Author's Note: Warning for suicidal thoughts.

Chapter Six:

Izuku screamed. It came less from fear and more from reflex, like shouting at a cockroach. He'd been locked up with a corpse—objectively speaking, that was way more disgusting than any insect ever could be.

Once he'd gotten it out of his system, Izuku took a closer look. The dead man wore a royal golden silk kimono with a red overcoat. His slumped-over posture revealed the mark of the House of Greed on his back. Demonic bat wings spread behind him. A circlet of gold intertwined with silver rested on this brow. His feet were bare. The dead body resembled the boy who'd been drawn holding hands with Hisashi. Izuku had been locked up with a relative's corpse. Today just kept getting freakier.

With a pop in the air, Hisashi appeared next to him. Izuku jumped in surprise, stumbling and falling painfully to his knees on top of the coin floor.

Hisashi cried, "Young one, you triggered the alarms with your scream. Is something wrong?"

Izuku waved at the throne. "You locked me in here with my brother's corpse! I'd say something is wrong—with your head!"

All color drained from Hisashi's face. "Actually, that's my younger brother, Yoichi…"

"You had a brother? And that hardly makes it any better! Why would you turn your sibling into a grisly trophy? Did you kill him?"

Hisashi wrung his hands. His wings fluttered. "You weren't supposed to see that…and…it's not what you think! I didn't kill him. I never would have hurt him."

"I saw you the other day, having tea with the corpse! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Language, little one!"

Izuku bellowed, "What the FUCK is wrong with you?"

"It's normal for greed demons to preserve loved ones in this fashion. An old family tradition." Hisashi's eyes shifted. Normally he was a better liar. He must be truly at the end of his rope.

"Normal?" Izuku growled. "Can I ask Tomura about that? Would he also tell me that this is normal?"

"There's no need to bring your cousin into this, youngling." Hisashi's wings drooped further. "Uh, the tradition might be for greed demons to stuff and mount their deceased pets…not people."

"You are digging yourself in deeper here."

"But that's because the old greed nobles didn't care very much about family. Most of them had more attachment to their pets. I'm sure you would have had the urge to preserve your mother's corpse if only you had the resources at the time."

Izuku's jaw dropped. "No, it never once occurred to me to turn my mother's dead body into a decorative doll. For the last time, what is wrong with you?"

"You didn't? Oh, no, did you not love her deeply enough? This will ruin the gift I've been preparing for—"

Izuku shrieked, "Don't you dare imply that I didn't love my mother because I never held a tea party with her corpse!"

Hisashi flinched. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. You were probably too young, that's all."

"Stop pretending this is normal demon behavior! I've read everything from fictional novels to the five hundred page etiquette novel that you forced on me. Not even once did it mention tea parties with corpses."

"Would you please stop referring to your uncle as a corpse?"

"I don't know if it's escaped your notice, but he's extremely dead. I've seen more lively chickens running around with their heads chopped off. No further motion will be coming from over there unless you puppeteer the body around again for another creepy tea party." Izuku waved his hand at the uncannily well-preserved corpse on the throne. "Dear Greed, it has escaped your notice! No wonder you've been talking to a dead man!"

Hisashi looked at the floor. In a soft voice, he said, "I know my little brother is…not alive. I just sometimes find it comforting to…pretend. I haven't been doing that as often since you came home."

Izuku stared. "You used to puppeteer the corpse around the castle more often?"

Hisashi's wings drooped to the floor. Izuku wondered, Why does he look so pathetic when he's killed more people than the seven other heads of the noble houses combined? Just what the hell?

Izuku gentled his tone. "Look, I was understandably shocked to discover I'd been locked up with a corp—with a deceased uncle. I'm also upset that you never told me about him. But I can tell that you're still mourning Uncle Yoichi very deeply. And, uh, perhaps in unhealthy ways. Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's hard for me to talk about him," Hisashi said, staring at the body with an undecipherable expression. "But you have the right to know. Yoichi was my only family, or at least the only one who mattered. My parents…the less said about them, the better. They forced me onto the battlefield before I was even old enough to fly."

"I'm sorry," Izuku said. He'd had some idea that his father's childhood hadn't been ideal. He'd often gotten the sense that his dad was trying to relive his childhood through him. In his irritation, he'd never stopped to think about exactly how badly his father must have been treated in order to understand so little about normal children.

"If I didn't bring home enough victories, then I knew they'd send Yoichi next, and he couldn't have survived. He struggled with even the most basic magic. Probably because he had barely any greed in his heart. I did everything I could to protect him." A muscle clenched in Hisashi's jaw. "And it still wasn't enough."

Izuku suspected this to be the source of his father's overprotectiveness. Maybe they were approaching a breakthrough. "What happened to him?"

"I don't like to talk about it, but this could be important for you to know." Hisashi caught his son's eyes with a frenzied gaze. "He stopped eating souls."

Izuku hadn't expected that answer. He'd assumed it had been a murder, the most common method of death for demonic nobles. "He starved? What a horrible way to die."

"He would have, if I hadn't carefully fed him."

Izuku flinched away. "Force-fed him?"

"What choice did I have? He wouldn't even eat souls killed in battle, the method squeamish demons insist on. He was dying." Hisashi's hands clenched, the knuckles turning white. "That's why it bothers me so much when you speak of the ethics of eating souls."

"Is that why you've respected my refusal to be transformed?" Izuku asked. Honestly, his father had been less pushy than most demon lords would have been with their heir. Still pushier than Izuku liked, but it could have been much, much worse. Legally, Hisashi hadn't needed to wait for permission at all.

Hisashi sighed, but didn't answer. "It's only natural for demons. We must eat, like all creatures. I could never understand him, and he could never understand me."

Izuku said, "Many of the demons in my old mercenary troop joined to feed on souls of those they killed in battle. Some weren't wealthy enough to afford to buy souls. Some of them couldn't bring themselves to kill off the battlefield. But not everyone wants to spend their whole life fighting in wars. We had members who got absolutely sick to death of fighting to survive and killing, but they couldn't stop. Couldn't even take a vacation without starving. One of the most gentle demons I ever knew when nuts and killed a fellow merc because he hadn't been fed in a while. It was awful. I don't ever want to end up like that."

Hisashi said, "You'd be a prince. There would never be a lack of food for you."

Izuku shook his head. "Maybe you can't understand because you're a noble. You've always had souls bottled up for you or ground into your meals whenever you felt hungry. You never got close enough to your food to become friends with it. The hunger, it changes demons. When they're starving, a demon will even attack someone they love. It's a curse."

Hisashi sighed. "You'd think, but my little brother wouldn't eat a stranger even when on the brink of death."

"Huh. Then good for him."

"It certainly wasn't good for him! It was killing him!"

"That must have taken a lot of willpower."

"Willpower devoted to stupidity!" Hisashi ground his teeth. "I'm trying to tell you his story so you don't repeat his mistakes."

Izuku said, "I won't ever become a full demon. Then I'll never have that problem."

As expected, this answer didn't satisfy his father. Hisashi breathed deeply. He said, "Your uncle didn't have that option, having been born a demon. So he came up with an even more foolish idea. He decided to convert the mark of Greed on his soul into Generosity. This changed the basic nature of his magic to giving rather than taking, granting him a body that could no longer feed off souls. He placed his power in a sword called One for All. The sword could convert other demon's bodies so that they also no longer needed to eat souls, and then they could pass along this curse to more demons. Like that, he planned to infect the entire demonic race."

Izuku's head shot up. "It worked? That would have been revolutionary! Why have I never heard of this?"

"It was insanity." Hisashi's face darkened. "His foolishness completely shattered his soul. The remaining pieces were so small, I couldn't even save a tiny bit of his consciousness. If I'd had even scraps to work with, I could have created a living doll. It would have held at least remnants of him. But he completely and utterly destroyed himself. Not even the faintest trace of him remains in this world."

"But it worked," Izuku muttered. "You said that the ability could be passed on to other demons. Then you must have seen that happen. Where is One for All now? Please, this could save so many people! It would save humans from being eaten, and save demons from starving! This would be the single most important magical discovery in history!"

Coldly, Hisashi said, "The sword was lost."

"Then look for it!" Izuku cried. "Where did you last hear of it? Give me a clue, please."

"I'll destroy it my own two hands if I ever find it," Hisashi hissed, darkness overtaking the red in his eyes.

"You fucking asshole!" Izuku screamed.

"It killed my brother!"

"His death was worth it!" Izuku shouted, past any diplomacy.

Hisashi recoiled. "How could you say something like that?"

Izuku froze, his chest heaving. But he didn't take it back. "Sacrificing one person to ensure that demons could forever survive without eating souls? Worth it. I'm sorry, I know he was important to you. I never knew him, so maybe I don't have the right to say that. But I respect him for his sacrifice. He made his decision because he decided it was worth the price. You keep calling your brother foolish, but to create what you're describing, he must have been a magical genius. You should respect his choice and honor what he created from his sacrifice. If you'd tried to see his perspective instead of just dismissing him as an idiot, then maybe you two could have understood each other."

"No." Hisashi shook his head. His whole body shook with the force of his rejection. "No, you were supposed to be warned away after I explained it to you." He gripped Izuku's arms with bruising force. "Please, promise me that you would never do what your uncle did."

If Izuku could recreate One for All, then he'd die without hesitation on the spot. But if he told his father that, then he'd be lucky to ever see the world outside this hoard again for the rest of his existence. He lied, "Of course not."

Hisashi's eyes searched his face. Izuku hoped he looked convincing.

Finally, Hisashi released him. He reeled backward. "I…I need to rest. I don't feel well."

"Hey, don't leave me here with the corpse!" Izuku cried. But his father was already gone.

Grumbling, Izuku headed to the gold pile outside to wait. As long as he didn't have to look at the dead body, he could pretend it wasn't here. He was starting to feel hungry. Surely his father wouldn't leave him here for much longer.

That whole conversation had been a mistake on Izuku's part. He understood his father better now—in particular, he understood that it was possible for Hisashi to get even more controlling. Izuku needed to tread more carefully from now on. He absolutely should not have admitted to admiring the creation of One for All. He'd never stood a chance at persuading his father. Instead, Izuku had only made Hisashi become more paranoid about his safety.

In his understandable concern over the walking corpse, Izuku had forgotten to ask Hisashi about his adoption papers. In retrospect, that was for the best. They'd only have gotten in another argument about his theoretical demonic transformation. That seemed like a subject best left untouched. If Hisashi would force-feed his brother, then it was a wonder he hadn't transformed Izuku against his will already.

Hisashi staggered to the toilet and threw up. Bile burned down the back of the throat. His empty stomach heaved, trying to regurgitate even though nothing was left to come up.

Over and over again in his mind, he kept seeing Izuku saying that Yoichi's sacrifice had been worth it. There had been pure sincerity in his eyes, the exact same shade of green as his uncle's. No matter what Izuku had claimed later, he'd meant what he'd said. If Izuku had been in Yoichi's place, he would have done the exact same thing. He would have destroyed his own soul in the same way. That terrified Hisashi.

He gripped the edge of the toilet, heaving again. A bit dripped down his chin. He wiped it off, gasping for air.

Hisashi remembered Yoichi's body lying on the bloodstained ground. It blurred, turning into Izuku's corpse. He groaned, forcing his senses back to the present. His fingers shook on the porcelain.

Perhaps it was time to speed up a certain plan of his. He needed to give his son a reason to live that would override those unpleasant destructive tendencies.

The next day, Izuku arrived at his workshop to find half his magical materials gone.

He stormed to his father's office and threw open the door without knocking. "What have you done?"

Hisashi looked up from his papers. "What has you so distressed, young one?"

"Don't patronize me! You know why! You've taken away my one remaining joy in life!" It sounded melodramatic, but it was true. Magical experimentation was the single best part of this demon-infested castle.

Hisashi shook his head. "I realized some of your materials were too dangerous."

"You were afraid I'd research One for All." Honestly, the thought had crossed Izuku's mind. There might be a way to create similar magic without any soul-shattering. It was at least worth investigating. But he'd guessed from yesterday's conversation that his father would react poorly, so he wouldn't have tried it right away. In fact, Izuku would have waited and found a place not directly under his father's eyes to carry out that particular research. It hurt that his father imagined him stupid enough to be so easily caught. "You can monitor the materials I use in your laboratory. It's not necessary to completely cut off my access."

Hisashi placed his fingers together. "My dear son, talking about my past made me remember how dangerous magical research can be. Many accidents could happen. I should never have let you have those materials to begin with."

Izuku slammed his hands down on the desk, sending papers fluttering. "You're treating me like a child again."

Hisashi raised an eyebrow. "You're behaving like one."

"Bullshit. I can never, ever meet your standards of maturity because you don't want me to pass the test! What's the point in even trying?"

"Language! I'll let you conduct experiments under my supervision, how about that?"

Izuku panted heavily. "No. If you take this away from me, then I'm not playing your game. No more magical analysis together."

"I hope you'll change your mind after you calm down." Hisashi returned to studying his papers, a clear dismissal.

Izuku knew that he was hurting himself more than his father. Hisashi had many hobbies he enjoyed. Izuku had only this. But he couldn't bring himself to back down. The insult, the patronization, it was unbearable.

He left before he did anything stupid.

Izuku had believed that visiting the human school in the village below would calm his nerves. It would remind him that he had a reason for going along with his overbearing father. He was accomplishing something important. His freedom was a small price to pay compared to a chance to help so many people.

But in the end, the idea of interacting with more people made him sick. Especially if they groveled over him or called him "Your Highness." He lingered just outside the door, not going in. Voices came from inside.

"Your Highness?" A woman stepped out of the school. She sank into a curtsey. "What good luck, to run into you by chance. I've wanted to thank you for such a long time."

"You're…" Izuku took a closer look. Although she wore a purple silk dress and had her hair pulled back into a bun, he recognized the same woman who asked him to kill a wyvern what felt like ages ago. "Have the wyverns left off bothering your farm? I asked my father to increase patrols and build a wall."

"Yes, but that's not what I wanted to thank you for." She smiled. "The jewel that you sent me changed my life. I enrolled in the university. That's where I met my soon-to-be husband."

"I'm glad," Izuku said. "Seriously, I needed to hear that today." His smile became more sincere. Because Izuku had helped this woman, he'd been caught by Demon Lord Hisashi. That fateful day had destroyed his life, but at least he'd saved someone in return. His sacrifice had been worth something.

She pushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear, showing off her pearl earrings. "He's a demon. I never dreamed that someone like that would show an interest in me. He'll be transforming me after the wedding."

Izuku took a step backward. "You want to become a demon?"

"It's a great honor." She beamed.

Izuku had no right to feel so disappointed. He had no right to try and talk her out of it. He didn't even know her. His stomach rolled. "E-excuse me. I feel sick."

"I'm sorry! Do you need help?" She reached out.

"No!" He jerked his arm away. "I want to be alone." He fled before he said something much crueler.

Izuku ran down the road, an icy wind biting into his face and freezing his tears to his cheeks. At some point, he'd started laughing hysterically. He doubled-over, laughing and crying at the same time.

It had all been futile. He'd saved that woman's life, but now she would become a demon and kill hundreds if not thousands of others over the course of her long existence. He'd wanted to believe that at least his sacrifice had been worth something. Instead, it only seemed like he'd damned even more people. Had everything he'd ever done to help this territory been equally futile? Maybe he was only propping up a nightmarish system. But if so…then what did he have left?

Izuku rubbed his face. He felt light-headed. Perhaps he'd cried so hard he'd become dehydrated. He needed a drink. An alcoholic one, preferably.

At the local tavern, Izuku dropped a purse full of gold on the counter. "This is all yours. Keep the drinks coming as long as I'm mobile."

Something in his eyes made the bartender ask no questions.

By the fifth drink, Izuku's mind had started to float away. But he only slipped into nightmares, not dreams. He'd turned into a demon lord's perfect little doll because he thought he could help people. It had felt cruel to sacrifice his freedom. Now it seemed even crueler to learn that his sacrifice had been for nothing of any real value. Izuku poured the sixth drink down his throat without even stopping to breath. He didn't want to think any longer.

"Izuku?"

It was his father's voice. He wasn't drunk enough for hallucinations. Izuku reached for another mug.

Hisashi's hand batted his away. "Youngling, what are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Izuku tried to drag his drink back. It spilled all over the front of his yukata. He growled, "What a waste! That was good stuff."

"You're drunk."

Izuku snorted. "No, I'm only starting to be. Half-demons have a very high tolerance. I hope to get properly drunk shortly if you'll only leave."

Hisashi frowned. "What has you so upset?"

"Life, the universe, and everything." Izuku laughed. "I just realized how futile it all is."

"How what is? Is this about the magical experiments? I promise, I'll set aside all the time you need to supervise you so you can continue your projects."

"Oh, no, I'd basically forgotten about that." Izuku lunged for his mug.

His father held it away. "Then did Tomura do something to upset you?"

"For fuck's sake, leave poor Tomura out of this." Izuku wagged his finger to cut his father off. "Don't even try to correct my language, I'm not in the mood. I just realized that everything I've ever done to try to help people has been completely futile, if not actively making things worse. This is a situation worthy of dropping a fuck."

"What are you talking about?" Hisashi started to sound panicked. "You love your charitable projects. They bring you almost as much joy as magical analysis."

"Not anymore." Izuku stared longing at the drink held slightly out of his reach. "You were right. Nothing I did ever mattered. You win."

Hisashi did not look at all happy about his supposed victory. "Surely you don't mean that. You'll feel better tomorrow, after the alcohol wears off. Come on, I'm taking you to bed." Hisashi lifted Izuku into his arms like a small child and carried him toward the door. "I'll look after you."

"Fuck you."

Hisashi's arms tightened. "There's no call for that."

"What are you going to do? Are you going to take even more from me?" Izuku laughed darkly. "Give it your best shot! See if you can make me hate living even more!" He hiccupped. "You know, once upon a time, maybe we could have had a real father-son relationship. If you hadn't been so determined to always have everything your own way, if you hadn't kept pushing, then I would have been willing to try. But I bet nothing ever would have been enough for you. You wanted to give a perfect childhood to a perfect son who adored you, but nothing in real life is perfect. I'm tired of having to pretend. I just want to be unhappy for a bit, without you trying to fix it. But you're not even listening to me, are you?"

Hisashi walked faster. Izuku's vision started to blur. Either he'd been drunker than he'd thought, or his father had decided to remove further argument by enchanting him to sleep.

Izuku woke up in his bedroom. His door was locked and sealed by magic. A note informed him that he was not permitted to leave his room until further notice because his father was concerned he might hurt himself.

Out loud to the empty room, Izuku said, "When I challenged you to try and make me even more miserable, I didn't mean for you to take me up on it." Then he giggled until he started crying again.

Hisashi was trying very hard not to panic. But what Izuku had said last night had terrified him. The look in his son's eyes had been too empty to dismiss the words as a joke. What had brought this on? Everything had been going so well lately!

Unfortunately, Hisashi remembered a very similar look in Yoichi's eyes shortly before the creation of One for All. His little brother had started talking about how nothing he did could ever change demonic society shortly before he'd decided to shatter his own soul.

For a long time, Hisashi had used Izuku's ridiculous sentimental attachments to unrelated humans in order to achieve deals between them. If that lever had vanished, then he lacked a good replacement. He still had Tomura, but Izuku got very upset when Tomura was used against him. Hisashi had to be careful not to use that one too often. Yoichi had decided to destroy himself shortly after Hisashi had killed some of his worthless human friends. Hisashi had resolved to be more careful with Izuku. But now he didn't even understand what he'd done wrong. What could have changed in such a short period?

Hisashi didn't know, and for that reason, he didn't dare let Izuku out of his room. Who knew what his poor son might do in his current mental state?

Even before this, Izuku had refused to accept his place as a full demon and Hisashi's heir. His son had never seemed completely content. He still rejected parental care. Sometimes, Hisashi felt like Izuku smiled more genuinely at Tomura than himself, and that was absolutely unacceptable.

The more Izuku pulled back, the more Hisashi wanted from him. He understood his own demonic nature well enough to see that. He'd been carefully keeping his greed under control so as not to rush matters.

Hisashi's fingers rapped on his desk. There must be a way to get everything he wanted. If only Izuku would finally accept his true demonic nature, then his silly scruples and worrying sacrificial tendencies would surely vanish.

Then, finally, everything would be perfect.

Hisashi stood up, confident in his new plan. This would finally be the gift that would make Izuku love him.

Izuku sat on his bed and seethed. He was too angry to read or write in a notebook. Of course the instant he showed any vulnerability, his father reacted by locking him up. Would Izuku have to lie and pretend to be fine if he ever wanted to leave this room? He was so tired of lying.

Hisashi opened the door. He held a plate with a peppermint cookie. "Can we talk, youngling?"

A gift to appease him, as usual. Izuku snorted.

"You'll feel better if you eat." Hisashi held out the plate.

"If I eat this, will you let me out?" Izuku was too tired for more subtle bargaining.

Hisashi recoiled with shock. "Of course! I wasn't planning on keeping you here for long. I just need to have an important conversation with you first."

Well, that was one bit of good news. Izuku accepted the cookie and took a bite. "I'm your captive audience."

Ignoring the sarcasm, Hisashi sat down on the bed next to him. "What you said last night scared me. You mean more than the world to me. I can't bear to see you hurt yourself."

"I wouldn't do that." Izuku looked at his hands. You're the one hurting me.

Hisashi beamed. "On further reflection, I thought it might be for the best that you're letting go of your silly obsession with humans."

"Yes. For the best," Izuku said dully. He swallowed a bite of his cookie, barely tasting it.

"Perhaps it's time for me to reveal something I've been keeping secret. Once you understand, I believe you'll finally leave your last tie to humanity behind."

Never. "Sounds good. I'd prefer you to lie to me less if possible."

Hisashi said, "You're not an ordinary half-demon. You're the direct descendant of the noble house of Greed. You bear the mark of Greed on your soul."

"Yes, yes, I'm very special, or so you keep telling me."

"You are. Most half-demons are very similar to humans unless they are transformed. You've always been closer to a full demon. In fact, you were born with more magic than most middle-class demons achieve in their entire lives."

Izuku looked up. He recognized some truth to this: his pointed ears, teeth and claws had sometimes made people mistake him for a full demon. "What are you saying?"

Hisashi met his gaze. "You were born needing to eat souls, the same as any full demon."

Izuku's world rocked. He swallowed. "You're lying. You're lying to me, because you want to transform me into a full demon. Do you think that you can force a transformation on me against my will and I'll fail to notice? Do you imagine me to be that stupid?" Izuku didn't want to believe his father could possibly be telling the truth. But he remembered the contract Hisashi had forced him to sign, that had declared him to be a full demon. Then he thought of how quickly magical experiments had come to him. He remembered his father's insistence that he should have the magical power to transform into a dragon. No. It couldn't be true.

Hisashi sighed. "You've been getting closer to becoming a full demon ever since you ate your first soul. But you've been subconsciously suppressing the transformation, because of your hatred of demons. It's not healthy for you to carry so much self-hatred inside you."

"I've never eaten a soul!" Izuku half-screamed.

Hisashi looked down with a cruel gentleness in his gaze. "You've been killing people for years as a mercenary. You fed then, like the other demons in your troop, without even noticing it. I'm afraid you never got quite as much food as you needed, or you'd be able to transform into a dragon already."

Izuku's breathing hoarsened. He could barely see. He could barely think. "B-but, after I left the Present Mercenaries, I…"

Hisashi said, "Naturally, as your father, I took over feeding you souls. They've been in your food. You always feel much more energetic after eating one of my cookies, remember?"

The plate with the half-eaten cookie fell from Izuku's hand to the floor. He stuck a finger down his throat, scratching the spongy tissue, trying to force himself to throw up.

With great care, Hisashi grabbed Izuku's hand and forced it away. He said, "You've already absorbed the soul energy. Even if you throw up the physical food, you can't expel it."

"No, no, you're lying." Izuku scrambled for a counterargument. "My teeth sharpened when I was nine years old! I didn't join my first mercenary troop until several years later."

"Ah. That's why I've waited so long to tell you." Hisashi bit his lip, his hands uncharacteristically twitchy. "Izuku, please, you must understand that none of this is your fault. Inko was a human woman. She couldn't have properly raised a noble demon child. She didn't know how. She never expected you to be different from other half-demons. You were being starved. You reacted as any living thing would have when on the verge of death."

"I don't understand what you're saying." Izuku didn't want to understand.

"When you lost your mind from hunger, you attacked the nearest human." Hisashi's voice was agonizingly gentle. "I believe you blacked out the memory afterward from trauma and shock."

Against his own will, Izuku once again remembered standing over his mother's dead body. He remembered the slash marks across her chest. This time, he remembered the blood dripping from under his fingernails.

Because he'd tried to bandage her wounds. Yes, he remembered that part. He'd gotten blood all over himself trying to save her.

But why did he remember blood on his hands back when he'd first found the body?

"No," Izuku said numbly. "The village would have executed me if they had the slightest suspicion. They hated me!"

Hisashi said, "I'm sure your grief, being genuine, convinced them of your innocence."

"I never would have hurt my mother! I loved her!"

Hisashi patted his son's back. "You weren't in the right mind. You can't blame yourself. If anything, Inko was to blame for starving you, even if she didn't realize what she was doing."

Izuku pushed the unwanted hand away. "Don't you dare blame her!" He wanted to keep denying it. But a part of him had always known it was true. His need to save people had covered up a deep well of self-loathing.

"But it's okay. I prepared a gift to fix it. Finally, I found the perfect pet for you."

Izuku stared wild-eyed. "You want to fix that I murdered my mother with a pet?" Speaking it out loud made it real. Horror shook his body. He sobbed, tears pouring down in waves.

Hisashi held up a handkerchief to his face. "You were very young. You didn't manage to quite eat the full soul. I found where she was buried and dug up the remains. Inko? You can come in now."

The bedroom door opened. Inko Midoriya stepped inside. She looked rosy-cheeked and healthy, with her hair pulled back in a bun. She wore a green kimono decorated with flowers.

Izuku leapt to his feet. "M-mom?" All of this felt like a horrible nightmare. He could almost believe that the bad dream had shifted, as dreams were prone to do, into happier vision. He did not dare touch her for fear she'd vanish.

Inko's lips wrenched upward, but it couldn't be called a smile. She groaned. "Izu?" Her glassy eyes seemed to look through him. A bit of drool slid down her chin.

Hisashi said, "This was the best I could do. She has about the same intelligence as a dog or cat, but she can at least feed herself. There are some remnants of recognition and emotion. We'll have to hire a caretaker to look after her. I expect she'll eventually be able to speak simple phrases. It's better than my first resurrection. Unlike my brother, her soul wasn't completely shattered. All in all, I'm proud of my efforts. It took me over a year and enough magic to fuel a city, but it was all for your sake, my dear son."

The words washed over Izuku like white noise, until the last sentence. How dare his father say that this was for his sake? "You desecrated my mother's corpse, you absolute madman, I'll never forgive you for this!"

Izuku lunged at his father, determined to become a self-made orphan. But before his claws could reach, he dropped to his knees. His body felt hot all over. His limbs shivered and tingled. "What have you done to me?" he growled, his words slurred as his teeth elongated.

Hisashi picked him up. Izuku tried to fight, but he could only tremble. Hisashi said, "I haven't done anything. Only your denial was holding back your complete transformation. Now that you know the truth, your true self is coming forth. The extra souls in the cookie were merely to help the process. It will be even more painful if you lack fuel."

Izuku wailed as his bones shifted and grinded.

Hisashi tucked him into bed. "I'll bring you a soothing potion. After the transformation, I just know you'll feel wonderful. You'll let go of your last link to humanity. Then you won't feel guilty any longer. Everything will be perfect."

Izuku screamed until his throat gave out.

When his father returned with the potion, Izuku tried to bite his face off. Hisashi held Izuku down and poured it down his throat. Hisashi kept visiting many times, changing the cold cloth on his forehead and wiping away blood as his horns sprouted. Izuku's throat had become too hoarse from screaming to even tell him to fuck off.

The corpse doll visited several times, too. Each time, Izuku went insane, trying to shove it out of the room. Unfortunately, this was little enough change from his usual state that his father failed to even notice his distress. He left the doll in the room with Izuku. Thrashing on the bed, Izuku suffered under the gaze of the mother he'd killed. He would have looked for a sharp object to slit his wrists if he could move from the bed.

Once, Tomura visited. "You look awful, cuz. I brought your favorite soup. Do you think you can swallow it?" Tomura's voice turned mischievous. "I brought you a bit of whiskey as a reward if you can. Just promise not to tell your father."

Izuku gripped Tomura's hand. "Please, help me leave."

"Leave?" Tomura sounded confused. "You're far too weak to stand up."

"I can't stay here any longer. I'm sorry, Tomura. I don't want to abandon you, but I can't stay here. Please escape with me." Izuku clutched his cousin as tightly as he could with his weak, feverish hands.

Tomura patted his head. "You're delirious. We're both already home. You'll feel better after the transformation. Lord Hisashi says that becoming a full demon will help you. You can trust him."

Izuku sobbed and begged some more, but Tomura didn't seem to understand.

After Tomura left, Izuku reached under his shirt and pulled out the cat charm. "Please, help me," he whispered. Then he snapped it in two.

In a distant place in the human lands, a matching charm lit up like a beacon.

A human man stepped through a glowing portal. Long, scraggly black hair fell over his face. He looked like a hobo between his stained brown tunic and several days' worth of stubble on his chin. His eyes glowed red, casting rosy light over an insomniac's bags. His hair lifted above his ears. Lines of black magic crawled all over his skin. The tattoos shifted rapidly between runes in a dozen languages, creeping across his face and every inch of visible skin.

No one except Demon Lord Hisashi could teleport into or around the Black Keep of Greed. The magic protecting Greed's stronghold had held firm for seven hundred thousand years. Even during the darkest hours of the House of Greed, a millennium ago when Pride, Gluttony, and Wrath had joined forces to invade them together, three demonic houses combined hadn't managed to penetrate the castle walls.

This solitary human man walked through the wards as if they were cobwebs.

Stepping into a fancy bedroom, the man bent over the bed holding a green-haired demon boy.

The protective magics of Greed attacked the intruder immediately. Eons of magic crackled around his skin, then ceased to exist. His tattoos gleamed black. This man was feared by demons around the world for his ability to break even the strongest magic. He was humanity's greatest weapon. The demons called him many names: Magic-Breaker. Walking Calamity. Abomination.

His teeth pulled back into a grin, Shouto Aizawa shook Izuku awake. "Hey, kid. You summoned me. Are you Yamada's problem child?"

Hisashi's hands shook with a mixture of fury and terror. He did not understand how this could have happened. His security had been perfect! His last remaining family member had been safe! Even if Izuku had been able to walk—and he couldn't have, not in his current delicate state—then he never could have left his room without triggering thousands of alarms, much less left the safety of the castle.

The magic hadn't even been destroyed. His protections remained completely, uselessly in place. Only his son was gone.

At first, Hisashi had convinced himself that Izuku must be hiding somewhere in the castle. He'd ripped half the keep to pieces looking before he'd acknowledged that his son had somehow, impossibly vanished from the single most secure location in existence.

Animal panic clawed at the back of Hisashi's mind, whispering No, no, not again, but he kept his tension carefully wound like a spring. He could not afford to break down, not until he had his beloved child back safely in his arms.

He moved down the list of every single last thing that could have done this, finally settling on the Walking Calamity. But even the Magic-Breaker Shouta Aizawa couldn't have invaded so easily—not unless Izuku had used magic from the inside of the castle to let him in.

Had Hisashi made a mistake? He'd been so confident that Izuku would be happy to see Inko, but his son hadn't liked the gift at all.

No, Hisashi felt quite confident that his plan would have worked if only Izuku had finished transforming. Once his son embraced his demonic heritage, it would have been so much easier to make him see the truth. It had come as a shock to Izuku to learn that he'd already been eating souls. That was as expected. But Hisashi still believed that once Izuku got over his understandable trauma about his mother's death, he would see that he'd been eating souls for years and it had been perfectly fine. Then Izuku would have finally accepted his rightful place as Prince of Greed.

Everything was the fault of the wretched human who had taken advantage of Izuku during his momentary weakness and kidnapped him. What would happen to his poor son now? Izuku had been foolish to trust the humans. They would turn on him the instant it offered them an advantage. They might imprison him, take him hostage, or even torture him.

Hisashi overturned his desk with a cry of rage. The papers and quill pen spilled across the floor.

Tomura cleared his throat from the doorway. He eyed the wrecked office full of holes in the wall with concern. "I'm sorry, my lord. Izuku asked me to leave with him, but I mistook it for a fever dream. I should have taken him more seriously."

Izuku had asked Tomura to escape together? Then Izuku still cared about Tomura. The weakness that Hisashi had created was still intact. He could use this to find and retrieve his son.

Taking deep breaths, Hisashi forced a smile onto his face. From the way Tomura took a step backward, he had not been successful. With false calmness, Hisashi said, "The humans who kidnapped Izuku are to blame, not you. Tomura, I order you to find them and bring my son back to me."

Tomura bowed. "As you command, my lord."

With a flick of Hisashi's fingers, an envelope appeared in his hand. "This is a letter of introduction for King Enji Todoroki, and a copy of Izuku's adoption contract."

Tomura's nose wrinkled. "Why go to that traitorous envy demon for help?"

"Because Izuku has almost certainly been taken to the human lands. Human monarchs have no legal obligation to enforce demonic contracts, but Enji does." Or at least Hisashi could make a convincing argument to that effect. Enji Todoroki had fled the demonic continent many years ago, married a human princess, and become reluctantly accepted as a king of a small border nation. The local humans were desperate enough to accept a demon leader as long as he used his powers to protect his subjects from invasion by his fellow demons. Enji had clearly gone native, so Hisashi had prepared a carrot in addition to the stick. "Privately, take Enji aside and tell him that I have information on the location of his missing son, Touya Todoroki. If he ever wants to see his child again, then he'll help me find mine."

In retrospect, Hisashi had gone too easy on Izuku. In consideration for his son's mannerless human upbringing, he'd tolerated far more disrespect and defiance than most demonic parents would have. But Izuku had crossed the line by running away…since this foolishly endangered his life. Naturally, Hisashi had only his son's safety and best interests at heart. He'd spent a millennium regretting the loss of his brother, and he would not make the same mistake with his only child. His mind turned, planning how to construct a bedroom and bathroom inside his hoard.

Izuku thrashed and moaned on an unfamiliar bed, much narrower than his old one. The sheets felt rougher. With his new wings, he couldn't lie comfortably. A gruff but kind voice asked, "Would you like a drink of water?"

In a weak voice, Izuku said, "You shouldn't have saved me, Mr. Aizawa. I'm sorry."

"Do you want to go back?"

"No! Never!" Izuku screamed. His voice lowered. "But I'm going to die. Then my father will blame you. I'm sorry, I should never have called for your help. I've brought his wrath down on you for nothing."

"The demons can hardly want me more dead." Aizawa snorted. "But you're not going to die, problem child. You've gotten past the worst of the transformation."

Izuku whispered, "Then I'll starve to death, because I'll never eat another soul again."

Aizawa hesitated. "You could join the military and obtain souls that way. Many demons prefer that solution."

"No. I won't eat another soul. Not even if I kill someone in self-defense. I'll never eat a single soul again for as long as I live, which means I won't live much longer." Izuku spoke with cold finality.

Aizawa said, "There's another way. Have you ever heard of a sword called One for All?"

Izuku's eyes widened. He felt a small stirring of hope. If he didn't have to die, then he would devote his life to making up for his sins and saving people. "But that was lost forever."

Aizawa said, "No, it wasn't. I know the man who currently wields it. His title is All Might."

OMAKE TIME!

Omake: Not Having the Same Conversation

Izuku: So you're telling me there's no escape from you.

Hisashi: Of course not. If you were to ever die—an impossible occurrence under my protection—then I'd carefully preserve your corpse next to your uncle's until I found a way to resurrect you.

Izuku: …So about that soul-shattering magic your brother used? I'm going to research that now.

Hisashi: But whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy?

#

Omake: The Good Ending

Hisashi: I've finally found my long-lost child! This pink-cheeked girl possesses such a strong greed that she must be my heir.

Ochaco: I have a rich father now!

Izuku: I'm going to peace out and happily live the rest of my life with no demonic stalkers.

#

Omake: Why Hisashi Researched Body Control Magic Next

Hisashi: I'm locking you up in my hoard forever.

Izuku: You're imprisoning me with all your most precious, destroyable belongings?

Hisashi: I might not have thought this through.

#

Omake: Incorrect Quotes, the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch Edition

Hisashi: Stop referring to your uncle as dead. He's…resting.

Izuku: Look, Dad, I know a dead demon when I see one—I've killed enough of them—and I'm looking at demon's corpse right now.

Hisashi: Doesn't he have lovely white wings? They're extremely rare among demons.

Izuku: The plumage doesn't enter into it. He's stone cold dead.

Hisashi: There, he moved.

Izuku: I saw you use your creepy magical strings to lift his arm.

Hisashi: I never.

Izuku: Yes, you did!

Hisashi: He's probably pining for the fjords.

Izuku: What alternate universe did you get that one from? I can't help noticing that you sealed him into a cave with no airholes. If he was alive, then he'd need to breathe.

Hisashi: If I let your uncle have the tiniest hole in this cave, then he'd zoom out of here.

Izuku: Zoom? This demon wouldn't zoom if you ran four million volts and a speed potion through his corpse. He's bleeding demised!

Hisashi: He's pining.

Izuku: He's not pining! He's passed on! This demon is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the throne he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible! THIS IS AN EX-DEMON!

Hisashi: I'd better replace him, then.

Izuku: Why are you looking at me like that?

Author's Note: So many readers guessed Izuku killed Inko that I had to make the reveal even worse by adding a zombie Inko. You can only blame yourselves.

A major theme in this story is how Hisashi keeps trying to make Izuku happy, but refuses to listen to Izuku about what he wants. Zombie Inko is yet another example. Izuku repeatedly expressed his negative feelings about zombified loved ones, but Hisashi still thought "this is what I would want in his place, so I'm sure he'll love it."

As shown in the sequel, The Sin of Greed, Izuku did find One for All. However, I don't advise reading that story unless you want to be even more depressed. Trust me, this is as happy an ending as it gets.

I commissioned the amazingly talented tunafishprincess to draw one of my favorite scenes in this fic. I love the shading, the blue light, the expressions, and the beautiful clothing. Every last part is perfect. Delete the spaces to get the link:
tunafishprincess.
tumblr.
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post/685093631694176256/art-commission-for-aimportantdragoncollector-s