Previously:
"Why'd you go back!?" Aladdin and Faith shouted incredulously.
"I didn't say we'd be going now!" retorted Alibaba.
"Well, why not?" asked Faith. "I mean, we're already here."
"Don't be stupid!" Alibaba told her, earning himself a short but very scary glare. "I-I mean, for dungeon diving, being prepared is everything! First let's go and buy some supplies!"
"Aww…" Aladdin said, a little disappointed they weren't going right away.
Chapter 9: Adventure
"Wow, there's so much to buy~!" said Aladdin, looking around the large market in amazement. It reminded Faith of a more Arabian-styled version of the starting town in WOW or SAO… Yeah, she was gonna go with SAO since it felt like an adventure RPG, but with real life consequences… like actual death.
"Well, yeah," said Alibaba, "there's provisions, weapons…"
"Medicine, antidotes to negative effects, items that bolster statistics, and items that deal damage…" added Faith, ticking each of the items off on her fingers.
"What statistics…?" asked Alibaba, sweat-dropping. Why did this girl have to be so weird?
"Oh, don't worry about that, it's nothing." She replied carelessly. "It's and inside joke."
"An inside joke?" asked Aladdin curiously.
"With who?" Asked Alibaba, because it clearly wasn't Aladdin.
"Myself." She answered with a grin.
"…" Alibaba and Aladdin stared at her for a moment.
"Were you dropped on the head as a child?" asked Alibaba.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I was. But up until now, everyone else had the good grace not to mention it!" said Faith, giving him a punch in the arm.
"Ow!" Alibaba winced, biting his lip to keep from crying. That actually hurt… a lot. "A-Anyway, as I was saying… the city nearest the seventh dungeon is a gathering place for adventurers."
"Ooh~" said Aladdin when something shiny suddenly caught his eye. "Hey, Alibaba-kun, how about this thing?" he asked excitedly, holding up a super long blade that had several strange side attachments built in.
"And what would you use that fancy-ass thing for?" asked Alibaba, sweat-dropping.
"I don't know, but I like it!" said Faith with a thumbs up, giving the bizarre weapon her seal of approval. "Give me a heroic pose, Aladdin!"
"Okay!" said Aladdin, raising the sword as he lifted one leg off the ground, as if he had paused mid swing. This turned out to be a big mistake because the weapon was too heavy, and he began to wobble off-balance.
"Hey, stop!!! That's dangerous!" Alibaba yelled as it swung his way. As he leaned back to avoid the blade, he felt himself bump into something. It was a girl carrying a huge basket of fruit. "Ah!" he cried in alarm and surprise as they all came crashing down. "I told you this would happen!!" he yelled with tears in his eyes, pale and trembling, as he eyed how close the strange weapon had come to skewering his head and/or the poor girl they had gotten involved in the mess.
"S—Sorry!" Aladdin cried, paling and flinching in shock at the damage he had done. "I'm sorry, onee-san, let me help!" he said, hurrying over to help the girl they had knocked over pick up the spilled fruit.
'Well, that was a disaster…' Faith thought wryly, moving to join the clean up effort, but neither her not Aladdin's help was necessary. Before they could do anything the dark-pink haired girl had already tossed it all back in the basket and stood up again.
"…" She stared down at them with a slightly annoyed pout on her face.
'Ooh… She's cute…' thought Alibaba and Faith.
"Sorry about that," Alibaba told her with a goofy grin on his face, "he's such an idiot…"
"Are you hurt? Would you like some help carrying that?" Faith asked with a bright smile as she shoved him out of the way.
"…!?" Alibaba exclaimed indignantly as he glared up at her. That little…! "I can take it for you!" he offered the cute girl as he scrambled to get back up.
"No… I'm fine." The girl replied coldly with a shake of her head. With that she promptly turned her back on them and started walking away.
"On second thought, not cute!" said Alibaba with a vein throbbing on his forehead.
"I dunno… Me, I like a strong woman." Said Faith with a smirk, stroking her chin like she had an invisible goatee.
"…" Aladdin was staring after the fruit girl with an odd expression on his face.
"…!!" Faith gasped, frowing when she saw what had caught his attention.
"What's up, with you guys?" asked Alibaba.
"T-Those…" Aladdin said, pointing to her ankles.
"!" Alibaba gasped too when he saw them, the chains. The girl flinched, looking startled when she realized they were staring at them with horrified looks on their faces. Her face flushed with shame and embarrassment as she broke out in a nervous sweat, and she quickly tried to pull her skirt down to hide the chains. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and her fruit spilled over the side of the basket again.
"That girl, she has chains on her feet…" Aladdin said.
"…" Faith furrowed her brow as her frown deepened. It couldn't be…
"Yeah… She's a slave…" Alibaba said regretfully.
"Damn, so this place really does have slaves…?" Faith thought aloud, scowling at the idea.
"In this rotten world, there are people who wage wars just to get more slaves… They'll take whole families and sell them like livestock…" Alibaba continued with a frown. "Well… until I settle this debt, I'm kind of in the same boat… Huh? Where's Aladdin?" he asked, doing a double take when he realized the kid wasn't standing next to him anymore.
"Over there." Faith said, pointing to Aladdin as he ran over to the enslaved girl, who was still struggling to hide her shackles and refill her basket at the same time.
"?" said Alibaba, wondering what he was up to.
"Hold on, onee-san!" Aladdin said, pulling out his flute.
"?" the girl said, wondering what he was going to do as he aimed it at her chain and blew.
CRACK!
With one note, Aladdin broke the chain.
"Ohh~!" Faith said with appreciation, clapping. Nice one.
"All better! Now miss…" said Aladdin with a radiant smile, "you can walk down the street without having to hide your legs!"
"…!" The girl gasped, blushing nervously as she stared up at him in shock and awe. No way…
'Crap!!!' Alibaba screamed in his mind, turning blue with shock. At that time in this world willingly freeing someone who was enslaved was the same as theft of another's property. In short… It was a crime. And there were lots of witnesses to this one. "H-Hey! Taking those chains off is a big no-no!!" Alibaba exclaimed nervously, rushing over to them.
"Why's that?" Aladdin asked innocently.
"Why!?" said Alibaba nervously, taken aback. "Well, that's…"
"Why's it bad?" Aladdin asked.
"…" Alibaba couldn't find it in himself to reply. He looked at the girl the boy was trying to help. Freeing a slave was a crime, but… but…
"It's not bad. You didn't do anything wrong." Faith told Aladdin. "Can you stand?" she asked the girl, offering her a hand.
"…" The girl stared up at the two strangers in astonishment. These two… who were they…? Why would they—
"Hey! What's all the ruckus!?" Someone shouted. "Hey, don't crowd around me!" said its fat owner as he pushed his way through the crowd. "Right now I'm in a bad… Hm?" He stopped short when he saw their little group.
"…" Alibaba stared at the man for a moment in disbelief. It was that greedy wine merchant, Budel.
"Ah!!" They both shouted abruptly the moment it clicked.
"W—Why are you here…!?" Alibaba asked, cowering in shock and alarm. Of all the people…
"Hey! I remember you from yesterday…" said Aladdin, pointing at Budel.
"Yeah…" said Faith.
"The old guy with boobs!/The greedy fat-ass!" they both exclaimed at the same time.
"Shut the hell up, you brats!!" Budel snapped with a vein popping out of his forehead. He was just 'pleasantly plump'! "Dammit it all, it's your fault that I lost the trust of my best customers!! I'll never forgive you…!!" he shouted furiously at Alibaba. Alibaba trembled a little as he shrank behind Aladdin and Faith. "Hmm?" Budel paused in his rant when he spotted the slave with a broken chain sitting on the ground by them. "Peons like you… do know that steal slaves is considered grand larceny, right?"
"We… don't know anything." Alibaba answered grimly, clapping his hands over the other two's mouths.
"Be my slave." The vindictive wine merchant demanded suddenly with a sneer.
"!" Alibaba gasped and the blood drained from his face as he stared at the man in horror.
"You can be my slave… for your whole life… And work!" sneered Budel, grabbing the girl Aladdin had tried to free by the wrist, yanking her to her feet. "Oh, and don't worry, I will get every penny's worth from you! Being a slave is tough… huh!? I can do all kinds of things to you, and you can't say a word…" As he spoke, Budel pulled the poor girl's hair and twisted her wrist.
"S-Stop it…" Alibaba said shakily, dripping with cold sweat. He wanted to help the girl, but he was afraid. "S…"
"If you don't like it, then let's talk payment, then!!" Budel barked loftily, laughing as he enjoyed the power he had over Alibaba because of the debt.
BAM!!
"—!!" Budel choked in pain when Faith suddenly gave him a good strong kick in the shin.
"Hey, cut that shit out, lard-ass!" she snapped angrily, giving him a swift kick in said fat ass that was hard enough to send him rolling head over heels onto his knees.
"Take this, piggy!" said Aladdin, giving him a quick but sharp stab up the poop chute with Ugo's flute. Budel nearly coughed up blood as his eyes bulged out in pain. "Why are you doing mean things like that, ojii-san? Just cause he owes you some money, doesn't mean you get to boss him around…!!"
"Yeah, we all know slavery's shit! You really think you can put a price tag on somebody's life? Huh!?" Faith added belligerently, bringing her foot down on Budel's back with an ominous crack. She was seriously pissed off with this guy! "Just shut the hell up, already!" She said, flipping him off.
"Yeah! Because Alibaba isn't gonna to be your slave!" said Aladdin, making a face as he stuck out his tongue at the man.
"It's people like you we hate the most, ojii-san/fat-ass!!" they finished together. By this time, Budel was so enraged and humiliated that he had begun to turn a rather interesting shade of purple.
"Officer!!" He shouted with veins throbbing all over his head and neck. "I've found some slave thieves!!"
"!?" said Alibaba, flinching in shock.
"You'd better come quick, these three have pure evil in their eyes! They're low-down slave rustlers!!"
"Whaaat!?" Alibaba shouted incredulously.
"Time to go!!" said Faith, pulling the boys along as she promptly made a run for it the moment she heard the stampeding feet of the policemen rounding the corner.
"Don't you dare take our master's things!!" The police shouted as they ran after them.
"Fuck da police!" Faith shouted, tipping over a barrel of apples as they passed a fruit stand to slow them down.
"He's called the cavalry!!" Alibaba yelled nervously. "Run away!! If they catch us now, it's game over!!" The three of them ran, following his lead as he weaved through the alleyways. "Gah!!" He cried out when another group of policemen suddenly ran out from another side street to cut them off.
"Man, you suck at this!!" said Faith. She never got caught when Hope was in charge of the getaway!
"They've got us surrounded!!" Alibaba shouted anxiously as the police closed in. "No… No! I can't let it end here!!" he cried as they grabbed him. "You bastards think I'm just gonna give up!? I'm on to bigger things…!!"
"Well said!!" said Faith, kicking and punching away the men grabbing at them while Aladdin blew into the flute. Out came Ugo-kun, all the way up to his neck. The police cried out in alarm as the three of them rose into the air on the blue giant's back.
"Mwahahaha!! That's right, bitches!" Faith laughed as they cowered in fear. Alibaba looked like he had almost wet his pants.
"It's not over!!" said Aladdin. "From here on is our… dungeon diving adventure!!" Alibaba's eyes widened for a moment as he stared at the smiling and excited faces of Aladdin and Faith. Alibaba grit his teeth and furrowed his brow with determination. That's right… This was just the beginning!
"Don't let them get away! Catch those dirty mice using any means necessary!!" Budel yelled furiously. "I'll curse you for the rest of your miserable little life! You'll be my slave until you pay all of that money back, I'll make you regret being born, and then kill you!!" He shouted after Alibaba.
'I'm already fully aware of the debt I have, and that I have no way of paying it back! But I'm not doing this for the sake of repayment!!' Alibaba thought tensely. "Let's go dungeon diving!!" He told Aladdin and Faith.
"Yeah!!" They cheered, beaming with excitement, while Ugo sprinted away with all three of them riding on his shoulder's.
"…" The girl they had tried to help quickly gathered up her basket, pausing to glance back at them, before taking off herself.
"Thank goodness, it looks like that girl got away!" said Aladdin, looking back.
"Good! And I hope they never catch her!" said Faith.
"…" Alibaba stared back at the empty spot on the street where the girl used to be for a moment, the he turned to face forward again and search for the dungeon. He hoped so too.
"Are you okay, sir? Does it hurt anywhere?" two of Budel's men asked him as they helped their boss up the front steps of a very large and extravagant mansion.
"Shut up! Just keep carrying me!" the fat merchant snapped with tears in his eyes. "Boss!! I mean, Chief! Chief!!" Budel cried as they entered the office of the man who ran the city of Qishan. The young noble was having his shoulders massaged by two beautiful slaves as he worked at his desk.
"???" He said when he looked up from the scroll and saw the state the wine merchant was in. "What's up? Your face looks all dirtied up…"
"I—I have a report! Hah-hah…" Budel said, panting heavily and dripping with sweat. He had hurried over as fast as he could.
"Calm down, you look totally wiped out…" said the Chief with a look of disgust.
"Forgive my impertinence…" said Budel anxiously. "For I have found him, the brat that ruined me!"
"I already know everything about him. My precious puppy told me…" said the Chief, signaling for her to come forward.
"Ah! Y…You're…!!" Budel gasped, flinching in shock when he saw the girl. It was the slave that Alibaba and the others had tried to free! Instead of running away, she had run back to her master and told him everything. The chief smirked.
"You're a good girl, Morgiana." He praised his slave. "How about dinner together?"
"No thanks." She answered squarely.
"Ahahaha, you're cute when you're aloof, you know?" He told her with a smile. "In any case… our prey is after something much better…" He mused slyly.