The Forgotten Swordsman

"Scroll of the Demodragon"

**The Forgotten Swordsman** is the second episode of the fifth season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

## Synopsis

Karai searches for the Kuro Kabuto, claiming to be the rightful heir to the Foot Clan when she encounters an old rival.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* April O'Neil (Mae Whitman)
* Casey Jones  (Josh Peck)
* Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
* Fishface (Christian Lanz)
* Karai (Kelly Hu)
* Kavaxas (Mark Hamill)
* Leonardo (Seth Green)
* Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
* Raphael (Sean Astin)
* Rahzar (Clancy Brown)
* Shinigami (Gwendoline Yeo)
* Tatsu (Michael Hagiwara)
* Tiger Claw (Eric Bauza)

### Minor Characters

* Chompy Picasso
* Foot Cultists
* Foot Ninja (Christian Lanz)
* Mutagen Man (cameo)

## Plot

A grumpy Fishface dives into the freezing waters around Coney Island to retrieve Rahzar's dead body. He brings the corpse to Kavaxas, who is ordered by Tiger Claw to resurrect Bradford. Kavaxas obeys unquestioningly, as Tiger Claw still wields the Seal of the Ancients. Rahzar is resurrected, but Kavaxas states the Foot does not have the power to similarly resurrect the Shredder yet. To resurrect him they need both his mutated heart, through which new life can flow, and the Kuro Kabuto, which contains his mental energies. Tiger Claw orders Rahzar and Fishface to search for the Kuro Kabuto and bring it to him.

At the Turtles' lair Leo checks up on the team's search for information on their new enemy. April has managed to find a book on Demodragons from an occult bookstore, supplementing Donatello's spotty internet sources. Mikey and Raph are preoccupied with video games and punching the training dummy respectively, ignoring Leo's orders for a meeting in the dojo. He gets Mikey's attention through the tried and true parenting technique of threatening to revoke his TV privileges if he doesn't clean up the mess he's made of the lair. To his irritation Raph teases that Mikey better listen to the new sensei. April and Donnie announce that their sensors have picked up two mutants heading for Shredder's old lair, and Leo charges Raph and Mikey to investigate since they seem to have nothing better to do. Raph belligerently refuses to be bossed around, until Leo gives him a "lesson" using Splinter style nerve pinches. Raph irritably agrees and he and Mikey head off under orders of stealth and recon only.

In the city, Karai and Shinigami are tracking some of their renegade Foot Ninjas. A new mercenary has entered the game and taken control of Karai's ninjas while she was recovering from the Super Shredder's attack. Her mettle as leader has been found wanting and now the traitors are waiting to see who to follow. Shini spots one of them in an alley below, entering a car. The girls follow.

Miles away Raph and Mikey investigate Shredder's old lair and discuss the pressure the new, harsher Leo is under trying to fill Splinter's role. They're surprised to find the signals belong to Rahzar and Fishface on the roof searching for the missing Kuro Kabuto. Xever complains about being demoted to a mere errand boy only for a more intense than ever Rahzar to lecture him on the importance of the Kabuto. They head off to track it down, unaware of being overheard and followed by the Turtles.

Karai and Shini track their Ninjas to a warehouse and attack. They manage to defeat them but sense another pressence in the warehouse, a skilled ninja in an Oni mask moving almost too quickly and stealthily to be seen. The two prepare for a tough battle when the warrior takes Shinigami down. Karai recognizes the enemies style, and he steps out of the shadows to greet her as his former pupil.

Mikey and Raph follow Rahzar and Fishface, only for Rahzar to pick up their scent and ambush them. While dueling Raph demands to know what Hot Head wants with the Shredder's helmet and Fishface casually brags about Tiger Claw's plan to resurrect their master. Much to his irritation the Turtles escape by dropping a smoke bomb, but Rahzar is focused on sniffing out the Kabuto.

Karai identifies the mystery rival as her old teacher, Hattori Tatsu, and struggles to hold her own against him. Even resorting to her snake mutation does her no good against the experienced swordsman and only a wave of bats from Shinigami's hat distracts Tatsu long enough for them to escape. One of Tatsu's new ninjas observes that the girls are gone and the ninja strikes him for the entire clan's uselessness. He orders them to focus on retrieving the Kabuto and not to fail him. Shinigami and Karai to refuge in an alley, noting they'll need their friends help to seize the helmet and take back control of the Foot.

Back at the lair, Leo, Donnie and Casey discuss how they could defeat Kavaxas until Karai and Shini arrive to ask for their help. Though Casey votes to let the factions fight it out Mikey and Raph arrive and explain Tiger Claw and Kavaxas' plans. Shinigami explains that if they keep the helmet out of Tatsu's hands the ninjas will side with Karai, prompting April to ask why she would even bother. Karai explains the scale of the threat facing them, as if he gains leadership of the clan Tastu will come after all of them. They're only chance for survival is to take him down.

Rahzar and Fishface track the scent of the Kabuto thieves to an alleyway as Tatsu and one of his ninja pass through. Though Rahzar recognizes something familiar about Tatsu's scent, the two spring from their vantage point and attack. Or attempt to. Tastu casually knocks Xever out of the air, a shocked Bradford recognizing the style of a warrior he thought would never leave Japan. Tatsu explains he now has possession of the Kabuto and intends to carry on the Shredder's legacy. Grabbing the mutant by the ear, he promises him a place at his side *if* Rahzar decides to join him, but warns the offer will not stand for long. A contemplative Bradford watches as Tastu climbs into his car and drives off. Though Xever wants payback for his humiliation at the new player's hands, Rahzar wonders aloud if the offer might be worth considering.

The Turtles and their allies pull up outside one of the few Foot safe houses left in the city, Tatsu's headquarters, in the party wagon and prepare to launch an assault. Leo proposes he, Karai, Mikey and (to Mikey's adolescent delight and her amusement) Shinigami all go after the Kabuto, while the others watch for Shredder's goons. Karai wants to take on Tatsu personally, but Leo is adamant that this operation be stealth only.

Inside, Tatsu reverently removes the Super Shredder's Kuro Kabuto from it's resting place and declares himself the new leader of the Foot. Outside, Shini and Mikey take down the guards and turn off all the lights at the safe house's circuit breaker. Though the sudden darkness places the remaining guards on high alert, Leo and Karai easily deal with them and watch from a ledge as Tatsu swiftly returns the Kabuto to safety. The two lunge from above in a silent stealth attack, but the ninja snatches up his blade without even turning around and drives them back, somehow aware of their presences. He turns at the slightest creak as Mikey and Shini try to remove the Kabuto's box, but seems unfazed at finding himself surrounded and outnumbered.

Back at the Party Wagon, April senses Tatsu's Foot Soldiers approaching, and she, Raph, Donnie and Casey soon find themselves surrounded. Tatsu skillfully overpowers Leo, Karai, Shini and Mikey in a surprising display of skill. Karai is the only one to land a hit, knocking away Tatsu's mask and revealing, to Leo's shock, that their enemy is completely blind. Tatsu laughs and taunts the team that Karai did not trust them with the whole story of "poor" Haturi Tatsu: he was born blind with a sense of hearing so acute that he effectively possesses a sixth sense that renders the blackout tactic useless. Shredder recognized Tatsu's skills and the blind swordsman used the prejudice his other lieutenants had for his condition to work his way up to the place of his master's right hand. He angrily recalls that, after Karai recruited her own clan, she then attempted to assassinate him to remove any competition for control of the Foot. Leo is stunned as much by the fact she kept this from him as her actions. Karai admits to her arrogance, trying to reason with Tatsu and make him leave the Turtles alone, but he is determined to make them all pay.

Outside. April, Raph, Donnie and Casey manage to take down the Foot Soldiers, though at the expense of Don's wax job on the Party Wagon.

Tatsu take Mikey and Shini out of the fight by using their chain weapons to pull them within range of his powerful kicks, sending them splashing into his meditation pool. Enraged, Karai mutates, but is still unable to match her old teacher. Tatsu knocks her down and is about to finish her when he's struck by one of Casey's exploding pucks, temporarily disorientated by the force *and* the effect on his sense of hearing. The rest of the team attacks, but is equally helpless against the blind swordsman's skill, electrocuting Casey with his own taser, and setting Donnie up for almost being impaled by Raph's sai before knocking them both to the floor.

Leo and Karai get an idea. Leo throws Casey's explosive pucks at Tatsu, the explosions disorientating his senses again. Karai times her steps with each explosion, but Tatsu is still able to focus and block her sword strike... only to set himself up for Leo to land behind him and land the same nerve blow he used on Raph earlier. Caught off guard by the pain, Tatsu completely loses focus and control of his senses, truly blind for the first time in his life. Karai manages to finally beat her old teacher using her snake hands.

Karai changes back to her human form, and she informs her Ninjas that Tatsu was using them, just like the Shredder, the Foot Clan deserves a noble destiny,one with honor and asks Tatsu to go back to Japan before Rahzar, Tiger Claw and Kavaxas arrive, Kavaxas grabs Tatsu by the face and drains his soul making him dead. Kavaxas grabs the Kuro Kabuto and try to kill the Turtles and their allies, but April is able to use her psychic powers to create a shield to protect them, and Tiger Claw and Kavaxas leave. The gang must take Casey and Shinigami to a hospital.

Back underground, Kavaxas place the Kabuto on the top of various metal pieces to form Shredder's body. Now they only need his heart, and Tiger Claw informs that his men are on it. Kavaxas starts to eye the Seal of the Ancients that is in Tiger Claw's hand.

Casey and Shini are standing unconscious at the hospital floor only to be found by the paramedics. Karai apologizes for going after Tatsu, but the rest of the group promises to stop Kavaxas and Tiger Claw once and for all as a team.

## Trivia

* It's revealed that Rahzar did perish at the bottom of the Coney Island boardwalk while fighting Leatherhead in Requiem.
* At Donatello's Lab, April picked up a book about Demodragons from "Ray's Occult Bookshop." Ray's Occult Bookshop is seen on *Ghostbusters II*.
* Tatsu striking one of his own Foot ninja references similar abusive methods from the first movie.
* Though the concept of the blind martial artist has been around even longer than pop culture has existed, Tatsu's specific disability and fighting style is similar to Marvel Comics character Stick, Daredevil's mentor. Stick is the inspiration for Splinter's name.