NINJAGO: MASTERS OF SPINJITZU

TORNADO OF DESTRUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

KAI

Kai leapt into the air, throwing his right left over to his left side with such strength that it made his whole body spin. With his left leg he kicked backwards and turned counter clockwise, then kicking out with his legs with such speed and in such a massive spin that the world around him began to blur as his spinning became faster and faster and the technique became more and more natural. Moments later flames began to appear and soon were spinning with him until they surrounded his whole body. Once they did, Kai stopped spinning his legs and allowed the flaming tornado to do it for him.

"Ninja-go!" he yelled.

Kai could barely see his friends through the spinning walls of flame of his Spinjitzu tornado. The ball that Cole had launched over to Kai using his own earth Spinjitzu tornado landed into Kai's, and was then spinning along with the wall of flame. Kai finally decided to stop allowing the wall of flame to spin, but with one last spin he sent it over the net.

The four ninjas were playing Spinjitzu-ball, a game invented by Jay and its name randomly suggested by Zane. It was the ninja-equivalent of volleyball. They split into teams. Kai and Jay were on one team and Cole and Zane were on the other. They were separated by a net and had to pass a ball to the other side of the net by using Spinjitzu.

The ball went over to Kai's left where Zane received it, doing the same rapid manoeuvres as Kai had and forming his Spinjitzu tornado of ice just before the ball hit the ground. He spun for a second before launching the ball at Jay, who twisted, kicked and turned and spun himself into his Spinjitzu lightning tornado. Almost the same second that Jay had received the ball it had been launched back to Cole.

But before Cole could receive the ball a flash of silver appeared and took the ball with it. Kai turned around to see where it went. A spear had gone right through the centre of the ball and had now found a home in one of the walls of the Fate's Bounty. The ball was slowly deflating.

Kai turned around to see who had thrown the spear but feared that he already knew. Sensei Wu stood exactly where the spear was launched, his staff planted firmly on the ground and a furious look on his face.

"You four should be training!" Sensei Wu yelled.

"But Sensei! Lord Garmadon has been turned back to his old self and the Nindroid were defeated!" Cole complained.

"Yeah!" Jay was quick to agree with the Ninja of Earth. "There's been no sign of bad guys for five years now, Ninjago is finally back to normal, and we're training even though we've reached our full potential!"

"As ninja, it is your duty to train and improve so that you have a chance in defending Ninjago from the shadows that ever grow stronger!" Sensei Wu yelled. He turned around, obviously not wanting to discuss it anymore. But Kai wasn't going to let him leave without participating in the conversation.

"Sensei! While it's all well and good that you want us to become the greatest ninja we can be, what about Lloyd? We haven't seen him ever since Garmadon was cured!" Kai said.

Sensei Wu stopped dead in his tracks.

"Lloyd is preparing to go on a journey of no return. You will not be seeing him for a while..."

"And what about these stupid shadows you keep talking about?" Kai asked, getting more impatient by the second.

Sensei Wu didn't answer for a second. His gaze seemed fixed on the floor to his left. Kai could not see his face clearly, but he could tell that the Sensei had been scared of what he saw.

"Sensei?" Zane asked.

Sensei Wu shook his head quickly, as if coming back to reality, and then turned around to face Kai.

"If you are so interested in the shadows, then why don't you join them? Give your fellow complaining brothers a darkness to stop! After all, you are the most likely to turn and join the shadows..."

The way Sensei Wu had said it made Kai take a step back. Kai could feel the eyes of his three friends all staring at him, confused, but Kai's were fixed on Sensei Wu, who had turned around as if he had said nothing and walked back into the corridor of the Fate's Bounty.

Kai looked to the floor, not wanting to meet the gaze of his friends, especially Jay, as he would start asking millions of questions Kai either couldn't answer or was ashamed to.

And before one of them could say anything, Kai turned around and ran into the corridor opposite him. He turned to the right and then opened the door that had Kai's fire emblem on it. It led to his room. Ever since the ninja had found the Fate's Bounty, which was by all means an improvement to the now-destroyed Destiny's Bounty, the ninja now had their own bedroom.

Kai slammed the door behind him and locked it. Then, he went towards the shelf on the right wall of the room and opened it. If it didn't have Kai's drawings it would be completely empty. He pulled the smaller stack out and started frantically flipping through them. They were all coloured sketches, none of them very good, but you could understand what was represented in each one.

Kai skipped through them all, instantly recognising them all. The first page was the Destiny's Bounty crashing into the ocean. Kai and Zane were holding onto Sensei Wu as they leapt off the crashing ship. Cole was at the wheel desperately trying to steer the Destiny's Bounty until it finally could be stable in the air again. Jay was carrying Nya in his arms going in the same direction as Kai and Zane had.

A couple of pictures after was one of Kai consoling a crying Jay with Cole and Nya kissing in the background. Many after that showed A Skeleton Army battle mech aiming its gun at Nya, who was crouched on the floor and dressed in her latest Samurai outfit, Samurai Z, and Jay leaping in the way of the beam before it could hit Nya. Kai vividly remembered that day. That was the day that Jay had sacrificed a life without pain just so Nya could live but after still be with Cole.

Kai heard a knock on his door and then Cole's voice.

"Kai, are you alright?" Cole asked.

"Whatcha doing in there, bro?" Jay asked.

"GO AWAY!" Kai yelled, sounding angrier than he meant. He could sense the madness creeping up inside him like a spider climbing up your bare back.

Kai knew he had offended Jay. He and Jay had grown a strong friendship ever since Nya and Cole had gotten together. But he didn't care. He needed to find the right picture.

The drawing that came next was Kai kneeling next to Jay with a drip attached to him after he realized the consequences of trying to save Nya. Whenever he gets overly stressed he finds that he can't breathe and his body starts to suffocate itself. There were five chairs surrounding the medical bed that Jay rested in, but only four were full. Nya was the only one missing, and Jay's gaze was staring at the empty chair, knowing who wasn't there.

The picture after that was at night, the same night of the last picture, when Jay was allowed to go, and he had tried to kill himself because of Nya's supposed hatred towards Jay. Kai had been the only one to know about it, and that was another bonding moment. Kai had successfully stopped Jay in leaping off of the Fate's Bounty but couldn't sleep that night, because he believed that while he was sleeping Jay would try again and be successful.

A couple of pictures after that Kai found the one he needed. It wasn't a picture, it was note he'd written for himself. He read it over and over and over, and it seemed to stop the madness from consuming him whole. It said:

Kai, you're not who you think you are. There may be no cure for what happened, but you
have to fight it. Do it for Jay, Cole, and Zane. Do it for Nya. Ninjago still needs you. Stop
the madness and believe. You can do it.

Kai put the letter done and breathed deeply three times. Then, he put the letter back where he found it and stacked all of the other drawings on top. Then, he put the stack back in the shelf and closed it. He stood up and grabbed the bottle of water on top of the shelf, drinking half of it.#

Kai walked over to the mirror opposite where he stood. He pulled down the shirt which was covered by his ninja suit. The shirt purposefully covered his neck. He pulled down the fabric surrounding his neck and saw what he looked at every day.

At the bottom of his left side of his neck there was long purple scar. The skin surrounding it was stained with black and it looked like veins threatening to take over his whole body. They were causing Kai to get angry at nothing, to go mad. The other ninja, even Nya, didn't know about it. Every day the madness threatened to eat him whole until he couldn't control his own body. So every day he read his letter, and it helped calm himself down. Then he would look in the mirror and observe the wound. Every time he looked the black veins protruding from the purple scar seemed to get longer and longer and cover more of his skin. Kai thought back to how he got it and almost went through another phase of his madness. He shuddered.

He put his shirt back where it was supposed to go - around his neck so the others wouldn't see - and sighed. He walked towards the door to the corridor, unlocked it, and then opened it to reveal the three other ninjas waiting for him. Cole almost fell over as if he'd been resting on the door when Kai opened it.

"Are you alright?" Jay asked.

Kai hesitated before replying. "I'm fine."

"Sensei Wu said he wants to talk to you, Kai," Zane said.

Kai stared at him for two whole seconds, millions of thoughts flowing through his head.

Did Sensei Wu know about his scar? About his madness?

Kai gulped and then said. "Well better not keep him waiting..."

He pushed his way through the tight crowd, crossed the field which was only place left the open air on the Fate's Bounty, and then into the other corridor. It didn't take long to find Sensei Wu.