Daniel Haley and the Immortal Ninja

by Caleb Karger

  “So, what happens if the humans never change? If they keep doing what they’re doing?”

  “The climate is already changing. At this point, it’s too late. Storms will get worse. There will be mass migrations as once fertile land becomes inhospitable. People will starve, and water will become scarcer. There’s going to be war and death like no human has seen for centuries. Soon, it’ll be on us to deal with the chaos,” she said.

  “The ninja are going to just let them ruin the earth, let all those people suffer and die?”

  “Enki says the humans have always chosen the hardest way to learn a lesson. They won’t learn to take care of their home until it’s destroyed. We’ve tried to help them, but there’s only so much we can do. Sometimes you have to let people make their choice,” she said.

  “What about the people who do try to change? You’re going to let everyone else’s choice hurt them?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. The masters are still in the process of preparing. They’re more focused on regenerating the planet after civilization collapses, and helping humanity recover.”

  “The ninja aren’t supposed to let people die. They still have time to change things and make sure everyone makes it.” I couldn’t believe what she was telling me, her of all people. “You care so much about people; how can you support this?” She sighed heavily. She rolled over so her back was against the dirt and she could see me more easily.

  “Daniel, I’m going to tell you something that’s hard to understand,” she said. “We can’t save everyone. Sometimes, we can’t even save the ones that deserve to live. This isn’t a movie where things are fair, and everything turns out right. Even people that can run five hundred miles per hour can be too late. If you can accept that now, you’ll spare yourself a lot of guilt later.”

  I gritted my teeth and looked back to the elves. They were crouched low as they put something into the dirt and buried it. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but I guess it was some prayer.

  “Let’s get back before the others start to worry,” she whispered. She took my hand and led me down the hill. It was so steep I kept slipping. Thorns and sharp branches jabbed me through my jeans. I bit my lip to muffle my unhappy grunts.

  The drive back was pleasant. Katherine went slower to make sure I didn’t accidentally go veering off of a sharp bend in the trail. It wasn’t long before I saw several tents hidden amongst the trees. The rest of the team was roasting marshmallows and telling scary stories around a fire. Hot Stuff had left an open spot on her log for me. I sat down and watched Katherine take a seat on a tree stump nearby.

  “There was once a man driving home at night,” Wolf said. “Now, he lived pretty far from his job in the city. The road he took home was out in the middle of nowhere. This night was particularly dark, and a bad thunderstorm had come in. After a while, he spotted something in his headlights. It was a girl in a yellow raincoat. He pulled over to see if she needed help, and she told him her car had broken down. He then offered to give her a ride home. The girl agreed and got into the car. She told him her address and was quiet the rest of the way. When he pulled up to the house, he looked back to see that the girl had vanished. He searched the backseat and then checked all of the doors to see if she’d gotten out, but all of the doors were still locked. Finally, he gave up and went up to the house. He knocked on the door, and a woman answered. After he told her what happened, the woman said, ‘Oh, she was trying to get home again. You see, our daughter died a year ago in a car crash on that road.’”

  “NO!” Spaz shouted. “No freaky ghost hitch-hikers!!!”

  Katherine laughed. “You might want to cool it with the scary stories. Remember, we all have to sleep in the dark wilderness tonight.” The others groaned and slouched. “That being said, let me tell you all a story.” She grinned like she was up to no good.

  “This is going to be good,” Kavi whispered. Everyone huddled in close as if that might keep us safe from the blackness all around us.

  “This happened a few years ago, in a forest much like this one,” Katherine said. “It had been a dry season, and the trees hadn’t seen rain for weeks. Just a tiny spark would quickly turn into a wildfire. To be safe the ninja were going to assign a squad to keep watch, but this was a very mundane and boring task. No one wanted to do it.

  “So, the masters turned to the Black Guard and asked them if any squads had misbehaved. Surprisingly, there had only been one team that had been causing a lot of trouble lately: squad thirteen. Without asking why, the masters appointed the squad to keep an eye on the forest as their punishment.

  “The squad did an excellent job. Campers hadn’t lit any fires, and there were no cigarette butts to be found. It seemed that anything even remotely flammable didn’t come within a hundred yards of the forest. The masters thought this was a little unusual. They worried that the squad might be directly influencing the humans.

  “They went to the Commander of the Black Guard and asked why the team had been in trouble. He answered, ‘It’s rumored that their commander is the most beautiful woman ever to have lived. Just one look at her makes a person lose their senses, and they are compelled to do whatever she asks. She’s been showing her face to manipulate people into doing what she wants. We’ve punished her many times. We’ve imprisoned her, we’ve whipped her, and still she disobeys.’ Now the masters were very concerned, so they devised a plan that would correct her behavior.

  “After weeks of successfully guarding the forest, there was a terrible fire one night. Squad thirteen rushed to contain it. They tried everything to put it out, but nothing seemed to work. In the middle of all the mayhem, it looked like their commander…simply…fell into the fire. The flames consumed her, and she screamed and screamed. Her squad tried to save her, but the fire was too intense.

  “It took weeks for the fires to die out as if the flames were waterproof. Eventually, they weakened and squad thirteen was able to put them out. At last, they sat down to rest and catch their breath as smoke still filled the air. It was then that they heard a woman weeping. It was the sad, pitiful sort of crying. The weeping woman emerged from the smoke, and they saw that it was their commander! She was gravely injured, and her uniform had melted against her skin. She could barely speak through her tears, but she managed to ask, ‘Am I beautiful?’ Her team answered, ‘Of course, you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.’

  “She stared at them for a long time…and then she peeled off her mask, revealing her hideous face. She said, ‘Am I still beautiful?’ Her squad couldn’t hide their disgust and horror now, but they answered again, ‘Of course, you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.’” Katherine looked back and forth; everyone was on the edge of their seats. “She screamed, ‘Liars!’ and took her sword to cut off their heads!

  “To this very day, no one knows where she is, but if you wander through the forest alone at night…you might hear her crying…she might even ask you, ‘Am I still beautiful?’”

  Suddenly, I felt something tugging on my shirt. I screamed and jumped up. The others did, too. We all spun around to see tree roots sprouting out of the ground. Everyone screamed again. Katherine exploded with laughter.

  “Gotcha,” she said. The roots snaked back into the ground. Castile grabbed the bag of marshmallows and threw a handful at Katherine.

  “That was not funny!” Lily said.

  “Oh, yes it was,” Katherine said, unable to contain her giggles. “You should’ve seen the looks on your faces.”

  After that, everyone was over being scared. Castile took out a guitar and played a couple of silly songs. I grabbed a lantern and walked a little way to where the coolers were. In a neat pile beside them were water jugs. I struggled to pour small amounts on my arms to scrub off the caked-on dirt. I shivered as some of it spilled onto my drenched clothes.

  “You could’ve asked for help,” Katherine said as she walked up behind me. She tapped her foot, and the mud sli
d right off. I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my temperature.

  “I didn’t want to take you away from the…” I glanced back at others singing, “bugs in the sleeping bag song.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine without it.” Her fingers played with the wooden toggles on her jacket. “So about the tents…”

  “Yeah?” I heard the water on my skin start to evaporate.

  “There’s only four, and they fit two people. Usually, I get one to myself…”

  “Don’t tell me I have to sleep outside?”

  “No, of course not.” She smiled nervously. “I was saying that, well, everyone else already has their tent buddy—you’re going to have to share with me.”

  My eyes bugged out of their sockets. How was I supposed to share a tent with her? What if I snored? How would I change my clothes?

  “Uh, are you sure I can’t squeeze in with Kavi, or Spaz?”

  She poked my shoulder but was careful not to let it linger and get burnt. “What are you twelve? Scared to share a tent with a girl?” She wandered back to the fire.

  I figured if I wanted to sleep in different clothes, I had better change right then. I found my bag and went over to the tents. Katherine’s tent was at the very back, but nothing marked it as any different from the others. All of the tents were black canvas.

  I pushed the tent door aside. I felt my vision tunnel. I didn’t know how this tent was supposed to fit two people. Katherine’s sleeping bag and sword were on one side. When I unrolled my sleeping bag, it was right up against hers.

  I pulled on plaid pajama pants and a long-sleeved shirt. In the morning, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting dressed, since I could just put my uniform on.

  I froze as I heard Castile’s guitar cease to play. It sounded like the team agreed on something, then footsteps came crunching towards the tents. I turned into a blur as I rushed to finish putting on some socks. I wiggled into my sleeping bag. It was like sliding into an ice cream sandwich wrapper.

  Katherine entered the tent. She flopped onto her sleeping bag. She didn’t move for a minute. Then, grumbling she sat up to remove her hiking boots. She ran her hands over her arms and shivered.

  “It’s like the Arctic away from the fire,” she said, trying to shake the cold away from her. “You can do that body-warm-up-thing any time now.”

  She crawled into her sleeping bag. I felt her shoulder press against mine. There was no separation between us. Her scent enveloped me. Today, she smelled like a meadow; grass, flowers, and pinecones. My body stiffened as I fought the urge to get closer to her.

  I could see an orange glow everywhere my eyes drifted which meant my eyes were filled with fire again. I took a deep breath. Heat radiated from my body, filling my sleeping bag.

  “So…” I gulped, “this is why you wanted me in your tent.”

  She was too drowsy to laugh really, so instead, she grunted. “You caught me.”

  “And here I thought Canadians were immune to the cold.”

  “I haven’t lived there for years.”

  “Wait a second…if you haven’t lived there for years…and you knew your commander for nine…so that means you’ve got to be somewhere in your twenties if you joined the ninja at age thirteen, because why else would you have trouble sleeping and stuff at that age.”

  “I’m not telling you how old I am.”

  “Why?” I whined.

  “It doesn’t matter. Just like it doesn’t matter that you don’t know my real name, either.”

  My head perked up. “Your name isn’t Katherine?!”

  “No.” She opened her eyes and gave me a baffled expression. “You honestly thought I’d go around using my real name?”

  “I hadn’t really thought about it.” I was in shock for a moment. I couldn’t imagine her going by any other name. “What else are you hiding from me?”

  “Guess you’ll never know.” She teased and tried to settle down to sleep.

  I groaned internally at the thought of trying to rest. I felt edgier the longer I tried to lay still. My body wanted to get up and pace. I’d felt stressed all day, and I thought it had mostly come from being nervous about the test. Now I faced something even more nerve-wracking. Tomorrow I would be sworn into an organization I still didn’t quite understand.

  “You alright?” Katherine whispered.

  “I’m anxious,” I said.

  “That’s normal.”

  “What’s going to happen after tomorrow?”

  She huffed. “Well, I assume you’ll be returning home and waiting for an assignment.”

  “You make it sound like I have another option.”

  “You do, but I know you won’t take it.”

  “Explain.”

  She rubbed her eyes. “Instead of trying to balance two lives, most ninja often choose to live at the base. It has its perks; you’ll never get ambushed there, there’s free cable and free food.”

  “Is that where you stay?”

  She nodded. “When I’m not busy.”

  “Sounds tempting, but I’d miss my family too much.”

  “Yeah, I thought so…” She rolled over and curled into a ball. I’d seen girls do that before when they were upset.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I should’ve known you wouldn’t choose the safer option.”

  I propped myself up and tried to lean over to see her face; she’d buried it into her pillow. “I will be safe. I can defend myself now,” I said. She made an aggravated shrug like I didn’t understand what she was trying to say.

  “You’ll be far away. We’ll hardly see each other.” Was she upset because she would miss me?

  “Well…maybe you could live in your penthouse instead of the base, and then we could hang out together.”

  She sat up and pushed the hair out of her face. “I can’t do that. What would it look like if I did? What would the others think?”

  “Obviously, you don’t care that much. You let me share a tent with you,” I said. She glared at me. “C’mon, you could’ve easily had me trade with someone else. You wanted me close. What is it you’re trying to get me to say?”

  “I’m not going to just pick up my life and move somewhere to be close to someone who doesn’t want me there.”

  “Of course I want you there!”

  Her hand clapped over my mouth. “Shh!” We waited in silence to see if the others had been disturbed. Nothing happened. Katherine lowered her hand. She searched my eyes. “Then ask me,” she whispered.

  I put my hands together as if to pray. “Will you please move to Colorado?”

  “Are you sure that’s what you want?” She mumbled and played with the zipper on her sleeping bag. “No one is going to want to be your girlfriend if I’m around you all the time.”

  I smirked. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

  “Of course. No one likes being the third wheel,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “There are a lot of things you’re capable of, Katherine, but being the third wheel isn’t one of them. No one can know you and not give you all of their attention,” I said, and she blushed.

  “Tell that to Spaz.” She fell back onto her pillow with a smirk and closed her eyes.

  Chapter 17

  Harukan

  T

  HUNK! THUNK! THUNK! I moaned and turned over. I put my head under my pillow, hoping that would block out the noise. THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! I couldn’t take it anymore. I grumbled and sat up.

  “Who has something to hammer first thing in the morning?! Can you sleep through this…?” I looked down and saw Katherine was gone. I should’ve known. I stuffed my feet into my shoes, shuffled out of the tent, and marched towards the source of the racket.

  I wasn’t the only one who’d woken up. My teammates were also heading towards the clearing where our bonfire had been the night before. The fire pit and log benches had disappeared. Now there was a red Japanese arch in their place.

  Katherine was per
ched on the top, hammering the last piece into place. She jumped down, and her feet made a depression in the dirt. She brushed off her hands before pushing against the arch to ensure it was steady.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “And why did you have to build it while I was getting my beauty sleep?” Spaz said.

  Lily mimicked a fish for a moment with the way her mouth open and closed. “Didn’t you read the handbook? It’s a portal to the base.”

  “What do we need a portal for? Don’t we just get on a plane?” I asked.

  “The base isn’t on Earth,” Katherine replied.

  “What do you mean it’s not on Earth?!”

  “I knew you weren’t going to read that book,” Katherine muttered under her breath. “It’s on a planet we call Nibiru, hidden in the asteroid belt.”

  She had to be joking. There was no way the ninja’s base was on another planet. Super powers were one thing, interplanetary travel was another. “A planet that far out wouldn’t be hospitable…” I said.

  “Nibiru was terraformed using orbital mirrors,” Lily said.

  I pointed to the invisible future. “But that kind of technology is decades away.”

  “Just because the humans have some catching up to do, doesn’t mean we do,” Katherine said and put her mask on.

  The fibers extended across her body. She wore the same conical hat I’d seen her commander wearing. Her shirt appeared to be solid green, but when she turned, I could see a hint of yellow and teal mixed in. It was folded over in the front like ours and trimmed with wide yellow bands bordered by purple strips, except for the sleeves. On one of the yellow bands, the same thing written on her sword’s scabbard was embroidered in black. She had a red belt, and from her pants downward her uniform matched ours.

  She pulled the strap on her sword over her shoulder and let it hang from her back. “Masks on,” she said.

  Once everyone was in uniform, Katherine faced the arch. It didn’t look like a portal; there was no wormhole or swirling thing of energy inside. She merely stepped through and disappeared. Everyone jumped back.