The Greatest Nightmare!

On a mountain, millions of miles away from Japan's civilization, the #1 Samurai known as Afro was meditating in broad daylight with his sword was laying on the ground in front of him as one pf the only friends that he had left, Ninja Ninja, was looking down at him from his perch on a dead tree's branch while he was tossing and catching a kunai in his hand as he had a toothy grin on his face.

"Dude, I know it's not my business, but I often wonder what's going on inside that head of yours." The shades wearing ninja said, trying to strike up a conversation... with little success.

Afro and Ninja's dynamic was always like this. Ninja Ninja would try to strike up a conversation and Afro in turn, would do his best to ignore him until he reaches the limits of his patience and tell him to shut up while threatening to pull his sword on him. However, while the samurai was mediating, he was doing his best to drown his imaginary friend's words as he tried to focus.

Ever since he witnessed the death of his father, Rokutaru, at hands of the gunslinger Justice, he pursed the gunman on a quest for revenge that had many casualties along the way (and killed many people in self defense himself because he had the #2 Headband at the time or got people killed for his refusal to let go of his quest of vengeance) and he intended to get it no matter the cost.

Such a journey like that had plenty of surprises like when he reunited with some old friends that survived a massacre his master known as Sword Master's dojo one night, such as Otsuru (who was eventually killed for treachery later on because she use to work for the Empty Seven Clan)and Jinno (who, while he managed to survive falling off that cliff, was transformed into a cybernetic bear looking thing and was filled with hatred due to Afro's part in that massacre like the fact that he killed Sword Master when it was discovered that he had the Number 2 Headband the whole time) or when fought against an android version of himself. He got shot at, nearly blown to pieces and had to fight some disturbing enemies along the way and still managed to come out on top.

Along the way, he was feeling heavy guilt for the things he was doing, but he was already in too deep in his quest that he couldn't stop now. He actually wanted to die but his skills were so accurate and well sharp that he couldn't put the sword down even if he wanted to.

And after slashing everyone who got in his way, Afro finally made it to Justice's hideout and after an intense and crazy battle that had many twists and turns, Afro at last, got his revenge for his deceased father and afterwards was then getting wrapped up in the incident with the vengeful woman Sio, the younger of his friend Jinno, who worked together with her brother to make the Afro haired warrior pay for all of the blood that he has shed during his journey of revenge by attacking him, taking the Number 1 Headband and then the jaw of Rokutaru's rotting skeleton and using her technology to make a clone of him to destroy Afro, luckily, the cybernetic Jinno eventually realized that what he did was wrong and save Afro from certain death and send the cloned abomination straight to hell.

But that wasn't all as after that, Kotaro, the adoptive son of a man he killed on his journey to get some payback on Sio named Shichigoro who had retrieved the #2 Headband and also wanted to kill Afro for what he has done, came to Afro to get revenge for his adoptive father similar to what Afro went through after he was given the Number 2 Headband by his dad's killer himself, but was decapitated by him before he even had the chance to strike him down.

After all of that, while people from across the world came to where ever he went to in order to try and kill him and rule the planet, but honestly Afro could care less about the power of the Headbands have, he got what he wanted and made sure that he kept the Headband by slaughtering anyone who came after him.

However, while Ninja Ninja was thinking that Afro was meditating, what he didn't know was that he actually fell asleep in a meditative state.

Inside of Afro's dream, the orphaned warrior was standing in a desert area that was filled with dead assassins with their weapons in their cold, dead hands as their lifeless bodies were staining the ground with their blood as it leaked out of their wounds. As for Afro himself, he was covered from head to toe in his enemy's blood as he sheathe his bloodied sword before he began to walk away.

It was just another day of being the world's #1 Samurai for Afro.

But just he continued to walk to his destination, he heard a strange yet sinister laughter fill the air around him. As the samurai then began to look around find out where the voice is coming from, at first, Afro thought it was Justice or Jinno or one of the Empty 7 Clan members. But it didn't sound like them at all. No, this laughter was from someone he had never seen before.

Once this mysterious voice has lowered his laughter into chuckles, he then spoke for the first time in a mocking and still sinister tone. "Afro, Afro, Afro. Lonely at the top are you? Well, guess what, you got there through sacrificing all those who stood in you way in wanting to kill that Justice fellow, be it your closest friends or your even closer enemy. Allow me to give you a brand new one of those two things."

Just then, Afro heard the sound of something raking along the ground coming from behind him. Instinctively, he turned around and he was seconds away from bringing his sword when he finally saw the person antagonizing him, causing him to pause a bit.

It was man with horrifically burnt skin, a fedora, black pants, and a red and green striped sweater. But the most distinctive thing about this man was the razor sharp claws on his yellow gloves.

Afro grunted in irritation at this guy for coming at him, apparently wanting his headband, well he is going to have a fight on his hands if this man chose to attack him for it.

"I know you're a man of a few words Afro, so I'm going to get straight to the point." The man said as he pointed to one of his claws. "I am called Freddy by many of my victims and I want to take that headband from as I've heard various stories about them. So either you give me your headband and I'll leave you unharmed in this world or suffer the worst nightmare that'll be the last one that you will experience."

Afro's response to that obviously was to swing his katana at Freddy to try and end him once and for all.

However, things didn't go as planned like that as before the samurai's weapon could do its purpose, Freddy's body suddenly vanished into smoke just as the sword made contact with the burned man's body.

As Afro began to look around, all he could hear was Freddy's voice as he then spoke. "Oh Afro, always so quick to slice your opponents to ribbons..." The dream being taunted. " Did you honestly think that it would be easy to slay me? Just like many ones you've already killed during journey of revenge?"

Just then, to Afro's utter shock, the army of those assassins that the warrior faced once he acquired the number 2 headband suddenly popped up all around him.

"Why did you kill us?" asked the assassin's leader.

Afro's only response was the same as before.

"Revenge."

The assassins who were armed with guns pointed their weapons at him before firing them at the single warrior before the ones who were armed with bladed weapons charged at him from behind.

Before Afro could get prepared to defend himself from both sides, the samurai was suddenly unable to move his legs as Freddy's claws suddenly popped up from the ground and wrapped them around his legs.

"Let's see you slice your way out of this one, Number 1." The dream demon taunted.

Afro did his best to block out the demon's taunting as he had bigger things to worry about. Noticing the speeding bullets coming towards him at a fast pace, he acted fast by bending over backwards as the bullets flew over him and shot the assassins behind him, letting them get shot to pieces as they screamed in pain and agony.

The shooting went on for a few more seconds before the assassins' guns were at last empty as there multiple clicking sounds coming the pulling of the triggers.

With that opening, Afro made his move.

Taking his sword, Afro sliced off Freddy's hands, causing them to unwrap from his legs as the samurai charges towards the assassins as he proceeded to kill them in the exactly see way that he killed them before... only without the gunmen firing their weapons at him.

After driving his katana straight through the last guy's head, Afro turned to Freddy, who was behind, as he then asked. "Finished?"

"Oh, I am far from finished. How about a blast from the past." His enemy said.

Just then, the environment then changed around the two as now they were outside of a certain dojo at ninja as the ground was littered with bloodied and liced up bodies.

"Remember this, mighty Number 1?" Freddy mocked, spreading his arms. "It's where your journey of loneliness truly began."

A single tear ran down Afro's face as he nearly dropped his sword before saying breathless. "The massacre at Sword Master's dojo."

"Oh so you do." Freddy said. "How about you kill these guys if you're truly Number 1."

Raising his right claw, the dream demon manifested Afro's old master and the friends who survived that night as they turned into zombified verisons of their human forms.

"You killed uuuuussss." said the rotting Sword Master who raised his sword in defense.

"It's your fault that we're deaaaad." droned the flesh decaying Otsuru who readied her kunai. "All because you wanted reveeeenge."

"Hope it was worth iiiiiiiit." said Jinno, who's left eye fell out of its socket as he got out his two swords.

"No, no." Afro said as he shakily gripped his blade that took many lives. "This isn't real."

"In the dream realm it is." Freddy said as he snapped his fingers at the three. "Attack."

Without waring, the three zombies charged at Afro. Who with a heavy heart, simply said.

"I'm sorry, but my real friends died a long time ago."

With a single slash of his blade, the three were no more.

But that wasn't the end as the environment changed again into another dojo at sunset. Afro's heart stopped as he gazed around the place.

It was the place where Justice killed his father, kickstarting the man's quest of vengeance, loss and slaughter.

"And here's where all began." said Freddy as Afro turned around only for his blood freeze instantly at what he was seeing.

Freddy used his dream powers to transform himself into Rokutaru, Afro's father.

"What's wrong, Afro? Scared to see your old man?" The demon taunted.

A grunt of silent anger escaped from Afro's throat, as he gripped his word's handle. But before he could do something, a literal shot of pain was pierced through his shoulder and one of his ribs before he felt someone grabbed a hold of him from behind in a full nelson. Looking up, he saw that it was a version of Justice, which caused him to growl a little.

"Prepare to die at the hands of your Pappy." The gunslinger said in his sickening voice.

Charging at him, the Rokutaru disguised Freddy drew his sword, stating to the held in place Afro. "This is your last stand, Number 1! This is gonna be fun."

Suddenly, Afro suddenly woke up from his sleep with a gasp of shock. Immediately pulling down part of his gi to reveal his shoulder and ribcage, he saw, to his horror, the bullet holes were still present there, still freshly made and having blood running out of them.

Running to a set of bandages he got from one of his fights, Afro quickly began to wrap them his ribs and shoulders, hoping to stop the bleeding before it was too late, grunting in utter pain while he was doing so.

Afterwards, the man just sat there staring up at the sky. He couldn't risk going to sleep as he was afraid of confronting that reality warping dream demon again. Regardless, he knew that he would need to sleep and when he did, he needed to be ready for whatever tricks that Freddy conjures up.

"So, Freddy wants my headband does he? Maybe I can use that to my advantage. But how?" The Number 1 warrior thought to himself. "Next time I see you Freddy, I will send you to Hell personally."

The End!