When Shadows Rise | I

Ch. 14 | Origins Pt. 1

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Watching Talia and April's faces was commendable. You could think of any plot twist, any shocking revelation you had uncovered in your life, and yet no reaction was comparable to the ones Talia and April expressed right now.

I had been speaking to ninjas all this time? Talia's eyebrows and forehead were pulled up as much as was humanely possible.

A thick layer of silence smothers the atmosphere. The girls still had their mouths wide open. The Sato siblings had no idea what to say, so they only stood there awkwardly. No doubt this would be the part in every movie where the crickets would be chirping.

After much awkwardness and staring at each other, Mikey said, "Nice to see you again, girls," he sheepishly chuckled.

The clad who was in possession of the twin katanas sheathed them behind his back and stepped forward. He cleared his throat and said, "Me and my siblings apologize if we hurt you and April during the fight. Luckily, we managed to get here before the assassin could finish you off. Donnie was able to find out where you were."

Talia sized up this young man. There was refinement and elegance in his posture and features. He bore some resemblance to the kunoichi (who she assumed was related to him) and Raphael, but when she looked into his eyes, they were as limpid as a lake underneath the moonlight. His eyes had just as much seriousness as they had friendliness.

She somehow got the feeling he was the leader of his siblings.

"I am Leonardo," the leader introduced himself. "And these are my brothers and sister-"

"We've already met." Talia cut his sentence off. "Sorry for interrupting, but I met Raph and Mikey on the first day of school; for Donnie, it was prior. I believe the only one I have not had the pleasure of meeting is your sister."

"It's Miwa," Miwa said, tightening the elastic band around her ponytail.

"Nice to meet you."

"Adding to what Leo said, I was only able to locate you guys thanks to hacking April's GPS rigged into her phone," Donnie described accurately. Talia noticed he did not have his glasses on. "It was heading here, which was when I pulled all of the records of every listed apartment to see if I could get a hit with a name. And low and behold, this apartment is listed under Seth Elbaz, which was when I deduced that April was on her way to see Talia. Or both were on their way here."

"Also what was the deal with that son of a bitch?" Raph frowned, his arms crossed with a sai in each hand. "Up until today, I thought we were the only ninjas living in New York City."

"Yeah, whoever they were, they definitely aren't one of us," Miwa confirmed. Talia saw how her eyelids were deeply coated in dark eyeshadow; her eyeliner was perfectly even on both sides, something Talia thought was impossible.

"They belong to The Foot Clan," Talia spoke up. The siblings turned their attention to her. "You know, they and your clan—The Hamato Clan— have been enemies for centuries. Always threatening each other. Always threatening war."

The quintet furrowed their brows and squinted their eyes. Foot Clan? Enemies? For centuries? As far as they were concerned, their clan was the last of its kind. The only ones who knew the ancient Japanese battle art.