Enter the Nomicon
Chapter 11
~When the Lights Fade out~
"I did it again! I don't understand why?! Why do I keep getting those s-stupid episodes?!"
A tall figure paced back and forth in a room similar to a living room, but was in fact, just a dojo with home furniture. Another figure simply stood and watched the other figure pacing.
"Mmhmhm? Mfhmmmhm?"
The pacing figure paused and answered angrily, "I know what the psychiatrist said, and I'm taking those shitty pills the doctor gave me, but none of it is working!"
The figure of Mac Antfee then continued in his pacing with gritted teeth.
Man-Gong, the other figure in the room, furrowed his brows. The chubby teen didn't dare say anything more to his boss; he was trekking on thin ice, and at any given moment, Mac Antfee could lash out at him.
Ever since Mac's visit with the Norrisville High kids, he had started to act strange. Also, he would get these horrible headaches, and these strange 'episodes'. He would claim strange things like, 'I deserved the mask!', 'I'm the true ninja!', or 'I'll get my revenge on that stupid book and everyone in Norrisville!'
Not only that, but when Man-Gong tried explaining to his boss of him being the Ninja, the man would simply scoff and say, "I'm not the Ninja! I never was! Heh, that'd be the day."
After weeks of this, Man-Gong had told Mac to go see help, which was why he was seeing a psychiatrist in the first place.
Now, he was taking pills for depression.
The only thing Mac's psychiatrist would say was, "Mac you were never the Ninja; please try to stay away from anything even remotely involving the Ninja, especially martial arts."
It was the only thing the woman would spew at him, and Mac was sick of it. He felt strange, like he was forgetting something huge. But what?
Finally after another couple of minutes of pacing, the ginger haired man stopped.
He sighed, rubbing his face before turning back to his companion.
"Sorry Man-Gong. It's just, I feel like I'm losing my grip on myself. I can barely remember anything, especially my high school years! Well, e-except all the stupid things I did."
Mac Antfee looked down at his feet before closing his eyes shut, and was surprised when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He opened his eyes again, and looked up at Man-Gong with a sober expression,
"I-I just...I still can't believe I lost my best bud over some blondie named Marci. I even got his arm chopped off! I...I can barely remember anything else. God, why the hell did I push him in the Ninja's way?"
Man-Gong sighed softly before shrugging; he had given up trying to tell his boss the truth. What Mac had described wasn't how things went down that night, but his efforts to explain would only be in vain.
Besides, right now he was pretty unstable, so perhaps it was best not to mention it.
"You know, it isn't your fault."
Both Mac and Man-Gong jumped at the voice that resonated throughout the room. Their eyes looked around them, searching for the source of the unknown voice. They saw nothing, but just when they began to think that they had imagined the strange voice, it returned.
"Such a shame you lost your ninja camp. I'm sure you trained many young ninjas. Too bad that blasted Ninja ruined it for you, and you had to shut it down."
"What the-? Where are you? Who are you?!"
Mac Antfee frowned. The voice was familiar, but from where had he heard such a terrible voice? And what was that last bit about the Ninja?
Although, what was more important, however, was that someone had intruded into his home.
Suddenly, green smoke began to pour from all the vents surrounding he and Man-Gong, before a cackle filled the room. The strange smoke began to take form of a silhouette, and before them stood the Sorcerer.
Well, it wasn't really him, it was actually just a smoky projection of him.
Mac Antfee began to back away from the frightening figure. Whoever this man was (if he even was a man that is), he looked like something from a horror film.
"W-what do y-you want?! State your reason for breaking into my mansion!"
The Sorcerer smirked.
"Oh, but of course. My business is your business. I believe you have a couple of bones to pick with the Ninja?"
Mac visibly stiffened at this.
"What the hell? N-no I don't!"
The Sorcerer's wicked grin didn't go away at his reply; it only seemed to grow bigger.
"Are you sure? I do believe you just said you lost your 'best bud'. Whose fault is that?
"I-it was my fault, I pushed—"
"No, not even close. You see, the Ninja has a mind wipe ability. It can erase a person's memory of their entire life if need be. The Ninja made a mistake that you saw...I'll just have to bring back your memories."
The green being outstretched his arms, and green magic slithered from his fingertips and began to enter Mac's mind.
An overwhelming wave of pain hit Mac Antfee, causing him to fall to the floor. He cried out in pain and began to clutch his head. He tightly closed his eyes, screaming till his throat became raw.
For a brief moment, everything seemed to freeze. Mac stopped crying out in pain, and simply lay on the floor in a fetal position before a second later rising to his feet. He stood, swaying slightly. His eyes opened, glowing pure white. Then a familiar red symbol began to appear in the center of his eye where his pupils would have been; it was the symbol of the Norisu nine.
"I guess McFist is good for something after all," said the Sorcerer as he watched Mac Antfee intently with his beady little eyes.
Not even a second later, Mac's eyes returned to normal, and the ex-ninja shook his head before turning towards the Sorcerer.
"Now, are you ready to talk business?"
The ginger smirked darkly.
"Lay it on me."
As he said this, a surge of green magic flashed briefly in his eyes.
Man-Gong, who witnessed everything that had just transpired, stumbled backwards in complete and utter fear.
Had his boss just made a deal with the devil?
…
"That thing is going to eat me!" shrieked Howard as Randy snickered at his bro. Howard was cowering behind Randy's computer chair, in fear of the newly hatched Tengu.
"Aw dude, don't tell me you're scared of wittle baby Tengu?" As Randy said this, he outstretched his hands, holding out Takeshi, who cocked his head to one side, playing along with Randy's teasing.
"I-I just did! Now stay back! CUNNINGHAM DON'T YOU DARE COME ANY CLOSER YOU SHOOB!"
Nomi raised a brow, bemused by his student's and his friend's antics. Then he shook his head. As much as he enjoyed seeing the chubby teen terrified, it was time to go to bed. He quietly walked over to Randy and plucked Takeshi from his hands.
"I think it's time we go to bed. Tomorrow we have school, and Tengu knows what's going to change."
The others nodded their heads in agreement.
"Okay, but I'm not sleeping next to that thing, or even in the same fucking room with it!"
Takeshi, who was happily preening himself atop of Nomi's shoulder paused, and looked up at Howard and chirped, causing him to flinch.
Nomi snorted at the comment, and while petting Takeshi said, "I'll be watching Takeshi, so don't fret."
"I wasn't fretting, Chowder Head."
Before the two could break into another dispute, Randy quickly spoke up.
"Okay, so Big H and me are sleeping on my bed, and uh, you'll be sleeping on the mattress on the floor?"
Nomi waved a hand.
"As I said before, I'll be watching over Takeshi, so I probably won't even sleep tonight; the mattress is completely unnecessary."
Randy scowled, but he didn't bother to try to change Nomi's mind, and only nodded.
...
An hour passed since Randy and Howard had turned in to bed. Nomi was meditating, with Takeshi sleeping next to him on his cape.
Sometime ago Nomi had grabbed the MP3 player, and was currently listening to music.
It wasn't until in the middle of a song did the music suddenly stop.
For a while Nomi was confused, and he worried he had broken the gift Randy had given to him, but then quickly realized that the battery had died.
"I suppose all good things must come to an end sometimes," he muttered before sighing to himself in the semi-silence of the night.
Nomi's ears perked up. He heard loud snoring, and then cat-like purring. He looked down to see what was making the noise when he saw it was only Takeshi. The little demon bird settled onto his lap.
"I guess I should at least take a quick nap. You won't run off and destroy the house again, will you?"
Takeshi chirped in response to Nomi.
"Fine. I'm only giving you one chance. Break my trust, and once we're done fixing the suit, I'm sending you straight back to the orb. Got it?"
Nomi rolled his eyes as the baby Tengu gave a sarcastic sounding chirp.
"G'night."
Then the two fell asleep, Nomi in a sitting position.
...
Randy couldn't sleep. He had woken up at some point in the night, and had laid there for Ninja knows how long. When he heard Nomi whispering, he peered from his bed down at the ground. It was indeed his teacher whispering, but not to himself. He seemed to be speaking to Takeshi.
Randy had only heard the last bits with the conversation ending with a "G'night".
Although it was enlightening to the young ninja, as it meant his teacher had decided to get some sleep, he wasn't happy that his teacher had decided to sleep sitting upright.
With cat-like physique, Randy hopped off his bed and landed onto the ground without making a sound. It was a good thing Randy had been sleeping closest to the ladder of his bed, as it made not disturbing his friends from their sleep extremely easy.
Using his recently learned ability, his nose vision, Randy "smelt" his way through his pitch black room, thankfully, without crashing into anything, and/or bumping into Nomi or Takeshi.
Randy's fingers had barely brushed against the cool metal of his closet doorknob, when a terrible gasping noise startled him. He whipped around fast, using his nose vision, he scanned his room.
He found Takeshi cowering behind his computer chair. The little bird was staring at something towards the right of Randy; he hissed, his little feathers ruffling up defensively.
Following Takeshi's gaze, Randy found Nomi.
The redhead was gasping, wheezing, and having violent coughing fits. His body trembled with terrible spasms as he stood up on quivering legs, eyes wide in terror.
Seeing what he was trying to do, Randy quickly rushed to his aid.
Randy began to panic as Nomi seemed to be having some sort of seizure. He tried to grab hold of his teacher, but before he could, Nomi had slipped away. He was now lost somewhere in his room, staggering about, and crashing into Randy's belongings.
And, in his drunken-like state, he broke the musical device Randy had given to him. Tiny cracking sounds were heard, but Randy didn't care. Whatever it was did not matter to him at the moment. He was too preoccupied with trying to grab Nomi's arm and trying to calm him down.
When he finally grabbed hold of him, Randy tried asking what was wrong,
"Nomi?! Nomi! What the juice is going on?! Nomi!"
His words fell on deaf ears as suddenly, Randy's entire room was filled with flashing green light from Nomi's amulet.
With incredible strength, Nomi shoved Randy away.
As Nomi continued to stumble around, he felt a terrible skull splitting headache, and couldn't even cry out as all the air in his lungs was seemingly non-existent.
This cold, icy touch intruded his mind, searching for something deep inside of him. It was like a giant hand had grabbed something deep within him, and began to yank, trying to tear away whatever it was it was searching for.
What frightened Nomi, besides the fact that it was tapping into each memory of each ninja, more specifically Mac Antfee's memories, was that, how had it even intruded his mind in the first place.
A deep sense of dread began to form in the pit of his stomach.
Could it be the Sorcerer? Had the sinister entity learned of his existence? If so, what else did he know? What else could he know, could take away from his mind? Clearly not the ninja-knowledge he possessed, because why on earth would he be stealing Mac's memories back for then?
These questions began to overwhelm Nomi, and the familiar urge to vomit was strong.
Before Randy could even have a chance to react, a powerful wave of green magic sent him hurtling towards his closet, leaving him in a slight daze.
Recovering quickly from his sudden airborne state, Randy raised his head up towards Nomi, and his eyes widened in both disbelief and awe.
Nomi currently levitated inches from the ground, his hair whipped around him as if he were in the center of a hurricane, his amulet glowed brightly, and his eyes were enveloped in a white light with Nomi's familial symbol in the center of them, blaring a bright red.
At this point, the whole commotion had awoken Howard with a start, and he watched the whole ordeal from his spot on Randy's bed. He was mesmerized by this display of lights and Nomi who had seemingly caused this strange phenomenon.
Then just as this lightshow started, it ended, and all light vanished...
...including that of Nomi's amulet.
Both Randy and Howard screamed at the sudden blackout.
Too panicked, Randy couldn't focus enough to use his nose vision, leaving him blind in the darkness of his room, and to stumble and guess where his light switch was.
He felt around the walls with desperation until his fingers brushed against it. Without missing a beat he quickly flicked it on.
Randy had done so in time to see as Nomi's eyes roll to the back of his head before they squeezed shut, then falling to his knees, and fainting.
Within seconds, Randy was at his side.
"N-Nomi? Nomi! Wake up! Dude, this isn't funny!"
All the color had instantly drained from Randy's face as he shook his teacher only for the redhead to remain motionless.
He whimpered, flipping Nomi onto his back, and began to inspect him.
Randy expected Nomi's amulet to be sparse of all light, but was relieved to see that it was glowing; albeit, very dimly. This was a relieving sight to see, however, his relief was short-lived when he noticed a small trickle of blood escape out of Nomi's slightly parted lips.
Randy paled impossibly more, and wondered, what was he supposed to do? If he did do something, could he make it worse?
He was at a loss of what to do, he realized, and usually when he was lost he would have asked the Ninja Nomicon for help, but said magic book wasn't a book.
He, a human, was lying right in front of him, possibly dying, and all Randy was doing was sitting there staring at him.
Randy felt like he was slowly sinking into quicksand, but knew he had to pull himself out of it now, because Nomi needed him.
For better, or for worse, Randy had no choice but to do something, anything, or else Nomi would die.
Closing his eyes tightly, and taking deep breaths, Randy got to work. Rising up to his feet, with a newly ignited sense of determination, Randy sprinted to his bathroom, returning with a towel in hand. With shaky hands Randy began to clean up all the blood, gently rubbing at the corner of Nomi's lips and his cheeks.
Despite being The Ninja, Randy had never actually seen this much blood, and it frightened him more so knowing that the red liquid belonged to Nomi.
After Randy finished cleaning the blood, he grabbed Nomi by his armpits, and began to drag him carefully towards his loft bed. It wasn't surprising to Randy when he had difficulty trying to get his teacher to his bed. He weighed a lot before, and now being that he was unconscious, he was almost literal death weight.
Breathing heavily, Randy propped Nomi's limp body against his, and called out to Howard for help.
"H-How! Yo! I need your...help-! Grab...h-him by his...armpits!"
Snapping out his daze, Howard quickly reached over, grabbing hold of Nomi's upper body, as Randy swiftly ducked down grabbing his legs.
After minutes of struggling, (and scolding each other for nearly dropping Nomi) Randy and Howard had successfully gotten the unconscious redhead on top of Randy's bed.
Clambering up the steps of his ladder, Randy joined his friends atop his bed. He stared down at Nomi's eerily calm face, before shuddering.
Had he done the right thing? Was this all he could do? If so, would Nomi be okay? Or had he himself, made things immensely worse?
These questions festered in his mind, and all he could do to answer them is whimper fearfully.
All bravery and determination was gone, no longer coursing through his veins. And in its place, fear began to sprout in his heart.
Howard, who sat across from the two, was now unsure of what to say to comfort his best friend. He had been immersed in his own thoughts; mostly about how much Randy was caring for his teacher. It was obvious some sort of relationship had formed, and this left a bitter feeling deep inside of Howard. He was losing the silent battle for Randy, and he was going to allow it.
Or was he? Should he, confess his feelings? Would it change anything? Howard shifted uneasily. He still held a strong fear of rejection, but could he live the rest of his life not knowing the answer?
Glancing at his sad friend, Howard felt that right now was not the best time for that.
Then suddenly, a tiny chirp caught both teens' attentions, as Takeshi hopped up the steps of the ladder.
Reaching his hands out, Howard scooped up the little demon bird into his hands.
It was surprising to Randy, who up until this moment had been despairing, gave him a shaky smile. Takeshi had then noticed Nomi's unconscious state, and his mood instantly dampened.
Noticing his shift of emotions, Howard placed Takeshi onto his head before giving him gentle pats and rubs.
For a long time, nothing more happened. Nomi seemed fine, his amulet starting to glow brighter. No more blood trickled out of his mouth, and his chest rose up and down.
Despite this promising sign, out of impulse, Randy carefully lifted Nomi's head up, and gently slid his amulet off his neck before laying his head down onto his lap. Randy's finger began to run through Nomi's red locks, rubbing his scalp, his blue eyes training onto the amulet in his hand.
Watching the action in silence, Howard scooted away from them, his jealousy beginning to spike. He watched Nomi with envious eyes, wishing he were him, at least for the moment.
Unknown to these thoughts, Randy kept to himself, and continued running his fingers through Nomi's hair, tears beginning to form in his eyes.
This was an intense game of waiting that Randy was terrified of losing.
...
Nomi's eyes fluttered open. He quietly peered up at the familiar face hovering above him.
"There, there my son, rest now. You have fever."
He nodded before whimpering out meekly, "Mommy?"
"Hm?"
"My head hurts." His voice cracked as he said this.
To Nomi, the voice that passed through his lips was nearly unrecognizable. This voice was that of a five-year-old's, not a fifteen-year old who has lived for eight-hundred and a half years. It had sounded so, innocent.
"I know. Your father, your brother, and I will go to the next village to retrieve the medicine in the 'marrow. So rest my child. Rest."
This scene was unfamiliar to Nomi. This was a memory of long ago when he was a child. His parents and his brother Daiku would in the morning leave him in the care of his Grandfather and his other siblings to go retrieve the medicine for the terrible fever that had nearly killed him. Only his brother would return with the medicine, his mother and father to never again return.
It was among the many terrible memories that would plague his dreams, and yet at the moment, Nomi didn't care.
He relished the feeling of his mother's kind and gentle hands.
He stared up at her, his mother's hair matching his own, and was adorned with lovely cherry blossoms. Her long silky kimono sleeves draped over him, and her honey gold colored eyes stared down at him lovingly. It was so peaceful, and serene.
Nomi's eyes began to water both from the dull pain in his head, and the pain he felt in his heart. He missed his family so much, and all Nomi wished for was to wrap his arms around them one more time.
The lovely woman gently wiped the tears away.
"Do not cry. I promise you shall be better soon."
Then she began to sing.
"Time to sleep, time to lie down.
Sleep peacefully, good night. Time to sleep, time to lie down.
Let this child grow up to be a gentle person.
Thank you God, thank you for angels. Good night, sleep in silent peace."
The little lullaby had lulled Nomi back to a sleep he hadn't actually woken from.
...
It was small, but it was there, it had happened. Randy had felt the tiny movement of Nomi's body twitch. Still, this small action brought a great ray of hope, as Randy watched with teary and anxious eyes. He prayed that, at any given moment, Nomi's eyes would open, and he would be met with familiar chestnut brown eyes.
The unconscious redhead didn't disappoint. His hands twitched, his fingers flexed, and his lips closed together into a tight line.
This had been enough to alert them all. They watched as Nomi's face contorted into pain, before he began to sit up. He groaned, as his eyes finally opened to revealing how exhausted he was.
Before Nomi could even begin to process where he was, what had happened to him, he found himself being smooched in between two teens and a baby demon bird, and was met with a laugh.
Nomi had quickly found that the relieved and exasperated laugh had belonged to Randy.
Said teen, had tears streaming down his face.
Acknowledging these strong emotions, had left a calm veil upon Nomi's mind, and he didn't think twice on wrapping his arms around the two teens, along with Takeshi who had hopped onto his shoulder and nuzzled him.
After quickly composing themselves, questions were shot from left to right. Some of which, Nomi didn't know how to answer. How could he? He himself was trying to figure out what this all meant, what it could mean for all of Norrisville.
With the Sorcerer obviously now aware of his existence, not only was Nomi's life now possibly in danger (or that of the people's lives of Norrisville), but his and the ninja's identities could now be compromised.
Especially, since Mac Antfee's memories were no doubt restored. He was possibly an even greater threat towards Randy, who of course, was the current ninja. Mac knew not just the identity of the ninja, but was aware of Nomi's own existence as well.
Nomi's heart began to beat sporadically, fear wrapped itself around him, and it surprised Nomi that when he spoke up his voice didn't crack or break.
"You see Randy, I have no clue as to what the Sorcerer could want with Mac Antfee, what he's planning; if he's even planning anything with McFist. And the fact that the bastard knows I'm alive..."
Nomi trailed off. He frowned at himself, then glanced to see Randy's reaction to all the information he had given him, and thankfully it seemed Randy had understood the gravity of their situation (at least Nomi hoped so) before he continued.
"The Sorcerer will be out for my blood, after the ninja knowledge I possess, and if he succeeds in getting the knowledge, he will most likely kill me."
"And he might send Mac Antfee after me, and try to take the ninja mask too, huh?"
Nomi nodded, a bitter sigh leaving his lips.
"Yes, but we'll be prepared."
Howard shuddered at this new information, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Quickly cutting into their conversation, Howard yawned loudly, "Can we talk about how royally cheesed you guys are tomorrow? I'm honking tired."
Randy chuckled before nodding.
"Sorry Big H. Uh, me and Nomi are just going to clean my room up, then we'll head downstairs, and let you sleep."
It was clear with everything that happened, Nomi wasn't going to sleep anytime soon tonight. Plus, Randy wanted some sort of excuse to not go to sleep.
Howard hesitated, but gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"Whatever you say dude, but I'm going to sleep."
He buried himself deep into the sheets and turned away from Randy and Nomi.
Quietly going down the ladder, Randy and Nomi took in the scene before them. Randy's room was an even bigger mess than it was before, and Nomi couldn't help but wince at the realization that he had helped make his room messier.
He gingerly picked up Randy's fallen lamp, plugged it in and flicked it on.
Not missing a beat, Randy walked to his room's main light and flicked it off. The room was immediately lit up by a soft honey glow.
Limping to his black gym bag, Nomi dug around for the two halves of his bamboo flute, and took them into his hands. He studied them for a moment, before taking the broken pieces, and putting them together. Like tiny hands, the magical flute began to mend itself back together, and it wasn't long before it was back to its old self.
Randy watched in awe, and murmured under his breath,"Super Bruce!"
That caused the redhead to glance up at him and smile.
As Randy began making his way towards his teacher, he stepped on something. Looking down to see what he had crushed, he found he had stepped on the already broken MP3 player. Nomi's heart sank when he saw Randy pick up the broken device in his hands, because it was a gift Randy had given to him, and he all the same broke it. He watched Randy toss the now useless device.
After that, they worked into the twilight of the new day cleaning Randy's room, and spoke in hushed whispers. It hadn't gone amiss to Randy that Nomi was upset about the MP3 player, and decided to try cheering him up.
He smiled, and placed a hand on Nomi's shoulder.
"Hey, it's alright dude, I'm not mad or anything. I can ask my mom to get you a new one."
Nomi shook his head, though he was grateful for the suggestion, it would be wrong to accept such an offer.
"Thank you Randy, but I don't need a MP3 player. It isn't a necessity, and I don't want your mother spending money on someone other than you."
Randy pouted, but said nothing more to convince the redhead to take up his offer, so he only nodded. However, he made a note to speak to his mother about this later.
The two returned to their work, saying nothing more to each other, and it wasn't long before the room was so clean you could (for once) see the floor again.
Randy smirked at this.
"Hah, if my mum came in here right now, she'd have a heart attack from how clean my room is!"
Nomi's eyes widened before he grabbed Randy's sweater, and tossed it in the middle of the room.
Seeing this, Randy stifled a laugh that was threatening to escape him. He placed a hand on Nomi's shoulder again.
"D-Dude...it's a figure...of...speech—!"
Randy slapped a hand across his mouth, as more laughter tried to leave his lips.
Nomi's face turned bright red in embarrassment.
"O-oh. I um, ahem, I see."
Randy snickered.
"Heh, well let's go talk downstairs. We don't want to wake up How."
…
As they seated themselves upon the plush black couch, Randy spoke up again.
"So Nomi, when's your birthday?"
Nomi quirked a brow, giving him an 'are you serious' look.
He snorted, "Randy, I know what you're thinking, and I'm not telling you my birth date."
Randy grinned impishly.
"I don't know what the juice you're talking about! I'm just curious. Now, when's your birthday dude?"
Sighing in defeat, Nomi closed his eyes, and hummed to himself.
"I'm not sure about the date, but I was born on the day of the Summer Carp Festival."
"Whoa really?!"
"Yeah."
"Dude that's so Bruce!"
Nomi smiled.
"I suppose it's rather interesting, but it isn't really important. We still have a duty, and—"
"What?! Dude, it's your honking birthday! Yea, I know we have a duty to protect Norrisville, but your birthday is just as important! Isn't that something to celebrate? Plus it's only one day, and it won't kill you to have a little fun, will it?"
"Randy I've lived about eight hundred years without celebrating my birthday. I'm sure I can go another eight hundred years without."
"But—!"
Nomi turned to Randy with a serious gaze that said 'drop it'.
Randy's shoulders sagged, his gaze fell, and he quickly decided to change the subject.
"Uh, err—hey Nomi, can I ask something else?"
For a moment, Nomi was hesitant, but then simply gave in, and nodded silently.
"Remember when I had that crazy dream about your final battle with the Sorcerer?"
"Mmhm."
"Well, how the juice did I do that?"
Nomi paused briefly, trying to figure out the right words on how to explain this phenomenon without getting Randy too confused.
"You see Randy…as the current ninja, you can access the Ninja Nomicon with complete ease. Which also means, you can also very easily tap into my memories, though, I don't think I've ever had a ninja gain such an ability until they're junior level ninjas."
"Whoa, that is straight up the cheese!"
"Yes, and it also means you're doing a good job in your training."
Randy grinned, and puffed out his chest, striking a superhero pose.
Nomi rolled his eyes.
"A ninja mustn't let pride get the better of him. Now, is there anything else you want to know?"
De-puffing his chest, Randy quickly turned back to Nomi.
"Actually, yeah, there is. You mentioned an evil ninja who wonked up the Ten-err Takeshi? I want to know about him."
Nomi knitted his brows in thought. The story was a long one, and it was more complicated than anyone would ever imagine; he decidedly shortened it.
"Well...His name was Yashiro Nasir. He was a ninja during the 1800's. He believed he could 'train' the Tengu into a weapon, but instead tainted its heart."
Randy frowned softly. He had expected some long intricate story with life lessons and all that cheese, but had instead, received cecite bit of information.
"Is that really it?'
"No, but it's far too long to tell in one night."
"Can you at least tell me something else? I mean, I just expected some super Bruce—not that that wasn't the cheese, just that—"
Nomi chuckled before nodding.
"Okay, I'll tell you something else. I once gotten possessed by the Tengu when I was a small child."
"What?! No honking way!"
"Yes honking way."
"Whoa."
"Is that Bruce enough for you?"
Randy rubbed his neck, a sheepish grin on his face.
"Heh, yea."
Nomi smiled, his eyes half lidded. But then suddenly seemed unsure of something.
"Hey Randy? Is it okay if I asked you a question? After all, I've answered yours?"
This surprised Randy greatly, (and intrigued him) that an eight-hundred-year old being wanted to know something from him, and what could he want to know exactly was a mystery.
"Uh, yeah dude, go ahead, shoot!"
"I'm just curious, where's your father?"
Instantly Randy's gaze lowered, his eyes darkening with an unknown hatred.
This greatly surprised Nomi, who had thought he'd never see such an expression on his student.
He instantly regretted asking.
"Randy?"
"H-huh? Oh, him...he uh, h-he left. He left me and my mom when I was just a kid. I never really got to know the guy."
Randy shrugged, his scowl deepening. He despised his father more than anything. Maybe even more than the Sorcerer.
Nomi noticed Randy's mood change, and felt his own temper spike. Who, in all things wonderful and amazing, would leave (without so much as a second thought) Randy, if he, an eight hundred-year-old being, wanted nothing more than to stay. Nomi bit the inside of his cheek till he tasted blood, and finally noticed that while he had been brooding with himself Randy had been silent.
Suddenly, Nomi felt terrible for making these unhappy memories and emotions resurface.
"My apologies, Randy. I shouldn't have asked such a personal question—"
"No, no it's alright dude." Randy grinned. "Besides, we're friends, it's cool."
Nomi's brows knitted together, but all he could say was, "If you say so."
Randy turned away as he suddenly yawned.
"I'm pretty honking tired dude. We should...probably get some sleep."
"It is rather late. I suppose we should turn in for the night."
…
Well nothing much to say other than don't get nit picky with me?
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~ChihuahuaRocks~