“But what if I asked you and you still refused to answer?”
“I will answer!” Aku shouted with conviction.
How bad could this question possibly be?
Slowly, a small grin formed on her face. “Yes. Thank you Father.” Ashi was sure Aku wouldn’t let anything happen to her and her sisters. With him there, perhaps their training wouldn’t be so bad. The girl crawled out of the demon’s lap to return to her bed, pulling her blankets up to her chin. Now, tomorrow did not seem so daunting.
“Good night Father,” she said, smiling brightly at Aku.
Aku couldn’t help but mirror her bright expression, pleased that she felt comforted enough to go back to bed and attend her training in the morning. What struck him most was how happy she looked to know that he would be with her. It was a world of difference from the grown daughter he’d seen in his vision who had detested his presence and so desperately sought his demise.
He remained seated at her bedside for a moment as he considered the strange feeling in his chest, what it could mean and whether or not she felt it too.
“Ashi…” he said. “Do you love your daddy?”
“You’re not either of those?
Well, silly me! I should be more respectful next time!
It’s just you don’t look harmful at all!”
Aku looked impossibly tall as he gazed down upon the tiny human below.
“That is because you are a foolish child, one so consumed by her own ignorance that she does not see what danger stands before her.”
“No one I would rather share them with than myself.” Domestic speared one of the chocolates after taking the cover off with one of his clawed fingers and popped it into his mouth, savoring the flavor before he swallowed it.
“No one more handsome either,” Aku added with a playful point of his finger. Then, he plucked a chocolate from the box and savored it just as his counterpart did.
“It seems you’ve mastered your sense of taste,” he noted proudly.
right in the kokoro
So she still had to go. Aku’s words comforted her a bit, but she would have preferred to never see her mother again. After spending so much time in her father’s care, she concluded that there was something wrong with how her mother treated her and her sisters. Why didn’t she care for them the way Aku did? Ashi sunk a bit more into her father, her tiny fingers tightly gripping him, as if she was going to be snatched from his embrace by a certain high priestess.
“…Have your eye on her?” she repeated. “I…does that mean you’re going to stay?” Her voice rose and octave in excitement, and she gazed up at the demon with wide, sparkling eyes. If their father was there, then their mother would be sure not to mistreat them!
Looking down at the Ashi in his arms, Aku quickly realized it would be impossible to say ‘No’ to those eyes even if he wanted to.
“Yes, Ashi, I will be there to accompany you and to supervise,” Aku assured her. He would send a part of himself along with the girls both to keep an eye on the High Priestess and her followers, and to monitor their training progress.
“Does that make you feel better?” he asked.
“… Now if I were to ask more, you would most likely retort and refuse to answer. I know I would.”
“So I won’t.”
“We are still different enough. Do it!” he demanded. “ASK ME!”
“No, maybe just too idle.” she answered honestly. “It’s a kind of a state of mind. I don’t dislike people, but I don’t really like to go out of my way to help too many either. I’m stuck in a loop of indifference with a clouded mind. Like being sleepy but living in that sleepiness on a constant basis.”
Aku let out a sigh. An expression came over his face that suggested he knew just what she meant.
“Ah, yes. Malaise… I am familiar.”
The Shogun of Sorrow 