Live-Action TMNT Reboot

Rock's cheeks reddened at the absurdity of the question, but Shadow Falcon only nodded once, slowly and severely.

"I do not wish to brag, but this one has holds a thirtieth dan in the Kouga Death Shadow style of ninjutsu."

"Dea, death... shadow, you say... Hah... hahah..."

There was only one thought filling Rock's head.

I want to go home...

"Well, I mean, you know, we're on the verge of the 21st century and all, so isn't it a bit late for ninjas? No, well, I'm Japanese, granted, but still..."

Rock floundered, searching for the proper words, but Shadow Falcon showed no sign of taking insult. Instead he rose silently, removing a small booklet from behind the wall scroll and walking back.

Gingerly taking the offered booklet, Rock saw that it was quite old, the pages yellow with age and limp from constant use and accumulated dampness. Some of the pages were even on the verge of falling out altogether. Even at a glance it was obvious that it was the result of some cheaply done mass offset printing job. On the tattered cover page was a silhouette of Sho Kosugi—probably printed without the slightest regard for copyright—and below it, written in English, Rock could just barely make out the words "KOUGA DEATH SHADOW☆NINJUTSU SHINAN SHO."

On the copyright page at the second to last page of the booklet, instead of an address, there were merely the letters O.M.C.

"...If you don't mind me asking, what's this O.M.C. thing?"

"The letters stand for Oriental Mystic Collection. An organization that has provided this one with many ninja items."

"...Let me guess, they sent you that scroll and the sword too?"

Shadow Falcon nodded. A horrible feeling began to weigh heavily on Rock's mind.

"Can I ask one more thing? Where did you learn about this O.M.C. thing?"

"I discovered them in the advertisement pages of Black Belt and Inside Kung Fu."

"..."

Rock didn't even know what to say to that.

To put it simply, this man was nothing more than the hapless victim of a half-brained mail ordering scam. Rock couldn't say how or why Falcon had ended up falling so far, but it was obvious that somehow he'd ended up becoming a killer and had drifted through the cesspool of the underworld until he came to Roanapur. It was almost heartbreaking, how a person's life could go so wrong.

Rock flipped through the pamphlet again, realizing from the font that it wasn't even a cheap print job—the pages had simply been printed straight from a word processor document. As for the contents, they were full of the sort of ridiculous training methods one might expect to find in a bad 80's ninja movie. Running at full speed with a straw hat placed against one's chest and making sure it didn't fall off. Blindfolding oneself and picking out the sound of a single needle falling on the ground amongst many. To make things worse, some bare minimum of effort had been expended to make it look like a training manual; stark font on each page numbered the bizarre training methods from "1ST DAN" to "30TH DAN."

...Suddenly, Rock remembered what Falcon had said just moments before.

"...Wait, did you say you held a thirtieth dan?"

"It is so."

Shadow Falcon nodded calmly.

"No, but wait, if you... Wait, you're telling me that you can do everything written in this booklet?"

"It is so."

Falcon agreed once more, showing not the slightest hint of arrogance. He was merely stating a fact.

"...This bit about planting hemp and jumping over it every day, too?"

Rock pointed to a page, and the blue eyes inside the mask clouded over with nostalgia.

"At first it seemed a trifling task, but the true test of my abilities began with the third month."

As far as Rock knew, hemp could grow more than three meters high in just a hundred days, and considering that the recently set world record for high jump was just under two and a half meters...

"...And this part about walking over wet washi(8) without tearing it?"

"Every step was a battle against myself. When I was yet untrained in the ways of the shadow, it took four days to traverse five meters."

In other words, that meant that he'd kept up a state of heightened concentration for four days straight, without stopping to eat or drink or even sleep.

Rock stared once more at Shadow Falcon's body. Even shrouded in formless black clothing, his thick pectorals, sturdy shoulders and neck, and tree-like biceps and thighs were readily apparent. And yet his waist was relatively thin for a man of his size, the tightly cinched belt making it clear that there was not one ounce of excess fat on his body.

He wasn't just a large man. He was a man possessed of a body which could make the greatest sportsmen and the strongest bodybuilders go green with envy.

If this man had actually believed everything in this phony training manual and, through trial and error and unimaginable effort, actually completed every single exercise in the book... Yes, in that case, such a superhuman body would not be entirely unbelievable. But what was it that had driven him to persevere through such hardship? This was beyond the limit of what simple determination or belief could achieve.

"...Why did you want to become a ninja so much? Did you watch too much Teenage Muta-"

Falcon's eyes suddenly flared with rage, his quiet voice rising to a roaring shout.

"Speak not of the turtles!!"

Rock unconsciously shrunk back, reacting instinctively to the sudden and terrifying change in the man's behavior. But soon enough Falcon, too, seemed to recover, and bowed his head low.

"...There can be no excuse for my loss of control. I see that my training is still incomplete; I offer my humblest apologies."

"N-no! That's fine! I'm the one who's sorry! I shouldn't have said that."

Rock added a new rule to the list in his head: Never mention the turtles.

Shadow Falcon, on the other hand, drew himself up to answer the question, his eyes growing unfocused as he delved deep into his memories.

"I... Yes, that's right. I only wanted to become stronger. I wanted to change myself. I wanted to stop being bullied at school. But..."

The blue-eyed ninja paused, giving the scroll on the wall a deeply meaningful glance.

"After countless days meditating on the character nin (忍), I came to a revelation. What is important is not the sword (刃), but the heart (心) that supports it."

"Oh... Okay... Hmm..."

Would whoever had thought up O.C.M. feel guilt at beguiling an innocent boy with such a preposterous scam and leading him so far astray from a normal life? Or would he smile and sit back in his chair, content at a job well done?

"...But wait, you even ordered the sword in the mail? No, no. That can't be."

Suddenly overcome by curiosity, Rock ignored the voices in his head telling him this was a bad idea and pointed slowly at the sword on its rack.

"Uhh, if you don't mind, could I take a look at that sword?"

The ninja considered it for a moment and then, apparently having decided that Rock was trustworthy enough, nodded and removed the sword from its resting place.

"It is a dangerous blade, and I bid you to exercise the utmost caution when using it."

Rock took the warning to heart, gulping hard as he carefully drew the sword from its scabbard.

...The blade had been carefully honed and polished, but no matter how meticulously they were cleaned, weapons that had taken many lives had a way of retaining the scent of blood, and Falcon's sword was one such weapon. Rock found himself nearly at a loss for words, his suspicions confirmed.

"...Do you always use this sword to kill people?"

"It is so. It is a fearsome demon blade forged from the hatred of the master smith Tanaka San. Its name is Izayoi Edge Number 108."

Rock realized once again just how fearsome the man in front of him was. He'd somehow managed to kill people with a sword made of duralumin.

"The hatred held within its edge causes even the slightest of cuts to rupture mercilessly into gaping wounds. When I was yet a novice, I was unable to tame such dread power and destroyed 107 of its brethren."

To Rock it sounded like Falcon had just beaten people to death instead of cutting them down, the "gaping wounds" caused by his sheer strength, but he no longer had the will to even attempt correcting the misunderstanding. And as for the master smith who'd somehow mustered the hatred to imbue no less than one hundred and eight blades with demonic rage, well, Rock reflected there could be worse outlets for that sort of thing.

"So, you're going to take this sword and beat- err, I mean, cut down Mister Chang?"

"Chang's lair is heavily guarded. It will be impossible to bring the Izayoi Edge Number 108. Therefore, I must use genwaku no jutsu(9) to infiltrate his fortress."

"Ge, genwaku no jutsu?"

"I have heard you called Rock, but I know that is not your real name. Would you honor me by revealing it?"

Rock floundered for a moment, taken off guard by the sudden question, and replied before he could even think the matter over properly.

"Rokuro... It's Okajima Rokuro. But why?"

"Rokuro-dono. I will take on your face and your name to destroy the evil of Chang Wai-San."

"What?"

Shadow Falcon raised one hand calmly, as though to alleviate Rock's fears.

"It will only be a fleeting moment. I promise you that I will not tarnish your reputation. I have merely observed from your conversations on the boat that you are in close relations with Chang Wai-San. Therefore, if I transform into you and approach Chang, I will be able to fool his guards. All I ask of you is to stay here until my mission is complete."

"..."

So this was what Falcon had meant by "acquiesce to my requests." But it wasn't really like he could refuse now.

Rock couldn't be sure of just how much of a threat this strange man would pose to Chang and the Triad, but the matter was out of his hands. He could only hope that Chang wouldn't let his guard down.

"You're going to transform into me? How?"

"At the pinnacle of the ninja arts, falsehoods become truths, and reality becomes a lie. The ninja technique utsushimi no jutsu(10) will make it easy to assume your visage."

With no further delay, Shadow Falcon immediately began taking out clothes and makeup in preparation.

...One hour later.

The ninja observed his face in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction.

"Perfect."

"..."

Rock couldn't find it in himself to say anything in reply.