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Morro wasn't clueless. As much as people liked to pretend he was an idiot, Morro knew better usually.
Being cursed takes away a lot of your freedom. You can only act depending on your curse. Greed, gluttony, pride, envy, whatever got you cursed, you were stuck doing until you died again or the curse was removed, or, an even rarer possibility, it simply wore off.
Morro watched curiously as Arin and Sora trained. It had only been a few months since Thunderfang's defeat, and Morro went with the ninja to the monastery. It looked very different from what he remembered, but he could admit that there was something relaxing about the familiarity of it.
None of the ninja wanted Morro around and he knew that. Lloyd only wanted Morro around so Arin would stay. It wasn't like Morro minded though. Thunderfang had essentially destroyed all of what remained of the Departed Realm and the Preeminent. The Spectral Lands were nothing but a barren wasteland now, no safety left for anyone, no spot to hide from the soulsuckers. Morro was exhausted and just wanted to rest. Even if he didn't deserve it, he needed it.
Morro closed his eyes, his chest heaving a bit as his half-formed body tried to inhale sharply. An unfortunate mishap when Thunderfang consumed his soul. It would appear some kind of curse had hit him, leaving Morro with half his physical body and half his ghost body. It led to more pain and confusion than Morro could ever imagine, but he wasn't unused to pain at this point. That being said, Morro still wouldn't go anywhere near water if he could help it.
“Morro!” Lloyd's voice cut through his thoughts like a sharp blade. His eyes flicked open instantly and he turned his head to stare at Lloyd.
Lloyd stared back before awkwardly coughing into his fist and awkwardly beckoning to the blonde woman behind him. “Morro, this is Harumi. Harumi, this is Morro.”
Harumi stared at Morro with a cold expression. She seemed annoyed to a degree, unimpressed.
Morro narrowed his eyes a bit. “Okay?” He looked at Lloyd skeptically.
Lloyd inhaled sharply. He waved his hand dismissively. “Quite frankly, I don't trust either of you as far as I can throw you, however I trust Harumi a lot less than I trust you.”
“Flattered.” Morro scoffed dryly. “What? Am I on babysitting duty?”
“Yes.” Lloyd answered immediately, ignoring Morro's attitude. “I need to go do a few errands, and Harumi came here because the jail was completely broken and blah, blah, blah, boring legal stuff. Basically she's stuck here under our care on ‘probation.’” Lloyd explained with quotations. “As a former villain, I imagine you can keep her entertained with stories about the Cursed Realm or whatever you talk about to pass time.”
“Just so we're clear.” Morro held up a finger. “Instead of giving her to a ninja to babysit… I'm babysitting her?”
“You owe me.” Lloyd narrowed his eyes.
Morro held his gaze for a few minutes before he scoffed. “Fair enough.” He muttered with an eyeroll.
“Can't believe this.” Harumi huffed before taking a seat next on the cold ground next to Morro. “I'm stuck with some half-dead spirit.”
“Behave.” Lloyd pointed a finger at Harumi and Morro before he turned around and disappeared into the monastery.
Morro rolled his eyes but made no comment and simply turned his attention back to Arin and Sora, watching with mild amusement as Arin punched himself in the face once again.
“Aren't you supposed to have green hair?” It appeared Harumi had different plans.
“I had a streak of green.” Morro responded dryly. “When the realms collided, a lot of curses were removed as a way to rebalance everything.”
“So your hair was a curse?” Harumi asked with a bitter laugh. “That makes no sense.”
“‘Green with envy’ is a common phrase.” Morro shrugged. “The streak isn't the curse. It was the representative of the curse. Each curse can manifest in different ways.”
“So what? You're not a cursed soul anymore?”
“I never said I didn't acquire any new curses.” Morro answered patiently. “I just don't have that curse anymore.”
“I feel like you should still have it.” Harumi scoffed. “I'm sure somewhere deep inside you're still jealous of Lloyd.”
“I don't need to explain myself to you.” Morro shot her a glare. “It was never Lloyd specifically I was jealous of.”
“Yeah right, and I'm secretly a huge fan of The Great Devourer.” Harumi snarked back.
Morro's eyes narrowed but he didn't say anything in response. He simply turned his attention back to Arin and Sora. Their clumsy attempts at spinjitzu was interesting to watch to say the least.
“So what, you're going to ignore me now?” Harumi snapped her fingers next to Morro's ear.
“My job is to make sure you don't do anything stupid. I don't need to entertain you.” Morro shot back, smacking her hand away from him.
Harumi jerked her hand back. “Well I won't do anything stupid if you tell me some stories about the Cursed Realm.”
“There are no fun stories to share.” Morro kept his back to her, keeping his gaze on Arin and Sora who were now taking a break.
“There has to be something you can tell me.” Harumi dramatically laid down on the wooden floor. “What were the other spirits like? Was there a hierarchy that you guys had to follow?
“Yes.” Morro answered, his eyes narrowing even more. “Will you leave me alone now?
“Well now I’m even more curious.” Harumi sat up. “How is it decided?”
“Fighting.” Morro exhaled sharply.
“Really?” Harumi raised a brow.
“Cursed souls really only know how to fight.”
“Like we're there tournaments, or was it just a fight to the death?”
“It's impossible to die in the Cursed Realm. It is your eternal punishment. Even when the Preeminent died, we were all sent back to her as she was sent to the Departed Realm.”
“Why wasn't the Cursed Realm… cursed?” Harumi asked.
“You can't exactly send the Preeminent to herself.” Morro laughed dryly. “You can't curse a realm.”
“You can't?”
“No. A realm has a duty to uphold and it's impossible to punish them for doing their job. The Preeminent was overcrowded and needed more space to function properly. It was unfortunate she was injured and killed, but what she was doing was natural.”
“You know a lot about her.” Harumi leaned in a bit, her shoulder just barely brushing against Morro's cold ghostly one.
“I was her general.” Morro answered simply. “She taught me much more than the living would assume.”
“So as her general, were you her second in command?”
“Yes.”
Harumi waited a bit for Morro to elaborate, or maybe tell a story about how he became a general, but no words left his lips.
Harumi looked down to his living hand. Burn scars were all over it, a dark leathery appearance was all she could see, but his ghostly hand seemed to have no damage to it at all. “How'd you get your scar?”
Morro looked at her with furrowed brows. “Which one?”
“The uh… one on your arm.” Harumi pointed to it and watched as Morro raised his arm to stare blankly at it.
“Oh. I died.” Morro lowered his arm back down. Another minute of silence passed before he sighed somewhat dramatically. “I was maybe seventeen? I don't really know how many years have passed, I don't even know my own birthday.” Morro's gaze flickered down to his hand that was on the floor. “I was in a cave. I worked as a miner for blacksmiths. There was a cave-in, a huge lack of oxygen, but there was magma too.” Morro looked exhausted. “It was slow, torturous. I wouldn't want anyone to ever go through it.” Morro looked back towards Arin and Sora.
Harumi felt terrible. She didn't actually think he would elaborate on that question, nor did she have any idea that it was his death scar. “It's… a lot bigger than just on your arm, isn't it?”
“I prefer to cover up my human parts for a reason.” Was all Morro responded with.
“Thank you for telling me.” Harumi reached her hand out hesitantly, but froze before it touched Morro's. She lowered her hand again and heaved a heavy sigh, her gaze low. “I don't know what possessed me to keep trying to get back at the ninja. I should have realized after the first time that it wasn't right, that I was in the wrong.”
“You just wanted to blame someone.” Morro answered coolly. “I get that.”
“I just kept…”
“Holding on?” Morro raised a brow. “Sometimes it's a curse. An inability to let go.”
“Do you mean that… figuratively or literally?” Harumi narrowed her eyes. “I didn't feel cursed.” She added quickly.
“No offense intended, but you wouldn't notice. Curses are much too insignificant to the human eye.”
“They don't seem insignificant.” Harumi argued. “It literally dictates your entire afterlife.”
“Perhaps that's the incorrect word. You'll have to forgive me, I didn't exactly go to a school.” Morro scoffed. “I just mean curses aren't noticeable. Spells are, but curses not so much. Usually it's a mark on your person, an injury or an alteration, but it simply doesn't go away.”
“Like your hair?” Harumi asked.
“I dyed my hair all sorts of colours.” Morro shrugged. “The green just never went away, and no colouring could change it, but it could be as simple as a small cut that scars. Curses are really only noticeable if a spell is involved. Such as summoning a bunch of serpents from the cursed realm to curse fakers.” Morro had an amused curve to the corner of his lips.
“You like curses?” Harumi asked with a frown.
“What? No. Curses are overused and no morals are attached to them. You can be cursed for no reason. If someone knows how to curse you, they can. It's why the Preeminent was so overrun. People just didn't know how to stop.” Morro bowed his head. “I just find the whole serpentine situation a bit humorous.”
“How do you learn how to curse others?” That was the wrong question to ask as Morro immediately shot her a dirty look with furrowed brows. “Sorry, I meant like… do cursed spirits get taught or is there a book? I don't actually want to know any.” She waved her hands a bit frantically.
Morro still seemed skeptical, but he answered regardless. “The Preeminent has departed. Curses simply don't exist anymore without a realm to hold them, but certain ghosts were taught how to curse. There are a few spell books with curses in them, but they're all useless now.”
“Did you know how? You were her general.” Harumi asked.
“I did. I just didn't… like it.” Morro frowned. “I never used it. I knew basic magic and spells, but nothing like you're thinking. I prefer to avoid using curses. It would just make the situation worse.”
“It must have been really overrun.” Harumi's hand moved to rest besides Morro, their fingers brushing against each other.
“It was. The Preeminent… she was doing her best, but one realm to support the cursed of 14 other realms was too much for her to bear.” Morro sighed.
“I can only imagine.” Harumi closed her eyes. “Is that why she tried to curse Ninjago?”
“Ninjago is considered a baby realm. The least established. A realm split in two, but it was far larger than she was. Even the dark island would have been enough to give her the room she needed, but it's fine.” Morro's head raised up sharply. “What's done is done. There is no changing the past, only going forward.”
“I guess whatever works for you. Thank you for sharing with me.” Harumi bowed her head a bit. “It was… nice to hear some stories.”
Morro just hummed in response.
Harumi looked down at their hands, their fingers still just barely touching. She moved her hand slightly closer and closed her eyes. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad.