"Xin Er, it's time to eat!"
The 3 year old girl reluctantly moved her eyes from the book on fairytales to fix it upon steaming dishes placed upon the table by her mother. "There's no shrimp?" The little girl asked, her clear diction unlike any 3 year old.
Mrs Lee— or Mrs Yue (following her husband's surname) clicked her tongue at the disappointed eyes of the small child. "You just ate them yesterday."
"That was yesterday." Cherry lips started to pout.
"You ate them for all three meals yesterday. You're going to get sick from eating so many." Mrs Yue shut down any protest from her daughter with a firm look. "Now sit down and eat."
Yue Xin turned her face away defiantly, anchoring herself to the cushioned chair.
"You're going to eat, whether you like it or not." Mrs Yue knew her child would eventually come crawling to her for food once her stomach started grumbling. But if she waited till then, the food would be cold. "Come here. Now."
Yue Xin's eyes flitted over her mother's face, judging silently whether her mother was getting annoyed.
A small, almost unnoticeable furrow between her brows.
An unsteady aura around her.
Yeap, getting annoyed. Yue Xin concluded.
Yue Xin relocated from the chair to the dining table and hoisted herself up onto the high chair.
The dinner was silent with the very obedient child eating all her vegetables.
Mrs Yue casually studied Yue Xin as they ate, wondering just what had she done to give birth to such a...such an ...individualistic daughter. Yue Xin was exceptionally quiet for a young child who should be running around and screaming their head off every second. She usually engaged in unusual activities, for example: people watching.
Yue Xin would bring her teddy bear, totter out of the house without so much as a thought as to notify her parents about her whereabouts, sit in front of the door, and watch people walk by. Mrs Yue had a heart attack when Yue Xin first did that, as she couldn't find her two year old daughter anywhere in the house. Mrs Yue was already preparing to call the police when she opened the front door to find her missing child sitting right on the front steps, staring intently at a young man walking by with his dog.
Mrs Yue asked her daughter what she was doing, but the small child just ignored her, and continued watching. Mrs Yue told her to go in, because "There's a lot of baddies outside that can catch you", but her daughter replied— too coolly— "There's a fence around our house" and then promptly ignored her again.
"The fence cannot prevent people who want to enter from entering. It's only a low fence." Mrs Yue tried convincing Yue Xin.
"I will scream if people try to enter." Yue Xin sniffed her teddy bear, squishing it tightly against her chest before pretending her mother didn't exist.
That was the longest conversation Mrs Yue had with her child at the age of 3. Yue Xin rarely spoke, but when she did, it was never babble-talk like adults expect from children. She never wasted her words.
Mrs Yue had a shock when she learned from her other friends that children at the age of 3 weren't supposed to talk like that. She thought that she had given birth to an adult in a child's body, but she soon realised that it wasn't that.
Yue Xin was a child, just weirdly observational and very, very quiet.
She threw tantrums like any child would when they had to go for haircuts, cried a river when her playing time was cut short, refused to get up from the floor when she was denied her favourite sweet, and screamed like any normal child would when playing games with her only friend.
Mrs Yue pulled her gaze away from Yue Xin and polished off the rest of the rice in her bowl.
Well, her daughter may be weird, but she loved her all the same.
Yue Xin was at the playground, staring at the children flitting happily around the slides and the monkey bars.
Examining, categorising, making sense of every reason behind every action.
It was easier to do it with children around her age (since she is one herself)— but she had realised a very interesting point— adults were very easy to read once you understand the societal constraints that dictated their actions. To understand the purpose of what they did, to know what they liked and disliked. To know what is proper and improper.
She had a lot of missing information on this "society" as her mother once explained to her. Yue Xin wanted to fill up this gap in her logic. It irritated her that she had reached a blockade that couldn't be torn down until she was older.
She was getting bored just as a little boy ran up to her.
"Hey! Want to play tag with us? We need one more to make a full team."
"Ok!"
Off they ran, and a queer game of tag began.
In the Empire of Churia, martial arts were the basis of their living. Just like Wano Country famous for their samurais, the Empire of Churia is renowned for their martial arts. Almost every child in the country takes up martial arts training starting aged 3. And every 7 years, an international tournament takes place, attracting martial arts experts all over the world to fight for the crown of the world's best— the Wu Zun— but that is a story for another time.
The children somersaulted over the rocking horses on the playground, dodging attempts at catching them with quick feet. Their parents watched with pride in their eyes as they climbed nimbly over every surface, using Qi to boost their movements.
Mrs Yue was positively beaming as she watched Yue Xin send a shaky leaf imbued with Qi under a chaser's feet, causing the chaser to slip and fall. "Look! My daughter can use Qi on objects now! Haha! Look at her!" Mrs Yue boasted to the mother beside her.
"No, no, my son is much better, he can use Qi to crack a wooden board 10 cm away!"
"Oh my! Really? My son is so lazy, he's still only at the very basics of running Qi within his body! "
"My goodness! You should really be more strict then— "
The women gathered at the side to boast about their children's achievements while the game of tag got more and more intense.
Mrs Yue kept an eye on her daughter, feeling somewhat relieved seeing Yue Xin grinning like any child should. Yue Xin typically only smiled when she had a lot of fun. The rest of the times, she had an expressionless face. It kind of worried Mrs Yue since she found it hard to understand what her child was thinking/feeling most of the times.
Being a mother was hard, Mrs Yue sighed.
The Empire of Churia (y'know ManCHURIA the last dynasty ) is based off of Ancient China in a more fantasy martial arts world setting. If there could be Wano that was based off of Feudal Japan, I wondered why not China, and just started this off on a whim.
Yue Xin's name in chinese characters:
月馨
First character "yuè" means moon. Second character "xīn" means fragrance, a common character in names for females. Yue is her surname. Her name is Xin, yes, one character only. But usually the Chinese like to have 2 syllables when calling other people, so people call out her full name when speaking with her.
You might be wondering why Mrs Yue calls Yue Xin: Xin Er（ 馨儿）
It's a nickname. When you are close to someone you can add an "ér 儿" behind a character of their name while calling them.
For example, Li Chun Chun can be Chun Er.