A Grim Bond 2 (Patreon)

A Grim Bond 2 - or ‘The Grim Adventures turns into Broken Tales’ (Grim Tales from Below, OC!Brother to Mandy)

Living room, my brain had a bit of a hard time rebooting properly but… I had to question this little one.

“You are Mandy’s daughter.”

“That would be quite correct, dear uncle,” Minnie replied in an overly-polite speech pattern. “My mother is Queen Mandy of the Underworld and of the Grim Castle.”

I slowly nodded, letting her enjoy the strawberry jam sandwich I made for her since she had skipped breakfast. I was sipping from my cup of coffee, studying her overall behavior and… she was nothing like her mother.

The vitality and the overall cheerfulness felt both true and ‘fake’ to some extent. It felt like a cry for help or something like that, but maybe I was looking too deep into this.

“And you decided to visit your uncle because you… ‘needed to find advice’?”

“Something of the kind, that is indeed the case,” The little blonde beamed chirpily. “I have been looking to find more about our family, so I decided to check on Uncle Arthur. Mother said that you died years ago, and Father said that he was confident you perished as well. So, I was looking for a tombstone first-”

“And yet you didn’t find one.”

She nodded excitedly. “It was odd because I also checked a list meant to represent all the souls Father has to process, and yours was not listed.”

“Yes, well… that’s because… Hold up, who is your father?”

I had skirted around the topic because I didn’t want to overwhelm the kid, but Minnie brought up a detail that made no sense to me. Her father… processed souls? There was a single individual that was meant to do that, but her powers would suggest otherwise.

I mean, Minnie’s green and black tendrils were a sign she was a partial Nergalite- considering how smitten Nergal Jr. was with Mandy, I thought it was a feasible situation that she had married the guy and settled in hell where she could control a lot of the ‘true’ world.

“Why, if not the Grim Reaper. Father is the King of Grim Castle, but Mother is the one really in charge of it.”

…Grim married Mandy?

I mean, the implications were insane, but I have a feeling there was more to it. Likewise, I wasn’t ‘horrified’ by the age-situation since immortals acted in crazy ways compared to others- I was genuinely perplexed by the reasons that could have pushed Grim to pursue the worst kind of servitude for Mandy.

Temporary Slavery was one thing, permanent marriage was literally being a masochist for that sort of shit. I never pegged the guy to be something like that due to how frustrated he was with Mandy back then and… I sighed.

“That’s a thing I didn’t know.”

Minnie perked at this, appearing intrigued as she switched back to her informal speech pattern. “Uncle Artie, you really didn’t know that?”

“I have been out of the loop for close to two decades now,” I answered calmly. “I didn’t hear of it, so… that’s that.”

She appeared confused about something in that regard.

“Why?”

I blinked, offering a confused hum. “Why what?”

“Why did you and mother split so long ago? I thought siblings were meant to always be together!”

I offered an empty smile at that glimmer of innocence I never thought anyone coming from Mandy would be able to muster. So, I gave her an honest but still restrained response.

“Trust me, Minnie. I thought that too… but then I realized that some siblings just will do anything to be ‘right’ in their own delusions- to the point of burning connections and bonds for the sake of greed and pride.”

Minnie’s confusion didn’t cease, but she didn’t cause any issue when I shifted the conversation to a more pressing issue.

“So, how long were you planning to stay here?”

“A week! Would it be fine?” The blonde inquired, smiling eye-to-eye.

“Well, I have a guest room, but…” I paused, giving her a look as I could confirm that Minnie was missing something important. “If I may be blunt, Minnie, how come you didn’t bring any luggage with you?”

The girl froze up, then her eyes widened astronomically and… she appeared quite embarrassed.

“I forgot the luggage back home.”

…

“That’s quite the brain fart.”

She frowned at the slang. “A brain what?”

“A brain fart. It’s a term used when someone that is known to be good at planning or thinking does something such as forgetting something.”

"Ooh, that’s still a silly term,” Minnie giggled a bit, understanding the meaning of the slang now.

“It’s meant to be silly, yes,” I smiled a bit at the big grin she gave me. “Still, I don’t have any clothes your size, so I guess we can go out and buy you some spare for your room.”

“Would it be fine?” The blonde was suddenly super-shy about this. “I-I mean, I am your niece but… but I don’t want to impose.”

I stood up from my seat, walked around the table and I saw how tense Minnie was. Confusing, but it didn’t deter me from doing what I planned to do. She closed her eyes for a moment as she saw my hand approach her and… then melted while unconsciously pressing against the palm caressing the top of her head.

“U-Uncle Artie.”

“I am not going to hurt you,” I muttered quietly. “Plus, I have to get groceries today. So, going outside was already planned. And you are my niece, and you are family. An adult like me has to be responsible in helping kids like you when they need that. Got it?”

She smiled again, such a graceful sight. “T-Thanks, Uncle Artie.”

As she said this, the girl jumped up, this time no tendrils to make things awkward with the tackle-hug.

After switching to fresh clothes and retrieving my wallet, Minnie and I walked out of the flat and started to make our way in town. Endsville had experienced calm and quiet ever since most of its supernatural issues had moved to Megaville to be… well, obliterated in the hero-villain wars.

Moving back there was as risky a move as it was a clever one. After all, who would suspect my return when all those I knew had moved out and were living elsewhere. Well, those that were still alive, that is.

The grocery shop was the closest, so we passed by it first. The purpose of this visit was also to get some food for Minnie. I had no clue on what she liked to eat, so I planned to have her pick anything she favored which may be used for lunches and dinners.

Minnie was not a picky eater, that much I was grateful for, but she ended up ‘pushing’ me to buy a lot of candy. I think the blonde was curious rather than genuinely invested in the snacks as she mentioned how those were not the same as those sold back home.

Curious, but I didn’t put much thought into it as I could see how the Underworld may have its own brands of candy-producers.

After roughly thirty minutes of browsing around and putting a lot of things in the shopping bags we prepared, we went on to pay for the items and… Minnie coaxed me to buy her a plushie.

As a reminder that she was still Mandy’s kid, the lucky ‘animal’ that got picked was ‘Boskov’. Boy, it’s been ages since I last saw that second-tier villain. But the way he was manifested in that plushie seemed appealing enough for Minnie to have it bought.

We walked out of the grocery shop and walked up to the clothes shop a few steps further into the street. The worker behind the counter, a young woman, was kind enough to help Minnie with picking the right clothes and underwear since-

“I am a guy, it would be kind of weird for me to pick those clothes.”

A fair logic, and one that got both girls’ respect as they started to pick a few pairs of outfits. Two of which were dresses like her current one, some long socks, a few ribbons, and two pairs of standard PJs.

Minnie was super-excited by the time I was done paying, and she was more than happy to carry these bags herself. They weren’t heavy, so I let her do her part of the ‘hard work’ on this occasion.

I thought that today was a good bonding experience with my ‘newfound’ niece. The little blonde had a tendril sneak up and wrap around my leg to keep close to me as we were walking back home. An odd way to do a ‘hug my arm’ kind of deal, but it wasn’t too tedious for me to ignore.

What I found difficult to ignore was when we were ‘encircled’ right as we were making our way back to the flat. Three large figures appeared, both having metallic skulls as helmets and wearing mechanical armors that were of the same color as their helmets. Some sort of… guards.

“Unhand Princess Minimandy, you cur!”

We both stopped, with Minnie tensing up as she seemed to recognize the trio at first glance.

“U-Uncle Artie.”

“Yes, kiddo?” I asked, knowing the girl was aware of the many questions I had over this situation.

“These are- are guards from home. I kind of… didn’t tell anyone I was leaving.”

“...You ran away from home.”

“For a week-”

“You still ran away from home,” I interjected flatly, causing the girl to flinch. The sight had me sigh. “Look, we will talk about this back at the flat once Uncle is done with these three tin cans.”

“You have no way to-”

It’s been a while since I had to use it, but it sure made me feel good to be unleashed for a few seconds. Before the speaking guard could have said anything more, its skull was bashed inward by a fist and a raspy voice beckoned from behind it.

“Muda.”

Confusion spread wide through the group minus me, the other guards taking stances, but failing to intercept the one that quickly did the same it did with their companion right back to them. They all fell to the ground, unmoving and out of commission.

“Uncle… What was that white figure?”

I turned to look at Minnie, her eyes fully wide open and… amazed by what had just happened. An action-junkie… that explained a lot. Still, I was surprised she caught on that little ‘trick’ of mine since very few could see it.

“I will tell you once we are safe and away from this place,” I assured, giving a look at the destroyed guards. “Knowing your parents, they will have some back-up to clean this mess up.”

The girl nodded giddily and we soon rushed back to the flat.

I knew that I should have seen more trouble coming our way… I just didn’t expect for my polite and nice little niece to be a bit of a rule-breaker of the running-from-home kind.

—----d-d-d-d—------

Meanwhile, in the Underworld (Grim Castle)...

The throne room was a most desolate place to entertain morons’ ‘requests’.

They thought that, as their queen, she had some sort of duty to ‘respect’ their opinions and shit like that, regardless of the fact she had already proved these mongrels many times that she could easily shred them.

Which is why Grim took care of this chore despite him standing beside her as she sat in the ruling throne. It was a clear distinction of power- she was in charge, he was the slave. Like it used to be… and yet not.

A spark was missing and it had been missing for decades now. It wasn’t too boring, but the loss of said spark made any endeavor duller than it needed to. She never brought this up to anyone- reluctance was weakness, and weakness was not something Mandy allowed within herself.

A Queen, a sight to behold and one that conquered as much as she claimed. Her disregard for the skin she was keen to show off was a sign of a sinful mind but also a disregard of traditional decorum. She was bold, brazen, but confident and rightful with her demanding self. She was the Top Bitch.

So, when her daughter went missing, she was surprised, but not ‘worried’ or anything. In fact, she was furious. Out of her two children, she thought Grim Jr. was the one that had the highest chance to try to run from her. The brats were rebellious, but Minnie was meant to be better than this. Mandy trained her to be that, to be great, to be a proper successor rather than a little idiot that tried to get out of her control.

Yet… she could tell something was wrong when Lord Pain, the one she assigned on the task, returned with no Minnie on tow. He looked nervous, extremely so, and this didn’t bound well to Mandy’s mood as he approached the throne and bowed within the right distance.

“M-My queen, I come bearing bad news.”

A scowl adorned the fierce ruler of Grim Castle. “Speak.”

“The Guards that we sent to- to return Princess Minimandy have- have been destroyed.”

A long sigh burned through her throat. “She will be punished for this slight-”

“I-It wasn’t the Princess behind that.”

…

Oh?

“W-We found out that the one that is currently keeping her is a young man that lives in the city, Endsville. We have yet to find a proper match up to his name, but we have transcripts within the souls that suggest the Princess has him addressed as… Uncle Artie.”

Pain fell on his knees as he finished saying that. The pressure within the room had claimed most of the occupants as they all saw Mandy horribly furious at these two words. There was dreadful silence and then… she ‘calmed’ down.

The pressure lasted through, but it had lessened to an extent.

“Pain, you shall shift this operation to one of monitoring. No one shall approach these two until I am certain of a thing or two.”

“Y-Your Majesty?” The helmeted general asked in shock, not sure of why this operation had changed like that, yet still nodding shortly after. “I-It will be done.”

“And now, I want everyone to leave the fucking throne room.”

There was no opposition as everyone bolted out. All but Grim. Oh, big ol’ Grim was already aware he wasn’t allowed to leave. Not when Mandy’s glare was now aimed at him. The ‘guilt’ clear to him, but he wasn’t sure if he was really at fault for it.

“You told me that my brother died.”

“I told you dhat he kicked the bucket as predicted.”

“He is alive!” She snarled, angry fists slamming on the armrests of the throne and cracking it. “What happened? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“...It angers you-”

“It pisses me off that you thought fine to keep me in the dark about it. I told you that I wanted you to keep tab on him-”

“And he ordered me to keep you away before he walked out,” Grim interrupted, confusing Mandy with that firm tone of his. “He asked nicely, and he was the one that treated me the best out of the original group.”

“Ah! Respect! I shall show you respect by letting you rest on the couch for a year!” The blonde snarled fiercely, losing control even more and then… frowning. “Wait, if he died… how is he alive now?”

The Reaper tilted back, appearing thoughtful. “Well, there is de ‘one-death survival’ ticket dhat I gave you three when our deal was off. Billy wasted it early on, you lost it when you were a bounty hunter and… Arthur died when he was meant to, but survived.”

“And?”

“And…” Grim retrieved the hourglass of life sand meant for Arthur… and it was empty and plastered in a silvery substance. “I don’t know what is dis.”

Closing her eyes, she tried to find some inner piece… but she was stuck in a sea of pure and unending rage!

“I will find them, I will approach them, and you will not come close to them before me. Understood?! My brother is mine to handle!”

Grim flinched at the ferocious snarl on his wife’s face. “S-Sure thing.”

It was important. It was needed. The spark may be… back.

—-----------d-d-d-d—----------

AN

While Artie thought his relationship with his sister was normal, Mandy had a… let’s just say that the unholy bond that Minnie has with her brother came from somewhere in her genetics.