Once Kiko had made her objections to being squished in an embrace, Jack set her down on her feet.

"My apologies, Little One," he said, wiping away happy tears. "I don't think you know what a relief this is."

"Mama told me once that she thinks that you think she's dead," she told him after a moment. "I guess she wasn't wrong."

"I still have so many questions. You said that Aku is alive in the time you're from but he's dead in this time. I vanquished him myself. How is he alive in your time?" he asked.

"I don't really know," Kiko confessed. "Mama said she was really confused when she went back. She said that someone told her after her fight with Aku that time traveling doesn't work that way and that it created a different world. She tried to explain it to me but I just got confused."

"A different world?" he repeated.

"Have the two of you been alone this whole time?" he asked after a moment. "Has she been trying to fight him by herself?"

"Oh, no. We haven't been alone," she assured him. "We live with Uncle Ghost and all my Aunties in their castle." Jack raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"Who are Uncle Ghost and your Aunties?" he asked.

"Well, Uncle Ghost is blue and see-through, and he flies around everywhere in a kilt and he has these really cool bagpipes that he can use to attack people and make bridges in the air and he has a machine gun for a leg," he explained excitedly. "And my Aunties are all these big, tall warrior ladies with pretty red hair. I know that they aren't really related to me or Mama, though. They just let me call them that."

A smile came to Jack's face at her description.

"I think I know who you're talking about," he told her.

"What about you?" she asked him.

"What of me?" he asked after a moment.

"What have you been doing all this time?" she asked. "You didn't go and marry somebody else, did you?" Her question surprised him.

"No," he answered after a moment. "I am supposed to still be in mourning for what happened at our wedding. Even if you hadn't come here, I don't believe I could ever take anyone besides your mother for my wife."

Kiko gained a confused look.

"I thought mourning periods were only supposed to be a year long?" she questioned.

"Our wedding was only three months ago," he stated. A look of shock came to the girl's face.

"Three months?!" she exclaimed. "How has time not passed as quickly here? I'm already seven and a half!"

"Oh... wait," she said, calming herself. "The time portal."

"Yes," Jack said. "And it sounds like we need to find another one quickly."

"How?" she questioned. "We can't go back the way I came and there aren't any time portals left in the world."

"In the time you're from, there aren't any," he corrected her with a smile. "I'm not sure if they exist yet in this time, but I'm certain we could find a way."

Kiko began to smile as well.

"Okay," she said. "Where do we look first, Papa?"

"We need to prepare first," he said. "Something tells me this will be a long journey."

The Emperor and the Empress walked in their private garden together in one of the few times they were permitted to be alone. Surrounded only by their cultivated nature and basking in the sunlight, and enjoying being in the other's presence once more.

They had worried for seventeen years for their son's safety and prayed for victory, and now they could only pray for his broken heart to mend. Even as they watched him ride away that morning, they knew that nothing they could say would help him. They only thing they could do was give him the time he needed.

It was with this knowledge and mindset that they were surprised to see him approach with a joyful look upon his face.

They watched curiously as he approached them, hand in had with a little girl covered from her neck to her feet in a strange black covering.

He tells them who the child is.

At first, they think it's some kind of joke, but as he continued explaining how they met, their faces could only turn to concern and the only thing they could think about was the relief that he wasn't telling them all this in front of the entire court for fear that he would be pronounced mad and accused of spiriting some poor child away from her family.

And then he tells them where he means to go, and they both know that they're looking at him like he is.

Mamitu looked down upon the Second Realm, concerned with what she was seeing.

"They don't believe him," she said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Of course, not," Amaterasu said calmly, looking over from some other part of that realm. "He sounds like he's gone mad with grief to them."

"You aren't concerned?" the Time Goddess questioned, confused by her calmness. "It sounds like his parents aren't going to let him go."

"I think they will," Amaterasu said, her eyes still fixated on something else. "Even if they don't, he would defy them to be reunited with her again."

"Ah, ha! The creature does still have it!" she said suddenly with a victorious grin.

"The creature?" Mamitu asked with concern.

"It's part of my plan," the Sun Goddess assured her. "I'll be having a word with my elder descendent and his wife once they sleep. Best to undo any doubts they have, methinks."

The Emperor tried to rest that night, but it seemed as if he could not sleep. He could not ignore what had happened earlier or what his son had said.

Time traveling: it was impossible, wasn't it?

He knew firsthand that Aku was capable of some very strange abilities and he was willing to admit the child certainly looked like she belonged in their family.

And he couldn't say he hadn't suspected his son and his lost bride of having at least one indiscretion. He was even willing to openly admit that he and his own wife had been impatient for their wedding, so he could bring himself to begrudge his own son for the idea.

Without really accepting or rejecting the girl, they had allowed her a room for the night, praying to have a better grasp on what was happening in the morning.

He was very much so, lost in his own thoughts, when he heard his wife suddenly gasp. He looked to see what she was staring at.

There, on the other side of the room, stood a woman with incredibly long, jet black hair, wearing a brilliantly white kimono, who seemed to shine with the radiance of the sun itself.

"Who are you?" The Emperor demanded, sitting up.

"I am she who your bloodline began from," she told him. "I come on behalf of my youngest descendent."

Realizing whose presence they were in, the Emperor and the Empress gave a low bow to her.

"The young child your son returned home with today," she began to tell them. "She is what he says."

"Everything that they have said of the woman he lost is true," she continued. "Including the survival of your Enemy in the world the child hails from. I must ask you to let him depart, so that he may complete his quest."

"How, my Lady?" the Empress questioned. "The Sword was destroyed when he slew Aku here. How could he face him again without it?"

"Fear not. Another holy sword will present itself to him very soon," she explained. "This will be one of the three tools that will finally rid all realms of our common Enemy."

The two of them woke with a start, sitting up, and after a moment, looked to each other in need of questioning.

"Amaterasu has spoken to us," he said.

"She did," his wife confirmed. There was only silence between them as what happened and what was said sunk in.

"That girl…" the Emperor began. "She's our-"

"PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU!" they heard someone scream. "WE NEED THE PRINCE'S HELP! THAT MONSTER HAS ALREADY DEVOURED SEVEN OF MY DAUGHTERS AND IT MEANS TO DEVOUR MY LAST!"

"What on Earth-?" the Emperor whispered. He stood and dressed quickly, heading out of his room towards where the shouting came from.