Your Father is a Hero

by WizardlyWords

Forty years have passed, but the future has not changed. Jack no longer looks for the past, he no longer looks for hope in the future. He only travels, a poor means to escape his demons. But through a mountain pass, in a desolate land, he finds what he believed to be impossible. Children, filled with hope. [Cover Image by Inyuji]

9. Jack and the Killer of Justice (1)

Forty-five years have passed.

Forty-five years since he had lost a battle against a demonic shogun, and been thrown into his twisted future. Forty-five years since he last saw his family, and so long now since he believed he would ever see them again. Forty-five years that continued to count as they days went on.

And only five years now since he began to enjoy counting that number, for reasons that currently pestered and bickered with him as they walked down a desolate and dry road. Pestered with insistency, curiosities, and sincerity to alter his judgement upon a matter non-trivial.

Where it only one of the girls that pestered him for something, Jack would find the action warming and sincere, but still unconvincing. When the six of the girls hounded him for an altered opinion and choice, it became tiresome. More tiring that watching the rolling landscape that refused to change down the length they walked.

"Dad! You promised you'd give us chance!" Aki continued to let out, leaning over to look at his tired eyes, even as they continued to walk. "You kept talkin' up how honorable you would be to your promise if we kept to ours, and we all know how much honor matters to ya." That it did, but Jack was not moving, metaphorically, to the young girl's argument.

"The answer remains no, Aki," he replied neutrally to the insistent girl, her already thin eyes narrowed at him from beneath her furrowed brow line. Her ruffled hair swayed with her steps.

"But that's not fair!" Life often was not. Jack had assumed the young girls were aware of that by now. Perhaps he was mistaken, at least in regards to Aki. "We kept up our end of the bargain just like we said we would. So why are ya tryin' to take back your part of it?" She pointed at him, screwing her eyes in the same she twisted her wrist. An insulting gesture that Jack would not answer or honor, perhaps ironically.

Instead, he returned his gaze to the road ahead, watching still for anything new. Nothing immediately returned to his gaze, nothing but the cracked hazel landscape, bare of any greenery or buildings. Only a blue sky along the horizon show evidence keeping the sight from being a truly disparaging one. The little ones, however, were doing their best to make up for it.

"Aki does have a point, father," Adi now, perhaps the only one other girl to speak so often and readily with Aki. She flanked his other side, opposite Aki, but with a small journal open before her and working through its pages. "You did say we would have the opportunity to try it at least once, so long as were able to complete the tasks you set before us." He did say that as well.

"And we did all of 'em, gauren-freaking-teed!" It was not so hard clad a promise as Aki was making it out to be, even as she threw out her arms as if in exasperation for his inability to move aside and agree with her. It was humorous, if viewed from the outside, as Jack was feeling much the same for the girl's continued insistence and her siblings' partial agreement. "Just in case yer 'bout to say we didn't do all of 'em, I'm willin' to be that Adi's also got them written down!" Her focused stare switched to her sister, lips pulled into her usual crooked grin.

"I do." The grin of Aki grew with Adi's words. Jack sighed, resigning himself to listen to Adi list off the tasks. Jack sighed again as the detail-oriented girl began to list off her list.

"Ashi and Aphi would master the movements of the Monkey's Paw Strike, accomplished by Ashi five days ago and Aphi yesterday." They had perfected it well, enough so that Jack was wondering if he would be able to fight them without holding back anymore.

"Ami would design a larger model for your motorcycle, even though it was destroyed again recently, so that it can either accommodate all of us or be easily fabricated numerus times smaller sizes. In order to preserve the difficult terrains, we travel, Ami designed it for the latter nearly three days ago." Jack had gone over those designs with her as well, if only to wonder about that they needed. He could not understand the terms of two-versus-four cycle engines, chassis strength, or axle torque durability, but she had, and he was satisfied with the designs.

"Ahi was tasked with trying to come up with a manner or type of food that she could cook to allow us to travel along harsher terrains without being worried about restocking quickly or running low on supplies, and she did such before we began traveling along this terrain a couple of days ago, choosing to flash-dry meat into jerky, topped with salt for preservation and water to add moisture." The jerky was dry, as Ahi said it would be, but the spices she included during the drying process made the buffalo meat rather tasty, far better than the food he normally ate. She was elated to hear the approval of her sisters and himself, again.

"Aki was supposed to assist me, which she did occasionally," Jack did not miss the more energetic, and insistent, of the girls click her tongue. "But you told me to design a history of the Spartan war fought from 4,432AK to 4,521AK. I accomplished this, also noting how it was your intervention that basically brought the whole thing to an end." And that she did, as Jack recalled he gave her testimony of the Spartan King and his son, not to mention their rather talented arms in battle.

"I was the one who helped her find all the books and stuff, really just keepin' track of what she'd already looked through and hadn't." It was all that Aki could do with her otherwise unconventional skillset. Jack nodded his head in recognition, even as he recalled being unable to think of a task for Aki to perform in order to show her diligence to studies.

It was rather difficult to have her design musical equipment, design a new dance, or even destroy something for the sake of 'improvement'.

"But, no wait, don't you see?! All that is not something you can say didn't happen, not when Adi's got it written down like that. Ya know she doesn't like writing about fiction either." Jack would not honor the insult or insulation. "We were all there when you made the promise. Hell, I'd bet a meal that Ami's got it recorded on somethin' she built!" The messy-haired girl threw her arms out to her side, doubtlessly indicating her inventive sister walking behind Jack. He didn't need to turn to look at her.

"I did." The answer of the intelligent was proof enough she was both there and on the side of her sisters. "Dated at approximately 5:34 AST four days ago. I haven't had time to flush or compress the files yet." Of course, she wouldn't, though Jack wasn't about to pretend he understood her timeframe or the necessities for doing such. "And I feel inclined to agree that failing to allow us to at least sample what we were promised would make such promises in the future more difficult to take to heart." Ami as well?

Now Jack turned an eye to her, past Aki and seeing the girl shuffling her pair of satchels. Her eyes were on him as well, far more than when they normally traveled. Just past her, Jack as Aphi keeping her eyes on him as well, the enlarged backpack she was carrying swaying with her strides. Far from a rarity, when matched with Ami, but certainly unusual while he was in conversation with Aki, if it could be referred to as such.

Even more than that, it was the harsh acknowledgement that she was nodding in agreement with Ami, and by extension, Adi and Aki. Four of them now, all of them insisting on Jack to provide them what he had said he could, not would.

For that Adi had written, she never deemed it necessary to point out such. However, Jack was rather aware that such a reasonable point would do little to convince the girls. It was always a simple act for them to ignore details that did not benefit them.

"There are a great number of paper and societies in the past that have concluded it is beneficial to social interactions and long-term health, dad." Jack turned his head back to look at Adi, her head out of her book. "Some have allowed the activity to be performed at ages as young as twelve, as a sign of maturity or completing a coming-of-age task. Isn't that why you assigned us different things to do?" It was, but it wasn't why Jack did it.

He had done it so they would take great time to do so. Clearly, he had underestimated their abilities, or perhaps the difficulties of the task. The caretaker in him suspected the former, but he hoped for the latter.

In comparison to the girls who still followed, and currently pestered, him, Jack was focused only on the road ahead, wondering what kind of town they would find next, if one at all. It was possible they would reach a sea or ocean beforehand, or perhaps the edge of an arid jungle, matching the land. He hoped for a town though, even one that was built of metal and ash befitting the desolate land. At least there they would have rooms to stay and perhaps food to eat.

Although, if it was such a town, then it would mean the girls would pester him only longer for what they wanted, and what he had, unwittingly, promised. His many and long years of travel did tell him such a thing was frequent in towns that had little else to provide.

He never had any difficulty finding alcohol or drink in towns separated from the rest of the world.

"Alcohol ain't even all that bad for you!" Aki continued to persist. "If it was that bad, it wouldn't be sold all over the place like it was the latest and greatest thing!" There were many horrible things sold in great frequency within Aku's dark future.

"Technically, different forms of alcohol are used in a lot of dishes." Jack draw in a slow breath through his nose as Ahi made herself known to the conversation. He was foolish to think she wouldn't want to try something new to drink. "And while they cannot be used as a substitute for other nutritional needs, they do have an anti-bacterial factor to them thanks to their fermentation process, making them safe to drink… in the right environment." Perhaps she was right.

"The answer remains no." But Jack didn't want them asking whenever they were in the right environment.

"C'mon dad!" Aki let out indignantly. Jack did not fault the child, unruly as the hair she adored to leave unkempt. She walked ahead of them and twisted back, walking in reverse to keep eye-level with him as she spoke. "We're not little kids anymore. Seriously. Haven't been for a while. Keepin' us from having a few pints of beer is just gonna make us want to try shots instead, you know." Jack sighed deeply at the strong stare the girl gave, hands on her hips and a pout to her lips, thin as they were.

True as that was, it still was not reason to allow them to partake in what they currently wished. It was a step too far for them, at least figuratively and in the moment. Older though they were, they simply were not old enough. And they wouldn't be until they stopped growing.

How he amazingly wished the far off and subtle sound of whistling wind, heard only when there were no words being spoken. He had not even heard a flicker of the breeze since they began to walk, and he knew just who to lay the blame upon, not that she, or they, would accept it. Not when they were already so insistent to not accept his decision.

"You cannot act like you haven't drank some when you were our age," Aki pestered on, though for once with the support of her siblings. Ahi and Adi were nodding vigorously beside Jack, listening to their sister as they watched him for an answer. "And it's better for us to try it out with you 'round than runnin' off and giving it a whirl in some seedy place you don't trust." Jack narrowed his eyes to focus on the road, keeping himself from imagining just what would happen if she tried. Jack had already threatened too many others for when it came to regards of their physique.

Truly she was determined with this. No, Jack corrected himself. Truly they were determined with this.

The little ones, after all, no longer struggled to keep pace with him as they moved. Puberty and time did wonders for their height and endurance. It did just as much for Jack's inability to control himself around the wandering eyes of crowds they ventured into.

Perhaps if he told them they may understand. But with the strength of their training, their talents, and their determination, it was unlikely.

They were his children, after all.

"If father says that we are not ready yet, then we are not ready." Jack sighed in relief, looking towards Ashi as she walked ahead of her sisters.

The words that fell from her were often were agreeable and controlled. Even with hands folded tightly behind her back, eyes staring evenly with her siblings, though with an air that carried apparent wisdom and respect, despite being matched in both with her sisters.

"Pushing him as you are will not make him bend as you hope it to. For I, at least, cannot name a moment in the past where insistent of something has changed his mind." And she was correct, again. There was no way that Jack would allow them to sway his opinion with words alone.

"You cannot be serious, Ashi," Aki argued back. There was little surprise in the action to Jack. "I actually refuse to believe you don't wanna try a shot from a bar. Heck, you were the one who asked about it first!"

"And my curiosity was satisfied by father's answer and witnessing the effects it had on those who drank it." Aside from controlled and agreeable, she was also hard to find an opening with. Jack could only wonder where she gained such an ability, against his preference to stay silent. "Why would I wish to be inebriated for the sake of merely trying something? Unlike you, I do no need to experience something to know it is foolish."

"Well… maybe you should experience some new things! Cause at least I'm not afraid to try something new." Jack was already wary of the boiling tension, enough to shake his focus from the road and look at the siblings warily.

"Fear is not a factor in my decision, only loyalty to father's words and the knowledge that there can be strong negative consequences to consuming the drink. Worse yet that none of know the drinks that are safe to drink." Yes, because there was an inherent risk different between drinks. Not a matter of safety drinking at all.

If anyone attempted to be friendlier with the girls in his presence, there would be a brawl swift, vicious, and worthy of tales.

"Then how about instead you-!"

"Hey, what's that?" Jack looked to Ahi as she interrupted the conversation.

The girl with double-spiked hair was pointing to the distance, aside from their path. Jack realized only after he followed her hand that he had not once looked in the direction, not while he was focused on the road head. And when he did so, he saw what captivated her, if only barely.

Across a small hill, desolate and barren as the rest of the long terrain, peeking out from its top like the curious glance of an owl, was a plume of dark smoke.

Smoke that rose from something he could not see, but dreaded upon realizing what it likely was.

"Most likely… a fire," Adi spoke for him, knowledgeable even with undesirable recognition. "Maybe not a great one, depending on the distance, but it has to be fairly large, to be seen from so far away…"

"Oh geez," Aki spoke in return, voice a far cry from the argumentative tone from before. If nothing else, she knew what was important and when it was necessary. "And… we're not thinkin' its someone just roasting marshmallows, right?" Even if she joked too often.

"That's too big for marshmallows." And Ahi joined her, though her voice far softer than the more rambunctious sister. "And… And I can't smell anything." Evidence enough, from their long journey together and her nose trained from experience, that it meant nothing was being cooked… intentionally.

"How far away is it, you think?" Aki asked on. Jack had little idea, aside from close, but farther than a brisk walk.

"Approximately 1200 meters, within an error range of 30 meters." Jack turned to Ami as she spoke, curious of her answer, only to see her holding a small tool in hand, blinking as she held it towards the smoke and hill. Another invention then that he had little grasp of. "The dissipation of the smoke implied that its source has either already collapsed or is the process of burning through its reserves."

"A fire nearly out then," Ashi concluded. "Should we head over there father?" Perhaps years ago, Jack would be surprised by her question and willingness. That was not the present.

"Yes," he answered her, a nod of his head following. And only after he looked to all of the little ones, meeting their eyes to see their willingness to follow, did they proceed.

Their pace was rushed across the ground now, off the harshly beaten path and along dirt and terrain so much harsher than the normal grasslands or forests they followed. It mattered little not, instead the only concern reserved for the plumes of smoke in the distance, small billows that became clearer, larger, and easier to see with every step they took.

Too soon, with a rushed pace, did they find the smoke, a column now more than the soft plumes of a single release. A column of smoke that was dark as night and harsh as a suffocated cloak. It was nothing Jack wished to see. But even more so, he despised what he knew now it was coming from.

And once the hill covering the smoke was over-taken did the truth of it show.

A town, a village, a collection no more than a dozen or so wooden buildings, all torn down and alight with flames.

Jack sighed deeply at the sight, wishing so much more now to have returned to Aki and Ashi arguing than to witness more of this. But preference was never something that the present took to consider, not of those who lived through it. He could only act, and action asked for him and the little ones to continue on.

He never enjoyed seeing the ruins of a town torn to cinder and ash. He never enjoyed looking upon the rubble and knowing that life once persisted or flourished within it. He never liked imagining the monsters responsible for the destruction as well.

But those were all things, all sights, and all people he had to bare witness to. Him, and the six little ones who followed him.

They reached the town quickly, whatever its name, but entered it hesitantly, slowly, warily. None of the girls spoke as they entered, none of them questioning what to do. All of them were doing as Jack did, watching the town and looking through the rubble with narrowed and cagey gazes. Jack turned from the village, quickly and briefly, enough to ensure the little ones were alright.

Aki, Ahi, and Adi walked together. Aki at the front as Adi put her books in the satchel she carried. Ahi followed them, nervous but keeping her pace. Aphi and Ami did the same, with the dual horn-haired girl keeping her arms spread and eyes wide. Ami nearly hugged her back, their closeness apparent.

Ashi walked with him, by his side and looking everywhere he did not. Jack had nothing to say, for now.

For now, he had only a ruined village to explore, what little there was left to search.

Search as he and the little ones had too many times before.

He saw Ahi, Adi, and Aki venture down a path towards a large building, one that likely had many windows and a single large entrance when it once stood proudly. Now it was reduced from two floors to one, fire crackling from its edges and black char staining the once prominent wood.

Aphi and Ami walked head without a building to search, Ami carrying a device Jack recognized now, though not its name. A tracker for heat, looking for patterns of temperatures instead of sights alone. They had found many people int eh past with it, and he knew better than to question its use.

"Should we search there, father?" Ashi asked for Jack. He followed her hand, pointing towards one of the few buildings that remained unruined, though far from untouched. It had its supports, its height, and its door still present. No fire crackled from its windows or walls, nothing apparent.

But it still bore the remnants of battle, with many slashes across its wall, a section of the high wood torn apart, and the usual char marks of fire ruined through it. No fire caught, perhaps, but the building was caught in the fire.

He nodded towards Ashi, her idea good. There may be something within, or in the very least, information on what happened. He could not bear to walk through a ruined town, any desolate place, and now at least discern the evil that had took joy from its destruction.

Jack entered the building first, Ashi close behind. His boot echoed on the wood as he stepped onto it, crying out against him. It echoed through the room, hollow and filled with ruined furniture. Overturned desks and chairs, sliced and ruined pictures, all of it turned to nothing worth saving, only remembering. Ashi followed in soon after him, silent as he was to the destruction.

His footsteps were measured and short as he walked through the building, careful of every room he peered into. He looked for anything that may be new, anything that may show that it was the source, or the remnants of the battle that had taken place. All he saw was more ruin, more destruction.

He entered the last room, it being slightly larger than the others before it. It carried more damage because of it. The window sliced through, shattered glass and ruined wood crumbled along the floor. A desk that was both overturned and charred black with fire, no longer worth anything but scrap, and a pair of chairs smashed to pegs of wood, ruined beyond any semblance of repair.

It was all so familiar, but still so unclear. Looking over it as he did, Jack could not see the obvious kind, or signs of battle.

Was it a battle of flames? Of blades? Of hand-to-hand blows? The ruins outside made the latter unlikely, but he couldn't find out what may have caused the culmination of all three. He sighed again, rubbing a hand through his beard in thought.

"Should we check upstairs?" Jack nodded to her question, listening to her far lighter footsteps move towards the stairwell. He waited to follow after her, waiting to see if he saw anything new.

Standing in the ruined room, one of a dozen in a desolate town, marred like the endless land that surrounded it, he heard and saw nothing else.

And to think, only a few short moments ago he missed the sound of silence.

"Ghhh…"

Jack whirled like a wolf at the noise.

His eyes fell upon the ruined table, rubble in all other considerations. What he heard was not shifting wood, not cracking embers. It was one thing and one thing only. A groan, from a voice, from a living person.

Jack was above the pile almost in an instant, hands wrapped around the charred and ruined wood before tearing them up piece by piece. They were flung to the edges of the room without thought, his eyes searching instead for something, anything to make that noise. He wouldn't stop until he reached the floor.

Or, as was the case, the body beneath.

It was a woman, immediately obvious, wearing a long rob that was torn and ripped to pieces, stained all the same with blood and gore. Perhaps once it was an alabaster white, but now it was a crimson red. A crimson red that marred her body from head to two. Her exposed and marred chest, her slashed and oddly bent legs, her stump of an arm and the other that clung to it, and even her face, marred and nearly swimming in the blood.

Even if the blood were not present, the heavy dark strands of her hair were splayed over her face, hiding her as if it was Aki's hair at a longer length. Jack immediately threw the idea out, refusing to see any of his daughters in such a ruined state, like the woman beneath him who must have been so close to death.

"He…. He-" But still, somehow, clung to life.

"Don't move," Jack immediately command, kneeling next to her. Even closer he saw that none of the wounds that she bore were simple or superficial. They were all deep and sharp, cutting into the skin and muscle beneath. At some points, even bone. "You are gravely injured, but there is nothing else to fear. Nothing here can harm you."

He couldn't see her face, to tell if she was glad thankful or wary. He could only hear her moans, given through gurgles of her own blood. His hand, gloved and caked with dust, wiped the blood away from her mouth, letting the air flow into as best it could.

"He's… out th-there…" He, her attacker. For her to focus on that… she must know she didn't have long.

"Who is he?" Jack questioned, sure to let her answer. His hand fell on one of her larger wounds, vainly hoping to hold in the blood. She didn't even moan in pain at the contact, perhaps already too numb.

"War… killer… hunter…" All things that were common in the desolate future, all common to Aku's evil acts. "Jus…tice…"

"Justice?" Jack repeated, questioning and curious. The woman did not answer immediately.

Not before she coughed up a pocket of blood.

The bladeless samurai raised his hand read to wipe away the vital, but offensive, liquid from her mouth. But he was stopped by the woman herself. Stopped by the only arm she had left raising to his own.

It was only then he noticed the object clenched tightly in her fist.

"Stop… him…" she continued on, hand dropping to Jack's own. "Killer of… Jus-s-tice…" Her hand unfolded in Jack's own. He stared at the object as it caught on his hand, staying in his own.

Even as the woman's hand slipped and fell from his grasp.

Jack bowed his head to the corpse of the woman, ruined beyond any measure of recognition. It was a pitiable sight made only worse by her final moments, moments that he could not afford to let go in vain. His dark eyes turned to the object in hand, long, thin and yet unstained by the gore of the woman's body.

By all considerations, it appeared to be a headband of some kind. Detailed, yes, clean, yes, and of fair make, of course, but that was all.

He could not understand why the nameless woman gave it to him with her final breath, telling him of the thing that had taken her life. He could only stare at it in wonder and confusion, thinking of what was to come next.

This was something he wished he could ask Avi about, but she was no longer here, helping the Shaolin Monks in the impenetrable fortress. Perhaps there was something of the fabric she could recognize, a rarity to it or make that would make it worth killing for. It was a selfish hope that he had, a poor excuse to see her again.

Jack shook his head with the thought. She was safe, and the rest of the girls needed him. Needed him just as they were searching the town for him. He had to tell them of what he found, before they wasted time or energy.

But if this was something of grand importance… perhaps it would be of more worth to wear. It was a headband, and that was the purpose of them, was it not? Like a ribbon in Avi's hair…

"Don't put that on!" Jack nearly dropped the thin piece of fabric in shock.

His eyes turned, wide yet focused, to see one of the little ones looking up at him, arms outstretched as if to grasp the headband from him. The girl was panting, the strands of her bob-cut hair bobbing with her motions. Jack watched her, though refusing to move himself.

The Ahi and Aki were aside Adi, paused after the outburst of the girl. Hardly surprising, but currently without a reason. The flames crackling in the back of the village kept silence at bay, but it couldn't last forever.

"Adi," he spoke her name finally, never taking his eyes off of her. "Do you… know what this is?" Because he did not. Jack saw it for only what it appeared to be. A long piece of alabaster fabric, coated or tainted, depending on the viewer, with red and black markings of the 'Ni' symbol. A harsh 'two' scrawled in text so similar to the language he had grown up and learned.

The fabric fluttered in the wind, as if trying to take off from his grasp, but he held it tight. It made not a sound compared to the slowly burning embers of the city, muted by the destruction wrought around it. Jack, however, paid no mind now to the city and only a passive knowledge that he held the band in his hand.

His attention was on Adi.

If anyone in their small group did, it would be the child who read more books in the five short years they had been together than he had taken steps in fifty years. The girl who read with abandon until the late hours, kept strong track of the information she learned, and yearned to absorb ever more with each passing day. It was possible for her to have knowledge of what this object was, passed on from a dying woman. And the nod of her head spoke clearly of her knowledge.

"I do. I think. I'm pretty sure. Almost positive." Half sure then. "It looks… familiar at least, like I've seen it in the back of a journal or someone scrawled it onto a book they forgot wasn't theirs." She was rarity even with that, finding the notes of scholars that tarnished texts to be boons, not soils.

"Then what's it about," Aki asked for Jack, though he did not move to correct. It was a question he shared. "Is it like… some kind of super weapon? Or like a mark of a king?" Maybe not those kinds of questions.

"No, wait… Yes? Sort of?" Jack felt his eyes narrow upon the girl. Not of malice or disappointment. Never for a girl that yearned to learn and teach. Only from curiosity. Adi had been around him long enough to know the difference. "I-It's complicated because… I think I know what it is, but… but it's not something that's super popular or even all that well-documented, if it is." Buried knowledge then.

"Then, if possible, may you tell me what you do know?" Jack knelt to reach her level, though not nearly as far to the ground as he would have only but a year ago. The little ones were hardly to be called such anymore. "Or, rather, why you feel I should not wear this?"

"Y-Yeah, I can do that," Adi nodded as she spoke.

Then, she explained what she knew.

---

"Headband War?" Adi nodded as her father repeated the name. She wasn't surprised, seeing as she was sure it was a mistranslate the first time she had read about it as well. "They referred to it as the headband war?"

Her father asked as they continued to walk as well, moving to fine whoever the 'Killer of Justice' was. There was little to no surprise on the part of Adi that Aki and Ashi were heavily invested in finding the man. Even less so when their father said that they would, the unspoken signal for her and her sisters to start putting their talents to use.

Less than an hour within the ruined town, though small and humble yet still ruined, and they continued on an invisible trail for the man. The road ahead of them stretched for the miles she often feared to walk so long, dust and billows of dirt rising and falling from the otherwise unvegetated land. The hills that stretched around them rolled like the cairns of dust. It was only too evident, even without a map or guide, that the town they had left behind in embers and ruin was isolated from the world along its expanse. There was little to see and even less to do in what could only be called the desolate land.

That meant it was time for Adi to do her part, and that was providing information. Too bad it was on a subject hardly anyone knew about.

"Named after the headbands that they were fighting over," Adi repeated as well. "I remember it because it was an anomaly in respect the naming convention of other wars, which related to either the locations fought in, people involved, or time the war took." Immediately she thought of World Wars, the War of Spartans, and the 100-year War.

"They fought over… cloth?" And that was why she read over it so many times. Saying it aloud made it sound even more ridiculous than when she had read it in texts.

"Technically, yes," she answered, her bob-cut hair leaning with the tilt of her head. "Buuuut it's a bit more complicated than that. There's supposed to be a long set of superstition and semi-factual powers related to the headbands, though it's been difficult to find much about them that remains consist or verifiably true."

Truthfully, however, she hadn't looked hard for it before. A part of Adi believed the few pieces of documents relating to the war were nothing more than a fool's ramblings. It was far more common in the newer texts than she'd like to believe. The fact that it persisted a few decades didn't mean much when the relative consistency was so low.

"What I do know for sure is that there are supposed to be several headbands out there, but only two that matter. As in, the Number One and Number Two headbands. The Number One can only be challenged by the Number Two, but anyone can fight the Number Two for his headband." And that was why it was part of the reason why it was so difficult to find consistency in the texts.

They hardly made sense.

"I-I'm sure there's more to it. I mean, I-I have suspicions but… I can look up more in a bit, after we stop I mean." She finished with an adjustment to her satchel and backpack, shuffling the books and journals in both. She was desperately trying to remember which book had the most information, and if she had taken notes in any of her journals about it.

Ashi was right, she should've reorganized earlier. Her backs were unbalanced, making her lean as she walked, not to mention that the spine of one of her books was pushing into her back through the material. Probably Hodler's History of Divine Mythologies. Avi probably would have reminded her to clean it… Probably…

"We can stop soon," her father's words shook her from her quick mental lapse. She stopped herself from shaking her head. "A good pace is fine to keep, but we cannot tire ourselves needlessly." Right, that made sense. She had almost forgotten why they were moving so quickly.

Of course, their father wouldn't forget. He was always focused when something bad was happening, always knowing just what to do.

But, of course, he did. He was their father after all.

"Do you think there is anything to that, Adi?" Said girl turned to see Aki walking up to her, away from Aphi and Ami. It was nothing new to have her asking questions about what she had learned, even if it was usually an excuse to not help Ami with her inventions or Ahi with cooking. But what was she asking the content of?

"Are you asking about the war, or the headbands, or…" Because it really could have been any of those. Her sister only decided to wear a crooked grin, a look she wore too often for Adi's tastes. Clearly not for Aki's own.

"All of it." Adi rolled her eyes. Her sister really didn't want to listen then. "Nah, nah, I'm kidding. Really." She placated Adi with her hands waving in the air, a slow chuckle running through her grin. "But seriously though, you think there's anything to the super powers in that headband? I mean, we've seen some pretty crazy stuff, but usually it at least looks kinda crazy too. That's just… eh." Her hand tilted back and forth with her words, even her small falling with the lack of an impression the band left on her.

Adi could not fault her for much. It was true, after all, that majority of the artifacts, texts, or otherwise mystical to mythical objects they came across tended to appear to match its power, if only a subjective sense. Though the reasoning for it was often to match as well.

If someone was to entrap a wish granting fairy, as a purely exemplary figure, they would not use an ordinary glass bottle. They would likely use a bottle of some grand design, shape, or color, or an etched enclosure that showed the power it held, or perhaps, if all else was to not be used or considered, then some form of guard or impressive lock to keep the fairy enclosed.

In contrast the headband however, still held kept in Jack's pouch and out of sight from the her or her sisters, for good reason, it was… plain. Very plain. Gaudy even. Something Avi wouldn't have liked…

"You are right that it is visually unimpressive," Adi began, speaking to Aki again upon noticing her sister's curious eyes and leering grin. "But the tales are rather… separated in regards to their abilities. As I said, the only definite law to them appears to be the order of the headbands, that there exists a Number One band and a-"

"Number Two that ya need to fight One and Two's a free-fer-all, I got that." Her hand was waving now. Adi wasn't sure, quite honestly, if she should have been happy Aki was actually listening, or disappointed that she didn't seem to care. "But like, you got nothin' on why that is? Is Number One immortal or somethin? And Number Two is like the kryptonite or something?" Of course, she would refer to fictional media as an allegory. Adi rolled with it, Aki was her sister, after all, and she knew her sibling the best, right in between their father and Ashi.

"I really don't know," Adi replied as honestly as she could. "The thing about the headbands is that they are supposed to be, well, mysterious." The utterly unimpressed look that Aki gave her was not surprising. Adi knew she had worn it herself after she had found there was so little information about the subject. "I know that sounds dumb, and I really wish it was different, but that's all I know. They could be real as the Jewel of Neptune or about as dumb as the Anubis Portal was." Because that portal was just stupid there was literally nothing worth finding there!

"Great, so it could be an all-powerful too that kicks some serious butt, or a piece of fabric that people are goin' and crazy and mental over." She rolled her head as she spoke. "You'd think that if people were trying to talk about how great those things were that they would've included that kind of stuff." Normally, Adi would agree. However, this was not normal. It wasn't in many senses of the word.

Normal wars, if it was alright to call any war normal, weren't fought over such small tools of powers. Objects that could be perceived as power, symbolic in nature such as a throne or crown, perhaps, but even that was a rarity. Usually they were fought to merely kill anyone who could contest.

"Not wrong, no," Adi agreed. "But actually, I'd prefer to think of it, or more like I did think about it the headbands being a measure of the fighters. So, it was more honorary than anything else for the fighters to not be able to fight the Number One unless they had the Number two. It could be seen as that, but I will admit that the amount of assassinations, supposed poisonings, and the number of deaths listed as dishonorable killings makes that harder to believe." Even though she only ha a part of the picture, it was rather har to not see a fair number at that.

"Then that's really confusing." Aki went on. Adi didn't have anything to add, because Aki clearly didn't. "I mean like, is that why the girl was hidin' the thing? She didn't want to get attacked?" It was a possibility, Adi admitted, but that wasn't where she did her best thinking. Ashi and their father thought about that kind of stuff best, usually because they always won their fights. "So, like then, what's the under over for the chances of them actually having super powers or something? Think it'd be worth snagging the band from dad?" And her recklessness was showing.

"No," Adi gave a hard look at Aki as she spoke. No way was she going to let that one pass. "Just in case you missed it. I yelled at dad to not put it on for a reason." She pointed at her sister, even if it was done with a heavy bag and satchel making her sway off balance. She could've at least offered to help. "In case you haven't been paying attention to the last five years of ours lives, which I can easily believe, we've been caught up in crazy enough stuff to justify being a little wary of some headbands that people are literally killing one another over."

"Alright, alright, geez, I was just asking." Aki quickly backtracked with hands raised, grimacing in the same motion. Adi kept her gaze straight and pointed at her sister, long enough to see the grimace turn into a regretful frown. "I was just wondering if it'd be something worth keeping around, ya know? We usually drop off or destroy stuff like this, because we don't need that kind of heat on us traveling, least according to dad." AT least she was willing to listen to him on that regard.

"Yeah, I know." She did, she really did, recalling the number of centuries to literally millennial old artifacts they had to destroy because there was a slight chance of it corrupting one of them, or someone else. "But dad has been doing this longer than any of us have been alive, literally, so it's not a good idea to try and go against what he says."

"Shouldn't yeah," Aki nodded. Adi watched her grin grow. It was impossible to miss, considering how there was literally nothing else for miles to look at. "But it's a lotta fun when we do." Nope.

"Wrong," Adi immediately fired back. "It's a lot of fun for you when you do. Don't lump me in with your crazy habits just because I've joined you a few times." Granted, yeah, they were fun, but they weren't fun because they went against what dad wanted. There was a big difference there. Big as the difference between a journal and a memoire.

"Why not, you find the best stuff when we go and do that kinda crazy stuff!" She threw her arms out with the declaration, grinning madly as she always did. Adi almost hated how often Aki did that around her. She also loathed how often she was right about it.

"That's… not the same!" She fought back valiantly. "The purpose of what I do when we go out is to find something. You just want to go out and break stuff!" Aki didn't even deny it.

"Yeah, but isn't that half the fun of goin' out?" Adi shut her journal in exasperation of the confession. Her sister, honestly. At least Avi knew how to keep her in control, mostly. "Kind of like it'd be fun to see what'd it be like if we tried on that headband. At least if I did."

"I don't need to ask dad to know the answer is still no." Neither did Aki, fi she could venture a guess. He was doubtlessly listening to them, seeing as there was almost nothing else to listen or see for miles still. Especially if they were tracking this… killer of Justice. "Not if we're after the crazy guy who destroyed the town."

"Yeah, that's a good point." Adi almost breathed a sigh of relief, hearing her sister tone down the excitement. "Just wish we had an idea of what that guy's like now. Destroying a whole town for a freaking headband." She clicked her tongue with the statement.

"It's not pleasant, I know." Though common in wars or battles that sought an artifact of any kind. Though honestly, usually those involved fights between squadrons or battalions, not a single man. "But that's why we have to hide the headband, especially if we're after him."

"Yeah, sure, I got it," Aki waved her hand again. Adi didn't even have the energy to care anymore. "Don't want the crazy man to attack us on sight. Don't want anyone else whose after him to do the same." At least she understood that much.

"Correct." She was glad she remembers that much from what their father told them. "The moment that this Justice Killer sees a headband, assuming that is why he destroyed the town, he is liable to attack. And we have to at least develop a plan for him." Granted, she wasn't sure how much of a plan she could contribute, but dad and Ashi both were rather good at those kinds of plans. So, she'd listen to them, same as Aphi, Ami, and Ahi.

"Yup, wouldn't want to anger the killer by waving a white flag." And she started to snicker with the comment. Adi wished she could be surprised.

Still, she couldn't be serious.

"Are you laughing about the fact that people died over headbands?" Adi didn't put any heart into the question. Because truthfully, against the many other reasons she'd read and researched for starting or exacerbating wars, headbands were by far the most ridiculous.

"Nah, no, not that," Aki dismissed with a wave of her hand, even if she kept her usual grin beneath that mess she called her hair-style. "Just thinking that Avi could've told us something special about that thing."

Yeah, she could have. Adi didn't say anything in response.

Instead, she focused on the road again, thinking about their sister, still back in the forest and helping the monks with their change. Adi had spent days documenting everything she could from then, making sure she knew exactly where Avi was staying and everything involved with it. What she was going to be doing, where she was sleeping, what she would need, all of it. Like studying an ancient culture, she had to know.

She had to be sure that wherever Avi was now, she was safe. And in truth, though she wished she had found something to tell the opposite so they could have an excuse to go back, she found nothing. Nothing but evidence that Avi really was in the safest place she had seen for some time. Shielded from Aku, protected by warriors trained like their father, constantly improving their body and soul, eating so well Ahi was jealous… it was all so perfect for Avi.

And here they were instead, walking a land that was drier than a desert and cracked worse than eroded statues of eons passed. It was… depressing.

"Father, can we stop?" Adi turned when Ami spoke up, looking at her sister. She was working on something being carried by Aphi, looking up at their dad over it. "I think… I think I have something."

"Do you?" Their father asked. Ami nodded in response, simple per usual. "Then yes. We may take a break." The words brought about the usual habits from everyone.

On an unassuming part of the road, no different than the stretch they had walked, their father sat down in a crouch, Ashi joining him by his side. Ahi immediately set out her pack and satchels, fishing for the jerky that she had prepared per their father's tasks. She had a stick of it in hand before shew as able to get her own backpack off, Aki digging greedily into hers.

Ami and Aphi settled the large object they were working on to the ground, her hands never leaving it as Aphi made sure it was secure on the cracked floor. It was only after she had let go of it that Adi realized what it was, morbidly at that.

The head of a robot, decapitated and ruined.

She held back any disgust she felt, pushing away the reminders that droids and artificial life such as that had been around for so many centuries now that they had a mythology and culture to them that was a joy to read. The mixture of code and literature, turning the literal proof of their life into something worthy of reading for children and scholars across the world and stars.

But Ami dug into its eye, pulling out the caps to the lens and plugging it into the mobile computer of hers without a say in the matter. Aphi was just as silent as the display went on.

"So, what've you go to show?" Aki asked Ami, even as her sister continued to work. It was a question Adi shared. "Some last log file 'er killer mod you found." Aki did have a way of making situations less serious…

"Aki, please chew your food first." There was hardly any bite behind the comment from Ahi. They both knew convincing Ahi to speak properly with food in her mouth was as likely as their father losing a fight.

"Wha'? If you can understand me, not like it matters." Even their father sighed at the comment. Truly Aki didn't care at all what anyone thought of her.

"I'm almost ready to show you," Ami began, however, earning their small family's attention. "I was able to find a significant part of the disk memory to this robot remained intact, separated from the SSD of its main platform. It lacked a processor or power source to access it, but I was able to solder quickly some new wires to let me-"

"In a language we can understand, if you please." It meant something when Ashi interrupted like that, in place of their father. He didn't correct her, however.

"Apologies, I… I think I can see the last image or video recorded by this robot." That was significant. And important. It also explained why she was getting out her external screen. She had to have something to show it.

"Hmm," their father hummed, hand scratching at his beard. "Perhaps we may see just who this Killer of Justice is." It made sense that was the hope.

"Precisely," Ami agreed. "I'm also hoping to be able to discern any notable methods to his fighting, particularly his reasoning for attacking the village entire… and burning it." That was also something to note. Aphi nodded from her place next to Ami, agreement clear.

They waited in short silence, chewing on Ahi's food as they waited for Ami to finish her task. Adi made sure to bring out a journal to write in, documenting the potential threat they would be dealing with, specifically anything she may have to cross reference with other sources involved with the Headband wars. If it was an old participant, or a descendant, it would behoove her to learn it. Notes were key to making sure she didn't miss anything.

Ashi and her father were similar in that their attention was focused on the screen, currently blank as it was. It wasn't going to remain that way for much longer, and it was evident they had no intention of missing anything that filled it.

And static quickly did just that.

Everyone around the screen stopped chewing as the image quickly morphed to one of the village, already being torn to ruin.

The video, as the flames were crackling so it very clearly was a video, was being taken at an angle, doubtlessly because the robot's head was either already damaged or removed. Then how was it recording? It was possible it had a reserve battery that was meant to make reattachment possible but… but now wasn't the time to think about it, even if Adi furiously scribbled the note.

She and her sisters watched a gunman on screen backing up as his revolved fired at a figure hidden by the flames. No sound came from the video that was playing, only the sight of the sparks that came from the barrels' ends evident that he was firing.

Firing, until an explosion of red sent his arm off in one direction and his body in another.

Aki clicked her tongue, Ahi gasping at the sight. Adi made quick heavy notes of what she was seeing, ensuring that she wouldn't forget anything.

The figure stepped through a blaze, only to be flanked on two sides by a man and a woman, a woman, Adi realized now, that looked remarkably like the one that her father had found in the building. She was unbloodied, wielding a katana, and running with a speed that she was sure showed great strength and training. The man was no different, as her father had taught her to recognize forms, and the man had confidence in his own.

Confidence that lasted until they were sent into explosions of blood no different than the gunman. Adi still couldn't keep track of what was happening, only what became of it. That went into her notes.

The woman's arm was off to a side, the man she attacked with standing before the killer with his blade raised to his eyes. Maybe they talked, maybe it was a silent conversation, but whatever it was, the woman fled from the man and killer, as the man stood his ground.

And as she passed the screen, it was evident she was holding the Number Two headband in her hand. Adi made note of that.

"Was that the-" Adi silenced Aki with a harsh hiss, getting a just as quick apology from her sister.

There was no sound as the swordsman and man clashed, only the sight of sparks amidst the fire of the burning town. It was the first clue to Adi that the man was using a sword as well, perhaps little different than the man who was being beaten, badly, by the killer. Her eyes were glued to the screen.

Glued as they danced across the limited vision of the robot, dancing with their blades parrying back and forth at a speed that Adi could not track. Her father and Ashi probably could, and probably were. Maybe Aphi, too, but not her. She could only note they were too fast for her eyes to follow.

And because of that, she concluded they were not only faster than a video could record, but also superior with their skill. But the killer was better.

That was made clear when he sliced the man in half, from groin to head.

Ahi was shivering next to her. Adi let her lean on her, even as she was sure Ami was doing the same with Aphi. Maybe her father was, neither Ashi or Aki, but that wasn't noteworthy. The skill of the killer was. It was important to record every detail she could.

And she scribbled furiously, as fast as her eyes and hands could move, as the killer finally became clear against the flame. She traced his robe, his thin arms, his long blade, the long, almost endlessly so, headband that flowed from his head in a violent wind.

But more than anything else, she recorded the afro of hair that rose and billowed above his head.

---

Ami didn't regret her inventions. Never could. They were the reason they were able to do so much, and one of the few ways she could help her father and sisters. She couldn't fight as well as her sisters, or be as vicious as them, but she could make things they couldn't, easily, so it only made sense she would use that to help her family any way she could.

But that the moment, she was having seconds thoughts about showing her family the video. Even if it was hours upon hours later.

It was so late that the earth had continued its rotation on its bent Z-Axis, allowing the light of far-off stars to shine across an otherwise unilluminated sky. It was not enough luminescent to allow for safe travel, and implied that they would be required to stop for rest.

But they did not at first, at least not as quickly as they usually did. Perhaps it was because their father was not comfortable resting after witnessing the video she had found. Perhaps it was because he wanted to find a safer location or vegetative patch of land to rest on. It was also a small possibility he simply did not want to stop while such a vicious man was out there.

But the most disturbing of thoughts, and a thought Ami did not have the counter evidence to dispute, was that they did not stop readily because neither she or her sisters had spoken since they watched the video of the killer samurai.

Not after their father had told her to stop the video. There had been nothing but silence since his command.

Ami had done as se always did when she was finished reviewing data. She compressed it, stored it, and discarded the remains of the robot. She packed up her equipment with Aphi's help and continued walking with her sisters, chewing on Ahi's jerky. But where as the normal reaction to her findings was discussion or deliberation of action, there was now nothing.

There was only an unsteady wind, hot and harsh like the otherwise desolate land, no doubt a consequence of it. There was no sound from any of her sisters or father as they continued to walk, silent as the day turned to night and they made move to camp. Nothing at all.

And that was disturbing.

It was why they didn't know what to do when they had broken camp, Ahi handing out food she had hastily prepared, an odd combination of greenery and meats she didn't follow. It was why they were all sitting nervously as they waited for discussion, with even Aphi being uncomfortable with the silence. But still, none of them dared to break. Ami was not to do that herself.

They were stuck watching the fire, crushed and prepared by Aki in haste. Watching as its exothermic reaction to the dry wood gave off a level of lamination and heat that comforted them in the cold and unprotected night. The crackling of wood kept the silence away, and each small spark was comparatively louder than her explosions, given the moment.

They did that, because there was nothing else they could do. Not while their father still sat with crossed legs and a focused frown beneath his extensive facial hair. It was not something Ami enjoyed seeing, her father distressed.

They were all watching their father, carefully, uneasily, waiting for what his first command would be.

"I will watch first."

That was not what Ami was expecting, because that was not normal.

Even as he stood, armor creaking as he did so, lance in hand, Ami realized that above four out of five of their normal encounters would begin with their father asking of what they thought of the day. Usually an unassuming and mundane question that was often used to make them think about the purpose of their actions. What they had hunted, eaten, built, fought, or explore. But now, there was none of that.

There was only the sight of their father, walking off and away from the crackling flames of the fire, disappearing into the darkness. No one, not even Ashi, dared to follow. They only watched, uneasy and, most distressing of all, perhaps a little afraid.

Ami hated to feel that, more than anything. More than even failure.

Because it felt like a failure that had affected everyone.

For longer than normal afterwards, given the few datapoints for correlation that Ami had to work with, she and the rest of her sisters waited by the fire, staring at it, unable to decide if it would be best to attempt to sleep or discuss what had happened. Talk, now that their father was no longer there. Ami did not want to be the one to begin the conversation. She was already the one who had created the reason for the silence.

"So, are we gonna talk about it?" And she was never so happy before for Aki's need to speak. "Cause I think we gotta talk about it."

"Speak about what, Aki?" Ashi returned, arms folded and glaring at their sister. She wasn't happy. None of them were. Ami didn't need to judge to know. "About the man who acted as a dishonorable samurai? About the headband that supposedly drove him to murder a village? Which topic do you want to broach first?"

True to being so much like their father, Ashi saw two questions to ponder while Ami only saw one.

All she cared for was the man dressed in white with a bloody blade. She didn't care about an unkempt and unnecessary piece of fabric. She was surprised any of them would.

"The man! Or… both? Cause he was after the headband? But he's the reason we… Gah, I don't know!" Aki fell back with a groan. Only a series of questions and Ashi had derailed her thoughts. "I just… that's the longest I've gone without talking in like… forever. Minus being asleep. And even though I'm not as smart as Adi or Ami, I'm not dumb enough ta not realize why were all literally quieter than the freaking wind." Ami wished she could say her sister was exaggerating. A quick decibel analysis of their previous hours, however, showed she was statistically correct.

"Dad's just thinking. It's not like the rest of us aren't." Adi spoke with her nose in her journal, doubtlessly cataloging her thoughts. "We've seen a lot of killers before, from humans to aliens and robots, but they've all been… different. Obviously crazy or just too weird to really think much of. This though… it's too close to home."

"Home? What, you think the whack job reminds dad of his old home?" Aki did not sound convinced as she asked the question. Ami knew it was because she misunderstood Adi in the first place. That meant it was her duty to correct.

"Adi is metaphorically referring to the similarities between the man on the .mp3 file and… father's old fighting methods." They didn't have to have seen them first hand to know the reason why their father was called the Samurai by so many. It was not for his heavily inspired armor or habits, not alone. "So, father is… questioning why someone is behaving like a samurai yet so… distant from one."

"So, it is about the guy then, and not the headband." Groans came from their siblings, even as Aki talked. "What? I'm just keeping track of Ashi's question. I though you wanted me ta keep track of that stuff."

"Speaking it out loud is an unnecessary step to do so," Ashi responded in kind. "Further, though I have much I can say for your inability to notice the severity of the situation or your poor attempt to make light of it…"

"Nothing wrong with trying to break this tension." Ami disagreed with her. Ashi continued regardless.

"We still must focus on the man as well. It is clear he is after the headband that father is carrying, as the woman hide herself from him, her partner likely knowing he was no match for the swordsman before the fight." Ashi logically laid what they had seen, speaking with her fingers threaded beneath her chin and staring into the fire. Ami saw no breaks in the flow of her thoughts. It made perfect sense.

"Can't forget that the rest of the village was torched for it, too." Adi added in. "If he couldn't find her, it can lead to assumptions that she was both skilled in hiding and perhaps espionage. However… it is also clear that he was willing to kill innocents to merely insure she was killed as well." Ami had not forgotten that thought as well.

She still had the counter from the robot's central memory, a variable that had survived the RAM purge and counted deaths in total. She didn't wish to tell her sisters of the number. Mentioning death needlessly was always disconcerting.

"Should we think about where the man will probably go then?" Ahi spoke now. She was preparing her grill once more, the one that Ami had built for her a few months ago. It was clear to see she was being diligent in keeping the grease trap clean, preventing any flammable substances from igniting. "I mean to say… there isn't a lot around us, and he must have realized the same thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aki asked. Ami shared her curiosity, for the moment.

"I mean that he must have known that there was no where else for her to run. So… for him to fail to get the headband from her must mean that he either thought it was destroyed… or he wanted someone else to take it." Ami had not thought of that.

She hadn't thought it was a trap, because she had not seen people use a trap like that before. Not with… actual people.

Robots, decoys, blackmailed captives, those were all accounted for with double digit occurrences in the past. But for a man to kill a woman, knowing what she had, and waiting for someone else to take it… why?

"Why would someone follow that train of logic?" Ami finally question aloud. "If there was a goal to accomplish from the action, it remains illusive if such is the case. The man is risking a headband that Adi says may hold mythical power, offering only a high probability of future instances of mortal combat, and ruins any chance of maintaining an atmosphere of conformity or thought." The last one bothered Ami the most. She could not stand the idea of not be able to think.

Fires and fights tended to push those opportunities from her.

"No," Ashi spoke up. All eyes turned to her as she spoke. Ami recognized the dip in her tone, Mezzo-soprano to Contralto. It was a clear indicator she had latched on a thread of logic Ami had missed. It was her talent to share. "No, Ahi is correct. He… he wants to fight." Ami knew what she meant, but loathed the implication. "The false samurai doesn't want the headbands, he wants fighters."

"Say what?" Aki asked again, leaning back on her palms. Her feet sat greedily close the fire, forcing Ami to think against wishing they'd scorch her soles. "He's tryin' to get people to fight him, like to death? How the hell's he managing that?"

"By killing those who have the headband, or gravely wounding them," Ahi continued her theory, backed by Ashi's approval. It was hard to not gain confidence when she thought the same. "The man didn't… the fake samurai didn't try and rush for the headband the woman was holding he… he fought the man who was trying to protect her, then he waited."

"You mean that last shot in front of the fire? That wasn't just the camera loosin' its power?" Ami would admit, the possibility for that occurring was high. Unfortunately, it was not true.

"The images of the file are time stamped. There was no noticeable dip in the frequency of the images appearing to warrant a delay in the video." Neither had the display speed decreased. "The man was indeed standing in front of the fire, immobile, for a non-irrelevant amount of time."

"And that's what bothers me. Well… bothers me after… everything else." Ami saw Aphi nod beside her. She agreed with both her sister. There was a great deal to be disturbed and uneasy about this. "It's a rule that father taught us, that inaction is an action in the heat of battle. Doing nothing does create something. Like… like doing nothing while meat burns allow it to cook." The allegory was acceptable.

"Are you sure you're not just hungry?" Aki's tone wasn't mocking, Ami carefully noted. But neither was it serious, which was unacceptable.

This was a serious matter.

"I'm not joking around, Aki," Ahi countered, even if she paused in her cleaning and glared at her sister. The pout of her lips made it far less effective. "What I'm trying to say is that the man was… waiting for her. It was like he was waiting for her to escape."

And that made an unfortunate amount of sense to Ami.

The man was waiting for her to escape, the woman that was so viciously attacked, in case she was able to find other fighters, or people who also had headbands similar to that of the now designated Number Two and Number One. He was treating her as bait… and that meant that they had taken the bait from her with her last breath.

Truly she wished she had not found the robot's memory system now.

"That's insane," Aki spoke. There was no jovial undertone to her voice. "That's crazy, and stupid, and dumb, and… and that doesn't even make sense!" Ami had no fault for her sister now.

It only took a small glance from Ami to see the way Aphi was acting. From the way she was looking at Aki, shaking her head with disgust, it was clear she thought very similar. The clenched fists, tightening against the pack she helped Ami carry, was another clear indicator for her emotional state. Ami didn't fault her either.

It took only a glance to tell it was an emotion shared.

"It doesn't," Ashi agreed with Aki. "A crazed man's mind, that of the fake samurai, isn't supposed to make sense. Either Ahi is correct and the man is killing for sport, just as a false samurai would, or he is madly devoted to finding the headbands and he is killing innocents for the thing." They were the two most statistically likely situations. "Either way, he is mad, and his madness will not stop from a village's death, no matter how dire it is."

"It… fits," Adi spoke up now. Ami only now noticed that she had a new book in her hand, not a journal. It was presumably one of the many texts likely to hold information of the Headband Wars she was narrating earlier. The fire reflected in her eyes as she read the text. "It is said that the owner of the Number One Headband is swayed by its power, either to rule, to kill, or to hunt with it. There has never been an instance of a holder of the band practicing pacifism or preferring conversation."

"Unfortunate, but unsurprising," Ami added. It really wasn't a surprising fact to hear, no matter how unfortunate it truly was. "Unlikely, given the criteria for earning the headband, that the Number One would not be proficient with battle in some method, no matter how odd or insulting. Further unlikely that the wearer would attempt an approach to challenger's contrary to his own." If Adi's information was correct, the Number One Headband had to be taken through battle, not discussion.

"Then it… fits even better." Adi shut her book with a dull slap, setting it on her lap before looking at the fire. Her face was pensive, worried, and hard. All the characteristics that were mirrored on their sisters. No one was happy or pleased. No one was okay.

And it was her fault for finding the video and showing them. If she hadn't they would be having a relaxing dinner with father as they were given new tasks to complete and goals to reach. Now… they were worrying about a man that was faking their father's title as if for sport.

Ami hated it far more than she believed she would, or should.

It conceptually was not her fault for being unfamiliar with the man before he appeared on the robot's memory. There were no signs towards him being so similar to their father, let alone any indication that he would be hunting something they had. If they merely thought that it was a mad monster, then they would not be in the current situation she and her sisters were.

Sitting around a campfire, staring at the slow combustion of the dry wood and wondering what to do next. She loathed the inability to develop a clear and present answer. Aphi may understand, hopefully she did.

She was the only one of her sisters who was sitting near her, staring at the fire and remaining silent as usual. That was not uncommon. The break from normalcy was in the tightness of her fists, the narrowing of her eyes, the focus their father often schooled them on. It was what she and Ashi excelled at the most.

The ability to stop, focus, and think. Ami was too used to running with the ideas that jumped in her head to worry about the consequences. And now, she regretted the mindset deeply, for it had caused issues with their father, like it had in the distant past with the bombing related robot, whatever his unimportant name was.

"So," Ashi began to speak. "The man is hunting those who bear the headband, presumably Number Two and all those beneath it. Yet, he also heavily imitates father. Is there any chance he may be using these headbands as an excuse to merely challenge our father to combat?" Not unlikely, Ami recognized, but unlikely.

"No others have needed to resort to such extreme methods in the past," Ami noted aloud. She would say everything she knew if it meant redeeming her mistake. "It appears that he may merely be looking for any kind of fight, and the similarities with father, though striking, are merely coincidental."

"Bullcrap." Ami held her tongue at Aki's outburst, even if Aphi gave their sister a hard stare. "No way some dresses like that on accident. I mean, c'mon! Ask freaking Adi, no way any samurai would normally wear a robe!" Ami's narrowed eyes curved in recognition to her point. "There are like dozens of freaking pictures of the guys dressed in heavy armor and stuff."

"She's right about that," Adi added. "Samurai tend to favor heavy armaments, both in defensive and offensive abilities." She wasn't even referencing a book. Aki's grin was triumphant.

"See!" She shouted, messy hair twisting with her head. She was the only one grinning among them, of course.

"However, until recent years, father has not been traditional himself." Adi's continued information stream made Aki turn to her with a look of betrayal. It was unwarranted, as facts did not have a side. "Father tended to wear robes as well in his early years, and has only recently adopted his heavier outfit to compliment his heavier weaponry. As is clear from interactions with others, however, our father has not seen many of his old companions in some time, making the knowledge of his newer appearance, despite the years he's had it now, lesser known amongst his legends."

It was an unfortunate silence that followed, one that Ami was grateful someone filled.

"Then it is mimicry," Ahi spoke. "Trying to imitate dad because… because he's so strong." That was the most likely scenario, yes. It was doubtful it was meant as a taunt without the foreknowledge that father would even be aware of the fake samurai.

Now he was, but only because Ami had shown the video. She truly regretted that.

"I'm glad you think so highly of me." Eyes turned up as their father returned.

"Dad!" Ahi yelled out, almost jumping back in fright. Hardly abnormal, with consideration to their father's prodigious training at concealing himself. Only Ashi could even compare, but Ami did not miss the small gasp she gave out as their father approached. "I-I'm sorry! We were-"

"Discussing the man who attacked the village," Ashi took over for Ahi. Per usual, Ami saw no chagrin or distaste on Ahi, only thanks to their sister. "We believe that he was setting some form of malicious trap, likely to bring in new fighters who would wish to use the headband to-"

"Challenge him to a fight, I know." Ami had no surprise that their father knew. He was very wise when it came to understanding the thoughts of killers. He had a lot of experience for it, more years that she or her sisters had been alive. "I thought as much when we found the woman dead yet still in possession of the headband. It is a trap of his own making, following a diluted and vile tradition."

"You… already knew?" Adi asked now. "I mean, I'm not surprised, but… but that was really fast. We like, just got it figured out." Maybe that was disappointment in her voice.

"Perhaps together you have, but I am confident a few of you suspected." Ahi, Ashi, and Adi, of course. They were the ones who spoke most of the theory. "Though the man is vile, he who killed so easily, he appears to wish to fight only those who hold this headband."

It was only then Ami realized that their father was holding the band tightly in his hand. It was far longer than necessary, swaying in the light breeze as he held it out. It almost appeared to glow in the fire light. An obvious optical illusion created by the white texture desiring to reflect all wavelengths of visible light, but one that was captivating nonetheless.

"If that's true then… then shouldn't we get rid of it? Like, torch it in the fire or somethin'?" Aki asked the reasonable question, violent as it was. "Cause then, won't the guy, like, not fight anyone?"

"Likely not," Adi answered. Eyes turned to her, and she took a moment to realize father was watching her now as well. "Sorry it's just… the one thing that is persistent in the legends of the war is that those who wished to end it tried to destroy the headbands… but they always failed."

"So, then they are cursed!" Aki yelled out. "Cause no way some piece of head ware is so badass that it could go through a war and burning trials and not be magical in some dumb way." Though her verbiage was off, she was not entirely incorrect.

"You need not worry. I have held many items of questionable origin before." Their father answered with his usual smile, subtle and hidden deep beneath the dark strands of his beard. The illumination of the fire was too soft to show much. "Though I will confess, the idea of discarding it is strong."

"So then… we are gonna-" Aki didn't get far.

"But to do so would mean damning another who found it." Father interrupted Aki. "And as Adi said, destroying it is very difficult. It would be best to hold it, until we know what best to do with it." Ami agreed with their father. Calm before acting, per usual. It was what she needed to be. Calm, even if it was her fault.

She took in a slow breath, watching their father as he pocketed the long headband in his side garb. The long band nearly made the pocket bulge through holding it. Aphi was watching it as well, eyes narrowed and nearly scowling. Ami wasn't curious as to why. It was a horrible thing, and Aphi clearly hated anything that threatened them. It only made sense.

"Still sucks," Aki argued pitifully. Perhaps it was whining, if Ami was being accurate. Their father, however, only offered a kind smile to her.

"It is unfair, Aki," he spoke as he settled into a crouch before the fire, staring at it no differently than they had before. "But the fairness of life is not fur us to challenge. We can only recognize it, accept it, and assist one another through it." Ami smiled at her father. She was not the only one. Rather, none of her sisters did anything but smile at their father.

"Maybe there isn't anything we can do about how it happened," Adi spoke up. "But… we have made it a habit of fixing the problems for others, haven't we?" And indeed, they had. Ami had enough logged data of such events to fill nearly a terabyte of her drive, of strictly event occurrences, geographical locations, and some video evidence.

Anything else would be damaging to keep hold of.

Ami reached for her pack, preparing herself to take out her datalogger. She was not as stringent as Adi when it came to recording visual data, not over measured variables, but there were events she didn't want to miss data on, and this was one such even. How else would she be able to accurately recall the tale of the Headbands without some evidence?

She grabbed at her pack, undoing the buckles on it, before stopping as something caught her eye. Or, more accurately, someone.

Specifically, Aphi, standing up and walking next to their father.

Ami watched her, curiously. It was hardly new for any of them to desire to be around their father, especially when he promised good deeds to come and beneficial actions for others, often relating to their action and intervention, but Aphi… didn't tend to seek him, not like this.

She was most prone to hugging him after a fight, thanking him for training, or asking if she could have a seat across from him on the public transportation. This was abnormal, more akin to something Avi would have done or Ashi actively did.

If their father noticed though, and he likely did, he didn't seem to mind. There was nothing to mind. Perhaps… perhaps Aphi was merely upset as Ami felt. That made sense, as she did assist her in finding the video. She did not procure it, as Ami actively, but she did contribute a meaningful amount of work to removing the robot's frame and chassis, giving her access to the memory core.

Ami shook her head, cursing her over done thoughts. She needed to learn how to focus like Aphi and Ashi. At least they were not easily distracted by odd actions, no matter how small. They stood to and charged towards their tasks, which explained easily their decisiveness and general ease for completing the challenges their father assigned them.

That was it, it had to be. Ami was just-

SWIP! The sound of ripping fabric tore Ami from her thoughts. Tore her from her thoughts and shoved her eyes back to her sister and father.

And Ami could only gape, mute as her sister, as she stared as Aphi and her father.

"Aphi, what-" Father silenced his tongue as he stared at her sister.

Aphi didn't speak, not normally. She preferred to focus on others and do everything she could to protect them. She helped Ami out with all her projects, she hunted for Ahi, she trained with Ashi, she collected books with Adi, and every little of what she did was for herself, if ever.

But staring at her now, Ami saw her doing something that was not inline with what she, her sisters, or even their father thought was best. She was doing something that was out of character, counter to all preceding actions she had made. And yet, she was still doing it.

Aphi was holding the Number Two headband, tight in her grasp, and standing far from their father and the fire.

"Aphi?" Ami questioned her sister, but her sister did not return her gaze.

She only stared at the headband, as if it were a threat.

Ami, now more than ever before, shared the emotion.

---

Aphi hated the headband on sight. She knew why.

It wasn't because of the dark past that Adi mentioned, it wasn't because a woman died for it as they had seen, and it wasn't because it made their father act cold to them for hours after they had found it and the woman. Those were things related to the headband's finding. But as Ami would say, that was information beyond its control.

No, Aphi hated the headband on sight. What Aphi hated was what she sensed about the headband.

From the moment their father had shown it to them to the current moment in which she held it in her hands, she had sensed something wrong with it. Something similar, though foreign, then that of the spirit in the Monk's shrine or the ghosts of the machines. Something that she couldn't tell was there, but had the feeling had to be there.

It was a feeling she got whenever the headband was in front of her, roaring when it was being held in front of her by her father, and muted to nothing when it was placed in his pack and gone. It was there, it had to be there, and Aphi knew that it was there, even if her father and sisters didn't. They never did.

No, Avi did. Avi sensed a spirit, because the spirit talked to her. Spirits didn't always talk to her, but they did cry out to her.

Cry out like creaks in the old houses or moans of the wind against tangled trees. Low sounds that her sisters and father didn't hear, barely heard whispers that floated by her. They weren't her imagination, not something she made up. Not anymore.

They were muted in the red mountain, when she was being trained with her sisters. They were dulled when they fought as a family, their father's war cries and clashing steel pushing them away. But in the silence that persisted otherwise, they were unescapable.

This was the first time, however, that she could sense a spirit so strongly.

She didn't know why it was so different from the other spirits, what about made it so unique. Maybe it was older, or wiser, or made of something other than a soul. Maybe it wasn't a soul at all, maybe it was like the spirit that spoke to Avi, yet ignored her. Maybe it was something she had never experienced before. Aphi believed that the most.

Whatever was in the headband wasn't like any other spirit she had sensed before. It was why she needed to know what was so different about it. Her eyes bore down on the headband, wondering how to bring out the spirit, so that then she could know how to help her father rid the world of it. It, and whatever curse it carried.

"Aphi! Aphi!" She looked up as her name was called. Her narrowed eyes rose from the long Number Two headband, cursed and vile, to that of her father's eyes, wide and panicked. Neither made her feel well. "What are you doing?!" She knew why he was yelling. She knew why he was mad.

She had stolen he headband from him, and she hadn't asked for permission. It wouldn't have mattered if she had. He wouldn't have given it to her if she asked for it though. Father wanted to protect her, protect all of them. It was why he always carried the objects that were dangerous.

This time, however, Aphi knew she needed to hold it. Otherwise, it might hurt her father.

"Aphi!" Ami yelled out now. She was looking at her, holding one of her tools midway out of her pack. Aphi didn't focus on what it was. She was focused on her sister's gaze. It was the same kind of look she gave when she saw one of her tools being damaged or destroyed. Painful. "Aphi what… I do not know what you are doing but, but please take caution before handling that! We have already established its dubious origins and volatile nature!"

"She's right," Adi now, calmer, though Aphi could tell she was shaking, even as her own hands shook as she held the Number Two headband. It felt wrong to hold, but worse to even think about releasing. The spirit was vile. "We talked about it, I know we did. You know how that thing is supposed to be a curse of some kind, or at least have something about it that either acts as a challenge of mortal combat or, at worse, creates it!" Her arms were held out, while Aphi's own were drawn in.

"Listen to Adi, Aphi," Ami returned again. "I… I apologize for what I did but… but your action like this is unnecessary." Aphi was confused now, if only a for a moment. Why was Ami apologizing? She couldn't sense spirits. Else, she would be mortified by the number of slow groans and silence that came from the robots she dismantled. "We can find another more suitable way to solve this issue, as we have in the past."

"You gotta listen to that, right?" Aki now. Aphi wasn't used to seeing her so wary. "I mean, I'm the one who's supposed to do all this reckless stuff. You're the one who's supposed to pretty much follow was dad and Ami say to the letter." She wasn't wrong, but neither was she correct.

The headband in her hand felt like it was throbbing. It only reminded her of why she had taken it in the first place. Because it wasn't meant to be held by anyone else but her, because at least she could sense how awful it was.

"Aphi," father spoke again. "You need to… please hand me back the headband." His arm extended with the request. "I do not know what caused you to take it, but I am sure we can discuss it." No, they couldn't. Aphi had tried before.

"Listen to father." Ashi was the one who shot her down the first time, as she was doing now. She needed to focus, as she had said before, and now was the time to focus on the vile headband in her hand. Even if it made her father and sisters wary of her. They didn't understand. "It isn't our place to take things like this. It isn't like you to do things like this." She wasn't wrong either.

"Aphi, please," Ami spoke again. The pulsing of the headband kept Aphi from staring at her sister for too long. "I apologize, I am sorry, just… please relinquish the headband back to father so we can have a communicable discussion about what to do." Aphi still didn't know why she was apologizing.

Because as she stared down at the Number Two headband, watching as its absurd length appeared to sway in the softest of breezes, she knew that it would be her that would need apologies later. They would begin after she returned the headband.

First though, she needed to put it on.

"Aphi! No!" She ignored Adi's words, as she tied the band around her head.

She ignored the panicked squeaks and noises of her siblings as she tightened the fabric until it was fastened above her brow.

She ignored the harsh breath her father released as she opened her eyes again.

Aphi could not ignore the new figure standing behind, and next to, her father.

It was only a figure, it had to be a figure, because it had no relation to anything passible for human. Adi would have told her that. His grin was too wide, hair too crazy, skin too dark, form too hunched, head too crocked, clothing too crazy, and… so much else was just wrong with him. It was a him, it had to be a him.

"W'as up girl?" Because that was a male voice, so much more vile and slanderous than her father's. "Glad ta see ya finally got the Johns ta snatch me outta that back nine player's hands." His words were as confusing and twisted as he appeared.

It had to be a dark spirit, a curse like she thought. One that would have doubtlessly messed with and possibly attempted harm upon her father. Strong as he was, the spirits were beyond them all. She had heard their cries and moans too often to know that. This man though, twisted to a form beyond her recognition, likely would have screamed.

"Heh, 'bout time a gotta hottie holdin' onta me. Last one of ya short-skirts couldn't even put me on proper like." His words were disgusting. He looked disgusting. He sounded disgusting. Everything about the spirit, the thing was just wrong. Aphi could only glare at him as he kept speaking. "Ya got them eyes right on though, the kind of fucked up glare thatta right mean fighter likes ta use an' all."

And when the spirit smiled, he was horrifying. The horror tales that Aki pestered them with were less disturbing than this thing's visage.

"Was tha' matta'? Do I got too cute a face ta talk back ta me?" She snarled up at him, lips turning before she realized that it was an action she had taken without thought. It only made the gleaming grin on the dark and twisted spirit all the brighter, impossibly so against the coal black of his skin. "You lookin' fer some quality time, cause Ah'm a gonna have ta get yer number for anythin' like that happens, heh."

Aphi was right, he was vile.

Vile in every sense of the word their father had told them of and tried to protect them from. Vile in his nature, his words, his being, everything. It appeared as if it was a mocking nature of a spirit, so strong in its desire that she could sense him. And that was disturbing. She could hear only faintly the mourning wails of ghosts at sea, haunting whispers of the dead in forgotten homes, small noises that reminded her family was never alone.

This thing, however, appeared to relish in nothing but its vileness, and a vileness so strong that she could hear him as clear as the sun was in the sky in a cloudless day.

It was disturbing.

"Aphi!" The yell made her turn.

Her eyes looked at Ami, string at her as she held some new device. Aphi knew she had helped her with it before, picking out the parts and the screens, but she didn't know what she did. She never did until Ami used them for the first time. The relief on her sister's face, however, was instantly recognizable.

"Oh, thank whatever, she's still in there!" Aki yelled from behind Ami. Aphi spared only a glance to see the unkempt member of their family nearly falling over her legs in relief. When had she stood? "Givin' us all a heart attack before we get to drink booze? C'mon Aphi, I already told you that I'm the troublemaker here." Aphi had no desire for the title.

"Now that's wha' I'm gonna call a fetchin' right girl. Ya know what I'm talkin' 'bout?" However, it was hard for her to argue against it, now that her deeds had brought the most troubling of spirits to them. Or, more accurately, her. "Betcha that girl's gonna make a record ta rock the boots and shoes offa half thi' messed up world." Aphi could barely understand the spirit.

"Okay! Okay, okay." Aphi twisted her head away from the spirit, looking at Adi as she was nearly nose to nose with her. It took only a glance down to see she had her journal out, writing more than reading in it. "That was… not something I read about before. But your back! And, that's good because… because the opposite would be horrible beyond words." Aphi didn't understand.

What happened?

"Aphi," her father spoke now. All eyes looked to him, nearly towering over her and with his long beard pointed down. His lips were no different, hidden beneath the bushel of his beard. He was disappointed in her, she knew. She'd have to apologize later, when she took the headband off. "Are you alright? Are you… well?"

Aphi didn't understand the question. Was he aware, or worried, about the spirit? If he was, he would have said something sooner. Their father didn't hide secrets like that from them. He wasn't like that at all. Then that meant she had done something wrong, or looked like something was wrong.

She had done something wrong, but that meant she should be scolded or punished. Instead, her sisters and father only looked… alarmed.

"She's okay! She's… she's just out of it." Adi spoke. Now she was writing. "It confirms to some level that the headbands are cursed by some magic. Enough so that she was distracted from outside stimuli such as shouting or shacking. Non-permanent though, thankfully." Did they mean to say she was in a trance?

"HA! Bet that ya were!" The dark spirit yelled again from behind her father, she glared up at him, feeling nothing but contempt for the thing that enjoyed suffering so clearly. "Couldn't turn tha' faze way from this much black gold, could 'ya?"

Aphi wanted to kill the spirit. She truly did. Never more than now did she wish to challenge Adi on her knowledge of things. Because she almost desperately wanted to at least attempt burning the headband she wore.

She wore… and could hardly tell it was there.

Her finger slipped over the fabric, tracing it as she felt her skin dimple underneath. It was tight against her forehead, almost like the ash her sisters her had… worn so long ago. It was there, but not, as if it were now more apart of her than merely a fabric of clothing.

The curse of the headbands suddenly made much more sense than she wished it too.

"Does it hurt?" Her father asked again. She looked at him guilty that she had nearly forgotten he was there. Him and five her of her sisters. Only one of them was safe now. "You can remove now, if you can. Take it off and I'll take it back." That would make the most sense.

It would make sense to just give it back to her father, let him carry it like he carried so much for them already. He could handle it, because he could handle nearly anything. He had done so in the past and even before they were born. But…

"Don't wanna let go of me tha' easily, do ya?" The dark spirit mocked her from above. Aphi truly hated the thing. "Hey now, no need ta put 'em stink eyes on me! I'mma here ta help ya out girl! It's part of bein' who I am!"

And what was he?

Did Adi know? No, if she had, she would have told them all quickly. At best, she could only guess the curse. Maybe she was right now, scribbling in her notes as quickly as she could. She was working as Ami was working, her device beeping over her and making noises she didn't recognize or see the significance of. Aki and Ahi were fussing in the background, doing something she couldn't notice.

But her father and Ashi were staring at her, watching her as she let her eyes bore into the creature that hovered above and around them, mocking Aphi. It was malicious, clearly, if not self-infatuated. Enough that it would be a danger by itself.

The grin was all she needed to know it promised nothing but harm, pain, and suffering on those that were near him.

It was that, and only that, that told Aphi she had made the right choice in preventing her father or sisters from wearing it.

"You should still take it off." Aphi was not surprised to hear Ashi's command. "If that headband is a calling card for the fake samurai, then wearing it is only going to be inviting disaster, literally." She wasn't wrong, but there was more to it than just that man.

"A-And we don't know how the headbands work entirely," Adi added on. "It's possible that the headbands call to one another, like radio signals or other paired elements. We have seen segregated keys having magnetic attraction to one another, a-and the headbands could work similarly." The snide sneer of the spirit spoke volumes for the possibility.

"I don't detect any waveforms, either of higher or lower frequency, being generated from the headband." Ami spoke as her device moved over Aphi. Perhaps that was what the device was, some form of waveform indicator, if that was an accurate portrayal. "However, I have yet to determine the manner in which mythical objects interact, be they magnetic, heat-induced, waveform synchronization, or anything else. It would be safer to take it off." It would be safer for Aphi, but more damning for her sisters and father.

So, she wouldn't take it off.

"The man we are chasing is dangerous, Aphi." Her father's words were stern as his gaze, focusing on her. She looked up at him, seeing the vile spirit hover behind him and Ashi. "He tore through the village with no remorse, and he holds no carriage to age or gender. You are strong, as are your sisters, but I am most capable of dealing with that robed man."

Aphi knew he was, because he was her dad. He was capable of fighting monsters, aliens, and even demons. Some fake samurai wasn't any trouble.

But they weren't spirits, they weren't things that she could tell were there only by sensing them. Their father couldn't sense them, and that would be trouble. If he wore the band, the spirit may do harm to him, even having it close.

Aphi wouldn't risk harm to her family, even if that meant risking harm to herself.

"They talkin' 'bout Afro?" Aphi's eyes, wide and alarmed, looked at the spirit. Even as the vile thing looked up and away from her, a gnarled digit poking at his chin. "Nasty thing 'bout that freak. All fer him when we started out, but that crazy mofo 'cided that it'd be betta ta take that Number One band and go on a wreckin' train harder than tha Justice fella. Least that crazy ball of sunshine had a system ta it." Aphi didn't care about that last part, only the part that came before it.

She looked at the spirit, taking a step towards him. His eyes finally turned back down to her, through the dark pair of shades that were twisted about his head. She didn't care about that. She was focused only on what he said.

"Aphi?" Ami was talking again, but Aphi ignored her. She'd understand later, when she talked and apologized for the headband. For now, she needed answers, from the spirit that had said so much with so vile words.

Aphi pointed at the spirit, wagging her finger up and down. He wouldn't understand her if she did speak.

"Wha'? You wonderin' wha's goin' on with Afro, too? Damn, and here I was thinkin' someone finally got them hot's fer just me." It was disgusting to hear that fr4om a creature as dark and cold as the spirit. The chortled laughter didn't help. "But yeah, I gotta few things 'bout that man. YA know he got onna crazy hate train all fer his own daddy, too?" She did not know that. Aphi doubted even Adi knew that.

"Aphi, what are you doing?" Ahi now, sounding alarmed. She could be, she was entitled to be, but she'd understand when Aphi apologized later. For now, she had to focus, and that meant talking to the spirit even as he kept the cruel white grin up. "Are you… okay?" She continued to be ignored.

"Guess that mean's I'ma right in one, huh?" His snide remarks and confidence were ignored. Aphi only need him for the information. He had to give that to her. "Don't ya squint yer pin-prink eyes at me gir'. Seein' as yer wearing the Number Two on that big ol' forehead of yours, I'm a gonna help ya find him. Wouldn't really be fair if Ah just followed suit and didn't no nuthin' tha help, would it?"

Aphi ignored his laugh, his visage, and his remarks. She cared only about what he said.

He'd help her find the fake samurai. This… Afro.

The other had to know.

Aphi turned to Adi, reaching and grabbing the top of her journal. She ignored the protests of her sibling, easily pulling the book from her as the others asked what she was doing. They'd understand soon enough. She just had to show them what was happening. If they understood, then they'd be okay.

Her fingers flipped through the scribbled pages, the harshly and hastily written notes that Adi was known for Aphi knew what to look for, how to read them. She'd spent five years talking to Adi and knowing how she thought.

It was how she found what she needed so quickly, pointing to it as she turned the journal back to Adi.

"Huh?" Her sister squeaked, looking down at the page as she grabbed the journal again. "This… spirit sensing." The terror was present in her voice.

"Ghosts feel what now?" Aki's question served only as a focusing rod for Adi.

"It's… it's a theory I made up a long time ago regarding the tendency for spiritual objects to be drawn to one another, leading to battles, trials, or even just locations to rest in, like the suit of armor beneath the lake." Aphi remembered that, and the statute they had placed it upon. "I thought that the stories of spirits living in the items might have been partially true, enough to guide us on where to go, sense Ami couldn't detect anything else."

"It's a valid theory with no counter-evidence," Ami began. "But, Aphi… why are you… no…" She recognized the reasoning soon enough. Aphi knew she would. Her sister was smart, extremely intelligent, actually.

It was why she needed to protect her.

"Spirit of… the headband?" Ashi now, looking above Aphi's eyes towards the superfluously long and thin band of white fabric. "Are you saying you sense something… or it is guiding you?" Her questions were as pointed and precise as they needed to be.

And Aphi held up two fingers indicate which.

"That's incredible! A-And bad, actually, really bad." Adi's optimism rose and fall as her train of thought continued to roll on. "That means…t he other theories about the bands may be true, such as how only the Number Two can fight and slay the Number One…" Aphi hadn't remembered that, not until Adi said it.

"Gotta good on her shoulders, 'tween onnove finest body's Ah've gotta see." Aphi would have killed the spirit would she have thought it possible. For now, she could only endure the harsh words and vile nature of the ghost, promising to be rid of him soon. "Not wrong though, seein' as yer the only gal in the posy here's gonna be able ta fight Afro an' all." Of that, he was wrong.

Aphi would help them find this Afro, but she would not fight him alone. Not when the best fighter of their family was nearby.

"Hmmmm…" her father, the man who would fight, hummed in thought. His arms were crossed and eyes closed, looking more like a pale shadow with the fire crackling by his side. The darkness of the night, alighted only by the barest of stars, didn't help.

No other sounds echoed for a moment, even the vile spirit silent behind her father as he thought. Aphi waited, patiently, with her sisters. This wasn't the time to rush their father, and she wasn't in the position to think of doing so. He was thinking, about her, and it was her duty to wait for his decision, no matter what it would be.

"Aphi," her father spoke again. "Do you trust the spirit to lead you, without fear of being led astray?" He meant tricked, she knew. Of the answer, she wasn't sure.

"You thinkin' I'm a gonna let ol' Afro get a one up on ya?" The vile spirit spoke again. "Nah, man, that ain't the Ninja-Ninja style. I'ma kinda ghost that's gonna let things play out the way them fighters want 'em to. I get involved, mean's I'm gonna be ignored all over 'gain. Ain't lettin' that happen, lemme tell ya!" He didn't need to.

And the words truthfully did little to ease Aphi's mind, or answer her father's words. It only showed the uneasy she had around the manic and vile spirit, both in his words, appearance, and actions. Everything promised betrayal, except his words.

Her father thought, Samurai Jack… he would not be taken in by a simple tactic as this.

Her father would find a way.

Aphi nodded in response, towards her father and within her sisters' sight. They all were silent again.

"Very well," her father answered. "Then at new day, we give chase." The answer brought relief and focus to Aphi and her sisters.

She, however, could only focus on the jubilant laughter of the spirit, as if he were a child. It was something she would ignore. In time, she would ignore all of him, once Afro was taken care of and her family safe. No spirit would haunt her forever like this.

Her father wouldn't allow it.

---

Author's Note:

This is both going exactly where you think it is and also so divergent you'll be screaming. I hope. If you guess what I'm going to do... I'll have to ask you for writing advice in the future.

Long story short though, this is a two parter, next chapter will have the obvious fight, maybe the conclusion, but definitely the hints of a returning character I LOVE!

If you're good with the details... I introduced him maybe three chapters ago now, back in the desert.