Taboo

Prologue

The Tsuna family was wealthy and well respected. Living in one of the most profitable districts of Aikami, they ran a chain of clothing stores. The family was large and lived in a two story home. The walls were painted a vibrant red and the trim and shingles were black. Jack Tsuna and his wife, Kathrine Tsuna lived in the house with their five children. Sammy and Allee were the oldest while Kane and Ai were the younger, but not the youngest in the line. Their fifth child was names Mara. Mara Tsuna was shunned by the rest of her family because of something that happened long ago, something that had nothing to do with her.

As the story goes, when witches we're still in power over the land of Aikami, a man of the Tsuna family upset Hanamora, the wickedest witch of them all. She demanded he bow down to her or she would curse the family's namesake. He refused, so Hanamora hexed the man. According to her, every fifth child of the Tsuna family would be cursed to always bring death and misfortune to those around them. And as it went, the Tsuna man married and had seven children. By his fifth son's seventh birthday, his two eldest children had been hit by a fast moving carriage, killing them. By the time he was fifteen, the man's wife had caught an incurable disease and died shortly after. The man, hoping to stop to horrible chain of events, killed his fifth child, leaving him with only four of his children alive. But the curse didn't cease, and slowly but surely the maximum of children who were born slowly decreased to four.

The events were supposed to follow for Jack Tsuna as well, but his wife had unexpectedly harbored twins, Ai and Mara. Jack and Kathrine hoped that the curse, which had been dormant for so long, had died away from lack of purpose. But that wasn't the case. By her fifth birthday, Mara had sabotaged sixteen important deals, damaged $4,000,000 worth of merchandise, and had almost killed her oldest siblings, Allee and Sammy.

Because of Hanamora, there were noticeable differences between the family and their daughter, Mara. To begin with, the Tsuna family all had pale, slightly curly, blonde hair, almost as white as snow, and pasty white skin. Their hair was always cut short in a dignified manor, the males having it trimmed just above the ears while the female let it hang at their shoulders. The Tsuna family was always taller than average, and were lanky due to lack of physical activity. Most of the females even wore heels to create an even larger height difference. They all, except for Kathrine Tsuna, had vibrant blue eyes of some shade. Kathrine herself had green. They had plump lips, which the females usually coated in bright red lipstick, and a strong jawline. Mara, on the other hand, was so physically different that anyone on the street, as they also could discern a Tsuna from a crowd of people, could also easily point out which child was Mara. Because of the taboo, instead of the short, slightly curly, snow-like, pale blonde hair, she had long, waist length, straight, raven's feather-like, deep black hair. Instead of the pasty, pale skin, Mara had beautiful Latina skin. Mara was quite small, smaller than the average person her age and even smaller compared to the Tsuna average. Instead of the usual kaleidoscope of vibrant blue eyes, she had devilish, piercing red eyes. Her lips were thin and usually split because of the harsh air of their district, and her jawline was fragile and small.

When her seventh birthday rolled around, Mara had increased the number of deal failures by thirty and broken $2,000,000 worth of more merchandise. The Tsuna family was slowly becoming less respected, and without the connections they were planning on, their profit slowly decreased. The family was beginning to become desperate, cursing Mara because of something out of her control. Seven year old Mara had no idea why her family hated her, she thought it was how families were supposed to act.

Finally, after Mara accidentally knocked over a vase, resulting in Kane and Ai being cut by the glass shards, Jack and Kathrine Tsuna made a decision. Their child was too destructive. Not wanting to loose a perfectly good child, Kathrine Tsuna cleaned up her daughter, smiling sweetly the entire time. Mara liked the change in how her mother was treating her. After Kathrine had bathed Mara, Allee did her sister's hair so it fell into a long thick braid down her back. Ai gave Mara one of her best dresses, a knee length sky blue sundress, which was gladly excepted. Kane gave her thick work boots, though Mara didn't know what they were for, still put them on. Sammy put two bracelets that interconnected on her wrists. The bracelets were made of rope, and were a little tight, but Mara still liked the gift. Finally, Jack Tsuna brought her out into the car, not the wagon, but the fancy car she was never aloud to ride in. Mara sat down and smiled happily at her father, who drove with such excitement it bled into the vehicle. Mara was brought to a place, one with other children, ranging from slightly younger than her to much older than her, some dressed fancily like her, others wearing rags or dirtied clothing. All of them had bracelets like hers, which were tied to a wooden fence. Mara suddenly felt less exited with Sammy's gift, seeing as other children were wearing it.

Her father got out of the car, and let Mara out as well. He grabbed the middle of her bracelets forcefully and walked her over to the fence. As they neared, Mara saw the solemn expressions on the other children's faces, and knew something was wrong. For the first time that day, Mara wished everything was the way it was before, with her parents kicking her and her siblings ignoring her She struggled against her father's grip, but was tied to the fence with ease. There she saw the true fear and depression in the faces of those around her. The youngest children were crying as the oldest children tried to comfort them.

"Why are we here? Why are they crying?" Mara asked an older boy who was tied close to her. He turned, his brown hair, which had obviously not been cut recently, swishing back on forth on his forehead.

"Your parents, or the district, or whoever decided you were too much trouble. So they brought you here to the fence post. They'll have the slave traders come by any minute now. You, me, and every other kid here's gonna be auctioned off to rich people who don't wanna pay regularly for work." He said bitterly. Mara herself just turned away began to cry.

"Hey! Don't cry! Come on, it'll be ok." The boy shifted toward her, trying to comfort Mara. Mara sobbed ,despite his protests, until a large wooden cart pulled by an old car came by the fence. Two masked me came out of the car and began to open the door of the cart.

"Twenty two total, thirteen males, nine females, District Seventeen. Good haul this time." The first one said in a gruff voice. The second man nodded before starting to untie the first children on the edge of the fence. An older girl tried to make a run for it, but the second man caught her bindings and shot her.

"Change it to eight females if this one doesn't make it by the Capitol." The second man said shaking the limp body of the girl, her hair matching the blood coming from her side. The first man grunted in reply before they continued to load the children into the cart. No one tried to run after that, and the girl didn't make it to the Capitol.