In an instant, Kubo woke up. He glanced across the cave at Monkey and Beetle, who were still sound asleep. Immediately, he knew what he must do.
Hours later Kubo, Monkey, and Beetle were on their way to Hanzo’s castle. They hiked a trail that cut through the mountains. The sun was just visible behind the clouds, lighting up the sky.
Kubo smiled, knowing they were so close. All they needed to do was get to the fortress, and they would find Hanzo’s helmet. They’d been walking for hours.… The ruins couldn’t be far now.
High above them, a flock of birds glided beneath the clouds. They looked like herons, but their wings glowed with a magical golden light. They sang a song that sounded so much like the one from Kubo’s dream. “The Song of the Dead,” he remembered one of the villagers calling it.
“Golden heron,” Monkey said, pointing at them. “It’s believed they hold the souls of the departed, carrying them to wherever they may need to go.”
“What are they singing?” Beetle asked.
“Many say the song’s about what happens when we die,” Monkey explained. “We don’t just disappear. Like Kubo’s paper, we shift. We transform. So we may continue our story in another place. The ending of one story is the beginning of another.”
They stood, watching the beautiful birds. Kubo loved how they dipped and soared, how they separated and came back together again. He hoped Mother was right, that there was no death. He wanted to believe another story was waiting for them.
After a long while, they started walking again, climbing to a high cliff. There, far below, they could see the crumbling castle. The walls and roof were overgrown with wild bamboo.
They took the bridge, finally reaching the main hall of the fortress. The torn banners that hung on the walls displayed the beetle crest. Weeds climbed the bricks. There were a few broken swords on the floor, but most had been stolen long ago by vandals.
“I remember this place,” Beetle said, glancing around.
Kubo found a room off the main hall. The screen guarding it had a picture of his parents when Kubo was just a baby. Broken furniture was strewn about. The floorboards were rotted, with weeds sprouting through.
There was a desk with pictures of the Underwater Garden of Eyes and the Hall of Bones Skeleton, and scrolls and maps pinned to the walls. “This must be where my father prepared for his quest,” Kubo said. At the far end of the room, he noticed screens with pictures of the helmet on them. Behind the screens was a wide courtyard.
Kubo pushed inside. The sky was visible above, the moon peeking over the edge of the building. Rusted samurai armor was scattered across the bricks. Kubo looked around, searching for the helmet, but it wasn’t there.
“There’s something I don’t understand.…” Beetle said. “Why would the helmet be here?”
Almost as soon as he said it, dark smoke descended on the courtyard. Thin tendrils snaked around them, lifting Monkey, Beetle, and Kubo high into the air, as the sound of laughter rose up around them. Beetle’s bow fell from his grasp, clattering to the ground.
The last Sister came down from the darkened sky. She floated into the courtyard, watching Monkey, a terrible sneer on her face. “Oh, sister,” she said, “I remember how we looked up to you. Of all of us, you shone the brightest. Such a waste. All we wished was to be a family… in our home among the stars.”
“I think we have very different definitions of family,” Monkey shot back.
The Sister reached out to touch Kubo, as Beetle fought to free himself from the smoke. “Don’t touch him, you witch!” Beetle yelled.
The Sister turned to Beetle, staring at him with cold, blank eyes. “Then there’s you,” she said. “The thieving insect who stole my sister’s soul.”
Beetle and Monkey looked at each other, unsure what she meant. The Sister let out another horrible laugh. “Oh, this is precious!” she said. “You’ve been together all this time and you haven’t realized? You took her from us. It was only fitting that we took something from you. How swiftly those memories spilled from your head. Wiping out all recollection of your obscene union, Hanzo.”
She brought her pipe to her lips, and a dark puff of the smoke came from the pipe and circled Little Hanzo, raising the origami figure into the air. The figure unfolded itself, the paper turning flat again, then reforming into a perfect replica of Beetle.
Beetle shook his head, unable to believe it. The Sisters had stolen his memory. This whole time, when he was down in those dark tunnels, it was because of them and their spite. He hadn’t even recognized his own son.
“I didn’t know,” Beetle said, looking at Kubo with tears in his eyes.
The Sister just laughed. She tossed Beetle into the wall, his body making a hollow sound as he fell. Then she stalked forward, toward Kubo. “I’m forgetting what I came here for,” she said.
The smoke twisted around Kubo, holding him tightly. He was just able to reach his hand around the back of his belt. As the Sister came close, he slashed at her face with his bachi. Her pipe hit the ground and shattered. Her ceramic mask cracked in half, revealing her mouth. Within seconds all the smoke demons disappeared, their source gone.
The Sister screamed in Kubo’s face, then threw him across the courtyard. Monkey came at her from the other side, wielding the Sword Unbreakable. The Sister pulled two crescent blades from her robes, and they started to fight, the weapons crashing and clanking against each other as they moved through the courtyard.
Monkey darted past the Sister, dodging her blows. She struck the sword against the small blades again and again. But she was tired from the night before, and the wound in her side throbbed. Slowly, her sister was gaining the upper hand. As the Sister floated above Monkey, preparing to deliver the final blow, a rusted metal sword hit her in her side.
Across the courtyard, Beetle was now awake. He threw every piece of armor he could find at her, trying to stop the attack. The Sister staggered and fell. For a moment everything was quiet.
Beetle ran to Monkey, who’d crawled across the courtyard to Kubo. Kubo held her in his arms, noticing the deep wound in her side. She was bleeding. “Shhhh… it’s okay,” Kubo said, trying to comfort her. “I’m here.”
“My son,” Beetle said. He rested his claw on Kubo’s shoulder.
“Seems I’m married to a bug,” Monkey said weakly.
“A samurai bug.” Beetle laughed. Then he looked down at her, smiling. “You are my quest. You always have been.”
“Hanzo…” Monkey said, taking her last breaths. “Keep him safe. No matter what.”
“I promise I will.” Beetle was about to go on, but the Sister appeared behind him, plunging her blade deep into his back.
“No!” Kubo cried, watching as his father fell.
The Sister moved in, raising the blades again, this time over Monkey’s head.
“Fly home, Kubo,” his mother said, pushing him away.
Kubo ran across the courtyard. He found his shamisen underneath his armor. He held the bachi high in the air as the Sister’s blades came down on his mother’s neck. He played the notes so hard two strings snapped in half. Then the sound of the shamisen filled the courtyard. Everything was bathed in a blinding white light.
Kubo wasn’t sure how much time had passed. When he woke up, the courtyard was empty. The Sister’s broken mask was on the ground a few feet away. Then he spotted Beetle’s broken bow. It was sitting next to the monkey charm, which had cracked into two pieces.
Kubo knelt there, his shamisen in his hands, two of its strings broken and frayed. Tears fell from his eye onto the remaining string, sounding a sad, sorrowful note. Behind him, the paper rose up and folded itself. Little Hanzo was still with him. He looked tattered and dirty, but he was there.
The tiny paper warrior crawled forward, pointing his sword at something on the far wall. Kubo finally turned, noticing a drawing of the Helmet Invulnerable. He tilted his head to the side, seeing what Little Hanzo was looking at. From such a long angle, the Helmet Invu
lnerable looked exactly like one of the bells in the village bell tower.
Kubo kept staring at it, realizing what this meant. The last piece of armor was still waiting for him. He could still defeat the Moon King as long as he was brave enough to go find it.
He packed up his bag, putting Little Hanzo and the monkey charm inside. Then he picked up Beetle’s bow. He pulled off the bow string, and wrapped it around his wrist, making a bracelet like the one he had of his mother’s hair. He stood in the middle of the courtyard with his shamisen in his hands.
The tattered banners that hung on the walls flapped in the wind. Kubo lifted his bachi. Then he looked at the sky and played the last note, striking the shamisen so hard the final string snapped in two.
The banners flew up into the air, breaking free from their mounts. Then they folded and reformed above him, turning into a beautiful pair of wings. They joined the back of his robe and lifted him high above the crumbling fortress. He watched as it grew so small below him, finally disappearing against the mountains.
Kubo’s new wings flew him high above the village. From there, he could see the charred ruins of the stores and cafes and the crater that had once been the square where he’d performed. He landed just steps from the broken bell tower. It was still standing, the last bricks looking dangerously close to crumbling.
Kubo stared at the burnt scaffolding that surrounded the bell. There was so little time—the Moon King was coming for him soon. He pushed the weakened structure, then slashed at it with the Sword Unbreakable. Within minutes it came tumbling down, the Helmet Invulnerable glinting in the wreckage.
He picked it up and dusted it off. Then he heard a small voice from somewhere behind him. “Kubo, is that you?”
He turned to see his friend Kameyo. Her face was covered with soot. She peered at him from the doorway of a ruined house. Behind her he saw Hosato and Mari, two of the other villagers he’d known so well.
“You have to leave this place,” Kubo called out. “The Moon King, he is coming.”
He watched as the villagers hurried off, never feeling more alone in his life. When he was sure they were safe, he put the Helmet Invulnerable on and turned to the sky. “Grandfather! It’s me, Kubo!” he yelled. “I know you can see me!”
For a moment the village was silent. Kubo felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, as though he was suddenly in danger. He spun around to see the blind old man from his dream. Only now the man was wearing elegant robes that glowed in the moonlight. He stared at him, his eyes white with cataracts.
“Hello, Grandson,” the man said. “You have found the armor. Seems your mother had a reason to bring you to this dreadful place after all.”
Terrified, Kubo snatched a rock from the ground and threw it at the old man. But the man’s hand shot up, catching it in his palm. “I see,” he said.
“I know you do,” Kubo said. “That’s how this all began. You finally saw me. That was my fault. I should have listened to my mother.”
“Kubo,” the old man said as he strode forward. “We both want the exact same thing.”
“You want my other eye, that’s what you want,” Kubo shot back.
“As long as you cling to that silly, useless eye, you can’t come live with me in the heavens.” The old man stepped closer. “You’ll be stuck down here in this hell. Staring with that lonely eye at hate and heartache and suffering and death. Where I want to take you, we have none of those things. It will just be you with your family.”
“My family is gone,” Kubo said, staring at him. “You killed them.”
“They brought their fates upon themselves,” his grandfather said. “They disgraced me and upset the order of everything.”
“That’s how your story goes.”
“Oh, Kubo,” his grandfather said. “When you’re up there with me, you will be beyond stories. You will be immortal. You will be… infinite.”
“No, you’re wrong,” Kubo snapped. “Not infinite. All stories have an end… and this story ends when I kill you.”
He held the Sword Unbreakable in front of him, watching as the Moon King’s skin began to change. It took on a ghostly white glow, then became more wrinkled and hard-looking, as though it were a terrible shell.
“Oh, very well,” his grandfather replied. “Is this what you want? To do battle with the hideous monster who ruined your life? To prove your worth like your doomed father? How mortal.”
At that, his grandfather threw open his arms, and his body cracked in half. From it emerged a giant white monster, several stories tall, with hideous fangs and a long, spiky tail. It looked like something between a shark and a snake, slithering through the air. Kubo held up the Sword Unbreakable and ran at it, trying to land the first blow.
The beast stalked forward, snapping at him. Kubo flipped over its side, dragging the Sword Unbreakable along the beast’s body. But when the Sword Unbreakable touched it, it sparked as if the monster’s skin were made of metal. Still, the beast stumbled back, surprised by the attack.
Kubo stepped forward, swinging the Sword Unbreakable again and again, which pushed the monster farther back. As soon as Kubo had the advantage, he lunged at it, jabbing the Sword Unbreakable into the monster’s eye. It swung its tail around, knocking over a charred building behind it.
The giant beast was furious. It charged Kubo, but he was too quick. He spun around, jumping through a nearby window, and darted out the other side of the building. The beast kept after him, chasing him through the narrow streets of the village. Kubo ducked and weaved to avoid the monster’s blows, occasionally landing the Sword Unbreakable in its side. He ran as fast as he could, but as he approached the edge of the village, he struggled to catch his breath.
Exhausted, Kubo tripped over some rubble in the street. As soon as he fell, the beast was upon him. Its jaws locked down around his body. The armor buckled under the pressure, and Kubo fell from beneath the Breastplate Impenetrable, where he crashed through a broken wall. Slowly, he stood in front of the monster, bruised and bloody, his heart exposed.
The creature snapped its tail like a whip, the end curling around Kubo. The spiky end flipped the Helmet Invulnerable off his head. Big globs of spit flew at Kubo’s face as it bellowed. “You want to be human? Then share their weakness!”
The tail coiled tighter, squeezing Kubo to death. He gasped for air, his face turning blood red.
“Suffer their humiliation!” the beast went on. Its spiky tail ripped Kubo’s eye patch off his face. “Feel their pain!”
The beast slammed Kubo onto the ground. Kubo could see the Sword Unbreakable just a few feet away. He crawled toward it, knowing it was his last chance, but it was already too late. With a flick of its tail, the monster grabbed Kubo and sent Kubo careening into the cemetery.
Kubo crashed through trees and bushes, tumbling down the cemetery hillside. His bag broke, its contents scattered in the grass. He could barely move. Every part of his body hurt. But he could hear the monster crashing through the forest, coming for him with frightening speed.
Kubo slowly pulled himself off the ground. He looked at the Sword Unbreakable lying a few feet away, then at the shamisen, all its strings now broken. He reached out for the Sword Unbreakable, suddenly noticing the two bracelets on his wrist. One made from his mother’s hair, the other from Beetle’s bow.
He pulled the shamisen into his lap. As fast as he could, he began restringing the instrument. The beast was coming closer. As he tied the last end of his bracelet onto the shamisen, he heard it at the edge of the cemetery, looking for him. There were still only two strings, though—where would he find the last one to complete the instrument?
The monster rushed inside the cemetery gates, finding Kubo immediately. It looked down on him, teeth bared. “This is the end of your story,” it growled. “Now take one last look with that lonely eye. One last look at this wretched place you call home.”
Kubo stood, defiant. He reached up and plucked a hair from his head, stretching
it across the shamisen. “I’m not leaving,” he shot back. “For every horrible thing down here, there’s something far more beautiful. My mother saw it. So did my father. I see it, even with just one eye.”
“Then I’ll just have to rip it out of your head again, won’t I?” the beast growled.
The Moon Beast stalked forward, but before he could strike, Kubo strummed the shamisen. A booming note split the air.
“If you must blink, do it now!” Kubo cried.
All the lanterns in the river suddenly sparked to life. They lit the river, showing its snaking route out to sea. The cemetery was filled with light.
“I know why you want my eye,” Kubo said. “Because without it, I can’t look into the eyes of another and see their soul. Their love.”
“Everything you loved is gone,” the beast yelled. “Everything you knew has been taken from you.”
“No,” Kubo said. “It’s in my memories. The most powerful kind of magic there is.”
Kubo plucked the second string. From behind the trees appeared the surviving villagers. They each held a lantern as they took their place beside Kubo. Then Kubo plucked the final string. More figures came out from the forest, but they glowed with the same beautiful golden light the herons did. They were the spirits of the villagers who had long since passed.
“It makes us stronger than you’ll ever be,” Kubo said, gesturing to his new army. “These are the memories of those we have loved and lost. And if we hold their stories deep in our hearts, then you will never take them away from us.”
Kubo stood and looked up at the terrifying beast, daring it to strike. The Moon Beast wheeled back and lunged like a snake. But as the fanged head neared the army, it was deflected by a glowing blue light. The monster pulled back, stunned, then moved to strike again. Each time it was blocked by the light, which glowed even brighter than before.
Kubo and the Two Strings Page 5