Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter six

Over the following year, I found myself regretting my rescuing to stay, though I know that Mori probably would have never had let me just up and disappear or die since I was the only other witness to the old boss's death. Dying of starvation while I had the chance would have been better than the nightmare that became my reality.

Things started off easy after that first night. I got to keep my room in the mafia building and Mori became something of a mentor to me. There was no real word to what we were to each other, but that would be the easiest one I suppose. I'm not his ward, or an orphan that he picked up off the street with the purpose of keeping, I'm not his medical assistant either like we told everyone I was at first. I was just the boy that he found and used to kill the old boss, but gave a place to stay when done.

The doctor let me read all of his medical books, going as far as to quiz me on their contents to make sure that I understood their contents. He taught me how to play chess and Go, two games that require great strategy. We only played them a few in those early days, the games became boring in their simplicity. Not long after that, Mori gave me control of the jewels business, wanting to see what I could do with the struggling trade. I had new strategic systems in place by the end of the first month, turning something close to a money pit into one of the mafia's most profitable assets.

But with all things good, they don't last long.

The test began the second month that I was with the mafia, not a formal member but still with them. My blood had a much higher concentration of the original gifted gene than any other ability user that Mori had seen. He began experimenting that month, seeing how different things would react to me, trying to activate something within me. He always said the shots wouldn't hurt, but everyone of them hurt more than the last. They burned their way through my body, fighting me every step of the way. I didn't tell Mori that they wouldn't work, he'd never believe me if I did. Ho wouldn't even believe me if I told him the reason they wouldn't work was because of my being a demigod, if I told him about Olympus. So I took the pain. The test continued for months on end. By the time Mori had done everything that he could currently think of, every last test his twisted brain could conjure, every experiment, poisoning, blood test, treatment, he could think of, the pain didn't even register anymore.

It was during that time that Mori moved me out to the middle of a landfill. The place was a dumping ground, toxic chemicals could be found throughout the site. Even the rats knew better than to come in here. At the heart of the landfill was a lone storage container that Mori gave to me. Despite this, I couldn't bring myself to care, not about the shipping container, or about the test, about anything at all. I just wanted for it all to be over, for life to be over.

Is that too much to ask?

The only thing that brought out any emotional response from me was death. Every attempt that I made, Mori somehow found a way to stop. Every painless method of suicide I could read about was negated by the underground doctor. But trying still brought me joy, being stopped brought me anger. That was more than I could say for my normal perpetual numbness. I'd been with Mori for about four months when the promise of a painless death became too elusive to keep pursuing.

One night, when the driver dropped me off outside the landfill, I headed into the gate, but waited for the driver to leave before making way to a nearby hardware store. The store owner was just closing up, but the elderly man took one look at me, my clothing, demeanor , and unlocked the door in a rush. The Port Mafia was weaker now than it had ever been, but it was still feared by those who remembered its viciousness.

I grabbed a piece of long rope, shoving some money into the man's hands on the way out. The bag swung Bentley from my bandaged wrist as I made my way back to the place that Mori decided I should call home. The night whispered softly, an unheard calmness spreading through the darkness. Yokohama is a city of demons, for the night to be so quiet, it felt like the city itself was holding its breath.