Mamoritai 4 - A Llorumi story

11. Cliffs of Hysteria

Words: 1573

My head felt foggy and I felt my heartbeat racing. I felt my grip loosen on my knife. No, focus. I tightened my grip on my knife and the rope. I still couldn't move. "Harumi, what is it?" Lloyd yelled, probably noticing my stiffness. "It's the height, isn't it?" He continued. "Y-yes." I stuttered out. "Don't worry I got you, just focus on your breathing! And staying on that rope, okay?" He tried to calm me down. "O-okay!" I yelled as an answer. I turned around to face the cliff again. I started climbing again. I heard the laser's hit the rock wall and I heard the other's grunting. I hated this, I can't help them! "Kai!" I heard Cole suddenly yell. I turned my head around as a reflex and saw that Kai had jumped onto the droid. Then, I also saw the height again. I closed my eyes shut and took a couple of deep breaths, as I felt my pulse get intense again. Deep breaths Harumi, you got this. Then I felt an airwave and something dying. I opened my eyes and saw that Lloyd had killed a Red Visor, who was right in front of me. He flew against the cliff, right beside me. I could see his eyes were cocky and he probably had a smirk on his face. Gosh I love him. "You good?" He asked. "Been better." I answered. "It's not that long anymore. Keep going!" Lloyd encouraged me. That's right, Harumi. You got this.

I decided to focus back on climbing. I looked up and saw that there was still some way to go. I took in a deep breath and continued on climbing. I heard yelling below me, but decided to ignore it and just focus on climbing up. Then, I finally reached land again! I pulled myself up and collapsed on the ground. I did it. I did it! I waved my arms around in the air and let out a triumphant scream. After that I got up and saw that Okino had reached the end as well. I smiled at him, but he just frowned. Suddenly a Red Visor was thrown up, right in front of me. I yelped and backed away. "What in the-?" I was about to ask. "Rumi, are you okay?" Lloyd asked, interrupting me. "Yeah?" I answered in confusion. "Oh, it's just that you screamed?" Lloyd asked, as he pulled himself up. "Ooh, that was just a triumphant scream." I chuckled. "Right." He chuckled.

The rest of the ninja also came up. Or so I thought. Wait. One, two, three, four, five... Where's Ka-? Suddenly I heard yelping and Kai flew up, on top of a droid! So I wasn't dreaming? The droid spun around in the air, but then Kai slashed it with his sword and dropped down next to us. "Whoa." He said as he landed and then smirked... "You can't do nothing normally, can you Kai?" Cole asked. "So what's the deal with this guy?" I asked, pointing at the Red Visor. "It looks like he's a robot..." Nya said as she kneeled to get a closer look at it. She was right. "I was hoping we could learn something from it." Lloyd answered. "Um, I dunno, he looks pretty beaten up." I answered, looking at the robot. "Nya, can you take a look? See if you can do something?" Lloyd asked. Nya nodded and pressed its shoulder.

A panel opened up, but it glitched a lot. "It's computer code, let's see..." Nya said as she started pushing buttons. "Oh, whoops! Didn't want that... Hang on... Here we go. Rebooting communications." Nya muttered as she worked. "Unit RV, 12-99. Communications o-o-o-online." The Red Visor started talking with some glitching in between. "Go ahead, ask him what you want." Nya said, giving Lloyd room to interrogate the robot. "Tell us about the energy cubes. What is Unagami doing with them?" Lloyd asked. "Energy cubes are used to construct t-t-t-the device." It answered. "What device? What does it do?" Lloyd asked. "The device is to the other... o-other..." It answered. "The other what?" I asked. "Repeat." Nya commanded. "The p-p-portal to the other place." It said. "Other place?" Cole repeated. "What other place?" Cole asked. "He means Ninjago!" Jay suddenly yelped. "Unagami is building a portal into the real world!" Jay continued. "Is that true? Confirm." Nya commanded the robot again. Before the robot could answer, it despawned. Ah, fuck. "Well great." Lloyd said and picked up the helmet. "We're not getting any more out of it." He continued and threw the helmet off the cliff. "My friends... You should go." Okino said and glanced around. "Before more of them come." He continued. "Aren't you coming with us?" Lloyd asked. "It is better if I stay." Okino said numbly. "What, why?" Nya asked. "You told me. Unagami created Prime Empire. I am part of that. Part of the game." He explained.

"Okino, no listen." Lloyd tried to reason with him. "If I was created by Unagami, how can I be trusted? Perhaps I serve him." Okino spiraled. "You don't serve Unagami." Lloyd started as he walked closer to Okino. "You make your own choices, Okino." Lloyd comforted him as Jay walked closer as well. "Yeah, we trust you dude!" Jay said. "How can you be certain? What if... What if I betray you?" Okino asked. "You saved our lives, Okino. We trust you." Cole consoled him. "Unagami may have made Prime Empire, maybe even you. But he can't force you to do anything you don't want to! You have a choice, Okino. You decide what you are. And what you do." Lloyd spoke. He had such determination in his voice, anyone would have believed that speech! Okino's face lit up as he internalized the words he was just spoken to. "Then..." He said, placing his hands on his hips. "We will go together." He continued, looking at us with a smile on his face. "Together." Lloyd repeated. Okino took out his katana, held it with his two arms and bowed at Lloyd. Lloyd bowed back. Okino placed his katana back into his holder and we continued our travel into the Maze of the Red Dragon.

The Maze had HUGE stone walls surrounding it. They were at least 5 meters tall! We sunk into the maze, the huge stone walls hugging us. "We must stay together. The Maze of the Red Dragon has many twists and turns." Okino stopped us as soon as we got into the maze. Jay scoffed. "No problem! I'm great at mazes." He said, arrogantly. "This might be harder than the ones you're used to on the backs of cereal boxes." Cole answered, with his hands resting behind his head. "Hey!" Jay yelped and started whispering something to Cole. I guess we weren't supposed to hear that. It still got a little laughter out of us. "We must continue!" Okino said, turned around and continued walking.

As we navigated through the turns of the maze, we suddenly came across some statues. There were three on the right and three on the left. The statues looked really familiar, they had wings on their back. "Where have we seen these before?" Cole asked. "I dunno, they look normal to me." Jay said and continued walking. Right as Jay took his next step, the realization dawned on me. "Jay wai-!" I yelped, until Nya started to yell over me. "No Jay, they shoot lasers!" Nya yelled, as she must've realized the same time as I did. "Huh?" Jay said, turning around to look at us. Pew! The first laser was shot right by Jay. "Go!" Okino yelled. We all pulled out our weapons and started running through the statues. I blocked a couple of lasers and then sent a power wave to destroy one of the statues. Yes it worked! The statue vanished.

As I reached the other side of the statues, I heard Jay say "Gotcha!" behind me. I turned around to see that everyone was okay! "There are many traps here. You must always be aware of your surroundings." Okino warned. "Good safety tip, right guys?" Lloyd turned around to look at us. I nodded, like the others. As Lloyd was taking the next step, Okino suddenly placed his katana in front of Lloyd. Is he going evil now!? "Hey what ar-!" I was about to inquire, but Okino pressed one of the stones on the ground, revealing a spike trap. "Thanks, Okino!" Lloyd said, relieved. "That was close!" I sighed. Phew, so Okino is not going cray-cray. "Carefully, follow me." Okino said as he started to tiptoe around certain stones. We followed him, as ordered. After that we faced a crossroad. "Which way now?" Jay asked. "Uh, Okino? Any ideas? Left or right?" Cole asked. I looked in both directions, which looked exactly the same. I sighed. "Okino? You okay?" I heard Lloyd ask behind me. I turned around to find Okino kneeling on the ground. Did he get his angst back? "I-I... I am okay." He responded, even though we all knew he was lying. "So which way? Left or right?" I asked. Okino got up and pointed to the left. I nodded my head and we started running in that direction. "As we near the heart of the maze, the danger will grow." Okino warned. "We trust you Okino." Lloyd answered.