Chapter 5
The school year finally ended. On a sunny morning in June, Cole's parents dropped him off at the main train station in Ninjago City where they waited for the train for Jamanakai Village. The next few minutes was just enough time for Lilly to slather kisses and explanations to her son.
"Now you be a good boy and do everything Sensei Wu says," Lilly told her son, "Don't forget to make sure you-"
"Lilly, honey, let's not coddle him," Lou said.
Lilly sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just…I feel like I'm losing my baby all over again. We almost lost him once."
"I promise I'll come back once the summer's over," Cole said, "And I promise to call you every night before bed. Will you make sure Jerky's well fed and everything?"
"Don't worry, honey," Lilly told him, "I'll take him out for his daily walk and make sure he's cleaned up and fed. You make sure to stay safe and try not to get hurt. I know being a ninja can be dangerous from time to time, but promise to come back to us in one piece at the end of the summer." She hugged her son, kissing his forehead.
Cole kissed her cheek. "I promise. I love you, Mom." He went over to his father and embraced him. "I love you, Dad. I promise to come home."
Lou didn't hesitate to hug Cole back. "I know you will, son. Make us proud out there."
Cole nodded. "I will."
"The train to Jamanakai Village has now arrived," said the announcer over the intercom, "All passengers heading for Jamanakai Village please board the train now."
"Well, I better get going," Cole said, embracing his parents one last time before climbing up on the train. He waved goodbye to them from the window. "Bye!"
The train rode off upon the tracks, riding down for about an hour before they finally made it to Jamanakai Village. When Cole exited the train, he saw Sensei Wu there waiting for him with a girl who looked to be at least thirteen years old with blonde hair in curls and wearing a yellow kimono. She was looking down at her cell phone when Wu tapped her shoulder, pointing at Cole. She placed the device in her bag.
Cole went up to them. "Hello, Sensei Wu. Great to see you again."
Sensei Wu smiled. "It is great to see you again as well. I would like to introduce you to my daughter, Monica."
Monica nodded to Cole in greeting. "Hey, Cole."
Cole waved at her. "Hi."
"Let us make our way to our home, Cole," Wu said.
Cole looked around, but he didn't see a car in sight. "Where's your car?"
Wu chuckled. "I know in the city you are used to traveling by cars and buses, but in villages that aren't anywhere near Ninjago City, we travel on foot. Besides, the Mountain of Impossible Heights isn't too far from here."
Wu led them to what was known as the Mountain of Impossible Heights where Monica took Cole's bags.
"Where's the stairs?" Cole asked.
"I would like for you to test your strength by climbing up the mountain," Wu told him, "Let's see how fast you can get to the top before me."
Monica rolled her eyes. "I'm taking the stairs." She went around to the other side of the mountain.
Cole rubbed his hands together. "I can climb this mountain with my eyes close. Watch this." In no faster than the speed of time, Cole made it to the top of the mountain, but he was shocked when Wu was sitting in front of the gates drinking tea. Monica came up a few minutes later with Cole's bags.
Wu smiled. "What took you so long, Cole?"
Cole stood there, bewildered. "How were you able to get up here before me?"
Wu stood up. "A sensei has more experience than the student. Come, young Cole." He opened the doors leading inside Wu and Monica's home. "Welcome to the Monastery of Spinjitzu."
Cole's first thought was there would be neat stuff on the outside of the place, but all he saw was an empty yard with nothing but a pillar that held a small golden dragon statue. "I don't get it. Where's all the training equipment? How do you expect me to learn to be a ninja without training equipment?"
Wu chuckled while walking over to the dragon statue. "Watch this." He flipped the golden dragon up and revealed a red button. Pressing it, an entire training course came out of hiding from underground and made itself known. Cole stared in awe at the entire yard. It looked like the playground at his school, except way cooler.
"Whoa, this is amazing!" Cole exclaimed in excitement, "How does it work? How do I use it?"
Monica rolled her eyes. "Have fun, Cole. I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." She heads inside the monastery, closing the doors behind her.
Wu sat down on the porch, his teacup and teapot in hand. "Cole Brookstone, your first task is to complete the training course before I finish my tea."
"What?" Cole was confused. How was he supposed to complete the training course when he didn't even know how to use it? This resulted in the young boy standing there the entire time watching the old man drink his tea.
When Wu finished, he cleared his throat and said, "You have failed today. Maybe tomorrow you will do better."
"What?!" Cole yelled, "I don't understand! This is unfair! You didn't even teach me how to use the training course! How am I suppose to use something I don't even know how to use?"
Wu stood up and placed his hand on Cole's shoulder. "This is your first step in growing up. Learning to do things on your own. There will be a day where you will move away from your parents and you can't always rely on them. There will be a day where you will have to battle enemies without me always fighting beside you. Everyone must grow up and learning to be independent is the first step in life. You are welcomed to use the training course to practice on and be prepared to be tested everyday until you pass. And don't rush, young one. Have patience."
So from that day forward, Cole spent each day for the next three weeks training and practicing the course. Each day Wu tested him and each day it was the same. He failed every time.
But Cole wasn't one to give up so easily anymore. He would continue to keep trying and trying and wouldn't let the word "fail" get to him. He made a promise to his parents that this is what he wanted to do and he was going to do it to help Ninjago in its time of need. He never imagined himself as a ninja, but no matter how many times he falls, he always gets back up again. A ninja always picks himself up when they're down, as Sensei Wu says. He had no plans on quitting. Not this time.
Today was the day. Cole could feel it. He came out with a look of determination, showing his master that today would finally be the day.
Wu looked into the boy's eyes and said, "Begin."
Cole began all right. He breezed through the poles, rushed through the spinning carousel and dodged the cardboard bad guys, but when Wu was rushing to fill his teacup, Cole stopped him by throwing his wooden sword at the cup, knocking it out of his teacher's hand.
Wu rushed to pick up another cup, only taking his eyes off Cole for a moment before looking up from pouring his tea and realized the young boy was nowhere in sight. Where di ed himself.
He heard someone clear their throat and realized it was Cole standing beside him, holding a decorated bowl in his hand. "How many sugars do you want? One or two?"
Sensei Wu smiled down at Cole, taking the bowl from his hands. "Congratulations, Cole. You successfully completed the training course."
"Awesome!" Cole punched his fist in the air in content. "So when will I get to learn spinjitzu?"
"You already have. Spinjitzu is within you. You just have to unlock it." Wu stood up, turning to head back inside the monastery. "Your final test will be tomorrow. You go and rest up now. The next day will be a big day for you." He went inside, closing the doors behind him.
Cole took his advice and spent the rest of the day playing video games. He wished he could've brought along Jerky, but his parents told him that he needed to concentrate on his training and they would take care of Jerky while he was away.
He decided to write his parents a letter before bed, telling him that everything was fine. Sensei Wu is a great teacher of the martial arts and he passed his test on the training course. It took some time for him to finally get through it, but he kept trying until he finally passed. All it took was a lot of skill and plenty of patience. He told him that his final test to unlock spinjitzu will be tomorrow and admitted he's sort of nervous about it and promised them that he would do his best. He even added in wanting to know how Jerky's doing and wanted to see how they were making it in the big city. He sends his love and promises to be careful.
It was the first time he's actually wrote a letter without complaining about how awful things are going. After addressing and stamping it, he laid it down on the table in the dining room and went to bed.
It would've been a peaceful night if Cole hadn't of been spooked by a nightmare. The moment he closed his eyes his dreams took him into the mountains where he saw Buck chasing after him, reliving the moment where the boulders came rolling down and crashing into the man, knocking him over the cliff and possibly killing him. All he could see was Buck's body smushed like a pancake, a moment he wished his nightmares would stop making him play again over and over in his mind.
He woke up sweating and panting. Some nights he was lucky not to have that dream, but others he couldn't handle. There was actually a few nights where he would hide in his closet and his parents found him the next morning sleeping on a pile of blankets and stuffed animals. But most nights he would just go into the kitchen and fix himself up some water and head back to bed.
Which is what he did tonight since he didn't want to bother Wu. He had yet to tell the old man about his nightmares and made a promise that he would. As he made his way towards the kitchen, he began hearing noises. When he got inside and turned on the lights, he saw three little ninja dressed in black from head to toe and were on top of one another's shoulders. The one on top was reaching out over the counter to grab the cookie jar.
Cole gasped, quickly getting into a ninja mode stance. "Okay, what's the big idea here? Who are you and why are you raiding for cookies?"
"Cole?" One of the ninja said his name. It was the voice of a little girl and it sounded familiar to Cole.
Cole gave them a bewildered look, coming out of his ninja stance. "How do you know my name?"
The little girl removed her hood as well as the boy standing next to her. She gave him a smile. "Cole, it's us. Kai and Nya from Ignacia Village. It's been a year since we last saw you."
It hit Cole right then. He forgot that Kai and Nya had elemental powers and they also mentioned about having to train at a monastery during the summer. He didn't realize their teacher was Sensei Wu, but figured that Wu was the only one who could teach the way of the ninja for those who had certain powers.
He may know two of them, but the third ninja was still a mystery. "You two I know. But who's this one?"
The third ninja removed his hood and revealed himself to be a young boy with brown hair that almost looked red and electric blue eyes. He smiled and waved at Cole. "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Jay, master of lightning." He extended out his hand to shake Cole's.
Cole shook hands with the lightning ninja. "Good to meet you, Jay. Name's Cole."
"I know who you are," Jay said, "We all saw a video of you using your earth powers to stop that criminal in Stixx. Someone posted it on Green Tube."
"But Sensei Wu had to jump through hoops and hurdles just to make sure your whole body was blurred out so nobody would know it was you," Kai said, "So you don't have to worry about being revealed to the public about your powers. We have to keep them a secret from the public and only our families are allowed to know about it."
"Oh, okay," Cole nodded, "So why are you guys up in the middle of the night sneaking into the cookie jar?"
"Because that's one of the ways of waking me up in the middle of the night," Wu said, standing right behind Cole, "I see you have met your teammates Cole. It looks like they have returned from their journey."
"We sure did, Sensei," Jay said, "And we found the scroll you wanted." He removed a scroll out of his pack and handed it to Wu.
Wu nodded. "Excellent work, students. I welcome you home from your journey, but because you were trying to take cookies without asking, you are being punished. No cookies for a week."
"But Sensei, that's not fair!" Kai whined.
"We were just hungry," Nya said, giving her famous puppy dog eyes.
"Give us another chance, Sensei!" Jay begged, literally dropping to his knees.
"Begging will not make a difference," Wu said, "It's time for you all to head off to bed. We have another journey in the morning."
"Where at, Sensei?" Nya asked.
"We will be going on a mission to find Cole's golden weapon, the Scythe of Quakes. This will be part of his final test. To retrieve his golden weapon."
"I'm getting a golden weapon?" Cole was bouncing up and down in excitement. "Tell me more about it, Sensei."
"You will learn more tomorrow," Wu told him, "For now it is time for you all to go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day and young children need their sleep. I will see you all in the morning." He left the kitchen with the children following behind to make it back inside their rooms.
Cole stood next to his bedroom door, looking back at the other three kids. "Hey, I'm sorry for getting you guys in trouble. That wasn't really my intention."
"Don't worry about it," Kai said, "It's no big deal. We've been in trouble with Wu plenty of times. Plus this isn't the first time we've snuck our hands in the cookie jar."
"Or in the honey jar," Jay said.
"Or in the cocoa powder jar," Nya said. The others gave her a look, but she only shrugged and giggled. "I like anything that taste like chocolate. Don't judge."
Cole chuckled. "Oh, well. I'm just glad we can forgive and forget. Goodnight, guys."
The others bid him goodnight as Cole went back inside his room, hopping right into bed. He realized at that moment he never did get that glass of water, but he actually really wasn't that thirsty. All he hoped for was a dreamless sleep as he placed his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes to finally get a good night's rest.
He had a big day ahead of him in the morning. His first mission as a ninja to find his signature weapon that would protect him in battle. If there was ever a time to be excited, tomorrow will be the day.
COLE HAS A BIG DAY AHEAD OF HIM. FINDING HIS GOLDEN WEAPON AND MAYBE FINALLY REVEALING SOME SECRETS TO THE OTHERS. WE'LL SEE HOW IT TURNS OUT.
YOU PROBABLY HAVE SEEN THAT I HAVE DISCONTINUED MY MISTRESS OF SPINJITZU SERIES. WELL, I JUST GOT TIRED OF WRITING IT AND I WAS READY TO WORK ON ALL THESE STORIES THAT I'VE BEEN WANTING TO WRITE. I'LL KEEP THOSE MISTRESS OF SPINJITZU STORIES ON THERE UNTIL FRIDAY, THEN I'M DELETING THEM. WHAT'S THE POINT OF KEEPING THEM ON THERE IF THEY'RE NOT FINISHED? SORRY FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ENJOYED THE STORIES.
WELL, I GOTTA RUN. HOPE THIS CHAPTER WAS GOOD.
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