Disclaimer: I've almost deluded myself into thinking that Mikey and his brothers belong to me, but Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird would beg to differ and rightfully so!
This fanfic is the second draft of my joint project with astrau, originally published on shimbashka dot tumblr dot com.
Fox Spell
Chapter Four
Mikey POV
"And that's how it all happened. We had no choice but to bring them here, sensei, and it was no easy task! Raph and I had to convince them! With our fists! Not Leo, though, he agreed to the blindfold, but Donnie was a bad turtle. He resisted! We had to bind him and drag to the lair!" I finished my long story. Raph gave me an incredulous looks.
"That's not all! And don't call this freak of nature Leo! And Donnie…He is just confused. Maybe it's like concussion or something! Besides, everything that happened is your fault!"
That last sentence was just mean, I tell you! Such stupid accusations don't even deserve an answer, that's why I just showed Raph my pink tongue. Take that! Raph bristled. Pale human teenager, clad only in an off-white tee-short and trousers that were too short for him just shrugged helplessly. Donnie turned away. Master frowned, but otherwise didn't react. In other words, everything was not all right, like I hoped it would be.
After our little adventure we contacted sensei and tried to explain the situation we've got ourselves in. Splinter ordered our immediate return, although Raph tried to protest. He was still wary of the human boy we found in April's apartment. He didn't want to bring him to our home. And I don't blame him. Our lair's location should stay a secret, 'cause our clan's survival depends on it. And this human with Leo's mask and sword harness in Raph's eyes was just an impostor. It all smelled like a Foot clan's trap to him. Me, on the other hand, I just had a gut feeling that this dark haired boy was Leo. He had Leo's blue eyes, and Leo's frown and Leo's …Argh! In short, he was Leo who somehow transformed into human and that's the end of the story for me! Stranger things happened.
I was more worried about Donnie, though. Don was acting strange. Well, Donnie is a kind of a dork and always acts strange, and blabbers about weird things and builds his weird machines and computers and stuff, but this new Donnie was scaring the shell off me. Our geeky brother is very kind and considerate person, and he doesn't like to fight like Leo or Raph or even me do, and I always had a feeling that if he could choose a different path in his life, he would. This new Donnie was something else entirely. He became cold and distant, and said to us straight away that he would prefer to be left alone. He didn't want to return home. And that just wouldn't do. So Raph roughed him a little, just to show him who's the boss, and I helped. Even in his best days Don is no match for Raph, and as for Raph and me combined, we took Donnie down with ease. Leo just watched helplessly how we fought; Raph wouldn't let him to interfere.
And that's how we returned home - blindfolded Leo (Raph insisted!) and resisting Donnie with his hands bound behind his back and his signature staff broken (Raph did it. Again!). As soon as we entered the lair, sensei ordered us all to gather in the dojo and tell him the whole story from the beginning to the end without omitting any details no matter how unimportant they seemed to us.
And so we found ourselves humbly kneeling in seiza in front of our wise and venerable Master. Splinter listened to our story and his face became darker with every passing moment.
"Sensei," I looked at Splinter with hope. "It wasn't my fault, was it? Right? Right? I just couldn't make Leo human, could I?"
Splinter sighed heavily.
"It wasn't your fault, Michelangelo."
Raph snorted.
"I bet that Mikey is responsible for this mess. Somehow!"
"Yeah? I don't think so! And sensei agrees!"
"Whatever."
"Teme!" I switched to Japanese. I do it sometimes when I am agitated, like now. "All of us ate the pizza!"
"I bet you were the first who grabbed it!" Well, that was true, but still…
"You ate it too!"
"In my case it was different!"
"How so?"
"You wouldn't understand, Mikey. 'Cuz you need a functional brain for understanding and you just don't have any, kisama!"
Donnie, our home grown genius, just looked at us both with contempt.
"The pot calling the kettle black," he said oh so innocently and Raph looked at him as if he wanted to strangle the cheeky genius.
"Yamero!" sensei stopped our usual antiques with a bark.
I looked down ashamed. At this moment my kneecaps seemed to me the most interesting thing in the world.
"So," Master stated his opinion, "it looks like the situation is far from ordinary."
"Far from ordinary, my shell!" grumbled Raph, "It's a f #$ing catastrophe!"
Splinter gave Raph a warning look.
"Raphaello, don't swear!"
"Yes, Sir!" our red masked brother shut up immediately. And then he slowly raised hands and touched his mouth. His face's expression was positively frightened.
"Again," he whispered. "It happened again!"
Here he lost me. What happened to our daredevil brother that made him quake with fear? Frightened Raph is always a scary thing. I didn't like. I didn't like it at all.
"I see," the grim voice of our Master interrupted my musings. "And now I understand exactly what happened."
00000
After her little temper tantrum Karai tried to relax in her private room in front of the big screen TV. Some old fashioned Japanese taiga drama was currently on air. On the screen a young actress who played the heiress of the once great Takeda clan just announced to the world her attraction to her eternal rival, Uesugi Kagekatsu.
Karai cursed the idiots who invented such inane plotlines. Those imbeciles, she fumed, how dare they trivialize such important matters as revenge, politics and… and love? She knew her history well (at least her teachers had drilled it into her head), the heiress of Takeda and Uesugi Kagekatsu married and united their clans in the face of common enemies, but their union was short, unhappy and childless one.
What if she, Karai, were ever forced to marry one day? Would her father, the strict adherent of the Old Ways, let her choose her future husband herself or just bring one day a man who would be introduced to the Foot clan as his future son-in-law? She definitely didn't want to think about it just now, after her great PLAN's complete and utter failure.
Karai was worried and nervous and antsy. She didn't know what exactly happened to the turtles after her people left the surveillance area. Did she inadvertently hurt them? Or even killed them? Did they escape unscathed? Have they just shrugged off the effects of the mysterious drug that she found in her father's safe? Shredder would be ecstatic if the disciples of Hamato Yoshi were taken out of the equation. Her feelings, on the other hand, were a confused mess.
Although they were her sworn enemies, she thought that the turtles were funny and interesting creatures. Funny in the dorky, goody-two-shoes, hero wannabe way she found refreshing and even enticing after the rigidness and plain evilness of her own Foot clan. The mutants tried to help people, save them and expected nothing in return, not even a word of thanks. Such dedication would be considered an admirable trait in the samurai of old times, and Karai was forced to remember that Hamato Yoshi was a distant descendant of Kirigakure Saizo, one of the Sanada braves. It seemed that the turtles' old Master had instilled respect for Sanada's old code of honor in his own disciples. Pity, though, that the damned killer didn't follow his own teachings…
Her thought were suddenly interrupted by the hulking mass of a mutated man / dog who staggered into her room. Her spacious quarters started to look positively tiny with an enormous mutant inside.
"You own me an explanation, Miss Oroku!" Chris Bradford said belligerently. Karai bristled. She definitely was in no mood for quarreling with her father's underlings.
"Get out, Bradford! Who gave you permission to enter?"
"We have a problem, Miss!" he growled like a big flea bitten dog he actually was.
"Maybe you have! Not me! Get out of here immediately!"
"No deal, Miss." Bradford, christened Dogpound by the smallest of the turtles just crossed his bid hairy hands.
"Don't you see I am busy?" Karai waved him away and turned back to the TV screen.
"Busy?" he snorted. "You? Busy?"
"What are you implying, you freak?"
"Nothing," he glanced at her with utter contempt. "You were certainly very busy this night when you were smashing Master's favorite MacBook."
Young kunoichi blanched. She knew oh so well about the two main weaknesses of her father. One was called Hamato Yoshi, and another one was the devotion to all things shiny made by the corporation situated in Cupertino. The last one was completely her fault. Once she jokingly told her father to find some new hobby, and to her utter surprise he just did; he started to collect greedily everything ever produced by Apple. To the horror of the devote daughter, her father, who was capable of instilling fear in the hearts of even the bravest of men, slowly became the ultimate iSheep, not unlike some goofy New York hipster! And the thought of a hipster Shredder was even more hilarious and scary than the existence of pink aliens in robotic suits and green mutated ninjas with carapaces.
"Such behavior is unacceptable," Chris Bradford, who was privy to his Master's little secret, shook his enormous muzzle. "So tell me who instigated your anger this time, Miss?"
"I have nothing to tell you!" She pursed her lips. "Get out!"
"Not so fast, Princess", added Xever, the ugly fishfaced freak who once upon a time was known as the best thief ever born in Rio de Janeiro's vast slums. Like shadow, he slithered into Karai's room and stayed in the corner, smiling with all his enormous teeth. Despite his bulky exoskeleton, he could move without making a sound when it suited him. "That's me who's stolen this M'cBook, minha querida. It was made and even signed by the late and great Steve Jobs himself. D'you know how long it took me to hunt it down, eh?"
Karai gritted her teeth.
"So what? It's between me and my father! I'll explain everything to him alone! I am not one of your underlings!"
"That so?" Xever's ugly lips stretched. He started to cackle humorlessly. "You are a terrible liar, beleza. And you wouldn't last long as a thief. Remember, that's MY turf!"
"What are you talking about?" She tried not to show her fear. They knew! They certainly knew!
"Master's inner sanctum was raided and the contents of his safe were stolen", clarified the former martial artist.
Outwardly, Karai tried to look calm and indifferent, but her palms started to sweat.
"And it concerns me because -," she told them haughtily.
"It's your work," Xever looked grimly at young kunoichi. "Your botched, unprofessional work, my dear princess!"
00000
Mikey's POV
"And now I understand exactly what happened," told us our sensei. The venerable Master looked distressed, nervous and …old?
"I always thought it was just a myth," he continued. "It seems that I was wrong."
"Wrong about what?" Raph asked suspiciously.
"About the existence of Kitsune no Doku."
We looked at each other.
"Fox Poison?" Leo muttered. "Never heard about it. Maybe you know something about it, Donnie?"
"It doesn't concern me," our geeky brother answered coldly and I shuddered. His voice was a voice of a zombie, I swear!
"I didn't tell you about it because there was no need. Out generation already considered it a fairy tale. It's an old legend that had circulated in the old ninja clans for a long time."
"Oh! A story!" I was excited. "Tell us a fairy tale, sensei!"
"Shut up, Mikey!" Raph growled. "It's a serious matter!"
"Serious indeed," Splinter shook his head. "It looks like I have no choice but to tell this fairy tale to you, my sons. Mikey, sit straight! It is so unbecoming when you fidget constantly! So", he took a deep breath, "the legend says… "
When I heard sensei's reassuring voice, I immediately started to smile and my eyes became glassy. Master's tales are the best thing in the world, if you don't count pizza!
"Once upon a time in old Japan", he started in deep monotone, "during the warring states period lived a daimyo who was known by the name of Hojo Ujimasa. He had a long feud with his neighbors, the mighty Takeda and Uesugi clans. Unfortunately for Ujimasa, the heads of his enemy clans, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin were considered the best warriors of these times. And so Ujimasa was rarely a victor when his neighbors' armies came to his land conquering and plundering. His people suffered greatly and his small province was devastated. And soon there were just not enough men capable of bearing arms in his land anymore. In desperation, the daimyo called for his trusty shinobi, Fuuma Kotaro."
"That name I've heard before!" I told proudly.
"Yeah, Mikey, you are a genius!" snorted my red masked brother. "Just about everybody, including the Pulverizer knows who is Fuuma Kotaro!"
"He was one of the greatest ninja of Sengoku period. Inhumanly tall and strong, ferocious and absolutely loyal," said Leo and sighed.
"Just like Dogpound!"
"Mikey!" they looked at me with horror.
"What? It is true!"
Splinter cleared his throat.
"My sons, do you want to know what happened next?"
"Yeah! Please continue, sensei! Don't pay Mikey any attention!" they shouted and Raph just clobbered me on the head. For no reason! Sensei continued:
"The daimyo asked Fuuma to find a solution to end their plight; otherwise they would just perish swept away by the onslaught of the conquering armies of their bloodthirsty neighbors. And so the trusty ninja promised to find a way, whatever it would take. However, it was easier said than done, and Fuuma Kotaro was greatly upset. He mastered thousands of stratagems during his training years, but against the adversaries of Shingen and Kenshin caliber it was no use. All of his ninja ruses were for naught, all of his plans failed. In desperation he even considered committing seppuku, such was a gruesome custom of those times, when his beautiful wife heard about his predicament and offered her help. Nobody knew at that time that in the past the wife of Fuuma Kotaro was a powerful miko…"
"What is a miko?" I asked curiously.
"Mikey!" my elder brother Leo signed. "Just about everybody, including April, knows who are miko! Haven't you ever watched anime?"
Here we go again. Leo and his TV obsession. Yesterday it was Space Heroes and now it is anime. What will it be tomorrow, Nickelodeon?
"Miko is a shrine maiden or a supplementary priestess in Japanese shinto religion," said Donnie tonelessly.
"Figures!" Raph snorted, „the guy forgets his own name but still remembers some obscure trivia! That's our Donnie for you!"
Splinter furrowed his brows. He was not amused.
"Please, sensei!" Leo said in disgustingly sweet voice. Why does he always need to suck up, I wonder? "I want to know what happened next!"
"Hmm.. Next, the beautiful wife of Kotaro asked her husband to catch her a hundred and eight foxes. Kotaro, already out of options, complied and did as he was told. His wife gathered all the animals in the barn and gave them to drink an elixir she had concocted herself the day before. Then she ordered her husband to leave the barn and told him to return in the morning only. Next morn, when the sun rose above the horizon, the ninja was back, and to his utter surprise, her wife was not the only person waiting for him in front of the barn. Hundred and eight shinobi, men and women, young and old were greeting him with respect as if he were their Master and them his slaves. "These are your soldiers," the wife of Fuuma Kotaro told boldly to her husband. "And that is your new clan. Fuuma ninja clan. They will obey you and respect you; they'll follow you to your death." Fuuma guessed that these shinobi were none other than foxes, transformed by his wife's mighty spell. The former miko kneeled before her husband and begged him to accept her gift. Kotaro accepted graciously and in high spirits delivered the good news to his own Master, Ujimasa, who was very pleased indeed with this turn of events. And when their neighbor, Takeda, invaded again, the Fuuma clan prepared the night attack on the invader's camp, causing severe chaos. A lot of enemies perished in this night battle, and Takeda suffered a crushing defeat. In subsequent years the Fuuma clan became famous and lauded throughout the land as one of the strongest ninja clans. They served their masters faithfully, they knew no fear and stayed with the Hojo daimyo up to the end."
"What end?" I whispered.
"They all died, silly," Raph grumbled. "When Tokugawa united Japan, he hunted them all down. So no more Fuuma clan around. Just those stupid Foots."
We looked at him strangely.
"What? I am not Mikey! I know history!"
"You are partially correct, Raphael," sighed our Master. "The clan is extinct, but some of the Fuuma Kotaro descendants may have possibly survived."
"So it's not just a legend," said Leo.
"Oh no, Fuuma's existence is a historical fact. To tell the truth, Fuuma always were considered one of the best ninja clans, just nobody ever believed in Fuuma's foxy origins. Oroku Saki certainly scoffed when we teased him by calling him a fox pup."
"Wait, Master, what does the Shredder have to do with it?" Leo was confused.
"Saki's mother was supposedly a distant descendant of Fuuma Kotaro. Oh, my sons, that was his constant source of pride. When he was younger, he always liked to brag and compare our ancestors, the famous ninjas Kirigakure Saizo and Fuuma Kotaro!"
"Oh my," smirked Raph, "I can only imagine! It's just like me and Leo!"
"Yeah, but unlucky for you, we share the same reptilian ancestors!" our oldest brother shot back.
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure, human!"
"Bros, chill!" I decided to kill their spat in the bud. "Let our sensei finish!"
"Mikey said something reasonable for once! May the wonders never cease!"
Raph deserved to get intimately acquainted with the Stinky sisters. But today I was in generous mood and, besides, we had bigger problems at our hands.
"Master Splinter, you think that the wife of Fuuma Kotaro is still alive and is doing her black magic?" I asked. Everybody looked at me as if I've suddenly grown the second head. "What?"
"I don't understand how he makes these conclusions," Raph wondered.
"Mikey is Mikey is Mikey," muttered Leo.
"What did I say? What?"
"I don't think so, Mikey, no," Splinter shook his head. "The wife of Kotaro perished with her husband, at least the chronicles of Hojo say so, but I assume that somebody discovered the old secrets of Fuuma clan, somebody who was already privy to their secrets…"
"The Shredder!" we cried all at once.