{Location: The inward maze}(Morro's POV)

What'd I agree to? Shut up shoulder angel, I want this. I want what is rightfully mine.

Do you want is this way?

I don't care how I get the green gi as long as I get it.

The Preeminent lets go, "Finally took decades." She folds her arms as I watch my reflection. My eyes get this weird dark shading around them. Like someone faintly splashed paint on my face. The Preeminent hums, "You accepted to be my puppet, as a willing ghost, I have all power over you that I can take advantage of whenever I please."

"Fine with me."

"Do you even want to know the details of my master plan?"

"I don't care," I reach out to touch my reflection, my green ninja image rippling away like a wave, "As long as I get what's mine."

"Ahh, that hunger." She taps the mirror, tipping it backward and cracking it, "You may never be a top general, but you will be useful."

"Wait," I stop over the glace, glancing at the shattered version of my green gi reflection. "You do this to all your grunts?"

"No, but an... elemental...how could I let you waste away your vices on your virtues?" she walks thought headers, pulling me to her like a magnet, "Might as well make use of you while you're here." She pushes me forward to nothing. Literally no ground and hundreds of ghosts freely floating around, "Now go make some friends."

I phase thought a ghost sitting on nothing. It's cold. She's freezing, hyper-focused and heartless.

"HEY!" She grabs me, punching thought my head, "Watch it as-" She blinks before snarling, "Hunter?"

I push her hands off. She has a fair face hidden in a mask, thin slender hands, and familiar shallow eyes. I reach out to grab her when she lets me pass thought. "How do you know me?"

Ghost chick lunges at me. Fruitlessly punching and smacking me, "BECAUSE YOU PAID ME!" She screeches out insults and several four-letter words. We eventually find a bottom, her hand claw thought my hair as she snarls, "YOU PUT ME HERE!"

"ENOUGH!" I thrust my hands forward, the wind whipping thought her but not pushing her away, "I DON'T KNOW YOU AND I DON'T GIVE ONE CRAP AB-"

She yanks off her hood.

Oh.

I do know her.

Akia.

Akia pulls out a jagged dual side sword dagger thing, "Yeah." She thrusts her weapon into my gut as it can't cut me. She leaves it in before smacking my cheek and pulling on my hair, "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

"GET OFF!" I force her away, pulling out her weapon and throwing it down, "Before you try to kill a dead man again, why?"

She growls, "Simple, you paid me to find a clue to that stupid tomb. I went as far as I needed to. Got caught up in mind spells before my money stopped coming."

"How is that related to-"

"Shut up you stupid idiot." She clenches her jaw, spitting out words like poison, "I had one last lead to follow. But he broke our deal. And no one crossed me. Did what I needed to do until. It was almost too easy." Her brown eyes show a deep crack in her mind, "Slitting his throat in one swift motion."

"You killed someone?"

Her eyes glimmer at the word 'kill.' Her frown twitches into a glaring sneer, "Oh yeah."

"What were you THINKING?"

"I did what you told me to. Do whatever it takes to get the information. No stops."

I smack my face, moaning, "I didn't....I mean...did you have to kill someone?"  Was that actually my fault? I did send her and.....crap. The other three nimrods on a very serious mission. I bite my lower lip, feeling my tongue nearly phase thought.
"What's the big deal? You're the-"

"The big deal is this," I point all around, "That's what got you here. I didn't tell you to kill whoever was incorporative! I told you to find clues."
"At whatever cost," she holds the tip of her sword under my chin, "If you're too thick to have figured it out already, the world isn't a yes or no column in the morality section. It's a messy, dirty, cesspool pool of frecking nonsense."

It can't be my fault...right?

Akia wouldn't have killed that guy if I didn't set her on that path.

I need to know one thing. I look down, my rapidly shrinking conscious smuggles one sentence into my mouth, "Was he...was he a bad man at least?"

Akia lowers her weapon, putting it on her back before exhaling in my face, "No. He was a small-town hero. Everyone loved him. He was kind, generous and a true leader."  Owch. That's wrong. He shouldn't have died. Mabey...mabey it is my fault. Akia's smart. She sees how deep this is rocking me but she's saved the best for last. The killing blow, "He has a disabled son too. Tsk, tsk, who's that boy going to blame?"

I step back. I belong here after all.

My actions lead to something terrible.

Akia backs off, grabbing her mask, "If it makes you feel better, I got my complaints. The town burned me at the stake for being a witch."

"Did-"

"No. They don't know who kill that good guy." She holds her hand out, "You still owe me by the way."

"You want more money? To spend on what?"

"Donno, don't care. You just-"

"No." I push her back, "I don't have anything left, Akia. I've lost everything, my home, my job, my life. MY MORALITY! What makes you think you can bully me for more? More of this. More of that. I'm sick and tired of your whining and bellyaching just because you have less compassion than a deadly blizzard. I give up. Happy? I've given up on the tomb and I won't let you or Nao, or Wyatt or Asher hold it over me."

She spits at my feet before showing off her her pinky fingers. She turns around while pulling on her mask, "You've matured intoa perfect little jerk-hole."

"Takes one to know one."

"One more thing, Hunter."

"It's Morro."

She hums, "I'll call you that if you let Akia die."

"What would you rather have me call you?"

"No." She covers her mouth, "I'm Bansha. Wanna hear me sING!?" She lets out the loudest, gosh darn awful scream. She stops when a segment crashes thought me, "See ya around, Morro."

Well, she turned out.....awful.

I sigh as I rub the bridge of my nose. I should really rest. I haven't rested in...mabey since I died. How long have I been dead?

My time with the Preeminent seems like both an eternity and a microsecond.

I stumble forward, quickly falling thought the ground. "AH!" Focuses. My hands are solid, I'm not going to fall. I'm going to stand up and I'm going to take a walk. I pull up slowly, getting my feet under me before crawling a little. Ok, mabey a little less worrying how long I've been dead and try walking in my wonderful new form.

Easy now, one foot then the other. Left, right, left, right. "AH!" I fall face-first into a rock. Awesome. "New plan, find a solid spot. Practice at this. Why am I talking to myself?" Yes, ahead is a wooden door covering a cave. Ok, now I knock. My hands pass thought. Oh yeah. I try gripping the knob only to keep fruitlessly grabbing.

The door gets thrown open, a nasty looking guy with thick robs and a thick grey half-mask growls at me. "Who the-?" He glares like I kicked his puppy or something, "Oh you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"What?" I fold my arms only for my arms to fall thought each other, "Do you hate me too?"

"Heck yes." He steps forward, reaching for my neck, "YOU GOT ME HERE! MORRO OR HUNTER OR WHOEVER YOU CALL YOU SELF NOW, I HAVE ONE THING TO SAY TO YOU!" The ghost grabs my neck, passing thought before yanking out a bow, "I HATE YOUR GUTS!"

I don't back down, I'm a ghost, how's he going to hurt me with a pointy piece of wood? "Hey genius, I don't have guts anymore. And neither do you."

"IT'S AN EXPRESSION, CLOWN BOY!"

Ahhhh.....ug. Another someone from my past. I pull out my deepest, darkest glare, raising my eyebrow slightly, "And you are?"

"You never were amazing at faces. Go ahead and guess...I'm not gonna give you hints." He rubs his fingers slightly, "Unless you'd like to pay for one."

"Nao." Should have known from the piles of useless junk behind him. I finally get my arms to stay crossed, I am really not liking this form, "It's been a while."

"It was the bit about the money huh?"

"Yup."

"It doesn't matter you owe me. YOU got me stuck here."

I feel my lips slip into a snarl, bearing small teeth, "Oh pray tell how did I do that?"

Nao pulls down his grey mask, "I was in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to your generous donation, I felt lucky. So I went to where luck went to die."

"Los tetros."

"Shut up. I'm telling the story." Nao's shakes his hands, them slowly reaching up to punch me, "I lost big time. Got into some trouble with some very intolerant people. So what'd I do?" He had smiles, "Come on guess."

"I don't care." I kinda do. It can very possible that Akia, er, Bansha is here because of me. Why not the rest of those four idiots? It's not like I cared for them....but if I did get them here...mabey...mabey I actually belong in a place like this. With the rest of the cursed.

"I did what Madame E said, take what's their's."

I get a deep gnawing twisting feeling in my gut...er, where my gut used to be, "What did you do?"

Nao looks at his nails, "I stole their son." What? "Believe me, I gave them more than a fair deal but they just wanted their little boy back. What I did was what they deserved."

"Stop being cryptic."

"Fine. I let him go." There's an evil spark in his eye, "Then as he was walking away, I shot him in the back."

My tough face cracks, "h-How old was he?"

"9."

"YOU KILLED A 9 FRECKING YEAR OLD?!"

Nao whips out a ghoulish green looking bow, "He sold me out. It's your fault."

"HOW?!" Is it?

"You left me unsupervised. You said to do anything and everything to get any information on the tomb. Well guess what, this family had info. What I did falls under the 'anything and everything' umbrella."

"What you did was wrong. I don't own your mistakes."

Nao lowers his bow, pocking me with his arrowhead, "But you did give me the money to get me there. This is your fault. Man up and take some responsibility."

"I'm plenty responsible."

"Really? Then why'd you ditched your precious Sensei? Oh yeah, couldn't handle the responsibility to be the green ninja."

I blink. My hand manages to grip his neck, squeezing while drawing out air from his lungs, "Shut the heck up. I am the green ninja. I will be the green ninja." I drop him, grabbing his mask and snapping it into his face, "Get out." His mask falls off.

"But this is my spot."

"I don't care. Get. Out." The wind flaps thought his robes, flinging a straw hat onto his head, "Now. Nao."

He huff, pausing next to me, "I don't like that anymore. How many names do you have?"

"Go away."

"I'd like a new one." He tips his new red straw hat, "How dose soul archer sound?"

"Get out of my face before I smack your's." He walks off. I bend down, picking up the mask. Inside his house are piles of junk, pantries of dusty and moldy and a hammock. I'm not tired for once but I lay down in it.

I grip the mask, I've always looked better in grey. Mabey I'm not as clean and good as I think I am. Mabey...mabey I...well, I'm in the cursed realm. I toss the mask against a wall, half thinking of what could have been, half knowing my reality.

Are they here because of me? Am I...Am I actually the bad guy? I wish I could talk to Wu. I miss him. How many years has it been? How many years have I been trapped here? How many years has Bansha and Soul archer been stuck here because of me?

Do I even care?

I fold my arms as the hammock rocks me. What was it back in the circus? Whoever was the worst get the crappy hammock.

Mabey I do belong here...even if I don't feel like I do.