I do not own Yoshi, Saki, or the Turtles.
It did not take Yoshi long to realize he'd done something the consequences of which he would not like. It was unlikely anyone else would ever find him or his sons down here, at least he hoped so. That meant, until his turtles began to speak (if they did, he really couldn't be sure they would, but he thought they would), he'd only hear words that were from his own mouth.
He would not gain anything new for himself or his sons' home unless it was thrown out, washed down a drain, or flushed first save for worms and algae. His sons would know the love of no other adult but himself until they were grown themselves if then. Even if someone did wander down here, or he met them up on the streets or in the tunnels while scavenging, and he came to trust them rightly, the likelihood they would be Japanese, know martial arts, or share any common interests with him at all was unlikely. He had sent Rin away to what she had believed would be her death, and if she had thought so, it was likely true. And when he thought about it, things had not been any worse for him because of her, and might have been worse if she had not entered his life.
I wasn't even born yet, Yoshi …
Yes, his doom had been set in motion before her birth. If this Association was all she had said it was, and she had never been born, then he could have been running and hiding from another who might have been more skilled or more ruthless, someone who would not have loved his sons. Indeed, as well as hurting himself and her, he had been most unfair to his sons.
Before, if he had died down here, unknown, un-mourned, except by them, who would likely not understand what had happened or was happening, he could have believed she might come down, find them, and save his sons. In such a situation, he could imagine her raising them, loving them, and perhaps even mourning him. Someone else, even if in a twisted way, would mourn his father, Tang Shen, and even Saki as he was before he "became unhinged," as she'd put it. Now he and his four sons had no one, but each other again.
He knew he would regret the way they'd parted. And his sons … it wasn't fair to them at all. And something … something niggling inside him like a worm inside a fruit told him he'd been unfair to Rin also.
He still did not understand why or how she'd come to be with "The Association" in the first place. But she seemed not to have stayed with it of her own free will and had eventually run away from it only to be killed by it eventually … He wondered if it had already happened. If not, would it be the next hour, the next day, the next moment? He would never know.
And she, who would mourn her, not only the daughter and sister she'd been, but the woman who'd visited he and his sons, bringing food, appliances, and dire warnings to mutants of all things, one of whom she'd been hired to kill while he was still human. She had been the strangest human he'd ever met, but what less strange human would have done these things for he and his sons? And now, they would never see her again.
Yes, he had thought for a moment she was going to admit she'd killed his last parent, last blood relative, his father. And then he had snapped. Learning it was Saki instead, learning she'd been an interloper in private conversations with those he'd loved right before he lost them, had sent him into a rage. He had known he'd had a temper even if it usually took longer to inflame than Saki's. Saki's taunts had taught him that.
It would be no one's fault, but his own now, he and his sons' isolation. Sending Rin away instead of offering her a place in their home to hide from this "Association" had been his doing. Now his sons would suffer for that as would she.
What was it like to wait for those that traded in blood to shed yours as she seemed to say she would do? She had been insistent there would be no other ending for her. Even he did not know the answer. But it was too late. He could not leave his sons to look for her when he didn't even have a trail to follow this time. Her fate she would have to face alone. He felt ashamed at the very thought. She had not left him to face his until he sent her away.
. . .
Rin, perhaps because it was cathartic, took a knife to her Kadai clothes. Then she wandered the streets in them night and day as if she couldn't afford an apartment or even a hotel room to stay in. She was not going to hide in such. Having neighbors to witness an assassin killing her and thus having to be "taken care of" too would be unfair to them.
She would wait out in the open, at night, on a park bench she'd found. She didn't talk too much to the other homeless people she passed by in her mostly aimless meanderings and more purposeful trips to that park bench, a few soup kitchens, and public bathrooms. She sniffed and turned away from them as if she really were the stuck up person she intended them to think her. There would be no friends, no witnesses, and no one else to "take care of." It would end with her ... not Yoshi not the turtle-babies.
In order to pass the time, and maybe feel something besides depression, she tried to think of things she was glad she'd done since she would do so few more. Oddly enough, smirks of approval from her sensei and Saki were memories that made her sick. Remembering dressing her sister, and brushing her hair for her, before they went to school made her smile, though.
Reliving giving a pencil to a fellow student desperate enough to ask her for one, when she and the rest of her peers normally avoided her unflattering tongue, and the shocked expression the girl gave her upon having her request fulfilled without a disparaging remark attached, almost made her laugh. Remembering silent moments on mountain walks, when she and her father both stopped to take in the same view together made her quietly happy as those moments had then. Remembering her mother's approval, when she did something right while helping with chores and caring for her sister made her smile as well. She revisited the sight of her parents faces when she showed them completed tests that hadn't required her to write any or too many words, and therefore weren't damaged by her lack of tact, but glowed with her right answers.
Remembering beating her peers in sports events didn't bring her much happiness now. She did wonder if she could really have made the Olympic gymnastics team as she'd overheard someone suggesting to her parents she might. Eh, she would have shamed them and their country on camera during interviews if she had. Interesting, she had been so proud of all those things back when they were happening. Now, she knew her false friend had picked her out for her sensei because of them. If she had only been normal …
Everything involving that false friend, the Association, and Saki she deeply regretted now. Yoshi … After meeting him underneath New York City as a rat and caring for his turtle babies while he was paralyzed … She didn't think she regretted anything she'd done after those events that involved him.
Even telling him about Saki and his father, she could not regret. He had to know the truth about his adopted brother. He had to know Saki had already killed a member of their family.
Rin was startled awake one night by a man taking advantage of the fact she'd been asleep on a park bench alone. She must have been really tired not to become alert at his approach. Depression made you that way. It would have been better for them both if she had woken up while he wasn't in reach.
As it was, she thrust the heel of her hand into his nose so hard, she feared upon processing what had just happened, the bone behind and above his nose had gone into his brain. He wandered away holding his nose and groaning and sobbing. She followed at a distance, and when a phone booth came into view nearby, she called another ambulance. Then she watched as it picked him up. She sighed. If she had not been obvious to her hunters before, she would be now.
Indeed, she felt, as the red lights flashed before her, something bite into her neck. She reached back, grabbed it, and pulled the dart into the light. She then turned to look into the darkness curious to see her attackers as they arrived. She saw nothing but shadows, though, before slumping into the grass. Her last thought as she lay on it before unconsciousness enfolded her was, This is either going to be it for this life at least, or really, really hurt when I wake up …
What do you think will happen next?
God Bless
ScribeofHeroes