Seeing the tears in her eyes, Aku reached for the box of tissues beside Azura’s bed and placed them on her lap. Then he rolled his chair closer to place a hand on Azura’s back and gave her a comforting rub.
“What? A bad guy? You?” It surprised him to hear that she’d felt this way. “Noooo! I have always known you to be nothing but good.”
Though she did have a way of attracting evil. No one could deny that. And while his mind was on the subject, he thought of an important point. Without her memories of all the evil beings she had encountered, Azura was a sitting duck.
“But if you wanna see a bad guy, I’ll show you a bad guy. I’ll show you several!” Clicking his pen, he pulled a sheet of paper out from Azura’s medical file. Given she was called ‘Patient Name: Unknown’, there was very little in her file aside from blank forms. Aku turned the page over to its blank side and began to sketch some figures.
One was a man in a long dark coat. He wore a top hat and monocle and had a smile like a shark. The next figure was also a man in a long dark coat but had a head like a cracked skull, a sunken eye, a thin toothless grin and skeletal hands. The third figure was one he knew only from Azura’s drawings. It was a small triangle wearing a top hat and bow tie and had noodle arms and legs. Aku was careful not to draw the figure’s eyeball, as Azura had told him that was dangerous, so he simply drew an X where the eye should be.
“These are not guys you want to run into,” he warned, letting Azura have the drawings to study.
As Aku passed the drawings over to her, Azura went silent, taking in the forms that once haunted her life and made it into her own personal living hell. They felt familiar. Dangerous. Their grins felt predatory, in a way that she couldn’t recall how, but it was more to a gut feeling. She simply nodded at Aku’s advice.
She points to the drawing of Black Hat. “This is… Dr. Syls’s boss.” It was surprising that she could remember him, but only after being exposed to the news earlier. “He did this to me, right?” The young woman looked back at Aku, feeling the bandage on top of her head. She didn’t know how damaged her head actually was, other than the fact that she couldn’t remember anyone anymore. Hidden underneath the white cloth were gruesome scars that would most likely stay on her for years, it was a miracle that she even got out of it alive.
“I got so upset at him last night… I don’t know who to trust and follow, and everything is so overwhelming and confusing.”
“Yes, I imagine it would be,” he said. “You have not lived a simple life, Azura. You are one who crosses paths with many people.” And that didn’t even begin to explain the full truth.
Aku looked down at the drawings Azura held in her hands. “That is Black Hat. He is a being capable of great power and harm and his words must never be trusted. But the worst part of him is here,” he tapped a finger on the hat atop the creature’s head.
“If you ever find a hat like this,” the demon in human form looked her square in the eyes, “you must never put it on your head.” He held her gaze for a lingering moment as if to be sure she took heed of his words, then glanced up at the bandages wrapped around her head.
“Oh? I see someone has been talking to you,” he said, knowing just who that someone might be.
“I am not your true father but in the time that I have known you, I have come to think of you as my daughter.” Aku’s expression brightened and he beamed at her with a big smile full of white teeth. “Yes, you are a daughter to be proud of.”
Somehow Azura felt her heart soar as she heard those words from Aku, as if it really did mean a lot to her, even if she couldn’t remember who he was or what was shared between them. It reminded her of something. Something that she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Happiness.
Even though she couldn’t understand why.
Perhaps a father figure was tons better than none.
“O-oh… I’m… really glad to hear that.” The young girl wiped her stray tears away, completely overcome with emotion. “It helps to hear that I… wasn’t a bad guy before this incident, heh.”
Seeing the tears in her eyes, Aku reached for the box of tissues beside Azura’s bed and placed them on her lap. Then he rolled his chair closer to place a hand on Azura’s back and gave her a comforting rub.
“What? A bad guy? You?” It surprised him to hear that she’d felt this way. “Noooo! I have always known you to be nothing but good.”
Though she did have a way of attracting evil. No one could deny that. And while his mind was on the subject, he thought of an important point. Without her memories of all the evil beings she had encountered, Azura was a sitting duck.
“But if you wanna see a bad guy, I’ll show you a bad guy. I’ll show you several!” Clicking his pen, he pulled a sheet of paper out from Azura’s medical file. Given she was called ‘Patient Name: Unknown’, there was very little in her file aside from blank forms. Aku turned the page over to its blank side and began to sketch some figures.
One was a man in a long dark coat. He wore a top hat and monocle and had a smile like a shark. The next figure was also a man in a long dark coat but had a head like a cracked skull, a sunken eye, a thin toothless grin and skeletal hands. The third figure was one he knew only from Azura’s drawings. It was a small triangle wearing a top hat and bow tie and had noodle arms and legs. Aku was careful not to draw the figure’s eyeball, as Azura had told him that was dangerous, so he simply drew an X where the eye should be.
“These are not guys you want to run into,” he warned, letting Azura have the drawings to study.
Uh-oh. Did doctors not speak to their patients this way? Should he rattle off some strange medical terminology to confuse her?
“I am a friend of yours. We have known each other for over a year. I am Aku. It is a pleasure to re-meet you, Azura,” he answered with a bow of his head.
“Aku…”
The way he spoke gave Azura her a fatherly impression. Despite her mind being in shambles, she was still a clever girl, and soon enough with some hard thinking the dots started to connect and she was baffled that she didn’t figure it out sooner. Only someone close would know of the whole story, and Flug mentioned that he was going to call him sooner to see her, it all made sense now.
“…Are you supposed to be my father?”
“Oh? I see someone has been talking to you,” he said, knowing just who that someone might be.
“I am not your true father but in the time that I have known you, I have come to think of you as my daughter.” Aku’s expression brightened and he beamed at her with a big smile full of white teeth. “Yes, you are a daughter to be proud of.”
“Because I have known you for longer than you realize,” he answered up front. “You are someone who has a way of wandering… into unusual situations and encountering unusual individuals. Not all of them are good. Sometimes your curiosity leads you into trouble. At least, that was the Azura I knew.”
He seemed almost mournful for a moment before moving on.
“In regards to Dr. Flug, he does indeed associate with evil. But I have come to realize that even bad people are capable of doing good things, just as good people are capable of doing bad things.” It was a strange reality and Aku was still getting used to it himself.
Wasn’t this man supposed to be her doctor? How could he knew things about her this much? Come again… he didn’t seem to be checking up on her as he usually would.
Azura leaned back to her bed and gave the man a skeptical look.
“Who are you?”
Uh-oh. Did doctors not speak to their patients this way? Should he rattle off some strange medical terminology to confuse her?
“I am a friend of yours. We have known each other for over a year. I am Aku. It is a pleasure to re-meet you, Azura,” he answered with a bow of his head.
The demon in human guise listened carefully, watchful of her movements and gestures. He glanced down to see the gifts discarded in the trash bin. Evidently she had lost the ability to read and had thrown them away in frustration. That was certainly alarming. In a brief flash of memory, Aku recalled his visit to her mindscape and the items that had erupted from her head to lay scattered over the floor. Had all of those things been her memories?
At the mention of Flug, his attention snapped back to the present.
“Dr. Slys, yes. He is one of the individuals who helped you escape your… situation,” Aku explained carefully. “I’m not aware of what you have been told, Azura, but you were imprisoned for a couple of weeks by an individual known only as Black Hat. During that time you suffered massive head trauma. You see, it was not only your body that was imprisoned, but your mind as well.”
That caught her attention almost immediately. Frowning, she faced the doctor and narrowed her eyes at him. He seemed to know an awful lot about it, and even Flug was hesitant to tell her what exactly went down. After her outburst on hearing the news about her parents, it was understandable why he didn’t say much. She felt bad about it. About everything that she yelled, if this info were to be trusted, that Flug helped her.
She needed more answers. More time to think about things that might’ve happened.
“He helped me? Isn’t he supposed to be… evil? Why would he do such a thing?” She saw the footage of the burning airport where airplanes crumbled and exploded. This was not the work of a sane man. Or a good one.
“How do you know about all of this?”
“Because I have known you for longer than you realize,” he answered up front. “You are someone who has a way of wandering… into unusual situations and encountering unusual individuals. Not all of them are good. Sometimes your curiosity leads you into trouble. At least, that was the Azura I knew.”
He seemed almost mournful for a moment before moving on.
“In regards to Dr. Flug, he does indeed associate with evil. But I have come to realize that even bad people are capable of doing good things, just as good people are capable of doing bad things.” It was a strange reality and Aku was still getting used to it himself.
Initially, Aku had planned to shapeshift back to his usual form and surprise her but that idea was quickly canned. She was in control of her own mind again but she was still miserable and her memories were lost. He sat frowning for a moment, stunned at what he’d heard. It was difficult to learn that his daughter would no longer know him, and more difficult to watch her suffer when he couldn’t hold her.
“Azura, I am sorry,” he spoke, this time more quietly. “I cannot truthfully confirm the whereabouts of your biological parents. Whether they are alive or not is unknown to me.”
What fool told her that?! he wondered. Were they truly dead? Even Aku didn’t know the answer to that.
“Perhaps we should focus on your head for now. Would you mind telling me more about these memory troubles?” he asked while taking out a pen. “What’s the last memory you can recall?”
“I don’t… remember much of anything. It feels like my mind is a hazy place to jump into.” Gently she places a hand on top of her temples, feeling a slight, sharp pain underneath the bandages. It was as if… she felt like something sharp had bitten her there.
“It’s frustrating, and I wish I could remember more.” Her eyes glances down at the trash can by her bedside. “There was a man who left me gifts, Dr. Syls. He brought me books to read but I… can’t understand any of it. I don’t think that’s normal.”
The demon in human guise listened carefully, watchful of her movements and gestures. He glanced down to see the gifts discarded in the trash bin. Evidently she had lost the ability to read and had thrown them away in frustration. That was certainly alarming. In a brief flash of memory, Aku recalled his visit to her mindscape and the items that had erupted from her head to lay scattered over the floor. Had all of those things been her memories?
At the mention of Flug, his attention snapped back to the present.
“Dr. Slys, yes. He is one of the individuals who helped you escape your… situation,” Aku explained carefully. “I’m not aware of what you have been told, Azura, but you were imprisoned for a couple of weeks by an individual known only as Black Hat. During that time you suffered massive head trauma. You see, it was not only your body that was imprisoned, but your mind as well.”
The girl was curled up, there was no mistake that there were tears in her eyes. She didn’t answer him immediately, nor noticed that he was unusually red for a normal human being.
“Bad. My head keeps hurting and I can’t remember the people that come in here, and I found out that one of them was a highly wanted criminal.”
There was a bunch of newly unwrapped gifts, but they were now in the trash can. Plush toys, books, and flowers, even the eclaire that Flug had brought her was left untouched.
“I’m scared. I want my parents here but I’ve been told that they died. I feel so alone and I don’t know what to do.”
Initially, Aku had planned to shapeshift back to his usual form and surprise her but that idea was quickly canned. She was in control of her own mind again but she was still miserable and her memories were lost. He sat frowning for a moment, stunned at what he’d heard. It was difficult to learn that his daughter would no longer know him, and more difficult to watch her suffer when he couldn’t hold her.
“Azura, I am sorry,” he spoke, this time more quietly. “I cannot truthfully confirm the whereabouts of your biological parents. Whether they are alive or not is unknown to me.”
What fool told her that?! he wondered. Were they truly dead? Even Aku didn’t know the answer to that.
“Perhaps we should focus on your head for now. Would you mind telling me more about these memory troubles?” he asked while taking out a pen. “What’s the last memory you can recall?”
Sometime after Flug’s appearance on the news, there came a quick knock on Azura’s door. The nurse and nurse’s aid who had just finished changing Azura’s bandages looked up to see the doctor enter the room with medical files in hand. He was an older man, Asian, and though he was short his presence seemed to fill the room.
“Hello, I am here to see the patient. Yes yes, that’s a fine job you have done,” he addressed the staff members in a rather loud voice that lacked an echo but was still familiar to most. “You may go now.”
The nurse and aid stood to leave but not without some concern. “Dr. Ichimoto,” the nurse asked, ”are you feeling alri—”
“I AM FINE. SHOO SHOO!” Once they had been shooed from the room, the doctor closed the door with some relief. As the little man turned to face Azura, his grumpy reddish face brightened considerably and he sat on the stool beside her hospital bed.
“Azura! I am glad to see you’re awake,” he said with a big-toothed smile. “How are you feeling today?”
No matter how many times she goes to the hospital, the mental image of this normal girl getting really quirky characters visiting her never fails to make me chuckle
I was just thinking about this. Aku will probably shapeshift into a “normal human” nurse or doctor until he gets to the hospital room. Then he’ll freak her the fuck out with his actual appearance.
Aku please paint some proper human skintone on you because if the doctors saw a green skinned person walking in, they’d get you to the emergency ward gjdkgkd
Azzy is going to think that he’s the grim reaper himself at this point with his loud booming voice, I can guarantee she’d be thinking “holy shit I’m going to DIE”
“YES HELLO FOOLISH WOMAN AT THE ‘SERVICE DESK’. I DEMAND TO SEE MY DAUGHTER.”
LOL he’ll probably walk around as this guy pretending to be a doctor like “FOOL! I AM A NORMAL HUMAN DOCTOR HERE TO SEE MY HUMAN PATIENT, AZURA.”
As a reflex to having swords brandished at him, Aku moved quickly away from the blade in Azura’s hands. He couldn’t be certain if it would do him actual harm here in the mindscape. Surely his physical being could mend itself but his physical being wasn’t here right now…
As the wicked voices swirled around them, the demon locked eyes with the shadowy figure of Black Hat that loomed behind Azura.
“I refuse to fight my daughter,” he spoke, glaring daggers at the fiend. But as he turned to Azura, his expression softened.
With a bow of his head, he knelt silently before her, surrendering himself to her blade. For a lingering moment, his eyes connected with hers. There was concern in his expression for her but there was also an unwavering confidence, both in her and in the decision he was making.
Then, lowering his head, he closed his eyes and waited.
“Finish him.”
With that order, the sword slowly rose high above her head, its shadow stretching taller, looming before Aku. Azura opened her eyes, taking in the sights of her father figure surrendering so confidently, was he giving up already? No… it couldn’t be.
Despite his odds with Samurai Jack, Azura knew best that Aku was never the type that gave up. He never ever gave up on her before, no matter how many times she had messed up and shown the worst side of her temper. He had a lot of patience for someone like her, a human most of all… someone that wasn’t considered his own kin like Ashi and her siblings.
There was conflict in her eyes. Without a moment’s notice, the sword plunged to strike Aku directly on the middle of his head, but it stopped an inch before the two surfaces met. The sword was smoking, not because it was burning from the heat of the demon’s eyebrows, but something stronger than fire.
And soon the sword crumbled into ash, freeing her hands from the dark substance that held her in place. Black Hat’s eyes narrowed at the sight. No matter. It wasn’t like she was going to be able to escape him anyway. He had gotten this far, he could drag her back with him without any problem.
With her newly freed hands, Azura dug her fingers deep into the goo that covered her head, and pulled. She pulled, and pulled, even though it hurt her to do so, feeling like her head was going to be ripped apart, even as it seemed like Black Hat wasn’t going to let her go so easily.
The girl grunted, yelled and screamed as she tries to best the Hat’s influence, and slowly, the tendrils that was latching onto her head pried off, inch by inch.
“You don’t… own me. You’re not… my master! And I won’t let you… hurt my family ever again!”
With a great, frustrated yell, summoning what’s left of her raw human will, she tore off the tendrils off her head clean off, her eyes suddenly went blank with whiteness. Instead of her blood pouring out, white light was glowing from it, and the mindscape shook as the memories that kept inside her escaped, bursting out of her head in the form of Polaroid photos, handwritten notes and her own charming drawings. Stray pieces flew everywhere, one photo landed on top of Aku’s horns, a fond memory of the two at the party she once threw in her honor.
Azura collapsed to ground, going limp almost immediately.
Soon enough the shadow retreated to its hat shaped home, before it melted away by the intense light with a dark chuckle. Soon it grew into a satisfied laugh that seemed to echo in both of their minds before it faded away.
Had they truly won?
At present, Aku paid little attention to the retreating darkness and its laughter. Azura had done it! She had regained control! The Shogun was quick to pick up his daughter and cradle her in his arms amidst all the fallen images and notes.
“Azura, you’ve done it! Black Hat has retreated!” He held her close as he brushed a hand over her face and cheek, trying to wake her. “You did it. Just as I knew you could all along.”
The demon bent to nuzzle his striped nose to her forehead in his efforts to love her back to herself. But the human remained limp in his arms.
“Azura…?” he whispered, concern creeping into his voice. “Do you hear me, daughter?”
The Shogun of Sorrow 