[Episode 137018] [Episode 137018]Being a practical man, Hosoichi had eventually settled on being polite and friendly to the Natsume family, while continuing to make as much money as he could off the exploits of the impractical head of that family. In time, to his surprise, the family had adopted him as an uncle, and viewed his moneymaking as a just reward for helping to clean up after Kyusaku. The slightly crazed conjurer still made him want to tear his hair out most of the time, but being a friend of the family opened further doors for his business, and that Nuku-Nuku was quite a ride.
So when “Uncle” Ichi saw his “nephew” Ryunosuke about to make a very big mistake, he felt obligated to take action.
Being male in the society of his birth ensured that Natsume Ryunosuke would always be supported in relative comfort, and when he was older he would have accommodating female companions whenever he wanted them. Being the son of Natsume Kyusaku and Akiko Mushima meant he lived in a luxurious palace of wonders (when it wasn’t being energetically renovated by things from beyond) and had his very own bouncing bakeneko bodyguard. His life was glamorous, his life was exciting, and human nature being what it is he often wished for a somewhat more ordinary existence.
This was one reason for the time he spent at Yoshi’s house. She had a nice, normal family, where he and Nuku-Nuku were the most exotic guests to ever cross the threshold. Domestic disputes were few and often settled with a few swats to a bared bottom, rather than the military-grade hardware that his mother and the house slaves preferred. In recent days, a second reason had developed. Akiko-Mama had made Papa get rid of most of the summoned slave staff before she left, trying to cut down on ways for her husband to get into trouble and endanger her beloved son. As a result of this, Nuku-Nuku was the only person currently in the house with any significant degree of culinary skill. As much as he loved the kitty, whom he saw as more of a big sister than a summoned servant, he was getting tired of fish.
Today, the Kagewara family had a nice pork dish for dinner, and he sent Nuku-Nuku on home to check on his father. This would have infuriated Natsume Akiko. While her son and husband encouraged the bakeneko in her delusion that she was somehow a member of the family, Akiko maintained that the pink pussy was a pet and supposed to act as Ryunosuke’s protector. Ryunosuke might have argued that Yoshimi’s house was safer than his own, but not unless he wanted to send his mother into tears.
In any case, that was an issue for another day. Dinner had been good, peaceful, and relaxingly normal. Yoshimi’s mother and the other slaves in the house had cooed over him and made comments on what a good master he would make for Yoshi someday, while Yoshi blushed and stammered a bit. Then he had walked home to find a scene that could only be considered normal in conjunction with his father’s name.
Squirming through the crowd, he reached the gates just as Tenchi and Nuku-Nuku sought shelter in the main building. The protective wards worked into the fence were active, reacting to the energies being unleashed on the grounds. Their effect was not visible, but despite the crowd pressing in, no one in the audience touched the bars. There were also a few limp or rigidly frozen spectators as evidence that the Golem Armor weaponry was keyed to pass through the wards.
As his father’s son, the protections would recognize him and he could open the gates quite easily, but mama, papa, and all the slaves got upset when he got involved in the messes they made. He also had some concerns about what the crowd might do or what might happen to them if he were to open the wards. On the other hand, he could see Kyoko’s blue armor lying on its back, unmoving, with a hole blown open in the chest. Arisa’s red suit was also down, contorted in obvious pain.
So Ryunosuke watched the oni-girl wash up in a battered fountain, and fidgeted as his worry for his family competed with the worry his family would have for him. Meanwhile the block-party surrounding his home continued as his neighbors settled bets, commented on the recent performance, and compared it to some of the past spectacles to seen on the Kyusaku grounds. This chatter carried on over a rising background noise of squeals, grunts, and groans as spectators gave vent to the passions inflamed by what they had witnessed. There were numerous booths (for those who wished a little privacy) and beds (for those who didn’t care) for rent and they were starting to fill up. Ryunosuke’s concern for the safety of the crowd began to wane as he noticed very few people showing any concern for the safety of his family and household slaves.
The sight of the oni advancing on Arisa, who he could now see was missing the head from her armor, caused him to throw caution to the wind. He moved forward to open the gates, deciding that the gawkers cheering the oni on could look after themselves when the wards parted, and if all he could do was throw rocks to distract the oni, so be it. Then a clawed hand, almost larger than he was, turned him around and he found himself looking into a huge set of iridescent compound eyes. Then all thoughts of onis, rescues, or anything else dissolved into a sea of confusion.
Hosoichi could have helped sort out the ongoing argument among the Natsumes about Nuku-Nuku’s status, as distinctions between slaves, pets, and other categories of servitude came up quite frequently in his work. That is, he could have helped sort out the argument if it had been in any way connected to facts, laws, or logic.
Slaves, while legally the property of their owners, had rights. The slave bond limited what the master could do to the slave, even as it bound the slave’s desires to the desires and wellbeing of the master. Most of the money from a slave’s sale went into the slave’s retirement fund, or to pay off any debts the slave had. These and other rights and safeguards had been won down through the centuries by the efforts of activists, such as the Masaki family, and a few attempted slave uprisings.
There were also rankings among slaves. The detail that came up most often in Hosoichi’s business was that human slaves had all of the previously mentioned rights and safeguards, but non-human slaves might not. It depended on the treaties and history of the species in question. It also depended on how close to human the species was. Beings who could have half-human or mostly human children were breeding stock, of a sort, and therefore of greater value than those that could not. The half-human offspring might or might not be accepted as sufficiently human for full citizenship in human society. Those that weren’t would probably be closer to human and rank higher than their non-human parents in a harem, and the next generation would be more human again.
On the other end of the spectrum were the pets. Those creatures that could not breed with humans might be good for some fun, but they weren’t of any use in bringing up the birth rate. Even the males of a “pet” race could be owned. Making a pet the primary recipient of one’s physical affections was frowned upon, as it was the duty of all responsible human-Japanese to spread or accept seed in a fruitful manner.
The Bakeneko were among the non-human races with the most amenable relations to humans. Like many near-human races, the gender balance of their births had been shifted by the same invisible plague that affected humans and the relationship between Bakeneko Toms and their prides had many parallels to human males and their slave harems. The two peoples were also cross-fertile, though that fertility was even spottier than that between humans. Also, ownership of a cat was always a questionable thing and trying to put a leash on one could be dangerous. It took a special touch to own and discipline a Neko-slave without getting clawed. All of this added up to a small but steady trade in cuddlesome cat-girls and well-trained human woman between the two peoples.
Thus, in a normal household, Nuku-Nuku would have been considered a slave, though lower ranking than the human slaves of the household. Traits like Nuku-Nuku’s incredibly enhanced strength and speed made such slaves especially valuable, but did not make them the social equal of a human female. Kyusaku’s household, however, was not normal and he had a very relaxed attitude about differences between races.
Meanwhile, Ichi’s slave trainers were considered human for all intents and purposes, despite their exotic looks with ebony skin, stark white hair, and pointed ears. Technically they belonged to the male who had accompanied them to this world, but all of them were working off debts to Ichi who had helped them settled into their new culture and avoid some of its pitfalls. They insisted that in the lands they had fled due to religious persecution, their sort of people were not considered human, but they had accepted the local definition. That definition made their position as trainers keeping discipline among Ichi’s merchandise, something they apparently had experience with from their old home, more socially acceptable.
Ichi took a moment to admire one of those trainers in her red leathers, showing off a three-tailed kitsune bent over a railing and making the fox-girl whine and whimper for the touch of a potential customer. He took another moment to admire the squirming, furry rump and the arrangement of the tails, held out of the way in a fan of fur by red ribbons running up (or down in her current position) to the collar around the slave’s neck.
Ichi’s attention shifted back to the exotically sexy and intimidating trainer, thinking that one of them probably would have been a better choice to send after Ryunosuke than the large, light brown, insectoid figure leading the dazed boy towards Ichi. Gurssik was a pet, being of a race with no sexual compatibility with humans whatsoever. His training crew claimed that Gurssik’s kind were known amongst their people as Large Brown Things. To Ichi that seemed deserving of some sort of award for names that were descriptive without being informative. Gurssik had apparently been the minion of a less ethical interdimensional slaver who mistook Kyusaku’s slightly scatterbrained character for weakness. When the foolish slaver was crushed under a few tons of earth elemental shortly after making that fatal mistake, Gurssik had been knocked away and left to wander and Ichi had gathered him up, much as he had with other castoffs of Kyusaku’s exploits.
Gurssik was not stupid, and he was very experienced in the business of the slave trade, but that experience involved a very straightforward approach to that business. For example, he had just demonstrated an incomplete understanding of the social rules that determined whether “bring that person over here,” meant “ask nicely,” or “stun him with your hypno-eyes and drag his helpless form before me.” The latter version was the one Ichi had the most frequent use for, but it was entirely inappropriate in this case, and the kid was going to be justly angry with him when it wore off. He was likely to get an ear full from Ryunosuke’s mother as well, but that could be cut short by insisting that it was for the boy’s protection.
Swift motion drew the slave trader’s attention to the air above the yard, just in time to see the blue not-quite tengu that that had been flitting around before swatted from the air by another form in black an read. As the avian-slave hit the ground with a shrill chirp and a thump, Ichi thought that perhaps it was best that the boy didn’t see whatever came next.
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(Posted Thu, 05 May 2005 04:25)
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