The few times Ashi got grounded (this became frequent when Aku learned she had a crush on Samurai Jack), she was usually merely confined to her room and was not allowed to do out (most of Aku’s minions envy his daughters for this, since this is a very mild punishment compared to what they go through if they fail Aku).
Ashi learned soon enough that she just couldn’t sneak past her father, since she and her sisters are made from his essence, technically he can detect their scent and knows when they are up to something. If they try to use their powers he can sense this too, and in fact he is even capable of nulling his daughter’s powers completely, rendering them... normal. He rarely resorts to this, however.
And yes, he would give her a much more severe punishment if she tried to sneak out anyway, by taking away her cell phone and leaving her without contact with the outside world, plus making her actual confinement last longer. Yes, this is his definition of more severe, even Demongo is envious of this.
And somewhere in the background, Ami is snickering.
“Poor devils who think they can toy with one of Lord Aku’s daughters and get away with it.” -Demongo.
Ana just had her heart broken by the boy she liked, and of course Aku won’t stand idly. This is the main reason most boys stay away from Ashi and her sisters.
Inspired by memime’s drawing of aku as a god. Here he is reunited with Kuni, who now is a little angel. She is so small she fits in his palm, isn’t it a cutie!
Uh-oh. Looks like Aku and Kuni got into certain problems. XD
Don’t worry, they won’t stay there for long. Kuni is small enough to squeeze through the bars, or Aku can shapeshift into a small little critter and walk out, though h’d have to open the door for Kuni afterwards. I just thought this would be a funny situation .
Inspired on memime’s post about the season 5 equivalent of paladin au, particularly the part where Paladin has to kill 6 of his daughters to save a village, but decides to spare Ashi. Enjoy!
By the time he recovered enough energy to regain consciousness, he realized he was completely lost. He didn’t really mind it, but a sharp burning sensation on his side reminded him there was no time to go sightseeing. Aku grit his teeth and tried to press his hand against his side, only to quickly retreat it when the burning multiplied tenfold. With great effort, he managed to sit up, and when his vision got adjusted to the light, he realized the river had carried him downstream, faraway from that temple… or rather, its ruins, if his idea had worked.
Curiously, deep down he hoped it hadn’t worked. He couldn’t bear the idea of taking the lives of his own daughters, even if they had nearly taken his. Those glowing white weapons they wielded were undoubtedly crafted with the Samurai’s magic, coated and blessed in white magic, which explained why they could deal this damage to him.
He couldn’t stay here. It wasn’t safe, he was in no condition to fight his daughters again, and he didn’t have the heart to. Despite everything, they were his children, made from his essence, his blood ran through their veins, and he didn’t want the same thing with…. Kuni to repeat all over.
He wondered what she would have said if she had seen him in this state, injured and running from his offspring.
Aku pushed these thoughts aside for the time being as he went back to his feet, this time pressing his hand against the wound to keep his black blood inside his body, where it belonged, lest he unknowingly made more kids indirectly. He had to look for someplace to hide while the wound healed, but it would take longer both because he had little energy left, and the wounds inflicted by blessed weapons took longer to heal.
Every step was an agony as he made his way through the woods, trying to make as little noise as possible, just in case his daughters were around. After all, he wouldn’t be surprised if they got his keen senses.
Finally, he spotted a cave a few steps away. Aku slowly made his way into it, not even minding not having night vision at that moment, all he wanted was someplace to hide, and the darkness would blend in with his dark coloration. When he was certain he was deep enough, he collapsed on his rear, panting heavily at the pain in his side. He took his cape and pressed it against the wound, again wincing at the burning sensation. If he were human, he would have certainly died in the river.
Damn it.
Aku closed his eyes shut, listening to his own breath as he tried to relax and let his body and healing capability do their job. And while he was on it, he might as well think on how to get away from his daughters.
He hated to admit, but the… Samurai had trained them well. They were quick, skilled, and deadly, cunning strategists and coordinated fighters. They managed to keep up with him and find him in the dark temple despite his shape shifting and superior powers. He wondered if they had inherited his abilities, they were apparently made from his essence, after all, he wouldn’t surprised if they did. If they did, it seemed they weren’t aware of it if they hadn’t used them against him.
He was grateful for this. If they could leave him in this state with their combat abilities alone, he didn’t want to imagine the outcome had they used any powers they had gotten from him.
A sound coming from the outside startled him, but the pain from his side prevented him from jumping to his feet. He initially thought his daughters had found him, but upon a much more close examination, he noted these footsteps were much slower and not as heavy as the Daughters’. A dark quadruped beast soon walked into the cave, limping, and its black fur stained with its own crimson blood. Aku sniffed the air, and the scent of the animal’s blood gave him away.
A jaguar.
The giant feline’s acidic green eyes set on him.
“Hello there.” Aku greeted it, though he wasn’t sure if it understood. “You ran into some… unpleasant people too, didn’t you? Welcome to the club.”
The jaguar said nothing, as expected, it just continued to stare at him with those green eyes.
Aku felt his eyelids heavy, the adrenaline from the encounter with the Daughters disappearing, and giving in to his exhaustion over the blessed effect of their blades and the loss of blood.
Before he drifted into sleeping, he saw the jaguar’s figure becoming a blurry spot…
When he finally regained consciousness, the pain on his side had lessened considerably, but his energy was still drained. He guessed he’d have to eat something soon to regain his strength. As he opened his eyes, he noticed the jaguar was a few feet away from him. He locked his gaze with the beast. The blood was gone, but the wounds it had spilled out of were still there. The Jaguar was holding a dead goose in its jaws, and muck to Aku’s surprise it placed the bird just in front of him, then it glanced up at him and let out a purr-like sound.
“Well… Thank you.” Aku said awkwardly as he grabbed the bird, but seeing the jaguar’s condition… It needed the energy as much as him, and it had bothered to go hunt despite its condition. The demon sliced the goose in two and gave the other half to the feline. It seemed surprised, but then it started to avidly eat its share.
Aku was so hungry he didn’t bother to pluck the feathers from the bird or cook it; he bit into the meat and took a big chunk of meat into his mouth. Ah, sweet meat! Much to his surprise, the jaguar finished its half before him, and it went back to its side of the cave, curling up around something much smaller.
Aku shrugged and spat a bunch of feathers before continuing with his meal.
By the next day, the wound had healed completely, and the hours of sleeping and eating soon made him regain his lost energy. However, for some reason he didn’t want to leave until he was sure the Jaguar had healed enough to go back into the wild. Still, he felt so lonely he would start one-sided chats with the felid.
“…And now I just go by, helping humans around whenever I can.” He finished that morning’s chat, sighing sadly. “So technically, I don’t have a home.”
The Jaguar ignored him, it continued staring at the thing it was curled up around. Aku’s curiosity was getting the better of him, he wondered what this animal could be attached to so badly. Warily, he crawled closer to the Jaguar, narrowing his eyes to get his night vision working. It was a much more smaller version of the Jaguar, but it lied still, he sensed no heartbeat or breathing motion coming from it.
The Jaguar noticed its companion had gotten to close and bared its teeth, growling.
“Okay, okay, no touching! I got it!” Aku said, going back to his side of the cave before getting on the Jaguar’s bad side.
He watched with a certain sadness as the Jaguar continued to lick at its dead offspring, as if hoping it would awake at any moment. His chest started to ache again, remembering when he held Kuni’s lifeless form in his arms as if she would wake up and look up at him with those little black eyes he had come to long for.
By the next day, the Jaguar had gotten accustomed enough to him to let Aku get close to the dead cub. Though there was apparently no emotion on the Jaguar’s furry expression, Aku could see the sadness in its eyes and sense its sorrow.
“Excuse me, my furry friend, but that cub will turn into a handful of flies, bacteria and worms in a few hours.”
The Jaguar growled at him.
“What? Just saying I could lend you a hand,… or paw, in giving it a proper funerary service, lest you want an angry ghost after you for the rest of your life. And believe me, being haunted it’s not nice.” He wasn’t haunted by Kuni’s ghost, but sometimes he felt like he was.
He warily reached out for the cub, the Jaguar gave a small growl, and carefully picked it up in one hand. It was slightly bigger than a normal cat, yet it weighted little. He went back to his feet and warily walked outside, followed by the Jaguar. Aku had to momentarily close his eyes when the sunlight rained down unto him from being in the dark for so long.
When his vision got used to the illumination, he started digging a small hole on the ground, then placed the dead cub in it, before covering it in dirt once again. As a finishing touch, he made a little pink flower grow on it. The Jaguar lay down its head on top of the small ‘grave’, giving a sad purr. Aku couldn’t help but feel sorry for it.
By the next day, the Jaguar had healed enough to go back on its way. Aku felt partly saddened that his companion was leaving, but it would be for the best. The feline glanced at him with its acidic green eyes one more time, before it stalked off into the woods, not glancing back at the small grave. Maybe it didn’t want to linger on painful experiences, just like him.
Aku waited a few minutes before getting back on his feet and going back on his way. The wound had healed completely, though he couldn’t say the same for his pride. He had no idea of where he would go next, as long as it was far away from his brainwashed offspring, he didn’t care. The day was pretty, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, smoke was rising from the horizon…
Wait, what?
Aku stopped in his tracks when he saw the column of smoke rising up into the sky. He listened intently, and soon he heard people screaming, blades slicing through objects, and he faintly felt his own scent…
Oh, no…
No!
Nonono!
Aku sprouted wings and took off, heading to the direction of the smoke as fast as he could, the screams and the scent of blood becoming stronger the nearer he got. The bright sky changed into a grayish hue due to the smoke, the chirping birds replaced with cries for help and pleads of mercy.
He landed in the woods in front of the burning village in time to see one of his Daughters impale a man with her glowing white Katana.
Aku froze when he saw the scene. This was the village he had stopped by a few days ago, these people had kindly-and excitedly, he might add-helped him with food, a place to spend the night and some directions. He had fondly watched those kids play, watched those humans go with their daily lives, gotten a laugh at the expense of somebody’s mild bad luck… And his own offspring were eradicating it.
“DEMON!” one of them-the one with the kusarigama-yelled to the heavens. “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE THAT OPPOSE LORD ZINTARIS’S TEACHINGS! IF YOU WOULD SPARE YOUR HENCHMEN THIS FATE, THEN COME OUT AND FACE YOUR DESTINY, COWARD!”
As he watched the fires rising and heard the people screaming, memories returned to him. Memories of a time before the Samurai, memories of an ancient city in fire, of long-lone people screaming in despair and fear at the destruction of their home, of a large demon laughing in ecstasy and delight at the destruction he caused…
Aku saw himself repeating the atrocity at that very moment, divided in seven, wielding blessed weapons and clad in masks of angry demonic grimaces and white bodies.
His own flesh and blood were an extension of him, if he didn’t do anything he’d be as guilty as them for this. But they would heed no words from him, as he learned the hard way the first time he encountered him.
Aku clenched his fists, but he wasn’t certain of what he was feeling. It was similar to anger, but this one made his chest hurt. Feeling talk later.
If he had to kill them to stop them-and himself-then so be it.
He stepped out of the woods, his non-existent heart hardening as he approached, his cape flowing with the heat of the fires around him, his pupils turned into slits. One of the villagers who had miraculously not perished by the hand of the Daughters caught a glimpse of the black demon approaching.
“It’s Aku!” he cried out with a glimmer of hope in his blood-stained face.
Soon, the villagers who were either fleeing or in hiding peeked out their heads at the mention of the demon’s name to see if he was really there, or if the smoke was playing with their minds, rejoicing when it was the former option.
“He’s here!”
“Aku! We’re saved!”
“He’s going to kick their asses!”
Aku would normally feel flattered, but now he only focused on his Daughters as they gathered in the main road. He sensed their fury at the words of praise being directed at him and not the Samurai, he skipped the opportunity to make a comment about it. He had to focus.
“I am here.” He said, his expression stoic. “Now leave the humans be.”
“These are traitors who chose to serve the side of evil!” one of his Daughters snapped. “They do not deserve Lord Zintaris’ mercy!”
“Why are they traitors? Just because they helped a lone traveller? Or because that traveller was me?” he retorted calmly. “As far as I know, humans helping others out is not an ‘evil’ thing, it’s a good thing.”
“Your manipulating lies will not blind us from the truth, demon!” another growled. “You may have deceived these traitors, but not us! We fight for Lord Zintaris and his dream of achieving peace!”
“Peace?” Aku repeated in disbelief. “In case you can’t properly see through those masks of yours, you killed men, women and children.” Aku hissed at the last word, his blood boiling at the thought of kids suffering such a violent death. “How is that peace?”
“Enough talk, demon! Prepare to die!” one of the Daughters roared as she was the first to run towards Aku, her glowing white katana aiming right as his chest.
She wasn’t prepared for the long spear Aku had quickly materialized from his own essence and then thrown right at her stomach. Her white ‘suit’ turned red in the area around the stomach, and the Daughter fell to the ground, never to wake up again as the discarded katana disappeared.
Six left.
The moment the spear had cleanly gone through his Daughter’s abdomen, Aku felt a sharp pain in his own, feeling as if the spear had gone through him too. He guessed it was a side effect of them being born from his very essence, but he did his best not to show it. Even if it broke him emotionally and physically, he had to put and end to his Daughters if he wanted to stop more massacres like this.
Aku sensed the shock coming from his six remaining Daughters, they were not expecting this reaction from him, mostly because he had hidden and ran from them the first time, but it was because he hadn’t wanted to harm them. The tables had turned, he would not hold back, he had to see them as dangerous adversaries, not his daughters. Not anymore.
“Who’s next?” he asked casually, as if he didn’t give this death any importance.
This was seemingly the last straw. The Daughters rushed at him, their weapons aiming at him, but in a fraction of second he disappeared, and the weapons struck the empty spot, scattering dust around.
“Show yourself, you coward!” the Daughter with the kanabo roared at the burning buildings, sending the surviving villagers into hiding.
“As you wish.”
A cawing sound caught the attention of another Daughter, and she threw one of her sai at a small black blur. The glowing weapon went through the feathered shape, but a second later Aku emerged from the flames in the form of a mountain goat and charged at the Daughter with the kusarigama. She jumped aside, but realized too late she wasn’t the objective when Aku tackled one of her sisters, sending her flying into one of the flames, and was consumed by it almost instantly.
Five left.
Despite the agonizing sensation on fire in all of his body, Aku changed into his original form and ran. Not for his life, but he had to lead his remaining Daughters away from the villagers; much to his luck, they came right after him without bothering to look at the villagers. He led them through the ablaze settlement, and disappeared at the last moment among the fire once again.
He waited until one of the Daughters was on top of a wooden beam, probably to look for him in higher terrain, then he fired his laser beam at it, obliterating it and plummeting the Daughter into the inferno below.
Four.
Again, the pain of the burning sensation nearly overcame him, almost feeling as if he were on fire. Not to mention he had given away his position to the other Daughters, who were running towards him with their weapons in hand. Aku knew materializing swords from his own essence would be useless against their blessed weapons, so instead he opted for picking up two blades from the ground.
They attacked.
Aku had to give the Samurai credit, they had pretty good skills. He blocked and dodged attacks from his four remaining Daughters, all the while sensing their blinding fury at him having taking the lives of three of their sisters, but there wasn’t really any sort of pain or sadness. Guess they didn’t have any time for sisterly bonding.
Finally he was cornered against one of the walls from the burning buildings, changing into a snake to more easily dodge one Daughter’s kusarigama, and another’s naginata, but as the third was about to give him a good smack with the kanabo, Aku changed back into his original form and gave her a good hit in the chin with his knee-and felt the pain on his own chin.
He barely dodged the fourth Daughter’s swipes with the butterfly swords, but he sent her flying backwards with a loud sonic scream on his part, causing her to drop her swords. He kickly grabbed the nearest and threw it, aiming directly at her stomach. It sliced right through her and got her body stuck against a wooden beam. Aku had to clutch his stomach at the sensation of metal going through it, but it disappeared as soon as the Daughter’s limbs went limp, signaling her life was gone.
Only three left.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Aku said, laughing even though it hurt him to kill his own flesh and blood. “If that’s the case, I can slow down so you can keep up.”
Apparently the comment struck a nerve, since he felt the aura of fury escalating. One of the sisters took the butterfly sword from the dead sister’s stomach unceremoniously. The three remaining sisters positioned one behind another, each extending out their arms with their respective weapon. It reminded Aku of Rama. A mortal, feminine, white-clad and much more psychotic version of Rama (with no offense to Rama, of course).
Aku was caught off guard by this form of attack, barely having time to sprout an extra pair of arms as the Daughters attacked, the three pairs of arms attacking together in unison and barely giving him time to block the blessed weapons, receiving cuts in some parts of his body.
One of the ends of the kusarigama wrapped around his leg, burning him at contact, and the first Daughter pulled it with an incredible amount of strength that sent Aku flying, but he turned into a dragon and grabbed the chain with his claws despite the pain, pulling it to bring the Daughters closer and then separating the three with a thwack from his tail. He landed back on the ground still in this form, and much to his surprise the three Daughters landed on their feet a few meters away.
Damn it, they didn’t know when to give up.
Well, they weren’t the only ones who could use combinations.
The demon took a deep breath and then exhaled a long stream of fire, then he fired his laser beams right at it, creating a beam of cackling electricity which he aimed at the Daughters. They ran as he flew after them, but the Daughter with the naginata jumped on top of the highest building around and jumped towards him, giving him a thwack in the head with one end of the spear and interrupting his attack. But before she could run the blade through him, Aku’s tail impaled through her chest from behind, and the threw her lifeless body into a nearby fire-and was quick to regret the action when he felt the pain of his own tail impaling him.
Two left.
Changing back into his original form, he landed on his feet, his cape flowing behind him in an almost epic way, but now was not the moment. He saw the two remaining sisters, and silently made a taunting gesture with his right hand, narrowing his eyes when the daughter with the butterfly swords ran towards him. This time he would make it quick, to spare both the sister and himself more painful sensations.
When his daughter was close enough, Aku avoided one swipe from the blades and punched her in the face with such strength that her mask cracked. Taking advantage that she was stunned, he quickly grabbed her head and reluctantly broke her neck with a snap, before letting her fall to the ground.
“Ouch!” he said, rubbing the back of his neck casually afterwards. “Well, that hurt! I’m going to need a good massage in the neck when this is over!”
There was only one left.
“Look here, young lady, given the circumstances, you can surrender and I will consider not sending you to the corner for all this trouble-“ he wasn’t even done talking when she charged and whipped one end of the kusarigama aimed at his feet, which he managed to dodge at the last moment. Aku narrowed his eyes. “Fine. You asked for it.”
The next time she whipped the kusarigama, he caught it in his hand, ignoring the burning sensation as he ran towards his last remaining daughter. He pulled it to bring her closer, and she tried to take advantage of it to give the demon a fatal blow with her blade, but she was unprepared for the kick he aimed at her face, sending her flying backwards and knocking the mask off her face. Before she could touch the ground, Aku whipped the kusarigama towards her like a lasso, having it wrap around her arms and rendering her unarmed and immobile as she touched the ground, momentarily stunned
As he got closer, he took a moment to examine her without her mask on. Narrow eyes, red lips and dark hair combed up to a single point. For one moment he wondered how such a… beautiful creature could have been born from a dark creature such as he.
The adrenaline that ran through him during the combat started to disappear, and soon he was overwhelmed with exhaustion, forcing him to fall to his knees, panting heavily. But the aching in his chest was even worse.
Aku closed his eyes shut. He had done it. He had killed his daughters, and even though it had to be done to save these innocent people, it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt him. They were, after all, his flesh and blood. However, as he opened his eyes again to look at his last remaining daughter, suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to kill her, maybe because she was the only one he had seen without that mask…
Before he could continue to examine her, suddenly she jolted awake and struggled violently to get free of the chains, screaming at him with hate in her voice.
“YOU EVIL DEMON! I WILL KILL YOU! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE FROM LORD ZINTARIS’S JUSTICE! YOU WILL DIE! YOU WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH, AND THEN LORD ZINTARIS CAN BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD THAT YOU WANT TO DESTROY! DIE, DEMON! DIE, DIE, DIE-!” she would have continued id Aku had not picked her up and knocked her out with one touch on the shoulder.
“You and I are having a little chat later, young lady.” Aku simply said, hanging the unconscious woman on his back like a backpack.
By then most of the fire had, or was in the process of dying down, and all the surviving villagers came out of hiding, all approaching their savior with grateful looks.
“He did it! He killed them!”
“He was cool!”
“Thank you, great Aku!”
“Yeah, yeah, it was nothing, really.” He simply said, shrugging. He did like the praise, but he was not in the mood at that moment. He had just killed six of his children. “I’m sorry these…. Ladies destroyed your home.”
“If you hadn’t arrived, maybe we wouldn’t have lived to see another day.” One of the surviving elders said. “If there’s something we could do to repay you…”
“Oh, no, that’s not necessary, old man. You’ve done enough for me, and that’s what started this mess in the first place. But thank you. I will make sure this…” he glanced back at his unconscious daughter. “…Lady will not bother you again.” He looked at the villagers once more. “You should gather whatever wasn’t destroyed by the fire and leave. The Samurai will surely send his troops to see if those assassins did their job.”
With those parting words, Aku turned around and walked away from the praising and grateful villagers, who hurried to do as he had suggested. As he walked through the woods, still carrying his unconscious daughter, he wondered what he’d do with her. She was pretty much brainwashed by the Samurai’s lies and propaganda, she would not listen to him, in fact, she might as well murder him in his sleep.
But that didn’t lessen the fact that she was his child, and he was her father. Fathers were supposed to educate, protect and look after their kids, no matter what. He had lost Kuni, and now six of his kids by his own hand and the circumstances, he couldn’t lose this one too… He was so desperate by his loneliness and guilt… Surely he could get to her, couldn’t he? It would take him a while and he’d have to watch his back, but maybe he could eventually convince her of the truth. How hard could it be? All he had to do was to show her all the Samurai had done, and convince her he was not the evil creature (well, he used to be, but that was in the past) the Samurai inculcated into her.
But first, he’d have to find somewhere to take a long nap.
I heard the song 'Running from your dad' by Bowling for Soup, and for some reason I can see Aku chasing Jack with a giant Kanabo (the spiked bat-like weapon one of the daughters used during their second fight with Jack) after he caught the two of them together XD of course I don't think Jack would be running after Aku, more like he would be blocking Aku's attacks while trying to explain.
I drew him a sword instead of a kana because think its more fitting for him, if you recall he wielded jack’s sword with pretty good skill despite having never wielded a sword before (as far as we know).
He caught Jack and Ash kissing, and of course he is pissed at Jack (in his eyes his little Ashi can do nothing wrong), and started attacking him despite Ashi protesting.
Due to a few people’s request, i made another comic depicting Akuma, my fanbaby. In this occasion, she is in the middle of a shape-shifting lesson with her father, but cannot turn into something she has not seen, in this case a stoat. Unfortunately, she’s overcome with cuteness when her father turns into a stoat to show her.
When she shape shifts into something, her flaming tuft of hair (which move like her father’s eyebrows as if it was fire, i will later reveal some other things her ponytail can do) is always present, and she’s always colored a shade of red with her green markings around the eyes.
