Chapter 55: Run?

Aku sat in the grass with his forearms on his knees.

'So this is it?'

He had his face buried between his knees.

'To die like that is pretty embarrassing, especially in front of Yaki…Yaki,'

Aku thought back on times in the past with his baby sister. He had practically raised her his entire life.

'Did I do good, mother?'

His sniffles and crying were blended into the noises of the wind blowing against the soft grass.

'I just wanted to protect her, did I fail? Yes? No?'

He grabbed the back of his head in the hope to silence his thoughts.

"I wasn't strong enough! If I was stronger I could have protected her! SHE NEEDS ME! MOM TOLD ME SHE NEEDS ME! I HAVE TO LIVE PLEASE! I MADE A MISTAKE!"

Aku beat the ground in anger, tearing up the grass and hyperventilating. He threw up nothing as he gagged himself through exhaustion.

"GET UP! PLEASE PLEASE WAKE UP I HAVE TO WAKE UP I NEED TO LIVE FOR YAKI!"

*Swift*

Aku's teary eyes noticed something nearby. A shadowy entity had passed by him, it paid no attention to him as it kept moving away from Aku.

"Wait!"

Aku got on one knee as he saw the entity stop. He jumped to his feet as he approached the entity. It moved away further.

"Wait, stop! I...I need help!"

Aku sprinted toward the dark entity as it moved forward. He reached out and leaped, but he landed flat on his face, tears streaming down his face.

"Please…stop, I need to get back to my sister!"

"If you wish to get back to your sister, catch me."

The entity's voice caught Aku off guard as he stood up again. The strangeness of the situation, what the entity was? Those questions didn't matter nor did they come up in Aku's head. He had a chance at a ticket home. He cried slightly as he walked towards the entity.

"Please…"

He went faster.

"...Help me!"

And faster.

"I can't mess up like that again."

He thought back to Eren.

"Everything that's happened to her...It's my fault!"

He chased as the day turned to night.

"I need to make things right! If not for me, at least for Yaki!"

The night turned into morning.

"HELP ME!"

His cries turned to heavy breaths.

"I…"

Hours turned into days.

"...can't…"

Running turned to walking.

"...keep…"

Walking into falling.

"...Up!"

Aku collapsed to the ground, his appearance worn and rugged. He had lost count of the days and nights he'd spent running, his focus always fixed on one thing: The Entity.

'I can't catch it!'

His body was numb from exhaustion.

'I…I can't feel my legs. I can't keep my eyes open…'

Aku's mind went blank for a moment as he fought to keep his eyes open. He swung his arm forward and pulled his body forward an inch at most.

"I CAN'T GIVE UP!"

The tears flooded his face as he pulled harder and harder forward.

"Yaki!"

"YAKI!"

"YAKI!"

Aku's hand dug deep into the ground, but he did not pull, he couldn't,

"No"

"No"

"No"

"No, MOVE MOVE YOU WEAK BODY FUCK! MOVE!"

"Why?"

Another voice interrupted Aku's yells. As he looked up while remaining on the ground, The entity looked down at him.

"Why?

Aku said, confused by the question.

"Why keep moving forward?"

"For…For Yaki…I promised Mother and Father…I...I have to!"

"Continuing the way you are, you'll lose her, just like you did with your parents. Maybe you were the mistake, so much for being the savior of the cursed children. Hell, I haven't witnessed you win one fight in years it feels. Tell me Aku,"

The Entity turned its back on Aku again as it floated away slowly from the crippled Aku.

'Lose her?'

"You said earlier you deserved death because of those you have slaughtered. Truth be told you deserved to die because of the ones you haven't slaughtered yet. If you have dealt with the demons that threaten your sister's life, you wouldn't be in this situation. The weak die in this world, it's a shame you just happened to be one of them!"

Aku's tears ceased as he heard the entity laugh at him.

'Lose her? LOSE HER? LOSE HER?'

A flash of black and white surrounded the area as the entity turned back with a white smile.

*CRASH*

Aku sat on top of the Entity in a crater in the ground. His hand holding onto the Entity's throat.

"Take me back! NOW!"

Aku's Shiryoku hollowed out of his eye socket like a chimney. His Kuroi Inazuma seemed to merge with his skin and veins as if the lightning-like power was crystallizing him from within. The Entity smiled, its shadowy presence unfazed.

"Fine…"

The Entity grabbed the back of Aku's head revealing itself as a woman.

"We will help you!"

Four more sets of shadowy hands gripped Aku, dragging him into the ground. He was pulled into an endless void of pitch-black emptiness. One hand covered his eyes, and another shoved its way into his mouth as if trying to force its entire hand down his throat. The remaining hands yanked at his waist, sinking him deeper and deeper into the darkness.

'This Darkness…'

He felt his Aspect all around him as the hands continued to pull all over his body.

'This feeling I...I'

The hands only felt they were seeping into him. He could feel them touching His Mind, His Heart, and His Soul. The spread of the darkness, the shadows, it all felt like a part of him. It was as if it was him.

"I LOVE IT!"

Aku smiled as his Shiryoku had gained a new sense of power, a power worthy of wielding the darkness within him. Can Aku handle it?