The Child of Silver

59

It had been several days since the events at Sensei Yang's haunted temple, several days since Cole was permanently turned into a ghost. As soon as they got back to the tea shop, they explained everything that happened to Cole and at the temple to Sensei Wu. Everyone was shocked and confused to see Cole the way he was, but Cole was the whole time.

With the scroll of Airjitzu in hand, they decided to continue on their mission in defeating Morro and saving Lloyd, But Cole wouldn't join in any kind of training. Now that he was a ghost, he couldn't do anything properly. He couldn't even lean against a wall without phasing through it, much less fight without going through another person.

While Cole was a ghost, Anirei stayed as a spirit and never left Cole's side, not even for a moment. It was her way of comforting him, being there to show him that he could still feel something even though he was a ghost.

As the Bounty flew through the sky, the Ninja were up on the deck training on Airjitzu, while Cole and Anirei sat in Cole's room. Cole sighed as he looked over at Anirei, who was half asleep on the edge of the bed.

"Anirei?" Cole said, waking the girl up.

"Yes, Elder Brother?" She said with a yawn, "Is something wrong?"

"No, not really, but shouldn't you go back to your body? It's been a few days and you said your spirit can't be out of your body for too long."

Anirie chuckled, "Perhaps I wanted to test my limits, like all Ninja do."

But Cole wasn't buying it, "You should go back to your body, Anirei. We can't risk you becoming a permanent spirit or something like that."

"That won't happen." Anirei said.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I won't let it happen. Now, how about this, I'll go back to my body if you stand up and get up there to train with the others."

"Cole?" A voice said from the door. Anirei turned around and smiled when she saw Nya in her brand new ninja uniform. They had been told that Nya was training to control water, becoming a water ninja just like her mother.

"Don't feel like training, Cole?" Nya asked.

"In case you haven't heard, I'm a ghost." Cole replied, "And don't tell me we can fix this, because we can't. This is just.... who I am now." Cole tried to pick up a cup on the bedside table, but his hand went straight through. He sighed in frustration and lay back on the bed.

"I don't feel anything anymore."

"You can clearly feel frustration and sadness." Anirei said, "So at least you can still feel emotions, Elder Brother. This is just a stepping stone on your path to becoming an even greater ninja."

"Anirei has a point." Nya agreed, "Sensei told us our paths in life are never a straight line. Take me for instance, I thought I was always destined to be Samurai X, but now I'm training to become the Water Ninja, no matter how horribly awful I am at that."

"Even though we have several hurdles to go over, we have to remember one thing: Ninja never quit." Anirei said.

"But I'm not a Ninja anymore. I'm a ghost." Cole argued.

"Then what do you do?" Nya asked, "I think that's something you have to answer on your own."

Just then, Kai came into the room wearing a set of Deepstone Ninja armor and his red gi.

"Misako's about to debrief us about the next clue." He said.

"We'll be there in a moment." Nya said.

"And, sis, that color suits you well." Kai complimented before leaving.