We Hope Your Rules And Wisdom Choke You

Chapter 1: Wake from your sleep

Ripples of ocean vibrated through the faux ground. The boy tread carefully to avoid unsteady planks and loose nails, as abundant as they were. The sparse crowd bore faces of sympathy for him, a child looking for a missing person. How sad it was. Who is she to you, the people would ask. A sister? A friend? A girlfriend?

My enemy, the boy would respond. He stopped responding after a while.

Word spread of that boy. He had left no town unsearched, scoured every village, and no city unturned.

Except one.

The town on the ocean, some would call it. Others called it a wreck.

The boy called it his last hope.

Tugging up his cloak, he questioned every man, woman, and child in sight.

A tap on the shoulder. "Excuse me, ma'am."

She smiles at him, sweet. He'd seen enough to know it was poorly hidden sympathy. "Yes, son?"

He swallows his bitter tongue. "Have you seen this girl?" He brandished the poster to the woman. MISSING, WANTED ALIVE. IF SPOTTED, PLEASE NOTIFY xxx-xxx-xxx. A young girl lay on the poster, her face sharp and split by a crude red swatch. A drawing. Accurate, scarily so.

The woman no longer attempted to hide her sympathy. She shook her head. "She's a pretty one. If I saw her, I surely would never forget her. Sorry, son." The boy nods to her, as a thank you for her input.

"I think I seen her, boy!" A man, softly accented, not from here.

He peaks the boy's attention. "Where, sir?" He clutches the poster close to his chest. His foolishness is mistaken for a glimmer of hope.

"My memory's a bit foggy, maybe I had a little something to help me remember..?" He wags his fingers as if rubbing notes. His glimmer fades with a huff.

"Never mind, sir."

The ever-crumpling poster in his grip tears, as does the boy's patience. He rips it up, tearing it up into little pieces that he tears over and over and over until the paper spills from his hands and to the crook floor. He kicks the remainders, cursing the world, cursing himself. Why was finding one person so hard? Where could she even go? Ninjago surely had no more place for her to go. Metalonia was unreachable, as is the rest of southern Ninjago. Shintaro wasn't an option. Prime evil's eye, maybe. She'd survived there before, but now she's alone. Being alone in prime evil's eye simply wasn't an option.

Where else could she be?

Where is Harumi?

Lloyd reaches the end of the wharf, swinging his legs over the ledge and crumpling to the ground. Strangle weed lurches its way toward him. Green power shimmers in his hands, and the weed creeps away, back into the murky depths.

Lloyd feels frustrated. He's been searching ever since the Overlord was defeated, vowing not to give up until he found her. Not like last time. He owed it to her.

A familiar ping vibrates in his pocket. Someone is calling him. Depending on who it was, Lloyd would most likely not pick up.

He checks his phone.

Lloyd answers the call. "Hello?"

"Lloyd, are you there?" The static voice belongs to none other than Master Wu. He sounds confused.

"Yes, what is it?" It better be good.

"We have good news." Huh, It is good.

"The mayor is holding a thank-you ninja party in Ninjago Park. All the ninja are invited, new and old." The man sounds cheery to be sharing this news. He can almost see his master, standing on the edge of the bounty with one arm folded behind his back. His other hand would be stroking his beard if he was not holding the phone.