Kubo sat at the edge of the river. Beside him, a sweet old man was playing a shamisen. A thin white film covered his eyes. Kubo understood that he was blind.

“This is a dream,” Kubo said, sensing he was still asleep. “Is it a good one or a bad one?”

“See for yourself,” the old man said, gesturing to the fortress in the distance.

Outside it, a row of samurai wore the beetle crest. It must’ve been Hanzo’s fortress. The Helmet Invulnerable floated above the warriors, as if they were guarding it.

“The last piece of armor!” Kubo cried. “It’s here?”

“Follow the setting sun, and you’ll find it,” the man said. “In the place that might’ve been your home. Claim your birthright, Kubo! Give this story a happy ending!”

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.