Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Another taxi made its way down the road, Morro’s eyes followed it as it drew closer, closing them when it passed by just like the rest. He checked his watch again, it read 4:15 and he sighed. He had been sitting in the bus shelter since school finished an hour ago and his taxi still hadn't arrived. He knew he should’ve just tried walking, he was going to be late, if he made his appointment at all. Although he wasn’t the only one. 

At the other end of the bench sat a girl with long white-blonde hair who's been waiting as long as him. Morro couldn’t remember her name, he's not exactly in the habit of doing so, but he knew she was the Emperor’s daughter. He couldn’t imagine what tragedy must’ve occurred to cause the princess’s escort to be so late. 

“Parents forget you too?” Morro joked, like anyone could forget such an important figure. She ran a hand through her hair and scoffed. 

“Yeah, you’d think with such strict scheduling it’d be harder to forget something like this,” she crossed her arms and rested the side of her head against the bus shelter. “Do your parents normally leave you waiting this long?” Morro leaned back on the bench. 

“Normally I just walk home, if they ever did have to pick me up I’d be waiting here until tomorrow,” As he spoke he looked at the girl, trying to remember anything about her. 

“If you're not waiting for your parents, who are you waiting for?” The girl looked at Morro in confusion. 

“A taxi,” he replied “I have a dentist appointment, but they didn’t want to take me, so they said they’d call me a taxi.” Who knew if they ever called one in the first place. This wasn’t the first time his new family had forgotten about him. He doesn’t mind most of the time, but now is definitely one time where he did. 

“Wow, that's a lot of money just to avoid a quick drive,” the girl smiled wryly, “I’d offer you a lift, but I doubt my ride is getting here any faster than yours.”

“How come yours is so late?” Morro asked. 

“Parents probably just forgot, normally I’d have a chauffeur come pick me up and that’s that, but since it’s my birthday my butler suggested they go along for the drive too and we go to a restaurant for dinner,” the girl frowned as she said this. “But they’ve got more important stuff on their minds, hence,” she gestured to herself and her surroundings. 

Her birthday? Isn’t she the Jade Princess? Morro thought they’d surely make a better effort to remember something like that. But the resigned look on her face made him think this might not exactly be the first time something like this has happened. Morro thought about what the girl said and made a decision. He’s definitely not making it to that appointment. 

“Well, that’s stupid. I’ll tell you what, I’m not waiting around anymore for some damn taxi that isn’t coming. So, let’s say we just bail and go do something fun?”

“Like what?”

“It’s your birthday, so what’s one thing you’ve never done that you want to try more than anything else?”

The girl looked down at her hands to think for a moment, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Well,” she began carefully, “I’ve always wanted to learn martial arts.” She looked up and stared straight into Morro’s eyes, daring him to say anything. Morro began to smile. This was perfect! He might be a bit rusty seeing as it's been a good few years since he was last formally taught or practiced, but he remembered how to fight at Darkley’s well enough so this should be a breeze. He turned himself to fully face the girl. 

“Now that you mention it, that might be the perfect activity I can help you with,” the girl’s expression changed suddenly as she began to smile. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, my dad used to teach me, back when I still lived with him,” Morro avoided looking directly at the girl and hoped she wouldn’t ask too many questions. “We can go start practicing in the old skate park near the outskirts if you want?”

“That's perfect, let’s go,” the girl stood up and started walking down the road, Morro behind her having to jog to keep up. She turned around to look at Morro, “I’m Harumi by the way, what’s your name?”

“Morro,” he held out his hand, “nice to meet you.”

Harumi took his hand. 

“Nice to meet you too, Morro.” 

They let go and carried on walking down the pavement. Morro can only pray to the First Spinjitzu Master that he doesn’t get accused of kidnapping the Jade Princess, because that’s just what he needs in his life right now. 

Morro and Harumi arrived at the skate park, only to be greeted by a small group of kids in the year below them from their school. They all sat underneath one of the ramps passing around a blunt, smoke collecting above them slightly before the wind blew it from under the shelter. Morro can smell them all the way from the other side of the park. He sighed. He really didn’t want anyone else there while he taught Harumi a few things, and he couldn’t be bothered trying to deal with them. 

“Okay, new plan,” he looked over at Harumi beside him, her nose scrunched up as she watched them. 

“You’re not giving up, are you?” She asked incredulously. 

“No,” he sighed again, “we can just head into the woods behind, there’s a clearing not far from here.” Growing up he never really saw much of Ninjago City, but since being adopted a second time all he seems to do is hang around in the city. It sometimes feels like he knows the city better than his own home, and every now and again he'd get tired of the business and go to the docks or the woods surrounding the city. 

This particular place he found only a few months ago, when he decided to ditch school early during one of Garmadon’s attacks. It was during lunch and he knew they’d keep him there until the attack was over and who knows how many hours after, just to send him home anyway. Like that school was any safer than anywhere else. 

The forest is on the Northern outskirts of Ninjago, where most of the expensive and gentrified streets are nearby. Garmadon hardly ever manages to get this far into the city so there’s never any damage to the buildings. All the historic temples and old estates are here, since none of the others are left. 

Unfortunately that means that the price to live in the north of Ninjago City is through the roof, only the wealthiest can afford to live so far out of the danger zone. Most of the time it’s just the Docks or the Beachside parts of the city that get destroyed, depending on which side of the ocean Garmadon comes from. Any residential buildings left intact in Beachside are completely abandoned, save for the odd squatter or two that are brave enough to risk getting crushed by debris. The Docks have plenty of inhabitants but that’s mostly because the prices are criminally low, no one lives there because they want to. 

Morro currently lives in Downtown Ninjago City, while there’s still plenty of rundown flats, his own included, it’s not nearly as bad as the Docks. Buildings are still destroyed in Downtown Ninjago, but ever since they moved the mayor's office into the city’s North with all the rest of the wealthiest, Garmadon tends to head straight to the office, only going through the edge of downtown. If he even makes it that far. 

While his parents' flat was in the city’s downtown, his school was in the north of the city. There weren’t really many options though. In all of Ninjago City there’s only three high schools, one downtown, one in the north, and one by the docks. 

He tried to get into Ninjago High, downtown near his flat, but they refused his application. Something about not wanting too many students from Darkley’s in one year group. In the end he was forced to go to Northside Highschool, which is just teeming with pompous mini elitists. There was always Darkley’s High School, near the docks, but he went to their middle school, and he‘d rather go live in the woods like some survivalist freak than go back there.

Once they had finally made it to the clearing, Morro threw his bag over to sit at the bottom of some tree. Harumi did the same, setting hers down at the same tree. He turned to face her. 

“So, how much do you even know about this stuff?” He ventured, hoping she wasn’t some clumsy lost cause. 

“I’ve done plenty of research, believe me it’s not the theory I’m in need of help with. It's the practical bits.” She rolled back her shoulders, tilting her head to the side slightly. 

“I just need you to help refine my technique, I’m sure it’s absolute dogshit.” She laughed. 

“Well as long as you don’t have too many bad habits it should be easy enough,” he started hesitantly. 

“If you say so,” she shrugged. 

They got started, with Morro stuffing his jacket the best he could with leaves for Harumi to practice on. She wasn’t so bad at it, she was fast and surprisingly strong, considering she had hardly done this before. 

He still had to correct her here and there, her kick needed to be aimed a little higher, her punch needed to have more power from her shoulder, and her footwork could be a lot more stable, but she was good. She didn’t know how to do many moves other than the basics, but considering she was completely self taught, she was doing wonderfully. Practically a prodigy. 

All she needed was a nudge in the right direction as well as plenty of practice, and she could easily be as good as he was. 

“Which library did you say you learned from again?” Morro asked, while she repeated the same move a few times. 

“Mind that nose of yours,” she replied quickly. 

“Just wondering where you could get such good info from, the ones I’ve been to are pretty awful for that sorta thing,” he pressed. She glanced at him between jabbing the makeshift punching bag. 

“I convinced the family butler to take me to Domu,” She said slowly. 

He nodded in understanding. He had been to Domu a few times, with his father. He visited often enough to borrow texts and study them regularly, but Morro was only ever allowed to enter once. His father was very particular about it, always talking about how dangerous some things inside there were. How Harumi ever got in was a miracle. But he supposed she was royalty after all, even in the middle of nowhere. 

He checked his watch before moving onto the next set, how long had they been doing this, an hour or two maybe? He didn’t want to push it, these new ‘parents’ of his were a lot more particular than his last foster parents.

His face froze when he realised how late it was, the clocks had yet to change back, so it didn’t even start to get dark until well after ten at night. But it was already almost nine now. Had they really been so caught up in this that neither realised just how long they’d been here for?

With that thought his stomach let out a loud growl. 

“Man, I really hope you don’t have a curfew,” he rubbed his eyes before he rapidly started to empty his jacket of any leaves or other plant matter that’s caught up in there, shrugging it on.

“Less of a curfew and more that they schedule every minute of my day.” She said bitterly. 

“Well I don’t know if you’ve taken a look at the time, but it’s way too late for me to be out,” he slung his bag over his shoulder. “Sorry but I need to get going. Want me to walk you to the square?” 

“Sure,” she said, grabbing her bag. 

They set off walking back towards the city in silence. Morro looked up at the dimming sky full of purples and pinks, it was unusually clear tonight, so he could see a few stars had begun to come out. The moon wasn’t full by any means, but it was still lit up enough to shine down a bright cold light on them. The wind blew softly through the empty streets as they made their way to the empty square. Not much was there other than a few benches and a large memorial statue. Originally they used to carve into it the names of everyone lost in the Garmadon attacks, but they ran out of space, and stopped engraving peoples names into it years ago. 

Although seeing as he stopped attacking the city a couple months ago after the whole Meowthra incident, that’s not really been an issue recently. 

They stopped walking as they reached the middle of the square, standing before the tall pillar of names. 

“Thanks,” Harumi said, “I’ll see you around, Morro.” She turned around and walked away, in the direction of the large palace, visible even from here towering over all other buildings in between. 

“Sure, no problem. See you,” Morro called as he too started to head for home. 

Half an hour later, he climbed up the fire escape,  carefully inching his window open as he slipped inside, instantly collapsing onto his bed. 

He rolled onto his back, head lolled to the side looking across his room. His eyes caught on a box full of beads from old broken bracelets and necklaces he stole back in middle school. His eyes brightened, suddenly sitting up in bed. 

Standing up he walked across his room to the box, checking what beads he had left. Smile wide, he quickly began working on what he hoped was a brilliant idea. 

Morro made his way into school the same as any other day. He walked in right as the bell rang and headed to his first lesson. Chamille waved to him across the room and he took his regular seat beside her for class, purposely ignoring any glares the teacher sent his way. 

While Morro would say he and Chamille are friends, they don’t exactly spend a lot of time outside of school together. But she’s the closest thing he's got to a friend here, not that he's got many people to pick from.

“Wassup with you?” She nudged his arm with a smirk on her face. 

“Nothing, just a late night.” Morro leaned back in his chair and avoided looking at her for too long. She somehow always knew when people lied to her, takes one to know one he supposed. 

“Try not to fall asleep then, the old hag’ll crucify you if you fail the test next week again,” Morro huffs at the reminder but dismisses her words. He’ll be fine. Probably. 

Chamille can be nice enough when she wants to be, and they went through enough together at Darkley’s that he knows she has his back. But she spends all her time with Tox of all people. He had no clue how she could put up with her, honestly. That in particular is why he hardly had many friends, almost everyone at this school is completely intolerable. 

He spent most of his morning with his eyes glazed over trying his best to stay awake, or at least appear that way. After what feels like an eternity of chemistry, the bell finally rings and he's free for lunch.

Morro slowly made his way to the café to have his lunch. When he got it out of his bag, he couldn’t help but think how pitiful it looked. Half a bread roll, some overripe grapes and a few old biscuits were all he could find in the kitchen this morning, so that’s what he brought. He hoped that by tomorrow his parents would’ve gone shopping and there’d be more for lunch the next day, but he wasn’t exactly bursting with faith. 

He easily made quick work of his lunch and set off to wander the corridors. While he normally enjoyed walking around the school rather than sitting down for the whole hour, Morro’s got another goal in mind today. 

He spent the first half hour or so of lunch aimlessly walking around hoping he’d finally find what he was looking for, with no clue of where to even start. 

Eventually, he finally managed to spot her. At the end of the hallway stood Harumi leaning against her locker silently, while two girls chatted in front of her. He thought they might be her friends, but she had a glazed look in her eyes, mind elsewhere. 

Morro walked up to her, glad that he finally managed to find her after so long. 

“Hey Harumi,”

“Morro, hi,” Harumi snapped out of whatever trance the floor had her in and smiled as she walked over to him. “I’m so glad I ran into you today. I can't thank you enough for last night, I had fun.” 

When she spoke her voice seemed oddly cheery, smile just a bit too wide. Yesterday, she hardly smiled at all, only a couple small ones here and there, and her voice came out as pretty even and emotionless. But he did suppose she was having a pretty rough day. 

“Of course, it’s not like we could just keep sitting at that bus stop forever,” Morro puts his hands in his pockets, “I hope your parents weren’t too upset?” He tried not to make any rude faces when he said that, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded. His father did always say he was very expressive, for better or worse. 

“Those old farts? If Hutchins hadn't told them I was missing they never would've noticed.” She rolled her eyes and stared intently at the ground as if it was the very cause of her every problem. “Speaking of, I was wondering if we could maybe hang out again sometime? I think I could really learn a lot from you, given enough time,”

Morro considered her request, more training? Did the Jade Princess really have that much free time she could spend so much of it in the woods? But he couldn’t help but find himself wanting to help her. They only trained for a few hours, and while she had little practical experience, she was very knowledgeable about most methods he knew and she was picking up the techniques fast. She was a natural. 

“Sure, I’ve got plenty of time to spare. But I came here because I wanted to give you this.” he held out a small roughly wrapped gift, covered in cello tape. “Sorry I couldn’t get a card and it’s really not much but I thought something might be better than nothing, right?” He made sure to cut himself off before he started rambling too much. 

Harumi’s face froze and her eyes dropped to the present. She slowly took it from him and handled it as if it were made of glass. Morro started to worry as she began to frown, not taking her wide eyes off the gift in her hands. Was this all a mistake? Should he just not have bothered?

“Thanks,” She broke her gaze away from her hands and looked up at him. 

“Sure, it was your birthday after all,” Morro says with what he hopes is a reassuring smile. 

“I’m sure I’ll love whatever it is,” she then flashed what he could only call a genuine smile, easily the first he's seen since knowing her, before it was quickly back to her regular distant but friendly look. Morro grinned at her. 

“I can only hope.” 

Chapter Text

Morro sat down at his usual place for lunch, on the end of the table by the lunch counter. That morning, he packed leftover bolognese and a satsuma. Quite the combination, that’s for sure. 

Suddenly, a bag slammed down on the table in front of him. He looked up and saw Harumi sitting down opposite him. 

She took out a green and blue plastic lunchbox. Silently opening it and getting out her chopsticks, she looked at him, raising an eyebrow. 

“Do you need something?” He asked hesitantly. 

“Yeah, to eat my lunch,” she said scoffing, like this was completely normal and he was the idiot for not realising that. 

“Don’t you normally, y’know, sit with your friends?” He ventured. 

“Aren’t you my friend?” She replied. 

“Yeah, of course I just expected you to have other friends to sit with,” he cringed at his words, he really wished they had just kept eating in silence.

“I do, but they can be…" she paused to take another bite, carefully thinking over her words, “very enthusiastic.” She finished with a strained smile. 

Morro huffed out a laugh at that.

“I see, so you’ve escaped?” he smiled down at his cold pasta, twirling it the best he could around his plastic fork. 

“Well, not…” her face twisted into a pained expression. “Yeah, I guess I did.” She sighed. 

“They’re nice enough, but I just don’t like them, like at all,” she slumped down and leaned her head on her fist. “I just can’t shake them no matter what I do,” she said hopelessly. 

“Wow, poor thing, you've got too many friends huh?” He said, trying his best not to burst out laughing. “I’m sure that must be so hard, being that likeable?” He said in mock sincerity. 

“Bite me,” she bit out as she glared daggers at him. 

He started laughing loudly, unable to hold it in any longer. 

“Oh yeah, haha, laugh it up,” she leaned back and crossed her arms. 

“Oh believe me,” he said between breaths, “I am.” 

“I totally regret this, I take it back, you're worse,” Harumi groaned. 

Once he finally managed to calm down, Harumi was still glaring at her curry and aggressively eating, expression soured. 

“Okay, I’m done, I’m done,” he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, sighing happily. 

“So do you not have any other friends then?” She asked with slightly more venom than she might’ve otherwise used—if he hadn’t just spent the last minute laughing at her, of course.

“Sure I do, I mean there’s Chamille, she's the punk girl couple tables behind you with bright purple hair,” he pointed over Harumi’s shoulder. “But she's always with her girlfriend, Tox, the one with green hair, and we really don’t get along,” he said with a grimace. 

“Why not?” She questioned with interest in her eyes.  

“Words were said, fists were had, and now neither of us are particularly keen on the other I guess,” he said bitterly. 

Not like he had a choice. She had just transferred from Ninjago High and had been spreading rumours about Lloyd from her old school. That he was evil, that he was just like Garmadon, stuff like that, so it’s not really on him that they got in a fight. 

But on the bright side, he hasn’t heard her, or anyone else for that matter, speaking badly of Lloyd since then. So pluses all around really. 

“I see, so it’s just her you’re friends with?” She continued. 

“I mean, kinda? Full time friends I guess, but I’m mostly friends with Skylor too,” he subtly gestured to the right of their table where she sat at the other side of the cafeteria, laughing with some girl with golden hair. 

“Wait, seriously? Skylor Chen?” Harumi said with surprise. 

“Yeah, crazy I’d actually be friends with someone normal,” he paused, “not that she's normal though.” He added, with a haunted look in his eyes. 

“No, I mean, I’m sort of friends with her too. She’s always at our table for lunch since she’s friends with the really enthusiastic girl I told you about.” She explained. 

“Oh, I see,” he said, glancing over at where Skylor sat for a second. 

“So how do you even know her?” She asked. 

“My uncle and her dad knew each other,” he said carefully. He didn’t exactly want to be too specific, but it’s not like there’s anyone other than Skylor around to judge. It wasn’t like he was involved with what happened with Chen anyway. 

His dad wasn’t even home when Chen came round. He never was, his uncle always ensured he was sent on some errand or other whenever he came round. Morro himself never got to meet Skylor's dad, he never even saw his face. Although, judging from his usual gaudy outfit, he wasn’t sure he wanted to. 

“While they talked in the main room, they would send us up to my bedroom where we’d play games and stuff.” He pushed around the last few pieces of spaghetti, manoeuvring them onto his fork.

More like he was forced to entertain her, and she was ruthless. He was nine by the time Chen was banished and he stopped seeing Skylor. She was only five or so at the time, but she still managed to terrify the living daylights out of him until then. 

He tried his hardest to try to play with normal things with her, mini cars, small animal figures, a doll house, the like. But she always seemed to lose interest within the first fifteen minutes or so. The only thing she seemed to have endless joy for was terrorising people. She would often find enjoyment in throwing his My Little Pony dolls at his head. There was nothing worse than apple jack giving him a black eye and having to explain to his father how a toddler managed to beat him up. 

Thankfully, he found this wasn’t just directed at him. He found that he could redirect her to focus on others, specifically one of Chen's weird sleazy looking students. He always came with him but never went inside with Chen and Garmadon, remaining in the monastery’s courtyard. 

This left him as a perfect target for pranks that he and Skylor could conduct against him. They even once poured water and confetti onto his head from Morro’s bedroom window. 

Chen's student was furious but Garmadon never could find it in his heart to punish Morro for it, and his lack of manners with Chen’s student made Morro certain he hated the guy anyway. And Chen apparently found it far too funny to care about reprimanding Skylor about it.

He only ever saw Skylor about a dozen times, but all things considered it was a pretty fun year for him. 

“I don’t know, it’s been like ten years or something since we last hung out, but we still occasionally talk now and again,” he grimaced. “Even if we’re not really on the best terms.” 

When Skylor first saw him in the corridor here she was so busy staring at him she walked into someone’s open locker door. The conversation after that wasn’t exactly the most pleasant. But at least she promised she wouldn’t tell any of his family he was alive. 

Harumi looked like she might ask what he meant, but the golden haired girl Skylor was having lunch with came up to their table with a smile so blinding Morro was compelled to close his eyes. 

“Hi, Harumi, we were wondering where you were! No one’s seen you today, I’m glad to see you okay and even making new friends!” She spoke with an upbeat cadence. Harumi was right, she really was very enthusiastic. 

She turned to him. 

“Hi, my name's Vania, I’m Harumi’s friend. What’s your name?” Morro stared up at her face as she leaned in to talk with him. 

“I’m Morro,” he said, glancing at Harumi. 

“Well it’s great to meet you, Morro!” That blinding smile was back, he almost had to look away. “You two don't have to sit here you know, feel free to join the rest of us if you want. We'd love to welcome you as a new addition to our friend group!” She said cheerfully. 

“That’s very kind,” he started nervously, “but I’m good for now, maybe another time?” 

“Of course, but it's an open invite!” She looked between the two of them. “Come join us whenever you want! But I'll leave you be for now. I just wanted to introduce myself, see you guys around!” And with another large sunny smile, she was off back to the rest of her friends. 

“You know I don’t know what you’re complaining about, she seems really nice,” Morro smirked at Harumi. 

“She is,” she glanced back at Vania, “I’ve known her as long as I’ve been a princess, but I do kind of want other friends too. Other than Akita, everyone over there is some daughter of some lame rich guy, or king or whatever.” She gave Morro a frustrated look, "they're nice, but super out of touch, I just want some friends that don’t have six living rooms,” she rubbed her eyes, resting her head in her hand. 

“Don’t you have six living rooms?” He asked. 

“Probably, but I wasn’t always a princess,” she poked around her rice miserably. 

“What do you mean?” Morro had never really followed what the royal family was up to, not exactly his crowd, so he had no clue what she could possibly mean. 

“I’m adopted, it was pretty public way back when,” she said dismissively, holding the top of one of her chopsticks up with the tip of her finger. 

“Oh, I didn’t know, when did that happen?” Maybe he was too young? But then again, even if she was a baby, before he died he was still four or so years older than her, and probably would’ve known.

Maybe he was dead? After the First Spinjitsu Master kicked him out of the Departed Realm, he came across Ninjago City and he quickly realised he'd been dead longer than he'd thought. So far he's narrowed it down to at most four years, but he could never be sure, time became a lot looser after he left the monastery, and he'd never been in the habit of checking the date anyway.

“I was eleven,” her voice was clipped, like she was talking about someone else. 

If this all happened five years ago, then it’s no wonder he hadn’t heard, the departed realm hardly has any reliable newspapers. 

The bell rang throughout the cafeteria, the sound of chairs scraping and chatter flowing out the room followed. 

Harumi snapped out of her trance and blinked up at Morro.  

“C’mon let’s go, what’ve you got now?” he tried to ask her. 

“Physics, I think,” she said after a pause. 

“Oh man that sucks, I’ve got English lit so it could be worse,” he admitted. “I heard that the teacher, Mrs Taylor, is having an affair with the head of maths,”

“Mr Miller?” He nodded, “Wait but isn’t she pregnant?” She asked. 

“Yeah, and I heard she thinks it’s Mr Miller’s baby as well,” he added. 

“Seriously? Where do you even get this stuff?” Harumi asked dubiously, laughing. 

“I’ve got connections okay? All over.” 

Morro was glad that he was able to distract her from their previous conversation. He hadn’t meant to upset her by dredging up old memories, but he really is behind on a lot of important stuff. 

One of which being that Garmadon had started attacking the city, it was quite the shock the first time it happened when he returned. He almost died! Or he got soaked when Darkley’s flooded, and had to wait three hours for his turn in the shower. Same thing. 

They headed to their lessons, Morro said goodbye to Harumi at her door and yawned. He's not even step foot inside and he's already tired. 

He turned towards the English department miserably. If only Garmadon still attacked the city there would still be hope of avoiding Henry V. Maybe if he asked real nice Garmadon'd make an exception. If only. 

Sweat glistened on their faces as they began the second hour of training that day. The sun was bright overhead, baking them alive. Although Morro managed to provide a cool breeze for them, Harumi wasn’t being particularly grateful. 

She spit her hair out of her mouth, pausing to tie it back into the bun it was in previously. 

“FSM, this wind is killing me!” She groused, not for the first time. 

“Well in this weather I’m rather glad for it, don't you think?” He countered, trying not to sound too insulted. 

“Maybe for you, your hair must be made of steel or something to survive this!” She huffed and Morro tried not to feel too guilty. He had learnt early on how to prevent his wind from affecting himself, no matter how windy it is. Which is especially useful seeing that his hair has only kept growing since he was young. And learning to use wind with hair in your face is definitely one of the worst ways to do it. 

“Maybe we should take a break then?” He suggested. 

She looked around and sighed before throwing herself down to sit in front of a tree. 

“Sure,” she grabbed a bottle of water from her bag and downed half of it in one go. 

Morro sat on a half rotten log, letting the wind fall into a lull. He closed his eyes and focused on the currents. 

Morro had always found that tuning out the world around him and centring in on the wind allowed his mind to calm in a way it seldom could. The smells, the sounds, the feel of it curling into himself. It’s a nice way to relax mostly, but it’s always good practice. Not like there’s any other way for him to use his elemental power now, not really. 

He sort of misses it, being able to use it so unrestrained. Maybe he should start trying to make some clouds again, he never did quite get that before he died. Or any kind of weather really. 

As good as he is with wind, he's never been very good at working with the other elements, even something as small as a rain cloud. His wind has always been so pure, so simple. To mix that up with other elements, to complicate that with unfamiliar components and contaminate it, was utterly unthinkable. He could just never wrap his head around it.

But who knows, maybe he could manage it now. With death comes clarity and all. 

“Do you think I could beat a boxer triple my weight?” Harumi asked, breaking the silence. 

Morro’s mind blanked out completely, as he tried to think of both an answer to the question, and why she would want to know in the first place. 

“Probably, I mean it depends how fast he is and how good his technique is,” he started slowly. 

“But I could beat him?” She pressed. 

“Yeah,” he admitted, “but probably not at boxing.”

She scoffed at him and took another swig of her water. 

“If I could beat a boxer then what about a street fighter?” She continued. 

“Why are you asking?” Morro really doesn't like the way this conversation is heading. 

“I just want to know,” she said, smiling far too innocently. “FSM forbids a girl have some curiosity.” She muttered. 

“You sure?” He said in disbelief, “you sure it’s not some misguided attempt at trying to join some underground fight ring?” He ran a hand down his face. 

“Why not,” she said lightly, “they seem easy enough, beat the other guy, any means necessary, sans murder. Seems like my kinda gig.” She enthused. 

“Plus I heard there’s a nice cash reward for winning too.” She added. 

“You’re a princess, you don’t need cash,” he rolled his eyes at her. Surely she wasn’t this desperate for a fight? If she was, she could just go find some asshole in some alleyway or another. 

“What, you think I get an allowance, no strings attached? It’s a joint account, I can’t spend anything without their say so, they’ll know if I spend money without asking.” She gives him a deadpan stare. 

“Well excuse me for not knowing about the delicate specifics of being royalty,” he said harshly. “You can’t go underground, people'll recognise you,” he added, more softly. 

“Then I’ll wear a mask,” she countered, sure as ever. “Plenty of people wear weird getups, right?”

“Sure they do, but not all of them are celebrities,” he said wryly. 

“No one will ever think I’m some fighter, so no one will think about how similar we are,” she stressed. 

Morro chewed his tongue, he knew a few people who could help, but sparing with him is very different from actually fighting real people in a real ring. 

But he can’t look away from Harumi’s hard eyes, filled with determination. She was too stubborn for her own good. 

“Fine.” He managed to get out. 

“Really?” Her face lit up, like she has just been accepted into her dream job or given a sports car for free, not like he'd just agreed to help her enter an underground fight ring. His life was so weird. 

“I know a guy, he should be able to get you into the next set of fights of the Slither Pits.” He said unhappily. “They’re brutal, but they’re the easiest to get into with no reputation. There’s more likely to be more amateurs there too, so some matches will be a lot easier than others.”

“Sounds perfect,” she smiled dangerously at him. 

Morro started to feel uneasy, like he had just made a really bad decision and was undoubtedly going to suffer for it. He was already starting to regret this. 

“But I’ll need to call in a favour to get you some gear, it’ll do you good to practice with as many weapons as possible, who knows what you’ll have to choose from in the arena.” He said, more to himself than anyone. 

They’ll need all sorts, just thinking about everything she’d need caused the start of a headache behind his eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll all work out fine,” she said dismissively. 

Morro sighed, pressing a finger to his eyelids. Why did Harumi always insist on choosing the most stressful options? He's going to die again one day and it’s totally going to be her fault, he just knows. 

Morro shuffled down the corridor, past the lockers, round the corner, his eyes darting to every face he passed betrayed his relaxed posture. His eyes finally caught onto a familiar head of vibrant red hair. Leaning against the wall of lockers she spoke with another girl Morro had seen her and Vania with. 

“Hey, Skylor,” Morro walked up to her mustering up his fakest smile to survive what would undoubtedly win the award for Most Frustrating Conversation of the week. “Mind if I ask you a favour?”

Skylor looks from him to her friend and sighed. 

“Sure, what did you have in mind?” She said after saying her goodbyes to her friend. Morro straightened his back and steadied himself, taking a deep breath. 

“I need some high grade weapons. Real ones. I’ve got a champion entering the Slither Pit, and we can’t buy them ourselves. She needs to practice with weapons, actual weapons, if she wants to stand a chance at winning. We’ll need all sorts too, katana, flail, shurikan, whatever you can manage to get.” Morro spoke with a lowered voice but still looked around, eyes darting about for anyone who might be listening in. 

“That’s not exactly gonna be cheap,” Skylor started. 

“I know, that’s why I need you to do this for me in exchange for a favour.” Morro put one hand on his hip and spoke faster with every word he said. 

“Well, what are you offering?” Skylor raised one eyebrow in Morro’s direction. 

“Anything. I just need this and when we win I can even pay you back in real money from the prize, if you haven’t cashed in the favour yet.” Morro really hopes Skylor doesn't take too much leeway with that. She’s always been well known for being fair with her prices, but seeing as she’s not exactly his biggest fan ever since he came back from the dead, the fact she’s even hearing him out makes him feel uneasy, even without such a bold claim. 

“Must be some champion if you’re so confident she’ll win,” she gave a thin smile, Morro can tell she’s already decided on a price. He really hopes it doesn’t involve her father, because that is the last thing Morro wants to be dealing with right now. 

“Tell you what, if this little champion of yours doesn't win, then you will owe me for every single penny I spent on this.” She lowered her voice when she spoke and slowly enunciated every word. “But if she does win, then she must participate in Chen’s next tournament. You’ll be invited too of course, but just as a guest.” Morro stared at her as she quietly watched him. She must really hate him if she’s involving her father directly, it certainly can't mean anything good. 

Neither Morro nor Harumi could ever dream of paying for equipment like this, but it hardly matters. Harumi is improving in leaps and bounds everyday, she could easily win a tournament like the Slither Pit, but Chen’s tournament? That’s completely different, especially seeing as they’d have no idea about the competition until just before the fight. The nature of Chen’s games have always been shrouded in secrecy, not many who lose often make it out in one piece. But this is their only option right now. They need a sponsor, so who better than the daughter of Chen himself. He can only hope when they inevitably do enter Chen’s tournament, Skylor hasn’t badmouthed them too much or they might have to worry about more than just the other competitors. It’s no secret that it’s always Chen’s favourites that win. 

“Fine, but you’ll have to get us some other stuff as well,” Morro wracked his mind for what Harumi had asked for. What else could they need to help prepare her, especially now it’s not just the Slither Pits Harumi’ll be fighting in. 

“Depends on what you ask for,” Skylor narrowed her eyes, but let him speak. 

“An outfit for the fights, a silk one. And it has to be custom made and tailored. And you have to make sure you get training and steel katana, two of each as well,” Morro remembered Harumi’s insistence on learning sword forms. But he thought she would definitely do better when dual wielding, she might be too off balance otherwise. “And an electric guitar.” He added without thinking just before Skylor could say anything. Morro didn’t like how she was looking at him, he felt as though she could see right through him to his bones, like he was in a too-clean lab under the bright white fluorescent lighting being poked and prodded at. 

“Alright.” She acquiesced. Morro let out a breath and ran a hand through his hair hoping she didn’t notice his nerves. “Any particular colour you want this guitar in?” She said with a grin, her eyes bright. 

“Red,” he said without pause. He's always wanted to have a red electric guitar, they always looked so cool on TV. He's only ever had an acoustic guitar before, and it was the regular brown that all acoustic guitars come as, but it’s not like he can play that one anymore. If he wants to keep this new one though, he’ll have to avoid playing it when his parents are home. Hopefully they won’t even notice he'd got a new one. 

“Red. Got it. Well, I’ll make sure you get your wares in say, two weeks time?” Morro quickly figured out exactly how many days Harumi’ll have to train with the weapons before the tournament after two weeks. 

“Yeah okay, that should be fine,” Harumi’ll only have a few days but after everything else he asked of her, he doesn’t exactly want to push Skylor too much. 

“Perfect, I’ll see you in two weeks then,” she started to walk away but turned around before getting far, “Just make sure to send me an email or something about that outfit and I’ll let you know when and where you can go to get it tailored once it’s done. And don’t worry, I won’t be there.” She began to walk off again but before she turned the corner, called back over her shoulder with a smile, “I’ll tell my dad you said hi!”