Ivory's Homecoming ► Ninjago

05 ≛ The Wailing Alps

The ninjas returned a few days later with some good news.

Ronin was right about Yang's temple; he, though not without torture, gave them the Scroll of Airjitzu.

The bad news is that one of them came back a ghost.

Wu closed the shop as soon as they showed up at the door. He deemed it necessary to begin training immediately, as without learning airjitzu, they wouldn't be able to continue on. And Morro was surely ahead by now.

Cole barely did anything. He lost himself with the fact that he was no longer a human; so as the others were slowly progressing, he was behind.

Natasha found him sulking a few times. Whenever she passed by his shared room—albeit it wasn't that many times, really—to either find Ronin or some other reason, he was sitting on the edge of a bed in front of an empty dresser. His entire being was transparent with a pale green aura.

He caught her once, too. She held onto the doorframe, peeking her head in and staring for a little longer than she should've when his head slowly turned around. The only thing he saw was a bit of her hair since she scrambled away.

Cole didn't really say anything. There was just that sullen expression on his face.

He looked again the time after that, but she wasn't there anymore.

¤ ¤

Natasha sat with one leg crossed over the other next to Ronin, who was laying on his side. She sipped some warm tea for the fourth time that morning, looking away from the apple next to her thigh; he had his eyes on it. In her lap, her small notebook resided.

The two were on a small platform about a quarter mile in the air. A mini flag blew a bit higher, serving as a target for the three ninjas down below.

After Zane—who for some reason hadn't said a word all morning—failed, Kai was up next. He jumped as high as he could, a red tornado appearing under him as a sphere encased his body. It took him to the flag, but he was mere inches from touching it. Multiple times.

"Seriously!"

"Aww, just short. Like your temper, Kai!" Ronin teased.

"Let me try!" Jay grinned. "I'm for sure a better airjitzu'er than you, Kai."

"Yeah? And when did that happen?"

"Like, now!"

He created the same skill but in blue, flying up to touch the flag. Unfortunately, he needed just one more second to actually lay his finger on it; this he did not do, as he fell from the sky with a scream.

Kai crossed his arms over his chest when his back hit the ground. "Oh yeah, that was so much better than me."

"It... it was!"

"That wasn't airjitzu, that was fail-itzu," Ronin commented.

"Or stupid-itzu..."

Natasha shook her head. "El azul estaba más cerca."

The thief leaned his head down. "Well, spectator number two says you were closer, Jay."

"Ha!" Said ninja turned to Kai with a silly smirk. "Suck it."

"Hard pass."

Wu made his way on deck. "To master the powers of airjitzu, we must uplift, not put each other down, Ronin."

"You close shop for a week—" He gave into his wants and grabbed the apple, taking a bite into it, "—you gotta let me have some fun. Aren't nindroids supposed to be precise?"