As Garmadon headed away from the campsite with dreary tired eyes, he yawned and picked up the pace. He intended to go on a walk this morning, a little stroll by the quiet streams of the riverbank they had encountered yesterday.
With his hands behind his back, he hummed, his eyes turning in every direction. Assuming this jungle had more than one deadly tree, it sure was quiet.
He stepped on a cracked branch, the silence going away in a matter of secrets. His head lifts up at a small screech he heard from nearby.
"Garmadon!" His eyes widened in surprise as he had recognized the white haired girl calling for him. He finds her hanging from a breaking branch from a tall rain tree.
"How did you get up there?! I thought you were back in the tent!" He growls, his mind instantly thinking of escape plans. He climbs up the tree, his canines poking out as sweat ran down his palms.
"I wanted to scout out the area more. Collect more wood too." She huffed, slowly edging her way towards Garmadon. Her hands were delicate as she inched a millimetre away from the branch she was hanging on and into Garmadon's arms.
Watching her every move, "Be careful, it's a broken branch." He warns her.
However, she misplaced a hand. Her fingers felt the sharp wood as she knew she had just encouraged the branch to break even more. She gulped and down she fell from the tree.
The oni lord narrowed his eyes and hopped off, his four arms edging forward and his legs braced themselves for impact. He reached for the girl, his arms wrapping themselves on her small form a little too tightly and almost flung the both of them into the river.
Harumi, who was now being carried by him, "I uh...I'm sorr-" she muttered for an apology.
Her face met with the dirt on the ground. She gasped and spat out the debris.
"That's what happens when you run off. How foolish have you become? Have you not seen what happened to you yesterday, it's fortunate that you survived." The Oni lord pulls her up by the hair, his bloodshot eyes staring deep into hers. He glared down, no light in his eyes. No surprise.
Wiping the tears and dirt from her eyes, Harumi faced away from him, a little unsure on how to act. What happened to them? Why did he become so harsh with her? This reminded her of that time...
When she was still his second in command, how he'd give her tasks to do around Ninjago city and she was always the silver platter as when something went wrong. But this also reminded her of when she being trained by him. Their training was harsh but that's because Harumi knew she needed a tough master in order to learn.
Or maybe Garmadon wasn't the problem, but her? Did her heart suddenly decided to soften up and stay weak all while hiding behind the excuse of her traumatic and injuring battle with the oni prince?
It was time to move on, from whatever she was feeling—she didn't want to be weak anymore.
"You know what?!" She revolts, pushing a strand of hair away from her face as Garmadon began to walk away from her, expecting her to follow. He hums and turns a heel to look at her.
"Don't speak to me like that." He scoffs.
She crossed her arms, her eyes not daring to look into his. Yet, the beautiful jade shade that represented her goal faded into an eminent purple glimmer.
He recognized those eyes, he stepped away from her.
"I'm done! I don't know why I can't just stand for myself, I don't know what happened! But I'm trying and you don't understand that!!!" She approached him, anger fuming out of her.
She needed to prove herself, that she wasn't just a weakling that needed to be carried. That she wasn't a selfish hero that wanted the ones close to her to be doing her work after she saved an entire city.
Purple mist coated her from head to toe and raising two of her hands to the skies—she shot beams of an unknown aura.
Garmadon gasped, immediately taking cover behind a bush. "Then this means..." he observes her quietly, as the jungle around them is getting reduced to ruckus every minute. The trees, the leaves, they all have been burned down and destroyed.
"And you!! Why are you acting like I'm just some disposable?! That's not me! Did you not remember what you told me?! When we defeated Zackery!!" Her eyes flared in his direction, she knew where he was hiding.
He mutters, not peeking his head out for even a second. "Then that prince was right about what he said...she really is.."
He hears a sharp scream. That's when he decides to show himself. It was always at the times when she was in trouble when he does so. He keeps his guard up.
Magic energy shoots out of her hands and he even sees Harumi clenching her fists—in an attempt to compose herself.
"What in FSM are you doing?!" He runs to her, despite knowing that she could shoot him down and cause serious injuries. "Don't keep it in!" He yells.
Harumi shakes her head, frantically shaking back and forth to try and stop. "My heart...hurts...beating too fast...I-I want it to stop!! Make it stop!!" She yelled back, seeming to panic more and more as she felt the power rush through her veins. Too much power, even.
She couldn't handle it, it was overwhelming. It was if she had lost control...but did she even have control in the first place?
He formed a strategy in his mind. The oni lord sighed and stepped closer to the overwhelmed jade princess. "Then make it stop yourself, don't always ask people for help." He told her, not intending to comfort her this time.
It was a plan of his, it wasn't like he didn't care, it was really because he wanted her to—Garmadon's head was flung to the left as he suffered a punch.
"You just really don't care about others, do you?" Harumi sniffled, her eyes showing sign of her humanity and the power fading away from her palms.
She took his intentions in the wrong way possible and turned away, running back to the campsite herself to recover.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the tent all zipped up, Harumi sobbed into her sweatshirt that acted as a makeshift pillow. When she was transported here, she had nothing aside from herself and a spare shirt, the rest she set up and collected herself by cutting down wood, gathering water, hunting for food and stealing from abandoned campsites and boats.
She was curled in a ball, her head too fuzzy with thoughts to even consider a little nap. She woke up considerably early today and felt herself a little tired and lacking sleep. But now, her opportunity to fall asleep was slowly slipping away as she thought about Lloyd and the rest of her friends.
She was fine a little while ago so why now? Why had she even transported in this place, was there a reason?
All the crying had made her tired, she felt so numb and useless. She didn't realize this but these negative emotions pulled her down to slumber.
Having finished with replacing the campfire's logs, Garmadon turned in the direction of the tent. "A beeping sound?" He wondered confused as he heard a certain sound come from the campsite.
Cellphone, maybe. Or even a remote control leading to a vehicle around here? Garmadon wanted to the bottom of this, he doesn't know how long he can last with such a sound ringing in his ears.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
It came from the tent. That's what he figured out when he walked around the site a little. He checked under the logs and even by the trees to check for any devices behind trees.
He unzipped the tent and stepped inside, checking around. There really wasn't much inside after all, not even a backpack he could search in. The beeping was definitely louder in here. He gulped.
She looked so peaceful, laying there and resting her life away. He hated to admit it but the beeping only resonated even louder as he approached her. He knelt down and began his search. "An oni's hearing never fails." He commented to the doubtful part of himself, the one that didn't want to believe that Harumi was the source of the problem.
His eyes flickered. Her overall top seemed pretty fine, nothing wrong with her face, nothing was in her mouth, nothing on her neck, nothing got stuck in her hair either. He started to look further down.
Her chest was rising and lowering, pretty normal already. He checked her knees, nothing seems to have been caught on them but he does remember that she had an injury to the leg still in tact. Then he raised his head back up and—
"Oh, what's this?" An instinct reaction from the oni lord.
Not helping another gulp, he used one of his hand to pull up her sleeve and physically stopped as his suspicions came through. The beeping and a clear red light, all trapped under the skin of her left arm.
He had a pretty good idea of what it was but it still pained him to know that she had no idea that there was a device implemented inside of her. Without looking directly in its direction, he summoned one of his purple-tainted daggers. He held his breath.
Then he realized. His eyebrows raised at his own foolery.
Whoever had implemented this device in her arm, wanted him to go believing that she was a clone. But no, this is...she really is the real Harumi!
~~~~~~~~~~~
Rubbing her arm in hopes of getting her to wake up, Garmadon frowned. He knew what was inside her arm and if he didn't get it out, it was bad, bad bad news.
He took a deep breath, "You need to wake up, now." He tells her calmly, despite the message behind his words. It was alarming.
She groaned, shaking her head that she wished to rest some more, but Garmadon's touch turned into a tap and that's when she grew fed-up with it. Growling, she shot out of her rest.
"Oh oh, what is it this time? What's the problem?" She raged, more than a little tired. She was mainly angry at him for waking her up in all honesty. She moves her eyes from his concerned expression to the back of his hand.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" She freaks out at the mere sight of the dagger alone. She scurried away from him thus covering her arm away from him. Garmadon hisses at the now ragged up situation and sighs. "No, I'm not trying to kill you, there's a tracker in your arm." He disclosed very carefully.
At that, Harumi paused. She looks at him, more than confused. "What do you mean there's a tracker in my arm? Did you put it there?" She realized last minute how dumb that last question was. No, why would Garmadon do this to her? To cause her more pain, perhaps?
She shakes her head at her own questions. She sighs and allows him to come closer even if the dagger scared her more than a little. "Please take it off..." she requested quietly.
He nods and extends an arm to grab onto hers.
"Please give me your arm and oh, remember this will hurt a lot." He felt the need to reminder her. He knew Harumi was strong and she could possibly handle the pain of this. He takes another deep breath, this time more steadier the previous ones and inches his dagger into her arm.
The tip is pressed onto her soft skin and a flicker of concern is shown on Harumi's lips before she shuts her eyes and looks away.
He really hated doing this but if this tracker wasn't out, who knew what happened next?
He moved the dagger, creating a drastic cut and then moved even further, he began to make an incision. The gash became larger and larger and Garmadon had time to work until he was put to a halt by an alarming cry from Harumi.
"It hurts...I-It hurts!" She cried, shaking in place, her reflexes being too strong and pulling her arm away from him. But he didn't allow that, blood spilled as she moved around and he shushed her. "Sit still, you're making it worse." He spat.
Biting her tongue, she knew she had to sit still for this despite the pain. She whimpers and exhales sharply, a sign for him to continue even if she wanted to be spared from this uneasy feeling. It felt like thorns sticking out of her, slowly cutting up her skin in shambles to escape this vessel called a body and form a terrestrial being made of poisoned vines.
He continued, ignoring her whimpers as best as he could and stopped for a few seconds when he made the cut large enough to actually see the tracker. "This is certainly out of the ordinary..." he muttered.
Almost in sobs, "W-What are you waiting f-for...?! Get it off, get it off already!!" Harumi scolded him, not wanting to wait around for awhile longer.
Nodding and becoming focused again, his fingers dug into the metallic device and pulled it out of her arm to which she hollowered out in pain. He didn't inspect it just yet, first he tended to her wounds with the scarce medical supplies she had left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When afternoon came, the white haired girl was feeling relatively better and they had both inspected the device a little further. There was nothing too major that caught their eyes, it was a tracker after all....pretty one-sided on their end. Then comes to mind to who could have put it.
Walking along the riverbank in search for more supplies, "You seem to be in a far better mood than this morning." grinned the jade princess as she walked in front of him. Garmadon crossed his arms, already said mood beginning to drain at her snarky comment.
"What do you mean?" He pursues. He didn't exactly understand what she wanted to point out after all. Or perhaps his mind was somewhere else and that's why he wasn't making an effort to actually think of what she could mean. To which Harumi chuckled and raises a finger in a sort of showing him who was really the sensei here. "Not gonna yell at me this time? Nor claim I'm incompetent?" She jabbed playfully.
Garmadon rolled his eyes and walked a little faster, practically overlapping her. Harumi pouted and followed him. "Anyways, you didn't tell me why you were here." He attempts to erase the previous topic and moved on to the next. Harumi had no issues with the sudden topic change seeing as she leniently went with it. "I already told you, remember?"
He stops midway to stare at the river, "What?" He asks for clarification. Calm streams and many fishes, perhaps this is where he could get his catch of the day. Harumi sighs and stands behind him, also staring at the waves. "I don't know what happened, suddenly, I just ended up here. I don't know if it was by magic or with a spell..." she explains very briefly.
Really, what is there to explain? She didn't know the full story nor have met the one who casted her away in this jungle. She didn't know if someone was truly after her and her family again.
He nods, beginning to understand—only simply, this whole plot. There was someone behind all of this and their knowledge in spells has to be high enough to cause a teleportation.
He shifts away from the conversation slightly to step in the water. Well, that could wait, he supposed they could get some lunch first.
"How hungry are you?" He inquired.
Harumi thinks, "I'm not really hungry, so you don't need to catch too many fishes." She says then follows him into the water, soaking the helm of her pants in the process. Then, he stops her mid-way, keeping her in the shallow end. "Don't come, you're still injured." He orders. The white haired girl stopped, even if she wanted to help him out and catch many fishes.
"Awww but I wanna help." She pouts, watching as he leans down and tries to catch those pesky finned-creatures. Garmadon shakes his head and flinched slightly when he felt their scales brush his fingers. He caught one. He puts it by the ground far from the water to cancel its chances at escaping. Harumi watches over its flopping form.
"No, you saw what happened to your arm," he points out, stepping back a little at the touch of another fish swimming into his arms. He catches many many more, about three more?
Harumi sighs, nodding, he did have a point. Her arm seems to will take a few days before healing completely. But, "It's just...an ordinary gash," she says with little few hesitation. "It'll heal."
There was a brief pause as Harumi figured that he needed full concentration in order to catch a fish. She eagerly remains silent and watches him as he goes forth and attempts to chase after a fourth fish—he gulped and trips on some rocks below him, causing him to drop all the fish and fall in the water. The white haired girl is left in hysterics.
"Just watch, I'll get more." He gives her a challenging laugh as he stands back up, lifts his helmet up to let the water out and continues his search. It takes him a few minutes to actually locate them, for the fishes that he had earlier all swam away. When he did though, he pulled it out of the water and gave a triumphant laugh.
"Aha! See, I told you I'd catch one!" He calls for the white haired girl. Holding the fish, he turns his head briefly and stands there in shock when he finds the jade princess with a fish of her own in one of her hands. She gives him a small smirk and waves the fish's tail. "Looks like you're not the only one who can catch them." She teases.
Moments spoken too soon as she gives a yelp. The fish's tail, having been too close to her face, slapped its tail onto her cheek, causing her to let go of it and let it escape. However, due to the sudden attack the momentum grew unbalanced and she gave a gasp as she fell back-first into the riverbank. Garmadon practically wheezed, trying to hold in his burst of laughter, it didn't work.
The princess growled, using her right arm to push the wet strands of hair away from her face. She lifts a brow and stands back up,
"Oh yeah? That's how you want to play?" She raises a brow in spite. She lunged forward and used her hand to send a wave in his direction. The splash caused the oni lord to genuinely jump, thinking that a bigger sea creature was trying to attack him. "Hey, that was uncalled for," he splashes her back.
Their little banter came to an end when they caught a few more fishes, a good handful of five. The oni lord handed her a new set of chopsticks he managed to retrieve from the campsite and smiled at the grateful look she gave him. "Thank you," she thanked him.
As Rumi placed held onto the chopsticks, she focused on squeezing the water out of her hair first, it was an uncomfortable feeling, it felt like she was carrying extra weight that she didn't need. "Do you need help with your hair?" The oni lord offered, seeing as she couldn't get her hair ready with a single hand.
The white haired girl nodded, "Yes please." He was more than happy to help her, really. Therefore, remembering the steps from before, he began to lift strands of her hair up and twirled it around itself, creating a bun. He remembered all too fondly whenever he'd take care of Harumi, especially when she found those baby potions.
It took him awhile to learn how to do different hairstyles, already having struggled with ponytails.
However, "There you go." He placed the finishing touch, the chopsticks.
He managed to adapt quite well, for a heartless father.
Upon shaking the water out of their clothes, they set route to head back to the campsite along with their catches. They figured that the man would carry the fish since Harumi's arm was still in recovery. She wanted to help him, even negotiated her way through only falling short when he denied all requests.
They crossed the riverbank, stepping stones dipping in the cold streams. She sighed and walked a little faster, noticing that she was hungry from all the fish catching. "Do you think the resistance is well?" She wonders, not quite expecting an answer as she was just pronouncing her thoughts out loud again.
Garmadon shrugged, matching her paste as he too, wanted to get out of the open and eat their lunch peacefully. "I don't know, but with that green ninja, I mean Lloyd, they'll be safe." Not exactly motivational, but not discouraging either. The oni lord tried his best to offer her comfort but just couldn't find any. He wasn't really fond of the resistance, perhaps excluding Lloyd. He had grew to appreciate him....his son.
She nods. "Well first, we need to get out of this jungle and return to Ninjago. What if something bad happened and they're all in trouble? That's why, I say we pack up and go!" A little more agitated than usual, she makes a promise with gritted teeth. It didn't work in her favour.
A beam shoots out of her pumped up fist and she cries in surprise. She luckily managed to get out of the way before her long white locks caught fire along with the tree's leaves. She gulped and growled,
"I lost control again...dammit!" Her face fumes in anger.
Her eyes shift to the oni lord. "And you! You haven't said anything about this, what is going on?! What even is this?!" She refers to the occasional beams of destructive abilities that pops out here and there. She was far too hot-headed to see the bigger picture here.
The man shakes his head, taking a minute to stare at the burning tree before gently pulling her hand along to go back to the campsite.
"I'll explain when we get there." He says.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Returning back to to their base without any elemental interruptions was a success. The oni lord set down the raw items onto the logs and used his abilities to light the fire back up. Harumi stared in curiosity as she noticed the man had perfect control over his own powers.
She brings her hands up and turns her gaze to look into them.
Did she really have oni powers like him? Was she already an oni the entire time?
"I know they're related to emotions...powers, I mean." She started out of the blue. She awkwardly stayed sat on the logs as she watched as Garmadon didn't make any eye contact. He only placed the skewered fish over the fire and began cooking it.
"Harumi...I know what happened back there with that tree." He coughs, not wanting to leave her hanging on her own concerns. He turns the skewer, allowing the gills to cook. Harumi sighs and glared at the skies, it may be bright but frankly, she was far too worried about her current situation to be having a nice day.
"Then what happened, why did that tree suddenly—no, what came out of my hands?" She inquired, finally getting to the point.
Garmadon sharply inhaled. This was a very difficult topic, even for someone as heartless as him. It was if, by her knowing the truth, the world would go in shambles.
If Lloyd knew,
The fish finished cooking in their moment of silence and he had set it down on a stone, then handed it for her to eat.
Grabbing one for himself as well, he sat down across from her. "Do you think about them often?" He asks.
She takes a bite out of the fish and nods. She swallows and couldn't help but give another nod. "All the time, I just want to know if they're okay. I'm so worried." She admits, chuckling at her own revelation.
The oni takes a bite out of his food as well before setting it down and standing up. "If it's true and you really are developing elemental powers, then you need to learn to suppress all form of emotion." He advises.
"So you're telling me I can't feel?"
She seemed a little appalled at his suggestion. Not feeling anything, that's difficult. She finds herself crying over the littlest of things—not because she wanted to, but that's because her heart has been aching in nothing but stress lately.
Sure, she had her happy days however they didn't last very long when she hears about the crime uprising in Ninjago. To think, she tried so hard to protect these people from the oni invasion by Prince Zackery and King Omega.
Heartless, inconsiderate people, one could say.
But that's not what Harumi wanted to believe, she didn't want to see her people as selfish civilians waiting to take advantage of the masters of Spinjitzu's protection.
Garmadon crosses his arms, "I'm not saying that. I'm just suggesting that you stop being so caught up in emotional torment for the meantime." He rephrased his previous statement.
To which Harumi gave a dreary eye roll.
"Easy for you to say..." she huffs.
The man goes silent, but she knows he's definitely listening. His mind was elsewhere and he....was looking elsewhere too.
"Hey—" Harumi stands.
Garmadon shakes his head and puts a hand up for her to stop in place. The white haired girl looked at him, confused ad ever. "What's going on?" She whispers, taking the message that he at least wanted her to be quiet.
His eyes go from left to right. He stayed in spot and soon, "I hear a noise." He tells her, whispering back.
Harumi's eyes lit up with interest and slight worry. "What is it?" She inquired, could be a few frogs around here or crickets, even.
He shakes his head and takes his first step towards the direction of the trees, "Stay here." He demands her, continuing to distance himself from her. He doesn't get very far though without company. He soon sees the girl following behind him. "No, I'm coming to help." She insists.
He hissed at her, not wanting to be playing this sort of game so early in the day. Why did she have to be so stubborn too? Why couldn't she just stay here and eat? "No, you will be staying here." He raised his tone.
This time, she grew a little frustrated. "Oh why?! Why can I come and help?! What do you take me for, some weak brat without training?!" She jabs, even having a go with one of his pinkies. Her voice got progressively louder with each compliant and Garmadon suppressed a full-on yell of frustration.
Instead, he turns around and grabs her by the shoulders. "NO! YOU WILL BE STAYING HERE, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. IT IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD NOW SHUT UP AND GO BACK!" His claws dug deeper, his eyes flared up in fury.
Even so, she didn't find this at all intimidating. She knew he is an oni and what he is capable of. Frankly, she could be just as terrifying if she wanted to. She angrily crosses her arms and turns back towards the campsite. "Fine then! Take me for a damsel in distress, see where that gets you!" She throws a comment or two based on her spite for him.
He sighs, glad that she was finally returning back to safety and headed on to figure out the strange noise he had been hearing. He pushes a few leaves away and examines his surroundings. Everything seemed to be perfectly fine until he encounters a set of boulders. He would have believed it was an ordinary base of a cliff but decided against it when he noticed one was out of place.
He approached it, considering the distance between him and the campsite at the moment, and knocked on the boulder. His eyes shoot open as he realized something upon coming closer and feeling it. "This isn't stone...it's wood painted in grey!" He tells himself. His eyes then pan down to the bottom of it, leading to his next suspicion.
"This is in reality a door."
Then that makes this whole area a hideout, but who would want to hide out in what seemed to be a cave....an evil jungle freak, maybe?
"A house guest!" He hears a greeting come from behind him.
Garmadon persistently turns around and faced the horror of seeing who was really there. "Who are you?" He questioned.
A figure cloaked in black snickered at him.
"I could ask the same to you, oni. After all, you're intruding into my home." He strides along.
He takes a deep breath, completely ignoring his question. Instead, he focused on the little present he brought along.
A restrained young girl, battered from both arms. She faintly looked away from the man, clearly in shame.
"Why do you have Harumi?" He gulps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The threat chuckled and held onto the girl's wrist, leaning her down slightly before pulling a sword he kept. From being this close, Harumi was able to make many examinations. Like the fact that the tip was tainted in a green substance. She hisses, trying to free herself from this guy's grasp.
"That's poison, isn't it?" She spat, figuring his ultimate weapon out. A poisoned tipped sword, how surprising and menacing. "You're a witch, aren't you?"
Just by asking that, she received the blade to her throat. Luckily, it wasn't on the side that was dipped in poison, like she had easily guessed. "How dare you compare me to a witch, girl!" The cloaked person fumes, offended as any passerby.
The oni, who was just watching the scene unfold up until now, sought it to be the best opportunity to attack. He clenched his fists and lunged forward, raising a knee to kick at the stranger's stomach.
Not seeing his attack coming, the stranger was struck to the stomach by the oni's knee and was sent flying in the direction of his hideout. He coughed out in insane shock. As for Harumi, she sighed in relief that she managed to get away from him.
"I told you to stay put, what happened?" He rushed over to her, acting as support of the enemy ever decided to corner her again.
The two remained close to one another, the white haired girl even picked up the poisoned sword and lifted it up, using it as her weapon.
"That's what I did, I ate my fish and suddenly a guy came up behind me and took me. So I conclusion, I didn't screw up, you did." Harumi
replied.
Garmadon sighs, "Or maybe you're lying and you didn't listen to me when I told you not to go!" He tested. Usually, when liars claim something, they stutter, not expecting a certain reaction. They don't know how the rest of the story goes with a lie on call, therefore, if Harumi were to lie and said she got captured, she'd answer a little more nervously this time.
The white haired girl gripped her sword tighter. "He came to me first!!" She showed no sign of hesitance once. This really means that she did act to his own accord and continued eating. She really did get captured.
He believed her, then. But they could speak later, now, he needed to bring her back to safety and to do so, he needed to eliminate all threats. He summons two of his daggers using his powers and charges forward.
The stranger smirks and impressively dodges the two slices Garmadon attempted on him just now, greatly stunning him in the process. "How are you dodging so easily? You're supposed to be on the ground!" He insisted, trying for another cut. Again, he misses.
"Not a bad suggestion, on the ground, you say?"
He wiggles his way out of Garmadon's surroundings and picks up the pace, he chased after the vulnerable young girl.
She blinks, wondering why the two men were running in her direction. "W-Wha..." she utters, completely paralyzed in not knowing what to do.
Garmadon hisses, running as quickly as he could to catch up. "Harumi, run!!" He yells at her. The stranger lets out a 'tsk' and elbows the oni lord to the side.
Crying and screaming in fear, Harumi begins running like she was asked. If she doesn't keep ahead, she dies. She dies a painful death. She braces herself and runs like the wind, howling out her worries along the way.
"I don't wanna die! Why are the bad guys always after meeeeeee?!"
The chase was prolonged, from the secret lair to the campsite. It was only when the flames were visible did the class cloaked individual decide to send an attack. He leaped, using one of his hands to grab grip on the girl's back hair and chuckling a single phrase out:
"To the ground!"
He slams Harumi to the dirt, face-first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At least. That's what he expected to happen.
Reacting in time, Harumi turned around and flung the hand she was holding the sword and made an attempt to slice at her kidnapper's chest. She missed, the cloak got in the way, but it did manage to terrify whoever hid among the shadows.
She huffed, having been set free and picked up from where she left off, she ran into the campsite and her fingers grabbed onto the strings of the tent, giving the impression of a trip-wire. Right behind her, the individual was running too fast to stop, including the momentum from when he tried shoving Harumi face-first into the ground. He tripped onto the strings and fell neck-first inside of the tent.
Harumi and Garmadon, who were out of breath, surrounded the exit of the tent, so he had nowhere to run.
The oni aimed one of his daggers to their guest's neck. "Again, I ask: Who are you?" He insists this time, rather strictly, for an answer.
Their guest foolishly decided to laugh and sits tight. He gave them the silent treatment.
Silent treatment, then? Garmadon doesn't know such a thing. He makes a small cut on the guy's neck, earning him an almost high-pitched hiss. "Okay, alright! I will tell, just don't do that, please!" His change of tone greatly improved.
Harumi and Garmadon stood there, waiting for him to speak up.
Opening his arms as if he were performing in a play, "But it's no use if I spill out too much information, my boss has already got you where he wants you to be!" He laughs, ignoring the change of expressions on their faces. His insanity kicked in, his master plan was going to be revealed...!
"The ninja, off to death row? Those stupid-looking generals, to jail! and the squirming little hounds, to the pound! There's another Harumi in town and she's a very bad girl."
He reveals, his laugh becoming sickeningly sweet. Garmadon gave a disheartened smile.
"I don't get it...another Harumi?" The jade princess still hasn't figured it out. She looks from the stranger to the oni lord.
"There's a clone. We must return to Ninjago city immediately." Garmadon explains, wanting to reduce conversation as much as possible at the moment.
Standing up from the ground, the cloaked person clenched his fists and aims it at Harumi. "Now, you're dead. There's already one Harumi in Ninjago, we don't need another." He tried to attack her.
Frustrated with all of this already, Garmadon decided to take advantage of this. He grabbed him by the neck and flung him out of the tent, not wanting the ground inside to get dirty for what he was about to do next. He impaled both of his daggers through the man's chest, causing his heart to bleed out immediately.
He died in the oni's grasp and having no respect for this man's instant loss, he chuckled him as far away as he could from the campsite, leaving his corpse unscattered.
"We must return to Ninjago, now!!" Harumi doesn't even acknowledge the sudden murder before her very eyes. Usually, she'd go: "What was that for?!" But now, she gave worrisome eyes as far more important matters took over her mind: To save her friends and her family, to stop that fake Harumi.
Garmadon nods, agreeing to her decision. "Then let's pack up and go." He closes the tent.
~~~~~~~~
A/N: Yessss that was a Vocaloid reference in this chapter's title, I know I know. But I just couldn't help it! I was sent the prompts and I was reading it over and usually whenever I name my chapters, I always take the events as inspiration and the last bit about a Harumi clone in Ninjago city just reminded me of that song! At least it wasn't exactly identical to the lyrics, the original chapter was titled: "Try copying this, Copycat" but changed it last minute.
Anyways, I hope you're all doing well, this arc is progressing rather smoothly, don't you think? Ninjago's in trouble again and this time, it's the resistance. Garmadon and Harumi need to quickly leave the forest and get back! What do you think will happen next and most importantly, who do you think is behind all of this? Make sure to read the next part to find out!