"Are we there yet?" Osomatsu drawled out, tired of walking already.
"If you ask me that one more time, I will toss you down this mountain." Lucifer hissed out, tired of walking as well.
"We're almost there anyway, so stop complaining." Choromatsu groaned, fanning himself.
Belphegor snorted at their bickering.
"How about we cut the bickering and get some answers." Karamatsu sighed, annoyed.
The five Akuma siblings stared at each other and then turned towards their human doppelgangers, "What do you want to know..?" Leviathan asked.
"Tell us how you treated your brother. Tell us how bad it was for him to turn to suicide." Karamatsu answered.
The five princes sighed.
"We were…pretty bad. We didn't realize how bad we were being…I mean; we're demons for crying out loud! Did you honestly expect us to know what kindness was?" Lucifer replied, rubbing the back of his neck in nervousness.
Asmodeus giggled as he walked up behind Lucifer and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey Lucifer!"
Lucifer sighed in annoyance. "What do you want now?"
Asmodeus pouted, "Aw, don't be like that! Belphegor didn't want me around either, so I wanted to see if you—"
"The answer is no."
"Fine…I'll go see if Mammon or Beelzebub wants to go with me…"
Lucifer sighed as he shooed Asmodeus out of his office. "Yeah, yeah…whatever. Just leave me alone."
Asmodeus crossed his arms in a huff when he closed the doors behind him as he exited the room. "Lucifer and Belphegor are always so mean to me…they always dismiss everything I say…"
He sighed as he went to go find his other brothers, wondering if they wanted to go with him to the marketplace.
Seeing Mammon walk through the foyer from the kitchen, Asmodeus' eyes lit up in excitement. Waving his arm and calling out his name, he ran over to him. "Mammon!"
Mammon jumped in surprise when he heard his name being yelled. Looking over, he saw Asmodeus running over to him. Trying not to show how annoyed he was, he put on a fake smile and waved back. "Hi, Asmodeus!"
Asmodeus ran over to Mammon, excited to find him so easily. "Mammon, I'm so glad I found you! Lucifer and Belphegor said no, but I wanted to see if you could accompany me to the marketplace! There are some new items for sale and I wanted to buy something for everyone!" He pleaded.
Mammon rubbed his hands together (as best he could with his sleeves covering them) and pretended to be busy with something. "Ah…I can't! I-I got stuff I gotta do today!"
Asmodeus sighed, "Alright then…but if you finish before I leave, you're more than welcome to join me!" He replied, walking away.
'Looks like only Beelzebub and Leviathan are left. Hopefully they're not busy either.' He thought to himself as he sought after his last two brothers.
Walking down the east hallway, Asmodeus heard faint piano music from the end of the hall. The door to the music room was opened just a tiny bit, allowing music to flow out. Walking to the door, Asmodeus peered in and saw Beelzebub sitting on a stool, his back to the door and hyper-focused on playing his music. Asmodeus sighed to himself and gently closed the door. "Better not disturb him when he's practicing…" He whispered as he walked away.
'Now…where to find Leviathan…Probably with the Hell cats again. He probably doesn't want me to bother him again.' He thought as he walked to the front doors of their manor. He wanted to tell everyone he was going to leave, but decided against it. Opening the large double doors, Asmodeus exited the manor and closed the door behind him.
"Good afternoon, Prince Asmodeus." The butler at the front door spoke.
"Hello, Alastair." Asmodeus smiled, waving at him.
The butler bowed as Asmodeus walked down the steps and into the courtyard, passing through the front gates. 'I'd love to go by carriage to the marketplace, but walking is more fun.' He thought to himself and made his way through the streets.
Asmodeus swung his arms gently back and forth as he walked through the marketplace, he tail swinging in excitement. 'I hope everyone enjoys the stuff I'll buy them.' He grinned as he walked from stall to stall, buying trinkets, knickknacks and other toys. "Mammon likes sweets…and Belphegor has been wanting some new writing materials." He spoke to himself as he browsed the shops, looking for some pens, pencils, notebooks and candy. Spotting a green feather pen and a dark green leatherback notebook, Asmodeus let out an excited gasp. "I'll take these, please!" He yelled as he grabbed the items and paid for them.
Spending nearly 3 hours at the marketplace, Asmodeus made it back home with nearly five gifts for everyone, including himself. Smiling, Asmodeus entered the manor (with some help from Alastair) and made his presence known. "I'm back! And I brought gifts!" He yelled. His smile fell when no one responded. He turned towards Alastair and asked, "Where is everyone? They'd usually yell at me to be quiet."
"They left an hour ago, my Prince. Lord Satan has returned and they went to go welcome him home." Alastair replied.
Asmodeus' shoulders slumped. "Oh. No one told me he was returning…" He turned away and walked towards Lucifer's office. "I'll just…put their gifts on their desks…" He sighed to himself as he tried to open the door.
As he entered the room, Asmodeus stared at the six empty desks. Each one a different color to represent which one belonged to whom.
Asmodeus walked over to his dull pink desk and set his gifts down first: a new hair brush, a new set of earrings and a bright pink coin purse.
Walking over to Mammon's desk, a dull yellow color, and placed the gifts he bought him: a box of candy that is rare to find, a new gold chain to replace the one he lost, a pair of tickets to the next sports game he wanted to see and a handmade picture frame with the portrait of his girlfriend inside of it.
Stepping over to Leviathan's desk, a lavender color, Asmodeus reached into his various bags and began placing his gifts up on the desktop: a large cat plush, a new pair of fingerless gloves, a new sleeveless jacket, a bag of Hell cat food and a small keychain with a cat attached on the end.
After emptying the third bag, Asmodeus walked over to the dark green desk, Belphegor's. He emptied out his bag and placed the items on his desk: Two brand new leatherback notebooks, a magic feather pen that refills itself and the recent novel by a popular author that Belphegor has been reading.
'Sometimes, I wonder if they even appreciate me…' Asmodeus thought to himself as he walked over to Beelzebub's desk, a bright blue color, and placed his gifts down: a new mirror to replace the one he broke on accident, a book filled to the brim with musical sheets, a bouquet of Tiger Lilies and a hand written poem.
Asmodeus stared at the deep red desk that belonged to Lucifer. Sighing, he placed the gifts down onto the desk: a new leather coat, a new collar that he wanted and a handmade bracelet.
Taking a piece of paper, Asmodeus wrote 'Hope you enjoy your gifts' and tacked it to the outside of the office door. Taking his gifts that he bought for himself, Asmodeus left the room and closed the door behind him. He turned to Alistair, "When my brothers arrive, please inform them that I'll be in my room."
"Of course, my Prince."
Asmodeus walked up the stairs and turned left into the west hallway. Reaching the end of the hall, he opened the door, walked in and closed it behind him. Walking over to the nightstand beside his bed, Asmodeus placed his items on it and plopped onto his bed. Grabbing the pillow, Asmodeus smushed his face into it and screamed in frustration.
Throwing the pillow back onto the bed, Asmodeus let out a loud sigh. "Did everyone just not tell me anything so they could ditch me?" He reached over and unlatched the hook that held up his right sleeve on the band. Removing his bracelet, Asmodeus pulled off his sleeve to let his scars breathe.
Burn marks in the shape of crosses littered his right arm, from his wrist to his forearm. Turning back towards his nightstand, he opened the drawer and pulled out a piece of metal cross. Just touching it hurt like hell, but Asmodeus didn't care. He placed the cross onto his bare skin of his right arm, holding it in place.
'Another mark for another time they've left me…I lost count…This is probably the 37th time…'
Removing the cross, Asmodeus stared at the new mark that was burned into his skin.
"It doesn't hurt anymore…" He whispered. "I need something stronger."
After letting the burn cool off, Asmodeus slipped the sleeve back on and re-latched it. Walking over to his closet, he pulled out a long trench coat and a large hood. Exiting his room, he ran down the stairs.
"Change of plans, Alistair! I'm going out!" He yelled to Alistair and he opened the door and ran out.
Asmodeus sniffed the fresh air, grateful for a change of scenery. "The surface smells so much nicer than down there…" He whispered as he walked down the street of some city he didn't bother to learn the name of.
He gulped in fear as he approached the building he was looking for: a church.
Creeping around the back, Asmodeus used what magic he could without being seen and entered the building. Looking around the room, Asmodeus stared in wonder at all the religious artifacts that were stored in the back room. Manifesting a tiny ball of flames in his hand, he wandered around the dark room. Trying not to bump into anything flammable, Asmodeus tried to be both quiet and careful as he browsed through the items he found.
Looking at the bookshelf on the far left wall, Asmodeus carefully walked over to it and searched the shelves. Curious, he found a small translucent bottle simply labeled 'Holy Water'.
'Should they really be leaving these out in the open?' He pondered.
Taking off his trench coat, Asmodeus pushed all the bottles on the shelf into the trench coat and tied to sleeves together and zipped it up.
Suddenly, the door connected to the church opened and the room was flooded with light. Surprised, Asmodeus stared at who entered the room.
It was a young priest. He yelled in shock, causing Asmodeus to hiss in reply, his eyes glowing red.
"D-DEMON!" The young man screamed, grabbing the cross attached to the necklace around his neck.
Asmodeus wasted no time bolting out of the room and out the back with his trench coat filled with bottles of holy water.
Immediately opening the portal, Asmodeus jumped down, clutching onto his coat for dear life.
Asmodeus sighed in relief as he plopped down onto his bed. "I managed to get away, and they're still not home."
Untying the trench coat and unzipping it, Asmodeus stared as his loot. Picking a bottle up, he hesitantly sniffed it. "It doesn't have a distinct smell or anything…" He opened the bottle and gently poured a few drops on his left arm to test it, only to scream in pain.
"O-Okay…so it burns like a bitch…"
His right arm was his only safe haven for scarring himself, but with him placing the cross on there so many times, there was no need to pour holy water on it. Staring at the bottle, Asmodeus pondered how he'd hurt himself with it.
Then it hit him.
"It's water…right? Then I can drink it!" He smiled as he placed the tip of the bottle to his lips and drank.
Only to start coughing up blood the second he gulped the water down.
Tears in his eyes, Asmodeus stared at the bottle in his hand. "I should only use this when I feel really upset…"
He screwed the cap back on and dumped all the bottles into his drawer and put his trench coat back in his closet.
A knock on his door came a second later.
"Prince Asmodeus, your brothers have returned." Alistair's voice said through the door.
"Okay, thank you Alistair!"
Wiping the blood from his mouth with the bottom of the coat, Asmodeus left his room and hurried down the stairs.
The door to Lucifer's office was open, signifying someone or everyone else was in there.
"I-I don't know how to describe it…I guess just annoyance?"
Asmodeus stopped just outside the door from view the second he heard Lucifer's voice.
"What do you mean?" Belphegor asked.
"His general prescence just screams 'Hey, I'm annoying! Pay attention to me'!" Lucifer replied.
'Are they talking about Satan?' Asmodeus pondered, listening in on the conversation.
"He just wants to spend time with us. But I will admit, it does get tiresome after a while." Belphegor sighed.
Beelzebub sighed, "He's my little brother, but even he can get on my nerves."
Asmodeus' eyes widened.
Mammon cut in, "Yea! I hate lying, but I gotta do it so I can get out of being with him. Just earlier today, he wanted me and Beelzebub to go with to the marketplace so he could buy himself some gifts!"
"If he bought himself gifts, where did these come from…?" Leviathan replied.
"Probably just Satan trying to get on our good side again." Lucifer huffed.
Asmodeus clenched his fists in anger.
'All I do is try to spend time with you…because you never include me in your activities…'
'I always buy you gifts because I want you all to know I care for you…'
'All you ever do is belittle me and push me away. What did I even do?'
Asmodeus felt tears well up in his eyes.
'I hate this. I hate you. Why was I even born into this rotten family?'
He ran back into his room and slammed the door behind him.
Days had passed since the brothers had seen Asmodeus leave his room. The annual festival was approaching and they didn't want Asmodeus to skip out on it.
"Belphegor, go give Asmodeus his script for the speech." Lucifer sighed as he handed the papers over to Belphegor.
"Yeah, yeah…lazy bum." Belphegor grumbled as he took the papers and left their shared office, climbing the stairs and turning a left, walking down the west hallway. Arriving at the end of the hallway, Belphegor knocked on the door. "Asmodeus, open up."
No response.
Another knock.
"Asmodeus! Open the door!"
No response.
"Dammit—" Belphegor sighed in frustration as he turned the knob. The second he opened the door, he froze.
"W-What…I-I…" He stammered, looking at the scene in front of him.
Asmodeus laid face first on the floor, blood pooling around his head and right arm. Deep red cross marks slashed and burn on his arm, and an empty bottle of holy water clenched in his hand.
"ASMODEUS!"
Osomatsu stared at Belphegor and Lucifer as they finished speaking.
Karamatsu immediately ran forward and grabbed Lucifer by the collar, his expression murderous. "You all contributed to his suicide…You all tormented him…AND YET YOU DID NOTHING TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE?!" He screamed.
Lucifer gently removed Karamatsu's grip and replied, "Like I said, we're demons. Do you honestly believe that we understood what actual families do? We all hate each other. He was the only one who didn't."
"After what Asmodeus did…it took us a while to figure out what we did wrong…" Leviathan replied, looking away.
"I'd love to punch all your faces in and push you off this mountain, but we still have some distance to go before we reach the top." Choromatsu said, walking ahead of the group.
Silence drifted through the group once again, before Ichimatsu spoke up, "When did you start mistreating him..?"
"When we were kids…" Beelzebub whispered.
Ichimatsu tsked in anger, shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets.
"I can't wait to get Totty home and away from here." Jyushimatsu uttered.
No one spoke after that remark.
Satan stared at Todomatsu, pondering as he stroked his chin.
"Hmm…I've never tortured anyone before…" He spoke. "He needs to be awake though."
Satan immediately kneed Totty in the stomach.
Todomatsu gasped in pain as he awoke.
Satan grabbed Totty's wrist and dragged him across the stone floor, throwing him against the wall. Satan grabbed him again and shoved him against the ground, this time, bonding his hands and forearms to a metal stand attached to the floor.
Totty immediately tried to yank away with no luck.
"You're literally attached the floor and you're trying to pry yourself free? Humans are strange." Satan said aloud, walking over to Todomatsu.
"You know how I told you how those idiots lost their brother?"
Todomatsu glared at Satan, not answering.
"Well…wanna know how?" He asked, taking off his fingerless gloves and replacing them with thick leather ones. He walked over to the table attach to the wall that Todomatsu didn't see before. He took a branding stick with a cross on the end of it off the table. "That shirt needs to go." He smiled, turning towards Totty. He ripped off the shirt and the sleeves, inching the stick closer and closer to Todomatsu's right arm.
"P-Please no! Stop!" Totty cried, trying to pry himself free from his bonds.
He screamed the second the hot iron touched his skin.
"STOP! PLEASE!"
Totty let out a sigh of relief as the stick was removed, only to scream again when it touched another area of his arm.
"I-IT HURTS! P-PLEASE! STOP IT!"
Satan smiled at the screams of pain. "If I remember correctly, there were nearly 40 cross marks on his arm."
Totty's eyes widened. "Please…no…I-I can't…it hurts too much..!"
Satan grinned, "Too bad." He placed the iron on his skin again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
After nearly 20 minutes, Satan lost count. Totty looks like he passed out too. Shrugging, Satan threw away the branding iron and stood up, walking back up to the table on the wall.
"What to do next…" He asked himself as he stared at the objects laid across the table top.
Picking up the small combat knife, he walked back over to Todomatsu and grabbed a handful of hair and yanked on it. He didn't respond, so Satan slapped him a number of times until he came to.
"Morning, sunshine!" He grinned, looking at Totty's bruised face. "His other marking was a cross marked on his chest! So you know what that means~!" He laughed, brandishing his knife. Todomatsu weakly shook his head.
"N-No…Please…" He whispered, he throat sore from the screaming he did.
Satan knelt down in front of Totty. "Aw it's alright. It wasn't a deep scar, probably just above his heart. But you sound thirsty." He stood up and walked back over to the table and grabbed a bottle. Standing over Totty, he yanked his hair again and Todomatsu went to yell in pain, only to start choking on the holy water that was being poured down his throat.
"I don't know how much of this he drank, since this stuff is poisonous to us demons. But I have no clue about fallen angels. Who knows?" He chuckled, watching Todomatsu choke as his finished the bottle off. Throwing the bottle away, he walked behind Totty and began petting his wings.
"Y'know…I don't feel like carving that cross into your chest anymore…but do you know what I do feel like doing?" Satan asked, admiring how soft the feathers were.
Todomatsu puked out the water, tears in his eyes. "W-What…?" He asked hesitantly.
"This." Satan simply replied.
Todomatsu screamed in pure agony as he felt the knife slash through his wings.