Ok, here it is, Part IV of the Ninja series. People have wondered why would I post such a story on the internet if it was really true. Well, as I alluded to in one of the threads, the first part of this tale was written over a year ago, right before my return trip to Japan. The second part was written after my trip to Japan. Of course, I never posted them on the internet for obvious reasons. Plans were arranged though for the posting of the stories in the event that I would not be able to do so myself. That being said, lets begin.

This part was written within the last week.

When I got back from Japan I immediately sunk back into my daily routine, much of it involved around assuring my protection. I knew that if Robutaku or Colin were to strike they would probably like to do it at my home. Ninjas have pride and there is no greater place to kill a man than his home. For me, home is an apartment in NY. As you can imagine, I did everything I could to secure the apartment. The windows were impenetrable as possible.

My focus lied obviously on the door. Of course I littered the thing with locks, deadbolts etc. I also used one of those "door clubs" at night that props up against the door to insure that it can't be opened. My greatest concern though was that the ninjas would enter my abode while I was at work. I certaintly didn't trust a third party alarm company which probably wouldn't fit my needs anyway. At a local "spy & gadget" store I picked up a motion detector. This motion detector looked like a carbon monoxide detector and plugged into an outlet. The second tiny piece was attached to the door. If the door opened at all, the motion detector would pick this up.

The detector had a small green light to note that things were safe. If the red light was flashing, I knew that apartment had been compromised. Every night I would come upon the door of my apartment. Every night my heart would start racing. I would pull a ten inch wakizashi sword out that Seinsei Karurosa had given to me the day I said goodbye to him. He said he carried it everywhere he went, and now I do too. I can't help but wonder if he'd still be alive today had he not given me that sword.

The first thing I would do is to quickly scan the apartment. Then I would look at the motion detector. Upon opening the door, there was a 15 second delay before the red light would go off on the detector. This way I myself would not set off the detector, I knew I had fifteen seconds to look at the detector to see a green light. If the light was red, I knew I was in trouble. If the light was green I would go to the detector, wait for it to turn red, and then punch in a five digit code to reset it to green. No one else knew this code and I changed it regularly. Then, just to be safe, I would check the apartment anyway.

One night in December I entered the apartment following the same procedure I always did, wakizashi in hand. The motion detector was green, but there was a blue light lit up. This blue light noted that the batteries were almost dead and needed to be replaced. "How could this be?", I thought. The battery was supposed to be a backup only. I checked the motion detector and sure enough, the switch that decided between the outlet or battery as the default setting was pointing to "battery". Did I do that? Was it possible that it had been on "battery" all along, it no doubt uses very little energy and could easily have been set on "battery" for the ten plus months that I used this new detector.

After checking the apartment, I unplugged the detector, changed the batteries, and set the switch back to "outlet". I was required to enter in a new code, once that blue light goes you're forced to change the batteries and code or else the red light stays on for good. I added "checking" the switch to my daily routine.

A few weeks later, on a Tuesday night in January I got back to my apartment after a long day from work. I was quite tired and was looking forward to the next episode of 24.

I approached my apartment door. Heart started racing, right on cue. I pulled out the wakizashi and unlocked and opened the door. I scanned my apartment, it looked clean. Then I check the motion detector. Light was green, all was good. I walked up to the detector and knelt down to punch in the code.

The next thing I knew I was leaning up against the wall in my apartment. My head was killing me and I felt very dizzy. In my lap was a plastic bag. I was kind of in a daze, I didn't even look up. In the bag were two motion detectors and a receipt. Although dizzy, I realized what had happened. One detector in that bag was the original detector I had used. The second detector in the bag was the one that had the dead batteries and the blue light a few weeks earlier. A third detector was plugged into the outlet next to me, red light still flashing. Think about it and you'll figure out what was done with these three detectors.

I slowly raised my head. Standing five feet in front of me was a young boy, around eleven or twelve years old. I knew it was Colin, my son. In front of him he was holding my katana, which he had obviously taken off the wall in my bedroom. This was a big sword, slightly too big for Colin but I knew that he was old enough to swing it fatally. Behind Colin was a desk and behind that desk was Robutaku.

I was in big trouble. For about twenty seconds I just looked at him in his eyes. These were not the eyes of a twelve year old boy. They were cold, black, filled with hatred. Above me was a large mirror so Colin could see myself and Robutaku at the same time. Then Robutaku said "This is the man that killed your grandfather. This is the man that killed your mother. This is what you've been training for".

"Colin", I said, "Takashi is lying to you. I'm your real father!" His countenance was unmoved. I knew he had been prepared for this by Robutaku. "I told you he would say that, didn't I?" said Robutaku.

"Your mother is alive, Colin. I just saw her last year". Again, Colin was stone faced. I was sure the end was near. "There's a recent picture of her in my wallet" I said. My wallet had been removed, and was sitting on the desk in front of Robutaku. I saw a slight change in Colin's eyes. I repeated "Your mother is alive Colin, there's a picture right behind you in my wallet." "It's a trick" said Robutaku. "Kill him now!"

I kept repeating it and repeating it, drilling it into his head. "Your mother is alive, Colin, and I am your true father." Colin probably had always wondered why he looked more Caucasian than Asian even though he was supposed to be seventy five percent Asian. I'm sure he also noticed the resemblance between he and I.

Life started to come into Colin's eyes. His eyes looked much like his grandfather's, Sensei Karurosa.

It had now been several minutes that I was on the floor, looking into his eyes. All this time Colin had not said a word. Finally, he opened his mouth and spoke "If you are lying to me you will suffer greatly" he said to me. "Open the wallet father".

"This is a trick Colin. I prepared you for this and you're still falling for it. Strike him now!" Robutaku ordered.

"Open the wallet father" Colin repeated calmly.

"Kill him!" yelled Robutaku.

"Open the wallet father!" Colin screamed. I swear I heard Sensei Karurosa's voice in that scream.

Robutaku took the wallet, lit it on fire, and threw it in the waist basket. "Enough with these games Colin. This man killed your mother. I thought you were ready. I thought you were finally a man. I was wrong. If you will not kill him, I will" said Robutaku.

"There's a hundred more pictures on my computer!" I belted. "Your mother is alive and just wants to see you!

"Father", said Colin "Turn on the computer". Robutaku just stood there, disappointment clearly in his eyes. For about twenty seconds no more words were spoken. I continued to look into my son's eyes, I felt like I was still communicating with him.

Finally Colin did something that I never expected. He turned his back on me. He was now pointing the katana at Robutaku. I stood up. "Father" Colin said.

"What!" growled Robutaku.

"Not you", said Colin. I walked next to my son and he handed me the katana. Colin unsheathed a smaller sword from his back. No more words needed to spoken. We attacked. Robutaku attacked. All at once.

We tried to keep Robutaku in between us. Colin was incredibly fast. I once again was reminded of Sensei Karurosa. Robutaku was in defensive mode but in complete control. Finally we got our chance. Colin swiped his sword at Robutaku's stomach while I swung the katana at the back of his head. Robutaku avoided both, but put himself in an awkward position, hunched over with his behind facing me. I let out a swift straight kick to his lower back, thrusting him forward and down to the ground. Colin's sword plunged through Robutaku's stomach and out his back. Robutaku recoiled, but it was too late for him. My katana lined up his head again and this time it didn't miss. Robutaku's head, like his brother's, was severed from his body. The head and body crumpled to the ground. It was over, or so I thought.

After Robutaku fell to the ground I saw that his katana had been plunged through Colin's right side. Colin was still alive, but bleeding heavily. I quickly removed the sword and went to work slowing down the blood loss. He also had a hira shuriken (throwing star) lodged in his shoulder. As you can imagine, my apartment was like a mini hospital in the event that I would have to perform first aid on myself, I never imagined I would have to do so on my son.

I brought him to the bathroom. Colin was trying to tell me something but I told him to be quiet. I slowed the bleeding as best I could and picked him up.

I took him to the hospital but it wasn't good. Colin was in critical condition and I thought I would lose him.

I called his mother Melissa, in Japan. I told her that there was something urgent about Colin that I needed to tell her, that she must come to NY immediately. I didn't tell her Colin was here, I didn't want to get her hopes up. Melissa arrived the next day. I picked her up at the airport and brought her to the hospital. I think once we reached the hospital she knew what was up. From the moment Melissa met with her son, Colin's health began to improve. Ten days later he was out of the hospital.

Melissa and Colin are now staying with me, at my new apartment. Melissa and I are engaged and we will be buying a house in the suburbs in the near future. Hopefully this will be my last starring role involving ninjas. In case you're wondering why this "epic battle" didn't hit the news, well, let's just say that the Japanese government and city of NY both decided that it would be best to bury this story for reasons I will not elaborate on in this installment.

Colin is doing well, physically at least. But I can still see trouble in his eyes, he obviously has a lot to reconcile. He refuses to talk about his five years alone with Robutaku, I can only imagine the memories he wants to forget. I think he'll be ok though, the blood of Sensei Karurosa runs thick throughout his veins.

Still, late at night, as I try to fall asleep, I am worried. I still fear of Robutaku, even though he is very much dead. Ninjas plan like no one else. Sometimes a ninja will even plan for his death and well beyond. I can only hope that the overconfidence that Robutaku displayed as a child in the dojo persisted until his adulthood. For I know that if it didn't, this probably isn't over yet.