TMNT: By My Hand
Waaaaaay back in January, I posted a gifting meme. Naturally, I'm still working on the fics from it in December. Main fic index is here. Oh, and gift fics don't hit the comms, so this is the only place you'll find this.
Title: By My Hand
Series: none
Word Count: 995
Rating: PG
Disclaimer Post
Summary: If the choice is between a murderer's life and Leonardo's soul, then Usagi's choice is already made.
Warning: mentions of major character death
Notes: This is for liralen. I didn't know it was for her when I started writing it--in fact, I've been a bit worried about what on earth I was going to write for her--but Leo and Usagi insisted it was. So. I've probably messed it up horribly, but I did my best. Also, the names are a little wonky. Usagi uses honorifics when speaking to--nearly everyone, actually, and as best I can recall he doesn't use nicknames, either. He's very formal. I can do formal, but I'm horrible with honorifics, even with as much as I'm in anime fandoms, so yeah. Wonky. And I'll shut up now.
Usagi has been a warrior for most of his life; he knows very well the value of control, knows too the image of control when it stands before him. In nearly every other encounter he has had with the turtle, Leonardo has been that image made flesh. Even in anger, his sword cuts no deeper than he wills. It is a great power he wields, one Usagi knows from experience can only be gained at a great and often terrible price. There is no going back once you set foot on that path, no hope of ever seeing the world through the same eyes you once knew. There is also no rest from the burden of such total control, no releasing it for fear of unleashing all that it keeps in check.
For all these reasons and more, Usagi is stricken to his core with fear for his friend when he sees Leonardo’s control shatter and fall away before his very eyes. He’s moving before he’s even realized it, desperately trying to reach the turtle before…before… Usagi doesn’t fully know the extent of what Leonardo’s capable of, but he is sure that this is not how either of them needs to find out.
“RRAAAAAGGHHHH!!”
“LEONARDO-SAN!”
Usagi reaches the enraged turtle long before his brothers do, only to find that he’s somehow managed to drop his swords somewhere in the midst of his desperate flight. He throws himself in front of Leonardo, between the turtle’s deadly blades and their intended target. His instincts scream at turning his back on someone who must be an enemy, but he trusts the other turtles to watch his back. Usagi himself carries no ranged weaponry, but they are ninja. They have…different ways of fighting. They need not get any closer. Usagi glances at Donatello and wills him to understand. He is gratified when Donatello stops dead, throwing his arms out to block his brothers’ paths.
Good. They will be safe. Usagi turns his entire focus back to Leonardo. Even though the exchange had only taken a split second, he knows his friend’s reflexes very well. A split second is life or death under Leonardo’s blades. But he stops, allowing Usagi to block his way. He waits, as he is so terrifyingly capable of doing, for Usagi to show his hand-to see how Usagi intends to spare his victim’s life.
Usagi intends no such thing; if the choice is between an evil man’s life and his friend’s soul, then it is already made. The problem is not that he cannot let this man die, only that he cannot let Leonardo kill him. Not like this. “If he has wronged your clan so badly, Leonardo-san, I will slay him myself. Only…” Usagi casts frantically about for a reason, one that Leonardo will hear, when his eyes again fall on the other turtles, on the fear and shock in their eyes. This will do. “Only, not in front of your brothers. Please, sheath your swords and tell me what he has done.”
Leonardo doesn’t answer in words, not that Usagi expects him to do so. He raises his hand and touches his shell, just below his throat. All four brothers flinch as if Leonardo’s hand on that spot somehow pains them all.
Suddenly, Usagi understands. He vividly recalls arriving in their world a week ago, only to find their master pierced through that very spot by an enemy who fled like a coward before the rat’s life was fully spent. He takes a chance and turns his back on Leonardo to study the man’s face.
Yes. This is the one. Usagi has the man’s face imprinted on his memory in anticipation of just such an opportunity as this. He turns back to Leonardo. He will only get one chance to convince the new head of the Hamato clan, and it will not be a simple matter.
“You are ninja, but I am samurai,” Usagi begins. Leonardo knows this, knows the differences between the two, but Usagi feels it must be said. “Just this once, Leonardo-san, let me be your clan’s sword.”
Usagi has not called anyone master in what seems like a lifetime, and it feels subtly wrong to do so now, even if it is only for a moment and only in his own mind. But for the memory of an old comrade and for the family he has left behind, Usagi is willing to do it. It is all he has to give, the only way he knows to protect his friend, and he doesn’t know what he’ll do if Leonardo says no.
As it turns out, he doesn’t have to find out. At that very moment, Raphael silently materializes at Leonardo’s right shoulder, with Donatello and Michelangelo close behind. He puts his hand under Leonardo’s right wrist and slowly raises his brother’s right hand-still clutching one of his twin swords-until it points straight at Usagi. Donatello takes hold of his other wrist and Michelangelo puts both hands on his shoulders from behind. For the first time, Leonardo takes his attention from Usagi and the murderer behind him.
“Father wouldn’t want you to do it,” Donatello says softly.
“Neither do we,” Michelangelo whispers, and lets his head fall forward to touch Leonardo’s shell. Raphael says nothing, but his hand around his elder brother’s wrist tightens.
Leonardo meets Raphael’s gaze and holds it. What passes between them in that moment, Usagi cannot tell, but it seems to be enough. Leonardo opens his right hand.
Usagi catches the sword as it falls before it can hit the ground. He nods to show his acceptance of the mission that has been passed to him and turns back to the coward who still sits frozen in fear behind him. “I am samurai,” he whispers as he raises the blade for the killing stroke, “and my master’s will guides my sword.”
Then Miyamoto Usagi lets the sword of the Hamato ninja clan fall.
Title: By My Hand
Series: none
Word Count: 995
Rating: PG
Disclaimer Post
Summary: If the choice is between a murderer's life and Leonardo's soul, then Usagi's choice is already made.
Warning: mentions of major character death
Notes: This is for liralen. I didn't know it was for her when I started writing it--in fact, I've been a bit worried about what on earth I was going to write for her--but Leo and Usagi insisted it was. So. I've probably messed it up horribly, but I did my best. Also, the names are a little wonky. Usagi uses honorifics when speaking to--nearly everyone, actually, and as best I can recall he doesn't use nicknames, either. He's very formal. I can do formal, but I'm horrible with honorifics, even with as much as I'm in anime fandoms, so yeah. Wonky. And I'll shut up now.
Usagi has been a warrior for most of his life; he knows very well the value of control, knows too the image of control when it stands before him. In nearly every other encounter he has had with the turtle, Leonardo has been that image made flesh. Even in anger, his sword cuts no deeper than he wills. It is a great power he wields, one Usagi knows from experience can only be gained at a great and often terrible price. There is no going back once you set foot on that path, no hope of ever seeing the world through the same eyes you once knew. There is also no rest from the burden of such total control, no releasing it for fear of unleashing all that it keeps in check.
For all these reasons and more, Usagi is stricken to his core with fear for his friend when he sees Leonardo’s control shatter and fall away before his very eyes. He’s moving before he’s even realized it, desperately trying to reach the turtle before…before… Usagi doesn’t fully know the extent of what Leonardo’s capable of, but he is sure that this is not how either of them needs to find out.
“RRAAAAAGGHHHH!!”
“LEONARDO-SAN!”
Usagi reaches the enraged turtle long before his brothers do, only to find that he’s somehow managed to drop his swords somewhere in the midst of his desperate flight. He throws himself in front of Leonardo, between the turtle’s deadly blades and their intended target. His instincts scream at turning his back on someone who must be an enemy, but he trusts the other turtles to watch his back. Usagi himself carries no ranged weaponry, but they are ninja. They have…different ways of fighting. They need not get any closer. Usagi glances at Donatello and wills him to understand. He is gratified when Donatello stops dead, throwing his arms out to block his brothers’ paths.
Good. They will be safe. Usagi turns his entire focus back to Leonardo. Even though the exchange had only taken a split second, he knows his friend’s reflexes very well. A split second is life or death under Leonardo’s blades. But he stops, allowing Usagi to block his way. He waits, as he is so terrifyingly capable of doing, for Usagi to show his hand-to see how Usagi intends to spare his victim’s life.
Usagi intends no such thing; if the choice is between an evil man’s life and his friend’s soul, then it is already made. The problem is not that he cannot let this man die, only that he cannot let Leonardo kill him. Not like this. “If he has wronged your clan so badly, Leonardo-san, I will slay him myself. Only…” Usagi casts frantically about for a reason, one that Leonardo will hear, when his eyes again fall on the other turtles, on the fear and shock in their eyes. This will do. “Only, not in front of your brothers. Please, sheath your swords and tell me what he has done.”
Leonardo doesn’t answer in words, not that Usagi expects him to do so. He raises his hand and touches his shell, just below his throat. All four brothers flinch as if Leonardo’s hand on that spot somehow pains them all.
Suddenly, Usagi understands. He vividly recalls arriving in their world a week ago, only to find their master pierced through that very spot by an enemy who fled like a coward before the rat’s life was fully spent. He takes a chance and turns his back on Leonardo to study the man’s face.
Yes. This is the one. Usagi has the man’s face imprinted on his memory in anticipation of just such an opportunity as this. He turns back to Leonardo. He will only get one chance to convince the new head of the Hamato clan, and it will not be a simple matter.
“You are ninja, but I am samurai,” Usagi begins. Leonardo knows this, knows the differences between the two, but Usagi feels it must be said. “Just this once, Leonardo-san, let me be your clan’s sword.”
Usagi has not called anyone master in what seems like a lifetime, and it feels subtly wrong to do so now, even if it is only for a moment and only in his own mind. But for the memory of an old comrade and for the family he has left behind, Usagi is willing to do it. It is all he has to give, the only way he knows to protect his friend, and he doesn’t know what he’ll do if Leonardo says no.
As it turns out, he doesn’t have to find out. At that very moment, Raphael silently materializes at Leonardo’s right shoulder, with Donatello and Michelangelo close behind. He puts his hand under Leonardo’s right wrist and slowly raises his brother’s right hand-still clutching one of his twin swords-until it points straight at Usagi. Donatello takes hold of his other wrist and Michelangelo puts both hands on his shoulders from behind. For the first time, Leonardo takes his attention from Usagi and the murderer behind him.
“Father wouldn’t want you to do it,” Donatello says softly.
“Neither do we,” Michelangelo whispers, and lets his head fall forward to touch Leonardo’s shell. Raphael says nothing, but his hand around his elder brother’s wrist tightens.
Leonardo meets Raphael’s gaze and holds it. What passes between them in that moment, Usagi cannot tell, but it seems to be enough. Leonardo opens his right hand.
Usagi catches the sword as it falls before it can hit the ground. He nods to show his acceptance of the mission that has been passed to him and turns back to the coward who still sits frozen in fear behind him. “I am samurai,” he whispers as he raises the blade for the killing stroke, “and my master’s will guides my sword.”
Then Miyamoto Usagi lets the sword of the Hamato ninja clan fall.