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Kakera is an anthropomorphic rat who lives in Japan in the world of Usagi Yojimbo. He has only appeared, thus far, in crossover stories involving the Ninja Turtles.
History[]
Kakera first meets Miyamoto Usagi and Murakami Gennosuke when they wash downriver after escaping from some Neko Ninja. He approaches them from the bushes after they reach land, and they advance on him with their weapons drawn, thinking him to be a threat. He takes them out with a simple smack from his walking stick, and wonders how two samurai could be so unskilled that he could do that, but then excuses that they may have been worn out from their trip in the river. He talks about how expected them further downriver, but since the water level was lower than usual, he thought to look for them where they are now. This confuses the two samurai, who think he's babbling incoherently. Kakera asks for their names and introduces himself, then suddenly invites them to his village for dinner.
After they eat, Kakera explains that the Neko Ninja have his village encircled for the last two days and nobody could get in or leave the area except for Usagi and Gen. They prod into what they're after, and he reveals that they're after him. He wants to wait for the other samurai that were summoned to arrive so he can explain further; Gen says they weren't summoned and that he's got them confused with two other samurai, but Kakera says that the summoning can take any number of methods, usually just what are marked off as coincidences but are indeed fate. One of Kakera's retainers suddenly enters with a furoshiki in hand, and says that this and many others like it were found along the riverbed. Kakera opens it to find the severed head of a samurai. Kakera realizes that they require more help, and Usagi and Gen alone will not be a match for their numbers. He declares that they need ninja to fight ninja and has his vassal fetch four turtles out of a nearby irrigation canal, telling Usagi and Gen that they will witness why the Neko Ninja are after him.
After the turtles have been acquired, Kakera pours some water over them, and performs a chant. From out of the four ordinary turtles suddenly come the Ninja Turtles Shades of Green, Chapter 1
The Turtles stand off against the strangers in their new surroundings until Leonardo recognizes Usagi and the Turtles realize this is who he'd been telling them about. Usagi introduces them to Kakera and Gen and then Kakera tells them why he's brought them. Leo agrees to help, but Kakera thinks he might need more ninja, saying he should try frogs next time.
A guard outside notices two Neko Ninja spying in the village, and is killed for his trouble. The Turtles, Usagi, and Gen rush out to stop them. Usagi kills one when he refuses to give up, and Leo trails the other, Eiji, back to a ruined temple, where the Neko Ninja are holed up. He runs back to inform the others.
The next morning, there are many more guards around the village and a reinforced fence to decrease the changes of more Neko Ninja showing up, but Kakera laments that the guards are just farmers and not warriors; they can only go so far. Usagi asks if he just can't use his "wizardy" to find out what the Neko are planning, but Kakera says what he does isn't magic, he's just "in sympathy with the tides of nature". Raphael points out that it's kind of like "zen", to which Kakera agrees it's similar.
While the Turtles, Usagi, and Gen contrast their origins, Kakera interrupts them to point out a house on fire to the south. They stop the owner, one of the farmer-guards, from rushing in and potentially losing his life at the cost of attempting to recover his belongings, then, with Leo still not having returned, the other Turtles, Gen, and Usagi rush off to stop the fire and run into more Neko Ninja.
While they are distracted, more Neko Ninja, lead by Gunji, attack Kakera. He warns the farmers to stay back while he tries to fight them off, but luckily Leo arrives just in time to help. Unfortunately, after taking out a few Neko, he is blinded by some metsubushi and Kakera is taken. Shades of Green, Chapter 2
Kakera is drugged and placed in a wagon beneath a secret chamber under a pile of wood, and then Gunji, Neko Ninja jōnin Chizu, and a handful of other Neko Ninja masquerade as peasants taking the wood pile somewhere. Partway through as Chizu stops at a spring, Gunji turns on her, and the other ninja are revealed to be loyalists to him. Usagi arrives and interrupts the fight, with Gunji siccing his men on him. Usagi kills the genin and Chizu kills Gunji. Chizu recognizes Usagi as someone who has aided their clan before, revealing to him that she is the sister of the late prior jōnin, Shingen. She kisses Usagi and leaves, letting him retrieve the unconscious Kakera.
Later, the groups say their goodbyes and Kakera returns the Turtles to their home. Shades of Green, Chapter 3
Some time later, Usagi comes across Kakera in a cave, and he tells him that he requires help with the massive amount of earthquakes that have been occurring. Usagi gathers up four turtles and Kakera recites the chant again, but this time summons a quartet of Ninja Turtles from a different reality. Not knowing Usagi and Kakera, they attack, thinking them to be evil mutants, while Usagi realizes that these aren't his friends as he knows them. Kakera yells for them to stop, and they can all suddenly understand one another despite them still speaking their own respective languages.
Kakera explains that they are needed to help he and Usagi deliver what looks like a small stone, but is actually a fragment of Kanameishi, a great boulder holding the giant earthquake-causing catfish Namazu in place. With even a sliver of the boulder broken off, Namazu, while still trapped, is still free to make the ground quake. Opposing the restoration of the boulder is a body-hopping demon who fancies himself the servant of the gods, Jei.
The Turtles, Kakera, and Usagi make their way to Kashima Shrine, where Kanemeishi is located. Jei and his hired brigands attack before they can reach it, and Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Kakera face off against the hires while Leonardo and Usagi hold off Jei. Just as Kakera is about to restore the boulder, another earthquake happens, knocking everyone for a loop. Kakera begins the chanting that will allow the fragment to return to the stone, but Jei inches ever closer. Jei overpowers Leo and Usagi and is just about to strike down Kakera, when he finishes the chant and placing the stone together in place causes an eruption that knocks everyone out and damages Kakera's hand. Jei's broken spear is all that remains of him. Kanameishi is sunken even further into the ground, pinning Namazu harder and leaving less of the boulder exposed above ground.
Kakera sends the Turtles back to their world, and Usagi and Kakera part ways, until the rat has need for his help again Namazu or the Big Fish Story
Abilities[]
- Nature empathy - Kakera specifically states that his abilities are not magical, but he is simply "in sympathy with the tides of nature". Raphael likens it to zen. With this ability, Kakera is aware of shifting destinies that bring help to his metaphorical doorstep. He is also capable of reciting chants that have a host of uses: summoning the Ninja Turtles to his world using ordinary turtles as a proxy as well as returning them home, and restoring Kanameishi are two explicitly shown. It is also implied that he is the reason that the English-speaking Turtles and Japanese-speaking denizens of his world can understand each other.
Trivia[]
- Kakera is Japanese for "splinter."
- Brian Maillard is credited in the original casting sheets for "Samurai Tourist" as Kakera, but never appears in the series. He is, however, alluded to in the episode, when Usagi says that he traveled to that world with help from a friend's ritual.