Chapter 5: Does Money Hold the Power After All?
Splinter and turtles their backstory + the man enters the hidden city
There are many gateways to the hidden city in New York, but they can be hard to find at first. You can only get to the hidden city in two ways. One is simply being a Yokai with mystic powers, which can also let humans in. The other, however… is purely applicable if you are a human. You have to kill someone with mystic powers, whether great or small, which will grant you the power to open the gateways just like the Yokai.
Yokai are almost always way stronger at using mystic powers than humans are. It is something inside their DNA, but it is also something magical. Mystic powers are related to how connected people are to others and themselves. Bloodlines don’t necessarily matter, but powers are sometimes the same in certain bloodlines, like the Usagi lineage.
But there are also exceptions to the Yokai/Human rule. A human man who called himself Splinter, roamed the streets of New York. He chose his own name, since he was abandoned as a child. Trying to make the best of his tough life, he secretly stole books to teach himself the basics of the human world, such as reading, math, writing and more. One day, however, he was in grave danger from people who wanted to abduct him. They could see that Splinter was… ‘special’. Splinter defended himself and after a long time, they were all defeated. Splinter had never wanted to let it get that far, but he had no choice, the situation got out of control. Later in his life, when he started to learn about his power and ancient lineage from the Hamato family, he met up with an elf and a woman and they worked together to put an end to the group that tried to abduct him. The elf was a Yokai who had betrayed his boss because of all the mystic powers and dangerous chemical reactions he was working with.
This was 18 years ago, and the three faced their boss together who called himself Shredder. He used the power of chemical mystic powers to experiment on helpless animals, making his own yokai army. This is how the turtles were born, and they were supposed to be his ultimate creations, the ones who could defeat anyone and anything.
In the end… he was stopped by the three, but not without giving permanent wounds to them. The woman and Splinter were turned into yokai by one of the chemicals. Splinter, who gave up on a normal life, started to take care of the four turtles in the sewers, giving them the power of the Hamato through their bond and rigorous training. The elf went back to his lab, helping prosper mystic energy in a good way. The woman, however, was devastated and started to get obsessed with riches. She lost her entire family due to the way she looked now and had to seek a life elsewhere.
Little did those three people know that in the future, they might have to go back into the fray again. Because after taking a while of finding a gateway, the man with the purple eye was walking into the hidden city through one of them…
The strange man in the hidden city
“GET IN YOUR YOKAI FORM SHAPESHIFTER! YOU OFFENSIVE PIECE OF SH-,” The wolf Yokai was immediately knocked into the wall by the man. Although the wolf Yokai was way bigger than him, every attempt to escape was useless. It was like the human man’s muscles were ‘pumped up’ somehow.
“Where is the battle nexus? I have business to discuss with… that woman.”
The wolf became pale, as he realized this man was willingly doing business with Big Mom. Something was definitely off here. The wolf gave him the directions and the man simply walked away, like nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. At the same time, the hound had trouble breathing, never having seen such a strong man before.
Was he even human in the first place?
Then, as the wolf saw the man in the distance, a briefcase appeared in his hand, with slight black-purple lighting all around the object.
“Welcome to the battle nexus, I will immediately escort you to Big Mom, she is expecting you,” Gabe said. He had his hands behind his back and he was really, really nervous, with his face being slightly pale. Never had he seen such an intimidating human being, especially with his left purple eye. Yokai, especially Avali, were generally considered stronger. However… he wasn’t so sure about this one.
Big Mom made Gabe meet the man, because, besides Gabe’s capabilities as a data scientist, he was also really mature, humble and polite to others. Immediately though, when Gabe turned around and the man walked through the entrance, a small sound of electricity could be heard, making Gabe even more nervous. He did not know why he felt so afraid, it was just… there was something about that man’s aura.
They approached Big Mom’s office, entering it together with Gabe stopping at the door.
“Ah there he is… Now… did you bring what I asked for?” Big Mom asked, trying not to sound too excited. She had to play it ‘business-casual.’ As for the purple eye, the spider woman didn’t care. She probably saw more shady types in the hidden city.
“…Yes.” As the man showed the briefcase, he opened it, still standing a few meters away from the spider woman. Big Mom’s eyes were glittering at this point, yet her demeanor remained strictly business focused.
“I like men of few words. Gabe, show him everything you found.”
Gabe showed the man everything he found with his knowledge about AI and Machine Learning. The man did not say a thing, and there was no emotion coming from him as well. Nobody could read him, not even Big Mom. What kind of person was he? After a moment of silence, he spoke again.
“Here is the money you asked for.” As he put the briefcase on the table, Big Mom inspected the money. She then almost frowned…
It wasn’t real cash.
Big Mom, however, played it smart and asked Gabe to give her some coffee from the machine, the man not knowing that the avali would press a button that would alert all the bodyguards.
The man walked out of the room and Big Mom and her assistant started conversing, slightly whispering.
“How the FUCK did fake money get in here Gabe?! The scanner at the entrance is PERFECT.”
“I don’t know I swear this has never happened before I swear I-,” Gabe frantically tried to defend himself, but Big Mom interrupted him.
“I believe you. We will deal with this situation immediately.” Big Mom reassured her assistant. Gabe was absolutely terrified, he felt like he was going to vomit in this situation, absolutely wanting to avoid conflict. He could definitely fight if he really needed to though.
The man walked to the main lobby, all the fox bodyguards standing there, pretending they weren’t observing the man.
The truth was: the man knew, he just didn’t care.
In a matter of 2 seconds… Everyone took out their guns and shot at the person. He immediately fell to the ground, laying ‘unconscious’. Gabe and Big Mom walked towards the man, stopping at around a 4 meter distance.
“Those who have the money, have the power, it is something everyone knows here very, very well. Now… how shall we-.”
But before she could even finish her sentence, everyone saw black-purple lighting coming from the man. After like 5 seconds of people not understanding what was happening, a massive explosion ensued… The entire battle nexus was damaged. Debris fell off all the buildings from around the arena, black-purple lightning hitting everything around it.
Gabe jumped in front of Big Mom, his strong wings shielding her from most of the impact, as all the other guards were taken out.
Smoke and broken glass were everywhere. Big Mom was coughing and she had several pieces of glass in the right side of her abdomen. The woman really needed to tend to her wounds.
However, she was more concerned about her assistant.
“GABE?!”
She then saw that Gabe was lying there. He had taken the full blast and his wings were ravaged, probably never being able to sour the sky again…
“GABE?! GABE NOOOO,” Big Mom screamed while crying. She could not believe that someone would save her greedy self, someone like her.
“GABE PLEASE, PLEASE WAKE UP.”
In front of her, that man… no, that thing, stood again, this time a lot closer. All his wounds were healed. The clothes he was wearing didn’t have any holes in them too for some reason. Big Mom was shivering. She didn’t plead for her own life however.
“Please I beg you, don’t take Gabe away from me. I’ll do anything, the code to the vault is-.”
As Big Mom hovered over Gabe, the man interrupted her, his voice still being extremely monotone. It showed subconsciously that he wasn’t threatened at all.
“Tell your champions to look for Yuichi Usagi. Let them contact me through the same number.”
Big Mom was crying her heart out. To be honest, her obsession with richness just stemmed from loss. She just wanted to be there for someone. Hence, she treated Gabe like her own child, really caring about him.
“Please I will… Just don’t hurt Gabe please.”
The man held his hand above Gabe’s wounded body, the small amount of energy causing the blood to clot, stopping the bleeding and saving his life in the process. Then… the man just walked away calmly, not even bothering to threaten her with something. She knew that she was outmatched and that she couldn’t step out of line. After telling the remaining guards to take Gabe to a hospital, Big Mom knew there was only one option.
She had to go and see Splinter again…
