Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Beauty and the Beast. Disney does.

Nine years later, in the port village of Nagasaki, Japan

Belle dropped her pile of bags and bundles to the wooden quay and stared around her, smoothing her blue dress and white apron and brushing her wavy brown hair back from her face as she did so. The sea voyage to faraway Japan from the port in Rotterdam in the Netherlands had been harrowing, but after nearly a year sailing from exotic port to exotic port it was over. And now she and her father, Maurice, had arrived at their new home in the tiny Dutch section of Nagasaki. All she knew about the town from the ship's map she'd glimpsed was that it was somewhere along the southwestern coast of Japan.

Nippon, she reminded herself. She'd promised she'd begin learning the Japanese language on the ship, but she'd only managed to catch a few words and phrases so far. Most of them badly pronounced.

A small man with a broad grin halted his rickshaw in front of Belle and her father and bowed deeply. "Konnichiwa! Medemoseru, Misiyuru," he said respectfully. It took Belle several seconds to translate his accent into her native French and realize he'd said "Mademoiselle" and "Monsieur."

"Konnichiwa," she greeted the man, bending at the waist a little uncertainly. He hesitated, bowed back as if to be certain he'd been respectful enough, and announced "Please, follow me!" At least, that was what Belle had hoped he'd said. She and her father loaded their trunks and other baggage onto the man's cart, which reminded her of a reverse wheelbarrow, and then climbed in themselves. Maurice spoke to the driver, a few traded words in the man's stilted Dutch, and they were off.

Belle surveyed the Dutch quarter with dismay as they passed house after house, built right up against the high containing wall meant to keep foreigners as separated from the natives as possible. And the inside of the compound was so small! Nothing compared to the bustling city of Brussels, where she'd spent her childhood. Her mother had been the last of a noble French family that had fallen into poverty several generations before, and though marriage to a French merchant and inventor living in Dutch Belgium had been far below her station, it was all she could afford. It had been a happy marriage until her death just two years before, when Belle was seventeen. Belle still missed her mother terribly, especially their times together reading great French novels aloud. Though the little family had lived in the Dutch portion of Belgium, Belle had grown up speaking French with her parents and had learned to read and write in that language. She spoke Dutch, of course, as did most people in Brussels, but French was her first language, the language of her heart and home.

And now, because there was no one else to take care of her while he was on the longest, and what promised to be the most profitable voyage of his career, Belle had had no choice but to accompany Maurice and live with him in the alien country of Japan.

"Here we are!" Maurice announced cheerfully. "The perfect place to run a business. I understand the local rulers pay quite highly for European curiosities, which I will be able to make and sell right here!" Belle took in the pleasant house built in traditional Dutch style, tall and narrow, and smiled for the first time in what felt like months. While nothing about this provincial town in the middle of a foreign country felt like home at all, the house itself looked like a comfortable place to spend the next two years. Until it was time to go home to Brussels.

The little man, whose name Belle discovered was Koru, helped them unload their things before taking the little rickshaw around back. "He's the local driver, and the only one licensed to cater to the foreign merchants here," Maurice explained once the man had trundled cheerfully back towards the quay. "So we'll be seeing quite a bit of him if we want to go anywhere outside our own home. Some of my fellow merchants back in Brussels told me it's the only respectable way to travel in this country."

"It seemed almost…slavish to me," Belle answered, wrinkling her nose.

Maurice laughed. "You look just like your mother when you do that. You are truly her daughter."

"Merci, Papa."

"Here you say 'arigato', remember? And don't worry about the customs here in Nippon. By the time we leave, the customs at home will seem strange and out of place."

"I suppose so. But I am so worried, Papa. What if no one here likes me? What if I don't fit in?"

"You will, ma petite." Maurice smiled fondly at his only child. "You are beautiful and clever and graceful all at once, just as your mother was. And many merchants bring their wives and daughters along while they do business here. You will charm them all, and perhaps not be too lonely until it is time to go home."

"I hope so, Papa. Only please don't call me ma petite. It reminds me of…" She fought to keep her voice from wobbling.

"Chèrie, it's been two years, and still you cry for her?" Maurice put up a pudgy finger to wipe away his daughter's tears.

"I can't help it. I miss her. And I miss Brussels, a bit. Everything here in Japan—Nippon--is so strange. But at least I've still got you."

Maurice embraced her gently. "No matter what. Now, let's see about getting this house in order. Perhaps by then a few of our neighbors will have come out to welcome us."

Author's note: I did some research, and discovered that long before Nagasaki became infamous after being hit with the second atomic bomb, it was the only place where the Dutch were permitted to live on the Japanese islands during the Tokugawa reign. As many of you probably know, konnichiwa means 'good afternoon', and arigato means 'thank you'. Sorry this chapter is so short, but I thought it was important to establish who Belle was and how she ended up in Japan before the 'movie' scenes begin. The next one will be longer, I promise! Special thanks go to TrudiRose for her prompt review of the previous chapter.

SamoaPhoenix9