It was late one night during one of April's visits when the turtles and Splinter first heard of the one named Ichigo Kurosaki. Apparently April had been spacing out off and on and anxiously checking her cell phone from time to time before finally getting a text that almost had her vibrating in her seat from excitement.

This of course didn't go over looked by Splinter or the guys, who almost always tended to watch their human friends like they sometimes watched their TV programs. With undivided attention and unblinking stares. After all, if something unusual was going on with their human friends they liked to generally know every detail that they could wring from them.

They wouldn't be much of a adoptive family to their human's if they didn't make sure that they were okay at least twenty or so times a day.

"Is everything alright April? You have been anxiously watching you're phone all night." Splinter asked curiously causing the woman to jump a little bit in her seat and then look at him wide eyed, almost as if she had temporarily forgotten where she was and just who was present.

"Oh. Oh! no, no, no- Everything is fine just. I'm texting with an old friend. S-She mentioned something a week or so ago about maybe coming to town to visit since we didn't really get to see each other the last time I was out at the farm. Cause of the Foot attacking and all." April explained with a slightly embarrassed flush as Splinter twitched his whiskers and then gave her a small amused smile.

"You must miss you're friend quite a bit then."

"I do. And at the same time you guys keep me distracted enough to not miss her overly much."

"Have we been spending too much time with-" Leo started to ask when April let out a loud sounding animalistic growl than effectively startled him into silence as her phone started to ring.

April gave him a small glare and placed a finger to her lips for a second and then hit the green button on her cell and then pressed another and grinned as a husky sounding voice greeted her, "Hello angel. How are you this wonderfully rainy day?"

"Hello Ichi, I'm good. Sitting here with my other friends-"

"Oh! Sweet Whiskers and his boys?" Splinter blinked at the odd nickname. He'd never been called Sweet Whiskers before. And though the name was somewhat embarrassing to him, it was also pleasing as well. Mikey snorted as he clapped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from outright howling with laughter as Leo and Ralph flat out stared at the phone in horror.

"Yes, Sweet Whiskers and his boys," April confirmed with a barely suppressed laugh before asking, "Wanna say hi?"

"Hell yeah. Hey fella's, taking care to keep dry in this weather? Taking care of my gal pal? She's prone to really, really bad colds."

"That was one time-"

"I had to drag you're butt to the hospital because I found you unconscious, and suffering from a near one hundred and five degree fever. So while it may have been only one time, my question is still valid."

"Ichi-" April growled out in a playful tone.

"What?" The other female said in a slightly defensive manner. "You can't take that tone with me! You'd be dead without me antique freak."

"Monster." April griped. The other merely huffed a soft laugh before April said, "So...are you going to be coming to the city?"

There was a groaning sound from the other end of the line before April asked, "What happened?"

"Two words. Widow Marsh."

"Uh-oh. So what did she do this time?"

"Well, she's been suffering from dementia lately and for some ungodly reason that I have yet to fathom, tends to think that I'm a demon every time she sees me. And has recently taken it upon herself to burn me out of my home." There was the sound of sirens in the background.

"Please tell me that you're home isn't currently on fire Ichi." April asked in a slightly pleading tone.

"Alright, I won't tell you."

"Ichi!"

"Calm down April, the fire is contained. And my home is going to be fine."

"Where are you right now? Waiting on the firemen?"

"Nah. I'm out in the frigging woods." Came the somewhat annoyed reply.

"What are you doing out there?"

"Hunting the fire happy widow. I'm worried that the damned woman is going to run off somewhere and wind up falling and injuring herself."

"And how is that going for you?"

"Better than expected, I think she forgot to cover her tracks this time."

"How long have you been tracking her?" April asked curiously as a small frown marred her face.

"Bout thirty minutes or so... Christ that woman covers a lot of ground when she's fleeing in abject terror." April's friend muttered in an almost awed tone that had April reaching up to cover her mouth just to keep herself from laughing at her friend.

Splinter's lips were twitching as well while his sons continued to soak up the conversation between April and her friend out of curiosity.

From the sound of it, he could tell that April's other friend seemed to be a very eccentric, if somewhat oddly lovable person. Knowing such people was an rarity in their world. Mainly due to the fact that they didn't do well in exceedingly violent life styles.

Finally after several heartbeats of silence Ichi asked, "Hey April, do you remember how we met?"

It seemed like a little bit of a strange question to them. But April merely smiled fondly. "It's a little hard to forget. You had just moved to town, at the age of thirteen. You're dad and two sisters were..." April's voice trailed off as her expression became sad.

"Yeah. And I wasn't doing so well."

"You were doing better than you realize. Not many thirteen year old's can graduate from high school with honors at such a young age, and start college courses in the middle of having to pack up and relocate after being orphaned. Plus you had gotten yourself legally emancipated, was left a small fortune, and used it really wisely to start your own art gallery and several businesses."

Ichi made a low humming sound. "I remember."

"So do I," April said gently. "You always excelled at everything you did."

"I remember you telling me afterwards that you had just come home from college to spend some time with your dad."

"Yeah, he wasn't doing too well because of the cancer. I had decided to take a semester or two off to take care of him. I had just gotten home that day," April's smile returned for a moment. "I remember getting out of my car and finding this strawberry blond-ish orange haired punk carrying groceries into the house for my dad. I didn't think much of you then." April said with a slight shrug.

"Really? I must not have left much of an impression if that's what you thought."

"Well, we didn't exactly speak. You carried the groceries in, my dad payed you, and then you waved at him and left. Which was why what happened later was so...peculiar. We were asleep in the house later that evening, I hadn't been feeling that great for the past few days prior and dad exhausted so easily..."

Ichi hummed again. "You were both asleep when someone broke in and barred both of your doors from the outside so that you wouldn't be able to escape. They cased the place and then turned on the gas in the kitchen and lit a match as they left."

"They were hoping that the house would explode." April snarled angrily.

"I'm aware."

"The house went up faster than expected. It was practically an inferno. I could hear my dad calling out form down the hall and tried to open my bedroom door. But I couldn't. I yelled and screamed for him to help me-"

Ichi swore softly and then muttered, "He heard you April, he just couldn't get out to help you."

"I-I know. It's just-"

"Raw."

"Yeah."

"That's understandable, kid."

"Anyways, I must have blacked out from the smoke. Dad had already fallen silent and I couldn't breathe..."

"I saw the fire and smoke from my place. My bedroom window always had a nice view of everything."

"I never asked how long it took you to get to us."

"Not long. Once I saw the flames and smoke I figured that something bad must have happened and didn't bother staying put. You guys live well over two miles from my place, and it took me less than ten minutes to reach you."

"You kicked in the door downstairs-"

"The heat and flames didn't bother me much."

"Ichi, you were barefoot. You're hair, arm, and skin burned. And not minor burns either. You suffered some second degree burns and some third and fourth degree burns. On you're face, you're palms, you're arm and shoulder and back. Even on the bottom of you're feet. You had to have skin graphs! Those things are painful! You're lucky that you didn't suffer any nerve damage."

"It wouldn't have mattered even if I did. You and you're dad were trapped and needed help. Besides, it isn't like I've never had nerve damage before. Those burns didn't so mush as phase me."

"I know, I've seen some of your other scars. Did I ever ask about those?"

"You did. But I don't like to talk about em." Ichi said in a low, soft tone.

"Don't tell me that you got them from a run in with some yakuza or something." April huffed out a laugh. Ichi didn't seem to care to dignify her comment with a response of any kind. Which had April's laughter abruptly dying and her eyes going wide as she snatched up her cell and all but shouted. "Ichi! Do not tell me that you ran afoul of some yakuza!"

Ichi hummed and then said, "Okay, I won't tell you..." April sputtered as her friend went on to say, "By the way, the next time you have any trouble from the guys in the black PJ's, and don't bother pretending that you don't know what I'm talking about, let me know. It may have been a while since I really messed someone up- but if it's for you, Whisker's or his boys- I don't think I'd have much of a problem dropping a few bodies. Now I gotta go, I've finally cornered the menace. Tell Sweet Whisker's and the boys that I said 'bye'."

"Ichi-" April started to say something but the soft click from the other end of the line before it went dead was indication enough that the conversation was over as April just stared at the phone in her hand with a look of shock on her face before muttering, "What the hell?" As Splinter sighed.

It looked either as if April's friend was more than she seemed or they had just unwittingly learned that they had adopted another human. He wasn't sure if it was one, the other, or a combination of the latter.

Either way, he and his sons would be finding out.