Chapter XIII: The Hair Dilemma
The Mountain of a Million Steps. The mountain which the Monastery of Spinjitzu used to be. Where the ninja and Wu used to live.
Yeah, Kai didn't care about any of that. All he cared about was his very last bottle of hair gel! The hair gel was the only thing that kept Kai's hair in spikes. Ever since someone put gum in his hair when he was nine his hair was stuck in a handsome slicked back way whenever he didn't use the gel.
"Why don't you buy another one?" Zane asked. He and Kai were walking up the steps to the burnt down monastery.
"I tried to," Kai replied, "all I could find was an empty shelf."
"Did you ask anyone about it?"
Kai looked like he was about to cry, "The man who made the gel passed and he refused to tell anyone how to make it in life!"
"That's horrible," Zane mentioned referring to the man's passing.
"I know!" Kai replied. "My hair will never be the same again."
Zane looked at Kai in disapproval while Kai just kept complaining about his "precious gel."
Once the ninjas got up they looked around the old monastery for any sign of Wu, but they couldn't find any.
Kai started looking violently under the wood piles where he thought his old room used to be.
"Why are you looking under small wood piles when Wu can't even fit under there?" Zane asked.
"I'm looking for the hair gel in my old stuff," Kai replied throwing a wood plank to the side of him.
"Are duty here is to look for Wu," Zane said as Kai threw a chunk of wood over his head and nearly hit Zane, "I see no need in looking for unnecessary items such as hair gel."
Kai looked at Zane like he was about to attack him, "Did you just call my life source unnecessary?" Kai asked.
"Hair gel is not your life source," Zane informed him.
"Well it feels like it is!" Kai yelled.
After hours of searching Kai finally gave up. He stood up and looked around to see that Zane was gone!
"Zane!" Kai called.
"Kai!" Zane yelled into the intercom.
"Ow! Zane. Where are you?" Kai asked.
"I'm at the bottom of the mountain and I think you should se this," Zane replied.
Kai ran down the steps and to the other side of the mountain to see Zane staring at a metal door on the ground.
"What is this?" Kai asked.
"It looks like a door to a root cellar," Zane replied.
Kai bent down to try to open the door, but it was locked. Kai felt his pants to see if he had a key on him, but he forgot that ninjas don't have pockets.
"Any ideas?" Kai asked Zane.
"I can't think of one," Zane replied.
Kai handed Zane his hair gel, "Is there anything you can do with this?" he asked.
Zane looked at the bottle, then the door. He noticed that the door had a crack in it. Just large enough to fit the top of the bottle in. Zane put the bottle imbetween the door and the crack. Being squished by the door and crack the bottle sent a huge force of gel flying into the room. After a while of uncomfortable noises coming from the bottle the door opened.
"What just happened?" Kai asked.
Zane walked into the room and saw a button on the other side of the wall dripping with hair gel.
"How much was in that bottle?" Zane asked Kai.
"Three pounds," Kai said regretfully.
Zane just stared at him for a moment before collecting his senses again. "At least it came to good use," he told Kai. "The hair gel did seem useless, but it cam through.. Anyway, ready to look for Wu?" Zane turned to see no Kai. "Where is he now?" Zane asked himself annoyed.
Kai was now running down the path from the monastery to the city. "I have to find another bottle," he thought.
After running for a while Kai saw the city. He ran as fast as he could, for fear of that old gummed up hair to show up again.
Once Kai got to the store he ran into the store and pretty much dumped all of the things on the shelf onto the floor. A women who worked at the store was walking down the aisle just as Kai was throwing a bottle of mouse over his head.
"Can I help you with anything?" the women asked.
Kai was startled by the women and hit his head on the second shelf. He got up and saw that the women was very upset with him.
"I'm just looking for my hair gel," Kai told her nervously.
"What's it called?" the women asked with her hands on her hips.
"Flaming Fury," he replied a little embarrassed.
"We don't have it," she replied almost immediately.
"Please!" Kai cried clinging to the women's leg. "I need the gel!"
The women didn't know what to do. She thought that Kai was crazy. Was this man seriously crying on her leg about not having hair gel.
"Do you want to try a different hair gel? We have an new one in the back," the women told her.
Kai stopped crying for a second, "What's it called?"
"Forest Fire."
"Give it to me," Kai said standing up and reaching his hands out like a five year old.
The women picked a walkie talkie off of her belt and asked a guy named Jim to get the new hair gel.
About forty minutes later Jim got the hair gel.
"Here, take this and get out of my face," she said handing Kai the bottle.
"Thank you!" Kai yelled running out of the store.
The next day Zane was waiting for Kai at the root cellar. After hours of waiting Zane got out of the cellar and saw a young man with brown hair atop his head that looked like fire. The man turned around and Zane realized that the young man was Kai!
"What happened to your hair?" Zane asked.
"I found a new hair gel," Kai said happily.
"And you like it?" Zane asked. He was very surprised considering how upset Kai was about his other hair gel.
"I love it!" Kai exclaimed. "It's even better than the last one."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Are you ready to look for Wu, then?"
Kai answered by running over to the root cellar. Zane followed and started to look for clues about Wu's whereabouts.
"I found something!" Kai yelled.
Zane walked over to where Kai was and saw a broken mirror.
"What is the significance of a mirror?" Zane asked.
"Look at it," Kai replied, "it looks magical."
Zane looked at it for a second and saw that the mirror wasn't casting a reflection at all. Instead the mirror had a bunch of purple dust swirling inside of it.
"That is not normal," Zane told him.
"Zane. Buddy. This is Ninjago. Nothing here is normal," Kai replied.
Zane went closer to the mirror and tapped it. Nothing happened. Zane turned around to walk away when out of nowhere a voice came from behind him.
"Please don't hit me again," the mirror she said in a childish voice.
"Did it just talk?" Kai asked starting to freak out.
"Yes. And I'm not an it," the mirror yelled.
"Sorry," Kai said.
"Why do you talk?" Zane asked her.
"Because I'm a magic mirror," she said excitedly.
"What do you do?" Kai asked.
"I give you one wish each," she replied.
"One wish each?" Zane said thoughtfully to himself.
"What do you wish for?" the mirror asked.
Kai looked in the mirror and saw the scars on his face. They looked so out of place with his new hairstyle.
"I wish for the scars on my face to go away," Kai told her.
"What is wrong with you!" Zane yelled.
"Yay!" the mirror said. She got rid of Kai's scars and asked Zane what he wished for.
"I wish to see Wu," Zane said.
The mirror showed a reflection of baby Wu but the two ninja didn't recognize him.
"Not that Wu," Zane said.
"I'm sorry," the mirror told him, "You've already used all of your wishes." With that the mirror started to rest and it was like she was never there. Other than Kai's scar less face.
Kai picked up a piece of broken glass from the mirror and asked, "So where do we go next?"
Zane looked at him and said, "We're not going anywhere right now."
"Why not?" Kai asked.
"Why did you waist your wish?"
"Because we only needed one."
"We needed more than one because she didn't understand me."
Kai wasn't listening to Zane, though. He was messing with the broken glass. Kai threw it up into the air and tried to catch it, but as he was catching it the glass scraped the side of his face that never had any scars leaving a very wounded Kai.
Kai grabbed his eye in pain and Zane found a first aid kit on a nearby shelf.
"Are you alright?" Zane asked as he was putting a band-aid on one of Kai's wounds.
"I think so," Kai replied.
Once Zane was done helping him Kai went over to the mirror. When Zane expected Kai to complain about just getting rid of his other scars Kai exclaimed, "This is so much better!"
"I don't see how this is any better," Zane said.
"This looks so much cooler than on the other side. And with the band-aid too...?"
Zane just looked at him in dismay and wondered where they should go next.
