Autobiography of a Legend

The Boy That Life Forgot

Master Wu has said in the past that we can trace almost everything back to its roots. For me, those roots would be Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys.

I can't say that I like my mother's decision to leave me there. I understand now why she did it... and I'm sure that one day if I have kids of my own that I'd understand even more. I used to think leaving me with Wu would have been a better option, but as I've grown up I realize that he would have likely just trained me like he did Morro. Regardless of if it would have been better or not, I sitll think at the time it would have seemed like the better option.

I can say I somewhat get why she picked Darkley's Boarding School. I didn't remember a lot about my dad, but I would always be defined by him. In some way, making me want to grow up to be like him would help me not want to fight him. I can understand her if her goal was to make me want to not want to fight my father. Even if it backfired, I think I get it.

That doesn't mean I agree with anything that she did. From day one, I was bullied. If it wasn't for Brad trying to teach me how to handle myself then I likely wouldn't have been able to keep my chin up. Being in a school meant to teach you how to be evil works like that. Actually, now that I think about it, Brad was actually doing the opposite of what he should have done, given that helping those under you wasn't something they normally taught. Unless he was trying to take on an underling, in which case it almost worked.

In Darkley's, I always felt like I wouldn't go anywhere. No matter how hard I tried to be bad, nobody took me seriously. I was just a nice kid. I always wanted to help people around me secretly, even if I knew that it wasn't the right thing to do. I actually don't remember now whether or not we actually did any lessons; the teachers were usually always busy. Which... could likely mean they were always tied up. But I know that I was given tests by the other kids, and I always failed them. Eventually I was turned out because I didn't have the, "amoral ambition to become one of tomorrow's masterminds" or something like that.

That wasn't to say that I didn't learn a lot of things in Darkley's, oh no. The other ninja can attest that I learned a good amount. Oddly enough, when you're a big symbol and everybody expects things of you, you can get away with a lot of things. Lloyd wouldn't mess with the laundry, oh no Lloyd wouldn't try to flip through the exams. I think some of that was from the fact they always saw me as never good enough to be bad. And, I guess they were right. But that wasn't to say that I didn't try as hard as I could to be evil!

Looking back on it, it's a very murky time in my life. I don't remember much at all from before Darkley's school. I don't even remember what Misako used to look like. She gave me away so early that I can't recall the image of her face. I used to have a photo of my father somewhere with me, but I don't now. I drew markers on it to look like what the stories said he looked like. I always used to wonder how the battle between him and Wu went down over the Golden Weapons. We actually made fake weapons out of cardboard and duct tape, painted them yellow and we'd fight over them to try to act it out. We eventually came to the conclusion that Wu lost and then used something underhanded to win. It turns out we weren't that wrong.

My own mother forgot me. I think that's one thing that I feel whenever I try to look back on my time in that place. I just feel the sorrow when all the other students would have their parents, or grandparents, or anybody visit them. We still did parent teacher conferences. I'd always have to go to mine alone and be told how I was too nice. There was no parent there to fight for me, to ask for what I could do to get better, nothing. I never had anybody. And that to me was the most painful thing about my entire time in that school. Nobody wanted me.

Of course, getting thrown out hurt even more. I hated it when I was told to leave. It wasn't like I had anyplace to go. They tried to figure out where Misako was, but she was careful to hide where she was. It was actually my goal for the first few days to find her and tell her how bad a mother she was and show her I was so bad I got kicked out of the school! Like, she left me there, so clearly she wanted me to be evil. What was more evil than being too much to handle for Darkley's? Of course, once I figured out I had nothing to go on, I just made my way around and bumbed my way until I actually reached Jamanakai Village.