WARNINGS: Implied rape, brift nudity, slavery theme
Hanging Neck Island
Every year, during the high moon, demons come by sky, boat, and under the sea. They talk like ragging battles were about to take place at the island, but it wasn't the Dark Tournament.
It was because of fights soon to take place between a race -shoujo ryus- that was hunted down for sport, and then sold on the underground market as property, fighters, and personal pleasures. If the dragons were lucky, they would be killed and put out of their misery after they were used or even let go, but some trainers kept the dragoness' as a slave forever. It was a horrible time for this race, because since this Tournament was taking place, more of them were being hunted down.
And as the boats floated towards the battlefields, trainers were somewhere on the island, auctioning for dragons that wuld eventually be pt into fights for the death...
Somewhere on the Island
Demons and people alike were washing away their troubles in an underground bar. No light came through to this club. Only candles, oil lights and torches on the walls lit the market up. The whole place smelled of smoke, alchohol, and forced intercourse. In front of the pub was a beting stand. It was one of the many ill-giving scenes that many shoujo ryus saw before they were sold to their soon-to-be-masters.
The trainers, most just there to get as drunk as possible, sat at tables, talking in shouts and filling the already poisonous air with cigarette smoke and whatever other toxins they could. At one table -the sanest one- several trainers were watching for the auction, wanting new dragons to train in the two weeks before the tournament.
"Hey, when are they going to start the bets on the broads?" One asked.
"Don't know, Grandie," Another answered, "It should be soon. Hey, Shady!! Get your ass over here and bring our drinks!" Unlike so many of the trainers in the tournament, this one was one of the few humans that lived in the Makai; the few that even were accepted as allies.
Soon, a woman with dark green eyes, black, short hair and horns from her head came with a plater with four drinks on it. Her whole body bore scars upon scars and her eyes shimmered dully. She only wore enough to keep the most perverted men away from her; rags. She coughed, unable to stand the thick atmosphere of drug/ciggy smoke. The man who called her snatched the drinks from her and the woman cowered fratically, shielding her eyes from view. This fright was a ruse; the dragon held her passion to be free deep inside. She held a will to not be in the class of slave long.
"How long have you had this dragon, Jason? You've had about six already!" Grandie asked.
"About five years, but it's time to get another."
"Not bad for a human."
A cocky smile gleamed upon the human's face as he took a long drag on his cigar.
"You better put all of your bets on me, guys, because me and my team of trainers are going to win the tournament this year." He smiled.
"Don't count on it." Another, familar voice, chuckled.
Suddenly, most of the activity around the bar stopped, as if a loud gunshot rang through it. A figure formed from the tavern's darkness and a pair of red eyes stared at said table. Then, a white starbrust and flaming black hair came, followed by a black attire of leather. A third eye glowed behind a white headband and the human knew who it was.
Trainers started to cower as Hiei, the Forbidden Child, walked in their wake to the table. The human, Jason, however, showed the same cockiness as he put threw cigar in a random direction. He smirked at the fire demon.
"Oh, I'm so scared, Hiei. You and your dragon didn't exactly win the last tournament." Jason smirked as Hiei sided their table.
The first thing the koorime did was take notice to the female dragon that was siding the would-be Champion. Her eyes stared at him emotionlessly, but Hiei's Jagon eyes told him differently of Shady's attitude and stats. A cocky smirk wiped across Hiei's face.
"If this is the dragon you're entering in the contest, it just signed its death warnet." He threatened.
Shady's emotions showed clearly and Hiei bathe in her fear. Jason chuckled, seeing his dragon look so frightned.
"There's no need to be scared, Shady. You, along with the other trainer's dragons, shall defeat over this overconfidant prick." Jason smiled, which the dragon looked at Hiei with more confidence.
Hiei huffed, seeing some of the delicious fear dissapearing.
"You should keep it on a leash."
"If we did, they wouldn't be able to carry out orders," One of the other demons chuckled.
"And we wouldn't be able to use them to our wanting, either." Another smirked.
Shady looked frightened again as the demons talked about how they treated her race. It was then that a mike sounded and everyone in the bar looked towards the beting stage. There was a hefty demon on the stage, seeming to be out of it from drinking; slurring his words terribly.
"Alright men! I'm Charly and it'sss time to place your competitive bets for these nice catches for the tournament.
"Oh, good. Another pet for my crew." Jason smirked.
Hiei just 'Hn'ed and sat at the table with the fellow demons. Truthfully, he already had a dragoness and didn't desire another, but what's another one to torture?
"Okay, this first gal was quite easy to catch, so she's great for beginning trainers. Here's Cream."
Suddenly, a woman was pushed onto the stage. Her hair was colored cream and so were her eyes and horns. She sat down on the stage underneath the hefty demon. Her submissive personality gained many a chuckles from the audience, seeing her as an easy one-night stand.
"As you can see, this little broad here is very well behaved. It might not present a challenge to you advanced trainers out there, but it's perfect for beginnings. Also, she's a healing dragon and not much on fighting which is also a p-plus and a disa--vantage." Charly stopped, still trying to talk from drinking so much.
"So much for her. She's probably going to be stuffed for a trophey if nobody even bets on her. Maybe even as a hoe, if she's lucky." Grandie smirked.
"I don't think she's useless. Her ablity to heal will be great to train. I bet ten golds on Cream!" Jason called out.
"We've got 10 on Cream! Going once, twice, sold to Jason! You're over your head, man! Cream's not the best fighter." Charly chuckled.
"I would have betted against you, Jason," Hiei huffed, "but, I didn't want to price it too much. It's not even worth 10 gold."
Shady looked at Hiei with death in mind. He -and everyone else for that matter- treated her race like it didn't even have a gender; like they were some animals that were made to fight to the death or to use to relieve sexual stress. It made her sick because she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Shady was in the same boat.
--
After a few more bets, Hiei's table now had three more dragons, but the fire demon was still ryu-less. Shady was so sickened by the status of the three new dragons -finding them to be so scar torn, mentally shut-down and scared- the shoujo-ryu concluded that each one was abused after they were captured. Her attention, however, was averted with her 'master's' voice.
"Why haven't you bet on anyone, Hiei?" Jason asked.
When the fire demon said nothing, the others around the table started to yell in laughter, thinking they knew the situation.
"Don't tell me!" Jason smirked, "You've got no money! You haven't been on an assassination in months, so I wouldn't be surprised if you were broke."
Hiei snarled at them. He would start killing them off for starters, but he let it go because of the amount of liquor they had drank.
"Alrightly, mates! This here'ssssss the lasssst one..."
This one... Hiei did think twice of. Chains were tide on her wrists, which were tied behind her back. She sat on her legs on the floor because her ankles with chained together. She also wore a spiked coller around her neck, giving Hiei the sense that the dragoness had been in the ownership of someone else. Still, not even this was the reason that this dragon caught fire demon's eyes.
"As you can see, t-this one was a struggle. You c-c-can see that she has wings. Orange and black color, they a-are. E--even though she didn't fly away, we chained her up s-so she couldn't."
Hiei made note of her hair, which was black, long, and looked quite silky under the dim tavern light. Her deep orange eyes cut through the darkness, seeming to speak to any and all with a message: 'take me'. Some whooped in her presense -her beautiful not going unnoticed- but most hesitated, looking as if the shoujo-ryu was cursed. Hiei was not one of those people. He was reading the dragon's message.
"30 gold for that dragon!" he called out.
Many trainers gasped at the bet, looking at the fire demon as if he was crazy. Some even murmured their concern. 'What's he think he's doing?' or 'Hiei must be insane!'. The host looked like he was going to pass out from the bet... or from the alchohol level.
"Whoa, Hiei! I don't think you want to do that!" Charly called.
"I could care less of what you think. 30 gold." He repeated.
The ryu, looking at the ground in great sadness, was also surprised when a bet went up for her. However, when she looked towards Hiei, her orange jewels shrank in fear, like if she went with the fire demon, she would surely be killed, or worse... denied death and given a life of torture like most ryus. Suddenly, a deep voice raced through the tavern, surrendering everyone to freeze.
"Don't lay a hand on that shoujo ryu." A voice said from the shadows.
"Who dares face me in a bet?" Hiei snickered.
"I do."
Suddenly, white bled from the darkness and all cowered at the gold eyes. A kitsune dressed in clean garments walked out of the shadows in a similar fashion as the koorime, slowly walking to an empty table. Hiei snarled at the fox spirit. The former champion of the Dragon Tournament was betting against him.
Last year, Yoko and Hiei were in the semifinals, fighting fiercy against each other with their dragons. Hiei was beaten, however, by Yoko's dragon, that seemed to have a strong bond with the spirit fox. What bothered Hiei, however, was that the eyes on the dragon on the stage matched the one that beat him last year. His skin spiked as Yoko's voice sounded again.
"I place 50 gold on that dragoness." Youko betted, folding his arms and closing his eyes.
The audience was still murmuring to themselves, wondering why Yoko and Hiei were betting on this shoujo-ryu. They seem to know something that the two trainers, obvious, didn't know about. Charly was still trying to get through to the two rivals.
"Wait a minute!" he gasped.
Hiei snarled. He would not be outbetted.
"60 gold!"
But Charly was persistant, despite being drunk.
"Hold on!"
"80."
"Stop!"
"90!"
"Look, stop--"
"110."
"Would ya l-l-let--?"
"150!"
"Quit betting!"
Yoko's eyes suddenly snapped open and the audience once again cowered in fear. Hiei was growing frustrated, which was out of his character. Jason and his group gasped, feeling the black aura around the fire demon grow. Yoko chuckled, turning to face Hiei with a cocky smile.
"Fine, Hiei. If you think you can out-bet me: 200 gold. My finale offer."
Charly was amazed, as was the audience, for they still had a secret that Charly was trying to tell the two of them. Hiei growled at him, glaring at the fox spirit. How dare he embarress him infront of the black market? Still, the koorime knew when he was beaten and gave his bet up.
"Wow, Yoko, former Champ, has just made the highest bet today. 200 gold! Going once, going twice... SOLD TO THE UNLUCKY SPIRIT FOX!!" Everyone started laughing at the secret joke. Yoko's eyes narrowed, not liking to be disrepected while Heie lifted an eyebrow in wonder; what misfortune did he almost win a bet on?
"What do you mean unlucky?"
"Well, if you g-guys would have let me f-f-finish, I would have told you that this dragon here's a runt. O-one out of 5 d-dragons have wings and long hair. If y-you do find this 1/5 dragon, y-you're out of luck. They cause bad l-luck upon anyone who t-tries to tame them and are v-very shy. T-The only thing good a-about this type of dragon is t-that they're the most good-looking of the ryus. A nice fuck, if you w-w-will. G-Good luck with Daisy."
"Daisy?" Yoko repeated.
"Y-Yep! T-that's the name that t-the guy who caught her n-named her."
Daisy once again looked up from the ground. Her orange orbs looked around and locked in on Yoko, who looked back at her. Still, his eyes held no remorse for her position. To him, Daisy was now his property and by the end of the two weeks before the Tournament, she would submit to him in every way.
But, deep within Yoko's eyes, Daisy could sense something growing at a very slow rate...
"One m-more t-thing! This here d-dragon is m-mute... W-Won't say a w-word..."
--
EDITED: 09/08/08
