Way of the Departed 亡者之道 第三章
作者：Tommy Andreasen
原文来自Ninjago Wiki
译制：醉酒异客
现在是深夜了，我很累，一会儿我就该睡觉了，而再一次进入梦乡让我感到恐惧。篝火在前面噼里啪啦的响着，它应该使我温暖，可我却觉得像梦里一样的冷。我又一次扪心自问我为什么要一个人来。忍者从不会丢下别忍者，要一起行动，相信朋友。这些都是吴大师教授我们的，可为什么我没听从？我想或许有些事情你非得独立去干不可吧。吴大师也独自一人去往了老道场与狂克斯对质，结果呢？他加速衰老，最终困在了时间漩涡里。我总觉得我辜负了他。而现在，为什么在劳埃德发誓我们在找回吴大师之前永不歇息后，我却还是独自离开了？我们已经搜寻了很久了，但这不像是找一副丢失的手套那么简单。吴大师是在时间中迷失了，所以这不仅仅是一个地点的问题，更是一个时间的问题。因此，想要完成这项任务几乎是不可能的。也许他还没来到这一刻，也许他已经来过了但已经离开了。我们对此都心知肚明，但从没有人说出来过，不过我有时会感觉到杰简直憋不住要说了。想想看吧，杰竟然也能在心里藏事！我想我们都在变得成熟吧。他是我的合作搭档。劳埃德之前为了扩大寻找范围，把大伙儿分成了三个小组，每个搜索队有两个人：杰和我，凯和赞，妮雅和劳埃德。 杰真的是个很好的同伴－－当然你得先能受得了他那永无休止的长篇大论才行。他总是要拉着我讨论武士X的秘密身份的问题，并对我声称他已经搞清楚了他是谁。我估计他现在已经把忍者国的每个人都怀疑了个遍了。甚至还有个叫伊科森的人，当然他很快就推翻了这个说法，并坚决不承认自己曾怀疑过那个家伙。有一天，杰差点袭击了那个倒霉的邮递员，而他当时只不过正在送一张传单。“别装了！全都招认了吧！”杰冲他喊着。这个可怜的家伙开始结结巴巴地说一些关于如何决定谁能把自己的照片印在邮票上而谁不能的事。如果让杰用“黑白脸”模式
（译者注：“黑白脸”详见文末补充）
去审讯犯人的话，他一定能当一个出色的“黑脸”。最后劳埃德救出了邮递员并向他道了歉。之后整整六周他都没有露面。 我和杰先去了多姆的图书馆
（译者注：多姆的原文为Domu）
。杰有很多关于时间旅行的疯狂理论，他认为如果吴大师回到了过去的话，他一定会在这儿留下一些线索。经过十四天的海量阅读，我们放弃了这个想法。他要是想留下什么信息的话，大概会选择别的比在纸上写字更可靠的方法。也许他会在岩石上刻字？我们又开始寻找那些对他有特殊意义的地方，比如他和哥哥住过的道场，摩罗死去的绝望洞穴等等。赞和凯甚至雇了罗南带他们去第一代幻影旋转术大师的墓穴，他们翻遍了那里的每一块石头，就像劳埃德在誓言里说的：“我们永不歇息，直到……” 这就是我们偶尔会回到寺庙的目的：休息。但正如誓言所说的：我们永不休息。所以休息就变成了训练。我们在训练中不断地激发着幻影旋转术的威力与潜能。雷和玛雅对我们的处境也没帮什么忙，他们创造的那四把时空之刃有一个还在我们手里，我们不知道该怎么处理它。同时劳埃德坚持认为把它留在身边太危险了，所以凯和妮雅把它送回了沸腾之海。那里是安全的，只有水火元素大师合作才能到达那里。 在与凯和妮雅团聚后，雷和玛雅登上了环游忍者国的旅行，他们现在还没回来呢。凯和妮雅从小到大一直都不知道他们的父母发生了什么事，我想那一定很艰难。而现在他们又得再经历一遍这些，而这次消失的是吴大师。我真的不想再失去生命中的任何人了！现在我只希望雷和玛雅玩得开心，也希望凯和妮雅还…… 这里很冷，我感觉要冻僵了。可我不应该有冷的感觉，因为我已经死了。我正在冰迷宫里，这感觉就像我…… 突然，一个寒噤将我从梦中拉回现实。我在哪？我望向篝火……哦对……当然了，我刚肯定是睡着了。天呐，那个梦一下子就上来了，就好像一个在暗中盯着我的野兽，一等我放松警惕就扑了过来。我喝了点茶，吃了一口沃克太太的蛋糕，那是我随带来的。可今晚它尝起来不太好，味道有点像烟灰，但我觉得这应该是我情绪的问题，而不是它的问题。最后我还是就着茶把它吃下去了。有很多时候我吃蛋糕只是为了让手头上有事情可做，这已经成了我的肌肉记忆了。我爱蛋糕，但或许今后我应该少吃点，多为我的健康着想。 我又开始想杨大师告诉我的那些话。他不让我叫他大师，但有时我还是会习惯性地这么说。 虽然杨大师与寺庙纠缠在了一起，他仍然可以通过他之前的物品接触到外面的世界比如博物馆墙上的那幅画。他并不想让我抱太大希望，但他建议我在一个叫诺姆
（译者注：原文为Nom）
的村庄开始寻找答案，我对这个名字有印象，但我说不上来是哪里。他出发去那里的时候我们在一起，这次出行耗费了他全部的精力。他后来告诉我，整个路途对他来说十分困难，那里实在是太远了。我发誓几乎看到他在出汗。一个鬼出汗，这本身就不合理。当我是鬼的时候，我从不出汗，也不知道出汗会不会让我感到疼痛。鬼逻辑，谁又能真的说得清呢？当他回来时，他已经累垮了，连话都说不出来。但他说他感觉到在诺姆有一个人，那个人可能会对我的处境有所帮助。如果我走上一整天的话，明晚我应该就能到那里了。 但在此之前，有一个很大的障碍等着我解决：那个阴魂不散的梦。是时候我闭上眼睛去面对它了。 我喝了最后一口茶，往火里添了一根柴。真希望我带了条毯子，打点行李的确不是我的强项。今晚肯定会很冷。 我闭上眼睛，试着去想些愉快的事情。 我五岁了。月光之中，我看见爸爸和妈妈在我们的老房子前的露台上跳舞，一切是多么完美和宁静。他们那会儿把我送上床了，但我又偷偷溜到外面去看他们了。我经常这样做。我爸爸真优雅，长大后，我真想成为一个像他一样的舞者。不管什么别的路摆在我面前我也不会选的。 ……这里很冷，我感觉要冻僵了。
补充说明：
本人对幻忍的研究并不深，若有翻译不准请在评论区补充。
关于“黑白脸”的审讯模式，我在别的书上找了点信息……
另附英文版原文：
It is night and I am tired. Soon I will need to sleep. Surrendering myself to the dream again scares me. The bonfire in front and me crackles. It should warm me but I feel cold like in the dream. For the hundredths time I question why I went alone. Ninja never leave a ninja behind. Work as a team. Trust your friends. All those lessons Master Wu taught us. Why am I ignoring them? I guess there are some things that you just need to do on your own. Master Wu went alone to confront Acronix at the burned down monastery. Look what that got him. Rapidly aging and ultimately trapped in time. I feel like I have failed him. Why am I here on a quest of my own when Lloyd swore we would not rest until we found him again? We have done a lot of searching, but this is not like finding a lost pair of gloves. Master Wu was lost in time, so this is not just a question of where but also when. It could be impossible. Maybe he is not even here yet or has been and no longer is. We all know it. No one has said it out loud, though I have felt Jay bursting to do so several times. Restraint from Jay, imagine that! I guess we are growing older. He is my search partner. Lloyd split us up in the beginning to widen the search. Two in each search party. Jay and I, Kai and Zane, Nya and Lloyd. Jay is good company, if you can endure the constant steam of words coming at you. He keeps jabbering on about the secret identity of Samurai X claiming that he's got it all figured out. He must have guessed on everyone in Ninjago by now. Even someone called Ekosan, though he quickly disregarded that theory and then flat out denied having ever said it. One day he almost assaulted the hapless mail man who was just dropping on yet another flyer from Patty Keys. "Admit it! Reveal your secret!", he shouted at him. The poor guy started stuttering something about the obscure practices on how it is decided who gets their portrait on a stamp and who doesn't. In a good/bad cop situation, Jay would definitely be the bad cop. Lloyd saved the mail man that day and apologized. We didn't see him for six weeks after that. First we hit the Library at Domu. Jay had all these wild theories about time travel, and theorized that if Master Wu had fallen into the past, he would have left a message or a book for us to find there. Fourteen days of intense reading later, we abandoned the book idea. He could have left a message in any way more likely a message on something more durable than paper. Carving on rocks? We then started searching places that held special meaning to him: The monastery where he lived with his brother. The Caves of Despair where Morro had perished. Zane and Kai even hired Ronin to take them to the First Spinjtzu Master's Tomb. But leaving no rock unturned is a better saying than something lived out in real life. Just like "We shall not rest until. . . ." That's why we returned to the Temple once in a while: to rest. But we were all restless. So rest turned to training instead we found new techniques and opportunities within Spinjitzu. Ray and Maya couldn't be very helpful either. They had created the Time Blades and we still had one of them. But just the one and no plan. Also Lloyd insisted that it was too dangerous to keep around, so Kai and Nya returned it to the Boiling Sea. It will be safe there; only a master of water and fire together can go there. After reuniting with Kai and Nya, Ray and Maya went on a tour of Ninjago. They probably still are catching up. Kai and Nya went on for so many years not knowing what happened to them. That must have been hard. And now they have to go through the whole thing again but with Master Wu. I am tired of losing people in my life! I hope Ray and Maya are having fun and I hope that Kai and Nya are sti... It is cold and I am freezing.I shouldn't be, because I am not alive. I am in an ice labyrinth. It feels like I... I wake with a jerk.Where am I? I stare into a bonfire... oh yes... of course, I must have nodded off for a second. Man that dream is there immediately. It's like a predator stalking me and just waiting for me to let my guard down. I drink some tea and eat a bite of Mrs. Walker's crumb cake that I brought along with me. It doesn't taste very good tonight though. I'm sure that it is more my state of mind's than the cake's fault, but it tastes like ash; still, I wash it down with the tea. Eating cake is like muscle memory to me. It's just something I do to occupy my hands and mouth some times. I love cake but I think it would be healthy for me to cut back. In several ways. I think about what Master Yang told me. He has told me not to call him master, but it still slips once in a while. Though he is bound to the temple, he can still reach out into the outside world through former possessions of his. Like that painting on the wall in the museum. He was careful not to get my hopes up too much, but he suggested that I would start my search for answers at a village called Nom. I recognize the name, but I can't quite put my finger on it. We were together when he reached out. It took all of his concentration. It was extra hard because of the distance he told me afterwards. I swear could almost see him sweating. A ghost sweating, that's a contradiction in itself. When I was a ghost I never sweated. I wonder if sweat would have stung. Ghost logic, who can really tell? When he finished he was completely exhausted. He could hardly talk, but said that he had felt a presence in Nom who might be able to shed some light on my situation. I should be able to get there by tomorrow night if I walk all day. But before that, there is one big obstacle in my way, and it's time I close my eyes to face it. I take one last sip of tea, throw another log on the fire and scowl myself for not bringing a blanket. I guess planning ahead is not my strong suit. Tonight will be a cold one. I close my eyes and try to think happy thoughts. I am 5 years old. I see my father and my mother dancing in the moonlight on the terrace in front of our old house. I have been tucked in, but I've snuck out to watch them. I do that often. My dad is so elegant. When grow up I want to a be a dancer just like him. Why would I want to be anything else in world which so perfect? . . . It is cold, and I am freezing.
