It's really rare to see a story that talks about the relationship between Ryuuji and his father without making it into something of a joke, so I really appreciate this. I particularly enjoyed the details about little Ryuuji- his speech and playing with his sock were both very realistic.

Also, I've never really considered why Ryuuji's pupils are drawn the way they are, but this idea makes a lot of sense, especially considering Marik's eyes are drawn similarly and we know for a fact that he lived in relative darkness.

I was under the impression that there weren't any fics out there that featured Ryuji's father, so I'm pleased to see that there was at least one. I think every other Ryuji-centric fic I've read that even mentions his dad writes him off as dead.

Anyhow, the only reason I came across this fic in the first place is because I've been planning a similar story but I wanted to do research on Otogi's character first. So I hope that you don't mind that I'm reviewing a year-old story; I mostly just wanted to let you know that I appreciated the fic.

I'm familiar with the pupils dilatedbad night vision theory for Ryuji, though I've not personally adopted it, but I liked the detail about Otogi living in the dark. It fits his character and makes sense considering what we see of him in the manga. One of my biggest difficulties writing this fic is developing proper headcanons for Otogi; he's so volatile and bizarre in the manga it seems impossible to tell if he was like that on a day-to-day basis when Ryuji was growing up. Nevertheless, I liked some of the details you attributed to him, especially the emphasis that yes, Ryuji has to be emotionally dependent on his father for him to have any interest in avenging him.

Anyhow, it was an interesting read. Thanks for writing about such an obscure character!

Holy Batman, that was incredible. I have to say, I'm surprised. I didn't expect to see you take on such a charged and emotional topic. Normally your work tends to focus on the mundane. This was an entirely different kind of piece, and you wrote like a master.

Here are the things I liked the most. I liked Ryuji's dialog. It's very difficult to write children correctly, and you nailed it. You didn't make him sound like an idiot, but you didn't give him comprehension powers beyond what he could reasonably have. He didn't get why this was so important to his father, and there's no logical reason why he should. I also liked how precisely you described what Ryuji was doing with his sock. A lot of people would have just said he was playing with it, but the explicit detail made it seem more important, and it made it seem like something a five-year-old would realistically do. I also liked the depiction of the abuse...it was scary, but not melodramatic, and both of them responded to it realistically. Otogi didn't come off as a sadistic monster, and Ryuji didn't automatically and immediately hate him—he wouldn't have, a small child would find those feelings too threatening and would reject them.

Overall, this was really well done. Kudos to you.

I like your idea about Ryuuji's eyesight. I never really stopped to think about it, as I figured it was just a random anime design with no real purpose behind it, but yours is a very interesting take. Starting out with that and describing the darkness of the home really sets the mood. I envisioned them sitting in the dark during the story.

Little Ryuuji is adorable. I love his line about not knowing what a revenge is, and his preoccupation with the linty string. And his father is very appropriately frightening. He sways between what seems to be genuine concern and caring for his son and madness and obsession with revenge, just like in the manga. I like where he tries to convince Ryuuji that it's a good thing to do bad things to people. And it's always so heartbreaking, both here and in the manga, when he says Ryuuji's only reason for existence is to get revenge.

This is a really good little window into the nightmare that Ryuuji's early life must have been. Excellent work!

First off, thank you for the warning

And wow, that was really good, I liked it. The vision thing, I didn't really wrap my mind around because well, Ryuuji is a manga character, it's just part of his design, but it's an interesting idea just from Otogi Sr's side. He usually does tend to stay in the dark, using candles, and the mask...thinking about it, this style of living that you've described makes a lot of sense.

And little!Ryuuji is so adorable. There was one line "...one hand dragging along the wall and the other stretched out in front." that kind of brought the image clearly to my mind.

Overall, awesome job, and your ending was chilling and wonderful.