www.me

iiii.

Mayuko lived alone. In a sense. Her family's estate was large and she had her own area with servants and staff. They rarely approached her, at her insistence. Since her trip to South America she rarely wanted company.

She was taking a lot of medication to aid with the recovery.

All her life she had been kept like a book. To say that her family was wealthy was an insult to mathematics. They were not only wealthy, but extremely powerful.

But Mayuko knew she wasn't the child they wanted. Though they kept her well, in pristine surrounding with a staff that catered to her every whim, she could always sense something was off with her parents. Particularly her mother, who seemed to look straight through her as if she were seeing someone else. The look was difficult to discern for young Mayuko, but over time she recognized it as a sort of yearning and despair.

Like any precious object, Mayuko was equipped with a tracking device when she was old enough for ear piercing. Later it was updated to add more capabilities. Because of her status, travel off the grounds her family owned was rare. The device allowed Mayuko to play games and watch videos that were being streamed from afar to occupy and educate her about the world.

She knew there were others, and some of them she knew personally. To Mayuko, this was always completely normal.

But this wasn't the plan for her older sister, she knew, because one day in the library her family kept she found diaries she was now certain her mother had intentionally arranged for her to discover.

The diaries detailed the attempt to purchase a child. A girl. Some of them were written in French. Mayuko was able to use her implant to translate them. They detailed the requirements for the acceptance of a contract to buy the embryo.

That she would be well cared for and insured in every way possible to avoid exposure to harm.

She must never be interfered with in any way by technology.

Her exposure to the world would be limited.

What she was to be fed and the type of fabric she would wear, and who could be permitted to prepare her meals or construct her clothing.

Even the kind of materials that could be used in her habitat.

Mayuko thought this was describing a human child but as she read further it was described as the embryo of a Siberian Tiger.

So she thought some of the details were strange and she couldn't seem to shake that something might be wrong with her translator.

Still, she had been told that there were things in the Library that she wasn't supposed to read and this certainly seemed like one of them.

But life on her familys property, albeit safe and secure, had become mind numbing.

As she approached puberty her mother had grown even more distant and her father began discussing the possibility of a marital agreement.

Mayuko felt trapped and began to plot her escape. All of this was documented and sent to the private server that operated her implant.

It was around this time she started getting into Kpop. Her family was Japanese, but lived in South Korea. Her father was a powerful executive with a manufacturing company that had contracts with multiple governing agencies in the region and globally. The entertainment companies, who had to comply with associated guidelines, had created a program for the children who had implants. Some were encouraged to be performers, other fans. They regularly accessed data from the implants, which was then translated into the programming.

Mayuko was paired with a performer in the early stages of his career. His name was Kim Seok-jin, or just Jin. Mayuko was allowed to watch all of the performances leading up to the debut of the boy band he was assigned to, BTS. All thoughts of diversion were erased around this time.

Her parents had abandoned the idea of pairing her for marriage as this developed. She became totally, delusionally devoted to the band and to her bias. She began to demand allowance to attend the concerts, which was arranged. Her parents seemed happier as this allowed them to redirect their attention the her older sister, whom Mayuko lost interest in knowing more of but remained attentive to news of.

According to the documents the tiger-girl had never arrived because she was stolen from the nursery by one of the slaves. It was a hushed legend among the staff who occasionally allowed, perhaps out of spite, for her to hear the rumors.

Some said she had been taken to America, and her family spent a considerable part of their fortune following her. Although they could not be certain, the efforts had uncovered that the embryo had been developed in a laboratory without the knowledge of what it would become. And when it became obvious that it was human a minor crisis unfolded.

Esther Colgate was one of the researchers who handled the tiger-girl. It had arrived in a vial labeled as such after being confiscated in the possession of an absconding slave from a plantation in Haiti that was being detained and assessed. He had produced it from his excrement, having swallowed it in the process of his escape.

A sympathetic guard took the embryo from him and passed it off quietly until it made it way into the hands of the laboratory in New Jersey, Cold Springs Harbor. The embryo was placed in a vial of saline, where it appeared to be continuing to develop unassisted.

Every member of the staff were required to sign lengthy non disclosure agreements regarding the embryo. After this, they were left to their own devices as far as how to handle the matter.

Esther was a single, attractive young woman who had no desire to follow the traditional path of marriage and home making. Her interest was mainly in science and healthcare, and she hoped to one day become a physician, something that was almost unheard of for a woman at that time. Especially one from a wealthy family.

Esther decided a maternal approach would suit her plan of care for the embryo. She re labelled the vial "Chio" after taking it to see Disney's Pinocchio with her in her pocket, hoping that exposure to the experience would enrich the development. It certainly seemed to work.

Although the lab had many such samples, this one was of particular intrigue. The embryo seemed almost holographic in motion, and grew quite rapidly compared to what was presumed for a human. Still, it was quite obvious that's what it was: a human being, growing right there in a jar without any assistance.

Like some kind of magic trick by God.