Tides of Reality| Ninjago | Monkie Kid | ROTTMNT

Chapter 36 - The Five Who Had To Fight

She didn't actually die. It's not permanent. Mei kept repeating it over and over again.

We defeat Unagami and they will come back. She reminded herself going down the corridor to the gate to the human world.

Kai inserted the key-tanas on their places as keys and opened the next area to the group.

The light of the portal in the shape of an arcade machine built entirely from the yellow cubes that players converted into after death was blinding.

A few "Whoah"'s could be heard from the team, as they stepped onto the floating half-island where right before their eyes appeared a person. Unagami.

"You are the first humans to ever beat my game." He said, amused. "Congratulations." He turned on his heel in mid air and faced the portal. "Unfortunately, my great portal isn't even nearly finished without a link in the human world..." He continued.

Well, that was probably not supposed to be true. From what Mei remembered, the final battle took place in Ninjago City and Milton Dyer was there, and- Fuck. They forgot Dyer.

Well, this was bad.

"So, I guess you'll die." Unagami turned to the group suddenly, with an annoyed frown on his face. Descending down onto the floor he took the form of the Red Dragon from the maze.

His version had different colors that stood out from the red of the floating peninsula.

The swish of his giant tail swept everyone off their feet and the platform they were all standing on. Everyone except Mei, who had the luck to be standing just out of its reach.

Four humans plummeted down to their d̶e̶a̶t̶h̶s̶ despawns, as Mei took a deep, long breath trying to calm herself down. She was the only one who stood a chance against Unagami now that the kids each had only one life left.

Upon despawning they all gathered into a tight little group and began whispering amongst each other, making a plan.

"Okay, we obviously have to beat him." Liv gathered everyone around Mei. "But! We know about his weak spot." She smiled, her leadership skills showing.

"So, Mei can distract him while we" she gestured to the humans. "try to hit the spot." Mei wasn't sure. Can they even win with the game itself while, you know, being in the game? Maybe they could talk with him instead?

This thought made Mei cringe a little. Since when was she so eager to talk?

But it made sense. In the show everything got resolved with talking, right? Unagami had some sort of beef with Dyer about... Right. About what exactly?

It was something about being abandoned, right?

But before Mei could take Sky's notes from her inventory, Liv asked "Is everyone ready?!"

Oh, right.

And so she charged a Unagami, who previously had been watching the group closely. She slashed at his face with her talons, doing absolutely no damage, but gaining his attention for a few seconds before Kai could silently run behind the dragon.

And that's when everything started falling apart.

All four were around Unagami's legs, so small compared to the dragon they were fighting. And so he hardly noticed when Kai got a bit too close to his tail.

Kai, however, definitely noticed when the giant tail threw him into the air and off the platform yet again.

Soon enough Lloyd joined him, getting pushed by Unagami's whole body, when Mei, fighting, shoved him in the wrong direction a bit too much.

Then Jay got literally squashed to death when Unagami stepped on him a few times.

Now, with only Liv alive, Mei's anxiety was through the ceiling. The other dragon clearly noticed it. "Oh, are you scared?" He mocked.

"Is it because of this little human on my back?"

They both froze. He was aware of Liv. He could easily kill her with just one move. Send her flying off the island or getting painfully squished underneath him.

"Eh, she's not gonna be a problem." Just as he said this Liv suddenly lost her last life. How? He didn't move. No one moved. Why was she dead?

Her confusion must've shown on Mei's face, because Unagami quickly answered.

"I am the game. I can literally do whatever I want." He giggled a little.

It- It wasn't the sinister chuckle Mei was used to hearing from villains. It was more of a child's laugh.

Because he was just a child.

"Hey, um, listen." She took a few steps back to create a bit of comfortable space between them.

"I- uh-" She probably wasn't the best person to start this topic. Sky would've known what to say. But there was no turning back now. "I know that you're probably very lonely here."

He looked at her sharply, his face twisting in a mix of surprise and something resembling anger. But he didn't move, waiting for her to continue.

"Uh, if you want, we have a few empty guest rooms" Mei continued, tensing under Unagami's intense stare. "and, uh, I guess you could live with us. You know, living a somewhat normal life with a group of ninjas?" At this point she was just trying to sell this idea.

"We have breakfasts and live together and go on cool adventures." She could swear she was sweating from the amount of stress she was under, Unagami watching still, digging into her with his glowing eyes.

"What's the catch? And how would we get to the human realm?" His voice was more cheerful than his face, still with a bit of suspicion.

"Oh, it's simple. Just allow people to leave your game. Even the ones who lost all their lives already." Mei regained her confidence now that she saw that Unagami is willing to cooperate. "As for the portal itself..." She remembered Sky's phone, still in her inventory.

"I can call some friends."

She was silently praying that it worked from inside the game.

-

Unagami was thinking for a long second.

A second too long to be only a second.

He could always choose to just get rid of Mei right here and now. No one would know.

"Okay! I'm in!" He almost shouted, his voice bubbly and overflowing with excitement and childlike happiness.

-

Fortunately Mei was able to call Cole and Zane after Unagami mercifully turned her back into a human. Oh how she missed being bipedal and having hands. Now that everything was arranged, all Unagami and Mei could do was wait.

"Hey, come on! Join us!" Unagami shouted, making a few chairs out of thin game air.

Mei turned to face him and took a breath in and out. "Hey, I know you're excited" She put her hand on Unagami's shoulder. "but maybe I should talk to them first. The last they remember is fighting you, so they might not be friendly right away." She reminded the kid.

He nodded as a sign of understanding. Four human figures and one wolf appeared in front of her.

After first confusion and a quick summary of what's happened, Mei introduced the group to Unagami. Liv and Jay started talking with him right away about anything that came to mind, soon followed by Lloyd and Kai.

"Wait." Unagami suddenly stopped the conversation and turned to the wolf, who was at the moment talking to Mei. "Let me fix that."

Before Sky could even turn around, she was turned into a human.

They tried walking up to Unagami, but failed spectacularly, falling on their face and groaning into the ground, annoyed. "Bipedal. Now you're bipedal."