BTN - The Clan

As we neared the border between Canada and the US, I was beginning to wonder how we would get across. Obviously, I can’t hijack a car and kill the lady driving it with four other ninjas in the passenger seats without passports. That wouldn’t fly.

Obviously, Terra could get through easily with her blinding speed… but what would the rest of us do? Nothing we can do but see what happens when we get there.

We were still in the forest, and I eventually started to notice some broken tree branches and footsteps in our path. They were very faint, so I wasn’t able to take notice of them until I actually looked down.

I stopped to inspect them more closely.

“Juliet, can you track down where these footsteps came from?”

She came over to me and knelt down, observing it.

“They went north,” she said.

So we trusted her instinct and headed north.

We eventually came upon a larger clearing in the forest when Juliet stopped. I stepped back a little bit, as did everyone else, to give her some space.

Then, she stepped aside as an arrow, coming from her right, barely missed her. The arrow hit the tree on the opposite side, and Terra screamed from surprise. Alex and I ran over to where the arrow came from, out of the clearing and into the forest as Tommy pulled Juliet back from the clearing.

Alex and I searched around for whoever could have shot that arrow, but there were no signs of anything, no footsteps or misplaced branches. Then we heard a scream and an explosion, and ran back to where the rest were.

Juliet was busy pulling some more explosives out of her bag, Terra had her dagger in one hand and a shuriken in the other, and Tommy had a yellow pentagram formed at his feet. They were all facing opposite of us. One of the bushes was on fire, most likely from Juliet’s explosive.

“What’s going on?!” I yelled at them.

“There’s someone over there…” said Tommy, not taking his eyes off of the burning shrubs.

Then, Terra disappeared, and the bushes began shaking violently due to her speed. I ran in after her, and finally came upon another small clearing, where she was standing in front of two guys, one holding a bow and the other wearing knucklers.

The one holding the bow had short, spiked hair, and wore pretty much the same as Alex. His bow was a deep black, and he had a quiver of arrows on his back like a backpack. The one holding the knucklers was slightly shorter than the other one, though still taller than me, and had darker skin. His hair was shorter, too. His knucklers were a transparent color, most likely made of diamonds. They were staring back at Terra with their arms crossed. Alex, Juliet, and Tommy came running through where I came from and stood behind me.

“Who are you guys?” the archer asked.

“Who are YOU?” asked Terra.

“My name is Richard,” said the archer.

“And my name is Elegiacal,” said the other one.

“Ele-what?” asked Tommy, confused.

“Never mind,” said Elegiacal, “now, who are you guys and why are you blowing up the forest?”

“An arrow almost killed her,” said Tommy, and pointed at Juliet.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Richard apologetically, but there was also a bit of sarcasm in his voice. “I was practicing my shooting.”

“Why are you guys here?” asked Elegiacal.

“We’re on our way to North Dakota,” I said.

“What for?” asked Elegiacal.

“No reason, just traveling,” covered Tommy.

Richard whispered something into Elegiacal’s ear and they both nodded.

“No, you aren’t ‘just traveling’,” said Richard.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Well, for one thing, you guys are holding a bunch of weapons, you blew up a bush, and there’s absolutely no way my arrow could have missed her,” Richard said, pointing his bow at Juliet.

“But didn’t you say you missed?” asked Alex.

“No, I said I was practicing shooting. I’m an pro Arrow Kancho. No ordinary person could dodge an arrow as fast and precise as mine.”

“Why the hell would you try to kill her?!” yelled Tommy, as Juliet was slowly moving her way behind him. Everyone else was eyeing Richard and Elegiacal suspiciously.

“Because you guys could be a potential threat to our goal.” Said Richard.

“What goal?” I asked.

Richard whispered to Elegiacal again and they nodded again.

“You see, the Daimyo told us that we have to find ourselves a pair of sacred weapons. He said that we have complete mastery of our weapons, so he chose us to wield them,” said Elegiacal.

“The Deity Arms?!” blurted Alex. Tommy shot him a look that said ‘shut up, idiot,’ and Alex gasped in regret.

“What are these Deity Arms that you speak of?” asked Elegiacal, raising an eyebrow at Alex.

“Deity Arms? What?” I tried to cover pathetically. “He didn’t say Deity Arms… he said… uhh…”

“Look,” said Richard, “I know when people are lying to me. Tell me what you know about the Deity Arms.”

“No, screw you!” said Alex.

“Shut up, Alex!” said Terra.

“If you don’t want to tell us, then we’re gonna have to take that suspicious piece of paper hanging out of your pocket, there…” said Richard, nonchalantly pulling an arrow from his quiver.

Tommy started to prepare a pentagram while Juliet pulled an explosive from her bag. Terra had disappeared, probably into one of the trees, and Alex had his blades prepared. I reached for my katana.

Then, unexpectedly, Richard shot an arrow into a tree right next to me, completely destroying the trunk, and I ran out of the way as it came crashing down, along with Terra. It all happened so fast. I ran over to Terra who was having a bit of trouble getting up, when I heard an explosion coming from the others.

Juliet had thrown her explosive at Elegiacal who had been closing in on them, but he had simply hit it back with his fist, and the bomb exploded halfway between them. Tommy started to cast lightning bolts at him, while Juliet was preparing another bomb, but Elegiacal’s diamond knucklers seemed to just reflect them into the sky. Alex ran for him with his blades ready, and they started to swing and block their weapons as Tommy prepared a different spell.

That all happened in the course of five seconds, and when I looked back up at Richard, he had three arrows prepared in his bow, and was aiming directly at me. Taking careful timing as he shot them, I took my katana and sliced through two of them, which fell to the ground, but the last one barely grazed my shoulder, ripping my shirt and leaving a thin cut. Terra was then behind Richard, ready to plunge her dagger into his back when he jumped up, higher than I could jump, and equipped himself with another arrow. I noticed he was running low on arrows, he only had about two left. I glanced over at the others, with Juliet trying to stab at Elegiacal with her claws but was being blocked by his knucklers. Alex was also attacking Elegiacal, but was being blocked as well. Elegiacal was just… too fast. Tommy kept trying to hit him with his fire spells, but he kept dodging them or redirecting them elsewhere.

Richard was still in the air when he was taking aim at Terra, so I took this chance to jump up to meet him, and tried to slice through his quiver, but it was completely unaffected. It must have been made of very thick steel, possibly the same material as the katana. It did, however, make him lose his aim at Terra, who was taking some shurikens out of her case. We fell to the ground at the same moment, and Terra immediately threw a shuriken at Richard. It looked like it was about to penetrate his chest, when he stepped aside at the last second as it barely made a small cut in his shirt. The shuriken went flying by and into a tree on the other side. I took this small distraction to run up behind him and take the arrows out of his quiver, but he turned around and gave me a swift punch in the chest, causing me to fall back.

At this point, Tommy had switched over to his flood spell, causing Elegiacal to slip a little, which gave Juliet and Alex a chance to attack. As they were about to, Elegiacal grabbed Alex by his right arm and swung him with incredible strength at Juliet, and they both were sent flying back, hitting a tree. Tommy ran over to help them up, and Elegiacal just watched Richard take on me and Terra.

I looked over at Terra who was preparing to throw another shuriken. Richard equipped his penultimate arrow with such speed that he was able to shoot it at the same time that Terra threw her shuriken, and as they met, the arrow completely destroyed the shuriken, shredding it to pieces, and went straight through to Terra. It hit her in the stomach, not too deep, because of the momentum it lost when it hit the shuriken.

Tommy noticed this immediately and ran over to her, preparing a healing spell. During the entire time, Elegiacal had been taking on both Alex and Juliet by himself, being able to easily block their slashes and stabs with his tiny knucklers.

Richard was examining Terra with a grin, and I took this chance to run up to him and strike. He turned around, grabbed the map from my pocket and roundhouse kicked me in the neck, knocking me on the ground.

He yelled at Elegiacal to go, and started to run off south towards the border. Elegiacal stopped blocking to run after Richard, and Juliet got a good cut into his arm while he was doing so. He staggered a bit, but kept running. Juliet and Alex ran after him.

“Go get the map!” Tommy shouted at me. “I have to heal Terra!”

I got up quickly, still feeling intense pains in my neck, and ran to catch up with Juliet and Alex to get our map back from Richard and Elegiacal.

Schedule will be changed a bit. Hopefully, this will lead to longer chapters and better development. Hopefully.

• I won’t be posting one every day.
• I will try to do at least four a week.
• Don’t hate if I don’t get four out, I said I’ll try.

I will take questions if you don’t understand something in the story at briantheninja.tumblr.com/ask. Feel free to criticize as well.

It was right there, even though I didn’t want to believe it. A man with a hydra poking out of his back. They both had the same shade of eyes; a dark red. It was creeping me out, and I’m sure Alex and Juliet were creeped out too. He just stood there, smiling.

I knew a thing or two about hydras. When their heads are sliced off, they regenerate, coming back with one more. So, if you cut off one, two came out, if you cut off those two, four came out, and so on. The only way to get rid of the regeneration process is by setting fire to the heads, or so I thought.

As if it read my mind, the hydra-man started running towards us, with his hydras extending forward with their mouths open, full of sharp teeth. I prepared my katana with a flame as Juliet took out some pyro explosives, and Alex cowered behind us, not knowing what to do.

I leaped forward to meet it, and my blade connected cleanly with the hydra head, setting fire to it at the same time. The man started screaming as the hydra head retracted back into his body, and he collapsed onto his knees. I went up to him as Juliet and Alex watched, and was about to plunge my katana into his back when out of it shot two more hydras, each one bigger than the previous one, hitting me in the face and knocking me back.

I got up quickly and ran back to where Juliet and Alex were, staring at the hydra-man with even more horror as he got back up.

I guess we can cross out the option of lighting the heads on fire.

Then, unexpectedly, Alex ran forward and slashed off one of the hydra-man’s arms with the Cronus Claw, and it fell right next to him. Both of the hydras then lunged at him, ready to bite him, when Juliet’s explosive hit the man’s chest, and blew up, sending him flying backwards. Alex was somehow able to avoid it, so he grabbed the arm and ran back to us. I pulled the claw off and handed it to Juliet, who just held it, and didn’t put it on. I didn’t bother asking why.

As the hydra-man approached us, I saw that his arm was back, but only up to the elbow. Alex had cut it off right at the shoulder. Then, I realized something. With both of the Cronus Claws, one is able to regenerate his/her body parts. However, with only one of them, you are only able to partially repair your body. I wonder what happens when you cut off a hydra head now? I decided to find out.

I ran forward with my katana drawn, and the hydras started to lean forward and snap their mouths open and closed, hungrily. The man then started to run at me, ready to plunge his claws and have his hydras feast on me. Unfortunately for him, I jumped up high, and he just looked up at me, with his hydras still stretching out for me, and I came down right onto them, cutting them off of his back. The necks retracted again as the man started screaming and swung his claw at me, which I blocked with my katana. I then kicked him in the stomach, and he was about to fall backwards when four hydras came out of his back. I guess this wasn’t such a great idea.

Juliet ran forward with Alex, and we all made a feeble attempt to cut off his other arm, as that was the only explanation left to how he was still able to regenerate. The hydras kept blocking us, though, and we eventually retreated to think of a plan. The hydra man was wobbling about, unable to keep his balance, because, you know, there were four huge dragon heads poking out of his back.

“Look, you guys,” I said. “I’m gonna try something risky. Back me up if this doesn’t work.”

“What are you gonna do?” Asked Alex.

I didn’t take the time to answer him, I just ran back to the hydra-man, readied my katana like a javelin, and threw it with great power and speed at his arm, which was cut off perfectly. However, my katana went straight through to the other side of the room, where it stuck to the wall. The man started to scream again, which was starting to piss me off.

Then, one of the hydras reached down and ate the man’s arm, claw and all… What?

Juliet’s expression became incredibly raged, as she watched the hydra swallow her precious Deity Arm. With a yell, a sound that I have never heard before and never thought I would, she threw three explosives at once, each of them exploding in front of the faces of the hydras, ripping them completely off of the man’s back. They flew back to where my katana was, and I was afraid that they would try to eat it, but they were already dead. Good thing.

The man was on his knees, and I waited for eight hydras to come out, but nothing happened. I walked up to him and spoke.

“Who are you?”

No response.

“Hello?”

“I don’t have a name…” He said, with a deep voice.

“But who are you? Why do you have hydras coming out of your back?” Juliet and Alex came up beside me.

“Cronus made me like this…” He responded.

“Cronus? The Greek titan?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you try to kill us?”

“I must protect the Cronus Claws… They are my life.”

“How long have you been down here?”

“As long as I’ve been alive. Cronus sent me down here to protect the claws since he wasn’t allowed to take them up to the heavens.”

Then, out of nowhere, Alex shoved his blade into the hydra-man’s head without a word. He took it out, wiped it on his pants, and took a step back. The hydra-man collapsed.

“What the hell was that for?!” I yelled at Alex.

“He tried to kill us. Why the hell are we having a freaking conversation with him?”

“Because we need information!”

“Why do we need information? The Cronus Claws are right there. Take them and let’s get on with our lives.”

“The hydra swallowed the other claw, idiot,” said Juliet.

“Don’t tell me you can’t just get it out,” said Alex, annoyed.

He walked over to where the hydra heads had been thrown, and started to slash away, sending blood and guts flying all over the place. He saw something, reached into the neck, and pulled out the other claw. He tossed it over to Juliet, then pulled my katana out of the wall and walked back over and handed it to me.

“Thanks, I guess…” Juliet said. She then took off both of her claws and put on the new Cronus Claws, and you can see a look in her eye change. Her eyes went blank for a second, but came back just as fast.

“Let’s go now, shall we?” Said Alex, and motioned towards the hole in the wall in which we came through.

I went first, then Alex, then Juliet, to avoid perversion yet again.

When we reached the debris of rocks, Juliet threw the same explosive as she had before, and this time, it actually broke through the wall and created a passage. We walked through, and we eventually got out of the cave, where Tommy and Terra were napping.

I walked up to them, and shook Tommy’s shoulder. He jumped up with a small shout, which woke Terra up who also jumped up.

They both glared at me.

“About time you guys got back,” said Tommy, rubbing his eyes. “Did you guys get the Deity Arm?”

I motioned towards Juliet, and Tommy and Terra looked with fascination.

“It’s so pretty…” Said Terra.

“I guess,” said Juliet.

“Shall we get moving?” Suggested Alex.

“Yes, let’s,” I said, and pulled the map out. The next closest red dot was in the northern United States, around the state of North Dakota.

“The United States? Ew…” Said Tommy. “Their economy sucks.”

“So what, Tommy?” Said Alex. “They have the next Deity Arm. Let’s get moving.”

“But… Can’t we at least let Juliet test out her weapon?” Tommy asked.

“She can test it on the way. It’s gonna take a while,” I threw in.

Back to the United States I go.

We got to Calgary quite quickly, time sure went by pretty quickly with the five of us talking and laughing. And by quickly, I meant a day. And that’s quite short for walking. It was quite refreshing, actually. I think Alex will really be a big help to all of us. We’ve been keeping an eye out for Erebus as well, but there have been no problems at all during the entire walk to Calgary. We walked around the cities, and only went through the forests.

Juliet then spoke, unexpectedly.

“I think there’s something over there…” She said quietly.

She started walking there, slowly, and the rest of us just watched her, until she disappeared into a mess of trees and bushes. I then ran after her, with the rest following me. When I got through the mess, she was gone. I saw some footsteps, and followed them, with the rest still behind me.

I found her standing at the entrance of a large rock cavern, just staring into it. Her stare seemed really concentrated, so I figured that what she sensed had to be the Deity Arm.

“There’s something in there…” She said.

I stepped closer to the cave, and wasn’t able to see a thing in there.

Alex stepped forward and handed me a pack of matches. I opened it and there was nothing in there. I glared at him.

“Sorry…” He said, apologetically.

Juliet then left her trance, and brought out a sphere that looked like a bomb. She lit it with her fingers, and it immediately lit up. She saw that I was feeling rather uncomfortable, so she reassured me that it was just a light.

She stepped into the cave with her light, and it all lit up. The ceiling was just a little bit bumpy, no stalactites or anything of the sort. I followed her in, and so did Alex. The others followed from a distance. I don’t know what compelled me to believe Juliet, I just trusted her.

We were about ten minutes in, Juliet in the lead, then me, then Alex, then a gap, then Tommy and Terra were at the back. Suddenly, the cave started to rumble; an earthquake was occurring! The ceiling started to drop rocks, smaller, then bigger and bigger. It started piling between Alex and Tommy, until Tommy and Terra were out of sight. The rocks piled all the way to the ceiling, so it was impossible for Tommy and Terra to get through. Juliet pulled out an explosive and put it next to the rocks, and set it off. None of the rocks budged. I didn’t even bother trying; I would just scratch up my katana.

Behind the wall of rocks, I could hear water splashing; Tommy must have used his flood spell, and apparently, it wasn’t working.

“ARE YOU GUYS ALL RIGHT?” I yelled through the wall.

“YEAH, BUT WE’RE STUCK BACK HERE NOW,” Tommy responded.

“I think we should keep going,” said Alex.

“And just leave them back there?” I asked.

“What else are we supposed to do?” He said.

“I agree with Alex…” Said Juliet.

“Okay, then…” I complied. “TOMMY! TERRA! WE’RE GONNA HAVE TO LEAVE YOU GUYS! JUST GO BACK OUTSIDE AND WAIT FOR US!”

“OKAY!” I’m not sure who responded, but I heard footsteps running back out.

We continued walking deeper into the cave.

About ten minutes later, we hit a dead end.

“What do we do now?” I asked Juliet.

“It’s behind this wall…” She answered.

“Look, there!” Said Alex, and pointed at the bottom of the wall.

There was a narrow opening there, only accessible on all fours. So I got on my hands and knees and crawled through, then Alex, then Juliet, to avoid perversion. About three minutes in, my back started to kill me, when I saw a bright light up ahead. Juliet turned off her lamp and put it back in her bag, and we got out about after another minute of crawling.

I got up, stretched, cracked a few bones, and felt great afterward. The room was a dim orange, which was nice. The light was coming from the sides of the room, where lamps were set up. The floor was a white tile, and the ceiling was still a cave ceiling, all bumpy and stuff.

I turned to Juliet, who was gaping at something, turned to see what it was, and started gaping too. There they were, the Cronus Claws, resting on a small wooden pedestal. They were a bright gold, with a slightly curved blade that was shining from the sharpness. She was very mesmerized.

Juliet began to step forward to grab the claws, when Alex grabbed her by the arm and looked around alarmingly.

“There’s someone else here…” He said, quietly. “Don’t take those claws. Something bad is going to happen.”

I started to think that I can’t trust this guy. Maybe he’s just trying to hold us back while Erebus went on and got all the weapons himself.

My thoughts were wrong. Behind the pedestal was a large wooden table propped up on its side. From behind the table emerged a badly disfigured man, who somewhat resembled a sort of dragon. He walked over to the claws, and put them on. Juliet looked on in horror. Maybe she was seeing something that I wasn’t able to see? I looked over to Alex, who had the same expression as Juliet.

I then took a closer look at him, and achieved the same expression. There was something coming out of his back. It was… the head of a hydra. It’s neck extended from his upper spine, and it seemed to have a mind of its own, as it moved about freely around the man’s head. Juliet and Alex started stepping backwards, and I went along with them. The hydra-man turned to us, and smiled, showing a mouth full of sharp dragon teeth.

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Will be up tomorrow. Sorry, had much to do today.

Terra’s Point of View

About an hour after Juliet and I left Brian and Tommy, I started to get a strong sense of it. It was in this direction. I think it’s too late to go get the others, though.

We just kept going, Juliet not saying anything, so it was rather awkward between us. The trees kept getting redder and redder, until eventually, they were the same color as the trees in the dream I had.

I stopped, as did Juliet. We looked around for a second, not following the path. I felt something pulling me towards the right. I looked over, not seeing much, but followed my instinct. Juliet followed me without a word.

Eventually, we came into a clearing with nothing in sight. The only noticeable thing was some muffled grass, as if someone had been in a hurry around here and trampled it. Before I could say something about it, Juliet spoke for the first time during this whole walk.

“I think it’s this way…”

She led me through the left side of the clearing and into the shrubbery again. Then, we came upon another clearing with a milky white marble pedestal with a piece of paper on it. The map.

“That sure was easy,” I mumbled. I stepped forward to get it, but Juliet grabbed my arm.

“Someone’s here,” she whispered.

And I did sense someone in here… I reached for my diamond dagger as Juliet reached for a couple of her explosives.

Then, a man appeared out of the trees on the opposite side of us. His entire face was covered by a mask, except for his eyes, which had some kind of demonic look to them. He wore some kind of black robe. He was carrying a pair of chain-sickles that were as black as a starless night.

“Hello, ladies,” he spoke.

“Who are you?” I shouted back at him.

“My name is Erebus. I’m here for the map.”

“We were here first,” I responded. I was scared of him. He had a certain vibe that made me uncomfortable. Maybe it was his chain-sickles.

“It doesn’t matter. What does matter is who is alive afterward.

He grinned, which made me even more uncomfortable. Without thinking at all, I ran with the intense speed that the diamond dagger grants me, and flung myself at him, only to be blocked by an invisible wall. I crashed into it, hard, and fell onto my back, with pain all over my body.

Those chain-sickles… they must be… Hades’ Kusarigama. I knew I’ve seen them somewhere before… It creates some kind of barrier that shields you from attacks all around. Or was it only in front? I guess I’d better find out.

I got up, and dashed over to his rear, ready to plunge my dagger into his back, only to be blocked again. How are we supposed to beat this guy if we can’t attack him? I got up and ran to the other side of the clearing, with Juliet already there, preparing some bombs.

Then… I felt my mind go completely blank, and lost consciousness for a second. When I came back, dazed, I ran backwards, only to find that I lost my speed. Tommy must have used a nullification spell…

Juliet seemed to know this, as she started throwing explosives at Erebus, which didn’t bounce off, and exploded right in front of his chest. He yelled as he was flung back against the trees. I grabbed the map and Juliet and I started to run, but then I realized something. Erebus is almost useless without the power of his kusarigama. I ran back, and Juliet, confused for a second, followed me back.

Erebus was slowly making his way out of the bushes and runs at us with his sickles in front of him, angrily. Juliet tosses another explosive at his feet, which went off immediately, making him tumble over his own feet. Unfortunately, some of the sparks from the explosion got onto the map, burning some of it. I ran over to it as fast as I could, and started smacking it with my hands until it went out. I then grabbed the map and put it in my pocket as Erebus was getting back up, a few yards away from me.

I grabbed a shuriken and tossed it at him, only to get it blocked by his sickles. Another explosive flew at him, and he knocked it back as if his sickle was a bat and the bomb was a baseball, and it went flying up, and exploded in the air. He ran at me now, and Juliet started pelting him with explosives, as I was throwing my shurikens and running backwards, and he dodged and/or hit every single one of them. We were running in circles around the clearing, and he was gaining on me, somehow. I stopped throwing shurikens, and found that it greatly improved my speed.

Juliet jumped up onto a tree(which I really wouldn’t expect her to do), took out an extra large explosive, about the size of a baseball, lit it, waited for the right moment, and threw it with great precision at Erebus’ feet, who was too concentrated on catching me. He tripped on it, and his feet acted as a catapult and launched it up into the air, and exploded. He fell face first onto the ground. I stopped running, and Juliet got down from the tree, and we ran over to him before he could get up.

I took my dagger and was about to plunge it into his back, when I heard someone behind me. I turned to look, and so did Juliet.

“Terra!” It sounded like Brian.

I turned around, and sure enough, Brian and some kid wearing sunglasses that I’d never seen before were running towards us. I turned back to Erebus, who was now gone. I didn’t see him anywhere; no footprints, no trampled grass, nothing. Juliet looked confused, as he was right in front of her.

“Was that Erebus?” Asked Brian.

“Yeah,” I said. “How did you know it was him?”

“Long story,” he responded.

“Who is this?” I asked, motioning towards the kid wearing sunglasses. “And where’s Tommy?”

“My name’s Alex,” he said.

Brian pulled me aside as Juliet and Alex looked around at each other, awkwardly.

“He used to be Erebus’s apprentice. He’s a very skilled dual blader.” Brian told me. “Tommy was busy casting a nullification spell. We thought you guys were in danger.”

“What?!” I was shocked. “How can you trust him??”

Brian sighed, and said, “just trust me. I know he’ll be helpful. Don’t worry.”

How could I not worry? This kid was trained to be a killer.

Brian seemed to notice my insecurity, so he spoke again.

“Look. If he does anything provoking, let me know, and we’ll all take care of him. Okay? Especially Tommy. He’s willing to kill him anytime.”

I was still rather concerned, but I figured it was fine. As long as I get my Hermes’ Dagger.

We went back to the others, who were still awkwardly standing around.

“Did you guys find anything besides Alex?” I asked.

“We found this piece of the map… looks like you guys got the one on the pedestal.” Brian said.

“Wait, the map is split into pieces??” I was getting distressed with all this collecting.

“No… this piece of the map was just teared off of that one.” Brian said. “Let me see it?”

I showed him, and he took it. He also took the piece of map from Alex and put it on the corner of the larger piece, and they magically fused together, showing no sign of a tear. The map actually showed the entire North American continent. I was never able to actually take a closer look at it. There were a few burn smudges on it, which blocked off a few location names, and Greenland was almost completely gone. There were a several spots on the map with red dots on them, about ten.

“Those must be the locations of the Deity Arms,” I said, and pointed.

“Yeah, I think they are,” said Brian.

“I think we should go to that one first,” I said, and pointed to one that was more or less near Calgary, which was the closest to Vancouver.

“I guess we should,” I said.

Tommy joined us, looking very tired and limping, most likely due to the energy loss from the nullification spell. “Glad to see you guys are still up. Did my spell help you?”

“It sure did,” I answered.

“What’d I miss?” He asked.

We filled him in, and started to Calgary.

Our quest to find the Deity Arms has begun.

As we finally got outside of the castle, I went to the shade of a tree and just collapsed. So did the others. Soon enough, I fell asleep. I dreamt of the Daimyo.

Brian… There exists a map that allows one to view the location of the Deity Arms… You must lead your clan to that map.

I then saw a quick flash of the map. It was resting on a marble pedestal. It is somewhere in the forest… Not sure if it’s this forest or another one. The trees around it were an odd… red color…

“Brian? Brian!”

I was woken up by Tommy, who sounded rather urgent. Juliet and Terra were still taking a snooze.

“Huh?… What? What’s going on?”

“I just had a dream about the Daimyo. He told me that there is this map that tells you where the Deity Arms are! We have to go find it!”

“The Daimyo? He visited me in my dream too…”

“What’d he tell you?”

“He told me the same thing he told you… and I saw where it was. It’s somewhere in a forest, resting on a pedestal. A marble pedestal.”

“What forest?”

“I have no idea… I just saw trees all around it.”

“Hmm…”

Terra then woke with a gasp, and looked around, confused.

“What’s wrong, Terra? Did you have a dream about the Daimyo?” I asked.

“Yeah… How’d you know?”

“Tommy and I dreamt of him too. He showed us where the map was. It was in a forest with red trees…”

“And resting on a pedestal,” added Tommy.

“Yeah… I dreamt of that too.” She said. “Fortunately for you guys, I know just where it is. It’s on the other side of Vancouver.”

“Really? That’s great!” I shouted, waking Juliet up.

She glared at me, mentioned the dream with the Daimyo, and we went through the whole scenario again. Once everyone was filled in, we decided to start walking to Vancouver.

We didn’t actually go into Vancouver, we went around it. You see, walking into the biggest city in Canada isn’t such a great idea when you’ve got katanas, shurikens, and explosives.

So we went around. We reached the clearing for the entrance of the forest, and Terra was right, the trees were slightly red.

We walked in, and in we went, and the trees got redder and redder. It was easy, as there was a path in the forest. But then, we hit a split. Terra had no idea where to go from there, so we used the best idea we had. We split.

Tommy and I went right, Juliet and Terra went left.

We just followed the path all the way down, and it took about an entire hour to reach a dead end. This dead end stopped at this huge, steep mountain-like thing. I looked up, and noticed that it wasn’t very tall, just slightly taller than an average tree, but still very steep.

“Well? Should we go up?” Asked Tommy.

“I guess…” I said.

So we climbed one of the trees closest to the mountain and jumped onto the ledge, and everything was barren afterwards. No trees, no mountains, nothing in sight.

“Should we actually even try to look for it in a place like this?” Asked Tommy. I was wondering the same thing.

“Might as well…” I answered. “There’s nothing much we can do, can we?”

“I suppose not.”

We ran along the barren wasteland, looking for any changes in the landscape, and there was nothing at all.

We decided to go back, when Tommy caught a glimpse of something.

“What’s that?” He yelled. He pointed off to the right, and I saw a tiny piece of paper laying there.

I walked over to it, and right as I was about to kneel down to pick it up, a gust of wind blew it away. I ran after it, but the gust was too strong for me, and I eventually stopped trying. Then, it was caught by a certain someone, who was all too familiar. The wayfarers were all I needed to see. It was Alex, with his blades in one hand and the piece of paper in the other.

“Hi, Brian,” he said. “And Tommy.”

“You…” I was dumbfounded. What was he doing here?

“What the hell are you doing here, Alex?” Asked Tommy, as if he read my mind.

“Oh, nothing,” he answered. “I’ll be going now. Erebus is waiting for me.”

“Just wait a second, Alex,” I said. “You aren’t doing anything suspicious… are you?”

“Of course not, why would you think that?”

“Because you’re taking that piece of paper with you in such a nonchalant way. That’s not very normal. I have a feeling that that piece of paper is important.”

“It’s none of your business. Now, I’m gonna go. Bye.”

He put the piece of paper in his pocket and started to walk away, back towards the forest.

Tommy jumped in and grabbed his arm, and as if some kind of instant reflex, put a blade in each hand and jumped back, ready to fight.

“Look, Alex… We’re in a rush, so we don’t really have time to fight. So just tell me what that piece of paper is for, and we’ll let you go,” Tommy tried to cooperate.

“Fine. It’s a map to the locations of the Deity Arms. I doubt you guys know what those are, though. Now will you let me go?”

Tommy and I eyed each other, and I decided we couldn’t let him go.

“We need that map, too. There’s two of us against one of you. Hand it over,” I said.

“You guys are looking for the Deity Arms too?” Alex asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” I said.

Alex started to scratch at his head with his blade, which made me cringe.

“Let me follow you guys.”

“What?” His request was so stunning that I couldn’t even register it.

“I want to find the pair of Helios’ Blades. That’s the only reason I’m with Erebus. I figure that I have a better chance with you guys. After all, he just ditches me when the fight seems to be going the wrong way. I’m lucky to be alive.”

I looked at Tommy, who was inspecting Alex carefully.

The idea was rather exhilarating. It’s like a real ninja clan. Though I still dislike teamwork…

Tommy leaned over to me and started to whisper.

“I don’t think this is such a great idea,” he whispered. “He could be spying for Erebus.”

“Well then, let’s try a test then, shall we?” I whispered back.

Alex was looking rather uncomfortable, as if being judged whether or not he should be sentenced to death.

“What do you know about the map of Deity Arms?” I asked.

“Like I said, this piece of paper is a small bit of the actual map. The map has been split and separated, and the largest piece lies in the forest. Erebus went to go get it.”

“Then why are you here?” Inquired Tommy.

“Well… I had a vision from the Daimyo who told me to look beyond the forest, as it would prove to be worthwhile. Turns out it was. Erebus didn’t believe me, so he let me go off on my own.”

“Why did you want to join us instead of going with Erebus?” I asked.

“Because there’s more of you, and I know you guys are stronger than Erebus. You made him run away, and that doesn’t happen very often. I know you guys can find all the Deity Arms before Erebus can.”

I turned to look to Tommy, who shrugged, as if to say ‘your choice’. I motioned for him to come closer, and whispered to him. “You should strike. See if he fights back.”

“Okay.”

Tommy started breathing deeply, concentrating. I just stared at Alex.

Then, Tommy threw his scroll at Alex, holding one end, which immediately opened up and wrapped itself around Alex’s neck. Alex did not respond after one minute, nor even try to get it off of his neck.

“Why aren’t you retaliating?” I asked him. He couldn’t respond. He was turning blue.

Tommy released his grip, and the scroll fell off of Alex’s neck. Alex glared at him.

“If I would have retaliated, you guys wouldn’t trust me.”

This kid was smart.

“It’s fine if we let him tag along. Why not?” I whispered to Tommy.

“I guess…” Said Tommy.

“Okay, Alex. We’ve decided that it’s fine. You can follow us.”

“Really? Great!” Said Alex, excitedly.

Then… I had a sense of danger… not from Alex, but from the forest.

“I sense that something is happening in the forest… something bad.” I pointed in the direction from which I was getting the sense.

“That’s where Juliet and Terra went. They might be in trouble,” suggested Tommy.

“It must be Erebus!” Yelled Alex.

Anticipating danger, we ran off in the direction of the source of the sense, and not knowing if Terra and Juliet were all right…

There he was, the general. Not even a little bit intimidating. Plain white shirt, blue jeans, and flip flops. What the heck? The only slightly intimidating thing was his eyes… those eyes full of murder and hatred.

I almost laughed, but Tommy went all out. He started guffawing like a madman. The general just sat there and grinned at us. Tommy’s face was turning blue from laughing so hard, so I kicked him and he calmed down.

The general got up; he was also shorter than I expected. He was about my height. He walked up to me, held out his hand, and asked:

“What can I do for you?”

I ignored his hand, and was about to speak when Tommy answered first.

“We want to kill you.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because the Daimyo told us to.”

Now, the general started to laugh at Tommy, but got himself under control quickly. Tommy managed to keep a straight face throughout the entire time.

“You mean that ninja deity?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like you’re going to hell for disobeying your god.”

He walked back to his chair, opened up the seat, and reached inside. He pulled out a small dagger that made Terra gape with desire. It was the diamond dagger. It was very short, but looked incredibly sharp.

Terra slowly reached for something under her skirt, and just as slowly pulled out a shuriken. Tommy was busy forming a pentagram, and Juliet just stood there shuffling her feet. I drew my katana and prepared some lightning.

The next thing I knew, the general was gone and Tommy was on the floor, wriggling with pain. Juliet helped him up, and Terra and I were back to back, looking for the general. I heard a rush of wind next to me; the general. I managed to block the dagger going for my spleen with my katana, which was now fully charged. Terra jumped around, and threw her shuriken, but the general was gone again, and the star hit the wall perfectly.

She ran over to get it, but right as she got there, the general appeared and she froze with intimidation. He plucked the shuriken out of the wall, and put it in his pocket. He noticed that she kept eying his dagger, and chuckled to himself.

“Oh… you want my dagger, huh?”

Terra didn’t respond in any way; she didn’t know what to do or say. The general had the potential to kill her right there. She was about to run when she was knocked to her feet, along with the general. They both got back up, and the general immediately his head to look at Tommy, who was readying another gust of wind. Then the general was behind him, and was about to plunge his dagger into Tommy’s back when Juliet planted an explosive on his back and was about to slash his head off with her claw when he decided to appear in front of me. I somewhat expected it, so I struck him, a bit hastily but surely, and he went sprawling onto the floor towards his chair. The explosive activated, and the chair was blown to pieces, but the general had disappeared. Tommy ran for the door so he could ready his nullification spell to get rid of the general’s insane speed, but he found that it was locked. He shot a bolt of lightning at it, but the jewels on the door didn’t budge.

We all looked around, carefully, to make sure he wasn’t behind any of us, when Terra screamed. I turned over to her, and the general was in the air, ready to drive his dagger into her head, when Tommy shot another bolt of lightning at him in mid-air. The general was flung against the wall, but right as he was about to hit it, he appeared above Juliet, who held out her claw and braced herself, but the general was hit in the side by three of Terra’s shurikens, and I took this chance to run up and strike.

Right as I brought my blade down on his bloody chest, he was in front of Tommy, who had been preparing his nullification spell, and Juliet ran in to sink her claw into his body, but it was too late. Tommy was unable to run because of the intense concentration needed, and the general thrust his elbow into Tommy’s chest, which destroyed the spell.

As Tommy was trying to recover his breath, the general disappeared. As I looked around, while Juliet was helping Tommy, I heard something up above, and glanced up. The general was up on the chandelier. He was still holding Terra’s shurikens which he had plucked out. He threw them at the unsuspecting Juliet, but Terra and I jumped in. I managed to block two of them with my katana, which had lost its electricity, and Terra took care of the other two with her dagger.

Juliet dragged Tommy over to the corner, where she stood in front of him, so he could cast his nullification. He was taking very deep breaths and his eyes were closed. Meanwhile, the general was busy with me and Terra, Terra with her dagger in one hand and a shuriken in the other and me with my flaming katana.

Then he was gone again, which was really pissing me off. I looked up at the chandelier, and sure enough, he was there. I was starting to get some kind of sense of his location…

He jumped down to strike at Juliet with his dagger, who blocked it with one of her claws, and plunged her other claw into his stomach, which did not go very deep at all. She then headbutted him, which seemed to hurt her more than it did to him. He had no reaction to the claw that was ripping away at his intestines, or even the headbutt. He just used his other hand to start jabbing away at her, with swift punches all over her body. She couldn’t seem to get her claw out of his stomach, nor could she stop blocking the dagger.

Then, Tommy opened his eyes and everything went blank. A second later, everything came back, and the general was on the ground. Juliet’s claw was drenched in blood, and her forehead was bleeding a little bit.

The general stirred a little bit, and pulled himself onto his knee. His white shirt was now a dark red. Terra and I closed in on him, and watched him try to get up. He succeeded, and looked around at us. He tried to do his little dash, but only succeeded in falling back down.

“What… happened?”

“I used a nullification spell. That dagger of yours is useless now,” Tommy answered.

“No… This dagger cannot be useless… it is my entire life…”

“Looks like I’m taking your life from you, then,” said Terra. She reached down and took the dagger.

“Your time’s up, general,” I said. I plunged my katana into his back and felt… nothing. I didn’t feel any energy in his body, nor any flowing into mine. Then I remembered that Tommy was still using his nullification spell.

“Can you turn off the nullify, Tommy? I’m trying to take his energy.” He did, and I felt weight on me again.

I tried again, and still nothing. It’s like everything he ever had was in the dagger. I looked over at Terra, who was looking at it lovingly. We began to walk back out.

“One down, one to go,” she says.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“This diamond dagger is the vessel of Hermes’ Dagger.”

“What?” I was confused.

“You see,” she started to explain. “Long ago, thirteen Deities created the world as we know it. When they ascended to the heavens, they left their weapons behind, knowing they would no longer need them. They are known as the thirteen Deity Arms. These weapons are the strongest creations in the universe. You may not realize it, but that weapon you’re holding right now is one of them. The Ares’ Katana.”

“Ares’ Katana? I don’t think so. This is the Clause Katana.”

“Clause Katana? Nope, never heard of it. The Ares Katana has the ability to absorb the souls of those whom it has slain. It was named after Ares because he was the god of bloodlust.”

“The Clause Katana does that too… I believe you’re mistaken.”

“No, I’m not. Now I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“The katana was stolen by some guy named Lior or something… He goes under many names. Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Clause. He must have stolen it and given it his name.”

I never realized I was holding a weapon of such value… It was incredible to find out.

“So what did you say about that diamond dagger of yours?” I asked.

“The diamond dagger, as I said, is the vessel of the Hermes’ Dagger, another one of the Deity Arms. The Hermes’ Dagger is spiritual, and when infused with the diamond dagger, it has the ability to amplify one’s physical and mental capacities. It was split in half when Hermes decided that he only wanted deserving people to use it. He made one part of it the diamond dagger, and the non-physical part is in a shrine, located somewhere that I don’t know. That’s why the general had such great speed.”

“Do you know of any other kinds of Deity Arms? Like, one for Spell Shinobis to use?”

“Yes, actually. The Rhea Scroll. I’m not sure of what it does or where it is located yet, but I am completely sure it is a Deity Arm. As for Juliet, there is a pair of claws known as Cronus Claws. They allow the bearer to be able to use instant regeneration, which includes being able to recover from any kind of damage that may be done to the body, from minor cuts to a severed arm. Not only that, but gives them a slight increase in agility. I’m not sure where that one is, either. There is a map, however… But that’s just as rare as the actual weapons.”

I could see the desire in Tommy’s face. He looked really excited about all of this. Looks like I’m stuck hunting for Deity Arms, now. Might as well. Maybe I’ll collect a few useful souls along the way.

One chapter every weekday, cliffhanger on Friday, none over the weekend. Just for you, Michael.

As I walked on, I heard an occasional explosion from the other side of the castle, which I figured must have been Juliet blowing stuff up. You really wouldn’t expect a gal like her to be doing that sort of thing.

I kept on walking… and I eventually came to a three-way fork. Then, I got another one of those senses…

Take the middle path…

You can’t ignore a ninja’s intuition, so I went straight on ahead.

I saw a door up ahead, so I sprinted forward, and I came upon a small, regular sized door. I opened it, and was almost blinded by a shuriken that flew in my direction, barely missing me and hitting the side of the door.

I stood there, paralyzed, staring at the shuriken that could have ended me. I then managed to turn my head around, and look at my attacker. She looked… so familiar. And then…

Listen, I know your pride is broken, but I’ll make you a deal. You have a week. One week to go train your Clause Katana, and then come back here and we’ll fight again.

It was her… the elf. Except that instead of wearing her regular elf costume and hat, she was wearing a short dress that resembled a flowing kimono that only went down to her thighs, like a skirt. She was wearing a belt made of cloth that held a dagger. There was some sort of small case that was poking out of her skirt, but I really don’t know what it really was. At her feet lay an dozens of unconscious men, most likely guards. They were bleeding profusely. The room was rather large, with two more hallways opening up on the left and right walls.

“I thought I finished you!” I yelled at her.

“What?” She asked.

“It’s me, the ninja who destroyed you with the Clause Katana!”

“Clause Katana?…” She looked at my blade.

“Well, looks like it’s time to finish you for sure this time…” And I drew my katana.

I started to generate lightning as I ran after her, and she reached for her dagger. I swung the blade down on her… and she was gone? I quickly turned around, and there she was, throwing a dart at me. I brought up the blade to block it, but it somehow curved and hit me in the left shoulder. It didn’t go very deep, but it still hurt quite a bit. I bit back a yell, and yanked the dart out. While doing this, I looked up and she was gone again, and as I was about to turn around, she grabbed my neck in a choke-hold and I could feel the coolness of her dagger against my skin. I was about to elbow her in the stomach when I heard Juliet speak in her quiet voice.

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”

I turned my head slightly, and I could see Juliet holding a set of claws against the Elf’s head. The Elf let go of me and ran for the left hallway. She was…so agile.

“Are you okay, Brian?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah… I’m fine… What are you guys doing here?”

“Juliet said she sensed that what we’re searching for is somewhere around here.”

“I told you so,” I gloated.

“The target kept moving…” Juliet murmured. “It was over in the right side of the castle when we got to the fork.”

“Good thing we got here in time, too. Terra would have killed you if she had the chance,” said Tommy.

“Who?” I asked.

“You don’t know who Terra is? She’s one of the most famous thieves in Vancouver. Everyone’s heard of her.”

“I haven’t…”

“Well, she’s probably here just to steal some gold from -“

“Wait, you guys. I think Terra is who the Daimyo wanted us to meet,” said Juliet. “When I had my claw at her head, my tracking sense went insane…”

“Why would the Daimyo want us to meet a thief?” I wondered aloud.

“We can’t deny the Daimyo,” said Tommy. “Let’s see what her part of the story is.”

Carefully, we walked over to the left hallway where Terra had gone.

We eventually started to hear men screaming, and we started to sprint forward. We came upon another door, and this time, I opened the door slowly and carefully. As soon as it was wide enough, I poked my head through to take a peek and saw bodies laying around. Then I saw Terra reaching into their pockets and taking their money and other valuable belongings. The room was identical to the other one, with two hallways on either side.

“She’s here,” I whispered to the others. “And she killed a bunch of guards.”

Tommy opened the door all the way and stepped through.

“Terra!” He yelled at her.

Terra turned around, and put her hand on her dagger, which was on her belt.

“Look, Terra,” Tommy said calmly. “We got a message from the Daimyo telling us to look for you. Did you by any chance get anything from him, too?”

“Yeah, I did. He just told me that during one of my burglary rounds, I would run into a small group of ninjas. You guys don’t look like ninjas, though. That’s why I tried to kill your friend over there.” She pointed at me.

“Well, we are the group of ninjas that the Daimyo was talking about. I’m Tommy, this is Juliet, and that’s Brian. We are just following the orders of the Daimyo. He seems to be preparing us for something big.”

“Okay,” was her response. “So, now what?”

At that moment, my mind went completely blank, and I was numb to everything around me. I could see the Daimyo clearly in front of me, but the others just kept talking as if they couldn’t see him. They couldn’t see him…

Brian… You and your clan must defeat the general of the castle… You should know what to do after that.

Clan? What clan? All I see is my mentor, his friend, and a thief. I don’t see a clan.

“Brian? Brian?” Tommy was shaking my shoulder.

I blinked a few times, and came back to reality.

“Yeah…?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… Just got a message from the Daimyo. Said we have to kill the general or something…”

Terra cringed.

“Are you serious? Does he really expect us to kill the general? What an insane guy the Daimyo is…”

“What?” Asked Tommy. “What’s so bad about the general?”

“Well… To name one thing, he single-handedly took on the entire law enforcement group of Vancouver when they tried to get him to take down his castle due to property violations. Some of them decided to become his guards just to keep their lives.”

“Wait, what are you doing here anyway, Terra?” I asked.

“I’m here because of the diamond dagger.”

“The diamond dagger?” I inquired.

“Yes. The diamond dagger is the strongest dagger known to any being, except for of course, Hermes’ Dagger. I’ve seen the general holding it in some of the few pictures of him. I want it.”

“Why would you want it if you’re petrified of the general?” Tommy asked.

“The Daimyo told me that the group of ninjas that I met would help me with my goal of obtaining the diamond dagger.”

“Well, if the Daimyo said we would help you, then I guess we have to.” I said.

“Do you have anything that might belong to him, so I can track him down?” Juliet asked for the first time in the entire conversation.

Terra shook her head. “Nope. I’ve never even seen him in person. I always get lost.”

“What about the guards?” I suggested. “One of them must have made contact with him.”

Juliet walked over to the dead guards and closed her eyes. “I think… that the general is in the right corridor.”

“We’re gonna have to trust your thoughts, then. It’s our best bet,” said Tommy.

The four of us headed down the right hallway, Juliet in front, then Tom, then Terra, with me at the tail. We came upon a few forks, which Juliet considered with deep thought. We finally came upon a large double-door, covered in diamonds and rubies and whatnot, with a pearl handle. Terra went up to the door, took her dagger, and started to pry a few of the diamonds off and hide them in a camouflaging pocket in her kimono top.

“Well… Looks like it’s time…” I said. I put my hand on the bright white handle, and pushed. It didn’t budge.

“No, Brian. It says pull. See?” Tommy pointed to the word PULL right above the handle. I didn’t see that.

I PULLED the door this time, and in we went. There, sitting like a king on a throne, was the General.

I did my best to keep the unconscious Tommy under comfort. I built a small bed for him made of wood and leaves. As I lay there, waking for him to come to, I fell asleep and dreamt. Dreamt of the Daimyo. When the Daimyo appears in your dreams, that means that he wants you to do something. So, I paid extra careful attention in this dream.

Brian… You can’t let Erebus escape. He is planning something vicious… You will have a visitor when your companion wakes up. Treat this visitor with respect, as she will be of great help on your journey.

I woke up. She? A woman is going to help me defeat Erebus and Alex? Yeah, right. Tommy murmured something I didn’t understand, and stirred around in his sleep. He opened his eyes, and got up in a jolt. I patted his back, slowly.

“What exactly did you do there?” I asked.

“Oh… the reason I left was because I was casting a nullification spell.”

“A nullification spell?”

“Yeah, it nullifies all magical abilities over a certain range. That’s why Erebus left. His Kusarigama are useless without the power to reflect. You must have also felt some sort of push in your head, didn’t you?”

I remembered when I was falling out of the tree that my mind went blank for a quick second.

“Yeah…”

“Wait, how’d I get into this bed?”

“I built it for you,” I said, and flashed a smile.

“Thanks,” he replied, and grinned back.

He quickly jumped out of the bed and prepared his scroll, which he didn’t let go of once during his nap.

“Someone’s coming,” he said.

Indeed someone was coming, just like the Daimyo said so. I heard some bushes being moved around and soon enough, before us stood a young girl carrying a bag. She wore glasses, had long, black hair that hung down to her shoulders, and eyes as chinky as Tommy’s. She wore a long sleeve jacket that was zipped up, as if she were concealing something. The sleeves of her jacket were extra long, and covered up her hands, which seemed to have some sort of glove on them. Her fingers were visible, and there were clearly rings on her index and middle fingers of both hands. She was wearing shorts, and pink Chucks. She didn’t speak at all, she just looked around shyly.

I stepped forward and offered her my hand.

“Hi, I’m Brian. The Daimyo told me to expect you.”

She looked down and shuffled her feet on the ground, uncomfortably. Maybe she’s just a lost girl.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Tommy stepped forward and inspected her closely.

“Juliet?” He asked.

“Tommy?” She finally spoke. “Is that you?”

“Yeah!” He said, “it’s been so long!”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “You know each other?”

“Yeah,” Tommy answered. “We were partners in training camp. Good times.”

“They sure were,” said Juliet dreamily.

“Juliet, this is Brian.”

She finally looked up and made eye contact with me, and I offered her my hand again. She took it this time. I looked down at her hand, which had a metal claw tip on it that reflected the sunlight and shone light in my eyes. I squinted, and Juliet started giggling. I noticed that the rings she was wearing were made of flint.

I then went to go sit down, as it seemed as if Tommy and Juliet wanted to catch up on old times.

“Remember when you dared me to detonate a bomb in the Sensei’s desk?” Asked Juliet, laughing.

“Yeah, we both got in trouble for that one!” Tommy started cracking up too.

They went on and on telling their little stories and I eventually fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of a nearby explosion, and jumped up in a hurry with my katana drawn. Tommy and Juliet then came out of a nearby shrub, laughing it up.

“What’s so funny?” I demanded.

“Your reaction to Juliet’s bomb! Haha!” Tommy responded.

“Bombs?… You’re a Monomi?” I asked Juliet. She nodded. A Monomi is a type of ninja that has complete mastery of explosives and has a very keen sense of tracking, sort of like a sixth sense.

“Best one I know,” added Tommy, and Juliet blushed.

“Okay… well… The Daimyo told me that we would be needing you for something. Do you know what that something is?” I asked.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot. The Daimyo came to me in a dream. He said that I was near a long-lost friend. I found a strand of his jacket in a bush and tracked him down here. The Daimyo said that we have to go find something that has to do with this.” She held up a small pendant.

“Do we have to find the owner of it, or what?” I asked.

“I guess,” was her response.

“So, you can track?” I asked her.

“I guess,” again. It’s starting to annoy me.

“Then let’s get started,” I suggested, expecting another ‘I guess’, but she just started off north without a word. Tommy went after her, and so did I.

After an hour or so of tiresome walking without a word from either of them, we came upon a huge castle with a locked wooden door, slightly higher than my height.

“What’s a castle doing in outskirts of Vancouver?” I asked.

“This is Canada, Brian.” Tommy answered.

“This is the place,” whispered Juliet.

“Well, how are we supposed to get in?” I asked, and then remembered.

Juliet sighed, annoyed, and walked up to the door. She took out a fist sized bomb from her bag and quickly slid her fingers together. The sliding rings generated a spark, which lit the wick that was on the bomb. So that’s what the flint rings were for. Tommy dragged me behind a large boulder a few meters away, and Juliet soon joined us.  Tommy clapped his hands over his ears as Juliet ran behind the boulder, and there was a huge, deafening BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM as pieces of wood went flying all over the place. 

I lost the hearing in both of my ears for about half a minute, and when it came back, I realized that Tommy had been yelling at me to go with them. I got up and ran after them. We then slowly approached the entrance together.

As we got in, I noticed that the walls weren’t made of the typical stone that you see in medieval movies. They were made of plaster, like any regular house. There weren’t any windows at all. The sun was being covered by clouds all day, but somehow, it was very bright in that narrow hallway. The ground was carpeted with a dark black.

We ventured down the hall carefully and quietly, and eventually came upon a split in the road. Then…

I sensed something… a kind of magnet that pulled me towards the left path.

“It’s this way,” said Juliet, and she started walking down the right route, with Tommy following her.

“No…” I said. “I think it’s this way.”

“Brian… We don’t have time for this,” said Tommy. “Juliet is an expert tracker. We have to find what the Daimyo told us to find.”

“But… I feel something beckoning to me from the left path… Trust me on this, guys.”

Tommy sighed, and Juliet just shuffled her feet.

“Fine,” he said, “you go left, and we’ll go right. I doubt you’ll find anything, though.”

They both headed right, and I was left all by my lonesome self. For now.

Tommy is a pretty decent guy. He has patience for my noob-ness, which is always a good quality to have. I wanted to learn so much from him.

“So when can I learn how to read minds?”

“Oh…That. I was lying. I can’t really read minds. I just said that to make you fight recklessly.”

“Oh… That’s smart…But I’m kinda disappointed. I wish I could predict my opponent’s moves. How did you manage to guess what I was going to do?”

“I trained with many ninjas before, and trust me, they all do the same things, over and over again.”

“Really? I thought I was unique.”

“Eh…”

“Well, what spells are you able to cast?”

“So many… Stop asking so many questions…”

“Oh. All right, then.”

We continued with my lesson in casting water spells.

Just as he was teaching me how to summon the pentagram, we heard rustling come in from the nearby trees. I figured that it was just another woodland creature, so I ignored it. However, out of the bushes emerged someone too familiar. He was wearing a black overall suit, with a mask over his nose and mouth. But his eyes… I never forgot his eyes… The sight of the endless blackness in his pupils just… ugh. It was… him.

Behind him emerged a kid in his late teens, obviously a rookie. He was wearing a black and white flannel shirt with black jeans and “Chucks” like mine. He had a short knuckle blade in each hand. His hair was rather wacky in the front, and he was hiding his eyes behind a pair of Wayfarer sunglasses.

My old enemy spoke first, staring into my eyes.

“Brian.”

I just stood there, not knowing what to say, when Tommy stepped in and demanded,

“Who the hell are you?”

The teenager spoke next.

“His name is Erebus.”

Tommy slid over to me and whispered in my ear.

“Dude, do you know these guys?”

Instead of answering Tommy, I stepped forward and offered Erebus my hand.

“Long time no see,” I said.

He took it, and returned a devilish grin. His grin faded away into a face of disgust as he eyed the Clause Katana tucked underneath my belt. His eyes widened, and he backed off slowly. He whispered something in the kid’s ear, and the kid went running off. Tommy seemed to have gone off somewhere, too.

“I see you’ve achieved your lifetime goal of getting your Clause Katana, Brian. Now what do you plan on doing with your life?”

“Actually, my next goal is one you might not be too happy about. I want to kill you.”

His frown turned back into a grin as he started to tell me what I knew but didn’t want to be reminded of.

“You know that I have beaten you too many times before, isn’t that correct?”

That was true. I didn’t say so.

I heard some movement in the bushes behind Erebus as the kid came back, carrying a pair of Kusarigama.

That’s what regular ones look like. Erebus’s Kusarigama were pure black, and the chains were covered in spikes. They looked so similar to the mythical pair of Hades’ Kusarigama I’ve seen in a few books during my ninja training. I decided to ask…

“Are those… Hades’ Kusarigama?”

“Why yes they are.”

For some reason, I didn’t believe him.

“Prove it.”

“All right, but I won’t be the one paying for your tombstone.”

He ran at me with a sickle in each hand, while the kid stayed aside and watched. I drew my Clause Katana and prepared a flame. When he got within arm’s reach of me, he stopped.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Waiting.”

While he was taking his sweet time, I figured that now would be a good time to just finish this. I swung my fully charged Katana, and right as I was about to leave a dent in his skull, I was blocked by an invisible force, seeming to surround his body. It extinguished the flame in an instant. I jumped back, surprised, and Erebus was just staring at me. He then spoke.

“Alex. I think you can take him. Go ahead.”

The kid stepped forward and put on his blades.

“What are you doing?!” I said. I didn’t want to fight some rookie. I wanted to kill Erebus.

“If you can’t break the shield formed by the Kusarigama… Then I doubt you can even stand a chance against me. Besides, Alex needs some practice sparring. I believe he’s at about your level, if not better.”

I might as well… Erebus is just bluffing. There’s no way this kid can be better than me.

“Fine… Let’s see what you got.”

Alex stepped up to me, and took a brief bow. I did the same. He then charged at me with his blades in front of him, and I managed to block his attack with the katana. I started to generate lightning, and as I was doing so, he sneaked one of his blades out of my katana’s grip and sliced at my leg, which caused me to collapse.

I fell on one knee, and he made an attempt to cut me some more, but I managed to jump back, finish the generation, and shoot him with a streak of lightning. He blocked it with one of his blades, and it was reflected back at me. With the lightning being so fast and the reflection unpredicted, I wasn’t able to protect myself as it hit me in the stomach and sent me flying back against a tree. As I hit the rough trunk of the tree, I heard some splitting as the wood began to break. Alex ran up to me again, and I barely managed to get up as he made another attempt to cut me.

I jumped up into the tree as he cut one of my arms, and sat on one of the high branches. He didn’t come up after me. He just stood there, watching me. In the distance, I saw Erebus watching us. And Tommy was still nowhere to be found. I then heard some more wood splitting, and the tree began to shake. I looked down to find that Alex was cutting away at the trunk of the tree with his blades. My knee was too weak to support a landing, so I had no choice but to stay in the tree and hope that I got a lucky land. He was taking quite a while, so I managed to carve some shurikens from the tree, but my weak arm really damaged my ability to throw with precision. He didn’t even flinch. He then took a step back, and the tree began to totter as it started falling slowly in the opposite direction of Alex.

I jumped out of the tree and braced myself, and felt a very strange force pushing down on me and my mind went blank for a quick second. As my mind came back, I found myself in the arms of Tommy, who looked very, very strange. Like he’d been doing some intense concentration. His hair was all messed up his eyes looked very tired. He ran off with his slick agility (Alex didn’t even bother chasing us) and put me down next to a nearby tree. He then turned around, opened his scroll, and took a deep breath. Alex looked on, interested, and Erebus was still watching, also interested. A rather large pentagram began to form at Tommy’s feet, and he raised his hands, palms up. A small ball of water formed, which then massively multiplied in size, becoming the size of a large wave. All this was happening right above his head, with no dripping. Alex, knowing what was about to happen, ran after Tommy, but a bit too late. Tommy dumped the entire wave onto Alex, and even more water streamed out of his hands, in massive amounts.

Alex panicked and screamed as he was swiftly washed away, and Erebus was nowhere to be found. Tommy continued to pour out the huge wave for about another minute, until Alex was out of sight. He then walked over to me, knelt down, and put his hands over my cuts. He took a deep breath and his hands began to glow as my wounds were sealed up. He then looked at me, grinned, and collapsed. I managed to catch him and put him down carefully onto a soft patch of the remaining dry grass.

So far, I’ve already met three people who are, I hate to admit, stronger than me. It looks like I have a lot more training to do.

I have just begun my quest to search for a Spell Shinobi mentor. However, I decided that instead of getting a mentor, I could just kill the Shinobi and absorb his powers with the Katana. That would probably take less time, and be the right thing to do. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. The Daimyo may compliment my efficiency. After all, they just cast elements. What’s a little bit of water and air going to do to me? The Daimyo did mention that there are very powerful ninjas out there, but what have I got to worry about? I’m the strongest.

Let me fill you in on my location. After leaving the North Pole, I decided to go back to Canada. Nice country, it is. I am living in the Canadian wilderness because I am apparently wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, better known as the FBI. I don’t really see why they would want me, though. My best guess would have to be that I killed people for not recycling, but that can’t be it. It has to be something more serious.

The reason I picked Canada is because I have heard of a sort of Ninja Hideout around the city of Vancouver (by the way, the Olympics are going great. Go Kim Yu-Na!). I must find this hideout, as there should be quite a few Spell Shinobis there.

Rustling… In the bushes. Must be a squirrel or something. I’d better go kill it before I get SQUAIDS. I walk up to the bush, and suddenly, it just bursts into flames, leaving nothing but a pile of leaf ashes. Confused, I jump to the top of a nearby tree to inspect my surroundings. Right as I begin to monitor what is around me, the tree also burst into flames, and I jumped off to avoid being burned. The tree was still on fire, that is, until a stream of water came out of nowhere and doused it. A figure approached from behind the dying tree. He was dressed in a blue sweater with blue jeans, and was holding something resembling a cylinder. He was wearing purple boot-like shoes. As he got closer, I noticed his brownish hair and chinky eyes. The cylinder was a scroll. He spoke first.

“Yo.”

Unfamiliar with this hip new lingo trend with the young people, I decided to just say hello.

“Hello.”

“What’s your name?”

How rude of him. He didn’t even say hello back. Should I tell him my name? Or not?…

“What’s your name?” I replied.

“Tommy. I think you’re a ninja. You must be a ninja. Are you a ninja?

How would this Tommy manage to figure out that I’m a ninja? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I bought (and by bought, I mean killed the clothing store owner and robbed my few items) regular civilian clothing to not seem so conspicuous. I got myself a pair of black jeans, a black shirt, and some black shoes known as “Chucks”. I wasn’t even wearing a mask. My Katana was tucked neatly under my brand new metal belt.

“How did you know that?”

He sighed, annoyed.

“I can read minds, fool.”

“Read minds?”

“Yeaaaaaaah, I’m a Spell Shinobi.”

I don’t like his attitude. Looks like I have another reason to kill him. My annoyance caused my eyebrows to narrow.

Without speaking, he opened his scroll, and began to mutter something. A light green pentagram lit up underneath him.

I lunged at him, knowing he was casting a spell, but just as I was about to reach him, I was hit by an invisible force. This force seemed to vibrate throughout the entire forest, as every tree and bush began to shake violently. Some bushes were ripped right out of the ground and sent flying back. I was fortunately flung back onto a sturdy tree, so I didn’t meet the same fate as those bushes. I hung onto the sturdy tree as Tommy continued to force those powerful gusts of wind my way. The pentagram disappeared, and I fell to the ground, gasping for breath. He walked over, and spoke.

“You shouldn’t even try.”

This guy…

Without thinking, I jumped up while drawing my katana and slashed at him, only to be blocked by a rather large rock. My katana hit the rock, and I just wasn’t able to break through. I began to generate flames, and as the fire started to surround my sword, Tommy  began muttering something I didn’t quite understand, while a blue pentagram formed. I jumped back, still working on the fire, and he finished speaking, he rose his palm to me and a sphere of water formed, and he threw it at me like a baseball pitcher. I ran to avoid it, but it curved, and it hit me anyway, extinguishing my katana. Not only that, but I was all soaked. I hate being soaked.

I began to shake myself dry, as I can’t fight when I’m being weighed down by water. At the same time, I started summoning lightning into my katana, when I heard some more of Tommy’s muttering. I looked over at him, and I was instantly frozen, except for my head. All I could do was look around. I looked down, and noticed that all the water that I shook off of myself was now made into snow. Tommy walked over, and began to speak.

“I know that you’re trying to find a Spell Shinobi who can teach you the ways of the elements. But… you suck. I don’t think you deserve to learn.”

“But… I’M BRIAN THE FREAKING NINJA… I have the Clause Katana.”

“I know you do, but that doesn’t mean anything. You’ve killed defenseless mortals who can’t even protect themselves from a punch. You’ve killed pussy vampires who only drink animal blood and sparkle in the sun. You’ve killed dogs with the ability to run slightly faster and have longer claws and fangs. You’ve killed drunken pirates who can’t tell whether or not you’re on their side. You’ve killed a penguin, a poor, defenseless penguin. Really, you don’t deserve this.”

Incredibly outraged at how this Shinobi speaks to me, I begin to produce another flame, and the ice on my arm began to melt. He started speaking again, and I managed to free my katana arm, and attempted a slash at the scroll, but only managed to cut his arm. His sleeve began to turn purple as the blood mixed with the blue cloth. He let out a yell and jumped back. Using the force of my one arm, I broke the rest of the ice off of myself, and tried to fight without thinking.

I lunged at him again, and he began to run. I ran after him, and he was surprisingly fast for a Spell Shinobi. While running, I ripped the bark off of a few trees and made a couple of sloppy shurikens. I threw them at him, and one of them hit his other arm and the other, his back. He began to bleed instantly. He began to stagger and slow down, and jumped into a huge pile of shrubbery. I jumped in after him, knowing I can’t let him get away. I began to lurk about quietly in the bush, and I heard a rustling behind me. I quickly turned around to a purple aura, and was hit by a bolt of lightning, right in the stomach. I was sent flying out of the bush, and he emerged, still with the devilish aura of his. His voice changed when he was casting spells, it sounded lower.

“Maybe I was wrong. Now, how about we stop killing each other? I’d like to make a deal with you.”

Knowing I couldn’t possibly beat him, I decided to accept.

“I’m not yet sure if you can in fact use these awesome powers of mine.”

“What should I do to make you fully convinced?”

“Well… Maybe you can go get me some Ruffles. Cheddar and Sour Cream.”

“…What?!”

“Yeah, I was just walking over the grocery store over in Vancouver, but then you showed up… and I can’t go anymore because I’m bleeding all over myself.”

I looked down at his clothes. They were soaked in blood.

“Fine. I’ll go get your chips.”

I left the forest and went over to the Gateway Grocery, and “paid” for a large bag of Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles.

I then went back to the place where I left Tommy, and he was nowhere to be found. I was then hit by a small sphere of water, which I knew had to be the kidding Tommy. I turned around, and there he was, with his cuts gone, forming another sphere of water.

“I want to learn how to do that.”

“Give me my Ruffles. I’ll teach you after.”

It’s been about two months since my last entry. Just to let you know, I did defeat the elf, and I did it quite well. She never stood a chance after I managed to absorb the elements of Flame and Lightning. My Katana grows stronger each and every day. The problem is, I can’t keep up with it.

Therefore, I have decided to follow the path of the Daimyo, the ninja lord. He will know what I should do in order to increase my mastery of the Katana. Unfortunately… The first mission that he has ordered me to accomplish involves a little something I’m not very good with…

TEAMWORK.

Apparently, I’m supposed to find someone who has complete mastery of the elements. In this case… I must find a

SPELL SHINOBI. (S-H-I-N-O-B-I)

Spell Shinobis are masters of the elements: water, fire, earth, air, void, and more. I must get the Shinobi to teach me the mastery of all of them. Afterward, I can go and take on my long-awaited goal… To defeat my nemesis, whose name I will not yet mention to increase the suspense.

I must now go find one of these Spell Shinobis.

Until next time~

Hey guys. As you can see, I’m going to continue BTN, but it might be a bit different as in the writing style. What am I changing? You’ll just have to find out. A clue may be in the title of the blog.

Check it out~

Also, I’m not going to post a blog everyday. That was just too much.

I just sat there in class… Trying to get through the day without falling asleep. The teacher kept rambling on and on about the Civil War between the North and the South, the Union and the Confederacy, slavery or no slavery. Thirty minutes later, I finally get out. I’m about to leave when my teacher asks to talk.

“Juan. You’ve failed nearly every single test since the beginning of the year. I might have to pull you out of this class and put you in a regular US History class.”

It was AP US History, the source of my nightmares. The material is too broad, the lectures are too boring, and the tests all have around eighty questions.

“Yeah… I’ve been busy with other classes, you see.”

“Well, if you want to stay in this class, you’re going to have to step it up a notch.”

He then gave me tips on how to improve my grade; a bunch of crap about something called studying. Whatever. The truth is, I’ve been getting these strange symptoms that don’t allow me to concentrate on my work. No, it’s not ADD, it’s something… paranormal. Superhuman. Let me give you an example. Whenever I touch an electrical appliance and concentrate some kind of energy(it’s just there, I can just feel it) into my fingertips, it turns on. It’s like I have some kind of electrical power in my body.

He then let me go, and the school was empty by then. I walked down the stairs to my locker to exchange books, ignoring the immense pains that the shocking constantly gave me. I heard something among the trees, and turned to look. There was nothing there. The leaves were shaking, but I figured it was just the wind.

I began walking away, and the parking lot seemed incredibly empty for this time of the day, and I usually see some students doing band practice. But there was no one there.

A little nervous, I took my phone out to call my mom to pick me up. It was dead; Dustin was playing games on it during first period. I concentrated the energy to the hand holding my phone, and it was instantly charged. I dialed my mom’s number, but the line seemed to be dead. Sighing, I started to walk downhill, unwillingly. I heard some more rustling in the trees, but ignored it.

Suddenly, a dagger came down right in front of me, on the pavement, and cracked it. Panicking, I looked around for anything that could have been the source of this dagger. I took off and ran under the Performing Arts Center, where I expected to be safe. I looked over to where the dagger was, and it was gone. I looked around some more, hoping to see whoever threw it. No one was seen. I did, however, notice a black piece of cloth hanging in one of the trees. It looked like a garb. A ninja garb. I read a news segment about a ninja killing over fifty people in Vancouver a few weeks ago, but I thought it was a hoax. Ninjas don’t exist… Or do they? There had been another news report about a ninja killing a thirteen year old boy by smashing him against a building, a few days ago. But that was in Vancouver, too… What if he’s come here to California?… I shook the thought out of my head. Why would a ninja come all the way to this little town just to kill me? Then again, the dagger was really suspicious…

I walked over to where the dagger made its mark, and there was a thin indent in the cement. As I was inspecting it, a man dressed in complete black came up behind me and grabbed me by the collar. He must be… a ninja?!

“What’s your name, boy?”

I struggled to get loose, not bothering to answer any questions. He shook me, and jabbed a flaming fist into my stomach, I retched, and managed to spit out:

“Juan…”

He dropped me, and I lay there, inspecting my burned stomach. I looked over at him; his fist wasn’t on fire any more. What?…

He tossed me a cell phone, a BlackBerry to be exact. I caught it, and he asked me to recharge it for him. I decided to show off and recharge it without a charger. I concentrated the energy into my hand again, and it turned on. The ninja grinned, walked up to me, and snatched it away from me.

“So it’s true…”

I was confused. What was true? I was afraid of asking him, because he might have been the same ninja who killed those people in Vancouver. It was at this moment when I was thinking that I noticed he had a sheath in his belt. In it was a blade with the handle wrapped in red. I saw it in a dream once… not too long ago.

It was called the Clause Katana. It allowed the beholder to absorb the souls and abilities of those who it has slain. It was useless without any souls, but after some time… the user would be unstoppable. Suddenly, I got this sudden urge. I must have that katana…

Something compelled me to lift my fingers and the energy in my body shot out of my fingers. It was… a lightning bolt. I’m surprised I’ve never tried pushing the energy out of my body. What I had just noticed is that I had knocked the ninja down onto his back. I inched up to him, and tried to put my hand on the sheath, but he grabbed my wrist and twisted, spinning my whole body against the wall of the PAC. Amazed with my ability to shoot lightning, I didn’t feel any pain. I ran up to the top of the PAC, and started shooting away. It was like a point and shoot video game. I started laughing with joy, and threw my head back. However, when I brought my head back down, the ninja was gone. I looked around, and he was right behind me. I was shocked, and held out my hand, ready to blast him, when he spoke;

“Look. I just want to make a deal.”

I decided it was fine, so I nodded, with my hand still up.

“I want to harness the power of lightning. If you let me kill you now, quickly and painlessly, I will attain it.”

What kind of deal was that?

“Why should I let you do that?”

“None of your business. If you don’t do it, however, I will have to kill you… slowly and painfully.”

I decided that he was just bluffing, and shot him with a lightning bolt, which knocked him off the roof of the PAC. I looked down after him, but he was gone. I turned around, and there he was again.

“You foolish boy. You’re going to die.”

No sh**, Sherlock, both ends of those deals involve me dying. What kind of entrepreneur is he? He drew his blade, and was about to drive it in me, when I decided to jump off of the roof, shooting him with my fingertips the whole time. It was as if it were in slow motion. I somehow landed on my feet, which really hurt, but I started running for my life. He then appeared in front of me, his sword put away in the sheath, and he began jabbing me in the chest and stomach. Each of those fists were covered in flames, which tripled the received pain. I managed to bring my hands up and shoot at his face, but he moved it and I missed. He then finished his assault with a flaming kick, knocking me down. He walked over to me, sword drawn, ready to plunge, when the same push in my body made me jump up (from a laying down position, just jumping up. Not a Chinese get-up). Still playing by instinct, I started shooting him from every joint in my body, which was an incredible sight. He was being barraged by lightning bolts, which paralyzed him, disabling him from doing anything. I took the advantage to start turning on him, and jabbed him with electric fists, as he had done to me. I then began kneeing him, which also emitted electricity. The poor guy was pretty much having a seizure standing up. I could pretty much see his skeleton, like in those cartoons. I thought that was exaggerated. After getting a kenpo workout, I decided to stop, knowing that he wouldn’t want to mess with me after that barrage. I was wrong.

He charged after me immediately, crashing me against and through the wall of the PAC, into the backstage section. He walked in through the hole in the wall, and I picked up a nearby acoustic guitar, but seeing that it didn’t catch lightning, picked up an electric one instead, which immediately became blue with electricity. I swung it at the ninja, who blocked it with ease, not reacting to the electric shock he might have received. I hope he hasn’t picked up an immunity… He swung the sword at me, and I did a matrix style limbo move and avoided it. He then drew the dagger with his other hand, and started doing a dual blade type of dance, which was pretty cool to watch until the dagger was in my eye. I fell to my knees, feeling the dagger poking all the way into my brain, feeling the immense pain. It was an incredibly disgusting kind of pain, one that you’d never know was even a type of pain. I tried lifting my hands to shoot lightning at him again, but his body just seemed to absorb the shocks. He has built up an immunity to it… He walked over, slowly, letting me wallow in my pain. He bent down and took the dagger out of my eye, and stabbed my other one. Now, I can’t describe what happened now, because you see, I’m blind. What I heard, however, was the sound of the Katana being taken out of the sheath, and felt immense pain as the blade penetrated my chest. I felt everything within me be sucked up by the sword. It ate away at everything, my soul, my mind, my power. Once all of that was gone, he withdrew the sword, and I fell on my face, only being able to think. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything.

“That’s what you get for messing with Brian the Ninja.”

Those were the last words I heard before letting my mind go to rest.

Editor’s note: In case you’re confused, this is not from Brian’s point of view. We are making a very brief POV series.

Location: Vancouver, Canada

You know, I’ve seen a bunch of crazy crap in the past days, but I guess the following would top it off. But I guess I’m partly to blame. Part of the reason being that my one power. No, it’s not fireballs or super strength/speed. It’s just my intimidation. Or at least that’s how it worked for the whole 13 years of my life.

And so, it wasn’t until I saw a freaking ninja walk past me on the sidewalk that things started getting interesting. Oh, just for clarification, I just so happen to do have the ability to shoot fire and crush people with my super strength. But most people would’ve just left the guy alone and stared. Maybe take a couple of pictures. Not me though. I felt like being a douche today. So I decided to really dump on this guy.

“Hey ninja. Was sho name?” He turned at me, squinting his eyes at me, slicing a glare so powerul, I almost wet myself. A bit of habit when I asked for beings’ names. I picked up last year when a little girl asked me the same question with that mispronunciation. But aside from that, the ninja continued to glare. Finally, he answered.

“I am Brian. Brian the Ninja. Now, if you please, would you let me be. I have little time to master this bloody Clause Kata—. Um…I mean, a new gaming disc of video.” The hell? What was with this guy? I now knew that he was hiding something. Clause Kata? Santa Clause’s cat? No, how could a ninja master a cat? Wait, don’t answer that. (AHAHA)

“Okay then. Nice getup,” I greeted. Eyeing the sheath at his side, I finally gave in to actually thinking it through. Could it be? The Clause Katana? The very weapon wielded by the almighty Santa Clause? Only a select few in the world knew about it. And those few knew that the Katana had the power to absorb the souls of those slain by it. And they say the person who had mastered it would become the most powerful person in the world. Jeez, quite a title, wasn’t it? A title that I wanted.  A title that I would get. No matter what.

“Thank you. A lot of people like it, but I’m thinking of shifting over to lavender spring. What do you think?”

“Okay. Cut the BS (BULL SCAT) and let’s get this over with. I’m here for the Clause Katana. I’ve no idea how you attained it from Clause himself, but know it’s going to be mine.” The ninja was shocked.

“Excuse me? How could a mere mortal such as yourself gain this from me. I’d like to see you try, young ‘un.”

“Watch me.” I drove a full on tackle to him, sending him sprawling across the streets. He flipped over and onto his feet, drawing out the sword.

I cupped my hands together and send an armada of fire demons at his way. Each little ember creature sliced by the Katana. Blast! I had to destroy him now or he would soon overpower me. Ninjas were powerful creatures. And especially this…Brian the Ninja. I had recognized the name before. The newspaper around the city. Across the world actually. Of several people dying in ironic deaths over the country, spreading out from southern United States into Canada and to the North Pole. It all made sense.

Brian the Ninja. The murderer.

Now, this wasn’t about me becoming the most powerful being in the world, but it was more about stopping Brian. He’d destroy the world. Only a Seasonal Deity may wield a weapon such as the Clause Katana. I launched myself into the air, as did he. We both collided while 50 feet in the air and for a moment, I landed a punch to his cranium. But we both clawed at each other for about 4 seconds, until momentum ripped us apart and we were sent flying in different directions. I crashed down into the cement, skidding across the ground, denting the earth and destroying cars. I hadn’t landed. Neither had Brian.

We both stood now, I igniting a fire dagger in each hand and he wielding the Clause Katana. “You have to stop this, Brian. You’ve hurt too many people. So many lives have been lost. You attempt to defeat the monster, yet you are too blind to see that you yourself are the monster. Stop this trek and we may seek peace together. Please…”

He stood still for a moment. I could tell he was thinking something over. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the very least regarding what I had just said. He ran over to me, swinging his sword over and around his back several times, until he launched it over and crashed it down to the ground right in front me. The cement moved like waves in an ocean and sent me flying up, crashing through a building window.

Blood slipped through the glass shards in my skin. I looked into a nearby mirror. I looked horrible! But it was so cool! I looked a diamond creature. Every part of my body was covered in glass shards. I looked out the window and saw that Brian was walking away, clearly thinking he had won. I took a running start and flew out the window, sending out hundreds of pieces of glass towards his cold forgery of a heart. They drove through his stomach and chest. I watched in awe as blood and little bits of flesh squirted out of his back.

He fell to the floor, giving out a slight cry, but then came to a halt. Blood is literally gushing out of him now. At this point, I’d expect him to die. But no, he still lived on. And then he screamed out 3 words. “I AM NINJA!” He flies up, erecting all glass shards out of his body just as I did before. He grabs the Clause Katana and blasts a fury blaze of white and red, the colors of a candy cane in fact. A flash of light goes before me.

I fall down to my knees, the glass shards are released from my pores and gashes open up from all over my body. I down cry out or make a sound at all. Just sitting there, watching the blood leaves my body. And I tip over, falling over on the street, my view now horizontal. I watch as Brian the Ninja only looks towards me, nodding in sheer snobbiness; acknowledging my defeat.

And so, by this time, you’d expect me to automatically use my last bit of hope and defeat the mentally blinded Brian the Ninja, thus delivering the greatest comeback known to the universe. But apparently that’s not the way it works in reality. And I guess I’ve learned something today.

Ninjas suck. Or at least when they kill you.

Long Live BTN….

This here’s our script to the failed video. It’s been altered a bit to make sense. I won’t be able to elaborate on the fighting scenes, sorry :(

I’m outside Santa’s workshop. It’s about time. I took a step towards the door, and grasped the handle. I pushed in, and wow, it was a heavy door. There was an elf sitting at a table wrapping gifts, and another elf sitting above her holding a ukelele. I walked up to her. She spoke first.

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah. Where’s Santa?”

At this point, the elf with the ukelele started playing a song.

“Why should I tell you where he is?”

Now he started singing.

“Because… Because… One second.”

I slid under the table, and popped up behind the singing elf. He was looking around for me, so I took my dagger and slit his throat.

“What the heck?!”

I popped up in front of the elf again.

“All right, so as I was saying -“

She then unexpectedly slashed at me with her scissors, leaving a scar on my cheek and my mask destroyed. I fell to the floor with the surprise, and got up slowly, and slammed the table.

“Damn it! Now listen, if you tell me where Santa is, I won’t kill you.”

She then receives a call on her phone, which she answers and listens to. I was about to kill her when she hangs up.

“Fine. I’ll take you there.”

She takes me over to another room, where there is a spinning chair turned around.

“Santa… Santa Clause.”

The figure in the chair turns around. It’s an Asian guy wearing a Santa hat and holding a blade.

“Wait… You’re not Santa!”

“Yes, I am.”

“No, where’s your beard?”

“It got too itchy.”

“Where’s your stomach?”

“P90X.”

“But you’re too generous to be Asian!”

“That’s true…”

I eyed the blade.

“Is that the Clause Katana?”

“No. That’s somewhere safe.”

“Where?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Wh-“

Suddenly, my ninja senses told me to act fast. I grabbed the blade that Santa was holding, and swung it up behind me, blocking an attack made by a familiar figure. The assassin. I kicked him to the floor, and turned back to the absent Santa.

“You’re…. Not there.”

The assassin got up, and we basically just clashed swords until I broke his. He then ran. I followed him, but when I turned a corner, he was gone.

“So, you want the Clause Katana, huh?”

“… Holy crap, where’s that coming from?!”

“It’s me, Santa.”

“Where are you??”

I was pretty curious.

“Never mind that, go find—”

“Tell me how you’re doing that, and then I’ll go find whatever.”

“Fine… I’m using an intercom.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“The assassin has a key. The key opens a door to find the Clause Katana.”

“Okay, where is he?”

“You have to go find him.”

“Fine…”

I went looking throughout the house, looking in every room, finding nothing. I sat down to take a break, when I saw in the reflective stone in front of me, a black figure walking around in the patio. I turned, and there was the assassin, taunting me with the key. I ran outside. We exchanged blade swipes some more, leading up to the roof of the house. Then I killed him (I told you I wasn’t going to elaborate). I took his key, and ran back inside. I found the locked door, used the key, and got in. Santa was sitting there with what was obviously the Clause Katana. I spoke first.

“I have what I want. If you let me leave now, there will be no harm done.”

“Did you really think I’d let you leave so easily?”

“Well… if you want to do this the hard way…”

We fight, I killed him. Sorry for the lack of action. Watch the video.

“Merry Christmas, Santa.”

I walk out the door to leave, but am confronted by the elf that was wrapping gifts. I was about to slash her with my newly obtained Clause Katana, when;

“Wait! You said that if I told you where Santa was, you wouldn’t kill me.”

“That’s true… What do you want?”

“I want a fight.”

“But you’re an elf.”

“Your point? Or are you scared?”

“Of course not. Let’s go.”

We fight, she beats me, oh no, and the following dialogue:

“Listen, I know your pride is broken, but I’ll make you a deal. You have a week. One week to go train your Clause Katana, and then come back here and we’ll fight again.”

“No! I must kill you now!”

“You know you can’t.”

This was true. She was incredibly powerful…

One week. I’ll make the best of it.