Samurai Jack was no stranger to lands primarily inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, but never before had he felt so estranged among them as he took his first few steps through the ornate front gates unopposed by the soldiers posted there, but for their curious if not wary glances.
Businesses from bathhouses to inns and restaurants lined the road, with open doors. A scruffy, dirt covered farmer goat with a heaping bag of grain slung over his shoulder walked among dainty maidens in kimonos giggling amongst themselves or harassing their equally richly dressed suitors, salary men in tidy business suits intent on making the most efficient use out of their lunch break possible, all constantly preyed upon by roadside vendors desperate to sell anything from hastily cooked squid and freshly picked pineapples, to sandal repair work and questionable discount dental services.
An owl wearing what Jack recognized to be traditional priest's garb was sitting cross-legged on the side of the road, to which he instinctively removed his sun hat and offered a bow. At once, he felt foolish for doing do so without any knowledge of the local customs, so baited was he by the city's resemblances to his homeland. For all that Jack knew, he may have just accidentally issued a death threat!
To his delight; however, the old owl returned the courtesy with a warm smile.
"Such a polite young man," the old owl mused.
"Enlightened one, could you tell me the name of this place?"
"I am enlightened enough, I should think, to inform you that have found yourself in Little Tokyo," The monk said with a laugh, then paused to clasp his hands and bow his head once more, as if to offer Jack a silent prayer.
"Little Tokyo? Does that mean there is also a Big Tokyo?"
The monk simply shrugged – truly the world may never know, and certainly not from reading this piece of high art.
"In any case, I'd advise you to not stay here for long."
"Oh…? Jack said, already thinking this could mean only one thing, and that there was more to his new, uncommonly peaceful surroundings than meets the eye after all.
"Listen well, for a vision of a great evil soon to sweep over the land came to me last night, and I take it that if you are wise enough to respect your elders, you will heed my warning."
Jack inclined his head forward slightly – to serve as a nod and a show of his piqued interest.
"An evil on a scale like nothing I ever imagined before!" The owl rotated his head sharply at each emphasized point of his recollection, as he went on: "An intense heat shook my entire body as an image appeared of our finest warriors retching as though stricken with deadly poison, and then the townspeople as they littered the streets; inconsolable, all while a black demon watches…laughing…"
Jack clutched the hilt of his sword in its sheath. "Aku!"
The monk bowed with his hands clasped once again. "Bless you, traveler!"
A carriage drawn by a down on his luck horse pulled up behind Jack, and at this point the monk rose.
"Please, join me." The monk said as he walked with Jack to greet the carriage, and sighed wearily. "I have tried to warn them, but none will listen when I try to tell them how hopeless the situation is."
Jack returned his sun hat to its rightful place, tipped in such a way that it concealed his stoic gaze. "I believe you."
Running away from the onslaught of evil was antithetical to the central purpose of his journey – for wherever there was the presence of evil, there was sure to be Aku.
The potential coolness of the moment is ruined by Jack's stomach growling.
Jack was so hungry that his thoughts momentarily drifted away from Aku. The monk, before boarding, was generous enough to provide Jack with directions to a certain teahouse.
"Be careful, samurai!" The owl said as the carriage rolled away. "Some evils in this world are impossible for us mere mortals to resist!"
The owl monk's last words echoed in Jack's memory as he sat at the bar of the ultra-hip and modern 'Counting Sheep' teahouse, brooding over a glass of iced green tea.
"Oh, my…is the tea not to your liking, sir?"
Jack glanced up from his drink to meet the eyes of the sheep Lucille, blushing and twiddling her fingers together nervously.
"No, the tea is lovely," Jack said, pausing to take a long sip. Truth be told, he still preferred his tea to be hot, but was too preoccupied with more pressing matters to talk about it. "I met a monk at the front gates, who told me that a great evil was bound for this city."
"Evil?" Lucille said, with far less concern that the samurai expected out of seemingly the most innocent of innocent civilians. "Not as long as the Samurai Pizza Cats are here to protect us."
"Samurai…pizza…cats?" Jack repeated aloud, after all that he'd endured only now questioning what his life had become.
Suddenly, a flash of movement whizzed by on the road, throwing up a cloud of dust in its wake.
Jack rose with his sword drawn. "What was that?"
"Speak of the devil…"
Jack flashed back to the time when the owl monk said 'black devil,' whilst crooking his head to its utmost maximum. The samurai swung at the thin air with his blade.
"Devil!? Where is it?"
Lucille, in a fit of stress, released a barrage of explosive missiles from her hairpiece which, in total: killed a cockroach and the sloth he was going through great pains to eject from his taxi, reduced an entire family of chickens into boxes of Kid Cuisine dinosaur-shaped chicken tenders with brownies and corn, and blasted a hole through the wall of the Little Tokyo Prison yard, miles away.