Satsuki's smile weighed heavily on her face as she ate her dinner.
It had only been a little over a week since her father had told her about her little sister, and her wedding dress, and these strange things called 'life fibers'. It was quite a lot for a five-year-old to take in, and before she could even ask any questions, he had vanished, without explanation.
When Satsuki asked her mother, Ragyo Kiryuin, about what happened to her father, Ragyo just said that she'd understand when she was older.
"Daddy said so many awful things about mommy" Satsuki thought angrily as she ate her carefully prepared steak. "It isn't nice to lie. There's no way that mom would ever do anything like that".
Satsuki was smart enough to know that the world wasn't perfect, but Satsuki was still an eternal optimist; she always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.
On the other end of the table, Ragyo at her veal in one of her most elaborate white dresses, but neither her favorite dress nor her favorite food could lighten her mood. As much as she hated to admit it, Ragyo missed her late husband, Soichiro. With him gone, Ragyo no longer had a living plaything for her bedroom, and she was already growing quite bored with her selection of toys. She could always use one of her servants, but that would be too easy. She needed someone that she could conquer.
"Mom" Satsuki said diligently. "I have finished my dinner. May I go to my room now?"
Ragyo glanced over to her dark haired daughter for a few moments before a smile skulked its way onto her face.
"Actually, why don't you sleep with me tonight?" asked Ragyo, her glowing rainbow hair masking her dark intentions. "There's something I want to show you".
"Okay!" Satsuki said excitedly. Ragyo was so busy with work that Satsuki was excited to get this rare chance to bond with her mother, even if her glowing hair made it a bit hard to sleep. If she was lucky, Satsuki might even be able to ask her about the mean things Soichiro said.
As Satsuki ran off to change into her pajamas, Ragyo called over her butler, Mitsuzo Soroi.
"Tell everyone to take the rest of the night off" Ragyo said to him. "And don't come back until morning".
"Yes Milady" the man humbly replied back.
The sun came in through the windows of the master bedroom the next morning and struck Satsuki straight in the eyes. She was already awake, however; she hadn't been able to sleep at all last night.
As soon as she had gotten to her mother's room, Ragyo forced Satsuki to take off her clothes, and started rubbing the tiny girl all over. It made Satsuki feel very uncomfortable, but Ragyo said that she was just giving her a motherly massage, and not to worry about it.
This excuse calmed Satsuki down until her mother started licking her as well. She couldn't help but cry out when Ragyo started doing that, but her mother just told her to stop whining. When Ragyo finally lost interest enough to go to sleep, Satsuki laid there covered in sweat and spit with her eyes wide open until the sun rose, when she got up to give herself a bath.
"Why did she do that?" Satsuki said as she scrubbed her skin as roughly as she could. Quickly, she reminded herself that it was just a massage; Ragyo was just doing that because she loved her.
Satsuki got dressed and ready for school and walked to the front door where Mitsuzo was waiting to take her to kindergarten. Before she could make it though, Satsuki suddenly felt a cold hand rest upon her shoulder.
"Keep our special massage a secret, okay? Otherwise, mommy won't be happy, and if I'm not happy, no one's happy. Isn't that right?" Ragyo whispered in Satsuki's ear.
"Y-yes mom" Satsuki said back, slightly frightened.
At kindergarten, Satsuki tried again to sit next to Nonon, a charismatic pink-haired girl with a pet monkey on her head, but Nonon was too surrounded by admirers to even get close. Instead, she sat near the front of the classroom, near the teacher's desk.
"Oh, hello Satsuki" said the elderly woman behind the teacher's desk. "You look tired; were you up playing last night?"
Satsuki thought for a few moments before nodding silently. She didn't think she was lying to her teacher.
"Well, try not to fall asleep like an underachiever; today's a very important day, and you need to pay attention" explained the teacher.
The old woman coughed loudly to get the class' attention, walked to the front of the room, and pulled down a poster in front of the chalkboard. At the top of the poster it read 'Off-Limits: Keeping Your Body Safe'.
Even though she was exhausted, Satsuki felt like she learned more that day than she had in her entire life. She had learned all about 'bad touches' and evil people who would want to touch her body against her will. Her teacher had told her that if anyone touches her, especially in her private places, to tell an adult immediately.
Satsuki was very confused. Her mother had touched her almost exactly like her kindergarten teacher had described, but Ragyo said that she was just giving her a massage. She went up to her teacher to ask her about it after class.
"Sensei" said Satsuki to gain her teacher's attention. "Is it ever okay for someone to touch your private parts like that?"
"Not until you're much, much older Satsuki" explained her teacher.
"But my mom touched me like that last night and-" Satsuki began, but wasn't allowed to finish.
"She what?!" exclaimed her teacher.
"She touched me down there, and she said it was because she loved me. Why would she do something like that if it was bad?" Satsuki asked innocently.
"Excuse me for a moment" the teacher said, picking up the phone on her desk and calling the police.
Ragyo was livid as soon as she received word from her police contact that a warrant had been issued for her arrest. Ragyo smashed the computer in her office, flipped her coffee table, and nearly tossed threw her phone out the window before she was finally able to calm down.
"Settle down" Ragyo said to herself. "You've prepared for this".
She picked her phone back up and dialed her lawyers. It wouldn't be easy, but she'd make it through this.
"I'd like to thank the ladies and gentlemen of the jury for seeing this as the cry for attention that it was" Ragyo said through her tears at her first press conference after the trial. After only two days in court, Ragyo was already a free woman again.
"Poor Satsuki just lost her father in an accident, and the poor child blamed it on me" Ragyo explained to the reporters. "She had always been a troublesome child, constantly getting into fights and arguing with me if I so much as asked her to eat her vegetables".
The press corps nodded readily in agreement, and continued taking notes as the cameras broadcast her speech all across the nation.
"I realize now that because I was so busy at work I didn't have the chance to show her as much affection as Soichiro did, and that she grew to resent me for it" said Ragyo tried to say calmly, but had broken down into full-on sobs by the end of the sentence. "I swear that I've learned my lesson, and that Satsuki will never feel unloved again!"
The entire room broke out into applause as Ragyo cried her eyes out on the podium in front of her, completely smearing her makeup in the process. After about a minute, Ragyo had regained enough of her composure to begin walking towards the exit of the auditorium, where her private limo was waiting.
Inside was Satsuki, who was surrounded with lollipops, colorful balloons, and teddy bears. Ragyo stepped inside and said "Let's go home, Satsuki".
The windows were tinted very dark, so the press could no longer see either of them as soon as the door was shut. Once Ragryo was sure they were out of sight, she picked up one of Satsuki's massive lollipops and smashed it against the young girl's face, sending pieces of candy flying everywhere.
"Augh!" cried Satsuki, partially blinded by the candy dust now in her eyes.
"You little brat!" shouted Ragyo. "Do you have any idea how much money and reputation I lost because of this?"
"M-mommy…I don't understand. Why are you doing this?" Satsuki said as she tried not to cry.
"I told you not to tell anyone about our special time together, but you did anyway". A crocodile's smile crept onto Ragyo's face as she grabbed Satsuki by the hand. "It's only natural that you receive your punishment".
Ragyo quickly bent Satsuki over her knees and hiked up the kindergartener's skirt, and began slapping her hand down onto Satsuki's sensitive butt cheeks.
"Aah! No, don't, please!" Satsuki cried out, but Ragyo only intensified her assault.
"You've been a very naughty girl, Satsuki" said Ragyo devilishly. "You should be grateful that I didn't just kill you when you were younger".
"Eh?!" Satsuki grunted, terrified.
"I never wanted to have such a worthless, failure of a child, but I let you live anyway. How dare you humiliate someone who has shown you nothing but generosity". Ragyo punctuated her statement by slapping Satsuki so hard that it began to draw blood.
"I'm sorry mommy, please stop" Satsuki pleaded through the tears and sobs. "I'll be a good girl from now on, I promise".
"Oh don't worry, Satsuki; I know you will be" Ragyo said patronizingly. "Be a very good girl, and our massages will keep getting better and better".
Ragyo reached her hand back down towards Satsuki's private place, causing the girl to give an involuntary squeak. Ragyo reached over to a nearby teddy bear and grabbed it by the neck.
"And if you're a bad girl…" Ragyo tore the bear's head off, sending its cotton blood flying everywhere. "Do you understand?"
Satsuki nodded in fear, willing to say anything to get her mother to stop hurting her.
"That's good; maybe you do have a few brain cells in that empty head of yours after all" commented Ragyo.
Once they arrived home at their mansion, Ragyo stood up and exited the limo. Satsuki rose to follow her, but was stopped by a swift high-heel to the stomach. Satsuki immediately threw up her lunch all over the limo floor, and had the wind completely knocked out of her. She couldn't do anything but lay there on the ground, trembling in pain.
Ragyo locked limo behind her. She told her chauffeur to let Satsuki out of her time out in the morning, to which the man fearfully agreed.
As Satsuki lay there in the limo, she realized that everything her father had told her, every single word, was true. Ragyo was a monster capable of anything…even killing her own daughter. Satsuki broke out in sobs again once she realized what the meant; her mother had killed her only sister all because she wasn't useful enough to her, because the life fibers told her to.
The life fibers…stupid pieces of clothing were what caused all of this. She hated them so much.
She had heard the word before, but she never truly understood pure hatred until this very moment. It burned within her like fire, hardening her heart into concrete. It was at that moment she realized everything her mother said was a lie; not only about her father, but about her.
Satsuki knew she wasn't worthless, she knew she wasn't dumb, and she knew that she had absolutely nothing to be grateful for. Even if it took her the rest of her life, Satsuki knew she would get revenge against her mother for killing her father and sister, and for doing all those evil things to her body.
The five-year-old determinedly sat up and wiped away the vomit and tears from her face. She was already calculating her retribution, and was so lost in thought that she didn't realize that she left her smile on the floor. It would be years before anyone ever caught a glimpse of it again.