I do not own any of these characters and places. This is a "missing scene" from the fourth episode of the 2003 TMNT series storyline "The Big Brawl." Much, however, is drawn from sources on the "Usagi Yojimbo" comic series including "Comic Vine," "Wikipedia," and "All The Tropes."

I did love Lord Mifune. I did.

"Usagi?"

The Samurai opened his tight shut eyes. He gave a weak smile in the direction of Gennesuke's even weaker eyes. "I am fine, Gennesuke."

The rhino snorted. "I can't smell it, but it'd be like you to hide some injury until now. Especially if all the healers in the land are busy with those guards of our host. I'm sure we can scare up someone to help you here, though, if you tell me the truth!"

Usagi gave a grim smile. "No … no … I am in no need of any such help. Besides," Usagi lowered his voice barely voicing the words of his lips at all. He knew his friend's sharp ears would still catch them, "many would say I should have already breathed my last ..."

The bounty hunter rhino's ears swiveled forward. He sat straighter as well. "You mean after the battle of Adachi Plain? Usagi, what you did there is legendary!"

"And the remains of my master would be safer still if my lips were sealed in death." Usagti lifted his glass and took a sip from it. They were drinking some strange liquid from another dimension. It was one thing he'd promised to do with Gen if he accompanied him here to the Battle Nexus, try the local drinks together. He'd earlier learned from his sensei which ones were the safest to try. He thought now it might have been a mistake. Gennesuke was speaking very loudly after drinking a little over half his serving of the foreign liquid.

The rhino snorted before he spoke in that loud voice again. "And the tongues of those who'd betrayed him could still be talking as well."

Usagi frowned. That was true. The rhino shrugged. "Can't say as I have much to say in matters of 'honor' but you rank high among those I know of in that regard. The bounty on you shows even your enemies value you highly!"

Usagi gave a soft, sad smile. "Thank you, my friend."

"Even 'I' sometimes think about cashing in on it sometimes." Gen lifted his glass to his lips, and Usagi laid his head down on the table. Instead of Gen's words filling him with horror or wrath, though, his shoulders simply bobbed up and down in near-silent laughter. A rough hand slapped him on the back. "There you go, 'Ronin.'"

The last word from the mouth of his friend made Usagi freeze, though. Normally it didn't bother him, but now ... Ronin. He sighed. Samurai of a dead master, who was yet "not" dead himself. Coward. One without honor.

A smile on a certain traitor's face came back to his mind. The fiend had stared at him with wariness in his eyes. His hand had shifted to the swords at his side, his words though, had cut through Usagi more cleanly than would have been possible for his swords. "Usagi? 'Myomoto Usagi?' I didn't expect to see 'you' again ... Should you not already be with our dear Lord Mifune?"

Not too long after he spoke those words, the traitor had been dead. Yet, his questions still lived on in Usagi's head. "I didn't expect to see 'you' … Should you not already be with our dear Lord Mifune?"

"Usagi?" Gen's voice sounded distressed above his head as the Samurai's mind returned to the present. "Surely this isn't because you didn't win, today? I thought for sure I'd take my loss harder than you would yours 'if' you lost."

Usagi's head shot up. He turned to and glared at his friend. "I did 'not' lose! My bout was taken from me by cowards too fearful to face a great warrior as they tried to kill 'him!' I had no chance to win or lose!"

Gen slowly and stiffly drew his hand back but remained seated and staring at his companion. Usagi looked down at the table and sighed heavily. "Forgive me, my friend. I just …"

Just what? Was he embarrassed of his own choice? He'd decided. He'd wrestled with his actions, and those of others, what he could and could not have done that day, his failures and his accomplishments, what he could still do for his master, and his memories of his lord while he was still alive. He'd finally made a choice alone, undiscovered by any seeking him then … No one else had made that decision for him. He'd thought it the right one at the time. So why ..?

Gen's voice broke into his thoughts again. "What is it, Usagi?"

The Samurai sighed. "It's just, I think a very honorable family is too concerned over my status as a Ronin, Samurai of a dead master who himself is still alive, to let me be connected to the eldest son of it, or any member of it, now. And I thought greatly of them all. I suppose their rejection still stings." Usagi lifted his drink and downed a large mouthful of it. He closed his eyes at the stinging sensation it gave him preferring it in the moment over the other in his heart. The rhino harrumphed beside him.

"Are you speaking of the turtles and their rat father?"

The two ronin turned to look up at a tall, muscled, orange creature leaning on a great axe standing higher than Usagi himself could. The Samurai rabbit looked up to meet the Triceraton Warrior's gaze. "You are Traximus." Usagi bowed his head before the other warrior from another planet. "I fear I had no time to formally meet you earlier. I saw with my own eyes, though, your honorable deeds. I, in fact, owe you my life along with Donatello, for saving me from the rift that threatened all our worlds." Usagi's shoulders slumped slightly. If indeed, my life is still worth something to owe it to someone else.

The Triceraton nodded down to Usagi with a smile. "The rat and his sons are not as you seem to think them now, warrior. The turtles befriended me when I was still a gladiator myself, a prisoner on my own home-world, a slave."

Usagi and Gennesuke glanced at each other with wide eyes. Then the rabbit looked back to the speaker. Traximus continued staring at them both. "They were also gladiators at the time. Unlike me, they were strangers to our ways, or world, captured visitors to all I knew and natives of a place I'd never heard of. They were forced to fight because our 'Prime Leader' was attempting to force another to give him yet 'more' power. But the turtles outwitted and defeated their foes at every turn. Then they escaped. The confusion also allowed others, including me, to escape." Traximus grinned down at the other two warriors sitting at the table before him.

Usagi found himself smiling up at the creature as well. Traximus then lifted his head and looked up toward the arena and Daimyo's throne. "Now they have helped 'prevent' a bad change of power here. They have kept another traitor from ascending another throne. The Battle Nexus will not have to suffer as my own home does now."

Usagi's smile faded, but a trace of it remained as he replied. "I am indeed glad they were able to do that here, and I hope you will remain free and free your own home as well."

Gen huffed again louder this time. Traximus looked back down at them and spoke in a low, deep voice. "I see before me two warriors I'd like to see fighting by 'my' side as I try to so free my home."

Usagi and Gennesuke's eyes widened. Then they looked to each other.

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes