A Second Chance

Chapter 20: An Oni Discovery

Harumi struggled while the oni tendril pulled her deeper into the cloud of destruction. The longer she's in there, the harder it gets to breathe. She could've sworn that she saw something glow gold when she entered the cloud, she could still see it but she didn't know where it was coming from. She held her breath for as long as she could, but it was hard with the oni tendril pulling her. She heard from Lloyd that an oni tendril comes from an oni's power, obviously, but that meant that an oni was pulling her towards them, and after hearing Lloyd's explanation about the Omega Oni, she wasn't looking forward to seeing any oni, especially not the Omega.

She recognized this part of the forest while getting dragged. She then saw a root and accidentally opened her mouth to gasp. She needed to take another breath but there was no fresh air anywhere, so she could only breathe in the oni cloud. As soon as the cloud went into her lungs, she could feel herself starting to go stiff as if she was turning into a statue. She looked down at her hands and was horrified to see them starting to turn into stone.

It reminded her of the first time she used the Oni Mask of Hatred, not a good time. Using the Oni Mask, her body was covered in a stone armor that made her powerful and invincible. The oni cloud was doing the exact opposite. It was making her weaker by the second. It started getting harder for her to breathe after she felt her hands turning stiff.

In no time, she was already taking in deep breaths just to breathe. It stung. It hurt. Her whole body started aching, it was the worse pain she's ever felt in her entire life. Even worse than the time Lord Garmadon choked her with his powers. When it was with Lord Garmadon, he was only merely closing her lungs, now, with the oni cloud, it was turning her whole body into stone, slowly closing her lungs tighter and tighter.

Even with all this pain, it was no match for the pain she felt when she had to fight with Lloyd. Every time she and Lloyd crossed paths in the past, they fought. It gave a painful feeling in her heart whenever she fought him. But in the past, she hated him, didn't she? Now, she wasn't sure of her feelings. Sure, she just sacrificed herself for Lloyd and the other Ninja, but that was to save Ninjago, right? It wasn't for Lloyd, right?

So many questions, but so little answers. It frustrated her. All these emotions inside her was killing her. She hasn't felt anything like this ever since she was with Lloyd. She had blocked out all of her feelings after her parents' passing, but now, it was coming back. Why? Again, so many questions, but so little answers.

She put all those feelings aside and focused on the task at hand. She wasn't planning on returning to the Ninja, but she wasn't planning on meeting an oni either. After she finds a way to release herself, she'll just sit here in the cloud. She orchestrated a small plan in her head and placed it in action. She looked around to see if she could find anything sharp. She mentally cursed at herself for not grabbing her dagger from the ground when she was pulled. It would've saved lots of time from getting dragged on the ground but the past is the past.

She saw something shiny in the cloud and she was heading straight for it. She got closer and closer until she could finally see the object. It was a katana. She smiled at her luck and placed her hand out, ready to grab the weapon. She was hoping that she didn't jinx herself. She closed her eyes and sighed before opening them again. "Come on, come on." She murmured as she got closer to the weapon.

It was her only shot at getting out of this, she couldn't miss. Taking in a deep breath, she reached her arm out as far as she could and swiped at the ground where the katana was. She zoomed past the katana so quickly that she didn't even know if she got it. She opened her eyes slowly and let out a sigh of relief. The katana was in her right hand.

She held it up and brought it down to the ground, cutting the oni tendril off of her leg. She got up and positioned the katana behind her back, just in case she needed it. She then started to run around the dark clouded place. She could barely see anything, everything was so dark. A bolt of lightning would strike at the ground every now and then. She found a decently safe place and sat down, waiting to get frozen completely. The stiffness was starting to move up her feet, which indicated that her ankle was starting to turn to stone.