Obon

Leonardo stood in the middle of the lair. "Why don't they talk to me? Why don't they see me? I'm right here!" Leo said to himself, trying to control his emotions.

"Because they can't see you." A voice said behind him.

Leo turned around. Behind him was Karai. "Gram-Gram?"

Karai walked fast to the blue turtle and hugged him. "I'm so sorry what had happened to you, Leonardo."

"What happened to me?"

Karai looked at Leonardo, staring in disbelieve. "My child, you've died. You had a accident."

"Wha?"Leo started to laugh. "Nice going, Gram-Gram! I can't be dead! This must be a joke! I'm probably dreaming this and any minute I'll wake up in the infirmary."

Karai stared at her grandson. "Leonardo, please," she begged. "Denying only would force you to stay here. I'm here to take you to-"

"To what? Heaven? I'm not dead Gram-Gram. Let me show you."

"Leonardo don't!" Leo walked to his room and stared in disbelieve. Karai stood beside him. "I'm sorry, Leo. I wish you wouldn't see it."

"No…" Leo stepped back. "No it' can't be! I'm not dead!"

"Leo, please believe it. Don't deny it." Karai looked at the terrified turtle. "Leo, Leonardo!"

Leo ran away.

The lair has been quite for the last three days. Gram-Gram wasn't around anymore and within those two days, the truth had hit Leo hard. He was dead.

The first day he was in denial. His brothers were just playing a sick joke on him. The thing he saw in his room? That was just a dummy made by Donnie or Raph.

The second day, he had followed them to the funeral. He was buried along with some other yokai who didn't survive the accident. That's when the truth hit him hard in his face. He died. And now he's stuck here because he was in denial for so long.

Today it was the third day and Leo was wandering around the lair, not knowing what to do now. Leo sat down on the skating ramp. He sighed as his emotions started to overwhelm him again. He should have listen to Gram-Gram. Why didn't he listen? Oh, right because he thought wasn't dead!

Leo hated being stuck here. He hated to watch his family being devastated by his death.

It used to be his job to get Donnie out of his lab, it was his job to stop Raph hitting the punshing bag until it broke, it was his job to hoax Mikey out of his shell.

Now he couldn't do any of that. Only watch how they all fall apart. Leo stared down the ramp, allowing his tears stream down his face.

"Blue?" Leo turned around, seeing splinter staring right back at him. "Why are you still here?"

"Ca- can you see me?"

Splinter walked towards Leo. "I've seen you wandering around here for two days now. Wasn't Gram-Gram here to- "Splinter stopped talking, realizing what was going on. "You're in denial."

"Was." Leo watched his dad sit next to him. "The funeral made it all clear. That I'm-"

Splinter sighed and wanted to grab Leo, but he went right through it. "I'm sorry, my son. Only if we could save you both-"

"You know we couldn't." Leo said calmly. "We both would have died."

"He's having the hardest time with it."

"I know."

"We all are."

"Dad, I know." Leo looked at his father. "I've been wandering around here for the past two days. It hurts so much seeing you guys like that."

"You need to crossover, Leo." Splinter said after a long silence.

"How? Gram-Gram isn't here anymore. She was here to come and get me."

"hmn." Splinter started to think to help his son. " It is the last day of the Obon festival. We could send you with Okuri-bon to the spirit realm."

"You could do that?"

"Of course! I do anything to help my sons."

Later that day, the three remaining turtles stared into the room where Splinter was talking to himself and building that looks like a small boat. "He lost it." Mikey mumbled.

"He's trying to cope." Raph stared at his dad, doubting his words more every minute.

"And this is how-" Splinter explained. He turned around seeing his sons staring at him. "Boys! Come and help me and your brother with the boat."

All three looked at each other, before walking into the room. "As I was explaining to Blue, we need to make sure the boat doesn't sink under the weight of the lantern."

As Splinter kept talking, Mikey started to tremble more and having a hard time controlling his emotions.

"Mikey!" Raph and Donnie watch the box turtle ran out of the room in tears.

"Orange! We're not done yet! Blue needs help!"

"Dad." Raph said with a warning voice. Donnie gritted his teeth.

"We need to send Blue with his Okuai-Bon to the spirit realm."

"Stop it! Just stop it, Papa!" Donnie screamed loud. "Can't you see your hurting us?!"

"We all miss him dad," Raph said in too calm. "But acting like he's here doesn't help any of us. Mikey just ran away because you keep talking like he's here. He's not. Leo is not here, dad."

"But he is here. His spirit is standing here next to us!" Splinter defended himself.

"ENOUGH!" Raph exploded. "I've already lost a family member. I'm not ready to lose another to this madness. Just stop it right now, Dad. Before we need to stop you."

Raph turned his back to his father and walked towards the door. "Come on, Donnie. Let's go."

"Keep it up and you'll be the one tearing this family apart, not Leo." Donnie said, before walking out of the room with Raph.

Splinter sighed as he watched his living sons leave the room. "I'm going to check on them." Leo said moving towards the door, knowing his dad need some space right now.

"Okay. I need some time to collect my thoughts." Splinter responded, not even looking up where Leo went to.

Leo first stop was at Mikey's room. Entering the dark room. He finds the box turtle fully retraced in his shell. Leo sighed dropping his shoulders. 'Oh Mikey.' Leo sat down the ground and stared at the shell for a while.

Leo sighed again and started singing Leaves from the vine like he used to do. Mikey's soft sobbing died slowly as he heard Leo's song. Mikey slowly crawled out of his shell.

Brave soldier boy, comes marching home." Leo smiled while he sang the last lines. Mikey whipped his tears away while sitting up right when he suddenly felt a presence next to him. "Leo?"

Leo smiled at his brother. "Jah, it's me, Mikey." Mikey looked confused around, trying to spot his brother with his eyes. Mikey sighed when he couldn't. "Leo, if you really here, you need to go to Raph and Don." Mikey told Leo. "They have a hard time. Raph locks himself up in his room and Donnie…Don't know what Donnie does in his lab now. Just go to them, Leon. I'll be fine. I'm always fine after that song."

"I know Mikey. I know." Leo stood up and padded on Mikey's head before leaving the room.

Standing outside Mikey's room, Leo decided to go to Raph's room. Leo tried to open the curtain, but went straight through it. "Oh right. That works too."

Right before Leo sat Raph on his bunk bed, staring at the teddy bear he got from Leo years ago. Leo walked towards Raph and waved his hand in front of Raph. Raph didn't respond until he felt a small gust of wind in his face, making him look up a bit.

"Hey there big guy, keep staring at it and it might come to life."

Raph snort.

"Come on, Raph." Leo bent down in front of his brother. "Stop sulking. The others need you. They need their leader, their big brother. And you're doing what? Staring at a old ugly bear I gave you?"

"It isn't just an old ugly bear, Leo." Raph responded as if he knew what Leo would say if he was in his room, trying to cheer him up.

"Raph, it's a brown bear with a red tie. You can find those everywhere in the world!"

"Not this one. It's special." Raph stared at the bear as he wiggled both hand paws of it. "This one was yours. You gave it to me when I've lost mine with the flood. You told me you were too big for it and didn't like it anyway when you gave it. I always knew it was a lie. You loved this one and still gave it to me. Just because I was devastated with loosing mine."

Leo stared at the bear. Now he remembers! It was his! He did give it to Raph that day when they couldn't find half of their stuff after the flood was gone. "I think Mr. Brown had enough of your brooding stares today." Leo stood back up and looked at his brother. "And we both agreed you need to check on our brothers. Be the big brother like you are. Let's make a deal. I go and kick Donnie out of his lab, you check on Mikey if he hasn't thrown his paint around his room like last time."

Raph smiled, putting Mr. Brown next to him. "Deal."

Leo smiled. "Two down, one to go." Leo mumbled, walking towards the lab.

Donnie was soldering a piece of wire until he burned the tin too far away. Donnie cursed and threw his goggles off when it happened. Donnie sighed and held his head in his head. "What is it, Nardo?"

"Nothing. Just checking on my favorite brother."

"Snort! If your presence is meaningless-" Donnie stopped right in his sentence. "argh what am I doing!" Donnie threw his head back before standing up. "Leo isn't here."

"I am here. Feel my presence!"

Donnie walked towards his test tubing workbench, leaning heavily on it. "Shut it, Nardo! Get out of my head!"

"Actually, I'm standing right here. I would never fit in that big brains of yours."

"I said shut. Up!" Donnie gritted his teeth. "God, why must you always play the hero, Leo?"

"'Cause we're family," Leo drawled, putting his elbow on Donnie's shoulder, "Every family needs a knight in shining armour, I just happen to be this one."

"Family." Donnie mumbled, slamming his fists on the table. "You should have grabbed the goddam rope, Leon! It was strong enough to hold both of us!"

"Don't lie to yourself, Don." Leo removed his elbow from his brother shoulder. "You know better than that. It wasn't strong enough to carry us both after Mikey and Raph went down with it. After that blast came."

"Bullshit!" Donnie grabbed his equipment throwing it down on the ground in a fit of rage, turning around and facing the empty space behind him. "Bullshit! We could have survived! You could have survived! You just had to flash that grin of yours and push me down the rope. Making me watch the debris fall on you."

Donnie dropped on his knees, allowing the tears he held back for so long finally fall down on his face. "We're nothing without you, Leo."

Leo kneeled down in front of his brother, placing a hand on Donnie's shoulder. "You need to let me go, Donnie."

"No! I can't. I won't! Not yet!" Donnie's body trembled. He slammed his fists to the ground. "There's so much I want to tell you. Tell you I'm sorry for the shock collar, scowling at you for asking me to fix the toast again. For being a asshole."

"You don't need to. I already know." Leo told his brother, watching the purple turtle cry his heart out. "But I need your help, Donatello. I need your help me to cross over."

Leo fought his own tears as they surfaced. "Help dad building the Okuai-bon for me."

"Stay." Donnie whispered.

"You know I can't."

"Donnie?" Leo looked up, seeing his other brothers standing there. Donnie grabbed both in a hug as they all cried their hearts out.

Leo stood by the side, watching his brothers hug each other. "Get in here, dufus." Donnie commanded. Leo smiled sadly and joined the group hug, letting his own tears fall down on his face.

Splinter looked up when he saw his four boys standing in the door. All three boys bowed towards their father. "We like to apologize for our behavior earlier." Raph spoke. "If it makes you feel better to send off Leo's spirit to the spirit realm, we will be gladly to help you."

Splinter walked towards his boys and grabbed them into a hug. "You don't need to apologize, my sons. You all feel his presence now."

Raph stopped hugging and looked at everyone of them, his eyes stopping at the empty space where he felt Leo's presence. "Let's make you the coolest Okuai-Bon they ever saw!"

Leo smirked when he saw his finished Okuai-Bon. Everything on screamed the creativity of his brothers. "What do you think?" Mikey asked.

"I love it."

"It's time." Announced Splinter to his sons.

Four brothers watched their dad standing on the edge of the river with the boat. Splinter looked over his shoulder, signaling to Leo to come over. Leo sighed and walked towards his father. "Guess it's time then. Keep an eye on these guys for me, will you." Leo said, standing next to his dad. Leo suddenly grabbed his dad into a hug. "Thanks for everything, dad."

Splinter hugged back, letting a sobbing noise escape. "Go now, Gram-Gram is waiting for you."

Leo released his dad, whipping his own tears away, before stepping on his boat. His brothers gasped when Leo's spirit appeared on the boat. Leo was with them the whole time.

A big white gate opened in the middle of the river. Looking around, Leo saw he was surrounded with decedent yokai's on their own boats, sailing towards the gate.

"Leo." Leo looked up and saw his brothers walking towards the edge of the river as his own boat started to sail. "Looks like I'm going to sing the hearse song from now on."

"Shut it, Nardo!" Donnie scowled him. "Even in death your jokes are bad! But I will miss them"

"I knew you guys loved my jokes!"

"Take care of yourself, Leo. Don't cause to much trouble with Gram-Gram."

"I won't promise you anything, big guy!" Leo smiled. "Take care of those two for me, will you? Drag Donnie's ass out of the lab and spray paint some walls with Mikey once in a while, would you?"

"I will." Raph reassured Leo.

"And guys, take Mr. Brown away from Raph when he's brooding too much again. Mr. Brown needs a hero to sometimes."

Mikey and Donnie laughed a bit, nodding as they watch Leo sail further away. "Leonardo-san." Leo turned around, seeing Gram-Gram standing in the gates. Leo stepped of his boat and grabbed his Gram-Gram into a hug. He was welcomed by everyone of the Hamato clan. Leo turned his head towards his still living family. Leo gave them one of his last trade mark smiles before the gates closed.

He was finally home.