The Ties That Bind
Prologue
By Girl-chama

She began to run a hand through her auburn hair only realizing too late that it was caught in ponytail and she stopped, crying out, "Ouch!" From across the room, on the bottom level seating of the classroom she occupied, a giggle was heard. "Be quiet!" Mia snapped, and then regretted it.

The child that had given the giggle responded to her, but not before flipping her off and dropping into her chair. The young girl was certainly a hellion; dirty, wearing clothes with holes every where, and she swore! She was only ten years old and she swore!

"What am I going to do?" she thought aloud, regretting her actions for the umpteenth time that day.

"Look," the girl spoke, standing from her chair and making her way to the desk that Mia sat behind. "I know you don’t want to be bothered with me, and I sure as hell," Mia gasped and the girl rolled her eyes but continued with out missing a beat, "don’t want to be stuck with you. So I’ll just be on my way and we can pretend that you never saw me, all right?"

"No," Mia said as the girl placed her gloved hand on the doorknob. "Sit down. Now." With a sigh the girl rolled her eyes again and opened the door, bolting after once more giving Mia the international gesture of peace, love, and happiness. "Damnit!" Mia swore and jumped to her feet with such a force that the chair behind her slid into the wall. "Grandfather, I’ll be back!" she called and darted into the hallway looking right and left.

She was running, though not very intelligently. Mia had caught up to her within a few moments and caught the little girl by the hands. Unfortunately she could not restrain her feet and the girl kicked her squarely in the shin. Fortunately, this only caused Mia to clamp down tighter on her prey. The teenager had a mighty resolve that was not easily weakened.

"Damnit! Let me go, you bitch!" the girl screamed, while writhing and thrashing wildly.

Other classroom doors began to open and the instructors would peek out at the passersby until Mia would casually say, "Psychology project," and then continue on her way. Needless to say, retrieving the child took more time than it had chasing her down, and when she was done she was grateful her own grandfather was not having a class.

"Grandfather" she called out and the old man entered from his office, very conveniently connected to the lecture classroom they were standing in, a placid look on his face as he approached the duo. The younger of the two girls was still screaming at the top of her lungs and thrashing wildly.

"LET ME GOOOO!" she screamed wildly and stomped on Mia’s foot, causing the young woman to do so. She bolted, her brown ponytail flapping behind her as she ran for the door, not entirely sure where to go if she did get out. The old man, the one Mia called grandfather, caught her though and she tried to thrash once more.

He, however, had no problem maintaining a firm grasp on her wrists and did not struggle with her. Only when she spit on his shirt did he sit down, pull her over his knee and give her a spanking that left her amazingly quieted in the corner.

With a sigh the man moved to his older granddaughter and said, "We can not abandon a family member in their time of need, no matter how much we want to."

The seventeen year-old girl found herself resolved by his calm aura and sturdy voice. He returned to his office and continued working on a paper, a professor of romantic literature and mythology. Mia looked to the young girl that was pouting in the corner and stood from the desk before moving to her.

"Makoto?" she asked quietly and the girl pulled her hands over her ears, humming loudly to block out whatever words she had to say. "Makoto!" she called out again, this time louder, and began to pull the girl’s hands off.

"Mia," her grandfather’s warning tone interrupted. She stood with a disdainful smirk at her younger cousin and made her way to his office. "If she wants anything she’ll let us know, and then we’ll take the first steps with her. Until then come here and read over this with me."

Mia obeyed her grandfather, glancing only once to Makoto before moving behind him and looking at the computer screen over his shoulder. On it various characters were displayed and she read over them before giving the signal for her grandfather to continue. He did so and the screen flashed, showing one large character that took up the screen in its entirety.

"Virtue?" Mia asked, not familiar with any legend this might deal with. More characters rolled by as he pressed the key again and each time Mia read them aloud, "Wisdom… Trust… Justice… Life… Grandfather, what are these characters from?"

"Mia, there is something that I have been wishing to discuss with you for some time now, but I haven’t had the opportunity. The way things have been going," and he gestured to Makoto through the window blinds in his office, showing that she was writing obscenities on his chalkboard, "it doesn’t seem as if they will let up any time soon. So I must tell you this now, and you must learn it. It’s not something to take lightly and one day your very life may depend on the knowledge I am about to share with you."

"Grandfather?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Don’t ask questions! Just listen!"

The tale that he told her sounded like one of the fairy tales he would teach his class, one of the ones she was fond of hearing. It told of a demon lord, a powerful and malevolent armor that he bore, and of a struggle for the earth. Finally it spoke of lone warrior monk, the head of his clan, stepping forward when all other means had failed. He vanquished the demon lord and was able to break his powerful armor into nine separate pieces, each with a different human trait. After his task was completed he simply vanished and was never heard from again.

When Grandfather was done speaking he handed a small bound book to her and allowed her to sift through the pages while he stared out at the rambunctious Makoto. She was rolling back and forth in his chair across the floor now. At least she wasn’t marking more words on the board…

The old man sighed mentally as he clasped his hands behind his back and thought, ‘What am I going to do with you little Makoto?’

"Wouldn’t it have been easier to have it translated and then read the translation?" she asked, looking up from one page she was hunched over. The old man shook his head and she looked back down.

"I didn’t want to lose any information to the translation. The dialect is similar to modern, and would have been easy enough for you or me to read. Which brings me to my next topic. I will be spending more time with Makoto to see if I can tame her wilder side and I want you to translate that text onto disk. I trust you more than any of the flunkies they have running around here…" The old man turned from his granddaughter and looked back to the newest addition of his family with a sad smile. "To lose your parents at such a young age must be hard on anyone, and then being sent to people that don’t want you or don’t have time for you."

Mia cradled the text to her chest protectively as she stood and moved to the window, saying, "Why didn’t they just send her to a boarding school? Our family is wealthy enough…"

"No school would take her, and when the family found out they didn’t want anything to do with her anymore. One day when you have children of your own, you will understand…" Mia became hushed as her grandfather stepped out of the office and toward the rebellious little girl.

Mia watched through the partially opened shades as Makoto stopped the spinning chair when he came near, tensing visibly. She could barely hear his comforting voice, remembering his own words of kindness when she had first moved to Japan to study. It had been very different from France, but with his company the transition had not been nearly as rough. Makoto was now eyeing him and the hand he extended to her warily. He shrugged and Makoto glanced to the office window, causing Mia to step away quickly. Something about being caught, even if it was by a less than innocent pre-pubescent child, did not bode well with her.

Makoto looked from the window, smirking after catching her older cousin and then looked back to the hand of the old man.

"Fine. But don’t think we’re friends or nothing now. I’m just hungry."

"All right," he said, and held the chair while she climbed out, much to her dismay.

"And don’t think you can just try and baby me, because I ain’t gonna have it. I can take care of myself." Just to prove so, she let go of his hand and made her way out of the door, only waiting on him because he knew the way to the teacher’s lounge where the vending machines were, and because he had money.

The next year passed uneventfully, that being comparatively so considering that a juvenile delinquent had just become the next addition to a very prominent family of the teaching community in Shinjuku. Makoto adapted well to her new standard of living, one that she had been familiar with at the time of having parents.

The first few weeks of living with Mia and Grandfather had turned out to be very informative. They were informed of how much Makoto liked to fight, spit, swear, sneak out, and stay up at all hours of the night. Mia had been ready to pull out every single strand of hair, but Grandfather had a seemingly endless supply of patience, and somewhere within the third week they made a break through.

One of the few nights that Makoto had actually gone to bed on time and gotten to sleep she woke the rest of the house up screaming for her mother and father in her sleep. Fortunately all of the bedrooms were in the same hall and they were able to get to her quickly. Mia had woken her up, only to have the girl cling to her in such a pitiful state of desperation that the older girl could not bear to turn her away. Grandfather had watched from the door, nodding his head, and then left to go back to bed, leaving Mia and Makoto to their silent bonding.

After that things were still tense, but Makoto gradually began to let go of her anger, resentment, and bitterness.