I didn't know how long it would take to fight the four turtles and cremate their bodies so I was left floundering for roughly an hour before I finally went back to the Tower of Oroku Saki. When I got there, all I wanted was to get out. What I thought were friends may be enemies, and what I thought was safe and a home may actually kill me at any moment.
"Master Shredder." I greeted as I kneeled before him.
"How did your training session go?" Shredder asked. I kept my eyes to the ground, because I didn't trust the face I had on. He lied to me. Karai, the Elite Guard, Hun, countless foot soldiers, all lied to me. How was I supposed to face them?
"Went according to plan, Master." I answered, monotonous. Hun laughed, but Karai remained silent, which irked me.
"You have their masks?" Shredder asked. I brought my hand around from behind me and showed the blood covered masks. I followed the trail of blood that dripped from Leo's mask, actually covered in Leo's blood. If he hadn't jumped when he did...
"And their blood," I answered.
"Well done my Light Ninja." Shredder praised. My skin prickled at the praise, and all I wanted was to leave. Shredder walked up to me and grabbed the masks from my hands to look them over.
"There are no cuts. Why?" He asked. I looked up at Shredder then, and stared at the face of my mentor the last few months.
"They did not want to fight me," I answered stiffly. "They protected each other more than anything."
Leo flashed through my mind, bloody in a way I didn't think I'd ever see.
"Yet you have a scratch on your arm?" Shredder pointed out. I looked at my right shoulder, and glared at the blood that clotted there.
"The one named Raphael was not so hesitant to fight as the others. He threw both of his Sais at me at the last second. One got me." I bluffed easily. Raph had thrown one of his sai at me, it wasn't all a lie.
"Ah yes, the hot head. What did you do to the bodies? I want to make sure they don't come back." Shredder asked. He looked like he actually believed the turtles could come back, and I had to wonder if he was unhinged a little.
"Someone at the hospital is going to have extra ashes in their urn." I answered with a toothy smile. Shredder smiled back for a brief moment, and then he turned back to Karai and Hun.
"Karai, you may leave. Hun, show Liza her new room." Shredder ordered. I wondered why Karai was there in the first place if she wasn't going to do anything. Maybe... Maybe if I'd failed, or mutinied, she was back up to fight me. Now that I knew a different truth about the people in front of me, I wondered how easily it was that I could be killed.
I rose when Hun walked over to me, and gave him a light smile. His bulking size was an intimidation once, but now, knowing I'm faster than he is, it's just a nuisance.
"Step one, define your opponent. If you're smaller than them, use it to your advantage. Be fast and mobile, don't let them get their hands on you. If you're bigger than them, use it to your advantage and blockade them. Use your size. If you're the same size, intelligence is your friend. Which leads into- "
"Come along, Pet Ninja." Hun said with no smile of his own. I knew he wasn't all mean, and I had gotten used to his harsh tone and petty nicknames a while ago. Now, it just amused me when he gave me new nicknames that should be insults.
We left in a line, which was probably good because as soon as his back was to me I Iet my face fall. What was that? Who was that?
"So, how was the fight?" Hun asked conversationally.
"Easy," I started, brushing off whatever voice I just remembered. "The youngest, Michelangelo, tried to protect his older brother, Leonardo. I gave him a few broken ribs that punctured a lung. Leonardo was next. He was skilled, kept me slicing for a minute-"
"He must be if it took you that long to cut him down." Hun laughed out.
"Then I split my katana into twins. I used the surprise to cut Leonardo from his right shoulder to his left hip. Nearly split him in two." I said, and ignored his comment.
Hun laughed again.
"Now explain to me this, how come they didn't fight you?" Hun asked. We walked into the elevator, and once the doors were closed, I knew we were safe.
"How should I know? They tried to make me believe that before I had amnesia I had been living with them. They said they weren't going to fight someone they considered a friend." I murmured. I felt Hun's eyes on me for a long moment, but he didn't talk again after that.
The elevator doors opened silently and Hun walked me all the way to the back of the hall.
"Here's your room," He said with a wave of his hand. I smiled and looked over the door. It was intricate, with a Japanese blossom over it. "May I come in?"
I looked at him with a lifted eyebrow. "Only if you can get in without breaking my frame."
September 9, 2007
"Focus Susan. You must focus. Forget your surroundings and only pay attention to my voice." Hitoshi ordered. I pinched my eyes tighter together and tried to listen to him.
"That's much easier said than done, Sensei," I answered back. There was the sound of cars overhead, and the trees in the surrounding forest, and Tom and Susan were laughing in the distance.
I cringed at the memory and curled into a tighter ball. The black carpet felt soft against my forehead, and I rested my head on it.
"Just listen." Hitoshi murmured, calm and patient as always. I furrowed my brow and tried for another few seconds before I gave up. I threw my hands up in the air and opened my eyes. It was too dark for me to see Hitoshi clearly, only the outline of his large form, and the glint of the moon in his eyes.
"Tell me another one of your stories," I asked. Hitoshi looked at me with a look I could name even in the dark, and I smiled sweetly. I placed my hand over my stomach as it ached a little from the pain. Hitoshi saw it easy in the dark, and he sighed.
"No, please don't." I whimpered. I grabbed my skull in a vain attempt to stop the pain. It hurt, the memories. They caused my mind agony. I couldn't stand, I couldn't open my eyes. Why am I doing this to myself?
"Well... Let's say it's summertime." He said. "And we're in the house. It's me and my sibling-"
"Which sibling?" I asked for clarification, because he had more than one. Hitoshi chuckled, a very deep sound.
"The gamer." He answered. I smiled and settled into a more comfortable position. I closed my eyes, and was able to just focus on his voice.
"This is one of those few times I agreed to play a game with him. It was this weird gun game, I don't know what, and we were against each other, and he was smoking me." Hitoshi talked, and I could imagine it. Hitoshi and his unfaced sibling, but I bet they looked like him. Same skin, same eyes.
"And at one point my girlfriend walked in and snatched the controllers from me. She pressed several buttons and the game over button popped up. And my sibling just stared at the screen with horror. With a few buttons, I wouldn't know what she pressed if I had studied that controller front to back, she had beat my Gamer Sibling. And he was so mad..." Hitoshi laughed richly as he finished. I smiled, and was able to finally focus on his voice.
My skull stopped aching and I breathed a sigh of relief. I leaned back slowly, prepared for the next memory that was sure to come. I sat up and looked at my bed, and with shaky legs, I walked up to crimson colored mattress and laid down on the soft comforter. I pulled the covers over my head to hide from the dim lights.
Hitoshi. It was the guy Raph said was my original sensei. Why was he in my head? Why did he call me Susan? What the hell does he look like? When I tried to picture him all I got was blue. But blue what! Blue eyes, blue shirt, blue hair?
"Liza." A soft voice cooed. I cringed once more, and my heart ached at the voice. I missed that voice. I wanted to hear it again, but I didn't want to even think about it. I left her, and I had no reason to miss her. " Honey."
"Shut up!" I shouted out, and grabbed my cranium. "Just shut up, Laura. I don't want another memory."
September 12, 2007
"Will I ever find someone in the future?" I asked. It had been something on my mind recently, as I began to learn to live again.
"Of course you will, that's part of the reason why I'm here..." Hitoshi said, almost immediately. It made me wonder if he'd been expecting a question like this. Hitoshi looked over at me and smiled in the dark. I stared back, but his face was blurred to me.
What do you look like, Hitoshi? All I can remember is brown eyes, and blue something. What was blue? Why do I remember the color blue so well!
"I know he'll be what you need when you need him," Hitoshi continued, "He'll make you happy, even when you are at your lowest. He'll give you what you want most."
I snorted almost painfully.
"What I want most was taken from me," I muttered darkly. What I wanted was my family back, and Hitoshi knew that. There was no getting my family back either, they died a year ago.
Hitoshi moved closer to me and stared at me in the dark. White teeth shined through the night and reflected off what light there was off. A faint glow of metal shined on his back as he shifted into a more comfortable position.
"You'll get it back. It's the cool thing about him." Hitoshi nudged. I shivered against a blow of wind and wrapped the thick blanket tighter around him and me in the November chill.
"Whatever you say." I huffed. Love didn't fix a family lost.
Daylight shined on my face and was my alarm for today. I rubbed my eyes harshly as I woke up from another memory. My skull felt heavy, but I no longer got headaches. Which was good, I had training to do today. Yesterday ended up a failure when I got a memory about the train crash in the middle of sparring.
I'd remembered my mom between the mountain wall and train car, my dad between two seats, the blood that dripped from his hand. The searing pain, the horror of looking down to see a pipe sticking through my stomach. My brother on the ground, still alive.
"Wake up." I spat, and pinched my arm. "Don't think about it. Just wake up."
"Liza?" Raph asked. I looked back up into Raph's eyes. He looked closer, but I hadn't seen him move. No, he hadn't moved, I did. I moved my feet and figured out I had moved one foot in front of the other. I'd moved closer, but Raph didn't seem to care. Now that I knew what I happened, I did care. I took a large step back.
"Sorry, your skin is-" I stopped to find a word that didn't sound weird. "You don't meet a lot of people like you, I'm interested in how-" Nope, that's still weird.
"I'm curious about how your body works," I said just to get it over with. At Raph's surprised look I bolted. I left the kitchen and Raph to his own devices.
"Ok, up we go," I muttered to myself and stood up. I stretched my arms high above my head and got satisfying pops all along the spine. I brushed my hair over my ear out of an old habit I'd relearned, and was annoyed when it fell in my face again.
I grumbled on my way to the bathroom, because the memories were less and less important nowadays. I peeled off my shirt and stared at myself in the mirror. I was no longer malnutritioned, and my skin finally decided to let go of all its dirt. It was a clean white, except for the little pink mark peeking over my shoulder. I didn't remember sustaining the wound, I probably never would, but police records said it was a sword. It irked me to know who it was, because I wanted the pleasure of using one of Shredder's rooms to torture him. Oh, the noises I could get out of-
I turned the shower on and rubbed my left shoulder. It was a habit I never quite kicked when I woke up. The scar was raised and angry, and it spanned from my left shoulder to right hip. I didn't remember anything before or during the attack, but I did remember waking up in a sterilized room to a heart monitor beeping at me. I had an IV in my arm, right next to a blood transfusion, and this intense pain rolling along my spine. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, and the nurse looked at me like I was the bane of his life. Cole was his name. Nurse Cole, ten years a nurse.
He gave me a dose of morphine, and then walked away. He didn't care to notice if I could talk or if I even knew my name. If I could get my hands on him, I was so going to-
I walked into the shower, only to cower for a moment as I turned the dial. Too hot.
"Here, tree cover... We should stay here until it cools down, or we're going to have a heat stroke."
I gripped the wall and let the water cascade down my body. My back sighed with relief, and a bruise from yesterday got a good blast of water.
What are the turtles doing? Leo was probably still in the bed with wounds that ailed and disabled him. I cringed at the thought of Leo in a coma while his brothers surrounded him. I should go find them. Make sure they're safe. Oh, poor Mikey.
With slow movements, aware that my body still ached, I grabbed soap and stepped out of the water just long enough to cover my skin.
Where did they live? I assumed they lived somewhere hidden, but where is that exactly? An abandoned apartment? Outskirts of town? The sewers? Someplace I've been before.
With a growl, I jammed the water off. I left the porcelain compartments to stand on wooden planks. The bathroom was relatively big; its walls were themed green, and fake vines crawled the walls. The sink was soloed in the corner, a white porcelain embedded in granite. The toilet had some semblance of being normal; glass, white and non-transparent, hovered in the corner. The rest of the room was decorated with towels and pictures, one of which I despised. The Foot emblem framed with a black and red portrait holder.
An image appeared in my head as I stared at it. I traveled through the sewers as black figures chased me. I was following a certain pipeline. Left, left, straight, right, straight, left, and then a wall. Nothing but a wall. I gripped at pipes along the wall before finally pulling one down.
"Raph!"
I wrapped a towel around me as I continued to stare at the Foot picture. I was their enemy, and the turtles were in the sewers.
I left the bathroom quickly after that, and closed the door to my room once I noticed Hun was waiting for me. I shimmied through my towel and wrapped my hair up with it to keep water from falling down. I pulled out one of my elastic outfits and folded it down so I had a prayer of getting my body in. Once I got it on I grabbed a face cover and tucked it into my sleeve. On my way out I grabbed the katana sword I had gotten a week into my training, because I had taken the best liking to it.
"Hun, is there a reason you're in my room?" I asked once I opened the door. Hun jumped, which pushed my table two feet from where it was supposed to be. He cursed, picked it up, and set it back where it was.
"Master Shredder wants you," He said as he turned to look at me.
I stiffened, and ran through different conversations I had with various people. I never said anything, so I couldn't be in trouble.
"Training?" I asked, the only logical assumption. Hun nodded.
"Yeah. Um, come." He beckoned, and walked to the door with a quickened pace. I frowned and walked through the door with him. Hun avoided my eyes, and kept a pace brisk enough that I stayed behind. He wove me through the halls of Shredder's lair, and took me down instead of up.
"Didn't you say we were going to see Master Shredder?" I asked when we entered the elevator and he pressed for floor one. Hun looked at me, his jaw set.
"Not quite. He needed me to relay a message." I reach over my shoulder and grabbed the sword. Hun followed my movements, and he made fists.
"He says a new spy found the turtles on the roof. One of them actually, Donatello, the purple one." Hun said steely. A shiver rolled down my back. Hun's grey eyes searched me, and I had to stay still from giving anything away.
"Are you accusing me of lying to my Master?" I asked. I gripped my sword, and slowly began to lift it from its sheath. If I was going to be attacked, I wanted to be able to fight back.
"No. Master Shredder just wanted to talk to you. He values your words over a new spy." He said in a rush.
"So why are we going down?" I asked. Hun smirked, and looked up as the doors open.
"You do have a new training session. With the spy."
September 14, 2007
"Don't be afraid, you're not going to hurt me." Hitoshi soothed as he handed me one of his katana and showed me how to hold it, though I'd already gotten that part down. It was the actual fighting that I didn't have down.
"You don't know that." I murmured, and gripped the sword closer to my body.
"After twenty-six years of living in the ninja life, I think I can fight off an inexperienced fourteen year old," Hitoshi answered easily. I didn't know if his cocky attitude was supposed to goad me to fight or make me comfortable about fighting him, but it did the first one.
"What do I do first?" I asked.
"Attack." He said, simply.
I sat up with my head in my hands. It was two in the morning, give it a break already. Haven't I had enough memories? What more could there be?
I massaged my temples as I thought that over. The answer was easy, there was three years worth of memories.
"Sensei?" I asked as my victory cry died on my lips. Hitoshi made a noise of distress and corrected his stance. His hand was at his shoulder, and when he pulled it back there was blood on his hand. "Hitoshi?"
"I'm fine. You just cut me." He rasped.
"I hurt you? You said I couldn't... I hurt you with..." I whispered. I looked down at the katana I held and dropped it with a flinch. I backed away from it like it had hurt me. It could have, very easily, but it instead hurt someone worse. Someone I cared about. I folded my arms under me and hit the bridge pillar behind me. I slid to the ground in an attempt to make myself smaller. Hitoshi was quick to get to me, and dropped down so he was almost eye level with me. He pried my hands from their confinements and held them in his own much larger hands. I could feel the blood in his fingers, and I couldn't bare to look at Hitoshi.
"Susan. Look at me. Susan. Susan!" Hitoshi let go of one of my hands and papped it against the side of my face enough to jostle me. I did look up then. Hitoshi looked at me with comforting brown eyes, and he smiled a pinch.
"Susan, don't assume it was your fault. The fact you managed to hit me speaks volumes of what you can do. It's just a little blood." He said in an attempt to soothe.
"A little?" I asked loudly, and gestured to his shoulder. He didn't even look at it before he spoke.
"Yes. This is nothing," He said. He saw I didn't believe him. He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his chest. "Here, do you feel that?"
I could definitely feel it, and I could always see it, but he'd never told me anything about it. I'd eventually rubbed it off as something that was hard to talk about. Maybe I'd finally get to know. I look at where my hand was. Hitoshi had abandoned his jacket at the beginning of this training, and I could see the scar crossing over his front. It was raised, and it was deep. The scar tissue was years old, but still stuck out.
"How did you get that?" I asked shyly. Even though I hoped, I didn't think he'd actually answer.
"I got into a bad fight, and this cut nearly killed me, but I survived," Hitoshi explained. I'd heard those words before, nothing new. "What you did now, is nothing compared to what you could have done."
I nodded, and looked back at his scar. Above it was a Christmas present I had given him. A black leather string, hooked to it was a dragon. A blue dragon, curled and ready to attack. I'd figured Hitoshi would like it, and it reminded me of him. Since he got it, I hadn't seen him without it.
I opened my eyes again, and leaned back in bed. A scar spanned the length of his abdomen. That was new. And the sword. Why was that a thing? Raph said I hated swords, was that the reason? Was hurting Hitoshi such a bad thing that I never picked the weapon up again? At least, until I got amnesia.
I laid back in bed and turned on my side to stare out in the city. The sky was clear, the moon was a crescent in the distance. I couldn't see many stars, but that was fine. I wasn't too interested in that area of the sky. I was more interested in watching the moon fall.
I woke up to the sun as it peaked over the horizon. Too bright, too colorful. Too beautiful. I flipped over onto my stomach and pressed my face into the pillow, and I waited. There was normally something there. A memory. Or maybe they're all dreams, but it was still going to come.
I waited. The sun began to color the walls. Consciousness took root in my brain, and soon I wouldn't be able to stay in bed. I'll get up, bathe, eat, and then wander around until I had to train again. The memory could happen at any time. That was the problem.
And waited. I clenched my eyes closed, took a deep breath, and gave up. With a heave, I pushed myself from the bed. I stared at the sun for the short time I could.
I was looking at the rising sun in the late winter. It was orange today, and bright, but this abandoned apartment made it easy to stare at it. A grimy window blocked out most of what could blind me. Beside me was Hitoshi, who had his arm around me. He'd gotten more protective since we came here, to New York City.
"What are we doing today?" I asked. Hitoshi took a deep breath and stared into the roof. It was molding, so I don't know why he'd like to look at it, but he was weird. It was kind of expected by him now.
"I'm leaving." He murmured. I tensed and ran numbers through my head. We'd been here for three weeks. Long enough I understood how the buildings and streets worked. How long was he going to stay with me? ...Just a few weeks. That was what he said.
"Where are you going?" I asked, and stared at the sun more intensely. Hitoshi tightened his grip on me, and he took a deep breath, like he was about to make a loud outburst. Then he deflated.
"I don't know. Home probably." He answered. He let go of me and stepped down from the table we were sitting on. I was still a bit short, unable to fully sit on the table without jumping, but it made me near chin level with Hitoshi. My eyes were drawn to the necklace that was still around his throat. It had somehow survived the hike across America.
"And what am I supposed to do?" I asked. He smiled and brushed the side of my face with a finger. I look up into his brown eyes. They told me he was worried, saddened, but confident.
"When we met, I didn't know why I was there, but I do now. I was to help you across America, because you wouldn't have been able to make it on your own, and now you have to do what you set out to do. Get rid of the bad, save the good. Don't snivel in a corner, and don't be afraid." He said, and tapped his finger under my chin.
"You know me in the future?" I asked. He laughed, and tilted his head down. He'd abandoned blue. Whatever he had that was blue, he had traded it out for green.
"Still kinda the reason why I'm here, but yes. I'll see you in a while." he answered confidently. I smiled at that, and my shoulders relaxed. Hitoshi smiled again, and this time cupped the side of my face.
"You'll do fine. Trust me." He murmured. I nodded to what he said as I leaned into his grip.
"That man you said I'll meet, the one you said will change my life," I began. He nodded, asking me to continue. "I know you can't say what I want, but, what does he look like?"
Hitoshi's eyes suddenly looked pained, and they lost focus, like he was looking into the far past.
"He's... well built, especially for someone his age. He's violent at times, but he means the best of it. He... He'll be really good to you. Which, after these last three years, I think you deserve." Hitoshi said, still forever simple in his explanation.
"That's not much description," I said. He smiled cheekily at me, and then let go of my jaw. He turned around, to the rising sun.
"I think that's for the better. You'll forget about him for a while... Best learn how to like him on your own." He said.
"Learn from reality, not from the image." I recited, a quote of his from a time near the beginning of our adventure. Hitoshi didn't respond to me this time, he was looking for something in the rising sun.
"I need one last thing from you," He murmured, and this time he sounded pained. "And I know it might be too much to ask, but I have too."
I jumped from the table and took the step towards him that was needed. He lifted his arms slightly, allowing me to hug him from behind.
"What is it?" I asked. I rested my forehead on his back. I felt his chest expand, another deep breath. He twisted in my arms and put a distance between us so we could see each other.
"I need you to forget me," He whispered. I stopped inhaling and stared at Hitoshi with horror. "See, that's the face I knew you were going to make!"
"Well, of course, I'm going to make that face! You're telling me to forget three years of my life. The three most adventurous and -dare I say- fun years of my life. You're asking me to forget you!" I whisper shouted. He frowned, and he turned to looked outside once more.
"Please... Liza." He pleaded. I rocked on my heels, surprised to hear my name from his voice. It had been years, back to the day we met. It was Hitoshi and Susan. There wasn't any Liza and whatever his name was. "You have to forget me. Remembering I exist, what I look like, it could ruin so much."
"I thought you said you were supposed to walk with me." I hissed. His brown eyes widened as he glanced at me again. He proceeded to smile, and shook his head.
"After knowing you for as many years as I have, I still can't believe you can surprise me...Yeah, I am supposed to walk with you, and you can remember I did sooner or later, but for now you have to forget me." He wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me towards him. "But that doesn't mean forever."
I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead to his chest. My eyes watered, and a shiver racked my body. "Three years, Hitoshi. That's a lot of time to forget."
"I know you can do it. You have done it before." He jested. I laughed a little, and nodded into his chest.
He squeezed me again, and then released me. He turned to the door and breathed deeply through his nose. He didn't look back as he walked to the door, yanked it open, and let more light flood in. His silhouette made a shadow that casted a dark mark on the ground. I saw his head tip left, and then he stepped through the door, and closed it behind him.
I shivered, my body racked with sweat. I looked away from the sun, and away from that memory. So that's why I don't remember Hitoshi's face. I was trying to forget him before I got amnesia, and it worked. I can't remember.
I sat there for an hour, minimum. The sun breached the horizon and managed a couple inches before I finally stood up. I did the routine I'd set for myself, and shook off the image of a blurred Hitoshi. It ached me to know why he went from blue to green, but I wasn't going to dwell on it.
I had more problems, like leaving Shredder's lair to find the turtles. Could I just leave and not to worry about punishments? Did I have to ask? I figured the best way to find out was to just try, and that was what I was going to do. Not today, I didn't know how to find the passage to their home. All I knew was that they were in the sewers.
Maybe that was enough.
A/n: Chapter 11 was always one of my favorites. No turtles, not much Shredder, just Liza and her memories. Hitoshi is an important character, just not in this story. But he's been a long time coming. You'll learn more about him in the next few installments, whenever I get them out.