The fridge opened, the automatic light flicking on.
The fridge shut.
It opened back up again, Mikey leaning in for a closer look, eyes scanning the fairly empty shelves as his foot rapped against the ground in a tap-tap-tap rhythm.
"Hey, Raph?" he called, shifting some four-day old McDonald's over. The bag slumped against even more fast food and takeout, the few items present in the otherwise food wasteland. Any of them were fit enough for a meal, but Mikey wasn't particularly hungry- he never seemed to be, not nowadays. No, he was looking for a specific meal that he had tried to save. "Where's the um, the Chinese food?"
There was no answer and Mikey paused, a prickle of uneasiness in his stomach. He looked around, expecting Raph to be hovering over his shoulder like usual, but he was nowhere to be seen. Mikey swallowed, going still and listening for any sounds, his hand brushing against the Mad Dogs badge on his plastron.
No. No, Raph had told him where he was going, he was literally on his way to meet up with him when he got distracted, why was he so freaked out-
Mikey sighed, slammed the fridge shut again, and rubbed his eyes. I'll ask him about it later, he decided, passing by the kitchen table and sweeping a thick stack of paper up into his arms as he hurried towards the surface to go meet his brother.
On his way out, however, there was a small trill of music and beeping sounds that echoed around the Lair. Mikey froze mid-step, eyes widening.
That was from the arcade. But no one had entered there since...
He almost dropped his papers in his hurry to get up to the arcade, trying to be realistic and walk calmly but finding his steps steadily speeding up little by little until he was running, arms pumping in time with his steps. A few stray papers escaped his grasp, fluttering onto the ground in his wake, but Mikey didn't pay heed, skidding to a halt in front of the arcade's entrance.
He paused, panting, and barely stopped himself from calling out the name on the tip of his tongue. It felt wrong to say it when it might not be him. It might be someone else, or, or a faulty machine turning itself back on and then wouldn't he feel silly about this or make someone feel bad-
He took a deep breath, trying to get his breathing back under control, and crept inside, head swiveling as he scanned all of the machines. Most were idle, music quiet apart from the usual background hum, their screens on a simple menu loop. Only one was brightly lit up, a Japanese rhythm game that the boys all frequently played.
"Wh- Donnie?"
His brother startled, head jerking upright, as the game let out an upset sound and the screen flickered to a "COMBO LOST" notice.
Mikey headed over to him, brow furrowed. "When did you- I mean, Dee, I haven't seen you outside of your lab in like three days, you should have said something- oh." Donnie had turned to look at him, expression irritated.
"Oh?" his brother parroted back, crossing his arms and leaning against the videogame. It kept letting out buzzing sounds, warning of yet another lost streak, but neither brother moved, both eyeing each other up and down. "What do you mean, and I air quote, 'oh?'"
"Nothing, nothing." Mikey scratched the back of his head, shifting his paper stack to better rest in the crook of his elbow. "You just look... tired." He winced, regretting the sentence as soon as it was out of his mouth.
Donnie's right eyebrow twitched, his eyes narrowing. "Uh huh," he said doubtfully. "I don't suppose Raphael or April put you up to this."
"No, not... not this time," Mikey offered weakly. He shifted, uncomfortable, not liking the tension in the air between him and Donnie. It hadn't improved too much in the last two and a half weeks, not ever since Raph and Donnie had started using him as a go between. He wanted to ask, wanted to actually talk to his brother, but Donnie had that drawn look he seemed to have half of the time that meant he was about to shut the conversation down and go back to his lab. "So why are you... here?"
"You mean why am I not outside running around looking at red herrings and dead ends? Or why am I in the arcade in particular?" Donnie retorted, except suddenly he winced, one hand reaching up to lightly run over his bloodshot eyes. "No, sorry, forget I said that Mikey. I just. Sorry." He took a deep breath and sighed. "That was. That was wrong of me. I'm just... tired. Regretful chuckle but, you were right about that observation."
Mikey tilted his head, critically looking his brother over one more time. Despite not having gone out at all, his heavier battle shell was still on his back. In fact, Mikey hadn't seen Donnie take it off since that night. The taller turtle didn't quite meet his eyes, blinking a bit as he tried to hide a yawn.
Mikey shot a discreet glance at his phone, tapping the screen to light up his notifications. Nothing from Raph, so he had a little bit of time. "Do you wanna talk about it with me?" he offered, taking a few more steps forwards. "When's the last time we really spoke, huh, Donnie?"
His brother snorted, and Mikey is pleased to see a small smile appear. "Like last week. I caught you crying while making a sandwich at two am."
"That was about me, and thus, does not count for this."
Donnie shot him his famous raised-eyebrow look of skepticism that only the brother with visible eyebrows could manage, but conceded the point, nodding slightly. "There was that time thirty-eight days ago. We went out for smoothies and talked for three hours about varying topics of consideration. Or even seventeen days ago, after I yelled at Raph," Donnie scowled. "Look, Mikey, you know I'm bad at this kind of thing."
"You don't have to be good at it. Just... try?" Mikey stepped over to the machine, close enough that he could pull Donnie into a hug if the situation called for it.
Donnie glanced at his face, looking for something, and apparently finding it. "Okay," he agreed softly. "Okay, it's just- these past three weeks I have been nothing but thorough," Donnie said, waving one hand in the air as he talked. "I've built software that scanned through every piece of footage from that night and the days since, hacked phones in the area for their personal photos, did a phrase search across almost every major social media website, and still, nothing. Raph has triple checked with every villain we know, April has kept an eye out among humans, and you've talked to all of the friendly local yokai and checked Leo's popular hangout spots." His other arm joined in on the wide motions. "Heck, I think even Dad exhausted all the resources he could think of!"
His brother shifted, pushing himself off of the video game machine, his figure backlit by the screen, his eyes shimmering slightly with the glow of the room's lights. "Look, Michael, I just don't know what else we can possibly do. I've beefed up our lair security, upgraded S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. three times, and created new communication panic devices for us. What else do you want me to try? Because I," he said, jabbing at his plastron. "Am all ears! Honest! And no-" he slammed one fist against the arcade game's screen, the glass cracking slightly. Mikey flinched but didn't move, ignoring the mess of pixels and cracked glass to watch Donnie's face. "Look, I didn't exactly want to waste my time playing video games of all things, but even though I can't come up with anything more to do, my mind keeps going and going and I can't sleep, okay? Fine! I admit it! It's not even stubbornness this time, like Raph seemed to think, it's just my brain being a great big dum-dum and keeping me up."
He sighed. "So. Yeah. That's why I'm in here." He turned his head, examining the damage to the machine with a critical eye. "I can fix that for you," he added under his breath. "At least I'm still able to do that."
"You don't have to prove you can be helpful-" Mikey started, but Donnie wheeled around, staring at him with a glint in his eyes.
"Well, if I can't show some sort of quantifiable advancement, then what do I have to show for all of my work?" he asked.
The box shell turtle shrugged, wrapping his arms around himself. He thought of Raph, looking over him with a worried expression, watching his every move to make sure Mikey didn't also vanish into the night. He thought of walking by Donnie's room, regardless of the hour, and hearing loud clacking of the keyboard and cursing. He thought of Dad passing by him, head bowed and tail dragging in defeat. He thought of himself, unable to do anything to help but try and pretend he was still optimistic about their odds. "Dunno," he mumbled. "We haven't gotten much done, either, Donnie."
His purple-clad brother froze, blinking at him. "...Oh," he said, a revelation, a moment of quiet understanding. "Oh, Michael, I'm... I didn't... ugh, I can't speak today." He glanced towards the entrance of the arcade room, then back at Mikey. "Let's just... where's Raph?"
"Not far away," Mikey answered. Almost as if sensing their train of thought, Mikey's phone chirped, vibrating slightly. He hesitated on answering it, not liking how it would cut his talk with Donnie short. It had been a while since they had been able to do this. The phone chirped again, and Mikey slid it open to see the thought bubbles pop up that indicated a third message was rapidly incoming.
"Is that him?" Donnie asked, peering over Mikey's shoulder.
"Yeah, it is. He's been kind of..." Mikey hesitated. "Well. My shadow seems to have gotten much, much bigger."
Donnie nodded. "Makes sense... I noticed that on my camera feeds. How has he um, been handling everything besides that?"
Mikey let out a snort. "I dunno, Dee. How have you been handling everything?"
"...touché."
Mikey sent a reply and leaned down to grab one of the papers that had escaped his grasp in his rush. He turned to go, until suddenly a thought struck him and he paused. "Hey, Donnie, um. You said you were out of things to try? And you can't sleep, anyways?"
"...yeah?" his brother asked. "What, you have an idea?"
"Well, why don't you come join me and Raph for the day? Some fresh air might give you some ideas, and I know we'd love to have your company!" Mikey enthused, his mind catching onto the idea.
Donnie glanced back at the rhythm game, watching the screen flicker. "But- I haven't said much to Raph since... and he's probably..."
"Missing his brother in a time of need? He sure is!" Mikey reached out, grabbing onto Donnie's wrist. The softshell blinked at him slightly, surprised, but didn't resist as Mikey pulled at him and led him out of the room. After a moment he started matching Mikey's pace, and even when Mikey let go of him to start climbing the sewer ladders, Donnie climbed up right beside him, voicing no other objections.
After Mikey hit the manhole cover he slid it to the side, poking his head up only to see Raph's feet right in front of his face.
"Mikey! There you are," his eldest brother replied. "You're late- I was getting worried."
"Sorry Raph," he replied, sneaking a glance at Raph's agitated gaze. "It was only by a few minutes-" Raph's face fell, and Mikey hastened to correct himself. "But next time if I know something's come up I'll text you in advance." His brother nodded, relaxing slightly, before he bent down, offering a hand out to Mikey. He accepted it and was pulled out and onto his feet. "Oh, but I did have a good reason for it!"
"Good reason? What do you- is that Donnie?" Raph asked, eyes widening, as the turtle in question also poked his head out of the manhole.
"...hey, Raph," Donnie greeted sheepishly. "Would you mind...?" Raph stared at him for another moment before reaching out his hand, Donnie clasping it and also letting Raph pull him out. "Thanks," Donnie said.
"Anytime," Raph agreed softly.
The three stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say, when Mikey noticed that Donnie's eyes were shimmering slightly.
Mikey leaned over to Donnie, holding a hand up to whisper to him. "It's Raph's 'glad to see you' stink," he confirmed, only half joking about the cause of Donnie's reaction.
"Mikey. I heard that," Raph complained, but there was no bite to his tone. He and Donnie glanced at each other awkwardly for a moment longer before Donnie tapped his fingers together and hesitantly moved forwards, into Raph's space to lean his forehead against the snapping turtle's shoulder in an odd sort of hug. "Sorry," he mumbled.
It didn't look particularly great as far as hugs went, so Mikey improved it immensely by joining, giving a proper hug to both Donnie and Raph before the largest pulled them all in even closer.
"Hey, hey!" Donnie protested, but Mikey felt him relax, melting into their embrace slightly. "I haven't bathed in like. Four days," the genius grumbled.
"I've done worse," Raph said, grip still tight. Mikey felt him shudder slightly, but after another, lingering moment, they released each other, Donnie retying his mask's tails and trying to look coolly professional. None of them said anything about how suddenly all three siblings had wet marks around the eyeholes of their masks.
"So..." Donnie pulled out his tech bo, expanding it to full size. "What are we doing in broad daylight, anyways? Any ideas for where Leo is?"
"Ah!" Raph glanced over to a nearby dumpster, besides which another stack of papers had been placed. "We both made missing person posters for Leo. We were going to go throw them up."
"Uh huh..." Donnie turned so he could look at both of them at once, confused. "And I thought I was the most sleep deprived one. You do know you can't just show all of New York that giant mutant turtles are running around, right? I mean, the outrage over that alone would be-"
"No, no, we're not hanging them up around New York," Raph interrupted.
Mikey nodded. "We're gonna try the Hidden City," he agreed. "Hueso gave us some tips on how to enter from around New York, so we decided we might as well try and see if other yokai have seen our brother around."
"That... actually isn't too bad of a plan," Donnie admitted. He rested his closed fist on his chin, thinking. "It is true that we've run out of our own resources for information."
"Exactly! So, what do ya say, Dee? Wanna come?" Mikey asked. Donnie turned his head to focus on him and Mikey clasped his hands together. "Please?"
"All right, all right, I wasn't going to say no now," Donnie conceded.
A car drove by the alleyway they were in, horn blaring, and the three turtles pressed themselves against the closest wall. "Okay," Raph said. "We're decided then. Mikey, you brought the missing posters?"
"I did!" Mikey pulled the top piece of paper from his stack, holding it out to Raph for scrutiny. "You said you wanted variation to the photo you were using, so I made a bunch of new ones."
The red turtle squinted at it, forehead furrowing. "Uh..." Raph said, shifting the stack of papers he had onto the other hip. "Maybe we just use the ones I made, Mikey."
"What's wrong with mine?" Mikey demanded, clutching the rest of his stack to his chest. His grip tightened, enough so that he felt the paper crinkle slightly, and he hastily loosened his hold, looking down to see if the damage could be smoothed out.
Donnie let out an exhausted sigh. "Hand them over," he said, holding out a hand. Raph glanced over at Mikey again, apologetic, before handing one of his own and Mikey's copy over to Donnie.
Donnie spread them out like a hand of playing cards in his grip, one eyebrow quirking slightly. "Uh, Mikey," he started slowly. "Why did you draw Leo with- you know what, no, never mind, it's great art, as always." He glanced up at Raph, and Mikey didn't miss the slight head shake their leader did. "But Raph might be onto something with the actual picture."
"But none of the photos we had captured his good side," Mikey protested. His stomach squirmed slightly, and he tried not to sulk as Raph patted his shell.
"Sorry," his oldest brother offered. "I meant a picture, because it's just..."
"Easier not to let some random turtle yokai get our hopes up," Donnie finished. "Even if they were somehow wearing one of Lou Jitsu's outfits."
Mikey bit his lip. He would not throw a fit on how he spent hours on the drawing instead of sleeping, he told himself firmly. Raph's would work just fine, it was... it was no big deal.
Even still, he couldn't bring himself to just leave his posters there or toss them into one of the nearby dumpsters. He hung onto them even as they started to sneak down the alleyways towards the closest natural portal, avoiding any signs of the rare human straggler that could end up in these parts.
No one said anything, but Mikey felt the irregular way they spread out: a strange way for three people to walk because of the weird gap in the middle of them, as if they had an invisible member keeping pace with them.
He snuck a few looks at that eerie gap, the silence speaking volumes, before he remembered his earlier concern. "Raph?" he asked, trying to focus on his brother and not the gap where Leo should be. "Did you, uh, by any chance... did you eat some Chinese food recently?"
His brother hesitated. "Oh, that," he said. "Sorry, Mikey, no. I think Dad kind of... threw it out?"
Mikey stopped walking. "Threw it out?" he echoed. "But- but no, that was... that was Leo's food-"
"It had gotten moldy, Mikey-"
"But it was his!" Mikey clenched his fists, trying not to stamp his feet and act like a child. Both Donnie and Raph had also stopped, watching him, and Mikey forced himself not to burst into tears for like the twelfth time that week alone. So far he had been able to hide at least half of those times, and he didn't need his brothers wasting time worrying over him now. "It was his," he repeated softly.
"Listen," Raph started softly. "We can order whatever he wants for an entire month straight once we find him, okay? But Mikey it was- it was time, it was getting really bad- I'm sure Dad didn't mean-"
"I'm not blaming Dad!" Mikey shouted. It echoed in the alleyway, and he heard a cat shriek before there was the clattering of cans from a nearby trash pile. "That was just his." He fought against the lump in his throat, squeezing his eyes shut to make the slight dampness he had felt coming on go away. "...never mind," he muttered. "Sorry, let's just go."
"But-" Raph started, but Donnie put a hand on his forearm and shook his head. Raph hesitated again, and Mikey took it as the opportunity to walk past them, silently taking the lead.
It was lucky that he had gone with Raph when Hueso shown them the location of the portal; elsewise he'd have to hang back and follow Raph, who was no doubt staring a hole into the back of Mikey's head as he tried to come up with something to say to fix it all.
It- it was sweet, sure. Mikey knew he was trying his best, just like Donnie, and also knew that none of them wanted to admit that their best just wasn't- no, he couldn't even think about that.
It didn't change that what Mikey really wanted to hear right now was a simple "look who's back!"
They approached an old dumpster, one of many scattered around the area. Hueso had said that since it was New York, humans never thought twice about a surplus of them being scattered around, or didn't look closely enough at dumpsters to notice when the graffiti on one mysteriously looked slightly different the next day. It was the simplest way to remember where a portal was though, not to mention the most discreet during daytime, so Raph and Mikey had agreed to use it rather than the other three entrances Hueso had showed them from places like the water tower or that one corner near Times Square.
Raph was the one that reached for the hidden lever, pulling it out as Donnie watched in fascination. There was a clunking sound, any garbage bags present falling down into the city, before the brothers all exchanged glances.
"I'll go first," Raph offered. "See if it's safe."
"Okay," Mikey agreed quietly, forcing down the pang of fear at the thought of Raph being alone for even a moment. They had been fine just that morning running errands, it was okay. It wouldn't happen again.
Raph nodded at them before hopping up onto the rim of the dumpster. He considered it for a moment before jumping, vanishing without another word.
"Hey, um, Mikey?" Donnie asked, looking around, puzzled. He rubbed his eyes, pausing to squint around them for a longer moment. "This isn't... the dumpster where we found the pizza, was it?"
"The pizza?" Mikey echoed.
An empty dumpster.
Four scattered boxes.
A few slices, dirtied, soiled, stepped on or forgotten.
"...no, that was. That was two blocks over."
"...ah. My mistake."
The two lapsed into silence before their phones chirped, both on full volume so the combined sound was ear-splitting enough that it startled both of them. Mikey glanced at the screen, seeing a thumbs up emoji from Raph.
"Right, let's-" Mikey turned just in time to catch his brother mid-yawn, who rushed to force himself out of it and un-convincingly pretend he hadn't been doing that. "Let's go," Donnie finished.
They both climbed onto the rim of the dumpster, peering down at the drop over the city. Mikey exchanged a glance with Donnie before they both jumped, the wind making Mikey's eyes water in the few seconds between jumping and hitting the ground.
He landed in a crouch, relaxing only when he saw Raph waiting for them a few steps away.
"Okay, boys, here's the plan," Raph said, waving them closer. He was on a ledge overlooking the Hidden City just below, and Mikey noticed that this area was mainly a maze of stalls and small shops lining crowded streets, yokai spilling out of bars and restaurants and chattering with each other. "We're going to go hang these posters up until we run out. If you see any yokai with three faces on a uniform, Hueso said to avoid them- Donnie- just in case, so be sure not to cause any trouble." Raph nodded to himself.
"Okay. Did you bring anything to hang them up with?" Donnie asked.
Raph paused. "Uh," he started.
Donnie reached into his battle shell, rummaging around inside of what Mikey could only assume was an extra pocket inside of it. "It's fine," he said. "I keep electrical tape on me at all times. It isn't ideal, but it'll do. Here." He tossed one roll of the black tape at Mikey, who reflexively reached out and caught it. "I have two rolls, so. Michael and I will each-"
"We're staying together," Raph interrupted, crossing his arms.
Donnie quirked one eyebrow. "I know," he muttered. "That doesn't mean we can only put up a single poster at a time. What about on windows or walls within view of each other?"
Mikey turned, looking out at all of the yokai hustle and bustle with a slight tinge of curiosity. It was a shame that this was the reason they had finally come to the Hidden City's shopping area. Leo would have loved to mess around here, he thought distantly. Probably would've challenged them all to race through the shopping area or find the best place for Hidden cuisine first.
Raph grunted. "Yeah, that works. Mikey?" he asked. "You've been... quiet. Are you sure-"
"Yeah, I'm fine, Raph." Mikey turned, meeting the concerned stare of the red turtle. "I'm just over reacting. I'll be okay." He forced a smile onto his face, tilting his head slightly. "Besides, now that Donnie is out with us again, nothing can stop us!"
A larger yokai flapped overhead, screeching, and Raph and Mikey jumped slightly, Donnie blearily squinting up to examine it. "Hueso didn't happen to say we would be attacked by a giant mutant bird, did he?" Donnie asked.
Raph paused, considering. "Nope," Raph answered, drawing out the vowel sound. "But let's go ahead and go into the city, just in case."
They helped each other climb down from the cliff, hesitantly approaching the Hidden City's closest entrance, a dark purple-colored archway. Glowing blue lanterns were strewn back and forth in the air over the street, and the majority of stores were open-fronted, with no actual windows. An unnerving lime green hue seemed to be the common light sources inside the shops, and even though it was daytime, the location of the Hidden City ensured that everything was still not as well-lit as the surface.
"Here," Raph said, offering Mikey a third of his own stack of flyers. "Do you want me to go with Donnie or...?"
Mikey shot a crestfallen glance at his drawn posters, still tucked under his left arm, but accepted it without any other voiced objections and nodded. Raph opened his mouth, looking like he had something else to add, but then shut it again. He patted Mikey on the head before turning to go talk to Donnie, who had nearly staggered into another yokai and was busy apologizing.
Mikey watched Raph head over, talking to the annoyed yokai while Donnie rubbed his shoulder and stared at the ground. Raph turned and said something to Donnie, who replied, but even at a distance Mikey could almost see the way Donnie and Raph leaned away from each other, uncomfortable.
Well, it did make sense. After three weeks not everything could be fixed just like that unless-
An image of Leo leaning on Donnie's shoulder as he struggled not to keel over laughing surfaced in Mikey's thoughts and the youngest shook his head, feeling his mask tails bob with the motion.
He headed over to a street post, which looked like it was what was holding up where the lanterns were all tied off to. It was located towards the side of the street, just out of the way enough but still in view that it was a perfect place for a poster. Mikey pressed one poster against the wood, trying not to let his eyes linger on the photo of Leo flashing a thumbs up at the camera. He glanced down, realizing he would have to fully use his other arm, and bent down to set his stack of drawings down before taking the black tape roll and using his teeth to rip a section off. One poster done, he reached down, picked his stack back up, and headed to the storefront a few paces over.
It went like that for a while; every so often Mikey would look around to find Raph and Donnie on the other side of the street, often meeting one of their own furtive glances in the process.
After about an hour he came across a crowd of yokai gathered around one of the bar-like stores, enough so that even clustered together they spilled out into the street area and Mikey had to take a detour to avoid being bumped into by several obviously intoxicated yokai.
As he made his way over, they all suddenly erupted into loud chatter and yelling, Mikey jumping as he glanced over to make sure they weren't yelling at him.
Oh wait, he realized. One of them might know something. He shifted, looking over the yokai for anyone that seemed willing to talk, but all of them were fixated on what looked to be a bunch of screens taking up every inch of the inner walls. Mikey craned his neck, but he was too short, and the yokai were too numerous and packed together, so he had to give up on seeing what was so interesting. Shaking his head, he backed away from the chatter and the scent of alcohol.
There was what looked like a bulletin board a little ways over, still in eyesight of the bar. Mikey, hoping that someone leaving the bar once the sport or tv show that the bar was showing ended would see it, stopped to put up another poster.
He put it in the smack middle of the board, firmly fixing the poster over older wanted posters and advertisements. He paused for one moment as he took in how small the piece of paper looked in comparison to the rest of the board before slipping a copy of his own version out to tape it up just beside the other one. It looked better that way. Less lonely.
He had just picked up his other posters again when another burst of cheering erupted from the bar, drawing Mikey's attention back to it. He should have kept going, but he could see Raph and Donnie a little ways down the street, far enough behind him that he could go see what the big fuss was about and be back to hanging up posters before his brothers even noticed he was gone for a moment. It... it wouldn't hurt just to look, he told himself. Maybe I could get someone's attention this way and ask about Leo.
Mikey approached the crowd of yokai again, this time not taking no for an answer and pushing his way to the front, intent on seeing what was going on. "Excuse me, sorry, coming through," he mumbled as yokai shifted and grunted at him, but it did the trick because he shoved his way into the front, plastron colliding with a standing bar top.
The bartender huffed at him, saying something about no kids allowed, but Mikey ignored him, looking around with wide eyes. On the counter were three large orbs, and on the walls were dozens of floating holographic screens, all tuned into the same channel.
A bad feeling bubbled in Mikey's stomach but he ignored it, craning his head to stare into the orbs in front of him as he tried to process what he was looking at.
The screens flickered once before they all showed several things in rapid succession: a coliseum being panned over, Big Mama waving at the cameras. A screaming audience, and an announcer, saying something that the crowded bar swallowed up whole. A blue mask tail, waving in the wind.
From behind Mikey, somewhere in the street, a familiar voice rang out. "Mikey!" Raph called, but his voice was underwater, unclear, uncertain, as the televised orbs and holographic screens seemed to grow larger and larger, threatening to swallow the small silhouette of the turtle standing in front of them whole, the box shell turtle forgetting that the crowd of yokai was even there at all.
Because...
Because it was him.
It was Leonardo.
It was his brother.
His pile of papers all fluttered to the ground, long forgotten.