Chapter Seventeen

So Angry

At the Foot Headquarters, Shredder sat at his table with Arashi beside him.

Both were sitting in silence and Arashi wondered whether to say anything to his leader.

Since the Clones had been sent out into the field, Shredder had been silent and Arashi could only guess he was contemplating what he was going to say when he was faced with his granddaughter.

Arashi turned his head to the Shredder, the man was looking focused, and his eyes were narrowed, and his hands were interlinked.

It was the pose the evil man took when he thought hard.

"M...M…Master?" Arashi asked in a careful voice, so as not to make Oruko Saki jump or get angry at him "Are…. are you alright?
The Shredder didn't answer but continued to stare ahead.

"It unsettles me when you are this quiet, Master…" Arashi continued "Are you still thinking about Kemeko? Or Karai even?"

Shredder's eyes narrowed more, and he turned to look at Arashi and the Japanese man gulped.

"You are curious to know my thoughts Arashi?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Arashi nodded.

"If I may be so bold sir, I was indeed curious about your plans about bringing the child over to our side, and away from the Turtles."

"I have been pondering the situation Arashi!" Shredder growled "I have often wondered if the Turtles have told her the truth, or rather, their version of events!"

He stood up and he pulled a photograph out of his robes before holding it up.

It was a rather crumpled photograph, and it was in black and white.

It showed Oruko Saki and what appeared to be a rather young Karai, no older than fourteen, both were wearing Japanese robes and were looking at the camera, neither were smiling but they looked rather content.

"Is that?" Arashi asked.

"Yes." Shredder replied "Myself and a young Karai, despite the fact I pushed her hard to be my equal, I did care about her, and treated her like my own…"

Arashi bit his lip, this was indeed rare, he had never seen the Shredder display feelings to anyone, he had always believed he was a man without feeling.

Well, everyone knew that the Shredder was not a man, but rather an evil and dangerous alien in an exo-suit.

Arashi knew him to punish those who failed or double crossed him, and he would kill his own soldiers at a flick of a switch if they were useless to him, but he never imagined he would show emotion looking at an old photo of himself and Karai.

"Do you ever…you know…think about Karai?" Arashi asked "Do you have any regrets?"

He held his breath as he waited for an answer, and he yelped as he saw the Shredder turn to him and his eyes blazed.

"Do I regret what…Arashi?" the Shredder snarled and stepped towards his second in command.

"Wait!" Arashi said quickly as he stepped to the side "I only asked a question, only to ask if you regret doing what you did?"

Shredder glared yet he stopped and looked at his second in command, his hand holding his blades was positioned in a stabbing motion and Arashi thought the worst, but he was ready to move.

But the Shredder sighed and lowered his blades.

"No…" he said softly "I have no regrets!"

He dropped the photo and walked over to the glass cabinet where his armour was.

"Karai betrayed me, she and Chaplin betrayed me in the worst way, they turned their back on the Foot, they were supposed to pick up the pieces after I left, they were supposed to destroy the turtles, and take over New York, but they failed!"

He turned to Arashi.

"And no-one…. but no-one…betrays the Shredder!" he concluded in a low voice.

Arashi nodded his head.

"I understand Master." He said, he bowed to Oruko Saki then quickly picked up the photograph as the Shredder turned his back to him.

A couple of days went by, and those two days were so thick and tense, one could cut it with a knife.

Everyone had tried to carry on as normal, but it was difficult as Kemeko was still so upset and heartbroken and started spending all her time in the dojo practising her swordplay, throwing her bladed boomerang and her ninja stars.

When she wasn't practicing, she would spend time in her room, and only came out if she was hungry or needed the bathroom.

She wasn't even paying attention during school hours and Pandora often saw her doing drawings when she was supposed to be taking notes.

One morning during school lessons, Pandora was sitting at her desk watching Donatello writing notes on the blackboard.

As the hybrid scribbled her notes, she looked over at Kemeko who had her head down and was scribbling and doodling on her notebook.

As Pandora looked closer, she could see that instead of notes, the Asian girl was drawing some disturbing images as well as written words.

As the hybrid observed more, she could see it was a couple of human figures fighting, and they seemed to be stabbing and slashing, and the words around it were 'Evil' 'Dishonour' 'Hate'

Seeing it worried Pandora, as Kemeko was very calm and loving, and this was way out of character.

"Kem?" she hissed but her cousin didn't answer her.

'Kem!" Pandora hissed louder "What are you doing? You're supposed to be taking notes!"

Kemeko looked up and glared at Pandora.

Pandora winced seeing Kemeko's look but before she could speak, Donatello walked over.

"Girls?" he scolded "You're supposed to be listening!"

Pandora and Kemeko looked up at the annoying looking turtle then Donatello looked at Kemeko's notepad and snatched it up before she could hide it.

But the Asian girl just glared as Donatello looked at it, then he frowned and held it up before her.

"What's this?" he asked, "This isn't like you Kemeko!"

Kemeko again didn't speak as she looked at Donatello.

Donatello sighed as his look softened.

"Look, Lotus." He said, "We understand your angry, and hurt, but you got to remember there's a lot going on around you, and you need to focus on other things."

"Other things?" Kemeko asked in a low voice "Other things? Like how can I? When I've just learnt the truth about who I really am? And that the Shredder is my grandfather, and he killed my real parents?"

Pandora reached out a hand to Kemeko and Donatello put the notebook down.

"Kemeko." He said "I know this is hard…"

"Hard?" Kemeko asked "HARD? This is painful! I can't stand it!"

She then stood up so abruptly that her chair fell over, and she shoved her desk in frustration making the pencils and pens roll off and clatter to the floor.

"You have no idea how I feel!" she screamed at Donatello "None of you will understand! None of you!"

She then turned around waving Pandora's attempt at comforting her away and she stormed out of the room.

As Kemeko had raised her voice she had alerted the attention of the rest of the Hamato Clan.

Michelangelo had been reading his comics in the living area whilst Raphael was doing weightlifting in the main lair, Monalisa was with Leonardo in the kitchen preparing lunch and Splinter had been resting in his quarters.

At Kemeko's outburst, all the mutants looked up or stopped what they were doing to investigate.

Leonardo was the first to look and as he exited the kitchen, he saw Kemeko flouncing out of the classroom, tears streaming from her eyes, and she ran into the dojo.

Leonardo wanted to follow her, but Monalisa stopped him, and she ran up to the classroom to see Pandora and Donatello looking rather shocked.

"What happened?" she asked.

Donatello sighed then looked at Pandora.

"Class dismissed!" he said.

Normally Pandora would have been pleased with leaving class early but seeing how tense as well as shocking at the drama that had occurred, she reluctantly got up.

Donatello then looked at Monalisa and handed her Kemeko's notebook.

Monalisa took one look at it and sighed.

"This is worse than I thought." She said then looked over to see Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Splinter standing in the doorway.

She walked over and handed the notebook to Leonardo and the blue masked turtle shook his head.

"This really is bad." He said "But…I don't know what to do, she won't even talk to me!"

"You're not the only one Leo!" Michelangelo said, "She's not talking to any of us!"

"Not even me!" Pandora piped up.

Splinter leaned on his walking stick and looked towards the dojo where he heard grunts and shouts as Kemeko trained alone.

"She can't be like this forever, right?" Pandora asked in a worried voice as she looked at her parents.

"We hope not Geisha." Raphael replied, "But as always, we just need to be there for her when she needs us, she's angry and she needs to get this out of her system, if she ever does." He added the last part under his breath.

"We can only hope." Splinter said.

Leonardo placed his fingers on his temples and took a few breaths to calm himself.

This was simply killing him, the fact his daughter was hurt, but he couldn't make it better. But he wasn't going to give up the hope he could connect with his daughter again, and everything would be how it was before.

So The Shredder waits back at Headquarters as well as confesses he has no regrets killing Karai for her 'betrayal' and Kemeko is in such a dark place, yet I can't blame her, can you?

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