A Grim Bond 3 (Patreon)

A Grim Bond 3 - or ‘The Grim Adventures turns into Broken Tales’ (Grim Tales from Below, OC!Brother to Mandy)

Two days have passed since Minnie decided to visit her maternal uncle, and things have been awesome!

Nothing had prepared her for the sort of ‘holiday’ this truly felt to her mind and body. Sure, she wasn’t being treated to massages, pedicures, or anything common to the sort of services majestic hotels tended to provide, but she didn’t have to worry about keeping up with expectations, not falter a moment with her mother testing her every step and… failing to be a good little sister.

The only gripe in this week-long stay out of her home was that Grim Jr. wasn’t around and that… maybe this was for the best. Yes, she wanted to make up to him for the messes she got blamed with, but she knew that she just… couldn’t do it.

She wanted to- she wanted to be the best possible for him as she loved him to the bone but- but then the girl recognized how her mother tended to put her through pure misery by setting her up in situations where she is ‘actively annoying Junior’.

Minnie would never truly hurt her big brother, so… it was right for her to keep away from him for a while. It meant less pressure on Junior and a better chance for her to think on how she was meant to handle this hassle on her own.

The girl thought about asking Uncle Artie, yet the blonde knew that her kind uncle had been helping her so much- putting him through more messes would just be unforgivable for her to do as his niece.

The man had told her a bit of a story on how he became so strong, and one thing that the girl instantly hooked at was her uncle’s interest to not meddle with businesses he wasn’t directly involved with. The way he obtained the ‘humanoid guardian’ he called a Stand was proof of this.

Speaking of her uncle, as she was musing over her dilemmas Minnie was paying attention to her uncle as he was training early in the morning. It wasn’t related to his main ability, but rather some lessons he picked up through a nice old man that he met a while ago about something else that made him tougher than normal humans. Something about breathing and sunlight.

Minnie was already done with breakfast and cleaning up as she donned one of the new dresses they bought a while back, sitting by one of the benches in the training room and looking as her uncle did some unusual exercises.

While many would think that she had some experience with adults training on their own, her mother had always refused to let other see her training. The Queen justifying it as ‘avoiding annoyances’ and ‘not wanting others to ogle at her while she was busy’. But it didn’t feel like she was ogling at her uncle. He was super-cool and handsome, but Minnie didn’t feel any particular reason beyond admiring the way he trained.

It was intense looking, especially due to the weights around his arms and legs, but the way he moved- so smooth and so powerful!

By the time Uncle Arthur was done, he told her that she could actually watch some TV as he went for a quick shower. Minnie shrugged, but also nodded as they didn’t plan to go outside today. Yesterday they ‘risked’ as there was a chance they were being monitored. Her uncle said that he felt eyes on them, but that they were just watching.

It made sense that her mother knew where she was at this point, but the fact that she wasn’t trying to deal with this issue as ‘swiftly and brutally as possible’ meant that something about it was off.

Part of her wanted to just believe she was overthinking this but… her mother had taught her to always be paranoid for surprises. So, she couldn’t help but be glad they weren’t leaving the flat today. She didn’t need the sort of stress of being spied upon and maybe kidnapped back to her house.

Humming to herself, Minnie paced to the living room and, instead of turning on the TV, decided to entertain the odd hobby she started after the first day of her visit- watching framed pictures by the living room’s walls. It wasn’t full of those, but there were some that had her hooked with some stories from the past that her uncle told her about.

There was so much! She never thought her parents had gone through so many adventures and Minnie wondered how fun those had been back then- hell, she was sure her mother had been amused by some of those despite what she may say to others.

Yet, this time, her gaze was mesmerized by what looked to be a rather familiar picture as it held numerous familiar individuals she was ‘introduced to’ via the other pictures around, but there was a single individual she didn’t recognize.

There was Dexter, now with his arms replaced by mechanic limbs; Courage in a ‘spaceship captain’ outfit- he was always in odd outfits actually; Buttercup with a eyepatch and a gear resembling a martial artist with a green sleeveless gi and a black belt; Bubbles had a blue-themed magical girl outfit and she looked as jovial as usual; and then there was Blossom.

Out of them all, Blossom’s change into a more ‘normal outfit’ felt the most jarring. Her previous gear was now no longer there, same for her classic hair-ribbon, as a lab coat and round glasses made her appear so… ‘stripped’ of the previous vitality she held in her confident smiles. The one she had in the picture was… ‘depleted’ of any emotion.

There was a tiny plaque under the picture.

Their passing shall not be forgotten.

“Anything on your mind, Minnie?”

The blonde jumped in surprise at the question, her head turning to finally find her uncle entering the room in a fresh pair of clothes, a towel in his head as he was finishing the process of drying up his hair.

A nod. “Yes.”

“Hm? And what is it this time?”

Her attention was back on the picture. “Who is the girl?”

Arthur blinked, walking up to see the source of the query and… appearing a bit sad at the frame.

“That’s… That was my goddaughter, Mimi.”

Minnie was stunned by this. “Goddaughter? You have a Goddaughter?”

“Was.”

The tiny correction deflated the blonde, but her Uncle was done.

“Mimi was… Blossom’s daughter. She had her a year before you were born. She would be 11 now, while you are 10.”

The girl nodded, yet she was curious about the topic.

“What happened to her?”

“...Her father was not a good person. Actually no, I think we need to go a bit before this picture was taken,” He muttered as he gestured to his niece to take a seat by the couch.

Minnie complied, sitting right beside her uncle and was giving him her full attention.

“Before Megaville was destroyed, it was a city quite troubled with battles between heroes and criminals- this much you know at this point with the many tales I gave you,” The man pointed out, drawing a solid nod from the little girl. “Well, things got particularly nasty in the last decade. With lesser heroes around, the criminals started to get rather aggressive with others, with one in particular being HIM.”

“The Devil guy that mom hates?”

“He is the Devil alright,” Arthur affirmed flatly, making it clear that bringing up Mandy was unneeded. “Well, HIM was the worst of them all. Even now I bet he is a petty monster when it comes to long scores, and the one he had with Blossom had been a major thorn to his side. So, seeing the chance to finally stab as deep as he could now that his enemy was without many allies, he plotted a devious plan and… he did something to Blossom.”

Minnie frowned at the abrupt shift of words. “What was that ‘something’?”

“No one really knows,” Arthur admitted, yet his bitter voice suggested he had some ideas on it. “What we knew back then was that Blossom was shaken, she would barely eat and didn’t even dare to go out for her usual patrol during what would be her pregnancy with Mimi. HIM was the father, and he disappeared for a few years after that.”

“And?” Minnie’s hands were squeezing at her uncle’s lap, impatience flaring at the interesting tale.

“And then Mimi was born… thanks to me.”

The girl’s eyes flashed in intrigue and the man kept on talking.

“When the pregnancy was revealed, no one wanted to see it brought to an end- after all, a Demon like HIM was a dangerous threat already and any spawn of his may be even worse,” Arthur explained truthfully. “Which is why many were opposed to seeing Blossom keep the baby. She wanted to be trusted when she said that wouldn’t be the case and… I offered to help with the delivery.”

“Really?”

He snorted mirthfully. “Yup. In fact, you are… sitting right where Mimi was born.”

Shocked, Minnie jumped in fright as she stared at the- “The baby was born on the couch?”

“W-Well,” Arthur was about to chuckle at the silly reaction. “There was more to it. The couch had been set up to be a sterile thing for the occasion, I had some machinery I paid for to allow Blossom the means for a proper delivery with no risk for herself and the baby. I already told her I would have reacted accordingly if the baby ended up being a dangerous thing and…”

Arthur closed his eyes for a moment. “And I was unprepared for how surprisingly pleasant it turned out to be as an event.”

“How so? Uncle, don’t keep me hanging?” The faux whine was met with a little poke to her side which gained a giggle out of her.

“Now, now, no need to rush,” Arthur replied jovially. “Still, when Mimi was born she was just like any other baby. She cried loudly for some time, required some cleaning but she seemed to be quite well-behaved while I was tending her the few days she and her mother spent in this house. With Blossom still recovering from the delivery, I had to take care of Mimi and she was a smiling fiend all those times. Always happy and barely crying around me- which was why Blossom had me sleeping beside her on the couch while I held her baby girl to sleep or else Mimi would show how powerful her lungs were already then.”

There was a brief pause and the smiles… ended. “Once Blossom was ready to leave, she gave me the legal documentation meant to say that, if anything happened to her, I would be the legal guardian of Mimi. The idea was that if Blossom failed to win the ‘War’ in Megaville, then she could try to have Mimi live a proper life away from those horrendous threats,” Arthur closed his eyes again as he finished saying this. “Then I got the picture a few months before Megaville was fully destroyed to celebrate Mimi’s tenth birthday. Blossom had mentioned having made plans to actually have her live with me before the end of the year but… HIM resurfaced, and he managed to decimate everyone.”

“D-Did he kill his own daughter too?”

The grimace on her uncle’s face seemed to imply that. “No.”

Minnie braced instinctively as she hugged her uncle’s side.

“HIM was… he is not your mother. As much as you can fault your mother, she- I doubt she would fall this lowly. No, HIM doesn’t have any ounce of care for any kids he had. None usually managed to reach adulthood because of the cruel missions he sent them to face. And Mimi… well, he was driven to teach Blossom a lesson. That no matter how much she tried, even the purest soul can and will be corrupted by his will.”

“So she is… not dead, but what once was Mimi is lost?”

“It’s highly-probable, yes,” Her uncle confirmed, a bitter smile on his face. “And I want you to take this story as a lesson.”

“And that is?”

She expected something deep and meaningful but-

“If you end up facing HIM, you don’t fight him. You run.”

That comment annoyed Minnie. “I am not a coward- H-Hey!”

Getting her hair ruffled was enough to actually silence her protests.

“A coward is someone that has a chance to win and waste it. A smart person is someone that know their limits and rather than go into suicidal attacks that can end horribly sticks to let bigger fishes handle this sort of monster.”

“Like mom?” The blonde asked and her uncle nodded. “Like… you?”

Arthur hummed, turning away and seeming close to refuse that, yet-

“Yes.”

Minnie frowned. “You think you can take HIM?”

“Think? Nah, kiddo,” Arthur hummed pleasantly. “I already ‘scared’ him once.”

“Uncle, I don’t believe you,” She huffed. “When?”

“Well, do you think HIM didn’t try to cause issues with Blossom when she was recovering in this house?” He asked back, appearing smug and yet quite mirthful. “What happened was that he thought we would have engaged in some fight, but I was really concerned in just seeing him off and… I got him to leave with a single well-placed attack.”

“I doubt that-”

“Ugh, my ‘dearest niece’ can at least let her beloved uncle tell a tale of amusing dominance.”

…And now Minnie was curious.

“Fine then, dearest uncle, doth tell what thou did back then.”

“My Stand usually punches, right?” He pointed out and the blonde nodded. “I decided to kick this time.”

…oh?

“And I kicked below the belt.”

Oh!

“And I told you already that my Stand has a peculiar ability in physical confrontations.”

OH!

She was already shivering as her lips curled in a pre-giggle smile.

“Which is why I was also the first one that heard HIM running away, holding his crotch with his claws and screaming foul things at me with the most hilarious high-pitched voice ever,” Uncle Artie concluded, yet he had something else to add. “And he was like, ‘Y-You should feel graced by m-my mercy for sparing you, mortal. I-I shall come back later.’ And he never came back.”

Minnie was already a bundle of giggles, with her uncle effortlessly picking her up and hugging her close as they both enjoyed the pleasant moment together. As soon as the chuckling and giggling passed, Arthur sighed in relief.

“HIM is far older than you, Minnie. Had you been more trained and a bit older, I would have trusted you with this ordeal, but you have a lot to do and a lot to prove before going for that big of a target.”

“I know,” The blonde hummed. “Sorry for worrying you, uncle.”

He caressed her head and he lulled her to rest, they just spent some time like this, blissfully enjoying the lack of troubles coming their way.

But while the day went on quite smoothly, none of them realized that a limousine was parked on the opposite sidewalk to where the flat was, red eyes staring at the flat with a mixture of flat irritation and rare unease.

“My queen?” The skeletal driver inquired mindlessly.

Mandy sighed, closing her eyes for a moment of thinking and… opening them with confidence.

“Tomorrow.”

—--------d-d-d-d—-------

AN

Next time, Brother and Sister reunite. It will not be… pleasant. Especially with someone trying to ‘ruin things’.