Chapter 1: Keepers of Knowledge

"Yōkai?" His father repeated after Yoshi had told him of his encounter with the creatures at the pond.

"Yes father." He said worriedly. "They were with Miwa, should I –"

"No Yoshi." Yūta proclaimed quickly before his son could panic. "Do not fear; they will not harm her." Yoshi quickly let out a breath of relief as he heard this before looking up at the old man again.

"But – why have they come?" He asked knowing the legends that spoke of the creatures; which often depicted them as an early warning for terrible occurrences.

"They have always been here Yoshi." Yūta proclaimed calmly. "Our clan tells of a story, when long ago a young girl approached the Waters of Spirit to find a Yōkai on its shore."

"The creature was very sick, as its home waters had become polluted." The man continued sagely. "The girl realized that the underground spring that feed it led straight to a river where the people dumped their trash. She followed the path and eventually found that the bank had given way, causing the two waters to merge."

"The girl used many rocks to once again block the river from flowing into the spring, thus saving the Yōkai's life." Yūta stated in thought as he looked at the ground. "The Yōkai was so grateful that it told her of a coming flood, ultimately saving both her and her village. In gratitude the people built her a shrine around the waters of the Yōkai and since then the creature and its progeny have continued to protect her family to this very day."

"Yes." Yoshi acknowledge with a nod as his father finished the story, he had heard the words many times before but had honestly never taken them seriously. "But why would it return now?"

"I do not believe that it has." Yūta proclaimed thoughtfully. "You said there were four and that they were very young."

"Yes, they were." Yoshi repeated. "They can't be much older than Miwa herself." This left his father to think over that for another minute before asking another question.

"How is Tang Shen?" The sudden question caught Yoshi off guard, but he answered anyway.

"She grows worse by the day." He announced sadly, as he turned to look at the floor in distress. "The doctors say there is nothing more they can do for her."

"You said that Miwa's – Oniisan– gave her a flower?" Yūta asked and Yoshi nodded leaving the man to think for another minute or so before continuing. "My son, I believe you should try to befriend the Yōkai children."

"Father?" He asked in confusion, but the man held up a hand so he could go on uninterrupted.

"From the description that you gave me I have reason to believe that they are in fact kame." He proclaimed seriously.

"Turtles?" Yoshi asked skeptically. "Why would that make a difference?"

"Because the turtle is the Keeper of Knowledge." Yūta announced sternly. "They hold much wisdom of the earth and its ways. If you were to ask them – they may even be able to cure Tang Shen."

Yoshi found himself in a state of shock as his hope rose for the first time in years due to these words. "Truly?" He begged and his father nodded.

"Yōkai are powerful creatures." Yūta continued. "However as you have said; these are very young, they may need time." He added causing Yoshi to bolt to his feet.

"Then we must hurry." He said before running for the door.

"Yoshi." Yūta demanded sternly causing his son to stop and look back at him. "Yōkai are proud, do not treat them as servants, for they are not." He warned seriously, forcing the younger man to calm a little.

"I understand father." Yoshi said with a little bow, which the older man returned thus giving his child leave to return to the pond and allow Yūta to focus more intently on the shadow he'd become aware of at another door.

"Saki." He called to it causing the form to promptly disappear and the clan leader to narrow his eyes in concern.

…

Yoshi sat patently at the water's edge for the rest of the day and most of the night, waiting for the Yōkai to show themselves. At one point Miwa joined him, though he told her to go to bed, only for her to proclaim that she wasn't tired before promptly falling asleep in his lap where she remained even now.

A servant had brought him a blanket for her and he had made sure to thank the woman as he always did. He never wanted to become like his brother and treat them as less than people simply because they were not ninja.

But after a while he discovered that he had fallen asleep, sitting-up no less, as he awoke to the sound of Miwa muttering in her sleep and made to sooth her nightmare, only to find that someone had beat him to it.

He tired not to show that he was awake as the Yōkai gently petted his daughter's hair, causing her face to soften and her dreams to grow lighter once more which allowed Yoshi to look up slightly and take in the creatures before him.

Once again there were four, though only the one had approached them to still the little girl's thoughts and after a second it looked up at him revealing the most piercing set of blue eyes that he had ever seen.

"Hello." Yoshi offered quietly causing the others to quickly turn their heads toward the small sound and for a second he feared they would bolt. But after a moment it seemed they had grown comfortable with his presence; allowing him to take them in as the soft light of the moon rose above a cloud to truly illuminate them for the first time.

The man realized very quickly that his father had been correct, for they did in fact look very little like the Yōkai of legend and were clearly more closely related to the turtle. Though their hands, feet and chest had been wrapped in an assortment of brown bandages, Yoshi could still see a shell-like structure on their backs which provided them with some modesty as well as armor.

The scales of their skin looked to be much like a snake's, that when rubbed in one direction was soft to the touch, but in the other proved to be sharp and protruding and it was these he found most appealing, as he had assumed at first that they actually had hair, but now he realized he'd been mistaken, for it was in fact a layer of darker colored scales running from their foreheads, down the length of their backs to decorate their arms and shells with a series of beautiful designs.

As Yoshi watched them move about he realized that they only had two toes on each foot and three fingers on each hand, but they were very well adapted to them as they obviously had little trouble picking things up and walking from the balls of their feet in an almost tip-toe likemanner, as if naturally attune to their own silence,

Highly alert; they moved with swift, jerky speeds to accommodate for their surroundings, which clearly they were not accustomed to, for they studied the area much like nervous animals; obviously able to see much more than he could thanks to their larger irises which were able to filter more light than that of a human's.

It was these feature that Yoshi probably found the most endearing, for though they were clearly the eyes of an animal they still possessed a softness to them; and came in a wide variety of captivating colors; from red, to orange and even purple, proving that they were indeed creatures of magic.

"Hello." The blue-eyed one finally repeated after a few minutes of silence while he backed up again to stand with his siblings. The sound of his voice was clearly not human as it came out as more of a chirp, indicating that they did not use the words of man too often.

"I thank you for comforting my daughter." Yoshi decided to start with as he bowed politely to them, remembering his father's words to treat them with respect.

The Yōkai he was speaking with simply cocked his head curiously at this; much like a bird, before moving forward a step in order to bow as well, as if in acceptance.

"Can you –" He started again nervously, praying that he wasn't bringing it up to fast. "Can you help my wife?" He finally asked causing them all to look at each other as a series of strange clicks and churs passed between them in a strange animal-like language, until finally Yoshi took notice for the purple-eyed one inching closer.

Turning slightly to watch the creature; the man noticed how he walked partly on all fours despite being able to stand upright, and realized that though they were very human in form they remained mostly animal in nature.

"Yes." The Yōkai answered simply causing his heart to speed up in joy.

"What – what do you need?" He asked next, still trying desperately to be polite though his instincts continued to demand that he hurry up.

"Her." The creature said straightforwardly, clearly they knew very little about human languages which Yoshi realized held a refreshing truth and directness about them.

"Very well." He agreed before moving every so slowly to his feet, still holding Miwa safely in his arms which caused them to pull back a little as if afraid to touch him, but he made sure to keep his movements calm and kind so they wouldn't be afraid.

"I will take you to her." He added when he could finally walk again before carefully leading them to Tang Shen.

…

Yoshi began to realize as he waked that the Yōkai had likely chosen that time in the night to finally approach him because everyone else was asleep, for they didn't encounter one other person the whole way.

He decided to take a moment to tuck Miwa into bed as they passed her room, leaving the kame in the hall to curiously touch things on the walls, as if fulfilling a desire to know what they felt like, however when he returned it was to find them all gone.

After turning in multiple directions to locate them again the man genuinely jumped for the first time in years when they seemed to magically reappear as if from nowhere.

Clearly the tales that depicted Yōkai training the first members of their clan in Ninjutsu were not unfounded.

He bowed politely to them as if he felt the need to apologize for his absence but they seemed to not understand what he was referring to and so he quickly continued to lead them down the hall again until reaching Shen's bedroom.

When he finally opened the door to find his wife sleeping he moved to the side and looked back to watch the kame as they carefully inched toward the doorway and for a second he wondered it they had to be invited in.

But after a moment they finally crossed the threshold, once again on all fours as they nervously entered the human dwelling and proceeded to look around the room; reminding him of a group of chipmunks in their curiosity and fast movements.

After a moment they quietly made their way over to the bed where the purple-eyed one once again split from the group to carefully approach the sick woman as Yoshi stood respectfully out of the way and watched while the creature gently laid his hand on her arm; as if testing something before moving his beak in a little closer to sniff the air.

Giving his discovery some thought the Yōkai proceeded to reach into a small bag he had attached to his belt and extracted a strange round shell, which the man could clearly hear was filled with liquid as it sloshed around inside as the turtle moved a little closer to his wife and gently helped her to drink it.

When the shell was empty the kame carefully set it aside and reached out to lay a hand on her stomach before closing his eyes and began to make a strange humming noise, leaving Yoshi to watch in astonishment as Tang Shen's body began to glow slightly.

Beginning with all of her form the light gradually moved toward the Yōkai's hand where it grew darker and darker until finally it was nearly as black as a stone of coal, which caused him to lift his hand away as he continued to produce the hum; causing the black ball he had created within her to rise with it, showing Yoshi the form his wife's sickness had taken.

When the energy had finally been expelled completely from her body the Yōkai quickly retrieved the shell again and forced the sickness inside to be imprisoned, which seemed to almost immediately cause Shen to awake with a deep breath and Yoshi quickly darted to her side to take up her hand.

"Shen?" He asked her worriedly as she continued to breathe before looking at him.

"Yoshi?" She asked clearly confused before she reached up to touch her stomach where she had experienced an almost constant pain over the years then suddenly gripped his hand tighter, and for a moment he feared it had returned.

"Yoshi." She repeated in shock. "It's gone." She added looking back at him with an astonished expression, clearly not understanding what was happening which only left him to smile as he realized the healing had worked and was about to tell her what had transpired when the door suddenly burst open.

"Away with you, monsters!" His brother demanded as he charged the Yōkai, causing them to flee toward the window as Yoshi got up to stop him.

"Saki no." He ordered as his sibling sliced through the air with a sword before turning to zero in on the turtle who had just preformed Tang Shen's healing. Clearly the energy he had exerted in the process had left him weak and defenseless making it nearly impossible for him to escape on his own.

The angry man had obviously noticed this himself as he made to attack the creature, however before he could one of the others jumped in his path and his red eyes glowed with a rage as he jumped at the man fiercely, buying time for his blue-eyed brother to rescue the other one.

Saki screamed as the kame tore into the flesh of his raised arm with his teeth before the man could throw him off. But before he could move to attack them again Yoshi stepped in to stop him mid-swing, finally allowing the Yōkai to escape through the window and disappear into the darkness outside.

Incase you missed it; yes the Turtle's eye color corresponds to who they are. Blue for Leo, Red for Raph … you get the picture.

Chapter 2: Hogosha {Coming Next Monday}