The Escape Plan in Action!

Nito was smiling as he laid his head back and thought about the previous day. He ignored the beating, the lecture, and the talkative Jellyfish. His mind was only focused on one thing. The fat man's waist. It was within arm's distance easily and on it jingled one single thing. The keys. Nito smiled as he thought about it, he could've reached out and grabbed it. Felt the cold metal in his hand. The cold metal that meant his freedom.

He could feel the desire to go back in time and grab it. But that was an impossibility. And even worse, he doubted he would survive another vicious beating. If master thought he was a trouble-maker there was no doubt in his mind that he would be turned over and skewered. He had rumors of people eating Fishman meat and seeing this man's apparent fondness for Fishman, it made him wonder if he had ever tried it. If the working-out was just because he liked his meat tough...he shivered at the thought, especially the thought of young Sanada who was already enough to feed a nation...NO! He shook the thought from his head before he finished it.

He looked over at Shigoro. Shigoro gave him a brief thumbs-up. Shigoro was to steal the keys later on that day. In the meanwhile, Nito, Ichi, and the tall Sanada were looking around the range for some form of weak spot. If they could get into the ocean they were home free. It wasn't a common thought for people as how could slaves escape? They had exploding collars of death attached to their neck twenty-four seven! They wouldn't care about their surrounding. These collars were of higher grade. They were proximity activated. If the Fishman stepped outside of the farm the collars were activated and boom! It was raining Fishmen. Another pleasant thought for Nito.

Shigoro was stalking the farm. He didn't particularly wanted to fight with someone who could put up a good fight, he needed to pick someone weak enough that after the fight was done and after the beating he was sure to get, he would have enough strength to swim away from the bastards. Unluckily, Nito had picked a fight with the latest recruit leaving Shigoro a fight with one of the Fishman who had been there for about two months and had a body to prove it. It hurt Shigoro more then anything to pick a fight with another slave, but they had a plan and their plan relied on him. Shigoro moved forward. His fist exploded forwards and hit the poor fellow, "what did you say?" shouted Shigoro as he leaned over him.

The Fishman paused for a second unsure of how to continue nor did he want to. Shigoro was definitely one of the toughest Fishman he had ever met, slave or otherwise. He tried to murmur out the words, "I'm sorry", but Shigoro's fist had stopped the words from coming out. Shigoro wandered over and kicked his gut. The Fishman curled from the blow and gargled a scream. That attracted the guard's attention. Shigoro chuckled as he knew it wasn't good enough. He needed to go straight to the top. If he stopped now the guards would take it upon themselves to punish him. Shigoro lifted his fist up about to pummel the poor Fishman when a better idea found its way into his head.

The first guard leapt up wielding an stun baton. He swung at Shigoro's head, but Shigoro ducked low and turned around firing a punch into his gut, "and you what kind of slave joint serves chum for breakfast! I WANT A STEAK!" he shouted as he fired another kick into the guard's chest. For the next hour or so, Shigoro had continued to rampage taking out guards and loosing a variety of completely true complaints. Finally, when he had caused enough trouble he let himself be taken down by the guards.

Ichi, Nito, and Sanada cringed as they heard every single punch, kick, swing, and strike hit Shigoro's body. They gritted their teeth and ignored. They had their own duties for the time being. They had to find the exit. Their get-away strategy wasn't enough. They needed to find some way out or else the brutal beating would be the equivalent of nothing.

They remained working even as the group of guards dragged Shigoro out of the farm and into the building. Shigoro didn't mind. He wasn't even technically being dragged. He was walking on his two feet, with his head held high. He chuckled. The guards ignored this act of defiance, he was just acting tough. Plenty of slaves did that, but once they were in the room with the master, they broke down. Begging not to be killed or punished.

They were wrong. Even as they shoved Shigoro to the ground, he didn't let up. He kept his head high and glared defiantly at his own master. The master turned his nose up at such an act. His wife wailed, "look at him, he's even uglier then the last one! Make sure he doesn't Timmy!" The young boy, Timmy, apparently looked away.

"Sure, I will!" shouted the master being fueled on by his wife's words. He walked over and began beating Shigoro mercilessly. Shigoro put a great act. Unlike Nito who acted like it hurt, Shigoro held on strong at first. Making it seem like the light slaps did nothing more then irritate him, but he gradually became an actor. As the hour long beating continued, the screams of pain he made grew louder. His twisting from the slap grew more dramatic. Finally when the beating was over, Shigoro was on the ground. He looked up and saw the keys...

(-later that night-)

Shigoro stood up. His body was still sore from his fight with the guards. The pudgy master's slaps weren't anything, but the guards were actually something. He nudged Nito, Ichi, and finally Sanada awake. They set out on the journey. The walls were nothing. They smashed into them and knocked them down. The alarm sounded, alerting them and waking up the guards. They broke into a run. Sanada huffed and puffed behind them. They forgot about the fact that he didn't have the toned bodies that they had. They had much stronger bodies then him. They rushed out and to the walls.

Shigoro took off the keys and they quickly inserted into their collars. The key slid into their collars and popped them open. Ichi went over to the wall and brought it down with a series of kicks. He broke out into the wilderness. They paused as they took in the outside. Finally, they all dove out and into the water that surrounded the island. Their first true breath of freedom...and they hit a net. They flailed wildly, but couldn't do anything. They felt the net tighten around their bodies and they were hauled into the air. On the land stood the pudgy master with a fat cigar in his mouth.

"Did you really think I had no countermeasures in place to stop a break-out," he shouted as he leered at the Fishmen. "I bought you all! I own you all! I decide what you do and when you do it! I never said you can escape! I never said you can try to escape! Hell, I prefer my broken televisions more than you!"

"Oooh, maybe if you break them you'll like them better," offered the wife in her annoyingly high-pitched voice.

"DELICIOUS IDEA!" shouted master as he turned around and motioned the guards to follow him. "I'll torture them tomorrow because I need my beauty sleep!"

"NO!" shouted Shigoro as he struggled against the bonds of the net. "I'm the mastermind! I set this all up, they were just following me! I stole the keys from you earlier today, remember when you were beating me up? I stole them from you then! YOUR SLAPS DID NOTHING TO ME YOU FAT PIG BASTARD!"

The man raised an eyebrow, "I'm a bastard, eh?" he asked skipping over the fat pig insult as if he had mentally conditioned his brain to bleep them out. "I was going to torture you all together so you can see your faces get distorted in pain, but I think you deserve something more! I think I'll torture you in solitude!" Nito and Ichi began to raise a fuss, but the master wasn't hearing it. They were each shoved into the same dark, dimly lit cell as they watched him cart Shigoro away.

"BRING SHIGORO BACK!" shouted Nito banging his fist against the wall, demanding the return of his friend. "BRING HIM BACK! BRING HIM BACK!" Ichi joined in on the chant, the pounding against the cells' wall echoed throughout the hallway. Nito was sure that they heard them and decided that it wasn't worth it to destroy two less then worthless Fishman. The pounding continued on and into the night.

"Bring...Shigoro...Back..." muttered Nito as he collapsed to the ground. His breath was waning from the day of working and the night of shouting, "give...him...back!" Nito looked over to Ichi who had also quieted down, running out of breath a little earlier then him. Sanada had fallen asleep as expected from someone like him. "I guess...we'll just be tortured soon..." Nito stared down at the floor.

"Hello," chimed a little voice from outside. Nito sprang up to his feet and stared out the small slot through the bars. The voice came from the master's son, who was standing outside by himself and looking up at Nito. "Hello...Fishman."

Nito scoffed as he collapsed back to the ground. "Hey...human." The boy wasn't like their Master, the boy reminded him of Sanada, so it was hard to harbor any sort of real hatred towards him even if he came at this time in the night just to mock them. "What do you want?"

"Why are you locked up?" asked the little boy as he knocked on the door.

That question annoyed Nito. He stood up and pushed his sharp nose through the bars and at the boy's head. "BECAUSE WE ARE YOUR FATHER'S SLAVES! DOES THAT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION? ITS NOT LIKE WE ARE LOCKED UP CAUSE WE WANT TO BE! YOUR FATHER LOCKS US UP!"

The boy cocked his head for a second. "Why don't you just leave if you hate it so much?" Once more Nito felt his anger rising. He pounded on the door extremely annoyed. If the boy wasn't a little kid, he probably would've said a slew of filthy words.

Nito collapsed onto the floor. "Cause we don't have the keys. The keys to the collars, the keys to the doors..." Nito felt a swelling urge to say the overly cliché line of 'the keys to our freedom', but he bit down swallowed it. His life was pathetic enough, he didn't want to start spouting horribly cliché lines. Nito sighed as he heard the little boy's footsteps pound away against the floor as he left.

Nito looked at Ichi and Ichi had nothing to say, so he just shrugged and stared over at Sanada. The cell was one of the bigger ones, so Sanada could fit in, but at the same time if Sanda rolled over once or twice it was highly possible he'd crush the two of them. Nito picked at his collars as he kept thinking about the keys. They had lost their one chance and even worse, they probably weren't going to be getting another."

A clatter of metal made Nito and Ichi jump. They looked down at the door and saw a ring of keys laying there. "These the keys?" asked the little boy. Nito pressed himself up against the cell and looked out. The little boy was standing there with a smile on his face as he looked up, "I know I don't like having to clean my room when I don't want to. You shouldn't have to stay here if you don't want to."

Nito glanced back over his shoulder at the keys that laid on the ground. He picked them and tested them out on his collars. Once more he felt the familiar click of his collar opening. "Yes..." whispered Nito, "we shouldn't have to stay here." He handed the keys off to Ichi as he woke Sanada up.

In seconds, they were outside of the cell. Nito handed the keys over to the boy, "can you go give these to the man that was with us?" asked Nito. The boy's smile faded as he looked down at the ground.

"He's gone already...daddy got rid of him."

(~Back at the URA~)

"I guess Master just must've shipped him off to another slavery space or something and he made his escape from there," said Nito with a smile on his face. "I was surprised when I read about Shigoro being a pirate and all that, especially with a human crew. Most slaves have a very strong hatred for humans after an incident like that...chances are if I wasn't saved by a human, I probably would have had one too."

Zesiro nodded as he understood a little bit about it. His early days were escaping from humans who thought he was the devil. He'd definitely understand the hatred...it was just pure luck he met some good humans that got him out and away from that dark place. There was one question that was at the back of Zesiro's mind though, "how come you guys never met back up with Shigoro?"

Nito's face fell at the question. "We...he...there's more to the story...but I...I don't want to talk about it..." Zesiro raised his eyebrow becoming more interested in the missing piece of the puzzle. He felt like asking them what it was, but at that moment the bell for the next fight to begin rang and caught Zesiro's attention. His mind was off of it for the long fight, but now the worries had returned and he couldn't ask Nito and Ichi about their story. He just grabbed and sheathed his sword and went on his way into the ring.

Crew Members Outside of the Ring...

Opponents within...

With Rosa's history being more or less a bit of a letdown I decided I needed to go ahead and do another person's history and do it right! So, that's more or less the history of the Fishman brothers minus one small detail, but that's a tale for another week because next week is Zesiro's and Rosa's clash!