“I encourage you not to die,” Monkey said, smoothing down Kubo’s robe. Then she took off in the direction Little Hanzo had shown them.
Kubo followed, struck by a silly idea. He sent one of his paper birds flying down from the sky. It swooped right behind Monkey, nipping her butt. She spun around, but the bird had already disappeared into the flock.
Kubo stared at her innocently. “Mosquitoes,” he said, swatting at his neck. “Annoying.”
Monkey turned back around, walking through the thick snow. Then, without orders from Kubo, the whole flock flew down behind her. They re-formed into three giant mosquitoes. For a moment Kubo thought Monkey hadn’t noticed. But then she reached out, snatching the first mosquito in her hand. She kicked behind her, knocking out the second mosquito, then somersaulted backward to destroy the third one.
When she was done, she returned the sheets of paper to Kubo’s bag.
“Paper runs out,” she snapped at him. “As does patience.”
“I didn’t ask them to do that.…” Kubo started. “… The second time. At least, not exactly. I mean, I felt it, but—”
“Magic is not meant to be easy,” Monkey said. “You need to learn control. Concentrate on what you’re doing. And always remember”—she leaned in close, her pink nose right in front of him—“don’t mess with the monkey.”
She turned, continuing through the snow. They walked like that for hours, with Monkey lecturing Kubo on everything from magic to origami. Monkey told him that he should be more careful where he stepped, that he needed to eat more so he could grow up to be tall and strong. She wanted him to get better at his sword skills and learn more chords on the shamisen. Kubo listened to it all, barely saying a word. It was starting to feel as if he couldn’t do anything right.
They came to a stretch of land with a massive statue half-buried in the snow. There was a giant head, covered with an ornate helmet, sticking out from underneath the drifts.
Monkey turned back, pointing at the broken hand ahead, its stone fingers clutching a broken sword. “Tread carefully, Kubo,” she said. “This isn’t one of your stories.”
Kubo rolled his eye. He slowed down, letting her get farther ahead of him. When Monkey was a few yards off, he climbed up a nearby statue, sitting for a moment on its face. There was a giant hole where one of its eyes should’ve been. If he had peered inside, he could see the hole went all the way down, forming a long tunnel.
“How do you know?” Kubo shouted at her back. He stood, putting his hands on his hips. “Maybe it is. And I’m the valiant hero. And you’re the mean monkey.”
“You may think you’re the great hero,” Monkey said, not bothering to turn around. “But heroes come and go. Any moment, something terrible could come out of nowhere and—”
“Monkey!” Kubo yelled, his voice filled with terror.
Monkey spun around, but Kubo was nowhere to be seen. She ran up the giant stone face just in time to see Kubo several yards down the tunnel. He was being carried by some giant creature with two sets of arms. They kept going, farther down the pit, until they finally disappeared into the dark.
Monkey grabbed the edge of the statue, curled into a tight ball, and slid down after him.
Monkey flew through the tunnel. It twisted and turned, winding down into the center of the earth. As she got deeper inside the huge cavern, the walls were carved with the faces of ancient gods long since forgotten. When the tunnel finally leveled out, she could see Kubo ahead of her. He was still being carried by the strange creature.
She ran as fast as she could, following the kidnapper through a maze of tunnels. The walls of the cavern were filthy and crumbling. She kept after them, turning when they turned and treading down a steep incline. For a few seconds she lost sight of them, but then there was a sharp turn. The tunnel dead-ended in a large cave.
The creature was right in front of her now. It was three times her size, with a thick black shell like a beetle’s, which was scarred and chipped in places. Horns came out of either side of its head. It had two sets of arms and could run on the ground like a bug. Its face was human, though, like that of a samurai warrior. She narrowed her eyes, then charged the beast with great fury.
“Monkey, wait!” Kubo cried. He stepped out of the darkness, holding his hands up in front of the beetle, trying to stop her. “He wasn’t trying to hurt me. He just wanted Hanzo.”
The beetle leaned over, staring at the little paper warrior. “Hanzo?” he asked. “Hanzo…”
Monkey’s eyes were still wide. It felt as if her heart were beating a million times a minute. “I still think I’m going to stab him.…” she mumbled.
The beetle reached out one spiky claw, gently stroking the tiny Hanzo. “Hanzo… yes,” he said. “I remember him. I think maybe… he was my master.”
“What?” Kubo asked. “What did you just say?”
Then the beetle stood up straight, looking at Monkey and Kubo as if he’d only just realized they were there. He kept shaking his head.
“We had a crest,” he said. “A samurai crest!” He spun around, digging through a pile in the corner of the cave. There was a bow and arrows and some samurai swords. He pulled out a huge piece of red fabric with the familiar beetle crest on it. “Have you seen this crest before?”
Kubo turned, showing the beetle the back of his robe. It was the same exact image. Beetle’s eyes lit up with excitement. “It’s a miracle! You have our robe! You’re wearing our robe!” Then he stopped suddenly. He narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “Why are you wearing our robe?”
Before Kubo could respond, Monkey stepped forward. “He doesn’t have to answer your questions. Anyway, who are you?”
“Many years ago I was cursed,” Beetle said. “Trapped in this cursed state. Cursed to wander The Far Lands. No comrades. No master. Not even a name or a single memory of the noble warrior I once was.”
“You used to be a man?” Kubo asked.
“Not just any man. A samurai,” Beetle said. “I mean… I’m pretty certain. I have the stuff.” He gestured at the pile behind him. Every sword and piece of armor had the beetle crest on it. “I mean, I’m either a samurai or a really bad hoarder. Either way, inside my thorax beats the heart of a warrior.”
Monkey narrowed her eyes at Beetle, not sure she could believe him. “If you still have no memory, how can you be certain of anything?”
“Because I get flashes. They come about from objects I find on my travels. Or sometimes it’s a sound. Or a smell.” Beetle suddenly looked sad. “But the memories—they fade, and all I’m left with is this sense that I was once part of something much greater.”
Kubo stared at the giant creature’s face, feeling a tug of sympathy for him. He seemed so alone… and so scared. Kubo turned back to Monkey. “Can I tell him?”
Monkey held up her hands. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.…”
“Hanzo was my father,” Kubo blurted out.
“Kubo!” Monkey shouted.
But Beetle only smiled. “This is a miracle! I have found the son of my master.”
Beetle scooped Kubo up into a hug, then danced around the cave with him, humming happily to himself. When he finally set him down, he dropped to his knee. “Whatever brings you to these lands, whatever your quest, it is now my quest, too. I will join you. I will give my life for you if necessary!”
“Wow…” Kubo said, looking into Beetle’s eyes. “You will?”
Beetle nodded. “Do you think that’s possible? I mean, I know how quests go. People die all the time. They drop like flies. But that doesn’t matter, because I have a feeling this is my destiny!”
“No, it isn’t!” Monkey stomped her foot in anger. “We can’t trust anything you say, because you can’t trust anything you say. We don’t know anything about you.”
Kubo plucked a few notes on his shamisen and a piece of paper flew from his bag. It folded into a bird and hovered right between Monkey and Beetle, breaking the tension. “Monkey, you said
it yourself,” Kubo started. “Our quest is a difficult one. A samurai—even a cursed one with no memory who looks like a bug—could be helpful.”
“Yes, I’m certain I could be helpful!” Beetle cried, looking excited. “Indispensable!”
“In what way?” Monkey put her hands on her hips.
Beetle grabbed his bow and arrow. He set the arrow in its place, then pulled back the bow, letting it fly into the wall. It landed perfectly straight.
Monkey just laughed. “Firing an arrow into a wall is hardly what I’d call—”
Beetle shot another arrow at the first one, splitting it down the middle. Then he fired three more, one after the other, splitting the second with the third, then the third with the fourth, then the fourth with the fifth. All of them were perfect bull’s-eyes.
Beetle dropped down, kneeling in front of Kubo once more. “Just tell me of our quest,” he said. “And I will immediately demonstrate my numerous indispensabilities.”
“Well, that’s kind of a long story,” Kubo said.
“You’ve got my attention. I promise I won’t even blink.” Then Beetle turned his head, making his eyes as wide as he could. “I actually don’t even think I can blink. Do I have eyelids?”
Monkey let out a deep breath, finally accepting their new friend. “Fine—walk and talk,” she said, nodding toward Little Hanzo. He was standing at the far end of the cave, his sword pointed down a dark tunnel. “Hanzo has found a path.”
“So you used to be a toy monkey?” Beetle said, turning to Monkey in disbelief.
“Kubo, I really don’t see how this part is important to the story.…” Monkey said, trying to interrupt. Kubo had been telling Beetle about his small town, and what it was like living in the cave by the sea.
“Yes!” Kubo cried. “I used to keep her in my pocket. She was so tiny. And I called her Mr. Monkey.”
“I wasn’t a toy,” Monkey said, clearly annoyed. “I was a charm.”
Beetle laughed a big, hearty laugh. “Of course you were.…”
Suddenly, Little Hanzo leaped from Kubo’s shoulder and ran down the tunnel. He flattened himself into a single piece of paper, then slipped through a mossy crack in the wall. Beetle broke through the wall to follow him, and all of a sudden they were face-to-face with a giant carved statue. The skull had huge, hollow eyes and a terrible sneer. Kubo got chills just looking at it.
It was a dead end—there was nowhere else to go. But Little Hanzo kept pointing at the statues ahead of them. Kubo stepped forward, peering at the stone, trying to see if he was missing anything. Where did Hanzo want them to go? What were they missing?
“Don’t touch anything!” Monkey yelled.
But Beetle was already running his claws over the statue. He touched one of the skull’s front teeth, tugging at it to see if the stone was solid. The tooth came off in his hands. There was a loud, horrible click!
Beetle and Kubo turned to Monkey, their faces pale.
“He did it,” Beetle said, pointing to Kubo.
But before Monkey could respond, the floor gave out beneath them. They all plummeted hundreds of feet into a dark cavern below.
Oof! All the air left Kubo’s lungs. For a second he just lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath. Beside him, Beetle rocked back and forth on his shell, unable to get up.
“Kubo, look!” Monkey said. She’d already sprung to her feet and was standing in the center of the cave. Giant bones were scattered all over the floor. In the center of them was a skeleton’s hand, its palm open. Inside the palm was a beautiful silver sword.
“The Sword Unbreakable!” Kubo cried. He stood up, rushing toward the sword. Monkey grabbed him and held him back.
“It could be a trap,” she said.
Beetle scuttled forward. “Allow me.”
“What, it’s not a trap if you do it?” Monkey asked.
“Stealth is my middle name,” Beetle replied. He reached across the bony palm and grabbed the end of the sword. Then he spun around, showing it to Kubo. The silver sparkled in the light.
“Ha-ha!” Beetle laughed. “The mighty Beetle is victorious!”
Almost as soon as he said it, the fingers of the hand started to move. The floor of the cave trembled. Then, one by one, the scattered bones rose into the air. Monkey and Kubo darted around, trying not to get hit by them.
Beetle ran back to his friends in terror.
They looked up, two fiery eyes staring at them. A giant skull came down from the roof of the cave as the bones came up to meet it. Slowly, it formed a giant skeleton three stories high, covered with terrible armor made of broken bones.
The giant skeleton came to life, stomping toward them. Monkey knew she had to act fast. Beetle stood frozen, just staring at it.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” she said, grabbing the sword from Beetle’s claws. She held it up in front of her. “I invoke the Sword Unbreakable!”
Monkey leaped into the air, bringing the sword down across the giant skeleton’s leg. The blade shattered into a hundred pieces. She stood there, staring at the handle, which was still intact. “It broke.”
“So does it just mean the handle, or…?” Beetle asked. “I’m a little disappointed in this magic sword.”
“It’s not the right sword, you idiot!” Monkey yelled.
Just then, Little Hanzo popped his head out of Kubo’s bag. He pointed his paper sword at the skeleton’s head. All at once, they noticed the skeleton’s crown. It was made of dozens of metal swords sticking out of its skull.
“The sword! It’s in his head!” Beetle yelled. Then he turned to the skeleton. “Hey… I’ve got a bone to pick with you!”
He pulled the bow and arrow from his back and fired. Then he fired a dozen more, trying to kill the skeleton, but most of the arrows just bounced off his bones. A few more flew straight through the gaps between his ribs.
“Uh… this is problematic,” Beetle mumbled.
Unfazed, the skeleton reached down and scooped up Monkey in its hand. Beetle unleashed a volley of arrows, but they all bounced off. Some flew right past Monkey’s head.
“Enough with the arrows!” she shouted, ducking as one nearly took off her ear.
As the skeleton lifted Monkey higher, she got closer to its skull. She reached through its horrible, bony fingers and grabbed one of the swords, smashing it against the monster’s hand. The sword shattered into a hundred pieces.
She tried another sword, then another, but they all shattered when she slashed at the monster’s bones. Angry, it dangled Monkey over its giant mouth, about to chomp off her head.
Then a familiar melody echoed through the cave. As Kubo played his shamisen, hundreds of pieces of paper flew from his bag and folded into birds. They swarmed the skeleton’s skull in a giant flock. The monster shrieked and cried as they swiped at him, hitting him in the head.
As the monster swatted at the paper birds, it kept lifting its giant bony feet into the air, then stomping them back down again. Kubo and Beetle ran across the cave floor, trying to avoid them, but it was no use. Kubo couldn’t run fast enough. The monster’s foot was just seconds away from crushing him.
Beetle jumped forward, trying to push him out of the way. For a moment it seemed hopeless. The giant foot was right over their heads, about to smash them both. Then, suddenly… they were flying.
They zipped around the cave. Beetle held Kubo tightly, and they both glanced over their shoulders, looking back at the jet-black wings that had shot out of Beetle’s shell.
“You can fly?” Kubo asked.
“Apparently, yes!” Beetle cried. He rocketed them into the air, toward the beast’s skull. They crash-landed right on top of the monster’s head, Monkey in its hand beside them.
They didn’t waste time. They pulled the swords from the skull, trying to find the right one.
Beetle pulled one out and smashed it against the skeleton’s head. It shattered into a hundred pieces. “Are you sure it isn’t called the Sword Unfindable?” he
asked, grabbing another handle.
Kubo tried three in a row, but all broke apart. Then he noticed Beetle struggling to pull a sword free from the skull. “A little hand here?” Beetle asked.
Before Kubo could step forward, the monster reached for Beetle, his bony hand like a cage. The skeleton yelled and roared, lifting Monkey and Beetle into the air, about to chomp them into bits. Kubo reached for the sword but was thrown high into the air when the monster moved.
Then he was falling, the ground coming fast to meet him, until an arrow shot straight through his robe. He hung by the cloth, pinned to the cave’s ceiling.
Beetle had saved him with his perfect shot. Kubo watched from above as the monster skulked around the cave. He was totally helpless.
Then the robe ripped a tiny bit, and a tiny bit more. He was going to fall; he knew it. Monkey briefly escaped the skeleton’s hand, trying to save Kubo, but within seconds the monster grabbed her again.
Kubo cringed as he heard the final, horrible rip of the cloth. He fell fast toward the ground. But just at the last second, the giant skeleton bent forward, accidentally giving Kubo the perfect landing spot.
As soon as Kubo touched down on the monster’s skull, he went to work, pulling at the many swords in the skeleton’s crown. He smashed several on the beast’s skull until he found the same handle Beetle had discovered. He took a deep breath, then pulled it as hard as he could, yanking it free.
Beetle and Monkey looked up at Kubo, who stood with the sword raised above his head. He was smiling, so relieved to finally have it in his hands.
“Thank goodness that’s over,” Beetle said.
But within seconds the skeleton started falling apart, bone by bone. It was as if the Sword Unbreakable were the very thing that held it together. Kubo looked at the skull beneath his feet, which was turning now, no longer held up by the monster’s neck. He closed his eyes as they all fell fast toward the earth.
Kubo played his shamisen as he walked along the rocky beach. The music almost drowned out the sounds of Monkey and Beetle arguing.…
Kubo and the Two Strings Page 3