Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter five

Mori took me back to the room that I've been staying in for the past week to wait while he went to inform the higher ups of the boss's passing. I immediately laid down on the bed, savoring the feeling. After my testimonial, I would be back on the street. Only for a little while though, death would soon follow, but that time spent there would still be uncomfortable compared to a real bed.

Mori came back for me sometime later. I tried reading his expression, but it was carefully hidden behind his kind doctor facade. He was keeping tight lipped about the outcome of his talk. I wanted to tell the man to drop the act, but every conversation with him was a midfield where we were both planting deadly bombs in the other's mind. Every word was a chance to manipulate the other party, to turn them into your marionette while you played the puppet master. It was impressive, truly, until it was aimed at you.

Mori led me to the office of one of the mafia's executives. I didn't know this man. There are five executives within the Port Mafia: an older man with a monacale, a lady with long red hair and more classical Japanese style clothing, a foreigner with a permanent chill, and two others that I had yet to meet.

The man sent me a harsh, appraising, glare, and for a moment I imagined just slitting his throat like Mori had done to the previous boss. The thought came unbidden. The most startling thing about it was not how easy it would be for me to do with my training, but how little the thought seemed to affect me. In that moment, I could have killed the man in cold blood, and I don't even know if I would've felt bad about it. Maybe everything good in me died with me when I jumped. Or maybe it was earlier than that, with the fire. I stood up straighter, pushing the thoughts from my head. Demigods killed monsters, not mortals.

The man had short blue hair, pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His eyes were an eerie blue green that seemed to almost glow as he stared at me. He held out his hand and introduced himself, though I didn't listen to his name. I was too focused on the way my ability showed itself when our hands met.

"Mr. Osamu," the man said in a haughty tone, using my first name freely without permission, "I'd ask that you not use an ability in here." The man looked terribly offended with me. The hypocrite.

I gave the man a smile that was all sharp teeth. "My ability is a passive one Sir," I explained, enjoying the way the man's confident expression turned into a complicated one. Passive abilities were dangerous. They were weapons without a sheath to protect others from being cut.

The man coughed, alarmed, "What does your ability do?"

I lowered my face, showing the executive a hooded glare. "My ability allows me to nullify all other abilities through touch," the man was sweating, like he was the one being interrogated instead of me. Messing with authority figures is the most fun I've had in a year. "It only shows itself like that when it comes in contact with another active ability," I explained, stressing the word. Cheap tricks wouldn't get the man out of this one.

I liked watching the way he squirmed under my gaze. There was something dangerous in the interaction, something alive. "What's your ability name Mr.-?"

"Dazai," I cut in before the man could finish his sentence, "my name is Dazai."

The man nodded and tried again, "what's your ability name Mr. Dazai?"

"No Longer Human" If my theory was right about the origin of abilities, then I really wasn't all that human. I was more god than human, more monster. That was the main reason I didn't fight Mori when he proposed the name earlier this week. It seemed Mori could feel the otherness in me too.

The man gave a stiff nod, seeming to find the name appropriate as well. I'm sure I didn't look all that human to him right now. "I just need your account from tonight and then you can go," he explained. The man sounded ready to be rid of me and never see me again. The feeling was mutual. The faster I got out of here, the faster that I could die.