Leorai

Leorai is the het ship between Leonardo and Karai from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
Leonardo is the first of the Turtles that Karai meets. While she attacks and fights with him often, she never does him any serious harm and just enjoys sparring with a worthy opponent. Leonardo, in turn, was both confused by and attracted to Karai (as shown in the episode "New Girl in Town"). She is dangerous, but Leo believed that there was some good in her but she betrayed him. She seems to be deceitful and manipulative in The Alien Agenda, using Leo's feelings for her against him, especially in his time of need. In Enemy of My Enemy, she returns, seeking information about the Kraang from the turtles. This time, instead of wanting to fight the turtles, she decides to make a truce with the turtles in order to defeat the Kraang ship. She goes against the Shredder's orders because she knows they'll all die if they don't set aside their differences and take down the ship. At first, the turtles, mainly Leo, are very skeptical of her and decline her REQUEST for a truce, but after she leads it away from the Shellraiser, they comply. Because Leo saved her and allowed her to speak to all of the Turtles, Karai develops some friendship for him. However, because he and his brothers tried to attack her father, the truce was called off and her trust in him was left now uncertain. Now she's vengeful towards the turtles and is willing to do whatever it takes to take them down. It was revealed in the Season 1 finale that Karai is Splinter's lost daughter (Miwa), who was raised by the Shredder. Leo seems more aggravated with Karai as she wants to hurt him and his loved ones more often, he tells her that her vendetta is with him not his family. In Follow The Leader Splinter told Leo that Karai is his daughter. Near the end of The Manhattan Project, Part 1, Leo told Karai that Splinter is her true father but she neglects it. In The Wrath of Tiger Claw, Karai was thinking about what Leo said about Splinter being her true father. When Karai finally realized that Splinter is her father, she betrayed Tiger Claw in trying to terminate the Turtles and Splinter, which caused Tiger Claw to take Karai BACK to Shredder to be locked in a cell. In Vengeance is Mine, Leo and his brothers staged a rescue operation to get Karai from Shredder. It worked well and Karai was reunited with Splinter. When Leo and Michaelangelo were training, Michaelangelo threw one of his water balloons at Leo, which made Karai giggle. When Karai was planning on taking down Shredder, Leo wanted to come along with her. Karai came CLOSE to Leo and temporarily blinded him with a smoke egg. Splinter, Leo and his brothers went to rescue Karai again. Leo was about to rescue Karai when all of sudden Shredder broke the chain that was holding Karai's cage, which caused her to fall into the mutagen. When she becomes a mutant, Leo appears to be one of the only people (aside from Splinter) that can help briefly restore Karai's mind by reminding her of who she is. In the episode Tale of the Yokai, the baby Karai met Leo, who had traveled back in time.

In season 3, the turtles search for Karai. Aided by a DNA tracker that Donnie has whipped up, the Turtles are able to locate and identify some serpent scales belonging to Karai where Splinter last saw her. Soon the search leads to the warehouse after a fight with Shredder’s henchmen. However the Kraang droids are already inside the warehouse,and Karai fortuitously takes them down, saving the Turtles some trouble. The boys immediately try to communicate with Karai sans Donnie, who asserts that Karai is losing her sentience by the hour. However, Leo persists in communicating with her, eventually causing Karai to utter his name from memory and effortlessly shapeshift into her human form (still remaining a mutant). Leo asks her to return to their home with them, but she utters that she's too dangerous. Just then, Fishface and Rahzar arrive, Rahzar having picked up a whiff of the Turtles, stunning Karai with a taser. Leo yells, “Karai, no!” and the Turtles leapt to save her but was kept at bay with a poisonous smoke bomb. What both Steranko and Zeck don't realize is that Donnie had planted some Spy-Roaches on Steranko during their fight with him. Down at the docks, the meeting goes down as scheduled, Zeck and Steranko proposing that the Shredder provide them with a safe passage out of the city in exchange for Karai's well-being. His proposal of allowing Zeck and Steranko to leave this encounter alive if they give him Karai is interrupted when Leo shouts out, making the predominant offer: If they free Karai, he'll let all of them walk away with their lives. Both Leo and his brothers leap down to battle the Shredder while Fishface and Zeck face off and Rahzar and Steranko face off, Karai caught in the middle of their confrontation. The Turtles manage to put up a good fight against the Shredder as they score some hits on him, Mikey, Raph, and Leo managing the majority of them. Leaving his fight with the Shredder, Leo manages to kick both Rahzar and Steranko away from Karai and manages to free her from her restraints with a Katana. He then whispers to her to flee while she has the opportunity, whereupon Karai motions to the east toward the city and utters the word “comet” before heeding Leo and escaping into the ocean. Leo begins to puzzle over what she could've meant by that word, while the Shredder rants about the departure of his surrogate daughter. Leo quickly throws smoke bombs in his face, allowing himself and his brothers to escape, leaving the Shredder thoroughly upset.

Continuing from the previous episode “Serpent Hunt”, the Turtles discuss what Karai could have met by the word comet that she told Leo, Casey wondering if a comet is hurtling towards Earth and April suggesting a hideout. On the internet, Donnie has managed to find three locations in the city with the word comet in them: Comet Cleaners, Argosy Theater (a movie with the word comet in it is playing there), and the Comet Coaster at Coney Island, so the team decides to split up into pairs to check each location. Donnie distributes Retro-mutagen sprayers to everyone just in case they see her but warns them that the Retro-mutagen may have no effect, as Karai is a special mutant.

At Coney Island, Leo and Mikey are searching for Karai, but they are having no luck finding her like the others. The two then hear a noise behind them, which was made by Karai, who rapidly slithers into the Ghost House. Leo and Mikey pursue her into the building, getting spooked by the stuff that pops out at them. Eventually, they spot Karai again and chase her into the Hall of Mirrors. Leo manages to succeed in making her calm down, until Zeck and Steranko arrive and she is scared off. Zeck and Steranko manage to spot Mikey hiding and they threaten to kill the others in the van if he doesn't come out. Leo tells Mikey to stall for time so that he can pick the lock of the van.

Karai comes to their aid and makes Rocksteady crush the vile. They split up and fight the mutants. Rocksteady managed to hold his own while Bebop used his cloaking device to cloak himself. Bebop was defeated when Donnie threw a smoke bomb at him, revealing himself and allowing Donnie and Casey to score a hit. Rocksteady was defeated when a roller coaster hit him, sending him in the air... and landing on Bebop. With the villains defeated, Leo calls out for Karai. Leo tries to change her back but it doesn't work with Donnie reminding him of how special Karai is. Leo asks her to come with them but Karai says no because she is losing her mind and is becoming more dangerous. Leo asks why she wanted them to find her, she explains that she wants to say goodbye to all of them and then jumped into the sea much to Leo's despair. The gang got home sad because of their loss.

Later, Karai had gone back to the city trying to scavenge, but a cage falls on her. It is revealed that Bebop and Rocksteady captured her for Shredder. Shredder is pleased and he promises to cure her mutation, but Karai isn't happy about this.

In season 4 Leo and Karai are obviously growing closer than in Season 3 and before.

In season 5 Leo and Karai's relationship has been hinted more through the episodes. They stood closer and their interactions were no longer lethal and deadly compared to season 1 and 2.

Fanon
Due to Leonardo's interest in Karai, the ship sailed. When the two became adoptive siblings, the concern of shipping them arose, and some abandoned the ship. Many held onto the ship, however, because a lot about their relation hadn't been confirmed. On AO3, Leorai is Leonardo's third or fourth most popular ship, and Karai's #1 most popular ship. The ship rivals Leonardo's other ships with his brothers.

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