Chapter Two
Thirds and the Slavery Institution
"He's been away for a while before," Kisuke Urahara said as he and Isshin Kurosaki tromped through the brush nearing the other settlement of Morioh.
"Never more than a day or so. I know that close to the shore there's a family he has stayed with when weather gets bad, but I can't imagine him being gone this long. It's been three days already," Isshin commented as they came out of the brush to see a small house near the shoreline.
A man sat on the porch of the house with a wide set of shoulders and a white hat with a bill over short, dark hair. He wore a long white jacket over a simple t-shirt and white pants with two belts crisscrossing his lap. His light green eyes were hard set and staring at them from the moment they came up the embankment. From the description, Isshin guessed that this must be Jotaro Kujo, the man that lived here with his husband and infant son. Despite knowing that this family included a third, Isshin had trepidation about speaking with him at length, especially about his own son. There was a second and the door opened to allow a slender man to exit with curling reddish hair. He held a dark-haired baby in his arms that looked to be no more than a year old.
"Jotaro Kujo?" Kisuke asked as they approached. The other man stared but didn't stand from his porch seat. "We came by to talk to you about a missing Karakura boy."
"Only one of your 'boys' comes by here, often, that red-headed kid," Jotaro commented. "He was here a couple days ago excited about finding some pieces of a transmitter. He's not come back?"
"That's not good," the other man said. "I'm Kakyoin, Jotaro's husband. And this is Jouta, our son," he said, indicating the infant. "Ichigo has stayed with us a few times when it got too late to make the trip back to Karakura. He's gone out a few times on the boat with JoJo."
"The boat?" Isshin asked.
"I'm a marine biologist," Jotaro explained, still watching his visitors carefully. "I go out to study the marine life as it is now. Things have changed from the books that we learned with underground before the Emergence."
"Ah," Isshin nodded. "I'm Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo is my son, and you appear to know of us, at least?"
"By description I recognize the man with the hat," Jotaro said and nodded toward Kisuke. "Ichigo has spoken of him from time to time."
"Kisuke Urahara," Kisuke said with a slight bow. "It is good to meet you and your family as well. You are one of the first successful male birth parents I have yet to see. I believe everyone is referring to them as 'thirds' for whatever reason. A truly unique phenomenon I believe that was wholly unexpected."
Isshin felt himself bristle at the turn in discussion. Talking about thirds wasn't what he came here to do and he didn't want to tell anyone his own discoveries.
"Speedwagon Foundation helped with my birth of Jouta," Kakyoin said. "They're innovative with the new thirds, and we've found that there are female ones as well. Though the process is a bit reversed as the females can impregnate other females and receptive third males. It is interesting how all of this happened. I'm surprised you know so little…"
"Shinigami Foundation is a bit more on the hands-on research aspect. They've taken a couple as experimental subjects. There is some debate as to the ethics of the research," Isshin said through clenched teeth.
"Ah. That explains why you are so reluctant to discuss the fact your son is one of us," Kakyoin said with a smirk. Isshin's face changed to shock. "There's a scent that follows us. We can detect each other for some reason. Non- thirds can't smell it. Some sort of pheromone."
Isshin shifted uncomfortably. "Does he know?"
"I haven't discussed it with him, though my advice is to do so. If your son were to suddenly become pregnant, he would have quite the shock," Kakyoin explained with a shrug of his shoulders.
"He's not active in dating anyone," he said slowly. "But he's missing now."
"There's been missing men and women from Morioh lately. Josuke was just saying that about ten have gone without a trace, all young and able-bodied. There's rumors of slavers rounding up young people," Jotaro said slowly as he thought. "I haven't seen anything out in the shallows, but further out there have been at least three boats sighted. Two are trade and salvage ships, but the largest of them is unknown to me."
There was a silence before it was broken by a call from the direction of the shore. "Oi, Kujo! Trade is open!"
Jotaro stood up and walked toward the shore with his hands in his pocket. "Come, you can ask these men. They are from away from here so they may know something," he said as he sauntered down and away.
Isshin and Kisuke followed the large man down to where a small boat had come into the shallows carrying a few people. Out further, a large repurposed oil tanker was anchored, obviously where the smaller boat had come from. The small boat was loaded with several crates that were being set on the shore. One of the men from the boat took off in the direction of Moriah.
A man with blue hair and a woman with blonde hair both came off and pulled crates up onto the shore. When both stood up straight, Isshin saw the black circles that marred their skin.
"Arrancar," he muttered just loud enough that Kisuke could hear him. "What are they doing with this group I wonder?"
"Risotto Nero takes in anyone he finds useful," Jotaro said as he passed them. "He doesn't let anyone stay that can't pull their weight, though. So, anyone on that ship, the Metallica, they're good for some sort of labor."
"Are there other ships?" Isshin asked as he watched people begin to trickle down from Morioh to look at the goods that the ship had pulled onto the shore. It seemed trade was done with precious metals, gems, and artifacts. He watched several things change hands that he had at home attempting to rebuild at the moment.
"One other that I know, that comes for trade, the Gold Experience. Similar, from the western areas around Italy like this group. They know each other but don't seem to be friends," Jotaro informed them as they waited to see who came toward them.
The blue haired Arrancar came forward, leaving the others behind. "Yo, Kujo. New friendlies?" he called as he approached them.
"You met the redheaded kid last time you were here, the one that goes treasure diving in the shallows. This is his father. Kid went missing. You lot seen anything?" Jotaro asked as Nero came up behind the Arrancar. Jotaro motioned to them. "Grimmjow is the Arrancar, and this is Nero, captain of this ship," he said as he motioned to the other man.
Isshin was taken aback for the slightest moment at the man's eyes. They had black sclera and red irises. A variation but a coloration that was becoming more common among people on the surface. There were eight others, and his son, who shared that coloration at times of great stress, though the iris was gold rather than red. This Nero appeared to have permanently colored eyes. He was tall and slender with long dark hair pulled back.
"A missing young adult? You may never see him again, I fear. The King Crimson is in these waters," Nero stated as he stopped and crossed his arms.
"King Crimson?" Isshin asked.
"A slaving freighter from our area, near old Italy. They have other reasons to be here, no doubt, but on the way, they'll collect slave stock." Nero glanced down to the sea and back to the others. The trading was going well it seemed as he looked amused by it. "Sorry to say, if your boy got tagged by them, he's as good as dead."
"But he's…" Isshin started then stopped, not continuing.
Nero smirked. "Ah, he's one of us, eh? One of the ones who has started to change. Not quite an Arrancar, but closer than the other humans." Nero's keen eyes shifted to where Kakyoin stood with the infant clutched in his arms. "Maybe even a third like Jotaro's man, huh?" Isshin tried to school his expression but failed at it. "Yeah, prime stock. Those go for the highest prices in the slave markets. Your boy is gone if that's the case. He won't be able to hide from the scanning instruments they have on there."
"But we don't know if he's there for sure," Kisuke commented, looking between them.
"True, maybe got picked up by Buccellati," Grimmjow said with a thoughtful expression. Nero glared at him. "Hey, I know you don't like the guy, but it is possible. Last time you met up for any time was in Taiwan. Maybe we'll meet on the way back. But I can't see Buccellati keeping anyone on board that don't want to be."
"Hate to admit it, but you're right," Nero muttered. "He even kept those females that thought they could buy their way onto the boat with showing their breasts, nice or not. Sex is not a commodity on my ship, and that's all they knew how to barter with."
Grimmjow snorted. "They coulda learned other work. They couldn't help having learned to use their bodies to get what they wanted," he murmured as they watched the people begin to leave with their trades.
"You looking at anything?" Nero asked Jotaro.
Jotaro held up a datacard and smirked. "Music. Ten hours. Heavy beat. What'll it buy me?"
Nero's eyes lit up as much as the nearly black orbs could. "Anything," he said and reached for it. Jotaro pulled his hand back and walked down to see what exactly had been brought ashore.
After another twenty minutes, Jotaro had a stock of infant clothes, a mixture of toys and computer datacards, and what looked like a random box of parts for a computer. Nero closed up, everyone pulling things back out to sea and to head on to the next port, which would be Karakura now that they'd finally opened it further north. Isshin was left with more worry than he began with.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Ichigo wasn't sure what to think about all that had just happened. To be honest, he didn't want to even think of moving from where he sat right now. He ached and hurt in all sorts of places from the beatings he'd taken from the other ships, and now to find out what was going on with the mark on the back of his neck and what it meant…
He was startled when someone seemed to suddenly be next to him sniffing him. He gasped and nearly fell backward off the bench he sat on to see a blond kid in what looked like a wolfskin cape sniffing him. He had vivid purple eyes and they glittered in interest. Trish was staring as the boy went from sniffing Ichigo to sniffing her just as a woman came in from the back entrance to the dining area.
"Wonderweiss, what are you… oh new people!" she said. Now that Ichigo could see her, she wore a green crop top and skirt and had almost as green hair. She smiled at them and ruffled the blonde-haired kid's hair, Wonderweiss apparently.
"New, good," the blonde said and then wandered to sit down on the end of the table. Ichigo looked up to see the one named Fugo come down from the deck. He grabbed a tin cup and poured something into it before sitting down.
"Hey, Nel, what's doing?" he asked the green haired woman.
"Nothing much, I was coming up to see what had been going on, felt a bit bumpy downstairs for a while."
"We were saving these two from the Clash. Those two are fish food now," Fugo said and sipped his drink.
Nel nodded. "Who do we have here, then?" she asked and smiled at both Trish and Ichigo.
"I'm Diavolo's daughter, Trish," she said to Nel. "I'm the cause of all the trouble with him," she gestured to Ichigo.
"Um, yeah," Ichigo said with a shrug and rubbed the back of his neck where it was still sore. "I got branded by those guys on their boat, and I'm from near here. I ran onto her on the shore where I was searching for stuff in the water."
"And your name?" she said with a smirk.
"Oh, sorry, Ichigo."
"Itsygo and Trish," she said then turned a bit red. "Oh, sorry, sounds like I can't say your name quite right. Oh well. Itsygo it is!" she got up and patted Wonderweiss on the back. "Come on, let's have a look up top, you can say hi to Narancia."
Wonderweiss got up and followed her as she took the steps up toward the deck.
"So, what's the deal with him?" Ichigo asked as he watched them go.
"Him?" Fugo said almost wistfully. "Narancia found him one night. We were in Greece, Buccellati, Narancia, and me, and we made camp. Felt funny, like being watched, y'know? Narancia went and looked around, see if we were in the path of a Fomori pack or something, and when he came back, the boy was following him." Fugo shrugged and looked at Ichigo. "We heard some movement, and we knew that we could be close to Fomori territory, can't really tell with them since their borders change by the day. But he had him behind him." Fugo picked up his cup and took a drink. "Kid was wearing animal skins and clothes he'd scavenged, looked like, and had this makeshift sword. Narancia said that he'd sniffed him, like he did you just now, and obviously he wasn't Fomori. He knows a few words, but not too many, and he knows his name. And well, he was wearing clothes, so that's something. He still growls when he hears the word Fomori. Buccellati thinks that maybe his family was killed by the Fomori, and he was young. He got away and was living on his own. So now we keep him on board with us."
Ichigo was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. "These Fomori, you said that Narancia was being given to them." His hand went to the back of his neck to rub against the brand again that still hurt quite a bit. "They're not good, are they?"
"See, when a slave reaches the end of their worth, sometimes they'll cut off the brand and they're caged up and set out to be given to the Fomori," Buccellati said as he returned and sat down again. He looked at Fugo who looked memory fogged. "They're cannibalistic people who have lost their humanity and everything that ever made them human. They travel in packs like animals and prey on anyone who gets in their way. They physically look different, jagged teeth, and they even litter like animals. Not all infants reach adulthood because they dominate each other from birth. Sometimes, used up slaves are given to them in order to keep them sated, if you will."
Another silence descended on the room before Fugo spoke up again. "You don't know Narancia much yet, but he's a handful. I guess I'm the only one that can handle him at his worst, and even I don't know exactly what all happened to him. He was in a little cage, eye badly infected, and covered with other wounds. He'd been abused terribly. They let me have him almost for free. I took him back and we got him healthy again. His eye never healed, but seems his other one took over for him," Fugo said with a sly smile. "We fight as much as we fuck," Fugo said this with a smirk. "Which is to say a lot of both because he's a fuckin brat. He don't know when to shut up and he don't know how to turn off the nightmares. So, we keep ourselves busy."
Ichigo nodded, knowing that these people had been through a lot more than he had so far in his life. He supposed in a way he was a "kid" to them since he'd been safe in Karakura most of his life. Well, Karakura and the bunker. Either way, he'd been around others and family, where these people had been out in the world.
"But that's a whole other story," came Giorno's voice. "We should show our guests to their quarters for the night and while they're on board."
Ichigo looked up and saw the other man waiting with a look of mild annoyance. He didn't think this guy liked him at all, he thought to himself as he limped after the other young man and Trish. He had to give it to those guys, they knew how to lay down a hell of a beating on a person and not kill them. Of course, now they were dead and Ichigo wasn't sure how to feel about that. Despite what they had done to him, he wasn't sure he would have put a death sentence on their heads. Of course, it wasn't like he could do much when he was just along for the ride.
They passed out deeper into the ship and came to a doorway. "This is the bath area. We have co-ed bath facilities," Giorno said as he pushed the door open. Ichigo blinked because there was someone inside already, a shorter man with black hair and his back to him. From where he stood, Ichigo could see a horrible scar on the back of his neck in the same place that he himself had been branded. He assumed this was the guy Fugo was talking about. He glanced over and continued his bathing as Giorno closed the door again.
"They just built some bath houses near Karakura and Morioh, sento-style they were called my dad said, and they look kind of like this, not co-ed though," he commented as he glanced at Trish who was blushing mildly.
"Why co-ed?" Trish said as they walked further from the baths.
"Saves space and water," Giorno commented as they came to another door that he pushed open. Inside was a room with bunks built into the wall. "Here we are. Pick a spot and have a rest. If you need anything, find one of us, and there's others on the ship too, so don't be surprised by other people popping in and out. There are thick blankets at the end of each bunk; it gets cold during the night. You shouldn't be disturbed while sleeping, though."
With that, Trish and Ichigo found themselves alone in the quarters and wondering exactly what was going to happen next.
"I think I just want to go home," Ichigo commented as he fell back into a bunk, wincing from the various aches he still had. After some time, both of them had fallen into deep sleeps.
Ichigo woke during the night when he heard a noise. Half asleep, he found his way out of the room and into the doorway of another room where the one named Narancia was sleeping. He was suffering a nightmare it seemed. Ichigo was about to go in and see if he could help when he saw the blonde boy move up onto the bed and nuzzle with him, licking his face gently until he calmed. He saw that the green haired girl was there too, apparently summoned by the noise as well. She leaned over and ruffled Wonderweiss's hair for a second before she turned away. Ichigo had no idea what to think about this ship, but he was sure that life was more interesting for it.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
"Aw, come on, can't I just pick one of the pretty boys out and play with him a little bit? He'll be mostly intact when I'm done," the woman with white hat emblazoned with the wheel symbol whined to one of the King Crimson's men. Bambietta Basterbine was one of the Wandenreich that was aboard the large slaver ship at the moment. Her interest had been piqued by the fresh slaves that were being held below deck.
Secco, a man who could only be described as being primal in nature, glared at her through the leather mask he wore. He wore a bodysuit of leather that covered most of his body, and left an opening for his eyes, nose and mouth, but not much else.
"You don't touch the merchandise or there will be problems." He smirked at her. "You don't want problems, now do you?"
Bambietta, despite being one of the tougher of the Wandenreich, winced at that smirk. Yahweh didn't want them to piss off these guys, so she backed down. Even as much as she wanted to take out some of her sadistic energy on someone, she didn't want to mess with these guys. Slavers, especially though that didn't care about how they were perceived, were a tough lot. Plus, these two on the King Crimson were rather creepy, and she'd come on board with their resident creep Giselle. She seemed to be fascinated by what happened.
Yahweh wanted an alliance with this Diavolo, and Bambietta was beginning to see why. The man was cruel and powerful. She glanced down at the slave pens and smirked. She really did want to play just a little with one of those boys. Just a bit. But she wasn't going to push these guys too far. Something told her that the other one, the one named Cioccolatta, would gladly see her an any of them dead, or worse.
Secco headed back up to the deck but Bambietta walked around the pens. They were simple cages with cots lining the outside edges. Right now, they had collected quite a few from the area, ten to be exact. She wasn't sure why they liked to pick up local slaves as they moved along, but she supposed it was a good source of information for the areas they went into. Fresh sources of good slaves also had to be found as their own sources dwindled back where they had come from.
"Why are you doing this to us?" asked one of the women in the cells, a young woman with lighter colored hair and large breasts.
"I'm not doing anything," Bambietta said with a smirk. She turned and headed up to the deck again herself.
Inside the cell, Orihime Inoue, from Karakura glanced over at her fellow Karakura captives. Chad Yasutora and Keigo Asano were both equally as unsure of their futures as they watched the strange woman leave. One of the others, a woman with pink pigtails named Riruka sighed and glanced at a tall man with long brown hair named Kugo. They had been outside of Karakura when they were captured by these slavers. Orihime sat down on one of the cots and glanced at the next cell where several people from Morioh had been placed. Anne, Toshikazu Hazamada, Aya Tsuji, and Ayana Hirose were silent as they had been captured before those in the neighboring cell. They had lost most of their hope that they would ever leave the ship they were on. The last one, an Arrancar named Illfordt Ganz sat close to the door and waited for anything to happen.