Belladonna | Sano Manjiro

Prologue

It was spring, she remembers she was six, when her father dragged her to a dojo in the middle of Tokyo alongside her older brother with a grunt before promptly speeding off. Leaving them alone in front of the gates of the dojo.

She had asked. Why did you send them there?

"So you will start exercising" said her father back then. "Its shameful for me to have such a sickly daughter"

"What about brother then?" She doesn't know what kind of courage bubbled inside her because she never talked back to her father. "Why should he come? He- I can go alone, Brother should rest"

Her father scoffed harshly. The long scar that ran from his forehead to the edge of his mouth twitched as his mouth tugged into a harsh frown. He is always like this. Harsh and prickly. The smallest mistake could set him off. 

"To make him stronger" he spat out. "No heir of mine is that weak" the resentment dripping from his tone makes her shudder. Scary, her mind whispers and the air in her lungs started to leave her body.

Scaryscaryscary-

The hand around her tightened.

Sakura petals could be soon floating through the air as she absentmindedly registered the trembling hands of her brother. Its weird, she thinks. That it's obvious that her older brother is scared but he keeps putting on a brave face. Both of their Japanese is not the best. What with them just move to the country a mere three months ago. 

This foreign land with different language, different culture, different everything scares the both of them. They don't know where Mother went. Father had just grunted that she had gone somewhere and will never meet them again before he moved them to Japan, the homeland of their mother.

Their father is no more but a fleeting figure now. Hardly appearing and spending most of his time in Europe. 

It's only brother and her. Alone in this strange land full of people they don't know. 

She miss mother and her warm caress. The soft lulling sound of her voice as she cradle her to sleep. She miss mother. Why? Why did she have to go? Why did she leave them to him?

"Fratello" the language of their birth country slipped out of her naturally. "Is- what should we do now?"

Her older brother looked down on her. The expression he wore is something helpless as he, too, found himself utterly clueless. Japan is not Italy. He doesn't have any friends here. His Japanese is wonky and a bit weird to have a conversation with at best.

But his sister is here and he needs to do what every big brother have to do. "Do you want to run-"

"Hey what are you brats doing here!?"

.

Turns out the old grandpa that yelled at them is the owner of the dojo.

He's a grandpa with fearsome face but eyes full of warmth. The thick bushes between his nose and lips gave him the feeling of a fearsome beast. Although, she couldn't help feel comfortable when the older man had petted her head softly as he guided the both of them inside.

The white uniform he's wearing looks like something that she would see in a martial arts movie. Considering her father did send her to a martial arts dojo, she's not surprised.

"So you're the kids of that guy that called earlier?" said the Grandpa as he walks in front of them. Both of his hands are tucked behind him. "You guys looked foreign" he added.

Truthfully, she didn't really get what he's saying but her older brother had always been the smarter one and he too had a better grasp of Japanese than her. "Ah Yes" he said softly. "We're half Japanese from our mother side" as he said that, he gave the Grandpa a small bow. A sign of respect in Japan, if she remembers correctly.