The Many Tales of the 2-Souls Ninjas

Chapter 17: Chases

Nemo Farid:

"The noble dragon sleeps," Akio shouts, raising the emerald dragon into the air. Switching places with him, Akio flies into the air while I take my place inside my body.

Quickly transforming, I poke my head out while pocketing the dragon.

"Okay," I whisper, "I have some bad news and some not-so-bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"What," Akio asks, floating behind me.

"Never mind," I say, shaking my head. "I'll just pick for you. Okay, the not-so-bad news is that I think, for now, we're safe. No one knows that the Green Ninja, you, is me."

"Okay. What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is over there."

I point over the museum's entrance, where a bunch of police cars and even a few police vans drive up with their sirens flashing. The second they stop, the cars and vans open and a dozen police officers come running out. While half of the officers run into the museum, the other half stay outside and start stopping people to ask them questions.

"Time to go," I say.

Stepping out from behind the building, I force myself not to look back as I walk away.

"We need to get those glass flowers back," I whisper.

"But how," Akio asks, hovering beside me. "The girl vanished, and we have no idea where she went or which way she could have gone."

I let out a silent scream.

"You're right," I say. "We need a clue. A lead. Something to go on. I mean, it's not like she's just going to drive right past us and--"

"Nemo," Akio shouts. He waves his hand in front of me and points at something. Turning my head, looking at where Akio is pointing, I see the same girl from before, driving a dark-blue car past us.

"No way," I say. "That did not happen."

"Nemo!"

"Right, right, right!"

Keeping an eye on the girl as she keeps driving, I do my best to keep up with her.

"Sorry," I scream, pushing a tall man to the side. "Excuse me! Excuse me! Pardon me! Coming through! Move!"

The girl stops at a red light. I know the light can change at any moment so I try to pick up the speed but I feel like I'm already at my limit.

"Nemo," Akio yells. "Quickly! Switch!"

"We can't switch," I say while out of breath. "We're in public! And you're still wanted. Just a little more. Just a little more."

About five feet from the car, the light turns from red to green. The girl sees it and drives away.

"Nnoooo," I say, stopping to catch my breath. Gasping for air with my hands on my knees, I turn to the left and see Akio staring at me.

"You're the ninja," I whisper, "Not me. I just need a minute to catch my breath."

"You don't have a minute," Akio states. "The thief is getting further and further away. The only way we can catch her is if we switch."

"Can't switch. Too public. Need somewhere private."

As I catch my breath as fast as I can, I also look around and see something that sparks an idea in my head.

"Private," I say, pointing at a small but tall blue bin. Still out of breath, I wobble over to the blue bin. Grabbing the lid, I throw it open and look inside.

"Shoot," I think. The blue bin is full of empty bottles and soda cans. "Sorry about this, Mother Nature."

Grabbing an armful of bottles and cans, I throw them out and onto the street. Grabbing two or three more armfuls, I throw them all out and finally make enough room for me to jump in.

"The noble dragon awakens," I chant, raising the green dragon.

Akio Hisashi:

Jumping out of the blue trash can, I look up and see the, as Nemo tells me, 'car' further down the road. It's moving further away but I know I can still catch it.

Looking up, I see all the other cars on the road. Jumping and flipping through the air, I land on the roof of a car. The person who is driving stops his car.

"Sorry," Nemo says, waving at the person. While Nemo does this, I jump from car to car, quickly catching up with the thief.

"Got it," I yell, landing on the roof of the girl's car. As I land on the roof, the girl's head appears from the side.

"You," she screams.

"Give me the glass flowers," I demand. Instead of giving me the glass flowers, the girl disappears back into the car. An instant after she disappears, I hear a disturbing, screeching sound and smell something quite foul.

"What is that," I ask.

"Burning rubber," Nemo answers. "Hold on!"

Before I can ask why I need to hold on, the car throws itself forward. I almost fall off but manage to grab onto the side of the car.

"Akio," Nemo yells, flying beside me. "Hold on! Just hold on! Okay?"

I can't answer Nemo. Instead, I just hang on to the sides and scream as the girl tries to shake me off.

Noon Encarnacion:

Throwing a stick of bubble gum into my mouth, I chew it while doing my Chinese homework.

"Hello," I say. "My name is Noon. Ni hao. Wo de mingzi jiao zhongwu."

I give myself a few seconds to think about how I said it.

"Hey Emica," I say, blowing a small bubble. "How did that sound? Did it sound alright?"

The ruby rose on my desk glows and a few seconds later, Emica appears.

"Noon," Emica says. "I do not know. I speak Japanese. You're trying to learn Chinese. I cannot help you."

"Okay," I say, nodding my head. "You can't help me with my Chinese but can you help me with something else?"

"I guess," Emica replies slowly. "What is it?"

"Can you think of an excuse, any excuse, to get me out of here? I really, really want to get out of here."

"No," I say with a shaking head.

I sigh and drop my shaking head. While blowing another pink bubble, my phone lights up and shakes.

"A notification," I say with a smile. Grabbing and flipping my phone over, I unlock it and tap the notification. As soon as I see what it is, I feel my smile turns upside down.

"Uhh, Emica," I say, looking at my friend. "I think you should see this."

I turn my phone over and show Emica the screen. The second Emica sees the screen, the colors quickly fade from her and, somehow, she turns truly ghosty.

"What is this," she asks, looking at me. "Why is Akio on top of one of those, uhhh, what are called again?"

"Cars," I answer.

"Yes. Thank you. Why is Akio on top of one of those cars? And why is it saying underneath that he stole a bunch of flowers from a museum? Noon, what is going on?"

"I don't know," I say, splitting out my gum, "But I do know this. Akio needs our help. And I need to stretch my legs. You ready?"

I smile when I see Emica nod her head. Reaching into my desk, I pull out the ruby rose and chant the spell.

As I chant the spells, the magical red glow encases me. My clothes fade away and are replaced with a bright red jumpsuit and mask. Emica takes over my body while I become a ghost.

"Let's go," Emica says, pulling out her chains.