Conflict of Interests

Drabble 48: The Slave Market

By: Kigen

Unofficially entitled Bedtime Stories of a Crimson Nightmare. More HaoLysergYoh, but with lots of angst and cuteness. Longest drabble yet, and I had to resist turning it into a oneshot, or multi chapter fic. That's mainly because I already have far too many of those.

Disclaimer: I'm trying to draw a doujinshi; YohLyserg to be exact. This shall prove interesting since I have troubles drawing two people in the same picture, let alone touching each other. If Shaman King was mine, I'd be far less hesitant to listen to my friends suggestions (demands) that I make it hentai.

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Hao was wandering through the market place; a dirty, disgusting human area. Here, humans were chained up, beaten, violated; sold as property for other disgusting humans.

They were treated worse than animals.

Though, Hao would never treat an animal nearly as cruel as they were.

Despite his utter revulsion for this place, Hao came down here every so often to see if perhaps there was a shaman that had become mixed with the human filth. It had happened before. That was how Hao came across Horo and his sister, Chocolove, and even his twin Yoh's trainer, Anna.

Humans truly knew no limits to horror.

Taking a deep breath of the putrid, rotten air; Hao closed his eyes and reached out his furyoku.

There, he could feel it. The spirit of another shaman, and it's spirit even.

"Did you find one?" Ren asked, noticing the change on Hao's expression.

Hao nodded, quickly going to the source. He'd be damned if he let a disgusting human take a shaman as a slave.

When he finally came upon the specific slave vender, one who sold exotic slaves from a faraway land called Europe; Hao glared.

There was the shaman, a small boy maybe a younger than himself. The boy's skin was ivory pale, and his body was quite thin, a little too thin, but not yet undernourished. He was being kept of out the sun, and his shackles were made of stiff leather rather than iron. Hao noticed that the boy's body was free of any wounds or blemishes, aside from a small burn on his forearm that was nearly healed.

After a moment, Hao noted with disgust; it was because the young boy was being sold as sex slave, and therefore needed to be kept beautiful and untouched for any potential buyers.

Ren was already arguing with the vender, about prices and the boy's background and such. Knowing that he would end up with the boy in a few moments anyways (he had no worries about not being able to pay for the boy) he approached him carefully.

The boy looked up, with eyes that were nearly dead; eyes that were full of fear and sadness and pain and loss.

Hao noticed a small pixie that floated about the boy, his spirit it must have been. Kneeling down to the boy's level, he reached his hand out unthreateningly when the green haired boy pulled away.

"It's all right." Hao said softly, as gently as he could. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to take you away from this horrible place. Come here, and we'll go somewhere far away from these disgusting humans, all right?"

The boy looked up, still hesitating. He couldn't understand what this strange man was saying; but he looked nice, and sounded kind. Hesitantly, he let Hao comes close enough to gently touch his cheek.

His body was trembling.

Ren came a moment later, joining the two. A key was held in his hands.

"He's ours. The vender says he doesn't know anything about the kid except that comes from England and his parents were killed when he was abducted. He did say that he was, unspoiled, though." Ren spat the word out with disgust. He was beginning to believe Hao that almost all humans were horrible, dirty creatures, at least, these ones were.

Hao nodded, taking the key from Ren and unlocking the leather restraints. Gently, smiling all the while so as not the frighten the boy any more than he already was, Hao lifted him into his arms and began to carry him back to the carriage a few miles away where Yoh and the others most likely still were.

The green haired boy tensed. His small, pale hands gripped at Hao's shoulders as the man carried him. He didn't know what these strange people were saying or what they were doing to him or where they were taking him, but at least when these people looked at him, they didn't look like they wanted to eat him.

Or whatever the others that wore such nasty, leering smiles wanted to do to him.

By the time Hao and Ren had reached the carriage, the boy had succumbed to his exhaustion and had fallen asleep.

"Who's this Aniki?" Yoh asked as his brother laid the slumbering boy in his lap. He wrapped his arms around the boy to keep him secure.

"A shaman I found at the market. He will be staying with us from now on." Hao explained as he and Ren entered and the carriage began to move.

The strange movement startled the boy awake, and he nearly panicked to see himself surrounded by so many strange faces in such a small place.

"Hey, hey, easy now." Yoh soothed, pressing the struggling form to his chest. "You're all right. We're not going to do anything bad to you." Yoh said softly, running his hands through the boys green strands.

"Such a weird hair and eye color." Horo noted, studying the boys features. "He has a cute spirit though."

"You're not one to talk about strange hair colors baka." Ren scoffed, offering a bottle of water to the boy.

The boy only hesitated for a moment, before drinking greedily from the bottle. He was thirsty and starving.

Yoh frowned at the manner that the boy drank the water. Were they so cruel as to not even let the boy have water?

Once finished with the water, Yoh feed the boy little snacks, which he was all too eager to eat.

Yoh and the others couldn't help but smile a bit when the boy 'discreetly' feed bits of it to his fairy. It would have worked well, if not for the fact that they were shaman as well and could see the little pixie that hovered around him.

Warm and full, the boy was lying against Yoh's chest, ready to fall asleep again.

"Hey." Yoh shook the boy a little, waking him up some. "Before you sleep, what's your name?"

The boy looked up at him confused.

"He doesn't know Japanese Yoh." Hao explained to his brother.

"Oh." Yoh pulled the boy more securely against his chest. "I'm Yoh." Yoh pressed his hand to his shoulder. "That's Ren, Hao, and Horo." Yoh explained, touching each of his friends in return. "Who are you?" Yoh asked, touching the boy in the same manner as he had the others.

The boy sat still for a few moments, looking scared and unsure before touching his own chest, and saying in a soft, accented voice:

"Lyserg."

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I liked that one a lot, especially Lyserg 'discreetly' feeding Morphine. Slave Lyserg is just too cute! Next one's some M rated YohLyserg humor. Hints are cheating and juice.

Thanks for reading, now please review.

Ja min'na-san!