Disclaimer: Ninjago is the property of Lego.
Chapter 1: Destiny's Encounter
Ninjago City was an utter wreck. Considering the giant snake known as the Great Devourer had just tried to make a meal out of it and subsequently exploded in a tidal wave of goo, it was to be expected. As part of their civic duty as heroes of the land, the Ninja have taken it upon themselves to help with cleaning up and rebuilding. With his father on the run with the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu and his guardians preoccupied with their civic duties to the city, young Lloyd Garmadon, the prophesied Green Ninja, was left to his own devices as his current diminutive stature would do nobody any favors in the reconstruction effort.
Wandering through the city alone, Lloyd could not help but feel personally responsible for the state Ninjago City currently found itself it. Buildings were toppled, the streets were flooded with the Great Devourer's bodily fluids, and hundreds of people were displaced from having their homes destroyed. These were all the consequences of releasing the Great Devourer, and the blame ultimately fell on Lloyd. While the Great Devourer was reawakened by Pythor, the last of the Anacondria tribe of Serpentine, he was only able to do so because Lloyd was foolish enough to go around locating and opening the Serpentine Tombs across Ninjago in a bid to be evil like his father. In a sad twist of fate, the boy destined to be Ninjago's ultimate protector had unleashed upon it some of the worst evils it had ever faced.
As he wander the city, Lloyd's eyes landed upon a scene that particularly called to him. Sitting in the back of an ambulance parked under the wreckage of what used to be an apartment building was a young girl his age with blond twin-tail braids and soot powdered on her face. Next to her were two paramedics, a man and a woman, who were trying to talk to her, but the girl remind quite, staring off into space with dead eyes. His curiosity getting the better of him, Lloyd approached ambulance to investigate.
"So much for the Ninja." the female paramedic sighed.
"Did you see that thing?" the male paramedic asked in astonishment, "Lord Garmadon singlehandedly destroyed it. He's the real hero."
Lloyd grimaced a bit upon hearing this, knowing full well that his father acted mostly out of a desire for vengeance against the snake that made him evil and that he would have never gotten a clear shot had the Ninja not tricked the Great Devourer into biting its own tail.
"Excuse me." Lloyd cut in, "Is she okay?"
"Nothing serious." the male paramedic explained, "Just a bit shaken by the whole disaster."
"Where are your parents, child?" the female paramedic asked the girl, holding out a family photo she had stumbled upon the wreckage.
The girl said nothing, continuing to stare into space with dead eyes.
"My, aren't you the quiet one." the female paramedic mused.
Lloyd was young and had made a lot of stupid mistakes, but even he could understand what had happened. A little girl alone in a disaster zone with no parents in sight could only mean one thing, she had been recently orphaned. She got out alive, her parents did not, and now she was all alone. Lloyd could see why she was so quiet. He knew what she was feeling well. After fully scumming to the evil in his veins, his father had been banished into the Underworld. Shortly after, his mother left him at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys. When he failed to excel there, he was kicked out of the school and wandered on his own, committing minor felonies to get by, ultimately leading him to release Hypnobria, Fangpire, and Pythor from their tombs, each one of them serving him for a short period of time before they swiftly abandoned him. Lloyd knew what it was like to be alone all too well, only finding companionship recently in his uncle and the ninja he trained.
Lloyd was never the biggest fan of girls. He thought they were weird, especially the way some of the older ones fawned over the ninja sometimes. Heck, the way Nya acted around Jay when he wasn't panicking and screaming at the top of his lungs was especially gross. However, this girl in the ambulance was different. Rather than disgust or confusion, he felt sympathetic towards her. Her current situation was very similar to his own, and to top it all of, he was ultimately responsible for it. As a result, Lloyd felt like he had to do something, anything, to help her.
"Hey, Lloyd!" Kai called out as he and Lloyd's uncle Wu approached, "We've been looking for you, sport. Zane has been helping at a soup kitchen and we could use a couple of extra hands handing out meals. What are you doing all the way out here?"
"I was just wandering around when I stumbled upon… her." Lloyd explained, nodding towards the girl sitting in the ambulance, "I guess she just… caught my attention."
"What wrong with her?" Kai asked, noticing how dead the girl's eyes were.
"Her parents didn't survive the Great Devourer's rampage. Now she's all alone." Lloyd replied.
"I see." Wu hummed, "It would seem you've already learned the first of may harsh lessons on your path towards your destiny. No battle is without its casualties. This young girl is proof of that."
"It's my fault she's in this mess to begin with. I just want to make up for it, somehow. Would it be alright if we take her in?" Lloyd asked, desperation permeating through his words.
"Whoa there, Romeo! Let's not get hasty." Kai cut in, "I understand that you feel guilty, but we can't just take in every orphaned kid we come across. We just lost the Bounty and our Golden Weapons, and we need to get started on your training."
"I know, I can't help every kid who was orphaned by my mistake. That doesn't mean I can't make up for it by helping at least one person." Lloyd argued, unwavering in his decision.
"I do not see the harm in taking in one more child into our care." Wu mused, "At the very least, we let her stay with us until we find a suitable home for her. For now, we can take her to have some of the soup Zane made and decide with everyone else if we can take her in for the time being."
"Thanks, uncle!" Lloyd cheered.
"Ugh! Fine, but you're responsible for her, Lloyd." Kai demanded, "Let this be your first lesson in personal responsibility."
"Please, I'm the Green Ninja! I can keep an eye on one girl." Lloyd boasted.
"Watch your phrasing, squirt. She might think you're a creeper." Kai joked as he approached the girl in the ambulance. "Hey, mind if we take her off your hands? Our friend is helping out at a soup kitchen not too far from here, and I think a hot meal would be good for her."
"I suppose that should be fine." the male paramedic mused, "She doesn't appear to need any physical treatment, so she shouldn't need to go a hospital or med center."
"Here you go, child." the female paramedic said as she handed the girl her family photo, "Keep this close now."
The girl took the photo quietly, staring at it with glazed over eyes.
"Hey there. I'm Kai." the Master of Fire introduced himself, "You got a name kid."
The child remained silent.
"I think she lost her voice from losing her parents." Lloyd explained sadly.
"Unfortunate." Wu nodded, "Then we must do what we can to help her while she is in our care."
"Hey, don't worry. When you're ready to talk, we'll all be ready to listen." Kai said reassuringly. "Our friend Zane is helping out at a soup kitchen right now, and he's an amazing cook. Does chicken noodle soup sound good?"
Although the girl did no speak, she did nod in agreement. With her consent, the Ninja led her to a makeshift soup kitchen elsewhere in the city, where the other Ninja were helping out. When they arrived, Wu explained the situation to Cole, Jay, Zane, and Nya, before handing the young girl a bowl of soup and sitting her down behind the counter with Zane. With the little girl taken care of, Kai and Lloyd got to working helping the other Ninja pass out bowls of soup to the various Ninjago City citizens displaced by the Great Devourer's rampage.
Once most of the soup kitchen guests had been helped, Kai grabbed a bowl of soup and offered it to Lloyd.
"Here." Kai offered, "You've helped plenty for today. Why don't you take a break and get something to eat. Once reconstruction gets taken care of, we'll be starting your training. Until then, you need to keep your strength up."
Accepting the bowl of soup, Lloyd went behind the counter so he could eat in peace. When he did, his spotted the girl he and the Ninja had taken in had barely touched her soup, which was now getting cold. Feeling it was his responsibility to help her, Lloyd seated himself to her left, offering to trade bowls with her.
"Here. It's better when it's hot." Lloyd said, offering to trade. "Don't worry about me. I can just take your bowl back to the others and get it reheated."
The girl said nothing, remaining quiet as she stared at her cold bowl of soup.
Seeing that the girl was still unresponsive, Lloyd decided to take a different approach.
"I'm Lloyd, by the way. Lloyd Garmadon, son of Lord Garmadon." Lloyd introduced himself, "What's your name?"
The girl showed a hint of interest when he mentioned his father, but otherwise remained quiet.
Lloyd was starting to get a bit frustrated with how unresponsive the girl was being. Despite this, he remained calm and clung to the fact that she was responding to the topic of parents.
"You lost your parents during the attack, right?" Lloyd asked, understanding that he was treading on thin ice at the moment.
The girl replied with a small, sad nod.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk. I get how you feel." Lloyd explained sadly, "My dad got banished to the Underworld when I was really little, and my mom left me at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys shortly after that. Even after my dad came back, I quickly learned I would have to fight him one day. I've lived most of my life without my parents, so I know what it's like to not have them around."
For the first time since meeting him, the girl looked directly at Lloyd as he spoke.
"It's my fault your parents are gone. If I hadn't gone around opening Serpentine tombs, this whole mess wouldn't have happened." Lloyd admitted bitterly, "Knowing this, you probably hate me now, right? I honestly wouldn't mind if you do. I'm used to it and I totally deserve it. I just want you to know that I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. If you ever need to talk to me, whether its to get help or to tell me you hate me, I'll listen."
"… Harumi."
"Hm?" Lloyd hummed.
"My name. It's Harumi." the girl introduced herself, finally speaking out loud.
"That's a pretty name." Lloyd complimented, flashing a small smile.
Harumi looked down at her cold bowl of soup, a small smile creeping up on her lips.
"Do you want to trade bowls with me?" Lloyd offered again, holding out his bowl hot soup.
"I have a better idea." Harumi replied quietly, "Give me your bowl."
Taking the bowl of hot soup out of Lloyd's hands, Harumi pout half of its contents into her own bowl of cold soup. After giving in a quick stir, she pour some of the soup from her bowl back into Lloyd's bowl. The result was two bowls of lukewarm soup, not too hot, not too cold.
Offering one of the bowls to Lloyd, the Green Ninja in training gratefully accepted it, happy that Harumi was starting to open up. While he knew there was a lot he had to make up for to her, Lloyd was determined to make things right. He was the Green Ninja of prophecy, and ninja never quit. Each with a bowl of soup in hand, the two children ate in peace, ready to face the future together.
Animan10 here with a new project. After getting back into Ninjago, I felt compelled to write this story, seeing as no one else seems to have taken a crack at this premise. I just really liked Harumi, and I honestly felt she and Lloyd would have been Jaya leaves of cute as a couple had she not had her actions driven by hatred, deceit, and vengeance. Thus, this story came about.
This is meant to be a side project to help me get out of some writer's block regarding my main project, A Certain Strange Addition, so don't expect this to update too often. Leave a review to tell me what you think. If it gets enough support, I might just move forward with it even after I get past the writer's block.