Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all related characters, and all derived works are the intellectual property of Nickelodeon, Viacom, Eastman, and Laird. This story is for entertainment purposes and not for monetary gain. In no way should this story be taken to be anything other than a fan-based expansion of and commentary on the source material. n00btmntfan is in no way associated with the makers of TMNT.
She walked into the blank whitewashed apartment with a sigh. Here, she might find a fresh start. With her new job at the Software R & D at Advancements, Inc., Satou Atsuko was ready to forget everything that had ever happened to her in her past—everything that had ever happened to her prior to receiving her Green Card.
Forty years would be a lot to forget. But she had to in order to survive. Well, there was one thing she would never forget.
A voice behind her startled her. "Ms. Satou, where would you like the display cases installed?"
As April O'Neil walked down the staircase of her apartment, she jumped slightly at the sound of drills and movers. Big burly men were walking in and out of the apartment just below hers, and some kind of installation team was stirring up drywall dust. She coughed slightly as she tried to look without appearing too curious.
She told herself that there was nothing unusual about new tenants moving into an apartment building, but she found that she had become overwhelmingly paranoid since her first encounter with the Kraang, and even more so now that the Foot had super-creepy-good robots in their employ.
Well, employ wasn't the right word, because they wouldn't be paying the robots, but…
April turned back around to go down the stairs and smacked right into somebody. All of the books in her bag tumbled out and slid down the stairs in various states of disarray.
"Excuse me, I am so sorry!" exclaimed April's unfortunate victim.
"No," April groaned, as she scrambled to retrieve her books. "It's my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Here, let me help you." The stranger started gathering stray books, pencils and papers from the staircase. "We don't want the movers stepping on these."
Upon recognizing a distinct Japanese accent, April looked up at the stranger for the first time. It was a woman—probably late thirties, early forties. Her shiny blue-black hair hung in a silky curtain all around her face. She couldn't have been any taller than April herself.
"Oh, are you the one that's moving in?" April asked, trying to sound casual. The idea of a Japanese person living next to her seemed frightfully suspicious—what if she was connected with the Foot? Was this woman related to Shredder somehow?
"I am," the woman replied with a warm smile. "And I am unfortunately already starting to be a nuisance to the neighbors. My name is Satou Atsuko—Atsuko Satou, rather. I am still unused to your backwards Western name system."
April laughed in spite of herself. "It's nice to meet you, Satou-san," she said. She hesitated briefly before saying her own name—but if this woman was in Shredder's ranks, she would already know it anyway. "I'm April."
"The pleasure is mine," Atsuko replied, with a customary bow. She then handed a book to April. "I see that you are learning trigonometry in school."
"Yeah. Actually, I'm tutoring this other guy so he doesn't flunk out."
"Sounds romantic," Atsuko said with a sparkle in her eye.
April rolled her eyes. "Please. It's for extra credit." However, she felt a slight twitch in her stomach at the thought of Casey's hockey-mangled grin and saucy attitude.
"Ah. Well, I won't delay you then. I'm sure we will see each other again."
"Yeah! Nice to meet you!"
"Wassup, Red? Not like you to be late!"
"I ran into my new neighbor—literally. I smashed into her on the staircase and spilled my books everywhere."
"Graceful," Casey said with smirk.
"Yeah, yeah," April replied, grinning widely.
"So when are you gonna tell me about those weird robo-dudes who were after you?"
"After I tell you about secants, cosecants, and cotangents."
"Wha…?" Furrowing his brow, Casey snatched the trigonometry book from April's hands and flipped to the table of contents. "C'mon, Red, that's not for like, five more chapters!"
"I know."
"Look, muchacha…"
"Since when do you call me 'muchacha?'"
"Since I learned it in Spanish today."
"Ah."
"But seriously—don't you think I could get an explanation?"
April sighed. "You know those friends I told you about? Well, they're enemies with those guys who attacked us. And so they sent those robots because of that."
"Is that why you're not talking to them anymore?"
"Well…I am talking to them again now. We made up."
Casey shook his head. "Red, your life sounds way too interesting."
"Tell me about it. Now let's review…what is a radian?"
"That's what you listen to music on, right?"
April groaned. "Seriously?" she said.
Casey laughed. "It's the same as a degree, only different, right?"
"Close enough, Jones. Close enough."
"So what's your new neighbor like?" Casey asked.
"Come on, Casey! Do you want to study or not?"
Casey chuckled. "You have to ask?"
April took a good, long look at Casey's face. Years of hockey playing had their toll. Four teeth missing, scars under his eyes—and yet he was kind of cute. He was so energetic and spaced out, but he had quite a violent side to him. It was like he was Michelangelo's and Raphael's deranged lovechild.
At that thought, April burst out laughing uncontrollably.
"What?" Casey asked reproachfully.
"Nothing, nothing," April said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "I just thought of something really funny, but it's an inside joke. You wouldn't get it."
"Whatever, Red. Keep your secrets all you want."
"I will, thank you."
Satou Atsuko sat down amidst the sea of unopened boxes in her living room. She looked up at the beautiful glass display cases that spanned an entire wall of the apartment. It was time to put up her collection.
One by one, she started to remove hundreds of traditional Japanese weapons from their cardboard prisons.