I hate how, looking back, it was obvious Harumi's plan was getting me to trust her from the start.
The first night I was in the palace, I heard something in Harumi's room break. When I got there, the room looked like it'd been ransacked, and she'd been dragged out the window by force. And of course there was someone running around the roofs of the palace, carrying a Harumi-sized bag. Just like any ninja would, I went after them. I chased them all the way outside the palace before I made a wrong move trying to jump down to grab them. That was when the intruder grabbed my hand and caught me before I fell.
The 'intruder' was Harumi, who claimed to be disguising herself to give food to the 'less fortunate.' She formed a perfect lie to make me drop all my suspicions. Ransacked room? She was naturally messy. Sneaking out in disguise? Her family wouldn't approve of her doing it. Wanting to help people? The palace had so much food that other people could eat. It was a perfect way to make me agree to help her, even when I knew we should have gone back to the palace right away. The perfect time to talk me into feeling sorry for her.
I hate the fact I even fell for all of that. She got me to think about how we both had 'roles to play' and sometimes it was hard to live up for them. I think by now, I've made clear that being the Green Ninja has meant a lot more than just saving Ninjago. So making me think about her being a Princess the same way was a smart move on her part. How much research did she do on me, just to plan all that out? Did she think about everything to say? How to act? She was perfect at acting like a Princess. She even talked about how she was wearing a mask.
And of course, I fell for it. I already thought she was pretty, and it was the first time I'd really had that happen to me. I mean, I'd obviously thought some girls were pretty before, but never like her. And I think she figured it out right away, since she made herself the perfect girl for me to fall for. Everything she said was just perfect to make me want to protect her. And of course, wanting to protect someone means you care about them. Care she could manipulate. I was such an idiot.
After we handed out the food, we wandered around the canals of the city. Since I was usually always in the downtown area of Ninjago whenever there was some major villain, I hadn't really spent that much time in the 'slums' of the city until I made it a point to start staying around in the city. There were lots of rumors of old men wandering in and out of the canals. We made our way around, and she kept talking. Kept talking and kept making me think that she was just such a nice girl. Such a nice person. And even let me wander into a group of thugs from the SOG harassing some kids.
So, if some of you didn't know, Harumi was the leader of the SOG. She put them all together and was the 'Quiet One' leading them from the shadows. So I bet she even guided me around to a spot where I'd see something like this happening. She wanted to drop in my head that there was a leader of the SOG, someone that I had to worry about. It's a classic move to make someone not suspect you, since obviously if they're telling you about them, you wouldn't think it's them. She wanted to be the one controlling what I thought. I think, at least.
Thankfully for her, Samurai X showed up before I could go and teach the thugs some lessons. I'd heard of Samurai X wandering around Ninjago City, but they did a good job of staying out of my way. I'm pretty sure Pixal didn't want me to get too close and start asking some questions. And then, just after we saw Samurai X drive away, Hutchins came back to fetch Harumi.
Okay… now this is something that I actually do feel bad about. I thought Hutchins was a bad guy. He found us without me even detecting him, he more or less dragged Harumi back to the palace, and spoke about me calling her by her name like it was bad for me to call her anything other than 'Princess.' For the record, she asked me to call her by a nickname to make me trust her, one I refuse to say. Hutchins sounded angry at me when he heard me use it.
I realize now that Hutchins was just a bit of an intense guy that wanted to protect the Royal Family. And given what happened to him, I really feel bad for suspecting him. Or at least writing him off. He didn't deserve me thinking badly of him like that. If anything, I feel bad knowing that Harumi was using him and was already planning to kill him. She was planning all of this from the start, so knowing that he was always going to be a victim makes me wonder if I could have done something to save him.
I don't want to talk about when the others found out I'd gone out with Harumi that night. I guess Hutchins told them, or some other guard. I was an idiot for even thinking she was pretty or that she was a good person, simple as that. Let's move on.
The next time I saw Harumi was right before the palace was attacked. I stumbled in on her 'parents' lecturing her about going out and tarnishing the family name by doing it. I don't want to say anything bad about the Emperor, since I really never knew him or his family. So instead I'll just say that he made Harumi upset, and she stormed off to her room. I wonder if she planned that too, since she passed by me and looked at me like she was upset over me. And right after, Hutchins came by and told me to 'stay away from Harumi.'
I should have listened to you, Hutchins.
Just after that, Cole called us to say that he saw Hutchins going into the lower levels lined with explosives. That was all the proof I needed to think Hutchins was on the side of the SOG, who immediately showed up the second the palace went up in flames. I was still around the throne room, so I first tried to go after the Emperor. I couldn't find him, so instead I tried to go intercept the ones that were attacking. Most of what happened here I remember because I know now Harumi planned all this.
I wasn't paying attention to the palace. Zane got Harumi out, and I saw Ultraviolet -you all likely know her from that show she hosted during the takeover- riding her motorcycle through the palace. (Yes, she is that crazy.) I managed to knock her down, and that was when Hutchins showed up. Of course, my first thought was that he was behind this, so I tried to interrogate him right there. He must have thought I was crazy, thinking someone that served the Royal Family would try to kill them. Someone was, but not him. The only reason I stopped was because he threw me down before Ultraviolet's sai nearly cut my head off. Zane arrived with Harumi to freeze her long enough to give me Harumi to look after.
One of the other generals of the SOG, Mr. E -the one that had robbed Borg's treasure room and gotten away- entered the palace and tried to take the Oni mask. I don't know exactly what happened, but somehow Kai burned the mask that was on display. That was when Hutchins told us that he'd been going to secure the real Oni Mask of Deception, and gave it to me and Harumi He even showed us a secret passage out of the throne room, and said he'd go and secure the Emperor. Harumi looked horrified hearing that. That was the last time I ever saw Hutchins. I'm just glad the last thing I told him was that I was wrong about him.
Okay, so, for someone that's never ridden a real motorcycle before, the fact I managed to steal one from an SOG and then get both me and Harumi out of the palace on it while avoiding Ultraviolet means I have at least some skill in riding one. I even managed to outwit most of the SOG that came after us, and I'm pretty sure the only reason that Ultraviolet managed to find us when I slipped away was because she's just crazy enough to do the insane thing like look behind her all the time. I don't remember a lot about that particular ride, except for how it ended.
Harumi was the one holding the Oni Mask of Deception, and dropped it. I assumed she was just scared out of her mind since I was driving her all the way up and down a highway with a biker gang chasing us. I think she just saw the chance to give it to her allies. Ultraviolet knew Harumi was the Quiet One from the start, and I bet she was laughing at me the whole time for trusting her. I even challenged Ultraviolet for the mask.
I realized I couldn't out-bike Ultraviolet, so I took Harumi to the docks. Now, during the attack on our temple by the Twins, the Destiny's Bounty had been wrecked, again. I called in some favors (and some savings) to get it rebuilt. I don't know where the design I chose came from. Maybe I saw it in a movie? I think I'd have remembered it if I did, though. Anyways, after I had it rebuilt, I hid it in the docks so nobody would find it. For some reason, the Bounty attracts people that want to crash it whenever it flies. With Ultraviolet on our tail, though, I knew we had no choice.
Did Harumi anticipate me actually getting her all the way to the Bounty? If I hadn't, she probably would have made some deal with Ultraviolet for the mask and let us get away that way. But since I managed to get her there, I guess she just rolled with it. She didn't have any reason to act upset, since I was technically saving her life. And at the time, Ultraviolet never gave me any sign she wasn't just a crazy chick on a motorcycle trying to throw me off the highway. So yeah. Well, either way, I got us on the Bounty and went to go and pick up the others. Once I did, that was when they told us that the Emperor, Empress and Hutchins had all perished in the attack.
...I don't understand how Harumi could have done that. She clearly wanted them dead. I even brought it up to her later, and she acted like they deserved to die. Since she hadn't asked to be adopted by them, she could've chosen to leave them. Even if leaving them meant killing them. I don't understand how she did that. How she could stand there and cry for us, fall on her knees and look like she was actually torn up hearing the news. What sort of person can murder their own family and then cry fake tears for them?
And I know I've met people like that before, that's not my point. Chen could take care of people, but he wasn't right to begin with. The Overlord was pure evil, and Pythor was a backstabber from the start. I knew from the time Morro spent in my head that even if he was evil, he had at least enough inside him to feel regret over Wu in his last moments. But I never got any feeling from Harumi that she regretted what she did. Harumi didn't feel like a villain. She wasn't crazy, or a ghost, or made it clear she was evil from the start. She seemed like a normal person. Yet she just coldly killed the entire Royal Family, and acted like it was going to happen with or without her.
It makes me sick to think about it. I can't help but feel sick whenever I think about what she did. She killed them. She set fire to the palace, and said it was just to expose the temple she needed to resurrect my father like it was no big deal. How am I supposed to forgive someone like that? How am I supposed to look past that? She didn't regret her actions. And as the Green Ninja, I feel like I'm supposed to forgive her. And I can't. I just can't.
But of course, at the time I felt sorry for her, and swore that we'd protect her from the SOG. We thought they were just a biker gang at first, but now we knew they meant business. I had us take the Bounty out somewhere remote to protect her. It wouldn't have mattered, since she was communicating with them the entire time to make sure we couldn't really get away from them. But at the time, I was determined to protect her. I didn't know I was protecting a murderer. I don't know if I would have, if I knew at the time. But then again, I also thought she was a good person.
The guy that I turned into the police during the heist at Borg Tower turned out to be a guy named Luke Cunningham, and I wanted information from him. So we left Harumi with Nya while we went to the city to try to get him to talk. One way, though, I had us stop by Mystake's tea shop. I always thought it was out somewhere more remote in the past, but I guess it was just always in Ninjago City. Wu introduced me to her before the Time Twins came by, so I was familiar with her. I don't know how long it'd been since I saw her, but I also swore she changed her voice at some point. Given that she was an Oni in disguise, I can guess she likely was used to hiding and changing herself to blend in.
The reason I bring this up, other than Mystake being important later, is that she was the one that told us about the Oni. Jay and I stayed to hear her tale about them, while Cole and Zane went to go and interrogate Luke. They didn't do much. I'm going to talk more about Mystake later, so let's just talk about what she told me now.
Since everyone knows the Oni and Dragons are real now, I'll summarize. The First Spinjitzu Master was born of half Oni and half Dragon, then fled the First Realm when they tried to take him for their never ending war. That meant that I was part Oni and Dragon. I think that would mean I'm 1/8th Oni and 1/8th Dragon? I think that's right. I don't actually have any of their abilities, since they're not really that big a part of me. But I have enough to be able to resist the Oni's magic. Learning that the First Spinjitzu Master wasn't even from this world, though, was something else.
This, however, was when I also learned why the SOG were after the masks. The Oni Masks, when united, had the power to resurrect my father. But Mystake told us that he wouldn't be the man that I recognized. Yeah… she was right. And of course, by now the SOG had already taken two of the masks, so we were really behind on this one. I'd tried to have Pixal find the third mask when we first fled the city, but she found nothing. You all obviously know that we found it.
The only thing that Zane and Cole managed to get from Luke was that the SOG was using a dive bar for their unofficial hangout. This turned out to be Dareth's bar. You know, good for Dareth for getting a bar. I don't know if he still has the Dojo, but I'm sure he does. I have to admit, I didn't ever think of him owning a bar before, but it made sense when I thought about it. He's a really good people person, so running a place like that was totally up his alley. It kinda makes me angry knowing the SOG took it over. If I knew that from the start, I would've found out more about the SOG right then and there. Nobody messes with Dareth. Ever.
The main thing that's important here is that Zane disguised himself as a prospective recruit and snuck in with Cole. And by snuck in, I mean getting captured. Honestly, I wish that at this point us getting captured was something more noteworthy. They were attempting at first to just get information, but after a fight broke out we ended up getting involved to try to chase down Mr. E. Cole was caught in all the commotion, and Zane, in disguise, was helping the others escape.
So, I know to most of you, the Oni Masks were nothing more than just tools that were being used to resurrect my father. And, well, they aren't exactly much more than that. But they each had their powers. The Mask of the Deception, the one we were fighting for at the palace, can let you use telekinesis. The Mask of Vengeance, the red one stolen by Mr. E at the start of all of it, was a lot more powerful. The mask let Mr. E grow two more arms and become a really strong swordsman. Having four arms isn't really something that I find all that impressive, but knowing now what I do about the Oni, and more importantly about how powerful they were, the fact that a mask that was just a tool to be used by them was enough to take on four of us without flinching was pretty tough.
It was only by a lucky break that I managed to actually knock Mr. E down enough for him to lose control over the mask. We were planning on capturing him then and there. However, this was when Zane 'helped' Mr. E escape when we managed to corner him. I realized Zane was using this to go undercover in the SOG and figure out more about them. I ordered the others to stop going after him and let Zane go on his own. At the time, I thought it was a smart move, since there was no way that they'd figure that out. But, of course, Harumi knew when we discussed it around her and told her group. Because of course we did. And I was going to pay for that.
In the span of just a few days, I'd met Harumi, lost two of the Oni Masks, and found out there was a biker gang in the city trying to resurrect my father as Lord Garmadon. Harumi's family had been killed by her own hand, and we were on the run trying to protect her. Cole was captured, and Zane had gone dark. All of this was going right according to Haruim's plan.
We'd fallen right into Harumi's web of lies, and I'd put Zane at the center of it. The Jade Princess had become the Jade Liar.
"Do you think of those ending parts yourself?" Jay asked as Lloyd sighed and waved his hand for the recording device to stop.
"Huh?" Lloyd blinked, "You mean like, the last line?"
"Yeah, you're good at it," Jay nodded, "I mean, I've only heard you record two chapters but like, if I was reading this myself, I'd be hooked."
"Sometimes?" Lloyd admitted, "It's kinda up in the air. And I'm not really writing it. I decided to record it since it's easier to talk that way. And Zane's little thing here is just translating it all into a document I can edit later."
"Not a bad idea," Jay smirked, "Mind if I steal it? I wanna write my own book too! I'll call it, 'Fast as Lightning!' and make it-"
"Didn't you say you were thinking of a Starfarer story called that?" Lloyd pointed out.
"Huh?" Jay blinked, then frowned, "Hey! Fanfiction is a just as real as any other form of writing! Some of us don't have time to come up with all sorts of new stuff!"
"I wasn't accusing you, Jay," Lloyd chuckled, "For some reason I'd feel like a hypocrite for saying something bad about fanfiction."
The two shared a small chuckle together. This felt much better than last time they'd stopped. Last time, Jay had seemed like he was worried about Lloyd, especially with how he'd avoided talking to him all through dinner. This time, he seemed like he was back to normal. Lloyd took that as a good sign, and stood up to stretch a bit more.
"I gotta meet Cole for some weights," Lloyd grimaced, "I started working out with him after this stuff. And sometimes I go and spar with Zane. Oh, and I already said I cook with Kai too. You have any weird activity you wanna do with me?"
"We could play video games!" Jay smirked.
"We already do that all the time, Jay," Lloyd rolled his eyes, "But sure, maybe later. I gotta meet Cole."
"Alright, have fun with that!" Jay smirked, "Tell him I'm coming after him!"
Lloyd chuckled, recalling the last little tournament they had. Cole had been upping his gaming skills lately, after all. Lloyd left the room to go for another stressful yet rewarding time with Cole. As he left, though, Jay's smirk slowly fell as he looked down to the device that had now shut off from recording.
"I hope you're really okay with writing this, Lloyd," Jay sighed at the device, "Cause I don't know if you're okay with how it ends. You aren't talking about her like you are."
Jay finished the words he wasn't willing to say to Lloyd. With another small sigh, Jay stood up and left the room, making his way off into the Bounty for yet another night of wondering just what had gotten into Lloyd.