you know, had aku not been so generous and trusting, season 5 would have never happened as it did.
generous: gave his cult a part of himself to worship. creating ashi, the fourth child, whose name includes the characters for “aku” and “death”. who became the last time portal for jack. who is arguably just aku shown love.
trusting: took scaramouche at his word. instead of opening his portal for the millionth time to see that jack did still have his sword, he went to meet up with jack in person, who was with ashi, and his own desire to break jack and kill him in an ironic way….. kickstarted the finale.
what i’m saying is that somewhere between season 4 and 5 aku figured out how to give things and trust people and it literally killed him.
“Ham sandwich right.” better then Tuna. He pushed the tank closer. “The day of hoaxes is when this kinda happened. He was a white clad hero type and i trapped him in the manor with my genius security system. After awhile he got fed up, dug in a claw and bam. Fresh gore for the taking.”
What in the name of Darkness…?
Aku’s eyes leapt from the contained heart to Flug’s bespectacled and be-sacked face. ‘Hero-type’? This matter could be much more serious that he first thought.
“So did he act rationally again once this object was removed?”
The sight of that sword being drawn was cause for concern. Suddenly Aku didn’t look nearly as mirthful as he had just a moment ago.
“—!!”
Wasting no time for further bickering, the samurai poured the remains of the holy water at the blade – one would do that with a twig to make the blow more painfully tangible. Trained feet swiftly rushed around the demon as he jumped, high enough for the steady hand to leave a slap with the blade’s plane side, right where the bottom of Aku was supposedly located.
It will not bring as much harm as the cut…
But will hurt strongly for sure…
‘SMACK!—’
“BWHA—?!”
“CURSE YOU, SAMURAIIIII!!”
Rather than stick around for more, Aku dissolved into a great puff of smoke from which he took to the sky in the form of a large bat. Like hell was he going to let Jack see him clutch his backside in pain. (He would wait until he reached the sanctity of his citadel for that.)
“You will RUE the day you spanked Aku!” he screamed down at the human as he fled. “…Hss, ow.”
“Pfffft,” he pauses for a long moment. “You’re here, I need you to confirm for me what this thing is made of.” he stands, fumbling, yet barely noticing as he opened a locker. Inside was a tank with a half damaged heart.
“This belongs to the boss. Is it made of pure darkness or something else? Because! I need to start running some experiments and docu-errr, doing notes on the thing.” he reached under his bag to rub a tired eye.
Excuse you, Flug, did you just dare to ‘pffft’ the Almighty Aku? The yokai narrowed his eyes and bent to look Flug squarely in the eyeholes.
“Do that again and I’ll turn you into a ham sandwich,” he spoke with a quiet sort of menace. His attention turned then to the thing in the tank. It was suspended as if in formaldehyde and Aku eyed it dubiously.
“I thought your boss was an Eldritch entity. Such a being should have no need for a heart or other viscera. Are you sure this is not some form of trickery? After all, the Day of Hoaxes has just recently passed.”
“Do you guys ever wonder if flowers are aware of what it is they smell like? Do they get self concious? What if the scents we percieve as nice are gross in their weird flower society.”
“Absolutely not. Flowers possess neither a mind nor a sense of smell.
And I thought you were a man of science.”
“Excuse you. I’m having thoughts. Like why would a tree dad like yourself be so careless with his kidssss..”
“My seven daughters are sound asleep in their beds. I know this because I tucked them in myself,” Aku spoke sharply. Someone’s a bit testy at 2 a.m.
“Do you guys ever wonder if flowers are aware of what it is they smell like? Do they get self concious? What if the scents we percieve as nice are gross in their weird flower society.”
“Absolutely not. Flowers possess neither a mind nor a sense of smell.
Shape-shifting seemed a big step from eyebeams; but she could still try (and maybe her father would let her explore later as a reward). “Consider your surroundings…?” Ashi looked around. They were in a flowery meadow surrounded by a tall forest. A stream bubbled a few feet away, with plenty of birds and insects flying throughout the air. Suddenly, a ladybug flew past her face, immediately drawing her attention – she had always been fascinated by the spotted insects. But the bug quickly flew too high out of reach for her to be able to catch. The girl was just about to look for another one when she remembered why her father had brought her here in the first place. The ladybug hovered a few feet above her head. Looking at her arm, Ashi began to form an idea. If I could just reach it…
Closing her eyes, she focused on the small spark she had felt before. Then, reaching out her arm, she looked on in amazement as it began to lengthen towards the flying ladybug. Ashi held her breath, not daring to mess up this moment. Once her hand was close to the insect, she quickly clasped her fist around it, drawing her arm back to its usual length. Opening her fist, the ladybug contently crawled around her palm. Slowly, a wide smile formed on the small girl’s face.
“Father, look!” With bright eyes, she held out her reward for Aku to see.
“That’s it,” he whispered as he saw Ashi reach and then stretch toward a successful capture. It delighted him to see the accomplishment and the look of joy in her eyes as she discovered a whole other side of herself she had never known was there.
“Yes, child, I see! You are growing swiftly into your powers!” In fact, watching Ashi discover her shape-shifting powers brought back a memory Aku didn’t even realize he’d had.
“You remind me of a time long ago in the distant depths of outer space. That is where your daddy came from. It was very dark there, and silent. Living beings like you did not yet exist. One might even say it was lonely,” he recounted the days of his infancy.
“But one day I saw a tiny light, and then I saw another, and another. Soon they were all around me. They were stars burning in the distance far beyond my reach. I waited for many years until the day came when a shooting star hurdled through space in my direction! It came closer to me than anything ever had before, yet it was still not close enough. But as it passed me by, I reached after it and I captured it—!” His claws clasped the air for dramatic effect.
“Just like you captured that insect,” he grinned proudly. “That was when I realized I could do anything I set my will to. Now that day has come for you, Ashi, as it did for me.”
The Shogun of Sorrow 