Chapter 5: Onward and Downward
~Kai~
"Are we there yet?"
Kai internally groaned. Less than half an hour since they set out for the day and already the kid was asking that dumb question over and over. Truth be told, Kai berated his parents, as well as Nya, with the same question when he was Lloyd's age, but it didn't make it any less annoying.
"Five minutes closer since the last time you asked me," he grumbled. "Why do you keep asking that question? We get there when we get there."
Kai's eyes widened a second later when he realized something. Oh for the love of all things elemental I'm starting to sound like my mother.
Lloyd just huffed, making a piece of his now unruly blonde hair float in front of his face. He crossed his arms as a pouty expression took over. Despite his limp, and occasional need to stop before he fell flat on his face, he was being some-what able to keep up with Kai's pace.
"Besides," Kai added as he stepped over a tree root. "This was your idea."
He couldn't help but feel at least a little bad about the frown that appeared on his friend's face, but ignored it. After all, it was true. No use hiding the truth from the kid anyway. They had to be honest with each other.
Although, he couldn't shake away the nagging awkwardness when Lloyd didn't say much afterwards.
0o0o0
As their trek continued, there wasn't much more discussion. The uneven mossy patches and tree roots that appeared every five seconds were obviously murder on Lloyd's knee, but if he was in pain, he didn't show it.
Kai would occasionally look up to the sky in a quick, false sense of hope that the Destiny's Bounty would be right against it, with the others waving from the top deck and Sensei Wu's straw hat blowing in the wind. It physically hurt him to think about it.
He could feel his chest clench in longing to be standing on the hardwood deck with his friends and sister. His eyes began to water, and, in ferocious embarrassment of his own self-longing, wiped them away angrily.
He also could feel the piercing gaze of Lloyd when he did it. For a kid, Kai had to admit he was perceptive, and it annoyed the living heck out of him.
Speaking of Lloyd, the blonde was gazing around and peering behind trees, in his own childish hope that Kanto would magically appear. Though Kai had originally berated Lloyd for coming up with the idea of simply going north, he couldn't help but feel at least somewhat hopeful to see the village appear at some point.
Despite this, Kai let Lloyd go ahead. Being the optimistic child that he was, Lloyd definitely wanted to explore. Kai could tell. It was the first time he was outside of any adult's watchful eyes, and he wanted to have a least a little freedom. At least, that's the impression he got.
"You think we're there now?" Lloyd called from ahead.
Kai growled lowly. This was going to be a long day.
0o0o0
Kai remembered that when he was little, he and Nya were always overjoyed whenever they left Ignacia with their father into the city for errands. Their eyes twinkled with excitement, and they couldn't sit still while their father strolled from shop to shop.
Replace the feeling of being overjoyed with the feeling of relief, and that's exactly how Kai felt when he and Lloyd saw the gates of Kanto village rising above their heads. They had arrived outside of the forest and walked down outside the outskirts of the trees until following some trails and pathways until arriving at the village gates, holding their breath as the doors creaked open from the outside.
It was a quaint village from the looks of it, with small and practical houses made of simple bamboo wood. Chōchin, traditional paper lanterns, swung from string that stretched across every path in the town. Wind chimes rang into the air through the breezes, and cobblestone was littered around in the narrow, one-way streets.
They had arrived in the middle of an outdoor market, and street vendors had set up tables that lined the cobblestone. The handful of citizens were taking advantage of the sales of tuna, especially Bluefin, which was quite popular, fruits and vegetables, and various types of rice. Children meanwhile played on the sidewalks while their parents moved around the crowded complex.
It's a bit bigger than Ignacia, Kai thought as he dragged Lloyd out of the gate and through the streets. More clustered and shoved together. Then again, they are right by a forest.
After maneuvering past the market, avoiding buying any food no matter how delicious it smelled, Kai had ended up putting them at the end of a very small street near the back gates of the town. The screen doors of all the houses were either ripped or covered with bugs, and dogs began to bark at seeing complete strangers through the windows.
Kai cringed. He was in his ninja gi, and the last thing they needed was to draw attention to them.
Lloyd glanced upwards towards him, looking expectant. "Now what?"
The fire ninja groaned and glanced towards the windows. "Working on it." He scanned the street, suddenly spotting an open back door. His eyes lit up. "In there!" he said, and pointed.
Now it was Lloyd's turn to cringe. "Uh, that's someone's house."
Way to be blunt Lloyd. "You got any better ideas?"
The blonde scowled. "Well…no. But-"
"Then come on!" Kai shouted, and grabbed Lloyd's arm, racing through the streets and into the back door.
0o0o0
Kai's first impression: empty. At least he was right in one aspect. There were no signs of life evident in any of the four corners of the room.
The two of them ended up in the kitchen, which didn't look like much. It had an old wooden dining table and chairs, white tiled floor, and windows lining the back wall around the door. A small notebook was lying on the table, opened to a fairly new shopping list that had all the items they had recently seen at the market. However, all were crossed off, and grocery bags hung from brass hooks next to the door. Lloyd glanced at the notebook as his green eyes widened.
"So, someone's here," Lloyd whispered. Even whispering, his statement seemed to echo off the walls.
"Yes, and why are you two in my house?"
Lloyd yelped and turned around, wincing a bit. Kai jumped from his position in front of the screen door and turned to look at the young woman that stood in front of them with a single hand on her hip.
She was about 25, with chocolate brown hair pulled up in a loose and slightly messy ponytail. A delicate eyebrow was raised and a confused, maybe even annoyed expression marred her dainty face.
"Uh, sorry ma'am," Kai stuttered. "We were trying to get out of the market, and we ended up on your street, and then some dogs began barking and-"
"Hold on, hold on," the woman said, raising her arms. "First off, my name is Rae. Not 'ma'am.' Secondly, I'm going to go on a limb and say you're not from here?"
Kai and Lloyd simultaneously shook their heads.
Rae smirked. "Thought as much. So, tourists?"
This time Lloyd spoke up. "Not really, we're just passing through," he said, pointing towards the back gates of Kanto.
"Ah, I see. Well, based on you both smell like dirt and ash, blondie's bleeding, and you're both sweating like you just ran the Ninjago marathon…you're lost. Completely and hopelessly lost." Rae crossed her arms with a satisfied grin, eyeing the two.
Kai winced. She was even blunter than Sensei Wu.
The young woman took that as answer enough, chuckling slightly. "Well, if there's one thing I pride myself over, it's being a good host. So sit, relax, and I'll get some tea boiling. Sound good?"
Lloyd blinked, stunned. "You're just gonna let us stay in your house after we just OW!"
Kai elbowed him. "That sounds great, thank you."
0o0o0
Surprisingly, Rae wasn't lying.
She could make a killer pot of tea, (though it didn't surpass Sensei Wu's by any stretch of the imagination) knew lots of card games, had extra sleeping mats and blankets stored in her closet, and had an endless amount of stories to tell about her 3 older sisters and one older brother.
"So my mother said to him, 'it's called circle chicken, try it.' And wouldn't you know, he did! And never even noticed it was actually squid!"
Lloyd was laughing at everything she seemed to say, and Kai found her stories to be very entertaining. They didn't even notice the stars that twinkled outside after what seemed like minutes after they arrived.
Rae suddenly stopped and followed Kai's gaze outside. "Time flies when you're having fun, huh?" She stood up and stretched, her ponytail falling down her back. "I already got some mats set up in the corner over there, oil lantern's in-between, blankets are on the table. Have a good night guys."
"Thanks again Rae," Kai said, helping Lloyd up.
"Yeah, thanks a lot," said Lloyd.
"No problem," she replied, smiling kindly. "I'll go into the store in the morning to get some supplies for that knee of yours. Until then!"
0o0o0
Kai awoke to the sound of yelling.
"Nuckal, push you idiot!"
"I'm trying Kruncha! But it's cold out! And this thing's really heavy!"
"Pipe down! Are you trying to wake up the entire town?!"
He shot up, recognizing those names. Turning to his right, he shook Lloyd awake, motioning outside towards the voices.
Lloyd's eyes got huge in realization. "I think I know them."
"How?" Kai asked, curious.
"What, you think I don't know who used to work for my dad? Word got around quick at Darkley's. Especially since Gene had a tv in his room." He frowned in remembrance.
"Never mind that, let's see what they're doing."
They crept out the screen door and followed the yelling down the streets, the chōchin now alive with light and color. Shadows seemed to dance in the corners of the houses, slinking through the alleyways unseen.
The yelling was coming from where the market used to be. Some tables had tarps covering their goods to keep the food away from bugs, and wouldn't you have it, Kruncha and Nuckal were taking a full crate of baked goods behind a street corner unsuccessfully.
"Push quicker you knucklehead!" Kruncha whisper-shouted.
"I'm trying Kruncha!" Nuckal looked up quickly, seeing the pair and Kai's sword now glinting in the lamp-light.
"Ninja! Kruncha we're busted!"
The skeleton rolled his eye sockets and turned, suddenly cursing quietly and glancing at the crate. "Uh, look, this isn't what it looks like…" he stopped, realizing something. "Hey, where's the rest of 'em?"
"Does it matter?" Kai asked. "I can still take you both on nice and easy."
Kruncha ignored his threat. "You both look terrible! 'Specially blondie over there." He paused for a moment, studying Lloyd carefully. "Wait a sec…hey! You're Garmadon's kid aren't ya?!"
Lloyd stepped backwards behind Kai. "Yeah…my dad didn't really like either of you."
Kruncha scoffed. "Doesn't matter, he doesn't boss us around anymore! We play by our own rules now!"
"So you're stealing a crate of pastries?" Kai remarked, pointing at the object Nuckal was struggling to push. Said skeleton shrugged.
"We got hungry. Anyways," he continued, turning his attention to Lloyd. "I remember ya! We had to babysit a couple times."
The blonde turned horrified. "Wait, WHAT?!"
Nuckal laughed. "Yeah, your dad wanted us to check on how you were doing with your mom, so we snuck out and hung around for a while in the night by your dad's orders."
Lloyd suddenly softened. "He wanted…to make sure I was…okay?"
"Oh yeah! And even though Garmy isn't our boss anymore, I don't really want him mad at me again…"
Kai tightened the grip on his sword. "Yeah, so?"
"So, Wyplash used to be a healer. He can treat that knee problem…thing…"
"It's called a wound Nuckal," Kruncha muttered.
The fire ninja got in a fighting stance. "Thanks, but no thanks. We're getting medical attention in the morning and directions for how to get outta here. We're fine."
Kruncha smiled cruely. "Yeah, but…do ya want help from someone who knows her way around the town, or some people who know their way around Ninjago."
Kai looked at Lloyd. "No, we're not going through with this. I don't trust them."
"Yeah, but they wouldn't hurt me. You heard them say it; they don't want my dad to be mad at them. It's not like they're our enemies. They're just idiots."
Kai looked back towards Rae's house, grimacing. The kid had a point.
"So, ya in?" Kruncha asked, pointing at their skull truck behind the house around the corner.
A wise man once said that great things aren't achieved without danger. Kai hoped the wise man was right.
"Yes."
And as the truck drove into the portal, all light disappeared.
A.N: Well, lots happened in this chapter. XD
My science project's done, so I'll get more fanfic time. And I'm going on a field trip on Wednesday, so no homework. We'll see about updates. ;)
Some fun facts about this chapter:
- Chōchin is paper lanterns in Japanese, according to Google translate.
- Bluefin tuna is actually popular in Japan, as I came across it while researching what would be sold in an outdoor market.
- The 'circle chicken' thing wasn't made up. My older cousin, now 21, wouldn't eat calamari (fried squid) at a restaurant when he was a baby. My aunt said it was circle chicken to get him to eat it. XD And yes, I LOVE calamari.
- My mom actually has 3 older sisters and one older brother.
That's it. Review please! Thanks for reading.