Aku was led to the smithy half of the shop, where Bast showed him the important parts. Hanging his cane on a hook by the door, he began giving a tour.
"This here is the hearth, where you'll heat the metal you're working with." He explained, pointing to things as he went. "You'll be burning coal as your fuel."
Next he brought Aku to a big, sack-looking thing.
"These are the bellows, they help keep your coal burning at a high temperature. You'll have to keep a close eye on your hearth to know when to stoke it, or you'll end up with metal that's too hot, or too cold." He ushered him to the center of the smithy, where the anvil stood. "I'd say you have to be about dumb as dirt not to know what this is."
Aku rolled his eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, dearest Master, I know what the hell an anvil is."
Bast nodded, seemingly pleased with himself. "Good. Then on to the next." He kept leading him from part to part, explaining what they were along the way. The oil tank used for 'quenching', his tool rack where all of his various hammers, tongs, and other items were hanging or resting on a low shelf, and finally to his workbench. It took a while, but Aku had a general understanding of what was what and what did what.
"Now then," Bast said, pulling the Daggertail blade from his apron pocket. "Let's get started. Your blade already has its general shape, courtesy of the Daggertail's strange anatomy, but what it needs is a handle, to which there are three main parts. The guard, the grip, and the pommel. That's gonna be your first lesson." He laid the Daggertail blade on his workbench and turned to Aku. "Luckily for you, Daggertail blade's are naturally very mercurial and won't break if I reheat it, so we can shape it to give it a tang."
They worked on the blade together for the rest of that evening, Bast showing Aku how to make a proper hilt for his new dagger, and Aku listening patiently, trying to absorb as much of the info as he could. When they were finished, he no longer had a shabby piece of sharp metal, but a fine, polished dagger. The hilt they made together was made of a black wood for the grip, a dark metal for the pommel, and a small crossguard made of the same silvery steel as the blade. The grip was rough, with grooves for his fingers to fit nicely into.
They'd also made a leather scabbard to hold it in, because Bast said it wouldn't be the best idea to hold it out in the open all the time. Aku didn't mind the extra work, either, he was quite enjoying his time with the old smith. It was made of simple dark brown wood called 'Tearwood', which looked quite nice on Aku's waistband.
"Well, if that isn't a beautiful blade, I don't know what is." Bast said, clapping him on the back. He had this proud look in his eyes that made Aku feel a comfortable warmth in his chest, and he couldn't help but smile stupidly with the old man. "You did good, kid. You're a natural at this. I reckon you'll be as good as me one day. Well… maybe not as good. "
Chuckling happily, Aku nodded gratefully. "Well, old man, out with the old…"
"Bah! Shut your yapper, boy, I'm not that old yet." He snapped, flicking Aku's forehead good naturedly. "But anyways, it's getting late, so we best eat and get to bed. If you think I won't have you working like a dog every day, then you've sorely misjudged my character, boy." He took his cane from the hook and hung up his brown, leather apron.
Aku followed close behind, holding his dagger up to his eyes appraisingly for a few moments before sheathing it on his hip. They walked together into the kitchen for the second time that day, and Bast began taking out various ingredients from the Ice box and pantry, which was next to it. For dinner, they made a noodly kind of pasta with ground meat mixed in. Bast also used a few spices he'd never heard of like 'Tupic' and 'Rilin'.
Aku ate quickly and went to his room, feeling quite good about himself for the work he'd done today. Even if there were a lot of certainly world changing discoveries, and even if he was still unsure of his exact path, he at least had somewhere to stay. And on top of that, he had Bast to help him through the more confusing, not so common sense types of things.
He was just about to go to sleep when he remembered something and poked his head out of his room. "Hey, Bast? Do you have anything I can light my lantern with? And also maybe a notebook you can spare?"
"Sure thing, kid, gimme a sec." He called out from his room next door. A few minutes later he came in and gave aku a leather bound tome and a box of matches. "Here you are, boy. Anything else you need tonight?"
"That'll be all." He took the items and put them on his desk, sitting down, then got back up and walked to his door, catching Bast just before he was about to retreat into his own room for the night. "Hey, Bast?"
"Yeah, kid?" He lingered in his doorway, looking back at Aku.
"Thank you. For everything, that is." He hesitated before adding,"I don't know what I'd've done without your help."
Bast smiled warmly back at him, wearing that grandpa look he had when they were smithing. "'Course, kid. Now get to bed, it's late and you're gonna have a lot to do tomorrow."
Aku nodded, smiling, and closed his door, retreating into his room for the night. He sat down at his desk, taking a match from the box and striking it until it lit, then opened the little glass door of his lantern and lit it too. He was surprised when the flame of his lantern wasn't the yellow orange that he'd been expecting, but instead a dark crimson color, illuminating the desk and tome next to it with the same color. He shrugged it off, not knowing exactly what it could be or mean.
He set his lantern down on the corner of the desk and opened the notebook to its first page. He took his dagger from its sheath and set it down beside the book, taking a pencil from the desk drawer. He began drawing the dagger, doing his best to capture every detail he could. It was the first weapon he'd ever crafted. Or rather, he'd made the crossguard and pommel, while Bast had done most of the metalworking. He'd heated the metal, then hammered it out to give it a tang and better blade shape than the rudimentary version the Daggertail had. Still, Aku had enjoyed being taught how to make the components of the hilt, it was honestly quite calming for him.
Maybe it was just being with Bast, someone who somewhat resembled what he imagined a grandfather to be, that calmed him.
He drew the rough, grooved hilt, then the silvery blade itself, which was curved like a talon. The pommel was diamond shaped, made of a darker steel than the blade. It was double sided, ending in a sharp point. From the pommel to the edge of the crossguard it was about 10 centimeters, while the blade itself was about 30.
As he kept drawing his blade, a thought occurred to him. 'Should I give it a name?' He couldn't see why not, it seemed like a normal enough thing to do. The only question was what the name should be.
"Let's see… a talon shaped dagger made from a silvery steel, dark wood for its grip, and a dark, steel diamond for its pommel. What kind of name do you give a blade, anyways? Can't be a human name, like Brad, or something stupid like that."
"Might I recommend the name, 'God's Bane'?" A soft, female voice said from behind him.
Aku whirled around, slashing at the voice with God's Bane, but nothing was there. His blade was met with thin air where the voice had come from. The room was now eerily quiet, the only sounds being Aku's heavy breathing and pounding heart.
"W-Who's there? Where are you?" He demanded, trying his best not to sound like he hadn't just almost soiled his pants.
His questions were met with silence, no trace of the disembodied voice anywhere to be seen. He slumped back in his seat, heart still pounding in his chest. He tried to calm his breathing, keeping a tight grip on his dagger.
His dagger, God's Bane.
He looked down at it, the sight of it calming him in a strange way. He sat there, waiting, for several minutes. When nothing happened, he started to debate whether he'd even heard anything or not. Maybe he was only tired, hearing things.
"No. Bullshit. I'm not hearing things, that was most definitely real, I'm certain." He scoffed, shaking his head, trying more to convince himself than anyone else.
After several more minutes of nothing happening, he turned back to the desk and grabbed his lantern, opening the door. He blew it out, the red light that had suffused the room dissipating instantly. With a heavy sigh, he put the lantern back down and set God's Bane next to it, then climbed into bed.
His eyes drifted shut slowly, the long day's exhaustion slowly claiming him, and he fell asleep.
***
"Hey, you. Wake up."
Aku opened his eyes, immediately squinting at the blinding light that greeted him. Looking around, he found himself in an abyss of pure white. He stretched out his hands, looking down at them. He was still normal, wearing the clothes he had on when he went to bed. The tattered black and what were once crimson robes he'd woke up in.
"Hey, over here." A masculine voice called out, slightly gravely.
He lifted his head to look at the voice, expecting to see another person. What he saw, however, was more of a silhouette than a person. It was pitch black, humanoid in shape, and had wisps of black smoke emanating off of it.
"Who… are you?" Aku asked, cracking his knuckles.
The figure tilted his head at him, as if amused at something. "You don't have to worry about that, Akuma."
"How do you-"
"I'm in your head, you really don't think I know your name?"
He snapped his mouth shut, realizing he did in fact sound dumb.
It chuckled, the sound surprisingly warm. "You don't look scared. Am I not scary to you?"
"I've been through a lot in these last couple days, not much can surprise me anymore."
It barked out a laugh, nodding. "Yes, I suppose you have."
A long silence dragged out between them as they both sat there, just looking at each other. After a while, Aku finally broke the quiet. "So… what are you?"
"We've been over that."
"Ok, then why are you here? And where is 'here'?" He forced himself to put his hands down, stopping his annoying nervous habit.
"Ah, good questions… ones I'll actually answer, too." He, at least what Aku assumed to be a he, sat down cross legged in front of him, matching his position. "I'm here simply to talk. At least, for now. And as to where 'here' is, I already answered that question. This is your being." He gestured around them at the blank white abyss in mock appraisal. "And it's so homey, no?"
Aku glared at the figure, which he was getting really tired of calling it, and sighed. "Ok. So what exactly are you supposed to be talking about?"
It shrugged, holding its 'hands' up in confusion.
Aku's eye twitched, and he glared even harder at it. "So are you just useless, or?"
It tossed its head back and laughed for a few moments, then rubbed 'tears' out of its 'eyes'. "Maybe, yes. Not my fault, though. You just don't have the knowledge needed for us to talk about anything useful."
"What are you talking about?" Aku asked, incredulous.
Instead of answering, the figure reached out and tapped Aku's forehead, and everything faded to black.