Jay pulled up a chair. "So, Harumi, do you want to tell us how you survived? I mean, I'm pretty sure I saw you die. Nya, you saw her die, right?" "Yup. I most certainly saw her die. The building cracked down on you. So tell me." Nya leaned in closer, just a bit too close for comfort. "How did you survive?"
Harumi leaned back in her chair. She seemed nervous. Jay cleared his throat. "Harumi, we're not going to kill you. I mean, a lot of us are pretty pissed" He looked at Nya "but we're no murderers." Suddenly, Harumi didn't seem nervous at all anymore. You could see the rage on her face. "That's my problem with you, dickhead. You didn't kill Pythor. You didn't kill the Great Devourer. Speaking off, I heard you met the bastard again today? Please just tell me he died a painful death." Nya's face darkened. "That's non of your damn buissines. Now answer our fucking question."
"Alright. If you insist." Harumi threw her head forward, and her facial expressions shattered like glass. "The building came down on me. It broke my spine and left me with at least three concussions. For the first few hours, I couldn't worry because I was knocked out. Afterwards, I didn't worry because I believed someone would come for me. After all, I could see the outside, and so the outside surely had to see me. After a day and a night, I started to realize that nobody was coming, and that I was going to die if i didn't do anything. So I started crawling. You know, when I say that my spine broke, I mean that my whole lower half was shattered. I couldn't move anything beneath my waist and if I looked at it, i was more than happy to not feel anything in this area either. But I pulled myself up. It took my the whole day, and when I finally was out of the building, the sun had set."
She made a pause." Might I have a glass of water, please?" Jay stood up immediately, but Nya put her hand on his shoulder. "No. You can drink when you're done." Harumi sighed resignated. Her facial expressions had calmed themselves while telling the story, and she was the personification of politeness again. "Very well. A nun drove by in her car. She was buying supplies for her monastery. And of course, she picked me up. I was a broken woman, after all. The monastery was so hyped about me. They hadn't had any exiting events since they left home and moved to the mountains, so of course they treated me as good as they could. After almost a week, they had fixed my legs. Not in a way that I could still use them, but in a way that I wouldn't bleed out when rolling around in a wheelchair. But that was not enough for me."
"You see, that monastery, it was built to preserve
so-called possessions of the first spinjitzu master.
They were formed only a few years after his death. Just like that cult about the golden ninja, but more expirienced - and their holy objects actually were magic. They had a thing called the obsidian something. It looked weird. Two daggers on a handle, one on each side. I killed them all. Crawled to each their beds. A blanket rolled around my legs so I made less noise. I gutted them. One after the other. And with each, I felt my strength slowly returning. After the fifth, the bones in my legs had grown back together. After the twelfth, I could walk again. I saved the one who took me with her for last. Cut her throat. She deserved a quick death. Then, I dressed in her clothes. It's a very long walk down from a monastery in the mountains, but I imagine you ninja know that. Unfortunately, I lost the obsidian thing on the way down. On the other side, I got to test out my new strength. Do you want to see it?" And just like that, Harumi broke her handcuffs.
"So how am I supposed to do this again?", Kai asked. "You need to make his blood boil. Literally. Well, you need to get it hot enough that the venom can't survive. Cole, you really need to take this narcotic. Now." Zane usually sounded well adjusted, but at the moment you could feel his nervosity. Quite literally, as the room had cooled down several degrees since they had entered.
"I don't need a narcotic. I can take it. Ninja of earth, remember?" "Cole, that is exactly my point. The pain will be unbearable. You will probably use your powers in self defence, and that could kill us all. Now take the narcotic." Cole looked reluctant for a second, but then he swallowed the frog and swallowed the pill. While the it was taking effect, Zane described Kai his role again. After circa three minutes, Cole had fallen asleep.
"Now, Kai. And remember: Keep the heat at around 70 degrees Celsius. Too much, he dies. Too little, the venom doesn't burn out." Kai put his hand on the wound on Coles leg. Then, he released the fire. It felt nice. Releasing the fire was different from forcing it to come out. It was the difference between a tickling in his fingertips and a sword slicing up said hand. Now, the heat slowly crept outside, into the wound, burning out the venom. Kai smiled. Then he screamed. The heat was no longer friendly. It wanted out. All of it. Kai bled out, but it was his soul that left him. With a horrible expression on his face, Kai tried to pull the fire back inside. But it flickered out, more and more of it. Kai could hear a crunch, but paid no attention to it. The heat was at its limit. He was well beyond it. Yet Kai kept pulling. The heat slowly came back. It was sucked back into his home, with the thought of freedom still in its mind. Kais teeth gritted, and his whole face was covered with sweat. Then, it was over. All of the heat was back inside him. Kai fell to his knees. And the flame went off.
Nya jumped over the table and immediately put Harumi in a choke hold. "Stay. Put. Jay, go get new ones. Stronger ones, preferably." Harumi chuckled. Then, after the cuffs were on her hands again, she tried to start talking again, but all that came out of her mouth were gargling noises. "We've heard enough about your exploits. I'll count to ten, then I'm going to let your voice glands go free again and you tell us what you want. Ten." Harumi coughed. "And I thought your chokehold was bad. I want to talk to Lloyd. Where is he?" Nya felt her throat tightening. With the utmost self control, she could hinder herself from crying. Jay was not as lucky. Tears streamed down his face, though he held his head steady.
"He- He died.", Nya said. She didn't get anything else out. Harumis eyes widened. "Like... Dead-dead? How did it happen?"
Jay spoke with a steady voice: "A robber. We were doing a last round of patrolling. Someone yelled. There was a gunshot. Kai and Lloyd went to check for it. A robber with a gun. A hostage. Kai aimed for the robber. Lloyd jumped to get the hostage. The rest of us came just in time to see it. It hit Kai especially hard. He had sworn to- to protect Lloyd." There was a short silence. "That's... it? That's how the Great Green Ninja went out?" Harumi sounded disappointed. "Well, if he's gone, then I have no business here. I will see myself out." Lightning twitched around her, and she felt her throat tighten. "Don't you dare. You're a murderer, you even confessed it. The plutonium prison might not be standing at the moment, but I'm sure we'll find a cell for you." Jays eyes pulsed blue. "Look, I've had a hell of a day. Please don't try to escape, I really can't handle any of your shit anymore."
Kai woke up again half an hour later in a hospital bed next to Cole. Next to him, Pixal administered something that looked suspiciously like Aloe Vera on Coles leg. "Wha- happen?", he managed to utter. Pixal answered in her typical reassuring-criticising voice "Well, you made a mistake. Cole has the venom out of his system, but you gave him third-degree-burn over the entire leg. Also, getting your blood boiled is terribly unhealthy. Nothing compared to what happened to you though. If I were you, I'd go back to sleep for a few days. Your arm really isn't looking to well."
Kai looked at his arm. It was suspended in the air and wrapped as if mummified. He could, however, look at the bare skin on his shoulder. Or, to be more precise, the bare flesh. Kais skin started at his neck. As if in a trance, the ninja of fire looked at his arm. It looked a bit like jerky. The issue fascinated him so much that he didn't even notice the needle piercing his arm. Slowly, Kai went back to sleep.
"Please tell me we're never doing this again, Jay." Nya sounded done. "Why not? Didn't you like our good cop, bad cop play?" "No. Not one bit. I hated threatening her, and I hate her. I just hope we'll find a prison for her soon. Is there anything else we need to ask her?" Jay thought for a moment, but the day had just been to much. "No, nothing I can think of right now." "Then let's call it a day. You hear anything about Coles operation?" "I didn't hear any screaming, so he's probably fine."
"WHAT?", Nya yelled. P.I.X.A.L. repeated: "They are both in stable conditions, though Cole will take at least three days to be mission ready and Kai will need a skin transfusion as well as at least a month of rest." "How in the worlds? What happened to them?" P.I.X.A.L.s voice was kind and reassuring. The words were not: "Kai made a mistake. He lost control over his power and seemingly burned away all the tissue on his right arm. He also gave Cole third degree burns, but that's not as bad as what he did to himself." "I... I need a moment." Nya stormed off to her cabin. There, she sat down on her bed and looked at a picture of a happy family. "Mom, Dad. How are you doing today? How did you celebrate your Day of the Departed? I could really use some help right now." She paused for a moment, a singular tear running down her cheek. "Kai hurt himself today. Not intentionally, but he's taking all this so much harder than we are. What am I supposed to do?" She let her head fall down for a few moments. Then, as if she had gotten an answer, Nya nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad.", she meant. Nya put the picture back on the shelf.
"The snakes.", she murmured.