Here's the next one. Enjoy.
He woke to a room he didn't recognize. The sun was coming through the window, blinding him. But that wasn't what woke him.
"Daddy?"
Shin's eyes popped open wide. He soon found himself running out of the room wondering what the hell was going on. He ran passed a mirror and stopped to relook at what he thought was wrong. He spent a few seconds viewing his thinning hair.
"Shin, dear?"
Afraid to turn, he did to see Kayura standing there. Then he fainted.
"Shin?"
Shin…
"Shin, how are you feeling?"
Shin opened his eyes, and his hands went quickly to his head.
"I'm not bald?" he said, before looking at Kayura, who was by his bedside, "What happened?"
"The crater was polluted from the fight, and you received a heavy dose of it." Then she laughed, "That was one interesting dream."
Shin's face grew red, "It wasn't on purpose. You know what I dreamed of?"
"I can only assume as you call out names of people and the tone of your voice."
"Oh dear." Shin sat up rubbing his face, "Where's the other two?"
"Home. They're satisfied that the armor of venom is destroyed. The woman left this for you."
Taking the letter from her, Shin read it. She was asking him to think about the job offer. He sighed.
"Thanks Kayura. I should be heading home now."
Kayura sighed as he walked out of the room. Rajura reappeared with a grin.
"You're horrible."
Rajura laughed, "It's not every day I can mess with one of them. Besides, did you see his face when he woke and saw you?"
Kayura frowned as the warriors of illusion left the room, amused.
The week before leaving Japan, Shin heard giggling near his ear. The girl was getting ready to jump into his bed. He quickly fixed that by pulling out a water gun and spraying it into the girl's face.
"Stop Uncle Shin!" Naomi screamed and then ran out, "Mom! Uncle Shin is mean!"
Shin sat up, and Taro crawled from under the bed laughing. The warrior of water joined him. Naomi didn't wake him for the rest of the vacation.
"Normally, I would not recommend torturing your sister, but that was deserved." Shin finally let out.
"Don't worry Uncle Shin. I won't shoot her with water." Taro laughed fixing the old camouflage jacket he was wearing, "Now for Operation Cookie Crumbles."
Shin raised an eyebrow, "Do you want to make both women mad at us?"
"Why not?"
Shin let out a deep breath; Taro had much to learn about angry Mori women, "Okay."
"Here Uncle Shin, you're going to need these." The boy said, handling him an old desert uniform, "We need to get information about the cookies and when mom's going to start them."
"Shin! Where did you get that water gun?"
The men looked at each other, "Hide!"
They soon found themselves hiding in bushes on a small hill behind the house. Taro went ahead and covered his face with dirt. He gave Shin a look to hurry up and do the same. Not that it was going to help hide the tan jacket and pants, and the bright blue t-shirt, Shin followed suit. They both then moved to where they could watch the kitchen.
It was about lunchtime when they saw that Sayoko was starting the cookies.
"Chocolate chip." Taro said slowly, pulling down the binoculars, "I love chocolate chip. We have twenty minutes until she pulls them out of the oven."
Shin shook his head and smiled, "Lead on Commander Taro."
They continued to watch through the window for Sayoko to pull the cookies out and placed another sheet of them in the oven. When she set them out to cool, they both bolted towards the kitchen window. Up against the wall, Shin peered in looking for Sayoko. He then lifted the boy to the window so that Taro could get in.
"Uncle Shin, can you grab the cookies? They're still hot. I'll get the milk." Taro said after Shin climbed in.
Grabbing a towel, he placed it over the cookie pan and then taped the cloth. He then jumped out the window. Taro soon jumped out of the window. They then ran back to their bushes to hide.
"You grabbed the whole thing of milk?" Shin asked.
"We need lots of milk for all those cookies." Taro laughed, "Besides, mom is already going to kill us for stealing the cookies."
"Okay." Shin sighed.
Their next plan of Bo staff training had to wait until their stomach aches went away. Until then, Taro wanted to hear stories of his fights against the evil demon. Leaving out some of the worst parts, like the torture and dying, Shin talked about it a bit.
"Your weapon broke?"
Shin sighed, "Yeah, it was scary watching the claw fly back towards me, but it didn't matter much after because the fist continued down."
"Then the others came to the rescue?"
Shin stopped, and then frowned, "Not really. I don't really remember much after that."
"You passed out?"
"… "
"Wow, it must have been a bad fight." The boy looked up at the sky, "So, who gets Suiko next?"
Shin paused. He wasn't expecting that question.
"Hmm, well, I guess you would be next."
"Cool."
Hearing Sayoko yelling for them to come back, Shin sat up, "If we keep making her mad, Suiko won't be able to save us."
"But Suiko is magic armor."
"My sister feeds us and provides us with a place to sleep."
Later they both found themselves cleaning the house, while the girls sat and watched TV together. Shin found himself on the roof cleaning leaves off. He hated being on angled roofs. It was worse when Sayoko sprayed him with a hose to remind him to not shoot kids in the face with water guns. Worse yet, the wind picked up.
"Just keep cleaning." Shin told himself after his sister left, "It's not like you didn't deserve it."
"Hey Shin!"
Caught unaware, Shin fell off the ladder. Ryuusuke was heard laughing.
"Oh little brother, what did you do?"
"Sayoko can explain. She'll probably make it sound worse than it was." Shin continued to lie on the ground, "You're back early."
"Yeah, we couldn't find anything. Need help up?"
Shin shook his head, "Oddly enough, I feel comfortable right here."
"Okay. Let us know if you need a doctor for your back." Ryuusuke said, before heading in.
Spending the next few minutes pondering the meaning of life and if it was really worth trying to sit up, Shin decided that the meaning of life was too complicated and that he needed to get up because he was lying on something uncomfortable. It turned out to be an ant hill and they weren't too happy. Neither was Shin when he had to take his shirt off to shake them out.
"Might as well complete this joke and rain, clouds." Shin said out loud, while looking up.
It hailed.
"Touché." Shin mumbled before heading inside, "I need a cookie."