As Told to Laura McDaniel
Initiation
[Author's Note: After telling me of how she'd made her first kill, Leiko let out a satisfied sigh and then took a long swig of her drink. She gazed reflectively into the distance. "What happened after that?" I asked in a raspy voice. This time, she didn't seem surprised by the fact that I'd spoken.]
What happened then? Well...I was just standing there in that forest for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Finally, I muttered, "How the hell do I get out of here?" Suddenly, the, trees stopped burning and a strange hush fell over the area. Again, I found myself in the midst of a dark abyss. I stood there, seriously thinking that Lord Aku had abandoned me because I honestly felt like he should. I mean, the only reputation I had was for being a no good, the kind of person that wouldn't ever amount to anything, and there was no reason that the all-powerful Aku should think otherwise. Suddenly, the ground started shaking and then the ground I stood on turned into Aku's right hand.
He was now sitting on his throne and holding me in his palm. I looked to my side to see that his left hand was holding the bleeding corpse of Theron. I looked up to see that Lord Aku was grinning broadly. "I knew that Theron was a spineless coward!" he grumbled. Aku laughed in that damn creepy way he always does and then locked his eyes on me. "Remember this, Leiko," he boomed, "for this shall be your fate as well if ever you question me." He held the corpse between two of his fingers and dangled it over my head. A few drops of Theron's blood fell on me while I stood there in terror. Then, he moved the corpse away from me and then he pinched it tightly and squeezed it as if it was nothing but a slice of fruit. I covered my ears while the sound of cracking bones echoed throughout the lair and watched with wide eyes as all of the dead hunter's remaining blood flowed from Aku's hands like a waterfall. What was left of Theron's body was now a mass of flesh and bones with indiscernible features. Aku laughed again and then held Theron's remains in his palm once more. He opened his eyes wide and then zapped the mass of flesh with his eyebeams, leaving a pile of ashes behind. He smiled at me again and then blew on the ashes so they flew around the lair and some of them landed on my head like snow. I cringed slightly, uncertain how I was supposed to react. And yes, I was scared. I had every damn right to be scared that Aku planned to do the same thing to me. "Do you understand me?" he rumbled.
"Y-yes. Yes, my lord," I sputtered.
"Good," Aku replied, setting me down in front of his throne. "I have decided to let you join my team of elite hunters. Granted, Theron was overly easy to kill, but you proved your skills well enough. I am also certain that what skills you do not currently possess, you will be able to learn."
My heart skipped a beat at these words and then it started pounding violently. Not only had Lord Aku decided to spare me, but he had accepted me! I breathed a sigh of relief and bowed respectfully. "Thank you, my lord. I swear that I will serve you faithfully in my years to come."
He smiled thoughtfully, "I have no doubt, Leiko. You are at such an age when you have acquired many skills, but you still have room to grow." He turned into a serpent and coiled himself around my shoulders while I tried to keep myself from falling over! The transformation was so perfect that his skin had taken on the cold and scaly texture of a snake. "And I hope you will grow," he hissed. "With any luck, you will sssssssstill be alive and well when Ojoku reemergessssss. You will be quite an assssssssset to me then, I am ccccccccertain." Damn, my impression of him sucks! But you should get the picture. Like I said, he was a snake at the time.
Anyway, I wanted to get him the hell off me. It was really creepy. He looked like he was waiting for me to say something, so I stuttered, "I-I-I'll do the b-b-best I c-c-can, my l-lord." Managing to finally regain some composure, I asked, "What is this 'Ojoku' thing you were talkin' about?"
Upon my saying this, Lord Aku instantly dissolved into a swirling black mass and then reemerged on his throne again. "Ojoku is something I overlooked many years ago, about the same time that dagger you hold was crafted."
Well, he hadn't told me anything about the dagger at the time, but I could tell it was old. Damn old. "That long ago?"
"Yes," Aku replied. "Ojoku was the one being that had the potential to destroy me. I was unable to put an end to it at the time, but I knew that I would have to deal with it eventually, thus I made it so that I could deal with the problem at a much later time. The time when Ojoku will return is slightly less than twenty years away and I am still uncertain as to what I need to do. That is why I need the assistance of faithful servants like you."
I wasn't quite able to figure out what he was saying. I mean, I thought that Lord Aku was completely invincible, but there was this Ojoku...thing that I thought might be a person since he had called it a "being." And what the hell was something from that long ago going to be doing in twenty years time? Did that mean that Ojoku was going to be old? "What are you talking about?" I finally asked.
"It does not concern you at this time and I have said everything about Ojoku that I am willing to at the moment. I think I shall leave you with a couple of my minions for now." He leaned back in his throne and yelled, "Ruuuuuuuuuuuuune! Little Minion! Come here...NOW!"
A woman wearing long, purple dress that fit pretty tight, purple gloves, and tall purple boots ran into the room. She smiled and bowed to Aku, her long brown hair, which had a couple of purple streaks in it, falling in front of her face. A woman wearing a tight, short red dress and high-heeled boots flew in after that. Really, she flew in 'cause she had bat wings. She had little red horns, too, that were sticking out of her fiery red hair. Quite an interesting sight. Anyway, she bowed to Lord Aku as well.
"What is your bidding, master?" the one in red purred.
"Does it involve whipped cream?" the other asked.
"Unfortunately, my dear minions, this task does not involve anything like that."
"DAMN!" was all both of the minions had to say.
"Perhaps later," Aku said, winking. Gesturing to me, he said, "But for right now, I wish for you to show Leiko..."
"Don't tell me we've got more competition!" the horned minion growled.
"Not unless the two of you wish to be bounty hunters."
"Um...no."
"As I was saying," he loudly roared, "I wish for you to show her to an empty sleeping chamber and please make her feel welcome."
The two minions exchanged sly grins and nodded.
"We shall do as you ask, Aku," the minion in purple said. "Come, Leiko, let's get going." Shs hesitantly turned to the other minion and asked, "Err, you have the keys, right, Little Minion?"
Little Minion nodded, "Of course, Rune." She reached into her dress -- which, I remind you, was damn tight! -- and pulled out an iron circle strung with keys.
"How the hell did you get those in there?" I asked.
"You don't wanna know," Rune mumbled.
We started down a dark corridor that was across from Aku's throne. The walls were stone and lit up with torches. Finally, Aku's Little Minion stopped at one of the doors that lined the hallway and took out a key. "I think this one'll do. I just hope I find the right key..." She fumbled with the key ring and tried several keys in the door's lock while Rune and I impatiently watched, tapping our feet. Finally, it opened. "The 37th time's the charm!" Little Minion said. Rune and I rolled our eyes while we walked into the room.
The place kind of looked like a cave. Really. There weren't any furnishings to speak of, 'cept for a sleeping bag on one of those inflatable mattress things in the floor. "Some sleeping quarters," I mumbled. "There's not even a bed."
"Well, you actually won't be sleeping here very often," Rune explained, "because you'll be on the road hunting. Aku provided you with a sleeping bag instead of a bed so that you can take it with you. Actually, I imagine you'll end up using this room more for storage than anything."
"Hmm, that's surprisingly thoughtful," I said, sitting down on the mattress.
"What do you mean 'surprisingly?'" Little Minion asked.
Damn. What the hell did I mean by that? "Well...it's just that some of the things people say about Aku are...unsavory."
"Trust us," Rune said, "Aku is anything but unsavory!"
Both minions longingly moaned, "Ohhhhhhhhh, Akuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
All I managed to say to that was, "Um, OK..."
Little Minion turned to Rune and whispered something to her that made them both giggle. Right when I started getting suspicious, Little Minion said, "The thing is, the only people who have to worry about Aku's are those who oppose him or fail to honor him. If you are faithful to him, he will reward you."
"Yeah," Rune said, "and he really likes it when his employees go the extra mile to show how much they appreciate him."
"Oh? Is there anything in particular I should do?" I asked. Damn. I was such an idiot back then. Questions like that are just asking for trouble, you know.
"How about you let us paint your face?" Little Minion asked.
"Paint it? How?"
"So you look exactly like The Great Aku!"
"Err...will he like that?" I asked.
"Of course!" Rune replied. "He loves it when people reproduce his likeness and making yourself look like him is even better."
"Well, OK...I really want to get off on the right foot with Aku, so go ahead and paint my face." I was so naïve! I hadn't the faintest idea that what they were doing would change my life forever.
Little Minion took out a makeup kit from her dress and she and Rune began to paint my face while I had my eyes closed. While they worked, they yammered on and on about all kinds of stuff, ranging from idiots on Aku's hit list to what they did with him the previous night, nothing of which that I remember well. Well, OK, so I do remember some of what they said, but I just don't want to repeat it. It's not really important, anyway. What's more important is what I saw when Rune passed me a hand mirror after they finished. They'd painted my face black, given me flame markings around my eyes to reproduce Aku's eyebrows, and even pasted a fake red beard on my chin! It was awful! I screamed and dropped the mirror so hard on the floor that it shattered. Both of the minions laughed hysterically. "This wasn't about pleasing Lord Aku, was it?" I snarled at them.
Little Minion managed to stop laughing long enough to say, "What? Oh, just think of it as...initiation!"
"Aku will probably laugh at me too, right?" I asked.
"Probably. But making Aku laugh is a good thing to do!" Rune replied.
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be his jester. I want to be taken seriously...as a hunter!"
"Fine, if you want to be like that, there's a bathroom in the back of the room. Go wash up," Little Minion said. She and Rune exchanged sly glances. "You shouldn't have any problems getting it off." Then, they burst out laughing again.
I grumbled to myself while I walked to the bathroom. That was certainly not how I wanted to start my career as a bounty hunter. I turned on the bathroom light and leaned against the counter, which was made out of jagged gray stone. I yanked the beard off, which actually hurt a bit, but I was too busy being pissed off to really care. There was a washrag and some soap next to the sink, so I started violently rubbing my skin. I got most of it off, but try as I did, I couldn't get the markings around my eyes off. I rubbed so hard that my skin damn near bled. I was almost in tears when I stopped to look at myself in the mirror again.
It was then that I realized that I'd been marked long before the markings appeared on my skin. My only purpose was to serve Aku and to eradicate all those who oppose him. My lonely childhood had left me bitter and drained me of anything that could be called compassion, so I certainly wasn't afraid to kill. Everything in was all training for the position I'd just been given. This was my destiny.
I sighed and turned off the light before I left the room. The two minions were standing outside the door and giggling madly. "Did you have any...problems?" Little Minion sneered.
I looked confidently at her and shook my head. "No. None at all."
"But your eyes!" Rune stammered.
"My eyes are as they should be," I replied. I plopped down on my sleeping bag and snarled at them, "Now that you two have had your fun, will you leave me the hell alone?"
"Why isn't she mad about her eyes?" Little Minion mumbled to Rune.
"She probably is but just won't show it," Rune mumbled back.
They didn't know how wrong they were. They were simply unaware of what they made me realize. And I really didn't feel like enlightening them. "I'm awfully tired after that hunt. Just get out of here!" I snapped.
"OK, OK!" Little Minion said. "You bounty hunters are so touchy! Well, I'm sure we'll see you around. Have a good time serving Aku!"
"Yeah," Rune replied, "I hope you do as well as you seem to want to."
I didn't say anything in reply. I just glared at them while they left. I sighed, and crawled into my sleeping bag. I wasn't really tired, but it was a good place to just think about what'd happened. Remember, I was just sixteen at the time, so that seemed like a huge step to me.
And really, that's all there is to say about how I got started being a hunter. I admit, it's been hard work, but Lord Aku actually provides just about everything I need, weaponry and the like, because he wants to make sure his elite hunters are the best. He doesn't want his elite hunters to be stupid, either, so he even sent me private tutors so I could learn how to read and stuff since I didn't go to school for very long and it wasn't like my parents cared. Of course, these tutors were all actually prisoners who'd been arrested for failing to honor Lord Aku, but they all realized that helpin' me was a good way to redeem themselves.
Look, I'd really like to talk to you more, especially about what that Ojoku crap was all about, but you kept me waitin' so long that I'd better go and start making preparations for my next assignment. See ya around! That is, if you can find me while I'm on the road.
[Author's Note: Leiko abruptly got up and left the bar, slamming the doors behind her. I couldn't get over the fact that the last thing she'd said sounded an awful lot like a challenge, and, strangely enough, it was one I was willing to take up. But why? Just what did Leiko mean to me? After all, she was crass and seemed to be completely heartless, and she'd even said herself that she lacked true compassion. I was certain that was an exaggeration, but I wasn't sure I wanted to find out just by how much she was exaggerating!
I saw her drop something on the way out, and, even though I thought better of it, I slowly walked over and picked it up to see what it was. What I found was a plastic, photo ID card. It was marked, "Pit of Hate World Pass: Good for admission to Pit of Hate World through the Employees of Aku Entrance at any time." At the time, I didn't have the faintest idea what Pit of Hate World was, but I figured it was my responsibility to return the card to her. Or at least, that's the reason I gave myself for finding her again.]
Thanks to Rune and Aku's Little Minion for letting me borrow them for my story.