Chapter Text
Sanji's shirt collar itches, it's too tight, of course it is, it originally belonged to yonji, despite his family's wealth, nothing he owns is new or even really his
He wants to scratch the uncomfortable cuffs and collar of his brother's old shirt but he has to maintain as much dignity as he has left, he knows his father is watching him with a sharp eye
After what he pulled at the last auction, he's not to be left unattended
It still sickens him to see the men and women up for sale, children being treated as objects, he would say animals but he's met pets that are treated with more dignity then these people
"Savages, the lot of them"
Sanji hadn't heard ichiji walk up behind him until he was close enough to whisper the words in his ear with a sadistic grin
"Hybrids"
Sanji corrects through gritted teeth, glaring back at him, ichiji knows sanji is a "sympathiser", everyone does now, and his brothers think it's funny to poke at sanji's empathy, seeing as he's the only one who still has some left
Ichiji laughs and walks off, leaving sanji digging his nails into his palm hard enough to draw blood
Sanji didn't see the difference, or the point, hybrids aren't anything special, just because they're lower on the evolutionary ladder it doesn't justify the way they're expected to wait hand and foot on their "betters"
It was so blatantly obvious, the closer to human the hybrid is the better their treated:
the ones with small features, misshapen eyes, sharper nails, unusual patterns in their short hair, a small smattering of scales or feathers, they're permitted to live as humans do
although teens would still point and laugh, mothers will still pull their children away and cross the street to avoid them, job opportunities are all but none for them
But it's better than the rest get, the relatively fifty fifty ones get to be house slaves, cleaning up after rich assholes, cooking and serving
if you're fortunate enough to be born a hybrid with a slightly different bone structure, a tail or wings, fangs and claws, fur decorating your skin, well that's acceptable
But if you lean more to the animalistic side, you're machinery, ox, bear, and horse persons are used to drag carts
cold blooded people are put to work in deserts, people cursed with flight are used as messengers, or transporters for the particularly unlucky few
Why actual animals aren't used, sanji doesn't know, maybe because there are more laws to protect animals now than there are hybrids
It's a legal loophole for companies, that might be why, or maybe it's just that no one cares anymore
"Sanji! Your hand is bleeding!"
Reiju scolds quietly as she grabs sanji's hand, snapping him out of his pessimistic pondering
No matter how many times sanji reminds himself that he can't do anything, he's just one man and trying to help these..."people" will only achieve him being even more disgraced, his mind still wanders to unsavory topics of unfairness
His cuff is slightly stained now, and he curses himself
"I'm so sorry, my dear, I promise you I'm alright, it's just a small scratch"
Sanji's voice wavers slightly, but if Reiju notices she doesn't act like it and lightly bandages his hand
sanji does this sort of thing more often then he'd like to admit and Reiju has developed a habit of keeping bandages on her person when they attend events such as these
Once the bleeding is staunched sanji apologizes and thanks his sister in his usual over exaggerated tone, but once she's out of sight he sighs
His shoulders slump ever so slightly, and flips his sleeve up to hide the blood stain
He resigns to standing in this corner in the ivory ball room that this year's auction is being held in
all night, he occasionally gives compliments to his parents friends, making polite chit chat as to keep up appearances, but he doesn't speak any more then he needs to
Like always, the showings are in order of least to most useful, first are the children, which are the hardest for sanji
he knows this sort of buying happens, it's existence isn't what makes it so difficult, it's just how the world works, there's no getting around it
What makes his stomach turn is that they almost always go for some of the highest prices, the youngest girls always get fought over the most
It's ironic, the term "savages" is used as a slur against these people, but the elites in Cristal seats with paddles to bid for children always seem like dogs
dirty and flee bitten, passive aggressive glares like snarls, fighting over scraps thrown out
But of course, they aren't scraps, they're children, and the more scared, the younger, the fairer the skin and lighter the hair, the more mange covered dogs will fight in back alleys for claim over them
There's only five children tonight, a boy, number "5745" no older than fifteen in the front, he's blocking the youngers behind him, but he looks just as scared as they are, he's not a large kid, not a particularly dangerous animal
he's a love bird, his feathers are a light gray that fades into a rich blue, he's dirty and most of the feathers are bent or broken, his nose looks broken too
Behind him is an even younger child, they look twelve at most, number "5744" their shell is chipped, the red and black markings on their facial scales are dirty and faded, sanji isn't sure what animal they are for certain, but some species of tortoise
The next two look like twins, number "5743", a pair deal, kittens, with folded gray ears and deep blue eyes, nine at most, they don't look scared, they don't look anything, just sort of...absint, they have the most cuts and marks on them
the little girl one looks like she's having trouble breathing, both of their noses are an uncomfortable looking flat shape, they're bred that way, some people find it cute, but it makes their life expectancy almost half what it should be
The last little girl is small, so incredibly small, she's clinging to the eldest boys leg, her blond hair is in little braids and the chains on her wrists look like they're weighting her down an incredible amount
her eyes are green and so wide it must hurt, she's relatively unscathed but a cut on her little cheek is bleeding, she doesn't seem to notice
she's a frog, her skin isn't scaly but smooth and wet looking, it's marked with deep blue and red patterns
The little girl, whose number is "5742" can't be more then six, and is the highest sought for slave of the entire night, and sanji feels like he's about to throw up into his champagne glass
Next are the hybrids that are just barely not fit for society, who are just a bit too "savage" to be permitted around humans, these are to be bought as house "workers", cooks, healers, and maids, and his brothers favorite purpose
He has seen the hungry glint in their eyes as they bid against even each other for the young slaves, some barely sixteen, it made sanji sick
An incident just like that was what caused his current reason for disgrace
The youngest this year is seventeen, number "8439" he's a deer, small antlers growing from out of his white hair, his skin is a dark brown and his cheeks are covered in white freckles, his big brown eyes are brimming with tears
Yonji buys him immediately
The pitiful contents of sanji's stomach really do threaten to come back up
After 8439 sanji starts downing alcohol at an amazing rate and stops paying attention to the bidding until they're on the second to last wave of showings, the stronger, more animalistic hybrids
The ones that will be used for more heavy duty labor: farming, mill work, "employees" for the less intensive work, the workers for more intense jobs don't get shown here, they have their own bulk buys that only the highest of business men get access to
Sanji just glances at the line up: a strong looking woman with thick, callused hands and a face that looked like it was once kind, she has massive spanning antlers
Sanji guessed moose, but he couldn't think straight by now
There's a mule looking hybrid, strong legs, a large nose and a long mane of hair
And a small old woman with scales all over her body, ranging from a dark gray to a muddy green
Sanji went to get another drink
Once he came back the unbought hybrids were already being forced back stage as the last wave is brought in, these always made sanji's heart hurt almost as much as the children
Men and women, war warn and scard, some with fresh wounds, still bound in gause
These are the "champions"
sanji had heard stories in the few books left from before the war about casinos, places for the rich and poor to gamble alike, but those days are long gone
Now, if one wants to bet on something, they don't bet on horses, cards, or spinning wheels of black and red
No
Now we bet on fighters, on champions, these are the strongest, usually carnivores or at least omnivores, big cats, bears, large lizards like crocodiles or komodo dragons
Large people with deformed faces and hands, bones broken and repaired so many times their original skeletal structures are lost to time
Skin so covered in scars that there's hardly any left untouched, they almost never speak, reduced to their abilities, only as useful as their ability to hold a weapon
the way they are presented is different then the other groups, these fighters are brought out one at a time, shown off, and almost always bought
The first out is a tall, muscular man, he's shirtless, his chest and arms are covered in all sorts of scars, he looks at the crowd, his eyes unsure, his stripped tail tucked in between his legs
The fighters are always the most afraid, in the arenas they can fight back, but half the scars on them are usually from guards reprimanding them, teaching them an important lesson "you are only to be violent when it benefits me"
Next is a large woman with a set, square jaw, she's a hippopotamus, some laughed at the idea, but sanji has been dragged to enough fights to understand the shear force she owns
She could probably snap some one in half with one hand, but even so, she's looking down at her feet in shame
All else was normal, or at least as normal as this can be, until the last champion, he's presented in much the same way as the rest:
shirtless, covered in scars, but there's two main differences, he's covered in fresh wounds, very fresh, some of those bruises couldn't be more then a day or two old
And the other main difference, despite his wounds and scars, despite the deep scar all across his chest, his nose having obviously been broken and left to heal many times, the shackles on his wrists and ankles, in spite of all of this
He isn't afraid, he stares down at the crowd, his one good eye is sharp, his back is straight, he isn't hiding, he isn't afraid, he's confident, even in the face of his injuries
Sanji can't help but stare, he's never seen a defiant champion before, number "9889",with shaved dark almost black hair that might be some sort of green if it wasn't so dirty
With scars all over his body, with two guards behind him, guns at the ready for if he makes any kind of move he holds his head high, and watches the buyers with the same bored stare that the bidders themselves had been throwing at the slaves
His tail isn't tucked by his legs, but swinging freely behind him, even though it's obviously broken at the end, his ears aren't flattened to his head but pointed up and twisting all around
He's some sort of dog, maybe a wolf but it's hard to tell from sanji's home in the corner
Sanji doesn't even notice he's walking until he's at the end of the stage, his drunk and shameless eyes wide and glued to this slave
The dog looks down at him, his eyes are filled with hate, spite, even disinterest, but absolutely no fear
Sanji wasn't used to it, he'd never had a hybrid look down at him like this, they had always looked at him like he's a God, he didn't particularly like it, but it seemed far preferable to this
And yet, he's drawn to the dog, without thinking, almost like muscle memory, his hand shoots up
And along with it, his bidding paddle