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She stripped and changed in the Albertson’s customer bathroom. Slipping out of her pharmics scrubs and lab coat and into the slacks and polo of her second shift. Carefully she folded and put them at the bottom of her backpack along with a few fabric dryer sheets. The washer at home was on the fritz and three dollars was way too much for two sets of clothes at the laundromat. She would wait till the boys needed sheets done or Donnie fixed the washer, again. Splashing cold water from the sink onto her face she dried it with paper towels and looked at herself in the mirror.
The eldest child of the Hamato family had rings under her eyes. The manager at her other job had given her a stick of concealer a few weeks ago. It was too light for her complexion but it hid the worst of it. She sat on the lid of the toilet to slip on her shoes, combed her fingers through the two longer strands of hair that framed her face. Maybe next month she could buy some eyeliner, she would look good with eyeliner.
A knock on the bathroom door shook her out of her exhausted funk. She checked her watch. A birthday present, the timepiece carefully carved into a five petaled flower.
“Just a second,” She called, picking up the bag and doing one more once over before she pushed the door open and past the line that always formed when she changed. Power walking to the subway station she wished desperately to hop off and go home. Today had been hard and she was only half done, but afterward when she got home, she had big plans.
6 Hours Later
“Happy Mutation Day!”
He smiles as his youngest brings out the cake. This is a bittersweet day for him. His sons are each gifts he can’t possibly deserve and he loves them fiercely. He is glad they were so young when they changed, glad they couldn't remember how much it hurt to have your bones twist and change inside you.
“Tell us the story master splinter!” Michelangelo asks again. They are 15 now, still young so he tells it like he always does. Leaving out the more painful memories.
After two years living in New York City his daughter, Miwa, requested a pet, specifically a dog. After a lot of haggling and explaining that the tiny one room apartment was too small for such an animal they settled on turtles. So they set out. They walked down the steps and out through the thick rich smell of soup broth that filled the restaurant below their living quarters out into the city air. Miwa grew tired and complained and he lifted her onto his young strong shoulders. After only a minute being up there she fell asleep slumping over his head. As soon as the little bell on the pet shop door tinkled she awoke and clambered down him.
With the small amount of money he saved from his work as an assistant in the karate dojo he paid for four baby turtles and a small fish bowl. Miwa demanded to carry it. Even at her small height he decided he could catch it should it slip. She gripped it, her tiny arms encircling the glass and a look of fierce concentration on her face as she totaled out in front of him out the door. It slipped out of her small hands only a block later. Before It could hit the ground he stuck out his foot and caught it like a soccer ball. His hand snatched Miwa as she tumbled after trying to catch it.
“I'm sorry father” She cried looking up at him, eyes watering.
“No no, Miwa. You did well.” He put her back on her feet. “but perhaps I will carry it from here.”
Miwa nodded forlornly gripping his shirt sleeve as they walked.
He decided to take a shortcut through the alley behind their apartment. It was getting close to five o'clock and Mis Liu would be coming soon to watch Miwa when he left. He didn’t want to leave her waiting by the door as she had a habit of coming early so she could chat with him. He didn’t mind. She was a kind woman and their talks were the only socializing he seemed to do outside the dojo. He wished she would stop trying to set him up with her granddaughters however. She seemed to mistake him for some eligible bachelor instead of a poor man who could hardly hope to give his single child a good life. Much less a bright eyed young wife. He glanced down at his daughter still clinging to his sleeve, in an overstuffed thrift store jacket that she would grow out of by the time January arrives.
Mis. Liu’s had asked where the girl's mother was during their first meeting. It had been only a few months in New York a few short months since Tang Shen’s death and it had been all he could do to grit out “My wife died. In Japan. We left.” He had looked to Miwa, a little more than a year old tottering around. Someday she would ask after her mother. He hoped he would be strong enough to tell her when the time came.
They had just turned down the alley one street from the house when Hamato Yoshi heard strange voices. Men dressed in suits talked amongst themselves but there was something wrong about them. The ninja master felt a twinge of fear not for himself but for his daughter. He pushed her behind him and backed up. A loud squeak under his foot and he felt a sharp pain as one of the largest sewer rats he had ever seen buried its teeth in his leg. The strange men turned to face them. Each one had the same face, long and expressionless, some held guns.
“The one who is you had seen us in this place so this is a place that will not be left by you.”
They surged forward with unexpected speed. He dodged a shot at his head. The guns were unlike anything he had known. They fired some kind of purple beames and were nearly silent. However the brick behind him was charred and blackened as testament to their lethality.
“Miwa, run. Go child.” She stumbled back and began to run.
The men advanced on him.
“Krang must retrieve the one who has left this place so the one who has left this place will not speak of this place to the ones who must not know of krang's presence in this place.”
One of the men tried to pass him. Hamato Yoshi struck out and crushed the man's head into his knee, dropping the turtle bowl. The two other men came at him, one holding a strange canister in its hands. He dispatched them both but the kick that sent the last one sprawling also cracked the canister and it fell. The green ooze covering him and the turtles now on the ground. He could feel it instantly. First absorbing through his skin like liquid fire then coursing through his veins. The bite the rat had left on his leg pounding nearly as horribly as his head.
He couldn't see his daughter, where was she? Crawling forward on his stomach and squinting through hazy eyes he searched for her dark bob of hair.
“Mi-wa” he choked out before the pain dragged him beyond consciousness.
“Otousan?”
He awoke to someone stroking his head.
“Oton get up. Wake up please.” his eyes opened. His three year old daughter hugged his head and sobbed into his hair. Miwa was alright then. That was all he wished for. He felt like he was dying. The green muck must be some kind of poison. He couldn't let Miwa touch it.
“I’m alive daughter, shush.” He sat up despite the pounding in his head. “Did you touch any of the green ooze?” She shook her head. Yoshi looked back at the puddle. He had pulled himself surprisingly far from it. And it didn't seem to have killed him. Those poor turtles were probably dead, however, they were just babies.
He began to stand, he felt off, his skin ticked all over and his legs barely supported his weight. He felt bent in every direction. His little girl helped him to his feet but when he looked down at her little hand he noticed something truly horrifying. His hands were changed. The fingers were longer and the nails were thick almost like claws. His eyes drifted down his arms. Thick brown fur covered him. One hand went to cover his mouth in surprise but even there he was changed. His face was longer like a muzzle.
“What has happened child?” He asked.
“You look like a mouse oton.” She giggled, obviously relieved he was alright. No, not alright. A rat couldn't work in a dojo. A rat couldn't raise a daughter. His mind went back to the young woman Mis. Liu had shown him so many pictures of. Would one of them take Miwa and raise her? Would she be sent somewhere crowded with other children who would never grow to know their family. His hand reached out for his daughter almost as if the thoughts and chaos in the front of his mind meant nothing, a decision was reached. He would never give up his daughter. Together they walked forward around the puddle of greenish slime.
“The turtles!” Miwa exclaimed.
He had been so distracted by the turmoil in his mind he had not seen. The four baby turtles had grown almost to the size of a newborn children.
“I will gather them up. You stay back Miwa.”
He ripped off his shirt and with careful fingers picked up each tiny turtle and put them in the makeshift bag.
“Now, we must leave,” he said, spotting a sewer cover. Mis. Liu would wonder where they were. The police most likely already had his and Miwas description they must find somewhere to hide.
He pulled the cover off and together they descended into the sewer of New York City.
“And that is how we came to be the most unlikely of families” He finished.
“Aw ya boieeee.” Mikey pranced around the dinner table “Man I love that story!”
“So sensei, now that we are fifteen I think we're finally ready to go up to the surface. Don't you?” Probed Leo
“Yes, and no. It is true you have become very powerful but you still lack discipline”
“Isn't that just no?” Asked Raph
“Yes, and no.”
“I hate it when he does that.”
“You may go. Tonight when your sister returns she will take you to the surface.”
Hamato Miwa stuffed her apron into her black backpack.
“See you Wednesday Harmony,” The busboy David called from the back of the semi-dark restaurant.
“Ya, see you.” She replied, closing the door behind her and locking it. Normally she would be working tomorrow and the day after at the pharmacy but today was special.
New York city was bigger than most people assumed. She had been lucky to get a job so close to home. She mused making her way up to Bleaker. Seven minutes later the M train would roll in and then she would be free to run.
She got off at Canal St and bound up the stairs. Some insidious pop song that had been playing all day at the restaurant pounded through her head. Winding through the mostly empty streets of Chinatown she ducked down a back alley and pulled up a manhole cover. She took off the backpack and set it down before she lowered herself and grabbed it pulling it after her.
Sliding the cover into place. She pulled out her tiny but powerful flashlight and racked it up to the highest setting. It was one of the few things she had bought for herself over the past four years of work. Since father had first allowed her to go up by herself . She had Donnies help forging the paperwork and records that would make it legal for her to work in NYC.
Leo was watching Space Heroes again, with Raphiel thumbing through magazines on the steps behind him. Mikey was the first to hear her as she vaulted over the turnstiles.
“Miwa!” Mikey plowed over her with rabid affection.
“Whow, hey Peanut, happy mutation day.”
Her youngest brother jumped up and down babbling about something she couldn't gronk.
“Mike I'm beat can we talk about whatever on the couch? I got you something-”
“Ya mutation day presents!” He practically lifted her off her feet as he pulled her over to where Leo was watching space heroes.
“Wadya get me sis?”
“Ok ok hold on.” She dug through the backpack
“Yours is in my room Mikey. Big orange box just for you but you have to open it out here. This-”
She pulled a roughly wrapped cylinder in brown paper and handed it to the oldest of her younger brothers. Leo peeled the tape carefully. A dark blue lacquer sheath covered the small blade. He pulled it out. Damascus steel, razor sharp he hefted it, noticing the weight was off. As he stood up to test it out, twin vials fell from the brown paper on his lap and nearly hit the floor. Miwa, closer to the floor, darted out a hand to catch them.
From across the room Splinter’s voice echoed, “what are those, Miwa?”
She reddened, a bit ashamed at her father's reproach but set her face with determination. “Two doses of a paralytic and an amnesiatic. I made them and didn’t steal anything from the pharmacy. Just a precaution in case they are spotted. You let me go up when I was twelve by myself, it's about time they see what the city has to offer father. Please-”
“A decision has already been reached.”
“They can't stay down here forever father!”
“They will accompany you tonight.”
“-Wait. What?”
“You heard him. Tonight's the night.” Raph grinned from his perch on the back of the sofa. “Now, what you get me?”
Another small brown package appeared in her hand and she handed it to Raphael.
There was a high pitched scream like a chipmunk at a Beatles concert and a streak of orange and green tore through the house. Miwa ducked before it collided with her head but it was no use. Mikey had her in a death hug. A famous Mikey death hug.
“Whow Mikey! What the shell did she get you?” Raph asked. He flipped casually through the motorcycle magazines with carefully hidden art set, sketch paper, pencils and decent watercolor, tucked inside.
“Every issue of Beasts from Beyond the Stars daug, there's like 20 million comics in that box.”
“Well- almost,” Miwa choked out from her crushed lungs.
Mikey's grip loosened a bit so she could breath.
“Issue 16, the premiere of the guy you like. Morpious Lanz? It was too rare, sorry. So I found it online and printed it out at the library. The colors are kinda off and it's just stapled together so- Ango? Peanut you good?”
The youngest turtle’s eyes were shining. “Don't know if I can go guys. I might have to stay and read ISSUE 16 OF BEATS FROM BEYOND THE STARS! BUYAKASHA!”
“Don yours isn't wrapped. I kinda ran out of time. Two brand new college electronics and instrumentation textbooks and this.”
She pulled out a lock and chain flat black with the words “Unpickable EVVA MCS lock” printed on the clear package.
“A magnetic lock?” Donnie asked, turning it over.
“The lady at the store gave me an antininja guarantee." She dropped her voice low, "Hopefully it can Mikey-proof your lab for good.”
Both of them went silent for a moment, in morning for all the locks that had gone before.
The boys messed around with their presents a while longer. Miwa showed Leo how to fill the compartment in his new knife. Raph snuck off to try out his new sketching equipment.
A few minutes before midnight the three in the main room left to suit up.
“I'll go change out of work clothes then.” Miwa said, stretching as she stood up from the couch.
“You guys are lucky I got two days off.”
“Miwa. Follow me,” her father said as she walked past.
She turned, apprehension growing in her thoughts. They walked through the paper walls of the dojo and over to the family shrine. Over burning incense her mother looked out at her from the past. They both bowed to the shrine. Silence stretched out between them.
“You have become very busy these past three years,” Splinter remarked.
“Hie sensei.” It had been weeks since she last trained in the dojo but old habits die hard. Here he was sensei first, father second.
“Every day your brothers grow stronger, Leonardo is almost your equal in skill.”
“Almost Sensei, that's why I gave him the knife.”
Her father eyed her from the crows’s foot corner of his vision. She schooled her expression blank instead of the snakelike grin Mikey called her ‘creepy face.’
“You choose to walk a middle path my child. Attempting to balance on an edge between two worlds." His hand rested gently on her shoulder. I am proud of you, but also worried.”
“What would you have me do Sensei? Stay here and train with you? Leave our family to eat nothing but worms and algae?”
Her father didn’t reply for a moment. “Your tessen,” He demanded holding out his hand.
She sighed, and from out of her tight fitting work clothes she pulled the metal fan.
The “This war fan is a promise, a promise to this clan. To this family.” Splinter said opening it to display the Hamato family crest emblazoned in the center.
“A Kunoichi never breaks this promise. You must strive to become stronger, always or slip into weakness. Do you understand?”
She shook her head. Her father spoke with more fear in his voice than she had heard since her brothers were children.
He let out a small breath and refolded the fan handing it back to her. “You are my oldest child. They will look up to you, when I am gone. You must be strong enough to hold them together. Know the traditions so you may pass them on. The last daughter of the Hamato clan, the last Kunoichi.” He paused as if drawing strength. “You fear your brothers going without. We have made do with much less than we have now. I feel a storm blowing toward us, my daughter. I only wish for this family to be strong enough to withstand it.”
She took back the fan. Her father's warning was vague. If he had more information there would be no badgering him for it. She had been a child when she had first been given this war fan. Standing in front of the family shrine and she had made a promise then unprompted and silent.
Always my family. It wasn't worded like a code or pledge but that was how she had made that promise five years ago. To put sensei's mind at ease she spoke it out loud for the first time.
“Always, my family, father.” A flicker of a smile crossed the old rat’s face in reply.
“Oh and here's the second key to Don’s new lock.” She dug it out of her pocket and handed it over. “In case you need to drag him out at some point.”
He nodded and took the key, placing it in the sleeves of his robe.
“Go, your brothers wait for you,” he said.
“I’ll go get changed then, don’t stay up sensei.” She called over her shoulder as she left the dojo.
The boys bounced next to the turnstiles. In her room she stripped and pulled out the box from under her bed. A gymnastic leotard in dark gray. It was perfect and as soon as she had found it in the donation box she had swiped it. Complete with used running shoes, gray leggings and her black backpack. She felt like a modern version of the kunoichi from her father's stories.
“Come ooooooon Mimi!” Mikey complained from the family room. “Girls always take so long.”
“You have a data set of one.”
“Matches his brain cell.”
“Keep your shells on Dorks,” She called coming out of her room rolling her shoulders. She joined the lineup in front of Splinter.
“Keep them to the shadows. Stay safe.”
“Hie sensei,” They replied, bowed, turned to leave.
“Don't let Michelangelo eat anything off the ground!”
Miwa turned back the boys already getting ahead of her. “Hie sensei.”
“And use the bathroom before you leave. The ones up there are filthy.”
“Oton!” She waved, “Don’t worry.”
He nodded and she turned to catch up with her brothers.
She led the boys through familiar winding tunnels and then further into unfamiliar ones. They ran confidently behind her. She hadn't really been exploring down here since she got her first job at fourteen but it made sense her brothers had kept up their childhood games down in the dark. The lights of the surface would dazzle them. She was so excited.
“Just exactly how far do you want us to run down here Miwa?” Raffy-boy was trailing behind the group so he had to nearly shout his question.
“Try to keep it down Raph we are trained ninja,” Leo shot back. Don and Mikey glanced at each other and spread up to get out of the line of fire. Before the two could really start up on each other Miwa slid to a stop on the wet concrete. She looped a hand around the middle ladder and jumped a few rungs up.
“This is it kid-os anyone want to chicken out on me?”
“Phhh, no way!”
“I highly doubt it.”
“Not a chance.”
They turned to Leo, the only one still silent. “Let's do it.” He said.
Miwa climbed up and pushed the cover off with her shoulders. It slid up and along the street. Pulling herself up, her brothers followed behind her. She jumped, grabbing the bottom rung of a fire cape and pulling it down to her level.
Leo winced at the racket it made coming down.
“Isn’t someone going to hear that?”
“Yes but no one will care. Splinter told you about misdirection and camouflage. I'm going to teach you about NYC’s greatest asset to the ninja. Apathy.”
She was halfway up the side of the building in an instant, climbing like a spider. Behind her Mikey scampered up, excitement dripping off him. Don was next, his curiosity, giving him more physical drive than he usually displayed.
Leo was hesitant about the divergence from sensei's teachings and Raph wasn’t going to move an inch till Leo did. It was always a competition with those two. She bit her tongue with some disgust.
They would probably mess this up with the bickering and send them all home in disgrace. Sensei would chew her out again. Now they were pushing each other on the ladder, wonderful.
“Will you shut up?” She barked down at them.
“You heard her Raph,” Leo said.
And now Raph was angry with her. Thanks Leo.
“Both of you, get up here now.” They were slower getting to the roof than she would like.
Mikey was already doing his King of the World impression on the building’s ledge. Don standing a more sensible distance away, no less wonder struck by the city lights.
“Guys” Mikey turned back to face everyone, stars in his eyes.
Raph and Leo fell silent gazing out over her city. This is what she had waited 15 years for. Her family lived with a curse but it didn’t mean they couldn't love this city the way she did. Then Mikey started to run.
“Wait! Mikey!” Miwa called, running after him as he darted along the ledge. Before she could catch up he reached the end of the building and vaulted, somersaulting over the gap between the buildings.The others watched as he reached the peak. As soon as his foot touched the ground and he landed safely a fuse shorted in their dumb teenage heads and they bolted after him.
Father was going to kill her. Mikey had always been the fastest. There was no way she could catch up to him out in the open like this. Instead she ran next to Leo as the boys put on bursts of speed after long burst. They never slowed down, just kept increasing footfall-tempo till finally laughing like a winded maniac, Mikey collapsed on a rooftop.
They almost tripped over him like a five turtle and human pileup.
“Dude! Mikey wheezed. Dude, Miwa. Why didn’t you tell us above ground was so awesome!.”
“You haven’t- seen anything yet,” She wheezed back.
“Get up ya moron,” Raph grunted, pulling the youngest to his feet.
The city seemed to be cooperating with her. The boys were having the time of their lives. Miwa kept track of distinct, they were nearly to Church St now, and getting farther from home. 3am was inching up on them.
“Come on guys, I’ll bring you back up tomorrow.”
Next Morning
“Earth to Cap'n of the Dork-ball team.” Miwa said around the toothbrush in her mouth. As Leo walked into the bathroom without knocking.
“Ohayo,” He replied, seeming perfectly awake. Miwa knew he was on autopilot for the next few minutes. She could say “My head is made of cheese” and he would just nod and continue the routine.
Mikey was already up clanging around in the kitchen. That boy was going to kill them all with his mystery breakfast one day. Don and Raph were the only ones still asleep. That is if Don had ever gone to sleep. He had padlocked his lab closed the minute they got home and stayed in till everyone else had gone to bed. Either he had fallen asleep at his desk again or he would bring out some wonderful invention and then fall asleep in his cereal bowl.
She eyed her brother as he brushed his teeth. His blue mask was loose so it saged over his eyes a bit. When was the last time she had just spent a day with her family? It was so rare for them to be up at the same time. Sensei might be right. She rinsed out her mouth with water and attempted to squeeze out of the bathroom past his massive shell. He was completely out of it. She grabbed the ends of the ribbon and pulled it tighter around his head.
“Muh?” Leo jolted to full consciousness mouth still full of foam.
“I said morning Dork”
“Oh, Morning.” He responded, moving out of her way. “Are you staying for training today?”
“Mmm, someone's got to kick your shell every once in a while.”
Breakfast in the Hamato family was two parts. Tea and coffee with something light and easy like cereal or toast then after training Mikey would bring out some horrible concoction for them to try. Miwa was used to the not-so-good leftovers because anything he made that actually turned out edible was usually gone by the time she got home.
Whatever he was cooking today smelled good. Not exactly breakfast but edible.
Raph’s room was teenage boy messy but not Mikey-tornado messy. She stepped over a heap of sports equipment. Shoving Raph’s hammock with her foot. He grumbled swinging side to side. She never understood how he could sleep in that thing. She would dream about falling every night.
“Up and at ‘em brolic-bro.”
He threw on foot over to the ground and grumbled his way to a standing position.
“Why are you still here?” He asked, stretching arms overhead and grabbing his red tattered mask from the post beside his hammock.
“I got two days off, just in case Splinter vetoed taking you topside.”
“Ya well, turns out we didn’t even need ya.” He brushed past her out of his room.
That was weird. She left Raphael’s room confused beyond comprehension. She thought last night had gone so well. She would get the full story from him after training.
Warm ups went smoothly, mostly light stretching with only a short jog. Sensei seemed to know that their rooftop run last night had filled the running quota for a 24 hour period. The kata was likewise a fairly simple one. Miwa had mastered it months before. Mikey and Raph had old trouble with the movements so they had to revisit. Don and Miwa pushed Raph’s limbs into place which was the only way he seemed to get it. Still pissed him off though.
After a few repetitions it was time for sparing.
“Today we will do team exercises. Raph and Leo! Center.” The brothers in Blue and Red trotted to the middle of the tatami mats.
“The others will attack. You will defend without weapons. Step out of the circle you both lose if one of you is hit in the chest you both lose understood?”
“Hai sensei,” they chimed, Raph with a bit of a harsher voice than the rest. Miwa could see what their father was trying to do. She had told him about the boy’s argument last night but she hadn't needed to. It was a constant problem and getting worse. She had thought the open air and some time without being cooped up together would help. Sensei seemed to have the opposite opinion. If this didn't work he was likely to tie their legs together and make them defend like that.
The three of them circled the brothers. Don watched her for clues. Mikey was, doing handstands. Raph squinted at her. Was he still pissed about not getting the Kata as fast as Leo? Fine if he wanted to be like that.
She darted forward and Donnie followed behind her. They went high and low. Raph blocked her first kick to his head even as Don swept his Bo under his brother's feet. The Bo made contact cracking against his leg. Raph was tough but it staggered him enough so her next kick to his sternum should have landed. Leo caught her ankle mid air and she barely twisted out of his grip. Vaulting over his shell and to the other side of the dojo. She slid to a stop. Mikey had used her vault to land two swipes on his oldest brother's arms. The two defending turtles were shell to shell, Leo parring more blows and Raph dishing out some heavy damage. Mikey went sprawling after a bad stunt and Don performed a strategic retreat.
Well, Sensei did say they were getting better. Don and Mike were on the other side of the circle and Raph and Leo facing them instead of looking at her. First mistake. She made eye contact with Mikey and pointed up. Then Don and her rushed Raph again.
This time she began with a one two punch he dodged. Leo swept around to help him intercept and block. Don thrust into the melee with his staff helping her push them back. The three attackers broke off and split back into two, throwing blows as they darted around the circle. Raph was slowest but stronger than the other three by miles. If she got to close he would take her out of play and Don and Mike would lose for sure.
She managed to get a leg under Leo and grapple him. Don was using his Bo’s reach to stay out of Raph’s range. He was getting angry.
“Cannon ball!” Mikey yelled falling from the ceiling onto his oldest brother and sister’s personal scuffle. One whack of nunchucks on Leo’s plastron and it was over.
“Yamate,” Splinter called, staff cracking on the floor.
They fell into line. Raph glaring daggers at her and Leo. “We will end it here, Miwa and Lenardo you will stay after.” They nodded. The other three left through the dojo doors.
Don caught her eye as they went past. Her tallest brother was always the easiest for her to read. Often it felt like he could communicate paragraphs with a few expressions. The look he sent her now could be translated as
It doesn't seem to be improving. Should I try to talk to him?
She shook her head. She had her own way to get through to Raphy-boy.
“Leonardo, Miwa you both have shown great skill in the classic forms of Ninjutsu. However, being too rigidly set in the traditional forms will cause stagnation. You will spar for three minutes keeping this in mind.”
“So soon Sensei?” Leo asked rubbing his arms where he had blocked Miwa’s fists and Mikey's nunchucks.
“Do you feel unable Leonardo?” Sensei asked, raising one eyebrow.
“No, um nevermind.” Leo put down his arm and returned to formal stance. Miwa was a bit envious of how easily the boys got away with those types of infractions. Any hint that she was tired or weak had her running laps. She supposed it was part of being the eldest. Or perhaps it was a way for father to keep her as tough as her freakishly strong brothers. They took hits that she knew would break her bones, or dislocate- things. That was why she could never let them hit.
“Weapons?” She asked. Feeling the press of the laccor sheath on her hip.
“No, no weapons. Take your stances.” They stood face to face only feet apart. Miwa drank in air, trying to make up for the minuscule rest. Leo was doing the same but he was grinning as well. A full dorky smile, teeth and all. He thought she was rusty enough to lose. No, he thought he had gotten that good. Oh that was it. Little bro was going down.
They bowed. “Hajime,” Splinter spoke again. Leo advanced immediately with a right kick. She bounced out of the way and landed in a three point. The second kick she ducked under and pushed him off balance. It had been a long painful lesion that punching her brother’s shells constituted a bad idea. They were more resilient than any human could hope to be. Even the turtle’s skin was hard to puncture. She had to throw them off balance and use a combination of grappling and pressure points to win.
Springing up into his face she fainted a chop at his neck. Side stepped to his left and turned her whole body, sweeping his legs out from under him. He toppled onto his side. She had him down and was about to follow up. Before she registered that Leo was standing, the punch landed. Her breath wheezed out of her chest in a painful blast.
The blow fell inches below her sternum and it hurt. Oh it hurt, almost as bad as the time Raph had accidentally thrown her wrong. She crumpled, unable to breathe. Leo hesitated. She couldn't move her chest and could hardly see but she struck out where he had been. If he had changed position at all the match would be set, but the flat of her hand met the side of his neck. Then a hook kick to the back of his legs took him to the ground. Three quick jabs ensured he would stay there. Her eyes cleared. They were both breathing heavily.
That was the hardest any of her brothers had made her work for a win. Even Mikey, Raph and Don could occasionally take her down with luck or numbers but never one on one with sheer skill. She rested her hands on the sides of Leo’s shell. And spoke to Sensei, still standing to the side, not calling the match. Must not have taken three minutes then.
“I’ll put in notice tomorrow. Part time only, one job.” The big dork in blue was looking up at her searching for something. “Leo,” She said, patting the side of his face. “You did good. Real good.”
“Onee-san?”
She limped out of the dojo without being dismissed.
Donnie’s lab was across the lair and she was moving slow, so she had plenty of time to think as she slunk across to the metal doors. Leonardo would get better than her. They were all inhumanly strong, more resilient. She was more flexible but that was it. No matter how hard she trained, the days of easy wins would come to an end. Was that why Raphael had been acting so strangely?
Would they still need her after they could move about the surface themselves unseen? She had been moving into the breadwinner role she realized. Distancing herself from her family and trying to pass it off as doing her duty when she was really just trying to stay relevant.
The doors were locked of course. The metal rang like a bell when she knocked.
“Don, you awake?” God her voice sounded too choked.
The lock clicked open and a purple masked turtle stuck his head out with an inquisitive look. “Mimi?”
“I need a favor Bro.”
They skipped whatever Mike had made for breakfast. Then, hours later, they skipped lunch. She felt bad putting yet another project on her overworked brother’s back but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact he seemed pleased to spend time with her. Now didn’t that just twist the knife deeper.
Over the years Don’s lab had become the gathering place of what the Hamato family called the not yet-pile. It was everything not yet useful. Scrap metal found washed down the sewer. L.E.D.s scavenged from miscellaneous electronics. Most of it was used by Don in one project or another but some were strange. A voice recorder Mikey had tormented them with after he found it, and recorded annoying sounds set to play every few hours, had been banished to the pile. Miwa had also found a few castoffs from New York City’s finest. Among the piles and piles of useless garbage had been a small amount of swat gear. Some sized for a short man could be made to fit a medium height woman.
Not her training Gi or that stupid leotard, this would be real armor. Donnie helped her weld sleek protective plates to cover her chest and the outside of her forearms. They drew up plans that also covered the striking portions of her legs. With the form fitting leotard underneath she could still move smoothly.
It had been made the same way as her brother's weapons. Scrap metal and a lot of mistakes. The final piece lay unfinished on the table. A dull gray mask not yet polished to its black sheen. She shrugged and put it on, clicking it into place over her nose and mouth.
“Looks good sis. The legs and arms will take a bit longer to articulate. You know you could have told me you wanted your own shell years ago,” Donnie said.
She laughed, bending easily in her new vest into a backbend till her hands touched the floor.
“It’s not a shell Dips, its armor” She finished the back bend and turned around in a handstand.
“I think Raph hates me,” she admitted.
“Why?”
“I don’t know." She dropped back over and slumped to sit crossed legged on the floor. "It might be about sensei's old traditions. Oldest boy is supposed to lead. Raphy is the strongest. Leo acts older most of the time but you're all 15. Raph could make a case for being in charge. Hate is a strong word. I think he, resents me?”
“Well, ya,” Don said, leaning back in his swivel chair. “Raphael has been resenting you, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.”
She parked herself on the edge of his mettle table, leg swinging and looked at the floor.
“-and it’s not because of old traditions thousands of years and miles away just because, well.” He studied his three fingers intently, seemingly embarrassed to be this honest about the matter. Her stomach sank. Not Donnie too, her super sensitive brother with emotional skin like tissue paper. She expected candied truth from him of all sources.
“He doesn't like being left behind. You have a life, finished school, got a few jobs. Someday you'll find a better place and forget us.” He shrugged like it was something he had long ago made peace with. “He just can’t accept what he is. What we are.” He turned back to the work table and continued riveting.
Miwa felt like the floor was tilting under her. She had been wrong. Leo’s punch to the gut had been nothing. This slew of words was the worst thing she had ever been witness too. It enraged her. She stood up and hooked one arm around Donnie's neck in a hug, or a strangle hold.
“Dippy that is hands down the dumbest thing I have ever heard you say.” She pulled him off the chair and he fell back landing on his shell. With one foot on his plastron she kept him from getting up with strength she didn’t realize she had after the fight with Leo. Rocking him from one side of his shell to the other like the broken treadle sewing machine sitting not three feet away.
“You think I'm just going to up and leave?”
“Uh sis getting a little motion sickness here.” He warned one hand covering his mouth.
“You idiot,” She yelled. Relenting on him getting back to his feet. “I just thought- Sensei was getting too old to scavenge for us. Remember the old days? Algae and worms?”
Don stuck his tongue out. Not so much in disgust. It was a kind of comfort food for her brothers now, but 10 years of anything leaves an impression.
“Do you really think that? That I could just up and leave you to fend for yourselves?”
“Look at it logically. You're a human, no scales, no shell. You can walk around up there and no one looks twice. Why wouldn't you want to spend as much time as possible on the surface? We- I understand. Eventually you’ll get a family up there, and there just won't be any reason for you to come back.”
He righted the chair with more force than need and dropped into it.
There was that sinking feeling again and she had no idea how to fight this one.
“Nope, not going to happen. I wasn’t trying to find reasons not to come home! You think I didn’t miss you guys. I just wanted to help out.” She paced.” You're a bonafide genius Don. Mikey’s faster than any one. Raph can punch through a brick wall and Leo. Well, he's going to be better than me at Ninjitsu soon. There's just nothing I can do but work and once you patent some amazing new gizmo that makes millions that won't even be necessary. I’m redundant.”
Donatello had picked up his riveter and was inspecting the mechanical switch on the back. “Rule one of engineering, if it's important make two. So, I think we should get a
second sister.”
“Ah,” She cooed and noggied his bald green head. “You soft shell! Am I important to you or something Dipstick?” He pulled away, sending the swivel chair scooting across the room and laughing like a mad scientist. Miwa snorted and did the best Don impression she could manage.
“And now that I have your DNA I shall perfect my ROBO SISTER!” He snort-laughed again and Miwa pulled him up from the chair. “Thanks for helping me with the armor.”
He nodded. “You make sure we live like people. Least I can do is make you a decent shell.”
“If we could just get some more ooze,” she joked.
Don sucked in an involuntary breath. “I’m sorry about voicing fears as facts. The possibilities sometimes stick in the mind and gestate. You can leave whenever you want. We can't, we don’t belong up there.”
“I want this city to be yours too.” She picked up a shoulder guard, remembering Raph’s throw that dislocated her shoulder, years ago. He had been too angry to spar safely. She remembered his panicked look as she lay on the mat, him bolting out. Finding him topside nearly a day later in central park.
“I promised Raph years ago that fifteen was the cut off. If Splinter didn’t let you up by then I would sneak him out. It was the only way to keep him from finding his own way through.” She was going to have to run serious damage control there.
“Yah, Let's go see if there's anything left from lunch.”
Mikey was sitting in an oversized pot on the floor of the kitchen reading one of the comics she had bought him. Hopefully this wasn’t some weird way to make turtle soup.
He joined in to their rummaged through the fridge looking for something that wasn’t mixed with pizza. She gave up and downed a slice of pickle and pepperoni leaving Mikey and Don in the kitchen discussing comic book spaceship physics. Miwa prowled through the lair. Leonardo was meditating in his room, Splinter doing the same in the dojo. They were way too much alike sometimes. She checked her watch. There was still time if she could find him.
Raph wasn’t venting his frustration to his tiny pet turtle, and the family room’s heavy bag remained unpunched. She stuck her head over the turnstiles and listened. Sure enough she heard distant clanking as if a lone runner was pacing the lines. Walking after the sound she peered through the darkness. Searching for her raggedy brother After a few minutes she found Raph standing shell to the wall waiting for her.
One foot resting on the wall he was leaning against, trying hard to look cool and collected. As if she hadn't just followed muffled cursing to find him.
“Wadda you want Dayroom?” He asked around the, was that a cigarette between his teeth? Little bro was taking this cool guy act way too far.
“What are you doing?” Her voice came out a little shrill.
“Whatever I want, Big Sis. Did Splinter send ya after me? I’m not going to bolt up there in broad daylight. Ya know” He pointed upwards to streetside and turned away. “Just going for a run down here. So leave already.”
“Follow me.”
She walked past him through the tunnels. She didn’t turn around but his splashing footsteps echoed after her. She sped up checking her watch again. They would only be a little late. They were speeding through the junction where Walker turned into Canal when he finally spoke up.
“If you're gonna escort me could you go a little faster?” He complained, stepping on her heels. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a pamphlet and thwacked him over the head with it.
“Trying to let you keep up. If you weren't hidden down here moping we wouldn’t be late.”
“Late fer what?” He asked taking the pamphlet with Metrograph Show Times printed in big blue letters.
“What's all this crap?” He asked flipping through it in the dim light. “Hills Can Leave? 48 Town?”
“Turn it over,” She said. They passed Orchard and she was not slowing down. Lucky block 298 had a little garden area nestled between the buildings. Also lucky it had a storm drain. She clambered up the side of the drain feet pressed against one side and her back on the other. She peeked through the slots. No one was out on the patio, good.
“Come on Raph, we're going to the movies.” She called down, lifting the great off. She had loosened it weeks before for this exact reason.
“Kill Zone?” He asked, browsing through the movie titles and finally landing on gold.
“That’s the one. Think you can get up this building?”
“Heh, no problem.”
The theater was dark when they snuck in. The previews playing out as beautiful actresses dressed in period clothes looked forlornly out windows to instrumental music.
“Jhease, why did we even run?” Raph asked. He stopped complaining when the movie started. Big screen, big sound, he was entranced by kung fu action. If this didn’t cheer him up she would eat Mikey's cooking for a month. Half way through she slipped away without him noticing and bought a huge bag of popcorn from the concession stand.
He didn’t even question it when she popped back up, just started chowing down to the beat of kungfu and cars and high speed chases. They left before the house lights came up. Slipped out the way they had come, silent till they reached the safety of the drains.
“The Bonni vs Jing looked like a real fight! And that mad flip? Agg!” He jabbed a few times in excitement.
“Thought you would like it.”
They walked a little ways back. “Think Leo would like the one about that onna bugeisha?” He asked after a bit.
“Probably, anything that says Bushido that many times in the trailer has to be his thing.”
“Ya, I guess." He was quiet as they splashed though the pipe. Above them the overcast sky began dribbling rain. He kicked at the water. "So, been kin’da a heel lately.”
“Don't blame you. I've been skipping out. I'm going to be sticking around more. Someone needs to get on your case about these. She palmed the cigarette pack she had swiped off of him during the movie.
"Fed!" He accused and made a swipe for them. She dodged and scampered further up the drain.
"I had this all planned for when sensei nixed the topside party, but I’m glad he didn’t. Any more popcorn?”
“Nope.” He said and emptied the rest of the bag into his mouth. Miwa winced as he cracked the unpopped kernels with his teeth knowing it bothered her. The boy crack rocks with his teeth.
“Jerk.”
“Fed.”
He had popcorn stuck in his teeth as he smiled back at her. She purposely did not tell him, as revenge. Being the bigger sibling didn’t mean she had to be the bigger person. They made it back around six. I was oddly quiet. No Mikey toppling them over at the entrance, no boys arguing over the TV remote. Instead Master Splinter was sitting quietly watching his soap operas.
“Welcome home my children.” Said as they walked past.
“Hi, Mas’ta Splinter.” He replied
“Did you enjoy your movie?”
“Movie?” Miwa asked. “We just went for a run father.”
“My mistake. It is a little known fact that a long run often makes one smell of popcorn.” The old rat smiled.
Weeks Later
The lights were all on when Miwa came home. That was strange enough but she shrugged it off as the guys adjusting to their new freedom. They were allowed on the surface even without her now. She would get the story of their ninjaing adventures tomorrow, she decided, sneaking towards her room.
“Miwa,” her father's voice called. Her mind dove from mild irritation at the delay to her bed to fear as the tone of Splinter’s voice connected with her tired brain.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” She ran towards the living room counting heads. Four brothers all sitting around looking unharmed and her father sitting also unscathed sitting next to a fifth with red hair and a yellow- that was a girl laying on her sofa, a human girl. Her brows knitted in confusion.
“Ok, ah," Don started. "Cherished sibling whom I love. Do not be alarmed-”
“Alarmed? Are you tripping Dips!” She sputtered. “What is a human doing down here? Is she breathing? Did you kidnap an unconscious woman!”
Mike raised a finger to interject some sarcastic remark. Miwa covered his face with her palm and pushed him away.
The young girl grumbled in her sleep.
“She can’t stay here,” said Miwa. “What if she wakes up and sees you guys?”
Leo leaned over the kitchen counter, staring across the room at the red-headed girl in their home.
“She already saw us Miwa. We saved her life, Don jumped onto a helicopter.” He took a sip of green tea. “We need to know what those robot-brain-things were. And she’s the only lead we have.”
“Robot brains? Wait, a helicopter? You don’t even like action movies.”
“I know,” Don grumbled.
“How long is she going to stay out?” She swiveled back onto Donatello.
“I don’t know Mimi. She took a pretty nasty fall. I was actually just finishing up a batch of stimulants that should wake her up. If sensei thinks that's a good idea.”
“Like smelling-salts?”
“Sorta,”
“Perfect. You guys should hide. Maybe we can convince her it was all just a weird dream.”
Months later
“Today I’ll teach you how a kunoichi fights.” Miwa leaned against the glave, blade up in a lazy posture.
April O’Neel pulled her eyes along the wall of weapons in the dojo.
“Is it any different than the way the boys fight?”
“Oh yes. Unfortunately my brother’s are not known for pulling their punches. So it’s you and me.”
Months later.
“To say goodby.” The snake woman with the mind of his sister laid her head on Leo’s shoulder.
“No! Onee-san-” He grabbed for her, but like water running through his hands she twisted through his grasp and sped to the water’s edge. The only one near enough to the end of the peer was April. She stuck out her hand to stop Miwa running, or swimming, away. Instead something metallic and rectangular struck in the palm of her hand and Miwa’s now serpentine voice ordered
“Keep them sssssafe.”
And then the last Konoichi of the Hamato clan was gone.
Years later
“It’s been so long,” April O’neel said, lying exhausted on the dusty circle they cleared a few hours ago.
“You got better.” Painted out Miwa across from her.
“Fully fledged Kunoichi, Splinter and the guys had this little ceremony and everything.”
“Wish I coul’da been there. Still can’t beat me though.”
“I think I did pretty well.” She sat up and Miwa mirrored the gesture. April smiled at her friend and first sensei. She pulled out the weapon she had been entrusted with years ago.
“Here, I brought it this time.”
The older girl took the tessen and snapped it open with long unused skill. “I- I can’t take it back April.”
“What? Why not?”
“I’m not cured. I shouldn't even be here! If the serum wears off I could hurt you. I’m surprised you're not more scared of me.”
“I'm a Hamato Konoichi, We don’t get scared.”
“Ha! Is that what I said?” She snapped the fan closed, tossed it into the air. “You want this, I think.”
“I can get another tessen. That one was your mother’s.”
“Father told you? Not surprised. I don’t remember her at all. I wonder if she felt obligated to carry this thing around.” She was quiet for a moment as the fan swished up and down through the air.
“I love my family. All I ever wanted was my family. When I let myself think about it- I don’t want this fucking Konichi fan.” She jerked to throw it over the abandoned lot’s tall fence, stopped short. Holding her breath to steady herself. “Now that I can’t be a sister, being a ninja is so, pointless.”
“Then stay this time,” April urged. “Or just talk to them.”
“If I talk to them I’ll stay, and someone will get hurt.” She palmed the tessen one last time and placed it in April’s hands.
“You're a real bitch sometimes,” April closed her hands. “Don is convinced it's his fault for not finding a cure yet.”
“Don’t you guilt trip me O’Neel.”
April sucked in a backhanded remark. It wouldn’t change her mind. Not even Splinter knew about the secret meetups. Miwa only agreed to them because April would never, could never force the older woman into anything. Like physically, she would get creamed.
“I have to go. Text me how they are when you see them. Please?”
“I will,” April promised.
A decade later
Miwa stood at her fathers graveside. Early morning chill covered the park with frozen drops. The city that never sleeps seemed to hold its breath.
Something familiar and rubbery bounced off the back of her head. “You're up early Peanut.” She turned. He tossed another eraser into the air and caught it. A loose leaf notebook losing papers tucked under one arm. “What's all that?”
“Just ideas for books, I want to get dad’s opinion on some things.”
She nodded and sat down on the small stone bench next to the gravesite. He plopped down next to her and thumbed through his notes.
“I got something for you Mimi. Happy mutation day.”
He handed her a bound book, only an inch thick. One of his comics? The inside was illustrated. She recognized her own, much younger, face on the inside cover page.
Thumbing through it she realized it was a comic illustrating the mutation day story Otosan used to tell.
It continued, skipped time and between each segment was pictures and notes glued carefully onto cardstock. A mix of family scrapbook and adventure comic. It was very Mikeish. She skipped past some of the middle to find Raph's stretch of their father holding his youngest granddaughter. She skipped forward again, surprised to find the last few pages blank. The confusion must have registered on her face.
“Last page,” Mikey said.
She flipped to it. In Leo’s perfect brushstroke calligraphy the words popped, in Japanese and again in English. To be continued-