While the girls and turtles began their training at the hands of Daidoji, Kiriya and Splinter had themselves a talk. They sat in the lounge sharing a serving of tea. Splinter looked worried as did Kiriya.
"So you're really going with them?" Kiriya asked.
"Yes. It's time to confront the Shredder face to face." Splinter replied.
"You know there's no guarantee you'll walk away from that battle alive."
"If I don't, I'll be risking the lives of my sons. I've already lost my wife. I can't lose them too. I'll face Saki while the kids take on the Hebijo girls."
"You really believe in your students that much?"
"Of course. They may not be your typical shinobi, but in the end, I'm sure they'll surprise you."
Kiriya lowered his head. "You're a good teacher. I wish I had that faith. If I did…"
Splinter raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Kiriya was silent for a moment before sighing. "It's nothing. It's just… Well, I had this other student: Rin. Easily the strongest pupil I've ever had. Easily dwarfed even Daidoji. She was also a big dreamer, always dreaming of being a Super Ninja, and I admired her for that. Then came her graduation exam. She nearly failed."
"But she didn't?"
"No. But she should have. I interfered without anyone else knowing, not even Rin. I don't know why I did that, but I never told anyone about it. And because I interfered, Rin graduated and was then given her first mission. And it was a mission… she never came back from."
Splinter shared his frown and raised his cup of tea. "We'll all do what we must for our students. And that is why I'm going with them."
Kiriya raised his cup with his old friend. "Good luck then."
Early the next morning, the turtles and girls of Hanzo Academy were laying on the rooftop ground breathlessly. Daidoji stood across from them with her arms crossed. She cleared her throat letting everyone know to stand back up to their feet.
"You trained hard. You're certainly stronger than you were before."
"So does that mean we're ready to face the Shredder?" Donnie asked.
"It's hard to say." Daidoji said. "But we don't have a lot of time. You have this day to prepare, because at sunset, you are to strike at Hebijo Academy."
"Just this day?" Raph asked. "That's not a lot of time to prepare."
"You've been preparing for the past few days. You have learned new techniques, bested your limits, and have mentally prepared for your opponents. Just remember what I told you before. Power is both a sword and a shield." She leaped off the rooftop.
"…We still don't know what that means!" Mikey called out.
Later on that day, the turtles and their human friends gathered up at different places around the school.
Raph and Katsu took up the sports field doing some last minute sparring. They were pretty even until Katsu gained an exciting idea. She grabbed her shirt and parted the middle slightly having her boobs stick out a little. Raphael was so caught off-guard that it gave Katsu the opportunity to kick him to the ground.
"Woo-hoo!" Katsu cheered. "Katsuragi 3. Raphael 0."
Raphael growled. "You do realize that trick isn't going to work on those Hebijo girls, right? Especially that Hikage. It doesn't look like anything can get a reaction out of her."
"True. It's like she has no emotion whatsoever." Katsuragi said. "So I think that'll be our strategy. We gotta make sure she feels something."
"You can't be serious." Raph said. "How is making someone feel supposed to beat them?"
"Well, maybe if we make her realize how much her friends mean to her, Kikage will see how wrong this all is." Katsu said. "Or better yet, we can give her a fight so great, she'll be super excited."
"That doesn't seem likely." Raph said.
Katsu giggled. "Oh, you're so cute when you're so negative." She gave him a kiss on the cheek which made him blush. "Ooh. You're blushing. You're actually turning red."
"Shut up." Raph grumbled.
Back at the bedrooms, Ikaruga caught Donatello in his lab. He was fixating on his electronic gadgets that he fiddled with.
"Are you okay?" Ikaruga asked.
"We have no idea what the Shredder has for us at that school." Donnie said. "The last time I fought him, he nearly cooked me into turtle soup. We gotta prepare for anything."
"What about Haruka and Yomi?" Ikaruga asked. "I heard that Haruka had an interest in you and Yomi hates me for some reason. Did you ever find out why?"
"That didn't exactly come up when I was being drained of blood in a basement lab." Donnie said.
Ikaruga frowned. "Listen, Donnie, she seems to have a grudge against the rich. Do you think she's after me because of my family?"
Donnie put down his tools and turned to her. "Why? You're not really their daughter."
"That's not exactly public knowledge. Look, I'd at least like to know what it was that drove her into being an evil shinobi before we finish our fight with her."
Donnie sighed. "All right. To be honest, I'm kinda curious too."
"Thanks." Ikaruga blushed before hitting Donnie in the lips with her own. He was caught by surprise even after she broke the kiss. "Hope that was better than Haruka's."
Mikey, Hibari, and Yagyu were at the gym readying themselves by practicing their maneuvers. Once they were all done, they sat on the ground and rested.
"You're a lot better, Yagyu." Mikey said.
"Thank you, Michelangelo. Recovery was remarkably well since Hibari was in trouble."
"So what's your plan?" Mikey asked.
"Well, first, I'm going to find the scientist who built that infernal robot who blasted me and, more importantly, deceived Hibari. He's got a lot to answer for."
Hibari frowned. "I'm just worried I'm not strong enough. What if I end up holding you back?"
"Nah. Ain't gonna happen." Mikey said.
"How do you know?" Hibari asked.
"Because you're a lot stronger than you think you are. You did make it at that crazy school for a few days. Plus, you saved my bro. That's plenty strong to me."
Hibari smiled. "Thanks, Mikey. You're a very sweet guy." She kissed him on the cheek making him giggle.
Yagyu winced before sighing. "Fine. If Hibari wants you, then if it means being a part of her life, I'll share you with her." She gave her own identical cheek kiss that made Mikey chuckle stupidly and fall backward.
Asuka returned to the rooftop to find Leonardo sitting in a meditative position. She smiled and sat across from him. "Hey, Leo."
"Hey, Asuka. What did Master Kiriya want to talk to you about?"
Asuka sighed before reaching into her bag. She pulled out a scroll that looked very familiar to Leo who widened his eyes.
"What the shell? Is that the Super Secret Ninja Arts Scroll?"
"In a matter of speaking." Asuka answered. "What Hebijo stole was the Super Secret Ninja Arts Scroll of Yang. This here is the Yin Scroll, its sister counterpart. It should give off the same power."
"And Kiriya just had this?" Leo asked.
"He had the Yang Scroll hidden in the principal's office, but he kept the location of this scroll extra secret. But now that Homura has it, we need a scroll of our own to even the odds. And Kiriya has chosen me to wield it. What do you think? Do you think I should?"
"Honestly," Leo said in earnest, "I couldn't imagine anyone more deserving."
Asuka gave a cute smile. "Thanks, Leo. So tonight's the night. One way or another, it ends. And Homura's going to be ready for us."
"We'll pull through." Leo said. "We'll save Homura and stop her at the same time."
"Save and stop." Asuka repeated softly. She chuckled slightly and shook her head. "Of course. 'Power is both a sword and a shield'. We protect as much as we attack. It's a balance."
Leo gave the same chuckle. "I guess it does make sense. Thanks, Asuka. It's been keeping me up at night."
Asuka chuckled. She then held the side of Leo's head and leaned in toward his face. They both accepted this tender kiss.
Back at Hebijo, the students and Foot ninja armed themselves. The Shredder saw them all preparing before he took the elevator from his office down to the dungeon. He approached a dark, damp cell with steel bars to find Suzune sitting there. She shot daggers from her eyes toward the Shredder.
"Enjoying yourself, Suzune?" he asked. "Or would you prefer 'Rin'?"
"Call me whatever you want." Said Kiriya's former student. "It doesn't matter to me."
"Honestly, I was surprised as what you had done." The Shredder said. "When Hebijo found you, you were broken and nearly left for dead after your failed mission. You knew that a failed mission is punishable by death, so you couldn't go back to Hanzo. So we took you in and made you teacher."
"No. YOU didn't." Rin said. "That was the rightful headmaster of Hebijo who showed me a home here. You just murdered him and stole his position."
"Label it however you wish. In all honesty, I came down here to thank you. You saved me a lot of trouble with letting Hanzo Academy know where we are."
Rin's eyes widened. "What? You wanted them to find us? You know they're coming to get that scroll."
"Oh, I know." Shredder rasped as he stood up and began to leave. "In fact, I'm counting on it."
The dusk had begun. The turtles, the girls, and Splinter stood at the front courtyard of Hanzo Academy. They were being sent off by Kiriya and Daidoji.
"You all only have one shot at this." Daidoji said. "One chance to make everything right. Find the Yang Scroll. Defeat Shredder. Everything falls on you."
"No pressure." Mikey said.
"There's still one thing I don't get." Katsuragi said. "Won't those Hebijo guys know we're coming? They'll shoot us as soon as they see us."
"I think I have a solution for that." Donnie said. "I've been working on a special invention in the garage that may help."
"Really?" Ikaruga asked sounding impressed.
"That's awesome, Donnie." Mikey said.
"What is it?" Leo asked.
"Well, for all intents and purposes, I think I'll just call it… the Shellraiser."
Author's Note: Sorry for skipping the training parts. But I didn't forget them. A guest reviewer suggested that I do flashbacks of the training during the upcoming fight scenes and that's what I'll do. Anyway, the Hanzo girls and the ninja turtles are about to begin their assault on Hebijo Academy and confront the elite students and the Shredder. Any and all comments are welcome.
