I know, I've been gone for a while, but that was due to Christmas and other things going on. Anyways, enjoy this new chapter.

III. The Kunoichi and the Shrine Maiden

Nightfall.

The time between sunset and the next sunrise. A time period enveloped in complete darkness, sometimes accompanied by cold air. As it stood right now, it was dark, and the air from outside was indeed cold. However, if one were to look up in the skies, they would be greeted with the sight of a very large moon; the moon, majestic in its simple spherical appearance, radiated a powerful, blue light to the eyes of those who reside on Earth, and possibly to any other planets close by. But our focus is not on the moon in all of its quiet glory.

Our focus is on the inside of the house that our hero is currently inside, grateful to have been found by two passers-by. Currently, Kubo and the younger girl, Amaterasu, were sitting at a wooden table, with Kubo making the little origami papers he possessed come to life and dance on the table.

"Whoa, that is just...outta this world!" Amaterasu cheered as Kubo plucked at his shamisen. She then looked at the samurai. "What are you?"

"Where I come from, I used to tell stories to my village, just like this," Kubo told her, motioning to his shamisen and the dancing papers. "Everyone would always gather around, just to see my origami come to life and act. But now-" Kubo paused before his face became questioning, "Speaking of my village, um, where exactly am I? This isn't the land that I remember."

"I already told you that, but to me, it looks like you're not even from this century," Amaterasu replied, glancing at the robes Kubo wore. "You look like you belong from somewhere way back."

" 'This century?' " Kubo repeated. "Wait, what year is it, Amaterasu-san?"

"2317," she answered.

"So the question is not 'where am I', it's 'when'."

"That isn't the only question." The two kids turned to the right where they saw Kaede, a serious expression adorned on her face. "I see you've met my little sister."

Kubo smiled. "Yeah. You know, the music you have is way different than the music from my time."

Kaede sat down in front of Kubo. "Listen here, I want answers and I want them now! No one simply falls from the sky like you did the other day, and no one has what's in that closet either. Talk!" She emphasized her demand by pointing at Kubo.

"Kaede-nee-san, lay off of him, will you?" Amaterasu defended, "You're treating him like some kind of-"

"We don't know what he is, sister. For all I know, he could be plotting to kill us or something!"

Kubo sighed; normally, he would object to being so harshly interrogated like this, but considering the circumstances, he felt that they were both owed an explanation. "Very well, then." With his shamisen with him, Kubo began with "If you must blink, do it now! Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter-"

"Get to the point, please," Kaede interrupted, with a scowl and irritation dripping with every word she said.

Kubo rolled his eyes and decided to skip his usual intro. As he continued playing his shamisen, the origami figures came to life, one in the form of Kubo himself, and another in the form of a dragon. "In my time, there was a terrible being called Raiden, the Moon King, who was as cruel as they come. One day, he arrived to terrorize my village, and only I had the power to stop him. With the Sword Unbreakable, we fought viciously until I realized that simply killing him would not solve the issue. He had to be redeemed." The origami figures acted out all that Kubo described; the little figures even jumped up and all around, mimicking the battle in question.

"As I prepared to show Raiden the error of his ways, something happened, a trick of sorcery; and before I knew it, I was sucked into some void that led me to here, where we sit and talk." Kubo set his shamisen down on the table. "That's only a part of it, though."

"So you are a real samurai!" Amaterasu responded, prompting Kubo to nod. "This is crazy! A real life samurai boy transported to the future by a god."

Kubo chuckled nervously. "I guess when you put it like that, it does sound crazy."

Kaede shook her head and scoffed. "Please, you expect me to believe that load of nonsense. It would make just as much sense if you told us that you possess some magical power in your little guitar thing."

"I can assure you, Kaede-san, that my shamisen, as it is correctly called, is not playing tricks on you. And neither am I," the samurai reassured calmly.

"I just think that maybe you hit your head too hard on the sidewalk, samurai boy," the older sister snapped derisively.

"Nee-san," Amaterasu began, "you saw his story play out in front of you. I don't think Kubo here has a reason to lie."

Kaede shook her head at Amaterasu. "Oh, my gullible little sister..."

"What? It all sounds kinda...maybe...sorta...it sounds cool! And besides, Kaede, after seeing little papers dance to guitar-"

"-shamisen," Kubo corrected.

"Wh-whatever. After seeing that, does falling out of sky because of a god sound too wacko?!"

"By the heavens, you're serious." Kaede pinched the bridge of her nose. "What everyone knows from the history books is that Raiden-sama was a misunderstood being who took vengeance on those, particularly the samurai, who mocked and didn't believe in him."

"No!" Kubo exclaimed, banging his fist on the table. He then took a breath to calm himself. "No, it's not true. He's lied to all of you! I can't believe this, he-"

"Look, I'd love to stay and stew in your delusions with you, but I need to know if you'll be gone by tomorrow, alright?" Kaede interrupted.

Kubo narrowed his one eye at her. "I should have guessed demons and the like wouldn't be real in this time."

"Oh they're real, there's no doubt about that." The older sister crossed her arms. "But your story? Too outlandish for my tastes."

"Fine, you don't have to believe me," Kubo said. "I just-I really need some help." Kaede, unfazed by his solemn declaration, got up from the table and exited the living room through the steam-powered metal door.

Amaterasu turned her head toward Kubo and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "What'd I tell you? A total downer, right?"

"I heard that!" Kaede called from the other room.

Amaterasu stuck her tongue out at the door Kaede exited through. Kubo chuckled at the childish display.

"You two really are the closest of siblings, arent' you?" he quipped.

"You couldn't tell?" she quipped back with a smile, which quickly faded. "You have to forgive her, she's been through a lot."

Kubo shrugged. "It's fine, Amaterasu-san-"

"Rasu."

"Excuse me?"

"You can call me Rasu. Doesn't sound too formal and uptight," the newly named Rasu clarified.

"Alright then. Like I said, your sister kinda reminds me of someone from my time," Kubo continued.

"Was she uptight with a stick up her butt?"

"Like you wouldn't believe," Kubo commented, smiling at the memory of Monkey. "She'd always be so serious and I'd be like 'are you ever encouraging' and she'd be all 'I encourage you not to die'." At the last line, Kubo deepened his voice to sound more like Monkey, prompting laughter from Rasu.

"D-did she reallly-hahaha!-wow, that sounds just like Kaede-nee-san! Heeheehee!"

"I don't normally like mocking people, but she was just too easy to fluster, it's just hilarious."

After laughing at Kubo's further impressions, Rasu showed Kubo another song on her ocarina; as he watched her move around the open space while playing, to Kubo, he hadn't heard of much of a sound like the wind instrument all too often, but hearing it from Rasu brought a feeling of enjoyment and protection, much like how his shamisen gave him a sense of power and relief. He briefly wondered whether or not Rasu was given her music by someone, a guardian or whomever, who had recently moved on, similar to his mother.

When Rasu stopped playing, she looked to the left at a box under an inn table. "Hey samurai boy, wanna see something awesome?" She moved toward the inn table and pulled the box out from underneath. When Kubo looked inside, his eyebrows scrunched together. "Hmm, ofuda," he commented before he looked back up at Rasu. "Are you a priestess?"

"A training one at least," Rasu said. "The elders gave all of us boxes of these so that when evil comes, we'll kick its ass to oblivion!" At her swear, Rasu covered her mouth quickly. "Sorry for the swear."

If Kubo was offended, he didn't show it. "In my time, Raiden said that there's no way that mere mortals would be able to do battle with demons or gods. How wrong he was."

"You know," Rasu began, "you told the story and all, but it sounds like you personally know him."

Kubo sighed at the implication. "It's a very long story, Rasu. One that couldn't possib-" Before he could finish his statement, all the power and the lights in the house went out, leaving them in total darkness. "What was that?"

"It's just the lights, something's probably wrong with the circuit breaker."

"Cir-cuit breaker?" Kubo pronounced slowly, utterly confused.

"You got a lot to learn, samurai boy." The two kids decided to go outside to see what was wrong. They moved out of the front door and turned to the right, which led them to the back of the house, where Rasu motioned to a dark box with all kinds of switches on it.

"Pretty strange looking, don'tcha think?" Kubo commented.

Rasu waved her hand dismissively. "Ah, this is nothing. You should see some of the other stuff out there." She pressed the one switched which was colored differently from the others, red to be precise. "There we go. No trouble."

"It would be so much easier to use lanterns," Kubo mumbled to himself. As the two kids were going back to the front door, an odd aroma danced around in the air; it was thick, billowy, and unpleasant to their sense of smell.

"Is someone smoking?" Rasu asked, genuinely confused; if it was Kaede, then there's one thing new she discovered about her sister. Kubo also took a whiff of the air, but noticed that the trail of smoke led to a giant cloud 20 feet away from the house, and it looked like it was stalking closer and closer.

'No. No, it can't be!' Kubo thought in horror. He quickly ran past Rasu and back inside the house, where he went to the room where he was recovering. He grabbed the Sword Unbreakable from the bed and grabbed the mystical armor from the closet nearest to him.

As he was putting on the armor, Rasu caught up to him. "Hey, what's going on? Why the rush?"

"There's danger coming," Kubo said as he put on the Helmet Invulnerable. Rasu saw the samurai's armor glow a golden color, her eyes widening at the sight. "I know you'd want an explanation, but there's no time. If you see me in trouble, get your ofuda and come outside!"

"K-kubo-"

"Just do it!" the samurai ordered. He moved past her once again and out to the front door, his right hand clenched on the Sword Unbreakable's hilt; he watched as the cloud of smoke gained closer and closer, and stopped to the point where it was 10 feet in front of him. The cloud of smoke gathered itself together to form the shape of a person with a large, straw hat topping it off. When the smoke materialized, the form was female, with a perpetually smiling mask, and a cape of feathers. The woman, Kubo noticed, held a brown, lit stick between her lips, which she removed with her right index and middle fingers.

"Hahahaha! Isn't this a surprise," the woman laughed, the sound cold and echoing. "I never thought I'd see you again after so long, little nephew."

Kubo narrowed his eyes and unsheathed the mystical sword. "How have you returned, Yukami?!" he demanded fiercely, attempting to cover his own anxiety. "I-I watched you get vaporized by-"

"Did you really think you'd be rid of us forever?" the aforementioned spirit said, cruel amusement in her tone. She took another puff of the brown stick. "Even your pathetic mother knew she couldn't really kill us."

"Enough!" Kubo shouted. "Now tell me, how do I get back to my own time!"

"But Kubo," Yukami began, "we haven't become reacquainted yet." The smoke she blew from the brown stick began dancing around the young samurai's legs; knowing from prior experience, Kubo jumped away from the smoke before it could envelop him. "I see you've learned from your mistakes. No matter..." Yukami unsheathed her own twin swords and lunged at Kubo.

*SHINK*

*SHINK*

*SHINK*

Kubo and his aunt made battle; Yukami attempted to strike him in a diagonal pattern but Kubo was barely able to block it. Kubo retaliated by rolling at the side to try and slice the spirit from there, but Yukami floated upward before lunging at him again, but this time, she moved like a drill and her strikes were rapid-fire. Kubo managed to block a few of the swipes before being nicked in his left forearm by her right twin sword.

"AAHH!" Kubo shouted in pain.

"Still inexperienced, I see." Yukami side-kicked him in the face, sending Kubo flying back a few feet; luckily, he didn't drop the Sword Unbreakable as he tumbled down and skidded on the ground. He quickly got back up and ran at her, but before he could make it, he was enveloped by the smoke and immobilized.

Kubo struggled to get out of the smoke's grasp, but it was too difficult to do so. "Hahahaha!" Yukami laughed as she floated in front of her nephew. "This is just like the days of old, wouldn't you say?"

Kubo scowled at her with his one eye. "Raiden knew I'd be here, didn't he?"

"Oh of course. After all, father knows all." His evil aunt raised one of her swords and prepared to strike Kubo down; the samurai still tried to reach his magical sword until-

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

*THWACK*

Yukami saw three arrows with paper talismans on them embedded into the space between herself and Kubo. Kubo looked up and saw a dark figure jump from the roof of the house and spin-kick as she descended, sending Yukami flying away and releasing Kubo from the smoke's hold. The samurai saw a woman with brown hair, a navy blue leotard, a scarf that covered the lower half of her face, a sash around her hip with ofuda, and holding a ninjato in her right hand.

"You good, kid?" the woman said.

Kubo looked shocked at the voice. "Kaede-san?"

"Yep. That lady a friend of yours?" she snarked.

"She is not my friend, trust me," Kubo retorted.

Yukami stalked back toward the two. "Isn't this adorable? You have little bodyguards to come save you."

"Piss off," Kaede commented. She then leaped toward the spirit and struck at her with her ninjato, flipping with a motion similar to a hamster wheel. Yukami blocked the onslaught of sword and when Kaede stopped, she moved quickly to try and gut her; Kaede swiped at Yukami's head, to which the spirit barely dodged, losing a few strands of hair in the process. Before she could strike again, Kaede started throwing sharp, metal stars with ofuda attached at her.

"Impressive," Yukami said as she dodged the incoming stars. However, one of the stars clipped her in the shoulder, which made Yukami shout in pain.

"How?! How can mortal weapons-"

"Not so strong after all, are you?" Kaede taunted, smirking behind her mask. Fed up with this distraction, Yukami used her telekinesis to launch Kaede at a tree, which sent the woman into near unconsciousness. She saw Kubo attempt to swipe at her, only to stop him dead in his tracks by making a fist and making him lose his breath.

"I grow tired of this. Now, come with your aunty, Kubo..."

Before Yukami could take Kubo, she heard the sound of a wind instrument playing.

Rasu slowly stepped forward, playing her ocarina, the music of which began bathing her in a bright, nearly blinding, golden light; it was as if the sun itself was walking on the face of the Earth. As she continued playing, a ray of light hit Yukami, enveloping and trapping her similar to how the smoke trapped Kubo.

"What is this?!" Yukami shouted, fury within her tone.

Rasu continued moving forward. "Vile demon! You tamper with forces you could not hope to understand. You overstep your boundaries. Your cruelty that knows no limits must be stopped! This ends now!"

Kubo was utterly flabbergasted at the display Rasu was showing; her voice...it sounded like Yukami's, echoing, but it also possessed the sound not of a demon, but of a much higher god. He stepped up and moved toward her. "Rasu! Wait, I need to ask her something!"

The powered younger sister looked at the samurai. "What could this...foul witch possibly give you, Kubo-san?"

Kubo turned toward his aunt. "I'm gonna ask you again: how do I get back to my time?"

Yukami stopped struggling in the lights grasp and laughed. "Don't you know? There is no going back for you."

"That can't be true!"

"She is tricking you, Kubo," Rasu reassured him. "The demon will always lie. But it will mix lies with the truth, and that's how it deceives you."

Kaede, still down near the tree, sat up and witnessed the scene before her. "Amaterasu!" she called out. "What are you doing?!" Her voice was frantic with concern for the younger sister.

The sound of her older sister's voice brought Rasu a distraction, which caused the blinding light to dim; Yukami, seeing this as her time to escape, puffed into a cloud of her own smoke and vanished, her cold, cruel laughter filling the air.

Rasu played a note that made her cease to glow the light, and brought her back to reality. "Nee-sama!" she exclaimed, running toward her older sister and hugging her tightly.

Kubo also ran toward the two sisters, who looked up at him with inquisitive expressions. "One question," the samurai laid out.

"Who the hell was that woman?" Kaede said.

"That question's gonna take too long to answer. Now here's my question: why'd you save me?"

Kaede lowered her mask. "We ninja are not without honor. Although I saved you at the beckoning of my sister, I will now stand by your side when danger is afoot. Plus, maybe you are telling the truth. In that case, we both want to help you get to your home."

"I see," Kubo began, "I give a thousand thanks to you, Kaede-san."

"I don't know about you guys, but...THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!" Rasu cheered, throwing a fist in the air. "Kubo was all like, 'I'm an awesome samurai, no one messes with me', and then that swordfight, and then nee-chan was all 'I'm gonna go ninja on you' and...gaah, so cool!"

Kaede smiled at her younger sister. "Oh, Rasu..."

In an Unknown Tower

The Moon King himself was sitting on his blue throne and watched the entire debacle between the three friends and Yukami unfold. "As I said those many years ago, we would meet again, grandson. But do not get comfortable; your friends will not be able to save you from me. Just you wait...

The Home of Kaede

Kubo was walking out of his room to get a drink of water when he noticed Rasu, clad in her priestess outfit, kneeling in prayer; she was surrounded by lit candles, and thin sticks which emitted an equally as thin vapor. He moved toward her and sat on her right side.

"To any gods and goddesses out there, I beseech you," Rasu began. Kubo also got in the prayer position out of respect. "My family has encountered a great evil, and I know that it will not stop until it breaks our spirits and vanquishes us, so I ask you, please o please, guide us to the path of the light, and give us the strength to overcome any obstacles in our way. We cannot possibly hope to beat out evil without your help."

A few moments of silence passed before the two kids opened their eyes and looked at each other. "Nee-sama told me that we cannot stay here for any longer," Rasu said. "She says that the demons know where we live now, and we must travel to get away."

"This is all my fault," Kubo replied, regret in his voice. "I didn't want to drag any of you into this."

Rasu cocked her head to the right. "Don't get so down on yourself, samurai boy. I kinda wanted to move away also."

"But I feel that I must repay you and your sister in some way."

"You wanna repay us? Then let us fight with you," Rasu declared. She smiled at the samurai next to her. "Don't worry, me and Kaede are gonna get you back to your home."

Kubo flashed a tiny smile at her. "I sure hope so."

Gotta go back

Back to the past

I've decided to retitle this fic as 'Ronin'. Read and Review!