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August 5th: The Ancient Artifact

The next day, I take another look at the sword and still wondering; Why Ashton is having a possession of an artifact? I tried to call them but no answers, but the third time, finally! Someone reached!

"Hello, this is the Sullivan's residence, who is this?" Sylvia reached the home phone.

"Sylvia, is your brother. Is Ashton there?"

"No, he's off to work, but yesterday, Samantha was mad at Ashton after receiving a call from someone." That someone is me.

"Sylvia, do you know anything about the sword in my suitcase?"

"Yes, Ashton confessed it, right after you disappeared. He said that he bought it in some local market in Fuji. He secretly put it in your luggage without asking. After you were gone, he freaked out, and told me not to tell Samantha and Henry about it. But it got slipped out. Oh, after Ashton left, I take a look in his room and found six swords in his closet." She said.

"The one that I'm holding, is it similar to the ones you see? Can you describe it?"

"Umm, each case has a different color, I see red, blue, green, yellow, white, and orange. And the grip part, each one has a drawing of a dragon. There's Japanese letters that say something in the case, but I can't read that." Sylvia can't speak nothing in Japanese nor read.

"The one that I'm holding is a black one with the dragon in it."

"We better wait 'till Ashton comes back, he's the one with the info."

"Well, thanks for the details, sis."

"Call me later, bye." She hanged up.

There's so many things that I don't know about my own cousin, he never told he was a collector. But, why he's collecting those strange artifacts. Are they're valuable? I can't stand this mystery to be left alone. I must find the smartest person in this village or maybe go to the library and find out much quicker. I took the artifact with me and off to go.

Walking down stairs, and find myself in the lobby, and see Toshi, Kyouji, Torahiko, Hiroyuki, and Kounosuke, in some silly conversation. They look at me in curious faces while holding a strange case.

"Hey, is that the sword that you've mentioned earlier?" Toshi asked. Even tough, he was the one who got that call.

"A sword! Let me see!" Kounosuke bursts out in surprise.

"All right, all right... look." I opened the case and show it.

"Wow, looks shiny" Hiro said.

"Does any one of you knows something about this type of sword, anyone?" I asked.

"I've never see one like that, must be rare." Kounosuke said.

"Hmm, never seen something like that?" Kyouji said.

"Well, my father used to be a samurai master in his early years, I think he can help, he's now a professor of Japan's history." Toshi Miyazaki had just say a surprising fact.

"Really!? That's so cool! I was about to go to the library to find info, but this is much more better!" I said.

"Come on, let's go to Toshi's house!" Kounosuke cried.

While walking, I explained everything of how it got into my suitcase, and the other 6 swords that my cousin had collected. Kounosuke then comes ups with theories of the origins of these seven swords. We were not sure, and the answers lies ahead of us.

Arriving at Toshi's house, I was stunned. His house was average like the other houses, but more luxurius.

"Toshi-san, why are you working as a steward in an inn while your parents are living on a stable lifestyle?"

"My father is in a serious condition, like you, he can't go to work. That's why I'm helping out the house."

"What his condition?"

"Back pains, but he can still walk. The doctor told him to take rest for two months and no work." Toshi showed a worried face.

"So, your father was a samurai master?" I changed the topic.

"He was, he's retired after marrying my mother and also his part-time job he used to work." He replied.

We walked in front of the door and Toshi pressed the doorbell. The door open. "Oh, well, hello boys, what brings you here?" A female husky stands in front of the door.

"Morning, Mayumi-san." Hiroyuki, Torahiko, Kounosuke, and Kyouji, greted.

"Mom, is Dad around?" Toshi asked.

"Yes, he's with Mitsuhisa-san in the study room." She then looks at me.

"Oh, Mom this is Kelly, he would like to talk to Dad." Toshi introduces me and she smiled.

"Is nice to meet you young man. Well, don't you boys stand there, come, come." We entered the house, in the living room it was well furnitured.

"Wow, this is the fanciest house I have seen." I said.

"You should see Shin's house, it's huge." Kounosuke said.

"Dad, your there!?" Toshi called out.

"I'm not far away, you know." A deep voice said, and walks in the living room, he was walking with a cane and he's in his late forthies. He does look a lot like Toshi, but older, with big square glasses. Walking along with him was another husky-man, he looks very familiar.

"Morning, Kenta-sensei, you feeling alright?" Hiroyuki greeted.

"I feel fine Hiro-kun, thank you for asking. So, what brings you boys here?" He asked.

"Dad, this is Kelly Sullivan, he would like to know something about this sword." Toshi said.

"A sword, huh. May I see?" I handed the case and open it for him. He picks the sword and analyses.

Meanwhile, the other husky-man looks at me with a serious and curious face. "Are you okay, young man? Have you been on an accident recently?" He said, he was looking at my wrapped up forehead.

"Um... yeah, I'm...," before I could say anything he already speaks.

"You must be the passenger from the bus, aren't you?" He said.

"Yes, it wasn't pretty, but I'm fine, nothing to worry about."

"Good thing you didn't suffered from amnesia, you could've been confused and scared and never find a way out." Kounosuke said.

"Kounosuke, that's a horrible thing to say!" Kyouji said.

"Yeah, what happens if I were, I would have described you, 'the-tanuki-with-the-big-funny-belly'."

"Oh, he got you, Kuono!" Tora said.

I turned back to the husky-man.

"You look very familiar, are you Kouya's father?" I asked.

"Yes, indeed I am, I'm Mitsuhisa Aotsuki. So, I see you have meet my son." He said.

"Yeah, he's a nice guy."

A heavy clear throat came from Kenta-sensei, I turned around and has something to say. "Where did you get this?" He asked.

"It's not mine, it's my cousin's, he's been collecting these rare swords." I replied.

"Does the others have a different color?"

"I think he collected a red, blue, green, yellow, white, and an orange and this one a black one. My cousin got that one in a local market in Fuji, he put it in my suitcase before I crashed here."

"So, what is it? Does it belong to the Royal Family?" Kyouji asked.

"Maybe, it belonged to some important samurais." Kounouske thought.

"Not even close, boys." Kenta-sensei said and he stands up from the couch, his wife was keeping an eye on him, because he's not using his cane, he did the 'removes-his-glasses-cliché' and speaks. "It seems his cousin has done a lot of trouble to find all of them. There was a time, in ancient Japan, the Emperor ordered to pick seven samurais all over Japan, to combine a group as the Emperor's guardians. The swords were created by a mystical wise dragon, to protect the temple and the people. At first I thought it was myth, because the swords and the samurais were never found after a huge battle and rescuing the Princess of Japan." He said. That was something, the guys were amazed. But Kenta-san began to snicker and then laughed.

"What, so funny, Kenta-sensei?" Torahiko and Hiroyuki asked.

"Have you boys have seen a movie called, 'The Seven Guardians'?" He said... wait, what!

"Wait! Are you saying that this 'artifact' is a prop from a movie!?" I break out.

"I never heard of this movie Kenta-sensei, in what year was released?" Kyouji asked.

"I don't think you boys have seen this film. It was released in 1973, it was one of the worst films ever made. Not to be confused with Seven Samurai." Kenta laughed again, so as Mayumi and Mitsuhisa.

"Oh, my Pacific Ocean!" that's my OMG version phrase.

"On the bright side. Now that your cousin has all seven, they could be valuable in the future." Kenta acted like a pawn dealer, he handed me the sword back to me. "It least is a real weapon, and no one knows what happened after all the seven swords disappeared after the making of the movie. I wonder what's he's going to do with them?" he said.

"I don't know, if he knows that these are just props or he's been fooled by some dealers. Well, whatever he did is his problem, not mine." I said.

"Wow, I actually fell for that, Dad, you really killed it." Toshi-san said.

"Well, one mystery solved, huh guys?" I said.

"Well, let's see that bad movie, so we can laugh our tongues' out." Torahiko said.

"You'll find it more comedy than being an action film." Kenta said as he continues to chuckle.

"Oh, well, time for me to go back." I said.

"For what?" Tora said.

"So I can call my cousin and tell him that he's collecting worthless artifacts." I replied.

"Why?" He continues, is getting kind of annoying.

"So, I can listen his reactions while talking on the phone. How much do you wanna hear from me?"

"Tora stop! You're driving him off guard." Hiroyuki said and he picks Tora's ear, hard!

"YYYYOOOOOWWWW! Okay! Okay!" He cried.

"Hey, Dad, do you have a copy of that film?" Toshi asked.

"No, but, there's a movie rental store in Kazenari. I think they would have a copy of that film." He replied.

"Oh, boy! A 'bad movie night' we should do that!" Kounosuke came up with a silly late night activity.

"We can do that tomorrow. My Dad has an important meeting tonight." Toshi informs.

"You just want to see the film in Miyazaki's new television, aren't you, Kuri?" Kyouji said.

"It won't be a problem, right, Dad?" Toshi asked.

"Sure, I don't see the problem. Toshi, you will be the host while I'm gone." Kenta-sensei said.

"Is it your wedding anniversary tomorrow? I forgot!" Toshi said in surprised.

"Oh, congratulations, Kenta-sensei and Mayumi-san!" Hiro, Kyouji congratulated them.

"Thank you." Kenta and Mayumi replied.

"Well, time for me to go, I better call my cuz." I said.

"Is a pleasure to meet you, Kelly-kun, enjoy your day." Kenta said.

"And I hope you get well." Mitsuhisa said.

"Thanks." I said and smiled and waved at them.

Well, what do you know, it was nothing but a prop that I'm holding right now! I wonder how Ashton will react to this? Oh well, that's up to him.

I went back to the inn. I picked up the phone in the nightstand and dialed the numbers. Waiting... waiting... waiting... someone answers.

"This is the Sullivan's residence, who am I speaking?" Is Ashley.

"Ashley is me, Kelly."

"Hi cousin, how's everything?"

"I'm fine, is Ashton there?" I asked.

"No, he's still working, he will come back later. Wait, I'm putting on speaker, Sylvia wants to talk to you."

"Hi, big-bro, did you find something about the swords?"

"Yup. I'm not sure if Ashton knows this but..."

"What is it?" Ashley interrupts.

"All those seven swords are just props from a movie called "The Seven Guardians", according to a professor."

"Really?" The girls began to laugh.

"Does Ashton knows about this?" I asked.

"I don't think so. He thinks that these swords belonged to some 'seven legendary samurais'. If collected, a piece of a puzzle can be solved. But now that you said is from a movie. Was the movie famous?" Sylvia said.

"Uh, make it 'the most infamous' movie ever made."

"How bad?" The girls said.

"Is a movie from the seventies, according from the expert." I said.

"Wow, Ashton is going to be upset about this." Ashley said. "He must have worked every hard on finding those swords and now, they're worthless."

"It least they are the original swords that was used for the movie. They can worth something." I said.

"Oh well, we better tell Ashton the truth. We can't lie to him forever." Ashley said. "Thanks for the info, Kelly, we love you, bye."

"I love you too, girls." I hanged up. What a funny day to spend it, a mystery was solved, and I can't wait what's going to happen next.