Prologue

LONG AGO IN A DISTANT LAND, AKU, THE SHAPESHIFTING MASTER OF DARKNESS, UNLEASHED AN UNSPEAKABLE EVIL. BUT A FOOLISH SAMURAI WARRIOR WIELDING A MAGIC SWORD STEPPED FORTH TO OPPOSE HIM. BEFORE THE FINAL BLOW WAS STRUCK, AKU TORE OPEN A PORTAL IN TIME AND FLUNG HIM INTO THE FUTURE, WHERE HIS EVIL IS LAW. NOW THE SAMURAI SOUGHT TO RETURN TO THE PAST AND UNDO THE FUTURE THAT IS AKU. 50 YEARS HAD PASSED, BUT HE DID NOT AGE. TIME HAD LOST ITS EFFECT ON HIM, YET THE SUFFERING CONTINUED. AKU'S GRASP CHOKED THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. HOPE WAS LOST, UNTIL...

Jack slammed the sword on the ground, spilling Aku out of it. He sighed as Jack raised the sword for the final strike.

"You might have beaten me now, but I will destroy you in the future." Aku said.

"There is no future for you, Aku." Jack said.

"I disagree." Aku said before he screeched and sent rings above Jacks' head.

"What trickery is this?!" Jack asked. The rings fell down and encased him in a bright light.

"Aku!" Jack said before he fell into a portal and the beam disappeared.

"Do not worry, Samurai. You will see me again. But next time, you will not be so fortunate." Aku said before a blast of light showed up.

"What?!" he asked before Jack and a woman dressed in black showed up.

"(Gasp) You're back already?!" Aku asked as Jack rushed at him with his sword raised.

"No, wait!" Aku said before Jack cut him with his sword, causing him to retreat before Jack leapt after him and cut him in half, destroying one half easily before leaping after the other one, which was crawling away and stabbing it through the head. It was then drawn into the blade of his sword.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jack yelled as he triumphantly slammed it into the floor of Aku's castle, filling up Aku's castle with the evil power of the shapeshifting master of darkness. Soon, the fortress started to implode.

Jack and Ashi fled Aku's tower as it started to go up in smoke. Once a safe distance away, they watched as the tower exploded in a bright flash of light, leaving only a crater where it once stood.

"It is done." Jack said before Ashi collapsed to the ground beside him.

"Ashi?!" Jack asked as he kneeled beside her.

"I'm okay. I felt him leave me." Ashi said.

"He will never hurt anyone again." Jack said as he and Ashi shared a victorious embrace as the sun rose over the horizon. Afterwards, they headed back to the mines where Jack had last seen his parents.

Everyone looked at him before he said, "Aku is defeated. You have no need to work like this anymore."

At that, the inhabitants of the Japanese kingdom cheered. In the midst of it, an elderly-looking man and woman walked up to them.

"My son. You have done us proud." said the man.

"Thank you, Father." Jack said before his mother noticed Ashi.

"Who is this?" she asked.

Ashi bowed her head in greetings, "Hello, I am Ashi. I'm a woman Jack met in the future." she said.

Jack's parents looked puzzled.

"It's a long story." Jack said.

Once he had explained everything, his parents understood fully.

"Well, we might not agree with what she has done in the past, but if she truly has claimed redemption and you love and care for her, then we respect it." Jack's father said.

"Thank you, sir." Ashi said.

Some time later, after Jack's parents had been nursed back to health, and during the reconstruction of their homeland, Jack found Ashi peacefully drinking tea out under a tree.

"Ashi." Jack said.

"Hello, Jack. I something wrong?" Ashi asked.

"No, I just have something to ask you." Jack said before he took her hands in his.

"Ashi, will you marry me?" Jack asked.

Ashi was speechless before she said, "Yes." with a smile.

Much later, after the successful completion of reconstruction, all of Jack's teachers were attending the scheduled wedding. Jack and Ashi had both been prepped with ceremonial clothing and everyone watched with smiling faces as Ashi walked to the altar, where Jack was waiting. However, sometime later, Jack sat under a cherry blossom tree on a foggy morning, looking a little gloomy, when a ladybug landed on his hand. Jack looked at it before it flew off. He smiled as he watched it fly off. Leaning up behind him, Ashi also noticed it and smiled as she and Jack joined hands as the sun poke through the morning fog, showing a healthy landscape that would never have to face destruction at the hands of Aku. At the same time, the sun also shone down on two infants they had wrapped in bundles of cloth. One was a boy, and another was a girl. The two smiled at them.

Renchaku ha na hanasanai

BACK IN THE PAST, AT LONG LAST.

SAMURAI JACK...