TMNT and all their rowdy friends are owned by Mirage. Any OCs are mine and no one else's.

Consequences

A few days later:

Mikey was overwhelmed. He had tried researching the "traditional" Japanese style funeral/memorial service, but so much of it was undoable- you needed a body, for one thing- and he was beginning to despair. He had wanted to do something meaningful, something in keeping with his own upbringing as well as something that would honor Victor- regular funeral services just didn't seem appropriate for someone who had basically been created in a laboratory by a madman.

But all of this stuff!

He read it again, trying to pick and choose out of the twenty-four requirements those that he could do:

Description on traditional practice concerning funerals

-no-mizu : Water of the last moment

Giving water to the deceased in hopes of his/her revival. Well, that was out- no body. So much of this stuff needed a body...

: Turning the dead person's head to the north- no body.

: Practice for inverting manners of a daily life - once again...

7. Shinishozoku : A dress for a journey to eternity

The deceased is put on so called a grave clothes, a hood and a money pouch containing six pieces of money-

-and again. Mikey was becoming quite despondent.

He kept reading and reading and rereading:

9. Mofuku : Mourning dress

In old days, people used to wear white in funerals. Especially the chief mourner was expected to wear " Shinishozoku " to act as substitute for the deceased. This may be doable and it sounded perfect! After all, he would be the chief mourner- he would talk to Splinter and April about this.

10. Juzu : Rosary

The rosary having 108 beads should be handled gently so as to get rid of 108 evil passions. Well, that one they could skip, though it sort of appealed to Mikey. Too bad they didn't have one for Raph- he had more than 108 evil passions...

Number 11 grabbed really his attention!

11. Ihai : Mortuary tablet

Generally Japanese believes that spirits do not exist in daily living environment, but come to see us when they are called in memorial rites performed in honor of ancestors. The spirits have been thought to appear with the aid of a certain medium such as the mortuary tablet, dagoba, tombstone and the like. The plain wood tablet, will be replaced with the black lacquered tablet when the mourning period expires.

Now, this truly appealed to him! He was sure that he could pull this one off. True, Victor had NOT been a family member, but Mikey didn't think it would matter- after all, Victor had been created- and to a certain extent, Mikey and his family had been "created", though by accident, not by design. This idea truly appealed to him! After all, they thought of Master Yoshi as an "ancestor", and yet they truly weren't related...

Mikey went back to the list.

15. Tsuya : Wake

It is a common custom worldwide to hold a wake for keeping a watch over the deceased.

Mikey put his head in his hands, and quit reading. Poor Victor. He'd not had anyone or anything to mark his passing other than a few tears from Mikey and a very huge explosion to wipe out the evidence as well as destroy the plans of a madman.

22. Otoki : Dishes served in memorial services

Vegetarian dishes served in a Buddhist service. This word has been formed by mixing the word " Otogi " ( to keep awake) and " toki " ( to purify and coordinate) . In some areas in Japan, a meal tray for the deceased is prepared during the services.

Now this sounded like something Mikey could handle! He wasn't thrilled about the vegetarian part, but he felt that it was the most doable of all he'd read. He could guess what Victor may have liked in the way of food.

"My son, am I interrupting?"

Splinter stood in Michelangelo's bedroom doorway, awaiting permission to enter. That was one of the things Mikey never could understand. He would ask permission, yet he was always certain that he would be welcome- not that any of them had ever had the nerve to say "no, get lost!" to test out their theory. Well, perhaps Raph once in a while had said "I'd rather not," only to look up and see Splinter approaching as if the welcome mat had been put out especially for him.

"No, Father," he replied, hastily making a clean space on a chair for Splinter to sit in at the desk with him. Splinter refrained from any observations on the condition of the room and thanked his son for the seat. "I'm having such a hard time with this- it's impossible to do it in the traditional way I had hoped for." And he showed Splinter his lists (three in total- the current one had held the most hope for him) and told him of his frustrations. Splinter eyed them all, nodding, listening, waiting until he had something to offer in the way of comments.

"Well, my son, if I might make a suggestion," he said, "I think whatever you do should come from the heart. All of this ceremony is fine, but in the end, you must choose what you feel would truly honor this man. Create your own way of honoring him."

"What, you mean just make it up? How am I supposed to do that? I don't know anything about-"

Splinter held up a hand.

"I believe you know exactly what you want to do, correct? You wish to honor him with a memorial. Well, there is no set way to conduct a true memorial. All of these," and he gestured to the lists that Michelangelo had been studying, "are nice and originally meant well. To many they hold great meaning. But there is nothing in stone regarding how you honor someone's memory."

Splinter sighed, thinking of all they had been through- all he had been through since he was a small pet rat.

"Look how Karai honors the memory of the Shredder," he found himself saying, staring at the lists. "She has created this 'memorial library'- and yet it is still a front for an evil organization. I would guess it would be the type of memorial that Oroku Saki would be honored by."

Then he took a breath, looked at his son, and brought up a subject that he knew would not be welcome.

"When I myself am gone from this world, I will want something very simple and humble. And whatever it was, I would want all four of you to be equally involved- none of this 'chief mourner' business."

"Sensei! Do we have to talk about that right now?" Michelangelo squirmed uncomfortably, wishing he could escape anywhere rather than even briefly discuss Splinter's death!

Splinter smiled at his son's discomfort; he changed the subject.

"Have you or Donatello had any more trouble from our old adversaries?"

Mikey blinked, a bit surprised.

"No, Sensei! We would have told you. Why?"

Splinter sighed.

"Because it is becoming harder to keep your brothers under control," he admitted. "And Karai has been all over the news lately publicizing this 'memorial library'. I need to know if they are planning any retribution. That they were willing to fight with you and your brother proves to me what I have told Leonardo time and again: Karai is not to be trusted. I do not wish their first successful escape to involve running into the Foot."

"No, Sensei. Don and I have scouted around- Casey, too- but it's too cold right now. Hardly anything is happening. Casey was complaining about it at April's the other night," Mikey said. "He was sad 'cause he hadn't busted any skulls lately. And Don and I would tell you at once if something happened. Even that business Raph and I came on a few months ago seems to have died off."

Splinter nodded, remembering how his sons had related this information regarding Hun and the Purple Dragons searching the homeless of New York for some poor man who evidently had been a former employee of the hated Agent Bishop.

Splinter had this nagging feeling that something was in store, something evil on the horizon of their lives. But that could be because of Leonardo's and Raphael's constant attempts to escape before they were strong enough to survive any fights coupled with Splinter's overprotective parent mode.

He and Michelangelo discussed both situations for a few more minutes. The consensus was to keep an eye and an ear out- and to NOT let Leonardo and Raphael know if they could help it. At least, not for a little longer.

"They both showed more of their old selves today in the dojo," Splinter said, "but though each managed to defeat one of you, I still feel the need to follow Donatello's suggestion."

Mikey grinned at his father. The three of them seemed to have the same mind when it came to deciding if Raph and Leo were ready to face the cold, cruel world. NONE of them could or would ever get the mental picture out of their minds of how those two had looked like Death incarnate standing in that gore-coated room that night...

"Let us return to this," Splinter said, motioning to Michelangelo's many lists regarding the memorial for Victor, and the two were in serious discussions for the next forty minutes or so.

He had NOT meant to eavesdrop!

He had more honor than that! Of course he had!

And yet...

On his way to his room, he had overheard two words that had caught his bored out of his skull attention: "trouble" and "Karai".

And then it had been easy, oh so very very easy to stand there! Mikey's door was not really closed; Splinter had barely pulled it shut, and it stood open a few inches. They were NOT lowering their voices as if keeping it a secret; hell, they weren't even speaking Japanese, a SURE sign to one and all (though everyone understood it) that the conversation was private and had better remain so!

So even though it was wrong- who could blame him for listening?

And boy did he listen! Don and Mikey had had a run-in with the Foot? Karai had not honored the truce? Something about the homeless and that guy whom Hun and his group had been looking for...

I've got to get topside! Something is happening!

"Whatcha doin'?"

Leo nearly gave himself away with a girlie scream as Raph came up behind him while he was listening at Mikey's door. With a lot of frantic bodily gestures and shushes he got through to his brother to be quiet and to follow him to his own room. Once inside he told Raph everything he had managed to overhear.

"We have got to get out! They've been keeping this stuff from us!" Leo concluded angrily. "How could they not tell us that the Foot had fought with Don and Mikey? How could they keep it a secret that Karai has not honored the truce she, herself, declared?"

Raph smirked a bit.

"Yea, how dare they keep stuff from us, who have always informed them of our plans," he sarcastically smiled, and Leo, after a few more minutes of fuming, finally realized the meaning behind his brother's words.

He grinned weakly.

"Well, that was different," he lamely defended. But Raph was too busy getting on his phone to listen.

"Hello, Case? Yeah! Long time! Listen, Leo and me are bustin' out tonight! It's an emergency! We're comin' there- be home! NO, don't give me any 'buts', butt head! We're on our way!" And his short but sweet conversation was over. He looked at Leo. "So? Gear up, bro! We gotta get while the gettin's good, you know?"

Five minutes later they were out of the lair taking the long way around to the surface.

Dark dark dark topside! Despite the hour and the cloudiness and the cold and the slight drizzle of snow and sleet, it was glorious! Both turtles nearly forgot themselves in the joyous freedom of (relatively) fresh air stinging their lungs, nostrils, and eyes! Then they carefully, quickly, and expertly made their long way to Casey's place.

The traffic, the noise, the lights- everything was a welcome sight or smell or sound to them- arguments in many languages, countless aromas of frying fish, frying chicken, Chinese food, hot dogs, falafel, things they could not identify yet it made their stomachs growl with appreciation- music from countless radios in countless languages- sound upon sound, sight upon sight, smell upon smell! And all the time, dark and cold and wonderful!

Finally they made their way to Casey's apartment building- Casey's light was on, Casey's shadow was in the window!

The two had not spoken one word the entire trip; each had been lost in the joy of the experience! Now they looked at each other and grinned in brotherly triumph!

Without a sound they made their way into Casey's place the usual way- through the window that opened onto the fire escape.

"Case Man!" Raph finally spoke, throwing his arms wide to the tall human who now faced his visitors- unsurprised, yet nervous- though the guys hadn't quite noticed it yet. "Long time! Damn, it's good to see ya!"

"Uh..." Casey swallowed hard, looking like he'd been caught doing something unCasey-like; letting a gang member go, for example, or being a gentleman- "Uh, hey, Raph! Nice ta see ya..." his voice died out, his face looked apologetic. Suddenly: "Look! I didn't have no choice! It's not my fault! Honest!"

Leo and Raph froze, looking at their friend.

"Not your fault?" Raph echoed, totally lost.

"No," a new yet painfully familiar voice greeted their ears. "It is not his fault. It is yours."

Splinter stepped into view, tail slowly moving back and forth, whiskers twitching, ears slightly flat in his anger.

"Well? Did you have a nice walk here?" was all he said.