I'll be completely honest, I didn't expect such a positive reception after two months of being away, but seeing as that was the case, I'll try and keep the updates a little more consistent. I can't say that I'm against overwhelming positivity, so thank you for that. I saw some of the theories about what happened after Izuku's little... break. Well, you're about to find out what happened in this chapter. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint.

But, before we get into the chapter...

WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES/MENTIONS/IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: CANNIBALISM, EXTREME GORE, BULLYING, ABUSE, BRUTAL DEATH, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, AND HEAVY BLOODSHED.

IF ANY OF THESE THINGS BOTHER YOU, TURN BACK NOW!

IF THE WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU...

THIS STORY IS A FAN-BASED FICTION

I OWN NEITHER MY HERO ACADEMIA NOR DEMON SLAYER/KIMETSU NO YAIBA

ALL I OWN ARE MY OCS.

[Vol 1 – 6: Slow Uprisings – Part 3]

Taste.

It was a foreign concept to Izuku. For 11 years, Izuku never knew what food tasted like. For 11 years, Izuku never understood why his mother would enjoy the food that she cooked, outside of the idea that it needed to be eaten, and that it provided her sustenance. For Izuku, he never got the chance to feel that, to understand that.

His mother tried to make food that he would like. It wasn't as if she was purposely making bland, uninspired, bottom-of-the-barrel food. It was just that Izuku could not use one of the many senses that humans needed to survive.

Taste.

Despite this, his mother would use a variety of spices in the meals she cooked, and several spicy sauces that she herself did not like, all in an attempt to see if he would react. Just to see if he could taste the spice. Or hell, taste anything at all. But it never worked. To him, the food his mother made, while assumedly good, he never got to understand why it was that she liked it. Why she hummed with a smile on her face when she took a bite of Udon, or why she practically jumped for joy when the wagyu beef was on sale.

It hurt him. Not literally, but figuratively, it hurt him. And so, he had given up on believing that one day he would be able to taste, believing that he had been what his doctor had called him – taste deaf. That he would never get to enjoy the simple pleasure of tasting the food that his mother loved to cook so much.

But this... was different. His vision was blurry. All he could see was red, his senses were going berserk, that much he knew. His hearing was fuzzy, so he couldn't make out the visceral screams that surrounded him. He felt his claws dig into something, all while he was eating... some form of meat. He could tell by the texture of the food that it was raw, but even so... it had... taste.

For the first time, he was able to taste food. He didn't know why, but he could. No matter what he ate in the past, it had no taste. He even tried eating raw steak, but it had no taste to it. So, whatever he was eating now, whatever food he had gotten his claws on, he could taste it. It was like heaven for Izuku. He could finally experience the sensation of taste! Finally! After all these years, he could understand why his mother loved to cook the food she did.

It was because the taste felt like home. It reminded him of all the good times he had. All the times he had smiled, all the times he had watched movies with his mom, all the times he had played at the playground with Natsumi.

And he couldn't. Get. Enough.

He couldn't compare it to anything, but he knew it tasted amazing. It was like heaven itself had fallen from the skies above and landed on his tongue. And so, because of that, he kept eating, kept shovelling the food into his mouth as if he was starving. He wanted more, he needed more, he craved the taste.

As he ate, his body felt rejuvenated, and the sensation he had been feeling earlier was no longer there. That dizzying feeling, the sense of fatigue. All of it had disappeared. He was no longer feeling delirious, or wobbly, or salivating at the mouth for food.

He felt his heartbeat slow down to a regular pace, his vision slowly beginning to return to normal, and his breathing going back to how it was before. But as his vision returned to him, it brought upon him a sight that he never, ever wanted to see. A sight so grizzly that it would forever be locked into his memory for the rest of his days.

And it all started with one thing.

Blood.

There was so... so much blood. It coated the walls, smothered the floors, and dripped from the ceiling. Large smears of bright red liquid decorated the ends of the hallway, culminating in the pool of the stuff right beneath him.

His hands were smeared in it, the points of his claws dripping in the substance. On the ends of some of his fingers were flaps of skin, dripping in the liquid life. He jumped back, tripping over something. When his butt hit the floor, he was greeted by a half-eaten, dismembered leg. His eyes widened, following to where the leg had been formerly connected, and that was when he saw it.

Her chest cavity had been ripped open, ribs exposed for the world to see. Her face was marred with a look of dread, betrayal, and horror. Tear stains ran down her cheeks as she lay there, limp and unmoving. A part of her head had been cracked open, and from what Izuku saw, unless you knew the finite details of how she appeared, recognizing her would be nearly impossible.

Izuku's breathing hastened as he scrambled away from the bloody corpse of his late mother. His eyes widened, as he looked at the blood trail that started from the kitchen, and ended by the edge of the hallway.

Did… did he do that?

Did he… did he eat his mother…?

"No… nononononononononono! T-This can't…! I…! I couldn't have…! I—" Izuku's thoughts devolved into a panic as he sat there, body against the counter as he curled his legs up into a ball, entering the fetal position as he rocked back and forth. His eyes stared pointedly at the floor as he choked back several sobs.

He lost track of time. He didn't know how long it had been since he sat there. How long it had been since the blood had dried, or how many times the phone had rung. Flies and maggots had started to crawl over his mother's corpse. A horrible, horrible stench filled the air, but for some reason, Izuku was not repulsed by it. Her body was past the point of Rigour Mortis.

He couldn't continue to be here anymore.

He had to leave.

He had to find somewhere else to live.

Izuku's eyes trailed up to the decaying body of his mother, blood smeared on his mouth and hands. He looked outside of one of the windows. It was night. He would be protected under the night's shadow. But first, he had to gather some of his belongings. He wasn't about to leave the house without taking some of his stuff.

Izuku didn't know why his thoughts had come to this. Why he was telling himself he had to leave? If anything, he wanted to be punished. Punished for his crimes against what he had done to his mother. That side of him had been his human side. The human side he had grown up with. But the louder, more demanding side of him, his monstrous side, his Demon side, demanded that he ran.

And so, he listened to the louder voice.

He ran past the corpse, not wanting to be reminded of it. He saw his laptop on his desk, still open on the page that he had been on, and still connected to the charger. He looked at the date on the bottom portion of the screen. He had sat there for almost a whole week. He shuttered at the thought but moved past it. He had to if he wanted to try and salvage whatever life he now had.

Izuku grabbed his laptop and charger, swung open his closet, and snagged a suitcase. He put the device in there, as well as all the clothes he knew fit him, his fedora, his ties, his suits, all of it. Izuku also took a few of the books he had, including the one on human anatomy that his… that the corpse in the hallway bought him.

After he had packed up everything, he ran to the back window. Like hell, he was going to use the front door, especially after what he had done. He threw the suitcase out the window, shattering the window in the process. It landed on the balcony that had been attached to the back of the house, and as Izuku slipped out, he gave one last glance at his former home.

"I'm… I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry mom… I… I…. no. I can't excuse myself. Not anymore. What's done is done. Her death will always burden me, and I shall never let myself forget it."And with that thought, Izuku Midoriya left.

xxXXxxXXxx

Mitsuki Bakugo was a very, very simple woman. Not simple as in stupid, she was actually razor smart. She had to be considering she worked for a high-end support company. Rather, she enjoyed the simplicities that life had to offer. She enjoyed walking, enjoyed her favourite shows, and enjoyed cooking for her family. But, Mitsuki was also the type of woman who didn't take no for an answer, depending on what it was, of course. But, that had been beside the point.

If one were to describe Mitsuki Bakugo, the first thing they would point out was her flawless skin. Now, granted, that was thanks to her Quirk, Glycerin, which made her skin as smooth, and as youthful as when she was in her early 20s, despite everyone knowing that she was in her late 30s.

Her hair was ash-blond, just like her son, Katsuki Bakugo. And just like her son, she had bright red eyes. Also just like her son, she had quite a temper. Currently, she was wearing a blue shirt and brown cargo pants, a rather basic yet also simple outfit. And right now, she was violently hammering on the Midoriya household's front door. Now, why could she be doing that? Was she mad at them for some reason or another?

No, actually. If anything, she was worried for her best friend and long-time wine-drinking buddy Inko Midoriya. The two had known each other since elementary school, and never once did she miss a phone call.

But this time? She had missed several. And it was starting to get concerning. Masaru had suggested to her to just go check on her, to see what the hell was going on. It had been a week and a half since she last heard from Inko. Even Katsuki had stopped by to see what was going on. But the door had been locked, and the curtains had completely covered the windows.

Katsuki had even tried calling out to Izuku, but he didn't come to answer the door. Which led Mitsuki to think something was wrong. "Come on, Inky! Open the door!" Mitsuki called out, hammering on the door. She stopped once her hand started to hurt. "Inko! If you don't open the door, I'll kick it in!"

Still no response. Well, she warned her. Mitsuki would replace it later. This was an emergency, and she was not about to go ignored. Placing the flat end of her leather ankle-high boots on the surface of the door, she kicked it open, the door nearly falling off of its hinges due to the force of the kick. And as soon as the door was opened, an awful, revolting smell followed suit, making Mitsuki gag.

She coughed several times, looking away from the door as she bit back tears of agony. The smell was that putrid. Pinching her nose, she slowly stepped into the house. All the lights were off, and one of the windows by the kitchen had been broken. She fished out her phone to get some light into the place, and what she saw nearly made her scream.

There were claw marks everywhere. Deep scratches on the walls, broken dishes and plates, toppled furniture, and worst of all, blood. So, so much blood. It had been dried, meaning the house had been like this for at least a handful of days. And then, as if it wasn't already apparent that something horrible had happened, she looked down to see what could only be described as a fly's breeding ground.

It looked like a giant pulsating white mass, the end of which had a foot. There was exposed bone and rotting flesh, disconnected from whatever body it had been attached to. Mitsuki felt a sense of dread. She didn't want to think about who that leg belonged to. But, it wasn't as if she had been given much of a choice. Because all it took was the lift of a head to see the rotting, decayed, barely recognizable remains of Inko. That had been the final straw as Mitsuki let out a horrible, blood-curdling scream.

She ran out of the house as if her life depended on it, tripping over her own feet as she face-planted into the outdoor balcony that bridged the other apartments from one to the other.

Scurrying to pick herself up, Mitsuki wanted to throw up, and she did just that. She walked over to the edge of the balcony and threw up everything that she had recently eaten. For three whole minutes, Mitsuki barfed, and when she was done, she was still gagging on the horrid smell that wafted from the blood-soaked apartment.

The next thing she did right after that was called the police. It didn't take long for them to arrive, especially after the reporting of what was most definitely murder. Mitsuki was escorted away from the scene, body shaking and eyes wet from tears.

Everything made sense now. It explained why Inko wasn't answering the phone. Inko was dead. But not only was Inko dead, but she had also been dead for at least a week. Maybe longer. The only question on her mind now was where Izuku was. She hadn't the nerve to re-enter the house to look for the green-haired boy, or whatever remained of the green-haired boy.

The idea of Izuku meeting a similar fate made the ash-blonde-haired woman want to violently punch a wall. Whatever villain had done that to her best friend, they were going to pay. And while she might've been powerless to do something, she knew the heroes and the police would be able to.

She just hoped that whatever villain did this to her best friend was put away for a long, long time. Or worse.

xxXXxxXXxx

Two weeks.

That was how long it had been since Izuku Midoriya had murdered and devoured his own mother. Two weeks, and in that time Izuku had learnt a lot. Of course, it took him a while to find a place to call his own. He found an old abandoned building that amazingly had power. He wasn't the only squatter in that building, but he hadn't met or seen any of them yet.

He planned to keep it that way.

In the two weeks that had passed, Izuku had finally begun to understand why it was he did what he had done. It was because his body had been changing. He noticed the change on the first day. How his body actively rejected anything that wasn't human flesh. He had tried to eat a rat in the alleyway to stop himself from growing hungry. But his body rejected it, resulting in him throwing up the barely digested rat.

He hadn't known why it had happened. But, it did. And he hated it. He hated the fact that his body was changing. It was almost like a twisted form of puberty. Like he was on the borderline between being human, and being whatever it was that he had become.

Was there a possible way for him to have changed that? Or was he destined to always become this? Whatever the case might've been, Izuku knew one thing for sure. That whatever it was that caused him to kill and eat his mother, he hated it. He hated how he could've never seen it coming. He hated how he couldn't have stopped himself. And worst of all, he hated how he could've prevented it if he had only clued into it sooner.

But, now was not the time to be looking back on the past. What was done, was done. The police were no doubt looking for him, or, perhaps they didn't put two and two together. Whatever the case was, Izuku knew he had to do something. He still had a list of heroes to kill, and now he had a way of disposing of the bodies.

If there was an upside to all of this, he found out that he had gotten a significant power boost from eating what it was that he did. Before, he could only make small cracks in walls, and regenerate basic cuts at a fast pace; faster than most regeneration Quirks. But now? Now, if he had a small cut, it healed as the cut was being made. Bigger wounds like sliced-off limbs and other things such as getting half of his face blown off took faster and hurt far less. He could also smash entire walls with a simple slap, which he had learned when trying to kill a fly that had landed on the wall next to him.

Now, as to how he figured out the regeneration stuff? Well, the former one he found out by slicing off his own arm out of pure anger to himself for what he had done to his mother, and the other? Well, he had gotten in the crossfire between a villain who could heat up metal and cause explosions, and a pro hero. As a result, half of his face had been torn off but regenerated a few moments later.

The fact remained that, from what he observed, eating people increased his abilities. It made him sick to his stomach, the idea of eating other people. But he no longer had a choice in the matter. His body would no longer accept any other type of food. And as much as he wanted to ignore the possible idea that he should eat people, he knew that it was out of his control.

Besides, as much as he hated the idea, it allowed him to now dispose of bodies without being seen. Especially when he killed fake heroes. He could just eat their bodies and leave nothing behind. Of course, he'd need to make it discrete enough and make sure there were no witnesses beforehand. But, it could be done. That, and it would make him stronger. The more fake heroes he killed, and the more he devoured, the more powerful he became. It was a win-win scenario.

That, and he was trying to think of it on the positive side. Yes, he ate and killed his mother, but her death wouldn't be in vain. If anything, her death made him stronger. Still, it didn't mean he liked it.

And speaking of fake heroes. Once he got set up in the building that he was in, he did more research on his next victim.

The hero in question was named Blackshot. His Quirk allowed him to shoot black orbs out of his fingers. The black orbs would latch onto someone's body and impede them, and in doing so would add weight to them, making them slower and easier to capture. He had captured and arrested over 80 villains in his short time as a hero, and saved hundreds of civilians.

However, his good deeds did not cover for the bad. According to several sources, some trustworthy and others sketchy at best, and misleading at worst, he had sexually assaulted several of his female interns. Sometimes it was mentioned how he also sexually assaulted some of his male interns, as well. However, his PR team was able to cover up all of them from the public. What made things worse was that some were as young as 15 years old, the oldest recorded case being 23 years old.

And the best part? He was currently in Musutafu. He was sent here to do some patrols. That meant he was in Izuku's area. He had been researching Blackshot for the whole week, and now he was prepared. He felt stronger and faster. He had anger that he had to get out, and who better to do that on than a pedophile who molested children interns?

That, and the irony of a child being the one who killed him would make it even better. Now all Izuku had to do was pin down where it was Blackshot was, and that was all she wrote. A toothy grin made its way to Izuku's face, closing his laptop as he slowly stood up. It was perfect timing, too, because he had been rather hungry after not eating for two weeks.

It was time to do a patrol of his own.

Turning to face one of the unboarded windows, placing his white fedora on his head, he lept down from the building, landing with a thud as the ground underneath him cracked. His predatory red eyes looked up to the mouth of the alleyway. Walking out into the sidewalk, he put his hands into his pockets, walking away from the building he now called home.

Walking the streets now had a different feeling. Everyone he walked next to, he now had to consider prey. He was a predator, walking amongst his future prey. Well, that was if he ever planned on targeting innocent civilians. Though, he doubted it.

He doubted that he would ever hurt the innocent. As far as he was concerned, those who harmed the innocent and those who paraded around as heroes, but were anything but, were the ones that had to fear him. He would never take another innocent life, ever again. He made that mistake once, and it was one that he told himself he would never do again.

But, a dark, nasty part of his mind told him that he could never be too sure about it. After all, he had murdered his mother in cold blood. What was going to stop him from ripping apart another civilian? What if his bloodlust and hunger got too much for him to control, and he ended up devouring an innocent child walking home from school?

There were so many what-ifs, but Izuku had neither the time nor the patience to sit through them all. He had to find and kill the fake hero he had his sights on. He would worry about the what-ifs at a later point.

It took him a few hours, the sun on the verge of setting, but eventually, he found someone who looked like the hero in question. He was off-duty as it seemed, wearing a black and white striped shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and the same ball-like hair that the man was known to have.

The man's real name was Minoto Mineta. He allegedly had a child and a wife, but neither knew of what he did. It was a shame. He was a family man, yet he threw it all away because he wanted to sexually abuse his interns. Quite disgusting, really. Izuku wanted to growl once he saw him, but, he kept a lid on his anger. It was still daylight, and tons of people were still around, heading home from work. They'd hear him scream if he dragged the fake into an alleyway.

So, he'd have to do something to get his attention.

Izuku walked past the man, bumping into his leg on purpose, making him snap out of the trance he seemed to be in. Their eyes met, and then he looked at Izuku's hand. He had stolen the man's wallet. Immediately, the boy ran, and once he found a secluded enough section of the city, he ducked into a far away alleyway, far enough away so that no one would try and look into it if they heard someone scream. The best part? The man had followed him the whole way.

Izuku smirked. He fell for the bait hook, line, and sinker.

Izuku jumped up to the wall, avoiding the security camera that was about to turn in his direction. Using his bone whips, he counted each camera, then destroyed each and every one of them. It took only a few seconds, and by the time Minoto walked into the alleyway, Izuku was back down on the ground, Minoto's wallet in hand as the fake hero glared at him.

"You messed up, kid! I'm a pro hero, you know that! That's stealing, which means you can be put under arrest!" Minoto exclaimed, pointing his finger at Izuku, who rolled his eyes.

"Says the pedophile," Izuku spat, glaring at the fake hero, whose eyes widened. "Oh? You thought your PR team would hide all the allegations levied against you? How naïve can you be? It's quite disgusting, really. Some of the stories, I mean," Izuku said, his voice radiating with rage as he crushed the pro-heroes wallet, dropping it to the floor as he stomped it into the ground, the pavement cracking as he did so.

"Shuichi Nagamoto, 17 years old, claimed you had raped him in the bathroom of the internship building, and proof of such had been found. They were prepared to take you to court, but your lawyers squashed the case before it could go to court, paid the boy's family 25 million yen to keep it hush-hush, and then suddenly the suit was dropped." Izuku snarled, flexing his claws inward and out from his palm.

Minoto scoffed, a black ball appearing on his fingertip. "Those are just allegations! They have no proof! Why do you think it was so easy to squash them in court?" Minoto replied, a nonchalant tone to his voice.

"Chihiro Sakamura, 16 years old, claimed you had pinned her to the wall using your Quirk and forced her to suck you off, or else you'd blacklist her from every agency in Esuha. There is video evidence to suggest that you did that one. But, once again, your lawyers squashed it down as doctored footage and doctored it themselves to prove that claim. In fact, it was on the same day as the tape had been recorded, meaning the prosecutor at the time couldn't prove that it wasn't edited by the family, leading to the case being funnelled out of court."

"Well! It was doctored by the family! Why would I do that to someone!" Minoto snarled, his eyes narrowed at the green-and-black-haired boy. "Besides! Why should I even answer to a brat like you? Huh?! Now, prepare to feel the full force of—"

He wasn't allowed to continue as a bone whip stabbed through his throat, faster than he could react. Minoto tried to back away, only for Izuku to reel him in like a fish on a hook, then using his claws, stabbed the "heroes" chest with them, blood rocketing out of his mouth.

"I could go on and on about your crimes, Minoto Mineta. That barely even scratches the surface of the horrible things you've done. You're a fake hero and a monster who shouldn't be allowed to live in regular humane society. I'm bringing justice to all the kids and adults you abused, and when they hear that you died, I can only assume they'll be cheering and crying for joy. Your crimes may have gone unpunished by law enforcement, but they won't be ignored by me."

And just like that, the light in Minoto's eyes vanished, his body limp in Izuku's hands. Izuku's sneer turned into a toothy smile as he slammed the fake hero's corpse to the ground, dragging him behind a dumpster and a few trash cans, completely hiding the corpse from public view. The smell of the blood rushed into his nostrils, and an animalistic sensation took over.

Izuku began to tear out chunks of skin, flesh, and muscle from the corpse, devouring them in full. Blood coated the floor as he dug into his latest kill. With each mouthful of flesh and blood, he felt his skin prickle in delight. With each taste of flesh and sip of blood, Izuku taste the fear and the dread that the monster in human skin known as Minoto felt when he was impaled through the throat, and the second time when he was impaled on Izuku's claws.

Unlike the time he fed on his mother, he didn't feel remorse for his actions. In fact, he felt a sense of justice as he devoured the man's body. Second by second, minute by minute, his body became unrecognizable. And after fifteen minutes, there were only a few recognizable details on the body, such as his eyes, the lower half of his skull with his teeth intact, and a few flaps of skin and muscle. The rest was nothing but a skeleton and torn-apart clothes.

Izuku swallowed the last remaining bits of meat, his hands coated in blood, the same blood dripping from his mouth as he felt a wave of power rush through him, as the hunger he had been feeling since this morning subsided.

Wiping his mouth from the blood, Izuku stood up, wiping the blood off of his hands and on the walls before dusting off his suit. He was lucky to not get blood on it. It would've been a hell of a time to clean it out. When he was finished, the number of people who had been on the sidewalk had decreased tenfold. And so, Izuku decided to step out of the alleyway, joining the unknowing crowd.

His hunt was successful.

When he got back to the building he had chosen as his new home an hour and a half later, he started to plan his next hunt. After all, fake heroes were abundant in nature, and so long as they committed an actual crime that was worthy of his judgment, Izuku would make them his next meal.

And seeing as he was a growing boy, he'd need every last morsel he could stuff down his throat. Growing boys needed to eat to get strong, and Izuku was not about to stop after three fake heroes, two of which he didn't devour, and one he did. Izuku closed his eyes, thinking back to his Mom. She wouldn't be too happy at him for what he was doing. But she wasn't here anymore, all thanks to him.

He had already grieved for her death and subsequently beat himself up over her death for over three weeks. He had to move past it. Was it cruel to think such a thing? Potentially, but he didn't want to linger on the past. It was the same thing when Natsumi died. He didn't want to linger on their deaths and bog himself down for it.

And so, with that in mind, his mind focused on the present, and what he was going to do from here on out. The other options he had planned out for himself were gone. He could no longer become a hero because he would never, ever allow himself to do so after what he had done to his mother. He would never become a politician because of his criminal record. And now that he knew he wasn't human, being a normal citizen was off the table now, too.

Which only left him one option.

He was going to become a villain. And not just any villain. Why settle for being a pawn, when he could become a king? He smirked. His ambitions were now clear, and his mind made up.

"From this day forth, I, Izuku Midoriya, will become Japan's strongest, greatest, and most feared Villain. Look out Japan… your new Demon King is here."

To Be Continued in – Vol 2 – 1: Revelations – Part 1

I'll admit, the end of this arc feels rushed. However, Izuku has now come into his own and has made up his mind. There will be a pretty big time skip after this, like, a good solid few-year time skip. I don't want to write the same thing over and over again: Izuku does research about a fake hero, Izuku kills and devours the fake hero, and the public reacts; rinse and repeat. That would get boring rather quickly, and I would probably burn out.

So, henceforth there will be a time skip. I know some people don't like those, but that's on you. We spent 7 chapters on Izuku's early life. I don't want to milk this crap any more than I have to.

That being said, now that this arc is over, I want to know everyone's opinion. The build-up is over, and now we're heading into the main story. Izuku's motivations have been laid out, and now all that has to happen is for things to begin to fall into place.

Until next time everyone. Peace out!