Autobiography of a Legend

The Jade Liar

I hate how, looking back, it was obvious Harumi's plan was getting me to trust her from the start.

The first night I was in the palace, I heard something in Harumi's room break. When I got there, the room looked like it'd been ransacked, and she'd been dragged out the window by force. And of course there was someone running around the roofs of the palace, carrying a Harumi-sized bag. Just like any ninja would, I went after them. I chased them all the way outside the palace before I made a wrong move trying to jump down to grab them. That was when the intruder grabbed my hand and caught me before I fell.

The 'intruder' was Harumi, who claimed to be disguising herself to give food to the 'less fortunate.' She formed a perfect lie to make me drop all my suspicions. Ransacked room? She was naturally messy. Sneaking out in disguise? Her family wouldn't approve of her doing it. Wanting to help people? The palace had so much food that other people could eat. It was a perfect way to make me agree to help her, even when I knew we should have gone back to the palace right away. The perfect time to talk me into feeling sorry for her.

I hate the fact I even fell for all of that. She got me to think about how we both had 'roles to play' and sometimes it was hard to live up for them. I think by now, I've made clear that being the Green Ninja has meant a lot more than just saving Ninjago. So making me think about her being a Princess the same way was a smart move on her part. How much research did she do on me, just to plan all that out? Did she think about everything to say? How to act? She was perfect at acting like a Princess. She even talked about how she was wearing a mask.

And of course, I fell for it. I already thought she was pretty, and it was the first time I'd really had that happen to me. I mean, I'd obviously thought some girls were pretty before, but never like her. And I think she figured it out right away, since she made herself the perfect girl for me to fall for. Everything she said was just perfect to make me want to protect her. And of course, wanting to protect someone means you care about them. Care she could manipulate. I was such an idiot.

After we handed out the food, we wandered around the canals of the city. Since I was usually always in the downtown area of Ninjago whenever there was some major villain, I hadn't really spent that much time in the 'slums' of the city until I made it a point to start staying around in the city. There were lots of rumors of old men wandering in and out of the canals. We made our way around, and she kept talking. Kept talking and kept making me think that she was just such a nice girl. Such a nice person. And even let me wander into a group of thugs from the SOG harassing some kids.

So, if some of you didn't know, Harumi was the leader of the SOG. She put them all together and was the 'Quiet One' leading them from the shadows. So I bet she even guided me around to a spot where I'd see something like this happening. She wanted to drop in my head that there was a leader of the SOG, someone that I had to worry about. It's a classic move to make someone not suspect you, since obviously if they're telling you about them, you wouldn't think it's them. She wanted to be the one controlling what I thought. I think, at least.

Thankfully for her, Samurai X showed up before I could go and teach the thugs some lessons. I'd heard of Samurai X wandering around Ninjago City, but they did a good job of staying out of my way. I'm pretty sure Pixal didn't want me to get too close and start asking some questions. And then, just after we saw Samurai X drive away, Hutchins came back to fetch Harumi.

Okay... now this is something that I actually do feel bad about. I thought Hutchins was a bad guy. He found us without me even detecting him, he more or less dragged Harumi back to the palace, and spoke about me calling her by her name like it was bad for me to call her anything other than 'Princess.' For the record, she asked me to call her by a nickname to make me trust her, one I refuse to say. Hutchins sounded angry at me when he heard me use it.