Higanbana in the Red Moon

Disclaimer: I do not own any Disgaea game. They belong to Nippon Ichi. I only own the concept of who The One is in Disgaea, which his name is Prism. I also own any witch/sorcerer that works under Prism such as Raven, Alfred, Pop, K.K., Terror and Starlight. Chester, Alice, Heart, Eir, Yama and the other Witch Hunters are also mine.

Summary: While the good ending is achieved as long as everyone sticks with their morals, it doesn't stop The One from glancing at parallel universes in which the situation of the characters take a dark turn for the worse leading to what calls "bad endings"…some that even The One himself caused by his own flaws.

Pairing: Implication of canon or heavily implied pairings (Laharl/Flonne, Adell/Rozalin, Mao/Rasberyl, Almaz/Sapphire, Valvatorez/Fenrich and Valvatorez/Artina)

Rated: M (for mature)

Genre: Tragedy, Angst, Hurt/Comfort and Drama

Warning: Character death, extreme violence, dark themes, implications of rape, and OOC if the characters Grimified for the sake of going insane

These aren't happy endings for those who are interested to know. This is heavily inspired by Queen's Blade's: Vanquished Queens short novels where each Queen's Blade character is shown to have one or two bad endings that might be canon or could have happened in canon if they lost at any point in the Queen's Blade tournament. The Disgaea versions are either expanding on bad endings or what if scenarios that could screw the character over and might be OOC as a result. They're in order based on series but Disgaea and D2 are put in the same category. Enjoy…

Chapter 11: The Repressed Overlord

Mao: The Repressed Overlord

Now everyone knew of the alternate universe in which let his negative emotions get the best of him resulting in the end of the universe. (Why no one stopped him, we will never know but if Fear the Great got to him first before anyone powerful would notice then all was lost). However there were many other routes that the white haired demon could have taken that didn't result in the end of the universe for The One to create all over again.

There was that time when Mao and his friends dove into his heart after that "love" lesson. It was after the time Mao and Almaz met the princess Sapphire for the first time. They were going through Mao's memories of his past and it got too painful for the honor student. Almaz thought that the best solution was to pull the plug that would shut the past away. This ended up regressing Mao's emotional state to the point where all he could do was talk like a baby.

When this happened, there was a panic within the witches/sorcerers. If Mao did not recover then there was no hope for a good ending for this universe. In the canon timeline this was quickly fixed by putting the plug back in after Rasberyl's graduation. However for this one timeline, Almaz was not fast enough when putting the plug back in and there was divine intervention…not from Prism surprisingly but from his best friend Pop.

Pop was the one that was paying closer attention to this Netherworld. Prism's mind was focused elsewhere at that moment when Pop was in control. Usually if Pop was in control of what to do with the universe, that meant Prism and Raven were doing something of utmost importance (either that or they were fighting in his room). Pop was not the best choice though in Prism's mind. She was only third in line in the situations Raven could not be there. Samarium was below Pop because Prism did not trust the zombie witch. He would use his powers to cover the universe with a pink sky and wonderful rainbows and then force everyone to wear tiny miniskirts with wonderful frills. Pop in comparison would act irrationally resulting in a problem that Prism might not be able to fix…this would mean that Prism would punish her later with a spanking (since that was all Prism could think of that could knock her down a peg).

So what does his best friend do? Where in an attempt to use magic similar to what Prism used when reworking memories…she put a counterproductive spell on the white haired boy. When Almaz went to put the plug back in, he was in for an electroshock that caused sparks to fly throughout the entire room. The failure hero was taken back and fell on his butt as the sparks flew and ended up hitting Mao in the head. As if his speech pattern wasn't bad enough, Mao literally had no chance of regaining his memory. The plug was broken thanks to Pop's magic so the only way for Mao to recover was to be raised another 1000 years to regain his familiar speech pattern. The poor guy was aware of his baby talk and regressed back even more at the thought. Crying was allowed now with how he spoke but along with losing most of his powerful persona, he was going to lose the power that allowed him to fight leaving him a defenseless mess.

It was like being hit by linen spice…a terrible drug that was created by one of the vassals of The Great Evil that even witches/sorcerers don't want to be injected with it. Linen spice specifically destroyed the mind leaving the person as a defenseless baby with no way to recover from the scars done on the brain. If a human were hit by this drug that was the end for them, as they would have the mentality of a baby for the rest of their lives. A being that had a longer lifespan would have it worse because though because even if the drug were to wear off (and there is no saying when it would wear off), that person would have lost a huge chunk of their lives because of the drug. In a situation when someone was hit by linen spice, you either ended their life like their so that person would not continue living as a baby in an usually adult body or put them to sleep and keep them in a trance until a cure is ever found. The latter option is risky because a cure might never be found and they could wake up and still be affected by the spice.

Mao is lucky that Pop's magic wasn't like linen spice. Just because he was weakened both physically and mentally did not mean that he could not pick up the sword again nor could he regain his intelligence. The current state only meant he would never recover from the trauma of his father's death and recall who was his father's killer. In a sense, Mao could start his life over.

Mr. Champloo felt like this was an unforetold worse case scenario where Mao could never mature into a powerful Overlord like his father. This wasn't the end of the world though…

The only person who saw it as such was Geoffrey AKA the Super Hero Aurum. Geoffrey was already frustrated with Almaz's constant interference and he was at his boiling point. When the group rushed Mao out of his heart, the medic all she could to save Mao but while his body would be healed, his brain could not be saved. This was his breaking point, but he did not show any hostility in front of the economics' teacher who had his eyes on him for a while.

Instead he would leave the academy for a while only to honestly blow his top nearby. Everything he had planned for 200 years was pulled from underneath him just like the plug that kept Mao stable. There would be no final battle where the Super Hero Aurum could go out in a blaze of glory or be remembered as a hero. Not unless he wanted to wait another 1000 years for Mao to come back to his old self, but even then, pulling the plug confirmed that the darkness in his house wouldn't grow. That darkness was planted there from the death of his father but if he could no longer remember, then there was no darkness unless arbitrarily put back.

Geoffrey neglected Mao for the past week thinking about his plans for the future of the young master. This left his friends to take over Mao. Sapphire was the least taken back by Mao's mental state and treated him as a baby to watch over and grow up. Rasberyl was deeply pained to see her rival in such a state. He could no longer be an honor student unless he was raised properly for the next 1000 years but by the time the little succubus was past 2000 years old, Mao would just be barely reaching that 1000 mark mentally. Rasberyl would not blame the hero though. Mr. Champloo was investigating why the plug sparked when Almaz tried to put it back in. There was no record of this happening ever inside the heart bank. He reassured Almaz that this particular incident was not his fault. Almaz however thought the contrary. If he didn't pull the plug to begin with, Mao wouldn't have the mind of an infant. His baby talk came off as pitiful now with how Sapphire was playing with Mao's food (which the white haired boy tried to grab the spoon from her).

I really failed as a hero. Almaz thought to himself. A hero would not allow a demon to end up in this state no matter how evil they are…Mao was starting to change too and we were learning of why he's such a jerk and I just…

"Almaz…"

"You say something Beryl?"

"…Don't be beating yourself over this." Rasberyl mumbled. "As his rival…no as his childhood friend…I should have helped him during those hard times when his father died…"

"Why are you saying this now?" The wannabe hero had to ask.

"Well…I focused more on my title that I never paid any attention to Mao. Now he's like this and it's my fault…"

"It's not!"

"…But that's why I decided as an honor student I will find a cure for Mao. If we can't find anything in the heart bank, then outside of the Netherworld Academy, there has to be a cure."

"…I don't know…"

"Come on Almaz! You're a hero aren't you? As a hero, you will do all in your power to help a friend in need!"

"That's right." Sapphire added as she finished playing with Mao. "You did cause this after all Almaz."

Well she wasn't afraid to state the truth. Almaz groaned with her honestly seeing how the girls were going to force him on this heroic task to save a demon. He really was the unluckiest knight in the whole universe.

"Then it's settled. Since Beryl, Asuka and Kyouko have graduated, they can leave the Netherworld. Let me go back to my kingdom to prepare for the journey. I hope you'll all be ready to leave."

"Of course." Rasberyl said with a smirk. "We're make sure to get all the first aid kits and toys for Mao."

"This isn't a field trip girls…" Almaz mumbled as he looked at Mao who was staring at him. "What?"

Mao smiled as he grabbed at Almaz's scarf and yanked at it causing the fake hero to gasp for breath.

"M-Mao?"

"Goo!"

And if Mao continued to play with Almaz like this, then of course things were going to be hell.

Aurum had other plans for Mao when the group scattered to collect their things for the journey to restore's Mao's mental state. To Aurum, Mao was a useless doll that he invested 200 years in. There was no way to recover from a broken Heart Bank if putting the plug back in did not do the trick. The only way for Mao to find any peace was to kill him off now…and probably find the next powerful Overlord to challenge. In the past 200 years, he has heard of two other potential Overlords and/or powerful demons. One was apparently a spoiled child in another Netherworld like Mao is now that got the same experience as Mao only at a younger age. The other was apparently a former Tyrant who was hanging around in Hades now for whatever reason. This was where he would go next after he dealt with Mao.

Mao was left unsupervised in his room. Mao was poking at his Slay Station Portable (he got a replacement within the 200 years but he never got the memory spent playing those games back) unable to figure out how to even turn it on. The screen remained black as Mao grabbed it and kept flipping the on/off switch. It was pathetic to watch given how big of a gamer he was normally. To see him attempting to re-learn the basics just showed how much of a waste of time he was.

"Stupid child. If you didn't encounter that hero, your blood would not be on my blade." Aurum stated as he took out his sword. Mao was blissfully unaware of the murderous aura in the room and stopped flipping the switch to see the lights change into an array of colors. "Die!"

One moment Mao had the Slay Station Portable in his hand…the next minute he still had it just not in that area. Geoffrey never considered that someone else was in the room watching over Mao. Seeing as how smart the chef was though, he should have taken precautions but now his cover was blown.

"One must never throw the food down the trash when there is a chance to fix the damage in the meal, BOOM!"

He was wise but obnoxious and he was ruining his plans to go after another Netherworld after erasing the evidence in this one.

"Geoffrey, no Super Hero Aurum, you will not lay a finger on Mao."

"So you knew all along?"

"I noticed the rotten meat for some time, but now the fly eggs are hatching and can no longer contain themselves within the meat."

"Heh, you have some nerve comparing me to rotten meat."

Aurum did not hesitate to slice at the teacher who had his hands full. It was an impressive feat for Champloo to block the sword with one hand. He could have done more than that if Mao wasn't in his other hand. All Mr. Champloo could do though was defend while Aurum unleashed a barrage of swipes. Aurum started out slow but picked up the pace the longer Champloo intended to dodge him. He wasn't pleased with how things weren't ending fast enough. Even aiming at Mao was pointless. However Mao looked up seeing the sword being swung. Extending his hand, he was asking for his arm to be cut off in battle, but what came out of his fingertips was ice magic. It was so weak that it wouldn't do any damage but it caught Aurum off guard that even in this fragile state, Mao was still capable of using magic. Champloo took the opportunity to jump back and rush out of the room.

"You will not escape."

Almaz had just finished packing his things needed for the long journey. How long would this journey take? Where would they go? Would Almaz be able to accomplish a hero's task? More importantly, if Almaz completed the task, would he be a hero again? He convinced himself that would be impossible after what he did. Destroying the mind of someone might as well have been a death sentence…

All he had to do was go get Mao and they could begin their journey tomorrow morning. If Almaz failed to be a friend to the white haired demon, then at least he could be his caretaker…

Almaz didn't expect to be met with a battle happening in Mao's place though. Mr. Champloo was protecting Mao from someone with a sword. Almaz recognized the person in front of him though as…his Super Hero Aurum. He couldn't believe it! His hero was alive and well…but why was he attacking Champloo and Mao?

"Mr. Champloo?"

Champloo noted Almaz's appearance at the scene. Taking Mao he threw him toward the failure knight. Almaz did not react fast enough and ended up being sent to the floor with Mao in his arms. Mao began to cry like a baby after a force like that. The fake hero wanted to complain but then he saw Champloo unleash a punch toward his hero.

"Mr. Champloo! What are you doing? That's Super Hero Aurum!"

"Almaz, get Mao out of here! Take the girls and run right now! I don't care where you go, but you need to leave now!"

No food puns? No boom? Just a direct order from a teacher doing his job.

"W-What? W-Why?"

"Don't ask Almaz! Run! NOW!"

Almaz had every reason to run with Mao. Aurum would not allow Mao to leave in one piece. He already transformed himself into his final form to end things. So what if anyone saw him in this horrifying form? He would wipe everyone out and then look for his next opponent. No one would stand in his way.

Champloo got into a fighting stance prepared to fight to the death. He would not speak to Almaz anymore as he charged toward the super hero. Almaz could only watch the battle continue in front of him at top speed. His legs were shaking. He could fear the power coming from the two of them, and Super Hero Aurum no longer looked heroic; he looked demonic.

"I…got to get away…"

Almaz picked Mao off the ground that continued to cry loudly. The fake hero quickly shushed the honor student until he started to calm down before he turned his back on the battle. He could hear Aurum screaming at him or rather Mao that he would not escape. Almaz didn't understand his deal. Perhaps when the situation wasn't so dire, he would stop and ask Aurum what was going on and why he was trying to attack a defenseless demon.

Almaz managed to slip into the shadows of the night after leaving Mao's place. The fake hero wished he could have spoken to Champloo one last time, but this would be the last time he would see him alive.

He didn't even have to tell the girls twice about leaving to any Netherworld as soon as possible. They could feel the unsettling power that was starting to become undone and Aurum's one wing angel form was not winning anyone to his side. They went to the gatekeeper and immediately jumped to the next Netherworld, and it was a good thing they left while they could because once Aurum was finished with Champloo, he ended up taking over Netherworld Academy. Without Mao, he would not be able to get over himself. He would force other demons from this academy to bring Mao back if he had to. Netherworld Academy was finished unless Mao came back to take responsibility for his actions.

It wouldn't leave Mao a good taste in his mouth if he were still sane if he found out that he became the pariah to the academy that is father built from the ground up. Almaz and the girls wouldn't know about this either except when they would be targeted as they jumped Netherworld from Netherworld hoping to find a cure for Mao's condition. Try as they might though, it would be a miracle until they found even a trace of hope to bring back the old Mao, but the longer it took for them to come back, the more innocent demons that would be slaughtered in the Netherworld Academy. It wouldn't be long until there would be no demons left and Aurum would leave the academy in ruins to hunt for Mao himself…

Prism let out a sigh of relief when he finished the chapter. So he didn't have to work to restart the universe all over again. His Furniture looked at him with a displeased look. This situation was just as bad for Mao as him being alone in the universe he destroyed. In fact Prism should have noted about what Pop did in this world that started this journey in the first place.

"Prism," Heart spoke up firmly, "you should punish Pop for her actions."

The blonde groaned as he slumped back into his seat. "For something that won't happen? Nah…however…I don't know why Pop would react like that…"

"You should be more concerned about Pop's magic inflicting damage equivalent to linen spice."

Prism shivered at the mention of the drug. Even he wasn't immune to such a thing. If he inhaled, swallowed or it got injected into him, he would be a defenseless child at the mercy of the universe. The universe would probably collapsed if he was put into the situation as well, but…

"Well…maybe I'll keep an eye on Pop so she doesn't do that to anyone else. How her magic could even reach the heart bank is a mystery even to me."

"She might be looking into yours, meow." Chester purred.

"D-Don't jinx it please…" The One grumbled. The last thing he needed was someone looking into his heart and into his past. It would only take one person he didn't trust to look and see the truth about the universe. Prism would rather die than let anyone else know beside the selected few. The only ones who seem to know the truth include everyone in the Golden Land that worked under Prism, the strongest witch hunter in the universe Virtue, a few of the Overlords that participated in the 2000 year war and the Gods and Goddesses who were still alive and no ignorant of the truth.

"Master, don't be scared if anyone does."

"…Next one."

Prism didn't want to think about it. The past was painful…that was probably why he didn't see a problem with Mao's mental state in this chapter. If he forgot about his past, he could become a different person ignorant of the mistakes made…and if it involved the death of someone important well…

"Its his friend…I wonder how this will turn out."

Yes…he needed to get his mind off of the past or how he was trembling at the idea of a best friend betraying him after all of these centuries.

Me: Done with 4543 words.

Li: This is another short one.

Me: Mao's is short compared to Rasberyl and Almaz. (I don't know about Sapphire's but I put more detail into hers obviously). Notes!

1. I specifically pointed out in the last chapter I did not want to write about the Disgaea 3 bad ending where Mao destroyed the universe. This has been done to death in so many fanfics with so many scenarios on what would become of Mao. So I looked through all the endings in Disgaea 3 and none of them really punish Mao except the Almaz ending (and that one is going to be Almaz's chapter). So the only thing I could think of is a story event that will always happen being twisted. This is why I chose Mao's chapter. His chapter refers to his mental state being forever repressed.

2. The linen spice described in this chapter is a powerful drug that if inhaled, swallowed or injected, your mind will revert to that of a baby. If you are a human and get hit by this, your life is over, but if you're a being that lives longer than a human, it's a fate worse than death because you lose so many years of your life if someone actually decided to raise you until you were able to grow back to your normal self. It's why mercy killing is the best solution to the victim and the creator of the universe is scared of it. This gives an obvious picture of someone with divine power creating such a dangerous drug. The worse part is that there are more drugs like this (less fatal than linen spice but are equivalent to powerful poisons and date rape drugs). I will never reveal who in their fucking mind would create something like this. But given the description here, Mao pretty much has no hope of returning to his normal self if the plug could not bring back the old Mao.

3. At the top of the universe, Prism will have his doubts about his friends. A couple of chapters ago, he thinks that as long as he has his friends by his side, he'll be fine but here the idea of Pop betraying him does make him paranoid. Prism does not need to worry because beside Terror, the other witches/sorcerers are dedicated to him and some worship the ground he's on. Most of this dedication comes from Prism saving their lives and giving them another chance at the top of the universe, and the only reason Terror doesn't come off as grateful is because of his PTSD that causes him to lash out at anyone. But Prism points out how he doesn't trust Samarium because he's a zombie. Prism simply doesn't trust him with a huge responsibility (but the way its written makes it seem like he doesn't trust Samarium as a friend). Despite Prism's constant whining about Raven, he trusts her the most with the task of the universe. He puts Pop in third mainly because she is his best friend rather than being a rational person. Pop is still slightly better at decision making than Samarium who is very emotional person. Everyone else for Prism is considered counterproductive (he won't let his little sister take on the burden of responsibility, a butler is not allowed to take the wheel according to Prism, Starlight is Prism's apprentice therefore has no power whatsoever, Terror has PTSD and is an asshole by default so it wouldn't work for him and K.K. is…yeah…)

That's pretty much it. Most of the chapters afterward will be smooth sailing in terms of how quickly they get updated (but I still got to finish Sapphire before I can go to the next four chapters that are already done and FYI, I put the most effort into the Disgaea 4 bad endings in comparison to the Disgaea 2 characters…) Reviews are appreciated. Ja ne!