher's conference?" Dororo asked, confused and startled. He knew he had been invited to that to share ideas about how to help students, but he had assumed nobody would have cared if he attended and if he didn't go, nobody would notice.

"So why aren't you heading off to there?" Tando asked

Dororo's eyes shined with tears. They had remembered him! But... he had a job to do... Something that was more important than being a teacher. Right?

But at the same time he couldn't refuse the invitation to be at the conference. He put the dart back in his pocket and followed Rallen Tando away.

I wonder... is my conviction wavering? I had the perfect opportunity to kill the Demon King, but I chose brainstorming better ideas to teach over it. It's just that bringing joy to students' lives is so rewarding...

No...! I can't be thinking these things. I need to kill the Demon King first. I'll be able to teach as much as I want to the young students after I have freed the world from Kululu's sadism.

I can't let my goals conflict... They aren't conflicting, right? Dororo was very worried. Still, he walked to the teacher's conference room, leaving Fuyuki behind.


Nobody was watching him. He was alone.

Well, mostly alone. The Demon King was always with him. Kululu was still busy remembering all the fun times he had, torturing that poor adviser of his.

This was as alone as he was going to get, and his best opportunity. Kululu had told him as much about his sister as he could.

So Fuyuki headed outside of section of town that had secondary school, and he instead headed to the borderlines of the outside of town where the monsters were.

Maybe Natsumi was living in the forest. Fighting monsters. Maybe that's where she was.

"Kid. Where ya going?" Kululu asked

"I'm looking for my sister," he told him. He just needed to find a monster, and he was sure Natsumi would come out of nowhere to save him.

"Your sister was eaten, remember? That's why you won't find her. Even I won't be able to find her. It's the only explanation. She's dead, Fuyuki."

Fuyuki didn't want to hear these things. He saw a monster coming out of the forest to try to feed on crops from a distance. Stretching out his arms, he waited for Natsumi to come and save him.

She didn't. There was no sign of his sister.

Instead, Kululu took over the body and zapped the monster with electricity before it ate Fuyuki.

"Don't do something dangerous, kid. It might put me in danger and I care too much about myself to let that happen," Kululu told him. Fuyuki frowned and took control of the body again.

"B-but, it's not fair!" he screamed. "Why can't I find Natsumi? Why can't I look for her?" He dropped to his knees, crying. "She must be alive. I can find her, I really can! After all, i-if I can get the Demon King himself to investigate her disappearance then I can - "

"YOU DID WHAT?" Kululu's voice sounded angry again. Fuyuki sucked in his tears in shock.

He had said too much. "Oops." He tried to laugh it off.

"So you were trying to manipulate me, huh? Ku. That's something I would do. I suppose I'm rubbing off on you a little..."

Fuyuki didn't like the sound of this. "So... you're not mad? You're proud?"

"Nah, I'm still mad." Although Kululu had a sliver of pride in Fuyuki's actions, he was still mad. "I'll think of an appropriate punishment for you, because nobody gets away with manipulating the Demon King."

Fuyuki gulped. He was scared now.


He didn't know what kind of punishment Kululu was planning for him, but he was on edge. However, he could not stay awake forever, and eventually fell asleep, letting Kululu infiltrate his mind.

As soon as Fuyuki was asleep, he felt Kululu prodding around in his memory bank.

Oh no... He's going to force me to live through another memory... he realized as he was thrust into a vivid dream. He could only hope this one wasn't a traumatic one.

He let himself dream, since he couldn't fight back.


To Fuyuki's surprise, he was much younger. Nine years old and walking around town. There was a big crowd of people all around the streets.

"The Nishizawa heir is here! She just flew in! She's chosen this city to stay in for the week!" people all around him were saying.

Fuyuki didn't pay much attention to them. He just hurried off to the library.


The talk about the Nishizawa heiress didn't stop. Rumors flew throughout town about her vast riches and how famous she was. However, Fuyuki overheard several rumors about her being spoiled and "too good" for anybody.

Slowly, he began to realize the blue-haired girl who was visiting town was being avoided by everyone. As soon as she turned her back, they would talk about her being spoiled and too good to talk to them, but when she was in front of them they just avoided her.

Fuyuki felt a little sorry for the girl. He hadn't seen her much in person. She was surrounded by guards almost all the time, but he felt sorry that people were talking about her behind her back.

One day she was walking around the library, wearing a long blue dress and reading some books. She tripped over her long dress and fell to the ground, the books in her hand tumbling onto the ground with her.

The Nishizawa girl looked shocked, at having tripped.

"Are you all right?" Fuyuki asked, bending down to help her up. Momoka looked shocked for a moment that he was talking to her.

"Y-yeah... I just tripped. This dress may be beautiful and perfectly tailored, but it isn't very comfortable to wear," she told him with a laugh, taking his hand.

Fuyuki nodded. "That doesn't sound like fun." He knelt down and helped her pick up her books. "Do you like reading? I personally love it!"

"It's very interesting. I have to do a lot of it as a Nishizawa. Have to figure out how to keep the economy going, after all," she gave a nervous laugh. Fuyuki smiled.

"That sounds hard! You should start reading more books for fun! It's more enjoyable that way. Want some recommendations of some good ones?" he asked excitedly.

"S-sure," Momoka agreed. Fuyuki wrote down a quick list.

"Oh... wait, I've been so busy talking about books I forgot to ask your name." Fuyuki blushed. "Mom says it's important to have good manners."

"Momoka Nishizawa," Momoka responded.

"Fuyuki Hinata. Nice to meet you, Momoka! Momoka is a really nice name!" He gave her a quick handshake. Momoka smiled and looked down at her hand.

"Nice to meet you, too, Fuyuki. Um... When I finish the books, can I come back here and discuss them with you? I just... I don't have many people to talk to besides tutors, and they're boring."

"Of course! It could be like a club! We could meet here at the library!" Fuyuki sounded excited. "Just you and me, talking about all the stuff we like!"

Momoka smiled. "I would like that. I've never been in a club before."

Fuyuki smiled. He would like that too.


Weeks turns into months, and Momoka never left the town. She and Fuyuki grew closer and closer as the days went on, Fuyuki being the only person who would treat her like an actual person instead of a rich heiress.

Fuyuki also enjoyed her company and talking to her and bouncing ideas off of her. It didn't take long for him to consider her his best friend.

Sometimes he would even stare at her and think about how lucky he was that he had met her in the library and that they were friends. He turned away when she looked at him.

It was rude to stare, after all.


"Why'd you choose that memory to look at?" Fuyuki asked, waking up and facing Kululu in his mind. His first meeting with Momoka had been pleasant enough. Had Kululu decided to go easy on him?

"Ku, easy. I dove into your store of 'romantic' memories and found that one," Kululu answered. "Ick, gross. I could feel your childish crush radiating off of you all the time."

He had been wrong. Kululu had not decided to go easy on him.

"Wh-what do you mean, childish crush? There's a part of my memories that are labeled romantic? Wh-what are you talking about?" Fuyuki was so confused.

"I'm an expert at manipulating memories. So I looked for ones that were embarrassing. This one had the feeling of 'love' written all over it," Kululu teased. "Your heart was beating louder than I laugh. And I laugh pretty loud. KU, KU, KU!"

"W-what!? No it wasn't!" Fuyuki denied.

"You kept peeking at her through your fingers in that gross, lovesick, childish way," Kululu told him. "Can't believe you had a crush on that Nishizawa girl..."

"I did not!" Fuyuki denied.

"Oh? So you still have a crush on her? Thanks for correcting me. Ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki blushed deeply. Although he probably deserved this teasing for trying to manipulate Kululu, and this was much better than Kululu exposing a traumatic memory, he still felt embarrassed.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Fuyuki loudly yelled, just being childish and embarrassed.

" 'Kay," Kululu agreed. "But if you're going to be all childish and filled with such embarrassing denial, than I'll take the body while you cool down. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu disappeared.

And Fuyuki was left alone.


He was still annoyed. He knew what Kululu had done was harmless fun, but now Kululu probably thought he had a crush on Momoka just because he could feel his "feelings" that belonged with the memory.

He did not have a crush on Momoka!

Fuyuki let an annoyed huff escape his lips as he sat alone in mind jail. He could see that Kululu was being a typical jerk as he ran around with the body.

I can't believe he can see my memories at will... Fuyuki was so annoyed. Just because we're connected and he's in my mind... Although being in his own mind had its perks, like that he could conjure up anything he imagined, it still had too many downsides.

Wait... Connected...! He seemed to recall it wasn't just him that could imagine things in his mind. Kululu had eaten popcorn in it and made an armchair and even listened to music. Could he use Fuyuki's imagination to do that?

No, he obviously had to use his own. Which meant that Kululu's mind had to be in Fuyuki's mind somewhere. After all, he was in Fuyuki's body. Kululu's mind was probably just as connected to Fuyuki as Kululu was. If that made any sense.

Hehehe... His little tricks will become his worst nightmare... Looking into my memories is going to become a double-edged sword to him! While Kululu was distracted, Fuyuki tried to concentrate. He knew Kululu could conjure up his own memories, so logically, he could probably look into them himself.

He would pull up something embarrassing and secretive and get Kululu back! And since Kululu didn't sleep, he wouldn't have to relive whatever Fuyuki saw and it would be just for Fuyuki's eyes!

Fuyuki concentrated very hard and deeply. It was so much harder than gaining control of his body. He was trying to look into Kululu's very mind.

It took hours and hours of practice before Fuyuki finally got lucky. His body was thrown across his mind and into somewhere else entirely.

"AH!" A rush of emotions flooded Fuyuki's head as he just sort of hovered in the air, a stream of images going way too fast for Fuyuki to focus on passed him. They were probably memories from Kululu's life. Some of him interacting with other demons, some of him being alone, him talking to people with all sorts of different hair colors.

Fuyuki couldn't focus though as the memories passed him like a film strip.

"Come on... I need secrets..." he whispered to himself. The film strip of memories slowed down and Fuyuki almost swam toward one that the memories were leading him to.

A memory surrounded by chains with a rusting lock.

This... This must be a terrible secret. Wasting no time, and not wanting Kululu to know he was missing. Fuyuki opened it.

And he was thrusted into Kululu's past.


The first thing Fuyuki saw was a crowd of demons, more demons than he could count. So many demons crowed the area, as if they were all there to witness an important event.

"Please bow to the new Demon King!" Fuyuki turned to see if Kululu was getting crowned on an outside stage, but instead he saw a different demon, someone with lavender hair instead of Kululu's dark purple. Dressed in cheaper-looking clothes with a bandage on his nose, this other Demon King looked quite kind, a look much different from Kululu's.

"King Shupepe has been crowned! May he live long and rule with a steady hand!" The crowd cheered. Fuyuki looked around for Kululu and finally spotted him off to the side on the stage. He looked so young and tiny and out of place.

Ah... Shupepe... The Demon King before Kululu. I think I remember briefly hearing about him in school, Fuyuki realized. He must have been Kululu's older brother. And it looked like Kululu, despite not being the Demon King, was important enough to be on the stage with the demon king.

I heard Shupepe didn't rule for very long, though, so Kululu must have become king after this... Still, he slightly wondered why Kululu hated family and siblings if he had a sibling himself.

He was quickly thrust into a new scene, the coronation being done.


Kululu sat on the floor. If he was human, he would have looked no older than five or six. He was so quiet and withdrawn and shy that it was hard to believe that what Fuyuki was looking at was Kululu.

It was clearly him, though, because every now and then he would let out a happy "ku ku ku!" as he tinkered with some machine parts on the ground.

The castle around Kululu looked like it was in mourning, probably over the king before Shupepe, most likely Kululu's father. Servants were dressed in all black and everybody had a sad quiet look on their faces.

"I know we're all sad over my father's death, but we need to move on, for his sake and our own," Shupepe spoke up, trying to inspire the servants. "He will always be with us in our hearts, but we need to keep moving on. We can't just stop and do nothing."

The servants seemed to understand.

"I understand your plight. As his eldest son I was the closest to him. I, too, mourn him, so I can sympathize." Shupepe seemed like a much more understanding guy than Kululu. "And I want to assure you, as king I will be kind to the people and try to let everybody live in prosperity."

The servants smiled.

"Oh King Shupepe, we're so glad you're around." They shed a tear.

"Still... Don't you think it's a bit odd that the old king just suddenly died? He wasn't even sick! Do you think he just went too long without getting any human energy?" one asked.

Shupepe let them chatter. He just smiled at them kindly.


It was only when all the servants had gone that Shupepe turned to Kululu.

"Do you have the new blueprints for that machine I asked for? Something that will help the demons in the human world gain more money?" he asked.

"No... I'm making a toy." Kululu admitted. To Fuyuki's surprise, he saw Shupepe slap the younger Kululu.

"You can't make toys! You have work to do, remember? Just because Dad's dead doesn't mean your deal with the Demon King is off. You'll continue your work for me," Shupepe told him. "Remember the bargain?"

"Y-yeah... I invent things for the Demon King, he passes it off as his own, and in return he helps me possess a host and gain energy from the h-human plane," younger Kululu stuttered out.

"Yes! And you know what would happen if you broke the deal and let someone else find out about your intelligence?" Shupepe reminded him, grabbing him by his hair since he couldn't grip his horns.

"Y-you wouldn't help me..." Kululu remembered.

"Yeah, and then you wouldn't be able to possess anyone, and you would die because you didn't have any energy." Shupepe's tone seemed less nice than it did around anyone else. "You would die because you're one of the weakest demons around, Kululu. Maybe the weakest demon around. The only thing you have that you can offer our world is your intelligence, but that won't let you live. So if you want to survive, you have to give your intelligence over to me."

"Why can't I just have both? Life and intelligence?" Kululu seemed confused as he looked up at Shupepe. Shupepe pulled him up by his hair again, tugging at it. "OW! OW! OW!"

"It's your fault for thinking you have a gift like being super smart or something. You aren't special. If it wasn't for your gift you'd be nothing." Shupepe's tone now sounded almost jealous.

So that's it. He wanted to be intelligent, too. But only Kululu has that level of super genius, Fuyuki realized. He could feel Kululu's pain, though, as his brother relentlessly picked on him, verbally and physically. No wonder he didn't care much about family!

"Remember. Make things only for me. The Demon King is the one who gets intelligence. Not you," Shupepe reminded him.

Kululu weakly nodded and Shupepe pushed him onto the ground, turning around to leave.

"Finish the blueprints by tomorrow," he ordered over his shoulder as he left the room.

Kululu was left all alone and he huddled up into a ball. He started grumbling and crying, and Fuyuki could feel his emotions - loneliness. At this point in time, during the innocence of childhood, he had probably wanted his brother to care about him.

Fuyuki felt sorry for him.

The door opened again and Fuyuki thought for a second that Shupepe was coming back. Instead a girl with pink hair and dressed in orange walked in, two giant bows in her hair.

"Kululu? Is something wrong?" The girl, who looked to be about Shupepe's age, crouched to the ground next to Kululu's level. "Are you hurt?"

"Shupepe pulled my hair, Rinono! It hurts!" he cried, running into the girl's arms. Fuyuki had just assumed Kululu had never hugged someone in his life, so he was surprised to see this.

Rinono rubbed the top of his head and pat it. She took a handkerchief and wiped away his tears. "I'm sorry, Kululu... I'm sure Shupepe didn't really mean it. He's just under a lot of stress to be like our father."

So... This girl must be Kululu's sister, Fuyuki realized. Well... That doesn't make much sense. Kululu said family always hurts you, yet his sister and he seem pretty close. Why then does he hate family so much?

"Why did Dad die?" Kululu asked. "He wasn't sick last time I checked."

"It's... complicated," Rinono responded. She seemed to look far off and distant. "Do you want me to play with you to make up for how mean Shupepe was being?" she asked.

"YES! YES! I wanna hear a story!" Kululu begged. So Rinono took a book off the shelf and read to Kululu as he sat on her lap.


Although Kululu's abuse continued at the hands of Shupepe, the people still seemed to adore the new King Shupepe. Rinono also continued playing with Kululu, and although Fuyuki understood him hating at least one of his siblings, he couldn't understand the other one.

Then the next memory flooded through Fuyuki's head, as Kululu ran through the castle halls.

"I'm going to play dolls with Rinono! She loves playing dolls!" Kululu zoomed through the hallway with two dolls in his hands, reaching his sister's room and pushing the door forward.

The sight that greeted the once-innocent Kululu's eyes, and poor spectator Fuyuki's eyes, was horrifying.

Shupepe and Rinono, brother and sister were lying in Rinono's bed together, entwined in something Fuyuki knew was not something appropriate at all.

In fact, even young Kululu seemed to know it was vastly sexual as his mouth hung open.

"KULULU! LEAVE!" his sister yelled in shock.

"Our deal is off if you don't leave now! And don't tell anyone what you just saw!" Shupepe growled.

Kululu turned around and left, still in shock.

Slowly he moved to the living room, to think about what he just saw.

"Shupepe and Rinono... They were having sex right then, weren't they?" Fuyuki realized he could hear the younger Kululu's thoughts. Kululu seemed to have been well-educated about reproduction. "No... Shupepe is a bully... He must have made Rinono do that with him..." Fuyuki could see that Kululu's hands were shaking. "Rinono doesn't deserve that. I thought he was only mean to me. Not Rinono." Kululu's eyes seemed to scan the room around him trying to figure out what to do. A small knife sat over a fireplace. "Rinono's always protected me. Been there for me when I needed her. I... I have to help her... Th-this has to be the end of it. The end of Shupepe." Kululu stacked up a few chairs to try to climb up to the knife, finally grabbing it and falling down as his tower of chairs came undone.

"No... wait... This won't work," he realized. "N-nobody... Nobody can kill the Demon King... The Demon King can harm me, but he's too powerful... I won't be able to harm him..." Kululu was about to drop the knife, but he tightened his grip instead. "I c-can't do NOTHING, though. Wh-what if he continues hurting Rinono? B-but... I will die if I attack him..."

But... I'm going to die anyway because I'm weak... Maybe I can harm him enough so he can't do any harm. Is the Demon King immune to harm?"

Kululu decided that he had to see for himself. It was die doing nothing, or die having inflicted some pain.

He decided to wait for the perfect moment that Shupepe would be alone.


Shupepe was working on a new tax plan in the study, when Kululu quietly opened the door. Before Shupepe could say or realize anything, Kululu stabbed him in the back.

"AHHH!" Shupepe screamed as Kululu drove the knife in and out of his back with as much force as the child could muster. He tried to shake Kululu off, but Kululu grabbed onto his horns, tugging and scratching, trying to use his knife to attack them.

To Kululu's surprise, and Fuyuki's, Shupepe bled. He sputtered out blue blood onto the floor.

Shupepe tried to turn around to defend himself, but Kululu zapped him with an invention he had placed on the floor to immobilize him. Then he continued stabbing until Shupepe was on the ground, lying in a puddle of his blood.

Kululu's hands were covered in the blood of his brother.

"H-how... How did you know?" Shupepe gasped out. "Th-that you could kill me for my power as the Demon King?"

"I... I didn't," Kululu admitted, administrating one final cut to Shupepe's gut. Shupepe let out a final breath and died.

Shupepe's horns dissolved into ashes on the ground, and as they did so a great aura overcame Kululu. The power that Shupepe once had filled Kululu's body, as mountains and mountains of magical energy filled his very being. No longer was he the weakest demon around, but the strongest.

For he had become the Demon King.

"So... our father died because Shupepe killed him for his power..." Kululu realized. "Ku. So it passes through blood, but not the bloodline."

The door swung open behind Kululu. "I heard a commotion. I came as fast as I could - " Rinono looked down, shocked at Shupepe's dead body and Kululu standing over him.

Kululu smiled at Rinono, although his face was covered in blood. "Look at what I did!" He looked so proud.

Rinono's eyes were just wide with shock. She walked over to Shupepe and bent down to him, cradling his head in her lap and crying.

"I killed Shupepe! I was able to kill the Demon King! He always said I was weak, but the weak one was him!" Kululu seemed giddy as he told the story. "I...I protected you, Rinono. Don't worry. You're safe from him now."

"SAFE?! SAFE?!" Rinono screamed as she pushed Kululu away from her. "I didn't need to be safe from him!"

Kululu rubbed his arm, not understanding what was happening. He had thought he wouldn't be hurt anymore after Shupepe was gone.

"A-aren't you happy?" he asked, confused. "I killed that monster. I saw the way he was hurting you..."

"Of course I'm not happy! The person I loved most in the world is dead!" she yelled out. "Oh, Shupepe... I loved you so much. Why did this have to happen?"

"But... you don't love Shupepe..." Kululu was trying to put the pieces together. What he had seen. Siblings didn't do that sort of stuff. It was wrong.

"I did love Shupepe. What we were doing was an act of love! But you wouldn't understand that because you can't feel love!"

"B-but... he was a monster..." Kululu tried to defend his actions.

"The only monster here is you. You killed your own brother," Rinono hissed. "I hate you. I hate you more than anything else in the world. Shupepe was right about you - he said you only cared about yourself, but I stuck up for you. If I didn't, maybe he would be alive."

"B-but... I-I... I thought you loved me..." Kululu seemed heart-broken.

"The person I loved most in the world was Shupepe. Why would I love his killer?" she sobbed. "I suppose you're the Demon King now. Happy with your newfound power? I bet you are. Shupepe was certainly happy with his power. I loved him so much that I didn't even mind that he killed Dad. I promised to keep it a secret. We had found love, Kululu. And you ruined it." Rinono gave him a glare. "When the people learn you're the new king, they'll hate you just as much as I hate you. And you know what? You deserve it. You deserve all the pain and suffering you have coming to you. Because you'll never be as good of a king as Shupepe was. You'll screw up." Rinono got up and looked down at her blood soaked skirt. She turned and saw the knife on the ground and thought for a moment.

Kululu looked at her expectantly. He knew what she was thinking about.

"No... I'll let you wallow in your misery. I hope you understand what you did someday. I hope you feel exactly what I'm feeling now, because I bet everybody you love will leave you for being so horrible. Like me. I loved you once and I've left." With that, she turned and walked away, leaving Kululu alone.

He cried and Fuyuki felt the emotion of Kululu's loneliness swallow him.


So that's why he feels so betrayed by family, Fuyuki realized. The only family that treated him well told him she hated him and wished everybody he loved would leave him. I can hardly blame him for all the nasty views he's had on the world because of what he learned as a child.

Still, one of the most interesting things that Fuyuki had learned which he knew Kululu had been keeping a secret were that the Demon King could be killed in the demon realm, and that the person who killed the Demon King would become the next one.

Dororo must not have known. But still, he needed to talk to Kululu.

"What d'ya want?" Kululu asked, being summoned back into his head to converse with Fuyuki.

"I... I wanted to tell you something. To be honest and upfront about it," Fuyuki admitted.

Kululu sighed. "What terrible thing did you do?"

"You know how annoyed I was at you looking at my memories?" Fuyuki asked, taking a deep breath.

"Ku. Yeah. I remember how embarrassed you got when I said you had a crush on Momoka. Ku, ku, ku," he laughed.

Fuyuki blushed, but brushed it off. "Well... I kind of tried to look into your memories to see if I could find anything embarrassing on you..."

"Good luck with that, kid. I doubt looking into a demon's memories are possible," Kululu leaned back, relaxing. "Especially the Demon King's memories. Ku, ku, ku."

"And I was successful," said Fuyuki. "I found out about the terrible secret you've been hiding."

Kululu fell face-first onto the mind-ground in shock.

"Wh-WHAT? O-oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" He started pacing in a panic, completely taken by suprise by this and utterly beaten.

Fuyuki knew it was a big deal. Kululu could be killed over this! But he hadn't prepared for Kululu's shock over Fuyuki finding out.

"Oh geez, oh geez... This is bad, everybody is going to know... I'll be a laughing-stock forever, no... Forget laughing stock, I'll be executed! I'll definitely be killed over this! This is the tipping point for everybody to hate me!" Kululu was clutching his head, breathing very heavily and clearly panicking.

"L-look... It's no big deal... I won't tell anybody. I promise," said Fuyuki. "I mean... I know it would be bad for the demons to find out that you killed your brother and took his place."

Miraculously, Kululu regained his composure. "Oh. You're talking about that Shupepe thing? Oh yeah. Fuck that guy."

Fuyuki was confused by Kululu's sudden change of mood. Kululu... didn't have an even bigger secret, did he?

Fuyuki looked shocked, and Kululu sighed. "So... you know now that although the Demon King is the strongest of demons 'cause he can kill any demon. He's also the most vulnerable because he can be killed by any demon."

"Why don't the other demons know this?" Fuyuki asked.

"Because kingship has been passed down in my family as far back as anyone can remember. Sons killing fathers, brothers killing brothers. Ku, ku, ku. I guess everybody thought it was a male-dominated inheritance because there are barely any demon queens. And Rinono certainly didn't become next in line after Shupepe. They're pretty stupid for not thinking about that." Kululu laughed for another minute.

"So... If Dororo kills us..." Fuyuki thought for a moment. "Will he become the next Demon King?"

"Yep," he confirmed. "It's the only way for him to regain his immortality, actually. I doubt he knows this, though. It's a pretty tight secret. Ku, ku, ku."

"So the reason you don't have any heirs is because you're afraid of them killing you eventually for the position?" Fuyuki questioned.

Kululu thought for a moment. "I don't think I ever really thought about it like that. Huh, I guess there's another reason to hate brats right there, ku ku ku!"

Fuyuki frowned.

Kululu's voice level dropped. "You'll keep it a secret, though? Could be really bad for me if this got out. Ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki smiled. This is what he had been waiting for in their friendship. Trust.

"Of course I will. You can count on me!" he agreed, grinning.

And for some reason, Kululu felt like he could.


Dororo had a lot of work left over from the teacher's conference. He also had his newfound conflicts to think about.

I should have taken the shot. I have failed as an assassin, he lamented. Still, at least this gave Fuyuki more time to prove that Kululu was nice.

He really didn't want to have to kill Fuyuki. He decided that he would give the boy an extra chance. He would arrange a project, to see if there might be something good inside of him.

"Class, I have an assignment today that will encourage friendship between you and your demons!" Dororo tried to be loud so that the class would listen to him. "I want you to write an essay on a topic of your choice to celebrate the oncoming Victory Festival. I encourage it to be about something in demon society so you can interview your personal demon. I want you to work together with your demon for the assignment. I will not accept one person doing all the work!" Dororo narrowed his eyes. "Keroro, I'm looking at you - don't let that poor Saburo boy do the assignment by himself."

"I don't think either of us are even going to do the assignment," Keroro responded. Dororo frowned at him.

"What about Momoka? What will she do?" Fuyuki asked, raising his hand. "She doesn't have a demon."

Dororo looked over at Momoka. "She'll be fine," he answered. "Now, go! Go and do your topics!" He gave Fuyuki a wink. Prove to me that he is good through this essay. Please.

Fuyuki understood, but his mouth moved on its own.

"Gross. I ain't interested," Kululu spoke.

Dororo frowned again. Wrong idea, Kululu! Wrong idea!

Fuyuki had a long road ahead of him.


Fuyuki balanced a pencil on his nose, trying to figure out what topic to choose. "I want to write about dinosaurs," he decided.

"No," said Kululu. "I don't know anything about dinosaurs. You'd fail if you chose them because they don't have anything to do with demons."

"What about aliens?" Fuyuki asked.

"Don't exist."

"Yes, they do! Ummmm... The Nishizawa Contract? You made it, after all, so it would give you the upper hand," Fuyuki pointed out.

"Nishizawa girl was probably unoriginal and took it as her subject. That and I don't want it." Kululu responded.

"What about angels? They're extinct. I don't know much about them, but you met a bunch, right?" Fuyuki asked.

"What subject on angels? You can't just write an essay on a species without narrowing it down. Do you want their sociology? History? I don't know anything about those. Biology, I'm adept in, however. Ku, ku, ku."

Fuyuki frowned. The way Kululu sinisterly laughed made him imagine Kululu dissecting an angel. He probably had done that to more than one. It was a war, after all, and there might have been some human testing going on. Well, angel testing.

"Uhhh... Nah, it's all right... How about siblings? Let's write about siblings!" Fuyuki threw out.

"What does that have to do with demons?" Kululu asked, bored now.

"Well, I'll write about how, demons and humans alike, we all have families! And how siblings stick together through thick and thin and - "

"That's false," he shot down. "If you learned anything about me from prying into my secrets, you know that's false. You saw, didn't you?"

"Well... Yes... But at one time, you can't deny that you and your sister had a strong relationship, and doesn't that matter a little bit?" Fuyuki asked, trying to convince Kululu. He knew writing about family would win over Dororo's heart.

"That relationship was false," Kululu insisted. "She doesn't care about me at all and never did."

"I... I think she sort of did. She cares about you deep down, even now, I think," said Fuyuki. "After all, she didn't kill you when she had the chance, and she's kept the secret that the Demon King gains his powers by killing the old Demon King. She's made sure everybody doesn't try to kill you by keeping that a secret."

"That doesn't mean anything. She just wanted me to someday find people I cared for, so they could die like Shupepe did. She wanted me to suffer," Kululu told him. "And I think she wanted her words to curse me."

Fuyuki shook his head. "I think a shred of her still cares for you. Even if she doesn't realize it. I mean... if she didn't, she would have realized you weren't suffering and tried to kill you, right?" Fuyuki asked.

Kululu was silent. Almost as if he wanted to believe it.

"You can write your dumb essay, kid. But I ain't helping you with the wording or editing it for you," he finally said.

Fuyuki gave a broad smile and started on the essay that he hoped would win Dororo over.

Siblings: the same, whether human or demon.

He gave his essay a title and wrote words of love and companionship, about family. He still believed that family cared about each other. And he hoped his essay was so good it would prove Kululu wrong, despite his tragic family history.

He had faith in himself.


Fuyuki turned his essay in the next day to Dororo, smiling proudly. He had worked late into the night to get everything perfect, and had fallen asleep after he had finished.

Just as Kululu predicted, Momoka had written about the Nishizawa contract and Saburo and Keroro hadn't turned anything in.

He sat at his desk until class was done, spacing out about dinosaurs. In space.

When he awoke from his space-out session, he realized only he and Dororo were in the room.

"I'm sorry, Fuyuki. Your time limit is over. I have to kill you now," Dororo told him sadly.

"AUGH! Please! Read my essay first! It will prove to you all about how great of a guy Kululu is!" Fuyuki raised his hands up to defend himself.

Dororo dropped his sword. "That's right! I have to grade those essays! I'm so sorry, Fuyuki, please put a rain-check on your assassination. I really must be going!" Dororo ran off with a few red pens to grade.

He had once again chosen the priorities of a teacher over the priorities of an assassin. Fuyuki sighed.

"Hopefully he'll think you wrote part of it," Fuyuki pleaded.

"KU, KU, KU, KU!" Kululu laughed loudly. Fuyuki didn't know what Kululu was so happy about, but he decided to let him be happy.

He had won today, after all, and saved their lives with the power of his sibling essay.

He's doesn't know I switched the essay while he slept with one I wrote about Demon-teaching methods and why they're better than anything Dororo can do, isn't he? Ku, ku, ku. This is great.

Fuyuki remained blissfully unaware.


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