Way of the Departed 亡者之道 第六章

乐高幻影忍者官方小说

作者: Tommy Andreasen

原文与图片来自ninjago wiki

译者：醉酒异客

若有翻译不准处请在评论区纠正

在等她的时候，我用我的元素力量为寇做了一尊雕像，他已经离开了两天了。这没费我什么精力，毕竟我们的交往很深，在我的易存取存储器里就有大量关于他的记忆。我望着这尊逼真的冰雕陷入了沉思，今天气温很高，很快它就会融化的，我真不该造这东西。我的情绪突然变得低落，两天的时间并不长，却很令人担忧，他留给我们的纸条里几乎什么也没写。 她很快就会来了，她从不迟到。我又抬头望向天空中那座飘浮着的岛屿，这是不符合逻辑的。我一直在研究岛屿飘浮的原因，却无法找到合理的解释，即使在我的系统更新之后也是这样。如果琵克莎还在的话，不知道她能不能对我有所帮助呢？或许，世界上总有些事是无法用逻辑解释的吧，比如我的元素力量。我想不起来我是怎么获得力量的－－当然，这也不合理。这些事情就这么发生了而已。 远方，有辆车正向我疾驰而来，它的后面全是扬起的尘土。我认出那是克莱尔的车，这让我的心情好转了一点，她总是很令人愉快。而且，从外人的视角来看待我的困难会对我有所帮助。 “嗨，赞！天气真热，不是吗？”克莱尔看了一眼我那尊站在积水中的雕像。它已经不太像寇了，但她并没有对此做出评价。 “你准备好干点家务活了吗？反正我准备好啦！” 克莱尔真的很喜欢来这里。她的工作只不过是负责对寺庙做一些简单的清理和维修，但她总是充满热情。克莱尔与这座寺庙有些渊源，之前闹鬼寺还是个热门景点的时候，她父亲就是这里的看守，但他干得不怎么样。克莱尔曾告诉我，她父亲非常胆小，而且对那些闹鬼的故事深信不疑。他平时只敢在寺庙周围活动，甚至连靠近都不敢靠近。这也是闹鬼寺一直如此破败的原因。 克莱尔与父亲正好相反，她几乎什么都不怕。过去，她经常偷偷溜进闹鬼寺，并在那些错综复杂的楼梯间、走廊上和房间里探险，我认为她可能比我们更了解这座寺庙。今天，她看上去格外兴奋。 “能带我去寺庙里面干活吗？求你啦求你啦求你啦！！！” 我知道她会这么说的，但我还是有些顾虑。过去几个月里，召唤元素巨龙变得越来越困难，得比以往加倍集中精神才行。不光我这么想，大家都有这种感受。经过分析，我认为这与吴大师的消失有关，但我不知道这两者之间有怎样的关联。或许，这也是一件逻辑解释不了的事吧。 “没问题，克莱尔。寺庙确实需要清扫一下了。”我听见我自己说道。但这种做法可能会毫无必要地威胁到他人的性命，是违背我的准则的。我必须竭尽全力保证她的安全才行。 飞往寺庙的路上，我尽量集中精神控制住巨龙以防它突然消失，但还是无法不注意到克莱尔那毫无遮掩的激动，我很难不被她那发自内心的纯粹喜悦所感染。我们每个人肩上都抗着沉重的义务与责任，而克莱尔的人生中永远也不会有这些负担。我突然发现，我是多么地向往这种平静的生活，也是多么地嫉妒她能拥有这种权利啊！飞到岛上之后，我开始和克莱尔一起清扫庭院－－与她在一起的时间总是很愉快。美纱子正在池塘边喂鱼，克莱尔兴奋地向她挥手打招呼。 美纱子撂下鱼食，给了克莱尔一个热情的拥抱。克莱尔在岛上一刻也没闲着，闹鬼寺的一切对她来说都充满吸引力，在它能悬浮在空中之后更是如此。不过，我觉得寺庙不再闹鬼这件事可能令她有点失望，她也经常笑着向我们讲述那些幽灵是如何把她爸吓破胆的。如今，这里再也不会有鬼了，让他过来帮忙打理打理应该问题不大，除非他还恐高。顾人替我们照看寺庙是劳埃德的主意，我们需要全身心投入去寻找吴大师，没法在这儿待很久。估计杰得再找个搭档了，也许美纱子能顶替寇的位置。 “看在沃杰拉的份儿上，这地方简直太棒了！不到一年之前它还是一团糟呢－－当然那个时候它也超级酷！可瞧瞧现在吧！我记得这儿以前总是有抓不完的小偷，现在你们都让它飞起来了，肯定不会再有这个问题啦！” 美纱子咯咯地笑了。“当然了！更何况还有全世界最出色的忍者和他们的元素神龙看守着它呢！” 我们没有告诉美纱子我们召唤神龙的能力正在衰退，吴大师的消失对她的打击已经够大了。她和我们一样迫切地想找到他。我能感觉到她心中如刀割一般的痛苦，尽管她很少表露出来。她在基地和赏赐号所有的墙上都挂上了照片－－不光有吴大师的，还有我们几个和别的朋友们的，我以前从未在她身上看到过这种行为。失去亲人的痛苦会让人更加珍惜过去的美好时光，这点是能用逻辑解释的，我知道。 “跟我来！”贾拉汉对我说。他用眼睛监视着大街，以确保我们没被跟踪。我真不愿意这么对待塞莉尔，但我必须得这么做，毕竟这就是杨让我来这里的原因。于是，我决定先抛开心里的愧疚，跟上贾拉汉。 我们两个潜行到了镇上最高的楼前，并用飞天旋转术登上了楼顶。贾拉汉清走了一些木板，露出了一间密室的入口。 “没人知道这间屋子，我也是跟着线索才发现它的。”他的声音很紧张。“跟我进来。” 我额头的荧光照亮了漆黑的密室内部－－这时我明白贾拉汉为什么将它保密了。屋子里到处都是华丽的艺术品、花瓶、武器、圣像和画。 “这都是源自江户时代的东西。”贾拉汉望着我的眼睛说道。我仔细地检查着这些珍贵的古物，却找不出一处损坏的地方。真不敢相信！它们被遗忘在这里，经历了漫长时间的洗礼后，依然如此光鲜亮丽。“它们和镇上新添的房子一样，都来自那些遥远的村庄。没有人知道它们曾经的主人是谁，也没有人知道他们身上发生了什么，为什么把这些东西扔在这。没有人知道！”贾拉汉困难地咽了一口唾沫，继续说道，“事还没完呢！这个屋里除了这些江户时代的古物之外，还有别的东西。大概产自几年前，当时我还是个幽灵。”说完，他指向屋子的一个角落。那里，在我伤疤荧光的沐浴中，我看见了一幅杨大师的画像。

另附原文：

I play around with my powers while I wait and make a sculpture of Cole. It is effortless. I have years of interactions with him stored in my easy access memory banks. He has been gone for two days now. I look at the refractions in his shape. It is a hot day and he will be gone soon. I should not have made that. I detect my emotion readout decline. Two days are not a long time but the circumstances of his departure troubles me. The note he left behind was most perplexing.

She will be here soon. She is always punctual. I look up at the floating island in the sky. That does not compute. I have run countless scenarios but none of them make logical sense. Even with my recent upgrades the numbers just don't add up. I wonder if I would be able to get it right if P.I.X.A.L. was still in my head. I conclude that some factors in this world must be outside the grasp of logic. Like my own power. I have vague memories of how I got them, but there is no logic I can make of that either. Just that it happened.

I see dust in the distance from a car approaching. It lifts my emotion readout a bit. Claire is good to have around. It is nice with an outside perspective on things sometimes.

"Hi Zane! Hot day isn't it?" Claire looks over at the puddle under the unshapely ice block which recently resembled Cole, but she does not comment on it.

"Ready for a bit of housekeeping? I know I am!"

Claire seems to love coming here. Even though her job is the mundane one of cleaning the temple and doing small repairs, she always seems so joyous. She has a history with the temple. Back when it was still haunted by the ghost of Sensei Yang, her father was the caretaker. It had become a tourist attraction back then. He did not do a very good job. Claire has told me that he fully believed in the stories about it being haunted, and he was deathly afraid of it. That is the reason the temple was in such disrepair back then. He would not go near it and mostly tended to the grounds around it.

Claire on the other hand is not afraid of anything. She often made her way inside to explore the staircases, studies, corridors, dojo, atelier, and such I suspect she knows the interior lay-out better than we do. She seems very eager today.

"Can we do a sweep of the Temple?!?! Please!!!!"

I was expecting her to say that. I am not comfortable with it. Summoning my elemental dragon has become increasingly difficult these past few months. It takes a much higher level of concentration now. The others have felt it too. I've run simulations on the scenario that it has something to do with Master Wu going missing, but the feedback offers no explanation. Maybe it is another one of those things that cannot be defined within the parameters of logic.

I find myself saying "Yes Claire. A sweep could prove most satisfactory." It contradicts my coding to endanger another being unnecessarily. I shall strain myself to make it safe.

It is very interesting to observe Claire as we take to the skies on my Ice dragon. I focus on the dragon, but it is hard to ignore the pure and unhinged joy she expresses. Our lives have become lives of duty and responsibility. Claire is not burdened by that. I admire and envy her. I find myself enjoying the few sweeps of the temple while Claire waves enthusiastically at Misako feeding the koi in the pond.

As we set down Claire wastes no time. She loves that temple, and the fact that it is now floating and in pristine condition is just another plus for her. She seems to be a bit disappointed that it is no longer haunted though. She chuckles as she talks about how that was the thing that made his father keep his distance. Now that it's not haunted, keeping the grounds shouldn't be a problem for him. Except he is also afraid of heights. It was Lloyd's idea to get some help to take care of the temple. We need to stay focused on our search for Wu. We will soon be leaving again. I guess Jay will need a new search partner. Misako perhaps. She greets Claire with a warm hug.

"Great Wohira this place looks great! Less than a year ago it was a complete mess. An AWESOME complete mess, but look at it now! Dad had his hands

full keeping looters away, but with this whole airborne thing you guys've got going I guess you don't have that problem anymore!"

Misako chuckles. "Not at all. Having the best Ninja in all the land and some elemental dragons around also helps!"

We have not told Misako about our fading ability to summon our dragons. The loss of Master Wu has taken its toll on her. She is as driven as any of us to find him. She puts up a brave face, but I can feel her pain. She pins up photos everywhere. Not just of him but also us, our friends and those we care about. Even on the Bounty. I have not observed such behaviour in her before. With loss comes reflection and appreciation of the good things in your past. My processors have no problem finding the logic in that.

"Follow my lead!" Jerahn tells me as his eyes scan over the street, making sure we are unseen. I do not like doing this, betraying Seliel's hospitality. But after all, this is the reason why Yang sent me here, so I hide away my guilt for later.

He scans the street to make sure the coast is clear, and then he Airjitzus to the roof of one of the tallest buildings. I follow. When I join him, he is already removing some wooden boards from the side of the wall.

"I did not come by this place by chance. I was following a lead." His voice is intense. "Come inside. No one knows this room exists."

It is dark inside. Only the light of the rift on my head illuminates the room. I see that Jerahn has a reason to be secretive. The place is filled with ornate artefacts, vases, weapons, idols and paintings. He turns to me and looks me straight in the eyes.

All this stuff is authentic Edo period. "Those villages where the building materials and this stuff comes from. They were old but they were in fine shape. They were abandoned. No one knows why, when and what happened to the people who lived there. They just left or were taken. No one knows!" Jerahn swallows hard. "And that's not all. There is not only stuff here from those towns. There is something else. Something made years ago. Back when I was still a ghost." He points to the corner of the room. And there, bathed in the light of my rift is a portrait of Master Yang.