Unit 14 followed just slightly behind and to the right of her owner, with Unit 8 flanked to his left. They’d only gone a little way when her owner suddenly stopped and turned to where the two girls had themselves halted and automatically adopted a sexy pose.
“Almost forgot” he said, as he took two thin leather collars, each with a small silver disk attached, out of a pocket. Placing one around each girl’s neck, he instructed them “Now, you are never to remove your collar without permission, ok? In case you’re out on your own, this will let people know you’re mine, right?”
”Yes, Master” the slaves replied in unison, leaving no doubt they would never disobey this or any other order or whim of their owner.
”Um, yeah, you know, that ‘Master’ thing” her owner muttered as if to himself, “what is it that Kuno has Akane call him, oh yeah” Then directly to his slaves “Girls, don’t call me Master, um, call me Milord, at least when we’re in public, ok?”
There was only one possible answer, which Units 8 and 14 gave promptly. “Yes, Milord.”
Looking satisfied, her owner turned and led his slaves out of the building. Once outside, Unit 14 paid careful attention to her surroundings as they set off to wherever her owner might be going. She might not personally care about being on a different world or concern herself with the affairs of anyone but her owner, but it was very possible that he might at some point require information and in order to provide the highest quality of service it was her duty to be observant and make note of anything which might be of use to her owner.
As she observed, her only reference point were the memories of her old personality, conveniently stored encyclopedia-like deep in her mind. Thus, she noted this version of Nerima was very similar to what she had experienced. Oh, there were open spaces where she had known buildings, and vice-versa; styles of architecture, automobiles, and clothing, were slightly off, there was some sort of slight odor in the air she couldn’t place, and there seemed to be a few more foreigners present.
The main difference she noted as she and Unit 8 kept pace with their owner was that a significant number of people, somewhere between 10 and 25%, she estimated, were collared and thus, apparently, slaves. Only a few were naked and/or showed signs of high-level reprocessing like herself, most wore at least some clothing and were differentiated from non-slaves merely by their collars, and an increased level of respect showed towards anyone without a collar. Most followed respectfully behind their (presumed) owners, some seemed to be on their own, perhaps carrying out errands, and some were dressed in work clothes and involved in resurfacing part of a road.
Unit 14’s observations continued as her owner led her into a neighborhood which in her Nerima had held homes but here was apparently filled with small businesses. A small crowd had gathered outside one shop, and it seemed the police had to be called to the scene. All Unit 14 could see from her vantage point was that a sizeable hole had been made in one of the walls of the shop.
”Oh man,” signed her owner, “don’t tell me she did it again.” He then made his way through the crowd to talk to one of the policemen involved in keeping everyone away from the building. Units 8 and 14 followed of course. On the way through the crowd, one young man reached out as if he would caress Unit 14’s sex, but faster than she could see her owner spun around and grabbed the offender’s hand before it could touch her. “Watch it, buddy. Private property here.” With a gulp the would-be fondler nodded agreement and backed off. As her owner reached his target, Unit 14 noted that, at least for the present, she would not be shared with strangers.
The policeman proved talkative, at least as long as his superiors were busy. “Well, you know how long this has been a problem with her, but given who she’s related to, we were under orders not to do anything. Plus, the government didn’t want any trouble with foreigners. But with the new government in place, they don’t care so much about that, and actually encouraged us to take action. So the Captain warned her and her family last week, then again last night. Seems like she thought we were kidding.”
At that point other officers led a familiar figure out of the shop (through the door, as it turned out). She was wearing wrist and ankle shackles, seemed dazed (stun guns, don’t ya know) and wore a silver metal collar.
Unit 14’s owner asked about her fate, to which the police officer replied “She’ll get a fair hearing, of course, but I don’t doubt the result. She’ll probably be sentenced to one to five years at the collar, maybe as a Companion, though not as fine as your Companions, Saotome, but if there’s any justice she’ll be placed on a construction and repair crew.”
If the policeman wished to share anymore he had no chance, as his superiors gave orders to disperse the crowd. Unit 14 followed her owner, who looked back once at the police car taking the shackled figure away but sighed rather than take any action against the police, as he headed to a destination he still hadn’t shared with his slaves. (Any misspelled names are sincerely apologized for)
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(Posted Tue, 22 Jun 2004 22:29)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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