Spinjitzu - More Handy Than You Think

Down, MTR

8:02

"This is going to be the hardest part of your training. It will take the most effort and the most cooperation, but I suspect that it will come more naturally than you believe."

The Ninja stood, backs against the wall, in the little wooden Mental Training Room. The place looked like it was only meant to hold about four people... closer to the size of a closet than a room, probably only about eight by eight feet. The Ninja had to squish together to fit. They had been squished many a time already during their training, it seemed.

London sat in the middle of the room, on a wooden chair. There was barely any light to see by - the only illumination came from four dim orange lights in each corner of the room. The darkness wasn't helped by the three windows on the far wall, which looked out into a black void of ocean abyss.

"Mental Training works on a principal of fear-containing and self-control," London continued. "Here, we don't crush your fears, but teach you to control them. We don't perfect you, but make it easier for you to contain and control emotions and impulses. For you, it should be far easier than Azamat made it sound, but this only because of two things. One, you are Elemental Masters, thus you are already quite prepared to learn using Shauto, which relies heavily on those elements that you possess; two, you have learned Spinjitzu, which is another form of self-control."

Zane raised his hand. London nodded at him. "How does the training process work?" he asked. The Ninja listened eagerly, a little nervous despite their confidence in London's reassurances.

"Good question," London said. She held up a stone in gloved hands.

"This rock has the symbol for Hone. The first thing you will do here is act upon the symbol, using the correct ritual, which I will tell you in a moment. You will find yourself in a place - I can't tell you where, because it is different for everybody. It may be a forest, or a castle, or a mountaintop, or lake, or an empty desert. This place is simulated by your mind, soul, and Hone."

She turned the rock over in her hands. "In the simulation, you will feel fear. That is completely normal - your mind is adjusting to its surroundings. But when you feel that fear, you need to control it. Understand?"

The Ninja nodded.

London was still eying them. She looked about ready to add something, then paused.

She took a deep breath.

"I'll bring you out of your simulation after three minutes," she said. "While you're undergoing the training, however, it will feel like longer."

Zane raised his hand again. "What happens during the actual training part?" he asked.

London smiled, then shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "That's what's hard about it - Hone and the elements of your soul decide what your training is, not me. That's why it's different for everyone."

"Excuse me, but what do you mean by Hone and our souls decide?" Zane pressed. "Hone is a symbol."

"Hone is Shauto," London said. "And Shauto is ever-flowing, ever-healing, and ever-existing. It's always there, living through us, our bodies, and the land. Always being used. It is not just a force, but has a sort of intelligence - can feel when it is being used incorrectly. It's not just a magic or science, but an... energy. Does that make sense?"

Zane shook his head. "A little... But I do not see how something could perceive if it is not alive. You say it is not Ninjagian?"

London sighed. "You'll see what I mean when you use it," she said. "It's hard to explain, but Shauto does have a distinct presence and influence. Would you like to be the first to try?"

Zane hesitated, glancing at his teammates. Those who looked back shrugged awkwardly, a little nervous. The Nindroid turned to London and nodded.

"Alright," she said. She stood up. "Come sit down on this chair, put on these gloves, and hold the stone."

She pulled a pair of long gloves from her cloak pocket and handed them to him. Zane obeyed, looking determined but slightly anxious as London gave him the rock and he sat down.

"I'm going to tell you the ritual," London said. "And the you'll repeat it. When you do, you'll activate Hone, and you will be transported to your simulation. Any questions?"

"Quite a few," Zane said, "but I fear they would be irrelevant to the situation at hand."

London adjusted the Nindroid's grip on the stone. She placed it in the palm of his right hand and laid his other hand over it, so that it was nearly hidden between them.

"Repeat after me," she said. The Ninja all leaned forward, watching Zane's reaction. "Stat' pravda."

"Stat' pravda," Zane said, repeating her precisely.

Nothing seemed to happen, but London leaned back, looking satisfied. Zane sat, back straight, with his hands folded over the stone, eyes closed and brow furrowed.

She approached the Ninja, leaning over to Lloyd and whispering something into his ear, hands cupped around her mouth so that the others couldn't hear, no matter how hard they strained their ears. Then she whispered the same thing into each of their ears in turn. She said: "He's in the simulation. Nobody make a sound, and we'll wait."

They all nodded. They watched Zane with fascination - he was completely, utterly still.

Stiller than still.

Scrap And Junk

5:04, the day before

The screaming was terrible. Wu knew that it wasn't human - that Ed and Edna hadn't gotten hurt - but it still sent shivers up his spine. He huddled in between Garmadon and Nya, listening to the awful noise of the battle in the corner of the master bedroom, for what seemed like hours, but could only have been a few minutes.

It was a frightening thing. It was all dark, not to mention stuffy, and everyone could hear each other breathing heavily; he was pressed close against his brother and pupil, sweat trickling down his forehead from the combined heat and stress. The trailer rattled every so often, and trinkets from on top of the nightstand and chest of drawers toppled off their resting places and onto the floor... it was always followed by an angry, unearthly screech.

Nya fidgeted next to him, unwittingly shoving him over slightly as she rummaged in her jean pocket. Wu glanced at her, then blinked as she flicked on a small screen.

"What is that?" he hissed.

"My tracker," Nya whispered back. The trailer was again shaken, and they all tensed up, hearing something crash onto the hardwood floor and shatter. Nya pulled out something that glinted red in the light of the tracker - the hard drive - and plugged it into the rectangular tracking device.

"What are you doing?" Wu asked, gritting his teeth and moving his legs beneath him so that he was no longer crouching, but sitting awkwardly on his limbs; it was the best he could do while they were pressed so close together.

"Downloading the information... changing the passwords," Nya said. "If Eboni does get a hold of this, at the very least she won't be able to control the Samurai Suit, and very quickly here she won't be able to access the Destiny's Bounty, either..." Nya punched a button on the side of her tracker with the side of her hand, and a keyboard slid out of the inner mechanics of the device. She began typing furiously.

Another trailer-rattling shake. Wu braced himself between the floor and the wall, clenching his fists - Misako and Garmadon copied him. Nya stretched out, placing her left foot on the wall, the right foot on the leg of the nightstand, and her back up against the chest of drawers to keep herself steady as she typed.

Then there was a thud. The wall of the trailer caved in with a sharp craaack - the people inside screamed as they were pushed from their hiding spot closer against the chest of drawers.

Wu looked up to see what had happened, and it became apparent that the trailer wall had not caved in, but had been hit with something pretty hard. A fair-sized dent had been made, and there was a scream - this time, it was not the Whisperer.

"Edna!" came a shout. There was a slow, muffled grinding - whatever had made impact with the trailer slumped to the ground, moaning.

"The Walkers are in trouble!" Misako said.

Wu's eyes widened when he realized what must have happened. Something had thrown Edna up against the trailer. He could hear her on the other side of the wall, making strangled cries of pain.

"That's it," Garmadon growled. Wu looked to him, surprised; his brother pushed himself to his feet and scrambled out of the corner. "I'm fighting!"

"Gom!" Wu said, standing up. Garmadon ignored him and sprinted out of the room, throwing the door open and running to the Walker's aid.

Wu exhaled with exasperation, and stepped over his in-law and student. "Stay here," he told them. "I'm going to go stop him."

"Be careful!" Misako and Nya said at the same time, both looking up at him with determination in their eyes. Wu nodded, and sprinted after his brother.

"Montgomery!" Wu shouted, running through the kitchen to the open door of the trailer. He slammed straight into his brother's back. Wu shook himself, then realized that Garmadon had stopped dead in the doorway, looking up at something that towered over the entire junkyard.

Wu pushed past him to look, then froze.

It was something Wu could never have imagined... and was glad he hadn't. It was great and black and terrible, floating some fifty feet in the air, comparable to the size of the trailer, at very least. It was covered with spear-like, dust-colored bones that ran all down the length of the creature like armor. The Whisperer resembled a huge, flying, black, bone-covered snake, with a great, jutting jaw filled with teeth from every sort of predator Wu could think of.

Ed stood in the sand beneath it, clutching his arm; the grit around him was red and blood-soaked.

The monster shifted its massive, bony head from Ed to the brothers in the doorway of the trailer. Wu felt his heart skip a beat.

Empty eyes.

Eyes that seem to swallow his soul, leaving him with an awful sense of hopelessness and despair.

Then it parted its jaws, the bones scraping against each other and clacking together like an incarnated skeleton's, and gave a resolve-shattering, blood-chilling roar.

"Oh, Overlord," Garmadon swore.

"Get back inside!" Ed shouted, waving his bloodied arm for them to go.

Garmadon looked at him, then promptly ran outside around to the back of the trailer, where Edna had slammed into it. Wu was faced with no choice but to follow, but his heart thumped wildly, knowing he was exposing his back to the Whisperer.

"Edna!" Garmadon said, skidding to a halt in the sand. Wu stopped just behind him; the old woman was slumped in the sand, blood trickling from her forehead, moaning. She clutched a rock in her gloved hand. Garmadon clenched his fists, then leaned down and picked her up.

A shadow fell over them. Wu looked up, dreading what he knew he would see. The Whisperer swam through the air like an enormous, nightmarish eel, bone armor fitting together like the pieces of an intricate puzzle, allowing a smooth transition from one movement to the next. Then, to Wu's fascinated horror, it twisted its huge, patchwork skull upside down and grinned at them, teeth sticking out at strange and frightening angles. Wu felt all his breath - and determination - desert him.

"Gom!" he said. Garmadon looked up from the woman in his arms and blanched.

The Whisperer opened its mouth to roar again. There was a blinding green flash, and Wu and Garmadon both ducked to the ground, shielding their eyes against the light - the Whisperer screamed.

When the screaming didn't stop, Wu hesitantly looked up. The Whisperer was shying away from them, shrinking back as if it was afraid of them. The massive creature spasmed and cried out; its bony armor was dissolving, empty eyes narrowed to agonized slits against the still brightly shining green light.

Wu looked to the source of the light. It was coming from the other side of the trailer; it was coming from Ed.

"It's hurt!" Garmadon said. "Wu, hurry! We need to run now!"

Wu nodded and scrambled through the sand after his brother. They ran from the Whisperer, back around to Ed.

The screaming stopped. For a moment, everything seemed deathly silent - things moved as fast as ever, but the lack of the roar gave Wu a feeling of horrifying loss as he tripped over himself and the sand running from the nightmare that was sure to end them...

But they rounded the corner, and Ed was collapsed on the ground. The blinding light, like the screaming, was gone.

Wu's heart pounded in his ears. "Ed!" he called. They ran to him, and Wu leaned down to help him stand, just as Nya and Misako came outside.

"What..." Garmadon said, panting. "the heck... was that?"

"Whisperer," Ed choked. He leaned on Wu for support, and the Sensei grabbed his shoulders to keep him steady. "Powerful one at that. That's the first time in years I've used Shauto... we're out of practice."

"Where is it now?" Nya demanded, when she and Misako reached them. "The Whisperer, I mean... where did it go?"

"Killed it," Ed said breathlessly. "Using Shauto."

"Shauto... that was the big flash?" Garmadon said.

"Yes..." Ed's eyes widened, and he leaned forward suddenly. "Edna!"

"Here," Garmadon said. He let Edna slide out of his arms, and Ed jumped forward to her, helping her stand up straight.

"Oh, Ed," Edna said. "Ed, dear, I'm fine... I just need to Heal."

Ed nodded, and rummaged in his overalls. He handed her a rock with a strange symbol on it... Wu watched her bring the stone to her lips and whisper something.

In an instant, the wound in her head was healed. Wu almost couldn't believe his eyes - the lines on her gloves glowed green, and the skin mended back together smoothly. It didn't even scab.

"How -?" Misako said. She, Nya and Garmadon were just as awestruck.

"Again, Shauto," Ed said. He took the stone from her, held it in his gloved hands, brought it to his mouth and said something inaudible. He looked down at his arm, and as expected, the blood stopped flowing and the scratch healed.

He turned to his guests and gave a tired smile. "You'd never guess how long it took to perfect that," he said, chuckling at the looks on their faces. "Normally, you'd need a vial of mint."

"Wow," Wu murmured.

"Is anyone hurt?" Edna said.

"No," Garmadon said. "I see now why we couldn't fight that thing... that was..."

Ed frowned. "If a Whisperer that powerful was assigned to follow and capture you," he said, "then you're in more trouble than we thought. I thought I recognized that magic, but this proves it..."

"Proves what?" Nya said urgently.

The Walkers looked at each other. "Come inside," Edna said. "It's getting late. We'll explain everything over dinner."

"Dinner?" Garmadon said. He looked both relieved and disturbed. "You just fought that nightmare and now all you can think of is dinner? Are you both completely insane?"

"Of course," Ed said. Wu wasn't sure if it was in answer to if the first question or the second... perhaps both. "Shauto is exhausting, and I'm famished. Come on inside and we'll tell you everything about what a dangerous predicament we're in! Edna makes good tacos!"

And off they marched to the trailer.

Garmadon exchanged perturbed looks with Wu, but no one argued. After all, Ed and Edna were right about one thing - they all needed a good taco right about then.

Down, MTR

8:05

Zane opened his eyes.

"How was it?" London said.

Zane blinked. He looked up at London, his face blank.

Just as I suspected, London thought, and she let a grin spread over her face.

"It was... dull," Zane admitted. "Nothing much happened. I fail to see the merit in completing such an exercise. I do not feel at all how Azamat described. I feel... unchanged. Ordinary. Standard."

London took his hand and pulled him to his feet, the smile still plastered on her features. She took the Hone rock from him.

"You will all forget that this ever happened," she said. "Come with me... now we will begin your real training."

The Ninja all stood, stock-still, as London walked casually from Zane to the door and pulled it open. London paused, then turned around. "Are you coming?" she said.

They all scrambled after her hastily; everyone looked hopelessly confused.

"Mrs. Brookstone?" Lloyd said as they followed her down the hall.

"It's just London," she said.

"Ah, London... what was that about?"

London stopped three doors down from the MTR at the end of the hall. She turned around and flashed a smile.

"That was an experiment," she said. "That method, the Hone method, is what I used to train Amilia, Azamat, December, and Gahiji. It is the standard Shauto mental preparation method... but, just as I suspected, it doesn't work on you."

She opened the door. The Ninja peered inside; it looked like a huge training course, but not one the Ninja had ever seen before. It was the size of a gym. A lot of the equipment they had seen before in Sensei Wu's training course back in the old Monastery, like the dummies, falling axes and weighted poles, but most of it they had never encountered.

Amilia was across the room, appearing to be waist deep in a pit of sludge.

"The Physical Training Room," London said, stepping inside.

"Wait," Jay said, catching up to her. "Wait, so why doesn't it work on us?"

"I can only guess," London said. "But I think it has something to do with the fact that you all know Spinjitzu."

They all stopped in front of the training equipment. London stood on tiptoe and waved at Amilia.

Amilia turned around, wiping her forehead with the sleeve of her suit - her forearms were covered in mud from the pit. She waved back.

"Hi!" London said.

"I thought you were training?" Amilia said, noticing the Ninja all standing behind London and giving the teenage girl strange looks. She grinned, as if her standing in the middle of a mud pit was the most normal thing in the world - and for all they knew, it was.

"Yeah, we are, but do you remember that one theory I told you about?"

"The Spinjitzu theory?"

"Yeah."

"Ahh, I see. Well don't let me get in the way. Am I a distraction?"

"I don't know," London said. She turned around and raised her eyebrows at the Ninja. "Is she a distraction?"

The Ninja shook their heads awkwardly.

"Nope," London called back. "Just keep doing your thing. We'll stay out of your way."

Amilia shrugged. "Just as long as I'm not in your way," she said, and continued wading through the mud, searching for something in the muck.

London turned and led the Ninja past Amilia to a clear space between training equipment.

"Just out of curiosity," Lloyd said, glancing over his shoulder at Amilia, "what is she doing?"

"Oh, she's experimenting," London said. "She's trying to create a more durable pen. You know, the one that December used to draw the symbol for Rescue on the rock? Amilia's trying to make it withstand more pressure, water-proof, fire-proof, and apparently mud-proof. Seems like a silly thing, but we rely heavily on those pens as a backup in case something happens to the original stone."

"... Aha." Lloyd watched Amilia pull a once-white pen out of the mud, look it over, and sigh. She tossed it over her shoulder onto the ground next to the pit and grabbed the next pen from a case next to it.

London stopped them, then gently nudged them into a line - they compensated. "Now," she said. "I think - at least, this is my theory - that you five are not affected by the Hone training method because you have learned Spinjitzu. Spinjitzu is another form of mental training that does practically the same thing; renders your fears immobile and allows extreme control over yourself. The only differences are that Spinjitzu often promotes emotional health much more efficiently, and does not have a lasting effect, as well as takes much longer to process."

The Ninja nodded, mystified.

London sighed. "In other words, Spinjitzu and Hone are basically the same thing, but one is easier than the other," she said.

"So, we're going to try something different. You have already learned Spinjitzu and earned your True Potential, so you are as prepared as you can be to learn Shauto. I suspect that it won't be hard; after all, your Elements are already so in tune with Shauto, and you know yourselves well. All it will take is practice.

"Who will help me demonstrate?"

No one raised their hand at first. Then Jay lifted his hand in the air.

"Walker, perfect," London said. Jay stepped out of line and approached her. "Alright, Walker, if you would... please perform Spinjitzu for me."

Jay nodded. With barely a moment's hesitation, he tensed, then spun around in a burst of bright blues and whites, creating a swirling whirlwind of shocking color. London and the Ninja stepped back, and Amilia looked up from her mud.

Jay halted, and the blinding tornado disappeared, leaving a faint crackling of static electricity hanging in the air. London smiled, and clasped her hands behind her back; Amilia watched with fascination.

"Good," London said. "Great. Tell me, Jay, how did you unlock Spinjitzu? When you first learned it, I mean. What happened to make you unlock it?"

Jay paused, then rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, to be honest? I don't know. None of us really do... it was just this kind of... explosion, I guess? It felt like something inside me just burst open."

"Okay," London said, nodding. "That sounds accurate."

"Wait... have you learned Spinjitzu?" Zane asked.

London shrugged. "Yes," she admitted. "It's been a long time, though. I never saw its worth until now, and I have long since forgotten it. But I remember that feeling, too. How long ago did you unlock it, Jay?"

"Umm. Wow, that would be a year ago now. I think?" he turned to the others for confirmation.

"More like a year and a half," Cole said.

"Year and a half," Jay said.

"Wonderful," London said. "Perfect. So, what I want you to do, I think..." She pondered for a moment.

Amilia spoke from the mud pit just a few yards away. "You could have them practice Spinjitzu as their training," she said. London nodded as she talked. "With a stone, maybe, and the Connection Rivers. Maybe have them train in between two Periods that would be marked out on the floor."

"That sounds doable," London said, nodding. "Yes, that sounds like it would work. Connecting them to Shauto while they train, therefore allowing the energy to bond with them more readily... good idea, Amilia. But they'd need a stronger bond than that. It's one thing to just hold the symbol, but using it is usually far more effective."

"They could take a mint," Amilia said. "One of the forties should do it, don't you think?"

"Ah!" London snapped her fingers. "Brilliant. Awesome. Of course."

Cole chuckled. "Mind telling us what's so brilliant?" he said.

"Yeah, yeah. So, for your training, you're going to be performing Spinjitzu. While you're doing it, though... wait here." London left them, jogging back around the mud pit and out the door of the PTR.

The Ninja exchanged looks.

"Your mom is one smart lady," Jay said to Cole, watching London run from the room.

"Apparently," Cole agreed.

London returned quickly, with five pairs of gloves clutched in one hand and five rocks and a black marker in the other. "Here, put these on," she said, handing a pair to each Elemental Master. "You can get these and the rocks from the Garage, by the way, where we keep the jets. For future reference."

They put them on - they were long and white with green lines on them, each running parallel from the tip of each finger straight down the length of the glove... the first thing they all thought of was Gahiji's tattoos, only these had no intricate markings weaving between the lines.

"What are the lines for?" Zane asked.

"They're Connection Rivers," London said. "I'll explain in a minute. Have a stone."

They each inspected their gloves and the rocks that London gave them, which were smooth and cream-colored, ornamented with a green symbol; a circle with four different hooks branching out from four areas. There was also two dots in the center, side by side, like a pair of eyes.

"So," London said. "The gloves are Connection Rivers. They are essential to performing Shauto... you need something to connect to the symbol so it can flow properly. The rocks are called Shauto Stones, but we usually refer to them as just stones. They are handy for carrying around, while you're patrolling or fighting, and when you start running Singes you'll get your own. You usually carry three stones; Rescue, for defeating Whisperers, Shield, for defending yourself against their powers, and See, for checking your surroundings... Any questions so far?"

"I have one," Lloyd said. "So, you get three stones, Rescue, Shield and See, but why not Heal?"

"Good question," London said, pleased. "For Heal, you must have peppermint extract, and the symbol must be drawn directly on the affected area... well, okay, that's not strictly true, but it takes years of practice and studying to do it with a stone. I myself can't, but -"

She stopped talking suddenly. Her gaze flickered to Jay, and then she kept talking. "Anyways. That's why you don't use a stone for it... Heal requires direct contact, as it is not dealing with a soul or protecting, but is mending a wound."

Lloyd nodded. "Also, what is a Singe?"

"Well... okay, they're not really 'Singes', but we've called them that for a few years now."

Amilia, listening from the mud pit, laughed.

London shook her head and smiled. "The Five guard the City, Golden Peaks, Glacier Barrens, Yuj's Cliff - basically the whole of NinjaGo. A Singe is just what we call a patrol."

"Why do you call it a Singe?" Zane said.

"Ask Azamat sometime," London said. "I'm sure he'd love to tell you the story.

"But anyways... the other thing that you need to do..." London walked away from them and knelt down on the ground. She tugged the cap off of the black marker she had brought, and drew a hand-sized black circle on the hardwood floor, then colored it in.

She stood up and walked across to the immobile falling axes. To the Ninja's surprise, she grabbed the entire mechanism around the base and started pushing it aside.

"Give her a hand there, Brookstone," Amilia said, after about five seconds of watching the woman push. Cole nodded and went to assist his mother in moving the entire mechanism from their path.

"Thanks," she said breathlessly. "Will you get that other thing out of the way, too? The dummies? Yeah, thanks. Okay, so what I'm doing is drawing Periods," she explained as she walked to the other end of the gym. The Ninja followed after her so that they could hear what she was explaining.

"Periods are a form of punctuation in Shauto. And punctuation is extremely important." Here, London turned around to point her finger in the air at them as they walked. "Punctuation allows you to pull yourself in and out of Shauto whenever you need to. Granted, Shauto is as much a living thing as it is a magic, but it's something you have to be very careful using. If you don't take the proper precautions, you can end up a prisoner of it - in other words, lose your mind over it."

The Ninja's thoughts were jerked unpleasantly in the direction of their very own Ninja of Fire, who was in the middle of a session of Takigyo with Azamat in the room next to them. He was, of course, crazy for reasons completely opposite of Shauto, but the phrase "lose your mind" inspired the connection anyways.

London reached the edge of the gym - about ten yards from the black circle she had drawn on the hardwood floor - and crouched down to draw another. "Punctuation represents a beginning and an ending," she said. "If you don't have punctuation, then you have no beginning, and no ending, and you are never getting out of it. You lose yourself in Shauto, forever, and when you lose yourself in Shauto, you will keep using Shauto, lost in its energy, until you die from exhaustion."

She looked up from the second Period, but stayed crouched. Her electric blue eyes pierced each of them with a seriousness that was absolute. "You must never forget punctuation," she said. The Ninja nodded.

London moved a few paces away and drew another Period. "If you notice," she continued, "Your stone and your gloves both have punctuation."

The Ninja looked down at their tools. The stone's symbol did indeed have punctuation, in the form of the two eyes that seemed to peer at them from the center of the circle. At the end of the Connection River and on the tip of each of the glove's finger, there was a Period.

"All of Shauto must be punctuated precisely. There are no exceptions to this rule whatsoever - there must be a beginning and an ending every time. I can tell you from experience that you do not want to lose yourself in Shauto."

"From experience?" Cole said, alarmed. "So you've lost yourself in Shauto, then, mother?"

London shook her head. "Not me," she said. Her tone was solemn. "Azamat."

Everyone fell silent. London stood up, went back to the first Period, then moved a few paces, drawing a fourth Period across from the third.

"So," she said, her voice holding a finality that had not been there before. She suddenly looked tired. "You will hold the stone - in this case, a simple Connection stone - while wearing the glove and perform Spinjitzu within this box, only. You will also consume a mint before training." London leaned down and connected the first Period and the fourth one with a line of black marker, then proceeded to outline a rectangular box from the four corners she had made; the Ninja followed her wordlessly.

When she finished, she stood up straight and said, "You will do this for a half hour every morning of every day," she said. "Does that make sense?"

The Ninja nodded.

"Any questions?"

There was a pause.

Then, Lloyd said softly, "Azamat lost himself in Shauto?"

London sighed. She was going to have to tell the story, she supposed, whether she like it or not. She glanced at Amilia, but the teenage girl was wading through the mud and searching for her pen again, having apparently lost interest in the training session.

"Briefly," she said, softly. "About three years ago, when Amilia and Azamat first came here. He had only been in Hone training for about a week - it takes a long time, using the Hone method, to get the mental preparation necessary for using Shauto - and hadn't learned about Punctuation. A mistake, on my part, as I was the one training the twins."

The Ninja were listening intently. London continued, her voice thin and far away.

"I don't know what was going through his head, but he decided he was going to use Shauto to do something - maybe he just wanted to see what it felt like to use it. I don't blame him, not really. I might have done the same, at his age... But he neglected to use punctuation as he tried to perform See.

"I didn't get there until late that night, and he had lost himself for five hours already. Amilia had found him and had no idea what to do for him, so came to me for help. I'm glad she did. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't... he was reduced to lying on the floor, hands glued to his stone, quivering and mumbling to himself, incomprehensible Amidian - it must have been Shauto that put the words in his mouth, because he didn't know a stitch of Amid. He was pale. Bleeding, too, from his mouth. I used my pen to put down punctuation on the stone as quick as I could.

"Then he sort of... slumped over, screaming in the Amid tongue like nothing I've ever heard before. He threw the stone across the room and kept screaming until Amilia and I picked him up, snapping him out of it. I remember his eyes... those bright green eyes, filled with terror and things beyond my comprehension.

"He was put into intensive Takigyo therapy... Takigyo every two hours, very little interaction with anyone besides his sister and I for three months. His condition was very much like how Kai's is, now, only... deeper. More permanent. He lost his mind, exposed to Shauto's power for that long..."

London paused, then looked at the Ninja. They all looked stunned and sad. London nodded, as if she wasn't surprised at this.

Then she stood up straight. "Shauto," she said; the Ninja all looked up at her, surprised at her tone, which was no longer quiet. "Is powerful, wonderful, our only chance of winning against the Whisperers - and dangerous. Don't let what happened to Azamat happen twice. Punctuation, always."

They nodded.

London hoped they understood.