Promises (Ninjago's Kai x Reader)

Episode 6 - Phone Call with a Dead Man

Nadakhan was kind enough to give me my own room on the ship. Definitely didn't have to threaten to end his existence to get it.

I've been sitting here for a few hours now. Nadakhan has finished reuniting his crew and now they're having a mini pirate party on deck. I was invited to join (and I didn't have to threaten him for the invitation), but the voices in my head told me no. They said that I don't need any friends, good or evil; I only need them.

Sometimes I wonder if they're right. I mean, all I've ever done is hurt those that love me, and even though they forgive me time and time again, I keep making those same mistakes that hurt them over and over again. I know I shouldn't trust these thoughts. I know the voices only tell me lies, but sometimes they just get so loud that my head feels like it's going to explode. I need some sort of release, something to ground me and reassure me that I'm doing okay, that everything will be alright, that I'm not making a mistake and ruining my friends' lives by being in them.

I pull out my phone and dial my dad.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Dad."

"Thank goodness. I was beginning to think one of your wishes had gone wrong."

I almost smiled. "No, Dad. They all went just as I wanted them to."

"That's good, Tasha. If you don't mind me asking, what did you wish for."

I lay down on my bed, keeping the phone pressed tightly to my ear, and tell him my three wishes. I explain my reasonings behind all of them as well as my overarching plan, and he was silent through it all, only making comments during natural pauses, in which he encouraged me to continue.

"You have the power to destroy Nadakhan," Dad says when I finish. "Doesn't that go against the 'can't harm others' rule?"

"Not exactly," I say, a smirk crawling across my face. Sometimes I think I'm a genius. "I wished for the power to make it so he never existed, not that he never existed. I technically didn't wish to do him harm."

"I'm not sure if I follow . . ."

I roll onto my side and continue: "Think of it this way: if I wished for a sword, I could hypothetically use that sword to kill him, thus doing him harm. But, since I never actually wished for him to be slashed by a blade, it doesn't violate the rules because my wish does not directly harm him. I wished for a power, and that power may do him harm, but only if I choose to use it."

"Very clever," Dad says, and I can hear his smile in his words. "You've always been cunning. I'm proud some of my early lessons stuck with you, even if I was evil when I taught them."

I'm proud. Two words I didn't realize I'd missed hearing so badly. He said it sparingly in the underworld: Once when I accomplished my first mission, and again after I'd managed to use my power for the first time since I was a baby. He often said "good work," or "nice job," instead. After he became human again, he said it more often, but it was still only when I deserved it. Like when I chose to be good, or when I was training my brother. So hearing them again, now, months after he passed, feels really good.

"I'm glad too," I reply, voice wavering. "I really miss you."

"I miss you too, Tash."

"I think . . ." I pause to swallow the lump in my throat. "I think you made a mistake. You made a mistake when you made me a Sensei."

"There was no mistake made." I can practically see his consoling smile, and I can almost feel a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You were ready. I saw it, your Uncle Wu saw it. Heck, even your brother saw it."