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Cole liked Wu. His new teacher was nice, he actually listened to what Cole wanted, he cared. He was also cool.
Still, sometimes he wished Wu didn't put so much effort into maintaining his old wise mentor act. Like now.
"The wind is strong today," he had commented on the weather, unsure of if it would be safe to train outside.
"Just like him." was the reply he received from his teacher. It...didn't make sense.
"...Who?"
"Someone who should not be spoken of, lest we suffer the consequences," Wu said, his tone defeated. Cole did not ask more questions. He wasn't sure he wanted to learn what force had the son of the First Master himself afraid to speak its name.
"I'll just...go now," he excused himself, but had he stayed, perhaps he would have noticed the fond smile on Wu's face.
Like a Pandora's box opened, after that the ninja started hearing a lot about this mysterious force. Wu mentioned them whenever he could...but never said anything clear. From what the 5 teens and Lloyd could gather, this creature was powerful, had a connection to the wind and there would be consequences if Wu so much as implied more. Safe to say, the kids were...concerned.
"What about this?" Lloyd suggested, stiffling a yawn as he passed a scroll to Nya. The six of them had gathered in the captain's quarters, which also doubled as Wu's study and bedroom. Dozens of scrolls lay scattered around them.
"'Wojira, a mythical serpent of wind and water, believed to have ruled the seas before First Spinjitsu Master created Ninjago.'" Nya read out loud. She noted how the translation didn't seem to be in Wu's handwriting.
"Pretty sure there wouldn't have been an ocean to rule before the First Master. Clearly it's rubbish," Kai said.
"I think we had enough snakes to last us a lifetime," Jay muttered.
"Still, it seems to be the only scroll here referencing the power over wind. No other scroll holds anything of significance," Zane argued but even his tone was half-hearted at best.
"Students? Where-ah! There you are!"
They scrambled to hide the scrolls to no avail. "...What are you doing?"
"We're, uh...studying!" Kai replied, holding up the first piece of parchment he could reach.
"Yeah! Group study!" Nya went along, the siblings' smiles too awkward and wide to be genuine.
"...Are you all ill? Is there something you need to tell me?" Wu asked, eyebrow raised judgementally. Lloyd giggled at the offended faces on the teens' faces.
"Sensei!" Jay shouted.
"Alright, alright. I'll leave you to it. Just clean up after yourselves." Wu said and decided to check up on his favorite tea set. For no reason.
"Sensei?" Kai called, almost hesitantly. Wu frowned. This was unusual for the fire master and so, the old man made his way towards the young boy. It seemed all of them had gathered in the boys' room.
"Students? Is everything alright?"
"Sensei, you have told us several times that you do not wish to discuss this, but we find ourselves concerned about your and our safety," Zane began and Wu had absolutely no clue what they were talking about.
"Is there anything you can tell us about this mysterious wind creature you keep mentioning?"
Wind crea- ah. "I understand that his behavior is not exactly the norm, but that sounds like a rude way to refer to someone," he chastised them.
"So they're a person?" Nya asked.
"Of course!"
What in the world made his students doubt his son's humanity?
Knowledge that the mysterious wind creature is actually a person did not aid their research. There was noone in the entire history of Ninjago with even a hint of power over the wind. Except Wojira, but Kai's pretty sure that's a myth. So really, their only source of information was Wu. Their source of information was terrible at sharing information. Their attempted talk had gone nowhere since Wu walked out immediately after letting them know that referring to a person as 'creature' was rude.
And then he dropped another metaphorical bomb on them later that day. During training too.
See, Cole had done really well. He kicked their asses. "It's just because you have more training as the first student," Jay had huffed like the sore loser he is. Kai was definitely not about to say the same thing. Totally.
"Cole is not my first student," Wu had said, a puzzled expression on his face. "Did I never tell you? Morro, the elemental master of wind is."
They had a name and a clarification on powers. Except...since when were there any other elemental masters? Why is Wu only mentioning them now? Also, the fuck kind of name is Morro? 'The hill'?
"Oh yes. I've been trying to get him to participate in your training. I believe he would most benefit Nya due to the similarities between their powers. So far my attempts to convince him have been unsuccessful."
"...My powers? Sensei, I don't have powers," Nya reminded. Did Wu have memory problems?
"What do you mean? You inherited your mother's mastery over water, did you not?"
A valid crash-out later the five gathered around their 'wind creature person' board to update it and make some plans regarding Nya's elemental training. Kai's pretty sure she had a plan of her own on convincing the wind master to train her.
Currently their board looked like this:
Wind powers(ELEMENTAL MASTER)
Wojira?
He, is human
Wind powers are connected to water powers
Wu's first student
Morro(hill???)
"I suppose we could also add that he is powerful and skilled. Sensei would not have considered having him train us if he wasn't," Zane said and oh shit. This Morro person trained with Wu for years. Add powers to the mix and the man couldn't be anything but a living legend equal to his teacher. And if that was Wu's standard...wow, they really needed to up their game if they wanted to catch up with the prodigy man.
"Students, I have something to say," Wu announced during dinner. In his hands he held a package and a letter Kai saw the mailman deliver not too long ago. "Now that I'm no longer at risk of losing supply of my favorite tea, it is time you familiarize yourself with my past."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"You shall finally meet Morro."
Were they putting too much effort into meeting a stranger? Maybe. But that stranger was their master's first student, a legend in the making the ninja could only hope to be equal to, so first impressions mattered.
And then they entered Chen's noodle house and Wu pointed at a small boy in all black and gray with ridiculous amounts of eyeliner and dyed streaks and Kai decided this had to be a dream. A venomari-induced hallucination maybe.
"You're kidding right?"
The little guy raised a brow and oh, Kai recognized that judgemental look. This boy could be no other than Wu's.
"Where's the actual Morro? Where's the six feet tall wall of muscle and–"
Cole covered Jay's mouth with his hand, muffling his shrieks. "Hi, Morro, sorry about him. He's just a weirdo. I'm Cole!"
"Morro Wu, master of wind. Not six feet tall but still better than all of you combined."
See, Kai would be a little pissed at that if not for that first part. Because if Lloyd's last name was Garmadon because of his father, then...
"We were not aware you were Wu's son," Zane said. "I am Zane Julien, it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Morro did not seem fazed by the fact Wu failed to mention their relation. Kai had a feeling there was a lot Wu failed to mention.
"You don't look like an adult," he said instead of introducing himself because fuck his brain. At least he didn't do as bad as Jay.
"I'm...fifteen."
"FIFTEEN?!" Jay shrieked and look, it was totally valid but Kai's ears had to be bleeding now, so fuck Jay. "WE COME IN TO MEET YOUR LEGENDARY FIRST STUDENT AND HE'S YOUNGER THAN US?!"
Wu did not get to defend himself because the staff told them to shut up.
So they went to their table, got food, got to know their master's son and first student. Apparently Morro had told Wu not to tell them any embarrassing stories from his childhood if the man wanted the wind master to keep supplying him with that tea blend he loved.
And apparently the guy had quite an ego. There was a lot of yelling involved. And maybe a few insults. And maybe Morro was right to claim to be superior to all of them combined, because he kicked them out of the restaurant. Stupid first students.
"That went well," said Wu as if he wasn't looking at four teenagers sprawled across the street. Nya did not want to know what counted as 'bad' in her sensei's opinion.
"Sure it did, father. Sure it did."
"Oh man, you should have been there when we first met Morro," Lloyd said and immediately began the dramatic retelling of how he came to know his cousin. His father, now void of venom, chuckled at the story.
"That is quite a tale, son. I suppose it went better than my meeting with him."
"Oh?"
"Your uncle was very vague in his letters. I thought he adopted a hamster."
"A HAMSTER!" Lloyd started cackling.
"And when I finally visited, Morro bit me and gave me a concussion. You should have seen his face when he realized I was not an intruder–"
"UNCLE!" came a shriek from somewhere on the other side of the monastery. Lloyd continued to laugh.