The samurai had walked through the wreckage for a half-hour and had yet to find a survivor. He did not expect to. Whatever had happened here had taken place many years ago. A thick layer of ash and soot covered everything. Buildings had fallen into chunks. What buildings were still somewhat intact had all of their windows broken out. Abandoned wheeled vehicles of a kind he suspected were self-powered, as they had no visible means of attachment to a horse or some other beast, sat everywhere in what were once the streets and walkways of this place. Many were twisted lumps of burned and rusted metal.

He didn’t know how any of this was going to lead to Aku directly, but he kept walking, pushing on toward what had been the center of the city. It was where the tallest buildings had once stood, and it was still miles away. He saw what looked like a rounded tower of some sort, and thought that it may, at one point, have held a supply of drinking water for the people. There was writing on the side of the tank, but he was still too far away to make out the letters.

As his eyes swept the desolate landscape, he noticed something curious. There appeared to be no other animal life present, nor plant life other than the ruined and dead trees and shrubs that were once here. That was strange. Even if the city dwellers were all dead, be they human or some other strange creatures like the many he had encountered, something should have moved in to take over. But there appeared to be nothing. There was a possible explanation for that, something that no one in his time knew about, but he had learned of it since being thrown into the future. That was a thing called radiation. Nothing would live in it except for some lowly insects, and if it were present, it would be unwise for him to remain here for long.

He picked up his pace, moving steadily toward the center of the city. His senses remained attuned to any possible source of information, but the keenest one at the present was his intuition. Aku, directly or indirectly, was definitely the cause of this. But then, his ears detected a sound coming from a ways off. It didn’t sound like a bird, as his eyes looked to the skies for signs of something else he had not yet seen. It sounded almost like….a voice! Yes! And it was growing louder, though it was still quite faint.

He spied a low-slung building ahead several hundred meters; that seemed to be the source. As he cautiously approached, his head swiveling about and all his nerves tensed for some surprise, it sounded more and more like a woman’s voice. The building seemed to be mostly intact; there looked to be a hole in one side of it and the windows were gone. He stepped into the yard and saw sticking out of the ground a partial wooden sign. The rest of it was gone. What remained read:

Y Oaks
rgarten

It made no sense to him, but he suspected it might be a place for children, as there were some damaged pieces of child-sized play equipment on one side of the building. There was nothing like that in his day, but he had seen some things similar since and the places were called ‘schools’ and were where young ones were sent for learning. Why the parents did not just teach their young themselves was something he would never understand. Only when they were older was it appropriate to send children away from their homes, as he had been when it came time for him to learn the ways of the Samurai.

The voice was indeed coming from inside.

"…waving goodbye…I just stood there waving goodbye…"

He walked up to the hole in the side of the building and peered into the darkness. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw an old woman in a tattered brown suit of some kind, with a ripped orange vest over it. Behind her on the wall was a large rectangular piece of black slate. Or a portion of it, anyway, as about a third of the slate had fallen out. What remained held some simple mathematical formulas and words befitting the ages of the students. Also written was the name ‘Ms. Keane’. It was obviously the name of this woman. She stood motionless, waving her arm toward an unseen someone.

"…I just stood there waving goodbye, and they raced off… Just stood there… Stood there waving goodbye …and they raced off…and raced off…"

She appeared to be in a trance. Her eyes were crusted at the corners, as if she had been standing there a very long time. Well, he had found someone alive, but she looked more like the walking dead he had heard about. Sad creatures possessed after death by Aku and forced to spend their eternity walking endlessly, without ever finding peace or rest. He carefully climbed over the jagged section of wall and inside.

"…and vanished for fifty years…fifty years…fifty years…fifty years…"

"Fifty years?" No creature could survive for even weeks without food and water, none of which were in evidence. This was definitely a case of demonic possession. She would never know he was standing there. He backed toward the opening, his hand reaching toward the handle of his sword in readiness should she suddenly transform into an attacking beast of some sort. He couldn’t believe what happened next.

She looked right at him and dropped her waving arm, putting it to her chest. "Oh, goodness, Professor! I didn’t see you standing there! If you’re here to pick up the girls, they just left!"

"Professor? Girls?" His sudden appearance seemed to have transported her to somewhere back in time, but she still looked to be in a trance-like state, her eyes looking at him but clouded and unfocused. "Where have I heard that before?"

"Well, I suppose I should get this place cleaned up for Monday."

"What has happened here?" he asked, and added, "Forgive my intrusion. My name is Jack."

She didn’t seem to notice. She turned away and began brushing dust and mortar chunks from desktops with her hands. "Goodness, the mess they make when they don’t use the door!"

She turned to look at him, smiling pleasantly. "Professor, do you think you could ask the girls to please not destroy my school when they fly out of here? Oh, and Professor, when did you start wearing a dress?"

That was followed by a girlish giggle, which sounded strange in the old-woman’s voice. He frowned. "This is not a dress! It is a-"

But she had turned back to tidying up, and he knew the trance had taken hold again. He would not learn anything more here. He stepped out through the opening, looking both ways, but nothing else had changed. The storm was yet some ways in the distance. He pulled himself erect and brushed some dust off his clothing. He touched the hem of his garment and lifted it, looking down and frowning again.

"Dress, indeed! Why there is so much disrespect for the ancient ways, I will never under-"

He sensed it, whatever it was, before he saw it and then heard it. A presence that he felt. Lifting his eyes upward, he saw what looked like a rainbow trail flash low across the sky only for a second, then it was gone. But some of the rainbow’s colors were missing. The flash was followed by a faint ‘whooshing’ sound. It was almost the sound of an incoming missile, and perhaps it was more of what had destroyed the city. But the expected explosion never followed.

He estimated the point in the horizon where whatever it was might have touched down, and set off in that direction. He felt even more certain that the battle with Aku would indeed be joined, and soon. The rumbling of thunder in the distance seemed once again to confirm it.