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Donatello stepped into the dojo. Enough was enough. Splinter was right. He had been too quick to blame the mission's failure on Raphael. He admitted to himself he would not have pointed out Raph's mistakes so easily had Raph's fighting style not bothered him before their argument. Sure, Raph was impulsive, hotheaded, and exercised more force than was reasonable, but he was strong. That was for sure.
Raphael had always had a certain confidence in his weapon that Donatello never did. Like its wielder, the sai was strong and dependable. Raph never had to worry about his weapons shattering into a million pieces in the middle of a fight. Whenever he needed to rely on them to stay in one piece, they did. Not only that, he had the same confidence in himself. Leaping into battles prematurely may not have been a wise decision on his part, but he did so anyway because he placed enough trust in himself to finish whatever fight he ran into. It could be one enemy or twenty, but if he thought he could take them, he would.
Which is why it bothered Donatello all the more that he could only take on so many opponents at a time. Raph had no trouble with it, and he hardly seemed to put his brain in the fight! Why was Donatello always so uncertain even when fighting only a few enemies? He never exactly had the reliability he needed in his weapon when it came to it- or himself, for that matter. All the hours he spent in his lab were productive indeed, but each hour in there and not the dojo was another punch he would fail to counter with a block, another ounce he wouldn't be able to carry, another second it would take him to run from point A to B.
But he decided that that would all change today.
He had enough of being a liability to the team. They always seemed to cover him when his bo broke, taking on the enemies Donnie should have been able to fight off himself. That distracted them from their own goals in the fight. He hated being a distraction from their fighting. He hated being someone they always had to risk their own responsibilities, their own lives for. All because they thought he couldn't do it himself, and perhaps, sometimes, they were right. But he was going to change that. He would choose a new weapon.
Donatello perused the weapons on the walls of the dojo. His eyes passed over the yari and naginata blades that were displayed but decided against them. They were too much like his own weapon and probably shared the same flaws with it that he wanted to be rid of.
Donnie opened the cupboard in the wall near the yari and naginata blades. One weapon immediately caught his eye. He reached into the cupboard, and with some difficulty, lifted it out.
He held it, one hand on the leather grip and the other on the staff near its head, struggling a little not to lean forward with the sheer weight of it.
The spiked mace which he held had all of the qualities he was looking for. It was strong, formidable, and it would take a literal ton of weight and force to break it upon impact. His eyes scanned the weapon as he rotated it in his hands, contemplating every detail about it. This just might work.
Except… he didn't feel right about it. It was almost identical to the one Slash had used to club him and Mikey within an inch of their lives. Whether or not Slash had changed, carrying this thing around would be a reminder of the day he had been too weak to stop someone from hurting him and those he cared about, the very thing he wanted to forget. Besides, it was too heavy. Even after holding it for just a few minutes, Donatello's arms began to grow tired. He didn't want to always have to lug this thing around, did he? He shuddered at the very thought of how his spine would suffer if he chose to carry this around with him all the time. Maybe he would keep looking.
He put the mace back and continued his search. It wasn't long before another weapon caught his eye.
He pulled a chigiriki off the wall and contemplated the object the same way he had done the mace. It didn't have nearly the weight of the mace, and the metal chain and ball would add some potential destructiveness he hadn't had with his bo. He looked over the weapon, the staff attached to the chain and metal ball at the end. He held the staff part of it at an angle and tested the weapon by making small circles with his arms the same way Mikey did when spinning his nunchucks. The chain spun in a grey blur at the end of the staff. Still spinning it, Donnie swept the chigiriki from side to side. It wouldn't be too hard to learn how to use it; it was pretty similar to his bo.
He stopped. Too similar. He looked down at the staff of the chigiriki. Wood. Same as his bo. It would break just the same. He set the chigiriki back in its place and kept looking.
Donnie searched the weapons in the cupboard yet again. None them hanging in it seemed to draw his attention. As he scanned over them another time, a glint in the far corner of the cupboard caught his eye. He reached into the dark and pulled out two items that had not been hanging like the rest of the weapons, but laying off to the side.
He held one of the items in each hand and brought them into the light to inspect them. He recognized them instantly as hu tou gou, or hook swords.
Each of them had a leather handle, which was the only safe spot to hold them by. Everywhere else was a blade of some sort. The on the bottom near the handle, the tip went out about three inches before narrowing into a spike. The blade on the opposite side of the handle was quite a bit longer. It had a few feet of blade before curving into a hook that could be used to trip an enemy or link the two swords together for an elaborate attack. On either side of the leather handle, a small section of metal protruded at a ninety-degree angle, both in the same direction as the hook was. These two sections of metal were joined by a crescent moon-shaped blade that curved outwards so that the tips of the moon could be used as small spikes against the wielder's opponent.
Donatello contemplated these new weapons. They were metal and would not break nearly as easily as the chigiriki or bo, but were also light enough that they would not be detrimental to his health if he carried them with him all the time.
He held the hu tou gou in his hands and tested them with a few practice jabs and swings. Not bad.
He remembered how Splinter had demonstrated these weapons once. Splinter had held the handle of one sword and hooked the ends of the two together before swinging the joined weapons over his head. Didn't seem too hard.
Donatello stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. He linked the hooks of the swords together and let go of the handle of one. Using the sword he still had his grip on, he slowly swirled the second sword around and raised it over his head. Not so hard.
He chuckled to himself, pleased with his progress.
Donnie decided that he had done enough of this exercise for now and raised his other hand to catch the swinging sword. He closed his hand as it came around again and gave a small yelp of pain. He let the sword clatter to the ground, a bit of blood on its blade, and stared down at his own hand, which was bleeding from two cuts where he had attempted to close his hand around the blade. He had caught the sword, but not at the handle. Cursing himself for his carelessness, he scooped up the swords and put them back into their place in the cupboard.
Donnie wasn't done with the hu tou gou; they were the weapon he was looking for. But he would need training if he were to use them properly, and that would mean sacrificing some of the time in his lab, sacrificing the time working on the mutagen. He decided that it was worth it, though. What was a little time in his lab compared to his efficiency on the team?
He left the dojo to find some antiseptic, promising himself to come back another time, when he had read up more on his chosen weapon.
He had found the doorway to not being so weak. He wasn't going to give it up that easily.
I don't know if I provided a good description of the hook swords, but anyway I recommend looking up pictures or videos of them. I watched a few hook sword forms as research for this story, and watching the martial artists use the weapons is really fascinating!
Have a great day, everybody!
