Nya
Nya was snapped out of her intense study of samurai history and fighting styles when the ninjas came back on their dragons.
Karloff came running inside, holding Ash, who had something bright red pressed against his throat.
At first, she thought it was a piece of Skylor's outfit, but she was proven wrong when Skylor jumped down from her dragon wearing her entire outfit. Griffin, however, was missing his scarf.
"Oh no," Nya gasped when the realisation hit her. She ran over to Skylor. "What happened? Is he okay?!"
The older girl didn't seem to hear her. Griffin was too busy running for Sensei, screams of "Wu! Wu!" filling her new home until the old man finally answered.
After that, there were low voices, as if somebody was dying.
Or already dead.
Nya was on the other side of Ash's closed door, listening to Skylor tell the old man something, which he told Skylor would have to stay between the two of them.
Kai never kept secrets from her. Unlike these people. Unlike them, Kai would immediately tell her if something was going on.
When she was sad, Kai would be the one to hold her and comfort her. When she had nightmares, he would stay in her room the whole night. She remembered when they were little, shortly after their father disappeared and when their mother started losing her mind, how she would go sleep with Kai when their mom would start whispering to herself.
When their mom got worse, she would start screaming at times, exclaiming that everything was "wrong" and sometimes, the woman would whisper that Kai was "next". And when Kai started shaking and telling her that he wouldn't go crazy like her, she would giggle and tell him that he didn't have a choice. He was "next".
At times, when their mom was calmer, she would pull her children on her lap and say sorry for everything, and when Kai had gone to bed, she would make Nya promise to not get mad at Kai for something that couldn't be helped, and that she would take care of him, just like they were taking care of her.
One day, their mom just left and never came back, leaving behind two notes, one for Kai, telling him to take care of her, and one for Nya, telling her not to get mad at Kai for things that couldn't be helped.
Kai told Nya that he would never end up like their mom. That he wouldn't leave her. That he would always make sure that she was safe.
And now, he wasn't there anymore and one of the people who saved her was fighting for his life on the other side of the door.
Griffin sat down next to her, looking at the ceiling as if he was hoping that it would say something to him.
She shifted and looked up as well. "What happened?"
"We got called in to capture a Serpentine and take it back to its tomb, but when we got there, it was already caught. Nobody would tell us what exactly happened until it escaped." Griffin sighed. "We chased it, because it was going after some people who lived nearby. We found the Hypnobrai Tomb. It was unsealed."
"No…"
"We couldn't find any snakes, so maybe they already got out? I don't know. But anyway, Ash wandered off. He got caught by somebody who was living there." Griffin looked at Nya, her face reflecting in his sunglasses like they were a pair of mirrors. "This person, he took Ash hostage. He told us to step back, or else. We didn't step back. We found out what he meant. We had to leave, or else Ash would've died. He still might, but his chances are better out here than in a cave in the middle of nowhere."
The door slammed open behind them, resulting in Skylor running out of the room, calling for medical help while Sensei stayed behind to keep Ash alive for as long as he could.
Griffin got up and pulled Nya to her feet as well. He took her to the garden where Skylor would meditate in the mornings.
"Griffin?" Nya looked around. "What's going on?"
"Nya, Skylor thinks this guy might have something to do with your brother." Griffin looked around to see if anybody was listening in on their conversation. "She asked us not to tell, but you deserve to know. He's alive."
Nya had a terrible feeling that if the person who slit Ash's throat like that had her brother, then it wouldn't end well for him. Unlike her, Kai's only experience fighting would be when he got his butt kicked by Samukai and when he was trying to get some overexcited customers to calm down.
"Thanks for telling me this," Nya told him. "It's the best news I've hears since we got separated."
Somehow, it was the truth.
And now, Nya had someone to test out her new armour on once she was finished with it. If this person was the reason Kai wasn't there, the reason Kai was lost… She. Would. Make. Them. Pay.
"No problem," Griffin told her. "Just don't do anything you might regret, okay?"
Nya nodded, but she knew for a fact that she wasn't going to regret this.
She was going to train so hard that steam came off her, and then she was going to train some more, until she could save her brother.
And she was going to save her brother.
Once the ninjas were gone with Wu to be with Ash, Nya was back in her books.
She wasn't going to stop until she had her brother back, no matter what anyone else said. Even if one of the ninjas told her that it was too dangerous, she wouldn't give up.
But she didn't want them going out of their way to protect her.
First things first: Finding a helmet.
The Samurai helmet is called a Kabuto.
Nya looked up from her book. She would have to find herself a Kabuto in Sensei's closet of junk before the others came back.
She found several odd pieces of armour in the closet.
There was one that looked like it was made of shadows. There was one that stayed suspended mid-air when she threw it back because she didn't like it.
And then there was one that looked like something she could faintly remember her mother wearing when she was little.
It took much longer than she thought, but she finally found the perfect helmet to go with the armour she was working on.
All it needed was some modifications.
Bold: A book or anything that is being read.
Griffin used Calming Presence! It failed!
Please comment, I like reading them. Sorry for the short chapter.
