Disclaimers

All characters appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series are copyright by Murakami Wolf Swenson, Inc. All other TMNT related characters are copyright IDW comics. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holders.

All original characters and concepts are the property of Celgress.

Miwa The Fifth Turtle – Origins

By

Celgress

Splinter's Tale

My name was Hamato Yoshi. I was once Ninjutsu master of the legendary Foot Clan. In spite of my former profession I lived a rather peaceful life of exile in rural Japan with my beautiful wife and my infant daughter Miwa. We were happy with our humble home and simple lives. Sadly I'd unknowingly sown the seeds of our destruction.

Years before in the rashness of youth while the protector of Japan's third largest city. I had taken it upon myself to clean up the endemic crime which riddled our prefecture. My one man crusade ended in the death nay the murder of local Yakuza boss Oroku Nagi. Initially unrepentant I left the Foot Clan elders with little choice. They banished me for my crime. Prior to my banishment the Oroku Clan, including Oroku Saki the teenage firebrand great nephew of the late Oroku Nagi, had been especially vocal in demanding "restorative justice" for their fallen patriarch, namely my execution at their own hands. When the council had refused to carry out their barbaric recommendation the relatives of Oroku Nagi vowed revenge placing a price on my head through their extensive network of underworld contacts. Furthermore any Oroku family member or associates were now honor bound to slay me upon sight.

Reluctantly entering my enforced exile I retreated deep into the mountains of rural Japan. I found gainful employment with a distant cousin who owed the local printing business. I toiled there for many years until I could afford a place of my own. I used my savings to purchase a small hilltop retreat.

By which time I had caught the eye of a shy local beauty named Tang Shen. Following a whirlwind courtship we were married. My new wife knew nothing of my past. I convinced her I was from a distant family of peddlers. Together we settled into our cozy home and quiet life. We'd been together two years when Tang She became pregnant with our first and as it would turn out only child, my darling daughter Miwa. The day of Miwa's birth was up until that point the happiest day of my life. Sadly our happiness was fate to soon end.

In my absence The Oroku family and their allies had taken over the Foot Clan integrating it with several branches of the local Yakuza turning the ancient organization into the cornerstone of a burgeoning criminal empire under the leadership of Oroku Saki. One day not long after Miwa's birth I came home from a hard day at work. Immediately I realized something was gravely amiss. The house had been ransacked! Before I could react I was ambushed by the now adult Oroku Saki. He told me I was going to pay for his uncle's murder. He said he had tracked me down so he could extract his personal vengeance though it had taken years. As we fought he told me he had rigged my house to explode in a matter of minutes, that I would be forced to either save myself or let by wife and daughter die. With a burst of inhuman strength and speed born of sheer desperation I briefly subdued the younger, fitter Oroku Saki. I then frantically searched my home. Thanks to her crying I found Miwa first. She was in a small closet off the main living area. However I couldn't find Tang Shen. I continued my frantic search. Eventually I located Tang Shen hidden in another closet in our bedroom upstairs. She was cold having been brutally stabbed through her chest. I didn't have time to mourn her loss Oroku Saki having recovered viciously attacked me from behind. My only impulse being to protect Miwa I lashed out knocking Oroku Saki against a nearby wall a spilt second before a ball of flames engulfed the house. I barely escaped the structure with my life and daughter intact. Sparing one last glance at the collapsing building I saw Oroku Saki hadn't fared so well his burnt form withering in the inferno.

Unsure if Oroku Saki had survived but certain the new Oroku influenced Foot Clan would continue their vendetta against me and my child I fled Japan the next day. Arriving in America penniless Miwa and I were forced to call the sewers of New York City our home. At least we were safe if nothing else.

One day I found four discarded, baby turtles swimming in an overflowing storm drain. Thinking they would make interesting pets for us I brought them home with us. My daughter loved the baby turtles and watched them endlessly. I was happy I had given her some joy in our otherwise bleak lives. I had no way of knowing the life changing ramifications of impulsive discussion at the time.

When Miwa was a year old it happened. I took Miwa and the turtles on a short foraging trip. Surprisingly many of our needs were furnished by the perfectly functional items people disposed of in the sewers. We were underneath another storm drain similar to the one where I dad found the turtles several months earlier when I heard a van speed away above. Simultaneously a series of events unfolded seemingly in slow motion at the time; a glass canister impacted with the steel grate breaking into a thousand pieces, a wave of thick, translucent green ooze drenched Miwa and the four turtles who were playing directly under the opening, in my rush to help them I brushed up against a rather large, angry brown rat who bite my leg, hard enough to draw blood, in retaliation. I stumbled forward in blind pain scooping up my crying daughter and our pets I got the strange substance all over myself as well. Returning to our home, such as it was, I did my best washing the slime off us. A day later I found myself dramatically changed. Miwa and the four baby turtles had been changed in similar fashion. We were now human animal hybrids; I being a rat man and they being young turtle children. Though altered substantially I knew the infants, along with my own daughter, couldn't survive without extensive care. Feeling I had little choice I adopted the four turtle boys as my own.

Over the next fourteen years I diligently preformed both the duties of loving father and meticulous instructor. I named the four turtle boys after my favorite Western philosophers; Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Initially so they could defend themselves I trained my five children in the art of Ninjutsu. However overtime it became painfully obvious that the world above was full of cruelty and injustice. Using their skills my children have become crime fighters. Their first outing happened entirely by accident they came across a mugging while awaiting a pizza delivery, having become fond of the Italian dish when I found several discarded pizzas near a manhole one day. Making quick work of the attackers my children were filled with an intense sense of pride. Soon unable to curtail my children's above ground actives, I instead embraced them.

I know someday soon our existence will be learned by the world above. It is inevitable. I only hope when the day arrives we shall be ready.

To Be Continued