Aku slowly opened up his eyes, his vision blurred for a few moments before his surroundings came into view. The place he had woke up was certainly not what he expected though. The view of big glass windows, a large black chalkboard at the front of the room, and desks in rows for students to sit for their lessons of the day. Aku noticed that by the position of the sun, as was after school hours. “Mmmh, must have napped through class again, I am sure I am going to hear it from Ms. Yomata again.” The young man gave a dread-filled sigh as he got up. He was wearing a white and black collared shirt and black pants, his school’s uniform and even then Aku had his hair long down to his lower back. The sound of a chain lightly dangled against his hip as he leaned down to grab his back and tosses it over his shoulder. And as if right on queue, the voice of his teacher could be heard on his way out as she was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. She was one of those beautiful and young teachers, but didn’t take any nonsense from her students. “Musaboru, I believe that I have already told you that you need to stop falling asleep in my class five times. This time makes it six.” she said as she turned to face him.

Aku sighed before turning to face her and gave a slight bow of his head. “Yes, Ms. Yomata It’s just my folks have been short staffed lately at their restaurant and I have been covering the night shifts which don’t end till around ten o’clock at night. Then I do the homework that you hand out. But the time that’s done. It is midnight.”. The teacher goes silent for a moment and then sighs. She knows that he has a lot to deal with in his life outside of school and can understand. He is a good student and that is why she continues to poke and prod at him. “I know you are struggling a bit more than most kids here, Musaboru. Your grades are perfectly fine otherwise I’d be sending you to the office for sleeping in my class. But, the other students might think I am giving you special treatment if I leave you alone to do what you will. So, if I get on to you in the middle of class, it’s more of me doing my job.”. Aku gave a nod in understanding. He knew his teacher was only doing her job, that is why he never held it against her when she got onto him. “I know Ms. Yomata. Thanks for showing a bit of mercy on me. Once we get more folks in the restaurant, I will be able to focus more on my studies. Hopefully, that will be soon.”. His teacher gave a gentle reassuring pat on his shoulder before she walked off. “Hang in there, kiddo. Since this is your last year of high school, you won’t have to deal with me for much longer.”. Aku gave a soft chuckle before waving at her. “See ya later, Ms Yomata. Be careful heading home.”

Aku walked down the street from his school. Once he made that turn, he came face to face with a blue haired girl dressed in a black skirt and dark blue collared shirt with black stripes on the sleeves. She had pale skin and beautiful night blue eyes and wore black ribbon in her hair. The first thing on Aku’s mind is which school did she come from? He had never seen a uniform like that before. The second thing on his mind was that he found her extremely attractive. She must have been one of those goth girls that believed in summoning yokai or telling ghost stories in the dark. Aku could totally dig that kind of stuff. The girl smiled at him before she spoke up as she approached him. “My goodness. So this is the word you came from. It certainly has its charm. These trees with the pink leaves on them are especially lovely.”. Aku turned to look at one of the trees in question before answering her. “These are called cherry blossoms. They bloom every spring. Are you not from Japan? You look japanese, but your accent sounds rather...american.”

The girl giggled and shook her head. “I am not from your world, actually. I have been trying to make my way into your dreamscape for quite a few days now. We had feared the worst when your heart had stopped beating and you became unresponsive after that blast of magic caused you quite a bit of harm.” She made her way closer till she stood right next to him. Don’t you realize that this is all just a dream? You aren’t home and you certainly aren’t back to being this young again.”. Aku was greatly confused, but it all became clear when she snapped her fingers and the dream flowed away like water in a river. He was normal back to his present self, and so was the girl who he now saw as her true self as well. She was the dark blue furred alicorn who had sat next to Celestia. They now stood above the city of Canterlot, high in the clouds with the moon shining brightly upon them.

Aku freaked out a bit, jumping backwards before realizing that he was standing on clouds as if he were standing on a solid marble floor. “Oh right...dreamscape. You said that…” he said before lightly slapping his forehead. The towering mare gave a soft giggle before nodding. “I am princess Luna. The other ruler of Equestria. And if I remember, your name is Aku. A rather strange but, alluring name,”. Aku laughed and turned his attention to Luna after gazing at his surroundings. “If only you knew the meaning of the name, you might not think so. Aku in my language means ‘evil’ or “evil one’. Though, I suppose my last name makes it sound less sinister. Musaboru means ‘to devour.’ So you could say that I devour evil.” He said with a light laugh. Of course he wouldn’t know just how right he was for now.

“‘One who devours evil’, you say? That is quite a name indeed. But in this world, you seem to devour magic. Were you able to eat magic back in your own world?” asked Luna with increased curiosity. Aku shook his head in response. “The only thing I ate back in my world was food. A lot of it. I won eating competitions and all that stuff.”. Luna nodded and started circling him just as her sister did. “And yet, you don’t gain a single pound? That is really unfair…” she pouted as she stood in front of him again. But, enough about that. It seemed as if your body went into a sort of...stasis when you got hurt. Our doctors patched you up, but it seemed that our healing magic doesn’t quite work on your body as it normally does with ponies. Your body seems to react rather slowly to it. As if it was resisting.”

Aku suddenly realized what was happening to him with those words from Luna. His body wasn’t meant for this world’s magic. So if he consumed too much, his body would reject it in the most violent of ways, but at the same time, it seemed that his body also nearly negated, or at least has a super resistance to magic being applied to him. A classic double-edged sword situation. Aku took all this in, finally figuring out why his body had suddenly started hurting before the blast. “There is some good news in this, however. It took a lot of magic to make the spell stay in place. My sister and I had to be the ones to cast the spell because it kept bouncing off you with our best court mages. But, you do not have to wear that shroud over your face anymore. You can now freely consume magic at will. But, I am sure you’d rather not do that anyway.”

Aku looked over to Luna with a hopeful expression. “Truly? I am not at risk of draining anyone of their magic? If this is the case. Then I am very much in you and your sister’s debt for doing something for me that caused you both such trouble and strain on your magic. I am very appreciative for such great kindness.” He said as he did a deep bow towards her. “Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart.” he said with another bow. Before coming up again. “You are very welcome. Though, one bow was good enough.”. Aku scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile. “Sorry...something we also do back in my world when such a thing or rather something equal to is done for us. As a sign of gratitude and respect.”

As Aku finished explaining, the dream slowly started to fade away like water flowing down a stream once more. “Ah, you are finally waking up. I do hope that with this spell, things will be much easier in our world for you. I will pop by in your dreams another time. Take care now.” she waves to him with a light smile before fading away as well. Aku’s eyes open up again before he sits up quickly. However, doing this quickly brought pain to his upper body as it was still quite sore. He places a hand upon his midsection and lets out a low ‘Oooooowwwuh!’. Take about a delayed reaction from the initial blast. While his body was healed, the soreness was most certainly still plaguing him. He fell right back onto the bed and let out a sigh of discomfort before he took a look at his surroundings once more. Yep, he was where he thought he’d be. In a hospital room in the same world he was stuck in. It would have been too good to be true if he was back home.

As he fell back onto the bed, he heard hoofsteps heading his way in a hurry. His cry of pain must have alerted the nurse nearby. She peeks in to see that he was awake and quickly went to grab the doctor. “H-He is awake, doctor! Come quickly!”. Soon enough, the doctor came in and sat next to Aku with his chart in hand. “You are quite fortunate, sir. While your body was pretty banged up, that blast should have left nothing behind. Some of the castle guards who got caught in that are actually on leave because of broken bones. However, your body ahd shut down for a whole week, but you weren’t dead at the same time. It is truly a medical mystery.” Aku listened. He had also noticed that his shroud wasn’t covering his face. So the words that Luna had spoken were true. “Well, I am grateful to the princesses for fixing my...previous issue with you ponies. I am not eating your magic unwillingly now.”

The doctor arched an eyebrow wondering how he could have known that beforehand. But then he remembered that the princess of the night was able to delve into dreams of others. “Well, if she has given you the rundown, all I need to say is that you are free to leave when you wish. A friend of yours dropped by with a new set of clothing for you since the ones you were wearing had been reduced to tatters. I will leave you to get a bit of rest and let you get changed. Make sure to not consume any magic if you can help it from now on. Last thing I need to hear about is you ending up in the hospital again because of this. Oh, and one more thing. There is a spot on your left palm that refuses to heal. While it isn’t infected or anything, it is more like a magical wound that cannot be closed. Just...keep an eye on it.”.

After the doctor left, Aku took a look at his left hand. There was indeed a wound there. But not a physical one. It was as if there was a magical tear in the middle of his palm. But it didn’t hurt like before. It was more of a light tingling sensation for now. But the wound sparked every now and then just to remind him it was there. After laying there for what felt like an eternity, he gets up and gets dressed. Seeing the way the clothing was made, he knew right away Rarity had made them for him. “I am going to have to thank her as well. She certainly didn’t have to make me a new set of clothes.” he said as he slid on the knee length coat which had a deep hood on the back. Along with a new pair of black jeans and a black shirt that felt rather soft and silky against his skin. And it would seem that they were able to salvage his shoes to the point where they looked brand new. Not to mention they felt like he was walking on clouds now.

Once he was dressed, he slowly but surely made his way out of the room and took the elevator down where he found both Rarity and Fluttershy waiting for him. Aku tilted his head at the both, but smiled before shuffling over to them both. “Hey, you two. Good to see you again. Got the word I was up and about huh?”. Rarity smiled and made her way over to him with Fluttershy right behind her. “Good to see you are still with us, darling. You gave us quite a fright the other day. Oh, but those new clothes look so good on you as well! And you don’t need to cover your face anymore! I am very pleased with how my outfits fit you. And even more so to see your face fully now. You have such sharp and handsome features~.”.

“I-I was worried about you as well. I decided to stay behind with Rarity so that..I could come and check in on you while you were sleeping.” said Fluttershy as she timidly approached him, lifting her head up towards him as if expecting pats of approval which she surely deserved. He reached up and placed his hand between her ears, gently petting her and running her fingers through her hair. “Thank you, uuh Fluttershy, was it? For making sure I was doing alright. It was extremely sweet of you.”. She wagged her tail happily at the praise and thanks he had given her. He then turns his head to Rarity. “And thank you for the new outfit. You certainly didn’t need to go through the trouble.”. Rarity waved her hand lightly at him and shook her head. Oh, you were due for a new outfit anyway, sweetie. I think this looks much better on you anyway~. Now, let's get you back home. I think Twilight has been pacing so much that she has made a three foot circle on her floor!”.

--In The Castle Throne Room--

“...and that is all I could figure out from his dreamscape.” said Luna as she conversed with her sister about the time she had spent in Aku’s dreamscape. Celestia rubbed her chin lightly in thought at her sister’s words. “So he truly seems not to be an intentional threat to us then. So long as that spell holds, I don’t think he will be causing harm to innocent ponies. But his body...it took us so many tries and so much magic to bind that spell to him. He truly has a grand resistance to our magic, but should he devour it and it builds up at any time, it could be dangerous for both him and the ponies around him. We will keep an eye on him for a little longer. But for now, I think he means well.”

One of the throne room doors swings open as a royal guard makes his way towards the duo and bends a knee to them both. “Princesses, I come with news. The one called Aku has left the hospital and is now heading back to Ponyville with your student’s friends. It seems he has recovered enough to move, but that is all.”. Celestia nods and dismisses the guard until the room was empty again. She rests her chin upon one of ehr hands and gazes out one of the windows. “‘One who devours evil’ huh? Perhaps there is something behind that name that he doesn’t even know yet. Only time will tell I suppose….”.

Author's Note

Enjoy another one. :D

May the darkness grant you peace.