Harumi POV

I hurried through the halls with my parents, and as we reached the elevator, the building began to cave in on us, a sea of rubble chasing us down. My mom saw the elevator at the side of the staircase and told me as softly as she could to go without them, because it couldn't hold all of us - the elevator was full to the brim with people. "No! I wanna stay!" I cried. My mom wouldn't have it. She pushed me in with the others as the doors slid to a close. "MAMA!!!" I yelled, starting to wail, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"We'll see you when we get down!" I heard her shout. "I promise!" I didn't buy it. After all, the building was collapsing when I was shoved into my "safe haven". I heard debris fall and screams. I somehow knew they were dead. It was obvious. I started crying, hoping, praying that they somehow survived.

A few hours later, I was placed in a medical vehicle, paramedics going over my injuries. "What's your name, little one?" one of them asked. I didn't respond. One paramedic cocked their head and they waited patiently for me to answer, even to open my dry, cracked lips. "Well, aren't you the quiet one?"

About 20 minutes passed with me simply observing the aftermath of the Great Devourer's attack, and the paramedics had moved on to the next patient. I got up from the van and tip-toed towards the sidewalk slowly. As I was reaching it, I noticed a young boy, about my age, wearing a green ninja gi. He was surrounded by several others in ninja gis, all different colors. They looked like they were in pajamas. I walked up to them.

"Hey! You're the ninja, right?" I asked them. The red one with spiky hair nodded. He asked if I wanted an autograph or something. The lady with the short black bob slapped his arm. "No. You guys may have saved a lot of people today, but you didn't save everyone," I told them. I had just given them a slice of reality, showing them that people actually got hurt. They clearly didn't realize that, and the one with curly brown hair stalked over to me, trying to imitate a sympathetic face.

"Did you lose someone close, kid?" he asked.

"My parents," I replied.

"So you're an orphan now?" Duh!

"Yes, why?" The man glanced towards an old man with a really long beard. He walked towards the old guy and murmured something to him. The oldie nodded and the brunette walked back.

"You know, if you have no family, you can always get a new one!" He said to me, I tilted my head, and then he added, "If you want, you can come with us! We can take care of you." My eyes widened. These people were ok with that?

"You're all ok with that?" I asked. All of them nodded, except the youngest one, the blonde my age. He seemed more interested in the pavement than us. I guessed he was shy. "I guess I could join you guys... after all there's nowhere else to go." A few of them did a few fist pumps in the air, I don't know why. They all introduced themselves. The one in black was Cole, the one in blue was Jay, the one in red was Kai, the one in white was Zane, apparently he was a robot- no, a nindroid, the girl was Nya, Kai's sister, and the oldie was Master Wu. "Who's he?" I asked, pointing to the kid who was staring at his feet.

"Lloyd doesn't talk as much since he became the green ninja," Zane stated. Lloyd. So that was his name. We all traveled to the monastery, and that day was the beginning of the most eventful life I think I could ever lead.