The first thing he did was kiss her on the forehead.
"April..." His murmur was subtle, quiet; a whisper. But above it all, his fatherly love roared louder than any lion in the sahara. It seemed to have physical tendrils of its own, red with affection and wrapping against her body as they fell into a warm embrace that felt like home.
"Dad..." Just saying it made her eyes water- with depression or euphoria, she did not know, but not a single tear fell as she tightened her hug. With the only person that had stayed beside her for all her sixteen years of life, with heavenly light pulsing around them at every side, she revelled in being alive.
It was dark.
And it took April what felt like worthless, sorrowful centuries that were actually seconds to discover that it was really all just a dream.
Grief materialised into wonder, wonder at what he was doing right now at this second- sleeping, probably. Was he dreaming about her? Having nightmares? Damnit, she should've told him she had gone to Ancient Japan on another crazy mission. She should've told him everything.
Or, instead of her dad sleeping, he might've torn up the whole city trying to search for her.
And then wonder turned into grief again.
Trying to shake the painful thoughts off like pieces of cobweb, her sky-blue eyes adjusted to the land around her. Branches strived out and bowed down to royalty as a new, ignited orange ball of sun was born again, peeking over the horizon with eager curiosity. A soft purple tinge poisoned the brim of the sky, resting above tall green strands of grass, rippled by the occasional breeze. April pictured the sewers to this. Although Ancient Japan won over in looks, in beauty, she knew she didn't belong here. And then came the grief once again.
As her legs extended upwards and she wobbled to keep herself straight, the girl's heavy breathing instinctively toned down. There was Donnie. And Leo, and Renet, and Hanzo. All sleeping on mats scattered around the tree-cornered camp they'd randomly threw together. The fire had vanished into a few burnt logs and sticks now- a lot less intimidating. Although the awakening atmosphere was peaceful and silent, she couldn't help but feel that something was-
"GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Raph's panicked voice was a knife that sliced the tranquil air in half, shaking with so much angst that it sent a chill rupturing up April's spine and shuddered her eardrums, so deafening that if he were in a cave his echo would go on and on and on and on and-
Adrenaline exploded through her throbbing veins as she demanded her legs to run, run as fast as they could even go despite that she was saving a grumpy, ignorant maniac and- watch out for her sleeping friends!- April veered her way and grunted as she skidded to a halt and glanced around the back of a giant tree and-
He was on Raph in less than a step away. Her friend stifled out an unintelligible gurgle that lurched April's wailing heart. The burnt man was strangling him, exploding Raph's back against the solid, twisted, thorn-filled and back-wrenching silhouetted tree.
"Raphael!" A scream she didn't even notice blasted out of April's mouth and at the exact same time Mikey who she didn't even freaking know was there exploded off his feet and tugged at the burnt man's shoulders, tugging and tugging with teeth clenched and eyes shut with stress that-
The tornado smashing everything to bits was alive in April's mind again and as her vision whipped around she couldn't believe it at all.
The burnt man's face was a nightmare, too much of a horrible thing she was not going to stop seeing even when it was all over. The starving jaws of flame had stolen his right ear into a worthless black crisp and had swallowed his skin right off his head into a melted pile of peach-stained goo, a long strip of flesh snaking down his left cheek. You could see his yellow teeth through the gash and it was causing his left eye to bulge forward like his head's been caught mid-explosion. There were other gouges on his chin and neck and his robes are torn and there's practically blood everywhere and April couldn't even distinguish his eyes through the heavy sags of flesh and-
Nobody at first glance would've ever known that this was Tiny.
But it was.
And yet April's hands were pulling, pulling, pulling, nails digging into the grosteque monster's arms so much that she could feel them pop under his fragile skin. She was hurting him. Hurting the man she had defended. Because she was fighting for her friend.
Raphael.
"RAPHA-EH!" The monster's animalistic screech sounded gruesome, as if his vocal chords were eaten up by the thrashing beast of fire as well, little bits of blood and spit and flesh spraying everywhere. He was hollering Raph's name. He had learned his name because April had said it first. Except that the monster's Japanese accent was in the way and caused him to say 'Rapha-eh', not 'Raphael.'
Strength propelled through every last bit of her body, so arduously, so damn excruciatingly, that she didn't know that it could send currents of shivers ramming all over her spine and make her hands quiver with no control. Right beside her, Raph was choking for breath but not getting any at all, and she couldn't believe how much her muscles were aching and the world's spinning and Mikey's even starting to scream with impossible effort and guess what? The monster didn't even move an inch.
Why was he alive? He was supposed to be dead. Mikey killed him. He already looked dead. So why wasn't he? Why wasn't he just drop-freaking-dead?
With all four torn voices screaming their lungs out and all her veins and cavities and arteries just about to burst, a silver katana with a godlike sheen glinted as it thundered down to the head of the soon-dead man.
Yes. That was Leo. Leo was going to finish this once and for all.
All was whirling, spinning, ricocheting, breaking and panicked sound before a liquid, red as rubies, was freed from the monster's bony shoulder- blasting at all sides into the wrathful air and the shrieks of his pain lacerated all of April's skull as she shut her eyes but the guilt and trauma was still there and when she gave up and opened them again it hit her that Leo was still five feet away from Tiny, still as a stone in his tracks, not even moving a muscle as he just stared in horror at the burnt man with them.
Leo hadn't killed him. It wasn't Leo.
So April whipped around, gasped.
"Gee, I think he hates you bad, Raph." Right behind the slender, elegant curve of the wooden bow, a dead-black figure, a shadow fleeing from the dawning golden sun, smiled with his dark eyes since his mouth was sheltered. "Came all this way for you half-dead."
The earthquake of rampant thoughts didn't die as Raph prodigiously teleported right there, from behind the burnt body to less than an inch away from Hanzo's face, aiming his sai right at his nose, smouldering. "Oh, ha-ha." April's hands flew up to ravel her mouth- the dark, purple beasts sketching bruises were rendered all across the angry boy's neck, so distinguishable- even deadly vibrant. "I almost died. A second time."
Donatello- just a friend- simultaneously took notice to the injuries on his sibling's neck as he halted on the brim of April's vision. His voice was on the fence between anxious and jumbled. "Raph, how can you still talk right after being strangled to death?-"
"I'm fine." The walking fireball glared at Hanzo so hard that his eyes were surely to blast out any moment. Sheesh, why did he have to hate Hanzo so badly? The new friend was saving his life as an unpaid job now, or in other words the pay would be hate. "Why didn't you save us earlier?"
A squeaky voice protested near April's right. "Us? It was you who needed saving though-"
"Shut up, Mikey." The fireball's pinned green gaze didn't stutter. "Stranger, give me a damn good reason for staying before I kick your butt out."
Raphael was losing his mind. The trauma of Tiny and his past near-death experiences must've distorted his morals. If only he had any. "Raph, that's enough." The leaves exhaled a tangy scent as April's boots started forward-
Before she knew it Hanzo brushed her right off. "Don't worry April-" how the hell could she believe that when sai were about to rip his eyes out?- "I have this figured out."
Still, the oil spill in April's mind invaded every corner, and if one more thing was going to mess up, it would burst into a ravenous storm of fire. "Raph," April urged, peeling her frozen feet off the grass and stepping forward. The red ninja was still as a statue; not taking his narrow eyes nor sai stance at innocent Hanzo. Still not listening as like his whole life. "Raph, Hanzo's our friend." She paused hesitatingly. "And you said it yourself- you'd be dead if it weren't for him!"
The team assembled all around her agreed- slowly nodding at the corners of her vision in an assured, synchronised pattern. Even the land seemed to agree- trees swayed harder. Leaves hurried in a spiral. The revelling sun freely caressed April's red hair down to her legs while the slight breeze stirred into a gliding wind. And she didn't know why, but the girl took another step forward- two metres apart from the threatener who was supposed to be her brother and the victim who she had only just started knowing. Voice breaking, she warned, "you're better than this, Raph."
April expected the darker redhead's response to claw her heart without lenience, and instead it was steeled with assertiveness. "For heaven's sake," he uttered under his hoarse breath, "stay out of this, April."
Prior to April's sharp answer, there was a call from the black-haired boy- Leo, to the left. His tone mirrored the remainder of the group's sentiments: deterrent yet perturbed as heck. "Put down the sai, Raph. This isn't the answer."
Portraying the rise of the sun, dapples of courage showered upon Donnie and Mikey. Their features begun to twist into a wrath broiled with resistance and authority- even with Mikey's witless goofiness.
"Not cool, big bro," the blondie apprised, blue orbs distended. That was the only thing that April could agree with the boy ever since he created a monster out of poor, weak Tiny.
Donatello's scowling face was so rare, so sudden that it almost scared her. "Hanzo is innocent. Killing him would be murder." A pause emerged when the brunette's words only inched the glimmering sai closer to the centre of Hanzo's face. "Think about this, Raph."
Silence.
And April's heart seemed to stop.
If one more soul had been lost on this journey- if one more of her so-called friends would do the thing that she'd have never thought of them doing, she swore that she would never see them again.
Leo's voice seemed so sure, yet so quiet, that the ginger girl irritably clenched her teeth. The leader should've tried harder to stop Raph. They should've all had. They were his brothers. April risked a glance sideways at Donatello. And, by the way, it wasn't her duty. Because she just couldn't be a part of their family. A sister.
"Don't make me stop you, Raph." The blue-masked ninja's white boots, virtually melting golden in the sunlight, skidded across loose leaves until he hesitantly just stopped; as if his internal batteries had just been busted out of nowhere.
"It's alright, friends." Hanzo tipped his head to the left. It was a shocker that his statement sounded far more calm than the rest of the agitated team's. "Raphael- I'll tell you everything about me, and everything I know."
Worms of what was supposed to be hope, disguised as apprehension, was founded in April's stomach as Raph's expression stayed frozen. Hostile. Malicious. "Go on," the spiky-haired boy growled tormentingly.
It was almost unbelievable that Hanzo's voice was so light, so casual, so friendly, with a threat of bloody death right at the skin of his fragile nose. "My name is Hamato Hanzo. I am a part of the Hamato Clan. Our Emperor is called Emperor Hinata."
"F-Y-I, isn't his name supposed to be Emperor Hamato?" Mikey's question was abrupt.
Hanzo didn't waste his time, his swift response laminating harmonic birdsong and the whispering of plants at every corner. "He changed his name. Emperor Hinata was his preferred name- it means towards the sun-"
"Shut up and talk about yourself," Raph snapped. His retort obliterated the air particles into shattered, frightened pieces. And with a pang, the thought careened itself into the back of her skull again- what if Raph really killed their saviour, Hanzo? Could he?
Would he?
He wouldn't, right? April had known Raph for a year. He definitely wasn't the type of person who would kill anything. Let alone... anyone. Right? Right?
...Right?
Yet the yellow-shirted girl almost labelled herself a fool while Hanzo's shadow-like eyes remained more than tranquil, as if a random death threat had been practiced on him for incessant times. And he was like an arrow- direct. Straight to the point. "I am a lone ninja- or was. I go on solo missions all around Japan, spying on other clans and collecting information about their strategies and weaknesses."
Raphael's fingers burned harder on the metal of his sai under honed sunlight.
Symphonized to the ancient ninja's information leading, Donatello- a friend- leaned in closer to Leonardo. "Dude, you think he's collecting information about us?"
For a few, wildly desperate seconds, no answer occurred. When it fleshed out into the dense air, the shorter boy's reply was traced with uncertainty. "Maybe. But we need his help now... to save Master Splinter."
Hanzo's nonchalant spilling of beans succeed the leader's voice, appearing to not hear him at all. "I also-"
"Why do you have white hair?" At Mikey's question, the rest of the group of teenagers, including April, latently seemed to perk up their ears as if that question had been bottled up in their turning heads for ages. Yeah, why did Hanzo have white hair? From the half of his face, he looked around their age or older- seventeen, eighteen. And surely there wasn't any hair dye so early back in Japan?
"Funny you should ask." Hanzo's reply was immediate as expected. "It was just nature's doing."
A mist of astonished silence solidified into their breezy surroundings. No way. No freaking way was he being serious.
Mikey's cocky chicken-like laugh was coloured by Donatello's rapid train of muse- his thing. Giving out information from the colossal library of facts and knowledges was his thing. You know, just like everyone has a thing. And that was Donnie's. "Uh, are you sure you're not an... Albino, asian? Like you inherited a condition that makes you have very light skin, hair, and eyes? Maybe you have less melanin in your body-"
What was enough to switch his blabber off was a detached wave through the air of Hanzo's dark gloved hand- if he hadn't shut him up, Raph would've stormed over and slapped the prodigy. "No, I'm sure it's not like that, Donatello. I'm not Albino, I'm just special."
Donnie and everyone else, excluding Mikey, didn't seem trusting. "Right..."
"Speak!" The knife that materialised Raph's snarl slashed the air again, so piercing that the particles must've been non-existent by now-
-although Hanzo didn't mind the tiniest bit. "I once had a horse, which was the reason I could get around and spy on clans so easily and quickly." A horse? "But... unfortunately, she was killed by other warriors."
A stab of deep pity jutted April in the middle of her heart. A horse? She knew right now that she had to be serious and all, everyone was, but an innocent, pretty animal killed by people themselves?
Hence, the girl stepped forward another time. "What was your horse like, Hanzo?" She made sure to deliver the asking soothingly.
"Black." Despite his reply again being dull and direct, a faint hint of sorrow slowly crawled out of its vocal hiding. Poor guy. "With a white stripe going down her nose." The grief instantly vanished into nothing. "Ninjas mostly have black horses. It is convenient for them to hide in the shadows. Some horses also have black clothing as well." Hanzo altered the subject the moment Raphael furrowed his sharp brows to make his eyes nothing more than slits. "The warriors who killed her might be quite familiar to your group.
They're the burned man's. And watch your back from now on, because they have a thirst for revenge."234Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkoucdlFR0Z
