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Day 2 of @traumas-tmntober-2024 :Isolation
Embers of a Shattered Legacy
Word Count: 1347
Hamato Yoshi let Oroku Saki destroy his life. Burnt away is his legacy as he rots in his loneliness. His clan, his livelihood, his budding family. All smothered under ashes and blood.
OR
Splinter wallows and mourns the past but new beginnings are afoot.
Hamato Yoshi thought he was turning into a spiteful, bitter, young man. Well he was pushing that now, growing older by the day, an entire legacy blew past as ashes in the wind.
He had long lost his brother. Saki, his beloved brother, was a monster. He wasn't a fool. He certainly wasn't wise but he knew he noticed they had grown apart as of late. No, not as of late. Now they were mortal enemies but truly, he could see signs even as teens when they'd started drifting and it pained him.
Memories of his sensei scolding them for roughhousing instead of sparring properly flooded in front of his eyelids. Thinking back on the countless times they had fought he had never taken Saki's worries and anger sincerely. He had just brushed it off as silly and childish: insignificant. He put his brother down and had pushed him away to the path that had to have led him to The Foot.
The anguish was almost as painful as the loneliness. Yoshi didn't like being alone. Not the physical sense of being alone, that was something he could even find solace and enjoyment in. No. What he was talking about was the bitter, skin tearing, ear aching, foul smelling, gut punch of there being no one. No one to give love to. No one to share soft moments with. No one for him to sit quietly and listen to anymore.
Yoshi was utterly alone for the first time. Even as a kid he could only remember being surrounded by his clan. He always had someone to answer his inquisitions and always had someone to guide him or his brother or friends to connect with on a deeper level. Being so surrounded and smothered made being alone a luxury yet now that same haven was the materials of his cage.
His loss of self may have been tied to his clan but he could survive that if he had his family. His sweet Tang Shen and Miwa. His life partner and precious daughter. The calm yet powerful nature and blooming fire to his cold rocky base.
Yoshi missed his fiancé. His Shen. The girl he’d been enamoured with since he was a foolish teen and who had liked him back. He reminisced on the days where he would break so many wooden boards practising kicks and punches that the floor was covered in splinters. Shen had given him the nickname Splinter after that but now he had no one to share such a silly nickname with.
He had no one to talk poetry or philosophy or couplets with. His dear, sweet, intelligent Shen was enriched in culture and always wanted to be in a deep intellectual conversation and Yoshi was never happier than then. Yoshi would never get to see his beautiful partner teach his little Miwa her first words. How to read. About her heritage and culture and about her beloved philosophies.
His Miwa. His beautiful, bouncing baby girl. Torn from his arms and the world as the fire consumed the house she was meant to grow up in. The house that was meant to hold her siblings. They hadn't just wanted Miwa. Tang was adamant on at least 5 pairs of feet running around.
Yoshi had years of plans and hopes and dreams that had burnt with his girls. He lost it all. Staying in Japan was too heart-breaking. Seeing his homeland through eyes that knew his kid never got to see them, that his late partner was never to bear witness to them again was too painful to even exist in.
Instead he fled to New York City, United States of America. Shen had always wanted to visit America. One of the reasons Yoshi had put off seeing it was because he knew Shen would most definitely want to move there. She had an obsession with the culture there and most of her literature had expanded about the Americas in recent years. Now it was just another regret. Something he stopped her from doing in her short life.
Touching down on the American soil a week ago was a blur to him already. He had made the decision hastily as his life moved in a blurred slow motion. He was as dead as his family for those few weeks after Saki had fought him in their home. He'd never had more regret than when he felt the crimson of Shen's blood coat him and allow for the smoke to stick in thick clumps on it. Tainting it. It burned despite being just blood.
He hadn't even registered what had happened at the time. He and Saki had been fighting in his home and wrecking it. It sent Splinter into a rage and he let Saki's words anger him further. He hadn't even noticed the lit candle they had knocked until it was too late and the home he had so lovingly built up was engulfed within the flames.
Tang had thrown herself in front of him and all he could think of was why. He was weak to let the woman he loved die for him. To let her murderer escape as the supports gave out and buried him as he shielded her body.
He had blacked out after that and had woken up outside of their home. His sweet Shen and Miwa still trapped inside as the flames continued to burn the dwindling remains.
He had not even stayed long enough for the firefighters to put out the fire. He had travelled to the nearest town and slept on the street, unable to pay for any accommodation right then. He hadn't stayed long enough for their bones to be dug out of the ashes for their burials of which he hadn't stayed for either.
Instead he let those last two weeks in Japan go by quickly. Besides meeting with Shen's family to tell them the news and withdrawing the remains of the Hamato fund, all he had managed to take with him were a few keepsakes and family heirlooms.
On his last day before his loneliness cemented into his bones and he left for America, he went to Shen's favourite place in the forest and buried her now withered flower which had survived the burning miraculously. It was his way of remembering his partner's livelihood and how he'd tucked it behind his baby's ear, her hair just having developed enough to cover her head entirely. He buried the flower and laid their souls to rest with it.
Now he was alone. Sitting in a dingy, cheap apartment in New York with rattling pipes and the deeply ingrained smell of mildew. On the wall was a pet shop poster. They were holding a fundraiser and had many animals for sale to support a couple of charities.
That poster had blown in his face whilst he walked alone to the cornerstore for the bare essentials a couple of days ago. He had since decided to do something good, support others whilst becoming a dad to a couple of reptiles. Shen had always been fascinated by the creatures and always spoke about getting some. Snakes and lizards but especially turtles. He knew more about them than he thought he ought to as he lovingly listened to her ramblings.
He was currently setting a large tank up on the small table. It looked comical but was sustainable for a few baby turtles. Shen would never forgive him if he let himself waste away and mourn. If she was around she would have smacked him up the head and talked some sense into him. The thought had the corners of his mouth tugging unwillingly into a smile.
He was going to be a dad somehow but no one could ever replace Shen. Maybe when he was ready he'd adopt but for now, he'd father some turtles until they passed. Pet turtles typically lived much shorter lives than their counterparts anyways.
It'd just be another chapter in his life.
Maybe he wasn't so bitter yet.
Hi!! So I enjoyed writing this so much. Splinter does not get enough attention and there are so few Splinter-centric fanfics nowadays, its unreal!! I really wanted to take this in a different way than you might first interpret it. The pure mental and physical isolation Splinter must have felt when his entire family and life went down the drain must've been huge and I wanted to capture that while throwing some Yoshi x Shen headcanons in there :3
I hoped this was a good read!!
I forgot to on my last post but a huge thanks to my best mates for Beta-reading these and keeping me focused. Love you all ♡♡