Chapter Text
All for One was in a truly foul mood. He’d been dragged out to the Japanese countryside by the promise of a child with a super-rare nullification quirk, similar to Erasure but even longer lasting. An impoverished farming family had offered to sell their son’s quirk to him for ten billion yen, not knowing that he would have paid double that. Especially with that blasted All Might nipping ever closer at his heels, destroying his businesses and dragging him toward their inevitable deadly confrontation. Hisashi Shigaraki had plenty of money from his two centuries as a villain, and he valued survival above all else.
But he’d taken a wrong turn and gotten lost in the forest, only to stumble upon this isolated town by accident. His GPS had led him here. But the peculiarly old-fashioned town was completely deserted. Strangely, the empty festival stalls overflowed with delicious-smelling food. Surely someone must have cooked this feast.
Hisashi checked his phone. He’d texted his contact twice, but the last message had gone undelivered. He had no mobile data. His GPS no longer worked, either. He must be in the wrong town after all.
Sighing, Hisashi grabbed an empty plate and helped himself to a chicken drumstick. He knew exactly what would make him feel better—a bit of petty theft! He’d dine and dash before the stall owner got back. Hisashi had plenty of cash in his wallet, but he found stealing more emotionally satisfying.
The meat tasted perfectly juicy and succulent. Hisashi must have been hungrier than he’d realized. Once he started eating, he couldn’t stop. He licked his fingers, then reached for the bowl of roasted potatoes.
Eating those just made him even hungrier. Hisashi dumped mac and cheese on his plate—then stopped, his fork almost at his mouth.
Something felt odd. He’d lost control of his body for a moment, and he didn’t like it. Nor did he like the sudden hints of shadows darting between buildings and the distant sound of flute music. Hisashi pushed back his chair and leapt to his feet.
When he turned around, a woman with nine fox tails stood behind him. She wore a bright red kimono. Running her tongue over scarlet-painted lips, she said, “I see we’ve caught another thief for the dinner table.”
What an interesting quirk! He could sell it to a mythology fan for a pretty penny. His palms glowing red, Hisashi reached out.
Nothing happened. For the first time since One for All, he couldn’t steal a quirk. Hisashi stared at the woman, seeking any hint of familial resemblance, but her narrow face and foxlike features looked nothing like him or his younger brother. Furthermore, he’d always been able to detect One for All, delicious but out of reach. He felt no quirk inside this woman at all.
It’s almost as if she’s a real spirit. Hisashi shook off the nonsensical thought.
A sudden wave of dizziness made Hisashi stagger. He gripped the table. His palms felt slick with sweat. A ridge of white fur popped up on the back of his hand, running down his knuckles to his wrist.
“The transformation is already starting,” the kitsune said.
Hisashi had a keen survival instinct, or he wouldn’t have lasted so long as master of Japan’s underworld. He did not ask what she meant. He ran.
Had the nullification quirk been a trap? What ability was affecting him? He hoped it would stop if he got out of range. He summoned his spring limbs to leap forward.
Nothing happened. None of his quirks responded to him.
For the first time, Hisashi felt panic. With a tingling and a ripping sound, fur sprouted from his face and his neck. His fingers turned hard and black, melding together. He had to get out of here! Without his quirks, he’d be helpless before any enemy!
His legs shifted and shortened. He fell forward, landing not on his hands, but on two black hooves. He had a pair of sheep legs.
This couldn’t be real. He had a quirk to prevent animal transformations from being forced on him. Any moment now, he’d wake up back in his underground lair, then order Dr. Garaki to find him a quirk that prevented bad dreams.
A giant fox as tall as a house loomed over him. The beast’s slavering breath smelled real enough. Hisashi’s survival instinct took over again. He ran.
Only to run straight into a second fox. In the same voice as the woman before, she said, “I found this meal first.”
“I’m too hungry to bother taking him to the sheep pens,” the male fox growled. “Let’s eat him here. We can each share half.” A massive paw pinned Hisashi to the ground.
He kicked, but he only got dirt. Not a single quirk in his hoard would respond to him. How could that be possible? The yawning emptiness hurt more than the claws digging into his spine. He tried to speak, to bargain, but nothing came out.
The female fox said, “Agreed. This ram is big enough to share.”
To his horror, Hisashi realized that these two had no idea at all that he was Japan’s greatest villain. This hadn’t been a cleverly laid trap to lure him in. He was absolutely nothing to them, just an unlucky victim in the wrong place and the wrong time.
It burned. Hisashi would have accepted it if All Might had killed him in battle. He wouldn’t have gone happily, no—being happy about a noble death was for stupid heroes. But he was proud of his long reign of villainous terror, and he’d always known that his lifestyle came with risks. If villains always lost in the end as his younger brother had once claimed, then Hisashi would go down with a smile and a laugh, spitting in the face of the hero responsible without a single regret for his many misdeeds.
But this. This was unacceptable. To die at the hands of beings who only saw him as a puny piece of prey to be murdered off-handedly…it violated his dignity. It cheapened his entire life. It remined him of the bad days when he’d been a weak, pathetic child kicked around by violent adults and unable to do anything to fight back.
Hisashi went insane. He pawed at the ground and gnashed with a sheep’s flat vegetarian teeth. But his meager strength could not even move the fox’s paw one centimeter. The sharp teeth came closer. He read his future in those slavering jaws. He would die brutally and badly, helpless and more afraid than he cared to admit, to a murderer who didn’t even know his name.
“Stop!” a child’s voice screamed. A green blur slammed into the male fox. “Get your claws off my dad!”
Lips pulled back into a snarl, a dragon the size of a horse stood over Hisashi protectively. The long, slender dragon had white scales, a green mane, and little red scales like freckles on his puffed up cheeks. His finned ears twitched with anger.
The monsters must be fighting over who would eat him first. Hisashi seized his opportunity and ran for his life. The clattering of his hooves sounded loud against the pavement.
“We have to get out of here, Dad!” Claws fastened around Hisashi’s midsection, and the young dragon took flight.
Sheep instincts took over, preventing Hisashi from processing this statement. He bleated in terror, thrashing and kicking the air.
As the festival below shrank into colorful dots, Hisashi went limp for fear of falling. His legs stood rigid with terror. Icy wind whipped at his fur. He had fur. He’d yet to have time to fully process the violation of his body, but he hated it. It felt like his body had been crammed into an ill-fitting box. His lack of hands gave him the sensation of being restrained and trapped. He couldn’t even scream properly, much less speak.
The dragon landed on the steps of a Japanese-style mansion with oak doors big enough to fit giants and a beautiful garden. Sculpted Japanese maples ran down the pathway. The grounds spread out further than the eye could see, with a rose garden to the right and a lily pond to the left. A stone bridge crossed the lake with two dog statues guarding it.
The little dragon called, “Mom, look! I found Dad’s reincarnation. I told you that I’d sensed his magic. You should have believed me.”
“Welcome home, Izuku!” An even bigger dragon slithered out of the house. She had a gentle look in her eyes, which hardened the instant she laid eyes on the stunned sheep her son held out. She sniffed the air around Hisashi. “Oh, it is him,” she said, disdain dripping off each word. Her tail lashed and her ears flared aggressively. In a falsely happy tone, she said, “How clever of you to find him. I didn’t even think it possible. If I’d known, I would have—ahem.”
The dragon named Izuku continued, “We’ll clean that nasty karma off him, and then he can reincarnate as a dragon.”
Although Hisashi had accepted that the beings around him weren’t human, he understood little about them or the rules of this place. But he did know one thing: you reincarnated by dying. This mad lizard planned to kill him.
Izuku blurred and shifted, turning into a green-haired boy with freckles wearing a white yukata. He looked no older than ten or eleven. Izuku advanced upon Hisashi with his arms outstretched for a hug, crying, “Welcome home, Dad!”
Now his would-be murdered had turned smaller, Hisashi saw an opportunity. Rearing backward, Hisashi kicked the boy in the chest.
“Dad?” Izuku gasped, shock mingling with pain in his voice. Hisashi was already running.
The green dragoness shot forward in a blur. She lay down on top of Hisashi, flattening him with her belly. His legs stuck out of her coils, twitching. She said, “My dear child, your father has been consumed by his sheep instincts. I’m afraid we look like predators to him.”
“Oh, of course!” Izuku winced. He held up his hands non-threateningly. “I’m sorry, Dad.”
The dragoness said, “Go inside and find my scroll on dragon transformations. It’s in my nightstand drawer. I’ll calm him down, then cast a spell so he can talk to us.”
“Thank you, Mom!” Izuku cheered. “I’m so glad I found you, Dad.” His big, green eyes sparkled with sincerity before he turned and left.
The instant Izuku closed the door behind him, the mother dragon placed her claw next to Hisashi’s neck. Leaning close enough that her breath ruffled his fur, she whispered, “Listen carefully, All Rivers in One. After you died, I had to raise our son all by myself. He wanted to know about you. I told him that you were a decent person and a great father—so in other words, I lied.”
She believed this reincarnation nonsense too? Hisashi ought to be grateful, if it was the only reason he hadn’t been eaten yet, but he felt like he was trapped in an insane asylum run by the inmates.
The dragoness snorted like a sarcastic laugh. “My mistake. I never anticipated you’d reincarnate and find your way back to the Spirit World. Izuku has an idealized image of you, and I refuse to let you disappoint him. Judging from that nasty filth clinging to your fur, you’ve continued to commit negative deeds this lifetime.” She flicked off a black, sticky ball that he hadn’t noticed stuck to his wool. “But you’re going to behave for my son. You’re going to act grateful for his care. Because if you hurt his feelings…” She leaned even closer, her hot breath tickling his ear. “I’m going cover you with enough seasoning to drown out your sour taste and eat you in one bite. Do we have an understanding?”
A green light passed from her lips into Hisashi’s open mouth. Suddenly, he could speak. “My new son seems like an absolutely charming boy. I’d never hurt him.” Unless it was useful in helping him escape. “I’m so excited to be a father,” Hisashi lied.
“Once, you actually were.” Sadness flashed across the dragoness’ eyes. “But you gave all of that up just to murder innocent humans and die in a stupid fight with a wolf spirit.” She snorted. “I’ll never forgive you, but I’ll be civil for Izuku’s sake. As long as you act the part of a good father, I’ll let you stay here, and I’ll even let Izuku help you transform back.”
Boldly staring straight into the jaws of hell, Hisashi asked, “Am I to pretend to be your husband, darling?”
Her tail shot straight up. She growled, “Call me that again, and I’ll bite off one limb. It’s Inko to you. Don’t act like we’re anything, unless Izuku is watching. Remember our deal.”
With a flip of her tail, Inko shoved Hisashi into a pen in the yard, then flew off.
A sheep pen. He’d been caged like a common animal.
But he’d survived. Those who survived had the last laugh. Hisashi hated being regulated to the bottom of the food chain. But he’d clawed his way up to the top before, during the miserable childhood that he preferred not to remember.
He would survive again.
Hisashi butted the pen gate with his head, testing its strength. To his surprise, it immediately opened. It hadn’t been locked.
He hesitated. On the one hand, Inko had threatened to eat him. On the other hand, she said she knew how to transform him back. On the other other hand, from the context she’d been planning to transform him into a dragon, not a human. Although Hisashi would prefer a dragon to a sheep, he didn’t want to keep being crammed into strange, uncomfortable bodies while bereft of quirks. He wanted his old life back.
Perhaps he could at least see if he had other options in this strange place. If that didn’t work, he would come back here and pretend to have gotten lost. If he stole one of the golden lawn ornaments, he’d have money to bargain with. Hisashi picked up a golden pinwheel with his mouth, then ran down the walkway as fast as he could with unfamiliar legs. His hooves reached cobbles. He turned right, the direction he remembered the town being in. Finding his stride, he ran faster.
A white-green blur shot past him. Izuku reared up in front of him, green eyes wide and mouth revealing fangs. Although he was smaller than his mother, the dragon boy was triple Hisashi’s sheep size. Cheerfully, Izuku said, “You must be working off the energy from your recent transformation. The scroll told me all about that. I bet you’re starting to feel like a dragon already!”
“Oh, absolutely, I’m positively ready to breathe fire, you…adorable child.” Hisashi dropped the golden ornament and nudged it behind his hind legs.
“It’s my dad’s voice!” Izuku gasped. “It sounds so dadlike!” He bounced with eagerness. “Based on the scroll, I’ve formulated a plan, Dad.” He seemed to delight in saying the word. “We’ll get you in touch with your dragon instincts so you can transform faster.”
“Wonderful,” Hisashi said, straining not to sound sarcastic.
“Follow me.” Izuku turned and bounded away, leaping off the ground in his excitement.
Since he clearly couldn’t outrun the dragon, Hisashi exhaled and followed.
Izuku led him to a cement pool in the backyard with no water. “Luckily, we drained the swimming pool after the end of summer. This will be the perfect place for flying lessons.”
“Flying lessons.” Hisashi couldn’t possibly be this imbecile’s father even in a past life. He’d never produce a child so dumb. “My dear son, I’m afraid I don’t have wings.”
“Neither do I.” With a twitch of his sinuous body, Izuku rose off the ground.
This was a fair point. Asian dragons had no wings. “But I don’t have any magical powers either.” Or quirks. Just the sad thought twisted Hisashi’s heart. “Why don’t we try to activate my dragon powers another way? Do you have a hoard? I could lie on your gold for a bit.” And then steal some.
“No, only western dragons do that. Those shiny idiots are slaves to their instincts.” Izuku hesitated. “You couldn’t know this, but it’s very offensive to our kind to compare us to those lowly western fire-breathing lizards. They’re not even very intelligent. A human can kill them.” Izuku snorted. “We’re not merely dragons, we’re river gods. We’re as far above their kind as lions to tabby cats.”
“Uh-huh,” said Hisashi, who’d never cared about different types of dragons.
Izuku said, “Our kind love our rivers and crave the feeling of riding a storm. Once you taste the sensation of soaring through the air, I’m confident that you’ll start sprouting scales.” Izuku floated down to the bottom of the pool. “Jump, and I’ll catch you.”
Hisashi just stared. Oh, god, this deluded dragon child planned to use the “throw him off a cliff” method to teach him to fly (as if that was even possible), and he had to play along or else the green bitch would eat him. Hisashi scrambled to the edge of the pool and looked down. It was a very deep pool, sized for a dragon as big as Inko. It was easy to imagine the cement below cracking open his skull. He didn’t trust this rather stupid child to properly catch him.
“What other methods could we use?” he asked as diplomatically as possible.
Izuku sighed. “Look, there’s a good reason for this, I promise. Humans who come here transform into the spirits closest to their inner nature, but you ended up as a sheep because of the cursed food.”
This sounded legitimate. Hisashi definitely didn’t believe his true spirit was a sheep. A dragon would be more appropriate.
“Right now, the curse is warring against your natural form. Since your previous incarnation was a dragon, you have enough power inside you to overrule the curse. But first, we must bring your dragon instincts to the surface. This will be much faster than trying to clean off your bad karma.” Izuku’s nose wrinkled. “Because, I don’t mean any harm by this, but your karma smells super bad. It’s making my nose itch.”
But Hisashi didn’t want to turn into a dragon, so he had no motive to cooperate. He strained for a good lie.
Izuku sneezed. The blast of his breath knocked Hisashi over the edge. He bleated as he fell.
With a swift lunge, Izuku caught him in his mouth. He set Hisashi back down on the ground. “Did you feel like you were flying?”
Hisashi’s heart pounded under his fur. He whispered, “Hundreds of years just flashed before my eyes…”
Izuku said, “Let’s try again.”
“Nope, I think it worked!” Hisashi cried. “I’m feeling extremely draconic!”
“Really?” Izuku peered down at him with big, hopeful eyes. “How so?”
“I long to commit murder!”
“That’s a good sign! Dragons are carnivores.” Sitting upright, Izuku made a happy “brrrr” sound.
Hisashi refrained from mentioning that the number one person he wanted to murder right now was Izuku. “Let’s cross flying off the list and move to the next item from this mysterious scroll.”
Izuku said, “There’s hunting prey…but that’s not easy to find this time of year. How about a storm? We river dragons love storms. I’m going to call up an itty-bitty one. I want you to watch me closely. At this range, you should be able to feel the magic flowing within me.”
Throwing back his head, Izuku roared.
The sound cracked the air like a thunderclap. Despite the sky being completely clear, a bolt of lightning shot down. It struck the dragon boy, but did not harm him. Little sparks danced and crackled over his scales.
Hisashi stared, entranced. He wanted that power. He wanted it as much as he’d ever wanted a quirk in his entire life, perhaps more. One trembling hoof raised. Purely by reflex, he touched the dragon’s scales and yanked.
Of course, nothing happened, since he didn’t have All for One and it wasn’t even a quirk. Instead, a spark of electricity slammed into Hisashi. He fell over backward with his legs sticking up into the air. His ears twitched. A burned smell rose off his wool.
Izuku cried, “You’re exposing your belly as a sign of trust to me! Our relationship has come so far in such a short time. I’m so happy.” He wiped a giant tear from his eye. “Do you want a belly rub?”
Unfortunately, Hisashi’s belly was ticklish. He squirmed and wheezed helplessly under the claw attack, gasping for air. His legs pumped the air helplessly. He wheezed, “Stop that right this instant and help me get up!” He had no leverage from this position. He couldn’t right himself.
“Oops! Sorry, Dad!” Izuku nudged him upright with his snout.
That had been strange. Hisashi had long become accustomed to coping with his quirk stealing-instincts. But they hadn’t affected him much since his transformation. In fact, even the sensation of his quirks being missing hadn’t been as bad as he would have expected. In his normal mental state, having no quirks at all would have rendered him cationic. He assumed that since he didn’t have All for One right now, it couldn’t make him long for quirks as badly.
Yet as soon as he’d seen the draconic power, he’d craved it. As if something had been activated inside him. This lent some credibility to Izuku’s otherwise ridiculous plan, even if the reincarnation talk was still garbage. However, Hisashi didn’t actually want to become a dragon, so he didn’t want the plan to work.
Izuku tried to lick Hisashi.
Hisashi leapt backward, bleating.
Izuku winced. “Sorry, draconic instincts. With all that bad karma stuck to you, it’s hard to resist the urge to groom you. I wasn’t trying to eat you.”
“A likely story,” Hisashi muttered, since he couldn’t see anything.
Izuku looked the sheep over. “I think you’ve had enough practice for one day. We made progress. Let’s go home and get you a meal.”
“I’m feeling hungry,” Hisashi said. It wasn’t true, he’d already eaten a lot of cursed food, but he leapt on the excuse to avoid being knocked off more ledges or electrocuted.
At the front of the house, Izuku said, “Wait out here. Mom was worried about you tracking dirt inside, so I’m going to lay out matts on the floor to guide you to your new room.”
No doubt that evil dragoness would have been content to leave him out here in the cold to be rained on. Hisashi attempted to smile, but on sheep lips it only looked like a baring of teeth. “Thank you, son.”
When Izuku left, this time Hisashi didn’t bother to run. With his luck, it would be taken as an invitation for a lesson on hunting prey. The air had grown colder as the sky darkened. He shivered even with his current fur and fantasized about destroying everyone even remotely responsible for his current situation.
He didn’t have long to stew in his murderous vendetta before Izuku returned, this time in human form. The dragon boy called, “Come in, Dad. I have a dad now! I still can’t get over that.”
Hisashi wobbled as he tried to climb the two steps leading to the front door, still not used to four feet. Izuku waited patiently, which somehow only increased Hisashi’s embarrassment and annoyance. He stomped over the threshold and followed the boy into the mansion. The hallway was luxurious, with high ceilings, hand-woven wall hangings, and a vase of flowers resting on a twisted metal table. But one unbearable stain marred the beauty: a giant portrait of All Might in a wolf ear cosplay. It would have been amusing if his rival had looked stupid, but he actually looked quite elegant in the yellow kimono.
Hisashi asked, “There are hero fans even in the Spirit World?”
“Heroes?” Izuku looked briefly confused before smiling. “I think the Great Okami was a hero too! He sacrificed himself to save humanity. He’s my favorite mythological figure.”
That settled it. Hisashi had to admit the dragon boy looked sort of like him. But whether in a past life or a current one, there was no way he’d ever fathered an All Might fanboy.
Hisashi snorted. “His publicist should have told him the hair tufts look stupid. Such fine clothing is utterly wasted on him.”
Izuku laughed. “Mom told me that you two used to fight all the time! I bet that means you were rivals and good friends.”
“More on the rivals side,” Hisashi said, plotting All Might’s gruesome demise. He had decided to blame the hero for his current situation. He’d wanted a nullification quirk for his fight against All Might, so it made indirect sense. Not that he needed more reasons to kill All Might.
Izuku opened a door. “This used to be a coat room but I cleared them out.” The hangers hung empty. “I didn’t think you could walk upstairs, so I wanted you to have a room on the ground floor. I made a bed as best I could.” The so-called bed was a basket on the floor with a fur coat for bedding. “Uh, I didn’t have time to decorate, but I dragged in the family portrait.” Izuku pointed at a picture frame leaning against the wall. It showed Izuku, his mother, and a man who looked uncannily like Hisashi. The lookalike had finned ears, white horns, and the scales peeking out of his kimono. Even his smug grin looked familiar.
Hisashi had to admit this boy’s father looked nearly as handsome as himself. He could see how the reincarnation misunderstanding had developed. Except how had Izuku known what he looked like in human form? They’d only met after he’d been turned into a sheep! Ah-ha, maybe Izuku had seen him eat the cursed food and let it happen so that he could have an easily controlled victim to force to become a replacement for his dead father! How treacherous and evil, as expected of an All Might fanboy.
Izuku cleared his throat. “How do you like it?”
“I’m living in a shoebox,” Hisashi said. He’d known he’d come down in the world, but the reality still stung. He’d resolved never to be poor again.
Izuku’s floopy dragon ears wilted. He said, “I knew I should have picked a bigger room, but I couldn’t clear one out fast enough. I’m sorry.”
“Ah-hem.” Inko loomed in the doorway. A whiff of smoke rose off her nostrils. Her teeth flashed.
Hisashi got the hint. “No, I’m delighted! Calling a place a shoebox is a compliment for humans. It means elegant and austere.”
Izuku beamed, his tail perking up. “I’m so glad. I brought you food and water.” He stepped out into the hallway, then returned with two bowls.
Hisashi eyed them. Drinking water off the ground was humiliating enough. But the other bowl had leaves. In fact, he’d eaten leaves before during his childhood. Once had been enough to vow never to do so again.
“Let me know how it tastes,” Izuku said.
With the bad-tempered dragoness watching, Hisashi had no choice. He took a small bite, then spat it out with a choking sound.
Izuku wrung his clawed hands. “I knew I should have spiced them more.”
With Inko’s gaze boring into him, Hisashi said, “That was a sound of delight. They’re delicious. I’m just not very hungry tonight. I already ate a big meal, that’s how I turned into a sheep, remember?”
This time, Izuku didn’t look convinced. “I’m sorry, Dad. I know leaves must taste awful, but sheep can’t eat human food. I’ll look up more sheep-safe foods in the library tonight.”
Inko made a laughing purr in the back of her throat. Hisashi couldn’t prove anything, but he had a strong suspicion that she could have put together something more edible and tasty for him if she’d wanted to.
Izuku said, “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the bathhouse for a wash. It’s not a permanent solution, but once we clean off your bad karma, you should be able to turn back briefly.”
Hisashi marshalled his arguments. “How about we start off turning me back into a human? We can worry about the dragon second. Too much magic in a row could be bad for my body.” He longed for human hands. Even more so, he craved his quirks. Just one or two back, and he’d no longer be helpless. If he had his quirk hoard, then he’d quickly show this world of monsters who was boss.
Izuku blinked. “Oh, I meant human. Judging from today’s lessons…I think dragon will take a while. But I’ll be with you every step of the process, Dad!”
A faint sneer curved Inko’s lips, but she kept her voice level. “You have far too much negative karma to even think about becoming a dragon. Izuku, dear, don’t get your hopes up. One bath might not be enough for even a temporary human transformation.”
Hisashi finally saw a path to a better future. He could regain his rightful form. His life as Japan’s greatest villain was still within reach. He would do whatever it took, including playing dad, to get that back.
Summoning all his charm, Hisashi said, “I’m so grateful to you for helping me, Izuku. I wish I could remember you. You’re such a fine boy.”
Izuku flushed. His tail curled around his feet. In a squeaky voice, he said, “You wouldn’t remember much anyway. You died when I was a toddler. But we can make new memories from now on, Dad. I’ll let you sleep.”
The two dragons left, not without Inko casting one last glare.
The door shut. It didn’t lock, and Hisashi could probably kick it down anyway. But he had no intention of running, not when these dragons could turn him back into a human. He’d been handed a lifeline, and he would take it. No matter what, he would escape this hell and return to his life of wealth and power.
Unless he took sleeping pills, Hisashi always had nightmares. He hadn’t bothered to ask, believing the Spirit World wouldn’t possibly have human medication. But as he found himself standing on a familiar darkened street, he wished he’d at least tried.
This was one of his least favorite nightmares.
The mob loomed over him, fear and loathing glinting in the eyes of men carrying baseball bats and clubs. That fear was dangerous: it drove otherwise average men to assault a pair of metahuman-appearing children.
“Big brother, I’m scared.” A small Yoichi, only six years old, clutched at his fleece. In this dream, Hisashi was still a sheep. That was the only change from the usual nightmare.
One man stepped forward. “Get away from us!” Hisashi screamed, opening his mouth and spewing a small spear of fire. “Yoichi, run!”
“Monster,” the closest man whispered, entranced by the weak, flickering flame.
As an adult, Hisashi knew his action back then had been a mistake. He’d given them the justification they needed. The first man hit him with a bat, and then the others followed.
Behind him, Yoichi cried out in pain. Hisashi begged, “Stop, he’s not even a metahuman, please stop!”
The nightmare shifted. He stood on a ripped-up grassy field. Blood no longer stained his pelt. An adult Yoichi lay on the ground, clutching his bleeding side.
Hisashi ran forward to help, his hooves sliding on the muddy ground. “Get away from me!” Yoichi screamed.
Sliding to a stop, Hisashi said, “I know I look like a sheep, but it’s me, little brother.”
“I know exactly who you are. A monster. You’re no brother of mine.” Yoichi’s glare cut him to the bone. “I’d rather die than accept help from you. It’s your fault that I died. I hate you.”
“Where the hell am I?” Yoichi asked. Except this time the voice came from behind Hisashi. He turned around.
A second brother stood half-consumed by shadows. Like Izuku and Inko, he had patches of green scales, finned ears, sharp teeth, a long tail, and two tall white horns.
The shadows consumed the entire ground. Nightmare-Yoichi vanished. Dragon Yoichi stayed, which Hisashi supposed was still a pleasant change of pace from his absolute least favorite dream where his younger brother berated him and blamed him for his death. “I don’t see why you got to be a dragon when I’m still a ram,” Hisashi grumbled out loud.
Yoichi’s eyes widened. “Big brother? You called me here? How did you even find the Spirit World…you’re a sheep. You ate the Spirit World’s trapped food and got turned into a sheep!” Yoichi laughed so hard he doubled-over. “This is priceless. Perfect karma! Absolutely perfect! I wish Second and Third were here to see. They refused to believe me when I told them that I was a dragon in my past life. Even when these popped up in the Void.” He waved at his horns. “Third still thinks I gave these to myself because I’m a chuunibyou, no matter how many times I told him that I can’t make them go away.”
Hisashi sighed. “I suppose I’m imagining up a dragon version of my younger brother out of subconscious annoyance at the obnoxious brat who thinks I’m his long-lost sperm donor.”
“I assure you, this is quite real.” Yoichi frowned. “Are you talking about Izuku? Hey, how could you call my adorable little nephew obnoxious?”
Hisashi nodded. “Definitely subconscious annoyance.”
“You’d better be treating Izuku well!” Yoichi wagged a finger. “You adore your son. He’s your only beloved child and the sun around which you orbit.”
“I’d believe it if he was your son, maybe. He’s very foolish.”
“I promise that Izuku is your son! Would I lie to you?”
Hisashi rolled his eyes. “You’d claim any random stranger was my long-lost son if you thought it would stop me from killing them. Also, you don’t actually exist.”
Yoichi threw up his hands. “Fine, don’t listen to me, as usual. Destroy all your relationships, yet again. You’re going to regret it after you get your memories back. If you get your memories back. I don’t see you working off all that bad karma any time soon. You’d better at least try, because humans lose their memories the longer they stay in the Spirit World. You don’t want to lose both your draconic life and your human one, then become a true animal.” His eyes narrowed. “I still think this serves you right. A sheep…ha!”
“Of course you do. You hate me.”
“That dream was a figment of your own imagination.”
“But it was true.” Hisashi withheld all emotion from his voice.
Yoichi hesitated. He averted his eyes. His voice came out near a whisper. “I don’t hate you. I’ve always loved you, even when I don’t like you at all. I never had to reincarnated as a human—I’m not weighed down by sins like you. After you were reborn in the moral world, I followed you because I wanted to redeem you and save you. I can’t exactly deny that my death was your fault, but I’d forgive you in a heartbeat if you’d stop killing people. I want to forgive you.”
Hisashi laughed darkly. “That proves you’re not real! I know beyond any shadow of doubt that my younger brother died hating me and wishing me dead.”
Pain filled Yoichi’s eyes, so real and visceral that Hisashi changed his mind about preferring this dream to the last nightmare. He opened his mouth to speak.
“I’d like to wake up now,” Hisashi said, and as if responding to his wish, he opened his eyes.
In the darkness, Hisashi felt the bedding under his hooves and stared at the shadowy portrait in the corner. The sneer on his dragon lookalike’s face seemed to be mocking him. He was probably in a bad mood because he’d dreamt of his younger brother. His heart galloped under his chest. He should have asked for whatever sleeping medicine these crude peasants might possess. Anything was better than seeing Y…
Hisashi flinched. For some reason, his younger brother’s name kept slipping away from him like a wet trout.
Ridiculous. Of course he’d never forget the name of his one and only family member. It was Yo…Yuuto. No, that wasn’t quite right. It had “ichi” in it. Ichigo? No! Not Ichigo either! He knew it, he just couldn’t quite say it! It was on the top of his tongue! Hisashi raced through dozens of Japanese male names before he collapsed back in his bed, panting as if he’d run a marathon.
He couldn’t remember his younger brother’s name.